Hikaro
This was the first time in the history of history that two guys were breaking into a house to rectify a panty raid. Steve was tasked, by his sister, to break into Dean Garnet’s house and steal back all the panties that Dean and his buddies had taken, which included Stephanie’s (Stephanie being Steve’s twin sister) and my own sister’s (whose name was Melanie, by the way).
Hikaro
Here's yet another immigrant from TG Storytime, this one is still ongoing, though. It'll come here in blocks of three chapters every couple weeks (people who aren't an American Idiot like me would call this a "fortnight"). It's a slow change, almost painfully so. At the moment, the whole story is 30,000 words, but that may change depending on how much more I write. The length is still surprising me because I expected it to be 10,000 words at maximum.
Either way, let's begin!
1.
What was I doing there? Was I really that stupid? If Steve hadn’t asked me to be there, I wouldn’t be, so, it was his fault, right? Gah…
This was the first time in the history of history that two guys were breaking into a house to rectify a panty raid. Steve was tasked, by his sister, to break into Dean Garnet’s house and steal back all the panties that Dean and his buddies had taken, which included Stephanie’s (Stephanie being Steve’s twin sister) and my own sister’s (whose name was Melanie, by the way).
How did I let Steve talk me into helping him do this? Stephanie only told him to do this, no mention of me, and Melanie hadn’t cared whether she got her panties back or not, she’d actually thought it was kind of funny that Dean and his boys had decided to do a panty raid on their last week of school. I was a totally neutral country in all of this, so why was I involved?
Worse yet, why was I the one standing on top of Steve’s shoulders, doing my best to climb in a second story window?
“Hold still,” I said to him, trying to be quiet enough not to get caught and loud enough for him to hear at the same time. It wasn’t easy.
“Stop makin’ me sway, then! Just get in the damn house!”
I would have kicked him in the face if that wouldn’t have made me fall on my ass and probably wake up Dean’s parents, or something. As it stood, I did manage to hit him in the forehead with the tip of my left shoe as I made my way into Dean’s room.
2.
Dean was surprisingly well-read for a jock. The guy had more books than I did, and I was a damn bookworm. I nearly tripped on a half-dozen stacks of books on my way from the window to Dean’s dresser. I don’t know why I thought the panties would be in Dean’s dresser, but that was my first idea.
Come to think of it, why had Dean kept the panties? Don’t people who do panty raids dump them the first chance they got, so as not to get caught? Ah, what the hell do I know? I’ve never done a panty raid.
“Jesus!” I whispered, stumbling over another stack of books. How the hell did he maneuver through his room with all these books? I have three bookshelves, all of them full, no books on the floor.
I managed to make my way to the dresser without alerting Dean’s parents and opened the top drawers. Nothing. Middle drawers, nothing. Bottom drawers, nothing. All his own clothes, no panties. Crap. I’d have to look somewhere else. I tried as carefully as possible not to stumble over anymore books and got to his closet. I opened it and nearly had a heart attack as a plastic skeleton fell out and tried to grab me.
“Adam?” Steve’s voice called up, loud enough for me to hear through the open window, but not loud enough to wake anybody. “You okay?”
I poked my head out the window. “Yeah. Skeleton in his closet, that’s all.”
“A real one?”
“No, dumbass, it’s fake.”
“Well, hurry up.”
“Get your own ass up here and help, and maybe I’ll actually find these damn panties.”
“How am I gonna get up there, I go up the stairs? You want me to go inside and go up the stairs, Adam?”
I groaned. “Shut up, asshole, just - “
I was cut off by a flashlight coming on and shining on Steve. I followed the beam of the flashlight and saw that the woman that lived next door to Dean was standing on her lawn, her dog on a leash, not even trying to bark.
“Oh, shit…” I breathed.
The woman said, “Come down here, young man. That’s not your house.”
3.
I climbed out the window, hung over the side, and then let go. Landing hurt, but I was sturdy enough not to break anything. It wasn’t the first time I slipped out a second story window.
The woman motioned for us to follow her, and like we were under some sort of trance, we followed her. My heart was practically leaping out of my chest in fear, because I didn’t know what the hell this woman was going to do. We entered her house through the back door and she pointed at two chairs on one side of the kitchen table, while she sat on the other side. It felt like some sort of interrogation, almost. The dog just sat beside the woman.
“Now, what were you boys doing inside the Garnet house? They’re not home right now.” Great. I didn’t even have to be quiet, now I feel like a retard.
I answered, “We were looking for something that didn’t belong to Dean.”
“Does it belong to you?”
“Our sisters.”
“And what was that?”
“Panties.”
She looked like she was about to laugh. Granted, if I were hearing about two guys breaking into the house of the school’s basketball star looking for panties, I might laugh. Then again, I’m in this situation.
“And why would young Dean have girls’ panties in his room?”
“Because he and a bunch of his friends did a panty raid at school the other day and stole them out of the locker room.”
“And does the school know about this?”
“Yeah.”
“And do the parents know about this?”
“Well, mine do and Steve’s do.”
“And why are you two taking up the responsibility of retrieving these panties? Shouldn’t your parents be solving this problem?”
I sighed. “Steve’s sister asked us to do this.”
“I see. And because your sisters were among those robbed, you believed you had the right to break into someone’s house?”
I planted my hands on the table. “I’m not sayin’ it’s right, but, c’mon, you’re not seriously defending a panty raid, are you?”
She shook her head. “No, but two wrongs don’t make a right. You two need to be punished for what you’ve done, and young Dean needs to be punished for what he’s done.”
I leaned back in the chair and said, “Okay, so call the cops on us, already.”
She shook her head again. “No, no, no… The police needn’t be involved in this. I have ways of settling this matter myself.”
Steve finally asked, “You do?”
The woman nodded now. “Yes. You’re Steve, correct?”
He nodded.
“And your sister is Stephanie?”
He nodded again.
She turned to me. “And you?”
I answered, “Adam.”
“And your sister?”
“Melanie.”
“Adam… It’s a nice name.” She walked over to the shelf above the refrigerator and pulled a small book out. She set it down on the table and took out a pen. “How do you like the name Amanda?”
Where the hell was this going? “It’s a nice name for a girl, why?”
She wrote something in that book and then slammed it shut again before I could see what it was. I traded glances with Steve, then focused on her again.
She looked up from the book and smiled. “In seven days, Adam, you will be Amanda.”
4.
“What the hell are you talking about?!” I practically screamed. This woman was nuts, pure and simple.
She nodded her head. “It’s true. Seven days from now, you’ll be an Amanda, one hundred percent female. This is your punishment.”
“What?!” This was starting to piss me off. I considered calling the cops, but they’d never believe this. Hell, I barely believed it. “Punishment for getting dragged along and forced to break into somebody’s house?”
She shook her head. “You weren’t forced. You could have easily said no.”
“I didn’t even know why I was here before I got here!” I pointed at Steve. “This asshole made me come here!”
“You were the one who entered the house. Steven here stayed outside, on the yard. He was simply trespassing, you were breaking and entering.”
It was time for me to shake my head. “No, I don’t believe you. You can’t turn me into a girl, you’re not… like… a witch or anything.”
She nodded. “That’s right, I’m not a witch.” She stood, and as if somebody turned on a wind machine, a breeze kicked up, despite there being no windows open. A strange glow seeped out of her, and in place of the old woman Steve and I had been looking at, there was now a stunningly beautiful young woman, no older than twenty. “I’m a sorceress.”
The sheer absurdity of that should have made me wake up, but I wasn’t dreaming, I wasn’t asleep… This was happening. I was sitting in a house, next to my best friend, and we were sitting across the table from a sorceress. And on the heels of that realization, I had another.
I was gonna be a girl in seven days.
Oh shit…
5.
No. No. No. No. No. No. “I don’t…” I started.
She finished for me. “Believe me? No, I imagine your human brain is still struggling to comprehend me. It’s not uncommon, after all.” She waved her hand and the table was suddenly a bowl of fruit on the floor. I shot up from my chair and nearly broke something as I tripped over it on my way to the door. “Not so fast, Amanda,” she said. When my hand reached the doorknob, I pulled back in pain.
The doorknob was on fire.
“Now do you understand?”
I turned to face her again. “Why?!”
She sat back down in her own chair. “I feel it’s a fitting punishment. You chose to break into a house to retrieve panties, now you’ll have a reason to get your own.”
Steve asked, “I don’t get punished, do I?”
She nodded. “Of course you do, but your punishment will be different.”
I walked over to her and grabbed her by the collar of her dress. “And what about Dean? What punishment does he get?”
She closed her eyes a moment, and then I was suddenly sitting back down, the table between us, and she was the old woman again. What the hell?!
“Young Dean will suffer his own punishment, don’t worry.” She waved her hand again. “All the girls whose panties were stolen will now find them in their dresser drawers again. You two may go home now, and accept the thanks from your sisters.”
I was about to stand up again, but with another wave of the witch’s hand, Steve and I were standing on the street outside school, a good mile and a half away from Dean’s house.
6.
I fell back, against the fence on the edge of school property, and took a deep breath. Steve sat beside me. “So... “ he said, and I already wanted to punch him. “You wanna go out on a date when you’re done turning into a girl?”
That made me punch him.
“Shut up!” I shouted. “This is happening because of you! I wouldn’t be turning into a girl if it weren’t for you!”
He covered his face to avoid another punch. “What? I didn’t know we were gonna get caught!”
“I didn’t even want to do this! Melanie didn’t care! If it weren’t for you and your stupid ass sister, I’d still be a guy next week!”
“I’m sorry, man!”
I shook my head. I didn’t want to hear it. “Fuck you,” I said, “I’m goin’ home.”
I didn’t even give him one last glance before I walked away.
1.
I shut the front door behind me and was instantly greeted by Melanie’s face. I couldn’t quite make out the specific look she had, but I’m sure it would be one I’d eventually wear on my own, a week from now.
“How did you get them back in my dresser without me noticing?”
I shook my head. “I’m tired, sis, lemme go to sleep.”
“And I thought you weren’t going to get caught up in another one of Steve’s stupid schemes?”
“I said I’m tired.”
“Adam, what’s going on with you?”
I sighed, then I took a good long look at my sister. Melanie was a year and a half older than I was, which made her just about seventeen, but she’d been mistaken for older before. Not in a bad way, like drug abuse, but people just seemed to believe she held herself more like an adult and less like a teenager, which was in stark contrast to me, who nobody believed would ever really grow up because of how I acted. Her face looked like an exact teenage duplicate of our mom’s, with wide brown eyes, a small nose and full lips. The one thing she didn’t get from Mom was her hair color. Mom was a brunette, while Dad was pure red. Melanie got Dad’s red hair, while I got what seemed like a natural combination of the two that could be mistaken for either one depending on the light.
“Okay, why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
I shook my head again. “No reason. Hope you’re glad you’ve got your panties back.” I pushed past her and made for the stairs.
2.
I locked my bedroom door, picked up my tablet and flopped down onto my bed. I tapped on the internet icon and did a search for witches. I mostly got tabloid trash and incoherent forum babel, which didn’t help things. I’ve ignored tabloids forever, and the forum crap was just that - crap. Nobody was making any sense.
The door opened and Melanie stood in the doorway. “You clearly forgot I have a key to the bedroom doors.”
I groaned this time. “I’m really not in the mood, sis.”
“And I’m not in the mood for this junk. Dad put me in charge while he and Mom are second honeymooning, remember?”
I can’t for the life of me figure out why she felt the need to remind me of this every time I left the house, but I said, “So what?”
“You’re supposed to tell me when it is you’re leaving the house, remember?”
I set my tablet on my pillow and sat up. “I swear to God, if you say remember one more time, I’m gonna jump out the window. Why the hell are you pressing me, Melanie?”
“Because you’re acting weird, and for you, that’s saying something.”
“It’s not important.”
“Yeah, it kinda is. What’s going on?”
“You won’t believe me.”
“Try me.”
“Fine. The woman that lives next door to Dean is a witch and she told me I’m gonna be a girl in a week.”
For about two seconds, it looked like Melanie was taking me seriously, then she doubled over and laughed about as loudly as a full theater at a Paul Blart movie. I wanted to push her out of my room, put boards on the door and enjoy what little time I had left as a guy doing guy stuff, like masturbating or watching basketball on TV.
Finally, she tired her best to stop laughing and asked, “So… really, what happened?”
I stood up and walked over to the window. “I’m not joking.”
“Yeah, you kinda have to be.”
“I’m not. Call Steve up, he’ll tell you.”
“No, he’ll tell me what you two cooked up.”
“How do you explain your underwear getting in your dresser drawer all by itself? She did it, the witch.” Why was I still calling her a witch? She clearly told me she was a sorceress.
“Or you climbed through my window and slipped it in while I was downstairs. Witches don’t exist, Adam, and there’s no way boys just spontaneously turn into girls.”
I sighed again. “I don’t actually know if it will be spontaneous. For all I know, I’ll start turning into a girl tomorrow.”
“You’re not turning into a girl!”
I was getting angry again. “Look, Melanie, she turned a frikkin’ table into a bowl of fruits! She made a doorknob feel like it was covered in fire! She was goddamn magic, I’m telling you!” I sat back down again and tried to calm myself. “I didn’t... “ My heart was pounding. “I didn’t want to believe it either, but the proof was right there. It seemed stupid to keep denying what I was seeing happen in front of me.”
She sat down beside me. “You do realize you sound like a maniac, right? Nobody can just turn somebody into a girl.”
I let out a laugh. “Yeah, I would have said the same thing if I hadn’t watched her do all the shit she did.”
Melanie sighed. “Okay, entertaining the idea that this is possible and that you’ll be my little sister in a week’s time, what are you going to do about it? You can’t tell the cops, they’ll think you’re crazy. And how do we even know we’ll remember this in a week? How do we know we’ll retain memories of you being a boy after you’re a girl?”
“I don’t know!” Why did I suddenly want to cry? Why did crying suddenly seem like a viable option for me right now? I needed Melanie out of my room, and fast. “Look, Mel… Just... Get out of my room, okay? It’s been a long day and I wanna go to sleep.”
She stood up and nodded. “Yeah, okay, but tomorrow, we talk about this, understand?”
Tomorrow. Tomorrow was Saturday, no school for three whole days (I can’t for the life of me remember why we had Monday off) and then we went back for final exams. Great. By next Friday, I may be shopping for a dress for the end-of-semester dance.
“Fine,” I said, “just get out.”
After she left, I moved my tablet from my pillow to somewhere else. Yeah, I wasn’t gonna find anything related to that stupid sorceress. Dammit. I turned my light off, laid down and felt myself drifting off to sleep almost instantly.
3.
“You know how this will end.”
What?
“You know how this will end. It’s only a matter of time before you accept it.”
Who are you and what are you talking about?
“You know what I’m talking about.”
What’s going on?!
“You know what I’m talking about. It’s only a matter of time before you accept it.”
A light came on. I held my hand up to shield my eyes from it, then took a step closer to whatever was causing it. Why was I moving closer to it? What the hell was going on?
“You know what you have to do.”
Who’s talking? Why did I hear this person? God, my arms were kind of cold. I rubbed at my arms to get warmer.
Wait a minute… I don’t own any sleeveless tops.
“You know what to do. It’s only a matter of time before you accept it.”
Great, now my legs were cold. I stopped for a second to tug at my skirt, but it was too short to actually provide me any warmth.
Wait… Skirt?
“You know how this will end.”
The bright light died down, and I finally saw its source: a mirror. I took a step closer to it and suddenly that chill that overtook my legs and arms decided to run up my spine. What the hell?
The girl in the mirror was wearing a light pink top with spaghetti straps and a simple white skirt. On her feet were a pair sandals with a two inch heel. Her face looked an awful lot like Melanie’s, just younger. In fact, Like Melanie but younger described this girl to a T, except for one simple feature. Her hair wasn’t Melanie’s pure red, but a mixture between red and brown that looked too much like...
“You know how this will end. It’s only a matter of time before you accept it.”
No. No, no, no, no, no, no, that wasn’t me! That girl in the mirror wasn’t me!
4.
I sat up and felt sweat breaking out on my neck. What the hell had I just dreamed? No, seriously, what? I couldn’t remember any of it, I just knew that it terrified me.
I rubbed at my forehead. I had a throbbing headache. Was it because of last night? Wait, was last night even real? Some sorceress casting a spell on me didn’t seem real, it seemed like a dream. Was that my dream?
I shook my head and got up from the bed. I walked downstairs to get my breakfast. There was a note on refrigerator. I removed the magnet and read it.
Had to go to the grocery store to grab some food, bro. We’ll have our talk later.
Talk? Oh, yeah… Last night. Crap… I guess all that stuff was real. So, what was my dream, then? Dammit… if that wasn’t my dream…
My headache kicked up again. Why did I have a headache? I’ve never woken up with a headache. Jesus, this is getting weird. I needed to understand this.
Time for an internet search!
I plopped my ass down in the desk chair and something felt weird. My ass felt… different. I stood up and then sat back down again, and everything felt normal again. Weird. What caused that? Was I actually changing physically over time? Great. If that was the case, then I might already be at least thirty-three percent girl by the time I went back to school on Tuesday.
Or it could just be that I’m freaked because I could be turning into a girl. Or I’m just nuts. Great, now that bitch has me considering possibilities to something crazy. Shit.
After two hours of meaningless Google searches, I came up with absolutely nothing. There didn’t seem to be anything, save for the occasional person who would have sounded like a nut a day before. They still seemed nuts to me now, even though I had a story that would make me sound equally nuts.
Would any of these take me seriously if I decided to take them seriously?
1.
I sat on the couch, changing channels. There wasn’t much of anything on, but that wasn’t uncommon for a Saturday. After a little bit, I just put it on something and left it there, then laid down. I was tired, for some reason, something I couldn’t figure out.
My eyelids felt heavy, causing me to close them. I felt myself curl into the fetal position, and then the warm embrace of sleep took hold of me.
2.
Why was I standing in front of a mirror? What was I doing there? I looked at my reflection and, for some reason, wondered why I was dressed the same in this dream as I was in real life. I turned away from the mirror and looked at the room I was in.
Although, room was stretching it.
Where I was had no walls, no ceiling, no floor. Everything melded with everything else. The place was dizzying, to say the least. In fact, the mirror was the only landmark. I took a step away from it and, to my surprise, I was actually a step away from it. I continued my trip away from the mirror, always making sure to check back for it every now and again, but I stopped about sixty steps away from it.
The mirror was right behind me again.
What the hell? How did that happen? I looked around the room again and nothing looked any different, except that I was now right beside the mirror again. What was going on?
The door opened. Wait, door? Where was a door? I looked around and saw a glowing rectangle with a human silhouette standing in it. “Good, you’re home,” the silhouette said. The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite peg it. “What happened to you?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, but the voice wasn’t mine. I looked in the mirror again and saw my reflection, but I didn’t see any differences. I was still wearing the same boxer shorts and solid black tee shirt I’d been wearing before. What was the silhouette talking about?
That was when I saw it.
The reflection in the mirror was mine, yes, but it wasn’t me. It was a girl, wearing my clothes. She looked ridiculously cute, like a younger version of Melanie. Why did I look like that? What was happening to me?!
“Adam?” the silhouette asked. I looked at him - I realized it was a him after a few seconds - and discovered that it was Steve. He had a look of concern on his face, and for some reason, I started to tear up. I fell to my knees and he reached down and scooped me up and held me. “It’s okay, man, it’s okay…”
I was worried now. I felt comfortable in his arms, comfortable and warm. Part of me hated this feeling, but another part of me loved it. He patted the back of my head, his fingers getting a little tangled in my hair.
“Amanda?” he asked now, and…
3.
I woke up to Steve standing over by the TV, hooking up my PS3. He had a relieved look on his face. “Damn, man, I’ve been here two hours, and you’ve been asleep the whole time.”
I rubbed at my eyes and sat up. “What are you doing here? I coulda sworn I yelled at you last night.”
“Well, you did, but, c’mon, you can’t still be angry at me, can you?”
“I got cursed because of you.”
He blew a raspberry. “Ah, bullshit, that lady was just crazy. We were both tired and scared last night, we probably just dreamed everything we think she did.”
I stood up. “Oh yeah? Did you dream about her turning a table into a bowl of fruit?”
“Yeah.”
“Her turning from an old lady into a hot babe sixty years younger?”
“Yeah.”
“Her telling me I’d be turned into a girl named Amanda?”
“Yeeeeaaaah?”
“How did we have the same dreams, dumbass?!”
“Magic?”
“So she has magic dream powers, but she can’t turn me into a girl, that right?”
He shrugged. “If she could turn you into a girl, why didn’t she do it there, last night? Why are you still Adam now? She was bullshitting us, pure and simple.”
I ran my hand through my hair. It seemed a little longer than it had been before. I looked at my reflection in the glass of the coffee table, but nothing looked different. Great, just like with my ass before, I’m starting to think things. That sorceress probably was bullshitting us.
But that wouldn’t explain that dream I just had.
4.
“What are you doin’ here, anyway?” I asked.
He shrugged. “It’s Saturday, and I’m bored. Where’s your sister? I wanna try it again.”
I sighed. Steve had been trying to get Melanie to say Yes to him for awhile now. I guess being two years younger than her didn’t mean anything to him, because he still wanted to date her and thought she’d want to date him. It didn’t take a genius to realize that they weren’t compatible.
It didn’t help that Steve always looked like a damn slob. Maybe if he cleaned himself up a bit, combed his hair a little, wore better clothes… Maybe then a girl would want to date him. As he was now, his only options for love were cybersex or prostitutes. I’d told him that before, even pretended to be a girl on a chatroom once just to fuck around with him.
“She’s not here,” I answered. “She said she’d be back later.”
“Dammit! This time she’s gonna say yes, man, I can feel it.”
Hell, I wouldn’t even date him. If I were a girl, that is. He was just too hopeless. I was just as hopeless, but I didn’t even try to date girls. I’d gone out on one date with Stephanie, and she’d told me I was more like a girlfriend than a boyfriend, because all I wanted to do was talk. I didn’t want to do couple stuff. I kinda thought “couple stuff” included talking.
“I’ll believe that when I see it. Whadda you wanna play?” I asked, pointing to the PS3.
He shrugged. “I dunno. Skyrim?”
I shook my head. “You know that shit bores me now.”
“Okay, Resident Evil?”
“Fine, but we do co-op.”
“Of course.”
“Which one?”
“I vote for Six.”
I sighed. He always wanted to play Resident Evil 6. It was his favorite game in the series, for some reason. I preferred Revelations 2, but he never wanted to play it. “Fine. Go get it.”
I sat there, waiting for him to go upstairs and get the game, and something just seemed wrong to me. I couldn’t figure out what it was, but… something. I rubbed at my forehead, but that didn’t seem to help. I didn’t have a headache, anymore. Did it have something to do with Steve? I may get pissed off at the guy, but he was still my best friend.
Four minutes later, one PlayStation Network sign-in, and a quick campaign selection later, and Steve and I were slogging through the sewers of the fictional city of Tall Oaks as Leon Kennedy and Helena Harper. Steve was Leon, and that stuck me with Helena.
Except that wasn’t really true. I was player one, so I got to pick my character, and I picked Helena. I could have easily picked Leon, but I didn’t, even though I usually do.
“You okay, dude?” Steve asked.
“Yeah,” I said, but I wasn’t even sure if I was telling the truth.
5.
Steve and I were still playing Resident Evil 6 when Melanie came home, about a dozen grocery bags hanging off each hand. “Are you guys gonna help me, or what?” she asked. I pretty much dumped my controller on the couch and jumped up to help her. Steve struggled for a second to kill a zombie before he helped.
Ten minutes later, all the groceries were put away, and Melanie and I were seated across from one another at the kitchen table. I felt nervous, she looked nervous, Steve wasn’t doing shit.
“So…” Steve, hilariously enough, was the first one to speak. “Why isn’t anyone talking?”
Melanie cleared her throat. “Okay, Adam, it’s time to talk about that lady you guys met last night.”
“What about her? She’s a sorceress, and she said she cursed me.”
“Okay, but why?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t care. She had to be lying, otherwise I’d be a girl now, right?”
“She said it would be in a week, so that’s Friday. Let’s say you’re going to be a girl on Friday, why that specific date?”
“I dunno. Just because it’s a week later?” I sighed. “I really don’t know, sis. I just… She should have been able to do it right away, but she didn’t, so I don’t believe she can do it all.”
“Let’s say she can, though… What do we do about it?”
“If she can do it, what can we do? Who’s gonna believe that a sorceress cursed me into a girl?”
“You’ve got a birth certificate stating your gender,” Steve said, probably the smartest thing he’d said all day.
I had to voice the one concern I had: “But, what if this supposed curse changes everything, like, nobody remembers Adam and everybody remembers Amanda?”
No one said anything to that. I think Steve and Melanie were just as afraid of that possiblity as I was.
6.
I laid on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. Steve had gone home hours before, and Melanie was on the phone, ordering pizza. I didn’t really have anything to do except lay there and think about what might happen. Everything seemed so crazy.
Would I start turning into a girl? Or would I just suddenly be one on Friday? Would I start to like guys? Would I fall in love with Steve? The idea of that made me want to puke. Dammit. And what about my parents? They wouldn’t get home until Thursday. It was either, “Hi, Mom and Dad… Yeah… I know I look a little like Melanie when she was younger, but I’m really Adam,” or “Mom, Dad, don’t freak out, but I might wake up a girl tomorrow.” Neither option was, in any way, a good option.
And then there was school. Sure, this was finals week, but if I was changing over the course of the week, then people would see me. They’d all watch me turn into a girl. If I just changed on Friday, then I’d show up as a completely different person for the last day of school. None of this seemed to work out in my favor at all.
My chest was starting to itch. I reached under my shirt and scratched at the irritating sensation.
Here's the next set of three chapters. If I leave you with a cliffhanger, I hope you don't mind.
1.
“So,” Steve said, taking hold of my hand. Why was he holding my hand and why was I letting him? “What do we do now?”
I shook my head. “I don’t get it.”
He grabbed my other hand now. Were we about to do the Ring Around the Rosie thing? I didn’t want to do that. “Amanda, c’mon, we’re just sitting around.” No, we’re not. We’re clearly standing.
“So what?”
He let go of my hands and grabbed me by the shoulders. “C’mon! We never do anything fun anymore.”
“We do plenty of stuff.”
“Not really.”
Why was he making a big deal out of this?
“We do lots of stuff!”
“We haven’t really hung out since you finished changing. You barely talk to me anymore.”
I looked away from him. He wasn’t right, was he? Was there even a chance that he was right? No. No, there wasn’t. Steve was my best friend, and I’ve clearly hung out with him more than a few times since…
2.
I sat upright and started coughing. What the hell?! What was with that dream? What caused me to dream that?
I scratched my itchy chest again. It was mild irritation, but it was constant. What the hell caused that? I sighed. Itchy chest, weird dreams, were these signs of that curse, or just me being freaked?
I stood up and grabbed a shirt. I slipped my arms through the sleeves, then pulled the shirt down over my head. As it brushed against my chest, I felt something odd, but I couldn’t quite place what it was. I glanced at myself in my mirror and realized that nothing looked any different than it had yesterday. Great. Either I’m going nuts, or these changes are going to happen so slowly that I don’t notice them.
As I kept looking at my reflection, I could have sworn my hair was a little longer. I didn’t really have short hair, but I didn’t remember it completely covering my ears. Had it? Dammit… I’m going nuts again.
I sat at my desk and just stared out the window for a minute. What was I going to do with my Sunday? I didn’t really have anything to do. Sunday was a lazy day for me, always had been.
There was a knock on my door. “Come in, Melanie,” I said. It was obvious who it was. She opened the door and tossed me a pair of pants. “What’s this for?”
“Put those on.”
“Why?”
“I’m curious.”
I looked the pants over. “These are your pants.”
“And you’re going to put them on, this isn’t rocket science.”
“Why?”
“Suppose you’re turning into a girl slowly, then at some point soon, you should be able to fit in those pants.”
“Why soon?”
“Because you only have five days before you’re officially supposed to be a girl.”
I sighed. Why was I even entertaining this idea? I slipped my legs into the pants and then struggled, only a little, to get them over my hips. I tried zipping them up, but that was futile, and the button was nothing but a lost cause. “There, you happy?” I asked, certain I looked like an idiot.
Much to my surprise, there was a look of shock on her face. “You… uh… shouldn’t have been able to get that far.”
“Why?”
“Remember my old boyfriend, Billy? He was smaller than you, and he couldn’t get my pants on that far.”
The only question that ran through my mind was, “Why was Billy wearing your pants?”
She rubbed at her arm. “Well… He kinda liked to wear my clothes...“ She shook her head. “That’s not important, what’s important is that you’re smaller now than you used to be.”
I looked at myself in the mirror again, but I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t look any smaller, I didn’t feel any smaller, but the pants barely looked out of place on me, aside from not being zipped or buttoned. Was Melanie right? Come to think of it, my shirt seemed a little bigger than it used to be, now.
I rapidly stripped the pants off and tossed them back to Melanie. “Get these pants away from me,” I said, and even I could hear the fear in my voice.
She folded them up and came closer to me. “Your hair’s different,” she said, reaching out and touching it. I jerked back. “It’s okay, jeez. It’s just a little longer, is all. That’s not something to worry about, right?”
I threw my arms up. “I don’t know! Has it ever been noticeably longer before?”
She shook her head. “Not really.”
I collapsed into my chair. “Great. So, what, I’m turning slowly?”
She sighed, then sat down on my bed. “I dunno, little bro. I think it’s time we called Mom and Dad.”
I shook my head. “No. We wait this out, and if I’m more girl than guy on Tuesday, we call them then. I don’t want to rob them of their second honeymoon just because I’m turning into a girl.”
3.
She didn’t look happy, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t calling Mom and Dad. How would they even react? Would Mom be happy to have another daughter to poke and prod and dress up? Would Dad be sad that he was losing his one and only son? Now that I thought about it, would Melanie be happy that she had a little sister? Would both her and Mom be happy that there was only one person left to leave the seat up?
I slumped in my chair. “Mel…”
“Yeah?”
“How do you feel with all of this?”
“Whaddya mean?”
“How are you gonna feel when Mom starts mixing your panties and mine up when she does the laundry?”
She looked away from me for a second, then looked back at me. “Well, I dunno. You’re not the worst brother out there, and I don’t mind you the way you are. I can’t say it won’t be nice having a sister, but I don’t really want to lose you.” She put on a nervous smirk. “Plus, it’s gonna be tough teaching you all the new feminine stuff you’re going to have to learn.”
I don’t think she meant for that to be frightening, but the idea of what I’d have to put up with scared me. Even if I were to be a simple girl like Melanie, she still woke up about an hour before school started to get ready, and she didn’t wear much make-up or even outrageously fancy clothes. It just seemed to be something girls did, no matter what. And what if I had periods? Could I have periods? How would I deal with that?
“What?” she asked. “What is it?”
“All that new feminine stuff I’m gonna havta learn, that’s what.”
The smirk came back, this time far less nervous. “Oh. Hey, it’s not that hard. A little bit of fashion knowledge and use a tampon every month, it’s not as hard to deal with as guys think it is.”
I raised an eyebrow. “It’s not?”
She shook her head. “No. Probably the worst part for you will be shaving your legs.”
I looked at my legs. Even that probably wouldn’t be as hard as she thought it would be. I didn’t exactly grow a lot of hair. Then again, I’ve never shaved my legs. Maybe it would be the biggest pain in the ass in my life.
“And your armpits.”
“Wha?”
“What? Girls shave their armpits, because guys think it’s disgusting for girls to have pit hair. You trying to tell me you’ve never noticed?”
I shrugged. “I’ve never paid that much attention to a girl’s armpits before.”
“You’ve never seen me do it?”
“Not really.”
“I do.”
“And I’ll have to?”
“Well, if you want a boyfriend who’s not from Europe.”
Why was the idea of having a boyfriend not the most disturbing thing I’d heard all day?
4.
“What are we doing here?” Steve asked. “And why are you wearing your sister’s pants?”
“They fit better than mine do,” I answered. “And we’re here to see how people react to… well… me.”
He looked around at everyone, which wasn’t hard, considering how packed the gym was. Neither he nor I were regular attendees at a school basketball game, but this was the last one of the year, and it would be a less cliched public place to be in than the mall.
“What are they supposed to see? A kinda skinny guy wearing girl pants? That’s not exactly uncommon, y’know.”
I rolled my eyes. “Are you telling me that you can’t tell that I look a little different? Melanie and I could.”
“Like I said. Kinda skinny. You don’t look that much different.”
“But I look different.”
“I still recognized you when I spotted you outside, remember?”
He had a point. We hadn’t even tried to meet up, I was coming to the basketball game all by myself. He’d just been outside walking his dog. It was one of exactly three times he’d said he was happy to live half a block away from the school. I’d simply asked him to come because I really didn’t want to be seen at a basketball game alone.
The seats weren’t that great, but we had a decent view of the court. The opposing team came out first, much to the boos of one side of the gym and the cheers of the other. After that, our team came out, which incited cheers from our side of the gym and boos from the other.
It was then that I saw him. Dean Garnet, the very reason I was in this situation. He didn’t look like he was suffering from any punishment. I sat back in my seat and sighed. Dammit. If it weren’t for him and then Steve, I’d still be male on Friday. Hell, I wouldn’t be changing today.
It was about thirty minutes into the game that I saw something. The ball was passed to Dean, he made it to the shot line, tried for his shot - and the throw came up wrong. He was shooting like a girl. And he was shooting like a girl who’s never played basketball before.
“Do you see that?” I asked Steve, pointing to Dean.
“Yeah. Jock’s off his A-Game tonight.”
“Steve, what if that’s his punishment?”
“To suck at basketball? Not really much of a punishment considering you havta turn into a girl. Why would the punishments be so completely different? Especially since I don’t even know what mine is yet?”
I shrugged. “I dunno, but Dean’s a billion times better than this all the time. I find it hard to believe that tonight, two days after we were cursed, he suddenly has a random bad day.”
The entire game, Dean’s shots came up short, he was suddenly the weakest link in the team as opposed to his usual role as the team point winner. I even saw Max Caulfield purposefully knock him down once. Max was his best friend, and now he was practically beating him to death.
Okay, so my punishment was turning into a girl, Dean’s was being humiliated at sports, what would Steve’s be?
1.
“So, how’d the basketball game go?” Melanie asked me when I got home.
I plopped down on the couch. “Well, our team won. Barely.”
“Whaddya mean?”
“Dean wasn’t playing all that well.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Dean? Dean the guy who’s house you broke into Dean?”
I nodded. “The very same. It was like he didn’t know how to play basketball. I could play better than he could, and I’m crappy at basketball.”
She scratched at her chin. “Did that sorceress say anything about Dean being punished?”
I nodded again. “She did, and I was thinking the same thing. I’m just confused about what’s going to happen to Steve.”
“If he was turning into a girl, we would have noticed it by now.” She sat down beside me. For some reason, she grabbed my arm and took a very close examination of my hand.
“What the hell?” I asked.
“I’m looking at your hand.”
“I can see that.”
“No, look at your hand.”
I pulled my hand away from her and took a good long look at it. There was something different about it, but I couldn’t place it. Was it my fingers? Was it my fingernails? What was it? “I don’t get it.”
She held her own hand out and put mine right up against it. “Look.”
That was creepy. Our hands looked identical. If somebody was looking at our hands, the only difference being that Melanie had painted fingernails.
2.
I sat on my bed and looked at my hands for awhile. It was weird how much they looked like Melanie’s. My nails looked a little different, but that was about it. When had that happened? Why hadn’t I noticed it before Melanie pointed it out?
I got up and grabbed my tablet, then returned to my bed. I tapped on the internet icon and stared at the Google homepage for awhile. What would I look up? I set the tablet back down on my night stand and laid down.
I felt myself drifting off to sleep, and the last thing that crossed my mind before sleep overtook me was how my fingernails would look with nail polish on them.
3.
“C’mon!” I said, trying to draw Steve’s attention. He wasn’t really talking to me. “You said you wanted to hang out more, so why are you the one who doesn’t want to hang out now?”
He shook his head. “I just… How is it gonna be fun sitting around watching you do your stuff?”
“‘Do my stuff’? What? That doesn’t even make sense.”
He sighed. “Y’know, like when you try on clothes or paint your nails, that sort of stuff. Girl stuff.”
Ugh! Really? “How often do I do ‘girl stuff’ around you? Huh? Last time we hung out, all we did was watch movies.” I plopped down on the couch beside him. I was happy I was wearing shorts. If I was wearing as skirt, I couldn’t just plop down. “Most of the time all we do is play video games. How has anything really changed?”
He looked away from me. “How can you say that? Everything has changed, and I think you’re the only one who doesn’t notice it.”
How could he say that? Of course I noticed what was changing, but how has our relationship changed?
“I… I’ve noticed,” I said, though my voice sounded weaker than I thought it should. “But… We’re still friends, right?”
He turned back to me and said, “Wake up, bro, Mom and Dad are on the phone.”
4.
I slowly opened my eyes and saw Melanie standing there holding the phone. I reached out, grabbed it, and then pulled the covers back up over my head. “Hello?”
Mom’s voice came over the phone. “Melanie, put your brother on the phone, seriously.”
What? What?! “What?!” I asked. I sat up and brushed my bangs away from my face. Wait, my bangs? I don’t have bangs. What the hell?
“I asked you to put Adam on the phone, remember?”
“Mom, this is Adam!”
“Sweetie, please, this got annoying when you two were little.”
Melanie grabbed the phone from my hands and pressed a button. “Mom, he’s not joking, that was Adam. I put us on speaker.”
Mom asked, “Adam? Honey? Say something.”
For some stupid reason, the only thing that popped into my head was: “Can you hear me now?” That was when I heard it. I didn’t exactly sound like Melanie, but I didn’t sound like a boy anymore.
“What’s going on? Why do you sound so strange?”
Melanie sighed. “I was gonna call you guys and tell you later. Adam’s kinda… Well… He’s…”
“He’s what?” Mom asked. “You’re what, Adam?”
I really didn’t want to answer that question. I knew I’d need to eventually, but that didn’t make this any easier. How do you tell your parents that you’re turning from boy to girl? How do you explain to them that a sorceress cursed you because you broke into a dumbass’s house to steal something back from him? How? How?
A part of my brain told me that this shouldn’t be hard at all. Tell the truth, that part of my brain told me. They’ll understand. Except that they won’t, obviously. The whole thing sounded so damned fantastical that if somebody really understood it, they should be committed to a nut house.
“Adam?” Mom asked again. Every time she asked, I wanted to hang up the phone, but I knew that’d scare her even more. Dammit, dammit, dammit!
“I’m… Turning into a girl, Mom.” Was that so hard? Was that so hard? Yes. Yes, it was. That was ridiculously painful. I felt like I’d just told her that I was dying. I almost felt like I was dying. Well, technically, I was. Male Adam was dying, so very slowly, while Female Amanda was just as slowly being born.
Except it didn’t feel like I was changing so slowly. I reached under my shirt and scratched at my itchy chest. That was when I felt a strange puffiness to my chest. Oh. Great. I knew what was coming next. What’s that one thing a boy notices about a girl? Every boy I came into contact with was now going to start noticing me.
Well, that’s not true. They weren’t big enough to even be noticed under my shirt. For at least a little while, I’d still be able to somewhat pass for a boy.
“What did you say?” Mom asked, bringing me out of my boob daze and back into the current situation.
“I said I’m turning into a girl, Mom. It’s… A whole weird story, but it’s happening. By Friday, I’m not gonna be Adam anymore.”
“Honey, that’s impossible.”
Melanie shook her head, like Mom could see her. “He’s not lying, Mom. He looks more like a girl than he does a boy, now.”
That wasn’t a good thing to hear. I was only three days into this curse and already I looked more female than male? Crap. How much more female would I get in the next four days? Or would I be done on day six? Crap, crap, crappity, crap, crap.
5.
“Does anyone else know about this?” Dad asked. I could hear the concern in his voice.
“Just Steve, since he was there.”
“The Garnet boy doesn’t know anything?”
“I dunno. I don’t think he’d try to play last night if did know about the curse.”
“Why didn’t you call straight away?”
I laughed. ‘Would you have really believed me? This doesn’t sound crazy to you?”
“I didn’t say that, kiddo, but you still should have told us.”
I nodded, even though he couldn’t see that. “I know. I was just… Scared.”
I hoped he would understand that. I’ve never seen my dad scared of anything, but I assumed he’d been scared of something before. Hell, maybe he was scared now. I didn’t know.
“Dad… What’s gonna happen to me?” I asked. My fear was asking the question, really.
He didn’t say anything at first, then, “I dunno, kiddo. I dunno.”
6.
I walked into Melanie’s room and sat down at her vanity. She wasn’t home, so she wouldn’t see me. Not that I cared, it would probably be a good thing if Melanie were here. She was taking this all very well, and I was pleased about that. I don’t know if I could stand teasing from her while I’m turning into a girl.
I looked at all the make-up she had just sitting around on her vanity. She didn’t have too much, but it looked like a lot to me. Mascara, eyeliner, eye shadow, blush, lipstick, four or five different shades of each. How did she keep track of all this?
I took a breath, then reached for one of the lipstick tubes. Why was I even considering this? Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid… I pulled the cap off and found a weird dark purple shade. Do girls really like weird colors like this on their lips? It looked goofy as hell to me. I took another breath and put the tube to my lips.
What was I doing? Why was I doing this? What if Melanie used this the last time she had the flu? I could be giving myself the flu. I’m an idiot. I drew the lipstick across my upper lip, then my lower lip, then put the cap back on the tube.
I puckered my lips and looked at myself in the mirror. I did a surprisingly adequate job, just a little mistake on my lower lip.
I took stock of my face for the first time in the last two days. Overall, I didn’t look too different. My eyes a little wider, my lips a little fuller (though that could have been because of the lipstick), I swear my cheeks were a little puffier. I reached up and touched the barrettes that Melanie had given me to clip my bangs back. That was the closest she’d come to making fun of me, but she’d apologized for it straight away. These are pink, but that shouldn’t bother you, too much, she’d said, sorry, bro… I didn’t mean it like that.
I sighed. Time to wash off the lipstick. I stood up and made my way for the door, then stopped. Melanie’s closet was right there, right beside the door. I sighed again. Yet another thing that I really shouldn’t be doing, but since I’d be wearing stuff like that soon enough…
I reached inside and grabbed a tank top and a pair of shorts that were easy to get to. I took off my own shorts and shirt and then my own morbid curiosity made me take my underwear off. I’d already promised to do the laundry today, Melanie wouldn’t get too mad, would she? I reached into her underwear drawer and laughed as loudly as I could. Right on top was the pair of panties that had been involved in the event that had caused this whole sad affair in the first place.
I pulled the panties out of the drawer and unfolded them. They were pink with an orange waistband. They looked so tiny, like they’d never fit any girl that ever wore them. Again, I asked myself why I was doing this. I sat down on the edge of Melanie’s bed, slipped one leg in one hole, and the other leg in the other hole, then pulled the panties up. After getting them over my hips, I took another breath and looked at myself in her wall mirror.
I started to sweat some. I didn’t look goofy at all. The bulge in the front of the panties wasn’t even that big. I’d never say I was the biggest guy around anyway, but I wasn’t that small before.
I put my shrunken “head” out of my mind and reached for the shorts. They were tighter than the jeans I’d worn the night before, but still not painful, or even awkward. Another look in the mirror, and I’d almost swear I was a girl from the waist down. What little hair I had on my legs didn’t even hinder the image.
I grabbed the shirt and pulled it down over my head. As the shirt touched my nipples, I felt something… Odd. Was this feeling just the shirt rubbing against my nipples? I pulled the shirt back off and looked at my chest in the mirror. Were my nipples a little more puffy? I looked down and saw, for the first time, the slight curve of my breasts. They were actually starting to pop out, as opposed to how they were even this morning.
The reality of the situation was hitting me hard, now. I couldn’t wear any of Melanie’s shirts with my nipples - no, let’s just say it, my breasts - this sensitive, and wearing one of my own shirts would be completely against what this little curiosity experiment was all about. I knew exactly what I’d need to do, and the idea of it was embarrassing. Almost as embarrassing as I knew it would eventually be to go into a store and get the measuring done. I pulled open the drawer underneath Melanie’s panty drawer and found them. Something compelled me to actually try and match tops to bottoms, so I found the bra that went with the panties I was wearing.
Dammit, this was awkward. Not trying to put one on, just the idea that I would need to put one on. I slipped my arms through the straps and struggled to reach behind me and get the hooks together in the back. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to do it after a little trial and error. Then I adjusted it on my chest, made it feel a little more comfortable. Yet another look in the mirror and the image of me wearing a bra and girl shorts was just creepy. I pulled the tank top on yet again and the image was complete.
Amanda didn’t actually look too out of place. Really, she looked very natural, very real.
I sat down on Melanie’s bed, my eyes never leaving that reflection. I wasn’t even Adam anymore, was I?
1.
The doorbell rang, pulling me out of my horrified daze. Oh, for God’s sake, was Steve here? He really wanted to hang out a lot.
Did that have anything to do with my dreams?
I left Melanie’s room and made my way downstairs. I made it to the door just as Steve was about to ring the doorbell again, and watched his eyes widen in surprise. “What?” I asked, then realized that he hadn’t heard my voice all day. “Look, I know I sound a little different, but that’s all that’s changed, okay?”
He shook his head slowly. “No… No it ain’t…”
I raised an eyebrow, then I realized what he was looking at. Me. His eyes were tracing my body from head to toe and back again. Suddenly, I felt a little chilly, and rubbed at my exposed arms. “Are you gonna hurry up and come inside, I’m kinda cold.”
“Um… Yeah,” he said, nervousness in his voice.
He came in and sat down on the couch, and I sat down beside him. “So… What’s going on?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Well, I’m kinda bored, so I came over here. You’re wearing short shorts and a tank top. And we’re not really doing much of anything.”
Dammit, dammit, dammit… Why had I decided now would be a good time to try on Melanie’s clothes? I finish doing that and suddenly my best friend arrived, I was just stupid.
Before I could suggest anything, Steve said, “You look nice, by the way.”
