School was finally out for the day and I let out a long sigh of relief. Schools in the town of Spiral were different than schools anywhere else because of all the Twisted everywhere and the cool tricks you could see at any time. But regardless of that, no matter where you were, a school was still a school and it was always great to finally leave at the end of the day.

My name is Jon Andrews and I'm a pretty normal sixteen year old, though the word normal usually does have a somewhat different meaning in Spiral. Still, I'd probably be considered pretty normal anywhere other than Spiral as well. I'm 5 foot 10, have brown hair and pretty ordinary features. If someone were to describe me to the cops, about the only really noticeable feature they could give was the fact that I had a nice scar on my chin from a childhood accident.

Spiral is a strange town filled with strange people. There were Twisted all over the place, many of whom had tricks that were like super powers in the old comic books. I'd grown up in Spiral though and lived here most of my life so all this weirdness was fairly normal for me. Like I said, 'normal' was a bit different in Spiral.

I was pretty normal by Spiral standards, though perhaps not quite so much everywhere else. There was only one thing about me that was odd, but that would have been considered a huge thing outside Spiral. In Spiral, no one gave it a second thought or even cared. The fact was, my mom was Twisted and my dad was a normal guy.

The doctors say there's a very good chance that I'll become Twisted like my mom, but they don't know for sure. Going through your twist isn't something that most people look forward to because you never know what will happen to you or what you'll become. In fact, it scares the hell out of a lot of kids in Spiral, though most don't want to admit it. I don't usually waste much time worrying about it though. If I am Twisted, nothing I do can change or prevent my twist. If I'm not Twisted, I'd just have worried for nothing. I prefer to just live one day at a time, and if anything does happen, I'll worry about it then.

At the moment though, the only thing I wanted to worry about was getting home from school before it started to rain. I live close enough to the school that I wasn't allowed to take the bus. And though that wasn't a problem most of the time, it got to be a real pain in the ass when I had to deal with the weather. Fortunately, it hadn't started raining yet but I wanted to get home before it started.

I was just about to leave the school grounds with my backpack slung over my shoulder when I suddenly heard someone cry for help. I looked around and saw one of my friends being shoved around by a larger guy. That was NOT something I was going to just let stand.

"What the hell are you doing?" I demanded as I ran to help my friend Jason.

The larger boy who was bullying my friend was Simon Casche, a kid I knew from around school but didn't know personally. At the moment, it looked as though he was just pushing Jason around but hadn't actually hit him yet. Simon glared at me, as though that look was enough to make me back away and let him continue with his fun.

"This isn't any of your business," Simon told me with a scowl.

I just stood my ground and grinned, "You know, I could always tell your little sister that you were picking on girls..."

Simon glared at me but there was a tinge of fear in his eyes. Then he let Jason go and glanced at his watch. "Damn, I've got to go..." He glared at me, "You're both lucky I don't have time to kick your asses now..." With that, he turned and walked away.

"You okay?" I asked Jason who just nodded.

Jason was one of those guys who looked several years younger than he actually was, thanks to the fact that he was both short and thin. He tried making up for that by not shaving and trying to grow some facial hair, but so far it was so sparse as to be barely noticeable and then it only looked a bit patchy.

"Thanks," Jason told me with a scowl. "You know I could have kicked his ass..."

"Yeah," I grinned, helping to cover his bruised ego, "but why would you want to do that when you can make him run away instead..."

"Bastard wanted to copy my homework," Jason scowled. "Doesn't he realize I'm only a C average student? Shouldn't he have gone after one of the A students or something...?"

"Yeah," I shrugged, "but I guess he isn't that bright. I mean, to an F student even a C student looks smart..." The truth was, I had no idea what kind of grades Simon got, nor did I really care.

Jason just laughed, "I guess so."

"Normally he's pretty harmless," I said thoughtfully, thinking about Simon. "More bark than bite. In fact, I kind of feel sorry for him..."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jason demanded. "Why the hell would you feel sorry for him?"

"Didn't you hear?" I asked in surprise. "A couple weeks ago his little sister went through her twist. Apparently she turned into some kind of amazon and has been beating up on him since."

"Damn," Jason stared at me in disbelief.

"Yeah," I nodded agreement, "Simon used to just talk tough but never did anything. Now..." I shrugged, "I guess he's trying to prove he's a tough guy or something..."

"Man," Jason shook his head, then smirked, "getting beat up by your little sister..."

"Well anyway," I told Jason, "I've got to get home."

Jason nodded, then looked around and cursed, "Damn, I missed the bus. I guess I'll have to walk."

"Where do you live?" I asked. Jason and I were friends at school but had never hung out afterwards.

"Over by Lomax Avenue and Third," Jason told me.

"Really?" I asked in surprise. "That's only a couple blocks from my house. In fact, you'll probably walk right past my place going home."

"Cool," Jason nodded.

With that we started walking home together by silent agreement. We spend most of the short walk to my house complaining about school in general and sharing the gossip, though neither of us called it that. When we reached my house, I invited Jason inside, kind of eager to show off my room and my prize video games. I never got to show that stuff to my friends at school, most of whom didn't even know where I lived.

When we entered my house, we were met with a pretty girl who looked to be the same age as me. She had long brown hair and was dressed just like a lot of the girls in my school, with tight pants and a shirt that exposed her midriff, including the navel ring.

"Hey Jon," she greeted me, "how was school?"

"Hey Tina," I responded with a sigh, "it was about the same as always."

Tina nodded, "Cool." Then she looked to Jason with a curious expression.

"This is Jason," I told her, gesturing for Jason to follow me back to my room.

"Nice to meet you," Jason grinned at her before following me. Once we were in my room with the door closed, he exclaimed, "Damn your sister is hot."

I winced at that and grimly told him, "Tina's not my sister... She's my mom."

"YOUR MOM?" Jason gasped in surprise.

"It's her twist." I plopped down on my bed and let out a sigh. "It made her stop aging. I guess she didn't even realize what it really did to her for a couple years until she noticed that she wasn't getting any older."

"But your mom," Jason shook his head, "she doesn't look anything like a mom...

"Why do you think I call her Tina instead of mom?" I asked with a shrug. "Calling her mom when she looks like she's the same age as me is just too weird..." I didn't mention that Tina wasn't bothered at all when I stopped calling her mom several years ago and started using her first name instead. In fact, I think she preferred it that way.

"She certainly isn't dressed like a mom," Jason said, obviously uncomfortable with the fact that he thought my mom was hot.

"She dresses professionally and puts on makeup to make herself look a little older when she goes to work," I told Jason, "but when she's at home she's always dressed like she is really a teenager..."

"It's kind of cool if you think about it," Jason grinned at me.

"Yeah," I snorted, "but you've never had your mom come to your school and hang out pretending to be one of your classmates."

"You're kidding," Jason stared at me in disbelief.

I shook my head. "She likes doing that kind of thing. Once I was about to get a date with Katie Miller and Tina came up pretending to be my girlfriend... Kind of ruined that one in a hurry."

"Ouch," Jason winced, giving me a sympathetic look.

"It's not all bad," I admitted. "You remember my old girlfriend Lita? Tina was the one who introduced us and talked her into giving me a chance."

Jason shook his head at that, probably wondering if I was telling him the truth or making it up. However I was being perfectly honest... this time. I have told a few whopping stories in my time, but this wasn't one of them.

"It must be kind of weird for your dad," Jason pointed out, "I mean, with your mom looking like a teenager and all..."

"Yeah," I scowled, not sure how I could tell this or if I even should. "He couldn't exactly handle it..."

"Oh?" Jason asked.

I hesitated a minute, then said, "My dad's a normal...not Twisted or anything. They had me right out of high school and I guess he didn't care about Tina's twist then. But after a few years, he got older and she didn't and he started seeing her more and more as too young for him. I guess it started to make him feel like a pedophile or something because he left about eight years ago and neither of us has heard from him since."

Jason winced, "Damn... I guess it kind of says something about the guys her own age who would date her too..."

I nodded at that, deciding not to tell Jason any more about Tina. The truth was, I was pretty sure her twist had locked more than just her age at sixteen. I was pretty sure it had done so with her mind or emotional state as well. Then again, maybe it was the teenage hormones she still had and the fact she never had a chance to grow up the same way other women did. Either way, I was pretty sure she still thought of herself as a teenager deep inside which was why she was more comfortable with me calling her Tina than mom.

"Man, that's got to be weird though," Jason continued, not noticing that I wasn't quite as talkative. "I mean, someday people are gonna think she's your daughter..."

"I know," I shrugged, "it's pretty weird. But hey, this is Spiral. The guy next door not only has fun watching the grass grow, he makes it grow faster just by staring at it."

"I guess you're right," Jason grinned. "My dad's completely and totally obsessed with watching sports...and I don't even think that's part of his twist."

I just laughed at that. "So what is his twist?"

Jason shrugged. "He's just got this HUGE appetite, but he never gains any weight from it. I once saw him eat an entire Thanksgiving turkey by himself...then go for dessert." He shook his head, then grinned, "My mom just has this compulsion to start dancing whenever she hears music. It's pretty funny actually..."

We just sat there and continued talking for another half hour, mostly about various Twisted people we knew and what kind of twists they had. It was always interesting to hear about the different ways people could be changed by the twist, both physically and mentally. Eventually though, Jason had to go.

"I wish I could stay a bit longer," Jason told me, "but I'm already really late getting home..."

"I understand," I told him. "Maybe you can come over again sometime..."

Jason grinned, "Sure." Then as he was leaving, he waved to Tina and said, "See you later Mrs. Andrews."

As soon as Jason had left, Tina turned to me with a look of disappointment, "You told him?"

I rolled my eyes. "C'mon Tina... You can't keep flirting with my friends like that."

Tina looked at me with a pouting expression that made her seem even younger than she already looked. Then she exclaimed, "It's damn unfair if you ask me." The sad thing was, I didn't even know if she was serious or joking.

I leaned back in class, watching the teacher Mr. Lawson writing notes on the digital board in the front of the room and feeling bored. Not only was math my least favorite subject, but Mr. Lawson was probably the most boring teacher in the entire school. The only thing at all interesting to happen so far was that the battery on Mr. Lawson's laser pen went dead and he continued to write some formula on the board for nearly half a minute before realizing there was nothing there.

I glanced to the clock, annoyed that it wasn't quite the end of the class yet though it was getting closer. It looked like I was going to have to do something to keep myself awake. The problem was, what could I do?

Mr. Lawson provided my opportunity a moment later by pointing at the formula he'd written on the board and then the legend he'd written beside it to remind us what all the symbols meant. He had a habit of doing that regardless of the fact that we already knew what all the symbols mean which was one of the things that made him such a boring teacher.

"This," he pointed to one symbol in the formula and then the corresponding one on the legend, "is the sine symbol..."

"If it's a sign," I asked, trying to keep a straight face, "what does it say?"

There were a few snickers from other students but no real response, other than for Mr. Lawson momentarily glaring at me. He was used to me being a smart ass when I got too bored. It was my way of staying awake in class and paying attention, though most teachers didn't seem to understand or appreciate that.

"This one is pi," Mr. Lawson continued.

"No," I called out, "a pie is round and has good tasting fillings..." That one brought about some open laughter as well as Mr. Lawson's full attention.

"Mister Andrews," Mr. Lawson glared at me, "I think you'll need to stay after school in detention."

I rolled my eyes, annoyed but not surprised. It seemed that I ended up in detention once every couple weeks because of my comments in class. If it wasn't Mr. Lawson, it was one of my other teachers. Still, I wasn't all that happy about it.

"Are you going to call my mom for another parent teacher conference?" I asked with a straight face.

Mr. Lawson glared at me and went pale, making me chuckle while the rest of the class just sat there confused, not in on the joke. Mr. Lawson liked to overreact and had demanded my mom come in for a talk with him about my behavior earlier in the year. But when Tina showed up, dressed in the same casual outfits she normally wore at home, he thought she was a student there to hit on him for a better grade and threw her out none too politely. Afterwards he had to deal with the principal who wasn't happy when Tina called to complain about HIS behavior.

The rest of the class flew by pretty fast now that I was awake and entertained. I wasn't sure the detention was worth it, but it was too late to worry about it now. Still, I was more than happy when the bell rang and I was free to go to lunch.

"Ah lunch," I exclaimed, "the most precious time of the day..."

I soon had my tray of semi-edible food substitute, the stuff that used to be called mystery meat in days past, and took my accustomed seat beside Jason. I wasn't sure how Jason always beat me to the cafeteria, especially since my last class was closer to it than his. If it wasn't for the fact that he hadn't gone through his twist yet I would have assumed he had a trick he was using.

"I heard about you getting detention again," Jason told me with a grin.

I groaned at that. "How the hell did you hear about that? It just happened like fifteen minutes ago."

"I have my sources," Jason said mysteriously, then added in a side tone, "one of the girls in your class was talking about it when she walked by, before you sat down."

"Damn the gossip in this school is thick," I shook my head in amazement.

"You've got to stop being such a smart-ass," Jason told me with a grin.

"It's better to be a smart-ass than a dumb-ass," I told him cheerfully, earning a chuckle from not only Jason but someone else sitting close enough to overhear.

A moment later I saw another friend coming over with her tray of food. "Hey Pinkie," I waved to her.

Leila was the new girl in school, having moved into Spiral for the first time just a month ago. She was an incredible looker with proportions that were just barely believable. It was like she was a cartoon figure or Barbie doll come to life. She was tall, long legged, VERY busty and appropriately blonde. She also had this weird thing about wearing pink. EVERYTHING she wore and seemed to own was pink. The obsession with pink and her rather extreme body were both parts of her twist and the reason I'd nicknamed her Pinkie.

"Don't call me that," Leila said as she sat down across from me.

I just stared at her impressive chest rather obviously, desperately wishing I could get her to date me. Unfortunately most of the guys in school had similar ideas about her, though she'd made it very clear that she had no interest in dating anyone at the moment. When I'd befriended her on her first day here, she'd also made it pretty clear that she had no intention of dating me...EVER. It was the first time I'd gotten the 'just friends' speech before the first date.

"Stop staring at my chest," Leila warned me with a look that seemed to be a cross between amusement and annoyance. "Or you can keep it up if you want to wear pink for the rest of the day."

I winced and immediately looked up to her face. Leila had this little trick where she could change the color of things to pink and she'd used that power more than once to turn the clothes of boys who annoyed her pink. She usually liked doing it early in the day so they had to go through school all day with pink clothes. She'd done it to one of my shirts once and I'd had to throw it away because it wouldn't change back.

Then as if to prove she wasn't really mad or uptight, Leila grinned, "How many blondes does it take to replace a light bulb?"

"How many?" I asked.

Leila had a good collection of 'dumb blonde' jokes. Being blonde herself, she seemed to hear every one of them and usually came and repeated them for me and Jason. Most of the time her jokes were bad, but occasionally a few good ones came along.

"None," Leila responded with a grin, "we don't have to. We just stick out our chests and give a little pout," she demonstrated quite impressively, "and some guy goes and does it for us..."

Jason and I both chuckled lightly, giving credit for the effort rather than the actual joke. Still, her little visual display that went along with it made it all worthwhile.

"You know," Jason said, "I think I preferred the blond and the light bulb one you told us last week... You know, the one where she didn't change the light bulb because she just thought her eyes were shut..."

"Maybe," Leila grinned, "but I like this one better." She stuck her tongue out at Jason.

"How can you tell when a blond has been using your computer?" I asked.

"How?" Leila asked.

"She tells you it's broken because she can't pull the clothes she ordered online out of the holographic display." I grinned, knowing it was a bad one even as I said it but enjoying the groans I got even more than the laughs a better joke might elicit.

"That's one I won't bother repeating," Leila teased me. "My little sister can tell a better joke than that and she's just a kid."

"Okay then," I chuckled, "how can you tell when a red head has been using your computer?"

"There's a hammer through the hologram projection plate?" Jason asked.

"Damn," I muttered, annoyed that he'd gotten the punch line, even if it was an obvious one. "Okay then," I shrugged, "then how do you tell when...?"

I stopped when I suddenly felt a strange static tingle rush across my entire body. I felt confused for just an instant until I realized what this was...what this had to be. Then I felt a surge of terror. I'd heard this described too many times not to recognize a twist when it was starting to happen to me.

"Oh shit," I exclaimed right before it hit me with full force, blasting me with such force that I felt as though I'd been struck by lightning.

I was completely overwhelmed with raw and powerful sensations though a tiny part in the back of my mind was aware enough to realize what was happening to me. I was going through a twist...I was becoming Twisted. However there wasn't enough of my mind of my mind free from the sensations to actually feel any more worry over this.

Becoming Twisted doesn't just happen at random. It's a genetic thing, a legacy of the Antarctic Flu and what it had done to the survivors. Thanks to my mom and the genetic quirk I'd inherited from her, I was somehow becoming an antenna and tapping into some strange quantum field that all Twisted were connected to. And like all Twisted, the first moment I connected to that quantum field I was being reshaped and transformed...twisted into something different.

These thoughts all passed through my mind in the flash of an instant, right before my conscious mind was submerged in the onslaught. Time, space, my physical body, and even sense of self were completely overwhelmed and ceased to have any meaning. Eventually, even the powerful sensations vanished, leaving me to crash into darkness.

I woke to the certainty that things were different...that I was different. I knew for a fact that I had just gone through my twist, yet I had absolutely no idea as to how I had twisted. I had no idea of what...or even WHO I had become. Strangely though, I didn't really feel bothered by this. When I opened my eyes, I saw that I was in the school nurse's office. The hideous yellow color of the walls was unmistakable. I started to sit up before someone gently pushed me back down onto the padded table.

"You're awake," the school nurse said with a nervous smile.

"Good morning," I said cheerfully, giving her a broad grin.

Then Tina leaned over me, dressed in her professional looking work clothes rather than the ones she wore around the house. They must have called her as soon as I went through my twist in the cafeteria. She was staring at me with a strange expression that I couldn't quite read, though there was definitely worry and nervousness there.

"How...how do you feel?" Tina asked carefully.

"Fine," I responded with a smile, slowly sitting up. This time no one tried to stop me. "Kind of funny though."

"I'd imagine," the nurse muttered.

That just made me more curious so I looked down at myself to see the damage. I had a blanket over me that had fallen down when I sat up, giving me a good look at the two orbs of flesh which grew from my chest. They were immediately recognizable as a woman's breasts, probably around a C cup though I didn't know enough to be sure. Then I reached between my legs, finding exactly what I expected...the absence of my equipment. Instead of my normal male equipment, I had the female equivalent.

"I'm a girl," I exclaimed in glee, though I wasn't sure why I was happy about that. I just was. Then I grabbed my new breasts and proudly exclaimed, "I've got boobs now..."

"What?" Tina gasped, staring at me as though I'd grown a second head or something. Then she looked over to the nurse who was writing something down on a clip board.

"I think we can say," the nurse said cautiously, "that he...that she went through some personality changes as well as physical."

"Really?" I asked cheerfully. "What kind of personality changes?"

The nurse gave me an odd look and then forced a smile, "Well... Most people wouldn't be so pleased about a gender change..." Then she glanced at mom, "Not unless they had gender identity issues beforehand..."

"Nope," Tina shook her head, "Jon was always all boy..."

I nodded at that, knowing she was right but not feeling bothered with it. I was just in such a good mood that I didn't think I could feel bothered by much at the moment. "Cool," I grinned, looking down at myself and touching my new breasts. I couldn't wait to look them closer and play with them...

"Don't do that," Tina said, pulling my hands away and looking embarrassed.

"Wow," I responded, eager to get a better look at myself. "Do you have a mirror?" I asked the nurse hopefully.

The nurse nodded, "Of course. If you can stand up..."

"Sure," I grinned, standing up and feeling off balance. I had to grab Tina to keep from falling over. That just made me notice her height compared to mine, "Hey...you got taller..."

"No," Tina reminded me, looking faintly amused, "you shrunk."

"Really?" I asked, not sure if that was a good thing or bad. I frowned for a moment, then shrugged, "Okay." Then I looked at Tina again and then down at the floor, "Wow...the floor looks a little closer...."

"Definitely some personality changes," Tina said, giving me a strange look that just made me giggle. That made her give me an even stranger look.

"So how tall am I?" I asked eagerly, trying to guess but not really being sure. Tina was 5 foot 6 and she looked a little taller than me now, though she was wearing high heels.

"Let me measure," the nurse said, having me stand against a measurement chart on the wall. "You're 5 foot 5."

"Okay," I nodded, trying to figure out how much height I'd lost. "I'm seven inches shorter..."

"You're only five inches shorter than before," Tina pointed out, giving the nurse a worried look.

"Okay," I shrugged it off, "can I see the mirror now?" The nurse gestured to the large mirror on the wall and I went straight to it. I stopped and stared at my reflection for a moment, my eyes going. "Holy shit," I exclaimed with a grin, "I'm a hottie..."

Tina nearly choked at that, then smiled, "Yeah, you are."

"Well," I smirked, feeling oddly proud of my new body, "if I'm gonna be a girl I might as well be a good looking one."

"Definitely," Tina admitted with a chuckle.

The girl in the mirror was a real looker with a nice rack. I had a thin waist, great legs and an overall killer body. Sure, I couldn't compete with Leila in the curves department and there were several other girls in school who were hotter than me, mostly as a result of being Twisted, but I thought I was probably in the top five.

My face wasn't at all bad either. In fact, I was downright beautiful without looking overly sexy. The scar I've had on my chin since I was a kid was gone, my eyes had changed to a silvery gray, and my hair was a silky blond that went down to my shoulder blades. It was definitely a nice face, though there was nothing of the old Jon visible in it.

"Damn, I look good." I shook my head in amazement.

Even as I admired myself in the mirror, feeling quite pleased with what I saw, a part of me knew that this was strange. I should be completely freaking out over my changes, not being happy about them. But I did feel happy and not just about my changes. I was just in a good... no...GREAT mood. It's hard to freak out or worry about anything when in such a happy and cheerful mood.

"Just great," Tina mused with a faint smile, "she's been a girl for less than five minutes and she's already spending a lot of time in front of the mirror. I can see that this is going to make sharing the bathroom a bit more difficult." I just stuck my tongue out at which earned a laugh.

"Hey," I exclaimed in realization, "if I'm gonna be a girl, I need a girls name..."

"Isn't it a little early to be thinking about that?" Tina asked in surprise.

"Why?" I asked with a grin. "It would be kind of silly for people to call me Jon now." I giggled at the thought of it and what people would think.

Tina blushed, then asked the nurse, "Are we good to go home now?"

"She should be," the nurse said, giving me a careful look. "Keep a close eye on her though and make sure you take her to the doctor for a thorough checkup..." She handed Tina a pamphlet. "There's a list of things you'll need to take care of now that she's gone through her twist."

Tina nodded. "I've been expecting something like this...or at least that she'd be Twisted." She shook her head, "Fortunately, I've had a long time to prepare..."

"You'll need something to wear home first," the nurse said as she looked me over.

I looked down at myself. "Oh yeah... I'm naked." I giggled, wondering how I could have forgotten that little detail. When someone goes through their twist, their clothes are usually destroyed in the process I was obviously no exception.

"We have some spares for these kinds of situations," the nurse said, pulling several large boxes out from a closet and opening them. They were full of clothes in various sizes so I'd be able to find something to fit me until we got home.

I was all dressed in borrowed clothes a few minutes and was leaving the school with Tina. Since it was in the middle of a class period, the halls were nearly empty. I saw one guy I knew and waved, only to have him stare back with a confused look.

"You shouldn't do that," Tina warned me, "he'll think you're flirting with him."

"Oh," I responded, not having thought of that. "I guess I don't want to do that..."

When we reached the side door, I tried to push it open but it remained stuck. I scowled but Tina asked, "What are you doing?"

I shrugged, "It's locked." Tina shook her head and pointed to the sign that said 'pull to open'. "Ooops," I giggled as I opened the door the right away. "I guess I didn't see it..."

Tina stared at me as we went to her car, then she finally stopped and asked, "What were you doing when your twist hit?"

"I was joking around with Jason and Leila," I told her, knowing what she was getting at. "I was just telling jokes..."

"What kind of jokes?" Tina asked suspiciously.

I shrugged, "Dumb blond jokes."

Tina shook her head and muttered, "Figures... Damn, this isn't going to be easy..."

I just climbed into the car, knowing exactly why she'd asked me that question. When someone goes through their twist, our transformations aren't always as random and unpredictable as they appear. In fact, most of the time our changes are somehow related to our environment or what we were doing at the time. I don't really understand it, but that's the way it works.

