Dan is a school bully who frequently picks on those who are smaller and weaker than him, but that all changes when he undergoes his twist and discovers the existence of karma. This story takes place in my Twisted Universe.

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It was Friday afternoon and school had just ended for the week. This should have put me in a good mood, but my mood was anything but good at the moment. I’d gotten a B- in history class, which wasn’t quite the grade I’d been aiming for. Unfortunately, it was too late to do anything about that now as they’d already e-mailed my grades home.

I snarled as I walked down the halls, glaring at several students who got in my way and smirking as they quickly jumped aside. The crowded hallway split before me, which wasn’t much of a surprise since I was a pretty intimidating guy. I was 6 foot 3 and built like a linebacker, which I actually had been until I’d gotten kicked off the school football team for fighting too much.

“Out of my way,” I snapped at one boy who hadn’t moved fast enough. I gave him a casual shove and knocked him aside, not even bothering to stop and watch him scramble for the papers he’d dropped. “Watch it loser.”

I stepped outside the main doors to the school but I still didn’t feel any better. In fact, I was only growing angrier, though I didn’t quite know why. But that was no surprise since I was usually in a bad mood.

Then I saw him, Gary Pritchart, a total wimp who somehow rubbed me the wrong way for some reason. He was six inches shorter than me and fairly thin, though I knew he got a lot of exercise from being on the school swim team so he wasn’t completely without muscles. Still, swimming was a girlie sport…something only real wimps would actually compete in.

“Hey Bitchart,” I exclaimed, using my little nickname for him.

Gary looked at me with his eyes widening slightly. “Dan,” he said with a gulp, obviously afraid of me. I grinned at that while his eyes darted around for a way to get away.

“What’s this?” I asked, gesturing the pad of paper in Gary’s hands. He was holding a pencil in his other and seemed to be doodling.

I snatched the pad out of his hand while he protested, “Give that back…”

One look was enough to show me that Gary had been drawing a picture of one of the other students, and it was good enough that I was able to immediately recognize who he’d been drawing a picture of. “It’s bitch art,” I teased, pleased by my take on his nickname. I flipped the pages, seeing pictures of other students. Then exclaimed, “This is total crap…” I tossed the drawing pad to the side, then glared down at a defiant Gary. “Didn’t you know that drawing is for little kids and girls…?”

“Why don’t you leave me alone?” Gary demanded. “I’ve never done anything to you…you jerk.”

If Gary had just backed down, I would have been able to continue going on my way, but since he’d challenged me in front of all these other kids… I just snarled at him, pushing him backwards and watching him fall on his ass.

“You offend me,” I spat at him. “Real men don’t waste their time with that art crap. Why don’t you grow a pair and man up.” I gave him a fairly mild kick and then turned to walk away.

A lot of students had gathered to watch the show, and most of them were staring at me with looks of fear or even anger. However, none of them had come to Gary’s defense so I thought they were just hypocrites. If they really wanted me to stop messing with him, they would have done something to interfere.

Then one skinny black girl ran to Gary’s side to see if he was okay. I knew that she was a friend of his, though I didn’t know her name or care. What I did know was that she was Twisted with some sort of trick that let her sense other people’s emotions. Her being Twisted wasn’t a big deal though since this was Spiral and about half the kids in school were Twisted and her ability wasn’t something I was worried about.

“That boy is just full of anger and resentment,” the girl said, glaring at me while helping Gary to his feet.

I just continued walking away as though I hadn’t heard her comments about me. The other people who’d been watching were beginning to mutter as well, though not to my face or where I could see who had spoken. Still, as I left, I heard the words jerk, asshole, and bully. I acted as though I hadn’t heard those either.

“A bunch of losers,” I muttered to myself as I began walking the two blocks to my home.

I could still see all those faces staring at me with fear and contempt in their eyes. My dad always said that having people be afraid of you was a good thing. It showed that they respected you. And as dad always said, a real man demands respect.

“Bitchart should thank me for helping set him straight,” I told myself grimly. “I mean, I’m giving him lessons in how to be a man for free…”

When I finally reached the small house where I lived with my dad, I was still in a bad mood. I wanted to hit someone…hard. I’d held back against that wimp Gary so I still had a lot of anger to burn off.

I was about to go inside when I heard someone call out, “Hello Dan…”

I looked to the driveway next door and saw my neighbor Mrs. Fritz pulling some bags out of the trunk of her car. She was an old woman who was always friendly, so I smiled and waved back. Then I quickly looked around to make sure my dad wasn’t watching. My dad didn’t like Mrs. Fritz…or much of anyone else.

“Do you need a hand with those groceries?” I called back, already starting towards her.

“Thank you,” Mrs. Friz responded, looking up at me with a pleasant smile.

“It’s no problem,” I told her as I picked up the remaining bags of groceries from the trunk of her car and began carrying them inside for her.

When I was done, Mrs. Fritz said, “Thank you again, Dan. You’re such a good boy.”

I winced faintly at that, and as I turned and started back for my own house, I muttered, “No I’m not.”

My dad was already home, which wasn’t too big of a surprise. He worked in construction, but he couldn’t do his job until other people had completed theirs first. That meant he often had odd hours, sometimes working only a couple hours a day and other times working a series of fourteen hour shifts in order to catch up.

My dad, Dan Jones Sr, was a large and imposing man who demanded respect from everyone around him. Respect and fear. At the moment, he was sitting in his recliner, sipping on a beer while watching TV. He had his computer tablet sitting next to him so I knew he’d probably already seen my report card.

“You’re late,” dad said, though I knew he didn’t really care about that.

“I had to teach some punk a lesson,” I responded with a smirk. “I had him crying like a baby when I was done.”

“Good,” dad responded, giving me a level look. “A real man makes sure people know to respect him. He makes sure they know not to fuck with him.”

I nodded at that since this was about as close as my dad would come to giving a compliment. Usually, he only showed disapproval, often in a very painful fashion. We didn’t exactly have a warm and friendly relationship. In fact, I hated his guts…and was afraid of him at the same time. That probably made the fact that I’d spent most of my life trying to earn his approval even stranger.

“I got your grades today,” dad said, gesturing to his computer tablet. “I see you got a B in history…”

“B minus,” I corrected him, then wished I hadn’t.

“What?” dad demanded, giving me an angry glare. “You turning into some kind of egghead? You think you’re smarter than me?”

“No, I just guessed good,” I quickly said. “I got lucky on that test…”

Dad nodded at that, taking a drink of beer and then glaring at me again. “Of course you did. You’re dumb as a box of rocks, and don’t you forget it. I don’t want you getting too big for your britches or I’ll have to teach you a lesson.”

“No sir,” I responded with a grimace.

I let out a sigh of relief when dad turned away from me and began focusing on the TV again. I was just thankful that he didn’t want to teach me another lesson. The last major lesson he’d taught me had been about two months ago. I’d gotten beaten up at school by some girl with a powerful trick. She hadn’t really hurt me much, other than a few bruises and the damage she’d done to my pride. However, when dad heard that I’d been beaten by a girl, he’d been furious and went at me with a baseball bat, breaking my arm and putting me in the hospital for a couple days.

“Don’t you ever let a girl beat you again,” dad had yelled at me while hitting me. “No son of mine is going to be pathetic enough to get beaten some damn girl.” Those words still echoed in my head, along with memory of how much it had hurt.

Since my dad had effectively dismissed me, I went back to my bedroom and turned on my stereo, keeping it low enough that it wouldn’t disturb my dad. At the same time, I wished that I’d taken a bit longer coming home or that I had somewhere else I could be instead.

There was a nice park down the street and it might have been nice to go there and hang out, but that was out of the question. Hanging out at parks was for little kids, not for men. The last time I’d actually been at that park had been when I was a kid, back before my mom left.

At one time, I had been on the school football team and would have stayed late for practice, though the truth was that I’d hated football. I’d only signed up because my dad made me, saying that football was a man’s sport. Baseball and basketball were acceptable but things like track and swimming were for pansies and girls. I’d been pretty good at football, but I’d hated the game and my dad wouldn’t let me just quit. So I got into fights with some of the other guys and was thrown off the team instead. As was usual with my dad, having me get kicked off for being too violent was much more acceptable than just quitting.

I briefly thought about going to see some friends, but the truth was that I didn’t have friends. There were a couple guys at school that I’d sometimes hang out with, but they weren’t friends. I’d never been to any of their houses nor had any of them ever come to mine.

I stayed in my room until dinner, then came out just long enough to eat my TV dinner with dad. According to dad, cooking was women’s work, which meant that we rarely had anything that wasn’t fast food or just prepackaged meals that just needed to be heated. And as with most nights, we ate in silence, with the occasional exception of dad commenting about someone who needed their ass kicked.

Once I was done eating, I went to the bathroom to relieve myself, then I paused to stare at my reflection in the mirror above the sink. I was seventeen years old with dark brown hair, thick and bushy eyebrows that came close to forming a unibrow, a wide jaw, and a nose that had obviously once been broken, courtesy of one of my dad’s lessons. All in all, I looked like a brutish thug, which I suppose was appropriate since I was a thug.

“Dan Jones Junior,” I said my name with a faint sneer.

I looked a lot like my dad and was even named after him. I hated and feared the man, yet I was just like him. As I stared into the mirror, I could see my future spread out before me as I continued to follow in my dad’s footsteps. After school, I’d get some kind of grunt job, then I’d spent the rest of my life slowly getting more bitter and angry. Twenty years from now, I’d probably have my own kids to take it out on as well.

I snarled in anger and nearly punched my own reflection. It suddenly struck me that I hated that reflection, or more specifically, I hated the person it represented. I hated myself and the dismal future I saw stretched out in front of me.

With another snarl of anger, I stormed out of the bathroom, going to my own room and slamming the door behind me. Anger was good. Anger was an acceptable emotion. But on the other hand, it was also an emotion that I was tired of constantly feeling. Unfortunately, the only alternatives seemed to be fear or loneliness, and those were even worse.

“What the hell am I going to do?” I muttered bitterly.

I sat on the edge of my bed and closed my eyes, only to see images of my earlier encounter with Gary. All those other kids had stared at me with looks of fear and contempt. I was used to those kind of looks, but I still didn’t like them. Dad always said it was good to have people fear you, that it meant they knew you were stronger than they were. However, I had a hard time seeing those looks as good, no matter how hard I tried.

Anyone at school would immediately describe me as a thug and a bully, the kind of person that everyone hated. I knew exactly what everyone thought about me, but I couldn’t disagree. I knew what I was…and I hated it. I was just so tired of it all, but there was nothing I could do. I just felt…trapped.

For most of my life, I’d tried earning my dad’s approval, but it very rarely came at all. He had strict standards about what it meant to be a man and about how a real man should behave. And whenever I didn’t meet those standards, his disapproval could be quite painful.

When I was ten years old, I’d found my mom’s old flute, the one she used to play when she was in high school. She’d given it to me and had even begun teaching me to play, but when dad found out he was furious. He used the flute to beat me until it snapped in half.

Even seven years later, I could still remember him yelling at me, exclaiming that no son of his would play a girl instrument like a flute. According to dad, guitar and drums were the only acceptable instruments for a man to play.

Dad had also made his views known when he caught me trying to draw pictures of our old dog Bill. Though dad didn’t hit me that time, he’d torn up my pictures and yelled about how only girls and little kids wasted time by doodling like that. That was the last time I’d ever tried my hand at art.

I grimaced and laid back on my bed, closing my eyes. As I thought back on my life, I realized that every time I found something interesting or fun, dad would forbid it, saying that men didn’t do that. And even though I was disappointed, I would always listen to dad and try to earn his approval.

I’d tried so hard to become the kind of man he’d respect and approve of, but it still wasn’t enough. And even worse, the closer I came to earning his approval, the less I approved of myself.

Here I was, having spent most of my life trying to earn my dad’s approval…trying to prove that I was a real man. But all I really had for it was the hatred of everyone at school and a whole lot of self-loathing.

“A thug,” I muttered bitterly, knowing what everyone at school called me. “An asshole. A bully.”

Other than those things, I didn’t really know what I was…or who I was. I’d spent so much time trying to be what dad wanted me to be that I didn’t even know who I really was.

“Who am I?” I whispered to myself, shaken by the realization that I had no idea.

Then I thought back on all the things that had ever caught my interest, the things that I’d actually enjoyed and loved doing. But I’d been forced to turn my back on nearly every one of them since real men didn’t do those things. Men didn’t play the flute, draw pictures, or dance.

It suddenly struck me that I was trapped…trapped by expectations. I was trapped by my dad’s expectations of what it meant to be a man and my own need to fulfill them. I was trapped in my role as a brutish thug. I hated who I was but I couldn’t see a way out of these chains that bound me.

“I wish things could have been different,” I thought aloud, wondering what my life would have been like if I’d been allowed to just be myself.

What would it have been like if I’d been allowed to follow my interests, whatever they were? Who would I have become if I’d been free to choose on my own?

But of course, it was pointless to imagine such a thing because there was no way dad would have allowed that. As he’d told me on countless occasions, his son was going to be a real man.

With that, I suddenly wondered what my life would have been like if I’d been born a girl. If I’d been born a girl, then dad never would have tried pushing me to be like him. He never would have pushed me to be a real man or forbidden me from doing things just because they weren’t manly enough.

“If I’d been born a girl,” I mused as my imagination began to run with this idea.

If I’d been born a girl, then I never would have been trapped by my dad’s expectations. I wouldn’t have to follow all of his rules. I wouldn’t have to always prove how tough I was so I’d be able to have friends. I could actually do the things that interested me without worrying about his disapproval.

At that moment, all I could think of was that if I’d been born a girl, my entire life would have been completely different. I would have been completely different. I would have been free of these rules and expectations. I could have been…me.

Suddenly, every hair on my body began to stand on end, as though I had somehow built up a static charge just by laying on my bed. But at the same time, I felt a strange pressure building inside of me and around me. I opened my eyes and began to sit up when it all exploded at once and I crashed into darkness.

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I woke up to someone shaking me and yelling, though I was far too disoriented to make any sense of it. Still, in spite my confusion I immediately realized that something was very VERY different.

“Who are you?” dad demanded as he shook me. “Where’s my son?”

Dad and I were about the same size, though he’d always somehow managed to seem bigger than me. But now, it was as though he’d grown larger…much larger. I gasped and squirmed out of his grip, only to tumble onto the floor where I stared up at him.

“Did my good for nothing son sneak you in here last night?” dad demanded angrily. “I can’t believe he’d sneak his slut in and then sneak out…”

“Dad,” I started, only to pause at the sound of my own voice. It wasn’t my voice.

My entire body felt different…vastly different, so I glanced down at myself and let out a loud gasp. My eyes darted to my bed, which was now completely blackened and charred. I could smell the stench of something burnt in the room.

“Oh shit,” I blurted out in sudden realization. I stared up at my dad and exclaimed, “Dad, I think I went through my twist…”

That was enough to make my dad freeze and stare at me with a look of shock. Then a look of understanding spread over his face and he asked, “Dan?”

I nodded at that and stared up at my dad, feeling as though I was in shock. My dad wasn’t Twisted, though he probably would have been easier to deal with if he had been. If he’d been Twisted, his personality could have been blamed on his twist and excused to a degree. But no, my dad was a norm.

My mom was Twisted, which meant that I’d always known there was a good chance that I would be too. But since I took after my dad in nearly every other way, I’d always kind of assumed that I’d take after him this way too and hadn’t given it much thought.

“Fuck,” dad exclaimed, staring down at me with a scowl and a look of intense disgust. “I can’t believe you’d do this to me…”

“What?” I gaped at my dad in surprise.

“Damn good for nothing,” dad snarled storming out of my room and slamming the door behind him. Even through the closed door, I could hear him exclaiming, “This is all because his whore of a mother…”

Once dad was gone, I remained where I was for several minutes, feeling overwhelmed by what was happening. Then I slowly got to my feet, being careful not to actually look at my body. The one look I’d already taken had been shocking enough so I was trying to avoid another. When I was on my feet, my whole body felt rubbery and shaken so I grabbed hold of my dresser to help me keep my balance.

I stared at my dresser, which seemed to have become quite a bit larger than normal. Intellectually, I knew that wasn’t what had happened at all, but I was trying not to think about it. Instead, I looked at my bed, or at least at what was left of it.

I’d learned in school that when someone goes through a mild twist, it often came with sparks, an odd glow, or some kind of minor light show. But when someone went through a drastic physical twist, the energy released would usually destroy their clothes and just about anything else they were touching. In my case, that was definitely proving to be true as not only were my clothes destroyed, so was my bed. Most of my sheets and bedding had been burned to ash…along with part of my mattress. It almost looked like someone had set fire to my bed, so I was surprised that dad hadn’t said anything about that.

After taking a good look at my bed, I slowly began looking around the rest of the room. It seemed…larger. Everything in my room seemed larger. But of course, I knew that wasn’t the case. My room hadn’t changed. I had.

With that, I took a deep breath and then looked down at myself again. A single glance was enough to show that my body was much smaller, with no signs of body hair or even any real muscle. I would have thought that I’d turned into a little kid again if it wasn’t for the fact that I actually had a pair of tits growing from my chest.

I was still in shock and a bit numb or I probably would have freaked out. Instead, I hesitantly felt my tits, verifying that they were indeed real. They were firm and perky, and though they seemed huge to me, I realized that they probably weren’t really all that large. And once I was done feeling them, then I reached down between my legs and confirmed that mister happy was gone too.

“I’m a girl,” I whispered with a gulp.

For several minutes, I just stood there, running my now small and delicate looking hands over my smooth and hairless body. My whole body felt completely and totally strange, yet it was obviously now my body. I could feel my hands as they passed over my now soft and sensitive skin.

“I’m a girl,” I repeated again, my voice shaking along with my body.

Then, as I realized my dad might walk in on me at any moment, I decided I had to cover up. I grabbed one of my shirts and put it on, but it was far too large and draped over me almost like a dress. If my dad and the furniture in my room hadn’t already convinced me, this would have been proof enough that I was tiny.

I left my room and peaked down the hallway, nervous about having my dad see me like this again. He’d already proven that he wasn’t happy about my twist and I didn’t want him taking that displeasure out on me. I was already having more than enough to deal with at the moment as it was.

When I got to the bathroom, I found that the bathroom mirror was now too high for me to easily see myself. I jumped up and down several times for a better look, then remembered the foot stool in the corner. A few seconds later, I was able to get a good look in the mirror.

“Holy shit,” I blurted out at the sight of myself.

I didn’t look like myself, not in the least. Instead of a brutish looking guy, there was a petite girl staring back. She was small and undeniably female, with perky tits that were just the right size for her body. Her features were delicate and fragile, but also quite beautiful, giving her an almost elven look. Golden blonde hair spilled down to the middle of her back, though I’d already noticed that while I was examining myself a couple minutes ago. And her eyes…the eyes that looked back from the mirror were a brilliant blue that didn’t seem quite natural.

“That’s…me?” I whispered in stunned disbelief.

Suddenly, this whole situation seemed ludicrous, like I was in the middle of some kind of twisted dream. I was a guy, a large and imposing guy who intimidated most people…not some tiny slip of a girl who didn’t even look strong enough to lift a can of beer. The idea that I had become this small and weak girl was absolutely ridiculous.

“This isn’t real,” I told myself, trying to convince myself that this was some kind of dream. However, that thought went away after I pinched myself. “This is real…”

I had no idea how long I just stood there, staring in the mirror and trying to absorb what I saw. Then there was a loud pounding on the bathroom door as dad yelled, “Hurry up… I need to take a shit…”

I quickly got off the foot stool and opened the door before dad got man. We stared at each other for a moment, then I squeezed past him, blushing bright red and feeling humiliated at looking like this.

When I went to the living room a minute later, I saw the clock and was startled to realize that I’d been knocked out for the entire night. It was now morning, which explained why I was starting to feel hungry. Still, I didn’t go grab something to eat quite yet. Instead, I waited.

Once dad was done with his business and in a better mood, I hesitantly approached him and said, “I think I need some new clothes… Nothing fits me now…” I winced as I said those words.

“Do you think I’m made of money?” dad asked with a snort. “I bought you new clothes a couple months ago. Damn, I knew I should have made you go get a job…”

I didn’t say anything as dad grumbled, nor when he stared at me with a grimace and a shake of his head. I knew that he was nearly as disturbed by seeing me as a girl as I was by being like this. And as I’d learned long ago, when dad was upset about something, it was usually a good idea to avoid antagonizing him further…especially when he now seemed like a giant to me.

“I think some of your mother’s crap is stored in the basement,” dad finally said with a deep scowl. “That should do for now…” Then he gave me another odd look before announcing, “I’m going to work. I need to check on a few things.” With that, he got up and left the house, muttering, “God damn Twisted bitch,” as he walked out the door.

Once dad was gone, I let out a sigh of relief. I knew that the real reason he’d left was because he didn’t know what to do about me, but I was perfectly fine with that. At the moment, I was having a hard enough time making sense of this and having dad around only made it worse.

Since I had the house to myself, I wasn’t in a huge hurry to find girl clothes to put on…especially ones that would have been boxed up in the basement for the last six years. I had no idea what kind of condition those clothes might be in and imagined dust or mildew on them. The more I thought about that, the less eager I was to get dressed.

I stared down at myself, at my oversized shirt and the curves that it couldn’t quite hide. I shuddered, suddenly deciding that I needed something normal while I tried absorbing all this. What I needed was breakfast. A nice normal breakfast.

When I went to the kitchen, I quickly discovered a problem that immediately reminded me that nothing would ever be normal again. I was used to being tall, often the tallest person in a room. But now, I couldn’t even reach the cupboard where the cereal bowls were stored. I had to go get a chair to stand on, just so I could get a bowl. By the time I sat down to eat, I was beginning to get over my shock at waking up at this and starting to get scared.

“I’m Twisted,” I told myself, feeling a knot in my stomach as I stated that simple truth.

The very idea of being Twisted was frightening. It meant that some strange energy would smack you upside your head and then change your life in ways that you couldn’t control or predict. It could change your body, your mind, and even your very soul. Since I’d just gone through my twist, I didn’t have to worry about it happening again, only about what had already been done to me.

“I’m a girl now,” I said, stating the obvious.

But the truth was, I had no idea what else my twist might have done to me. How much of my personality had been changed without my even being aware of it? Would I suddenly discover that I had some kind of compulsion that I couldn’t control? Maybe one that would make me even more dangerous than I had been before, or one that would make me dangerous only to myself. I had no idea and that scared me.

There were a lot of people in the world who feared the Twisted, sometimes for very good reasons. Fortunately, I lived in the town of Spiral where being Twisted was common and wasn’t considered to be a big deal. Half my classmates were either Twisted or likely to go through a twist in the next couple years. And of course, my own mom was Twisted. I’d always known there was a possibility that I would be too, though I hadn’t thought about it much in the last couple years. Maybe some part of me had thought that if I didn’t think about it too much, it might pass me by. But that was obviously not the case.

As I thought about this my twist, I grew worried about what would happen to me. I even felt like I was about to start crying, though I tried to shake it off and told myself, “Man up and deal with it.” Then as I realized what I’d just said, I burst out laughing at the irony, though my laugher came out sounding more like giggles.

A few minutes later, I braced myself and then started down into the basement so I could find some clothes. After mom had left six years ago, dad had trashed everything she’d left behind and had thrown it away. However, she’d had some of her old clothes already boxed up and in the basement, and the only reason dad hadn’t thrown those away as well was because he kept forgetting about them.

“Lucky me,” I muttered bitterly.

I wasn’t happy with the idea of having to wear my mom’s clothes, but I knew that I didn’t really have much choice. As the shirt I was wearing demonstrated, none of my own clothes would come close to fitting me anymore, and I couldn’t count on dad to get new clothes anytime soon. That meant, unless I wanted to run around naked or wearing one of my old shirts like a dress, I’d have to wear what was available.

When I opened the boxes and looked through the clothes inside, I was relieved that there was no sign of dust or mildew. My mom’s old clothes looked like they were all in good condition, but I still wasn’t happy about the idea of wearing them. If nothing else, I decided they needed to be cleaned before I’d even try them on.

After I threw some clothes into the washing machine, I stared down at myself again, still having a hard time believing that this was me. My hands were so small and delicate looking. They were definitely girl hands, even having somewhat long finger nails. I ran them through my long hair with a sigh, sure that I’d never get used to this.

“Just how small am I?” I asked myself.

I let out a sigh, then went and found a tape measure so I could answer that question. After a quick measurement, I was disgusted to see that I was now only 5 foot 2, more than a foot shorter than what I had been. But not only had I lost all that height, I’d also lost a LOT of bulk and muscle mass.

“I’m puny,” I blurted out.

I was used to being big and strong so the fact that I was now short and weak was difficult to accept. It was almost like a physical blow against my sense of self-identity. It was a wonder that I was taking this as well as I was since I thought I should probably be freaking out.

Since I’d already started investigating just how small and weak I’d become, I decided to continue with this. If nothing else, at least I’d have a better idea of what my new limitations were.

Most Twisted had a trick, a special power that could be anything from being able to make your hair change color to being able to throw balls of fire. I’ve previously run into one girl whose trick was that she was super strong, so I was actually hoping to discover that I had something similar. I was really hoping to discover that I was stronger than I looked.

My first few experiments quickly dashed those hopes and proved that I was indeed as weak and helpless as I appeared. I tried lifting the couch, which normally would have been easy, though now it felt as though it had become a hundred times heavier. I could barely even budge the couch. I tried lifting other things that I’d always considered light, only to find that some of them were too heavy for me to lift at all.

“It’s official,” I told myself with a grimace. “I’m a total weakling…” I snorted in disgust, suddenly realizing that I’d probably have a hard time just opening a pickle jar now.

After this, I just sat down and felt depressed as I thought about what my twist would mean. Instead of being big and strong, I was now small and weak. I was a girl. I was helpless. After I’d spent my entire life trying to be strong and tough, this felt as though someone was playing a cruel joke on me.

“This proves that God exists,” I muttered to myself bitterly. “And he’s got a sadistic sense of humor.”

When my mom’s clothes were cleaned, I reluctantly pulled them out of the dryer and then began to try them on. The clothes were all too big for me, but not nearly as bad as my own were. I ended up putting on a pair of slacks and a shirt, both of which were loose but were about the best I could do at the moment. Fortunately, there had also been a pair of sneakers in the box, even if they were a little too large as well. I just dreaded what my dad would say when he came home and found me wearing my mom’s clothes.

I sat down and stared down at myself, feeling completely and utterly humiliated. Before I realized it, tears were beginning to form and run down my cheeks. They came so easily that they were there before I even knew it.

“Men don’t cry,” I reminded myself quietly. This was one of the rules that I’d lived by for most of my life, a rule that dad had long ago impressed on me as being important. Then as I wiped my tears, I took another look down and whispered, “But I’m a girl now.”

For a moment, I just froze, suddenly struck by the realization that I was actually allowed to cry. Men didn’t cry…but girls could. This realization was followed a moment later with a strange sense of relief that I didn’t quite understand. And oddly enough, I didn’t really feel like crying anymore.

I wiped the tears from my cheeks, suddenly deciding that I needed to get out of this shithole house. I needed to go out and get some fresh air. Unfortunately, the very thought of leaving the house like this made my stomach knot up. I was small, weak, and helpless. I couldn’t even defend myself if something happened. Then I felt ashamed for feeling this way.

