Don’t Drink The Gene Juice

Seth woke up in his sleeping bag on the couch. He blinked open his eyes, to thankfully find Skylar and Wyatt in the room in their own sleeping bags. They also, fortunately, were human again.

It felt super strange to Seth, that his friends had been animals only a few hours earlier. He was just kind of glad that things were normal again. He wanted to forget this happened.

One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to be using "gene juice" ever again. And when he had kids, he was going to pound it into them not to use it. Cause' that was freaky stuff.

Seth had been up for several hours before Wyatt and Skylar got up. He had a plate of half eaten eggs in his lap as he sat on the couch, watching some videos.

"Aughh," Wyatt let out a sickened groan. "That was a really weird night."

"Did you forget everything?" Seth asked. "That's what I've heard can happen when you change with instincts."

Wyatt shook his head. "No... it's just... the weird things is it that I do remember. My brain is all messed up, because it keeps thinking that I should have a tail, and be walking on all fours."

"Yeah," Skylar agreed. "I kind of have that too. I'd bet that you've got it a bit worse than I do."

Wyatt kind of made a weird expression.

"What?" Seth asked.

"I... augh," Wyatt made a sour face. "My brain keeps saying that I need to stick my tongue out."

"Don't indulge it," Skylar said. "I've heard that giving into the remnants of animal instincts can rewire your brain into actually thinking that way."

"Ugh," Wyatt said, "I'll try."

"I think you guys should eat something," Seth said, "get your mind off this."

"Yeah," Skylar agreed.

His friends slowly got up and made their way to the kitchen, knowing where everything was from countless past sleepovers.

In the meantime, Seth walked over to his room, and went through his closet till he found what he was looking for.

It was an average delivery box, with a label printed on it that said to ship to Seth Jones, from the company DeNeticA. They were the biggest company in the human modification market, and probably the most experienced. More importantly to some rebelious teens, they were the cheapest.

Seth took the box off the closet shelf, and sat down on his bed with it. He scanned the code inside it with his phone, and it took him to the digital manual.

He sifted through tons of legal information, ads for less flashy products, and finally found the information on how to use the stupid thing.

Most of it was unhelpful. It wasn't all that complicated. Swallow the stuff within a certain amount of time since getting it. Seth cringed as he saw warnings not to leave the bottle out in cold or hot temperatures, but Wyatt and Skylar's transformation fluid had worked just fine.

He looked at the bag that had held the bottle, and then grabbed the bottle itself from his jacket pocket. Both codes, after a quick check on DeNeticA's site showed that they were for a one time transformation into a wolf.

Huh. That was dumb. Wyatt had been right. It was just a dud.

He'd need to contact the company at some point and try to get his money back. But that sounded like a lot of work. It sounded like he'd have to fill out a bunch of forms. Maybe another time.

Seth hid the box, and then walked back into the kitchen. Wyatt was having a bowl of cereal, and Skylar was making some toast.

"So I looked at some stuff with my gene juice," Seth said, getting their attention.

"Find anything?" Skylar asked.

"No," Seth said. "Still just says that it was for a one time change into a wolf."

"That's really weird," Wyatt said.

"Yeah," Seth said, "but I'm kind of glad it didn't happen to me. This whole thing kind of scared me away from wanting to do this again."

"Coward," Wyatt whispered with a chuckle.

"At least he doesn't have fur all over his sleeping bag and clothes," Skylar said, brushing hairs off of him.

"I guess," Wyatt shrugged. "But I might try it again. It was weird, but really interesting."

"Go on ahead furry boy," Skylar said, "but I'm not doing it with you."

Wyatt sighed. "I guess I can see why you guys are coming from. This can mess you up if you aren't careful with it."

"I just think it's kind of... disturbing," Seth admitted. "People weren't meant to turn into animals."

"I think it's fine as long as you do it safely," Wyatt said.

Skylar shook his head, turning away from Wyatt's gaze. He silently buttered his toast.

Seth started up a new conversation, asking Wyatt if he was planning on asking Olivia to the Valentine's day dance. That thankfully got the conversation rolling in a different direction, and it was able to get Skylar to perk up again, rather than going into dark and brooding mode.

This had been a relieving morning. Seth had been gripped with stress from the moment he agreed to follow through on Skylar's dare. Now, he'd gotten off cleanly, and his Dad and Stepmom, sleeping in the other room, appeared to have not found out that he and his friends had been out doing what they were.

His stepsister Lily, hearing that Seth was going to have his "stupid" friends over, had literally begged to escape the testosterone to her and her friends girly paradise for the night.

It had been annoying, hearing her complain again about how much his friends came over, and how her friends never got to come over - supposedly. But he'd gotten through it.

Although last night had been far from pleasant, Seth had learned first hand that he didn't want to mess with this stuff.

There were worse ways to learn lessons about things like this.