Chad has just returned to Spiral after spending a year away, just in time to undergo his twist. This story takes place in the Twisted Universe

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Spiral was a moderate to large sized town that was located in Northern California where the residents enjoyed decent weather that tended to be neither too hot nor too cold. On the surface, it appeared to be a normal town like many others, thought the truth was that Spiral was unique.

Once, Spiral had been a smaller town with a different name, but then the local area had been hit hard with the Antarctic Flu. Many of the locals died from this plague while many more survived and eventually had children, children who’s DNA had been altered due to the infections that their parents had overcome.

When these children grew older and went through their twists, their families embraced and protected them. Before long, the town had gained a reputation as being tolerant and welcoming to the Twisted, which resulted in many more of them moving there with their families. The once small town went through a period of growth and change as it became a sanctuary to the Twisted, even changing its name. Now, Spiral had the largest concentration of Twisted in the entire world.

I grew up in Spiral and had lived here for most of my life, along with my younger brother Aaron. We’d been raised by our Grandpa and Grandma while our Mom was in Las Angeles for her career, at least until my Grandpa passed away a little more than a year ago. Before I knew what was happening, I was sent to live with my Mom while Aaron had been left in Spiral. The idea at the time had been that with my Grandpa being gone, it would be easier on my Grandma if she had one less boy to watch and one less mouth to feed. However, it hadn’t worked out quite as well as intended.

First off, Mom wasn’t exactly a paragon of parental responsibility, and living with her tended to be…awkward. And then there was the LA school, which was much more crowded and less safe than my old school in Spiral. After a school stabbing, which I hadn’t been involved in, everyone decided that I would be better off back in Spiral. And as an added bonus, I’d be able to help Grandma around the house.

My name is Chad Anderson and I’ve only been back in Spiral for a couple weeks. In that time, I’d been busy reconnecting with old friends and trying to make new ones. In a way, Spiral was a lot stranger than even LA could possibly be, but it was also a lot more comforting to me. After all, Spiral was home.

I was currently standing outside, in the back yard of my Grandma’s suburban home. It was a fairly large back yard, which was fortunate because we were holding a party and there were a lot of people. There was even a local garage band called Scales that was set up in the far corner, providing live music.

Though it would have been nice thinking of this as a welcome home party in my honor, the truth was that it was actually a birthday party for my brother Aaron. He’d just turned eleven, though I suspected that Grandma had thrown a little extra into the party just so that I could feel like it was for me too. When I had my seventeenth birthday in a couple months, I was pretty sure any party I had wouldn’t include a band or this many people.

I slowly looked around the party, noting that there were a few people my own age, a little too old to be friends with Aaron. I knew that four of them were members of the band while the others were my friends and were here mostly for the free cake and ice-cream. Grandma had told me to invite them, mostly so I’d have some people my own age to hang around with, for which I was grateful.

After making a mental note as to where my friends were standing, I went to talk to my grandma. She was tall and slender, with shoulder length hair that had more than a few gray hairs sprinkled among the dark brown. It amazed me that she still had such an easy smile after everything she’d had to deal with, both with my Mom’s situation and with losing Grandpa last year.

“Hello, Chad,” Grandma said, somehow knowing that I’d been approaching her even though I’d been coming up from behind. I would have thought that it was a trick, except for the fact that she wasn’t Twisted. She’d been born before the Antarctic Flu went around, which meant there was no way for her to actually be Twisted, even if she had survived the disease as a child. “What can I do for you?”

“Hey Grandma,” I responded, hesitating a moment before asking, “Do you know if Bridgett is coming?”

“I’m afraid she isn’t,” Grandma told me with a faint look of disappointment.

I nodded at that, feeling vaguely disappointed as well, though not surprised. Bridgett was my older sister who was currently away at college. I’d wanted to talk to her about what college was like and ask her questions about the one she was attending. I had every intention of going to college after I graduate, though I still trying to narrow down what kind of degree I wanted to work for as well as where I wanted to earn it. I’d thought that Bridgett might be able to help me, but I should have known better.

Bridgett might have been my older sister, but we certainly weren’t very close. She’d grown up living with her dad, not being raised by Grandpa and Grandma the way Aaron and I were, so we’d never lived under the same roof. I got along with her fairly well, but the truth was, the number of times that we’d met face to face could be counted without having to use all my fingers and toes.

“I know you’ve been wanting to talk to her,” Grandma told me pleasantly, “so why don’t you send her an e-mail? I’m sure she’d be happy to hear from you.”

“I don’t know,” I responded with a sigh.

Grandma stared at me for a moment before chuckling. “Don’t worry about it right now. This is a party and I think your friends might want to spend some time with you.’ And with that, she shooed me away.

After leaving my Grandma, I checked on Aaron, who was excitedly playing with some of his own friends. I was too far away to hear what they were saying, but I got the impression that they were talking about either the new video game they were into or the comic books that they were always reading.

I’d never been into video games, comic books, or much of any kind of fiction. That kind of thing never really made much sense to me. Why play video games when you can go out and find real things to do? Why read about aliens and creatures that don’t exist when you can read about interesting people and the exciting things that they did for real?

With a shrug, I nodded towards Aaron, though he didn’t seem to notice me, then I continued towards my friends. Jim and Luke were standing off to the side, staring at a computer tablet that they’d brought with them. The two would occasionally look up with a guilty expression and snicker, letting me know that they weren’t up to anything good.

“Hey, what’s up?” I greeted the two of them.

Jim had dark hair, a stocky build, and he stood at 6 feet tall, two inches taller than me. Luke, on the other hand, was a skinny ginger with heavy freckles, who was several inches shorter than me.

I smiled faintly as I remembered the days when Jim and I had been best friends, back before I’d moved away. After I’d left, he and Luke had begun hanging out and had become best friends instead. Since my return, they were both willing to hang out with me, but things had definitely changed. Now, I was almost like a third wheel while hanging with them.

“Look at this video we found,” Jim told me with a smirk.

He held up the tablet, letting me see that they were playing a video with the sound turned off. A single glance was enough to reveal a sexy and stacked blonde woman who was naked and in the middle of a sexual act with another woman. I immediately recognized her, as would almost any guy in school. After all, Deanna Desire was a pretty famous porn star.

“Turn that off,” I snapped at my friends as I tore my eyes away from the monitor. “There are little kids here…”

“Killjoy,” Luke teased me.

Jim paused and looked around as though suddenly realizing that there were kids around for the first time. “Fine,” he said with rolled eyes. “Whatever…”

“They’re going to learn about this stuff sooner or later,” Luke pointed out with a smirk. “In fact, I bet most of them would be happy to watch this… I know I would have been at their age…”

I let out a sigh of exasperation, wondering why I’d invited these two knuckleheads to Aaron’s party. Then again, if they hadn’t been here, I probably would have had to hang out with Aaron and his buddies.

“Have you talked to Keenan lately?” I asked curiously, eager to distract my friends and keep them from teasing me about being a killjoy.

Keenan was another old friend who I used to hang out with all the time before I’d moved out of Spiral. In fact, he’d been my second closest friend, in second place only a short distance behind Jim. However, that had been a long time ago and I’d barely even seen him since I moved back.

“Not really,” Jim answered with a faint scowl. “I mean, he’s changed since his twist. He doesn’t really like hanging out or doing anything now. I don’t think he even wants to be friends anymore.”

I nodded at that, knowing exactly what Jim meant. Keenan had gone through his twist only a month or so ago, and that was guaranteed to change a person. From what I’d seen, he hadn’t changed physically, but his personality certainly had. He used to be friendly and outgoing, but when I’d talked to him, he seemed cold and distant. But more than that, he just seemed…off.

“You know how it is,” Jim commented. “When you go through your twist, you might not come out of it as the same person.”

Luke and I both nodded in understanding. It was a simple fact of life in Spiral that when someone underwent their twist, their bodies and personalities could both be altered in strange and unexpected ways. Friends, relatives, and classmates could all change into someone else entirely, making you grieve for those who were gone, even though they were still alive and in front of you.

I shuddered as I suddenly remembered Cassidy Morgan, a cute girl I used to have a crush on. I’d been gathering up my courage to ask her out on a date, then one day she went through her twist and developed an extreme case of social anxiety disorder. She became so afraid of other people that she locked herself in her house and never came out again.

A moment later, Luke suddenly blurted out, “Holy shit… Is that who I think it is?”

I looked to where he was pointing and groaned faintly as I saw that a gorgeous and very busty blonde woman had come out from the back door of the house and was starting towards us. Luke and Jim both stood there with their mouths opened as they stared at the very same woman they’d just been watching a video of a few minutes earlier.

Once she reached where we were standing, Jim blurted out, “You’re Deanna Desire…”

“I take it you’re fans,” she said with a light laugh, obviously amused by that. “But that’s just my working name. Around here, I’m Dana Anderson.”

“Anderson,” Jim said awkwardly, as though he couldn’t believe she’d told him her real name. Then he turned to give me a curious look as he realized that she had the same last name I did.

“Hey mom,” I said with a sigh, feeling embarrassed as my friends stared at me in stunned disbelief. “I’m glad you could make it.”

“Of course I made it,” she responded, almost as though offended I’d even suggest she couldn’t. “There is no way I’d miss your brother’s birthday party.”

I nodded at that, then glanced to my friends who were still staring as though their brains had suddenly crashed. Of course, there was a very good reason I’d never told my friends that my Mom was a porn star, and that I’d made sure they never met her whenever she’d come to visit. It was quite…awkward.

My Mom was forty-one, though she looked ten to fifteen years younger than her actual age. She still had a killer body and a very active career, which I was quite embarrassed by. Of course, her body and career were both a direct result of her twist. When she was about my age, she went through her twist and gained not only those impressive curves, but also a high sex drive and an almost complete lack of sexual inhibitions.

Mom gave me a hug, then asked, “So, who are your friends?” She gave Jim and Luke speculative looks, probably wondering what they’d be like in bed.

“This is Luke and Jim,” I introduced them.

“So you’re Jim,” she said, smiling at my friend in a seductive way that probably made him cream his pants. “Chad has talked about you…”

I stared at my Mom for a moment, turning bright red and blurting out, “Remember rule number three…”

“Of course,” Mom responded with a chuckle, backing off a little, much to my relief.

When I’d first moved in with my Mom over a year ago, things had been quite awkward and uncomfortable for me at first. Not only did she have a lack of sexual inhibitions, she couldn’t even understand why other people were uncomfortable or embarrassed about sex. It hadn’t taken long before I put down a list of rules that I needed her to follow if I was going to live with her. Most of the rules didn’t make much sense to her, but she understood that this was important to me so she’d agreed to follow them.

The first rule was that she was NOT to show me any of the pictures or videos from her work. She was quite proud of what she did for a living and sometimes wanted to show off a particularly steamy scene she’d done, but there was no way I wanted to watch my own Mom do something like that. The very idea made me shudder at just how wrong it was.

The second rule was simply that Mom wasn’t supposed to have sex with anyone while I was present, though I’d later been forced to add masturbating with herself to that ban. That rule was created after one day when I’d been watching TV on the couch, then she and her boy toy at the time had come in and began going at it right there on the couch next to me. I’d run from apartment in a near panic.

And then there was the third rule, which stated that my friends, classmates, and teachers were all off limits to her. Of course, there were a couple other rules as well, but the third one was the one I wanted her to remember at the moment.

“I need to go see your brother and wish him happy birthday,” Mom told me pleasantly. Then she looked to Jim and Luke and said, “It was nice meeting you boys.” And with that, she wandered off in the direction where Aaron was playing with his friends.

“Holy shit,” Luke blurted out once my Mom was out of range. He stared at me with a look of stunned disbelief. “Your Mom is Deanne Desire?”

“Um…yeah,” I responded self-consciously. “And please don’t tell anyone at school.”

“Yeah,” Jim said with a nod of understanding. “You don’t want everyone lining up here for autographs…”

I rolled my eyes at that, then let out a sigh. “Close enough.”

Jim continued staring at my Mom, muttering, “Damn, she is a total MILF.”

“She’s the queen MILF,” Luke added.

I rolled my eyes again as the two of them began exchanging descriptions of my Mom which would have been offensive, if she hadn’t been who she was. Still, I shook my head and then left my friends to go get some soda.

While I was grabbing a soda from the cooler, a little girl suddenly tugged on my shirt and asked, “Can I have one too?”

I stared down at the girl, who looked like she was about seven or eight, too young to be one of Aaron’s friends. She was cute, with blonde hair in pigtails and a little dress that was just too frilly for even most little girls to wear. And in her hand, she clutched a stuffed rabbit.

“Aren’t you a little too young to be drinking this stuff?” I asked her.

The girl just gave me a sweet and innocent look, then responded, “If you don’t give me one, I’m gonna kick your shins.”

“It looks like some things haven’t changed,” I said with an exaggerated sigh as I handed over the soda. “You’re still threatening to hurt me.”

My cousin Christine just laughed at that, though it came out more like a little girl giggle. In spite of her appearance, Christine was about the same age as me, and the two of us had been fairly close while growing up. She’d always been the tough one though, at least until she’d gone through her twist a few months ago and came out looking and acting like a little girl. I’ve only seen her a couple times since her twist and still had a hard time believing that this was the same punker goth girl I’d grown up with.

“You guys sounded pretty good,” I said, gesturing to where the band had been playing a short time ago.

Christine was the drummer for the band, and she was the one who’d gotten her friends to come and play for Aaron’s party. Christine had always been good with the drums, and she still sounded just as good as before, though it was a little strange watching a little girl wailing away at them like that.

“Thanks,” Christine responded with a proud grin.

I looked over to where the other three members of the band were packing up their instruments. My eyes settled on the singer, a gorgeous girl with long bluish green hair, and who was wearing a dress that was about the same color. And as hot as she looked, she’d sounded just as good. I was pretty sure that I’d seen her around school this last week, but I hadn’t talked to her and didn’t even know her name.

I was about to ask Christine to introduce me to her cute friend when Grandma called out that it was time for cake and ice-cream. It took several minutes to get everyone gathered around Aaron, then Grandma brought out the cake while everyone sang happy birthday. I just watched Aaron and how excited he looked as he made a wish and blew out the candles. At that moment, I suddenly felt quite happy to be home.

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In many ways, going to school in Spiral was no different than going to any other high school in the country. Students would shamble through the hallways in the morning, barely pay attention in their classes, and then deal with the social politics of all the traditional cliques. However, no other school in the country had as many Twisted students or had to deal with the strangeness that we often took for granted.

I was in the school cafeteria, waiting in line to get my food. A cute girl with small devil horns stood in front of me, talking to a boy who had green skin and hair that seemed to move with a life of its own. As strange as the Las Angeles schools could be, even they didn’t have anything like that. Sights like these had startled me at first, but it had only taken a day or so to get back into the groove and remember just how normal that kind of thing was here.

After getting my food, I looked over the various tables, trying to decide where I wanted to sit. There was the unofficial jock table, the nerd table, and even the ‘we hate everyone’ outcast table. I’d never been part of any of the cliques, though before I’d moved away, I’d been on good speaking terms with at least one person in each group. But right now, it amazed me just how few people I actually recognized. I’d been gone long enough that I’d actually forgotten a lot of the people in the school, and of course, some of them had just changed that much.

Just then, someone from the jock table called out, “Hey Chad…” He was waving to me.

I blinked, thinking that he looked familiar though it took me several long seconds to place him. “Hey Adam,” I greeted him. Then I looked to the lean looking guy beside him who was wearing a letterman jacket. It took me several more seconds before I pulled his name out of the back of my memory. “Gene.”

“I heard you were back in town,” Adam told me with a friendly smile. “What happened? You go through your twist and have to come back?”

“Nothing like that,” I told him with a chuckle. “My sister Bridgett never went through a twist, so I might not either.” I shrugged at that. “Actually, I moved back because things just weren’t working out in LA.”

“So man, what’s the plan?” Gene asked me.

That single comment was enough to remind me that Gene had gone through his twist just a month or so before I’d moved away, leaving him with a compulsion to speak in rhyme. From what I remembered, he could talk normally if he concentrated on it, but rhyming had become his normal way of talking.

“I’m just getting back into the swing of things,” I answered with a shrug.

Gene nodded at that. “Welcome back to the old place, it’s nice to see your familiar face.”

I talked to Adam and Gene for another half minute and turned down their offer to sit with them. Instead, I went to a different table where I spotted another familiar face sitting. Keenan was tall and slender, with reddish brown hair. Physically, he hadn’t changed much from before I’d moved away, though he had filled out a little more.

“Hey,” I greeted him as I sat down. “Do you mind if I join you?”

“If you want,” Keenan responded, giving me a flat look that seemed to indicate that he didn’t care one way or the other. There was no sign of the friendly grin he once would have given me.

I made several comments to try getting a conversation going with Keenan, though he showed no interest. It was as though he was completely bored by my conversation…and my very presence. Fortunately, after a few minutes, Jim and Luke came and sat down with us. They were accompanied with a chubby Hispanic girl who I didn’t know.

“This is Gloria,” Jim introduced me to the girl, who gave me a shy smile. “She just moved to Spiral last summer…”

“I went through my twist,” Gloria said a little nervously. “My Dad thought it would be safer here.”

I nodded at that, not at all surprised since a lot of Twisted had come to Spiral for the same reason. A lot of people were terrified by the Twisted and what they could do, and people who were scared or jealous could do stupid things. Every once in awhile, I heard horror stories of innocent Twisted who’d been victimized by those kinds of people.

“Nice to meet you,” I told her pleasantly. “I’m Chad…”

“The blue one looks better,” Gloria stated, then began eating her lunch without looking at me.

I blinked in confusion. “The blue what?”

“What?” Gloria asked, giving me a blank look.

“You said something about something blue,” I pointed out, though she continued giving me a blank look. Then her eyes widened slightly and she glanced to Jim and Luke. “I did it again, didn’t I?”

Luke snickered at that while Jim nodded. “It’s her trick,” Jim explained to me. “She can see the future…”

“Not exactly,” Gloria said, obviously embarrassed. She couldn’t quite meet my eyes and stared at her food instead as she explained, “I sometimes just say things that seem to be about the future…but I never remember it.”

“None of it ever makes much sense at the time,” Jim said with a grin. “But later on, you smack yourself in the head and say ‘that’s what she meant’. It’s kind of funny sometimes.”

Luke burst out laughing, and turned to Jim, “Like when she told you to watch out for the duck…and then you tripped over that duck shaped yard statue a few days later.”

Gloria stared down at her food, looking uncomfortable with everyone talking about her. I didn’t know the girl, but I took pity on her and changed the subject to what things were like in Las Angeles. I didn’t say anything about what it was like living with my Mom, only about the school I went to. The entire time, Keenan didn’t say a thing, nor did he show the least bit of interest. He eventually finished eating and got up to leave without even saying goodbye.

Eventually, Gloria got up to leave as well, and as soon as she did, Luke pulled out his computer tablet and began sharing pictures of naked and nearly naked women with Jim. I just hoped that they weren’t looking at ones of my Mom since that was just creepy. Then again, I was realistic enough to know that my friends had probably wacked off to my Mom’s movies, though I was trying very hard not to think about that.

“She’s hot,” Jim told Luke, staring at one picture. “And this one is a total babe…”

They continued going through pictures of one woman after another while I rolled my eyes and shook my head in disbelief. After all, we were in the middle of the school cafeteria. Sure, there was no longer anyone sitting close to us, but it was still an extremely inappropriate place for that kind of thing. However, in spite of that, I was still a red blooded male and quickly found myself leaning over to look as well.

Then Luke stared at one picture and smirked, “Oh yeah, I’d do her…”

“I’d do her in a heartbeat,” Jim agreed with a broad grin.

I stared at the picture of a very sexy looking brunette who I immediately recognized as the porn star Alyssa Ambrose. I just smiled and commented, “I have done her.”

“You wish,” Jim responded with a loud laugh.

I just continued smiling as I pointed out, “Remember who my Mom is.”

Jim and Luke both froze at that, sharing a quick look that made me suspect that they’d watched one of my Mom’s movies again after the party. After a moment, Jim muttered, “How could I forget?”

“Well,” I said with a faint smirk. “Alyssa and my Mom sometimes…work together. Well, let’s just say that on my last birthday when I turned sixteen, I came home from school and found Alyssa Ambrose on top of my bed, wearing nothing but a big red bow. It turns out, my Mom set up this…date…for my birthday.”

“Holy shit,” Luke blurted out, staring at me with expression of stunned disbelief.

Jim just stared at me for a moment, as though still suspecting that I was making up the whole thing. Then he obviously remembered who my Mom was again and shook his head. “You mean, for your sixteenth birthday, your Mom actually got a porn star to come over and fuck you? Damn. When I turned sixteen, all my parents got me was a new car.”

“Have you fucked any other porn stars?” Luke asked me almost eagerly.

“Maybe,” I responded with a smug look which only made them both groan jealously.

The truth was, I’d actually met a number of porn stars over the last year since my Mom sometimes brought her costars home to ‘rehearse’, but the women my Mom worked with could get any guy they wanted, and none of them really had any interest in some teenage kid. Alyssa had done this partly as a favor for my Mom and partly because she just liked the idea of being the one to take my virginity.

Jim and Luke tried getting more details about my ‘date’ with Alyssa, though I remained vague and didn’t say anything more than I already had. Sure, it was kind of nice having the guys stare at me as though I’d suddenly become their hero, but it had actually been pretty personal for me and I didn’t want to share that with these bozos. It didn’t take long before their demands for more details became pleading for me to ask my Mom to hook them up with dates as well. The scary thing was, my Mom probably would if I asked her to.

I finally excused myself and left my friends so I could get to my next class on time. I had just left the cafeteria and started down the hall when I realized that there was some kind of commotion going on ahead of me. A bunch of students were gathered around, and a moment later, I saw why.

Two boys were having a fight, though I didn’t think it could really be called a fight. One of them was a somewhat lean looking guy named Gary who I recognized from one of my classes. I’d talked to him once or twice, and he seemed like a pretty nice guy, if just a little nerdy.

The other boy was huge, both tall and wide. He had a build that was something of a cross between a linebacker and a gorilla, and he even had a brutish looking face that screamed ‘thug’ and made me wonder if he was part neanderthal. I’d seen him around school a few times and even vaguely remembered him from before I’d moved away, though he was even bigger and more brutish looking than he’d been back then. However, I couldn’t quite remember his name.

“Come on you fucking wimp,” the thug snarled, picking the smaller boy up by his shirt and slamming him up against the wall. “Be a man for once instead of a chicken shit pansy…”

“Why won’t you just leave me alone?” Gary demanded, looking a little afraid but also defiant.

The thug just snarled and slammed Gary against the wall again. “Someone has to teach you a lesson…”

I grimaced, hating the sight of anyone getting bullied like that, though I wasn’t sure what I could do. I wasn’t exactly a wimp who’d never been in a fight, but I wasn’t sure what I could do against someone as big as this thug. Still, I was debating about whether or not to stop forward and trying to stop this when a teacher finally arrived.

“Dan Jones,” the balding man exclaimed, glaring at the thug. “What in the world do you think you’re doing?”

“Gary and I were just having a little talk,” the thug…Dan responded. He glared at Gary. “Weren’t we?”

While the teacher began chewing out the bully, I looked around at the gathered students who were starting to disperse. One of the crowed immediately caught my attention though. It was Keenan, who was still watching Gary and Dan with an odd grin on his face.

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I was sweating pretty good when I got home from my afternoon run, though I thought that next time I might add another half mile. When I’d been living with my Mom, I’d gotten into the habit of going out for a run every couple days. Not only did this help me stay in shape, but it also gave me something to do when I had to leave the house so Mom could have some private time with her ‘guests’. And even though I was back in Spiral, I’d continued running.

When I stepped into the house, I called out, “I’m back…” Technically, this was the second time I was back since I’d previously come home from school, changed into my running clothes, and then took off again.

“Did you have a good run?” Grandma asked while simultaneously handing me a glass of water and a cookie. This was her way of showing support for my activities, and she’d begun greeting me this way every time I got back from a run.

“It wasn’t bad,” I told her with a grin, whipping the sweat from my forehead as I did so. “But some dog came out and chased me for a bit. Good thing it had such short legs or I might not have escaped.”

“Those beagles can be ferocious beasts,” she commented with a wry smile, obviously guessing that I’d been referring to the dog that lived just down the street.

I chuckled at that, took a long drink from my water and then a bite from the cookie. “I’m gonna go get cleaned up,” I told grandma, taking my time to finish the cookie and water before I started for the bathroom.

This was my second shower of the day since I’d already taken one before going to school. Because of that, I made a quick job of it, knowing that I was going to take another shower in the morning.

When I was done, I looked myself over while brushing my hair in the bathroom mirror. I wasn’t bad looking, and in fact, I thought I was fairly handsome. Unlike some of my friends, I’d never really had a problem getting girls to notice me. Getting them to actually stay with me had been a different matter, especially when I didn’t dare take one home to meet my Mom.

My hair was an auburn color that was closer to my Grandma’s coloring than my Mom’s, and it was brushed back and hung nearly to my shoulders. My body was lean and fit, thanks to my running three or four times a week as well as my occasional visit to the school gym. I didn’t look like one of the buff jocks, but I definitely wasn’t a couch potato either.

Once I was finished getting dressed in clean clothes, I went back to the bedroom that I shared with Aaron. He was already in there, sitting on his bed and reading through a stack of comic books that someone had given him for his birthday.

Aaron looked a lot like me, though he had almost black hair, just like his Dad. Unlike me, Aaron actually knew who his Dad was, due to DNA testing shortly after he was born. However, his Dad couldn’t be bothered to take custody of him the way Bridgett’s Dad had done with her.

It had always bothered me a little that I didn’t know who my Dad was. Mom, being who and what she was, tended to be a little loose with the guys. Bridgett and Aaron knew who their fathers were due to DNA testing, but there were a couple possibilities for me where Mom didn’t even know their names much less how to contact them.

“Hey,” I greeted my brother, who barely glanced up at me from his comic.

“Hey,” he responded almost absently.

I just grinned at Aaron, having mixed feelings about sharing a room with him again. It was nice having my little brother around again…sometimes…but I missed having a room to myself, as well as not always having him underfoot. Of course, I knew that he had mixed feelings about my return too. He was alternately happy at having me back and annoyed at once again having to share his room.

“So I take it that Mom took off again,” I commented, knowing that the plan had been for Mom to leave early this afternoon. As she’d told me yesterday after the party, she had a big photo shoot that was going on this week.

“Yeah,” Aaron answered, looking up from his comics and rolling his eyes. “I don’t know how you managed to live with her. I mean, I love her but…”

“But she’s Mom,” I agreed in complete understanding.

Our Mom just wasn’t like the other Moms we knew and what she did for a living was more than a little embarrassing. And of course, she had an odd outlook on things that made it difficult to relate to her at times. That was the main reason we lived here with Grandma in Spiral.

“She gave me a cool birthday present though,” Aaron said, giving me a grin.

“Oh?” I asked him, half dreading the answer. With my Mom, she could have very well given him a box set collection of all her most popular movies. Then again, if she’d done that, Aaron wouldn’t be grinning like he was.

“She got me this awesome new game,” Aaron announced proudly. He showed me the video game cartridge, which was for a game that was popular among some of the guys at school.

After a few seconds, Aaron put the video game down and went back to reading his comics. I just shook my head, wondering what he saw in something like that. Comic books had always seemed like such a little kid thing to me.

I sat down at the desk and began going over my homework, trying to get it done before dinner. Aaron and I both did our thing, sharing the room but not really speaking again as we did.

Once I was finished with my homework, I made a point of stretching out and announcing, “I’m done with all my homework. I guess I have the rest of the night to do whatever I want.” I glanced to Aaron, who hadn’t even started on his homework and would be forced to rush through it before going to bed. However, he didn’t take my hint.

Grandma called us for dinner just a few minutes later, so Aaron and I rushed to the dinner table. Grandma was a little old fashioned and insisted that we eat at the table instead of sitting in the living room and watching TV while we ate.

“Too bad Mom went home already,” I said when I saw the plate of lamb chops that was sitting on the table. “This is her favorite…”

“Really?” Grandma responded with a look of mock innocence. “I had no idea. And we’re having amaretto crá¨me brulee afterwards…which happens to be her favorite dessert if I remember right.”

Aaron snickered and said, “Mom really missed out tonight…”

“You make sure to tell her that when you call her,” Grandma said with a chuckle. “Maybe we can make her think twice about leaving so soon the next time she comes to visit.”

I chuckled at that as well, then dug into dinner with a hearty appetite. This might be my Mom’s favorite meal, but it was pretty high up there on my list of foods as well.

As soon as dinner was over, Aaron cleared the table while I went to work washing the dishes. I was finished in less than ten minutes and free to go back to whatever I wanted to do.

Aaron was already back in our room with his nose stuck in one of those comic books. I shook my head and grabbed the book that I’d been reading, a biography of Caz Lipton, who was on record as being the first Twisted, or at least the first person to ever undergo his twist.

“I thought you were done with your homework,” Aaron said, giving my book a suspicious look.

“I am,” I responded. “I’m reading this because it’s interesting.”

“That’s boring,” Aaron exclaimed while rolling his eyes. He held up the comic book he was reading and exclaimed, “This is interesting… It’s got Lady Starlight fighting the Demonatrix.”

“Demonatrix?” I asked in surprise. “Just what kind of comic is that?”

“The good kind,” Aaron responded smugly. Then he proudly added, “Lady Starlight is my favorite.”

“I thought the Asterix was your favorite hero,” I joked. “What happened? Did Lady Starlight beat him in a fight?”

Aaron gave me a flat look, and then in a serious tone he explained, “The Asterix is with EG Comics and Lady Starlight is owned by Triumph Comics, so they can’t do a crossover.” Then he paused to add, “Besides, the new writer totally ruined the Asterix. I mean, they just messed up the continuity and changed his origin so it all sucks now…”

“I think you’re taking that just a little too seriously,” I pointed out with a grin. “I mean, it’s just a stupid comic book.”

