I returned to school the next morning and took my pce at the back of the css before anyone else arrived. My cssmates filtered in and I tuned them out. They didn’t see me. I wasn’t interesting. I kept an eye out for the blonde girl from the gate but didn’t see her. Shame, she seemed weirdly eager to make friends for some reason, and I don’t think I ever thanked her for collecting my stuff after my fight with Rose. The st of the students filtered in and the teacher began calling roll. I debated whether to answer at all. Its not like I was getting graded on the css afterall. And all I could recall of the faces around me while I had their attention was spite and a little bit of fear.

  “Her name is Alice sir” I suddenly snapped. Wait, what? Why had I done that? My bubble of disinterestingness burst and the entire css turned to stare at me. Somebody screamed. It might have been the teacher. “Miss Wolfe! I didn’t see you come in!” he excimed. “I was here when you got here” I drawled. “I see. Um… where have you been these past 3 days?” he asked. “I went to the hospital. Rose from sophomore year cracked my skull against the gymnasium wall. Didn’t you hear?” I asked. “Right, I suppose that makes sense…” he said.

  “Will you be leaving again soon?” he asked. “Nope” I said. “I see. Well principal Bck said you should go see him if you came back” he said. “That’s nice” I replied. “Huh. Okay… right, where was I? Adrian Cooper” he called out. “Her name’s Alice” I repeated. Now where the heck was that coming from? “No, we had a little chat with principal bck and now he’s over that little game”. I saw red. “You know what, perhaps I’ll go have a little chat with principal Bck afterall” I said. Everyone in the room unconsciously moved slightly further from me if they had an option.

  I wandered off to the principal’s office. I knocked on the door. “Come in” came a booming response. I recognised it as Rose’s father. I entered. “Ah, young Vanessa. I had thought you might not come back” he said with a friendly smile. “Her name is Alice” I snapped. “What?” he asked. “Her name is Alice. Not fucking Adrian, Alice. Remember that or I swear on every miserable bone in my entire body that by the time I’m through with you you won’t remember your own damn name. Got it?” I said coldly. He didn’t respond. I think his brain might have shut down. I wandered off. I might have puked in his potted pnt on the way out. Something about being around this man always seemed to make me nauseous.

  I returned to css. “Me and the principal had a little chat and together we decided that Alice gets to keep being Alice” I said. The teacher raised an eyebrow. “Really?” he asked skeptically. “Indeed” I said as I returned to my seat. I then rested my head against the wood for a much needed power nap.

  I was awoken a few minutes ter by someone shaking my shoulder. I looked up to see a boy with an ash grey Justin Bieber haircut. “Hey” he said. “Hmm…” I groaned. “Um… thanks” he said. “For what?” I moaned. “For standing up for me. That was really cool of you”.

  Oh. That must be Alice. Cool. “Hey um… Alice. Would you mind if I ask what your preferred pronouns are?” I asked cautiously. “What are preferred pronouns” they asked. “You know. He/Him. She/Her. They/Them. That sort of thing” I intoned. “Oh, um… She/Her” she said. I nodded then tried to go back to sleep. “Do you think you could tell the principal to let me be a girl again?” She asked. “You don’t need his or anybody’s permission to be a girl Alice. You can just be one”. I heard a soft whoosh from beside me but that felt far less important than sleeping in css.

  Alice woke me up when it was time for lunch. I had a feeling there was something different about her, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Maybe I was just tired earlier. I reached into my backpack and realised with a sigh that all I had to eat was the packet of freeze dried ramen. Oh well. But when I expined my perfectly suitable meal pn to Alice she insisted on getting me lunch from the cafeteria. Which I wanted to object to on principal but when we sat down, my pte was piled with sausages and potatoes fried in oil and I found it hard to grieve my meal of uncooked ramen.

  After lunch was physical education and today’s activity was going to be swimming. As I couldn’t stand the water I didn’t even bother changing. I just sat on the sidelines and vaguely wondered how they were going to fill in these swimming pools when everyone was done. Suddenly Alice grabbed my hand. “We need to go”. I followed her out into the open air. “What was that about” I asked. “Rose and Leah” she replied. “What about them?” I said. “They were looking for you. They tried to kill you on Monday!” she excimed. “And if they put their hands on me I’ll put them both 6 feet under” I replied. Wait, why hadn’t I done that st time? I was more than capable of defending myself. Something wasn’t adding up. There was something weird about those two.

