Karyn was having a bath at home, the first in a long time as she generally took showers. Considering her new condition, she was thinking it might be better to soak. Plus it was hard to stand up on two legs, and hard to clean herself in a shower on four. Bathing was a time to be comfortable, not to be performing a balancing act. And lying in the bathtub, she almost felt like normal, she could almost forget she was a cat now. Well, she could easily still feel her tail, as it was a part of her. She could move it. It was so natural, it was almost strange to think she didn't always have it. She practiced her coordination with it. As she lay in the tub, it lifted out of the water like a sea serpent, and under her determined control, bent into various curves under her will. She held her front paws up in front of her too. It was still amazing, seeing them, especially palms up - pawpads up, seeing the look of cat's paws at the ends of her wrists. This look was something she was used to seeing only on other species, housecats, or big cats at zoos. But they were hers. They were her front paws. They felt almost like hands when they were free like this and not touching anything, she could almost forget. She tried to grab the soap with one paw and failed, it was just too slippery and she just didn't have enough fine pinching ability, it was a little like trying to do fine work while wearing oven mitts. But their awkwardness was fun too. It was so surreal. It almost never got old. Almost. She carefully clasped the soap between both paws like a vise, built up a lather, and returned it to its dish. She spread it on her head and shoulders, rubbing it deep into her fur, and then had some fun doing as much of the work scrubbing herself as she could using only her tail. It felt really nice to do that too, since her brain wasn't completely aware of its exact position in space all down its length, and so it was possible for her to tickle herself with it to an extent, as well as for it to be tickled, her tail was ticklish! And this inexact mapping of its position also made playing with herself with it unbelievably stimulating. Not to mention she had some choices as to which breasts to rub. It was a little inconvenient at times for utilitarian purposes, but god, she thought, it feels so good to be a cat, it's not even funny. If other people knew how good this felt, it would be the end o the human race, she would be followed all day long by people trying to get infected. She would have to get Jon over to have a bath with her too.
Her thoughts turned to Sarah McMillan. Why did she have to be such a bitch? Karyn repeatedly found herself feeling guilty and ashamed and incredibly sorry for what she did, and then to have to remind her of just how awful a person she was. How merciless, how unbelievably entitled, and devoid of sympathy for anyone else in the world she was. This was poetic justice, wasn't it? At least for how she had behaved over Karyn becoming a catgirl. The term catgirl was pushing it. Damn, Jon pushed it too far, they had slipped a little bit too far down the furry scale from 'human' to 'cat' for comfort. Maybe should have stopped with just the ears and the tail. But anyway, Sarah was everything that Karyn hated about other girls, but then Karyn knew she was even more unfair in her assessment of boys. Guys were usually good people, at worst guilty of trying to get girls to think highly of them, but she couldn't help at times think so poorly of them in certain ways, largely because of them trying to get girls to think highly of them. And that certainly wasn't fair. Jon isn't a boy any more, she thought to herself. What an astonishing thought that was. She should be happy. Or should she? To Karyn, Jon was always the exception that proved the rule, he was the one good one, the one that wasn't like the others. But now there wasn't an exception any more. She shouldn't let herself foster bad opinions toward boys, out of respect for Jon, for what he was, or still is inside. Men are good. Say something bad about boys in general and you're saying something bad about Jon, and that wasn't cool, because Jon is good, and Jon was the same person as before, and as he was good now, he was good when he was a guy.
"Karyn! I need you to get downstairs, finish up in there!" her mother shouted from outside the bathroom. She sounded angry.
"What's wrong, mom?"
"I just got a call from Sarah McMillan's mother."
"Oh." Of course her actions had consequences. Living in this silly ridiculous fantasy, even still being in this body, the fantasy itself was only temporary, and hard reality comes crashing down on me, she thought. That was another thing she hated about girls. Probably their worst fault. They always tried to get out of responsibility for their actions. To pass the blame for their mistakes to others. Guys did it too, but with girls, it was like a disease of the mind. Or did she only think that because with the exception of Jon, she had more interaction with girls and gave them more opportunity to show that sort of behavior to her, and merely didn't think guys did it so much since she just hadn't given them so many chances to do it? Karyn didn't want to be like that at any rate.
She was basically clean at this point, had just been enjoying soaking in the warm water for a while now, and so just got out of the tub.
"Oh my god, it's so heavy!" Her fur, completely soaked, had absorbed probably about 30% of the water in the tub, and it was like carrying a 50 pound weight. It was like carrying about 10 soaked towels draped all over her body. Speaking of which, in her hurry to get dry, she used up all 6 towels that were there in just her attempt to approach something like being dry. She didn't have time for the blowdrier, and she wasn't going to shake and send water flying everywhere like an animal.
She got out of the bathroom, kind of most of the way to being dry, wearing her thick specialized bathrobe that Jon had wished into existence along with the rest of her new attire, with a sleeve precisely tailored to her tail. "Sorry I took so long, mom."
"I don't know how much tension I should put you under, I know this must be hard on you, and you need support, and this is the last time for the people around you, your support base, to leave you alone and lonely and make you fend for yourself, but Sarah McMillan has been hospitalized, and apparently the reason she has caught your disease is because you assaulted her! Her mother is screaming about a lawsuit against us, she's screaming she wants to have you euthanized like an animal! I promised to call back when I could get you on the phone. I don't even know what to say."
