Chapter 17 Sophia's POV

I hadn't been waiting long before Laura came and got me. Instead of going straight out, she took me back to her bedroom and through to one of two walk in robes. Laura already didn't look like Laura. I guess she was wearing a wig, changed her makeup and her clothes to dull herself down. She had gone from movie star glamorous to attractive housewife. Part of it may even have been how she was now moving. Still feminine and graceful, but somehow different.

She sat me down in front of a mirror. There were various wigs and lots of makeup on the table in front of me, so I was starting to get anxious.

“Err...Laura.” I started.

She stood behind me with her hands on my shoulders, catching my eyes in the mirror with a thoughtful expression on her face. “Relax, I'm not going to do anything you don't agree to.” Then she smiled. “My job right now is to get you to agree to what I want.”

Strangely that didn't make me feel any less anxious.

“I need you to be honest with me. What are you worried about?” She asked me.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and tried to work out what was scaring me. My immediate fear was that she was going to use makeup on me. The real question was, why should I be afraid of that? She was clearly an expert and I could tell that she wouldn't deliberately make me look silly, so what was it that I was so afraid of.

“I think that if I look in the mirror and see someone I don't recognise, I will create a disconnect. I'm already confused about the way I look. I want to see me, but don't really know what that looks like anymore.” For some reason I started tearing up.

She moved her hands from my shoulders to give me a gentle hug from behind. “Oh, honey. This is one of the joys of being a woman. We can change how we look several times in one day. Just remember, it doesn't change who you are.”

Once she saw that I had calmed down, she excused herself to go to the toilet, leaving me a little time to make some decisions. I decided that I was in a similar situation to when Amy took me shopping. I could fight to try and maintain some of my masculinity, but truthfully it was a losing battle and all I would create was conflict. I needed to give this a chance.

When Laura came back in I decided to be forthright and almost back myself into a corner so I couldn't back out. “I probably can't avoid feeling anxious, but I need to explore this, so I am going to place myself in your hands. As much as I can, I will follow your direction without argument. Please be gentle with me and don't do anything irreversible.” I pleaded.

She smiled hugely, keeping eye contact. “Challenge accepted.” Laura responded. She first picked out a wig that had a colour very similar to my natural tone. She attached it to my head and fiddled with it until she was satisfied with the look. I was intending to let my hair grow. I have always loved long hair on Jen, so I wanted to see what I would look like with long hair. I could now see what that would look like and I have to say, I liked it. It made a big difference to how my face looked. Immediately giving my face a much more feminine look. She then proceeded to apply makeup. She didn't go crazy, just some mascara, eye shadow, blusher and lipstick. It felt weird feeling it on my face, but the mirror showed me turning from tom boy to girly girl.

“Wow.” I said unintentionally.

Laura laughed. “You are almost making this too easy. You were already pretty. I am going to make you look beautiful.”

“Shall we go and show Gem? I don't think she will recognise me.” I said a little bit excitedly.

“No, she can wait for the big reveal. I want you out of those tom boy clothes and into something more suitable. And we are going to a salon. You are getting the works, girl. I know what we will do, I will book a table at my favourite Italian restaurant for dinner tonight. Eve and Gem can meet us there. You wait here, I will get Lisa to arrange that and check the coast is clear.”

After a few minutes Laura came back and whisked me through the house to the waiting limo. The good news was my worries about the money side of things had disappeared. Since I was putting myself in Laura's hands and said that I wouldn't argue with her, it was up to Laura where we went, what we did and how much she spent. I didn't even have a credit card on me.

Our first stop was at a fairly high end shopping centre where we met Daphne. Laura explained that her style and taste may not suit a teenage girl, so she wanted an expert to help. Daphne and Laura had a good long look at me and came up with a plan. I think Laura tried to be gentle with me by explaining why I needed my ears pierced. She asked me to look around and find one woman who didn't have earrings. Laura assured me that it wasn't permanent since my ears could heal over the holes, if I decided against them later. Laura picked out a simple set of gold stud earrings. Truthfully, it wasn't too painful and I soon forgot I had them in. She didn't press me to have multiple piercings. Daphne suggested one for my nose, which Laura declined before I needed to.

