The whole enchilada...plus a bonus epilogue.

Chapter 01-The Murder

Landon Evans hated his life. He was fifteen years old and lived in Nashville, Tennessee. He was a social outcast at his high school, and his home life wasn't much better. His father Richard was an alcoholic who frequently got angry and hit Landon. The situation was so bad, Landon's mother had abandoned the family when Landon was only five. Landon had called the police several times about his abusive father, but whenever the police showed up, Richard acted very pleasant towards them and gave no impression of being a drunkard. Therefore, the police never believed Landon's stories.

It all came to a head one gloomy Thursday evening. Landon had spent the day helping his dad clean their apartment complex, and now he and Richard were eating their dinner. "You're still going to Leland's house tonight, yes?" Richard asked as he ate his Ramen noodles.

"Yes," Landon answered. Leland was one of the few friends he knew from school. Even though it was summer vacation, and school wouldn't start for a few more weeks, Landon went over to his house almost every evening. After dinner was the time when Richard got drunk and had a much shorter temper. Landon had learned a long time ago that he was better off getting out of the house when his father was drunk.

"Well, just make sure to do our dinner dishes before you go," said Richard.

"I will," said Landon. He finished eating his Ramen noodles and took his bowl over to the sink to start washing. He quickly scrubbed out his bowl and spoon, then did the same for his father's utensils. Once they were all sparkling clean, Landon set them down on a towel to dry and went to go get his shoes on.

"Bye, Dad!" Landon said as he was heading out the door. Richard didn't respond-not that Landon was expecting him to. His father often pretended to care about him, but it was obvious to Landon that that wasn't the case. Richard never asked Landon about his school life, or his friends, or anything else. When he wasn't yelling or thrashing at Landon, Richard only communicated with his son when he wanted him to do chores. If Landon was being honest with himself, he thought Richard had only had a kid so he could use said kid as a servant.

Landon and his father lived in an apartment on the third floor of a large apartment complex. When Landon left his apartment, he immediately made for the stairway that led down to the bottom level. But he'd only made it halfway there when his father came thundering out after him. "Where are you going?" Richard growled. "You were supposed to dust the living room!"

"What?" Landon asked. "No I wasn't!" This was a fairly common habit of Richard's-he'd make Landon do one chore, then berate him for not doing a completely unrelated chore. But right now, Landon could smell the alcohol on his father's breath.

"Yes you were!" Richard replied. "And you're gonna come right back in and dust our family room!"

"No!" said Landon.

"Yes you are!" Richard lunged forward and grabbed Landon's left arm. Landon tried to break free, but his dad had an iron grip. He held Landon by the arm and started to drag him back toward their apartment.

"Let go of me!" Landon growled. He balled his right fist and punched Richard across the face. His hit disoriented Richard just enough to make him loosen his grip, allowing Landon to yank his left arm free.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Richard to regain his senses. "Don't you punch me, you little shit!" He clenched his fists and rounded on Landon again. But this time, Landon was ready. He karate-kicked Richard in the chest with all his might. Richard stumbled backward and fell over the balcony's guardrail. He tumbled through the air and landed headfirst onto the concrete below.

"What the..." Landon looked over the edge of the balcony and saw his father lying on the ground below. There was a big spot of blood where his head had hit, and his body was motionless. That meant...

"Oh no..." Landon gasped. His adrenaline was wearing off, and he was starting to panic. He'd just killed his own father! But it was self-defense, right? Hadn't Richard been about to pound him? No, Landon thought. No one would believe him. He was a minor, and whenever he called the police to report domestic violence, they hadn't believed him. Why would anyone believe him now?

Landon turned and ran. He went down the stairs, ran past Richard's dead body, and went out onto the street. Where could he go? Leland's house? No, he couldn't get Leland or his family mixed up in all this. But there was nowhere else he could go. Landon would have to get out of the city. He took a deep breath and started running down the street.

After running for several city blocks, Landon finally stopped to catch his breath. He didn't hear any sirens coming his way, so that was good. But it was only a matter of time before someone discovered Richard's dead body and linked him to the crime. Landon had to keep moving. He started down the street again, but this time he walked. Running may have been a faster means of travel, but it also made him look guilty. Walking at a normal rate would draw a lot less attention.

Eventually, when Landon was rounding a corner, he heard a siren wailing. Uh-oh! Landon frantically looked around for a place to hide-a garbage can, a car, anything. But the only place he saw was an alleyway nearby. Landon ducked into the alleyway and held his breath. He heard the police car which the siren belonged to driving down the street past the alleyway, but the police car did not stop. It went right past where Landon was hiding and off down the street-presumably toward Landon's apartment complex.

Once he was certain that the police car was gone, Landon left the alleyway. But once he'd stepped back out onto the sidewalk, he bumped right into a woman walking down the street. "Oh-sorry about that!" said Landon.

"No, it's okay," said the woman. She was about thirty-five years old, with curly blonde hair, smooth tanned skin, and shiny painted fingernails. She wore a white tank top, a smooth black skirt, and high-heeled shoes. "Where'd you come from?"

"Well, uh..." Landon wasn't about to admit to murder, but his mind was going blank on excuses. "I'm...homeless."

The woman's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Homeless, you say?"

"Yeah."

"My, my, what a coincidence," said the woman. "I work at a foster home for kids like yourself."

"You do?"

"Yes. Would you like me to arrange to take you in?"

Landon thought for a moment. He'd heard a lot of bad things about foster homes from other kids his age. He didn't like the idea of moving into one himself. But right now, he couldn't really go back to his apartment. Maybe a foster home would be a good place to stay while he figured out what to do next.

"Sure."

"Excellent. What's your name?"

"Landon."

"Great. I'm Ruth Kayne, but you can just call me Ruth. If you come with me, I'll take you to my car."

Ruth's car wasn't anything special-just a black Ford Fusion. But when Landon got into the passenger's seat, he thought it felt pretty nice. Plus, the car had air conditioning, so that was a plus. "Are we gonna go right to the foster home?" Landon asked.

"Er, not quite yet," Ruth answered. "I'm gonna have to talk to my boss about letting you move in. But for tonight, you can stay at my house."

***

When they got to Ruth's house, Landon was pretty impressed with what he saw. It had a kitchen, a living room, a bedroom, a laundry room, and a garage-all of which were pretty spacious. Sure, the furniture didn't look particularly expensive, but it was better than anything at Landon's apartment.

"So what happened to you, young man?" Ruth asked. "What made you homeless?"

"Well...it was my dad," Landon answered.

"What did he do? Did he kick you out of the house?"

Landon hesitated. "You could say that."

Ruth nodded. "It sounds like he wasn't a very good father."

"Yeah, he was-he's a drunkard. And he always gets really mad and takes it out on me."

"That is unfortunate. Did you ever try calling the police?"

"Yes, but they didn't do anything."

Ruth shook her head. "Policemen," she scoffed. "You can never rely on them for protection."

"I know. That's why I had to get physical with my dad."

"What?"

Landon realized he'd said the wrong thing. "I, uh..." He wished he could take it back, but it was too late. "I was being assaulted by my dad, and I...well...I kicked him and knocked him over the edge of my apartment's balcony."

"You did what?"

"I didn't mean to! He was threatening me, and I was acting in self-defense! I ran away because I knew the cops wouldn't believe me if I told them what happened!"

For a few seconds, Ruth just stood there in shock. Then she unexpectedly hugged Landon. "Oh, Landon," she said. "That must be awful, knowing that you killed your own father."

"I know!" said Landon. "And I don't know how I'm gonna escape the police when they find out it was me who killed him! I don't have anywhere I can go, or anyone to-"

"You have me," said Ruth. "You're perfectly safe here for the night. I promise, we will figure all of this out in the morning."

Landon nodded. "Okay."

***

Since Ruth didn't have a guest room, she had Landon sleep on her living room's couch with a pillow and blanket. Once she'd helped him get to bed, and he'd nodded off, Ruth went into her bedroom to call her boss. She dialed her boss' number and waited a few seconds while the phone rang.

After a few seconds, there was a click, followed by a smooth, feminine voice. "Good evening, Ruth," said the voice.

"Hi Angelina," said Ruth. "I have some good news for you."

"Oh, you do?"

"Yes. I have found him. The boy you were looking for, Landon Evans-I've got him here at my house."

Angelina squealed in delight. "Finally!" she said. "I've been looking for him for years!"

"Do you want me to bring him right to you in the morning?"

"No, admit him to foster care at your building for now," said Angelina. "Give him some time to settle into his new life. Or, more accurately, her new life."

Chapter 02-Metamorphisis

The next morning, Landon woke up on the couch in Ruth's house. For a second, he wondered what on Earth he was doing there, but then he remembered the previous day's events. "Ugh," he groaned. He got up and went into the kitchen for a glass of water. To his surprise, Ruth was already in the kitchen.

"Well good morning, Landon!" said Ruth.

"Hey Ruth," said Landon. "Did you talk to your boss?"

Ruth hesitated. "We'll get to that in a minute," she said. "First, there's something I need to tell you about myself."

"What is it?"

"I'm a witch."

For a few seconds, Landon just stood there, wondering if this was some kind of joke. But then he realized Ruth was being serious. "What do you mean, you're a witch?" he asked.

"I mean, I have magical powers," said Ruth. To prove it, she waved her hand and caused a spoon to levitate off the counter.

"What the..."

"Yes, that's right." Ruth held out her hand and willed a bright blue flame to light itself in her palm. "I'm one of the few witches left in this world. There used to be a lot more of us, but we were hunted to near-extinction by the normal folk. So the witches that survived had to hide their powers and keep their identities secret."

"That's cool," said Landon. "But why are you telling me this?"

"Because I talked to my boss last night," Ruth answered. "She told me to admit you to my foster home. But there might be some...procedures we'll have to perform."

"What kind of procedures?"

"Well, the foster home I manage is an all-girls foster home, so-"

"All girls? Then why did you offer to put me there?"

"Landon, it's complicated," said Ruth. "You see, when we first started, our foster home was intended as an all-girls foster home. I've been trying to convince my boss for years to make it coed to allow ourselves to take in more kids, but she wouldn't go for it. That's why I took you in last night-because I thought I could convince my boss to change things. But I should've known better."

Landon sighed. "Then...I guess I'm not going to your foster home after all," he said.

"Actually," said Ruth, "I think you're going to have to." She snapped her fingers, and the TV in the family room behind Landon turned itself on and tuned into the news channel.

"Breaking news!" the news anchor declared. "The dead body of a local civilian named Richard Evans has been discovered on the floor of his own apartment complex. The authorities have witnesses who claim Richard's son Landon was the one who pushed him off the balcony. Landon Evans has not been found yet, but the police are mounting a search to find him and bring him in for questioning."

Landon's face went pale. "They're looking for me," he said.

"Yes, they are," said Ruth. "But I have a way for you to avoid the authorities."

"How?"

"I will enlist you into my foster home," Ruth explained. "And to do that, I'll have to turn you into a girl."

Landon's jaw dropped. Did he really just hear what he thought he'd heard? Was this witch going to morph him into the opposite gender? No. He couldn't do that. He'd been a boy all his life, and he saw no reason to change that. "No way," he said.

"There's no other choice," Ruth insisted. "If you lose your old identity and take on a new one, the police won't be able to link you to your father's murder. And in any case, my foster home is a very nice one. The rooms are neat and well-kept, and the girls there are very nice. You might even make some new friends there!"

"But...I can't be a girl! I can't braid my hair, or gossip, or spend every day clothes shopping, or..."

"You can learn all that," Ruth assured him. "Just so long as you open your mind."

Landon sighed. "I mean...I guess," he said. "If it's the only way to evade the police, then...sure."

"Excellent," said Ruth. "Now, for the procedure..."

"What kind of procedure?" Landon asked. "Can you not just wave your hand and turn me into a girl?"

"No, it's a little more complicated than that," Ruth answered. "I can either mix a gender-swapping potion, or I can put you through a magical trance that will change your body without you even knowing it."

"Which one do you recommend?"

"The potion transformation would take a lot shorter, but it will also be a lot more painful. But if you go through the trance, then you won't feel anything."

"Then...I guess I'll take the trance."

"Alright then," said Ruth. "Let us get ready."

***

For the gender-changing enchanted trance, Ruth had Landon lie down on a blanket on the living room floor. She also told Landon to clear his mind as best as he could, since that would make it easier for him to fall into the trance.

"Now, let your mind go blank," Ruth said soothingly. "Imagine nothing else in this world exists except you and I. Listen to my words and nothing else."

Landon fought down his anxiety. He took deep breaths, closed his eyes, and started to slip into a calmer state of mind.

"Picture yourself floating...free...flying through the clouds, free to do whatever you want. You can reshape yourself into whatever form you want...and you choose to take upon a feminine form." As she spoke, Ruth waved her hands. Magic sparkles started to envelop Landon as he entered a hypnosis-like state.

"Think of your new face...it's so beautiful, and soft. No pimples, no whiskers, no anything. Just a smooth, angelic face. Imagine big, kissable lips and cute, wide eyes. And imagine long, wavy hair flowing around it. You are the most beautiful girl anyone has ever known, with a stunning face, a perfect smile, and a musical voice."

"Imagine a perfect, delicate, hourglass figure. You gladly accept your new slimmer shoulders, smaller torso, and thinner arms. Most of all, you accept your new pair of breasts forming. These are what you've wanted your whole life...soft, squishy boobs you can squeeze. You have the best rack a girl like you could ever want."

"Now anticipate the biggest change of all. You gladly welcome your smaller waist, your wider hips, and your fatter thighs and ass. You love how much nicer your booty is now. But most of all, you relish the feeling of your penis shrinking away. You feel free down there as an extra hole opens up between your legs. This hole is your new vagina."

"Finally, feel your legs and your feet getting smaller and daintier. You feel so much lighter as you jump, skip, and dance your way through the clouds. You love your new female form. It's so smooth, and graceful, and beautiful. You cannot wait to wake up and feel it all for yourself..."

***

Landon didn't know how long he was out for. It could've been a minute, or an hour, or even longer. All he knew was that when he woke up, he felt a lot lighter than before. He sat up and looked up at Ruth.

"Well done, miss!" Ruth exclaimed. "You came out looking so beautiful!"

"I...did?" Landon realized that his voice was much higher now. He started to look down, but then his hair fell into his face and blocked his view. He swept the hair out of the way and saw two large lumps of fat inside his shirt. The sight of them made him start to hyperventilate.

"Oh my gosh," Landon gasped. "Did...did you..."

"The process was a success!" said Ruth. "You're a girl now!"

"I don't believe it," said Landon. But he felt an urge to reach down and find out if he was really female. He ran his hand over his crotch, hoping to feel his familiar penis and balls. But all he felt was a smooth area between his legs. It was...it was...

"Believe it," said Ruth. "You're a girl."

Landon looked back up at Ruth. "Can I go to the bathroom?" he asked. "To see myself in the mirror?"

"Of course."

Landon got up and went into Ruth's bathroom. He looked in the mirror and saw the reflection of his new self staring back at him. He was a couple inches shorter and about twenty pounds lighter. His brown hair was a lot longer now, reaching down to his mid-back. His face was smoother and more delicate, and his body was a lot curvier. His butt and hips stuck out, and his waist was a lot smaller. His new breasts weren't the biggest, but they were still very noticeable inside his shirt. And, of course, the bulge in his crotch was nonexistent now. There was no questioning it. Landon was now a girl.

"You like?" Ruth asked.

"Yes!" Landon answered. "I look pretty!"

"I agree, you're beautiful," said Ruth. "But you look a little ridiculous in boy clothes."

"Oh yeah..."

"Perhaps we should take you shopping for some new clothes before we take you to my foster home?"

"That would be a good idea," said Landon. The idea of clothes shopping didn't seem that much more exciting to her now, but she knew Ruth was right. She couldn't wear boy clothes anymore now that she was a girl.

"I thought you'd agree," said Ruth. "Oh, and we need a new name for you. Landon isn't a very feminine-sounding name now, is it?"

"No," Landon agreed, "But I don't know if there's a girl-name version of 'Landon.'"

Ruth thought for a moment. "How about Lanie? How does that sound?"

"That sounds...kind of good, actually?"

"You like it?"

"Sure I do."

"Then Lanie it is."

***

Landon, or now Lanie, went with Ruth in her car to the local shopping mall. The first thing they did was get some measurements for Lanie to figure out her clothing sizes. Once they'd gotten those, they started picking out some girl clothes for Lanie. Since Lanie didn't quite feel ready for skirts or tank tops yet, Ruth let her pick out basic pairs of jeans and T-shirts. But the one thing Lanie couldn't skip out on was the bras.

Looking through the racks of bras was overwhelming. There were so many different types of bras to choose from, and they all looked so similar and yet so different. Since Lanie wasn't sure what to choose, Ruth decided to take one of every kind of bra and let Lanie try them on in the fitting room.

The first time Lanie put on a bra, it was a rather...interesting experience. She'd known for years what purpose bras served, but to actually have one wrapped around her boobs...yeesh. It was so uncomfortable. But she found that once she'd fitted on the bra properly, her breasts stopped jiggling everywhere. That, she thought, was a pretty major draw.

After they'd gotten some bras and underwear, along with a swimsuit, Ruth took Lanie to get a purse. "A purse?" Lanie asked.

"Yes, a purse," said Ruth. "A lot of girls use purses to carry their stuff in."

Once again, Lanie didn't get anything too fancy-just a regular white purse with a strap. But putting it over her shoulder felt...different. It was like Lanie was a certified woman now.

"Well, I think that's everything we need," said Ruth. "Is there anything else you want?"

"Uh...no, I don't think so," Lanie answered.

"Then let's get you to our foster home."

Chapter 03-The Foster Home

After the were done shopping, Lanie and Ruth went to the foster home Ruth had been talking about. It was a large, four-story building that looked more like a school dorm building than an orphanage. The front of it had the name "Pretty And Pink Foster Care" written in dark pink paint.

"Pretty And Pink," Lanie said when she saw the foster home's name.

"Yes, that's right," said Ruth. "Now, before I take you to your new room, there are a few things I need to tell you. First, you're gonna be in a room with three bunk beds and four other roommates."

"Three bunk beds," Lanie repeated. "That would be enough for six people..."

"We do have a lot of vacancies here at Pretty And Pink Foster Care," said Ruth. "And sometimes girls get adopted, or transfer somewhere else. In any case, we have a cafeteria on the building's ground floor, where you can come for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. We also have a game room where you and your friends can get together to play board games. Each dorm is given a credit card for all its members to share when shopping, but it has a limit of two thousand dollars a month. So please be careful when shopping."

"I'll try to."

"And last, but most important," said Ruth. "You are not to tell anyone else at this foster home that I am a witch, or that you used to be a boy."

"What? Why?"

"Because, once again, us witches have to keep our identities secret," Ruth answered. "The only reason I told you was because my boss insisted I turn you into a girl to admit you to our foster home, and I felt you had a right to know the truth."

"You mean none of the other girls here used to be boys? So I'm a special case?"

"Yes, you are," said Ruth. "For years, I've been pleading with my boss to start accepting boys into our foster home, but she's refused. So it's just been all girls-until we found you. But then again, you are a girl now, just like the rest of the kids in our foster care."

"Yeah," Lanie said, though it still felt kind of weird to be called a girl. Just 24 hours ago, she'd still been Landon. She had no idea that witches existed, or that she'd be admitted into an all-girls foster home to avoid getting apprehended by the police.

"So are you ready to go?"

Lanie took a deep breath. "Yes, I'm ready," she said.

"Then let's go."

***

Ruth led Lanie up to the building's front doors and into the entry hall. In the entry hall, Lanie saw a large picture of a woman hanging on the wall. The woman in the picture looked like a retired Victoria's Secret model, with coppery tanned skin, a thick yet voluptuous body, perfect makeup, and a friendly, yet seductive look in her eyes. Her brown hair was swept to the side in a ponytail, and she wore a black skirt and low-cut top.

"Lanie?" Ruth asked. "What are you looking at?"

"Oh!" Lanie hadn't realized she'd stopped in her tracks. "Just-just this picture here."

"Oh yeah," said Ruth. "That's Angelina Aguilar. She's my boss."

"Is she?" Lanie asked. Something about this Angelina Aguilar person seemed familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. Had she seen her on TV at some point?

"Yes. She was the founder of Pretty And Pink Foster Care. It all started five years ago in Washington D. C, where Angelina opened the first Pretty And Pink Foster Care establishment. When the first location proved to be a success, she decided to franchise her company and open new locations in North Carolina, and here in Tennessee."

"That's cool," said Lanie. Tearing her eyes away from Angelina Aguilar's picture, she followed Ruth down the hall and towards the stairway to the second floor. Once they were on the second floor, Ruth led Lanie to Room #206.

"This is gonna be your room," said Ruth.

"Alright then," said Lanie. "Let's see it."

Ruth opened the door for Lanie, and she entered her new dorm room. It was fairly large, with three bunk beds, a soft, fluffy rug, a couple of dressers between the beds, and a sofa in front of a TV. Towards the back was a door leading into a bathroom area.

There were four other girls in the room. One was lying on the bottom bunk of a bed looking at her phone, one was reading a book on the sofa, one was making her bed, and one was in the bathroom doing her nails. "Good evening, everyone!" said Ruth. "This is your new roommate Lanie!"

The girl on the sofa looked up and smiled. She looked to be about Lanie's age, with black hair that went down to her butt and eyes the color of maple syrup. "Hi Lanie!" she said. "I'm Rachel."

"Hey Rachel."

