It's graduation day and Bianca just wants to go up on stage, grab her diploma, and then hang out with her friends. But it turns out that's a big ask and nothing goes according to plan. In fact, what Bianca finds when she enters the band room to wait for the ceremony shocks her to her core. And she is forced to think on her feet while trying not to succumb to the hot seething chaos around her.


The Tails of Graduation - Part 7
by Zmeydros
(edited by Tiliquain and Journeymanic)

Violet's basement room was a universe unto itself. Crystal and Violet had painted nebulas on her midnight blue walls freshman year.  Violet's rock and mineral collection was arranged by color making a rainbow that traversed the top of her dresser and waist-high black wooden bookshelves. Our caps and gowns were hanging in Violet's walk-in closet while our clothes were strewn across Violet's dark brown carpet.

Crystal, Violet and I were loosely piled on Violet's king-sized bed and panting while each other's cum seeped out of our pussies onto her dark red satin sheets. My scaly hip was pressed up against Violet's furry one while Crystal's scaly legs were laying across mine and Violet's. My right hand was groping Violet's lowest pair of breasts making her squeak and fidget while my left hand was reaching all the way over to Crystal's rack. 

Eventually, Crystal grabbed my hand and put it on her balls saying, "Gimme another grope before we put our caps and gowns back on."

At first, I just hefted Crystal's lime-sized balls, but then I reached under them and rubbed at her cum-slicked pussy. As she moaned and shook her hips, I said, "Maybe we have time for one more?"

Pulling my hand away, Crystal said, "Nope, not gonna risk being late."

Violet grabbed the two inches of my prick that had come out while I was fondling Crystal and said, "Please? We won't knot anyone this time."

Sitting up, Crystal said, "I've been late for every important event of my life. My whole family's expecting me to fuck this up."

I blinked wondering whether I was dreaming. "Whoa, I never thought I'd see the day you became the adult amongst us."

Crystal grabbed the towel we'd set out for cleanup and wiped herself so she wouldn't drip on the carpet. "It took a lot of convincing for them to let me get ready at Violet's house. Just this once, I want to prove them wrong."

Violet asked, "Is this about what your uncle said?" Violet asked.

"Maybe?" Crystal shrugged. She was looking a bit rounder in the waist, but I didn't want to say anything about it. The extra weight was oddly concentrated in her abdomen, but it didn't look bad by any means.

"What did your uncle say?" I asked as I stopped messing with Violet's tits.

Frowning, Crystal said, "He told me if I got into law school, he'd eat his hat."

"Is he getting paid to be an asshole?" I asked. "Has he ever said anything encouraging?"

"When I spooked him once, he said I should join the special forces." The crooked expression on Crystal's face was somewhere between amusement and annoyance, which pretty much summed up her feelings about her family. They were warm people with a good sense of humor, but they were some of the least open-minded people I'd ever met.

"That's not exactly a compliment," I sat up and grabbed the cleanup towel from Crystal.

"Nope, but I'll take it." Crystal hopped off the bed.

Violet said, "I guess we've had enough sex for now."

Crystal laughed. "It better be, Bianca got here an hour and a half ago."

Violet grabbed the towel from me saying, "Oh? It's been that long already?" 

"Yup! Now let's get showered and dressed and haul our asses to the ceremony. I wanna be early." Crystal motioned for us to follow her into the bathroom.

Violet's shower wasn't quite big enough for the three of us, but we didn't care. We carefully worked to wash and grope each other showing affection while avoiding riling each other up too much.  To my surprise, we ended up clean and without post-shower boners.

As I put my bra on, Crystal asked. "Did you ever get that scholarship video done?"

"Yep, Linnette helped me with the final edits and I just barely made the deadline." I was putting on my tall extra large women's blouse. Ever since my latest transformation at Linnette's, I'd been unable to wear any of my previous clothes. Shopping at the mosaic store in the outlet mall had been a necessity since I was too tall for my dad's clothing and his pants didn't have tail holes.

