Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

‘April,’ wore a gingham dress. Her hair had been tamed into a long braid, similar to the one I’d worn yesterday. She wore no makeup, and had tennis shoes that looked a bit too large.

‘Ernest’ had fared a bit better in the clothing department. He wore a brown suit with a white shirt. His teeth looked less yellow than they had yesterday and he’d shaved both his head and his face.

“Desdemonia,” Ernest said upon seeing me. “My old Nemesis.”

“Oh, cut the crap. Everyone here knows what happened,” I said.

Geneva at the front desk was the first to see Kim come in on Take Your Daughter to Work Day and noticed she had some kind of Vase but didn’t say anything except her usual “Good Morning!”

"Morning Geneva, going to be an interesting day with all these girls here today, isn’t it?”

My initial night in basic training utterly jolted my system, and claiming I caught any sleep would be akin to saying I'm an expert in impersonating a lady. Anxiety about retaliation from the second princess kept me so on edge that closing my eyes seemed impossible, not to mention my tail impeding my usual back-sleeping position. As a result, I spent most of the night restlessly tossing and turning. At some point, exhaustion must have won over, as I was abruptly awakened by the drill sergeant's cacophonous banging on a metal can, ordering us to rise.

Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

Jeff and Mitzy entered the enclosure and immediately began interacting with April and Dad. Stunned, I walked a few feet into the enclosure. I couldn’t process what I was seeing.

From the tip of their quivering black snouted noses to their furred wagging tail, the two wolves acted exactly like the animals they were. Mitzy cooed over April and stroked her soft pelt around her head as Jeff petted the Wolf that had originally been Pete Vargas’s body.

Tux

Kirk and I were friends.  The only friends the two of us had.  There was my sis Liz and her BFF Ashley.  But hey, they're girls.  Can you be friends with girls who recognize cars only by their color?  No, you can't.

“Let’s try it,” Ms. Paget said. “Joy and I are going to be chibis on Thursday, and I’d like to get some other volunteers to do the same. You don’t have to wear schoolgirl uniforms or anything; you can be chibi mice or chibi dragons or whatever, even chibi robots,” (nodding toward Todd, who was in one of his less humanoid robot forms today). “If it works out, we might make it a regular thing. Chibi Thursdays. Come in anime cosplay, or better yet venned into a chibi form, and get 10% off...”

When you consider the circumstances in my life, it’s easy to see how things turned out the way they did. My dad was killed in action in Afghanistan when I was eight. He was through with his active duty time and had joined the National Guard and his unit was called up when the Taliban launched a major offensive. There are no male relatives that I know of so I haven’t really had any male influence in my life since then.

Lisa learns the benefits of a good foundation. Blake joins a bowling team. Lisa's visit to work doesn't go so well. A surprise at home gets Lisa's attention. Lisa and Blake plan for the future. Lisa's expert knowledge of dresses opens the door to a new career opportunity.

"I'm staying with her," Femke told him, while pointing at me.

"No, no, that isn't how it works."

"If that isn't how it works," she replied, "I don't think you can say it's working."

They got me to the house and up the stairs.

“Um,” Mitzy said softly. “Hon, you need to shower before getting in bed.”

I frowned. “Why?”

“You have stuff in your hair, and you need to remove your makeup. Otherwise your skin will suffer.”

I sighed and nodded. I needed to use the restroom anyway.

She helped me into the restroom. “Do you need help removing your clothes?”

I shook my head. “I can take care of it.”

Haida attempts to negotiate a cease fire on the town...

Magic made the clean up process after missions much quicker, and in Ben’s case, much more bearable. No shower was needed for anyone, a spell was able to clean up all the dirt and filth they had picked up in an instant. An incredible convenience, and Ben was thankful he didn’t have to actively bathe. Seeing his naked body in its current state would undoubtedly be uncomfortable.

Chapter 8

There were three of the talkative ones, side by side, in their chairs, when we approached. Adrianne asked about the lady who looked as if she had died, and the floodgates opened. I just looked out at the sea and kept watch to warn if the orderlies came out.

The Wolves were brought to the racquetball courts inside the sports complex. Miss Minnick assigned each wolf one of the courts, and the door was shut and locked until something else could be done with them. She returned to her teacher form after, and thanked the staff of the sports complex.

“Do not open those doors for any reason,” she said. “We will return for them in a couple of hours after we’ve taken care of the rest of the victims.”

Late night, Friday, February 6, 2009

Kenny

“No, no! Stop! Stop shrinking!”

Somehow, I wasn’t myself anymore. I was the house. It seemed like the kind of thing that had to be a weird dream, but it felt very real. And I was shrinking, trapping my family members inside the house. One of my sisters had gotten caught up in one of the walls, and I could feel her presence in my mind.

A loud and excited gasp found its way to my antennae from across the table, “ohmigod, really!? Darbee, I’m so happy for you!”

I took a second to recoil, Bea sometimes can’t exactly handle how loud she gets. She cycled through shock and embarrassment accompanied by a soft giggle when she saw my reaction. “S-sorry I didn’t mean to get so loud.”

Girls Just Want To Have Fun
-1-
Bikini Shopping

It was summer again, and the mall was crowded with people. Madeline and I had decided that we needed a break from Benton, from working our fingers to the bone, from just the rustic lifestyle. And so, she and I decided to spend the day roaming Metrocenter Mall, the largest mall in Mississippi. I was over the moon, not only was I looking forward to spending the day with my best friend, who has stood by my side through thick and thin. But also like any girl I would jump at a chance to do a little retail therapy.

Homage
A Vignette
By Maryanne Peters

The work was called “Femme Allongée” or in English “Reclining Woman”, and it was by the lesser known impressionist Claude Mesurier. He was perhaps less than famous because he was less of an impressionist than others, and later in time by a decade or so. Some aspects of the painting were more realism than impressionism, and yet there was a mystery in the face of the woman, looking out at the artist, or the admirer of the work.