I blushed. I blushed! He complimented me, and I blushed! What the hell was wrong with me? “Thanks,” I said. Stupid goosebumps, causing me to to be nervous now. “Wow… It’s funny how something so minor as clothes can cause so much awkward between us, huh?”
He let out a chuckle. “Yeah.”
“Do you wanna do something?”
“Like what?”
“I dunno. We never finished playing Resident Evil Six the other day.”
He shook his head. “Nah. Let’s find something else to play.”
“Okay. I don’t have a whole lot more co-op games, though.”
He shrugged. “We don’t have to play a co-op game. You could play a game while I watch, I could play a game while you watch.”
I nodded. “Okay. Go pick something.”
He nodded, then got up and walked up the stairs. I just sat there, hugging my knees to my chest. Wait, what?! That is so something that girls do! Why was I doing it?! I uncurled and let my feet touch the floor again. I didn’t like what I’d just done. Why had I hugged my knees to my chest? Was I… Scared? Was I… Concerned?
Was I happy to be around Steve?
He came back down the stairs with a stack of games and set them down on the coffee table. “Well… Here’s our options.”
“How many of my games didn’t you grab?”
He flashed a weak smile and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Um… Two?”
I rolled my eyes. “Alright, let’s do process of elimination, then.”
2.
I sighed. Twenty minutes of going through all my games, and we couldn’t think of anything to play. I just sat back and propped my feet up on the coffee table. “For the love of God, just pick at random!” I said. It brought attention back to my voice, because it sounded even more feminine than it had before.
He sat back down on the couch beside me. “Hell, let’s just watch a movie.”
I shrugged. “Okay with me.” I picked up the TV remote, flipped to a Starz channel and caught the tail end of the credits of Iron Man 3. “Ugh, they’re still showing this? Aren’t there better movies they could show?”
Steve laughed. “You’ve never told me why you don’t like Iron Man. What’s wrong with ‘em?”
I shook my head. I dunno. I’ve just never liked them that much. I liked Thor better.”
He smiled. “Yeah, I wonder why.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He lightly poked me in the arm. “Look at how you’re dressed!”
“What? I’m gonna havta wear this stuff eventually!” I was trying to justify this. Why was I trying to justify this? “Besides, at least I’m not wearing the same ratty jeans I wore yesterday, like you are!”
He burst into laughter, which surprised me. “You are such a girl now! You’re trying to ‘fix’ me already!”
I blushed again. “No I’m not! You’re just… y’know… You have other pants, right?”
He nodded through his laughter. “I can’t believe this. You’re wearing your sister’s clothes, and you’re trying to fix me, how are you not a girl right now?”
“I’m just… I’m not!” I was lying to myself and I knew that.
“You’re even wearing lipstick, man!”
Oh, crap, I forgot about that. I brought my hand up to my lips, like covering them up would erase the purple stuff on them. Why had I forgot about that? Why hadn’t I washed this stuff off while he was looking through all my games?
“Um… Yeah?” I said, with obvious embarrassment in my voice.
He patted me on my exposed shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. I think it looks good on you.”
I swear my face had to be beet-red with how much I was blushing, and I could almost feel my masculinity draining away as I asked, “Really?” Why had I asked that? What possible reason could I have for asking that? Steve was my best friend, and the very reason I got into this situation, not a potential boyfriend!
“What?” he asked, taking close observation of my face. I must have had a disturbed look, or something.
“I think you should leave,” I said, and I meant it. This was getting out of hand. Steve wasn’t just looking like my best friend anymore, and that scared me. “Please, please leave.”
He grabbed me by the shoulders and said, “What is it?”
“I just… I want you to leave, okay?”
He took a deep breath. “I have something to tell you. I’ve been having these weird dreams, ever since we met that old witch. One of them had me walking into your house and finding you standing there, but you weren’t a guy. There was another one where I was complaining about how we don’t spend much time together anymore, and another one - “
I cut him off. “Where I’m the one complaining because you don’t want to spend time with me?”
He nodded. “Yeah. We were in here, and you were all bouncy and girly and… I think I realized that my punishment would be us drifting apart. I don’t want that to happen, because you’re my best friend, y’know?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“So, please, Amanda, don’t ask me to leave again.”
Suddenly, I felt something welling up inside me, and it was anger. He just called me Amanda. He just called me that goddamn name! No! “Get out!” I said, my voice firm.
“But, after I just - “
I cut him off again. “I said get out!” I yelled this time. Even with my more feminine voice, there was a bit of the authority that I’d felt as a boy.
Steve got up off the couch, nodded, and left, just like that. No muss, no fuss, no protest. He was there and then he was just gone. I just sat there on the couch, shaking, shuddering, shivering…
Angry.
3.
It took me at least an hour to stand up from the couch. I didn’t want to move, I didn’t want to do anything. I was angry. Angry at Steve, angry at that sorceress, even angry at Melanie for no reason whatsoever, just because I was wearing her clothes. I didn’t have any reason to be angry at Melanie, or Steve (really), I should have just been angry at the sorceress.
I walked upstairs to my room and practically dropped onto my bed. My tablet was still on my nightstand, so I grabbed it, tapped the camera icon, flipped the camera to the front lens and looked at myself, really looked at myself. My face in particular. It was obvious why Steve had called me Amanda, because I didn’t look like Adam at all anymore. If somebody was just looking at my face, they’d wonder how I could have ever been Adam. I still had three days of this, how much more changing could I do? Well, aside from Little Adam shrinking inside me completely, and my breasts growing more.
I tapped out of the camera and got to the internet, where I searched for all those nutjobs I’d read about before. I quickly registered at the forum and started a new thread.
My name is Amanda, and I used to be Adam.
4.
I sat on my bed, hugging my knees to my chest, and waited for Melanie to come home. I didn’t have much else to do. I had the TV on, but I wasn’t watching anything. The thread I’d started had taken off, with over sixty different people saying things ranging from absolutely believing me to thinking I’m, and I quote, “Some dumb cunt who wants people to think she’s nuts.” I rolled my eyes at that guy.
I heard the front door open and Melanie did something downstairs, then she climbed the stairs. “Adam? You still here?”
“Yeah,” I said, “in my room.”
She walked into the room and stopped dead in her tracks. It probably looked odd to her to see her younger brother wearing her clothes - not to mention her lipstick - and not looking strange in any way. “Um… Is there anything wrong?” she asked.
I stood up. “Look at this.”
“Yeah, you managed to pick clothes I don’t wear anymore, what about it?”
“No! Look at this!”
“Bro, I don’t - “
“Mel! I’m… I’m not Adam anymore!”
She sighed. “Look, bro, I hate to tell you this, but you really haven’t been Adam for a little while now. Pretty much since I woke you up this morning.”
“And you didn’t say anything?”
She walked over to me and sat down on my bed. “What would you have said if it was me or Steve that was changing? I wasn’t trying to make you feel worse. I already felt bad making you talk to Mom and Dad this morning.”
I sat down beside her. “What’s this mean for school tomorrow? How is anybody gonna recognize me?”
“We’ll see the principal tomorrow morning, it’s that simple.”
I laughed. “Yeah, what’s the principal gonna say about this? What are we going to tell him? ‘Hi, Mr. Malski, a sorceress cursed me and I’m turning into a girl during this last week of school’?”
She put an arm around me. It felt comforting, to have my sister hugging me. “We’ll think of something. Don’t worry.”
I put my head on her shoulder as she put her other arm around me. This wasn’t the same type of brother/sister hug that I’d experienced before, this was a hug between sisters, a knowing, loving hug that siblings of opposite genders just don’t understand. It was a feeling I’d never had before.
I felt a tear drip down my cheek. Adam was gone. He was gone, he was dead, he was never coming back.
I wasn’t crying because he was gone, I wasn’t crying because I was happy, I wasn’t crying for any reason that made sense.
I was crying because I accepted what had happened.
Okay, as the story is nearing its end over on TG Storytime, I've decided to just cut down to one week between chapter bundles here. This way, you guys will likely get the story's final chapter at the same time the TG Storytime folks do! Yay!
1.
There was a knock on my bedroom door. I opened it to see Steve standing there, which surprised me. “Didn’t I scare you off yesterday?”
He shrugged. “You’re my friend, why wouldn’t I come back?”
“Because I was rude to you?”
“So what? You’re my friend, remember?”
“You mean you’re not mad at me?”
He took me by the hand and pulled me a little closer. “Of course not. You’re just… Going through a rough time. Nobody can blame you for how you’re feeling.”
I blushed. “Thanks.”
He smiled. “You’re wearing that lipstick again.”
I nodded. “Turns out I like it. Do you?”
He patted me on the shoulder. “On you, I like anything.”
I giggled. “Really?” He was buttering me up, clearly, but I was enjoying it.
“Yeah.” He brushed his hand against my cheek. “You look pretty no matter what.”
I was turning so red, it was embarrassing. “So… You ready for school?”
He shook his head. “Not just yet.”
“Steve?”
“I just… Please, just this once?”
“Just this once what?”
He shook his head. “Fuck it.” He leaned down and put his lips right to mine, and his arms around me. I rested my hands on his chest and I could feel his heartbeat. The world faded around us, and I just let him kiss me. It felt so wonderful, and I didn’t want it to end.
His hand slipped from my hip to my chest, and I felt him squeezing my breast through my shirt. I moved one of my hands to cover his, to make him squeeze harder. It felt so wonderful.
“Adam? Adam! Wake up!” someone said from somewhere, and I felt Steve fading away from me…
2.
Mom was gently shaking me awake. I groaned and turned over onto my side. “I don’t wanna get up…” I said. Wait, when did Mom get here? I didn’t care, I just wanted to sleep.
She smacked me on the butt. “I said get up, young lady.”
“Ugh…” I groaned. I turned back onto my back. “Did you just call me young lady?”
“You look more like a young lady.”
I turned back onto my side. “What time is it?”
“It’s seven forty-five, you’ve got about an hour before school.”
“Why’d you wake me up?”
She walked around to sit down on the side of the bed I was facing. “Because you were moaning, and rubbing your chest.”
Now I was awake. “Um… I was?”
She smiled. “I was a fifteen year old girl once, and you’ve got an older sister. If you think I don’t know what a wet dream is, you’re very wrong about that.”
I sat up and scratched at my left breast. Must have been the one I was rubbing, because it felt kinda weird now. “Do most girls have wet dreams that just involve kissing?”
“Is that all your’s was?”
“Uh-huh.”
“All it was?”
“Well, and Steve was… um... “
She ruffled my hair a little. “Dreaming about a boy counts.”
I hugged my knees to my chest, and I could already tell my breasts were a little bigger. “When did you and Dad get home?”
“Early this morning. Your dad came in here to see you and nearly blew his top when he saw you wearing one of your sister’s nighties.” She tugged at the shoulder strap of the nightie I was wearing. “He’s a little worried about you.”
“You mean because I’m not really Adam anymore?”
She smirked. “No, he’s worried because you didn’t take self-defense classes like your sister did.” She hugged me closer. “He’s actually happier that you’re a girl now than I am.”
“How come?”
“He wanted only daughters. When your dad and I got married, he told me his dream was to be the kind of dad who scares his daughter’s boyfriend into submission by showing off his gun collection.”
I giggled. “That’s funny.”
“I wanted all boys, so that I wouldn’t have to help anybody out with feminine needs. My mother was horrible at teaching me, I was worried I’d be just as bad.”
I smiled at that, then my smiled dropped. I wondered how long it was going to be before I had my first period.
“What?” Mom asked.
“Just thinking about periods.”
“They’re nothing to worry about, sweetie, just a part of life.”
“That’s what Melanie said, too.”
“And we’re here to help. Just don’t ask your dad, because he’s clueless.”
3.
I stood in the shower and enjoyed the feeling of the water hitting my breasts. I was right, they were bigger than they had been when I went to sleep. It amazed me just how different a shower could feel when you had breasts for the water to drip off of.
I rubbed shampoo in my hair and sighed in frustration. I had way too much hair! How did girls deal with this? Rinsing it was a nightmare. I grabbed the body wash that Dad and I used, then set it back down. It just didn’t smell right, now. Instead, I grabbed the stuff that Mom and Melanie used and decided to use that. It smelled a lot better. I guess my tastes were becoming more feminine, too. Great. Stupid sorceress. Couldn’t I just be a tomboy?
There was a knock on the door, then the door opened, somebody walked in, and then Melanie pulled the shower curtain open. “Hey!” I shouted, then hurried to cover my breasts and what was left of my privates.
She smirked. “Calm down, okay? It’s not like I haven’t seen a pair of boobs, or something that looks somewhat similar to a penis.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you’ve seen mine!”
“Like I said, calm down. I’m here to teach you how to shave.” She held up shaving cream and a pack of pink ladies’ razors. “It’s about time you learn how hard it is to stay pretty for boys.”
I blushed. “I’m not trying to look pretty!”
“You smell like you’re trying to be pretty.”
“It’s just body wash!”
“Hey, take it easy. I’m only teasing a little bit.” She sprayed some shaving cream onto one palm. “You can’t expect me not to tease my little sister a little.”
“What are you doing now?”
She started rubbing the cream onto my legs. “Putting shaving cream on your legs, obviously.”
“Do we need to do this now?”
“We do if you’re gonna wear those shorts I picked out for you.”
“Why can’t I wear pants?”
“Because all my pants are in the laundry that you forgot to do last night.”
I rolled my eyes. “I was a little busy almost flirting with Steve, it was a busy night!”
She smiled. “It’s okay. You didn’t have a problem wearing shorts last night.”
“Well, no, but that was just practice.”
She opened up the package of razors and handed me one. “Okay, we’re gonna start with the right leg first, understand? If you knick yourself, don’t worry, nobody gets it right the first time.”
I nodded, then took a deep breath. I knelt down and started down by my ankle, then brought the razor up. I was about to pull the razor away quickly, but Melanie put her hand on mine and made me pull away slowly. I nodded, then began back down by my ankle again. I finished that straight line, then continued on right beside it. Shaving your legs wasn’t too difficult, just tedious. I knicked myself once on my right leg, right on the area right where my sock would end. After that, we moved onto my left leg, and I made a couple more cuts. None too big that a band-aid wouldn’t cover them up, though.
Next we moved onto my armpits. I didn’t really understand why, considering I wasn’t going to be wearing a tank top this time, but Melanie said I needed the experience. I didn’t cut myself there at all. I toweled off, and then wrapped the towel around my chest, the way Mel taught me, then she blow dried and showed me how to style my hair into something that stopped my bangs from blocking my view.
“There, look? You look a lot better now, huh?” she asked, pointing out my reflection. I wasn’t really looking at my hair, though, I was looking at Amanda. This was her first public outing, her first time going to school. The one and only thing I found lucky was that this was the last four days of the school year. By next school year, everybody will likely have forgotten Adam. “Hey, didn’t you get the band-aids on good enough?” she asked, drawing my attention back to the real world.
“Huh?”
“Fresh blood, on the floor there,” she said, pointing to the floor. I checked out my band-aids, but they were on well.
“Um… It’s not from my legs.”
I saw a look of confusion on her face, then a look of recognition. “Uh… Time for you to be introduced to Ms. Playtex.”
I felt my eyes widen. “Huh?”
She straightened up a little, put a hand on my shoulder, then put on this goofy voice. “Amanda Richards, you have now become a woman.”
I gulped. “No…”
“Yep.”
“Un-uh.”
“Yeah.”
“But, I’m not done changing!”
She shrugged. “So? Maybe your periods aren’t connected to your physical progress, but your mental acceptance? You did kinda accept being Amanda last night, y’know.”
“I don’t even know what bathroom to use at school!”
She put on an annoyed look. “You’re a girl, you use the girl’s restroom, it’s that simple. Everybody who looks at you is gonna see a girl, so don’t worry about it.” She patted me on the back. Either way, time to show you where Mom keeps the pads.”
“You mean you and Mom don’t use tampons?”
“No, we do, but you can’t exactly use one. And Mom keeps pads in reserve in case we run out of tampons.”
“Oh.”
“It’s nothing to worry about. It means you’re a healthy young woman, remember?”
I sighed.
4.
The girl in Melanie’s mirror was me. No doubt about it, no way I was hiding it, I didn’t even want to hide it. I was Amanda now, and Amanda didn’t have any clothes of her own, so she was borrowing her sister’s.
Except that wasn’t really true. Melanie gave me that bra and panties I’d worn last night, and the shorts and tank top, but only because she was going to throw those out at some point in the near future. Now she had a little sister to pass stuff down onto. Yay.
I was still wearing shorts, but these were a little longer than the ones I wore the night before, they came to almost my knees. One of the band-aids on my left leg was covered up. The shirt I was wearing was a very plain shirt, even if it was almost skin-tight. Boys were definitely going to be staring at a certain place on me with this shirt.
Melanie grabbed me by the arm and practically tossed me into her vanity chair. “Hey!” I shouted.
She held up her index finger. “No ‘heys’, young lady. Today, you’re introduced to nail polish.”
“Why?”
“Why not? You were wearing lipstick last night.”
“Lipstick is easier to put on.”
“And you did a very good job, considering it was your first time. But that doesn’t matter. We’ve got twenty minutes before Mom takes us to school, and I’m painting your fingernails, got it?”
“You’re sure we have time?”
“Yeah, the stuff I’m putting on you dries pretty quick.”
I sighed. “Fine.”
“How’s that same purple as the lipstick work for you?”
I shrugged. “It’s okay, I guess.”
“Good, because that’s what I’m using, since you’re also gonna wear lipstick.”
“This is the first time I’m going to school as a girl! Why are you trying to make me uber-girly on my first day?”
She shook her head. “I’m not trying to make you ‘uber-girly’, even though you should really understand that saying ‘uber-girly’ makes you seem a bit more girly than you probably think you are, I’m trying to make you fit in.”
Dammit, she was making sense. Dammit, dammit, dammit. “Fine. Just hurry up with the nail polish.”
She smirked. “It’s not that simple. I’ve gotta shape your nails, too. They look too much like boy’s nails right now.”
I sighed. “Okay. Do it.”
“You’ve gotta pay attention to what I do, because I don’t wanna have to give you a manicure every time you wanna change your nail polish.”
Dammit!
5.
Dad was laughing at me from behind his newspaper. “Stop!” I implored.
“You’re fitting into your new role pretty well, Amy.”
Amy actually sounded pretty good as a shortened form of Amanda. Huh. Why didn’t I think of that? Oh, wait, because I’d only decided to accept the name ‘Amanda’ last night. Silly me. “But that doesn’t mean you have to laugh at me!”
He put the paper down, reached over to me and squeezed my shoulder. “Somebody has to tease you, kiddo, and since it hasn’t been your mother or your sister, I’ll do it for them.”
“I thought you were the one who wanted only daughters.”
Mom walked into the room, phone to her ear. “No, I told you, we’re changing Adam to Amanda, and gender from male to female. How can this be this difficult? What? It was a sudden and surprising life decision, but we’ve decided to accept it, okay?” She hung up the phone and nearly slammed it down on the kitchen table. “God! Why is it so hard to help someone along after a ‘sudden and surprising life decision’?” She pointed at me. “This wouldn’t be so difficult if you hadn’t gotten yourself cursed.”
“It wasn’t my fault!” I knew she was joking, why did I screech like that? Actually, my voice seemed a little higher. Not a noticeable degree, but it seemed higher than it was yesterday. Then again, I wasn’t screeching yesterday, I was mostly yelling at Steve.
“Sweetie, your mother’s not blaming you,” Dad said.
Mom sighed. “No, I’m not blaming you. But you do have to be ready for school.”
“I am. And I know you weren’t blaming me, I don’t know why I said that.”
“Still, it’s gonna take me all day trying to get this straightened out. It’s amazing how difficult it is to get someone’s social security information changed. When you go and get a job, it’ll be a damn nightmare for you.” She picked up her car keys from the small basket they were kept in on the center of the table. “Okay, girls, let’s get going.”
6.
It was time to do this. To talk to the principal and get this dealt with. I took a deep breath, and tried my damndest to keep my butt bolted to the seat of the car while Melanie pulled me out. “It’s gonna be okay, Amy, don’t worry.”
I shook my head. “That’s what you think. We’re gonna walk in there, tell him some bullshit story about me getting a sex change, or something, and he’s gonna laugh at me.”
“No he won’t! Mr. Malski’s a cool guy. Remember when you egged that restroom last year and all he did was make you clean it up without putting it on your record?”
“And do you really think he’s going to believe that the boy who did that had some deep desire to be a girl?”
She shrugged. “Let’s go find out.”
I sighed. Game time, day-of-reckoning time. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.
We walked into the building, and nobody seemed to notice me. Nobody pointed at me and laughed, or whispered to themselves some weird gossip that they thought up in twenty seconds, they just kept on doing what they were doing before I walked into the building. It was like I was invisible. That was a good thing.
We got to the principal’s office, the door was open, we walked inside and sat down at the chairs across the desk from his chair, which was turned to face away from us. Was he sitting in it? I doubted it, Mr. Malski was a big guy, we’d likely be able to see his shoulders at least.
The chair swiveled around and my heart felt like it was falling through a black hole.
It was her! It was the sorceress!
“Nice to meet you again, Amanda,” she said, a wicked smile on her face.
1.
I wanted to run. I wanted to run back home, lock myself in my room, and never come to school again. Why was she here?! Why?! What did she want to do to me now? I almost felt like I was going to pee myself.
“Are you the witch that cursed Amy?” Melanie asked.
The sorceress looked over at me. “Amy? It’s a nice way to shorten Amanda. I like it.”
Melanie slammed her fist on the desk. “Answer the question!”
The sorceress made a tsk noise over and over again. “A witch? Is that what she told you I was? I’m a sorceress, young lady.”
“Why are you here?”
“It just so happens that when Mr. Malski retires at the end of the year, I’m taking over. I’m familiarizing myself with the office today.”
I finally found my voice. “Did you do this just to watch me, Steve and Dean?”
She was still smirking, but she shook her head. “Not at all, Amy. I was selected for a few specific reasons. I’m qualified, I’m a hard worker, and Mr. Malski happens to be my father.”
That was confusing. When I first met this woman, she looked like she was eighty. “A-what?”
“If you thought the old woman who greeted you and Steve last Friday was what I really looked like, you’re mistaken. It’s just a form I take whenever I see people doing something illegal. They generally find it amusing to be caught by a frail old woman. You should have seen young Mr. Garnet when he was greeted by an elderly woman he never knew lived next door to him.”
“What all did you do to him as a punishment?”
She closed her eyes and sighed. “You still believe these to be punishments? That’s a very false belief, Ms. Richards.”
“Then what is this? What’s the point behind changing me into a girl or taking away Dean’s basketball skills or doing nothing to Steve?”
“Your life was written on your face the moment I met you. You had little drive for yourself, you liked to please your friends and family, you didn’t want, like a normal human being. Steve didn’t think anything for anyone, and mostly cared for himself, he wouldn’t have cared if he was left alone by everyone around him. Dean was a jock who believed he had the right do whatever he wanted, such as when he and his friends committed the panty raid. You think this is a curse, Amanda, but you’re wrong.”
“Whaddya mean?” I asked.
“These are challenges.”
2.
I sat there feeling a little dumbfounded. Challenges? Seriously? Was this woman as out of her mind as I felt she was? “What are you talking about?”
“This all sounds crazy,” Melanie said, folding her arms under her breasts. “How could these be challenges?”
The sorceress - Ms. Malski, I guess - sat back further in her seat. Her smile didn’t leave her face, and I wanted to punch it. “Dean needs to overcome his belief that a ‘sissy’ is just a weakling. When you see him out in the hallway a little later, you’ll see he’s done nothing to accept that idea at all.”
How would Dean look now? He was just playing basketball poorly when I saw him on Sunday, was he visibly feminine now?
She continued, “Steve needs to overcome his selfishness. I’m all but certain that had he told you what you were getting into that night, you would have stayed at home. Instead, he held that information back from you and forced you to help him.”
Overcome his selfishness? Steve wasn’t overly selfish, at least no more than any other teenager. And I really could say no, even when he doesn’t tell me what we’re doing. I just don’t, because he’s my friend.
The bell rang, we had five minutes to get to class. “Alright, girls, time for you to get to your classes.”
I stood up. “Wait, what’s my challenge?”
She ignored my question. “Amanda, you’ll find that your teachers have been told about your situation. They believe you’ve had gender reassignment surgery, but you’re allowed to use the girls’ restrooms and locker rooms. I imagine there’ll be a little bit of gossip about you over the next few days, but don’t worry too much about it.”
“What’s my challenge?” I asked again, but she stood up and walked past us. Melanie and I stared at one another for a second, then followed her out into the hallway.
3.
My first class of my last week of school with at least a little masculinity. Granted, I was also having my first period at the same time, but even though Little Adam was tiny, he was still there for a little bit longer. Didn’t give me a bulge, I noticed. Sigh…
My first class was algebra. Mrs. Williams was the teacher, and she gave me a somewhat disgusted look when I walked into the room. Nobody else seemed to care that where Adam Richards was, Amanda Richards replaced him. How are girls who used to be boys referred to? Trans-girls? You’d think a trans-girl showing up out of the blue would be at least noteworthy to them.
I walked my desk and sat down, waited for Mrs. Williams to take role call. I heard somebody behind me whispering to somebody else, which actually relieved me. Better to be the subject of whispers than of silence.
Much to my surprise, nothing about class changed. I don’t know why I thought it would, considering I was just as decent at algebra as I was when I was a boy. I almost fell asleep in the middle of class, which could have been related to my change, I wasn’t sure.
When the bell rang, I gathered up my stuff like I always did. Something about this all just felt too normal. Why wasn’t somebody jumping up and shouting “Adam’s a crossdresser!” or something like that?
As I went to stand up, I nearly collided with Jake Matthews. “Whoa,” he said, quickly stepping out of the way. “You okay?”
I flashed a slight smirk. “Yeah, just… Today’s been weird.”
He nodded. “Um… Adam, right?”
I shook my head. “Not so much anymore.”
“What name did you pick?”
I didn’t pick it, but… “Amanda.”
He chuckled. “That about makes sense. People have been talking about you all day.”
This was the first class of the day, man. “Really? Nobody’s said a whole lot to me.”
“I bet a lot of people got it out of the systems on Sunday. That’s when I noticed you.”
Really? People saw me on Sunday at that basketball game? Holy shit, and I thought I was being really low profile. Who noticed me?! “You saw me at the game?”
“Yeah. You were hanging on to Steve’s arm, I noticed.”
What?! “Huh? I wasn’t hanging onto his arm.”
“Not literally, but you two were sitting together, and he had his arm around you a few times.”
Did he? Had I let him put his arm around me? Why would I have let him do that? Then again, I do kinda remember asking him to move his arm at least once. Crap, was I basically flirting with him on Sunday? “Did I look like I enjoyed it?”
He shrugged. “I dunno. You didn’t seem to mind. Why?”
I shook my head. “Not important. I’m just… It’s been a busy weekend.”
I walked out into the hallway and was immediately struck by a surprising sight, and I knew exactly why nobody had laughed at me since I got to school. Dean Garnet, standing at his locker, wearing a light blue blouse and a flower print skirt and a pair of sandals. His buddies were snickering at him from a couple lockers away, and he looked very red-faced.
Wow, when Ms. Malski said he’d be a sissy, she wasn’t kidding. He was even holding his books like a girl did - like I was doing, actually - and he’d done an even better job shaving his legs than I had. What in the moist barrel of fucks?!
4.
My next class was a test. A big test. It’s the same test that I’m sure every transgender person has to go through (though not in the same way that I do), especially if they’re a teenager. I took a deep breath, then took the plunge…
...Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the girls’ locker room looked exactly like the boys’ locker room. Exactly the same, except that there were no urinals in the restroom that was off to the side. It smelled a little different, because the boys’ locker room smelled like boy sweat, while the girls’ locker room seemed to smell more like hair spray.
I walked into the locker room like someone about to walk on hot coals. How would they react to me? Clearly my “transition” was well-known, or at least known enough. How would this go? How would this work? Crap, crap, crap, crap...
“So, did you really get a sex change, or are you just good at crossdressing?” Emily Clarke asked. I spun around and saw her standing there, topless, no bra whatsoever, just wearing a pair of tiny, tiny gym shorts. Four days ago, I’d be staring at her breasts because they were a pair of naked breasts in front of me. Now, I was comparing them to my breasts. “Hey, Richards, my eyes are up here.”
Dammit! Dammit! “Sorry, I was just…”
“Staring at my boobs? Yeah, I noticed.”
I sighed. “Not the way you think.”
“Whatever. You’re still a boy, obviously.”
Shake your head, shake your head, shake your head, shake your head, shake your head
I folded my arms under my breasts. “No, I’m not. I wasn’t staring at your boobs because I like looking at them, I was staring at your boobs because you’re bigger than me, and I was comparing myself to you.”
“Yeah, right. I’ll believe that when I see it.” She poked me in the left breast. Then again. Then again. It was hurting already because my breasts were really tender, but three pokes later, it was getting annoying. Then she suddenly grabbed me by the breast, and I kinda screeched and pulled back.
“What the hell?!” I screamed, my face turning red. Everyone was suddenly surrounding us.
“Okay, those feel really real. How the hell did you do that?”
“They are real!”
“How?”
Oh God, oh crap, oh nonononononononono… Why would I need to explain this on my first day? Why? What mean, rude, ridiculous God would make me explain this?! And on my first day!
“It’s obviously hormones,” someone said from behind me. I turned around and saw Shanna Duggan making her way through the crowd of other girls. “There’s a bunch of different kinds of hormones that doctors can prescribe that can cause that much growth in a few days.” She folded her arms under her breasts. “She’s obviously not finished her transition, right, Amy?”
I reached under my shirt and rubbed at my breast, but like I said, I was tender. “Yeah. Almost, but not done.”
Shanna glared at Emily. “See? She’s a girl, just like you and me. Just because she was born a boy doesn’t change anything.”
Emily shook her head. “Whatever.” She looked at me. “You wanna play dress-up and pretend you’re as much of a woman as the rest of us, go ahead. I don’t care. Maybe we’ll even go shopping together some day, since you don’t have too bad a taste in clothes, but don’t stare at my boobs again, understand?”
“Yeah,” I said. I breathed a sigh of relief. Yay! I could get changed now!
“Here,” Shanna said, holding something out for me. It was a sports bra.
“Huh?”
“I already know that Melanie doesn’t have any because I’ve had to loan her one before, so take it.”
“I didn’t even know you knew Melanie.”
“We used to be in the same grade, but I was held back this year. I didn’t need to take gym, I just like to.”
I took it and blushed, again. “Um… Thanks.”
She shook her head. “No prob. It’s a lot more comfortable than just letting your girls flop around while running the track.”
I shook my head. “No, I meant… With Emily.”
She flashed me a smirk. “Hey, my older sister went through this, it’s okay.”
“Your older sister?”
“Yeah, Kristin. She was born Kristopher, but she wasn’t right that way.”
Shanna had only moved to town a couple years ago, and I didn’t know she had a sister, let alone a sister who used to be a brother.
“Kinda like you,” she said.
“Huh?”
She gave me a look. “Seriously? You hadn’t noticed?”
“Noticed what?”
“Melanie told me you’ve never had a girlfriend, and that you always hang around your friend Steve. You do everything with him, and when he asks you to do something, you don’t have a problem doing it. Amy, even when you were Adam, you’ve always been Amy. Now, you’re just becoming who you should have been in the first place, as opposed to who life chose for you to be.”
I sat down on the cement bench in front of the lockers and thought about what she’d said. I looked back on my life as Adam, and I realized one very difficult, very obvious truth.
I really shouldn’t have been Adam.
5.
When I walked out of the locker room, a little self-conscious because of the stupid gym outfit we all had to wear. Boys had it easy, because they got a basic tee-shirt and looser shorts. Girls, on the other hand, got a pair of skimpy shorts and a tank top. It was like boys got to dress athletically, while girls had to dress more provocatively.
Okay, not provocatively, but less athletically than the boys do.
Wow, I think I’m turning into a feminist.
I glanced over at the boys standing around on their half of the gym. The gym attendance was set up so that boys were on one side of the gym (closest to their locker room door) and girls were on the other side of the gym (closer to our locker room door; wow, I’ve used it once and I’m already saying I belong to the girls’ locker room). At first, we were asked to sit down, but eventually, Coach Walker stopped caring and just told us to sound off when he took role call. For the most part, we didn’t even stick to the preset “sides” anymore.
This was no more apparent than when all the boys decided to walk over to our side of the gym and engage in conversations with their friends or girlfriends.
But nobody walked up to me.
I stayed mostly to myself, off to the side. I talked to Shanna a little bit, but she had her own friends to talk to, and I was kinda shy. I mainly just sat there, thinking about my life as Adam. Shanna said that I was the wrong person when I was Adam. Had I really been wrong? I didn’t feel like I’d been wrong. I mean, yeah, I’d never found a girl to date, and I did hang around Steve all the time, but Steve was my friend. And so what if I’d never dated a girl? Not everybody has to go through high school dating, do they?
I sat down on the floor and hugged my knees to my chest. I was doing a lot of that now, but then again, I don’t think I could do that as a boy. Was I the wrong person as Adam?
“Hey, Adam,” someone said. I looked up and saw Steve standing there, looking nervous. “Can we talk, or… Do you want me to go?”
I shook my head. “No. Sit down.”
He nodded, then sat down. “So… How ar - “
I cut him off. “Amanda.”
“Huh?”
“Amanda. My name’s Amanda. Or, Amy, if you want.”
He nodded. “I like Amy. What, uh… What changed?”
Wasn’t right that way, kinda like you
“Was I… Wrong... As Adam?”
He raised an eyebrow. “What?”
1.
“What are you talking about?” Steve asked.
I said, “Shanna told me that it was obvious to her that I was wrong as Adam, that I’m finally the way I was supposed to be as Amanda.”
“Do you think you are?”
I shrugged. “I dunno. I’ve never really given much thought to it. Until now, anyway. I didn’t really do much when I was Adam, did I?”
He shrugged, this time. “How can you really measure that?”
“I mean with my life. I haven’t done much with my life, have I?”
He lightly smacked me on the back of the head. “You’re fifteen! What could you have done?”
That made more sense than I was willing to admit, but I still felt conflicted about everything. Everything. Was that part of being a girl, or was I just torn between a new friend telling me that I’m better off as Amanda and my best friend telling me there was nothing wrong with Adam? I hated not knowing. I hated this whole thing. Shanna was nice, and she’d helped me out, but she put that thought into my head, and now I was going crazy.
“Yo! Studs and studdettes!” Coach Walker shouted as he walked into the gym. “Attendance time!” He rattled off the names one by one. I had to prod Steve into answering, because he was busy staring at me with a worried look on his face. “Richards!” He finally came to me.
“Here,” I said, “over here.”
“C’mon up here, Richards.”
I gulped audibly. “Good luck,” Steve said, patting me on the back. I nodded to him.
I walked up to Coach Walker and then waited for what he was going to say. He marked off a few things on the clipboard, then turned to me and said, “Were there any problems in the locker room?”
I shook my head. “Just a little thing, but it’s okay now.”
“A little thing?”
“Just a little mix-up with me and Emily.”
“Little?”
“Nothing too bad. We solved it pretty easy.”
He nodded. “Good. Change like this can often cause some major problems, I just wanna make sure you’re okay.”
You don’t know the half of it, Coach… I wanted to say that. Wanted to. I couldn’t, though.
2.
The best part of the last few days of school was that gym class was pretty much an open social period. You didn’t have to do anything, or you could do anything athletic that you wanted. If you wanted to stand around the basketball hoops and talk, you could. If you wanted to run the track outside, you could. If you wanted to do some mixture of the two, dammit, you could!
Most people, however, just wanted to stand around and talk. Nobody had a problem that they had to do it in their gym clothes. Me, I just wanted to sit off to the side. I didn’t feel like doing anything athletic. Probably had something to do with menstruating. Steve sat beside me. I could tell this was getting awkward.
“I’m sorry,” I said, nudging the conversation forward.
“For what?” he asked.
“For yesterday. When you called me Amanda. I… I shouldn’t have been so mean to you. I was just… I didn’t know how easy it was gonna be to be Amanda.”
“Whaddya mean? This,” he pointed at how I was dressed, “was easy for you?”
I shook my head. “No. Yesterday when we were together I… Felt different. I didn’t feel like Adam, and I shouldn’t have tried to be.”
“Wait, are you saying you accepted being Amanda because of us making fun of each other on your couch?”
“Does it sound too stupid to you, too?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m just… Just going through a lot of different changes.”
“I know.” He sighed. “I’ve been going through a few myself.”
Wait, what? “Huh?”
“Well… Ever since Friday, I’ve felt… Different… About you.”
“Um… Are you saying you have a crush on me? Because that would be weird.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know if it goes that far, or if I’m just trying to cling to you so that we stay friends.” He shook his head. “No, really, I kinda do have a crush on you. You’re too cute not to have a crush on you, and I know the person underneath all the cute, too, so that’s a plus.”
I blushed. He really thought I was cute? I should have smacked myself for that. Stupid, stupid Amanda. He’s your best friend! Best friend! Don’t give in to the idea of crushing all over your best friend!
“I like your nail polish,” he said. I looked down at my hands and felt a little stupid for forgetting that I’d let Melanie paint my nails this morning. What the hell was wrong with me?
“Thanks,” I said. “It doesn’t look… Wrong?”
He smiled. “No. It looks cute on you.”
Stop calling me cute!!!!! Did he want me to go nutty? I was already plenty screwed up from what Ms. Malski had told me - and she hadn’t told me my challenge, either - and now he was calling me cute, and complimenting me. It wasn’t helping my fragile state of mind.
“Um… Can you…” I started.
“Stop saying stuff like that?” he finished.
“Yeah.”
He smiled. “No. Because it’s true. You’re cute, and I want you to know it.”
I sighed inwardly. This wasn’t gonna be easy, obviously.
3.
Everybody junior and under and was assembled into auditorium. The seniors were all leaving in a few days, so they weren’t invited (nyeh, nyeh!).
(Wow, that sounded ridiculous. If I wasn’t undergoing some magical gender transmorphication, I’d actually care.)
“Hey!” Melanie called, trying to get my attention. I waved back to her and then ran up to her. “So how’s your first day goin’, little sis?”
I folded my arms under my breasts. “Little sis?”
She tapped me on the nose. “I’ve wanted to call somebody that for fifteen years, you should count yourself lucky I didn’t call you that when you were Adam.” She looked past me at Steve and then smiled. “So, you two make up?”
“If you’re asking if he’s my boyfriend, the answer is no, he’s still my friend. Just because I like boys doesn’t mean I’m gonna go gaga for my best friend.”
Steve asked. “When did you start liking guys?”
I shrugged. “I dunno. I just do. It just happened.”
Melanie just shook her head. “Whatever, let’s get in here,” she jerked her thumb to the auditorium doors, “there’s some sort of announcement going on.”
We walked into the auditorium, found some seats near the back, away from everybody. I always did that when I went to see a movie or anything. I didn’t like to sit by anybody. Today, I wanted to stay away from people even more, just because I didn’t want to hear people whispering about me. There was plenty of room left over since there were enough seats for the school’s maximum student capacity, and the seniors were left out of whatever was going on here.
Mr. Malski walked onto the stage and grabbed the microphone and stand. “Hope you’re enjoying your last week of the school year, everyone. I know it’s just started today, but hopefully it’s at least some fun already.” This got him a laugh from a few parts of the auditorium. I chuckled a little. “I know a few of you have heard already, but along with this year’s seniors, I’m also leaving this Friday.”
“Ah, he’s leaving?” Steve asked. Oh crap… Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, I forgot to tell him. Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap…
“Oh crap,” Melanie said. Clearly she and I were on the same wavelength.
“What?” Steve asked.
I wanted to bash my head against the back wall. “You’re gonna be in for a surprise in a little bit,” I answered.
“What kind of surprise?”
Mr. Malski continued: “It’s not easy for a principal to have such a good rapport with the students under his charge, but I’ve enjoyed meeting all of you, getting to know you. I’d like you to know, however, that you’ll be in quite capable hands. She’s risen up the ranks quickly, was vice principal at a nearby junior high. Nepotism doesn’t have anything to do with this, I’d like you all to meet my daughter, Samantha Malski.”
Ms. Malski walked onto the stage, all smiles. I looked over at Steve, who looked like he was about to scream. I quickly clamped my hand over his mouth and said, “Nothing here, I’ll talk to you after we’re out of here, okay? Please nod, because I really wanna take my hand away from your mouth.” He nodded. “Good.” I took my hand away from his mouth, then wiped it on his pants. “Use a breath mint every now and again.”
Ms. Malski took the microphone from her father. “Thank you, Daddy,” she said to her father. She then turned to us and said, “Yes, even women in their late twenties still call their fathers ‘Daddy’.” There were laughs. “My father’s told me a lot about you, and I hope that we can have that same relationship. I don’t officially take over as principal until next school year, but I can be found in my father’s office all week long, so if you’d like to stop in and talk, I’d love to talk to you.” She smiled, that same disturbing smile that I saw earlier. It made me shiver.
4.
“That was her!” Steve almost shouted. I motioned for him to keep it down, but it obviously wasn’t that easy for him. “Amy, that was the witch! Tell me you saw her!”
I nodded. “I saw her. I… Um… Actually saw her this morning.”
“You what?”
Melanie piped in, “We both did, when we got here to explain Amy to Mr. Malski.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” That question was directed at me. Steve didn’t have any classes with Melanie, after all, and I’d spent most of gym class just talking to him. Stupid me. Stupid stupid stupid me.
I sighed. “I’m sorry, I really should have told you, but... “ You have no excuse Amanda, so just shut your stupid mouth. You have no excuse. Don’t even try to give him one, don’t you even try - “I didn’t think about it?” Why did you have to talk?! Why why why why why why why?!?!
(Now that I think about it, why am I having a conversation with myself? What is wrong with me?)
I shook my head. “Okay, I really don’t have an excuse, I just forgot to say something.” Was that so hard? Was that so hard? I need therapy. I really need therapy.
Steve shook his head. “It’s… It’s okay, you’ve been going through a lot. So, why is she here? To keep tabs on us?”
“No. She’s really here because she’s taking over for Mr. Malski. She’s really his daughter.”
“But she was like six billion years old on Friday.”
“She said that’s just a form she takes to scare people occasionally. I didn’t wanna believe it either, but it seems like her being our new principal next year has nothing to do with the challenges.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Challenges?”
Dammit! Something else I didn’t tell him. I’m a retard, obviously. “Yeah, that’s what she told us, that this wasn’t a curse, it’s a challenge.”
“So what’s mine?”
“She said it has something to do with you overcoming selfishness.”
He scratched at his head. “Am I that selfish?”
Melanie said, “Well, if it wasn’t for you, Amy would still be Adam right now.”
“Hey, that was Stephanie who made me go after the panties!”
I sighed. “It’s not important who made us get the panties back, or whether or not I’d still be Adam right now, I’m Amanda and I don’t mind it all that much, despite the fact that using the restroom is a little awkward when you’re on your period, but that’s not all that - “
Steve cut me off. “You can have periods?”
Melanie hit him in the arm. “Girls only when it comes to menstruating, understand?” Then she hit me in the arm. “Don’t mention girl stuff to boys!”
“He has a twin sister and he’s my best friend, why would this be taboo around him?” I asked. I looked around. “Hey, where is Stephanie, anyway?”
He rubbed at the back of his neck. “Well… Last night I sorta cooked dinner after leaving your place. I may have given her food poisoning, as a result of a bad enchilada.”
“You can’t cook.”
“That’s exactly what Stephanie said when I started cooking.”
Melanie said, “That’s exactly what I said when we were in home ec last year, remember?”
He scratched at his chin. “Am I the only one who didn’t know that?”
I just rolled my eyes.
And here's the next three chapters of The Curse of Womanhood. Sorry, I don't actually have much to say. Actually, that's not true, as I'm fidgeting around with another story, the next part will have to go up in two weeks time. The chapters for part 5 (13-15) are up on TG Storytime, but the final two/three chapters aren't, so I'm giving myself enough time to finish the story. If all goes well, the final part here will go up the same day as the final chapter over on TGS.
1.
The next class after the big auditorium session was chemistry. It was another class I shared with Steve, and we’d always been lab partners. Today was no different, except that I was wearing denim shorts that made my butt look bigger than it was (and it was mighty big, now, thanks to turning into a girl; okay, so it looked big to me, shut up, this is new to me) and a shirt that was paper thin and made me feel chilly all day long. Nothing was different.
It may seem strange that I was explaining my clothes, but there’s a reason. That reason is that today we were on a field trip to the local college chem lab, and we had to wear lab coats. Naturally, anybody dressed like me would look silly in a lab coat, and I wasn’t the only one wearing short shorts.
“Why did we need to come here when we have the exact same stuff in our chem lab?” I asked Steve.
“Couldn’t tell ya on a bet.”
Mr. Simms tapped a ruler against the chalkboard at the front of the room. “Now, you’re all probably wondering why we’re here, especially considering this was only a ten minute trip from our building.” Oh my God, he’s a mind reader! “Certainly, you see some differences between this lab and ours, right?” Well… No. It looked like a very basic school chem lab. This one looked more like the one at middle school than ours did, but still. “This lab is a bit more like the ones you’ll see if you decide to go into a chemistry-related career. As such, I thought we’d take this opportunity to get you acquainted with this type of lab.”
Really? This looks more like an actually chemical lab somewhere? You mean they look different from a high school chem lab? Wow. I’m so very - Nope. Nope. Can’t even think that with a straight face.
“Mister Rich - Ah, excuse me, Miss Richards, do you have something to add?”
I hate you, my brain. “No, Mr. Simms,” I said, completely red-faced. More than one of my fellow classmates laughed at me.
2.
“How was your day?” Dad asked when I walked through the front door.
I set my book bag down on the floor beside the front door, then sat down on the floor, my back against the door. “Well, I’m the only transgender girl in the locker room. There are two teachers who gave me awkward stares, I think Steve likes me, and the sorceress who did this to me is the new principal next year.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You serious?”