They called back, and had an unpleasant 3-way conversation. Sarah's mother of course insisted her daughter was a perfect little angel when Karyn delivered an accurate account of what happened during the day, insisting it was all lies. Karyn said she didn't know what else to say, you obviously don't know your own daughter, she's a notorious bully, and you can verify this for yourself if you speak to anyone else in school except for the jocks who spend their time drooling over her boobs. Karyn told her about the time Sarah had her entourage beat up a boy who didn't want to go out with her. About the time Sarah herself flooded a new girl's locker with water, because she was too 'uppity'.
"Karyn, honey," her mother said over the phone. "Sarah is still in the hospital. She's very sick. Dangerously so. And they're afraid she might even end up with brain damage. This virus is still a mystery to science. And because of it, she has already physically changed, into a cat. It may not be an exaggeration to say that you ruined her life. I know that you are also under a lot of stress since this happened to you as well, and god only knows I should have stopped you from even thinking of going to school this morning, but I think we should go visit her in the hospital, and maybe you can do something as a peacemaking measure."
"Yeah, I know," Karyn said. She was glad she didn't have to admit that it wasn't her 'licking' attack of that morning that caused Sarah to contract 'the disease', but a cold, calculating action she had committed long after that and not in the spur of the moment, which she had dragged Jon into. More of that shirking accountability I hate so much in others, I kind of suck, Karyn thought.
Karyn and her mom went to the hospital and met Sarah's mom.
"You really are a cat," Sarah's mother said.
"I know," Karyn said.
"I didn't mean that to make fun of you. But what have you done to my Sarah! She's not even human any more!" She broke down crying.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. McMillan. But let me tell you one thing in my defense. It's actually pretty fun being like this. It feels great. Once the sickness is over, I think she'll feel healthier than ever before. And I can do more things than you're probably thinking, and things I couldn't do before, and I don't think it has affected my mind, I don't think I have gotten less intelligent."
"What if she wants to have a career? Have a family?"
"So her kids will all have cat ears and tails. There's nothing but upside to that much. After the second generation, maybe not even that. And if she was going to have any sort of intellectual career, I'm sure it wouldn't stop her. If she wanted to be a cheerleader for a professional football team, on the other hand, well, she might not even need to apply for the position, don't be surprised if the Jacksonville Jaguars or the Carolina Panthers calls her. Or the Detroit Lions! That's another one. We can easily be celebrities, you know. We're not bad looking, and a lot of people love cats, and would love to have a cat who was their equal rather than a pet."
Sarah's mom tried, and failed to stifle a laugh. "Oh my god, I shouldn't be laughing at that, I actually have a relative who's a promoter for the Carolina Panthers, but it's just so weird! She's a cat now! The little girl who I gave birth to, and saw learn to walk, is a cat! I shouldn't be laughing that she might be end up the mascot, that's just too cruel..."
"I'll bet she's pretty cute, it's not the end of the world. I'm sorry, once again."
"You sure are. Oh my god, I can't believe the way you look. I didn't know you would look so much like a cat. But you do look good. I haven't seen her since she started changing visibly," Mrs. McMillan said. "I'm afraid. And I was so angry."
"Let's check in on her. I'll bet she's scared," Karyn's mom said.
They stood at the foot of Sarah's hospital bed. She opened her eyes, to show her shining green slitted irises. Sarah leaned up out of her hospital bed and almost slipped, supporting herself, sitting up, not used to the structure of her front paws. She looked at her paws. She looked at Karyn, Karyn's mom, and her own mom.
"Congratulations, you turned me into a cat. You got the last laugh. I guess you're here to make fun of me. Well do it already." For exaggerated effect, she stood up on all fours on her bed, and adopted a catlike pose. "I'm not even a person any more."
The 3 of them stood open-mouthed at the foot of Sarah's hospital bed. Things had just gotten weirder.
"You're more horrified than I was expecting," Sarah said, wondering if she had overplayed her hand.
"Sarah, have you seen yourself in the mirror?" Karyn said.
"N..no, why?"
"You look almost exactly - no, exactly like me. We could be twins. I don't think anyone is going to be able to tell us apart!"
"R-really?" Sarah asked. "I look like that?" I'm that cute? she thought to herself. She could hardly contain how pleased she was.
"I'm sorry, Sarah!" Karyn jumped on her and hugged her. "This is something you can never forgive me for, but I'm so sorry!"
"It's, it's all right. I forgive you," Sarah said.
"Really?"
"Uh, well, that is to say, I mean, I was being really mean, I guess," she said, drifting off. It wasn't because she acknowledged she was exhibiting cruel behavior that she wasn't angry about it though, but that would work as an excuse. She must not let them know how excited and pleased she is about it, she thought to herself. But Sarah didn't even realize how loud she was purring. Also she had unconsciously started hugging Karyn back.
"At least she's not miserable," Karyn's mom said. "Maybe you two can become friends, now? Can this be an opportunity to bury the hatchet? You two look so precious like this, I can hardly even stand it."
"Mommm!" Karyn said. But inwardly Karyn was feeling pretty good. Sarah was so soft, and her tender embrace was as addictive as Jon's. But she had her pride. Karyn tried to leave the embrace and pull away. This turned out to be a painful move.
"Ow, ow! Sarah, you're kind of clawing me," Karyn said, trying to pull away.
But Sarah didn't want Karyn to pull away!
"Stay with me!" Sarah said, with a bit of desperation in her voice. To be fair, it was basically an irresistible plea. Being like this was unbelievably addictive for both of them. Karyn gave in and cuddled against Sarah. And their moms gathered close and petted their daughters.
If Karyn wasn't enjoying this so much, making peace with her longtime antagonist, she might have remembered that they were quite contagious. It was what she had wished for, after all.
