CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

She played with the hamsters.
The gym was always free during third period, so she'd bring in a hamster, get all wolfy and chase 'em around.
She didn't generally care for eating them but the thrill of the chase was too much to ignore.
OK, yes. Sometimes she ate them. The taste of rodent fur is pretty nasty but there is a particularly satisfying crunch.
She tried not to eat them, though. She always felt bad.
"That was a mean old thing you did, Shersh," she'd think. Although she hadn't done it with her new name yet. But she assumed it'd probably go like that.
She was just playing with one hamster today. Bouncing and leaping. Snorting after the thing and drinking with delight every petrified squeal.
Oh, and this was a good one, too. A cunning little bugger. A tiny, furry wizard of zigs and zags. Adept at knowing exactly the right moment to dart under the bleachers or skitter into a u-ey, sending Shersh sprawling as her paws lost traction on the waxed hardwood floor.
Shit. What time was it? Ok 5 more minutes and -
Where'd it go?
Shersh sniffed around. The thing was nowhere. She listened but only heard the tick of the wall clock reverberating through the gym. That and, somewhere, a leaky faucet.
She sniffed the floor, trying to discern the scent of hamster foot from sketcher and reebok tread. Was that it?
Oh, she was onto it now. Trotting after the rodent's trail. The water fountain. Of course. Hiding behind the fountain.
Shersh approached slowly, gathering herself up to spring on the hamster.
She inched forward. Tensed her stomach muscles. Held her breath. She leaned around the corner, mouth open an... nothing.
No hamster.
OW! Something bit her tail. She turned quickly, whanging her head off the fucking bubbler. Broken. Stupid.
It was the hamster. Holding her tail like corn on the cob and just going to town.
Dang, hamster.
She snapped her tail, launching the creature toward her mouth and... was that a tiny knife?
The hamster had made a little hamster shiv!
She dodged the flying rodent and managed to give it a little nip on the butt as it completed it's flight plan.
The hamster turned its landing into an effortless drift under the bleachers.
Shersh was about to put her nose under there when the door opened.