"I bet you two were working on it while she was knotted to you. You said her knot lasts like, an hour?" Crystal threaded her tail through the tail hole in her pink skirt. We'd all gone to the mosaic clothing store together.

Violet and I were quiet as we focused on getting our tails through our tail holes. Once I had my herm-friendly panties on, I said, "Yes, okay. I worked on scholarships while knotted to Linnette. Can we please not talk about things that'll give me a boner?" The outline of my equine cock head was clear in my panties and both of them were staring at it making things worse.

"Fine. How many scholarships do you have left?" Crystal put on her bra.

"Nine that I found for Tail Virus victims." My jeans hugged my thighs and buttocks, which I liked, but I was still a bit embarrassed about how they clearly outlined my bulge Crystal had encouraged me to get a couple pairs that flaunted how hung I was. Though I had mixed feelings about it, I did like the appreciative looks I was getting from other girls, and some guys.

"Whoa, you found even more than I did," Violet marveled as she put on her teal blue skirt, which had now been modified for her tail.

"I'm gonna send you guys six of them. They're for anyone who's become a mosaic," I said.

"Hey, Bianca, can you help me apply for some scholarships? I have no idea what I'm doing," Crystal said as she picked up her purse. "I don't want to use too much of my parent's money because I don't like the strings they attach to their help."

"Sure, after we graduate I've got nothing going on," I smiled.

"I'll help you too, love," Violet said, putting on a black blouse that clung to her front and showed of her canine rack. Crystal had picked that blouse out, and though Violet was always a bit nervous going out in it, she was quite pleased with the attention she got.

"Aww, thanks!" Crystal said, bouncing on the balls of her alligator feet. "I'm gonna need all the help I can get."

"You're actually pretty good at proofreading, I think you'll be fine," I said.

"But when I stare at a blank page, it stays blank," Crystal shrugged.

"I could just tape you answering the questions the applications ask and then you could use your answers to help you figure out what to write," I offered.

"Huh, that's actually a really good idea!" Crystal made for the door to the stairwell and opened it. "Let's get on the road."

"Hey! Wait!" I called after her. "What about your cap and gown?"

"Oh, right!" Dashing over to Violet's closet, she draped our gowns over her arm and tossed us our caps. "I figure wearing them in the car is just going to be annoying." She made for the door again.

"Yeah, the fabric looks smooth, but it's too rough." Violet scrunched her face.

Curling my lip at the gowns Crystal was carrying while following close behind her, I asked, "Why did they have go with bright tangerine as the main color? Black with tangerine accents would have looked so much better."

"Yeah, you think they'd use the at home colors instead of the road colors." Violet said as she closed the door to her room.

"Home colors?" I was standing just outside the ancient emerald-colored screen door watching Violet come up the stairs.

"Back in the 1950's there wasn't any color TV, so the home team always wore dark colors and the visiting team always wore a light-colored version of their uniform. It's a tradition that has stuck around ever since."

As she reached the top of the stairs, I opened the screen door for her. "Wait, do you like sports?"

Crystal giggled. "It wasn't because she was interested in sports, it's because Violet has a huge ladyboner for Perlah's older sister."

Violet made a sheepish expression as I pulled my keys out of my purse and said, "Reyna?"

Crystal nodded. "Yup!"

"She is pretty awesome, though I like Perlah more." I said as I unlocked the car and got in.

Getting in the back seat with Crystal, Violet said, "Oh, I like Perlah too, but she's straight and Reyna is, uhh..."

"A bit like me, isn't she? Confident and stuff?" Crystal asked.

Violet said, "Yeah, but she's nicer."

"Hey, you bitch! I'm plenty nice!" Crystal said.

"Umm, Crystal, that's not what a nice person would say," I said as I pulled out of Violet's driveway.

"I don't like you because you're nice, I like you because you're honest and playful and good at...stuff," Violet said.

"You mean sex, right?" Crystal lifted an eyebrow.

Violet blushed. "Well, not only that. You're really good at picking locks and woodworking and decorating Christmas cookies."

