Insert standard disclaimer here: The one that reminds everyone that this is a work of fiction. No one is real and any resemblance to someone who is real is just the reader's imagination. This is also a Fan Fiction set in the Whateley Story Universe. No Canon characters were permanently harmed in the making of this story. I hope. :)

Note: Special thanks to my beta-readers for helping to reign in my enthusiasm for jumping the shark. I hope that I have dodged that bullet effectively with this chapter. If I have not, it is not their fault. Thanks again djkauf for correcting my many mistakes.

** Chapter 29 **

<Buzzzzzz!>

An alarm klaxon sounds.

<Whump!>

I am surprised when the first cannon fires a ball from the control room wall behind me.  I was expecting the first few to come from the front wall.  I manage to dodge it, but it was close.  The second ball comes at me from the front wall, but this time I’m watching my tracking system a bit better and I easily dodge it.  The third ball is fired exactly at the three second mark, but the fourth ball comes only half a second later.  Then, the fifth ball comes at me half a second after that. The next five balls follow that pattern, until the ten second mark.  

At the ten second mark, two balls are shot at me from two different spots in the room.  Whoa!  That’s a surprise. Half a second later, two more.  At the fifteen second mark, three balls are fired at me from three different spots in the room.  This is starting to get a little tricky, but at least I have an ice cream coming to me now.

At the twenty second mark, time seems to slow down a little bit for me when my targeting system detects four balls coming at me from four different directions.  That slow down effect makes the four even easier to dodge than the three ball test sequence.

At the twenty five second mark, it jumps to five balls and those also prove easy to dodge.  

By the forty five second mark, I can’t just dodge the balls.  I have to start deflecting some of them with my hands and feet.  I am glad that my hitting the balls on purpose doesn’t count against me.  Especially when I start using one ball to knock another ball off trajectory.

By the time the sixty second mark comes along, I’m starting to get a little frazzled.  I am jumping, ducking, twisting and deflecting my little heart out, but the circle is just too small.  I am tracking the trajectories of twenty different balls and I can predict their paths perfectly, but there are just too many balls to dodge and stay in the circle. I finally get hit in the back by a ball at sixty two point thirty four seconds.

The test stops with a loud horn sounding.  I spend a few seconds gasping for air as I watch the tennis balls continue to bounce around the room as they slowly dribble to a halt and roll down the floor to the collection trough.

I hear the excited voice of Joe, the dude who owes me an ice cream, over the speakers. “Excellent job, Whisper!  That was amazing!”

I turn and look up to the control room with a smile. “I’ll take an extra-large banana split, with an F-16 ride on top please!”  

I hear everyone in the control room laugh in the background as Joe replies. “Umm, I’ll look into the F-16, but I think that bananas are all I can afford right now.”

I glance up and pretend to give it serious thought. “Hmmm, it is a shame that I forgot my purse. I think I have at least five dollars in there. Do you think that would help with the F-16?”

Joe laughs. “Okay, I am opening the door for you.”

I am guessing that a five isn’t enough for an F-16 ride. I hear the door click and I see it open a crack.  I give my audience a wave and exit the room.  My mom and Mrs. Townsend greet me a few seconds later.  

“That was amazing Bree!” Mrs. Townsend says, excitedly.  “I watched the pilot they tested and you were like watching the Matrix or something with how you moved!”

“Oh, thanks. It was actually kind of fun too.” I say as my mom sneaks in a quick hug on me.

Mrs. Townsend grins at me. “We can go back to the control room and watch the replay while Joe analyzes the data if you want.”

As we enter the control room, Joe starts the replay in super slow motion on the big high definition monitor.  I am amazed when he spins a knob and the view rotates around me to capture the action from every angle.

“Wow!  How did you do that?” I blurt out as I walk over and look over his shoulder.

Joe pauses the replay and turns to me with a shy smile. “How I did that is nothing compared to what you just did in there.  You were absolutely incredible!”

I can’t help it, I blush. “Umm, thanks?  But, really. How are you doing that with the replay?”

“You’re probably going to think I’m a geek or something, but...”  He stutters to a stop and looks embarrassed about something.

I glance over and realize that I have my hand on his shoulder and  my face is just inches from his face.  I can’t believe that I just got all touchy-feelie there. I bet that my glamour is hitting him full force and I must stink from my latest workout.  I jerk my hand back and blush.  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to...”  I can’t believe that I just worried about how I smell to a guy.

He glances back up at me with a puzzled expression and smiles. “What?  Oh, that’s okay.  I’m just not used to other people being, umm, techie enough to even pretend to understand half of what I am saying.”

I think that he was going to say “nerdy” or maybe “geeky” there.  “Well, umm, I think it’s awesome!  It really looks like that ‘bullet-time’ camera system they used in The Matrix.”  Oh gawd. Now I’m being all geeky on him.

His jaw drops. Well, it doesn’t actually drop, but he sure looks surprised by what I just said.  “Exactly!  I know I shouldn’t be, but I am surprised that you would know about that!  I actually umm, borrowed, the idea from that movie.”  He explains the entire system to us and while I find it very interesting, Mrs. Townsend interrupts him just as he starts to get into how the digital processing system builds the interactive video that he has paused on his screen.

He blushes again when he realizes what he was doing. “Sorry about that.”  He spins back around in his chair and restarts the playback. “So.  Your performance was great, but it looks like we caught you by surprise with the first ball.  Based on that, I think that we can eliminate ‘pre-cog’ from your abilities, but your recovery and reaction speed was nothing short of amazing.”

He restarts the playback and everyone in the room “ohhhs” and “ahhhs” over it. Even I am amazed by it and I was there.  He pauses it once again at the thirty second mark and hits another button on his console.  The video is overlapped with a computer diagram of all of the ball’s trajectories.  He then advances the video frame by frame, watching the trajectories and my reactions to the objects that I shouldn’t have been able to see.

“Actually, I think that your reflexes are almost as good as having a ‘pre-cog’ ability.  How were you able to spot all the balls without seeing them with your eyes?”

I glance to my mom. Without Dr. Edmundson or Mr. Reilly here, I’m not sure how much I can admit too. “Ummm, I think that it’s classified?” I say, hesitantly as Joe and Mrs. Townsend look at me like they are expecting more of an answer. “I guess that I could kinda sorta see the balls all around me without, umm, looking?”  It doesn’t look like they are buying my story. “Maybe Dr. Edmundson or Mr. Reilly would have a better idea?”  I practically squeak out at the end.  

I don’t know why I am so paranoid about the top secret stuff.  I think that everyone in here is cleared, but without Dr. Edmundson or Mr. Reilly, I’m just not sure.  Maybe I have seen too many spy movies or something, but I just don’t know if everyone here has that ‘need to know’ thing that they mention all the time about Top Secret stuff.  I do know that I suck at lying still.

Joe looks at me dubiously.  “Hmmm, maybe we could see if Dr. Edmundson or Mr. Reilly is available?” He looks at Mrs. Townsend. “Barb?”

Mrs. Townsend briefly frowns at me and I try to look elsewhere.  She grabs the phone and makes a few calls before she is able to track down Dr. Edmundson.  From the side of the conversation I can hear, it sounds like he is initially confused about the question regarding my ability.  After Mrs. Townsend explains the test and the results, she smiles and sets the receiver down.

