Jan's tale 1 - Arriving at Whateley
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Jan’s Tale 1
Arriving at Whateley Jan is not a happy camper. As if his life didn't suck enough already, turning into a mutant was everything but an improvement. Jan didn't get real superpowers, Jan got to be girly. To make it worse his parents decided in their unimaginable wisdom that exile to America was the solution for his problems. He is not so sure though.
Copyright © 2013 Beyogi
All Rights Reserved. Thanks to Janet Miles for editing.
Thanks to my proofreaders Drawflow, landing, DAW and last but not least Sleethr for their help. Picture Credit to mking2008 |
Disclaimer: This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but since it's fan fiction, who cares? To see the canon Whateley Stories, check out www.crystalhall.org
2nd. September 2007:
I looked tiredly out of the window. It was just after midday and I felt like going to bed already.
Damn Jet Lag!
The countryside passed in front of the window. I remembered I was in the north-east US, but I’d forgotten the state... something Hampshire. North? No, New. That was it. New Hampshire. What happened to Old Hampshire? Well it didn’t really matter.
While other people were crowding the compartment, I felt lonely in my seat. Nobody my age was around and even if there had been someone, I wouldn’t have known what to talk about. I knew next to nothing about American youth culture. The fact that I had blocked the seat next to me with my rolling case didn’t help either. There were free seats after all. People also tended to ignore those focused on electronics and I had my laptop out.
I grimaced thinking about my newest acquisition. A last present... or bribe from my parents before they got rid of me. Deported to America. Too freakish to stay at home or something. Sure their excuse had been good... “There are no schools for mutants in Germany... and Europe. And you can use this to learn some English. Combine an exchange year with learning your powers.”
*Sigh*
It wouldn’t just be a year though. I wasn’t here as an exchange student, I was enrolled as a normal student. A normal freshman student, four years of American exile! They just got rid of me. Hell, I’d never thought my parents were like that... but then I didn’t expect my sister to freak either. God, I just temporarily turned into a girl when my telekinetic armor activated and she went all ‘queer freak, I don’t know you’ on me.
*Sigh*
They’d even forced me to fill out the application sheet on alternate sexualities or something. I could only hope they didn’t give me a gay-star or something. For all I knew the Americans were even more bigoted than us... Hell, gay, homo, fag was the favourite insult in the Mittelstufe[1], while Tranny was its pinnacle. Who knew what American students did? What I knew from TV and books, it was apparently accepted if the “Jocks” beat up outsiders. As long as there were results in Football nobody cared if a few freaks died.
Okay, maybe I was unfair, but what kind of culture started a new war every five years? That violence had to come from somewhere! Meanwhile, I also had to admit we weren’t much better. Having invented industrialized genocide wasn’t exactly a thing to be proud of either. Conservatism and bigotry against the queer also ran rampant in German society.
No, nobody liked sexual deviants, or rather we - god I already identified myself as queer... - were a convenient target for everyone who wanted to try bullying as a new hobby. It was just too easy to despise those disgusting freaks. They were just different and different was only allowed if everyone did it among teenagers. So no, I wasn’t surprised about my sister’s reaction at all. Only disappointed. Well, she’d gotten her wish, my parents got rid of me. Maybe it was for the better that I went, if they really thought like that about me. God, I hoped not.
No, I was not a happy camper right now. Exiled to the other side of the Atlantic... Well, I was certainly out of their way. Yet brooding wouldn’t help me. Suppressing another sigh I picked up my laptop and played a bit Heroes V. There was an advantage in round based strategy game. One could also play them with nothing but a touchpad. There was no point in moping around, so I concentrated on wiping out the enemy’s army. Muahaha, nothing could stop the zombie apocalypse! Nothing!
***
“Next stop, Dunwich station!”
The driver announced over the loudspeakers. Finally we were there. While I was glad to get off the train I knew this was just another step into my American exile. I’d really prefered not to be here at all.
Maybe I should just ‘man up’ and deal with it. ‘Man up’ hah... I was turning into a girl for god’s sake. I crack myself up sometimes. Although... it wasn’t all wrong, I mean I could not do anything about the situation anyway. Oh well, it was finally time to get off this train to nowhere. I finished my game an hour ago and was currently reading an e-book on my laptop. Thank god I was able to recharge my batteries while waiting for the train!
Thanks to the internet, I had plenty of e-books to read. Not legally bought, of course. Who would ever spend his hard earned allowance if he could get stuff for free? I certainly wouldn’t. Anyway they could just consider offering books for affordable prices, like 50 cents or better 25. After all, as my father is fond of saying, ‘money doesn’t grow on trees’.
Ah well, it wasn’t entirely riskless, of course. They went after the idiots who didn’t know how to do it right and seriously, I had all that I needed. 13000 books should be enough to last me a lifetime. Hell, even if I had been caught, I did it in Germany and the fines were nothing like the crazy legalized extortion the RIAA was able to get away with in America. Considering the prices for music downloads they could have charged me for trillions of dollars or something.
Shaking my head at the thought, I closed and stowed my laptop in my Rucksack. Next, I grabbed my rolling case. I’d been awake too long and I still had a ways to go before I arrived at the school. Standing up I couldn’t suppress a yawn and slowly rubbed my eyes - It was annoying! Why did my tear ducts need to randomly activate when I was tired?
As I pulled my case towards the exit, I saw my reflection in a window. Gritting my teeth at the hated image, I barely managed to suppress a flinch. It... I looked so feminine, too feminine. I hadn’t exactly been the most manly of men, but I’d been large, maybe six feet and had broad shoulders. Well, I was still large, but now it looked as if my body had been compressed in some ways and extended in others.
It wasn’t all that bad yet. My front wasn’t all that extended, my chest... my... boobs... hadn’t really developed so far. Sure, there were small protrusions and my nipples had grown in after my first experience with my powers, but they weren’t visible under my T-shirt. Thank god for the small favours. Still, I had developed girlish lashes, something I despised, because it made me look as if I’d used makeup. I shuddered. Another thing of girlhood I really, really didn’t need to do. No, my face would stay free of warpaint.
After the third transformation, or ‘shell activation’ as someone from the local superteam had said, my eyebrows had shrunk. Something had also happened to my jaw bones and now my face looked like a girl’s. Well not really, not yet, but no guy would look this androgynous. And all this had to happen when I’d just grown large and strong enough that nobody would dare to make fun about me being girly, gay, or... whatever. But now...
“Ouch!” I grimaced, barely able to suppress a shout. Maybe I shouldn’t have hit the wall out of frustration. The only place where that left a dent was my hand anyway. Others mutants got the cool powers, but me, I got girly.
I hated that reflection and everything it represented. The total loss of control over my life. The exile from my family. The impending loss of my gender. Hell, I didn’t know what to do. And now my tear ducts were pressing again. It was the bloody oestrogen. The doctors had said even my hormones were changing. While I didn’t want it, I still had to live with it and the loss of control over my emotions. What had I done to deserve this?
A sigh escaped me as I stepped out of the train. At least I hadn’t shrunk. I was still six feet tall, like my dad, and towered over almost all the girls and many guys. While it was another small blessing of course it wasn’t enough to distract me from the fact I was turning into a girl... a bloody girl.
I couldn’t understand it. Becoming female of all things. I hadn’t had much contact with the feminine gender after they’d turned into aliens at the end of primary school. Kids who’d been my friends or at least playmates before suddenly turned into strangers I didn’t and couldn’t understand. They were Aliens who thought it was funnier to bully me about my peculiarities and quirks instead of playing with me.
Well, I’d learned to avoid them. For a long, long time my sister had been the only one who’d actually bothered to understand me, talk to me more than necessary and not shun me as a fag or something. Yet nowadays, even she didn’t want to know me anymore. If my mutation had actually made me a fag... no gay - I didn’t want to use their terminology - I could have understood, but a girl...
*sigh*
I didn’t understand them. If it wasn’t for boobs and sexual attraction there wouldn’t be any reason to interact with these strange creatures at all. Girls... Not that any one of them ever seemed to feel any attraction for me. But then I’d always been a freak or a fag... or so was the school’s consensus. Maybe it would be better at Whateley...
And cows fly! A cynical laugh escaped me. Not likely. I’d changed schools once already, and well, it had changed nothing at all then. The bullies changed, but my situation didn’t. The only difference now was that was becoming one of the girls, but even that would probably only change the taunts.
I didn’t want to. I wanted to be at home, I wanted friends, I wanted my family. I didn’t want to be one of these strange Aliens that seemed to love doing pointless crap like playing grownup and volunteering for housework. I hugged myself. How could anyone ever do that voluntarily? Even my sister had gone through that phase... and saddled me with several new housework duties in the process. Girls were insane and now I was joining them.
Shaking my head about my defeatist attitude, I found myself more or less alone on the far end of the platform. The train piped, ready to continue on its track. I should probably go, other teenagers did the same. Looking towards the station building I saw a girl carrying two suitcases in one hand, each looking like a small wardrobe. Next to her was a boy who somehow levitated his travelling bag. They and another group that was talking to each other on the far end were striding towards the reception building. They were obviously mutants and probably my school mates. I decided to follow.
“Hey, are you going to Whateley, too?” A girl called out from behind me, surprising me. Was the girl asking me or someone else?
I turned around and saw a rather petite girl with fire red hair. Altogether she looked really strange. She was a black person, black like someone from the deepest part of Africa, yet her facial features were decidedly Asian - no, she wasn’t just an Afro-American with slanted-eyes, but a decidedly Asian person with black skin. Her strange but beautiful looks were complemented by her small frame, she was maybe 1.50 meters tall. I’d never seen someone that looked like her before, making me wonder about her story.
“Ähm... Hi...” I said, trying to crumb my barely passable active English into a coherent sentence. “Yes... I am going to Whateley... Who are you?”
“Hi, to you, too. My name’s Lisa. You’re not from here, are you?”
I shook my head. “I’m from Germany. Ähm... I forgot to introduce me. I’m Jan.”
Lisa waved and then, with another happy giggle, motioned for me to follow or join her as she walked past me. That was strange, she was a girl and she was being nice to me. I decided to follow her, there was no point in standing around stupidly and maybe I could make a friend. She seemed nice so far, but then so did others. Suddenly Lisa tilted her head, looking curiously at me as if she wanted to ask something. Then she looked away.
Scratching her head for a moment, Lisa glanced at me again. “Say, what are your powers? I can do pyrokinesis.”
“That... sounds impressive,” I had to admit. “Mine are not so... great. I can only activate a... shell which makes me a bit stronger, a bit faster and a bit more resistant to... Krams... ähm... I mean stuff.” Crap! It really sucked to translate stuff in one’s head while talking. While I had intensively practiced with Dad, well, after I’d surrendered to my parents plan to send me away that is, I still wasn’t all that great.
She nodded, thinking for a moment. “Well, mine are destructive, really destructive.” She sighed. “I have a fire armour that’s as hot as lava, I can spew fire over 150 feet and do really weird stuff to things I hold in my hands. Maybe that will be useful. I can’t wait for the power testing!”
I shrugged. I had no real powers, apart from the fact I was weirdly athletic in my shell form. But then it wasn’t like I really planned to become a superhero, so powers weren’t all that important. While it might have been nice to be able to shoot lasers from my eyes, I could imagine doing better stuff with my life. I certainly didn’t want to risk it battling super powered criminals. Hell this was way more trouble than it could ever be worth. What would I give to turn back to my normal male self and forget about this clusterfuck?
Despite the fact I’d almost lost myself in thoughts Lisa was still looking at me, so I decided to do the polite thing and reply. “Ähm... I guess this power testing doesn’t matter all that much for me.” I shrugged again. “You’re... fire resistant... right?”
“Yeah, thank god!” Lisa nodded her head enthusiastically. “If I wasn’t I’d burned to ashes the first time I’d activated my powers.”
“There are others who… don’t have such protection,” I said sombrely. After the incident when my powers activated for the first time, I’d learned Mutations were dangerous in that regard.
On one hand you could get awesome powers, but on the other hand these powers could also be self-destructive. These Evolution Rocks! People were fools, they forgot about the other side. Evolution always sucked for the rejects and in this case the rejects weren’t some plants or animals, but people. Dead people if they weren’t capable to resist the effects of their own powers. Looking at Lisa’s case in specific meant that having a Lava armour, while not immune against the heat would have meant a cooked Lisa... or a burned one... or a vaporised one.
“Hey, you two,” an older man said grumpily from the side. “You’re going to Whateley, right?”
He may have been in a bad mood, but I was grateful for his distractions from my morbid thoughts.
Not really trusting my English, I only nodded while Lisa did the talking. “Yeah, and?”
“Well, just go over there,” he pointed in the direction of the building where the other mutant students had gone. “There’s a special room with free drinks and stuff for you.”
“Thank you.” His directions had been kind of obvious, but whatever, it didn’t hurt to be polite. His grumpiness was kind of understandable. Standing at a platform to direct kids into a waiting room must suck as a job.
Lisa just shrugged and we continued on our way. The man was strange. People doing their jobs had been rather friendly so far - like I’d heard about americans. He was more like a German railroad worker. Those dudes used to be public officials and couldn’t be fired... well, you can guess the corporate culture. Although, better this than the other option. He could have also pulled a gun on us. What was it with Americans and their guns? Did they still want to play Cowboys and Indians after they’d wiped out the latter? Whatever, that was a question for another time because I had not seen anyone walking around with guns.
As soon as we were out of hearing range of the man, Lisa continued our conversation about power problems. “We can count ourselves lucky...” The redhead said with a smile, just as we entered the station building. “I’m quite happy with how my transformation turned out.”
I glanced over at her and I guess I could see why she might be happy. It looked like all she got out of the deal was black skin and that kind of made her look more exotic instead of a gender freak like me. "Hmm..." I absently nodded as I worked out a way to reply to her statement, but I was distracted by the happenings in the room.
A few other students had already arrived and made up a few groups of their own. I could only hope they’d break them up for the introduction as I’d hate to be an outsider before the school had even started. Meanwhile the ‘special’ room was like all waiting rooms, still stinking of the cleaning agents, with an old pinball machine standing in one corner and an even older payphone in the other. I doubted it would work if I actually tried. Apart from the scruffy looking seats there was also a table with magazines that seemed to be decades old. The newspaper on top had a date from eighty seven.
Lisa glanced around the room for a second before turning back to me. “I guess your change isn’t going that fast... Well mine didn’t really either in the beginning, but well it’s almost finished, I hope. Say, what makeup did you use?”
What?! Wait, what did she just say? I guess I should have paid more attention to her because she completely blindsided me with that question. “I don’t use makeup!” I said, rather confused about the sudden change in topic.
“Well, you should,” Lisa frowned before perking up again. “It would really make you look more feminine and highlight your best features. I’m certain if you’d use some nobody would be able to tell you were a guy once. But I can understand that you wouldn’t want to use it on a flight. I mean it would look really bad if it smeared and you couldn’t restore it.” She smiled understandingly. “How is your transformation progressing anyway? Mine is almost done. Did you ever consider…”
How did she know I was turning into a girl? Was it this obvious already? And why the hell would I want to show off my girlhood anyway? I didn’t want it in the first place!
“My transformation... is progressing too fast,” I said coolly, interrupting her rambling. How she could just assume this was what I wanted was beyond me. Her upbeat attitude made her easy to talk to, but apparently it had also rotted her brains. Annoying...
Obviously not listening to what I’d said, she continued: “What is your favourite nail polish?”
I grimaced. Great, another one that didn’t give a shit. Apparently, I was just a dummy to practice small-talk or something. Hell, she wasn’t interested in my opinion at all. God I was so sick of this. Why did I always get the assholes?
“I don’t care about nail polish.” I gritted my teeth in frustration. “I don’t care about makeup either!” I was getting louder, almost shouting. “And, I certainly don’t like becoming a girl! It’s progressing too fast! Thank you very much for listening.”
This said, I turned around and walked away. I really didn’t need this crap again. It was always the same: Girls that only talked to you, because they were bored and had about as much empathy for you as they had for a potato. Or maybe she was one of these... freaks like my old natural science teacher. That... woman had actually declared men stupid for having a penis. Thank you very much. I really didn’t need that kind of bigot for a friend. Awesome for her if she got more beautiful when she mutated, yet for me it was nothing but a bloody clusterfuck. Hell, she couldn’t even bother to listen when I told her how I felt about it. Hopefully I wouldn’t become like that. So disgustingly self-centred.
Well, she wasn’t the only one in the room. Looking around I saw a few other groups of students. I strolled towards a group of guys. They were talking too fast though, I only understood snippets of their conversations and really, was watching people race in circles really that interesting? Watching car-races was something my grandpa did. Well, had done. He was dead... I guess it would have been different if they’d talked about Stargate because then I could have joined in. But this? No way. In some ways it was even worse than nail polish.
Well, there was nothing I could do about it. Shrugging to myself I went towards a not-so-grimy looking bench in a corner of the room. I mostly wanted to be left alone anyway. As long as they didn’t bully me I didn’t care anymore. Humans were nasty creatures and I was really sick of being the target for general nastiness. Maybe I should become a hermit or something and leave the assholes behind once and for all.
Shooting a last glare at nail-polish-Lisa, I sat down and took out my book. My tear ducts were pressing again and the only thing I could do to spare my dignity was suppressing the urge to cry. It was the same as usual. As a boy you were either good at sports or an outsider and apparently as a girl you had to care about this makeup beauty shit. Why the hell couldn’t they just accept me as the person I was? If I knew whoever invented gender, I’d probably kill him or her. How could people expect me to care about this shit? It was bad enough as a guy, but now I had to learn a new batch of pointless crap! Or maybe not, I could just decide to do nothing about it.
Experience had taught me brooding wouldn’t help and it didn’t look like anyone wanted to come to me to make friends either. Wiping a few tears from my eyes, I focussed on my book. Even reading the new Harry Potter novel again would be better than moping around. It was pretty well written in my opinion, but the end was… well, I’d expected Harry to either rock more or maybe kill Voldemort in a more mundane method - Like dying from a broken neck or something. At least Harry finally used some unforgivables, his being light got really silly. Yet once again, Rowling managed to screw up by using Ron as a plot device and not a respectable character of his own. I shook my head. Why did she always do that to my favourite character? He was smart, lazy, had annoying siblings and intrusive parents. I could really sympathize with the guy.
Well, maybe reading English stuff would help me learn the language better. Right now this whole affair looked like a train wreck coming. My first attempt at socialisation had failed already and it didn’t seem like change was coming. The fact I sucked speaking English didn’t help either. God, I didn’t want to know how horrible my accent must have been. Trying to forget all the crap, I moved deeper into the corner and buried my nose in the book. Hopefully the world and my troubles would just go away if I ignored them long enough.
Time passed. We were supposed to be picked up at four PM, but the only train I could take had arrived at 3:15pm forcing me to wait, and wait and wait. Nobody ever came to talk to me. Whatever, reading my book was fine. Meanwhile I watched other students arriving. Some came with long distance buses, others took a later train. Pretty much punctual at four o’clock an adult arrived.
She was a tall Asian woman, whose presence silenced the room. Arriving in the centre she raised her voice: “Alright everyone, listen up! I am Mrs. Shugendo and I’m the Dean of Students at Whateley Academy.” She paused a moment to look at everyone. “There are two shuttles here for transport. I’m going to call off your names alphabetically. When I call out your name, let me know who you are, and then go out to the vans. Now, I know that you have a lot of questions - but, unless it’s an Emergency, save it for when we get to the school.”
‘Yes, Ma’am, we hear and obey’. I thought. It looked like she was one of the loud teachers. One of those who were trying to play one of the drill sergeants from the movies or something. Strange thing to see in a woman though. Nonetheless, I really preferred the calm and reasonable type. Persons that actually had something like humour and didn’t always speak in commanding tone. They were easier to get along with.
Well, after she’d finished her short announcement we all were hurried out of the waiting room and got sorted into the shuttles. Why they did this alphabetically was a mystery to me. The inevitable happened and Chaos ensued. It would have been way faster if they’d just told us to take a place. When I finally got into my shuttle, I ended up sitting at a window, allowing me to watch the environment. Really, it was for the best. The shuttle rocked way too much for me to read. How my green haired seatmate was managing to play with his Gameboy was a mystery to me. He was busy and didn’t give me a glance. Not knowing his game I decided to ignore him.
I actually enjoyed the ride. The scenery was pretty fantastic, even though I’d been pretty much hardened against romantic beauty of nature and towns by my parents who had forced me and my sister to visit too many sights in my childhood. Beautiful would always mean boring old buildings for me. If I ever got a girlfriend, I’d probably need another adjective to praise her, using beautiful would feel like an insult.
When we left the town of Dunwich we also left civilisation, or so the driver said. It was a rather scary thought that such a sleepy place counted as civilisation here. Strange thing was they actually had a train station, considering the lack of a Walmart or one of these malls that I heard were so common in the United States.
Continuing our drive into the middle of nowhere I saw several entrances to campsites along the way. Other roads through the mountains also crossed our path. It began to tire me, I really only wanted to sleep. Why couldn’t they just teleport us from the station? They were a mutant academy. Certainly there had to be some super scientist, right?
