Lisa goes with Drew and Kendra gets a phone call

"How about I come too?" Lisa suggested, "You're probably gonna have a hard time getting into the girl's dorm building, even if you do have a key."

Kendra felt a lot better about that. "That would be a big help." She reached into her purse and produced her room key, giving it to Lisa. "Room 5G. They're in a combination locked briefcase. 19-28-6." She instructed very carefully and clearly.

"We'll be quick, Kendra. The house is unlocked and there's food. Centaurs don't eat anything weird, do they? Nevermind, dumb question." He got out of the van and opened the back doors for her. Kendra hopped out, her hooves clopping on the cement. Drew stared for a moment as she walked towards the front door, fascinated by her every move. Kendra rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand, placing it on her back. He almost screamed in joy as his hands touched her fur. Drew gently ran his hand across Kendra's flank, his touch was so soft Kendra shuddered a little as he pet her fur.

He pulled his hand away and got into the driver's seat and reversed down the driveway. Quickly before anyone saw her, Kendra entered the frat house. The doorway was a little small, but once she was inside she found there was plenty of room to stand up to her full height, which she grateful for. She had had to duck in the back of the van and her back was killing her.

The entryway was in between the living room and the game room, and around the wall Kendra could see the kitchen. She checked her hooves for dirt before trotting across the carpet and into the kitchen, tossing her purse onto the sofa. She found some hot pockets in the freezer and threw one in the microwave. She hadn't realized how hungry she was. The microwave beeped and she grabbed her meal. She looked out the window and saw the pool Drew had mentioned. It was nice and big and the fences were tall. "Probably so the guys can take girls skinning dipping." Kendra guessed, disgusted. She hated frat boys. Drew seemed ok though. He was right that he didn't fit into a fraternity very well.

She nibbled on her hot pocket as she ventured over to the staircase and tried to make her way up. She didn't have a lot of practice climbing stairs with four legs, so she struggled a lot. Eventually she made her way up, climbing the stairs at a weird sideways angle.

It was really just bedrooms up here. She had seen some on the first floor as well, but this was just bedrooms. She noted all the doors had names on them, so she decided to find Drew's. "If he's looking through my room, it's only fair I look through his." Kendra reasoned.

She opened the door and peeked inside. She probably should've expected the room to be messy, he was a college boy after all. She ducked her head through the door and stepped inside carefully. There wasn't a lot of room for her in here.

The first thing she noted was Drew's bookshelf. It was lined with fantasy novels and movies. A whole shelf was dedicated to various mermaid media. Splash, Aquamarine, the complete series of H2O: Just add water, even the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. After looking through his movie taste, Kendra was hardly surprised to find a collection of DnD books on the shelf as well.

She was about to move to his computer desk, when she heard her cell phone ringing. She checked for her purse, then remembered she had left it downstairs. She left Drew's room and made sure to close the door behind her. Carefully she made her way down the stairs again and into the living room. She could hear the ringing much clearer now and rummaged through her bag for her phone. As soon as Kendra saw who was calling, she was grateful she'd thought to bring her purse with her when she ran out of class. That didn't mean she was thrilled about who was calling though.

She groaned as she read the name of Dr. Conover. He was one of the geneticists who had been assigned to monitor her after she had opted out of further experimentation. Her finger hovered over the decline button, she was really not in the mood to be scolded by some old nerd in a lab coat. After two years, Kendra had more than grown bitter towards the scientists. This whole business was their fault.

Reluctantly, she answered the call. "I know. I know. How could I have been so careless, bla bla bla." She answered quickly, letting Dr. Conover know she wasn't happy to hear from him.

"You endangered the whole project, Ms. Black." Dr. Conover said sternly.

"I don't give a rat's ass about your stupid project!" Kendra snapped. "I thought I made that clear when I left. I'm more worried about not being seen as a freak."

"Well then you should consider yourself lucky you were only seen by that young man and woman. And we're all especially lucky they have no intentions of spreading the word of what they saw. Coverups aren't cheap." Kendra could almost hear him pulling his hair in frustration. She imagined the large stack of paperwork he would be filling out right now. That made her smile.

"What was she anyway?" Kendra asked, "I thought the experiment was only for horse genes? How is she a mermaid?"

There was silence on the other end of the line, Dr. Conover was thinking. "Truth be told, Ms. Black. We don't know anything about Ms. Hornick's condition. In fact, all we have on her is the portfolio on her being your neighbor for the initial experiment. We had no knowledge of any piscine hybrids."

Kendra frowned, "Piscine?"

"Fish."

"Oh."

"I would advise you to distance yourself from these two. The higher ups are considering relocating you, but I argued otherwise. You're welcome." Kendra pouted, she wasn't going to admit her appreciation for Dr. Conover looking out for her like that, but she did appreciate it. "And try to keep the experiment a secret. It's all still very classified."

"Fine. I'll keep your stupid secrets." Kendra rolled her eyes. "Can't you guys just trust me?"

"Do you need a pickup? Someone to bring you your formula?" Dr. Conover asked, he sounded like a mother worried her child was drunk at a party.

"No, Drew and Lisa are getting it for me. I'm alone and safe. Anything else, doc?" She spat the word.

"The lab boys are gonna want a metamorphosis report." Kendra groaned. Whenever she transformed, they always made her tell them how it went so they could make sure the formula would still work properly.

She always tried to describe the transformation using sciencey words, otherwise she got uncomfortable, having always felt her transformation was a very intimate and personal experience. "There was no mammary growth this time. The thermal energy was higher than I've experienced before. I think attempting to stave off the transformation caused it to be more intense than normal. Otherwise it was normal."

"Thank you Ms. Black. Please be more diligent about your formula from now on. We don't want this happening again." Kendra hung up the phone before Dr. Conover could. She threw the phone at the couch and let out a frustrated yell.

"One little ounce of privacy!" She exclaimed. "That's all I want!" She let out another yell and kicked the chair with her hoof.

"Kendra? Is...everything alright?" Kendra hadn't heard Lisa come in, but she was thankful to find they had only arrived in time to hear her yell, but had missed her phone call.

"I'm fine. Just frustrated I transformed." That was half true at least.

"Well, I have good news then." Lisa held up one of the vials of Kendra's formula.