Oka, Kalei, Iris and I were hanging around at a little lounge area ihe auditorium building. I was the only oanding from anxious energy. I didn’t feel differe, but the spot where Ema Kari had bitten me was feeling a little tingly, which I very much did not like.

  “Zeta, rex,” Kalei said. “It’s just a little Feral Flu.”

  “Thanks, that makes me feel so much better.”

  “You’re wele,” Kalei said as she strummed on her chair. “So what’s the pn, do we just wait for it to ki then we go back to the fair?”

  “No, what we gotta do is be kinda close to the nurse’s office.” Iris said. “The starts to ki, we go there, get it verified, a a sick day pass to just be stuck up in our rooms for a day!”

  “It only sts a day?” I asked. I rubbed the bite spot on my forearm.

  “Maybe, st time I got Feral Flu it was just for a day.” Iris said.

  “Seriously, how many times exactly have you given yourself Feral Flu?” Oka asked.

  “I remember at least three,” Iris said. “And evehey sted at most it’s like three days, I think. But in that case, that’s three days off for us.”

  "You only remember at least three?" Oka asked.

  Iris shrugged.

  “Is Maia gonna be mad she’ll be stuck with you all feral?” I asked.

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” Iris said. “Maybe. I dunno. We’ll work it out.”

  “Do you feel anythi?” Kalei asked.

  “Don’t say that, that makes it sound like we just tos are something, and drugs are illegal!” I said, filing my arms around.

  “You are such a nerd, Zeta.” Kalei said.

  “I’m really hungry,” Oka said. “That’s the first thing, isn’t it?”

  “Did we even have breakfast though?” I said.

  “Oh no,” Kalei said.

  “What? What is it?” I said.

  “We didn’t have breakfast!” Kalei said.

  “Did any of us eat that banana you got us?” I asked.

  “No, Oka lost it.” Kalei said. "And it was an e."

  "Was it?" I asked.

  “I had breakfast, but I am kinda hungry,” Iris said.

  "I don't remember," I said, fighting a sudden urge to cry. "I'm so tired."

  We tio self-diagnose for a few minutes, none of us experieng anything too out of the ordinary. I got out my phone ao my trusty website, What’s Wrong With My Body.

  “OK, I’m looking at the 3WMB article on Feral Flu…” I said.

  “Oh boy, here we go,” Kalei said.

  "What?" Iris asked.

  "She does this." Oka said.

  "A lot." Kalei said.

  “It says that Feral Flu is a dition that only affect i and the i subcategories,” I read, ign Oka and Kalei. “It is transmitted via a i bite, and symptoms ma within a few minutes. Symptoms include an agitated state, heightened animal-like i features, and intense hunger. Feral Flu is not dangerous to the i afflicted with it, but those around are advised to keep back as they turn violent.”

  “Nobody asked you to read that whole thing,” Iris said. “A, you did.”

  “Hey, sometimes reading out loud helps me,” I said.

  “Uh…” Oka poi me suddenly. “Zeta…your tail is kind of…poofed.”

  I looked, and my tail was indeed poofed. I still couldn’t really trol the thing, but it generally only poofed up when someone surprised me. This felt different.

  “Does it feel weird?” Oka asked.

  “It feels kinda…different.” I said. I didn’t have good trol over my tail, and still had a general hope it’d turn out to be a stress tail and fall off. But with the Feral Flu c through me, my tail had poofed up and bee even less trolble and started swinging around.

  “Ow,” Iris said as she bit her lip. “Oh, yep, here we go.”

  She showed her teeth. Her fangs looked longer in her mouth and a bit more menag. “My fangs get bigger when I get Feral Flu. Aaaand there’s the hunger. we get food before we go to the nurse’s office?”

  “Yeah, I’m feeling like an intense need for beef,” Kalei said. “I hope they’re serving pretty much every kind of meat today.”

  “Oh man, do you think I’ll get a tail?” Oka asked. “Thea won’t be alone in tail having.”

  “3WMB didn’t say anything about tails,” I said.

  “Yes it did, it said ‘heightened animal-like i features.'” Oka said. “I better get a tail.”

  On the way to the cafeteria, I had a sudden urge to run around outside, which was definitely from the Feral Flu because I never wanted to run anywhere.

  After getting our brunch meals, loading up on as much food as we could without drawing suspi to ourselves, it was time to go to the nurse, as our symptoms were really starting to ki.

  “I’m…itchy.” Kalei said. “Am I supposed to be itchy like…all over?”

