Jenny didn't need to be told twice - the dog-thing had been kind of scary even when it wasn't coming after her. She bolted, Tetra tensed up in her pocket. Jenny was a little surprised by the speed she attained - was this just something she could do as a magical girl, like that impossibly high jump she'd made?
It wasn't so easy moving through this part of the mall; there were more people here, and since none of them took any notice of her, it was harder not to hit them. What would happen if she crashed into someone, she wondered? Would they notice her? Would that affect whatever thing Tetra had been talking about?
Luckily, she managed not to hit them. Rounding a corner, she came to the bathrooms and ducked inside the ladies' room. There was one of those odd feelings again, a brief thought that she shouldn't be in here, but it was easily brushed aside. She needed a place to hide...
Jenny dashed into the handicapped stall and shut the door; she felt a little bad about taking this one, but it was larger and would give her room to move. "Wh-what d' we do now, Tetra?" she asked, her voice trembling a bit.
The cat-girl's fur was raised, and her tiny claws were poking at Jenny's chest a bit uncomfortably. "Uh, um...same thing," she said. "Sorry, it's just...dogs...um. You still need to use your weapon to send it home, but you need to be extra-careful not to let it get at you - now that it's noticed you, you're a big tasty piece of magic for it..."
The white-haired girl shuddered. That thing...it wanted to eat her? That was horrible! But...it was probably pretty hungry, in a world where there wasn't very much magic... She almost felt a little sorry for it, though not enough to abate her fear. If she could just send it home, out of this world...that would be best for everybody.
She heard a soft padding footfall and a heavy breath as something entered the bathroom. She couldn't see where it was, though... Jenny looked up at the stall divider - it didn't go all the way up to the ceiling. She could jump up on top of there for a safe perch, but it could easily see her, and while it couldn't reach her from the floor, she thought it could probably jump and snag her...
What was she going to do?
Steve lay on her bed, trying with only limited success to fight back tears. How could her mother do this to her? This past day...it was exactly why she had hidden her change! She was stuck as a flower-thing, she might become even less like her old self, and all her mother could do was try to get her used to it!
How could she get used to it? She kept finding new things to confuse and frighten her, like the possibility that her change might not be over, that she might turn green, or sprout roots...or worse than a change, the thought that she might get pregnant...how could she ever get used to this?
And she had to hide all this from her friends...how could she ever face them like this? But if she was really stuck like this...could she ever see them again? It was all so frightening, to think of never seeing her friends versus having to reveal the truth...
The flower-girl was distracted from that line of thought when there was a knock on the door. "Go away," she snapped, then cringed...she didn't want to sound like that, she just...argh, what was she supposed to do in this situation?
The door opened gently, and she rolled over onto her side to face her mother. The older woman looked sad...was that her fault?
Her mom sighed and sat down on the chair by the door. "Steven," she said, "I...I'm sorry. Maybe I pushed you a little too hard...I just..."
She leaned forward, looking her daughter directly in the eye. "Steven, I don't want you locking yourself away because you're afraid to let the world see your new body. I know this must be strange and frightening for you, but it is really important that you don't let that happen. Denial is a very damaging thing, and it's difficult to get out of once you've gotten into it."
Steve looked at her mother, tears welling up in her eyes. "Mom," she said, "I...I can't do this! Everything's changing on me and even you aren't treating me like you did...this is why I didn't want to tell anyone!"
Her mother nodded. "I understand, dear. I wouldn't want to share this either, if I were in your situation. But sometimes you need to do something, even if you don't want to. You need to trust me, honey...the longer you hide, the more it's going to hurt when the truth finally comes out."
"B-but...you're happy I'm a...a g-girl...you don't know what this is like..."
Her mother shook her head, looking hurt. "No, dear. ...when I say that your new body is lovely, I mean that because it is, not because I want someone to play dress-up with. I want you to know that you're not a monster or a freak, and to treat yourself with respect and care. I'm certainly not happy about this...how could I be, when it hurts my child so much?"
Steve couldn't stop herself from crying now. This was all so wrong...she should never have had to deal with this, but she knew her mother wasn't the kind of person to manipulate her...but she didn't want to just go along with what her mom was saying...
...why couldn't she just go back two weeks?
"Hellooo! You in there?"
Jon snapped back to reality. "Uh, yeah. Sorry, Karyn." She looked down at her taco salad; it was a good choice for her - it had a nice base of greens, which she'd been favoring more than she used to, but plenty of meat and seasonings, which she hadn't lost her appreciation for.
"You're pretty out of it today, Jon. You okay?" The cecaelia-girl looked a little concerned, and placed a tentacle around Jon's foot under the table, trying to be comforting. It was actually more unnerving, but Karyn read Jon's expression and withdrew it sheepishly.
"Uh, yeah," Jon said. "I'm okay, I just...I had a weird feeling back there, like something was following me..."
Karyn smiled. "You're just preoccupied with the whole stone thing...understandably so, but still..."
Jon nodded. "Yeah, guess I am. I just..." She trailed off as she saw someone approaching their table.
It was the dark elf from school. "Oh, uh, hey!" he said, as he noticed them. "Jon, right? And, uh, Karyn?"
Karyn grinned and nodded, and Jon smiled. "Yeah," she said. "Tim, right?"
"Yeah. What are you two up to? Just hanging out?"
"More or less," Karyn said. "Neither of us has really been out much in the past month, so we figured we'd just have a day out and not worry too much about schedule."
Jon nodded, and Tim seemed a little surprised and intrigued by the gentle bob of her antennae. "Basically, yeah. Though Karyn's made up for in ground covered what she's lacking in schedule. How about you?"
"Oh," he said, pulling up a chair, "I'm here to pick up some parts for electronics projects..."
"Really?" Jon said. "Huh. What are you doing?"
"A couple things," he said. "I've got a little sound generator I'm trying to figure out, and I'm kind of working out a plan for building a computer."
Karyn nodded. "Yeah, they say you can save a lot of money that way."
Tim laughed. "No, not putting together a PC. Building a computer out of individual circuits, like they did back in the '70s."
The cecaelia-girl gaped. "What? Isn't that a lot of trouble to go to...?"
He shrugged. "Eh, yeah, if you're just looking for general-purpose computer hardware. But this...it's not going to be anywhere near as compact or powerful, but it will be mine, if you follow."
Jon nodded thoughtfully. "I guess I can see the logic there. So you're more a Shadowrun elf than a D&D; one, then?"
Tim gave her a dour look, but couldn't hide the hint of a smile. "I'm going to give you a baleful glare," he said, "and then you can apologize for that remark."
Jon laughed. "Okaaay, sorry!" His smile emerged from the phony glare, and he chuckled. "I have to admit," he said, "at least that was one I hadn't heard before."