Aaron glared at me as though I’d just offended him. Then again, I’d just insulted one of his favorite hobbies so I probably had.

“You haven’t even read them so you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aaron told me defiantly.

I rolled my eyes at that, though Aaron did have a point. I couldn’t properly make fun of his comic books if I didn’t even have enough ammunition to use.

“Fine,” I replied. “Let me read one of those then…”

For a brief moment, Aaron stared at me as though suspicious, which he probably had a right to be. Then he grinned, as though he’d just won a victory.

“Read this one,” Aaron insisted, handing me one of his comics. “But don’t bend the pages or anything. It’s a collector’s edition.”

The comic was an issue of Lady Starlight and had a picture of her on the cover. I’ve heard her name mentioned a few times, mostly by Aaron, but I didn’t know anything about the character. With a shrug, I began reading through the comic.

I was a little surprised to find that the artwork was actually a little better than I’d expected, and the plot a bit more involved. It was clear that the writers were trying to make a real story out of this rather than just the cheesy kid’s stuff that I thought all comics were filled with.

“Okay,” I admitted as I finished reading the comic. “This isn’t bad…”

Just then, I felt a strange pressure building in my body, one that immediately set off every alarm in my head. I’d been warned about these symptoms and knew exactly what they meant.

“Oh shit,” I blurted out as I jumped off my bed, making Aaron stare at me with a look of surprised confusion.

A moment later, it hit me, making me feel as though I’d been struck by lightning and was exploding at the same time. I screamed, or at least tried to before everything went dark.

--------------------

“Chad,” a voice called my name as someone shook me awake. “Chad, please wake up…”

I slowly opened my eyes, seeing my Grandma hovering over me with a worried look. “Grandma,” I whispered, earning look of relief from her.

“Remain where you are,” Grandma told me firmly. “Don’t try to get up yet.”

“What…?” I started in confusion, only to realize that I was lying in the middle of my bedroom floor and I felt…wrong.

My entire body throbbed with a dull ache, but more than that, it just felt completely off somehow. It was difficult to point out one specific thing, but I knew that something was seriously wrong with me.

I started to sit up but Grandma immediately put a hand on my shoulder and gently kept me down. There was still a worried look in her eyes that made me worry in turn.

Then I suddenly remembered what had happened to me before everything went crazy. I closed my eyes for a moment and took several deep breaths, trying to remain calm when that was the last thing I wanted to do.

“How bad is it?” I quietly asked Grandma, realizing that my voice sounded odd to my ears. “How bad was my twist?”

Grandma just stared down at me for a moment more before carefully answering. “Physically…it was severe.”

I groaned at that, though I’d already suspected it from the way my body felt. My first impulse was to bolt upright and take a look at myself, which was probably why Grandma was making me remain where I was. As it was, I was using every bit of willpower I had not to scream in panic.

“Chad,” Aaron exclaimed from the doorway of our room, staring at me with a look of wide eyed disbelief.

“Aaron Evan Andrews,” Grandma snapped at him. “I told you to wait out there with the door closed…”

“Sorry Grandma,” Aaron blurted out before backing up, though he didn’t close the door. Grandma just let out an exasperated sigh.

I braced myself and slowly sat up. This time Grandma didn’t stop me, though she did watch me with a look of obvious concern. I realized that there was a blanked over my body which fell down as I sat up, and that there was some sort of weight on my chest. The blanked had fallen enough so that when I looked down, I saw two mounds of flesh pushing out from my chest.

“Aaron,” Grandma snapped at my brother, who finally vanished from view. She continued calling out, “Give Chad some privacy.” She closed the door and then looked back to me. “I’m sorry dear, but it looks like you have quite a bit to adjust to.”

I hesitantly touched the mounds on my chest, feeling soft and smooth skin that was definitely part of my body. And knowing exactly what these things were, I reached beneath the blanked and felt between my legs. Little Chad was gone.

“I’m a girl,” I blurted out in shock and horror.

“It certainly appears so,” Grandma told me. She hesitated a moment before asking, “How do you feel?”

“How do you think I feel?” I demanded as I began to shake.

Grandma gave me a gentle smile and said, “This reminds me of what it was like when your mother went through her twist. Of course, her body didn’t change quite as much as yours did.”

I groaned at that and slowly got to my feet, trying to use the blanket to keep myself covered. My muscles felt a little wobbly and my sense of balance was completely off. I had to grab the edge of my bed to keep from falling back over.

“Can I…can I have some privacy?” I asked Grandma, knowing that I had to be blushing badly as I did so.

“Of course,” she responded, giving me a gentle and reassuring smile before leaving the room and closing the door behind herself.

I dropped the blanked and looked down at myself, seeing that my body definitely looked female. My attention was first drawn to my breasts, which were the first things that I’d noticed. They were at least DD cups, though not as large as what my mom had.

“I’m a girl,” I said quietly, running a hand over my side and stomach.

My body hair had all vanished and my skin was now soft and smooth. In spite of that and the undeniable fact that I had some nice curves, I still seemed to have some nice muscle tone as well. I felt my stomach, which was flat and firm. I definitely had a slender waist and what seemed to be a nice ass.

I finally took a deep breath and reached between my legs again. My dick was still gone and hadn’t miraculously returned in the last minute. I felt my new equipment, the soft folds and sensitive slit that now marked me as being female.

“Oh shit,” I exclaimed, not sure what else I could possibly say to this.

I wanted to get an even better look at my new body, but I’d have to leave my bedroom to find a mirror. I started for my dresser but nearly fell flat on my face. My body just didn’t want to move right and my legs wanted to collapse beneath me. And of course, my entire sense of balance was screwed up as well.

For the moment, I sat down on the edge of my bed, noticing that there was a scorch mark on the floor where I’d been lying…and the charred ruins of my clothes. I’d heard that people who went through drastic twists often destroyed their clothes or whatever else they were touching at the time, but I’d never seen it with my own eyes.

“Good thing I wasn’t touching Aaron,” I said, relieved to at least have that small bit of good fortune. I didn’t know what I’d do if I’d accidentally hurt my brother.

While I was sitting there, I looked over my body again, trying my best to remain calm and collected. I noticed that my hands had changed as well and were now feminine looking hands with nails that were perfectly manicured ovals. I could only imagine how feminine the parts of my body were which I couldn’t see.

After waiting a minute, I got off my bed and started to move around my room. I was still awkward and clumsy, but the rubbery feeling in my muscles was quickly fading. All I really had to worry about now was the fact that my sense of balance was still off.

I wrapped myself in the blanked again and slowly left my room, being very careful so I didn’t trip. I saw Aaron at the far end of the hallway, and immediately winced as I wondered what he thought, but Grandma called him into the living room.

I went into the bathroom and locked the door behind me, then I dropped the blanket to the floor again and looked into the bathroom mirror. It wasn’t large enough to show my entire body at once, but it was enough to let me see my face.

My eyes went wide at the sight of the gorgeous girl who stared back at me. She had dark eyes that seemed to sparkle a little, full kissable lips, and a long strawberry blonde hair that went down to her mid-back.

“Oh shit,” I blurted out, suddenly thinking that the girl in the mirror was hot enough that she could be a porn star like Mom. Fortunately, I hadn’t noticed any compulsions yet to go into that kind of work, and the fact that I felt a moment of panic about it was a good sign that no such compulsions existed.

I continued looking myself over enough to see that I definitely had a killer body. I felt a churning in my stomach at the realization that this was my body now and would be for the rest of my life. I felt a surge of panic, and before I knew it, I was sitting on the toilet and sobbing.

I had no idea how long I just sat there crying before someone began knocking on the door. “Chad?” Grandma said through the door. “Please open up…” When I didn’t open the door, she gently added, “I can hear you in there, so open this door.”

For a moment, I remained where I was, feeling depressed and ashamed. I tried wiping the tears from my eyes and reluctantly opened the door. Grandma took one look at me and then gave me a hug.

“Everything is going to be all right,” Grandma told me gently. “I know this isn’t easy, but you’ll get through it…”

“How?” I demanded, gesturing down at myself. “I’m not ME anymore… I don’t know how to be a girl. I don’t WANT to be a girl…”

“I know dear,” she said, giving me a sad smile. “But it seems that you probably won’t have much choice about it.”

After a few minutes, Grandma talked me into coming out of the bathroom, saying that she’d fix me up a cup of hot cocoa. I wrapped the blanket around myself again and staggered out to the living room where I sat down on the couch.

Aaron stared at me with a wide eyed look of disbelief, as though he couldn’t believe I was really me. Of course, he’d actually seen me start to glow and transform right in front of his eyes, so he knew exactly who I was.

“I’ve never seen someone go through their twist before,” Aaron said awkwardly.

“I have,” I responded bitterly.

I’d seen it happen at school a couple times, though one of them had been a minor twist where the girl glowed and sparked a little, but didn’t go through any visible changes. The other one had been a boy who’d suddenly gone from being chubby to being lean and athletic.

“What’s it like being a girl?” Aaron abruptly asked me. I just glared at him in response.

Aaron and I both sat there sipping hot cocoa, though he continued giving me odd looks that seemed to alternate with being filled with curiosity and with disbelief. I just did my best to ignore him and the odd sensations from my body.

Grandma came back into the living room and said, “I just finished calling your mother. She said she’ll be back here as soon as possible, but that she might not be able to make it for a day or two.”

Aaron leaned over and whispered, “Maybe you can guilt trip Mom about leaving and get her to buy you something cool…”

“Aaron Evan Anderson,” Grandma said, standing there with her hands on her hips and giving Aaron a steady glare that made him wilt under it.

“It was just an idea,” Aaron said defensively.

Grandma looked as though she was fighting back a smile before she turned to look at me again. “Chad, I know you’re worried and upset, but I think you should try getting some clothes on.” She glanced to Aaron, reminding me that I now had the body of a hot girl and I had nothing but a blanket covering me.

“Okay,” I said with a reluctant sigh. I stood up and told her, “I’ll go see if my sweats will fit me…” She nodded acceptance of that.

I’d just taken several steps towards my room and was thinking about what I might possibly have that would still fit me when I suddenly felt a strange tingling along my skin. A moment later, half the blanket seemed to disintegrate from around my shoulders and the rest of it fell to the ground.

“Chad,” Grandma exclaimed while I let out an ‘eep’ that sounded just a little too girly to my ears.

My first thought to was to cover myself up so that Grandma and Aaron wouldn’t be staring at me naked, but then I realized that I wasn’t naked. I was actually wearing some kind of clothes, which had appeared out of nowhere.

I started to turn, then immediately lost my balance and fell face first onto the floor. And when I tried getting back up again, I found one small problem. I was actually wearing some sort of high heels on my feet.

“What the hell is this?” I demanded in frustration, glaring at the high heels and the rest of the odd clothes that I was suddenly wearing.

“No way,” Aaron blurted out, staring at me with a look of wide eyed amazement. “I thought you looked a lot like Lady Starlight…but now you REALLY look just like her…”

“What are you talking about?” I stared, then looked down at myself again and suddenly realized what he meant. The clothes I was wearing looked like the costume that super hero had been wearing in the comic I’d read. “Oh shit…”

Grandma didn’t bother correcting me about my language, though she did help me back to my feet and let me lean on her while I stood in the high heels. I looked myself over and groaned, seeing that I was definitely wearing Lady Starlight’s costume.

I was wearing some kind of spandex costume that covered my entire body from the neck down, except for my arms since it cut off without any sleeves. The material was black, but with tiny glowing sparkles all over it that looked sort of like stars in the night sky. The high heels I was wearing were actually a part of this one piece spandex outfit so I couldn’t take the shoes off without removing everything else.

There a few small accessories to this costume as well, including a silvery white sash that was wrapped around my waist and which had some of the cloth hanging down loose on one side. I also had on a pair of silvery white metal bracers that were about the same color as the sash, covering my forearms. However, each bracer had a large smooth and rounded gemstone on the back that was all black but with a sparkling star pattern, similar to the main part of the costume.

“I think you may have discovered your trick,” Grandma carefully stated as she looked me over. “That…costume just appeared out of nowhere.”

“No way,” I blurted out. It was bad enough that I’d been turned into a girl, but not it seemed that I had the power to suddenly end up wearing this ridiculous super hero outfit.

With that, I tried taking this costume off, not caring that Grandma and Aaron were right there watching. However, the fact that I had an audience wasn’t a problem since the costume wouldn’t come off. The wrist bracers just wouldn’t budge at all. The spandex outfit seemed to be glued to my skin and wouldn’t even let me get a finger beneath it.

“Come on,” I exclaimed in frustration, grabbing the sash, which didn’t appear to actually be tied on. It actually seemed to be one single piece, which wouldn’t budge from my waist any more than the spandex would come off my skin. “Come on,” I snarled again. “This isn’t fair…”

“Please calm down,” Grandma told me with a worried look. “We’ll figure this out…”

Then I noticed that Aaron was just staring at me with a look of absolute amazement…and excitement. I groaned at that, wondering why I should be surprised by him staring at me when I was suddenly stuck looking like his favorite super hero.

-------------------

I let out a loud yawn as I ate my breakfast, or at least as I tried to. I had to brush my now long hair back again in order to keep it out of both my face and my bowl of cereal. Even though I’d only had this long hair since last night, it was already becoming quite frustrating. Of course, my hair was probably one of the least frustrating things about my entire twist.

“Stupid twist,” I muttered to myself, pausing to stare down at my breasts, which partially blocked my view of my cereal.

Last night had been filled with frustration and embarrassment as I’d suddenly transformed not only into a girl, but into the very image of Aaron’s favorite comic book character. My sense of balance had been completely screwed up because of that transformation, then I suddenly found myself with a pair of stiletto heels that wouldn’t come off. I could barely stand up in those things much less actually walk. Fortunately, Grandma had given me some advice on how to walk in heels, and I’d gotten a bit of unwilling practice, but by the time I went to bed, I’d still been holding onto the walls and furniture in order to keep from falling over.

“What kind of super hero wears high heels?” I demanded in disgust. When I’d been reading Aaron’s comic, I hadn’t really thought about how awkward it would be for a super hero to fight crime while wearing shoes like these, but now it struck me as obvious. “I always knew comic books were too silly and unrealistic.”

With that, I let out another loud yawn. I hadn’t been able to get much sleep last night and was feeling pretty tired as a result. Of course, it was no surprise that I hadn’t been able to get to sleep. Not only due I have an entirely new body which felt odd, but my mind wouldn’t stop running as I thought about my twist and what it would mean for the rest of my life. And of course, I’d gone to bed while fully dressed.

The only good thing was that while I was drifting off to sleep, my super hero costume vanished and went back to wherever it had come from. That was fortunate since I’d had to get up to go take a piss a short time after that, and I had no idea how I would have been able to do that if I couldn’t remove my costume.

At the moment, I was wearing my old sweats, which was a big improvement over the super hero costume. But oddly enough, as I ate my breakfast, I couldn’t help but thinking about just how comfortable that costume had actually been. Sure, I couldn’t walk in the heels, but the outfit had been a perfect fit.

“At least Aaron isn’t staring at me,” I muttered to myself as I tried to think of something to be positive about. Then I snorted and added, “Of course, he’ll stare at me again when he gets home from school.”

I was just finishing up with my breakfast when Grandma came into the dining room and gave me a concerned look. She had a forced smile as she asked, “How are you holding up?”

“All right,” I responded with a forced smile of my own.

Grandma gave me a skeptical look, then asked, “So, what are you doing there?” She wasn’t pointing at my cereal bowl but the pad of paper that I had sitting next to me.

I was silent for a moment before answering, “I was trying to come up with a list of things I need now…” That made it sound like I was being calm and practical about this whole situation, though the truth was that I was just trying to keep myself focused on something besides freaking out.

“New clothes,” Grandma read off my list. “Go to the clinic. Get a new driver’s license picture. Hide in shame from my friends…” She paused at that last one and gave me an odd look, then continued going through the list. “Well, most of these are pretty reasonable, but I don’t think you can deal with this by hiding away.”

“I know,” I responded with a sigh. “It’s not like I’m the first one in town to be Twisted.”

“No you aren’t,” Grandma agreed. “Your mother had to go through her twist as well, and don’t forget about poor Christine.”

I shuddered faintly as I thought about my cousin and the twist she’d gone through. She was really my age, but not only was she stuck looking like a little girl, but she had some sort of compulsion to dress and act like one too. I could only imagine how frustrating that was for her, especially since it meant that most people would treat her like a kid for the rest of her life. So far, I hadn’t noticed any compulsions or personality changes, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.

“Why don’t you go take a shower,” Grandma suggested gently. “Afterwards, we’ll see if we can find some clothes that fit you.” Then she joked, “That way we can start checking off items on your list.”

I nodded at that and reluctantly went to the bathroom where I undressed and climbed into the shower. I tried hard to focus on washing up while ignoring my new body and how odd everything felt, but it didn’t do much good. I was quite aware of the warm water running over my new breasts and of how good it felt. In spite of that, I ignored any temptation to feel myself up and finished with my shower as quickly as possible.

Minutes later, I discovered that long hair was a real pain in the ass. I also found that while it was soaked, it was also kind of heavy. I began trying to dry my hair the way I always had before, but then I remembered Mom had talked about how her long hair required special attention in order to keep looking nice. I tried to remember what Mom did with her hair, then reluctantly following her example.

For the next twenty minutes, I sat in the bathroom, patting my hair dry with a towel and then brushing the tangles out and using a hair drying. It was extremely time consuming, but my Mom went through that all the time so I couldn’t very well complain. Then again, I was going to have to do this from now on as well, and that was definitely worth complaining about.

When I came out of the bathroom with a large towel wrapped around my body, Grandma looked to my hair and gave me a knowing smile. “It looks like someone has already had some hair care lessons.”

“Only indirectly,” I muttered in embarrassment.

“Well, I found some clothes in your mother’s room that might fit you,” Grandma said, gesturing down the hall towards the room that was reserved for my Mom when she came to visit. “It’s a good thing she always leaves some spare clothes here.”

The idea of wearing my Mom’s clothes seemed absolutely ludicrous to me, but unfortunately, my own clothes no longer fit right. I’d already measured myself with a tape measure and knew that I hadn’t lost any height during my transformation, but my chest, hip, and waist measurements had all changed quite a bit. I could get away with wearing some of my old shirts and sweaters, but not much else.

“You’re taller than Dana,” Grandma told me with a careful look. “And a couple cup sizes smaller. But I think these should do…at least until we can go shopping.”

I braced myself for the bad news, knowing that my Mom’s fashion sense often went to the sexy and slutty. Fortunately, Grandma found a pair of slacks and a shirt that wasn’t too bad. These clothes were a reminder that, even though Mom loved getting attention and showing off her body, she often dressed a little more conservatively while visiting Spiral.

As expected, Mom’s clothes weren’t a great fit on me, though they did fit me a little better than my own would have. Mom had also left a single pair of sneakers and two pairs of high heels, though my feet were too big for her sneakers. My feet had become smaller during my twist, though not that small. I ended up putting on a pair of my own shoes, along with three pairs of socks so the shoes wouldn’t be quite as loose.

“Not bad,” Grandma told me when I was finished getting dressed. “Though you are definitely going to need a bra. Unfortunately, mine are too small and your mother’s are too large.”

I shuddered at the thought of wearing an uncomfortable bra, but then again, my breasts jiggled around a bit when I moved and I couldn’t help but thinking that maybe a bra would keep them in place better. Still, I’d rather at least wear something comfortable…like that costume I’d had last night.

Suddenly, I felt a tingling along my skin just like I had last night right before that costume appeared. A moment later, all my clothes disintegrated and fell away from me in shreds, leaving me standing there in the same super hero costume as before. And since I was now wearing stiletto heels, I immediately lost my balance and fell to the floor again.

Grandma let out an exasperated sigh and shook her head. “Well,” she said, giving me a speculative look. “I suppose you could go out of the house in that. I just don’t know how we’re going to get you new clothes if you keep destroying them like that.”

“Great,” I grumbled as I carefully got back to my feet. “Just fu…just freaking great.”

I was definitely annoyed by these high heels, but the rest of the costume felt a lot more snug and comfortable than my Mom’s clothes had been. I paused, suddenly realizing that a part of me was actually relieved to be wearing this stupid super hero costume again.

“Just great,” I grumbled again. “I think I just found my first compulsion.”

With that, I let out a long sigh and then started back towards my room, using the walls to help me keep my balance as I did so. After the practice I had walking in these heels last night, I was getting a little better about keeping my balance, though I had a long way to go before I was confident in them.

A short time later, I came out of my room and started for the bathroom, though I was wondering how I was going to relieve myself with this costume on. But then, I heard the doorbell ringing and changed directions to slowly start making my way there. I had just stepped back into the living room when Grandma answered the door.

“Hi Grandma,” a cute little girl exclaimed, quickly grabbing Grandma in a hug.

“Hello Christine,” Grandma greeted my cousin. “That’s a lovely dress you’re wearing…”

“Thank you,” Christine responded with a grin. Then she spun around, giving Grandma a better look at the dress. “And George likes it too…” She held up a stuffed monkey for Grandma to see.

Grandma smiled down at Christine for a moment, probably remembering when she was that age the first time. I remembered when she was that age the first time, and she hadn’t been this sweet or innocent. In fact, she’d been a bit of a tom boy who kicked and screamed whenever her parents tried making her wear a dress.

Then Grandma’s expression turned to one of disapproval and she asked, “Shouldn’t you be in school right now?”

Christine suddenly looked up at Grandma with the cute puppy dog eyes that I suspected was a trick she’d gained from her twist. Grandma immediately seemed to soften, even before Christine said, “Daddy said that Chad went through a big twist last night, so I thought I’d help him adjust.”

“All right,” Grandma relented after a moment, obviously realizing that Christine had a lot of experience when it came to dealing with drastic twists. “But I expect you to make up everything you missed at school.”

“Okay Grandma,” Christine quickly agreed.

I took a deep breath and then said, “Hey Christine.”

She looked over and saw me standing there for the first time. Her eyes went wide and she gasped, “Chad?” When I nodded self-consciously, she blurted out, “Holy poop. It’s like deja-vu…all over again.”

“As you can see,” Grandma told Christine, “your cousin went through quite a drastic change. I hope your perspective might help him…her.”

“You’re a girl,” Christine blurted out, stating the obvious. Then she quickly asked, “And what are you wearing?”

“What about what you’re wearing?” I asked, pointing out the frilly dress, which at one time, she wouldn’t have been caught dead in.

“Touche,” Christine responded with a grin.

I gestured down at myself and gave Christine a wry smile as I explained, “I was reading one of Aaron’s comic books when I went through my twist…” Then I shrugged, trying to act as though it was no big deal. “Now I’m stuck looking like his favorite comic book character.”

Christine nodded at that, looking at me with a concerned expression. “That does explain the costume. But how are you doing?”

“How do you think I’m doing?” I responded with a snort. “I’m a girl. I’m stuck wearing a goofy spandex super hero outfit that won’t come off. And it comes with high heels that I can’t walk in.”

“You were able to finally take it off last night,” Grandma pointed out calmly.

I grimaced at that and muttered, “It just went away while I was in bed…”

“And it came back a short time ago,” Grandma added with a faint smile. “Obviously that costume can appear and disappear. You just need to learn how to control it…hopefully before you destroy any more clothes.”

After that, Christine and I went back to my bedroom to talk in private. She seemed amused to watch me trying to get around in stiletto heels, but thankfully, she didn’t say anything about it. She listened patiently as I talked about my twist and how weird it was for me, and she didn’t seem surprised or judgmental about it.

“It could have been a lot worse, “Christine pointed out once I was done. “So you’re a hot girl in a super hero costume. At least you don’t have to sleep in a swimming pool.”

“What?” I asked in confusion.

Christine just smirked at that, looking amused for some reason. “All I mean is that it could have been a lot worse.” She didn’t need to point out that she was referring to herself, which definitely put things in perspective.

“I guess you’re right,” I told her reluctantly. Then I chuckled and said, “At least I don’t feel any compulsions to go into my Mom’s line of work.”

Christine giggled at that, then joked, “I bet take your kid to work day is really awkward.”

“You have no idea,” I responded with a straight face that had Christine giggling even more.

“You know,” Christine said once we’d both stopped laughing. “If your trick is to make that outfit come and go, maybe you can learn to control it.”

A moment later, her stuffed monkey sat up and began clapping. I was a little startled by that, but not much since I knew she had a trick that let her animate stuffed animals. However, I’d only seen it in action once before.

With Christine’s help and advice, I tried figuring out how to make this costume vanish. I remembered that it had appeared last night when I was thinking of getting dressed, and it had appeared again this morning when I was thinking about how comfortable it was. And last night, it had only vanished while I was in bed, trying to go to sleep.

“I think it’s like when you were teaching me how to play basketball,” Christine said, referencing some lessons from when we were both Aaron’s age. “Just relax and let it happen.”

I did as Christine recommended and tried to just relax and will my costume to go away. Then I felt it, a faint tingling along my skin again that was similar to what I felt when the costume appeared. That was enough to distract me and make me lose my balance. I tried catching myself, only to twist my ankle and fall to the ground, my costume still firmly in place.

“Damn,” I exclaimed in annoyance.

I got back to my feet, using my dresser to help support me. Then in anger, I smacked the top of my dresser with my hand. Suddenly, the entire top of my dresser caved in, completely smashing through the first drawer as well. I just froze, staring at the mess in surprise and confusion.

“Holy poop,” Christine blurted out, staring first at my dresser and then me. “I think there’s more to your trick than just the costume.”

“You think?” I asked.

“Frequently,” she responded, sticking her tongue out at me. “You should try it sometime.”

Grandma burst through the bedroom door a moment later with a worried expression, demanding, “What’s going on?” Then she saw my dresser and stared at it in surprise.

“She did it,” Christine immediately said, pointing at me.

“Just great,” I muttered with a roll of my eyes. “Just throw me under the hover bus, why don’t you.”

After I explained what had happened to Grandma, she wandered out of my room muttering something about getting some Excedrin. Christine and I moved to the back yard to continue testing my trick, though we forgot all about trying to make my costume disappear for the moment. Instead, we focused on what I’d done to my dresser.

Since there wasn’t anything in the back yard that I could get away with smashing, I instead tried to pick up the picnic table. To my surprise, I was able to do so with ease, as though it only weighed a couple pounds at most. Christine laughed and clapped excitedly, then climbed on top of it and had me pick it up again. She seemed to have a blast with that, though I quickly put the table back down before Grandma came out and saw. Somehow, I didn’t think she’d be okay with me picking up the picnic table while my little cousin sat on top of it.

“So, what kind of super powers does this Lady Starlight have?” Christine asked me excitedly.

I had to think about that for a moment since I’d only read the one comic book with her in it and she hadn’t really used her powers much in that one. Most of that issue had been focused more on the plot than on a big super villain fight, which was why I’d liked it. However, she had demonstrated a few things during a two page scene.

“Super strength,” I said.

“Obviously,” Christine responded.

“She’s bullet proof,” I added thoughtfully. “And she can fly.”

From the mischievious grin that spread over Christine’s face, I knew almost exactly what she was going to suggest. “Remember when we were kids and tried jumping off the roof to see if we could fly?”

In spite of Christine’s suggestion, I had no intention of trying to jump off the roof. However, I was willing to compromise enough to jump off the picnic table instead. To my surprise, instead of falling, I remained in the air, several feet above the ground.

“I’m flying,” I blurted out, though it was more accurate to say that I was hovering.

“Think happy thoughts,” Christine called out cheerfully.

I willed myself to stop flying, and I abruptly dropped to the ground. But now that I knew I actually could fly, I willed myself up into the air again and I actually lifted off from the ground. However, I only went five feet into the air before I got nervous about falling.

“So, I can really fly,” I said in amazement. “No way…”

Then I suddenly felt something hit my face and bounce off, though it didn’t really hurt. I looked at Christine, who had several rocks in her hand. She grinned evilly and began throwing them at me.

“Hey,” I blurted out. “Stop that…”

“Does it hurt?” Christine asked as she threw another rock at me.

“Of course,” I started to protest, only to realize that it didn’t. The rocks kept bouncing off me with no more impact than if they’d been made of soft rubber. I glared at her anyway and asked, “Why would you throw rocks at me when you didn’t know if they’d hurt me or not?”

Christine gave me the innocent puppy dog eyes, but I wasn’t going to fall for it. When I stood there with my hands on my hips, glaring at her, she started to giggle.

“You didn’t hurt your hand when you hit the dresser,” she pointed out. “And I thought this would be easier than shooting you to see if you were bullet proof.”

I rolled my eyes at that but had to admit that she had a point. Or at least, I had to admit it to myself, though I refused to do so to her. Still, I spent the next half hour flying around my back yard and learning to control it while she occasionally threw rocks at me and seemed to be having a blast.

“Wow, you’ve got a lot of tricks,” Christine told me when we were finished. “I’ve never heard of someone with that many tricks…”

“I’m a regular super hero,” I told her with a forced chuckle

After this, we went back to what we’d originally been working on, trying to figure out how to make this costume go away. I’d come close to doing it earlier so I went back to trying the same thing, relaxing and willing it to go away.

The tingling sensation along my skin returned, then I felt an almost mental switch and knew that it had worked. My super hero costume was gone. However, Christine was staring at me with a wide eyed look and snickering, which made me suddenly look down in horror at the fact that I was standing out in the middle of my back yard while being buck naked.

I let out a loud squeal and ran for the back door as fast as I could while Christine burst out laughing and exclaimed, “Woohoo. Take it all off.”

--------------------

I sat in the waiting room of the Spiral Clinic, feeling apprehensive and impatient. Grandma sat beside me, giving me a reassuring smile before she went back to reading her book on her computer tablet.

