Tammy Ch 1
Story by Cadi Carys on SoFurry
Imported from SF2 with no description.
Tammy was a brilliant child. There was never any denying that. By the time she hit kindergarten, she was already able to read, even if they were still only fairly simple children's books. But by the time she'd finished the year, she had moved on to books for kids nearly twice her age. She had a very critical mind, and she had already started learning the ways that the things in her world worked on an underlying level. Yes, she may have ended up needing glasses at a very young age, but that hardly slowed her down, allowing her to focus even more closely on the items that she was investigating.
Her parents and teachers were delighted by her inexhaustible curiosity and hunger for knowledge.
Her peers, on the other hand, were less sympathetic. By the end of Kindergarten, she'd already earned the labels of “weirdo" and “mousie." None of the girls had any desire to play with her, because... as much as she had a keen interest in many things about information and the way the world worked, she just had... no mental space to devote to any of the, to her, frivolous things that the other girls were interested in. Even the boys in the class held no interest in her... because she was a girl. And she didn't have any more mental space to spare for their interests than she had for what the other girls enjoyed.
So, for much of the time, she really just... stayed off to the side by herself, her nose buried in whatever book she was reading. Her teachers lamented, privately, that they couldn't get her to engage with the other children, even really on group projects, but they had no ability to change Tammy's nature. Through much of elementary school, her teachers resigned themselves to the fact that Tammy was just... a very solitary kid.
They never quite came to understand that part of her solitude was self-imposed. Though she gave no indication that the teasing and taunting from the other girls bothered her, she felt their words very deeply. She just didn't know how to change any of it... just as the teachers didn't know how to change her. It was one day when she was reading a book about castles that her mind latched onto an idea. Castles were safe places, where attackers couldn't get to you.
So, within her own mind, she built herself a little mental castle... somewhere to hide away from the slings and arrows of the other children's relentless teasing. She found that she was much happier once she had done that, and so she settled into her fortification. Occasionally, a barb would make it over the walls that she had built, and when it did, she simply... built another ring of fortifications further out.
On the whole, it worked very well for her through elementary school, and she wound up being so impervious to the attacks of the other kids that most of them... just kind of gave up on it because they couldn't get the reaction out of her that they had been hoping for.
But when she got to middle school, she encountered a band of girls who... did something new. Something that she'd never seen before. Something that she didn't expect. Something that her defenses simply... were of no use against. They were actually nice to her.
It was a... strange experience for Tammy. She'd been so used to the cruelty of the other children that this kindness was... something she couldn't shield herself from. And so, against Tammy's best initial efforts, these girls... penetrated her defenses. Ring after ring of self-protective armor gave way to their... it wasn't an attack... but it was an advance... and, in time, they made it to her innermost fortification, where she kept the core of herself.
And when they were there... they didn't try to tear her to shreds. If anything, they celebrated becoming that close to her. Tammy really didn't know how to handle that at first but in time... she actually came to enjoy it. And so, these girls who were something wholly new in her world... who actually made her happy... she turned her attention to them. She did everything that she could to learn them, and what made them tick.
In many ways, it became more fascinating even than what was contained in her books! They were all misfits in their own ways, and though some of them had... oddities about themselves that overlapped, none of them were truly the same. Zella was a real wild child and more than a bit of a punk rocker. Even at eleven, she dressed mostly in black, with heavy-duty combat boots being her regular footwear. Brynn was also frequently clad in black, though her take on it was more as a goth.
Avery was much more of a tomboy and shared a friendly rivalry with Zella over who was the most adventurous of the group. The two of them had many scrapes and bruises to show for their competition. Last, there was Sheri, who was the sweetest and gentlest of the four. She was an artist, and where Tammy was frequently buried in a book, Sheri was just as frequently scribbling away in her drawing notebook. Even Tammy had to giggle when she saw the sketches that she drew of the girls' antics.
What was curious was that she would even sometimes draw them as animal people, though none of them were furries, even Sheri. Avery was frequently drawn as a cute little cat, with orange striped fur when Sheri added color. Zella was also a cat, though with a lankier, taller body shape, and long, bold red hair down to her tail. At first, Tammy took Brynn as some kind of dog, but then it clicked, and she realized that she'd been drawn as a hyena, with tight-loop earrings on her ears, which suited her rather well.
Sheri, herself, was drawn as a very sweet-looking dog, frequently in the kinds of dresses that she favored. While Tammy... at first, Tammy wasn't sure what to think when Sheri drew her as a mouse, but it wasn't out of revulsion from the girl. She just explained that was simply what she saw when she looked at Tammy. And, to be fair, it was a very cute mouse, with great-big glasses, and a cheerful expression. It really made her smile. And, after all, she was born in the year of the rat.
