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Author's Note: Here's Ch.10, which I believe is the longest chapter of this story so far. Oh and there's a mild cliffhanger at the end for those of you who like that kind of thing. I'd like to thank djkauf and Indy for the magical editing and everyone for enjoying this universe :)

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TEN:

It was strange waking up with breasts. I knew when I opened my eyes and looked at the two little mountains that they weren’t my imagination. They were there and they were going to be there for a while. At least as far as I knew. I thought about that a lot actually. After Melissa dropped me off last night, I did a lot of thinking. I couldn’t help but wonder about that guy in the 1930's, how he was eventually turned into a girl completely. Was that going to happen to me too? I groaned and closed my eyes, hoping that maybe this was all a dream. It felt more like a nightmare though, one that I was forced to live regardless of what happened.

I reopened my eyes but refused to get out of bed. It was Saturday morning after all; the week was finally winding down. I have to say it was by far one of the worst ones ever. A week ago, I was happy at home with my parents, in my hometown, as a boy. Now here I was after being forced to leave my home, my friends and my life. I’ve been chased, nearly stabbed and nearly barbequed. My parents were in hiding, I was stuck in a small town with relatives I couldn’t stand and magic kept fucking with me. I was supposed to be safe here, bad things weren’t suppose to happen. Here I was though, a boy was no longer just a boy with my schoolmates thinking me a girl and slut and my body now no longer my own.

Some week.

I continued to lie there for a while, staring up at the canopy over my overly girly bed. With everything that has been going on, the room was a moot point. I’d been sleeping in it all week and only barely registered its overly girly nature. Sure, I saw it, but given the week I’d been having I hadn’t really paid much attention to it. Now just lying here staring, I couldn’t help but wonder how my mother could have decorated her room like this. I knew my Mom, I knew the kind of person she was now and it was not this. Mom wasn’t tomboyish in the least but she wasn’t a girly girl either. Whoever the girl was that made the room look like this, it made me wonder if she was in fact doing it to please someone.

Maybe an overbearing mother perhaps?

I laid there for a few more minutes before I couldn’t take it anymore. I pushed myself up from the bed, surprised that Diamond wasn’t trying to mooch off my warmth again. He’d been strangely close the last few days, clinging to me like he’d never done before. Now he was nowhere in sight. Either he got tired of trying to annoy me or else he finally wised up. I didn’t really care; I was getting tired of him being around all the time anyway. I had other things on my mind to worry about then why my mother’s cat wasn’t bothering me anymore.

I walked out into the hall, taking a quick look to make sure I was alone. I made a mad dash for the bathroom and locked the door behind me. The first thing I did was pee as fast as humanly possible---I definitely didn’t want to think about that. As soon as I flushed, I went to the mirror. I was still the same girl from yesterday. Not that that was going to change but a small part of me was hoping it had all been a dream. But there she was, there I was---long hair in a tangled mess, old t-shirt and boxer shorts. It looked kind of strange seeing a girl dressed like that but I was too annoyed to care about how I looked. I quickly stripped out of my clothes and got into the shower, turning on the water as I closed my eyes. Showering was definitely different. This new body of mine seemed ultra sensitive for some reason. Every single bit of it reacted differently to the water, especially my breasts. It was hard not to think about. I wonder if it was like this for all girls. If I was stuck like this, could I get used to it?

Last night after sneaking into the house, I did a lot of thinking. After slipping through the house as quickly as I could, I found myself in my room looking at myself in the big mirror on the wall. It was there that I thought about what to do next. It was clear that whatever spell was used on me didn’t seem to want to go away. There was nothing I could do to get rid of it either. Melissa was looking into it of course, but in the meantime, I was stuck. It was a scary thought, not knowing when I might turn into a girl. That is of course if I was even going to turn back into a guy in the first place. That was even scarier to think about. Looking at that girl in the mirror last night, I tried to imagine waking up to that every morning.

There was no way I could deal.