Grandma and I had been at the clinic for the last two hours while I was getting checked out, though they still weren’t finished with me. First, I had a physical examination where the doctor confirmed that I was now a healthy and relatively normal young woman, capable of having periods, getting pregnant, and everything else that came with the extra X chromosome. That news wasn’t a surprise, but it still felt as though it hit me like a physical blow.

After the physical, they gave me a series of psychological tests to help me determine if my personality had been altered any as part of my twist. Fortunately, I didn’t seem to have any obsessions or noticeable personality changes, only a minor compulsion to wear that ridiculous costume. Of course, I’d already figured that out on my own.

Yesterday, after Christine had helped me figure out how to make that costume come and go at will, I’d found myself thinking about it and how comfortable it felt to wear. Sure, I could barely walk in it, but that didn’t seem to make much of a difference. Then last night, I’d summoned the costume again, using the excuse that I wanted to practice walking in the heels. The truth was, wearing the costume just felt…right.

I squirmed a little in my chair, feeling self-conscious about how much I wanted to change into that costume. The only things that kept me from actually doing so right then and there was that I didn’t want anyone to see me wearing that in public, and the fact that making that costume appear would destroy the new clothes I currently had on. However, there was a small voice in my head that kept whispering, ‘Go ahead. You’ll be more comfortable’.

I closed my eyes and silently reminded myself that I couldn’t afford to destroy my new clothes like that. Not only had Grandma spent good money buying them for me, but I only had a couple sets of clothing so far.

Once Christine and I had finished testing my tricks, Grandma had taken us shopping, or more accurately, Grandma took me shopping while Christine tagged along. To my relief, Grandma hadn’t been interested in a long day of trying out clothes and helping me discover a new feminine style. Instead, she just wanted to get enough clothes to last me a few days, at least until after I’d been checked out at the clinic and verified there were no more surprises with my twist.

Going shopping with Grandma had been pretty quick and efficient. We looked at some clothes, she made sure I wouldn’t be embarrassed or uncomfortable wearing them, then we hurried on to the next thing. I ended up with a pair of slacks, a pair of jeans, a couple shirts, and a pair of new sneakers. Of course, I also had to get socks and underwear. I’d been nervous about going into the lingerie section, but tried to suck it up and act like it wasn’t a big deal. Oddly enough, I noticed that Christine hadn’t been very comfortable there either, probably because the bras reminded her of what she’d lost during her twist.

“You know,” Grandma abruptly said, distracting me from my thoughts. “We didn’t have a clinic like this when your mother went through her twist. We had to figure out the nature of twist and trick for ourselves…” She shook her head and that and let out a sigh. “I remember when we came home and found Dana in the middle of having sex with Frank’s best friend. Frank nearly had a heart attack when he saw this…and he did lose a friend.” Grandma gave a faint chuckle, as though she thought it was funny that Grandpa had walked in on Mom like that. “Dana wasn’t even the least bit embarrassed and she just didn’t understand why we were so upset…”

I gave a weak smile at that. “Yeah, Mom is a bit…different.”

“That certainly is one way of putting it,” Grandma responded with a shake of her head. “It took me a long time before I accepted that she didn’t have a choice about this. It was just the way fate had made her.” She put a gentle hand on my leg and added, “At least you don’t have to deal with such a large personality shift.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. Grandma and Christine both kept pointing out that my twist could have been much worse. I knew that they were right, but it was hard to feel lucky when I looked into the mirror and saw someone else staring back…especially someone of the wrong gender.

“Have you given any thought about a new name?” Grandma asked me gently. I just mumbled non-committedly at that. Choosing a new name was on my list of things I needed to do, but I was procrastinating on that as much as possible. After all, my name was Chad and I didn’t want another name…even if I didn’t really look like a Chad anymore.

“You’re going to need a new name soon,” Grandma told me calmly. “It would probably be best if you had one before you go back to school. It will help make your transition easier.”

I grunted at that, then let out a sigh. “I’m still trying to decide.”

A minute later, the receptionist said, “Chad…the doctor can see you now.” She gave me a sympathetic look, then apologized, “Sorry for the wait, but one of our specialists is away on vacation so we’re a little backed up.”

Then she showed me into an examination room that was filled with all sorts of strange looking equipment which probably would have fit right in with a mad scientist’s lab or a space ship. The doctor was already there, though my first thought was that she was just a mannequin, at least until she moved. She appeared to be in her late twenties or early thirties and had oddly smooth skin that looked as though it was made out of flesh colored plastic. But with skin like that, which had no wrinkles at all, she might very well be older than I’d first guessed.

“I’m Doctor Newbury,” she introduced herself to me before asking me to sit down. “Now, can you tell me a little about the nature of your twist?”

I hesitated a moment, feeling embarrassed as I admitted, “I was reading my brother’s comic book right before my twist. I kind of turned into his favorite super hero.”

“What hero would that be?” Dr. Newbury asked me with a curious look.

“Lady Starlight,” I answered quietly.

Dr. Newbury‘s expression remained perfectly calm, but something about her eyes seemed to show amusement and more interest. “My nephew is a huge fan of that comic,” she finally told me. She stared at me for a moment before adding, “Now that you mention it, I can definitely see the resemblance. You look a few years younger than she does, but other than that, the only thing missing is the costume.”

I just groaned at that, then admitted, “That’s my trick…or at least one of them. I can make her costume appear.”

“One of them?” Dr. Newbury asked me, seeming interested though her facial expression remained stiff and almost expressionless.

“I can make Lady Starlight’s costume appear and disappear,” I explained, feeling self-conscious about that. Then, with a little pride, I added, “But when I have her costume on, I have most of her powers. I’m strong, I can fly, and rocks bounce off me without hurting.”

Dr. Newbury nodded at that, then asked me, “Can you demonstrate for me?”

“Um…,” I started, blushing badly. I took a deep breath before explaining, “Whenever I make the costume appear, it destroys all my clothes…” Of course, I didn’t mention that the obvious solution was for me to get undressed first, but I didn’t need to since Dr. Newbury immediately suggested it.

“Before you summon this costume,” she told me in a pleasant tone that didn’t reach her face. “I’d like to perform a few scans.”

A minute later, I was undressed and wearing some kind of hospital gown while Dr. Newbury began preparing some machines. She had me climb into something that looked a bit like a tanning bed, then she used a series of other devices which left me clueless as to what they did. Finally, she put little disk sensors with adhesive backings onto various places on my skin.

“Now please show me this costume that you summon,” she instructed. I did as she asked, and a moment later the hospital gown had been disintegrated, along with all the sensors. All she said was, “Interesting.”

I was now standing there in my Lady Starlight costume, feeling self-conscious and absolutely ridiculous. At the same time, I also felt a definite sense of relief, which only brought up a sense of guilt for feeling so comfortable. My emotions were definitely a little contradictory and confusing, though I owed most of that to my compulsion. Thankfully, all the practice I’d had in walking around in these heels was starting to pay off. I was able to stand there without losing my balance and falling over. I was even able to walk across the room, as long as I was slow and careful.

Dr. Newbury watched me with her blank expression, though her eyes at least seemed amused. “You really do look just like Lady Starlight,” she commented. She moved closer and carefully looked me over. “The black parts of your costume almost seem to absorb light, and the stars actually twinkle like real stars. Amazing, your costume actually looks like a patch if night sky.”

“It is kind of cool looking,” I admitted as I looked down at my costume. The spandex part of my costume actually looked more like Hollywood CGI than any kind of real material.

“The only thing missing from the look is the starlight staff,” she mused. “Can you make that appear as well?”

“What starlight staff?” I asked in confusion.

“The one Lady Starlight possesses in the comic,” Dr. Newbury respond. She looked at me with her fixed expression, though I imagined she’d be giving me a curious look if her face allowed it.

“I don’t really know much about the character,” I admitted with a weak smile. “I’ve only read one issue, but that didn’t turn out so well for me.” I paused for a moment then added, “I do remember her holding a staff…”

Dr. Newbury nodded. “Since my nephew is such a fan, I have read a few issues with him. According to the comic, Lady Starlight gets her powers from a staff and bracelets of alien origin.” She gestured to the odd looking wrist bracers I was wearing. “Can you do a starlight dazzle or fire light blasts?” At my blank look, she explained, “These are powers she uses with her staff.”

“I don’t think she used the staff for anything in the one I read,” I said thoughtfully.

Dr. Newbury wrote some notes down on a pad, then said, “Then let’s get back to business.”

With that, Dr. Newbury began to repeat all the scans that she’d performed on me already. She even tried putting some of those sensor disks on me again, but none of them would stick to my skin or costume. She made some more notes.

After this, Dr. Newbury took me down the hall and into what looked like a large gym with concrete walls. Half of the space was wide open while there were exercise machines set up along the far wall.

Since the sticky sensors didn’t work, Dr. Newbury put a different kind of sensor on me that was held in place by straps. It was a bit uncomfortable but I didn’t complain.

“Now please demonstrate your ability to fly,” she instructed.

I willed myself to lift into the air, then I slowly flew around the open space before settling down again. It was kind of fun being able to fly like that, but also kind of scary. I kept thinking that I might lose control and fall.

Dr. Newbury had me fly around a few more times, going a little faster each time. When she was satisfied with that, she took me to the exercise machines and had me run on a treadmill…or at least try to since I was wearing high heels I could barely even walk in. After that embarrassing showing, she had me work with some kind of weight machine.

Once we were done with the exercise machines, Dr. Newbury had me stand in front of a ball throwing machine, like the kind they use in batting cages. I felt pretty nervous at that, even if the thing was loaded up with soft rubber balls.

“Please tell me when this begins to become uncomfortable,” she told me as she turned on the machine.

The balls started shooting out at me fairly slow at first, then they sped up and hit me with more force. After several minutes, the balls changed over to tennis balls and it began again before moving on to baseballs and then metal balls.

Dr. Newbury put me through several more tests, then she had be try to shoot laser beams from my hands and several other things that Lady Starlight could do in the comics. However, there was no indication that I had any of these other comic book powers.

We eventually finished up with the testing and returned to Dr. Newbury’s office. She went to work on a computer while I made my costume vanish and then got dressed in my real clothes. It bothered me just a little that I actually felt reluctant to change into normal clothes.

“All right,” Dr. Newbury told me when she was ready. “It seems that in spite of appearances, you only have a single trick that just has several applications.”

“Just one trick?” I asked in confusion. That didn’t make any sense at all since flying and making a costume appear were two very different things.

“Your real trick is that you can activate an energy field that surrounds your body,” she explained patiently. “Your Lady Starlight costume is actually just a manifestation of this energy field. The energy field covers your entire body along the skin, but it extends out a little further and changes appearance where your clothes would be.”

I stared at her in confusion for a moment while her words settled in. After several seconds, I blurted out, “You mean the costume isn’t really even there? I’m actually naked when I’m wearing it?”

“Technically, yes,” Dr. Newbury answered. “However, as the field is opaque in those areas and does serve all the functions of real clothing…”

This led to a brief discussion on the possibility of changing the field so that it looked like other types of clothes, but Dr. Newbury didn’t think that was possible. She said that the field had been imprinted on the Lady Starlight costume when I went through my twist and that I probably wouldn’t be able to change it.

“But how does this explain my other powers?” I asked curiously. “I mean, I can fly, I’m invulnerable, and I’m really strong.”

Dr. Newbury nodded at that and she smiled faintly…VERY faintly. “When we measured your strength, you were able to press just over a ton and a half. Your flight speed appears to be limited to between fifteen to twenty miles an hour. And you are capable of resisting injury involving impacts, including full protection from small arms fire.”

Of course, I’d known about those abilities, but I hadn’t had any numbers associated with them until now. Dr. Newbury had remained quiet about the results of some of those tests at the time, so this was new information. My eyes widened as I realized that I could now bench press more than a ton of weight…at least when I had my costume on.

“These abilities are all a direct result of your energy field,” Dr. Newbury explained. “The same field that creates the appearance of that costume also protects you from injury…”

“It’s a force field,” I said in realization.

Dr. Newbury nodded at that and continued, “It also acts as an exoskeleton, supporting your movements and simulating enhanced strength. And in addition, when you fly, you are merely wiling the energy field to move…and it carries you with it.”

“Your trick allows you to mimic several of the abilities that Lady Starlight demonstrates in the comics,” Dr. Newbury told me, “but only the ones you knew about and at a much lesser extent. She can lift many times that amount, fly a great deal faster, and she can withstand a much greater amount of injury. If you’d known about her other abilities at the time you went through your twist, your energy field might have found some way to mimic those abilities in some way as well.”

We talked about my twist and my trick for a little longer, with Dr. Newbury telling me that multiple abilities being based off a single energy field isn’t actually all that uncommon. Apparently, a lot of Twisted have tricks that are based off some sort of energy field around their body.

As I was getting ready to leave, Dr. Newbury told me, “I recommend that you read more of the Lady Starlight comics.”

“Are they really that good?” I asked, thinking about Aaron’s excitement over the character.

Dr. Newbury gave me another VERY faint smile and responded, “Perhaps not. But looking the way you now do, people are going to expect you to be an expert.”

--------------------

I was sitting on the couch in the living room, holding my computer tablet in my hand as I read through the first chapter of a new book. It was always exciting to start a new book because I was still trying to figure out the author’s style and how they approached things. And of course, starting on a new biography always thrilled me because I was just about to learn all sorts of new things about someone interesting.

My current book was the story of John Kinkaide, a Canadian explorer who’d come back from an Antarctic expedition with a new virus that no one had ever seen before. This virus was officially named the Kinkaide Virus after him, but most people just call it the Antarctic Flu. This disease got out before anyone realized it and had spread over much of North America, killing over two million people before they found a vaccine. This disease was also responsible for causing a genetic change in the survivors, which resulted in their children being Twisted.

I’d previously planned on my next book being one on the second Korean War since my Grandpa had served during that one, but then I’d gone through my twist. Now, it seemed like a good idea to read up on the origins of the Twisted, which meant the story of John Kinkaide and the spread of the Antarctic Flu.

While I read, I squirmed uncomfortably in my seat. I was fully aware of the weight on my chest and the bra straps on my shoulders, both of which I knew I’d have to get used to. And at the same time, I kept thinking that I’d be much more comfortable if I just shifted over to my costume. Just that morning, the shrink at the Spiral Clinic had confirmed that I had a minor compulsion to wear that costume, and in a way, that was something of a relief. After all, since it was a twist induced compulsion, then it wasn’t my fault I wanted to wear that ridiculous outfit. I could blame it all on my twist and not feel quite as bad about it.

In spite of the temptation to change outfits, I remained in the one I was wearing. Even though I did feel a compulsion, it wasn’t overpowering and I was able to push it aside. This was just like wearing an outfit that was suitable for going out in public but was a little uncomfortable and itchy, while knowing that there was a perfectly comfortable pair of pajamas in the dresser.

After a little longer, I set my book aside and went to find Grandma. She was in her home office, working on her computer. I stood back for a minute and just watched as she went through some spreadsheets, checking and double checking some numbers. Grandma was a CPA and had gotten a little behind with a couple of her clients over the last couple days do to everything that was going on with my twist.

“Hey Grandma,” I said, getting her attention. “I was going to go out for a run.” I didn’t tell her this, but I just wanted to get back into my old routine and do something that made me feel like everything was normal.

Grandma gave me a skeptical look. “You might want to think twice about that until after you get a sports bra.” At my blank look, she muttered, “Some lessons you might have to learn for yourself.” Then she paused and added, “Actually, Christine is going to be stopping here after school. She’s bringing your homework so you can catch up before going back to school tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” I blurted out in surprise. I wasn’t ready to go back to school and face my classmates yet. I shuddered, dreading the thought of how everyone would stare.

“The clinic gave you a clean bill of health,” Grandma pointed out with a gentle smile. “You’re cleared to go back to school so there’s no point in waiting…”

“But I don’t have enough school clothes,” I protested, grabbing for any excuse I could think of to delay my return to school for just a little longer.

Grandma gave me a knowing look, then responded, “Well, you do have a point. And your mother is supposed to be back tomorrow…” She let out a sigh and said, “Okay. One more day, then you go back. I don’t want you getting too far behind because of this.”

I nodded at that, then went back to the living room and my book, waiting until Christine arrived. Aaron returned home from school first, though he just gave me a disappointed look when he saw I wasn’t wearing the Lady Starlight costume, then went back into our bedroom, probably to play some video games. I remembered what Dr. Newbury had suggested and made a mental note to borrow some of Aaron’s Lady Starlight comics later on.

When the doorbell rang a short time later, I knew it had to be Christine. I went and answered the door, seeing that I was right and my cousin was standing right there, clutching a stuffed rabbit in her hands. However, I was startled to find that she wasn’t alone. There was another girl standing right behind her, looking nervous. This other girl was beautiful, with long aquamarine colored hair. I immediately recognized her as the singer from Christine’s band.

“This is my friend Lorilei,” Christine said, gesturing to the other girl. “I thought you two should talk.”

Christine and Lorilei came into the house, though Lorilei looked a bit nervous. She was giving me an odd look that made me self-conscious. “Most people just call me Lori,” said with a faint smile.

“Um…hi,” I greeted her. “I’m Chad.” Then I quickly added, “I just went through my twist…and…” I paused at that, blushing brightly.

“I understand completely,” Lori blurted out. “I used to be named Lucas.”

I stared at Lori in surprise, then asked, “So you used to be a guy too?”

“She used to be my boyfriend,” Christine said with a cheerful smile. “Back before I went through my twist.”

“Wow,” I said carefully, looking back and forth between Christine and Lori. “That has to be awkward.”

“It was, at first,” Lori admitted. Then she grinned down at Christine and added, “But we got past that. We’re just good friends now.”

Christine nodded emphatically at that, then told me, “Since Lori already went through the same thing you are, I thought she might be able to help you adjust.”

The three of us sat down in the living room, with Christine sitting cross legged on the couch while clutching her stuffed animal. Then Lori began to tell me a little about herself, about how she’d been afraid of water, and then while trying to learn how to swim, she twisted into a mermaid. I immediately stared at her legs, which were clearly visible beneath her skirt.

Lori giggled, probably at my look of skepticism. “My trick is that I can turn my tail back into legs…but only for a few hours at a time.”

With that, Lori removed her shoes, then her legs began to shimmer and fuse together. Aquamarine scales sprouted all along her skin, and mere seconds later, she had a mermaid tail where her legs had been. Lori moved the newly formed tail back and forth so I could see it was definitely real.

“It feels a lot more comfortable this way,” Lori told me, almost conspiratorially. “But I need to keep my tail damp.”

I nodded at that, picking up the subtle hint. I got up and came back a minute later with a wet towel, which she accepted gratefully and began to rub her tail with. I’d also brought us back some sodas and cookies to snack on while we talked.

Lori told me a little more about her experiences and how she adjusted, both to having a fish tail and to being a girl. I listened intently, though my thoughts kept straying as I frequently found myself staring at her. She was exotic looking, especially with the whole being a mermaid at the moment, but also quite beautiful.

“I used to be afraid of the water,” Lori told me as she finished up. “Now I’m absolutely addicted to swimming. As far as compulsions go, it’s not really a bad one.”

“I have a compulsion too,” I admitted, immediately getting Christine’s attention since she didn’t know about that yet. “Fortunately, it’s not very strong.” Then I explained, “I went to the clinic this morning and got checked out, so I learned a lot more about how my trick works too.”

“Show her,” Christine exclaimed, standing up on the couch and clapping her hands excitedly. “Show her. Show her.”

“I don’t want to destroy my clothes,” I protested weakly, though I was actually happy for an excuse to change into my costume. “Just a minute…”

I hurried to my bedroom, only to remember that Aaron was already in there playing video games. I groaned at that, realizing that with my new body, it might not be very appropriate for me to still be rooming with him. However, there was time to worry about that later. For the moment, I grabbed one of my old shirts and a pair of shorts, neither of which fit me very well now so I didn’t mind ruining them. Then I went to the bathroom and changed out of my current clothes and into the disposable ones.

“Okay,” I announced when I was back in the living room. “Watch this…”

A moment later, I activated my trick and immediately felt a sense of relief as my Lady Starlight costume appeared. I had to catch myself to keep from falling due to the high heels, but the costume definitely felt nice.

Suddenly, Grandma said, “I hope you’re planning on cleaning that up.” I looked to see her in the doorway to the living room, pointing at the shreds of burned and destroyed clothing that now surrounded me on the floor.

Lori laughed at that. “The same thing happens to my pants whenever I shift to my tail. I miss being able to wear pants, but skirts and dresses are a lot more practical for me.”

After I’d used the vacuum to clean up my mess, Lori changed her tail back into legs and we went outside so I could show her the other parts of my trick. I lifted the picnic table, let her and Christine throw rocks at me, then I flew a couple laps around the yard. Christine cheered, as though she hadn’t seen me doing all this before but Lori looked impressed too.

“Those are some great tricks,” Lori said with a grin.

“Yeah,” I agreed, pleased by her compliment. “Apparently, I’m not nearly as powerful as Lady Starlight is in the comics, and I’ve only got like half her powers…”

“And it isn’t nearly as cool as my trick,” Christine bragged while her stuffed rabbit nodded in agreement. Lori and I both burst out laughing. After half a minute, her expression turned serious again and she gave me a curious look. “You said you had a compulsion…”

“Um…yeah,” I responded with a weak smile. I gestured down at myself and admitted, “I’ve got this urge to wear this thing all the time…” Then I shrugged. “Fortunately, it’s weak enough that I can fight it.”

Christine and Lori gave each other knowing looks, probably because they both had compulsions that they couldn’t fight…nor really wanted to anymore. “It could be a lot worse,” Christine told me. Then she grinned and added, “And that suit comes with such pretty shoes…”

“Shut up, you little brat,” I teased her, only to have her stick her tongue out at me.

After that, we went back inside, though I didn’t bother changing back into real clothes. I was perfectly comfortable in this outfit, even if a little self-conscious, but neither Lori nor Christine said anything more about it.

At first, I was a little surprised that Christine wasn’t teasing me more about my costume or compulsion, but then I realized that if there was anyone who understood what it was like having a compulsion to wear a certain type of clothes, it was her. Now that I was Twisted myself, I had an even greater understanding of what Christine was going through…and an even greater sympathy. When I looked at her, being permanently stuck as a little girl, it was hard to feel so bad about my own twist.

We continued talking about our tricks, with Lori revealing that she had some kind of personal energy field around her body as well. Apparently, hers protected her from temperature extremes and other environmental factors relating to swimming underwater. The two of us compared how our fields seemed to work, though I didn’t really have enough experience with my own field to offer a lot on the subject.

“Your trick is totally awesome,” Lori told me with a grin. “I mean, you turned into a real live super hero. All I can do is swim like a fish. Of course, I absolutely love swimming and wouldn’t give that up for the world, but it doesn’t really sound that impressive.”

“Are you sure your voice isn’t a trick?” I asked her, only half joking. “I mean, when you guys were hear playing at the party, you sounded unbelievable.”

Lori blushed at that, looking quite pleased by the compliment. “Thanks. My voice and singing are WAY better than they used to be, but they don’t really count as a trick. My voice is just a part of my twist, the same way my hair color is.” She ran her fingers through her hair in order to emphasize the unusual color.

“You should come watch us practice sometime,” Christine told me with a proud grin. “We all practice in Lori’s garage a few times a week.”

“That sounds cool,” I said, looking towards Lori to see if she was all right with my coming. After all, Christine said they practiced in her garage.

“That would be great,” Lori agreed, giving me a broad grin as she joked, “We can always use another groupie.”

At this point, Grandma stood in the doorway and watched the three of us, smiling as she did so. “We’re about to have dinner,” Grandma finally said. She looked to Christine and Lori and added, “You two are more than welcome to stay…”

“Thank you,” Lori said, politely. “But…”

“But nothing,” Christine interrupted her. She stood there with her hands on her hips and tried looking serious, without much success, as she stated, “Grandma is the best cook in the whole wide world. You’re eating here with us tonight.”

“Okay,” Lori gave in with a chuckle. “But I’ve got to call my Mom and let her know I won’t be home.”

Dinner was normally a calm and pleasant time where Grandma, Aaron, and I all talked about what had happened during the day. Of course, this was due to Grandma’s strict ‘no arguing’ rule or Aaron and I would have spent the entire meal fighting every day, just for the point of doing so.

Today, things were a little more lively since Christine and Lori were present. The three of us continued our earlier conversation while Grandma seized the opportunity to interrogate Christine about how she’s been doing lately. Aaron just scowled the entire time, seeming to feel left out.

A short time after dinner was over, Christine and Lori announced that they had to go. I was disappointed at that since I’d enjoyed talking with both of them. Spending time with Christine like this reminded me of how close we used to be, and made it clear that the old Christine I’d grown up with was still there beneath the cute little face.

“It was really nice meeting you,” I told Lori with complete sincerity.

I’d only just met her a few hours earlier, but I definitely liked her. She was smart, funny, and not to mention, completely gorgeous. And then there was the small matter of her actually understanding what I was going through. She kind of gave me hope that I’d eventually get used to being a girl.

I grinned at her and added, “It’s also nice to know that I’m not the only one who had to go through this whole sex change thing.”

Lori just grinned at that while Christine said, “About that…”

“I’m glad I could help,” Lori told me, looking rather amused. “I know it wasn’t easy for me to get used to all this…” She gestured down at herself and then gave me a wry smile. “But just so you know, we aren’t the only ones in the sex change club.”

“What?” I asked, feeling a little startled by that statement.

As Lori started to leave, she gave me one more grin and said, “I’ll introduce you to the others when you’re back at school.”

With that, Lori and Christine both left. I let out a sigh, then started back towards my room, being careful as I was still wearing my costume and heels.

Before I’d even made it out of the living room, Aaron smirked at me and announced, “You like that fish girl, don’t you?”

“Shut up,” I responded, which only resulted in him laughing and running back to the room.

Grandma stood there, watching me with an amused expression. “It’s nice to see you making new friends,” she said before chuckling.

I shook my head, blushing at the fact that I was so transparent. Then I started back to my room as well, wondering when I might be able to see Lori again. With her in my school, maybe going back wouldn’t be so bad.

--------------------

When I woke up in the morning, I didn’t put on my sweat pants and a T-shirt like I normally would first thing. Instead, I slipped out of bed and immediately activated my costume. It was so much quicker and easier than actually getting dressed. And after all the practice I’ve had walking in the heels, I was starting to get the hang of them.

Grandma hadn’t said a thing about my costume at first, but after I had breakfast and took my shower, I changed back into my costume again. She finally gave me an odd look and carefully asked, “Are you sure you want to wear that out of the house today?”

I sighed, feeling a little disappointment, though Grandma definitely had a point. I could rationalize wearing that outfit around the house since it was so comfortable, but it wasn’t appropriate for wearing out in public. Even in Spiral, a super hero costume was bound to draw some odd looks. After that, I went back to my room and reluctantly changed into real clothes, though I was already looking forward to my next chance to have my costume active.

For the next hour, I read more of John Kinkaide’s biography, then at Grandma’s prompting, I turned my attention to something of more immediate importance. I began searching several baby name websites, looking for a new name that I could live with. I was still searching the list of girl’s names when the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,” I called out.

But before I could do more than get up from the couch, the door opened and my Mom stepped into the house and announced, “Hello, I’m here…” Then she stopped and stared at me for a moment before hesitantly asking, “Chad?”

I suddenly felt extremely self-conscious again and couldn’t bring myself to speak at first. Instead, I just nodded and gave her a weak and nervous smile. “Hi Mom.”

Mom came closer and carefully looked me over. She finally said, “You’re gorgeous…” Then she gave me a look of concern and asked, “How are you doing?”

“All right, I guess,” I answered awkwardly. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around this.”

Mom nodded at that, then she gave me a hug. Hugging my Mom like that was nice and comforting, though definitely weird since our boobs were bumping. When we pulled apart, she gave me a reassuring smile and gently ran her hand over my cheek and then through my hair.

“You’re very beautiful,” she told me again, obviously uncertain as to what to say. I couldn’t blame her since I wasn’t sure what to say either. “When I heard you’d gone through your twist, I was so worried. I came back as soon as I could.”

“Hello Dana,” Grandma said as she came into the room and gave Mom a hug. Then she looked to me as she explained, “The clinic confirmed that Chad’s twist is mostly physical. He…she has a minor compulsion, but no obvious personality changes.”

Mom nodded at that but gave me a curious look. “So, what exactly does your twist entail…besides the obvious.”

I let out a sigh, then began explaining about how I was reading Aaron’s comic book right before my twist occurred, and as a result, I now looked like a teenage version of Lady Starlight. With some embarrassment, I told her about the costume that had come along with my twist, as well as the comic book powers.

“A super hero costume,” Mom said when I was done, giving me an amused look. “I’d like to see that…”

“That will have to wait,” Grandma quickly said, giving me a pointed look. “If Chad changed into that costume right now, we’d have a hard time getting her to change back out of it. Trust me, you’ll get plenty of opportunities to see it later. I suspect, she’ll probably find some excuse to change into it again tonight after dinner.”

I blushed at that, wanting to protest that I wasn’t that bad, though I had to admit that Grandma did have a point. In spite of how embarrassing it was to wear that costume, I was starting to look for excuses to switch over to it. At least I could blame that on my twist as well.

“I think I have some understanding,” Mom admitted, giving me a smile and a knowing look.

Mom looked around and then spotted my computer tablet, which was sitting on the coffee table, still open to the website for baby names. She picked up the tablet and stared at it for a moment before giving me a questioning look.

“I was just trying to come up with a new name,” I admitted self-consciously. “As Grandma keeps pointing out, I can’t go by Chad anymore.”

“Chloe,” Mom stated without hesitation. “Chloe Grace Anderson.”

“I don’t know,” I started, though Mom immediately cut me off.

“No arguments,” Mom said firmly, though still looking amused at the same time. “As your mother, it’s my job to name you…and I’m naming you Chloe. Besides, that’s what I was going to name you if you’d been born a girl.”