The girl making her bed looked up and waved. "Hi," she said. "I'm Taylor. And this is Alexis."

"Hey," Alexis said without even looking up from her phone.

The last of the girls came out of the bathroom with her nails and makeup all finished. "And I'm Melody," she said, tossing a curl of blonde hair over her shoulder.

Lanie looked around her new roommates. "It's nice meeting all of you," she said.

Ruth nodded. "Is there anything else you need?" she asked.

"I might need somewhere to put my clothes..."

"You can use that dresser over there," Rachel said, pointing at one of the dressers. "Right by our bed."

"Our bed?"

"Yes. You're my new bunkmate."

"Wait, if each bunk bed can fit two people, and there are four of you..."

"My old bunkmate left a few weeks ago," said Rachel. "She got adopted by a new family."

"Oh, that's too bad."

"Yeah. But at least I have you now!"

Rachel directed Lanie over to the dresser beside their bunk bed. With a little help from her and Ruth, Lanie unloaded all her clothes into two of the dresser's drawers. "Well, it looks like you're all situated," Ruth said when they were done. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go down to my office. But if you need anything at all, you can come talk to me."

"Thank you so much, Ruth," said Lanie. "I really appreciate it."

After Ruth had left, Lanie turned to face her new bunkmate Rachel. "So...what do you guys do around here?"

"Well, we like to go shopping," Rachel answered. "And go to the local swimming pool."

"Oh, that sounds fun!" said Lanie.

"It is fun," said Rachel. "But we also like to just hang out here and watch TV."

"Oh."

Just then, Melody pulled out her phone and looked at the time. "Guys, it's 5:00," she said. "That means it's time for dinner."

"Ooh, Lanie, you're gonna love the food we have," said Rachel. "Pretty And Pink has the best cooks there are!"

"And tonight's enchilada night," Taylor added. "The enchiladas here are really good."

"Okay," said Lanie. "I'm getting kind of hungry anyway."

***

It turned out Taylor was right. The enchiladas were really good. Lanie's father had never been much of a cook, so she'd never had any really good meals. But it was great to have such good food prepared especially for her.

"So Lanie," Rachel said as she, Taylor, Melody, Alexis, and Lanie sat together at a table to eat their food, "How'd Ruth find you?"

"Well..." Lanie hesitated. She hadn't forgotten Ruth's warning about not telling anyone she used to be a boy, and she certainly didn't want to reveal that she'd murdered her own father. So she decided to tell a partial truth. "I ran away from home."

"You ran away? Why?"

"Well, I grew up with just my dad," Lanie explained. "My mom left when I was little because my dad, well...he was abusive. He drank a lot, and he'd get really angry at me and my mom. She left because she couldn't take it anymore."

"But why didn't she take you?" Melody asked.

"I have no idea," Lanie answered. "But just yesterday, I decided I'd had enough, so I just up and left my dad's apartment. Then Ruth found me, and I ended up here."

"You're not worried, are you?" Rachel asked. "That your dad might come looking for you?"

"Uh...he won't," said Lanie. "Because he's dead."

"What?"

Fuck. That had come out wrong. "I-I saw it on the news this morning," Lanie quickly amended. "He got drunk again and fell off our apartment's balcony."

"Huh," said Melody. "Sounds like it serves him right."

Lanie slowly nodded. "Yes," she said. "He was a really bad father."

"My dad died when I was only three," said Taylor. "I never knew him."

"My whole family died in a fire when I was twelve," said Rachel. "I was the only one who survived. I was living on the streets for a week and a half before Ruth found me and brought me here."

"I was always homeless," said Melody. "My parents were already living in poverty, but when I was born, they lost what little money they had left with child support and buying more food for me. So we ended up living on the streets."

"How'd you end up here?" Lanie asked.

"My parents both died," Melody answered. "My mom got hit by a truck, and my dad got sick and died. I was living on my own for three years before Ruth took me in."

"And you were..."

"Thirteen. I've been here for four years."

"I've been here for just one," said Alexis.

"Me and Rachel have been here for three years," said Taylor. "And Lanie, I guess you just got here today."

"Yeah," said Lanie. "But I'm glad Ruth brought me here. This definitely beats living with an abusive dad." As Lanie said it, she knew she really believed it. Ruth had been really nice to her, and her roommates seemed nice too. Plus, the Pretty And Pink Foster Care place offered some really nice living conditions-especially considering it was a foster home. But she still couldn't get over the fact that she was a girl now. Having her hair fall down in front of her face all the time, and dealing with the feeling of large boobs on her chest...and she hadn't even gotten into makeup, or hairstyling, or any of that other stuff yet.

No, Lanie would need a lot more time to adjust to her new life.

Chapter 04-New Friendships

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."

Chapter 05-Unsatisfactory Answers

For the next week, Lanie continued to have fun with Rachel, Melody, Taylor, and on occasion Alexis. Aside from going to the swimming pool, they also went to the mall and played board games in the foster home's game room. Lanie also got to meet some of the girls from the other dorms, such as Vanessa, Amber, Lillian, and Rebecca. They were all really nice.

But one day, a week after Lanie had first came to the Pretty And Pink Foster Home, something big happened. Lanie and Rachel were just getting back from the mall when they ran into Ruth in the hallway. "Hello, Lanie!" said Ruth. "Hi Rachel."

"Hi Ruth," said Lanie.

"Are you guys coming in for dinner?"

"Yes, we are," Lanie answered.

"Good," said Ruth, "Because we have a special guest tonight."

"Who?"

"You'll see."

So Lanie and Rachel went to the foster home's cafeteria. They found Melody, Taylor, and Alexis sitting at their usual table with bowls of tomato soup. "Soup night?" Rachel asked.

"Yup," Alexis answered.

"Okay." Rachel and Lanie got some soup of their own, then sat down with their friends. While they were eating, Ruth came into the cafeteria.

"Good evening, everyone," Ruth said, causing all the girls to turn in her direction. "Please welcome the founder of Pretty And Pink Foster Care, Angelina Aguilar!"

Ruth stood aside to let Angelina come into the room. She looked just like in the picture Lanie had seen in the foster home's entry hall, except she looked even better in person. Angelina's hair hung loosely behind her, and her eyes were lined with enough black eyeliner to make an ancient Egyptian jealous. She was wearing a low-cut white dress with a seam in it that showed off her slender left leg.

"Hello, my lovely ladies!" Angelina said with a smile. "How are you all doing?"

"Angelina!" one of the girls, who Lanie recognized as Vanessa, exclaimed. She got up and ran over to give Angelina a big hug. "Oh, it's so good to see you again!"

"Wow," Lanie said to Rachel. "She must really like Angelina."

"She does," Rachel replied. "Vanessa was in an abusive foster home when Angelina found her and transferred her here. She's really grateful to Angelina for getting her out of that hell."

Just like with my dad, Lanie thought. But when she looked back at Angelina, she remembered the circumstances surrounding her transformation and admittance to the foster home. Why had Angelina been so insistent on turning him into a girl? She knew Ruth had been pushing to have boys at this foster home, but what was Angelina being so stubborn for?

Lanie felt her heart rate increase when Angelina approached her table. "Hello," said Angelina. "Lanie, isn't it?"

"Uh...yes." Lanie wanted so badly to start asking Angelina some questions, but she couldn't. Not with the other girls here.

"How are you liking your new home?"

"I like it," Lanie answered, which was true. She'd genuinely enjoyed the last week with Rachel, Melody, and the others.

"I heard about how you ended up homeless," said Angelina. "I'm very sorry."

Lanie nodded. "Yeah, it was...pretty rough."

"But that is the reason why I founded Pretty And Pink Foster Care in the first place," said Angelina, "To provide girls like you with better living conditions."

"Well, this is a lot better," said Lanie. "Thanks for letting me move in here."

"No problem," said Angelina. "No problem at all."

As Angelina was leaving, Melody said "She is such a nice lady."

"I know," said Rachel. "When I first got here, I was still feeling sad about losing my family, but Angelina and Ruth helped me deal with my loss. I still feel sad about it now, but I've mostly moved past it."

Lanie didn't listen to them. She was too busy thinking about how she'd get to Angelina with her questions...

***

Angelina sat at the desk in the foster home's office, sorting through the piles of paperwork. Ordinarily, this was Ruth's job, but since Angelina was the head of the organization, and she was visiting the Nashville establishment, she'd taken it upon herself to help out with the paperwork.

She was distracted from her work when she heard a knock on the office's door. "Enter," said Angelina.

Lanie walked into the office. "Hey Angelina," she said. "Can I call you Angelina? Or Ms. Aguilar, or-"

"Just Angelina is fine. What do you need?"

"To talk. Alone. In private."

"I believe we are already alone."

Lanie took a deep breath before asking "Why did you make Ruth turn me into a girl?"

Angelina blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Why did Ruth have to turn me into a girl?" Lanie asked.

Angelina gave Lanie a quizzical look. "I thought she already explained that to you," she said. "Because we were admitting you to an all-girls foster home, and we couldn't allow a boy to be with a bunch of girls."

"Then why did she even rescue me in the first place?"

"Because she wanted to trick me into letting a boy into my foster home."

"She said something about that-"

"This isn't the first time she's tried to convince me," said Angelina. "For quite some time, Ruth's been insisting we make our foster home coed so that we have less limitations on who we can accept. With you, Ruth thought she could convince me by saying she'd gotten a boy and that she'd already told him we'd give him a place to live. And I have to admit, it was a pretty good tactic on her part. I don't imagine it would've looked good to you if we accepted you into an all-girls foster home even though you were a boy, then kicked you out because you were a boy."

"Well...yes, but..."

"And in any case, I hear you murdered your own father. And by adopting a new identity, you were able to remain safe from the authorities."

Lanie said nothing. She knew Angelina was right.

"Lanie, my dear, I'm sorry that it had to begin this way. I really am. We've never had to do this with anyone else. But given the circumstances, we had no choice but to turn you into a girl. And you have been enjoying your new life here, haven't you?"

"I guess so."

"Great. Hopefully, we can put all of this behind us and forge a brighter future together."

"Well, thanks, Angelina," said Lanie. She felt disappointed that Angelina had basically just reiterated what Ruth had said, but she clearly wasn't going to get any more answers. "I guess I'll talk to you later."

"You too," said Angelina. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get to some private business downstairs." She indicated a door at the back of the office that Lanie hadn't noticed before. It had a small sign that said "Restricted Area! Authorized Personnel Only!"

"Okay," said Lanie. "Have a good night."

***

After Lanie had left, Angelina left her desk and went through the door at the back of the room. She made sure to lock it behind her before descending the stairs that led to the secret underground bunker beneath the foster home.

When Angelina got to the bunker, she found Ruth there waiting for her, mixing ingredients in a large black cauldron. "Have you found success?" Angelina asked.

"No," Ruth answered. "I've tried everything I can, but I can't seem to find a way to disguise our gender-swapping potion as regular water."

Angelina shook her head. "Well, hopefully we'll figure it out sooner or later," she said.

"I saw you talking to Lanie earlier," said Ruth.

"Yes, I did," said Angelina. "She seems to be enjoying her new life here with the other girls. But she did come to me in the office just now."

Ruth looked up from her potion. "Did she, now?"

"Yes. She wanted to know the truth about why I had you change her."

"What drove her to ask you?"

"I am not sure," said Angelina. "It seems that the rest of the young ladies in our care have toed the line and kept their little secrets. But it does appear that I quelled Lanie's suspicion."

Ruth sighed. Choosing her words carefully, she said "I am not saying I like males any more than you do. But this is the reason why I've been suggesting we let boys into our foster home. So that the ones like Landon who we decide to turn into girls won't get suspicious about what our organization really is."

"Ruth, when I founded Pretty And Pink Foster Care, I intended it to be a girls-only foster home," Angelina insisted. "You know that. And, in any case, Landon is no more. He is now Lanie."

"And did you tell her the real reason you sent me out to find him-I mean, her? That she's-"

"Lanie will know in time," Angelina answered, smiling evilly. "But the time has not come quite yet."

Chapter 06-The Witches Exposed

Lanie woke up really early the next morning. After leaving the office feeling dissatisfied and unhappy with what Angelina had said, Lanie had decided to just go to bed early. But she ended up waking up at 6:00 the following morning. She couldn't get back to sleep, so she decided to just get up and shower for the day.

After getting out a fresh change of clothes, Lanie went back into the shower area. She stripped down, left her dirty clothes on the bench, and turned on a shower nozzle. While she was soaping down, Rachel came in wearing only her bra and panties.

"Rachel?" Lanie asked.

"Hey Lanie," said Rachel. "I lost a game of Truth Or Dare with Taylor last night, so I had to sleep in my underwear."

"Ah," said Lanie.

"But it's morning now," Rachel said as she reached back and unclipped her bra. "So that means I can actually wear clothes again."

"That's good."

Rachel took off her panties and started showering at a nozzle opposite Lanie's. "Oh, and one other thing happened last night that I think you should know about," said Rachel.

"Oh?"

"One of the staff members came by our dorm after you went to bed. She said we'd be getting a new roommate today."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I don't know what her name is, but she's gonna be bunking with Melody."

Lanie nodded. "That's nice," she said. "It'll be fun to show her around the place."

"Yep, it will."

***

After breakfast, Lanie and Rachel waited in their dorm room with the rest of their roommates for their new roommate to show up. At around 10:45, there was a knock on their door. "Come in!" said Lanie.

The door was opened by none other than Angelina. "Good morning, ladies!" she said. "Welcome your new roommate Jenny!"

Angelina stepped aside to allow a new girl to enter the room. The girl looked significantly younger than Lanie or any of her roommates-no older than twelve or thirteen. She had strawberry blonde hair, dark brown eyes, and freckles all over her face. Her clothing wasn't anything fancy-just a plain white T-shirt and purple shorts. "Hi," the girl said awkwardly.

"Hi Jenny!" said Melody. She went up to Jenny to give her a welcoming hug, but she stopped herself when she saw how uncomfortable Jenny looked.

"She's a little nervous," said Angelina. "She just lost her parents and her sister to a burglar, and she's never been to a foster home before. But I told her you all would welcome and accept her, so-"

"Don't worry," said Rachel. "We'll help her get used to living in a foster home."

"Excellent," said Angelina. "That is exactly what I want to hear." She gave Jenny a hug and said "You'll be okay," before leaving.

When Angelina had gone, Jenny smiled awkwardly. "Well...hi guys," she said. "What are your names?"

"I'm Melody," Melody answered. "I'll be your new bunkmate."

"My name's Rachel," said Rachel.

"I'm Lanie."

"Taylor. And that's Alexis."

Jenny nodded. "It's nice to meet you all."

"Want to sit down?" Lanie asked.

"I guess."

Lanie and Rachel both sat down on the couch with Jenny, with Melody standing right beside them. "Sorry about your family," said Rachel. "The rest of us have all been orphaned, too."

"It's not just that," said Jenny. "It's..."

"What is it?"

Jenny hesitated. "I...don't want to talk about it?"

"Really, what?" Lanie asked. She was getting a bad feeling. "Go ahead and tell us. Get it off your chest."

"No, really, I don't want to," said Jenny. "I just don't."

Lanie and Rachel exchanged glances. It didn't look like this girl was gonna crack easily. But from the way Jenny was acting, and how she didn't want to talk about what was eating at her...could it really mean what Lanie thought it meant?

"How about we go get some lunch?" Lanie suggested.

"In the cafeteria?"

"No. There's a Subway just down the street. We can go there for lunch."

"Can we do that?"

"Of course! And besides, Subway is really good!"

"Well...okay, I guess," said Jenny.

Yes! Lanie thought. Her idea to get Jenny to crack just might work.

***

Lanie, Rachel, and Melody took Jenny with them as they went down the street to Subway. The four of them ordered sandwiches for themselves and sat down at a table while they waited for their food.

"Do you guys always go out to eat?" Jenny asked as they waited.

"No, not always," Rachel answered. "We usually get food from the cafeteria at the foster home."

"It's pretty good food," said Melody. "You'll love their pizza."

Lanie cleared her throat. She wasn't going to beat around the bush here. "Jenny, what is it that's bothering you?"

"Lanie!" Rachel scolded. "She said she didn't want to talk about it!"

"Rachel, this is serious," said Lanie. "Jenny, I promise you can tell us. We're not in the Pretty And Pink foster home. There aren't any security cameras watching us."

"Wait, they have security cameras at the foster home?"

"I...don't really know," Lanie admitted, "But I know they don't have them here."

"Lanie, what are you getting at?" Rachel asked. Rachel may have been a sweet girl, but she thought Lanie had stepped over the line. Hadn't Jenny said she didn't feel comfortable opening up to them? Did Lanie not have any respect for people's privacy?

But what Lanie said next shocked everyone at the table. "You were a boy, weren't you?" Lanie asked. "Angelina and Ruth turned you into a girl, didn't they?"

Jenny's jaw dropped, as did Rachel's and Melody's. Jenny tried to move her mouth, but no words came out. "What did you just say?" Rachel asked.

"I asked her if she used to be a he," said Lanie. "Well? Did you?"

"Yes," Jenny forced out. "How did you know?"

"Because..." Lanie hesitated. Over the last week, she'd built up a taboo around revealing that she used to be Landon. But spilling the beans now was the only way to earn Jenny's trust. "Ruth turned me into a girl, too."

"WHAT?" Rachel gasped. "You...you were a boy before you came to Pretty And Pink?"

"Yes," said Lanie. "My name was Landon. But Ruth talked me into letting her turn me into a girl."

"My name is-was Jimmy," said Jenny. "The lady who found me said this was a chance for me to start a new life, and to put my tragedy behind me."

"That's kind of what Ruth said to me," said Lanie. Suddenly, another thought occurred to her. She slowly turned to look at Rachel and asked "Rachel? You didn't..."

Rachel looked horrified, but she nodded. "Randy," she said. "That was my name."

"And I was Mel," said Melody.

Lanie buried her face in her hands. "I should've known!" she said. "How did I not see it? Ruth told me that all the other people at the foster home were girls. She and Angelina wanted me to think I was the only one who used to be a boy! Them and their cronies-they probably told that to the rest of you guys, too! And everyone else that they turned into girls!"

Rachel and Melody were both having emotional breakdowns. It was as if they'd been given red pills and realized they'd been plugged into the Matrix all their lives. "Lanie, I'm so sorry," said Rachel. "I had no idea. I thought Angelina was giving me a new life-a better life. But-"

"Rachel, it's not your fault," said Lanie. "It's Angelina's fault. She's the one who founded this whole operation."

"But why?" Jenny asked. "Why is she turning innocent boys into girls?"

Lanie looked up. "I think I know how we can find out," she said. "There's a secret door in the office. I saw it last night when I was talking to Angelina."

"I've seen that door, too," said Melody. "You think Angelina's got something hidden behind there?"

"She has to. There's no other explanation."

"But we can't break into there," said Rachel. "If it's a restricted area-"

"We're going to have to," said Lanie. "To try and get to the bottom of this. And I'm gonna need your help."

"What can we do?" Jenny asked. "Angelina and Ruth, and that lady who collected me-they're witches. They have magic."

"We'll have to create a distraction," said Lanie. "Tell Angelina there's something going on outside the office, so we can sneak in and see what's behind that secret door."

"I'll do it," said Melody. "I'll tell her that a girl jumped off the top of the building and killed herself."

Everyone stared at her. "You're going to tell her someone committed suicide?"

"If it'll get her distracted, then yes."

Lanie shook her head. "Whatever, as long as it works," she said. "Once Angelina's gone, we'll go into that secret room."

"What if Angelina comes back?" Jenny asked.

"We can have someone stay back and keep watch," said Lanie. "Jenny, you think you can handle that?"

"Yeah, I think so," Jenny answered.

"Okay," said Lanie. "Melody, you'll tell Angelina someone killed herself, and once she's gone, Jenny, you stay back at the office to stand guard." She turned to Rachel and asked "Rachel, are you with me?"

Rachel reluctantly nodded. "Yes," she said. "Bunkmates are supposed to have each other's backs, right?"

"Right," said Lanie. "Now let's hope we have some luck on our side."

***

The plan went well at first. Melody went to the office to find Angelina and tell her a girl had tried to kill herself, and Angelina fell for the lie. She left the office in a hurry and went off to find the suicidal girl. Once she was gone, Melody rendezvoused with Lanie, Rachel, and Jenny. Jenny took her position as door guard while Lanie, Rachel, and Melody went into the office and tried the secret door.

"It's locked," Rachel said when she tried to turn the doorknob.

Lanie frantically looked around. "There's gotta be a key somewhere," she said. She started rifling through the papers on Angelina's desk, hoping to find the key buried in there somewhere.

"I think I found it!" Melody exclaimed. She pointed at the bulletin board, where the key was hanging on a hook.

"Great going, Melody." Lanie took the key, inserted it into the door's lock, and unlocked it. She opened the door to reveal a set of stairs that led down into a dark basement.

"Uh-oh," said Rachel. "I think this might take longer than we thought."

"We'll close the door behind us," said Lanie. "Come on!"

Lanie, Rachel, and Melody went down the stairs. Since Melody was the last one down, she closed the door behind them. The trio followed the stairs for a good thirty feet before coming to a large underground bunker. Lanie flicked on a light switch that lit up the whole room. It was big enough to park several semi trailers in, filled with tables and boxes of potion ingredients and other magical equipment. There were also several cauldrons filled with different colored liquid.

"This is it," said Rachel. "The witch's lair."

"Are they making a bunch of potions?" Melody asked.

