After a short car ride the girls arrived at the mall. Jenny had been to the mall as Jon, but it was never an event, usually an errand, or maybe to see a movie, but it wasn't a place he ever thought to go. This was clearly not the case for his companions who sat in the front of the car carefully planning the day ahead, where they would go and what they would do, as if they were planning a trip to an amusement park. This was in-between hemming and hawing about Jenny's mother and how unfair she was being to Sarah in particular who just wanted to be with her boyfriend, which was confusing in the first place, so Jenny asked.
"What happened to Biff? Don't you miss him?"
Sarah got a far away look in her eyes for a second, as if she wasn't there anymore and then just as suddenly snapped back to reality.
"Oh, yeah...I'd almost forgotten...funny." She said in the daze. And then slyly she said " Lets just say you weren't the only one who got an upgrade in The Deal"
Jenny protested " I wouldn't call this an upgrade" gesturing to herself and hitting her boobs in the process as the car bobbled down the road.
To which Tiffany cooed "You'll get used to it, eventually your brain should start recognizing who you have become"
It was an odd way to phrase it, and Jenny noticed that, Tiffany and Sarah were different than she remembered them being before. Maybe it was just reputation, maybe he never really knew them as Jon, only who he thought they were, but the differences were stark. Sarah seemed more boy crazy and moody and bossy than she was before (and maybe a bit dumber, but it was hard to tell if that was an act) She seemed less in command of the situation that Jon always felt she was, less like she owned the world and more like she was renting it at a good price.
Tiffany was even more different, she seemed less boy crazy and smarter than Jon remembered, she was still a very sexy girl, but now it seemed to be a feminine sexy and not a slutty sexy.Tiffany felt like an older sibling, when she talked it seemed almost wise sometimes, and Jenny found herself wanting to listen to what Tiffany had to say, and ignoring Sarah.
They arrived at the mall, both girls were equally excited. Jenny was expecting some sort of ambush, a unwanted make over, an unwanted education in what it is to be a girl, but none such thing happened. Jenny was a passenger on a trip from shop to shop, and yes she was asked to try on things, and yes she did once, but mostly was giving opinions on what the other two girls were trying on, telling them if she thought they looked cute or not. Jon would have no idea what that even meant, girls usually looked good, he didn't understand how or why, it probably had something to do with cleavage but he couldn't explain why he thought that, it was more of a gut thing, but asked over and over again Jenny found herself developing opinions. For example she had figured out that Sarah didn't look good in dark colors, but that her eyes really shone in blues and greens and that her she looked best if you drew attention upwards from the bottom and that Tiffany couldn't pull off oranges or yellows. Jenny was finally talked into trying on a top, which flowed down like a dress without actually being one, you could wear leggings or jeans under it as she was, and found that she really liked the way it accented her hair and made her look a little taller, and the girls agreed and beamed at her as she said these things.
About three hours had passed and Jenny was starting to get antsy, waiting for the other shoe to drop, when the girls sat her down on a bench to engage in some people watching. Tiff and Sarah talked around Jenny, about passing by people and stores, and things they had tried on, which became a sort of hypnotic background noise to the waves of people passing by as they shopped. Then suddenly Tiffany turned to Jenny and said "Quick who are they" She was pointing at two girls coming towards them, and without messing a beat Jenny responded "Jessica and Phee" though she wasn't sure where that knowledge came from, it didn't feel like knowledge, more like a wild guess. Sarah and Tiffany smiled at each other. The test had been passed. They waved the girls over.
Jessica and Phee were both also on the squad and had been their the night that Jon was transformed, though Phee had been known as Amber before, and now went by here middle name of Phoebe or Phee for short, another one of those little changes. Jessica was a tradition tall blonde, statuesque and charming, and Amber was shorter and redder and felt like she had more energy than most people knew what to do with. They came over and immediately started chatting with Tiffany and Sarah about stores and things, and while Jenny didn't join in she felt like she could at any moment, she felt like she knew these people, like she had heard these conversations before. It was like being in a play, and you know all your lines but choose not to say them, but the play just kept happening before you. Oh, this is the part where I agree and this is the part where I giggle and this is the part where I make a joke and we all laugh. She felt oddly like a part of this group, and was only taken out of it, by seeing a girl walk by in a green jumper who she recognized.
The other girls were laughing, having a good time, and Jenny heard and was tempted by it all, it all seemed so right that all of this was happening, like it had happened before and was going to happen again, but this girl walking by in the crowd had a similar but different sensation to her, and as Jenny looked in her face, through her short red hair...she knew she knew her. There was no such recognition in the other girls eyes though, and she just kept walking. Jenny knew her...what was her name.... she looked for it but there was nothing there.
Even though the other girls were laughing, they all noticed this moment, for all of this was for Jenny's benifit, all of it was a test, to see if they could wake up the female mind that had been living in that body for the 16 years before. All the thoughts and knowlege that brain had was still in there, every song that had been played on the way over, Jenny knew them even if Jon didn't, all the shops, and fashion Jenny had instincts for and a sense of self and style that was alien to Jons mind but not to this body's brain, and all of these friends and faces had been seen by Jenny's eyes before, Jenny knew these people, Jon didn't, it was all a matter of reminding the brain what the mind didn't know, and Jenny's brain had never met Karyn Black, they didn't travel in the same circles at all, it wasn't a name in Jenny's brain to pull from. So when Jon's mind recognized her, Jenny couldn't put a name to the face...and Karyn walked on.
"Who was that" Phee asked
"I'm not sure" Said Jenny with that same fair away look in her eyes that Sarah had when asked about Biff, and for some reason, that made everyone relax a lot and before Jenny knew it, she was in the conversation.
Karyn walked through the mall. She didn't like it here, but work was something to do, so she walked, trying to avoid the cheerleaders who were chattering as always, one of whom tried to stare her down, and into her store, where she braced herself for another shift with that weird goth chick they had just hired, Athena.
