beep beep beep beep BEEP BEEP BEEP BEE-
Andy's fumbling hand found the off button on the alarm clock. She stared wildly at it from her propped-up position on the bed. She hated the thing, hated the tone, hated the way it steadily crept up in volume like it was deliberately trying to induce panic - but it was damn effective at getting her up, for precisely that reason. She rolled over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. She certainly needed it; even with her having been preparing for this for almost a week, she was still getting used to waking up early again.
Easing herself up, twisting her hips a little to one side to get her tail out from under her, she got out of bed. At the very least, she felt better than she'd expected she would; easing into this schedule had paid off. The rabbit-woman walked over to the dresser and looked in the mirror. She was so small now...for a brief moment, she felt woefully inadequate and worried about what would happen at work today, about whether she had any place in that kind of business now...
That was silly, of course. Just an irrational nervousness. She'd been practicing all week and knew perfectly well from experience that she was capable of doing her job in her new form. Professional metalworking wasn't exactly a desk job, but it wasn't something that required a gorilla physique. Besides, it wasn't like she was some limp-wristed dainty; she wasn't weak for her size, it was just her size that had changed. It was just a lot to get used to, was all. But this whole experience was a lot to get used to, from the diminutive stature to the ears and tail to the fact that she was now a woman...
She looked over the woman in the mirror again. Even now, over a week later, after several very...hands-on sessions of getting acquainted with her new body, she found it hard to think of herself that way. Maybe eventually, but...now wasn't the time to get lost in that train of thought, anyway. She had to get ready. It wouldn't be good to be late on her first official day of work.
She shucked off her pajamas. They were her old flannel ones; pretty oversized on her smaller frame, now, and they smelled of man-musk. That wasn't something she'd ever noticed before, but her sense of smell had been heightened a bit in her change. It wasn't something she minded, though; her old male scent didn't excite her the way Sue's new corresponding smell could, but it gave her a comforting, secure sort of feeling, which was part of why she hadn't ditched them. They smelled like her, even if it was the old her. Him. Whatever. Giving them a quick fold-up, she placed them back on the bed, then grabbed a bra from the underwear drawer. She was still getting the hang of this, but managed to get it taken care of without too much trouble. She grabbed a clean pair of underwear, as well, and slid yesterday's down her legs...
She stopped and stared, and groaned. Not this...not now, not today of all days! The first day in months that she really cared about having things together and being fully with-it... "Hoooneeeeey!" she wailed. In pretty short order, Sue slithered into the room, looking concerned. "What's wrong?" he asked.
Andy frowned, looking equal parts irritated and disappointed, and pointed down at the underwear around her ankles. "I'm menstruating," she said, chagrined, her cheeks a little flushed.
Sue looked at her sympathetically. "Aw, Andy, I'm sorry..." he said, peering down to where she was pointing. He blinked, frowned, and looked a little closer. "Uh, is that all?" he asked.
Andy nodded. "Well, yeah...is it normally all brown like that?" She hadn't given it any thought initially, but there were only a few scattered drops. She didn't normally pay much mind to Sue's feminine hygiene, before, but she was pretty sure it was more of a thing than that.
Her husband shook his head. "No. That's...um, that's not menstrual blood, honey."
The rabbit-woman blinked, then smiled. "Oh, thank God. With everything else on my mind...I guess it's something that'll have to happen eventually, but I do not need it today." She paused. "Uh...what is it, then?" she asked.
The naga-man opened his mouth, then thought for a moment, then shrugged. "It's...a little complicated. I'll explain later. It's nothing to worry about, though. You should probably finish getting dressed...I've gotta go finish breakfast." He gave her a little peck on the cheek and hurried down to the kitchen.
A little baffled, but relieved that she wasn't going to have to deal with that today, Andy did just that. They'd had to buy her a whole new wardrobe, but the upside was that she had fresh new work clothes that were a comfortable fit on her new frame, and she found herself feeling pleased with how they looked on her, too. It was as professional-looking as she got, at least in work clothes. She gave her hair a quick brushing, smoothed out the fur on her ears, and headed down for breakfast.
Which was excellent. Sue seemed a little distracted, but he was a good cook, and he'd obviously put some effort into this; it was an occasion worth celebrating, after all. "It's your father's first day back at work, kids," he told Alex and Sally.
Alex frowned. "Weren't you there a bunch this last week?"
Andy nodded. "First official, full day. I was practicing - trying to ease back into the job. Hopefully it'll have helped..."
Sue put his arms around her. "Of course it will," he said. She smiled and nuzzled up to him.
Jon gradually came to to the sensation of someone gently shaking her awake. She moaned and buried her face deeper into her pillow, but the shaking continued. Blearily, she looked up to see her mom. "Come on, honey," Mrs. Madison said. "Any longer and you're going to be running late."
"'m stayn' hm."
"No you're not, Jon. You're not sick, and you've had enough sleep to be basically functional. Come on, up and at 'em."
The slug-girl groaned and lifted herself up, levering her torso over onto the floor and sliding her foot off the bed after her. She felt embarassed moving like this in front of her mom, but...well, there wasn't much else she could do. She knew that tone of voice well enough to know that there wasn't any arguing the point any further. God, she was tired...but how time had flown last night! She would never have guessed it had gotten that late if she hadn't looked...