"Ruth did mention potions that could turn boys into girls," said Lanie. She went up to one of the tables and picked up a notebook. She flipped through the pages, hoping to find some information about what Angelina's plans might be. But all she found was different lists of potion ingredients and how to combine them.

"Uh, Lanie?" said Rachel. She picked up a notebook from another table and held it out for Lanie and Melody to see. "You might want to see this."

Lanie and Melody both gathered to see the notebook Rachel had found. The frontmost page had the words "Potion? Undetectable? Distribute Through Food?"

"I think I know what they're doing," said Rachel. "They're trying to brew a gender-changing potion and find a way to spike people's food with it to turn more boys into girls!"

"But that doesn't make sense," said Lanie. "How would they go to everybody's houses and put this potion into their food? People would just think they're weird!"

"Maybe they're thinking about sneaking into food manufacturing companies," Melody suggested. "So they can put this potion into food as it's being packaged so people can eat it without realizing it's got a potion inside."

Lanie shook her head. "I guess that's not much weirder than gathering homeless boys and turning them into girls so they can go to your all-girls foster home," she said.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Lanie's heart missed several beats.

"Oh no," Rachel said in an undertone. "I knew they'd find us!"

"How do we..." Melody trailed off when the person coming down the stairs stepped into view. It was Jenny, looking more horrified than ever. "Jenny?"

"Yes, that's right," Angelina said as she and Ruth came up behind Jenny. Angelina looked livid at the sight of them down in her secret underground bunker. "And you four are in a real heap of trouble."

Chapter 07-Escape

Lanie, Rachel, and Melody stood there in horror. Now that Angelina and Ruth had caught them red-handed, their plan seemed a lot more stupid in hindsight.

"You want to tell us why you went poking around down here?" Angelina asked.

Rachel and Melody looked at Lanie, since she was the one who'd instigated the whole thing. Lanie looked Angelina right in the eye and said "We wanted to know."

"Wanted to know what?"

"We wanted to know why. Why you turned all of us boys into girls and put us in your foster home."

Angelina looked between the four girls. "So you disobeyed us," she said. "You told each other that you used to be boys!"

"We weren't going to," said Lanie. "But when Jenny got to our dorm, she was acting really strange. She seemed really insecure and uncomfortable. It reminded me of how I felt when Ruth turned me into a girl and sent me here, and I got suspicious. So me, Rachel, and Melody took Jenny out to Subway and got her to break down."

"And then we broke down, too," Rachel admitted. "Me and Melody-we hadn't suspected there was anyone else at the foster home besides us that used to be a boy. But then Lanie opened our eyes to the truth."

Ruth slapped her thigh. "Now do you see why I've been trying to convince you to make our foster home coed?" she asked. "It was to prevent something like THIS from happening!"

"Silence, Ruth!" Angelina barked. She shook her head at the girls and said "Well, it seems I made a mistake in assigning Jenny to a dorm with someone whose gender transition was still fresh in her mind. But, for your actions, you will still face consequences." She drew a knife and held it to Jenny's throat.

"Wait!" Lanie exclaimed. "Why are you even doing this? Why are you turning boys into girls? And why are you doing that..." She gestured at the notebook Rachel had found, "Potion...thing?"

"Because it is my life's goal to purge the world of its disgusting males," Angelina answered. "All my life, I've hated men and boys. They burp and fart in public, they constantly get in fights, and they disrespect women."

"Girls get in fights too!" said Rachel. "Don't you remember last year, when Amber got in a fight with that girl at school?"

"Males still get in many more fights than females," said Angelina. "And that's not the end of it. They abuse their wives, they cheat on them, and they still expect us to love them. Well, us women will not stand for it any longer. We will turn every male in this world into a female and make them see how bad they really were. Once they do, they'll all realize how much better it is to be female."

"You're crazy!" said Lanie. "There's no way you can go around and turn all three billion men in the world into women!" As she spoke, she slowly edged toward a thick metal spoon sitting on the table.

"I know it will take a long time," said Angelina. "That is why my fellow witches and I are working on more ways to turn unsuspecting men into women. We have several divisions of our Pretty And Pink organization, all of which we use to take in homeless boys and turn them into girls to start new lives. Our next plan is to create a gender-changing potion that looks just like regular water, then start distributing it to people via food, tap water, and other beverages."

"That's a stupid plan!" said Rachel. "What if the police end up figuring out that people's food and drinks were spiked with the potion and trace it back to you?"

"That's why we plan on devising on even more strategies," said Angelina. "But none of you will be there to see them." She started to draw her knife back, ready to stab Jenny.

"Yes we will!" Lanie grabbed the metal spoon, threw it at Angelina, and bull's-eye! The spoon hit Angelina square in the face, making her drop the knife and lose her grip on Jenny. Jenny broke out of Angelina's arms and ran over to Melody.

"Stop right there!" Ruth shouted. She dashed past Angelina and ran at Lanie, Rachel, Melody, and Jenny with her hands ablaze with magic sparkles. She hurled a blue fireball at the girls, forcing them to scatter. When Ruth rounded on Lanie, Lanie made a fist and punched at Ruth. Ruth dodged her strike and waved her hand. Lanie was suddenly frozen in place, unable to move a muscle.

"I almost didn't want to go after you," Ruth said as she readied another fireball. "But Angelina insisted on it. You were her most important target."

What are you talking about? Lanie wanted to scream. But Ruth's freezing spell didn't even let her talk.

"Ruth, no!" Angelina ordered. "Don't kill her!"

Ruth had been getting ready to throw her fireball, but Angelina's order made her falter. Neither of them noticed that Rachel had picked up a knife from the table and was coming up behind Ruth. Right as Ruth was turning to regard Angelina, Rachel thrust the knife forward and stabbed Ruth through the back. Ruth's eyes widened in shock, then rolled up inside her head. Ruth's spell broke as she fell dead onto the floor. Lanie gasped as she found herself able to move again.

"No!" Angelina gasped. "My servant...you miserable girl..."

Rachel looked down at her bloodied knife, like she was only just realizing what she'd done. "I...I..."

"You will die!" Angelina summoned a fireball even bigger than the one Ruth had created and hurled it at Rachel. Rachel stood rooted to the spot, too stunned to react. But Melody saw what was going on and jumped in front of Rachel. Melody's body took the brunt of the fireball, and she burned into a pile of ashes on the floor.

Jenny screamed. "Melody!"

"We've gotta get out of here," said Lanie.

"No," said Angelina. "Your pathetic friends will die, but you, Miss Lanie..." Her expression softened ever so slightly. "You and I have some special business to take care of."

"No, we don't," said Lanie. She, Rachel, and Jenny dashed past Angelina and ran for the stairs.

Angelina grabbed Lanie by the arm as she went by. "You can run," she warned, "But you can't escape me."

"We'll just see about that," said Lanie. She balled her fist and punched Angelina harder than even she would've thought possible. Angelina let go of Lanie's arm and flew backwards into the wall. Angelina crumpled onto the floor like a rag doll.

Lanie didn't know how badly she'd hurt Angelina, but she wasn't gonna stick around and find out. She, Rachel, and Jenny ran up the stairs and back into the office. They burst through the door and ran off down the hall. Right when they were nearing the foster home's front doors, they ran right into Taylor.

"Lanie? Rachel? Jenny?" Taylor asked. "What are you doing?"

Lanie stopped and looked Taylor dead in the eyes. "Trust me, Taylor," she said. "The less you know, the better." Then she turned and ran out the door with Rachel and Jenny.

Taylor stared, bewildered, at her roommates ran down the street. "I am so confused right now," she said to herself.

***

Lanie, Rachel, and Jenny ran through the streets. They ran across crosswalks, avoided pedestrians and honking cars, but they didn't have any particular destination in mind-only away from the Pretty And Pink foster home.

The trio didn't stop to catch their breaths until they'd reached the edge of Nashville. All three of them panted heavily for almost a minute. When she'd regained her breath, Lanie asked "Is...is Angelina following us?"

"No," said Jenny. "I can't believe she's a witch!"

"We can't stop here," said Rachel. "We've got to find somewhere to hide!"

"But where are we gonna go?" Jenny asked.

"I don't know," Lanie answered. "I know we can't go to any of my old friends' houses, and-"

"We should call the police," said Jenny.

"No!" Lanie and Rachel said at the same time.

"Why not?"

"They wouldn't believe us," said Rachel. "Imagine a bunch of teenage girls coming in and telling them that there's a witch hunting them."

"We have to get out of Nashville," said Lanie.

"How? We can't keep walking and running forever!" said Jenny.

Lanie thought for a moment, then had a lightbulb go on over her head. "I have an idea," she said. "There's a train yard just a few blocks away from here. If we can stow away on a freight train, then we can ride somewhere far away from Nashville."

Rachel and Jenny exchanged glances. "Are you sure that's safe?" Jenny asked.

"Of course it is," said Lanie. "I've seen lots of homeless people hitch rides on freight trains. It's how they travel from city to city."

"I guess it's better than taking our chances with Angelina," Rachel mumbled. "Show us where to go, Lanie."

***

The train yard wasn't far from where the girls had stopped-just a ten-minute walk away. The metal wire fence didn't have any rings of barbed wire lining the top, for it was easy for Lanie, Rachel, and Jenny to climb over and start looking around. Much to their relief, there was a freight train just starting to depart the yard. The train was pulled by two locomotives and consisted of three tanker cars and about a dozen boxcars. Toward the back of the train was an empty boxcar with its side doors open.

"Wow, that's convenient," Rachel said when she saw this empty boxcar.

"I know," said Lanie. "Come on!"

The girls all ran after the train as it continued to chug along and pick up speed. Lanie was the first to reach the boxcar's open door and jump up onto the edge. She pulled herself into the boxcar and turned to see Rachel and Jenny coming. "Come on, guys!" Lanie urged.

Rachel put on an extra burst of speed and jumped up into the boxcar. Lanie helped pull Rachel into the boxcar.

"Come on, Jenny!" said Lanie. "You're almost there!"

"I can't do it!" said Jenny. She was running as fast as she could, but the train was picking up speed.

"Yes you can!" Lanie said as she and Rachel reached out their arms for Jenny to grab. Jenny put on an extra burst of speed and reached out for them, too. Soon, Jenny had managed to grab Lanie's and Rachel's hands. The two older girls pulled with all their might and heaved Jenny onto the boxcar's bed.

Now that all three of the girls were safely inside the boxcar, they shared a sigh of relief. "That could've been dangerous," said Rachel.

"I know," said Lanie. "But at least we made it."

"I can't believe we just did that," said Rachel. "I can't believe we just had to escape Pretty And Pink Foster Care."

"Me either," said Lanie.

"And..." Rachel hesitated. "And I can't believe I killed Ruth."

"You killed Ruth?" Jenny asked.

"Yes," Rachel said miserably. "She was threatening Lanie, and I stabbed her in the back."

"You saved my life," said Lanie. "I owe you for that."

"I know," said Rachel. "But still, the fact that I killed someone..."

"I know how you feel," said Lanie. She was hesitant about saying what she was thinking, but it felt like the right time to admit to what she'd been hiding. "Remember how my dad died right before Ruth found me?"

"Yes."

"It was me who killed him."

Rachel looked over at Lanie with shock. "You did?"

"It was in self-defense," Lanie explained. "He was threatening me, and then I kicked him and knocked him off the balcony. I knew my dad was kind of a bad person, but I still felt really horrible that I'd taken away a human being's life."

"But Angelina killed Melody," said Jenny. Her eyes were starting to well up with tears as she remembered the horrible scene in that underground bunker.

"I know," Lanie said, hugging Jenny. "Melody was a great person."

"Yes, she was," Rachel agreed. "She didn't deserve to die."

Lanie looked between Rachel and Jenny. "Guys, I'm very sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to drag you into this."

"You shouldn't be," said Rachel. "It's Angelina who should be sorry."

"Should we go back?" Jenny asked. "Tell the other girls what's really going on?"

"No," Lanie answered. "Showing our faces at that foster home again would be suicide."

"But what Angelina's doing to everyone is terrible!"

"I agree," said Lanie. "But I don't think there's anything we can do about it."

"Not right now, anyway," said Rachel. "I think all we can do is just..."

"What?"

Rachel hesitated, trying to put her thoughts into words. "Keep going," she finally said. "Get away from Nashville. Hope Angelina doesn't find us."

Neither Lanie nor Jenny argued with that. All they could really do now was ride the train and wonder where it would take them.

Chapter 08-Living On The Streets

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."

Chapter 09-A New Home

When Lanie saw Mr. Ryan's orphanage, she knew things were about to get a whole lot better.

It was three stories high, and it was in much better shape than the homeless shelter. The walls were painted bright orange, the windows were nice and shiny, and it was all very neat and well-kept. It was just like the Pretty And Pink foster home, except without a heart of darkness under the surface (probably).

Mr. Ryan took Lanie, Rachel, and Jenny into the orphanage's registration room. There, they found a lady at the desk waiting for them. "Well hello!" she said when she saw the three girls Mr. Ryan had brought. "Welcome to the Orphanage For All Ages."

"Orphanage For All Ages?" Lanie asked.

"Yes, that's the name of my orphanage," said Mr. Ryan.

"And what's your name?" Lanie asked the lady at the desk.

"I'm Fiona Sierra," the lady answered. "And I see you've already met Bryan Ryan."

Mr. Ryan's full name was Bryan Ryan? No wonder he went by Mr. Ryan. "Who's the boss? You or him?"

"I am," said Mr. Ryan. "Now, about that registration..."

The registration didn't take as long as Lanie expected. All she, Rachel, and Jenny had to do was provide their names, ages, clothing sizes, and the reasons for them not having parents. Of course, Lanie left out the detail about her killing her own father. She'd been okay with confiding that to Rachel, but not to Mr. Ryan and Mrs. Sierra. At least, not yet.

"Right then," Mr. Ryan said when they'd filled out the paperwork. "Now, Lanie and Rachel, you're both fifteen, and Jenny, you're twelve. Is that right?"

"Yes," said Lanie.

"Uh-huh," said Jenny.

"Jenny, I think we should find someone who's your age for you to bunk with."

"What do you mean?"

"Each of the rooms at our orphanage houses two people," Mrs. Sierra explained. "And we assign roommates based on ages. When we first started, we tried pairing kids up with no regards to their age gaps. But it proved pretty awkward when we had five-year-olds bunking with high school Juniors."

"Oh," said Jenny.

Mrs. Sierra looked at her computer and said "Lucky for you, we do have a vacancy on the girls' floor. There's a girl your age named Samantha whose roommate got adopted last month."

"Is Samantha nice?" Jenny asked.

"Yeah, she's pretty nice," Mrs. Sierra answered. "And she's been asking us for a new roommate ever since Paige left, so I'm sure she'll be happy to meet you."

"Okay," said Jenny. "I'll do it."

"And as for you two," Mr. Ryan said to Lanie and Rachel.

"We'll bunk together," Lanie said quickly, to which Rachel nodded agreement. Even before they'd met Mr. Ryan, they'd known it was a given that they'd end up bunking with one another. They'd been bunkmates at Pretty And Pink, and they'd developed a somewhat sisterly bond. Both of them knew they'd be more than happy to share a room at the Orphanage For All Ages.

"Excellent," said Mr. Ryan. "Now, if you'll come with me, I'll show you around the place. And I'll show you to your rooms."

***

Mr. Ryan's tour took them all throughout the ground floor of the orphanage. Just like at Pretty And Pink, there was a mess hall and a game room-except said game room was much bigger. There were two tables full of boards games and a TV with a couple game consoles and a whole cabinet of games to play on those consoles. In addition, there was a bookcase full of books next to a couple of armchairs where you could sit and read.

The two topmost floors were the dorm room floors. The second floor was for the boys, and the third floor was for the girls. Mr. Ryan took Lanie, Rachel, and Jenny to Jenny's new room first. Mr. Ryan opened the door to find a 12-year-old girl in the room folding her laundry. "Hey Samantha," said Mr. Ryan. "Look who's come to live with you."

Jenny forced a smile. "Hi," she said. "I'm Jenny."

"My name's Samantha," said Samantha. She had short brown hair and a pair of thick glasses.

"Jenny's gonna be your new roommate," said Mr. Ryan.

Samantha's face lit up. "Finally!" she said. "I've been asking for a new roommate for ages!"

"Which is why I found one for you," said Mr. Ryan. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to show our other two new additions to their room."

"We'll talk to you later," Rachel said to Jenny. Jenny nodded.

Mr. Ryan took Lanie and Rachel to another dorm room-one that was empty. This one was a bit smaller than the one they'd shared at the last foster home, but it was still reasonably spacious for two people. There was a dresser, a TV, and two beds. The dorm also had a bathroom with a shower.

"So this is your room," said Mr. Ryan. "We have cleaners come in once a week to tidy things up, but you can decorate it however you want."

"When are we gonna get our new clothes?" Lanie asked. "You said you'd get us some new clothes."

"We'll get them to you by the end of the day," Mr. Ryan answered. "But feel free to wash up in the meantime."

"We could also use some new cell phones," said Rachel. "If you can get us some."

"I'll look into that," said Mr. Ryan.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Ryan," said Lanie. "We really appreciate it."

"No problem," said Mr. Ryan. "I'll just leave you young ladies to yourselves for now."

When Mr. Ryan had gone, Lanie and Rachel looked at one another. "So...should we shower?" Lanie asked.

"Yeah, probably," Rachel answered.

So the two of them went into the bathroom and found there was only one sink, one toilet, and one shower. "Oh..." said Lanie.

"Want to shower first?" Rachel asked.

"No, you can do it," Lanie answered. "I'll wait."

So Lanie sat and waited on her bed while Rachel took a shower. When Rachel finished and started to dry off, Lanie got into the shower herself. She spent ten minutes washing all the caked-on dirt and sweat from her body and her hair. But when she'd finished, she realized she didn't have any clean clothes to change into. So she ended up just taking a towel and wrapping it around her naked body for the time being.

Lanie came out into the main dorm room and saw that Rachel was wearing nothing but a towel herself. "Hey," said Rachel. "Feeling cleaner?"

"Yep," Lanie replied.

"Still suspicious of Mr. Ryan?"

"Eh...not really."

"It doesn't seem like he's turning any boys into girls. Or girls into boys."

"I know," said Lanie. "And it doesn't seem like he has any connections to Angelina, so that's good."

Rachel nodded. "I think we should stay here for now."

"What do you mean?"

"We probably shouldn't leave this building," said Rachel. "Just in case Angelina comes to Atlanta looking for us."

"So you think we should quarantine? Like when the pandemic first started, and everyone had to shelter in place?"

Rachel shuddered. "I don't like it when you put it like that," she said, "But yeah. For now."

Lanie nodded. Suddenly, another thought occurred to her. "What about school?" she asked. "Mr. Ryan's probably gonna sign us up to go to school, so..."

"I think we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it," said Rachel.

***

For the rest of the week, Lanie and Rachel opted to stay within the walls of the Orphanage For All Ages. Jenny didn't seem happy about complying with the regime, but she did so too. The girls spent their time reading the books in the rec room and playing games with the other orphanage kids. In the process, they got to meet some of the other kids at the orphanage-Aaron, Emilio, Trevor, Brianna, and a few others. All the names blended together in Lanie's head, but she figured she'd get to know everybody eventually.

During this time, Jenny spent a lot of time playing video games in the rec room. Apparently when she was Jimmy, she'd loved video games, and that hobby had carried over with her. She quickly grew so addicted to playing Rocket League, Mr. Ryan had to come in one day to tear her away from the screen.

It all came to a head on Friday evening after dinner. Lanie and Rachel had gone back to their room when someone came knocking on the door. Lanie answered the door to find Mrs. Sierra there. "Hi Lanie!" said Mrs. Sierra.

"Hi Mrs. Sierra. What's going on?"

"I just wanted to let you know that we're having an opening social tomorrow."

"Opening social?"

"Yes. We're holding it to commemorate the end of summer and the beginning of the school year. We're all gonna go to the lake and go swimming. There's gonna be a bunch of food there, too. If you want to come, all you have to do is show up tomorrow morning with your swimsuits."

"We'll think about it," said Lanie.

When Mrs. Sierra had left, Lanie turned to Rachel. "Think we should do it?"

"What-I thought we agreed not to leave this building."

"I know. But it does sound kind of fun, going to the lake for a little 'beach day.'"

Rachel shrugged. "I mean...if Mr. Ryan and Mrs. Sierra will be there, then it might be okay," she said. "Plus, I am getting a little tired of sitting around the orphanage all day."

"Me too," said Lanie. "I think I'm gonna go."

***

The next morning, Lanie and Rachel donned their bikinis and put on shirts and shorts over them. They went out to the front of the orphanage where Mr. Ryan, Mrs. Sierra, and a few other chaperones were waiting with the rest of the kids that were going. Lanie looked for Jenny among the kids, but she was nowhere to be seen. Guess she'd rather do a few more rounds of Rocket League.

Mr. Ryan had rented a big bus to carry everyone to the lake. The bus ride was about half an hour, with a rather bumpy second half when they got to the dirt road. But when they got to the lake, it was a rather pretty sight. There was the lake with its smooth surface, a range of mountains in the distance, and a beach made of rough sand. At the edge of the lake was a large rock that the kids could jump off into the lake.

"Well, here we are," Mr. Ryan said when everyone had unloaded from the bus. "You guys can all start swimming while we set up the food tables!"

"I call first dive!" the boy named Aaron declared. He took off his shirt, threw it aside, and went up to the big "diving board" rock. He climbed to the top and stood at the edge of the rock. "Here we go," he said. He crouched down and dove into the lake.

