Mom parked the car in the garage and shut off the engine. As we got out to go into the house Jacob decided that it would be a good time to stop by. This time, mom had locked the door so I had to wait on her to come over and open it.

“Hello, Mrs. Fisher.” Jacob said.

Mom turned to look at Jacob. “Oh, Hi Jacob. What brings you by?”

“Just wondering how Justin is feeling, haven’t seen him around much lately.”

“He’s actually at his Aunt Sharon’s for a few weeks, His cousin Emma is visiting though…”

Jacob looked at me and smiled. I smiled back and blushed at the same time. Now I think I knew how every girl that I had ever ogled felt. The wind started to blow and the hem on my dress started to rise. I still wasn’t sure how girls ever got used to the feeling of the wind blowing up their skirts. It made me feel vulnerable and that still scared me. I heard the phone in the house start ringing, and Mom used that as an excuse to get me into the house. I think that Mom could tell that I was getting uncomfortable. As a boy I still hadn’t started to really look closely at girls and as a girl I was uninterested in boys. I made it into the house and to the phone in time for it to stop ringing and my cell phone to start ringing. Pulling the phone out of the pocket on my dress, I saw that the caller was Abby.

“Hello.” I said into the phone, aware that my voice didn’t sound quite right.

“Hey, Emma, what’s wrong?’ Abby asked. I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not that Abby could just hear my voice and know that something wasn’t right.

“I think that Jacob likes me like that…” I stammered into the phone.

“Jacob Westfield?” She asked. She knew of most of the kids in my class that I may interact with.

“Yeah,” I said as Mom came in the door. “He was looking at me the same way I’ve looked at girls and it kind of made me uncomfortable. Also, Mom told him that I’m my own cousin as well, and I think that may cause problems later if Emma goes to school.”

“Hmm… I can see that causing problems. What do you mean that the way he looked at you made you uncomfortable?”

“It’s hard to explain, almost like I was prey and he was the hunter. Do you still get that feeling?”

“Yeah, I do.” Abby said. “You think that your mom would let us try to go to the mall again? Dad can take us over.” The last time we had gone to the mall, we had a run in with Shane Barker and a few of his friends. Mom had been hesitant to let me out of the house alone since then.

“I don’t know.” I said. “I can ask.”

“Ask what?” Mom said, overhearing that part of the conversation.

“If I can go to the mall with Abby.” I said, biting my lip.

“Who is taking you?” Mom asked.

“Her dad said he would run us over. We’ll be good, I promise.”

“I know you would. And it’s ok if you go, just try not to have any run ins with Shane or his cronies.”

“Thanks Mommy.” I said. I had a feeling that Abby had heard the entire conversation.

“We’ll be by in about twenty minutes to pick you up. I need to finish getting ready.”

I smiled. “Ok, I’ll be ready. See you in twenty minutes.” Mom was digging around in her purse, probably looking for money to give me. She handed me some cash and smiled.

“Maybe I can get some work for Tom done while you are gone and and Rachel is at Lizzy’s.” Mom said. “Call if you need anything.”

“I will.” I said, walking over to give Mom a hug. I had spoken to Dr. Williams about going to school as Emma, and based on what she could tell and the fact that only one person that I knew had made me at all was pretty impressive. We still needed to talk about it some more, but for the moment, I think she was leaning toward giving that a go ahead. Of course, I looked like a girl and got more ribbing for looking like on than I did a boy, but that was a different story.

“We are going to be going out with Daniel, Abby and Nicole for dinner tonight, so try not to eat anything when you two are at the mall. I’m sure that Abby will be getting told the same thing.” Mom said and then picked up the stack of papers that she had placed on the table.

“Ok.” I replied. Mom and I had eaten on the way home from Dr. Williams office, so I wasn’t that hungry right now anyway.

“I’m going to the den, if you need something before you leave, that’s where you can find me.” With that, I ran upstairs and changed out of the sandals I wore and into a pair of gladiator sandals. I figured that wearing the flat sandals would be easier on my feet than walking around in the two inch cork bottomed sandals. When I got back to the bottom of the steps, there was a knock on the door. I opened it to reveal Abby, who was smiling and wearing a knee length white skirt and a pale pink tee shirt. My own sundress was a pink plaid, and hit about the same place that her skirt did.

“Mom!” I shouted down the hall, so that Mom could hear me. “I’m leaving with Abby. See you in a few hours.”

“Ok, Have fun and be good.” Mom’s voice floated down the hall. I stepped out in to the sun, pulled the door shut and followed Abby to her dad’s Tahoe. After buckling in, we were off to the mall.