Lanie woke up bright and early the following morning. When she awoke, she saw that Rachel and Melody were already up and getting some of their clothes out of their dressers. "Good morning, guys," said Lanie.

"Hi Lanie!" said Rachel. "We're just getting ready to shower for the day."

"Nice," said Lanie. "I guess I should do that too."

"The showers are in the bathroom area," said Melody. "Just beyond the bathroom stalls."

"Okay." Lanie had used the bathroom a couple times last night, but she hadn't been to the shower area yet. She got up, got a fresh change of clothes from her dresser, and followed Rachel and Melody into the bathroom. But when they went past the bathroom stalls and around the corner, Lanie stopped dead. The "shower area" had no stalls or anything-just a line of shower nozzles and dials on the wall, and a drain in the middle of the floor. There was a bench full of towels at the end of the room.

"Uh, this is the shower area?" Lanie asked.

"Yes," Rachel answered.

"Why doesn't it have any stalls?"

"I don't know," said Melody. She was already taking off her shirt to reveal her skin-colored bra. "That's just how they designed the place."

"We all shower together here," said Rachel. "I know it feels pretty awkward, but you'll get used to it."

Lanie still hesitated. A week ago, the thought of being in a room with a bunch of naked girls would've been titillating. Now that she had different hormones coursing through her body, the thought did not arouse her. Even so, when she was Landon, he'd been taught that barging in on girls that were showering or changing their clothes was a HUGE no-no. But if he was a she now, then it was different...right? Of course, Lanie told herself. She was a girl now. This wouldn't be that much different from when he used to go to the public swimming pool, and all the people in the men's locker room stripped down right in front of everyone else.

Lanie took off her shirt, laid it on the bench, and reached back to unclip her bra. After sliding her bra off her arms, she took both her shorts and her panties and slid them off her body. Rachel and Melody did the same, and now the three of them were fully naked. Each of them went up to a shower nozzle and started washing themselves off. Lanie found that washing herself as a girl wasn't that much different from washing himself as a boy. Just take the soap and scrub down her torso, her armpits, and her limbs. The only complication was with her hair, which was much longer and thicker now. But even then, it wasn't a huge deal to wash it out with shampoo.

While Lanie, Rachel, and Melody were showering, Taylor came in to join them. "Hi guys," Taylor said as she pulled down her pants. "How'd you sleep?"

"Pretty well," Rachel answered. "What about you?"

"Not great," Taylor answered. "I woke up in the middle of the night because I had to pee."

"Oh."

"Yeah. But at least I got back to sleep okay."

"I'm guessing Alexis is still asleep?" Melody asked.

"Yes."

Melody nodded, unsurprised. "She'll probably be out till lunchtime," she said.

"So Lanie," Rachel said, wringing the shampoo suds out of her hair, "What do you want to do today?"

"Um..." Lanie thought for a minute. "Didn't you say there was a local swimming pool?"

"Yeah. You want to go there?"

"Sure!"

"Alright. Melody, Taylor, do you guys want to go too?"

"Of course!" said Melody.

"Me too," said Taylor. "Should we wait for Alexis to wake up?"

Lanie and Rachel exchanged glances. "Yeah," said Rachel.

"I guess it would be polite." Lanie had finished washing herself, so she turned off her nozzle's water. She stood and let herself drip for a minute before going over to get a towel. She was able to dry off her body with no problem, but she ran into a problem with her hair. "There's a hair dryer here, right?" Lanie asked.

"Yes," Rachel answered. "It's by the bathroom sink."

"Got it." Lanie took the towel and wrapped it around her naked body. She made sure the towel wrapped itself around her breasts while also concealing her butt and vagina. Once she'd set the towel, she walked back out to the bathroom sink and found the hair dryer. She set to work drying her hair, blowing the warm air onto her hair to make the water evaporate quicker.

While Lanie was drying her hair, Alexis walked into the bathroom. Her hair was a rat's nest, and her shirt...was that a drool stain? "Hey Lanie," Alexis said in a bored, drawling voice.

"Hi Alexis," said Lanie. "We're gonna go to the pool today. Wanna come?"

"No. I have a headache."

"Oh. Well, okay. Hope you get better."

***

Once all the girls (sans Alexis) had gotten dressed, they all set out to go to the local swimming pool. It was just a ten-minute walk away, and to Lanie's relief, the pool did not require a membership or anything to attend. So she and her friends were able to go into the pool with no problem. They found a picnic table under an awning and set their stuff down. Lanie and her friends immediately started taking off their clothes to reveal their swimsuits.

Even though Lanie had done some fitting with Ruth yesterday, it still felt odd to actually wear a bikini in public. For years, she'd been used to wearing a pair of swim trunks with nothing above the waist when he went swimming. Now she had to wear something around her chest to cover her boobs wherever she went. Then again, wearing a bikini wasn't that much different from wearing a bra and panties. The real question was why it was appropriate for girls to run around in public in a bikini, but not in their underwear.

