The feeling of being grabbed and manipulated by a part her body hadn't even had until a little over an hour ago was a new one for Ricky - but then, so was pretty much every sensation she'd had in the past hour. It was a little like being grabbed by the hair, only not actually painful - just odd, in the way that the force of it was levered by the shaft to jerk her body around slightly. Still, for all that Anne hadn't exactly practiced this kind of thing before, she managed to keep most of her effort directed into winding the mainspring inside Ricky's torso. It couldn't actually move until the key was released, but the new clockwork girl could feel the potential energy build up.
She said nothing, for the moment, worried that she might unintentionally let on who she was, and Anne kept winding, gradually finding it more resistant, until it was suddenly a little looser, and there was a clicking noise as the key slipped. Apparently, in between the shaft and the spring was some kind of clutch that kept the spring from being over-wound and broken - Ricky hadn't even considered the possibility, but she was immensely relieved when she realized it. Anne released the winding key, which began to turn, and Ricky could once more feel life return to her limbs.
She turned to her rescuer. "Um, thanks," she said. She was a little stunned at the sound - her voice had not only become distinctly feminine in timbre and pitch, but it had picked up strange, metallic harmonics around the edges of the sounds, as it resonated through her chest and reflected off the countless parts inside of her. It wasn't unpleasant - indeed, it had an almost musical quality - but it was distinctively different from a human voice.
Anne smiled, wiping her forehead. "Don't mention it," she said. "What happened to you?"
"I...ran down," Ricky replied, still amazed that that was now a thing that could happen to her. "I guess I was pushing myself too hard..." Actually, she wasn't sure whether that was a factor - would she be able to go longer if she weren't running full-tilt? The distance traveled was the same, but then, even as a human it'd been easier to do a continuous walk than a continuous run...
Anne looked concerned, her eyes magnified in an odd way by her glasses. "Were...were you running from someone? Are you okay?"
The clockwork girl decided to keep the story about Jeff to herself - again, she didn't want to let on who she was, and she certainly didn't want to tell Anne about what'd happened with the mermaid. "N...no," she said. "I...I just wanted to get home before it got too late..."
"Aww," Anne said. "Yeah, I guess it is late, for you. Here, I'll tell you what: I'll see you home, just in case you need help again."
"No, that's okay," Ricky said. "I'm almost home, I'll be okay."
"No, really, it's no trouble. I don't have anywhere to be just yet. I don't mind, really."
Something about her insistence made it difficult for Ricky to want to argue further - and it wasn't like she knew where he had lived, anyway, there was no reason for her to suspect anything. "O-okay," she said, and started back towards home, this time at a much more leisurely pace. Anne followed, but for some reason hung back just behind her...it wasn't until a little later that Ricky realized that, to this girl - to the other girl, she was now one of the changed, an object of special fascination - and probably all the more so considering that, as far as she knew, this type was quite rare (so much so that she'd never even heard of it before.)
There were robot-changed with a vaguely similar doll-like appearance, she knew, but she'd never heard of an actually wholly mechanical person before - or was she? She had some kind of power source even when her mainspring had run down - did she have a battery inside her somewhere? But if she had electrical components, why didn't she have a computer brain like the robot-changed did? She didn't know...she hardly knew all that much about them to begin with, she'd been almost singularly focused on...outward aesthetics, not so much on the nitty-gritty of how the various types of sun-changed actually lived. Now it was suddenly a lot more relevant to her...
"So," Anne said, after a little while, "does that happen often?"
"I, uh..." Ricky began, haltingly. How much did she actually want to share, here? But...oh, what the heck. Again, it wasn't like Anne could reasonably connect her new form with her old self. And...it did feel kind of neat to finally be able to talk with someone who shared her interest...even if the subject of discussion was now herself. "I don't know," she said. "I...just changed today."
Anne's eyes widened. "Really?" she asked. "How did that happen? If you don't mind my asking."
Ricky wasn't about to tell her about Julian - not that most people in the school had cared about his social life, but he was probably known as one of the wolf's loose associates. Besides, she might start pushing Ricky to seek retribution, and that would draw a lot of attention to her... "I...there was an accident," she said. "One of our windows got broken, and I got caught in the sunlight."
"Oh, wow," Anne said. "Talk about dumb luck." Ricky couldn't at all tell whether she meant it was good or bad dumb luck, but at least Anne didn't let herself sound too enthused over something that another person was still coming to terms with. "How did your parents take it?" she asked.
"Um...I haven't told them yet." Ricky sighed - or it felt like a sigh. She realized now that she didn't actually breathe, but there was a release of tension somewhere in one of her springs that seemed like kind of the same thing, accompanied by a gentle zzzzz as the gear it was powering first accelerated and then rapidly slowed to a stop. "They were out visiting some friends when it started. They probably still are, actually." She'd put such an emphasis on them not being home for fear of the "vandals" that she'd invented to cover for Julian...and himself...
"Ah." Anne eyed her curiously. "Do you...I could stay with you, until they get back..."
"N-no, that's okay, really," Ricky stammered. If Anne were there when her mom and dad got home, she'd find out everything...
"Really?" Anne said. "Look, I'd hate for you to run down again and them come home to that, you yourself said that you don't know how often it happens..."
"It's fine!" Ricky said. She felt a little snappish, but somehow it failed to come out as the firm negative that she'd intended. It seemed like her reactions were so different, so much milder, without a bloodstream to carry adrenaline and other hormones...yet somehow she did still have emotions; she wondered how that worked.
Anne said nothing, for a minute. "...Well, okay," she said. "I just don't want you winding up in any more trouble, is all." But she sounded more disappointed than that.
"I...yeah," Ricky said. "Thanks...I do appreciate it, really. But...you saw, I can move, even when I'm...run down...if it does happen, I can explain to them, and they can help..."
Anne nodded. "...Okay."
They walked on the rest of the way in silence. It didn't feel like Anne was resentful, to Ricky, but...there was no missing that she was disappointed. The clockwork girl actually felt kind of bad about it - she understood how Anne must feel, and she could empathize...even if it was weird to be the object of her interest...
At last they came to Ricky's house. "Well, this is it," she said. "Thanks again, really...I don't know what I would've done without you..."
Anne smiled, lifted out of her funk a little. "Don't mention it," she said. "I...I know this is still probably a lot for you to deal with, but...I think you should know, if it's any consolation...you got to become something pretty fascinating."
It wasn't really much of a consolation, but Ricky understood all that she meant by that, even if it wasn't a compliment she particularly wanted. "Th-thanks," she said, smiling a little.
Anne nodded. "So tell me," she said, "what's your name?"
"Ricky," the clockwork girl replied. The response to the instruction was almost automatic - she hardly even stopped to think about what she'd said until after she'd said it. She clapped a hand over her mouth, but Anne's eyes were already widening in amazement.
"Ricky from school!?" she asked, jaw dropping. Ricky wanted to deny it, but she couldn't bring herself to contradict the answer to Anne's question, and she knew it would be pointless anyway...she nodded, biting her lip.
"Wow," the nerd-girl said, shaking her head in amazement. "So your hand...wow, it took you that long to change? Wow." There was a brief pause, as Anne eyed her with renewed curiousity. "So," she said, "how...?" But she stopped herself - maybe this was one of those things that she thought would be too "personal," Ricky thought. "Um, never mind. I...guess I'd better get going...good luck with your parents..."
She turned to leave. Ricky felt even worse about it now...she had gone to the trouble of seeing her home, and all that time Ricky had tried to keep this a secret...and it was out now, anyway... "Um," she said, "you...you can stay, if...if you want..."
