Kota is not my character, on Crystal Hall I had a bit of a contest, and the person who won got to make a character for the story. She was so interesting that rather than just a cameo, she became a big secondary character.

Disclaimer:
"This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but it's fan fiction so I hope it's forgivable.

I got out of the car and looked up at my school. It was buried under snow, but the school was beautiful. The buildings were done up like old Victorian mansions, with steeper roofs to keep the roofs from collapsing in winter, and with the lights on it looked warm and inviting. Still I was scared. My skin was still the sunburned red, and while I didn't have any... extra parts, I half expected to have everyone pointing at me like I was a freak. Taking a deep breath, I waved goodbye to Dad then headed off to my dorm. I signed in with Ms. Kent, the dorm head, who gave me a sympathetic pat on the arm, before I went up to my room to get ready for class.

“El, what happened to your skin? You said you had a problem, but not that!” Faith exclaimed, when she walked into our shared room.

I had spent all week working with my parents coming up with an excuse for the unwelcome changes I was going to go through before the end of the year, we'd decided on a rare genetic disorder that I can't say the name of and don't want to try to spell. “Yeah, the doctor they had me see had to run some more tests. By the time he was done, well, I looked like this. My skin shouldn't get worse though.”

Faith gave me a hug. “It'll be ok. You're parents won't rest until they find someone who can help you, and your doctors will figure something out.”

“Thanks. I needed that.” I started to get dressed in the school uniform, a fetching blue and white uniform, since it was winter and I'd be going outside for a few minutes, I chose warm tights and a skirt along with the blouse and vest. “I- I'll have to change rooms next term.”

Her arms clenched so tightly I had to thump her on the back to remind her I needed to breathe. “Why?! You're like the best roommate ever!”

“I... can't really explain it. Just my body is going to change and it could be kind of embarrassing and gross.” It was nice not having to lie to my best friend, even if I couldn't tell her the truth. How would she take it, how would anyone take it? 'Hey I'm turning into a boy, you still want to be my friend?' Yeah right.

“I don't mind. I can handle anything. You can't go away!”

I hugged her back. Really she was the only person other then Uncle Herb who I liked to touch. And that was mostly because she was a hugger, and didn't know what personal space meant when we met two years ago. After getting over the awkwardness and wanting to beat her off with a bat I'd learned to like it. It probably would have made things easier if she was a cute boy, but as Dad always says, beggars can't be choosers. My mind decided to freak me out at that point, by making me realize that in less then a year I might actually find Faith attractive. I tried not to shudder, focusing on the moment. “I won't go away, I'll just be getting a new dorm. And I don't have any say in it, my parents are insisting.”

“This sucks,” she moped. Fortunately there wasn't much of a chance to get into a funk. The bell rang for breakfast, and we had to hurry if we wanted to eat, and not get a black mark for being tardy. Yeah, my school calls it tardy, not late. We figured they wanted to sound all high and mighty to help raise fees by a few thousand dollars. Regular students are late, we 'special students are tardy.

We headed for the cafeteria, bundled up in winter coats, scarves hats, and warm ankle boots, all in the school colours, (only my school has uniform winter gear, and yes we checked). The path to the main building was protected by a windbreak of nicely trimmed pine trees, so it was only -20 Celsius, instead of feeling like -40 because of the wind.

Hanging up our coats in our lockers, we got in line to wait for the food. We were divided by grade, fortunately most of my friends were my classmates, so I found myself surrounded and bombarded with questions, and more sympathy. Never wanting to be the center of attention, I just gave my standard answers, 'it's a genetic disorder, not contagious,' 'they were looking at treatments but nothing would work immediately', 'it is scary, but it won't kill me or leave me crippled or horrible looking.' That last one was a lie, I don't care how cute a guy I was suppose to be, I was still going to be a guy.

