Seventeen Ain't So Sweet

I woke up because someone was massaging me, and boy did it feel good.

“Mm.” I said into something fluffy, which I quickly assessed was a pillow.

“Awake, Halle?” asked my mom’s voice from right next to me, so she was the one giving me the massage.

I nodded, then turned my head so I could speak properly. “That feels nice. I’m sore as hell.”

“I bet. Are you hungry?”

The word was like a trigger to my stomach, which was definitely trying to eat itself. I nodded again, then at last opened my eyes. That turned out to be the worst decision of the morning.

I screamed and fought to untangle my lower half from the sheets it was wrapped in, needing to get up and away from whatever the hell my mother was holding. Because it was big and dark teal and right by my face.

“Halle!” she shouted, holding me down by my arms so I was stuck on my stomach. “Be careful, or you’ll tear the room apart.”

“What is that?” my voice came out very small and frightened.

My mom’s fingers tightened on the sleek blue object, and my eyes widened because I could feel that. “It’s your wing…Halle?”

Again I shrieked and struggled up, this time besting my mom and making it into a standing position on the mattress. I flinched when something hit me on my right side, then ducked when there was a loud crash. I looked over to see that a huge azure wing had toppled the lamp over to smash on the floor. For a moment I was stunned into silence, then the wing gave a twitch that once again I could feel, and I screamed again.

“Halle, be quiet!” Mom grabbed my hand and tried to pull me down. “Everything is fine.”

“Obviously that isn’t true! I have WINGS!” I spun around to try and see the new appendages better, wincing when one knocked into the wall. “Mom, what the hell?!”

She yanked hard and I tumbled into a sitting position. “If you would calm down I could properly explain everything.” she gave me a stern look, and I slowly steadied my breathing. Then I couldn’t resist reaching out and touching ‘my’ wing.

The sensation made me shiver a little, because it was very sensitive, but it was also kind of…cool. No, that wasn’t the right word. Freaky. Yeah, that was it.

It looked a lot like a bat’s wing, only a million times bigger of course. My uh…wingspan had to be about eight feet, maybe ten, but they were kind of drawn in since I was worried about knocking more stuff over. The thin blue bones that extended from behind me looked brittle, but when I poked one it was very hard. The skin between the bones was even weirder, smooth and a little bit wet feeling, and so soft. It wasn’t rough like a lizard’s skin like I thought it would be, it was like velvet.

“I have wings.” I stated weakly, said extremities jerking a bit closer to me at being mentioned.

Mom nodded. “You’ll get used to them. In a few hours you should even be able to tuck them in like we do.”

“Tuck them in?” I touched the skin again, making a face when it quivered under my touch. “Where?”

“They’re very discreet, you can pull them in to your back and they’ll fit nicely. Would you like to see mine?” Mom looked nervous, like she was afraid I wouldn’t like them or something.

My mouth hung open a little. “You have them, too?”

“Yes, we all do. Let me show you.”

Mom turned so her back was to me, pulling her shirt off so only her head was through the collar, probably covering her chest in the front. My jaw dropped even further, because there on her back were wings folded in so neatly that they could have been mistaken for a really elaborate tattoo. They weren’t blue like mine, they were a reddish-orange, and when she spread them out I began to wonder if my jaw could dislocate in shock.

Where there should have been normal skin on her back there were…scales. A ton of super sparkly, red and orange, honest-to-God scales. They started at her tailbone in a kind of triangular pattern, running all the way up her spine to taper off at the nape of her neck, but I could see them wind around to her front near her shoulders. Her wings were just as big as mine if not a little bigger, she wasn’t spreading them out the whole way so she wouldn’t damage anything like I had. They gave a graceful flutter, then she looked over her shoulder at me. No wonder she was always so flighty about me seeing her naked. I thought maybe she had a C-section scar or something.

“See?”

“Holy shit.” I sat back a little and tried to process what I was seeing. “Are we dragons?”

To my surprise, Mom laughed at me. She folded her wings back in (and I was kind of put-out by how easy she made it look) before righting her shirt and turning back to me. “No, Halle, don’t be ridiculous. Dragons don’t exist.”

“How silly of me. Thinking dragons might be real since humans apparently sprout wings around here was just beyond the limits of stupidity.”

Mom rose an eyebrow at me. “I don’t appreciate sarcasm, Halle.”