So I decided that I was going to try my hardest to pretend to be the old me. The great thing about being androgynous in the first place was that my face hadn’t really changed all that much. It was a bit softer and up close there were slight differences but from afar, I looked just like I usually did. I was counting on the fact that no one looked at me for a long period of time. That was the hard part. The other stuff was easy---hiding my curves, disguising my voice. I could do this, I had to do this.

After getting out of the shower, I left the bathroom in a rush. With a towel wrapped around my new feminine body---just like the girls in movies---I went to my dresser. I rummaged through it, looking for clothes that would hide my new shape. I found a baggy shirt---well the baggiest I had. It was the one I wore last week when I arrived here. The jeans I picked out were sadly just like the others. I put those things aside then retrieved the sports bra and ace bandage. I pulled the bra on quickly then using the bandage, I wrapped my chest as tight as I could, hoping to plaster my breasts down. I did this in front of the mirror, turning sideways every few seconds to check my work.

My chest wasn’t completely flat but it was close enough.

After that, I pulled on my shirt; I turned to look at the half-naked girl in the mirror. No matter how I tried to see my guy self all I saw was girl. I tried not to think about that as I pulled on my boxers. As soon as they were up though, they felt wrong. They were too tight in the butt for one thing and there was too much room in the crotch. Damn, why didn’t I realize that yesterday? Another realization dawned on me then---yesterday I had been wearing my old jeans, the ones I came in. Those were a bit baggier than my new ones so I didn’t have a problem. They were in the wash now, so I had another problem: pants.

I tried the pair I got anyway. Sure enough, I couldn’t get them up past my hips. I cursed. How in the hell was I supposed to go out today. A strange thought passed through me which only made me curse real loud. If I was going to go out today that meant I would have to find an alternative clothing source and there was only one of those in the house. I groaned as I left my room---wearing only my shirt---and made my way down the hall. I knocked on Mary’s door, hoping that she was gone already. I overheard her last night talking to Tracy on the phone, the two of them were supposed to have plans today. After my first knock, there was no answer so I tried again, louder this time. When she didn’t answer on the second, I opened the door. I was surprised it wasn’t locked, her being the way she was.

I groaned at the sight of the room. Mary had never been overly girly growing up. She was sometimes more boyish than I was but I never remembered her room being this dark before. What’s with the metal band posters and the dark curtains? I had a hell of a time navigating through it as I made my way to her dresser. I tried the top drawer first, hoping she might have some underwear. I didn’t like the idea of stealing from her but I didn’t have a choice. I gawked at the sight---thongs and bikini briefs. There was no way I was wearing any of that. I closed the drawer quickly and went on a search for jeans. The dresser had four drawers: the second one had shirts, the bottom two were devoted to skirts. The third drawer had short ones; the bottom drawer had long ones.

Nowhere was there any jeans.

How can someone not have any jeans?

Defeated, I left her room and rushed back to my own. I started to pace, trying to figure out what to do next. I suppose I could just call Maggie and tell her I couldn’t come to the club meeting. It wasn’t all that important after all. I kind of figured out what it was about anyway. It was obvious Charlie was a Dud and that this meeting of his was some kind of gathering of fellow Duds. It made sense I suppose---there had to be quite a few of them in Ravencrest. I knew at least two: Morgan and Jason.

I dropped onto the bed. There was no alternative but to cancel. I found my cell, surprised that it was actually fully charged for a change. I flipped it open and quickly dialed Maggie.

“Hey” she said happily. “I thought you were the kind of guy who slept in?”

“Eh, a lot on my mind.”

There was a pause. “Are you ok, you sound funny?”

Shit, my voice.

“I think it might be a cold. I’m not use to the climate change,” I said, trying to deepen my voice the best I could.

“So does that mean you’re not coming today?”

I could hear the disappointment in her voice.

I bit my lip. “I have a bit of a problem.”

“Anything I can help with?”

