So What

The mission was just too easy.

The Thieves' Guild had run out of some things like paper and surgical supplies, and Sally and I were supposed to get some more. They kept all of the surgical suplies in a special storage shed, and Sally split up to go get some while I went to get the paper, fire kits, and bottled water.
It was a good thing that I had my backpack. I landed by a storage shed and opened the door. Nobody here at the university had much use for paper, but there were huge stacks along the walls. I grabbed two packages and rummaged around for the fire kits. I put one in my backpack and another two on my hoverboard. The bottled water was in the next shed over, and I grabbed some water purifiers and dried food while I was over there.

"You get your stuff?"
Sally's backpack was bulging. It was true that we didn't really need the surgical things, but since everyone liked to have tattoos and other really awesome things, Jarred always got some. And since I was going to get one of those tattoos like Maggie, it was a good thing that Sally was getting the stuff.
"Yeah. Let's go changed." The skirt and shoes were really starting to bother me, and if I didn't get out of the shirt in two seconds I was going to scream. And I did not look good with Sunshine hair. The sooner I got that removed, the better.

"What would you like the tattoo to look like, sweetie?"
I examined the choices that I had. "Hmmm... I'll get the one with the wring of black roses with red thorns," I said. "Right here." I pointed to my forearm.
"Okay, sweetie. Anything else?" the doctor asked.
"No thanks."
The doctor held a shot steady and pushed the needle into my skin.
When the surgery was done, I peered into the mirror and watched the ring of roses spin and pulse. I grinned and looked down at my arm. The rose thorns looked so sharp that I half expected to be cut by them.
"Thanks," I told the doctor.

Hey There

"Does it look really bad? Be honest with me, Amaria."

I sighed. I'd been in the Thieves' Guild for two months now, and had been finally promoted from a Recruit to a Member.

Maggie, a Member of one year, stood in front of me. She had curled her silver hair and put a tattoo on her wrist. The tattoo pulsed in time with her heartbeat.

"Not at all, Maggie. You look awesome."
"Thanks!" Maggie's smile was blinding.
I peered at the back of my hoverboard. Something had gone wrong with it. Ah-ha! I ran my finger over the a metal piece, brushing a tiny pebble to the ground. Then I snapped the back on, stepped back, and flicked the switch. It worked perfectly.
"Good thing you got that fixed," Maggie said, touching her curls. "You're going on another mission, right?" Her fingers drifted from her hair to stroke the shiny tattoo.
"Right."
"You gonna dye your hair?"
"I heard that the newest fashion is supposed to be cherry red. Popsicle-colored. I'm not dyeing my hair red, so maybe... Sunshine?" I picked up a bottle of bright yellow single-use hair dye. "And when I get back, I'm getting on of those tattoos."
Maggie laughed and tossed a bag of stage makeup at me. "Go get 'em."

"Refresh my memory. Why am I riding one of these awesome hoverboards?" I asked. "Only royalty is supposed to have them, in which case I should have left my hair black and put on some better, non-stupid, actually fashionable clothes." I peered down at my floor-length brown taffeta skirt with hundreds of ruffles and sleeveless, skin-tight pink silk top. My skirt covered my shoes, but they had so many straps it looked like my feet were some kind of dangerous animal that I was concerned might escape.
"Because we're awesome," Sally said. Her outfit wasn't much better. She had on a really short cotton miniskirt that was the plainest shade of beige, and her top was dark green and had elbow-length sleeves. She was wearing flat striped slippers with bows all over the sides. "But I know what you mean. Have people gone fashion-dead?"
I shifted my weight to my left foot, zooming around a turn.
"Slow down or you'll get arrested, and then Jarred's gonna rip your head off," Sally called from behind me. I sighed. We weren't even at the university yet, but I stopped leaning forward and straightened my spine.
"Let's go," I sighed again.