She said it just like she would if we were sitting in our kitchen and I was working on my homework as she cooked, a completely regular occurence. That thought made me look around to see where I was, discovering it was a shitty hotel room. I looked back up at her incredulously.

“Pardon me if I don’t know how to handle…this!” I snatched the top of my wing and shook it around. “God, do I have scales on my back too?”

“Yep.” Mom said like it was expected. “They’re a very pretty blue and green. They look a lot like your dad’s, only his were a lot darker.”

“Woah, woah, woah!” I held up my hands. “Dad was a…whatever we are, too?”

“Every family member you have is like we are.” elaborated Mom.

I shook my head like that would clear it before going on. “But I’ve never met any family besides Grandpa…and, well apparently this Gavrilla chick, too.”

Out of nowhere Mom looked sheepish. “I tried to keep this away from you. I guess I thought if I pretended you were a normal kid it wouldn’t happen, but I was wrong. I’m sorry about that, Halle.”

“A little warning would have been nice.” I grumbled, glancing at my wing again. “Where’re Grandpa and Kaz?”

“Doing some surveillance. They’ll be back soon.”

I shifted a little then groaned. “Ugh! I feel all slimy!”

“That’s a part of being recently transformed. It’ll take some time before your wings and your scales stop producing the oil.” Mom told me matter-of-factly. Like discussing wing oil was the most normal thing in the world. “It could be worse though.”

“How on earth could it be worse?” I blinked at her.

Mom crossed her arms. “Sometimes only one wing pops out at a time.”

I imagined having to go through the pain of the wings coming out again, shuddering. “Alright, I guess that would be worse. But what all happened to me last night? It was like…I got a new skeleton.” I grimaced at the words, because they didn’t make sense.

“Basically that did happen. If you go look in the mirror it’ll be easier to understand.”

That sounded foreboding. Nonetheless I stood up, very cautiously so I wouldn’t go shattering any other hotel property. I glared at my wings and concentrated on trying to get them to move in a bit more, but all they did was spasm a little and stay in the same place. Great. I had disobedient wings. So I had to edge into the bathroom, then feel around on the sticky wall for the light switch.

Again, a bad decision. I ended up screaming again when I saw my reflection.

It was still my face, but it was…different. I noticed for the first time that all my skin was tinted a bit blue. My cheekbones seemed to stick out a little, my jaw was more squared, my eyes were a bit more slanted and the blue color had intensified almost enough to resemble Kaz’s. I brought my hand up to touch my cheek, screaming again because my nails were long and pointed with a blue undertone, my fingers longer and looking more like weaponry than they ever had before. My lips dropped open, and I made a startled squeak when I saw my teeth. My canines were way longer than human teeth were supposed to be, and deadly sharp. The rest of my teeth seemed to bend inward, like my mouth was a death trap waiting for an unfortunate limb to snare.

“This is…fucked up.” my voice shook a little. I turned to my mom, who was standing warily in the doorway, peering around my wing. “Why don’t you look like this?”

“When you get used to it you can control it.” she gently patted my shoulder, making me flinch. I could feel everything too clearly. “You’re kind of…how do I say it?…Stuck in fight mode. All your bones are more or less indestructible when you’re like this.”

I scowled at my reflection, then nearly shrieked again because I was really freakin’ threatening. I had to quit screaming, it was making my throat hurt. Also making me look like a big wuss.

Mom stroked my hair consolingly. “Don’t freak out, honey. It’ll be a week at the most until you can manage it.”

“A week?!” I yelled, and it sounded unnervingly like a squawk at the end. “I can’t look like this for a week!”

“We all have to go through it, Halle. As soon as your grandpa checks on our next hiding place we’re going to go up there, then Kaz will help you practice.”

I braced my hands on the sink and resisted the urge to growl. Really, there was a strong urge to snarl like some kind of beast rolling around in my chest. “Who is Kaz anyway?”

“A friend of the family.”

“Nice cryptic answer, Mom.”

She sighed. “I’m sorry. I know this is a lot to take in --”

“Understatement of the year.”

“Don’t interrupt me. Anyway, if you promise to stay in the room I’ll go get you some food. But don’t open the door unless it’s your grandpa or Kaz, and stay here.”

I nodded glumly. “Yeah. Okay.”

