I put the lid on and carefully placed it in the trash so it wouldn’t break. My complexion hadn’t worsened, but I’d found the best thing I could do when feeling a little lacking in the confidence department was to put on some war paint. I finished off my brown smoky eyes with some liner and mascara. Happy with the results, I grabbed a chapstick and went back into my room to try to figure out what I needed for class.
My schedule sat on top of the pile of books on my desk. I stared at it for a minute before shoving everything in my backpack. Who knew what I’d need for metaphysics or Were history? Whatever they were. I folded up the schedule and put it in my pocket.
Meredith’s flip-flops clacked on the tile bathroom floor. “Give me five, and we can go down to breakfast together.”
“Okay.” I didn’t want to face the cafeteria alone anyway. People didn’t give you the stink-eye like those girls gave me and then let it go. The last thing I needed was a fight on my first day of school.
I plopped back on my bed. The whole situation was awful. One stupid party. One stupid boy. One stupid kiss. And my life was virtually over.
Disgusted with my own whining, I pulled my schedule back out and tried to focus on what it said. Normal classes were before lunch, and after seemed to be the weird stuff—Were history, metaphysics, and martial arts & yoga.
The more I thought about it the worse my nerves got. A bead of sweat rolled down my face, which was odd. Even during gym class I didn’t sweat that much. Maybe I was still sick.
I took deep breaths, but that made me feel dizzy. My skin crawled. Head between the knees was all I could think to do.
My stomach twisted and my bones ached.
Not this. Not again.
“Okay, Tess. Ready—” Meredith’s voice dropped off as her footsteps quickened on carpet. “Breathe deep for me. Calm. It’s going to be okay. You’re fine. No reason to panic. Just stop fighting the change.”
“I’m not feeling super fantastic.”
“You’re fine. Your body’s just on the verge of deciding whether or not to go furry.”
“That’s crazy. Do you know how that sounds? Completely batshit crazy.”
“I know. It’s gotta be weird for you.”
I snorted.
“If you don’t want to shift, then don’t get too worked up over anything. Deep slow breaths. Food will help. You didn’t eat enough last night.”