When I walked down the hall people would look at me weird. My hair was in an awkward not quite dreadlocks, but not neat by any means either state. In some folklore Leshii steal women, so NO girl in my school wanted to date me. I was officially a "freak". Day in and day out I'd sit in the back of the class, and keep my head down, doing everything in my power to not stand out. One day I was approached by an attractive guy from another class; I might be a guy myself, but I'll admit he was what people would consider attractive. His voice was like silk.

"You're Anthony, right? That Leshii kid?"

"Ummm, Yea'. Vhy you ask?"

"I'm Tyler, I'm a Kishi." Though a rough voice emerged from his body, his lips didn't move.

"Excuse me, but I don't know what the Kis'i are."

"Not many people do." His lips moved this time, his satiny alluring voice was back, "They are a carnivorous spirit with two faces. One is a handsome human face, the other is a hyena face we hide in our hair.... to...allure our pray."

"Girls won't talk to you either, vill they?"

"There are two that will, actually."

"Really?! V'ere 'ave t'ey been t'is v'ole time?"

"In the corner of the cafeteria. Come on, I'll introduce you." He made a 'follow me' motion with his hand, and I followed him, we walked together.

  I never realized how big the cafeteria was until I had to walk, completely on display, across the whole room. Sitting at a far table were two girls. At first glance they both appeared to be human. It took a second look for me to realize one had scales beginning to develop around her dark cheeks, and neck, and extremities. The only "odd" thing about the other was her ears were pointing, and had small tufts of hair developing on their tips. They both looked up at us and smiled, the more human looking girl even waved. Tyler sat down and motioned for me to sit too. I did so. I sat there awkwardly for a moment before the girls introduced themselves.

"How rude of us!" The scaled girl nearly screamed with enthusiasm. "I'm Gea, this is Tracey!" She motioned to her friend, whose name was Tracey apparently.

"If you don't mind me asking, v'at are you two?"

"I'm a huldra." Tracey said wiggling her cow-like tail so I could see it. Even though she was speaking to me, her attention seemed to be fixed on Tyler as she curled some of her thick red hair around her finger. Part of puberty is hormones after all.

"I'm mbulu. I'm a frog-person spirit thing!~" Gea announced happily, seeming very proud of herself.

"She means a south African amphibious river spirit," Tyler explained, "She even has a tail."

"YEP!" She used her hands to physically pick up her black tail. It was relatively thin, with a large bulb at the end; oddly there was a muzzle over the bulb.

"V'y is there a muzzle over a tail?" Just as I asked, my question was answered when the bulb grinned, revealing shark-like teeth, and began to lunge at me. I nearly fell from my seat. The bulb was quickly subdued by it's owner, and placed under her leg.

"Sorry! Charlie has a mind of his own! One of the problems with my race!"

"Mind of..'is...own?"

"Yeah.. I'm not sure if my tail has a gender, but I call it 'Charlie', because I like that name... Every Mbulu has a tail with a mind of it's own that is always hungry..Too bad I gain the weight from all the food it eats." She gently patted her slightly chubby stomach.

"'Onestly, I like girls with meat on bones. Make 'er look more 'arty to me. More like s'e can stand on 'er own feet. Not t'at skinny girl can't! but.." I tried to dig myself out of the grave I had buried myself in, but Tracey, who was skinny as a stick, simply smiled; she had taken no offense.

  After several minutes of talking the sudden smell of something rotting hit me. I quickly covered my nose.

"W'at is t'at?!" I noticed a blush quickly erupted to Tracey's cheeks and began to search frantically about her bag. She finally pulled out a bottle of perfume and sprayed herself down with the potent liquid. I honestly don't know what smelt worse.

"Sorry about that. My hollow is just coming in." She apologizes as he put her perfume back into her bag.

"Your 'ollow?" The last question I asked embarrassed her, I really hoped this one didn't.

"Huldras have a rotten hole in their back called a "hollow", well, mine is just coming in so..My back is basically rotting.."

"T'at sounds painful."

"A little bit.."

"I'm sorry"

"No need to be! Those horns of yours look pretty painful." She gently reached out and poked one of the lumps on my forehead, that housed my still-developing horns.

"What does it feel like? The horns I mean." Gea asked, feeding spoon fulls of pudding to her tail.

"You know v'en teet come in?" Everyone at the table nodded, "That's how it feels." They all winced at the thought.

"I'm sorry." Tyler sympathized.

"No need," I waved my hand dismissively, "I imagine growing a second face is probably more painful." Tyler laughed, had I said something funny?

"As true as that is, you have horns, a tail, AND hooves, and they are all coming in at different times, my face grew in all at once, a one-time pain." I didn't feel like arguing about who went through more pain, so I just nodded.

  The bell rang much sooner than I would have wanted. Since hitting puberty I finally had friends again, true they weren't the run-of-the-mill types either, but that made them special. We all got up and made our way down the hall. Right before we went to part, Gea ran over to me, stood on her toes and whispered in my ear.