"Huh, I guess I am good at decorating Christmas cookies." Crystal was deep in thought as she catalogued yet another thing should brag about.

"So, Reyna's a lesbian?" I asked turning onto main street.

"Yeah, she's the girl that got thrown off the track team after she was caught kissing another girl and then had to sue the school to get back on it," Violet said.

"That was her? She's tenacious!" I said waiting at a stoplight. This part of town was dominated by fast food restaurants and a ShopKo.

"Yeah, she's good people," Crystal agreed.

I caught a glimpse of Violet's muzzle in my rear view mirror and sighed. "I need to get me a muzzle like yours. Mine's too short, I look like a frog."

Putting her hand on my shoulder, Violet said, "You don't look like a frog, you look like Mona Lisa from the original Ninja Turtles."

"I'm not sure that's an improvement." I grimaced.

"Hey! She was hot!" Violet protested. 

"She was your first crush, wasn't she?" Crystal observed.

"Maybe," Violet said.

"I can see that, she did go around naked all the time and her tail was nice and thick," I said as I turned onto the highway. 

"Oh ho! So you like thick tails now?" Crystal teased.

"Well, not when I have to put the car seat further back and use a pillow above my tail so I can rest my back against something without smooshing it. Like, they really should just put holes in the backs of car seats. There's lots of mosaics with tails. Like, Crystal, you're having to sit way forward on your seat. That's probably not safe." I'd started speeding while I was ranting, so I slowed down a bit.

"There's custom auto shops where you can get that sort of stuff done, but it's a bit pricey," Crystal said.

"Linnette's going to have to straight up buy a new car," I said.

"Are you gonna pick her up after dropping us off?" Crystal asked.

"Yuuuup," I nodded.

"At least she lives close," Violet said.

"Yeah!" I smiled. "Anyway, I'm starting to wonder if my muzzle's gonna stay like this."

"Probably not?" Violet thought for a moment. "The Tail Virus can take up to a month to fully transform people. I'm thinking I'll have a nice husky muzzle and get fur everywhere before it's done with me."

"I'd like scales everywhere and a nice muzzle so I look like a proper dragon," I said as I got off an exit. It was just bland farmland with little groves of trees breaking it up. There weren't even very many hills to make things interesting. "Did Nicole try anything the day before yesterday? I assume no news is good news."

"Nope, it would've been real assholic, even for her, trying to pull something when all the teachers were frantically trying to get all their grades submitted," Crystal said.

"Yeah, sorry I wasn't able to stay," I said as I turned into our school's parking lot.

Crystal shrugged, "Ehh, it's fine, Linnette has it harder than any of us. I'm glad you're helping her out."

"Yeah! She's a sweetheart," Violet said.

"Yes, she is the sweetest." I pulled up to the front of the school and let them out. "See you soon!"

"We'll wait in the cafeteria," Violet said as Crystal grabbed our gowns and hats and then closed the door.

"Okay!" I said and then pulled forward so other people could use the drop off zone. Then I pulled out my phone and called Linnette. 

"Hey, Bianca!" Linnette sounded quite peppy.

"Just calling to let you know I'm on my way and to ask if you need me to pick anything up before I get there," I said.

"No need! Since I'm a taur, I can use the handicap bus service. It's like a taxi for people who have mobility issues," she said.

I blinked. "We have a thing like that?"

"Yeah! I was looking up getting an Uber there, since I hadn't heard from you and figured you were busy, and found that I don't even need one." The engine of the bus was making a soft roar on her end.

"So, you'll be here soon?" I asked.

"Yep!" she said. "This bus is shared with the next town over, so availability is a bit spotty, but I got lucky this time."

"Well, don't be afraid to ask me for a ride if you ever need one, okay?"

"Oh, I'll definitely ask if I need help." She paused for a moment. "Actually, I'd like help selling my old car. We can talk about that later, though, I should probably stop subjecting people to our conversation."

"Okay! Talk to you later!" I said.

"Bye!" She hung up.