For a moment, I just stared at Mom in surprise. I wanted to protest that I was perfectly capable of picking out my own name, but I didn’t think it would do much good. And to make it worse, I actually kind of liked the name. It certainly wasn’t one that I would have picked for myself, but it did have a nice ring to it. Knowing Mom, I was just lucky she hadn’t decided to name me something like Bambi or Candi.

I let out a sigh which made both Mom and Grandma smile. “Then Chloe it is,” Grandma said with a chuckle. “I’ll call the school so they can update your records.”

The three of us talked about my twist for another half hour before Mom told Grandma, “If you don’t mind, I’m going to take Chloe out to lunch. I think we need some mother daughter time.”

“That’s a great idea,” Grandma responded. “It will also give me a chance to catch up on some work.”

Mom smiled at that and said, “Come on Chloe… This is going to be fun.”

I felt just a little nervous at that pronouncement since Mom’s idea of fun and mine often tended to be a little different. Her idea of fun might very well involve a Roman style orgy. Still, I went outside with her and climbed into her car, hoping that she had something a little tamer in mind. I’d always liked Mom’s car, a small and sport candy apple red hovercar. It wasn’t a high end sports car like a Kia Razor or a Honda Ninja, but it was still pretty cool.

A short time later, Mom and I were sitting down in a nice café while she flirted with the wait staff, both the males and females. Nearly everyone in the café either stared or kept sneaking peaks at her, though I didn’t know how many of them if any actually knew who she was. As I’d long ago learned, my Mom’s appearance tended to attract a lot of attention, no matter where she was. And to my embarrassment, I was now getting some of the same attention.

“Are you two sisters?” our waitress asked us curiously.

“No,” Mom responded with an amused smile. “This is my daughter. She just went through her twist so we’re celebrating.”

“You don’t look young enough to have a daughter her age,” the waitress responded pleasantly.

Mom just laughed at that. “Thank you. But you know what they say about judging by appearances here in Spiral…”

Once the waitress had taken our order and left, Mom turned to me and said, “Chloe dear…you might want to sit with your legs closed. Sitting like that, you might be giving off signals you don’t intend.” She said this calmly, as though making a casual comment about the weather.

I looked down, realizing that I was sitting in my chair with my legs spread apart, just like I always had before. I gasped, suddenly remembering that girls weren’t supposed to sit like that. Girls usually sat with their legs together because sitting with their legs open supposedly suggested that they were a slut or something.

“Oh God,” I muttered, humiliated that my Mom of all people was giving me lessons in feminine modesty.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Mom continued casually. “Have you tried sex in your new body yet?”

I gasped at that, turning an even brighter shade of red. “What?”

Mom rolled her eyes at my reaction, then asked, “I mean, have you fucked a boy yet? You’ve had your new body for a couple days now so surely you’ve experimented.”

I was absolutely mortified that Mom would ask me about that, especially in such a public place. But of course, Mom was acting as though she wasn’t talking about anything more embarrassing than the weather. Even though I knew she was like this, it always caught me off guard. I took a deep breath, trying hard not to show just how embarrassed I was. After all, I’d learned a long time ago that Mom would only get confused if I freaked out. And oddly enough, the fact that she treated the subject as though it wasn’t a big deal always made it a little easier to act as though I wasn’t bothered either.

“Um…no,” I told my Mom. “It’s just too…weird.”

Mom gave me a skeptical look. “But you’ve got such a nice new body. You’ve got to try it out as soon as possible.” She paused for a moment before adding, “I’m sure your friend would be happy to help you test it.”

“I’m sure he would,” I responded with grimace and a forced smile.

“I’m sure it won’t be any problem finding a man willing to pop your cherry,” Mom continued pleasantly. “I work with some guys, but it would probably be better to start you off with a smaller dick and work your way up.”

This conversation was getting worse and worse with every passing moment. I finally blurted out, “Mom, stop it…”

Mom gave me a blank look, obviously not understanding why I was so upset. I’d tried explaining to her before that there were some topics that were just too far over the line, but she’d never seemed to fully understand...or really remember. Grandma said that she’d had numerous talks with Mom as well, but none of them ever really stuck. It was just part of Mom’s twist. I was just lucky that she was able to remember the rules I’d put down, even if they didn’t make any sense to her.

“Remember rule number four,” I told her. “No detailed talks about my sex life.”

For a moment, Mom just gave me a look that suggested I’d said something silly but that she was willing to humor me. I got almost the exact same look nearly every time I had to remind her of the rules.

“It’s really embarrassing talking about that kind of thing in public,” I tried to explain once again, even though I knew it was pointless. Then I let out a sigh and muttered, “Besides, I’m not interested in guys…”

“Oh, you plan on going the lesbian route,” she commented with an amused look. “Just don’t give up on guys until you’ve had sex with a few. You won’t know what you like until you’ve tried it.”

After that, our lunch arrived and I was finally able to distract Mom and change the conversation to something a lot less embarrassing. I love my Mom, but she was very awkward to deal with at times. Most Twisted had odd quirks that were somehow associated with their twists, and this was just one of my Mom’s. All I could do was be patient and try to understand.

When we’d finished eating and were getting ready to leave, Mom looked me over again and said, “You know Chloe, you really do have a great body. If you’re interested, I can easily get you an audition with one of my directors.”

“Um…no thanks,” I told her with a forced smile. I was a little weirded out that my Mom was offering to get me into porn, but reminded myself that she was actually trying to pay me a compliment. “I’m not really interested in…your line of work.”

Fortunately, Mom dropped the subject, though a minute later she said, “Your Grandma mentioned that you needed new clothes…” She had a smile on her face that made me gulp.

“Oh no,” I protested weakly. “You don’t mean shopping…”

Mom just smiled at that, then held up her car keys and offered, “I’ll let you drive…”

I stared at the car keys for a moment before snatching them out of her hand. “Deal.” What can I say…I loved her car.

Shopping with Mom was definitely not like shopping with Grandma. Grandma was practical and focused on just getting what we needed and getting out. Mom, on the other hand, viewed shopping as event to be savored and enjoyed.

Grandma had already broken the ice with me as far as shopping for women’s clothes, so it wasn’t quite as embarrassing as if Mom had been the one to take me shopping the first time. However, where Grandma had focused on getting me practical bras and panties, Mom seemed more interested in the lacy and suggestive ones.

“You want to impress your lovers,” Mom told me as she held up a black thong. “Showing off your body properly can really get them excited and set the mood.”

“I don’t have any lovers,” I pointed out with a grimace.

In spite of having lost my virginity with a porn star, I’d never had a lot of luck with girls. After having sex with Alyssa Ambrose and meeting some of my Mom’s sexy costars, my expectations might have been a little high. Most high school girls just couldn’t measure up to those kind of women, at least not in the looks department.

“Well then,” Mom told me cheerfully, “we’ll just have to change that. With a body like yours, that shouldn’t be much of a problem. I’m certain that there are a lot of guys in your school who’d line up for a chance to screw you. And some girls too…”

The saleswoman had been close enough to hear the conversation and her eyes went wide as she overheard my Mom’s comments. However, she was professional enough to keep a pleasant smile as she asked if she could help us with anything.

“We’re just looking for something that will help my daughter get laid,” Mom told her, much to my humiliation.

“I just need the basics,” I told the saleswoman, giving my Mom a dirty look at the same time. “I just went through my twist and I’m trying to get some new clothes…” Then I saw what my Mom had picked up and I warned her, “And that does NOT include crotchless panties…”

By the time we left the lingerie store, I was exhausted from trying on different bras and fighting with my Mom over what to get. I got several sets of bras and panties in white, black, and red, and because Mom insisted, I got a couple of really sexy ones as well.

Looking for shirts and pants wasn’t quite as bad, though I still had to argue with Mom, who wanted to get me miniskirts and shirts that showed way too much cleavage. I had to protest and point out that I wasn’t going for that kind of look.

“I’m thinking, more like the girl next door,” I told Mom. “You know…casual but a little nice.”

“I’m sorry if I get a little carried away,” Mom told me with an only vaguely apologetic smile. “I guess I’m just excited about being able to take my daughter shopping.”

I winced slightly at being referred to as her daughter, though I knew I’d have to get used to it. Whether I liked it or not, I was a girl now. There was no changing that, so all I could do was deal with it and try to learn how to be a girl.

“You’ve gone shopping with Bridgett,” I reminded Mom, then saw her expression immediately turn sad. “I’m sorry,” I quickly said, feeling bad at reminding her of my sister. Mom and Bridgett didn’t really get along very well, mostly because Bridgett was ashamed of Mom and what she did for a living, and more than willing to say so.

“It’s all right,” Mom told me with a faint smile. “Though sometimes, I wish your sister had spent more time among Twisted while growing up. Maybe if she’d been raised here in Spiral like you and Aaron, she might be more understanding.”

I stared at Mom for a moment, feeling just a little surprised. Most of the time, she acted as though she was oblivious to her twist and how it altered her own personality and perceptions. Without saying a word, I gave her a hug, which seemed to improve her mood.

A short time later, we’d finished getting all the clothes I needed, at least for the moment, and had gone to the shoe store. Grandma had already bought me a pair of sneakers, but Mom insisted I needed more than that.

“A woman can never have too many shoes,” she stated firmly.

“I’ve seen your shoe closet,” I reminded her wryly. “That proves you can.”

“You need different shoes to go with different outfits,” Mom told me with an amused smile. “And for different situations. I think for now, we’ll get you a pair of flats and maybe…” She picked up a pair of stiletto heeled shoes and gave me a curious look before letting out a sigh. “These are probably a bit more than you’d be comfortable with right now.”

I stared at the heels for a moment and smiled faintly. Those stiletto heels did look intimidating, and I’d probably refuse to even consider them if it wasn’t for the fact that they were about the same height as the heels that were built into my costume.

“I’ll try them on,” I said.

After putting the shoes on, I carefully walked across the floor while Mom watched in surprise. She’d obviously expected me to fall flat on my face, but she didn’t realize that I’ve recently had a lot of practice walking in heels like those.

When we left that store, I had three new pairs of shoes, which was more than I thought I needed, though Mom had bought a new pair of heels for herself as well, which she most definitely did not need. And oddly enough, Mom seemed strangely happy that I’d agreed to let her buy me the stiletto heels. I suspected that she just took that as a sign I was starting to accept my new gender, especially after she commented, “Every woman needs a good pair of ‘fuck me’ heels.”

Next, Mom insisted we go and get my ears pierced, and after a moment of hesitation I agreed. Mom was in such a good mood that I couldn’t bring myself to ruin it by denying such a small request, especially when I’d probably end up getting my ears pierced soon anyway. Fortunately, the process was quick, moderately painless, and a few minutes later I had a pair of diamond studs in my ears.

“Those look great on you,” Mom told me as we made our way through the parking lot back to the car. Then she gave me an smile and added, “I know this is all new to you…and that you’re not really comfortable with the idea of dressing up yet, but I really appreciate your humoring me.”

I just grinned at that, then joked, “Well, your promise to let me drive your car might have had something to do with that.”

We had nearly reached the car when I heard a woman scream from a distance behind us. I snapped around and saw a middle-aged woman yelling as a scruffy looking guy who looked only a few years older than me ran away from her with her purse clutched in his hands. He was running in my direction, so I almost automatically put myself in his path.

“Stop right there,” I exclaimed, hoping that my show of confidence might shake him. “Drop her purse…”

One thing I’d learned in school was that sometimes a good show of confidence was enough to deter a possible bully, especially in Spiral where a lot of people have tricks. It tends to confuse them, sometimes making them wonder if you know something they don’t…such as that you might have a trick to defend yourself. However, that tactic didn’t work this time.

“Get out of my way,” the thief snarled as he charged straight at me, not even bothering to go around.

“Chloe,” Mom cried out in worry

Then just as he was about to slam into me, I instinctively tried to protect myself by calling up my costume and the force field that went with it. He hit me and knocked me back a little, but he was knocked back as well and fell on his ass. He immediately scrambled to his feet, staring at me in surprise. I just tried to grin confidently, standing there with my hands on my hips in a super hero pose, hoping that this would do the trick.

“What the hell?” the thief exclaimed, glaring at me suspiciously. “You think you’re some kind of super hero or something?”

The thief had dropped the purse when he fell, though he no longer seemed interested in it. He punched me, though I didn’t bother blocking. Yesterday, Dr. Newbury had hit me with things a lot harder than a punch and I’d barely felt them. When the thief hit me in the face, he let out a loud yelp of pain while I just stood there smiling.

“I think I can really get used to this,” I commented to Mom, who was staring at me in surprise.

My trick would protect me from anything this guy tried to do and that was not only making me confident, but also a little cocky. When he pulled out a knife, I just grinned, knowing that it wouldn’t do much more than his punch had. However, he saw my grin and must have realized the same thing because he lunged at my Mom instead. I just barely managed to react in time, jumping between them so his knife hit me instead of my Mom, and though my force field kept me from being injured, I was still pissed off.

“You bastard,” I snarled angrily, grabbed his wrist and squeezing enough so that he dropped the knife.

Then, while still holding his wrist, I began levitating up into the air, going up about a dozen feet before stopping. The thief struggled frantically to get loose, but I kept a firm grip on him, letting him dangle. I was seriously tempted to just fling him to the side, but then I saw the security guards running towards us and reluctantly went back down.

“Are you all right?” Mom demanded with a worried expression.

“Yeah,” I told her with a reassuring smile. I gestured down at myself and added, “I’m pretty tough when I’ve got this thing on.”

The police arrived a minute later and immediately took custody of the thief. One of the cops talked to the woman who’d been robbed while the second one, Officer Hanson, came over to talk to Mom and myself. He was in his late twenties to early thirties, and Mom appeared to think he was fairly attractive because she immediately began flirting. However, Officer Hanson must have either been gay or had iron willpower, because he remained completely professional, other than to glare at me with a look of disapproval.

“Let me guess,” Officer Hanson said as he looked me over. “You just went through your twist and decided that with your new abilities, you should put on a costume and go play super hero. We don’t tolerate that kind of vigilantism.”

“It’s not like that,” I protested, wondering why I suddenly felt ashamed after I’d just caught a criminal.

“The costume is part of her twist,” Mom told Officer Hanson,

Officer Hanson stared at my Mom for a moment, seeming to soften just a tiny bit. It seemed that her charms were getting through to him after all, which nixed the idea of him being gay. However, he looked back at me again and was obviously still unhappy.

“Is this some sort of twist induced compulsion to play super hero?” he asked me with a sigh.

“No,” I protested. “I wasn’t trying to be a super hero…”

Mom scowled and looked Officer Hanson in the eyes. “Chloe certainly did NOT go looking for trouble. We just happened to be here when the thief robbed that woman, then ran right at us. He would have knocked Chloe over and probably kept running if she didn’t have her trick.”

Officer Hanson let out a sigh, then told me, “Okay, tell me everything that happened again…”

Mom and I were stuck there for over an hour, filling out the police report for what had happened. Officer Hanson still seemed to think that because of my costume, I must have intentionally gone looking for trouble somehow. Fortunately, the woman who had her purse stolen was able to collaborate our story, as did the store security cameras which covered the parking lot. Eventually, I was given another warning not to play super hero, and then they finally let us go.

--------------------

It was Friday morning, and more importantly, it was my first day back in school since I’d gone through my twist on Monday. I felt nervous as I walked through the school, half afraid that someone would point at me and start laughing. Fortunately, no one really paid any attention to me, or at least, no more than they would have paid to any hot girl.

At the moment, I was wearing slacks, a decent shirt, and a pair of flats. All in all, I was trying to go for the ‘girl next door’ look where I was attractive yet approachable. And of course, I wanted to remain comfortable while doing so. I could have gone all tomboy and downplayed my new gender and curves, but my pride wouldn’t really allow that. I had a great body and it would have been a shame to hide it completely.

“At least Mom isn’t being pushy,” I mused, remembering how she’d tried to talk me into going to school in a miniskirt and the ‘fuck me’ shoes she’d bought for me yesterday. I still wasn’t sure if she was really serious about that, or if she was just teasing me.

I reached up and felt the diamond stud earrings, making sure that they hadn’t fell out. I was still surprised that they’d managed to survive the unexpected change into my costume yesterday. I suspected that the reason they hadn’t been destroyed along with my clothes was that they were actually small and going through my ears, so my energy field might have just taken them as being part of me.

When I reached my first class, I took a deep breath and braced myself, then tried to look confident as I went inside. Without saying a word, I went to my desk and began getting ready for class as though everything was perfectly normal. Several of the other students stared at me, obviously wondering who the new girl was…and why I was acting as though I belonged there.

The teacher, Mr. Bachman watched me for a moment before carefully asking, “Chad Anderson?”

“I go by Chloe now,” I responded pleasantly.

Mr. Bachman nodded at that. “I was informed of your twist…and your new name.” And with that, he went back to looking at his lesson plan as though having a student change sex was a daily occurrence.

There was a short and nerdy looking guy with glasses who sat a couple seats away from me. I didn’t know his name, but he stared at me with an odd look on his face before he got up and came over to me. “I’m Rob,” he introduced himself with a nervous smile. “Then he quietly added, “But I used to be Tina”

My eyes widened at that and I asked, “You too?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, looking a little self-conscious. “Welcome to the club.”

“Are there any club meetings?” I asked with a wry smile.

Rob chuckled at that and responded, “Not that I know of.”

I hesitated for a moment, then asked, “Do you know Lori?” He gave me a blank look so I said, “Lorilei… She has aquamarine hair…”

“Oh yeah,” Rob responded. “The mermaid girl. I know who she is, but I don’t really know her.”

A few seconds later, Mr. Bachman called for the class to begin so Rob returned to his seat. I watched him for a moment, wondering what kind of girl he’d been before his twist and deciding that I’d definitely have to talk to him later.

When second period came around, I felt more confident as I walked into class so didn’t really have to fake it this time. After letting the teacher know who I was, I took my seat, right next to Jim.

Jim gave me a curious look, probably wondering who the cute girl sitting beside him was. I let him stare for a moment, trying hard not to show how uncomfortable that made me.

“It’s me,” I finally told him with a roll of my eyes. “Chad.” I gestured down at myself and let out a sigh. “As you can see, I went through my twist…”

Jim stared at me with a look of shock. “Chad? Damn. I heard you’d gone through your twist, but I didn’t know…” He blushed bright red, probably realizing that he’d just been staring at my boobs.

“I go by Chloe now,” I told him with a wry smile. “Somehow, I don’t think I look like a Chad anymore…”

The girl sitting on the other side of me had been watching me with an odd expression. Then she blurted out, “You’re the one in the news…”

“In the news?” I asked in surprise. I stared at the girl, remembering that her name was Alicia. “What do you mean?”

Alicia tapped on her computer tablet and brought up a website, then showed it to me. It was a site for the Spiral News, and it had a picture of me in my Lady Starlight costume, with the headline ‘REAL LIFE SUPER HERO STOPPS ROBBERY’.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I blurted out. I winced, realizing that some idiot with a cell phone must have taken my picture yesterday and given it to the reporters.

“Whoah,” Jim exclaimed when he looked at that picture. I expected him to ask what had happened, but instead he said, “You look totally hot in that outfit…”

I groaned at that while Alicia snickered. “And look at this one,” she said, bringing up another news page with the same picture on it. This one had a headline that said, ‘LADY STARLIGHT COMES TO LIFE IN SPIRAL’.

“Lady Starlight?” Jim asked curiously.

“She’s a popular super hero,” Alicia told him smugly. “My brother reads her comics.”

“Unfortunately, so does mine,” I said with a sigh. “He talked me into reading one of his comics, then bam, I go through my twist and turn into her.”

“At least you weren’t reading that Super Slut trash,” Alicia pointed out with a smirk.

“You probably would have ended up just like your Mo…,” Jim started, then realized that he was about to spill the beans about my Mom and quickly corrected himself. “Like Super Slut instead of this Lady Starlight.”

Class started just a few seconds later, but I explained the nature of my twist to Jim when our teacher wasn’t looking. Alicia just seemed amused that I was now a girl and I half feared that she’d want to talk makeup or boys with me.

Once class was over, I stared for third period, until I caught sight of a familiar face in the hallway. “Lori,” I called out to her.

Lori looked at me and grinned. “Chad…”

“It’s Chloe now,” I told her self-consciously. “I figured I needed a new name…”

Lori nodded in understanding. “It’s nice,” she told me. “I know it’s kind of weird getting used to a new name though…”

“The new name is the easy part,” I responded with a chuckle. “The new body, not so much.”

Lori laughed at that. “Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.” She hesitated for a moment, then said, “Sorry, I wish I could talk with you now…but I have to go soak my tail before my next class.”

“Okay,” I said, feeling a little disappointed at that.

“I’ll see you later,” Lori told me, looking just a little nervous for some reason. “Maybe during lunch…”

“Sure,” I grinned back at her. “I’ll look forward to it.”

Third period began the same way my first two classes of the day went, with me having to confirm my identity to the teacher. Before I sat down though, I noticed Gloria sitting on the opposite side of the room. I was a little startled because I only knew her from Monday during lunch and hadn’t realized we were in any of the same classes.

“Hey,” I greeted Gloria, who gave me a curious look. “Jim introduced us at lunch on Monday…” She looked even more confused at that, until I added, “Um…I’m Chad…or at least I was then. I went through my twist Monday after school…”

“Oh,” Gloria responded with a look of surprise. “Jim told me that you’d gone through a twist, but he didn’t say what kind…”

“Yeah,” I said, giving her a weak smile. “He didn’t know until a little bit ago. I’m going by Chloe now…”

I talked with Chloe for just a minute before class started, then I went and took my seat. But to my surprise, almost as soon as I did, a girl with raven black hair came up and stared at me for a moment with an odd look.

“So you’re the new chick,” the girl said with a smirk. “You look pretty hot…”

“Um…thanks,” I replied, trying to remember the name of this girl. She usually sat in the back of the class and had quite an attitude. “You’re Simone, right?”

Simone nodded. “Yeah, that’s me. And I know you used to be Chad…”

“Chloe,” I responded. “My new name is Chloe.”

For a moment, Simone continued staring at me with an odd look, then she said, “The whole sex change thing is pretty fucking weird, but trust me, you’ll get used to it in no time.” She shrugged and added, “I did.” And with that, she walked way, back to her usual seat. I just watched her go in surprise.

“How many of us are there?” I muttered in surprise.

At first, I’d thought I was the only one who’d gone through a sex change, but then I’d met Lori. Finding out that I wasn’t alone had been an incredible relief, especially since Lori was so understanding and helpful. And now that I’d returned to school, I’d run into Rob and Simone, and the school day wasn’t even half over.

When lunch finally arrived, I went to the cafeteria and looked around for one of my friends. I didn’t have to wait long before I heard a familiar voice coming from the lunch line.

“Please sir,” a little girl’s voice pleaded. “May I have some more?”

I looked over and saw Christine there, holding her tray up and giving ‘puppy dog eyes’ to one of the lunch ladies.

“Sorry kid,” the lunch lady answered. “Only one dessert per person. Period.”

“Darn,” Christine muttered, stamping her foot on the ground in a perfect display of little girl displeasure.

“I take it they’ve got something good for dessert,” I commented.

Christine looked up and me and grinned. “Hello Chloe.” She made sure to put extra emphasis on my new name.

Since this was the first time I’d seen Christine since Mom gave me my new name, I said, “Let me guess…Grandma called and told you guys about my new name.”

“I think Chloe is a great name,” Christine told me with an innocent look. “It’s so pretty and feminine…”

“Yeah,” Lori added as she came up behind us. “I like it.”

Once the three of us all had our food, we sat down together at a table. I was immediately asked about how my first day back at school had gone.

“It was all right,” I told them. “A bit weird though, especially with the way everyone keeps looking at me now…”

“You’re a girl now,” Christine reminded me unnecessarily. “People are going to treat you different.”

Lori nodded agreement at that, then added, “The weird part is when guys start hitting on you…” She let out an exaggerated shudder at that. “It can get pretty awkward when some guy who’s been a buddy for years asks you out.”

I nodded at that, remembering the way Jim had been eyeing me in class. I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be long before either he or Luke started flirting with me. Then again, Jim seemed interested in Gloria, so maybe he’d hold back for awhile.

“So,” Lori asked me with an amused look. “How do you like being a girl?”

“Not as much as I liked being a boy,” I admitted with a sigh. “But it’s not bad and I figure I can get used to it.” Then I grinned and added, “And on the plus side, I get a pretty cool trick out of it.”

“I know how that is,” Lori responded with a grin. “I really freaked out about losing my legs and turning into a mermaid, but once I realized that I could swim around in the ocean…” Her grinned broadened even more at that.

Just then, there was a new presence at our table as Jim sat down. “Hello ladies,” he greeted us, getting both Lori and I to glare at him.

“Holy shit,” Luke blurted out as he sat down and stared at me. He glanced to Jim and said, “You weren’t kidding…”

“Yeah, the rumors are true,” I told him with a sigh. “I got turned into a girl…”

Luke stared at me with the same expression I’d seen him use on numerous hot girls. He was looking me over, admiring my assets, and mentally deciding where I fit on the list of girls he wanted to screw.

“So,” Luke asked me. “Do you have any compulsions?”

“Yeah,” I answered, giving him a predatory smile. “I’ve got a compulsion to castrate guys…and it’s getting worse…” Luke gulped at that and visibly pulled back while Lori and Christine both burst out laughing.

“Yeah,” Christine exclaimed with a giggle. “You should have seen what she did to that boy who hit on her.”

“Is that what happened yesterday?” Luke asked, suddenly looking a little worried. “I mean, I heard you went all super villain on some guy…”

“I went super HERO on him,” I responded with a roll of my eyes. Lori gave me a look of surprise.

With that, I had to tell the story of how I just happened to be there when the purse theft occurred, and how the thief had run right at me. It was a fun story and they were all laughing when I described how I’d lifted the thief up into the air by his arm. However, I decided not to mention the lecture I’d gotten from the police afterwards.

“Maybe you should use some of that super hero mojo around here,” Luke commented once I was done with my story. “I know a couple people who could use a little super hero beat down.”

Jim looked at Luke and asked, “Is this about that Dan Jones thing?”

“What Dan Jones thing?” I asked curiously.

“This morning,” Luke explained with an angry look. “I was walking down the hall and minding my own business when that asshole shoves me to the ground.” Then Luke tried to look tough as he added, “I would have kicked his ass for it, but he was already gone by the time I got up.”

“He’ll get what he deserves,” Gloria said as she sat down beside Jim.

Christine gave her a curious look and asked, “What do you mean?”

Gloria looked at her with a blank expression. “What do I mean about what?”

“You did it again,” Jim pointed out, a little more gently than I would have expected from him. Then again, Jim wasn’t always the horn dog that he pretends. I remember in the old days, he used to be a bit of a softy. A bit of a pervert, but still a nice guy beneath it.

“Sorry,” Gloria said self-consciously, staring down into her food.

“Don’t worry about it,” Jim reassured her. “Every Twisted has quirks they’ve got to deal with.”

Christine snorted at that and muttered, “Tell me about it.”

Our conversation drifted during the rest of the lunch, but with Jim and Luke there, we didn’t really talk much more about what it was like for me being a girl. They both kept sneaking looks at me, especially at my chest, but the most they had to offer was to point out that now that I was a girl, I could go into the girl’s locker room any time I wanted.

When I was done eating and was about to leave the cafeteria, I heard someone yelling in pain. I looked at the source, as did nearly everyone else in the cafeteria.

To my surprise, Keenan was the source of the noise, or at least, the boy on the floor in front of him was. Keenan kicked a boy, who let out another yell while my old friend just stood there with a creepy smile on his face.

“I don’t like being touched like that,” Keenan said calmly, though he appeared to be enjoying himself. “Nor do I like having someone mess with my food. So the next time you think that it is acceptable to grab me and take an item from my food tray, you should think again.”

With that, the boy on the floor let out another howl of pain, though Keenan didn’t touch him. Instead, Keenan just continue to stare down at him for a moment with a look of glee before he abruptly turned and walked out of the cafeteria.

“Holy shit,” Luke blurted out. “What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know,” I said, feeling a little worried. “But that sure as hell wasn’t the Keenan I knew.”

“People change,” Jim said grimly, giving me a sidelong look as he added, “Especially when it comes to being Twisted.”

“He has a point,” Lori said, looking to Christine and then me. “Some people’s twists aren’t as visible as ours, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t changed just as much.”

I nodded at that, knowing that they were completely correct. Being Twisted mean that your body, mind, and even your very soul could be altered into new and unexpected forms. However, knowing that and seeing it first-hand were two completely different things. At that moment, I couldn’t help but being grateful that my own personality had been left intact, and at the same time, I also mourned the loss of an old friend who hadn’t been so lucky.

--------------------

It was Saturday morning, but it was hard to really think of the weekend as being special when I’d already been off from school for most of the week. Still, Aaron was excited and made a point of getting up early to watch some program on TV, as usual. Unfortunately, he woke me up in the process, but instead of complaining about it, I decided to take advantage of the extra time.

Since I was already up, I decided that it was time for me to do something that I’d been neglecting since my twist. It was time to go on a nice run. As I put on the sports bra Mom had bought me, I shook my head, knowing that even old familiar activities would change due to my twist. However, as weird as it might be to run with jiggling breasts, I wasn’t going to give this up.

I stepped out the door, then took a deep breath before I slowly started on my run. My body had changed a great deal and I wasn’t sure what effect this would have on my speed and stamina. Actually, Dr. Newbury had tested those at the clinic, but she’d never given me the numbers related to those and only said that my trick hadn’t augmented my physical abilities, only allowed me to simulate enhanced strength.

“Come on Chad,” I told myself as I began running. Then I scowled and corrected myself. “Come on Chloe. You’ve done this a hundred times before. Running isn’t anything new.”

