Zoe's P.O.V.
I was in a dark forest, hunting. My tribe of cats was depending on this hunt, or we might not be able to sustain ourselves for the winter. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a mouse nibbling on a nut. I dropped into a hunter's crouch. Just as I was about to pounce, I heard a faint beeping noise, which scared the mouse away. It began to grow louder, until my eyes flew open and I awoke back to reality.
I groaned, sitting up. I turned off my alarm clock, considering whether I should just fall back asleep. I decided against it, seeing as my mom would just come in a minute later to make sure I was awake. I slowly got out of bed, wishing that my dream could me true. I don't understand why I have to live the life of a regular teenage girl when I'm not. I sighed and walk into the bathroom to take a shower. After I showered (I don't know why I can't just lick myself clean like any other cat in the world, but mom insists I take a shower instead), I walked into my room to get dressed. I picked out a purple shirt with a white peace sign on it and a pair of black sweat pants. I pulled my dirty blond hair into a ponytail and grabbed a pair of combat boots. A made myself a bagel for breakfast and sat down at the kitchen to eat it. My older brother, Danny, walked in. He is goth, and he has shaggy black hair. He looked at me and for a second his eyes flashed bright green like a cat's but then went back to their normal hazel colour.
"Hey sis," he said to me. I nodded, my mouth full of bagel. He poured himself a bowl of cereal and sat down next to me. I sighed.
"I hate this life," I told him. "Why can't we just be wild cats, like some of the others?" Danny shrugged.
"No idea," he replied, "but I hate it as much as you do." I glanced at the clock.
"Oh god, I'll miss the bus if I don't leave now."
"See ya sis," called Danny.
"Bye," I replied, slipping on my denim jacket and slinging my bag over my back.
As I was walking to my bus stop, I passed Bill, the creepy middle-aged guy who has a crush on my mom. He looked successful about something. I knew he was watching me, but I just ignored him and kept walking. When I reached my bus stop, I saw my two best friends, Madeline (who is also a cat, like me) and Maria.
"Hey Zoe," called Maria, brushing her light brown hair behind her ear, "I was afraid you would miss the bus."
I rolled my eyes. "Wouldn't want to miss the first day," I replied sarcastically.
"Why does summer have to end?" complained Madeline. "There's no point in school! We wake up five hours than we should have to, just so you can sit in a chair all day and memorize facts that are of no use whatsoever in life. We won't even remember 3/4 of the stuff we learn!"
"Maddie," said Maria, turning to look at her with a serious look on her face, "I could not possibly agree with you more." The bus pulled up, and we got on. Maria and Maddie sat next to eachother, and I sat next to my friend Skye.
"Hi," said Skye.
"Hey," I replied. The bus stopped again, and my friend Isadora got on. She collapsed in the empty seat behind me and Skye.
"Hi, Zoe," she said, out of breath.
"Did you forget to set your alarm?" I asked her accusingly. She shook her head.
"Not this time," she replied, "I just accidentally set it for an hour late. My mom woke me up ten minutes ago, I grabbed a doughnut, threw some clothes on, and sprinted here just in time." I shook my head, ammused. The bus stopped again, at our school. I sighed and stood up. I walked out of the bus, Maddie and Maria following me. The principal was standing at the doors, handing everyone their schedules. It was a slow process, considering how many people went to this school. I finallly got to the front of the line (it was actually more of a giant cluster than a line) and he handed me my schedule.
"Have a great year," he said as he handed it to me.
"Likely," I muttered sarcastically under my breath. My homeroom was room 315. I began to walk up the stairs to the 3rd floor. When I reached it I looked around for room 315. I finally found it, and walked in. There was a line (or cluster, if you prefer) of kids next to the homeroom teacher, who was giving us our locker combinations. I stood in the cluster, waiting for the teacher to hand me the slip of paper with my locker number and combination. She finally did, and I pushed my way out of the cluster. I glanced at it, and it said that I had locker C-135, and my combination was 7-19-12. I followed the people walking out the door looking for their lockers to seek out my own. One side of the hall was even numbers, and the other was odd, so I walked along the odd side until I found the 130's. I walked up to 135, and took another look at the slib of paper with my combination on it. I turned back to my locker and spun the combination lock until I got to 7, then the other way to 19, then back to 12, and the lock clicked. I opened my locker and placed my bag inside, then slammed it shut. As I walked back to my homeroom, I looked at my schedule. First period I would have algebra 2, then biology, then art, then social studies, then study hall, then lunch, then language arts, then history, and finally geography. When I got back to homeroom, I found a place to sit, grabbed a piece of paper, took a pen out of my pocket (Maria calls my pockets magic pockets because I keep basicallly everything in them), and began to draw until the bell rang.
The day passed slowly, considering the only subject I actually liked was art (and lunch, of course). When thelast bell rang, I was out of there before anyone else had even picked up their bags. I sprinted onto the bus, and collapsed in a random seat. Several minutes later people began to slowly walk onto the bus. Isadora collapsed into the seat next to mine.
"Was your day as boring as mine?" I asked. She nodded.
"I could make an infinetly long list full of things I'd rather be doing than coming to school," she said. Before we could talk any longer, the bus stopped at her stop. She stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "See ya," she said.
"Bye," I replied. After she got off, the bus continued to our stop. When it stopped, Maddie, Maria and I all got off. I waved to them as they walked back to their houses. I glanced around, to make sure no one was watching, and transformed into a full cat. I ran home like that, changing back only when I reached my house. I opened the door and walked in. I thought I heard someone crying.
"What's going on?" I asked Danny, refering to the crying. He shrugged.
"I only got home a minute ago," he replied. We walked up to our mom's room. I knocked on the door, then opened it a crack. Mom was sitting on her bed, tears streaming down her face.
"What's wrong?" I asked, worried. I'd never seen mom cry, so something horrible must have happened. She took a deep breath, then looked at us.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. I looked at her, slightly scared now. Had someone found out what we were? "He knew," she continued. "I couldn't say no."
"What are you talking about?" asked Danny, who also sounded worried.
"Do you remember Bill?" she asked.
"What has Bill got to do with this?" I asked, panicked. If Bill knew..
"He asked me to marry him."
