I stared across the table at my two opponents, narrowing my eyes as I tried to guess what cards they had. Then I glanced down at my own cards, being careful not to show any reactions. I had a damn good hand and didn’t want them to realize how good.

Lauren played her card, then asked Cassandra, “Do you think she tracked you down specifically, or just saw you on the street and decided to take the opportunity…”

Cassandra played her own card. “Could be either, but I’m guessing she just happened to see me. Mary Addison isn’t really a tracker…”

I nodded at that, not really knowing much about this Mary, other than what I’d seen earlier today. “I’m just surprised that everyone is sharing their real names. I’d think that it would be a lot easier if everyone kept that kind of thing to themselves…”

“We didn’t get much choice about that,” Cassandra told me with a look of annoyance. “Before they started the first contest around here, they introduced everyone and announced who our patrons were.” She gave a wry smile. “So much for any secret identity shit…”

“From what you’ve told me,” Lauren said, “I wonder if they did that to make it easier for you all to find each other. I mean, that would make it easier for everyone to fight between the contests…”

“Good point,” Cassandra agreed. “You might be right about that too. Anyway, I beat Mary in our first contest, and she holds a grudge. Apparently, she gets some kind of bonus whenever she goes after someone she has a personal grudge against too.”

“Which explains why she keeps coming after you,” Lauren said.

“I imagine it must have been…interesting…when you first saw Nadine was one of the other champions,” I mused.

“No kidding,” Cassandra responded. “Fucking bitch.”

Lauren nodded in emphatic agreement, then decided to change the subject. She looked at me and suggested, “You know, what we were talking about earlier today…”

“We talked about several things today,” I pointed out.

“Makeup,” Lauren said. “When we’re done here, we should hook you up with some makeup…”

“I don’t think so,” I quickly responded.

“Consider it an experiment in femininity,” Lauren said, now more as a gentle teasing. “Or just getting used to being a girl. This is the kind of thing that every woman is expected to have at least a passing familiarity with, even those who don’t wear makeup most of the time.”

“I’ll tell you what,” Cassandra said with an evil grin. “If I win, you wear makeup tonight…”

I shuddered at that. “And what do I get if I win?”

“What do you want?” Cassandra asked with a look of interest.

I considered this for a moment. Wearing makeup would be pretty embarrassing for me, so what could possibly match that? After a moment, I had it.

“If I lose, you can put makeup on me for tonight,” I said, confident that this wasn’t going to happen. I had a damn good hand after all. “But if…no…WHEN you lose…you have to dress up like a cheerleader for the night…”

Cassandra stared at me in horror while Lauren burst out laughing. “Fair is fair” Lauren told Cassandra, smirking a little as she did so.

“Fine,” Cassandra said after a few seconds. “It’s a bet…” We shook on it.

“Now, to make sure I don’t lose,” I announced, putting my card down on the stack. “Draw four…”

“You bitch,” Cassandra told me, giving me a glare as she drew four cards.

“Skip,” Lauren said when it was her turn.

“I choose red,” Cassandra announced as she put a wild card onto the pile.

We continued going around the table, putting one Uno card after another into the pile. I had a wild card, a draw four, and a couple skips, so was pretty sure that I’d win. However, Cassandra threw down a few good cards of her own, making me draw a couple more cards, just when I thought I was nearly empty.

“Uno,” Lauren announced, holding up her last remaining card.

“Crap,” I muttered.

Cassandra and I had been so focused on going after each other, that neither of us had paid much attention to Lauren. On Lauren’s next turn, she played her last a card and won the game.

“I guess it’s a tie,” I told Cassandra.

“Oh no,” Lauren said with an almost predatory grin. “Your bet was that the loser would have to wear makeup or dress as a cheerleader, and guess what...you BOTH lost.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Cassandra gasped.

I let out a long sigh. “All right. Let’s get this over with.”

“What?” Cassandra asked, giving me a look of surprise. “You’re not going to argue?” She actually looked disappointed at that.

“This isn’t the first time I’ve lost a bet and had to wear makeup,” I said, smiling wryly. “But at least, this time it might actually look nice on me…”

Cassandra and Lauren were both staring at me. “That’s…surprising.”

I shrugged at that. “Back in high school, some guys used to make some pretty stupid bets. I lost one once, and had to go to a Halloween party in drag.”

Both girls burst out laughing. “Well,” Cassandra said with a smirk. “If you can handle that, I guess I can handle being a fucking cheerleader for one night…” Then she smirked. “Then again, we don’t have any cheerleader uniforms around here…”

This time, it was Lauren’s turn to smirk. “You know, I was on the cheer squad for awhile, and I do still have my old uniform upstairs…”

After this, our Uno game was officially over. Since I wasn’t protesting the makeup as much as either girl expected, and apparently, wasn’t as much fun because of that, Lauren decided to start with Cassandra.

Half an hour after this, Cassandra came back downstairs, now dressed in a cheerleader uniform instead of her usual goth clothes. As strange as that was to see, it was even weirder to see her with her new makeup. Gone was all the goth makeup, and in its place was something much more normal, or at least, more normal for a cheerleader. Cassandra was wearing blush and even pink lipstick. I almost didn’t even recognize her.

“You look good that way,” I said.

“Fuck off,” Cassandra responded, flipping me off. However, she was smiling as she did this. “Now, it’s your turn…”

Lauren stepped out from behind Cassandra and held up a large makeup case, staring at me with a look of anticipation. I let out a sign and resigned myself towards what was to come.