In spite of the fact that I was afraid, or perhaps even because of it, I started for the front door. I’d learned a long time ago to hide my fear, at least in front of my dad. He always took any sign of fear as a weakness that needed to be dealt with. I shuddered faintly as I remembered just how he dealt with it.

When I stepped outside a minute later, I took a deep breath and reminded myself that girls go out in public all the time. This wasn’t really a big deal and I tried not to worry about it. After taking a few more steps without the sky actually falling down on me, I began to relax.

Suddenly, a voice called out, “Hello.” I looked next door where I saw Mrs. Fritz standing in her garden. She was watching me with a curious look and asked, “Are you a friend of Dan’s?”

“Um…no,” I responded, staring at the ground self-consciously. I grimaced, then blurted out, “I am Dan.” I finally looked at her and explained, “I just went through my twist.”

“Oh dear,” Mrs. Fritz responded, staring at me with a look of surprise and then sympathy. She started coming towards me and cautiously asked, “Are you all right dear?”

I gave her a weak smile, then admitted, “I’m not sure…”

Mrs. Fritz gave me an odd look and then a knowing smile. “I’m not Twisted, but my daughters and grandchildren are. I remember when Gwen went through her twist. Back then, people were just starting to go through their twists and no one really understood what it meant to be Twisted. My daughter suddenly gained two hundred pounds, going from slender to obese in the blink of an eye. It was very difficult for her…”

“I’d imagine,” I responded sympathetically.

“She adjusted,” Mrs. Fritz told me with a faint smile. “I know you will too.”

I nodded at that, though I wasn’t quite so sure. Then again, there were kids at school who’d gone through even weirder twists and they seemed to be adjusting. From what I heard, one guy even turned into a mermaid.

“If it helps,” Mrs. Fritz told me pleasantly, “you make a very lovely young lady.”

I winced at that, and before I could think of how to respond, a cell phone began to ring. “Oh dear,” Mrs. Fritz said as she pulled the phone from her pocket. “It’s my grandson… I’ll see you later…” And with that, she answered the phone and began to walk away.

“That was…awkward,” I muttered, though I was thankful that Mrs. Fritz hadn’t made fun of me.

I shook my head, then began walking down the street, not having any particular destination in mind. However, that changed seconds later when I realized that I was walking almost straight towards the park, the one that I’d played in as a kid but hadn’t been to in years. Hanging around parks was something that a real man just didn’t do, but I felt a strange glee as I realized that rule no longer applied to me.

When I stepped onto the park, I almost felt as though I was doing something naughty or inappropriate. I continued walking further in, I looked around. There was an area full of playground equipment for little kids, a wide open area for people to play Frisbee or other such games, and there was even a section full of picnic tables and BBQ grills.

I remembered coming here as a kid, playing on the jungle gym and just running around. My mom would just sit back on one of the benches, watching me with an amused smile on her face. She’d always liked coming here.

After walking around for a minute, I sat down on one bench and just silently watched the kids playing. I even smiled faintly, forgetting my odd situation for a minute and remembering what it was like to be one of those kids. That had been so long ago.

A short distance away from me, a woman was standing there and watching the kids play as well, or at least watching a specific kid play. She was obviously Twisted, a fact that anyone could see from the fact that she had four arms. She waved to a little boy with three of her arms while her fourth one held a cup of what I assumed was coffee.

“Hey mom, watch this,” the little boy called back to her as he climbed on top of some monkey bars in a way that wasn’t quite safe. I remembered doing the exact same thing when I was his age.

“You be careful,” the four armed woman warned her son.

“Okay,” the boy responded, just a second before he slipped and fell from the jungle gym. He hit the ground and began crying, with his mom already running to him.

“Jimmy,” she cried out in a near panic. “Are you hurt?” The boy just cried.

For a brief moment, I felt a surge of annoyance and the urge to yell out, “Boys aren’t supposed to cry.” However, I bit my lip and felt a little guilty for even thinking that after he’d just fallen. In fact, he could have been badly hurt.

I hurried to the boy and his mom, hesitantly asking, “Are you all right?”

The boy…Jimmy stared at me in confusion, probably wondering who I was and why I was talking to him. He had tears running down his cheeks and a little snot bubbling out of his nose.

“It hurts,” the boy exclaimed, holding his leg and looking to his mom tearfully.

“Let’s take a look,” she said, pulling his pant leg up and revealing what looked like a nasty bruise that was starting to form over most of his leg. From the way he fell, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d broken his leg as well.

I bit my lip for a moment, then on an impulse, I told Jimmy, “You’re being pretty brave about this.”

His mom gave me a curious look, but Jimmy smiled at the compliment. Then he hesitantly asked, “Did you see me fall?”

“I sure did,” I told him with what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “But next time you should be a lot more careful.” His mom gave me an appreciative nod at that.

Jimmy tried getting back to his feet, but then fell back down once he put weight on his leg. His mom and I shared a look at that.

“I’m going to call an ambulance,” his mom sad, then tried telling him, “Don’t move…” I could hear the worry clear in her voice.

“Everything is going to be fine,” I told Jimmy. “It looks like your mom is going to take you to a doctor who will make you better…”

Then for some reason I wasn’t quite sure of, I slowly reached out and gently touched his leg. The moment I made contact, there was a green glow around my hand, followed by a surge of pain through my leg.

“Oh God,” I gasped in surprise.

Jimmy’s mom screamed, “What are you doing?”

I yanked my hand back in fear and blurted out, “I don’t know…”

I stared at my hand which was no longer glowing green, noticing at the same time that he massively bruised feeling all over my leg had faded away almost as quickly as it had come.

“What were you doing to my son?” Jimmy’s mom demanded angrily.

“I don’t know,” I repeated, feeling scared and confused.

Then Jimmy exclaimed, “It doesn’t hurt anymore…” He stood up and I saw his leg, which no longer showed any of the discoloration or swelling that had been there just a minute before.

“Oh my God,” Jimmy’s mom exclaimed, grabbing his leg and running her hands over it. Then she stared at me in surprise. “You…you healed him. Is that your trick?”

“I…I don’t know,” I said for a third time. I stared at Jimmy’s leg, feeling just as confused as his mom looked. “I…I just went through my twist this morning…”

The four armed woman gave me a sympathetic look followed by a grateful smile. “Thank you,” she told me. “If you can heal people… That’s a fantastic trick…”

With that, she turned her full attention to hugging Jimmy while I backed away. I stared at my hands, feeling surprised and excited at the same time. My hands had glowed and then Jimmy’s leg got better.

“I have a trick,” I whispered to myself, still amazed by that. I’d been so caught up in the physical aspects of my twist that I hadn’t even given much thought about what kind of trick I might have, at least not once I’d realized it wasn’t super strength. “I can heal people…”

I slowly made my way to a park bench where I could sit down and think about this, but as I was about to sit, I looked around and suddenly saw someone that made me freeze.

“Bitchart,” I whispered in surprise.

Gary, that wimpy kid I was always messing with at school was sitting at another park bench with what looked like that art pad in his hand. He was also staring right at me.

“Oh shit,” I gasped, wondering how the hell he recognized me when I didn’t look anything like I had. Then I realized, if he knew who I was, then I was in trouble. I’d given that guy a LOT of shit and he was going to want some payback. “And now is the perfect time for him to get it…”

Just then, there was a yell from the playground equipment and I snapped around to see what was going on. To my relief, it was just Jimmy and some little girl playing some kind of game. I let out a sigh of relief, then looked back to Gary. However, Gary was now gone, and when I looked around, I didn’t see any signs of him.

“Just great,” I grumbled as I sat down and rubbed at my temples. “How could this get any worse?”

Not only was I stuck as a girl, a small and weak one, but I had a lot of people who’d want a piece of me. I’d messed with a lot of kids over the last few years and there was no doubt that they’d see my twist as the perfect opportunity to get even.

“If I was still a guy,” I started with an angry snarl, only to pause as I remembered what I was thinking last night before my twist.

I let out a long sigh, feeling my growing anger flowing out with it. Thanks to my twist, I was now a girl. I was small, weak, and helpless. But the truth was, I’d hated being a guy, or at least I’d hated the kind of guy I’d become.

For most of my life, I’d tried so hard to be a real macho man, the kind of man my dad would approve of. I’d turned my back on everything that had ever made me happy and had done things that I hated, only to turn into a thug who couldn’t stand to look at himself in the mirror.

Tears began running down my cheeks, though I wasn’t quite sure why. Ever since my twist, it seemed that they came out so much more easily. This was the second time I’d started crying today.

Instead of wiping away my tears, I quietly reminded myself, “Girls are allowed to cry…” Then I looked around where I was sitting and added, “And go to the park…”
As I sat there, other things were added to the list of things that girls were allowed to do. They could go swimming, and do art, and play music, and so many other things that a man just wasn’t supposed to do.

“And they don’t have to play football,” I whispered in awe, “or beat up people to prove how tough they were…”

I felt stunned as I was suddenly struck by the realization that I was no longer bound by my dad’s rules of how a real man behaved. I was no longer a man so those rules didn’t apply to me anymore. I was…free.

I’d spent most of the day thinking about how my twist was a horrific curse, yet now I realized that it was also a strange sort of blessing as well. It felt as though a huge weight had just been lifted from my shoulders.

Tears continued to run down my cheeks, but these were no longer tears of fear or frustration. For the first time in my life, I actually felt free to be myself, or to at least discover who that person really was. I couldn’t resist laughing at the sudden realization that the twist I’d been cursing may very well have been the best thing to ever happen to me.

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

I felt oddly happy as I washed the dishes in the sink, but then again, I’d been in a good mood ever since yesterday afternoon. Sure, I was a girl now, but at the moment, that seemed like a small price to pay for my freedom.

At the moment, I felt so light on my feet I almost thought I could dance in the air. That made me pause for a moment and wonder if I should try dancing. I’d never done it before since that was something real men didn’t do, but it might be fun.

Of course, I didn’t currently feel like I was light on my feet just because of this intoxicating sense of relief. I actually was light on my feet. I didn’t weigh nearly as much as I did before, and I was a lot more flexible as well. I might not be as strong as used to be, but I could move around more easily.

I hadn’t told dad about my trip to the park yesterday, nor about my trick or revelation. There were things that dad just wouldn’t be able to understand, and honestly, I didn’t want to have to explain them to him either.

Dad was starting to think of me as a girl, a fact that he proved this morning before going to work. He’d ordered me to do the laundry while he was gone and make dinner before he got home, both things that he considered to be girl’s work. I wasn’t quite sure what I thought about that though.

“At least he’s gone,” I told myself, thankful that I didn’t have to deal with dad at the moment. It had been difficult enough dealing with him when I was a guy, but now that I was a girl… I could see the disappointment every time he looked at me.

When I was done with the dishes, I began looking through the kitchen for something for dinner. We didn’t really have much in the cupboards or fridge, nor did I really know what to do with anything I did find. Just because I’d turned into a girl, that didn’t mean I suddenly knew how to cook. A lifetime of microwave meals and frozen pot pies hadn’t prepared me for cooking a real meal.

“Maybe I can just order a pizza,” I thought aloud. Dad would approve of that, as long as I got pepperoni and sausage.

I went into the living room and looked around, noticing the empty beer cans by my dad’s chair. For a moment, I wondered if I should pick that up. After all, dad always said that women were supposed to clean, and since I was now a girl… Still, when I looked at the mess, I felt no real urges or desires to clean it up. Instead, I decided to do what I’d always done before…ignore it.

Since I didn’t know what to do with myself at the moment, I decided to go for another walk. Of course, I’d already learned that even a short walk would take me longer than before. My legs were shorter, which meant that I had to take more steps just to cover the same distance.

“And to think,” I mused to myself. “At one point, I’d actually wanted to try out for track…”

I smiled faintly as I remembered that, as well as the fact that I hadn’t mentioned a word of that to my dad. I’d already known that there was no way he’d ever accept a wimpy sport like track, especially when he’d already decided I was going to join the football team and follow his footsteps.

“It wasn’t like I had the build for it anyway,” I reminded myself. I’d always been too big and bulky. Besides, I’d been even more interested in swimming, not that I would have had any better chances with that.

For my walk, all I did was walk around the block, taking my time and trying to just get used to the idea of being out in public like this. Every step I took was a reminder that I wasn’t my old self, that I was smaller and lighter. I might have accepted that my new body could be a good thing, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to the odd sensations.

When I returned home, I arrived just as Mrs. Fritz was beginning to leave. She waved to me so I waved back.

“How have you been holding up?” Mrs. Fritz asked me with a look of concern.

“All right,” I admitted, giving her a faint smile.

“Well, you certainly seem to be in a better mood than yesterday,” she said with a chuckle.

I nodded at that, then gave her a self-conscious smile. “I’m not quite as upset about this.” I gestured down at myself. “I mean, it could have been a lot worse than turning into a girl.”

“Very true,” Mrs. Fritz told me. “Trust me, there are much worse fates than being a pretty young lady.”

I couldn’t resist chuckling at that, though it came out more as a feminine giggle. I almost clamped a hand over my mouth.

“It’s still pretty weird,” I told her with a sigh. “I mean, I’ve been a guy my whole life… It’s all I know…” I paused at that, then quietly admitted, “I don’t know how to be anything else. I don’t know how to be a girl.”

“It isn’t all that hard, dear,” Mrs. Fritz told me with a sympathetic look. “You’ll figure it out. In fact, you should probably talk to some of the girls you go to school with. Surely some of them would be able to help you adjust.”

I snorted at that and shook my head. “I don’t think so.” I had a hard time believing that any of the girls I went to school with would help me, or that I’d trust them to actually do so. “But I’ll figure it out…” I gave her a weak smile that I hoped was reassuring.

Mrs. Fritz and I talked for another couple minutes before we said goodbye and I went inside. I called to order a pizza delivery, then waited for dad to get home from work.

I didn’t have to wait long since dad got home earlier than I was expecting. Then again, it was Sunday and he only had to go in to try catching up a little in order to get the project back on schedule.

“Fucking bastards,” dad exclaimed came through the door. “Those dumb fucks can’t get their work done on time, so now I have to come in on the weekend and rush to catch up…”

I stood back and avoided attention as much as I could while dad vented. I’d learned a long time ago that he was likely to be even more explosive than normal when he was going off like this.

While dad was venting, he grabbed a beer and downed the first one in just a couple gulps. That was a bad sign, especially as he immediately grabbed a second beer and began drinking that one as well.

By the time the pizza arrived, dad had calmed down a bit, though he did complain about the pizza and a few other things. I just ate quietly, eager to get done and back to my room where I’d be out of sight and out of mind.

But when we finished eating, I remembered that there was something else I needed to talk to dad about. I braced myself, then brought up the subject.

“I’m gonna need new clothes,” I reminded dad. “Mom’s old stuff is too big for me…”

“So you’re just like your slut of a mom,” dad responded with a sneer. “Wanting to spend all my money on clothes…”

I grimaced at that, growing angry about him talking that way about my mom. However, I had a lot of experience at concealing it in front of him.

“I just need clothes that fit me,” I pointed out.

Dad snorted at that, giving me another look of disappointment. “We’ll see.” Then he was silent for a minute before saying, “You were barely a man before, now you go and turn into a slut. What did I ever do to deserve this?”

“I didn’t ask to turn into a girl,” I pointed out grimly. Actually, I sort of had asked for it, but I certainly wasn’t going to tell that to da.

“Don’t sass me,” dad snapped, giving me an angry glare and making me take an instinctive step back. “Little girls should know their place.”

Those words sent a cold chill down my spine as well as made me angry. I’d just escaped from the role he’d forced on me for so many years, and now it seemed that he wanted to force another one on me.

“I can’t believe my son turned into a God damn slut,” dad exclaimed.

“I’m not a slut,” I snapped back angrily, knowing it was a mistake even as I said it. “I’ve only been a girl for two days and I haven’t had sex once. I think you need to look up what that word means…”

Without warning, dad backhanded me, sending me flying back and into a bookshelf, which then fell over. All the random clutter and junk that had been stored on the shelf fell all over me and the floor. I staggered, trying to get back up though half my face was now hurting.

“Look at the mess you made,” dad yelled. “Clean it up now you little bitch…”

I glared at dad angrily, then did something I never would have done as a guy. I screamed, “Fuck you…”

That was the wrong thing to do as dad immediately rushed over and grabbed me by the arm, then lifted me of the floor. His fingers dug in so deep that I knew my arm would be badly bruised, and it almost felt as though he might yank my arm out of the socked.

“You’re just like your bitch of a mother,” dad snarled in my face.

“She left because you’re an asshole,” I yelled back, trying to cover my terror with even more anger.
Dad slapped me across the face and then threw me back, right into the coffee table. I quickly scrambled to my feet, but dad was already coming at me with a furious expression. I knew exactly what he was planning to do since I’d seen it often enough with my mom. He was going to slap me around until most of my body was black and blue. It wouldn’t be as bad as when he’d gone at me with a baseball bat, but I was a lot smaller now and couldn’t take as much damage.

“No,” I screamed in panic as dad grabbed for me again.

I grabbed the lamp from the end table and then swung it at dad as hard as I could, catching him across the face and knocking him back. Then realizing just how pissed that would make him, I turned and ran out the front door as fast as I could.

“Get your ass back here,” dad screamed as he came out the front door, staggering and holding his head where I’d hit him.

“What’s going on out here?” Mrs. Fritz yelled while I just ran down the street as fast as I could.

Dad was slow to give chase thanks to that hit I’d given him, but he started running after me. I’d made it to the edge of the park before he finally caught up with me and shoved me to the ground.

“I’m gonna teach you a lesson you’re never going to forget,” dad yelled, picking me back up and then hitting me across the face. He slapped me several more timed before throwing me back on the ground.

“What the hell are you doing?” a voice yelled out, though I was hurting too much to look at the source.

Dad just snarled and began kicking me. The kick to my side nearly made me scream, and when I tried using my arms to block his next kick, there was a sharp pain that told me he’d probably broken my arm. Still he kicked me several more times while several people were yelling.

“I called the police,” the voice yelled again. “They’re coming right now…”

“Stupid little slut,” dad snarled at me, giving me one final kick. “This will teach you your place…” And with that, he hurried off while I just remained were I was, my whole body hurting too much to move.

“Are you okay?” the oddly familiar voice asked from beside me. Several other people were starting to gather around as well, each of them looking concerned. “I’ve already called the police…”

I remained curled up in a ball, tasting blood as I gasped for breath. I closed my eyes for a minute, until the ambulance arrived and the EMT’s began to check on me. Only once they were moving me to a stretcher did I open my eyes and take another look around.

“Is she going to be okay?” the familiar voice asked the EMT’s actually sounding concerned.

I didn’t pay attention to the EMT’s answer. Instead, I was staring at the source of the voice that’d chased my dad away. I knew the voice was familiar, but I never would have guessed the source. It was Bitchart. The one who’d saved me from my dad was Gary.

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

I hated hospitals with all the antiseptic scent and the feel of pain and sickness in the air. This wasn’t the first time I’d been put in the hospital by my dad, though I was sure the falling down the stairs or football accident excuses wouldn’t work this time.

I was in my hospital bed, trying not to move. They’d given me some painkillers but definitely not enough. It hurt just to breath, which wasn’t surprising since I had cracked ribs. Those went along with my broken arm and the bruising over nearly my entire body.

As much as I hurt, I suspected that person in the bed next to mine might even hurt a little more. She was a little girl, about ten years old, whose body had been torn up with two dozen shards of shattered glass that had gone through her like a shotgun blast.

From what I’d overheard, the girl’s older brother had recent gone through his twist and had gained some sort of trick that let him control glass and move it around. Apparently, he didn’t have much control over his trick and this was the result.

A few hours ago, the doctor had told her family that they’d managed to remove all the glass from her body, but she still had all the puncture wounds, several of which had gone through important organs. I could only imagine how much it would hurt having a hole through your kidney.

I closed my eyes and just tried to go back to sleep, though it didn’t do much good. I’d hurt too much to sleep last night, though I’d had a couple short naps this morning.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw dad coming at me with that furious look on his face. I winced and immediately opened my eyes, breathing hard which only made me hurt even more.

Then I suddenly heard a voice from out in the hallway, a familiar voice. It was Gary. I felt a surge of fear, wondering what he was going here in the hospital.

“Yes, the young lady who was attacked last night is in this room,” the nurse told him. “She was here two months ago with similar injuries, but of course, that was before her twist. She was so polite… Oh, I shouldn’t have told you all that. It’s part of my twist. I’m a bit too talkative…”

“Thank you,” Gary told her. “I appreciate you letting me visit…”

“The poor thing,” the nurse responded. “She really needs a friend at a time like this…”

Gary came into my room a moment later and stopped to stare at me. He took one look and winced visibly.

“Hi,” Gary said with a weak smile, looking nervous. “I know you don’t know me, but I saw what happened last night and wanted to make sure you were okay…”

“You stopped him,” I said quietly, my voice hoarse. I stared at him in confusion. “You called the police…”

“You remember?” he asked, looking somewhat pleased by that.

“Why?” I asked quietly. “You hate me…”

“What?” Gary asked, looking both surprised and confused.

It took me a moment to realize that he didn’t know who I was. When he’d been staring at me at the park the other day, it hadn’t been because he somehow recognized me.

Gary stared at me and shook his head, “I don’t hate you. I don’t even know you.”

“You do hate me,” I said quietly, chuckling faintly but then wincing at the pain stabbing my sides. “You just don’t realize you do...”

“This is only the third time I’ve ever seen you,” Gary told me gently. “I saw you helping that little boy a couple days ago, then I saw you were in trouble last night…” He paused at that and then asked, “How are you feeling?” He actually sounded concerned, which confused me a little.

I was silent for a moment, not sure what to say. And as I stared at him, seeing that he was actually worried about me, I couldn’t help but feeling guilty. After everything I’d done to him, he was the one who’d kept me from being hurt even worse.

“Don’t embarrass yourself being nice to me,” I told him quietly, unable to meet his eyes. “You’ll only regret it.”

“What?” Gary asked again, obviously confused.

Before he could ask what I meant, someone else stepped into the hospital room and I took a quick glance to see who it was. A moment later, I froze and stared. The newcomer was an attractive woman in her late thirties with shoulder length blonde hair. However, this was a woman I knew well, even though I hadn’t seen her in six years.

“Mom?” I blurted out in shock and disbelief.

“I guess I should get going,” Gary said, giving me a worried look. “I hope you feel better…” And with that, he gave me a reassuring smile and left the room.

I barely paid attention to Gary though, watching my mom instead. I was more than a little shocked to see her here, not to mention confused. How had she even known I was here?

“Danny?” mom asked in the quiet voice I remembered so well. “Is that really you?”

I cringed in embarrassment, and at that moment, if I’d been able to hide beneath my hospital bed, I probably would have. This was the first time I’d seen my mom in six years, and she was seeing me like this...

“Yes,” I finally answered her, unable to meet her eyes.

“Danny,” mom whispered, hurrying to my side. “Are you okay? Oh, of course you aren’t… I’m so sorry…”

“For what?” I asked, raising my voice in anger. “Leaving me?”

I winced in pain but my mom winced as well, though for an entirely different reason. My mom’s twist meant that she couldn’t handle confrontations of any sort. A raised voice was enough to overwhelm her, which was why she’d been such a natural victim for my dad’s aggression.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, feeling bad for making her jump like that.

“So am I,” mom said, giving me a forced smile. Thanks to her twist, I knew that this wasn’t easy for her as she explained, “I wanted to take you with me when I left but I didn’t have any way to take care of myself much less anyone else.”

“How did you know?” I asked, still trying to make sense of her being here.

Mom smiled a little more genuinely and answered. “Mrs. Fritz. She’s been…keeping me updated on how you’ve been doing. She told me about your twist…and about what happened last night.”

I winced at that, feeling even more humiliated that she knew about what dad had done to me. Of course, I knew that if anyone understood what it was like, it was her. I’d never blamed her for leaving dad…only for leaving me behind.

“There were so many times I wanted to come back for you,” mom said quietly. “But I didn’t dare go back. I couldn’t risk facing your father again…”

I nodded in understanding of her wanting to avoid dad. With her twist, it wouldn’t take much to make her cave and do whatever he wanted. And knowing dad, what he would have wanted wouldn’t be in her best interests at all.

“I’m so sorry this happened to you,” mom told me with tears starting to flow. “I wish I’d been able to take you with me… If I had…”

“It’s not your fault,” I pointed out quietly.

Mom just stared at me with a worried look, then put her hand on mine and gave a gentle squeeze. “I want you to come home with me,” she finally said. “I want you to live with me from now on.”

I stared at my mom and blinked in surprise. “But…,” I started. Then I hesitantly asked, “Where do you live?”

“Not very far,” she answered with a self-conscious smile. “I live off Bellview Avenue.”

“What?” I gasped, even more surprised than before. I hadn’t seen my mom in six years, and she’d been living less than two miles from me. I couldn’t help but feeling hurt at that. “I thought you left spiral…”

“I did…at first,” mom admitted quietly, looking away from me and frowning. She wiped tears from her cheeks and said, “At first, I got as far away from your father as I could, but after two years, I moved back. I…I wanted to be closer to you.”

“But you never came and saw me,” I said quietly. “You never visited…never called…”

Mom nodded at that, looking guilty. “I wanted to,” she said sadly. “I couldn’t bring myself to…to get that close. Instead, I had Mrs. Fritz watch you for me so she could tell me how you were doing.”

I closed my eyes and just tried to absorb this. Dad had always told me that mom had moved out of state, but that was obviously what she’d wanted him to think. Instead, she’d spent the last four years living within walking distance, but she’d never come to see him or let me know she was there. And on top of that, she’d used our neighbor to spy on me. I had no idea what to think of all this.

“I’m here now,” mom said, raising her voice just a little, enough so that it was at normal conversation level. “I want you to come live with me. I don’t want that man to ever hurt you again.”

“Okay,” I responded after another minute.

“The nurse said that you’d probably need a wheelchair to move around for the next day or two,” mom told me with a gentle smile. “I’ll go see if they have one we can use…”

With that, she hurried out of the hospital room while I remained in bed. I took a deep breath, then winced at the pain in my side. I had to remember to take slow shallow breaths because of my ribs.

“That sounds rough,” the girl in the bed next to mine said. “I mean, you didn’t know your mom lived that close?”

“No,” I admitted. “I didn’t have a clue…”

I grimaced, then tried to slowly sit up in bed. It was kind of painful, but I managed to get in a sitting position and shift my legs over the side. I held up my hand, the one on the arm that hadn’t been broken, and remembered the way it glowed green when I’d healed Jimmy at the playground.

“Why not?” I asked myself, holding the hand against my side and willing my trick to heal me the same way. However, nothing happened.

“What are you doing?” the girl asked me curiously.

“I have a trick,” I answered with a wry smile. “I can help people’s injuries… Or at least I did one time. I was trying to heal myself but it isn’t working…”

The girl watched me with an expression that suggested she thought I was just making it up. Then she asked, “Can you heal me?”

I hesitated for a moment and then nodded. “I’ll try.”

