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Image Credit: Modified from Quizilla.Teennick.com - Eden. ~Landing

Author's Note: There is no connection between the novel by Harlan Ellison and my story except perhaps that we both just chose something simple that describes the story. :)

This is a fan fiction, the Whateleyverse and all canon characters are the property of their respective writers. If you find your life being depicted in this story you it is purely accidental and you have a hell of a lot more to worry about than suing me. No canon characters have been hurt in the writing of this story...yet.

Many thanks to GinnCaster5 for the editing help, without Ginn this story would probably be unreadable. And to Sleethr and beyogi for their read through.

This is a Whateley Academy fan fiction story, you can find the Whateley stories at http://www.crystalhall.org/ I highly recommend them. ~Landing

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Chapter 13
 

“All right, we have been at this for an hour; it’s time to take a break from the girl zone and shop somewhere manly, or at least neutral.”

“Well, I don’t think there is a hardware store in the mall, so how does Barnes and Nobles sound?” asked Brook, trying not to laugh at my pleading tone.

“Oh! I want to get a book too. I just borrowed the first Twilight book from a friend, and I want to get the second one,” said Kelly.

“You just had to go and turn a trip to a bookstore into a girly thing, didn’t you?”

We split up when we got to the bookstore, Kelly to find her sparkly vampire fiction and Brook to look in the thriller section. She liked books with lots of action and explosions. I wandered around the store, since my taste in books was rather eclectic. I never really settled down on any one genre of books to like, so one day I might be reading a fantasy book and the next day a western or a history book; it really just depended on what I was in the mood for. I don’t know if it was just chance wonderings or if my subconscious had been doing some sneaky piloting on its own, but I ended up in a section devoted to the entertainment world. I thumbed through a few books on Hollywood celebrities and one book on the topic of reality television and what it meant, which as far as I was concerned should read something about it being one of the first signs of the apocalypse, when my eyes caught on something.

‘Legend of the Lampposts, the story of the first mutant rock band and their rise and fall’. I excitedly pulled out the book to see that, yes, it was what I had thought it was about. On the cover was a picture of four people, three men and a woman, all striking poses while wearing clothes that could only have been cool in the eighties. Center of the lot was a younger Kent, or I guess it was Deathknell, with the way he was dressed up, hand raised as if ready to play on the guitar he held in the other.

I flipped the cover open and glanced through the table of contents to try and get a feel for what the book would be like. It had a number of chapters starting with ‘Mystery, where did they come from?’ and going on down through things like ‘Pranks, or Villainy?’, ‘The English tour’, and ‘The Lampposts hear the Deathknell of the band’. This seemed to be what I had been looking for without even thinking of it, a perspective on Kent that wasn’t from either him or my mom.

I closed the book with a snap and went to see if the other two had found what they wanted yet. Brook ended up finding me at the same time I found her. She had a stack of about seven thick paperbacks, most of them with authors name’s printed in raised letters just that little bit larger than the actual title itself, and inevitably, one of the books had the silhouette of a fighter jet on it.

Brook grinned a little sheepishly at me. “It’s hard to just get one; they're like potato chips.”

I just rolled my eyes, well used to her excessive purchase of novels. It took us a bit of searching, but eventually we found Kelly curled up in a short comfy chair, her nose buried in a thick black and red book. I leaned in close to her and whispered in my best Transylvanian accent, “I vant to suck you blood!”

She rolled her eyes and closed the book, unaffected by my attempt at scaring her. “It’s not that kind of vampire book. It’s all about love, not scary monsters.”

“What’s good about a book about vampires if they aren’t out stalking the night looking for victims to drain of blood?” I asked.

“Well, there are also werewolves,” put in Brook.

“And do they stalk the night looking for victims to maul?”

“Nooo... but they do go around without shirts on a lot.”

“Because they lost it while hunting down human prey, right?”

“I’m afraid not.”

I sighed with mock disappointment. “Books just aren’t what they used to be.”

“Enough you two! This is not the comedy hour!” said Kelly, smiling. “Besides, I think you should try reading these, Eden. From the way you were watching those two guys show off their muscles, you might like the books.”

“I wasn’t…I… what are you talking about?!”

“What?” asked Brook, raising a surprised eyebrow.

“Yeah, Eden was totally checking out these two hot guys when we were in Macy’s.”