We walked through the door to breakfast, clicking our student cards under the watchful eye of one of the cafeteria workers, and grabbed our breakfasts. I got my usual french toast with real maple syrup, and a bit of bacon, along with some freshly made apple juice. Sitting down, my friends realized I didn't really want to talk, so the conversation turned to the attack in Vancouver. Another topic I didn't want to talk about, but had less reason to avoid.

“I heard that over a hundred people died,” Faith said.

“Only sixty or seventy,” I corrected her. Over a hundred and fifty people had been injured, horribly injured with burns and things too often, but they lived.

“Oh yeah, you were in Vancouver weren't you?” Jane asked, brushing a curly lock of hair out of her face with a pudgy hand. “What was it like? Didn't they lock the city down?”

I shook my head, "I was suppose to go to Vancouver, but they changed it to Calgary at the last minute. I just watched it all on the news between tests." If I had said I was in Vancouver, it would have been way to obvious that the girl was me.

“I just want to know what the Heroes were doing about it? The Cult of the Blood Father has been around for at least a year building up and stealing magic artifacts, and then they did this. Where the heck were the heroes or the police?” asked Tammy. I'm not really friends with her, but we're part of the same crowd. She's just a few steps above H1, so she tended to get on my nerves.

“I heard that they were preparing for something big, but weren't entirely sure what. So they'd staked out a bunch of museums and things, thinking they'd go after old magical stuff like before,” I told her. “They hadn't thought the crazies would go into mass sacrifice.”

Jane jumped in. “Well at least they were able to save the kids. That's something.”

“No way, the heroes were down for the count. If it hadn't been for that girl we'd all be bowing down to their big oogily boogily god right now,” Faith said.

“Hey!” I jumped in to protect the honour of my family. “Super Bear tried really hard, and if it hadn't been for Prairie Sun and Mo Shu Shi coming in, they'd have been able to keep the sacrifice going.”

“Sure, but it took a kid like us to let them in. Why are we paying for them again?” Tammy asked, refusing to admit a hero could do right.

“At least they were there. Sure they got tricked, but as soon as they learned what was happening they came right back and jumped at the first opening they could.”

“Ok, fine I'll give you that. But if they'd been on the ball sooner, this wouldn't have happened.”

“Anyways,” Faith said a little desperately, “what do you think of the girl who saved the day. Did you see her costume when she went to get her MID?” When most of us said no, Faith pulled out her smart phone and showed us a picture of me in my Target costume walking into the MCO office with Prairie Sun.

“Why would anyone want a bulls eye on their chest?” Jane asked.

“On Northern Heroes Net, they say she's probably some kind of energy absorber. That's why she could blow up the magical shield. So maybe she wants to get shot,” Faith said. She wasn't obsessed with heroes particularly, she read up on villains and anyone with cool powers. She and Tammy would spend hours talking about the subject.

Tammy looked at the picture closely. “I want to know why she went with Prairie Sun to the MCO. Why not Cloud Master or one of the other Vancouver heroes? What do you know Estelle?”

I rolled my eyes dramatically, and the rest of the table groaned getting ready for a long rant. Officially my parents were the personal assistants for Fly By and Prairie Sun, they managed to hide their identity through illusions, magical and technological, and doing joint interviews once or twice every year. When my classmates first found out about that connection they'd gotten a half hour long monologue about how I wasn't told anything and I just got some crummy autographs from the heroes every few months. I'd made it into a bit of an art, trying to see how long I could get people to listen, my personal best was an hour and forty minutes.

Not feeling like going into a rant I kept it simple. “The last time I tried to learn anything about Prairie Sun, I was grounded for a month and lost my allowance for two. They don't tell me anything. But, I think she was saved by Prairie Sun, so she just felt safer being around her. The only other hero who was near her for most of the fight was Super Bear, and he's cute in pictures, but believe me being near a giant grizzly bear is scary.”

