April's Fool Chapter Sixteen (Patreon)

They got me to the house and up the stairs.

“Um,” Mitzy said softly. “Hon, you need to shower before getting in bed.”

I frowned. “Why?”

“You have stuff in your hair, and you need to remove your makeup. Otherwise your skin will suffer.”

I sighed and nodded. I needed to use the restroom anyway.

She helped me into the restroom. “Do you need help removing your clothes?”

I shook my head. “I can take care of it.”

Needing to use the commode, I quickly disrobed and sat down. Everything felt different down there, and I was soon releasing and feeling some relief. I turned the shower on hot, then eased myself in.

We still had some of Mom’s shampoo in the little basket beside the tub. I soaked myself good and long, letting the heat and water sluice away the shame, guilt, and pain.

Toweling off, I tried not to notice my new curves and additions. It was going to be a problem, however, as I had nothing to wear, and none of Mom’s clothes would fit this flabby body. I put on one of dad’s robes that at least covered most of my flesh, and slid under the covers. I was quickly asleep.

The alarm woke me the next morning. At first everything felt strange and weird, but then the events of the previous day filtered in.

Sighing, I got up. My headache had gone away and at least I was thinking a bit clearer.

Pulling on my dad’s robe, I realized I was going to need to do something about the clothing situation and quickly. Jeff usually picked me up for school. I glanced at the clock, and went into the restroom.

My hair was a matted disarray. I tried to comb through it, but only made things worse. My skin of my face was blotchy and had sun spots. I wished I had Desdemonia’s magic, she probably just poofed herself into perfection each morning.

I was finally able to wrangle the hair into a workable ponytail, and found some of mom’s sweats that weren’t too tight. I’d just put on Desdemonia’s heeled shoes when I heard the horn honk outside.

It felt strange going to school in my ex-girlfriend’s Mother’s body. I levered myself up into the passenger seat. Mitzy threw her arms around me. “How was your night?”

“Slept,” I said. “Long and hard.”

“Hah, I bet,” Jeff said. “Did you at least feel yourself up?”

“Don’t be crass,” I said.

Wait, where had that come from? I remembered Desdemonia had used the phrase yesterday.

“Uh, okay, Grandma!” Jeff laughed, as he pulled the Scout into traffic.

Frowning, I crossed my arms. Why was he being so insufferable?

“So you’re going to school like nothing happened?” Mitzy said.

“I suppose,” I said. “I left my backpack and all my homework there yesterday.”

“I grabbed it for you Bro, er…Girl.” Jeff said. “In the back.”

“Thanks, man.”

I thought about the upcoming day. I had homework assignments due in three classes, a quiz in one class, and we were supposed to have an intersquad practice game that afternoon. I guess I wouldn’t be playing third base anytime soon.

I sighed, and felt like I was going to cry again.

As if reading my thoughts, Mitzy hugged me again.

“Did you hear anything about where they put Dad, April and Pete?”

“Wolf rescue from Jonesburg,” Jeff said.

I nodded. It was the usual pattern with feral werewolves. If they couldn’t learn to socialize with other werewolves and be accepted into a pack, they’d be put down. I thought about the way dad had thrust himself over and over again into the glass and sighed.

“Do you want to go visit them?” Mitzy said.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“It might be nice for April to see her mother’s face again.”

“Do you guys want to?”

Jeff shrugged. “I’m down with a ditch day. It’s Friday anyway, most of my classes will be watching movies.”

“Okay,” I said, feeling a bit better.

The drive to Jonesburg took less than an hour. It was a mountain town near where our cabin was, actually. The wolf rescue was on the outskirts of town and had been a former logging mill that had been converted into pens. Wolves howled and snarled as we parked. We got out of the Scout, and I immediately needed to use the restroom again.

I made it to the front desk and while they talked to the staff, I scooted to the Ladies room.

Lady, another new term that applied to me. I sighed and entered one of the stalls.

After taking care of business I looked at my appearance in the mirror. I really needed some makeup, or at least some lipstick if I was going to be presentable. I also ran my fingers through my streaked hair and attempted to arrange it a bit neater than it had been.

I found Mitzy and Jeff at the door to the pens, waiting for me with wide eyes.

“What?” I said.

“Um…” Jeff said.

“Seth…there’s been another change,” Mitzy said.

“What do you mean?” I looked out into the pens. I saw several wolves, and another section for werewolves. The twisted, feral, supernaturally strong werewolves snarled and roared with glowing eyes of different colors. I walked past several werewolf pens. I found my father’s werewolf form, with burning chrome colored eyes and black pelt mixed with silver. It ran around and around and around in a circle, sometimes hurling itself against the heavy iron cage.

I reached the end, but didn’t see Pete or my Werewolf forms anywhere.

“Where are they?” I said. “Did they take them to a different rescue?”

“Um, no?” Mitzy said, pointing.

She pointed at a different enclosure within the wolf section.

“Wow, did they already calm down?” I said, walking the pen. Two wolves lay against each other, one a mixed white and reddish brown and the other a darker brown mixed with white. They were wolves though, not the supernaturally strong human/wolf mix that I’d been. These were two larger than normal wolves, quadrupedal, heavy fur, long snout…no human features whatsoever.

“Is April and dad in with those two?”

“That is your dad and April, Seth,” Mitzy said.

The two animals saw us and struggled up to their feet. The larger dark brown mixed with white wolf licked the rust colored wolf on the cheek. They trotted over to us.

It dawned on me as the rust colored one approached. Both wolves chuffed at us, and their tails began to wag.

“Wait..that can’t be…”

“After they calmed down and a night of sleep, they’ve become gray wolves,” a staff member behind us said. “We’ve never seen that happen before.”

The rust mixed with white wolf stood up with it’s forepaws on the chain link gate in front of us. It’s tongue lolled out of it’s mouth and it gave a friendly bark as it’s tail wagged.

“April?” I said, leaning down to stroke the wolf’s pelt through the gate.

The tail began to wag faster and faster. It whined softly.

“Aww, I think you can go in for a visit,” the staff member said. “Just be careful of her mate.”

“Her…mate?” I said, looking at the darker wolf. It gave a little bark followed with a growl as if in warning.

“Dad?” I said.

The other wolf’s tail began to wag too. But it was in a more mechanical fashion, and it did not whine like the smaller wolf. Under it’s torso I could see a male sheath.

“Yep, they mated last night,” the employee said, opening the gate and entering the enclosure.

Petrified, I stared at them. I realized that under torso was…nothing.

April was a female wolf.