"Dude," said Trevor, another boy Lanie had met at the orphanage. "Let me do a cannonball." He climbed onto the rock and did a cannonball into the lake.

"How about this one?" said a boy called TJ. He jumped off the rock and did a somersault in midair before splashing into the lake.

Rachel looked at Lanie. "Wanna jump together?" she asked.

"Sure," said Lanie.

Lanie and Rachel both climbed onto the rock and went up to the edge. Lanie and Rachel took each other's hands and jumped off the rock together. They landed in the water with a big splash, prompting a cheer from the onlookers.

"Whoo-ee!" Lanie said when she and Rachel had surfaced. "The water's so cold!"

"I know," said Rachel. "That's what makes it feel so good!"

Aaron was treading water nearby, and he heard what Lanie said. "Until you make it a little warmer," he said with a smirk.

"Uh..." Lanie stammered. From Aaron's tone of voice, and the look on his face, it was pretty obvious he was peeing in the lake. "I think I'm gonna get out of the water now."

Lanie swam back to shore and grabbed a towel. As she was drying off, she noticed that Mr. Ryan and Mrs. Sierra had set up a table full of hot dogs, chips, potato salad, and chocolate chip cookies. She decided to go and get herself a plate of food. Lanie filler her plate with a hot dog, a handful of Barbeque Lay's chips, and a scoop of potato salad. She decided to wait on getting a cookie for a little while.

When Lanie turned away from the food table, she ran smack into a boy she didn't recognize. "Oh-I'm sorry!" said Lanie.

"No, it's okay," the boy replied. He looked to be Lanie's age, with windblown brown hair, a clean shaven face, and pretty brown eyes. He was wearing only his black swim trunks, exposing his...rather nice chest. Wait. Did Lanie just have that thought? Did she think a boy's chest was...sexy?

"Who are you?" Lanie asked. "I don't think I've seen you at the orphanage."

"My name's Conner," the boy answered. "And I don't live at the orphanage."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"Mr. Ryan knows my family," Conner answered. "He invited me to come today, so I decided to come."

Lanie smiled. "Nice," she said.

"Are you going to Eastside High?"

"Eastside High?"

"It's the school where Mr. Ryan sends his high-school-aged kids," said Conner. "I go to that school too. I'm gonna be going into my Sophomore year."

"Really? I'm gonna be a Sophomore too!"

Conner smiled, which for some reason moved something inside Lanie. "Nice," he said. "Maybe we'll see each other then."

"Probably," said Lanie.

Conner nodded. "Well, it was nice meeting you..."

"Oh!" Lanie felt embarrassed that she hadn't introduced herself. "My name's Lanie!"

"Nice to meet you, Lanie," said Conner. "I'll see you around."

"You too!"

***

The rest of the lake day was pretty fun. Lanie and Rachel jumped off the diving rock a few more times, and they got to swim in the lake some more. Throughout the day, Lanie did see Conner a few more times, but she didn't get to talk to him again. All the same, that weird feeling he gave her...it was different. She'd never felt that way about a boy before. When Lanie had been Landon, he'd definitely had crushes on girls-but he'd never gotten any farther than a simple "Hi, my name's Landon, what's up?" But now...was Lanie feeling attraction to a boy? And the fact that she'd had an actual conversation with said boy...more than he'd ever had with a girl...it should've felt really weird. But for some reason, it didn't. Lanie kind of liked this weird attraction she was feeling toward Conner.

Even when the lake day was over, and they were all riding back to the orphanage in the bus, Lanie kept her feelings bottled up inside her. She wasn't ready to tell anyone-not even Rachel. Some dreams and ideas are just too absurd to share.

When Lanie and Rachel got back to their dorm, they both looked at each other. "Well," said Rachel, "I think that was worth it."

"Me too," said Lanie. "Do you want to go change first?" Since they'd moved into the Orphanage For All Ages, they'd started going into the bathroom to change clothes in privacy-unlike at Pretty And Pink, where everyone essentially showered and changed together.

"You know, we can just change out here," said Rachel. "It's not like we haven't seen each other naked before."

"I guess not," said Lanie. She reached back and undid her bikini top. She took it off and put it on her bed. She then slid off her bikini bottom and laid it next to her top. She got a clean pair of panties out of her dresser drawer and slid it on. She was just getting out a bra when she felt it: a wet spot forming on her panties. Looking down, she saw a small patch of red at the bottom of her crotch.

"Oh!" Lanie gasped.

"What?" Rachel asked.

"Rachel," Lanie half said, half laughed, "I think I just got my period!"

"You what?" Rachel looked at Lanie's panties, saw the red spot, and started to laugh herself. "No way!"

"I know, right?"

"No, it's not just that," said Rachel. "I started my period just this morning!"

"You did?"

"Yeah! I guess you and I were somehow synced up!"

"No way."

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

Lanie went into the bathroom, pulled down her panties, and saw on the toilet. She waited while Rachel dug around in the bathroom drawer and got a maxi pad out. "You may want to use a pad first," said Rachel. "It's a little tricky to use a tampon."

"Right," said Lanie. With a little help from Rachel, she aligned the pad with the bottom of her panties and used its "wings" to fasten it in place. As a result, when Lanie pulled her panties back up, she didn't have to worry about them becoming a bloody mess.

Lanie couldn't believe it. She'd been doing her hair and wearing girls' clothes for some time now, but getting her period was taking it to a whole nother level. It felt different. Almost like she was a certified woman.

And you know what? She actually kind of liked it.

Chapter 10-Starting School

A week after the opening social was when school started. Mr. Ryan signed both Lanie and Rachel up for Eastside High School, much to Lanie's delight. Conner had said he'd be going there, so she was looking forward to potentially seeing him again.

The night before the first day of school, Mr. Ryan came up to Lanie's and Rachel's room with a surprise. "Hello, ladies," he said. "Guess what I've got for you?"

"What?" Lanie asked.

Mr. Ryan reached into his bag and pulled out two brand-new, unopened Samsung Galaxy phones. "We got new phones for you," he said.

"Oh my gosh!" Rachel exclaimed. "Thank you, Mr. Ryan! Thank you so much!"

"We thought they'd come in handy," said Mr. Ryan. "I'll bet you two are gonna start meeting a lot more people at school and wanting to keep in touch with them."

"Yeah, probably," said Lanie.

"Speaking of school, I'm also here to give you your schedules." Mr. Ryan handed Lanie and Rachel printed-out schedules of their classes for the school year.

"Thanks," said Lanie. "How far away from here is the school?"

"Just a few blocks," Mr. Ryan answered. "You guys can walk there."

"Alright," said Lanie. "Thanks again."

After Mr. Ryan left, Lanie looked at her schedule. It looked like it was a block schedule, with First, Second, and Third Periods on Mondays and Thursdays, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Periods on Tuesdays and Fridays, and all six periods on Wednesdays. Lanie's Periods were Geometry, English, P. E, US History, Chemistry, and Art, in that order. "Rachel, what have you got?" Lanie asked.

"I've got Photo Arts, Geometry, P. E, US History, Chemistry, and English," Rachel answered.

Lanie looked at Rachel's schedule and compared it to her own. "Looks like we have Third, Fourth, and Fifth Periods together," she said.

"Not bad," said Lanie.

"We'll just have to worry about getting a good spot at lunch," said Rachel.

"Oh yeah," said Lanie. "That'll definitely be a challenge."

***

The next day was Monday. Lanie and Rachel both woke up at 6:30 and started getting ready for school. They took turns showering, getting dressed, doing their hair, and packing their backpacks. Once they were ready, they left the orphanage and set out for Eastside High. As they went, they ran into a few of the other high school-aged kids from the orphanage, such as Aaron and Trevor. Aaron and Trevor told the girls that they'd been to Eastside High in years past, and they assured them that it was a good school. "You'll like it," said Aaron. "The teachers are nice, and they've got a lot of good clubs."

"Most of the kids are cool, too," Trevor added. "Just make sure you stay away from the weird kids."

When Lanie and Rachel reached the school's front gates, they both got out their schedules to remind themselves where their First Period classes would be. It turned out Lanie's Geometry class was in a separate building from Rachel's Photo Arts class. "Well, I guess this is where we split up," said Rachel.

"I'll see you at lunch," said Lanie. She turned and went in the direction of Mrs. Kirkland's Geometry classroom. She got there just a few minutes before the bell rang and entered the room. There were a handful of other kids already in there, as most of the class hadn't arrived yet. Since Lanie wasn't sure where to sit, she just took an empty desk near the back of the room.

A minute later, another girl came up and sat down in the desk next to Lanie. "Hey," the new girl said. "Are you new here?"

"Yeah, I am," Lanie answered.

"Nice," said the other girl. She looked to be a grade above Lanie, with wavy, mousy brown hair and smooth pale skin. She wore a white coat over a pink tank top and a light blue skirt. "What's your name?"

"I'm Lanie."

"My name's Diana," said the other girl. "Diana Jackson."

"Cool."

Diana looked Lanie up and down again. "You're not from around here, are you?" she asked.

"Oh no," Lanie answered. "I just moved to Atlanta a couple weeks ago. I'm originally from-" She stopped herself, remembering that she wasn't supposed to say she was from Nashville. "-Tennessee."

"Huh," said Diana. She and Lanie probably would've talked more, but then the bell rang, and Mrs. Kirkland stepped up to begin the first day's lesson. "Well, I guess we'll talk more later," Diana said quickly.

***

After Geometry was over, and Lanie had made it through Second Period English, it was time for lunch. As Lanie was making her way to the cafeteria, she ran right into Rachel in the hall. "Hi Lanie!" said Rachel. "How'd your first two classes go?"

"They were alright," Lanie answered. "I didn't see anyone I recognized from the orphanage, but-"

"Me either," said Rachel. "But remember that guy Conner Hawkins Mr. Ryan invited to the opening social?"

"Yeah."

"He was in my Geometry class."

Lanie's jaw dropped. "No way," she said.

"Yes, he was there," said Rachel. "He said he recognized me from the opening social, and I told him I was your roommate. He said he'd talked to you at the opening social."

"Yeah, we did talk," said Lanie. "Did he say what other classes he had?"

"No," Rachel answered. "But he did tell me he was gonna be the vice president of the school's board games club. And their first meeting's gonna be on Wednesday at lunch."

"Nice," said Lanie. "That should be fun."

Lanie and Rachel both got their lunches and went in search of somewhere to sit. Neither of them were sure where to go, until Lanie heard someone calling her name. "Lanie!" someone was saying.

Lanie turned and saw Diana sitting at a table with two of her friends. "Oh! Diana!"

Rachel looked confused. "You know her?" she asked.

"Yeah, she was in my First Period class," said Lanie.

"Want to sit with us?" Diana asked.

"Sure," said Lanie. She and Rachel both sat down at the table with Diana and her two friends.

"So what are your names?" Rachel asked.

"I'm Diana Jackson," said Diana. "This is Penelope Christensen."

Penelope smiled and waved. "Hi," she said. She had two flaming red pigtails and a low-cut T-shirt.

"And this is Nicole Collins."

Nicole was a dark-skinned girl with black hair and a leather jacket. "Hey," she said. "What are your guys' names?"

"I'm Lanie Evans," said Lanie.

"And I'm Rachel," said Rachel. "Rachel Miller."

Diana nodded. "It's nice to meet you," she said. "How long have you known each other?"

Lanie and Rachel looked at each other, unsure how to answer that question. "About a month," said Lanie.

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, we're both orphans," said Rachel. "I was at a foster home when Lanie was admitted to the foster home, and she became my bunkmate. Then there was some..."

"Shenanigans," Lanie said, her tone clear that she didn't want to go into detail about what happened. "Me and Rachel-and another younger girl-ended up going to Atlanta and having Mr. Ryan take us into his orphanage. I assume you know about the Orphanage For All Ages?"

"Oh yes," said Penelope. "I've met a lot of people here that live at that orphanage."

"That's where we're living now," said Lanie.

"You're lucky," said Nicole. "I've heard Mr. Ryan's a really nice guy."

"He is," said Rachel. "He got us new cell phones just yesterday."

"No way!" Diana exclaimed.

"Yeah, I know," said Rachel. "I wasn't sure if an orphanage like that would have the right budget to give its kids their own cell phones, but..."

"Well, the Orphanage For All Ages is supposed to be one of the better orphanages out there," said Penelope.

"Have you made any other friends there?" Diana asked.

"A couple, yeah," Lanie answered. "And there was an opening social where we met a few other kids Mr. Ryan knew."

"Really?"

"Yeah. There was this guy named Conner Hawkins-"

Diana's smile faded. "No," she said.

"What?"

Diana shook her head. "Conner's my ex," she said. "He is off-limits."

Lanie felt a stab of annoyance. "What do you mean, 'off-limits?'"

"Diana used to date him last year," Penelope explained, "But then Conner dumped her, and she's been sore over it ever since."

"We don't talk about Conner," Nicole sang.

Ignoring her, Diana looked Lanie and Rachel square in the eyes. "Listen," she said, "If I'm going to let you hang out with me, then you can't go mixing with my exes. Comprende?"

Lanie sighed. "Comprende," she said begrudgingly.

"Great!" said Diana. Just like that, her friendly smile was back again. "Anyway, how was your other class?"

"Oh...it was alright," said Lanie. "It was English, with Mr. Hayden."

"I have him for Fifth Period," said Diana.

"Nice."

Lanie, Rachel, Diana, Penelope, and Nicole continued to talk about their classes and their past school experiences for the rest of the lunch period, until the bell rang. When the bell did ring, it was time for everyone to go their separate ways. "Well, it was nice meeting you," said Diana.

"You too," said Lanie. "See you tomorrow."

***

Since Lanie and Rachel both had P. E. together, they both went to the gym right after lunch. There wasn't anything really major in P. E. that day-just a few laps of walking around the track. The coach didn't even have them change into their P. E. clothes. Since it was only the first day of school, there really wasn't anything big planned for class. So the kids just got to walk around the track and socialize to their hearts' content.

When the final bell rang, Lanie and Rachel both started making their way through the halls to the front of the school. As they went, they ended up running into Conner Hawkins. "Hi Lanie!" Conner said when he saw them. "Hey Rachel!"

"Oh...hi Conner," said Lanie. Ordinarily she would've been happy to see someone she kind of had a crush on, but after her conversation with Diana earlier, she couldn't get excited. She didn't want to risk losing a friend before they'd even established a relationship.

"Did Rachel tell you about our board game club?" Conner asked.

"Yeah."

"Are you gonna come?"

"I don't know...I mean, I'd like to, but..."

"Is something wrong?"

"Well...you know Diana Jackson?"

Conner frowned. "Yeah. Why, did you have a run-in with her?"

"She invited us to sit with her and her friends at lunch," Lanie explained. "They seemed pretty nice, but Diana said we couldn't hang out with you, or else she wouldn't let us hang out with her..."

"Oh, don't listen to her," Conner scoffed. "She's not worth it."

"She said you were dating her last year, and then you dumped her," said Rachel.

"Yeah, I did," said Conner. "I didn't like how chatty and gossipy she was, and she just didn't feel like the right girl for me. So I broke up with her."

"It sounded like she was still mad about that," said Lanie.

"Yeah, I wouldn't hang around people like her," said Conner. "If they try to control what you do, then they're not your real friends."

Lanie wasn't sure; Diana, Penelope, and Nicole had seemed pretty nice, aside from the no-hanging-out-with-Conner rule. But Conner did have a point. "You're right," she said. "I think I'll go to that board game club of yours on...Wednesday, right?"

"Right," said Conner. "See you then."

***

Angelina angrily paced her underground bunker. After Lanie, Rachel, and Jenny had escaped the Nashville location, Angelina had gone back to the original Washington D. C. location of Pretty And Pink Foster Care to meet with some of the other witches that were helping run the operation.

"So you had four of our girls break into the Nashville building's secret bunker," one of the witches, whose name was Anna, said. "And three of them escaped."

"Yes," said Angelina. "I've searched all throughout Nashville and the surrounding area, but I haven't found hide nor hair of them! And I can't let them keep running amok and risk them exposing us to the authorities!"

"Why don't you get in touch with the authorities to help them find those girls?" another witch named Elena asked.

"Because if the authorities started looking into what we're really doing, then we'd be done for," Angelina answered. "No, we'll have to do this on our own."

"But what of those girls?" Anna asked. "Rachel, and Jenny, and Lanie-they could be anywhere by now. I know you're especially obsessed with finding Lanie..."

"Yes," said Angelina. "And I will find her. She and her pathetic friends can run and hide all they want, but they can't escape for good-especially Lanie. She may not realize it now, but she has an important destiny..."

Chapter 11-How To Flirt With A Boy

When Wednesday came, Lanie and Rachel both went to the board game club Conner had told them about. It was held in Mrs. Lin's classroom, with about a dozen kids gathered to play board games. The president was a Senior boy named Justin Kathy.

"Good afternoon, guys," Justin said when everyone had gathered. "Welcome to the first meeting of the board game club. And, well...I don't think there's really much to say for our first meeting. We've got chess, checkers, Monopoly, and Scrabble."

Conner looked at Lanie and Rachel. "Either of you want to play checkers?" he asked.

"I'll do it," Lanie answered.

"Alright then," said Conner. "Black or red?"

"Red."

"Okay, I'll be black then."

Unfortunately, Lanie's skills at checkers were rustier than she realized. She only managed to capture two of Conner's black checkers while he got all of hers. "Guess I win," Conner said when he'd jumped the last of Lanie's red checkers.

"Guess so," said Lanie. "Want another round?"

"Maybe see if Rachel wants to..." Conner trailed off when he saw that Rachel was deep into a Monopoly game with three other kids. "Okay, never mind."

Lanie and Conner played a few more rounds of checkers, all of which Conner won. "Wow, Conner," Lanie said when Conner had beaten her for the fourth time in a row. "You're really good at checkers."

"Yeah, I've had a lot of practice," said Conner. "My brothers really like checkers, so I've played a lot of games with them."

"You have brothers?"

"Yep. Two of them, and they're both younger. I'm guessing you don't have any siblings."

"Nope. I don't think Rachel counts."

"Did you have any siblings before?" Conner asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Before you went to the Orphanage For All Ages. What was your family like then?"

"Well, it's...kind of complicated," said Lanie. "I was born in Nashville, and I grew up there with just my dad. My mom left us when I was little."

"Really?"

"Yeah. My dad was an alcoholic, and he'd always get drunk and abuse my mom and I. So that's why my mom left."

"Why didn't she take you with her?"

"I don't know," said Lanie. The truth was, she didn't have a lot of memories of her mother, considering she (or, since that was while she'd been Landon, he) was only five when she left. She did remember one time when she overheard her mom saying that she wished she'd had a daughter instead of a son, but that was it.

Conner shrugged. "Maybe she just wanted to start a new life," he said. "Leave her failed family behind her."

"Maybe," said Lanie. "But then about a month ago, my dad was having another drunk fit, and he...he ended up falling off the balcony and dying."

Conner's eyes widened. "Wow," he said. "That's horrible."

"Yeah." Lanie deliberately left out the part about her being Richard's killer. She still had the hots for Conner, and she did not want to risk putting him off. "Then I got admitted to a foster home-where I met Rachel-but she and I and another girl ended up leaving. Then we ended up here in Atlanta, where Mr. Ryan found us and admitted us to his orphanage."

"How'd you get all the way from Nashville to Atlanta?"

Lanie shuddered. "I don't want to talk about it," she said.

"Well, at least you're safe now," said Conner.

I hope, Lanie thought. "What about you?" she asked. "What's your family like?"

"Well, my parents are both working," Conner answered. "My dad's an attorney, and my mom works at the zoo. I've got a ten-year-old brother named Melvin, and a seven-year-old brother named Kevin."

"Nice," said Lanie. "Do you guys get along?"

"Generally, yeah," Conner answered. "But sometimes I mess with them just for fun."

"Really?"

"Yep. That's what big brothers are for, right?" Conner said with a smirk.

"I guess," said Lanie.

"Didn't you say you had another girl with you?"

"What?"

"When you left that first foster home. You mentioned another girl that came with you to Atlanta."

"Oh yeah. Her name's Jenny, and she's in middle school."

"Oh," said Conner. "How's it going for her?"

"I don't know," Lanie replied. "I haven't gotten to see her since school started."

"Well, hopefully it's all going well for her."

Since Lanie was getting tired of losing to Conner at checkers, she and him decided to watch Rachel's game on Monopoly for the rest of the lunch period. At first, Lanie just watched, but then she ended up joining Rachel in managing her money and property cards. Rachel came pretty close to getting $2000 and winning the game, but before she could pass Go, Justin spoke up again. "The bell's about to ring," he said, "So it's time to start putting the games away."

"Aw," Rachel fumed. "I was so close!"

"At least you tried," said Lanie.

"And you had fun," said Conner, "Right?"

"Yeah, it was fun," said Rachel.

"Even if you kept beating me at checkers," said Lanie.

Conner chuckled. "Well, it you want a rematch, you can come back on Friday."

"I think I will," said Lanie.

***

After school that day, Lanie went down to the orphanage's game room. Since Jenny was so into video games, Lanie had a feeling she'd be in there. And sure enough, there Jenny was, playing Rocket League just like always.

"Hey Jenny," said Lanie.

Jenny paused her game and looked up at Lanie. "Hi Lanie," she said.

"Hey, I haven't gotten to talk to you for a few days," said Lanie. "How's school going?"

"Not great," Jenny said miserably. "No one talks to me, and nobody lets me sit with them. It's like I don't fit in with anyone."

