"So you quit the internship," said Reginald.

"Yes, I did," said Genesis. She was sitting at the dinner table with her dad Reginald, stepmom Paulette, and stepsister Ramona, having just told them about what had happened with Lucas at Pride Laboratories.

"You know, most people don't quit jobs or internships without putting in a 2-week notice," said Reginald. "That would be the professional thing to do."

"I know," said Genesis. "But now that Lucas Jacobson has shown his true colors..."

"Do you think he'll still try to get you to give him your DNA?" Paulette asked.

"I don't think he can," said Genesis. "I'm not under his employment anymore, so..."

Paulette shook her head. "Well, I don't like the sound of Mr. Jacobson," she said. "I think, going forward, you should be very careful. If you see anything unusual, do not hesitate to call 911."

"I won't," said Genesis.

***

Nothing unusual happened over the weekend. By the time Genesis got to school on Monday morning, she'd mostly stopped worrying that Lucas Jacobson would come knocking on her door. But she should've known better to be lulled into a false sense of security.

After her Homeroom class, Genesis made a detour to the office. Mr. Aaron had given her some paperwork that he needed to get to the principal, but he was too busy to deliver himself. So Genesis went to the office to hand the folder of paperwork to Mrs. Velasco. After that, Genesis got sidetracked again when she ran into Charlotte, who was going to need a ride to cheer practice after school, and therefore needed to coordinate with Genesis so she could hitch a ride with her and Ramona. Genesis had barely finished talking to Charlotte when the bell rang, indicating that First Period had officially started.

"Oh, shit," said Genesis.

"Sorry to hold you up," said Charlotte.

"That's okay," said Genesis. She turned and left to go to her First Period class. However, once she got to the building where her First Period class was held, she heard an alarm go off over the loudspeaker.

Genesis' heart stopped. She knew that alarm. Her school had done several intruder drills, and they'd trained the students to recognize the "shelter in place" alarm. She hadn't heard anything about a drill being planned for today, so this must've been the real deal. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her to her First Period classroom. "Let me in!" she cried, banging on the door. But there was no answer. "Come on, please!" Still nothing.

Genesis cursed. No one in the classrooms would let her in. They'd been drilled on what to do if there was an intruder in the school. Every student and teacher was told not to open their locked doors if someone came banging and begging to come in. She was going to have to find somewhere else to hide. She looked around frantically and saw the bathrooms right down the hall. She ran for the bathroom, threw the door open, and entered. It took her a moment to realize that it wasn't all stalls. There were urinals, too. That meant she'd gone into the boys' bathroom.

"Oh my..." Genesis laughed in spite of the circumstances. She'd actually walked into the boys' bathroom! She'd been using the girls' bathroom for so many months now, the boys' one felt almost foreign. Which was weird, since this was the bathroom she'd used when she was Gene. Genesis thought of the celebrities Saige Johnson and Zoe Fletcher, who'd been turned into girls when they accidentally went into enchanted bathrooms at school. Except...this bathroom wasn't enchanted, was it? Would it turn Genesis back into Gene? But when Genesis looked in the bathroom mirror, she still saw her female self in it, with no signs of changing. So...

She was interrupted from her thoughts when she heard gunshots from the hall outside the bathroom. Genesis darted into one of the stalls, locked the door, and got up onto the toilet. She kept her head down and her feet off the floor so the intruder wouldn't know she was in there. But, to her horror, she heard the bathroom door open.

"Where are you, Miss Rookwood?" a gruff voice asked.

Genesis didn't dare to breath. This intruder was after her!

"Gone back into the boys' bathroom, huh?" the intruder asked. "Guess your old habits didn't die, did they?" He started banging open the stall doors one by one until he got to the stall where Genesis was hiding. He hit the door and found that it was locked. "Oh!" he said with malice. "I've found you now..."

The intruder got down on his hands and knees and crawled underneath the stall door. Which was pretty gross, but he obviously didn't care. When he stuck his head in, Genesis saw that he was dressed in all black with a helmet that hid his face. "There you are!" he said. He drew his gun and aimed it at Genesis' head. Genesis hopped down from the toilet and kicked the intruder's face. The intruder grunted and dropped his gun. Genesis took the chance to drop down on all fours and then crawl into the next stall over. The intruder grabbed at Genesis' ankles, but she evaded his grasp.

Genesis got to the end of the line of stalls and came out outside the last stall. But, unfortunately, the intruder had already gotten out of the stall and was standing in her way. "Oh, you're not gonna get away that easily," he said. He grabbed Genesis by the wrist and pinned her against the wall. "It's you I need." He drew a knife and held it up to Genesis' neck.

