Muriel glanced behind while sitting at the driver seat to make sure the two girls were secure in the back before going. Jenny smiled joyously and looked forward to getting home. Lilly had a little trouble sitting comfortably with her two tails in the way. A car seat just wasn't designed for something like her. In the end she curled her tails under her legs. It wasn't comfortable, but it was manageable this way.
The squirrel girl looked down at her dress a little pensively. She wasn't sure... what to think. Sometimes she missed being a boy, and being older... but there were times when she was actually... happy too. It wasn't that she wanted to be a girl though... and an animal at that. So... what did she want? She did want her parents to be proud of her... and she wanted to be Jenny's friend. She liked that especially... she didn't really want to lose that.
Finally they drove up to Lilly's house. Muriel got up and opened the car door for the squirrel girl, as she stepped onto the side walk her paws almost looking like she was tiptoeing. Jenny also got out, to say her goodbyes.
"Mph!" Lilly squeaked at the hug she received from Jenny.
"Bye bye! See you tomorrow!" the white haired girl said with a giggle.
Lilly smiled shyly, her twin tails curling to the sides of her body. "T-Thanks. See you tomorrow."
Muriel rang the door bell smiling faintly at the two friends.
Lilly's father opened the door and gasped. "Muriel- this isn't a house call is it?" He asked.
The police woman chuckled again. "No not at all. I'm just dropping Lilly off."
"Ah. Did you have a nice time with Jenny?" He asked his new daughter.
Lilly looked up still a bit shyly at the voice of her father. "Y-yes." Though for some reason embarrassed to talk about it further to him. She ducked into the house before giving a little wave to Jenny and bounding up the stairs.
Lilly's father shook his head. "She's... a little strange now."
"It's understandable," Said Muriel.
"Hi sis," smiled Stacy. The Dinosaur boy leaned forward with his muscular torso and large set jaws. The smile showed his pointy teeth.
Lilly didn't mind how her brother looked... it was just strange that they were now in the opposite situation. He was now her older brother... and she was the younger sister. That they were both animals of a kind, was also quite strange. The squirrel jumped to her older brother's shoulder, wrapping herself around his neck like he was a tree-branch.
"Did you have a nice day?" He asked.
"Uh huh... Jenny is now my best friend," She said shyly. "Did you.. have fun?"
Stacy thought about it. "Wasn't easy... Julian asked me to join his gang. I bit his shirt off."
"S-stay away from him!" Lilly said adamantly. "He's bad..."
The dinosaur boy petted his sister gently, running his claws along the top of her head to the tips of her tails. He knew Billy liked that. "I'll never forgive him for pickin' you up like that." He growled a little forcefully.
"It was my fault..." she sniffled.
"No it's not. You're little now.. he's got no right to do anything to you."
"I'm... I'm glad I have a brother like you," Lilly said cuddling him.
"And I'm glad you're my sister," he said stroking her fur.
"Are... are you gonna make new friends?" she asked.
Stacy smiled again, bearing his teeth. "I've made a lot of new friends at school too. Being a dinosaur has quite a few advantages." While it was true a few of them just thought they could use him, there were also some genuine transformed people that really liked him too. That he used to be a young girl was... an adjustment. No question there. But her simplicity to things made the transformation into a dinosaur seem almost natural. With age also came a greater understanding then he had ever known before. Little things like knowing the time when before she struggled... or even spelling various words. It didn't feel like she 'lost' her time exactly... just that she grew up quickly.
Lilly was glad her brother was doing okay. as he walked back into her room carrying her. The squirrel-girl glanced around and suddenly felt a little anxious to make sure the things she collected were still under her bed. She jumped down and felt a palpable sense of relief that they were untouched... then felt a little embarrassed that she even had this 'hoarding' instinct.
"Good night sister," Said Stacy as he hunched under the door frame to get to his own room.
Lilly tried to get some rest...
