“I’m going with mouse,” I said.
Jake nodded. “Smart move. No one likes a… You know.”
I knew. Rat. I winced at just the thought of it. I looked back at Beth. She wasn’t looking at me anymore. She was looking off toward the obstacle course. A sudden pang of worry hit me. What if Beth didn’t like me anymore? What if Beth couldn’t get over my change?
I tried to urge my body to change back. I shook myself, then closed my eyes and concentrated. Nothing seemed to happen. I wasn’t in control of the change yet. Some people never learned to control it and changed at the oddest times, such as when they were asleep or when the moon was full in the sky. Some of us became more animal than human and couldn’t even live with normal people. I hoped for my sake I wasn’t going to grow up to become one of the wild ones.
I opened my eyes again and caught Beth staring at the long claws that curved over the ends of each of my toes. She looked away quickly and rubbed her face. I licked my teeth. My teeth were strangely sharp and my tongue was raspy, long and pink. She was definitely having a hard time with this. How could I blame her?
“Line up!” came the command from Urdo. It was time for the final team to team handshake. It was a bit awkward to walk on my hind legs in my rodent body, but I forced myself to do it. I wanted to look as human as possible.
As we went through the line, the kids on the other team whispered things to me as they slapped my hand.
“Good move,” said one.
“Congrats on the change,” said another, “It was about time.”
Danny came up and smiled at me. He still had a Rottweiler’s fangs. “All you did was cheat worse than I did. I should have known you’d be a rat.”
“Sniffed any good butts lately?” I muttered back to him.
Thomas came next. “Dogs eat rats, you know,” he said.
“I heard your parents had you fixed,” I said to him. “That’s probably why you tanked back there on the course.”
I was pleased to note that both of them had stopped grinning after talking to me. A hand pushed me lightly from behind. It was Beth. “Did you have to go and make it worse? I swear, Connor, if you see a smoking pile of wood you like to throw gasoline on it.”
I pouted. At least, I think that’s what my face did. What does a pouting rodent look like? I’d have to look in a mirror later to find out. Secretly, I was pleased that Beth was still talking to me. Maybe she could get over this little matter of my smelling like a hamster cage. I thought about what she said as we lined up back at the edge of the tumbling mats. She was right of course, my mouth and my tricks were fun, but they always got me into trouble.
What had Urdo called me? The trickster. Born under the Sign of the Thief. Well, I’d never stolen anything, but I guess turning into a rodent shouldn’t have been a surprise.
As she walked along, inspecting us, Urdo paused in front of Danny, and then me. She gave us each an appraising up-down look. She seemed pleased. I thought to myself that she would soon be presenting us to Vater. As the school principal, I supposed our performance would reflect upon her.
“The purpose of the Hussades is to train you for your future,” she said seriously. She always said everything seriously. “Some of you have made complaints concerning the bending of certain rules. Imaginative thinking is a survival skill. It was always been rewarded in this game-and in life.”
It was in the bathroom that I finally changed back. Maybe it was because it was a private place. Or maybe it was because I really didn’t want to relieve myself as a giant rodent. That was just too much for my first day out.
When I came out of the restroom Jake grinned at me. He had lost his toad form right after the race. He looked as relieved as I felt.
“You did it buddy, you’re no mundane, everyone knows that now.”
“And everyone’s happy except for Beth.”
Jake raised his eyebrows at me. “Ahh,” he said. “So that’s how it is.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing. I hope it works out.”
I felt my face turn a shade redder, but for once kept quiet. I decided to change the subject. “Can you believe we won?”
“Frankly, I almost can’t. My folks will be very happy. I need to thank you and Beth for helping me out. I don’t feel so bad about being a toad now. I can work with it.”
I grinned at him. “That’s really Beth’s doing. She’s great, isn’t she?”
He nodded. “I really hope she sticks with us. She’s great for the team. If she can get over our crazy world and Sarah can get over the competition, we will all be better off to have her.”
“But if she’s a mundane…” I worried. I told him about Urdo and our little trip through the Forever Room and across the roof.
“So that’s why she made you team captain!” said Jake. He gave a long low humming sound. “She wanted to see what you could do.”
“I don’t want to see Beth kicked out of our town.”
“She’s not going anywhere,” said Jake confidently. “There is something special about that girl. Just like Urdo said about both of you.”
“Speaking about Urdo, she’s quite a mystery,” I said.
“She sure is.”
“I’ve been thinking about the Forever Room and the things we saw up there. Any chance you would like to check them out?”
He eyed me with a sidelong glance. Finally he sighed. “I swear if you weren’t my friend I would lead a very boring life.”
I grinned at him. “Okay. We go on recon tonight after lights out.”
Jake shook his head, but I knew he would come.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The worst everyday part of a kid’s life is knowing people are talking about you. Whispering. You can’t hear what they are saying, but you know it can’t be good. Why else would they whisper? You look at them and they just stop talking and stare back for a moment, or look away, avoiding your eyes.
I’d finally changed and everyone had to talk about it. I’d won the Hussades match my first time out as a team captain and everyone had to talk about that, too. Then there was the little matter of whether my change mid-course was a cheat or not. I think if Danny hadn’t done it before I did, I would forever be called a cheat. But how could they say that now, after Danny had bent the rules first?
“Don’t let it get to you,” said Sarah in my ear. “You’ve surprised them. They had you down as a loser and now you look like a winner and they are having a hard time swallowing that.”
She smiled at me. It seemed to me that since I’d changed, since I’d shown I had a power, she was friendlier than ever. I wondered if that meant she felt I was okay now, that I wasn’t someone to feel sorry for. I shook my head. I had to stop thinking all these bad thoughts.
I smiled back at Sarah. “Thanks for all your help today, Sarah. You scored the winning run.”
She shook her head. “You opened that last door. You had the plan, you were the leader. And your plan worked.”
My smile faded just slightly, but I didn’t think she noticed. My plan had been to tell them I had a plan so they had something to believe in. I think it worked, that part at least. They had all done their best. Perhaps, if they hadn’t believed in me they would have just given up and despite my best efforts we would have lost anyway.
After dinner we were sent to the dormitory wing of the mansion, three floors of small bedrooms and narrow corridors. I’d half-expected to meet Vater that night at dinner, but he didn’t show up. They had the big throne-like carved oak chair at the far end of the highest table set up for him, but it had remained empty all evening. They even brought out the birthday cake, just as they did every year, and set it before the empty chair. This whole thing set me to thinking. I had so many questions I longed to ask, but somehow you knew you weren’t supposed to ask questions about Vater.