Steve didn't know what to think. She'd say she was going crazy, but in this altered world, who even knew what crazy was anymore? She had gone from a boy to a girl to a...flower-girl, her mother was communing with her whole garden...why shouldn't she be princess of the trees or something? It made just as little sense (or as much nonsense, maybe) as anything else in the past two weeks of her life did.
Still...she felt a little bad for feeling so dismissive. Whether she was crazy or not, the trees were just being polite to her...she turned and waved at them, mustering the best smile she could under the circumstances. Somehow she felt that they appreciated it.
She wondered what awaited her at the arcade. Obviously none of her friends from school would be there, but what about some of the other regulars? She wasn't really best buddies with them or anything, but they were on good terms. And a few of them she hadn't seen in a while...had any of them been changed, she wondered?
Steve frowned as she felt herself getting a bit warm. The sweatpants were the best at...well, hiding her now-girlier legs, but they were a bit too heavy for this kind of weather - it was still the tail end of summer, only just getting into fall, and the afternoons were quite warm. She had almost thought of going out with only her petal-skirt and underwear, but...she couldn't do it. Not in front of her friends. It was going to be awkward enough even seeing them, if she were there that late...
Jenny frowned. Why did this girl get to tell other people what to do, just 'cause she had a...a big brother? All she had wanted was a turn on the swing - she wasn't being selfish or anything, but the squirrel-girl had come along and pushed her off! Why did she have to be mean about it? She didn't want to get into a fight or anything, but...if she just walked away, wouldn't the other girl keep picking on her? She didn't want to let her just get her way...
Jenny walked over in front of the swing and stood there, folding her arms and looking just a bit sullen. She wasn't going to try to fight the squirrel-girl, but if she just talked to her...her big brother couldn't tell her not to do that, right?
Billy had stopped paying much attention to the white-haired girl when she looked like she was sufficiently cowed, and focused on enjoying the swing - or rather, enjoying the fact that she had the swing, as something about having to take it back kind of spoiled the actual thing. But now the girl was back...she was just standing there, looking kind of angry...
Something about the way this girl looked when she was upset made her uneasy. She wanted her to stop, to go away, but she felt a little scared to get in a fight with her...
"Stacy!" she hollered. "That girl's lookin' at me!"
She hated doing that. She was supposed to be the big brother, the one who came in and drove the bullies away...and the way it came out when she said it sounded so whiny...but it worked, at least.
Jenny looked around nervously, fearing the approach of the rumored big brother. (But she thought "Stacy" was a girls' name?) The elf...boy? had taken a step or two back, and was motioning for her to do the same, but she felt like she ought to stand her ground. She'd...she'd fought a shadow-monster, hadn't she? Even though she wasn't so good at it, that was a lot scarier than whatever this boy was...right?
It wasn't long before the call was answered. An older boy, maybe thirteen years old, came over to the swing set. In reality, his frown was more of annoyance than wrath, and his stompy gait was due to the fact that he was an anthropomorphic Tyrannosaurus Rex trying to maintain an upright human stance for which he was not really built anymore, but to Jenny he seemed like a real live Godzilla. Subconsciously, she crouched down, legs tensed, ready to bolt.
"What is it, Billy?" the monster said. It was hardly the roar the little white-haired girl was expecting, but it had an unearthly resonance and a reptilian hiss to it nonetheless.
"She's lookin' at me while I'm swingin'!" the squirrel-girl said. "Make her stop!" There she was, sounding like a child again...and she felt her lip beginning to curl into a pout. Argh, why did she have to be so childish!? She'd been so much cooler as an older boy, she knew it!
The dinosaur regarded Jenny with an expression that she was completely incapable of reading and desperately hoped wasn't hunger. Finally he turned back to the squirrel-girl, who had come to rest on the swing and was looking pleadingly at her brother.
"She's looking at you?" he said. "So what? She's just looking."
There was the full-on pout Billy had been trying to hold back. "She wanted my swing!" she said. "An' I took it back and now she's lookin' at me to bug me!"
The T-Rex sighed. "Hey," he said, turning back to Jenny. "Why're you looking at her?"
Jenny opened her mouth to say something, but no words came at first. "I-I wanted a t-turn!" she said. "But she p-p-pushed me off!" She frowned at the squirrel-girl. "That wasn't nice," she said. "I didn't do anythin' mean to you!"
Billy scowled. "You...you can't talk like you're so good!" she said. "You didn't even hafta change! You just got wh-white hair! You didn't turn inta a kid anna girl anna stupid squirrel! You got everythin' so easy an' now you want my swing t-too..." She started to cry, wishing she could hold back the tears but knowing she couldn't.
For the first time, Jenny felt a little sympathy for her. "Y-you w're a...boy?" she asked. Did the sun do that? For some reason this made her feel very sorry for the squirrel-girl, though she had no idea why...
"Y-yeah," Billy snapped. "An' I was a big kid too, an' now I'm a...little girl an' I hafta be a stupid thing like a s-s-squirrel...awww!" She was really crying now, not grown-up sobs but a child's wail. Jenny went over to her and hugged her. "'m sorry it makes you sad t' be like this," she said. "But you can't just be mean to people 'cause you're mad...that's not nice."
The squirrel-girl looked at her, confused, and sniffled. "'Sides," Jenny said, "it's not so bad to be a girl..."
"R-really?" Billy asked, staring curiously at the strange white-haired girl.
They tooled around the mall for a little longer after Max picked up the cat food...the clerk gave her a bit of a bemused look, but said nothing, which was comforting. When they'd had their fill, the four teenagers made their way out to the bus stop by the mall parking lot and waited.
"So, Max," Karyn said. "what's your family like? Are any of them transformed, too?"
The catgirl shook her head. "It's just my parents and me," she said. "They're normal...I'm the only changed one..." That made her feel even more like a freak, that she was the only person in her family who wasn't human...well, except for Basty.
Karyn nodded, feeling a little bad for bringing it up. "Me too," she said, as they got on the bus. "My parents have tossed around the idea of exposing themselves, but I asked them not to."
"Tim, didn't you mention your sister was changed?" Jon asked. The dark elf nodded. "Yeah, she's half-dragon...she changed about three weeks ago. My dad, too...he's, um...she's a naiad now. There's a creek out back of our house that's her body of water."
Karyn cocked an eyebrow. "Really?"
He nodded. "Yeah, it's...kind of odd. The really strange thing is...um...my mom actually likes her like this."
Jon blinked, trying not to gawk. "Huh...wow. Well, um, at least they're happy..."
He chuckled. "Yeah...so, uh, how about you, Jon?"
"My parents are unchanged," the slug-girl replied. "But my little brother is my little sister, and she's a robot, and my middle sister is a slime-mold."
The drow-boy blinked. "A what?"
"A slime mold," Jon said. "It's, uh...kind of what it sounds like, really. She's slime made up of millions of little single cells in a single, uh, membrane. She's kind of fluid, but she's usually shaped to look pretty much like her old self, except she's transparent. I don't know whether she does that on purpose or whether it's a kind of a default shape for her."
"Huh, interesting," Tim said. Max looked a little nauseous...she'd though Karyn was a little unnerving, but that!? She felt bad for feeling that way, but still...this day-side world was going to take so much getting used to...
"H-hey, we're here!" the catgirl said. "Come on, you guys! I want you to meet Basty!"
