The Dark of the Moon: Josette Story, Chapter 3

By Christopher Leeson

THE DARK OF THE MOON: Josette's Story Chapter 3

BY CHRISTOPHER LEESON

Posted 04-29-25
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Josette's next awakening hit her like a blast of cold water. This wasn't a bad dream. It was reality. She was living the life of a blonde girl! When she looked at herself in the mirror, she reeled. The teen desperately hoped the next new moon would solve her problems. Otherwise, living out her life in girl shape would be a daunting challenge.

She thought that dealing with Josie’s friends would be her biggest problem. They recalled a nonexistent friend and therefore knew more about Josette Melford than she did! To fake her way through the long weeks, she had to learn everything she could about people’s expectations about Josie—a monumental task.

After showering in her pajamas, Josette stood dripping in front of Josie's closet, still wearing the dripping nightgown. Changing into Josie’s clothes felt like yielding to circumstances. With gritted teeth, she searched the closet and dresser drawers for jeans, plain shirts, and sneakers. But around Josie, such garments were as rare as gold nuggets.

Seemingly, Josie had the same sense of fashion as Tiffany Malloy from Unhappily Ever After. Why had her mom allowed her to go about like a sex bomb?

Josette leaned back against the wall and gave a moaning sigh. What else was in store for her while she lived this crazy life? According to the instruction sheet, a person who used the magic oil gained not only the appearance of his ideal girl, but would experience her tastes and feelings, too.

After donning the least feminine outfit she could scrounge together, Josette descended the stairs as if the electric chair was waiting for her in the living room. The fragrant smell of coffee and toast drifted in from the kitchen.

Josette's next awakening hit her like a blast of cold water. Sunlight streamed through unfamiliar curtains, and the reality crashed down on her—this wasn't a bad dream. She was living the life of a blonde girl she didn’t know! Could she go back to normal? Even if the enchantment ended after a month, over that time, she’d have to act differently from herself while keeping the truth hidden from everyone.

"How am I going to handle Josie's friends?" she asked her reflection. They’d have expectations, memories, and inside jokes that Josette couldn’t know. To succeed, she had to discover and memorize every aspect of Josie’s existence—a monumental task.

After forcing herself through a shower wearing her pajamas, Josette stood in front of the closet in her dripping nightgown. She needed real clothes, but voluntarily putting on girls’ clothes felt like surrendering to the situation. With gritted teeth, she started searching for the most gender-neutral items she could find—jeans, plain shirts, sneakers. But Josie's wardrobe had other ideas.

"Damn it," she muttered, pushing aside another ruffled top. Josie had the fashion sense of Tiffany Malloy from Unhappily Ever After—a super minx of calculated sex appeal and cunning manipulation.

What made everything worse was that, according to the instruction sheet, the oil user gained not only the appearance of a car-stopping girl, but her tastes and feelings too. And who knew what those were? After putting on the least flashy outfit she could assemble, Josette made her way downstairs. The smell of coffee and toast filled the kitchen, where her mother was already seated at the table, scrolling through her phone. Loren had learned that his mother was a busy person, so he had gotten used to serving himself at meals. Josette sat across from her parent with a fully laden plate.

“Are you feeling better?” Lynette Melford asked.

“Yeah, quite a bit. My appetite is coming back.”

“That’s good!”

Josette stirred her cereal absently.

“Why so glum?” her mother asked.

Josette made up a reason. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Dad. I have a brother and a sister, but I hardly know them."I’m sorry. You dad has a high-pressure job now, and it’s hard for him to take tended trips away from home. If you’re missing him, I wish you could have mentioned it. We could have arranged for you to visit, but now school is opening soon."

“I hadn’t considered it before now.”

“I’d love to chat more, sweetheart, but I’m busy with the church rummage sale committee tomorrow. You could come and help me if you wish to.”

"I don’t feel like learning new things,” Josette said, then added quickly, "I've already started reading about meditation. Maybe that will help."

"Meditation?" Her mother raised an eyebrow. "That's a new one for you. I'm sorry I've been keeping myself so busy. We need more time together."

"Yes, we do, Mom," Josette agreed with a sigh.

When her mom left, Josette welcomed the solitude. She needed to learn more about her new self and soe revisited her room, approaching the large trunk she hadn’t bothered with. Inside, Josette discovered a treasure trove of Halloween-type outfits Halloween brand: Sexy Playboy Bunny, Sexy Princess Leia, Sexy Swashbuckler, and a Red Riding Hood outfit certified to pop the eyes out of any big bad wolf.

Loren enjoyed seeing girls wearing fantasy costumes, but for Josette to get into a Leg Avenue outfit was a no-go. She thought carefully while running her fingers over the fabric of the many costumes. For how many parties had Josie required so many outfits? Or did she just collect them, like some girls collected stuffed animals?

Having learned nothing from the trunk, Josette closed it and pulled out the magical instruction sheet again. She could only talk safely to persons similarly affected by the oil, it had stated. Fat chance of finding anyone else in that situation!

The only person she could usefully transform would be her mother, but the sheet had said that only boys could be transformed, not women. This meant she couldn’t transform her mother to be able to safely confide in her.