"I'm sorry," said Lanie. "Are you sure there's no one at school you can talk to? Your roommate Samantha-she goes to the same school as you, right?"

"Right," said Jenny. "But I don't have any classes with her."

"That's too bad," said Lanie. "But just so you know, I'm still here for you. And Rachel is, too, if you need to talk to us."

"Thanks, Lanie," said Jenny.

Chapter 12-In With The Cool Kids

For the next couple weeks, Lanie and Rachel continued to go to the board game club and hang out with Conner, Justin, and the other guys there. Outside of the club, Lanie practiced playing checkers at the orphanage with Rachel, Aaron, Trevor, and some of the other kids at the orphanage. It took some time, but she was able to improve. And it got to a point where one day, in the game club, Lanie actually beat Conner in a game of checkers. She felt proud of her victory-but she didn't let it cloud her feelings for Conner.

In spite of her feelings, Lanie wasn't sure she was ready to admit she had a crush on Conner. Right now, they were only on "just friends" terms, and she didn't want to risk damaging that by coming on too hard. But she should've realized she wasn't being too subtle with her flirting.

One Thursday morning, after Lanie had gotten out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her body, she walked past Rachel braiding her long black hair at the bathroom sink. "Hey Lanie," said Rachel.

"Yeah?"

"Could I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Do you like Conner?"

Lanie paused at these words. "Uh...yeah," she said. "He's a nice guy, and he's-"

"No, I mean, do you like him, like, have a crush on him."

"Uh..."

"It's okay if you do!" said Rachel. "I won't tell anyone."

"No, you're right," Lanie admitted. "I do like Conner."

"I knew it!"

"How'd you know?"

"I've seen the way you look at him," Rachel answered. "And when you're talking to him, you always seem to be smiling. And you willingly ditched Diana's clique so you could hang out with Conner at the board game club."

Lanie should've felt relieved that she didn't have to keep her secret bottled up inside her anymore, but instead she felt embarrassed. She wished she'd been a little more subtle about her feelings for Conner. "I guess I-"

"Don't be embarrassed," said Rachel. "I've had crushes on guys before."

"You have?"

"Yeah. You and I are girls now, so it's not gay if we like guys."

"Huh." Lanie hadn't even considered that it might be "gay" for a guy to turn into a girl and then feel romantic attraction to another guy. But she knew Rachel was right: she was a girl now, so it wasn't homosexual.

"Well, if you want to try asking him out-"

"Rachel, you just said I'm a girl now!" said Lanie. "I can't ask a guy out!"

"Before you came to Pretty And Pink, I had a roommate who asked a guy out," said Rachel. "And Ruth kicked her out for it, but it's not like you have to worry about that happening to you."

"I mean...I don't know if I feel comfortable about doing that," said Lanie. "I've been hoping he'd ask me out, but I don't know if he..." She trailed off as an idea formed in her mind. "Hey, you have Second Period with him, right?"

"Right."

"Maybe you could talk to him? See if he might be interested in dating me?"

"I can try," said Rachel.

"Great," said Lanie. "Thank you so much."

***

When Rachel got to Second Period Geometry that day, she immediately started looking for Conner. Sure enough, there he was-at his table in the middle of the room with his tablemates Hugo, Joey, and David. But the four boys were deep in conversation with one another, and there was just a minute and a half before the bell rang, so Rachel knew now wasn't the time.

Fortunately, the time came halfway through the class when Mrs. Kirkland called a ten-minute break. This was something almost every teacher at Eastside High did-give their classes short breaks in the middle of their two-hour classes. Rachel suspected that the teachers did that because they understood teenagers.

Right when the break started, Rachel went over to Conner's table. "Hey Conner," she said, "Could we talk for a minute?"

"Ooh," said Hugo. "I think she likes you."

"Shut up, Hugo," said Conner. "She's just a friend." He got up and went with Rachel over to her table. "What's going on?"

Rachel was prepared. She'd rehearsed this conversation in her head for all of First Period. "You know Lanie?"

"Yeah, I do."

"You don't like her, do you?"

Conner wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Well...she is a nice girl," he said. "And she's kind of pretty, too."

"So you do like her?"

"What-I mean, she's a friend," said Conner, "But I don't, like, want to date her or anything."

"She told me she kind of likes you."

Conner's jaw dropped. "What?"

"Like, she wants to be more than friends."

For a few seconds, Conner wasn't sure what to say. "Wow," he said. "That's...that's surprising."

"Well? You wouldn't date her, would you?"

"If she wanted to, well..." Conner sighed. "I guess maybe I kind of like her, too."

"Great!" said Rachel. "Lanie's been hoping you'll ask her out, so if you do, then I think she'll say yes."

"Awesome," said Conner. "I'll have to do that."

***

"You're kidding me? It was that easy?" Lanie asked.

"Yes," said Rachel. "He said he kind of had the hots for you, too, so he'd be down for a date."

Lanie squealed in delight. "Thank you, Rachel, thank you!" she said, hugging Rachel deeply. "I owe you big-time for this!"

Rachel smiled and hugged Lanie back. "It's okay," she said. "It really wasn't any trouble for me to talk to Conner on your behalf."

"How about we go get lunch together? How's that sound?"

"Sounds good."

Lanie and Rachel both went down the school hallway toward the cafeteria. But when they rounded a corner, they ran into the three people they'd been trying to avoid: Diana Jackson, Penelope Christensen, and Nicole Collins. "Uh-oh," said Lanie. She and Rachel started to turn away, but it was too late. The other three girls had already seen them.

"Lanie! Rachel! There you are!" said Diana.

"Oh, fuck..." Lanie muttered.

"Where have you been?" Diana asked. "Why haven't you been hanging out with us at lunch?"

Lanie and Rachel were both at a loss for words. Neither of them wanted to admit that they'd been hanging around Cooper Hawkins, but they didn't have any good excuses.

"It's none of your business what we do at lunch," Rachel forced out.

"You've been hanging out with Conner Hawkins, haven't you?" Penelope asked.

"How did you know?" Lanie blurted out.

"Because I heard from someone who knew Justin Kathy, who told him you guys have been going to the board game club," Penelope replied. "Which Conner's a part of."

Lanie sighed. "You're right," she said. "We have been going to the board game club. And we haven't sat at your guys' lunch table because Diana said she wouldn't let us sit with you if we hung around her exes, so..."

"Yeah, I guess I did say that," Diana said, though she sounded more disappointed than angry.

For a few seconds, there was a silence between the five girls. It was broken when Lanie said "But if you want us to sit at your table, then we can-"

"Actually, that's not the real reason we were looking for you," said Diana.

"Oh?"

"You see, we had tickets for an Olivia Rodrigo concert tonight-me and Penelope and Nicole-and my cousins were supposed to go, but they had something come up at the last minute. So we thought maybe we could invite you guys to come with us?"

"Of course!" Rachel exclaimed. "I love Olivia Rodrigo!"

Diana nodded. "And you, Lanie?"

Lanie shrugged. "I guess," she said, "If you're offering."

"Great," said Diana. "The concert's at 7:00 tonight, so I'll come pick you up at 6:30."

"What-you have your own car?"

"Yes, I do," said Diana. "We'll get Penelope and Nicole, then go to the concert. How does that sound?"

"That sounds great," said Rachel.

"Alright," said Diana. "See you at 6:30."

***

It took Lanie half an hour to find the right clothes to wear to the Olivia Rodrigo concert. She thought it would be easy to pick out the right outfit, but then Lanie realized all she had were jeans, T-shirts, a couple long-sleeve shirts, and a jacket. Not a whole lot of options, which now seemed like a pretty serious flaw in her wardrobe. With help from Rachel, Lanie managed to settle on her nicest pair of jeans and the best shirt she could find. But she made a mental note to go shopping for some better clothes when she had the chance.

Diana showed up at the front of the orphanage at 6:30 in her gray Hyundai Sonata. She watched as Lanie and Rachel both came out and got in the backseat of her sedan. "Hi guys," said Diana. She was wearing a leather jacket and thick, dark blue jeans with her hair tied back in a ponytail. "You look nice."

"You look pretty good yourself," said Lanie.

"Thanks," said Diana.

After they'd picked up Penelope and Nicole, they drove to the big theater where the Olivia Rodrigo concert was being held. After parking the car, the five of them got in line to enter the theater.

"You guys excited?" Diana asked as they were waiting in line.

"Of course!" Rachel answered. "Olivia Rodrigo's, like, my favorite singer ever!"

"What about you?" Nicole asked Lanie.

"Yeah, I'm excited," said Lanie. The truth was, she'd never been much of an Olivia Rodrigo fan. Even though she liked her music fine enough, she'd never been the type to obsess over celebrities and track every move of their careers. But the prospect of going to a theater that had a big stage with huge speakers and lights and a real, actual singer performing songs live without any lip-syncing or anything was pretty exciting in and of itself.

The girls entered the theater right as Olivia Rodrigo was coming onto the stage and starting to belt out "good 4 u." Diana and Rachel cheered with the rest of the crowd and even sang along when Olivia Rodrigo got to the chorus. At first, Lanie wasn't really doing anything, but after a couple songs, she started to get into the groove of things. She started cheering and chanting with the rest of her friends, watching as Olivia Rodrigo danced and sang about the stage. The combined experience of seeing an artist perform their songs live, being in the theater with a legion of fans, and sharing in the fun with everybody present, was better than anything Lanie had experienced in her life. She was too overjoyed, too exhilarated to think about anything else besides the concert-not even Angelina.

The last song Olivia Rodrigo performed was "driver's license." At the end of the song, she thanked everybody for coming to the concert and wished them a good night, to which everybody cheered. And Lanie had to admit, she felt kind of sad to see Olivia Rodrigo walk off the stage and out of sight. It meant that the night-this phenomenal night-was coming to an end.

"Wow," Rachel said as they left the theater. All of the girls were exhilarated by the experience of the concert, but especially Rachel. "That was amazing!"

"I know!" said Diana. "I've been wanting to see Olivia Rodrigo perform live for, like, a year!"

"I just wish there was a meet-and-greet," said Rachel. "Then I could get her autograph."

"Maybe someday," said Nicole.

"But this was still really awesome," said Lanie.

"Oh yeah," Diana agreed. "Are you glad you came?"

"Of course!" Lanie answered. "I've never been to an actual concert before!"

"Well, there's a first time for everything," said Diana.

***

Diana took Penelope and Nicole home before dropping off Lanie and Rachel. When she pulled up in front of the Orphanage For All Ages, she paused before unlocking the car doors. "Guys, before you go, there's something I want to say to you," Diana said.

"What is it?"

Diana took a deep breath before saying "I'm sorry for saying you couldn't hang out with me if you hung out with Conner."

"Oh...that's okay," said Lanie.

"I was still feeling bitter about Conner breaking up with me," Diana went on, "I was just so mad, I didn't even want my friends getting involved with him. But then when I talked to you guys earlier today, I realized I'd kind of pushed you away..."

"It's alright," said Lanie. "If Conner dumped me, I'd probably be pretty sour, too."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Lanie hesitated before saying "I kind of have a crush on Conner."

"Oh, you do?" Diana asked in surprise.

"Yes."

"And I helped set them up earlier today," said Rachel.

"Wow!" said Diana. "Well, if you want to try dating Conner, then...go ahead!"

"What?"

"Yeah. You never know, it might work out between you!"

"Thank you," said Lanie. "And thanks for the concert, too."

"Anytime," said Diana. "Now you guys have a good night."

"You too."

Chapter 13-The Date

The next day was Friday. Lanie went to her Fourth and Fifth Period classes with Rachel, then went to Mrs. Lin's classroom for the board game club. Lanie was eager to see Conner, since she knew Rachel had let it slip to him that she wanted to date him. But as it turned out, she and Rachel got to the classroom early. The only other person there was Justin.

"Hey guys," Justin said when he saw Lanie and Rachel. "You're a little earlier than usual."

Lanie shrugged. "The early bird gets the worm," she said.

Right then, Conner came into the room. "Hi Lanie," he said.

Lanie's heart leapt with excitement. "Hi Conner!" she said with a smile.

Conner smiled back. "I heard you were interested in me," he said.

"Oh, really?" Lanie asked, though she knew perfectly well who had told Conner.

"Yeah," said Conner. "You want to go on a date, don't you?"

"Yes, of course!"

"How about tomorrow?" Conner asked. "Want to meet up at the mall and get dinner at Starbucks?"

"That sounds good," said Lanie.

"Do you need a ride there, or-"

"Yeah, probably," said Lanie. "I don't have a car or a bike or anything."

"I can probably get my dad to drive us," said Conner. "But I warn you, he can be kind of embarrassing."

"That's okay," said Lanie. "I think I can tolerate it."

***

After the board game club's meeting, Lanie and Rachel left Mrs. Lin's classroom to go to their Sixth Period classes. But on their way out, they ran into Diana, Penelope, and Nicole again. "Hey guys!" Diana said when she saw Lanie and Rachel.

"Hi Diana!" said Lanie.

"Did you guys dream of Olivia Rodrigo last night?" Diana asked with a smirk.

"Oh, I did," said Rachel.

"I'll bet."

"You want to go to the mall with us tomorrow?" Diana asked. "We're all gonna go shopping, and Penelope's gonna meet her boyfriend, and-"

"Oh, I've actually got a date at the mall tomorrow," said Lanie. "With Conner Hawkins."

"No way!" Nicole exclaimed. "He already asked you out?"

"Yes, he did. And I said yes."

"That's great!" said Diana. "What time are you going to the mall with him tomorrow?"

"Probably around 5:00. We're gonna get dinner at Starbucks."

"We can probably make that work," said Diana. "You can go shopping with the rest of us in the afternoon, then meet Conner for dinner."

Lanie thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah," she said. "That sounds good."

"Alright then," said Diana. "Let's plan on it."

***

The next day, Diana, Penelope, and Nicole all came to the Orphanage For All Ages to pick up Lanie and Rachel. The five girls then drove to the mall and started browsing. Diana and Penelope wanted to go to the bath and body wash store, so they started there. After getting some bath salts, the group then went to the makeup place. It wasn't until that moment that Lanie realized she hadn't really done makeup yet. Rachel had helped her figure out some basic hairstyling, but she hadn't tried using lipstick or mascara or anything like that. Lanie decided to get a lipstick tube for herself to try and figure out later.

But it wasn't until they went clothes shopping that Lanie really started to get "out there." She, Rachel, Diana, Penelope, and Nicole looked through racks of shirts, pants, and blouses to find something that they thought would look good on them. After some browsing, Lanie came across a nice-looking electric blue tank top. "Whoa," Penelope said when she saw the tank top Lanie was looking at. "That shirt looks really good."

"You think?"

"Yeah. You should try it on."

Lanie felt some of her early anxiety at being a girl rearing its head again. When Ruth had turned her into a girl, she'd felt overwhelmed with all the girly stuff she would have to adjust to. Clothes shopping with Ruth was especially uncomfortable, since she wasn't quite ready for the really girly clothes. Even now, she was hesitant about trying on a tank top. Wearing a bikini when swimming was one thing, but wearing revealing clothes in public places...

No. It was okay. Those awkward days were over. Lanie was hanging out with her girl friends now, so she had to be girly. "Alright, I'll try it," said Lanie. She took the tank top and went back into the changing room with her friends at her side. She changed into the blue tank top and came out for her friends to see.

"Whoa!" Rachel said when she saw Lanie in the tank top. "You look sexy!"

Lanie looked at herself in the mirror. The tank top's straps barely even covered her bra strips, and the neck was so low you could see her boobs. But somehow, that made it look even better. "Yeah," she said. "This thing looks really cool!"

"Want to try some more?" Diana asked.

"Sure!"

Lanie tried on some more tank tops, all of which felt just as good to wear as the first. She even tried on a couple skirts-which, to her surprise, felt great! When it came down to it, the skirts were just circles of fabric that wrapped around her pelvic area and his her panties. But, again, that was somehow what made them feel so good. They felt so unique, so stylish, so...girly.

In the end, Lanie ended up buying three tank tops and two skirts. She waited for everyone else to finish their shopping before they all left the clothing store. "You like those clothes you bought?" Rachel asked Lanie just out of earshot of the other girls.

"Of course!" said Lanie. "I can't believe I haven't tried out clothes like these before!"

"So where next?" Nicole asked.

"We've gotta meet my boyfriend," said Penelope. "He said he'd wait for me at Bluey's."

"Then let's go there," said Diana.

Lanie started to follow the rest of the girls, but she faltered when she remembered she was on her period. "You guys go ahead," she said. "I've gotta go to the bathroom."

"Alright," said Diana. "Don't take too long."

Lanie turned and went into the women's bathroom at the end of the hall. She locked herself in a stall, pulled her pants down, and sat on the toilet. This was the second period she'd experienced, and it had started just an hour before Diana came to pick her and Rachel up. For her first period, she'd only used pads, but when her second period started, she'd tried out a tampon to Rachel's suggestion. Now it was time to change her tampon. Lanie took the string and pulled the now-red tampon out of her vagina. Then she got a fresh tampon out of her bag.

Okay, Lanie thought to herself. Just relax and remember what Rachel showed you. She spread her vagina's "lips" apart and held the tampon applicator up to it. She pushed on the smaller tube and inserted the tampon into her vagina. With a little adjustment, she managed to settle it in there. Lanie let out a sigh of relief. She'd actually managed to do it! She'd successfully inserted a tampon by herself, with nobody's help!

Once Lanie had washed her hands, she left the bathroom and went out to Bluey's where she knew the other girls would be. But when she got there, she saw a horrible sight. Penelope was sitting at a table, crying her eyes out with Diana, Nicole, and Rachel standing around trying to comfort her.

"What happened?" Lanie asked. "Where's Penelope's boyfriend?"

"He told her he was breaking up with her," Diana answered.

"He's a jerk!" Penelope sobbed. "He-he told me he loved me, but then he told me he didn't want me around anymore. He..." Penelope couldn't talk anymore. She just broke down into a sobbing fit.

"I'm sorry," said Rachel. "That must really suck, having your boyfriend kick you to the curb like that."

Diana nodded, though she didn't say anything. She didn't want her history with Conner to ruin Lanie's date plans.

Nicole went up and bought an order of Bluey's Fries to try and cheer Penelope up, but it didn't have much effect. Penelope was just too upset at having her boyfriend break up with her. "Penelope," Diana said gently, "Do you want to leave now?"

Through her tears, Penelope nodded. "Yes, p-please," she said.

"But what about Lanie?" Rachel asked. "She still has to meet Conner in an hour."

"It's okay," said Lanie. "I can wait here by myself."

"You sure?"

"Of course." She wasn't really sure she could keep herself entertained, but she didn't want to complicate things for her friends.

"I'm guessing Conner's gonna give you a ride home?" Diana asked.

"His dad is, yes," said Lanie.

"Okay," said Diana.

"Have fun!" said Rachel.

"I will," said Lanie.

***

After the other girls left, Lanie spent the next hour walking about the mall. She went to the Disney store and the Apple store to look around, though she didn't buy anything. When the time was 4:45, Lanie knew it was almost time. She ducked into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Yes, she looked good. Her hair wasn't too messy, and her face was pretty clean. But she still felt she had to look her best. She took a damp paper towel and wiped down her face, making it look nice and shiny, and made sure her teeth were pearly white. Once she was satisfied with her reflection in the mirror, Lanie left and went down to the mall's Starbucks.

To her delight, Conner was there waiting for her, clad in a green polo shirt and navy blue pants. "Hey Lanie," said Conner.

"Hi Conner!" Lanie said with a smile.

"You ready to get some dinner?"

"Sure!"

Lanie and Conner got in the Starbucks line and waited for a few minutes. While they waited, Lanie looked at the menu and decided she wanted an English muffin sandwich and a cup of hot chocolate. "Where's your dad?" she asked Conner.

"He went to the furniture place," Conner answered. "He's gonna poke around there while you and I hang out here."

"Nice," said Lanie. She felt relieved-not because she didn't want to meet Conner's dad, but because she would've preferred some time with just herself and Conner. No friends, no parents-no one there to awkwardly listen in on everything they talked about. Just Lanie and her new boyfriend.

When they got to the front of the line, they met the barista working the cashier. He looked old enough to be in grad school, with messy blonde hair, uneven stubble, and a piercing in his right ear. His name tag read "Bryce."

"Hey guys..." Bryce trailed off when he saw and recognized Conner. "Hey, Conner!"

"Hey Bryce," said Conner. "Long time no see."

Bryce looked at Lanie. "Well," he said, "You've got a cute girl."

"This is Lanie," said Conner. "I know her from school."

"I take it you know this guy?" Lanie asked.

"Yeah," said Conner. "This is Bryce. He and I go to the same church."

"I dropped out of college a year and a half ago," said Bryce. "Now I'm working here and trying to figure out a career path for myself."

"Nice," said Lanie.

"What can I get for you today?" Bryce asked.

"I'll get a hot chocolate and a scone," said Conner. "And you, Lanie?"

"I'll have hot chocolate too," said Lanie. "And a breakfast sandwich."

Bryce rang them up and said "That'll be $22."

Conner produced a handful of dollar bills from his wallet and paid for their food. "Here you go," he said.

"Thanks," said Bryce. "We'll get right to it."

Lanie and Conner took a seat near the back of Starbucks. "So how'd your shopping trip go?" Conner asked. "You said you'd be going shopping with Rachel and Diana before you met me here."

"I did," said Lanie, "But they all ended up going home early."

"Why?"