I quickly found that I was right about how weird it would be to run while my breasts jiggled around. My sports bra helped with that, making it a bit less uncomfortable, but it was still distracting. I did my best to ignore that and focused on just the running and nothing else.

Once I was finished running my chosen route, I returned home, feeling relieved that I was still able to do it. I’d actually been a bit worried that my new body wouldn’t be able to do as well as my one. Of course, I’d already noticed that I was more flexible than before, and physically just a little weaker, so it was nice to see that this at least hadn’t changed.

“How was your run?” Mom asked me when I went back into the house. She was sitting in the living room, wearing a bath robe and holding a cup of coffee in her hand.

“It was all right,” I responded with a grin. “A bit different than I’m used to, but I’ll adjust.”

A minute later, I went to the bathroom and took a quick shower, then dried my hair and changed into my costume. I felt an immediate sense of relief when it appeared around me. It was still hard to believe that I felt so comfortable while wearing something as silly as a super hero costume. Of course, I imagined that Christine probably thought the same thing when it came to wearing cute and frilly dresses.

“I see you’ve made yourself comfortable,” Mom commented when I came back into the living room. She had an amused look as she watched me, making me just a little self-conscious

“Chad…I mean Chloe looks really cool in it,” Aaron said, giving me a cheerful grin.

“Thanks,” I responded with a smile of my own.

Ever since my twist, Aaron’s attitude towards me had definitely changed. He kept giving me looks of awe and respect, as though I really was Lady Starlight. It was a little weird, but somewhat expected since I now looked like his favorite comic book character. Of course, whenever he stopped to remember that I was still his older brother Chad underneath the costume and girl body, he’d go back to treating me the same way he had before.

“Can you take me flying later on?” Aaron asked me hopefully.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Mom quickly told him. “I’m afraid your sister doesn’t come with seatbelts so it wouldn’t be safe.”

Aaron scowled in disappointment at that and protested, “But MOM…”

“You heard Mom,” I said, glad for an excuse to turn Aaron down. This way, he’d blame her for it rather than me.

“But I want to fly,” Aaron continued to protest.

Grandma stood in doorway and gave Aaron an amused look. “You can fly once you get a trick that lets you do it.”

Aaron just snorted at that. “But Bridgett didn’t go through a twist. What if I don’t either?”

“Then you might consider yourself fortunate,” Grandma pointed out gently. “Being Twisted comes with a lot of complications.” Then before Aaron could protest further, she announced, “Now everyone come in and eat. These pancakes aren’t going to eat themselves.”

While we were eating breakfast, the topic came up of what we had planned for the day. “I don’t know what I’m going to do yet,” I said, giving Mom a flat look and added, “But it won’t be more shopping.”

“All right,” Mom said, agreeing just a little too easily, especially when she had that look in her eyes. “Besides, I was thinking of doing something with both of you. It’s not often we get a chance to do something as a family.”

I felt a little nervous at that statement and immediately looked to Grandma. After all, the last time Mom had made a big deal about wanting to spend time together with Aaron and me, she’d tried taking us to a strip club. Of course, I wouldn’t have minded going into a strip club…just not with my Mom. Fortunately, the people at the club had taken one look at Aaron and me and refused to let us through the door, in spite of Mom’s offer to dance on stage.

“Are we going to the holo arcade?” Aaron asked eagerly while I just groaned. Video games just weren’t my thing, no matter how great the graphics were.

“I was thinking that we’d go swimming,” Mom said cheerfully. Grandma’s expression visibly relaxed at that.

“That’s a great idea,” Grandma said with a cheerful smile. “Why don’t you call and see if Christine wants to come along too?”

Mom nodded agreement, adding, “I don’t get to spend much time with my cutest little niece.”

“She’s your only niece,” I pointed out. Then I paused as I suddenly realized something. “And I don’t have a swimsuit…or at least, I don’t have anything that will fit me now…”

“That’s all right,” Mom told me with a faint smirk. “I already took care of that. I went shopping while you were at school yesterday and picked up a few more things you might need.”

My eyes widened at that and I now understood exactly what my Mom was up to. I already knew that Mom was trying to help me deal with my twist, in her own unusual way. Instead of letting me get used to being a girl at my own pace, she’d been gently nudging me along, trying to get me to embrace being a woman.

The most obvious example of that was the way she kept nagging me to go out and have sex with a guy so I could see what it was like. She’d tried being a little more subtle about it when we went shopping and she kept wanting me to get stiletto heels, short skirts, and clothes that would show off my new curves. This was just the latest attempt.

“Let me guess,” I said, trying to act calm and casual as I looked at my Mom. “You got me a really itty bitty bikini that shows everything off…”

“If you’ve got it, flaunt it,” Mom told me with a look of amusement. “And Chloe, whether you like it or not, you definitely have it.”

Grandma chuckled at that, then reassured me, “Don’t worry, I’ve already seen the swimsuits and they aren’t too bad.”

I rolled my eyes at that, then muttered sarcastically, “Because not too bad is just what I want…”

It was less than two hours later when Christine arrived, holding a teddy bear in her hand and having a small pink backpack slung over her shoulder. She immediately set the stuffed animal onto the floor and it stood up and followed behind her as she went over to give hugs to Mom and Grandma.

“Hi Grandma,” Christine said cheerfully. “Hi Aunt Dana.” Then she turned to me and said, “I wanna see your new swimsuits… ” Then she giggled and said, “This is gonna be just like playing dress up…”

“I’m not a Barbie doll,” I pointed out as we went back to my room.

Christine just laughed at that and muttered, “That’s what you think.”

“Mom bought me some more clothes yesterday while I was at school,” I explained as I began digging through the small pile of clothes Mom had left on my bed a short time ago. “Some of these, I don’t think I’ll ever wear…” I held up a skimpy shirt that didn’t cover much more than a bikini top would. Christine took one look at it and smirked. “And no, I’m not doing a fashion show for you.”

Then I pulled out the two bikinis that Mom had bought for me and held them up. Honestly, I had been expecting a bit worse. These ones weren’t really any more revealing or embarrassing than what most of the girls at school would wear. One of them was red and gold while the other one was dark blue.

“What do you think?” I asked Christine, hesitant to wear either of them.

Christine stared at one and then the other, then stated, “The blue one looks better.”

I froze at that, suddenly having a flash of deja-vu. It took me a moment to remember where I’d heard those exact same words.

“Gloria,” I whispered.

“What?” Christine asked, giving me a curious look.

“Gloria from school,” I said, feeling just a little stunned. “She supposedly has some sort of fortune telling trick…and Monday, back before I went through my twist, she said the same thing as some sort of prophecy.”

Christine gave me a thoughtful look, then said, “You mean she knew that you were going to go through your twist, turn into a girl, and then have to choose between these bikinis? I don’t buy it.” She chuckled and added, “Maybe we should ask her what else she saw.”

I shrugged at that and pointed out, “Apparently, she doesn’t really remember her little prophetic comments.”

“Convenient,” Christine said with a faintly smug look.

I nodded at that and turned my attention back to my swimwear choices. After a few more seconds, I grabbed the dark blue one and put it into my bag along with a couple towels and some clean panties. Now I was ready to go swimming.

“Hey,” I said as a thought occurred to me. “Maybe we should ask Lori if she wants to come too. I mean, she likes swimming and all…”

Christine just began giggling, and when she stopped, she said, “She has to work today.”

I nodded at that, feeling a little disappointed by that news. Lori was totally gorgeous and had a killer body, so I’d rather liked the idea of seeing her in a bikini. But even if we were just hanging around while wearing heavy parkas, I still would have wanted to spend some time with her. I liked her and she really understood what I was going through.

“Come on,” Christine said, “I don’t wanna be late…”

Christine and I went back to the living room while her teddy bear was actually dragging her backpack along for her. Finally, Christine stopped to pick up both the backpack and the stuffed animal and then hurried out the door.

“Aren’t you coming?” I asked Grandma when I noticed she wasn’t making a move to come along.

“I don’t think any of you want to see me in a swimsuit,” Grandma responded with a chuckle. “Go on and have fun.”

Spiral wasn’t too far from the ocean and we could usually get there in about an hour by bus. However, the large indoor pool in Spiral was not only much closer, it was also kept at a warm temperature that made it ideal for year round swimming. We arrived there in less than fifteen minutes and then hurried to the locker rooms. At first, I was about to follow Aaron into the boys locker room, until Mom cleared her throat and reminded me that I no longer belonged there.

Going into the women’s locker room was a little odd, though I tried to act as though I belonged there. Oddly enough, sharing a locker room with my Mom and having her get undressed in front of me wasn’t nearly that big of a deal. After all, she had no real sense of modesty, and while I was living with her, she’d often begin getting undressed in front of me as though it was perfectly normal.

Mom had no shame as she got undressed and walked around the locker room naked. She seemed completely oblivious to the fact that most of the other women there were glaring at her with jealous looks, though one was giving her appreciative ones instead. As it was, I was a little surprised to find myself getting a few of the jealous looks as well. But what was even more surprising was that I found myself glancing to my Mom and feeling just a little jealous too.

Once I was dressed in my new bikini, I still felt as though I was naked. It was almost all I could do just to keep from summoning my costume to cover it all up. However, when I looked into the mirror, I had to admit that I looked really good. If this had been some girl other than myself, I would have said she was a total babe.

“What do you think?” I asked Christine, only to notice that she looked a little depressed.

“It looks good on you,” Christine said with an obviously forced smile.

The reason Christine had suddenly gone from being cheerful to depressed was obvious. The other women in the locker room were giving jealous looks at my Mom, but none of them had more reason to be jealous than Christine. After all, my Mom was flaunting her assets, and in the process, was inadvertently rubbing Christine’s face in everything she’d lost. Christine had lost all of her own curves when she’d gone through her twist, and she would never be able to get them back. She had the mind of a teenager, but she would be forever trapped in the body of a little girl.

“Are you okay?” I asked Christine gently. I was worried about her but didn’t want to come off as patronizing.

“Yeah,” she responded, giving me a somewhat more sincere smile. Then she gestured down at her own swimsuit, a one piece outfit that covered her entire torso and which would have looked natural on any little girl. “How do I look?”

“It looks good,” I told her.

“Liar,” Christine said, though she smiled as she said it. “But I appreciate the effort. Now come on, let’s go swimming…”

Christine half pulled me out of the locker room to where Aaron was already changed and waiting on us. We had to wait another minute before Mom came out, looking as though she was about ready to burst right out of her bikini. Half the guys in the pool were already beginning to stare at her and the other half hadn’t noticed she was there yet.

“I feel ridiculous,” I muttered self-consciously, though I reminded myself that at least Mom was taking most of the attention away from me. I was definitely grateful for that, though a small part of me felt vaguely annoyed at the same time.

Suddenly, Aaron exclaimed, “It’s a shark…”

Aaron pointed to the water where I saw something shoot through the water at a high speed, seeming to go beneath all the swimmers. The silhouette went all the way to the other end of the pool and did a loop before coming back. It moved through the water faster than any swimmer, and if I hadn’t known that this was an indoor pool, I might have thought it was a shark as well. Then it surfaced, giving me a flash of aquamarine colored hair and scales before going back under.

“It’s a mermaid,” Mom exclaimed in amazement.

“Lori,” I blurted out in realization. I looked at Christine, who just stood there with a smirk.

Christine giggled, then said, “She works here part time as a lifeguard.”

When Lori came back to the surface again a minute later, Christine called out her name and caught her attention. Lori dove back under, only to emerge at the edge of the pool near us.

“I didn’t know you were coming today,” Lori said to Christine, then paused when she noticed me. “Chloe.” She grinned and pulled herself up out of the water so that she was now sitting on the edge of the pool.

“I didn’t know you worked here,” I said, trying not to be obvious about the fact that I was looking her over. From the waist up, she was one hot girl, and even her tail was beautiful in its own way.

Lori slapped her tail against the water and pointed out, “I figure that with my need to be in the water, this was the perfect job for me.” Then she paused with a thoughtful look before adding, “Of course, one day I want to become a marine biologist, but this is great for now.”

“I’d imagine,” I agreed. Then I gestured to the water and said, “I can’t believe how fast and graceful you are in there.”

“Pretty good for someone who used to be afraid of the water,” Christine pointed out.

Christine and I continued talking with Lori for another minute before I realized that Aaron and Mom had wandered off. I didn’t bother looking for them but remained where I was, talking with Lori a bit more before she invited me into the water.

“Hold on tight,” Lori told me, having me grab her shoulders. Then she dove under the water and brought me with her, swimming across the pool at an incredible speed.

Once we came to the surface on the other side, I laughed in delight. “That was great,” I told her with a broad grin. “Sometime, I’m gonna have to take you flying.”

It was at this point that I realized that Christine had wandered off as well. I looked around and saw her going towards the shallow end of the pool where some kids who were her apparent age were playing. She joined them, acting no different than any of the real kids were.

Lori swam back and forth and she even leapt out of the water and did a flip before diving back in. She was clearly having a blast while showing off for me and I was loving it. She was definitely in her habitat here in the water.

Then Lori abruptly took off, swimming like a torpedo to the other side of the pool where she came up beneath some little boy who’d been struggling. She helped him to the shallow end, then gave a thumbs up to the other lifeguard who was sitting on the big chair beside the pool before coming back to me.

“Does that happen very often?” I asked.

“A few times a day,” she responded with a grin. “Kids get in over their heads and need to be helped.”

Eventually, I went back to the side of the pool and sat on the edge with my legs in the water. Lori did a little more showing off before she climbed out of the water and joined me.”

We sat there for about a minute without really saying anything. I was very aware of her presence and blushed a little at what I wanted to do with her. Still, I hesitantly reached out and touched her hand. She didn’t pull away, but instead, she smiled at me.

I wasn’t sure what I meant to say, but when I opened my mouth, what came out was, “You’re gorgeous.”

“Thank you,” Lori responded, looking happy about that. She swished her tail back and forth a little, then carefully asked, “You don’t think I’m a freak?”

“No,” I quickly assured her. “You’re definitely exotic,” I gestured to her tail and smiled. “But you’re very beautiful.”

“So are you,” Lori said with a blush. She moved her hand so it was no longer just touching mine, but was sitting on top of mine.

The two of us sat there for another couple minutes, holding hands and admiring how each other looked. I was excited and nervous at the same time but not sure what to do next. Lori seemed to be feeling the same things that I was. I’ve asked girls out before without much problem, but our situation was a little unusual.

“That lady you came in with,” Lori said carefully. She looked to where my Mom was sitting out on a deck chair. “The one with the big boobs…”

“My Mom?” I asked.

Lori’s eyes went wide at that. “She’s your Mom?”

I nodded at that, feeling a little awkward as I usually did when someone asked about my Mom. The fact that the girl I had the hots for was asking about her only made it worse.

“She’s Twisted,” I pointed out to which Lori nodded in understanding.

“She looks sort of familiar,” Lori said. “But I couldn’t quite place her.”

I gave Lori a wry smile and said, “Deanna Desire.”

“The porn star?” Lori asked, then paused to stare at me in surprise. She looked towards my Mom and gasped. “Your Mom is a porn star?” When I nodded, she giggled and told me, “Sorry, but I thought the situation with my Dad was weird.”

“Your Dad?” I asked in confusion.

Lori nodded at that, looking embarrassed. “Well, I grew up as a norm and had no idea that I could even be Twisted…until I went through my twist. That’s when I found out my Dad wasn’t really my Dad. It turns out my real Dad was my Mom’s best friend…my Aunt Kelsie.”

I blinked in confusion. “Your Aunt is your Dad?”

“It turns out that her twist gave her a little something extra,” Lori explained with a bright blush. Then she quickly added, “Please don’t tell anyone.”

“I won’t,” I promised. “And please don’t spread it around school who my Mom is.”

“Deal,” Lori agreed. Then she asked, “Want to seal it with a kiss?”

“Absolutely,” I responded excitedly.

Lori and I both leaned forward until our lips met. She tasted a little of the chlorine water, but her lips were soft and perfect. We kissed for only a few seconds before pulling back, both of us grinning happily.

Unfortunately, Lori had to get back to work and I had to leave a short time after that. Still, we hesitantly kissed each other goodbye and promised to meet up again when we didn’t have to worry about her job or my family.

As we left the pool, Mom and Christine both gave me knowing looks, which made me blush. I wasn’t sure I liked having my personal business being in the open so much, but then again, Lori and I had kissed right in front of them so I could hardly complain about them knowing.

“So, you and Lori,” Christine said, giving me an odd look. “You do know she’s my former boyfriend?” I nearly choked at that.

“She’s gorgeous,” Mom told me with a proud smile. “And she has a great pair of tits. I bet you’ll have fun playing with those.”

“Oh God,” I groaned, absolutely mortified. At least Mom hadn’t said that right in front of Lori.

“Mom,” Aaron protested. “I don’t want to hear about any of that stuff.”

When we got home, we arrived just in time to see a car pulling out of the driveway and leaving. It was a hovercar, a newer model sedan and obviously an expensive one. That only made me curious as to who was driving it and why it was there.

Grandma came out of the house to greet us, looking rather annoyed. She was holding some papers in her hand, which I suspected were the cause of her sour look.

“What’s going on?” Mom asked. “Who was that?”

“That was a lawyer,” Grandma answered with a sigh, giving me an odd look. “He was just delivering something.”

I frowned at that, then asked, “Delivering what?”

“A cease and desist letter,” Grandma stated, staring at me and letting out another sigh. “From Triumph Comics.”

--------------------

The school cafeteria was loud and crowded, just as it was every day during lunch. The people at the table behind me were barking, meowing, and making other loud animal noises as they discussed what the mystery meat was actually made of, making it difficult for me to hear everything the people at my own table were saying.

Today, I was having lunch with Christine and Lori, as well as their two bandmates Ricky and Liz. I remembered seeing Ricky and Liz at Aaron’s birthday party, and Christine had mentioned them a few times, but this was the first time I’d really been introduced to them.

“So anyway,” I continued explaining to Christine and Lori. “After we got home Saturday, we found out this lawyer from Triumph Comics had shown up and gave my Grandma a cease and desist letter, ordering me not to appear in public while looking like Lady Starlight.”

“Can they even do that?” Lori asked in surprise. “I mean, isn’t that like saying you’re not allowed to use your trick?”

“Apparently, they think I’m violating their copyright by looking like her,” I said with a sigh.

Liz sneered at that and announced, “Fucking lawyers.”

“They’re all dirty poopyheads,” Christine stated firmly. Then she looked at me and added, “That really stinks. What are you gonna do?”

I chuckled at Christine’s reaction, then answered, “Actually, Grandma and I went and talked to a lawyer yesterday. He said we might be able to fight this because there’s some kind of precedent. Apparently, there was one Twisted who ended up looking exactly like that actress Martina Harrington, and she even had a compulsion to dress like Martina did in her movies and talk like her.”

“I’m sure that went over real well,” Lori commented wryly.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Apparently, Martina Harrington was afraid that she’d ruin her reputation or steal movie roles from her or something and sued her. There was a big legal fight that got the Twisted rights and anti-Twisted people involved. In the end, the judge ruled that she wasn’t any different than any other celebrity impersonator, as long as she didn’t try to pass herself as actually being Martina or interfere with her career by making movies.”

“That sounds fairly reasonable,” Lori said thoughtfully. “Did your lawyer tell you what happened to this woman?”

“No,” I responded with a grin. “But I looked it up online last night. Apparently, she has a pretty successful career as a celebrity impersonator and ironically enough…Martina Harrington has even hired her to be her double in a couple movies.”

“Yeah, but you turned into a fictional character,” Christine pointed out. “Not a real person. I don’t think it’s the same thing…”

I just shrugged at that. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “But that’s why Grandma hired the lawyer.”

“Lawyers are like rabid pittbulls,” Ricky joked. “No one really likes having them around, but every once in awhile you really want to send them after someone.”

“Hey,” Liz protested. “I like pittbulls… They’re good dogs.”

With that, the conversation changed directions and we all began talking about animals that we thought would make good pets. It was silly nonsense, but rather fun, especially when Lori said she wanted a pet otter.

“I want some tame squirrels,” Christine said with an innocent look. “They’re so cute and adorable.” Then she gave Ricky an almost evil grin and stuck her tongue out at him. I had a feeling that this was some kind of inside joke that I wasn’t aware of.

When lunch was about over, I got up and smiled at Lori, thinking about how much fun I’d had with her on Saturday. “I’ll see you later,” I told her, giving her a kiss, which earned a wolf whistle from Ricky.

“Chloe and Lori sitting in a tree,” Christine started singing before she burst into giggles.

“I’m definitely looking forward to it,” Lori told me. Then she said, “Maybe we can do something this week…without the peanut gallery.” She glanced to the other people at the table and gave them a mock glare.

“Maybe tomorrow night?” I offered.

“Band practice,” Lori answered. “How about Wednesday?”

“Sounds good to me,” I responded, giving her another kiss before we went our separate ways.

I grinned as I walked out of the cafeteria, hardly able to believe that Lori was actually interested in me. She was totally hot, and from someone who spent time around porn stars, that was saying something. She was nice, fun to be with, and she understood me. It was almost like she was best friend and girlfriend material both rolled into one. Of course, I still had to get to know her a bit more, but I was starting to think that every guy who turns into a girl needed a girlfriend who used to be a guy.

When I reached my next class, I sat down in my usual seat beside Jim. Our math teacher Mr. Cormick was still sitting at his desk, looking at the lesson plan and ignoring the students who were trickling in from lunch. That meant we still had a couple minutes to talk before class actually started

Jim gave me an odd look and smirked, then said, “I heard you’ve got yourself a new girlfriend.”

“It’s nothing official or anything,” I quickly corrected Jim, feeling a bit embarrassed that he knew about my personal business before I’d told him. “We’ve just a kissed a couple times is all…”

“So,” Jim asked with a chuckle. “Does this mean you’re done with Alyssa Ambrose?”

“That was only the one time,” I reminded Jim. “And besides, as hot as Alyssa is, I think Lori still has her beat.”

Jim stared at me for a moment and then shook his head. “Yeah, I have a couple classes with the mermaid girl. She sometimes even turns full mermaid right there in class. And she is definitely hot.”

“And you’re saying I’m not?” I said, acting as though I was hurt.

Jim’s eyes went wide at that and he blurted out, “Of course not… You’re a total babe…” Then he paused and gave me a dark look, asking, “You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”

“Maybe,” I responded with my best innocent expression. I’d actually seen girls pull that move before, pretending to be offended as a way of fishing for compliments or manipulating a guy into doing what they want. Since I now that the body for it, I couldn’t resist trying it out, though it had been far more effective than I’d expected.

“It’s a good thing for you that you’re a girl or I’d hit you for that,” Jim joked.

“Just don’t hit ON me,” I warned him with a sigh. “My body might be different, but I’m still mostly the same up here.” I tapped my temple.

I let out a sigh as I considered just how lucky that my mind and personality hadn’t been twisted the same way my body had. Unlike a lot of Twisted, I was still myself where it really counted. But there was a downside with that as well. If my personality had been altered as well, I might be thinking of myself as a girl would probably even be perfectly comfortable with it. As it was, I still felt like I was a guy who was just pretending to be a girl. I had a feeling that it was going to take me awhile to really start thinking of myself as a girl.

“So,” I said, trying to change the topic. Then I noticed an empty seat and asked, “Where’s Keenan at?”

Jim gave me a look of surprise and asked, “Didn’t you hear? He got suspended after what happened in cafeteria on Friday.”

I nodded at that, realizing that I shouldn’t have been surprise. The school was pretty tolerant towards the Twisted, but they did have a few strict rules against using your tricks against other students. And from the way the other boy had been crying out without Keenan even touching him, it was pretty clear that Keenan must have been using some kind of trick. Until now, I hadn’t even known that he had a trick.

“Poor guy,” I muttered, thinking of Keenan…or at least the old Keenan who’d been a friend. This new Keenan just seemed to be an asshole who didn’t care about anyone but himself.

A moment later, Mr. Cormick called the class to attention and began the daily lecture. I just sighed, turned my attention to the lecture, and began taking notes on my computer tablet. After my three day absence last week, I still had a bit of catching up to do, which meant paying extra attention.

Once school was over, I met up with Christine and Lori again right in front of school. I’d hoped that I could spend a little more time with Lori after school, and maybe do a bit more kissing, but she had to go to the pool to work for a couple hours.

“At least you have a job you love,” I told her, remembering how happy she’d been while swimming.

Christine laughed at that, then said, “The only other person I know who loves their job as much is Aunt Dana.”

“Yeah,” I responded wryly. “Mom does enjoy her work.”

“I guess I’ll see you later then,” I told Lori, feeling disappointed at that.

Just then, I suddenly heard someone yelling, “Come on you little wimp… Fight me…”

“It’s a fight,” Christine exclaimed, pointing to the side where I some people starting to gather.

Christine hurried towards the gathering with Lori and I following behind. A moment later, I got a better view of what was going on. Dan Jones, the notorious school bully and thug had once again cornered his favorite victim. Gary was much smaller than Dan but stood there defiantly.

“Give me that back,” Gary demanded, making me realize that Dan was holding something in his hand. It was a binder, which he tossed to the side, causing papers to fly out and scatter around. “My sketches…”

“This art crap is for girls,” Dan snarled. “Be a man for once in your worthless life and fight me…”

Dan was a lot bigger than Gary, in just about every way. He nearly towered over the smaller and skinner boy, making it clear to anyone who watched that there was no way Gary would stand a chance against him. Gary looked afraid, but he made no move to run away. Instead, he glared up at Dan, as though he could make the bully back down with sheer willpower.

“Come on you worthless punk,” Dan exclaimed. “Hit me. I know you want to…” Then he shoved Gary, sending him flying back.

I clenched my fists as I watched this, growing angrier with every passing second. The last time I’d seen Dan messing with Gary, a teacher had shown up and interfered, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen this time. I’d always hated bullies and knew that I had to do something.

“Leave him alone,” I exclaimed, stepping forward. I just hoped that this would distract Dan long enough for Gary to get away. Dan gave me a look of surprise, as did Gary.

Lori let out a worried gasp and blurted out, “Chloe…”

“Man, you have to be real tough to pick on someone so much smaller than you,” I said, getting Dan’s full attention. “Why don’t you just leave him alone?”

“This ain’t none of your damn business,” Dan responded, glaring at me with a look of raw anger in his eyes. I was startled by that anger since it almost seemed that there was something personal going on that I didn’t get.

Dan started to turn his attention back to Gary, so I called out, “Hey pinhead…”

“Chloe,” Christine demanded. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Stay back,” I warned Lori and my cousin. I didn’t take my eyes off Dan, who was glaring at me again.

“I told you to fuck off,” Dan spat out as he came over to me. “It looks like someone needs to teach you to listen when a man talks…”

I rolled my eyes at that, wondering if I was going to have to deal with that kind of macho and chauvinistic attitude for the rest of my life. That was one part of being a girl that I could definitely do without, the way some people seemed to think I should act according to their preconceptions of how a girl behaved.

“Bite me,” I responded coldly.

Dan suddenly reached out and grabbed my upper arm, getting a good grip. Without any further hesitation, I willed my costume to appear. Suddenly, my clothes and shoes were torn to shreds, making me realize that I’d just ruined yet another outfit. Mom and Grandma weren’t going to be happy. Dan yanked his hand back, surprised but seemingly unharmed.

“Good thing,” I muttered, realizing that I might very well have accidentally shredded his hand since he was touching me.

“What the hell?” Dan demanded, staring at me with a confused look. “Let me guess, you think you’re some kind of super hero…”

“No,” I answered giving him a cold glare, “but I am going to kick your ass if you don’t back off.”

Dan grimaced, then he went to slap me, though I made no move to block him. His hand hit my face, then he yanked it back with a yelp. A moment later, he actually tried to punch me, obviously not being bright enough to realize that it would hurt him more than it would me. This time, I actually blocked his punch and then shoved him, sending him flying backwards and onto his butt.

“Don’t make me hurt you,” I warned him.

That only seemed to make Dan even more angry as he got back to his feet and came at me again. This time, I waited until he tried to punch me, then I grabbed his arm the same way I had the purse thief.

“I’ve got you,” I told him, levitating up into the air while holding him.

“Let me go,” Dan ordered, struggling to get loose.

“Sure thing,” I said with an evil grin. “And I know just where to put you.”

With that, I flew over to the curb and unceremoniously dropped Dan right into the large dumpster that was half filled with trash. There was laughter and cheering from the various onlookers.

As soon as I landed, Christine ran up and kicked me in the shin, exclaiming, “You big dummy. I thought you were gonna get hurt…”

“That was pretty impressive,” Lori added.

“Thanks,” I responded, pleased by the compliment.

Lori looked me over with a faint smirk, obviously checking out my body. Then she finally said, “You know, I really like the way your costume looks on you.”

“Thanks,” I repeated, blushing at that.

Lori put her arms around me and gave me a kiss, then said, “I wish I could hang round with you more, but I really have to get going. As fun as that would be, I can’t risk getting fired.”

With that, Lori took off, pausing just long enough to wave at me again before going. Christine stared at me for a moment, then shook her head before she took off as well.

Just as I turned to leave, I noticed Gloria standing a short distance away, watching as Dan climbed out of the dumpster. “Bad karma,” she muttered to herself.

I thought about talking with Gloria, but I had to get going as well. Since I was already in my costume, I just lifted myself up into the air, deciding that I might as well fly home. After all, it wasn’t too far, and it was bound to be a lot more fun than walking.

When I returned home, I was almost immediately met with Grandma demanding, “What in the world happened to your clothes?”

I let out a sigh at that, having known that this was coming. “I ran into a bully after school,” I explained. “I kind of called up my trick so he couldn’t hurt me.”

I neglected to mention that I’d actually picked the fight with Dan in order to help Gary, and that there had actually had been a fight. I let it go at that, letting Grandma think that the incident had been nothing more than my calling up my shield and flying away.

