Lydia hurried out, Buster following her. "I'm just...this is the first time I've really gone out since the first day this happened. I really need to stretch my legs," she said, Buster struggling to keep up with her.
"Have you noticed any odd behaviors?" Rebecca asked Lydia as they walked.
"Well...I have noticed that I don't enjoy the same foods...a lot of things I liked taste bad to me now..." she commented. "I'm hoping it is temporary."
"It is really hard to say," she told the human, who was walking comfortably on all fours. "As you might imagine....this isn't exactly something doctors have experience with...but they did get the results of everyone's tests back, and they would like to schedule followups regularly."
"What did they say?" Abby asked from the other side of Lydia, next to Buster.
"Think of it your DNA like a dog," Rebecca Fine said. "Some new DNA comes to the neighborhood, and the old DNA starts to learn some new tricks. So...there are some additional side effects...like changes in taste. But don't worry...as far as they can tell, you won't wake up one morning looking like a clone of your umm...donors. But, you've probably already noticed a few minor things."
"Like what?" Abby insisted.
Ethan had been strangely silent during the whole exchange, but butted in. "Like duh...you being taller than me all of the sudden," he said. "You're also looking a bit more butch. What are people at school going to think of us? I mean...I could just die..." he said, dramatically.
Abby rolled her eyes. "You're overreacting. It's not like there aren't enough people there in the same boat."
Rebecca looked at Buster. "Buster...did you put the leash on Lydia?" The upright dog nodded. "Why?" He responded with something garbled, which sounded to her almost like Close "You wanted to make sure she didn't run off?" she questioned. Another nod. Very interesting
"What does that mean?" Abby asked.
"It means Buster is expressing his protectiveness of Lydia in a different way," Rebecca Fine commented. It probably meant a lot more than that, as Lydia hadn't protested or even seemed to notice much. And Abby seemed to have become less concerned about how they'd be seen by others, while Ethan seemed to feel the opposite....She was seeing some changes in maturity...similar to what she'd seen at the Gibson home.
As they approached the nearest park to Lydia's home, Lydia began to get a bit more excitable. And the novelty of a dog walking on two legs had worn off for all of them, even Rebecca. She had other things to observe.