"Penelope met up with her boyfriend, and he gave her a breakup talk, and she was really upset. We didn't want that to ruin the rest of the day for us, so the others went home while I waited here for you."

Conner nodded slowly. "That sucks," he said. "I heard Diana was really mad at me when I broke up with her."

"That's what it sounded like to me too," said Lanie. "But I guess she had a change of heart about letting me date you."

"That's good," said Conner. "I'm glad we can all put that drama behind us."

"Conner!" Bryce called from the counter. "You order's ready!"

"I'll be right back," said Conner. He went off to get his and Lanie's orders, then came back with his scone, Lanie's breakfast sandwich, and the two cups of hot chocolate.

"Thank you so much," Lanie said as she took a bite of her breakfast sandwich.

Conner took a swig of his hot chocolate before saying "So what else is new?"

"Not much," said Lanie. "You know my friend Jenny-she's not doing so well at her school."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. She's getting bullied a lot by her classmates."

"Ooh," said Conner. "That's rough."

"It is," said Lanie. "I don't think Jenny's adjusting to Atlanta well. Me and Rachel are adjusting well, but Jenny isn't."

"Didn't you say the three of you were from Nashville?"

"Yeah. We met at a foster home there, but then...well..."

Conner looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping, then craned in closer to Lanie. "Lanie, I have a feeling there's something else you're not telling me," he said. "About your old foster home."

"Well..." Lanie didn't know how to answer that. She wasn't sure if Conner would believe her secret, but if she was gonna be dating him, then he had a right to know...didn't he?

"This is going to sound really crazy," Lanie warned.

"How crazy?"

Lanie took a deep breath before saying "I used to be a boy."

For a few seconds, Conner just sat there, not sure what to make of Lanie's words. "What do you mean, you used to be a boy?" he said. "Are you trans?"

"No, I'm not trans," said Lanie. "Well, I mean, I guess I kind of am, since I basically had to transition to being a girl, but-"

"What are you talking about? Are you trans or not?"

"Like I said, it's gonna sound really crazy," said Lanie. She told Conner the whole story-how she was once Landon, his fight with his father Richard, Ruth finding him and taking him in, Landon's metamorphosis into Lanie, the Pretty And Pink foster home, meeting Rachel, Melody, and her other roommates, Jenny's arrival, the revelation that Pretty And Pink wasn't what it initially seemed, the fight with Angelina and Ruth, her, Rachel's, and Jenny's escape, and their arrival in Atlanta.

By the time Lanie finished her story, Conner was staring at her incredulously. "So you were turned into a girl by evil witches who hate men," he said.

"Yep."

"And those witches are looking for you."

"Yes-well, I think so," said Lanie. "Me and Rachel and Jenny haven't even heard from Angelina since we escaped Nashville, but somehow I don't think she'd just let us run amok."

"I...I can't believe you used to be a boy," said Conner. "You're just so...girly!"

"You really thought I was always a girl?"

"Yeah. You've never seemed tomboyish or anything like that. Everything you've said, and done-it just gives me the vibe of a normal girl."

Wow. Lanie must've settled into "girliness" even earlier and better than she thought. "Well, I'm glad you think that," she said.

"Are you still worried?" Conner asked. "That this Angelina lady might come back and try to...I don't know, kill you?"

"I think we all are," Lanie answered. "But it's been weeks and we haven't seen any sign of Angelina hunting us down, so...I just don't know."

"Well, hopefully you stay hidden for good," said Conner.

There was a short pause where neither of them spoke, and both Conner and Lanie took the chance to drink more of their hot chocolate. After a minute, Lanie asked "You're not gonna break up with me, are you?"

"What?"

"Well...do you not want to date me anymore? Now you know who I really am, and..."

"No, it's okay," said Conner. "You're a beautiful girl, Lanie. You're really smart, and fun, and easy to talk to. I don't know if you like being a girl, but I like you."

Lanie felt relieved. "Thank you, Conner," she said. "I'm glad you like me too."

A few minutes later, Conner's dad came into Starbucks. "Hey guys," he said. "How's your date going?"

"It's going great," Conner answered.

Lanie looked Conner's dad up and down. "You must be Mr. Hawkins," she said.

"Yep, I am," Conner's dad replied. He grinned at Lanie, then turned to Conner and said "What a cute girl, Conner. Well done."

"Dad," said Conner. He sounded a little embarrassed, but Lanie took their exchange as a compliment. Even Conner's father approved of her.

"Are you guys ready to go?"

"Are you ready, Lanie?"

Lanie nodded. "Yes," she said.

"Then let's go."

***

Conner's dad drove back to the Orphanage For All Ages and parked right in front of the building's front doors. Conner got out of the car and escorted Lanie to the front doors. "Well, thanks for the fun date," said Lanie.

"You're welcome," said Conner. "Want to do it again sometime?"

"Of course," Lanie answered. "I'll see you soon." She gave Conner one last hug before entering the orphanage. She went up the flights of stairs until she got to the girls' floor.

When Lanie came to her dorm, she opened the door to find Rachel changing into her pajamas. "Hi Lanie!" said Rachel. "How was your date?"

"It was great," Lanie answered. "Conner said he'd be willing to do it again soon."

"Wow!" said Rachel. She high-fived Lanie and said "You've officially got a boyfriend!"

"Yeah," Lanie said, grinning. "But I also told him the truth."

"What truth?"

"You know. That we used to be boys."

Rachel's smile faded. "You...told him?"

"Yeah. He seemed kind of suspicious that there was something I wasn't telling him, so I opened up and told him the truth about where you and I came from."

"Oh..."

"Sorry," said Lanie. "I guess I should've-"

"No, it's okay," said Rachel. "We probably needed to confide in someone besides each other."

"And I told him about Angelina, too. And how she was looking for us."

"Oh, that reminds me," said Rachel. "I looked up Pretty And Pink Foster Care earlier, and it looks like they're still operating."

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah. They're still taking in homeless girls and giving them a home."

"You mean homeless boys."

"The Internet doesn't know that."

Lanie shook her head. "This is horrible," she said. "Everything we did...it was for nothing."

"What do you mean? All we did was discover Angelina's true intentions and then escape with our lives."

"I guess."

"But you'll never believe this. The Nashville location shut down."

"What?"

"Yeah. There was a news article about a 'security breach' at Pretty And Pink's Nashville building, so they decided to shut it down and transfer the girls there to the Philadelphia and Washington D. C. locations."

"Wow," said Lanie. "You don't think that 'security breach' had anything to do with us?"

"The news article was dated two days after we escaped," said Rachel, "So I think it does."

In spite of herself, Lanie felt a rush of pride. "So that's one step in foiling Angelina's plans," she said. "We got one of her locations shut down."

"I know," said Rachel. "But there's still two more Pretty And Pink locations. And Angelina's a witch, so..."

"Yeah," Lanie sighed. "But at least Conner's in the know. I don't know if he'd be able to help us, but..."

"It's something," Rachel agreed. "Look, I'm feeling pretty tired now, so I'm gonna go to bed a little early tonight."

"Me too," said Lanie. "It's been quite a day."

A few minutes later, Lanie and Rachel were all ready for bed. They shut off the lights and got under their covers. But after fifteen minutes of lying in bed, Rachel spoke up. "Lanie?" she asked. "Are you still awake?"

"Yeah," Lanie answered. "What is it?"

Rachel hesitated. "I know Angelina's a witch and everything," she said, "But what if she's right?"

"Right about what?"

"Remember what she said, about how she wanted to turn all the world's men into women? What if she's right about that? What if that really would be better?"

"How would that be better?"

"Well, Angelina kind of had a point," said Rachel. "A lot of men do cheat, steal, and abuse their families. And they disrespect women, too."

"I mean...I know my dad was abusive, but-"

"And everyone at Pretty And Pink-you, and me, and Melody, and Taylor, and Alexis-we all adjusted pretty well to being girls, didn't we? I'm sure a lot of us were uncomfortable at first, but we all grew to like being female."

Lanie wasn't sure what to say to that. Rachel was right: Lanie had come to like being a girl. Everything about being female-the different clothes, being part of school cliques, flirting with boys...all of it felt right to Lanie. If anything, being a girl felt better for her than being a boy. But all the same...

"Pretty And Pink did turn out to all be a front though, didn't it?" said Lanie. "And pretty much all of the boys Angelina lured into her trap-they didn't want to be turned into girls."

"No, but still."

"Besides, Angelina tried to murder us. And she successfully killed Melody."

"You're right," Rachel admitted. After a moment's pause, she said "You won't tell anyone I said that, will you? Not Jenny, or Conner? Or Taylor or Alexis, if we ever see them again?"

"I won't," Lanie promised. But for a little while after that, she lay in bed awake, thinking, What if the Devil Woman was right?

Chapter 14-The Loss

From that point on, it seemed like all anyone could talk about at school was the fact that Conner Hawkins was now dating that girl Lanie Evans, who'd just came in out of nowhere and surprised everyone with her charm and her good looks. Heads in the hallways turned whenever they saw Conner and Lanie walking together. Both Conner and Lanie loved the attention and soaked it in. Neither of them had been particularly famous at school before, so it felt great to be treated like celebrities. Lanie had thought getting to hang out with Diana's clique felt great, but it was nothing compared to having a boyfriend. It was as if nothing could go wrong for her anymore.

Naturally, that meant something would end up going wrong for Lanie. It happened on Friday evening, just shy of a week after her first date with Conner. She was walking home from Conner's house, where she'd gone to have dinner and get to know the rest of his family. Conner's mom, and his two little brothers, and their cute little Chihuahua had all loved Lanie. They found Lanie to be very sweet and likeable. In turn, Lanie took great joy in meeting Conner's family. They were very hospitable to her, and they made a really tasty dinner of pasta and vegetables. It had been a great evening for Lanie, but it was about to get ruined big-time.

Lanie entered the Orphanage For All Ages and ran into Jenny in the foyer. "Hey Lanie," said Jenny. "Where have you been?"

"At Conner Hawkins' house," Lanie answered. "His family wanted to meet me, so I went over for dinner."

"That's great," said Jenny. "Where's Rachel?"

"I think she's still here. Why..." Lanie trailed off when she noticed that Jenny's eyes were red-rimmed, and there were tear marks on her cheeks. She'd just been crying.

"I need to talk to you and Rachel," said Jenny. "Somewhere private."

Lanie sensed there was trouble afoot. "Of course," she said. "Let's go up to our bedroom."

Lanie took Jenny upstairs to her and Rachel's bedroom. There, they found Rachel lying on her bed reading a book. "Hi Lanie!" said Rachel. "How was dinner with the Hawkinses?"

"It was great," said Lanie. "But Jenny said she needs to talk to us."

Rachel's smile faded when she saw how miserable Jenny was. "What's wrong?" she asked. "More trouble at school?"

Jenny nodded. "It's getting worse," she said. "You know that boy I told you about, Ben Snipes-he beat me up today at lunch. He called me bad names, and he...and he..."

"He did what?"

"He said no one would notice if I just disappeared tomorrow."

Lanie was dumbstruck. "That's horrible," she said.

"Have you talked to any teachers about this?" Rachel asked.

"I did," Jenny answered, "But then Ben Snipes called me a snitch."

"I've got to tell you, Jenny, I don't think you should keep going to that middle school," said Lanie. "You should talk to Mr. Ryan about transferring to another school."

"I can't," said Jenny. "Even if I did find some other middle school, it wouldn't be any different."

"You don't know that!" said Rachel.

"Yes I do! I just..." Jenny started to cry again. "I didn't ask for any of this! I didn't want my family to be killed, or Angelina to turn me into a girl, or to be ran out of Nashville, or..."

"Neither did we," said Lanie. "But just because it looks bad now, doesn't mean it'll be this way forever. If you give it time, then things might get better."

"No, it won't," Jenny sobbed. "Lanie, Rachel...you guys are amazing. You've been really nice to me, and really brave, and...I'm so glad you tried to help me. But I just don't think there's anything else I can do."

"Yes you can," said Rachel. "You just have to..."

"Goodbye, guys," said Jenny. And then she turned and left the room.

Rachel looked at Lanie for support. "What did I do?" she asked.

"Nothing," said Lanie. She looked at the dorm's door where Jenny had gone. She was getting a bad feeling. "Come on," she said.

Lanie and Rachel went out into the hallway and looked for Jenny. "There she is!" Rachel said, pointing. Lanie and Rachel took off down the hall after Jenny.

"Jenny, wait!" Lanie called. "Where are you going?"

Jenny ignored Lanie. She came to the building's ladder onto the roof at started climbing.

"What's she doing?" Rachel asked. "Is she going on the roof..."

Lanie and Rachel both froze in their tracks when they realized what Jenny was really doing. "NO!" Lanie cried. She and Rachel took off at a run for the ladder, where Jenny had already reached the top. "JENNY, NO!"

"I'm sorry," said Jenny. "I have no choice." She climbed up through the roof's trapdoor and onto the roof itself. She climbed up onto the edge of the roof and looked down below her. It was quite the sight to see-the street below her and the buildings and city blocks that went out as far as the eye could see. Jenny would never have thought this would be the last thing she ever saw, but it would have to suffice.

"Jenny, no, don't!" Lanie said as she scrambled up through the trapdoor and onto the roof. "Get down from there!"

Jenny turned to take one last look at Lanie and Rachel (who was just poking her head out the trapdoor). "Goodbye, friends," she said. And with that, Jenny jumped off the edge of the building.

Lanie's heart stopped. She'd done it! Jenny had actually jumped off the roof of the building! Lanie ran up to the edge and looked down below. She saw Jenny land hard onto the sidewalk below with a sickening crack! "Oh, shit..."

"She actually jumped," said Rachel.

"Get Mr. Ryan!" said Lanie. "We've gotta call 911!"

Lanie and Rachel rushed downstairs to the front office. "Mr. Ryan!" they said when they burst through the door. "Mr. Ryan, there's a-"

"Whoa, calm down!" Mr. Ryan said when he saw the two girls who'd barged into his office. "What's going on?"

"Jenny just jumped off the roof," said Lanie.

Mr. Ryan's eyes widened. "She jumped off the roof?"

"Yes! She landed on the sidewalk in front of the building!"

"Where'd she land?"

"Come on, we'll show you," said Lanie. She and Rachel took Mr. Ryan outside to where Jenny had landed spread-eagled. "See, there she is!"

Mr. Ryan ran up to Jenny, rolled her onto her back, and started performing CPR on her. "Come on, Jenny," he said. "Stay with us, please."

"Here, I'll call 911," said Rachel. She got out her phone and dialed the emergency hotline. "Hello...yes, we've got a girl who just jumped off a building...Orphanage For All Ages. It's an emergency. Yes, thank you so much." She hung up her phone and said "They're coming."

It only took ten minutes for the ambulance to show up, but it felt like much longer. Lanie and Rachel both watched tensely as Mr. Ryan kept trying to get Jenny's heart beating again and resuscitate her, but to no avail. When the ambulance and the EMT people did come, Mr. Ryan stepped aside to let them put Jenny onto a stretcher and load her into the ambulance.

"Will she be okay?" Lanie asked.

"I don't know," Mr. Ryan answered. "I don't know."

***

Lanie and Rachel stayed up for several hours waiting for an update from the hospital. They waited right outside Mr. Ryan's office, since they knew he'd be the one to get a call from the hospital.

The call finally came at 11:30. Lanie and Rachel listened in as hard as they could, but all they heard was indiscriminate conversation from inside the office. After a few minutes, Mr. Ryan came out with a solemn expression. "Well?" Lanie asked. "Is Jenny okay?"

Mr. Ryan shook his head. "I'm afraid not," he answered. "Jenny broke every bone in her body. She was pronounced dead just twenty minutes ago."

Lanie's heart sank. "I don't believe it," she said.

"Do either of you know?" Mr. Ryan asked. "What drove her to do this terrible thing?"

"Yes," Rachel answered. "Did she tell you about that boy Ben Snipes at her school?"

"Yes, she did," said Mr. Ryan. "I don't like that boy...what did he do?"

"He told Jenny no one would care if she was gone," said Rachel. "And that was the last straw. That was what made her want to kill herself."

"We tried to stop her," said Lanie. "But she wouldn't listen. She just went up to the roof and jumped off."

Mr. Ryan sighed. "Well, you did what you could," he said.

"What now?" Rachel asked. "Are we gonna have a funeral for her?"

"I'm afraid so," said Mr. Ryan.

***

The funeral service was held the very next day. It didn't take very long to arrange, since it was a small gathering of people who'd known Jenny. Mr. Ryan, Mrs. Sierra, and some of the other orphanage staff members were there, as were a couple of Jenny's teachers from school. Various kids from the orphanage were there, such as Aaron, Trevor, and Brianna. And, of course, Lanie and Rachel were there, too. They both helped carry Jenny's casket and watched as it was lowered into its grave in the cemetery.

Even after the rest of the funeral guests had gone, Lanie and Rachel stayed in the cemetery looking down on Jenny's grave. "I'm so sorry, Jenny," Lanie said, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I should never have dragged you into this. I...I shouldn't have made you come down into the Pretty And Pink bunker with me."

"It's not your fault," said Rachel. "It was Jenny's choice to commit suicide."

"I know," Lanie admitted. She turned to Rachel and said "We have to stop her."

"Who?"

"Angelina. All of this, everything that's happened-it can all be traced back to her. She turned us all into girls and set up that fake foster home. And she sent us into exile when we found out what she was really doing."

Rachel nodded slowly. "Yes," she said. "We'll find Angelina. And we'll make her pay for what she's done."

***

Angelina lay in her lounge chair at the Washington D. C. establishment of Pretty And Pink Foster Care-the original place where the organization had been founded. Her assistant Bea was hard at work, manicuring Angelina's feet while Angelina read a fashion magazine. It was one of Angelina's favorite activities-just hanging out and chilling while her non-witch servant worked for her.

"Angelina!" a voice called. Angelina looked up to see her fellow witch Anna coming into the room, followed by the other Pretty And Pink witch Elena. "We have some great news!"

"What news?" Angelina asked.

"We found this news article," said Anna. She opened something on her phone and handed it to Angelina. Angelina saw the headline "Orphan Girl Commits Suicide" and read the article with intrigue. The article told the story of a girl named Jenny Nunez who'd been living in the Orphanage For All Ages in Atlanta, Georgia and experienced bullying at school. It had all come to a head the night before when she went onto the top of her orphanage and jumped off in a successful suicide attempt.

"Wait a minute," said Angelina. "Jenny Nunez...that's the same girl we admitted to our Nashville location right before Lanie and her roommates went poking around in our bunker."

"Yes," said Elena. "And wait till you see who's in the article's picture."

Angelina scrolled back up to the top of the article, where it had a picture of a broken Jenny Nunez being loaded into the back of an ambulance. In the background of the picture, there were two teenage girls watching alongside the orphanage's owner. Angelina looked closer and saw that those girls were...could it be? Lanie Evans and Rachel Miller? The other two girls Angelina, Anna, and Elena had been spent the last several weeks looking for?

"This is it," Angelina said triumphantly. "We've found them."

"I knew we'd find them eventually," said Elena.

"Bea!" Angelina ordered. "Prepare my car. We've got to pay a visit to Atlanta, Georgia."

"Yes, my lady," Bea said reluctantly.

Angelina grinned wickedly. Those foolish girls, she thought. They thought they could hide from her, but they were wrong. Angelina would now get her hands on Lanie, and it would be game over.

Chapter 15-Kidnapped

The next day was Sunday. Lanie slept in late that morning, but when she woke up, she decided to just go ahead and take a shower. While she was soaping down, she heard Rachel come into the bathroom.

"Hey Lanie!" said Rachel. "Conner's here!"

"Oh, shit," said Lanie. "Tell him I'll be out in just a minute!"

"Okay."

Lanie finished showering as quickly as she could, then dried herself off and brushed her teeth and did all that other bathroom stuff. Then she threw on a bra, a pair of panties, a black skirt, and a dark red shirt. Once she was dressed, she opened her dorm's door to greet Conner. "Hey Conner," she said.

"Hi Lanie," said Conner. "Sorry I kind of came at a bad time-"

"No, it's okay," said Lanie.

"Want to go for a little walk in the park?"

"Sure."

"Rachel, you want to come too?" Conner asked.

"No thanks," Rachel answered. "I've got some homework to do right now."

"Alright," said Conner. "I guess we'll see you later."

***

Lanie went with Conner to the park just a couple blocks away from the orphanage. As they walked, they talked. "I heard about Jenny," said Conner. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay," Lanie replied, even though they both knew it wasn't okay. "It wasn't your fault."

"Why'd she do it? Did the bullying at school come to a head?"

"Yes," Lanie answered. "But I don't think it was just that. I think it all started when Angelina turned Jimmy into Jenny."

Conner nodded. "I'll bet," he said. "If some witch turned me into a girl and made me bunk with a bunch of other girls, I don't think I could handle it. I don't even know how you did. Or Rachel. Or those other girls at the foster home you told me about."

"It's not as bad as it seems," said Lanie.

"Not for you," said Conner. "You said Jenny didn't adjust very well."

"Well...to be fair, she didn't even stay at the Pretty And Pink foster home for a whole day," said Lanie. "Right after she was assigned to our room, me and Rachel and Melody took her out to lunch. That was where I told them my secret, and Jenny broke down, and Rachel and Melody admitted they used to be boys too. And then from there we decided to break into that underground bunker, and...well, I already told you what happened from there."

"Yeah, you did," said Conner. "But still, everything Jenny went through-that would be a whirlwind for anyone."

"You're right," said Lanie. "What happened with her at school-I think that was just the straw that broke the camel's back."