She turns and looks at me. “Dr. Edmundson is on his way.  He was looking over your MRI results and sounded very excited about something. He said he will find Mr. Reilly and bring him along.”

We watch my video a few more times from different angles until Mr. Reilly and Dr. Edmundson arrive.  Dr. Edmundson has his laptop and a folder with a bunch of printed images sticking out of it.  I guess that they are my MRI pictures.

Mr. Reilly looks more amused than worried. Based on the excited expression on Dr. Edmundson’s face, I guess that he might have had to listen to Dr. Edmundson rave about whatever it is on my MRI pictures.  “So, what is the issue?” Mr. Reilly asks.

Joe looks a little nervous now that Mr. Reilly is here. “Umm...Director Reilly, sir.  We completed Whisper’s reflexes testing and while I was trying to figure out how to best classify her power level, I needed to know how she was able to see the balls without looking at them.”

Mr. Reilly glances to the monitor with the paused test replay.  “Can you show us the test from start to finish?”

“Umm, yes sir.”  Joe says as he turns back to his control board.  “First, if it is okay with you, I will show it in normal speed.”

“Sounds good.” Mr. Reilly says with a nod of his head.

“Okay, here it goes.”  

My test starts over from the beginning and the minute goes by way faster than it felt to me.  I’m almost a blur during the last half of the video.  Even I am amazed by what I can do.  

Dr. Edmundson’s looks pretty impressed. He pulls out one of the MRI pictures and studies it for a second before looking back at his closed laptop. He briefly frowns.  “Based on what the MRI captured before the emergency stop, I can see what is boosting your physical abilities.”

Dr. Edmundson glances around the room. “Is it okay to go over it here, sir?”

“Yes, if will help to further our understanding of Whisper’s results here.”

I glance over to my Mom. “Whisper?” I ask, silently.

She just shrugs her shoulders.  

I decide to raise my hand. “Umm, sorry, but Mr. Reilly?”

“Yes?”

“Umm, why is everyone starting to call me Whisper now instead of using my real name?” I ask.

Mr. Reilly grimaces for a nano-second. “It’s more for your safety.  Now that we are getting into the more sensitive portions of your powers, I think it would be wise if we followed the standard protocol and only addressed you by your code-name.  We probably should have been following that protocol since we arrived. Sorry.”

“Oh.” I say, feeling a little unsure of myself.

Mr. Reilly smiles reassuringly at me. “It’s only while we are testing.  None of the personnel who view your test file has your real name. It only displays your code-name, so using your real name is probably just confusing them anyway.”

I feel a bit embarrassed for not figuring that out myself. “Oh, okay. Sorry.”

Mr. Reilly smiles at me. “Not your fault Whisper, like I said, we should have started it from the beginning.  Is Whisper okay?  It was the first name I thought of when they asked for a code-name for you.”

I really don’t know what to think about the name. Obviously, I like the name, since I picked it for my character, but I just don’t know now. “Umm, yes sir. I think.”

“Well, if you want something different, let me know before end of day, tomorrow, so we can get it changed in the system before it is committed.”

I nod. “Yes sir.”

“Okay, so, Dr. Edmundson.  Do you believe that the MRI images will assist us with this assessment?”  Mr. Reilly asks, returning back to the original subject.

Dr. Edmundson nods. “Yes, sir. I believe it will help.”

“Okay, then, go ahead.”  Mr. Reilly says.

“Okay, umm, Joe.  Can you access Br...umm, I mean Whisper’s MRI images from here?”

Joe nods his head yes as he spins around and accesses his computer again.  “Which image do you want me to start with sir?”

Dr. Edmundson looks at the printed image in his hand. “How about image 0012a?”

That image displays on the big screen monitor and it doesn’t make much sense to me.  I think it is one of my leg muscles, but I’m not sure because it looks like I have geometric patterns inside of me and I don’t remember ever seeing that in biology class.

Dr. Edmundson walks over to the display and points to the patterns. “This is Whisper’s muscle tissue and that pattern is not normal.  Her muscles, supporting tissues and skeletal structure have been reinforced by the nanites. That is why she is displaying such excellent physical abilities. Add that to her sensor package and that explains how she was able to provide us all with such a stunning performance down there.” He says with a quick glance to the ball pit area.

I can’t help it; I think that is cool.  A little scary, but cool because I only look like a weak girl while I am really more like my hero, Spiderman.  Now, if I could only stick to walls and shoot webs from my hands.

“Thank you.” Mr. Reilly says with a smile.  “Now, is there anything else, Dr. Edmundson?”

“Well, I do wish that I had been here and running the monitor on Whisper when she did the test. I bet we would have got some good data.  Can we run the test again?”  Dr. Edmundson asks, hopefully while glancing between Joe and myself.

The test was kind of fun. A lot less stressful than the weight test, but I am not looking forward to doing it again.  “Umm, I was running stuff. Maybe the monitor captured what I did and saved it somewhere?”  I ask, while I start to quickly search through my head to see if I can find or build something real fast.  

Dr. Edmundson looks surprised while Joe and Mrs. Townsend just look at me like I’m speaking a foreign language. “Oh! Excellent idea, Whisper.  I’ll login and check.” Dr. Edmundson says as he opens his laptop and powers it up.

Everyone else just kind of waits for his laptop to boot and I used that time to build a log using the replay of my sensors.  As I monitor myself, I also watch Dr. Edmundson’s laptop and shadow along behind him to see where he would expect a log or something to exist.  His slow click navigation through the system allows me to keep ahead of him and as he moves to click on a “logs” sub-folder, I move my file into that folder for him to find.

“Ahh!  Here it is. We got lucky. It looks like your system did create a log of your test.” Dr. Edmundson says, happily as he clicks on it to open the file.  When he does that, his laptop opens the file and feeds it to some replay utility that builds him a video replay of what my sensors captured.

I feign surprise at him finding the file, and I think that I am even able to fool my mom because I really am surprised.  Surprised that what I did, worked.

Joe glances over at Dr. Edmundson’s laptop and then he gets that geek expression that tells me he might have a cool idea on how to use the data.  “Umm, Dr. Edmundson?” Joe asks.

Dr. Edmundson looks over at Joe. “Yes?”

“I think that, if you can give me a copy of that file, I might be able to merge it with the video and give you all a wicked cool replay. I mean, a very informative system analysis.”  Joe says with a hint of embarrassment as he catches himself there going overboard on the geek factor.

Dr. Edmundson glances to Mr. Reilly, who just nods his head yes and smiles.  “Umm, Joe? Do you happen to have one of those USB memory card things?” Dr. Edmundson asks.

“Oh, yeah!  I mean, yes sir. Lemme get one for you.” Joe says as he turns and digs through a drawer.  He quickly finds one and gives it to Dr. Edmundson.  A few clicks and seconds later, Dr. Edmundson hands the USB stick back to Joe.  Joe quickly slots it into a port on his system and goes to work without a word.  It’s like everyone else in the room ceases to exist for him.  

Yep, he’s a true geek and I can’t help myself.  I find myself hovering over him again.  He is so into what he’s doing that he doesn’t even register my presence.  To avoid leaning on his shoulder, I casually rest my hand on the console.  That contact opens up his system to me and I can see what he is trying to do. Unfortunately, matching the timestamp and sensor data from my system to the video doesn’t look simple, for him.  He has some video syncing programs that he is trying to use and I can see that they are close to working, but the format those programs are expecting, doesn’t match my log file data.  It will take a lot of manual labor and time for him to convert the data.  

