In a quiet town that thrived on tradition lived a young lady by the name of Laura Douglas, a senior in high school. At the present moment, it was homeroom in the high school she attended. However, very few (if any) seniors were sitting down in their classes. No, it was one of the most exciting parts of the year for the graduating students- the declaration of who was to be this year's valedictorian. Due to this, a crowd of a decent size had gathered around a paper taped to the wall. The position was held snugly by Laura. She's been in an innumerable amount of AP classes, and passed every class with flying colors. She was the poster child for the school's desired academic achievement, and nothing short of a genius.

"Way to go, Laura!" one of her friends said as they walked away from the paper. Laura, basking in the glory of achieving this major educational landmark, smiled dumbly at her name on the sheet, which was bolded, italicized and underlined in Comic Sans next to the word she so desired to be called for the last six years of her life.

"Valedictorian..." Laura whispered to herself. "I'm the valedictorian!" Even just thinking about it made her jumpy, and mentioning that she was indeed the valedictorian gave her chills. She made her way to her homeroom now, spirits lifted higher than ever.

Her joy proceeded to shine through every action she'd performed throughout the day. Her answering questions in class had her voice squeaking. Walking around, she was jumpy and actually broke into a skip when she went to the woman's locker room in P.E. class. She even began to sing softly while waiting in line to get her lunch. She proceeded to sit with her friend group of five.

Matt, who was easily the second most intelligent student in the school, was the first to speak up. "Now, Laura, I don't want to spoil the ecstasy the revelation of your position of valedictorian has clearly left upon you, but I know well you're looking to get into one of the Ivy League colleges, correct?" Laura nodded. "You do realize," Matt continued, "that most colleges don't only look just at academic achievement but also at volunteer work, extracurricular activities and things of that sort, right? I know you've made sure you've done just enough volunteer work, but you may well be rejected for your lack of extracurriculars." Laura stopped to think of this, and her previously huge smile slowly worked itself into a frown.

"Oh god," Laura responded, "I never thought about that. Do you guys know any of them that are still open this late in the year?" Her voice quivered while she spoke, but for entirely different reasons from the earlier squeaking.

"The chorus needs additional members. It's almost always empty, and would be an easy way of filling the otherwise barren part of your portfolio," Hannah, who's eyes glistened like moonlight on a pond during a calm, cloudless night, stated. It was true, as well- it was common knowledge that the chorus had less than ten regularly-attending performers.

However, Laura replied quickly and shot down any hopes of another member of the school's choral group. "I don't really like singing in front of crowds. Sorry."

Steve, the other male of the group, threw his hat into the conversation, so to speak. "Have you considered a sport? "

"No," Laura said nigh instantly, "I don't like sports. Despise them, actually. Except acrobatics, which I have a certain degree of knowledge and nostalgia toward, what with my forced taking of it from kindergarten to eighth grade. I wouldn't make any of the teams even if I tried, anyway. The ratio of students trying out to students accepted is downright absurd. A high school sports team shouldn't be more selective than Harvard!"

"Whelp, I've got nothing," Matt replied. "Anyone have any suggestions for things poor Laura can do?" A few minutes passed.

"Well," Jennifer, the newest and shyest member of the group finally and suddenly spoke up, adding, "there's always the position of mascot. No one ever has the training in acrobatics or a similar sport to be able to do the job well, and most that would qualify are far too shy to go onto the field to make themselves a joke for a crowd, even behind a mask creating a decent degree of anonymity. Better yet, it counts as an activity to fill the gaping hole that would have otherwise been left in your future college application, and tryouts are today."

Laura had no immediate repulsion from this activity. In fact, the activity seemed fairly appealing to her. "I... see no issues with that, actually. Thanks, Jennifer. Your contribution to this conversation may have just provided my entrance into an Ivy League college. I... honestly can't thank all of you enough for that, really." Just then, the bell rung and left the students to disperse and assemble back together once they reached their classes. Fifth period passed without much incident, bar a jock falling asleep on his desk. The teacher had to yell at quite an absurd pitch in order to bring him back to consciousness, and his entire face was glowing a rosy pink color before he had even fully awoken. "It seems we'll have a new laughing stock of the school for a while," Laura thought.