I found a parking space and walked up to the boring beige and grey rectangular facade of our school. I'd seen high schools with ritzy entrances, but ours wasn't one of them. Only thing special about it was a shelter out front for people to keep people out of the elements when they were waiting for their rides. It jutted out from above the front door and had a slight slant to it to make sure rain didn't pool on it. The shelter was one crooked thing on a building that was otherwise all perfect rectangles and people said the most hilarious things when seeing it for the first time. My favorites were some variation of, "Did they put that on crooked?"

Clumps of glaringly-orange-robed students were all throughout the entrance chatting with their fancilly-clothed families. Crystal and Violet were talking to Perlah and Reyna right near the entrance. Perlah's upturned nose and big eyes made her so damn cute. The right side of her body was harder for her to sense and control due to a car accident, so her sister, Reyna, was with her ready to help her out with anything she needed. Reyna did this for most of Perlah's important life events so Perlah didn't have to deal with having her parents or an aide around. Reyna, in true elder sister fashion, was dressed like a badass. Her military-green light summer coat went well with her warm-toned tawny skin and the blue highlight in her black hair.

Violet was hiding a massive tent in her gown with her purse, her tail wagging softly whenever Reyna looked at her. I hoped Violet's higher libido would give her the courage to finally make a move on Reyna before Reyna headed back to college.

"No, it's not weird at all, I think you look stunning as a husky," Reyna said.

Violet's ears perked up and her tail went into overdrive. I could smell her excitement as I walked up to join their conversation.

"Only weird part is gonna be how people won't recognize you at first and all your family photos now look like they were taken of a different person--Bianca, is that you?!" Perlah carefully managed her center of gravity as she reached out to give me a hug.

Giving Perlah a nice big hug, I said, "What gave me away?"

"Your smile," Perlah said. My bust was above the top of her head and she felt tiny.

"What, really?" I let her go and took a step back.

She giggled. "Oh God! Look at your ears! One's flopped down and the other is straight up."

I blushed as everyone looked at my ear-enhanced-expression. Reyna's expression became withdrawn, like she was wondering how the muscles that moved my ears were arranged.

"Crystal and Violet told me what happened to you, so I made an educated guess," Perlah explained. She, and her sister, loved to tease me a bit like Crystal did and it made conversations with them so much fun. I literally had no idea what was going to happen half the time.

"Ah, okay. I wish we had some classes together like last semester." I narrowed my eyes at her. "You and your fetish for AP STEM courses."

Reyna broke in with, "Well, you can't become a technomage by taking film studies courses, can you?"

"I guess I'll have to shelve my plans for a doomsday device, then." I frowned melodramatically.

"Your ears are drooping...oh, it's so adorable!" Perlah reached into her purse with her left hand and pulled out her phone. "Stay like that for just one second."

I made my frown worse and she had to stifle her giggling to get a stable shot.

Reyna said, "Your ears are heavier and longer than Violet's. They droop a lot more when you let them fall."

"Oh? I haven't really thought about them much," I said.

"I'd be pretty preoccupied too if I grew a knotted horsecock." Perlah grinned.

"Hey! You stole my line, sis!" Reyna complained.

"It was low-hanging fruit!" Perlah shot back.

"Like Bianca's balls!" Crystal blurted out.

Perlah and Crystal did a fist bump as Reyna chuckled and Violet bit her lip.

"Crystal!" I glared at her, wondering how long they'd all been talking about my cock before I got there. Being under the spotlight in this way got me wet and Crystal knew it!

"What? It was relevant to the conversation!" Crystal lied.

"You're a bad influence." My sheath was tingling and I was blushing.

She made an angelic face. "That's why you keep me around, isn't it?"

"Sure," I said. "We need everyone talking about my dick, apparently."

"Because your dick is lit," Crystal said definitively.

Violet had reached critical awkward conversation levels and changed the subject with, "So, Perlah, did you get your AP test results back yet?"

We chatted a bit about how we did in our classes. None of us really had anything to worry about and I got a bit bored because I ended up talking about the scholarships I was applying for yet again. Then Violet spotted her parents waving at her. "Ahh, my parents found me. I should probably go chat with them."

