Phase One and a Half of Crush: Grow a tail, apparently.Dr. Diast yanked on my tail. The thought ‘my tail’ was unpleasant and I did not like it. It was like a cat’s tail, long and moving in patterns that I could best describe as sneaky. The fur on it matched my hair color, and I didn't even know if I liked that or not. I didn’t seem to be able to trol it yet.

  “Yep,” Dr. Diast said. “This is a tail.”

  “I got that,” I said.

  “You wouldn’t believe how many kids fake it to get out of css,” Diast said. “It gets so bad around finals time that school policy is legit to yank on every new i tail.”

  “So what do I do?” I asked. “Am I like a freak now?”

  “As if you weren’t already being a i?” Diast asked. “I’m kidding, I don’t know why that’s my answer every time someone asks that. It’s terrible. No, you’re not a freak, tails are one of the most on i traits. You might have a stress tail, though.”

  I knew i tails were possible from the i books I’d read over the years, but I figured siel didn’t end up with one, I’d be good. We never checked out the So You Got a Tail, or Perhaps Another i Mutation: 452 i Mutations You Could Possibly Get and How you Should Deal with Them Today, Tomorrow, and Forever book from the library. Or Uh Oh. Remember How I said Being a i Isn’t like Being a Werewolf? Well, Feral Flu Makes it Kinda That a Bit More: How to Deal with Events Like Feral Flu or the Fang Moon Web as a New i which also probably would have helped.

  “A stress tail?” I asked. “So then it might go away?”

  “Maybe, your blood test results did say there was a 23-42% ce you’d end up with one.” Diast said. “Lucky there’s no csses today, huh?”

  Diast gave me some medie that would apparently help with any aches or pains I may have from my neendage (I also realized really quickly there were few ways to talk about a ail that didn’t sound totally gross, but whatever). She also prescribed me a day off from doing homework. Even with the weirdness of adjusting to suddenly having a tail (like sitting down was a new experience every chair that day), I was too restless to really aplish much of anything.

  Oka was really supportive that day during my big ge, which was sweet but it also sucked because I wao run away from her for a while before I said something stupid as I careened into Phase Two even faster than normal.

  Phase Two of Crush: Embarrassing attempts to impress crush.“Alright, check this out,” I said.

  Oka, Kalei, and I were out practig on the field at school. Since we couldn’t have our bloodsabers out of the void and the void entrance building even for practice, I had my practice baton out. Oka was watg my form while Kalei was staring at her phone.

  “First, I zap up the baton a bit,” I said, trying to el my stift. I visualized a lightning storm, a teique Diast taught me, and little sparks started to e through the baton.

  “Then, now picture like a huge void monster ing at me,” I said.

  Oka nodded.

  “So then I do this,” I dropped the practice baton and zapped myself, knog myself on my back. I could hear Kalei ughing immediately. Once I roperly discharged of all lightning I got back up.

  “I mean, it was close,” Oka said. “To...something.”

  “It was a lot cooler in my head,” I said, patting away the st little bits of lightning, which made my tail poof all up in statiergy. In just a few days I’d gained a much greater uanding of cats. “I was trying to do this thing ohird Raina Starlight book cover, it was a trick with her powers like that. I actually have a rare print of that oh a gold cover.” Oka told me she read the third Raina Starlight book growing up, so I figured I could really wow her doing the move Raina was doing on the cover. But Oka didn’t look too engaged by that or my rare gold cover copy. “Also, thanks fhing Kalei, really good for morale.”

  Kalei didn’t answer. She was gring past us. “Kalei?” I asked. We turned around to see a short i girl with cat ears approag us.

  “Uh, hi,” Oka said.

  I hid behind Oka as the girl oozed menace. Kalei pushed past us. “Arielle Roux,” she said.

  “Kalei Koridia, we meet at st on the campus of Rising Shards,” Roux said. “This your squad?”

  “Yeah, we’re her squad, what of it?” Oka said, crossing her arms and pouting to try and look tough or something. It was very cute.

  “Oka, just don’t,” Kalei said, waving her off. “What do you want, Roux?”

  “’t a girl pay her rival a visit? I’m here about the eGame 3, Koridia.” Roux said. “But first, I should introduce myself to your friends.”

  Roux spat on the ground.

  “Ew.” Oka said.

  “I’m building a crew,” Roux said. “You two wanna drop this loser and join us?”

  “They don’t py,” Kalei said.

  “They don’t py what? Talon?”

  “Anything,” Kalei said.

  “Oh, is this a video game thing?” I asked, using important text clues such as Roux saying this was about the eGame 3, which I learned from Kalei and Syval was the new game sole. “I mainly py Raina Starlight’s Farm Adventure.”

  Kalei scratched her brow for a long time as Roux stared bnkly at me.

  “Zeta, you exhaust me,” Kalei said.

  “What’d I say?” I asked.