The drive home was a strange one, especially with the fact that I obviously made Tina uncomfortable. I wasn't quite the same person I was before and she didn't know what to think of the new me yet. Hell, I didn't know what to think of the new me yet either, but I wasn't worried. In fact, I was somewhat amused by just how nervous Tina was around me. I felt an urge to go 'boo', just to see if I could get her to jump.

"You know," I said abruptly, "since we're out and about, we should probably go get me some new clothes...." I giggled at the thought of how good I could look if I had the right clothes to go with my body.

"Tomorrow," Tina told me with a shake of her head, looking as though she wasn't sure to be horrified or amused. "You've just turned into a girl and you're already talking about shopping... Somehow, I don't think we're going to have any problem with you adapting..." She chuckled at that.

When we got home Tina let out a loud sigh of relief and began taking off her work jacket and blouse, revealing that underneath she was wearing a T shirt with the logo of a popular ziprock band. I was somewhat amused by her wearing that shirt since I was the one who'd introduced her to their music and had since lost interest in them.

"You know," I said in realization, "I bet we could share clothes now..."

"Maybe," Tina admitted as she looked me over. "We look about the same size, though I think you're probably a little larger up top."

"Really?" I laughed, "I've got bigger boobs than my mom... How weird is that?"

"It's hilarious," she rolled her eyes, obviously not all that pleased by it. Then she grinned, "On the plus side though, I'll be able to raid your closet too... This just might work out."

I laughed at that, "No problem. Maybe that will encourage you to get me some new clothes faster..."

Tina stuck her tongue out at me and said, "You brat..."

"Like mother like son," I teased back, then remembered, "or like daughter..."

After this I went to my room and quickly climbed out of my borrowed clothes, then looked myself over. Now that I was alone, I could examine my new body a little more closely. I was humming rather cheerfully as I looked over every inch of my new skin, admiring just how nice it all was. Before my twist, I would have killed to date a girl who looked like this.

When I heard Tina moving around outside my bedroom door, I called out, "Guess what...?"

"What?" she called back.

I just grinned and proudly called back, "I'm a natural blonde..." I heard a groan and then nothing more which made me burst into giggles.

Once I finally finished with my self-exploration, including checking out the sensations my new body gave me, I was even happier about my transformation than before. Intellectually, I knew that I shouldn't be thinking like this...that I shouldn't be so happy. But I couldn't help but being cheerful. I knew that my good mood was the result of my personality being twisted, but I didn't care.

"I might as well get used to it," I winked at my reflection in the mirror. "I'm going to be like this from now on."

I awoke in the morning, feeling somewhat different than I had the night before, though I couldn't quite explain it. I curled up under my covers, feeling nervous and a bit afraid. I slowly ran my hand over my new body and shuddered, not wanting to face it. I wasn't me anymore. I wasn't me...

"What's wrong with me?" I whispered, glancing around my room cautiously.

Then there was a loud knocking on my door with Tina called out, "Are you up yet?" She didn't wait for an answer before coming in.

"Don't look," I gasped out, trying to cover myself with my blankets.

"What?" Tina stared at me in surprise. "Yesterday you didn't have any problems..." Then she paused, staring at me with a strange expression.

"Leave me alone," I told her quietly, trying to bury myself under the covers.

"What's wrong with you?" Tina pulled the covers back. "Your hair..."

That didn't sound good at all and I gulped, "What's wrong with my hair?"

"You were blond yesterday," Tina pointed out, "you aren't anymore."

"What?" I asked, worried about what this might mean though I had no idea.

Tina stared at me again and shook her head, "You're acting like someone else entirely..." She grabbed me and pulled me from the bed. "Come on..."

Tina pulled me into the bathroom and stopped me in front of the mirror. I stared at my reflection in surprise and embarrassment. I couldn't believe that I looked like THAT... I cringed at the idea then forced myself to look again. I looked exactly the same as I had when I went to bed last night, except that my hair had changed color from blond to a very plain looking brown.

"Mousy brown," I whispered, which seemed appropriate since I felt like a mouse. I felt small and skittish at the moment, though I couldn't explain why, especially since I'd been so happy and cheerful about my transformation yesterday.

"It looks like there's more to your twist than we thought," Tina said as she looked me over, making me feel even more self-conscious.

I squirmed uncomfortably, wanting to just cover up and hide. I didn't even want to see myself. However Tina didn't give me that option and pulled me into the kitchen for breakfast.

"We've got to go to the clinic and get you new clothes," Tina told me, pulling out a checklist of things we needed to take care of because of my twist. "Then there's lots of other stuff to do too..."

"But I don't want to go out," I whined quietly, not wanting anyone to see me like this.

"You don't have any choice," Tina told me cheerfully, though I could see a bit of nervousness in her eyes. She obviously didn't know what to about my new body and personality any more than I did. "You need new clothes and an exam. I've already made the appointment." She stared at me smugly.

I frowned but didn't bother complaining. It wouldn't do any good and I didn't want to make her mad. I thought about the way I was thinking and acting, knowing that it was just as much out of character as the way I'd been yesterday, but I couldn't help it. I just felt so vulnerable at the moment. After breakfast I went back to the bathroom and looked into the mirror for a moment before turning away. I couldn't quite bring myself to look at it...at the way I'd changed. And when I climbed into the bath tub, I washed myself as fast as I could, avoiding my body as much as possible.

"Yesterday I had no problem with this," I muttered quietly, "now it's just too much to handle..." I shook my head, afraid of what this might mean for me. "Maybe I'm going crazy..."

Once I was cleaned and dressed in my borrowed clothes, Tina said it was time to go. I was extremely reluctant to leave the house and glanced back longingly as I climbed into the car. I couldn't stop thinking about the way I was feeling. I'd never felt like this before.

"So," Tina said as we started to drive away, "have you decided what new name you're going to use yet?" I nodded at that but didn't say anything. "Well?" she urged me after a minute.

"Jennifer," I said quietly, giving a self-conscious smile. "I chose it last night because everyone can call me Jen and it sounds a lot like Jon..." I held my breath, hoping that I'd chosen a good name. I'd been so sure of it yesterday, but now... I shook my head, not sure I could trust my own judgment.

Tina glanced at me for a moment before returning her eyes to the road. "Jen..." She shrugged, "That works... But at the moment, you seem a little more like a Jenny."

"Oh," I sighed.

"Don't worry...Jenny," Tina told me with a reassuring grin, "the exam should be pretty easy, and a I bet they've got lots better ways of doing it than when I went through my twist."

I just nodded at that, not really feeling much like talking. We arrived at the clinic a short time later and went inside where they were waiting for me. I was introduced to Doctor Anders, a middle aged black man who couldn't have been more than 5 feet tall. I was relieved at that since he was smaller than me and didn't seem nearly as threatening as everyone else. Since my twist even Tina was taller than me now...even though it was only an inch.

"Right this way," Dr. Anders told me, his voice sounding a bit deeper than I would have expected from someone so short.

"Jonothan Andrews," Dr. Anders said my name as he glanced through my medical records. He smiled and gave me a cheerful wink, "Did you notice that our last names are rather similar."

I nodded at that and quietly responded, "Yeah..."

"Have you decided on a new name yet?" Dr. Anders asked me gently. "Most of those who go through such extreme twists choose to do so..."

"Jennifer," I responded self-consciously and forced a weak smile, "Jenny..."

"Well Jenny," Dr. Anders told me, "can you please undress so we can examine you..."

"Undress?" I gulped in sudden terror. I couldn't do that...not in front of a complete stranger. I started to blush horribly at the very thought.

"It is required for the examination," Dr. Anders said. "If you'd like, I can get your mother in here to make sure I don't do anything inappropriate..."

I just blushed brighter, wishing I could curl up and hide. Just then I felt a strange tingling rush through me...similar to what I'd felt right before my Twist though much weaker. It was faint and quickly turned to a sort of tickling sensation along my skin.

"What...?" Dr. Anders blinked in surprise and stepped back. He stared at me with a strange expression that broke into a grin, "Very interesting...."

"What?" I gasped in surprise, staring down at my hand which had somehow become extremely blurry and hard to see.

"It seems that you've already discovered your trick," Dr. Anders told me with an amused look. "However I'm specifically trying to examine your physical body at the moment, so could you please turn it off..."

"I don't know how," I cringed, not sure what I could do.

"It's becoming worse," Dr. Anders told me gently. "Please try to relax. I'm not going to hurt you. I promise."

I nodded and took several deep breaths as I tried to relax. After a few seconds, the tickling on my skin faded away and my hand didn't look blurry anymore. I let out a sigh of relief while Dr. Anders nodded.

After this the physical exam went much easier and faster than I would have expected. I had to stand on a platform while it scanned me, then I got to get dressed again while Dr. Anders looked over the results. His proclamation at the end was that I was a perfectly healthy young lady with all my parts where they were supposed to be.

"You can expect to have periods and even children like most woman," Dr. Anders told me as he finished. I shuddered in horror at the idea of either.

My physical examination was finished, but I knew that I'd only started. My appointment at the clinic was for three different doctors, of which Dr. Anders was the first. The other two would deal more specifically with my being Twisted.

Dr. McNalley was my next doctor, a specialist in Twisted and tricks that we can develop. She was in her thirties and about four inches taller than me, but skinny to the point of looking anorexic. I would have thought she was starving to death if it wasn't for the fact that she had a whole plate full of junk food in front of her that she kept munching on.

"I have an extremely high metabolism," Dr. McNalley explained as she offered me a donut. "My body requires a large amount of sugar to keep functioning properly."

Dr. McNalley looked over my chart and the notes Dr. Anders had put in it. "It says you've changed hair color and personalities between yesterday and this morning." She looked at Tina for confirmation. "And Dr. Anders said that you manifested a trick during his examination."

"Really?" Tina asked, giving me a look of interest and envy. "The only trick I ever developed was not aging...and I don't have any control over that."

"Can you demonstrate what you did for Dr. Anders?" Dr. McNalley asked me gently.

I nodded and tried to remember what I'd felt and done. To my surprise, I felt the same tingling and tickling come up with ease. My hands looked all blurry again, as did the rest of my body. Dr. McNalley watched with interest and then had me stand against the wall. The blurriness around my body changed color to the same color as the wall.

"You're like a chameleon," Tina exclaimed, "you blend right in..."

"Very interesting," Dr. McNalley mused, "a form of near invisibility..."

After this Dr. McNalley had me climb into a scanning platform very similar to what Dr. Anders had used on me. I wasn't sure what the differences were or why I needed to go through two of these, but I didn't voice my questions. Instead, I meekly went along with her directions.

"You're so quiet," Tina whispered to me. "Normally you'd be making all sorts of smart ass comments."

"I guess," I responded quietly.

"Your chameleon field seems rather interesting," Dr. McNalley said when she'd finished looking over the data. "You're bending light around you to a limited degree. It's not true invisibility, but if you stand up against something and remain motionless, you'd be extremely difficult to see."

After this Dr. McNalley started asking me about my changes in hair color and personality between yesterday and today. I didn't really know what to say to that and kept glancing to Tina for help. Dr. McNalley was patient though until she had everything she wanted.

"I want you to consciously change your hair color again," Dr. McNalley told me.

I tried doing as she asked for several minutes before finally giving up. "I can't..."

Dr. McNalley nodded. "It seems that it isn't a conscious change, though I would expect it to happen again. I don't think that this is a normal trick so much as an integral part of her twist." She shook her head. "Reoccurring specific changes isn't too uncommon. One of our patients grows taller and more muscular every time she exercises, then slowly returns to her normal size when done. This seems like something similar, though I don't know what the trigger is or if the change is random."

Once Dr. McNalley was done with me, I had a somewhat better understanding of my chameleon field trick, though I still had a lot of questions about what I was going through. It didn't seem that Dr. McNalley had many answers either and suggested I come back in a week once I'd had a bit more experience to work with.

The next specialist was Dr. Nobu, a slender Asian woman who wasn't even Twisted. She was the psychiatrist who would check to see if my twist had given me any odd compulsions or made me at all dangerous. Though she wasn't Twisted and didn't have any tricks, I felt more nervous around her than either of the other two. In fact, I even started using my trick to blend into the environment without even meaning to.

"You're like...going chameleon," Tina pointed out, looking as though she didn't know whether to be amused or irritated by that.

"Sorry," I said quietly, forcing myself to turn visible again.

"Why don't you wait in the next room," Dr. Nobu told Tina, "I think we need a little privacy for this..."

"Okay." Tina rolled her eyes then left the room with a sigh of disappointment.

"If I didn't know better," Dr. Nobu admitted with a faint smile, "I'd think she really was a teenager."

I relaxed a little at that and smiled back, "Yeah..."

"Why don't we start off by you telling me what you've noticed about your changes," Dr. Nobu told me. "I want to know all about how you felt yesterday compared to the way you were before your twist, and how you feel today."

I tried telling her but it was extremely difficult. I was so selfconscious that the last thing I wanted to do was talk about myself like that. Several times during the conversation I caught myself fading back into my environment. That chameleon field thing might be great for hiding from people, but it was a bit awkward while trying to talk with them.

After Dr. Nobu and I had been talking for a little bit, she had me go onto a computer and fill out a big questa ire. It didn't take me long at all to realize that it was a personality test and that she was trying to determine what kind of personality I had now. I already knew the answer to that one. I had the personality of a mouse and hated it.

When I was finally done with Dr. Nobu and all her questions, she invited Tina back in. "Jenny is very shy and lacks confidence," she stated, giving me a gentle smile. "And I haven't seen anything to suggest she's gained any compulsions. Normally, I'd say that she's no threat to herself or anyone else. However..." she gave me a careful look, "this changing personality thing you told me about has me more concerned."

"What do you mean?" Tina asked.

Dr. Nobu frowned. "I'm certain that her current personality isn't dangerous, but I can't speak for any other one. If her personality and emotional state changes again as you said it did during the night, I have no way of knowing how she'll react." She looked worried, then told Tina, "I want to schedule a follow on appointment for next week just to be sure."

"I guess that makes sense," Tina said hesitantly while I cringed back in my seat, wishing I was invisible. With that, my trick kicked in and made me nearly so.

Dr. Nobu handed Tina a card. "Here's the number of a good therapist. I strongly suggest you take Jenny to see her. She specializes in helping Twisted adjust to their new personalities and sense of self."

"I'll think about it." Tina gave a forced smile, glancing at me and frowning slightly. "Thanks."

We left the clinic a few minutes later with neither of us really saying anything. I heard that going to the clinic for the after twist exam that most Twisted went through was usually a bit rough. It helped us understand how we'd changed but it also forced us to face things about ourselves we might not be comfortable with. I wasn't sure what to think of this and neither was Tina.

Finally Tina exclaimed, "Okay, enough moping. It's time for a shopping trip."

"Shopping?" I squeaked out. "Do I have to...?"

Tina shrugged, "You were eager enough yesterday..."

"That was yesterday," I told her quietly, cringing back into my seat and fading into it like a chameleon.

When we reached the store Tina half pulled me to the front door. Just as we were about to enter, I felt a slight tingling rush through me. I blinked, then snatched my arm away from Tina and glared at her in annoyance.

"Come on," Tina told me with a sigh.

"Stop treating me like I'm a little kid," I snapped at her.

Tina stepped back and stared at me in surprise. Her eyes went wide and she said, "Your hair changed again..."

"What?" I scowled, reaching for my hair and taking a good look at it.

My hair had definitely changed color again though it hadn't gone back to being blond. Instead I'd become a red head. My hair wasn't the bright orange that some people call red, but more of a darker and richer red. I stared at it for a moment then let it drop again.

"I'm a red head," I said unnecessarily.

Tina hesitated a moment before asking, "How do you feel?"

"Fine," I shrugged. "Let's just get this shopping done and over with..."

"Okay," Tina responded, looking a bit confused.

I knew that my personality had changed each time my hair color did and I didn't blame Tina for wondering about it this time. However I didn't feel like talking to her about it at the moment. Still, that didn't mean I didn't think about it myself. As we walked through the store, I tried thinking about what I thought and felt. I wasn't all shy and afraid anymore, but I wasn't all giggly and happy either. Instead, I felt something, else. It took me a few minutes to realize what it was. I felt on edge.

"Let's start with the shoes," Tina suggested, already walking to the shoe department.

There were lots of shoes, some of which I had absolutely no intention of ever trying on. Strangely enough, I'd actually been eager to try out the high heels last night. But then again, as a blond I'd been so happy and eager about everything. I wanted to dive right into the whole girl thing. When my hair was brown, I'd wanted to run and hide from it instead. But now... Now I wasn't sure what I felt. I felt fairly centered now, a bit like my old self except for that 'on the edge' feeling.

We spent more time in the shoe department than I thought was natural, but we did find me two new pairs of shoes. One was a pair of sneakers that would be great for ordinary everyday wear. The other was a nicer pair of shoes that was noticeably more feminine. Tina had insisted on these ones, saying it would be great for me to have some nice shoes and ones with heals. I was annoyed at the idea of wearing them and nearly snapped her head off when she insisted we buy them.

After the shoes came the lingerie department. I was suddenly extremely thankful that I didn't have either the blond or brown hair anymore. If I was still blond, I'd probably look for the sexiest lingerie I could find and I'd enjoy every minute of it. If I'd still had the brown hair, I'd probably go chameleon and hide in embarrassment. At least now I was in my right mind...or at least I thought I was.

A few minutes later a little girl was playing hide and seek with her brother and ran right in front of me, nearly causing me to trip over her. "Watch where the hell you're running!" I nearly yelled at her, having gone from perfectly fine to angry in just an instant.

"Jenny," Tina tried to calm me down without much success.

"It's Jen," I snapped at her, "Jenny sounds like a little girl..."

Tina stepped back, looking at me with an expression of worry and perhaps a little fear. That caused me to catch myself and realize what I was doing. I was pissed off over nothing. Ever since my hair had turned red, I'd been on the edge and getting annoyed at nothing. Now I was getting pissed over something small.

"Shit," I grimaced, realizing what the problem was. "I'm a red head..."

I had behaving like the stereotype of a red head, bad temper and all. I was on the edge all right, my emotions snapping to anger at the drop of a hat. I took several breaths to calm myself down, not sure if this was better or worse than the other ways I'd been. I imagined that Dr. Nobu would have something to say about this latest personality.

"I think," I said carefully as I tried to stay calm, "I think I've got a nasty temper this time..." I was a bit afraid of myself as I said it, afraid that I might lash out in a tantrum and hurt someone like Tina. That was the last thing I wanted.

"I noticed," Tina responded carefully.

"When I was blonde," I tried explaining, "I was all ditzy and giggly... When I had plain brown hair, I got all shy and mousy... Now that I'm a red head..."

"You're acting like a red head," Tina finished for me. Then she frowned, "You said you were telling dumb blonde jokes when you twisted..."

I nodded weakly, "I think I told a red head joke too..." I shook my head. "I guess I've turned into a real life version of those jokes." I snorted in annoyance, "Great... I'm a living joke. A walking hair color stereotype."

"I guess it could be worse," Tina tried to comfort we with a forced smile. "I mean, it could be you skin color changing and you could be stuck acting like stereotypes of that..."

"Yeah," I winced, grinning back, "that could really get me into a lot of trouble."

After this we continued shopping but Tina kept a close watch on me to make sure she didn't push my buttons. I tried to keep out of trouble too but I still kept feeling little surges of annoyance that came out of nowhere and vanished as quickly. We eventually managed to leave the store with everything I needed at the moment and without any more incidents.

The moment we got home I rushed to the nearest mirror to get a look at myself. Other than my hair now being red, I looked exactly the same as before. The only other difference besides my hair color was the way I was carrying myself. I had been slouching and sort of withdrawn this morning but not anymore. I guess my personality changes were reflected in my body language.

I then went to my room and started putting my new clothes away. It wasn't completely happy about everything we'd bought, but at least they were clothes I could fit into. I wasn't happy about my new body, about losing my gender and getting suck as a girl, but I'd always been realistic enough to deal with things as best I could when they came.

When my dresser became too full to fit the last shirt into, I burst into a stream of profanity and threw the shirt across my room. Afterwards, I was embarrassed about my little tantrum and decided not to tell Tina about it. After all, that little lapse in my temper was none of her business.

I sat down on my bed and sighed, not sure what was more bothersome... my new body or these new emotions I kept feeling. I wasn't happy about suddenly turning into a girl, but I'd always known I could very well become Twisted and become someone else entirely. I'd been mentally preparing for it for a long time. But having my own personality change was a bit different. I didn't know who I was anymore, and since my personality kept changing every time I blinked, I didn't know if I'd get a chance to find out.

"Just great," I grimaced, looking down at myself with a sigh. I didn't need to explore it at the moment since I'd done more than enough of that yesterday, but my perspective on things was a little different since then. "At least I'm not hiding under the covers again."

I was still sitting there thinking about my situation when Tina knocked on my door an hour later. "You in there?"

"No," I responded sarcastically, "the room's empty."

"Ha ha," she responded as she opened the door and stuck her head in. "You're not gonna bite my head off or anything, are you?"

I pretended to think about it for a moment before shrugging, "Nah... I need to leave some room for dinner."

Tina chuckled, then asked, "Do you feel up for some company?" At my blank look, she said, "A couple of your friends are here to see you... I told them that I didn't know if you were ready to see anyone yet." She gave me a questioning look.

"Friends?" I frowned, trying to figure out who it could be. The only one from school who really knew where I lived was Jason. "Sure..."

I followed Tina into the living room where Jason and Leila were waiting. I was a bit surprised to see Leila, as was Tina who kept giving her odd looks that were part envy and part something else. From the questioning way she looked at me, I suddenly realized that Tina thought Leila might have been my girlfriend or something.

"Hey," I greeted my friends a little self-consciously. I was thankful they hadn't come this morning or I would have been too embarrassed to even face them. I didn't try hiding my body and stood there so they could both get a good look at what I had become and get it over with.

"Jon?" Jason gasped in surprise, staring at me with a wide eyed look. "Damn..."

"Are you okay?" Leila asked with a strange expression.

"Do I look okay?" I asked her with a scowl, feeling myself on the verge of anger. "I turned into a fucking girl..."

"Jen," Tina cautioned me.

"Jen?" Jason blinked.

"My new name," I told him and Leila with a blush, forgetting about my annoyance. "I can't very well keep calling myself Jon when I look like this."

"You could have used Joan," Leila pointed out with a grin.

"Ugh," I winced, "I don't think so."

Then I gestured for them to follow me into my room. Tina might be really cool for a mom, but she was still a mom and it just didn't seem right to include her in this. She pouted a bit as we left her behind and I knew it wouldn't be long before she found some excuse to come in and join us.

"We just wanted to come over and make sure you were all right," Jason said hesitantly. "I mean, after the way you twisted in the lunch room..." He shuddered. "Damn, I am NOT looking forward to going through my twist."

"It's no fun," Leila and I said almost as one, then we burst out laughing.

Then on a sudden impulse I threw my arms around both Jason and Leila in a group hug and even kissed Leila on the cheek. They both stared at me but I shrugged, not feeling at all guilty about my impulsive behavior. I was just so excited.

"What was that for?" Leila asked, wiping her cheek and giving me a curious look.

"I don't know," I shrugged, "I just wanted to."

They both stared at me for a moment, realizing for the first time that my personality must have been twisted along with my body. That kind of thing was pretty common, but it made dealing with people after they've twisted pretty complicated and awkward.

"What?" I snapped in annoyance, feeling as though my friends were rejecting me. I felt hurt and that made me angry.

"Nothing," Jason quickly responded, stepping back, "I mean..."

"The way you've changed," Leila said cautiously.

I nodded, taking a deep breath and trying to calm down. "I've kind of got a temper problem now," I admitted, giving an embarrassed smile.

"Did you get any compulsions?" Jason asked.

"No," I shook my head, "just some really weird tricks..."

"Yeah?" they both asked in surprise.

"My hair keeps changing color on its own," I told them with a sigh, reaching up and grabbing it. "And every time it does, my personality keeps changing too..." They both stared at me and I continued, "You remember how I was joking around when it happened...?" When they nodded, I sighed, "Well, when my hair was blond I became a ditz, and when it was brown I got all shy. Now..." I gestured to my hair.

"You're a red head," Leila nodded in understanding.

"Damn," Jason grinned, then winked at me, "they say redheads are really passionate lovers too..."

I just blushed at that, somehow having the feeling that he just might be right. I was on the edge with emotions that wanted to jump to the passionate extremes at the drop of a hat. It wasn't until that moment that I realized this, that it wasn't just a temper I'd developed but a strong passion.