I decide to help things along by giving his program a tweak. I anxiously watch as Joe selects a filter option on his conversion program that based on my interpretation, sounds like it would do what he wants it to do.  It wouldn’t have worked, but my tweak makes it work. I just hope that he doesn’t notice my tweak to his code.

“Ah ha! I knew that I could get it to work!” Joe says as he points to his monitor as it builds the video with the sensor overlay.

I laugh with amazement myself as I step back to view it on the big screen. “Wow! That’s awesome Joe!”

We all watch the replay once again and I have to admit, it is pretty darn cool to see the video with my sensor overlay showing trajectories and analyzing evasive pattern options. Mr. Reilly stares at the finished replay for a few seconds as the rest of us wait for him to reach whatever internal decision he needs to make.  “That was very interesting, but what is your assessment for Whisper’s rating?”

I decide to use the current distraction to rest against the console again and now that the conversion is done, I remove my tweak from Joe’s program. I’m not sure what he will think if he tries to run the conversion again, but at least now, there won’t be evidence for him to find.

“Based on these results, I would put her at a solid Physical Exemplar 4 rating, Sir.” Joe says.

“Okay, Thanks Mr. Engstrom.” Mr. Reilly says as he glances at his watch and frowns.

Wow, I never knew that Joe’s last name was Engstrom.

“I think Whisper is running a little late for the magical testing station, right?” Mr. Reilly asks, looking at Mrs. Townsend.

She nods her head at Mr. Reilly before she glances at me. “Shall we get you over to Dr. Remus for magical testing, Whisper?”

“Sure?” I ask since I’m not really the one in charge here.

Mrs. Townsend nods her head and smiles. “Great. I will run you down to his office.” She looks at Mr. Reilly and Dr. Edmundson. “And, I will check on his schedule for tomorrow for you.” She turns and motions for my mom to follow her with me. “I can show you the way to your test station after we drop Whisper off.”

We follow her out of the control room and I hesitantly glance back to Mr. Reilly. I feel somewhat reassured when he smiles at me.

Mrs. Townsend silently leads us down the halls until we arrive at a nondescript door.  She knocks and I hear a booming voice call out. “Come in!”

She opens the door and motions for me to enter ahead of her while silently asking my mom to stay out of sight.  Sitting behind a large and expensive looking wooden desk, I spot a man who looks to be in his forties. He is wearing an expensive looking suit and I can’t help but think that he looks a little snobby.

He sniffs and gives me a look that tells me he is not happy about me being late.  “Well, I can see that you ran a little over on your last test, but I am not about to let that make me late for my tee time with the General.”

He pauses for a second and looks to Mrs. Townsend as if he is surprised that she hasn’t already left.  “Thank you for bringing her, Barbara.  I can take it from here.”  He says, dismissively.  

She looks startled by his rudeness and glances to me for a second.  I smile at her and reassured, she looks back to the jerk.  “Yes, Dr. Remus just let me know when you’re done with Whisper and I will come fetch her.”

“Just return in...” He glances at his expensive looking watch. “Say, thirty minutes.  I will be done with her by then, if not sooner.”

“Yes, Dr. Remus.”  Mrs. Townsend says just before she softly closes the door behind her as she leaves.

Her voice stress hit the upper yellows there. I decide that I don’t like this jerk.  Why couldn’t we have just used Sir Wallace’s assessment?  I turn away from the door and look back to Dr. Remus.  He intensely stares at me for a minute.  His stare is starting to creep me out.  I nervously fidget a little before I start to feel a little pissed off.  Just who in the hell does this jerk think he is?  I switch over to my magical sight and I can see that he has a few items on him and in the room that radiate a little bit of magical energy.  I spot a heavy looking wooden door off to the right of his desk that is glowing with a magical protection ward.  The ward looks sloppy and I think that I could easily disarm it if I wanted too. Sir Wallace’s quickie ward at the lab looked stronger and better designed than what this clown has on that door.

“Hmmphh.”  He finally breaks his stare.  “My Inner Sight shows me that you have some weak magical potential.  Probably more of a result of your Sidhe nature than anything else.”

Yes, he said Inner Sight as if it was some important magical ability that only he can have. At least, that is how I’m interpreting it.

Reaching a decision, he rolls his executive leather chair back, stands up and heads toward to the door with the sloppy ward on it.  “Let’s get this test over with, shall we? I have a testing area setup inside the next room here.”

He looks a little out of shape to me, but I guess that round is a shape too.  He looks back to me. He looks a little surprised that I’m not following him.  “Nothing to fear girl, the area is perfectly safe.  I’ve built the strongest protections into this area.”

I just nod at him and let him lead me into the other room. I don’t trust myself to not say something that would really piss him off.  If I was surprised to be called Whisper, being called ‘girl’ is even more surprising and irritating. Once we pass through the door, I am caught off guard by how large the testing area really is.  It looks like a firing range to me and maybe it was originally designed to be one.  He has some dummies set up against the far wall and a large pyramid structure made out of chrome tubes with some sort of crystal on top of it.  The crystal has some weak magical residue inside of it. There is also circle of some kind scribed into the floor off to the side.  

He points to the pyramid thing.  “Stand in the center of the Pyramid of Ra so I can take a magical energy reading of you.”

“Okaay.” I say. I feel a little dubious about this so called Pyramid of Ra thing.  It looks so cheap and phony.  Where did the DOD get this guy from?  I just decide that it will be easier if I just do what he asks. No matter how dumb it makes him look.  He probably can’t tell anyway.

He takes out some wand thing with a crystal that looks the same color as the one above me.  He mutters some words that sound like Latin as he waves his wand around in tiny circles.  

I expected him to say something like “Abbra Ca-dabra” and have some plastic flowers shoot out of his wand, but there must be some magic involved in this farce because the crystal in the pyramid begins to flicker and glow.

He makes a big production out of it by screwing up his face like it’s costing him a lot of effort to maintain his magical investigation of me.  After thirty seconds, he exhales a mighty breath and drops his wand to his side as the glow in the crystal above me fades.

“Okay girl, you can come out now.  It is just as I thought. You have some magical energy, but nothing dangerous.”

I am really starting to dislike this ‘girl’ crap of his.  I expect him to want me to stand in the circle next so he can fake another test for me, but when I start to head for it, he stops me and points to the center of the room.  “Stand here, while I enter my Circle of Magical Protection.  I don’t expect any danger from your attempts at using magical energy, but better safe than sorry.”

The jerk.  I watch as he enters his circle and makes complex hand gestures while saying something that once again, sounds a little like Latin to me.  I am completely surprised when a magical barrier springs to life around him.  It only takes me a second of looking at it to realize that it sucks. It has more holes in it than a slice of Swiss cheese.

He looks at me with a satisfied smile. “Okay, girl. It is quite safe for you to show me what magical energies you think you can harness.”

I feel half tempted to try that high level Phantasmal Killer spell on him, but decide that wouldn’t be too smart.  No matter how deserving he might be.

He takes my hesitation for fear or lack of ability.  “It’s okay girl.  Just give whatever you can do a try.  You may aim it at one of those dummies against the wall there.”