“According to the woman at the administration office, Ms. Malski - the sorceress - has been ready to take over since last semester, but Mr. Malski wanted to finish out the school year. Her being the new principal and my being cursed seem to have absolutely nothing to do with one another.” I sighed. “It’s a little too coincidental, I know, but unless she’s changing school records magically, it’s legit.”
“So, how do you feel about this?”
I laughed. “How can I feel about this, Dad? The woman who took my manhood away is gonna be running my school next year, I’m only three days away from getting confused for Melanie more easily, and… I’m not sure how I should feel about who I’m becoming.”
Dad sat down beside me. “Amanda, when your mother told me what you’d said, that you were becoming a young woman because of a sorceress cursing you, I wanted to tell her to stop joking. My boy, turning into a girl? I couldn’t accept it. I didn’t accept it. Even when she handed me the phone, and I started talking to you, I didn’t want to believe that this scared girl was my son. I wanted so very badly to believe it was Melanie trying to play a joke on me, and your mother was in on it.”
“I thought Mom said you wanted all girls.”
He smiled. “I did. Then I got a son, and I felt proud of that boy. And as he grew up, I wanted to see this boy through everything he wanted to do. I didn’t want to push him, I didn’t want to prod him, I wanted him to be his own man, as my father did for me. Nothing that you did disappointed me - Well, that’s not entirely true, that ‘F’ in English class last semester made me want to punch you through a wall.” I smiled. I felt a tear hit my cheek.
“So, am I a disappointment now?”
“Of course not. Do I miss my son? Of course. I raised that boy for fifteen years, I watched him grow, I watched him stumble and fall and pick himself back up. Every time I look at pictures of that boy, I’m going to miss him.”
I hugged my knees to my chest. Great. I’m not a disappointment, but I’m going to be a reminder to him of the son he lost.
He put his hand on my shoulder. “And every time I look at you, I’m going to see another beautiful daughter who’s going do the right things with her life.” Wait, what? I’m what? “Amanda, you’re not Adam. I don’t know what happened to Adam, but if I keep believing that you’re Adam, then I’ll lose you. I need you, sweetheart. You’re not a replacement for Adam, but I’d lose it if I lost both of you.” He leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead. I reached forward and hugged him.
I wasn’t a replacement.
3.
Mom had been busy in my room. All of my Adam clothes were gone, replaced by feminine equivalents. No dresses or skirts or anything, but skinny jeans, shorts, tank tops, crop tops, spaghetti strap tops, camisoles, etc, etc…
(I thank Melanie for telling me names for certain types of tops, because as far as I’m concerned “shirt” should apply to everything.)
There were bras and panties in my dresser drawers, new socks, a couple new pairs of shoes (Yay, I don’t have to wear Melanie’s anymore!). There were a couple of nighties, but as I discovered last night, those were very comfortable to sleep in. I picked up one of the bras and looked at the tag on it. 34B. Was that how big I was? Was that big for a fifteen year old girl? Would I get…
No, no, no, no no no no no no no no! I would not ask myself that question! That’s the wrong question to ask and I’m not going to ask it! I don’t care how big my boobs get! I won’t consider that a concern in my life at all!
I plopped down on my bed and hugged the bra to my chest. I was already thinking about it. If I was a B cup, would I be stuck as a B cup? Or would I grow some more?
“What’s up with you?” Melanie asked. I didn’t even realize she was standing in my doorway.
“Don’t ask. Really, really, don’t ask.”
She looked at my dresser and pulled out another one of my new bras. “I wish Mom hadn’t done this.”
“Why?”
“Because! Clothes shopping is fun! And now you don’t get to learn that for yourself until you grow some more.”
I laid on my back and stared at the ceiling. “You mean I’m not done?”
“What do you expect? Even if you didn’t have three more days of transitioning from male to female, you’re still going through puberty. I’m not even done growing!”
I almost wanted to cry. Great. The odds that my breasts would get bigger and make boys look at me more were greatly enhanced. Just because I liked boys didn’t mean I wanted to be stared at all the time.
Now that I thought about it, why did I like boys? Shouldn’t I at least have some attraction to girls still? Just because I could look down my own shirt and see a pair of boobs shouldn’t stop me from looking at another girl’s chest. But, no, I had no attraction to girls, and… I liked staring at guys.
“What’re ya thinkin’ ‘bout?” Melanie asked.
“I’m trying to figure out why I like boys.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It’s weird.”
“No, it’s not. Take it from somebody with double x chromosomes her whole life, there is nothing weird about wanting to date a boy.” She sat down at my desk. “Not that there’s anything wrong with wanting to date a girl, either. After all, my friend Britney likes girls.” She wheeled the chair over to me and then rolled onto my bed beside me. “But, why would anything be weird about liking boys? Boys are big and strong and have that one organ that can go anywhere and - “
I smacked her in the face. “Stop that. I really don’t want to hear about ‘organs’, okay?”
She giggled. “I’m joking, obviously. You really think I like boys just because they’re ‘big, strong and have an organ’?”
“So, why do you like boys?”
She shrugged. “I like boys because I like boys. There’s no real reason for it, just like there’s no real reason for liking whatever you like. Why does everybody care about why you fall in love with a specific gender? You like boys, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Does it really matter why? Is knowing why you like boys gonna change why you like boys?”
I rolled over onto my stomach. “I dunno. I guess… I guess I just wanna know when I started to like boys. I mean, I liked girls before, and now I suddenly like boys. It’s like it just happened and I didn’t notice.”
Melanie rolled over onto her stomach now. I swear, we looked like we were having a sleepover. “I guess it’s good to know my little brother liked girls after all. Shanna always thought you were gay.”
“That’s what she said at gym today, too.”
“Were you?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I just… I really don’t think I wanted to date anyone.”
“But were you attracted to girls?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, really. I didn’t find girls unattractive, that’s for sure.”
“You never had a girlfriend.”
Why was that the only evidence being thrown up in my face about this? “You’ve only had one boyfriend.”
She stuck her tongue out at me. “That you know about.” She put her arm around me. “Little sister, I’ve probably had more boyfriends in the last two years than you had morning wood when you were a boy.”
“Uh, that’s gross.”
“What? Having a lot of boyfriends? No, it’s awesome.”
“No, the analogy.”
“Oh. Sorry, it was just the funniest thing I could think of.”
“It was horrible.”
“Still. I go through lots of boyfriends that nobody knows about.”
“Why?”
“Well, for one, I’m exaggerating. I’ve had probably five boyfriends in the past couple years. Two, I like having boyfriends. If I’ve got a boyfriend, the gross guys aren’t hitting on me.” She ruffled my hair a bit. “That’s probably something you’ll find out about pretty soon.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You wouldn’t imagine all the talk I heard about you in the cafeteria today. A lot of it was boys talking about ‘that weird shemale Richards turned himself into’.”
“Shemale? Really?”
“More than a few of them were talking about how hot they thought you were.”
“They thought I was hot?”
“I’m pretty sure I heard ‘hot shemale’ more than once.”
“They thought I was a shemale?”
She flicked me on the nose. “Well, ya kinda are, for now. Little Adam is little, but he’s not gone just yet.”
I sighed. “Yeah.” I brushed some hair away from my eyes. Was it longer already? Wait a minute, did it change? “Hey, is my hair longer?”
Melanie sat up then sat me up and took a very close examination of my face. “Yeah, yeah it is. And your face is a little different.”
“How different?”
“Just a little softer. Your lips are a little fuller, too. That lipstick didn’t look out of place before, but it looks perfect on you now.”
I was actually relieved that I looked more feminine. Maybe it was just because I was over the hump, into the last few days. Little Adam only had until Friday before he was gone.
Though, honestly, it already felt like he was.
4.
“Girls! Time for dinner!” Mom called up to us, but I was already downstairs, practically right behind her. The upstairs bathroom toilet didn’t work, so I’d been downstairs having a diarrhea attack. I didn’t feel bad or anything, which made me wonder if it was just another part of this stupid curse. Mom turned around and saw me. “Good God, Amy, how long were you standing there?”
“A couple minutes. I was in the bathroom.”
“Go make sure your sister heard me, okay?”
I nodded. “Yup.”
I walked upstairs and was about to knock on Melanie’s door when I heard her talking. She must have been on Skype, or something. “I love Amy, but it’s getting a little tiring, y’know? She’s worried about everything, when she should just be enjoying her life.” Huh, I didn’t think I was worrying too much. After yesterday, I actually thought I was doing good. “Well, I should get going. Dinner should be soon, so I’ll talk to you later.”
I knocked on the door now. “Mel! Dinner!”
“Just a second!”
“It’s lasagna, so hurry up!”
I wondered who she was talking to about me. Did she really think I should just throw Adam away and enjoy being Amanda? Wasn’t I already kinda doing that? Or did she think I should start being uber-girly, because that I wasn’t doing. I could be a normal girl, not some perpetually pink wearing girly girl.
Hrm… I think I’d ask her about that after dinner.
1.
“I swear, getting a person’s gender legally changed is far more difficult than it should be,” Mom dumped some mashed potatoes on my plate. I had to admit, I was hungrier than I thought I was. “And then they expect you to explain that particular name. Adam very easily translates to Amanda, I don’t understand how hard it is to understand!” She sighed. “So, how was everyone else’s day?” She looked directly at me. “Amy?”
I finished chewing some lasagna. “It was pretty easy. I told Dad about it earlier.”
“And?”
“And nothing. Today was easy. I got through my first day in public as Amanda. And while on my first period, too.”
Dad laughed. “Sweetie, please, keep that kind of talk to a minimum.”
I blushed. “Sorry, Dad.”
“No, it’s okay. Just, to a minimum.”
Mom changed the subject. “Melanie? How was your day?”
Mel shrugged. “About the same as Amy. There were a lot of people talking about her.”
“Good talk or bad talk?”
“Not really either. There were a few people who pretty much called her a monster for being transgender, but the indifferent far outweighed the negative.”
“Some people called me a monster?” I asked, my voice tiny.
“Like, two.”
“How am I a monster?”
“Well, the two I know about were those really macho type guys who think being female is a disease.”
“Still, Mr. Malski should have been told about these people,” Mom said.
“As much as I’m sure he’d like to help me out,” I responded, “I’m sure he’s too busy helping his daughter transition into the principal’s office.”
“I didn’t know Mr. Malski had a daughter.”
“She’s the sorceress who did this to me!” I coughed out a laugh at the end.
Mom did a double take. “What?!”
“Oh… Sorry… I kinda thought Dad would have told you about that by now…”
“No, I didn’t know anything about this. When did you find this out?”
Melanie answered for me. “This morning when we went to tell Mr. Malski about Amy. She was there, already.”
“Was she there to keep an eye on you?”
I shook my head. “No. She’s genuinely the next principal, it’s all just a weird coincidence.”
“Are you sure?”
I sighed. “I dunno. It’s just... I dunno.”
2.
“Aw, c’mon!” I shouted at my TV. Stupid barnacles. What idiot at Valve decided they’d be a good thing to bring back in Half-Life 2? I hated those things in the first game! I never paid attention to them, and I almost always got killed by them. Stupid, stupid, stupid barnacles.
I laid back on my bed and sighed. This was like the fourth time I’d started Half-Life 2, and I was still getting stuck at the same place. It didn’t help that I’d owned the damn game since Orange Box came out, it just made me feel worse for getting stuck all the damn time. Steve’s beaten the game like four times, but he’s never helped me, and I wanted to punch him for that.
I pressed the Xbox logo in the middle of the controller and dropped back out to the home screen. I wondered if Steve was on. I could just call him, but I didn’t really want to talk to him. Not for any bad reason, or anything, there were just certain times of the day when I didn’t want to talk to people on the phone.
As if to test my feelings, Melanie walked in. “Okay, little sis, get dressed.”
I sighed. “Why? What is it you want me to do that requires me to leave my bed and cover my underwear?”
“Well, don’t you have to get off your bed to change the game?”
“Yeah, but I don’t have to leave my room and thus I don’t have to put anything on over my underwear.”
“Is parading around in your underwear that important?”
“I don’t wanna get dressed, okay?! Jeez, can’t I just stay home?”
She shook her head. “No. I have a little sister now, and I want to hang out at the mall with her.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You don’t hang out at the mall with your own friends, why do you suddenly want to with me?”
She rested her hands on her hips. “I just told you, because I finally have a little sister.”
I shook my head. “Not really that fantastic a reason, if you ask me. What happened to missing your little brother?”
“What? I still miss Adam, but is he really gone? You’re chromosomes are different, that’s about it.”
Well, and I liked boys, and I had somehow grown a minor fashion sense - that part I can’t figure out - but other than that, I wasn’t too different.
She smiled. “Besides, I still wanna enjoy having a sister, is that really so hard to understand?”
“What if I just don’t feel like leaving the house?”
“And why wouldn’t you? And don’t say because you’re on your period, because that’s not gonna work.” Shit! That was exactly what I was gonna say. How had she predicted me so well? “So, are you gonna get dressed and go?”
I gave it about two seconds of thought, then said, “Nope.”
Melanie faced the doorway. “Mom! Amy won’t go to the mall with me!”
Dad answered, “Shut up, Melanie!”
I just burst into laughter.
3.
There was a loud knock on my door. Had I fallen asleep? I sat up and looked around. My TV was still on, but there was a weird light coming from my window. Oh, great, I was dreaming again, wasn’t I? It was either that, or aliens were coming to dissect me. ‘Oh, Glorbfop, look! A human!’ ‘Look at her, Breelfrop, she was obviously a male.’
I’m stupid.
I stood up and reached down to tug at my skirt. Wait, I was wearing a skirt? I looked down at myself and saw I wasn’t wearing a skirt at all, I was wearing a dress. Great. Was this Melanie’s dream, or something?
Somebody was still knocking at the door. Loudly, too. “Hold on,” I said. I nearly stumbled on my way there. Why? I was better at walking than this. I looked down at my feet and saw a pair of high heels. Yep, this had to be Melanie’s dream. “Be there in a sec,” I told the person on the other side of the door.
I made it to the door eventually, and opened it to see a weird silhouette standing there. Great. It was an alien. The silhouette stepped forward and I nearly did a double take. That was Dean, and he looked so… So… Tiny. He was thinner than me, and just looked so wrong.
He grabbed me by the arms. “What did you do, Richards?! What the hell did you do to me?!”
“I didn’t do anything!”
“I’m a frikkin’ pansy, you stupid cunt! I can’t play ball, I can’t understand anything my friends say, I can’t even grow a damn beard!”
“I didn’t do anything!”
He fell onto his knees in front of me. “I don’t even remember how to play basketball! I don’t remember what it feels like to wear guy jeans! I dream about boys and if anything I own isn’t frilly or girly, I hate it! Why would you do this to me?!”
“But, I didn’t! It was the sorceress!”
“You ruined me… You ruined my life…”
“I didn’t do anything…”
4.
I woke up and nearly tossed my blanket across the room. I was sweating, my hair practically stuck to my skin. What the hell was that? What the hell was that?! That wasn’t anything like any of the other dreams I’d had since the curse started. Holy shit…
My phone was ringing. I reached over and picked it up. “Hello?”
“What’s wrong with you?” Steve asked.
“I had a weird dream.”
“Oh. Like, bad weird or just weird weird?”
“You know you talk more like a valley girl than I do, right?”
“Whaddya mean?”
“You say ‘like’ more than I do. It’s kinda a valley girl thing.” I laid back down. “So, whaddya want?”
“I just wanted to talk before we get to school. And to ask you if you’d unlock your door.”
“Huh?”
“I’m outside right now. I tried doing that whole throw pebbles at your window thing to get your attention, but that didn’t work. That’s why I called you.”
I considered getting up and looking out the window, but I didn’t want to give him a look of me in a nightie, so I just remained on the bed. “Ringing the doorbell wasn’t an option?”
“I didn’t want to wake everybody up.”
“Ugh… Gimme a minute, okay?” I hung up the phone and walked over to my closet, where a pair of leggings were sitting in a corner. I didn’t really wanna get dressed yet, so I just pulled those on so that Steve wouldn’t be gawking at my legs. I looked ridiculous wearing a blue nightie and black leggings, but I really didn’t care as much as I should have. I was tired.
I felt somewhat lighter than I had the day before. Probably had to do with all that diarrhea I’d had. When I opened the door, Steve took one look at me and it looked like his eyes were about to pop out of his skull. “What?” I asked.
“You uh… Um… Ah…”
I looked down at myself but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. (Okay, nothing other than I was looking at a girl’s body when I’d had a boy’s body for most of my life. That’s not what I meant, though.) What the hell was he getting at? “My what?” I asked, looking back up at him. He looked like he wanted to say something, but wasn’t sure how to say it. “Just say something!”
After another five minutes of nothing, he finally said, “Is it okay if I say you’re hot?”
“Um… Yeah? You said I was cute yesterday, why is it so strange today?”
He shook his head. “No, you’re not just cute today. You’re… hot. Like Melanie, but… y’know, a little younger.”
“Huh?”
“Well, yesterday, you still looked a little like a guy. Not a lot, but you could still see Adam in you. Now, you… Don’t.”
I rubbed at my arm. “Am I still… Y’know… Recognizable?”
He nodded. “Yeah, you’re obviously still Amy, but… I don’t think anybody’s gonna call you a ‘shemale’ anymore.”
I sighed. “You mean you heard people call me a shemale, too?”
“Whaddya expect? You were in the girl’s locker room, I was in the guy’s locker room. Guys talk about girls, y’know?”
I nodded. “Yeah. So, um, wanna come in?”
He smiled.
5.
“Can you wait out here for a second?” I asked, stopping him from walking into my room. “I’ve gotta get dressed.”
He nodded. “Yeah. I’ll wait.”
“‘Kay, thanks.” I mentally facepalmed. I said that. I really said that. Why did I say that? I’m a damned idiot. I shut the door between us and locked it. I didn’t think he’d come in without asking me, but for some reason, I just needed to lock the door. Maybe it was because of something that I never expected once.
Steve was handsome.
Was I feeling this way because of the curse? Steve’s challenge was to get over being selfish, did that have to do with me? Was this my challenge? Being attracted to Steve? Was I attracted to other boys? I picked up my phone again, tapped the internet icon and went to Google Images. I typed in ‘naked bodybuilders’ and the first four images were naked women. The fifth was a disturbingly veiny Asian man. I zoomed in on it and started to feel kinda… How do I explain it… Hot? I kinda felt like I was sweating, but I wasn’t.
I clicked out of the tab and set my phone down on my dresser. Good, at least I was turned on by any guy, not just Steve. That would have scared me. I tried thinking other thoughts to rid myself of that image, because I really didn’t want to feel so awkward all day long. Get dressed, Amy, just get dressed.
I pulled the leggings and my nightie off and then walked over to my mirror. I made a very close examination of my boobs, for the first time in my life. (Well, the first time that didn’t involve a shower, that is.) It didn’t feel odd that I had breasts anymore, they were just kinda there. I turned sideways to look at myself in profile, checking to see if they’d grown anymore. It was hard to tell, because as far as I was concerned, they looked big enough. They ached, a little, but not uncomfortably so.
I reached into my now-dedicated bra drawer (I’m not gonna lie, Mom went a little overboard on how many bras she bought me; she’s not gonna be happy if I suddenly outgrow them all) and slipped into it. I was getting better at putting bras on, but I still wasn’t as fluid at it as Mel was. The bra still fit, but it was kinda snug, unlike yesterday, when it fit comfortably.
I guess I shouldn’t have been confused. Even if I weren’t slowly sliding from male to female, assuming I was born a girl, my breasts would still be growing. Puberty would be kicking my ass for a couple more years now.
I pulled on a different pair of panties, after I secured a pad in. I noticed that my crotch area looked a little different. Little Adam had slipped inside a little more. I didn’t mind as much as I should have, though. I guess it was getting easier and easier to say goodbye to Adam entirely. Either way, I actually looked somewhat like I had a vagina now. Not much more left to change.
I rubbed my hand up one of my legs. A little fuzz, already. Man, how often do girls need to shave their legs? Oh well, I’d decided to wear pants anyway. I grabbed a pair of jeans and wiggled my way into them. Man, if girls can barely get these things on, how do boys do it? There were quite a few boys who wore girls’ jeans.
Next I grabbed a long-sleeved shirt and pulled it on. Pulling it down over my boobs was still slightly awkward, but when I had it on, and saw myself in the mirror, I smiled at my reflection. I looked pretty good, actually.
Oh, crap… This is what Steve was talking about. I actually looked pretty hot. And now I’m getting ridiculously vain, good work, Amanda! Apparently, I’m turning into every other teenage girl in southern California.
I put on a pair of sandals and grabbed my book bag. Walk to school with Steve, just get through the day, that’s all I had to do.
I opened my door and Steve was waiting there, smiling. “You look good,” he said, which made me blush. Damn me for turning into a girl!
6.
“So, where’d you get the new clothes?” Steve asked when we got outside. He had his hands in his pockets, and just looked laid back. He wasn’t as nervous around me as I was around him right now.
“My mom bought them for me yesterday, while we were at school.”
“You look really nice.”
I brushed some hair behind my ear. “You said that before.”
“And I meant it.”
“You look good yourself,” and I meant that. He looked better than he had the day before. He didn’t look as much like a slob as he used to. Was this a real change, or just in how I perceived him? He was still wearing the same kinds of clothes that he always wore, but he just looked different.
“Thanks. Stephanie said the same thing.” He chuckled. “She asked where her ‘slobby twin’ went.”
“So, what’s with the change?”
He shrugged. “I dunno. I just felt like it was time. What about you? What’s with your changes?”
“You mean besides being cursed and turned into a girl?”
“Well, yeah, but… Y’know… You’re different.”
“How?”
“You’re… Different.”
Why didn’t I want to answer that question? Why couldn’t I answer that question?
1.
The rest of the trip (about three more minutes, honestly) until we got to school was silent. His words had cut me pretty deep. I really didn’t feel any different. I mean, I acted a little bit more feminine, but how could I really help that? I’m sure Steve would have acted more feminine if this was happening to him, seeing as Stephanie probably would have done her damnedest to make him act that way.
My problem was that Melanie wasn’t explicitly making me act this way. She wasn’t helping in any way, especially after that phone call I overheard half of last night, but she wasn’t trying to turn me into her little sister, she was just enjoying having a little sister.
As I made my way to my locker, I heard laughter echoing down the halls. I looked around and nearly burst into laughter myself as Dean turned a corner. I wouldn’t actually have recognized him, if not for the fact that his absolute cleavage dress showed absolutely no cleavage. He didn’t seem uncomfortable in those high heels he was wearing, either. He did however, look very angry.
He went up to his locker, quickly grabbed his stuff, then silently made his way into homeroom. He was thinner than he had been the day before, a lot more… Well, to be honest, he looked girlier than I did, except that I had boobs. What the hell? How far was Ms. Malski going to go with him?
“He’s shaping up quite well,” the bitch said, right behind me. I nearly jumped out of my skin. She was standing there, smiling, arms folded under her breasts. “He’ll be finished tomorrow, just like you and Steve.”
“Tomorrow? I thought you said Friday?”
“I said you’d be Amanda by Friday, and you are, really, you’ll just be finished physically tomorrow.” She nodded toward Dean. “So will he.”
“Are you getting a kick out of this? Do you enjoy screwing with our lives the way you are?”
She shook her head. “I’m not screwing with you, Amy. There’s more than one reason why you are the way you are.”
I had to know. “What’s my challenge?”
She smiled again. “Bell’s about to ring, Ms. Richards, you’d better get to homeroom.” With that, she walked away, and I was alone in the hallway as the bell rang.
2.
Homeroom was boring, as always. Homeroom was used pretty much for homework, but I rarely had homework. Every class had a period of time for doing whatever work there was at the end of the class, and most of the time, I finished my work in class. As such, I spent most of my homeroom time drawing, something I’d been doing since I was little.
I didn’t know if it was my state of mind, my current situation, or just because, but I drew a picture that showed a small boy growing into a young woman - in other words, me - and the boy started out happy, then as he grew he got sadder, and sadder, and then finally when he was somewhat female, he was a little happier, then sad again.
“That looks like you,” someone said. I looked up to see Dean standing there, a strange look on his face. “Can I talk to you in the hallway?” I nodded, then followed him out into the hallway, where we stood by the lockers. We didn’t say anything for the longest time, then he finally said, “Did that bitch do this to you, too?”
“Huh?”
“You weren’t a closet girl last week, and now you’re suddenly so feminine that I thought you were a different person. When I saw you at the game on Sunday, I could tell that something was up with you. You had longer hair, and you were wearing girl’s clothes, which I knew was something you never did before.”
“Um… Girl’s jeans. I was still wearing one of my old boy’s shirts.”
“Whatever,” he said, sounding ridiculously valley girl. He cleared his throat. “Sorry. That just pops out every now and again. I’m starting to sound like my cousin.” He rubbed at his exposed - and hairless - arms. “Adam, just because I’m a jock doesn’t mean I’m an idiot. Up until this happened, I was on my way to being the valedictorian this year. Why were you involved in this?”
“Amanda.”
“What?”
“My name’s Amanda. And I’m involved because I was in your room, getting all those panties you stole in that panty raid.” I sat down on the floor, against the lockers. “She caught me.”
“And, what, decided that you should be wearing the panties instead of getting them back for everybody?”
“I don’t know. She just… She cursed me, and you, and Steve, and I - “
He cut me off. “That dipshit Steve is involved, too?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“And now the bitch is gonna be our principal? That’s not a coincidence.”
“Actually, it is.”
He shook his head. “I don’t believe it.”
I looked up at him. “So, none of this has affected you at all? You’re still as much of hard ass as you were before? All this has happened to you, and you don’t think it has anything to do with how you acted before this?”
He shrugged. “I’m still me, whether I’m the way I used to be or a pansy.”
I hugged my knees to my chest and sighed.
3.
The lunch lady dumped a pile of what looked like peas down on my tray. I looked up from the tray and asked, “Do you have anything that doesn’t look like prison food?”
She glared at me and said, “Look, tranny, if they didn’t want prison food here, they wouldn’t have hired me. Now, get the rest of your grub and sit down.”
Tranny had become a common nickname for me among people who weren’t particularly happy with what I’d become. I didn’t like it, but at least nobody was calling me shemale, like Melanie said. That just sucked. After all, I wasn’t a girl with boy parts between my legs.
I finished getting my food and then promptly scraped it off my tray and left the tray on the conveyor to get washed. I could see I wasn’t the only person who’d done that. Looked like I was gonna be eating vending machine food again. Wednesday and Friday lunch ladies were the worst. They served the worst food, and they were the rudest.
I walked over to the table I normally sat at and laid my head down. Lunch was gonna be boring if I didn’t eat cafeteria food. Nobody I knew was in my lunch period, for whatever reason. It made lunch boring, but I only had to sit there for a half an hour, so that wasn’t too bad.
I thought about what Dean had said. He clearly hadn’t changed personality-wise, and neither had Steve, so why had I? Did people who go from one gender to the other do that, or was there some funky magic sorceress thing going on? Was this a part of my challenge, whatever the hell that was? And why wouldn’t that bitch answer me when I asked her about my challenge? Why is she so adamant about keeping it from me, when she’d tell me Steve and Dean’s?
Nothing seemed to be making much sense.
4.
“Now, remember,” Mr. Pendergast said as he did a quick freehand drawing on the whiteboard, “the human face is neither easy nor hard to draw, the difficulty lies purely in the way you interpret your subject.”
Steve sat beside me, grinning like an idiot while Kimberly Shale sketched his face. I just sat there with a neutral expression on my face while Johnny… um… I forget his last name, drew my face. Every so often, I’d catch a glimpse of his drawing and saw that he either was shit at art class or had some odd outlook on everything. I appeared to be a cartoon poodle. No joke. My drawing of him was practically a black and white photograph, but no, he draws me as a cartoon poodle!
“Why do I look like a dog?” I asked.
He smiled. “It builds character.”
“Being drawn as a dog?”
“It makes you look cute.”
Steve said, “She already looks cute.”
Urghguggleurgh, why’d he have to say that? Doesn’t he know I’m conflicted about everything? Stupid, stupid Steve.
Kimberly chuckled. “Yeah, she looks cute for a crossdressing boy.”
I folded my arms under my breasts. “I’m not a boy, and I’m not crossdressing.”
She poked her pencil tip in my direction. “Show me what’s under that top, and maybe I’ll believe you. I’ve seen more convincing trannies than you, Richards.”
“I’m seriously not crossdressing. I made my choice and chose to be a girl, is that really so hard to understand?”
“And made the transition in a weekend?”
More people caught on to that than I thought. “My mom knows a really good surgeon,” was the closest thing to a reply I could give. Clearly I haven’t thought this through.
Johnny said, “She’s hotter than a couple of the skanks I dated last year, just leave her alone.”
Wow, the class casanova was sticking up for me. He probably wanted in my pants. Either that, or I was turning more into a stereotypical girl than I thought. I was seriously starting to sound like Melanie now, and not just because our voices sound similar.
“So why’d you choose to be a girl?” Kimberly asked.
I gave it a second, then said, “Because I never felt right as a boy.” That was pretty much exactly what Shanna had told me. That I wasn’t right, whatever the hell that meant. Was there a “right” or “wrong” when it came to who you were? Was it really that black and white? It couldn’t be. It really couldn’t be. “Because… Something about me felt wrong when I was a boy.”
“And you thought that being a girl would solve all your problems? Be lucky you can’t have periods, then.”
Oh, how wrong you are! Come to think of it, I should probably change my pad when class is over, these things start to feel weird after awhile. Not to mention, I’m pretty sure there’s a medical warning on the box that says you should change them after a certain amount of time.
Johnny set his sketch pad down and said, “Okay, ignoring this talk of female bodily functions, if my drawing of you is so bad, what’s your drawing of me look like?”
“Like this,” I said, flipping my sketch pad over to show him what he looked like. “Which is a lot better than your drawing.”
He took a long look at the sketch pad and finally said, “Yeah, but you’re a girl. Girls are better artists.”
For a brief second I wondered if that was true, then I remembered that I was just as good an artist when I was a boy, so it really didn’t matter.
5.
“Open your books to page forty-nine, children!” Mr. Greene shouted. He had a habit of doing that. He also had a habit of carrying around the handle of an axe without the axe part on it anymore. He used it to hit people when they said something stupid. Never hard, always lightly, and never girls, only boys. I prayed that I qualified as a girl to him, because even if he didn’t hurt anybody with that axe handle, it was still annoying as hell to get hit in the head with that thing.
I opened my textbook to the page he told us to go to and found, plastered in big red, white and blue letters, The American Civil War. I raised my hand. “Didn’t we learn about this already? Like, in elementary school?” Somebody chuckled.
Mr. Greene nodded. “There’s not much about the Civil War I can teach you that you don’t already know, but I’d like to take this time to have a discussion about why we do or do not leave things in the past.”
Why did I have this odd feeling that this lesson for some reason had to do with me, whether anybody other than me knew it or not? Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.
"The Confederate flag, the symbol of the South, is still flown in many places today, either in tribute of the past, or by those who still believe in its ideals, misguided though they may be. This flag is one hundred and fifty years old, and it lost the last domestic war ever fought in this nation, but it is still flown today."
"Why?" Somebody asked.
Mr. Greene nodded. "Why indeed? What values does it still hold? We don't condone slavery, or racism, or any sort of segregation any more, so why is this flag still flown? Is it flown because of a need to remember the past, because it's still a viable symbol, or simply because of the pretty colors?" More than a few people giggled at that.
I raised my hand. "Does it really matter?"
"Why do you say that, Ms. Richards?"
"It's a flag, people put their own meanings behind it. I mean... Does it matter what the reasons are?"
Somebody else just stated, "It's a dead flag, whether the reasons matter or not, what reasons really are there for keeping it around? Nobody flies the Nazi flag anymore."
A girl on the other side of the room said, "Except for Neo Nazis. They kinda do."
I asked, "But, who cares if they keep flying an old flag? Even if it was just the pretty colors, it's not like anybody needs to explain to anybody else why they fly a flag."
"If they've got a good enough reason to fly a dead flag, why can't they explain it to everybody else? People are less likely to question somebody's motivations if the person flying the flag is willing to tell everyone."
Somebody else asked, "And what if people like the looks of a dead flag, or even a flag that isn't dead? Fly a Nazi flag in Germany, you get arrested. Fly an ISIS flag here, and the FBI raids your house. Is it okay for people to fly these flags just because they like them?"
Mr. Greene was smiling at the front of the room. "So, what have we figured out? Is the flag more important than the ideals placed behind it, or are the ideals more important than the flag? We seem to be pretty divided on this issue, and it raises another important point, whether the ideals are more important or not, do others need to know them to understand why you're flying that flag?
"Your final assignment of this year is to perform a speech to this class on Friday. It can't be long, so we can get through all of you, but you need to choose a flag, and present for us the ideals behind why you chose that flag." As if on cue, the bell rang. "That'll be all, children!"
I just sat there for a moment while everybody else around me got up and left, eager to get back home and out of the building.
Great. I just knew what most people were probably expecting. Amanda, why did you choose to be a girl? Dammit, dammit, dammit.
Just a quick end not here, I totally forgot this (chapter 12) was the chapter where I wrote in all that flag stuff. That's based on a conversation I had with a friend of mine, but neither one of our viewpoints is expressly told within the chapter.
This is actually going up a day early because I just finished the final chapter about an hour ago. Instead of being three chapters, this is the final five. Ready to see how Amanda's story ends?
1.
"Amy!" Steve called out to me. He shook me out of whatever daze I was in just in time to stop me from running into the exterior wall of the gym. Ugh... Why had I done that? Oh, yeah, because I'm a damn moron. And I'm a moron because of a speech I've got to give in class because of flags. I should really get my priorities straight.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Are you okay?"
I shrugged. "Kinda."
"What does that mean?"
"Well... I'm just... Screwed up. I feel bummed out because I have to give a speech in History class on Friday."
"A speech? That's all you have to do?"
"Well..." I rubbed at my arm. "I haven't given speeches in front of everybody since this happened."
"You'll do fine!"
I sighed. "Yeah. I'm... Sure..."
He rubbed at the back of his neck. "Um... You wanna come over to my place for dinner tonight?"
"Huh?"
"Well, my mom said last night it's been awhile since you came over, and... Well... She kinda wants to meet you."
"You mean she wants to see me as Amy for the first time?"
"Yeah."
"I... Um..."
He waved his hands in a sort of stop motion. "Don't feel like you have to, I just..."
"No! I'll come!" I was blushing. Pure, full-on, red-faced, I-clearly-wanted-him-to-like-me blushing. Why was I acting like I had a crush on him? "Getting away from my place and the school would probably help me a little bit. I'm still a little nervous about being outside my house." And there I was justifying my decision! Why was I acting like I had a crush on him?!
Steve smiled. "Thanks." Stop smiling! Stop being cute with me! Transitioning from male to female is bad enough without your best friend being endearing!
"Yep. I'm gonna head home first, I'll be there around five, okay?"
"Perfect!" He's enjoying this too much. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. "See ya later!"
As he ran off to his house, I sighed. What was I getting myself into?
2.
Five. I had just under two hours to get ready for...
A) Dinner at a friend's place.
B) My friend's mom meeting me and probably treating me like some girl her son is dating.
C) My friend treating this like it's probably a date.
D) How I might feel because my friend will treat this like it's probably a date!
I shut the front door behind me and heard Melanie yelp in surprise. Oops! Why'd I do that? Why, why, why? I opened the door again. "Sorry. A lot on my mind."
"Yeah, and my nose clearly isn't. Look, little sister, you may not care about how you look, but that doesn't mean I don't care how I look."
"Who said I didn't care how I look?"
"Didn't you?"
"I mean... I'm not like uber-fashion oriented, but... I mean... I... I dunno, okay? I'm just really concerned."
"You mean because Steve asked you out?"
"He didn't ask me out!"
Mom walked into the living room, a cup of coffee in her hand. "Who asked who out?"
Before I could say anything, Melanie said, "Steve asked Amanda out."
"No he didn't!" I squealed. I needed to calm down and stop sounding like some nervous girl about to go on her first date - which, granted, I probably was, but still - and sound more like a confident girl about to go hang out with her best friend. That's all I wanted to be.
Why couldn't I just be that?
"Calm down, sweetie," Mom said, voicing my internal instructions. "If I were you, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a date, from his point of view."
I plopped down on the couch. "I know. I'm worried about that. I mean... He's my friend, and I don't wanna stop being friends with him. That would all change if we started dating."
"Why?" Melanie asked.
"Because it like always does."
"You two have been friends since forever, you're not gonna stop just because you're suddenly dating. Besides, dating your best friend is a great way to experience dating from the female perspective without having to meet somebody new."
"And if we ever break up, that means I lose a best friend."
Mom sat down beside me and put her arm around me. "Amanda, you need to make your decision before you set foot in Steve's house. Will he eventually be your boyfriend, or will he stay your best friend."
Oh, for chrissakes, why did I need to make this decision now?! Why can't this just be dinner at a friend's house?! Fuck!
3.
"Can I borrow some make-up?" I asked. Melanie looked surprised. "What? I don't mind make-up."
"Yeah, but for somebody who doesn't want to date her best friend, I'm surprised you're asking."
"I still wanna look presentable. I'm not going all out with like mascara and eye shadow and all that."
"So, what's your plan?" she asked, a big wide smile on her face. She was enjoying this. Aw, my little sister wants to wear make-up to her flirst date! Yeah, shut up Head-Melanie. Great. I have a Head-Melanie. This is starting to get annoying.
"My plan is to hang out with Steve, but I still look like I just got out of bed, so... I wanna look more presentable."
She shoved me into the chair at her vanity. "And what if this turns into more than just hanging out?"
I groaned. "Can't we just get off of that? This isn't a date, as far as I'm concerned, okay?"
"Look, Amy, I've gone on more than one 'not-a-date', and when you and a guy have a strong connection, it's hard to avoid the eventual moment when you're sitting next to one another and suddenly your lips are touching his and you wonder if you're wearing the lipstick he likes on you and this and that and all this other stuff that runs through your head because you're kissing a guy you like." She handed me a tube of lipstick. "Hope he likes dark purple."
I sighed. "Are you just handing me this because it's the lipstick I wore on Sunday?"
"Duh."
"And because I told you that Steve likes it?"
"Double duh."
"And because you're having fun with this?"
"Triple duh." She sat down on her bed. "How would you even deal with having a boyfriend, anyway?"
I turned toward her. "Whaddya mean?"
"You never had a girlfriend. Never. Have you even gone on a first date?"
I blushed. "Yeah!"
"With who?"
I rubbed at my arm. "Um... Nobody..."
"See? This isn't just new to you because you're a girl, dating is new to you in general."
"No, it's not. I've watched TV, I've just never actually been on a date."
"So how are you gonna deal with this? You could be coming home tonight with a totally different relationship with Steve, something that'll change your lives forever. How is this going to affect you?"
I raised an eyebrow. "Weren't you basically telling me to go out with him earlier?"
"Kinda, but that's not important. The important thing is your emotional state."
"How does my emotional state come into this now?"
"Because it's pretty obvious that even if you're not head-over-heels for him, you like Steve simply because he's your friend. You're gonna be emotional around him no matter what because you're an emotional person, you have been even when you were Adam."
"I'm not that emotional."
"When you were six, you cried when you couldn't spell 'Spaghetti-Os' with your Spaghetti-Os."
"I was six! I cried when an episode of Barney was over!"
"And I never did, that's my point. About the biggest difference between Adam and Amanda are boobs and a vagina, and you've always been emotional. Even if you don't start dating Steve today, you're gonna feel different about him. How are you going to deal with that?"
I leaned back in the chair and took a deep breath. "So, you're kinda saying that if I don't start dating Steve today, I probably will at some point just because he and I are friends and I like him?"
Melanie shrugged. "I'm just saying that it's a good possiblity that your relationship with your best friend will change tonight, and you need to be ready for that, because if it changes one way, that raises the chances that it'll change for the worse later on." She stood up and reached into a dresser drawer. "Now that that's out of the way, I have something I want you to do." I nearly shivered at the smile on her face.
4.
Don't think about, don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about...
I rang the doorbell at Steve's place and stood there, nervously. Neither Steve's mom or his sister had seen me since this whole thing started, and that scared me. That actually scared me more than whether or not Steve considered this a date. How would I act around the family of the boy who potentially wants to date me?
The door opened and Stephanie stood there, looking like she was ready to laugh. "What?" I asked.
"I seriously thought Steve was lying when he told me you were a girl."
"Really?"
"Yeah! I thought he was just bullshitting me because I was sick."
Oh, thank Christ... At least I'm okay around Stephanie. "And when he told you I was coming over for dinner?"
"I was gonna tease you guys about being gay, but I guess if you're a girl, Steve's not gay."
"Can I come in now?"
Stephanie moved out of the way and I walked in and immediately felt even more nervous. And now I was thinking about it! Why, why, why, why did I let Melanie talk me into this? Why did I let myself let Melanie talk me into wearing a frickin skirt to this dinner? I've never worn one before, but now I was, and now I felt awkward as hell.
"Hey, Steve! Your boyfriend's here!" Stephanie shouted. I shot a glare at her. "What? It's my last chance, okay? Just lemme treat him like he's gay one more day, please?"
"But he's not."
"I know, as weird as that sounds. I've been teasing him about it for awhile, because he only hangs out with you."
"I think TV Tropes calls that heterosexual life partners."
She shook her head. "I don't care what the internet calls it, I just like teasing him for it."
I sighed. "Just don't tease me."
She held up her hand in a Boy Scout's salute. "Promise between women, I'll leave you alone."
"I'm holding you to that."
"You know there's no promise between women, right?"
"I don't care. You promised, I'm holding you to it."
"Fine."
"Seriously."
"I get it."
I sighed again. This might be a long night.
5.
"So, Amanda, how has your transition been?" Mrs. Burke (Steve's mom) asked. The question kinda caught me off guard. Was she talking about my actual change, or my lie at school that I was transgender? (Now that I think of it, is that really a lie? Ah, determining that isn't important right now.) Did she know about the curse?
I gulped down the bite of tomato I had in my mouth and said, "I'm doing fine. It's not easy, but, I'm managing. I get a lot of mean looks, but not too many insults or anything." I took another bite. "Well, not when I'm in the room, anyway."
Steve looked a great deal more nervous than I felt right now. He seriously looked like he was going to pee his pants.
"You're an amazing young woman, Amy," Mrs. Burke said, "it takes a lot of courage to come out and admit to the world that you were born wrong." Okay, so Steve likely told her the lie. Good, now I can bumble through it here, in my best friend's house. "And to embrace it so fully. I'm sure there are quite a few transgender people who wouldn't wear a skirt less than a week into their transition."
Yay, she noticed... Ugh... "I didn't actually want to. Melanie tricked me into it." I blushed. "I feel really awkward wearing a skirt."
Stephanie leaned over the table. "It gets way, way easier. Trust me. Leg freedom over tight jeans any day, sister."
I smiled. It wasn't getting any easier so far, but, this was also my first time wearing a skirt. I kinda hoped it wouldn't, but I was already getting very used to wearing bras after only four days.
"You're being awfully quiet, big brother," Stephanie said to Steve. "What's up?"
He shrugged. "I'm just... Y'know..."
"It's okay to be nervous, honey," Mrs. Burke said. "It's not every day you invite a pretty girl over for dinner." She said that with a smile. Great. He probably told everybody but me that this was likely a date.
"Mom!" Steve nearly shouted. He was beet red.
His mom was laughing. "Honey, I'm just joking." She turned to me. "Amanda, before you came over, Steven expressly stated more than once that this wasn't a date between you two, I'd just like you to know that. His sister and I are just teasing him about this whole thing."
"I can't say I wouldn't do the same thing if Melanie actually had a friend come over," I said, then I looked over at Steve and said, "Sorry."
He shook his head. "No. I guess I deserve this for asking a girl to dinner. Even if she's been my best friend for years."
Stephanie smiled. "It's not every day your boyfriend becomes your girlfriend, though."
"Steph!"
"What? Adam was a boy, right? Was your friend, right? Amanda's a girl, right? And she's your friend, right? Adam, boyfriend. Amanda, girlfriend. Just because I'm saying girlfriend doesn't mean I'm saying she's your 'girlfriend', in the dating sense."
Oh, dear Christ, this conversation is getting embarrassing. And I'm not even the one being teased!
"Besides, I kinda think you're an idiot for not asking Amy out."
Was he? I'm still semi-male (for, like, six more hours, anyway), so, I could easily understand why he'd be uncomfortable asking me out, plus there was that stigma of all the people at school who still think I'm a crossdresser pretending I'm a real girl.
Wow. This almost seems like I'm just watching this event, as opposed to quietly eating my steak right beside it.
And then she said this: "And when I was talking to Melanie on the phone last night, she said the same thing."
Whoa, now I'm interested. "What?" I asked.
"Yep, Melanie thinks that you two would make the perfect couple."
1.
I didn't feel too good, not after that conversation. Steve and I, the perfect couple? No, no way. I don't see it at all.
So, while Steve was busy trying to decide what DVD to watch, I just sat there and, well, took stock of my best friend for the first time in our friendship. The first thing I noticed was all the differences in him, that had to come as a result of the curse. His room was generally a mess, as opposed to mine which was (and still is, actually) only a little messy. My room usually just had some clothes on the floor, although now that involved bras and panties as opposed to plain white shirts and boxers.
Now, his room was actually cleaner than mine, and was ridiculoulsy organized. I could remember a time when his Xbox was sitting on top of half the games he played in it, and now they were all alphabetized on a shelf with the Xbox sitting nicely beside his DVD player. It was... Well... weird.
Was this his challenge? To be a better put together kid, rather than the slob he used to be? Hadn't I considered that a few days ago?
"So... What's with the cleanliness kick?" I asked.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, the room. I was just... Y'know... Bored one day, decided to clean it up. It'll probably be a mess again in a couple days, I bet."
"It's not just the room, Steve. You're cleaner."
"Whaddya mean?"
"You combed your hair. I've never seen you comb your hair. Or dress nice, or... Just... You look like you probably would have asked me out on a date."
He stopped looking at his DVDs (which were also alphabetized and neatly placed on a shelf) and sat down on his bed beside me. I had a sinking feeling I knew exactly what he was gonna say, so I just braced myself for it. "Can I confess something to you?"
"You really did want this to be a date, didn't you?"
