Kit and Kin   by poetheather

 
Takeshi Saito was a quiet student who kept his head down in Ravencrest High School trying to get along. But strange things happen in this small town and the spotlight finds those who would rather hide. So Takeshi finds himself pulled from his happy geek corner to somewhere else, somewhere he is not sure of.

January 24

Mr. McCormick stared at Maeko for a second, disbelief clearly written on his face and then he blurted out, “What?”

Maeko sighed, realizing that she needed to make herself clear, sat down and calmly said, “I am or was Takeshi Saito. You said you had something you wanted to talk to me about.”

His stunned face closed down and he nervously played with the gold band on his left hand. “Yes, we do need to talk but not here at school. It would not be… appropriate.”

Maeko looked at him and tried to measure things. Her instinct told her that this was on the crazy side of things and she kind of had to agree. What was going on and where was the best place to talk about this. “Well where do you suggest?”

He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. It looked like this was making him physically ill to a degree. “As much as I am almost positive that I am going to seriously regret this, due to the nature of what needs to be discussed we should probably have this conversation at your house, this evening. It is very important. I would do it now but I know that my sister and your mother are both at work and if we had this without them they would kill me.”

“This evening, after dinner. That would work. Can I use my phone to text my mom, to let her know?” Maeko watched him closely.

Mr. McC did not seem to like that idea either, given the look on his face, but he nodded and replied, “Certainly. Please do it now, in here, so no one gets the wrong idea and takes your phone.”

Maeko pulled out her phone and turned it on, trying to figure out the best way to say this that would ensure she lived through this. Whatever she said was sure to cause an explosion. And who should she tell, her haha or her mother? Who would be less pissed off? There was no denying that however this played out she would be in some sort of trouble. Maybe she could simply throw herself on the mercy of the court and try to look cute? Maybe that would save her from death and destruction? With a sigh she decided.

Once done she turned off her phone and returned it to her purse she said, “All taken care of.”

“Right. Go off to class. Have the Secretary give you a note.” The phone on his desk rang and he sighed as he glanced at the number on the Caller ID. “Right on time.”

Maeko fled the office before she heard her mother’s voice. She got her note and made it to Math class in record time just to avoid any possible fallout. The morning went as usual and she just concentrated on doing her work and trying not to think about how her mothers were going to kill her when she got home. She was half expecting to be called to the office at any moment so she could be strangled or beaten or something and every moment that did not happen only made things worse as she figured they were plotting. The not knowing was somehow worse but it wasn’t like she was going to call her parents and willingly throw herself on that grenade. She wasn’t a complete idiot. Most of the time at any rate.

Lunch was a welcome distraction from all of the worrying. Maggie met her at the doors with a smile. “Hi Maeko.”

“Maggie, oh thank you! You are a godsend. Help me! I need help to remain sane. Please, Maggie, you are my only hope.” begged Maeko, clutching at the girl’s arm in mock desperation.

Maggie smirked at the girl and quipped, “If I’m your only hope you are so screwed.”

With a groan, Maeko lowered her face to her hands. “My life is made up of madness and it seems to be all of my making. You must help me, you must. And to make matters worse, I think Cindy Harper has a personal quest to drive me insane.”

The girl pursed her lips as she appraised Maeko thoughtfully. “Well, A) it’s clearly a short drive, so not to difficult there and B) if you are making your own madness then only you can fix it.”

“That is almost like helpful.” said Maeko sarcastically.

“Oh, you wanted helpful?” teased Maggie. “I suppose I could go with helpful if I really wanted to.”

“Why me?” complained Maeko, gazing up to the heavens, looking desperately for some sort of answer.

“Because your mom caught you with your punk girlfriend.” quipped Maggie.

“Maggie!” said Maeko, somewhat shocked.

“What? Are you embarrassed by that?”

Maeko closed her eyes and remembered that this was her cover story and that she needed to be this person at the moment. “Well, no not really but it’s not like I wanted all of that to be spread around the school either. My life isn’t for everyone’s consumption.”

“Sorry Mae, I was just teasing you.” Maggie sounded honestly contrite and Maeko had never been able to stay upset with the girl for long, even before this transformation.

“That’s okay. I know you weren’t trying to be mean. It’s just that, being the new kid in town isn’t easy. Having any sort of difference is not a good thing.”

Maggie rested a hand on Maeko’s arm in comfort. “I am sorry. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”

“Buy me an ice cream and we can call it even?” asked Maeko with a smile.

“Sure.”

Once they had their food, the two girls headed over to their tables and took a seat. The food was about the same level of swill that it normally was, though the meat was fairly good. The other stuff was cooked either too much or too little but that was the usual situation with institutional food. They kept up the small talk, about classes and some of the other students, all the casual things that help grease the way for friendship to proceed. It was nice. More and more she was chiding herself for not becoming closer friends with her sooner.

Far too soon for her liking, lunch was over and it was time for her to go from lunch back to the thrill a moment action that was world history. The class wasn’t really that challenging, especially if you did the reading, and since the change she was able to read and learn material a bit faster than she could before, which she was happy about. It was a bearable perk. Maeko played the attentive student while she actually spent her time trying to think about her life and what she needed to do in order to get it back under her control.

