New Story Contest: Transformation - Clover D. - 03/29/19

Contest: Winners

New Story Contest: Transformation

Submitted by: Clover D., age 11, Los Angeles, CA

Matter Benders

It was nearing midnight as Lyani stretched herself across the cool grass. How she wished she could just be normal! She fought back tears, remembering the incident today in phys ed, when she won a footrace by transforming into a coyote.

Their teacher had simply pulled her aside and warned her never to do it again, which she didn’t understand. There was nothing in the rules that said she couldn’t, but the other students were livid. They’d yelled at her and called her horrible names.

“Rough day?” someone asked.

She turned to see her brother Ronn behind her. She nodded.

“Kids can be mean. I get it! But different isn’t always bad!” he said.

She nodded. She and her family were matter benders, which meant they could bend the matter around them to alter themselves. They used to live with the Lakashmi, an entire tribe of matter benders, but a plague had chased them away from their mountain home and into the city of Philadelphia. It was a hard life for a matter bender in the modern world.

She plucked a mushroom out of the ground and twirled it between her fingers.

“I just want to be NORMAL!” she confessed.

“Yeah,” he said, “we all feel that way at some point, but . . . how would you feel if you were normal?”

The question shocked her at first, but then she thought, How would I feel if I were normal? Being able to shape shift had always felt like a talent or gift. Who would she be without it?

“You’re right,” she said, “we’re all different, but we are all special!”

“Darn right I’m right!” he boasted.

She smiled and shook her head at her silly older brother.

“Fly with me?” he asked.

“Anytime!” she responded.

They spread their arms wide. She could feel her arms growing larger, sprouting feathers, her face elongating into a sharp beak. And as two hawks, they soared together into the night sky.


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