I guess my tiredness had overwhelmed me and I dozed off for a short time. But then, the rumbling of the shuttle changed and I looked up. We were on a better road, driving straight into the mountains. Shortly afterwards an impressive stone wall appeared in my view. Our bus passed it through an equally impressive iron gate, opening the view on the campus.
We’d finally arrived at Whateley Academy. Looking outside I saw several red brick buildings dotting the grounds as well as a few newer concrete buildings and a strange crystal looking geodesic glass dome. I wondered about its purpose, but only a few moments later I was ripped from my thoughts as we’d arrived at our goal. The shuttles had stopped in front of another one of these red brick buildings. It was apparently the so called colonial style... whatever that was.
After leaving the shuttle, I grabbed my rolling case and followed the other students inside of the building. A plaque over the entrance said ‘Poe Cottage’ and from the whispers of the others I could tell that the name came from a famous American author. The bust in the entrance hall apparently was said authors likeness . We left our luggage in front of it and followed Mrs. Shugendo towards a door.
“Everyone come in here,” she said, almost shouting as she waved us into a large common room with comfy sofas and chairs.
We sat down, while the Dean of Students called in some other people. Then she addressed us all: "Well! Welcome to Whateley Academy! Now, you’ll get the formal Welcoming speech from the Headmistress along with all the other freshmen, but this little talk is just for YOU. Now, the reason that you were all told to come here a day ahead of the other Freshmen, and the reason that you’re being put up in this dormitory is that you all have something in common that sets you apart from the other students, even beyond your individual mutations. You are what is currently called ‘Alternative Lifestyle’ types.”
Great, so we were segregated for our freakishness. She even used euphemisms. Okay, maybe I was a bit cynical, but seriously what else was I supposed to think?
Not caring about my silent doubts at all, Mrs. Shugendo continued her speech: “You are Gay, Lesbian, Transgendered, or so aggressively bisexual that it is an issue for you. We don’t condemn you for this; you didn’t really have a choice in it, any more than you chose to be mutants. We realize that it’s hard going through adolescence. We realize that it’s even harder when you’re a mutant. You have enough to put up with already, you don’t need the extra aggravation of being branded a quote sexual deviant unquote.”
Well, she had a point, but didn’t she just set us up for future troubles? If anyone found out about this everyone in this cottage would get a target painted on their back. Why couldn’t they just enforce a policy of tolerance instead of this stupid segregation?
“Unfortunately, homophobic bias is so deeply ingrained in the American, Canadian and British school systems, and to a lesser extent in the European schools, that letting you go around openly declaring that you’re Gay or Lesbian or Bi or Transgendered is just asking for trouble. So, we have Poe Cottage, a place where you don’t have to worry about the kids down the hall finding out, because they already know about you, and you already know about them.”
So because nobody can be bothered to teach those idiots tolerance we have to lie to everyone, always fearing to be found out. Great and if it should happen anyway I’d get another freak out like my sister’s or silent rejection. On the other hand, maybe the others might understand. Or not, considering Lisa. Just because I was turning into a girl I didn’t want to show off my ‘girlishness’.
“Now, while we are very proud of the fact that you were brave and honest enough to admit your... persuasion during on your admittance forms, I’m afraid that we’re going to have to ask you to curb that honesty. I’m afraid that it’s a matter of your continued safety. There are students here who have been victimized quite cruelly. And, unfortunately, those who have been hurt that way tend to be the cruellest of all, when they find someone that they can pass that pain on to. And in our society, homosexuals and ‘fellow travellers’ are still considered fair game for that sort of thing. Given the abilities that students at Whateley have, a ‘Gay Bashing’ could turn deadly, even Apocalyptic. It is, simply said, easier for all involved, if it simply doesn’t become an issue. If your sense of pride demands that you come out of the closet, then you have a right to. But please, have consideration for the other people here at Poe, and don’t reveal the overall status here.”
So we just had to live with the big secret and the Damocles sword over our heads. Awesome, really, just what I always wanted. Not! So my parents sent me to a school that catered to superpowered gay bashers and actually supported that behaviour by isolating the alternate sexuality types from the rest. On the other hand I had to admit she had a point. Humans are evil and if they have an opportunity to torture another one they’ll gladly and happily use it, especially if they can feel good about it, because their victim is a freak who deserves it or simply get away with it. After my own experiences I’d stopped wondering why Nazism was so popular in my home country once. It was obvious. Humans are just feral beasts, waiting for a convenient target to destroy.
“The reason that you were brought here a day before the more... mainstream Freshmen, is twofold- to give you a day to get used to the campus before the others get here, and so that you will sort of be part of the background when they get here. This will give you a certain... credibility that should allow you to make connections more easily. Nobody out of the know will be able to intrude into your private life and find things out you don’t want to. Yes... Miss?”
I had raised my hand. “Edler,” I said, deciding to ignore the gender issue for now. “Jan Edler. I’ve got a question... How... How do you prevent everyone from finding out about us? I mean... someone’s got to... got to add one and two together... and find the answer.” Okay, not so great saying, but then just try to make up phrases in a foreign language.
The Dean of students nodded. “Yes, sooner or later someone will out themselves by accident and if such occasions always happen in Poe, they couldn’t miss it you mean?”
“Yes,” I agreed. “I don’t think this is very... secure.”
“Yeah,” a black dude next to me said, raising his voice. “I’ve been victim to gay bashing before and strength in numbers doesn’t help, they just wait to get you alone.”
“I can assure you that we’ve powerful magic in place to prevent people realizing Poe’s real meaning. The official story is that Poe residents are slightly insane.”
I could barely suppress a groan. So instead of the sexual deviants we were the drooling retards. How was that supposed to be better?
“You just declare us insane if we show homosexual behaviour or someone finds out we’re transgendered?” A strong looking person asked. I wasn’t sure if she was a jock going girl or a girl going superman. “Will you also put us on drugs to keep us quiet?”
Someone was more paranoid than I. Even Americans couldn’t be that barbaric, could they?
“No we don’t declare all of you insane,” Mrs. Shugendo shook her head. “It is a well-known rumour among the campus that there are ‘head cases’ amongst the Poe population. Ergo Poe is not known as a cottage where you’d want to reside, so we don’t need to fear that people would try to transfer from other cottages.”
So that was the way they kept others out and avoided declaring all of us crazy. Interesting, we might not even end up totally isolated from the rest of the campus. Being the school-fag was bad enough. I didn’t need another four years as one of the ‘tards.
The Dean of Students continued her speech: “The other students expect somewhat weird behaviour, so they’re more likely to see what we want them to see instead of the truth. The fact that the last year’s class was extraordinarily wacky only helped to keep up this illusion. Though I hope you won’t turn out to be troublemakers like them.”
Two of her student minions were indiscreetly looking at the third. Apparently the Goth looking girl was one of the trouble makers. It looked as if she wanted to protest, yet whatever she’d planned was interrupted as the Dean of Students continued her explanation: Even though the administration knew of their alternate sexualities it was still girl/girl and boy/boy bunking. They didn’t want to scare the parents and otherwise the bunking plans would have given off ‘the secret’ anyway. Not that I understood how someone unauthorized would ever get those plans...
We also weren’t allowed to do sexual acts. It wasn’t like they had a snowball chance in hell to actually prevent this, but it wasn’t my problem anyway... as if someone like me had a chance to find someone... Well, they probably had to say it or they could get sued. I guess that’s America, if I remembered correctly, microwave producers could be sued if they didn’t warn you that microwaves weren’t meant to dry pets. In Germany you’d get thrown to prison for cruelty to animals. Some independent thought could be expected.
Whatever. We were told that we shouldn’t use our powers outside on the campus grounds for the next two days until we were told the rules in some kind of general assembly. Then the Dean introduced the middle aged woman who stood in the corner from the beginning. She was Mrs. Horton, the housemother, and took the explanation over after the usual pleasantries. She told us about the layout of the cottage, explained that they’d added a new wing over the summer holidays to keep track with the growing number of mutants and reminded us we were responsible for our own laundry.
The latter scared me. I’d never washed my own laundry, being ‘responsible for laundry’ always meant to put it in a basket on the floor so mom could carry it away and wash it. I had no idea how to adjust a washing machine correctly. Why should I? Those were girl skills... parent skills. At times dad also did the laundry. Crap, I didn’t know how to do it. Mom and dad had been more worried about my english skills, than something like this. Worry, bordering on a slight panic was turning my stomach around.God, what was I supposed to do? If I ever asked, everyone would think I was a total idiot, and trying stuff alone I might very well destroy my clothes. I didn’t need T-shirts two sizes too small... This didn’t sound good at all.
Meanwhile the housemother talked on, forcing me to shelve my worries and listen. I learned that while there was a kitchen, meals were to be served at the campus dining room. Food left in the kitchen was more or less open game for everyone, but there were also ‘studio coolers’ in each room where we could store our personal stuff. Just when she told us about the bathrooms and the community rooms my attention slipped for a second.
*Yawn!* “Uaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh,” I yawned, trying to keep awake.
“Miss Edler, am I too boring?” The housemother asked.
‘I am not a MISS!!! Don’t call me that!’ I grimaced. I was a dude that had a girly problem. Not a Miss. Whatever the reason for this misunderstanding, I would make them stop. I didn’t look that girly, certainly I could still pass for a guy... Now was not the time for this though, I didn’t want to piss her off more than I already had. She might be the next best thing to a parent for the next few years.
“I’m tired,” I said quickly. Couldn’t she tell I wasn’t from around here? “And please don’t call me miss, I am male.”
The housemother shrugged. “We can talk about how to address you later...” She said and gave me a slightly suspicious look. “”Well, you’re yawning...jet lag?”
I nodded in response. I’d been woken up at four am, flown for thirteen hours - with stopover in Amsterdam - and now it was maybe five pm local time. Of course I was tired.
“Alright,” Mrs. Horton continued. “I’m pretty much done anyway. You’ll only have to stay awake during the campus tour, although I’m certain Miss Goodkind can shorten this a bit. If you can, you should try to avoid sleeping before dinner. I fear Jet lags have to be toughed out.”
She was right, sleeping right now wouldn’t be a good idea. But... Goodkind?! What poor soul was struck with that name at a mutant High School? They were the richest family of the world and their antimutant stance was as well-known as criticized. Named Goodkind at a mutant high school probably was as bad as being named Hitler or Himmler at the Tel Aviv University. Or maybe not. At least the Goodkinds hadn’t started mutant death camps... as far as I knew. From the whispers around me I wasn’t the only one who thought the name strange.
“I guess I should introduce my other willing minions,” the housemother grinned. “They’ll do your campus tour. Here we have Ayla Goodkind,” she said, pointing at the spikey haired punk looking girl.
Ok, she probably wasn’t one of those Goodkinds. They would never have worn anything but Armani and Prada... no they wouldn’t, those were Brands. They’d probably just employed a top clothing designer themselves. None of them would wear punk, even that Heather showgirl wouldn’t. And naming their kid Ayla? No way in hell people like the Goodkinds would name their kid after some kind of stone age pop fiction. I just couldn’t believe that. Hell, my mother had read it...
“And here we have... Rip,” Mrs. Horton said, introducing her next minion by pointing at a beautiful Hispanic girl, “and Steve Rossiter.” He was a rather good looking boy.
She proceeded to call us by name and directed us to one of the three guides. It didn’t take long and it was my turn. “Jan Edler,” the housemother called. “Please go to Miss Goodkind.” Why did they always have to speak my name like ‘eeedler’, it was more like ‘eydlair’. Well, it was probably inevitable, considering the language difference.
Going over to her, I only saw one other girl with her, but I couldn’t remember her name. Regrettably, I didn’t get a convenient brain upgrade with my mutation. Looking around, I realized that most of the students got sorted to the two other guides. Either they had a real strange way to sort students, or they were segregating us once again. Maybe if I’d really been a girl, I’d made a scene, yet I knew it wouldn’t help me at all. I’d been exiled here and pissing off the administration wouldn’t help at all.
It didn’t take long and others joined us. The telekinetic boy I’d seen on the station was in my group as well as a few girls. Then, nail-polish-Lisa was called out and I learned her last name. Apparently, it was Wong. I tried not to glare at her - it was hard - since I knew that being a source of hostility in a new group was never a good way to make friends. Not that I expected to make any, but I didn’t want to paint a target on my back either.
Apart from that Ayla girl, the two other guides looked outright beautiful. Although in Ayla’s case it was mostly her clothing that gave her a rather mannish look, her body looked great. They weren’t the only ones, many of the other new students looked like they escaped from a beauty contest. There were only a few unremarkable people and no one that was outright ugly. If I remembered correctly the reason was that they were exemplars, which meant people were either beauties or turned into hideous monsters.
Thankfully, that was a problem I didn’t have. Growing scales on top of boobs was more than my sanity could survive, I feared. Well right now I had other things to worry about. *Yawn* Namely surviving the campus tour without falling asleep walking.
“Okay, everyone is here...,” Ayla said when we were eight new students in her group. “Considering that Jan is barely staying awake, I guess we should hurry a bit. We’ll start with a tour of the buildings. Please follow me.”
She led us out of the building to a sunny spot on the green in front of it. It was pretty warm outside and I pulled off my jacket, while Ayla turned around to face us all.
“Um... why did you separate us from the others?” The telekinesis boy asked. He was a rather handsome example of the white bread variant of the human species. Not a bodybuilder type, but handsome... Did I just really think that? I? A guy... handsome?!
I saw Lisa nod, as well as a few other girls. “Yes,” I said. “Why do you separate us again? First by alternate sexuality... and what now? Why?”
“Well, Rip took the lesbian girls, and Steve makes the tour for the gay boys,” Ayla explained slowly. Maybe she feared I didn’t understand her. “We are the gender challenged group, or changelings as my predecessor used to say.”
I snorted. Yeah, gender challenged was a nice way to put it. I certainly felt challenged with my recent changes. Hell, I got some “super” powers, with a very small “super”, grew small boobs, got exiled to America and now people actually expected me to act like a girl. Challenged was an understatement. At least I wasn’t the only one.
“So... alright,” Ayla said. “I guess we begin with an introduction round. Everyone can tell how they became a mutant and what happened since then. Maybe you could also tell how you feel about your transformation or the lack of it.” She paused for a moment. “Well, I should probably begin. Considering the whispers a short while ago I’m pretty certain you’re all curious about my last name. To cut it short, yes, I am one of those Goodkinds. I was born Trevor James Goodkind and used to be a scion of our main family branch. Well, no more.” She sighed. “One day I woke up and phased out of my pyjama, went down the stairs and phased through them. My parents totally freaked and delivered me to Dr. Hammond,” she grimaced, slightly baring her teeth.
“Hammond! Are you serious?” One of the girls exclaimed. Her name was Susan or something.
Ayla just nodded and sighed. “Yeah, Susan, unfortunately I am serious. He tortured me with experiments for a week. Then my family left me with my sister who’d also been disowned for being transgendered. When my sister freed me from the testing suit I got the shock of my life. I’d suddenly grown breasts and a girlish figure. That said, I’m not happy with my BIT at all. I’m a guy in my mind, but my body doesn’t care. I can’t get rid of these,” she pointed at her breasts. “I guess I have a killer body for a girl, but I’d rather have a weak, geekish guy body than this.” She or maybe he stopped for a moment to take a breath. “I guess I should tell you, I still have my penis and twice the testosterone level of a normal teenage boy, but I also have twice the oestrogen level. Nobody really understands what is going on.”
Wow... and I was bitter about mobbing in school. How could she smile like this after her family had betrayed her like that? Well, not really everyone. She still had her sister. Mine just decided a freak like me wasn’t family. Even mom and dad just got rid of me. Supreme education... pha. There had to be a school that wasn’t on the other side of the globe.
“Is there something you can do about it?” I asked curiously, maybe she knew something that could help me.
She shook her head. “Not really, I have a really fucked up BIT... Actually, it’s multiple BITs which are interfering with each other and that makes it even more problematic. My last try to change it with devisor power was sabotaged by an asshole... and no magician who isn’t totally ruthless will ever try transforming someone with a BIT.” She shuddered. “The last time someone tried they apparently invited some kind of demon into their target or at least drove the poor woman insane.”
Crap, I could only hope I didn’t have such a BIT-thing. Those that had them were apparently stuck. “Crap,” I said.
“Yes,” Ayla agreed, “crap indeed.”
“Um...” John, the telekinetic guy, began. “So the richest family in the world left you penniless with your sister?”
“They tried,” Ayla grimaced. “Until my uncle realized it was rather awkward to have a disowned mutant daughter of the family running around who could tell every media outlet in the world her story. Instead of the billions I should have inherited at my eighteenth birthday they forced me to accept 300 million as a settlement. They’ve pretty much disowned me.”
While that was complaining on a very high level, I could somewhat understand her. It would be like if my parents kicked me out with 1000€ on my bank account. At least mine didn’t wash their hands of me. “So they gave you money... for the promise... that you wouldn’t tell anyone important about it?” I asked.
Ayla nodded. “That’s pretty much it. Enough about me, Jan, how would you like to begin telling your story.”
“My story?” I echoed shocked. I had been too fascinated by her story to consider telling my own. “Ähm... Okay... I think... Well, I was born as Jan Edler and am still known as Jan.”
“Isn’t Jan a girl’s name?” A small, green haired girl asked, her name was Ashley, if I recalled correctly. “Didn’t you say you were a guy?”
Oops... I shot a look towards Lisa. I’d introduced myself as Jan, so maybe that was the reason she assumed I wanted to be a girl. She also looked a bit uncomfortable with herself. Well, that’s what you got for assuming things.
“Jan is a boy’s name in Germany,” I explained. “I don’t want to be a girl.”
“Okay,” Hunter shrugged. “So how comes you’re turning into a girl?”
“I don’t really know either,” I had to admit. “Well, the evening before my mutation... powers happened for the first time, I watched Kim Possible and dreamed about her in the night. Then, the next day... it was actually the second last day of school... some bullies called me queer... a fag... and an insufferable geek.. I think... and looked like they were going to attack me or something. Well... Ähm... I readied myself to defend myself... when they suddenly jumped back in shock. Apparently, I’d activated some kind of... telekinetic manifestor shell... thing... or so the superheroes that... who were called in afterwards said.” I scratched my head thinking, until I found the right words. “The secretary totally freaked about my transformation... but thankfully the headmaster kept a cool head... She wanted to call the MCO... I don’t understand why they would want to be bothered with something like that.”
“Sure...” Ayla said slowly.
“What?” I asked confused. Did she have an issue with the MCO? I thought the Goodkinds were their greatest sponsors? “What would they want with me? I thought they exist to stop criminal supers.”
“They are quite... broad defining what criminal is concerning mutants. They mostly police mutant supers,” Ayla explained. “So yes, they might have very well bothered with something like that.”
That didn’t sound well at all, but I wasn’t quite sure what she meant. “So... you mean if those bullies... had said I’d hit them... they’d put me into prison?”
“In the best case,” our guide grimaced as if remembering something unpleasant. “In the worst case they’d just disappear you.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe I used to fund them.”
“Ouch,” Lisa said. “Have some experiences of your own?”
“Yes,” Ayla said. “But I can talk about it later, now it’s Jan’s turn.”
“Well... where was I?”
“The secretary freaked while the headmaster kept a cool head,” Ayla prompted.
“Ähm... Well... then, in the headmaster’s office... I’d already realized I’d somehow grown boobs under my t-shirt... but when... someone gave me a mirror... I saw that I looked like Kim Possible.”
“Seriously? Kim Possible?” another girl asked, I didn’t exactly remember her name. No, it was Felicia.
“Yeah, apparently it had somehow... what’s the word... imprinted on my mutation. But that’s not the worst thing..., I couldn’t turn it off.”
“Now it’s obviously off, though,” Susan stated. “You don’t look like KP.”
I nodded. “Yes, it is. ... It didn’t turn off for the day though... only when I slept it turned off. My sister... my sister decided to disown me before.” I grimaced, balling my fists. “When I’d finally gotten home... my sister declared a freak like me... was no... broth... sibling of hers.”
“That sucks, I’m sorry,” said Ayla politely.
“Well, my parents didn’t seem too happy with her..., but they also sent me here... maybe they just wanted to get rid of me.”
“I don’t want to intrude, but maybe you want to tell us,” Ayla said, “You’re obviously not happy about the girl transformation, but what is problem?”
“Well, apart from the fact... that every time I somehow activate the shell I can’t deactivate it... well until I fall asleep, that is. It also changes my body... every time it activates I look more like a girl afterwards... It just sucks!” Moisture had snuck out of my tear ducts again. Fuck the oestrogen!
“So you have MATD?” Ayla asked and elaborated, seeing my confused look: “Manifestation Augmented Tissue Deformity. It means your shell changes your skin and body to fit its own version of you.”
“Ah,” I said. “No that’s not it... The Doctor said it was like my body slowly turned into a girl ...whenever the shell is... on... One time my boobs grew... the next... the next time my... I got egg... ovaries that produced oestrogen.... He said that wouldn’t happen with this... manifestor syndrome thing.”
“MATD,” Ayla corrected. “Well, MATD works faster with some people than others. Belle, an upperclassgirl of mine was already a full girl when she arrived at Whateley, but then Marty still looks like a shrimpy boy under her shell. Although I’ve heard there has been some progress in her case. You should be able to find out about it at Power Testing.” She took a breath. “Alright, I guess you can’t change that for now and they’ve enrolled you as a girl since that seems the direction where your transformation is heading.”