Mom pulled me towards her and kissed my cheek. “I’ll be right back.”

When I was alone I immediately pinched my arm. It hurt a lot because of my new nails, but I didn’t wake up. I had to walk out of the bathroom like a crab, then I stood there and tried to decide what to do. Fortunately I wasn’t alone long, because God only knows what I would have done. I was sort of contemplating jumping out the window.

It was Grandpa that entered the room, opening the door without knocking and startling me a little. He saw me standing there and his bushy eyebrows rose, then he beamed.

“You look excellent, sweetie.”

After a healthy moment of skeptical gaping I gestured at my weird face. “You call this excellent?”

“I do. I couldn’t see it very clearly last night, but your mother was right. You look a hell of a lot like Roderick.”

I sighed and sat down on the bed. “This is unendingly creepy.”

Grandpa took a few steps closer and put his hands on his hips. Then I noticed that he was standing up a lot straighter than I’d ever seen him before, and he looked somehow less old and fragile. I realized with a bit of a shock that he’d only been acting like a weak old man in front of me.

“Don’t get depressed over this, Halle. It happens to all of us.”

I groaned in exasperation. “That doesn’t make me feel better! I have no clue who or what ‘us’ is!”

“I promised your mother I’d let her tell the story.” Grandpa raised held his palms out towards me. “Where’d she go?”

“Get me some food.” I groused and started to play with a strand of my hair. Oh great, even that felt thicker and a bit oily. I hated that stupid oil.

Grandpa patted me on the head, making me flinch once again. “Sourpuss. You should probably take a shower so Gavrilla’s Newt doesn’t smell you.”

There were so many things wrong with that sentence.

“Gavrilla’s…newt?” I repeated suspiciously. “Like a lizard?”

“Yes, only it’s the size of a German shepherd, flies, and is very good at tracking. Your mom bought you some clothes last night, they should be pretty comfortable. She already cut the back open.” Grandpa gestured at the shopping bag at the end of the bed I hadn’t noticed until then.

Slightly dazed by the news that my murderous grandmother had a pet newt that could fly and hunt people down by their smell, I nodded and headed back into the bathroom.

As soon as I pulled off my ruined shirt I had to clench my jaw hard to hold back another yell. Not only did the scales apparently cover my back, but they also continued to my chest. It was strange to process that I no longer had nipples. It wasn’t like they were my favorite part of the anatomy or anything, but being without them made me feel distinctly less human. I had enough foresight to know I would be getting that feeling a lot. At least the scales were pretty, the color palette making me think of a peacock’s blue and green feathers. They glittered even in the unflattering yellow light of the bathroom, and when I touched them they were soft like my wings.

I ended up having to leave the shower door open, which got the floor soaked, but I couldn’t make my wings close up enough to shut it. I wondered briefly if they would take kindly to being washed, but as soon as I rubbed my soaped up hand over the skin my whole body shuddered gratefully, so I scrubbed at the wings to get rid of the stupid oil. The skin was really thin and elastic, but surprisingly strong. It barely gave even when I pushed as hard as I could on it.

As soon as I turned the water off I felt better. No more of that oil, and I suddenly realized how I smelled better. The oil smelled kind of bitter and plant-like, but now I smelled like cheap soap. I wrapped one of the stiff hotel towels around my waist and walked out of the bathroom. I figured that it was just my grandpa and I was basically wearing a bikini top (made out of scales, but whatever) plus the towel was really only big enough for one half of me, so I only worried about covering the bottom half.

“So, do I smell better?” I asked, and when my grandpa turned to me his mouth dropped open.

“What are you doing?!” he put his back to me quickly.

I blinked. Then I noticed Kaz was in the room as well now, staring at me with astonishment written all over his face. When he gathered I was looking back at him his cheeks darkened and he swiveled around too.

“Am I missing something?”

Grandpa made a noise of frustration. “You’re half-naked, Halle! Have some shame!”

What the hell. “Last time I looked scales are covering up anything embarrassing. What’s wrong with you two?”

“Anatomy for you now is different than it was.” clarified Kaz, back still to me.

I blushed furiously. “How come nobody told me?!”

“We didn’t expect you to go waltzing around in your birthday suit.” Grandpa said, then I swear he laughed a little bit.

I snatched up the bag by the bed and went back into the bathroom. “Some birthday suit.”

