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Mei gasped as he suddenly woke up from his nightmare. He glanced around as his vision slowly came back into focus.
...
"Mei-Mei, are you up?" His mother called, as she made his porridge with a smiley face in it. "Breakfast is ready!"
She placed the porridge on the table along with a box of donut holes. Jin reached for one, but she smacked his hand away.
"Hey! No sugar."
...
Mei placed his feet on the floor on his slippers, not noticing that his feet were now giant furry paws, that completely flattened the slippers when he stepped on them.
"Coming!" He groaned. The top of his head grazed his ceiling light.
He exited his room and went across the hall into the bathroom.
"Mm, porridge." He hummed.
He let out a giant yawn before looking in the bathroom mirror. Only, he didn't look like himself. He bent down to get a full view of his face, which no longer resembled a human, but a giant red panda.
...
While his parents were eating breakfast they heard Mei let out a scream and slam the door. They both turned to look over in concern, and Jin snuck one of the donuts in his mouth.
...
Mei was breathing heavily as he looked at his reflection again in disbelief.
"This isn't happening. This isn't happening!" He told himself as he squished his big furry cheeks.
He looked down and noticed his belly was a lot bigger, and he looked behind him at his bushy tail, and placed his hands on his head and felt two pointy ears. When he raised his arms, he suddenly smelt something off. He moved his nose to his armpit and sniffed, before he gagged in disgust.
He looks back at the mirror and started hitting his cheeks. "Wake up, wake up, wake up!"
"Mei-Mei, is everything okay?" Ming asked from the other side of the door.
"Don't come in here!" Mei shouted, turning around. He accidentally knocked some stuff off the counter and knocked some pictures off the wall.
...
"Mei-Mei, what's going on, honey? Are you sick? Is it a fever? A stomach ache? Chills? Constipation?"
"No!" Mei whined.
"Wait. Is it...that?" Ming realized. As soon as she said that, Jin froze behind her and slowly backed away around the corner.
Ming grew nervous. "Did the...did the peony bloom?"
"No!" Mei answered quickly. "Maybe?"
Ming gasped. "But it's too soon! Don't worry Mei-Mei. I'll get everything you need. Mommy's here."
Ming backed away from the door and ran into a room.
"Jin. Jin! It's happening!" She panicked.
...
Mei also started panicking and opened the bathroom door and tried to squeeze through it.
"Come on! Please!" He begged, but he was too big.
Mei pulled his face back, and accidentally stepped in the toilet.
"Mei-Mei, I'm coming! I'm coming!"
Mei got his foot unstuck and jumped behind the shower curtain as his mother came in carrying a box.
"It's going to be okay." She reassured.
"No it's not! Will you just get out!" He snapped, before immediately covering his snout with his paws.
Ming paused, and placed her hand on her chest. "Excuse me?"
"I-I-I didn't mean that. I'm a big gross monster!" He sobbed. "Stop it! Stop talking!" He slapped himself and covered his mouth again.
Ming cleared her throat. "Mei-Mei, I know this is upsetting, but we are going to get through this together."
She went over to her box and started pulling things out. "I have a shaving cream, razors, a puberty book, and deodorant. Regular, overnight, scented, unscented, strong, extra strong..."
"Uh-huh. Alright. Awesome. Just leave them by the sink." Mei said.
"Mei-Mei. Perhaps we should talk about why this is happening." Ming hesitated.
"No!" Mei shouted. "I mean, nah, it's okay."
"You are a young man now...And your body is starting to change."
"Mm-Hmm."
"It's nothing to be embarrassed about. But you may notice that you may be more hormonal, and that hair will start to appear in...certain places."
"Mom, please!" Mei groaned.
"You are now a handsome, strong, man." Ming placed her hand on the shower curtain.
"No, no, no, no, no." Mei whispered.
"Who must protect his growing body, and clean it regularly."
Ming was about to pull the shower curtain back, when the smoke alarms started going off.
"My porridge!" Ming exclaimed, before rushing out. "Jin! Jin!"
Mei rushed out of the bathroom, past his parents who were trying to put the smoke out.
"Jin, Jin! Open a window!"
"Somebody call emergency!"
Mei ran into his room, and noticed he had toilet paper stuck to the bottom of his paw. He tried to shake it off, and knocked some things off his dresser.
"I'll just go to sleep, and when I wake up...this will all be over."
Mei crawled into his bed, and pulled his blanket over him. However, his bed broke under his weight. Mei closed his eyes and took deep breaths, when he heard a poof.
"What the?" He looked in his mirror and saw that his ears had disappeared. He took more deep breaths and then his tail disappeared.
"Woah." Mei looked at his dresser and saw two hairbrushes. He grabbed them and started calmly brushing his fur.
Poof!
Mei was now back in his human form. "Yes!" He exclaimed.
Poof!
He turned back into the Panda.
"No!" He whined, before realization dawned on him. "Oh."
Mei put his paws together and started taking deep breaths.
"I'm calm. Zen!"
Poof!"
Mei was back to normal again. "Yes." He whispered.
He looked over to his mirror, only to see that his hair was no longer black, but red.
"Okay, no biggie. You'll figure this out Lee. Just be the calm, mature adult, you totally are." Mei slowly told himself as he sat on his broken bed. "You got this." The bed creaked, and he flinched.
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