"Are you sure you're not going to wear this? It's so cute!"

I looked at Genevieve over my math book.

"Rather die."

"Oh C'mon! You need to wear something nice!"

She tossed the short-sleeved light pink lace dress on a chair and sat on my bed.

She had been raiding our closet for the past half hour trying to find something for each of us to wear to the Queen's birthday that night.

Pretending I didn't hear her I put my math book down and pulled my ukelele from under my bed and began to lightly strum out random chords on it.

"What are you going to wear?"

I still ignored her.

"Are you even going?"

This time I answered by strumming the chorus to No by Megan Trainer and began to sing along.

"No, to the no, to the no, no, no."

"What? Why?"

I switched to Sign of the Times by Harry Styles.

"Stop your crying it's a sign of the times." I sang.

"Sign of what times?"

I didn't answer just continued the song dramatically.

She tried to steal my ukelele but I rolled off the bed and began to sing louder.

"Will we ever learn? We've been here before. It's just what we know. Baby, stop your crying it's a sign of the times!"

"Stop it!"

She tried to yank it from me but I rolled under my bed and began to sing/scream Grenade by Bruno Mars.

"I'd catch a grenade for ya! I'd throw my head on a blade for ya! I would jump in front of a train for ya!"

I was singing so loud we nearly didn't hear the knock on our door.

My face turned pink when I realized someone could have heard me too.

Genevieve glared at me as she got up and answered the door leaving me to quietly strum Riptide by Vance Joy and sing it quietly under the bed.

I heard murmuring then Genevieve walked over to my bed and lifted the blanket.

"It's for you."

I pushed my uke into place under the bed then pulled myself out.

"You look like the scene in IT where they're being pulled into the sewer, only played backward."

I ignored her snarky comment and walked to the door expecting Ned or Lou. Instead, I looked up into the deepest blueish green eyes that for a moment I could have sworn was the sea.

"Ziniba, right?" a boy with black curly hair styled in a pompadour cut wearing a light red short sleeve with a dark red bow tie and blue dress pants.

To intimidate him I looked him up and down while leaning on the door frame and judged he was one of the Auradon do-gooders.

"Depends on who's asking."

He smiled.

"What do you mean it depends?"

"Well if you where someone like a guard or something I'd judge you were here to arrest me or if you're the welcoming committee then I'd say she's in the apartment across the hall to make them go away."

"Well, I'm not either. I'm Sinbad son of King Eric and Queen Ariel. I'm on the planning committee for Mal's birthday in two months and we're looking for entertainment.

I heard you singing. Would you quite possibly like to sing a song?"

I heard Genevieve choke on something behind me.

"Um. How should I put this? No."

I slammed the door in his face.

I walked over to Genevieve who was a bit red in the face and coughing.

"You okay?"

She nodded and looked up at me through watering eyes.

"Yes. Just choked on a hard candy," she whispered.

A knock came at the door.

I frowned and walked over to the door and opened it.

It was Sinbad.

I leaned on the door frame and raised one eyebrow.

"Hey, um. I know it's kinda scary singing in front of people but, well," He sucked his cheek for a moment 

"I think you could do it and it would be absolutely awesome. Besides, it's just the Auradon kids it's not like it's a competition or something."

"Can't you take no for an answer?"

I slammed the door again but it didn't close all the way and looking down I saw he had stuck his foot in the door.

I ripped it open and glared at him.

"What is your problem?!" I snarled at him.

He took a step backward and tilted his head.

"Alright! You want to know the real reason I don't want to! It's because I hate Mal."

I slammed the door again and walked over to my bed and grabbed my ukelele from under my 

bed and began to sing and play Grenade from Bruno Mars.

I heard him keep knocking but I ignored it.

When he finally left, Genevieve came over to me and stared at me 'til the song was done.

"Please come tonight. I don't want to be alone."

"Then don't go."

"But Tony is going."

I tilted my head.

"Tony?"

She blushed. "I-I mean- uh- I don't want him to be alone with all those nerds."

"Yea I'm sure," I said rolling my eyes.

Just then our door burst open and something brown, black, and yellow whizzed through our room and dove into our open closet.

I jumped to my feet and pulled a dagger I kept in my nightstand out.

"Who are you?" I growled.

"It's Ned," Tony said walking in.

"Oh," I said putting the dagger back "What's he doing?"

"Running."

"I could see that but why?"

"He was trying to kill me!" Ned yelled from the closet.

"No, I wasn't. I was trying to comb his hair for tonight." Tony held up a comb.

"Same thing!"

"Ned, you look different," Genevieve said looking into the closet "Come out."

Ned emerged and indeed he did look different. Under his right ear was a large brown spot, his jacket was bleached yellow in a few places, and his fingernails had grown a bit longer and thicker and rounder, his eyes had gone from their normal yellow to a very dark brown that made the pupils almost invisible, and a bandage was wrapped around his left hand.

"What the-" I stood up and walked over to him.

"He was growing fur earlier," Tony remarked.

"What happened?"

"I was testing a mix of chemicals I had made." His voice had a slight lilt to it as if he was about to laugh but I could tell he was trying to be serious.

"Can you undo it?"

"He's been doing it already. His back was beginning to bend like an animals' when he took the antidote though he barely could hold it with his paw-like hands," Tony said.

"Why didn't you stop him?" I said, turning on Tony.

"It's none of his business what I do. He can't tell me to brush my hair either."

"So it's making you turn back into a Hyena?"

We looked at each other and shuttered. It had always been a nightmare of both of us that we might turn into beasts like our parents.

"Yes, but I wonder if it would work on normal humans," he glanced at Tony.

"No. You are not trying it out on me! Besides my mom and dad got turned into a frog. That's not exactly normal," Tony said backing away.

Ned was beginning to go back to normal so I just shrugged.

"Just make sure it's not permanent and you can continue testing."

"Are you sure?" Tony said, "He was burning the skin off his hand earlier on purpose."

"What?!"

"I was testing a pain reliever and I was seeing how long I could go without it hurting," Ned mumbled.

I needed to keep him away from his room as much as possible.

"Okay then! We are all going to the Queen's birthday! We have to wear something nice so we don't stick out," I said, then added "Too much."

Vote. Comment. Follow.