"Damn," I muttered, more out of embarrassment than anything else.

"Was that...was that really your mom?" Leila asked, gesturing to the other room. "She looks our age..."

I glanced to Jason who'd obviously told her about Tina and nodded. "Yeah."

Leila shook her head. "It must be pretty weird having Twisted parents."

I just blinked in surprise, "Um...aren't yours? I mean, you're Twisted... so that means your parents were."

"No," Leila shook her head, then quietly said, "not exactly..." She hesitated a moment before saying, "I'm adopted. My mom and dad are both normals. I don't even know who my birth parents are."

"Must have been difficult for them when you twisted then," Jason pointed out, "I mean, if they've never been through it themselves."

"Worse than that," Leila snorted in a very unladylike manner. "They had no idea who my birth parents were either, so it was a complete shock to ALL of us when I did. I didn't even know I was Twisted until..." She shuddered, looking extremely pained.

"Damn," Jason and I both gasped at once. It was hard enough to be Twisted, but not even know it until... I couldn't imagine how horrifying it would have to be when you weren't expecting it and had no idea of what to expect.

Deciding to change the subject to something a little nicer, I exclaimed, "I didn't show you my trick..."

"You're gonna change your hair color for us?" Jason snorted, not sounding too impressed.

"No," I snapped in annoyance at his sarcasm then bit it back down. "I can't control when that happens or anything. But I've also got this chameleon field thing that lets me sort of turn invisible."

"Invisible," Jason's eyes went wide, "invisible is cool."

"Not quite invisible," I shrugged, "but more like a chameleon..." Then I concentrated on making it happen again, smiling when I felt the tingle.

"Whoah," Jason exclaimed.

"You're not invisible," Leila pointed out with a smirk.

"What?" I asked, looking down at myself and seeing that she was right. I wasn't blurry or fading into my surroundings, but I was glowing red. I had a faint red glow all around my body.

"That's weird... I went all chameleon before..." I looked around me and frowned in confusion, "I don't see anything red..."

"Figures," Jason snorted.

"Shut the fuck up," I snapped at him, jumping to my feet furiously. How dare he make fun of me... I clenched my fists, about to punch him when he scrambled back with a look of fear on his face. That was enough to shock me to my senses and regain control. I took a deep breath and said, "Sorry about that..." I was still angry, but it was under control.

"Damn," Jason exclaimed, looking at me nervously.

I sat back down and took several deep breaths to calm down. It helped and my anger quickly started to withdraw again. After a minute, I thought I was more or less reasonable again.

"Sorry," I apologized again, embarrassed about my lack of control, "I keep going off like that...at least since I became a red head."

"I sort of know what it's like," Leila blushed, "I've got this thing about pink... I absolutely LOVE that color and I can't help it."

I looked to her entirely pink outfit and nodded in understanding. As far as compulsions went, hers wasn't too bad. Some people ended up with compulsions that made them a danger to themselves and everyone else, such as starting fires or killing people. Needless to say, some Twisted actually have to be locked up for the rest of their lives to keep everyone else safe. Those kind are one of the big reasons the public is so afraid of Twisted in general. A craving for pink or even just a bit of a temper was pretty mild compared to that.

"Since you're not invisible," Jason said cautiously, trying not to set me off again, "what's with the red glow?"

"I...I don't know," I admitted. "The other times I did this I sort of went all chameleon...."

Jason reached out to touch the red glow around my body and suddenly yanked his hand back with a yelp of pain. "Fuck," he grimaced, clutching his hand with a look of pain, "damn that hurts..."

"Jason," I exclaimed in horror and guilt, dropping my red glow.

"Are you okay?" Leila asked.

Jason took several deep breaths, then held out his hand. His fingers looked a bit red where he'd touched my glow, but he didn't look like he was really hurt. I was confused by his reaction as much as I was by how my chameleon field was acting. Tina and Dr. McNalley had both touched it without any problem.

"It's fine now," he said, flexing his hand. "It burned...like I was touching a hot stove or something." He stared at his hands. "But it doesn't hurt now..."

"Holy shit," I exclaimed in confusion. "It didn't hurt anyone else..."

"Maybe it's not the same trick," Leila pointed out hesitantly. "Maybe this is a different one..."

"A different trick?" I gasped. "Oh man, I don't know whether to be excited or freaked out..." I stared at Jason, "I'm sorry... I didn't know."

On an impulse I suddenly grabbed Jason in a powerful hug to comfort him. Then I reached over and grabbed Leila as well, making it into a group hug. Both of them seemed surprised by this though Jason obviously enjoyed it. From the broad grin on his face, being hugged by two girls was enough to make him forget the pain.

"Sorry," I gave a self-conscious smile when we were done, "I guess I keep getting carried away..."

"I like this a lot better than the yelling," Jason grinned.

I nodded. "I wanted to show you the chameleon thing... Stand back because I'm going to try again..."

I closed my eyes and concentrated on bringing back my chameleon field, but when I thought I had it...I was only glowing red again. I tried it again and again, growing more and more annoyed by every failure. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't get that chameleon field again...just this red glow.

Finally I snapped, "GOD DAMN!" I kicked my dresser as hard as I could and then grabbed my clock and threw it against the wall. It exploded on impact. "Fuck... Why won't it work...?"

Jason and Leila both jumped up and got back, watching me in amazement as I threw my tantrum. Of course I didn't think of it that way. I was just really pissed off and wanted to lash out at something. After a few minutes, I calmed down again and then winced at the way I'd been acting. My emotions were so volatile right now that I just kept exploding. I was really starting to hope my hair color changed again soon.

Once I'd calmed down again and my friends were convinced I wasn't going to do anything more, Jason hesitantly pointed out, "Maybe you get a new trick when you change hair color too..."

I frowned and thought about his suggestion. I only started doing the chameleon thing when my hair was brown and I hadn't done it since. Maybe he was right. Maybe I had a different trick along with a different hair color and personality. It would certainly explain why it was all acting so weird.

We talked about my weird trick for a few more minutes before Jason brought up the subject I'd been dreading but knew was coming. "What's it like turnin into a girl?" Leila frowned, staring at him with a strange expression on her face.

"It's...weird," I responded, looking to Leila, "no offense... I'm just not used to this...yet." Then I laughed. "I keep reacting different too depending on my hair color. After I first changed, I was all happy about it. When I woke up this morning, I could barely bring myself to look in the mirror. Now, I'm just trying to control my temper."

"I mean, what's it feel like?" Jason asked curiously.

"Why?" Leila teased him, "are you hoping to turn into a girl too when you twist?"

"No," Jason blushed brightly, "nothing like that...."

Leila and I both burst out laughing at the look on his face. I made a mental note to bring that subject up again. It would be a fun way to mess with him later on.

I tried to explain what it was like transforming into a girl for Jason, but it wasn't easy. For one thing, I didn't know how to possibly describe what its been like for me. And for another, a lot of it was pretty personal and I had no intention of telling him everything. Leila just nodded along, giving me odd looks and scowling occasionally.

"At least you knew something was coming," she said bitterly, reminding me that her twist had caught her completely by surprise. Still, I didn't see why she was so bothered by getting big boobs and a killer body. A lot of girls would love to get that kind of twist.

Eventually though Jason said, "I've got to get going... We're having my favorite for dinner tonight..."

Leila had a faint look of relief and announced, "I'll stay a bit longer." Then she winked, "You know, we can do girl talk and all..."

"Ugh," Jason winced, "I'd better get out of here before you start that..."

Leila and I walked him to the front door and I even gave him a big hug as I said good-bye. Once Jason was gone, Leila said, "You sure are expressive now..."

"You certainly are," Tina agreed as she came up, looking at me with a curious expression. Then she abruptly asked, "You guys want a soda or something?"

"No thanks," I told her.

Leila glanced at Tina, then quietly told me, "I need to talk to you...alone."

Tina overheard and suddenly became much more interested. "Is it something I should know?" She was watching us curiously, then asked, "Jon didn't get you pregnant before he changed, did he?"

Leila and I both nearly choked at that before Leila gasped out, "No...nothing like that." She was blushing bright red. I was too, though not nearly as surprised. I had a lot more experience dealing with Tina and her sense of humor.

Tina was just grinning mischieviously and I had a feeling that she was going to try pushing some more buttons. "It's just some talk about school," I quickly told Tina who didn't believe me.

"Come on," I grabbed Leila and pulled her back into my room.

Once we were safe in my room with the door closed, I asked Leila, "What's up?"

Leila hesitated a minute, suddenly looking extremely uncomfortable. She licked her lips and said, "I never told you guys about what I was like before my twist..."

I thought about it for a moment and shrugged, "Nope."

Leila blushed brightly as she stared at the floor and half whispered, "I used to be a guy too..."

"What?" I asked in surprise.

Leila nodded. "I went through a sex change too..." She sat down, obviously uncomfortable with the topic. "I was playing dolls with my little sister and the next thing I know..." She gestured down at herself with a sigh. "I've only been a girl for a couple months and I'm still getting used to it too..."

"Wow," I exclaimed, staring at her in amazement, "I never would have guessed..."

"I know I don't act much like a boy anymore," she snorted. "I mean, I always wear pink and usually a lot of sexy clothes too..." Then she grabbed her generous breasts. "And then there's these... Most guys don't really look past this and the pink."

I stared at her for a moment, then asked, "Why didn't you say anything? I mean, it's not like we're the only ones who've gone through a sex change at school..."

"I was too embarrassed," Leila admitted. "I just wanted to start over again here and didn't want to think about everything I lost."

I nodded at that, "Okay..."

"Just don't tell Jason or anyone else," Leila warned me with a steady look. "I don't want everyone to know..."

"Okay," I shrugged, "I don't tell..."

"Good," Leila nodded, looking relieved. "I just figured that since I'm going through the same thing, that I might be able to help you a bit. I've got a couple more months experience..."

I laughed at that, "Good idea." I felt a strange sense of relief at the knowledge that I wasn't the only one going through something like this. Of course I knew that other people went through sex changes during their twists, but I didn't really know any of them personally... at least not well enough to feel comfortable confiding in. "Nice to know I'm not alone..."

Leila grinned, then started telling me about herself before her twist...and what it was like afterwards. I gasped in horror as she told the story, suddenly feeling extremely thankful that I lived in Spiral where I wouldn't have to deal with that much crap. We also compared our experiences at first discovering how we'd changed and what we thought.

Leila and I talked for nearly an hour, losing all track of time until Tina knocked on my bedroom door. She opened it up and stuck her head in, grinning, "Dinner's ready. I ordered a pizza..." She looked at Leila. "Come on and help yourself..."

We went out to the living room but just as we got there I felt a faint tingle run through me. I remembered feeling the same thing earlier so looked into the small mirror that hung on the living room wall and giggled at the sight of myself with blond hair again. "Cool," I grinned cheerfully, "now I can have a lot of fun tonight..."

Tina and Leila both stared at me for a moment with Leila being the one who was surprised. "Now if only you were blonde too," Leila teased Tina who only laughed.

"Yeah," I grinned broadly, "after all, everyone knows that blondes have more fun..."

I was in a pretty good mood as I walked through the mall, which wasn't surprising since I was always in a good mood as a blonde. In a way, I think that I'd rather be blonde than any of the other hair colors I turn into. After all, it's much nicer being happy and carefree than shy or bad tempered, especially when I'm with other people.

I'd woken up with the brown hair again this morning, though that only lasted for an hour or so before my hair changed color again. I'd expected my hair to turn red since that's the color it changed into after being brown yesterday, but I went blond again...even though I was blond when I went to bed last night. I guess this proves my hair color changes are more random than taking turns in a cycle.

At the moment I was going through the mall with Leila who insisted on helping me adjust to my new gender. I'd suggested bringing Jason along, but she quickly shot it down and insisted that this be a 'new girls only' trip. So there we were, two good looking blondes walking through the mall and attracting attention.

"This is kinda fun," I giggled as I looked around, noticing how guys were paying attention to me.

"It still creeps me out a bit," Leila admitted, "I mean, getting those kind of stares.... But trust me, it's a LOT better than having them want to lynch you or something..."

"I bet," I grinned.

She stared at me for a moment, "I can't believe you're so happy all the time... It's kind of creepy..."

"I'm sorry," I grinned cheerfully which only made her laugh.

"At least you're not losing your temper," Leila grinned. "Still, I can't wait to see you with that brown hair you told me about..."

"Oh yeah," I exclaimed abruptly, "I discovered a new trick after you left last night..."

Leila stared at me in amazement, "That's three tricks...not counting your hair changing color. Damn..."

I just grinned proudly and flipped the mental switch that activated my tricks. Since I got the chameleon field when I had brown hair and that pain field when I had the red, I'd decided to try it out again last night after I'd gone blonde. The results weren't quite as impressive, but I was pretty happy with them, not surprising since I was in my happy blonde mode. I began to glow with a golden color that reminded me of sunlight.

"Wow," Leila laughed, "you turn into a night light." She stared at me for a few seconds, smiling as she did so. "I don't know why, but it's kind of nice looking at you..."

"Tina said the same thing last night," I giggled as I turned off the glow.

Leila shook her head and blinked, "Not very impressive, but neither is being able to turn things pink... Then again, you've also got those other tricks."

"I seem to have a different one every time I change my hair color," I told her pleasantly. Then I shrugged, "Tina wants me to go back to the clinic and get checked out again since they only got to test my chameleon field. As it is, I've already got an appointment with the counselor tomorrow."

"I'd imagine a shrink would have fun with you," Leila smirked. "I mean, the way you keep changing personalities around..."

"That might be fun," I giggled, hardly able to wait. I couldn't wait to see the look on the counselors face when they found out about my constant changing.

A minute later Leila and I were looking at a kiosk that sold silk scarves. I don't think they were real silk, though they certainly were light and smooth. Leila was looking over a few of them, frowning slightly as she did.

"I don't see any pink ones," Leila muttered. At that moment the scarf she was touching suddenly turned pink. "Oops," she muttered, looking around in embarrassment, then adding, "it's much prettier..."

"What did you do?" the woman working there gasped as she saw the scarf change colors at Leila's touch.

"It was an accident," Leila quickly apologized, "I'll pay for it..." She looked at the scarf longingly, quite a different response from the way she'd looked at it before the color change. "I don't know if I have enough though..."

"You made it change colors," the woman exclaimed, staring at Leila for a moment. "Is that your trick?"

"Yeah," Leila admitted with a blush, "it's not much...and I can only turn things pink..."

The sales woman nodded, looking more curious than mad at Leila's inadvertent 'vandalism'. "How long does it last..."

"It's permanent," Leila said, gesturing to her shirt, "I made this pink last month... I can't change it back..." She gave another appreciative look at the scarf.

"You know," the sales woman mused, "I have several scarves that won't sell because people hate the colors... If you can change them all to pink the same way you did that one, you can have it for free."

"Really?" Leila's eyes went wide with delight.

"Great," I grinned, "she'll do it." Leila glared at me for making her decision for her, but I stuck out my tongue and made her laugh.

I stood there for a minute, watching cheerfully as Leila changed a dozen or so scarves from various colors to pink. She did so with no effort at all and was quite happy to walk away with a free scarf when she was done. "It's such a pretty pink," she sighed almost dreamily. It was kind of weird, but that was one of Leila's quirks, the same way I had mine about changing hair colors and personalities.

Then I suddenly felt it again, the strange tingling that passed over me when my hair changed color. Once that had passed, I felt different again, though I couldn't say exactly how. I no longer felt all cheerful and happy, but I didn't feel either shy or on edge either.

"Jen?" Leila asked with a cautious expression.

I blinked a moment and tried to take inventory of what I felt and thought in order to get a feel for my new personality. Strangely, this was almost like going through my twist again. I had no idea who I was anymore, though when I looked at my hair I at least knew it was raven black.

"Black hair," I mused, trying to think of what kind of personality that might indicate.

"Are you okay?" Leila asked me, then gave a weak smile, "you're not going to freak out or anything, are you?"

"I don't think so," I smiled at her in vague amusement.

"Let's just go," I said, feeling a strange sort of confidence I'd never felt before.

As we continued walking through the mall I became even more aware of the way the men were looking at me and found myself enjoying the attention. It was strange, and not quite the reaction I had when I was blonde. Then, I just thought of it as some sort of game, but this time I found myself enjoying...even wanting the attention. It wasn't that I was interested in the guys looking at me, only in the fact that they were admiring me.

By the time we left the mall I finally had a word to describe how I felt. Sultry. I felt all sexy and sultry, confident in my looks and what it could get me. It was strange but I knew this was true. I didn't feel particularly horny or interested in sex, though I did feel an excitement merely in thinking of how good I looked.

"I think this new personality might be rather interesting," I mused with a faint smile of amusement. Leila gave me a questioning look which just made me satisfied. I saw no reason to share everything with her just yet.

"You're moving a bit different," Leila finally said, "I mean, your body language is different..."

"Oh?" I encouraged her to continue.

Leila stared at me for a moment, looking rather uncomfortable. "I don't know... It's like you're moving a bit more like a woman... You almost look like you're flirting or something..."

"Do I?" I asked with mock innocence. I hadn't realized that I was doing that myself, though I didn't really doubt her now that she'd pointed it out.

"What's it like?" Leila asked after a minute, "I mean, having your personality change like this all the time..."

"Pretty weird," I admitted, still smiling in amusement. "But I don't know how much of my personality actually changes. I think I'm still me for the most part. It's just my emotions and the way I look at things that changes..."

"That's called your personality," Leila told me with a chuckle.

I shrugged at that. "I think it may be a bit more like a flashlight..."

"A flashlight?" Leila asked skeptically.

"Before my twist I was just a normal flashlight," I said, trying to think of how I could put this into words. "Now whenever my hair changes color, it's like I get a different lens put over it... One time I have a blue lens, the next a red one... The color from the flashlight seems to change each time, but underneath it all it's still the same flashlight. That's sort of how I see it."

Leila stared at me for a moment. "Okay..." She didn't sound completely convinced. "So what's it like this time?"

"Now," I said, my voice shifting into a half purr, "it's a whole new lens."

I smirked, enjoying the look of annoyance she gave me. I knew that wasn't the kind of answer she wanted, but I didn't really feel like going into details. But after considering it for a moment, I decided that it might be nice having her owe me some answers to personal questions.

"It's difficult to explain," I finally said, "my hair color only just changed awhile ago so I don't even know much about what I'm like when I'm like this. But I think I'm probably more...feminine. I feel sort of sexy and sultry and I'm proud of it."

"I thought you were sexy when you were blond," Leila frowned as she tried to absorb this.

"Actually," I smiled faintly, "I'm just extremely cheerful and optimistic as a blond. And maybe a bit ditzy. I don't feel particularly sexy or think about things like that any more than normal."

"And now?" Leila asked.

"I'm not sure yet," I responded calmly, "I still trying to figure it out myself."

When we got back to my house Tina gave me a look of surprise and commented, "I see you've decided to change your hair color again..."

"Decided?" I raised an eyebrow questioningly. "I don't seem to remember using any hair dye..."

"I don't think you'll ever need it either," Tina responded with a grin. "Now if you could only keep one hair color longer than a few hours..."

She gave me a curious look, obviously wondering how my personality had changed this time. I decided not to tell her just yet. It was more interesting to watch her trying to figure it out.

"Jen's pretty flirty," Leila finally said, earning a glare from me. "I swear she was trying to get the guys at the mall to look at her."

I didn't feel at all embarrassed by her comment though I knew I probably should. It was probably one of the quirks of my current personality. God knows I've developed enough personalities lately, and all of them seemed to have a lot of quirks.

Tina stared at me for nearly a full minute before nodding slightly, "Your body language is definitely different..."

Leila nodded at that and gave me a smug look that seemed to say, "I told you so." Then she abruptly asked, "Did you get any new tricks with this hair color?"

"I don't know," I responded with a shrug, feeling somewhat amused by eagerness. I was tempted to leave her waiting for awhile, at least until I found out what I could do myself. However I warned her and Tina, "Stand back."

Once Tina and Leila were both away from me I flipped the mental switch I used to turn on my chameleon field, the pain field, and that golden light field. I felt it my trick activate the same way it had the other times, but when I looked down at myself I didn't see anything. There was no glow, blurriness, or anything else to indicate I had a trick.

"Are you going to try it?" Tina asked impatiently.

"I am," I frowned slightly as I stared at my hands, "I can feel it on but I'm not seeing anything..."

"I just hope it's not a death touch or anything," Leila said with a scowl. Then she abruptly reached out and grabbed my arm. I was afraid she'd scream in pain or something, but she pulled her hand back with a shake of her head. "Nothing. I sort of felt a little static, but that might have been my imagination."

"So this trick is useless," I mused disappointedly. I'd rather hoped it would turn out to be something useful, though I shouldn't have been surprised. I couldn't see much use for glowing golden either unless I wanted to be my own night light or something.

"You've already got several tricks," Tina pointed out with an envious look. "Don't complain that you don't have another."

"That whole chameleon thing could probably be real useful," Leila smirked, "when you're playing hide and seek..."

"That reminds me," Tina exclaimed, "I called the clinic earlier and Dr. McNalley wants you to come back to check out your other tricks." Then she frowned thoughtfully, "There's something else... Oh yeah, don't forget you have an appointment with the shrink tomorrow."

"I so look forward to it," I responded with a roll of my eyes.

Since my new trick seemed to be more of a trick on me than anything else, I turned it off and continued talking with Leila and Tina. We talked for about a half hour more before Jason showed up.

"Wow," Jason exclaimed when he came inside and saw my new hair color, "I didn't know you could do that color..."

"Neither did I," I told him as I watched him carefully.

Jason was looking at me with an appreciative expression though he was trying hard not to seem as though he was. His eyes kept wandering over my body and pausing on my breasts. For some reason, this pleased me. I was a little confused by this since I didn't feel attracted to Jason in the least, but I definitely enjoyed the fact the he was attracted to me. It made me feel sexy... It made me feel....powerful. Without giving it much conscious thought, I stretched my body out a bit more to see if I could make him more interested and was delighted when it worked.

"Stop that," Leila gently punched my arm, then told Jason, "she's been a bit odd since this latest change..."

"She's been odd long before her twist," Jason responded with a laugh that Leila and Tina both joined in on.

I felt a little annoyed at having lost that little leverage I had over Jason but I knew how easy it would be to get it back. However it probably wouldn't do much good right here in front of Leila and Tina. Not only was Leila better built than me, but both of them were too jealous to let me play with Jason the way I wanted.

I frowned as I realized where my thoughts were going and wondered just how far I might end up going. I knew that I had absolutely no interest in sex with him, but the idea of leading him on seemed appealing. I shook my head and tried not to think of Jason in those terms but it was just so easy to pull his strings... There was no doubt in my mind that this new personality could get me in a lot of trouble if I wasn't careful.

"Are you okay?" Jason asked me with a worried look.

"I'm fine." I smiled pleasantly at him, adding a wink to it almost absently. Tina and Leila exchanged worried looks which only amused me.

"Oh yeah," Leila burst out, "Jen's got a new trick..."

"Two new tricks," I bragged, then admitted, "but neither is very impressive...especially the one I just got."

"New tricks?" Jason's eyes went wide.

"She can glow when she's blonde," Leila told him.

Tina smirked, "And not do anything at all when she's like this..."

I glared at Tina and then turned on my new trick again to see if it worked any differently than before. Leila and Tina were still laughing but Jason was now staring at me with a look of obvious interest. He wasn't even trying to hide it anymore. I kind of liked that but it made me curious.

"Are you okay?" I asked Jason.

"I'm fine," he responded with an almost dreamy voice, "you're so beautiful..."

"What?" Tina gasped, staring at Jason.

"Stop joking around," Leila punched his arm, though it didn't really do much. Jason was still looking at me with that expression.

I just stared back at Jason and mused, "Interesting..."

Then it suddenly came to me and I knew what was happenig. I still had my trick turned on...the one that seemed to do nothing at all. I turned it off and Jason suddenly blinked and looked at me again. This time though, his expression was more normal though perhaps a tiny bit confused. I smirked, feeling quite pleased at myself.

I hadn't really given it much thought before, but it seems that my tricks I get with each hair color compliments my personality. When I'm all bright and cheerful, I get a glowing aura that's all bright and cheerful. When I'm shy, I get an aura that lets me fade into the background. When I'm short tempered, I get an aura that causes pain. And now...

"Very nice," I smirked to myself.