I started at her hospital bed, which I couldn’t quite reach from where I was sitting. I knew I should probably wait for my mom and the nurse to get back here with the wheelchair, but I’d never been good at waiting for other people. Instead, I slowly shifted myself of the bed and onto my feet. It hurt, but my legs were only bruised, not broken.

“Are you okay?” the girl asked, giving me a worried look. “You don’t need to…”

Instead of answering her, I focused on taking several steps, then I grabbed the frame of her hospital bed to help me balance. I grimaced at all the pain but slowly reached out with my hand, putting it on her arm, just beneath some of the bandages.

A moment later, I gasped as my hand began to glow green, just like it had with Jimmy. But then, I was suddenly hit with more pain, lots of sharp pains all over my body. I would have screamed if my voice had let me, then I collapsed and fell to the floor.

“Help,” the little girl cried out. “She fell…”

A nurse came running into the room, and a second later, my mom came in as well. They both rushed to my side, demanding to know what was going on.

“She said she had a trick to heal people,” the girl blurted out, sounding scared and confused. “And she said she was gonna try to heal me…”

“Danny,” mom said, holding me. “Are you all right…”

“Yeah,” I answered after a moment, realizing that all the sharp pains I’d felt a moment ago were gone. In fact, I felt a little better than I had before I tried helping the girl.

I slowly got to my feet, and as I did so, mom blurted out, “Your bruises are almost gone…” She hesitantly reached out to touch my face, staring at me with a look of surprise.

I sat back down on the edge of my hospital bed while the nurse looked me over. Like mom, she paused to stare at my face, then hesitantly touched my cheek.

“The bruising is mostly gone,” the nurse said in amazement.

Then the girl beside me blurted out, “I don’t hurt anymore…”

“What were you doing?” the nurse demanded, though her voice was calm and level.

“I don’t know,” I admitted self-consciously. “I think I have a trick that can heal injuries... I’ve only used it once before, and I tried using it on myself.”

“Then I asked her to try healing me too,” the girl added. “And she did.”

Mom was watching me with a worried expression while the nurse gave me a skeptical one. Then the nurse turned to the girl and unwrapped one of the bandages before letting out a loud gasp.

“The wound is gone,” the nurse blurted out. Then she told me, “Stay there,” before running out of the room.

“Are you okay?” mom asked me cautiously.

“I don’t hurt as much,” I admitted with a weak smile.

A minute later, the nurse returned with one of the doctors. The doctor began looking over the little girl, unwrapping the bandages and checking her wounds

“Amazing,” the doctor finally said. “All the wounds have healed…”

“All right,” the girl exclaimed happily. “Thanks a lot…”

Then the doctor turned his attention to me and began to give me a quick examination. To my surprise, most of the bruising on my body had faded, though they hadn’t healed completely. Unfortunately, arm still hurt and my ribs were still tender, but at least my bruises had mostly healed.

“That was pretty impressive,” the doctor told me gently. “A trick that lets you heal people is amazing, especially since you seem to have healed yourself a little in the process.” Then he gave me a stern look and warned, “But you don’t understand your trick and probably shouldn’t use it on people until you have it properly tested. You might accidentally be causing other problems.”

“Okay,” I responded with a sigh, wondering at the fact that I now felt guilty for fixing someone.

“But I feel fine,” the girl exclaimed. “I’m all better…”

“Let’s get you out of here,” mom told me gently. “I want to get you home before HE decides to show up at the hospital.”

A few minutes later, I was in a wheelchair and being pushed out to the checkout desk so I could fill out the paperwork and get officially released. I kept looking around, seeing people who were sick and wondering if my trick might be able to help them the same way it had Jimmy and that little girl. I was actually disappointed that they wouldn’t let me even try.

“That sounds like a very nice trick,” mom told me as she pushed me to the hospital exit. “I have to admit, I’m a little jealous.”

I just nodded at that, knowing what she meant. A lot of Twisted got tricks as part of their twists, but my mom wasn’t one of them. She got the odd personality quirks that made her life more difficult, but she hadn’t received any of the special abilities that would have made up for it.

When we arrived at my mom’s house, I slowly climbed out of her car without waiting for her to get the wheelchair for me. My whole body hurt, but I was sure I could walk on my own. Mom looked like she wanted to protest, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she came over and gave me an arm to lean on as we went inside.

It was strange, standing so close to my mom and suddenly realizing that she was taller than me. My mom was only 5 foot 5, so this was a clear reminder of my new status as a pipsqueak.

“Welcome home,” mom said as she let me inside.

I cautiously stepped into the living room, which was clean and without all the clutter I was used to. The room was decorated in a sort of Asian style and had nice hardwood floors. However, there wasn’t nearly as much decoration or furniture as I would have expected.

“I like to meditate in here,” mom told me with a smile. “It helps me to calm down after work.”

After this, mom gave me a brief tour, going slow because I couldn’t walk all that fast at the moment. The house was small, not really any bigger than the one where I lived with my dad, but it was much cleaner and better maintained.

“You’ll be staying in here,” mom told me, showing one bedroom that had obviously been used as a storage room as well. All the clutter from the rest of the house had apparently been put in there because there was a stack of boxes against the wall. “We’ll get this cleaned out for you…”

I nodded at that, then sat down on the edge of my new bed to rest and absorb what was going on. Everything was happening so fast. I could barely believe that my mom, whom I hadn’t seen in six years, had suddenly shown up again, just in time to swoop me out of the hospital and take me to a new home.

“So this is where I’m going to live for now on,” I mused quietly. I shook my head and added, “Now I have one more thing to get used to.”

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

My mom’s back yard was small but very nice, having been formed into her version of a zen garden. The main yard was a rock garden set around a sitting area and a koi point. The whole thing was surrounded by rose bushes and an ivy covered fence that separated it from the neighbors and provided privacy.

Mom told me that she came out here to meditate when the weather was nice, and I could certainly see why. It was calm and peaceful in this little garden, which was also why I’d been sitting out here for the last hour.

I smiled faintly as I stared into the pond and watched the fish. I couldn’t help but feeling a strange contentment at the moment. The fact that I was small and weak didn’t matter, nor did my injuries. Right now, the only thing that mattered was that everything felt so calm and peaceful.

Mom came into the garden but didn’t say anything at first. She waited until she’d reached me before asking, “Are you all right out here?”

“Yeah,” I responded, just a little awkwardly.

I’d moved in with mom yesterday, but things had been a bit awkward between us since then. In spite of our talk at the hospital, six years of separation couldn’t be overcome quite that easily. We’d both changed since then and neither of us was quite sure how to treat each other.

“I was thinking,” mom told me in her usual quiet tone. “We need to get you some new clothes, and you need to get examined by the clinic before you can go back to school.”

I shuddered at the idea of going back to school and letting everyone see me like this. More importantly, I knew that there were a LOT of people at school who hated me and would love the opportunity to do something about it.

“New clothes would be good,” I told her, hardly able to believe that I was actually volunteering to go shopping.

Mom smiled at that, then told me, “I’ll make an appointment to get you checked out at the clinic.”

The two of us went inside the house and I paused to look over the living room. Like the back yard, it had been designed to be another retreat from the world, a place where she could meditate and relax.

I looked at my mom and thought about her twist and how difficult it made her life. She couldn’t stand confrontation or stress, which made it very difficult to interact with most people. Her twist made her a pushover, something that my dad had taken full advantage of. And to my sudden realization, so had I.

As a kid, I’d learned that if I wanted a cookie and my mom said no, all I had to do was ask again more loudly. I’d learned that I could get anything I wanted from my mom just by being pushy. At the time, I hadn’t even realized I was doing it.

“What’s wrong?” mom abruptly asked me with a worried expression. It wasn’t’ until then that I realized that I had tears running down my cheeks.

“It’s my fault,” I blurted out as my tears ran free.

I stared at my mom, suddenly understanding exactly why she’d left me behind and hadn’t come back to see me until I turned into a girl. It must have been horrible, being pushed around not only by her husband but by her own son as well. It was no wonder she hadn’t wanted to be near me.

“What is?” mom asked, taking a step back. She was obviously uncomfortable with the way I’d raised my voice.

“You left me behind because I’m just like him,” I answered shamefully, unable to meet her eyes now that I knew the real reason she hadn’t wanted anything to do with me until now.

“NO,” mom exclaimed, shocking me as she’d raised her voice. She NEVER raised her voice. She was obviously uncomfortable for having done so, since she continued in a quieter tone. “Don’t say that… Please don’t ever say that. You’re nothing like him…”

“But I am,” I protested sadly. “Or at least I was… I used to make you give me cookies…”

Mom stared at me for a moment and then started to laugh. “Any little boy would,” she told me gently, grabbing me and giving me a hug. “It’s not your fault. I never blamed you and that’s not why I didn’t take you with me. You don’t know how many times I wished I had.”

We remained where we were for several minutes with mom just hugging me. It was strange to realize that even though I was seventeen years old, my mom’s hugs were just as comforting as they’d been when I’d been a kid.

“Oh Danny,” mom said gently.

“I…I want a new name,” I told her after we’d stopped hugging. I gestured down at myself self-consciously.

“Danielle,” mom said. “And for short, we can call you Dani…with an I.”

“No,” I responded quietly, tears still coming down my cheeks. “I…I don’t want to be named after HIM anymore.”

Mom gave me another hug and said, “I think I understand.” She pulled away and gently asked me, “Do you know what you want for a new name?”

I shook my head at that and stared at the floor in embarrassment. “No.”

For a moment, mom just stared at me, then she smiled. “I have an idea. How about…Serenity?”

“Serenity?” I repeated, feeling just a little startled by the suggestion.

“It means calm and peaceful,” mom explained.

I stared at her, then looked around her living room, knowing how much that kind of thing meant to her. Then I thought about my old life and how it had been full of anger and frustration. After that, I could use a little serenity.

“I like it,” I admitted, giving mom a self-conscious smile.

Mom looked happy at that, then admitted, “I thought you’d think it was too feminine.”

I nodded at that since she was right. Serenity was a pretty girlie name, but I was a girl now so there was nothing wrong with that.

Then mom let out a sigh and said, “One of these days, your father’s karma is going to catch up to him.”

I blinked at that, then asked, “Karma?” I’d heard the word before but didn’t really know what it meant.

“Karma is,” mom started with a thoughtful look. “It’s the idea that whatever you put out comes back to you. If you’re a good person, then good things will come back to you. But if you’re a bad person, then bad things will come back to you.” She shook her head at that, then admitted, “Your father has built up a lot of bad karma, and one day it’s going to come back to him with a vengeance.”

“Karma,” I whispered, feeling a chill run down my spine. If such a thing really did exist, then I was in trouble as well. Dad wasn’t the only one who’d built up a lot of bad karma.

“Come on Da…Serenity,” mom told me with a gentle smile and another hug. “I’m taking you out to lunch, then we’re going to get you some new clothes.”

Going out to lunch was a little strange since dad’s idea of going out to lunch was stopping at the nearest fast food joint. Mom actually took me to a place where we sat down and had a waitress take our order.

“Isn’t this too expensive?” I hesitantly asked mom.

“Don’t worry about it,” mom told me, seeming amused. “I’m not made of money, but I can afford to treat my daughter to lunch.”

I nodded at that, though I was still a little worried about ordering anything too expensive. Dad always made a big deal about wasting money on anything, or at least, anything other than beer. He never seemed to have a problem spending money on that.

“What do you do?” I asked curiously.

“Nothing very exciting,” mom answered with an amused smile. Of course, she wouldn’t do anything exciting. She wouldn’t be able to handle anything like that. “I mostly do data entry and some claims handling for an insurance company. I have my own office and I do all my work on the computer. Whenever I need to deal with other people, I can usually do it by e-mail.”

“So it doesn’t trigger your…problems,” I said in understanding. Mom just nodded agreement.

We talked quietly for the rest of lunch, though most of our conversation was mom telling me about what she’d been up to for the last six years. She didn’t ask me much about what I’d been doing, though that could be because she already knew. After all, Mrs. Fritz had been keeping her updated. I just hoped that she didn’t know everything because there were a lot of things I’d done that I wasn’t proud of.

Once we were done eating, we went to a large department store that would be a good start for my new wardrobe. And to my surprise, mom immediately started for the lingerie department, saying that she wanted to get the most embarrassing part out of the way first.

I rolled my eyes and followed after mom without saying a word. I didn’t like the idea of wearing a bra or going into this bastion of femininity, but I silently reminded myself that I was a girl now and girls wore bras. I kept that in mind as mom went over my options for bras and panties.

When we left the lingerie section, I was actually wearing my new purchases while mom kept the tags for our final checkout. I tugged at the bra straps.

“It’s a little uncomfortable,” I admitted to mom who was watching with an amused expression. Of course, the act of trying on the bra had been a little painful because of my ribs and the fact that my arm was in a cast and sling, but that wasn’t what I’d been referring to.

“You’ll get used to it,” she assured me. Then she hesitated a moment before admitting, “I was expecting you to complain about having to wear a bra…”

I shrugged at that, trying to act as though this wasn’t a big deal. “I kind of knew it was coming. I mean, ever since…” I gestured down at myself.

After this, we went around the store and picked up some less awkward clothes. We got shirts and socks, then we went to pick out some jeans and slacks. However, I found myself looking over to the next area.

“Are you all right?” mom asked me with a look of concern. “Are your ribs bothering you again?”

My ribs and arm were hurting me, but I shook my head. I couldn’t quite meet my mom’s eyes as I gestured to the other section next to us and hesitantly asked, “Can I…can I get some skirts to? And maybe a dress?”

Mom stared at me in surprise while I just blushed self-consciously. “Of course,” she told me in her quiet voice. “I just wasn’t expecting you to want to wear that kind of thing…”

“I’m a girl now,” I explained with an embarrassed blush, gesturing down at myself. “And girls wear skirts and dresses…”

Mom didn’t say anything for several long seconds. She just stared at me with an odd expression as though she couldn’t quite believe I’d just said that.

“You know,” mom said carefully. “You don’t have to wear dresses or be a girlie girl. You can be a tomboy if you want. You can be whoever you want to be.”

“I know,” I responded awkwardly, not quite able to meet mom’s eyes.

I probably didn’t sound very convincing because she put a hand on my arm. “Don’t let anyone else tell you who you are,” she told me as firmly as she was able to. “That’s something only you can decide.”

I was beginning to tear up again, wishing that she’d told me that years ago. Maybe it would have helped me stand up to dad and avoid becoming the horrible person I’d been.

“But if you really want some skirts and dresses,” mom told me with a smile and a gentle hug, “we can get some.”

Without saying a word, I grabbed mom in a hug. I don’t think she understood just how much it meant to me that she was letting me discover the kind of girl I wanted to be rather than simply telling me the kind I should be.

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

The Spiral Clinic was an important place for every Twisted in Spiral, and its reputation was such that it even drew Twisted visitors from the other side of the country. The clinic contained some of the world’s top experts on twist related medical issues, but even more important for me at the moment, they could examine the newly Twisted and help them discover exactly what their twists entailed.

I’d been at the Spiral Clinic for most of the morning, spending almost two hours just taking some tests on a computer so they could determine what kind of personality changes I may have undergone and whether or not I’d gained any compulsions or obsessions. From what I understood, the shrinks all took this very seriously since some Twisted could become really messed up in the head. Fortunately for me, they concluded that I was mentally stable with no identified compulsions or obsessions.

After the psychological testing and evaluation, they gave me a full physical, including a gynecology exam. I’d been horrified at the discovery I’d have to go through that, though to my surprise, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d feared. They had me strip down and then climb into a machine that looked sort of like a tanning bed, and it did all the scans. There was no need for me to spread my legs and have some stranger poke around inside my new parts.

When the doctor was finished with my examination, I hadn’t been at all surprised by the pronouncement that physically, I was now completely female. I hadn’t even been surprised by the notification that I’d probably start my first period within the next few weeks. I felt a little nauseous when I thought about it, but I wasn’t surprised.

Then we finally came to the part that I was most interested in, when they tested my twist and helped me determine what it could do. I was left in the care of Dr. Rothschild, a short man with some Asian features who was only five feet tall. He had pointed ears and didn’t seem as old as his pure white hair would suggest.

“Have you discovered any tricks so far?” Dr. Rothschild asked me curiously as soon as we were alone.

“I…I can heal people,” I told him, feeling oddly self-conscious and proud about it at the same time. “But I’ve only used it twice…”

“Really?” Dr. Rothschild asked me with a look of interest. “Can you describe exactly what happened each time?”

I nodded, then began telling him about what had happened at the park playground when I’d healed that little boy without even realizing I could. Then I told him about my experience in the hospital, about how I couldn’t heal myself but I had been able to heal the little girl.

“And the real funny thing is,” I added almost as an afterthought. “After I healed her, a lot of my bruises healed up too…”

“I have an idea about that,” Dr. Rothschild told me with a smile. “But let’s doing a little testing first.”

Dr. Rothschild examined me with several odd looking pieces of equipment, then he put some scanners that looked like suction cups onto my skin. Then to my surprise, he put several of the same scanners onto himself.

“I’d like you to try healing this,” he said, right before running a scalpel over his palm and creating a small cut that was already starting to bleed.

I stared at him in surprise, but I reached out and touched his wrist rather than his hand, not wanting to get any of his blood on me. My hand immediately began to glow green and I suddenly felt a stinging sensation on my palm. I didn’t pull my hand back though.

“Holy shit,” I blurted out as the cut on his palm sealed up and vanished right in front of me.

“Very good,” Dr. Rothschild told me with a chuckle. “Now just a moment while I wash the blood off my hand.” After he’d returned from the sink in the corner, he said, “Very nice.”

I stared down at my own hand, then said, “My hand hurt a little while I was doing it…but it went away as soon as you healed.”

Dr. Rothschild nodded at that, then said, “You told me that you felt pain the other times you used your trick… Would that pain happen to correspond to the injuries of the people you healed?”

I thought about it for a moment before realizing he was right. When I’d healed that little boy Jimmy, my leg had hurt for a few seconds, and when I’d healed the girl in the hospital, it felt sort of like I had a bunch of puncture wounds scattered over my body.

Dr. Rothschild looked over his scan results on the computer, then told me, “When you are using your trick, you create a link to the person you are healing and there is a feedback because of this. While linked, you feel their injuries, and some of your own healing energies are reflected back to you.”

“So when I’m healing someone else,” I said in understanding, “I heal myself a little too…” Then I let out a sigh and added, “But it hurts…”

“I fear so,” Dr. Rothschild agreed, giving me a thoughtful look. “I would like to test this a little further, but I’d understand if you don’t want to.”

I stared at him for a moment, shuddering at the idea of intentionally feeling someone else’s pain. However, I was still pretty banged up myself and knew that I could use any extra healing I could get. I nodded my agreement.

“Then please wait here while I see if I can round up some test subjects,” Dr. Rothschild told me before giving an obviously forced mad scientist laugh. I started to laugh at that, though the pain in my side quickly ended that.

I waited in Dr. Rothschild’s examination room for nearly twenty minutes before he returned with two other people. One of them was a man who was moving around on crutches and had a cast on his leg. The other was a middle aged woman, who didn’t appear to have anything wrong with her.

“This is Don, one of our medical technicians,” Dr. Rothschild introduced me to the man on crutches. Then he gestured to the woman and said, “And this is Anne, who keeps everything running.”

“I’m little more than a glorified receptionist,” she said, though she was obviously pleased by what Dr. Rothschild had said about her.

Dr. Rothschild put some of the suction cup scanners on Don and Anne, then told me, “Serenity, I’d like you to try healing Don…”

“I’ll try,” I said, giving Don a weak smile before adding, “Just don’t get your hopes up.”

I sat down on a stool before I reached out to touch Don. As soon as I made contact and my hand began to glow, I felt a throbbing ache all through my leg. Still, I held onto Don for several seconds while the pain receded. Only once the pain was gone did I pull my hand back.”

“My leg feels better,” Don said, rubbing at the cast and then giving me a look of surprise. “Thanks kid.”

I blushed at that, not used to anyone thanking me. “You’re welcome.”

Then turned my attention to Anne, wondering what was wrong with her because I didn’t see any signs of her being hurt. I glanced to Dr. Rothschild, who didn’t say anything. Perhaps this was part of his test, to see if I could heal something when I didn’t know what it was.

As soon as I touched Anne’s hand, I felt a strange weariness hit me, as well as aches all through my body. I gasped in surprise and wanted to yank my hand back, but I continued holding her hand. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but then I felt some of the weariness and aches beginning to fade.

Then I suddenly felt weak and dizzy, but it wasn’t coming from Anne. I collapsed and probably would have hit the floor if Dr. Rothschild hadn’t caught me.

“Are you all right Serenity?” he asked me with a worried look.

“I think so,” I told him, already feeling a little better. “Just…wiped out.”

“I fear I may have pushed you harder than I should,” Dr. Rothschild told me with a gentle smile. “You sit her and rest for a little bit…”

“Thank you for trying,” Anne told me with a sad look.

“What…what’s wrong with you?” I asked, giving her a worried look.

“Cancer,” she answered quietly. “I hope you feel better soon…”

“You to,” I told her, suddenly feeling guilty that I hadn’t been able to heal her the way I had Don.

Dr. Rothschild led Don and Anne out of the room while I sat there waiting again. I closed my eyes and thought about those two people I’d tried helping, feeling happy about the way I’d been able heal Don and sad over not being able to cure Anne.

While I waited, I realized that my own injuries had healed a great deal as well. All my remaining bruises seemed to have faded away, and my ribs no longer bothered me at all. My arm was still ached a little, but it felt a lot better as well.

When Dr. Rothschild came back twenty minutes later, he gave me a gentle smile. “I thought you should know, we X rayed Don’s leg and he’s completely healed. But Anne…”

“I couldn’t cure her,” I said, already knowing that much.

“No,” Dr. Rothschild told me with a sigh. “The cancer is still there, but her body seems healthier and stronger. You may not have cured her cancer, but I think you gave her a much better chance of surviving it.”

“Good,” I said, hoping that she was able to beat it.

Dr. Rothschild looked at his computer again and told me, “I fear that I pushed you too far trying to heal Anne. It seems that you’re only able to use your healing ability so much before it stresses your body too much. I recommend you don’t use your trick again for a day or two, just to make sure you fully recover.”

“Okay,” I told him. “Thank you.”

A few minutes later, I went to the waiting room where I found mom reading a book. There was a guy on the other side of the room who was talking loudly to someone next to him, but his loud volume was obviously making mom uncomfortable.

“How was everything?” mom asked me, obviously eager to leave though she didn’t say anything about that. I was more than happy to leave though so started for the door, much to her relief.

“I’m mostly healed now,” I told her with a self-conscious smile. She gave me a curious look and I added, “It’s a side effect of my trick…”

After this, we went out to lunch and I told mom about my experience in the clinic and what I’d learned about my twist. Of course, she was Twisted herself and knew first-hand how the clinic worked, but she was still interested in what I had to say. It was actually something of a novel experience to have someone actually listening to me that way since dad had never been the kind to do much listening.

We eventually returned home and began cleaning some of the storage boxes out of my new bedroom. “I’m sure I don’t need all of this,” mom told me pleasantly. “And we can find new places for the rest.”

I sat on the edge of my bed, watching mom and slowly rotating my arm. It was no longer broken, or at least not like it had been, but it was still a little tender. Still, I could move it around freely without any real discomfort.

“Now if only I could heal myself directly,” I thought aloud.

Mom gave me an amused smile and pointed out, “You have an absolutely wonderful trick. Not many people can make other people better.”

“I guess,” I responded, though I had to admit that I had felt good after healing the people I had. And I didn’t just feel better physically. After I’d spent years as a thug and a jerk, it was actually nice to help people for a change.

Mom was in the middle of looking through one box when she suddenly froze with an odd look on her face. For several seconds, she continued staring down, then she slowly looked up at me and smiled.

“I believe this belongs to you,” she told me in an oddly cheerful tone.

With that, mom pulled a smaller box out of the one she’d been looking through. This one was long, thin, and narrow, made out of some kind of hard plastic with hinges all along the long side. I accepted the box curiously, wondering what this was and why she was giving it to me.

“What is this?” I asked her curiously, though mom didn’t answer.

I slowly opened the box, then let out a loud gasp of surprise. The inside of the box was covered with a black velvet cloth, but it was what was sitting on the cloth that really caught my attention. It was a beautiful silver flute, just like the one I’d briefly had as a kid.

For a moment, all I could do was stare at the instrument, caught in a wave of mixed emotions. As a child, I’d absolutely loved the flute my mom had given me, but ever since then, the very sight of a flute had been enough to make me wince in remembrance of the beating my dad had given me with it.

“It’s…it’s beautiful,” I told mom, still unable to take my eyes off it. I finally looked up at her and asked, “You mean I can really have it?”

“It’s already yours,” mom told me with a gentle smile, putting her hand on mine. “This is the flute I used to play when I was younger…the same one I gave to you when you were ten.”

I nearly choked at that. “But dad broke it,” I blurted out in surprise.

Mom just smiled and told me, “And I kept the pieces. I know someone whose trick is that he can fix things that are broken…as long as they’re small and inorganic.”

Before I’d even realized it, tears were pouring down my cheeks and I was clutching the box with the flute in it against my chest, as though it was my most prized possession in the world. Then I realized, this was my most prized possession.

“Thank you,” I told mom, giving her a hug. “Thank you…” Then I wiped at my tears and said, “I keep crying like a baby…”

Ever since my twist, I’d been crying a lot, more than I had for the last six years combined. Ever since I’d turned into a girl, the tears seemed to come so easily.

“It’s all right to cry,” mom told me, giving me another gentle hug. “Girls are allowed to cry.”

“I know,” I responded with a self-conscious smile. There was a certain freedom that came with being able to cry just because I wanted to. Then I stared at the flute again and admitted, “I don’t remember how to play…”

“That’s okay,” mom told me with an amused look. “We can practice this afternoon.”

I nodded at that and carefully took the flute out of the box, then I tried to remember how I used to play it. I blew into the hole and listened to the note that came out. This was a long way from actually being able to play, but it was enough to make my heart jump with excitement and giddiness. At that moment, I don’t think I’d ever felt so happy in my life.

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

It was Thursday morning and I was back in school for the first time since my twist. In some ways, it felt like I’d been gone for a lot longer than I actually had been, but that was only because so much had changed for me in that time.

I didn’t want to go back to school just yet, and I thought that it would have made more sense to wait until Monday. However, my mom thought that the sooner I went back to school, the sooner I’d be able to get into a new routine.

Of course, it would have been easy to protest my mom’s decision and make her change her mind, but I wasn’t about to do that to her. I knew my mom was a pushover, but I was determined not to ever take advantage of that again. That wasn’t the kind of person I wanted to be.

So here I was, walking into school while wearing a blouse and skirt that looked very nice on me. It was more feminine than I particularly felt comfortable wearing, but I’d chosen to wear this outfit on my first day back for a very specific reason. I was wearing this as a statement, to myself and everyone else, that I wasn’t ashamed of being a girl.

I took a deep breath as I entered the school building and began walking down the hall. I was used to being one of the tallest people in school, yet now I was one of the shortest. I could barely see down the hallway and knew that I’d have to get used to this.