“Maybe,” Faith said. “But look at this,” she flipped to another picture of Mom cradling me in her arms, it wasn't a very clear shot you could only tell that I was a girl and smoking, and... practically naked. I suddenly wished I could drop down a hole and die. As for how they got that picture I have no idea, it looked like it could possibly have been a security camera, but I'd thought most of them had been shorted out. “They look pretty close in that picture.”

“Yeah, but... she'd just seen the girl break a hole in the forcefield and how many walls? And there she was lying on the ground, still alive but smoking. Of course she'd look at her first.”

“I think they might be mother and daughter, or maybe an aunt,” Jane said. I did my best to look skeptical. “Hey look at it. Prairie Sun goes to Vancouver, and then this new mutant appears there at a show they're putting on. Then when the mud hits the fan, who's the first person Sun goes to? Not her friend Super Bear, but this girl. And then they go to the MCO together. You don't need to be Sherlock to connect the dots.”

Crap. “Why would they go to Vancouver to get an MID? Why not just do it here in Edmonton? It's against the rules to travel without an MID anyways, so how did they even get to Vancouver?” I asked. Thank you asshole MCO agent.

“Maybe they didn't know she was a mutant yet,” Tammy said. “This could have been her origin event.”

I shut up, nodding my head in the right places, adding in my own two cents sometimes, not discouraging them, but pushing it in odd directions. Sometimes when keeping a secret it was best to just play along, if you defended it too much, people would begin to suspect you had something to hide. It was going to be a long day.

**

After all the craziness of manifesting and learning that I was changing, things actually went back to normal pretty quickly. Discussion of my alter ego ended when nothing else happened that involved her, and the girls got tired of talking about the same few pictures that found their way onto the internet. I helped it along by finding other stories to talk about, like the Silver Ghost in Cincinnati and all the stuff she was getting into on tv. With stuff like that a mutant who was only known by a few photo's without even a name was small potatoes.

My skin stayed red, a few girls made jokes about my sunbathing in winter and artificial tanning lotions, but that was the worst of it. I could have forgotten that I was a mutant, except that my body was changing.

It wasn't very obvious, but my waist was getting bigger, my hips and butt a hair smaller, my bra became a little loose. And my shoes which had been just right started to pinch my toes. Just looking at me wouldn't show anything was wrong, but I knew. Every time I changed for gym class, had a shower, or got dressed beside Faith, I expected someone to point at my privates and scream, or possibly worse laugh.

I started having nightmares.

I'd be taken out of my class by the headmistress and brought to the gym, the teachers would stand around me telling the class how I was a freak, a monster, a liar. They'd rip my clothes off as they spoke and the entire school watched. Finally they rip off my underwear, my bra first, revealing a flat chest, then my panties, and I'd have a huge penis like you'd see in a porno hanging down. I always woke up as as soon as I saw the look of horror on my friends faces.

I became afraid of sleeping.

The school counselor insisted on seeing me in early December, when I almost fainted in class from lack of sleep. When I told her I was having nightmares, but refused to tell her what it was, or what I was going through, she phoned my parents. Dad told her I was getting treated for a genetic disorder, refusing to go into details, but asked her to give me something to help me sleep. She was less than happy about that. When I fell asleep in her comfortable chair, she gave me a prescription for a mild sedative, that I was to take half an hour before lights out from the dorm head.

I still woke up in a cold sweat almost every morning, but at least I only had fragments of nightmares, I'd rather not even think about.

Keeping up the lie day and night at school was hard. The anger at my body for betraying me built up, feeling like a physical force hiding just under my skin. My muscles hummed with pent up energy, just begging to be freed. By the time most days were over, I'd run to the schools dance studio and practice ballet, jazz dancing or freestyle, anything to work off the energy, working herself almost to the point of collapse before staggering off to a shower and then homework. If I had a really bad day I'd practice my Krav Maga. I stopped that after two weeks when I practiced in the gym while the gymnastic squad was practicing on the other side. Apparently making the heavy punching bag the school keeps for the five or six students and teachers who actually use it, bounce when you punch it is a good way to freak people out.