“Umm, Dr. Remus, sir?”  I ask, adding extra hesitation and uncertainty into my voice.  I pull up the icon for my fire mage’s fireball spell and consider trying to cast it, but I don’t want to try that in this place.  As weak as the protections in this room appear to be, if it worked, I might accidentally blow something up.  

“Yes, girl?”  He asks, impatiently.

“Well, I don’t really have any spells or anything that I can cast at a target. I have some illusion spells that I can cast on myself though.”

“Fine, then.  Cast them and show me your parlor tricks.” He gestures with his hand impatiently.

I really don’t like this guy, but I do what he asks.  I start with my Blur spell and after thirty seconds, I drop it when I notice him looking impatient again.

“Is that all you can do?”

“Umm, no.  I can cast an illusion that will make it look like I have makeup on.”  

“Bah!”  He dismisses his flimsy protection ward and steps out of the circle. “I think that we are done here girl.  Let’s step back into my office so I can fill out my assessment before I am late for my tee time.”

I can’t say that I’m not happy to be done with this test. Dr. Remus is an idiot and the sooner I can be out of his hair, the better.  I drop my magical sight when we walk back into his office.  He returns to his overstuffed chair while motioning me to sit in one of the cheap plastic things he allows visitors to use in his august presence.  I’m very careful as I sit so that I don’t accidentally touch any skin to the chair.  

He pulls out a form of some kind and begins to write on it with an expensive looking silver pen.  It takes me a little effort to read his writing upside down, but he checks the box for “Wizard Rating” and writes a one in the open box next to it.  I’m actually a little shocked that he would rate me so low.  Especially after Sir Wallace and Fey’s assessment yesterday.  That just reinforces my low opinion of this charlatan.

Dr. Remus writes in the comments section, “Examination indicates that subject contains some inherent magical energy, but that reading was at best, low.  Subject might achieve a level two rating after years of training and dedication.”  He looks at it for a few seconds before he signs the form with great flourish and hands it to me.  “Take this with you and give it to Barbara.  Don’t lose it. I will be most displeased if I am forced to fill out another one for you.”

I stand and take the offered form from his hands.  “Umm, thanks?”  I say, not really feeling it, but saying it only out of habit.

“Fine.  Now go, girl. Find Mrs. Townsend.” He says as he rummages through his desk without even looking at me.  “Now, where did I put my golf shoes?”  I hear him mutter as I leave his office.

I lean against his door and sigh with relief after I close it behind me.  After a few seconds, I pull up my internal mini-map and head towards the administrative section to find Mrs. Townsend.  I find her just as she exits an office a few meters ahead of me. Her back is to me.

“Mrs. Townsend?” I say, lifting my voice to carry down the hall.

She stops and turns around with a confused look on her face until she spots me walking towards her.  “Oh!  Br...Whisper!  I didn’t expect to see you so soon.  Did Dr. Remus finish already?”

“Ummm, yeah. He gave me this to give to you.” I say, handing her the paper form.

She glances at it curiously for a second. “Okaay.  I guess I will add this to your file.  Do you want to follow me or wait here in my office?”

I look at her helplessly and shrug my shoulders. “I dunno?”

She smiles. “Follow me then.  After I put this in your file, we can hunt down your mom before we venture into the new test machine area.”

She leads me down the hall and into a large records room.  A woman sits behind a desk there with a brand new looking computer with dual screen LCD monitors.  I itch to touch it and take a closer look at it, but Mrs. Townsend just hands her my test sheet.

“Mary?  Would you mind scanning this into Whisper’s file please?”

This Mary woman smiles as she takes the sheet. “Sure Barb. Not a problem.” She turns to me and whispers conspiratorially.  “Was the noble Dr. Remus being his normal difficult self?”

I’m a little shocked that I’m not the only one here to thinks he’s, ummm, not nice.  I just nod my head affirmatively and return her smile, glad that I am not alone in my assessment.

“Well, don’t let him bother you.  You won’t have to see him again.” Mary says with a smile.

That makes me feel happy and I return her smile. “Thanks, ma’am!”

Mary surprises me by getting up and giving me a quick hug. “Oh, you are just so precious! Do you have a boyfriend?”

Mrs. Townsend gasps. “Mary!”

I don’t know what to think.  My mind goes blank from the shock of the idea that I would (a) have a boyfriend and (b) want to have a boyfriend if I didn’t have a boyfriend.  I guess that I shouldn’t be surprised that other people would wonder about my single status.  I know that if I had seen a girl who looked like I do now, I would be wondering if she was single too.  Does John count?  He is a boy and he is my friend, but I’m pretty sure that Lisa would kick my ass if I tried to claim him as such.

“Ummm...” I about all I am able to get out as I search for some way to answer her question.  I can feel my face burning up from the embarrassment too.  That only makes me feel even more confused and awkward.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.  I was just thinking that my son would probably like you.” Mary says as an apology.

Crap.  My glamour must have hit her. I really need to figure out how to shut that thing down.  I feel a little better and that makes me laugh. “Oh, that’s okay, umm, Mary.  It’s my fault.”

Mary blushes and nervously laughs, trying to wave off my objections. “It’s totally my fault!  I shouldn’t have put you on the spot like that.”

“No, really. It’s my fault. I have something called a ‘glamour’ that somehow makes people like me more and I think that it might have hit you.”

Mary waves my explanation off, like it doesn’t matter. “Oh no dear, totally my fault.”  She turns to a smiling Mrs. Townsend. “Barb, don’t think that I don’t know that you’re already scheming for a way to introduce her to your son!”

Mrs. Townsend smiles at Mary with a satisfied smirk. “Maybe. I might have to bring him along to help carry stuff when we go to the mall tonight with Amanda.”

Now they are both ignoring me, which is good because I’m entering panic mode.  The mall!? Who’s Amanda?  Does Mom know about this?  She has to know about this.  I rewind the lunch conversation that I mostly ignored and search for keywords like ‘shopping’ and ‘Amanda’.  

>3 matches found
>12:32:02 - shopping
>12:32:33 - Amanda
>12:33:45 - shopping

I play back the first and discover that my mom agreed to go to a shopping mall with Mrs. Townsend and her daughter, Amanda, tonight.  I even answered ‘uh huh’ to the idea.  Shows how much I was paying attention.  That rewind causes me to I miss the rest of Mary’s and Mrs. Townsend’s conversation.  I guess that they resolve their fight over me amicably since their laughter causes me to focus on the real-world again.

Mrs. Townsend checks her watch. “Well, I think it’s time to get you down to Aladdin’s Lab.”  Mrs. Townsend smiles as she uses air quotes around Aladdin and Lab.

I barely even notice her attempt at humor.  I really really hope that her son doesn’t go. I was only tricked into helping my mom and Lindsay shopping once.  I hope her son is smarter than I was and says “no!” to the entire idea. I mean, it would be like some blind date thing, but not a date, because I am not a date for some dude!  That would be gross.

I end up obsessing about that all the way down to entrance to the test area.  I’m startled out of my thoughts of doom and gloom by the arrival of my mom.

“Bree? What’s wrong honey?”  My mom asks, looking concerned.

“Oh, umm, nothing.  Just worried about going to the mall tonight.” I say, trying to shrug it off with a smile.