  “Koridia doesn’t have the skills you think she does,” Roux said. “But I’m not really here for them, am I Koridia? I just wao let you know, the st preorder slot for Anesville’s eGame 3 is mine.”

  “No,” Kalei said. “They said they were opening reserves tomorrow!”

  “They opehem early for me,” Roux said. “And a few huhers I invited online. Say goodbye to your preorder.”

  Roux left with a gentle wave as Kalei fell to her knees on the grass. I wasn’t sure if this was like a bit or something, so Oka and I left for dinner.

  While we tried to enjoy our food, Kalei stomped bad forth o us.

  “So…do you wanna talk about that, Kalei?” Oka asked. “Who was that girl?”

  “Roux,” Kalei said through gritted teeth, then called her a bunch of swear words that startled me with the sheer amount and their rapid fire.

  “Do you mean Arielle Roux?” Oka and I turo the other end of our table, where Lillia ce was seated, with her homework and dinner arranged in a very elegant manner.

  “I think so,” I said as Kalei just kept stomping around. “You know her?”

  “Arielle Roux has been a major problem for Rising Shards acc to the faculty,” Lillia said. “The school has desperately tried to keep her in line, but she’s evaded all of them with her various minor misdemeanors and general annoyances. And she cheats at online video games. She’s what’s known as a ‘trash child’.”

  “I guess she stole Kalei’s game or something,” I said.

  “Not just a game you cretin,” Kalei said, suddenly way too close to my face. “The game system. She got the st preorder in my town. I grew up with Roux. Trash child isn’t enough to describe her. The only trash child around here should be me.”

  “Wait, is a trash child good or bad?” Oka asked.

  “If she got the st eGame 3 preorder,” Kalei mented, ign Oka pletely for her monologue. “Then all is lost. My hopes of the new geione. I had pceholder preorders in a bunch of other malls, but my parents said the only ohey’d drive me to the midnight unch of was in Anesville. Where I’m from, which I hope is obvious.”

  “Clearly,” Lillia said, sipping tea.

  “’t you pie up the day?” I asked.

  “Zeta, you dense ignoramus,” Lillia said.

  “Hey!” I said. “I grew a tail!”

  My plea for sympathy didn’t seem to nd.

  “If her game sole preorders are filled," Lillia said. "Especially during a sole’s unch, there’s very little e could be picked up so soon after. It could be months before Kalei get her hands on one.”

  Oka looked at me with a desperately fused expression, ohat I could only mirror.

  “Well, which stores did you have the other preorders at?” I asked. “If one’s in LE, maybe Stel could take us?”

  Kalei’s eyes sparkled.

  “I don’t know who Stel is, but I do have one preordered at the Twin Wolves mall. Would she really take us?” Kalei said, moving even more unfortably close to my face.

  “I mean, maybe?” I said. “Stel’s my sister; let me ask.”

  “Zeta, you may have saved my life.” Kalei said.

  “I do want to meet your sister,” Oka said. “Kalei, we could see Zeta’s house!”

  That caused a bathump. I don’t know why Oka seeing my pce would be that different that her being a roommate. But it definitely was.

  “Zeta. You have to let us sleep over,” Kalei said, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me. “We get the eGame, then we don’t have to go all the way back here to start the game. I have to py it right away. And all night.”

  “Let me ask then,” I said, swatting her hands away to stop shaking me. “You go ask Diast for permission or whatever because I had to talk to her about the cube thing.”

  Kalei was already gone by the time I fihe sentence.

  “Good luck,” Lillia said, daintily sliding a piece of paper to me. “And if Kalei is in need of more friends on her systems, my tag is ceEmpress6221. I’ve written it down there.”

  I called Stel as soon as I was ba my room.

  “Hey Zeta, thanks for calling aing me know you’re OK after suddenly growing a tail!” Stel snapped as soon as she picked up.

  “Hi Stel,” I said.

  I was getting a bit homesick, and Stel was immediately receptive to the idea of me ing home and me having friends over, softening from her initial snippy tone. And she wao see the tail.

  “Diast says it’s fine as long as we sign off on these sheets,” Kalei announced as she basically kicked the door in, then poio me. “And your sister says…?”

  “Stel says it’s fine,” I said, handing her Lillia’s game tag thing after Kalei chucked the signoff sheets at us. “She pick us up that day and drive us, and as long as I my room you spend the night.”

  “Awesome!” Kalei said.

  “That’s Lillia’s tag thing by the way,” I said. “I’m really surprised she pys games, but I guess I was being pretty judge-y, huh?”

  “I’ve never been to a midnight unch,” Oka said. “Is it dangerous?”

  “I don’t think so,” Kalei said, putting Lillia's note in her pocket. “I’ve only been to a few.”

  Kalei cpped her hands really loudly and did a like squat pose. “I’m off to call my parents, and also go to the beam chasers field te this Roux thing out because I’m too keyed up now.”

  Kalei stomped off, but like happily stomped off this time. Leaving Oka and me alone and fused.