Since I wasn’t wearing any makeup, they didn’t have to clean anything off my face before we started. All I had to do was sit there and not fidget too much while Cassandra went to work.

“You have great skin,” Lauren told me while handing a small brush to Cassandra.

“It’s the charisma,” Cassandra said. “Heather had a couple acne scars before she slotted points into charisma.” She leaned back to stare at me for a few seconds before adding, “Maybe I should slot a couple points in there too…”

“I can’t imagine that would be very useful in a fight,” Lauren commented.

“You’d think not,” I admitted self-consciously, “but it saved my life.”

I thought about Axe Guy and how easily I’d lured him into that trap. However, I couldn’t really feel proud about beating someone like that.

“Okay,” Cassandra announced. “We’re done…”

Lauren held up a mirror so I could their handiwork, and for several seconds, I could only stare in surprise. Like Cassandra, I didn’t look anything like myself…or like Heather. In fact, I looked more like Cassandra than she did at the moment.

Cassandra had done my hair up a little different, but the most noticeable thing what I was now wearing goth makeup, with dark crimson lipstick that was close to being black. In addition, I also had a spiked collar around my neck, which added to the imagine.

“Definitely different,” I said a little awkwardly.

In spite of the way that I’d acted like this was no big deal, I was still extremely self-conscious, probably even more than I had been the last time I’d lost a similar bet, and I’d still been a guy back then. Maybe, because then, I’d been pretty secure in my masculinity, but now, my self-image was crumbling away to nothing.

I made a couple faces at myself in the mirror, imagining what I’d look like if I let my roommates push me the rest of the way. Goth clothes, black nail polish, and maybe some jewelry or piercings… It might be interesting to see, but I wasn’t about to plant that idea in their minds.

“Good,” Cassandra said with a smirk. “Now, if I only had a fucking camera…”

“Like this one?” Lauren asked, holding up her cell phone and taking a picture of Cassandra, then another one of me.

Cassandra rolled her eyes and muttered, “I can’t believe that I look like a cheerleader…”

“Could be worse,” I pointed out.

Cassandra gave me a strange look, then abruptly announced, “This calls for a drink…”

The temporary cheerleader went to the kitchen and came back with a bottle of cherry flavored vodka and three shot glasses. A minute later, the three of us took our first shot.

“Tomorrow,” I said, trying to ignore the fact that I was wearing goth makeup, and looking at a cheerleader Cassandra, “I’m going to practice, after the gym. I want to get Maelyne’s shield and my healing ability up another rank before the next contest.”

“Good idea,” Lauren said as she poured another shot for each of us. She had a sad expression for a moment, before saying, “Heather never really practiced. I think that if she did, she might still be around…”

Cassandra nodded grimly at that. “I feel bad for saying this,” she told me with a grimace, “but I like working with you a lot better than I did with Heather.”

“Really?” I asked in surprise. “I thought she was your friend.”

“She was,” Cassandra quickly responded. However, from her guilty expression, I had a feeling that their friendship might have been a little complicated. “To be honest,” she grudgingly admitted, “Heather could be a bit of a bitch at times…”

“That’s true,” Lauren agreed, handing Cassandra and I another shot, which we both promptly downed.

“She really liked manipulating guys,” Cassandra continued, “especially after she slotted the extra charisma, and always thought that everyone else should protect her. She…wasn’t a good teammate. But you… You jump in and I respect the fuck out of that.”

“I noticed that,” Lauren said. “This afternoon, when that girl jumped Cassandra, you were ready to watch her back, without her even asking.”

This conversation was making me a little uncomfortable, even more uncomfortable than the makeup was. I didn’t like being compared to Heather, because it was far too easy to do, and it reminded me that I was in HER body. Every time I thought about that too much, I still felt a bit guilty.

“I used to be a dumb jock,” I joked weakly. “And one thing that every jock learns, is that you can’t win at a team sport unless you actually have a team.”

“Jock wisdom,” Lauren said wryly.

“But she does have a point,” Cassandra admitted with a wry chuckle. “Leave it to a jock to know the value of teamwork.”

“And what would a brooding goth know about teamwork?” Lauren teased Cassandra.

I smirked at that. “Well, for tonight at least, she’s an honorary cheerleader…” Cassandra flipped me off for that.

We continued talking, and even had another shot apiece, though we avoided any further comparisons between me and Heather. Eventually, Lauren got up and went to the bathroom. While I watched her leave, I took advantage of the opportunity to catch a nice peak of Cassandra’s cleavage.

“You know,” Cassandra said a few seconds later. “I have really high awareness. Did you really think that I wouldn’t notice you checking me out?”

I turned bright red at that. “Sorry…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Cassandra said, moving a little closer to me. “You want to know a secret?”

“What’s that?” I asked, more than a little aware of her very close presence.

She leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I kind of like it…”

When Cassandra pulled back a little, the two of us stared into each other’s eyes, then cautiously moved in for a kiss. Her lips felt good against mine, and my body began to respond in some really weird ways. Or at least, really weird ways for a guy, but probably pretty normal for a chick.

Just then, Lauren came back into the room, so Cassandra and I quickly broke apart before she could see us. Cassandra and I stared at each other a little awkwardly, though I knew that I had to be blushing like crazy.

When Lauren wasn’t looking directly at her, Cassandra winked at me, and with a smirk, suggested, “Maybe we should continue this conversation later.” And with that, she downed one more shot of vodka, then got up and went to her room, strutting a bit as she did so.

I just groaned at that and tried not to let Lauren know what I was thinking or feeling. One thing was for sure though. If I’d still been a guy, tonight, I definitely would have needed a box of Kleenex.