I was about to say no when it dawned on me. Yes, she could help me. She was a girl. She knew about all this magic stuff too, I was certain she could be trusted as well. I took a deep breath before speaking again.

“If I tell you something do you promise not to tell anyone else?”

“Is it something bad?”

“No, it’s just kind of complicated.”

There was a momentary pause.

“I can keep a secret.”

I thought about how to tell her but in the end it was best if I showed her. “Can you come over, its better if you see?”

Another slight pause. “I can be there in about twenty minutes.”

“Good” I said then quickly added as an afterthought. “Could you bring me some baggy pants?”

“What?”

I cursed. “I’ll explain everything when you get here I promise.”

She sighed. “Ok, I’m on my way.”

I clicked off and groaned. If Maggie didn’t think I was crazy before she sure as hell did now.

Bring me some pants. What the hell was I thinking?

“Holy…”

Maggie arrived exactly twenty minutes after she said she was going to. I was anxious as hell the whole time, right up until the point she rang the doorbell. When I opened the door, I made sure I wasn’t wearing my hood up so she could see my hair. As soon as her shock faded, I grabbed her arm and pulled her into the house. I locked the door behind her just to make sure. We stood there for a few minutes, neither of us saying a thing. She stared at me though, her eyes scrutinizing every single bit of my body---I felt like I was under a microscope.

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Yes it’s me,” I said, not trying to disguise my voice in the least.

“I don’t understand” she stuttered.

“That makes two of us.”

I led her into the living room where the two of us dropped down on the couch. She was carrying a duffel on her shoulder, setting it on the cushion between us. She stared some more, her eyes roving from my face to my chest then to my bare, hairless legs. That last bit made me feel a little embarrassed. I found myself tugging on my hoodie, hoping I could stretch it longer than it was. At least I wasn’t as naked as before---having decided on the boxers and my hoodie as further covering.

She opened her mouth to say something but I cut her off. “Mary did it, at least at first. She was pissed about me being friends with Misty so she decided to punish me by turning me into a girl.”

“So you’ve been a girl this whole time?”

I shook my head. “They fixed it or at least they thought they did. My grandmother helped Mary change me back and as far as we could tell, everything was fine. For the next few days, I was normal Kelly. Then yesterday during Math class, I got real sick and tried to go to the nurse, I ended up in the bathroom where I puked my guts out. When it was done, I was this again.”

Maggie surprised me with a hug. It felt nice until her chest rubbed against mine. Even with them bound, I could still feel it. I got a bit freaked after that and squirmed away.

“Melissa and I tried to figure out what went wrong but she’s stumped. She promised to look into though. In the meantime I might be stuck like this.”

“Are you serious?”

I nodded sadly. “There’s been a few cases like mine, in one of them the guy kept transforming back and forth until he was stuck as a woman permanently.”

I started to cry, I couldn’t help it. Maggie went into comfort mode again, pulling me into another hug. This time I didn’t squirm away. I found myself crying into her shoulder. She held me for a long time and let me cry it out. Crying actually felt kind of good. I’m not sure how long I cried for but when I was done, Maggie put her hands on my shoulders and pulled back, taking a long look at me. For a while, she didn’t say a thing, she just stared.

“Umm, Kelly” she said finally. “Where are your new you-know-whats?”

I blushed. “I wrapped them.”

She groaned. “Take off your hoodie and shirt please.”

I did so reluctantly.

Maggie groaned again. “That’s gotta hurt like a bitch.”

“Its not as painful as it looks but it’s not very pleasant.”

Maggie didn’t say anything for another minute or so. Instead, she looked around a bit. I think she was looking for my grandmother. I kind of was too. I’m not sure where she went but it was now pretty clear she was nowhere in the house. The cats were suspiciously absent as well but that was nothing new. Cats had a tendency to crawl under something and sleep away the day anyway. When Maggie was done looking, she pulled her duffel over to her and unzipped it. What she took out of was a pair of pink and gray sleep pants. Jess used to wear them all the time to bed along with a baggy shirt that used to belong to our father. I felt like an idiot. I was certain Mary had a pair of those too---why hadn’t I thought to look for them.

