"Evan?" the girl asked, never taking her eyes off me. She was looking like she'd seen a ghost.

I tilted my head, trying to process it. She was clearly talking to me, but I didn't really understand what she was asking. What, exactly, was an evan?

"Is that you?" she asked, much quieter this time. "...Evan?"

Her voice was almost a whisper, as if she was afraid of the answer. When I didn't respond, her shoulders seemed to slump just a little. It took me almost a full minute before the realization came down on me like a ton of bricks. She was calling my name.

My name was Evan. I was a student here; it was the whole reason I was even at this school in the first place. The reason I remembered this building was because I used to have classes here. And Ekster? He was my teacher— the last one I'd ever seen before I was cursed.

I turned back to the girl. I remembered the first day I'd ever met her; she'd sat next to me in chemistry during junior year of high school. The next year, she'd started dating my best friend Gabe. Six months after that, we'd all gotten accepted to the same university.

How could I have forgotten that? Had I really fallen so far into my new life that I'd just completely blocked out the old one— the one I actually wanted?

"...Evan?" Olivia asked again. She was starting to look distressed, and I wondered how long I'd been staring at her.

I nodded and watched as relief flooded her face. She knelt down, and I sprinted towards her, glad someone was finally in my corner. The next thing I knew, she'd dropped her papers on the ground and wrapped her arms around me.

"We've been looking everywhere for you," she whispered into the top of my head.

Her eyes slid up to the posters she'd been placing on the pillars. I craned my neck to follow her line of sight. Even though I'd realized who had to be sketched on them, it still took me a minute or two to recognize my own face. In my defense, I hadn't spent all that much time staring at myself in the mirror since I'd been cursed. It was a little more concerning that I hadn't recognized the picture of the guy on the poster above it. Had I really blocked out what I looked like as a human?

Olivia caught me staring at those posters.

"After you'd been gone for a couple days, me and Gabe decided to put up posters. That's where I went on Sunday... when you were sleeping in my room... If I hadn't just left you there..." she trailed off, looking guilty. "I should have left a note for Sophie before I left. I just didn't think... I'm sorry."

"That's ok," I mumbled into her sleeve. I hadn't thought about it either.

With her free hand, she gathered the papers spread around her feet. She stood up and the next thing I knew, she was carrying me down the sidewalk, heading vaguely in the direction of the cafeteria. We turned down a slightly narrower path, with less people on it. As the crowd thinned out, Olivia leaned down to me.

"Speaking of notes," she murmured, "I got the one you typed."

I tilted my head up to see her looking straight at me. "Yeah?" I asked quietly, hoping she would understand from context.

"Thanks for that, by the way," she nodded.

As we continued walking, a wave of nausea swept through me, and I gripped onto Olivia's arm automatically. It took me a minute to work out why I was so distraught. This was an area of the campus that I'd been purposefully avoiding, even though I'd almost completely forgotten why; we were about two buildings away from the path I'd taken the night I'd been cursed. Fortunately, we turned right before we made it down that particular walkway. Sheepishly, I relaxed my grip.

Olivia found a bench and set me down. Then, she took a seat herself, placing her stack of flyers down on the opposite side of her. She turned to face me, and I couldn't help but notice the mud streaks I'd left all over her shirt. She saw me staring and looked down at it herself.

"It'll come out in the wash," she said vaguely.

I gave a kind of shrug; I still felt a bit bad about it.

Then, I looked around, trying to figure out where we were. We were sitting in a kind of courtyard, surrounded on three sides by a huge gray building with floor-to-ceiling windows.

I hunched down on the bench as my head darted from side to side. I was pretty sure I'd never been here in my life, and not knowing where I was had the cat part of my brain tensing up.

"Do you know where we are?" Olivia asked, correctly reading my posture. I could hear the smile in her voice.

I turned to face her and shook my head. That cautious smile she'd had on her face turned into an outright laugh.

"I knew it! It's the library."

Really? I turned my head around to study the building again. I'd never actually been to the library yet, as my barely-passing grades could probably attest.

"I thought it might be a good idea to go somewhere a little less crowded," she explained. "I mean, no offense, but I don't want to look crazy or anything..."

I nodded; it was a good idea.

"So, what happened?" she asked expectantly. "I mean...this... It's just... How is it even possible?"

There it was; my first direct question. I'd been kind of hoping to avoid that, even though I knew it wasn't exactly realistic. I just shrugged, not really sure what I was supposed to say. If she'd read my note, she knew everything I did. Minus that stuff about the talking cats and the Corvidae Conspiracy, of course. But I wasn't exactly sure how I was supposed to explain all that.

"I mean, I got your note... You said a cat cursed you...?" she trailed off. Apparently, she'd decided to fill the silence herself.

I nodded, remembering how Comet and his cohorts had surrounded me. Not wanting to think about that, I found myself glancing away. My eyes landed on the stack of papers by Olivia's side. It was still strange to know that was actually my face she'd sketched there. I mean, I always knew she was a fairly decent artist; it was just weird to think of that as me.

As I continued to stare at those posters, Oliva let out a strange kind of laugh. I turned back to her, tilting my head to the side.

"I'm sorry," she said, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. "It's just that I feel kind of dumb talking to..."

To a cat. At least she'd stopped herself before she said it out loud. It still didn't make me feel much better about it though, and my lip curled before I could stop it. 

"I'm sorry," she repeated quickly, her cheeks turning red as she looked down at the ground. "I didn't mean it like that— I just meant that... Well, you don't really look like Evan, you know? And you're not exactly talking back to me."

I sighed; I knew she had a point.

"Can you at least try?"

"Try what?" I asked. Try to be more like Evan? I wasn't really sure how to do that. As far as I could tell, I was the most Evan I could be, under the circumstances.

Now it was Olivia's turn to sigh. She looked at me, and I could see the wheels turning in her head. Finally, her face brightened and she turned to her backpack.

"I can't believe I forgot," she said, tugging at the zipper. She pulled out her laptop and turned to me, beaming. "I put it my backpack before school. You know, just in case..."

She opened it up and set it on the other side of me, so that she could see the screen over my shoulder. I looked at her and grinned appreciatively. I made a move towards the laptop, but before my paw even touched the keyboard, Olivia had scooped me up and set me right back on the bench.

"What?"  I asked, turning back to face her. Did I miss something?

Olivia grinned. "You should see the look on your face."

I scoffed. Then, still watching her, I made a slow move towards the computer. I wondered if she'd stop me.

"Just a second," Olivia said, digging through her backpack.

I sat there, tail idly twitching as I waited.

She pulled out a packet of tissues and a bottle of water. I watched her pour some of the water on a tissue before grabbing my paw.

"I don't know what you've been up to, and I don't care that you got mud all over my shirt. But I really don't want you messing up my laptop if I can help it," she told me.

I nodded. That was fair. When she'd deemed my paws clean enough, I turned to the laptop.

Thanks, I typed. Then I added, for all this.

I turned and saw Olivia typing something on her phone. I meowed to get her attention and she looked up at me, setting it back on the bench next to her. She quickly read what I'd written.

"No problem," she said. "I'm just glad I thought of it."

I was too. I craned my neck around and nodded appreciatively.

"So. Tell me everything that happened," Olivia said, nodding at the computer.