It might've been something about being part rabbit imparting a surprising amount of strength to her leg muscles, or it might simply have been the fact that her target wasn't expecting it, but David's firmly-planted kick sent Matt sprawling. Despite her irritation, she was actually a little worried that he might wind up cracking his head or something, but fortunately he took the fall well, if gracelessly. Confused and disoriented, he spun around, staring up at her from the floor. He sputtered for a moment before finally finding his train of thought. "What the hell was that for!?" he yelped.
"That was for being an asshole, asshole!" David snapped. Her anger was causing solitary hot tears to prick at the corners of her eyes. This should've felt more cathartic; instead, it was spoiled by the worry that he might actually get physically hurt and the way he almost actually did look emotionally hurt, like he somehow couldn't understand why the girl he'd spent the entire morning harassing had finally struck back.
"J-jeez," he stammered, looking almost a little scared, "it was only a joke!"
She stared at him, mouth agape. "Making fun of my new body to the entire school and harassing me all damn morning is only a joke!?" she yelled. It was like to him, the things he said were just out there floating around in search of a mouth to come out of, and it was no fault of his that they came out of his. "God, I can't believe I was friends with you," she muttered in disgust. He thinks that's funny? she fumed. Those weren't even good jokes! I sure as hell wouldn'tve-
She stopped short. Wouldn't she have? A nagging little voice in the back of her head pointed out that she herself was launching lame, crude puns at Jon just the day before she changed...and she'd brushed it off with the same kind of "I'm just saying what everyone's thinking" excuse Matt was probably making to himself...
Matt blinked. "I, uh...friends?" he stammered, staring up at her. "Huh?"
She huffed. "I'm David, you jackass!" she snapped, before suddenly realizing that she'd just outed herself to the exact person who'd spent the whole morning spreading around her other secret.
"So, wait," Jon said, a thought occurring to her as they walked over to one of the tables in the school cafeteria. "If you couldn't understand what he was saying, how was it that you knew he was making fun of me? I mean, judging by his reaction you zinged him pretty good."
Karyn, who was carrying her tray for her, thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Well, I mostly couldn't understand him," she said. "Not like you could, not with words. But...I dunno, I could read his body language, and somehow or other I got the impression that he was making fun of you for being like a kitten. I dunno if that's because I'm part cat too, now, or if it's just that I grew up with our Mittens around. I just...I could kinda tell, was all. Just not as well as you could. Maybe it's because you're more cat than I am now."
"I-" Jon frowned. "I...I guess I kind of am, aren't I?" She wasn't sure what to think of that. The whole idea that in a very real sense she was no longer completely human was unnerving. Even now that she knew that the cat side of her wasn't some insidious Other trying to possess her, but more just a different set of instincts and a different flavor of id that she didn't really know how to deal with yet, it was kind of a troubling thought.
Karyn nodded. "Well, yeah. I mean, look at how you went after him last night." She bit her lip, trying not to laugh as she recalled it.
Jon mock-scowled. "I'm still going to get you for opening that window, you know."
This time Karyn did laugh. "Why, Jon!" she said, in a mock-high-society tone, "Without me, how ever would you get your delicious school lunches?"
"I knew it, I knew it, we're getting all What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? now," the sphinx shot back with a wry smile. Karyn only just made it to the table and set down the trays before collapsing into a fit of laughter. "'But you are, Jon! You are on those paws!'"
"Can it and gimme my Salisbury steak, already," Jon laughed. As difficult as this was for the sphinx-girl, and as unsettled as she was by the thought that if they didn't find a way to recover the stone then she might have to spend the rest of her life this way, having her best friend around to joke about it with really did help.
Jon went at her lunch a little more carefully than she had with the meatloaf the other day, mostly because it was covered in (actually halfway passable) brown gravy. She tried to do what she could to keep the smearage limited to her paws, which she could at least lick off semi-discreetly; getting it on her face would be a little more obvious. "So," she said to Karyn, "did you find out where that address is?"
Karyn nodded. "It's in one of the neighborhoods a little closer to the suburbs," she said. "Kinda in back of the park. There's a bus line that runs within a couple blocks, so we should be able to get there pretty quick after school lets out. You still sure you want to do this?"
Jon nodded. "I really didn't get the feeling the cat was lying to me, or that he distrusts his hum-his owner. And besides, whoever this person is, she's the only person we know of who knows anything about the stone besides us, so she's the closest thing we have to a lead on recovering it. I'm not gonna pass that up."
She held off saying anything else on the subject, since she smelled Sarah approaching. She turned to see the fox-girl coming over with a lunch tray. "Hi," she said, smiling. "Just thought I'd check in and see how you're doing."
Jon shrugged. "Okay, I guess," she said. That was pretty much the truth, even though it was mostly because she thought she might have a chance to recover the stone and get back to normal. She wondered whether Sarah could tell when people were hiding something by, say, the way they smelled, or whatever. She couldn't, but then, Sarah was basically a dog, and they were supposed to be able to smell fear and whatnot - and anyway, Sarah had years of experience at being what she was, while Jon had only been this way a couple days. Come to think of it...
"Um," she ventured, "do you...I mean, you're kinda also largely animal, even more than...than me...have you ever noticed being able to understand animals more?"
Sarah looked up from her lunch with a thoughtful expression on her face. "Well," she said, "again, you've got to remember that I don't even remember much about what it's like to be human. I know some of it intellectually, but I don't really understand what 'normal' is for humans, because my last experience with it was almost ten years ago." She shrugged. "But I think I get what you're talking about. It's...it's not like talking, because they're just animals, they don't have the capability for talking the way we think of it. But yeah, I do understand animals like myself a lot better than humans do, I think."
"So, you can communicate with dogs?" Karyn asked. Sarah's ears went back and her eyes narrowed. Karyn blinked. "Um, sorry, did I say something wrong?"
The fox-girl caught herself and shook her head. "No, sorry, that's just...dogs. They don't like me," she explained, looking a little nervous and irritated. "I know it's not their fault, they've been bred to keep my kind away for thousands of years, but...yeesh." She took a deep breath. "But I've run into foxes in the woods sometimes, and yeah. You...you almost get the feeling that if they did understand language, then you could just talk to 'em."