“You’re wearing boxers?” she asked, I nodded. “Well, put these on then.”

I took the pants from her and slipped them on. I was a few inches taller than Maggie to begin with but these pants were apparently big on her because they fit me fine. The soft cotton material felt kind of nice on my legs. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d worn actual pajama pants.

“Ok next I need you to unbind your boobs.”

I blushed at that.

Maggie continued quickly. “Look, you can’t keep them wrapped like that; it’s not good for them. Besides the people at the store might think you a freak.”

“Sore” I squeaked. “What store?”

“The one we’re going to as soon as you unbind yourself.”

“I’m not going out like this,” I gasped.

She didn’t miss a beat. “You weren’t in school yesterday, where were you?”

Damn her.

“Melissa took me to a little bistro….”

Double damn her.

She smiled. “So you’ve already been out like that. That makes this easier then. I want you to unbind your chest, put on your shirt and get some shoes. The two of us are going to get you something better to wear.”

This assertive Maggie scared me a bit. I’d never seen her take charge like this. A small part of me kind of liked it though.

Another part of me rebelled though.

“You can’t be serious?”

“I’m damn serious. You can’t wander around in what you’re wearing and you definitely can’t be cooped up here all day. I suppose you were planning to hide all of this too?”

I didn’t say anything because from the look she gave me she already knew the answer.

She groaned. “We’ll worry about that later. Right now, you and I are going to get you something to wear. We’ll figure everything else out when that’s done.”

How could I argue with that? I suppose I could but there was no point trying. So I dutifully did as I was told. First, I unwrapped myself, then put on my shirt. I made sure to pull the hoodie on too. I’m not sure she liked that bit but there was no way I was going out there without it. As soon as I was done with that, I actually found a pair of sandals in the back of the downstairs closet. They definitely didn’t look like something Mary might own but they fit my feet ok.
While I put on my shoes, Maggie talked on her phone. A minute or two later she was done.

“Who did you call?”

“A cab”

Great. Now there was definitely no way to back out of this.

I didn’t know much about shopping in Ravencrest. I knew where the shops were of course because this wasn’t the first time I’d been shopping. I just didn’t really pay much attention to the kinds of shops that the town had to offer. There were surprisingly a lot of them. When my grandmother and I went shopping last weekend for clothes, we only went to one or two places. Maggie however wanted to go everywhere. When the cab first took us into town, the first place we hit was a Victoria’s Secret knock off called The Top Drawer. I’m not going to bore you with the measuring details but apparently I was the very proud owner of a C Cup. I wasn’t too surprised about that actually because these things on my chest were huge.

I was a bit surprised that Maggie made me buy more than one bra.

“I don’t plan on being this way forever,” I said as she handed me two or three satin ones.

“A girl has to have variety,” she said with a smile.

“I think you’re enjoying this way too much”

She didn’t say anything. Instead, she handed me a packet of underwear. I groaned. I guess it was unavoidable.

“Are we done?” I asked hopefully.

She pulled the tag off a bra and handed it to me. “Take this” she said and grabbed a pair of panties off a rack. “And this and hit one of the dressing rooms, I’ll pay for the rest.”

She took the other bras and panties and headed to the register. Me, I grumbled as I slowly made my way to the dressing room. I tried to do it as quickly as possible, stripping off my hoodie and shirt. When I got to the sports bra, I groaned. Oh how I wished that Maggie would have given me another. This new bra looked wrong somehow, too soft and a lot more comfortable. I didn’t want to be comfortable; I wanted to be a guy again. But seeing as how that probably wasn’t going to happen in the foreseeable future, I slowly took the sports bra off. My new assets were finally able to breathe and I have to admit it felt better to have them out.

