I had been looking forward to this Friday for some time. I hadn’t been to many parties in my old school, and hoped to change that here. One of the few nice things about moving is you can change your habits and people won’t ridicule you over it.

A lizard morph in a ballerina costume looked at my plate ruefully as she passed. Potato chips, Doritos, orange coated cookies, and a few other things filled it edge to edge. I literally hadn’t eaten all week, in preparation. No sense going and not being able to enjoy the spread. I chuckled; apparently at least one other cold-blood hadn’t planned that far ahead.

The costumed lizard was actually in the minority. A great many people had felt too nervous about wearing a costume—including myself. Most of the people had come in normal clothes. Or at least what they normally wear, I mused, looking at Randy, a chipmunk who was always looked like a hippie straight out of the ‘60s.

I wandered the crowd a little, sipping my punch. My hands were too full with "food" to dance, and I didn’t have anyone to talk to (Jim had wandered off towards the stage, saying he had to talk to somebody), so I just enjoyed the atmosphere. The music pulsed in a steady, deafening rhythm, changing every few minutes as the songs switched. I tried looking for my friends, but had little luck. Stripes and Todd would both be below most of the crowd.

Luckily, Stripe’s girlfriend was a bit easier to spot. "Hey Amanda!" I called out over the din.

The big clydsedale turned, searching for me. I pushed my way past a couple of partly-Changed rabbits before she saw me. "Oh, hi Michael. Hitting the buffet pretty hard, I see."

I glanced down at my paper plate. It was empty, but crumbs littered the surface. I grinned a little self-consciously; I’d gone back to the table twice in the course of my wanderings. "Yeah, a little." I wadded up the plate and tossed it at the nearby garbage; missed. "So where’s Stripes? I haven’t seen him anywhere."

In response a tiny head poked itself out of a tangle in her long hair and squawked. I blinked back, surprised. "Stripes?" It... he squawked again at me. "Why are you here in norm?"

I swear the bluejay looked at me like he wanted to peck my eyes out. "He’s stuck, is why," Amanda answered for him. She sighed. "He would choose today to try this."

I looked at my friend, who fluttered his wings embarressedly. "C’mon, you can get out of that!" He shook his beak. "Well, try anyway! You want to dance, don’t you?"

The bird cocked his head, as if considering, then settled down on Amanda’s shoulders and closed his eyes. "Fine, be that way," I said to him, and turned my attention to his date. "Any sign of Todd?"

"No, sorry. Wait, yeah, he just entered," she replied, and started making her way towards the door.

God bless tall morphs.

The music changed to a slower song. We crossed the room fairly easily, since we didn’t have to worry about flailing limbs smashing into our faces. Todd was looking around, probably for us. His muzzle broke out into a wide grin as he saw Amanda coming with me in tow.

"So how’s the party?" he asked by means of greeting.

"Pretty good," I said. "Especially the munchies."

"Heh. Where’s Jim?"

"He wandered off. Could be anywhere. Maybe even," I gasped dramically, "dancing!"

"Dancing! The horror! We must go to his rescue!" Todd replied from his chair mock-valiantly.

Amanda’s chuckle turned into a shout of surprise and pain. She collapsed under the weight of the bluejay morph that had appeared on her shoulder with a bright flash of light. A few nearby people went down with her with their own exclamations of surprise. Before anyone even hit the floor there was another flash, and the jay was a zebra. David sat up on the floor and looked at the stripes on his arms that gave him his nickname with obvious relief. "Finally! About time I broke through that..."

People were staring at the cluster of downed people. Most had grins on their faces. Several were trying, with little success, to hide them. I could see why. It was hard to keep from laughing out loud.

Stripes’s gaze happened to fall downwards, and his grin froze. Three... two... one...

"Oh shit!" He lept to his feet and ran from the room as fast as he could, his hooves clacking loudly. We could hear him chanting "Shitshitshitshitshitshit..." all the way out.

There was silence for a few seconds. (Relative silence; the music was still playing as loud as ever.) Then everyone in the area simultaneously broke out into gales of laughter.

"You think... aag..." It was hard to speak, I was laughing too hard. "You think he’ll be called Streaks now?" Todd almost fell out of his chair.

"You okay?" Todd asked Amanda when he managed to stop laughing. She was rubbing her shoulder and wincing.

"I think I pulled something. No big deal, though." She shrugged, eliciting another wince.

I managed to pull myself together a little. "Well, at least you can dance now..."

"Yeah. I guess I’d better find him. Excuse me." Todd and I watched her exit the gym. Then we broke into another laughing fit.

"Well, that was... fun," I breathed, as my companion and I headed to the sidelines.

"Why the pause?" the pink flamingo morph asked.

I paused again. "Because I didn’t want to say ‘embarrassing’. You might take it wrong." I hoped she wouldn’t take that wrong; I try not to insult people. Well, usually. Luckily, she just laughed. I grinned sheepishly as I continued. "Dancing is not a thing I’ve had much experience with, I’m afraid."

Actually, with the exception of a cousin’s wedding a few years back, (which arguably didn’t count anyway) I had no experience. So I was understandably nervous after trying to dance with her. Especially since she was probably an upperclassman; or at least, if she hadn’t yet finished Changing, she’d be about as high degree as is possible.

"You did fine," she assured me. "At least you didn’t jump around wildly and hit my beak like that asshole Rimmer did."

We headed over to the refreshment area. I probably won’t need to eat for two weeks, at this rate, I thought. With that in mind I avoided the junk food, and just had another drink to cool myself off. Or tried to. "What’s going on?" Nicole—the flamingo—asked. The punch bowl, still half full, was getting carried off by one of the chaperones.

"We got word that the punch has been spiked," the man, a lowdee rabbit, replied. "Rides will be provided for those of you who drove, and—" The bowl slipped a little in his grasp, threatening to crash to the floor. "Excuse me," he said hurriedly, and rushed off.

"Well," Nicole said. "Guess it was a good thing I got here late."

"I guess." I looked around the gym. Now that my attention was up, I did notice some people were looking a little clumsy. Even as I watched one cow morph slipped on the floor and laughed. I frowned. "Funny, though. I feel fine."

Nicole stretched a pinkly feathered wing-arm out and tapped one of my new eye ridges. "You become cold-blooded, yet?"

"Yeah. First thing, actually. Why?"

She didn’t answer, only stood there waiting. It took a second. "Oh, yeah. Damn."

I spent the next few minutes trying to spot one of my friends. I eventually found Amanda on the dance floor. "Where’s Stripes?" She was dancing with someone else, an almost unChanged person I didn’t recognize.

She shrugged. "He might be around somewhere. I persuaded him to come back, but I really doubt he’ll try to show himself off."

"Can’t show himself off more than he has already. You drink much of the punch?"

"Didn’t get much chance, why?"

"Someone spiked it, and I didn’t want you smashed. As in into a tree. Any idea if Jim drove?" I didn’t bother asking about Todd.

"No idea. I’ll keep a watch out for him though."

I nodded and walked off, moving a little to the heavy beat that had started up. I was keeping my eyes open for Jim, but there was no way I was going to let it ruin my good time. Despite all I’d had, I myself had nothing to worry about.

Not for a while, anyway.

Copyright 1998, Doug Linger

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