Campus Creatures

McKenzie was still chuckling now that she wasn’t all… fluffy anymore, and didn’t seem particularly bothered by the evening air, despite wearing only shorts and Toby’s football jersey. She’d tossed herself onto the bench next to Elliot, and out of a sense of politeness that had somehow managed to hold up through the shock, Kira did her best not to stare. McKenzie was a werewolf now, she realized. Just like that. And she seemed to be utterly and completely unbothered by it. 

“Um,” Elliot said, raising a hand, “I have several questions.” Toby sat down next to McKenzie, on her other side, and threw an arm over the back of the bench. 

“What’s up, buttercup?” McKenzie said. 

“So let’s start with the obvious one first,” Elliot said. Kira agreed. She’d expected being turned into a creature of a different species to be a major, life-changing event that completely changed the way you interacted with the world, and how the world interacted with you. Had McKenzie really just taken that plunge? Was it really that e-- “Did you lick my face?” Elliot asked, and McKenzie laughed sheepishly.

“Hah, yeah. Sorry about that. It’s kinda hard to keep your, like, inhibitions in check when it comes to expressing stuff like that,” she said. Toby made an apologetic face. 

“I’m so sorry, you guys. I tried to hold her back, but she got away from me before I could do anything, and the shorts I’m wearing really aren’t built for, uh, changing,” he said. 

“Okay, okay, okay,” Elliot said, rubbing her face. “Alright. Okay. Alright.” Kira reached over and touched her on the shoulder. The touch seemed to ground her immediately, and she looked up and into Kira’s eyes, whose brain turned into goop and dribbled out of her ears, leaving all the thinking to the loud thumping thing in her chest. She opened her mouth to say something. No sound came out, proving that, while the heart is good for many things, its capacity for speech leaves much to be desired.

“Your other questions?” McKenzie asked, a playful smirk on her face, her eyes flitting between the two of them. 

“Uh,” Elliot said, “Um.” She was still looking in Kira’s eyes, and Kira caught her looking at her lips, and then she caught herself returning that look, and then they both sat there staring at each other, until Kira finally managed to tear her gaze away, and Elliot did the same, biting her lip absent-mindedly. “Hmm? Sorry, what?”

McKenzie looked at Elliot past her nose with amusement. “You two are… never mind. What was your other question, Elliot, my friend, you lesbian?”

“Oh! Uh, my quest-- oh, right! You’re a werewolf now?! Just like that!?! What?”

“Yup,” Mckenzie said and looked at her nails. Somehow, wearing an overly large football jersey and shorts, dirty hands and some leaves and sticks in her hair, she still looked more elegant and refined than most people Kira had ever met. 

“How?!” Elliot looked at Toby. “Did he bite you? Are you okay?”

“What we get up to in our private time is none of your business,” McKenzie said with a cheeky grin and a wink. “But yes.”

“I didn’t mean to!” Toby said, and even in the moonlight Kira could see him blushing.

McKenzie patted him on the thigh. “Don’t worry about it. That was all me.”

“And that, like, doesn’t bother you? Aren’t there like, major physical changes? I feel like I remember something about that in class,” Elliot said. Kira wasn’t surprised McKenzie wouldn’t have considered those. She absorbed most of the information about course material in the weeks leading up exams. Not that she was a particularly bad student, she just didn’t retain information by listening to people very well. Or she didn’t listen to people particularly well. Kira still wasn’t sure which it was. 

“Yeah, doesn’t your body change in your, like, human form when you become a werewolf?” Toby coughed and nodded, but didn’t say much more than that. McKenzie just shrugged. 

“Guess I’m just perfect,” the girl said with a shrug. 

“Aren’t you like, half an inch shorter than you were before?”

McKenzie gave Toby a glare Kira thought was only possible to achieve in animation. “Toby, we’re not too far away from the lake for me to throw you in.”

“I’d like to see you try,” Toby said with a smirk. McKenzie scrunched up her nose at him, Toby kissed it, and Kira turned away when the two were apparently momentarily lost in a public display of affection. Well. Those two were a thing now. Huh. And McKenzie was a werewolf now and she seemed to be incredibly happy with it. Sure, there’d probably be repercussions for something like that, but, well, McKenzie wasn’t really the type to worry about that kind of thing. Was Kira? Could she make a choice like that. 