Now it seems that I've got an aura that makes men much more interested in me. That alone made me understand my new personality much more clearly. I was a sultry and seductive temptress. That description somehow felt right to me and actually made me feel proud. Of course I knew that I'd probably be horrified when my personality changed again.

"Sorry," Jason blushed in embarrassment, having no idea that I was responsible for his extra attention. I had no intention of telling him either.

"It's not nice to stare," Leila warned him with a glare. "How would you like to grow a pair and then have guys start staring at your chest?"

"I didn't mean..." Jason started to stammer which only amused me a great deal.

"Just because Jon turned into Jen doesn't mean you have to tease her about it," Leila warned him.

Tina smirked, "Personally, I think it's kind of funny... I mean, it's always interesting to watch how people get treated by their friends after they go through their twist..."

"It's more interesting to go through your twist yourself," I pointed out with a casual shrug, "though interesting isn't always a good thing..."

"Now you're making me worried about my twist," Jason said, looking nervous for a moment before he covered it up.

"You know," Tina said, her eyes gleaming with mischief, "I bet if we started dressing you up and putting makeup on you, it might trigger your twist... That way you'd get it done and over with..."

"And with makeup and girls clothes," I smirked, "I think there'd be a good chance you'd turn into a girl too... Then we could make this a girl think..."

Jason stared at me in horror and then quickly looked at Tina and Leila, both of whom were grinning. He went pale as he considered the idea. "You wouldn't...."

I leaned back and smiled, thinking about turning my field on and 'convincing' him to go along with it. With my new ability to really grab his attention, I had no doubt that it would be easy. I could wrap him around my finger with no effort at all... Then I paused, reminding myself that he was my friend and I couldn't just do something like that to him...even if it would be both easy and amusing.

"Of course we wouldn't," Leila told him, frowning as she did so and giving Tina a quick glare. This might have hit a little too close to home for her.

"I've got to get going," Jason abruptly said, getting up and backing away. He gave us each a nervous glance, as though afraid we might ambush him and forcibly put makeup on him. "I've got dinner waiting and all..."

"I'll see you later," I half purred at Jason, giving him a suggestive wink before he rushed out the door.

"That was mean," Leila told Tina though she still chuckled.

"I thought it was hilarious," I said, absently gesturing to the door, "did you see the look on his face..."

"Yeah," Leila agreed, looking a bit embarrassed, "but you know he's still worried about what his twist is going to be."

"Of course" I smirked, "that's why it was so funny..."

Tina snickered, "I almost feel bad about that... Almost." Then she abruptly turned to Leila. "Since you're still here, would you like to stay for dinner?"

"Sure," Leila answered. "What's for dinner?"

"Whatever you decide to make," Tina answered with an expression of mock innocence, "the kitchen's that way..."

"What?" Leila blinked in surprise at that answer.

"Come on," I pulled Leila towards the kitchen, "Tina likes getting our guests to do the work if she can..." I was somewhat amused by Leila's reaction and was tempted to play with her a little myself. However I took control of that thought and instead told her, "We have several frozen dinners if you'll help me get them out to cook..."

While we were getting things set up, Leila shook her head, "You sure have a weird mom."

"You have no idea," I grinned, "You have no idea..."

I sat in Dr. McNalley's office in the Twisted clinic, feeling extremely annoyed and on edge. This wasn't just because I was a red head at the moment either, but because this was my second trip to the clinic today, and I'd come last night as well. I was getting sick and tired of coming here to be poked, prodded and scanned, just so they could see how different I was with each of my hair colors and how different my tricks were.

"Please be patient a little longer," Dr. McNalley told me with a forced smile, trying to keep me calm. I'd already lost my temper and yelled at her a short time ago after she'd asked me to the same stupid questions she had that morning when I was blonde.

"Just hurry up," I snapped, fighting the urge to yell at her for wasting my time. At least this was a little less annoying than the interviews with Dr. Nobu. I'd literally scream if she made me take that personality test again. Four times with the same tests were more than enough for anyone so I didn't feel the least bit of guilt for tearing up some of the papers and throwing them at her.

"I've compared the tests from each of the tricks you've demonstrated," Dr. McNalley told me in a calm and professional voice. "It appears that in spite of your appearing to have multiple tricks, it's actually only a single trick manifesting in different ways."

"Can you say that in English?" I asked, trying to fight back the annoyance.

Dr. McNalley nodded, "Your trick is an electromagnetic energy field that you can form around you and responds in different ways depending upon your personality."

"I thought it might be something like that," I responded, having noticed that it was always some sort of aura or glow around me even though it looked and acted differently with each hair color.

Dr. McNalley nodded again. "When you have your shy personality, it bends light around you. When you have your cheerful personality, it not only glows but releases a spectrum of light which can release endorphins in those who see it, causing a feeling of happiness."

"And it does something similar when my hairs black," I said thoughtfully, no longer feeling quite on edge now that I was distracting myself with this.

"Very similar," Dr. McNalley agreed, absently biting into a cookie while she looked at my records. "The light spectrum isn't nearly as visible and only seems to effect chemicals in the male brain. You could consider it a visual form of pheromones."

I nodded at that, not sure what to say. I still blushed a bit when I thought about how I'd used that to mess with Jason yesterday. It was an interesting trick but one that could also get me into a lot of trouble if I wasn't careful.

"And in your current state," Dr. McNalley continued with a scowl, "it's set at the same frequency as nerve impulses, so any contact with your aura interferes with those impulses and is registered as pain." She gave me an extremely serious look as she finished, "It doesn't cause any physical damage, but long term exposure to others can have harmful effects. This aura can have serious physical, psychological and legal repercussions if misused."

I gulped and nodded, "Okay... I'll be careful with it."

"You should be careful with all your tricks," Dr. McNalley cautioned me, "in spite of being called tricks, they aren't toys to play with."

"I'll be careful," I promised.

Dr. McNalley nodded again, looking relieved. "Dr. Nobu said that she's a little more concerned about your personalities though..."

"I know," I grimaced, feeling the edge of annoyance spark up again. "I've already got an appointment with a shrink in about an hour..."

"Good," Dr. McNalley smiled.

After a few more minutes I left the clinic filled with relief that it was over. They'd seen all four of my hair colors and personalities so didn't have any need to test me again. However that didn't mean I was in the clear. Dr. Nobu had been insistent that I seek professional help since my current hot tempered personality could possibly be dangerous to myself or others. Of course I was already going to see a shrink but that didn't mean I liked being told I needed to go.

Tina was waiting for me outside, having known how long it would take from my three previous trips. She was getting pretty tired of hauling me to the clinic as well, though I think she liked the excuse to take off from work.

"So, what's the verdict?" Tina asked.

"That I've really only got one trick that just acts different when I change," I told her with a shrug, "and that I need to take anger management classes..." Tina nodded in agreement but wisely didn't say anything.

"But they cleared you to go back to school tomorrow?" she asked, watching me carefully in case I took offense to that or something.

"I guess," I responded, feeling a little annoyed though I couldn't think of why.

Tina let out a faint sigh of relief. "Good. Just make sure you don't kill anyone... In fact," she grinned, "if you can arrange it you should probably be blond at school."

"I'll try to do that," I responded sarcastically.

"Hey," she laughed, "blondes are popular..."

"And ditzy," I snapped, "at least I am. I get so ridiculously happy that I don't really think..."

Tina grinned, "How's that any different from normal?" That earned her a glare which only made her snicker more.

Since we still had a little time to kill before my scheduled appointment with the shrink, we just drove around for a bit. We took a few roads around Spiral that I normally didn't see and eventually ended up at the building across the street from the clinic. Since it was an appointment with just me this time, Tina left and told me to call her for a ride back when I was done.

"Here goes nothing," I grimaced as I went to the door, already bracing myself to hate the shrink. I was on edge and ready to get angry at the drop of a pin. That was pretty common though when I had this hair color.

When the door opened and I saw the shrink, I blinked in surprise. She was in her late twenties or early thirties and was obviously Twisted. On the left side of her body she was Caucasian with blonde hair, but her body was split right down the center and on her right side she looked Asian with black hair.

"You must be Jennifer Andrews," she said with a smile, holding out her hand. "You can call me Amy. I don't believe in using titles."

"Um...hi," I responded, then told her, "I'm using Jen...not Jennifer."

"Okay Jen," she smiled, "would you like to come in and have a seat?"

I nodded and went inside, surprised by the office. It didn't look anything like what I would have expected a shrinks office to look like. Sure there was a desk, but it was moved to the corner. I didn't see one of those famous shrink couches anywhere, but there was a small table with several chairs. This was where she was gesturing.

"Can I get you something to drink?" Amy asked politely, going to a small fridge and opening it, "I have tea, bottled water, soda..."

"I'll have a soda," I told her, pointing to the brand I liked.

She set the can on the table along with a cup filled with ice, then sat down herself with a cup of tea. "I find that a casual setting is better for getting to know people."

I nodded and sat down, feeling more relaxed already. This was more like a tea party than going to see a shrink. Of course that was probably the whole idea.

Amy took several sips of her tea, then smiled, "I suppose I should tell you a little about myself. As you can see, I am Twisted." She gestured at herself.

"So what were you originally?" I asked curiously. "Asian or White?"

"Black," she responded with a grin that made me think she was joking. I couldn't be sure though she continued, "I moved to Spiral as a teen, right before I twisted."

She continued talking about herself and her life for a few minutes, inviting me to make comments and ask questions. Once she was done, I knew it was my turn and I felt sort of obligated to answer all of her questions as well.

"I've heard a bit about your personality issues from Dr. Nobu," Amy said with a gentle smile. "It sounds complicated. It must be confusing having your own personality change every few hours..."

I nodded, "Yeah... It's kind of weird..."

It was so easy talking to Amy that I almost forgot she was a shrink. It felt more like I was just having a friendly chat with some friend of the family, which made our hour together go past before I even realized it.

"I'm not sure how much is new personality and how much is just an overlay over your core personality," Amy told me as we finished up. "I'll help you figure that out. I have to admit, I'm looking forward to seeing your other personalities..."

"I'll try to bring one of my other ones next time," I snorted. It wasn't like I was able to change my hair color and personalities at will. I know. I've already tried.

Amy just smiled. "I do think you might want to work on controlling your emotions a little so you can keep your temper in check and control that shyness you've been telling me about... Next time I'll show you some mental exercises that might help..."

When I left a few minutes later I let out a long sigh of relief. Going to the shrink hadn't been nearly as bad as I'd feared. Hell, Amy hadn't even brought out my temper even once during our conversation and I'd expected to be pissed off the entire time.

"I think I can work with her," I decided with a grin. I just wondered if I'd still feel that way when I had a different hair color.

It was strange going back to school after my twist, especially with the way everyone kept looking at me. Even though Twisted were extremely common, all the students and teachers kept staring at me, obviously wondering about how much I'd changed. It was always that way after someone you knew went through their twist.

Fortunately I'd woken this morning with raven black hair and the best personality I could have for returning to school. I walked down the halls with a calm confidence and an amusement at the way everyone looked at me. I knew that with this kind of attention, I could probably find a way to use it to my benefit. I just had to figure out how.

I could only imagine how horrible it would have been if I had my mousy little brown haired personality. I probably would have been so selfconscious that I'd have hidden away and cowered all day. I scowled at the thought of that, dreading the time when I'd eventually be forced to use that personality at school.

"Having my emotions change like this all the time is quite annoying," I told Jason, being careful not to flirt with him too much lest he get the wrong idea. It took a constant reminder that I couldn't just use him as a toy without paying the consequences later. Fortunately, there were plenty of other people around school who wouldn't present that problem. "I can never be certain WHO I'm going to be from hour to hour..."

"Yeah," he responded uncertainly, obviously not sure how to handle me changing from hour to hour either. Still, he was trying and I had to give him a lot of points for that. "It must be weird..."

"Very," I smirked.

"Has anyone made a big deal about it yet?" Jason asked.

"Not yet," I responded, "at least no one at school. Just about everyone seems to have heard about me going through my twist in the middle of the cafeteria, but no one knows about how I keep changing. It won't be long before words are out about that too..."

"That should be...interesting," Jason pointed out cautiously while I just smiled with faint amusement.

"Well I should be getting to class," I told him with a shrug, "I don't want to be late on my first day back..."

Jason nodded, "Okay... I guess I don't want to be late either." He turned and started leave, calling back, "See you at lunch..."

I absently waved back at him before starting towards my next class. I was a little short of time but I didn't bother hurrying. If I was late I was late and the teacher would just have to deal with it. I smirked, knowing very well that I had ways of taking care of annoying teachers. In fact, I just might use them anyway for my own amusement.

I was just about to my next class when I saw Simon off to the side pushing a smaller boy around. I scowled in annoyance, not sure if I should watch for the entertainment value, mind my own business and leave, or actually interfere. Normally I wouldn't have had to think about it much, but the first two options were both much more appealing at the moment...especially the first one. Still, the third choice won out.

"You know that's not very nice of you," I half purred to Simon in order to see his reaction. It was definitely priceless and made this whole thing worth it. "You must be quite a wimp if you can only pick on people smaller than you..."

Simon stared at me for a moment with a mixed expression. He looked as though he didn't know whether to stare at me in admiration or glare at me for interfering in his fun. He decided on the second, ignored the other boy as he came over to intimidate me.

"I know who you are," Simon snarled, trying to look menacing but not succeeding very well. "I don't care if you are a girl now... I'll still beat you up..."

I rolled my eyes, already knowing that this was just bluster. Simon might be a bully, but he'd never been one to hit girls. I thought about pushing him a little further and then threatening to tell his sister he was picking on girls. However it just didn't seem right to bring his sister in on this when there was no need.

Instead I smiled pleasantly turned on my special aura. As soon as I started using my trick, the expression on Simon's face began to change. He stared at me with a look of incredible attraction, no sign of threat remaining. I was well aware of the fact that nearly every other guy in the hall was starting to stare too, but my attention was on Simon for the moment.

"I don't think you want to do that," I purred to him. "Do you?"

"No," Simon blinked, "I'm sorry... I didn't mean..."

"Shhhhh," I put a finger to his lips, "I don't want any excuses. Now why don't you go and think about what you've done..."

"But," Simon started. I gave him a steady look and he gulped, looking as though he were about to start drooling. "Okay... I'm sorry..."

"Yes you are," I mused as he turned and left. Once he was no longer a threat, I turned off my attraction aura and looked around at the guys in the hall, feeling quite amused by their reactions. I might have to try this again sometime when I had more time. "Shoo," I waved to all of them. "Don't you have classes to go to?" Then I continued to my next class, smiling the entire way.

When I walked into the class room and slipped into my seat, there were more than a few starts and quiet mutterings. Twisted might be pretty common in this school, but it still drew a lot of attention whenever anyone went through their twist, especially when their changes were as extreme as mine. I just smiled in amusement and pretended not to notice.

"What's it like turning into a girl?" one boy asked me.

"Did you get a trick?" a girl on the other side asked.

"Several of them, actually," I responded a little smugly.

There were some gasps at that and some excited questions about what my tricks were and if I could show them. One girl snorted in skepticism when I refused to demonstrate a trick, suggesting that I'd made that up.

"What tricks I can do keep changing," I finally said. Then I lied, "I don't seem to have one at the moment, but that will probably change in a few hours..." I looked up at the clock, knowing that I'd be due for another shift before long. I just hoped I didn't turn into a mousy brunette.

"She's lying," the one girl grimaced, "she doesn't have any tricks..."

I stared at her for a moment, more than a little tempted to use the one I did currently have to mess with her a little. After all, I'd make her extremely jealous if every boy in class started paying attention to me and only me.

But just then the teacher called out for quiet since she was about to start class. I sighed in disappointment at losing all the attention, though I knew I'd be able to get it back soon enough. With my attraction aura I could get the attention back anytime I wanted. I felt rather smug with that knowledge.

Class went by pretty fast, though there were several times other students whispered various questions and comments to me. For the most part I just gave them an enigmatic smile and continued paying attention to the teacher...or at least pretending to. Soon enough though class was over and I was on my way to the next one in order to repeat the experience.

Next was Mr. Lawson's math class again. He gave me a suspicious look when I took my seat, as though I'd intentionally gone through my twist just as an excuse to skip his class...and the big test. However he didn't say anything and did his best to ignore me though he still kept giving me odd looks, obviously wondering how much I'd changed.

I quickly grew bored of Mr. Lawson's lecture, which was no surprise since I nearly always did. It seemed that my new personality hadn't changed that, nor had it changed my idea of how to stay awake. I smiled with amusement as I turned on my aura and waited to see how long it would be before the guys started to look at me.

"Aha," I mused when I finally saw Mr. Lawson's attention lock on me much stronger than before. It was almost enough to make me laugh out loud and certainly kept me from being bored. In fact, messing with Mr. Lawson this way was probably the most fun I'd ever had in his class. "But I don't want to push it too far," I reminded myself, reluctantly turning my aura back off.

I sat through the next fifteen minutes fighting back the temptation to turn on my aura again. I managed to control myself as far as that went but couldn't resist sticking out my chest and winking at any boy who happened to look in my direction. It wasn't quite as entertaining as musing my trick, but it wouldn't get me in trouble either.

But just ten minutes before the end of class things changed. Or more precisely, I changed. I felt the tingle rush through me that indicated I was going through another hair color change and absently wondered which color I'd get. I still hoped it wasn't mousy brown. But when it finished and I felt my perspective shift, I realized that I felt... different.

"Fuck," I snapped in annoyance, perhaps a little too loudly as it drew Mr. Lawson's attention...and that of most of the class.

"Do you have a problem Andrews?" Mr. Lawson asked, then paused to stare at me, "Your hair changed color..."

"No shit," I snapped, "it does that..." His eyes went wide.

I scowled, feeling annoyed and on edge like I did when I was a red head...but different. I didn't really feel angry, just annoyed and resentful. After all, who the hell did Mr. Lawson think he was looking down on me like that? I glared at him, tempted to give him the finger. Instead, I reached up to look at my hair. It was an electric blue. For some reason, I kind of liked it. It was different and stood out.

"Great," I grimaced, "now I've gotta go to that fucking clinic again..." I scowled. "The hell with that..." I saw absolutely no reason to waste my time going back there just because I had another hair color.

"Andrews...?" Mr. Lawson started again, looking a bit concerned.

"What?" I snapped as I glared at him, daring him to make a big deal out of my new hair color.

Mr. Lawson's eyes went wide and he just stared at me, obviously unsure of what to do next. He'd been a teacher in Spiral long enough that he'd probably had a lot of his students go through their twists and then change. However I don't know if he'd ever had one change again after their twist right there in the middle of his class.

Then for the hell of it, I sneered and pushed the mental button that activated my twist. I had a faint blue glow appear around me but nothing seemed to happen, much to my disappointment. Mr. Lawson gasped, as did several of the students, but there was nothing else to indicate it was even on. Then again, the same could be said for my pain aura too. After a moment, I turned off my new aura, still curious about what it did though.

Mr. Lawson took a deep breath, "Is there something about your twist that I should know?"

"It's none of your damn business," I snapped defensively, resenting that he thought I should tell him everything about me just because he wanted to know. "I'm outta here..." And with that, I left the class with Mr. Lawson and all the students starting after me in surprise.

Once I was outside the classroom I paused and scowled in annoyance, more than a little tempted to just leave school right then and there. I didn't need to spend a whole day stuck in a place with a bunch of knowit -all teachers telling me what to do. Just about anything would be better than that.

Then I took a deep breath and told myself to calm down. I'd never been that much against school before or the teachers in it. I knew that my new personality was definitely something else. It was really doing a number on my emotions. I felt so...on edge. That's about the only way I could think of it. I was on edge and completely resentful of anyone telling me to do.

"So that's it," I said after a moment of consideration, "I'm rebellious now..." I looked at my electric blue hair, "Figures..."

I just stood there for a minute, still tempted to leave school but quashing that idea a bit. I felt like leaving but intellectually I knew it might not be such a good idea. That won out at the moment, perhaps partly due to the fact that lunch was about to start in just a minute. And with that thought, the bell rang and everyone else began pouring out of their classes.

"Shit," I grimaced, turning and rushing to the cafeteria. I was pissed at myself for missing the chance to get there first. If I had to stand around waiting in line, I had a feeling that someone was going to get hurt. I didn't exactly feel patient enough for waiting at the moment.

When I got to the cafeteria I was lucky enough to be fairly close to the front of the line so there wasn't much of a wait at all. I glared in disgust at the food on my plate and made a rather rude comment about it, then took my seat anyway. It might be shitty cafeteria food, but it was at least something to eat at the moment.

It didn't take long before my friends to arrive. Leila showed up first, staring at me with a look of surprise and sitting down very cautiously. She looked a bit uncertain as she stared at my hair, obviously wondering how my personality had changed this time. Before either of us could really say anything, Jason showed up as well.

"You've changed hair color again," Jason said unnecessarily.

"Really?" I responded with a sarcastic snort, "I hadn't noticed..."

"Sarcasm is a good sign," Leila responded with a grin.

"Yeah," I shrugged, "I'm feeling pretty sarcastic right now..."

"So how's that different from normal?" Jason asked.

I snorted, "Fuck you..."

"Your language is a bit rougher than normal," Leila observed, earning a faint glare. "I guess that says something about you."

"Do you have another new trick?" Jason asked hopefully though he sort of backed away from me.

"Yeah," I shrugged, "I just can't tell what it fuckin does yet..."

Lunch was an interesting experience for once, especially since neither Jason or Leila knew what to make of the new me. I was sure they were getting tired of trying to figure me out every time I got a new hair color, though at the moment I didn't particularly care if they liked the new me or not.

"At least my favorite foods don't really change," I said as I finished up. "What I like I still like and what I hate I still hate. Like this crap..." I shook my head. "Just imagine how fucked up it would be to grab something I love and then find out I hate it now... Shit, I'd have to figure out what foods I liked and didn't again every time I shifted..."

"That would suck," Jason agreed without much enthusiasm.

"Maybe," Leila added with a grin, "but think of it this way... Whenever they give you something you don't like, you just have to wait until you do like it."

"I could get pretty damn hungry that way," I grumbled, unable to even imagine liking stuff like liver or asparagus, no matter how much my tastes changed.

We continued joking around as we ate though both Leila and Jason kept glancing at my hair and giving me odd looks. I was getting used to that kind of reaction every time my hair changed color again. To be honest, I actually found it quite amusing at the moment that something as simple as a hair color change could cause such a reaction.

"I wonder," I mused, imagining what kind of reactions I could get if I went and dyed my hair a bunch of different colors. I smirked at the idea of how confused they'd be then.

Once we were all finished eating we got up to leave the cafeteria and have a little more privacy while we talked. It was hard to really talk to my friends about anything important when there were other people listening in. At the moment, I was especially annoyed by the idea of other people butting in on my privacy.

Just as we were about to leave I saw a gorgeous cheerleader verbally tearing apart a small skinny guy. I immediately recognize the girl as Maddy Sawyer, one of the hottest girls in school. At least she was now. Last year she was just Madelein Sawyer, an unattractive and unpopular nerd girl. Of course that all changed for her when she went through her twist. She came out of it incredibly gorgeous...but also a complete bitch who would do anything to get what she wanted.

"She might be great to look at now," Jason muttered, "but I think I liked her better before..."

I nodded and watched as Maddy continued to viscously assault the boy. "What in the world makes you think I'd EVER go on a date with some loser slime like you...?" she snarled with a cruel vehemence.

It took me a moment more to realize that the cringing boy was the same one I'd saved from Simon just a few hours ago. I felt annoyed that I'd gone through the effort of pulling his ass out of trouble and he immediately jumped in it again. He should have known that someone as hot as Maddy would be way out of his league, and it wasn't like it was any secret that she was a snotty bitch either. As far as I was concerned, the punk probably had this coming to him.

"That's Zach Moore," Jason exclaimed, providing a name for the boy. "She's really tearing into him."

"What a bitch," Leila gasped with a look of sympathy. She started towards them with the obvious goal of stopping Maddy's verbal assault.

I just frowned, annoyed at Leila for getting us involved. I'd planned on just minding my own business, but now that I thought about it, it just might be fun to mess with a snotty bitch like Maddy. Someone needed to bring her down a peg or two and I'd rather liked the idea of it being me.

"Leave the little fuck alone," I sneered as I walked up to Maddy with Leila, "your voice is getting on my nerves..."

"WHAT?" Maddy gasped, staring at us in surprise. Then she sneered, "Mind your own business, bitch."

