by Saless
Chapter 29

The boy looked shocked as he suddenly found himself a girl. His clothes were much too big and his pants fell right off. Fortunately for his modesty his shirt was big enough to act as a dress. "What did you do to me?!" she squeaked.

Sarah shrugged, "Just giving you a chance to see what it's like to get pushed around by people bigger and stronger than you." Jill was shocked that Sarah would use her power like that, but Mike seemed unconcerned. In a moment Jill's expression cleared and she smiled much as Mike was.

"Change me back, please!" the new girl begged. She was attracting a lot of attention, and knew it. She pulled her pants back up, but had to hold onto them or they'd fall off again.

Sarah pretended to think about it and then said, "I suppose I could change you back, if you apologized."

"I'm sorry, please change me back!" she begged.

"Hmm, she doesn't seem very sincere to me, what do you think Jill?" Sarah asked skeptically.

"No, she's definitely not sincere." Jill agreed.

"What do you want from me?" the girl whined.

"I want you to learn a lesson, but you don't seem interested. Maybe we should go catch a movie or something?" Sarah replied, addressing the last part to Mike and Jill.

"Sounds like a plan." Mike replied with a grin. He'd rarely seen Sarah do something like this, she was usually so withdrawn. It was probably the first time he'd seen her stand up for herself like that. Jill nodded; equally pleased with this development now that she was sure that Sarah didn't intend to leave the boy as a girl.

"Wait! Don't leave me like this!" the girl begged. In her haste to keep them from leaving she'd lost her grip on her pants and tripped over them. Sarah took pity on her and helped her up.

"Give me a good reason, and I won't." Sarah told her.

The girl looked around her and realized everyone was watching her. "Can't we do this somewhere else? If my friends see me change back from a girl they'll never let me hear the end of it!" she begged softly.

"True friends wouldn't do that. Maybe you should reconsider what type of person you hang out with." Sarah replied.

"Please?" she begged again. Sarah sighed and agreed. The four of them stepped outside, shivering in the cold.

"So, are you ready to apologize sincerely yet?" Sarah asked the girl.

She nodded energetically, "I'm sorry I pushed you guys around! Really! Please change me back!"

Sarah glanced at Jill. "What do you think, is she sincere?" she asked.

Jill got a strange look on her face and then said, "Yeah, I think she really is." She seemed shocked about something, but Sarah was already turning to look at the boy she'd changed.

"Okay, I guess I'll change you back now." She said. This time she just laid a hand on the girl's shoulder and she changed back to male. He whooped in delight and ran back into the building without a backward glance. They followed him in to get out of the cold.

They were greeted by a cheer and applause from a group that included the majority of the most inhuman looking students. Sarah smiled at them but was distracted by Jill. "Sarah, we've got trouble. He's coming back with his friends."

Sarah didn't think to ask how she knew that, as he wasn't in sight yet. "I thought he was sincerely sorry?" she asked archly.

Jill shrugged, "He was, but his friends figured out what happened and gave him a hard time. He feels like he has to get back at you in order to restore his reputation."

"How in the world do you know that?" Mike asked, confused. Jill was about to reply when the boy Sarah had changed came stomping towards them, three other students with similarly heroic proportions following on his heels.

He walked straight up to Sarah and raised his fist like he was going to strike her. Mike started to move forward but Sarah waved him off. "You do realize that if you take me on it will be as a girl, right?" Sarah asked, seemingly unconcerned. "Your pants will be down around your ankles again, right in front of your friends." Sarah continued.

He stopped and stepped back a step. One of the other students, a girl who'd make your average super model look a bit plain by comparison, stepped forward menacingly. "He may be too afraid to face you, but I'm not! Come on, let's teach this bitch a lesson!" she yelled. The other two students, both boys, seemed hesitant. She didn't notice as her hands started to glow and she fired off a blast of energy at Sarah.

Sarah managed to dodge the energy blast. Mike jumped in front of her, hoping he'd transform into something useful again. Sarah dusted herself off and smiled at the girl with the glowing hands. "Go ahead, try that again." She taunted. Jill smiled broadly at that.

The girl charged up another blast, oblivious to the portal opening up behind her. When she released the blast Sarah opened a second portal directly in front of her. She didn't know how she knew how to do this, but she linked the two portals. The girl cried out in surprise as her own blast hit her from behind. "I can turn your own attacks against you and turn your boyfriends into girlfriends. Do you really want to continue this?" Sarah asked her.

The girl let the glow subside and glanced at her cowed friends. "Cowards!" she spat, turning and striding away angrily. Her friends hurried to catch up with her. The students who had applauded before laughed at them, and then once again applauded Sarah and her friends.

"Home." Sarah muttered and opened another portal.

"Are you alright?" Jill asked worriedly.

"Home!" Sarah reiterated, striding through the portal urgently. Mike and Jill hurried to follow.

"What's the hurry Sarah?" Mike asked, before he realized that Sarah had collapsed on the floor in tears. Jill was already crouching down to comfort her. Mike was feeling somewhat lost and confused, but followed Jill's lead.

After a few minutes Sarah had calmed enough to move her onto the couch. "Shh." Jill cooed, "You're safe now." Eventually Sarah stopped crying. "Are you alright now?" Jill asked.

Sarah nodded. "Sorry about that." She said softly with her head bowed.

"About what?" Mike asked.

"Falling apart like that." Sarah replied.

"You've gone through more in the last couple of weeks than most people do in their entire lives! I'm not going to fault you because it gets to you every now and then." Mike replied.

Jill smiled at his response. "He's a sweetie, isn't he?" she said, wrapping an arm around his waist and giving him a squeeze.

Sarah finally looked up at that, smiling at them weakly. "Yeah, he's great." She agreed.

"What did you do to the girl with glowing hands, anyway?" Mike asked curiously.

Sarah shrugged and said, "I'm not sure how I did it, but I opened two portals and linked them together. So her blast passed through one portal and came out the other and hit her from behind."

"I didn't even know you could keep two portals open at the same time, let alone link them together." Mike said, impressed.

"I didn't either." Sarah admitted. "It just seemed like the thing to do at the time. I'm just glad it worked, I don't think I could have shrugged off that blast like she did."

"I'm glad it worked, too. I'm also glad you weren't really going to leave that boy there as a girl if he didn't apologize." Said Jill.

"Of course she wasn't!" Mike said in her defense.

Sarah shook her head, "No way!"

"How did you know?" Mike asked Jill, sensing there was something more to this.

Jill fidgeted a bit before saying, "You remember that conversation we had with Laura?" Mike nodded, "She was right. At first I was worried Sarah might actually leave him like that, but then I could feel that she wouldn't."

"What are you talking about?" Sarah asked, looking confused.

"When you were working with Melanie we had a chat with Laura. She said our spirits are awake, too, though not nearly as powerful as yours. She said you had some different kind of bond with Mike, and that I might be able to learn to do some of the things they could do. She said they could hear thoughts and feelings, and I think that's what happened with me today." Jill explained with a worried expression.

"WHAT?!" Sarah exclaimed in panic, looking like she was about to make a run for it.