Sometime during the first few months of Val’s stay in Troy House, Dr. Penny invited her to Archimedes Genomics for a “checkup.” Val shrugged, knowing that this was probably about something else. Anyway, she made her excuses to the girls and made her way to Archimedes. As per usual, there was a bunch of hangers-on walking with her, and to shake them, she said she needed to go somewhere and took her jeep. She drove away from Troy and Archimedes to fake them out, and drove the long way around approaching the lab and the school from the side of the lab – that way, no one would see.

It turned out to be nothing, though.

Dr. Penny went through the motions, measured her height and weight, put a stethoscope on and checked her heart and breathing, took some blood for testing, and did a cursory medical interview. Both of them knew it was just for show but they still went through the motions.

“You know, Doc,” Val said, I’ve been feeling twinges and things, and I’ve been getting, um, cravings and kind of urgings. Like, from time to time, I want to eat something sweet or savory or whatever. Or like I want to do some laps in the track or the pool. You know?”

She didn’t mention that she’d also been getting lots of urges of the… sexual kind as well: almost every night, she’d get erotic dreams, usually revolving around Craig of the girls. She checked, and according to WebMD, they’re probably a girl’s version of a wet dream, and she’d get these sudden lightning-like attractions for some of the kids, almost like getting a charley horse or a cramp in their suddenness and sharpness, and in less than a minute they’d disappear. Sometimes these “cramps” would come in rapid succession and she’d have to excuse herself from class to go to the restroom and splash her face with cold water.

Doctor Penny nodded. “Those are part of the changes, my dear. You’re starting to stabilize. When all the changes are done, they’ll fade away.” She smiled at Val knowingly. “You’re not telling everything, I think.”

“Um….”

“Don’t worry about it. I went through the same changes when I was a senior. Maia, too. But most of the others don’t feel anything when they’re stabilizing. From all that we know, it depends on how high your Kodikos score is.

“Also, stabilizing doesn’t mean you won’t be going through the usual hormonal changes everyone gets, including normals. I suspect you’ll still be undergoing the usual things even after you’re done stabilizing. You’re still young girl-wise, and haven’t completely gone through puberty yet. You’ll probably see more changes in your hips and breasts and height. I know you’re pretty tall already, but I don’t think it’ll stop until maybe you’re eighteen or so.”

“Oh, no… How tall do you think I’ll end up being?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Doc, have my friends gotten their, um, doses of ambrosia already?”

“Actually, most everyone gets their doses towards the end of their third year – the ones with lower scores take a little bit more time stabilizing. Your friends, plus a few others, got theirs at the first day of the fall semester.“

Anyway, Dr. Penny eventually told her why she wanted to talk to her. According to Dr. Penny, they wanted her to switch names – not to change her name again, because it’s not necessary anymore, but to start using her new name now, and not refer to herself as “Val.”

Val shrugged. At the start of it all, Val was scared that she’d lose her identity. But over the summer, she learned that who she was wasn’t in jeopardy of disappearing. She learned that whether as a boy or a girl, it didn’t matter, so long as she remained true to her beliefs and her inner being. It’s not as if she’d lose all the memories she had accumulated as Val Edward, or lose her feelings for the people she loved. She supposed it was an advantage that Val Edward was mostly a loner, and he therefore only had a few “real” loved ones - like her folks, Carla and Michael. That meant she had fewer people to make sure were okay with it.

She remembered that very hackneyed line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet - “What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”

So, when Dr. Penny asked her, it wasn’t a big deal to her anymore – it’s just a name, not what she was.

“Sure, I can start calling myself Faye Valentine now. Look.”

She took a pen and prescription pad from Dr. Penny’s table and wrote her name - “Faye Valentine Goodchilde” - three times in a stylized, curlicued way. She also wrote “Val Goodchilde” and “Val” in the same style. She showed it to Dr. Penny. “It’s my signature. I’ve been using it for months now.”

She then switched to a new sheet. “’Kay, let’s see.”

She tried writing “Faye Goodchilde” and “Faye” in the same style six times. “I think I got it.”

She showed the pad to Dr. Penny.

“Cute. And I assume you’d be using ‘Faye’ as your usual day-to-day name?”

“Being ‘Faye’ would be great,” she smiled. “But being ‘Valentine’ would be cuter.”

“Which would you prefer?”

She shrugged. “Both are okay.”

“Well, pick one.”

“I guess Faye would be cute, too. I guess Faye it is. Besides, it’s shorter easier to say.”

“Yes.”

Val became serious. “It’s funny to be picking my name. It’s not like inventing a Facebook name, or an Instagram or Tiktok name, after all… I’m picking my real name for realz. Faye… IRL…”

“How do you feel about that.”

“Oh, it doesn’t bother me in that way, don’t worry, Doc,” she said, reading between the lines. “But…” she sighed. “How do I tell my folks and my friends?”