Sixth period would usually be Laura's least favorite portion of the day, due to it currently housing AP Spanish II, her absolute least favorite class held within the entire high school. However, just as she began to set down the pile of books she hauled around her classes, an announcement came over the loudspeakers. In short, it said that all students interested in trying out for the role as school mascot were to head down to the place known as the Several Services room, for it indeed served multiple purposes- It housed school dances, assemblies, the area where all twelfth graders ate their lunches, and occasionally P.E. Classes. After Laura informed her teacher of her plans to try out, the teacher advised her to take her backpack along, and handed a homework assignment to Laura. After spending less than a minute at her locker, she was already half way to her destination.

Upon getting to the SSR, as it was colloquially known, the redhead known as Laura found herself in the room alone with the P.E. teacher she seemed to have the closest relations to, as well as the mascot's uniform, a neon orange dragon with a white shirt reading 'Go Dragons' covering its torso. A few minutes passed as the P.E. teacher and Laura vigorously attempted to avoid eye contact, obviously waiting for a certain time to strike prior to taking the assumption that no one else would show up.

Once the duration of time the teacher was waiting for was up (which ultimately ended up being about five minutes, a decent time window for anyone interested to have made their way down here), she broke the silence. "Seems as if you're the only one trying out this year, hmm?" Laura nodded, and a stapled bunch of papers were thrown her way by the teacher. "Excellent. You have the position for this afternoon's game, at the very least. We'll review your performance at the game, and tell you if you get to keep the position. Stay down here for the rest of the period to read and understand your jobs, will you?"

"Of course," Laura swiftly answered. "I'm going to need to know how to perform in order to please, aren't I?"

"You've got a good mindset, Laura. I just hope you have the team spirit to match the enthusiasm," her teacher replied. "Oh, you should probably call or text your parents, Laura. Wouldn't want them to get worried, after all."

Laura grinned. "Oh. Thanks for reminding me, Mrs. Elliot." Laura then pulled out her cell phone and began to text her father about her newfound after-school activity. Long text-conversation short, her father was proud of her (despite not knowing what activity Laura was participating in) and completely condoned of it. Laura shut off her phone with a smile. "I'm definitely able to come to the game and be the mascot later, thankfully."

"Spectacular," Mrs. Elliot said. "I'll be outside with the P.E. Classes if you need me." She walked out of the room, now leaving Laura in her lonesome.

"Well," Laura said, "I might as well begin to read this." She started to read...

...and continued to read...

...and still, while the final bell echoed through the halls, continued to read...

...and, after about an hour, she had finished.

"Laura," a voice from down the hallway shouted, "we're ready to leave for the game. Get the mascot outfit on and meet me by the front entrance." The timing of Mrs. Elliot's return couldn't have been more perfect in Laura's eyes.

Now, reading through the entire 15-page packet she was given wasn't a challenge. Getting into this dragon-suit certainly was. The entire thing was one sewn-together piece. The only entrance/exit was a zipper through the back of it. It was unlike any sort of costume Laura had ever seen, and she was certain at this point that it was older than her. She took her shoes off (she had forgotten to wear socks that day) and placed her feet into the costume, awkwardly fitting her toes into the three-clawed feet of the costume, then proceeding to have the same issue with her hands (she ultimately ended balling up the two fingers that couldn't find a claw near her palm. Lastly, and most annoyingly, she had to stick her head in. After numerous attempts to stick her head into the space left in the zipper, she finally succeeded and pulled the zipper back up. She was finally suited up as the school's orange anthropomorphic dragon mascot, and was ready to do the activity to fill the void on her future college application.

Just as Laura finished zipping up the back of her costume, Mrs. Elliot reentered the room. "Wonderful, you're already suited up," she said, breathing slightly heavier than usual. "Follow me. We'll get on the cheer team's bus and be at the baseball game in no time." She took off again, this time with Laura in tow.