Since I was back home, there didn’t seem to be any reason to rush into getting changed into real clothes again, not when I was so comfortable. Grandma didn’t say anything, so I went back to my room to take care of my homework.

A short time later, there was a knock on my bedroom door, right before Mom came in. She was holding a shoebox in her hands and was smiling faintly.

“How was school,” she asked me pleasantly. “Your grandmother told me you’d been in some kind of fight.”

I just smiled at that and pointed out, “It’s not much of a fight if he can’t hurt me and I can fly away any time I want.”

“I suppose not,” Mom responded with a chuckle. “That certainly sounds like a better way to protect yourself than a can of pepper spray.”

“So, what’s up?” I asked Mom, eyeing the box in her hands and thinking about the way she’d been smiling when she came in. She was definitely up to something.

“You know I’m leaving tomorrow,” Mom said gently. “I wish I could stay here with you longer, but I’m scheduled to start filming on a new movie Wednesday.”

“That’s okay,” I told her with a reassuring smile. “I’m just glad you were able to make it when you did.”

Mom smiled at that, then told me, “Before I left, I wanted to make sure you had this.” With that, she handed me the shoebox. “These are just some things you’re going to need.”

I opened the box and gasped when I saw it was full of dildos, vibrators, and other sex toys. There were even a bunch of condoms in there as well.

“Mom,” I blurted out, blushing bright red, though I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, this wasn’t the first time she’d given me something like this. On my thirteenth birthday, her present had been a box filled with some dirty movies and condoms.

“You have a new body with new needs,” Mom told me pleasantly. “This will help you satisfy those needs, but you’ll still need to find a good lover. Trust me, as nice as these toys are, they can’t match a real man with a big cock.”

I groaned at that and protested, “I have no interest in guys.”

Mom shrugged at that. “Maybe not now, but that could change.” Then she stared at me and said, “You really need to loosen up and explore your new body. Trust me, you can have a lot of fun with it.”

“I don’t want to have fun with it,” I complained, feeling embarrassed.

This wasn’t the kind of talk I wanted to have with my Mom. It was almost as bad as when she decided to give me the birds and bees lecture…when I was five years old…and in graphic detail. If Grandma hadn’t walked in, I probably would have ended up scarred for life.

“I’m your mother,” she told me with an amused smile. “It’s my job to help you grow. And you know how mother birds will push baby birds out of their nests so they learn to fly…?”

With that, Mom reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. Suddenly, I felt a tingle shoot through my entire body. I let out a gasp as my nipples hardened and my crotch began to feel wet. In an instant, I was suddenly feeling turned on and completely horny.

“You used your trick on me,” I accused angrily.

“Just a little nudge out of the nest,” Mom told me pleasantly as she turned and went to the bedroom door. “Now have fun learning to fly dear.” And with that, she left my room and closed the door behind herself.

I just sat there for a moment, hardly able to believe my Mom had done this to me. Then again, it was my Mom so I could definitely believe it.

Without consciously realizing it, my hands went to my breasts and began to massage them. I let my costume vanish, leaving me completely naked. Naked and horny.

“Oh God,” I groaned, shaking with desire.

After a minute, I got up and made sure the door was locked. I was just glad Aaron had gone to one of his friends after school to play video games, because the last thing I needed now was to deal with him.

I’d always known my Mom’s trick of being able to make people instantly horny was powerful, but she’d never used it on me before. With a trick like that, it was no wonder she was so popular with guys…and girls.

My hands seemed to have a mind of their own as I felt myself up, massaging my breasts and playing with my fully erect nipples. It felt so good. And when I reached down between my legs to my soaking wet slit, I moaned at the sensations.

I fingered myself for several minutes, amazed at how good it felt. However, it wasn’t enough. My body was craving more than this. Then my eyes settled on the box of sex toys that Mom had given me.

“I can’t believe I’m going this,” I gasped.

With that, I reached into the box and pulled out both a vibrator and a dildo. I stared at both with a mixture of horror and eagerness. Before Mom had used her trick on me, I never would have considered this, but now the only question was which to try first.

--------------------

History was my favorite subject in school and today we were going over the events that led up to the Chinese Civil War a couple of a couple decades ago. I found the subject fascinating and paid full attention, though most of the other students were bored stiff. I just couldn’t understand why most kids my age were so into made up stories when they couldn’t care less about things that really happened.

Our teacher was Ms. Calico, an eccentric looking woman who was fairly popular among the students. She was in her late twenties, had catlike eyes, and her hair had the coloring of a calico cat, hence the nickname that even the other teachers called her by.

“Hey,” Jim whispered, leaning over from the seat beside me. “I forgot to tell you earlier… I saw Dan Jones last night…”

I frowned at that, annoyed by Jim’s interruption but curious about what he had to say as well. The fight with Dan had been two days ago, and the bully hadn’t shown up to school since then. I was just lucky that no teachers had caught me using my trick to fight another student or I would have ended up suspended the same way Keenan had been.

After a moment, I let out a sigh and encouraged Jim to continue. “And?”

“I saw him at the mall last night,” Jim told me quietly. “His face was pretty bruised up and his arm was in a cast. You really fucked him up…”

“What?” I gasped, staring at Jim in surprise.

When I’d fought Dan, I’d definitely kicked his ass and won the fight, but I didn’t think I’d hurt him that bad. Then I remembered the way I’d dropped him into the dumpster and gulped, realizing that I must have dropped him from higher than I’d thought. Or maybe he’d just hit the side of the or something hard inside of it. Dan might have been an asshole and a thug, but I still felt guilty.

“He must be pretty embarrassed about getting his ass handed to him by a girl,” Jim added with a smirk. “I mean, he didn’t come to school yesterday or today.”

Just then, Ms. Calico politely asked, “Am I interrupting you two?” She was looking right at Jim and me.

“Sorry,” I muttered a quick apology, embarrassed at being called out like that.

I gave Jim a dirty look and then went back to paying attention to the lecture, though my mind did drift back to what I’d done to Dan. If nothing else, maybe this will teach the other bullies in school to leave well enough alone.

In spite of the fact that I liked history, the rest of the class passed slowly and the following one even more so. It was Wednesday afternoon and I had plans for afterschool, ones that I’d been looking forward to since Monday. When the final bell rang, I hurried out to go find Lori as quickly as I could.

I found Lori near the front entrance of the school, talking with a hot looking girl with crimson hair. I’d seen her around school a few times since I’d moved back, and I remembered her as that hair color was really distinct, but I didn’t know her name.

“Chloe,” Lori exclaimed when she saw me. She grinned at me, then gestured to the crimson haired girl. “This is Blake. I was just telling her about you.”

“It seems we have a few things in common,” Blake commented, giving me a curious look.

“Oh?” I asked, wondering what Lori could possibly be saying about me behind my back. I just hoped it wasn’t anything too bad.

“I’m part of the former boys club too,” Blake said pleasantly.

“Really?” I asked, looking her over. She had a killer body and was dressed in a miniskirt and high heels. By her looks, I never would have guessed she used to be a guy, but the same thing could be said of Lori and myself. “How many of us are there around here anyway?”

“There are a few of us,” Blake told me with a chuckle. “I’m not sure of how many since it’s kind of embarrassing and most don’t want to spread it around.”

I nodded at that, fully understanding. It was embarrassing to suddenly go from being a guy to being a girl and having everyone suddenly treat me differently. And I certainly didn’t want to talk about it with people I didn’t know or who wouldn’t understand.

“Maybe we should create an after school club where we can all meet up,” I joked. “We could call ourselves Gender Benders Anonymous.”

“That might not be a bad idea,” Lori said thoughtfully. “I mean, getting used to being a girl wasn’t as big of a problem for me as getting used to being part fish, but it would have been nice to talk to more people who were going through the same thing.”

Blake nodded at that, musing, “I know what you mean. It definitely helps put things in perspective when I talk to other people who’ve changed this way too.” Then she shrugged and said, “Well, I’ve got to go meet up with my boyfriend, so I’ll see you two later.” She smiled at me and said, “It was nice meeting you…”

“I’ve got to go home and soak my tail,” Lori said, then paused to chuckle. “I know, it sounds pretty ridiculous, but I need a good soak before I’ll be ready to do anything. If you’d like, I can come over to your house when I’m done…”

“Okay then,” I agreed. “I’ll see you then.” With that, we kissed briefly, then went our separate ways.

When I got home, I immediately went to my bedroom…my NEW bedroom. Yesterday morning, Mom had left to drive back to Las Angeles, so when I got home from school, I immediately began moving my stuff into her now vacant room. The new room was the same size as the one I’d shared with Aaron, but I didn’t have it completely to myself. There was still a dresser full of Mom’s clothing and belongings, as well as half a closet full. In a way, it was like I still had a roommate, even if she was absent most of the time. And when Mom did come back to visit again, we’d be sharing the room for real.

“Home sweet home,” I said, dropping my backpack onto my bed as a reminder to take care of my homework.

I slowly looked around my new room, noting everything that still needed to be put away and organized. Then I thought about the shoe box that was now hidden beneath my bed, blushing brightly as I did so. Mom had certainly surprised me with that gift, not to mention the way she’d used her trick on me to ensure that I’d actually use the gift.

“The next time I see her,” I muttered to myself, “we’re going to add a new rule to the list. Absolutely NO using her trick on me.”

My Mom’s trick of being able to make anyone instantly horny might be great for her career, but I definitely didn’t like it being used on me. Getting turned on by my own Mom, even if it was only because of her trick, was just WRONG. Of course, she didn’t understand why I was uncomfortable with that, which was why she’d done it in the first place.

“Definitely a new rule,” I promised myself.

But in spite of how awkward and embarrassing that situation had been, I was reluctantly forced to admit that it had also felt pretty damn good. Mom’s methods were screwed up, but she may have had a point. Until then, I’d been ignoring my new parts as much as possible, thinking of them as being like foreign pieces that just been stuck on. I have no idea how much longer I might have ignored my breasts and vagina, trying to pretend like they weren’t really mine, if Mom hadn’t given me that little nudge.

After what I’d done on Monday, I could no longer ignore my new female parts or pretend that they weren’t really mine. I’d stuck a dildo up inside myself, discovered what all the fuss was about vibrators, and I’d had some orgasms that would have knocked my socks off if I hadn’t been naked. With all that, it was like I’d been slapped in the face with the reality of my new gender and forced to deal with it in a way that I’d previously been ignoring.

I was still embarrassed for losing control of myself that way and using those things, but I also knew that I was going to do so again. Next time, I wouldn’t even need that little nudge since the last time had felt so good. Mom had been right about my needing to explore my new body and all that it entailed, though I’d never admit that to her.

“And I’ll be damned if I ever sleep with a guy,” I muttered with a shudder. Sure, having a dildo inside me had felt surprisingly good, but the idea of actually having sex with a guy made my skin crawl. “I’m one hundred percent lesbian.”

That thought brought me back to my date with Lori. It wasn’t going to be a fancy date or anything like that, just a chance for us to hang out, get to know each other better, and have a little time alone to kiss some more. I smiled in anticipation of that.

Until now, I hadn’t planned on changing clothes or anything, but when I thought of Lori and how hot she was, I realized that I wanted her to think the same thing about me. She was a former guy, the same as me, so I knew she’d appreciate it if I tried to look a little sexier.

I went through all my new clothes, trying to decide what to wear. I pulled several outfits out and went back and forth over them, wondering which would be right. A couple things I’d picked out made me look tomboyish, which wasn’t how I wanted Lori to think of me, but some of the things Mom bought would have made me look like some kind of a slut.

“Oh my God,” I finally exclaimed in realization. “I just spent half an hour trying to decide what to wear… I really have become a girl…”

In the end, there were several factors that helped me decide what to wear. I might be a girl now, but there was no way I was going to wear a skirt or dress. Instead, I put on a pair of tight jeans which made my ass look good. Then I picked out a shirt that revealed a little cleavage, just enough to make me feel a little self-conscious without being uncomfortable.

“I hope Lori likes this,” I muttered when I was done. I’d even put on my pair of heels, just not the stilettos. Thanks to the heels in my costume, I’d gotten enough practice walking in those that they weren’t a problem anymore. However, they seemed a bit much for what we were doing.

When Lori arrived a short time later, I immediately saw that she’d changed clothes from what she’d been wearing at school. She was wearing a dress, as she usually did, and she had on a low pair of heels as well. But unlike me, she actually had on makeup and some jewelry besides earrings. Those were things I didn’t have yet, other than the one pair of earrings, though Mom had made some noises about buying me makeup and more jewelry before she’d left.

“You look great,” I told Lori with a grin.

“You too,” she responded, giving me a kiss. “Are you ready to go?”

“Absolutely,” I agreed. Then I paused to ask, “You know, the stereotype is that a girl has to make her date wait…but since we’re both girls, do we really have to do that?”

Lori laughed at that. “I say no. I never really understood the point of that when I was a guy.”

We stood there for several more minutes while Grandma came to look Lori over. I wasn’t quite sure what Grandma thought about my dating a girl now that I was one, but she didn’t seem upset about it. Then again, after dealing with my Mom, I could probably date a couple people at once and Grandma probably wouldn’t blink.

“Later Grandma,” I told my Grandma as Lori and I finally started for the door.

“Be back before nine,” Grandma reminded me. “It is a school night after all.” Then as we left the house, I thought I heard her mutter, “At least I don’t have to worry about someone ending up pregnant.”

Lori gestured to the car that was parked in our driveway, a hovercar that was a couple years old. It was nice, but I still preferred my Mom’s car. “My Mom let me borrow it,” she told me a little self-consciously. “I’m hoping to save enough from my job so I can buy my own.”

I nodded at that, then pointed out, “You’re ahead of me. I don’t even have a job.”

“Oh,” Lori teased me with a grin. “You’re a deadbeat.”

“I prefer the term freeloader,” I responded with a grin of my own.

We arrived at the movie theater a short time later, having already decided which movie we were going to see. Lori had wanted to see the latest blockbuster action movie, but I wasn’t really into that kind of thing. I would have preferred seeing a comedy instead, but I was here more for the company than the actual movie, so I’d agreed to her choice. Of course, it helped that she hadn’t wanted to see some chick flick.

But when we went to buy the tickets, both of us pulled out our money to pay for the tickets at the same time. We paused to look at each other and then burst out laughing.

“How about, I take care of the tickets and you take care of the snacks?” I suggested.

“That sounds good to me,” Lori agreed.

I didn’t go to the movies very often but had to admit that the system they had set up was impressive. They had holo projectors set up so that the movie was projected all around you, really making you feel like you were right in the middle of it. And then, they even pumped in some of the smells so we could catch the scent of gunpowder and ocean. Fortunately, it was pretty mellow and we only caught faint hints of the smells or it might have been overwhelming.

I thought the movie had no plot, poor acting, and a lot of internal consistencies, but it did have good special effects and a lot of explosions. It wasn’t the kind of movie I was usually into, but I was still able to enjoy it. However, Lori really seemed to like it and her enthusiasm was a little infectious.

We held hands off and on throughout the movie, whispered a few jokes about the bad dialog and large plot holes, and we even kissed a couple times. By the time the movie was over, I was in a very good mood and eager to continue with the hand holding and kissing. However, dinner was our next stop, though I figured we’d probably be able to squeeze in a little more physical time.

Before we left the theater, Lori paused and reached into her purse, pulling out a spray bottle. “I’ve got to let my legs go for a bit,” she told me self-consciously. “Being a mermaid is my natural state and I can only keep these legs for a couple hours at a time.”

“I’ll come with,” I said, giving her a grin. It was always interesting to see her in her full mermaid form. After all, it wasn’t often that you got to see a mythical creature come to life, even if it was just because she was Twisted.

We went to an out of the way niche near the bathrooms, one with a few seats and which seemed to have been put there to give nursing mothers a place to do so with a little privacy. As soon as Lori sat down, she kicked off her shoes and then her legs began to transform, merging together and growing those beautiful aquamarine scales. In less than a minute, she was back to her true mermaid self and immediately began to spray her tail with the water bottle.

“I get a little itchy if I don’t keep my scales damp,” she explained, though she’d told me that before. “You have no idea how good this feels.”

“Having a tail or misting it?” I asked.

Lori chuckled at that and admitted, “Both. Trust me, I love having legs, but I feel a little uncomfortable after awhile so switching back is sort of a relief.”

“I know what you mean,” I told her, wishing I could change into my costume. I couldn’t help but feeling just a little jealous that Lori was able to relax and get comfortable but I couldn’t. If I did that here, it would mean destroying my clothes, and I couldn’t afford to keep doing that.

Lori stared at me for a moment before asking, “You’re thinking about your costume, aren’t you?” I just nodded at that and she gave me a knowing look. “I’m the same way with being in the water, which is ironic considering that I was terrified of the water and then went through my twist in the school swimming pool. You’d think that after that, I’d be too traumatized to eve get in the water again.”

“You’ve got to love being Twisted,” I said wryly. “It messes with your mind and body so much, nothing is the way it should be.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Lori promised me. “I did, and I turned into a fish.”

After fifteen minutes, Lori changed her tail back into her legs. I watched in fascination as the process I’d seen earlier reversed itself. Her fins pulled in and the tail began to split down the middle, while at the same time, her beautiful scales pulled into her skin and vanished, leaving her with a very shapely pair of human legs. With a smile, she put her shoes back on and we finally left the theater.

By this point, I was starting to get hungry, in spite of the snacks we’d had with the movie. Fortunately, the restaurant we were going to for dinner was almost right across the street from the theater. The place wasn’t big or fancy, but it did have the best pizza in Spiral. And it had the added bonus of being fairly inexpensive. Lori had a job and I had the allowance Mom gave me, but neither of us could afford some expensive fancy restaurant.

As we went to the restaurant, I noticed a group of three men hanging around near the front. Something about them seemed just a little off, just a little…suspicious. They were all looking around as though they expected someone to jump them at any moment, and when they saw us, they actually glared.

“Blue haired freak,” one of them spat out, looking straight at Lori.

“What did you say?” I demanded, surprised at hearing something like that in Spiral.

“Forget them,” Lori said, giving the men a glare. “I’m hungry and don’t want to waste time with idiots.”

The man who called Lori a freak just sneered at that while his friends laughed. They called out a few more insults but Lori and I just hurried to the door, doing our best to ignore them.

Lori reached the door to the restaurant before me and held it open so I could go through, saying, “After you.”

I smiled as I went through, realizing that both of us kept trying to take the traditional male role during this date. Both of us had tried paying for the tickets and both of us wanted to open doors for the other and act like ‘gentlemen’. I guessed a lifetime of training in how to behave as a man was hard to shake, even after we’d both switched sides.

Dinner consisted of good pizza and better conversation, with Lori and I talking about what it was like changing sex, our unconventional parents, and even about Christine. We both had a few stories to share about my cousin, which resulted in us laughing through half the meal.

“And when she was ten,” I told Lori, “she beat up the twelve year old boy who’d been trying to bully her. He was so humiliated at getting his ass kicked by a girl that he told everyone he’d been jumped by a group of teenage boys…”

Lori laughed at that and said, “I can definitely believe it of the old Christine. The new one…not so much.”

“She might be small and cute,” I pointed out, “but she’s still pretty scrappy.”

“True,” Lori agreed. “But it is harder to take her seriously. I mean, on her first day back at school after her twist, someone teased her about being turned into a kid and she called him a booger brained poopy head. The look on her face was hilarious because I don’t think that was at all what she meant to say. Anyway, that only made her angrier and she ended up kicking him in his legs repeatedly, and he couldn’t bring himself to fight back against someone who looked like a cute little girl. And if he had hit her, there were a bunch of guys there, me and Ricky included, who would have jumped him.”

Just then, I overheard the people at the table next to us complaining about how some men had harassed them outside the restaurant. I looked over while trying to look as though I wasn’t staring. The man had skin, hair, and clothes were all in shades of gray so it looked like he’d stepped right out of one of those really old black and white movies. He was obviously Twisted, as was the woman with him since she had glowing eyes.

“I came to Spiral to get away from that kind of harassment,” the black and white man told his companion. “It’s infuriating.”

They continued to talk about how they’d been insulted while I just scowled. I’d overheard another customer come in with similar complains earlier, which proved that Lori wasn’t the only one they’d been rude to. It seemed that they were going after anyone with visible twists, and I suspected that I would have received the same treatment if they’d been sure I was Twisted too.

“I hope those assholes are gone,” I told Lori with a sigh.

Lori just nodded at that, then gave me an almost predatory smile. “I’d like to catch those jerks in the water sometime… They’ll think they’re in that old movie Jaws.”

We were still chuckling over that as we left the restaurant, though we froze when we were outside the door and heard someone screaming from down the street a short distance. I snapped around, gasping at the sight of a car that was on fire, with flames covering the front and top of it. Then I saw the three men, standing in front of the car and laughing. One of them was holding a lit Molotov cocktail in his hand.

“Oh shit,” Lori blurted out in horror.

There were other people present as well, including one woman who was actually inside the burning car. My blood ran cold at that and I stared in horror. There were other people present as well, but the three men were all holding weapons and keeping everyone else back.

“Let the fucking freak burn,” one of the men called out, swinging a baseball bat threateningly.

“Bastards,” I snarled angrily.

Police and fire engine sirens could be heard in the distance, rapidly approaching. They were less than a block away, but I wasn’t sure the woman in the car could wait until they arrived. Without saying a word, I slipped out of my shoes, then willed my costume to appear.

“Chloe,” Lori cried out as she realized what I was doing. I expected her to yell at me not to do it, but instead, she just said, “Be careful.”

I nodded at that, then lifted myself a couple feet into the air and flew towards the car. I would have run if it hadn’t been for the heels that came with the outfit. As soon as I was next to the car, I dropped to the ground, only to have three angry men swearing at me and screaming ‘freak’. I could smell the booze from them, though it might have been the Molotov cocktail that the one was still holding.

“Damn freak bitch,” the man with the baseball bat snarled.

“Damn monsters,” I spat back at them, reminding myself that getting the woman out of the car had to come before anything else.

Before I could get closer, the man with the baseball bat swung it right at my stomach, though it hit my force field and bounced off without harming me. However, it did seem to infuriate him and his friends. The one with the Molotov cocktail held back since I didn’t think he wanted to get caught in the backsplash of that one, but the third man who had a knife, attacked me. Of course, that had no more effect than the baseball bat had. I backhanded the one with the baseball bat, trying to be relatively gentle, but I thought I might have broken some of his bones as he went flying back.

“I’ll deal with you assholes later,” I said, getting closer to the car door and seeing that the jerks had actually jammed her car door so she couldn’t get out. She was screaming and pounding on the windows with a look of panic.

Then I felt it, the heat of the fire almost burning my skin. I gasped in surprise, having gotten so caught up in the thought that my shield would protect me that I’d forgotten an important detail. As I’d learned from my testing with Dr. Newbury, my shield would protect me from things like punches, knives, and even bullets…but it did absolutely nothing against things like heat or electricity. Then I suddenly realized that Ironically, Lori’s trick would probably have been better for dealing with the fire than mine. After all, the energy field that protected her underwater at least acted as insulation against outside temperatures.

“Oh shit,” I blurted out.

I grabbed at the door handle and burned my hand, quickly yanking it back. Then I grimaced and tried again, bracing myself from the pain. I grabbed the door handle again and yanked, but it broke off in my hand. I let out another quick profanity, then punched the window, which shattered beneath the force of my blow.

“Come on,” I told the woman as I helped her out through the window. “I’ve got you…”

As I got the woman out, I finally got a good look at her and noticed the pointed ears, small horns on her forehead, and the fact that her eyes were an odd gold color. These were probably the traits that had made her a target of those men.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

“Thank you,” she exclaimed, looking terrified and tired, but also relieved.

“Shit,” the man with the Molotov cocktail exclaimed. “Won’t these damn monsters just die?”

I glared at the two remaining men and stepped between them and the woman they’d tried to burn to death. Several other people rushed forward to grab her and pull her back to safety while I dealt with the men. I clenched my fists as I stared them down, trying to ignore the pain in my hand where I’d burned it on the car door. It was obvious that these men were drunk and angry, but they also looked afraid of me after what I’d done to their friend and the car window.

“Boo,” I exclaimed, suddenly jumping forward.

Both men both turned and ran with the one dropping his knife. However, the police had already arrived and were jumping out of their cars. One cop tackled the man who’d dropped the knife, and as they pulled their guns on the other man, he turned and threw his Molotov cocktail at me. I saw it coming towards me through the air and willed myself straight up so I was out of range when the bottle hit and exploded into flames.

I landed on the ground again a short distance away, only to realize that there were several police with their guns pointed at me, yelling, “Get down on the ground…”

“I didn’t do anything,” I protested, though I was smart enough to hold my hands up. Their guns couldn’t hurt me, but I didn’t want to risk getting shot at anyway.

“Chloe,” Lori yelled and tried rushing towards me, but one cop grabbed hold of her.

“She saved me,” the woman I’d pulled out of the car yelled, staggering towards the police. “This girl saved me from being burned alive…”

Several of the people who’d been nearby watching began yelling to the cops as well, trying to confirm the woman’s story. However, they were all trying to talk at the same time so I couldn’t make out what they were saying, which meant the cops would probably have an even harder time doing so.

“Lower your weapons,” one of the cops called out, and the men who’d been pointing their guns at me immediately obeyed, much to my relief.

At this point, the police also let Chloe go and she ran to me, demanding, “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” I told her, giving her a hug.

After a moment, I looked around, seeing that the three attackers were all being handcuffed and arrested, though the one I’d backhanded was getting medical attention as well. Then one of the cops started coming towards me, though it took me several seconds to realize that I recognized him.

Officer Hanson stood there with a look of disapproval on his face as he announced, “I thought I warned you not to play super hero anymore.”

--------------------

I was sitting on my bed, starting on a new book that I’d just downloaded to my computer tablet. It wasn’t quite as satisfying as reading a real paper book, but it was a lot easier getting books this way, as well as more convenient storing them.

My latest book was the autobiography of Nia Clarence, the famous Twisted rights advocate from the early days of the Twisted. She was largely responsible for the laws that protected the civil rights of the Twisted. Back on those days, there had been a lot of talk about locking up all the Twisted as being too dangerous to let run free.

As much as I enjoyed learning about Nia, there were other things that I’d much rather be doing right then. It was Saturday afternoon, but instead of being out at the swimming pool with Lori or hanging out with Jim, I was stuck at home, grounded.

“All because of those idiots,” I muttered to myself, thinking of those three men who’d caused all that trouble on Wednesday.

Officer Hanson had told me that those three men had come to Spiral for the sole purpose of causing trouble. As I’d already seen, they didn’t like the Twisted and apparently thought it would be fun to come and show their disapproval.

Unfortunately, because of those assholes, I’d gotten a first degree burn on my palm that still hurt a bit, I got a lecture from Officer Hanson about being a vigilante, and then I had to spend two hours at the police station giving my statement. But all of that was nothing compared to Grandma.

Grandma wasn’t at all happy about what had happened and she’d been angry that I put myself in danger and got hurt because of it. But at the same time, I thought she seemed pretty proud of me for saving that woman, though that didn’t stop her from grounding me.

I finally set my tablet down and got off my bed, being careful of how I placed my feet before standing up. I’d learned that with the stiletto heels that were part of my costume, I had to be careful of how I walked or I’d twist my ankle or fall over. But I’d pretty much gotten the hang of walking in these things now, though it was still a far cry from being natural.

“Someone had better tell those comic book writers that heels like this just aren’t practical for a super hero,” I muttered to myself.

Of course, that just reminded me of Triumph comics, and their lawyers who’d sent Grandma and I another notice. After the events on Wednesday and the resulting publicity, they’d decided to go beyond the cease and desist warning and move to suing us.

“Triumph Comics, the cops, and even Grandma,” I said with a sigh. “Who isn’t pissed at me?”

At least Lori wasn’t mad at me. In fact, she’d actually been impressed by the way I’d gone to help that woman. Of course, I’d heard from Christine that she’d once saved someone from drowning, before she even started working as a lifeguard.

With a shake of my head, I left my room and went to the kitchen to see if I could find something to snack on. Grandma usually had something stocked up for us, though I hoped she had some brownies from that bakery Guilt Free Desserts. Grandma liked buying snacks from them since the owner had some kind of trick that let him remove all calories from his food while not messing with the taste.

Aaron was in the living room with one his friends, watching a movie on the TV. There was a big bowl of popcorn in front of them as well as some cans of soda.

“See,” Aaron exclaimed when he saw me. He elbowed his friend and added, “I told you she looks just like Lady Starlight…”

“Awesome,” his friend blurted out, staring at me with a look of wide-eyed amazement. Then frowned slightly and asked, “But where’s your starlight staff?”

“My twist didn’t come with it,” I explained, holding up my hands so he could see the bracers on my arms. “I did get the starlight bracelets though.”

Aaron’s friend immediately came over to get a better look at me, and it was obvious that he was impressed. Then he finally said, “I hope I turn into a super hero when I go through my twist. But not a girl one.”

“No way,” Aaron agreed with his friend completely. “Maybe Captain Quantum or the Asterix.”

As Aaron and his friend began arguing over who would be the best super hero to turn into, I hurried off to the kitchen and found something to snack on. When I came back a minute later, they were still caught up in their animated discussion over which super powers would be the best ones to possess.

I stood back and watched their discussion for a few more minutes, not knowing who most of the comic book characters they were talking about were but finding their passion for it entertaining. How could anyone get so caught up in fictional characters? I mean, it wasn’t like any of those people even existed. Then again, Lady Starlight didn’t exist until I turned into her.

Just then, the doorbell began ringing. Before I could go answer it, the door opened and Christine stepped inside, calling out, “Hi Grandma.”

“Hello dear,” Grandma said, giving Christine a smile.

Christine immediately came rushing in and gave Grandma a hug. Then she gave Grandma a mischievious grin and asked, “Can Chloe come out and play?”