Study Hard

This was just a little too easy. The worst thing that could happen was that I might trigger some alarm, and the sprinklers would wash away the makeup that hid my real, supernatural, wild face from sight. If I went into public without makeup- if any of us did- everyone would either stare in awe at our beauty or run from our wild eyes and savage expression.
I thanked God for being able to change eye color. If I went around with my turquoise eyes- yes, they were turquoise, and very bright, very wild, very supernatural, very beautiful- it would just be weird.
I tucked the book under my arm and walked casually toward the window. I undid the clasp and pushed the lower part of the window up. That was one of the advantages of the old-fashioned library- the windows could be opened. I slipped onto the thin ledge and swung my arms, one hand clutching the book.
It was only twenty feet to the ground. I stepped lightly into the air and dropped, landing with a very soft thud on the ground.
I cursed my CH for not being able to go faster, but I was in the woods in about five minutes. The alarms had clanged when I dropped from the window, but even though there was no sigh of pursuit, I took the long way, looping through miles of trees and skirting the lake.
"You got it?"
Tom melted out of the shadows. He had Sally and Jarred with him. Jarred. Why would Jarred, the leader of the Thieves' Guild, want to see if I had completed my mission?
I wordlessly handed the book over.
Sally smiled at me. "Did you raise the alarms? It's no good unless you set an alarm or two off."
"The alarms didn't seem to like me jumping from the window," I informed her.
Sally's wild laugh echoed off the trees.
"Good work," Jarred said, startling me. Then he turned to the shadows. "Take this agent to the dining room."
Two more members stepped out of the shadows and stood beside me. The 'dining room' was really just a few scattered chairs and an endless stream of food.
"Good work, Amaria," Jarred said. I thought that I was going to faint. The leader of the Thieves' Guild had called me an agent, but more than that, he had called me Amaria.

Welcome Back

It all seemed so ridiculous to me. Getting the Updated Weather Record from a barely secured library- was this what the Theives' Guild members went around doing all day?
I parked my CH and punched in the lock-code. Stupid thing. The university was huge, but the main library was hard to miss. It was huge.
The library was air-conditioned, with huge computers sitting everywhere. It was a bit more like a museum than a library. All the other libraries were a bit more modern than this one. So stealing the book should be easy.
I walked up to the lady at the front desk and tapped on the wood. She looked up from her book, her eyes widening as she took in my black hair. Not many people except royalty had black hair these days. Obviously, though, I wasn't royalty, as my clothes screamed.
"May I help you, Miss?"
I smiled, flashing my perfect white teeth. "Actually, yes. I'm looking for a book called the Updated Weather Record. I need it for a special report for school. My name's Amanda Rose."
Amanda seemed like a believable name, though few people had the last name Rose. Mostly people took on the last names of the gang or cliche they belonged to.
"Amanda Rose? I'm sorry, honey, but you're not on the list." The lady typed something into the computer.
"I'm a new student. Easily overlooked." I made my voice sound tragic. "I'm rather used to it, though. If not for my black hair, no body would look at me twice."
"No, you're very pretty, dear," the lady comforted. "If you came in today, your name wouldn't be on the list. It gets updated every Friday. Now, the Updated Weather Guide is in Hallway C 12."
I smiled at her again and walked off. Who says that sweet-talking never got anyone anywhere?

The Thieves' Guild

I'm abandoning my diary idea. I'm probably going to end up abandoning this one, too, but I really don't care. The girl's name is Amaria. It's maybe a hundred or so years in the future. Enjoy.

It just didn't seem fair that if you weren't living in such pitiful conditions that you lived under a bush and went without food for days, you drove a glossy black limosine, lived in a mansion, and was overweight. That's why I joined the Thieves' Guild.
"Okay, Amaria," Tom said. "Your first mission is going to be stealing a book from the library."
"Stealing a book? That's it?" I had thought that the Thieves' Guild stole things of more use than books, but...
"It's your first mission, and we don't want to make you do anything too dangerous. We aren't like your everyday criminals. Not only do we sneak, but we also blend. We're a team of genetically enhanced criminals," Sallie explained.
I rubbed my arm, where the scar from my operation still lingered. Right. We were super-soldiers. Jarred had made us like that, made us so good that no one had a prayer of beating us.
"So what's this telltale book I'm supposed to steal?" I asked, flicking the switch on my insanely fast hoverboard. It instantly snapped up to knee level, and I stepped onto it.
"You're not using that," Sallie sighed. "You're using this." She tossed me a classic, slow hoverboard. It was the type that students used when they traveled around the university.
I flicked the off switch and grabbed the classic hoverboard, which was usually referred to as the CH. These things weren't solar powered- it was pretty annoying, with the whole the-battery-might-run-out thing. Ugh.
"By the way, Amaria, you need to change into these," Sallie added. She tossed a miniskirt and sleeveless dark red top at me.
"Fashion has certainly taken a dip, hasn't is?" I said dryly as I carried the clothes into the woods and away from Tom's sight.
When I was finished changing, Sallie put my long midnight-black hair into a ponytail. She fluffed it until it looked like I just rolled out of bed. The newest stile.
"Get the Updated Weather Record," Tom called as I rode the stupidly slow CH toward the university.
"Make yourself look clumsier," Sallie yelled just before I rounded a turn. I shifted my weight to one foot and felt the CH respond by tipping awkwardly to one side.
The Updated Weather Record? What in the world?

