Olivia slept in the next morning. When she finally woke up at around 8:00, she reached for the spot where she usually left her shirt and pants when she took them off before bed. But then she remembered that after the fiasco last light, she had simply put on a new bra and pair of panties to go to bed.

"Hey Olivia," Valeria said as she walked into the dorm room from the bathroom. She had a towel wrapped around her body. "You ready to go get breakfast?"

"Well, I should probably take a shower first," said Olivia. She got out of her bed and went into the bathroom. She went straight into the shower to see that Bailey and Piper were soaping down in there.

"Good morning, Olivia," said Bailey. "Did you have a good sleep?"

"I guess," said Olivia. "How about you?"

"Not great," said Piper. "I was pretty worried, with the security cameras everywhere."

"Security cameras?" Olivia asked as she wriggled out of her bra.

"Miss Johnson has security cameras everywhere in this building," said Piper. "That's how she caught Stephanie running her mouth last night."

Olivia slid off her panties and laid them on the bench with her bra. "How do you know that?"

"I was texting Sarah last night," said Piper. "She knows, somehow."

"Does she know what 'terminated' means?"

"No. No one does. This is the first time someone here has been terminated," said Piper. "And no one has seen or heard from Stephanie since last night." She rinsed the shampoo out of her hair, then turned off her shower nozzle. Then she picked up a towel off the bench and started to dry herself off.

"But what was she going to say?" Bailey asked. "I'm really curious..."

"It's probably just nothing," said Piper. She wrapped the towel around her waist, not even bothering to conceal her breasts. "Stephanie was just being stupid." She walked out of the shower area.

But Olivia knew it wasn't just nothing. She knew that Stephanie used to be a boy-Steven, maybe his name was?-and she had accidentally let her tongue loose. Olivia knew something was going on here, and she wanted to get to the bottom of it. But to do that, she'd need to tell someone her secret. And she couldn't do that in the foster home with Miss Johnson's security cameras all over the place. She'd have to have someone meet her outside of the foster home.

But who could Olivia trust? Stephanie? No, she was terminated. Sarah? Piper? Valeria? Andrea? No, Olivia wasn't sure she could trust them. But then she saw Bailey, scrubbing shampoo into her hair. Bailey...Bailey was Olivia's best friend here. Maybe she could trust her.

"Hey Bailey?" Olivia asked.

"Yeah?" said Bailey.

Olivia paused. She knew she had to be careful how she worded her question, since Miss Johnson was watching. "You want to go get lunch at Chipotle today? Like a sit-down meal?"

"Sure," said Bailey. "Should we invite Sarah, or Valeria, or-"

"No, just the two of us," said Olivia. "I'll pay for it."

"Okay then," said Bailey.

***

Later that day, Olivia and Bailey walked down the street to the Chipotle down the street. They got in line and ordered a couple of burritos to eat. Once they got their food, they sat down at a cubicle.

"Bailey, there's something I need to tell you," said Olivia. "It's about the Stephanie incident last night."

"Are we just going to keep dwelling on that?" Bailey asked.

"I know you're tired of hearing about that, but this is important," said Olivia. "I think I know what Stephanie was going to say."

"Well, then, let's hear it," said Bailey.

"She was going to say that she used to be a boy before she came here."

Bailey's eyebrows knit together as she looked at Olivia suspiciously. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am," said Olivia. "Trust me, I know. I was a boy before I came here."

Bailey was stunned. "I...I don't believe you."

"Trust me," said Olivia. "My name was Oliver. Miss Johnson found me and brought me to the hotel she has next to the foster home. I went to sleep there that night, and I woke up as a girl."

As Olivia expected, Bailey was looking at her all weird. "Are you..."

"Honest," said Olivia. "I'm getting scared now. At first I thought Miss Johnson was just changing me to fit in with an all-girl's foster home, but now I'm starting to think all the other girls used to be boys."

Bailey shook her head. "I've been a girl all my life. And so were the other girls that Miss Johnson took in when she first started her foster home."

Olivia had a new thought. "Are all those girls still here?"

"Yes," Bailey answered. "But Miss Johnson has got, like, a hundred more girls since then."

"When did she found the foster home?"

"Five years ago."

"Then...she's been turning lots of boys into girls!" said Olivia. "But how is she doing it? And why?"