When she looked aside again, McKenzie was leaning backwards against Toby’s chest and staring at them. 

“So,” McKenzie said, “with that out of the way…” Her eyebrows went up. “What about you two, hmm? I take it the meeting went well.” Kira blushed and did not look at Elliot. The not-looking was important. 

“It… it did,” Elliot said. “Some stuff needed talking about.” Kira just nodded.

“Elliot,” McKenzie said, reaching out and taking both of Elliot’s hands in her own, “this is probably the whole puppy thing speaking, but I have to be honest. I have to speak from the heart. You’re a great person. You’re a wonderful friend, and I’m pretty lucky to have you in my life.”

“I… wow… McKenzie,” Elliot said, “Thank you so m--”

“I wasn’t finished,” McKenzie interrupted. “You’re also dumb as hell.”

“Um,” Elliot said.

“Like, if you don’t want to talk about any gender or sexuality revelations either of you have had in there that were possibly already being led up to in the past few months, I totally understand that,” she said, “but if you think I’m going to pretend I didn’t see you almost share a romantic lakeside kiss by the light of the moon, you and I need to work on our conversation skills.”

“Um.”

“So, spill it. The beans. The deets. The tea. Gimme. Are you and Bre--”

“It’s Kira,” Kira said. McKenzie froze mid-word, like someone had pressed pause. Kira hadn’t planned to come out that quickly, but, well, she did trust McKenzie and Toby, and now was as good a time as any other. Only slightly related was the fact that she wasn’t in the mood to hear that name right now. It was strange; as soon as she’d become Kira, even hearing the first few letters of her old name was like a cheese grater to the brain. 

Toby’s mouth fell open, and then he broke into a wide smile. “For real?” Kira nodded. She was a little worried a sports-bro like Toby would be weird about things, but being a werewolf had likely made him more empathetic. “That’s awesome, Kira,” he said, and offered her a fist. Kira bumped it gently, with a little chuckle. “Always cool to meet another trans kid who’s figured themself out.” Wait, did he just… She looked at him with a furrowed brow, and he just nodded. “Hey, you came out to me. Seems only fair, right?”

“Hey, congratulations, girl,” McKenzie said with a wolfish grin. “And that explains you and Elliot.” Kira could feel her cheeks glowing. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Elliot demanded. 

“What I mean,” McKenzie said, “is that both of you look like you’re glowing from the inside, and it would have taken a major revelation for her to make a move.”

“Wow, okay,” Elliot said. “I didn’t come here just to be attacked.”

“No, but I did,” McKenzie said. “But we can give you two some space.” She got up, and Toby followed suit, but as she was about to step away, she looked at a point a little further. “Hey, that’s your friend Jonas, right?” Kira’s head snapped sideways, and she only barely managed to make out a vague silhouette walking down the gravel path, a little ways away, in the dark. 

“How did you…”

“Night vision, baby,” McKenzie said, throwing up devil horns in a display of dorkness (dorkicity?) Kira didn’t normally associate with the blonde girl. “He looks sad as hell.”

“How about we give you two some space?” Kira said, standing up. 

Elliot looked up at her. “Do you want me to…” she asked, and Kira just nodded holding out her hand. Elliot took it gingerly and did not let go as they began to walk down the path towards the forlorn Jonas. 

“Y’all are cute!” McKenzie hollered after them, and Kira felt herself blush again. Like it was how things were supposed to be, her fingers intertwined with Elliot’s, and the two stole glances at each other the entire way. Jonas was walking slowly, deep in thought, hands in his pockets and head down, so it wasn’t hard to quickly catch up with him. 

“H-hey,” Kira said as they got close enough for her to not have to yell. Jonas stopped and turned around. His face seemed to light up with a smile when he saw Kira; then saw her and Elliot holding hands, and even Kira could see the smile on his face was suddenly being kept in place by willpower alone. 

“Hey, you,” he said, and then looked at their hands with a nod. “I’m really happy f--”

“Not another word,” Kira said, holding up her hand. She didn’t want to have a miscommunication cost her what she had, what she’d always had, with Jonas. “I have three things I have to say to you,” she said, holding up her fingers. 