Grabbing Violet's hand, Crystal said, "I'll come with."

"Bye!" Perlah and Reyna said.

"See you in the cafeteria soon," I said.

"Yep!" Crystal said before she and bid us farewell.

"I should find my parents too," I said. "It's getting close to when we need to show up at the band room."

We said our goodbyes and then I walked up to my parents who were across the hall. Dad's curly hair was as wild as ever and Mom's business suit looked as sharp as ever. Someday, I'd have to make a short film about them because they contrasted each other so well and yet they got along. Mom said, "Where's your cap and gown?"

"Crystal has them," I said.

"Oh good," she reached out and adjusted my bangs.

I let her fuss over me since I knew she was nervous and fixing my hair was an outlet for her nervousness about me finally graduating. Dad gave me a one-armed hug saying, "So proud of you."

Looking down at him was never going to feel normal. Six and a half feet was quite the vantage point to see the world from: everyone looked short. I got a silly impulse and patted Dad's head the same way he used to do to me. "I'm proud of you too, champ."

Mom burst out laughing as Dad jerked his head upward to look me in the eye. "Hey! Just because you're taller doesn't mean you get to start treating me like a kid!"

"I don't know, you're the one that begged me and Mom to get a puppy," I chided.

He winced and Mom laughed a bit more.

Giving Dad a big hug, I said, "Thanks for not treating me like a freak. I don't know what I would've done if you guys weren't so supportive."

"I'm just glad you stopped wearing my clothes, you were starting to stretch them out," Dad said as I let go of him.

"What he means to say is 'you're welcome,'" Mom corrected.

"Love you, champ!" Dad reached up to give me a pat on the back.

I put my head in my hands. "Oh God, I just resurrected that term of endearment, didn't I?"

"I'd forgotten I used to call you that, thanks for the reminder." Dad beamed.

"Well, I guess it's not all that bad, Crystal calls me that from time to time. I wonder if she got it from her dad. Is it part of some universal dad language?" I asked.

Mom said, "You know all those vapid family movies we didn't force you to watch when you were young? Well, I'm pretty sure that's where young dads get it from."

"Young dads...Makes them sound like their own species," I mused while playing with the end of my tail. 

"Wrong, we're Martians." Dad broke out his perfect perfect Arnold Shwarzenegger impression, "We came to earth to father your children."

Mom put her head in her hands as Dad and I cackled like five year olds.

Still playing with the end of my tail, I said, "You know, I like having a tail. I thought it'd be knocking everything over with it, but it's actually been more useful than clumsy."

Staring intently at my tail, Mom tilted her head lost in thought. "It does seem useful. Are the scales on the underside rougher than the ones on top?"

"Not really, but they do have a different texture. You want to touch it?" I unwrapped it from my fingers.

"Yes, actually." She reached toward my tail. It was always hard to guess with her and touch, but curiosity was one of her strongest traits.

I put my tail in her hands saying, "Weirdly smooth, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it feels like that ball python we pet at the Reptile Gardens." She felt along it until I wrapped the slender tip around her pinky. "Okay, now you're just making me jealous."

"Oh?" I asked.

"Yeah! Who wouldn't be? This morning, when you cleared the table after breakfast, you slipped your tail through all the handles on the coffee mugs without even thinking about it. Whole table cleared in one trip to the dishwasher. And since then, I've thought of a whole slew of uses for a dexterous tail like yours." She let go.

I sighed. "I wish there was a way to give people the Tail Virus and know what the result would be. Even though Linnette, Violet, Crystal, and I all got infected with the same group of strains, we all turned out so different."

In that moment, both my parents put something  together and looked at each other silently trying to decide who should go first. Then Dad spoke up, "Did you get infected by Linnette? 

Not wanting to tell a flat lie, I said, "The Tail Virus is very contagious and it was an accident."

Dad stroked his chin with the back of his hand. "You two have always seemed very close. Closer than you are with any of your other friends. But you have been at her house more than ours lately. What's up with that?"