In any event, the five of them became very close, and even though Tammy never admitted it, even to herself, they got her to... maybe not leave her fortress, but at least come out into some of the outer rings of it. Which was a step in the right direction, at least.
When they moved on to high school, the parents of the girls all agreed that they needed a school that was a bit more... specialist than the public schools that they had been in until now. Thankfully, they found an arts and sciences focused high school within easy commuting distance. Though, within the first year, the girls made things even simpler for their parents, simply making use of LA's transit system (and their free student bus passes) to get to and from school.
Their parents certainly were... anxious at this development, worrying about the safety of the girls, but they quickly came to understand that the five of them together the way they were, were more than capable of protecting one another. After the second or third time they came home laughing about how Zella or Avery had scared off a creeper, they started to relax. Though, they never heard about the time Brynn scared one off by actually coming onto him. The girls had gone and gotten her ice cream to celebrate that one.
Heck, in time, even Tammy had a chance to scare off a creeper from the group of girls, by going over in impressive detail the ways that any of them could easily overcome him with simple principles of anatomy and physics. If anything, that one had gone away looking the most shaken of any that they had encountered.
They really were growing into quite the little squad of spectacular misfits, excelling in their different fields. They roamed the city without fear, though they did at least have sense to avoid the truly dangerous areas, but they were opening Tammy up to a range of experiences that she would have never sought out herself, and that she would have never even believed that she would enjoy.
And then 2023 hit.
One evening, on their way back home from a night out on the town, another creeper came up to them on the bus, and Zella took it as her turn to deal with him. She was feeling pretty energized from the time they'd had out, having been at one of their favorite arcades, and completely dominated on the Street Fighter machine.
She stood up and went right toe-to-toe with him, glaring into his eyes. “You shit-bag. Do you seriously think that just because we're 'only a handful of girls' that you can just try to... prey on us? Where the fuck did you get that idiotic idea?!? Seriously! All of your assholes just disgust me... and I... I... just want to claw your faces off!"
As the others watched, their eyes went wide. The more worked up that Zella was getting, the more her body was changing. White fur grew from her skin, while her ears moved to the top of her head in sharp points. Her face extended outward into a short muzzle, with sharp teeth visible as she ranted at him. Her hands had lost their nails and gained pads on them, but they saw claws slide out from the tips of her fingers.
Thankfully, before she could follow through with her desire to claw his face off, his eyes went wide and he just ran for it, squeezing out of the opening doors at the middle of the bus. Zella was panting hard as she turned around to face the other girls, her long tail flicking in agitation. “Sorry... I just... I couldn't hold that one in..." When she saw the look of shock on her friends' faces she raised her eyebrow. “What? Do I have something on my face?"
She brought her paw up to touch her face and felt the muzzle there. “Shit!" She jumped back, landing against the bus window, which she spun around to look at, seeing her reflection in it. She let out a pained mrowl and scampered back from herself, only to be caught by Avery and Brynn, who held her and helped her back to where they were all sitting. “Breathe, girl, we've got you... we're still here..." Avery said, doing her best to soothe her rival.
Zella was shaking as they held her, but she was at least starting to calm down. “What... what the fuck... how..." she was mewling as they approached one of their stops. Brynn took charge at that moment, mobilizing all of the girls to get off the bus together.
“My parents are on vacation in Cancun right now. We'll have the place to ourselves for the next few days, at least," she explained as she led them from the bus stop to her parents' house. Inside, they all settled down in the living room. Brynn took a deep breath and looked at the others. “You guys need to call your parents... tell them that you're spending the night at my place tonight."
The girls all got their cellphones out, and started calling their parents. “Hi mom. Yeah, we're all spending the night at Brynn's tonight. Ugh, no, mom... there aren't any boys here. You know I'm not into that. Agh! Well, at least you don't have to worry about a girl getting me pregnant!" Zella huffed, taking a moment to calm down, “Okay, Mom. I love you, yeah? I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" The feline hung up her phone and flopped down on the couch, just staring up at the ceiling while the others had less dramatic calls with their parents.
Once Tammy had finished calling her parents, she quickly had her laptop out, typing away furiously to see if anyone else was turning into furries like Zella had. Brynn walked over and grabbed the remote for the TV and turned it on, flipping over to CNN. Tammy's typing was interrupted when they were greeted with an emergency announcement.
Zella wasn't the only one. “We are receiving reports from around the country of people turning into half-animal, half-human hybrids. The authorities have issued no statements on this occurrence, but we will keep you posted on any developments as they come. We want to stress at this time that these individuals are not dangerous and that they pose no immediate threat to those around them, so we want to urge our viewers to remain calm."
