Crimson Feathers

Chapter 3

The four kids looked at each other. Anika broke the silence, saying, "What do you mean—what do they mean, watch for your thirteenth birthday?"

Crimson wasn't sure what it meant either, but she wasn't about to lose hope. "I don't know... Maybe it means something bad will happen today? Or something good. I prefer good, that's for sure."

"Or just.. Something. Not something bad," Wren added quickly, "Or good. Just something. Something neutral. Something that changes your life, our lives, but not for better or worse."

"It could be anything, really. But if there's a change, maybe we have to choose how the change affects us." Skylar said.

They were out of ideas. Crimson had never quite thought through the words, or what they could mean. Her young brain must have said she'd surely remember it three years later.

"Oh God. I almost completely forgot about school! Are you all ready? We need to go, now!"

Crimson quickly grabbed her backpack, noticing that it seemed unusually full. She could check that later. Right now she had to get to school.

Skylar and Wren, tall as they were, didn't catch up to Crimson. She was clearly more worried about missing class than any of them. Anika had much shorter legs, but she managed to keep up with the twins.

"Whew, I'd gotten unused to such fast walking," Anika panted as she speed-walked next to Wren. She laughed.

"Well, you are a bit shorter than we are. It's not a huge surprise..." Wren answered with a sly grin on her face.

"Come on, Wren! I also want to get to school on time, and it's not my fault that my genes said 'no' to speed."

"Hey, you three! Look at your watches!" They heard Crimson's voice up ahead. Sky checked his watch and said, "It's seven fifty-six. We gotta get there already."

They jogged to catch up to Crimson, and the four made their way to the school. "See you later!" Crimson said to the twins. "Let's go, Anika."

The friends went to class together, each sitting in their assigned seat for their first class.

"Good morning, seventh grade!" Said the teacher after the bell rang. "I hope you're all well; we're starting a new unit today: South America."

Crimson opened her textbook to the unit. She remembered that she had PE today. The last Thursday of each month was an overall fitness test day; today was one of those Thursdays.

Get back to work. That tiny voice in her brain was the only thing keeping her from daydreaming through all of Social Studies. The teacher passed out homework early most days, meaning almost everyone had time to finish it before the next class, Science. After that, it was PE.

Crimson couldn't wait to run. She enjoyed it. It never seemed to tire her, but if she ran for too long, her legs would ache the next day. But this time she didn't even care. By the time PE had started, all Crimson wanted to do was run as fast and as far as she could, to forget all her problems - including the possible warning about her birthday.

"All right, kids, today's a fitness test Thursday. You'll all run around the field for 10 minutes and count how many laps you run. Slow down if you're out of breath, but don't ever walk." The PE teacher clapped and rubbed his hands together, "and then you'll pick a partner for counting push-ups and sit-ups."

Almost the entire class groaned at the words "fitness test". But Crimson was happy, and she had prepared. Obviously the other kids hadn't.

"Anika, do you want to run with me?" she asked her friend.

"No way," she replied, "You're too athletic for me to keep up."

"Alright."

The coach started the timer, and they all began to run. She ran easily to the front of the clump of seventh-graders, then slowed down to her normal exercise speed. None of the boys ever believed that she was really as talented as she seemed, and Crimson agreed. In her opinion, she wasn't talented, she was just more responsible and mature than most of her class.

After a while, she had lapped the person who had been right behind her earlier. She didn't understand how such strong, athletic people were losing this unannounced race to a somewhat tall girl who didn't even live with her biological parents.

Suddenly she felt pain near her tailbone. It felt like how she had heard giving birth described, but at a slightly different point in her body. She tried to slow down so she could tell the teacher, but something forced her to keep running. She felt like she had lost control over her body.

As she continued running, Crimson began to feel pain in her arms and legs as well. Trying to look down, she saw why her arms were hurting. She had somehow grown thick hair all over them, and her forearms were lengthening. Her hands became paws like a lion's, and her hair—now fur—turned a slightly lighter, reddish hue. She felt a small weight at the back of her neck, like she had grown a small mane.

Then she bent down, still running, and started using her arms—front legs, really—along with her back legs. Her vision became blurry and bright, as though she had some sort of colorblindness. She suddenly felt dizzy and wanted to sit down, but she had given up on trying to control her body. As her eyes closed, she felt arms holding her up, keeping her from falling. Her legs failed around, but she couldn't stop it.

Crimson was a giant cat thing.