“Um... if you don’t want to be a girl and are growing ovaries,” yet another girl, Sam, said, tilting her head curiously. “Why didn’t you just have them surgically removed?
“I tried...” I admitted, “but the Doctor wouldn’t do it! … Didn’t want to... neuter... castrate me... he said... I was emotionally troubled.” God, speaking English all the time was hard. Remembering the right words and remember using English grammar... My head hurt from needing to concentrate all the time.
“Might not work anyway,” Ayla shrugged. “If you have a BIT or regen they would most likely just regrow. I know the problem. Hell, I share it,” she sighed and gave me a serious look. “You don’t like becoming a girl, but were enrolled as one. We need to talk about the rules pertaining to that later.”
Pertaining? What did that mean again? Regarding... relating to something. How...
“Do you want to tell us something else?” she asked.
Shaking my head I said: “Not really... I don’t know anything about being a girl... and I don’t want to know.” That should have been what they cared for. Well, there was also the fact I that I spent my summer holidays playing games on my PC, but that wasn’t really interesting. My parents had finally bought a flat-rate internet connection so I could surf without worrying about the costs. A nice change for once.
“Alright,” Ayla said giving me a last sympathizing look. Then she focussed on my neighbour. “Susan, what happened to you?”
“Well, I knew that I was a girl since I was a little kid,” the beautiful blonde began. My parents named me Toby though,” she smiled at us. “Well I think first they just indulged me, but when they realized I was serious about being a girl they went to a doctor. It became more and more obvious that I was a transsexual and I even attended school as a girl. My mutation came as a total surprise, a very happy surprise when I woke up and realized my nipples were swollen. I’d only been on puberty blockers until then. Well, I continued to attend my normal school, even if I had to hide my abilities at sports, so nobody would find out I was a mutant.” She sighed. “Do you know how hard it is to play weak damsel in distress, when you can beat every guy in arm-wrestling?”
Giggles and chuckles came from the audience. Even I could see the challenge in playing weak beauty when you could really kick their ass.
“Yeah... no professional sports for mutants,” a rather small, unimpressive looking girl said. Her name was Ashley or something. “Not that I would have qualified anyway.”
Susan nodded and continued her story: “So, I still used to go to my own school. Some of my friends knew about my transgendered status, but many didn’t. I didn’t exactly advertise it. Well, I couldn’t really continue, when I discovered my real talent,” she grinned at us. “Apart from turning into a knockout of course. I can make things work that shouldn’t. Well according to scientific theories at least. For me it makes perfect sense. They said I was a devisor.”
Ayla nodded, but the rest of us was just looking confused. Seeing that Ayla explained: “A devisor is a mutant that can somehow influence the rules of the universe to make stuff work that normally wouldn’t. Like time machines or a perpetual motion machine.”
Ok, that sounded like an awesome power in my opinion. If could literally bend the rules of the universe, something like fast-than-light travel shouldn’t be a problem at all.
“Yeah... something like that. Mom and Dad got kind of panicked when I almost blew up my room. We also couldn’t hide that I was a mutant anymore, so they enrolled me here. I guess it can’t hurt to learn more about my powers. That was it, I think. No, I got four siblings.”
*Yawn*
“Sorry,” I quickly said, holding a hand in front of my mouth. “I’m just... tired.”
“It’s alright,” Ayla said. “Susan, you’re done, right? We should just hurry a bit. Lisa, can you tell your story next?”
“Sure,” the girl I’d thought a bimbo said. “To start in the same vein as the others, I was born Lucas Wong. In case you wondered, both of my parents were of Asian descent, my pigmentation change was the first sign I was a mutant. My eyes had only slightly changed pigmentation. Nothing really noticeable. I hadn’t realized it myself before. Well, we were living in the conservative south... and well, H1 had one of the largest member percentages in the nation. My parents fled as soon as they could, we couldn’t risk living there anymore.”
Ouch... driven from their home. Why exactly did I need to be such an ass?
“Mom and dad home-schooled me from then on, but somehow someone realized I was a mutant and told one of the H1 fuckers.” She clenched her fists. “One night they came and raided our home.” She sniffed. “They shot... shot mom and dad... and I kind of snapped. I don’t know what happened afterwards. The next time I woke up was in a hospital and my home was burned to the ground. The MCO tried to arrest me for the murder of my parents of course, but I got help.”
Of course? Shit was the MCO really that bad? Like some anti-mutant Gestapo or Stasi? God, how had my world changed... I really hadn’t expected that. Sure, they arrested evil mutants, but that was their job. Not hunting children who’d manifested for the first time. It sounded like they were infested by H1 members. I could only hope that it was only the American MCO. Hopefully it wasn’t the same way at home. Well, Germany should have learned from the Nazis.
Everyone looked shocked, and eerie silence reigned. Then Susan hugged her. “I’m sorry.”
An expression of surprise played over Lisa’s face, but then she hugged Susan back. “You don’t need to,” she said. “It’s not your fault... Mom and dad always used to say that I should always try my best and never let myself down. I’ll follow their last wish.”
Oh crap. I’d been high and mighty about her stupid assumption and here I was thinking she was an asshole solely based on a few superficial observations.
“What are your powers and how do you feel about your gender?” Ayla asked calmly.
Lisa shrugged. “Well, I love being a girl. I never liked being a boy much and all my friends were girls… I guess I was transgendered, but I didn’t realize it before I was a teen. I wanted to talk to my parents about my feelings, but then my mutation happened.”
Great, I probably made an enemy out of her thanks to a stupid misunderstanding. How could she possibly be so happy, so nice with everything that happened to her? In her place, I’d be scowling at everybody. Looking to the ground, I could barely suppress another yawn. Here, in this case, it wouldn’t have helped at all.
Seeing Ayla’s inquisitive look she continued: “Well, powers, I don’t know what powers I had in the beginning, but after the attack on our home…” she sniffed again, “and the subsequent burnout I have powerful fire telekinesis. Should I demonstrate?”
She shot me a nasty look, which made me fear for my ass. Ouch, she looked really miffed at me. I just glared back, but I probably deserved it.
“No, please not,” Ayla said, quickly shaking her head. “Thanks for explaining, but we need to get finished before Jan here collapses. Okay…”
The others introduced themselves, John was born as a girl and used to live with his radical feminist single mother. When she began to turn into a boy the mother totally freaked and kicked him out.
“Kicked you out?” Susan asked shocked. “Why the heck?”
“Apparently, I was a traitor to my gender and should have been aborted as a foetus - like my brothers,” John said bitterly. “When she went for her guns, I just ran.”
“That’s just evil!” Susan exclaimed and quickly embraced him. She seemed to be the toucy-feely type and a real nice girl, but so did others...
After Susan let him go, John continued his story. Apparently he knew a mutant superhero from when he was a kid. The guy had retired, but he was willing to help John and also referred him to Whateley. John’s powers weren’t just telekinesis, he was a genuine package deal psychic and could manifest a PK shell as well as read thoughts if he wanted to.
The next one was a rather impressive looking girl, who’d said nothing so far. After identifying herself as Alana or Alan, she instantly demonstrated her powers by shifting into a weak looking guy. Hell, even I had looked more impressive when I was fifteen. While he was a real shifter and could easily shift back, he was like me in that he could only use his powers in girl form. Whenever they activated, he changed into a girl, which was why the administration had forced him to be a girl outside of the dorms. Poor dude, I could certainly sympathize. Well, at least he wasn’t going to be stuck as a girl. For him it was only temporary. His powers also used some strange Telekinesis, but I was too tired to understand how it worked. And too jealous for her shapeshifting.
A Hispanic girl named Felicia followed. She’d been a somewhat macho dude as she’d explained grinning, but when she’d somehow snatched the spirit of Diva with her avatar power in New York that had changed. Apparently, the spirit was more powerful than her avatar trait and was thus able to overpower her personality. It sounded really creepy and more like possession. Ayla said something like that could happen sometimes. While Felicia didn’t have troubles with her gender change at all, I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes. It was creepy enough that I preferred my perpetual gender troubles.
Ashley was the next to tell her story. She was a small, except for her green hair pretty much unremarkable looking girl. Not ugly, but she was one of those girls that sat in the back of the class, never said a word and only ever attract attention when the teacher asks them a question. Her origin was really weird, she’d been abducted by a sexual predator super villain evil scientist who somehow gave her shifter genitalia.
“I don’t want to know what’s wrong in that guys mind,” John exclaimed.
“Yeah that sounds really sick,” Lisa agreed.
An unexpectedly nasty smirk played over Ashley’s face: “Was. Was wrong in that guys mind. When I thought he’d... well, my powers manifested and I zapped him good.”
Shooting lightning in the ground, she demonstrated, leaving some burned grass. “Well he is no more.”
She’d been born as a girl, but if she wanted she could grow herself a dick and shrink or grow her boobs. Apart from her lightning powers she was also a speedster. According to her speedster and electricity where her real powers and the genital shifting was just a remnant from the supervillain’s experiments.
***
“Jan, Jan, wake up!” I heard Susan say, as something was poking into my side.
Wiping my eyes I looked at her. “I am awake, did I miss something?”
“That doesn’t look very awake,” John laughed.
“I think you fell asleep,” Susan grinned. “Saaay... What is Hunters nationality?”
Crap... did I really drift off like that? “Are you sure it was his” Hunter flinched, “ähm... her turn already?”
The nods from the group said the rest. Maybe I really nodded off a bit. And of course I had to miss the introduction of the only person in this group who could possibly understand my situation - considering her reaction to my pronoun usage.
“Ähm... sorry,” I said, forcefully shaking my head to get awake. “I guess I’m a little tired.”
“Understatement of the century,” Ayla remarked as she stepped back on the path, motioning us to follow. “No need to apologize. If anyone is to blame it’s me. We should have gone to the cafeteria and got you some Coffee. Well, I guess that’s what we should do now anyway. It’ll be easier to stay awake for you when you’re moving.”
On the way to the cafeteria Susan filled me in on Hunter who was talking with Alana. I’d totally missed his explanation, since I fell asleep just after Ashley’s story. Apparently I’d continued to stand for a while, until I suddenly collapsed to everyone’s surprise. Susan had caught me with her improved reflexes. Maybe the little nap had helped, or it was the movement, but I felt more awake for now.
“... and her powers are mostly her body and a small magic ability. She can use it for distractions,” Susan concluded, just as we entered the building with the glass dome. Somewhere along the way Ayla had mentioned it was called Crystal hall.
Hunter hadn’t been transgendered before, she’d also been a normal girl. When her eyes changed colour to purple, her body began to grow muscles. According to Susan she looked like a bodybuilder under her clothes. Well, she thanks to her androgynous looks she was going to pose as a dude. Especially since her masculinization was still progressing. She was a Brit and apparently her clitoris had grown into a penis. She’d been shocked, but now she’d learned to live with it. Apparently she still retained her vagina.
“Alright boys and girls,” Ayla said, as we entered the cafeteria. “Now let’s get Jan a good black coffee to keep her awake. Do the rest of you also want some? I think I can convince the cooks to make some for the whole group.”
Ugh... coffee... I wasn’t the big fan of coffee at all. But well, if I wanted to survive the introduction I probably needed some kind of stimulant. Better coffee than something else. No need to try speed. God, I was so tired that I started to find lame rhymes funny.
“Um... where are you from, everyone?” Hunter suddenly asked. “I mean I said I’m from Britain and Jan has a very distinctive German accent, but where’s the rest of you from?”
Crap, I’d hoped my accent wasn’t that bad. Well, hopefully practice really made perfect.
“New York, New York,” Felicia said grinning.
“Bremen, Germany,” I found myself saying.
“Well,” Lisa began. “I was originally from Kansas, but lately I lived in Los Angeles.”
“I’m from Bristol,” Hunter clarified.
“Houston Texas,” John added.
“Me?” Susan said. “I’m from Kanada, Montreal... My mother tongue is English though.”
English? ...ah Montreal was in Quèbec.
“Pocatello, Idaho,” Ashley interjected meekly.
“I’m the odd Australian,” Hunter laughed.
“Hey gals and guys,” Ayla shouted from the counter, interrupting this further introduction. “Can someone please come and help me carry this?”
“Okay,” Hunter said and went over to her. Meanwhile John joined him. The two of them seemed to have befriended each other already. Well, they were both f2m transgenders, so it was probably to be expected.
The coffee was as black as I’d feared and stored in paper cups. I quickly grabbed one from John’s tablet and took a sip. Ugh... god was that Coffee strong, and hot! A shudder went through my body.
“Sorry,” Ayla said. “Coffee like this is supposed to be enjoyed slowly, but we need to hurry, it’s really a shame it has to be like this.”
Yeah, she definitely was a Goodkind - Maybe she’d chosen her name herself... Apologizing for the lacking quality of a coffee to go... what kind of coffee beans had she made the cooks use anyway? Probably the most expensive of the most expensive. Not that I’d know which sorts existed, really. The good thing was that I really felt more awake and it actually tasted drinkable, a novelty for coffee in my opinion.
“Alright everyone, listen please,” she said after we’d all taken our cups. “I guess I should continue our tour. Well, this is the Crystal Hall. Everyone takes their meals here... Well we did, there also are a few other spots where you can eat, but this is generally the best place. You can find your main meal times on your timetables. Um... In case that there is one of you who has special nutritional needs over there is a counter where you can get your food.”
“Ähm...,” I said, tentatively raising my hand. “Do we need to pay for the food?”
Ayla shook her head. “No, the food is provided for free. I thought that in the Whateley Brochure? Anyway, just ask, you don’t need to ask for permission to speak.”
Maybe it was in the brochure, but it wasn’t like I actually read that thing. Mom and dad had decided I went here... forced me into exile. I didn’t care for the particulars, hell, I tried to stop them until the end! Well, pretty much until yesterday.
I shrugged. “Only death is for free and... and it costs your life.”
“Whatever,” Ayla sighed. “Well, you’ll get your meals here.”
The cafeteria was split into two parts, a lower part directly with access to the kitchen and an upper part where people could look down on others. I could guess where the self-declared student elite sat. To my amazement Ayla led us up there and pointed towards a table.
“My team and I usually sit here,” she explained. “You can come to us and ask questions if you need help. Or just talk to one of us in the cottage. Most Poesies are really nice, but of course there are always exceptions.”
Strange, a transgender team among the elite... I’d never expected something like that.
“That’s good to know,” Felicia said. “But where next?”
“Well, there are the weapon ranges and the combat arenas...”
“What. The. Fuck?!?!” Hunter said, barely below shouting volume. “I may look like a bloody body builder, but girl, you can’t be serious. I didn’t come here to learn how to beat people up.”
“I’m a guy,” Ayla said and sighed. “But yes I am serious, and I pretty much thought the same when this was mentioned on my campus tour a year ago. My guide, Belle, she’s still here at Whateley by the way, explained it that way: The very best education is utterly useless if you die a week after you’ve graduated because you can’t defend yourself. This is not a paramilitary camp though. If you want to, or your powers are too weak, you can opt out of the fighting courses and take the survival ones.”
That was what I’d probably do. Hell, as far as I knew my power was to turn into a lookalike of Kim Possible, which really wasn’t all that impressive compared to usual superhero standards. To make it worse I didn’t even have the muscle memory of the cartoon-original. Just thinking back of the time, I actually tried that handstand-salto thing made me shudder... my back had hurt so much afterwards... No Kim Possible stunts for me.
“That’s a very good point, but I haven’t really experienced any threats so far,” Susan interjected, obviously not very happy about the perspective to have to fight.
“Well,” Ayla grinned, shaking her head. “We got into a fight our first night here, then we got into a fight with the self-styled campus alpha’s... then we had a super fight with an A- list supervillain and another fight with him. Last year Halloween a supervillain attacked the campus, but thankfully no students died. Then I had a fight with a major demon over the winter holidays and another fight with the Necromancer on my birthday. And I always thought my life would be rather boring.”
“Yes... that would explain how they happened to be top dogs on the campus. If you won... no survived so many fights you had to be hot shit.
“Interesting,” John laughed. “In the very worst Chinese way.”
“Ähm... John... what do you mean?” I asked confused. “I don’t know that saying.”
“Um... there is supposed to be a Chinese saying, that if a Chinese wishes you an interesting life, they really curse you,” the newly minted guy explained.
“Oh... okay, I guess that makes sense,” I admitted. Then, looking at Ayla, I said. “Please tell me... it’s not like that for everyone.”
“No, apparently our team was extremely unlucky. The security chief says we’re trouble magnets. Anyway, I guess I should show you the ranges and the combat arenas and the way to the power-testing labs,” Ayla said and turned around, to lead us away.
And that was what she did. Thankfully the Coffee kept me awake enough, that I could remember the ways to the different locations reasonably well. She also explained some stuff about the different subjects taught at school and tried to convince us to take basic martial arts. While it sounded interesting and I’d always wanted to learn some cool Karate stuff, I gathered they would force me to use my girl-form - which killed any ideas to actually take it.
Apparently the school had its good guys and bad guys... and bullies... and underdogs, which apparently was the underpowered group, which had extra surveillance for protection from the bullies or something like that. Ayla recommended that we’d try to stick together among us transgendered students and otherwise keep out of group conflicts. According to her trying to solve things via the administration was usually smarter.
“Doing things yourself is really more trouble than it’s worth,” she sighed.
Well, I certainly didn’t plan on any bully busting, or fights with the self-declared campus elite. As long as the resident assholes left me alone, I’d leave them alone. Although... that had always been my policy and didn’t really help me at the normal schools either. Maybe it would here, I could only hope.
After the campus tour and the subsequent visit to the local mad science reactor, we followed Ayla to some kind of Gallery. Apparently, it was possible for the school’s sponsors to immortalize themselves there. There was a cape from Champion reminding everyone of the academy’s importance, a painting of that Wallachian tyrant where he posed with a bust of Dracula and a ton of gold from a Mexican tycoon.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about major supervillains sponsoring the school, but I guess it was better than attacking it. Whateley was supposed to be neutral in the fights between the good and the bad guys. It was probably for the better. Ayla also told us that there was a strict policy, enforced from both sides of the law that declared families of students off limits. Nobody was allowed to attack a student's family to extort them. The last one’s that tried... well, there wasn’t much left of the ‘Tong of the Black Madonna’, after the Whateley association was done with them.
Meanwhile that Tycoon...I wasn’t quite sure what to think about her. Apparently, one either understood the meaning of her gift, or one didn’t. She was of the opinion that those who didn’t understand couldn’t understand. Rather arrogant in my opinion, but then she probably had reason for her arrogance. I wasn’t sure if I was right, but it probably meant, that even the poorest mutant could afford to throw away that much gold. That everyone of us could achieve something like that. I hoped she meant that, since that would have actually given the thing a meaning apart from “I am a rich asshole and can afford it”. Well, better used that way than in stupid, useless jewellery. Why useless stuff like that made some people feel more beautiful, I couldn’t understand.
Afterwards, we returned to the crystal hall to have dinner. I was rather grateful as I wasn’t quite certain which was louder. The growling of my stomach, or my yawning. Twenty two hours awake was too long to stay awake and actually be able to focus on something. Standing up at four am in Germany, then the flight to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to Boston... well, I was already tired when I arrived at Boston airport, then I needed to get to the railway station, plus the train ride to Dunwich, the drive to the Academy and now the campus tour. God, I was so tired. Why couldn’t I have travelled yesterday and stayed for a night in Boston?
The meal was pretty good even if I didn’t really listen to what the others were talking about. I was having a hard enough time just putting food in my mouth. It was impossible to understand them, it was hard enough to avoid dozing off. And a Texan talking while eating? The pure Horror, I can tell you. It already sounds like they have something in their mouths normally, but when they’re eating... No comment. It wasn’t really interesting anyway. It was mostly the transsexual girls talking about makeup, while John was curious how Hunter had grown his muscles.
For the food, well, I’d certainly eaten way worse cafeteria food in kindergarten. This wasn’t warmed up, but recently cooked and as far as I could tell made from fresh ingredients and not just stuff from the can. It was still cafeteria food, but it was palatable. Ayla had something different, it certainly looked better, but that was only to be expected considering her pedigree. I wasn’t a millionaire able to pay the cooks like her.
After dinner, Ayla led us back to our cottage. This time though, she showed us the way through the underground tunnels. Apparently, the connection was recent, built last year in November by the sponsor of another Poe resident. According to our guide, there were rules for the use of powers. We weren’t allowed to show our powers at all on red flag days and GSD students had to stay underground. This seemed really unfair to me, yet it was the way the school worked.
Yellow Flag days meant there were people on campus who thought they were cool with mutants, but that meant for us we were only allowed to show stuff that was also seen on television and wouldn’t scare the visitors. Green Flag days meant we were allowed to do everything that didn’t violate campus or other laws. Considering my lack of powers it shouldn’t be too hard to comply with those rules. Well, as long as I didn’t grew wings overnight... I didn’t want to jinx it, so I said nothing.
There were training/fitness rooms in the basement, as well as a very... alien looking corner that Ayla called Lovecraft room. I’d never read anything from that author, but even I knew he was one for the really weird horror stories. Considering how the door looked, or not looked, how the shades indicated openings, rooms, places that just didn’t exist, it was a room I’d try to avoid. I’d never seen something this alien before.
