Numbers

Chapter One

The stupid mayo was expired. It had been fine yesterday, but now that Mina needed it for tuna, it was all gross. She set the jar on the counter and went to put fresh mayo on the grocery list hanging from the refrigerator. Naturally, this meant that there were no pens.

"Fuck my life," she said, louder than she had intended. It was starting to feel like the Cheshire cat magnet was mocking her.

Now the doorbell was ringing. At least her parents were too lazy to change it to something more obnoxious.

Muttering profanities under her breath, Mina started making her way to the front door. "Knock once, damn it," she hissed. "No one's that important."

When she opened the door, there was a guy waiting for her. He looked surprisingly patient, too. And familiar, but she couldn't remember his name.

"Hey... umm... is Mina Holmwood here?"
"This is she." Mina leaned against the door frame. The guy was blushing now. That was at least a little bit satisfying.

"Sorry," he said. "Uh... you look really different with your hair up. Has anyone ever told you that?" The boy's face contorted enough to make him look scared. This was also a little bit satisfying.

"Don't worry about it. I can't remember your name anyway."

He tried not to flinch. "It's Josh. Josh Murray? From English?"

That was who he was. Okay. "Uh... yeah. What do you need?"

"The page numbers for the reading. I don't have anyone's numbers but I thought you lived around here."

Now she was getting concerned. "How'd you get my address?"

"Mina, I live two blocks away. We used to ride the same bus."

Oh. Yeah. Way to go, Min, Mina thought, batting a thousand today. "Oh. Right. Yeah. Let me get my b- are you okay?"

Josh had sprouted fur. At first, Mina had brushed it off as a beard, but there was too much of it now for her not to think something was up. "Never mind," she snapped, dragging him inside and slamming the door. Josh stumbled forward.

"Look," he yelped, "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm fine. All I wanted was the page numbers, okay?" He reached up to brush his hair out of his eyes when he felt it. "I don't think I'm okay."

Mina started pacing the room. "Don't worry. Everything's going to be just fine. You sit down and I'll... figure something out. I think we might have some medicine to control the change, but I'm not sure. My mom and I are synced up and we might have used it all last week. Damn it. Just... wait here. Don't go anywhere."

She looked over her shoulder at Josh. Sometime while she'd been talking, his jaw had gone slack and if he hadn't been scared before, he definitely was now. He cleared his throat, then cleared it again. "W-what's... what's happening? I'm not taking anything until you tell me what's going on."

Mina froze. "You don't know?"

"Know what?"

"Min, what's going on? I heard yelling." A girl in a black sweater dress came down the stairs. At first, Josh thought Mina might have a weird goth sister he'd never met. The two girls were both pale with long curls, but where Mina was a delicate, blue-eyed redhead, this girl was almost unnerving. Her hair was jet black, her eyes were amethyst purple, and her face was all sharp, catlike angles. When she saw Josh, she stiffened. "Mina, who's he?"

"A guy from school. Didn't know he was one of us until he started changing on the porch."

Now the girl looked confused. "He doesn't look sick."