Once Laura was on the bus, the vehicle took off in no time at all, as well as the mouths of every cheerleader seated on the bus. Many of them were painfully stereotypical, in fact. Half of the team was composed of only blond-haired, skinny girls who reeked of perfume and makeup. Laura despised these types almost as much as humanly possible. They all ended up popular and very, very full of themselves. Not a single student in the school was more self-entitled or spoiled than those on the cheer team. This left her with nothing to do on the bus ride, a bored expression and mind hidden behind the grinning guise of the mascot. Maybe one or two of the girls on the bus attempted to make conversations with her, but she did her absolute best to ignore them. She didn't ever want to associate with these types.

Thankfully, as it turns out, the school the baseball team was playing were in-town rivals. After what turned out to be an only about fifteen minute drive, Laura was stepping off of the bus once again, and following the instructions from the packet Mrs. Elliot had given her earlier. She waited for at least half an hour in a room by her lonesome, during which she took the liberty of rereading the packet once more. She got halfway through before all players and mascots were called out onto the field, upon the note dropping the papers to the floor and sprinting out of the door which had just been opened.

To be fair, she (as the first mascot for her school in over a decade) outperformed any and all expectations for her as the mascot. She radiated more school spirit than even the best cheerleader, and performed just as well as a world-class gymnast. For the first three innings, any onlooker could speak proudly of this new mascot, and their incredibly ability to invoke more cheers from the crowd than had been heard since... well, never before had the spectators of the small town cheered this loudly, in all honesty. The group reviewing Laura's performance had but one thought: "This girl has to be our mascot from now on." By the bottom of the third inning, the cheers from the cheerleading squad, the crowd and Laura had cheered the team on to a 3-0 lead. However, by the time the fourth inning had begun Laura was feeling a bit like throwing up, so she was permitted a ten-minute break to help herself recuperate and given directions to the restroom. She immediately made a run for the restrooms, and in her haste ended up running into an empty men's bathroom. Either way, as her features were obscured by the costume, no one would notice her had someone entered. She ran immediately for a stall and got on her hands and knees, hovering over the porcelain throne located within. Just then, she remembered that she was in costume. She had become accustomed to the additional heat it had brought on and neglected to notice any fragment of a fake muzzle in her sight, only focusing on the affection of the crowds and following the instructions given to her from the short assortment of papers. She reached around the back of her costume, attempting to locate the zipper, but she couldn't seem to find it. Opening the stall door and walking in front of the bathroom mirrors to assist in her finding of the zipper, she continued to fumble around until she reached the mirror, and when she had reached them she saw quite the horrible sight.

Laura got to the mirrors just in time to see the zipper travel upwards and disappear, leaving her trapped in the mascot suit.

This caused a surprising lack of panic in her. She honestly thought she was just seeing things, and decided to play with the 'illusion' she had just witnessed. She tried to poke herself jokingly with one of the fabric claws that the costume had, and to her surprise, it actually kind of hurt. It didn't make her feel the kind of dulled-pressure sensation one usually feels when a shirt or something similar was touched. It felt as if she had just stabbed her hand with a pencil. She moved her hands to a slightly better lighted portion of the restroom and observed them... and not only did they look completely real, but they felt like there was nothing underneath them. It looked as if her hands had merged with those of her mascot's suit, leaving her with the orange clawed hands of her school mascot... except in a hyper realistic fashion. She watched with fear as she felt the costume's arms sink into her skin, resulting in her having her arms turned into those of the school's mascot if it existed in real life.

And, given what had happened to her thus far, it may well exist within the next half an hour.

Laura pulled the restroom door closed as soon as possible. If this really was happening, she wanted to be alone whilst the costume's features became her features.

Laura felt an unexplainable sensation she felt as her body painfully changed to match the garb she had worn to the game, her internal organs changing to better fit the creature she was to become. She began to grow much, much taller as well. Her shoulders broadened while her skin merged with fabric to create scale beneath the white shirt reading 'Go Dragons'. However, one thing happened that truly worried her- the size of her chest shrunk to negligible levels, chiseled abs that look like they could slice a diamond in half replacing them. She questioned what this could mean, but dismissed it after a brief moment as to prevent herself from worrying any more about the current situation.