I hadn't really cared about this too much before, but with that insult I suddenly became much more personally involved. I really disliked this snotty bimbo now. Then with a grin, I turned on my new blue aura, thinking that it might make for a nice bluff.

"Don't make me hurt you," I sneered, "I don't want to waste my time bashing some fucked up little slut into the ground..."

Maddy glared at me with pure fury in her eyes. Ever since her twist last year, just about everyone did what she wanted. If she couldn't get her way with her great looks and new popularity, she got it with her trick. It had probably been months since anyone had seriously stood up to her like this so it made me even more pleased to be the one pushing her buttons.

"You little tramp," Maddy snarled, suddenly flinging her hand out and slapping me as hard as she could. Strangely enough though, I didn't feel it at all, in spite of the fact that she was shaking her hand as though it stung.

"Jen," Leila warned.

Some boy who was watching loudly called out, "Cat fight," suddenly bringing the attention of the entire cafeteria on us. I grimaced, knowing that now I was really going to have to clean her cage. I wasn't about to come off looking weak in front of half the school.

"Now I'm really gonna have to fuck you up," I grinned evilly.

"Look out," Jason cried.

A moment later I saw what he meant as Maddy raised her hand with a ball of glowing silver light in the palm. This was the trick she'd used to get her way when her looks weren't enough. It was a powerful ability that I'd seen in action once before and heard of several times. She could throw that ball at people and it would explode as some sort of concussion that would sent them flying halfway across the room. And by the time I saw she had it ready, it was too late for me to avoid it.

"Take that," Maddy exclaimed smugly.

The ball of silver light hit me straight in the chest, but I didn't go flying back like I expected. Instead, I remained where I was wondering why I was still standing there. Her silver ball had been a dud. Nothing happened. She stared at me with a look of surprise then I grinned in sudden realization. My blue aura... My new trick was a force field.

"This can be useful," I mused to myself with a smirk, more than pleased by the look of fear and confusion that passed over Maddy's face.

Just then a teacher came charging in, demanding, "What's going on?"

"Nothing," I sneered, immediately feeling hostile towards him. I knew that the dislike for authority that seemed to come with my new personality could really get me in trouble so I tried to keep it from showing. I don't think I was very successful though, nor did I care enough to try harder.

"Maddy tried using her trick on her," one girl called out to the teacher, her voice filled with awe.

"Is this true?" the teacher demanded, glaring at Maddy.

I knew that I could easily get Maddy in trouble for using her trick on another student like that, but instead I snorted, "If she'd used that on me I'd be on the other side of the fucking lunch room..."

The teacher paused, knowing that what I said was the truth. Of course he didn't know about my force field and I'd turned my aura off the moment I saw him approaching. I doubt he even got a look at me while I was still glowing blue. "There's no fighting allowed..."

"Do we look like we were fighting?" I sneered, growing even more annoyed. "There's a difference between arguing and fighting so maybe you should look it up. Neither of us laid a finger on the other..."

"She's telling the truth," Maddy said, giving me a look that was half glare and half thanks.

"I don't like your attitude," the teacher glared at me.

I just snorted, "It's my fucking twist... Are you gonna discriminate against me because my twist makes me swear?" I glared at him, daring him to make a big deal about this. Sure, discriminating against students because of their twists was a big no no in this school, but trying to hide behind that rule in this case might be pushing it.

"I don't want to hear about any more fighting," he said, obviously deciding not to push the issue.

After the teacher left Maddy gave me another glare before turning and walking away as though I didn't exist. I glared at her in annoyance but was glad she'd left. I didn't know if this was over between us for good or if she'd just pretend I didn't even exist from now on, but at the moment I didn't really care.

"I can't believe you kept her out of trouble," Leila gasped, "you could have had her so expelled..."

"Thanks," Zach said with an eager grin and appreciative look over my body. I'd forgotten he was even there until then.

"Whatever," I shrugged, not interested in talking to him.

Zach stared at me for a moment with his eyes going wide. "You're the same girl who saved me from Simon..."

"What of it?" I demanded. Then I looked at the clock, "Damn, I've got to go..." I looked to Jason and Leila, "See you guys later..."

"Um...thanks," Zach called to me as I walked away, having almost forgotten about him again already. I just snorted and continued, absently thinking about beating him up a bit myself.

As I walked down the hall I was tempted to just ditch school for the rest of the day. After all, I didn't exactly see any real purpose in sticking around this place. Then again, I'd probably be bored stiff at home. And at least I had people like Simon and Mr. Lawson to mess with here at school. That would keep me entertained if nothing else. I knew that this like of reasoning was mostly self-delusion in order to keep myself under control and out of trouble, but it worked and that was what counted.

I stuck around school for the rest of the day, suffering through the constant annoyance of listening to all those know it all teachers. It was hard but at least I got some amusement from their confusion when dealing with me. None of them really knew the full details about my twist, but they'd heard enough to be wary. I like making teachers nervous.

At the end of the day I went home and surprised Tina with my new hair color and personality, though to my annoyance, she actually seemed to approve of both. I'd wanted to shock her and get her disapproval, just for the fun of it if nothing else. Tina never had been like other parents though, a fact which I appreciated even more in my current state. Since I'd never really seen her as an authority figure, I didn't have that strong resentment towards her that I'd expected. Even more strange was the fact that we got along even better than usual that night.

I leaned back and watched my shrink Amy with some amusement. She was turned to the side while typing something on the computer so all I could see was her blonde haired Caucasian side. It wasn't until she shifted position that I could see the Asian half of her body that made her look so eccentric.

At the moment I was in my raven black hair mode so felt a bit smug and self-indulgent. It was so easy to find amusement at other peoples expense, even at that of my shrink. Of course she was quite aware of my current mood and didn't seem bothered at all by it.

"I'm sorry about that," Amy apologized and gave me her full attention. "Have you been practicing those meditation exercises I gave you?"

"Of course" I responded absently, "but you already asked me that when I saw you the other day."

"True," Amy responded with a smile, "but it's important that you follow the exercises. The meditation will help you control your shifting emotional states so they don't dominate you. We can't really stop your emotional states from shifting, but you can learn to work through them so you'll be more balanced."

"That would be nice," I agreed, thinking about how difficult it was to deal with people when I wanted to run away and hide or tear their heads off. As it was, my current personality might be my most selfish, but it was also the easiest for avoiding trouble.

"Have you experienced the blue hair again?" Amy asked me curiously.

I nodded slightly. It had been nearly a full week since I'd first turned into my rebellious blue haired self, and I had only gone through that hair color again twice since then. I wasn't going through that hair color nearly as frequently as my other ones, though I didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed at that. There was something oddly refreshing about that persona.

"This morning," I told Amy with a slight frown. "I woke up with the blue hair this morning but changed to blonde right before school."

Amy nodded, looking interested. I stared at her for a moment, briefly thinking about how I could tell her a nice story about some fictional mischief I got into. It could be quite amusing to play with her that way and see how she'd react. I wonder if I could get her really shocked? But then I reminded myself that she was a shrink and probably wouldn't fall for it. That didn't mean I stopped thinking about what I could tell her though.

We continued talking about my various personality shifts and the problems they've caused me for the next fifteen minutes. I exaggerated a few things just to push some buttons, but Amy caught on quick and wasn't fooled.

Then it happened again. Appropriately enough my hair suddenly changed color and my personality shifted with it. I felt on edge and immediately knew I was a red head again. Amy gasped, staring at me with interest. This was the first time she'd actually seen me shift like this.

"Okay, so I've shifted," I snapped in annoyance, "you can stop staring at me..."

"Sorry," Amy apologized, "it's just the first time I've actually seen it..." I snorted at that and she gave me a pleasant smile, continuing, "I have a few more mental exercises that should be particularly helpful in learning to control your temper..."

I grunted at that but listened as she described what she wanted me to do. I had a feeling that she was waiting for me to come back as a red head specifically before she gave me these anger management tricks to work on. I just hoped they really worked because I knew I could get myself into a lot of trouble with my temper if I wasn't careful.

Amy was all right, especially for being a shrink, but I was glad when our session was over and I could go home. I said a quick good by and rushed home as fast as I could, eager for dinner and a chance to relax with some video games. I only hoped I didn't lose my temper again. The last time I played games as a red head I lost my temper and threw the controller against the wall which left it in pieces. Fortunately I had a couple spares.

When I got home I was surprised to find Leila there waiting for me. "She came over to see you," Tina told me with a grin, "so we've just been talking while she waited for you to get back." I stared at Tina, suddenly having a bad feeling about that. I glanced to Leila who was snickering and groaned. Tina must have been telling some of those embarrassing stories from my childhood.

That was one of the few things that always reminded me that in spite of her apparent age, deep down inside she was still my mom.

"At least tell me you didn't break out the baby pictures," I groaned.

"You looked cute as a kid," Leila snickered, "I like the picture of you in the leotard..."

"That was a Halloween costume," I defended myself, "I was going out as Peter Pan..."

"Maybe you should go as Tinkerbell this year," Tina suggested with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes, knowing that I could retaliate with mention of a certain night where she'd come home drunk and wearing some kinky leather clothes. However she'd paid me good money to make sure I never mentioned that incident again and a deal is a deal.

I was already getting annoyed with this topic of conversation and the fact that Tina would try embarrassing me this way, though I quickly locked that down. It was a little easier using a trick Amy had taught me.

"You know," I said with an evil grin, "I think I still have a picture of you dressed as a toddler for Halloween..."

Tina went pale, "You know that was a bet..."

"Yeah," I grinned, "but you looked so cute..."

Tina shook her head. "I think I'm going to go check on dinner..." And with that she got up and left the room. Leila and I looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"You really have pictures of her in a toddler outfit?" Leila asked, still laughing.

I nodded, "Yeah... Sometimes I need leverage with her." Then I sighed, "Trust me... With her I need it..."

"I don't know," Leila grinned, "she seems like a cool mom..."

I shrugged at that. "For a mom yeah... But most of the time she's more like my big sister. An ANNOYING big sister," I added in a louder voice so she might hear from the kitchen.

"I heard that," Tina called back from the kitchen, causing me and Leila to both laugh.

After this Leila and I made our way to my bedroom where we could have a little privacy. She waited until the door was closed before asking how I was adjusting as a girl. I was a little surprised by the question since she'd been there to see how I was doing.

"I'm adjusting," I responded slowly, pushing back the surge of irritation that made me want to snap at her for asking such a stupid question. I actually felt proud of myself for not letting it show. Thanks to Amy, I was getting better at not losing my temper over nothing. "The girl part is easy. It's the new personalities that's tough..."

"I'd imagine," she nodded, giving me a sympathetic look.

"But on the plus side," I grinned, "I've got a great excuse whenever I do something stupid... I can blame it on my twist..."

Leila laughed, "I think you might be using that one too much at school..."

"Maybe," I agreed, thinking about the various incidents since I'd returned to school.

The true nature of my twist and how I changed personalities with my hair color was now a well known fact around school. In fact the principal had even issued a cheat card to all the teachers that listed my various hair colors and what they could expect from each one. It actually took some of the fun out of it.

Then I felt a surge of anger rise in me as I remembered Mrs. Krevitz, who'd taken advantage of that knowledge to keep asking me questions and drawing attention to me in class when I had my mousy brown hair. I was so timid that I spent most of the class cowering while she and the other students laughed at me. Of course she hadn't been nearly so amused when I came to class the next day as a blonde and wasted most of the time cheerfully asking stupid questions.

"Are you okay?" Leila asked, noticing my anger.

"I'm fine," I snapped, then took a deep breath, forcing myself to reign in my emotions. "Sorry..."

"It's okay," Leila told me with a cheerful grin, "I'm getting used to your mood swings."

"They're a pain in the ass," I sighed with a shake of my head.

Leila stared at me for a moment then changed the subject, "Have you seen the new Peregrine sports car? I saw one on the news the other day and they look wicked... I want to get one some day... A pink one..."

"Of course" I grinned, glancing over her bright pink clothes. "What other color would you get?"

"Well, there are different shades of pink, you know," she told me defensively.

"You wouldn't be so fond of pink if it wasn't for your twist," I reminded her.

Leila just shrugged, "I know. But I still like it."

I thought about the car Leila had just asked about and didn't remember what it looked like. I turned on my computer and my holographic display unit immediately hummed to life. A few seconds later I was staring a picture of a sleek new hover car that was probably more expensive than everything I'd ever make in my entire life added up.

"Damn that's sweet," I agreed. "Too bad neither of us will ever be able to afford one..."

"Maybe," Leila responded doubtfully.

I grinned and pulled up a picture of another car right beside the one of the Peregrine. This one was a bit of an old cluncker, with a faded pink paint job. Then I asked Leila, "Which would you rather have?"

"That one," Leila immediately pointed at the junk car. She glared at me, "That's not fair though... I could always make the Peregrine pink..."

We both laughed, then sat back and talked about a variety of things for the next hour. It was strange how Leila and I had actually become closer friends since my twist, while Jason didn't hang out with me quite as much as before. It wasn't that he was avoiding me, but more that we didn't have as much in common anymore.

It amazed me to think about just how much Leila and I had in common. Now that I knew she used to be a guy too, we had a lot more to talk about than we did before. If anyone really understood what my suddenly gender switch was like, it was her. That certainly made it easy to talk to her about things.

While I was thinking this I looked Leila over, struck as I frequently was by her appearance. She had a very sexy body in an exaggerated, almost cartoonish way. Still, she was very attractive and I had to force my mind away from the thoughts that wanted to form at the sight of her. Then again, that was nothing new either and was something I did quite frequently when I was near her. The fact the fact that I wasn't her type and we were just friends made it much easier most of the time.

Just then I was suddenly struck by the realization that the conversation had gone completely silent...and that Leila was staring at me with an expression of obvious attraction. She saw that I noticed and quickly turned away with a bright blush on her cheeks.

For a brief moment I was frozen in surprise, my mind swirling in realization. I'd always known that there was no chance of anything happening between me and Leila. She'd made that perfectly clear when we first met and that was one of the things that had made it possible to become friends. But now... Now I knew that Leila used to be a guy too and that she was probably still into girls. That meant...

"Oh..." I whispered, my eyes going wide as I stared at her.

One thing about my current personality was that some of my emotions are very raw and volatile, a fact which kept people on their toes around me when I was a red head. I was almost always on edge like this and could become completely furious and enraged in an instant, losing control in the river of my own emotions. But as a red head, anger wasn't the only emotion I was prone to and I was suddenly overwhelmed with a powerful surge of passion.

I was filled with desire and acted out of pure emotion and impulse, the same as I did when I lost my temper. I didn't even think about it as I grabbed Leila and gave her the most passionate kiss I could. She didn't respond at first, being shocked by my actions, but then she began to kiss back and seemed to be enjoying it.

"Wow," Leila gasped when we pulled apart.

I stared at her, my whole body aching for more...much more. I wanted to throw her down on my bed and get wild with her. It was only her look of surprise and confusion that allowed me to regain some control over myself. I mentally ran through one of the exercises Amy had showed me to control my emotions and it worked...a little.

"I'm sorry," I apologized, blushing brightly. I couldn't bear to loot at her as I added, "I couldn't help myself..."

"You kissed me," Leila gasped, staring at me with a strange expression. Then she admitted, "And I guess I kissed you back..."

"Yeah," I grinned in spite of myself, fighting back the impulse to grab her and do it again.

"We...we kissed," Leila said again as though she couldn't quite believe it.

"I'm sorry," I apologized again, feeling guilty for doing something that could completely destroy our friendship. "I didn't mean..." I stared at the floor, feeling a mixture of excitement and shame. "I just lost control..."

Leila and I sat in an uncomfortable silence for nearly a minute before she hesitantly asked, "What does this mean?"

I blinked at that and forced a grin, "It means you're hot... You know how my emotions are when I'm like this..." I touched my hair to remind her of the hair color and the volatile personality that came with it.

Leila blushed, "I knew you thought I was pretty.... Most guys do, and I should know." Then she sighed, "I guess I got used to being friends..."

"I'm sorry," I apologized yet again, "we can pretend it never happened..."

"But it did happen," Leila insisted. "I don't know...."

Leila grabbed my bed cover with her hand as she stared at the floor, not even looking at the bed cover as it turned into a bright pink color. I don't think she even intended to use her trick on it. She was just so emotional that she wasn't controlling it very well at the moment.

"You're pretty," Leila abruptly said, still not looking at me. "I thought so ever since you twisted... But this is kind of weird..."

"Yeah," I agreed, "so what are we gonna do?"

"I don't know," Leila said as she got to her feet. She stared at me, blushing brightly again as she quickly blurted out, "But I kind of liked it..."

"You did?" I asked hopefully.

She nodded, "God, I don't know what to do... This is the first time that I really liked someone since my twist, and it's my best friend... This is just too weird for me..."

"We can still be friends," I reminded her, then on an impulse I suggested hopefully, "maybe even friends with benefits..."

Leila paused to stare at me for a moment, making me since as I realized I must have pushed it too far. "This is too weird... I've got to think about it..." Then Leila left my room, saying, "We'll talk later," as she rushed out of my house.

I remained where I was for a minute, feeling horribly guilty for ruining our friendship. It was just so hard to control myself when I was like this... At least that was what I told myself. The truth was I didn't know how much of this was the real me and how much was the mood swings I got with the hair color. That thought scared me almost as much as the one of losing Leila.

"Damn," I grimaced as I kicked my dresser, causing red sparks to fly as my trick came on by itself. I grabbed the clock on my dresser and threw it across the room, smashing it against the far wall. Being angry was easier to handle at the moment than the other things. "DAMN!"

My bedroom door was thrown open as Tina rushed in, stopping in the door way to ask, "What's wrong? Leila just ran out of here..."

"Nothing," I snapped angrily, though the anger broke enough for the tears to come rushing through.

"Jen?" Tina asked gently, "are you okay..."

She stared at me for a moment, obviously surprised since this was the first time I'd acted anything like this as a red head. Then I felt the tingle rush through me that indicated my hair had changed color again. I didn't need to look in order to know that I had mousy brown hair again. That made it feel natural to grab onto Tina and cry on her shoulder.

For one of the few times in my life, Tina acted like a mother and held me tight. She didn't say a word, only hugged me and offered me a shoulder to cry on. I had a feeling I may pay for this later, but at the moment I didn't care. This was what I needed.

I was quite nervous as I walked down the sidewalk with Jason, fighting back the impulse to turn on my chameleon field so that other people couldn't see me. It was hard going out in public when I was this shy, but that was the whole point of why I was doing it right now.

"I can do this," I tried convincing myself, mentally running the exercises that Amy had showed me in order to keep my shyness and selfconsciousness in check. It wasn't easy to fight my own twist induced fears, but it was working. I was able to control my emotions enough to keep walking without fading into the background.

"How are you doing?" Jason asked me gently, well aware of how skittish I was at the moment.

"I'm managing," I forced a smile, "thanks for coming with me... It's easier to go out when I have someone else along..."

"No problem," Jason shrugged, a bit embarrassed to be thanked for just walking with me. "I'm a little surprised you didn't ask Leila... I mean, you two have been hanging out together a lot since..." He gestured at me, not needing to vocalize the reminder of my gender change.

I frowned at that and stared at the ground, too self-conscious to even look at Jason. My first instinct was to just be quiet and avoid the uncomfortable subject. The topic of Leila was definitely an uncomfortable one at the moment.

I hadn't seen or talked to Leila since the awkward events of last night, and since she didn't come to school today, it looked like she was really avoiding me. I felt a surge of guilt at that and desperately wished I hadn't screwed up our friendship the way I had.

The strange thing was, I'd never really thought of Leila in a romantic way before last night. I'd usually just thought of her as a good friend who happened to be a good looking girl with an odd obsession with the color pink. But now that I was thinking of Leila like that, I couldn't stop. She was in my thoughts and fantasies almost constantly now. At first, I'd thought it might have just been my passionate red headed nature at the time, but I had the same feelings about her regardless of which hair color I had.

I could understand why Leila was so shaken up by my kiss though, and the fact that she was attracted to me. In spite of the fact that I was physically a decent looking girl, she'd gotten to know me as a guy and probably still thought of me that way. On the other hand, I'd first gotten to know her as a girl and even after learning the truth, I still thought of her as a girl.

"Are you okay?" Jason asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I began to withdraw even more, then caught myself and ran the mental exercises Amy had taught me again. I forced a smile and quietly told him, "I'm just thinking..."

"That's a first," Jason grinned, earning a faint glare from me which was all I could muster as a comeback. It was pretty pitiful, but about the best that could be expected with my current personality.

Jason seemed to have forgotten about the subject of Leila, for which I was thankful. I didn't want to talk about it but if he pushed I didn't think I had the guts at the moment to refuse. Instead we just continued walking with no particular destination in mind. The point of this was for me to get out and about, not to go anyplace in particular.

We continued walking in mostly silence, my thoughts shifting back to Leila and how good it had felt to kiss her. I blushed brightly at the thought, knowing that I'd never have the courage to do that again with my current personality. I felt so embarrassed at having done so yesterday, but at the same time, I really wanted to do it again.

I was startled out of my thoughts though when Jason abruptly stopped and exclaimed, "What the hell...?"

I immediately became nervous and apprehensive, looking around carefully until I saw what had made Jason stop. It was the school bully Simon Casche, standing in a driveway of what I assumed to be his home. I shuddered, instinctively calling on my trick to call up my chameleon field and grabbing Jason's arm for support. I hated myself for acting like this but I couldn't help it.

"Let's go back," I whispered fearfully.

"That might be a good idea," Jason admitted reluctantly, probably thinking about how Simon had given him a hard time at school on a few occasions.

Then I noticed something strange... Simon looked almost...afraid. I stared at him in surprise, noticing that his clothes and hair were all roughed up and stained. He had a look of fear and shame on his face, with tears running down his cheeks. I was completely shocked by that, as was Jason. This was nothing like what I'd expect from the school bully.

A moment later a girl came storming out of the house...if she could be called a girl. She was nearly seven feet tall and bulging with powerful muscle. The sight of amazons wasn't unheard of in Spiral where there are lots of twisted women. Tina told me that there's one personal trainer at her gym that gets big and muscular every time she exercises. However the sight of this particular amazon was particularly frightening...perhaps because she looked so young and childish which contradicted her size and obvious physical strength. What truly made me shudder and want to be invisible was the nearly evil grin she had on her face as she marched towards Simon.

I'd heard rumors that Simon's little sister had gone through her twist and become a physical powerhouse, and I could now see with my own eyes that it was much more than just a rumor. I suddenly felt sorry for Simon.

"Let's get out of here," Jason said, though neither of us could quite turn and leave the scene before us.

"Leave me alone," Simon demanded of his sister though it sounded much more like pleading.

"What's the matter big brother?" she smirked down at him, "afraid of your little sister?" She laughed in delight while he cringed with obvious fear.

"C'mon Suzie," Simon said, obviously trying to sound calm and in control but failing miserably. "Just leave me alone..."

"I'm Big Sue now," the amazon exclaimed with a proud smirk, "that's what everyone at school is calling me..." Then she glared down at Simon, "And you can't tell me what to do anymore..."

And with that Suzie or Big Sue as she called herself grabbed Simon's shirt and lifted him off the ground with hardly any visible effort. He gulped, his face going pale with fear. Big Sue just grinned, obviously enjoying his reaction. Then she easily threw him to the ground a short distance away, giggling like a little girl with a favorite toy as she did so.

Big Sue came at Simon with a mischievious grin that made me want to run and hide, and I wasn't even the target of her attention. I could only imagine how horrible and humiliating this had to be for Simon to get picked on and bullied by his little sister like this.

"No Suzie," he cried out as she quickly grabbed hold of him before he could run away, then gave him a nasty wedgie that looked like it hurt. She laughed in delight while Simon just looked completely humiliated.

"You can't tell me what to do," Big Sue snapped almost angrily, "I guess I'm gonna have to teach who you who's in charge now..."

"Come on, Jenny," Jason tugged on my arm to pull me away. He looked as though he was going to be sick at the sight of this.

Big Sue got even rougher with her brother while he struggled and pleaded more pitifully. I wanted to leave and hide, to make sure she couldn't do something like that to me. But as I stared at Simon, I couldn't help but feeling something else... He might be a jerk and a bully, but he didn't deserve something like this. I'd always hated seeing people picked on bullies and this was no different. I began to feel something strange...at least strange for when I had brown hair. I began to feel a stirring of anger.

"Jenny," Jason tried getting my attention though I remained fixed on the scene before me. The anger I felt suddenly exploded into the kind of fury I could only get as a red head. I barely even noticed the change in my hair color and personality as I marched straight towards Simon and Big Sue.