“Were you?” asked Brook.

“Of course I wasn’t! I don’t like guys! This is just stupid!” I replied hotly.

“Calm down Eden, Kelly is just teasing you. You don’t have to get so upset.”

I glared at the two of them, “It’s not funny! How would you like to be in my shoes and someone teasing you about liking girls?”

They had the decency to look slightly ashamed of themselves. “Sorry Adam, I shouldn’t have said that. I know how hard all of this is for you,” said Kelly, actual tears of remorse starting to form in her eyes.

My anger left me, and it was my turn to feel slightly ashamed; they were just teasing me, I didn’t need to react so strongly. I knew I liked women, the reaction I had in the Watchers' shower room this morning proved that.

“It’s all right, don’t worry about it,” I said, bending down to give my sister a quick hug. “Let’s go buy our books, then I guess it’s time for my haircut,” I said the last bit with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. I just knew it was going to be another chance for the two of them to play dress-up with me being the live doll.

As we were waiting our turn in line, I noticed one of those conspiracy type tabloids, all exclamation mark and people looking shocked because apparently they had Bigfoot's baby through artificial insemination by space men. What got my attention on this one were the big bold words reading, ‘EXPOSAY OF SECRET SUPERHERO SCHOOL!!!’ Maybe there was more truth to these things than I thought, after all, I was going to private school for mutants. I picked up the tabloid and flipped through the thin, cheaply made paper.

‘Dr. Amazing, Man Mountain, Galaxy Girl have demon love child!!!’

‘Secret bastard child vows revenge on all Goodkinds, takes over Marvel!!!’

‘Demon defeated by school girls of pure faith!!!’

‘Man in the moon watching us!!!’

I had to snicker at some of the headlines; yeah they got lucky with the ‘superhero’ school thing; everything else was just too ridiculous to be real. Looks like MIB was wrong after all.

We had spent enough time in the bookstore that we needed to hurry along in order to make my appointment with the haircutter, excuse me, stylist. It wasn’t without trepidation that I presented myself to the woman at the front desk. “I have a 6:00 appointment…”

“Are you Eden or Anne?”

“Eden…”

“Alright dearie, you’re going to be with Marina; she’ll be with you in just a moment. Take a seat over there,” she said, gesturing to a row of black padded chairs.

“We really haven’t talked about it yet, but what kind of haircut do you want, Eden?” asked Brook, turning slightly in her chair to face me.

“I was thinking of getting it cut short; I don’t want to mess with it all the time,” I said, trying to sound firm.

That immediately set of a flurry of protests from them.

“But you have such beautiful hair…”

“You can’t do that…”

“Oh come on guys,” I tried, “Maybe y’all like having long hair, but it’s nothing but a bother to me.”

Of course that wasn’t the end of it; they kept on thinking up reasons why I shouldn’t chop my hair off, and I kind of tuned them out and just sat staring into the distance. I noticed a tall woman glancing at me in a curious way. I briefly made eye contact, and it seemed to me she made a decision. She went over to the check-in booth and spoke to the receptionist I had talked to upon arriving. They exchanged a few quiet words, then the woman started towards us.

“Hi, Eden? I’m Sophie. I switched with Marina so I’m going to be your stylist today. Why don’t you come with me, and I’ll get you shampooed.”

The three of us started to get up, but Sophie waved my two companions back. “Just Eden; we have a customer’s only policy for the back room.”

I shrugged at them, then followed the large woman through a pair of doors to a room with reclining chairs and sinks lining the walls, each separated from the others by walls that came out a short ways to each side. Sophie led me to a chair down at the end of the room opposite from where everyone else was. I got in the chair, and she turned the water on.

“How does it feel? To hot? To cold?”

“It’s a little cold.”

She adjusted the temperature some and started lathering up my hair with a shampoo that had a faint floral scent. I noticed her hands were a bit on the large side, but I guess when you used them to work on hair all day they can get a little muscular. “So, were those your friends who were with you?” Sophie asked.

“Uh, yeah, the older one is Brook, my best friend, and the smaller is my sister Kelly.”

“It’s nice that you get along with your sister; I haven’t seen my sister in years. We had a fight and haven’t talked since.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said. I was lucky that my sister had been so accepting of what happened to me; it could have been a lot worse.