“Oh, don’t worry, Val. Oh! I mean ‘Faye.’” Both of them giggled. “Refer to yourself as Faye and people will get the message.”

“’Kay.” She looked thoughtful. “Doc? What brought this on anyway?”

“You know about Erin Smith, right? I mean Hercules… Well, I’ve heard from the HQ in Athens that the people there say Smith may have a spy among their staff. They’re on it, and I’m sure they’ll flush him or her out eventually. But that spy may have been there for a long time already. We didn’t suspect because no one has any reason to be spying on us - no one knows about what we really do, except one person – and that’s Erin. I mean Hercules. In the meantime, we’re locking down everything until we track this spy down. And if it is Hercules who’s behind this, then we need to take steps so that he doesn’t find out about you.

“I’ve had Maia change your records at Delos, for example. By tomorrow, all your records will be deleted, and as for our records here, we’ll just take out any references about which school you transferred from. If ever they find out about Val Edward, they won’t connect it to a Faye Valentine since she wouldn’t have any connections to Delos. The Goodchilde name, though, is a little unusual, but we’ve found maybe a hundred normal senior students in the US that transferred from one school to another. Half a dozen of them are even in Chicago. Maia’s going to plant some information in her Delos records – nothing major, just enough to obfuscate things, and suggest that any data our spy or whoever digs up will point to these kids.”

“What, specifically?”

“I don’t know – I didn’t bother about the details – in things like these, Maia’s the best. But she did say ‘just hints’ so her records aren’t further messed up. Besides, Mr. Daimon won’t be happy with her if she messes up his records even further.

“So if Hercules should turn up, he won’t track you via any Delos records.”

“I can take care of myself, you know.”

“Well… I don’t know about that.”

“Doc!” Faye said indignantly.

“Sorry, sweetie, but you’re not exactly ready for someone like Hercules. Anyway, that’s it, my dear. Sorry to have messed up your afternoon.”

Val, or “Faye,” hugged her and went back to her jeep. She drove in the reverse direction as she did coming in, and went to a place called Cask and Kettle first, and bought burgers and poutine for take-out for herself and the girls.

As she waited for her order to be ready, she thought of the meanings of names, and of self. When one thinks of “dog,” for example, one has an idea of what a dog was. Not all dogs are the same, of course. So even the generic “dog” can’t apply to all dogs. It may sound dumb but she extended the analogy to herself. She had, in her mind who “Val Edward” was, or at least her idea of him. She also had in her mind who “Faye Valentine” was.

She imagined the two as being separate people living in her head. For some reason, they looked the same in her imagination, living together in her head. Val Edward was a lonely loner (those two things not necessarily being the same) beset with problems and desperately looking for a way to be happy. But he was kind, smart, friendly, generous, and would not be averse to fighting for what he believed in, and for the people he loved.

As for Faye Valentine, She imagined her as a beautiful, confident, and outgoing young woman, but she was also kind, smart, friendly, generous, brave – traits that she inherited from Val Edward.

The question now was Faye… She had assumed that “Faye” was her present “her” already. But that throwaway comment of Dr. Penny, about her not being ready, made her realize that she wasn’t “done” yet. She remembered that the stabilizing thing took nine months. And she still had a ways to go. She was definitely still changing. In her checkup with Dr. Penny, she was now an inch taller, ten pounds lighter, and was now sporting C-cups (which she knew because she had to buy bigger bras the weekend before). But more than that, she was feeling more confident and more assured of herself with friends galore. And besides that, she could still feel changes happening. And she didn’t think it was adolescent hormonal changes. Actually, if it was, she wouldn’t know. But Dr. Penny already said it was part of the stabilization thing.

In her mind, there were three now, Val Edward, Faye Valentine, and there was Faye now. And What Faye is and will be, she still didn’t know.

- - - - - -

When Faye came back to the dorm, she invited everyone to burgers and poutine. Everyone picnicked in Momo’s room. Her’s was the roomiest among the girls’ rooms, now that Val, or “Faye,” got the new closet. Faye decided to bring in her folding chairs to supplement Momo-chan’s but everyone just draped themselves on her bed.

Knowing Momo enough, Faye whispered in her ear that she’d take care of washing her bed cover later. Momo-chan always appreciated Faye’s thoughtfulness and hugged her.

Jazz brought in a six-pack of Swamp Pop sugarcane soda that she put in Faye’s fridge earlier. Swamp Pop was their group’s favorite soda, and Jazz ordered theirs from the Cracker Barrel in Maine. This time, the flavor was “Praline Cream Soda.” Faye preferred Swamp Pop’s root beer but Praline Cream Soda was okay. Swamp Pop wasn’t diet, but none of the girls were into dieting. Apparently, being an Aristotle Endowment girl made dieting moot.

