I set the rock back down on the bed. If I waited much longer my family was going to start thinking that something was really up, and I had to confess that until I knew that they were oblivious to the change I'd made, I didn't want to draw any more attention to myself than I absolutely had to. That moment when Jill had walked in had been terrifying. All I really wanted was to go downstairs and have a normal evening with them, try to gain some insights into what my life as a girl had been like thus far.
A moment later, when I was finally certain that the mystery man wasn't going to return, I decided it was time. As I left my room my thoughts continued to drift back to the handsome stranger, and how he'd made my body feel. Having been bisexual when I was male, I knew he would have turned me on, but this had been well, it must have been extremely different for women because I didn't really have the words to explain it. All I knew was that if he'd tried anything, I would have melted in his hands.
As I climbed slowly down the steps, I pushed those thoughts out of my mind. The last thing I needed, while trying to have a normal family dinner, was a preoccupation with sex. Rubbing a hand up across my forehead and back through my silky hair, I entered the kitchen and found the people I'd lived with for the last sixteen and a half years gathered around the table. Jill, the one who'd nearly caught me in a rather compromising position, was sitting down already with a burger on her plate and a side of fries. She didn't look any different. Jill was still tall and lean with long black hair that she always kept tied back in a pony tail. She also still had that look of quiet intelligence about her cobalt eyes.
Next to her sat the youngest of us four children, my ten-year-old brother Mikey. He was already concentrating pretty hard on his dinner, and didn't really pay me any attention as I approached the table. Zoe, my fourteen-year-old sister was next in line, and she didn't look any different either. Though her hair had once matched my own, she'd long since dyed it coal-black to offset the pale complexion of one who spent as little time as she could in the sun. Of course, she was dressed all in black. Zoe had gone totally Goth when she'd entered middle school. It had taken a while for our parents to adjust but eventually, when it was clear that this wasn't a simply phase, they'd adjusted. In a way, as much as she'd always creeped me out, it was a relief to see her like this. I was a little bit worried that when I'd made my wish there might have been unintended side effects, but so far everything appeared to be pretty normal.
I sat down and dished myself up. After a moment, having laid all the food on the table, my mother sat down between my father and me. She smiled at everybody.
There wasn't a lot of conversation during dinner, and when we did talk the subject matter tended to center on the rather mundane. I did manage to learn that I'd been right. My name was Natalie. Natalie Anne Gibson. I liked it. It had a way of rolling off my tongue, and it just made everything feel a little more real. I had to admit, even though I was less than an hour into my life as a girl, I didn't miss being a guy at all. This had definitely been the right move. I also learned that my mother was still a secretary, and my father was still a computer programmer. Even the little details seemed the same and I took heart in that. Jill was home for another week before her classes started again. She was, like she had been in the pre-wish world, studying psychology at some college in California. I suspected she spent almost as much time partying as she did studying. As usual, Zoe did little to add to the conversation, and Mikey continuously talked out of turn. It seemed as though he, in particular was a little more outgoing than he had been before, but that probably came from having to compete for attention with three sisters. I learned a few things about myself too. Through mom and Jill's prodding, I'd learned that I was a cheerleader, and a strong candidate to become the head cheerleader next year. Apparently my grades weren't quite as strong as my aspirations to boost the morale of our high school football team. They weren't terrible, but my father obviously expected more of me, and told me that this year was a good opportunity to turn things around. I also apparently didn't get along very well with either Zoe or Mikey. Some things never change. There was no mention of Karyn, and I didn't bring her up. She'd been a close friend of the family for years now, but that didn't make her an automatic topic of dinner conversation.
As we were finishing up, and rinsing our dishes Jill looked at me, "So you still coming to the mall with me tonight to look at shoes?"
"Of course," I told her, surprising even myself a little with the enthusiasm. I started thinking about shoes and clothes, and everything that I wanted to try on this new body. "Wouldn't miss it." I set my freshly rinsed plate in the sink, and headed up to my room.
"Twenty minutes," Jill called after me. "Mom's letting us take her car."
"Gotcha!" I shouted back. I ran back into my room. I didn't plan on going out in public so soon, I thought, feeling a little nervous. Still, better to find out if any issues are going to come up before I go to school tomorrow. I thought about Karyn again, and found myself tempted to call her. Still, there would be time to share this all with her tomorrow. Tonight I was going shopping! I walked up to the mirror and looked at all the makeup.
Grabbing the rock from the bed, I held it in my hand. "I wish I knew how to apply all of this makeup," I whispered. There was a bright flash of light, and when I looked back down, it all seemed so obvious. I put on some dark red lipstick, a little bit of mascara, a small amount of eyeliner, and just a touch of extremely light purple eye shadow. When I looked at the overall effect, I was quite pleased. I grabbed my purse, a rather subdued black leather number with a thin strap and dropped the rock in. Might come in handy if anything goes wrong, I thought. I threw the purse over my shoulder and ran downstairs, eager for my first trip to the mall in feminine form.
Jill was waiting by the door. Obviously the twenty minutes had been more of a loose guideline because she was ready to go. I threw a set of basic tennis shoes on, and followed her out the door. We climbed into the car, and headed off. As we drove down the road, Kelly Clarkson singing about how much her life would suck without somebody in it, a question popped into my mind. It was rather sudden, and I wasn't certain how close Jill and I were now, but I still found myself incredibly curious.
I turned to her and asked