"What? No. I wanted to ask you out, yeah, but I didn't want this to be a date."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I felt like it'd be too soon to ask you out earlier, and I still feel that way, but since you brought it up..."
"You wanna ask me out now?"
He smiled, nervously. "I'm still kinda scared to, actually."
"Good, because I don't know if I wanna date you."
"Would you know tomorrow?"
"Are you serious?"
He shook his head. "No. Truth be told, I don't know if I'll ever not be nervous about asking you out, so I'm just gonna do it now, okay? Can we go see a movie tomorrow, or something?"
And thus our friendship had taken a turn I'd been warned about.
2.
After he asked me that question, time stood so still I could see every particle in the air. My friend - my best friend - had just asked me out on a date. This wasn't somebody who'd just met me and thought I was cute, this was a guy who had known me for most of my life, who knew I'd been a boy, and who had absolutely no problems with that.
And he wanted to date me.
Could I ever find that again? Somebody who knew I'd been male for fifteen years and just didn't care about it? Steve was a great trial run, wasn't he? I mean, that was a cruel way to think about it, but it was sorta/kinda true.
Should I say yes? Would I hurt him if I said no? Steve's my friend, after all, and I don't wanna stop being friends with him. Was I, in a way, obligated to say yes?
I kind of felt that way. I felt like if I didn't say yes, that Steve would cut all ties off with me, and then I'd have almost no ties to my old life as Adam other than my family, who were all accepting me as Amanda, so they didn't count.
But, even more important, did I want to date Steve?
3.
"Amy?" Steve asked, drawing me back out into real time. It was amazing how many thoughts could run through your head in less than a second.
"Sorry," I said, my face turning red.
"So you won't?"
"No! I didn't mean... No! Yeah, I'd love to go out with you!" Stupid, stupid, stupid words. "Just... If this doesn't work out, we're still gonna be friends, right?"
"Well, yeah. Amy, we've been friends our whole lives, we're gonna stay friends even if dating ends up being a giant fucking mistake." He nervously chuckled. "So... Whaddya wanna go see?"
4.
I shut the front door behind me and found a very curious Melanie waiting for me. She was standing there, arms folded under her breasts, a downright scary look on her face that basically said You will tell me everything! and almost made me wet myself. "Talk," she said. One word. That's it.
"What?"
"I want to know details. Every detail."
"There's not much to tell. It was dinner and then we watched a crappy movie in his room."
"And did he try to make a move on you?"
"No." I walked past her to the stairs, and smiled. "Not to say I didn't try to make a move on him." It was a lie, but it was time I had fun with Melanie, as opposed to the other way around.
"Wait, what?!"
I ignored her and walked up the stairs. She followed me, very eager to hear what she wanted me to say, but I just wasn't gonna talk. I was having way too much fun with this. I walked into my room, closed my door, then quickly took that skirt off, opened the door again and handed it to a very angry Melanie, shut my door again and locked it. Yeah, just take that Mel. Just think about what I'd said.
I just sat on my bed wearing pajama pants and a tee-shirt, watching TV for a couple hours before there was a knock on my door.
"Amy, can I come in?" Mom asked. I hopped off the bed and unlocked the door, then looked down either side of the hallway. "Melanie's in her room, so you don't have to worry about her."
"Okay. Whaddya want?"
She sat down on my bed and patted the spot beside her, so I sat down there. I had a feeling it was time for one of those 'mother/daughter talks' Melanie always talked about. "How was dinner at the Burke's?"
"It was fine."
"And how did Steve react around you?"
"Stephanie was making fun of him during dinner a lot, then we just watched Pacific Rim in his room."
"And did you..."
"Did I what?"
"Sweetie, you were alone in a boy's bedroom with said boy, and, it was a boy who you've got a strong connection with."
"I didn't kiss him, if that's what you and Melanie are asking."
Mom gave me a look. "How'd you know?"
"Because it's pretty obvious that Melanie had you come in here after I didn't tell her anything."
"And you were willing to answer me?"
"Only because messin' around with Melanie is fun."
Mom sighed. "So, how did it go?"
"It was the most harmless date I've ever seen."
"So it was a date?"
"No, that's tomorrow night."
From the other side of my door, I heard a very over-excited "I knew it!"
My turn to sigh. "I didn't know she was hanging out right outside the door."
Mom put her arm around me. "Me neither. Listen, baby, take this slow."
"I know. Tomorrow's just a movie, nothing special."
"Good." She stood up and walked over to the door. "Your sister already scared the shit out of me when she started dating, I don't wanna go through that again."
I just smiled.
5.
"Hello, Amanda," the sorceress - Ms. Malski - said. We were in the principal's office. When did I get here? "Don't worry, you're just dreaming."
"Then why doesn't this feel like a dream?" I asked.
She was working on papers, grading, or something. This really didn't feel like a dream.
"Mostly because it's not so much a dream as a telepathic communication between us."
"You can read people's minds?"
She looked up at me. "No. I just knew that would get your attention."
I rolled my eyes. "So, what is this really?"
"Just a magical conversation we're having. Your body is sleeping, your mind is here."
"What do you want?"
"Mainly to tell you what your challenge was, now that you've gotten past it."
"What?!" I've been asking for, like, four days and now she tells me?! "What was it?"
"When I first met you, last Friday, I sensed a void in your life, one that you - "
"Oh, for God's sake, please don't tell me that turning me into a girl is 'fixing' me!"
Ms. Malski glared at me. "If you'd let me finish?" She did a little bit of paper signing for a second, then continued, "No, this doesn't fix you as a whole. In fact, I introduced a number of other problems into your life, but no more than any other fifteen year old girl."
"You mean aside from half the people I know thinking I'm a crossdresser, another half thinking I'm a freaky tranny and the only people who actually know being Steve, Dean and my family?"
"Keep interupting me and you'll spend the rest of your life not knowing what your challenge was."
I crossed my arms under my breasts and waited for her to keep talking.
"Good. As I was saying, I sensed a void in your life. I'm sure you've noticed your strengthened interactions with young Mr. Burke?"
"Wait, this whole thing has been about Steve?"
"Not entirely. It's been about the two of you. You, as the one who loves him, and him as the one who loves you."
"So, what, I'm a girl because it makes us as a couple look less awkward?"
"Again, not entirely. I'm certain you've noticed your preferences slide more toward men, but Steve's, unfortunately, don't."
"So, I was... I guess gay, but Steve wasn't?"
"Exactly. In order for the two of you to even be a couple in the first place, one of you needed to be female."
"Why was it so important that Steve and I be a couple?"
She set her pen down, then looked me straight in the eye. "Amanda, I need you to understand that what I'm about to tell you cannot leave this room."
"You mean this dream?"
"Yes."
"I can't tell Steve?"
"No."
I groaned. "Fine."
"I was asked to get the two of you together."
"By who?"
"Melanie and Stephanie."
The fuck?!
6.
My sister and my best friend's sister had conspired to get me and Steve together? Why? "Why?" Holy shit, I actually asked it.
"I can't tell you that, because I don't know it."
"So, what, they just asked you said yes, without even asking why?"
"Do you know how many people know about my power, Amanda? Until the unfortunate incident of the panty raid, it was simply Stephanie and Melanie. When I discovered that I could use magic and make reality my plaything, I never even told my father or my step-mother."
"So, how did Melanie find out?"
"A few months ago, they were in a city alleyway late at night. Had I not been on a date at that exact time, you and Steve might not have sisters any longer."
"What happened?"
"Three boys, members of another high school's cross country team. One of them pulled a knife when the girls told them they wouldn't submit themselves. The boys don't know what hit them, even to this day. They wake up each morning, get dressed for school, and wonder why they went to sleep as future regional cross country champions one night and awoke the next day as nerdy girls who the school eggheads wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole."
I almost lost my older sister because she wouldn't let herself be raped and I'd had no idea before now. Holy shit. "What happened next?"
She continued, "I told the girls about my power. They were much too curious and too thankful to accept that the entire situation just ended."
"So, did they conspire to get Steve and I together then, or did this just come about recently?"
"I imagine they probably had the idea in their heads some time ago, but it was only last week that they asked me to do this."
"Why'd you do it? You saved them, not the other way around. You weren't indebted to them in any way."
"In a way, I was. They kept my secret. They could have gone to the news and told everyone about the sorceress who saved their lives from filthy rapists, but they didn't. I chose to honor their request because I honor our friendship."
"So, why are you telling me this? Why not just throw up some bullshit and call that my challenge? Why tell me the real thing if I can't tell Steve?"
She smiled. "I only told you that to get you to shut up and listen. Considering Melanie and Stephanie are both involved, you would have found out about it at some point anyway."
I rolled my eyes again. "So I can tell Steve?"
"Of course."
"And what about Dean?"
"Of course not."
"What's his whole place in this, anyway?"
"His challenge is a genuine punishment. That you all three were affected at the same time is a mere coincidence. Even if you hadn't broken into his house that night, I'd have found out about the panty raid and dealt with it accordingly."
"Giant coincidence?"
"Yep."
"I don't believe it."
"I don't care."
"So, now what? I just wake up, tell Steve that this whole thing was a giant set-up to get him and me dating, and, what?"
"You live your lives. Stephanie called me earlier and told me Steve was taking you to a movie tonight."
"Yeah, he is."
"If you two are as compatible as the girls and I think, then you should enjoy yourself."
"And if we're not?"
"Then you find another boy who catches your fancy, it's that simple. Your friendship with Steve is eternal, there'll never be a time when the two of you aren't together in some way or another. Whether you take the next step is up to the two of you."
7.
I woke up and slowly sat up. Things were... Different now. Now that I knew why this whole week had happened, I just... Things were different, it was that simple.
I took a shower, shaved my legs and my pits (no knicks this time!), dried off, got dressed and walked all the way to school without talking to anybody. Actually, without really seeing anybody. Mom was on the phone in the kitchen when I left, Dad was probably still asleep, and Melanie took her shower a couple minutes after I got out of the bathroom.
I sat on the front steps and waited for Steve. I was almost an hour early, so I had time to think before he got there. Everything I thought kept going back to that dream conversation, kept going back to the truth. Maybe it was too much for me. Maybe Ms. Malski shouldn't have told me.
"Hey," Steve said as he walked up to me, "what's the matter?"
1.
"What's the matter?" Steve asked a second time. I wasn't entirely sure how to answer him. He looked concerned, and I didn't want him to feel that way. It wasn't his fault this had happened to us. It wasn't his fault...
...That I liked him.
I stood up and sighed. I had to tell him. I'd be a bitch if I didn't tell him, that's for sure. "I... Had a dream last night that wasn't really a dream."
"If it wasn't a dream, what was it?"
"It was her, Ms. Malski. She told me what my challenge was."
He took my hand. It felt nice. It felt nice, for a boy to hold hands with me. No, not just for a boy to hold hands with me, for Steve to hold hands with me. "So, what was it? Aside from turning into a girl for a week, that is."
I shook my head. "That wasn't part of it. That was for something else."
"She turned you into a girl for something else?"
"Yeah."
"What?"
"Us."
"Huh?"
I looked him in the eyes. "Melanie and Stephanie."
"You're not making any sense."
"Mel and Stephanie know Ms. Malski, they're the reason I'm a girl. And I'm a girl because... Because the two of them couldn't..."
"Are you saying they used the sorceress to get us together? Even though you were a guy and neither one of us was - "
I cut him off. "I... Think I was."
"Really?"
"It's complicated. I'm not sure, I just know I've transitioned way too easily considering I still like the same things. I shouldn't be jumping on the I like boys bandwagon so instantly if I didn't already, y'know?"
He nodded. "Okay, let's say you were gay when you were Adam, why throw me into the mix?"
"Stephanie probably told Ms. Malski that you needed a girlfriend, and turning me into that girlfriend must have seemed like the best idea."
"So, this whole thing was just an extremely complicated way of hooking us up?"
"Basically."
"And what about Dean?"
"Legit punishment for the panty raid."
"And how did you feel about all this?"
I sighed. "I wasn't as angry as I probably should have been."
"How come? Our sisters basically perpetrated this whole thing to turn you into my girlfriend. What are you getting out of this?"
I didn't answer him with words, right away, anyway. Instead, I did something that just plain surprised me. Shocked me. Scared me. Horrified me. Excited me.
I kissed him.
2.
When we broke the kiss off, I said, "I get you."
Steve put his hands on my waist and said, "Is that all? Me?"
"Well, c'mon, I haven't changed that much. I still like all the same stuff, I just have to deal with bras and panties now. Oh, and periods. That's a little annoying, but manageable. Or, at least it better be, since I'm gonna havta deal with 'em until menopause."
"Or until you get pregnant."
"Whoa, that's a little too much to be talking about right now."
He smiled. "You're right. So, does this make us boyfriend and girlfriend now? Because you were a little hesitant to say that yesterday."
I nodded. "Yeah. And... That was my challenge."
"What was?"
"Accepting this."
3.
"Spill it, sister," Melanie said to me when she finally found me at my locker. She looked either furious or curious, and I'm not sure which one I'd rather her be.
"Why did you say that like it's the Seventies?"
"Stop avoiding the question and answer the question."
"What question? All you said was 'spill it'."
"Exactly, now do so."
"Spill what? You were listening at my door last night when I talked to Mom and this whole thing was yours and Stephanie's idea in the first place, so what do I really need to spill?"
Her eyes widened in surprise. "How do you know about that?"
"Ms. Malski told me in a dream last night."
"Are you... Angry, with us?"
I shut my locker and then leaned up against it. "No. And, to be honest, if you'd told me, I probably would have laughed in your face." I brushed my hair back behind my ears. "You didn't do the wrong thing, Mel, though I honestly would have liked to know sooner."
"Sorry. I swear, the next time Stephanie and I have Ms. Malski do anything to you, we'll tell you first."
I rolled my eyes. "If you ever have her do anything to me again, it'd better be because I stop growing," I pointed to my boobs, "and you don't."
She smiled. "Getting a little envious already, are you?"
"You know I'm joking."
"Yeah."
"Besides, I'm bigger than you already."
4.
"Somebody's a lot less anxious than she was a couple days ago," Shanna said as we changed for gym. Sports bras were much more comfortable when they were the right size. Not that I wasn't grateful that Shanna had let me borrow one the other day, but I knew I couldn't get through gym class next year without some of my own.
I smiled and slipped my shirt over my head. "Just some deep, deep soul searching."
"Soul searching, huh? What'dya figure out?"
I pulled my shorts on and then sat down on the bench in front of the lockers to lace up my shoes. "Just... Something. Something important."
"I thought you'd decided to be a girl awhile ago."
"That wasn't what I was talking about."
"Oh. So... Is there... Somebody?"
"That's privilaged information between me and my boyfriend." I tied my hair into a ponytail. "And I'm not telling you."
Shanna was smiling now. "Oh, don't worry, I won't pry. Hey, Amy?"
"Yeah?"
"Welcome to the fairer sex."
I smiled again. "Thanks."
5.
"You look realy happy," Steve said after the gym teacher finished off roll call. "Is it on account of that kiss earlier?"
"No," I said, hitting him on the arm lightly. "I'm just... Accepting for the first time, and I love it."
"When were you ever not accepting?"
"That's not what I mean, and you know it. I mean of me."
He smiled. "I know. I'm happy that you're happy."
"Thanks. Now," I picked up a basketball and tossed it to him, "you think you can take me now? Because I used to kick your ass at basketball when I was a boy."
He dribbled the ball a little. "I'd like to see you try."
6.
"Ms. Richards, do you have something to add?" Mrs. Zucker, the Creative Writing teacher, asked me, because I'd been yawning, and raised my arms above my head. Oops. Me be dumb. I shook my head, but I was sure I was red-faced. "Then keep your yawning to yourself. Now, which of you will actually come up here and read your essay?"
Melanie raised her hand, and I had a sinking feeling her essay had something to do with me. Why'd I have this feeling, you ask? Well, because now that I knew that Mel and Stephanie were behind this whole thing, the odds that this essay - which was assigned to us at the beginning of the semester, I might add - involved me in one way or another were very good.
"Okay," Melanie said as she got to the front of the class, "I wasn't actually gonna do this essay, and just take the failing grade, but a couple of days ago, my little sister took a big step in her life and, well, it inspired me." See? I knew this'd be about me. Goddamnit, Melanie... "Amy came out to me and our parents last Friday, after having dealt with her problems for awhile on her own." Seriously? This is actually a good essay? Damn, my sister might actually graduate high school after all. "Amy had kept up appearances as Adam for awhile, but she just couldn't anymore. I was the first person she told, even over our parents. At first I didn't know how to feel about it.
"Here was my little brother, the dweeb I teased every so often because - I thought - he was gay." That's a complete, unadulterated lie. She's never teased me about that. Hell, I didn't even know I was gay until I wasn't anymore. Wait, am I technically still gay? I mean, I'm a girl, and girls like bo - Aw, the hell with it. "It turned out it was much more than that, because Adam didn't want to be Adam, he wanted to be Amanda, felt free as Amanda. Adam was technically gay, he just wasn't Adam.
"And so, my little sister finally became my little sister last Friday, and there isn't one member of my family that isn't happy for her, because she's finally the person she truly is."
Mrs. Zucker started clapping, and then so did other people, which surprised me. They were clapping at an essay - a short one, at that - about me. I was almost dumbfounded. When Mel sat back down, I didn't even say anything, I just hugged her. My big sister wrote that about me. I felt like I was on top of the goddamn world.
7.
I felt like I was gonna throw up.
I made it to the bathroom just in time to avoid a mess all over the living room floor. I clutched the toilet and puked what was probably half my body weight out. By the time I was done, I sure felt like half my body weight was gone. It was a lot of puke. I instantly felt better, but that didn't make it any less disgusting.
"Honey? You okay?" Mom asked from the other side of the bathroom door.
"No."
"What's the matter?"
"Bad..." Oh, God, I was gonna do it again, wasn't I? Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit! "Hot dog..." I tried to calm my stomach down. I didn't want to puke again. I heard her talking to Melanie. Thank you, so much, Melanie!
It took a few minutes, but I started to feel better. Whew! Thank God... I was starting to think I'd have to call Steve and tell him our date was ooooooooooglrughph.
And I puked. Again.
Oh man, what was going on? Was I getting cold feet? No, that couldn't be it. We were going to see Jurassic World for fuck's sake, in no way a cuddle movie or anything. Even if we are boyfriend and girlfriend, this wasn't a date movie, it was just a movie that happened to be while we're dating, so why was I so sick if it wasn't that hot dog I had at lunch?!
"Amy?" Melanie asked. "I'm coming in there, so you better not be covered in puke."
"I'm not," I gasped out.
I heard the door open, then close, then Mel sat down on the laundry hamper in the corner. "So... How ya doin'?"
"How do you think? I'm puking here!"
"I see that. Why are you puking?"
"I've been trying to figure that out myself." I calmed my stomach some more. Hopefully I wouldn't puke again. I put the toilet seat and lit back down and sat down. "I... Kinda... Um..."
"Your date tonight?" I nodded. "Well, it's not uncommon for a girl to get sick when she's about to go on her first date, but this is a little extreme. Besides, from what I hear, boys are way worse than girls when it comes to getting cold feet on a date."
"I wouldn't know."
"I know. You sure it wasn't that hot dog you ate at lunch? You looked kinda green after you ate it."
"It's probably a combination of the two."
"Ah."
"Should I go?"
"Duh."
"But I'm sick."
"And if you don't go tonight, you'll be sick next time. Go tonight, you'll never be sick again."
"You sure?"
"Just don't eat any popcorn."
I glared at her. "That's your advice?"
"What? I've never dated my best friend, so this is probably a thousand times worse than it should be for you. Just, go, and if you feel sick during the movie, excuse yourself to the ladies' room real quick. You're going to see a dinosaur movie, so odds are good you'll get sick just watching the dinos eat people."
"Hey, I think I can take that."
"Still. Go. I'll push you all the way to the movie theater myself if I have to."
I sighed. "Okay, okay. Who knows, maybe I'll feel better after this, y'know?"
"There ya go!"
Melanie stood up and walked to the door. Before she left the bathroom, I said, "Hey, Mel, thanks for writing that essay."
She smiled. "Anything for my baby sister."
1.
About twenty minutes after my big bathroom puke session, I was up in my room, switching out of the clothes I wore to school (since they smelled like puke) and getting ready to take a shower. I slipped into a pair of shorts and a tank top so that I wouldn't be running between bedroom and bathroom in just my bra and panties. Melanie had done that a few times and caught some absolutely hilarious hell for it from Dad.
As I was washing my legs (no shaving tonight, because I did that this morning), I came upon what was once Little Adam, and was now Ms. Amanda. It was done, totally, completely, I didn't have boy parts anymore. I couldn't believe it. It was done. I touched my... Deep breath here... Vagina lips (and that was weird to say to myself) for the first time and it felt super weird.
I shuddered. The internet can only teach you so much. Should I take my first plunge and discover what masturbating as a girl felt like, or save it for later? Would it feel squicky? Dammit, dammit, dammit...
I finished my shower, dried off, and got dressed. A simple pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt, nothing too fancy considering I was just going to see a movie with my best friend.
Best friend who was now my boyfriend, that is.
2.
"Two for Jurassic World, please," Steve said when we got up to the ticket counter. He looked at me and smiled for whatever reason (maybe because he was the one asking this time, when it was usually me), and I smiled back. He was happy about something. If I was lucky, it wouldn't be that he was secretly planning on kissing me at some big semi-romantic moment (because, let's face it, most action movies have semi-romantic parts).
We got our drinks, our popcorn (popcorn, yeah!), and then made our way to theater 12, where our showing was. Luckily, the place wasn't packed, and we picked a spot in the back, away from everybod - and I know where this is going.
"Did you bring me back here so you could cop a feel with nobody looking?" I asked.
"No!"
"Really?"
"Really. Tell me one time I've copped a feel on you back here before. We sit back here all the time."
"Tell me one time I was your girlfriend all the other times we've come here."
He sighed. "Okay, good point, but, seriously, we've always sat back here. Why should us as boyfriend and girlfriend be any different?"
"You mean other than the fact that it's not gonna look weird if you reach over and kiss me?"
"Good point, again. Look, it's a date, but not a date date, okay?" He gave me a light peck on the cheek. "We're just here to enjoy a movie as boyfriend and girlfriend for the first time, that's all."
"Stop it."
"What?"
I slouched in my seat. "Stop being cute. It makes it harder not to kiss you."
He smiled. "I wouldn't mind."
Somebody shouted, "Shut up back there!" I sighed.
3.
"Eh... The first one was better," Steve said as we left the theater. He was holding my hand, and I was enjoying it.
"I liked the second one better."
"Why?"
I hit the crosswalk button when we got to 3rd and Perez. "Because I don't care how ridiculous it is, a T-Rex rampaging through San Diego is awesome. After all, Sea World gets boring after awhile."
"How would you know? You've never been to Sea World."
"Because fish bore me, no matter how big, that's how."
He smiled. "Fine. So, you want me to take you home, or wanna hang out some more?"
"Nah, walk me home. I need to finish my homework for History tomorrow."
"Oh, your flag thing?"
"Uh-huh. I still don't know which flag to go with."
"Want me to help?"
I shook my head. "No, I gotta do this myself. It's a feeling, y'know?"
He nodded. "Yeah. I'm sure you'll do great on it, though."
I smiled. "Thanks."
"No problem."
4.
Melanie was waiting for me at the front door when Steve dropped me off and walked to his place. “Nope,” was all I said to her when I passed her and walked inside. She looked like she was gonna burst. It was adorable.
“Why not?” she asked, following me into my room. I unzipped my pants and wiggled them off me. “If I were dating your best friend’s brother, I’d tell you everything.”
I stuck my tongue out at her. “I’m not you, sis.”
“Hey, you should so be playing by my rules, seeing as you wouldn’t even be dating Steve if it weren’t for me.”
“For you and Stephanie. You’re just lucky I’m no worse off this way than I was as Adam, otherwise I’m pretty sure Mom and Dad would disown you for ruining their child’s life.”
“So, are you saying you’re better off than you were as Adam?”
I shook my head. “Um, periods, bras, people calling me tranny or shemale, not to mention shaving my legs and armpits. No, I’m not better off, I’m just a girl when I used to be a boy. It’s different, but neither one is better.”
“But, you’re happy now.”
“I wasn’t unhappy before. Granted, apparently I was closet gay and didn’t know it, and I’ve been transitioning pretty well despite the enhanced crazy around me. I’m not saying I was right as Adam, but I wasn’t wrong, either.”
“Well, that’s good.” She turned around to leave the room, then stopped and shut the door. Wow, I can’t believe I didn’t realize that the door was open when I was taking my pants off. Um… Wow. “Hey, Amy, can I tell you something?”
“Yeah, of course you can.” I pulled on the shorts I’d worn earlier when I took my shower. I would put a nightie on, but I still had homework to do.
“This whole thing, changing you and setting you and Steve up together, most of it was Stephanie’s idea.”
“So what?”
“Well… The two of us were…”
“Mel, so what?”
“Huh?”
I plopped down on my bed and grabbed my tablet. “Is it really gonna change my life if I know which one of you decided to do this to me first? I’m Amanda now, I love being Amanda now, as much as I loved being Adam before, nothing about anything is different. You have a little sister instead of a little brother, it’s no big deal, I’m still the same person with the same likes and dislikes, so stop worrying about owning up to a mistake you didn’t make. The only mistake you did make was not telling me sooner.” I laid down. “Now lemme do my homework, okay?”
She smiled. “Yeah.”
5.
I woke up, sat up, stretched, and yawned. I was halfway through my shower when I realized I’d had no dreams the night before. Well, no curse-induced dreams, that is. I had a normal dream, which involved me running naked through a forest and then riding on a polar bear, but nothing involving me and Steve, or me and Dean, or me and Ms. Malski.
I was finally free.
Granted, I’d been free the whole time, considering there was little I could actually do and nothing was hurting me physically, but the curse was over now.
There was a knock on the bathroom door. “Come in!” I said.
In came Melanie, pulling open the shower curtain and holding out two dresses. One was pink with little hearts all over it, the other was yellow with flowers. She was smiling way too much. “Pink or yellow?” she asked.
“Um… I’m not wearing a dress to school.”
She laughed. “No, stupid, it’s for the year end dance after school. Or did you forget we have a year end dance?”
Oh, goddamnit… “Do I have to wear a dress?”
“What’s the big deal? You wear nighties to bed, this isn’t really any different.”
“Except that I’d be wearing it around people!”
“That’s no big deal. Dresses are nothing to be scared of. So, pick one.”
“No.”
“If you don’t, then I’m just gonna hand you one after school and not let you leave the restroom until you change.”
“Nope.”
“Steve would like to see you in one, I bet.”
“Actually, Steve says I’m cute no matter what I wear.”
“Amanda Richards, you’re wearing a dress and that’s final!”
“You’re not Mom.”
“Mom! Amy won’t wear a dress to the dance today!”
“Shut up, Melanie!” Dad shouted back.
“I said ‘Mom’, not ‘Dad’!”
“And I said shut up!”
I started giggling. This was hilarious. “Will you get outta here and let me finish my shower, please? If you’re gonna force me into a dress I guess I’ll take the yellow one.”
“Great! I have the perfect pair of heels to go with that!”
Oh, for fuck’s sake! “Seriously? It’s bad enough I’m wearing a dress, now you’re gonna force me into heels?”
“You can’t wear tennis shoes with a dress, silly.” With that, she turned around, left the bathroom and shut the door. Oh, Christ, today was gonna be annoying.
6.
“She’s making me wear a dress,” I said as I doodled a picture in Homeroom.
Unfortunately, the only one I had to talk to in Homeroom was Dean, who was busy filing his nails. “At least it’s just your sister making you wear stuff, something you can actually persuade otherwise. I make me wear stuff, and it’s all because of that witch.”
I sighed. “You don’t know Melanie that well.”
“I should, she and I have a similar taste in clothes.”
“Either way. She’s not the most persuadable person.”
“That’s not a word.”
“Yes, it is. Pay attention in class one of these days.” I looked up from my picture. “So, why are you even talking to me? I figured you’d blame this whole thing on me.”
He shook his head. “It’s not your fault that, it’s the witch’s fault.”
“Seriously? You don’t find at least a little blame in what you did?”
“You mean a harmless prank? Panty raids don’t hurt anyone, Richards.”
“You’re wearing panties right now, you sure you still believe that?”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine, you’ve got a point.” He looked like he had something else to say after that, but he didn’t.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Seriously, what? Don’t forget, I’m like the only person who’ll talk to you anymore.”
“It’s not important.”
I sighed. “Fine. If you say so.”
“I do.”
“Fine.”
“Stop it, Richards.”
“I’m not trying to guilt trip you, if that’s what you’re worried about.” I really wasn’t, even though it sounded like I was. It was kinda funny, actually.
“Did you want to be a girl before you were cursed?”
What?! “What?”
“I know you tell everybody that, since it’s easier than telling the truth, but did you actually want to be a girl?”
I shook my head. “It really doesn’t matter whether I did or not. I am now, and I don’t mind it.”
He hugged his knees to his chest. “That just means you were gay.”
I sighed. “I’m actually pretty sure now that I was, but that’s beside the point.”
“You, too, huh?”
That caught my attention. “Wha?”
His face turned redder than it already was (he was wearing way too much blush) and then he looked away. “Nothing. Just forget I said that.”
Something seemed very off about that…
7.
“Your final assignment of the year is to draw anything,” Mr. Pendergast said, writing the word ANYTHING on the board. “Anything at all. You have the entire class to get as far along as you can, but I want it to be as detailed as you possibly can, shoot for nothing less than the best you can do.”
“Oh, for crying out loud!” Johnny said when Mr. Pendergast walked back into his office. “Anything?! I can barely draw anything!” He looked over at me. “What are you drawing, Richards, lemme copy off you.”
I covered up my paper with my arms and glared at him. “No.” Steve started laughing. “How would you even copy me anyway? The only thing you could do is trace me, and Mr. Pendergast would know.”
“C’mon! I’m gonna flunk if I don’t!”
“No.”
He turned to Steve. “Burke, tell your girlfriend to let me trace her drawing.”
Kimberly nearly spit out her drink. “No way, those two are dating?!”
I nodded. “We haven’t exactly telegraphed it, or anything, but yeah.”
Steve said, “Well, she doesn’t telegraph it. I had her name tattooed on me.”
I smacked him in the back of the head. “No you didn’t.”
“Wait,” Johnny said, “you two really are dating? Shit, man, I just guessed.” He held up his hand for a high five. “Good job scorin’ the trannie, man, that’s just awesome.”
Kimberly elbowed him. “Shut up, dumbass. Amy’s not a trophy, even if she is still somewhat a boy.”
“Um, I’m not, actually,” I said, sheepishly.
“You mean you had the surgery?”
“Yeah,” I lied. “I had that done awhile ago. I just started the hormones recently to get the rest of me caught up.”
“But, genetically, you’re still a boy, right?”
“Um… Yeah.” Not really.
“See, so you’re still somewhat a boy, like I said.”
I groaned. “Fine.”
Johnny said, “Look, none of this settles the problem of Richards letting me copy off of her drawing.”
Steve responded, “She said no, so I’d take that as your final answer.”
Johnny slammed his head down on the table, making my pencils go flying. “Dammit! I’m gonna fail this class!”
I sighed. “See that wall behind me?” I asked, pointing to the very basic wall behind me. “Draw that.”
He looked up at the wall and then his eyes lit up like he’d finally found religion, or something like that. “Richards! You’re a goddamn genius!”
I just rolled my eyes.
1.
It was time. My History grade depended on it. I needed to do this right. Very, very right. Very, very right. Yeah, okay, I really do have weird thoughts and put too much emphasis on certain things.
Anyway, in order to do this right, I had to wait for everybody else. Kenny Williams picked the Canadian flag, because he was from Canada and because he liked their sense of peace and universal healthcare. Sarah Williams (no relation to him, apparently) picked the Swedish flag, for some reason I wasn’t really paying attention to because she also dove straight into her dating profile for any single boys who want a hot summer date (I hope I’m never like that). Billy Kerrigan chose the New Zealand flag for yet another reason I wasn’t really paying attention to because every other sentence involved The Hobbit trilogy. Some people picked weird things for what a flag “meant” to them.
“Ms. Richards?” Mr. Greene called my name. It was time. I had to do this. My entire History grade was cou -
Shut up, Amanda, and get to it!
I hated my brain.
I sighed, stood up, and walked to the front of the classroom. Deep breath, Amanda, deep breath. I put my little printed out Rainbow Flag on the whiteboard with a magnet. “This is the Rainbow Flag,” I started. Some people were already trying to hide laughter. “It’s the symbol of the LGBT community, and I picked this flag because, as a transgender girl, well, it means a lot to me that people in my community are treated equally.” Everything I said sounded like it was stolen from a thousand different speeches from people who actually meant their words. I took another breath.
I continued, “When I was a boy, I didn’t mind my life. I got up, went to school, hung out with my friends, went to bed, rinse, repeat. It was a normal life, it was okay.” Some people were still disguising their laughter. Yay. “Then, one day, I realized that Adam Richards wasn’t right. I got up every day and went though my life exactly like I said: Rinse and repeat. Everything was so basic and so nothing that I felt like I wasn’t really living so much as going through the motions of somebody else’s life.” Did I suddenly sound more confident? I think I did. People were still laughing lightly, but I didn’t care. “I decided that day that I’d stop being Adam and be who I really felt like I was, and that’s who I am now.”
Jenny Gunther raised her hand. “How did you know you’d feel better as a girl?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t, at first. It took me a little while to realize that it was my... “ I expected the laughs for this one, “...Boy parts…” and there they were, “...Were the cause.” I could have said penis, but people would have laughed equally as hard, so I just said boy parts. I felt no shame. “But when I did, I went to my sister, and together, we went to our parents. I owe my sister a lot of thanks for what she did to help me.” I chuckled. “She’s the best sister ever, and I’m not just saying that.”
That sounded a lot more real than it was.
2.
Steve grabbed me around the waist and held onto me while I was cleaning out my locker. “You look like you just won a gold medal, how ya doin’?” he asked.
“I did great on my speech. A+.”
“That’s great, Amy!”
I lightly elbowed him to get him off of me. He took the hint. “Yeah, it is. I’m also the only one that got an A+. A lot of other people got A’s, but I’m the only one that got an A+.”
“You’re saying that like it’s a bad thing.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s not. I just don’t get why I’m the only one that got an A+. A lot of other people did that good, too.”
“Mr. Greene just thought you were the best, that’s all.” He turned me around and pushed me back against the locker, gently. “Amy, just because you’re the school’s only transgender girl doesn’t mean you can’t also be the coolest, greatest student.”
“I’m not, though. Dean’s supposedly the valedictorian this year.”
“Yeah, I heard about that.”
“He… Kinda said something weird to me during Homeroom.”
Steve looked surprised. “You mean Dean Garnet was capable of talking to you like a normal human being?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know what to make of it.”
“What’d he say?”
I shrugged. “That’s just it, I don’t really know. It was mostly his tone, he kinda sounded like he was gonna tell me he was gay before he was cursed.”
“Considering how many girls he’s dated, that would surprise me. Stephanie said he was one of her better boyfriends.”
I sighed. “I dunno. Maybe I was just reading too much into it.”
Steve smiled. “Hey, don’t worry about it.” He quickly changed the subject. “So, are you going to that stupid dance in a little bit?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Melanie’s making me go. She says I need to wear a dress.”
“You? In a dress? You looked so uncomfortable in a skirt the other day at my house that I thought you were gonna go nuts.”
“I get nervous wearing that stuff in public, y’know? I mean, I wear nighties to bed, and dresses are pretty much the same, but that’s to bed. I don’t wear them with all my friends around.” I sighed again. “I dunno. Do you think I’d look cute in one?”
He kissed me on the cheek. “I think you look cute all the time, so I’m not one to ask about that.”
I smiled now. “You’re just sayin’ that because you’re my boyfriend.”
“No, I woulda said that if we weren’t dating. I’m mainly saying it because it’s true, but I’m also saying it because I’m your best friend.” He grabbed me by the waist again. “If you’re going, I guess I’ll go, too. I don’t want you dancing with any other guys, after all.”
“Jealous much?”
“A little. You are the hottest transgender girl I’ve ever dated.”
“I’m the only transgender girl you’ve ever dated.”
“Point taken. See ya then.” He gave me another kiss on the cheek and then left me to go to his locker. I sighed. At least he’d be there to make me feel better if I made a total ass of myself.
3.
“You look relieved,” Melanie said when she caught up to me after History class.
“I feel relieved. Nobody laughed loudly at my speech. I’m never doing one again for as long as I live, but at least it wasn’t as painful as I thought it’d be.” I sat down on a bench in the school lobby. Only twenty minutes before the school dance started. Urgh…
“So,” she said, holding up her book bag, “you ready to get changed?”
“You’re really gonna force me to do this, aren’t you?”
“Of course I am.”
I sighed. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”
4.
Melanie was smiling like a lunatic. She grabbed me by the arm, dragged me to the nearest restroom and blocked the exit. She really couldn’t wait for this. I could, but then again, I’d never worn a dress or heels before.
Actually, the heels scared me more than the dress.
I took off my shirt, my shorts and my socks, then pulled the dress on. It felt so weird to be wearing it. Luckily, it wasn’t backless or strapless or anything, so I got to keep my bra on. I don’t know if I could deal with wearing a dress and letting my boobs flop around underneath. It’d probably feel weirder than simply wearing the dress.
Next, I used the door of a stall to balance myself as I put the heels on. I needed to take a deep breath before and after each one, goddamn nervousness… I took a few practice steps in them so that I could get the hang of walking in them. Thankfully, Melanie picked low heels, because I don’t know if I could have handled the ones I saw her putting on. Hilariously, the only benefit here for her (other than seeing her little sister in a dress and heels), was that she was now one inch taller than me. Even as a girl, I was still taller than her.
“Ready for your make-up?” Mel asked. She was really having fun with this.
“C’mon, I’m already wearin’ the dress and the heels, make-up, too?”
“I thought you liked make-up?”
“I don’t hate it, but I’m already wearing lipstick, isn’t that enough?”
She was smiling like a demon again. “Nope. If my baby sister is going to her first dance, she’s going there looking the best she possibly can.”
I was going to regret this day for the rest of my life, I was sure.
5.
This was it.
My moment of absolute total fear and horror.
The moment my fate as a member of the female sex would be decided.
All of this past weird week was leading up to this moment.
And nobody was paying me any more attention than anyone else.
The gym was crowded as hell, lots of people dancing to whatever was playing (I think it was Imagine Dragons, but I wasn’t quite sure, because a few of their songs sounded like deeper Linkin Park songs), others over by the punch bowl just talking (and probably spiking it with liquor, knowing our football team). I caught sight of Dean off in a corner by himself. His compulsions thanks to his curse had gotten him into a dress, too, though his was a lot more revealing than mine, and his heels were higher.
Melanie was having a ball just dancing by herself, so I sort of drifted off toward the punch bowl. Pretty much every girl was in a dress, and pretty much every guy was wearing plain clothes. I was one of the few girls who was wearing heels, though, so Melanie was full of shit when she told me I couldn’t wear tennis shoes with a dress. At one point, I glanced over at the corner Dean was in, but he wasn’t there anymore. Maybe he found somebody to dance with.
Maybe he just left.
I was sipping on my fifth cup of liquor-spiked punch (I was a little tipsy, I don’t think they put as much into this bowl as they usually did) when somebody tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and nearly drowned on some punch when I saw Steve standing there wearing a tuxedo. “Tell me, cutie pie, have any guys tried to dance with you yet?” he asked. He looked so damned good, it was amazing.
“You rented a tuxedo for this? Did Melanie tell you to do this?”
He shook his head. “Nope. And I didn’t rent this, it was my dad’s prom tux. It still smells like the 80s.”
“You wore that for me?”
“I brought it in case you were going, whether you were wearing a dress or not. I gotta say, though, you look gorgeous in that. Melanie was right about that much, at least.”
I blushed - well, if you could tell, anyway. “Thanks.”
“So?” He held out his hand and almost immediately, slow dance music came on. “May I have this dance, Ms. Richards?”
I smiled. “You certainly may, Mr. Burke.” I took his hand and pulled closer to him. This may sound like the sappiest romance story ever, and it kinda felt that way, too, but I didn’t care. I was dancing with my boyfriend, and even if I was wearing a ridiculous dress and he was wearing a tuxedo that really did smell like it crawled out of 1985, I was loving every second of it.
When the song ended and Steve kissed me, I finally felt like this whole weird week, this whole outrageous journey, this whole learning experience of becoming female, was finally over.
And off to the side was Melanie and Stephanie, high-fiving themselves.
"Please tell me this isn't what I think it is?" Mom asked as she held the bra up by the strap. I was frozen in shock, hoping beyond hope that the bra was all I'd accidentally dropped in the laundry.
Hikaro
So, if you read my stories (and I assume there are at least two of you out there who do), you've probably read The Curse of Womanhood, which was a pretty big deal for 10 minutes at a time back when I was posting it. Now, if you read my stories on TG Storytime (where I do most of my posting), you'll know there's a sequel to The Curse of Womanhood that's been around awhile over there.
This is part of that sequel.
Yes, much like the first, I'm posting this one in blocks. The only bad thing about that is that it'll take a little longer to get the whole story here, because unlike the first, this one isn't writing itself as easily.
But, here's the first three chapters, with the next three coming at some point in the near future. I don't see this one lasting as long as the first did, but I still have no clue when I'll actually be done with it. I honestly think I'm close, probably within one to three chapters of finishing, but we'll see where the story chooses to take me.
And now it's time for the story to take you...
...r time. Your time. That was a shitty joke, ignore it.
1.
"Please tell me this isn't what I think it is?" Mom asked as she held the bra up by the strap. I was frozen in shock, hoping beyond hope that the bra was all I'd accidentally dropped in the laundry.
Of course, the only thing that crossed my mind was, "What do you think it is?"
She rolled her eyes. "What I think is that you brought a girl home at some point and she forgot her clothes."
I felt relief wash over me. She just thought I'd brought a girl home. If she found out what it actually was, I'd be screwed. She'd probably kick me out or kill me if she found out I was a crossdresser. This little event just told me that I needed to find a better hiding place for my clothes. "Yeah, Gabby Larson, last week. She's got a nice little birthmark under the left one."
She rolled her eyes again. "I don't wanna think about what you do with your girlfriend, Kenneth, just make sure the next time you've got one here that she takes all her clothes back."
I smiled. "Yeah, Mom."
She tossed the lacy undergarment at me and left my room. I finally let out the breath I didn't realize (or even understand how) I was holding in. I shut and locked my door, then opened my closet and pulled my foot locker out. I carefully folded the bra and put it away, then returned the foot locker to its rightful place. I shut it back up in my closet and unlocked my door.
Four years. Four years, I'd been getting away with my crossdressing, and it had almost come crashing down on me just because I'd been stupid. I reached for my phone and texted Gabby. Almost caught. You're my exit strategy. She'd know what it meant, as she'd helped me and kept my secret ever since I realized I enjoyed crossdressing. I had to admit, I had a little bit of a crush on her, because she was such a great friend. I should probably ask her out at some point.
The door opened again, and I nearly dropped my phone. Mom stood there, holding onto a laundry basket. "By the way, your cousin will be here tomorrow."
"Which one?" I asked.
"Amanda, remember? We talked about this last night?"
Well, I woulda remembered if not for the near panic attack of losing my favorite hobby. Amanda was my favorite cousin, even though I hadn't seen her since she finished that surprise transition she'd sprung on the family. I probably wouldn't even recognize her now. I didn't know why her sister wasn't coming, but Melanie and I were never very close. Probably had something to do with her being older than Amanda and I.
"Oh, yeah. Do I need to set up the spare room?"
"I took care of that. Just... Don't treat her any different than you used to, okay? Aunt Sarah tells me that there are still some people that treat her badly."
I rolled my eyes. "She's my cousin, Mom. Just because she's not a guy anymore doesn't mean I'm suddenly gonna treat her bad." Hell, a part of me wondered if she crossdressed before that sex change.
"Good. Tomorrow, you meet her at the bus station."
I nodded. "Yeah, I will."
2.
The sun was hitting me hard. It was close to a hundred degrees, and there wasn't a whole lot of shade outside the bus station. I tried going inside for the air conditioning, but they wouldn't let me in. I stood underneath a tree that looked like it had seen better days twenty years ago, but most of the limbs were dead now.
Amanda's bus was supposed to arrive at eight fifteen, but it was a good twelve minutes late. I was starting to regret that pair of panties I had put on, now. They felt wonderful, but the sweat was worse than wearing briefs. I kept having to adjust them every few minutes just to stay comfortable.
Finally, I saw the bus pull into the station, and then five minutes later, people started spilling out of the building. I walked over to the building and recognized Amanda as soon as she walked outside. She looked like a lot like Melanie, but a little more endowed, and somewhat more feminine. Her brown hair had streaks of pink in it, like some anime girl. I almost wanted to laugh, but I was too busy being surprised at just how... Natural she looked. If I had never met her, I'd assume she was born female.
"Hey! Kenny!" she shouted, waving. I wasn't exactly far away, so I didn't understand why she was shouting. "Long time, no see!"
I laughed now. "Yeah, especially since you look like a girl now."
"Uh, I am a girl now. But, you've got a point. How's stuff with you and your mom?"
"Pretty good. How's everybody out there reacted to your... Change?"
She shrugged. "Some better than others. Steve helps, though."
"Steve? That goofy guy you hang out with all the time?"
"He happens to be my boyfriend."
I felt stupid now. "Oh."
"And as far as 'goofy' goes, he's outrageously sweet and that makes up for it."
I picked up the duffel bag she'd set beside her. "Well, I've got Mom's car right now, so let's get going. This heat is killin' me."
She nodded. "Yeah. Just be glad you don't have to wear a bra." She used her hand to fan at her exposed cleavage. "The girls are hot and that gets sorta annoying after awhile."
I laughed again. I almost wondered if it would be a good idea to tell her about the crossdressing.
3.