“Oh, it’s okay dear. I was always closest to my Gran anyway. Now she was a character. She used to work in a circus as a palm reader and fortune teller.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes, and the thing is she wasn’t just some scam artist; she really did have a gift. It was amazing the things she could know about a person just from looking,” said Sophie as she massaged my scalp in a way that really felt good.

“Hmm...”

She must have found my tone less than convinced because she continued. “Don’t believe me? The thing is, I inherited some of her gift too. Not as strong as her, mind you, but I can still tell things about some people. For instance, I can tell that you don’t like being a girl, you consider yourself male on the inside.”

“What? How did you!” I would have shot up in the chair, but she held me down with one of her hands on my shoulder. Luckily it was covered with a towel, so she didn’t get any suds on my shirt.

“Calm down, I’m not making any judgments; the truth is that I’m the same way, though in the opposite direction.”

“You want to be a guy?” I asked.

“No, like I said I’m the same but in the opposite direction,” she took in my confusion. “I was born Michael.”

“Oh,” I took a second look at her. There were subtle signs but it wasn’t as obvious as I had been led to believe it would be. I had never really meet anyone like him, uh, her before. I was in Texas after all; you just didn’t seem to run into people that were different in that way very often unless you were in Austin or somewhere like that, or maybe it was just that they didn’t advertise it as much. I would never have known about Sophie if she hadn’t said anything. Considering my own situation, I probably needed to reevaluate some of my long-held beliefs on the subject.

“I thought you might like to have someone to talk about it with; it’s not easy growing up wanting to be the opposite sex in these parts.”

“But I didn’t!” I blurted out. “I am a guy!”

“Yes I know. It’s what’s on the inside that really matters, not what you are born as.”

“No, I mean I really am a guy,” I said, until I noticed Sophie’s confusion then added, “Well, I was until yesterday at least.”

She still seemed confused, though she went back to washing my hair. “My gift has always let me know when someone is in the LGBT community. If you’re dressing up as a girl for some kind of dare it shouldn’t have reacted…”

I sighed, and then made a decision. She already knew something strange was happening, so it probably wouldn’t hurt to let her in on a little more; besides, she had already trusted me with her secret. “Yesterday I was kidnapped by some kind of evil demonic cult, and they used some kind of magic on me to change me into a girl.” She looked a little dubious, “No really, I’m not making this up. My name was Adam.”

“Well, I must say, that wasn’t what I was expecting. I know some girls that would have loved to be in your shoes in that case. Something like this wasted on someone who didn’t want it,” she sighed, then seemed to consider what she had said. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way. I’m sure you wish it would have happened to someone else, too.”

I grimaced, “I’m pretty sure what happened was an accident. What they were aiming to turn me into probably had more tentacles than comes standard on most people.”

Sophie concentrated on rinsing out my hair for a moment before she started talking again. “I started realizing that my gender was wrong when I was fairly young; it was a horrible feeling not being in the body you are supposed to be in. I don’t know if it is worse for you, since it’s all suddenly thrust upon you, or better since you got to at least grow up as who you were supposed to be,” she shook her head as if she were shaking off the question. “But that doesn’t really matter. I try to give some support to the young LGBT people I spot, kind of lend an ear for anything they want to talk about. So what’s on your mind?”

I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to pour my feelings out to a complete stranger, even if she did have the same kind of problem I did, so I stuck with an issue that seemed safe enough. “My sister and Brook want me to keep my hair long; they keep blithering on about it being too nice to cut short, but I don’t like it. I don’t want to deal with long hair, and I don’t like the reminder of what happened!”

Sophie turned off the water and patted down my hair before having me follow her to one of the barber chairs along the wall in the same room where Kelly and Brook waited. Along with all the other paraphernalia of a stylist, there was also a row of pictures, mostly of smiling happy people, but there was also a picture of an older woman dressed up in an elaborate costume with a stern and mysterious air, though the twinkle in her eye belied that somewhat. Sophie put the plastic sheet around me to catch the falling hair and started talking again. “If you want it short, we can cut it short. Don’t let your loved ones pressure you into something you don’t want to do. They might have the best of intentions, but it’s still you that has to live with it.”

I was relieved to finally have some support against the onslaught of feminization that had been after me all day. Of course, it was then that Kelly and Brook came over to hover in the background.