These sessions were always fun for the girls, and it gave them an opportunity to finish their homework together, although as per use, it doesn’t take them much time to finish everything, even if a lot of the time was spent chatting and talking and other things.

“How did your checkup, go, Val?” Rose asked.

“Totally fine,” she responded, biting into her burger. “Everything A-OK. Oh, and Dr. Penny said I’m officially six feet tall now.”

Everyone oohed and ahhhed, as expected.

“We are now the same, Val,” Arianne said.

“You know,” Faye said, “I was thinking – while I was out there, I was thinking I want to have a change. How do you guys feel about me calling myself ‘Faye’ instead of ‘Val?’”

“What brought this on?” Rose asked.

“I was thinking, that ‘Val’ was the me from, you know, before. Maybe it’s time for me to start calling myself ‘Faye Valentine’ now, or ‘Faye’ for short? ‘Coz I’m not Val anymore.”

They looked at her curiously. “You are sure about this?” Ashanti asked.

“Yes. But you can all still call me ‘Val’ if you want. “

They looked at each other.

“What?” Faye asked. “Don’t I look like a ‘Faye?’” She stood up and struck a sexy pose. Everyone sort of stopped as they took in her sexy sexitude.

“If only she knew how she affected people,” Jazz thought, with admiration and a bit of sexual attraction growing in her.

“It is okay with me,” Arianne said. “You can be Faye or Val or any name you choose – you will still be the same person we all love.”

Faye gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“You know, of course, that ‘Faye’ in the French language means ‘fairy?’” Arianne commented.

Everyone giggled.

“Not that way! Sacre bleu! I do not mean like a gay boy but like Tinker Bell.” Everyone giggled. “No, no, no! The tiny cartoon girl with the wings from the Disney movies!”

“At six feet tall, I do not think Faye can be anything like tiny Tinker Bell,” Ashanti said.

Arianne threw a French fry at Ashanti, and everyone laughed.

“Thank goodness that did not have any gravy on it,” Momo-chan thought, and resisted the urge to pick it up and throw it in the bin.

After the picnic and the homework, everyone but Faye and Momo left to get ready to go out. Jazz and Ashanti had dates while Rose and Arianne were going out to a movie. Momo stayed to help tutor Faye on her Japanese lessons (Faye alternated between Momo and Arianne every week for language tutoring – Momo for Nippongo and Arianne for French), and it seemed she was well on her way to becoming fluent in both. Next term, Faye declared she planned to take up Greek and Kinyarwanda (or Rwandan), something that pleased Ashanti.

The following days in class, Faye didn’t prompt anyone, but when Arianne and the others started calling her “Faye,” everyone else started doing it, too, including the teachers. Just as Dr. Penny predicted. During her next visit home, Faye explained to her folks as well as to Carla and Michael, and they didn’t make a fuss either. Faye breathed a sigh of relief.

As for Momo, she started calling her “Fey-san” instead of her usual “Vale-san.” During her tutor sessions with Momo, Faye learned the difference of calling someone “san” as opposed to “chan,” and didn’t understand why Momo started calling her “san” instead of “chan” anymore. In fact, Faye should actually be calling her “san.” But since Momo was her senpai (given Momo was her tutor), she didn’t know if “sama” was appropriate. She didn’t know the etiquette involved yet.

As usual, every day there was a PE class, and they were scheduled alternatingly and were set for 11 AM and 2 PM. Faye had her Track and Field on Mondays 11 AM. She had also asked for special dispensation so that she could also attend the other 11 AM PE classes. Given her “twinges” and other things, she thought keeping busy was a good way to tire herself out.

It wasn’t all that problematic: Only her Biology, French- and Japanese- Language classes were affected. It was lucky Dr. Penny taught Biology, and her French and Japanese teachers agreed provided she maintained a B-plus grade in all her assignments and exams. And with Arianne and Momo tutoring her in French and Japanese, she was sure she could do that.

So Mondays, she would have her Track and Field, Tuesdays would be Swimming, on Wednesdays, she’d alternate between basketball and volleyball (since the school used the same court for both), Thursdays would be tennis, and Fridays would be Taekwondo with Momo as her usual sparring partner (Momo was an amateur Jujitsu martial artist, and thought learning Taekwondo wasn’t too big a departure). On Saturday mornings, she’d be bowling, just like a lot of the kids.

One of the pluses was, aside from tiring herself out enough to keep her “urges” under control, she also got to meet a lot of the other kids from the other years. In short order, Faye started getting a reputation as the school’s sportiest girl, and also the most popular.

       

       

Arianne was starting to get a bit jealous of all the attention Faye was getting, but she would also rope her and the other girls into her stuff, so Arianne didn’t complain much.

By October, the six was the group, and they practically held sway over the entire school. But they weren’t really like bullies, although Arianne and Jazz were feeling being Top Bitch.

Things were going pretty well. Life was going well, Faye thought. And then Carla called.

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