“Why would you be worried about that?  We need to get you some more clothes and since we don’t really have a car, Barb has graciously offered to show us around.”

“Oh, no reason, I guess it’s okay.”

Mrs. Townsend briefly frowns at me before her expression changes to alarm. “Oh, no dear, I didn’t mean to intrude. If you’re worried about having Amanda and me, we could skip. I just mentioned the idea to your mom and I thought it might be helpful for you since she mentioned that none of your old clothes fit you.”  Mrs. Townsend says, trying to make me feel better.

That just makes me feel worse. Like I am now being the difficult one.  “Oh, no, that’s okay. I was just surprised and I’m not sure how everyone will react to me at someplace like a mall.”

“Oh dear, you’ll be just fine. You’re beautiful.”  Mrs. Townsend says.

My mom grabs my hand and gives me a quick squeeze.  That keeps me from really panicking over the idea of being seen in ‘the wild’ by hordes of other teenage girls and, shudder, boys.

Mrs. Townsend uses my lack of further protests as an excuse to wave her card over the door access pad.  It beeps, turns green and the door unlocks as Mrs. Townsend turns the metal handle.  We enter another high-tech control room that overlooks a giant human sized egg shaped device attached to the floor with masses of wires and conduits leading into it.  The ‘egg’ is hinged on the left side and open, displaying a padded bed that is canted at a forty-five degree angle.   

I am guessing that I will have to lie down inside that egg thing and probably be sealed into it.  That does not make me feel too excited, but this is the last test of the day and once it is done, we can go shopping.  I wonder if I can ask them to put in some overtime and run more tests.  Maybe even redo my magic test since the dude was such an idiot.

“Whisper, this is Aladdin.  He designed the tester.”  Mrs. Townsend says, bringing my observations to a halt.

I look to the casually dressed man standing next to some LCD screen.  He smiles at me. “Hi.  Pleased to meet you. Don’t let that thing down there scare you. It’s perfectly safe.  No intense magnetic fields to worry about like the MRI.”

“Oh, thanks.” I say.  Darn.  I was kind of hoping it had magnets in it. Maybe it would knock me out so I don’t have to go shopping.

“But...”

I knew there was going to be one of those.

“I do have a special suit that you will need to change into so that the sensors can monitor you while you’re in the nest.”

Oh, that’s good news.  I bet that I can’t wear that due to the man-made fibers, but if that is the case, then I won’t have any way out of going shopping tonight.

“Oh yeah, I saw the note in your file about your allergies, so I modified the suit to be made out of silk instead of Lycra for you.”

Crap.  This Aladdin dude, if that is really his name, is way too helpful.

“Oh, thanks.” I say, smiling at him politely.  “What about my mom? She needs to be tested too.”  I’m hoping that he won’t have one that she can wear now and we will have to stay late so he can make something for her.

“No problems, she can wear the original suit.”

Darn it!  This guy is good.  “You just made a new suit out of silk?  Just like that?” I ask, incredulously.

“Oh yeah, I was able to use your measurements, so it wasn’t that hard for my rapid proto-type system to put it together for you. You’re lucky; it just got done five minutes ago.  Sorry, it took a few hours.”  Aladdin says, smiling apologetically as he begins to hand me a plastic wrapped item.

Yes, he really is too helpful, but I think he forgot about the plastic wrap. I bet that I can delay things by a few minutes with an allergic reaction to that.

“Oh, wait. Sorry, almost forgot.” He laughs as he rips the plastic off and gently hands me the folded silky suit thing.

I instantly feel the sensors and circuits woven into the fabric.  There are millions of tiny sensors embedded in the suit.  Realizing that I could spend minutes studying the suit’s electronics and that people might get worried if I just blanked out on them, I force myself to not look at them right now.  “Oh, thanks.”  I say after what I hope was an unnoticeable delay.

“Do you wanna go first, or shall we have Psyche go first instead?”

I jump at that question.  “Psyche?” I ask, looking back at my mom with confusion.

>Searching....
>2 results found
>7th grade mythology class
>Greek Goddess of the Soul, married Cupid
>More?

Ah, no.  That’s okay.  Thanks.

She grins shyly at me. “Well, I needed a name for my MID, that one was available and I didn’t know what else to pick.”

“Oh, well, it’s kinda cool. Is Dad Cupid?” I ask, smiling mischievously.  

She just laughs. “To me, he is.”

I look back to Aladdin and he’s just standing there looking a little confused.  I guess he didn’t know that we were related.  Maybe he still doesn’t.  “Umm, I can go first. Since I have my suit already.” I say, regaining his attention. I really hope that this suit thing doesn’t fit.

“Oh, good!”  He points the door behind me. “That leads to the changing room and to the, umm, Nest.  If you don’t mind, we can get this started.”

“Okay!” I say with a smile as I clutch the suit against me to keep it from slipping out of my hands.  Maybe, if I hold it too tight, something will break.

Mrs. Townsend helps me find the changing room. “Umm, Mrs. Townsend, do I need to strip completely down for this suit?”

She nods her head yes and smiles reassuringly at me. . “I’m afraid so dear.  Here, lemme close the door for you and give you some privacy.”

It takes me a few seconds of just standing there before I get the courage to get this over with.  I nervously take a quick glance around the room to make sure there are no hidden cameras and finding none, I quickly strip out of my clothes.  As I slip my legs into the suit, I feel the embedded circuits of the suit.  There are tons of nano-scale sensors built into the suit and I analyze them as I slowly pull the suit up.  They appear to be passive and need some external power supply to get them to work.  Maybe the egg generates a field that interacts with the suit’s sensors and creates some sort of super-duper powers map thing-a-ma-jig.  Or, maybe this Aladdin dude just makes stuff up after hacking into the manual test files.

Once it has reached my neck, I zip it up via the helpful plastic zipper.  Hah!  I knew that Aladdin wouldn’t be able to make it completely allergen free.  I feel a slight tingle in my finger, but it quickly fades.  I guess he knew about it because there is a silk layer under the zipper that keeps it from making contact with my bare skin.  

Darn it.  This guy is good.

To make matters even worse, the suit fits like a glove and leaves nothing to the imagination.  I guess that it is really like wearing my skin-tight workout clothes, but I just feel more exposed since I don’t have my underwear on.  Realizing that I am just being silly, I force myself to open the door.  

Mrs. Townsend smiles at me. “Ah, there you are.  I was just getting ready to knock on the door to see if you were having any problems.”

“Nope. All good.”

“Great, let’s get you into Aladdin’s machine and get this test done with.  I can’t wait to go shopping tonight!  It’s been so long since I’ve had a chance to just go and have fun at the mall.”

“Oh, okay. Are you sure that this thing is safe? I mean, I wouldn’t want to get sick and not be able to go to the mall tonight!”  I say with maximum false enthusiasm levels.  I’m not sure what I am more afraid of right now.  The machine or the mall.  Pretty silly, huh?

“Perfectly safe. Nothing to be afraid of. Aladdin knows what he’s doing.”  Mrs. Townsend says as she leads me to the egg and motions for me to step into it.

I gingerly step in and carefully lie down on the foam padding.  It’s a good thing I have this silk suit on.

“Don’t forget to pull your hood on dear.” Mrs. Townsend says.