“You don’t have a rule against us being here too, do you?” asked Brook, a hint of confrontation in her voice.

“No, it’s fine dear,” answered Sophie, smiling unconcernedly at the two of them before turning her concentration back to me.

“You’re not still thinking of cutting all your hair off are you Eden?” Kelly asked nervously.

“Well, yeah, I was.”

“You can’t do that Eden! You have such pretty hair! You could model for those hair care commercials it’s so nice. Ms. Sophie you tell her!” said Kelly.

“Actually I don’t see anything wrong with short hair if that is what Eden wants. It will look just as pretty short as it does long.”

Kelly gave the hair stylist a betrayed look for siding with the enemy. “Mom will be upset with you if you do it Eden.”

“No she won’t, you pest, and even if she was it’s not her decision. I’m the one that has to live with it,” I said, repeating what Sophie had just told me.

“You’re going to have to deal with a lot of shit from other people if you cut it too short, girls especially,” chimed in Brook.

I gave Sophie an inquiring glance, wondering if what Brook said was true.

She frowned, “Yes, there are some people who might make nasty comments if it is boyishly short, but most of those people aren’t worth paying attention too.”

Man, I really didn’t want to get hassled, not when I’m going to a new school where I knew nobody and had no one for backup.

Kelly must have sensed my wavering and pounced on the moment. “Look, Eden, why don’t you get it cut a few inches below your shoulders and see how you like it. You can always get it cut again if it’s too much bother,” she said in wheedling tones.

“Uh...” I said.

“If you don’t want it so short that you get remarks, we can go a little bit longer without going as far as your sister wants to do. Trust me, the hair will grow back if you ever want to change your mind. We could do it at about ear level. There are plenty of people who get it cut that short so almost no one should say anything,” said Sophie.

I looked at the determined set of my sister’s face and realized that if I didn’t give in some, I would never hear the end of it. And when I say never hear the end of it in combination with my sister, I mean really never hear the end of it. I still to this day have her complaining about the time I cut off all of her Barbie’s hair when she was five and I was eight. Come to think of it, I wondered if her insistence on me not cutting off my hair wasn’t some kind of payback for that very event.

“Okay, I’ll go with it being at about my jaw line, but I want your promise Kelly that you won’t nag me about it, or I’m getting a buzz cut!”

Of course Kelly having gotten her way, or at least her way to some degree, was all sweetness and light from there on. She even helped Sophie pick out a style that they said would be easy to maintain.

As we were leaving, after paying the incredibly high bill by my mind, Sophie stopped me to give me a card with her number scrawled on it. She said I could call her anytime that I needed to talk with someone.

I was fairly tired at this point, and even though Kelly and Brook looked like they might have wanted to continue the shopping spree, they agreed to call it quits for the time being. Brook’s car was loaded down with shopping bags and looking at it all, I got a little nervous, we had bought a lot of clothes; I hoped my folks wouldn’t blow a gasket.

It felt good to have the back of my neck bare again; all that hair had been annoying, not so much for anything it felt like, but because it had been yet another reminder of what had happened. The haircut I had gotten didn’t turn out being that bad, I thought. Looking in the car mirror, I had to smile some; it looked nice. The wavy, almost metallic appearing, copper hair looked good the way it was. Okay, I still looked like a pretty girl, but at least the look was more me in some strange way.

The drive home was uneventful. Brook and Kelly chatted away, with me staying mostly quiet. Occasionally, Brook would crank up the radio on a song she liked and even sing along with it, despite my wishes. She was my best friend, and it was probably disloyal to say it, but she couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, not even one of giant ones you got at the hardware store. Kelly, of course, complained about the unfairness of her favorite band, The Brass Monkeys, never being on the radio. I kept my mouth shut and counted my blessings.

The roads were pretty clear, so we got home without much delay. When we pulled up in the driveway, I saw that dad’s car was there. Sometimes he had to stay late for work, but I guess what with everything that had been happening, he had rescheduled any late meetings he might have had. I was grateful when I was able to put down the load of shopping bags we hauled from Brook’s car. Who knew clothes could be so heavy? I have to admit, I was a little disgruntled with the fact that Brook was having no trouble; I had never noticed before how strong she was. It must have been all the sports she played.

“Eden,” said my dad, rising from the chair where he had been watching the evening news and giving me a hug. “How are you doing?”

