The next day, Conner and Priscilla couldn't go to school. But because they were healing so fast, they could go Friday.
So Thursday, Priscilla did what teenagers do best. She stayed at home, ate frice cream (hey, the doctor said it would lessen the pain in her chest. And it's like ice cream, but since dogs are pretty much lactose intolerant, fruit was added instead. Thus, you have the frice cream.) and watched TV.
She was watching slated sheets, a dramatic romance movie about flying zombies when the tingle in her chest sparked up, and she could almost hear the flames roar. The pain made her fold her body over, and her breathing slowed.
She felt her gold and black fur turn to red, black and white like before.
It hurt less now, but that was still saying allot. And as before, the pain subsided.
A loud electrical pop came from the TV remote by her foot, and she yelped. Sparks flew, many hitting her. Some hit her pink fuzzy blanket, and she had to quickly stomp them out. Also by her feet, was her frice cream bowl. It was fine a minute ago, like the flowers were, but now it was completely melted. The stuff even started boiling a little.
"Holy chihuahua," She said.
The seat under her was getting very hot, so she jumped off. Okay, the week had been pretty wierd, but this was nuts. Wait, no. She was nuts; that was the only conclusion. Maybe she was just having a really crazy, realistic dream. Any moment now she would wake up, in her bed, and none of it would have happened. Not the explosion, not the hospital, and definitly not the crazy fur and symptoms.
She waited for herself to wake up, but she she melted the frice cream bowl. Before it made a huge, un-explainable mess, she chucked it in the nearest garbage can. She looked back down at her fur. It was still red.
She moaned. "UGHHHHH!"
She was so tired of all this! What the heck was going on with her? Why was she melting everything? Why did the friggin remote explode? Why did her frice cream have to turn into goop?!
Wait... that gave her an idea. If she couldn't have cold food, what about hot food?
She went to the pantry and grabbed a bag of popcorn kernels in her mouth. It wouldn't be a good idea to try heating it up in the kitchen, so she went to the backyard.
They had a big yard, and about a third of it was concrete. She decided to test it there, but she was sure to stay away from her mom's outdoor furniture.
She sat down, and dropped the bag by her paws. She stood on it gently, then took a deep breath.
She was ready, but how the heck would she control herself heating up? Before, it had been entirely accidental.
She racked her brain, trying to think of something.
Then all of a sudden, her entire body heated up. The popcorn popped quickly, and inflated under her paws.
She jumped away with surprise, and steam came from the bag. She cooled down, but steam came off her.
Weird. She heated up when she wanted to, and cooled down as well. But what had she done?
Again, she tried to find the answer. And also again, she heated up.
Wait... that was it! If she tried thinking hard, she would heat up!
To test her thesis, she tried remembering the details to a book she read in third grade. Her red fur glowed like it had lava under it, and heat radiated off her.
Okay, so she got that down. But what if she was in math class, and was trying to figure out a problem? would she set her homework on fire?
Maybe it only worked when she had red fur. But how did she switch?
She tried playing through different emotions, hoping one of them would work. When she made herself cry, she only heated up more. The tears evaporated as soon as they slid from her eyes. When she thought of something funny, flames burst from her paws.
"HOLY CHIHUAHUA!" She jumped, and they got put out quickly. In fact, her whole pelt shifted from red, black and white to gold and black.
"Okay, okay. That was interesting." She mumbled.
She picked up her steaming hot popcorn bag gingerly, then walked inside.
While she sat on the couch watching Slated Sheets, an idea formed in her head. It was pretty stupid, random, and dangerous, but it probably would need to be set into play in the future.
The FRR wouldn't be able to be contained by just any army.
********
The morning was chaotic. Conner's mom drove Priscilla, Peter and Conner to the high school, but they arrived nearly ten minutes late.
When Priscilla got to class, She made sure the door opened quietly. Miss Len was explaining how to do the test, but she stopped when Priscilla came in.
"Oh, hello Priscilla! Glad you're back from the hospital. At break, remind me to ask you about it." The thin gray hound said. "Just grab a test from my table and sit down. Luna can explain it to you."
Priscilla did as she asked and walked to the teachers desk. She could feel the eyes of her classmates burning on her. The tingle in her chest sparked up, and she could feel some pain in her eyes. Like a fire was starting in her chest, but someone poured gasoline to her eyes.
Hopefully no one saw, she hoped.
She picked up the papers in her mouth, then sat next to luna.
The chairs they sat at were low to the ground, along with the desks so the animals could access it easily.
"Glad you're back and better." Luna whispered as Miss Len explained more. "you're fur's grown back allot, it's only been a week, right?"
"Yeah. It's still not back to it's full length, but it'll get there."
"Hmm." Luna said. She had allot of questions, but they could be answered later.
********
Priscilla didn't want lunch to come.
Sure, she was excited to see her friends, but she didn't feel like seeing Teyah. She would most likely want Priscilla to sit with her cheerleader group.
After Priscilla got her lunch bag, she headed to her table.
As soon as May, a small shi tzu saw her, she gasped and practically flew to Priscilla.
"PRISCILLIYAH!!!!" May barked.
"May!" Priscilla braced herself, feeling the tingle in her chest.
May practically jumped on her. "It's been like, forever!"
"It's only been a week," Priscilla said.
"But... still!"
They started walking back to the table. Priscilla sat between a grey and orange corgi named Joy and a brown lab named Cinnamon.
a German Shepard across Priscilla named Jackie with a hat on smiled when she saw Priscilla. "It's been like, since last week when I saw you! What happened?" She asked.
"Just an accident." Priscilla said.
"I would hardly say just." May said as she sat down by Joy. "I heard you were on a date with Conner, and you snuck into the FRR laboratory!"
"Did they catch you? Or did it blow up, or something?" Joy asked.
Priscilla laughed. "We didn't sneak in. We just took a look from outside the fence."
"So it did blow up." Jackie said.
"Or they caught you!" Cinnamon said.
"If they caught her, I don't think she would still be alive." Jackie countered, her gold eyes flaring.
Priscilla felt the tingle rise up to her throat. She swallowed it down, and spoke. "It did blow up, but we don't know how. We were just checking, and it blew up."
"Why were you so close to the building?" May asked.
"Look, I don't feel like talking about this." Priscilla said, rubbing her forehead. "I've had a headache since this morning."
As if on cue, Teyah and three of her friends came up to Priscilla's table.
"Priscilla! You're back so early!" She said.

