ANOTHER QUICK NOTE: Thanks to Heather Rose Brown for responding to my dilemma with organizing this story's chapters, and helping point me in the right direction. Thanks to erin as well, for helping me with the technical stuff that allowed me to access the "Outline" tool for my stories and organizers. Your help is greatly appreciated.

***

Lanie, Rachel, and Jenny rode the train for the rest of the day until it started to get dark out. The train kept going for a little while until it came to a train yard at the edge of a city.

"We should get out," Rachel said when the train was starting to slow down. "We can't let the train workers find us when they're unloading the train."

"You're right," said Lanie. "And I kind of have to pee."

"Me too," said Jenny.

"Get off first, find a bathroom later," said Rachel. "Now come on!" Rachel hopped out of the boxcar's door and landed on the ground. Lanie and Jenny both jumped down beside her. The three of them crept through the darkened train yard, hiding behind train cars and locomotives at every opportunity. Eventually, the three of them came to the metal wire fence at the end of the train yard. There was a city out beyond the fence-but it was at least five miles away.

"Great," Lanie groaned. "It'll take forever to get to that city!"

"Is there a bathroom here?" Jenny asked.

"There might be," said Rachel, "But I'm not sure if they'll let us use it."

"It won't hurt to ask."

So Lanie, Rachel, and Jenny climbed over the fence and went around to the front of the trainyard. They went up to the booth at the front entryway and got the worker's attention. "What are you young ladies doing out here?" the worker asked.

"We were...abandoned," Lanie answered. "We're trying to find our way back to the city."

"The city's that way," the worker said, pointing in the direction of the city the girls had seen.

"Thank you," said Lanie, "But do you have a bathroom we can use?"

The worker looked to his right. "Well, we do have a couple porta-potties over there," he said, pointing.

"Great, thank you!" said Lanie. She, Rachel, and Jenny ran over to the two porta-potties that the worker had indicated. Jenny wasted no time in getting into one of the porta-potties and locking herself inside. Lanie tried the other porta-potty's door, but it was occupied.

"Oh, great," Lanie grumbled. She'd been holding in her pee all afternoon and evening. If she tried to hold it any longer, than she'd explode.

She furiously knocked on the porta-potty's door, but a gruff male voice from inside barked "Occupied!"

Lanie recoiled in alarm. "Oops," she said.

"I think you'll have to duck behind a bush," said Rachel.

"What?"

"Oh yeah," said Rachel. In an undertone, she added "You haven't gone to the bathroom in the great outdoors, have you?"

"Yeah," Lanie answered, "When I was a boy."

"Come on," said Rachel. "I'll help you out."

Lanie felt butterflies in her stomach as she followed Rachel into a cluster of nearby bushes. Up till now, she hadn't had any issues with using the bathroom as a girl. It had been easy to get used to having to pee sitting down. But now, in the wilderness, it would be a lot trickier now that she didn't have a penis anymore.

"Okay," Rachel said when she and Lanie were hidden in the bushes. "So it's kind of like when you're taking a shit. You just pull your pants down, squat, and let it loose."

"Right," said Lanie. She pulled her jeans and panties down around her legs, squatted down, and spread her feet as far apart as she could. She closed her eyes and tried to pretend she wasn't hiding in the bushes with only her best friend watching her. After a minute of concentration, Lanie succeeded. She felt herself peeing out of her vagina (or urethra hole, whatever) and heard a sprinkling noise two inches below her butt.

Once Lanie had relieved herself, she rose again and pulled her pants back up. "I guess that could've been worse," she said.

"Yeah," Rachel said, nodding understanding. "It's one of those things you have to just get used to."

Lanie nodded. "I just wish I'd told you sooner."

"What? That you're a boy-turned-girl?"

"Yeah. Then you would've been able to help me with this whole...transition."

Rachel put her arm around Lanie's shoulder. "I get it," she said. "It's hard. I remember when Angelina turned me into a girl."

"There's just all this stuff, like washing your hair, and brushing it and styling it, and wearing girly clothes, and having boys stare at you..."

"You're adjusting to it pretty well, though," said Rachel.

"Really?"

"Yeah. You've only been a girl for, like, a week, right?"

"Right."

"You seem pretty comfortable wearing girls' clothes, and swimsuits, and doing your hair."

"Well...I haven't really braided my hair yet," said Lanie. "And I haven't started wearing skirts or high heels yet."

"Still, you've adjusted pretty well," said Rachel. "It took me a few months to get really comfortable being a girl."

"Well, you said you were, like, twelve when you were transformed. Like Jenny."

"That's true." Rachel looked out towards the porta-potties. "Think she's out now?"

"We should probably go check."