Swallowing my embarrassment, I pulled out the clothes. There was no bra, but that didn’t really matter. No chance of any poppers now. The shirt was short-sleeved and black, and the back had two slits in it starting under the shoulder and running to the bottom. Very thoughtful of Mom, really. Once I’d put on the simple gray underwear and jeans I went back out, scowling at my still-smirking grandpa and rather mortified Kaz.

“Better?” I crossed my arms, my wings gave an irritated twitch with me. Grandpa nodded and Kaz looked relieved. “I swear, my life is nothing but one big string of humiliation.”

“It’s alright, kiddo. Not your fault you’re unprepared.”

I snapped my eyes onto him as I moved to sit on the bed again. “Ease up on Mom, okay?”

He appeared surprised I’d talked to him so sharply, but looked out the window noncommittally. “Alright.”

“Aren’t you going to teach me how to tame these things?” I looked at Kaz and gestured at my wings.

Kaz shook his head, black curls swinging a little. “I can’t teach you how to control yourself. It’s different for everyone.”

“Awesome. Just great. Not only am I part bat, but I have to go on some friggin’ quest of self-actualization to be able to stop looking like a circus freak! Can this day go anymore south?”

As if on cue there was a loud vibrating from the jeans I’d been wearing, which now sat in a heap on the nightstand. I snatched them up and dug around until I found my phone, which read ‘Ryan’. Shit.

Both Kaz and Grandpa looked like they were going to protest, but I ignored them and opened my cell, then held it to my ear. My finger brushed the shell of my ear, and I froze because it was pointed. Did new stuff that made me freak out have to keep appearing?

“Hello?…Halle?”

Ryan had started talking. Damn. “Uh, hi. Sorry. What’s up?”

“Steph said she’s been calling your house all day and no one answers, and I’ve already texted you twice. What are you doing? We wanted to take you out for your birthday.”

He sounded worried and disappointed, and it made me feel bad. “I’m really sorry, Ry. My uh…my grandpa had a stroke.” I gave my grandpa a dirty look as I said it, but he just looked amused. “He’s fine, but we’ve been in the hospital since last night.”

“Oh my God, Halle!” now he sounded really worried, effectively making me feel like a piece of crap. I’d never been any good at lying. “Are you sure he’s okay? Are you okay?”

“Everybody’s fine.” I paused, because the way my voice cracked sent off a ‘fib alert’ siren in my head. “But I can’t do anything for a few days. You guys will have to treat me next week.”

Ryan whistled. “Wow, Hal, that sucks. And on your birthday, too. Me and Steph will make this up to you next week, I promise.”

“Thanks. That means a lot.” I sounded miserable, but at least that kind of went along with my lie.

“Sure. Do you wanna talk?”

I glanced over at my stalker and my super-grandpa. “Yeah, but I can’t. There’s a nurse bitching at me about my cell messing up machines or something, so I’d better go.”

“Okay, but text me later. You sound really upset.” Ryan seemed dubious of how angry I was. “Bye, Halls.”

“Bye.” Grandpa raised an eyebrow as I hung up. “That was my best friend, who I just lied to. Are you happy?”

Grandpa finally had the decency to look a little offended. “We’re not glad that you’ve had to go through this, Halle.”

“If it’d been up to you I would have grown up knowing that one day I’d turn into…whatever I am.” I looked down at my hands and shivered.

Kaz made a noise that was suspiciously like a growl. “Would you quit insulting your race? Most people can’t wait to turn seventeen.”

“People?” I spit the word back at him like he was insane. “Whatever we are, it isn’t people. And the fact that anyone could be excited about the prospect of sprouting wings and looking like fucking Medusa doesn’t exactly reassure me on your mental stability.”

He stood up and glowered at me, hands becoming fists and blue eyes flashing red. “Do you think that because of your status and your lack of knowledge I won’t put you in your place?”

I deflated a little in fear, but Grandpa reached out and put a hand on Kaz’s shoulder. Kaz shook him off and abandoned his chair to stand by the window, giving me one last intimidating glare before crossing his arms and putting his back to me. As I watched him the material of his shirt waved, what must have been his wings ruffling in irritation at me.

Man, I’d really pissed him off. And he’d seemed pretty calm at first.

And what had he meant by my status?