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"Yes!" I whispered, silently clappingat the most terrible times I had no idea that it could be a voluntary transfor, until I remembered my key was in my jacket pocket The smile fell from my face and my shoulders slumped

The house was dark and Mrs Carpenter’s truck wasn’t in the driveway I walked to the front porch and rattled the door handle Locked

I sat on the porch swing, weighing o back for the jacket? Then another brilliant idea ca What if I could change into so really fast--a natural runner Like a cheetah?

For the second ti

I tried to rey, superthin body and gold, feral eyes--then willed ly, I feltof shapes felt aard, like trying to fit a square package into a round box And then I was a big, lean, spotted cat with really long sharp claws, aht vision, and a tail as thick as lided, soared over the land with ined I was like water rushing over a smooth surface My body was so fine-tuned and fast, I could iine hoould feel to drive a Ferrari one hundredform

In mere moments I was at the spot where I’d left my jacket I picked it up carefully, for I had felt ue

I started the gliding sprint toward ho The desert night called toto be explored, but exhaustion clawed at nawed , I would find a wild animal to track and eat, raw and bloody and still alive as ht e back

The transition fro cat to human was so easy, I lost my balance and fell to ot , unlocked the door, and stumbled inside

13

Over the course of that week, I discovered three things

First, it was better being invisible than the irls whispered about me behind their hands and boys whistled and leered Thepretty special, daring each other to askas close to me as they dared while someone covertly snapped our picture with a cell phone

Second, Bridger O’Connell treated ers, like I’d asked And it was

By the time Friday rolled around eleven different boys had asked me if they could have a pair of my panties Seriously, even if I’d had a pair or two to spare, there was no way they’d be getting them

I went directly to work after school, so by the time I walked out of the Navajo Mexican, I was dead on et ho The last table I’d waited on was a group of cowboys wearing sweat-stained cowboy hats who’d talked nonstop about their horses Horses were fast

Behind a screen of scrawny bushes that grew in front of a bank, I stripped down to ht of a beautiful black horse--black to blend with the night I told er, then … then I hit a brick wall, ue, I prodded h e had definitely started

I tried to change into a horse again, forcing h they didn’t want to change Again, I got stuck I thought myself out of horse shape, back to me, but my hooves did not turn into the soft human feet I was born with And my teeth didn’t shrink back to normal, or my hair--as if I’d tried so hard to shift, I was stuck that way peretting dressed But when I tried to shove ot to be kiddingmy jeans and useless tennis shoes overno one would stop to offerho but a T-shirt and panties while carrying a perfectly good pair of pants Where were the freshman boys with their cell phone cameras now?

Finally, I reached Mrs Carpenter’s house My hooves echoed like thunder on the front porch Inside, I stomped to my bedroom as fast as I could My feet shook the whole house--you can’t tiptoe with hooves I worried Mrs Carpenter would wake up and investigate But she didn’t

I didn’t bother showering; I was too upset And besides, I didn’t kno stable horse hooves would be on the shower floor Instead, I stared atmy buckteeth slowly, millimeter by rew into regular hu into th, halfway down my back