Sure enough, Jenny was out of the porta-potty. "Lanie! Rachel!" Jenny exclaimed when she saw the two older girls coming. "Where'd you go?"

"Lanie really had to go," Rachel answered, "So we went into the bushes."

"You should probably use the porta-potty, too," said Lanie. "Just in case."

"You're right," said Rachel. She got into the porta-potty and locked herself inside.

While they were waiting, Lanie and Jenny looked out at the city. Even though it was night, they could still see the lights from the city. "What city is that?" Jenny asked.

"I don't know," Lanie answered. "I have no idea where we are."

"Is Angelina following us?"

"I hope not."

"What if she does find us?"

Preferring not to answer that question, Lanie said "We'll just have to keep running away. Hide somewhere she can't find us."

A minute later, Rachel came out of the porta-potty. "Okay," she said, "Now that we're all feeling better, what do we do now?"

"Are we gonna get on another train?" Jenny asked.

Lanie looked back at the city. "I say we go to that city," she said. "Find out just where we are."

Rachel and Jenny both nodded. "Good idea," she said. "Just so long as we keep a low profile in case Angelina's out there looking for us."

***

Lanie, Rachel, and Jenny trudged through the thick, grassy fields all night long. By the time they reached the outskirts of the city, the three of them were exhausted. "Should...should we stop and rest for a bit?" Jenny asked.

"Sure," Lanie answered. She was trying her hardest to not fall asleep.

"How about those benches?" Jenny suggested, pointing at a line of three benches on the sidewalk.

"Looks good," said Lanie. She, Rachel, and Jenny each picked out a bench for themselves to lie down on. They were so tired, they fell asleep at once.

When they awoke the next morning, it was much brighter out. The sun had risen, and people were bustling about the streets once again. Lanie looked and saw that Rachel and Jenny were just waking up themselves.

Jenny felt her pockets and gasped. "Oh no!" she said. "I think I got pickpocketed!"

"What?" said Rachel. She patted down her own pockets and realized that her cell phone and wallet were missing. "Oh, fuck..."

"Me too!" said Lanie.

"Now what do we do?" Jenny asked. "How are we gonna call anyone, or buy anything, or-"

"Wait," Lanie said as a thought occurred to her. "Maybe it's a good thing."

"What?"

"If we use our phones to try to call someone, then Angelina might be able to trace those calls."

"That's true," said Rachel.

"But what do we do?" Jenny asked. "How are we gonna get something to eat?"

"We'll ask for directions," said Rachel.

Lanie and Rachel both approached a passing businessman. "Excuse me," Lanie said, trying to sound polite, "Do you know what city this is?"

"Atlanta," the businessman answered.

Wow! That train must've taken Lanie and her friends farther than they thought! "Is there a homeless shelter anywhere around here?" Lanie asked.

"Um..." The businessman looked around. "I think there's one just a few blocks that way." He pointed down the street to the north.

"Okay, thank you," said Lanie.

As the businessman left, Lanie and Rachel went back to Jenny. "We're in Atlanta," said Lanie. "Atlanta, Georgia."

"Oh my goodness," said Jenny. "Angelina will never find us here!"

"We can't be sure," said Rachel. "But that guy said there was a homeless shelter near here."

Jenny looked confused. "So...we're just gonna go live in a homeless shelter?"

"No," Rachel answered. "We're just gonna stop there to rest. Get some food and water. Formulate a new plan."

***

Lanie, Rachel, and Jenny went down the street and found the homeless shelter on the corner. It wasn't very big-just one story high and covered about as many square feet as a laundromat. When Lanie, Rachel, and Jenny entered, they saw that it only consisted of one room. There were about thirty beds in the room, plus two tables of sandwiches and bottled water. Naturally, the girls went straight for the food table.

"Remind me never to take food for granted again," Jenny said as she took two turkey sandwiches and a bottle of water.

"Same," said Lanie. She and Rachel took sandwiches of their own and saw down on a bed together. "So...now what?"

Rachel took a bite of her sandwich before answering. "We should probably find a way to get even farther away from Nashville," she said. "Maybe go to Florida? Or Mexico?"

"Wait a minute," said Lanie. "Weren't there more Pretty And Pink foster homes beside the one in Nashville? Ruth said Angelina founded the first one in Washington D. C, but she hinted that there might be more."

"Yeah," said Rachel. "There's one in Philadelphia."

"That's in Pennsylvania, right?"

"Right."

"So Tennessee, Virginia, and Pennsylvania," said Lanie. "I think we should definitely stay out of those states."

"Me too," said Rachel.

Jenny swallowed her bite of sandwich and chimed in. "We should go to Australia," she said. "There's no way Angelina would find us there."

"Brilliant," said Lanie. "I'll go get our first-class plane tickets to Australia, and you can pay for our hotel."