Melissa was a lot smaller than she looked.

I looked at my naked chest in the mirror. I’d seen many naked women in movies and things like that. I never really thought much about it actually. I guess it was because puberty hadn’t hit yet but they did nothing for me. Staring at my naked chest now---my huge globes right in front of me---I didn’t feel a thing either. I sighed. This was not how I imagined my life to be. Sighing some more, I struggled with the bra. It was a bitch to figure out. In the end, I clasped it first then pulled it over my head, slipping my arms through the straps afterwards. Then I managed to get my mounds into the cups. As soon as I did, I was shocked at how much better it felt. There was now a pretty girl in a purple satin bra looking back at me.

I smiled then pulled off the sleep pants and boxers. Taking the panties, I pulled them up as quick as possible. I immediately found a difference. They fit perfectly, so snug and comfortable. I was kind of surprised how much different they were to men’s briefs. I haven’t worn briefs for a while but if they felt like this for men then I was definitely going back to them.

Once again, there was a pretty girl there now in a matching pair of purple panties. I couldn’t help but stop and stare for a moment. It was strange because I couldn’t see either my mother nor Jess in the face staring back at me. I know everyone said I took after my father but I couldn’t really see him in there either. As a boy, I had some of the same facial structure as Dad but as a girl, I looked nothing like any of them. I’m not sure what that meant though. Was it possible that the spell had changed me?

A knock on the dressing room door interrupted my thoughts.

“Kelly, you done in there yet?”

“Just a sec” I said, pulling on the rest of my clothes as quickly as I could.

When I opened the door, Maggie was there with a smile. She didn’t say anything but her smile said enough. I smiled back, hoping it would get her to stop.
It did.

We left the lingerie shop after that and made our way to a store called the Teen Scene.

It was one of those generic teenybopper stores that popped up all over the place. There were quite a few stores like it at the mall back home, not that I ever went into any of them. They were usually geared toward teen girls. The Teen Scene seemed to be just like that. As soon as we entered my senses were assaulted by bright vibrant colors, bubble gum flavored smells and horrible pop music. I tried to turn around and make a break for the door but Maggie blocked my path. She pushed me further inside while I desperately fought against her. Maggie dragged me toward an aisle of jeans. She was pulling them out, holding them up to my waist.

“You girls need any help?” asked a perky voice.

I turned to see a girl with bright pink hair. Her face was adorned with pierces, her eyes lined with dark shadow and eyeliner. Her look completely betrayed her voice though. There was no way a girl who looked like that was as perky as she was.

“Umm no we’re ok,” said Maggie quickly and the girl disappeared.

“Crystal Connors” said Maggie in answer to my question. “She is the perkiest girl I’ve ever met.”

“Looking like that though?”

Maggie shrugged. “It takes all kinds”

After that, Maggie dragged me from clothing rack to clothing rack. Eventually with an armful of clothes, she pushed me into a dressing room, telling me try on everything.

“How are we paying for all of this?” I asked as I pulled on one of the tops.

“We won’t buy it all just some of it” she said and added quickly. “I have an allowance that I’m allowed to spend so that’s taken care of.”

“I can’t have you buying clothes for me,” I groaned.

She laughed. “Don’t worry about it. Consider it a gift, you can return the favor later.”

I sighed. I didn’t like it when people did this. “Ok, but you remind me.”

“I will.”

We shopped for about twenty minutes. We only ended up buying me a pair of jeans and shirt. Maggie wanted to buy more but I wouldn’t let her. She did make me wear them out of the store though which was kind of embarrassing. Girls’ jeans were a lot tighter than boys. The shirt was too short, especially toward the bottom. I was definitely glad for the hoodie. I was expecting to be done after that but she dragged me into a shoe store. Thankfully, I was able to talk her into a quick pair of cheap white sneakers.

“When is this Dud Club meeting or whatever?”