And as I walked down the hallway, I paid close attention to my surroundings as well as the people who were near me. I was fully aware of the fact that a lot of people in school didn’t like me and would be happy for this chance to get back at me for the way I’d treated them, though I doubt any of them would recognize me just yet. However, that would undoubtedly change before long.

At first, I’d been afraid to come back to school because I knew what to expect from my former victims. I could expect nearly each and every one of them to treat me the same way that I’d treated them…or worse.

But then, I remembered what mom had said about karma. If you did bad things to other people, then bad things would come back to you. And to my shame, I’ve done a lot of bad things. This was just my bad karma coming back at me. Whatever happened, it was just what I deserved.

I adjusted the backpack I had slung over my shoulder, then went into my first period math class. My teacher, Mr. Cormick gave me a blank look until I handed him the letter explaining my situation. Mom had already called the school and told them about my twist, so the letter she sent with me was more of a reminder than anything.

Mr. Cormick stared at me with an expression of surprise and disbelief. Then he gulped and said, “This says your new name is Serenity…?”

“Yes,” I answered, trying not to show my discomfort or embarrassment. After that, I went and sat at my normal seat, ignoring the odd and questioning looks from the other students.

Once class began, Mr. Cormick announced, “Some of you have already noticed the young woman who has joined us today.” He gestured to me and continued, “This is Serenity Jones…formerly Dan Jones before her twist.”

Suddenly, the entire atmosphere of the classroom changed. Everyone was standing up to get a better look at me and I could see a number of my classmates were smirking or outright laughing. It was all I could do just to act as though I hadn’t noticed.

“You look good in a skirt, Dan,” one boy called out while a bunch of others laughed.

I gave a forced smile and responded, “Thank you. And it’s Serenity now, not Dan.”

There were a lot of snickers at that, some aimed at me and some aimed at the boy who’d tried ‘complimenting’ me. But after a minute of that, things calmed down and class went back to normal.

Before long, someone began throwing balls of paper at me from behind. It was an old game and one I was well familiar with, though admittedly, I was usually on the other end of it. I wasn’t sure who was trying to mess with me, nor did I particularly care. I just avoided reacting and eventually they gave up.

When class was over, I began walking to my next class, but one of the kids in the class I’d just left ‘accidentally’ bumped into me and knocked me to the ground. With my small size, it didn’t really take all that much.

I let out a sigh and got back to my feet, noticing that the boy who’d bumped me was already gone. I knew that I’d have to get used to this kind of treatment, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.

“It’s my karma,” I reminded myself with a shake of my head.

I arrived at my second period class a couple minutes later, though it started off almost exactly like my last period had. The teacher was absolutely stunned by my changes while most of the class seemed to find it hilarious. I just did my best to ignore the snickers and whispers behind my back.

After my second period was over, one of my classmates shoved me to the ground again, this time not even waiting for me to leave the classroom. Then he laughed as he left the classroom, taunting, “Oh, did the little girl fall down?”

No one stopped to help me up, not even our teacher, nor did I expect them to. They all knew the kind of person I was, and everyone who saw this probably just assumed that I was merely getting what I deserved. Of course, they were right.

I slung my backpack over my shoulder and left the classroom after everyone else was gone. However, I hadn’t gone down the hallway before I found someone standing in front of me and blocking my way.

Bitchart…Gary stood in front of me with a grim look on his face that made it clear he’d finally learned who I was. I stared up at him, finding it strange to do so now that our height difference had been reversed. I used to be six inches taller than him, but now he was seven inches taller than me.

“You,” Gary started, giving me a look that seemed to be a mixture of anger and surprise, as well as something else that may have been embarrassment for not recognizing me the last couple times we met. “They said you’re really Dan Jones…”

“I go by Serenity now,” I responded calmly, staring at him for several seconds before adding, “I told you that you’d regret being nice to me.”

“Holy shit,” a girl blurted out. “She really is that asshole.”

I briefly glanced at the speaker, whose voice I already recognized. She was the skinny black girl with the empathic trick who often hung out with Gary. I didn’t need to sense emotions the way she did in order to notice the smug satisfaction she felt about my twist.

“That’s quite a twist,” Gary said, as though he couldn’t decide what else to say.

“All right,” I said with a sigh, setting my backpack to the ground and wincing slightly as I did so. I was no longer wearing a cast on my arm, but the arm was still a little tender. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Get what over with?” Gary demanded.

I gave him a flat look. “Here’s your chance to get even with me. Just do it quickly so I can get to class.”

Gary stared at me in surprise, looking almost as though he was offended. “I’d never…”

“Then I will,” the black girl said with a grin. “You might not be able to hit a girl, but I don’t have any problems with that….”

“Alicia,” Gary said, holding his arm out to keep her back.

The black girl…Alicia scowled at Gary, then she glared at me. I met her glare and just stood there waiting.

“She’s not afraid,” Alicia suddenly blurted out, staring at me with a slightly confused look. “Or even worried. She’s just…resigned.”

“If you’re not going to jump me now,” I told Gary as I picked my backpack up again. “I’ve got a class to get to.”

With that, I simply walked around Gary and Alicia and continued to class. However, I knew full well that Gary was following a distance behind me. After all, we both had the same class.

The teacher for my third period class was Mrs. Bonner, a very busty and attractive woman who wore stiletto heels, a short skirt, and a shirt that revealed far too much cleavage. From her looks and clothes, most people would guess that she was a stripper rather than a science teacher. Her appearance and compulsion to dress in sexy outfits were both part of her twist.

Mrs. Bonner stared at me for a moment before asking, “Are you Serenity?”

“Yes,” I responded, handing her the note which she glanced over.

“It seems you lost a great deal of body mass during your twist,” Mrs. Bonner mused as she looked me over. “It’s always fascinating what the Darrington Field can do to a person…” Then she paused and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to seem tactless… I know this must be difficult for you.”

“A little,” I admitted, though I wasn’t going to admit that I was actually kind of happy to be a girl as well.

After this, I took my normal seat while Mrs. Bonner explained who I was to the rest of the classroom, though by this time it was obvious that nearly everyone already knew. There were still some snickers, but Mrs. Bonner quickly brought the room to quiet and began her lecture.

I was aware of the fact that several of my classmates were continuing to stare at me through class, including Gary, but since no one was throwing things at me I didn’t really care. I wasn’t the only person in school to go through a sudden sex change courtesy of their twist, so I knew a lot of the interest would fade away before long. The ones who stayed interested were mostly going to be those with grudges against me.

As soon as class was over, I let out a sigh of relief. It was time for lunch, which had always been my favorite time of the day. Still, the thought of going into the cafeteria like this did make me just a little nervous.

“I might as well get it over with,” I told myself.

The cafeteria was always large and crowded full of people, but now it somehow felt even larger and more crowded. I was used to people moving out of my way when I came through, yet now most people didn’t really notice me. I kept getting bumped around, but I suspected this was mostly due to people just not noticing me rather than to hostility. Mostly.

Once I got my tray of food, I went to an empty table at the far end of the cafeteria and sat there to eat. Then to my surprise, Gary sat down across from me a few minutes later.

Gary didn’t say anything at first, though he obviously wanted to. I just ate in silence, wondering when he was going to start with the insults or taunting.

“You aren’t very good at this,” I finally said. “You should have some insults already picked out. Maybe an obnoxious nickname.”

“What?” Gary asked in surprise. Then he quickly said, “I’m not trying to mess with you…”

I gave him a skeptical look, not believing it for a moment. Out of all the people I used to mess with, Gary had been one of my favorite targets. If anyone had a grudge against me, it was him.

“Oh, you’re playing that game,” I said in realization.

Gary gave me a blank look and asked, “What game?”

I smiled faintly and explained, “The one where you follow me around without actually doing anything. You make sure I keep seeing you, but when you don’t do anything I’m supposed to get more and more worried about when you are going to do something.”

“You actually do that to people?” Gary asked in surprise. His reaction was enough to tell me that I’d guessed wrong about his plan.

Just then, a new voice exclaimed, “You’re eating with HER?”

I looked up to see Alicia approaching. She sat down right beside Gary and then gave me a look as though daring me to do something about it. I just did my best to ignore her and focus on eating.

“She was just giving me advice on how to bully her,” Gary told Alicia wryly.

“What?” Alicia asked in surprise, giving me an odd look. “Did your twist make you a masochist or something?”

I just made a point of continuing to ignore her, which seemed to amuse Gary for some reason. After a minute, he blurted out, “You look a lot better than you did in the hospital.”

I hesitated a moment, remembering how he’d scared off my dad and called the ambulance. I couldn’t help but feeling guilty for how I’d always treated him, especially since he’d even come to see me in the hospital as well. Of course, I knew that he never would have done any of that if he’d known who I was.

“A side effect of my trick,” I finally answered, picking up my nearly empty tray and deciding that I was done. I got full with a lot less food than I used to.

Alicia stared at me with an odd expression as I turned and walked away. Then she bent over and whispered something to Gary that I couldn’t hear.

I went to the garbage can to dump what was left on my tray, but then one girl gave an exaggerated, “Ooops,” before hitting the front of my shirt with the contents of her tray. She and several others burst out laughing while I just stood there, feeling humiliated and wanting to cry.

Girls might be allowed to cry, but I wasn’t going to give her or any of those others the satisfaction of seeing that from me. Instead, I turned and started for the nearest bathroom so I could get cleaned off.

“I still have a lot of bad karma to burn off,” I told myself in resignation, knowing that it wasn’t going to be easy.

Then I thought about the fact that lunch wasn’t even over and I still had half a day to go. For a moment, I felt depressed about that, but then I reminded myself that things could be worse. I could still be stuck as a guy, living under my dad’s rules and adding to all my bad karma. With that in mind, I was almost smiling by the time I reached the bathroom.

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

I was stopped in the school hallway while walking between my second and third period class, wondering if this was going to be some kind of trend. After all, yesterday, Gary had stopped me in the hallway at about the same time.

The boy who’d stopped me was short and skinny, with a pair of thick glasses that really helped to make him look like a stereotypical nerd. He was only a couple inches taller than I was, but that still made him bigger than me and he obviously wanted to use that advantage.

“You aren’t such a big man now, are you?” the boy demanded of me with a smirk.

I dropped my backpack to the ground and let out a faint sigh. I didn’t even know who this kid was and was pretty sure that I’d never picked on him. However, that obviously didn’t matter to him.

“People like you make me sick,” the boy exclaimed. “Always picking on people who are smaller and weaker than you…”

“Let me guess,” I responded with a wry smile. “You get bullied a lot and decided to take it out on me since I’m small enough for you to beat.”

The boy glared at me angrily, making me sure that I’d guessed right. He didn’t have anything against me personally, just bullies in general. And to be honest, I couldn’t really blame him for targeting me. It wasn’t really much different than what I’d done every time dad went off on me.

“Just get it over with,” I said.

The boy shoved me hard, knocking me back against the wall. Several other students were gathering to watch. One of the boys looked like was about to say something, but another one pulled him back and said something to him that I couldn’t hear. However, from his expression, I could guess what it was.

“Come on Tommy,” someone called out. “Teach that punk a lesson…”

“It isn’t right for a boy to beat up a girl,” one guy said, “Even if she used to be a guy…”

“Yeah,” someone else responded, “But this is more like a fight between two girls…”

There were snickers at that which obviously angered the boy who was attacking me. The boy, who someone had called Tommy, glared at me as though it was my fault that they were teasing him. Perhaps in his mind it was.

Tommy punched at me, but he was clumsy and obviously not very good at fighting. I moved to the side and avoided his attack. I could easily have punched him back, catching him in the face while he was unguarded. However, I hesitated to do so. I was sick and tired of hurting other people.

Tommy came swinging at me again, throwing a series of wild punches. I couldn’t get away from all of them so several made contact. I was just glad that he didn’t know how to really put any force behind it.

“I hate jerks like you,” Tommy yelled. “Always picking on people smaller than you…”

He was about to make another charge at me when someone called out, “Isn’t that what you’re doing now? Picking on someone smaller than you?” I already recognized the voice before I even turned to see who the speaker was. It was Gary.

“This is different,” Tommy blurted out angrily.

“I’m sure it is,” Gary responded sarcastically. “I mean, beating up a girl is so much different…”

Tommy glared at me and spat out, “You’re getting off easy this time,” before he hurried away. The crowed almost immediately began to disperse once they saw the fight was over.

I stared at Gary suspiciously, wondering why he’d interfered. Sure, he’d interfered when my dad was beating the crap out of me, but that was before he knew who I was.

“Hurry up or you’re going to be late for class,” Gary said, already starting down the hall.

“What is it with this guy?” I asked, sure that he was trying to mess with me somehow, though I couldn’t quite see how. I shook my head and picked up my backpack, then followed after him to class.

When lunch finally came around, I grabbed my food and once again found an empty table at the far end of the cafeteria. And like yesterday, Gary sat down across from me without an invitation.

“Why do you keep following me around?” I asked him almost pleasantly while I ate.

Gary hesitated a moment, then admitted, “I’m just trying to make sense of you...”

“What’s to make sense of?” Alicia asked as she sat down beside Gary and gave me an accusing look. “He’s a major asshole…”

“Dan was,” Gary said, giving me an odd look. “But this is Serenity.” Then he told me, “I saw the way you helped that boy at the playground. Dan would never do that. I think you got a big personality change as part of your twist.”

I didn’t say anything at first, though I was uncomfortable with that topic. “Is that why you stopped Tommy from beating on me earlier?” I finally asked. Then I teased, “Or are you just planning on saving me for yourself…”

“I…I wouldn’t,” Gary protested while Alicia began laughing.

“I think she’s just joking,” Alicia told him, giving me an odd look as though she couldn’t quite believe it herself.

“So why were you always picking on me?” Gary asked with a scowl. He stared at me and demanded, “What did I ever do to you?”

I felt guilty as I thought about that, as well as disgust at myself and the kind of person I was. I was trying to be better, but that didn’t change the past or the things I’d done.

Alicia was staring at me with a look of surprise, which reminded me that she had the ability to sense emotions. I tried to control my emotions as much as I could.

“It was nothing personal,” I finally said. “People are like animals. You have to show dominance to rise in the social hierarchy. You’re either the one being pushed around or the one doing the pushing.”

“That’s fucked up,” Alicia blurted out.

Gary stared at me for a moment before saying, “You have issues.”

I just shrugged at that, though I didn’t really believe that nonsense either. That was my dad speaking, the kind of thing that he told me over and over again. I’d sometimes used that to rationalize my behavior, though it never really made me feel better about it.

Gary and Alicia talked for the rest of lunch, occasionally trying to pull me into the conversation, though I didn’t say anything. By the time I got up to leave, they were acting almost as though I was one of their friends, which I found rather awkward.

Fourth period was PE, which I’d learned yesterday, was quite different from what I was used to. I used to be the biggest person in class, but now I was the shortest. That meant I was suddenly the very last person picked for the basketball game we played.

I didn’t bother running back and forth after the ball and instead took my time. The PE teacher Coach Rydell seemed annoyed by this, but that was no surprise since she took sports too seriously. However, she was sympathetic enough that she didn’t actually say anything to me. I didn’t expect that to last much longer though.

One of the girls chased after the person who had the ball, then she had a nasty grin on her face before she ran into me and knocked me into my ass. “Sorry,” she said with a smirk. “I didn’t see you there…”

“Someone should throw the ball to short stuff,” someone else called back with a laugh. Unfortunately, the speaker was the shortest boy in class, someone I used to tease about his lack of height.

Several minutes later, someone did throw the ball at me…while my back was turned. I was hit between my shoulder blades hard enough to make me stagger, yet not quite enough to knock me over.

“Pay attention, short stuff,” the girl who’d previously run me over giggled.

I looked to Susan, who obviously had a grudge against me, and wondered why I’d ever asked her out. I used to have a bit of a thing for her, but then I made the mistake of asking her on a date. She’d not only turned me down, but she’d done so in a particularly insulting manner, then laughed about it with her friends.

I grimaced as I remembered how humiliated I’d been, and admittedly, I hadn’t taken it very well. As I’d been told countless times, a real man didn’t let anyone get away with embarrassing him like that. A real man didn’t take no for an answer. A real man took action. Because of that, I’d gotten a bit pushy with her. At the time, I’d told myself that I was just doing what I had to, yet now I realized that my behavior was nothing but sexual harassment.

Of course, I hadn’t messed with Susan in months, but she obviously didn’t care. It seemed that forgive and forget weren’t in her vocabulary and she was more than happy to take advantage of my new status.

“Oh Serenity,” Susan teased. “Where did all your athletic skills go?”

“The same place her dick went,” another girl added.

“Enough of that,” Coach Rydell snapped. “If you have enough energy to make fun of someone who just went through her twist, you have enough energy to run laps.”

The rest of the class wasn’t as bad for me, though the same thing couldn’t be said for Susan who had to run some laps around the gym. Then class ended and I had to go into the girl’s locker room to wash and change.

Yesterday when I’d gone into the locker room, half the girls had given me suspicious looks, as though they hadn’t quite believed I was now a real girl. I caught several of them sneaking peaks when I was taking my shower, though I acted as though I hadn’t.

I undressed and went to the furthest shower and did my business as quickly as I could. Most of the other girls now seemed to accept that I was a girl as well, though a couple of them kept giving me dirty looks.

When I returned to my locker, I discovered that my clothes were missing. There was no need to guess who took them as I heard Susan laughing as she raced out of the locker room.

“Damn,” I muttered, plopping down on the bench and just sitting there with my towel wrapped around me.

“Why aren’t you getting dressed?” one girl asked me.

“Someone took her clothes,” another girl answered with a laugh. “Susan just raced out of here with them.” Several of the girls seemed to think that was pretty funny, but to my surprise, a couple of the others didn’t.

“That’s just wrong,” a girl named Vanessa exclaimed, looking offended. She gave me a sympathetic look and said, “I’ve got a spare outfit you can borrow, but I don’t think it will fit you…”

I stared at Vanessa, who had to be at least 5 foot 8. I nodded agreement since there was absolutely no way I’d be able to wear anything she had.

“Thanks for the offer thought,” I told her, sincerely appreciating it.

“I think I might be able to find you something to wear,” a girl named Amy said thoughtfully.

Amy got dressed in a hurry and then raced out of the locker room. Vanessa and a couple of the other girls talked amongst themselves to see if anyone had any ideas of where they could get spare clothes that might fit me.

“Maybe borrow some from a kindergarten,” one girl suggested with a laugh.

She earned a glare from Vanessa, who asked, “How would you like to get out of the shower and find your clothes missing?”

“Yeah,” another girl added. “This sets a bad precedent.”

A few minutes later, most of the girls had already left the locker room. Vanessa was dressed and staying behind, but I noticed that she kept glancing at the clock.

“Don’t worry about me,” I told her with a sigh. “You don’t want to be late for your next class…”

Just then, Amy came back into the locker room and exclaimed, “Look what I’ve got…” She held up a bundle of my clothes. “I found where Susan ditched them…”

“Thank you so much,” I exclaimed, happily taking my clothes and beginning to get dressed. “I really didn’t want to have to call my mom so she could bring me new clothes…”

“No problem,” Amy told me, giving me a sympathetic look. “I figure you must have a hard enough time as it is right now.”

I nodded at that. “Being a girl isn’t the hard part,” I admitted self-consciously. “It’s everything else.”

“I can’t imagine what I’d do if I turned into a boy,” Amy said with a visible shudder. “Ick… I hope that when I do go through my twist, it isn’t anything like that…”

“The fact that you’re worrying about it probably means it won’t be,” Vanessa told her.

With that, the two remaining girls wished me luck, then hurried off to their next class. I got dressed as quickly as I could, but I knew that I was going to be late anyway.

“From now on,” I muttered to myself, “I’m bringing some extra clothes…” I let out a sigh and thought about how I’d gotten food dumped on me yesterday in the cafeteria. “Definitely extra clothes…”

Once I was dressed, I started down the now nearly empty hallway to get to my next class. I was halfway there when I heard some thumps and laugher from one of the side hallways. I hesitated a moment and then went to look.

As soon as I looked down the hallway, I saw two guys picking on a third one. I knew one of the bullies from my time on the football team, and definitely knew the second one as well. The two of us would sometimes hang out at lunch, and to my shame, we’d mess with smaller kids.

The two bullies had just finished with their victim and walked away, laughing at what they’d done. I watched them with a mixture of anger and guilt, knowing that just last week I would have done the exact same thing. Both of them were thugs, just like me.

I turned my attention to the victim, a slender boy with bad acne. I’d seen the kid around school but didn’t really know him. He was a lower grade than me, and though I knew he would have made a good victim, I don’t remember ever having messed with him.

“Are you all right?” I asked the boy, going and helping to his feet. Then I noticed that he had a bloody nose and the beginning of a black eye. “Ouch…”

“Yeah,” he muttered, obviously ashamed of having been pushed around like that. “Just embarrassed.”

I nodded at that, feeling another knot of guilt over the way I’d done almost the exact same thing to Gary and others. Then on an impulse, I reached out and touched the boy. My hand began to glow green and I felt as though my face was bruised again. However, the discomfort only lasted for several seconds.

“What did you just do?” the boy demanded, looking worried.

I looked him over, noticing that not only were his bloody nose and black eye healed, but his acne had faded away as well. I smiled faintly at that, feeling pleased that I was actually able to help someone.

“I didn’t do nearly enough,” I told him honestly, before I turned and started back towards my next class.

“Who are you?” he called after me.

“Call me Serenity,” I responded, not bothering to look back.

I was definitely late arriving to my next class, but I didn’t really care much. I was still thinking about the boy I’d healed. After all the times I’d hurt boys like him, there was something strangely nice about helping him instead. What I’d done hadn’t been much, but it had been enough to put me in a good mood for the rest of the day.

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

The backyard zen garden was calm and peaceful, though at the moment it was hardly quiet. I sat there practicing with my flute, just as I’d been doing for several hours a day since mom had returned it to me.

After having a rough day at school on both Thursday and Friday, I came home and tried to relax in the back yard. Just sitting there was relaxing enough and I could definitely see why mom liked doing the same thing. However, I found it even more satisfying to play the flute, or at least try playing it.

Mom had shown me everything that she remembered from her time playing the flute and I’d even looked up some lessons online. I’d figured out many of the basics, though it was quite obvious that I had a long way yet to go before I could really play.

At the moment, it was a nice quiet Sunday afternoon, which meant that I had almost all day to practice if I wanted. I sat there with my computer tablet in front of me, reviewing some of the lessons and practicing what they showed me.

“You’re sounding better,” mom said as she came out and joined me.

“I can go if you need some time alone,” I told her, knowing that she liked to meditate when it was quiet.

“I’m fine,” she assured me with an amused smile. “Actually, listening to you play is rather peaceful.”

I knew mom was exaggerating, but I appreciated the effort. “I don’t think I’ve ever been called peaceful before…”

“Well, your name is Serenity,” she reminded me with a chuckle.

“Serenity,” I said, feeling just a little self-conscious. “I like it, but I wonder if I’ll ever get used to having a new name.”

There were times when people called me by my new name and for a moment I didn’t even remember that it was my name. I was so used to being Dan that I had a hard time imagining that I’d ever get that used to another name.

“I know this is still new to you,” mom said, giving me a gentle hug. “But you’ll get used to this.” Then she joked, “And before long, you’ll forget you were ever anyone but Serenity.”

“That isn’t going to happen,” I told her with a smile, no matter how much I might wish it did.

With that, I carefully wiped the fingerprints off my flute and put it away in the box. “I think I’m done for now,” I told her, deciding to give her a chance to meditate alone in the garden for awhile. “I’m going to go for a walk.”

A few minutes later, I slipped out of the house by myself, curious to take a better look around the neighborhood. Ever since I moved in with mom, I’ve wanted to do a little exploring.

I slowly walked around the block, taking my time and looking at every house. It was actually a nice neighborhood, though I thought it could probably use a nice park. It was strange to realize that I actually missed the park near my old house, even though I went years without actually going there.

“It would be a nice place to practice the flute,” I mused to myself.

Of course, I doubted that I’d ever go to that park again. Not only was it a little too close to my dad for my comfort, but the last time I’d been there had been…rough. I’ve even had a couple nightmares about it.

After I’d circled the block and was only a few houses down from home, I suddenly heard someone call out, “Serenity.”

I stopped in surprise and then looked around, finally seeing Alicia standing in the driveway of one house. She had a remote control in her hand and a little RC race car sitting by her feet. She was also staring at me with a look of surprise.

“It is you,” Alicia said, giving me a somewhat suspicious look as she walked towards me. “What are you doing around here?”

For a brief moment, I thought about giving a smartass answer, but then I shrugged and told her, “I live down there.” I pointed down the street.

“Really?” Alicia asked, still looking skeptical. “I think I would have noticed you here before…”

“Except I just moved in a few days ago,” I pointed out.

Alicia stared at me for a moment before apparently deciding that I was telling the truth. Then she seemed to relax just a little, making me wonder if she thought I was going to jump her or something. Even if I did, I still wouldn’t be much of a threat to her.

“Did it have something to do with you getting beat up?” Alicia abruptly asked.

“What?” I asked awkwardly.

“Gary told me how some guy put you in the hospital,” Alicia said awkwardly. “Does that have something to do with why you moved?”

I winced at the question and the memories it brought back. I nodded faintly, hardly able to believe I was admitting even this much to her. “Something.”

“Is it true that Gary helped you?” she asked me.

I nodded again. “Obviously, he didn’t know who I was or he would have taken pictures instead.”

Alicia glared at me and snapped, “Gary wouldn’t do that. He isn’t like…”

“Like me?” I asked her, once again feeling guilty for everything I’d done.

Alicia just stared at me for a moment before saying, “You really do feel bad about picking on him…”

“Don’t use your trick on me,” I snapped at her in annoyance.

“I…I can’t turn my trick off,” Alicia admitted self-consciously. “I feel everyone’s emotions whether I want to or not.” I started to turn and walk away, but she exclaimed, “Wait… You really aren’t the person you used to be, are you?”

I hesitated at that, then looked at her again before asking, “Does it really matter?”

“Gary thinks it does,” Alicia responded with a thoughtful look. “He doesn’t think it’s fair to blame you for what you did before your twist.”

“And what about you?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, giving me an odd look. “But you’re obviously not the same person you were. I mean, before your twist all I ever felt from you was anger and resentment… Now… Now you feel completely different. Even when everyone is messing with you at school, you don’t feel angry. Maybe a bit annoyed, but that’s about it.”

“It doesn’t matter if I’ve changed or not,” I admitted quietly. “I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of and now I have to pay the consequences.” I gave her a wry smile and said, “It’s a karma thing.“

Alicia stared at me for a moment with an odd expression, probably reading my emotions again. It was kind of annoying when she did that, but if she couldn’t turn it off… I couldn’t imagine what it would be like having to listen to everyone else’s emotions all the time. I couldn’t help but feeling just a little sorry for her.

“Hey,” Alicia abruptly asked, “Want to try out my RC car?” She held up the remote and the remote control car that she’d left in her driveway drove over to us.

“I thought girls were supposed to like stuff like dolls and makeup,” I commented as I accepted the remote control from her.

“You have a lot to learn about being a girl,” Alicia told me with a smirk. “Well, I suppose someone has to teach you…” And with that, she gave me a friendly grin.

