With a Flick of my Tail

Preparations

We arrived home slightly tired. Zayn beat us all home. He was doing a victory dance on the front porch when we ran up. I shifted behind a tree and dressed. Everyone else did the same. Walking out from behind the tree, I asked Zayn,"What are you doing?"

Apperantly, he didn't see us coming, so he jumped, turned around, and started scratching the back of his head. "Nothing?", he replied sheepishly.

"Okay...?"

"Get inside and get any homework done that you have then come see me.", Mom ordered.

"We didn't get any homework. We walked around the whole day.", Zayn told her.

"Seriously? They let you do that?"

"Yeah", we all answered simultaneously.

"Oh. Well then, follow me." We walked inside and went to Mom's room. Opening a secret compartment in the wall, Mom pulled out a small brown box. She sat down on her bed and opened it. "Since you are having your first actual day of school tomorrow, you will need these.", she said as she pulled out pieces of jewelry. "These will protect your secrets. Whatever you change into, you will get the repercussions of that creature. If you haven't noticed yet, you have all the abilities of a werewolf and a mermaid, because that's what you have changed into so far. That means although you will have the strength, sight, hearing, and smell of a wolf, you will also have the "downside" of changing when your heart rate goes up, such as when you're upset, nervous, or scared. Another thing will be changing into a mer when you touch water. These will help prevent changing when you are wearing these." She held up a bracelet made of a twisted gold chain. "Here." She handed each of us one.

"Thanks.", I said.

"Yeah", Kai replied. "These would have come in handy several times."

"I know. I remember one time.....", Zayn added.

"Now's not the time, Zayn."

"Ok."

"Now, it's 8:00. Go get your stuff together and get ready for bed. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes.", Mom ordered.

"Ok." We all walked out of the room, but I ran back to ask one more question. "Mom?" She looked up from her work.

"Yeah?"

"What do we do during P.E.?" She looked at me strangely for a moment. "Remember, we do have swim this semester sometime."

"Oh. Just don't talked it off."

"What if our coach makes us take them off?"

"Do anything - even skip class." She went back to working for a few seconds, paused, then turned back to me. Her expression was as serious as you can get.

"But whatever you do, don't get wet."