Her neck began to grow a decent bit longer as the changes progressed, adding further to her now impressive stature. Her face started to become one with the mascot, giving her a deadly set of teeth and a now real muzzle. The long brown locks of hair she once possessed formed themselves into a curved shape at the sides of her head, becoming hard as bone and white- her hair became the mascot's horns. Her ears, when push came to shove and the transformation of sorts came around, only came through as holes.

Now looking at her reflection in the mirror, Laura had an odd feeling to see the normally statically joy-expressing eyes of the school mascot displaying another feeling.

What followed her observing herself in the mirror once again was, quite likely, the most painful part of the transformation. New bones, muscles and nerves extended themselves throughout the tail and wings of the costume, giving them a new degree of movement and life that plain wire and cotton stuffing could never exemplify. Letting loose a (surprisingly manly) squeal of pain, Laura realized her voice had changed along with her neck. This brought the horrors of her chest's shrinking to new levels, and she realized what that truly meant. With the transformation into the mascot came a change of gender, free of charge.

Thus, as her womanhood and reproductive organs agonizingly disappeared and were completely replaced by the male versions, changing her gender, the she-turned-he cried a little. A gender change was one of the things he never wished to experience. Having to was just downright cruel.

He sort of ignored the changes taking place at the legs. The muscles within them strengthened considerably, as did the rest throughout his body. When the last parts of the merging had completed themselves, all that was left on the floor of the men's bathroom was Laura, now a male anthropomorphic dragon.

Visibly, at least. Laura's mind still had to undergo a few changes to fit the new body he was presented with.

New memories began to invade his mind, bombarding older ones and modifying experiences he had throughout his life. The new memories were being vigorously fought by Laura, however. He didn't want to leave behind all of the academic achievements he previously had, as well as the title of valedictorian.

He began to walk out of the bathroom as if he had been walking that way his entire life... he had been walking this way his entire life, right? Yeah. It's nothing new... no, it is, isn't it? Didn't he just turn into what he was...? New memories began to replace some of Laura's oldest ones. What was remembered as winning a spelling bee at age six by Laura was changed to a first place trophy in soccer at the same age, and all memories of a little girl named Laura from around that age and before started to slowly become replaced by the young dragon, all academic awards replaced by sports trophies of similar quality and requirements to obtain, all memories of a human father being changed into memories of a father with a species the same as him...

"Hey, Luke! Nice performance out there in those first three innings!" A voice, unknown to the Laura side (who was still fighting for even the slightest bit of control) was instantly recognized by the "Luke" side as Damien, the jock whom had passed out in class earlier today.

"Thanks, man. Let's hope for a repeat performance in the upcoming ones, eh?" Luke responded... was his name Luke? Yeah, it was... Laura? No. It was Luke. More memories were altered at this point. A twelve year old girl winning the Geography Bowl was replaced by Luke winning the state baseball championship for the school team. Other ones, up until about freshman year, were altered to fit the personality of who Laura had become- Luke, the descendant of the dragon named Drake Douglas, who founded the town.

The memory changes were cemented in place, the thoughts of Laura lost forever, by one last sentence spoken by Mrs. Elliot, who now ran into Luke. "Excellent plays during the first three innings, Luke. Keep up the good work." This caused the last of the memories, all from Laura's years in high school, to be replaced by Luke's years in high school. Parties with fellow members of sports teams, reprimanding from his father, and success in all of his sports teams were all strewn about his mind, replacing Laura's hours of study, constant parental praise and academic success.

Upon the strange voice that was in Luke's head leaving, he ran back into the dugout with the rest of the team, prepared to start the next inning. He looked around the field, and saw the team's mascot, being played by some sophomore who needed a little work to keep himself busy. Waving at the kid dressed as a representation of the founder of this town (his great grandfather), he saw the crowd from his school going crazy in anticipation of the next part of the game. Luke knew he had to give these people a good show, and he did, stomping the other team into the dust with a final score of 9 to 0, in favor of his school. He basked in the glory of this spectacular win for the rest of the afternoon, raving about it to his father and his friends.

In fact, after that day when the Dragons curb stomped their in-town rivals, no one could recall their ever being a girl named Laura going to their school. True, Laura had disappeared from the face of the Earth, both physically and in memory, but she surely would have been proud of the scholarship the one who she turned into achieved... if she still existed.