After this, Alicia and I just played with her remote control car and talked, though we avoided getting too personal. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d just hung out with someone my own age and had fun, and I certainly never would have expected to do it with Alicia. When it finally came time for me to leave and go home, I was in quite a good mood and secretly hoped that we could do something like this again.

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

Monday mornings are almost never pleasant, and this one had started off much the way I would have expected. I’ve already been tripped twice and shoved into a wall, and this was all before second period.

“All right class,” my second period English teacher announced. “Today we’re having the quiz on everything you learned last week…”

I groaned at that and dropped my head to my desk. English wasn’t my best subject in the first place, and then I’d been out of school for more than half of the week last week. This quiz was not going to go well for me.

While I was waiting for the tests to be passed out, I listened in on some conversations between my classmates. Dave Morgan had his wrist wrapped up in bandages and was telling one of his friends about it.

“I pulled something in my wrist,” Dave was saying. “I tore a ligament or something. The doctor says I’ll probably need surgery…”

“Shit,” the other boy exclaimed. “But what about the baseball game on Friday…”

I glanced over to Dave and scowled, remembering our time together on the football team. It hadn’t been pleasant since we couldn’t stand each other. In fact, it was after a fight with Dave that I finally got kicked off the football team.

“Everyone pay attention,” the teacher called out. “You have fifteen minutes to complete this quiz. Go.”

With that, I turned my attention back to the quiz sheet that had been passed out and went to work. As I’d feared, there were a lot of questions on there that I didn’t know the answer to but I did my best. After the quiz was over and they were graded, I was a little surprised by the results. I hadn’t done very well, but I had done better than I’d expected.

When class was over, I looked over at Dave again and sighed. Without a word, I started towards him.

“What do you want…Danielle?” Dave teased as I approached. He’d put more than a little emphasis on ‘Danielle’.

“My name is Serenity,” I corrected him as I out and touched his arm.

I felt a sharp pain in my wrist, though I grimaced until it faded away. Then I let out a sigh of relief and turned around to go get my backpack from my desk. As I hurried out the room, I glanced back at Dave, who was bending his bandaged wrist and staring at it in surprise.

To my relief, I was able to make it to third period without anyone trying to stop me in the hall. However, as soon as I stepped into the classroom, I found Gary standing right beside me.

“I heard about what you did for that kid on Friday,” Gary immediately said, making me blink in confusion until I realized that he must be referring to the boy I’d healed.

“You can’t believe everything you hear,” I pointed out.

“Maybe,” he agreed. “But I think I do this time. You healed him, just like you did that kid at the park…”

“It’s not a big deal,” I muttered, feeling self-conscious.

“Well, I think it was really nice,” Gary told me with a grin. “And I think that skirt looks really nice on you…”

With that, he blushed brightly and hurried away to his desk while I stared down at myself and blushed as well. This was the first time someone had actually given me a sincere compliment about my looks, and I wasn’t sure how to handle it. However, for some reason, I actually felt rather pleased by it.

I went to my seat but glanced across the room to where Gary was sitting. I blushed again and shook my head, deciding that he was just trying to mess with me. That was the only explanation.

“All right class,” Mrs. Bonner called out. “We’re going to have a quiz…”

“Not another one,” I groaned, dropping my head to my desk. “Mondays suck.”

When lunch arrived, I got my food and began looking for a place to sit. Alicia called my name and waved to catch my attention. I was a little startled by the invitation, but after we’d hung out yesterday, I decided to accept it.

“Hey Serenity,” Alicia greeted me as I sat down.

“Careful,” I warned her with a smile. “People might actually start thinking you like hanging out with me.”

“Heaven forbid,” Alicia said with a look of mock horror that made me laugh.

A minute later, Gary came and sat down with us as well. He had his art pad with him and paused to give me a worried look, as though expecting me to tease him about it. When I didn’t say anything, he relaxed.

“What are you working on this time?” Alicia asked Gary.

Gary gave me another hesitant look before opening the art book and showing Alicia. She looked it over and seemed impressed.

“Pretty nice,” Alicia told him.

Alicia held up the picture so I could see it, which obviously made Gary a little uncomfortable. It was a pencil sketch of a landscape which was actually very well done.

“It’s good,” I told Gary, who seemed surprised at that.

“I thought only girls drew pictures,” Gary said, teasing me with the words I’d used to taunt just a few hours before my twist.

“And kids,” I corrected him with a faint smile. “But in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m a girl now and girls are allowed to appreciate nice things.”

“Thanks…I think,” Gary responded while Alicia snickered.

“She really likes it,” Alicia assured him. Then she added, “And did I mention that she lives down the street from me?”

“I thought you lived near me,” Gary said, giving me a curious look. “I mean, I saw you at that park a couple times…”

“Yeah,” I responded quietly, suddenly feeling depressed as I remembered why I’d had to move. “I lived there…”

“Are you okay?” Alicia asked me with a worried look, obviously picking up on my emotions.

Gary looked at Alicia, then at me. An expression of understanding crossed his face. After a few seconds, he cautiously asked, “Who was that guy…?”

Gary didn’t need to specify which guy. I winced and noticed that Alicia did too.

“My dad,” I answered quietly while Gary let out a gasp of surprise. I gave a forced smile and added, “He didn’t exactly approve of my turning into a girl.”

“Holy shit,” Gary exclaimed staring at me with a look of horror. “Your own dad put you in the hospital…?”

“It wasn’t the first time,” I said with a shrug, trying to play it off as though it wasn’t a big deal. Gary just stared at me with a look of pity.

Alicia grabbed me in a hug and said, “No wonder you were always so angry…”

I was getting uncomfortable with the attention, so Alicia pulled away and began flipping through Gary’s art book, making comments about his different sketches. I appreciated the change of topic, which was obviously why she’d done it.

The rest of lunch was a little less awkward as they avoided poking at my emotional soft spots. I was grateful for that and happy to just focus on eating and admiring Gary’s drawing. I had to admit that he was pretty talented, which only made me feel worse for teasing him about it.

After lunch, I went to PE, which used to be my easiest class but which had become much more challenging since my twist. And of course, Susan seemed to make it her personal mission to make it even more difficult for me.

When PE was over, I went to the locker room and took a quick shower. Fortunately, Susan hadn’t tried taking my clothes again, though I suspected that this was due to some of the other girls keeping an eye on them.

“Watch your back around Susan,” Vanessa told me. “She has it out for you.”

“You think?” Amy asked with a smirk. “I think stealing Serenity’s clothes was a good clue.”

I just smiled as I dried off and got dressed. “Unfortunately,” I told them, “I’m not the only one Susan has it out for. I can understand why she’s after me, but I’m pretty sure Jarrod never did anything to her.”

Jarrod was one of the boys we were in PE with, a fairly short and skinny guy who was less than athletic. Of course, I couldn’t really call him short anymore, but he was shorter than average. Still, he was a nice guy, but for some reason, Susan seemed to dislike him nearly as much as she did me.

“Damn,” I muttered, feeling guilty since I’d picked on Jarrod a few times myself.

“Jarrod is such a nice guy,” Amy said, though I knew what she really meant. He was the kind of guy who she could talk to without feeling threatened, but she didn’t consider him boyfriend material.

I hesitated for a moment, then decided that I owed Jarrod for the way I used to treat him. “He might not be much to look at,” I commented with a faint smile. “But I’ve seen him in the showers. He’s packing a little extra under the hood, if you know what I mean.”

“Really?” Vanessa asked, suddenly looking interested.

Amy and several of the other girls nearby suddenly had looks of surprise and interest as well. I didn’t need to say anything more since I could see the wheels turning in their minds.

“If nothing else,” I mused to myself, “this should help improve his reputation.”

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

Third period had just ended so I was making my way towards the cafeteria for lunch. Gary was walking with me, which still amazed me since the two of us had sort of become friends. After all the times I’d messed with him, I never would have imagined that. I still didn’t understand why he didn’t hate me for it.

I kept glancing at Gary as we walked, trying to make sense of him. He looked just the way he always had, but somehow he seemed a lot different. Of course, I no longer thought of him as short since he now seemed fairly tall from my new perspective, but that wasn’t it either.

“Are you okay?” Gary asked me, looking concerned.

“I’m fine,” I assured him, blushing brightly as I looked away, though I wasn’t sure why.

Suddenly, a boy ran past us down the hallway, tripped over his own feet and slid face first across the floor. On top of that embarrassment, he was also wearing a pink sweater.

“Are you okay?” I asked the boy, helping him to his feet.

“Um…thanks,” he said, giving me an embarrassed look.

“Maybe you should try slowing down a bit,” I told him with a gentle smile.

“Thanks again,” he said before he hurried off again. At the pace he was going, I was pretty sure that he was going to fall again. I just shook my head at that.

“That was…strange to watch,” Gary said. “I half expected you to go off on him for wearing pink…”

I just winced at that, knowing that before my twist, I would have. Not long ago, I would have felt obliged to mock him for wearing pink and for being such a spaz. I probably would have made the lesson either painful or humiliating enough that it would stick in his memory.

“I don’t have to do that anymore,” I quietly told myself even as my good mood deflated. “I don’t have to be that person anymore…”

With that, I looked down at myself, at my cute female body and even the skirt I was wearing today. The old Dan would never be allowed to wear something as girlie as this, so it was a clear reminder that I wasn’t him anymore.

“Are you okay?” Gary asked me, putting a hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah,” I responded with a grin, already feeling much better. “I’m better than okay. I’m free…”

“What are you talking about?” Gary asked me with a blank look that just made me giggle.

“Don’t worry about it,” I told him with a broad grin. “And hurry up slowpoke. I’m hungry…”

But then, I suddenly found someone blocking my path…again. I looked up and up, not at all surprised to see Mitch Harris standing there with a deep scowl on his brutish face. I knew that I’d run into him sooner or later, especially after I’d seen him bullying that boy last Friday.

“Hello Mitch,” I said to my old friend, though he’d never really been a friend. He’d just been another thug, just like me. Staring up at him like this put a knot in my stomach because it was almost like looking at my old self.

“I heard you turned into a little girl,” Mitch exclaimed with a snort of contempt. “You really are little… And damn, you’re even wearing a skirt. What a fag…”

“I’m a girl,” I pointed out pleasantly. “Girls can wear skirts.”

“Leave her alone,” Gary said, trying to put himself between me and Mitch.

I stared at Gary in surprise, hardly able to believe that he was trying to protect me…again. And this time, he knew exactly who I was. I couldn’t but feel…happy.

“Shut up loser,” Mitch said, shoving Gary aside. “I’m not talking to you…”

“Gary,” I exclaimed in worry, realizing the irony of the situation. I’d shoved Gary around more times than I could count, and now I was getting angry that someone else had just done it.

Mitch grabbed hold of me, suddenly reminding me a great deal of my dad. He slowly began to grin as he realized that I really wasn’t able to fight back anymore. I was sure that the idea of having me, someone he used to consider a peer but who was now powerless against him, was incredibly exciting. It had to give him such a feeling of power. I wish I could hate him for it, but I couldn’t. I understood all too well.

I met Mitch’s eyes and didn’t flinch. As frightening as this was, I’d been on the other end of it and knew exactly how things would work out. I wasn’t going to cry or beg.

“Just get it over with,” I told Mitch, which seemed to startled him.

“I said leave her alone,” Gary exclaimed angrily, though I knew this would only get him beaten up.

Suddenly, a new voice demanded, “Put her down.”

“Who’s gonna make me?” Mitch responded with a sneer, only to look at the speaker and gasp in surprise.

A large boy punched Mitch in the face, making him let me go as he was knocked back. Mitch snarled, only to get punched a second time.

“Don’t you even think of touching her again,” Dave Morgan announced, glaring at Mitch. Two of his friends stood beside him, making it clear that they’d be happy to join in if Mitch didn’t back off.

“That little bitch ain’t worth this,” Mitch said before he hurried away, wiping at his bloody nose.

“Are you okay?” Dave asked me, actually looking concerned.

“Um…yeah,” I responded, surprised that he was the one who’d come to my rescue. After the way we used to fight while on the football team, I would have expected him to be the one messing with me. “Thanks…”

“No problem,” Dave told me with a grin. “And thanks for fixing my wrist…” He held up the wrist that I’d healed Monday and made a show of flexing it before he walked off.

I just stared at Dave, suddenly wondering if this was an example of good karma. I’d healed his wrist just because he was hurt, not because I was expecting anything in exchange. But I had gotten something good back from it anyway.

“But I don’t deserve it,” I whispered to myself, knowing that I still had a lot of bad karma to deal with.

“Are you okay?” Gary asked me, glaring in the direction Mitch had taken off in.

“Just a few more bruises,” I answered, rubbing at my arm where Mitch had grabbed me. I gave him a smile and said, “Thanks for trying to help.”

“I don’t like seeing people get picked on by bullies,” he responded awkwardly.

I nodded at that, then said, “For what it’s worth…I’m really sorry for the way I used to treat you.”

Gary stared at me with a look of surprise while I turned and started back towards the cafeteria. He quickly caught up with me and we continued to lunch together.

Alicia was already sitting down and waved us to join her. She gave me an odd look, then asked, “What’s going on?”

“Someone tried jumping Serenity,” Gary said, then explained what had happened.

I just ate in silence, not saying a word though I occasionally nodded agreement to confirm what Gary said. He played up his part in things, but I didn’t contradict him. I don’t think I needed to as Alicia gave him skeptical looks, though she didn’t say anything either.

Once Gary was finished, he exclaimed, “Mitch was actually lifting Serenity off the ground by her arm, and she didn’t even seem afraid of him. She gave him this look, almost as though she was bored…”

“Wait a minute,” Alicia said, giving me another odd look. “If you nearly got your ass kicked by someone three times your size, why are you so happy?”

“Because I didn’t get my ass kicked?” I responded with a chuckle.

The truth was, I didn’t think Alicia could understand why I was really so happy. For most of my life, I had to face things on my own without anyone helping me. After my mom left, there was no one to stop my dad when he got angry. There was no one who’d watch my back.

But since I’d gone through my twist, Gary had had come to my rescue three times, or at least he’d saved me twice and tried to do so for a third time. And of course, Dave had saved my butt a short time ago. Two people who had every reason to hate me had actually protected me. It was a strange yet happy feeling to realize that other people were actually willing to help me.

I stared at Gary, realizing that he had a lot more courage than I’d ever given him credit for before my change. He was brave, and kind, and talented… I blushed and looked away before he caught me staring.

I looked to Alicia, only to notice that she was staring at me. “What?” I asked self-consciously.

“Nothing,” she quickly responded, smirking as she said it.

“Okay,” I said slowly, giving her a curious look and wondering why she continued to smirk.

Once we were done eating, Gary hurried of to his next class, and as I was about to do the same, Alicia put a hand on my shoulder. “You know, Gary and I have been best friend since second grade,” she told me pleasantly. “We’ve known each other a long time, but we aren’t dating or anything. That would actually be pretty weird…”

“Okay,” I said, wondering why she was telling me this.

“See you later,” Alicia told me before she hurried off, leaving me to shake my head before going to PE.

Several hours later, I was sitting in seventh period history, staring down at the quiz that my teacher had set in front of me. There were groans from around the room as no one likes getting hit with a surprise quiz.

Mrs. Preston was our teacher, and though she almost fifty years old, she only looked like she was twenty. This was part of her twist, which seemed to have either slowed down or stopped her aging process.

Normally, the idea of a teacher who looked only a few years older than us might have been interesting, but she made it perfectly clear that she wasn’t our age. For one thing, she dressed in frumpy clothes that were more appropriate to her real age than her apparent age, and for another, she was on the plain side of cute.

“You may begin your quizzes,” Mrs. Preston announced.

I let out a sigh, remembering quite clearly that I was out of school for three days last week. I was pretty sure that guaranteed I’d miss a few of these questions, but it was too late to do anything about that now.

As I took my quiz, I was a little startled to realize that I knew the answer to every question. I frowned at that, not quite sure what to do. Normally, I’d make sure to miss enough questions that I wouldn’t get too good a grade and come off looking like a nerd.

For most of my life, and especially over the last few years, dad would get mad whenever I got good grades. It was as though I somehow threatened him by doing better than he ever could have.

“But I don’t have to worry about that anymore,” I reminded myself smugly.

After the quizzes were collected and corrected, Mrs. Preston looked at me and said, “Serenity, you have the only perfect score today. Congratulations.”

Then she gave me a curious look, probably wondering if my twist had made me smarter. That would be the most obvious answer since I’d always been a C student in this class before.

However, the truth was that this had always been my favorite class. I liked history, and hearing stories that were actually true and had consequences we could see today. But until now, I’d always made an effort not to get a good grade since I didn’t want to piss my dad off.

Mrs. Preston was in the middle of talking about how the class did when another teacher came into the room and whispered something to her. Then Mrs. Preston and the other teacher both looked straight at me.

“Serenity,” Mrs. Preston said. “Please go with Mr. Adams…”

I looked to the other teacher, Mr. Adams, and nodded. I gulped feeling a little nervous as I left the classroom right behind him and then followed him in the direction of the school office. I couldn’t help but wondering why I was in trouble this time.

To my surprise, we didn’t go to the principal’s office, but to the nurse’s office next door. “I’ve been told you have a trick that lets you heal people,” Mr. Adams said, giving me a gentle smile. “We were hoping you might be able to help another student…”

“Okay,” I said awkwardly.

I went in and was startled to see Alicia sitting in a chair near the door. “Are you all right?” I asked her, looking her over but not seeing any signs of her being hurt.

“I’m fine,” Alicia told me, standing up and giving me a hug. “But a girl in my class got badly hurt and I told the nurse you might be able to heal her…”

“Back this way,” Mr. Adams told me.

I followed him to the back of the nurse’s office with Alicia right behind me. Then I saw a beautiful girl with strawberry blonde hair laying on one of the cots. Her shirt was soaked with blood and she looked like she was in a lot of pain.

“Chloe Anderson,” I said, immediately recognizing the girl.

I didn’t have any classes with Chloe, but I definitely knew who she was. After all, she once beat me in a fight, humiliating me with how easily she did so. Then she humiliated me further by dumping me head first into a dumpster filled with garbage.

“We’ve already called for an ambulance,” Mr. Adams told me with a worried look. “But if you could do anything…”

“What happened?” I asked in surprise. “I thought she was invulnerable…” I winced, remembering how I’d nearly broken my hand by trying to punch her.

“Only when I’m using my trick,” Chloe said in a near whisper. She grimaced and looked at me, obviously in a lot of pain. Then I saw the glimmer of recognition in her eyes as she realized who I was. “You…”

“A boy in class went through his twist and totally flipped out,” Alicia blurted out fearfully. “He stabbed her with a knife…”

I nodded at that and grabbed hold of Chloe, then gasped as I suddenly felt the sharp pain in my side. I dropped to my knees beside the cot but continued holding onto Chloe. Chloe was in a lot of pain…and I was feeling every bit of it.

“SERENITY,” Alicia cried out, staring at me with a look of horror.

After half a minute, the pain faded away and I finally let go. Alicia was suddenly grabbing hold of me and gently helping me to my feet.

“I…I’m healed,” Chloe exclaimed, slowing sitting up and pulling her shirt back to reveal healthy and unbroken skin where she’d been stabbed.

“You felt it,” Alicia blurted out, staring at me. “You felt her pain when you were healing her…”

“A side effect of my trick,” I responded with a weak smile.

“Thank you,” Chloe said, staring at me in surprise. “But why did you heal me…especially if you had to feel it? I thought you hated me…”

“I never blamed you,” I said quietly, feeling ashamed as I remembered our brief fight and what had started it. I’d been picking on Gary and she’d come to his rescue. I’d never blamed her for our fight, only myself. Then I gave a weak smile and admitted, “You were just helping someone else… I kind of respected that…”

I started to leave but Chloe blurted out, “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to hurt you that bad… I didn’t mean to break your arm…”

That made me pause and give her another look. “You’re not the one who did that,” I told her with a pained smile. “All you did was give me a couple bruises…and a bruised ego.”

“Then what happened?” Chloe asked me curiously, looking just a little relieved that she hadn’t been the one to cause my injuries.

“I was…punished,” I admitted quietly, not able to look at her, Alicia, or the school nurse who stood a short distance away.

“Punished?” Chloe gasped in surprise and even a little horror. “For what?”

I hesitated a moment before answering in a near whisper. “For losing a fight with a girl.”

“Oh my God,” Chloe blurted out, staring at me with a look of renewed horror.

Alicia suddenly grabbed me in a hug, then asked, “Was it your dad? The guy who beat the crap out of you and put you in the hospital because he didn’t like your twist?” She had an angry look on her face.

“What?” Chloe demanded, looking angry as well. “Your own dad did that to you?” I nodded in shame and she grimaced. “Was he at least arrested?”

I shook my head at that, then explained, “After…after he attacked me this time, the police went to our…his house but he wasn’t there. He’s probably left Spiral by now.”

“I have friends in the police department,” Chloe said. “I’ll ask them to keep an extra close look out…”

“Good,” Alicia said, giving me a sympathetic look. “It sounds like that guy really needs to be in prison…”

“I…,” Chloe started, giving me an odd look. “We have some things in common. I went through the whole sex change with my twist too…” I nodded at that, having heard about it already. “And we aren’t the only ones. If you’re interested, some of us are going to meet up in the school library Monday after school.”

“Um…thanks,” I said, not sure what to think about that invitation.

Chloe gave me a faint smile and added, “Some of us try to meet up like that every couple weeks.”

After this, Alicia and I left the nurse’s office while Chloe said something about changing and flying home. I shook my head, unable to help but feeling a little envious of her trick. After all, her twist turned her into a super hero. Then again, I probably would have ended up as some kind of super villain instead. I was much better off as I was.

“I…I can’t imagine what I’d do if my parents hadn’t accepted my twist,” Alicia told me with a shake of her head and another sympathetic look. “They both took my personality change pretty well.”

I gave her a curious look and asked, “Your personality changed?”

Alicia just grinned at that before answering. “I used to be really shy and introverted. Now, I’m a lot more outgoing. But to be honest, I’m not sure if that’s a direct part of my twist, or if it’s just because I understand what other people are feeling and connect with them more easily.”

“You have an interesting twist,” I told her with a chuckle. “I’d imagine it might be kind of weird for your mom and dad since you know whatever they’re feeling. But it’s not like that’s a big problem.”

“And being a girl is?” Alicia teased.

“It was for my dad,” I answered bitterly. “For most of my life, he kept pushing me to be strong and tough…and everything he thought a man should be. I ended up turning into a monster instead. I hated who I was…”

I stopped at that and glanced at Alicia, who was staring at me with a sympathetic look. I wondered why I was telling her this, but I already knew the answer. If there was anyone who could possibly understand what I felt, it was her.

“Yeah,” Alicia said carefully. “I’d imagine he wouldn’t be happy with you turning into a girl then.”

I nodded at that, but then began to grin as I remember what else it meant for me. Freedom from his rules and restrictions. Freedom to be myself, whoever that person was.

“My dad may hate it,” I said with absolute certainty, “but turning into a girl is the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“Then I’m glad it’s working out for you,” Alicia said with a grin as she put her arm around my shoulder. “And as your best girlfriend, it’s my responsibility to give you advice on how to be a girl. Your first lesson is how to deal with boys…”

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

Third period science had always been an interesting class, though this wasn’t due to the material. Instead, every boy paid attention simply due to the fact that Mrs. Bonner had a killer body and always dressed to show it off. And when she bent over to collect tests from our desks, she frequently bent over enough to give a glimpse into the deep valley of her cleavage.

For some reason, I didn’t find her curves nearly as entrancing as I once had. In fact, I actually found them annoying, especially with the way that Gary was staring at her breasts. I glared across the room at him, then at her.

I knew it wasn’t fair to blame Mrs. Bonner for looking so hot or showing her body off so much, not when both were a result of her twist. And ironically, I used to appreciate her twist a lot more before I went through my own. I let out a sigh, reminding myself that Mrs. Bonner was actually a good teacher who seemed to really care about teaching. There were a lot of teachers who merely went through the motions.

Once Mrs. Bonner returned to her desk, I relaxed a little and soon found myself leaning back and twitching my fingers. I paid attention to the way I moved my fingers, imagining that I was running them over the key holes of my flute and practicing a tune my mom had taught me a few days ago.

“I can’t wait to get home,” I mused with a smile, looking forward to practicing with my flute again. And since today was Friday, that meant I had all weekend to practice. I could hardly wait.

Then I paused for a moment, realizing that it was also the two week anniversary of my twist. It had been two full weeks since my life had changed forever. In some ways, it felt like it had only been the other day, but in other ways, it felt like it had been much longer than that.

Just then, the alarm went off signaling the end of class. I jumped to my feet and put my computer tablet into my backpack, then I waited for Gary to finish getting his stuff put away as well so we could go to lunch together.

A moment later, I noticed one of my classmates struggling to get her things gathered together. Gwen and tripped and accidentally dropped the contents of her backpack all over the floor. It wasn’t surprising since she’d gone through her own twist the other day and it seemed to have made her extremely clumsy.

“You need a hand with that?” I asked her, already bending down to help her pick up the pens and paper.

“Thanks,” Gwen said, giving me a self-conscious smile. “I seem to have two left feet now…” She looked like she was about to cry as she added, “And I used to be so graceful… I’ll never be able to do ballet again…”

“I’m really sorry about that,” I told her sympathetically. “Sometimes, being Twisted sucks…”

“I keep telling myself that it could be worse,” Gwen said, giving me a knowing look. “But it isn’t easy. I’ve suddenly turned so clumsy that I’m constantly tripping over my own two feet or dropping things...” Then she held up her hand which had bandages over several fingers. “And I keep hurting myself…”

Without a word, I took her hands in mine activated my trick. I suddenly felt faint stinging in my fingers, but I also felt pains in other places all over my body. It felt like she had scraped knees, a scraped elbow, and several bruises. Once they healed up, I pulled my hand away and saw the look of surprise on her face.

“That can’t be easy,” I told her in understanding.

“Yeah,” Gwen responded, giving me a thankful look. “I have no coordination at all anymore. And to make it even worse, my trick is to break glass just by looking at it. I think I’ve already broken half the windows in my house…”

“Ouch,” I responded with a wince. “That sucks…”

“It’s not really any worse than your twist,” she told me gently. “At least I still look like myself…”

“Personally,” I told her, leaning over and whispering almost as though I was telling her a secret. “I think I look a little better this way…”

Gwen giggled at that. “Yeah. You kind of do.”

Then as Gwen started to leave, she tripped and fell again, though this time I caught her. “Are you okay?” I asked her, feeling just a little worried.

“The only thing hurt this time is my pride,” she told me with a sigh. “I don’t think I have much of that left.”

I gave Gwen another hug because she really looked like she needed it. She gave me another grateful look, which was something I wasn’t used to seeing. For most of my life, people had only glared at me or given me looks of fear. I definitely preferred this reaction.

“Maybe if you went slower,” I suggested awkwardly. “I mean, if you take your time and pay more attention to what you’re doing, it might help a little…”

Gwen nodded at that, not appearing to be offended by the suggestion like I’d feared. “I’ll try that,” she told me with a smile. “Thanks…”

With that, Gwen walked out of the classroom, though she went slowly and was obviously paying attention as she placed one foot in front of the other. She stopped at the door and gave me a grin and a thumbs up before she continued on her way.