“O-okay,” Jonas said. 

“So, like, probably the least important,” Kira said, “is that I’m going to go through with it. I’m going to talk to the plant person tomorrow, do some research, see what that would entail, but if it means I get to be myself, I want to do it.”

“That’s awesome, Kira,” Jonas said, and the smile slipped back into authenticity. “You’re going to be amazing. But… what do you mean, least important? This is like, life-changing.”

“I know. But… well… so are you,” Kira said. She looked at Jonas, and then at Elliot. “Both of you are. That’s thing number two.” She held up the hand Elliot was holding. “Elliot and I have feelings for each other, and we want to see what’s there.” Kira turned to Elliot. “I know we’ve only known each other for a few weeks, but you’re really cool and I don’t want this to just be a one-evening kiss kind of thing.”

“You guys kissed?” Jonas asked, obviously trying to keep his voice level.

“Not yet!” Kira said. “I’ll get to you in a second, you big lug. Now, Elliot.” Elliot nodded. “If, after the third thing, you haven’t changed your mind, would you be my girlfriend?”

“I’d love to,” Elliot said, but Kira held up another hand, and then untangled her fingers from the other girl’s.

“Like I said, hear out the third part too,” Kira said, and she turned back to the boy. “Jonas. We’ve been friends for… I don’t even remember for how long. You’ve always been there for me, you’ve always stood up for me and kept me safe, and I don’t want to not have you in my life.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Jonas said. “You’re… You’re my best friend, and I’ll alw--”

“I want to be more than that,” Kira snapped. Jonas froze like a deer in headlights. “You’re not just my best friend. I love you, you big dumb idiot. I want to kiss you and be held by you and I want to be yours.” She looked between Jonas and Elliot. “And I don’t want to choose between you two. If either of you are uncomfortable with that, I totally underst--”

“No, I’m down,” Elliot said.

“Kira,” Jonas said, and he took a step forward, “are you… like… is this…”

“If you’re trying to ask me if I’m sure or if this is for real, then yes,” she said, and closed the distance between the two of them. “I don’t… want to lose you…” She very softly punched him in the chest. It was barely a punch, more like nudge. “I’m… I’m your Kira.”

“Kira.” Jonas reached over. She thought he was going to put his hand on her shoulder, so when he ever so gently touched her cheek, angling her face to look up at him, a drum solo went off in her chest. “My Kira.” He moved closer a bit, and she bit her lip, barely managing to look away. 

“If -- if you want to wait until I’ve transformed a bit,” she said, “I totally understand. I don’t want to make you uncomf--” 

Jonas kissed her. Stars. Fireworks. Crescendo. Cannon shot. Her heart exploded. Tchaikovsky would have been proud. He took her face in both his hands and kissed her like she’d never been kissed before. All her higher brain function shut off. If he hadn’t been holding her, even as gently as he did, she was sure she’d just collapse in a puddle. He finally pulled away, and Kira realized she’d been holding her breath that entire time. 

“Um,” Jonas said, looking over at Elliot, “I’m sorry, I think I stole that kiss.”

“Ehh,” Elliot said with a shrug, “you can’t steal my first kiss with her and… well… you two do look very cute together.” Kira was still rebooting while the two bantered like nothing was going on. 

“So, no offense or anything,” Jonas said, “but like, you and I don’t have to… like…”

“Oh, no!” Elliot said, holding her hands up. “Not at all. Malena mentioned literature about this kind of stuff, and I’m sure there’s a name for it. But yeah. Not looking to date you. You’re cool and all, but you’re much too… guy for me. No offense.”

“None taken,” Jonas said with a laugh. “But you’re okay with all of this?”

“Yeah,” Elliot said, walking closer to Kira, and taking her face in two soft, slender hands. “I am.” Kira looked her in the eyes with trepidation. She was still only barely recovering from Jonas and now Elliot’s face filled her vision and all thought for the foreseeable future. “Are you okay?” Elliot asked. 

“Uh-huh,” Kira said, licking her lips and trying not to stare at Elliot’s.

“I’m going to kiss you now.”

“Uh-huh.”

She did. Kira’s last shred of think was left on the gravel path.