“So, were you gay?” I asked. The car was being an asshole again. Good thing I actually knew how to fix it. If Mom hadn’t dated that guy who worked at Autozone, this would actually be a problem for me. “No offense, or anything, but I didn’t think people just suddenly started liking their old gender when they had a sex change.”
Amanda was leaning against the side of the car, arms folded under her breasts. “To be honest, I don’t actually know. I mean, I do like guys, but I think I’m just attracted to Steve because he’s my best friend.”
“But, no attraction to girls at all?”
She shook her head. “Not unless admiring them as competition counts.” She smirked. “You got a motive behind these questions?”
I started to blush. “Uh, no.”
“Are you gay?”
“No! I’ve got the hots for girls, pure and simple. It just seemed odd that you didn’t leave the hetero bandwagon even after the opposite gender became the one you used to be.”
She smacked me on the head. “Hetero bandwagon…” I heard my text ringtone. “You’re phone’s ringing.”
“Yeah, grab it for me, will ya?”
She reached in and grabbed my phone off the dashboard. “Somebody named Gabby, asking ‘Has she ever seen the foot locker’.”
Oh, crap. “Uh, gimme that, please.”
“This wouldn’t be the same Gabby you’ve had a crush on for most of your life, would it?”
“It is, but gimme the phone.”
She held the phone away from me as I went to take it from her. “Foot locker?”
“Yeah, y’know. That one my dad left me when he, well, left.”
“The one that just sits in your closet being neglected?”
“Yeah, that one.”
She tossed the phone back in the car. “Your mom would know all about that foot locker. Why is it so secret?”
“It’s not important.”
She was full-on smiling now. “Oh, it sure seems important.”
I sighed. “It’s not, okay? Now let’s get going, I got the fan belt back on.”
She opened the passenger side door and sat down. “Yeah, let’s go, because I want in on this foot locker secret.”
I felt the color drain from my whole body. Great. Gabby waits twelve hours to respond to my text, now my cousin’s gonna know I’m a crossdresser.
4.
I was grateful that Mom was down the road at her friend Stacy’s, because pulling out the foot locker would be frightening enough with Amanda alone. If Mom were home, I’d be downright scared. Even so, I locked the door behind us, opened my closet and pulled the foot locker out. “You gotta promise me you’ll never talk about this to anybody but me and Gabby.”
She nodded. “Believe me, I’m good at secrets. Show me.”
I took a deep breath, unlocked the foot locker and opened it. For some reason, I closed my eyes, as if I was walking into a firing squad. Time felt like it was dragging by, and when I finally opened my eyes, Amanda was sitting there poking through all my clothes.
“Where do you get the money to afford this stuff? These are better brands than I wear!”
That breath I’d been holding in fell out in a wash of relief. “You don’t think I’m… Weird?”
She looked amused. “I’m transgender and you’re a crossdresser, if you’re weird, then so am I.”
“And you’re not gonna tell anybody?”
“Good with secrets, remember?” She flashed me a warm smile. “Besides, you’re my favorite cousin, I wouldn’t tell anybody anyway.”
I plopped down on my bed. “Oh, thank God. I was afraid for a minute.”
She pulled out a bright orange demi bra that I only wore once. “Seriously, where does the money for this come from?! If I could wear stuff this nice, I’d be really happy!”
I laughed nervously. “Well, anything that fits, you can have.”
She shook her head. “Nope, this is your stuff, I’ll just have to scrounge up enough to buy it myself.”
I put the clothes away, locked up the foot locker and put it back in the closet. “Thanks, Amanda.”
“You can call me ‘Amy’, y’know.”
“Thanks, Amy.”
“No problem.” She sat down on the bed beside me and hugged me. “We’re family. And, if the mood strikes me, you can be kind of a dress-up doll for me.”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Either way, we’re family. So, do you just crossdress, or are you actually curious about being female?”
I shrugged. “I don’t really know. I mean, the idea seems interesting, because I like the clothes and would kinda like the body to go with them, but… It just seems frightening.”
She put her arm around my shoulder. “Frightening is a word for it. Also, enlightening, wonderful, silky, warm…”
“Warm?”
“Blankets feel warmer now, I can’t explain it.”
“I just… I don’t know. Besides, it’s not like it can happen overnight, and then what if I wanna be a guy again?”
She looked as if she wanted to say something, but before she did, we both heard the front door open. “Oh, your mom’s home.”
5.
“That is some amazing surgery, sweetie,” Mom said, admiring Amy. “How’d they do it?”
Amy shrugged. “Medical magic and Mom’s got good friends.” Something seemed wrong about how she said that. “She sends her love, by the way.”
“On that subject, how’s it feel to be the little sister now? Your mom would tease me a lot when we were going up.”
“Melanie and I have… Interesting moments. I’m a dress-up doll for her more often than I wanna be.”
Mom nodded. “I know what it’s like being the tomboy little sister.”
“Well, I’m not too much of a tomboy. I don’t go out of my way to wear skirts or dresses, but I don’t exactly shy away from cute things, either.” She ran a hand through her hair. “After all, I did have Mel put these pink streaks in.”
“I did something similar. I had your mom bleach my hair.” Mom laughed. “For a boy, of course.”
I was starting to get hungry. “Uh, so what’re we havin’ for lunch?” I asked.
Mom shook her head. “You’re a big boy now, go find something.”
Amy said, “Is that Italian place I like still open?”
“As a matter of fact, it is. Let’s get going, then.”
6.
That Italian place that Amy liked was literally called ‘That Italian Place’, a joke on the part of the owners. Mr. and Mrs. Traversa had the nicest little restaurant in town, and I meant little. Seven tables, and two ceiling lights, the rest of the dining room was lit by candles, real old-world like.
I always got lasagna, Mom always got spaghetti and Amy - when she was Adam - always got pizza. Her taste buds must have changed slightly, because she was ordering the lasagna for the first time since the place opened.
“What? It looked good. It always looks good, I’m just addicted to their pizza.” Amy dug into her lasagna as soon as it hit the table. Mrs. Traversa looked as surprised as I was. “I should bring my boyfriend next time, get him to bring me here.”
Mom popped a meatball in her mouth. “Boyfriend, huh?”
“Yeah. My best friend, Steve.”
“And he’s fine with your being transgender?”
Amy nodded. “Yep. We’ve been friends forever, it just sorta grew naturally.”
I scooped some lasagna into the gullet. “So, do you two…” I said, suggesting the question I had no intention of outright asking.
“That’s none of your business.” She took a sip of the white wine that the Traversas really shouldn’t have been serving minors. “The answer is no, anyway, but it’s still none of your business.”
Mom nodded to me. “At least you had the decency to hide the question, Kenny.”
I chuckled. “No problem.”
“Why didn’t you ask your friend Gabby to lunch, honey?”
I wolfed down one of the pieces of garlic toast that came to the table. “She prefers Mexican to Italian food.”
“Then why doesn’t she ever come over when I make tacos?”
I shrugged. “I ask. She just doesn’t come.” I took a gulp of my glass of wine. “How long you stayin’, Amy?”
Amy held up her hand in a Hold on gesture, then swallowed her food. “Just a couple of days. The house is getting sprayed for roaches. Mom and Dad are having a third honeymoon in two years, Mel’s at her friend’s place, and Steve is visiting relatives back east. Said friend of Melanie’s is also a friend of mine, and Steve’s sister, but they wouldn’t let me stay with them for fear that I’d root around Steve’s room looking for stuff he bought me. Joke’s on them, I know every nook and cranny of Steve’s room, and I wouldn’t actually have to look.”
Mom laughed. “Word from the wise here, your boyfriend’s sister will never let you stay at their house while you’re dating.”
“I figured that out already. Stephanie’s outrageously cliche when it comes to dates, too. Steve has to pay, even when I’ve got more money saved up for the date than he does.”
“Enjoy it. A boy who pays is a boy who stays.” Mom glanced over at me. “You keep that in mind, too, Kenny.”
I took another drink. “Yeah. Bag a guy who’ll always pay for me, that sounds like good advice, Ma.”
“You know what I mean. You make enough from working with Uncle Terry, when you take Gabby out on a date, you should be able to pay.”
“We’re not actually dating, Mom. She’s just a friend, right now.”
“A friend you’ve been in love with since she first showed up in elementary school.”
I shook my head. “I also had a crush on Christy Forsythe, remember?”
“So did all the other boys in your class after she walked into the locker room topless.”
Amy turned red. “Oh… I wasn’t the only one who did that…”
I burst out laughing, probably confusing the other two sets of people at tables in the place.
7.
“You’re being quiet,” Gabby said. She wasn’t even looking at me, she was fixing her makeup while we sat there, just parked at the lake. “How are you this quiet when your cousin came to stay with you for a couple days?”
I shrugged. “Maybe because all we did was go to lunch and she crashed on the spare bed after a four hour bus trip?”
“Still. She knows now, right?”
“Yeah, she knows, why?”
Because now you can get crossdressing advice from somebody who actually crossed the threshold between crossdresser and transgender, this should be a gold mine for you!”
I rested my hand on the steering wheel. “I don’t know if Amy actually was a crossdresser.”
“I’ve seen her Facebook pictures, she dresses way too good to not have crossdressed.”
I laughed. “Nah, she says Melanie helps her out with that.”
“About her for a second, are those implants or did she go with hormones? Because her tits are huge.”
“I didn’t ask, because that would just be rude. Amy’s the closest thing to a sister I have, and I’m not gonna ask her crazy ass questions like that.”
“Oh, cool, so I can ask her when we get back to your place.”
I sighed. Somehow, my best friend and my transgender cousin being in the same room with me didn’t seem all that good. “Just so long as nothing weird happens.”
“Please, you’re thinking too much about this.” She reached for my shirt. “Are you wearing a black bra under here? You’re lucky this shirt is dark, otherwise that thing’d be showing itself off even under your clothes.”
8.
Gabby and I walked into my room, where I found Amy doing something with her tablet. Gabby immediately shut the door and locked it, while Amy just… Well… Laid on my bed doing something with her tablet.
“Amanda, nice to meet you, I’m Gabby,” she held out her hand.
Amy looked up. “Nice to meet you, too. I’ll shake your hand in a second.”
Gabby looked surprised. “Um… Why do I gotta wait?”
“Emailing somebody important. Just… Two… There!” She sat forward and shook Gabby’s hand. “You can call me Amy, by the way.”
I took my shirt off. “What was that email about?” I asked. Amy and Gabby were both staring at me. “What?”
Amy shook her head. “I’ve got the rack to show it off, but he has all the cute bras…” Gabby broke into laughter.
I blushed. “Yeah, yeah, what was the email?”
She turned to Gabby. “You keep his secret pretty well, mind keeping mine, too?”
Gabby nodded. “Yeah, I don’t mind.”
“Okay, now this is gonna sound absolutely crazy, but it’s all true. I didn’t get sexual reassignment surgery.”
“You mean you’ve still got the dick?”
Amy shook her head. “No, I’ve got a vagina, but it’s not cosmetic. I’m one hundred percent genetically female, and a sorceress did it to me.” She looked over at me. “And she’s willing to make you female for a day if you want to.”
I felt my mouth hang open. Crazy didn’t even begin to cover how this sounded.
9.
“So, sorceress equals magic,” Gabby said, “are you saying you became female by magic?”
I didn’t want to believe it, but Amy looked too natural to just be a normal trans girl. I’d noticed that morning that she looked like she’d been born female, and magic could explain that, but I didn’t want it to be true.
On the other hand, though, if magic was real, and Amy had a sorceress friend who would be willing to change me into a girl for a day, then I could actually experience what it felt like to have breasts in my bra cups, or an ass that actually felt right in my panties. The idea of actually experiencing these clothes that I’ve been wearing for fun for four years felt enticing.
“Amy, I don’t mean to be rude, but have you gotten psychiatric help?” Gabby asked.
Amy shook her head. “I’m not crazy, it just sounds like I am. But seriously, if a gynecologist was to examine me, they’d never be able to tell the difference.”
“You’re serious? Like, seriously serious?”
“Yep. Periods and possible future babies included. I thought it was crazy when it happened to me, but it didn’t take too long to accept it. I was closet transgender and didn’t even know, now I’m exactly who I wanna be.”
Gabby sat down on the bed. “Okay, this is just too weird. I’m not saying I believe this, but if it’s true, your friend can change Ken into a girl for a day?”
“Wait a second,” I said, somewhat quietly.
Amy carried on like I hadn’t said anything. “I wouldn’t call her a friend. She’s the principal of my school and she helped out Mel once. We get along more than anything else.”
“But she can do it? And it’s totally reversible?”
“Yeah.”
Gabby turned to me. “You’re gonna do this, right?”
“Wuh - Wait,” I said, my voice a little louder.
She kept on like I hadn’t said a word. “Because this would be awesome, Ken! We could hang out as girlfriends for once and have a great time, you wouldn’t need to hide your clothes because you wouldn’t be crossdressing as a girl!”
I grabbed her by the shoulders. “Wait a second!” I spoke in the loudest voice I could without yelling, so that I didn’t get Mom rushing up here to find out what was going on. “I’m thinking about this, okay?” I took the bra I was wearing off and folded it up. “This isn’t some quick decision I can make, it’s not like just changing a shirt or that sort of thing.” I sat down at my desk. “I don’t even know what exactly I’m going to feel with this change.”
Amy stood up. “According to Ms. Malski, nothing. You’d go to sleep tonight and wake up tomorrow morning as a girl. Then you’d go to sleep tomorrow night and wake up the next day as yourself again.”
“Was your change instant?”
She shook her head. “No. I went through a week of gradual changes. I still looked sorta like a boy when I went back to school, so that made it easier for people to think I was actually going through a normal transition.”
I sighed. “And what do I tell Mom? I can’t exactly tell her the truth.”
She gave me a weird look. “Why not? I told my parents the truth, they were accepting.”
“Mom doesn’t even know I crossdress, what the hell’s she gonna think when I tell her I’m gonna be a girl for a day? Or that magic exists?”
“That she should call my folks and ask them, because they’ll tell her exactly what I told you.”
I shook my head. “I hate to tell you this, but that’s not exactly gonna put her at ease.” I looked over at Gabby. “Why are you so gung-ho about this?”
Gabby leaned back on my bed. “You don’t get it, Ken. You just don’t. I have no female friends, at all. It’s not that I don’t want to be friends with other girls, it’s just that nobody wants to hang out with me except for you.”
“You just want a shopping buddy for a day?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I wanna know what it’s like, and it’d be nice to see you fitting your clothes properly for a change.”
I stood and walked over to the bookcase on the other side of the room. “This is just… Look, Amy, if this can really happen, gimme a little while to think it over, okay?”
Amy nodded. “Yeah, that’s fine. Ms. Malski won’t do anything until I give her the go-ahead. Take the time you need, because I can always stay a couple more days.”
Gabby sat up again. “I think you should do it,” she said. “Ya never know, maybe you’ll like being a girl?”
I ran a hand through my hair. “I’ll think about it.”
10.
Sleep didn’t come to me. I just laid there, tossing and turning. Thinking. About Amy’s offer. About Gabby’s total certainty that I should do it and that I’d like it. About… Everything. I stopped tossing and just stared at the ceiling. It still had the glow-in-the-dark stars I had Mom stick to the ceiling when I was little.
I sat up and looked out the window beside the bed. I wasn’t entirely sure why the sprinklers were going, but I seemed to remember Mom saying something about the timer not working right. The look of the wet grass in the moonlight made it appear as though the yard was covered in tiny diamonds. I loved the look of wet grass at night. Would that change if I were to take up Amy’s offer? How much would change?
I thought about Amy. She was a bit more feminine, but that was the only real difference between how she was now and how she used to be as Adam. But her change was permanent, presumably to improve her life. If I was gonna become a girl for a day, it might be more playful. I might not be Kenny for that day.
I laid back down and closed my eyes again. Thinking about it. That’s all I’d do for now. Maybe I’d do it, maybe I wouldn’t. I’d have to talk to Amy about it.
11.
I woke up and immediately felt something was wrong. I was still male, so Amy hadn’t changed me in the middle of the night without my knowledge, but something still felt outrageously wrong. I looked around my room and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, but I couldn’t shake the feeling.
I threw on a shirt and a pair of shorts and walked out into the hallway. I heard talking from the kitchen, so I assumed Amy and Mom were already awake. I walked out into the kitchen and instantly knew what was wrong. My foot locker. Sitting there. Open.
“Kenneth Matthew Brewster, we need to talk,” Mom said.
12.
I felt like my heart was about to leap out of my chest and strangle me with the ventricles. I wanted to shout at Amy, because the foot locker had never been found before she came to visit. Except that I really couldn’t blame her. She didn’t know about it until yesterday, and she’d been here dozens of times as Adam. I just wasn’t thinking straight.
So then I wanted to shout at Gabby. She’d probably called Mom up and told her about the foot locker, trying to influence my decision and indirectly force me to take Amy’s offer. But that didn’t track, either. Gabby had kept my secret for years, and she wouldn’t just rat me out like that just for one day of girl fun.
I walked over to the table and pulled out the remaining chair and sat down. “Look, I can explain,” I started, but Mom held up a hand to stop me.
“First, where’d the money come from?”
“Some of it was from Uncle Terry, some of it Gabby bought.”
“So Gabby knows, too?”
“Yeah.”
She sighed. “And when did you start doing this?”
I started twiddling my thumbs. Why? I was having flashbacks to when I got caught sneaking cookies into my bedroom after dessert when I was little. “About four years ago. After that Halloween party.”
“The one where I dressed you as Little Bo Peep?”
I nodded.
She sighed. “And you’ve kept this hidden from me ever since?”
“Yeah.”
She let out another sigh. “I need to know, do you wear any of this to school? Particularly the underwear?”
I shook my head. “No. Occasionally I’ll wear panties when I’m going somewhere, and Gabby’ll ask me to wear a bra when we hang out sometimes, but not often.”
Mom turned to Amy. “Amanda, did you know about this?”
Amy answered, “Kenny told me yesterday.”
Mom turned back to me. “Kenny, I’m not going to judge you, I just want to know: Do you have a desire to be female?”
I shook my head. “Not in the same way Amy did.” I kept trying to relax. Mom wasn’t treating me like a monster or a freak, she seemed legitimately concerned about this. “Every now and again, I wonder what it would feel like to wear the clothes as a girl, but I don’t want to be one.”
Mom leaned forward. “Baby, why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?”
I looked up from my twiddling thumbs. “What?”
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and explained. “Baby, I never told you about your uncle Hud.”
I was confused. “I don’t have an Uncle Hud.”
“No, you don’t. You did, but that’s the reason you only ever meet the grandparents on your father’s side.”
“Huh?”
She looked over at Amy. “I imagine your mother hasn’t told you about Hud either, right?”
Amy shook her head.
“Hud was my twin brother. When we were six, he went to a Halloween party in one of my sister’s dresses. We came home that night and he talked about how much fun he had wearing Sarah’s dress. After that, he got into a harmless little habit of trying on Sarah clothes and mine. We didn’t see anything wrong with it, it was just harmless fun. Your grandfather didn’t look at it that way.” Mom sighed again. “Your grandfather beat Hud to within an inch of his life. My mother called the police, but all they did about it was haul my father into a cell for twenty-four hours, then he was released and came home to finish the job.”
I didn’t have words. My grandfather had killed an uncle I never knew about. An uncle who had been a crossdresser, just like me. I looked over at Amy and saw pain and torment in her eyes. She was actually trans, this probably hit her worse than it did me.
Mom continued, “My mother immediately took Sarah and I to her friend’s, and then we never saw her again. The adoption was dealt with in less than a week, and Sarah and I did our best to just blend in with our new family. Uncle Terry helped. He’d been Sarah’s friend at school, and already treated us like his little sisters even before we were his step-sisters.”
I asked, “So… Did you ever try to get in touch with Grandma again?”
She shook her head. “No. And she passed just a few months later, drove her car into the lake near our old house. Your grandfather went to prison for murder. I don’t know if he ever got out.”
Amy was hugging her legs to her chest. “That explains why Mom and Dad were so accepting of me when I came out.”
I rubbed at the back of my neck. “I wish I’d known about Uncle Hud before now. I woulda told ya about my crossdressing before.”
Mom took my hand. “Ken, you never should have hidden this from me in the first place. I would have accepted you even if that sad chapter of my life had never happened. You’re my son, and I’d love you no matter what.”
“I was always afraid of what you’d say.”
“You never should have been.” She leaned back in her chair. “So I take it that silky black number I caught in your laundry the other day was actually yours and not Gabby’s?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“You’ve got good taste.”
Amy laughed. “That’s what I said, too.”
I felt a light smile coming on, but at the same time I couldn’t. “How did you find out?” I asked Mom.
“I was walking past your bedroom this morning and saw the foot locker. I hadn’t seen it since your father left it with you, and was curious about what you kept in it.”
I chuckled. “Kind of a surprise seeing an army foot locker with dresses in it, huh?”
She smiled. “Very much.”
“Can I keep doing it?”
“Baby, you bought the clothes, you’ve kept this secret for years, I’d be wrong to take away something that you enjoy, especially since my own brother enjoyed the same thing.” She smirked. “Just one thing.”
“What?”
“Grow your hair out. Short-haired girls don’t have the same flair that you should have.”
13.
“I’m surprised you’re not in that cute sundress I saw in the foot locker,” Amy said, sitting down on the lawn chair next to mine.
I laughed. “Not in public.” I looked over at her, sitting in that standard not-trying-but-still-succeeding-at-being-sexy posture that girls usually had when they sat on lawn chairs while tanning. “Nice bikini.”
She smiled. “Thanks. You had it all the way at the bottom, have you ever worn it?”
I nodded. “Yeah, just not often. Or for the last couple years.”
“I don’t even have a bikini, so thanks for letting me borrow it.”
“I’m surprised Melanie hasn’t made you wear one.”
“Oh, she’s made me wear one, I just don’t own one.” She took a drink of the Mountain Dew she brought out with her. “Mel actually owns more clothes in my size than I do, all because she wants me to wear them.”
“That… Sounds a lot like her.”
“So,” she sat up, “do you still need time to think? Because you can take all the time you need.”
I shook my head. “I don’t need anymore time. I just wanna talk with Mom about it.”
“Good luck explaining magic to her. I had Ms. Malski come to the house and explain it to my parents, neither they nor I understand it yet.”
I laughed. “Yeah.”
“Plus, you’ve still gotta tell Gabby that your mom knows about the crossdressing.”
“Yeah. I don’t know how.”
“Um… Gabby, my mom found out and she’s okay with it springs to mind.”
I sighed. “I know. I’m just… Worried, is all.”
“About what?”
I sat up. “You saw how she was last night when you made the offer. If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear she probably wants me to be a girl.”
“I’m not gonna make any arguments for or against being female, seeing as I’d be kinda biased, but don’t get pressured into being a girl for longer than you want to be.”
I shook my head. “I won’t. Hopefully, she gets it.”
“So, you just wanna talk to your mom about it now, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Well… I’m gonna tell her that I’m doing it.”
“You are?”
“Yeah. Female for one day, and nothing up here,” I poked my head, “is gonna change, right?”
She nodded. “Nothing mental is gonna change. You’re gonna be you, but with a bigger rack and slit between your legs for twenty-four hours.” She sighed. “Well, there are other differences. The hips and butt are a little difficult to get past the first few hours. I suggest getting your walk down before you change, otherwise you’ll be tripping over things for awhile.”
I sighed. “This is gonna take more getting used to than I thought.”
14.
I opened the refrigerator and took out the milk. I unscrewed the cap and took a big gulp straight out of the jug. Suddenly, a hand yanked it away from me. “Not so fast, young lady,” Mom said, a smirk on her face, “you’re supposed to be using a glass with this.”
I smiled. “It was just a quick drink.”
“So, what did you want to talk about?”
I put the milk back in the fridge. “Y’know how Amy looks spectacular for being trans?”
“I do.”
“If I told you it was because of magic, would you think I’m nuts?”
She sighed. “Well, I did just find out that you’re a crossdresser. Totally unrelated, we may be moving closer to the asylum next summer.”
I smiled again. “I’m not joking. If she wasn’t in the bathroom, she’d tell you herself.”
“Okay, assuming I do believe this, what about it?”
I took a deep breath. “Amy offered me a chance to be female for a day.”
Mom raised an eyebrow. “A day?”
“Yeah.” I shrugged. “I’m not completely convinced either, but Amy’s too much evidence in magic’s favor than against it. Assuming it’s true, whaddya think? I’m seriously considering it.”
“What exactly would it entail?”
“I’d just be female.”
“One hundred percent?”
“Amy says she’s capable of bearing children.”
“For a day?”
“One day. Or more, if I decide I like it.”
She put her hands on my shoulders. “You want to try this?”
I nodded. “I told you this morning, sometimes I wish I knew what it felt like to have the body type my clothes belonged to. Amy says she knows a way to for that to happen.”
Mom let out a breath. “I want to talk to Amy about this first.”
As if on cue, Amy entered the kitchen, patting her face down with a towel. “Amy hears you,” she said, laying the towel over her shoulder. “What’s goin’ on?”
Mom sat down at the table. “Kenny told me about this offer you’ve proposed to him.” She crossed one leg over the other and laid her hands in her lap. “I’d like to know a little more about what happened with you, first.”
15.
Amy told us the whole story, from the panty raid to the school dance the following week, all about her slow, magical change from male to female. Just knowing that my change would happen while I was asleep and that it would be instant made me feel a little more at ease, but it was still unnerving.
Mom looked in shock. I couldn’t blame her. The whole thing sounded crazy, but Amy was the proof in her own story.
“Amy, sweetheart, I’m so proud of you for being as strong as you are,” Mom said. “If it were me going through this, even if I did feel better as the opposite gender, I’d be scared out of my mind.”
Amy nodded. “I was at first. Luckily, I had Steve.” She took a breath. “Now, don’t let what happened to me scare you, Kenny.”
Mom shook her head. “I can’t say I’m not scared. Even if it’s just a day, it’s a day where I’m looking at a strange girl that used to be my son.”
I hadn’t thought of it like that before. As far as Mom, Amy and Gabby were concerned, I’d just be me in a stranger’s skin. Maybe I shouldn’t do it. I couldn’t make up my mind.
“Baby, if you want to do this, to be female for a day, I’m behind you.”
I looked up at Mom and saw a smile on her face and tears in her eyes. She wasn’t just saying that to act supportive, she was truly being supportive. She’d really be behind me if I actually decided to do this. Amy was smiling, too, and I could tell my favorite cousin was behind me, too. Of course, she’d set this whole thing up, so why wouldn’t she be?
I took a deep breath, and nodded. “Amy, tell your sorceress friend that I’ll do it.”
16.
Amy poked through the foot locker. “Ooh! This one!” she squealed with delight, pulling out the pastel pink nightgown that Gabby had bought a couple months ago. “I’m sure you’ll fill this one out pretty nicely.”
I nervously pulled the nightgown on. “This is gonna feel weird,” I said. Mom looked both amused and sympathetic at the same time. “I’ve only worn this a couple times, and I’ve never slept in it.”
“Believe me, sweetie,” Mom chuckled, “sleeping in one of those will feel like sleeping wrapped up in a cloud.”
I sat down on my bed. “Okay, so I’m just gonna wake up as a girl, right?”
Amy nodded. “Yep. Ms. Malski got it all ready.”
“How does she do this?”
“I don’t actually know. When she changed me, she’d planned it, but the jerk jock she changed was just a whim that same night, so I assume she can just do it mentally or something. I’m gonna warn you, though, I changed gradually over the course of a week, you’re gonna just go from male to female overnight. It’ll probably feel a lot weirder for you than it did for me.”
I sighed. “Well, no turning back now.” I looked back and forth between them. “You can go to bed now.” As if the idea had just occurred to them, they both left my room, Amy turning the light off as she shut my door behind her.
17.
I was standing in a giant white space. Nothing anywhere, just me. I spun around several times, hoping I’d find something, but nothing was there. Eventually, I spun so much that I fell down on my ass, dizzy. I didn’t get back up, I just sat there. I pulled my hair away from my eyes, but that was about it.
Wait… My hair wasn’t that long…
It wasn’t blonde, either.
I stood up quickly, almost disorientingly. Since when did my hair reach my shoulders? And why was it blonde? What the hell was happening to me? It wasn’t just my hair, either. Sure, I had plenty of girls’ clothes in my foot locker, but those stockings on my legs weren’t included. Neither were the heels. And neither was the dress I was wearing. I didn’t have too many dresses, but none of them were black, and none of them were backless.
I don’t know where this outfit came from, but I sure looked hot in it.
Or, at least, I would if I actually had the right parts to go with it.
Not even a hint of breasts, and I could feel my dick. My waist was thinner, my hips were wider, and my ass was bigger, but I honestly just looked like a pear-shaped thin guy in a black dress.
I walked a little into the whiteness, praying that something tangible aside from myself would appear at some point. After God only knew how long I was walking (assuming this was a dream, time had no actual concept), I finally stumbled upon a chair, literally. I didn’t know when the chair came into being, I just tripped over it. I use the chair to stand back up, and then the odd feeling of the edge of the chair hitting my breast rushed to greet me.
When had those grown in? I gripped them, surprised at their weight. They didn’t even look as big as Amy’s but they felt huge. How did Amy deal with big boobs if they felt this heavy? Then again, that’s what bras were for. I wasn’t wearing a bra right now, so they felt heavier.
I gripped the chair and sat down in it, smoothing the hem of my dress underneath me the way Gabby had taught me once. I just sat there and waited, hoping that something would happen eventually. Maybe I’d wake up. I didn’t notice that I had my legs crossed. It didn’t feel too uncomfortable to have them crossed the feminine way. Was my dick gone, too?
“Hey there,” Gabby said. Gabby? What the hell was she doing here? I turned around and saw her standing there, an odd look in her eyes. I couldn’t quite tell what it was, but it… Concerned me. “What’s that you’ve got up top, sugar tits?” She reached for my breasts and gently squeezed the right boob. “Ooh… Nice and juicy.”
“Lemme go,” I said, trying to push her hand off of me. She just gripped tighter. “Gabby!”
She giggled. “Sorry, baby, I just couldn’t help myself. They’re so much more fun to squeeze on somebody else than they are on yourself.”
Okay, that was not how Gabby was. I stood up and backed away from this… thing in Gabby’s shape. The girl in front of me just laughed. “You’re jumpy.”
“What are you?”
“Nothing. Everything. All things. No things. I’m a mindfuck in a bottle, and I’m here to work my magic.”
“Are you… Are you that sorceress that Amy talked about?”
She shook her head. “No. I’m something inside you.” She was suddenly grabbing hold of me, pushing me against an invisible wall. “And I wanna be let out!”
18.
I woke in a cold sweat. I was breathing heavily, my heart pounding. I looked over at my alarm clock, it was three-forty in the morning. I laid back down, slowly. I wiped the sweat off my brow. Whatever the hell that was, it scared me.
I just laid there for another twenty or thirty minutes, staring at the stars on the ceiling. I didn’t want to go back to sleep, for fear that I’d have that… Dream… Again. I rolled over on my side and my arm bumped into my right boob. Suddenly, I was very awake.
I sat up again and turned on the lamp by my bed. They weren’t fake, they weren’t imaginary, this wasn’t a dream.
A girl was me.
I got up and walked over to the mirror above my dresser. The reflection looked sorta like me, but the influence from Mom’s side of the family was definitely there. The blonde hair from my dream was there, too, laying gently on my shoulder. I almost fainted looking at the cleavage I was now sporting. I had to be at least a cup size smaller than Amy, but I couldn’t really tell without her in the room. I tugged on my nightgown a little and peeked under it. The sight of a pair of tits hanging from your own chest would likely freak out any guy, and it was sure doing a number on me.
The hallway light came on. I quickly locked the door. “Kenny?” Amy asked. Why was she awake? “You okay in there?”
I gulped. “Don’t come in.”
Of course, that wasn’t the voice I was used to hearing coming out of my mouth. Why would it be? I wasn’t me right now. Except that I was, just not the way I used to be.
“Unlock the door, Kenny, I wanna make sure you’re okay.”
Opening the door would have been the smart thing to do, but I didn’t at first. I was still… Exploring, for lack of a better word. Avoiding touching certain things, for fear that one day may end up being more if I decided I liked them. I wanted to make sure that I could go back to being Kenny the next day, with my little curiosity sated and everything else back to normal.
“Please, Kenny. I don’t wanna wake your mom up.”
I sighed, then unlocked the door. Amy opened the door and stood there, amazed. I pretty much grabbed her and pulled her into my bedroom, then shut the door again. Amy continued to stand there and gaze at me, like she was jealous or (in some odd way considering she was straight) turned on by the sight of me. “Please stop staring,” I whispered.
She nodded. “Yeah, sorry. Last time this happened, I was the one changing, and it was gradual.” looked me over, head to toe. “You look… Why are you blonde?”
I shrugged. “I think my dad was blonde. Maybe being female brought that out?”
Amy shrugged. “I dunno. I just look like a female me, you look like a female you with blonde hair.”
“Yeah, I get that.”
“So, how do you feel? Do you feel different? Do you feel weird?”
I shook my head. “I… Honestly didn’t even notice right away. I sorta had to bump into my boob with my arm to notice.”
“So you don’t feel different at all?”
“No, I feel different, but the differences aren’t really there unless I think about them. Is that… I dunno… Normal?”
She shrugged again. “I dunno about normal, but it could be something that Ms. Malski did with her magic to help you along, since this is just for a day.”
I groaned. “I’m not gonna start liking guys, am I?”
She shook her head. “No, no. You’re still gonna have all the same likes and dislikes, I’m just saying that Ms. Malski might have adjusted your mannerisms and things like that. Might have already adjusted your brain to your female body so that you’re automatically used to everything.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. At least I wouldn’t want to just hop on the first guy I saw and start mackin’ on him. But one thing was still a problem for me. “I had this… Weird... Dream.”
Amy nodded. “Yeah. I had weird dreams, too.”
“What happened in yours?”
“An awful lot of foreshadowing.”
“Huh?”
“Just… Stuff. I’d be changing in the dream, or I’d already be female in the dream, and I’d be acting like nothing weird was going on. What was yours?”
I rubbed at the back of my neck. “I was in this big white room, wearing a dress I don’t own. Most of me was changed, but I didn’t have any boobs or other parts. I walked around the room, tripped over a chair and suddenly I was done changing. Then Gabby walked up to me and started trying to… Flirt? I dunno. With me. She groped me, and it creeped me out.”
“Okay, that’s fucked up.”
“Yeah, no kidding.”
“Is Gabby into girls?”
I shrugged. “I dunno. She’s had boyfriends, so she’s bi if anything.”
“Well, maybe you should ask her while we’re all out having a shopping trip today.” Amy walked back over to the door. “I’m getting back to sleep. You probably should, too.”
I sighed. “Yeah. I just hope I don’t have any screwed up dreams again.”
19.
Of course I’d have a fucked up dream again.
I was naked in this one, all five-foot-five of me spread across a table, on my stomach. The table was made of stone, which was just uncomfortable, especially to the boobs. I tried getting up, but then I was pushed back down. “Don’t move, sweetpea,” Amy said. Amy, this time. “Just getting you ready.”
“What’s going on now?” I asked.
“Just, y’know. Making sure you’re ready.”
“For what?”
She sighed. “Your date, dummy.”
“I’m not dating anybody!”
“And who’s fault is that? If you’d just let me help you with your makeup we wouldn’t be doing this, and you know that.”
“Why are you getting me ready for a date I’m not having?”
She made a tsk noise. “You just aren’t understanding it, are you?”
“No, I’m not!”
She leaned in and whispered in my ear. “And you’re not gonna here.”
20.
I wasn’t sweating this time, but I was just as freaked out. I wasn’t going back to sleep this time. I got up and walked over to my desk and pulled out my notebook. It was a habit of mine to write down my dreams, when I could remember them. These being likely magic induced dreams, I remembered every little feeling.
My handwriting was different. Instead of my usual sloppy handwriting, I was looking at probably the girliest handwriting imaginable. I was even dotting my i’s with hearts. That seemed stupid and just superfluous, why was that one of the changes? At least it wouldn’t last long.
I wrote about the dreams. The one with Gabby and the one with Amy. Two of the three people that knew about this. Would there have been a dream with Mom if I’d laid back down? I didn’t want to think about that, especially if it was as sexual as the last two I’d had. Granted, sexual meaning that I’d been naked in one and there was fondling in the other.
21.
The sun started to rise a couple hours later. I had gone from writing about my dreams to just plain writing. It was something I always enjoyed. It was likely being awake two extra hours of the day, or maybe it was actually my change, but I had a rush of inspiration hitting me. I wrote about an elf running away from home because of her abusive parents. I was having a lot of fun writing it, which hadn’t happened in awhile.
There was a knock on my bedroom door, then Amy asked, “Can I come in?”
“Yeah.”
She opened the door, one hand holding a hairbrush and the other a toothbrush. “Remind me which one of these I use on my hair and which one I use on my teeth.”
I laughed. “The big one is for your hair.”
She sat down on my bed. “I knew that.” She started brushing her hair out. “How’d you sleep?”
“Another freaky dream. This one with you in it.”
“Ooh, cool.”
I shook my head. “No. Not cool. You had me on a stone table naked getting me ready for some ‘date’ that I wasn’t going on.”
“Okay, I understand the not cool part now.” She walked over to me and started brushing my hair. “I wasn’t doing this, was I?”
“No. This feels kinda nice.”
“Cool. Whatcha doin’ there?”
She was looking at my story notebook. “I’ve been up for two hours writing this story about an elf running away from home. I just got her to this town where she meets some dwarves.”
“Ooh, can I read it? It sounds like it would be neat to draw some stuff for it.”
I had forgotten that Amy loved to draw. The idea of her drawing stuff for my writing sounded kinda cool. “Yeah. Just, lemme get a little further along, okay?”
“Yeah. You’ve got plenty of time until your mom gets back anyway.”
Wait a second. “Mom’s not here?”
She shook her head. “She got a call a few minutes ago, I’m surprised you didn’t hear it. She told me to tell you when you woke up.”
“Where’d she go?”
“Her work, somebody called off and they need her to fill in for a short shift.”
I felt a little more anxious about Mom seeing me now. I had felt that getting it over with when everybody woke up would be easy, but I hadn’t even heard the phone ring. Hadn’t heard the door open. Had I been that caught up in my writing? Jeez, inspiration was hitting me a little too hard.
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Amy said, almost like she’d read my nervousness in my hair. “My mom and dad were on vacation the first couple days of my change, they came home and were totally okay with it. Granted, I’d never heard any of that stuff about Uncle Hud until yesterday, so Mom kinda makes sense now, but Dad was totally okay with it, too. He still tricks me into helping him in the garage, which grosses Mel out.”
I sighed. “Hopefully she comes home soon, though. If you and I are going shopping with Gabby today, I sorta want Mom to see a little of me before I get home and go to sleep just to be Kenny again.”
“That reminds me.” She sat down on the windowsill beside me. “You need to pick a name.”
“Kendra’s a name.”
“You’re not really gonna go with that, are you?”
“Right. Because Amanda is so very different from Adam.”
“Hey! It’s kinda backwards at least. You’re using the same first three letters.”
“Mom told me that she was gonna name me Kendra if I was a girl.”
“Oh. My mom wanted to name me Emily. I prefer Amanda.”
I rolled my eyes. “Still. I hope she gets home soon.”
Almost as if on cue, I heard the front door opening.
22.
I quickly stood up and then froze. Mom was actually about to see me. Assuming Amy was right, my mind was changed a little, so I took my new look in stride, but Mom went to sleep last night with the image of her son in a nightgown and was now about to walk into my room and see me filling out that nightgown the way it was supposed to be filled. All the nerves were rushing back to the surface.
“I brought donuts!” Mom shouted from the kitchen. “And chocolate milk!”
Amy turned to me. “If that’s not a reason to go out there, I don’t know what is.”
“Yeah, nervous,” I said.
“I know, but don’t worry about it.”
“I’m gonna be worried for the rest of my life.”
“I assume you mean day.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, how about I go and warn her first?”
“Warn me about what?” Mom asked. She was standing in the doorway, looking me up and down. “I always knew you’d turn out pretty if you’d been born a girl.” She walked over to me and pulled some of my hair up lightly. “I see you got your dad’s hair. Well, a little lighter. Your dad was more dirty blonde, you’re more golden.”
I had to ask. “This isn’t freaking you out in the slightest?”
She nodded. “Yes it is.” She smiled. “But I don’t want to worry you.” She grabbed me by the shoulders. “Today’s for you, sweetie. Experience being a girl for a day. You never know, you just might like it.”
I coughed out a laugh. “I’m sorta afraid of that.”
“Don’t be. If you like it, then you get to be the person you wanna be. If you don’t, then you get to stay the person you always were and today’s just a day to be out of character for fun.”
I nodded. “Yeah.” Then the next question I had to ask. “Would you have rather I been born a girl?”
“I can’t say it hasn’t crossed my mind, but I love you however you want to be.” She walked over to my foot locker and opened it. “Now, I saw an outfit in there that I think should work just fine for you today.”
My eyes widened. “I don’t get to pick my own clothes?”
“I’m not saying you have to wear it, but it’s relatively modest and should allow you some comfort since it’s hot today.” She picked through my clothes. “Though, wearing a bra will probably be a tad uncomfortable with the heat.”
I gulped a little more loudly than I wanted to. Even if I was determined to enjoy it, today was already gonna be a long day.
With this chapter, you'll all be caught up with where the story is on TG Storytime. I'm hard at work on the next chapter, though. It's slow going, sadly.
1.
The outfit that Mom had picked out for me was more modest than I thought it would be: A simple blue shirt and tan shorts. I wore a pair of Amy’s flip flops, because my feet were smaller than the girls’ shoes that I owned. That wasn’t a big deal, I sorta figured they would be. I’d luckily bought bras that fit perfectly when they had boobs to support. That was an odd, yet comfortable feeling. Nothing feels weirder than having something lacy touching really sensitive skin, but at the same time, it felt great to have a reason to be wearing one of these things.
The sight in the mirror was more surprising with clothes on than it was with a simple nightgown. The girl looked so comfortable, so normal, it was hard to believe that she’d been male twenty-four hours before. For some reason, I felt more like I was dreaming after getting the clothes on than I had when I was actually dreaming.
I stood there, staring at the mirror for a little while longer. Suddenly, everything was rushing at me. I was about to go outside. Like this. With this face and body. In these clothes. I’d never been outside in these clothes, even though I actually had the right shape to wear them. It was hard to breathe now, and I slowly backed down onto the chair behind me. I was scared now, frightened of being seen in public like this.
There was a knock on my door. “Hey, Kendra, hurry up!” Amy said through the door. “I know just the place to go!” I didn’t answer, didn’t move. I just sat there, looking up at the mirror over my dresser. The door opened and Amy stood there. “Hey, what’s up?”
I actually found my voice for once. “I… Don’t know if I can do it.”
“What? You were all for this before.”
I nodded. “Yeah, then I looked at… At Kendra.”
She walked over to me and looked at the mirror. “You mean at the cute girl sitting in a chair?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow, so this is what it’s like to be the one with more feminine knowledge. Look, Ken,” she didn’t say Kendra that time, “I personally think you’re gonna do just fine. You look great and you have at least some reflex action for being a girl, nobody’s gonna know except us and Gabby.”
The girl in the mirror didn’t look relieved. She didn’t even look like Amy’s words had given her some comfort. I took a deep breath and slowly nodded. “You’re right. I’m a big b - girl, now. I should just get up and enjoy the day, because it’ll probably be the only one I have.”
“Well, it doesn’t have to be the only one, but I can understand if it is. Just be happy Ms. Malski got rid of your body hair in the transformation. You have no clue what kind of hassle it is to shave your legs.”
I had to admit. That brought on a laugh. “Actually, I do. I’m a crossdresser, remember? I’ve actually been wearing skirts longer than you have.”
Amy let out a defeated sigh. “You’re right about that.”
2.
I felt outrageously self-conscious as Amy and I walked through town. If people were staring at me, they were doing it behind my back. Which almost concerned me more, because it meant they were staring at my ass in tight shorts. I hoped that we were close to reaching wherever the hell it was that Amy was taking us, but something told me I still had to endure a little while longer of walking in hot weather. If only Mom hadn’t needed the car.
I glanced at other girls that were out. Either because of my own natural curiosity or because I’d become female for day, I compared myself to them. Not as competition, or anything like that, but just… I noticed how they walked, how they stood, how they managed in their clothes or with their jewelry. Some looked trashy, some looked really girl next door, and some looked like no guy would date them unless they were the only two people on the planet.
Finally, we reached a clothing store that I’d never noticed before. Despite all the clothes I had in my foot locker, I didn’t actually go to any trendy fashion stores, I stuck to places like Walmart or Goodwill, places that catered to both genders who wouldn’t actually care if I were buying clothes for my “girlfriend”. But this place that Amy had walked me into was probably the closest thing to a high end fashion boutique that I’d ever seen.
“Okay, are you ready?” she asked, a smile on her face. That smile disappeared when she turned around and looked at me. “You don’t look ready, why aren’t you ready?”
“What are we doing here?” I asked in response.
“You’re here to get your first real taste of trying clothes on with a girl body.”
“Couldn’t I have done that at home?”
“It’s one day, enjoy being in public for a day.”
“I don’t really need to.”
“No, but it’s more fun this way.”
“For me or you?”
Gabby’s voice suddenly asked, “How about for me?” She stopped then, a bundle of clothes hanging over her arm, and she stared at me. “Holy crap, you’re… You’re… Holy crap.”
I felt myself blush. “You really don’t have to say it like that.” I was doing that nervous girl thing where I looked away from her. Why was I doing that? Gabby could stop staring at me, for one thing. “Staring at me is also something I wish you’d stop doing.”
She shook herself out it, like a dog shaking the water off of itself. “Oh, yeah, sorry. You’re just… So cute. And I never thought you’d turn out blonde.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Dad’s hair. I guess it only makes some kind of sense that more of him would rub off on Kendra than it did Kenny.”
“Kendra?”
I nodded again. “That’s the name I picked. I can still be Ken if I’m Kendra.”
She giggled. “Yeah, that makes sense.” She held up some of the clothes had. “Well, are you two ready to get started?”
I looked back and forth between Amy and Gabby. “Did you guys plan this?”