"Jen," Jason called out in surprise and a little worry, though I ignored him.

"Hey you," I called to Big Sue, getting her attention. She stared at me in surprise and confusion as I walked straight up to her and demanded, "what the hell do you think you're doing? Leave him alone..."

"What?" Simon stared at me blankly from where he lay on the ground, looking almost as though he thought he was imagining this.

"Mind your own business," Big Sue snapped at me in annoyance, then shoved me and knocked me to the ground.

Now I was really mad. I got back to my feet, furious enough that I was seeing red...literally. I'd instinctively reached for my trick and now had my glowing red pain field on. Without a word, I walked straight to Big Sue, planning on punching her though she made her move first. She grabbed me by my shoulder, digging in painfully with her powerful hand. However that was nothing compared to the pain she felt as she suddenly yanked her hand back with a loud agonizing scream.

"MY HAND!" Big Sue screamed, clutching it tightly and staring at me in fear. She was crying as well, which I took as a good sign.

"Picking on people smaller and weaker than you," I spat out vehemently, glaring at her as I stepped closer. "What kind of chicken shit is that?" Then I snarled, "I hate bullies," emphasizing this by poking her with a single finger. She jumped back as though I'd just stuck her with a red hot iron, which I might as well have. It probably would have felt the same.

"Leave me alone," Big Sue cried, backing up in fear, staring at me with tear filled eyes.

"Isn't that what he asked you to do?" I gestured at Simon, who was staring at me with his mouth wide open.

I just stood there for a moment and stared at Big Sue, realizing that she was only about twelve or thirteen. She was big enough that it would be easy to mistake her as older, but she behaved childish enough that I could also mistake her as being younger. It was strange seeing someone so much bigger and stronger than me actually backing away in terror.

Of course I had no idea how much Simon might have picked on her over the years, and she probably viewed this as just payback. But that didn't change the fact that she was hurting and humiliating Simon in ways that were completely and totally uncalled for, making his life a living hell that was probably far beyond what he'd ever even imagined doing to her.

"I hate bullies like you," I spat at Big Sue, tempted to grab her and give her a big bear hug with my pain field on. Only the reminder of her real age and a quick mental exercise to give me some self-control held me back. I glared at Simon who'd done more than his share of bullying, then back at his sister. "If I catch you beating up him or anyone else smaller than you again, I just might have to come back..."

Big Sue stepped back in terror, suddenly looking much more like the Suzie that Simon had first called her. She took one more look at me, nodded tearfully, then turned and ran back into the house. I even heard the door slamming and smiled faintly.

Simon stared at me in disbelief, the shame and relief both clearly visible on his face. He was obviously humiliated at having his classmates see what his home life was like, and I didn't blame him. He finally whispered, "Why...?"

I was still burning with anger and felt another surge of it as he spoke, reminding me of some of his behavior. Once again I performed the quickly mental exercise that helped me keep my temper under control. I silently counted to five, then grimly responded, "I hate bullies..."

With that, I turned and walked back to Jason who was shaking his head. "Damn Jen," he exclaimed, "I can't believe you did that..."

"Don't touch me," I snapped at him, forcing myself to stay under control and turn off my aura. I didn't think he'd want to touch me when I had that thing going, nor could I imagine ever being angry enough to do something like that to him. I shuddered slightly at the thought of intentionally causing that kind of pain for anyone.

I started walking back towards home with Jason silently walking beside me. Neither of us said a word for several minutes as I worked on calming down. Once my anger had subsided as much as it ever does when I'm like this, I allowed myself to grin and laugh. There was a certain thrill in being able to stop someone so much bigger and stronger than me with so little effort.

"I can't believe you saved Simon," Jason said with a shake of his head, "I mean, after all the trouble he's caused."

I shrugged at that, "I don't like seeing anyone get treated like that..."

Jason reluctantly admitted, "I guess... I guess it's a good thing you changed hair colors right then too..."

"Yeah," I nodded agreement, "it was pretty lucky..." And though I didn't say it aloud, I thought that it was too lucky. It was too lucky to be mere coincidence.

"Oh yeah," Jason suddenly changed the topic, "you never did tell me what's up with you and Leila?"

"None of your business," I snapped in annoyance, realizing a moment later that I should have just stayed calm and denied everything.

"So something is going on?" Jason asked, watching me with a curious expression.

"Don't make me hurt you," I told him, threatening to poke him with my finger even though my pain field wasn't on.

"Okay okay...jeez," Jason responded in mock fear, holding his hands up in surrender. "You know...for someone who hates bullies so much, you sure are good at doing it yourself."

"Thanks," I grinned at Jason cheerfully, "it's a talent..."

The world was a warm and wonderful place so I hummed cheerfully as I filled out my history test. I was confident that I'd do absolutely great on it, even though I'd done no studying at all. And if I didn't do very good, that wasn't a problem either.

"Let's see," I mused, swirling a strand of blonde hair around my finger as I made some cute doodles on the corner of my test.

Once I was finished drawing a rabbit, I decided to go ahead and turn in my test paper. After all I had several sheets of blank paper I could doodle on and there was a lot more free space to draw. I smiled proudly at my work, hoping that the teacher liked it. She just rolled her eyes when I turned it in and complimented me on my nice drawing. I wasn't sure if she really meant it or if she was just being nice, but I felt happy anyway.

When I sat back at my desk I absently wondered if I should try the exercise Amy had taught me for when I'm blonde. However I quickly discounted it as it as boring and seemed pretty silly. In fact, the trick she showed me mostly consisted of counting to five and thinking about possible consequences before I did anything, which was pretty similar to the directions she gave me for my other hair colors. In fact, now that I thought about it, it seemed that she had some kind of an obsession about making me stop and count to five. I wondered if maybe that was part of her twist... I'd have to ask her about that the next time I saw her.

I looked back at the teacher who was scowling and going over tests. She looked pretty unhappy so I decided to help cheer her up. I grinned and used my trick, surrounding myself with a warm sunny glow. The teacher looked at me with a scowl that quickly softened and even turned into a smile. I could almost feel the tension leaking away from her and the other students who looked at me. I was quite happy with what I'd come to think of as my happy aura. It was so nice being able to make other people happy that easily.

"You know you're not supposed to use your tricks in class, Jen," the teacher reminded me with a pleasant smile. "But I don't think I mind so much this time..."

"So she's a night light," the girl next to me said with a grin, "big deal..."

I looked to the girl who was a normal and usually not so polite. I'd always suspected she was really jealous of us twisted and some of the cool tricks we get, though she usually showed this by being rude and insulting. I'd discovered that my trick had a great tendency to mellow people out and put them in a good mood. It might not be a really impressive ability like being able to make people to scream in pain just by touching them, bit it was certainly a lot nicer to use. And it helped make a lot more friends.

When the class was over I made my way to the girl's bathroom to relieve myself. It was still kind of strange having to use the girls bathroom as well as the fact that no one thought anything strange about it. Sometimes I still expected some girls to yell at me for going into the wrong bathroom or something. But that didn't happen too much anymore. I guess I was really getting used to this whole girl thing.

Once I was done relieving myself I washed my hands and admired myself in the mirror. I was dressed kind of sexy today, which was pretty common when I got dressed as a blond. My views on being a girl tended to shift along with my hair color, though most of the time I just thought of it as something to get used to. But when I was a blonde, I thought that being a girl was fun and exciting. I wanted to take full advantage of my new gender and everything that came with it.

"I love this shirt," I beamed proudly, ignoring the fact that I'd been ashamed to have been caught wearing it last week when I had the brown hair. It showed a nice bit of cleavage which made me feel more feminine. I liked feeling like that when I was a blonde...and when I had black hair too. I wasn't quite as enthusiastic at other times, but I was adjusting pretty well. "I need to get some shoes to go with it..." I looked down at my plain shoes and imagined wearing some sexy high heels. I giggled at the thought.

"What are you?" one girl asked as she saw me staring into the mirror, "Narcissistic?"

"Something like that," I agreed cheerfully. "It's really fun being a girl, isn't it...?"

The girl blinked, stared at me strangely before shaking her head, "I guess..." Then she asked, "You're twisted, right?"

"How'd you know?" I asked with a grin.

She rolled her eyes, "Lucky guess..."

"Wow," I responded, feeling somewhat impressed, "you're good..."

A few seconds later I tore myself away from the mirror and went to where I usually met up with Jason, sure that he wouldn't mind waiting a few extra minutes for me. Since we shared the next class we usually met up on the way and went together.

Jason was right where I expected him to be, looking just a little annoyed. Then he took one look at me and grinned, probably relieved that I wasn't in one of my less sociable moods today. He always got so crabby when I was a red head.

"Hey Jason," I grinned cheerfully, "we had a surprise quiz in English today... Isn't that great? I love surprises..."

"Well I've got one for you," Jason told me, "you remember what happened with Simon yesterday?"

"Yeah," I nodded, "boy he has a big sister... I wonder what it would be like being that big and strong... I bet it's really cool..."

"Yeah, probably," Jason agreed, then quickly added, "but did you hear about Simon?"

I blinked, trying to remember if I'd heard anything about him. I felt a tiny worry that his sister might have gone at him even worse after I'd left, but that quickly faded under the cheerful certainty that everything would work out fine. After all, why wouldn't everything be great?

When I shook my head no, Jason quickly blurted out, "Bryan Kramer...you know that big guy who got kicked off the football team last year? Well, he was messing with this kid and Simon...SIMON stopped him... I mean, Simon actually came and saved this kid..."

"Really?" I grinned in delight. "Good for him..."

"At least that's what I heard," Jason quickly added, "but I overheard him actually apologizing to some other guy for messing with him last week... It was kind of weird..."

I just grinned proudly. "I knew Simon had it in him..." Actually, I hadn't thought anything of the sort, but it seemed the right thing to say.

"Man," Jason shook his head, obviously having a hard time believing this, "you must have really shook him up last night Jen..."

"Maybe," I grinned, "or maybe he's really a nice guy deep inside..."

Jason just froze and stared at me in disbelief before shaking his head again. "Man, that blonde hair really is doing a job on you..."

We walked to the classroom, then as we were going in Jason asked, "Oh yeah... You know Zach Moore..."

"Who?" I asked blankly.

Jason rolled his eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. "The guy you saved from Maddy last week..." Then almost as an afterthought, he added, "And from Simon..."

I frowned thoughtfully as I tried to picture the boys face. Of course I remembered the incident, and I'd even thought about Maddy a few times since, mostly when she walked past me in the hall and pretended extremely hard that I didn't exist. But the boy...Zach hadn't really been all that memorable and I couldn't say that I'd given him a second thought since.

"Oh yeah," I grinned, feeling proud of myself for finally remembering what he looked like. "What about him?"

"Well," Jason grinned, "I heard some teachers talking about how he wasn't in school today because he twisted last night..."

"I hope he got something good," I said cheerfully. I didn't really know the guy but I wished him good luck with his twist.

"Who knows," Jason shrugged as he went to his seat, "I guess we'll find out how it went soon enough."

"Yep," I agreed cheerfully as I took my own seat beside him. "Twists can be really surprising... Did I mention that I love surprises?"

The rest of the class was much the same as my last one, with the teacher rolling his eyes at me and trying to pretend I wasn't there. At the same time some of the other students were snickering and quietly making fun of me for being an air head, but that was all right. I didn't mind at all. In fact, it was kind of neat because I was getting all the attention, which made the teacher pretty annoyed. But that was pretty funny too.

When lunch finally came I went to the cafeteria, eager to meet up with Jason and Leila. I felt just a little apprehensive about running into Leila, but that was covered with that warm fuzzy feeling of well being that came with being blonde. I grinned cheerfully, then waved at Leila when I saw her on the other side of the lunch room.

Leila looked at me, then blushed. She turned and hurried the other way before I could get to her. I was a little confused and wondered why she kept avoiding me like this. Of course I knew it intellectually, but my emotions had a hard time accepting that at the moment.

"Wow," Jason said as he came up beside me, "Leila is really avoiding you... What the hell went on between you two?" He glared at me as though it had to be my fault.

If Jason had asked me that when I had any other hair color, I probably wouldn't have told him a thing. I would have evaded the question, lied, or flat out refused to tell him anything. But as a blonde, I wasn't great at keeping secrets. So I just grinned, "We kissed the other day and she's kind of freaked out about it."

"WHAT?" Jason gasped, staring at me with wide eyes.

"She'll get over though," I told him confidently. "She really liked it..."

"You kissed Leila?" he gaped... "But you're a girl now..."

"Yeah," I grinned cheerfully, "but Leila still likes girls so that's not a problem..."

Jason just stared at me with his mouth open, making me realize that I'd probably told him more than I should have. That was all right though. He was our friend and if we couldn't tell him things like that, who could we tell? I was about to tell him that Leila used to be a guy, when Jason suddenly grabbed my arm and pointed to the side.

"It's Simon," Jason hissed nervously.

I looked and saw Simon walking straight towards us with a dark expression on his face. He stopped in front of me and just stared at me for a moment before his eyes lowered and stared at the floor instead.

"Thanks for last night," he said quietly, sounding ashamed. He forced his eyes to look up and meet mine, then he repeated it louder and more firmly. "Thanks... I mean it. I know you don't like me, so I really appreciate your doing that..."

"You're welcome," I told him happily while Jason just gaped with his mouth open.

Simon looked as though he didn't know what to say, then he took a deep breath and stated, "I owe you... I owe you big... If you ever need anything... ANYTHING... just let me know." With that he turned and walked off, looking almost as though a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"Did you see that?" Jason gasped.

"Of course I saw it," I grinned at him, "I was here, wasn't I? That certainly was nice of him..." Then I turned and went to get my lunch, humming cheerfully as I did so. Boy this was a great day.

I slowly walked down the school hallway with a calm confidence that came from the surety that I was in control. I watched my fellow students with a faint amusement, knowing that it would be easy to bend them to my will...that I could easily get them to do what I wanted. All I had to do was use my little trick.

"It would be so easily," I mused to myself, absently running a hand through my raven black hair.

I was more than a little tempted to use my trick, to get the students near me under my spell. However I remembered Amy's advice and willed myself not to go down that path. It would be far too easy and would cause far too much trouble. As much as I might enjoy it, I knew that it would come back to bite me later on and that was something I certainly didn't want.

"At least I can keep out of trouble when I'm like this," I mused, looking at a strand of my black hair.

I frowned in annoyance as I remembered how Maddy Sawyer and her friends had tried messing with me after lunch. Since I'd been blonde at the time, I'd been gullible enough that I nearly let her make a complete and utter fool of me with some silly prank. If I hadn't been blonde, I never would have allowed myself to get anywhere near that situation.

Fortunately for me a rather ironic hero had appeared just in time to save me from both Maddy and my own stupidity. I'd been shocked when Simon himself showed up and warned Maddy to leave me alone, though I'd also been pretty confused a the time, not realizing the danger I was in. It was only afterwards that Simon explained that he'd overheard Maddy's plans, which would have resulted in my being half naked and humiliated in front of the entire lunch room.

"It seems he was quite serious about owing me," I smirked, absently wondering if I might be able to use that somehow.

I tore my thoughts away from such a direction and mentally performed the exercises that Amy had given me. She said that I would have to learn to control my self-absorbed tendencies when I was like this, but I didn't really see much of a problem with them. Not at the moment at least. After all, they kept me out of trouble much more than with any of my other personas. In fact, it might be quite beneficial for me if I could stay like this permanently.

"I should probably get even with Maddy for even attempting something like that," I thought aloud, wondering what I could do to her that wouldn't get traced back to me and end me in trouble. "I need to discourage her and anyone else from ever messing with me again..."

I was still considering possible revenge plans a minute later when I found myself face to face with Leila. She stood there with a determined expression on her face, staring at me intently. She didn't say a word, perhaps waiting for me to speak first.

"Leila," I said with a faint nod, immediately thinking of our shared kiss and just how nice it had been. Her presence in front of me evoked other emotions, soft and gentle ones that didn't quite mesh with my current persona.

"Jen," she said cautiously, forcing a nervous smile. She glanced to my hair and sighed, "I'm not sure this is the best hair color to catch you with."

I smiled with some amusement, "You could always wait a few hours until it changes again." I felt a faint tinge of nervousness that probably would have been much greater had my hair been some other color.

Leila gave a very unladylike snort. "Watch it or I'll turn your hair pink... I wonder what that would do for your personality."

I took an involuntary step back which made Leila laugh. I shuddered to think what pink hair might do to my personality, though to be honest, I didn't know if Leila's artificial change to my hair color would have any effect at all. However that wasn't an experiment I wanted to risk trying.

Leila giggled, "I was just messing with you..."

"I kind of gathered that from your giggle," I told her with an embarrassed smile.

"I've been thinking about...about the other day," Leila said carefully, her expression going more serious again. "I've been thinking about it ever since..."

"Me too," I admitted cautiously, my heart beating a little faster in spite of myself.

"I liked it," Leila blushed, "and I like you. I like you as a friend..."

"So this is the 'just a friend' speech," I said with a wry smile, not wanting to show the disappointment I was feeling.

"Will you shut up and let me finish," Leila told me, giving me a steady glare. "You and Jason are my best friends right now...but I've had bad luck with best friends in the past. I just really don't want to lose you as a friend, but then I realized that I'm losing you anyway..."

"I don't know what to say," I responded honestly

"Then don't say anything," Leila told me with a self-conscious smile, "this is hard enough to say as it is." She took a deep breath. "Like I said... I like you as a friend...and I'm really turned on by you now." She blushed brightly at that which looked quite nice on her.

"You're quite pretty when you blush," I said with an amused smile, earning another blush. Pushing her buttons this way was quite enjoyable, though I forced myself to bite my tongue and let her continue.

"I'm having a hard time getting over the fact that you used to be a guy," she told me with a sigh. "I know I used to be one too, but it's different... You've never known me as a guy...only a girl. I grew up in a real conservative town, so this whole thing about liking a former guy is hard to accept..."

I stared at Leila, feeling a little apprehensive. She seemed to be dancing around the subject, offering one excuse after another about why this would never work out between us. I decided that it was time to take matters into my own hands and remind her why they just might.

With that, I grabbed Leila and kissed her on the lips. She resisted slightly at first, but only for a moment before she began kissing back. We kissed for nearly a minute straight with it growing more passionate the entire time. When we finally broke it off, several boys who'd been hanging around school were cheering.

"I think we should talk somewhere a little more private," I whispered into her ear.

"Yeah," Leila blushed, looking a little shaken. "That was...nice."

"Nice?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Okay," she blushed even brighter, "it was fucking fantastic. You've got me all wet now..."

"Really?" I asked in amused delight, only to earn a faint nod and a blush so bright that I thought she was turning into a lobster.

"You didn't need to do that," Leila told me with a nervous smile, then quietly added, "but I'm glad you did..." She put her arm around me and kissed me again. "I was trying to say that this wasn't easy, but I want to give it a try. I want to keep you as a friend...and maybe more."

"Friends with benefits?" I asked with a wink, loving the look of embarrassment on Leila's face.

Leila punched me in the arm and I noticed that my shirt had suddenly turned pink. "Something along those lines," she told with a selfconscious grin, "though I was thinking of something a little nicer."

"Something nicer," I mused, hiding the delight I felt inside, "I like the sound of that."

"I'm going to try hard to think of you only as a girl now," Leila pointed out, then surprised me by grabbing my breasts, "fortunately these help..."

"You know," I reminded her with a blush, "there are people still watching..."

Leila giggled at that, "Then lets find someplace a little more private to...talk."

"You know," I smirked, looking over Leila's body and admiring her slightly exaggerated curves, "Tina is working late tonight so we should have plenty of privacy at my house to...talk."

Leila blushed but nodded, "Lead on Jen..."

I just smiled in smug satisfaction as I we started off towards my house hand in hand. I hadn't really expected anything like this from Leila, but this was working out quite well for me. Quite well indeed.

I hate school, especially all those arrogant know-it-all teachers who are all over the place. If I had my way, I wouldn't come to school at all, or at least not when I was in my current blue haired persona. Coming to school always got on my nerves when I was like this, so I guess it's a good thing I don't get this particular persona very often.

The biggest reason I even bothered to come to school this morning had nothing to do with school itself, but with the fact that this was where my friends happened to be. Or to be more specific, this was where Leila was.

I smiled as I thought of Leila, feeling a little more cheerful. So far Leila and I had only been going out as more than just friends for a couple days, but things were going all right so far. Things hadn't really changed as much as I would have expected, though now there was a lot more touching and kissing. I was certainly a lot more aware of her looks and body than I used to be, even when I'd still been a boy.

A few deliciously naughty thoughts passed through my mind, making me grin in anticipation. So far Leila and I hadn't gone beyond a lot of making out, but I didn't think it would be long before we did. We were taking our time as we got used to our new relationship, but there was no doubt in my mind that we both wanted it.

Once Jason got over his initial shock, he became supportive of our relationship, which was a lot better than being jealous which is what I'd feared. I only wished he'd stop trying to take credit as a match maker, though it is kind of funny.

Then I saw Leila standing in the hall and my mood improved a hundred percent. Even being surrounded by all the pushy teachers in this school didn't bother me at the moment, though I still felt the constant irritation at them and all other sources of authority.

"Leila," I grinned, grabbing her in a hug and giving her a long passionate kiss. Then I turned and glared at a couple students who were staring at us, snapping, "What the fuck are you looking at?"

"Easy Jen," Leila laughed, "you need to stop being so irritable..."

"Maybe the next time I shift," I responded with a chuckle. "I think I'm due to go blonde again... Damn, I hate being a fuckin blonde..."

"What's wrong with being blonde?" Leila asked with a grin, fingering her own golden blonde hair. "Besides, I thought you liked being blond."

"Only when I am blonde," I snorted with a roll of my eyes. "Sure, I'm all happy all the time... But I'm like some kind of fucking idiot..."

"You're not that bad," Leila assured me, "just a little ditsy at times."

"Whatever," I shrugged, running through the mental exercise to keep my irritation under control.

It was kind of ironic that I was using the mental tricks Amy had shown me since I felt suspicious of her and her motivations at the moment. That happened whenever I got into my current persona. However she'd made a pretty good argument that I couldn't ignore about how I should at least listen to whatever advice and information others gave me and then decide what to do with it on my own. She'd pointed out that if I could use something for my own benefit, it shouldn't really matter where it came from. And though I resented being told what to do by a shrink, it did help me keep from screwing things up with Leila and that was important to me.

"This being on edge all the time is fucking annoying," I told Leila, "I'm almost looking forward to switching again...even if it is blond."

Leila gave me a sympathetic smile, "I can't imagine what it's like changing like that every couple hours... It was hard enough just changing the one time..."

"I'm getting used to it," I shrugged. It wasn't like I really had a lot of choice though. "But it's been a lot easier learning how to be a girl though..."

I winced the moment the words came out of my mouth and glanced at Leila. After we finally got together, the last thing I wanted to do was remind her that I'd been a guy up until a couple weeks ago. I didn't want her to start freaking out about it again. But to my relief, Leila didn't seem bothered by the reminder.

"I wonder when Jason's going to twist," Leila abruptly said, then grinned, "I wonder if we can get him to turn into a girl too..."

"That would be funny," I chuckled, "but he might end up as some snobby bitch, and that would totally suck..."

"But he could end up getting tall and muscular instead of turning into a girl," Leila reminded me, a tone in her voice making me think that she wished that was what had happened to her. I didn't blame her, though I tried hard not to think about what might have been myself, only on what was. "Maybe I should cross my fingers for him..."

"C'mon," I smirked, "misery loves company and all that... We should hope he turns into a girl too..."

Leila laughed at that, then grinned, "That's funny... I don't really feel all that miserable, though I sure did at first..."

"You can get used to anything," I shrugged, "especially if you grow up knowing it could happen."

"I didn't," she reminded me with a sigh, "I had no idea my real parents were Twisted. I was shocked as hell when I went through my twist..." She shook her head and sighed again, looking unhappy as she thought about her life before coming to Spiral. She'd told me a little about it and what few things she'd said sounded rough.

"Well you know now," I told her with a snort, "so quit worrying about it... It's not like you have to worry about going through your twist again..."

"I guess you're right," Leila responded and gave me a quick kiss. Then she abruptly said, "Talking about snobby bitches..."

I looked to where Leila was pointing and saw Maddy Sawyer coming down the hall. I immediately glared at her, not forgetting about what she'd tried pulling on me a couple days ago. I still haven't gotten even with her for that and was definitely going to. With my current persona, I especially wanted it to hurt.