She was already doing her best to change things for herself socially, and hanging out with some of the more popular girls in school would certainly help her on that front as well as her deepening friendship with Maggie. As for schoolwork, Maeko was still determined to do the same level of excellent work as always, as she did want to get into a good college once she had a chance to escape this dinky town. Even though she would be able to get a deal she was not keen to go to college here. Job or no job, it was her life and she wanted to be the one to live it. She did want to do something athletic but not something that was common. Track kind of bored her as being too simplistic. Field Hockey had looked fun but that season was over. They did not have a free running team, though she would be on that in a heartbeat, as Maeko had a lot of training that would really come in to play there. The only other sport she might even consider was swimming.

That sounded like a fun option. She remembered seeing the flyer and signup sheet on the board by the gym. She knew they practiced at the pool at the University, and that pool did not suck. It was great exercise and it was something Maeko had been good at in her old body. Since it seemed that her training and skills had carried over to this new body, then she probably had similar skills in swimming. That would be a lot of fun even with the screwed up nightmares about drowning.

Once class ended she headed over to gym so she could sign up, take a copy of the flyer with date and time of try outs and then get changed out. Cindy and Tracy were already there, getting into their uniforms. “Hi Maeko.”

“Hi Tracy, Cindy. How have your classes been?”

Cindy rolled her eyes. “A thrill a minute, let me tell you. What’s up with you?”

“Not much.” She replied, casually as she pulled off her blouse. “I am planning on joining the swim team.”

“Really? Man, if I had known you were looking for a sport I would have totally tried to get you for cheerleading.” grumbled Cindy as they headed out into the gym.

“Wouldn’t have happened. There is no way I would ever wear a skirt that short for anything.” stated Maeko definitively.

Tracy groaned and face palmed as Cindy got this slightly maniacal look on her face before she exclaimed. “Challenge Accepted.”

“You are not Barney Stinson.” protested Maeko.

“You have set forth a protest and a challenge, so I accepted. It is now a formal challenge between you and me. The bet is to get you into a skirt the same length or shorter than the cheerleading skirt.”

“I am so going to regret this aren’t I?”

Tracy looked over with a smirk, “You think?”

They were starting to learn the section on volleyball, and so today was spent mostly going over the flyer that was handed out covering the rules and positions. Towards the end of class there was even a few brief games to familiarize everyone with things. Things did not go too badly, as there were only a few crashes as people misunderstood directions. Maeko felt like she was going to enjoy herself for this section.

The guys had gone off to spend time weightlifting, which would have made her life even more miserable, as she would have had to fake what she could and could not lift. It had been very frustrating but now, as a girl, a lot of the constraints were off. That was quite pleasing. She could be the athlete she really was and it would not be a problem. If only she had chosen a bit better when she was younger, but no she had gone with the social role that had things that were interesting to her then like sci-fi and fantasy books, comics and games but the tradeoffs were actually quite terrible. There had been a lot of downsides to being Takeshi, things that she did not even have to consider now as Maeko.

There were enough girls in the class that she, Cindy and Tracy were able to sit out a game. Cindy of course wasted no time diving into the conversation. “Right, so we need to get you over this whole shy thing you have going on with Dana. I understand the why and everything but it is not helpful. She is just like the rest of us and puts her bra on one tit at a time.”

Tracy and Maeko both groaned at that, with Tracy saying, “Really? Did you really have to take it that far?”

“Okay, that probably was a bit much but you get what I am saying, right?” When both girls nodded she continued. “Maeko, if you want to end up with Dana you need to relax around her. Freezing up and squeaking makes you prey and that never goes over well with some of the local families. Do you get what I’m saying?” Cindy looked directly in her eyes as if she could psychically pass on the message to her.

Maeko did recall from her briefing that the Stiles family were werecougars so she was actually tracking that image quite well and nodded. “I got it.”

“If you relax and just act like the nice person that Tracy and I met yesterday then you will be able to woo the girl with our help.”

Tracy groaned. “I’ve seen this movie. It didn’t end well for anyone.”

“Don’t you want Maeko here to have her happily ever after like we did?” said Cindy, semi accusingly.

“I would rather do that in a way that did not resemble a plot right out of Scooby-doo.” grouched Tracy, who clearly knew more about this plan then Maeko did.

“Uhm… how about we stick with getting me over being shy and then go from there. I might be able to handle it from there, without the assistance of the Wile E. Coyote School of Love.” said Maeko, rubbing her forehead. It felt like she was starting to develop a tension headache.

Tracy snickered and Cindy shot her a look. “Well, okay then. We will go from there. But you, little miss, need to get better with being around her. You act like a gibbering idiot.”

“I’m trying. Give me some time. Sheesh. Can we just wait and see how things go before you jump on me with your plan?”

“Next team up!”

Once gym was over, and they were changed, Maeko fled from the chaos twins and headed off to Chemistry. Once that was over with no destruction she headed off to English. Dana had gotten there before her and smiled when she walked in, “Maeko, I saved you a seat.”

“Th-thanks. How was your day?” She was trying her hardest to keep her cool and not freak out like so much of herself wanted to. Dana was instigating conversation.

“Pretty good. I am looking forward to hanging out with you this afternoon, with Cindy and Tracy. It sounds like it will be lots of fun.” She smiled her thousand watt smile and Maeko fought to keep from being dazzled by it. It was not easy.

“Me to. I could use some more friends here in town.” She smiled back, happy that she was able to think that coherently.

Dana reached over and put her hand on Maeko’s forearm. “Well, I think we are off to a great start so far.”

The teacher started class and it took a few minutes for Maeko to free herself from her blissed out daze long enough to even know what they were working on. Dana caught her eye, clearly having noticed this and Maeko turned to her notebook with a blush.