“Duh,” Gabby answered.
“We wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t,” Amy added.
I sighed. “This is gonna be a whole lot of awkward, isn’t it?”
Gabby giggled more. “Well. Not totally awkward.”
3.
I had the distinct impression that I was trying on more clothes than Amy or Gabby were. Amy was already back in the outfit she’d started the day with, and Gabby had only tried on a couple of them, while I’d been forced to try on a dozen different combinations of shorts and tops. They left the pants aside, which was comforting considering the heat. The skirts I’d seen Gabby grabbing worried me, but I knew that Amy was buying at least one of those for herself.
I had to admit, though, trying on the clothes was fun. Just the sight of myself in the mirror, of Kendra wearing clothes that were the right sizes for her and made certain features emphasized. Not just my boobs and butt, either, but just the color of my skin or my facial features, too. The idea that the color of a shirt would actually draw attention to my eyes was just… Unexpected. (Mainly because guys would rather be looking at the things covered by the shirt.)
A part of me wanted to stay this way just for the thrill of trying on clothes.
But at the same time, I still got to try on clothes as a guy, I just didn’t have the body that fit the clothes. I didn’t hate being a guy or love being a girl, I was still indifferent to all of it.
As I changed back into the outfit I’d worn to the store, the door to the changing room quickly opened and Gabby slid inside. “What are you doing in here?!” I asked, quietly, frantically.
“I wanted to see.”
“Me naked?”
She rolled her eyes. “Please, you’re not naked. You’re wearing a bra, the puppies are covered up for now.” She poked my breasts. “Wow, you’re kinda squishy, too.”
“Stop!” I caught sight of my increasingly red face in the mirror as I brought my arms up to cover my breasts. “That’s… Super weird, okay? Don’t do it!”
She giggled. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist. Poking your own boobs isn’t as fun as poking your best friend’s boobs.”
“Why would you poke your own boobs?”
“You have never been a twelve year old jealous of the mean girl in school who teases you for wearing a training bra.” She grabbed the shirt I’d just taken off. “Put this back on, you’d look totally cute in it.”
“When it’s paid for.”
“You wait here and I’ll go pay for it,” she said, then as quickly as she came inside, she rushed out and left me alone again. I just sighed. She was having way too much fun with this. I liked the shirt, sure, but what was wrong with the one I’d been wearing? I sighed.
I pulled my shorts back on and sat down on the small seat provided in the dressing room and waited. Gabby was taking forever for some reason. I wondered if she was talking to the clerk, telling them all about me. I was getting anxious just waiting there. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket (a phone right up against your ass is uncomfortable; understand this) and found an email from someone I didn’t recognize. I was about to click on the email when the door to the dressing room was opened again and the shirt Gabby was buying thrown in my face.
“C’mon, time for food.”
I sighed again.
4.
“Why can’t we get cheeseburgers?” Amy asked, looking at the salad in front of her. I had a matching salad and Gabby of course followed suit. “Are you against meat or something?” she asked Gabby.
Gabby shook her head. “No, I just had a craving for salad. I dunno why, I dunno how, just, the whole time we were trying on clothes I wanted salad.”
I shrugged. “I can’t say I’m a big fan of salad, but I’m not gonna complain when I’m not paying.” I dug in. “Where are we going after this, anyway?”
Amy shook her head. “I don’t live in this town, so it’s your choice, local girl.”
Gabby nodded. “I have an idea.”
“Please, nothing uber-girly or embarrassing,” I said as I scooped up a tomato with my fork and dropped it in my mouth.
“Nowhere like that,” she said through a mouthful of lettuce. “Well, okay, somewhere like that.”
I glared at her. “Where?”
“This cute romance movie that starts playing today.”
I gulped down some carrots. “You want to go see a chick flick? I didn’t even think you liked chick flicks.”
She shook her head. “Just because I don’t go see them very often doesn’t mean I don’t like them. I just wait until they’re on Lifetime.”
Amy munched on some croutons. “Is it at least a chick flick with some hot actors?”
Gabby scratched at her head. “Um… I don’t know, actually.”
“I won’t go see a chick flick unless there are hot guys.”
I set my salad bowl down on the table. “So, getting magically changed into a girl doesn’t automatically mean you like chick flicks?”
She shook her head. “No. I can’t tell you how many really gory movies I’ve dragged Steve to that he’s almost thrown up at. And he’s not that squeamish.”
That made me giggle. What little I remembered about Steve from the last time I visited Amy, he was kinda dweeby and not all there. He seemed like a nice guy, though. I wondered how good a boyfriend he was for Amy.
And then I wondered if I was thinking that because I was a girl for now. Most of my thoughts hadn’t changed at all. I thought of the things that interested me before and they still interested me. Nothing girly interested me, save the clothes that always interested me. I looked over at guys in the food court but didn’t find any interest in them, and girls still looked great to me.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Gabby asked, a concerned look in her eyes. “You look like you just got kicked in… Well, you don’t have nuts right now, so… Just kicked.”
I shook my head. “Just taking stock of some thoughts, is all. Nothing to worry about.”
Amy looked at me with a cautious eye.
5.
“What was the title of that movie you wanted to see?” I asked Gabby as we stood outside the movie theater. None of the movies that were playing looked like chick flicks in the slightest. “I see Warcraft, Finding Dory, Central Intelligence and Independence Day 2. Correct me if I’m wrong but none of those are chick flicks. Finding Dory comes closest, but it’s a family movie not a girl movie.”
She sighed. “I guess it’s not playing anymore.”
“What was it?”
She rubbed at her chin. “Now that I think of it, I can’t remember. I just know it had that guy from Hunger Games and Emilia Clarke in it.”
Amy rubbed at her chin. “I don’t think I know what that is.”
I shrugged. “Neither do I.”
“You haven’t seen commercials for it at all?” Gabby asked.
“Nope.”
“You either?”
Amy shook her head.
Gabby sighed. “Fine. I guess we go see Warcraft.”
“Why Warcraft?” I asked.
“You like fantasy movies.”
“I’ve never played Warcraft, though.”
“So what? It’s still a fantasy movie.”
I sighed, then looked over at Amy, who just shrugged. “Okay,” I said, “let’s go see Warcraft.”
6.
As we sat through the movie, I munched on popcorn and felt that Gabby was getting just a little too close to me. More than once, I felt her hand on mine and then she quickly moved it to grab at the popcorn. It just seemed… Wrong. Gabby was hot, yeah, but she’d never been like this with me when we were at the movies, and we’d gone to plenty of movies together.
I put it out of my mind quickly each time, however, as the movie was really good. The CG was better than the Hobbit movies a couple years back, and the acting was decent. I was actually considering a subscription to World of Warcraft thanks to this movie, and I used to make fun of people who played that all day long.
Gabby’s hand landed on mine again, and this time she full-on grabbed my hand and locked fingers with me. I looked at her out of the corner of my eye, but she didn’t look like she was doing anything other than watching the movie, and occasionally drinking from her soda cup. I didn’t move or pull my hand away, because it wasn’t unpleasant, it was just somewhat weird.
Was Gabby turned on by me as Kendra?
7.
I stretched when we got back outside. “Well, there was a pleasant way to kill a couple hours,” I said, then took a large gulp of my drink. “What’s next?”
Amy yawned. “I dunno. Can we head back to your place for me to take a nap? Going to the movies always makes me tired.”
Gabby nodded. “Yeah, I say we just spend a few hours hanging out at your place. Maybe you can try on some of your other clothes.”
“Works for me. It actually would be nice to see how my other stuff fits me.”
I couldn’t get the hand holding out of my head. Gabby hadn’t taken her hand off of mine the whole rest of the movie and the urge to ask her what the hell was going on was almost too much to bear, but I held my tongue. If Gabby was into girls - which was a distinct possibility - I didn’t want to accidentally out her here, or anywhere where it wasn’t just the two of us.
I had to wait until we got back to my place.
8.
I rooted through the foot locker, looking for something I’d considered wearing since I got up that morning. I set aside some of my clothes, which Gabby looked through like she’d never seen them before, despite the fact that she’d bought most of them for me. I’d paid her back for all of them, but still. I pulled out a pair of tops I’d never worn before and finally found what I was looking for.
“Okay, there is no way I was anywhere near you when that was bought,” Gabby said as she saw the slinky black dress I was holding. “Why haven’t I ever seen it before?”
I giggled. “I got it at the Goodwill, told the clerk I was buying it as a Mother’s Day gift. She seemed pretty jealous of Mom because of it, too.”
“Uh, yeah, I can bet. Do you know how long I’ve been looking for just the right LBD?” She took it from me and held it against herself. “And you find the perfect one for you when you don’t even have the assets to show it off? Girl, you are lucky.” She handed me back the dress. “This would be a big deal for anybody, but you’re gonna do something that a lot of natural born girls haven’t done yet.”
I pulled my shorts down. “Seriously? It can’t be that much of a big deal in a girl’s life.”
She shrugged. “It’s not, really, I just wanna exaggerate this moment.” She walked around me and I felt her grabbing her my bra. “Now, off with this.”
I pulled away from her. “What?! Why?”
She looked at me like I was crazy. “Um, look at it this way. The straps on the dress are like twigs, and the straps on the bra are like trees. Wearing that bra under that dress is like trying to hide the tree with the twig.”
I blushed. “So… Ya mean I have to go braless?”
“Girl, you’ve been crossdressing for years, this can’t be new for you.”
“I didn’t need a bra when I was crossdressing, I only wore them when I wanted to go with the full package.”
“Well, you’re just fine without a bra now. You’re perky enough to go braless for fifteen minutes while you wear that dress.”
I sighed. “Okay, but… Just let me take it off, okay?”
“Jeez, what’s up with you?”
I was starting to freak out a little bit. I didn’t want to outright tell her that I thought she was into girls. “Uh, nothing, just… Having somebody grab my bra was a little weird.”
She sighed. “Oh. And here I thought this was gonna get weird.”
I chuckled nervously. “Weird, right.” I turned away from her and reached behind to finish unhooking my bra. I pulled it off and then I was pulled around face-to-face with Gabby and she was staring at my boobs. “What the hell are you doing now?!” I screeched, quickly covering my breasts.
“Kenny, dear, please. I’m looking at you naked.”
“Why did you just call me dear?”
She shrugged. “It’s what my mom told me when she wanted to teach me how to do my first self examination.”
“That’s not what this is about, is it?”
She shook her head. “No, I just wanna see what your tits look like.”
I was certain I was red as a beet. “Why?!”
She reached out to touch me, but I pulled back. “C’mon, I know how to handle boobs, I’m not gonna hurt ya. Don’t you get how weird this is, Kenny? The only guy friend I have now has bigger tits than I do, this is intriguing to me. Are you telling me that if I was to suddenly turn into a guy, you wouldn’t be even a tiny bit interested in seeing how big my dick was?”
I shook my head rapidly. “No! Why the fuck would I be?!”
She shrugged. “I dunno. I thought guys had literal dick measuring contests all the time.”
“Not literal dick measuring, just metaphorical.”
She sighed. “Whatever, just lemme see the boobs.”
“Why?”
“Kenny, I’m not gonna do anything weird, just lemme see ‘em.”
“Letting you see them is weird enough!”
“Why? It’s not like seeing naked tits is something I don’t do everyday.”
“Seeing my naked tits is something you don’t do everyday!”
Gabby grabbed me by the shoulders. “Look, Kendra, you’re only going to have these magnificent mammaries for another five hours, you’re not risking anything by letting me see them!”
I clutched at my boobs a little tighter. Ignoring the fact that I thought she liked girls, it was still creepy as hell that she wanted to see me topless. “Just, please, no looking, okay?”
She sighed again. “Fine. You get this dress on and then we’re gonna have some fun.”
I gulped as she turned away from me. The concept of “fun” worried me.
9.
“Oh, baby, you look fantastic!” Mom said, amazed. I filled out the dress a little more than I thought I would, and my legs were completely exposed, to say nothing of the cleavage I was showing off. I smoothed the dress under me and sat down at the kitchen table.
“Thanks,” I said, nervously. Gabby sat down across from me, and Mom sat at the remaining seat. “I didn’t honestly think this would look good on me.”
“Please, girl, everything looks good on you,” Gabby said, an odd sparkle in her eye. “I just wish I looked half as good as you do in those outfits.”
I felt myself blush. “C’mon, you’re hot enough.”
“Whatever.” She leaned back in her chair. “So, when does your cousin leave?”
Mom answered, “Tomorrow morning. She’s napping right now.”
Gabby and I knew that already, but there was no way Mom could have known that we knew. Our conversation proceeded from there to everyday topics: Mom asked Gabby about her parents, we talked about what Gabby and I planned to do over the summer, and just anything. It was no different than any conversations I had with my mom on a daily basis, but something felt different about it, and not just the fact that I was wearing a dress.
My thoughts began to drift. I began to focus on what might be different about this. I couldn’t get it out of my head. That was when I realized I was looking at Gabby’s chest on accident, and looked away as quickly as possible. She was wearing one of her tighter shirts, and it was stretched across her like it was holding on for dear life.
“Honey? You okay?” Mom asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just, thinking about stuff. And things.” I got up from the table and started for my bedroom. “I’m gonna get changed and go for a walk.”
“Okay, baby. Be careful! I’m sure there are some boys you’re gonna attract around here.”
“Yeah,” I muttered under my breath, “I know.”
10.
The sun was starting to set as I made my way back home. The walk did wonders for helping me clear my head, which was exactly what I left the house to do. I prayed that Gabby would be gone when I got back to the house, otherwise I’d actually have to talk to her about it, and somehow I felt our friendship wasn't surviving that conversation.
Unfortunately, my mind was made up for me when Gabby was leaning up against a street light a couple blocks away from my house. She had a weird look on her face. “Um… Are you okay?” I asked.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Don’t change back.”
I felt surprised, even though I thought this was the conclusion we were going to end up with anyway. “What? Why are you saying that?”
She rubbed at her arm. “Look, Ken… You’ve gotta have it figured out that I haven’t exactly had a boyfriend. Like, ever.”
“So?”
“I don’t like guys. Attraction-wise, I mean.” She looked away from me for a second. “C’mon, you’ve gotta have that figured out by now.”
I shrugged. “I sorta got the idea from earlier. And then the I wanna see your boobs thing didn’t help.”
“Oh, good, so this isn’t a total surprise for you. Please, please, ask your cousin to tell her witch that you wanna stay a girl.”
I folded my arms under my breasts. “Are you saying you wanna date me, but you don’t wanna date guy me?”
She sighed. “Basically, yes. I’m just not attracted to guys, okay? I’m gonna be honest and say I don’t even know if I like girls, but I like you as a girl. Does that make any sense?”
I took a moment to think. “It makes a little sense. But you could always ask Amy to have that witch turn you into a guy, y’know.”
She shook her head, rapidly. “No way. Just because I don’t like guys doesn’t mean I wanna be one. Guys have hair in places I like being hairless, and I happen to love playing with my boobs and fingering myself - speaking of which, you should totally try both of those things before you change back.”
I blushed. “Uh… I’ll think about it.” Granted, not like I hadn’t thought about it a lot of the day. “But, look, this is kinda weird, y’know? I mean, I really wasn’t expecting this.”
She nodded. “I know, but I needed to get it out. You’re the only guy I’ve ever had something resembling a crush on, and now that you’re a girl, you’re perfect. I… I know it’s selfish, but I want you to stay this way.”
I saw that she was serious about this. It was a look I’d never seen in her eyes before, and I’d seen all kinds of looks. The only words I could muster were, “I need time to think.”
11.
“I don’t know what to do.”
Amy had a surprised look on her face. She sat cross legged on my bed, a concerned look on her face. She rubbed at her chin. “This is serious.”
“I know.”
“You need to think about this.”
“I know.”
“And I think you really need to get a dog.”
I sighed. I clicked on another picture that the website showed of the Huskie. He was a beautiful looking dog, and the idea had crossed my mind more than once. “Really? Dogs are hard work.”
“All pets are hard work.”
“What if Mom doesn’t like him?”
Clearly, she’d been listening to the conversation, as I heard Mom shout from down the hallway, “Buy the dog if you want a dog!”
I glanced back over at Amy, who was doing her best not to burst into laughter, and I couldn’t blame her. I was almost there, myself. After about a minute, the both of us just gave up and started laughing loud enough that we could probably wake the dead.
Ten minutes of laughter and one email about the dog later, Amy and I were finally calming down. I started wiping tears from my eyes, as I’d been laughing too hard. When the both of us actually stopped laughing, I told her the one thing I’d been putting off ever since I got back home. “Gabby wants me to stay this way.”
Amy sat there looking surprised. “No way.”
“Yeah.”
“But, she didn’t seem like a lesbian.”
“I guess I’m the only guy she’s ever had a thing for.”
“Holy shit.”
“I know.”
“What are ya gonna do about it? I can text Ms. Malski, if you want.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to just make this decision now, if you know what I mean. I wanna put careful thought into this.”
“That’s a great idea, but you sorta have until midnight, which is only a couple hours away.”
“And,” Mom said, standing in the doorway, “you have to think about how that would affect more than just you and Gabby.”
I felt myself blush. “You heard that, huh?”
“I did. I assume you were going to talk to me about this, as well?”
I nodded.
“Good. I don’t want you making this decision lightly. If you stay Kendra, you’re running into a whole mess of problems with school next year, with getting your ID changed, with relatives. And that’s not even considering the anatomical problems you’re not having to deal with in your little twenty-four hour party here. Being female every day of your life isn’t the picnic you boys think it is.” That was said with a smirk. “I love you either way, baby, and you’ll still be my child either way, but think about everything that’ll change if you decide to stay Kendra.” Mom turned and walked back down the hallway, away from my room.
I sighed and turned to Amy. “Is there any chance your witch friend can give me an on/off switch?”
12.
Gabby started talking before I even had a chance to open my mouth. We’d agreed to meet at our usual hang-out spot, which would be a make-out spot to anybody else, as it was a hill that overlooked town. In fact, there were probably dozens of couples we knew that used this place as a make-out spot.
“I know what you decided,” she started. She lied down on the hood of the car, which had to be hot considering the temperature and the fact that I’d just killed the engine. “I know what you decided, and I’m just gonna havta be okay with that. I freaked you out earlier, didn’t I?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but, I haven’t made my decision yet.”
She sat up. “Huh?”
I crawled up on the car and laid beside her. “I said I haven’t decided yet. I’ve only got an hour and a half left, so I’ve got to make my decision soon.” I was holding a bottle of Mountain Dew and unscrewed the cap. “I’m sorta confused on where to go.”
“Look, I’ve thought about what I said before, and I really shouldn’t have pressured you like I did.”
I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure if it were you that was going through this gender change thing and I was the gay one, I’d probably do the same thing.”
She giggled. “Yeah, I’d just like to see you as a gay guy.”
I shrugged. “If I stayed a girl, I’d be a gay girl.”
“Still. How much to which side are you?”
I shrugged again. “I dunno. On the one hand, we’re so close that I don’t think our relationship would be screwed over badly if I went back to being a guy. On the other, I can’t say the idea of dating you isn’t something I’ve thought about before.”
“Okay, the double negative sorta confuses me. So, are you saying that you have thought about dating me?”
“Yeah.”
“So, is this a 50/50 shot that you’ll stay Kendra?”
“Yeah.”
“Is there something I could do to sway your decision?” she asked with a smirk.
I laughed. “No. But there’s something we can do, either way.”
“Huh? What?”
I put the cap back on my Dew and dropped it to the ground beside the car. I didn’t answer her with words, I just rolled on top of her and put my lips on hers. Our tongues met quickly, intertwining. My hands gripped her face, and then I felt one of her hands on my boob. The feeling was really, really weird, but I just kept kissing her. That hand finally slipped under my shirt, and then I felt her fingers working their way into my bra. Her fingers rubbed at my nipples, which were starting to harden.
I let go of her face but I kept up the kiss. One of my hands went down to her shorts and I unzipped her. I slid my hand into her panties, completely on autopilot now, and inserted a finger into her vagina. I began to rub at her private area and pulled my face away before her teeth clamped down on my tongue.
“Ooh, sorry… You’re just… So good at this…”
The hand that wasn’t playing with my nipple moved to my pants, unzipped them, and worked its way into my panties. For the first time in my life, I felt a finger inside me. The sensation took my breath away, and then I started to feel the juices inside me flowing. Almost as if we were in sync, Gabby started to moisten up as well, and while the feeling was odd, it wasn’t unpleasant.
We were both moaning at about the same time.
I pulled my hand out of her panties and pulled my shirt and bra off, doing for her now what I’d refused to do earlier. She did the same, and I saw her exposed boobs for the first time. I brought my head to one and started licking at her rock hard nipple, which caused her to moan even harder. Once again, her hand slipped into my panties and I felt her finger inside me again.
Gabby pushed me away from her tits and then rolled us over, putting herself on top. She paid me back for my nipple suckling by doing the same to my boob, and yet another new feeling hit me straight in the chest - literally. The feeling of her tongue on my nipple and her finger in my cunt brought me to orgasm quickly, and this wasn’t the same as when I came as a guy. My whole body shuddered, as the pleasure rolled over me. I moaned so loud I was afraid somebody in town would hear me.
I kissed her again, our tongues touched once more, and then our nipples touched. The feeling was electric, erotic…
Exciting.
13.
I woke up with Gabby’s hand on my boob and my hands on her’s. I went to get up, but she was on top of me, like she had been before I fell asleep. About three seconds after trying to get up, I realized her hand was still in my panties, her finger resting exactly where it had done such wonderful things last night. I eased her hand out and gently slid out from underneath her. Clearly, everything we’d done last night had worn her out more than me.
I quickly found my discarded bra and shirt and slipped them back on, after making sure there wasn’t any dirt to rub against my skin. My body felt a little more sensitive, oddly. I wondered if it had anything to do with all the contact or just sleeping on the hood of a car all night long.
I reached into the car and pulled my phone out of the glove compartment. It was almost dead, of course. I’d left it on the whole night. Before I shut it off, I noticed a dozen texts from Amy. That was when it hit me: I was still Kendra. I hadn’t changed back yet, even though I was supposed to change back at midnight.
I moved back over to Gabby and gently tried to wake her up. “What?” she asked when I finally got her awake.
“I’m still Kendra, in case you didn’t notice.”
“Oh. I was kinda hoping you’d decided to stay that way.” She sat up and put her clothes back on. “Wait, you haven’t decided to stay, right?”
“No.”
“Then why are you still Kendra?”
“I don’t know! Lemme just drive you home, and then I’ll go home and find out what’s going on.”
She nodded, then hopped in the car and fastened her seatbelt. Before I started the car, she leaned over and gave me a kiss on the neck. “For somebody who’d never felt the inside of a pussy before, you sure knew what to do with one.”
14.
I shut the engine off and just sat there in the car for a little while. What would I do? I could stay female and actually have a girlfriend, or I could go back to being male and Gabby would just be a girl who happened to be my friend. Neither seemed like bad options. I wished I had hours to think about it, but I needed to get inside and explain to Mom where I’d been all night.
I grabbed my phone again and walked up to the house, opened the door, and there was Amy carrying her bags. “Geez, what took you so long? My bus leaves in a half an hour.”
I sighed. “Sorry.”
“I tried calling you last night. How come you didn’t answer?”
“Sorry, sorry. I was just… Well…”
She rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to tell me every detail. So, you gonna change back or no?”
“Which should I do?”
“Uh, that’s your decision, cuz. Did you enjoy being the girl in the relationship for a day or do you just wanna go back to being the guy you didn’t have a problem being?”
I sighed again. “Just lemme go apologize to Mom real quick, and then we’ll go, okay?”
“Yup.”
I took a deep breath and walked inside the house, where Mom was sitting on the couch, watching TV. She looked over at me and smiled. “I was worried about you.”
I nodded. “I know.”
“Have you made your decision yet?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Well, don’t leave this up to a coin toss, understand? Now get your cousin to the bus station and hurry home. Her sorceress friend said you have to be asleep for everything to change back if that’s what you decide.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’ll do that.”
“Ken,” her voice took a softer tone, “it doesn’t matter which you choose, pick the one that makes you the happiest.”
I nodded.
15.
I turned the ignition off when we got to the bus depot. I sighed. “I still don’t know what to do.”
Amy looked like she was about to burst into laughter. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“Have you and Gabby talked it over?”
I shook my head. “Well. I mean, if you count the pre-sex stuff.”
She smacked me on the back of the head. “I said I didn’t want to hear the details.” She unbuckled her seatbelt. “What did you talk about?”
“She just basically asked me if I’d stay Kendra.”
“Really? A basic question like that and then you were scissoring like maniacs?”
I shot her a glare. “We didn’t scissor. And you said you didn’t want details.” I tilted my head back and looked up at the ceiling of the car. “Why does this have to be complicated?”
“Because you found out your cousin knows a sorceress, your best friend is a lesbian and you’ve been a girl for a day. Girl brains immediately complicate everything.”
I unbuckled my seatbelt. “I guess.”
“Look, Ken, not to rush you or anything, but you really do need to make a decision.”
I sighed. “I know. I know! This is just the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make.”
She smiled. “Oh, please, fashion choices were a tough decision for you before you got the body to show them off.”
“Not my point.”
“Yes or no.”
I took a deep, deep breath. I had some real consideration to do here, and only a minute or two to do it. I didn’t have a problem being either boy or girl, and nothing really big would change either way. Mom would still be there, Gabby would still be there. The only change aside from my body would be that if I stayed a girl, Gabby and I could actually date.
But then there were the problems with staying a girl. School, periods, getting hit on by guys. None of those actually seemed horrible, but they were hassles. School was the biggest problem, because it meant either exposing myself as transgender or passing myself off as somebody new. The girl named Kendra hanging out with all of the boy named Kenny’s friends would screw up that illusion quite quickly.
I exhaled, finally, and said, “I wanna go back.”
I looked around the car and realized that Amy was nowhere near me. I got out of the car and found that she was pulling her bags out of the trunk. “Sorry,” she said, you were taking too long.” I rolled my eyes. “So, did you choose?”
“Yeah, I’ll go back.”
She hugged me. “Okay, I’ll text Ms. Malski while I’m on my way home. Just go home and take a nap, and you’ll wake up Kenny again.” She backed away and picked up her bags. “Well, time for me to go, cuz. Don’t hesitate to call or text, got it?”
I nodded. “Bye, Amy.”
She flashed me a smile, then walked up to the bus she was taking and waved to me just as the bus passed by. I waved back, then sighed for the billionth time and got back in the car.
16.
I pulled the car in the driveway and sat there. I wasn’t tired, yet. I knew I would be, eventually. I got out of the car and walked into the house, gave Mom a hug, then went into my bedroom. I had time to kill before I eventually felt the need to take a nap. Now I just had to find out what to do to kill said time.
My phone rang, Gabby’s picture popped up on the screen. I wasn't sure if I wanted to answer it. Even though she had said that she’d accept my decision, I couldn’t help but feel she’d be disappointed in my choice. I held the phone to my chest and waited for it to stop ringing.
I set the phone to vibrate and set it down on my desk. I reached into my desk drawer and pulled out the notebook I’d started that elf story the day before. Writing always passed the time, and I could even use my experiences in my transformed body as research. What better way for a guy to write about a voluptuous female elf than having been a voluptuous female himself? Granted, I had no experience on the elf part, but nobody really did.
Seven pages later and I’d been proved right about the time passing. Suddenly it was dark outside and I was struggling to keep my eyes open. Had I really written for so long that it was night time now? Sure, Mom had dropped by and left me a sandwich in the meantime, but that was the only thing I remembered aside from writing. I’d skipped right past naptime and straight into bedtime without even realizing it.
I looked over what I had written. That was something I did whenever I considered myself done for the day. I’d gotten my elf maiden from her hometown to a dwarf kingdom not far away, and given her a bow for a weapon. I’d even introduced a love interest in a human guy who’d pledged his life to her in exchange for lifting a curse on his village. It actually seemed kinda sweet the more I thought of it, though the idea of a guy falling in love with me was creepy.
“Are you finally done?” Gabby asked. She was sitting behind me, on my bed. When had she come into the room?! How hadn’t I noticed her walking into the room?! “I’ve been sitting her for three hours waiting for you to get out of your little trance there.”
I blushed. “Uh… Whuh when did you get here?”
“Like I said, three hours ago. Your mom even brought in a plate of sandwiches and had a conversation while you were out of it.” She took a drink of the soda I didn’t notice. “You ate most of the sandwiches, by the way. You’re lucky you’re going back to being a guy tomorrow, otherwise you’d have to start paying attention to fatty stuff.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
She shrugged. “You only get like that when you’re really into it, and I thought it might be like people sleepwalking, y’know? I didn’t wanna accidentally hurt you or anything.”
I sighed. I guess it wasn’t impossible that my writing trances were like sleepwalking. I didn’t think I got into them enough that Gabby had ever noticed them, though. “Okay, I’ll take that. How come you came over, anyway?”
“You weren’t answering your phone and I wanted to know if you wanted to go see a movie.”
“We just went to the movies yesterday.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t stop me from being bored today. You wanna see a movie?”
I shook my head. “I’m actually starting to get tired. You wanna just watch TV with me till I fall asleep?”
She smiled. “Now that sounds like couch cuddling.”
“More like my bed.”
“Ooh, even more fun.”
I walked over to the bed and poked her in the chest. “Not that kind of fun. As good as it was, not when my mom’s in the house.”
The smile faded. “You’re no fun when your mom is home.”
I sighed. “Whatever. Move over, I’m laying down. You pick a movie.”
17.
Of course she picked something on Lifetime. I was kinda bored watching it, which did wonders for my fatigue. More than once, I had to struggle to keep my eyes open. I would have just let myself sleep, but I wanted to make sure Gabby went home before I did. As much as I enjoyed what we did the night before, I didn’t want her doing anything with me that could potentially keep me stuck as Kendra.
“Why aren’t you crying?” she asked, wiping at her eyes with a tissue.
“Because I’m just about asleep and do I really need to cry about a woman winning a court case? Why isn’t she happy?”
“Because her husband is innocent and she knows it! She wanted it all thrown out, but her lawyer went ahead anyway. This is actually depressing!” She wiped at her eyes with another tissue. I had to admit, that was awfully sweet to know she had a tender side. “So help me, I will find a movie to make you cry.”
I yawned. “Not tonight, you won’t. No offense, but can you go home before I fall asleep?”
She sighed. “Fine, I’ll go. I was a little interested in seeing how the process worked, but I’ll go just to please you.” She was smiling.
I laughed. “Whatever. I’ll see ya tomorrow so we can see how my new stuff looks on me without boobs.”
“Not as good, but still adorable.” She hugged me. “See you tomorrow.”
18.
I could see both my bodies floating in the air. My male body was sitting down, looking all sullen and sad, like I was regretting something. My female body had a similar look, but more hopeful.
I possessed neither body, and simply seemed to be some sort of floating nothing. I moved toward my bodies and tried to reach for them, but I couldn't.
My male body fell off of what it was sitting on, and began to convulse. I tried to help it, but being a floating nothing, I just couldn't do anything.
Help me! my female body screamed, an expression of pure pain on her face. I looked down at my male body and watched him die. What could I do? Become! What did that mean? Become?
She put a hand to her chest, over her heart, and nodded. I moved closer to her, but she backed away. She shook her head and pointed at my male body. Become.
I realized what she meant. She wanted me to become one with my male body. I moved into him and the convulsions stopped. I opened my eyes and my female body smiled. Happy. She began to fade, but her smile and her warmth remained. In spite of that, I felt like I would need her.
The warmth remained, but her presence was gone.
19.
I woke up and immediately knew that I was male again. Lil’ Kenny was standing at attention, no doubt thanks to the panties I was wearing. I took a deep breath and let it out. At once relieved and depressed at the same time.
I walked over to my desk and turned on my lamp. I looked at myself in the mirror and laughed. Two days female and it was like I was rediscovering myself. Surprisingly, the thing I missed the most about my female body was the blonde hair. I wondered if Mom would have a problem if I bleached it.
I pulled out my notebook and sat down to write. I didn’t much want to go back to sleep. Alleviating my fears that my elf maiden story was just Kenda expressing herself, I was just as lost in my writing as before. So much so, in fact, that when Mom walked in, I didn’t even notice until she threw my pants at me.
“Get dressed,” she said, “and as cute as those panties are, you should probably wear boxers.”
“Why?”
“The doctor. You have a scheduled physical before school starts, remember?”
I sighed. “Oh, yeah. I’ll be dressed in a minute.”
“Good.”
“Hey, what would you say if I bleached my hair?”
“Just so long as that's all you bleach. Keep the manscaping to yourself.” She smiled, then shut the door.
I laughed. Mom probably gave me too much freedom.
This took longer than I wanted it to, but I'm getting a better pace to my writing, so hopefully that speeds things up for everybody. Get ready for a rollercoaster.
1.
“Kept busy?” Dr. Santos asked as he walked into the room. I sat there in nothing but my boxers, more than a little self-conscious. “Seeing anyone?”
I laughed. “Not really. To either question.”
He sighed. “It’s important for a young man to keep active and find someone in their life.”
“Did you just see that on Dr. Phil or something?”
He let out a light-hearted glare toward me. “I remember being a slack-off loser when I was your age, and would rather most of my younger patients not follow my example.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Yeah, because who would want to be a doctor, heading out to the golf course every other day and driving a Lamborghini?”
He checked some things off on his clipboard. “It’s a Ferrari and I’m only at the golf course three times a week.”
“My mistake.”
He asked me the usual questions, health, the family, whether or not I was going to try out for sports at school. I gave the usual answers. The conversation went as they do whenever you see a doctor that you’re used to seeing.
Then, suddenly, I got oddly self-conscious. I wasn’t wearing a shirt, and felt like I really should have been. And then there was the cool draft I felt against my chest. What was going on? I shivered for a second, then Dr. Santos told me I could put my shirt back on. Why did I feel so much better wearing a shirt?
“You okay, Ken?” Dr. Santos asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, just… Weird chill, that’s all.”
He nodded his head oddly, then turned back to his laptop. I was happy he didn’t pry into that any further, because it confused the hell out of me. I’d never felt that before. I pulled on the shorts I’d worn and then my sandals. I was hoping that I’d be able to leave soon.
The minutes ticked by as Dr. Santos tapped away at on his laptop, then he finally turned around around and handed me his customary Tootsie Roll Pop, something he did despite the fact that I wasn’t a kid anymore. “Alright, Kenneth, you can go now. Talk to Mikaela at the front desk, she’ll have the card for your next appointment.”
I took the Tootsie Roll Pop and smiled. “Thanks, Doc.”
2.
Mikaela was a new girl I’d never met, around my age and almost exaggeratedly gorgeous. I would’ve asked her out on a date, if she didn’t seem like she was annoyed with everything.
Not to mention if not for Gabby.
The card I was given listed an appointment in three months, so I assumed I was reasonably healthy. I gave Mikaela a smile that she didn’t return, and left the doctor’s office, where my mom was waiting in the parking lot with a magazine in her hand and the car’s AC going. Despite the fact that it was colder in the car than it was in the doctor’s office, I didn’t feel that chill that had hit me inside.
“How’d it go?” Mom asked.
“It was a regular physical, nothing weird.”
“Good.”
I nudged her with my elbow. “You’re being weird, what’s up?”
She shook her head. “Just curious how it felt having a man see you mostly naked instead of Gabby.”
I rolled my eyes. “If I was still Kendra, it’d probably creep me out.”
“If you were still Kendra, I’d rather you see a gynecologist.”
I coughed out a laugh. “So, what’s up today?”
“Hmmmm… You still have three days off before school, I’d say you get out there and enjoy the rest of your summer vacation.” She smiled. “And maybe go spend the day with Gabby.”
I noded. “Sounds like a plan.”
3.
“No.”
I was leaning up against the support beam beside the stairs that connected the first floor of Gabby’s house to the basement. She was moving boxes around, looking for something, but she wouldn’t let me help. I didn’t know why she wouldn’t let me help, though. “Is there some sort of reason you won’t let me help you?”
She nodded. “Yeah, it’s personal.”
I glanced down at the box that was sitting beside me. “It’s not sex toys, is it?”
Gabby grabbed the box and pulled it away from me. “No.” Then, with a smile, she added, “The sex toys are in my bottom dresser drawer. If you’d spent a little more time as Kendra, I would have introduced you to them.”
That weird chill hit me again. I shook and asked, “Can we go upstairs? It’s… Damp… Down here.”
She looked at me funny. “No it’s not. It’s dusty down here, but it’s not damp. You okay?”
I shook my head. “I’m… I dunno. It’s weird.”
She smiled again. “You’re weird.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Look, let’s just go upstairs. I bet you’re not gonna find what you’re looking for down here.”
She set the box down on a table. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” She patted me on the shoulder. “If you put something cute on, I might still let you see the sex toys.”
I smiled. “Whatever.”
4.
“Okay,” Gabby said as she clasped her hands together in front of her, “we need to find something to do to kill some time before I have to kick you out.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You have to kick me out?”
“Yeah. You know my dad, he doesn’t like you being here for dinner.”
I’d never understood why exactly, but she wasn’t wrong. Her dad had never much cared for me being in the house in the first place, which I always attributed to him just worrying about me having sex with his daughter. If he knew what Gabby and I had done on the hood of my mom’s car the other night, I wondered how he’d feel.
I walked over to her bookshelf. Gabby had a decently sized collection of fantasy books I’d never heard of, which was pretty impressive because I had a decently sized collection of obscure fantasy books, in addition to the ones everybody knew about, like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.
Looking at her books made me think about that story I was writing at home. “Hey, you got a problem if we head over to my place for a second?” I asked.
She gave me a confused look, then said, “Sure. Whaddya need?”
“Just wanna grab my notebook, that’s all.”
She smiled. “Actually, that gives me a good idea.”
I dreaded that smile now. “What kind of idea?”
“Think you could write a nice little erotica short based on us from the other day?”
I raised an eyebrow. “You want me to write a story basically about us having steamy lesbian sex?”
“Essentially.”
“Why?”
She poked me in the chest, which felt… Odd. “Because we had a moment the other day, and I want a memento.”
I was about to say something when the room began to spin. Everything around me went in every direction except the one it was supposed to be. The walls grew taller, the floor shrank into a purple square, and the ceiling became a red and white umbrella that eclipsed the… two suns? Why were there two suns? What the hell was happening?
“Are you okay?” I heard Gabby ask. She was standing right in front of me, but she was twenty stories up at the same time. I tried to move closer to her, but then I was standing on a floor made entirely of her face. I moved my foot away from her nose, but I ended up by her left toe instead.
“No,” I said, though my voice was pure helium. I grasped at my throat, only to find myself scratching my arm instead. I tried to clear my throat, but instead ended up with a ear ache. I decided to seek out Gabby’s bed and sit down. It had to be somewhere around there. “Can you help me to your bed?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said, or at least one of her did. There were suddenly about nine Gabbys standing around me, not including the one made out of putty that was clawing its way through the ceiling. There was another one out the window, waving a flare around for some reason.
I had to be dreaming, that was it. Except that, unless I’d fallen asleep on her couch, or something, I hadn’t actually gone to sleep. I had been wide awake when I’d gotten to her house, and I was fairly certain I’d been wide awake when we’d come upstairs into her bedroom, so why was everything so fucked up?
“Gabby?” I called out to her. She’d disappeared, all of her. The room was suddenly back to normal, except everything was in grayscale.
“I’m here.”
“Where?”
“Right in front of you.”
I didn’t see her. I reached out into the air in front of me, but she wasn’t there. I didn’t feel anything.
“No, you’re not.”
“Ken, swear to God, you just grabbed my boob.”
“No I didn’t.” My voice sounded normal again, but I could still hear the embarrassment in that line. Even though I couldn’t feel that I’d accidentally groped her didn’t mean that I hadn’t accidentally groped her. “Sorry, if I really did.”
“You’ve touched more than that, so don’t worry about it. What’s going on? If you can’t see me, what do you see?”
“The room. It’s completely gray, though.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah.” The door opened. There was a figure there, female by the body shape. “Wait, did you just open the door?”
“No. Why, is the door open?”
“You’re not the one standing in the doorway?”
“No, Ken, I’m not. Are you high?”
The figure stepped closer to me. I recognized her, but I couldn’t peg where I knew her from. I moved closer to her, but I didn’t seem to be gaining any ground. Was the room fucking up again? “Gabby, where am I right now?”
“Uh, sitting on my bed. I helped you there, remember?”
“I’m not seeing the same things you are.”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry. This is weird.”
“No shit. Uh… Help me to the door?”
“No.”
“But, the girl…”
“What girl?”
“Her! The one in the doorway!” I did my best to point at the figure, but God only knows if I was actually pointing. The girl in the doorway put her hands to her mouth and started to giggle. I could hear the giggle, almost as if she was standing right beside me.
Where the hell did I know her from?
“Ken, you are not getting moved. Just lie down, I’mma call your mom.”
“Don’t,” a voice said, but it wasn’t mine. “Don’t let her.”
The girl had moved closer to me again. I know I saw her at some point in the last couple days now, but I still couldn’t peg her. Why did she look so familiar to me?
“Don’t…” This time it was my voice.
“What?” Gabby asked.
“Don’t do that,” my voice again.
“Have her leave,” the girl’s voice. What was her name? It started with a K, I knew that much. Why couldn’t I remember more?
“I think I’ll be fine if I just have some rest,” I said. “Mind if I take a nap?”
I still couldn’t see Gabby, so if she was making any sort of look on her face, I didn’t know. Eventually, I heard her sigh, and say, “Okay. I’ll be back in here to check on you in twenty minutes.”
“Okay, thanks,” I said. I finally felt the bed underneath me. I heard the door open, then close again. I couldn’t tell if there’d been enough time for Gabby to have left, but I had no reason to believe she would have stayed in the room.
“Good,” the girl said. I felt her sit down beside me, and her hand suddenly started to caress my face. “Just drift to sleep. Drift… To sleep…”
It was strange. The second she started talking, I started to feel my eyes getting heavier, then close. I could still feel her hand on my face, I could feel warmth spreading from her body to mine. Then, the warmth started to spread through my body. From my face to my arms, to my legs, to my vagina, to my breasts.
I didn’t even have time to realize what I was saying to myself before I was asleep.
5.
“Please get up, please get up, please. Get. Up.”
The voice sounded like it was coming from a million miles away, but I knew that was just my fucked up sense of hearing after whatever the hell had just happened to me. I rolled over onto my side and tried to shut the voices out. The bed was too comfortable.
“Goddammit, Ken, wake! Up!”
Ken. Ken… Ken… Why did that sound so familiar?
“I mean it! Get up, now!”
I knew that I recognized that name, but I couldn’t think of who it belonged to. Was it somebody I knew? Was it somebody I’d dated? He didn’t sound like my type of guy. Come to think of it, I couldn’t remember the last guy I went out with. Maybe I needed to head out to the mall and start flirting a little before school kicked off.
“Kenneth Matthew Brewster, get your ass out of my bed now!”
Kenneth? Wait… Ken… Kenneth… That had to be where I recognized the name from, but there was a slight problem there.
My name was Kendra.
I opened my eyes to see Gabby standing there, looking down at me. “How long have I been asleep?” I asked.
“That’s what you’re asking?” She looked like she’d just watched me grow a second head.
“Yeah, because I don’t remember falling asleep.”
“You’re not asking why you’ve suddenly become a girl again?”
“Again?” What the hell was she talking about? I’d always been a girl. “Are you okay?”
She now looked like she’d seen a thousand ghosts having an orgy. “Oh… Oh… Oh no… Oh shit oh no…”
“What?”
“Gimme your phone.”
I reached into my shorts pocket and pulled out my phone. She took it from me, nearly scraping me with her fingernails. I thought I had longer fingernails than she did, mine looked weirdly short. And I wasn’t wearing any nail polish.
“Who are you calling?” I asked.
“Your cousin. I need her to talk to that sorceress she knows.”
“Uh, why?”
She looked over at me, concern flashing across her face. “You.”
6.
“What’s your name?” Mom asked, staring me in the eye. Over a day of doing nothing and that was all the farther we’d really gotten. Oh, I’d told them other things, and they’d told me things about the boy they thought I was, but it always kept coming back to my name.
I sighed and answered for about the fiftieth time. “Kendra Selene Brewster.” I took a bite of the Snickers bar I’d been eating. “How many times to I have to say that?”
Gabby was standing on the other side of the room, a concerned look on her face the likes of which I’d never seen before. Why was she so scared? Well, other than the fact that everybody seems to think I used to be a boy. I don’t get it, I think I’d know if I used to be a boy. Had everybody taken crazy pills at exactly the same time?
Mom held up a photo of her and some boy, probably this Kenneth that they keep thinking I’m supposed to be. “And you don’t remember being male at all?”
“How could I remember being a guy if I was never a guy?”
“Sweetie, the pictures aren’t fake, you were a boy, you just don’t remember it now, for some reason.”
I leaned back in my chair. “Okay, say i really was a boy. Why don’t I remember it, if I was?”
“That’s what I hope your cousin tells us,” Gabby said, finally speaking up. She walked over to the kitchen table and pulled a chair out. “If she ever gets here.”
Almost as if on cue, there was a knock on the door. Mom got up and opened the door, and I saw Amy and a girl I didn’t recognize. That sorceress she talked about nowhere in sight. Whatever was going on, maybe Amy could explain that I had always been a girl, like I was certain of.
The unfamiliar girl sat down in front of me and that was when I realized she wasn’t a girl at all. Oh, she was wearing a bright yellow tank top with an obvious bra underneath and a pair of short shorts that looked absolutely adorable on her, and her fingernails and toenails were both painted the same bright yellow as her top; her hair was longer than mine and her makeup was perfect.
But she her flat chest and her slight bulge made it obvious that she was a boy.
Not that I had any problems with that. She was still cute, and if not for the fact that I wasn’t into girly boys, I might go out with her. Or, well, no. I was still treating her like she was a girl, so maybe I wouldn’t. Either way, if she wanted to express herself as female, I was okay with that.
Ugh... I was sounding stupid.