Oh, yeah. There is a hood built into this suit.  That might help with the padded head rest.  I pull it over my head and tuck my hair in.  The hood is pretty tight and it also has all those sensor things built into it.  


“Don’t worry; it will all be over with before you know it.”  Aladdin says with a chuckle.  “Okay, closing the hatch.  Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle until this ride has come to a complete stop.”

That makes me laugh as the egg vibrates a little and I hear the door begin to swing shut. My visual world turns completely black as the lid softly closes and locks with a click, but my new found computer world is getting rather busy.

“Test sequence Alpha beginning in five, four, three, two, one, and blast off!” Aladdin says.

I feel the egg power up and the sensors in my suit spring to life.  They aren’t capturing anything yet, but the egg is still going through its power-up phase.  I can see all of the diagnostic self-checks it is running on itself in preparation for the main test sequence.  

>Main lamp fire sequence...begin

I flinch as the world turns white as I am bathed in light. My flare compensation kicks in, but it doesn’t seem to really help since the light is so over-powering.  That distracts me and I lose .5 seconds of my own analysis of what the sensors and the egg are capturing from me.

This machine is bleeping amazing.  Somehow, the light waves and their reflections from the cells in my body are being detected by all of the nano sensors in the suit and the sensors in the egg itself.  The light signatures of my cells are apparently unique enough to somehow give the machine a read on what my powers might be.  Well, that or like I thought earlier, Aladdin is just doing a lot of smoke and mirrors while hacking my test files.

Regardless, it is still generating a massive amount of data for someone or something to read and figure out.  I follow the data trail back to a high powered super-computer. I watch the processing for a few seconds before I realize that it’s going to take it a few hours for it to finish all its calculations and there is no way that I can or should try to help it along.  It is going slow because it is referencing each data point with some huge genetic database that is located on a different network.  All I have is the IP address and a quick who is only makes me more worried.  The database server IP address looks like it is coming from the NSA.  

I want to take a closer look at the database, but the data suddenly stops coming into the system. I back out and open my eyes.  The light has stopped and Aladdin’s egg is done with its scan of me.  I’m a little surprised. It only took thirty seconds and now that I took a peek at the database, I am a little worried about what it might find about my powers.  What if it discovers my computer powers?  Will Nikki’s and Sara’s fears become real?  Will the government try to kill me?

My fears are brought to an end when I hear the egg’s door click and a motor start to raise the door.  The light from the room streaming in makes me blink my eyes and that surprises me since I just had thirty seconds of super-bright light rain down on me from every angle.

“That was great Whisper! We will have you out of there in a jiffy.”  Aladdin says over the egg’s intercom.

“Umm, okay.  Thanks.”  I say.

Mrs. Townsend helps me back into the changing room and I have never felt so glad to see my sports bra and panties. I mean underwear.  My mom trades places with me and I walk back upstairs to the control room to watch her enter the egg.  Dr. Edmundson is there, but he doesn’t look happy.

“What’s wrong Dr. Edmundson?” I ask.

“It’s nothing. I was hoping to monitor you during the test, but we lost connection with your system when the egg closed.”

“Oh, okay. I don’t think there was much for it to report anyway. All it did was shine a real bright light at me.  It didn’t hurt, but it was pretty boring.” I say, trying to sound bored about it while at the same time, I am now worried about my mom and what this thing will find out about her.  What if she has some super dangerous power that the government doesn’t like?  

I wanted to play with Aladdin’s system like I did with Joe’s, but I have a feeling that he might notice, especially since there isn’t a cool video monitor to distract everyone.  He’s also paying very close attention to every gauge and status display, so any blip that I might cause would be instantly noticed.

My mom’s test only takes thirty seconds, too. I breathe a sigh of relief at the sight of her blinking her eyes as she exits the egg. Since it looked like the computer would take a few hours with my data, maybe it will also take a few hours with my mom’s.  That would give us four to six hours to plan our escape.  Where would we go?  Maybe we could hide in Canada?  How would we get there with all the helicopters and dogs that would be hunting us down?  Is that the real reason that Mrs. Townsend offered to go to the mall with us tonight? Is she really a super-secret assassin with orders to kill us if we try to run?

I’m really starting to panic and feel super paranoid about everything when my mom, still in her suit, barges into the room and hugs me.  “What’s wrong, Bree?”

I can’t really tell her, not here anyway. “I was so worried about you!”

“Bree?”  My mom asks, standing back so that she can look directly into my eyes.  She’s not buying my explanation.

I purposely move my eyes to indicate the other people in the room. “Really.  When the egg closed on you, I just got so worried for some reason.”

She seems to get it. “I love you too hon. We can talk about it later, okay?”

“Okay, Mom.” I say, somewhat sullenly for the audience.

“Well, now that I know you’re okay, lemme go get out of this cat suit so we can get outta here and go shopping!”  My mom says with an excited grin as she looks over my shoulder at Mrs. Townsend before turning to Aladdin. “Do we need to stay for anything?”

He smiles and points to the cabinet full of blinking lights that is the server doing all the work. “Oh no, it will take more than a few hours to analyze all the data, so I won’t have anything until the morning.”

“Oh, okay. Well, then, I will go get changed so we can get out of here.” My mom looks back to Mrs. Townsend. “Umm, Barb, was there anything else we needed to do today?”

Mrs. Townsend warmly smiles at my mom. “Nope...just the most important thing, shopping!”

Maybe she isn’t really a super-secret assassin, but now, I am kind of hoping she is so that I will have a reason to ditch the shopping.  My mom laughs as she heads back down to change into her real clothes.

Once we get back to the room, I notice that the beds are made and even though I know that they are supposed to be, my paranoia level raises back up to the max setting.  I scan the room and I am only slightly relieved when I don’t find any electronic things that I didn’t know about.

“Bree?  What’s wrong?  You’ve been acting jumpy ever since the test.”

I debate telling my mom, but I don’t think that she will understand. “I’m just worried about the tests and what happens after that.”

“Why would you be worried about that?”

“Well, I’m going to be leaving home and I’m just not sure if I am ready for that.”

My mom hugs me. “Bree, I know that it won’t be easy for you. It won’t be easy for your Dad and me either, even Lindsay, but I firmly believe that going to this school will be the best for you.”

“Yes Mom, you’re probably right, but I’m still worried.” I reluctantly agree with her and even though it wasn’t really what I was worried about, I was worried about the school thing. So, I hope that I fooled her lie detector power.

She smiles. “Well, Barb will be here in less than forty five minutes and we both need to get ready.  Hop in the shower and let’s get ready, okay?”

I give her a quick hug before I run into the bathroom. “Thanks, Mom!”

She smiles at me, but still looks a little concerned.

The hot water feels great!  I try to, umm, multi-task, but that just makes me need to wash my legs, twice.  That is one more item for the girl con column.  Since I was a little active today, I decide to risk it and wash my hair. I am ashamed to admit that I like the way the smelly shampoo makes my hair smell and feel.  As soon as I am done, my mom hops into the shower.  It feels a little weird to be sharing a bathroom with my mom.

This time, even though I forgot to bring in my clean underwear, I do remember to wrap my towel around my chest, girl-style.  I am rather proud of myself when I manage to dry and style my hair without any assistance. My mom even compliments me on it when she gets done with her shower.  Once again, I am glad that Whisper had such an easy to manage hairstyle.