I was sent back to the counselor to talk about my growing aggression. I didn't talk to her, she eventually stopped talking to me. I wasn't trying to be rude, but what could I tell her? My parents are superheroes, I was nearly killed by an insane cult, I'm turning into a boy. Yeah, those would go over well.

By the middle of December, my arms and legs, which had been smooth and soft looking with strong, graceful muscles underneath were getting definition and starting to build up more like a guys. This did nothing to help my mood.

And then my life got even better just in time for winter vacation.

**

Residence of Mr. And Mrs. Young, Edmonton, Alberta,
December 19th, 2007

I was shooting bolts of electricity in the basement range. It wasn't strictly legal, and if we tried to shoot guns in there the police could come for a visit, but we didn't shoot guns down there, so we were safe. I had a stun gun that had been modified by Uncle Herb to up the amps.

Not only was shooting good for making sure if I had to use it I wouldn't hit a bystander, but it was great stress relief. I love my friends, but going from being a normal girl, to mutant, to changing into a boy, to almost dying, and not being able to tell anyone about it was hard on the nerves. So I rolled up my sleeves, zapped myself with enough electricity to kill a normal, full grown man, and shot paper targets. I even managed to hit the stupid thing about once out of every five shots. How Dad did it on the fly, I have no idea.

Mom and Dad both came down as I was about to recharge. From the looks on their faces things were not good in Whoville. “What's up, Snowman has decided to declare war on Christmas again?” (Don't ask.)

“It's probably nothing,” Dad said, never a good sign. “But we want you to be extra careful for the next little while.”

“Why?”

“The Cult of the Blood Father is looking for you,” Mom said.

“WHAT?!”

Dad and Mom both moved in to hold my shoulders, I realized at that moment they both had two pairs of woolen gloves on. Dad kept talking. “The VHC raided most of their safehouses over the last two weeks, and was able to access almost every file they had. The few survivors who aren't in prison are trying to regroup the cult, one of their rallying points is you.”

“Don't worry honey. They have no idea who you are, and we've alerted the police and every nearby hero to watch out for suspicious activity. We've even passed on the word to some of the gangs and criminals who don't like end of the world groups to be on the look out. No one is going to be able to come into the city and set up shop without us knowing,” Mom assured me. “But we want you to be extra careful over Christmas.”

“You mean I'll be allowed outside sometimes?” I asked.

“Of course, we want you meeting your friends. And remember we have two students coming to stay with us. We thought they might be able to help you out a bit, and you could show them around the city.”

They had told me about it earlier in the week. A girl called Theresa, who'd passed through in the summer with a strange looking GSD, was going to come by because she had nowhere else to go. My parents usually had one or two kids stay at our house or at their base, during the holidays depending on how human they looked. Apparently Theresa had a roommate with nowhere else to go to.

“Theresa looks like she's made out of dirt. Can she really go outside much?” I asked.

“She sent some pictures of herself, she has a type of fake skin that looks natural. So she won't get any odd looks. And her roommate looks baseline,” Dad explained. “You could get them out Christmas shopping with your friends and maybe take them to a New Years Eve party if you guys get along together.”

I shrugged. The holidays didn't look so jolly with a death threat hanging over me.

Mom grabbed my hand. “Come upstairs, I think we need to give you a present early.”

We went up to the tree, which was surrounded by presents. There was a medium size box with teddy bear wrapping paper and an electric pink bow, obviously from Uncle Herb. Dad handed it to me. “We realize it's early, but Uncle Herb sent a message along with the news telling us to give it to you today.”

Uncle Herb was always making awesome toys for me, that were one of a kind, at least until he patented them and sold the rights to some company. I didn't quite shred the paper opening it up. Inside were two fancy metal bracelets and a matching black metallic belt. They looked stylish, even if the belt wouldn't go with half of my wardrobe.

“Cool, what do they do?” I asked, not seeing any instructions.