Leaving the creepy room behind, we went through the boring training rooms and up the stairs. Ayla led up into the first floor and declared it was to be ours since it was closest to the house mother. Mrs. Horton’s room really wasn’t far away.
“You can always go to her whenever you need help,” Ayla said, as she pointed at the door. “Better talk to her than try to live through your problems at all or attempt radical solutions. That will usually get you into more trouble than you had in the first place.”
“Speaking from experience?” John asked grinning.
“Yeah, I told you about my fights when we started the tour right?”
We nodded and Ayla continued: “Well, I guess we could have avoided maybe half of them if we’d talked to Mrs. Horton or someone else in the administration.” She laughed. “Now we have a worse reputation than the cape squad for heroing.”
“Ouch,” I said. Hopefully something like that wouldn’t happen to me. “Ähm... can we get to the rooms please... I’m almost sleeping... starting to sleep?”
“Okay, okay, I’ll hurry,” Ayla said. “You’ve seen the stuff down here already, right? The common room, the kitchen and everything?”
I nodded again and the other girls and guys also agreed. “I’d love to see our rooms,” Susan said.
“Sure, just follow me up the stairs,” our guide said.
When we arrived on the second floor, Ayla turned around to face us again. “Alright, now the more serious stuff. Every one of you will use the bathrooms and facilities of the gender they’re enrolled with. If you’re officially a girl you go to the girl rooms and if you’re officially a boy you use the boy toilets. I hope I don’t really need to say this, but if someone has a little extra down below you won’t remark on it, okay? We have it hard enough as a minority, we really don’t need to start bullying each other. Whatever you may think about it, the other person is most likely suffering even worse than you are.”
“What about the lesbians... or maybe the gay-boys?” John asked, quickly glancing at the girls... and me. “I guess my mother was a... special case, but I can see some of them being not so supportive with us.”
“Yess...” Ayla sighed. “That might happen. Try to ignore them and tell Mrs. Horton or one of your gender bendered upperclassmen. We’ll try to resolve it without resorting to violence. I really hope we don’t have another Sharisha incident.” Seeing our confused looks she elaborated: “Sorry, trip down the memory lane. Tempest really pissed off my roommate with transphobic comments and Chou went berserk on her. I hope that something like that won’t happen in your year, but... well, people are people. Just stick together and you’ll overcome them all.”
“Tempest, do you mean that Sharisha... thing, person?” Hunter asked, rubbing his forehead.
Ayla nodded. “Yeah, Tempest is Sharisha’s codename. Really fits with her temper... she wouldn’t appreciate being called a thing, though. Forget about it, I shouldn’t have mentioned it anyway. It reminds me though. You all will have to choose Codenames and you’ll have to do that carefully. Codenames are a bitch to change.”
“Wait,” Felicia interjected. “What about those of us who don’t plan to become a hero... or villain?”
“You also need to choose one,” Ayla explained. “They collect your power testing results under your Codename to make it harder to identify you. Everything that involves your mutant powers and you don’t want to have tied to your real name will be done under your Codename. Hell, I know many students here only by codename.”
“So it’s a campus fashion of a sort?” Susan asked.
“Sort of,” Ayla said. “Everyone has one and everyone needs one, but most people still go by their real names with their friends. My friends don’t call me Phase, they call me Ayla. Others only call me Phase, though. That’s why you need to be really careful choosing your names, or you might end up with something really ambiguous or embarrassing. Most people go with something referring to their powers, but there are other possibilities. If you need help, you can always ask me for advice.”
Ugh... a codename? What would work for me? KP? Force-shift? Nah... I didn’t like that. It was too much like Star Wars. Not a good name in my opinion. Girl-power? Like Hell! Now way. Maybe I should wait until I was rested before thinking about it, right now I could only think up crap.
“So what now?” Lisa asked. “What should we do next?”
“You’re going to choose your rooms,” Ayla said. “The transgendered students are always the first to pick, so I’d recommend that you stick together. Just to be close if someone needs help. I need to talk with you Lisa,” she looked at the black redhead, “and you Jan,” now I was subject to her stare, “the rest of you can go. Just remember there are no single rooms and we expect you to bunk together. Try to find pairings that go well with each other.”
When the others had gone, Ayla addressed us again. “Okay, you two come with me into the sunroom over there. We need to talk.”
What the hell was that about? I wanted a room and a bed, not a serious talk. Especially not with Lisa. That would be too awkward. While I grumbled, I still went. Even though I was dead tired, I wasn’t stupid enough to protest. It wouldn’t help and pissing off Ayla was a bad idea. Even though she was a Goodkind, it was obvious she knew people and had some power on campus. Not one of the obvious alpha types, but one of those who pulled the strings in the background and made things happen. I really wasn’t the smartest person socially... no, that was euphemistic. I was bloody stupid socially, but even I realized Ayla was a good person to have for a friend.
Closing the door behind us, Ayla motioned towards some armchairs, while she jumped onto the couch in the corner. When both Lisa and I had taken place, Ayla began: “Alright, I’ve waited long enough, but now I want to know. What the hell is wrong with you two? I saw angry glances, I saw ashamed looks, I saw that you were feeling guilty and I also saw that you did nothing about it. What’s up?”
I shot a look at Lisa, but she didn’t look like she wanted to answer.
“A misunderstanding, I guess,” I shrugged.
“Lisa?” Ayla asked, raising her eyebrows.
“Well, Jan totally freaked out on me, when I wanted to talk to her about stuff?”
“Stuff...” I snorted. “I told you I didn’t like transforming into a girl... but then you go and continue to ask me about makeup and nail polish. Sorry that I assumed you were making fun of me.” Tears started to well from my eyes - stupid hormones - as continued whispering bitterly. “You certainly wouldn’t have been the first one.”
It was always the same. Either people were asses to me, or I pissed off the nice ones. Why did I always fuck up my life? God, I could tear my hairs out. Hopelessly angry at myself, angry with the situation and somewhat desperate I balled my fists when it happened. Something welled up from inside me, consuming anger and filling despair. My balance changed and I suddenly felt something hanging on my chest, pressing against the T-shirt.
“Crap,” I said. “The day had started so well and now at the last minute I still transformed. Fuck!
Lisa had looked to the ground after my declaration. “You... You said... I thought your transformation was too slow... I... I’m sorry, I just assumed,” Lisa sniffed. “You even had a girl-name... even if it was not... I was so happy being a girl. It just felt so right. I never thought...” She looked up. “Oh...”
“I’m sorry too,” I said, trying to rub the tears from my eyes. “I shouldn’t have just assumed the worst. You just wanted to be nice...even with all the crap that happened to you... and I... I was a total ass.” The tears didn’t want to stop flowing. I really felt bad about this incident. Fucking hormones. But I had really screwed it up. Just because people had treated me like crap that didn’t mean everyone would. “I’m such an ass I deserve to be turned into a girl!”
“You weren’t an ass, I was,” Lisa protested. “You told me... and I just prattled on. I guess that’s your girl-form right?”
I sniffed and nodded. Yeah, that was my girl form, a distorted, stretched Kim Possible.
She tilted her head curiously. “Um... why did you activate it?”
“I’d also like to know that myself,” Ayla said. “I thought you’d jump her.”
“Did I say something like ‘by the power of Girlsskull, I smite you evil foe’!” I snarked. “It just activates when I feel like crap or super angry, or ready to defend myself.”
“I don’t think the phrase really went like that,”Lisa said, grinning at me with still tear filled eyes.
“So it really was just a misunderstanding,” Ayla resumed our problem. “I’m glad. You girls... guys think you’ll get along with each other now?”
Lisa nodded and so did I, still wiping my tired, teary eyes. Suddenly, within the time of a blink, or so it seemed to me, I found myself in a hug. Her boobs pressing against my manifested ones, sending tickling feelings down my spine. To my own surprise I reciprocated, hugging her back and pressing her against me.
“I’m sorry, I was an ass,” Lisa whispered, still sniffing a bit.
“Me too,” I said. And a moment later: “Want to be friends?”
“Yeah.”
“Phew,” Ayla sighed. “That’s great!” She continued to mumble, more to herself than talking to us: “and it seems like Mrs. Potter was wrong for once,” she shook her head and focussed at us. An amused smile played over her face: “Well, now that you’ve guys have reconciled you get to be roomies.”
#tbc
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AN: Like most authors I'm greateful for feedback. Comments are welcome, just try to keep your critic constructive. Anyway, thank you for reading this story, I hope you enjoyed it.
Jan's tale 2 - Waking up at Whateley Academy
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Jan’s Tale 2
First Morning at Whateley Academy Jan is not a happy camper. As if his life didn't suck enough already, turning into a mutant was everything but an improvement. Jan didn't get real superpowers, Jan got to be girly. To make it worse his parents decided in their unimaginable wisdom that exile to America was the solution for his problems. He is not so sure though.
Copyright © 2013 Beyogi
All Rights Reserved. Thanks to djkauf for editing.
Thanks to my proofreaders Drawflow, landing, DAW, Janet and last but not least Sleethr for their help. Picture Credit to mking2008 |
Disclaimer: This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but since it's fan fiction, who cares? To see the canon Whateley Stories, check out www.crystalhall.org
*Yawn*. My sleep had been good, but it was still early in the morning. Only a little, reddish colored light shone through the drapes of the window. On top, on the upper bunk, Lisa was breathing calmly, apparently still sleeping. God, the beds were comfy. Even though the first sunrays were tickling my face I didn’t feel like getting out of bed. Snuggling myself into the covers was so much better.
The school’s beds were so much better than I’d feared. Hell, it could have been like our school trip to a youth hostel near the Polish border in eighth grade. It was horrible. My back still hurt when I thought about that trip! The beds... a shudder ran over me and I drew the covers under my nose. The beds even had a chipboard instead of a slatted frame and the mattresses were so old that they were probably made in the DDR (aka communist-East-Germany).
Thanks goodness it wasn’t like this here. No, the bedding was nice and warm, and overall even though I was awake, I was too lazy to get up. I could only hope I wouldn’t always feel like this, or I’d have problems making it to my classes on time.
Anyway, I hadn’t done much yesterday. After our talk with Ayla, we got the last room remaining and we quickly took our stuff up from the first floor. I only did the very necessary minimum; not even unpacking my rolling case. The only things I took out were my pajamas and I immediately followed that up by throwing them on and apologizing to the other changelings. The jet lag was killing me and I doubted anyone would resent me for turning in early. I hoped. Whatever they’d done afterwards, I had no idea, because I fell asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.
But that was yesterday, and now that I was awake and rested, I had some time to think about stuff in peace and quiet. Stuff like my fellow changelings. They certainly seemed nicer than my former classmates and I actually had something in common with them - which might be why I wasn’t isolated already. Instead of being the computer addicted, slightly overweight and asthmatic geek everyone thought was a fag, I just was one of them, the gender challenged. Ha! Gender Challenged. Political correctness can be funny sometimes, but it felt kind of nice to be part of a group and not be the outsider freak.
Only Alana could really understand me though. The rest of them... hell, they were actually happy with the stuff that happened to them! Although if I was honest with myself, Lisa could probably understand - a little. The way I felt now was the way she had felt before. There was also Hunter; she’d flinched when she’d been called a he for the first time. But the rest... Well, we were half the group already.
At least people here wouldn’t be asses if I wore boyish clothes or didn’t use makeup, or didn’t care about my hair... Or maybe they’d still give me shit, because they’d expect me to ‘adjust to my new gender’ as the stupid doctor had said. Seriously... Just adjust to my new gender. Even Susan or Lisa couldn’t possibly get what it was like to lose one’s gender. They knew what it was like when it suddenly got right, but for me... Something that had been somewhat right before now just felt wrong. Alien.
Crap, I needed to get my mind out of the rut, because all I was doing was making myself more depressed thinking about it. Seriously, it wasn’t all that bad... It could be way worse. My powers hadn’t killed me... so far, I didn’t grow fur, scales or a tail and I didn’t get some mental illness like Diedricks. While I didn’t understand girls, I had to admit that I didn’t understand English six years ago, either. And now here I was in an American high school and actually able to understand the “aliens”. Well, Americans were strange sometimes, but it wasn’t like they were from another planet. Boys, girls, men, women, were the same species. I could only hope... the way girls sometimes behaved... But since evolution hadn’t wiped girls out so far, maybe they also had their advantages... maybe peeing sitting?
Ugh... No. That totally wasn’t worth it! I’d lose it! I didn’t want to become a girl. There I went again. Without distraction I’d work myself up into a depression or something. Hell, I had enough issues to deal with and if I was depressed enough the stupid shell activated on top of the rest! Of course I was the one with the uncontrollable power. Not like others who just got instinctive control about their built-in flamethrower. But not me, God I wish it was so. No, mine activated whenever they wanted. It sucked.
Brooding didn’t bring me closer to a solution, and lying in my bed thinking only made it worse. There was only one solution, I had to get up and do something. Lisa shouldn’t wake if I took the book silently. Putting my covers aside, I stood up. Well... I tried. I didn’t stand for long. I’d totally forgotten about my Rucksack and promptly stumbled over it.
“Ouch!” I yelled, as I fell face first on my rolling case. “Verdammt! Scheiße!”
“Jan?” Lisa said yawning from the top-bunk. “What are you doing?”
“...hurting myself,” I replied, picking myself up. “I... I stumbled over my Rucksack... backpack... rucksack.”
“Rucksack,” Lisa confirmed. “Anyway, what time is it?”
I shrugged, tentatively probing my scratched knees and elbows. “My clock is still running on German time. I’ve no idea.”
“Okay,” Lisa yawned. “I’ll check.” Scrambling into sitting position she released yet another yawn. “It’s alright,” she said, taking an alarm clock from the far side of the wardrobe at the head side of our bed. “It’s only 6.30 am, but I think it’s late enough to get up.”
“Okay... ouch...” I said, holding my bruised knees as I slowly returned to my bed. “Crap... my legs hurt.”
“That’s what you get for scrambling around early in the morning. Decent people still sleep at this time of day.”
“I guess... I’m not decent... indecent,” I said sighing. “Ähm... what... what did you do yesterday... after I went to sleep?”
Legs began to dangle in front of the ladder. “Just talked a bit, but since most of us were tired, too, we just adjourned our meeting until today.”
“Okay... did I miss anything yesterday?” I asked. I really didn’t want to be the uninformed fool... again. “I mean... where are the others bunking?”
“Hunter and John have a room in boy’s town,” Lisa explained as she climbed down the ladder. “Our two shifters bunk together on the opposite side of the floor and the room next to us, on the side of the sunroom is used by Susan and Felicia, who seem to have adopted each other.”
“Good to know,” I said as I stood up groaning. “Scheiß Rucksack!” I kicked it for show.
“Shit rucksack?” Lisa translated grinning at me.
“Yeah... did you do German in school?”
“No,” she shook her head. “It’s not that hard. I mean we also have rucksack in English and all the world knows Scheisse is the favourite German cuss word.”
All the world except for Germany. Although she was right. Scheisse was really the most used German cuss word. Really like the English ‘fuck’. It was pretty much as versatile, too. Well, it was time to really light the room. Groaning, I went over to the window and opened the drapes. Returning to my bunk, I wiped the sleep out of my eyes. Then it happened. I looked at the door, or rather the mirror on it.
“Scheisse! Nein... no,” I exclaimed angrily, almost shouting.
“Jan, what’s up now?” Lisa inquired confused. “Did you stumble over something else?”
“My nose!” I moaned, pointing at the offending part of my anatomy. “It’s shrunk!” God, of course, I should have known last night’s transformation wouldn’t be without consequences. My nose, my manly nose was gone! Instead of my long, straight nose I had this small girlish thing! It was pointed upwards... and so small!
Liquid was dripping out of my tear ducts once again. Blinking, I looked at my roommate. “It looks so girlish... and... and I’m crying again.”
My manly nose was gone... And the day had looked so good. God, I should have just stayed in bed. I’d already begun the day on the wrong foot and it looked as if it was continuing in this vein. I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I don’t know how I got there, but I found myself with my face deeply burrowed in my pillow. Tears continued to run down my cheeks only to be absorbed by the soft fabric. Everything sucked. God, I couldn’t even control my emotions anymore. What happened to the guy who was strong enough not to cry when the local brass music group had played on his granddad’s funeral? If that had happened today I would probably end up crying a fucking river!
“Jan, Jan!” Lisa said even though I stubbornly tried to ignore the world. “Hey, it’s alright.” I felt her sitting down on my bed, but I didn’t care... didn’t want to care. Then she suddenly sniffed loudly: “God you stink!”
“What!” I turned around to glare at her with my tear filled eyes. “I don’t stink!” Crap. There went my plan to ignore her. It was stupid anyway. “Sorry,” I sniffled. “I’m being an ass again. God, I’m throwing a bloody tantrum.”
“Yes, you are,” Lisa sighed. “But you really stink. I guess you still preserved your manly smell... and I guess olfactory cells.”
“Ha ha,” I said. “I really stink?” I shrugged, shaking my head at myself. “Sorry about this... I don’t know... Was it like this for you?”
She shook her head. “You mean mood swings?” I nodded and she continued. “Well, not this bad, but then I didn’t really suffer through a male puberty either. I used to be the small guy... the small Asian guy.”
“Maybe... Maybe Ayla has an idea,” I said, thinking loudly. Something was still bugging me though. “Ähm... do I really stink?”
“All guys do,” Lisa nodded. “But they don’t smell it to our chagrin. I don’t know what’s wrong with your noses, but it seems like you don’t smell anything at all before your clothing stinks like a cage full with skunks. There should be a law forcing guys to shower every morning!”
“I thought once a week was enough,” I said rubbing my nose.
“Disgusting!” Lisa exclaimed. “Um... sorry,” she threw a worried glance at me. “But you should really shower at least once a day.”
Crap... this was news. Why the fuck didn’t anyone ever tell me? Maybe the assholes from school weren’t just mocking me for once when they told me I stunk. Why didn’t my parents say anything? How was I supposed to know? When I was a kid it was enough to shower once a week. Why didn’t anyone tell me when that changed?
“So if my transformation progresses... I won’t need to do that anymore?” I asked seemingly hopeful... I was joking.
Lisa got it and mock-glared at me. “Pig!” Then she continued more subdued: “You really didn’t know?”
“No,” I shook my head. “Nobody ever told me properly. And seriously, who listens to bullies?”
“Ouch... well, apart from your stink...” Lisa said and I glared at her. “Well apart from your... smell you still have your jug ears.”
“Jug ears?” I raised my eyebrows, my ears weren’t that big. “What does that mean?”
“Your large ears,” she rolled her eyes. “Your manly large ears.”
“Very funny,” I rolled my eyes right back at her. “Of course... they had to be the last thing that... changed.” She was right, they really were my usual ears. Not that hers were that much smaller.
“Let’s go showering,” Lisa suggested, grabbing a towel from the cupboard. “You could use some help with your smell - the only alternative would be perfume,” she said, relishing in my disgusted shudders. “and I could also use a cold shower to get awake.” She shook her head. “Nah, a long hot one will do the same.”
Well, it couldn’t hurt to get acquainted with the local bathroom. And I really didn’t want to offend her with my smell if I could avoid it. Despite my stupid tantrum over my nose, Lisa had been pretty nice so far. If that was all she demanded, basic hygiene was something I could do for a favour.
“Okay, von mir aus,” I said before realizing I’d spoken in German. I quickly corrected myself. “Alright, I guess we can go.”
I had looked away while Lisa undressed, but now it was my turn and I hoped she’d do me the same favour. It was really a bit awkward. She was becoming a girl and enjoying it, while I really didn’t want it and regarded myself as a guy. Well, a guy with an awkward body and under strange drugs - aka female hormones - but I was a guy nonetheless.
Quickly hiding my genitals behind a towel, I stood up from the bed after I’d pulled off my pajama. “Okay, I’m okay... ready to go,” I declared.
“Follow me, in case that you missed the location of the bathrooms.” Lisa said, but then she rubbed her forehead. “Say, is there some reason why you spoke English better yesterday evening?”
What? “Ähm...” I said baffled. “I didn’t, did I?”
Lisa raised her eyebrows. “Yeah you did... which is quite strange honestly.”
“I have no idea,” I said shrugging. “I don’t know... why I would speak better English.” Now it was my turn to eye her suspiciously. “Are you sure you’re not... playing a prank on me?”
“No...,” Lisa said scratching her head. “but... ah! You had your shell active, I think.”
“Great,” I said opening the door of our room. “So I get awesome language powers... but only if I use my girlification shell... Ähm...” I looked out on the floor. “Where were the bathrooms again?”
“Over there,” my roommate and hopefully friend said, pointing over the corridor. “Come on, le’s go, I mean while most of the guys are gay I still don’t want to give them a show.”
I didn’t want that either - I still had the stuff they might be interested in after all - so I hurried after her. When we entered the bathrooms I was surprised to realize we weren’t the first. Susan was already there, sitting naked in front of the mirror, shaving her legs.
“Hi, Lisa, Jan,” she greeted us only barely looking up from her work.