Maddy glared at me for a moment, though there was a hint of fear in her eyes a she remembered the last encounter she had with me when I had the blue hair. Then she quickly looked away in an obvious attempt at snubbing me, though I wasn't bothered by in the least.

"What's the matter Maddy?" I called out to her with a smirk, "too afraid to look me in the eyes..." She didn't respond, but she did start moving down the hallway a little faster.

"You know you shouldn't mess with her," Leila snickered, "it's not her fault she's a snotty bitch... It's part of her twist."

"Maybe," I shrugged skeptically. I probably shouldn't have been so skeptical since my own personality kept getting shifted around by my twist, but I couldn't help but thinking that it would be extremely easy for someone to blame anything they did on their twist. "That still doesn't mean I'm forgetting what she tried to do."

Leila and I started walking down the hall again when a couple of girls walked past us. They were both very pretty and so excited that I couldn't help but noticing them.

"I can't believe how great he is," one of the girls gushed to the other. "I am SO in love with him..."

"No way," the second girl exclaimed, "I love him more... He's going to be mine..."

The two girls continued to argue over which of them loved this boy more before one of them hit the other. Suddenly they launched into a full fight, punching and scratching at each other. One boy immediately yelled out, "CAT FIGHT!"

"Watch it," Leila snapped as one of the girls was shoved into her.

I just stood where I was watching the fight with more curiosity than anything else, until the other girl was thrown into me. I activated my trick, turning on my force field aura just in time to keep from feeling the impact. But I was getting really getting annoyed now and tempted to kick both their asses.

When one of the girls tumbled towards Leila again, Leila managed to dodge her but grabbed the girl and turned her clothes all pink in retaliation. Neither of us left he scene of the fight though and by the time a teacher arrived, the other girl had bright pink hair. Leila smirked as they were both hauled off by the teacher for fighting like that in the hall.

"Her hair is MUCH better that way," Leila told me with a smirk. "I turned my own hair pink a couple times, but it always wears off for me when I go to sleep." Then she smirked almost evilly, "She'll have to either dye hers or grow it out..."

"Nasty," I told her in appreciation.

Leila just shook her head, "What the hell got into them?" Then much more quietly so only I'd hear, she whispered, "I would have loved having two girls fight over me like that back before my twist."

"I did once," I scowled, earning a surprised look from Leila. Then I added, "They were fighting over which one was going to be stuck with me as a lab partner in biology..."

Leila laughed, then grabbed my arm. "C'mon... We're gonna be late for class..."

I grimaced, not at all enthusiastic about sitting in a boring class and listening to some arrogant teacher droning on and on. But I let out a sigh and went with Leila anyway. It wasn't like I had anything else to do while I was stuck here at school.

Class passed pretty much as I expected, with the teacher droning on and on. The only thing I could do was keep myself from getting bored silly by making a few comments. I thought they were clever but the teacher obviously didn't. The only thing that kept me from getting up and walking out was the fact that Leila was in class with me.

Once the class was over Leila and I had to separate and go in different directions, since we didn't share our next class. "Why don't we skip and have a little fun?" I asked her.

"You know I can't do that," Leila told me with a roll of her eyes, "besides, you know you'd regret it later on if you did."

"Maybe," I grumbled reluctantly, though I had to admit to myself at least that she was right. When my personality shifted again, I probably would regret it. That was one of the biggest things that kept me out of trouble when I was like this, but it sure was boring.

"I'll see you later," Leila told me, giving me a quick kiss before running off.

I just stood where I was and watched Leila, shaking my head, "Damn she has a nice ass..." Of course the rest of her was pretty nice too. Then after a minute I reluctantly turned and started for my next class.

I grumbled to myself and glared at nearly everyone I passed as I walked down the hall. I wasn't happy to be here and I was going to make everyone else miserable too. I shook my head, wondering why in the world anyone would come to school. Of course I knew the reasons, but I was always like this when my hair was blue. It was no wonder most people were relieved I didn't shift to this hair color as often as the others. Shit, I even got on my own nerves.

When I got to my next class I saw another similar scene with two girls talking about some guy, though this time one of them seemed confused. "You're kidding? HIM?"

"He's great," the second girl gave a dreamy sigh to which the first girl shook her head, looking even more confused. "He's so perfect..."

"You're nuts," the first girl exclaimed, "what about Ryan? I mean, you've been dating him for..."

I listened to the two of them talk for another few seconds before I went into the classroom. The last thing I wanted to waste my time on was listening to a couple girls talking about their crushes. In fact, the only thing I could think of that was worse was listening to the teacher lecture on. Unfortunately I was going to be facing that in just a short time.

The only good thing was that my teacher for this period was Thylan, who was less boring than most of the teachers and not quite as obnoxious. It wasn't Mr. Thylan or Ms. Thylan because Thylan was a fully functional hermaphrodite with blue skin. Obviously, Thylan was twisted, as were a number of the teachers at school. However Thylan was much more obvious about it than any of the others.

I glared at Thylan in annoyance, just because he/she was my teacher. But when he started his lecture, I had to bite down on the comments that threatened to come and perform the mental exercise that Amy had shown me. Even though Thylan was a teacher, I normally had more respect for him/her than any of the other teachers in this school.

I stared at Thylan, looking over his/her androgynous appearance and absently wondering if he/she was originally male or female. Of course I couldn't ask him/her. Among the twisted it was considered rude to ask about what you were like before your twist. It wasn't a hard taboo or anything, but more like asking a woman about her age...or perhaps closer to asking someone about the first time they had sex. It was something you might talk about with a close friend or someone you knew well, but not usually with a casual acquaintance.

Thylan started his lecture on physics and I bit back my impulses and forced myself to stay under control. It wasn't easy when I had no respect for him/her at the moment, but I knew I'd regret it later if I did something now. Fortunately, Thylan didn't believe in giving lectures when a demonstration would work so soon he/she was demonstrating the effects of gravity by dropping various items on the floor, ranging from a sponge to a bowling ball. There were a few nice crashes in the process.

"Remember," Thylan reminded us gently, "the constant for gravity on Earth is 9.81 meters per second...regardless of the object..." Then he/she paused to give us a mischievious smile, "Of course there are exceptions..."

At this point, Thylan dropped the bowling ball again, but instead of falling straight down, it just started dropping slowly...almost in slow motion. I along with most of the class stared in surprise, then I realized that Thylan had to be doing this with some twisted trick.

"Wicked," the guy next to me exclaimed in delight.

"Fucking suck-up," I sneered at him, though I was impressed by the demonstration as well. However I was also curious since Thylan always had a point to his demonstrations.

"You see," Thylan mused with a gentle smile, "as the very existence of the twisted prove, even the iron clad laws of nature have exceptions. The explanation for these exceptions often lie in areas that we have yet to fully understand."

"But we know you've got a trick now," I pointed out skeptically.

"True," Thylan answered, seemingly unbothered by my interruption. "But do you understand how a human being can possibly alter something like the effects of gravity with nothing more than a thought?" He/she raised an eyebrow. "Even the most brilliant of scientists still don't fully understand the quantum field that we twisted tap into... You should all remember that you can't take things for granted. Even when you think you understand the way things work, there are always other elements and unknown forces which effect them and could change the outcome."

"And your point is?" I asked with a strong note of sarcasm.

Thylan wasn't bothered by my attitude. He/she along with all the other teachers had learned what to expect of me since my twist. In fact, most of them were pretty understanding. There were a lot of odd things to get used to in Spiral and the teachers saw most of them when they first appeared.

"My point," Thylan looked around the class, "is that you can't know and understand everything, no matter how much you know. Physics is not merely a list of natural laws... It is the process of discovering them and how they interact." He/she looked around again. "Just remember that you can't take anything, even something like gravity for granted."

After this tangent Thylan went back to his lecture on gravity, giving a few more demonstrations of what he/she was talking about. This was actually pretty normal for him/her though, giving demonstrations and going off on philosophical tangents. Thylan's classes were never boring which was why he/she was one of the most popular teachers in the school.

When class let out I hurried out with of the room with a sigh of relief. Thylan might not be as bad as most teachers, but I'd still been sitting in class thinking about other things I could be doing. Unfortunately school wasn't done for the day.

I had barely left Thylan's class when I saw more girls going ga-ga over some guy. But this time it was Maddy Sawyer gushing about it to her friends. She had the same dreamy lovesick look as the other girls I'd seen and it sent a shiver down my spine. There was something really weird going on here and I didn't like it. Not one bit.

"As long as it leaves me the fuck alone," I grimaced.

I was always irritable and on edge when I had blue hair, but today was worse than normal. I kept seeing girls who'd suddenly developed a new crush and were acting all love-sick. Normally I'd mind my own business and ignore them...or maybe make a few side comments. But I couldn't escape the feeling that something nasty was just around the corner. I was getting more and more paranoid about this as the day went on.

When I met up with Jason between classes I saw the grim look on his face and immediately felt even nastier. "What's wrong?" I demanded, not even bothering to keep the angry tone out of my voice.

"It's Leila," he blurted out with a pale expression.

"What about her?" I asked in an almost deadly tone. I might not have the temper I did as a red head, but I was more than a little on edge and ready to lash out at someone. Unfortunately for Jason, he was the only one in front of me at the moment.

Jason cringed back a little, then took a deep breath. "She's acting weird..." He gulped, glancing around nervously. "Really weird..."

"She says she's in love," Jason almost whispered guiltily, "with some guy... I...I've never seen her like this."

"Some guy?" I grimaced, that sinking feeling in my stomach getting much MUCH worse.

With the trouble Leila and I had hooking up because I was a former guy, I had no doubt that she'd ever be interested in one who was still a guy, much less in love. I clenched my fists, now absolutely positive that something was seriously fucked up. I might have overlooked most of it before, but now someone was fucking with me and mine and that made this personal.

"Where is she?" I demanded with enough viciousness in my voice that Jason took another nervous step back.

Jason hesitated a moment before saying, "This way..."

Jason started down the hallway without even waiting for me to follow. Of course he didn't need to wait since I was right on his tail, about ready to snap at him to move even faster. I had no room in me for patience at the moment, even for one of my closest friends.

Jason led me through the school until we stopped at a spot where there were more than a dozen girls gathered around and gasping in delight. The girls were all going on at once so I couldn't make much of what was being said, but they all looked completely love struck. What was more surprising was that Leila was one of them.

"Leila," I exclaimed, though she didn't seem to hear me.

Then I finally noticed that all the girls were surrounding a single guy. He was tall, athletic looking and somewhat handsome. There was also something vaguely familiar about him though I couldn't place it.

"Leila," I grabbed my girlfriend's shoulder, "what the fuck is going on?"

"Isn't he perfect?" Leila exclaimed with a dreamy look on her face.

I stared at her in shock, hardly able to believe I was hearing this from Leila. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with you?" she demanded, suddenly angry. "You're just jealous..."

Sure, I was jealous, but I was more pissed off at what was going on, even if I had no real idea of what that was. Still I knew that HE was involved. I turned my attention to the guy and shoved several girls out of the way, determined to give him a good piece of my mind and perhaps a few good injuries.

"Who the fuck are you and what the hell did you do to Leila?" I demanded, trying to stay focused instead of just flying completely off the handle. It wasn't easy but at least I didn't attack him...yet.

The boy stared at me with a look of surprise and then delight. Then he grinned, "It's you..."

"Yeah it's me," I snapped, "but who the hell are you?"

"You don't recognize me?" he asked in delight, then smirked, "I guess I have changed... I mean, I just had my twist and all..."

He flexed his arm, looking rather proud. The girls surrounding us oooed and aaaahed, even though one of them had muscles that were twice the size of his.

I glared at him, more than a little annoyed at this guessing game. Then I suddenly realized who he was. It was Zach, the same scrawny guy I'd saved from both Simon and Maddy. That's why he looked familiar. Jason had told me a couple days ago that he'd gone through his twist, which explained why I hadn't recognized him. It also explained what was going on.

"You're using your trick on them," I gestured to the girls, feeling even more angry. This offended me to my very core, and not just the part with my current rebellious persona. I also felt a little guilty because I realized his trick must be similar to the attraction aura I had when I had black hair. "Stop it...NOW."

"Why?" Zach asked, looking almost surprised that I'd ever suggest such a thing. "This is great... I mean, the girls always ignored me before, but now..." He smirked, looking more than pleased with himself.

"You fucking prick," I snarled, clenching a fist to punch him.

But before I could throw my punch, Jason cried out, "Watch out Jen..."

Suddenly several girls had grabbed me and where holding me back. "How dare you threaten him," one of them hissed in my face. It took me a moment to realize that it was Leila. She had a manic obsessed look in her eyes that actually frightened me.

"You just don't understand Zach," another girl cooed, "he's so wonderful..."

"You're fucking nuts," I spat into her face, "he's brainwashed you..."

"Don't be like that," Zach said, actually looking hurt. "I like you... You stood up for me when no one else did..."

I spat in his face, "And now I'm gonna kick your fucking ass..."

I struggled with the girls who were holding me, trying to get loose. I was about to turn on my force field to see if that would help, when I suddenly felt a strange cold chill on my arm. It was only then that I noticed Zach had reached out and touched me there. He had an almost eager grin on his face.

"I'll make you like me again," Zach said insistently.

"What are you...?" I started, then froze with a gasp as I felt my emotions swirling inside me and shifting to something unnatural. I turned on my force field and pulled back away from the girls, but it did no good. It was too late...

I staggered back, awash in new emotions. It was much like the first time I shifted to a new hair color and persona, except that this time I'd already seen the girls around me with the same one. I looked at Zach, suddenly realizing how cute he was. He was so nice and sweet....

"Jen!" Jason cried out with a look of horror on his face.

"NO!" I screamed, fighting against that swirl of new affection for Zach. I wanted to strangle him....to kick his ass. I wanted to kiss him and caress him. I hated him. I loved him. These new emotions and thoughts were quickly gaining ground, pushing aside my bad attitude.

I tried to think of a way to fight this but all I could think of were the mental exercised Amy had taught me to control my emotions. I grabbed onto that, trying to perform the mental exercises, trying to distance myself from my emotions and focus on what made sense from a logical point of view.

"NO!" I cried out again, tears rushing down my cheek as I fought the nearly overwhelming urge to throw myself on Zach's mercy and beg him to forgive me. I didn't deserve his love, but I still craved it. He was so perfect...so dreamy. I bit back on my emotions again, then used all the willpower I had left to turn and run as fast as I could, hoping that distance might weaken his hold on me.

"JEN!" Jason called out behind me, though I paid no attention to him. I was too intend on the emotional war that was being fought in my own mind.

"She'll come back soon enough," Zach exclaimed proudly and I knew that he was right. I couldn't stay away from my one true love...

I ran as hard as I could, shoving people in the hallway out of my way. I had no concerns for them, just the emotions swirling inside me. If it wasn't for the fact that I was used to shifting emotions and that I had those mental exercises to handle them, I would have lost already. As it was, I was barely hanging on.

I was halfway to the other side of the school before I final collapsed to my knees in the middle of the hallway, not sure that I could run or fight a moment longer. I so wanted to go back to that perfect man... I wasn't even sure why I was fighting this anymore, though I still was for some reason. It felt so nice to love Zach... But still, a small part of me held on...

Then I felt the familiar sensation of my hair color and personality shifting again. In an instant, I felt absolutely calm and clear headed. It was a complete opposite of the emotional storm that filled me just moments before. My love for Zach hadn't completely vanished, but it was faint and distant...almost detached.

"Interesting," I mused as I slowly got back to my feet, absently noting that I had taken on another new personality.

I considered my emotions, or at least the forced emotions that Zach had given me. From my new perspective, I could examine them almost as though they belonged to someone else entirely. And though they had seemed completely overwhelming just moments before, I now saw them to be weak. Whether they were caused by some empathic power, pheromones, or some other emotion manipulation trick, I could see them for the false constructs they were. And with that realization came the power to erase them with little more than a thought.

"I'm free of Zach's influence," I stated simply, a little confused by the fact that I didn't feel excited by this. Intellectually, I knew that I should be celebrating my victory over Zach's trick, but I didn't feel excited. I suppose I felt a vague excitement, but as with the forced emotions it felt vague and detached.

I knew that I had taken on a whole new persona, but I didn't yet know what color my hair had become. With only a faint curiosity, I reached for my hair and took a long look. It was pure white, the same color as fresh snow. I let it go and considered what my next move should be.

"My trick," I thought aloud, knowing that my trick always shifted along with my personality and hair color.

I looked around the hall to ensure that no one was close to me...just in case, then I activated my trick. I had no bright glowing aura around me, yet I could sense that it was indeed there. In fact, I could suddenly sense a great deal.

For several seconds I just stood there motionless, absorbing all the information that came to me from my aura. It was as though I could see in every direction around me at once. I could see in other spectrums than just that of visible light. I could even see that one student who walked past me had an extra heart, in spite of the fact that nothing on the outside gave the slightest hint of this.

"Fascinating," I mused with a faint stirring of excitement deep inside. However what remained on the surface was that calm clarity I'd felt since shifting.

I considered for a moment that it was extremely fortunate that I shifted to this particular persona when I did. Calm and clear thinking were what I needed to control my emotions. This was the perfect personality to fight off a trick that controls people's emotions. However it was far too fortune to be coincidence.

This wasn't the first time that I'd shifted persona in such an overly coincidental manner. When I'd watched Big Sue beating up on Simon, my own anger seemed to have triggered my shift to my redheaded persona, one much more suitable for dealing with the situation. When Leila had run away from me, I had shifted to my brown haired persona...one that could cry and seek comfort more acceptably. It seemed that my shifts weren't entirely random as I'd thought, but that my environment and emotional state could influence them as well.

"Interesting," I mused, realizing that if this was the case then I might one day learn to control when and how I shifted. That could be quite useful.

Since I was thinking about useful things my thoughts turned back to my new sensory field and all the new information it was providing me. I stretched my senses out a little more, finding it difficult to manage so much mental input at once. Then I wondered if I could turn my senses inward. I concentrated on what I could sense from the inside of the field and found myself bombarded with more information.

"Too much," I winced, feeling a faint stirring of fear though it didn't reach the surface. I shifted my focus until the information was easier to manage.

With my new internal senses I became away of things in my body that I had never before noticed. I could see that my first period was due to start within the next week. I could see a tiny knot of tissue in one breast that had the potential to become cancerous one day. I would have to have it removed before then. Then I became aware of other more important things.

I realized that my new awareness extended beyond the mere physical. I could sense other things as well, though much more vaguely. One thing I became aware of was that my twist wasn't quit what I thought. My various shifting personas were not just my becoming the stereotypes I held of those hair colors, but were actually aspects of my own personality coming to the surface. What that said about my various personas was something I would have to talk with Amy about.

I felt surprised, or at least a stirring of it deep inside as I realized that I also had two more personalities which had yet to emerge. Up until this point I had assumed that I'd already discovered them all. Of course my latest one proved that theory wrong so I shouldn't have assumed it was the last.

My awareness of these two new personalities were rather limited and I had to focus my new senses in order to learn more than just that they existed. Even that only provided a limited amount of information though.

The first of these personalities somehow gave me the impression of being very caring and compassionate. I also had a vague sense of the color green, though whether this was my hair color, the color of my aura, or both I didn't know. With a little more concentration I picked up enough to guess that my trick would have something to do with healing... Considering the nature of that persona, I suspected it might be a healing aura that would let me heal injuries that came in contact with it. However this was pure speculation based on my understanding of how my tricks worked with each persona.

My second hidden persona was even more vague than the first, feeling almost slippery and mercurial in my mind. The only things I could truly sense about it were the color violet and a strong feeling of mischief. I didn't even have a clue as to what my special aura might do. It would also seem that this persona was much less stable than the previous one, making it harder to understand. I had a feeling that it could also get me into a great deal of trouble if I wasn't careful.

"I'll have to speak with Amy about learning to control myself before then," I considered aloud.

I actually felt a vague relief at learning what my two remaining personas were. I could very well have gained one that left me sociopathic or with a suicidal depression. Other extremely bad possibilities came to mind, making me realize how lucky I actually was.

After a minute I turned off my sensory aura and blinked as my senses returned to a more normal level. After that experience I almost felt blindfolded in comparison.

It was only then that I remembered why I had been running and fighting my emotions in the first place. I'd been so distracted by my shift and the sensory overload of my new trick that I'd almost completely forgotten about Zach and Leila. I felt a faint stirring of anger and urgency, but I wasn't going to let that drive me to doing something rash.

I couldn't help but briefly thinking that Amy had been teaching me to control my emotions, to make decisions based on careful consideration instead of what I felt at the moment. It seemed that my current persona exemplified that. I wondered what she'd say about this.

Of course I didn't have time to consider such things when I still had to deal with Zach. My emotions might currently be weak and distant, but I was still worried about Leila. When I thought about what Zach had done to her, my emotions grew strong enough to almost break through to the surface. However my calm held for the moment.

A moment later I started walking back towards where I'd encountered Zach and Leila. A little voice in the back of my mind demanded more urgency, but I ignored it. I might not have a plan, but I didn't want to rush into things either. That was how you made mistakes.

Of course I knew that time could be very important in this situation. I had no idea how Zach's trick really worked. Was his touch permanent? With the ease that I'd broken it, I doubted that. However it was possible that the longer someone was under its influence the harder it would be to remove. My best option at the moment was the hope that Zach could actually turn it off...and that I could convince him. I wasn't foolish enough to believe it was that easy however. I would need to find some form of leverage first. And to do that, I would have to get closer to him.

Zach wasn't quite where I left him, though I had no problem finding where he went. I could hear the voices of girls talking excitedly a short distance away and knew exactly where to go. I quickly found him, still surrounded by a dozen or so girls. I wasn't sure, but I thought that at least one or two of them might be new additions.

I saw Jason as well, though he was well back from the group and just watching them. "Jen," he exclaimed when he saw me, staring at me nervously, obviously afraid that I'd fallen under the same spell as Leila. "Your hair changed again...."

"I know," I responded simply, not taking my eyes off of Leila and the lovesick expression on her face. I'd come extremely close to having the same expression on mine. If I'd been more connected to my emotions that probably would have made me sick and disgusted just thinking about it.

Zach looked over and saw me, then grinned in delight. "You came back..." His expression turned smug as he added, "I knew you would."

"Now you know how great he is," Leila beamed, causing me to feel a faint swirling of emotion that would have been overwhelming had I been in any of my other personas.

"I know that he's using a trick to make you feel that way," I said simply, realizing as I said it that this might not be the most effective tactic. It might have been better to pretend I was under his spell as well until I could discover a way of freeing Leila. However it was too late to worry about that now.

"What?" Zach stared at me in confusion and disbelief. I was probably the first person to have shaken off the effects of his trick.

"Release them all from your control," I told him calmly. "You know there are laws against using your trick on people in this way."

"So what?" Zach glared at me, angry that I wasn't under his spell.

"There are consequences to your actions," I pointed out, thinking that these people he was controlling all had friends and family who'd want revenge as well. I counted myself among those. "Do you honestly think you can get away with doing this?'

Zach's glare grew even more furious. "I finally have something good happen to me and you want to take it away..." His eyes narrowed dangerously. "I thought you were different... But you're just like them... You're just like everyone else, trying to tell me what to do?"

"How could you?" Leila demanded, staring at me with a look of anger and betrayal. "He liked you and you betray him like this..."

"You'd better get out of there Jen," Jason called from behind me, sounding extremely nervous. "I think things are about to get nasty..."

Before I could do anything, several of the girls jumped at me. I struggled to pull away from their grabbing hands, almost feeling guilty when I had to push Leila in order to get away from her. However she wasn't in her right mind and I had no doubt that she'd eagerly tear me apart if Zach asked her to.

I turned on my trick sensory aura in order to gain some advantage, but it backfired and I gasped as I was overwhelmed with more sensory input that I could handle. I turned it off again but was dazed and confused for a moment as I tried to regain my footing. The girls took that moment of distraction to swarm over me. I was held tightly by a dozen girls.

"Let her go!" Jason yelled, rushing to my aid and trying to pull the girls off.

One of the girls was pretty tall and muscular, though not nearly at the level of Simon's sister Big Sue. However she was at least five inches taller than Jason and much more muscular. She shoved him and send him flying back without much trouble. Then she stood between him and the other girls with a look of determination.

While I was held tight and Jason was unable to come to my assistance, Zach took the opportunity to come closer again. He paused to stare at me with a smirk before touching me again. I suddenly felt the effects of his trick again, the growing swirl of love and obsession towards him.