“Put them on and lets go to the workout room.

I slid on the jewelry and wrapped the belt around my waist. The workout room looked ordinary enough, until you looked at the equipment closely. Then you realized that the weight machine and other equipment was very sturdily built, usually the type you'd see with professional body builders. If you could see into the secret compartments hidden in the walls, you'd find the equipment that went into the tonnes range, and punching bags made of kevlar and filled with ball bearings. A set of hundred kilo free weights were set up already.

“Ok, according to Herb, to activate your gift you can either tap your bracelets together for a small charge, or both of them against the belt for a large one,” Dad told me.

Shrugging I tapped the bracelets together and it was like I'd drank five espresso's. Grabbing the weights I did about fifty arm curls to work off the charge. Mom and Dad smiled at the sight. Gingerly I tapped the bracelets against the belt, my skin felt like it was on fire. It took ten minutes of heavy lifting before I cooled off.

Breathing a sigh of relief and draining a bottle of cool water, I looked at the gifts. “Ok, these will be useful. How do I recharge them?”

Edmonton International Airport
December 20th, 2007

Dad and I waited at the arrival gate of the airport for Theresa and her friend Dakota. This year was going to be different then usual. Before the students we had visit wouldn't talk about their school, at least no more then the basics when I was around, so all I knew was that it was in the US, was for mutants and had things like a shooting range, workshops for super science projects, and security guards, which seemed pretty excessive to me. My school had security, but they were to protect the kids of high level officials, and they were mostly for show, one boy had told me when I was nine that the guards had power armour and explosives and other things, which I hadn't believed. Then my parents heard him talking about it and they'd moved him to their headquarters for the rest of the summer.

Mom had come on her own and was at the MCO station making sure the girls didn't have any trouble. We weren't worried that they'd be arrested but last summer a teenage mutant who was just passing through to his parents place in southern Alberta, and planned a short visit with Fly By and Prairie Sun, had been held up for over five hours being interrogated over every detail of his visit and his trip from Boston to Edmonton. By the time he was done his day was ruined, he was near tears and he'd been a bit of a wreck. Now unless they had to fight a supervillain they made sure to always have one of them there in costume to help out.

Everything seemed to be on track this time, and two girls, who matched the photo I'd been shown came walking out with their bags looking around for us. Dad waved to them and headed over with me in tow. Theresa gave him a big hug, and as I watched I realized that her skin looked almost real. It was a little too smooth and didn't wrinkle properly as she smiled, but if you didn't know about it or look too closely you'd say it was real, at worst a person would think she'd had botox. I turned away from them, feeling the old jealousy that someone else could hug Dad more freely than I could, and smiled at the new comer.

“Hi Dakota, I'm Estelle,” I said, holding out my hand.

She seemed a little surprised at the hand, but then took it with a look of relief. “Hey Estelle, you can just call me Kota.”

My Dad finally let go of Theresa, and turned on Kota. She tensed up a little when it looked like he was going to hug her, so he quickly changed it to a hand shake that enveloped her small hand. I took a second to get a good look at the girl, she was really pretty, with a heart shaped face, long hair that would have half of the kids at my school begging her for hair tips. My chest was bigger than hers, but not by much, and she was short, she'd had a perfect view of my nose. I decided Kota would have fit perfectly on the gymnastics team.

Before I could notice much more, I was embraced by Theresa. “Hi Theresa. Did you have a good trip?”

“It was great. Thank you for letting me come back, you guys were so nice last summer, I don't know what I would have done without you all,” she gushed.

I gently pried myself away and found a distraction for her. “Oh, there's my Mom!”

Mom came over in her civilian clothes, her uniform was in her backpack. There were a bunch of places in the back of the airport where a person could get changed unseen and appear again without any real risk of detection. Theresa ran and gave her a hug to.

“She really likes to hug people,” Kota said needlessly.