Shaving my legs was something I regrettably wasn’t able to do. Not that I wanted to do it, but I had kinda liked the hair on my legs. But it wasn’t to be. My shell made me look like Kim Possible, which apparently included her shaved legs. Stupid shell made me look as girlish as it could. I knew it knew that I wouldn’t shave... or maybe I got paranoid about my powers. But seriously who wouldn’t if their superpower unwillingly turned them into a girl and actually made sure to give them a body completely free of body hair?! Not that I really missed the small stubble at my chin.
“Hi Susan,” both of us replied and I looked around nervously. Should I take my towel into the shower or should I leave it on the cupboard? I didn’t like that idea very much, walking around naked, showing off my freakiness...
“Does your razor work well?” Lisa inquired, distracting me from my depressing thoughts as she looked down at her admittedly slightly hairy legs. “Mine sucks, or I’m just too stupid to use it properly.”
Well, I could somewhat understand her. Red hair on black skin looked too strange. It wasn’t like silly blonde girls - like Susan for example - who felt the need to shave their almost invisible fuzz.
“Um... I guess I could try yours,” Susan suggested. “Or you could check if you do it the same way as I.” Then she focused at me. “Jan, is my pussy really that interesting?”
Oops.
My cheeks must have glowed red like Rudolph’s nose. Crap... Sorry, but was it my fault that I could see it perfectly from my position? I was a teenage guy; It wasn’t my fault I had to shower in the girl’s bathroom? Sheesh, it’s not like you would have been able to resist.
My rebellious thoughts aside I nodded. Lying wouldn’t help here at all.
“Well, I also like it,” Susan said, smiling at me. “It took awhile, but maybe half a month ago it was finally finished. I even had my first period already.”
I wasn’t red anymore, I was green. Fuck, periods... that was something I seriously tried to forget about. I never, ever ever wanted to have those. Nothing human bleeds for a week and still lives. Icky! God, anything but that. My mood was random enough as it was, I didn’t need to add the period on top of it. And I’d lose my dick, and my balls... no way! A shudder ran over me as I moved my hand under my towel, feeling if everything was still there.
Susan giggled. “Everything still hanging?” I nodded awkwardly and continued. “Sorry if I’m intruding, but what happened to you so far. I mean your face looks girlish, but the rest...”
“My nipples grew,” I admitted reluctantly as I touched the grown areola. “And my waist shrunk a bit. I think.” I sighed. “Thankfully my junk stayed normal.”
“Well, mine didn’t,” Lisa exclaimed happily.
I had kind of expected something like that and was sort of curious what was under her towel - mine would look the same way sooner or later - but Ayla had said we shouldn’t ask about it. Still, I couldn’t help to wonder.
“You’re curious?” Lisa asked raising her eyebrows.
I slowly nodded. “Yeah, but Ayla said we shouldn’t...”
“Oh... you remembered that?” Lisa said. “It was about not making fun and annoying others. Look, this is silly.” She suddenly pulled off her towel. “Here, it’s a bit weird, just look and get it out of your system once and for all.”
While this certainly clarified the issue of her genitals I somehow doubted it would be that easy in general. Female hormones or not, I was still interested in girls. And I really didn’t want to change my sexual orientation. Pussies were fascinating... The idea of having my own was... well, maybe even somewhat arousing, but it was also disturbing - I’d had a wet dream/nightmare about it. She was probably right, though. Now that I knew what she had under her towel I wouldn’t gawk - so much.
“As you can see here, this is the remainder of my penis,” she said lifting it up as if she was doing a presentation for school. “And down below my pussy is forming - my balls have been absorbed by my body and somehow became ovaries.”
Indeed, there was a... well, hole under her penis. The penis itself looked like mine did when I was a nine year old boy. Almost shrunken into nothingness. Quite fascinating in a medical sense, if not for the disturbing fact that mine would probably look the same way sometime in to close in the future.
“You wondered about this?” She asked grinning at me, while she waved her boy-penis around. “Well, it’s almost shrunk back into a clitty, but I can still pee standing.”
I looked away, at Susan. God, I didn’t need this explanation. I’d just wanted to know...
“That’s the only thing I miss,” Susan admitted. “I guess I didn’t use it very often, but it was nice to be able to do that.” She shrugged. “Well, you can’t have everything.”
“I can,” Ashley said from behind, spooking me. “Do you want to see?”
Is shook my head as I turned around to look at her. She’d probably realized my embarrassment since she blew me a raspberry. For god’s sake, this was getting awkward. Way, way too much information. I had just wanted to peek on them, get horny and a boner under my towel. I certainly didn’t want to get several genitals shown and explained. This was just disturbing and an unsettling view into my future. Suppressing a shudder, I hoped this future would be quite some time away.
“Sure,” Susan said to my chagrin. “I was wondering how your power worked anyway.”
“Well,” Ashley began, absently pulling at her green hair. “First, you see this,” she pulled her own towel away, allowing us to glance at her hairless and rather beautiful genitals. “And then you see this.” Her labia were closing and a dick sprouted out from under her folds. “It is rather useful if you need to pee,” stated Ashley. “It’s less messy this way.” She proceeded to go to a stall.
Great, why did I need to look again? At least they weren’t mad at me.
“Um, wait a second,” Lisa said, stalling her. “Say, were you this cool about it from the beginning?”
She shook her head. “Hell no, I was totally freaked, but I got used to it and it’s not so bad, really.” She shrugged. “I mean, I could easily be in Jan’s or Ayla’s situation. That would suck.”
“Hm...” I said. I didn’t want to be in my shoes either. But regretfully I was.
“Jaaaan,” Susan said, smirking evilly at me. “Say, we’ve all shown our junk, but we haven’t seen yours... I mean we Americans are supposed to be the prudes.”
I rolled my eyes. Was she serious? She probably had a point though, they’d all done the same. “Okay,” I sighed. I was not happy about this suggestion. “If you really need to see it, but it’s not so big.” Well, I’d seen bigger ones. Especially on those porn stars... Yes, that reminded me off the only good thing that had come from my mutation: Free Net access in my room rocked.
Blushing, I took the towel away... Whatever, they could look, watch my boner if they wanted, I didn’t care. It wasn’t like they didn’t have one of their own once.
“You’ve got issues,” Lisa groaned. “Mine was smaller.”
What did she expect? She told me she hadn’t really started puberty before she turned into a girl.
Ashley shrugged. “Well, I can grow a bigger one, but that doesn’t count.”
She got it easy. Like I would mind to grow boobs if I could also ungrow them.
Susan just grinned. “Nope, mine was bigger.”
Bitch... Well not really, if I was her I’d probably said the same.
“That’s got to be the strangest conversation I’ve ever listened to,” an Afro-American girl said, shaking her head as she came from the showers. She looked at my dick. “My big brother’s is smaller.”
Okay, maybe Afro Americans didn’t really have bigger cocks and the porn stars doped theirs. I quickly hid my junk again, looking away from them. My blush should have been enough to light the whole room. While it was kind of nice to know that it wasn’t as puny as I’d thought, this whole situation was bloody embarrassing.
“Um... this is a bit weird” the new girl said. “I’m curious, what is it like to turn into a girl?” She raised her hands. “Sorry, I phrased this badly, I don’t mean to offend. I’m not like those lesbians who love to bash guys...”
I hadn’t really assumed something like this either. Not after my ASS-umption about Lisa yesterday. If she’d really been a Kampflesbe as we called the militant lesbians in Germany, she’d probably tried to hack off my dick for showing it in a girls’ bathroom.
“You shouldn’t ask us,” Lisa said, nodding towards Susan. “We’ve been transgendered all our lives. Ask Jan here.”
“It sucks,” I said. “It’s really disturbing to see your body change into something you don’t understand. I guess it’s the same way for the GSD people... Although... that’s not the real problem, I think.” Somehow while I was standing here, naked in the bathroom, I felt ready to tell them stuff I’d never admitted otherwise. “I mean the idea of losing it... it’s not that bad.” I blushed. “I actually had fantasies about it and they weren’t nightmares, not really.” I earned a few giggles and smiles. “The real problem is the hormones, everything that comes with them and all the other stuff about girlhood.” A sniff escaped me and it felt like my eyes were getting moist again. “I mean I don’t know shit about being a girl... and what I’ve seen so far is mostly annoying or a waste of time.”
Lisa went over and gave me a hug, while Susan shot a glare at the still anonymous lesbian girl. It was nice to feel their support. None of my old classmates would have done that. Maybe one on one, but in a group they would have always laughed at me.
“Sorry...” she said crestfallen, “I didn’t want to offend.”
“You didn’t,” I said. “It’s just every time I look into the mirror, I see a face I’d like to kiss and not myself.” I looked at the two ex-transsexuals. “You two talked about makeup stuff during dinner yesterday... and I really didn’t get what it was about. I’m supposed to socialize with you, but... but I have no real idea what to talk about. My issues, while interesting, make for rather stale conversation in the long run.”
“Oops, sorry, I didn’t know you felt that way,” Susan admitted. “But we can help you... and talk about different stuff than makeup,” she smiled at me. “Lisa, let’er go, she also needs a hug from me.”
They really wanted to help me? And felt sorry about leaving me out? They were so nice I didn’t want to correct them about the pronoun. She? I was a him, goddamnit! Next moment, I found myself in a big hug by Susan. Pressing herself against me, she revealed her ample breasts and resurrected little Jan in the process. Okay, if they can call me a 'she' all they want if they are willing to hug me while naked in the showers.
“Um, girls,” Ashley said, rolling her eyes at us. “I hope you don’t mind if I jump under the shower. This was interesting and all, but...”
“Yeah it’s getting a bit awkward,” Lisa laughed, then she looked at the lesbian girl. “Um... it was kind of nice talking with you, but who are you?”
“Oh... did I forget to introduce myself? My name’s Julia. Julia Brown,” she said. “Yes, it was nice to talk to you, um... let’s meet later or so, you seem to be alright people.”
With this she turned around and quickly left the bathroom.
“Thanks,” I said to Susan, gently freeing myself from her embrace. “Let’s get cleaned and meet in the sunroom.”
“Sure,” Lisa agreed. “That’s a good idea.”
Ashley just went to the showers and Susan nodded. “Alright, see you later,” Lisa said to them and gently poked me. “Come on, water doesn’t hurt you.” She smiled at me, so I knew she didn’t mean any harm.
Going for the next best shower box I saw a warning sign on the wall. Apparently, we weren’t allowed to use the massage options before class. What the hell was that about? It sounded rather ominous, but I wasn’t curious enough to try. I just wanted to get this done. While public showering was never something I liked to do, it was something I would have preferred right now. I didn’t like being alone at all, since it left a very hollow feeling in my stomach - Not one that couldn’t be filled by food. No, without the security of my family, I craved companionship. God, it was the second day in America and I was already homesick.
Trying to distract myself from the depressing thoughts I turned the water on. Ah... a strong, nice stream massaging my shoulder blades. At least one good thing came from this trip. The showers were better than at home. Why my parents never managed to repair the bloody shower head was beyond me. Seriously, even in Germany water wasn’t that expensive that we could only afford the water to trickle out in drizzle strength - my sister used to call it peeing - of our home’s main shower. No, this was great.
While the feeling of running water on my hairless skin was still somewhat strange, it actually felt nice and if I was honest with myself I had to admit I’d pretty much gotten used to it. In case you wondered, I already knew to be careful with my nipples. It was not that they were that sexually sensitive that I’d get blissed out whenever I touched them, but it could hurt if I wasn’t careful with them.
Something was missing though. “Ähm... does someone have... shampoo... and that stuff for the body,” I shouted out of my cabin. I’d forgotten to take mine out of my luggage.
“I have some,” I heard Lisa say from the cabin next to mine. “I wondered when you’d ask.”
“How...” I began to ask, but then I realized. Yeah, she went out of our room last. Of course she’d seen that I’d forgotten my stuff. She could have said something, though. Whatever, as long as she gave me some of hers I didn’t care. Leaving my shower, I saw her standing sky clad in front of her box. Lisa really was a beauty.
Pressing a bottle of ‘shower gel’ into my hand, she grinned at me. “Well, at least you seem willing to use it. I feared you’d try to tough it out and do the manly thing... showering without soap.”
“Very funny,” I said rolling my eyes. “Thanks... I’ll tell you once I’m done, ok?”
She blew me a raspberry. “Don’t forget the shampoo.”
Like I would... if I showered I did it right. Whatever, I could only hope this stayed an inside joke among the two of us. I didn’t need anyone to ‘know’ that I stank. Hell, once was more than enough for my life. Lisa wasn’t the mean type, though. She’d even made sure to speak quietly, so nobody could overhear us.
I quickly soaped my body, rinsed and asked Lisa for shampoo. Then I repeated the process with my hair. The shampoo was scented and while I probably smelled like a girl afterwards, it wasn’t like I really cared. Considering that I was posing at a girl, wearing girl clothes... and growing boobs, I really didn’t need to care about smelling like a dude - Or care about not smelling like a girl. It wasn’t like I really smelled that much anyway, so I certainly didn’t feel like angsting about it. It simply wasn’t a problem. Actually it was a good idea, it was camouflage without extra work.
When I returned Lisa’s shampoo, she was still fumbling around with her hair. I was supposed to wait for her, she told me. Apparently, she needed a more complicated process than just shampooing it, but then she also had a pretty long mane. Not like me who’d still rather short, boyish hair. Which was no surprise really, since I’d just cut a week before my first manifestation. Well, it wasn’t like I wanted to ‘fix’ the boyish look and I was too lazy to go to the barbers anyway... and also too embarrassed to go outside. Running into ‘classmates’ talking about how the fag was turning into a girl was not my idea of fun. Or they could point at me... Or do something else to humiliate me publically. Or...
Thankfully, Lisa came out of the shower then. It seemed like she hadn’t needed another ten minutes or so. “Hey, why are you standing here, dripping water on the floor?”
I shrugged. What was I supposed to tell her anyway? That I was worrying about stuff in the past? Hell, if I was lucky I’d never see most of those assholes again. She had a point, though, I should probably dry myself, before it evaporated or something. Not that this was very likely to happen in the showers.
I went over to the cupboard and took my towel, rubbing myself dry. Meanwhile, I watched my roommate making a complicated ritual of this normally simple process. Instead of rubbing herself, she patted and then she knotted her towel into a complicated turban - why she did that was a mystery to me.
“So...” I said, trying to begin a conversation. “Ähm...” God, what could I talk about? “Äh... How do you like this school so far?”
“Um... quite well, I think,” Susan said, going to the door. She was naked except for her turban. “The showers are really nice and the food was better than expected... and... well, there also is my nice roommate.”
“Thanks,” I said, blushing a bit as we stepped on the floor. “I wasn’t so sure what to think about this... when they told us about this separation thing.”
It turned out that leaving the bathroom naked - well for Lisa - wasn’t such a great idea as we promptly ran into a guy on his way to the sunroom. The way he looked at Lisa he definitely was none of the gay variant but one of the bisexuals. She squeaked, and pretty much jumped into our room, throwing the door closed behind her.
“I just love dickgirls,” the guy said to no one in specific. “She’s a cute one.”
Good that I hid that region of my anatomy. I really didn’t need a male suitor right now.
Raising my eyebrows I remarked: “Yes... I’m sure... she’ll appreciate your feelings... but could you please step aside?”
He was standing in front of our door, looking at it as if he had radar vision. I really hoped he didn’t... While Lisa was cute and exotic - I could understand his appreciating looks - that would be just too creepy.
“Oh... sorry,” he said and actually stepped aside. “See you later or something.”
Shaking my head, I watched him walk away in the direction of the Sunroom. Just when I wanted to follow Lisa it happened. From one moment to the next something changed. It was as if the corridor was darkening, as if the temperature dropped by a degree. Suddenly, she was standing in front of me. One moment there was nothing but a shadow, but the next this Chinese girl was glaring at me menacingly. That alone would have been strange, the fact she was carrying a sword around in her hand made me slowly back away.
“You’re a danger to the balance,” she stated coolly, slowly raising her sword. “Be careful where you treat lest I’ll be forced to end you.”
It looked as if she was ready to strike. I saw the sword was gleaming with a strange green sheen and thought this were my last seconds on earth. God, I didn’t want to die! Trying to fend her off, I raised my arms - not that it would be very useful against a sword - but then she disappeared as suddenly as she’d appeared in the first place. The shadows vanished and the corridor returned back to normal. I don’t know how long I stood there, shivering and staring to the place where the girl had vanished.
“Um... something wrong with you?” a female voice asked from behind, making me jump with shock.
Was something wrong with me? Did I just imagine that girl? Was she even real? Maybe she was a ghost... there was no trace of her. Another shudder ran through my body. God, she’d really threatened my life!
“Uh um,” the girl harrumphed behind me. Oh... I was still standing in front of the bathroom door.
I quickly stepped aside and said, “Sorry.”
She shook her head, but smiled, “Thanks, no problem.”
I’d never seen her before so she was probably a lesbian girl. Not that I cared right now. The crazy sword-girl had me thoroughly spooked. I was supposed to learn about my powers here... not getting the shit scared out of me. Shivering, I quickly crossed the corridor and followed Lisa into our room. I didn’t want to be alone right now.
When I came into our room, I saw her peeking out from behind an opened wardrobe door. It took me a few deep breaths until I could recover my composure, but then I decided to tease her. Seeing her eye the door was just too silly.
“Maybe you should take two towels next time,” I suggested helpfully as I closed the door behind me.
Lisa nodded as she stepped out from behind her cover, still naked. “Yeah, that would be a good idea, I guess.” She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “Sorry that I disappeared on you... I mean you were talking to me...”
I shrugged, shit happens. Sure, I would have preferred it if she’d been with me and I could have really used some backup against the creepy-sword-girl. On the other hand she probably would have just used another time and a less favorable place to threaten me.
“No problem,” I said, shaking my head about my own stupidity. If I’d been in her situation I’d have reacted the same way. Scratching my head, I asked: “Do you remember what we were talking about?”
“Not sure,” Lisa replied. “I think you weren’t happy about Poe being a LGBT-dorm or something.” She shook her head. “I don’t agree. I prefer it this way, better than having to hide my ‘freakishness’,” she said, pointing at the remainder of her penis, “this way I can be open about everything and don’t need to lie to everyone.”
She had a point. Considering Whateley’s transgender secrecy policy she’d probably been forced to hide it by showering alone or something. No, this definitely was the better option. I guess it would have been nice if we could have been open about this with everyone, but then my own experience had taught me that idea was delusional.
“You’re probably right,” I admitted. “I really hope it doesn’t isolate us... Maybe I’m too inspired by Harry Potter, but I don’t think separating students is a good idea.”
“Definitely too much Harry Potter,” Lisa grinned. “Whateley doesn’t have a house cup, so I guess the cottages are more like sleeping places for everyone but those in Poe and Hawthorne.”
“I hope so,” I said as I crouched to grab a fresh pair of boxers from the luggage. “Crap, I still need to unpack.”
“Yeah I don’t like it either,” Lisa replied, tucking the penis into her panties. “I did some yesterday, but I didn’t want to wake you up...”
While her luggage was open it didn’t seem like she got much done. “Thanks,” I said smiling. “I would have probably spit... spat fire at you or something.”
She shrugged, fumbling around with her bra. “I’m immune, you know.” Right, she was. Manifesting fire was her power. “It’s kinda cool for drying your hair though,” she said, suddenly lighting her hair in flames.”
“Scheisse!” I yelled, jumping back. “Stop! Don’t light the room, girl!”
The flames went out. “No worries, I’ve got everything under control.”
I could only hope so. What did she say, her flames were hot as Lava... Yes, the closer I got to her, the hotter was the air. God gracious, if she’d been too close to the drapes...
“Can you do me a favour in the future?” I asked, opening the window for fresh air. “Please do that somewhere without flammable stuff in the future, like the showers.”
“Okay, okay, but I had everything under control.”
I shrugged. Maybe she had. It wasn’t something I’d be willing to bet my life on, though. Better safe than sorry. Trying to change the topic - it was more than slightly uncomfortable - I pointed at our wardrobe. “Say, how do you want to separate the compartments?”
Lisa opened the doors widely and suggested. “I take the right half and you take the left one?”
I agreed and pulled my old crappy blow drier out of the rolling case. My hair would probably dry on its own, it wasn’t that long yet, but I didn’t want to risk catching a cold. Susan found that odd, considering her suspicious looks, yet she didn’t say anything. After drying my hair I continued to unpack my stuff. While it took some time, I didn’t have any further difficulties. Well, apart from the very annoying fact that all my clothes were girl stuff. Imagine, even the trousers were girl cuts! And considering the shirts... I should have really packed the case myself - mom tricked me! Anyway, why the hell did all these blouses need to show off my nonexistent boobs?
“Um... Jan,” Lisa suddenly interrupted our silent work. She’d completely dressed in her school uniform by now, while I was still running around in my underwear.
“Yes?” I asked, glad that she wanted to start a conversation.
“What do you do for fun?” Lisa inquired, eyeing a skirt of hers before putting it away into her dresser. “I mean we all know our problems now, but nothing about what we do in our free time.”