“That was pretty nice,” Gary said, surprising me since I’d forgotten he was still in the classroom.

I blushed at that and felt self-conscious, but I also felt kind of happy as well. And when Gary put his hand around my shoulder, I couldn’t help but actually grinning. For some reason, it made me felt safe and protected, which I never would have expected from Gary.

We left the classroom together, but I had barely stepped outside the door when I found another girl calling my name. She was a somewhat chubby girl whom I’d seen around the school, but I didn’t really know her.

“Um…Serenity,” she said, giving me a hesitant look. “I was wondering if maybe…”

I saw the bandage wrapped around her hand and realized what she wanted. “Sure,” I told her with a gentle smile, already reaching for her hand. “No problem.”

Ever since I’d healed Chloe from her knife wound two days ago, everyone in school seemed to have heard about my trick. Now every couple hours, someone would come up to me and ask if I’d heal some minor cut or bruise for them. So far, I hadn’t turned anyone down, not even Susan when she’d hesitantly asked me to take care of a bruise she got yesterday in PE.

“Thanks a lot,” the girl exclaimed after I’d healed her hand. Then she blurted out, “Do you like cookies? I owe you a batch…” Then she grinned at me before running away.

“That was kind of weird,” I said.

Gary chuckled at that, then told me, “You’re certainly becoming popular…” I snorted at that so he added, “No really. I’ve heard a lot of people talking about how nice you are…”

“I’m not nice,” I reminded him sadly, remembering just how much bad karma I still had to work off.

“I think Gwen would argue otherwise,” Gary pointed out with an almost amused look. “And so would that girl you just healed. And Chloe. And Dave. And me…”

“Well, I guess I have you all fooled,” I joked, somehow feeling better because Gary thought I was a good person. I didn’t deserve his good opinion, but I valued it nonetheless. “It’s all part of my master plan.”

Gary just laughed at that and responded, “About the only one who doesn’t think you’re a good person now is you.”

I smiled self-consciously at that, and then on a sudden impulse, I gave him a quick hug and said, “Thank you.”

As we walked into the cafeteria, I couldn’t help but thinking about what he’d said. Were people thinking I was nice? After years of people giving me looks of contempt and fear, I had a hard time believing that any of those people could ever forgive me…much less like me. I was having a hard enough time accepting the fact that Gary seemed to like me. But over the last couple days, no one really tried to shove or trip me. No one had played any pranks on me.

Maybe everyone felt that they’d gotten even and were satisfied. Maybe they just didn’t want to have me mad at them in case they ever needed my trick to heal an injury. Or maybe, just maybe they were beginning to forgive me for the person I used to be.

I was just getting into the food line when I saw Amy waving to me. “I’ll catch up in a minute,” I told Gary, leaving him to get his food while I went to talk to Amy.

Suddenly, someone grabbed my arm and yanked me around, but before I could see who it was, a fist smashed into my face. I staggered backwards and hit the ground, though I immediately tried getting back to my feet. However, a moment later my attacker began kicking me in the side.

“What the hell are you doing?” some boy yelled as he grabbed my attacker and pulled him back, giving me a chance to see who it was.

My attacker was Tommy, the nerdy boy who’d previously jumped me in the hallway. He was being held back but was glaring at me furiously.

“Serenity,” Gary exclaimed, rushing to my side and helping me to my feet. “Are you okay…” Then he gasped, “You’re bleeding…”

I reached up and felt my split lip, which was indeed bleeding. I had a feeling that I’d have a pretty good bruise on my face before long, not to mention in my side where Tommy had been kicking me. He’d actually hit me harder than I thought he’d be capable of, but I’d been hurt a lot worse than that. Then I noticed that a lot of people were starting to gather around us, and to my surprise, they were looking at Tommy in anger.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Gary demanded of Tommy. “She never did anything to you…”

“Dude,” a large guy announced firmly, “You don’t hit girls. EVER.”

The guy holding Tommy let him go, but he was obviously ready to grab Tommy again if he tried anything. Several other people were positioning themselves to protect me as well. It suddenly struck me as funny that I now needed protection from a skinny nerd, the kind I once would have been able to beat up with both hands tied behind my back. It also seemed oddly appropriate, a clear reminder that my bad karma wasn’t done with me.

“Why are you defending that asshole?” Tommy yelled, almost looking confused at the fact that everyone was defending me rather than helping him. “You all know what she does to people…”

“She isn’t that person anymore,” Gary snapped at him angrily. “Her twist…”

“Serenity it a FAKE,” Tommy snarled, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a sheet of paper. He glared at me, then looked around at everyone else. “My cousin has a trick that lets him talk to computers…so he hacked the school computers for me and got the summary that the Spiral Clinic sent them on her…”

Gary glared at Tommy, as did several other people. Amy blurted out, “You’re stalking her?”

“Sick bastard,” another girl exclaimed.

“No known obsessions or compulsions,” Tommy read from the page angrily. “Only minor personality changes if any.” Then he glared at me and snarled, “She may look different, but she’s still the same Dan Jones inside…”

Those words hit me as though they’d been a physical blow, and they hurt far worse than his punch had. Tears began running down my cheeks and I turned away from Gary in shame, knowing that he’d hate me again. I could feel the shift in the mood around me so turned and started to leave before things got even worse.

“This nice and friendly Serenity that everyone likes is a FAKE,” Tommy cried out triumphantly.

“NO,” Gary snapped back at him angrily.

“Look at her,” someone called out. “She’s crying… The old Dan would NEVER cry…”

“Or wear such a cute skirt,” Amy added.

I looked back and saw that Gary was staring at me with a look of sudden realization. “Unless…,” he started, then paused to glare at Tommy and then look around the group. “Serenity has been nice to everyone…even people who were mean to her. I’ve seen her helping people when she didn’t think anyone was watching…”

“Me too,” Alicia said as she pushed through the group. She looked around, then paused to stare at one of the kids I’d healed yesterday. “Every time she heals someone, she feels their pain.” She looked around again and continued, “She feels pain so that other people can feel better. She doesn’t do this because of a compulsion but because she wants to…because she wants to help people.”

Gary stared at me again and gave me an odd smile before announcing, “Serenity isn’t a fake…but I’m starting to think that the old Dan was.”

I cringed, suddenly feeling completely exposed and vulnerable, even more than before. At any moment, the looks of disgust and anger would come…but they didn’t. Everyone was staring at me, but there didn’t seem to be any hate in those expressions.

Gary slowly came to me and gently put a hand on my arm. I was too ashamed to look him in the eyes, but then he whispered, “You’ve always been Serenity, haven’t you? Deep down inside…”

“Come on,” Alicia called out. “Give her some privacy…”

Alicia began shooing everyone else away while I tried escaping from the cafeteria and all this attention. However, Gary wasn’t being left behind, and as soon as I was outside the cafeteria, he put a hand on my shoulder again.

“Serenity,” he started, looking awkward. Then he hesitantly reached to my cheek and wiped away one of the tears. “You’re crying…”

“Girls are allowed to cry,” I said defensively.

Gary gave me a faint smile and nodded. “Yeah...”

“I’m such a loser,” I blurted out in frustration, feeling shaken and confused.

“No you’re not,” Gary insisted. “I never thought I’d say this to Dan Jones…but I like you. I like who you are now. A lot of other people do too”

“I don’t deserve it,” I protested weakly. “I’m a horrible person…”

“You deserve a lot more than you think,” Gary stated, giving me a sympathetic look.

Then Gary grabbed me in a hug that somehow made me feel better almost immediately. It felt so nice to have him holding me like this. At that moment, I actually felt like maybe I wasn’t such a bad person after all if he could care about me like this.

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

I bolted upright in bed, panting hard and sweating heavily. I was shaking a little from the dream I’d just woken up from, and it hadn’t even been a nightmare. In a way, it had been far more frightening.

My nipples were hard, sensitive, and begging for attention, which was nothing compared to what I felt down below. My vagina was sopping wet, so much so that I had a wet spot on my bed, and it was craving attention just as much as my nipples were, perhaps even more. The fact that the fingers on my right hand were wet and sticky strongly indicated that I’d actually been playing with myself in my sleep.

“I can’t believe how good this feels,” I muttered, fighting off the urge to continue playing with myself now that I was actually awake.

I’d explored my new body a number of times since my twist, even playing with my new parts a little. They’d been sensitive and felt nice, but nothing like this. Until now, I hadn’t gotten to experience what I felt like once the motor started running. I only wondered what it would feel like to go all the way.

My thoughts turned back to the dream and I blushed brightly as I remembered the details, or at least some of them. I’d dreamed about Gary…about kissing him and doing other things with him. My body responded to those thoughts again and I couldn’t help but letting out a faint gasp at that. I was really feeling turned on.

“Oh God,” I moaned, suddenly feeling like I’d just been smacked upside the head as I realized what this dream meant. It meant that I now liked guys, and specifically…that I liked Gary.

I closed my eyes and grimaced, trying to make sense of this and wondering why I hadn’t realized it before. Now that I thought about it, there had certainly been enough clues, clues that I’d completely overlooked. The biggest one might be the fact that I’d been using the girl’s shower for PE and I hadn’t even blinked at the naked and half naked girls. And then there was the way I kept feeling warm and giddy whenever I was with Gary. That definitely wasn’t normal…or at least it hadn’t been before.

For a brief moment, the Dan part of me flared up in horror at the very idea that I could possibly be interested in a guy. However, that was a mask that covered up the real voice of outrage. I could almost hear my dad screaming that no real man would ever be attracted to another guy.

“But I’m a girl,” I argued against these imaginary voices. “And girls can like boys…”

Intellectually, I knew that it was all right for me to like boys, but my emotions were still a little confused. I had a feeling that they probably would be for awhile. Accepting a new sexual orientation was a little different than simply deciding it was all right.

After a minute, I left my room and found that mom hadn’t gotten up yet. It was Saturday morning and she was taking full advantage of the opportunity to sleep in, so I tried to be quiet so I wouldn’t accidentally wake her.

I took my time with my shower, and admittedly, I even played with my nipples a little. My skin was so soft and smooth now, not to mention much more sensitive than before my twist. I’d already learned that I had to be careful not scrub myself too hard when I washed because it would actually hurt, but that same sensitivity proved to be a very good thing when the water from the shower head hit my breasts.

When I was done with my shower, dried my body with an oversized fluffy towel and then went to work on my hair. My long hair took a LOT more effort to take care of than I was used to, but I liked the way it looked and felt too much to get it cut short. Fortunately, mom had given me lessons on the care and handling of long hair before I’d even gone back to school.

As I sat there brushing my hair and drying it, I thought about some of the other lessons my mom had given me since I moved in. Some of them might have been awkward, like the revamped birds and bees speech or the one about how to use all the feminine products she’d bought for me in preparation for my first period, but at least her lessons weren’t anything like the ones dad used to give me.

Then my thoughts drifted back to Gary and I smiled faintly as I considered how brave he was, something that I never would have imagined before my twist. But now, he had every reason to hate me, but instead, he’d come to my rescue time and time again. He tried to protect me, even when I didn’t deserve it. And of course, he was actually pretty cute too.

It seemed that after my wet dream and the realization that I was now attracted Gary, the floodgates had burst open. I kept thinking about kissing him…among other things that made me feel all warm and gooey. It was embarrassing, but I didn’t bother fighting these thoughts or feelings. After all, I’d been desperate for the opportunity to learn who I really was, and it appeared that this was now a part of me.

“I just don’t know if I can get used to this,” muttered to myself with a bright blush. “Thinking these things… Feeling this way…”

One of the things that struck me as funny about this situation was that before my twist, I hadn’t felt at all awkward to think about hot girls and what I’d like to do with them. I hadn’t even felt awkward about looking at porn online. But now, the very thought of kissing a guy made me blush and turn giddy. Then it dawned on me. This was more like the way I’d felt when I first discovered girls, before I understood exactly what I liked and became comfortable with it. In a way, I was now having to repeat that process but from the other side.

Once I had finished drying my hair and getting dressed, I shook those thoughts out of my head and decided to focus on something of more immediate importance. I went to the kitchen, looking for breakfast. I might not be able to eat as much as I used to, but my stomach didn’t seem to care at the moment. I was hungry.

I looked around the kitchen for something quick to eat, then decided to do something different. I was a girl now, so maybe I should learn to cook. I found the bacon, which was one of the few things in the kitchen that I was comfortable with cooking. Then I found a box of pancake mix.

I was in the middle of reading the instructions when mom came in, took the box from my hand and shook her head no. Then with a faint smile but without saying a word, she set a cookbook down in front of me and opened it to the page for homemade pancakes.

“You start gathering the ingredients,” mom told me in her usual quiet voice. “I’ll make some tea.”

My first cooking lesson began a minute later with me doing the work while mom supervised and directed. I mixed the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another, and then we combined them.

Mom was patient with me and didn’t even seem bothered when I accidentally knocked the bowl over and spilled the pancake mix on the floor. She just smiled faintly and helped me clean up the mess, then we started over again.

The pancakes were finished more quickly than I would have expected, even after we had to start over. Then we finally sat down to eat and I was delighted at how good they were…and at my part in making them.

“Making them this way doesn’t take a whole lot longer than using one of those box mixes,” mom told me proudly. “And they taste much better.”

I nodded emphatically at that, though my mouth was too full of pancake for me to answer. Once I was able to speak again, I asked, “Can you show me how to make something else?”

Mom practically beamed at that, then said, “Of course. You can help me with dinner tonight, and then in the morning…we’re making waffles.”

After we finished eating and taking care of dishes, I settled down in the living room and began to practice with my flute. Last week I’d been looking online at different people playing the flute and I’d found one who played a beautiful tune that I’d really liked. I’d been practicing that tune ever since.

While I practiced, mom sat back and watched me with a smile. “That sounded fantastic,” she told me after I finished playing the tune.

“Thanks,” I told her, happy with the compliment, even if she was exaggerating. I smiled at her, then went back to practicing.

After I’d been practicing for a couple hours, the doorbell began to ring, though I didn’t realize it was the doorbell at first. Mom’s doorbell was set to sound like chirping birds, so I stopped playing and began looking around the living room for where the bird sounds were coming from. Mom just gave me an amused look, then went to answer the door.

Several seconds later, I heard a familiar voice coming from the door, asking, “Is Serenity here?”

I jumped up and went to the door where I found Alicia standing there. “Hello,” I said, a little surprised to see her at my home. Then again, she lived just down the street a little so I shouldn’t have been surprised.

“I was wondering if you wanted to hang out,” Alicia told me, glancing to my mom and then back to me.

“Sure,” I responded with a grin. I wasn’t used to having friends to hang out with, but I’d definitely had fun the last time Alicia and I had done it.

“Have fun,” mom told me with an amused look.

As we walked away from my house, I asked, “Did you have something in mind?”

“Well,” Alicia told me with a smirk that told me she definitely had something in mind. “I just got this great new game for my VR gaming system and I’ve been wanting to try it out on multiplayer…”

“I didn’t think girls were into video games,” I responded in surprise.

Alicia snorted at that, then said, “You’ve got a lot to learn about being a girl…”

“So you’ve said,” I told her, remembering a very similar conversation when she’d shown me her remote control car.

Alicia stopped and grinned at me as she explained, “Girls can do anything boys can…except maybe standing up to pee. That gets kind of messy.” She shuddered at that, suddenly making me wonder if there was a story behind that. “Sometimes, it’s really easy to forget you used to be a boy. And sometimes…not so much.”

“Then teach me, oh mentor of all things pink and frilly,” I teased her.

Alicia burst out laughing at that. “Sorry, I can’t teach you to be a real girlie girl. But I can teach you how to be a tomboy…”

“I don’t want to be a boy again,” I pointed out with a wry smile. “Tom or otherwise.”

When we arrived at Alicia’s house, she quickly introduced me to her dad, who was working on his car in the driveway and gave me a brief nod before bending down under the hood again. Then we went inside and to her bedroom.

Just a little earlier, Alicia had claimed to be a tomboy, though I’d never really seen her as one. I might never have seen her wearing dresses, skirts, or anything like that, but she usually had on at least a little makeup. And when I saw her bedroom, specifically the purple covers on her bed and the shelf of stuffed animals, it kind of ruined the tomboy image even more. However, she did have a soccer ball sitting in the corner and a shelf full of model cars, so those at least gave her some tomboy cred.

“And here’s my system,” Alicia proudly announced, gesturing to a computer with a nice sized holographic interface. Then she pulled out several sets of virtual reality gear, including the visors and gloves.

Alicia began setting everything up to play, but I noticed that she was hooking up three sets of virtual reality gear. I was wondering why until there was a knock on her door, followed a moment later by Gary coming into the room.

I stared at Gary for a moment, blushing brightly as I remembered my dream last night…and the thoughts I’d been having about him earlier this morning. I gave him a nervous smile, then looked away before I could embarrass myself by staring at him.

“I asked Gary to come over and play too,” Alicia said, giving me an amused look. She obviously knew exactly what I felt, so I stuck my tongue out at her, which only made her laugh.

“Hey,” Gary greeted me with a nervous smile of his own. Alicia looked at him and nearly snickered.

Then Alicia blurted out, “You guys want something to drink? I’m gonna go grab snacks…”

With that, Alicia hurried out of her room, leaving Gary and me alone. There was an awkward silence for a minute before he finally said, “She’s up to something…”

“Yeah, but what?” I asked him. “You know her better than I do.”

Gary stared at me for a moment with an odd expression, then he shook his head and shrugged. “Who knows.”

We talked for a few more minutes until Alicia returned, carrying sodas and a plate full of brownies. “They’re from that bakery Guilt Free Desserts where nothing in it has any calories,” Alicia announced, giving me a wink. “You can eat all you want and you won’t get fat.”

“So, why haven’t you been eating these before now?” Gary asked Alicia with a look of mock innocence. She was pretty slender and obviously didn’t need to worry about going on a diet, but she punched Gary in the arm anyway. I just giggled at that, which earned me a grin from Gary.

After this, we put on our virtual reality gear and turned on Alicia’s new game. It was a racing game where we could race hover cars against each other on various tracks and environments, including some that looked really wild. But even more interesting than that was the fact that we could really customize our cars before racing.

All three of us spent a ridiculous amount of time picking out our basic car models and then customizing them. Alicia chose a real muscle car, a Ford Nighthawk that was painted purple and which had a lot of chrome trim. Gary went for an odd looking gray car that looked somewhat familiar, though I couldn’t place where it was from. He told me it was a DeLorean with a hover conversion, as though that explained everything. My car was a Kia Razor, which I’d modified with a few extra gadgets, then had the whole thing painted pink.

“You are such a girl,” Gary teased me once he saw my finished car.

“And don’t you forget it,” I responded, sticking my tongue out at him.

Unfortunately, we spent so much time designing our cars that we only got to run three races before we ran out of time. Alicia’s dad stuck his head into the room and announced, “I’m sorry to ruin your fun, but someone has to see her grandmother.” He gave Alicia a stern look, or at least it might have been stern if he hadn’t been so obviously holding back a grin.

“But I saw grandma last week,” Alicia responded in mock protest. But unlike her dad, she couldn’t hold it in at all and burst into giggles. “Well, I guess I should go…just to keep on her good side until after Christmas…”

“A wise decision,” her dad said with a chuckle.

After Alicia’s dad left the room, she turned to us and sighed. “I guess this means no more racing. I thought I had at least another hour…”

“We can always play again later,” Gary told her.

“True,” Alicia responded with a grin. “And our cars are saved so we can use them again.”

We talked for a few more minutes while Alicia packed up her VR gear and got ready to go visit her grandma. A short time later, Gary and I stood in her driveway, waving to her as she and her dad drove off.

“So what now?” Gary asked awkwardly.

I hesitated a moment, then said, “You can come hang out at my house…”

“Are you sure?” Gary asked me, looking a little surprised by the offer. I blushed a little and nodded.

It only took a few minutes to reach my house, but once we got to the door I stopped and took a deep breath. “My mom is still home,” I told him carefully, “so keep your voice calm around her and don’t do anything too sudden. Her twist makes her a little…jumpy. She really doesn’t do well with stress.”

“Okay,” Gary said, sounding almost as though he was making a promise.

I felt a little nervous as I opened the door, wondering if I should have asked mom first if it was okay to bring over a guest. We hadn’t talked about whether I was allowed to do that, though we probably should have considering how mom was with people. But it was too late now so I just hoped mom wouldn’t be upset.

“Mom,” I said in a calm voice as I stepped through the door. She was sitting in the middle of the living room, wearing yoga pants and meditating. “I brought a guest… This is Gary.”

Mom looked past me to Gary, then smiled faintly as she stood up. “Hello,” mom greeted him in her normal quiet voice.

“It’s nice to meet you Mrs. Jones,” Gary said politely.

“Please call me Ms. Maritz,” mom pleasantly corrected him, though I could see she was a little uncomfortable with doing so. “I haven’t used that other name since my divorce.”

I knew that mom had gone back to using her maiden name after divorcing my dad, but I hadn’t thought to warn Gary about that. I made a mental note to warn anyone else I brought over so that I didn’t have to make her uncomfortable.

“Is it all right that I brought him over?” I whispered to mom.

“Of course,” she responded with an amused look. “This is your home too. Just…” She paused at that, obviously a little uncomfortable.

“I already warned him about your situation,” I told her awkwardly. “And next time, I’ll try to call ahead and warn you…”

“Thank you,” she told me. Then just a little more loudly, which was what would have been a normal conversational voice for most people, she said, “Why don’t you give Gary the tour…”

“There isn’t a whole lot to show,” I told Gary as I took him through the living room and to the back yard. “This is probably the best place in the house…or out of it.”

“This is nice,” Gary told me as he looked around the zen garden. He went to the koi pond and watched the fish for a moment. “This place is really nice…”

“My mom likes coming out here to meditate,” I told him with a smile, then admitted, “And I spend a lot of time out here too. It’s pretty relaxing…”

Gary nodded and said, “I can definitely see that.” Then he gave me a self-conscious smile and added, “This would be a really good place to just sit and draw…”

We stood out in the back yard for about fifteen minutes before going back inside so I could continue the tour. There really wasn’t a lot to show Gary, so we quickly ended up at the last spot on the tour, my bedroom.

I felt a little self-conscious about my bedroom since it was so plain and boring. I hadn’t done anything to decorate or personalize it yet, though I had been meaning too.

“It’s…nice,” Gary said a little awkwardly. “It’s not quite what I’d been expecting though…”

“What were you expecting?” I asked him with a grin. “Posters of hot girls on the wall? Or maybe you were expecting boy band posters…”

“I’m not really sure what I expected,” Gary admitted.

“I haven’t lived here long enough to do much with it,” I told him with a sigh. “I…I moved here after…” I paused and gave Gary a forced smile as I added, “I didn’t bring anything with me.”

“Oh,” Gary said, his eyes going wide in understanding. “I’m sorry…”

“It’s not your fault,” I told him, then on an impulse, I have him a hug. “If it wasn’t for you, I might not have been around to move here.”

After I let go of Gary, he gave me an odd look. We sat there in silence for about a minute before he hesitantly asked, “Why?”

“Why what?” I asked.

“You were always messing with me,” Gary said, staring at the floor rather than at me. “I know you pushed other people around too, but you always seemed to pick on me more than anyone else…like it was personal. Why?”

I winced at that, feeling the familiar surge of guilt and shame for the way I used to act. It seemed that I was never going to escape the person I used to be, no matter how much I wanted to. Then again, I already knew that I couldn’t escape my karma.

“I think,” I said quietly as I stared at the floor in shame. “The truth is, I think it was because I was jealous of you.”

“Jealous?” Gary blurted out in surprise. “Of me?”

For a moment, I just sat there, unable to bring myself to say anymore. But I knew that Gary deserved the truth, even though I hadn’t realized it myself until very recently.

“My dad has strict rules on what a man should be,” I finally said, my voice almost as quiet as my mom’s normally was. “I grew up with these rules, with my dad punishing me anytime I didn’t meet his expectations. And as much as I hated my dad, I wanted his approval. I tried becoming what he wanted me to be…and I hated myself for it.”

Gary stared at me, looking both sympathetic and curious at the same time. It looked like he was about to say something but couldn’t get it out.

“A real man,” I said in my best imitation of my dad, which wasn’t very good considering my voice. “A real man doesn’t waste his time with that art crap. Leave that for little girls… A man plays a real instrument…like drums…not some girlie flute… And a man doesn’t waste his time with sissy sports like running or swimming…he plays football… Football is a real man’s sport.” Then I paused again and gave a loud snort before adding, “Do you have any idea how hard it was to get myself kicked off that stupid football team? I thought I was going to have to punch the coach…”

“Serenity,” Gary started sympathetically, but I ignored him.

Tears began running down my cheeks as I continued. “Every time I found something I liked…something that made me happy, it was taken away from me.” I paused at that, taking several long seconds before I could continue. “Or I turned my back on it.”

I paused and wiped the tears from my eyes, but they continued to come. I was embarrassed and ashamed to be sharing my problems with someone else, especially someone I’d made so miserable. But after everything I’d done to Gary and what he’d done for me, he deserved an explanation.

“And then I saw you,” I said quietly. “You were swimming, and doing art, and even playing that violin… You were doing all the things I really wanted to but couldn’t.” I gave him a pained look and admitted, “It really pissed me off… I don’t think I even realized I was jealous of you, only that I felt so frustrated and angry that you were doing the things I couldn’t…”

Gary put a hand on my harm and said, “I had no idea…”

“You have no idea how tired I was,” I admitted quietly. “I was so tired and frustrated at being the big ugly thug…of having everyone hate me. I was tired of following my dad’s rules about how a man should behave, and I was tired of hurting people.” I took a deep breath and then gave Gary a tearful look, adding, “And as much as you and everyone else hated me, I hated myself even more.”

“You don’t have to say anymore,” Gary told me gently. “I know this can’t be easy…”

I gave Gary a weak smile but continued anyway. “Then one day, I was desperately wishing I could be someone else…that I could discover who I really was if I didn’t have to follow those rules or be what my dad made me into.” I paused again, looking Gary in the eyes as I added, “I thought that if maybe I’d been born a girl, my life would have been different. I would have been different.”

“And that’s when you went through your twist,” he said in understanding.

I nodded at that, then told him, “I’m sorry I picked on you…that I was an asshole.”

“I think I understand,” Gary said, giving me a hug. “And I forgive you…” He held me even tighter and quietly said, “I’m sorry that you had to go through even worse. I think… I think you need to forgive yourself.”

When we pulled apart, I felt a little better for getting that off my chest, and for the hug that Gary had given me. However, the room became filled with an awkward silence for nearly a minute.

Then Gary suddenly blurted out, “Is that your flute?” He was pointing to the top of my dresser where my flute was sitting. He was obviously trying to change the subject and I appreciated that.

“Yeah,” I said rather proudly. I got up and picked up my flute, then I gave him a shy smile and admitted, “I’m not very good at it yet…”

“It’s kind of a girlie instrument,” Gary joked.

I clutched the flute to my chest and responded defensively, “But I’m a girl…”

“I know,” Gary said, giving me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable…”

After a moment, I gave him a gentle smile to show that I wasn’t offended. “My dad said something similar when my mom first gave it to me,” I explained. “I was ten years old and…my dad didn’t take it well.”

