Morph.

Chapter 6

Saturday morning. 9.45am. Usually I'd prefer to be in the shape of a wolf, doing a bit of cardio in the woods nearby. Or a hawk - I still need the practice taking on that shape, anyway. Instead I'm sitting on the couch, the TV is on but I'm not sure what's being shown. Tobias is already 15 minutes late. It's not that I'm keen on this whole convention, I'm just a massive fan of punctuality. OK, I'll give Tobias some credit. He seems like a cool guy and I'm sure hanging out and getting to know him would be a great way to spend the weekend as well. If only he would be a little more-

A car horn blares outside my house. 

I open the front door and see Tobias standing by his car, waving.

"Morning! Sorry I'm late! Kinda' overslept.", he yells.

"Kind of? What kind of excuse is that?", I yell back. "Give me a minute".

I grab my keys, tell Mum and Dad and Lisa I'm heading out before Dad gets a bright idea about inviting him inside the house. Mum and I shoot him a glance. He says he's just joking.

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"So, how's everything?", he asks as we head off.

"It's good, I guess. Nothing much. Yourself?".

"Ah well, good. All the more better that we get to hang out.", he smiles.

What the hell does that mean?

I chuckle. "Don't get too far ahead of yourself. This better be worth my time", I decide to play hard.

"It will. Especially since you said you fancy all this fantasy settings and whatnot. Plus, the novel that's launching is pretty cool I heard". He shifts a gear and the drivetrain buckles a little bit. "Sorry, old car". 

"At least you have a car.". So far, so good. Nothing awkward and he does seem like a genuinely nice guy. "Though I really have to tell you, I'm not a huge massive fan of....well, these kind of things. I just like certain novels." 

"Certain novels? Not even TV shows?". The drivetrain buckles, this time round a lot smoother.

"Nah, don't watch a lot of TV. Yeah, novels, you know books-"

"About shapeshifters? People turning into other people and animals and stuff?", he cuts me off.

I freeze at that. How does he know to say shapeshifters out of vampires, zombies and everything else?!

"C'mon! I remember you reading that shapeshifter novel the first time I met you. Remember? Orientation? Lunch?".

"Oh yes! Yeah, that. Guess you can call me a geek, huh?", I laugh, thankful for the safe topic change and also because it's nice chatting with Tobias.

"Haha! I like geeky girls, just so you know! I used to read heaps of Animorph books when I was much younger. Do you guys get have that in Australia?".

"Yes! I remember those! The covers were actually the reasons I picked them up in the first place!". So I guess he's familiar with the concept of people morphing into animals.

It's safe to assume that the rest of the journey was actually pretty cool considering I got to know Tobias a lot better and his obsession with everything sci-fi and fantasy. He's a big fan of zombies and the supernatural. Not so much on shapeshifters, though.

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It was noon by the time we arrived at the convention. Big was one word to describe the scale of the event. I thought conventions like that would resemble something on a much smaller scale. This was almost comparable to an autoshow.