She dressed, went into the bathroom to clean up a bit, and then came down for breakfast. Her sisters - and Becca - were already up. She felt a bit embarassed at being the last one up, when that title usually went to Zoe. Who was eyeing her curiously, but for the moment saying nothing. Jon remembered that she had wanted to ask about the magical girls' meeting, but she'd have to ask later today; she was too tired to do that now, and she was close to running late as it was. The slug-girl poured herself a bowl of cereal and began munching it as quickly as she could manage.
"Oh, Jon," her mom said, "there was a can of, uh, 'doce de leite' in your purse last night. I wasn't sure what it was, so I put it in the fridge, just in case."
Jon nodded. "Um, thanks. I...actually, I'm not sure either. I got it from one of the friends I was with...it's some kind of sweet milk...sauce...thing. I, uh, I'm not really sure where she got it, either." Which was fairly true; given Lucas's own (rather bombastic) accounts of her own space-hopping methodology, Jon could hazard a guess, but she didn't really know.
She caught a snicker from her dad, and her mom turned to him, eyebrows arced. "Yes, dear?" Mrs. Madison queried.
"Mm? Oh, nothing," he said, grinning slightly. "Just thinking of Guys and Dolls."
She rolled her eyes. "You're incorrigible," she said, trying to suppress a smirk. His grin widened. "And you knew that when you married me..." he said, in a slightly singsong voice.
Jon rather pointedly paid them no mind and kept working away at her breakfast. Cripes, but she was going to have a lot to tell Karyn and Brittany and Haru. And she supposed that there was no reason for Tim not to be a part of the circle now...if he wanted to be, anyway...
Ricky was trying to organize her things a bit more as she waited to run down for the day. If she was going to take down the stuff she usually kept on the shelves she couldn't easily reach anymore, the rest of the stuff in the room needed to be a bit better arranged, or she'd just have piles of stuff covering the floor. Which would've been irritating enough ordinarily, but she was still learning the finer points of moving in her new body, particularly with regards to walking around obstacles without having to look, and she didn't relish the idea of tripping over stuff all the time. Besides, to be honest her room could use it, anyway. She wondered why she'd never noticed that before.
She was honestly pleasantly surprised with how well the night had gone. She had definitely gotten a lot more attention than she'd ever wanted, and it was unnerving for her, especially when she hadn't even gotten used to being this way at all yet, but there really hadn't been any real trouble. That didn't necessarily mean that there wouldn't be, but as a start it had been pretty alright.
She finished reorganizing the books and sighed. She kept thinking back to Belle. She and Anne had gotten the little doll-girl home safe and sound, and Ricky had had to stay behind at Belle's house to explain to her parents about her change. Then she'd had to leave Belle there and head home...she wondered if she would be alright. The bus picked up both Ricky and Anne before it got to Belle's house, so they'd be able to help her get to school, at least, but it wasn't like either of them could just go live with her, or she with them...she was going to need her parents to help her, and Ricky didn't really know much about them at all. For all that she despised Jeff for his behavior...he had at least been there for his girlfriend...
...but then he'd gone and...and tried to control her, and tried to make it sound like he was doing it for her sake...God! What was wrong with him? It was...she'd thought it was just a kind of sick power fantasy, but when she'd chewed him out for it, he'd actually seemed...upset. Almost remorseful...like he didn't really want to be doing it. But if he didn't, then why was he? It was like there was a warped kind of logic to his actions...nothing that made them right, but if she squinted and tilted her head just right she could almost understand his way of thinking. Not that that was a good feeling...
You weren't exactly perfect either, you know.
She twitched slightly, irritated. That was different! She just...just hadn't understood...if she'd known what it felt like to be...to be treated like an object, to be looked at in that way...
It wasn't like you didn't know it was disrespectful, or you wouldn't have tried to keep it secret.
But...no, that was a different thing. That was...because she'd thought her interests had made her a freak...
You're rationalizing. They don't have to go hand-in-hand. The angel was right about that.
The clockwork girl sighed, feeling frustrated and confused. It still didn't make any sense... Jeff worked on this whacked-out line of thinking where apparently trying to control someone and hide them from everybody else was helping them, but somehow he seemed to have real feelings for Belle - real enough that her breaking up with him had made him leave school in a funk, anyway - and Belle apparently knew that and still loved him anyway, even while she'd broken up with him seemingly more for his sake than for hers, and...augh, she couldn't fathom it. Even Anne...heck, even she somehow felt a little bad for him, in spite of everything. It wasn't because he'd ordered her to be his friend...she'd demonstrated perfectly well that she was capable of disgust and anger within those boundaries. It was...what? Why? She didn't know. Were people always this confusing?
She sighed again, the sound like a breeze gently brushing a bell-tree. The ticking of her mechanisms had intensified somewhat with her frustration. She'd never been very good at understanding people...that was part of the reason she'd never been good with social skills. It was like sometimes they'd take offense at nothing, and sometimes they'd overlook things that looked horrible to any outside observer, and...and...it just didn't make any sense. Would she ever understand it?