“Oh my God,” Gary gasped, giving me a sympathetic look. Then he gently asked, “Can you play something?”

I smiled at that and brought the flute up to my lips. Then I hesitated a moment, reminding myself that I hadn’t played for anyone besides mom, at least not since I first got the flute. I shuddered at the remembered pain that had resulted from that, then shoved the memory aside.

I began playing the tune that I’d been practicing all week, feeling all my worries fading away as I did so. I focused on my finger work and getting it right, but I also focused on the tune itself and just how great it felt to bring it to life.

I glanced to Gary, who was watching me with a look of rapt attention. Since he didn’t seem to be bored, I continued playing through the whole tune, feeling my mood improving more with every passing second.

Once I was finished, I lowered my flute and grinned. Gary just stared at me for a moment before blurting out, “That was great…”

“Thanks,” I responded, grinning even wider. “I still need a lot of practice though…”

“That was great,” Gary insisted. “It sounded beautiful…”

“I’ve been practicing that tune all week,” I told him excitedly. Then I admitted, “I’ve actually been practicing with the flute ever since mom gave it back to me…”

“You look…happy,” Gary said, almost as though he was surprised. “You were crying just a few minutes ago, now you look like you’re having the time of your life…”

“I love playing this thing,” I admitted, holding up my flute. “It makes me happy.” Then I smiled self-consciously as I admitted, “Playing reminds me of everything I got from my twist…”

Gary nodded at that, but I didn’t think he really understood, even after everything I’d just told him. I giggled at that, which seemed to confuse him even more. Then again, I had been crying a couple minutes ago but now I was laughing and smiling.

“Girls are allowed to have mood swings,” I told him smugly, only to giggle again.

“You certainly have that part down,” Gary said with a grin of his own. “But I don’t mind this one… If Tommy hadn’t read your exam summary at school, I’d think you had a compulsion to play the flute or something…”

“No,” I responded with a shake of my head and a grin. “I keep thinking about why I hated being the old me, but like I said, this reminds me why I like being the new me.” I held up my flute.

“Because you can play the flute?” Gary asked, looking like he didn’t quite get it.

“Among other things,” I told him cheerfully. “I can play the flute. I can go swimming. I can wear pretty clothes. I can get good grades. I can be nice and help people.” Then I gave him a broad smile and added, “And I can have friends.”

Then on a sudden impulse, I did something that I’d been thinking about all day. I grabbed Gary and kissed him on my lips. He was obviously surprised at that, but to my delight, instead of pulling back in disgust, he kissed me back.

When we pulled away from each other, Gary stared at me for a moment with a goofy smile on his face, then admitted, “I’ve wanted to do that since I first saw you helping that kid in the park…”

“Really?” I asked, simultaneously blushing and grinning.

Gary nodded at that, blushing brightly as well which looked so cute on him. “You’re REALLY pretty…”

“Thank you,” I responded with a nervous giggle. I wasn’t used to getting this kind of attention, but I was definitely enjoying it. Then before he could say something about who I used to be, I smugly told him, “Girls are allowed to kiss boys.”

“They sure are,” Gary agreed with a grin of his own. Then he looked me over with an appreciative expression before hesitantly asking, “Can we do it again?”

I gave Gary another hug, then a quick kiss before whispering, “What do you think?”

Then while Gary was still a bit stunned, I gave him a smug look and began to play my flute again. As I did so, it suddenly struck me that I could still mess with Gary, but in a way that both of us would actually enjoy. This was going to be fun.

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

Mondays suck. This is a fully accepted natural law, no more escapable than the law of gravity. But I had to admit, today hadn’t been that bad…for a Monday.

I was a little nervous about coming to school after the humiliating events in the cafeteria on Friday, expecting that people would start messing with me again now that they knew my personality hadn’t been changed much during my twist. But to my surprise, almost everyone had been nice to me.

One boy had started teasing me in the hallway, but then some girl whom I didn’t even know had told him to shut up and leave me alone. And as if that hadn’t been surprising enough, a couple other kids had come to my defense as well, and my would-be bully had slunk off in shame.

The rest of the day passed fairly smoothly, and now the final bell had rung so the school day was officially over. I let out a sigh of relief at that, as did nearly every other kid in school…and probably most the teachers.

“Hey Serenity,” Alicia called to me, waving at me from further down the hallway.

“Hey,” I greeted her with a grin.

“Yesterday was a lot of fun,” she told me with a grin. “We need to do that again.”

I grinned back and held up my hand, staring at my polished and manicured nails. Yesterday, Alicia had come over and announced that she wanted to show me some girl activities, then had taken me out for a manicure. It had actually been a lot of fun, especially since there was absolutely no way I would have gone near a place like that before my twist.

“Definitely,” I agreed. “Maybe next time we can do the pedicure thing too…”

Alicia smirked at me and said, “You’ve only been a girl for two weeks, and you’re already more girlie than me…”

I giggled at that, then told her, “I guess I’m a natural…”

“You know,” Alicia said, giving me an odd look. “Gary was telling me about your flute… He said you’re really good…”

I was happy at that, but admitted, “I’m not that good yet…”

“Well, Gary was impressed,” she insisted. “And not just by your music. He really likes you…”

I blushed at that and started, “I don’t…”

“I know you like him too,” Alicia insisted smugly. “Remember, you can’t lie to someone who feels your emotions.”

That made me blush even more. “It’s a little weird getting used to that,” I admitted self-consciously. “I mean, I used to like girls…now I like boys instead.” I shrugged at that, not sure what else I could say.

“You seem to be adjusting well,” Alicia told me. Then she gave me a serious look and said, “Just don’t hurt Gary. He’s a good guy and he really does like you.”

“I know,” I responded quietly.

“I’ve got to go,” Alicia told me, giving me a gentle smile and putting a hand on my shoulder. “I know you’ve got plans, so have fun.”

Alicia hurried off to get home while I went towards the school library instead. This was where Chloe had told me to come when I’d talked to her last week. I hesitated at the door for a moment before going inside.

There were already four people inside the library, sitting in the area that had been set up for students to gather and read. There were several couches and chairs which were arranged into a U shape.

A girl with pink hair, who was dressed entirely in pink clothes, sat on a couch next to another girl who had crimson colored hair. They were talking to each other quietly and giggling occasionally, though I couldn’t make out what they were saying.

Sitting by herself on another couch was a girl with long bluish green hair, who was wearing a dress and watching me with a curious expression. I definitely remembered seeing Lorilei around school before, especially back when she and her band kicked ass in the talent show.

The last person who was present was a large guy whom I knew from my time on the school football team. Mike was a total jock, though I understood that when he’d still been Michelle, she’d been a very pretty girl.

“Um…hi,” I said self-consciously.

“Hey,” the girl with the crimson hair said. “I’m Blake.” She gestured to the girl with the pink hair beside her and said, “This is Leila.”

“I’m Serenity,” I introduced myself.

“Call me Lori,” the aqua haired Lorilei said with a smile.

“Mike,” Mike said, giving me an odd look. “But you already know me.” I just nodded at that.

“Have a seat,” Blake said.

I found a chair that wasn’t right next to anyone else and sat down. I’d barely done this when a short and skinny boy with glasses came into the room, along with a pretty girl with brown hair.

“Sorry I’m late,” the girl said quietly, reminding me a little of my mom. Then she took a look at me and her hair suddenly turned blonde. “Hi,” she exclaimed with a broad grin, no longer seeming shy at all. “I’m Jen…” With that, Jen sat down right beside Leila and gave her a kiss.

The nerdy looking boy glared at me and said, “We’ve met before.”

I stared back at him for a moment, realizing that I did know him…sort of. The boy had once been a totally hot cheerleader, until she’d gone through her twist last year and had ended up like this. And unfortunately, I’d teased him about it afterwards.

“I’m sorry for how I treated you,” I told him with complete sincerity. “I was a complete asshole…”

For a moment, the boy continued to stare at me, then he gave me a faint smile and said, “I’m Rob.”

Seconds later, someone I was more familiar with entered the room. Chloe saw me sitting there and smiled, then she sat down beside Lori and gave her a kiss. I was a little startled to realize that the two of them were an item.

“Simone isn’t coming today,” Lori announced.

“Not too surprising,” Blake commented, looking at me. “Thanks to her twist, she can be a real bitch at times…”

“But she’s totally trying to control it,” Jen said cheerfully.

“Yeah,” Chloe agreed. “But sometimes her inner bitch shows more than others.”

“Okay,” Blake announced as she stood up and looked around the room. “Let’s get this started. Welcome to our meeting of Gender Changers Anonymous…”

“If we’re Gender Changers Anonymous,” Jen asked with a giggle. “Why is it that the first thing we do is introduce ourselves?”

“As you can guess,” Leila told me with an amused look. “We don’t take these meetings too seriously…”

Everyone nodded at that. “All of us have gone through a gender change as part of our twist,” Blake told me.

“No fucking shit,” Mike muttered, watching Blake with a very appreciative look.

“That means we all know what you’re going through,” Blake continued. “Some of us adjust to our twists more easily than others, but we all have a lot in common.”

“It really helps having someone to talk with about this,” Chloe said, giving Lori a knowing smile. “We usually just hang out and talk about the things we’ve gone through…” There were nods from around the room at that. “Since I’m the one who invited you, I’ll go first.”

Chloe stood up and said, “As you know, my name is Chloe Anderson. I used to be Chad Anderson, but one day I was reading my little brother’s comic books and suddenly turned into his favorite super hero…heroine.”

After Chloe said a little about herself and how she’d dealt with her twist, Lori went next. One by one everyone said a little something about their situations, showing that we all did have a little in common, even though some of them had compulsions and personality shifts thrown into the mix as well.

When everyone else was finished, it was my turn. I hesitantly stood up and said, “My name is Serenity Jones, but I used to be Dan Jones. Some of you knew me before my twist, or at least heard of me.”

“That’s why no one wanted to go ask you to join us when we heard about your twist,” Rob said. When several others glared at him, he shrugged. “But it’s true…”

“We really should have invited you as soon as we heard,” Chloe admitted. “We probably could have helped you deal with it…”

I smiled faintly at that and said, “I don’t blame you for not wanting me here. I was a real jerk…”

“Not as bad as Simone can be,” Jen commented.

“The thing is,” I said carefully as I looked around the room. “I’m happy about being a girl. It’s a bit of an adjustment and I still have a lot to learn, but I like who I am now.”

“Yeah, but have you had your first period yet?” Lori asked with a visible shudder.

“That is one thing I do NOT miss,” Rob muttered.

“Not yet,” I admitted, knowing that mine was probably due within a week or two at most.

When I thought about going through my period, I felt an odd mixture of dread and anticipation. On one hand, it would be gross, unpleasant, and thoroughly disgusting. But on the other hand, it would be a confirmation that I really was a girl now.

At this point, the conversation became almost a free for all as everyone began talking about their experience with periods. Rob and Mike told about their first periods, and how glad they were not to have them anymore. However, those who’d turned into girls had the more interesting stories.

I stared at Lori in disbelief when she told everyone that she had her periods all at once. According to her, she released more than a gallon of blood and stuff all at once, then was done until the next month.

Blake said that her periods only lasted a couple days, but that they were very heavy and painful. I shuddered at that, hoping that I just had a nice normal period, and promising myself that I wouldn’t freak out when it happened.

The meeting only lasted an hour before it was over and everyone began to leave. I remained behind for several minutes, thinking about what everyone had said. It had all been a bit odd, but kind of fun as well. It had been nice talking to people who knew what it was like going through a sex change and having to reinvent yourself.

Once everyone else was gone, I started to leave as well. I had just reached the main entrance to the building when I realized that I wasn’t alone. Tommy stood there, glaring at me with an angry expression.

“Now it’s just you and me,” Tommy stated.

I didn’t bother looking around since I knew he was right. There was no one to see us and interfere with him this time. I could probably scream and get the attention of anyone else who was in the building, but I didn’t bother. Instead, I stood there and gave Tommy a level look.

“You’re gonna pay for what you’ve done,” Tommy exclaimed, shoving me so that I slammed hard into the wall.

“Is this what you really want?” I asked Tommy. “To beat up some helpless girl who can’t fight back?”

“Shut up,” Tommy snarled. “I know you’re not really a girl…”

I felt a little offended by that but wasn’t about to argue with him. It was already obvious that he didn’t see me as Serenity, only as Dan in a new body.

There were a lot of people who had good reasons to dislike me, but Tommy wasn’t one of them. As far as I knew, I’d never picked on him at all, so this was something else.

Tommy shoved me back against the wall again, this time hard enough that I was probably going to have some bruises on my back. He just seemed angry and frustrated.

“Let me guess,” I said. “Someone is messing with you…making your life a living hell. And you can’t do anything about them so you’re taking your anger and frustration out on someone you can push around…”

“Shut up,” Tommy yelled, shoving me back again, even harder than the previous times.

I winced at the bruising but continued to meet Tommy’s eyes. He was bigger and stronger than me, but I wasn’t afraid of him. Instead, I felt sorry for him.

“I understand why you picked me,” I said quietly. “You don’t have to feel bad about picking on me. You can tell yourself that you’re teaching me a lesson…that I deserve it. You might even be right. I probably do deserve it.”

Tommy glared at me, though he looked a little startled by what I said. “You may have fooled everyone else around here,” he exclaimed. “But you haven’t fooled me.”

With that, Tommy shoved me again, this time knocking me to the ground. I got back to my feet, noticing that all he’d been doing so far was pushing me. He hadn’t actually given me any real punches.

“Did you think that maybe I don’t like the person I used to be either,” I told him grimly. “That I’m trying to be someone else?” Then I stared him in the eyes again and said, “But if you need to make yourself feel better, go ahead. Get it out of your system.”

Tommy snarled and shoved me again, though this time I didn’t go down. He shoved me several more times, seeming to get more angry and frustrated.

“Why won’t you hit back?” he demanded.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone anymore,” I told with a wince. “Go ahead…”

With that, Tommy raised his fist and looked like he was finally going to punch me. I just stood there and let him. But then he paused and lowered his hand.

“I can’t punch a girl,” he spat out bitterly, looking like he was going to start crying.

I stared at Tommy’s arm, noticing that when he’d been about to punch me, the sleeve on his shirt and fallen back and revealed a bruise on his arm. Without a word, I reached out and touched his arm. I let out a gasp as I suddenly felt as though I was bruised on my back, side, and arms.

“Someone has been hurting you,” I said with a gasp. “But they didn’t leave any marks on your face or where others could see…”

“How’d you know?” Tommy demanded, yanking his hand away from me, though I’d already healed him. He had a strange look on his face, probably due to realizing that he didn’t feel any of those bruises anymore.

“Probably a family member,” I added quietly.

Tommy’s eyes widened at that, telling me that I was right. It was a family member who’d been hurting him. I suddenly felt even more sympathetic to his situation.

“You wouldn’t understand,” he said bitterly, backing up almost as though he was afraid of me.

“You’d be surprised,” I responded in a near whisper.

“It’s not my mom’s fault,” Tommy blurted out, obviously shaken by this odd turn of events or he probably never would have said this to me or anyone else at school. “Her temper is part of her twist…”

“My dad didn’t have that excuse,” I told him sadly, shuddering as I remembered just how many times I’d been hurt by my dad’s temper. “And even if it is part of her twist, that doesn’t make it right.”

For a moment, Tommy just stared at me with a look of understanding in his eyes, as well as one of guilt and shame. I knew those emotions very well indeed. I felt them every time my dad went off on me, and whenever I’d taken out my anger and frustration on other people.

Then Tommy abruptly blurted out, “I’m sorry,” before he turned and ran away as fast as he could.

As I watched Tommy leave, I wished that there was something I could do to help him with his situation. Unfortunately, I knew quite well that there was no quick and easy solution to a problem like that. All I could do was hope that he found his own solution.

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

For most high school students, lunch was considered to be the best part of the day, and I was no different. Today, lunch was even better than usual. After eating as quickly as I could, I’d raced out to the school courtyard and found myself a comfortable place to sit. Only then did I bring out my flute.

A beautiful tune filled the air, bringing a smile to my lips and joy to my heart. This was the same tune that I’d practiced last week and had impressed Gary with on Saturday, and now I chose to share it with anyone who wanted to listen. Many of my classmates paused to listen, seeming to enjoy my music.

Gary sat beside me, watching me with a smile. When I stopped playing, he said, “That was great. You sounded even better than the last time.”

“Thank you,” I responded happily.

Alicia, who’d been standing nearby nodded agreement. “He’s right,” she told me. “You sounded really good…”

A few of the other students who’d been gathered nearby nodded and made complimentary noises as well. That just made me grin even more before I raised the flute to my lips and began playing again. This time, I started on a new tune that I’d been practicing over the last few days. I wasn’t as good with it as the other tune, but I thought it was coming along nicely.

I continued playing until it was nearly time for lunch to end, then I reluctantly wiped off my flute and stored it in my backpack. “I wish I could play longer,” I admitted to Gary and Alicia.

“You should sign up for the school band,” one girl told me with a grin before walking off.

“I should get going,” Alicia told me with a broad grin. “I’ll see you guys later…”

I nodded at that and looked around the courtyard one more time, noticing that Amy was sitting next to Jarrod and talking to him happily. Then the two got up and walked back into the building, side by side. I couldn’t help but smiling faintly at that, thinking that the rumor I’d started about Jarrod in the locker room must have taken root. Of course, it didn’t hurt that it was actually true.

“What are you so happy about?” Gary asked me with a grin of his own.

“Oh, nothing,” I answered him cheerfully. “And everything.”

Then I noticed something else that suddenly caught my eye. Dylan Hastings was been sitting by himself on the other side of the courtyard, but when a group of girls got up from the table where they’d been chatting, he watched them. One of them looked in his direction, but he quickly looked away, as though he’d never looked at them.

“Serenity,” Gary said awkwardly, “I wanted…”

“Just a moment,” I told Gary gently. “There’s something I’ve got to do.

I slowly walked towards Dylan, noticing that he was still watching the girls. When Rebecca separated from her friends and went inside, she paused just long enough to take another look back at him. I shook my head at that, smiling faintly as I did so. It was obvious that Dylan had a thing for her, and from what I’d overheard her saying in the locker room, I knew she was interesting in him too.

“Hey Dylan,” I said when I got close to him. He gave me a look of surprise. I just smiled told him, “Just ask Rebecca out already…”

“What?” he blurted out, blushing brightly.

“It’s obvious you like her,” I told him with a giggle. “So ask her out…”

“But what if she says no?” he responded awkwardly.

“You won’t know until you ask her,” I pointed out. “Besides…I have a feeling she’ll say yes…”

With that, I turned and walked back towards Gary, who was giving me an odd look. I glanced back at Dylan and saw that he was starting back towards the building with a new look of determination on his face. I just hoped that it worked out for him.

“Did you just play matchmaker?” Gary asked me curiously.

I just gave him my best innocent look, which was actually pretty good now, and answered, “Maybe.”

Gary gave me another odd look, then said, “Somehow…I have a feeling this isn’t the first time.”

“Maybe,” I repeated before I burst into giggles.

“How do you do it?” Gary blurted out, staring at me with another odd look.

“How do I do what?” I asked in confusion. “I mean, it’s obvious Dylan and Rebecca like each other…”

“No,” Gary responded with a shake of his head. He smiled and said, “After your twist, you came to school expecting everyone to hate you and attack you…but you weren’t afraid. I mean, you literally said, just get it over with…” He shook his head at that. “You looked more like you were bored than afraid…”

“I was just getting what I deserved,” I said quietly.

“No,” Gary said again, putting a hand on my shoulder. “You’re always talking about how you have a lot of bad karma to burn off, but I think you’ve already dealt with more bad karma than anyone should. You’re a good person. I mean, you even heal anyone you think might hurt you…even though you feel their pain by doing it. I think the only would-be bully you haven’t healed is Tommy…”

“Actually,” I responded with a wry smile. “I kind of healed him the other day…”

Gary rolled his eyes at that. “See what I mean. If anything, you’ve got a lot of good karma coming…and you should just accept the fact that you deserve it.”

I smiled at that, feeling happy about the compliment. “Thank you,” I told him, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

Gary just blushed at that, then said, “I’m proud that I finally got to know the real you.”

This time, it was my turn to blush brightly. I took a deep breath and looked him in the eyes, then carefully said, “You had a big jerk picking on you for who you were…making you miserable. But you never gave in. You never let him change who you were. I…I always respected that.” I gave Gary a tight hug and whispered, “You’re a better man than I ever was.”

We remained like this for a minute, even though everyone else had already gone inside. We were both going to be late for our next class, but I don’t think either of us was really concerned about that at the moment.

Finally, Gary said, “Serenity…” He paused and blushed brightly before blurting out, “Will you go out with me?”

“Like a date?” I asked, excited but a little afraid that I misunderstood what he really wanted. “Like a real date?”

“Um…yeah,” Gary responded awkwardly.

“Of course,” I exclaimed, grabbing him in a hug again and then giving him a kiss. “I’d love to…”

The two of us hurried to the school entrance hand in hand, giving each other goofy grins. Once we were back inside the school building, we quickly promised to talk about this again later, then we split up and went in different directions.

The rest of the day passed in a blur and I could scarcely remember anything from my remaining classes. All I could really think about was that Gary really liked me…and that I had a date with him. A real date. I was simultaneously nervous yet excited by the very idea. After all, this would be the first real date that I’d been on in my entire life. Before my twist, there hadn’t been a lot of girls lining up to go out with me.

When the last class of the day ended, I was ready to race out the door so I could get home and tell mom the good news as soon as possible. However, I noticed Gwen was slowly packing up her backpack and was going to be the last one to leave. Ever since I’d suggested she go slow and pay extra attention, she’d been doing just that. It hadn’t made her clumsiness go away, but it had made it so that she had far fewer accidents.

“Do you need a hand with that?” I asked Gwen.

“I’ve got it,” Gwen told me with a smile. “But thanks anyway.”

Once Gwen had her backpack filled, she double checked the zipper and then slung it over her shoulder. She went slow and was obviously paying close attention to every movement she made, which was why she hadn’t accidentally dumped the contents of her pack out or tripped while loading it.

“How are you holding up?” I asked her carefully.

“I’m managing,” she told me with another smile. “It isn’t easy…but you know how that is.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

Gwen and I were the last ones left in the classroom so we left together. She seemed happy for the company, but when we stepped out of the classroom, I noticed Tommy was standing across the hallway. He’d obviously been waiting for me.

“I can probably break his glasses with my trick,” Gwen told me as soon as she noticed I’d stopped to stare at him. “If he can’t see you…”

“I think I’ll be fine,” I told her, giving her a reassuring smile. “But thanks…”

Then I turned my attention back to Tommy, who wasn’t glaring at me as he had been every time he’d ambushed me. Instead, he had a look of shame on his face. He held out his hands to show he wasn’t armed, which didn’t really mean anything since he hadn’t been armed with anything during any of his attempts to mess with me. However, I wasn’t afraid of him.

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” Tommy told me, looking genuinely guilty.

“Thank you” I told him quietly. “I understand.”

And there was no doubt that I understood exactly why Tommy had tried pushing me around. I knew quite well what it was like being filled with anger and frustration…and wanting to take it out on someone else. I also knew that as far as Tommy had been concerned, I had been the perfect scapegoat for all his problems. After all, not only was he bigger and stronger than me, but it would have been extremely easy for him to convince himself that I deserved it. I didn’t blame him for it at all.

“I…I thought about what you said,” Tommy said awkwardly. “I talked to some people and…and they’re gonna make my mom get some help.” He took a deep breath and looked me in the eyes before adding, “Thank you.”

“Then I’m glad it’s working out for you,” I told him honestly.

Tommy stared at me for a moment, looking almost surprised. Then he blurted out, “Are you really the same person?”

There was a long pause before I responded, “Does it really matter?”

Though I liked to think of myself as being a different person from the brutish thug I used to be, I knew the truth was that I was just a different part of him. I was grateful for the people who were giving me the chance to be a new person, who were giving me the opportunity to discover just who Serenity was, but I knew that I was still responsible for what I’d done as Dan.

I gave Gary a gentle smile and said, “Good luck,” before I turned and walked away.

When I got home, I made myself comfortable in the back yard and began to practice with my flute. I was bursting with different emotions over what had happened at school, but playing allowed me to just relax and let it all go. Playing the flute by myself allowed me to feel the serenity that I’d been named for. However, that peace and calm was broken the moment my mom finally returned home from work.

“Guess what,” I exclaimed in excitement and rushed to meet my mom at the door. Mom winced slightly and took a half step back, obviously having a hard time dealing with that level of energy being directed at her. I took a deep breath and struggled to contain my excitement. I lowered my voice and tried to remain calm as I told her, “Gary asked me out on a date…”

“A date?” she responded in her usual quiet voice, giving me a look of surprise and then a smile. Then she gently hugged me and said, “Good for you. But I have to admit, I’m a little surprised. You’ve only been a girl for a couple weeks…”

“I know,” I said, blushing self-consciously. “But…”

“But a pretty girl like you was bound to start dating sooner or later,” mom told me with an amused smile.

“But I don’t know what to wear,” I blurted out, suddenly feeling nervous again as I remembered this was my first date, and not just my first one as a girl. “I don’t know what to do…”

Mom just smiled and put her arm around my shoulder. “It’s all right,” she assured me gently. “I’ll help you pick out an outfit and get ready.”

I gave mom another hug, then I pulled away and just grinned, feeling incredibly happy and excited. Then I couldn’t help but thinking that maybe Gary was right. After all, I must be doing something right in order to have this much good fortune coming at me.

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

I stared at my reflection in the mirror, feeling a swirling mixture of nervousness and excitement, of pride and doubt. My date with Gary was only a short time away and I kept alternating between thinking that I was ready and worrying that I wasn’t.

At the moment, I was wearing a dark green dress that looked very nice on me, making me look a little sexy without being at all slutty. The fact that I was wearing low heels rather than stilettos definitely helped keep me from crossing the line. All in all, I thought I looked really good.

“Are you sure this dress looks right?” I asked my mom nervously. “Maybe I should go with a skirt...”

“You look perfect,” mom told me with an amused smile.

“Maybe I should wear high heels,” I thought aloud. “If I looked a little taller…”

“I think these heels are enough for now,” mom said patiently. “You should get comfortable with these before you worry about anything higher.”

I relaxed a little at that and looked myself over in the mirror again. My ears had been pierced so I now wore earrings, and mom had even helped me with my makeup. I made a mental note to have her give me some real lessons with makeup. After all, I was a girl now and every self-respecting girl needed to know about makeup.

Then as I looked myself over, I cupped my breasts and hesitantly asked, “Are my boobs big enough?”

Mom rolled her eyes at that and muttered, “Was I ever this bad?” Then she stared me for a moment before adding, “Probably.”

“Maybe,” I started in on another worry.

“Enough,” mom said, raising her voice to a normal conversational level. For her, that was about as close as she could come to yelling so it immediately caught my full attention. She put her hands on my shoulders and smiled. “You’re a lovely young woman and Gary is lucky you agreed to go out with him.”

I blushed at that, feeling pleased by the compliment. Then I giggled, saying, “He must be doing something right then.”

