Animal

Chapter 2: Modifications

I woke up with a strange feeling. Like a part of me was different. I shrugged it off and got ready for school.

I got dressed and then went into the bathroom to brush my hair. But when I looked in the mirror I gasped. My eyes looked similar to that girl's eyes on the bus yesterday, slightly slitted, and I felt... stronger somehow. 

My favorite sassy-girl smirk was replaced a jaw-dropped face of fear. I no longer had the red-haired rebel look that I'd gotten used to, accepted myself as. Now, staring at me, was a pale-faced, light-headed, fear-filled face that I couldn't recognize.

I couldn't stop gazing into that mirror, and I couldn't stop wondering: What's going on with me?

Deletha, the normal rebel teen voice inside me spoke up. Seriously? "Slit-eyes"? Girl, are you high?

I must have spent a long time in the bathroom, because a while later my mom yelled, "The bus is here!" With one last look at the mirror, I ran downstairs and grabbed my bag. 

Too late- The bus was already driving away.

Whatever, I hated school anyway. But my mom told me that "every day of school is important"and "you need to have a stable education" or whatever.  

So, eventually, I had to run to school instead.

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I guess all those soccer practices finally paid off.

The entire school day, I was abnormally alert. I sat with a strangely heightened posture, and my eyes were focused on the teacher's every movement, never weighing down. It wasn't that I was listening to her-although it looked that way to everyone else- it was just that it felt... almost instinctive. 

Meanwhile, whispers flew across the halls like the flu. And in our cheap, lamo, unprotected school, that is very fast.

"She's been acting really strange lately... Maybe her mom made her take one of those academic support classes or something." someone suggested.

"I heard she's on drugs..." 

"This isn't Deletha at all! What happened to her?" someone said.

Meanwhile, I was wondering the same thing.

After class, I was walking with my friend Ava. "I've never seen you actually listen in class once this year! Did you get a lot of sleep last night or something?" she asked. "Umm... yeah." I replied.

"Also... your eyes look different..." she commented awkwardly.

"Really? Huh."

The first thing I did when I got home was look in the mirror again. The changes from this morning were still there, of course, but I didn't spot any new ones. That is... until that night.

I was brushing my teeth when I suddenly looked down with a twinge of fear and a knot tightening in my stomach-

All of my nails were jet black and clawed sharply like razor blades.