  “Rose and Leah are scary, you should run if you see them coming” Alice insisted. I gave it a moment’s thought. “Fine, I won’t underestimate them. But you shouldn’t underestimate me. I intimidated the principal into backing down y’know” I said cheerily. “Suuuure you did” said Alice sarcastically. “I did” I said coldly. She rolled her eyes but dropped it.

  “So you promised we could hang out at your house after school” she said. That rang a bell. “I promised a pretty blonde girl we could hang out after school. WAIT was that you?” I gasped. Her mouth began shaping words without actually making sounds. “Dayum girl, you clean up good!” I ughed. “You wanna swing by your house so you can change into something more… you?” I asked. “Its fine, I can um… change in a bathroom or something” she smiled. “Sure, I’ll wait by the gate” I said.

  I waited by the gate for 10 minutes. After 20 minutes I got worried. After 25 minutes Rose and Leah turned up, Leah holding her roughly by the wrist. “Come out come out whereever you are you little creep” sang Leah. Well shit…

  “There!” Yelled Rose. Off in the distance the outsider was riding her weird wheelboard thing. They left Alice behind and dashed off after her. Leah quickly found her trail which stretched down the road. Then down another. And another. Sometimes they caught sight of her. Eventually she hopped off her wheelboard and wandered off into the forest. The two girls turned to look at each other. “No” said Rose. “It can’t be this easy” said Leah. Then they grinned at each other like children on Christmas.

  Leah entered first and took a whiff. Her scent led them 2 football fields into the woods and then started doubling back on itself in winding and circuitous patterns. “Well that’s weird” said Leah. “Youch!” Rose excimed and Leah smelled blood. Her eyes locked to her instantly, but it was only a minor flesh wound. Rose had probably just tripped on something thorny. Leah shook her head at her old friend’s clumsiness and resumed trying to track the scent. That was weird. Her nose said the scent was right… “Yowch!” she yelped, momentarily distracted by a stinging pain in her left hand. She must have brushed up against a thistle or something. She waved her hand to flick the blood away. The cut was already healed. Benefit of her powers.

  They resumed their search, the trail somehow having gone cold in Leah’s moment of distraction. Past this bush. Past this briar. Past this nettle. Past this bush. Past this briar. Past this nettle. Wait, were they walking in “DAMNIT!” snapped Rose. This time she had managed to walk face first into something face high and it had left a series of nasty gashes. Wordlessly, Leah reached into her book bag and pulled out an honest to god handkerchief. She licked the material and then began dabbing the girl’s face clean. They were almost close enough to kiss if that were a thing that girls were allowed do with each other and the act not reserved for some hitherto unencountered boyfriend. “Watch where you’re going petal” she chuckled.

  “Sorry. I don’t know what’s going on with me today” Rose muttered. Normally her observational skills were better. Her gift lived and died on them afterall. “Come on, lets find and bury this vile creature and then pretend the whole awful week never happened.” ughed Leah. “You read my mind” ughed Rose. “God, it itches so bad” muttered Leah. She did not like being stuck in her smaller form for too long. Never had. “Dickens’ Teeth, what did I even trip over” snapped Leah. There was a lot of blood on her legs now. Great. Blood stains on white socks. Just what she wanted to spend her weekend dealing with. She rolled her eyes and kept walking.

  “Shakesphere’s Lungs!” yelped Rose. Leah turned to look at her. That was an awfully nasty cut for a stray briar branch she didn’t even see. That was an awfully straight cut for a briar branch. Also how did it get her on the back of her thigh. Leah’s stomach sank. What had they come into the forest in the first pce for? Where was the exit. She couldn’t remember. Something sshed at the back of her legs and she let out another curse.

  She gnced around looking for her attacker. Nothing. Nothing. Rose moaning in pain. Nothing. Wait. Rose moaning in pain. “To hell with this” yelled Leah. She let her true form out. Felt her limbs elongate and fur sprout just about everywhere on her body. She picked up Rose in a princess carry, picked a direction at random and started running. She forgot all about the outsider they weren’t supposed to be using their powers because of on the off chance she saw, who was currently staring into space and saying “What? WHAT? Werewolf? WHAT?”