Effie couldn't hold back and didn't really want to. It felt a little embarassing to be bawling like this, like a reminder of just how much she had changed - who would look at this wildly emotional wreck of a creature and not think she was just being a typical moody teenage girl? But she really did feel...so many things. Scared, hurt, lonely, lost... She felt like she wanted her old self to be gone to escape from the guilt, yet she was terrified that it might have actually happened, she wanted to sever herself from her old life completely and yet she missed her parents, she had no idea what would become of her...
She looked up at Dennis; at some point, she wasn't exactly sure when, she'd wound up with her head in his lap. She sniffled. "I'm...I'm sorry, I shouldn't be...dragging you into this..."
He smiled gently, softly brushing her cheek. "It's all right...I don't mind."
She sighed. "I'm...I'm just...look at me, I'm such a wreck...one little thing and I just lose it..."
Dennis shook his head. "Are you kidding? You've got more than enough reason to be torn up...with everything you've been through, Effie, it's amazing that you've held up as well as you have..."
She blinked in surprise, tears trickling down her cheeks. "R-really?" A hint of a smile showed at the corner of her mouth.
The DOS fairy nodded. "I think it's because you're such an optimist. You're always so cheerful...even when we're in trouble you're always trying to find a way out...I like that."
She smiled for real that time. "Thanks..."
"You're welcome," he said. "We should get some sleep, too..."
Steven was nervous enough that even the walk downstairs to the kitchen was filled with trepidation. She was going back to school...as a girl. People would see that she was a girl - she was a bit underdeveloped, but with her pink hair and pink petal-skirt, and her lithe legs, there was no way she could pass as a boy anymore, not without multiple layers of clothing to hide everything.
That was the other thing, the thing that made it that much more intimidating - she was going in just her built-in clothes after all. She hadn't wanted to, but she'd discovered last night that wearing multiple layers of clothing kept her too warm. That had started her sweating, which was enough of a problem, but the sweating had also kicked the production of her scent into overdrive, that sweet lilac-like perfume that smelled...just too girly!
She certainly wasn't planning on wearing perfume, yet her own body was producing it. If it had been something mild, that would be one thing, but it wasn't - it was noticeable enough under normal circumstances, but when she started getting too hot, it was downright intoxicating. She had weighed the options, and had eventually come to the conclusion that wearing a backless top and knee-length skirt would be less embarrassing than going around smelling like an ultra-concentrated lilac bush.
Her mother was waiting in the kitchen. "Good morning, dear," she smiled, simultaneously a bit regal and the warm, maternal figure Steven had known for years. "How are you feeling?"
The flower-girl bit her lip. "N-nervous..."
Her mom nodded sagely. "I'm sure you are. I want you to know that I'm very proud of you for going through with this anyway."
Steven frowned. It wasn't like it was her idea! But on the other hand...her mother hadn't exactly forced her, either. She rarely did anything so drastic...far more often she just sort of persisted her son-turned-daughter into agreeing.
"I just...I don't want them to..."
"To treat you like a girly-girl, right?" her mother asked. Steven nodded.
"I think you have to be prepared for the fact that some of them will do that," Mrs. Daguerre said. "But once you get to know people, I think they'll learn to interact with you based on who you are. Like your friend Ben; he wasn't sure how to treat you at first, but he came around, didn't he?"
The flower-girl nodded. "Yeah..." But Ben was someone who already knew Steven and only needed a reminder...how long would it take for people she'd never met!?
Max felt her heart race as she stepped off the bus. She had avoided attention during the drive by hiding towards the back, but now she would be in the school, among all the other students, all the other changed students, and moving around...would they notice? Was it even possible that they wouldn't? She didn't know...she didn't have any experience with this, any frame of reference.
As she walked into the building and down the hall, she couldn't stop thinking about it. Do I stand out? Are they looking at me? Are they noticing my breasts? Is the bra holding them still well enough to avoid drawing attention? Is it pushing them out too much? Am I walking too girly? Too catlike? How could she even tell!? The thoughts were strange, the sensations were stranger...
She saw Jon just coming back from the lockers. In a way, Max envied the slug-girl - she had had over a month to get used to this. She moved casually in her changed body, not exactly like a natural girl, but like she had gotten past all the strangeness and things she didn't know and learned how things worked in her new form. If only Max could do that...but she'd only been a catgirl for a week, how could she have gotten so familiar with it yet?
Jon, however, had her thoughts elsewhere entirely. She'd brought the stone and book with her to school, well-concealed deep in her backpack. Just now she'd put them in her locker, wrapped in a a plastic grocery bag to look like a cheapo sack lunch. And she had put a new padlock on the door. Was she being paranoid? Probably, but with what could happen if it fell into the wrong hands...
She tried to calm herself. Think of something else...was Tiffany here? She needed to take a look and see if Karyn was r...argh, no, she couldn't stop thinking about it! The thought of talking to Brittany, of finally finding out what secret she held that linked her, the book, and the stone all together...it tantalized her brain, a million possibilities flitting in and out. She wanted to know, to discover...she wondered if this was what her grandfather felt.
But she couldn't just go dashing off and strike up a conversation in the middle of class. She'd have to be discreet. And if she could get Karyn along, that would be good, too. She'd have to wait until she had some time between class...and then she could find out her answer.
