Emerald wiped away the tears as she headed down the hallway to ther locker. She bumped into some 7th grader, who stared at her.

   "Who's that?" She asked her friend.

   "That's that freak, with the freaky name."

   "Ohh, I remember her. She won't let anyone call her Emma, or Emmy, just Emerald."

  "What a stupid name."

   "I know!"

   "She's, like, the dumbest kid in school."

   "And that hairstyle? I mean, come on!"

   "What's her name again? Esmeralda?"

   "Emerald. Wacky name, huh?"

   "Emerald-"

   "Emerald-"

Emerald, Emerald, EMERALD! She reached her locker door and opened it with force. So help me, she thought, if I hear that name one more time...

   "Emerald?"

   "What?" Emerald said sharply, and spun around.

Oh. My. God.

   There was Harry Everbeck, the hottest guy in eighth grade, and he was standing right next to her. Oh. My. God.

  "Hey, so, I was wondering if you wanna catch a movie this Friday or something."

A movie? With Harry?

"Oh...that would be awesome." Emerald said, showing her sweetest smile. She couldn't figure out why he was even talking to her, or why he wasn't paying any attention to Kate, his almost girlfriend.

   "Cool," he said, and was about to say something else when his guy friends came over and dragged him away. Wiping away the last of her tears, Emerald walked to the bus stop where she met her friend, Cherry.

   "Hey, girl," Cherry said, and studied Emerald's face. "Why have you been crying?"

   "How can you tell?" Emerald asked, checking her reflection in a near-by puddle from last nights rain. She couldn't see any tears.

   "You're eyes and nose always gets red after you're done sobbing." Cherry confirmed. "C'mon. You can tell me on the bus."

We walked in, and as we passed the bus driver, I got the feeling he was watching us. I edged past him warily, and we walked to the very back seat.

   "You know I'm not good at History," Emerald started. "especially since I live in an alley, with no grampa to say "When I was a boy..." and that kind of stuff."

   "You know you can-" Cherry started, but Emerald cut her off.

   "We talked about this, I'm not living with you. I have a perfectly good alley to live in, with my friends Bonnie, Alex, Clyde, Madison, and-" She blushed. "-Harry."

   Cherry, being a very good friend, pretended not to notice. "Well, what happened?"

   "Miss Aginna kept telling me how dumb and stupid I am, just because I got a C-. Then the whole class was making fun of me..."  Emerald was really crying now. She put her head in her arms. Cherry hugged her, and said,

   "It's okay. They may think you're a freak just because you can talk to and understand cats, but I think that's a great power. "

   Emerald looked up. "Really?"

   "Really," Cherry said. "You're the best friend anyone could ever have, that's why you're mine."

   Emerald smiled now. "Thanks, Cherr-"

BOOM!

   The bus exploded. Emerald suddenly found herself in a pile of ruckage, and picked herself up on weak knees. "Cherry what just happened? Cherry?"

   Emerald looked over, and saw her collapsed with part of the bus's roof ontop of her.

   "No!" Emerald screamed, and leaped towards her. She was held back by someone.

   The bus driver.

   "No!" Emerald screamed again. "No! Let me go! I have to help her!"

   "It's to late," The driver said, and to Emerald's horror, he smiled. "She's dead. Just like you're gonna be."

   All Emerald heard was 'she's dead.' She looked over at Cherry's body, and whispered. "Cherry...dead." Something in the back of her head clicked. "And...YOU KILLED HER!"

   " 'As right, I did." He smiled again, and grabbed her wrists. "Come along now, pretty girl, masta wants to talk tuh yah."

   "No!"  Emerald leaped away, and then saw a black cat directly in front of her. She stared at it, not even wondering about it, and begged.

   Help me!

   It opened it's mouth in a silent meow, almost like it was yawning, and suddenly Emerald was shrinking, her hair was shooting backwards into her head, she was sprouting fur, something was growing out of her spine...

It was a wonderful, pleasant feeling, yet exciting,, like someone baking cookies while watching fireworks. Then, all too soon, it stopped. She raised her hand and looked at it-no, it wasn't a hand anymore.

It was a paw.

A cat's paw.

She had turned into a cat.

How was that possible?

   Emerald had almost forgotten about the bus driver-he apparently, had been in shock too, but had gotten over it. He lunged at her, and she leaped away, faster then she had ever been able to in her life.

It was wonderful to be a cat!

   Emerald reached her alley, and tried to figure out how to change back. She remembered that black cat...the silent meow...

She opened her mouth, and meowed, without any noise, muffling the sound in the back of her throat.

   He tail disapeared, as did her fur, and her clothes reapeared on her. Emerald was human once more. Trembling, she walked over to her makeshift bed of blankets and a few pillows, and lay down. So many things had happened at once.

Cherry had died.

Emerald was now a cat.

But why?

   She fell asleep, thinking about how when she woke up she was going to find out more about her past, present, and...future.

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