The receptionist looked at the strange woman - she'd calmed down, at least a bit, but if she couldn't speak English...and that certainly wasn't Spanish she was speaking...this could get difficult. Well, maybe she could try once more. "If you understand me," she said, "would you nod your head?"
Uncomprehending stare. Great. The woman looked desperate. "Jhys ta Anneza Karez!" she said, pointing at the driver's license. "Jhyo damin! Andes sheires cahalin!"
The receptionist sighed and picked up the phone. "Doctor?" she asked. "There's a changed woman here - she doesn't speak English, but I think she's a new transformee. No, that's just a guess; she doesn't seem to understand me at all. No, she doesn't seem to be injured or in pain - I think she might be here for a check-up. A bit distraught, yes. Yes, a driver's license for an Anderson L. Collins. She seemed to be indicating that was her, but don't quote me on it. Yes, I'll see if I can get an interpreter, but I don't recognize the language. In the meantime, would you come down here and see if you can't figure out what she wants?"
Anneza stared nervously at the receptionist. What was she saying? Was she calling security to take the crazy babbling person away? Had...had she recognized the name on her driver's license? Did the ostrich-woman hate her because she'd admitted to being uncomfortable with the changed? Maybe that was what Jay's report had been about - they could have mounted a whole smear campaign against her in revenge for the verdict, and she'd have no idea!
The receptionist dug out a piece of paper and presented it to her, saying some more things she didn't understand. On the page was a list of things; none of them made any sense to her, but she noticed several different sets of characters being used. Was this asking what language she spoke? Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't on here. She looked at the receptionist and shook her head sadly. The ostrich-woman sighed and returned to her desk.
The next couple of minutes were awkward for Anneza, as she tried to figure out whether she should get out of there in case she was in trouble, or whether things were going to work out and she should stick around. In the end, she stayed in place until a tall, slender woman came out to see her. Anneza had never been into fantasy, but she recognized the general "elf" look.
The woman spoke a few words to her, but Anneza only stared in confusion, replying that she didn't understand, which the woman obviously didn't get either. She motioned to the driver's license, and then to Anneza, who smiled and nodded. Maybe they were finally understanding!
The doctor turned to the receptionist. "It's nothing I've heard, either," she said. "I guess with no way of determining what her problem is, we ought to give her a standard check-up. Does she have insurance?"
The receptionist nodded. "Yeah, if 'Anderson' is her. She's...uh, he's been in here a few times in the past year, nothing major. Last time was three weeks ago; he made a very particular point out of not seeing a changed doctor."
"Oh, now I remember him!" the doctor said. "Cripes. Well, a patient's a patient. See if you can't get in a translator who knows more than just Spanish, will you?"
The receptionist nodded. The doctor moved to leave the waiting room, and motioned for Anneza to follow. She sighed in relief - finally she was getting somewhere!
Alex muffled a yelp of surprise as the door to his hiding place opened and a figure hopped inside. He held still for a moment as he wondered if he'd been discovered, and what would happen if he had. He held absolutely still for a minute; he was aware of someone beside him, breathing like they were tense or excited. When he couldn't hold it in any longer, he whispered: "Who's there?"
There was a pause. "Alex?" came a girl's voice. "So this is where you are!"
"S-Sally!?" he gasped. "You're not supposed to be here! What if something happens to you!?"
"Well what about you!?" she asked. "I'm not going to let you go off on some weird adventure and have all the fun! Besides, you're just as likely to get in trouble as I am!"
Alex moaned. "I didn't want you to get in trouble on my account if something happened," he said. "Mom and Dad are gonna kill me..."
"Ah, don't worry about it," she said. "I'll tell them I stayed here on my own. That's pretty much true anyway. ...say, is there someone else in here?"
"No," Alex replied. "Just us." Though he didn't say it, he did feel kind of relieved - he was nervous about this as much as he was excited, and having someone to go through it with him felt like it'd make things easier.
"Huh," she said. "Weird...it kinda felt like there was for a moment."
Brittany smiled to herself; though she still felt sad that she was only real to the changed students, and only within this school...maybe she wasn't quite so ghostly as she thought. Maybe some day the rest of her self would be drawn back to this future she had found herself in...
Jon arrived at school feeling much better - she would have been downright chipper if it weren't for the fact that she was still a girl and still half-slug. But her period was over with. In the back of her mind she knew it would be rolling around again all too soon, and several times more before she'd be able to get out of this scrape, but for now it was just over.
"Morning, Karen!" she said, smiling at her best friend.
The cecaelia-girl grinned. "Good morning, Jon. Feeling a little better?"
The slug-girl nodded. "For the moment, at least. What a pain in the ass!"
Karyn laughed. "Now all you have to do is get through...oh, five more months of this?"
Jon smiled bitterly to herself. Only five more months. Already she knew how to put on her bra, already she'd gone through one period...the fears she'd had upon first returning to school were beginning to creep back into her mind - just how well could she resist adjusting too much to her changes?
They went to class; it was still a bit early, but Sarah and Michael were already there. Brittany was curiously absent, though - Jon couldn't think of a time in the past week when she wasn't there well before class started. Huh.
Haru...Harry was feeling a little better this morning. She was still dealing with the whole menstruation thing, and that was just as uncomfortable as it'd been yesterday, but she was happy that things were finally starting to get a little better in other areas of her life.
She'd made up with Ken, which was a relief, and they were going to go catch a movie this evening. And she'd reconciled with Zoe, too - she wasn't sure that they were going to be best friends or anything, but at least she'd apologized for dumping on the slime-girl, and gotten an apology for being treated so brusquely. It felt good to get this stuff off her chest, it really did. And she'd had a better second session with the band - she still needed a lot more practice with her flute, but it felt more like she fit in there, and less like she was an interloper.
That wasn't to say there weren't things to be concerned about. She still needed to break the news to the rest of the band that she had been a boy. She still needed to figure out this whole name question, too. She was still trying to come to terms with her altered sight and the things it showed her - she shuddered at the thought of what she'd seen Tiffany doing yesterday.
And there was the meeting with the counselor this afternoon...she'd already talked with her a bit yesterday, but she'd promised to come in on Fridays and talk...and she wasn't at all sure she was ready for the kind of things the gorgon might ask her.
Anneza sat in the waiting room, shuddering, fighting back tears. So humiliating...what had she done to deserve this!?
They'd been going through a normal checkup - that was annoying, but she went along with it, not wanting to make them kick her out before she had a chance to get them to understand that she needed her speech restored. But then they'd had her sit down in some kind of weird chair with separate footrests, and they'd brought out some metal thing...
She'd loudly protested when she realized what was going on, but the doctor just looked at her and said something. She hadn't understood a word of it, of course, but the tone was clear - it was that condescending "don't be such a baby" tone...of course that hadn't changed her mood at all, but if she fought they might kick her out...
She winced at the memory. Why did this have to happen to her? Why, why, why? It seemed like they were finally taking steps to address her real problems - they'd made signs about talking to her, before leaving her to wait - but why couldn't they have done that before!?