That was a good point. “Ähm... I like reading,” I said, a bit reluctant to tell her more. I wasn’t sure how she’d think about my gaming hobby... Most girls hated gamers. On the other hand Poe was all about being honest and nice to another... “I also like watching anime and playing computer games,” I admitted. “There is... table tennis? Ping pong... I do ping pong for sports.”
“That’s cool, I read fantasy and detective novels,” Lisa said happily. “I’m a big fan of Ranma and some of the shoujo subs on the net.”
“Ähm... what do you mean with subs? I’ve never heard this name... term before,” I said confused. I got the impression it was some sort of video, well it had to be since she was talking about anime, but I didn’t know what it was.
“Oh... um...” Lisa scratched her head. “Well, I guess it’s just a normal video with subtitles. Sub is just an abbreviation.” She shook her head. “I’m not that big on sport. I guess my dad kinda wanted to push me into football all the time and afterwards I didn’t have time to try one.”
“And what about computer games?” I carefully inquired.
“Well, I like Sims,” she shrugged. “But the rest is kinda boring... and violent.”
Whatever. I rolled my eyes. What did I expect from Miss girly girl. At least we had a similar taste in books and I guess TV shows. Even if she somehow viewed them on the net. Maybe she could give me some pointers; I’d certainly love to see all the Digimon episodes I’d missed as a child.
Seeing her curious looks, I felt prompted to answer her: “Ähm... okay. I’ve played it myself, but it got boring after awhile.” Pulling up the trousers I groaned: “Scheisse... this hurts.”
“Um... I think you need to push down your penis and nuts so they fit better,” Lisa suggested, indicating what she meant with her hands. “Or just wear a skirt...”
No way, they’d get me to wear a skirt. I knew how it would go... I mean what would be next? The makeup? The bra, or the nail-polish? Mom had tried the same with me and I’d actually been gullible enough to try a skirt out... The next thing she did was to try and teach me makeup. No thanks, skirts and I just didn’t go together.
I tried her advice, but it wasn’t all that better “Schei... Shit, where are my real trousers? This is squeezing my nuts!”
“Just fumble around with it, until everything fits. It might not be super comfortable, but it should fit,” she said, rolling her eyes at me. “I mean your junk isn’t that big.”
Fumble around with it... Ha ha, if my old classmates would have heard that. Stupid perverts they were. Yet, I knew what she meant; just play around with my balls until they stopped hurting. Well, it took me maybe a minute, but then I’d sorted my junk. After storing our travelling equipment in a corner of the room both of us were ready to go. I quickly donned a somewhat awkwardly fitting blouse - broad shoulders, you know? - over my undershirt and followed Lisa out.
Coming out of our room we ran into Alan. Apparently he’d decided to shower in his male form in boys town. Oh, how did I envy him! He may have looked like a total weakling, yet even that body was better than having to deal with permanently turning into a girl. Hell, he could be a normal guy as long as he didn’t use his powers and turn into an awesome girl whenever he felt like it. God, I was envious.
My roommate had different concerns; hers were more like keeping the group together, so she told him about our meeting in the sunroom. He only needed to dress, but he promised to come as soon as he could.
“You’re late!” Susan greeted us as we entered the meeting room. “I almost thought you wouldn’t come.”
“You could have knocked at our door,” Lisa suggested, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, but we needed to put away our stuff.” She threw a look at me. “We couldn’t yesterday, you know...”
“Yes... sleeping beauty here was slightly inconvenienced, I remember,” Susan remarked, nodding at me.
I wasn’t that beautiful. No... this sounded like a reference to something. I scratched my head, looking suspiciously at the ex-transsexual. “Sleeping Beauty?” it reminded me of something... the fairytale... “Dornröschen... You mean like the princess in the cursed castle? Who sleeps until she’s kissed awake?”
They all nodded and I groaned: “I hope you didn’t try to find a prince for me.”
An evil smirk played over Susan's face, making me worry. But then she shook her head: “No, but we have another Sleeping Beauty with Felicia. I couldn’t wake her up.”
Well, compared to me, she was actually beautiful. Well, compared to pretty much most normal people. It wouldn’t become an avatar of Diva to be ugly after all. Not that I felt envy or something. It might have been nice if I looked better... if it didn’t mean I’d lose more of my maleness. Even I could appreciate a nice reflection in the mirror - when it didn’t freak me out that is. Seriously, maybe I could actually look beautiful if I bothered - mom had explained that extensively - but I really didn’t want to subject myself to such female torture devices like corsets, nail polish or war paint. No, no further feminization if I could somehow avoid it.
The next moment John and Hunter came in, apparently someone had told them we were meeting. We picked Alana up at her room and went down for breakfast in the Crystall Hall. Passing through the entrance hall, we saw Ayla coming down with a few friends of his. There was this stunningly beautiful redhead with elven ears as well as a floating blue haired girl who looked as if she’d escaped right from an anime. Ayla waved, but the rest of my group was walking out, so I hurried after them.
“Okay guys and girls,” Lisa suddenly declared. “As I told my dear roomie already, it’s a sad fact we don’t really know anything about each other. I mean apart from the general powers and a short origin story... So how do you like school in general, what do you do in your free time? Is there something you really can’t stand?”
“Sure,” Hunter said. “But since you asked, you have the honor to tell first.” He blew her a raspberry, taking the sting out of his words.
“Alright, I guess I should begin with school. I liked learning pretty well, but at my old school most people were jerks.” That garnered a few nods, including me, Alana and Hunter. “Although... when mom and dad homeschooled me, I missed it. Being at home all time is really suffocating.”
Yeah, that I could imagine. Especially for someone as communicative as Lisa. I had my beloved PC and the Internet, so it wasn’t that bad for me, but without it, I’d probably gone nuts. It was the only distraction from my new situation. My parents mostly talked about it, which got old and annoying really fast and my sister stopped talking to me after my first transformation - stupid cow.
Meanwhile, Lisa continued her introduction. “I really love reading fantasy and detective novels and watching animes. Do you guys know Ranma?”
“Yeah,” John said. “the poor guy’s father was almost as bad as dear mom. God, if I was him, I’d rather be a girl than a dude.”
“I wonder what he did in his last life,” I joked, trying to participate in the conversation - I really didn’t want to end up as a loner again. “That amount of bad karma...”
“Makes one wonder what he did to deserve it,” Lisa completed the sentence.
“Um... excuse me, who’s Ranma?” Hunter asked, surprising me. I thought everyone knew about him. Hell, if you knew anime, you knew Ranma. It was one of the shows everyone knew. Dragonball, Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon. Not that I’d ever, ever watched Sailor Moon.
“It’s about a supposedly hyper masculine guy who is turned into a girl whenever he gets splashed with cold water,” Lisa quickly explained. “He’s a martial artist and well... the whole anime is about the author putting him into awkward situation. It’s fun even if you start pitying the dude. Anyway, to return to our main topic. There is one thing I absolutely can’t stand and that’s H1 members.” Her hate filled expression only supported this claim.
“Definitely,” Alana agreed, while Susan gave Lisa a quick hug. “These people really suck! I mean you had it worse, but they crucified my dog.”
Yeah, they’d also killed Lisa’s parents. God, what was happening here? Assaulting a family in their house, crucifying pets? Why couldn’t they control these people? Sure, we also had H1 nutsos in Germany, but they were with the Neo-Nazis and about as popular. Thankfully, their brand of bigotry was obvious for everyone not willfully blind. They didn’t just hate Turkish immigrants, they also hated mutants.
“So who’s next?” Lisa asked, probably trying to distract herself from the bad memories.
“Well, I guess I could say something,” John suggested rolling his eyes. We were passing Melville Cottage, which according to Ayla was the dorm of the snobby and arrogant. Coming from our resident Goodkind that was a harsh judgment, although she’d amended it was really the rich and famous - not that I saw a big difference.
Not sharing my thoughts about a certain cottage, John said: “I wasn’t really a big a fan of school. I guess it was kind of nice to meet my mates, but school was boring and playing computer games was simply more fun.”
Yay! Another gamer. I wasn’t alone after all. Maybe he would be willing to play some games over the school network?
“I like doing track and field, but I guess I can’t compete anymore, which really sucks,” he continued and scratched his head. “Is there something I can’t stand?... Um... Hypocrites, I guess. Self styled liberals who turn around to become total bigots once something contradicts their squeaky clean way of how the world is supposed to work.” Maybe we looked confused, because he added. “Like my mom... mother.”
Yeah, I could understand. Violent hypocrites were the worst. Meanwhile, we were passing Doyle Medical center on our left. It was one of the largest buildings on the grounds... A fact that didn’t exactly make me feel safe on the grounds at all. I mean, why would they need something like this if people didn’t get hurt regularly? Maybe some people loved getting scratched up, but I’d rather avoid visiting that place.
“Sorry, man,” Hunter said, petting Johns shoulder awkwardly. “I can only hope we’ll do better.”
He had a point. I’d never tried claiming to be without prejudices. Everyone had them, I even knew some of mine. Hell, what I’ve seen of the GSD people so far was really creepy. I guess that was unfair, but having fur... or scales... It just looked wrong. Or maybe it was just that I wasn’t used to it. I could try to be open... I would try to be open, but in the end I was prejudiced. Maybe that was the reason of Whateley’s segregation policy; they just tried to keep those most likely hateful of each other out of each others hair.
“Jan?” Lisa said, ripping me from my thoughts. “Don’t you want to tell about yourself?”
“Oh... okay,” I said, quickly thinking about what I wanted to tell them. “Well, I liked school fine, I guess. Well, better than working. It was a bit boring though.” Or too easy. Hell, I used to do homework, but what was the point? I managed to get very good grades without. “Ähm... my hobbies are... I love playing computer games - especially strategy games - and to read fantasy and science fiction. I also used to play ping pong.” Now about the stuff I didn’t like. That was simple. “I hate bullies! I can’t stand people who believe themselves so... so superior that they can make others’ lives miserable.”
I suddenly found myself in another of Lisa’s hugs . What was it with girls and hugs? Although... this obviously meant she liked me. Awesome! Girls out of my family had never hugged me before. It wasn’t worth turning into one though.
“Cool!” John exclaimed. “Do you play WC3 Frozen Throne?” Apparently, he’d stopped listening after I mentioned strategy games, but I was grateful for the distraction.
Quickly nodding, I replied: “Yeah, with my friends on LAN Parties and since I have Net-access in the Battle.net.”
“Maybe we can have a LAN Party or something over the campus-net,” Alana suggested. “That would be soo cool!”
“Geeks!” Susan said, shaking her head. “What’s so great about those games anyway?”
“Um…” Hunter interjected. “You either understand or you don’t. It’s the same like that gold-block.”
“Yeah,” I supported, just as we entered Shuster Hall. “I feel the same way about makeup.”
“Pha,” Susan snorted. “Makeup is necessary, computer games are not.”
Yeah, right… Humanity managed to survive for millennia without, before some Egyptian eunuch priests invented it. If women just decided to stop cheating about their looks, they could do away with it.
“Susan!” Lisa chided, trying to silence her. “Do you want to tell us about your hobbies, school and stuff?”
“Okay,” our resident blonde agreed, “but I’ll try to make it short, I’m kind of hungry. Well, I guess I liked school, but I didn’t like learning very much. Too boring. Going out with friends was waaay more fun. Anyway, I like hanging out with my friends… I didn’t do many sports – for obvious reasons – but I’d love to do some martial arts.”
“Um... I’ve heard Whateley has an awesome course,“ Ashley interjected. “They really teach you useful stuff here.”
“That’s awesome,” Susan nodded. “I said something about my hobbies right? Well, I also love building stuff. But I hate… Nerds!” she said, grinning at us. “Just kidding, there’s nothing I really hate.”
“Phew, I’m glad,” I said. And I really was. I was sick of girls disdaining me for my hobbies. Fuck them!
“Whatever,” John said shrugging as we entered the crystal hall. “Let’s pick a table and get some food.”
This morning there were actually people in the cafeteria. Parents had meals with their kids and I also saw the first GSD cases of my life. They were standing in line at the special needs counter- a green snake girl and some raptor-like creature which looked more like it had escaped from a Jurassic Park movie than resembling a human. I tried not to stare, but people with fur, scales, or really weird body parts? It was hard, God they looked freaky... and fascinating. Shaking my head, I tried to think about something else, Ayla had said something about mind readers after all.
While there were more people around now, it would be way worse once the other students arrived for lunch or dinner. It was kind of hard to believe there used to be only one level in the dining area. Did they pile the students or something? Or limit one’s eating time? I didn’t mind fast food, but I’d rather talk to my friends... friends than gorging down my food.
The breakfast itself was pretty good. Well, it wasn’t perfect, but better than I expected. There were biscuits, more than enough choice at the buffet and even muesli for me to choose. I figured that being curious couldn’t hurt and tried some of the stuff my American cottage-mates took. The food was kind of fatty, but I didn’t care. I was hungry and the stuff was pretty delicious. I could ‘watch my figure’ another time. Not that I cared.
***
“Um... Jan, I’ve been wondering about something...” Ashley said.
“Yes?” I replied curious. “What can I do for you?”
“Well, you mentioned you turn into a Kim Possible look alike.” I nodded, motioning her to continue. “Your voice sounds female, but it really doesn’t sound like Kim Possible at all.”
Yes, my voice. One of the first things that had actually changed. While I’d been quite unhappy about it when it had happened, especially when it got squeaky, I’d gotten somewhat used to it by now. I didn’t even think about it anymore - I’d also kind of missed my first voice change, so it was no surprise I also didn’t really register the second one. It explained why people were accepting me as girl though. I mean I was a manly, ugly looking girl, but with this voice nobody would doubt I was really female.
“Oh,” I said, while Lisa was grinning at me from the other side of the table - she’d obviously figured out the reason. “I told you that I watched some Kim Possible episodes and that somehow influenced my... the template for my shell, right?”
Ashley nodded, but she was still confused. “Yes, and? What about your voice?”
“That’s quite easy,” I said, slightly shaking my head. “I didn’t watch the English originals, but the German translation... I have the voice of the German synchrone sprecher... speaker.”
“Ouch,” John commented from my right.
“Yeah,” Ashley sighed. “I guess... well, I should have guessed that.”
“It’s kinda easy to forget not everyone speaks English as their mother tongue,” Hunter said.
Well, I couldn’t share this sentiment. While all movies were translated, nobody in Germany could miss that there were other languages. Especially with the way English was taking over the German language. Although, considering that the last great attempts to spread German as a mother tongue had been rather... unsuccessful, I probably shouldn’t complain about it. On the other hand, the way English, or rather American, infiltrated my mother tongue was another example of the insidiousness of capitalism... Money was the driving factor. Whatever, not that I cared about language-purity. A conversation about this crap would be skating on thin ice.
Before this the others had finished explaining about their hobbies: It seemed like Hunter was as much a lazy ass as I, Ashley was a little teacher’s pet and Alana did what he had to do. She played Computer games, but wasn’t addicted like John and me. Ashley loved to read romances and do sport, while Hunter was a sports addict who was willing to dabble in E-sports some of the time. For dislikes... Well, unsurprisingly Ashley hated perverts, while Alana declared a strong dislike for the MCO and H1 - I could empathize.
*Ring* *Ring* *Ring*
“Oh man,” Alana said, pulling out a mobile. “Yes, Alana Shepherd here.” She paused a moment, listening to the phone. “Mom, wait a second.” She looked at us. “Guys, I’ll be away for a short time, my family has called,” she announced and went away to sit down at a lone table.
“Crap, I totally forgot about that,” Hunter exclaimed, standing up himself. “I need to call them, they’re probably worried about me.”
Meanwhile, tears were rolling from Lisa’s eyes. Fuck, her family. Reaching over the table, I grabbed her hand. Crap, I hated it when girls were crying and I couldn’t do anything about it. Also reacting, Susan hugged her, trying to calm down my newly found friend.
“Lisa, are you alright?” I asked, instantly chiding myself for the stupid question. “I mean, can I help you?”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry... I just … I just miss them.” She wiped the tears from her eyes. “Thanks Jan, Susan, you can let me go. I’m alright.”
I wasn’t so sure about it, but didn’t know what I could do. “Okay,” I said releasing her hand.
“Eeek!” I squealed, glaring at my neighbor. “Don’t poke me, John.”
He just blew me a raspberry. “Don’t ignore me.” He shook his head. “Um... sorry, Jan, I just wanted to know what’s up with your parents...”
I grimaced - Them... I really didn’t want to think about them lest speak about it. “They dumped me on a plane and sent me to America,” I complained bitterly - they didn’t leave me a choice! “What’s supposed to be with them?”
He actually had the gall to roll his eyes at me. “Did they try to kill you?”
No?! Why the hell would they want to kill me? Although... his mother had... Still what did he want? After shaking my head he continued to ask: “Did they force you to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs?”
“No,” I spat - why the fuck did he ask these ridiculous questions?, “do I look like I have magic?”
“They didn’t force you to eat scraps either, right?” John continued unperturbed.
I wasn’t Harry Potter, nor a runaway kid. Could he get to the point or something? Glaring at him, I nodded - he’d been roasted if I’d been that champion dude from Homer Galerie yesterday.
“Look,” he said. “I can understand you’re angry with the way your sister treated you, but...”
“But what?” I groused, interrupting him. “What gives them the right to send me here?”
“Is it really that bad here?” Lisa asked, blinking with her puffy red eyes.
Was it really that bad? Not really... Everyone was pretty nice so far. I shook my head. No, it wasn’t horrible here, but that didn’t change the fact my parents were unfair assholes!
“Hey,” John began again, raising his hands in a gesture of peace. “Are you aware that Whateley isn’t just the best school for mutants, but also pretty much the only one?”
No, I didn’t. Mutants were just another fringe group before I became on myself. How would I know anyway? Still, considering how many students were here I could hardly believe his claim. Shaking my head, I asked: “Are you sure? There really is no European school?”
“Well there is DeVille Academy,” Ashley corrected. “But that’s not a school you would want to attend. They’re not really a school for mutants, but one for future criminals and secret service agents.”
“Yeah, but what can you expect of a school with that name,” Susan chirped in. “I’ve talked to some upper years yesterday and apparently Poe’s been attacked by some super powered Ninjas from the Yama Dojo last year. They’re some crazy fuckers. I mean they sort of abduct Japanese mutants, brainwash them and educate them to become thieves and murderers for some arcane purpose.”
Okay, that didn’t sound good at all. Better America than soldier for some shadow organization. “Are you serious?” I asked and got grave nods for an answer. “I’ve got to admit those don’t sound like good options, but why couldn’t I just go on a normal school? I mean what good is going to a mutant high school if you don’t have any real powers? Maybe I could have just switched schools or something...”
“Sure,” Lisa interjected. “And every time someone has forgotten to study for a test you’re investigated by the police for distracting someone with your evil mutant powers. I know how that game works.”
Shit... for real? Mutants were a minority, but would they really get away with this Nazi-style kind of crap? My motherland was better than this... I hoped. We had to have learned from history.
“And that’s without considering your gender troubles,” John added. “Even if they couldn’t harass you for your mutant powers they’d harass you for being a ‘queer freak’.”
“Okay, you’re probably right,” I surrendered, considering how reactionary some people were I could easily imagine... Anyway “They called me queer before anything of this happened...”
“Yeah, your parents probably didn’t want to force you through something like that,” Lisa said. “I mean I was... I was kinda pissed at mine,” she said sniffing. “Yet it turns out they’d been right. I only wish they’d been more careful.”
God... she was right and it wasn’t like America had a monopoly on bigoted violent idiots. If something like that happened to my parents... no, I couldn’t let something like that happen. I would never be able to forgive myself. “Shit, I need to call them,” I said jumping up from my chair.
“Girl, wait a second,” John shouted, earning himself another glare. “Um... I mean dude.” He had understood. “Write them over the net and use Skype or Teamspeak. That’ll be way way cheaper than an international call.” Good point. I hadn’t thought about it.
“How do you know?” Lisa asked curiously. “I never called someone outside of the States.”
“My aunt lives in Australia,” he explained, “there are cheaper ways of communication than transcontinental phone calls.”
“Yeah, write an e-mail,” Susan suggested.
I nodded, before I shrugged and sat down again. I still had my cup of cocoa to drink, so there was no point to hurry. Anyway, it couldn’t hurt them to worry a bit. There were still things for me to think about also. Now that I had accepted that I would stay here - not that I’d planned to run away or something - I had to figure out which subjects to choose. I certainly didn’t want to become a superhero, yet it looked as if I might be caught in a fight sooner or later. My shell gave me some minimal armor, but what little testing I had already done confirmed it wasn’t bulletproof.
Ouch... just remembering about that still hurt. No, I could use every little bit of additional skill for survival if my companions were only halfway right. God, I really hoped it wasn’t like this in Germany... It seemed like it was open season on mutants here. There was something seriously wrong with these people. Hopefully, the reason for mom and dad’s behavior was that they’d just been panicked by American mutant websites or something.
Apparently, Hunter had finished his phone call since he was coming back to our table. “Did I miss something?” He asked, sitting down.
“We convinced Jan that her parent’s might not really hate her,” Susan explained, rolling her eyes at me.
I wasn’t a her, goddamnit!
