Back to the day after dreaming of being a panther.

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"Mike, wake up, you will be late for school!" pierced through my dreamless slumber. Still groggy I couldn't bring myself to get up out of bed. Taking a deep breath, I tried my old trick of counting from twenty. I got to three before I finally lept out of bed and onto my feet in a single motion. The dream of the panther was still in the back of my mind.

I ran downstairs and waved to mom. "I know, I know...I'm late."

She sighed in exasperation. "Why are you always so late? What do you do? Read all night?" she asked before handing me a small paper bag. "Least take your lunch. I threw in a granola bar so you would have something to eat on the way to school.”

Sighing, I took the bag. “Thanks, mom, and I just couldn’t sleep well last night.”

Normally running uphill would have me a little winded, especially in the snow, but today I seemed so much faster and more energetic. I leaned forward as I ran, almost like I wanted to run on all fours, and had to stop myself. A mental flash of running through the jungle caused me to remember the dream. Was it real or my imagination? Shape-shifting wasn’t possible, was it? I would have said it wasn’t a few days ago, but now…the way my body felt, I couldn’t deny that something strange was going on.

I soon reached my bus stop. As the memories resurfaced, so did the way my body reacted, and I thought about skipping school or saying that I was sick. What if I did turn while at school? A jaguar wouldn't be the kind of thing you take to show and tell, not that junior high had such a thing. I decided against that as it seemed silly to worry so much. As the bus pulled up I gave the driver a nod of my head, and put the money into the receptacle. I found an empty seat behind the driver.

The bus was full of noises as other kids were heading to school, talking about their plans for the winter break the next week, some girls giggling about something I couldn't hear. During the trip, I was able to focus on the test I had that morning. I had studied, but couldn’t remember a lot of the facts.

All I could think about was how good something on the bus smelled. It smelled like a hamburger as best as I could tell. Once again, my body desired to shift; my lips pulled back slightly along with twitching of my ears. I was able to control it, though it took difficulty. I wasn’t sure if the shift would fail like it had last night but didn’t want to risk turning into a jaguar on the bus. Thankfully, the school was visible in the distance.

Upon arriving at school I looked around for my friends. I didn't want to speak with them for fear they might know something was wrong. Especially Charlie. Thankfully I didn't have classes with any of them except for Charlie in biology class. I did see Charlie, and he spotted me but I pretended that I didn't see him and continued on to class.

Fortunately, the need to shift abated for the moment. I was torn between continuing to class or leaving, but I was already there, and the feelings were quieting. Maybe, just maybe, I could get through the day without incident.

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Once I was in math I handed in my homework finally finished, I then focused my mind on my work, and I couldn't even begin to think about the dreams I've been having.

Math ended, and I headed to the test in science. I saw Charlie in his seat and gave him a nod. He gave me a concerned look but focused upon the test. The real problem began halfway through. I had forgotten one really crucial fact about the science class: it was right next to the home ec class, and I could smell the food. My nose wrinkled up, and my ears were perking again. I had to keep swallowing as I was salivating so strongly; they were making something with ground beef. And I was hungry. I had forgotten all about the granola bar on the bus ride. My skin was crawling and I couldn’t think straight.

Mr. Rigby, my teacher, looked in my direction and saved me. “Mike, are you okay? You look pale.”

I shook my head as I didn’t trust myself to speak, and knew I needed to get outside before something might happen. He nodded and handed me a slip, “Go see the nurse and redo the test next time.”

I nodded, grabbed my stuff, and ran out the door. As I left I could see that Charlie wanted to follow me, but I was in too much of a hurry to think of it. Instead of heading to the nurse's office I turned around a corner and headed to the back-doors of the school and ran out.

There was an old trail behind the school that I would often take when I missed the bus, so I headed there. Thankfully being away from the smell calmed me down. Now I was exhausted. It felt like I had run a marathon as every muscle in my body was sore. I didn’t think I could make it home, and worse, didn’t think I should go home. After all, what would happen if I did change? I might hurt someone. I did have one thought; there was an old abandoned tree fort nearby that I discovered one day heading home and exploring. I spotted the trail heading towards it; It was mostly covered over and hidden unless you knew where to look. As I neared, I caught sight of something out of the corner of my eye that appeared to be following me. As soon as I looked in its direction, there was nothing there.

I did spot something on the ground, a squirrel was eating something at the edge of the trail that made me smile a moment. That was until I felt my lips curl up slightly as I licked my lips. I had the urge to chase the squirrel and catch it with my paws. Doing so would be hard without said paws but it didn't even cross my mind as I crouched down on all fours and started towards it.

I somehow managed to avoid detection until I was a few feet from it when suddenly it called out in a squeaky voice, "Don't eat me." I jumped backward in confusion, wondering when I had started hearing animals speak. That didn't last long as I heard laughing moving away from me. I recognized the voice, as squeaky as it was, from the previous night. There was something definitely following me. I looked around and tried to find the source but no tracks, nothing in the trees, or hiding behind anything I could see. If I wasn't so tired, I probably would have tried to follow it.

Continuing down the trail I could finally see the fort in the distance. it was a decent sized one. As old as it appeared, it still looked fairly sturdy and would hold me long enough to get some sleep. I climbed up the wooden boards that were its ladder. I finally relaxed everything that I was feeling. It wasn't too bad, if a bit cold; A sleeping bag had been left there for years, and a few comics. Taking a deep breath, I crouched back on all fours and tried to finish what I started the night before. I was still tired, but now I was away from others and I wanted to try one last time.

Soon the familiar feelings of rubbery skin and the energy built up. My chin and nose strained against my skin as if they were trying to push out from my face into a muzzle. My breathing got a bit heavier as I strained to push. I could almost feel like just a bit more and I would become a jaguar, but it wasn't working. It felt like there was just one last thing I was missing.

After a few more tries, I started to feel exhausted and crawled into the sleeping bag, being too tired to care about how cold it was or how many bugs might be in it. I just hoped that sleeping would help me find my answers.