"It must have stopped working when you changed hair colors," Zach said, stepping back with a smug look.

I just stared at Zach with a calm expression, then calmly erased the emotions he'd tried forcing onto me. It was even easier than it had been the first time. With my current persona I was virtually immune to his trick. Unfortunately the trick that came with this particular persona was great for gathering information but useless for actually defending me. At the moment, it would have been extremely useful to have my pain field or even my own attraction aura.

I realized that I'd made yet another mistake when it came to dealing with Zach. Instead of coming back to confront him, I should have gone to some teachers for help. Unfortunately emotional control doesn't equal clear thinking.

My mind raced as I quickly tried thinking of something I could do. There wasn't much I could do against more than a dozen girls, several of which had useful tricks. Nor could I do much against Zach who was physically larger and stronger than me now. I would have to find another option. It took me a moment but I quickly came up with a plan. Maybe it wasn't too late to rectify one of my mistakes after all...

I changed my expression and tried to give the same kind of dreamy grin that the other girls around me had, though I wasn't certainly how successful I was. Without close contact to my emotions, it was hard to really fake them.

After a few seconds, I gasped, "Wow... You're so smart..."

I was sure that my acting was bad, but it was good enough to fool Zach who grinned smugly and ordered the girls holding me, "Let her go... It worked..."

The girls all let me go though a couple of them gave me skeptical looks. It didn't seem to matter if they believed my acting or not, just as long as Zach did. They weren't about to disobey him or question his orders.

"NOOOO," Jason cried out in horror.

I couldn't warn Jason that I was just playing along, so I continued with my fake smile. "Isn't he wonderful..." Most of the girls around me nodded agreement while Jason looked even more horrified.

"I'm glad you've realized that," Leila told me with a happy grin.

"No Jen," Jason called to me, "remember who you really are..." He stared at me for a moment longer before turning and running down the hall away from us as fast as he could.

"I guess he chickened out," the big muscular girl smirked, almost looking disappointed that she'd missed her chance to beat him up.

"That'll teach him not to try messing with me," Zach bragged, as though Jason had actually been afraid of him. Then again, Zach was a lot taller and more muscular than he had been so perhaps Jason was afraid. However I doubted that kind of fear was what drove Jason to flee.

"Look at him run," Leila snickered, though there was a faint look of doubt in her eyes for just a moment. It seemed that Zach's trick wasn't enough to make her forget about her past loyalties entirely.

"Too bad my trick doesn't work on guys," Zach muttered, more to himself than anyone else. Then he brightened up. "Then again, it might get kind of weird if guys were all over me like this."

I just smiled and nodded while absorbing his comment. I'd already suspected that his trick only worked on girls since I'd only seen girls fawning all over him. This confirmation merely gave me more confidence in his ability to be stopped.

Just then Zach grabbed me and surprised me with a kiss to my lips. If this had happened at nearly any other time, I would have been overwhelmed with anger and disgust. I had absolutely no interest in kissing boys and would normally react quite strongly to this. However my current persona was a bit more reserved. I felt those emotions in the background, but they didn't erupt to the surface or even show. I kept the same dreamy expression and showed no sign of what I really thought.

I knew that I would really regret this later, that I'd be disgusted at myself. But I was driven by something other than my emotions at the moment and I continued playing along, looking for my opportunity. I only wished that I had a better idea as to what that opportunity would look like.

Seconds later I heard Jason's voice yell, "There he is...!"

I turned and looked down the hallway where I saw that Jason had returned, but not alone. He stood beside Mr. Edwards, a short and squat man who I immediately recognized as the school music teacher. He certainly wasn't a person that I'd consider as useful in stopping a mind controlling megalomaniac with plans for school conquest, but beggers can't be choosers.

"What's going on here?" Mr. Edwards demanded in a less than threatening voice. In fact, his soprano voice might be great for singing, but it made Zach and all the girls near him burst out laughing.

"You leave Zach alone," the muscular girl snarled as she moved towards Jason and Mr. Edwards.

I had no idea of Mr. Edwards had any tricks that could be useful, nor did I intend to wait and find out. I recognized this opportunity and took immediate advantage of the distraction, turning and slamming my knee right into Zach's groin. He let out a loud yelp of pain before collapsing to the ground, curled up in a ball and crying.

"I fully understand how much that hurts," I stated calmly and without sympathy as I dropped my fawning mask.

"You...you hurt him," one girl exclaimed, staring at me with a look of blank confusion.

Several girls looked angry for a moment, but most of them were just dazed and confused. Leila stared at me with a look of confusion as well, as though not sure she should be angry with me or something else. I felt a faint fluttering of hope deep inside.

"You bastard," Zach squeaked out, a look of anguish on his face.

"You're the bastard," Leila suddenly snarled, kicking Zach in the ribs as hard as she could while he was still on the ground. Now there was no doubt as to her expression. She was pissed. REALLY pissed. And so were all the other girls as they began regaining control over their own emotions.

"It seems your trick wore off," I told Zach, not sure if it was the pain or if just being distracted was enough. However the fact that the girls were all free from his control was undeniable.

"What's going on here?" Mr. Edwards demanded, looking confused.

I looked at Jason and Mr. Edwards for a moment before gesturing to Zach. "Zach Moore has been using his new trick to control the minds and emotions of various girls around school, myself included."

"You fucking bastard," the muscular girl snarled furiously, taking her turn to kick at Zach.

"No," Zach gasped as all the girls started to kick him, eager to take their revenge on the boy who'd emotionally raped them.

"Don't touch him," I warned loudly, though they all ignored me until I added, "he might infect you again..." That was enough to have all the girls back away, though several of them continued to spit on him.

"Is this true?" Mr. Edwards gasped, staring at Zach in horror. The accusations were severe enough that he didn't even seem to care that the girls were taking their anger out on Zach.

"He made me love him," one girl exclaimed while the others began to echo similar statements.

"My God," Leila grimaced, looking disgusted, "I can't believe I felt like that for him..." She looked at me, her eyes going wide, "Oh God Jen...I'm so sorry."

"Quite understandable," I answered simply, earning a strange look from Leila.

"Your hair..." she started, cautiously touching out to touch my white hair.

"My new persona is...calm," I explained, "I don't feel much emotion at the moment."

"Really?" Jason asked as he came up. "You sure did a minute ago..."

"No," I shook my head. "I was pretending in order to get close to him. Right now, I'm effectively immune from his trick."

"I wish I was," Leila grimaced, turning to glare at Zach once more.

Zach was getting to his feet by this time, though all the girls were keeping back. One of them warned Mr. Edwards that Zach had to touch a girl in order to manipulate her emotions. He just glared at Zach with barely contained anger. These accusations were quite serious and enough to not only get Zach expelled from school, but possibly facing criminal charges as well.

My emotions might have been dimmed, but I was suddenly thankful that I hadn't used my attraction aura like that. That kind of power would be far too easy to abuse, as Zach had just shown. I could have gotten myself into the same kind of trouble and still might if I wasn't careful. It was a good thing that I'd kept the existence of my attraction aura quiet.

Suddenly Leila threw her arms around me and gave me a kiss on my lips. It was enough to spark my hormones if not all my emotions. My emotions might be dimmed at the moment, but I could still feel something from the kiss, even if not as much as normal.

"Thanks," Leila told me, shaking a bit as she did so. "I can't believe what..." She clutched my hand for comfort while glaring hatefully at Zach. "That weasel..."

"I didn't do anything," Zach protested, looking as though he might be bruised all over his body now, though not in nearly as much pain as a few minutes earlier. "They're lying... She's out to get me..." He pointed at me.

Leila lost it at that and suddenly punched Zach as hard as she could, which was quite a bit harder than I would have expected of her. His head snapped back and a spurt of blood burst out of his nose. However Leila wasn't quite done and a moment later Zach's skin all turned a bright...almost neon shade of pink.

"He made me love him," Leila hissed to Mr. Edwards, daring the teacher to make something of Leila's use of her trick on another student. He wisely decided not to make an issue of it.

"Look what she did!" Zach cried out with a look of horror and near panic on his face as he held up his hands, staring at their new pink color.

"Come with me," Mr. Edwards ordered Zach.

"NO!" Zach yelled, "you're all out to get me... You're just jealous..."

Zach suddenly lunged at me and Leila, but before he'd even covered half the distance he suddenly collapsed to the floor. He shook and spasmed a little, but made no more threatening moves. In fact he reminded me of nothing so much as a fish flopping around on dry land.

"I can't move," Zach gasped, his voice shaky and weak, not to mention filled with fear and confusion.

"My trick," Mr. Edwards resounded grimly. "If you'll behave and come with me, I'll let you move again. If not, you can stay here until the police arrive..."

"I'll testify against him," the muscular girl told Mr. Edwards, "we all will..." The girls all nodded agreement and I could see the eagerness to get even in nearly every one of their eyes.

Jason, Leila, and I watched as Zach reluctantly nodded agreement to Mr. Edwards and then was allowed to get back to his feet. He looked at the girls surrounding him, his eyes filled with a mixture of fear and desire. I could almost see the temptation to reach out and start touching them again. The only things keeping him from starting this all over again were the facts that the girls were all keeping out of arms reach and Mr. Edwards was there with the threat of his trick.

Once Mr. Edwards had led Zach down the hall in the direction of the principals office Leila threw herself against me again and gave me a passionate kiss on my lips. "Thank you... Thank you so much..." She had tears in her eyes as she said this.

Before I could think of anything to say in response, the other girls started patting me on the shoulder, saying things like, "Thanks a lot girl..." and "I owe you big time..."

"The way you took him out," the muscular girl shook her head, looking at me in admiration. "That was priceless..."

"I knew you were fooling," a purple haired Asian girl grinned at me before walking off, "you're not much of an actress..."

The girls all drifted off After this many of them heading towards the school office so they could give their statements, or at least leave their names. The muscular girl was the last one to go and she nodded to me before leaving, "If you ever need me for anything, just let me know..." Then she paused for just a moment to look at Jason with an expression of embarrassment, "Sorry about that..."

Once they were all gone, Jason exclaimed, "You had me worried..." He shook his head, "I thought he'd gotten you..."

"He had," I pointed out. "I broke his hold though."

"How?" Leila demanded, looking more than a little jealous, "I knew what he did and I still didn't even want to be free..."

"And now here you are acting as calm as can be," Jason snorted.

I shrugged, "It's the nature of my current persona." I touched my white hair, "I'm calm... Calm and controlled. I barely feel any emotions at all like this, which was how I was able to break free of his control. He only controls emotions."

"Nasty," Leila shuddered, "you do know I'm jealous..."

"Of course," I answered, earning a glare and then a chuckle.

"At least tell me more about this new hair color," Jason urged, trying to change the subject, "I mean, do you have a new trick?"

"Of course" I answered as though it was the most obvious thing.

"Well?" Leila gave an exasperated sigh as she put an arm around my shoulder, "what is it?"

I looked back and forth at the two of them for a moment, considering the idea of changing the subject and reminding them that we all had classes to get to. However I could see the looks in their eyes and knew that they would continue pestering me until they got answers.

"Very well," I finally answered, already walking towards my next class while my friends came with, "I'll tell you everything I know about the three new personas I've discovered..."

"THREE?" Leila and Jason demanded as one. Both of them stared at me as though sure I was joking.

A small voice in the back of my mind was absolutely delighted with their reactions and urged me to drag this out. However I ignored that and began to calmly tell them everything, as though this and my final two personas were nothing unusual or important. In hindsight I later realized that this behavior got to my friends even more than if I'd intentionally teased them.

It was a nice day with near perfect weather. The sky was mostly clear and it was warm without being too hot. In short, it was perfect weather for a fair. And a fair in Spiral was unlike a fair anywhere else.

I stood back and sniffed the air, catching scents of popcorn, cotton candy, and a thousand other scents I couldn't identify. Some of them weren't nearly as pleasant as popcorn, especially since the petting zoo area was a short distance away. Still I was surrounded by the unmistakable scent of a fair, the same scent that lingered around every fair regardless of where it was.

There were other things though that were more distinct to Spiral. There was a fortune tellers tent, probably occupied by a Twisted with a trick to read minds or see the future for real. Another tent had a woman who promised a 'natural' means of breast enlargement using her trick. Only in Spiral could you find stands like that.

"All right," Tina exclaimed with a bright and eager grin. Her eyes darted around. "I'm going to have an elephant year... I love elephant ears. I used to get them all the time when I was a kid. Then I'm going on that ride," she pointed at one that stuck out in the distance before finally winking to Leila, "Then I'm going to go looking for some cute boys..."

"Take it easy," I warned Tina, "you don't want to overdo it... And you should probably put on some sun block too..."

"Yes mom," Tina responded with a roll of her eyes, causing Jason and Leila to both burst out laughing.

"You are acting kind of motherly," Jason pointed out with a smirk.

"It's not my fault I care," I responded, feeling a little hurt. They all laughed again.

I sighed and absently ran a hand through my green hair, wondering when I was going to shift again. Several hours ago Tina had accidentally cut her finger in the kitchen and I was so worried that I shifted to my green haired persona for the first time. Suddenly I'd become extremely caring about other people...and as Tina kept pointing out...very maternal.

Fortunately my latest persona came with a nifty trick. I could create a glowing green aura around my body and then heal minor injuries in other people just by touching them. I quickly took care of Tina's cut, then sat around worrying about her since.

"You are a bit of a stick in the mud," Tina told me with a shake of her head. "But at least you have a useful trick..."

I frowned, reluctantly having to agree that Tina was right. I was a bit of a stick in the mud right now. I cared so much about everyone else, spent so much of my thoughts wanting them to be safe and okay that I didn't have much left for myself. I was acting like a mother and I couldn't really help it. It was the personality that came along with my new hair color, much to my annoyance.

"It could be worse though," I added, then absently reached over and plucked a piece of lint from Leila's shoulder. She stared at me for a moment and giggled. "I'm sorry..."

I let out a long sigh, wishing that I could just shift back and forth between personas at will. It would make things so much easier for me. Of course I was trying. Ever since I'd discovered my white haired persona and realized that I had the potential to control my shifts, I'd been meditating and working with Amy just so I could. So far there hadn't been a lot of progress, but I was still pretty hopeful.

"I've been trying for two weeks and I still can't control it," I muttered to myself with a sigh.

"You'll get there," Leila assured me with a grin.

Just then a little girl went running past us, laughing and giggling as she pulled a balloon behind her on a string. She hadn't gone much further though when she tripped and fell face first onto the ground. Her balloon slipped loose and floated away, and whether it was the loss of the balloon or whether she hurt herself, she suddenly burst into loud tears.

I felt an immediate surge of sympathy and ran to the girl before I'd even thought about it. "Are you all right?" I asked her as I gently helped her to her feet, trying to see if she was okay. Her knees were scraped up, making feel want to take care of her even more. "I'm Jen..."

"I'm Nina," the girl responded tearfully, looking oh so sad and pitiful.

"Are your parents around?" I looked around but didn't see anyone who seemed to go with the girl. Then I looked down at Nina's scraped knees and knew I had to take care of that. "Let me help you..."

I took a deep breath and turned on my healing aura. A faint green glow sprang up around me, causing Nina to gasp in surprise. I gently assured her that everything would be all right and put my hand to one of her knees. I felt a strange tingling where my aura touched her knee and when I pulled my hand back, there was no sign of an injury on that knee. I quickly turned my attention to the other knee and healed it as well.

"It doesn't hurt anymore," Nina said a little more brightly. She gave me a nervous smile as she touched her knees.

"Good," I smiled in relief, "I'm just sorry I can't do anything about your balloon..."

"Nina!" a woman's voice suddenly cried out. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"She's all right," I quickly assured the attractive woman who came running up with a worried look on her face. "She just scraped her knees a little and lost her balloon..."

"Hi daddy," Nina grinned up at the woman. I was a little startled that Nina would call the woman 'daddy' instead of 'mommy', but this was Spiral and there were lots of strange twists. "She made my knees not hurt..."

Nina's 'daddy' gave me an appreciative look and said, "Thank you so much," before she pulled Nina off, saying, "let's get you a new balloon...okay..."

"Wow, you were like a natural," Tina said with an impressed look as I came back.

"If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were the mom here," Leila teased me and Tina both.

Tina just responded by sticking her tongue out at Leila, then shrugging, "She's welcome to the job if she wants it..."

I blushed at that, not sure what to say. It was kind of embarrassing to be so emotional and everything. In spite of all that had happened to me, I still thought of myself as a guy deep inside and probably always would to some degree. But at least I wasn't dangerous to anyone when I was like this.

A moment later Tina broke out in a huge grin. "Oooh... I just saw a really hot boy I'm gonna go talk to..." She winked at me. "I'll see you later MOM...." And with a loud laugh, she hurried off.

"Be careful," I called out after her, only to get even more laugher from Jason and Leila.

"Man, it's a good thing you didn't have this one come out after Zach touched you," Jason exclaimed, "he would have had you wrapped around his fingers..."

Leila and I both shuddered slightly at that, though she was the one who glared at Jason. It had been two weeks since that encounter with Zach, and I still had nightmares at the thought of just how close I'd come to being his love slave. It was hard to believe that the skinny guy everyone picked on had become one of the biggest threats in the history of the school. And in Spiral, that's really saying something.

"At least you stopped him before he really got going," Leila reminded me, "imagine if he got all the girls in school... We would have been like an army for him... No one would have been able to get close..."

"I could have taken him," Jason bragged, then more quietly admitted, "if I could have gotten close..."

"I rest my point," Leila smirked. "No guy could get near him..."

"The poor guy," I sighed, feeling sorry for Zach in spite of myself. I knew I shouldn't feel sorry for him, that I should be really pissed at him instead. But at the moment anger wasn't an emotion I was really in touch with. Instead I was caring and nurturing. "He must be so lonely..."

"I felt sorry for him before he turned into a lunatic," Leila grimaced. "I mean, give him a little power and it goes right to his head..."

"What do you expect?" Jason shrugged. "I mean, one day just about everyone was picking on him, and the next he can make people like him for a change... Of course he's gonna do it..."

"You would take his side," Leila glared at Jason again, "you weren't the one under his control..."

"I just feel sorry for him being locked up," I told them, also thinking of the fact that his skin had been permanently turned bright pink. Neither Leila or Jason looked very sympathetic though.

After Zach had been removed form the school he'd been put into the local detention center and kept away from all girls. From what I'd heard they planned on keeping him there for a bit longer, making him go to counseling until they were sure it was safe to release him.

"I guess that's one of the downsides of Spiral," Jason scowled, looking almost depressed. "I mean, some Twisted are dangerous and some really get nasty twists..." He shook his head and asked, "You remember David Lucas from last year?"

"Yeah," I shuddered at the memory.

I hadn't really known David personally, but I saw him around the school. He'd been a fairly popular guy who played on a few sports teams, at least before his twist. After he went through his twist he became a severe masochist, obsessed with hurting himself. The last rumor I'd heard was that his parents took him away and had him locked up in a padded room where he could be protected from himself.

"Who?" Leila asked with a blank look. The whole David thing had happened long before she moved to Spiral and our school so she had no idea who we were talking about.

"Zach isn't anything like that though," Jason said with a forced smile, "I mean, he just needs to learn a little self control and all... After this people know what to look for when he's using his trick. He'll never be able to get away with something like that again. You know the school takes precautions..."

"Like having teachers with wicked tricks?" Leila asked with a wry grin, obviously remembering how easily the non-threatening looking Mr. Edwards had dropped Zach.

"He'll probably be back in school in a month or two," Jason shrugged.

I suspected Jason was probably right. Of course since all the girls in school now know about Zach's trick, they'll be avoiding him even more than before.

"Well," Jason grinned, "since we're at the fair, we should probably find a good ride..." Then he looked at me and grunted, "I just wish you were a bit more fun at the moment..."

"He does have a point," Leila admitted. "You do tend to worry too much like this." She gestured to my green hair.

I just nodded at that, biting down the comment about how it might be too soon after eating lunch for fast rides. I knew that wouldn't be appreciated just as well as I knew that I'd hate myself later for saying such thing. But at the moment I couldn't help but being concerned about those I cared for.

"I'm sorry I'm ruining your fun," I apologized, feeling bad for the way I was making them feel. I just wanted them to have fun here at the fair and I wasn't doing anything to help it.

Then I suddenly felt it, the familiar tingle that meant I was going through a persona shift. A moment later I suddenly felt light and free. I grinned automatically, feeling amused though I didn't know what I was amused by. What I did know was that this felt different. This felt new.

"Your hair," Jason exclaimed unnecessarily.

I reached for some of my hair so I could get a better look at it, already knowing what I'd see. My hair was now a sort of violet color. I'd just unlocked my final hair color and persona. I grinned with amusement, feeling rather mischievious as I saw the look on Jason's face.

"I wondered when this one would come out," I laughed, feeling so carefree.

I closed my eyes, trying to get a better sense for what I felt...for who I now was. I felt amused and somewhat excited, not to mention a bit mischievious. That seemed to define my current persona. I felt mischievious. Of course I'd already had a vague sense of that from when I'd sensed deep within myself as a white haired bore, but feeling it myself was different.

Without warning I grabbed Leila and gave her a long and passionate kiss which she returned just as passionately. I'd surprised her with that move and I think I liked that reaction almost as much as I liked the kiss. It was definitely amusing to surprise her like that. I wondered how else I could surprise them...

I turned to Jason with a grin, then exclaimed, "God I want to kiss you..." Jason and Leila both gasped in surprise and Jason almost staggered back away from me. I burst out laughing, "Just kidding..."

"Thank God," Jason muttered with an embarrassed expression, "I don't want to deal with that kind of problem..."

"And you'd better not be interested in him if you know what's good for you," Leila warned me with a grin.

I just grinned back in delight, musing, "You know, I think this is much better for the fair..." He stood there and grinned, thinking about how perfect the timing was for my latest shift. "I think I might be starting to get some control over this..."

"What about your trick?" Jason asked.

I thought about it for a moment but decided it might be more fun to surprise them with it later on. Of course I had no real idea of what it was myself and was looking forward to finding out. In fact, a little anticipation just might make the discovery all the more interesting. Besides, it might be a good idea to wait until there were less people around before I tried it out.

"It'll wait for now," I grinned, enjoying the exasperated looks of impatience they gave me. "Come on... We're at the fair... Let's go have some fun..."

"I'm all for that," Jason grinned, "I think I like this new personality of yours..."

"Me too," Leila winked at me, still pleased from the kiss I'd surprised her with.

I grabbed Leila's arm and started leading her towards the biggest and most exciting roller coaster. If nothing else, this new persona seemed a perfect match for the fair. I was going to have a blast, of that I had no doubt.

As we went to the ride I couldn't help but thinking about how much fun it would be to take Tina on it with us. Of course I also thought about how much fun it would be to catch up with her and show off my new hair color and persona. Who knows, by the time we catch up with her I might even have my new trick ready to show off as well. I grinned at the thought of surprising her with something interesting.

"The new me is definitely interesting," I mused, "my whole life is..."

My life was strange and chaotic, even by the unusual standards of Spiral. I had no idea who I'd be from hour to hour or what my personality would be...but that was okay. I was getting used to it and suspected that I'd get bored now if I had to stay the same all the time.

Life was pretty strange, especially for us Twisted. A simple bad joke could lead to a massive transformation and a change in everything about your life. But as well as being Twisted, I was also human and one thing that the people have proven time and time again is that humans can adapt to almost anything, no matter how strange.

As strange and twisted as my life was, I wouldn't give it up for the world. My twist might have turned me into a girl, given me more personalities than I know what to do with and left me unsure of what I'd think and feel from one minute to the next, but that was all a part of who I was now. All that baggage came with a lot of good thins too, such as a variety of interesting tricks, an ability to see things from new and exciting perspectives, and a great new girlfriend in the form of Leila.

In spite of living a life full of constantly changing hair colors and emotions, I was quite happy with the way things were. Perhaps my current persona was influencing my perspective, making me see interest and excitement where I would otherwise see problems and difficulties. But I doubted it. I'd been having these thoughts for some time, through a variety of different hair colors and perspectives. With all my passing hair colors and personas, there were some things that remained stable and solid, such as the real me...my core personality that the others were reflected from. Even in that part of me, I was happy with who I was.

Then I got close to the roller coaster and broke into an excited grin. Enough thinking about such sappy things. Today was a day for fun and excitement. I pulled Jason and Leila with me to the line, eager to get on and squeeze every bit of excitement out of today that I could. After all, today was a great day, if for no other reason than that it was the first day of the rest of my life.