I got a nervous shiver up my spine. Not wanting them to go any further down that trail, I said, "Linnette has been helping me with my scholarship applications. She knows a lot about film history and stuff." It came out faster than I wanted to, but since I was just selecting parts of the truth to tell them, I wasn't having the problem where I froze up from outright lying.

Mom looked at me in that analytical way that always made me feel like a was an ant under a magnifying glass and then leaned in and spoke quietly, "Bianca, you should have told us."

I had no idea what Mom was going to do about Linnette and it terrified me beyond belief. "If the Tail Virus hadn't happened, we wouldn't have done anything." I put my hands in front of myself feeling like I was going to collapse into a crying ball right there. "Please, please don't tell anyone. We didn't mean to get into this situation and it's not Linnette's fault. I was the one that pushed it." I was visibly shaking.

Dad's complexion had blanched and he was gaping like someone had stepped on his toe. But Mom was stalwart as ever as she calculated her best move. "When you say accident, you mean neither of you could have expected it, right?"

"Yes!" I said.

"And you promise me that this was your choice, that you weren't being manipulated?" Mom put her hand on my chin forcing me to bear the full weight of her gaze.

"Yes," I cringed wondering what was going to come next.

"Are you two planning to have a spousal relationship after you graduate?" Mom asked.

"No, we think the circumstances of how we met are problematic and our age gap is larger than we're comfortable with," I said.

Dad took a deep breath. "Okay, that's a relief."

"Don't pass this off just yet, hon. They may decide to get together in the future." She turned to me. "If a couple years pass and you have experienced a few more relationships and then go back to Linnette, I would be far less concerned. It would still be hard for me to live with, but I'm willing to try."

Mom was going too far again. I'd been scared at first, but now I was getting annoyed. She was just loading her expectations on top of me without asking me whether I wanted them. I clenched my jaw. My parents trusted me and rarely had talks with me like this. I felt like I was eight years old again and they were judging me on making a decision I wasn't even fully happy with. My relationship with Linnette was something that would haunt us for the rest of our lives. Something that everyone would be offering their opinions on if they found out. I hoped that the good outweighed the bad, but I didn't know whether it did.

"I can't even go there yet. She's a teacher for Christ's sake!" Dad said.

"Harold! Keep your voice down!" Mom scolded.

I held up my hands to defend myself, "No, she's not, she has never graded anything of mine or been in charge of me." This was the absolute wrong time and place for this conversation. I was getting an adrenaline surge and felt like I'd just drunk a whole pitcher of coffee.

"Why didn't you tell us you were a lesbian? We could have supported you so much more and maybe helped you find an outlet that wasn't someone who would get fired for...I can't even say it." Dad's bottom lip was quivering.

"I didn't know for sure until a week ago!" I said with no idea how to process what just happened, but I was feeling incredibly irritated. They were poking at things that were already causing me anxiety and making it even worse. And here I was trying to calm my own parents down when I should have been freeing Violet and Crystal up so we could get ready for the ceremony. Sometimes, they cared about me too much.

"Okay, I'm glad that you weren't hiding your orientation from us. I would feel like a terrible parent if you didn't feel safe talking to us about that." Dad stretched his neck to try and loosen up. He'd been looking like he was about to implode from all the tension. "I still can't understand why you'd do something like this. You're normally so conscientious."

My parents glanced toward the front door as Linnette entered. Both of them looked like they wanted to talk to her and Dad started raising his hand to try and get her attention. The tension in my shoulders was making my hunch. "Don't you even," I said. "We do not need a family meeting with her about this, especially not now."

"You know, you're nineteen, I don't think we can tell you what to do when it comes to your relationships. But I have one thing to say, when it comes to things like what you've been doing with Linnette, think about the impact it will have on the other person before you decide to engage in adult activities. Your relationship puts Linnette in a very difficult spot." Mom glanced at Linnette with concern a couple times while she spoke.