“I’m afraid Chloe is grounded,” Grandma told her with an amused look.

“That’s okay,” Christine responded cheerfully. That’s why we came here.”

“We?” Grandma asked.

Lori stood in the doorway and waved self-consciously. “Um...hi.”

I grinned at the sight of Lori, though I was a little curious by the fact that she was holding a tackle box for fishing in her hand. Lori grinned at me and came inside.

Grandma looked at Christine and Lori, then sighed. “Well, Chloe isn’t supposed to leave the house, but I suppose you two can keep her company here.”

“Yah,” Christine exclaimed cheerfully. Then she held out the stuffed rabbit that she’d brought with her and asked Grandma, “Do you want to hug Bun Bun?”

“I’m glad to see you,” I told Lori with a grin. “But I thought you were at work?”

“They had a swim class for a bunch of little kids this morning,” Lori told me cheerfully. “They wanted me there for that.” Then she laughed and said, “You should have seen how excited they were to be swimming with a mermaid.”

“I’d imagine,” I responded with a chuckle.

“You know,” Lori mused, giving me a thoughtful look. “I bet they’d be really excited to go swimming with a real super hero too…”

“I’m not a real super hero,” I reminded her with a roll of my eyes. “Besides, it wouldn’t be very easy to swim with these things.” I gestured to my heels.

A minute later, I was in my bedroom with Lori and Christine. This was the first time they’d been in my new room so they looked around curiously.

“I see you’ve been decorating,” Lori said, pointing to the small makeup table and mirror that was in the corner. “Very feminine.”

“It belongs to my Mom,” I pointed out. I gestured around the room and added, “Half the stuff in here is hers. It still feels a bit more like her room than mine, so I’ll have to fix it up a bit.”

“Ah come on,” Lori teased me. “You need to embrace the feminine. Trust me, it’s not that bad once you get used to it.”

I snorted at that, then replied, “You sound like my Mom.” I blushed as I remembered her tactics for getting me to accept my new gender. I still had that box of toys hidden under my bed, and I’d even used some of them once or twice since then.

“That’s sort of why we’re here,” Christine said with a giggle that suddenly made me very wary.

“What are you two up to?” I asked suspiciously.

Lori held up the tackle box she’d brought with her and then opened it up, revealing that it wasn’t filled with fishing gear like I’d expected, but makeup. I gulped at that, and at the look on their faces.

“I had to go through this,” Lori told me with a smirk. “And so do you.”

“I don’t think so,” I responded, backing away from them.

“You’re already walking around in high heels,” Christine pointed out. “So it’s not like this is really any more girlie than that.”

Lori gave me a kiss, then said, “I wore makeup to look good for you. Don’t you want to look good for me?”

I just let out a sigh of resignation, knowing that I couldn’t argue with that. And besides that, I’d already suspected that the next time Mom came to visit, she was planning on inflicting makeup lessons on me anyway. I might as well get them over with now and have the fun of surprising Mom.

“All right,” I told them. “Let’s get this over with.”

“It’s not that bad,” Lori said with a chuckle. “It’s a little weird wearing makeup at first, but you get used to it before long.”

Christine nodded at that, though she wasn’t wearing any makeup. Of course, now that she looked like a kid, makeup would probably look silly on her. Then again, her compulsions might not even allow her to wear the stuff.

“You need to turn off your trick,” Christine pointed out thoughtfully. “Your force field might not let us put on the makeup.”

“Okay,” I said, waiting for Christine and Lori to leave my room so I could remove my costume. However, they both remained, watching me with curious expressions.

“You don’t have anything we haven’t seen before,” Christine pointed smugly.

“Yeah,” Lori agreed with a grin of her own. She was watching me with an especially eager look. Then when I still hesitated, she added, “I’ll let you see me undressed sometime too…”

That was enough motivation for me and I willed my costume to vanish. As usual, I dropped a few inches when my shoes vanished, and I was now completely naked in front of them.

Lori smiled as she stared at me, apparently liking what she saw. I just blushed brightly, feeling self-conscious, but pleased by Lori’s reactions.

“I bet you can’t wear a bra with that costume,” Christine mused.

“I don’t need one,” I pointed out wryly. “My costume has built in support that works better than any bra and is a whole lot more comfortable.”

Since I was now without my costume, I quickly went about the process of getting dressed again. Ironically, it was now that Lori and Christine looked away rather than when I was completely naked.

Once I was dressed again, and wearing my stiletto heels at Lori’s insistence, I sat down at the makeup table and let them go to work. Lori began pulling out various items from her makeup kit and telling me what they were. Christine added her own comments at the same time.

“Your diamond earrings really go with your costume,” Lori told me pleasantly. “I mean, they sparkle so they kind of goes with all those twinkling stars… I think maybe a little glitter on your cheeks might go with that too…”

I didn’t bother protesting or pointing out that I wasn’t wearing my costume at the moment. Instead, I just remained where I was and let her put makeup on me, explaining what she was doing with each step.

“Aunt Kelsie and my Mom taught me about this stuff after I changed,” Lori told me. “They insisted every girl needs to know about makeup.”

“And now it’s your turn,” Christine added. She gave me a mischievious look and commented, “I remember when you used to tease me about wearing bras and makeup. I guess the shoe is on the other foot now.”

“Yeah,” I muttered with a chuckle. “Me and my big mouth.”

Once Lori was done, I looked myself over in the mirror, startled by my reflection. I had mascara, eyeshadow, some sort of glitter blush, and even lip gloss with sparkles in it. I didn’t look much like myself.

“Maybe a little too much glitter,” Christine pointed out with a giggled. Lori and I both nodded agreement at that.

“You’ll have to try different things to find a look that works for you,” Lori told me. “I’ve only been doing this a couple months so I’m not really an expert.”

We cleaned the makeup off my face and tried again, this time with Lori using different shades and colors. By the time I she was done, I ended up with bright red lipstick, too much blush, and too much eyeshadow. I looked sort of cheap and slutty this time.

“I think your Mom might approve,” Christine joked.

“Hey,” I protested. “Mom doesn’t go for the cheap hooker look.”

“True,” Christine agreed. “Aunt Dana may dress to show off, but she never looks cheap.”

This time, Lori stood back and let me remove the makeup by myself, apparently deciding that I should get some actual practice. I had it about halfway cleaned off when my cell phone began ringing.

My phone said the call was Jim, so I answered with, “Hey, what’s up?”

“Have you seen Keenan?” Jim immediately demanded.

“What?” I asked in confusion.

“Is Keenan there?” Jim asked me, sounding almost frantic. “Have you seen him?”

“No,” I responded, feeling even more confused and worried. “What’s going on?”

Jim was silent for a moment, then said, “His Mom just came over here looking for him…along with the police.”

Jim gave me a quick explanation of what was going on, and by the time I hung up a minute later, I was feeling stunned and horrified. I sat there, trying to make sense of what I’d just been told.

“What’s happening?” Lori asked me with a worried look.

“It’s Keenan,” I said. Then for Lori’s benefit, I added, “He used to be a good friend but…”

“He went through his twist,” Christine added, already knowing about Keenan.

I nodded in agreement, the let out a sigh and explained, “This morning, his parents found a bunch of dead cats and dogs hidden in their garage. When his Dad confronted him about it, Keenan attacked him…hurting him pretty bad and putting him in the hospital.”

“Holy poop,” Christine blurted out with a look of horror.

“Yeah,” I agreed, feeling shaken by this news. “According to Jim, Keenan ran off and now the cops are looking for him.”

“He asked me out once,” Christine said quietly, sounding a little guilty. “He was a nice guy…too nice. I thought he was boring and turned him down. What the heck happened to him?”

Lori and I didn’t answer, nor did we need to since Christine knew the answer just as well as we did. Keenan had gone through his twist and it had changed him into someone else entirely.

I scowled as I thought about how Keenan had been acting ever since I’d come back to Spiral…and before. Ever since his twist, he’d ben cold and distant, not seeming to care about anyone or anything. In fact, I’d only seen him show real emotion and interest on two occasions since then, both when someone else was being hurt.

“Poor Keenan,” I muttered, thinking of not only my former friend but also his family.

Then I looked at Lori and Christine, both of whom had gone through drastic changes because of their own twists, just like I had. At that moment, I suspected that all three of us were thinking the same thing. My twist might be awkward to deal with at times, but at least inside I was still myself.

--------------------

I stared up at the clock, impatiently waiting for the class to end. Mondays always seemed to drag on forever, regardless of whether I was in Las Angeles or Spiral. Fortunately, it was the last class of the day so I didn’t have to wait much longer.

While I sat there waiting, I glanced over to an empty seat on the other side of the classroom. That was where Keenan usually sat, though he’d been conspicuously absent from school today. Of course, I wasn’t surprised after what had happened Saturday. From what I knew, the police were still out looking for him, and as one of his former friends, they’d even come knocking on my door on Saturday, asking if I knew where he was.

It had been two days since I’d learned what Keenan had been up to and I still felt cold chills down my spine when I thought about it. The police found over a dozen dead cats and dogs in his garage, some of which had been tortured to death. According to the police, Keenan had not only been killing animals, but he’d been getting more and more sadistic about it in the process. I didn’t need the police to tell me what that meant. That kind of activity was an indication of a burgeoning serial killer.

With a deep scowl, I thought about the last two times I’d seen Keenan smile. Once had been while Dan Jones had been beating up on Gary, and Keenan had been watching with an excited grin. The other time had been in the school cafeteria when Keenan had gone after that other boy. Both times, he’d clearly been enjoying the fear and pain of the victims.

“How could that happen?” I quietly demanded.

Of course, I already knew that my old friend had been changed by his twist, his personality altered into something unrecognizable. Keenan had turned into the kind of Twisted that gave all of us a bad name, the kind which ‘proved’ to normals that we were all dangerous monsters. A lot of people were afraid of the Twisted, and Keenan was just one example of why.

However, what I didn’t know was why no one had realized he’d become like this. The Spiral Clinic gave psychological tests to all the new Twisted before they were allowed to go back to school, just to prove that they weren’t a danger to themselves or others. The whole purpose of those tests was to catch things like this, so why didn’t they catch Keenan before he hurt someone?

Unfortunately, it looked like Keenan had somehow slipped through the cracks of the system. Whether he’d somehow avoided taking the psyche tests, had lied while taking them, or if they just hadn’t been able to catch his particular twist, I didn’t know. What I did know was that I mourned my old friend and what he’d become.

When the bell finally rang, signaling the end of both class and the school day, I let out a sigh of relief. I was still depressed about Keenan, but I was trying to avoid thinking about it. After all, this Keenan wasn’t the one I’d known and liked. This Keenan was a complete stranger to me, one that I didn’t want anything to do with. However, I couldn’t help but worrying about him and his family. I’d always liked his parents.

I left the classroom and started down the hall, though I hadn’t gone very far before someone called out my name. I turned and saw a tall and slender boy with a mop of unruly red hair and a splattering of freckles on his face. Eddie Ryan and I were in a couple classes together, including that last one, and we were on good terms but not really friends.

“Hey,” I greeted him with a cautious smile, curious about what he wanted.

“You know, I think it’s awesome you turned into Lady Starlight,” Eddie told me with a smile.

That immediately set of the warning bells, especially since I knew Eddie was into comic books. Ever since I’d gone through my twist, several people had suddenly become interested in me for no other reason than because I looked like Lady Starlight. For some reason, comic book geeks got especially excited by the idea of having a super hero come to life, though fortunately, most didn’t recognize me as Lady Starlight without the costume. Without my costume to put things in contest, even the most hardcore comic fans usually didn’t notice the similarities. Unfortunately, my brief fight with Dan Jones had revealed my costume to all the witnesses, and the stories had spread.

“She’s one of my favorite super heroes,” Eddie continued.

“My brother is a huge fan too,” I responded with a slightly forced smile. “That’s sort of how I ended up looking like this.”

“I think more Twisted should end up as super heroes,” Eddie stated. “It would be great for Twisted public relations.”

I just snorted and said, “And I bet the cops would absolutely love that…”

Eddie nodded at that, apparently not noticing the sarcasm in my voice. “Anyway,” he said, giving me a nervous smile. “I was wondering if you’d like to go out with me sometime…”

That was enough to make me roll my eyes since it wasn’t the first time a comic book fan had asked me out on a date. It had happened last Thursday as well, after I’d gotten even more media attention from my burning car rescue.

“Sorry,” I told Eddie, deciding that my best option was to just be honest with him. “But I’m not into guys…”

“And she’s already taken,” a familiar voice said, right before Lori came over and gave me deep kiss, obviously marking her claim.

Eddie suddenly looked awkward and embarrassed, “Um…sorry…”

“It’s okay,” I told Eddie, not wanting to embarrass him any further. “I’m flattered anyway.”

Eddie looked a little relieved at that, though still embarrassed. “Well, maybe we can just talk comics sometime,” Eddie suggested with a self-conscious smile. “It would be interesting seeing your perspective.”

“Maybe,” I told him politely.

Once Eddie left, Lori gave me an amused look and said, “It still startles me whenever a guy asks me out.”

I nodded at that, wondering if I’d ever get used to having guys being interested in me. I’d begun getting used to my new body and how it felt, and most of the time I didn’t even think about it anymore. However, incidents like this still caught me by surprise and made me a bit uncomfortable. Maybe it would have been different if my twist had altered my sexual preferences along with my body.

“So, are you coming to our band practice after school?” Lori asked me.

“Still grounded,” I reminded her with a sigh.

“That stinks,” she told me with a sympathetic look. “I mean, you saved that woman’s life and took out those assholes, and your Grandma punishes you for it…”

I nodded at that. “Technically, she’s punishing me for putting myself in danger,” I pointed out wryly. Then I added, “But I’ve also got the police mad at me, not to mention Triumph Comics. I mean, why are they bothering with me? You’d think that if they were that upset about someone dressing up like Lady Starlight, they’d go after all the cosplayers at those comic conventions.”

“And the kids on Halloween,” Lori added with a grin.

Lori and I kissed each other again, then began to walk out of the school together. Just as we were leaving the front entrance, I noticed crimson hair just a short distance away from us and called out to Blake.

Blake turned and smiled when she saw us. “Hey, I wanted to talk to you two…”

“Yeah, what’s up?” I asked curiously.

“I was thinking about what we were talking about last week,” she responded. At my blank look, she continued, “You know, about getting a website together or something so all of us gender benders can talk to each other.”

“I thought we were talking about an after school club,” Lori said with a grin.

“Yeah,” Blake agreed. “But I thought a website might be easier. I was talking with Jen and Leila, and they’re both interested in the idea too.”

“A website would have been nice,” I told her. “I mean, anything would have helped, but I still think it would be better if we were able to meet each other face to face.”

We talked about the idea for just another minute before Blake and Lori both had to go. Lori gave me a quick kiss, then rushed home so she could take a quick swim and then practice with her band. I felt a bit of regret that I couldn’t be there to watch them play. It was fun watching tiny Christine wailing on the drums, but not nearly as nice as listening to Lori’s beautiful voice.

As I climbed onto the school bus, I noticed Dan Jones a short distance away. This was the first time I’d seen him since our brief fight and I was a little startled by how he looked, though I shouldn’t have been since Jim had already told me about it.

Dan’s arm was indeed in a cast and there was still a little bruising on his face. And when he walked, there was even a faint limp to his step. He somehow noticed that I was looking at him and he looked back, giving me a cold glare.

For a moment, I thought Dan was going to come over and demand a rematch, but instead, he snorted and continued on his way. I let out a sigh of relief, knowing that another fight wouldn’t have been good for me. Sure, I could use my trick to beat him as easily as I had the last time, but I’d been lucky that no teacher had been there or I would have been suspended. I really didn’t want to risk getting in trouble again, especially when I didn’t need to.

When I got home, I went to my room and immediately changed into my costume. It felt nice to get out of those uncomfortable clothes and back into something that just felt perfect to wear. And at the same time, it almost felt like I shed my problems and worries of the day along with my clothes.

“Much better,” I mused.

Then I looked down at myself and chuckled at the irony of the fact that I now considered a spandex super hero costume with stiletto heels to be more comfortable than anything else. Of course, it was just part of my twist, but that didn’t really matter. What mattered was that regardless of the reason, I felt perfectly comfortable this way.

I smiled and looked towards my bed as I considered something else that would make me feel good, even better than this costume. Though I blushed at the thought of using the toys hidden under my bed, I knew that I’d have a lot of fun doing so. And even though I was tempted to pull them out, I knew that I didn’t dare have that kind of fun right now. Once I started with that, I might not come out of my room in time for dinner.

“I don’t know whether to thank Mom for giving me those,” I muttered to myself, “or curse her.”

There was no way I was going to tell Mom how much I was enjoying those toys, though I doubt I needed to. The last thing I wanted to do was encourage her to push her attempts to feminize me even further.

“Later,” I promised myself, silently adding, “After Grandma goes to bed.”

With that, I sat down at my desk and started on my homework. I hadn’t gotten very far in it when there was a knock on the door, followed by Grandma sticking her head in.

“How are you doing?” she asked me gently.

“All right,” I answered, silently giving thanks to the fact that I didn’t decide to play with those toys. With Grandma coming in to check on me like this, that could have been extremely embarrassing.

Grandma stared at me for a moment and then gave me a gentle smile. “I wanted you to know that I’m proud of you for saving that woman.”

“I couldn’t just let her die,” I said quietly. “Not when I was right there.”

Grandma nodded at that, looking rather proud. She gave me a hard look before adding, “But don’t you ever worry me like that again.” Then she smacked the back of my head and said, “You’re not grounded anymore so go out and have some fun.”

“Thanks, Grandma,” I told her with a grin.

I took one more look at my homework and decided that I could wait to finish the rest of it up. Instead, I had to get ready to leave the house. I didn’t bother removing my costume and getting dressed again. Instead, I just threw on a pair of pants and a shirt right over my costume.

“Why didn’t I think of doing this before,” I said, looking myself over.

A little of my costume was visible at my neck and chest, and my wrist bracers were pretty noticeable, but I didn’t look like a super hero at the moment. In fact, I thought that I looked quite passable for going out in public.

I left the house a few minutes later, though I wasn’t sure where I was going. At first, I thought about going to watch Lori and Christine at their band practice, but I didn’t want to come in on the middle of things and distract them. So instead, I started for downtown.

“Up up and away,” I said as I rose up into the air and started flying. I might not be very fast this way, but flying was a lot of fun…as long as I didn’t get too far above the ground. I was still pretty wary about going up very high.

A few people waved at me as I flew, though no one seemed overly shocked. After all, this was Spiral and there were odder sights than a girl flying through the air.

When I got where I was going, I landed and began walking so I could draw less attention. I went into a local bookstore that actually sold real paper books, the kind that you didn’t see around all that often anymore. But in spite of them being somewhat obsolete, I doubted they’d ever go away. There was something about holding a physical book in your hand that just couldn’t be found with a computer tablet.

I spent over half an hour just browsing for books and finally ended up buying one about the seven wonders of the ancient world. I didn’t know much about the seven wonders but was looking forward to learning.

It was getting close to dinner, but I decided to celebrate my parole a little more before going home. I went to a gelato shop and began looking over their flavors when I heard someone cough behind me. When I turned around, I saw a familiar looking man standing there, though it took me several seconds before I could place him.

“I hope you’re staying out of trouble,” Officer Hanson said pleasantly. He was wearing civilian clothes instead of his uniform, which was why I hadn’t recognized him immediately.

“Define trouble,” I responded nervously, wondering if he was going to yell at me again.

Officer Hanson chuckled faintly, then said, “How about I buy you some gelato, then we sit and talk?”

For a moment, I just stared at him suspiciously, then I nodded agreement. I wasn’t one to turn down free food, even if I’d been about to buy it myself a minute ago.

Several minutes later, Officer Hanson and I each had a bowl of gelato and were sitting at a small table. I took a bite of my pistachio gelato, enjoying the cold and creamy goodness. Hanson was doing the same thing, though he’d chosen strawberry instead.

“I wanted to tell you,” Hanson finally said. “Saving that woman last Wednesday was pretty brave. I think you’re a good kid, and if I was in your position, I would have wanted to help her too.”

“That’s not the impression I got when you were lecturing me,” I pointed out wryly.

Hanson chuckled at that, seeming much more relaxed than the previous times I’d met him. Now that he was out of uniform and not yelling at me, he seemed almost likeable. Of course, the fact that he bought me gelato probably had something to do with that.

“The truth is,” he told me with a faint smile, “If you’d only saved that woman, I would have said you did a great job. The problem is, you also fought those troublemakers. I know you probably think you didn’t have a choice, but you aren’t a police officer and you aren’t trained in how to handle those kinds of situations. There are a number of issues you probably didn’t consider, such as the fact that you could have accidentally killed them. What if they took hostages or threatened other people? Your actions could have escalated the situation in very bad ways, and that isn’t even going into the legal issues…”

I hung my head, staring at my gelato and not wanting to listen to yet another lecture, especially when he’d already given me one. If I’d known that I was going to get chewed out again, I probably would have just stayed home and finished my homework.

“That said,” Hanson continued, “their victim might very well have died if you hadn’t intervened. Like I said, you’re a good kid and you mean well. You just need to be aware that there are dangers and consequences for doing that kind of thing.”

I nodded at that and we ate in silence for another minute before Hanson said, “You seem to have a pretty powerful set of tricks. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone with so many…”

“It’s only one trick,” I explained. “It’s just really versatile.”

“I’m not Twisted,” he told me pleasantly, “but my wife is. She has a fashion sense that’s a little…odd.” He chuckled faintly, then explained, “She likes to dress like a clown.”

“A clown?” I asked in surprise.

Hanson nodded. “Apparently, she went through her twist while watching a circus. Now, she has a minor compulsion to dress like a clown.”

“I have one to wear my costume,” I admitted self-consciously.

“I suspected,” he responded, gesturing to the bracers which were clearly visible on my arms. “My wife…Melinda satisfies her compulsion by working part time as a party clown.”

After this, Hanson and I talked for another thirty minutes, well after we’d both finished with our gelato. He didn’t lecture me anymore, or even say anything more about the previous two times we’d met. Instead, we talked about a couple random topics and I found out that he used to be involved in some American Civil War reenactments, which I found rather interesting. By the time we said goodbye and went our separate ways, I couldn’t help but deciding that I rather liked him.

--------------------

I was in a great mood as I walked through the school hallway with my backpack slung over my shoulder. Of course, the final bell had just run, signaling the end of school for the day. And since Grandma had ended my grounding yesterday, that meant I was actually free to go do something after school, though I still wasn’t quite sure what.

I found Lori and Christine standing right outside the school entrance, talking to each other excitedly. As I approached, I overheard enough of their conversation to realize that they were talking about their band.

“Saturday is going to be awesome,” Lori said with a broad grin. “I mean, this is our best paying gig yet…”

“Thank Liz for arranging it,” Christine told her. When she noticed me, she grinned and held out a doll that she’d been clutching. “Wanna hug Baby Betty?”

“Um…no thanks,” I responded. I looked at Lori, then said, “What’s this about a job?”

“A gig,” Christine corrected me. “We’re going to be the entertainment for a wedding.”

Lori gave me an apologetic look and said, “I won’t be able to come over after school like I’d planned. We’re going to be doing an extra practice session.” Then she grinned and asked, “Want to come watch?”

“Sure,” I agreed with a grin of my own. “Listening to you guys play is always fun, but it does make me wish I could play something more complicated than a kazoo.”

Christine and Lori both laughed at that, then began suggesting other instruments I could learn to play, such as an accordion or banjo. Somehow, I got the impression that they weren’t going to invite me to join their band anytime soon. Of course, Christine was well aware of the fact that I had the musical talents of a rock, which she used to tease me about whenever she showed off her skills on the drums.

Suddenly, there was a loud scream, followed by the demand of, “Let me go…”

I looked in the direction the scream had come from, as did nearly everyone else. I couldn’t see what was going on from where I was standing, but Christine started running towards the noise, leaving Lori and I to follow. A moment later, I saw the source. In the school parking lot, someone in a red hoodie had a knife out and was holding it to the throat of a girl.

“Holy shit,” Luke exclaimed, looking as though he was about to panic.

Jim was standing right beside Luke, pleading, “Please, let her go…”

That was enough to make me realize that the girl who was being held that way was Gloria. Jim looked as though he wanted to run in to rescue her, but didn’t want to risk her getting hurt because of it. Because of that, he stood back with an expression of anger and worry.

“Let me go,” Gloria begged, the terror clear in her eyes. The knife was held near her throat and she continued, “Please…”

“No,” the figure in the red hoodie responded in a familiar voice. “I need you… I need you to see my future…to help me plan.”

My eyes widened in horror as I recognized the voice of Gloria’s attacker. I grimaced and blurted out, “Keenan!”

Keenan looked up at me, letting me see his face. He his eyes looked cold and hard, not those of my old friend. The very sight of him like this was enough to send cold chills down my spine.

Gloria used this moment of distraction to grab the hand that held the knife and push it away from her, then to start running. However, she hadn’t gone more than a dozen feet before Keenan gestured at her and she suddenly stopped, dropped the ground and screamed in pain.

My first thought was that I had to go help her, and I even took several steps forward. However, I couldn’t help but remembering what Hanson had said, that interfering without knowing what I was doing could make the situation even worse. As he’d pointed out to me, I might be bulletproof, but other people weren’t. That caused me to hesitate, but Jim didn’t. He ran straight at Keenan, but didn’t get very far before he suddenly screamed in pain and dropped to his knees.

Keenan threw back the hood he was wearing, giving me a much better look at his face. He was staring at Jim with a look of sadistic glee. He was actually enjoying Jim’s pain. Then he turned his attention back to Gloria.

“I need your trick,” Keenan told her, grabbing her hair and yanking her to her feet. He had a twisted smile on his face as he did so. “I need you to tell me about the future…”

Keenan had dropped the knife when Gloria tried escaping, but he was going to pick it up again. Without any further hesitation, I ran forward, changing into my costume as I did so. If I could get him away from Gloria before he got that knife…

“Don’t get in my way,” Keenan said, glaring at me. Suddenly, I was sent flying back to where I smashed into the side of a school bus. It hadn’t hurt much, but it left me a bit stunned and off balance.

“Chloe,” Lori and Christine called out at the same time, rushing towards me.

“I’m fine,” I told them, getting back to my feet.

When I looked back at Keenan, he’d just shoved Gloria into a car and she yelled out, “Batter up…” Keenan hit her with another blast of his trick and she screamed but stopped fighting. I started flying for his car as fast as I could, but he got it started and raced out of the parking lot at high speed. I let out a burst of profanity, knowing there was no way I could catch up to him. I couldn’t fly that fast.

“Did anyone call the damn police?” I yelled out.

“Yeah, I called them as soon as that asshole grabbed her,” Luke said while several other students called out similar things. “Holy shit, that was freaky…”

“He’s got Gloria,” Jim exclaimed with a look of horror. “Keenan took her…”

“Fucking bastard,” I spat out furiously. Then I told Jim, “They’ll get her back…”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure of that, especially when I remembered what Keenan had done to all those animals in his garage. However, he said that he wanted her to use her trick for him, and she couldn’t do that if she was dead. I just hoped he had enough mental stability left to realize that.

The police arrived only a minute later. Two cop cars came into the parking lot with the sirens blaring, then they stopped and the cops started to come out. I was oddly relieved to see that Hanson was one of them.

“Why am I not surprised to see you, Chloe?” Hanson said with a grim look.

“it’s not my fault,” I protested.

“It never is,” he responded with a faint smile. “Now, what’s going on? We had a report of an assault…” He looked around, obviously not seeing anything.

“Keenan Barnes just kidnapped someone,” I blurted out in frustration.

That immediately got Hanson’s full attention, as well as that of the other police. I suspected that everyone in the local police department was on the lookout for Keenan, considering what he’d done and had the potential to do.

As soon as the police had a description of Gloria and the car Keenan had been driving, they called dispatch and then one of the cop cars took off to find them. Hanson and another cop, a short black woman with pure white eyes, remained behind to question the witnesses.

After I’d told Hanson everything that had happened, he shook his head and told me, “I’m starting to wonder if you have a trick that makes you a magnet for trouble.”

“Me too,” I responded with a sigh.

“Don’t let him hurt her,” Jim pleaded to the cops. “I never thought Keenan would do something like this…even after his twist.”

“Keenan used to be our friend,” I told Hanson, worried not only about Gloria but also Keenan. He might have turned psycho, but he used to be my friend. No matter what else happened, I didn’t see this ending well for Keenan.

“I’m sorry,” Christine said, taking my hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.

Lori didn’t say anything, but she gave me a sympathetic look and took my other hand. I gave her a faint smile, thankful that they were both here.

Just then, a voice exclaimed, “Fucking idiot can’t even control himself.”

I looked to the speaker and saw that it was Simone, who was standing there with a look of absolute contempt on her face. Though I didn’t know Simone very well, I did know that her twist had made her a bit of a bitch.

Hanson glanced to Simone, then looked to me and Jim. “Since you used to be his friends, do you have any idea where he might have gone?”

“No,” Jim responded with a shake of his head. “I’d tell you if I did.”

I nodded agreement, having already talked to the police about that as well. And unlike Jim, I’d been out of town for over a year and had only been back for a little over a month.

Then Jim suddenly gasped and asked me, “What about that old shack we used to play in?”

“What shack?” Hanson asked sharply.

I stared at Jim, realizing that he was right. I’d almost forgotten all about that old shack and hadn’t even considered it. But it would be a good place for Keenan to hide out.

“When we were kids, we found an old abandoned shack outside of town,” I explained. “It was old, overgrown, and part of the roof was gone, but it used to be a great place to play…”

Hanson nodded at that, and the woman who was with him demanded, “Where is this shack?”

