Page 51

Although, he’d done it in less than a minute.

Maybe he already had the video. This could be a common family challenge. They probably had transformation videos prepared for exactly this situation, though that raised questions I didn’t have the emotional capacity to examine.

Another video arrived.

Julie: Did I win?

I played it.

Julie stood in the same living room I had seen in pictures from family dinner. She smiled into the camera, wearing a tank top and shorts, raised both hands in a tiny flourish, and transformed.

The white wolf from the patio photograph appeared. The fur at the end of its tail remained faintly lavender. Julie’s wolf turned in a slow circle, then sat with its front paws aligned and its head tilted toward the person filming.

“Six-point-eight seconds,” someone—Hilary, I assumed—said from behind the camera.

The wolf’s tail thumped against the floor, and the video ended.

My legs weakened, and I sank onto the stool at my small kitchen table.

Byron: Mom had a head start.

Julie: Preparation is part of competition, darling.

Byron: This challenge lacks standardized conditions.

A few minutes later, a third video arrived.

Byron stood in a tidy bedroom. Behind him, the books on the bookshelves had been arranged by subject. He put his phone down, then stepped back far enough for the camera to capture his entire body.

“I can’t let my mom win this challenge uncontested.”

His change took longer than Julie’s, though only by a few seconds. His wolf had dark gray fur with a pale patch beneath its chin, and a leaner build. He transformed back before the video ended, his clothes magically reappearing with no rips or holes in them.

I covered my mouth as more videos kept coming.

Mason shifted in a home gym, then immediately checked the stopwatch he had placed on the floor.

Someone I barely knew of sent a video of herself changing into a brown wolf while two small children cheered from a porch.

The videos came too quickly to have been generated in response to my request. Their backgrounds matched homes and personal details already shown in the group chat. The transformations differed from person to person. Some were quick. Some looked uncomfortable. One man lost his balance halfway through and returned to human form sitting on the floor of his bathroom.

Grandma Ruth: YOU ARE ALL PREDICTABLE. ANYTHING TO WIN A COMPETITION.

Trevor: who won

Grandma Ruth: JULIE.

Mason: No.

Grandma Ruth: SHE LOOKED NICEST.

Byron: That was not the metric.

Grandma Ruth: IT IS NOW.

Karen: Everyone stop spamming videos. Some of us are trying to salvage the evening without forty notifications about shift speeds.

Trevor: @Karen live a little auntie