I glared at her and made a fist. She was crossing the line into patronizing and she knew I hated that. And being reminded of Linnette having to quit because of me only made me angrier. It's not like I could do anything about it. I didn't have a time machine. "Mom, you don't have to remind me, I know!"

"Calm down, Bianca, we're not mad at you," Dad said.

My nostrils flared as I showed my teeth. "No! You think I wanted to have my sex drive go from zero to three thousand over the course of a day? You think I wanted to be taller than my own dad and have buy an entire new wardrobe? You think I like having a bulge in my pants so big everyone stares at it? I've had my entire life blown up in one fucking week and now I'm getting interrogated by my parents in front of everyone when I should be getting ready to graduate!"

Dad cowered looking truly afraid of me for the first time in my life.

Seeing him like that doused my anger with cold water. "I'm sorry, Dad. I shouldn't have yelled." I could smell that both of them were afraid and that made me sick to my stomach. And there were these really confusing feelings centered around my junk because I liked some of the attention it got and having it, but I also found it to be inconvenient and frustrating because I couldn't shut it off when I wanted to.

"You've been through a lot, champ. It's okay." Dad still looked a bit pale.

Mom said, "Let's talk more later, okay? It's getting close to graduation time, after all."

"Yep." Afraid I'd just yell more, I left my parents and went up to Violet's who had now been joined by Crystal's. Violet's mom was in a beautiful midnight-blue dress with her hair done up in a nice little bun while Violet's dad was in a business suit with midnight blue button down shirt that matched her mom's dress. Crystal's parents were in their Sunday clothes, literally. Her dad had his minister collar and her mom was wearing a frilly light pink Sunday dress.

Addressing Crystal's parents, Violet said, "I'm just glad I was able to help Crystal with all her studying."

Violet's parents had this adorable knowing grin as Violet spoke. 

Crystal said, "We're going to be working on scholarship applications next!"

It was good I made it to them when I did because the longer Crystal and Violet were in front of Crystal's parents, the more likely they'd catch on to something and make Crystal's life hell. "Sorry to interrupt, but we really should get ready for the ceremony."

Crystal's dad said, "Absolutely! Don't let us make you late."

Pulling Crystal and Violet along with me, I said, "To the cafeteria!" trying to be bubbly and ignore how agitated I was.

In the cafeteria, in the far corner, was a herm deer mosaic and a bunny mosaic going at it with their gowns pulled up. We just ignored them, and the scent of their sex, as best we could and they were too busy to pay us any mind. The awkward situation kept us from talking while we donned our caps and gowns, which was a shame because I really needed to vent about my parents.

Once we were dressed, we walked past the auditorium and into the band room. The moment I was inside, I realized there was a problem. Timpani drums, a celesta, a gong, a concert marimba, and various other instruments had all been pushed up against the walls to make room, but it still felt like there wasn't nearly enough space for the hundred plus students in the graduating class. A class where nearly half were freshly transformed mosaics that were looking genuinely uncomfortable. The elephant we'd seen transform in the cafeteria was holding her cap in both hands hiding her groin, the orca was standing with her legs crossed looking very impatient, and the other mosaics in the room reflected their sexual tension. The non-mosaics were staring at them with curiosity and trepidation.

The room smelled so much like sex that my crotch warmed in seconds. But that wasn't the only smell, I smelled caramel and coffee and several girls were holding cups. As I turned to my left to look along the wall ,  I saw a couple cardboard containers with handles from Twin Mermaids and a line of girls. Standing next to the coffee was Nicole who gave me a sickeningly smug grin the moment she met my eyes.

Every bit of rage I'd been feeling toward my parents was back as I glared daggers at Nicole.

Violet and Crystal gasped noticing the same thing I just had. Violet ran over to Reyna and Perlah who both had cups saying, "Hey! Don't drink that!"

Over a dozen girls had lattes in their hands, and judging by the number of cups next to the coffee containers, Nicole hadn't been here long. Even so, every new victim she claimed was a mistake I'd made. Something I'd all but promised Linnette we wouldn't let happen. And Nicole was acting as if she'd already won.

