A New Form

Chapter 1

My heart was pumping fast. Did I have a nightmare?
I looked around, trying to remember my dream. I couldn't remember it, though.
"Honey, come get your breakfast!" My mom yelled out.
"Okay, mom." I answered.

My name is Mark Garcia, and I'm eleven years old. I was born into a Ecuadorian family, though we live in Virginia now. Today was the first day of school, so I was a little disappointed. Oh well...

I started to put on my clothes. Once I was done, I looked at the mirror. There sat a reflection of myself: tan skin, black, messed-up hair, and eyes with a matching shade of brown. I was wearing a red hoodie and blue jeans.

That's when I noticed it.

There was package on my desk. I looked at it. It was small, and it could fit in your hands. I opened it.
It had a small, strange gem attached to a bracelet. The bracelet was black and bronze, and the gem itself was a weird sort of bright, shiny orange.

I put the bracelet on, and then noticed the note that came with it.
It said the following:
Mighty, this gem is, but without it's brothers and sisters, it might not shine.
This gem was given to you because hard times have fallen, and that's no good.
However, take care of things, and connect the dots, and the gem will be fine.
But if the evil rises and connects the dots for you... well, that, again, is no good.
The signature was pretty strange, too:
—Take care, Ewmay
I put the note on my desk again, so I could research it later.

After that, I went down the stairs to see my Mom and my sister.
The TV was switched to the news channel. Every now and then, some news would pop up, such as "lighthouse blown up", or "Girl Scout become hero".
...wait,  a lighthouse was blown up?

"Hello, Marcos." said my mother, Sarah. Her eyes glancing at me remind me of how sweet she is to me, friends, neighbors, and even strangers.
"Hola." I said.
Before I could finish, my nine-year old sister, Isabelle, hollered at me.
"HI, BIG BROTHER!!!"

My annoying little sister looked at me.
"Hello." I said, clearly annoyed. I then grabbed some cereal and milk, began eating.

I looked at the TV more closely.
"...The lighthouse has a big chunk missing, and the lighthouse is not repaired yet..."
The lighthouse in our town, as it turns out, seemed to be very damaged. as the news reporter just said, a big chunk was blown off.

This actually wasn't very surprising to me. This town, known as Point Darrow, is a small costal town in Virginia. While having only some 2,000 and something people, it is well known for having many mysterious things happening there. It kinda freaked me out a bit at first, but now I'm used to it. This might be one of the biggest mysteries I've seen here, though.
"Honey, it's 7:45. The bus is here." said my mom softly.
"Oh!" I replied "Okay, gotta go, then!" I quickly sped off.
Once I went to my school, I looked at a sheet that a school assistant was giving to  me. It had my classes and everything.
I went to these classes as normal. I have to say, though, 6th grade is different than 5th.

I do have a few friends, to help me in the way, though.

Not a lot, however.

Oh, who am I kidding? I have only two friends at school.

...

About these two friends, their names are Bill Anderson and Sophia Gomez. Bill is a guy a little taller than me. He has blonde hair and a mildly stingy personality. I guess you can say that he prefers brawn over brains.
Sophia is the exact opposite. She's very friendly and has dark brown hair. She is Hispanic like me. She wears these little pink glasses, and she prefers the entire opposite: she prefers brains of brawn any day.

Both of us have known each other for years now, though we have had some upsets recently. These couple past weeks, Sophia no longer talks to me. Instead, she talks more frequently to other girls. Bill is still on my side, but we argue frequently.
I hope both of them are okay.

So anyways, both of them were in the same classes as me. In one class, Bill sat next to me, but in another, this nerd called Tray sat next to me.
These classes pretty much introduced everyone as well as the teachers. I forgot half of their names, but I think my English teacher is Mrs. Kathleen or something like that.

It wasn't until lunch until something interesting actually happened.
Me and Bill were sitting in a cafeteria table exchanging jokes. I think I laughed too hard, since milk came out my nose.
"Eww" was the response some nearby people said, though Bill didn't seem to be annoyed.

"Sorry." I said, standing up to get some milk.

I went to the counter where you get, well, milk, I guess. The cafeteria lady there stared blankly at me. "What do you need?"
"Uhh, milk, please."
"Okay." she replied, strolling away to the kitchen behind the counter.
I sat there for about a minute or so. I think a caught a glimpse of something colored tan running in the distance, but I ignored it. A few seconds later, the lunch lady was back.

"Here you go." she said in a bored voice again.
I grabbed the milk carton, which was already opened. The milk inside looked...diffrent. It was a little orange-ish.
I must be seeing things, I thought. It's nothing you have to worry about. It's just milk, after all.
I drank some of the milk and asked Bill "Hey, Bill, do you think Sophia is still my friend?"
"I dunno." he said. "I think she still comes to you occasionally, and she still comes to my house, but not that often."
"Okay." I said.
We sat in silence for a minute. I started to feel queasy, so I told Bill that I was going to go to the bathroom.
Treading softly, I went to the restroom, unaware that it was the abandoned one. I didn't notice this until I walked in.
"Blech." I said, looking at the broken mirrors. I was about to leave when I felt something itchy in my ear. I grabbed it.

It wasn't there.
"Huh...?" I gasped.
I grabbed the other ear. I wasn't there either. I looked at the mirror, and my ears, which were now longish and brown, were on the top of my head.
"OH MY GO—"
I tripped, and fell down. My hands raised in the air, and they looked fluffy brown. Two fingers from each of my hands were beginning to shrink out of existence. The other fingers grew short and stubby, complete with pads. They were turning into paws.

Before I could say anything, I felt a sharp pain on my back. As fur spread all over my body, I was forced on all fours.
I tried to scream, but I felt this sour feeling on my throat and mouth. My nose was starting to turn into a snout. Below this, a small mane appeared.
As all of this happened, I didn't notice until now that I was shrinking. My clothes tumbling, I started to struggle through it, looking for a way to survive such pain.
Then, I felt what may be the worst pain in my life.
What felt like a tail sprouted between my legs. It was so painful I almost cried.
Luckily, it all suddenly stopped. Numb from the extreme pain, I felt faint. Everything turned black.