"I really think you'd like it. We do camping trips and volunteer work and stuff."

"Maybe. Maybe this weekend or something, if Mom says it's OK."

"Cool. I'll talk to her. You're gonna be OK, kid."

"We'll see."

Dennis waits around for the other members of this insanity once classes are over.

Asher walks over on his hands!

This probably does not help Dennis's conclusion that he is insane.

Lev is clutching a notebook to his chest.

Sigh.

"You guys have plans about what to do first?"

"Step one is to experiment with morphing. I don't know if there's a cap on the number of things we can morph so we should try to choose something useful to be on the safe side. Maybe cats or dogs."

"Well, I have a cat. We could... I guess if we go to my house and say we're studying that's probably less suspicious than not being anywhere any of our parents know about?"

"I'll text my parents on the way there."

"I'm gonna be pretty suspicious regardless because I am going to have to quit dance."

"Are your parents, like, super invested in ballet or something?"

"No, I'm super invested in ballet. When I turn 18 I'm going to go to New York and become a professional." He pauses. "Well, probably I'm going to have to save the world instead."

"Good luck with that. You know, if there's still a world and stuff."

"Eh, unless saving the world goes surprisingly quickly I'm going to get out of shape and lose my chance."

(This is a moderately implausible statement from a teenager built like a Marvel movie protagonist.)

"...I see. Tough luck then, I guess."

They can head to Dennis's house. Dennis's parents don't say anything notable, but they're definitely glad that he's bringing friends here and not wherever he was last night.

He does, as promised, have a cat. It's pretty tired and not very into doing things. He lets them know that it's basically like this all the time.

On the way there, Lev texts his parents about how study groups get you better grades, really, there have been studies, and he promises he's going to work the entire time and not get distracted with gossiping. 

Asher squats and touches the cat. "Hey, kitty."

"Is it going to be an issue if we all end up having the same cat?"

"Probably depends on what we're planning to do with the cat."

(The cat is very still. It was pretty still anyway, though.)

Asher keeps touching the cat. Is something supposed to happen at some point.

"I guess most people aren't going to blink at three weirdly similar-looking cats. --It's not, like, a sick cat, right?"

"I don't think so? Just kinda old. - You have to, like, think about becoming the cat, once you've got it."