We were on the street now, sitting on a bench. It’s funny that we spent a while shopping and yet had no bags. Well I didn’t anyway; she had one that contained the clothes I took off. She refused to give it to me, said it was less tempting that way.

“It’s not really a meeting, it’s more like a group thing,” she said with a laugh. “Charlie gathers all the Duds our age and they sort of sit around and do things.”

“And you’re involved too?”

She nodded. “I’m one of the few humans in town that actually know about the Unseen, Charlie considers me an honorary member.”

“Where do you guys meet?”

“Usually as the Drake house but his sister is doing something there today with her friends so we’re going to meet at the library.”

I couldn’t help but smile. I loved going to the library at home, I spent a lot of time there when I wasn’t in my room reading comics or playing games. I couldn’t have been happier. If it was as cool as the one back home, I might spend a lot of time there in the future. It was better than being stuck in the house all the time, either getting glared at by my grandmother, ignored by Mary or bored out of my skull.

“So the meeting?” I asked, looking for the answer to my first question.

“Oh, we should probably get going. There really wasn’t a set time but it’s about lunch time so that means Charlie will want to leave soon.”

“Lead the way.”

The Ravencrest public library was a large stone building, made of granite and marble. I’m not sure how long it’d been there but it looked old. It also looked kind of creepy, especially with the two griffin statues on either side of the main entrance. I couldn’t help but stare at them as Maggie and I walked inside. As soon as we got in however, the creepiness faded and a sense of ease fell over me. I loved the smell of books; it was like walking into history. That smell lingered here along with a hint of peppermint.

There was a reception desk directly in front of us, an older woman sitting behind it. She was gaunt looking with gray hair and blue grey eyes. When we approached at first it looked like she was a statue like the many that lined the walls. It wasn’t until we got to the desk itself that she seemed to blink and come to life.

“Oh good afternoon ladies” she said.

Maggie smiled. “Hello Mrs. Beck, has Charlie arrived yet?”

“I think he and William are already in the back waiting for you.”

“Maggie!” gasped a small voice from behind the desk.

I saw a streak of yellow and pink before something latched onto Maggie’s legs. Looking down was a little girl, about six or seven. She had blonde hair in ponytails and a pink party dress. Mrs. Beck smiled at the girl.

“Did you come to play with me?” asked the little girl.

“Not today Chloe” said Maggie.
She turned and looked at me. “How about him, did he come to play?”

Him? How did she know I was a him?

Mrs. Beck chuckled. “Chloe, sweetie, that’s a girl” She turned to me.

“I’m sorry dear, my granddaughter gets confused sometimes.”

Chloe giggle. “I know that Grammy.”

She was a cute kid, adorable even. I liked kids as well as the next person but Chloe seemed different too. I’m not saying she was an evil monster or anything but I couldn’t help but feel on edge too. How did she know about me? Maybe it was just a slip of the tongue or maybe she was just playing but something was off. Or maybe I was just overreacting.

I bent down to her level. “I’m sorry kid but we’re here on a top secret mission.”

“Really?” she asked, her eyes big. “Can I come too?”

Maggie stroked the girl’s hair. “We’re doing it with some boys I don’t think you’d like that.”

“Boys are yucky” said Chloe as she pulled away from Mrs. Beck and ran around the desk.

We all laughed.

We left the two of them after that and Maggie led me farther into the place. There were a lot of round tables on our path as well as stacks of books. I was amazed at the size of the place though. The library back home was pretty big but it definitely didn’t compare to the size of this place. It felt like people had been coming here for years and the books were so old. The further we went, the older the books seemed to get, too. It was hard to fathom, a small part of me wanted to skip the whole Dud Club thing and just get lost in the stacks. I loved finding the oldest book---it didn’t care what it was about---and just reading it until my eyes hurt.

Eventually though we found the boys.

I couldn’t help but groan. Boys, I said that like I wasn’t one of them now. I’m not sure if I liked that. Sure, I wasn’t exactly a card carrying member of the male race as a whole but at least I was still a guy. It scared me to think that I was so quick to categorize myself as a girl. It scared me even more to think I might be stuck like this too.

