Changeling

She watched in horror at the blood that poured out of her classmate's nose. She did not mean to hit her with that ball, not at all. Seriously. How was that even possible? She had been standing on the opposite side of the freaking school yard. It had been so far away. She looked up at her teacher who kept yelling at her for not being careful enough during dodgeball. But honestly, how could the teacher not see how improbable it was for her to even be able to accomplish that throw on purpose? She was horrid at anything even remotely physical. She kept stammering out excuses, and they were true. She was really sorry. She did not particularly like this girl, but she had not meant to hurt her at all, she had just playfully tossed the ball in her direction when she had yelled over some snide remark at her during class. How could she know that the ball had some kind of built-in jet motor or something? It really made no sense. The teacher finally stopped yelling at her and took the other girl away to see the school nurse. The girl's friends were glaring at her until they disappeared around the corner. Yay. As if those guys weren't funny enough to deal with already. She grimaced and looked over at Jason. He was her best friend in the whole entire world. Honestly, he was her only friend in the entire world. He raised a brow at her and mouthed ''what the hell?'' at her. She shrugged. She honestly had no clue. He gave her a smirk, and ruffled his dark curls with his left hand. He was crazy well built, that guy. He looked like a jock from a cheesy teen movie, but he was so quirky he had fallen off of the cool-kids-wagon a long time ago. And he preferred it that way. She had never understood why he had bothered to stick with her all these years, but their personalities were like two sides of the same coin. It was as if they were made for each other. Alright. Now THAT was cheesy. She made her way over to Jason's side. It wasn't like they would be able to continue the class any longer anyway. And who's stupid idea had it been to NOT skip this class, like really? She sat down on the grass next to him, and stretched her arms out. He kept looking at some of the others who were talking and looking in my direction. Jeez, I guess I might as well actually kill someone next time with how these guys are reacting. It was a game of dodgeball, for god's sake. You are supposed to hit the opposite team, right? Or did I get that wrong too? ''Nice throw, Gemma, don't even think the guys on the baseball team have a throwing arm like yours. How did that happen anyway? Last time I checked you couldn't even give an airplane decent speed.''. I rolled my eyes at him. As if I knew. ''Look at the attention you're getting. Maybe they'll crown you prom queen?'' He was really enjoying this, wasn't he? She just pouted. ''Seriously Jason? Prom queen. It's more likely they're discussing which toilet would be best to drown me in. I probably just broke the actual queen's nose, you know?'' He giggled. ''Maybe they'll drugtest you. You know, for steroids or something.'' I hit him in the back of the head. ''Ow! You know. I really do think you've gotten stronger. That actually hurt!'' Gemma looked at her hand. She hadn't hit him that hard. It was just a playful clap. What the hell? ''I'm sorry!'' Gemma exclaimed. ''I really didn't mean for it to hurt!'' He smirked at her again. ''It's OK, Gems. But really. If they started to serve you a new cereal or something, you might want to reconsider eating it.'' I rolled my eyes at him. ''Maybe I got a spiderbite in my sleep.'' He laughed. ''That would have been so awesome!''. Gemma rolled over in bed and stared at the ceiling. She couldn't sleep. It was as if her whole body was itching. She crawled out of bed and went into the bathroom. She stared into her own eyes in the mirror. She tried so hard to wrap her head around the events of the day, but she could not understand what was happening. But it had not been just today, now, had it? Ever since her 16th birthday, she felt as if something in her was changing. Last week she outran everyone during their PE class. Like how? She was the definition of scrawny. Last month she had been so much slower than the rest, they had even had time to go back and mock her the last 100 feet of the run. She knew it was ridiculous, but she started scrutinizing her body after any sign of a spider bite. After she was certain there were no marks on her, she looked into the mirror again and giggled at herself. Suddenly she stopped, and pressed her face closer to the mirror. She touched the tip of her ear. Had her ears gotten pointier? How was that possible? and she could swear, now that she was staring back into her own eyes in the reflection. That her pupils no longer were round, they had gotten kind of longer, cat-like, sort of. Or was her mind playing tricks on her? She looked one last time. Her face looked dragged, her eyes kind of blood-shot. Jesus. She was exhausted. Her mind was definitely playing tricks on her. She sighed and closed her eyes briefly. She let her exhaustion wash over her and stumbled towards her bedroom. She let herself fall onto the mattress face first and rolled over, staring at the ceiling again. It was probably just puberty or something, right? Her dad was like legit jacked, and her mother was a strongly built woman. She herself was frail, weak and thin. Nothing like her parents at all. Yes, that had to be it. It was puberty, she was starting to grow into her stronger self, like her parents. They had probably been scrawny kids themselves before they had their glow-up. She was going to ask them tomorrow. Gemma closed her eyes with that last conclusion, finally allowing sleep to overcome her. The trees on the other side of the street rustled in the wind. In one of the branches, hidden amongst the leaves, sat a figure staring towards Gemmas' window. Another figure, this one a bit smaller than the other, was crouching on another branch, on another three, closer to the house. The figure sniffed the air and moved as close to the window as it could get, staring at the sleeping girl inside. It placed a small, thin, hand on the glass of the window. It's fingernails tinted green, lit up from the lamp on the nightstand inside. Soon. It whispered into the wind. It's voice was melodious, almost like the wind itself. The figure jumped down, seemingly getting no damage from the long fall. And moved with quick steps towards the other one. Two cat-like yellow eyes shone up at the other as it whispered in its melodious voice. ''She is almost through her awakening. You must make sure she handles the transition well.'' The creature looked intently at the larger figure. Dark curls covered most of the face. Jason looked down at the small, frail-looking figure beneath him. It felt as if she was staring directly into his soul. She hissed at him again. ''I cannot have another child's awakening getting attention from humans.'' She licked her lips nervously, small, pointed teeth barely visible under her lips as she spoke again. ''My little Jason. I cannot have another child almost murdered by barbarian humans, like what happened to you!'' Her eyes scanned nervously up and down the street before she turned her eyes back at him. He rubbed his eyes. The colored contacts were irritating. He then raked his hands through his curls, revealing the pointy tips of his ears. ''Yeah. Now that was fun.'' She stared daggers at him and hissed again. ''Well. You didn't give her to dead-beat, assholes, as you did with me. So I think we will manage the transition just fine.'' She recoiled a bit, hurt by his words. ''I did not know how they were.'' She whispered more softly. ''They looked so nice. So broken. I thought they deserved my gift. I thought they deserved you.'' She sniffled. Jason rolled his eyes. Real good judge of character this one. They had lost their own child, yes. And, of course, they looked distraught at the hospital. But they weren't really. They had lost that baby because of their d**g use and lousy lifestyle. But hey! Let's reward them with a new one, right? ''Jason?'' She was pleading with him now. He stared back up at the small window. He knew that the moment he told her about this, everything would change, and he was scared he would lose what they now had together. That he would lose his only friend in the entire world. But it had to be done, and he wanted to help her through this as safely as he could. ''You know, it will be different this time. It is not only the parents who will be crushed and continue to look for their baby-girl forever. She will never leave them willingly either.'' He said in a low voice, never looking away from the window. ''Yes.'' She whispered back. ''That is why it is so important that you help her. That you help me.'' She looked at him again. He sighed in defeat, and replied. ''yes, mother.'' She let out a breath of relief, and then she vanished in the shade of the tree. As if she had never really been there. Jason gave another sigh, gave the window one last look and disappeared into the shadows after his mother. The wind carrying his last whisper. ''See ya tomorrow, lil' sis'...''.