Bailey sighed. "Even if you're right, that Miss Johnson can turn boys into girls, how do you know that every girl that she took in was originally a boy?"

"I didn't say that."

"Yes you did."

"Well, I think something's going on here," said Olivia. "And I needed to tell someone the truth. But I didn't want to get terminated. Bailey, please promise me not to tell anyone what I've told you. Please. Miss Johnson will terminate both of us."

Bailey nodded. "I promise," she said.

"Thank you," said Olivia. "Now let's go."

Olivia and Bailey left Chipotle and went back up to the foster home. But on the way back, Olivia saw a familiar black car. The black car parked in the parking lot in front of the hotel. "Hey," said Olivia. "That's the car Miss Johnson used to take me here."

"It is?" said Bailey.

"Yes," Olivia said as she watched Miss Johnson step out of the car. With her was a tall, muscular teenage boy with straw-colored hair and a thin mustache on his upper lip. He followed Miss Johnson toward the hotel.

"Oh boy," said Olivia. That boy was probably gonna be Sarah's, Andrea's, and Vanessa's new dormmate-as a girl! "See, Bailey! Miss Johnson's bringing a boy in right now! To the hotel!"

"You sure he's not just a guest visiting?" Bailey asked. "Miss Johnson says-"

"Have there ever been any guests at the Y. F. F. H?" Olivia asked. Bailey did not respond.

Once Miss Johnson and the boy had gone inside the hotel, Olivia ran toward the hotel front door. She ignored Bailey telling her to wait up and knocked on the door. "Enter," a voice from inside said.

Olivia opened the door and walked up to the hotel front desk. "Hello," she said. "Did someone just check in?" she asked the lady at the front desk.

"Yes," said the lady. "Miss Johnson just brought in a young man to stay the night."

"Oh," said Olivia. "Is he-"

Just then, Bailey came in. "Olivia, I really think we should-"

"What do you girls need?" the lady asked. "Are you looking for Miss Johnson?"

"Uh..."

"How about you go back up to the foster home," said the lady. "I'll tell Miss Johnson to meet you there."

"She's right," said Bailey. "We should go."

Olivia and Bailey went out the door and into the sunlight again. "C'mon, Olivia," said Bailey. "I know it's weird, but at least we'll have another friend."

"I'm not gonna give up that easily," said Olivia. "There's gotta be another entrance." Olivia and Bailey walked around the exterior of the hotel, hoping to find a back door. They were lucky, finding a metal beige door at the back end of the hotel building. Olivia pulled the handle, and to her surprise, it wasn't locked. The door opened to a dark hallway lit only by dim lights from the ceiling.

"I don't think we should go in there," said Bailey.

"Well, we have to, if we're going to get to the bottom of this," said Olivia. She entered the hallway, with Bailey right behind her. The two girls followed the hall all the way to a staircase that led down into a basement under the hotel. Olivia went down the stairs, wondering what she'd find down there. Would there be a secret science lab? A prison cell?

At the bottom of the stairs, Olivia came to another door. She opened it and found herself in an underground room full of tables and desks. There were tools and papers strewn about the desks. On one of the tables, there was a line of beakers and vials right next to a black cauldron that sat on top of a stove.

At the end of the room was a cylindrical glass pod tall enough for a human to stand in. In fact, there was a human inside. It was a teenage girl standing against the back of the pod. She was held in place by metal cuffs around her thighs, wrists, and neck. There were IVs in her right arm, belly button, and forehead. She had no clothes on, and her hair was tied up in a hair bun. Olivia recognized the girl, too.

"Stephanie?" she exclaimed.

"That is her!" Bailey gasped.

Olivia ran up to the glass pod and pressed her hands against the side. "What happened to you, Stephanie?" she asked.

"Maybe this is what Miss Johnson meant by being terminated?" Bailey suggested.

"It might be," said Olivia. "We've gotta get her out." Olivia looked at the pod, trying to find some kind of release clamp. She didn't find any on the sides, so she figured it might be on the top. Olivia tried to climb up the side of the pod, but then she heard footsteps from the door they had came in from. Olivia turned to see a familiar face standing in the doorway, her face livid.

"And just what," said Miss Johnson, "Do you think you're doing?"

To be...concluded?