Priscilla had to restrain herself from growling and chewing Teyah's fluffy ears off.

"And your fur... it's so long!"

"Last I saw, you were bald and your skin was like a burnt hotdog!" Jennice, a border collie with a blue diamond collar said.

The other girls laughed, but Priscilla's friends were quiet. An un-seen aura of hate floated from them.

"But seriously, you should come sit with us." Teyah said. "We can easily invite the guys over, including your boyfriend."

"Thanks, but no thanks." Priscilla said without any hesitation. "I need to catch up with my friends."

"Oh, it'll be fun!" Teyah said, pushing her from her seat.

She pushed her away from her table, ignoring her complaints. "But... my food!"

"You could do without a few pounds." Jennice said.

At least I'm not starving myself, like you guys do. She thought. And I'm not that fat! I'm just fluffy!

As they sat her down, her chest sparked like a mad flame. She could feel her paws and eyes tingling.

I could be a model, if I didn't like pizza so much. She thought.

Priscilla heard a wave of hellos, and where have you been, and we missed you so much.

She didn't bother remembering the cheerleaders names. All anyone had was a coffee, or a small biscuit. The smell of perfume made her feel light headed. She used all of her energy to keep herself calm.

If I don't get scared, I won't turn red.
She thought, remembering yesterday.

"You've been out of school, for like, ever!" A golden retriever said.

"I know..." Priscilla said, her voice straining.

"We should totally catch up!" A russet collie said.

"Look, I can't talk now... sort of have to eat..." Priscilla said, getting out of her seat awkwardly.

She heard lots of complains, but she didn't give a crap.

Instead of grabbing her food, she went to the table Conner sat at. He looked just as uncomfortable as her, and she could see colors dancing in his eyes like fire. Unlike the girls, the boys were mainly quiet and left each other alone.

"Conner!" She said.

He looked up at her. "What is it?"

"I really don't want to be 'that type of girl', but I sort of need to talk to you."

"About what?"

She made an "explosion" with her paws, and made and exploding sound.

It took a second of recognition, but he finally said "Ohhh, okay. Guys, I'll see you later."

He got up, leaving his food. None of the guys complained; they just nodded.

They left the chaos of the lunch room and went out into the hallway. Their claws clicked on the red and white checkered floor. A few animals hang outside in the hallway, but only a few.

"So what did you want to talk about? I didn't really get it." He said.

Priscilla smiled. "It's okay.

"But anyway; this is a weird question, but have you been getting... red fur?" She lowered her voice.

"Well, yeah, but how did you know?" He asked.

"I've been getting it too. And just now, your eyes were changing colors. They weren't just gold."

"Wait... do things melt, or get hot around you?" He asked.

"Yes! And I just figured out how to control it, sort of."

"What?!" He said, a little too loudly. A black and white cat looked over at them, but she looked back.

"What? You... figured it out?"

"Sort of." She said. "I can barely control it when I'm stressed. But I can heat up popcorn." She said.

"What do you do?" He asked.

"Well, you may want to take notes." she said, knowing how easily he forgot stuff.

"I can remember." He said.

"Well, getting scared turns the fur on and off. Thinking too hard makes you heat up. Getting sad makes you get even hotter. Thinking of something funny makes your paws catch on fire."

Conner nodded, but she doubted he got it.

"I'm not sure if it would work for you, but it works for me."

The cheerleaders came out of the lunch room, talking and giggling.

"There you are!" Teyah said.

"We all know how much you want to talk with Conner and all, but we really got to catch up." A blond chihuahua said.

Priscilla sighed. "How about we talk later?" She asked Conner.

"Is five good for you?" He asked.

"Yep." she said, allowing herself to be tugged along by the girls.

"Ciah," He said.