Lanie, Rachel, Melody, and Taylor spent the next few hours swimming in the pool and doing tricks off the diving board. It was a pretty hot day, so it felt good to swim in cold water. But after a while, the girls got tired, so they took a break to get some lunch from the pool snack bar. Lanie and Rachel both got hot dogs and fries, Melody got a grilled cheese sandwich, and Taylor got a corn dog.

"Well, this is nice," Lanie said as she ate her hot dog.

"I know," said Rachel. "My old bunkmate and I used to come here all the time."

"What was your old bunkmate's name?" Lanie asked.

"Linda," Rachel answered. "She and I were really close."

"Have you heard from her at all?" Lanie asked. "Since she got adopted?"

"No," Rachel said sadly. "The family that adopted her moved to Australia, and I haven't been able to call or text her, so..."

"I'm sorry," said Lanie.

Rachel nodded slightly. "I miss her," she said. "But I'm glad I have you now."

Melody stood up. "Well, I'm gonna get back in the pool now," she said.

Lanie frowned. "Didn't you just finish eating?" she asked. "Aren't you supposed to wait for an hour before swimming again?"

"That's a myth," said Rachel. "I've gone swimming right after eating lots of times, and I'm okay." She stood up and added "I think I'm ready to get back in the pool, too."

Taylor swallowed a bite of her corn dog before saying "I have to go to the bathroom."

"Okay."

"Lanie, you want to come with me?"

"Oh..." Lanie had forgotten-going to the bathroom in pairs was another girl thing. "Yeah, I can do that."

"Thank you," said Taylor. She and Lanie both went into the women's bathroom together. Lanie waited while Taylor locked herself inside a stall. But after Taylor had sat down on the toilet and started doing her business, she let out a groan.

"What's wrong?" Lanie asked.

"I just got my period," Taylor answered. "Could you get me a tampon?"

"A tampon?"

"I think I've got a couple in my purse. Could you go back out and get one?"

"Sure." Lanie left the women's bathroom and went back over to her and her friends' picnic table. As she went, her head spun. She didn't even think of having to deal with periods every month. Would she be getting her period soon? She didn't know much about how menstruation cycles worked, but surely it had started after she morphed into a girl and gotten all the new female equipment? How long would it be before she hit that time of month? A week? Two weeks? The thought scared her. She may have had a decent handle on being a girl, but she wasn't sure she could handle periods.

When she got to the picnic table, Lanie bent over and started rifling through Taylor's purse. She soon found a cluster of tampons tucked in with Taylor's wallet and lipstick tube. But when she looked up, she saw a sight that made her freeze. A couple of teenage boys, no older than sixteen, were staring at her as she leaned over the picnic table. The boys' eyes were focused on Lanie's curvy abdomen and her plump booty. It was like they were admiring her as a sex object.

Trying to hide her embarrassment, Lanie stood up again and faced the boys. "Can-can I help you?" she asked.

"Oh, uh..." one of the boys stammered. "It's okay. We were just..."

"Checking you out," the other boy said. "You're really sexy." Even though he meant it as a compliment, his tone of voice really crept Lanie out.

Lanie glared at the boys. "Thank you, but I'm not interested," she said. Then she turned and went back into the bathroom to get Taylor her tampon.

***

For the rest of the day, Lanie kept stewing about those boys that had stared at her. As a boy, he'd never had anyone sexualize him like that, so this was a new experience for her. But the worst part was, Landon used to do that exact thing. He'd seen girls in bikinis at the beach and at swimming pools, and he'd "rubberneck" their hot, sexy bodies. Now that Lanie was on the other end of the stick, with boys ogling her body and likely getting hard in their pants...it made her feel really guilty. All those times he'd stared at girls' bodies, he'd never given a thought to how they'd feel about being objectified like that. It was a really shameful feeling, now that Lanie was the very thing she used to make fun of.

"Hey Lanie?" Rachel said when they'd gotten back to their dorm. "What's wrong?"

"At the pool today..." Lanie hesitated. "I caught a couple boys staring at me, in my swimsuit, leaning over our picnic table."

"Ooh," said Rachel. "That must've been embarrassing."

"Yeah." Lanie wanted to open up about how it reminded her of when she used to be a boy, but she didn't want to risk breaking the confidentiality rule. "I've never had that happen to me before, and now..."

"I know," Rachel said, putting her arm around Lanie's shoulder. "I've had that happen to me a lot. Sometimes I wish the boys would just stop staring at me like that."

"Me too," said Lanie. "It's like I'm some kind of..." She struggled to find the right word. "Object."

Rachel nodded solemnly. "I think we all feel that way when boys look at us like that," she said. "But my mom used to tell me when she was still alive: just remember you're still an awesome person on the inside."

Lanie smiled. "Thank you, Rachel," she said, hugging her bunkmate deeply. "Thank you so much."

To be continued...