Then we moved on to lingerie. Talk about embarrassed. I think I spent my entire time there blushing. I definitely had some breast tissue now. I was properly measured as an A cup. I am pretty sure that I am developing far faster than normal, my body catching up to where it was supposed to be for my age. Considering Gem and Amy, I had no doubts that I would not be small in that department. I didn't feel the need for any enhancement, but I was overruled. Most of the bras that my fashion gurus chose were padded to some extent to make it obvious that I had something underneath.

By the end of our frank discussions on panties and avoiding visible panty lines by wearing thongs, I was blushing so hard, I think I had a temperature. They knew what they were doing to me and seemed to enjoy teasing me in my innocence. There was logic behind sorting out lingerie first. There was no point in buying clothes that didn't fit right, so I needed to be wearing the right underwear. It had the added benefit of making me feel very feminine. We then went on to try on so many clothes that my head spun.

Daphne and Laura were having a field day. Normally Daphne dealt with clients who had a very clear idea of what suited them and had to be encouraged to try new things. I had no defined or known style. This made Daphne's job harder and easier at the same time. It meant she had a blank canvas, but it also meant she had to use a lot more paint.

Laura was constantly trying to engage me in the whole process. Did I like how it looked, the colour, the fit and the material or texture. I worked out that I loved soft materials, could tell when something looked good, but struggled to pick out good stuff myself. My next mental block was dresses and skirts. I think Laura was expecting trouble and kept eye contact when she passed me my first skirt. I had promised not to argue, so I swallowed my objections, sighed and gave them a go. It was hard to deny that I did like the look. Funnily enough I always preferred it when Jen wore skirts or dresses, so it made sense that I would like the look, possibly even more than a regular girl. It did make me feel a bit exposed, which in turn made me feel a bit naughty, adding a frisson of excitement.

Laura was keeping a close eye on me and when I began to flag, we had a break. Initially it was for a coffee and cake, or a hot chocolate and cake in my case. The second break we had lunch. Exactly what we had bought, I had no idea. Before we left each shop, Laura would sort it out, but I was not involved and didn't want to pry. I knew about a few items since Laura asked me to keep them on and took the tags off them. Obviously the padded bra and pantie set, but also a skirt and then I needed a different top to suit the skirt. I was wearing the skirt because Laura told me it made trying on different clothes much easier and she wanted me to get used to it. Laura was wearing a beautiful white dress and suggested I watch how she sat down before copying her. The same would be true for getting into and out of the limo. When I tried to emulate her at lunch and sweep my skirt under my bottom before sitting down, I overdid it and made it too tight, so I had to fiddle in my seat to get comfortable while Laura and Daphne laughed.

Most of the time was spent in and around women, so my anxiety didn't play up too much, but I was very aware of all the men around me, particularly at lunch time. That was why I noticed a man who seemed innocent enough, but finished when we did and seemed to be following us. My worry levels rose, but I was still not too concerned. Logically it could all be coincidental. We went into a women's clothes shop and I noticed he was still around when we came out. My anxiety levels started heading towards panic levels.

“What's wrong Soph?” Laura asked me.

“Don't look now, but I think there is a man following us.” I replied with a fake smile, my heart rate speeding up and a cold sweat beginning.

“It's alright honey, he is meant to be there. You are not supposed to notice him though. It is one of the downsides to being a celebrity. I think we need a bathroom break.” Laura then led us into the ladies. She could see me stress out and gave me another cuddle. There were some curious glances from other women in there, but I wasn't going to explain. I took some deep breaths and calmed myself down.

“Thanks.” I told Laura.

“You're welcome. I would have mentioned it earlier, but I never notice them and they are supposed to be invisible. I think we will see if we can go to the salon earlier than planned. We still need to do a proper shoe shop, but we can do that after.”

We had already been to a couple of shoe shops. I hadn't refused to try on anything that had been put in front of me, but if it wasn't comfortable I immediately said so. Laura didn't argue the point. She did manage to get me to agree that a few shoes with a three inch heel, were awkward rather than uncomfortable and that would be due to lack of familiarity. The point is I didn't think we needed to do any more shoe shopping. I wasn't going to argue though.

We said goodbye to Daphne and headed towards the salon.