“I noticed.” We made our way out of the airport to my parents SUV. “What would you guys like to do?”

Kota just shrugged, Theresa started rattling off a long list of activities. She was still talking when we got into the vehicle. Kota finally managed to get a word in edgewise. “Theresa, we're both broke.”

“Yeah, but I can still go window shopping and looking around,” the girl said.

I watched as Kota leaned her head back and muttered something that sounded like, 'girls'. Deciding to change the topic, I did something I'd kind of wanted to do for years.

“So what was Whateley like?” I asked. I may not want to go to the school, but learning as much as I could about up to date information was only smart.

Theresa looked at my parents cautiously. “It's cool, most kids would be so jealous of everything we can do. It blows everything out of the water! It's too bad you can't come, you'd love it so much.”

“Actually, Estelle may be going there in the fall.” Dad said, while Mom kept her eyes on the road.

“Really?!” Theresa exclaimed. “You manifested. This is so cool! You'll have to join the cape squad because your parents are superheroes, they'll really want to rush you. But don't go with the Robins, they're total losers.”

Kota gave me a sympathetic smile, as her roommate went into a huge monologue about Whateley. Apparently there were supervillains learning there, one of whom was a crown prince, a group of crazy girls who fought in Boston all the time, a cool rock band with a dinosaur guitar player, ninja's, a giant robot, and a lot of other things that kind of got lost in the jumble. It made Everest seem boring, but saner, and safer.

This of course got my parents involved, talking about what it had been like when they were there. Kota and I sort of just faded into the background listening to them talk. I know I was overwhelmed by it all and Kota didn't seem to quite know what to say or if she wanted to say anything at all.

Finally we got home in the outskirts of the city. Both Theresa and Kota stared at the house. It was kind of surprising if you weren't used to people who pull in a few million dollars a year from endorsements, security contracts, speeches, and merchandise.

“Come on, I'll show you the guest rooms. Do you want to sleep in the same room or separately?” I asked, helping them with their luggage.

“Separate,” Kota said.

“Together!” Theresa said at the exact same time.

“Flip a coin?” I suggested.

Theresa touched Kota's arm. “No, I keep forgetting you didn't share a room with your sisters. We can have separate rooms.”

Kota smiled, which made her look even prettier, and gave her roommate a quick hug. “Thanks D.”

With that settled I showed them their rooms, pointing out the tv room, library and computer room, and the exercise room which were all on the bottom floor. “Supper is in two hours, you both have a shower and a bathroom in your room. If you want a bath, there's a full bathroom with everything you need at the end of the hall. My room and my parents room are upstairs at the top of the stairs, don't hesitate to ask us if you need something. The third floor is invite only, sorry.”

They thanked me and after making sure they didn't need anything I went to my room and studied myself in the mirror in just my underwear. I had a better figure then Theresa, who was short and stocky, you'd never mistake her for a boy, but she looked like a body builder who could bend solid metal. Looking at my arms, I realized I was just starting to get the first hint of definition like hers. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was, but it was still a change I didn't want. My hand rubbed my smooth chin, trying to feel if I'd started growing a beard yet. After twenty minutes I had to admit even to myself that I was still a proper girl there.

I tried to picture myself looking like Kota. She was short only about 158cm (5.2ft), but her body was perfect. Ok, I liked that I had more curves than she did, but she was beautiful. If I had to be a mutant, why couldn't I be like her? Why did everything that happened, everyone I met, have to shove it in my face how much it sucked to be me?

Sitting down in my big comfy chair with my stuffed animals around me, I looked out over the snow covered prairies. Satisfied that I was as comfortable as I was going to get, I started to cry.

**

When supper rolled around, I looked ok. A bit of makeup and eye drops hid my puffy red eyes, so in my warm, knee length red sweater dress, with comfy leggings and a rose hair piece, I looked like a hottie. I put the bracelets and the belt on, because it did look really good especially against the vibrant red fabric.