“Okay, I guess,” I said, brushing a stray lock of hair out of my eyes.

“Did you leave any clothes left at the mall? I’m not going to get a call from my bank telling me my credit card has been maxed out, am I?” he said.

“Uh, well, I tried not to…”

“It’s okay Eden, I’m just teasing you. I have been through enough of your mother’s and sister’s shopping trips to know what to expect.”

“Let me see how your hair looks,” said my mother, who was also on her feet. She turned me so that I was facing her and then stood back. “You look beautiful! I had been afraid you would chop it all off. I must say, your stylist did a good job.”

I found myself blushing, it wasn’t like I ever got called beautiful before. “Uh, I’m starving; didn’t you say that Ms. Aldridge said it was alright if Brook went out to eat with us?” I said, changing the topic.

“Yes, she did; I was thinking we would do something simple and go to Anthony’s Dinner. I’m sure you’re tired and wouldn’t want to do anything more formal,” said my mom.

“Why don’t we get you changed, Eden,” said Brook after giving my sister a look as if she were trying to convey some message.

Oh, just great; they probably had plans to play dress-up with me some more, I thought. “Haven’t I changed enough today? What’s wrong with what I have on?”

“Come on Eden, you have better clothes to wear now than that getup you went to the mall in,” she said, picking up a load of my new clothes and heading upstairs. I groaned, but decided to follow her.

It didn’t take as long as I might have feared; Brook already had an idea of what I should put on and quickly rummaged through the bags pulling them out. She dressed me in a light blue top that had a few buttons between my, uh, well, you know those things, and a pair of dark, distressed blue jeans. While the top fit loose enough, the jeans were so tight that when I tried them on at the mall, I was sure we had gotten the wrong size.

“You look great Eden!” said Brook staring at me in a strange fashion, as if searching for something.

“Am I wearing something wrong?” I asked, looking down at myself.

“No, why do you ask that?”

“You were staring at me funny; I thought my fly was unzipped or something.”

“No, no, you're fine, I was just…” she seemed to hesitate. “It’s nothing; why don’t we hurry up so we can get to dinner.”

I shrugged my shoulders, Brook would say what was on her mind eventually. I had learned from long experience that I couldn’t drag it out of her before she was ready.

When we got back downstairs, it was to find my parents and sister in a heated conversation that broke off when we entered.

“Eden,” said my dad, turning towards me and Brook. “Your sister was just telling me that she has some homework she needs to do before tomorrow and she needs help with it, so it’s just going to be the three of us going tonight.”

“Uh, Dad, I need your help with the project to,” put in Kelly quickly.

“Isn’t it something that can wait until we get back?”

“No, I really need your help.”

Dad looked a little irritated, though it almost seemed like it was because he couldn’t go with us rather than because of Kelly forgetting she had homework. That didn’t make much sense since me and Brook had gone places by ourselves and with other friends plenty of times before. I started to feel resentful, was it just because I had turned into a girl that he was acting this way?

“Is there a problem with just me and Brook going? We have been plenty of times before.”

Dad ran his hand through his hair, a sure sign that he was frustrated. “He did say they would…” he muttered to himself.

“What?” I asked just catching the words.

“I want you to go straight to Anthony’s and back, no going anywhere else. Do you understand?” he said in a louder voice.

“Yeah…sure,” I was a little indignant, I had always thought that dad didn’t have a single patriarchal bone in his body, but he would never have acted this way before.

“Great, come on Eden, I’m looking forward to one of Anthony’s monster burgers,” said Brook, hurrying me out the door.

As we climbed into Ms. Aldridge's car, I sighed it had been a tiring day. But that was okay; all that was left was a nice, easy dinner, and then I would finally be able to call it quits for the evening. My stomach rumbled. And one of Anthony’s monster burgers sounded good to me too.

~o~O~o~

Harrison couldn’t contain his glee. The freak was going back out with one of its friends. He had thought the opportunity passed when they didn’t have the trap ready earlier. Damn Hanson brothers not being in place when the time came, but this time they would be ready. The boss had seen to it that the cops would take a long time to show up if they were called, which if they did things right wouldn’t happen. Strike hard and fast, that’s what they had to do. They even got the extra bonus of taking the freak's little friend. He licked his lips at that thought. Yes, this was going to be a good night.

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To Be Continued...