Jenny wilted. "It was just an idea," she said.

"She's kind of right, though," said Rachel. "We don't have a car, or a bike, or even any money. It's going to be pretty hard to get to another state, let alone another country."

"We could ride on another train," said Jenny.

"Yeah, we could," said Rachel, "Except we can't be sure where the train will be going. We just got lucky with the one we stowed away on yesterday."

"Not to mention, it would take us forever to walk anywhere," said Lanie.

"So...what are we gonna do? Just stay here and hope Angelina doesn't find us?"

Lanie and Rachel exchanged glances. Neither of them wanted to say yes, but was there really anything else they could do?

Just then, the shelter's front doors opened to allow a man to enter. The man looked old enough to be Lanie's father, but he didn't look like he was homeless. He wore smooth black pants, a black suit coat, and a green striped tie. His face was clean shaven, and his hair was damp as if he'd just gotten out of the shower.

"Good morning, Mr. Ryan," said one of the homeless shelter workers.

"Good morning," the man, whose name was Mr. Ryan, said with a smile. "How's it going?"

"It's all going well. Harry and his wife left last night to go find somewhere else to live."

Mr. Ryan nodded. "Hopefully they will," he said. He looked at Lanie, Rachel, and Jenny and said "I see you have some new arrivals."

"Oh yeah," said the homeless shelter workers. "These three young ladies just came in a few minutes ago."

"Have they been in here before?"

"No, I don't think so."

Mr. Ryan approached Lanie, Rachel, and Jenny. "Hey girls," he said. "What are your names?"

Lanie didn't answer. After Ruth, she didn't trust people who came to take in homeless kids.

"Well?"

"I'm Jenny," said Jenny.

Mr. Ryan nodded. "Nice to meet you, Jenny," he said. "And you are?"

"I'm...Rachel," said Rachel. "And this is Lanie."

"We've kind of got Jenny in tow with us," said Lanie.

"Hm," said Mr. Ryan. "Just where might you three come from?"

"Somewhere else," Lanie said. She made sure not to mention Nashville in case this Mr. Ryan was secretly working for Angelina. "We ran away and ended up here in Atlanta."

"I'm guessing your parents are all dead," said Mr. Ryan.

"Unfortunately, yes," said Rachel. "That's why we're on our own now."

"That's too bad," said Mr. Ryan. "But, luckily for you, I run an orphanage not far from here. If you want a permanent place to live, I can find you a couple of rooms at my place."

Lanie's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "How do we know we can trust you?" she asked.

"You can trust him," said the homeless shelter worker. "He's taken in homeless kids who came to this shelter before."

Lanie looked at Rachel, then back at Mr. Ryan. "Could we have a moment?" she asked. "To decide?"

"Of course," said Mr. Ryan.

"Come on, Jenny," said Lanie. She, Rachel, and Jenny all went back to the corner of the room to huddle up and talk in private.

"I don't know if we can trust this guy," Lanie said in an undertone.

"You think he's working with Angelina?"

"He could be!" said Lanie.

"But remember what Angelina said yesterday?" said Rachel. "She was saying that she hated men, and that she wanted to rid the world of them. Why would she have a man working for her?"

"But what if Mr. Ryan's part of some new secret organization?" said Lanie. "What if he's gonna end up turning us into frogs or something?"

"You just think the worst of everyone, don't you?" said Jenny.

Lanie did her best to hold her temper. "Look, I know it looks good," she said, "But doesn't it sound a little too good to be true? We run away from Pretty And Pink, we end up homeless in Atlanta with no idea what to do or where to go, and then some random guy comes in and offers to take us in? Isn't that what happened with us, when Angelina lured us into her trap?"

"Well...yes," Rachel admitted. "I kind of agree with you. But that other man who works here at this shelter-he said he'd seen Mr. Ryan before. He said Mr. Ryan was legit."

Lanie sighed. "How about this?" she said. "We'll ask him if his orphanage is coed. If it is, we'll accept. If it isn't, we'll decline. How's that?"

"That sounds good," said Rachel.

"I agree," said Jenny.

"Okay," said Lanie. "Let's do this."

Lanie, Rachel, and Jenny went back to where Mr. Ryan was waiting. "One last question," said Lanie. "Is your orphanage all boys, or all girls, or does it have both?"

"It has both," Mr. Ryan answered. "I take in any homeless kid I meet, regardless of gender."

"Great," said Lanie. "Then we accept your offer."

"Excellent!" Mr. Ryan said with a smile. He looked genuinely happy that the girls had accepted his offer. "We'll all be happy to have you join us!"

"Is there anything we have to do?" Rachel asked.

"Don't worry, I'll walk you through the sign-up and registration stuff," said Mr. Ryan. "Just come with me."

To be continued...