Was it this hard to understand? Yet to say something about it wouldn’t really have helped, so I just ignored that little remark and allowed our conversation to return to less personal topics. The only really interesting thing was when John mentioned that everyone here seemed to play the new revolutionary MMORPG GEO. Apparently, he and Hunter had heard some guys talking about it in the boy’s bathroom and joined in on their conversation. It was supposed to be way better than even World of Warcraft and a revolution for computer games. I’d really wanted to try, but my parents were unwilling to pay the access fees for something like that. Well, now that I had my own allowance and a credit card...
“The game is a total mystery,” Hunter said. “Nobody knows who the developers are, it’s impossible to crack and there is the impossible character finding process.” He shook his head. “Nobody understands how they do it.”
“It’s because it was developed by Whateley alumni,” I suddenly found myself saying.
“Eh? How do you know?” John asked, looking at me curiously.
I shrugged. I had no idea how I knew, yet I knew it was true. I’d just arrived at Whateley and my life had already turned into a mystery novel. That strange vision about the sword-girl, the fact my English seemed to improve when I got tired and now this. Did I have visionary powers or something? Maybe it meant I could do more than just transforming into a girl. That would be cool.
Kinda bored by the other’s conversations I shuffled around on my chair. It wasn’t a good idea since my trousers got out of place and made my nuts hurt again. I grimaced, barely managing to suppress a wince. God, I couldn’t continue like this, or I’d castrate myself before my shell actually managed to vanish my balls.
“Ayla said we could ask her for help, right?” I asked Lisa, interrupting her conversation with Susan.
“Yeah,” Lisa replied. “You remember where she said she usually sits?” I nodded and she continued. “Well, just go there, she should be done by now.”
“Thanks,” I said and stood up quickly, only causing another painful squeeze of my balls. Dear god, why did the Crystall Hall need to be so full? Everyone could see me! I couldn’t just put a hand in my trousers.
***
“What do you think?” The woman asked, making a slight motion towards the new changelings’ table. “Can we use her or will she end us as you feared?”
“The future is in flux,” the young man who was sitting next to her replied. “Others have influenced her already and continue to influence her. I cannot get a stable reading.”
“So what are we supposed to do?”
The young man shrugged. “She may yet reach her potential, be killed or just disappear into mediocrity.”
“So, we will make our play, before they can.”
“No,” he decided. “We need to wait, this much I got. If we move now, we’ll screw everything up. We need to wait... for humanity.”
***
Coming up the stairs to the first level of the cafeteria I stopped cold - and, no, it wasn’t because I’d somehow overlooked it yesterday - tiredness did strange things do me. No, it was the spooky sword girl, again. And this time it was obvious she wasn’t just a vision. She definitely was for real, shoveling food in her mouth, while she was talking to a few obviously friendly people at her table. Were psychos like her even allowed to have friends? How could they be sure she wouldn’t just pull her sword and slit their throats? Truth to be told, she didn’t seem to wear her sword right now, but that was beside them point. You could also murder people with spoons, or so I’d heard.
I quickly pulled my nose back and ran up the stairs to the next level. There was no need for another confrontation. Papa didn’t teach me to be stupid after all. That girl was dangerous. The psycho thing was supposed to be a cover, wasn’t it? What did she say again? Hurt the balance and I kill you?! I didn’t even plan to trip her! Did we really have mentally ill people at Poe? What the hell was she talking about anyway?
Panting a bit from my run up the stairs, I arrived at Ayla’s table. Trying to cool down I listened to their conversation. It was really weird though; she and her friends were talking about some seriously strange shit, making me wonder if there was something wrong with them. For god’s sake, why did they need to talk about Hello Kitty cars, tanks and toothbrushes? In the space of ten seconds! Considering that it was no miracle Miss Horton thought Ayla’s friends a great asset for making everyone believe Poesies were insane.
Hell, if I hadn’t seen Ayla in serious, I’d probably just assumed the same. Ass-Umption... Still, I couldn’t believe someone like Ayla would ever talk about stuff like this. She was the all-business, professional type. This was totally out of character for her, almost schizophrenic, like a comedian who was totally no-fun-guy in private. Strange... although with all the weirdness around, this might just be another mutant ability. One that made me hear insane crap or something. It was just too weird.
“Ähm... sorry,” I said, interrupting the group. “May I borrow Ayla for a few moments?”
“Yes,” the sportive looking black girl replied, grinning at me. “We rent her out for 10,000 dollars an hour.”
“I think that’s too cheap,” the lone guy in the group said as he scratched his head. God what would I have given to look like him! He was maleness incarnate in a really cute way... Did I really just think that?
“Guys!” Ayla protested. “Apart from the fact that Hank’s right, I don’t demand any money for helping housemates.” She tilted her head as if thinking hard. “Well, with the simple stuff because, in spite of what some...” She glared at the black girl who feigned shock and innocence at being singled out. “...people may think, I can’t afford to give away planes for fun.” Clasping her hands together, she stood up and turned to face me. “Hi Jan, what can I do for you?”
Good question. Running up here had sort of freed my nuts, which sort of solved that problem for now, but the creepy sword girl was still around. “Ähm... there is this Asian girl with a green sword at Poe, do you know her?”
“Green sword?” Ayla wrinkled her forehead. “That sounds like Chou... wait, you saw her sword, are you sure?”
I nodded my head, yes, because I definitely remember her threatening to kill me while brandishing a green sword. It was kind of hard to miss..
“Oh, she showed you? She normally doesn’t like showing off her sword to strangers...” Ayla paused, as if confused.
Showed me? I guess that was one way to put it. It was more like held it to my throat!
Meanwhile Ayla shook her head. “Oh, well, but yeah, I know her. What about her? She used to be my roommate.” the sophomore said, motioning me to follow her. “It’s a bit loud here,” she said, rolling her eyes while nodding towards two arguing beauties at the next table. “Let’s see if we can find a quieter corner.”
Creepy sword girl used to be her roommate? How did Ayla survive rooming with someone like her? Thank goodness Lisa wasn’t like that! Sure, she was a bit too girly for my liking, but she was nice. I would have died if I’d been forced to room with that Chou girl. It was bad enough that she was in Poe. Our resident psychopath or something. Rooming with someone like that was unbelievable.
Going to an unused table at the edge of the upper platform, I could see into the kitchen down below. A centaur girl was at the counter, while the cooks were swinging pans on the gigantic stoves. One actually turned the pancake in the air... really like in the movies. I ripped myself loose from the happenings in the kitchens. I could watch this later, right now I had more important things to do.
“Okay, was ist los mit Chou... und was kann ich für dich tun?” Ayla asked after we both had sat down.
What’s up with Chou and what did you want from me... The hell? Ayla was speaking German!
“Du sprichst Deutsch?” I shot back, totally surprised.
“Ja, I’ve learned this in German Camp,” Ayla explained, speaking German fluently. “My family made sure that I learned all major trade languages. I’ve also learned French. Right now I’m studying Spanish here at Whateley.”
“Wow, you’re awesome,” I replied in German and continued in English, “I wish my English was as good as your German.”
“You’re also pretty good,” Ayla said. “No need to be ashamed or something. Anyway, what’s your issue with Chou? She seems to have spooked you thoroughly.”
“Well, she threatened to kill me!” I said, almost shouting “She showed me her sword by waving it in front in my face!” Ayla looked shocked. Obviously, the outcast Goodkind hadn’t expected this. I was in full rant though. “What the fuck is wrong with her? What kind of balance is worth threatening to kill? I didn’t trip her or something, or will she try to kill me if I fall over my own feet?!”
“Crap!” Ayla sighed and rubbed her forehead..
“What crap? Do you know why she went psycho on me?” I asked, impatient for an answer.
She grimaced. “It’s hard to explain. Look, Chou is actually a baseline, just... well, kinda chosen by a supernatural force called Tao. I’m not quite sure what it is, but if I understood Chou correctly it might very well be the consciousness of the universe.” She groaned. “Chou herself wouldn’t threaten you like that... What the hell did you do? I mean that was probably the Tao...”
The Tao? Like Taoist? Chinese mumbo jumbo that was only good for ornaments in Chinese restaurants? That still had believers, and one of the fanatics threatened me? No... Ayla was talking as if it really existed. It was almost unbelievable. The consciousness of the universe! Superpowers got kinda real in May. when that super villainess turned all people in Paris into glass statues... but consciousness of the universe?!
“Are you serious?” I slowly asked, still hoping for denial, yet Ayla shook her head.
“Scheisse,” I said, before I shrugged. “I have no idea what I did... or not did. Although, I guess I already knew that the universe hated me, but it’s kinda disturbing to get the confirmation like that...”
“No,” Ayla said with conviction. “That’s not how the Tao works.” Seeing my confused look she elaborated: “Jan, it’s like this: The handmaid only acts if someone has really fucked up. It’s the order-chaos thing. The Tao doesn’t hate, it doesn’t care for good or evil, but if you change things too far in either direction and the handmaid deals with it.”
What the fuck?! Like to prevent something like the Warhammer 40k universe? But how did that apply to me?
“Ähm Ayla...” I said slowly. “Did the Tao ever pick the wrong one? Because I don’t have awesome enough powers to plunge humanity into chaos. And the other side...” I shook my head. “How would I create too much order? What is too much order anyway? Something like a fascist state that wants to regulate if you brush your teeth from left to right?”
“Nah... you’re not much of a Hitler as far as I can tell,”Ayla thought loudly, resting her head on her hand. “Um... no offense. I didn’t mean it like that...”
Äh, what the hell was she talking about? I’d brought the fascist thing up myself.
“I’d be kinda scared if I compared to him,” I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, so you don’t have an idea what this threats were about?”
“Not really, Ayla shrugged. “Although... You’re a mutant, so it’s probably your powers...”
“Like those are so impressive,” I replied. “I can turn myself into Kim Possible... wohoo.”
“Well, maybe they’re still developing,” Ayla suggested. “I mean Mrs. Potter wanted you to room with Lisa, she doesn’t bother with every student. Hell, the only other case where I remember her interfering directly is Sara... and she’s a demon.”
A demon?! “You know that doesn’t exactly sound reassuring?”
“It isn’t supposed to be reassuring. You’ve got a death threat from the Tao for God’s sake,” Ayla shook her head. “Say, how comes you’re suddenly speaking English so well?”
I shrugged. “No idea... It... sometimes it... just works. But when I think about it... I have troubles. Scheisse! Why did you need to remind me?”
“It’s really strange,” Ayla said, switching to German while she examined me curiously. “You suddenly regained your accent, yet you lost it again when you got angry.”
“I’m glad... I’m glad that I’m an interesting... specimen,” I said, trying to force my English. It didn’t want to come though.
Ayla chuckled. “The power-testing guys will certainly think so. I’ve no idea how your sporadic language talent is supposed to plunge the world into chaos, but I’m sure the geeks at power-testing will find out.” She shook her head. “Anyway, what did you want before Chou came up?”
“This,” I pointed at my trousers or rather my groin. “The stupid girl-trousers were squeezing my nuts...”
“Ouch...” Ayla silently remarked, instinctively crossing her legs - maybe she really was a him. “Well, I’ve always worn boy trousers, but that comes with the risk of someone else finding out about your condition.”
“And that is a bad thing?” I asked, pretty sure I could answer this one myself.
“Well, if you don’t mind the occasional bully, you can do that,” Ayla said. “But I wouldn’t recommend it for you.”
I nodded. Yeah, I didn’t need to end up as the school fag... again! People who were wealthy - like Ayla - or had power got to be ‘eccentric’, everyone else would simply be called ‘weird’ in the same situation. It was quite obvious I couldn’t get away with that.
“So what are my options?” I inquired.
“I doubt you would want to go Jade’s route...” she shook her head thinking. “And everyone else of our group was pretty much done with their transformation when we arrived at Whateley,” Ayla said. “My experiences are rather limited, but you can kinda shove your balls up and tape them.”
A grimace played over my face. Ouch, that didn’t sound very comfortable. Shoving my balls up... how was that supposed to work anyway?
Meanwhile Ayla continued, ignoring my reaction. “I guess you could also talk to Zoe... Zenith. She’s a Senior and used to be in your situation.”
“Used to be?” I echoed.
Ayla grimaced, before nodding. “Yeah... now she’s fully female.”
“Okay...” someone who was already where I never wanted to go. God, seriously, Ayla was lucky. Even if she grew boobs, she got to keep her junk, but I could already mentally prepare for looking like Lisa.
“Well, she has her room in the new wing... I can’t help you with this right now, but I’ll send her your way if I see her at lunch or dinner,” Ayla said, then she slapped her forehead. “Sorry, I almost didn’t think of it, but there is another option.”
“That is?”
“Well, there is this awesome tailor in Dunwich,” Ayla said. “Cecilia Rogers is a bit expensive...” She saw my expression and added grinning. “Well, for middle class people.”
“Phew, now I’m relieved,” I joked. “And I already wondered what kind of shop would be expensive by your standards.”
“Wal-Mart,” Ayla replied deadpan. “They actually want money for their clothes. I wouldn’t wear that crap if they paid me.”
A giggle escaped me to my absolute mortification. Trying to recover my dignity and male mojo I rolled my eyes. Not that I ever bought clothes with Wal-Mart. C&A was cheap enough for me. Wal-Mart couldn’t compete with German discounters anyway. They just sold their stores last year. When I heard it I figured it was German culture or something, but maybe their wares just sucked that much.
Suddenly serious, Ayla sighed. “Actually, I did actually wear some of those clothes, but it’s a long story. Well, I don’t know about your finances, so you might want to consider asking Zoe before buying new clothing.”
“Ookay,” I said. I wouldn’t go and buy expensive clothing if there was another way around my problems. Hopefully, that Zoe could help me. Custom made clothing... well, my parents weren’t the Goodkinds.
Looking down on the lower floor I realized my cottage mates were gone. Just a minute ago they’d been sitting there, talking, yet now the table was clear. Fuck, why couldn’t they wait for me? I had no idea what I was supposed to do and just followed Lisa around.
“Is something wrong?” Ayla asked, throwing me a worried glance.
“Um... yes.” I nodded, pointing downwards. “They’ve left and I’ve no idea what I’m supposed to do now. I guess I should somehow get my schedule, but...” I shrugged.
Socializing had seemed more important, especially since I was around people who were somewhat predispositioned as friends. Now there was this hollow feeling though. The feeling they didn’t really like me and only talked to me because there was nothing better to do... On the other hand I was probably reading too much into it again. I was with Ayla after all, so while it kinda sucked, they probably thought I didn’t rely on them. I should have told them...
“You didn’t get the introduction package?” Ayla inquired, raising her eyebrows.
“No, what introduction package?” Seeing her look, I continued: “Is there something special about it?”
“Not really,” Ayla shook her head. “Except for the fact that every student is supposed to get one... and Tennyo... Billie... the blue haired girl over there,” she said, pointing at the table with her friends. “Didn’t get one last year.”
“I guess there is a story behind it?”
“Yeah, it’s complicated, but she got drawn into an ongoing feud between one of the board members and someone in administration,” Ayla explained, grimacing. “Ugly business. Anyway, so you didn’t get your introduction package?”
I couldn’t or should have known what she was talking about, right?
Rolling my eyes at this stupid question, I nodded. “Yes. And I really have no idea what I’m supposed to do now.” I was really worried. I didn’t want to fuck up my education on the first day in school! “Where do I get my timetable? What am I supposed to do next?”
“Fear is the mind killer,” Ayla declaimed.
What the fuck was she talking about? I didn’t understand. It seemed like a quote... What was it with Americans and their quotes anyway? Only snobs and ‘academics’ used quotes in Germany. Only fools needed quotes, the intelligent could make their own sayings, after all.
Meanwhile Ayla looked at me curiously. “We’ll find a solution, no need to work yourself up. I guess I’ll begin with the introduction package: It is supposed to tell you everything about Whateley and they should have sent it to your home.”
Maybe they did... It wasn’t like I’d really cared about this school. It was bad enough when my parents forced me to fill those application papers. I mean I’d even answered truthfully about my gender issues, since I hoped they wouldn’t take a freak like me. In the end it turned out for the better, but hell, I really hadn’t wanted to go here. Considering how hard I’d tried to convince my parental units to be reasonable - to let me stay at home - they probably didn’t tell me, trying to avoid a drama on our last days together. Or maybe they just forgot about it.
“Okay... You might be right. I haven’t seen it though,” I told Ayla.
She shrugged. “Well, you should go to administration then and ask for a meeting with a student counselor. They’ll help you with your schedule.” She paused to take a breath before she continued: “You should also consider to ask for a psychological counselor, they can really help you... What?”
She must have seen my grimace. “I’m not too fond of psycho-anything’s.” Seeing her questioning look, I elaborated: “My uncle was the family genius until they filled him up with drugs.” I shook my head. “Stuff only got worse afterwards.”
“Ouch,” Ayla said. “They won’t give you drugs for your gender problems, you don’t need to worry about that.”
*phew*
Well, it was good to know that they didn’t just try to drug you if you were trouble. Like they did with troublesome boys nowadays. Apparently 10% of the elementary boys were on Ritalin or something. God, why couldn’t they understand boys would be boys and never be prim and proper prissy little girls; ‘Yes, Mrs. teacher, did I obey your order perfectly?’ Maybe girls were already different in primary school... now that I thought about it.
“This is quite... calming... reassuring,” I said. “Ah scheiss auf Englisch!”
“Ähm Ayla, sag mal, do you know if there is a way to change back?” I asked - I really needed to know. “Ich mein with all this mutant power and super science around...”
“Tut mir leid,” Ayla shook her head. “If you’ve got a BIT like me you’re pretty much screwed. I’m trying to look for solutions, but the last time when it seemed like I had one it was manipulated.”
That sucked ass. “Warum would someone do something like that?”
She shrugged. “Ich weiß nicht, I guess it’s my last-name. Anyway, you might be lucky, MATD is another phenomenon and there might be some possibilities to deal with it, especially since your shell isn’t active all the time.”
While not perfect that sounded like there was hope. Maybe I wasn’t stuck.
“That’s good to know, thanks,” I nodded, releasing a sigh as I switched back to English, “Ähm... where do I need to go?”
“Admin... You need to go to Admin,” Ayla replied, pointing towards the back wall of Crystall Hall. “That’s right here in this building. Well, in Shuster Hall over there.”
“Okay, thank you,” I said. “Ähm... I don’t want to keep you from your friends any longer...”
“No worries,” Ayla said smiling. “I think they’ll survive without me for a few minutes. Anyway, you can always come to me for advice. I’ll try to help.” She stood up. “See you later.”
“Yeah, see you later.”
After this goodbye, I left Crystal Hall and went right into Administration. Considering my lack of experience with American schools in general I had my troubles finding the right person to speak with. Annoying admin on my first day wouldn’t bode well for the rest of my time here. I couldn’t rely on them forgetting. No, the secretary would have to do. Shit like this was their job in German schools.
When I entered Administration I found myself in front of some kind of reception desk. A young woman with reddish brown hair was dealing with the requests from the other students in the line in front of me. I hated standing in lines, but I didn’t really have a choice. I needed to get this done and experience told me if it sucked now, it would only get worse later.
“Hello, what can I do for you?” the young woman asked, when I was finally my turn. The shield on her blouse, directly below her ample breasts - of course - named her Elaine Claire.
“Ähm... it was said... someone told me I should ask for a student counselor here, so I could get my schedule.” I said, almost misspeaking. The translation ability obviously wasn’t perfect - and her boobs were somewhat distracting.
“Another one,” she sighed. “Okay, what is your name... Miss?”
*Cringe*
Miss! I didn’t want to be a miss; I wanted to be a mister. Not that I could say something like that here, not with the other students around.
“Is something wrong?” Elaine Claire inquired.
“Ähm no,” I shook my head. “My name is Jan Edler... written ‘eedler’.”
“Alright, wait a second I need to check... ah, here we are.” She said, hammering something into her keyboard. “Your counselor is Mrs. Roberta Bell. And you have an appointment in... ten minutes.”
What the fuck?! “Ähm... who made this appointment? I certainly didn’t. How do I get to her anyway?”
“Um... wait a second,” Elaine Claire said as she fumbled around with her computer. “Ah there it is. Your appointment has been made by... What? Mrs. Potter? Strange... Well, I’ll print you a map to Mrs. Bell’s office.”
Wow, they could do that? “Thank you,” I said. “This is cool.”
“Yeah,” she grinned, “we changed it over the summer holidays. It got kinda annoying to explain to people where to find stuff.”
Impressive! My old school had the students design the homepage and the only teacher who seemed to be able to use a computer for more than just writing was the informatics teacher. And here... here even a secretary could do stuff like this. Cool.
Yet there was this Mrs. Potter again. Ayla had mentioned her twice and now she cropped up once more. “Um... I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what is it with this Potter person? Is she Harry’s lost sister?”
“No”, the secretary said laughing. “If anything she’s his great grandma. I fear Harry is going to stay a single child orphan.” Then she got serious. “Mrs. Potter is a major Precog, maybe the best world-wide. She’s also on the board of supervisors, so she has some serious pull here. That she’s interested in you speaks well of you.” She turned around and grabbed the plan from the printer. “Anyway, here is your plan. You need to hurry if you want to be on time.”
“Thank you,” I said, taking the map from her hand and left deeply in thought.
