“So you see,” I said to the monster under my bed, “it's the last day of the school week. If I survive today, which includes detention, I'll have two days to recover and prepare for next week and the rest of my detention.”
The monster under the bed nodded in understanding, it's enormous jowls flopping rather dangerously in the tightly packed room. It was rather amazing that there was enough space to even have a room under my bed. An enormous trunk like nose poured some more dark liquid that I hoped was tea into my cup. It was warm and pretty tasty, but I couldn't place the flavour. A ten fingered hand, with long twig-like fingers motioned for me to continue.
“I've survived so far, I even survived my first day of detention which has been a pleasant surprise. But I've had far too many near death experiences for my liking. And being transformed twice in one week, is just a little hard to accept. So I really don't want to go out today and see what fate has in store for me, it just seems like something really, really bad is going to happen.”
The monster patted my head, it felt like old, dusty silk covering bones. It offered me a cookie that looked like it was made out of dust. To be polite I accepted it and took a bite. It was surprisingly sweet, but very dry. Dipping it in my tea made it much easier to swallow. Looking around the room, which was pretty dark except for the light coming from the gap between my bed and the floor, I wondered where the monster under the bed had managed to bake the cookie, or to heat the kettle.
“Petra you can't hide under your bed all day,” Ella called out, her voice echoing.
“Why not? I'm having a very pleasant talk with the monster under the bed. It's a very good host.”
The monster under the bed turned a very pleasant shade of blue, and gave me a large pointy toothed grin.
“I'm sure it is. But if you stay under there all day you'll get a weekend detention on top of your after class detention, and that is almost always deadly. Now come out of there, our friends will be here any minute and we need to do something about your baldness.”
The monster under the bed gave me a gentle push, letting me know that I should get ready.
“Thank you for the tea and cookie. I hope I can visit you again,” I said.
It's grey eyes widened a little, and its lip-less grin grew even larger. Placing another cookie in my hand it gave me another push. Reluctantly I crawled out and back into my proper room.
“You're all dusty,” Ella said. “Go have a quick shower, while we think about what we can do about your lack of hair.”
Putting my cookie on the nightstand, I grabbed my robe and towel and headed for the shower. Washing up didn't take very long. Being bald certainly made washing my head easier. When I hopped out and started drying off, I could hear my friends outsides.
Naomi didn't sound too happy, “Why are we putting so much work into making Petra look nice? She doesn't appreciate it, you'd think we were torturing her.”
“She's not that bad,” Calci said.
“She hit you with a chair when we got her looking good for Rocks For Brains.”
“She dropped it on my foot. Her puny arms couldn't keep it up. I barely noticed it.”
“Girls,” Ella said. “Petra isn't used to looking so beautiful, dressing up, or makeup. She also really isn't prepared for Doom Valley Prep School. You heard her, she was sent here with a one way ticket in the general course. We need to give her some time to adapt.”
“It would still be nice if she seemed a bit more grateful about all the help we're giving her,” Clarice grumbled.
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“I understand, but look at what she has done for us. She dealt with Victor when he tried to control us. She has, reluctantly I'll admit, gone along with all of our plans as best she can. And I think we can all agree she seems to be acting as a lightning rod for trouble, keeping it from hitting us directly. And now she has Rocks For Brains wrapped around her finger.” Ella sounded thrilled and more than a little surprised at that. “We are the top Freshman, and it's only the first week.”
There was a murmur of agreement.
“So,” Ella continued, “let's remember we're all in this together. We each have our own skills and weaknesses. If Petra wants to grumble a little, smile and bear it, because she's our friend. And if she leaves we won't have her helping us in her own unique and impossibly chaotic way.”
Did I really grumble that much, I wondered. With everything that had happened to me, I thought I was handling things quite well. But maybe they were right. I was a girl now, and most girls acted differently from boys. Maybe it was time to accept my new girlishness, at least until I could turn back into a boy.
Putting on my robe, I looked in the mirror and gave my best smile. It wasn't too bad, but I knew it could be better. I thought of Ella smiling at me again, and found myself grinning. That was the right attitude. Stepping out of the bathroom I felt like a new girl.
“Hi, girls. I just want to say thanks for all the help you've been giving me. And today, you can do anything you want,” I said.
The squeal of delight was so high pitched the mirror cracked.
What had I gotten myself into?
***
We'd spent most of our limited time before breakfast trying different things to cover my baldness. I had painted on eyebrows and fake eyelashes, which didn't look too bad, but my bald dome was not cooperating.
Calci had sketched out some interesting patterns, saying we should paint my scalp. It looked kind of interesting, with lots of swoops and swirls. That was shot down due to lack of time.
Clarice had given me a purple hat with a living flower on it. But that didn't work very well, the flower's roots kept trying to wrap around my nonexistent hair, making me giggle. And without any hair, my ears stuck out oddly.
We were now attempting Naomi's trick, giving me a turban made out of black, spider silk scarf. I was wearing a matching black shirt that barely fit, a cape and black pants. It didn't seem too bad, but looking in the cracked mirror I thought I looked a little like a bald, female necromancer. It didn't help that my breasts were about to break free if I breathed too hard.
“Are you sure you want me wearing your clothes?” I asked. “Clothes and I don't seem to get along very well.”
Naomi turned pale. “Yeah, that's a good point. Maybe having you wear my best outfit isn't a good idea.”
There was a knock on the door, Ella answered it and came back a moment later with a small bottle. “I think I have a solution to our problem, but you probably won't like it Petra.”
Eyeing the potion nervously, remembering how well all my recent attempts with potions and elixirs had gone, I squeaked, “What is it?”
“My older brother is studying to be an alchemist. I talked to him about your detention and he offered me a potion that he's been working on. If you drink it, it will fix your hair problem and should give you an advantage in detention.”
“What does it do?”
She bit her lip, looking really unsure. My nervousness reached all new heights at seeing the usually confident princess being unsure of what to say.
“Well,” she said, “he's got a thing for cats. If you drink this, you'll become a cat girl for at least a day, maybe a week. You'll be more agile, faster, have claws, and fur.”
My resolution to be more accepting of all things girly didn't cover becoming a cat girl. I felt fully justified when I asked, “Do you really trust him?”
“I do. He's never tried to kill me, and I agreed to help him in a future plot against our older sister, if this works. So it's in his best interest to help out.”
I facepalmed, once more reminded about how different an upbringing Ella had compared to virtually everyone else. I really didn't want to do this. But being more agile, faster and getting natural weapons seemed to be worth the risk.
This was going to blow up in my face.
Holding my hand out, I took the potion and pulled out the cork. “I just drink all of this?”
“Yes. It starts working immediately, and shouldn't have any side effects.”
I didn't like the 'shouldn't have any side effects', I'd have much preferred 'Don't worry Petra, it's perfectly safe'. Unfortunately I suspected that playing it safe had gone out the window when I got admitted to Doom Valley.
Closing my eyes, I said a quick prayer to anyone who would listen and drank the potion.
It tasted like goblin earwax, and coated my throat in slime. Gagging, I forced it down. My entire body began to tingle and itch. My hands went numb, dropping the bottle which shattered on the floor. My stomach roiled.
“I don't feel so good,” I moaned.
It felt like someone grabbed my ears and yanked them up to the top of my head. My nails seemed to explode, becoming claws before my eye. I squawked as my robe was lifted up from behind, and I had the unique experience of having my spine grow longer forming a long, flexible tail. And then I started growing black fur all over my skin.
At that point I fainted.