“Okay, go get dressed while I dry my hair.” My mom says as she wraps her towel around herself.

“Yes, Mom.” I say as I try to ignore the fact that I just saw my mom naked and she didn’t react at all like she would have if I was still a boy.

I rummage through my suitcase and pick the blue silk underwear things because I think that they will match my blue jeans better. Yes, I know, I know, but it’s bad enough that I picked them and used that matching thing as an excuse. I still refuse to call them panties.

I struggle with getting my new jeans on. Well, not struggle, but I do have to give them an extra tug to get them past my butt so that I can snap them shut.  Thank god for the silk panties, umm, crap.  

Anyway, I grab my dark green sweater shirt top thing and the white bra. I’m not sure if the white bra is the correct color, but I am pretty sure that the black one is not and my beige one is dirty.  I decide to try on the girlie black flat shoe things and inspect myself in the mirror. I kind of like how the tapered jeans with the open on the top shoe shows off my ankles and make my feet look so, umm, sleek. I mean, I know that I thought girls wearing jeans with these kind of flat things looked hot, but I have to admit, I like how they look on me too. I know that they are not the best choice for winter and walking through a mall so I sit down to exchange them for my sneakers. My mom chooses that moment to step out of the bathroom.

“Oh, that looks nice Bree.  Good selection with the shoes too.” She says with a pleased smile.

Crap. “Oh, thanks, but I was just going to put my sneakers on.”

“Oh no. Keep those. Your sneakers wouldn’t look as nice.”

“Okay.” I say while cursing myself for being so foolish.  It’s winter and these shoes have zero support. I’m sure that my feet will be both frozen and then, killing me at the mall.

My mom doesn’t say anything about the white bra, so I guess I did okay and it only takes her a few minutes to get dressed.  Unlike me, she actually has some warm looking clothes to wear.  Maybe going shopping isn’t such a bad idea.  My mom hands me my purse.  Crap, I keep forgetting the darn thing and she keeps remembering it.

We only have to wait in the lobby for three minutes and twenty-three seconds before Mrs. Townsend pulls up.  I sigh with relief that it is only her and a teenage girl sitting in the back seat, and not her son.  I bet that the girl is her daughter, Amanda.  As we walk up to the car, I study Amanda as she studies me.  I’m a little nervous about this. My mom grabs my hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze just before she slides into the front passenger seat, while I jump into the back seat with Amanda.

“Amanda, this is Brianna or Bree.  Bree, Amanda.” Mrs. Townsend says as she spins around to look at both of us.  

“Umm, hi?” I say with a small wave. I feel so out of my depth.

Amanda flashes me a smile. “Oh my god! You’re so beautiful!  I’m so glad that you could come! I’ve been dying to go to the mall, but my parents...”

“Amandaaa.” Mrs. Townsend says, warning her daughter to change the subject. Satisfied, she spins back and looks at my mom.  “Amanda, this is Bree’s mother, Mrs. Peters.”

My mom laughs. “Oh please, it is nice to meet you Amanda. Please, just call me Jennifer. Mrs. Peters makes me feel so old.”

“Hi.” Amanda smiles and waves one of those cute girl style waves.

Introductions complete, Mrs. Townsend puts the car in gear. “Girls, seatbelts.” She says.

Amanda and I buckle in and as soon as hers snaps, she spins to face me. “So, Bree, what is your favorite store?”

I was kind of hoping that the seat-belts would force us to sit facing forward and keep conversation to a minimum.  I have no idea what to talk about or even what she expects me to say. I’m pretty sure that if I said Gamestop or Barnes and Noble, that she wouldn’t know what to think.  “Umm, I’m not sure?  What does the mall have?”  It does not escape my notice that my mom and Mrs. Townsend are silent and pretending to not be paying any attention to the back seat conversation.

“Oh, well, there is a Macy’s.  A bit pricey, but they have the best shoes!  And then, there is Dillard’s and J.C. Penny and there are few other really nice stores there too. I can’t wait!  How about you?”  Amanda says as she looks at me expectantly.

I have been through a Macy’s, on my way to the game store. I kind of remember that it had a lot of expensive looking stuff.  I would replay my memories, but that would take too long. “Umm, Macy’s is nice.”  I say with a hesitant smile.

Amanda takes that as my secret handshake for the girl club and breaks into explaining all of her favorite sections of Macy’s. I notice my mom and Mrs. Townsend grin at each other and begin their own discussion.  Amanda continues to extol the virtues of Macy’s before she branches out to include all of the stores at the mall, while all can I do is smile and say, “oh yeah, I like that too.” or “really? I didn’t know that.”  I really have no idea what to think.  A part of me can’t help but be impressed by her. She really knows her shopping-fu and I find myself starting to get excited about this shopping trip.

“It’s a shame that we have to eat dinner still and that the mall closes at nine. That will only give us, maybe three hours to find the perfect outfits for you!”  Amanda says with what looks like genuine sadness to me.

I can’t believe that she thinks that three hours isn’t enough time. I mean, how long can it take to buy a few clothes?

We decide to eat first and I am glad, because I am hungry for some real food.  Well, something other than salad anyway.  I order a salmon fillet with extra steamed broccoli, while Amanda orders a salad.  It is nice to not be the only rabbit food eater.  My mom orders some crab legs after raving about how hard it is to find fresh sea-food in New Mexico and Mrs. Townsend, or Barb as she wants me to now call her, orders a small steak.  It looks so yummy, but the smell of cooked meat just turns me off.  My salmon is the bomb though.

After I finish my dinner, I realize that I have to go to the bathroom.  “I gotta go. I’ll be right back.” I say to my mom as I move to get up.

“Oh! Me too!” Amanda says as she slides out of the booth after me.

“Bree, don’t forget your purse.” My mom says before I can escape.

Oh man. Why can’t girls just use wallets and what is it about girls having to go to the bathroom together?  “Okay?  Let’s go.” I say, smiling back at Amanda.  

She is kind of hard to not like.  She’s older than me by one year and she’s very pretty. I think so anyways. Most of all, she’s just so darn friendly.  I don’t get it.  Why couldn’t I have met her before I got turned into a girl?

I still find it weird to not see any urinals in the bathroom. Just a couple extra stalls where the urinals should be.  I inspect the seat and quickly wipe it down out of habit since men’s seats can be extra nasty from guys thinking they have good aim. I start to do the pee-pee dance due to all the extra steps and time it takes to pull my pants and underwear completely down almost makes me have an accident. I really miss just being able to unzip and go.  The toilet paper here is a bit cheap too.

“Umm, Bree?” Amanda asks from the other stall as I finish up and open the door to my stall.

“Yeah?” I say, pausing so I can hear her over the sound of my toilet flushing.

“I’m sorry, but I’m a bit early. Do you have a spare pad that I can borrow?” Amanda asks, sounding mortified.

Heck, I’m mortified too.  I did not need to be reminded about that little problem. I don’t even know if I have one of those tam...tamp...umm, things, but I bet that since my mom packed my purse; I probably do. “Umm, I think so. Lemme check.” I say as I zip open my purse and spot both a pad thing and a tampon thing.  

“Yeah, I have a pad and a tampon. Which one do you need?” I ask, trying to sound casual about it while on the inside I am hoping that she will say that it is a false alarm so that I won’t have to touch the things in my purse.