Tammy looked up from her computer, her eyes wide behind her glasses. “It's not just America... it's everywhere..." she said in amazement, turning her computer to scroll through the reports from around the world and all of the buzz going on social media.
The girls were all very quiet as Brynn turned off the TV, feeling an intense need to get away from the anchors yammering on about wild speculations on what was happening. It wasn't doing any of their nerves any good to listen to that.
She sat down in one of the armchairs, looking around the room at the other four before looking at Zella. “You're still you," she said. It wasn't a question. Far more of a statement, and it carried the gravity and certainty that Zella was really good at wielding. It was part of why the others had enjoyed her creeper takedowns so much.
Still, it got the girls to breathe, and as Zella looked around the room, she still saw the trust and love that she always did in their eyes. They still recognized her, even with the fur and the tail, and the long, vivid red hair... the kind of color you really only got with hair dye. Usually.
She couldn't hold it in, and she started to cry. A moment later, the others rose to go to her, embracing her and holding her close as they just let her pain wash over them, sharing it among themselves. It was how they handled strong emotions like this. Together, they were always stronger than they were alone. It was what had made them a force to be reckoned with.
The next day was a Saturday, at least, and they let their parents know that they were spending the weekend with Brynn. They couldn't completely keep from watching the news, as much as they tried to avoid it. They hated the name that they had given those who had changed. Transhuman. Tammy recognized the... validity of it, but even her intellectual mind understood that it was a cold... denigrating term to give them. It made them... less than human.
When they heard the announcement of the creation of Transhuman Districts, where those impacted by the changes would be moved and re-housed, but as much as they tried to come up with a plan to hide Zella away and keep them from taking her, when the school called their parents on Monday about their unexcused absences, Zella's parents came to Brynn's house and found them there.
They were shocked when they saw their daughter, and it immediately turned to anger directed at the others. “You were just... going to hide her away? You weren't going to even tell us what had happened to our daughter? She needs help. Professional help, not just what you girls can come up with!" Their anger tore into the girls as they took Zella from the house.
Not long after, Sheri, Avery, and Tammy's parents came and got them as well, all of them expressing their disappointment.
The girls watched helplessly as a dejected Zella was among the first furs brought into the district that they had built out near Bakersfield. There hadn't been anywhere in LA that had been sufficiently disused to make a district closer in.
Things were never quite the same after that. The mood at their school was far more subdued for quite a while... Zella wasn't the only kid from there who had turned. A lot of classes had... empty seats.
It didn't help that it didn't stop with that day. A few months after, Avery turned... right in the middle of one of her classes. A cute little stripy-orange furred cat. She was taken to the district. The others consoled themselves with the fact that she and Zella would at least be reunited.
Brynn made it a little more than a year before she changed into a hyena.
That left only Sheri and Tammy.
They finally talked about how the other three had changed into the animals that Sheri had drawn them as for years now, and Sheri simply could not explain it. She truly had no answers for how that was even possible. She had just drawn what her mind had seen.
But, as they were settling into their junior year, Sheri changed too, and Tammy only had a fleeting glimpse of the sweet dog that she had become before she was bundled away.
The next two years were very hard for Tammy. She rebuilt her fortress walls stronger and taller than ever, fortifying herself in an impenetrable shell. Her friends were together, at least. And she was back to the way things had been before they had snuck through her defenses.
It wasn't a great status quo to return to, but it was something familiar. Something safe.
She buried herself in her studies, not even really paying attention to the fact that she was leaving the other children in her science and engineering courses behind in the dust. Something in her brain was desperate to make sense of the world... make sense of something, and with no friends to... distract her, she gave every ounce of her attention to it.
She was nearing the end of her senior year when, as she was working on a project at home, she heard the TV report coming from the living room. “Mass disappearance from the Transhuman Districts around the world..." the reporter said.
Her eyes went wide, and she shut the door, pulling up her computer to learn more. She'd heard correctly. Overnight, the Transhuman Districts had become... ghost towns. Every single one from around the world.
That was it for Tammy.
Her brain spiraled.
She flailed about within her mind to figure out what had happened.
Had the furs just become too much of an inconvenience for the government?
Had they all been abducted?
Were any of them even alive?
She curled up into a ball of anxiety and existential dread under the covers on her bed.
Her mental fortress that she had built and rebuilt over the years was crumbling around her, leaving no protection or defense for her any longer.
All that was left after that night was her raw core with nothing to hide behind.
The next morning, that's where her parents found her when they came to check on her and found that... she had become a mouse. Just the way that Sheri had drawn her.