Shai Soi

Chapter 1

I started growing a tail in math class. Luckily, I sat in the back corner of the room where I was easy to miss. It started as a weird tingling. And then, the tingling became pins and needles. But after a few seconds it stopped.

Good, I thought. Finally, I can concentrate.

I was in the middle of taking a twenty-paged test-- about algebra. The horror, right? Anyway, I had just gotten to another page when something brushed against my leg. Looking down, I saw my backpack and a forgotten paper airplane. I dismissed the distraction and turned back to the classroom's clock. It was nearly three, and I was only on the seventeenth page.

Come on, Rebecca. You can't afford another F.

I was interupted by a loud squeaky eraser raking across the desk. The sound made me cringe.

Go on.

A question later something brushed against my thigh. I jerked in the direction from which it came. Nothing. I glared at Lillian Collins, the only student near me. She was deep into her work, almost done with the thick packet.

Ignore it. Keep going.

I worked for what seemed a minute before something brushed against me again. I only had one page to go and not a lot of time left. I couldn't afford to get distracted.

"Stop it," I whispered. But as soon as I bent my head to work, it nudged my leg again. A flash of gold darted off to my right. I nearly broke my pencil in two from anger.

"Lillian, stop bothering me!"

It came out louder than what I had intended. Half the class looked up and snickered. Miss Seamagin, an old grey-haired lady with no sense of humor, peered at me from over her square glasses.

"Miss Rebecca," her voice was brittle like crackling yellow paper. She stood and folded her newspaper on her desk looking mildly annoyed. A newspsper? Seriously, how ancient was she? Her mouth was set in a straight line. "Do you have something to share with the class?"

My face burned. Twenty pairs of eyes were on me. I could hear every breath and soft giggle in the room. "No."

"Pardon me? I can't hear you, dear."

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "No."

"Good. Now, this being your first infraction I won't take up your test. But if I hear you disrupting this class again, you'll get an automatic zero and a referral. Am I understood?"

"Yes." Miss Seamagin gave me a look. "Yes, ma'am," I corrected myself.

"Good. Oh, look at the time! Hurry class only three minutes left!"

I was too embarrassed to scowl at my classmates. They snickered to each other. "Like she really needs that much time. It won't make a difference!" "Yeah, Reject Rebecca!" They all giggled at that old nickname. And, of course, Miss Seamagin picks that moment to go deaf while she reads her stupid comic strip.

Despite some people's quiet taunts, I was able to finish the test when the bell rang. Students quickly filed out of the classroom, and after them, like she didn't see me, Miss Seamagin.

I didn't mind. Thanks goodness math was the last class of the day. All I needed to do was catch the bus and suffer through studying, and I'd be able to chill. Just like any normal day at the end of the school year.

But the day never thought of being normal.

I was shoving my stuff into my backpack when a flash of gold and brown streak across my peripheral vision. "Gotcha!" The thing swished and twitched in my hand. Almost like a snake, the hairy brown end curled around my wrist. I jumped, letting go of the thing. It flashed behind me. "Hey!" I must've looked pretty stupid trying to catch the weird tube, chasing it like a dog after its tail.

When I managed to catch it again, I followed the gold flexible tube to its source. And its source happened to be my bottom. I tugged at it. My butt throbbed a little.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no...

I dashed across the hall into the restroom and raced into the biggest stall. The body length mirror portrayed the whole thing.

I looked the norm- pitiful and sleep deprived- except for the long brush tipped thing sprouting from my behind. Seeing it in full told me it wasn't a tube.

It was a tail.