"And it all goes back to Angelina."

"Yes," Lanie said ruefully. "Last night at Jenny's funeral, Rachel and I vowed that we'd stop Angelina from turning every man into a woman."

"How are you gonna do that?"

"I don't know. But we know that Pretty And Pink's Nashville location got shut down because of what we did. That's a start."

"What are you going to do next? Go to the other locations and burn them down?"

"Maybe. But there's still the fact that Angelina's a witch. And there's more witches working for her."

"You did kill that one witch...what was her name? Ruth?"

"Yes. But we kind of got lucky on that one."

Conner shrugged. "Well, if you were lucky once, you might get lucky again."

"Let's hope so."

Lanie and Conner walked a few laps around the park's trail before they decided they'd had enough. But when the two of them started heading for the edge of the park, a black sedan came in and blocked their way. "Uh...excuse us?" said Lanie. "We're trying to leave, and..."

Lanie trailed off when the sedan's passenger-side door opened and an all-too-familiar woman stepped out. The sight of this woman made Lanie freeze with fear. She'd figured she'd come face-to-face with her again eventually, but she wouldn't have thought it would be right now. Even if she had been expecting it, those cruel, calculating eyes would still have frightened her.

"Having fun, Lanie?" Angelina asked.

Lanie's face went white faster than a light bulb. "What the-how did you-"

"Come on, girl," Angelina said tauntingly. "Did you really think you and Rachel could hide from me forever?"

Conner looked between Lanie and Angelina. "I'm gonna go out on a limb here," he said, "This is that Angelina lady who wants you dead, right?"

Angelina glared disapprovingly at Conner. "Oh, and of course you've got a boy with you," she said. "You've already tainted yourself with the stigma of the male gender."

"Answer the question!" Conner demanded.

"No, I do not want Lanie dead," said Angelina. "But what she and I are going to do together, well...that's not any of your business." She waved her hand, and an invisible force threw Conner backward onto the ground. When Conner landed, he did not get back up.

"Conner!" Lanie screamed.

"Don't worry, he'll live," said Angelina, "To see the new world you and I will build together."

"What is it that you want from me?" Lanie asked. "Why haven't you just killed me already?"

"You'll find out soon enough," said Angelina. She snapped her fingers, and thick ropes materialized out of nowhere and bound themselves around Lanie. Lanie struggled against the ropes, but it was no use. They were tied too tightly around her arms and legs. All she accomplished was losing her balance and falling over.

"Bea! I need your help!" said Angelina.

The car's driver-a thirty-something woman who looked like she'd rather be anywhere else-got out and looked at Lanie. "Let me guess-you want to put her in the trunk," she said.

"No," said Angelina. "Put her in the back seat."

"NO!" Lanie shrieked. "You can't do this! You won't get away with this!"

"Yes, I can," said Angelina. She and Bea both picked up Lanie and put her in the sedan's backseat. Lanie struggled harder than ever, but it was no use. She was powerless to stop Angelina from shutting her in the backseat and getting back up front with Bea.

"Let me go!" Lanie said as Bea shifted the car into gear and started driving. "We-we won't let you change everyone's gender! We'll stop you?"

"No, you won't," said Angelina. "You'll all learn to embrace the new all-female world we will create." She turned around to the backseat and waved her hand in front of Lanie's face. A wave of magic sparkles passed over Lanie's face, and she fell asleep.

"Yes, sleep, my little girl," said Angelina. "Soon we'll arrive at your new home..."

Chapter 16-Assembling The Team

It took Rachel all day to finish her homework. Since yesterday was so busy with her and Lanie helping set up Jenny's funeral, she hadn't had time to work on her homework. But, after hours of hard work, she finally finished her assignments.

Rachel laid on her bed and sighed. What she really needed right now was a nice, warm bath to relax. Unfortunately, her dorm's bathroom didn't have a bathtub, so she couldn't exactly fulfill that need. Plus, she'd already taken a shower that morning, so she didn't really feel up for taking another one.

She was starting to wonder if she should go down to the orphanage's game room when she heard her phone buzzing. She looked at it and saw that she'd gotten a text from Lanie. "Oh that's right," she said. She'd been so wrapped up in her homework, she'd forgotten Lanie had gone off with Conner. But when she read the text message, her heart missed several beats. It read "Help! They found me! Washington D. C!"

"What in the..." Rachel didn't even have time to finish the thought. Right after she finished reading the text, she got an incoming call from none other than Conner Hawkins. She accepted the call and held her phone up to her ear. "Hello?"

"Rachel!" said Conner. He sounded panicked and out of breath. "Where are you?"

"I'm at my dorm at the orphanage. What's going on-"

"Oh, thank goodness," said Conner. "I thought they'd gotten you, too."

"Who?"

"That Angelina lady Lanie told me about."

Rachel was shocked down to her very core. "She found us?" she asked.

"Yeah. Me and Lanie were leaving the park when this black car came in our way, then Angelina came out of the car and knocked me unconscious. I just woke up, and Angelina and Lanie were gone."

This had to have occurred less than six hours ago. "Did they say where they were going?"

"No. If they did, it was after Angelina knocked me out."

"I just got a text from Lanie's phone," said Rachel. "It said they were going to Washington D. C."

"What?"

"Angelina must've hijacked Lanie's phone and texted me."

"So that's where they took Lanie."

"Yes," said Rachel. "And I've gotta find a way to get there."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Conner. "You're not gonna go by yourself, are you?"

"Well..."

"I'm going with you," said Conner. "You can't do this alone."

"Conner, you do know what we're up against, right? Real witches. Witches who hate boys like you. This isn't some video game. You can't just restart when you get hurt or killed."

"Well, neither can you," said Conner.

Rachel sighed. "You're right," she said. "I'll let you come with me."

"Okay. So how are we gonna get to Washington D. C?"

Rachel thought for a minute. "Diana," she said. "She's got a car. She can drive us."

"You think you can convince Diana to drive us all the way to Virginia?"

"I don't know. But I'll have to try."

"Alright," said Conner. "You do that. Let me know if she says yes."

"Okay. Talk to you soon." Rachel hung up and went into her Contacts. She pulled up Diana's number and called it. "Please, Diana, please pick up the phone, Rachel asked, pleaded, prayed.

To Rachel's dismay, nobody answered the phone. "No! Diana, please!" Rachel groaned. Where was Diana? She didn't go to church on Sundays, did she? No. It was afternoon. Surely any church sessions being held today would be over by now. Rachel's first thought was that Diana was off with Penelope and/or Nicole...but if she did, then surely she'd have her phone on her?

Rachel decided to try a different tactic. She opened the Internet app, went onto the Eastside High School website, and looked up Diana Jackson's address in the directory. To her relief, Diana's house was just a couple blocks away from the Orphanage For All Ages. It would only be a ten-minute walk, if that.

***

Rachel walked over to Diana's house, which was located at the end of a T-intersection. She knocked on the door and waited for a response. After a minute, the door was answered by Diana. She was wearing a red bikini, and her hair was wet like she'd just gotten out of the pool. "Hey Rachel," said Diana. "What's up?"

"Diana, I need your help," said Rachel. "Why weren't you answering your phone?"

"I had it charging while I went swimming in the backyard with my family," Diana answered. "What's wrong?"

"Lanie just got kidnapped."

Diana gasped. "She what?"

"Yeah. There's this crazy lady who's been stalking me and Lanie for a while, and...look, it's really complicated. But I need you to drive me and Conner to Washington D. C."

"Washington D. C?"

"That's where they took Lanie. We've gotta go there and save her."

"Why can't you just call the police?"

"It's complicated. The police can't help us." Rachel's patience was wearing thin, so she took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Look, can you drive us, or not?"

"Well, about that," said Diana, "My car actually got wrecked yesterday."

"WHAT?"

"I was driving my sister home from ballet, and then the guy in front of me suddenly stopped, and I crashed into him. I had to call a tow truck, and he said it would take a week to fix my car."

"What about the rest of your family? Do they have any other cars?"

"No," Diana answered. "My dad took our only other car when he went to his work conference in South Carolina. He won't be back till Wednesday."

Rachel groaned. "Great," she said.

"Rachel, I'm really sorry," said Diana. "I want to help you, but..."

"No, it's okay," said Rachel. "I'll let you know if we do find another driver."

"Alright," said Diana. "Good luck."

***

Rachel left Diana's house and went back to the Orphanage For All Ages. When she got there, she was surprised to see Conner waiting for her in the lobby. "Well?" Conner asked.

Rachel shook her head. "Diana can't drive us," she said. "She got in a car accident yesterday, so her car's out of commission."

"Oh," said Conner. "That's not good."

"I know," said Rachel. "And I don't know anyone else who has a car or a driver's license. Aaron doesn't have one, Trevor doesn't have one, and I don't think Penelope or Nicole do, either."

"Actually," said Conner, "I think I know someone else who can help us."

For the first time that day, Rachel felt a spark of hope. "You do?"

"Yes. He's a friend from church. He's about seven years older than me, but he still lives at home. And he has a car."

"Good," said Rachel. "Where does he live?"

"Just down the street from me," Conner answered. "Come on."

***

Conner led Rachel to the home of his friend from church, who he said was named Bryce Tynes. The house was just a fifteen-minute walk from the orphanage. Ordinarily, Rachel wouldn't have been bothered by how long the walk was, but time was of the essence. Angelina had Lanie bound and gagged in her car driving to Washington D. C. For all Rachel knew, they were halfway there by now. And Rachel didn't want to find out what Angelina was gonna do with Lanie.

When they got to Bryce Tynes' house, Conner knocked on the door. A moment later, Bryce answered the door. "Conner?" he asked.

"Hey Bryce," said Conner. "Could you come outside for a minute? We need to talk."

"Alright," said Bryce. He stepped out onto the front porch and closed the door behind him. "What do you want?"

"We need a ride. Me and Rachel here."

"A ride? To where?"

"Washington D. C."

"Whoa," said Bryce. "Why do you need to go there?"

"Remember my girlfriend Lanie? Who I took out to Starbucks last week?"

"Oh yeah, I remember her."

"She got kidnapped. And the kidnappers are taking her to Washington D. C."

"Whoa," said Bryce. "Well, I don't know if I..."

"I'll pay you to drive us there," said Conner. He pulled out a big wad of $20 bills from his pocket. "Two hundred bucks."

"Whoa," said Rachel. She silently chided herself for not thinking of offering payment to Diana. "Where'd you get all that money?"

"My car fund," Conner answered. "My parents have been helping me set aside money for when I buy my first car next year, but I think this is enough of an emergency to break out some of that money."

Bryce nodded. "Alright, that sounds good," he said. "How soon do you need to leave?"

"As soon as possible," Rachel answered.

"Okay, I'll start getting some stuff together," said Bryce. "But I'm probably gonna need someone else to help drive-"

"Diana," said Rachel. "She has her license. She can come with us."

"She's referring to Diana Jackson," said Conner. "My ex."

"Ah," said Bryce. "I don't know if-"

"It's okay!" Conner quickly amended. "Me and Diana are good now. I think."

"Well, okay then," said Bryce. "Where should I meet you guys?"

"How about Eastside High?" said Conner. "We'll all get our stuff and meet each other there."

"Deal," said Bryce. "See you in a bit."

***

Rachel and Conner both went their separate ways to go pack up the stuff they'd need. As they went, Rachel texted Diana to let her know the change in plans. Within a minute, Diana texted back saying that yes, she would be ready to go with them ASAP. Once that situation was taken care of, Rachel went back to her dorm in the Orphanage For All Ages and threw together some stuff for the road trip. She got a couple changes of clothes, her phone charger, her toothbrush, some toothpaste, and a book to read to pass the time. She emptied out her school backpack and stuffed all her road trip stuff into there.

Once Rachel was ready, she left the orphanage and walked over to Eastside High. There, she found that Diana had already shown up with her suitcase full of stuff. "Hey Rachel," Diana said when she saw her.

"Hey Diana," said Rachel. "Thanks so much for coming."

"Of course," said Diana. "I just hope it's not too dangerous..."

"Don't worry," said Rachel. "All you and Bryce have to do is get us to Washington D. C. Nothing else."

"I hope you're right," said Diana. "Where's Conner?"

"He's coming," Rachel answered. "I think."

A few minutes later, Conner came carrying a backpack of clothes and other personal items, but also a large black suitcase. "What's that for?" Rachel asked, pointing at the suitcase.

"This is some stuff I think will come in handy," Conner answered. In an undertone, he added "My dad's shotguns and hunting knives."

"Whoa," Diana said, her tone a little frightened. "You're not actually thinking of fighting whoever took Lanie, are you?"

"We'll explain everything on the way," Rachel promised, though she herself was also surprised that Conner had actually managed to scrounge some weapons.

After a few minutes, Bryce came with his dark blue Honda Civic. "Hey guys," he said. "You ready to go?"

"Ready as we'll ever be," Conner answered.

"Good," said Bryce. "Just load up your stuff, and we'll hit the road."

Rachel, Conner, and Diana loaded their stuff into the trunk before getting in the car. Conner sat down in the shotgun seat while the girls got in the back. "This is it," said Conner. "This is where the adventure really begins."

"Washington D. C, here we come," Bryce said as he shifted into Drive and started off down the road.

Chapter 17-Battling The Witches

As they drove, Rachel and Conner gave Diana and Bryce an explanation about Angelina, and Pretty And Pink Foster Care, and their history with the "foster care" organization. Diana and Bryce turned out to be a pretty good audience-they listened intently, and they gasped in all the right places. When Rachel and Conner had finished their story, both Diana and Bryce were speechless.

"I don't believe it," Diana said, looking Rachel up and down. After hearing the truth about her, she was starting to see her friend in a different light. "I can't believe you and Lanie were boys."

"I know," said Rachel. "I've been female for so long, I can barely remember what it was like being male."

"But why's Angelina so fixated on Lanie?" Bryce asked. "It sounds like she was after Lanie even before you guys found out what was really going on."

"I don't know," said Rachel. "That's what we're trying to figure out."

"What I'm really wondering is why she didn't come after you," said Conner. "She wanted all three of you, didn't she? You, and Lanie, and Jenny."

"Maybe she didn't want to risk attacking the orphanage and having the police come after her," said Rachel. "So she sent me that text from Lanie's phone so I'd know where to go to find Lanie."

"But what if she's not really in Washington D. C?" Diana asked. "What if this is all just a trap?"

"Trap or not, it's the only thing we've got," Rachel replied. "We know that the main headquarters of Pretty And Pink is in Washington D. C, and Angelina sent me that message she was taking Lanie to Washington D. C. So even if Lanie isn't there, we'll probably at least find another lead."

"I hope you're right about this," said Bryce.

A couple hours later, the sun started to go down. "So where are we gonna stop for the night?" Bryce asked.

Neither Rachel nor Conner had thought of that. "I don't know," said Rachel.

"I don't think we should stop," said Conner. "If we do, then we might end up arriving too late to save Lanie."

"But we can't go driving all night, can we?" Rachel asked.

"Maybe we can," said Bryce. "That's why you brought Diana, right?"

"Right." Rachel turned to Diana and asked "Do you think you can take over driving for a while?"

"Maybe," Diana answered, "But I don't know if I can make it the whole night."

"Why don't you sleep in shifts?" Conner suggested. "Diana, you can drive for an hour or two, then wake up Bryce to drive while you take a rest."

"That sounds like a good idea," said Bryce.

"But I'm probably gonna need some snacks to keep myself awake," said Diana. "We should stop at a gas station."

"Not just for snacks," said Bryce. "I've gotta top off my gas, too."

"Alright," said Rachel. "I'm getting kind of hungry anyway."

So when they came across the next gas station, Bryce pulled over to pump gas while Rachel, Conner, and Diana went inside the convenience store. They bought light dinners for themselves and a bunch of snacks for Bryce and Diana to keep themselves energized throughout the night. When they were done, they went back out to the car where Bryce was waiting. This time, Diana got in the driver's seat with Bryce in shotgun, while Rachel and Conner got in the back. Rachel ate her hot dog while the car started moving.

"Diana," Rachel asked, "Are you scared?"

"Yes," Diana admitted. "I don't think I want to know what's waiting for us in Washington D. C."

"Well, I appreciate you coming with us," said Rachel. "I really do."

Diana smiled, but she said "Don't thank me yet. Save it for when we've survived."

***

When Rachel woke up the next morning, it was already 8:00. Bryce was in the driver's seat, munching on Doritos as he drove. Diana was fast asleep, as was Conner.

"Are we there yet?" Rachel asked.

"See for yourself," said Bryce. He indicated to the right, where they were passing right by the Washington Monument.

Rachel's heart leapt. "We're here!" she said. "We made it to Washington D. C!"

"Yep," said Bryce. "I don't know where Pretty And Pink is, but..."

"How about you pull over?" Rachel suggested. "Enter it into Google Maps."

It turned out pulling over was easier said than done. Washington D. C. was such a big, bustling city with so many cars and people clogging up the parking areas, it took Bryce half an hour to find a spot to park his car. When he did, Conner and Diana both woke up.

"What...are we there?" Conner asked groggily. "Are we stopping for gas again?"

"The first option," Bryce replied. "We're in Washington D. C."

Conner looked around. "Uh...where's the Pretty And Pink foster home?"

"We're not there yet," said Bryce. "I'm putting it into Google Maps." A minute later, Google Maps had mapped out a route to Pretty And Pink. "Okay, here we go," said Bryce. "Let's get going."

After twenty minutes of weaving through traffic, they came to the Washington D. C. establishment of Pretty And Pink Foster Care. This one was even larger than the building in Nashville had been, standing at five stories high. It had the Pretty And Pink logo plastered real big on the side of the building-and, of course, the walls were painted pink.

"Wow," Conner said when he saw Pretty And Pink for the first time. "That place really is pink."

"It's not pink, it's salmon," Bryce said in a mock defensive voice.

Rachel got out of the car and took a deep breath. This was it. This was where she'd be able to rescue her friend and "sister." And she'd probably figure out what Angelina's obsession with Lanie was, too. "Well, we're here, guys," she said.

"That's it?" Diana asked. "That's...actually a pretty nice foster home."

"I thought the same thing, when I saw the Nashville location," said Rachel.

"So now what do we do?" Bryce asked.

"That's not your problem," Conner replied. "You drove us here, just like we wanted. It's up to us now."

"But you're not gonna just run in by yourselves and get killed by those witches, are you?" Bryce asked.

Rachel and Conner looked at each other awkwardly. "Wow," said Rachel. "We didn't plan this out very well, did we?"

Conner stroked his chin. "I've got an idea," he said.

***

Okay, Diana said to herself as she walked up to the foster home's front doors. Just act natural. Your parents just died in a car accident, and you've been living on the streets for days. Just act like you're desperate for a new home.

Diana entered the front doors and came to the front desk. There, she found two thirty-something-year-old women sitting at the front desk. "Well hello, young lady," said one of the women. Her name tag identified her as Anna. "What brings you here?"

"I...well...I need somewhere to live," said Diana.

"Really?" the other woman, whose name was Elena, said. "What happened with you?"

"My parents died in a car accident," Diana answered. "And I heard this place takes in homeless girls and gives them a place to live, so..."

"Well, isn't that ironic!" said Elena. "Usually it's us who finds girls to bring in. It's not very often that girls show up on our doorstep asking us to take them in."

"Well?" Diana asked. "Can I stay here?"

Anna looked at her computer before saying "I suppose we can."

All right! The witches (?) fell for it! But there was still one more thing Diana had to find out. "Where's the manager?" she asked.

"What?"

"The manager. The person who runs the place. Is he here?"

"It's a she," Elena corrected. "And yes, she is here. She just arrived a couple hours ago."

"Why do you want to know?" Anna asked.

"Well..." Diana knew she couldn't say Angelina's name, or else she might blow the whole operation. "Does she have to be here, to authorize you guys letting me register with this foster home?"

"Our manager is unavailable at the moment," said Elena, "But we can register you ourselves."

"Good," said Diana. She sat and patiently waited while Anna and Elena went through some paperwork. It took quicker than Diana expected. All she had to do was give her name, age, reason for supposedly being an orphan, and that was it.

"Well, now you're registered," Anna said when the process was done. "Come on, I'll take you to your new room."

Diana went with Anna upstairs to a large dorm room. Inside, there were five more girls folding laundry, playing on their phones, and doing other stuff. "Hey girls," said Anna. "Here's your new roommate Diana."

Diana forced a smile. "Hey guys," she said. "I'm...Diana."

"My name's Taylor," said one of the girls. "And this is Alexis. And Sharon, and Heather, and Ella."

"Is there anything else you need?" Anna asked.

"No," Diana answered.

"Very well," said Anna. "Have fun with your new roommates."

Once Anna left, Diana approached the girl named Taylor who had spoken. "Listen, this is serious," she said. "Is Angelina here?"

"What-who?"

"Angelina Aguilar," said Diana. "The founder of this company."

All the rest of the girls exchanged glances. "How do you know about her?" the one named Heather asked.

"Answer the question!" Diana demanded. "Is she here or not?"

"Yes," said Alexis. "I saw her downstairs half an hour ago. She was talking to Anna and Elena."

"So she is here," said Diana. She sat down on a bed and got out her phone.

"Hey, that's my bed!" Alexis protested.

Diana ignored her and opened her Messager app. She started typing a text to Rachel, but she was interrupted when Taylor came up behind her. "Diana, that's Alexis' bed," said Taylor. "And you..." She trailed off when she saw Rachel Miller's name at the top of Diana's phone's screen. "Wait a minute," she said. "Is that...Rachel Miller?"