We heard them laughing, there was at least three of them. I groaned at that. I could deal with one or two but more than that, I felt uncomfortable. Guys in groups bothered me because I could never truly say what they were going to do. Call me paranoid but I didn’t have a good track record. When we approached, Charlie was the first one to see us. It helped that the other two had their backs to us. When he saw Maggie, he smiled but when his eyes fell on me, there was a clear scowl across his face. That scowl disappeared completely as we got closer, replaced by a look of pure confusion.

I couldn’t help but smile at that.

“Hey guys,” said Maggie happily. “Sorry we’re late.”

“It’s about time,” said Charlie.

“Yeah” said one of the other guys, the shorter dark haired one.

He turned around and I recognized him as a boy from English class. I didn’t know his last name but I think his first name was Will. He sat next to a really pretty blonde; I think the two of them might have been together. The other guy was taller with brown hair. When he turned around to face us, I nearly had a heart attack. It was Jack, my resident stalker. I wanted to curse but I couldn’t think of a proper word. I think I was a bit shocked. Jack looked pretty surprised too. He stared at me for the longest time. I held my breath, waiting for the pin to drop. I was pretty certain that Jack know knew he’d been hitting on a guy for the last week or so. I was preparing to run so that I could avoid getting my ass kicked.

What I didn’t expect was what happened.

“Dude Charlie” he said, turning to our host. “You said Kelly was a guy.”

Charlie looked even more confused. “I…ummm….”

Shit, seriously. Why did this crap keep happening to me?

Maggie came to the rescue. “Guys, can we get this meeting started already. I have somewhere to be in an hour.”

She winked at me. I definitely owed her.

The boys nodded. Damn there I go again.

Jack stood up. “Kelly, you can have my seat.”

I walked toward the table and deliberately around it to sit next to Charlie. Jack frowned but sat back down. He was a little dense. Why couldn’t he get the hint that I wasn’t interested in him?

Charlie laughed. “What was that you said earlier about being such a ladies’ man?”

He and Will laughed.

Jack huffed and pouted.

The “meeting” that Maggie mentioned wasn’t much of a meeting at all. I’m not sure what I expected but I didn’t expect a group of guys sitting around just talking about different things. I was hoping for some kind of mention of their families, maybe a little bitching about how they didn’t have magic powers. Instead, they started talking about computers and not my kind of computer stuff either. I liked computers but more for gaming, these people were talking about programming and things like that. At least the three of them were, Jack looked about as lost as I did.

When he noticed that, I think he thought it was something we had in common because the next thing I knew his whole undivided attention was on me.

“So you’re not one of those computer nerds then?”

I laughed. “Not like that I’m not. I play games but that’s as far as the nerd in me will go.”

He laughed. “I play soccer.”

“My father tried to rope me into sports when I was younger but it never really clicked. I’m just not all that athletic.”

“So he wanted a son?”

I almost blew it right there and said he had one but it was clear that he’d never believe it. So I found myself playing along and lying.

“The man was cursed with two daughters.”

“Poor him, lucky me.”

My heart skipped a beat. Wait, why did it just skip a beat? There was a burning in my cheeks too as if it suddenly got a few degrees hotter in here. Shit, did that mean what I thought it meant. No, that wasn’t possible.

I had to change the subject quick.

“So you’re a Dud then?”

He sighed. “Mom was blessed with three daughters and one son. I think Dad was just happy that he wasn’t surrounded by women. It doesn’t really bother me though because Dad’s been grooming me to be a Warden like him.”

“Your Dad’s a Warden?”

He laughed. “Most witches marry their Wardens actually. I bet your Dad is one too.”