“I don’t know the name of the road,” I answered awkwardly. The shack had been off an old dirt road that had barely been used since before Spiral had received that name. “I can show you where it is though…”

“Sorry Chloe,” Hanson told me. “But I’m not putting you in danger…”

“Grandma would ground you for a year,” Christine pointed out.

I gestured down at myself and the super hero costume I currently had on. Then I gave him a wry smile and said, “Bulletproof, remember.”

Hanson stared at me for a moment before letting out a sigh. “I can’t believe I’m doing this, but come on. Show us where this shack is.”

Lori gave me a worried look, then gave me a quick hug, saying, “Be careful.” She followed that up by giving me a quick kiss.

The female officer, Officer Hayes gave Hanson a skeptical look but didn’t contradict him. A minute later, I was sitting in the back of the cop car and giving directions to the police. I just hoped I could remember exactly where that shack was because I hadn’t been there since I was thirteen.

While we drove, I warned Hanson and Hayes, “Keenan has some kind of trick…”

“We know,” Hanson responded grimly. “His mother told us he has telekinesis, and several people indicated he has some sort of ability to make people feel pain. I don’t know if that’s just a different use of his telekinesis or a separate trick entirely, but your friend is dangerous.”

“Former friend,” I corrected him.

“I might have a trick or two up my own sleeve,” Hayes said with a faint smile.

I directed Hanson and Hayes to the dirt road, and then to the overgrown turn-of that couldn’t quite be called a driveway. There were tire tracks where there shouldn’t have been, which was a clear indication that we were in the right place. This was where Keenan had been hiding out, and since he’d left the school more than half an hour before us, he’d already had plenty of time to return.

When we arrived at the old abandoned shack, I saw that it was in even worse shape than I remembered. Half the roof was missing along with parts of the outside wall. One look at the place would have convinced me that there was no way anyone would have stayed in this place when it could fall down right on top of them, if it wasn’t for the fact that the car Keenan had been driving was parked right in front.

“This is car fifty-four,” Hayes told the dispatcher over the radio. “We’ve found Keenan Barnes and might need backup.”

While she described where we were, Hanson got out of the car and told me, “You stay here. Bulletproof or not, I don’t want you in any more danger than necessary.”

Gloria’s voice screamed from inside the shack and both cops drew their weapons and started for it. “Let me go,” Gloria yelled, then began yelling something in Spanish that I couldn’t understand but suspected was a lot of profanity.

Hanson and Hayes slowly moved towards the shack, being careful though I hoped they were fast enough to help Gloria before Keenan hurt her. But then, Keenan walked through the shack and became clearly visible through one of the large holes in the wall. However, at that moment he suddenly noticed the police as well.

“Put your hands above your head and get down on your knees,” Hayes ordered, pointing her gun straight at Keenan.

Keenan gave her a cold look that seemed more annoyed than afraid. Then she suddenly flew backwards, slamming hard against the front of the cop car. An instant after that, Hanson screamed in pain and dropped to his knees. My former friend climbed out of the shack through the open hole and approached Hanson, smiling evilly. I did not like the look on his face and suspected that I’d like what he had planned for the police even less.

In spite of the fact that Hanson had told me to stay in the car, I knew I had to do something to help. I tried getting out, only to find that the door wouldn’t open from the inside. I grimaced at that, reminding myself that I was in the back of a cop car so that shouldn’t have been a surprise.

“I hope I don’t get in too much trouble for this,” I muttered as I used my enhanced strength to kick the door open.

As soon as I got out of the car, I saw that Hayes was trying to get back to her feet, but she’d dropped her gun and her arm was hanging limp. Hanson was still on the ground, his own gun on the ground in front of him.

“Keenan,” I yelled, trying to get his attention away from the cops. Unlike them, I had my shield to protect me.

“You told them where I was,” Keenan said, staring at me with a cold expression. Then he smiled, though it was obviously forced and never touched his eyes. “We’re friends… You should be helping me…”

“Do you even remember what friends really are?” I asked him grimly.

Keenan’s smile faded and he simply stated, “It doesn’t have to be this way. All you have to do is mind your own business and walk away.”

“You kidnapped Gloria,” I pointed out angrily. “With a knife at her throat.”

“She has something I need,” Keenan responded. “She can tell me the future…warn me of any troubles. She can help me avoid the police and get away…”

“Her trick doesn’t work that way,” I snarled at him. “She can’t control it.”

Keenan just continued to stare at me with his cold expression and said, “She just needs the right motivation.” He smiled faintly, though it was a nasty smile that promised pain and fear.

I grimaced, then spat out, “You’re sick, Keenan… You need some serious help…”

With that, Keenan gestured at me and I suddenly flew backwards until I slammed into a tree. It was just like what he’d done back at the school when he’d thrown me into a school bus, but this time I was a little more prepared and hadn’t been shocked by it.

“This is your last chance to leave,” Keenan told me. “I’m only giving it to you because we used to be friends.”

I didn’t say anything to that since there was no way I was going to just fly away and leave Gloria with him. I didn’t know her all that well yet, but I still considered her to be one of my friends. I took a deep breath, levitated into the air, then flew at Keenan. He tried shoving me back again, but this time I was prepared for him and used my own trick to lock myself in place. He was pushing against me hard enough that I couldn’t go forward, but I wasn’t going back either. Instead, I was just hovering in the air.

Keenan snarled, looking frustrated at the fact that he couldn’t throw me back any further. Then a rock suddenly rose up from the ground and flew at me, bouncing off my shield. Keenan used his trick to throw other objects at me, rocks, branches, and even Hanson’s gun. They all hit my shield and bounced off without harming me, much to Keenan’s obvious frustration.

Suddenly, a surge of raw pain shot through my entire body, causing me to scream out in agony. I lost control of my flight and fell several feet to the ground. It felt as though every bit of pain I’d ever felt in my entire life had all hit me at once, as if every pain receptor in my body had fired off at the same time. All I could do was cry out, wishing it would stop. I was only barely aware of the fact that Keenan was standing over me with a cruel grin on his face.

“You should have left when I said you could,” Keenan told me with a smirk.

But in spite of the fact that my entire body was hurting and Keenan was standing over me gloating, I couldn’t help but smiling faintly, much to his obvious confusion. After all, I knew something that he didn’t. While Keenan had been focused on me, he’d forgotten all about Hanson and Hayes, giving both of them a chance to recover.

Hanson suddenly moved, grabbing a branch from the ground and jumping up to swing it at Keenan’s stomach while yelling, “Batters up.”

Keenan doubled over with a loud grunt and all the pain instantly vanished from my body. I was still feeling a bit shaken from it, but I wasn’t hurting anymore and was able to pay a little more attention to what was going on. Hanson dropped the branch and tackled Keenan, driving him face first into the ground. Then before Keenan had a chance to recover, Hanson grabbed his wrists and cuffed them behind his back.

“I’m gonna kill you for this,” Keenan yelled, though the fact that Hanson didn’t suddenly go flying back or start screaming in pain was a good indication that Keenan couldn’t do anything without seeing his target. And since his face was in the dirt, that meant that Hanson was momentarily safe.

“Amanda,” Hanson called over to Hayes, who was holding an obviously broken and possibly dislocated arm.

Hayes nodded and quickly came over and dropped to her knees beside Keenan. Then to my surprise, she began singing, “Lullaby and good night…”

Keenan stopped struggled and visibly relaxed until he stopped moving entirely. Then he began to snore, making me realize that I was on the verge of nodding off as well. I shook my head and cleared it, then slowly got back to my feet.

“That’s some trick,” I started, though Hayes held a finger to her lips to indicate I should stay quiet. Obviously, she didn’t want me to wake him back up again.

“I went through my twist when I was thirteen years old and stuck babysitting my baby brother,” Hayes told me quietly while Hanson went back to the car in order to call dispatch. “Needless to say, it came in very handy with my own son.”

While Hayes was holding her broken arm and keeping an eye on the still sleeping Keenan, I went into the shack to get Gloria. I found her on the floor with her hands and feet tied up with duct tape. She had a gag in her mouth, which explains why she’d been silent since screaming in Spanish.

“It’s okay,” I told Gloria, who’s eyes were filled with terror. As I began untying her, I said, “The cops are here and they have Keenan…”

“Thank you,” Gloria exclaimed once she was released. She gave me a hug and repeated, “Thank you… I was so scared…”

I hugged her back, feeling a little awkward about this since I didn’t know her very well, but she needed some sort of comforting after what she’d just been through so I did what I could. I was just glad that she’d made it through this unharmed.

When Gloria and I left the shack, I saw that Keenan now had a black bag over his head. It didn’t have any eyeholes so he wouldn’t be able to see anyone in order to target them. I was a little surprised that the cops even had something like that, but then again, this was Spiral and they probably had a lot of training for dealing with dangerous tricks.

A short time later, more police arrived, along with an ambulance. While Keenan was being hauled away, the EMT checked Gloria out. She had a few bruises from her ordeal as well as a cut on her arm where Keenan had tried making a point, but she was otherwise unharmed.

Once everything was settled, Hanson came over and stared at me for a moment. “You did a good job at keeping him distracted,” he finally said, smiling faintly. “All of us might have been killed if you hadn’t done that.”

“Um…thanks,” I responded, sure that there was a ‘but coming.

“But you can’t seem to help but jump into every dangerous situation you run into,” he pointed out wryly. “Now, what are we going to do with you?”

--------------------

Friday morning, I woke up with blood on my sheets. This probably would have shocked and horrified me if it wasn’t for the fact that I’d been expecting it. As it was, I felt more resignation than anything else.

Ever since I’d gone through my twist a couple weeks ago, I’d known this was coming. I’d turned into a girl and the doctor at the Spiral Clinic had confirmed that this was more than just skin deep. I knew that sooner or later, I would have to deal with a period, just like every other girl. And then yesterday, I’d begun to feel the cramps, a sure sign of what was coming.

Fortunately, Mom and Grandma had both told me what to expect and how to deal with it, so with a sigh of resignation and a few muttered profanities, I went about taking my morning shower, cleaned myself a little more carefully downstairs, and then when I was done, I put in a tampon. The idea of using one of those was a little more disturbing than the actual act since the tampon was actually smaller and easier to fit inside of myself than the dildo I’d been using.

I didn’t say anything to Grandma about my period before I went to school, but I was pretty sure I didn’t need to. She just gave me a sympathetic look and a gentle smile, then told me to have a good day.

At school, I did my best to just go through my normal routine and pretend that having a period was perfectly normal. After all, I was a girl now, so for the rest of my life it would be. And since all the girls I shared the bathroom with had already been dealing with theirs for several years, I wasn’t about to come off as some kind of wimp by making a big deal about it.

When lunch came, I sat down at what had recently become my usual table while Lori and Christine joined me. Christine stared at me for a moment before asking, “Okay, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I responded with a weak smile.

“Liar liar pants on fire,” Christine said. “You look like someone peed in your Cheerios.”

“Is it your friend Keenan?” Lori asked me with a concerned look.

It had only been a couple days since the fight with Keenan and I was still a little shaken over it, or at least by what he’d done. Whenever I remembered those cold eyes and sadistic smile, it completely clashed with the friendly and easygoing boy I used to know.

“They said he’s probably going to be locked up for the rest of his life to keep him from hurting anyone,” I said with a sigh. “I mean, the police told me that he’s going to be getting psychiatric help, but I don’t think it will do a lot of good.”

“Probably not,” Christine agreed sadly. “I mean, they can’t do much about his twist...”

“Maybe they can help him learn to control his urges,” Lori said hopefully.

“Maybe,” I told her with a sigh, but without much hope. “If he wanted to control them. If it was just some compulsions, he might be able to fight them, but his whole personality got twisted…”

“I’m just glad they were able to keep outside reporters from finding out about this,” Lori said thoughtfully. “Just think of what those anti-Twisted people would do with the story…”

Christine and I both nodded along in complete understanding. There were a lot of people who were afraid of the Twisted, or who thought that we were all potential time bombs who could go off at any time. Those people would happily use Keenan as an example to try proving their point and make things more difficult for the Twisted.

Just then, Jim and Gloria arrived at the table with Luke following a short distance away. We stopped talking about Keenan, knowing that the subject would only make Gloria uncomfortable. She’d only come back to school this morning and she was obviously still shaken up about being kidnapped. No one could miss the fact that she was a little jumpy, not that I blamed her in the least. Jim was staying close to her, acting all protective, which seemed to comfort her a little.

“Hey,” I said, deciding to change the subject to something a little more upbeat. “Did I tell you guys about Triumph Comics?”

“You mean those assholes who are suing you?” Jim asked.

“Let me guess,” Christine said bitterly. “They found out you played hero again and now they’re suing you for even more…”

I just smiled faintly at that and said, “Actually, it’s kind of the opposite…”

Lori gave me a curious look, as did the others. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” I said, drawing out the word and smiling as I did so. “They did hear about it somehow…and last night their lawyer showed up…”

“Damn lawyers,” Jim muttered bitterly while Luke nodded agreement.

Gloria frowned, then quietly said, “My aunt is a lawyer and she’s really nice.”

Jim gulped, obviously worried that he’d accidentally offended Gloria. “Sorry,” he told her quickly. “I mean, most lawyers…not your aunt.”

I chuckled at the look on Jim’s face, then continued, “Actually, I think they realized that they couldn’t win…and they’d look pretty bad if they sued me for trying to help people.”

“Yeah, that would be bad for public relations,” Christine agreed with a chuckle. “Imagine the headlines…comic book company sues super hero.”

“I’m not a super hero,” I reminded her with a sigh.

Lori laughed at that and pointed out, “I think your costume says otherwise.”

“Anyway,” I continued again, “Triumph Comics said they’d drop all legal action, under a couple conditions.”

“They want your soul?” Jim asked.

“Your first born?” Luke added.

“Actually, it was all pretty reasonable,” I said. “I can’t call myself Lady Starlight or anything similar while in public. I can’t go to work for any of their competitors, or any other company where they use my image while in costume. And, I’m not supposed to do anything that might tarnish the reputation of Lady Starlight or their company.”

“That does sound pretty reasonable,” Lori agreed.

“And there’s one more thing,” I added with a grin. I held off for a couple seconds to give a dramatic pause before saying, “They offered me a job.”

Christine blinked at that, “A job?”

“They just want me to do some public appearances for them at comic book conventions and the like,” I said. “And maybe have me model for a couple advertisements.”

“Smart,” Christine mused. “They want to take a potential public relations liability and turn it into an asset.”

I stared at Christine for a moment and then shook my head. It was a little strange hearing that kind of talk come from some little girl in a frilly dress who looked like she should be talking about tea parties instead, especially when she had a stuffed rabbit sitting on the table beside her. But then again, Christine had never been quite what you’d expect, especially since her twist.

“Are you going to do it?” Lori asked curiously.

“Working for a comic book company would be awesome,” Luke exclaimed with a grin.

“Yeah,” I responded, “but the comic book geeks at school would be all over me…even more than they already are.” Then I paused before adding, “But yeah, I’m seriously thinking of accepting. I mean, I keep destroying my clothes when I change into my costume and Grandma said she isn’t going to keep replacing them. I’m gonna have to get a job anyway just so I can afford clothes.”

“And makeup,” Gloria added thoughtfully.

“And jewelry,” Lori contributed with a smile.

Jim nodded and said, “And you’ll probably want to buy your own car soon.”

“And teddy bears,” Christine exclaimed excitedly, holding up her stuffed animal. I wasn’t quite sure if she was serious or joking.

Once we were all done eating and were getting ready to leave, Gloria looked at Luke and said, “Look under the sofa,” before she picked up her tray and walked off. Jim and Luke shared a look with each other and then both shrugged before following her.

“So, anything else new going on?” Lori asked me curiously.

“Oh, I just started my period,” I commented, trying to keep my tone calm and casual as though I was talking about the weather. That got a fun reaction from both her and Christine.

“I still don’t know if I’m lucky or not that I don’t have those anymore,” Christine muttered with a shake of her head.

When school was over for the day, I talked to my friends for a few minutes and then went home. I’d wanted to hang out with Lori, but she had to work at the pool for a couple hours and Christine said something about having an appointment with a tea party. Again, I wasn’t sure if she was serious or joking.

Since I had no plans on leaving the house after school, as soon as I got home I changed into my costume. I’d begun doing this every afternoon once I’d decided I was home for the night. It felt great to relax and get comfortable like that, or at least as comfortable as I could get when I felt bloated and cramped.

After I’d changed, Grandma gave me an odd look then brought me a chocolate brownie, and to my surprise, a glass of wine. She saw my reaction and said, “I think you’re old enough to have a small glass here at home.” I stared back at her for a moment and was certain she knew I was having my first period.

I sat down on the couch, took a bite of the brownie and a small sip of the wine, then I went to work doing my homework on my computer tablet. At the moment, I definitely felt off and wasn’t in the mood to focus on this stuff, but I wanted to distract myself from what my body was doing and this seemed a pretty practical way of doing so. It was at times like this that I almost wished I could be happy with some mindless video game entertainment like Aaron.

A short time later, the doorbell rang and Grandma said, “I’ll get it…”

After Grandma opened the door, I was a little surprised to see Officer Hanson standing there. “I’d like to speak with you and Chloe,” he told Grandma before glancing at me.

“Of course,” Grandma said politely, though she looked a little suspicious as she let him inside. “Would you like to have a seat?”

Hanson sat down in a chair while Grandma sat down on the couch beside me. Both of us looked at Hanson curiously, wondering what he wanted to talk about. I just hoped that it wasn’t another lecture about staying out of police business and not trying to be a super hero.

“Chloe,” Hanson said, giving me a gentle smile. “I wanted to thank you personally for helping us on Tuesday. Without your assistance, we probably wouldn’t have been able to find Keenan Barnes in time to help your friend. And admittedly, without your help, my partner and I might very well have been killed.”

“It was also very dangerous,” Grandma said, giving me a disapproving look.

After what had happened Tuesday, I was surprised that Grandma hadn’t grounded me again for getting into such a dangerous situation. However, she was quite proud of me for saving Gloria and helping the police, so she’d gone easy on me this time.

“Chloe is becoming quite the young hero,” Hanson agreed, giving me an odd look. “But you seem to have a knack for finding trouble, and as your grandmother pointed out, it can be very dangerous. You’ve saved several lives recently, but you’ve also been extremely lucky. As I’ve told you before, going into that kind of situation without any training can result in you making things even worse. You could get killed, and so could innocent people.”

“I know,” I said with a sigh. He’d given me this lecture enough times now that I could almost recite it from memory. “And super heroes and vigilantes are not welcome in Spiral.”

Hanson chuckled at that and said, “I’m glad you agree.”

“I’m sure she’ll stay out of trouble from now on,” Grandma told him.

“I doubt that,” Hanson responded with an amused look. “Like I said, she seems to have a knack of ending up in these situations.”

“It’s not my fault,” I protested awkwardly.

“Maybe not,” Hanson agreed pleasantly. “But it happens nonetheless. And since we can’t have some untrained civilian making things worse, my captain and I came up with a solution. We’d like you to come work for us.”

“What?” Grandma and I both blurted out at the same time. Then Grandma gave him a look of disbelief and asked, “You want Chloe to join the police?”

“We’d like her to become a junior deputy in training,” Hanson said, giving me a speculative look. “Mostly, it would be a few hours a week doing ride-alongs and training. If you’re working with us and being trained, you could be an asset instead of a hindrance. And if you’re interested in a career in law enforcement, this would be a great opportunity.”

Grandma and I both just sat there for a moment in silence as we absorbed then, then Grandma chuckled. “That’s two job offers in two days.”

We spent more than an hour talking about what this job as a junior deputy in training would involve, and it sounded like it would be interesting. I wouldn’t actually be a cop, but I would get to ride around with them, see how they did things, and even get some of the training. For the most part though, they just wanted to keep an eye on me and keep me out of trouble, which seemed to please Grandma. Grandma and I told Hanson that we’d need to talk this over between ourselves before we could give him an answer, but before he even left, I already knew that I was going to say yes.

--------------------

Loud music filled my back yard and half the neighborhood. The band was set up in the back corner, in the same place they’d played during Aaron’s birthday party a couple months ago. Christine was wailing on the drums while Lori sang, her voice sounding beautiful and melodic. Their friends and bandmates Ricky and Liz played guitar and bass guitar, looking like they were having a blast. This was definitely the most energetic and awesome version of the happy birthday song that I’d ever heard.

Today was my seventeenth birthday and Grandma was holding a big party to celebrate. I was actually surprised by how big it was since I’d been expecting something a little smaller with only my immediate family and closest friends. However, Lori and Christine had insisted that their band play for me and that resulted in a few more people wanting to come.

Once the band stopped playing, people started calling out, “Happy birthday,” while Grandma held out the cake so I could blow out the candles.

“Happy birthday,” Mom exclaimed, giving me a hug and then practically shoving a present into my hands.

I gave Mom a slightly suspicious look and then glanced around at the gathered people, remembering the present she’d given me last year and wondering if it was safe to open this one in front of everyone. However, Grandma smiled in amusement and gave me a nod that it was okay to do so. I tore open the wrapper with glee, finding a shoe box beneath. I hesitated again, thinking about the last time she’d given me a shoe box. But Grandma had indicated it was safe so I opened this box and found several smaller boxes inside. Jewelry boxes.

When I opened the first box, I gasped at the sight of a beautiful necklace that sparkled with some diamonds. I opened the other boxes and found a bracelet, some dangling earrings, and a ring. All I could do was stare at the jewelry for a moment, knowing that this was quite expensive. Mom did NOT go for cheap jewelry.

“Thank you,” I told Mom, deciding not to mention that the only jewelry I usually wore was the pair of diamond earrings she’d bought for me right after my twist. Whenever I changed into my costume, my trick tended to destroy anything I was wearing, unless it was like the studs that were somehow caught inside my energy field. “They’re beautiful.”

Mom looked pleased at that, then admitted, “I was planning on giving you something else for your birthday, but I was told it wasn’t appropriate.” She glared at Grandma.

“Thanks Grandma,” I said, earning chuckles from everyone who knew my Mom.

“But you would have liked him…I mean it,” Mom said, looking disappointed, which only made me more thankful that Grandma had intervened. Then she told me, “You’ve been a woman for a couple months now but you still dress like a tomboy. I thought these might encourage you to dress up a little more.”

“Do tomboys wear stiletto heels?” I asked innocently, gesturing down to my feet. Of course, I was in my costume so I wasn’t sure the built in heels really counted. Then again, I’d gotten used to heels and tended to wear them fairly often, even when I wasn’t in costume.

“Mine next,” Aaron insisted.

When I opened Aaron’s present, I found a T-shirt with a picture of Lady Starlight on the front, and a comic book that was sealed up in some kind of plastic protection. I looked at the cover and saw that it was the first issue of Lady Starlight.

“I thought you’d like it,” Aaron exclaimed excitedly. “it’s a great comic and has her origin and everything…”

“Thanks,” I told him, giving him a quick hug, much to his embarrassment.

Aaron grinned at me with a look of pride, making me chuckle slightly when I considered how much he liked to annoy me. Ever since my twist, Aaron had alternated between looking at me like his personal hero, and going out of his way to annoy me, which he seemed to think of as his obligation towards his big sister.

Gloria was standing next to Jim and holding his hand. The two of them had been begun dating shortly after the incident with Keenan, and they’d been inseparable since. In fact, Jim was so infatuated by her that he hadn’t even been looking at any porn where she might possibly hear about it.

Luke stood on the other side of Jim, looking as though he felt left out now that Jim was focusing so much attention on Gloria. I could sympathize with Luke since that was how I felt when I’d moved back to Spiral and found that Jim was more interested in hanging out with Luke than me.

Gloria turned to Aaron, and in the same tone of voice that she usually used when giving her prophetic statements, she said, “That’s an interesting twist.” Aaron’s eyes went wide at that but Gloria turned back to Jim and began talking to him as though unaware that she’d said anything to my brother.

I opened several more presents, then I got to one from John Hanson. Hanson...John was my mentor with the police department and over the last couple months, I’d spent a lot of time with him, sometimes just driving around on patrol in his car and sometimes doing more interesting things. He was the one who took me to the firing range and taught me to shoot a gun.

I smiled as I thought about my part time job with the police and how much better that was than working at some burger joint. I was usually only there for training a few hours a week, usually on the weekend, but it was always interesting. Most of the time I was just a trainee and observer, not allowed to do anything but watch, but occasionally they actually let me help out. Not only was I hard to hurt, but the sight of a ‘super hero’ was sometimes enough to make people more cooperative.

John was standing just a short distance away, currently dressed in his civilian clothes since it was his day off. He watched me expectantly, obviously waiting to see my reaction to whatever he gave me. When I opened the present, I found an old metal drinking flask that had a few small dents and scratches in it.

“This belonged to a Confederate captain during the Civil War,” John told me proudly.

I stared at the antique in amazement, knowing that for John, this was quite a gift. Whenever we were on patrol, we’d often talk about famous people and historical events. He was something of a Civil War buff and was pretty knowledgeable about it. In fact, I’d learned a lot about that war from him, enough that I’d stumped my teacher in history class once or twice.

“Thank you,” I said, getting a smile and a nod in response.

I continued opening the birthday presents, finding a couple cards with cash or gift cards as well as a few more interesting items. Christine gave me a Lady Starlight edition Barbie doll, which of course came with the doll dressed up like Lady Starlight.

“Now you can come over and play dolls with me and my friends,” Christine joked.

I grinned and looked around, happy to have so many of my friends and family together in one place. Of course, there were two conspicuous absences. Bridgett hadn’t shown up, which wasn’t really surprising since she rarely showed up to these things. However, she had sent me a present so I knew she hadn’t forgotten about me. And of course, there was Keenan.

Keenan was now locked up in an institution that had been established to deal with some of the more unstable and dangerous Twisted, and he would probably remain there for the rest of his life. I’d gone to visit him once but would never do so again. The guy I saw there wasn’t the Keenan I knew, and this wasn’t the way I wanted to remember my old friend.

Just then, Aaron came running up, making me groan when I saw what he was holding in his hands. “You’ve got to show this to everyone,” he exclaimed excitedly, holding out a staff.

“What’s that?” Gloria asked.

“The starlight staff,” I answered with a wry smile.

I held up the staff, which was six feet tall and made of a hard white plastic that looked somewhat metallic. At the head, there was a black gem with white sparkles in it. The whole thing looked like a match for the wrist bracers that came with my costume.

“It’s a prop that the guys at Triumph Comics made me,” I explained to him and the other people who were curious. I flipped the hidden switch and the strobe light hidden in the gem activated, making it look as though I was activating Lady Starlight’s starlight dazzle power. “They like me to use this when I make appearances for them.”

Over the last couple months, I’d been to four different public appearances for Triumph Comics, three of which had been at comic book conventions. I didn’t have to do much but show up, act like Lady Starlight and put on a bit of a show for the crowd. The fans really ate it up, especially when I used my abilities to levitate in the air or lift something heavy.

“You should enter the costume contests,” Christine told me with a grin. “You’d be guaranteed to win.”

“That’s the problem,” I told her with a chuckle. “I won the costume contest at that first convention I went to, but the other people complained that it wasn’t fair. After that, the other conventions put a rule in place that banned twist based costumes.”

“Twist based costumes?” Jim asked me. “That sounds kind of discriminatory.”

I chuckled at that, then explained, “I can still enter the costume contests, but I’d have to go as a different character and I couldn’t use my own costume.” I shrugged. “I’m not really into it enough to bother making some other costume. Hell, I don’t even know who most of the characters there are.” Of course, I didn’t mention the fact that after working for a comic book company and hanging out at the conventions, I was getting a crash course on a lot of those fictional characters.

After this, I spent the next fifteen minutes answering questions about what I did for Triumph Comics. As a job went, it wasn’t as exciting as working with the police could be, but it paid better and was a lot of fun. The only real downside was that I sometimes got overwhelmed by comic book geeks who could get a little obsessive at times.

Finally, I looked around and realized that I didn’t see Lori anywhere. In fact, the last time I’d seen her, she’d been on stage singing happy birthday.

“Do you know where Lori is?” I asked Christine.

“No idea,” my cousin answered, though she had a smirk that made me suspect she was lying.

Mom chose that moment to come over and say, “Chloe dear, I was wondering if you’d do me a favor…”

“What do you need?” I asked her, knowing better than to agree to something with her until I knew what she intended.

“I left a bottle of wine in our room,” she answered with an amused look. “Could you please go get it for me?”

“Sure,” I responded, relieved that it hadn’t been something awkward.

With that, I handed the staff back to Aaron then went back into the house and towards my bedroom. Since Mom was in town for a week or so, she was staying there with me just like she did every time she visited. It was strange sharing a room with her, especially since she’d decided that the rule about walking around naked in front of me no longer applied. However, I had to admit that it had helped us get a little closer.

I went into my room musing, “Now where did she leave that…?”

Then I froze, suddenly realizing that Lori was sitting on my bed…and that she was wearing nothing except some lacy black lingerie. I had a flash of deja-vu as I remembered my Mom’s present on my last birthday.

“Happy birthday,” Lori said, smiling at me and looking just a little self-conscious at the same time.

“Wow,” I exclaimed, feeling a little surprised thought that didn’t stop me from staring at her and taking in every detail of her gorgeous body. She was definitely hot looking and my body was already starting to respond to the sight.

“Someone told me about your last birthday,” Lori said with a smirk before giving me a suggestive look and posing in a way that made my heart race and my crotch get wet. Then in a sexy purr, she added, “Now come over here and get your birthday present.”

For a moment, I just stared at Lori, definitely liking what I saw. Alyssa Ambrose had been totally hot, and a professional porn star to boot. and though she’d been absolutely incredible, neither of us really knew the other. However, I cared a great deal for Lori, just as I knew she cared about me. Somehow, that made this even more exciting for me.

A slow smile spread over my face as I reached out and locked my bedroom door. Then I started towards my girlfriend, musing, “This is even better than last year.”

The End