Priscilla and Conner reluctantly visited every one else, leaving them with huge headaches. Priscilla even let Teyah visit her.

It took their whole stay, a week, to get through everyone. By the end of the week, they had balloons, books, candy and flowers galore. They would have to throw some stuff away if they wanted to have room in the car.

On the final night of their stay, they let Conner visit Priscilla.

He was pretty much back to normal, but Priscilla wasn't as good as he was.

When Conner stepped on the pressure plate and the door swung open, Priscilla jumped out of the bed and ran to him, ignoring her pain. "Conner!" She barked happily, wagging her tail with joy.

They licked each others faces and wagged their tails, overrun with happiness.

"I-I didn't know when I would see you again, or-or if I could tell you how sorry I am," Her voice cracked a little.

"Hey, it's fine," He lied. In truth, he was really mad at Priscilla for making him go see that lab. But she took part of the pain with him, and she was closer to the fence than he was.

"We're all a little curious sometimes, right?"

She shook her head. "Well, yeah, but I shouldn't have made you go by the fence or anything. If I had just left it alone, then we wouldn't be here, and we would still have our fur and all." Her eyes teared up a little.

"Hey, stop worrying about it! Our fur's back, and we're almost ready to go home. And besides, we got to skip assembly week!"

She laughed. Assembly week wasn't interesting at all, just some presentations about internet safety and staying away from the FRR.

"But I'm still very sorry. I understand if you won't forgive me." She said.

"No it's fine. I forgive you." He said.

They embraced each other, then sat down on the couch to talk. Melanie and her parents joined the conversation often, adding comments when appropriate, but you could easily tell Priscilla and Conner enjoyed each other's company. They were awkward around each other less than a month ago, but they were hitting it off once they broke the ice. They made such good remarks, it sounded somewhat like two collage teachers were discussing a subject while being interviewed.

Hours passed by, and talking became less frequent. By about 11, Conner licked Priscilla goodnight and went to his room. The rest of the Donnells said goodnight to her as well. "Remember, we're checking you out tomorrow!" Her mother barked happily as they left the room.

Priscilla loved her mom, but did she have to treat her like she was five? She could take care of herself, even when she was much younger.

The night was filled with twisting and turning, which hurt her skin quite a bit. She was burning up on the inside and out, making just living an uncomfortable task. By about one in the morning, she gave up and kicked the blanket off. She enjoyed the cool air for about a minute, but then the heat returned. "Ughh!" she moaned loudly.

She rolled off the bed and landed on her paws. The movement made her wince, but by now she had gotten used to it.

She went to the bathroom to put some cool water on herself, but when she stepped on the pressure plate, it became very hot. So hot, that it began to melt under her paws.

"Ouch," She yipped as she pulled away.

As strange as that was, it was even stranger that it didn't hurt that much.

She tried to ignore it as she went into the bathroom. The light automatically turned on, and light flooded her eyes. When her eyes got used to the brightness, she looked at herself in the mirror.

What she saw... wasn't her.

A dog with lava-red fur, black ears and upper tail, and white bangs with a white v-shaped marking on her chest stood where Priscilla should have been. It's eyes shifted color like lava bursting from an angry volcano.

When shock passed her, she realized the dog she saw was her.

Panic flooded in her, and that tingling she felt in her chest erupted into pain. She crumpled to the floor, taking heavy breaths and trying to calm herself.

"It's not real, it's not real! Just a dream! Just... a... dream!" She said between breaths.

But it couldn't have been a dream. She wouldn't have felt any pain if it was.

As quick as it came, the pain subsided back to tingling.

Confused, she got back up. Her normal self was there, and her bangs had grown back. Weird.

Maybe it was a dream, but that wouldn't explain her bangs growing back. Well, it was an age where dogs ruled the earth and cats were building bombs, so bangs growing back wasn't so weird, right?

She left the bathroom and crawled back in bed. She could tell it would be a long, sleepless night.

********

By morning, Pricilla was extremely tired. As she predicted, she got absolutely no sleep. Bags formed under her gold, blood shot eyes. Her honey- blond and black fur was snarly and knotted.

The chihuahua nurse got her at eight, then escorted her down to her family.

When she got to the main floor, she saw her parents, her sister Melanie, her younger brother Peter and her older brother Mitchell.

"Priscilla!" Mitchell barked, running up to her.

They embraced, but Priscilla made sure he didn't press her skin too hard.

"It's been so long! And your fur, it's so... long!"

She laughed. "Yeah, it's been growing pretty fast. A little too fast if you ask me."

They laughed again and Peter came up to her. Like the boys in the family, they all resembled dad, with thick silver and white fur. But Mitchell looked more professional, with trimmed bangs and always wearing ties. But Peter, was obviously more modern. He had headphones around his neck, and his bangs were long and shaggy.

He smiled weakly at them. "'Sup, brother?" Priscilla asked, curling her paw into a fist and holding it out.

"The sky." He replied while hitting her paw with his.

Priscilla's dad checked her out, then they all loaded in the car. As they started to pull away, Priscilla remembered Conner again. She had forgotten to say goodbye! He was probably worried about her, or something. Even if he wasn't, it was just good manners to tell him goodbye.

Well, she lived only a few blocks from his house, so if she wanted she could go over and talk to him. She made a note to herself to do so later.

When they pulled out of the dense traffic of the city, they emerged into a desert. It was practically just sage brush and red sand that went on for miles, with purple mountains in the background.

Priscilla noticed the shiny compound in the distance. In the daylight, it was very hard to spot unless you knew what you were looking for. No wonder she hadn't noticed it before.

They arrived at home, and Priscilla hopped out of the car faster than anyone else. She went to go see how her red delilahs were growing. She felt the dirt around their stems; it was very moist, and the flowers were becoming brown. "Who watered my flowers while I was gone?" She asked.

"Huh? Oh, I did." Peter said, then when back to his tap pad.

Priscilla huffed. "You flooded them!"

"Hey, they would have died without me." He countered.

"They're already dead! And your not supposed to water them every day! They would have been fine with a fourth this much."

He blew his bangs from his face. "Hey, I was just trying to help."

She exhaled. "I know; sorry. I shouldn't have blown up."

They went in the house for breakfast, but Priscilla stayed out with her dead flowers. She felt like crying; her delilahs were her pride. The whole neighborhood loved them.

When she looked back down at them, they had shriveled up like raisins, and the dirt was bone-dry. Hmm. Weird. They were flooded just a second ago. Could it have been that sudden burst of heat that came by?

It didn't seem likely that a strong enough heat would just come along, but there wasn't any other explanation, so she just accepted it and went inside.