“Kendra,” Amy said, “this is my friend Dean. She’s Ms. Malski’s… um…”
Dean finished the thought, “Ms. Malski’s my stepmom. She’s also the reason I’m the way I am, but I’m better off this way. Last but not least, she’s teaching me the tricks of the magic trade.”
I nodded my head, just to make movements, if nothing else. “Okay. What’s that gotta do with me?”
“Mom thinks you… Affected… The spell she used to change you the other day.”
“What spell?”
“See, that’s what I’m talking about. Somehow, you’ve made your spell take effect again, and you’ve rewritten your whole past. Mom told me that part’s almost impossible, even for higher level sorceresses like her. She mentioned something about genies being able to do it, but then she tossed that idea away because something about genies not being around anymore. I’m only just starting my magic training, so what I can do is absurdly limited right now.”
Mom asked, “So why did your mother send you? It sounds like something she should be here for.”
Dean shrugged. “I dunno. I’m getting pretty good at reversing minor spells. Like, last week Mom turned an apple into a curling iron, and I turned it back into an apple, but then she turned me back into the old me, and I couldn’t reverse that, so she had to. Not only is this a pretty high level spell, Ken… Dra… Kendra… Reversed it herself and somehow changed her past in the process.” She looked back at me. “Mom says that you might be capable of magic.”
Mom sat down in a dining room chair and looked like the wind had been knocked out of her. “This is all… All this was supposed to be was Ken experiencing how it felt to be female while wearing girl’s clothes, how did all this happen?”
I folded my arms under my breasts. “From my point of view, nothing happened. I was a girl yesterday, a girl the day before, and all the way since the day I was born. Everybody acting like this is wrong somehow makes no sense to me.”
Gabby said, “Trust me, this makes no sense to anyone. You were a boy yesterday, not a girl, and you’ve always been a boy.”
I just couldn't see it. I remembered being a girl too clearly, from Gabby and I having sleepovers when we were little to that day at the mall when I had my first kiss with Shawn Breckenridge. It was probably the most disgusting kiss I’d ever had, but it was my first.
Hearing that this life I remembered was supposedly fake was starting to get on my nerves. “Look, I’m fine the way I am, okay?” I stood up and walked to the door. “I’mma go out and enjoy the rest of the day at the mall, or something.” With that, I shut the door behind me and set out for the nearest inner-city bus stop.
7.
His eyes were on me the second I sat down at the food court with my ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato and mustard sub sandwich. I had to admit, I was doing as much staring as he was.
If course, I was dressed specifically to make boys stare at me. After leaving home, I made it to the nearest clothing store and bought myself some new stuff, mostly to keep me from sweating too much since it was almost a hundred degrees outside. I’d picked a scoop-neck tank top and tiny, tiny skirt, plus a pair of sandals with a three inch heel.
The girls, naturally, were getting most of the attention.
I went to take my first bite out of the sub when that Dean girl sat down across the table from me. “You gonna eat the other half?” she asked. I slid it across the table to her. “Thank you, I’m goddamned starving! Amy never told me how long it would take to get here, and I haven't eaten since we left town.” She glanced over at the boy I was almost flirting with. “Oooh, he’s cute.”
I put my half of the sub down. “Why’d Mom and Gabby send you? No offense or anything, but you really don’t have any stakes in whether I was really a boy like they say I was.”
She shrugged. “No, but I volunteered. I love going to the mall back home. I honestly think I’ve developed some kind of shopping… Well, complex, really. I just like to shop.” She took a pretty big bite. “You freaked your mom and your friend out when you left.”
I sighed. “Whatever. I’m fine the way I am. They can leave me alone.”
Another bite. “Yeah, you said that.” She let out a light burp. “And your family says otherwise. Now, my mom sent me out here because she thinks I can help you, I don’t honestly know how, and you’re just fine with your change, which from what Mom tells me means one thing.”
“What?”
Big bite again. “A sorceress’ body knows that it needs to change itself, and will do so once her power has finally been awakened. If you're really a sorceress, like my mom thinks you are, then your power awoke and your body reshaped itself like it should. Why your mind changed is the question.”
I leaned forward. “But I don't feel like my mind changed. I don’t remember being this boy they say I was.”
She nodded. “I know. And I don’t know how to fix that, but I think I know how to get you to fix it.”
I leaned back. “Now I’m confused.”
8.
“Okay,” Dean said as she sat me down on my bed. Amy, Gabby and Mom all around us. I had to admit, my room did look like a boy’s room. I could have sworn I had yellow curtains. “I need you to lie down now.”
“Why?”
She pulled her phone out. “My mom gave me this list of spells to awaken deeper parts of someone's mind. Mom doesn’t think you actually rewrote your life after I texted her some extra details, now she thinks you’re one of at least two personalities. Y’see, everybody has some form of split personality, usually a part of us that we repress or just something we never knew was in us to begin with.” She tapped away at her phone. “Lie down.”
“Why?”
She glared at me. “When the alternate personalities are allowed out, your body may experience some… Effects. You’ll be fine if you're lying down, but you might accidentally hurt yourself if you sit up.”
I sighed. “Whatever. Just get this over with.”
She placed a hand on my chest and started saying something in a language I couldn't understand. Nothing magical seemed to be happening, at least from my perspective. I yawned, my hand was slapped away from my mouth.
That was when my body started tingling. My vision doubled, blurred, then finally, everything went dark...
9.
The dark enveloped me, and then that was replaced by the light. The two danced around and swapped places constantly, but in spite of this, the brightness of whatever room I was in never actually seemed to change.
The floor… Wasn't there. I walked along it, never once hearing footsteps, despite the fact that my heels should have been making a distinctive clicking sound. The place didn't seem to have any sort of air, though I wasn't having trouble breathing. The whole thing was creeping me out.
I kept walking, despite no obvious evidence that I was even moving. The place was just a giant nothing, for all I knew I was walking in place. I stopped to look around for a moment to get my bearings, but my bearings never really seemed to get got.
I decided to sit down. Either something would happen, or I’d bore myself to death not doing anything. If I were lucky, one of those alternate selves Dean talked about would show up at some point.
A shadow crossed over me. I looked up and saw… Well… Me. A girl that looked exactly like me, wearing a short sleeved shirt and a pair of blue jeans. She held out her hand for me to take, so I did. She pulled me to my feet and patted me down like I was dusty.
“There you go, good as new,” she said, a smile on her face.
“Who are… You?”
“Technically, you. My name’s Kenneth.”
“You’re the guy everybody keeps mistaking me for! Well, but you’re not a guy.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m not, and, well, this is complicated.”
“Actually, that Dean girl explained it, I’m… We’re split personalities, and you’re the dominant one, but I’m the one that took hold when your magical sorceress powers decided to come out, for some reason.”
She scratched at her head. “Well. That… No, I can't say that makes sense. I’m a sorceress?”
I nodded. “Yeah. And apparently your body changed because of it. I guess boys can't be sorceresses.”
She rolled her eyes. “That makes sense. Stupid as it was to hear out loud.” She walked around me, as if looking for something but not quite certain what. I looked around again, wondering if maybe I could actually find something if I actually knew I should be looking for something. Of course, that attempt failed horribly.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Looking for the way out.”
“How do you know there is one?”
She grabbed me by the shoulders. “Look, this is your mind, this is my mind, this is our mind. There is a way out, we’ve just gotta find it.”
10.
It took us five hours of searching before we finally found the way out. The girl, Kendra, looked completely out of it. I wondered what she’d been told in the real world to make her look so down.
I also wondered why she would be a split personality to me. Was there some part of me that wanted to be female? She seemed so very different from me, it almost made me wonder what her “life” had been like. Made me wonder if she still had a dad.
The more I thought about it, I wondered what would happen to her when we made it out of here. Would I be in control of our body? Would she? Would we merge somehow, and have the memories of both our lives? Would one of us just die off being pushed to the back of our mind? Would the other be a nagging voice at the back of the mind?
Did I really have the right to be in control of our body? Her life was just as real to her as mine was to me. I couldn’t take that away from her, it would be wrong. I wondered if there was something I could do to help her. If I was really the sorceress that I apparently was, maybe there was some way to give her her own body.
The exit before us looked an awful lot like that doorway made of light that I’d seen before I didn’t wake up. The doorway was about six times larger than any real door I’d ever seen, and yet I was certain only one of us would be able to go through it. I stepped toward it, but stopped.
“What’s the matter?” Kendra asked.
I turned to her. “What’ll happen to us?”
She shrugged. “I dunno. Dean didn’t tell me that.”
“What if one of us… Y’know… Dies?”
The color drained from her face. “If what they’re saying is true, I’m not real anyway. I can’t die, I’m just a part of you. You’re the real us, and I’m… The part of you born female, I guess.”
I stepped away from the door. “But if I’m really a sorceress, wouldn’t that make you the real one?”
She shrugged again. “I don’t know, okay? Maybe nothing will happen to either of us and we’ll both be okay when you step through that door, you’ll just be the dominant personality again. I’ll go find some cave in our mind to live in. But we’ll never know anything, our body will probably die, and then Mom and Amy and Gabby and everybody we know will watch it all happen if you don’t go through that door.”
I felt tears welling up in my eyes. She was actually willing to live with whatever consequences there were. I took a deep breath, then took a step toward the door.
Then a thought crossed my mind.
“Hey, while you were… Y’know, me, us, whatever, did you and Gabby do anything?” I asked.
She raised an eyebrow. “What? What are you talking about?”
I walked back over to her. “Well, Gabby and I kinda had sex the other day, and I was just - “
She cut me off. “I’m a girl, doofus, and so are you right now. There was nothing I could do with Gabby.”
“So what? I was a girl when we had sex.”
She shivered. “Ugh… I didn’t know that and I didn’t want to know that. I’m straight, you didn’t have to tell me you aren’t.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Male brain, male urges, okay? Besides, Gabby’s gay, too.”
Shock spread across her face. “I didn’t know that either.”
That made sense. If Kendra wasn’t gay, Gabby would have had no reason to come out to her, since she didn’t come out to me until I was a girl.
I patted her on the shoulder and then turned back to the doorway. The light only grew brighter as I neared it. Then a warmth encased me, wrapped itself around me and spread inside me. The feeling was so strange and yet familiar at the same time.
And then for whatever reason, I had a song by Men At Work stuck in my head.
11.
The reason for the music in my head was revealed to be Mom listening to the 80s station on XM radio. I sat up and rubbed at my forehead. There was Amy, Gabby, Mom and someone I assumed was “that Dean girl”, though she was clearly just an androgynous guy in absurdly cute clothes. Definitely cute enough to be mistaken for a girl.
They were all looking at me with concerned looks on their faces, especially Gabby and Mom. I just looked around at all of them and prayed somebody else would say something first. When it became obvious that nobody was gonna talk, I just said, “Hi.” It surprised me for a second that my voice was still female, but, it probably shouldn’t have. If I’m gonna be a sorceress, I guess I’ve gotta have the anatomy to have the ‘ess’ on the end.
None of them said anything. I could tell they were all anxious, probably not even sure who they would be talking to. I couldn’t blame them. They’d just spent the better part of an afternoon with Kendra, and now I was back in control.
Mom was the first one to say anything. “Sweetie, are you… Kenny or Kendra?”
“Kenny,” I said. “Though I guess Kendra’s probably the more appropriate name, now. I’m not the girl that didn’t know she’d been a boy, though.”
Gabby breathed a sigh of relief. So did Dean. Amy just looked relieved, but neither she nor Mom sighed. “It’s about time you’re back,” Gabby said.
I pivoted on my bed, but didn’t get up. For some reason, I was exhausted now. Something told me it had something to do with the heels. “How long was Kendra here?” I asked.
“Not too long, just a little over a day.”
“A little over a day?”
Amy said, “Well, Dean and I had to get here.” She stepped closer. “It’s like a five hour drive and we couldn’t exactly make it in a night.”
“What did she do the whole time?”
Mom answered, “When we weren’t asking her questions, she took naps and watched TV.”
Dean stood up. “Okay, it looks like we’ve settled your personalities and put you back in control. Now I’ve just gotta text my mom and ask her what to do next.”
“Your mom?” I asked.
She looked confused, then smacked herself in the head. “Duh. The other one. My mom, the sorceress that turned Amy into Amy, fixed my life and helped you discover your feminine side. She’s our principal at school, and she adopted me after getting me away from my shitty old family.”
I realized for the first time that I was wearing a skirt and my panties were pretty plainly visible. I closed my legs instantly and probably turned red as a beet. “Um, so… Uh… Kendra said something about me being a sorceress?”
She nodded. “Yeah, my mom’s about eighty-five percent sure that something you did the other day when she let you experience femininity awakened latent magical power inside you, and then that power changed you to accommodate the fact that a sorceress’ magic physically needs a woman’s body to sustain it.”
Gabby said, “That seems kinda sexist, but if it keeps Ken as a girl, I’ll take it.”
Dean turned to her. “It’s actually a sad trade-off.” She turned back to me. “The magical power of a sorceress in a way replaces your reproductive system. Your body contains so much magic that you’re rendered infertile.”
“Completely?” I asked.
She nodded. “If there’s been a case of a sorceress having children, it’s never been recorded.”
I scooted across my bed back against my bedroom wall and hugged my knees to my chest. In the span of a day, I’d caused a split personality to come forth, be repressed again, become permanently female because of magic, and lost the ability to ever have children.
Tomorrow was going to be the hardest first day of my life ever.
12.
It turned out that the day wasn't that difficult, only because Gabby, Dean, Amy and I all went to a lake party. There was this weird moment where that Mikaela girl from Dr. Santos’s office suddenly lost her clothes, but other than that, it was pretty uneventful and fun.
Which only served to make me feel today, the first day of school, would be much harder.
The only bright side to all of this that I saw was that years of crossdressing had given me quite the wardrobe when I became stuck this way. Cleaning out most of my guy clothes had been relatively easy and painless, though I kept some shirts and a pair of pajamas. For sentimental and practical reasons.
I didn’t worry about makeup, even though Mom offered to let me use some. I didn’t think I was ready for that yet, despite being pretty good at putting it on. I stood in front of the bathroom mirror and took several deep breaths. I wasn’t sure if I was ready at all, but I knew I needed to be, regardless of how I felt.
Then again, I was an uber-powerful sorceress, did I really need to go to school?
“Hey, do I really need to go to school since I’m some super powered magic person?” I asked mom as she walked past the bathroom.
“Yes,” she said, bluntly.
I sighed. “Okay.”
“Just act natural, you’ll be fine.”
Fine. Fine she says I’ll be. The one thing I didn’t feel like was “fine”. I sighed again and took a brush through my hair. It wasn’t a mess, but it wasn’t exactly neat either. Stupid tangles.
I grabbed my bookbag and then the purse that Gabby was loaning me. I didn’t carry the purse, though, I just tossed it in my bookbag along with my binder and notebooks. Not every girl carried a purse openly, I had to remind myself. A part of me was trying too hard to go to school presenting myself as a Valley Girl. Probably the Kendra part of me I created. The smarter part of me just wanted the day to be over.
Gabby was waiting for me outside. She was smiling, which told me the outfit I’d picked out was just what she was asking for. A cami top and a pair of short shorts and some bright purple sandals. I was wearing a necklace that Mom had given me, a small heart pendant that nestled itself in my cleavage. In fact, the cleavage was clearly on Gabby’s mind, as her gaze drifted there.
“My eyes are up here,” I said, pointing to my face.
“No, you did not just say that,” she said through laughter.
“I never thought I’d have a reason to say that.”
The two of us giggled almost uncontrollably, but we managed to get ourselves back together before the bus got there. We made our way to the back, our usual spot, except that I usually too the seat across from her. This time, we took the same seat and her hand grasped mine almost instantly.
I moved her hand from mine and slipped it under my shirt. She had a look of surprise on her face when I slid her hand under my bra and positioned her fingers to pinch at my nipple. “Somebody wants fun,” she said, a playful smile on her face. “Good thing we've got plenty of cover back here.”
I pressed my lips to her’s and slid my tongue into her mouth. She moaned lightly, which made me moan. I put my hand up under her shirt and mentally smiled when I found she wasn't wearing a bra. I rolled her nipple between my fingers, causing her to bite my tongue on accident. I broke off the kiss, but then we got right back to it almost immediately.
13.
I stood in front of the principal, who was apparently a perverted old man, because he wouldn't look at my face, but my breasts instead. Annoying, but understandable. I’d stare at them if I wasn’t the one they were attached to. Hell, I stared at them in the mirror after my shower this morning.
“So, miss Brewster, you’ve moved here from Mississippi after your home was destroyed in a flood and your mother sent you to live with your aunt, and your transcripts were destroyed in the flood?”
I nodded. “It was a horrible flood.”
He rubbed at his chin. “It's not the best lie I’ve heard, but it's not a bad one.”
I was confused. “What?”
He leaned back in his chair. “You’re not the first person affected by magic to come into my school, Kenneth. I’ll approve Kendra’s transfer, the schedule we mailed you last week will still apply. Your teachers have been notified that Kenneth won’t be in class and that Kendra will. Just make sure there are no magical problems in my school, miss Brewster. Last year, I had to stop the gymnasium from being destroyed in a fight between a succubus and a magical girl, I don’t want a repeat of this situation, even if it did enlighten me to the existence of magic.”
I blinked, no doubt a look of astonishment on my face. “A succubus and a magical girl?”
He nodded. “Quite enlightening, but you need to get out now. Class starts in a few minutes.”
14.
I felt eyes were watching me, despite the fact that I was blending in with the crowd relatively well. Nobody was really looking at me, I just thought they all were. And, honestly, there were probably guys looking at me, though I had absolutely no interest in looking at them. Guys did nothing for me, which was in a way reassuring and slightly weird. Some part of me that I’d created was into guys, so why wasn’t I into guys at all?
I shouldn’t think of it, though. I had a great girlfriend, and I didn't want to screw that up by turning myself… I guess dating guys would be straight now. I didn't want to be straight, there.
I found my newest locker assignment, a row and a half away from last year’s. There were three people chatting nearby, a girl and two guys. I recognized the girl as… Mindy, I think her name was. Neither of the guys looked familiar, but one of them was wearing a letterman jacket, so I assumed he had gone here last year.
The guy not wearing the jacket was glancing over at me every few seconds. Even if I was into guys, he’d be nothing to look at. Scruffy dark hair, light stubble and didn't seem to want to look clean. But above all that, the way he looked at me was… Creepy, for lack of a better word. Something was off about him, I could tell.
“Hey,” a voice said. I recognized it and turned around to see Terry Hughes walking up to me. He couldn't have recognized me, could he?
“Hi?” I said, almost nervously.
“Ken, I recognize you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How?”
“I’ve spent time around a succubus and a magical girl this past week, sorta been enlightening.”
“A succubus and a magical girl?”
He nodded. “Sorta been enlightening. But that's not important. So, what's up with you and why is it magic only seems to come to girls?”
I sighed. “I’m a sorceress apparently.”
“Ooh, sounds interesting. And which side of the attraction fence do you land on? I ask for the sake of Mindy, because she wants a girlfriend and finds you attractive.”
I laughed. “Not that I wouldn't be interested, but I’ve only got eyes for Gabby.”
He sighed. “Well, that explains why she wouldn't go for it.” He patted me on the shoulder. “Well, catch up with ya later, gotta get to class.”
I watched him walk away and giggled to myself. Succubi, magical girls and sorceresses all at one school. I wondered if I’d ever meet one of the other two. I wondered if they’d be hot.
15.
I set my food tray down beside Gabby’s. She smiled as I sat down and leaned over to give me a peck on the cheek. I put my arm around her and started feeding her some french fries. She returned the favor by plucking my burger apart and feeding it to me. If I’d known having a girlfriend would be this nice, I’d have done it before.
Then I noticed that guy from earlier. He was staring at us, specifically at me. I was getting even more creeped out than earlier, because at least he wasn't outright staring before. I tried to ignore him, but that was almost impossible
Thankfully, Gabby decided to talk. “What's up, beautiful?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing. Just a weird feeling, that’s all.”
She smiled and kissed my lips gently. “That’s called being in love.”
I wrapped my arms around her, pressed my tits to hers. “And it’s a wonderful feeling.” I licked her lips and then took more of her mouth into mine. I couldn’t believe I’d gone years knowing her without knowing how good she tasted. It was something I didn’t want to go without ever again.
16.
I hated gym class when I was a guy, and being a girl didn't change that at all. Sure, I was in the girls locker room with a bunch of attractive girls, and we were all in different states of undress, but at the same time, the bitchiest girls seemed to be the ones in my class. I’d have to text Amy later and see if she had this problem.
Case in point was Casey Vasquez. I remembered a big thing with her last school year where she and her friends on the cheer squad had used the pool for a nude photo shoot thing in an attempt to make it big online. Her dad was the local District Attorney, so she and her friends got off without even a single charge, despite what they’d done.
She walked into the locker room, turned on a radio that apparently had been left there for her, and started singing very, very badly along with pop music that sounded like it came from the early 00’s. I swear I actually heard some Backstreet Boys mixed in there, and I mean vintage. After that, she walked past every girl on the cheer squad and gave them a pat on the back, a little hug, the girlfriendly kiss (not the romantic girlfriend kind). Everybody she didn’t want in her locker room, she scowled at.
I received one of the scowls.
I couldn’t figure out why. She’d never met “me”, she didn’t know who “I” was, I was just in the locker room changing from my regular clothes to my gym clothes. I tried my damnedest to ignore her, but that wasn’t easy.
Next to me was that Mikaela girl from the doctor’s office. I didn’t know she went to my school. She looked even more nervous to be changing in front of everybody than I was. I honestly wasn’t sure if I could entirely blame her, too. I was looking at her boobs the whole time feeling a mix of envy and lust because she was huge. D-cup at the smallest. That was the lust part talking. The envy part wondered if Gabby would like me with bigger boobs.
“God, does she need to be such a bitch?” Mikaela asked.
“Some people are just like that,” I said as I pulled my gym shirt over my head. “Especially sluts on the cheer squad.”
“Whaddya mean?”
“Rumor has it she slept with most of the football team last season.” I honestly was surprised that rumor came in handy. I’d heard it over the summer, but considering I was a guy then, I didn’t think I’d get a chance to be a gossip girl.
“That sounds impressive,” she said, almost as if she were wishing she’d done it. I think she realized what she’d said, because she immediately covered her mouth and said, “I didn’t mean that.”
“Whatever,” I said, coming off a little more flippant than I intended. She put her gym shirt on and my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when I saw our school logo stretched across her tits. Good god, why was she that damn hot to me?
“You’re staring at the assets a little more than I’d like…” she said.
I looked away from her boobs and mentally scolded myself for looking at a girl that wasn’t Gabby. “Sorry, just… Y’know, I’ve been kinda a late bloomer.”
She rolled her eyes. “I wish I was a late bloomer.” I heard her mutter something under her breath, but I I couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be. Either way, I just grabbed a rubber band and tied my hair into a ponytail, then followed her and the rest of the girls out into the gym proper.
17.
By the time gym was over, I didn't think I could be so sweaty. The front of my shirt was practically glued to my sports bra, and my shorts were pretty much crawling into my ass. If not for my panties, they probably would be halfway in my ass.
Mikaela was probably just as sweaty as I was, and I’d noticed she did her best to stay away from the guys. I wondered why, but, I also could tell she was plenty self-conscious about people looking at her. Weird thing was all the guys sniffing around her. Cone to think of it, something about her did smell kinda… Enticing? Was that it? I couldn't tell, I just pushed it out of my mind. Gabby would kill me if she thought I was kissing another girl.
I was quite convinced the girls locker room had a better shower system until I actually got in there and discovered just how true that was. The water was warmer, the stream was finer, everything pointed to the girls locker room shower being 1000% better on the skin than the one in the boys locker room.
I was taking care of my hair when the curtain was pulled open and Casey Vasquez stood there, naked as can be and with a scowl on her face that almost implied she murdered pandas for fun. “What the fuck are you doing in my stall, whore?” she asked as if I’d stolen her kidney.
“It didn't have a name on it,” I answered.
“Everybody knows this is my stall. You must be a new girl, because otherwise you would know where your place on the pyramid is here. I’m on top, and you're somewhere on the bottom making sure I don't fall on my butt. If you're lucky, you’ll climb high enough to guard my panties from the perverts or the swim team. But you will never be on top.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “That mean girl shit may work on others, but don’t even think it’ll work on me. There are tougher girls out there than you. You wanna be a bitch, be a bitch, but I will not be pushed around by someone who can't even walk past a door without checking out her reflection.”
She stood there with her hands on her hips and an annoyed look on her face. She ran her tongue around her mouth, then said, “Whoever you think you are, you're not. You wanna get ahead in my school, you need to get behind me and know your place.” She pushed past me and shoved me out of the stall. “And just wait until you try for a boyfriend. I know all the boys in school, and none of them will date a girl I’ve blacklisted.”
I rolled my eyes and wrapped my towel around my chest. “Whatever,” I said. I was gonna have to ask Amy’s sorceress friend how cursing people worked. She'd be less of a bitch if she was forced to do something outrageously embarrassing. Heh. She fancied herself a gift to men, maybe she’d calm her shit if the guys saw her kissing a girl. Then she’d have trouble getting a boyfriend.
Mikaela was standing at the door out of the locker room, less sweaty, but still with that weird smell. “I would not have been able to do to that bitch what you just did.”
I shrugged. “I dealt with cunts like her at my old school, she’s no big deal.” Not an outright lie, but a minor bend to the truth. “I never told you my name. I’m Kendra.”
“Mikaela, but my boyfriend and my best friend call me Mike.”
“Ooh, boyfriend?” That made her nervousness around guys seem weird, unless she was just trying to make sure she wasn't tempted to cheat. She musta moved here during the summer if she had a boyfriend, because I thought she was an actual new student.
She smiled. “Yeah. Oh, there he is.”
“Hey, Mikey,” Terry Hughes said as he walked up and gave Mikaela a kiss. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back. When they finished, Terry looked at me. “Oh, hi, Ken.”
Mikaela asked, “You two know each other?”
Terry looked surprised. “Oh, yeah, this is Ken Brewster,” he said, motioning to me.
The wheels seemed to be turning in Mikaela’s head. “The guy from Dr. Santos’ office that kept staring at my boobs?”
I blushed. “Can I help it if you’ve got a great rack?”
She rolled her eyes. “Please, I get enough of that from Mindy. So, are you being possessed by a magic sex demon, too?”
“Magic… Sex demon?”
“Yeah, I’m sharing headspace with a succubus.”
Terry added. “And her sister’s a magical girl.”
That explained his comment from before, but it still confused the shit out of me. Succubi and magical girls were real? Then again, I was a sorceress, I guess anything was possible at this point.
“So, Kendra,” Mikaela said, “we should hang out sometime. Maybe bond over what it’s like to be girls who used to be boys.”
“Wait, you were a guy?!”
“Shhh! Keep it down! Yeah, I was, and like I said, we’ll have to bond over it sometime. Right now, since school’s officially over for the day, I wanna go have fun with my boyfriend.”
I smiled. “No problem. You two seem like a cute couple.” I waved. “See you later.”
18.
Gabby was in a good mood when I got onto the bus and sat beside her. She immediately unzipped my shorts and started fingering me. I payed her back by slipping my hand under her top and fondled her breasts. Her other hand went up to my head and she tangled her fingers in my hair. I brought my lips to hers and kissed her hard.
The bus ride was pretty much the two of us making the other one moan and trying to keep it down the whole way. We decided to get off at the stop by Gabby’s house, because she wanted to see my ass wiggle as we walked home. I obliged her, putting on a show I’d only seen in porn videos. She reciprocated by putting a $20 in my panties. I told her I wasn’t her stripper and gave it back to her, but kissed her nonetheless.
The walk home was slow, but peaceful. It was still hot, but the combination of wind and the outfit I was wearing kept me from sweating too much. I still felt the sweat trickling all down my body, but it was manageable for the distance I had to travel, then I’d be right back in air conditioning, probably sitting at my desk and writing. I’d probably text Amy later, ask her if that sorceress she knows could give me some pointers on magic. No point in being a really powerful magic user if I wasn’t gonna use it, right?
I spotted Mikaela getting dropped off by that boyfriend of hers. She waved, then walked into her house. I didn’t even realize we lived like two blocks away from one another. Amazing how much smaller this town feels now that I know there’s a shitton of magical people here. I still needed to ask what was up with all the magical girls and succubi that were apparently tearing up schools left and right.
Suddenly, that thought was shifted elsewhere. I could feel something off, something very off. It didn’t take me long to figure out why, either. He was twenty paces behind me, pretending like he wasn’t following me. That guy from school, the one that had been watching me. He had his bag slung over his shoulder and he was walking around like he didn't have a care in the world.
I sped up. I didn't want him catching up to me. He didn't try to match my speed, instead he just sauntered along like he was in control of the situation. Honestly, I couldn’t dispute that, because I didn’t know the situation. I started walking as fast as I could go without running.
I rounded a corner at a house that was just down the road from mine and came face to face with the guy. One second, he’s behind me, the next he’s in front of me and sniffing at somebody’s flower bed.
“You’re a hard girl to catch up to, Kendra,” he said. He turned to me and a smile spread across his face. “You’re pretty fast for someone who isn’t running.”
“Who the hell are you and how do you know my name?” I demanded.
That smile didn’t fade. “Sorry about that, I forgot we hadn’t actually been formally introduced. My name’s Lucian, and I know that you’re a sorceress.”
This is it. The end of this tale. It's taken me longer than it should have (I hit a massive roadblock in the form of writer's block), but it's here now, it's the final end. It's also technically become longer than novella length, but I don't really consider this a novel. Also, this chapter contains cameos of characters from a different story that hasn't been posted here yet. That story is up on TG Storytime, if you want to read it before I start bringing it here, the title is Don't Fear the Reaper.
Also, I just added a scene I had forgotten to write originally. It's the very last scene.
1.
We stood there for a long time, just staring at one another. Lucian with that smile of his and me with a very concerned look on my face. Or, well, what I assumed was a concerned look on my face. I couldn’t really see it. Either way, the two of us were staring at one another and it was disturbingly like one of those cliffhanger endings from anime where the protagonist and antagonist stare at one another.
I decided to break the silence. “What do you want?” I asked.
He didn’t answer right away, instead he just took a step closer to me.
I backed away. I wasn’t incapable of fighting, but even as a guy, I’d sorta been more of a runner. “Stay back,” I said, “I’m not very good at it, but I do know how to do some spells.” It was a lie, but he couldn’t possibly know that. Then again, he knew I was a sorceress.
“Your spells are exactly why I followed you. I’ve seen you around school for awhile now, and when I finally saw you today, in all your beauty as opposed to the guy you used to be, I knew now was the time.”
For awhile now? This guy’s known about me being a sorceress since before I knew I was a sorceress? “Time for what?” I asked.
He took another step closer, but I couldn’t move this time. I didn’t know what was keeping me trapped there, but it was almost like my feet were made of cement. “I have a little family problem that I’d like you to help me deal with. You see, my father’s incarcerated, and I’d like him out.”
I laughed. “You want me to use magical power to break somebody out of jail? Can’t you just hire some people to do that?”
He shook his head. “Not this prison. Not ordinary people. No, it may not surprise you to learn that there are magic prisons, used for only the most dangerous of people. One of them is my father, and only someone as powerful as you can help me.”
“And why should I?”
He put a hand on my shoulder and suddenly I felt insanely cold, almost ice cold. “Do you know how this world would react, Kendra - Kenneth - if they found out about people like you or I? People of magic? People like Mikaela? You’ve seen movies, societies rise against people they’re afraid of.” He took his hand off me and I felt the warmth return to my body. “Consider the idea of society rising against you as incentive to consider my offer.” He walked past me. “Have a good day, dear Kendra. I’ll speak with you tomorrow.”
I could finally move again, but I didn’t for a moment. I still felt somewhat cold, and that feeling didn’t want to go away. What the fuck did I just get myself into?
2.
“What’s up, baby?” Mom asked as I walked in the door. “You and Gabby didn’t break up, did you?”
“What? No, Mom, we’re fine. What?” was the best I could get out. I was still too freaked out by Lucian and his ultimatum. I couldn’t think straight and I still felt freezing cold. I was beginning to regret shorts and a cami top as wardrobe choices. Then again, outside it was like almost a hundred degrees. I was only cold because of that bastard Lucian.
I walked down the hall into my room and locked the door. I wanted to be alone, so that I could think. I set my bookbag down on the floor beside my desk and crashed on my bed. So now I was being threatened with the whole world knowing who and what I am if I didn’t break this dickhead’s dad out of jail.
I wondered why he’d target me specifically. He was clearly magic, and knew exactly what he wanted, why have me do it? And why couldn’t he go for some other magic person out there who would be more than willing to jump at the chance to break into a jail? There had to be a criminal out there who happened to have magic power.
I sat up and pulled myself against the wall. I couldn't think now. I needed to do something, talk to someone. Locking myself in my room was the wrong idea. I didn't even know who to talk to.
I grabbed my phone and texted Amy, Is that sorceress of yours busy?
Five minutes later, I received a reply of, She's on her way.
3.
The place I was asked to meet at was a little coffee house with exterior tables. Ms. Malski was sitting at a table already sipping from a cup of coffee. Nobody else was with her, but I didn’t feel any sort of anxiety. Almost completely the opposite of the meeting with Lucian.
I sat down across from her at the table and was given a cup of black coffee as a server walked past. “I hope you don't mind, I ordered for you while I was waiting,” Ms. Malski said.
I shook my head. “No problem.” I took a drink. “What did Amy tell you?”
She pulled out a small book and slid it across the table to me. “I can't say I’ve come across many magical beings in my lifetime, but my mother did. She left me this book. I don't know if this Lucian you met will be in it, though.”
I opened the book and found dozens of pictures of people with newspaper clippings beside them. Some had notes scrawled on them, like one of Marilyn Monroe with “Succubus?” or Ronald Reagan with a pair of devil horns drawn on his head (that one may just have been a joke). I went through page after page and didn't find anyone resembling Lucian. I did find a picture of that guy at the lake party doing the poker game Mikaela lost her clothes at.
“I just saw that guy yesterday,” I said, pointing to his picture. The newspaper clipping was dated August 19th, 1938.
“Loki. One of the few I have had the pleasure of meeting. He's not so bad after you get past the tricks, but his brother is an absolute horndog.”
I looked up from the book. “Thor?! Like, the Norse God, Thor?”
She sighed. “He’s less a God and more an animal when his pants are down. Not one of my interesting boyfriends, that much I’ll say.” She took another sip. “Is he in there?”
I shook my head. “Not from what I can see.” I slid the book back across to her. “If I describe how he made me feel, will that narrow it down?”
She shook her head. “Not really. Most of my mother’s notes weren’t actually meeting the people, but more by reputation.” She slipped the book back into her purse. “What was his demand, exactly?”
I slumped down in my chair. “He wants me to free his father from a magic jail.”
“And that’s all he told you?”
I nodded. “That’s it. His father’s in some sort of magic jail that somehow he can’t free him from and he needs me to do it.” I took a sip from my cup. “And seeing as I don’t know how to do any actual spells that aren’t me creating an accidental persona, I don’t see that happening, and then I’m a very public sorceress.”
She tilted her cup toward me. “That you don’t have to worry about. I can put in a call to Loki and get him to fudge with reality a little. It’s not like it’s the first time he’s done it and ordinary people are none the wiser.”
That eased my mind a little, but if that guy knew about me, he had to know about somebody who could warp the fabric of reality. He probably had a contingency plan specifically for Norse Gods.
I pulled myself up and sat straight. “What about… Spells? That kind of thing? Shouldn’t I know some? Like maybe how to kick this guy’s ass the next time I see him?”
Ms. Malski nodded. “I knew that would come up, and took the liberty of having Dean deliver a sort of starter kit that I found among my mother’s things recently. Dean’s been progressing nicely herself, so I decided to hold onto it in case Amanda or Melanie developed any sort of prowess. It’ll be at your house when you return.”
“What exactly comes in it?”
“Spells, ingredients for potion mixing, honestly you can find a lot of information if you just read a Harry Potter book. JK Rowling must have been a sorceress herself.” She took a sip of her coffee. “It shouldn’t take you too long to acclimated to the process. I learned it on my own, since my mother died shortly after I was born, and I’ve been doing well. Dean’s come along quite well, though she’s not a sorceress.”
“Wait, she’s not? But you sent her to help me that day.”
She nodded. “I did. I should correct my statement, Dean’s not yet a sorceress.” She snapped her fingers and suddenly we were in a classroom, me behind a desk and her at the chalkboard. I was damned certain I wanted to practice this one first. She drew male and female restroom symbols and wrote Dean’s name down under both of them. “Much like you, Dean was born male but with a vast amount of sorceress power within her. It’s possible that something similar to you would have happened to her, but it’s also possible that her power would have simply remained within her body and never left the magical plane.”
“Magical plane?”
She drew four lines on the side of the board. “There are a few of them, and I don’t know all of them. One is dedicated solely to sorceresses and sorcerers.” She turned back to me. “And yes, there is a distinction between sorceress and sorcerer magic, that’s why you couldn’t just remain male and be a sorcerer.” She turned back to the board. “One is for succubi, and one is for magical girls.”
I raised my hand like this was a real classroom. “Can I get some clarification on the succubi/magical girl thing? Apparently they nearly trashed my school last year.”
She shook her head. “All I know is from my mother’s book, and she only knew one magical girl. Now, there’s a difference between all this magic, one main difference is where the magic is stored.” She drew a circle around the female restroom symbol. “Though there is a magical plane dedicated to sorceresses, our power is stored in our bodies. This is what causes us to be infertile, because our bodies can handle the strain of the magic, but it still causes damage.”
“What happens to sorcerers?”
“Sorcerers suffer much the same fate, they become sterile.” She pointed to the magical girl line. “Magical girls don’t actually connect to their magic, and it’s far more limited than ours. Their magic is pretty much cemented on fighting the succubi.” She pointed to the succubi line. “That leads us to the succubi, who somewhat store their magic in their bodies, but as succubi have no physical bodies and need to take hosts, they suffer no ill effects. Their magic is also concentrated almost completely on sex.”
I stood up and walked over to the chalkboard. “Okay, so back to Dean, how is she a sorceress now when her body is still technically male?”
“I was just getting to that. It’s her magical aura.”
“Aura?”
“Yes. Every magical being has an aura. This aura is connected to our magic, and also to our gender. Someone with a male aura, for instance, can’t use sorceress or magical girl magic.” She drew a line going from Dean under the male symbol and Dean under the female symbol. “When Dean confronted herself about what she wanted, her aura changed to female, even though her body didn’t.”
“So the aura isn’t tied to the gender so much as it has its own and the magic is tied to that?”
“That’s a way of looking at it, yes.” She erased the board. “Now, did any of this help you figure out what this Lucian might be?”
I sighed. “I dunno. He doesn’t just seem to be a sorcerer, or like his aura is out of sync with his gender. He just makes me feel cold around him.”
Ms. Malski snapped her fingers and brought us back to the coffee house. “Well, hopefully that little crash course gets you closer to understanding how to use your own magic power when the time comes.”
I stood up. “Honestly, I’m hoping the time never comes.”
She nodded. “I understand, but if Lucian is serious about his threat, you may have to do something about him sooner rather than later.”
I took one last gulp of the (surprisingly) still hot coffee. “I know.”
4.
It was dark by the time I got home. I collapsed on the couch next to Mom for some crappy reality TV (The Voice or something, I wasn't paying attention). She microwaved a bowl of popcorn and we mowed down on that through another hour of something.
I finally got up and went to my room to sleep at 11:40, finding probably a dozen messages from Gabby on my phone. That magic starter kit Ms. Malski mentioned was sitting on my desk. It was a cardboard box with some spell books and a smaller box of potion ingredients inside it. I took out one of the spell books.
I flipped to a random page and picked out what looked like the easiest spell to pronounce. “Alakatha… Alakathabaventu…” Okay, easiest was the wrong thing to say. I closed the book and set it down on my desk only to turn around and find a blow up clown behind me. Something told me I was saying it all wrong.
I deflated the clown, stuffed it in my closet and changed into a nightie. I was barely awake and super distracted, I shouldn't be trying magic in this state.
I crawled into my bed, pulled the covers over me and felt the comforting embrace of sleep take hold of me. Hopefully I’d wake up tomorrow and find Lucian was just a bad dream.
5.
A hand pulled my blanket off of me. I nearly wet the bed when I saw Lucian standing over me. He pulled me out of bed and threw me at my desk. “Trying to get help, Kenneth?” he asked. “Wrong idea!”
Flames kicked up around him, burning the posters on my wall and going straight through to the wallpaper. The flames split my bed in two, and then came together into his hand, forming what looked like a fire whip. “Now, young lady, get ready for your lashes.”
“Get the fuck away from me!” I shouted.
“I warned you, Kenneth.” He flicked the whip against the wall, tearing a hole in the room. I didn't see the hallway outside, just a blinding white light. “I warned you, and now this is going to cost you.” He flicked the whip out again, this time wrapping it around my wrist. “You’ll learn and then you’ll do what I want.”
I spat at him. “Go fuck yourself.”
He was on me in a second, his hand around my neck. He… Was trying to kiss me?! He brought his lips to mine and pressed them against me. I kept my mouth shut so as not to accidentally invite his tongue inside, but he tried to force his way in anyway.
I tried to knee him anywhere, but I couldn't get a good angle. I tried to bring my free hand up and punch him, but he grabbed it and forced it down. What the hell was his aim here? Did he want to kill me or fuck me?!
I tried my hardest to concentrate, to push him off of me, but it wasn't working. I could barely move, could barely breathe thanks to the hand around my neck. I was starting to lose consciousness.
That was when I started to feel something. Something welling up inside me. I balled my hands into fists and felt the whip around my wrist start to melt away. He moved his hands away from me then backed away. I wanted to rip his face off now that my hands were free.
That was when I realized I didn't need to. I was pushing him away without touching him. His face was twisted in pain and his eyes were red as dried blood. He tried his best to snarl at me, but he couldn't. Instead, he just turned into some sort of winged creature and zipped out the window. I heard him screaming the whole time.
I let my arms drop to my sides and collapsed onto the floor. Whatever I’d just done exhausted me. I crawled along the floor and pulled myself back into my bed. At about that time, the room started to morph, to return to normal. I was back under my blanket and the world was right again.
Had that whole thing happened in my mind?
As if to prove it to me, Mom opened the door and said, “Sweetie, keep it down, I’ve got work in the morning.”
6.
I wanted to stay away from school. Lucian would be there and I wanted to avoid him in every way possible. Whatever that dream… Thing… Was, I didn’t want to experience it again. The only problem was that I couldn’t stay home. Mom would get a phone call at work if I wasn’t at school, and seeing as the principal knew I was magic, he wouldn’t take any kind excuse for tardiness, so despite my feelings on the matter, I needed to go to school.
Gabby was waiting for me outside the house. I was plenty pleased about her outfit, a bright orange top that clung to her like a second skin and a pair of shorts that looked painted on. Her eyes brightened up when I walked outside, which put me a little at ease. I gave her a kiss and a brief fondle before the bus arrived.
Luckily, Lucian wasn't on the bus, so hopefully he didn't live anywhere near us. I was hoping that my worry over him wouldn't overtake most of my day. The make-out session on the bus wasn’t making me as wet as I wanted it to thanks to that bastard.
“What's up?” Gabby asked, taking her hand out of my panties.
I sighed. “Just… A lot.”
“Hey, tell me. Is it something about yesterday?”
I nodded. “Yeah, this guy named Lucian. He knows… Everything, and he wants to out me as a sorceress if I don't do what he says. Amy’s sorceress friend said that was no big deal, reality warping could just fix that, but I’m still… Nervous, y’know?”
She had a look on her face that said I’d just spoken every one of those words at the same time. “Whoa,” she said. “I never knew dating a sorceress would be this cool.”
I rolled my eyes. “There was nothing cool about when he tried to come after me in a weird psychic dimension.”
“What did he try to do.”
“Kiss me. Force himself on me. Mind rape me, I guess.”
“Holy shit, you're going to point his guy out to me so that I can beat the shit out of him as soon as we get to school.”
I sighed. “Assuming that’ll even do anything.” I snuggled up against her. “It’s so sweet and dom of you to offer to protect lil’ ol’ me.”
She pressed her finger to my lips. “Shush. Just get in the mood.”
7.
Whenever I noticed Mikaela, she seemed kind of odd. I considered asking her what was up, but I also wanted to keep my guard up in case Lucian just appeared out of nowhere. If not for his ability to send me into a magic dimension, I’d consider myself safe, but even being in public wasn't a security mechanism.
I walked into class and sat down next to Terry, who was busy writing something. Probably some kind of love letter to Mikaela, or something corny like that. It was kinda funny how cliche a couple they seemed to be considering one was a guy possessed by a succubus.
“You look stressed,” he said. “Some sorta magic thing?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
He laughed. “Sounds like a pain in the ass.”
“Does Mikaela havta deal with this sorta stuff?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Not really. I mean, there's a succubi/magical girl war going down that she's gotta avoid, but that hasn't been a problem yet.”
I blinked. “Okay, one of these days, I’mma need to know what the fuck’s going on with succubi and magical girls.”
He smirked. “I’m sorta in the middle of it and I don’t know exactly what's going on there.”
The rest of the class filed into the classroom and took their seats. The teacher walked in but something… Strange, seemed to float around her. She didn’t go through her normal routine, she just walked in and got started with a lesson that didn’t seem to carry on from yesterday.
And then there was the fact that she was quite often focusing on me.
I knew something had to be wrong about that, but the only thing I could think of was Lucian possessing her, or shapeshifting, or something, and neither of those explanations seemed right. Ms. Bailey was clearly still Ms. Bailey, but there was something off about her.
I made up my mind right then and there: After class, I was going Lucian hunting.
8.
I couldn't find him at all. I talked to the people I’d seen him with yesterday, they hadn’t seen him. I talked to his first period teacher, he didn't know where the dick was. I even talked to a girl his friends said was stalking him, she said he hadn't left his house that morning at all. Apparently, simply hadn't come to school.
But I did get his home address.
I slipped a note in Gabby’s locker not to wait up for me after school, then snuck out between classes. Thanks to the principal transferring my grades over from Kenneth to Kendra, I was already doing well grade-wise, so I didn’t have to worry about anything there. Honestly, this was the first time I’d ever skipped school, and it was the second day of the school year.