As Crystal walked up to girls holding coffees making up a story about a recall due to foodborne illness, a teacher who had become a lynx mosaic tried to take stock of the situation. My nostrils flared and my teeth clenched as the muscles in my arms tensed up. I walked up to the table with the coffee and waited for the moment the teacher's gaze was off me. Then I jumped in front of the line spooking the two people pouring their own cups into setting the coffee containers down. As people protested about me budging in line, I put the caps back on the coffee containers. Nicole was yelling at me, but I was wholly focused on putting an end to her plan and didn't give a shit what she thought about that.

Saying, "Sorry, they're contaminated!," I grabbed the handles of the coffee containers and ran toward the door I'd just come through. My seething anger must have been clear in my single-minded dashing toward the door because everyone was getting out of my way.

Everyone except Nicole who had anticipated me trying to head out the door and cut me off. Poking me in the chest and getting right up in my face, she said, "Hey, you bitch, I bought those for everyone!"

"MOVE!" I roared at her so loud that she jumped. Her flinch gave me an opening so I could run around her.

She recovered fast enough to run right after me. When I got to the door, remembering the last time I had to open a door when both my hands were full, I used my tail to open it. A wave of relief hit me as I entered the hallway, but it was short lived. Just as I was turning right so I could run toward the bathroom and dump out the coffee, Nicole dove through the door and grabbed my tail. Dragging her across the floor, I said, "Let go!"

"Bring those back!" she demanded.

"I'll drag you all the way into the bathroom if I have to." She was making it so I couldn't run, but I was still able to walk at a brisk pace.

A voice from behind us stopped me in my tracks. "Bianca Geisler! What the hell do you think you're doing?" It was the teacher who'd been watching over the room. Hearing her California accent, I recognized she was Ms. Huxton, the physics teacher. Her paisley-patterned sea green skirt and salmon-colored top hugged her lanky body. I'd never taken a class from her, but she was awesome and  used liquid nitrogen to make ice cream and freeze things at school events.

By this time, all the parents and teachers out in the hallway who were chatting before getting a seat in the auditorium had heard us. A significant few were now leaning or standing on their tiptoes to peer at us, including Linnette.

With an audience, I knew I needed to be extra sure not to seem like an asshole, so I borrowed Crystal's tactic, "The milk they put in these lattes just got recalled, I was trying to save anyone from drinking it." I sounded far less sure than I wanted, but that was par for the course when it came to me lying.

"I'm sorry, but your behavior hasn't garnered any trust. Do you have proof for your claim?" Ms. Huxton crossed her arms.

My shoulders slumped. If I showed Ms. Huxton my proof, Nicole would make sure Linnette got fired before she quit and get blacklisted for doing stuff with me. Nicole grabbed the containers out of my limp defeated hands.

Ms. Huxton's expression had remained cool the whole time. In other circumstances, I would have been happy to have her around. "We're going to have to have a chat with the principal about this behavior, but we can do that later, why don't you come inside and--"

"Wait!" Linnette called out, looking totally fab in the knee-length taur skirt I bought her. It was dark blue green with light blue green Celtic knots embroidered into the fabric. I'd also bought her light-blue-rimmed reading glasses that fit her new dragon face. "Bianca is trying to protect the identity of a student who is currently under investigation for a felony. Let Bianca dump out the coffee and I'll explain everything in private."

Nicole handed the coffee back to me like the handles were burning her hands, "Oh no! I'm sorry Bianca, we should have trusted you."

I rolled my eyes at her and then dashed into the bathroom. As I poured out all the coffee, I wondered how much Nicole spent on all of it. She may have done it partially to put me in my place, but she was just infecting random students at this point. That left me with the chilling conclusion that she got something out of infecting people. That my suspicion that this was some sort of power trip was correct.



END OF PART 7


I’d like to acknowledge my first $20 patron, Navajo Demar, for helping make all this possible. Thank you! Thanks to all my other patrons as well. Every one of you rocks!