Haru was back home and on her computer. She went onto you tube and found the music video her band had improvised, along with the picture of them. She scrolled down the various comments... there were about 200 hits on it so far. That was pretty good, she thought. Though she was embarrassed a little at the idea of people hearing words that made no sense... from her own lips. The comments themselves were mostly encouraging. There were a few critics but then, this was the internet...
She listened to the song again, trying to understand what she was saying. She turned the volume up a little, trying to hear her own voice in the recording.
"What are you listening to?" asked her mother.
Haru glanced. "It's.. It's just something we made in school," The three eyed girl explained.
"It's very nice. Maybe you could be a musician one day" she smiled.
Haru shook her head. "I- I don't think I'm that talented. We just.. mess around really. That's all."
"So did all the greats... and you could get better with practice. That's all it takes." her mother said placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder. She looked at the picture curiously, with her friends. She noted the fox-boy beside Haru, and noted that he seemed to be... sneaking a little glance at the photo to her daughter. It wasn't obvious exactly, but a mother did know these things. Still she didn't want to embarrass Haru over it.
Haru played the song one more time for her mother, as she listened.
"It sounds almost... dream like," she said. "New age perhaps?"
"I just wish I knew what I was saying," Haru said.
"Hmm... I rather like mysteries."
Haru smiled a bit as she listened to the strange whisper at the end. Why did it sound... urgent to her? Like a message maybe? But that didn't make any sense... maybe she could listen to that part al little closer.
Lilly couldn't sleep... she pulled the covers off her bed, and her twin tails twirled in anticipation. She had an idea in her head, and it just wouldn't leave her alone. She just had to get her telescope to see the sky. It was broken but.. maybe she could fix it?
She carefully pulled the old telescope from the shelf, and unpacked it. The box claimed it was capable of spotting planets as far as Jupiter. However it was a very simple telescope. There was no lens on it, just a large mirror at the bottom magnifying an eye piece to the side. There was also no way to actually 'program' it to see much... it was all manually done. A telescope that would be at home in the 19th century.
She had lost the eyepiece a long time ago... but maybe... could she have found it in her hoarding? For some reason, she loved shiny small objects and just had to put them under her bed. She anxiously looked through the various pieces of things she had collected... yes! She couldn't believe it. She actually had the eye piece!
She slowly put the telescope together, and pointed it out her window. She wanted to see the moon, but it had drifted away from view now. She felt a little saddened for that... the telescope was very good at moon watching. Glancing around though, she could see the morning star, Venus. Getting this telescope to see something so far was going to be extremely difficult, given that she had to move it all manually and it was very imprecise.
She shifted the telescope several times, only black sky greeting her view. She wasn't sure how long she spent trying to line up the telescope with Venus, it must have been almost an hour. It was surprising nobody had even woken up by her doing all this. But then they were used to the squirrel girl making a little noise now and then...
She was about to give up, when an idea hit her. She drew the curtains a bit around her window, to narrow the field of view. This also had the effect of blocking out a lot of the other lights. She guided her eye from the telescope stand to the window once more, aligning it carefully. With this setup, she had a much better chance now...
... and there it was. She saw the planet Venus, looking like a small white disc of light. She smiled a bit at it, wondering what it might look like to go there. She couldn't remember what it was supposed to be like. What colour were the rocks? Was it really hotter then Earth? How long would it take a rocket to get there?
On seeing the planet so close with her primitive telescope, she felt like she had to make a wish on it. It wasn't a star exactly but... it felt nice to at least pretend it was. But what wish to make? She wasn't really sure what... it's not as if her wish would 'actually' be granted... but it was a thought. If she wished to be a boy again, she might not be friends any more with Jenny or Artemis. She didn't want to give that up! She liked playing with them. But she was also a little awkward around other girls... she wasn't always this shy.
"I wish I knew how to be a girl sometimes," She said softly to herself- then bit her lip at that thought. She then looked again to the planet. "Um... I wish that me, Jenny, and Artemis could be friends forever," she said softly.