Afterthoughts

Dear Diary,

Hello again! I actually had more than one meal today, which hasn't happened in more than a month. I've staked my claim to the Super-Duper Mart. It has food, and since it's in the seldom-traveled-to part of New York City, I don't think that anyone's going to take it from me.
By the way, I found out exactly what the mysterious sickness is! I don't know its scientific name, but it starts with an A, and it's commonly referred to as Zombie Syndrome. Wonderful, isn't it? it causes people to, like, lose their minds and become a cannibal or something. Pretty scary, right?
Well, I'm going to keep this short, because now I'm really tired. I just ate half a box of Cheese-Its (Fire ate the other half) and a few almost-rotten apples. Yuck.
-Direen

With, Without, Within

Dear Diary,

It's kind of sad how you're my best friend. It's even more sad how I'm talking to you, when you can't talk back... or at least I think you can't...

Okay. Now I'm starting to freak myself out.

Today I was seriously thinking about going to Broadway and risking the gangs. I mean, there's actual food there, and I was really hungry. If the gang leaders don't like you, though, you get killed, but maybe, just maybe, they would like me. I hoped.

So I was going toward Broadway, thinking that maybe, just maybe, I would be able to get out alive, when I hear something in the bushes. It really freaked me out, because there's lions running around everywhere and also people infected with an incurable disease that's so deadly that everyone who catches it dies, and it's also extremely contagious. Then I see a tan nose poke out of the bushes, and then a tan-and-black head, followed by the rest of the dog. It was a German Shepard, maybe a year old, and so adorable he took my breath away. I named him Firecracker.

(Yes, i know that i named the dog in my Black Sun series Firecracker, too)

It turns out that the only food wasn't on Broadway. After scrounging through a few grocery stores with Firecracker following me, I had found a box of Hamburger Helper, a few handfuls of dog food, an almost empty box of Captain Crunch cereal, and a few bottles of water that were just a little bit dirty. I ate the Hamburger Helper raw, drank two of the bottles of water, gave Firecracker some of the dog food, and stuffed the Captain Crunch and the other water bottles into my backpack for tomorrow. Fire and I slept in an old gas station.
-Direen

Answers

I'm ditching the whole shapeshifters thing. This is a new story about the diary of a girl while the world is being torn apart. Three end-of-the-world things are happening at once; sickness, World War 3, and, to top it off, an asteroid that will hit the planet in a year. The girl's name is pronounced Die-reen. Enjoy!

Dear Diary,

It's kind of sad when I start talking to inanimate objects. I guess that I'll just be thankful for now that the inanimate objects aren't talking back.

What started the war? I don't really know. What started the sickness? I don't really know that, either. And of course no one can explain the asteroid that's going to crash into Earth next year. Well, not really next year. More like six months from now. So whoop-de-doo.
Life sucks, and then you die.
New York City's in chaos. Broadway is Gang Central, and the only reason that people go to see the Statue of Liberty anymore is because they're compelled to jump off the top in an effort to kill themselves. Pretty stupid, because the only way to get to the top of Lady Liberty is if you have a ginormous ladder. It's kind of ironic that people go to Lady Liberty to kill themselves.
I had to abandon my perfectly good home, and now I'm living on the streets. I've been collecting paper for about a month now, and I finally have enough for a diary. It's kind of hand to see since some of the sheets are newspaper, but I'm not picky.
Breakfast this morning was a half-cut of rainwater I collected from last night's shower and a piece of moldy bread. Delicious. Yeah, right. Well, at least I had breakfast. And at least nobody's stolen my metal cup of my backpack. I'm not sure what I would do without my tattered sleeping bag or my picture of my cat, Whisker, who was ironically the last member of my family (besides me) to die. Poor kitty.
I don't really miss my 'parents' (they weren't my real parents). I had Whisker until a month ago, when the building we were sleeping in caught on fire. At least he died quickly, instead of burning to death. The building collapsed on him. *Sniff*
I'm currently living on the streets, looking for a place to live. The Empire State building is army headquarters, and Central Park is where most of the sick people are. All the animals escaped from Central Park, so now you see lions in the street and exotic birds flying above your head. Now to mention the stampedes of zebras trampling people.
-Direen