Becky took a large swig of pop to wash down the last of her pizza, then leaned her chair back a bit. "What?" she asked, noticing the way Ellen and Laura were watching her.
"Oh," Ellen said, "it's just...even though you're a girl now, you still act a lot like a boy. It just kind of throws me for a loop, is all."
Becky nodded. "Yeah, I suppose. I haven't exactly made acting like a girl one of my priorities."
Laura smiled. "Hey, you should try it. You never know, you might like it!"
Becky frowned. "Um, maybe some other time. I'd like to get comfortable with just being a girl in the first place before I try any of that stuff."
Ellen nodded thoughtfully, but Laura wasn't about to give in so easily. "Oh, come on!" she said. "You've got to break out of your comfort zone sometimes! Besides, you've got your whole life to be a tomboy if you want!" She grinned evilly. "So for tonight, at least, we're going to have you be a bit more of a typical girl!"
Becky wasn't sure she liked this idea, but she was reluctant to flat-out refuse to participate in the first thing she was doing with her new friends. And was having trouble mustering a counter-argument, anyway. Still, did she really want to go along with this?
It was a bit too cold out to sleep outdoors, so the Madison entourage were all bundled up in the camper. Luckily, it was a larger model, and Jennifer and Karyn had elected to sleep in the van, but it was still a bit cramped. Jenny was in a sleeping bag on the little couch in the back. Michelle was nearby; the flexibility of her tail allowed her to curl up comfortably, head-to-fin, on the little table, which dropped down to the level of the surrounding benches to make a little nest. She had been provided with a quilt and pillow and was sleeping quite soundly.
Jenny was plenty comfortable, too, and would have been sleeping, except that A. her sugar overload from earlier was still at least partially in effect, and B. she was still thinking about the events of the day. She'd got to spend a large majority of the day in the lake with Michelle, gotten to make s'mores over a campfire, and even got to hear some campfire stories. This was just too cool, and there was still most of a day left before they had to go home!
Jenny sighed happily. She couldn't wait.
Rachel Gerard sighed as she hung up the phone. "I don't get it," she said. "That's at least an hour that the Connelys' phone has been off the hook. Don't they have an answering machine?"
Jason shrugged. "I dunno, I thought they did last time I was over there," he said. "But that was a while ago. Does this mean we have to wait for tomorrow to call them?"
His mother nodded. "If they don't want to be disturbed, they don't want to be disturbed," she said. "I guess I'm willing to wait, but the condition remains that if Becky doesn't know what you're talking about, we're taking you to the doctor, understand?"
Jason sighed. "All right. So...what do we do now?"
"Not a whole lot we can do, at the moment," Mrs. Gerard said. "But I guess I should give you a run-down on taking care of a girl's body."
Jason gaped. "Um, no, I-"
His mom held up a hand to cut him off. "Look, Jason," she said. "You're going to be stuck with these parts for anywhere from days to decades. This is something you're going to need to know."
"But-"
"No buts." She took him by the hand and led him into the bathroom, where she explained the basics of caring for a girl's private parts. Jason really didn't want to know, but she had a way of telling whether he was paying attention or not.
"That's enough to go on for now," Rachel said. "We'll talk about the rest if you're like this long enough to start having periods; but let's hope it doesn't come to that."