"What do you want?" Genesis asked.

"That's not for you to know," said the intruder.

Suddenly, the bathroom door burst open, and a policeman charged in. "Drop the knife!" he shouted. The intruder was so shocked, he did so. "Let that young lady go!"

The intruder reluctantly let go of Genesis and raised his hands in a surrender. "I was too slow," he grumbled.

"You are coming with me," the policeman said as he put the intruder in handcuffs. "Are you okay?"

Genesis nodded. She watched as the policeman escorted the now-handcuffed intruder out of the bathroom. But when they were gone, she noticed something on the floor. It was the intruder's wallet, which had fallen out of his pocket during the struggle.

"What the..." Genesis knew it was wrong to look inside other people's wallets, but she felt strangely curious. She picked up the wallet, opened it, and saw the array of cards inside. Most of them were debit/credit cards and gift cards, but there was the person's business card in the front. When Genesis read it, she almost had a heart attack.

Perry Flemming
Recruiting Agent
Pride Laboratories

***

After the school was given the all-clear signal, Genesis was taken into the office for questioning about her encounter with the intruder. Genesis told them everything-including the evidence that the guy was from Pride Laboratories.

"Pride Laboratories?" Mrs. Velasco asked.

"Yeah, I know, it's weird," said Genesis. She didn't tell her about Lucas' request of her, since that would lead to a lot of awkward questions.

"Well, we'll be getting in touch with them," said Mrs. Velasco. "See if they know anything about their employee conducting a school shooting."

Genesis said nothing. She had a pretty good idea of what would happen. Lucas would deny any involvement, but that would be a lie. He'd sent one of his employees to attack Genesis and get her blood.

"Genesis, I'm very sorry that this happened," said Mrs. Velasco. "Would you like to go home early?"

"Yes," said Genesis.

"I thought you'd say that," said Mrs. Velasco. "I'll give Ramona permission to leave early too, so she can drive you home."

***

Five minutes later, Genesis and Ramona were out in front of the school, getting into Ramona's car. "So you think Lucas sent someone to attack you?" Ramona asked.

"Yes," Genesis answered. Even though there were police vehicles surrounding the school, she still felt on edge. "He really wants my blood for his gender-changing serum."

Ramona gritted her teeth. "Too bad you have that rare form of anemia," she said. "Or else you could've just given him some of your blood with no problem."

"What are we gonna do now?" Genesis asked. "What if Lucas keeps sending people to try to force me to give him my blood? What if someone really does get hurt-or worse?"

"I don't know," Ramona admitted. "But I do know one thing: with Lucas out to get you, you're not safe."

"We need to get him blood from another man who was magically turned into a woman," said Genesis. "Once he has that, then he'll probably stop coming after me."

"Well...the only people like that are those TG celebrities," said Ramona. "Lanie Evans, Zoe Fletcher, Olivia Walker..."

"We have to track down one of them," said Genesis. "See if we can talk them into donating their blood."

"You think they'll actually do it?"

"Why wouldn't they?"

"Mmmm...."

"Look, we can't go to the police about this," said Genesis. "They'd never believe us if we told them I was a changed boy. There's literally no evidence to back us up."

"Genesis, Lucas is sending people out to hurt-and potentially kill-you. That's more than enough reason for the police to intervene."

"Lucas is a smart person. After today, he'll make sure to hire someone who's not part of his company. Maybe a local hitman or something. Then the police wouldn't be able to trace it back to him."

Ramona sighed. "I guess," she said. "So...who should we go to for their blood?"

"Not Zoe Fletcher," said Genesis. "She's a different case, because she can shift from one gender to the other. Lucas wants to make a serum that'll permanently change your gender."

"So Olivia Walker, or Saige Johnson," said Ramona.

"Or Rachel Miller."

"Rachel Miller?"

"Yeah. She's in Georgia, which is closer to here than Illinois."

Ramona nodded. "Okay," she said. "So we'll talk to our parents-"

"Are you kidding? They'd never let us do this!" said Genesis.

"You're right," Ramona admitted. "I guess I'll have to drive you to Atlanta myself."

"And someone else, too," said Genesis.

"What? Who?"

"I met someone at Pride Laboratories who used to be friends with Rachel," said Genesis. "If we take him with us, then maybe it'll increase the chances of Rachel being willing to help us."

"You think?"

"It's the best plan I have," said Genesis.

"Alright," said Ramona. "I just hope you're right about this..."

To be continued...