My Dad a Warden? Holy shit, he was right. How had I not seen that before? It made perfect sense and it also made sense that he was grooming me to be one as well. I couldn’t help but groan at being so dense. That’s why he was teaching me to fight with knives. I hated that they told me so little about the world that we existed in. I felt like an outsider always learning something new. It kind of pissed me off sometimes. It pissed me off even more that Jack---a Dud like me---knew more about it than I did. What made him so different?

“I take it that you weren’t aware that your Dad is a Warden?”

I shook my head. “It makes sense though.”

“What about you? How did you become a Dud?”

I shrugged. “Born this way just like you.”

He shook his head. “I’ve never met any girl from a magic family that isn’t born with the gift. It’s unheard of actually. Doesn’t it piss you off that you can’t do it?”

“You have no idea.”

He started to laugh. The hot feeling came to my cheeks again. I found myself staring at him, looking into those deep green eyes of his. He had such cute dimples. Whoa, what the hell was that? Did I just think about his dimples and use cute in that thought? I suddenly felt real sick to my stomach. I jumped up from the chair, surprising everyone. I felt a little woozy as I stood but I managed to grab the chair for support.

“Kelly you ok?” gasped Maggie with concern.

“Yes” I said through gritted teeth. “I’m just feeling a bit off. I think I’m going to catch a cab home.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Jack, getting to his feet.

He looked concerned too.

“No” I snapped then added quickly afterwards. “I can manage by myself.”

Jack looked like I shot his puppy. Maggie shot him a look and he dropped back down in his seat. I didn’t stay around much longer than that. I turned, clutching my stomach. Hot tears started to burn my face. I started to walk away from them, slow at first but I picked up pace rather quickly. I think I heard Maggie call my name but I was already halfway through the stacks. When I was far enough away the tears really started to flow and I started to run. Running past the reception area, I heard Mrs. Beck yell at me for running but I ignored her. All I cared about was getting out of there as fast as I could, away from Jack as fast as I could.

I ran out of the library and picked a direction. I’m not even sure it was the right one I just needed to get away. Even thinking about Jack made me want to puke. Thinking about guys in general made me want to puke. All I wanted to do was go somewhere quiet, crawl into a corner and cry myself into oblivion. I knew that wasn’t possible but I really felt like it was the only thing I could do. To think that I might…well I wasn’t even going to think about it. Instead, I was going to get as far away from every man that I could.

Unfortunately, fate was cruel.

Running down the street not looking where you’re going is not the wisest thing in the world. It was even worse when you run into someone, especially if that someone was the last person in the world you wanted to do it too. In my case, Troy was walking out of a store and I slammed right into him. There was a lot of cursing, he gave me a shove and then got a good look at me. As soon as our eyes locked, I knew that this wasn’t going to end well.

“If it isn’t the little slut,” he snapped.

“I’m not in the mood,” I said sternly, trying to push past him.

He didn’t get the hint though because he grabbed my arm and spun me to face him. His grip was strong, stronger than I thought it might be.

“You and I have unfinished business you little bitch.”

I wanted to scream, I wanted to kick him in the nuts. I wanted to do anything to get him away from me but nothing came. Nothing except the anger. I struggled but it was no use. So the anger grew until I couldn’t take it anymore. An intense feeling overwhelmed me and before I knew it, I was shoving him. It wasn’t just a shove though. I’m not sure what happened but for a split second, I saw tendrils of light jump from my fingertips into his chest. The shove I gave him was so strong that it pulled me from his grip and threw him about five feet down the sidewalk. More than a few people witnessed it.

Troy looked dazed to say the least. Me, I couldn’t help but stare at my hands. The anger was gone, the intense feeling had vanished but that was the least of my problems. My hands had a slight glow, slowly ebbing away. I continued to stare at them though. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what the hell just happened. I’d seen it before. Not quite like that but I’d seen something similar done. My mother did it once to a dog who was trying to tear Diamond apart.

She called it a repulse spell.

A spell as in magic.

Holy shit, I just did magic.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Thanks in advance...EOF