" You shouldn't have touched it," she screamed."Tammy," my voice was quiet and dead of emotion. "Don't get mad at me. I didn't want to find this."The ...nger faded from her face and was replaced by pain. Tears welled in her eyes and her chin quivered. "You shouldn't have looked," she said and turned away."Tammy." Her back was still turned. "Tammy," more insistently. She turned tears rolling down her cheeks. "Please come here." She hesitated and then got in the van. She sat with her arms crossed. She looked like a girl for the mostpart, except that she had pointed ears, big yellow cat's eyes, and a cat'swhiskers. Her body was covered by a light orange down with black stripes. Moreover,she had a tail, downed and striped as well, that snaked out behind her. Also,her fingers were clawed; and if and when she opened her mouth, you'd see acat's fangs. Otherwise, quite human. She wore a diaphanous pink min-sari, extendingonly to her waist, a red mini-skirt, and red knee-length boots. Over each. ” I just continue up the stairs. I walk to my mother’s room and find my mother done packing. “Can I sleep in here with you?” I ask. “Sure,” she smiles already in bed. I crawl into bed with her and she rolls over so that she’s facing me, wrapping one of her arms around my stomach. “Everything alright?” she asks, her warm breath on my face. “Yeah, I just wanted to sleep with you,” I lie. I quickly drift into sleep, in my mother’s arms. The following morning, I wake up alone. All of my. As soon as we entered, boys from the other teams stopped to look at us, and then at me in particular. And then the whispers started:“That guy’s gay.”“I bet he runs in the pack so he can watch the asses of the guys in front.”“Don’t bend down in the shower afterwards.”I was still mildly annoyed that Eugenie Butler-Walker hadn’t stood up for me, and the continuous stream of taunts wound me up even further. They hurt even more because running in the pack was my normal strategy. I resolved to try to.