“I have just a little spotting, so I think that just a pad will be enough for now.” She says, casually, like bleeding while going pee is normal.

Crap, I will have to touch it.  I grab it and she opens the door so that I can hand it to her easier.  I was wondering how I was going to get it to her. “Thanks! You’re a lifesaver!” Amanda says as she takes it from my nerveless fingers.  “Oh! We even use the same brand!  Awesome!”

She even leaves the stall door open as she finishes up. “Umm, I’ll just go wash my hands.” I say to her.

“Okay!  I’ll be right out!” Amanda sings as I sneak away.

I am just finishing up my hands when Amanda joins me at the sinks.  She gives me a quick hug. I guess she’s thanking me again for my mom making sure that my purse was stocked.

“You are so beautiful! I’m jealous and you don’t even have any makeup on!” Amanda says as she looks at herself in the mirror and begins to dig through her purse for something.

“Umm, you’re very pretty yourself.” I say with complete honesty as she starts to touch up her eye shadow.

“No way!  My nose is too big and my boobs are too small, while you, you’re perfect.  Even your hair is perfect.  I wish that you went to school here.  That way, we could be friends, but you would probably never hang out with me.”

Now I’m really confused. Didn’t I just tell her that she’s pretty?  She is. I don’t understand why she would think that she’s not and that I wouldn’t like her if I went to her school.  “Umm, no.  Your nose is not too big and your boobs are not too small.  You’re beautiful. I don’t understand how you could think otherwise.”

She turns to look at me and I almost think that she expects me to kick her or something.  “You really think so?”

“Of course. Why would I lie to you?” I ask, cocking my head to the side with confusion.

She smiles the biggest and happiest smile I have seen on a girl in a long time as she returns to touching up her eye shadow.  “You know, if you had just a little color around your eyes, they would be deadly gorgeous.  That green is so stunning. I wish that I had eyes like yours.”

“Umm, I didn’t really have time to mess with that before we left the hotel.” I say while praying to god that a) I don’t have some makeup hidden in my purse and b) if not, that she doesn’t offer me hers.  I get brave and take a peek inside my purse.  Whew! No makeup. I guess finding all natural stuff is hard, even for my mom.

She notices my failure to find any makeup in purse. “I would offer you mine, but you’re not really supposed to share eye makeup. Infections.”

“Oh that’s okay. I don’t really need it and if I had to, I could probably magic something up.” I say feeling momentarily relieved about the infections excuse.

“Magic?  You can do magic too?” Amanda asks, sounding very interested and excited.

Oh crap. I probably shouldn't have mentioned that. “Yeah. Some.”

“Show me! Pleeaasse!” Amanda begs me.

I never could turn down a pretty girl. I’m so weak. “Umm, okay. I guess that it can’t hurt.” I say while inside I am praying that someone will walk in and interrupt us so that I won’t have to do anything.  No one does. Sigh.

I concentrate on a simple eye shadow with a hint of lipstick illusion as I call up the icon for Whisper’s self-illusion spell.  I am pleasantly surprised by how easy it is for me to draw upon the magic and make it happen.  

Amanda is more than just surprised. “Oh. My. God! Bree!  That is soooo cool!”

I take a look at myself in the mirror and I have to admit that the little bit of smoky eye shadow illusion with the light hint of lipstick really does make my eyes stand out.  “Umm, yeah.  It is kind of handy.”

“Can you do that for me, too?” Amanda says while looking at me with a hope in her eyes.

Damn it. Now that I’m a girl, aren’t I supposed to be immune to her powers of persuasion?  “I think so?” I say without any confidence what-so-ever in the hope that she will change her mind.

“Okay!  Can you make my eyes blue and my hair short like yours, except blond instead of this yucky brown?” She asks as she drags her fingers through her hair with frustration.

Please, can someone please walk into the bathroom right now?  “I can try.” I say.  Why can’t I just say no?  I imagine her with bright blue eyes and shiny blond hair in my style as I bring up Whisper’s higher level ‘seeming’ spell.  I never actually got Whisper high enough to cast this spell, so I am a little worried, but it is only an illusion; so it shouldn’t do anything bad.  The magic is a little hard to reach for this one, but not so hard that I wuss out.  I hear Amanda squeal with delight as my spell finishes.  I hope it is delight anyway.  I look at her studying her new look in the mirror.

Amanda seems a little confused by her hair.  “This is so cool!  I can still feel my hair, but when I look at myself, I can’t see it!”

An older woman decides to enter the bathroom.  Thank god!  She frowns at the two of us for what reason I don’t know.  Probably because we are hogging the mirror and making noise. Well, Amanda is making noise anyway.  Amanda pretends to get all serious until the woman enters a stall.  Then, Amanda breaks down and giggles into my shoulder in an attempt to not be heard by the lady.

“Umm, we should get back to the table and I should cancel these things.” I say with a whisper.

“Do you have to? I want to see if my mom recognizes me.” Amanda pouts.

It’s not going to work on me this time. “I’m not supposed to be doing this. If my mom found out, I would be in big trouble.” I say with a whisper just before I cancel both the eye shadow illusion on me and the bigger one on Amanda.

“Ahh. I’m sorry, but that was so cool!” Amanda says as she gives me an excited hug.

Both of our parents look a little bemused as we walk back to the table, best of buds, I mean girlfriends after our joint trip to the bathroom.  I can’t help noticing the looks that I get from the guys and other girls as we walk past some tables with people closer to our age.  The guys, those looks I can totally understand. I’m not comfortable, but they think I’m hot. The girls, I don’t understand.  Some of them look a little angry to me.  Why?  Amanda seems oblivious to all of the attention, even though she was getting a share of the looks.

“Now that you two are done in there, are you ready to go shopping?” My mom asks with a smile.

“Umm, sure?” I say, noncommittally.

“Oh yeah!  Let’s go!” Amanda says, practically dragging me out of the restaurant.

Now, I’ve been in malls before, so I am not a stranger in a strange land, but the mall is a very different place when your target destination isn’t the game store.  The only thing that keeps me from running away is the fact that I am being dragged by a pretty girl, my mom is trailing behind to make sure I don’t desert and the realization that I kind of do need more clothes.  

I try to look at the mall map to see where all the gaming and electronics stores are and if they have a book store, but Amanda pulls me right past it before I get the chance to study it.

“Come on!  No need for that silly, I know where everything is at!” Amanda says with a laugh.

Fortunately, a glance is all I need to view the map and cross reference it with the store list below it.  Crap, no book store, but there is a Game Stop and Radio Shack.  I think the plan is to go to Macy’s first and Game Stop is even on the way.  Yeah!

As we near the game store, I veer in the store’s direction so that I can go in and browse for a few minutes.

“Hey!  Where are you going, Bree?  Don’t you see Aerie’s over there?  They have some of the cutest bras!”  Amanda says as she tugs on my hand, easily pulling me away from gaming nirvana.

With my super-strength, I guess I could just drag her into the game store, but my mind short-circuits when she says the “B” word in the same sentence with “cutest”.  Also, why would we stop there? I thought we were going to Macy’s. If we stop at every little store on the way, we might never get to Macy’s.  Girls just don’t know how to shop.

I guess it could be worse; it could be a Victoria’s Secret store.