“Well, he does have good taste,” mom agreed with a broad smile of her own. Then she gave me an odd look and said, “You know, you’re a natural.” At my blank look, she explained, “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’ve always been a girl.”

“Thanks,” I told her, feeling rather pleased.

Mom just gave me a proud look and added, “I’m starting to think that maybe this is who you were always meant to be.”

I smiled happily at that, pleased that mom was coming to the same conclusion that I already had. As Serenity, I was far happier than I’d ever been as Dan, and a part of that was that I actually felt…real. I felt like I’d finally become myself…and that I was becoming even more so the longer I lived as Serenity.

Gary arrived a short time later, dressed nicely and wearing a nervous grin that looked adorable. And in spite of my mom’s assurances that I looked nice, I was still hit with another case of nerves.

“You look…wow,” Gary said, staring at me with a look that clearly indicated that he liked what he saw. He blushed brightly and said, “You’re beautiful… I mean, you always look pretty but…” He blushed even more and I couldn’t help but giggle.

Mom watched this with amusement, then told me, “Have fun, but don’t be out too late.”

I nodded at that and promised, “I will and I won’t.”

We’d already talked about when I was expected to be back, but mom wasn’t comfortable with being pushy about it, especially in front of Gary. Still, I knew when she wanted me back and I wasn’t going to take advantage of her twist by ignoring her wishes.

Gary and I went out to his car, or more accurately, his dad’s car. It was one of those ground based cars with four wheels as opposed to those fancy hover cars that actually floated a foot or so above the ground, but it wasn’t that old and it was in pretty good shape.

“My dad let me borrow the car for tonight,” Gary told me unnecessarily. Then when we got in, he exclaimed, “Oh, these are for you… I forgot to bring them in…” With that, he handed me some roses which made me gasp in surprise…and delight. No one had ever given me flowers before.

“Thank you,” I said, trying not to tear up. I didn’t want to ruin my makeup before the date even began, especially since I didn’t know how to touch it up or fix it.

When we arrived at our destination a short time later, Gary proudly announced, “Here we are.”

I just stared at the restaurant, surprised since it was a nicer one than I was expecting. I looked at Gary, impressed that he’d actually bring me to a place that was kind of expensive. He just gave me a goofy grin, obviously pleased with himself.

Once we were inside and seated, I looked over the menu, nearly drooling over all the good food. However, I had to remind myself that my appetite wasn’t nearly what it had once been and there was no way I’d be able to eat most of this. And then there were the prices, which suddenly made me feel a little guilty.

“What’s wrong?” Gary asked me with a look of concern.

“I’ve never been to a place this nice before,” I admitted, not sure that I deserved to have him spend this kind money on me.

“Never?” Gary asked me with a look of surprise.

I shook my head at that, not wanting to talk about how my dad’s idea of eating out was going to a fast food place. He’d hated wasting money on ‘fancy’ food, and as far as I could remember, the nicest place he’d ever taken me had been Denny’s.

“Then you’re really going to like the food,” Gary told me with a grin. His good mood immediately brought my spirits back up. “You might want to try this one.” He pointed to an item on the menu that was some kind of fancy chicken with risotto. “I had that one when my family came here for my dad’s birthday. It’s really good.”

I took Gary’s recommendation and was glad that I had. The meal was just chicken and rice, but it was done a lot nicer than I was used to and tasted absolutely delicious. Gary kept watching as I ate, obviously happy that I was enjoying the food.

We talked as we ate, though we kept the topics light and avoided any mention of my life before my twist. However, Gary had no problem talking about his own past and told me several stories about the trouble he and Alicia had gotten into, as well telling me about what she’d been like before her twist. In the process, he also gave me enough material to tease them both with should I ever have the urge.

I had a great time, even better than I’d been expecting. By the time we were done eating, I was in such a good mood that I was sure I’d never be able to get the goofy grin off my face. And from the nearly matching grin that Gary possessed, it was obvious that he was having fun as well.

“Thank you,” I told Gary as we began to leave, taking his hand in mind and then giving him a kiss. “This was great…”

Gary blushed at that, but as he was about to talk, something suddenly hit me in the leg hard enough to make me stagger. I looked down, startled to see that it was a little girl of about four years old who was running through the restaurant.

“Careful there,” I bent down and warned the girl with a smile. “You don’t want to accidentally get hurt…”

“Sorry about that,” the girl’s mother said, looking embarrassed. She looked down at the girl and sighed, “Come on Kimberly… What do we say?”

“Sorry,” the girl said, looking like she was more interested in continuing to play than in apologizing.

“It’s no problem,” I said, both to the girl and her mother. Then I took another look at the girl, who was wearing a cute little dress. However, what caught my attention was the large pink bandage on her knee, probably due to falling and scraping herself. “I noticed the band-aid,” I said to the girl’s mom, gesturing down to the girl. “I have a trick that can heal injuries…”

“It’s just a scrape,” the mom said, giving me a curious look as though trying to decide if I was trustworthy or nod. She apparently decided that I was, because she added, “If you could heal her, I’d appreciate.”

“No problem,” I told her as I bent down to touch the girl. “There. All better.”

The mom gave me a curious look, then bent down and removed the band-aid to confirm that I really had healed the scrape. Only then did she give me a broad smile and say, “Thank you.”

“I’m glad I could help,” I told her before waving at the little girl and leaving the restaurant with Gary.

Gary stopped outside the restaurant and stared at me with a strange look that suddenly made me wonder if I had food on my face. I wiped at my mouth and cheeks, only to have Gary start laughing.

“You really are something,” Gary said, his smile and the look in his eyes indicating that this was a good thing.

Then Gary gently put his hands on my shoulders and pulled me close, giving me another kiss. This was more passionate than the one we’d had inside and I could feel sparks shooting through my body. I was definitely getting turned on.

“What now?” I asked curiously.

“Um…I’m not sure,” Gary admitted self-consciously. “I was kind of focused on the dinner and didn’t think about what to do after…”

I just smiled at that and said, “Then I guess we’ll have to figure something out.” I paused and let out a sigh before reminding him, “But it is a school night and I do have a curfew…”

“We can go to my house,” Gary suggested hopefully. “We have time for one movie before you have to be home, and I’ve got a good movie collection…”

“Sounds good to me,” I responded with a grin, taking his hand in mine.

Gary and I were just about to reach where his car was parked, when something suddenly grabbed my hair and yanked me back. My scalp hurt and I let out a scream of pain and surprise.

Then a familiar voice snarled, “I finally found you, you damn cunt.”

A cold chill went through my entire being and I gasped, “Dad…”

Dad used my hair to swing me around and slam me into a nearby car. I let out a gasp of pain as I hit, then I turned around and stared up at him. Dad was wearing rumpled and dirty clothes with unkempt hair and at least a week worth of stubble on his face. Then I was hit with the stink that spoke of not only of his desperate need for a shower, but also of having too much alcohol.

All I could do was stare up at him in terror, remembering what he’d done to me the last time he was like this. I’d always been afraid of my dad, but I was suddenly very aware of the fact that I was smaller than I once was and nowhere near as strong.

“The police are after me because of you,” dad snarled angrily.

Dad picked me up again but Gary yelled, “Leave her alone…” Gary had a look of fear on his face, but also one of anger and determination. Then he repeated, “Leave Serenity alone,” and charged right at my dad, drying to shove him. However, my dad was more than twice his size, which made what he was doing both foolish, and all the more brave because of it.

“Stupid punk,” dad spat out, dropping me and then punching Gary. Gary went flying back, leaving me no doubt that half his face would be badly bruised from that hit. Then dad took several steps towards Gary and exclaimed, “You’re the kid who called the cops on me…”

“Don’t you dare hurt her,” Gary exclaimed, getting back to his feet though he still looked both terrified and determined. He pulled out his cell phone and yelled, “Run Serenity…”

“Rotten little bastard,” dad snarled, knocking the phone out of Gary’s hands and then stomping on it. “I’m gonna teach you a lesson about fucking with me…”

“Leave my boyfriend alone,” I screamed, charging at my dad even though I knew it was stupid and punching him in his back.

Dad snapped around and backhanded me across my cheek, knocking me to the ground. “Boyfriend?” he demanded in shock and anger. “First you turn into a whore and now you’re a fag…”

“I’m a girl,” I blurted out angrily. “How does liking boys make me gay?”

“You turned into a mouthy little bitch,” dad spat out, giving me several swift kicks, one of them hitting my ribs in almost the same place where he’d previously broken them, and another hitting my wrist which snapped painfully. “You’re just like your damn mother…”

“Good,” I responded bitterly. “I’d rather be like her than you.”

Dad had never liked it when anyone contradicted him or talked back, so this only made him angrier…if that was possible. I knew that it wasn’t smart to push these buttons, but I was no longer strong enough to fight and my mouth was the only weapon I had. And honestly, it was either this or curl up into a ball and cry.

Gary suddenly threw himself at my dad again, swinging punch after punch. It was obvious that he didn’t know how to throw a punch and that he stood absolutely no chance against my dad, however…he still tried. I felt an even greater respect for the boy who didn’t stand a chance, yet still gave it everything he could trying to protect me.

“You asshole,” Gary yelled. “I told you to leave Serenity alone…”

Dad snapped around and punched Gary, sending out a spurt of blood from Gary’s nose, which had probably been broken. Then he punched Gary several more times in the stomach while I screamed for him to stop. Moments later, Gary was on the ground, broken and struggling to get up in vain.

By this time, other people had noticed the fight had had come running. One large guy went straight for my dad, grabbing him by the shoulder and angrily trying to pull him away. However, my dad just snarled and punched the guy several times, taking him down as well.

“Mind your own damn business,” dad snarled, turning to glare at the other people who’d come to see what was going on. They all backed up, not wanting to face dad after seeing what he’d done to the large man. However, several of them did yell out that they’d called the police.

Dad glared at Gary again, looking as though he was about to start kicking the helpless boy. I glared at my dad, still terrified though I was also angry. Anger was a familiar emotion, but one that I’d barely felt at all since my twist. It was an emotion that I’d been happy to say goodbye to, but now it all came back, bubbling up inside of me.

“You fucking coward,” I screamed at dad, getting fully back on my feet and trying to ignore all the pain in my body, as well as my nearly useless hand. “Beating up people who are smaller and weaker than you because you don’t have the guts to fight someone your own size…” Of course, I knew that dad would be perfectly happy to fight a larger opponent too, but the insult was enough to get his attention off Gary.

I made an attempt to rush around dad so I could heal Gary, but dad was faster than most people would assume from someone who looks like he did. He grabbed my hair and yanked me back, which was enough to get some of the audience ready to change in again. He slammed me hard into the side of a car, then snarled at the onlookers. And after he took a swing at another of person, they backed off again.

“You’re going to give me the respect I deserve,” dad stated in a menacing tone as he grabbed me again. “Your twist seems to have made you forget everything I ever taught you, so it’s time to give you another lesson.”

With that, dad got a good grip on each of my arms and lifted me up into the air. His fingers dug painfully into my flesh and would leave some good bruises, but I barely felt that when he was putting pressure on my broken wrist. Tears of fear and pain ran down my cheeks, but I refused to give dad the pleasure of having me scream. Instead, I met his eyes and glared at him furiously, refusing to look away.

I tried struggling but knew it wouldn’t do much good, not when dad was so much bigger and stronger than me. I could no more beat him in a fight than a toddler could beat me. However, I had to try. Gary had tried his best so I was damn well going to do so as well.

“A real man,” dad began, as he sometimes started his painful lessons.

Then I suddenly realized that I might be a lot smaller and weaker, but there was one way I could still hurt dad. I swung my leg and kicked him as hard as I could between the legs, feeling a grim amusement as I did so because I knew I wouldn’t have been able to even reach him there if he hadn’t done me the favor of lifting me up. Dad immediately let go of me and dropped to his knees in agony.

“You’re NOT a real man, “I snarled at dad furiously, then kicked him between the legs again. “A real man doesn’t bully people who are smaller than him...he protects them. He protects the people he cares about.” I looked to Gary as I said that, then kicked my dad again.

“You little bitch,” dad gasped through the pain.

I slapped dad across the face as hard as I could, hurting my hand more than I hurt him. “You’re not a real man,” I spat at him in disgust. “You’re just an overgrown toddler who throws a tantrum whenever he can’t get his way. You’re…pathetic. I’m ashamed I ever tried to be like you.”

Then as I stared at my dad, my anger faded. I realized that I was no longer afraid of him as well. I felt disgust and pity…but no fear. After a moment, I suddenly wondered if maybe someone had pushed him to become this…thug. Maybe he’d ended up losing his real self the same way I had until my twist. Or maybe…this was his real self. I couldn’t decide which of those would be worst.

After a few seconds, I turned away from dad and hurried to Gary. I bent down beside him and said, “I’m so sorry…” I braced myself for the pain, then I bent down and kissed him, activating my trick at the same time. All of his pain was added to my own, letting me feel his broken nose, his cracked rib, and the countless bruises. Then his pain faded away, as did a little of my own.

“You called me your boyfriend,” Gary said, giving me a goofy smile that seemed odd after he’d just gotten his ass kicked so badly.

I blushed at that and admitted, “I guess I did…”

“I was going to ask you tonight,” Gary told me, giving me a worried look as he hesitantly reached out to touch my bruised cheek. “I was going to ask you to be my girlfriend. Officially.”

I gasped at that and felt a surge of glee that almost made me forget what had just happened. “Really? Then yes…” I gave him another kiss.

Then I heard the noise from behind me and snapped around to see my dad had gotten back to his feet, still looking like he was in pain, and also glaring at me with a look of pain. Suddenly, he began to shake and collapsed face first to the ground, revealing a woman who’d come up behind him. She was the same woman I’d talked to inside the restaurant, the mother of the little girl. And in her hand, she held the taser she’d just used on my dad.

It was at this point that police cars arrived. “About time,” Gary muttered while I nodded agreement, wondering why they couldn’t have arrived sooner.

Police climbed out of the cars and rushed over, though one person climbed out of the passenger side and surprised me. It was a strawberry blonde girl who was wearing a super hero costume.

“Chloe,” I said in surprise, wincing as I moved and got a surge of pain from my wrist.

“Oh my God,” Chloe exclaimed when she saw me. “Serenity? What happened?”

“Her dad attacked her,” Gary said angrily, glaring to my dad who was starting to move again.

“He did this to you?” the cop who’d been driving Chloe asked with barely contained anger.

Gary nodded and said, “She was even worse before she healed my injuries…”

Chloe’s eyes seemed to go even darker, as did those of the cop beside her. The other cops were starting towards dad, pulling out their handcuffs.

“Even worse,” Chloe muttered, walking over to dad and grabbing him by the ankle. Then she levitated into the air, taking dad with her and dangling him by his ankle. “So you’re the bastard that…”

“Put him down,” the cop told her, though he looked like he would have been happy to watch her go a little higher first. “Gently.”

“Sure,” Chloe said with an almost evil grin. “But first…is there a nasty dumpster around here?”

Gary turned to me and smirked faintly, saying, “Your dad just got his butt kicked by two women…and now he’s being manhandled by a third. This really isn’t very manly of him…is it?”

“Not at all,” I responded with a faint giggle. “This is REALLY going to hurt his pride.” I remembered the ‘lesson’ he’d given me after Chloe had beaten me, so I hoped his pride hurt a LOT.

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

The air was filled with the delicious smelling aroma of freshly made French toast. The scent of cinnamon and nutmeg tickled my nose and the taste lay pleasantly on my tongue. I closed my eyes, savoring the just finished meal and feeling proud about my part in making it.

It wasn’t even noon yet but today was a good day. Of course, the fact that it was Saturday and I’d been able to sleep in had something to do with that, though not everything. After I’d gotten up, mom not only suggested that we make a late brunch together, but she’d also said I should invite Gary and Alicia.

“That was really good,” Alicia said from her seat at the table. “That was better than my mom makes…”

“Yeah,” Gary told me with a grin. “Awesome breakfast.”

I blushed at that, then mumbled, “Thanks.”

Mom stood back, watching with an amused look. Though the two of us had made breakfast together, I was actually the one who’d done all the work while she gave me directions and supervised. I was pretty sure that if it had just been me and the cookbook, the French toast wouldn’t have been nearly as good.

A moment later, I began clearing off the table, which wasn’t easy since I only had one good hand. Dad had broken my wrist the other day, and though it had healed a bit, I still couldn’t put any weight on that hand. That had made it a little difficult to prepare breakfast, but even worse, I couldn’t really practice with my flute.

“Here, let me,” Gary said, snatching the plates out of my hand.

“You cooked so we’ll clean, “Alicia added with a grin.

“They have a point,” mom told me with a chuckle.

I snorted at that, then responded, “You’re just saying that so you can make me do all the cleaning after you make dinner…” Mom just smiled at that, probably because I usually volunteered to clean up after dinner anyway.

Gary and Alicia quickly began cleaning up while mom helped them. Whenever I tried to help, someone would snatch the plate or dish cloth right out of my hand. I ended up standing back and trying to look like I was pouting, though Alicia kept sticking her tongue out at me and making me laugh.

Once the dishes and cleanup were done, we went into the living room and sat down. I would have turned on the TV, but we didn’t have one. Mom had no interest in watching TV, though she had said she’d get me one for my bedroom.

“I forgot something,” Alicia said, getting back up and going back to the kitchen.

“Thanks for the breakfast,” Gary told me, holding my hand and giving me a kiss that made me grin. “It was really good…”

“Thank you,” I told him again, pleased by the compliment. “Mom has been teaching me how to cook.”

“Well, I’m certainly not going to let my daughter live on McDonalds and microwave meals,” mom said in her quiet voice. Then smiled and added, “Before long, we’ll be taking turns cooking dinner…”

I just gave her a mock glare and said, “I knew there was an ulterior motive…”

Suddenly, I heard Alicia cry out, “Ouch,” from the kitchen. I immediately jumped to my feet, just in time for her to come into the living room while holding her hand. Alicia gave me a wry smile and announced, “I accidentally cut myself.”

“Are you okay?” I gasped, rushing to her side and grabbing her hand for a better look. She had nasty cut right through the meat of her palm. It was bleeding pretty badly as well so I immediately used my trick to heal her wound. “There…”

“Thanks,” Alicia said with a nervous smile.

I stared at her for a moment, then at her palm, which was covered with blood but no longer injured. Then I suddenly wondered how she’d cut herself like that when all of our knives had just been put away. Then it hit me.

“You did that on purpose,” I blurted out in realization.

For a brief moment, I wanted to ask why…but I already knew the answer. She’d done it to help me. After all, every time I used my trick to heal someone, I got healed a little as well. And even after I’d helped Gary the other day, I still hadn’t fully recovered. Admittedly, the last of my bruises seemed to have just faded and my wrist did feel a little better.

“Don’t do that again,” I told Alicia. “Please don’t hurt yourself for me.”

“Okay,” Alicia responded, surprising me with a quick hug. “I just wanted you to get better faster.”

Just then, there was a knock from the front door which was immediately followed by our birdsong doorbell. “I’ll get it,” mom told me with an amused look.

Seconds later, Chloe came into the house and gave me a self-conscious smile. “Hey, Serenity. How are you holding up?”

“Fine,” I responded, a little surprised since I didn’t think Chloe even knew where I lived. Then I glanced to Gary and Alicia, neither of whom seemed surprised to see her.

“Lori would have come too, but she had to work,” Chloe told me.

Then I looked at my mom, who was still smiling faintly. Normally, mom wasn’t comfortable with a lot of people around, especially when they started to get noisy and boisterous. And right now, she didn’t seem surprised about Chloe’s presence either.

“Okay,” I said suspiciously as I looked around the room. “What’s going on?”

Alicia reached into her pocket and pulled out a five dollar bill, which she then handed to Gary. He just looked smug and said, “I told you she’d figure it out.”

“It’s a surprise party,” Alicia exclaimed, only to pause and look at my mom with an apologetic look. Then in a quieter voice, she said, “Surprise.”

I was definitely surprised, not to mention confused. “What?” I asked. “Why?”

“You’ve been through so much lately,” mom told me with a gentle smile. “I wanted to show you how much I appreciate having you here, so your friends and I decided to have a party to celebrate your new life.”

For a moment, all I could do was stare at my mom in awe. I knew how difficult it was for her to be around a lot of loud people, that it pushed her nerves and made her feel vulnerable and awkward. So for her to intentionally subject herself to something like this for me, it meant a great deal.

“Thank you,” I told her quietly, giving her a firm hug and feeling the tears start to flow.

“Your father never deserved you,” mom told me firmly, though she was starting to cry as well. “After everything that man did, you still came out of it as a wonderful kind-hearted person. I’m so proud of you Serenity.”

Once mom and I pulled apart, I was a little embarrassed because everyone had been watching. I wiped my tears away and gave mom a self-conscious smile.

“No offense,” Gary told me, taking my hand in his. “But your dad is a real asshole. I’m glad he’s in jail and hope he stays there for a long time after what he did to you.”

“None taken,” I responded. “I kind of hope he stays there too.”

The police had told me that between his most recent attack on me, the one from a couple weeks ago, and the one from a couple months ago, that he’d be locked up for a few years at least. And once he did finally get out, I’d be able to have a restraining order against him.

“About your dad,” Chloe said, looking just a little self-conscious. “Well, you know I work with the police as a junior deputy in training...”

“Yeah,” Gary responded with a nod. “Most kids our age are working in fast food, and you’ve already got an in with the cops…”

“It’s just part of my whole super hero twist,” Chloe said with a self-conscious shrug. “Honestly, they just have me there so they can keep an eye on me. They’re afraid that because of my twist, I might go off on my own and do some super heroing…”

“About her dad,” Alicia said, gesturing to me and trying to get Chloe back on topic.

“Oh yeah,” Chloe said with a chuckle. “Anyway, a lot of the guys at that station weren’t happy with him once they found out what he did, so they’ve been keeping things a little…uncomfortable for him.” Then she gave me an almost evil grin and added, “And Leila came down to the station for a visit, and well…she used her trick on him.”

I blinked at that, then asked, “What is her trick?”

“She can change the color of things and make them pink,” Gary said with a chuckle. “I once saw her turn some guy’s clothes pink after he kept hitting on her.”

“Really?” mom asked quietly, but with a look of amusement. “And this girl turned Dan’s clothes pink?”

“Worse,” Chloe responded with a smirk. “She turned his hair pink.”

Mom and I both burst out laughing at that, and I couldn’t remember ever hearing my mom be so loud. Gary just snickered, saying, “That doesn’t exactly sound all that manly either.”

“The other prisoners are really giving him a hard time about it,” Chloe stated with a grin. “I think his new jailhouse nickname is Pinkie.”

We joked about dad’s situation for a few more minutes, making me feel better because it was hard to think of him as intimidating or threatening when he was locked up in jail with pink hair. I think that was why my friends continued to joke about him.

While we were doing that, mom went into the kitchen and pulled out a cake from where she must have had it hidden. I’d been making brunch in there not long ago, and I hadn’t seen any sign of it.

Then the doorbell began chirping again, making me wonder who it could possibly be since I didn’t know who else could have been invited to this little party. Mom hurried to answer the door, then I heard a familiar voice.

“Hello Gabriella,” Mrs. Fritz greeted mom from the doorway. “How is your daughter doing?”

“Come on in and ask her yourself,” mom responded.

“Oh,” Mrs. Gabriella said as she began to come in. “My grandson recently moved in with me so I brought him along. I hope that isn’t a problem…”

“Not at all,” mom told her.

“Hi Mrs. Fritz,” I greeted her as she came inside, though I felt a little self-conscious about her seeing me this way. I wasn’t sure why since she’d already seen me as a girl.

Then a boy came in right behind Mrs. Fritz and I froze, immediately recognizing him. “Tommy?”

Tommy stared back at me, looking just as surprised as I felt. “Serenity?”

“I take it that you two know each other,” Mrs. Fritz said with a chuckle.

“We go to school together,” Tommy said, suddenly looking uncomfortable. Then he looked at me and admitted, “I didn’t know we were coming to see you. Grandma just said we were visiting a former neighbor…”

“She was the nice boy who used to help me with my groceries all the time,” Mrs. Fritz stated with a smile. Then she looked at me and added, “You were such a nice boy, though you make a very lovely girl.”

“Thank you,” I responded with a blush.

Tommy stared at me for a moment, perhaps surprised to hear Ms. Fritz refer to me as having been a nice boy. Since he knew what I’d been like at school, I was pretty sure he was about to argue that point.

Tommy leaned over and whispered something to Mrs. Fritz, then she gave me a look of surprise. I winced and prepared for the condemnation that was sure to come.

Instead, Mrs. Fritz exclaimed, “So you’re the one. Tommy said a girl at school inspired him to get help…”

“What?” I asked in surprise.

“My youngest daughter had difficulties controlling her twist,” Mrs. Fritz said with a scowl, taking Tommy’s hand in hers and giving it a gentle squeeze. “I had no idea how much until Tommy told me.”

“I didn’t know you were related,” I told her, not sure what I could say to the revelation that this kind old woman’s daughter had physically beat and abused her grandson. I could only imagine how horrible the discovery would have been for someone like Mrs. Fritz.

“I’m grateful to you for your help,” Mrs. Fritz continued, giving me a sad smile. “If you hadn’t talked with Tommy, then things may have continued as they were. At least now, my grandson is safe and my daughter is getting the help she so desperately needs.”

Gary took my hand and then quietly stated, “See, you build up good karma way faster than you ever did the bad.”

I smiled and gave Gary a kiss on the cheek, wanting to do more but not in front of my mom. “Thanks,” I told him quietly.

Tommy stood back, looking awkward and uncomfortable. In fact, he looked like he wanted to just run away and hide, and I couldn’t blame him. It was embarrassing to have everyone know your personal issues.

“Can we eat the cake now?” I asked mom, trying to change the subject. Tommy looked relieved when everyone turned their attention to the cake.

A few minutes later, everyone was eating cake and several people began pulling out small presents for me. I was surprised when mom gave me a necklace, though giddy when Gary gave me a book of sheet music for flutes.

“Thank you,” I exclaimed, giving Gary a hug.

I stared at the book he’d given me, knowing that I’d have to learn sheet music now. My fingers twitched a little as I imagined playing my flute, then I smiled, deciding that my wrist was probably healed enough for me to try playing again. But that could wait until later.

I continued hugging my boyfriend, smiling happily as I did so. Then I looked around at the people who’d come to my party, feeling touched that they’d come here for me. It seemed amazing and wonderful, especially considering the history I had with some of them.

As I sat there, it suddenly struck me just how lucky I was. Ever since mom had told me about karma, I’d feared that I’d never get out from under the bad karma I’d built up in my old life. But now, I was seeing the effects of good karma...sooner than I’d ever expected and more than I’d even believed possible.

My old life seemed like it was a long time ago, yet not nearly long enough. I’d hated that life…and the person I’d been. I’d been trapped as a brutish thug who only saw a dismal and miserable future ahead of me. Then came my twist, and not only was I given a new body, I was also given a new life and a new future.

I tightened my hug on Gary and deepened my contented smile. I absolutely loved my new life and everything that came with it. I loved having friends and being able to help people instead of hurt them. I loved the opportunity to discover who I really was and explore the things that made me happy. But most of all, I just loved the fact that I was finally happy being me.

THE END