The address was a good mile and a half away from the school. I recognized the area because it was where Amy and her family used to live before they moved upstate. It was a nice neighborhood, which didn't surprise me since Lucian didn't look like he lived in a dirthole neighborhood.
His house was dark red, which clashed with the plain blues, greens and whites of all the other houses nearby. His yard was full of shrubs and flower gardens. If not for having fought him magically, I’d assume he was the most normal person on the planet. Then again, maybe the yard was his mom’s domain. Assuming he had a mom.
I walked up onto the porch and knocked on the door, but no one opened it. I reached for the doorknob, turned it, giant sarcastic surprise that it was unlocked. I opened the door and walked inside.
The lights were all off. I was starting to wish I’d brought a flashlight. I felt my way from the door to what I thought might have been a countertop. There was nothing on the countertop, so I didn't knock anything down, thank God.
From the countertop, I felt my way to what I knew for certain was the stair railing. I managed to climb the stairs without incident and found myself on the slightly better lit second floor. There was light coming from a single open door, but it didn’t look like either a lamp or sunlight. I was worried I was actually about to find Lucian, now.
I walked over to that one open door and peered inside. Lucian was there, alright, sitting in a pentagram carved into the floor. He was sitting cross-legged, his hands held out, palm upward, his eyes closed. Meditating was the best way to describe it, honestly. His mouth was moving, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
Looking at him in front of me, I finally asked myself what the hell I’d even do now. I was alone in a room with a man who actually knew how to use magic, whereas I was powerful and didn’t know what the hell I was doing at all. What the fuck was wrong with me and why had I even done this?
And then Lucian smiled. “I’ve been expecting you.”
9.
He still didn't open his eyes. He didn't stand up. He didn't even shift his posture in any way. It was actually disturbing. I would have run, if not for that damned feeling of being stuck.
So I stood there, unmoving, completely scared out of my fucking mind. I was a damn moron for letting myself get into this situation, I should have just stayed at school. If I ended up dead, it would be because I was goddam stupid.
Finally, he opened his eyes. “Sorry about the mess downstairs. Haven't really spent time here since I was a kid.” He stood up. “My mom died when I was little, which was what drive me out of the house. Drove me to look for my dad.”
“Do I really need to know any of this?” I asked.
He nodded. “Full disclosure, a helpful part of any sort of deal, like the one we’re about to make where you say you’ll free my dad from his prison.”
“I won't. I don't know or care who your dad is, if he's in a magic prison, he's there for a reason.”
He smiled wider. “Dad didn't meet me until a couple years ago. My mom was a one night stand for him, but she knew who - and more importantly what - he was. When he did meet me, he was ashamed of me because I was half-breed scum to him. When I found out he was in prison, I made up my mind how exactly I’d prove myself to him.”
I laughed. “You mean all this is just an effort to get daddy to love you?” I would have doubled over if not for the You-Can’t-Move thing. “That’s pathetic.”
He grabbed my chin. “When your father is the King of Darkness, you do what you can to get him to love you.”
I managed to move for a second. His magic hold on me must have been based on concentration, and me insulting him broke it for just that little moment. Regardless, I asked, “Whaddya mean?”
He let go of me. “A little over six months ago, my dad was put in a prison by a girl much like you, much powerful magic. She wasn't a sorceress, in fact, I don't know what she was. Don’t know who she was, either, all I know is that she’s one of the only people who could do it, and you’re one of the only ones who can reverse it.” He grabbed my arm and squeezed. It wasn’t painful, it was sort of gentle, like he was actually considering asking me politely or something. “That’s why I need you.”
“Who is your dad?”
He let go of my arm. “Did ‘King of Darkness’ say nothing to you? My father is Satan himself.”
10.
He sat down on a chair I hadn't noticed earlier, but that didn't mean anything. He looked like he hadn’t just dropped a crazy bomb on my lap. How the hell had he just said that with a straight face?!
I still couldn't move, but that was the least of my worries. If what he was saying was true, then he wanted me to free the Devil from a magic prison that apparently some girl like me put him in. Whoever this girl was, I now had an immense amount of respect for her.
If Lucian thought that telling me his dad was Satan would make me want to help him more, he was a goddamn idiot.
“Y’see, magic prisons are unique,” he said, “one person is the lock, another is the key, and the key is chosen at random. It took me some time to figure out who they key was to my dad’s prison, but once you changed, it became clear as day.” He leaned forward in his chair. “And lucky us, we don’t need to know who the lock is.”
I shook my head. “I won’t help you. You reveal who I am, there’s a reality warper who can just erase that knowledge from people’s heads.”
He was still smiling, that bastard. “Reality warpers are so… Inefficient. Changes to reality always leave lingering memories, making it easier and easier to get people to believe each time they have to re-learn the information.” He snapped his fingers and the room changed completely from a chaotic mess with a pentagram on the floor to a clean room with a pristine floor. “Besides, I’ve got some experience with reality myself.”
Of course he did… “I won’t help you. If your dad really is Satan - assuming I even believe that - I’m not helping you let him out.”
He stood up and walked over to me. “I don't think you understand, sweetheart, there are no choices here. I will use you to free my father. You’re the key, and the key exists to be used.”
“Go fuck yourself!” Either he’d decided to let me move, or my shouting at him surprised him. Or, hell, maybe it was me, what with all that magic inside me and such. Either way, I could move and I was happy about it. “You won’t be using me for anything!”
And then fire spat from my hand.
Judging by the look of sheer surprise on his face, I could tell that one came from me. I tried to create the stream of fire a second time, and surprisingly managed it, just by thinking fire. I wondered if most magic was this easy.
Just about when I was beginning to get the hang of controlling the fire stream, it ran out entirely, and I suddenly felt exhausted. I collapsed on the floor and crawled slowly away from the door. Maybe causing a fire wasn’t the best idea. Smoke started to spill into the hallway.
That belief increased two-fold when the fire spread out of Lucian’s bedroom into the hallway. I tried to get to my feet, but fell down again. I couldn’t see Lucian, and hopefully I never did again, but my first priority was getting the fuck out of that house. I couldn’t stand, so I crawled for the stairs. The room beside the bedroom burst into flame as well, I could tell from the gap under the door. The smoke was starting to get worse.
I managed to make it to the stairs, then rolled my way down them. Hitting every step on the way down wasn’t something I enjoyed, but it got me away from the smoke and the fire. I tried to stand again, but the weakness combined with the pain of falling down the stairs made that pretty much impossible. I needed to crawl again. The door was just across the room, straight ahead, I didn’t need to crawl far.
I finally realized what Lucian had meant about the mess. I hadn’t seen it when I came in, but there were shittons of toys all over the floor, like a kid had been playing there and just left everything. He’d also said that he hadn’t been here since he was little. Maybe these were his toys.
About halfway between the stairs and the door I crawled up to… A boot. And beside that was another boot. I reached up and found pant legs. I could barely see, thanks to the smoke spilling downstairs, but I could tell there was someone in front of me. With my luck, it’d be Lucian.
Then the lights came on and I saw a guy in his 30s wearing a red shirt and black pants with suspenders. His hands were in his pockets and he looked very bored. His hair was parted on the left, and his eyes were almost pure steel.
“Well,” he said, “what have we here?”
He reached down and lifted me to my feet, patted the dust and ash off of me, then moved me to the side. He kicked toys out of his way and walked upstairs like a man on a mission. He reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t think of who.
The smoke in the house began to… Move backwards, almost sucking itself back upstairs to the second floor. It didn’t take long for the light from the fire to die down, too. What the hell? I almost wanted to go up there and find out what the hell was happening, but then I realized that Lucian might still be up there, so I stayed where I was.
About five minutes and a lot of doors being kicked in later, the guy in the red shirt came back down the stairs, and he didn’t look happy at all. “Where’s Lucian?”
“I… Um…”
“Don’t get any ideas here,” he said as he walked closer, “now, I’m gonna ask you again, and I’d like a straight answer. Where… Is… Lucian?”
“Idon’tknow,” I said, compounding all three words into one somehow. I didn’t know I could even talk that fast.
He rubbed the bridge of his nose and then sat down on the stairs. “You don’t know. At all?” I shook my head. “Well then. I reckon that puts him at a pretty good advantage, and me at a right nice disadvantage.”
I rubbed at my arm. “Ooooooooooooookay…”
He stood up. “What was your business here, anyway?”
I looked down at the floor. “He was threatening me, so I came to stop him.”
“Threatening? Are you his father’s key?”
I nodded. “That’s what he said.”
He looked like he was about to punch the wall. “That just isn’t good. I’ll have to tell the Boss about this.” He walked over to me and grabbed me by the arm. “You need to come with me, little lady.”
“Uh… Why?”
“What? Did you just ask me ‘why’?”
I nodded.
“Do you even understand what’s going on here? You know who Lucian is, right?”
I nodded again.
“Then ‘why’ shouldn’t even be a question, you need to be kept safe.” He pulled me out of the house, where a small crowd was starting to gather. And a fire truck was rolling up. “Well, that was unexpected.” He pulled me back inside and shut the door. “I guess we’ll just go upstairs from here.”
“Um… Upstairs?”
He closed his eyes. “Get ready, little lady, you’re about to see somethin’ lotsa people don’t get to see until the end.”
Now I was starting to get confused. “What?”
He smiled, and then all I saw was white.
11.
When I could finally see again, the house we’d been standing in was replaced by something that looked insanely like an office building. People were coming to and fro, carrying papers or answering phones, all of them dressed… Well, a lot of them were wearing robes, some of them street clothes. There was a really, really weird mix of styles.
The guy that brought me here walked over to what looked like a reception desk and talk to a woman sitting there. I just stood exactly where I was and took the whole thing in. I was “upstairs”, whatever that meant. Nothing about this seemed to make any sort of sense. I never felt the need to go home more than I did now.
A British voice asked, “What the bloody hell are you doing here, human?” I spun around and saw somebody who looked somewhere between one and five years older than me, wearing a robe, arms folded over his chest. He didn’t look happy in any way.
“Um…” I stammered out, “hu-he… Brought me here…” I pointed to the guy in the red shirt.
The Brit rolled his eyes. “That sod’s always bringing humans up here.” He came closer to me and poked me between my breasts. “Don’t go where you’re not allowed, and for the love of the Boss, don’t cause any problems.”
“Hadraniel!” a woman’s voice called from somewhere. I looked in the direction he looked and saw a freakishly tall woman with horns poking out of her head. She was smiling and waving him over. “She’s here!”
The Brit sighed. “Of fucking course.” He took a flask out from under his robe and took a long gulp of whatever was in it. “Whatever Jubril brought you here for, it had better be something important.” After that, he walked over to the horned woman, then they left.
If I understood what had just happened, I might not have been so freaked out.
Red Shirt walked back over to me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Alright, little lady, since you came into contact with Lucian, you’ve gotta meet the Boss.”
“The boss?”
He shook his head. “Big ‘B’, darlin’.”
12.
The man known as “the Boss” was a tall, bald man with a single earring who would likely be mistaken for Mr. Clean anywhere he went. He was sitting behind a very large, ornate desk with a bobblehead bulldog on one corner and a mug that read “World’s Best God” just to the side of it. He was going through a good deal of papers.
“Gabe, you know much about that new Pestilence we’re swearing in later?” he asked as Red Shirt and I walked into the room.
Red Shirt shut the door behind us. “More to worry ‘bout, Boss. Lucian’s got his sights set on his daddy.”
Mr. the Boss Clean looked up from the papers. “Lucian… Who?”
“Lu…” Red Shirt looked annoyed and surprised at the same time. “Your nephew, Satan’s bastard kid.”
The Boss let his pen drop from his hand. “Oh! Him. Which one was he again?”
“The one who actually has power.”
The wheels seemed to finally turn in the Boss’s mind. “I remember him, now. The short one. How’d he find out?”
Red Shirt shook his head. “I dunno. Don’t much make sense, since Satan’s locked up in Mobil Avenue next to the reaper’s office.”
The Boss pointed to me. “And what’s this sorceress doing here?”
Red Shirt answered before I could open my mouth. “She’s Satan’s key.”
The Boss sighed. “Dammit.” He slumped in his chair. “Tell me, young lady, did he explain any of this to you?”
I gulped. Time to talk, I guess. “He, um, told me all about him being Satan’s son, and me being the key and all that, but I’d just like to know why me? I only just learned I was a sorceress a few days ago, I didn't even know magic existed until a week ago, why is all of this revolving around me?!” Almost every word of that came out at the same time. I was clearly still nervous as fuck.
The Boss’s eyes flicked over to Red Shirt for a second, then back at me. “How did he find you?”
I shook my head. “I dunno.”
He sighed, then sat straight. “Great.” He turned to Red Shirt. “This isn’t an annoyance.” He turned back to me. “So, miss… Kendra Brewster… How much magic do you actually know?”
“Really none. I’ve kinda just made reactions happen so far.”
He opened a drawer on his desk and pulled something out, then tossed it to Red Shirt. “You were given a starter kit?”
I nodded.
“Good. You probably need a translation guide, otherwise all that book amounts to is gibberish until you’ve taught yourself enough.”
I stepped forward and was handed the book. “Wait,” I said, “can't I just hang out here until somebody stops him?”
Red Shirt shook his head. “Lucian was born magic, but his power isn’t demonic. The fact that he can use you to unlock his father’s cell means he can travel to and from Heaven at any time.”
“Um… Heaven?”
The Boss looked at Red Shirt. “You didn’t tell her where she was?”
Red Shirt shrugged. “Didn’t get much chance.”
The Boss leaned forward in his chair. “Miss Brewster, you’re in Heaven right now. Gabe, here, and Hadraniel, the young man you met in the lobby, are angels.”
“Suh… Suh… So you’re…”
He leaned back in his seat and propped his feet up on the desk. “As a matter of fact, yes.”
13.
I stood outside my house and sighed. No cops, no Lucian, no nothing except a very peaceful neighborhood. Maybe after I set fire to his house, Lucian had run off and skipped town. Maybe he wouldn’t be back to try and use me to free his father, the goddamned Devil, from his magical jail cell.
Maybe pigs would spontaneously grow gills, nest in trees and sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” every time somebody walked past.
Red Shirt - Jubril, apparently his name was; I wasn’t sure how God got “Gabe” out of that - patted me on the back. “If he’s lurkin’ ‘round here, I’ll know. I can't hide from him, but he can't from me, either.”
I nodded. “Right. Do safe.”
He shook his head. “I didn't say that. He's the Boss’s nephew, he's stronger than any angel.”
I scratched my neck. “So, my cousin’s friend explained the magic hierarchy as far as sorceresses, succubi and magical girls, so where do angels and whatever the hell Lucian is fit in?”
He adjusted his sleeves. “It’s a mite complicated, but after I go through your house, I’ll give ya a rundown.” He took a step forward, then turned to face me again. “Probably best you go in first, tell your mom what’s goin’ on.”
I rolled my eyes. He wasn’t wrong, but just the idea that he hadn’t considered that when he was a fucking angel was a little silly. From what I’d seen, angels weren’t that much different from humans. They didn’t even seem to have wings.
I walked into the house ahead of Jubril and found mom lounging on the couch like everything was normal. Then again, I was home two hours before school let out, so for her, everything was normal until I walked into the house. She looked up from her iPad. “Hey, baby, what’s the matter? How come you’re home early?”
I took a deep breath. “Mom, somebody has to check the house.”
She set her iPad down on the coffee table. “What’s going on?”
I was ready to cringe. “If I told you I’m a magic key to unlock a prison containing Satan and an angel needs to look the house over to make sure Satan’s bastard son isn’t here, would you believe me?”
She sighed. “If you’d said that last week, no. Now, it seems like this is par for the course.”
I couldn't deny that. One visit from my cousin and suddenly I wasn't just crossdressing anymore and now fucking angels were involved. Upside down didn't seem to begin to explain how my life had been turned.
A minute or so later, Jubril walked into the room and looked around at everything. “Well, he ain’t here,” he said, almost as if he wasn’t sure what to tell us. “Nice place, though. Homey feel to it.”
I sighed. “Mom, this is Jubril, he’s… He’s the angel I was talking about.”
She looked him over, focusing on his relatively muscular chest, I noticed. “Not what I expected from an angel.”
He smiled. “I get that a lot, ma’am. I hope ya don’t mind me staying the night to make sure your little girl’s safe.”
Mom shook her head. “Of course not. But first, I want to know how serious this is.”
He took a step toward her and put his hand on her shoulder. “Ma’am, I can't promise anything. This boy that's after your daughter is immensely powerful, has magic that’s difficult to counter and will stop at nothing to use your daughter in a misguided attempt at gaining his daddy’s love. If he ain't the most powerful magic user in town, I’m Little Bo Peep.”
Well, if that didn’t freak the fuck out of me, nothing did. “Is there a good outcome to this?”
He shrugged. “Don’t much know, little lady.”
I audibly gulped. I couldn't believe my life had gone this way.
14.
I lied on my bed and held both the starter kit book and the translation guide in my hands, my eyes flicking back and forth between them. Luckily, the translation guide was arranged by spell, so I didn't need to go back and forth between pages to figure out one spell. The pronunciations were the hardest part, but I had quickly figured out that I didn't need to actually say a spell, I could think it and still achieve the same effect. It was easier to pronounce something in my head than it was with my mouth.
Regardless, I was still trying. “Duh… Deh… Delens…” I said. My eyes couldn't believe themselves when my ceiling evaporated right before me. “Shit!” I squealed. I sat upright and flipped through the books to find some kind of undo spell or something.
“Solve Fasciculos,” Jubril said, and the ceiling suddenly returned to normal. He was standing in the doorway, arms folded across his chest. “Not bad, though. Most people I’ve seen accidentally use that end up making mountains disappear.” He laughed. “You probably didn't know there was a mountain range between the US and Mexico.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.” I fell back on my bed. “Hey,” I said as I sat back up again, “is there any way to... Like... change who the key is?”
Jubril shrugged. “If you kicked the bucket, the key would pick another random person.” He walked over to me and squeezed my shoulder. “I think your mom would be a little salty 'bout that.” With that, he left my room and I was once again alone.
I sighed and laid flat on my back again. I poked through the books, looking for spells I thought might help for when Lucian showed up again. There wasn't anything directly offensive from what I could see, but at least I could probably manage to hurt him with something. Better that than nothing, or relying on those weird feedback attacks I’d done so far.
I found one that looked… Interesting. I couldn't quite pronounce it, but it looked… A lot like ‘quiet’. Maybe it was as simple as that? I tried to pronounce it in my mind, but I didn’t exactly get anywhere. This damn spell thing was harder than I thought it should be.
I flipped through the pages and ended up on something that looked like it could be fun for knocking down that bitch Casey a peg or six. A spell to make someone act the exact opposite of what they are. Whatever ‘exact opposite’ was for Casey, I figured it would at least be entertaining to screw with her. Maybe she’d either be just nicer or a thousand percent butch.
“What are you doing?” Gabby asked. I hadn't even heard her walk in. “And how come you disappeared at school?”
I sat up again. “Had to deal with that Lucian guy. It… Didn't go in my favor so much.”
She sat down beside me and put her arms around me. “You okay?”
I nodded. “I’m better than I was earlier.”
She kissed me on the cheek. “Good. Now let's have a little fun before dinner.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re a horrible influence on me.”
15.
“Mr. Jubril, are you sure you don't want any?” Mom asked as she set down the pot of spaghetti on the table. Mom seemed to be getting awfully interested in Jubril. Then again, Dad had been a while ago, so I guess maybe she did want some companionship. The fact that it was an angel that she was semi-flirting with was kinda odd.
He shook his head. “I’m fine, ma’am. Not much I need.”
Gabby leaned close to me. “Who’s he again?” she whispered, jerking her thumb toward him.
“I’m not joking, he’s an angel.”
She looked like she was about to burst into laughter. “What?”
“Legitimate angel. Granted, I haven’t seen the wings yet, but I went to Heaven.”
She let a giggle slip through. “If you’re gonna tell me you met God, I’m gonna call you crazy.”
I would have said something about that, but Mom stuffed a breadstick in my mouth and told me to shut up, thus leading to a very normal dinner for the Brewster household plus my girlfriend. The conversation was pleasant, the food was good, and I had to do the dishes.
Everything seemed normal for the first time in awhile.
16.
“Housul chirosant,” I said, reading from the book. Instead of accidentally destroying my ceiling, I caught a target that Jubril had set up for me on fire. He was busy chewing on an apple that I hadn't seen him grab from anywhere, let alone inside my house, where we haven't had apples since I'd finished eating them the other day. (And still hadn't told Mom about them... Ooops.) He pointed at it and the fire dissipated and the target refreshed itself. I sighed. This was the fifteenth spell I'd tried, and all I seemed to be able to do was burn or disintegrate the targets.
I fell on my ass on the grass and groaned loudly. “Why isn't this working?” I almost shouted.
Jubril sat down beside me. “Well. Two things. One, you're inexperienced. Magic takes years to learn with things like that guide book, and you don't even want to try and learn it on your own. How that sorceress you know did it, I'll never understand. Woman's a damn natural, or something. Second, you're looking for all the wrong spells. People have specialties, things they're talented at specifically. That sorceress you know is probably mostly gifted in transformations. You're clearly not gifted in...” He took out a checklist. “Automotive repair, seed planting, fireworks or artificially creating a sun on the other side of the planet.”
I put my head in my hands and groaned again. “Stop reminding me. What's next?”
He picked up the book from where I'd dropped it and slipped it into his pocket. “Nothing. Your girl's been waiting on you in your room this whole time.”
I sighed. “Yeah.” I turned to him. “Thanks for helping, thanks for watching over us.”
He took a bite out of the apple. “It's my job. The Boss relies on me to do that job as best I can, so that he doesn't have to worry about anything but his job.” He took another bite. “Not that I don't resent it, sometimes. I've got two kids of my own I don't get much time to see.”
“Angels can have kids?”
He nodded. “All the time.”
I turned back to the target. “I think I should try at least one more.”
He shook his head. “Nope. Get in there and get to romancin'.”
I stood up. “You sure?”
“I'll see Lucian a mile away, he ain't here, he ain't in town. We'll be fine. Even if I nod off and sleep, I'll wake up as soon as he's close.”
I scratched at my arm. “Can you... If he shows up, can you actually stop Lucian?”
He took yet another bite. “We're gonna see.”
17.
Gabby and I were on my bed, the TV playing some movie the two of us weren't paying attention to. Neither of us were wearing clothes, but for the most part, all we were doing was cuddling and kissing. In fact, neither of us had even attempted to fondle or play with the other one, but enjoying one another's company was all we seemed like doing right now. I wasn't complaining, I was just embracing and savoring the taste of her lipstick as our lips touched.
She licked at mouth. “Why did I have to wait for a guy to become a girl before I could get a date?” she asked.
I almost laughed. “That would be the stupidest thing you could say, if not for the fact that it's absolutely true.”
“You can't really judge, y'know. You didn't get a girlfriend until you turned into a girl, either.”
I hugged her tighter. “Just shut up and grind against me.”
Her tongue flicked between my lips and my nose. “Your wish is my command.”
18.
Before we could actually get into something hot and sweaty, literally everything faded away. I wasn't laying in bed anymore, I was floating in a void that reminded me of the one I met the other Kendra in. I was still naked, which worried me, but I was more worried about what the fuck was going on.
I considered moving, but I was standing in a void, “moving” was a relative concept that may not actually mean anything. I threw away the idea of moving and stayed where I was, naked, standing in a nothingness. To say that I didn't understand what was going on was a major understatement.
“It's been a little while since you burned my house down,” Lucian's voice said, surprising and concerning me. I quickly moved my hands to cover myself, because reasons, honestly. With this guy's power, I wouldn't be surprised if he's seen me naked more than I actually care to think about. “Also, I see Jubril is hanging around.”
I looked around. I still couldn't see anything other than the void, but I could somehow feel that he was close. I wanted to run, but I had nowhere to go. I wanted to fight, but I had nothing to fight. Wherever the hell he'd brought me, it was effective as hell in getting me scared.
“Look, asshole, I'm not helping you!” I shouted.
He sighed. “I'm not surprised. People don't usually go running to Heaven if they want to help you.”
I rolled my eyes. “I didn't go running to Heaven. Jubril showed up and took me there.”
“Regardless.” He appeared now, almost as if he were emerging from deep shadow. “So, how are you?”
I glared at him. “I hate you. With all of my hate.”
He smiled. “I know.” He patted me on the back. “So, long story short, I'm just about ready to free my father and I'll give you exactly one last chance to do this willingly.”
“Wait, you don't need to be near your dad to do this?!”
He smiled. “Kenny, Kenny, Kenny... We are near my dad.” He snapped his fingers and suddenly I was looking at a room with torches all around. "You didn't think I needed you physically present to open his cell, did you?” He let out a chuckle that sickened me. “It's just easier to perform the spell if you're willing, that's all. Regardless, I can get this under way and then my father will reward me for what I've done for him.”
I dropped my arms to my side. “No.”
He lost the smile. “You're not fucking getting it, are you? You don't have a choice, Brewster. My father will be free, because I'm going to suck the lifeforce from you and open the cage he was unjustly thrown into.”
Suck the lifeforce from me?! “The hell you are!”
He was suddenly right beside me, his hand on my throat. “Too bad you're not gonna be alive long enough to understand how this whole magic key thing works.”
Through gritted teeth, I spat, “No!”
I didn't say any of the spells I'd been learning from the book, I didn't feel any surge of power spit out of me like back at his house, there was just suddenly a bubble surrounding me, him on the other side of it, and a look on his face that almost screamed surprise and fear. Something told me he was expecting this whole thing to go exactly how he planned it and no other way.
This at least seemed like we were on somewhat even terms. I didn't expect to do that, either.
I don't know what he thought he could accomplish, but Lucian ran toward me and tried to punch the barrier I'd somehow created. He shouted spells that I could barely understand, but nothing seemed to happen. If I kept being that lucky, I wouldn't have to do anything until Jubril noticed this was happening.
But, of course, I wasn't that lucky. On his fifteenth punch, the barrier disappeared, and I fell backward, landing awfully painfully on my ass against whatever passed for a floor in this place. I scrambled to get to my feet, but his hand was suddenly on my throat, and I was being pulled up and against a wall. Where the wall came from, I'll never know, but I didn't honestly care, either. Struggling against the creepy bastard holding me against a wall was a bit more important.
“That wasn't very nice,” he said, like some perverted child. I tried to knee him, but I couldn't reach him. I couldn't even punch him. He was holding me against the “wall” with more than just his hand against my throat, he was clearly using magic. “Enough foreplay, it's time to get this over with.”
His eyes rolled back in their sockets and he started whispering something I could just barely hear. It sounded like one of the spells Jubril had tried to get me to do, but some of the syllables were dragged out or cut short. Briefly, I wondered how he’d learned how to use such complicated magic, but that thought was quickly overridden by a desire to stop him.
The room around us suddenly changed. The walls were black, almost as if made out of obsidian or some other kind of mineral like it. The ceiling gained two strips of white, almost like fluorescent lights. The floor because pure stone, but it was cracked with an hellish orange glow peeking through.
In the center was a cage with a shadow standing inside.
Lucian let go of me and walked over to the cage. The shadow’s eyes followed him the entire way. How I could tell that it had eyes was beyond me, but that wasn’t important. Lucian looked as though he was in shock.
“It’s been awhile, Dad,” he said as he got closer to the cage.
The shadow glared at him.
“I know you don’t… I-I know you hate me. But I’ve come to you with the key to your prison,” he waved his hand toward me, “and I hope that you’ll… That you’ll at least accept me.”
The shadow continued to glare.
“All I want is your acceptance. Please, it’s… It’s the only thing I need to keep going.”
The shadow still wasn’t speaking.
That was really pissing Lucian off. He grabbed the bars of the cage. “You can’t even say anything?! I learned all of this to free you! To earn your respect!”
The shadow blinked. For whatever reason, I found that amusing, but the second I let out a laugh, Lucian turned to me and growled. Which I also found amusing. “Aww… Daddy doesn’t love you yet?” I said in a mocking tone.
“Shut your mouth!” He turned back to the shadow. “Do I get nothing for my efforts?”
The shadow finally spoke: “You have done nothing. I am still in this cage, and she is still alive. Perform your tricks and release me from this prison and I shall consider awarding you with respect.”
Lucian let out an angered sigh. “Fine.” He swiftly walked back over to me and held his hand over my forehead. He closed his eyes and began to chant. “Dona mihi obvius,” he said. I felt something inside me, something welling up. “Aperi ianuam.” There was a tingling, now, spreading throughout my body. “Fiat ut solutam.” Light appeared beneath me. I started to lose feeling.
And yet, somehow, I was feeling calm about this. Why was I feeling calm about this?!
“Aperta,” he said, “Aperta. Aperi nunc.”
The light enveloped me, then a buzzing noise filled my ears, drowning out Lucian’s words. His mouth kept moving, so I assumed he was just repeating the mantra he’d been spouting. I had completely lost feeling at this point. The light blocked everything out, now, including Lucian, though I knew he was still there.
And then everything was back to what it had been before the chanting. Lucian was still pinning me up against the wall, the shadow was still in its cage, and I was still buck naked in front of two monsters.
(And for some reason, this was the first moment I realized I was naked in front of Satan... I can be stupid at times.)
Lucian’s eyes were filled with half confusion and half pure rage. The need to get away from the crazy holding me against the wall was strong, so I endeavoured to hit him again. Luckily, when I tried to knee him away this time, I managed it. I underestimated the force I used, and he went flying back against the shadow’s cage.
The shadow laughed, a deep, guttural, horrifying thing that made me want to shit my pants if I was wearing pants. After almost a full minute of laughing, the shadow spoke: “You claim to have brought me the key, and yet you bring me nothing. Explain to me why you deserve my acceptance, half-breed.”
Lucian didn’t look like he was paying attention to his dad, though. He was staring at me, and the half confusion in his eyes from before was gone and all that remained was rage. He rushed at me and grabbed me by the neck again, slamming me against the wall so hard that it cracked (how that didn’t kill me, I’ll never know and really don’t want to). He squeezed, hard.
His mouth curling into a snarl was the last clear thing I saw as my vision began to double. Then I noticed the shadow sitting down on something, which was strange, because I could have sworn its cell was empty. Finally, just as I blacked out, that snarl looked like it was morphing into a smile. Hopefully, I was wrong about that.
19.
areyouokay
I heard the voice, but it sounded like it was a million miles away. It also sounded like it was right beside me, so something was wrong. I couldn’t see anything yet, so whoever or whatever it was talking to me was not yet a real concern, I simply wanted to open my eyes or actually see. For all I knew, it could have been a cherub trying to talk to me.
That made me wonder if cherubs were real. After all, sorceresses, succubi, magical girls, angels, demons, Satan and God were real, so cherubs were probably only par for the course, I guess.
are you okay ken
That voice again. It was a little closer, and no longer right beside me. At least the words sounded separate, now. I needed to find a way to open my eyes. The good thing was that I could feel the ground underneath me. It was like a marble floor. I reached for my face and tried to force my eyes open. Nothing happened, so that wasn’t a good thing.
Since I couldn’t find a way to get my eyes open, I instead tried to get to my feet. I heard something that sounded like footsteps. After spending a good thirty seconds of sliding around on the floor, I managed to find a wall, and dragged myself against it. So, I couldn’t open my eyes, and I couldn’t stand up. This would be worrying if it weren’t so fucking terrifying.
Ken, answer the question, are you okay?
I coughed. I wondered if that was because I’d been choked. “Idunno,” I said. Great. My words were blending together. Sonuvabitch.
Someone put their hands on my shoulders. Someone with slender, feminine fingers. If I was lucky, it was Gabby. I could use a kiss from her right now. The person brushed my face off. I must have been dirty, or something. I didn’t care.
“Kenny? Kenny, can you hear me?”
I nodded, then tried to speak, but all that came out was a mumble.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” The voice was starting to sound familiar. It wasn’t Gabby’s, but I knew it from somewhere. There went my opportunity for a kiss.
“I can’tsee your fingers…” I said
“Well, that’s not a good thing. Look, it’s Kendra, okay? Can you tell?”
That explained why the voice was familiar. Somehow, I’d retreated inside myself to where Kendra was still somehow alive. I wondered if I’d died somehow and was just going to exist alongside the other me. “Help me up,” I managed a string of words that were clear and capable of being understood. Huzzah.
“Okay, that’s another problem, you’re already standing up.”
“Oh, yippie,” I coughed out. Guess my sensations were a little bit more screwed up than I thought. “What am I doing here?”
I heard her sigh. “I don’t know. I think it has something to do with Creepy McFuckface.”
“He tried to use me as a key to unlock his dad’s prison.”
“Like, a magic key?”
“Yeah.”
My eyes finally started to focus, apparently already open. Something seemed different about Kendra, like she was… Well… Different. The last time I saw her, she looked exactly the same as I did, but now, she was… Brighter?
“What?” she asked.
“Did you do something with your hair?”
She rolled her eyes. “If I were a dyke, that might be cute, but it was stupid. Also, if we weren’t, like, the same person.”
“Why do you look different?”
“I don’t understand.”
I wished I could actually understand it myself. There was nothing physically different about her, she was just different in some way. “Just take my word for it.” I rubbed at my eyes. “Why did I come here?”
She shrugged. “I dunno. Creepy McFuckface was choking you, and suddenly you were here.”
I rubbed at the back of my neck. “How do I get out of here?”
She shrugged again. “That’s probably something you have to figure out.”
I sighed. “Of course.”
“So, this is how you did it…” Lucian’s voice said. My eyes went wide as he materialized in front of us, his hands clasped behind his back. “This is how you betrayed me.”
I pushed past Kendra. “I can’t betray someone I hate passionately.”
He chuckled as he started walking toward us. “Two Kendras. Of course. The one the real world sees, and the one the magic chose.” He raised one hand and motioned for me to move, and, unfortunately, I had to comply because he pretty much used the damn Force on me and shoved me out of the way telekinetically. “Good thing I followed you here, then.”
Kendra stood her ground. “Back off, asshole.”
“I don’t really have time to get to know you, so just be a good girl and let me use you to help my father break out of jail.”
I got back to my feet and tackled Lucian to the ground as hard as I could. He pushed me off and elbowed me in the face, somehow drawing blood, despite this being in my head, essentially. I wondered if my physical body was bleeding now. About two seconds after thinking that, I put the thought out of my mind and kicked. My foot didn’t connect with his face like I’d intended, but I at least kept him from getting up.
If he wasn’t pissed off before, though, he was outright furious now. He used magic to lift me up and hurl me a good sixty feet away. I landed hard against the floor, enough to break something internally, I could tell. I struggled to get up, but managed it. Blood was getting in my eyes.
Lucian was standing, as well. He had his hands around Kendra’s throat and looked to be about to start his chanting. I tried to concentrate, to use one of the spells I’d learned that could blow stuff up, but nothing happened. It was difficult to focus on words.
So instead, I shouted. “Lucian!”
He turned toward me and, surprisingly, let go of Kendra. He growled, a sound almost like his dad’s disturbing laugh. “What’sa matter? You afraid I’ll cheat on you?”
Jesus Christ, this guy was fucking annoying. I tried to focus again, tried to think of all the spells I’d learned today.
And then I remembered just the one. Jubril had even complimented me on it earlier. “Perdere!” I shouted at him. His eyes widened as his body started disintegrating from his feet upward.
“You’re not killing me, Kendra! I’m still out there!” were his last words before his head disappeared into nothingness.
I ran over to Kendra, grasping at her neck. “What the hell was he going after me for?!” she screeched, through coughing fits.
And just like that, the pieces all fit together. “You’re the key.”
“What?”
I cursed myself. Of course that’s how it worked. Lucian couldn’t find the key until my aura changed and my aura didn’t change until I accidentally created Kendra after awakening my sorceress power. The key was never me, it was always her. The me inside me. How was it God himself didn’t know this?!
“Oh, wow…” Kendra said. Duh, we were the same-ish person, she could tell what I was thinking. “Whuh… What do we do now? He can just keep coming in here and we can’t stop him.”
“I don’t know! I… I don’t know how to stop you from being the key. I don’t know how to fix any of this!”
And then a new voice spoke: “Yes you do.”
Kendra and I both turned to look at the source of the voice. A bald-headed man with a single earring who would very likely be mistaken for Mr. Clean everywhere he went. God himself was in my head now.
Holy shit, this was a literal deus ex machina.
He smiled. “Of a sort, yes.” He walked over to us and helped the both of us to our feet. “Gabe told you how to end this, he told you at my insistence.”
“What?”
“Who’s Gabe?” Kendra asked.
God turned to Kendra. “My dear, don’t worry about what’s about to happen. You won’t feel a thing and you’ll only be gone for a few seconds before you reawaken.”
My turn for another question, “What are you talking about?”
God turned back to me. “The spell you just used. The spell Gabe complimented you on. The spell that destroyed Lucian in your mind.” He patted Kendra on the back. “You need to use it on Kendra.”
“What?!” the two of us screamed in unison.
God smiled, but it was a warm, caring smile. “I’ve already set aside a vessel for Kendra, she’ll be even be able to visit you at times.”
Kendra didn’t look too happy at whatever that meant, and I just didn’t want to do it. Kendra was a part of me, I didn’t want to hurt her. Even if it didn’t hurt her, I didn’t want to lose her as a part of me!
“Why?” I asked. “Why do I need to do that? What would it help at all?!”
God looked as though he could tell I was apprehensive. “I understand that you’re concerned, but please, I’m not God for no reason. I simply can’t influence Kendra’s existence since I didn’t create her, that leaves it up to you.” He turned back to her. “You won’t die. You won’t be trapped here, and you’ll have a life of your own. Ken won’t be out of your life, and you will still exist. The only thing lost here is Lucian’s chance at freeing his father.”
I just didn’t want to hear that. “There has to be another way.”
It wasn’t God who responded, though, it was Kendra: “Ken…” she said, through tears, “it’ll be okay.”
“What are you saying?!”
“I don’t want this! But if it stops Creepy McFuckface from letting Satan loose, then we need to do it…”
God smiled. “You’re funny things, humans. I wish my other creations had even a tenth of the strength you had.”
Kendra put her hand on my shoulder. “Please… I promise I’ll find you as soon as I can.”
I felt a tear slide down my cheek. I gulped. I almost physically couldn’t do this, but she was right, and it was pretty obvious that God was right, and Jubril had told me that if I died, the key would become someone else. Though, if my magic “luck” held out, that’d probably be me. Hopefully God had a hand in choosing who the next key would be.
“We’d better find each other after this,” I told Kendra.
She smiled. “We’ll be as close as twins. Y’know, like, fraternal twins. I’m cuter, and you’re a lesbian, so we can’t be identical twins.”
I laughed, then took a deep breath. “Perdere,” I whispered, and then I closed my eyes. I couldn’t look at what I’d just done, even if it was the right thing to do. I felt more tears, and tried to squeeze my eyes shut and stop them.
The last thing I heard her say was, “I promise.”
20.
When I finally opened my eyes, I wasn’t in my head anymore, and I wasn’t naked anymore (thank God! Probably literally, too). I was back in the shadow’s cell, and Lucian was standing on the opposite side of the room from me. God was there, too, standing beside me. He helped me to my feet and patted my shoulders.
“I understand how hard that must have been.”
“She’s got a new body, right?” I asked.
He nodded. “Gabe is with her, and helping your mother get adjusted to the idea.” He chuckled. “Gabe and your mother are getting quite attached, I have noticed.”
Though not clashing with his overall obvious kindness, God seemed a little different. So did the shadow, I noticed. I wondered if it had something to do with the two of them standing in the same room.
Lucian growled. “Well, now that little miss sorceress has had her beauty sleep, how about the two of you get the fuck out of my way and let me get this over with?”
God turned to him. “Do you not know who I am, Lucian?”
“Annoying me.”
“You should show your uncle some respect, boy.”
Lucian’s eyes grew wider. “No. You’re… No…”
“I am. And I believe it is time you spent a few centuries in a cage just like your father’s.”
The shadow spoke, and I never thought I’d want to agree with Satan himself, but this I agreed with: “Keep him away from me. It disgusts me to look at him.”
The look on Lucian’s face was priceless.
21.
Jubril was still eating an apple as he walked into God’s office. “Lucian’s all cozy in his cage, and Satan’s cell is hidden away in the magic fabric again. I dunno what happened to Michael, but him being gone was how Lucian found out where his dad’s cage was.” He took a huge bite out of the apple. “Kendra’s mom’s all squared away, and... “ He pulled out a smartphone and looked at it. “Kristana Brewster,” he said, sounding like he wasn’t sure what he was saying, “has been added to reality.”
God was also eating an apple now. “Good. How’s everything else?”
“Well, like I said, Michael’s gone missing, don’t know where he’s out to. Other than, everything’s shiny.”
I raised my eyebrow.
“It’s just something I say.” He took another apple bite. “I’ve got Zadkiel watchin’ over the fabric now, hopefully he won’t up and disappear.”
God nodded. “Good. Now this whole Lucian thing doesn’t seem like a giant clusterfuck that we could have handled ahead of time.”
“Well, if we’d kept a good eye on Michael...”
“Shush.” He turned to me. “Kendra, I’m so sorry for all of this. If I’d known my nephew lived in your hometown before this entire situation, I would have made sure to remove the key from his sight long ago.”
I hugged my knees to my chest. “Nobody’s perfect.” The irony I’d said that to God was not lost on me. “Can I go home now?”
God nodded. “That’s next on the docket. You go home with your mom, your sister and your girlfriend. Gabe goes to visit his kids before he goes on vacation.”
Jubril looked confused. “What?” he asked.
“The lazy one’s down in filing, the trusty one’s out working. You’ve got twenty minutes to visit them before I force you to take a vacation.”
Why did I get the weirdest feeling I was soon going to have an angel as a step-father?
As I stood up, God said, "Just a moment, Kendra. Remember contrarium."
"Huh?"
"It's a spell. Remember it," he said with a shit-eating grin on his face.
22.
When I got home (finally!), I gave Mom a hug, I gave “Kristana” a hug (I also told her I was sorry she had to go by a new name, but she said she was fine with it because she got to pick it out) and then I walked straight into my room and crashed on my bed. It had only been two hours in real world time, but I felt like it had been days. Or, hell, even a month. I just wanted to sleep the rest of the day away and then wake up the following morning and go to school.
I was lying there a good thirty seconds before a pair of soft hands slid under my shirt and started fondling my boobs. I was too tired to stop her, and even if I wasn’t, I’d still be letting her do it. I’d stopped the devil’s son from freeing him and impressed God, this was probably the greatest win somebody could have, and I wanted to celebrate it by letting my girlfriend satisfy me.
“Slip one in my panties, will ya?”
Gabby whispered in my ear, “No problem, babe.”
I moaned a little. “I like it when you call me that.”
She rolled me around, and I saw her very beautiful, smiling face. “But before we get into anything orgasm-inducing, please tell me when you got a twin sister.”
I groaned. “If I promise to write the whole thing as a story, can I get at least one orgasm? I’m gettin’ really wet here.”
She smiled wider. “One and that’s it.”
Coda.
Casey was chatting it up with several of her friends at their private lunch table. They were talking about this, that, probably who they assumed were sluts and who they wanted to fuck badly. Really it was just Casey deciding who was who and her friends going along with it, because they were probably the equivalent of robot slaves for her. Regardless, that's what they were doing.
The table Gabby and Kristana were sitting at was on the opposite side of the cafeteria, but I purposefully walked past Casey's table. As I approached, I caught a little of their conversation.
"Omigawd, who was that creepy drunk guy that was hanging around here earlier? He was cute, but he was... ugh!" Casey exclaimed.
"I know!" Brittney added.
"Totally disgusting," Emily agreed.
"What was he even here for?" Brittney asked.
"To talk to that Mikaela girl," Casey answered. "Probably took her into the bathroom and bent her over a sink. Bet we could hear the screaming if we went out there and checked."
"Uh, no way," Emily said, gagging.
Just hearing that conversation made me curious how this was gonna go, but I took a deep breath, let it out, and whispered, "Contrarium," as I walked past.
And almost immediately, it took effect. Casey's eyes widened, and she stared down at her fingernails. "For fuck's sake!" she almost screamed. Nearly everyone turned to look at her. "What god awful fairy would wear pink nail polish?" She then seemed to realize that she'd styled her hair so that her bangs hung in front of her face. "And why do I have such long hair? What the fuck is going on here?"
"Uh... Casey?" Brittney asked, looking a little confused. The exact same look was mirrored on Emily's face, further making me think they're just robots in people suits. "You okay?"
"No, I'm not okay! Jesus Christ, am I wearing a skirt? What the hell is wrong with me?"
Emily answered, "You always wear your cheerleader uniform on practice day."
"What? I'm not some doofy cheerleader! Ugh, I need to change into something less... Girly... I look like a damn fruit!" She almost angrily stomped out of the cafeteria, looking completely angered by her outfit and her hair.
I walked over to my table and sat next to Gabby, who gave me a peck on the cheek. Kristana asked, "What did you do and how can I do it?"
"Spell God gave me."
Gabby asked, "Wait, you can do magic, too?"
Kristana sighed. "Sadly, no. Ken and I were the same person, now we're different people."
I shoved a handful of french fries in my mouth. "Just wait till she comes back."
"What's gonna happen?" Gabby asked.
"I have no idea, and that makes me giddy."
There was confusion all around the cafeteria, but some of it was barely concealed laughter or giggling. It turned into full-bore laughter when Casey walked back into the cafeteria. In the span of ten minutes, probably raiding some people's lockers, she was decked out in a black half-vest, torn jeans and a pair of combat boots. She'd shaved her head completely, and washed off all of her makeup.
And she was pissed that everybody was laughing at her.
When I took my tray back up after I was done eating, I made sure to go past where she was sitting again, but this time, Brittney and Emily had left. Once again, I whispered, "Contrarium," and once again her eyes went wide as saucers as her original personality took over and realized what it was she'd done to herself.
Her horrified screaming just caused more people to laugh.
I wasn't gonna lie, I didn't feel great about myself for doing that to her, but damn was it satisfying.