Mom and Dad were both cooking in the kitchen, so I went to get the guests. Theresa opened her door with a yawn. Her skin was the colour of really healthy, damp soil, the straw blonde hair looked out of place, looking at her made you think she should fall apart into a pile of dirt at any moment, or at least be sticky and dirty. But her white shorts and tank top were spotless.

“Dinner time,” I said as cheerfully as possible.

“Do I have to dress up as nicely as you?” she asked.

“Nope. Just as long as they're clean you're good.”

She gave a relieved grin. “Give me five minutes.”

Kota was next. She hadn't been asleep, in fact it looked like she hadn't done much of anything except change her clothes, into baggy jeans and a sweatshirt. “Suppers ready,” I told her.

“Thanks.” She stepped into the hallway with me to way for Theresa.

“Why did you call Theresa, D, earlier?” I asked.

She shrugged and looked at her feet. “Her codename is Earths Daughter, she hated E.D., said it sounded like her grandmother, so I call her D.”

“My codename is Target.”

She looked at me from the corner of her eye.

“I have to get a jolt of energy before I can use my power. When I manifested, I was shot by some electrical weapons and then was put in the middle of a magic spell. It seemed like a good name at the time,” I explained lamely.

“Traceur,” she said.

“What?”

“My codename, it's Traceur.”

“Cool name,” I said, since my Mom was in Parkour, I had heard the word even if I couldn't remember what it meant.

The awkward conversation was cut short when Theresa came out in a pretty, light pink dress. “We weren't sure what you guys would like, so we have hamburgers and hot dogs with lots of toppings, some frozen pizzas, juice and pop, and for desert a chocolate cake and apple pie.”

“Wow! it's going to be just like eating at Crystal Hall isn't it Koda?” Theresa gushed.

Kota didn't say anything, but she was smiling hungrily, so I took it as a good sign. The smile got wider when we got to the dining room and the large table was almost overflowing with food. It wasn't fancy but it was well done. Mom, Dad, and I all loaded our plates down, while Kota and Theresa ate more normal amounts.

“I should have the day off tomorrow, so where and what do you girls want to do?” Mom asked.

“I don't know, Mrs. Young. I don't really have any money, so I guess just sitting around the house and relaxing would be nice,” Kota said, blushing as she did.

Dad put down his burger and with a big grin pulled two cards from his pocket. “Here you are, this will solve the money problem while you're here.”

They took the prepaid credit cards from my Dad looking at him and Mom with astonishment. “You're serious?” Theresa squealed.

“We are,” Mom answered. “There is one thousand dollars on each, we hope you use them responsibly.”

There was just enough time for Mom and Dad to move away from the table, before Theresa tried her best to hug them to death. Kota started eating her hamburger again, hiding her face. From my seat I saw some tears falling onto her plate.

**

We went to bed early that night after watching a couple of movies. We were going to have a busy day tomorrow of shopping, getting our hair styled, manicures and pedicures, and for Koda and I facials, while Mom and Theresa got massages. With her GSD, a facial would have forced Theresa to take off her fake skin, where a gentle massage would be ok. And I had no desire to have hands roaming over my body, Koda seemed to feel the same way. It actually worked out pretty well.

I took my sleeping pills, not wanting to risk the nightmares.

**

Edmonton, Alberta,
December 21st, 2007

Theresa and I seemed to have more fun shopping for clothes then Kota did. We first when shoe shopping, and while I got a pair of cute pink boots, and Theresa went with a black that matched her real skin, Kota just rolled her eyes and finally grabbed a pair of warm hiking boots that looked like they could be used to kick a bear to death.

Clothes shopping went about the same. Theresa and I tried dozens of different looks. I was leaning towards looser clothes, skirts, dresses, baggy but cute tops, while Theresa wanted skin tight stuff to show off her body. Kota just sat back and watched looking bored and nervous. While her friend went to try on another outfit, I sat down beside the tomboy.

“What's up?” I asked.