"Yes," Diana said as she furiously kept typing her text message.

"The Rachel Miller?" Taylor asked. "Long black hair, brown eyes, pale skin?"

For the first time, Diana turned to fully regard Taylor. "You know her?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Taylor. "Me and Alexis shared a room with her and Lanie Evans back at the Nashville location."

"Wow," said Diana.

"How do you know Rachel?" Alexis asked.

"It's a long story," Diana replied. "Listen, we're here to stop Angelina."

"Stop Angelina?"

"Stop her from turning boys and men into women."

Every girl in the room gasped. "What the-how did you-"

Diana looked between the other five girls. "So it's true," she said. "You really weren't supposed to tell each other you were boys."

"I don't...I thought I was the only one..." Taylor stammered.

"It's not important," said Diana. "What is important is that Angelina's here. And she's doing something with Lanie."

"What-you know Lanie, too?" Taylor asked.

"Yes. Angelina brought her back here, and we came to rescue her."

"A minute ago you said you were here to stop Angelina," said Alexis.

"That too," said Diana. She pressed the Send button, and her text went right to Rachel's phone.

***

"Yes!" Rachel exclaimed when she saw Diana's text. "Angelina is here!"

"Great," said Conner. "Let's get the weapons out."

Conner and Bryce both got shotguns out while Rachel got a hunting knife. She knew it wouldn't be as effective as a gun, but she didn't feel comfortable holding a gun. She wasn't sure if she trusted herself not to literally shoot herself in the foot. Plus, a knife had already proven effective against killing Ruth.

Rachel, Conner, and Bryce busted through the foster home's front doors and saw Anna and Elena sitting at the front desk. "What the-" Anna asked.

"Where's Lanie?" Rachel asked. "Tell us now!"

Elena squinted at Rachel and recognized her face. "You're her," she said. "You're Rachel. Angelina was right. You did find a way to come here."

"Yeah, I did," said Rachel. "What did you do with Lanie?"

"Angelina's taking care of her personal business with Lanie," said Anna. "But you, on the other hand..."

"What's Angelina doing with Lanie?" Conner asked. "What does she even want with her? She's just another boy she turned into a girl!"

"Oh no," said Anna. "Lanie is much more than that."

"What are you talking about?" Rachel asked.

"Girl, you are so ignorant," said Anna. "You have no idea who Lanie really is." And she told Rachel, Conner, and Bryce the truth about Lanie.

When Rachel heard what Anna said, she nearly dropped her knife. "But-but that's impossible!" she stuttered. "How could Lanie be-"

"Don't question what is and isn't possible, girl," said Elena. She stood up and floated a few feet off the ground. "Soon, Angelina and Lanie will achieve Angelina's lifelong goal of ruling an all-female world."

Elena conjured a fireball and threw it at Rachel. Conner grabbed Rachel and pulled her aside to prevent her from being hit. Bryce tried to shoot at Elena, but his aim was off by at least three feet. Elena rounded on Bryce, but Conner was ready. He took careful aim and shot her in the chest. Elena barely had time to gasp before her circulatory system collapsed, and she fell onto the floor dead.

"No!" Anna hissed. She climbed up onto the desk and snapped her fingers. In the blink of an eye, Conner's and Bryce's guns turned into thick black balloons.

"What the-hey!" said Conner. "These were my dad's shotguns!"

"Oh, come on now," said Anna. "You can still have some fun with those balloons." She floated down to Conner and grabbed him by the collar. "At least, you can if you live to see the day." She pinned him against the wall and placed her hand against his forehead. Conner screamed in pain, as if Anna was using her hand to burn his skin.

Rachel gritted her teeth. This was it. It was all on her now, just like when Ruth was threatening Lanie. She knew what it would mean to kill Anna, but the rational part of her knew there was no other choice. She came up behind Anna and stabbed her in the back. Like Ruth before her, Anna gasped and collapsed.

Conner let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Rachel," he said.

"You're welcome," said Rachel. She turned to see Diana running up to them, followed by...was that Taylor and Alexis?

"Whoa," Diana said when she saw the chaos in the foyer. "Did you just-"

"Yes, we took them out," said Conner.

"Rachel? What are you doing here?" Taylor asked.

"What are you doing here?" Rachel asked.

"Me and Alexis got transferred here after the Nashville location got shut down," Taylor answered. "Angelina said you, Lanie, and Jenny broke into an employees-only area and then escaped, so-"

"It's a long story," said Rachel. "Do you know if there's another underground bunker here?"

"As a matter of fact, there is," said Alexis. "I saw the entrance to it just a few days ago."

"Show us the way," said Rachel.

***

Of all the disturbing things Lanie had experienced lately, waking up naked was one of the weirder ones.

She woke on a cold metal bed in a dark underground room. She felt a breeze on her boobs and her vagina, and she realized she wasn't wearing any clothes. "What...what the..."

"Good, good," said the voice of Angelina Aguilar. "The Awakening was a success."

"What-Angelina!"

"Don't worry, you can put your clothes back on now," said Angelina. She indicated a pile of clothes that were Lanie's, lying on the floor beside her bed.

Angelina had undressed Angelina while she was asleep? That thought was sickening. Nonetheless, Lanie wasted no time in grabbing her panties and sliding them back on. "What's going on?" Lanie asked as she was wriggling her way into her bra. "What did you do to me?"

"I performed the Awakening on you," said Angelina. "The Awakening where I activated the magic inside of you."

"What...magic?"

"Lanie, I've been looking for you for years," said Angelina. "For a long time, I've wanted to remold the world in my image-a world where everyone is a woman, and there are no disgusting men to tarnish our image. But I knew I couldn't do it alone. I needed someone else to help me in my endeavors. And that someone was you."

"I don't understand," said Lanie. She had now put on her skirt and shirt again. "Why do you need me?"

"You're a witch, Lanie," Angelina answered.

Lanie's jaw dropped. "I'm a witch?"

"Yes, you are. Your magic has been dormant inside of you since you were born, but with the Awakening ritual, you are now able to use your magical abilities."

"What do you mean? I don't have magic powers!"

"Yes you do. Try doing something. Anything."

Lanie looked around and saw a chair on the other end of the room. She imagined the chair levitating off the ground, and to her shock, the chair rose. No hidden strings, no magnets-it just floated on its own, at Lanie's will.

"Yes," said Angelina, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice. "You're a witch, Lanie. Just like me. Together, you and I can do amazing things."

"But how? How am I a witch?"

"Because of your parentage. You had a magical parent, and you inherited that parent's magical DNA."

"Oh, please," said Lanie. "My dad was no magician."

"No, he wasn't," Angelina said with distaste. "He was an abusive asshole. You were right to murder him. Your mother, on the other hand..."

"My mother is gone!" said Lanie. "She left us when I was little, and she never came back!"

"Little do you know, your mother has been looking for you for a long time," said Angelina.

"What are you talking about?" Lanie asked. "How do you know..." She trailed off when she looked at Angelina again. Suddenly, she realized why Angelina had looked so familiar to her. Her facial features, her eyes, her hair, even her voice...it reminded Lanie of herself. A lot of herself. That could only mean...

"No," Lanie said, shaking her head. "No, it can't be!"

"Yes, Lanie," Angelina said wickedly. "I am your mother."

Chapter 18-The Finale

Lanie gaped at Angelina. Deep down, she knew Angelina was telling the truth, but she still couldn't get herself to believe it. A horrible woman like Angelina...Lanie's mother? The idea sickened her to her very core. "But how?" Lanie asked. "How can you be my mother?"

"I hooked up with your father nearly seventeen years ago," Angelina answered.

"What?" Lanie asked. "I thought you hated men."

"I didn't always hate men as much as I do," Angelina replied. "I've always been a feminist, but I was open to settling down with a man and starting a family. But then Richard started drinking and beating you and I. Him abusive nature opened my eyes to how bad men really were. So I abandoned you and found three other witches to help me start the Pretty And Pink Foster Care as a front for turning young boys into girls."

"As for you, well," Angelina continued, "I didn't bother bringing you with me when I left, since I didn't want a son there to tarnish my image. But then I realized I had a lot of opportunities with an heir. If I turned you into a girl and told you of your true nature as a witch, then I could have someone to pass my legacy on to when I died. So I sent Ruth out to find you, and turn you into a girl so you could have some time to adjust to being female before joining me. I didn't expect things to happen the way they did, but the important thing is that you and I are reunited. Now that I have awakened your magical abilities, you and I can continue the quest to expunge the male gender from this world. Then we can rule as mother and daughter."

Lanie slowly shook her head. "You're insane," she said.

"Oh, Lanie, my girl," Angelina said with a creepy smile, "You'll find that I am perfectly sane."

"What makes you think that I'd join you?" Lanie demanded. "You killed Melody, you tried to kill Conner, you tried to kill Jenny, and you tried to kill Rachel! And you've turned hundreds of boys into girls against your will!"

"But not you," Angelina countered. "You agreed to let Ruth turn you into a girl, didn't you?"

"Yes, but-"

"And it was genuinely the right thing for you, was it not? It prevented you from being charged with the murder of your father."

"Yeah, but I'm a special case! What you and your witches are doing to all those other boys-it's wrong!"

"It's for the better," Angelina countered. "You will understand in due time. Long have I waited for you, my child, to come home. I never wanted you dead. It is your birthright to stand by my side...to help me exterminate the world's males."

Lanie ground her teeth. "No," she said. "I won't subscribe to your misandrist ideas." She faced Angelina and balled her fists. In that moment, she realized that now that she had magic powers, she could use them to attack Angelina the way Angelina and Ruth had attacked Lanie's friends. Lanie willed a fireball to appear around her fist and hurled it at Angelina.

Angelina dodged the fireball and glared at Lanie. "It's treason, then," she said. She thrust her hand forward and threw a bolt of green energy at Lanie. The bolt hit Lanie and sent her flying backward into the wall.

Luckily, Lanie recovered from the blow quickly. She willed herself to rise off the ground and hurled several more fireballs at Angelina. Angelina managed to block or dodge every single one of them. "You should know that it's hopeless for you," she jibed. "You have no friends, and the only family you have here is me."

"It doesn't matter," said Lanie. "Because I'll never join you! Never!"

"So be it, girl," said Angelina. She thrust out both her hands and shot bolts of green magical energy at Lanie. Lanie responded by firing her own bolts of energy back at Angelina. The bolts of energy met between the two witches in an explosion of sparks. Mother and daughter pushed against each other, their bolts of energy pulsing with green light. Eventually, Angelina managed to overpower Lanie and throw her backward. Lanie landed against the wall in a heap.

"I am very disappointed in you, Lanie," said Angelina. "I could've given you the world. Made you a queen. We would've been widely revered for bringing in the world's new all-female age. But instead, you chose to rebel against me." She advanced on Lanie with balls of magical fire forming in her hands.

"Hey!" said a new voice. "Get away from my girl!"

Angelina whirled and was shocked to see Conner charging down into the underground bunker. "What...a boy?" she said.

"Conner!" Lanie exclaimed.

Conner didn't even stop to quip. He threw the wrench he was carrying at Angelina and hit her square in the chest. Angelina doubled over and gasped. The blow hadn't killed her, but it had knocked the wind out of her for a few moments.

When Angelina had regained her breath, she looked up at Conner with fury. "Don't tell me my daughter actually found herself a boyfriend," she seethed.

"Wait," said Conner. "Lanie's your daughter?"

"Yes, she is," said Angelina. "But you, boy..."

"Don't you touch him!" Lanie barked. Just the thought of Angelina threatening Conner fueled her with enough rage to get back up. Lanie focused all her newfound magical energy into forming the biggest, most powerful fireball she'd created yet. Once the fireball had formed in her hands, Lanie hurled it at Angelina. Angelina barely had time to react before the fireball hit her. The fireball incinerated Angelina as easily as if she'd been doused in gasoline. The evil witch let out one last scream of agony before she crumbled into a pile of black ashes.

Conner stared at the pile of ashes that used to be Angelina Aguilar. "Did...did you just..."

"Yes," said Lanie. "Yes, I did."

"Whoa," said Rachel. Lanie hadn't noticed, but Rachel had come up behind Conner, along with...was that Diana Jackson behind her? "Lanie, you're...you're a witch!"

"I know," said Lanie. "I can't believe it either."

"Oh my god!" said yet another new voice. Lanie turned and saw someone coming out of a side door she hadn't noticed before. It was that lady Bea who'd been with Angelina when she came to kidnap Lanie. "You...you killed Angelina."

Lanie felt a jolt of dread. "I, uh..."

"Well done!" Bea exclaimed. "I've been dreaming of doing that for years!"

"Wait, what?"

"Do you have any idea what I've been through?" Bea asked. "Angelina hired me on as her assistant when she founded Pretty And Pink Foster Care, and I found I did not enjoy working for her at all. She treated me like a slave, forcing me to perform even the most mundane tasks for her. I was privy to her evil schemes, but she threatened me with death if I ever divulged her secrets. So I've been forced to live under her wicked thumb-until now."

"So now what?" Rachel asked. "If Angelina's dead, then...what's gonna happen to Pretty And Pink?"

Bea smiled. "I think I might be able to shut it down," she said. "But as for all the girls in our care, well..."

"What?"

"I think we'd better call an assembly for all the girls here," said Bea. "Immediately."

***

About fifteen minutes later, all the girls in the foster home were gathered in the building's auditorium-something that hadn't been present at Pretty And Pink's Nashville establishment. Bea stood on the stage with Lanie, Rachel, Conner, Diana, and Bryce at her side. "Greetings, young ladies," Bea said to the girls. "I have gathered you here with some great news. Angelina Aguilar, the witch responsible for turning you all into girls, has been defeated."

The assembled girls let out collective gasps. "What the...the rest of you were..." several of them said.

"Yes, you all have been gaslit," said Bea. "Angelina-and Ruth, and Anna, and Elena-they told each of you that you were the only boy-turned-girl at Pretty And Pink, and that you were not to divulge your little secret, but that was not the case. Angelina and her fellow witches harbored a hatred of the male gender and wished to turn all the world's men into women. But these kids have put an end to their schemes."

Lanie felt all the eyes in the room turn her way. "Yes, we did," said Lanie. "Me and Rachel here-we were bunkmates at the Nashville building. But then when a new girl was assigned to our room, and she broke down about how she used to be a boy too, it exposed Pretty And Pink for what it really was. Me and Rachel, and this new girl and one of our roommates-we broke into the Nashville building's secret underground bunker and caught Angelina's attention. We had to escape and hitch a ride on a train to Atlanta, Georgia. That's where we've been for the last month or so."

"That's where we met these guys," said Rachel. "Conner, and Diana, and Bryce. But when Angelina managed to track us down and kidnap Lanie, we came back here to rescue her. And we were able to kill Elena, and Anna, and now Angelina."

"That means we're all free," said Bea. "The witches' plans are no more, and Pretty And Pink Foster Care can be shut down."

"But what will happen to us?" Taylor asked. She and Alexis were both sitting in the auditorium's front row. "Will we be transferred to new foster homes?"

"Yes, but there is something else I can do for you," said Bea. "Since Angelina is now dead, I will have access to all of her magic formulas and potion recipes. I believe I can work from her gender-changing potion and reverse-engineer it to create a new elixir. When I have perfected it, I can turn you all back into boys if you so desire."

For a few seconds, the crowd of girls stared at Bea, not sure if they believed her. Then several of them started saying "Yes! Yes, please! I hate being a girl!"

Bea smiled. "I thought I might get that reaction," she said. She turned to Lanie and Rachel and said "And you two, I believe, were affected by those witches' magic."

"Yes, we were," said Lanie.

"And will you partake of my elixir once I have perfected it?"

"Wait...you mean...do we want to be boys again?"

"Yes."

Lanie hesitated. A month and a half ago, she would've said yes. Ever since Ruth turned Landon into Lanie, his/her life had turned completely upside down. But now, after everything that had happened...she just couldn't imagine going back. She'd been on this incredible journey, and she'd meet lots of great people-Diana, Jenny, Melody, Bryce, Taylor, Alexis, Aaron, Trevor, and most especially Rachel. As if that wasn't enough, she had a sweet, devoted boyfriend in Conner. She'd come to learn everything there was to know about being a girl. Wearing skirts and high heels, doing her hair, being a part of cliques at school...it all just felt right to her. It was as if becoming a girl had awakened something inside her that she didn't even know she wanted.

"No," said Lanie. "I'll stay a girl."

Bea looked surprised. "You will?"

"Yes," said Lanie. "I think life as a girl is what's right for me."

"Me too," said Rachel.

Bea shrugged. "Very well," she said. "As long as you're happy, then that's the main thing."

Lanie smiled. "It sure is," she said.

***

Before Lanie, Rachel, Conner, Diana, and Bryce left, they met with Taylor and Alexis again in the foster home's lobby. "Wow," said Taylor. "I can't believe you guys went through so much trouble."

"Neither can we," said Rachel. "And we weren't sure if we'd see you guys again."

"Well, it is a small world," said Alexis.

"Taylor I'm sorry that we kind of scared you," said Lanie. "When we were escaping the Nashville building, and we ran into you-"

"It's okay," said Taylor. "Now I know what was really going on that day."

"You're not gonna accept Bea's offer, are you?" Rachel asked. "Are you gonna let her turn you back into boys?"

Taylor and Alexis exchanged glances. "I think so, yes," said Taylor.

"So...you'll be Tyler and Alex?" Bryce asked.

"Yep," said Alexis.

"Ah," said Lanie. "Well...good luck, guys."

"We'll keep in touch," said Alexis. She and Taylor took turns hugging Lanie and Rachel-and even Conner, Diana, and Bryce.

After Taylor and Alexis left, the five friends started back toward the foster home's main doors. "Thank you guys so much for coming to rescue me," said Lanie.

"No problem," said Conner. "It's what friends do."

"No, you've all gone beyond the call of duty," said Lanie. "Diana, and Rachel, and Conner...and even you, Bryce."

"I know," said Bryce. "I never would've thought I'd end up driving up to save the life of a girl I saw Conner take out to the place where I work."

"Me either."

Rachel spoke up. "So Lanie...are you glad that you and I are gonna stay girls?"

"Of course!" said Lanie. "If I hadn't been turned into a girl, then I never would've met any of you!"

"Plus, if you were a guy, well...I've never been gay at all, so..." said Conner.

Lanie laughed. "Neither was I, when I was Landon," she said.

"Well, at least you're together now," said Diana. "And that's all that matters, right?"

"Right." Lanie and Conner both hugged each other deeply. After a minute of hugging, Rachel joined in, as did Diana. Even Bryce got in on the act. The five of them relished in their group hug as a celebration of everything they'd done, and everything they'd learned from their interactions with one another. They'd come to appreciate each other so much more after their adventure.

"So...now what?" Rachel asked when they'd all parted.

"We go back home," said Lanie. "To Atlanta."

"I'm driving," Diana said quickly.

"But it's my car!" said Bryce.

"You can take a turn driving later," Diana replied.

"I call shotgun," said Lanie.

And together, the five of them left Pretty And Pink to where their exciting new future awaited them.

Epilogue-Eight Years Later...

Lanie sat in the hospital bed, wrapped in bedsheets and a hospital gown. Standing behind her was her husband Conner Hawkins. Both of them were looking down at the little bundle of joy in Lanie's lap: a beautiful baby boy that Lanie had birthed just twelve hours ago.

"Welcome to the world, little guy," Lanie said with a smile. Giving birth to her son had been exhausting and painful for her, but it was worth it to get to hold the baby she'd brought into this world.

"You ready?" Conner asked. "Ready to be a mom?"

"Of course," Lanie answered. "As long as you're ready to be a dad."

Conner looked up and smiled when he saw someone enter the room. "Lanie, I think we have a visitor," he said.

"Hi guys," said a familiar voice.

Lanie looked up and saw her best girl friend in the whole world standing at the foot of her bed. Rachel was beaming with joy at the sight of Lanie holding her new baby boy. "Rachel!" Lanie exclaimed.

"Hi Lanie," said Rachel. It was all she could do not to take the baby and hold him in her arms. "You're officially a mom now!"

"I know," Lanie said with a smile. "It's funny, I never would've thought I'd become a mom back when...you know..."

"Everything happened," Rachel said with understanding. "Can I hold him?"

"Sure," said Lanie. She watched as Rachel gently took the newborn baby out of Lanie's lap and held him in her arms.

Rachel smiled at the baby boy her friend and surrogate sister had birthed. "You're gonna grow up with great parents," she said, "And you're gonna have a great auntie, too."

"And he'll have a friend pretty soon, too," said Conner.

"Oh yeah," said Rachel. She looked down at her own belly, which was much rounder than normal. Rachel was pregnant with her own baby boy, and he was due in just a couple weeks. "I'll look forward to introducing our sons to one another."

"Of course," said Lanie. She held her arms out, and Rachel returned her son to her.

"So what are you gonna name him?" Rachel asked.

Lanie and Conner exchanged glances. "I think we'll name him Landon," said Lanie.

"Landon?" Rachel asked.

"Yes," said Lanie. "I think it's fitting for him."

Rachel slowly nodded. "Yeah, I think you're right," she said.

Lanie held her son Landon and made him face her. "Landon," she said, "That was my name, when I was a boy. I never got to live the rest of my life as a man, because I became a woman, and that turned out well for me. Maybe living my life as a man would've worked, maybe it wouldn't have. I have no way of knowing. But you, Landon Hawkins...I'm very proud of you. Because I'll get to see you grow up and live the life I could've had."

The end...