  “I don’t know,” Iris said. “I just get bigger fangs and really hungry.”

  “I actually feel very…sleepy. And hungry.” I said.

  “I’m not at all full from all that food,” Oka said. “I had like twelve breakfast sausages there. I feel like I’m starving. What do you guys think about losing an arm? Like we each get an arm from the other. No judgments. Or you each give me an arm and then that might satisfy the meat craving.”

  “We’re not too desperate as to give in to ibalism, Oka.” I said.

  “And we don’t have time to stop again,” Iris said. “It’s hard enough not wanting to climb up on the ceiling here."

  We were hustling to the nurse’s offiot wanting to get deyed anymore by hunger before we got less in trol. The idea of me going like full feral with Feral Flu was scary, but also because I had Feral Flu all up i was also aing thought.

  By the time we were in the waiting room for the nurse’s office, I was definitely feeling it. My vision, hearing, and smell felt like they were on high alert. My mind wanted me to focus ohing edible, mainly looking for any soureat. There wasn’t any outside of my friends and the staff, teically speaking. I had enough self-trol to not lu them. I don’t know if my eyes were pying trie either, but the others all definitely had more of a bestial look to them. Oka was still cute, but her fangs were out, and her brow was furrowed as she fidgeted around. They all just looked more dangerous.

  There ecial room we had to sit in when we were getting checked over. We each had to sit in a chair that magized our power blockers onto the arm rest.

  We had Nurse Ly ce look us all over. She had to take out temperatures a a sample of blood that she put into a small ister. It was just the same amount we’d need for a bloodsaber charge, just a drop or two from a finger.

  Ly plugged the isters into a small mae that whirred, adding some substao the blood that tur into a lighter shade of red.

  “Yep, definitely Feral Flu,” Ly said.

  I expected her to interrogate us on how we got it, or more particurly why we suddenly had it during the Fang Fair, but she didn’t. She just clicked around on her wristband and opened up the nurse’s iory, marking down that she ordered four packages of something with a plicated ame.

  “You sure get Feral Flu a lot,” Nurse Ly said to Iris as she finished getting her blood. Iris ughed nervously.

  “Ouch,” Iris said. “I bit my lip a little there.”

  “You know the drill,” Ly said. “Lock your room down, stay away from Oloro, et cetera.”

  “Yep!” Iris said. “ I go, then?”

  “Wait until I get a hold of some hall monitors for everyone,” Ly said.

  Ly moved over to us.

  “And you three…” Nurse Ly said. She sed our wristbands and looked through our info. “Oh, you three are roommates?”

  “Y-yeah?” Oka said.

  “Is it a problem?” I asked.

  “No, just ahing to deal with,” Nurse Ly said. “Alright, one of you o stay here until I find you a suitable room.”

  “Huh?” I asked.

  “Three i with Feral Flu ’t stay in the same room for the duration of the dition,” Nurse Ly expined. “Too much of a ce for injury, property destru, that sort of thing.”

  The three of us looked at each other.

  “Well, who stays behind?” Kalei said.

  I knew what I really wanted; I’d be fiaying with either but if I had to pie to weather the Feral Flu storm with, it’d be Oka. I didn’t want to just say that, though.

  “Kalei, remember that graphing calcutor ihat I took the heat for?” Oka asked. “I’m cashing in that favor.”

  “And you’ll never speak of said graphing calcutor i again?” Kalei asked.

  “That was the deal,” Oka said.

  “I’ll stay behind,” Kalei said eagerly.

  “Wonderful,” Ly said. “Now if we just get some hall monitors to escort you already.”

  We had to stay in the Feral Flu room food twenty minutes before we finally got a hall monitor.

  “Fortunately, the hall monitor in your wing is free right now,” Nurse Ly said.

  “Great,” I blurted out the sed Naomi Ratuna stepped into the room. I was hoping that somehow, despite being both a prefed general pain, Naomi would somehow not be the hall monitor that would guide us back. She did not look amused by my ent.

  “I know you may not be entirely in trol of your as because of the Feral Flu,” Naomi said. “But I don't have the flu, so I am entirely in trol. And if you sh out towards me, I will knock you out.”

  I already thought Naomi was scary, but her directly threatening us with violenly increased that fear.

  “I’ll have your advisors stop by with care packages that’ll help you through.” Ly said.

  “Hey, so, this might be a problem.” Kalei said, holding her right hand up, whiow had cws.