She gave one of her many shrugs. “Nothing. I just think this is really boring.”

I looked at her baggy, ragged blue jeans, and the ratty old winter army jacket that was well used and more patches than original material. “Ok, but how about you try on a few new clothes, just some jeans and maybe a jacket.”

“What's wrong with my clothes?”

“Nothing, but having some new clothes that aren't falling apart might be good.”

Kota snorted in disgust. “Than I should go to the fucking kids section. Those are the only clothes that will fit me.”

“You're not much smaller then me,” I insisted. “I can help you find some things that will fit.”

“Yeah, I really want to look all girly. Fuck no.”

The anger that seemed to be a part of me now surged inside me. “What's wrong with being girly?!”

Kota stood up and started walking away. “Look I don't want to get into an argument. You two have fun, I'll be at the game store, picking up a Wii, and a dozen games or so. Come get me when it's time for the oh so fun spa thing.”

While I was still trying to figure out what was going on Theresa came out wearing a nice pair of pants and top. “Where's Kota going?”

“Off to buy video games. Is she always a jerk?” I asked.

“C'mon, she just doesn't know how to deal with people much. Give her some space and you'll see that she's actually pretty nice.”

I gave her a look, letting her know I thought she was crazy.

“Believe me, she's pretty nice,” Theresa insisted. “She helped me get my boyfriend.”

“You're kidding me?”

“No way. She saw me looking at Timothy with puppy dog eyes for a month, and then told me how to get his attention. It was better than any magazine,” she swore. “Now how do I look in this?”

**

After a steak lunch, we went to the spa. Theresa was nervous at first, but Mom was a regular and knew the owner pretty well, so Theresa got an attendant who was nice and wouldn't say anything about her that seemed odd humans could achieve. The two started talking about styles and colours that would match her face and go with her usual clothes. She and Mom took off to get their massage while Kota and I went for our facials.

Kota looked around like she'd never seen the inside of a spa before. When the attendant looked over her face, commenting on her beautiful skin, she actually grimaced like it was an insult. I sat back and enjoyed the steam bath, the exfoliation and face massage. Kota kept fidgeting until the woman started to massage her face, then she actually began to calm down. I got into a nice conversation with my attendant, but whenever we tried to get Kota talking, she answered in single words or grunts.

Then they put the facial mask on, and began massaging our scalps. I was quite willing to sit back, relaxing to the nice tingling on my skin and listen to the soothing music, but Kota finally felt like talking.

“What are we doing here?” she demanded.

“Getting a facial,” I said.

“What for? What is the point of all of this?”

I started counting off on my fingers. “It feels good. It's good for your skin. It's relaxing. It gets rid of dead skin and pimples.”

“God this is boring.”

“Hey you could have backed out yesterday, or even this morning. Why don't you stop playing the tough girl and actually try to relax with something other than a video game?” I demanded.

“At least with a video game I'm doing something.”

“Oh yes, killing monsters is SSSOOOO important!”

“It's better than making yourself look like a slut for some guy,” she said.

The attendant tried to keep me down, while the other one tried to get Kota to calm down. I pushed her out of the way as I sat up. “Just because I want to look good doesn't make me a slut, you bitch!”

“That's all you care about dressing up and looking pretty. Don't you have anything important in your life?” Kota asked, sitting up to face me.

“Oh so I should wear clothes that are falling apart just so I can act like I don't care?” I could feel energy humming in my hands. I thought sparks would start flying any second.

Kota was about to say something right back at me, when Mom came out, still wearing her sunglasses, and a robe. “What is going on here?” she demanded.

Kota and I both started yelling at each other. Finally Mom grabbed my arm and marched me away from the girl. We quickly washed our faces while Mom and Theresa got dressed and were in the car ten minutes later heading back home. I sat in the front and made sure not to look at Kota, sparks were jumping between my fingers, and I knew if I looked at the girl I'd be ready to fry her.