Josette flopped onto the bed, feeling more isolated than ever. The prospect of returning to school as a female filled her with dread. How could she maintain this deception for so long?

“I’ll have to stay isolated,” she told herself. “And avoid Josie's social circles. They could trip me up in a thousand different ways.”

She picked up Josie's phone and turned it on to check past emails. Many of them were from someone named Leah.

The latest text said, "Why is your phone off? Are you dying or something? If you're still alive, please, please answer me!"

Josette typed out a response. "Sorry, Leah! Still feeling awful. Super-contagious foreign flu. Staying home. We'll see how I feel on Monday. Have fun without me!"

She again switched off her phone to avoid further contact. With luck, Leah would spread the word, and people would stop calling her.

The girl returned to studying the photos stored on the phone. Various faces appeared with Josie -- presumably her friends—— but which one was Leah?

The high school yearbook provided answers. Josette paged through it until she found the only Leah in the junior class. The girl looked familiar. As Loren, she'd seen that face around school. Leah was one of those untouchable popular girls who brushed off any guy below varsity status. She always hanging out with the letterman crowd. Dating cheerleaders elevated a boy’s social standing, which was a privilege unavailable to people called nerds.

When Josette felt hungry, she went to the kitchen and enjoyed a lunch of fried dough with butter and honey. Then, reluctantly, Josette went back to her studies.

The afternoon slipped away. Around five, footsteps sounded downstairs. Josette hurried downstairs, an idea taking shape.

"Mom!"

Lynette Melford looked back at her, surprised by her daughter's enthusiastic tone. "What is it, honey?"

"I want to visit grandma and grandpa! Just until school starts. I can pack tonight and drive to Licksville tomorrow."

"What's the sudden rush?"

Josette kept her voice casual. “I’d enjoy a long, relaxing visit with the old folks before classes resume.

"What brought this on?"

"I'm just... tired of being at the beck and call of l my Westbrook friends. They have no imagination, and their ideas are stale. I need a break from them."
“Stale? How?”

“They don’t know what’s cool! Like comics, games, and action movies.”

“Do you like those topics?” asked her mother bemusedly.

“I’m learning how much fun they can be.”

Her mother studied her face for a long moment. “Mom and Dad should be pleased you’re coming. I will contact them to determine if this is a suitable visiting time for you.”

Josette fast-walked toward the stairs. "I'll start packing now!" she called back. Upstairs, she made even more disorder, packing. She selected mostly clothes, since Josie didn’t have the sci-fi books and comics that Loren would have liked to take on a trip.

#

The drive provided Josette with considerable time to think. By the time she pulled into their gravel driveway, her hands on the steering wheel were trembling. She was suddenly afraid to show herself to her grandparents. Would the magic be consistent? Would they even know who she was? At that moment, her grandmother Emma came hurrying out the front door, arms outstretched.

"Josie! We're so happy to see you! Joe! Josie’s here!” she called over her shoulder.

Josette was relieved that her grandmother remembered her—or rather, she remembered Josie. Wherever that magic came from, it was powerful! "H-Hi Grams," she managed to say, despite a catch in her voice.

"There's the princess who’s named after me!" Shouted her grandfather, Joseph, from the door. Grandpa would never admit that his granddaughter had not been named after him, but rather after a soap opera character. His bear hug lifted the much smaller girl off her feet. "Emma’s been cooking up a storm ever since your mom called."

The coziness of their home made Josette feel less exposed than she had at home. Her grandparents were effusive in their hospitality—fresh-baked cookies, cold milk, and rapid-fire updates about all the activities they had planned for her. Despite her anxiety, Josette relaxed.

That evening, after dinner, Emma showed Josette to the guest room. "We haven’t had to change anything in it since your last visit," she said. There are pajamas on the dresser. "Sleep well, pet."

Left alone, Josette donned a floral pair of pajamas with a shirt and pants. At least they weren’t a babydoll!

Josette stayed close to the house over the weekend. She had brought photos and the journal books from home and continued to memorize names and faces. Her grandparents showered her with attention, but they didn't press for engagement when she grew quiet or wished to retreat to her room. Early Monday morning, Grandpa took Grandma off to an appointment, leaving their granddaughter on her own recognizance.

As soon as their car disappeared, she went to check out the things she'd brought from home. Before Josette could stop herself, she was experimenting with lipstick and powder. After that, she slid into a party dress with a swishy skirt. Suddenly the idea of dressing up like one of the hot girls at school excited her.

She wanted to see if she could achieve the Tiffany Malloy. Loren had watched TV with eyes glued on every abbreviated outfit that Tiffany had worn. Now she found herself wondering if she could look as hot as actress Nikki Cox had looked. She had brought a couple alluring outfits from home, either one suitable for a town outing.

Wearing the shortest dress she had brought, Josette got ready and drove into Licksburg. In a public parking lot, she suddenly lost her nerve. She sat for ten minutes, debating whether to have a sexy excursion or to hurry back to the country house unseen.

Finally, she left the car, taking with her one of Josie’s purses, since her dress didn’t have any pockets. Wearing a short dress, she found, felt even cooler than Loren was used to when wearing trunks as a boy. Despite her pride in her appearance, being looked at by males on the street disconcerted her.

Part of her wanted to get out of sight and buy a pair of jeans, but another part of her felt delightfully wicked. She felt some kind of a charge from being able to make people turn and look.

Wherever that feeling came from, it was getting stronger. Some force compelled Josette to halt before the show window of Claudette’s Boudoir. Claudette’s was one of a new chain of lingerie shops that had stolen Victoria's Secret's thunder. The latter had given up on angels and started pushing merchandise to plus-size women and girls with knobby knees.

Josette felt a thrill. She now understood she could enter a place like that and stare to heart’s content at provocative clothing without coming off as a degenerate.

"Can I help you find anything?" The female sales clerk asked, smiling warmly.

“I’m just browsing,” Josette said. She hadn't been planning to buy anything, but with the salesgirl’s encouragement, consented to being tape-measured. By some strange alchemy, she the store an hour later, carrying a bag full of lacy, skimpy things. Josette had even bought a new pair of babydoll pajamas! Unbelievably, she was even looking forward to wearing them to bed that night.

But the teen felt a sudden jolt of fear. The sheet had warned that the magic could change a fellow’s likes and tastes. Josie’s collection of naughty fashions warned her that her alter ego had looked at young miss clothing that way.

But despite her misgivings, Josette felt exhilaration. Next, Miss Melford was ready for a café lunch. But crossing the dining area in two-inch heels tripped her up–literally. When she grabbed at a table to break her fall, it tipped over, and she smacked down on the tiles surrounded by chaos. Everyone looked at her sprawled there. Mortification made her face burn.

"I'm so sorry!" she gasped to the staff as they rushed up to help. Despite her rescue by a kind, unbiased manager, the teen left the café unnoticed the first chance she got.

Trying to shake off the embarrassment, Josette wandered into another boutique. A mannequin wearing a slinky, backless dress caught her eye. Lorne had always liked dresses that were tight, scoop-necked, and with sky-high hems. She was still admiring how provocative the dummy looked when a familiar voice coming from behind made her freeze.

"That dress would make you a killer, Josie. Are you going to try it on?"

The teen looked back and recognized the girl behind her. It was Amber Somethingorother from the cheer squad at Westbrook High. Josette’s face flushed hotly.

"Oh, I don’t know…." she stammered.

"Don't be shy!" Amber raised her hand to signal a salesgirl. "Try it on. I insist!"

Before Josette could protest coherently, she was wearing that hot black number, taking in her reflection in the boutique's three-way mirror. Amber bounced with enthusiasm. "Buy it!" the cheerleader urged.

Josette shook her head. “I’ve just started shopping. I’m not a money pit, and I might find something I like even better if I keep looking.”

Amber shrugged. "Suite yourself. Come on, I’m hungry. My favorite cafe is near here.”

“Do you come to Licksville often?” Josette asked to change the subject.

“My mother’s home office is here, and I sometimes travel with her. I like small cities better than large ones. Don’t you?”

“I guess I do,” said Josette.

#

Over yogurt and salads, Amber regaled Josette with horror stories about thoughtless boyfriends. Josette disliked her friends’ condescending attitude toward boys, but at least she was getting to lunch with an attractive girl. But Josette found Amber’s incessant girl-talk dull and difficult to engage with.

"Come out with me and Steve this weekend!" said Amber, leaning forward, her yogurt forgotten. "The gang on Friday night is hitting the rink. And Brad has been asking about you.”

“Brad?” The girl couldn’t imagine who that was.

“He likes you, as if you didn’t know!” She punctuated this statement with an exaggerated wink.

Josette managed a weak smile. The thought of being pawed by some handsy boy made her skin crawl. "I won’t be back in Westbrook until a couple of days before school starts, Amber. Anyway, my grandparents have something planned for us Friday night," she said carefully.

Soon after, Amber left to rejoin her mom, leaving Josette feeling grateful to be alone again.

#

That evening, back in the country home, Josette collapsed onto her bed. Despite having liked the more attentive treatment she'd received from business people, being viewed publicly as a girl and, especially, her public stumble at lunch, embarrassed her. But, overall, the wild and woolly ride had been interesting in a weird way.

Did being physically attractive alone explain the better reception she had received? She had now experienced firsthand the well-known truth that people treated girls differently than they treated boys. The thing that bothered her most, however, was the odd feelings she had felt while going about town as a girl. She was worried that the magic was doing things to her below the surface. If it was interfering with the way she thought, the way she reacted to things, that was worrisome.

Like, what if it zapped her into liking boys?

Before getting under the covers, Josette put on the sexy pajamas she had bought in town. She afterward lay on her side, studying her reflection in the mirror. Wearing those shortie, pastel-colored pajamas, she could almost imagine herself as being a worthy rival for Tiffany Malloy.

Before Josette knew it, she dropped off to sleep, her expression made sweet by a tiny smile on her bow-like lips.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER FOUR