Holy shit, what would a precog want with me? The handmaid of this Tao thing threatened my life and the best precog in the world took interest in my education... what the hell was going on? I was just plain old Jan, no one special. Yet, it was quite obvious something strange was going on. Maybe my student counselor would know more, right now I couldn’t do anything about it anyway.
***
Mrs. Bell’s office was in Dunn Hall, a rather horrible looking concrete building. One of those sins to all aesthetics which were built in the 1950th by architects on psychedelic drugs. Well at least that was my impression of the style. I was glad for every one of those concrete blocks that they tore down. They looked bad enough if they were well tended... but if they weren’t... well, one could visit those in the former East Bloc states.
I entered the vaguely L-shaped bastard child between a building and an Autobahn and quickly followed the direction on the map in my hand. I hurried through the corridors almost running, since I wasn’t sure how much time I really had. While I’d forgotten my watch in my room, I also didn’t really want to wear a guys-watch around if I was posing as a girl. Either do it right, or don’t do it at all, was my opinion. Okay, maybe not, considering that I didn’t plan to change my opinion on makeup or nail polish.
After going up a staircase and moving down a floor, I found myself in front of Ms. Bell’s office. There was a fat number ‘114’ on the door and a way smaller shield with her name on the wall next to it. It looked like someone had converted a junk room from a public bath into an office or something. Ignoring the appalling look, I knocked at the door.
“Please come in,” a female voice said from the other side of the door.
Quickly opening it, I stepped in and found myself in front of a large desk. The room wasn’t a junk room at all, but a very comfortable office. Opposite me, on the other side of the table sat a middle aged, brown haired woman. She reminded me a bit of my old math teacher, even though she was probably ten to fifteen years younger or maybe even more, considering how Mrs. Maier had always joked about going on pension
Quickly looking around, it became obvious that this was a normal teachers office, like my aunt had at her home. A boring painting of a fruit bowl was hanging at the wall, while the cupboards were filled with folders and math-books. The only thing remarkable was the absence of really personal items and a halfway drunk coffee sitting on a trivet with something that looked like a red hammer and sickle icon. I always thought Americans hated Communism... strange, but probably not worth mentioning, it might be mined territory.
“Hello, I’m Jan Edler,” I said, introducing myself before I pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Ay..dler,” the teacher said, echoing my family name. “So that’s how the name is pronounced. I was wondering... I am Roberta Bell.”
That was nice to know, if I hadn’t known it already. I should probably say something more about myself though... like my name.
“It means nobler in English,” I explained as I pulled out a chair and sat down.”Anyway, I’m here to get my schedule... I think.”
“You think?” Mrs. Bell said, raising her eyebrows. “But yes, you’re here so we can organize your schedule. Mrs. Potter said I was supposed to help you. I’m a bit curious though, your English is way better than I expected, considering your previous schooling in the language.”
“It’s better than I expected also,” I shrugged. “Ayla... a sophomore cottage mate of mine suggested it might be a mutant power.” That actually reminded me. “Do you have an idea why Mrs. Potter takes such an interest in me? She’s supposed to be a world-class precog and my power is to turn into a Kim Possible look alike.”
“Yes, it was in your file,” she said, scratching her head. “It sounds thoroughly unimpressive, but that might be the reason why they sent you to me... or because the alternative would have been Sarah...” she’d trailed off, shaking her hand. But then she turned her focus back on me: “Miss ‘Aydler’, I know what it’s like to have slowly developing powers. Most just activate, or change in case of a burnout, but a few of us are lucky, or unlucky enough that we can grow into them.”
The Miss again. For god’s sake, I wasn’t a miss, I was a dude with longer hair than I liked, who was growing boobs and had a waist smaller than his sister’s - Thinking about it, maybe Svenja’s behavior was just envy or something.
“Um... you know everything that was in my file?” I asked carefully, not sure if everyone of the faculty knew about Poe’s secret.
“You mean you gender troubles?” Mrs. Bell asked upfront, apparently guessing what this was about.
“Yes,” I said. “Please don’t call me ‘Miss’, it just gives me the creeps.”
“You don’t look like a Mister, but I can try,” the teacher admitted, instantly winning sympathy points with me. Hell, I knew I looked somewhat girlish. You wouldn’t have found my face on a sixteen year old boy - especially not with today’s nose change. The same went for my waist. Even my legs didn’t look particularly mannish, but that was due to my tight jeans and the fact that they’d never been particularly thick.
“Thank you. It’s not easy,” I said, slightly shaking my head. I needed to get back to the main reason for our conversation “Anyway, you mentioned something about growing powers... If I may be so bold, what are yours?”
“You may,” she smiled. “In my case it was a good thing they didn’t instantly activate. I’m a TK superwoman with level six powers. And I didn’t get a strength control at all. I had to continuously practice for four years so I can lift this coffee pot without squeezing it to diamond.”
“That sounds troublesome.”
“Yeah, it was, but it was worth it,” Mrs. Bell said. “This way I have total control over my powers and can fine tune my strength even when I lift, press or push tons. Most TK supermen have only a few strength levels or have a progressively worsening control with increasing strength levels. I don’t have that problem.”
“Okay, that’s good to know, but I still have two questions. I mean it’s kinda nice that you can sympathize with me, but why would that be relevant for my schooling. The second is, why didn’t you become a superhero?”
She sighed. “You mind if I answer the second question first?” I nodded and she continued: “Risking my life saving stupid people and fighting criminals for a salary barely above minimum wage was never the way I wanted to spend my life. Well, I guess I did some superheroing when I was at college, but I focused on my studies to become a math teacher. Fighting some stupid supers for some cash in a team was certainly better than whoring myself out like some of my classmates did.”
“Yesss... I can guess.” Superheroing was probably preferable to renting out your body for money. Not that I planned to do either.
“Good,” she rolled her eyes. “The reason you’re with me is that your student counselor is supposed to be your contact person for the rest of your stay at Whateley. Few others will be able to understand your problems or might push you into things you’re not ready for. Normally you should be a junior, but we usually enroll new mutants in freshman year. Especially transgendered students like you, or GSD cases who have additional problems.”
That didn’t exactly answer my question, but it didn’t look like I would get a better one. Maybe she didn’t really have an idea either. Who would want to admit that they were steered by a precog? She’d kind of avoided that question, also.
“Okay, I guess” I said. “So what about the schedule?”
“Well, I think we should begin with setting the subjects you absolutely need and then you can begin to do these qualification tests,” she stated and pulled a few sheets from a drawer on the desk.
“What I absolutely need?”
“Yes, power labs and power theory are a must. It might seem like your powers are not worth bothering with, yet there might be possibilities for application that you just can’t see so far.”
“Like what?”
“Like my PK field that used to be too weak to lift a matchstick, like the girl who saw annoying lines running through the environment, which turned out to be ley-lines.” Mrs. Bell explained. “They might also find out more about the complications with your shell.” She raised her hand. “Don’t get your hopes up. They only managed to help 10 to 15 percent of the students with MATD problems.”
Well that didn’t sound too good, but it was worth trying. Not that I expected anything to come from it, Ayla had been too unenthusiastic. God, if I could borrow my buddy Stephan’s luck for once... Although, he probably wouldn’t even if he could. Now that I was a confirmed freak, it was social suicide to be associated with me. Bloody disgusting bigoted asshole classmates!
“Um... something wrong?” Mrs. Bell inquired, looking worriedly at me.
I sighed. “Not really... just realized once again that my former friends won’t talk to a freak like me anymore.”
“You shouldn’t allow these people to define you,” she said, probably trying to stop my bad mood - fat chance. Mrs. Bell threw me a hard look. “We will talk about this later, but right now we need to finish your schedule.” She typed something into her computer.
“Okay, so I have to do this power testing thing. What’s next?”
“Um... I haven’t said anything about power testing so far,” Mrs. Bell corrected me and proceeded to explain. “Every student has to go to power testing. You will be informed in the morning and excused from all your classes that day - well for the time you have power testing that is.” Since I didn’t say anything she continued: “As I said power theory and lab is a must. Whateley also requires its students to take either Basic Martial Arts or Survival training. We don’t want to lose our students to Humanity First! fanatics the first week after graduation. Whateley aims to teach her students to get out of trouble, or rather to avoid it in the first place.”
Yeah, Ayla had already said something along these lines. There was a problem though. “Ähm... this sounds like something that would activate my shell...”
“Yeah, I guess,” Mrs. Bell said nodding. “You’ll have to take one of those classes though.” Seeing my grimace, she quickly asked: “When does your shell activate anyway? This,” she pointed at some papers on her desk, “doesn’t exactly say how, it just says ‘accidently’.”
“I can activate it myself,” I admitted scowling - They’d forced me to do it in the primitive power testing just after I’d manifested. “I don’t like to do it as you should know. It activates itself when I’m scared or really angry.”
“Good... I guess martial arts would be the better option for now,” Mrs. Bell said to my surprise. “See, in survival training they’ll just put you in situations which would make you really angry or scare the shit out of you, to train you to react right.”
“Yess...” Crap, if something like this happened in Survival training every day... “That wouldn’t be good at all. But... how does this martial arts work? I fear fighting will also activate it.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Those are spars... and I can ask our martial arts instructors to go easy on you. Don’t worry; you won’t have a fight every day.”
“That’s good to know,” I said, sighing in relief.
“I’m glad you agree. Anyway, you should do your placement tests right now. It’s better if we know what you can do than to sort you into the wrong courses.”
I could imagine. I had no idea, where I was in comparison to the American students, but considering the world (in)famous prowess of the American schooling system, I should do well in these tests. I was junior age in their school system and they’d put me back two years. Really, there should be no trouble. I could only hope this school would be worth the waste of time... Although... No, if I was honest with myself it was only a year. In Germany I would have had thirteen years of schooling anyway.
“Okay, please give me the tests.”
The English test turned out to be rather easy, I was only stumped with the more complicated interpretations of stuff. I just guessed there. Apparently, my strange language power was at work again. Writing worked even better than talking. It was almost as if I wrote in German, a fact which began to creep me out. I’d never learned English this well, hell, I could imagine that I’d caught on a few words and somehow integrated them with my magically grown language centers, but that didn’t explain how I could write expressions that I’d never read lest heard before.
While Mrs. Bell had watched me curiously when I filled out the first test, she began to correct the tests as soon as I had finished them. When she wasn’t busy correcting, she typed something on her computer. I was quite curious what she was doing, but figured I had more important stuff to do right now.
Yet, when I did my French test, I was disappointed to learn that my arcane language ability suddenly stopped working. I was as bad with that language as I used to be. No, actually I was worse. The prolonged summer holidays didn’t do my French any good. Still, I guess I was pretty decent considering when I’d learned that language.
As far as I could tell I pretty much aced the German test, it obviously wasn’t for native speakers. On the other hand the biology test was way more interesting. It was challenging, but when it got into genetics stuff quickly grew over my head. The genetics classes back home had only covered subject material up to Mendel's law. The same was true for Chemistry. The stuff we’d done there had been pretty theoretical. Although I had a good idea of simple nuclear models and knew a bit about certain organic molecules (aka alcohols), I couldn’t answer the more complicated questions. Hell, I couldn’t really recall any reactions beyond what happened if you lit hydrogen - boom - and the stuff about using sulphur to get rid of rust.
Physics went pretty well, I was somewhat stumped with some things that I learned some time ago, but I was able to figure out most of the stuff I’d done at school once. It seemed like physics was taught in another order than in Germany, however I had no real troubles. I even figured out a few formulas of the stuff I’d never really done before. I simply rocked!
The history test was kinda cool even if it was a mixed bag. I totally owned European history, but I had no idea about American one. Sure, I knew which parties were involved and that it wasn’t just about Slavery, but also influence in the government. The questions about battles were just ignored. God, I’d never really bothered to learn the major European ones, how would I know about those in the American Civil War?
It got really strange when I started to fill out the math test. I remembered how to do every little shitty question there was, even this stupid geometry crap from seventh grade we’d never needed again. I brushed through the trigonometry stuff. Sure, we’d done that last year, yet even though I’d only done the basics, I could even do the most complicated stuff without problems. It was so strange, I actually wrote a comment down about it. I didn’t understand the calculus stuff, but had the feeling that I should. Brushing that aside I found the test for vector analysis. I’d never done that before, but I could answer the basics without real problems. It just seemed self explanatory. Although, I had to call it quits when it got more complicated. Further sheets had stuff that looked like they could be from university classes.
“Okay, wait a minute until I’ve got this one checked,” Mrs. Bell said after I finished the last sheet.
Thankfully, she didn’t take long and after a few minutes of listening to the silent scratching sounds of her pencil she turned towards me and said smiling: “Phew... I’m finished. You were pretty quick, you know.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Bell,” I replied politely. It seemed like she liked me, which was a good basis if I got her in class. I’d never been one to needlessly antagonize teachers - well except for that one stupid exception - there was simply good reason to do something like that. You always got better grades if they liked you.
“No need to thank me, it’s always nice to have a dedicated student,” she waved it off. “Anyway, I guess I’ll just tell you the results.” Mrs. Bell pulled out the English test. “You have an amazing grasp of the English language, especially considering that you’ve never had real practice speaking it until a day ago. You could take the senior English courses with your abilities, but I guess you should skip that and do something fun. You don’t seem like the type who enjoys interpreting famous literature.”
I quickly nodded. “Yes. Definitely not the thing I would enjoy.” Did this mean I’d get out of it? No more interpreting Max Frisch, Goethe, Kafka or maybe Shakespeare here?
“I thought so,” she said and wrinkled her forehead. “Do you enjoy writing?”
What? Where did that come from?
“Ähm... yeah, it was pretty much the only thing I ever enjoyed doing in German classes.”
“Okay, I think creative writing might be the right thing for you,” Mrs. Bell stated and continued to elaborate: “Samantha... Mrs. Meyer usually doesn’t give any homework and it’s known as one of the more fun classes. I really don’t think there is any point for you in visiting further English classes.”
The no-homework thing had me convinced. “Okay, I’ll take it! … It sounds interesting.”
She laughed. “Sure... I can understand though. I wasn’t the most diligent student either.”
Interesting to know, but I wasn’t sure if it was a smart idea to agree with her. Teachers talked to each other and I certainly didn’t want them to control my homework every day. It would suck to be forced to do it every day. Seriously, who would want to sacrifice their free time for school?
When I didn’t say anything Mrs. Bell rolled her eyes but continued: “You’re sophomore or junior level at biology, chemistry and physics, so it’s not a big deal if you miss those for a semester.”
I wasn’t too fond of that idea. I liked the natural sciences. And honesty, what else was I supposed to do? Learn another language? No thanks, I’d learned enough vocabulary already.
She’d probably seen my expression, since she amended: “You’ve repeated at least a year and the follow up courses will be really hard. You have time, so you don’t have to overload your schedule.”
She probably had a point. I could always continue to learn new stuff in natural sciences - I would have quit biology and chemistry in Germany anyway - and there was new exciting stuff I could learn.
“I’m not quite sure, but I think my parents mentioned an engineering track... and I can take informatics, can I?”
“Both classes for beginners, right?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I’ve no real experience in either one, and the beginner courses should be the easier one’s, right?”
“I wouldn’t call engineering easy and informatics... well, either you have talent for it or you don’t.”
I shrugged. I’d applied for the hardest course at my German Oberstufe[1] anyway, so I wasn’t too bothered if I actually needed to apply a brain cell or two. “Doesn’t matter, I’m interested in both.”
“Good,” Mrs. Bell said, scribbling something onto a note. “Now about history and math. You’re very good at European history, I guess it’s somewhat a hobby of yours, right?” I acknowledged this with a nod and she continued: “American history was also pretty good even if you didn’t know about the decisive military maneuvers of the civil war, but I guess that is to be expected... Anyway, your grasp on general American history was also good...”
“Seriously?” I interjected. “We never had American history at school and I only got some of it from computer games or some fiction books. Ähm... American students aren’t really that ignorant are they?”
She shook her head. “No, while the American history classes in public schools may be somewhat lacking, I can assure you that is not the reason for your good grades. I think we have another case of your mysterious mutant ability manifesting.”
Really? Well, it would make sense, considering that couldn’t remember that I ever learned anything specific about American history.
“You had serious problems with French, well, in comparison, so I doubt it’s genius,” Mrs. Bell stated. I couldn’t protest, my French could have been better although I‘d been one of the best in class. Not that it really counted with those suckers. “If I had to guess I’d say it’s some kind of esper ability that somehow gives you abilities or knowledge from people in close proximity. That would also explain your sudden increase in English skills over the last days and the amazing results on your trigonometry test.”
“You mean I cheated?”
Mrs. Bell raised her eyebrows. “Not really, cheating implies you did it intentionally with an intention to deceive.”
I shrugged; didn’t that mean the tests were worthless? “So what now?”
“Well, I suggest you’ll do my trigonometry/pre-calc class.” She raised her hand, before I could protest. “Wait, I know you passed this test perfectly, but who knows how much you’ll remember tomorrow.”
Crap, that was a very good point. My English skills had somewhat fluctuated over the last day. If I skipped this class and the same happened to my math-skills, I could be really screwed in the next course.
“Okay.”
“Good. You said you wanted to take the engineering track, so I suggest you’ll pick the following classes: Math, mechanical Physics, Engineering, Informatics and creative writing. Consider that you need to pick the three mandatory classes Basic Martial Arts, Power Theory and Power Labs.”
“What about history, or politics or French? And what do you need with pick? Those are only eight classes. In Germany I was supposed to have ten.”
Mrs. Bell scratched her head. “You were supposed to have ten classes? How does that work? I gather the German school system is different. You don’t have the same schedule every day?”
Seriously? They only had Leistungskurse[2]? How did they ever manage to teach all topics? Americans were weird!
“How does that work?” I quickly inquired. “I don’t get it. Does this mean if there is a six hours school-day I have only six courses at all?”
“Exactly, that’s how it works,” the teacher nodded. “You’ve got three free courses to choose.”
“Scheisse!” Five topics to choose would have been bad enough, but only three... What the hell was I supposed to do? “Do I really need to do the three other courses?”
“Yes, you need to and mind your language, please.”
“Sch... Super,” I groaned. “What am I supposed to do now?”
“Well, you’ve tested out of history and you can do the politics stuff next year. You should learn more about your language ability before you try French. Otherwise, it might be a total waste of time. You might be able to learn it by simply talking to one of the native speakers on campus. Try it and see how much you can recall afterwards.”
Good point about languages. The best thing was it would probably piss off dad, he was always gung ho about languages. But then he’d exiled me to America so he just had to live with the fact he didn’t get a say about my education. While I could understand her opinion about languages, I didn’t like that she just waved the humanities aside. Sure, she was a math teacher, but general knowledge was also useful.
“Okay, so no French, no German, but what about English, Math, Physics, Informatics and Engineering?”
“Well, you should take creative writing, if you love homework as much as the average student.”
I quickly nodded, while Mrs. Bell grinned at me. “I’d also rather have you in my class, so we can test whether you’re really that much a genius at trigonometry or if you just temporarily gleaned it off me.”
“I get that, but what about the rest? What of the three should I pick?”
“Well, you won’t have superhero classes next summer-semester and enough people want to do informatics to warrant a beginner course every semester,” Mrs. Bell slipped closer to the desk. “You should do mechanical physics because you’ll need it as a prerequisite for Engineering I anyway. Well, if you don’t want to have to do some serious after class learning.”
No, I definitely didn’t. “I think I can agree with this.” I could, I wouldn’t complain about having a 30 hour week. That was great.
“Okay,” Mrs. Bell said and wrote something down, before she suddenly sighed. “Now the hard part. We need to talk about your gender troubles.”
I flinched. I didn’t want to talk about them, God I just wanted them to go away. I wasn’t a girl, I’d never be a girl. I didn’t even understand girls most of the time. And talking about it? Men didn’t talk about problems they solved them. Talking was crap girls did! Seriously, wouldn’t I lose even more of my male mojo if I did unmanly stuff like that?
“You’re writing like a boy, you’re sitting like a boy, you’re even talking... well, not really. Sometimes you’re accentuating words like a boy, sometimes you’re not,” she recounted pretty harshly, making me wonder what the hell was her problem was. “You look like a girl, though.”
“Yes, I’m quite aware of this fact,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Gender troubles you know...”
While I was quite happy that she could tell I was really a boy, it was obvious that she didn’t understand the problem. But then this was true for most “normal” people. How would they understand how it felt wrong to act the wrong gender? I might look somewhat girlish, but I wasn’t a girl - for god’s sake I still had my balls and dick and what was on my chest couldn’t be called boobs by any right. Nonetheless it was quite obvious she would have preferred if I acted more like a girl. Well, she could prefer much, but it wouldn’t happen.
Wiping my feeble protests aside, she made me agree to go to psychological counseling, which was kinda annoying, but wasn’t all that bad since she promised to get me a place with Dr. Bellows. I didn’t need to do it myself and he was apparently the local expert for the transgendered. I hoped he wouldn’t try to push me to become more girlish. They’d just have to live with the fact I was weird, not normal, a freak or whatever. I’d not cared much for gender norms before and I certainly wouldn’t care now when they got even more alien.
I still wasn’t happy about it though. Mrs. Bell managed to distract me from my mood though, when she gave me a new laptop. Apparently the school had bought new models this year and I was one of the first to pick. Good thing for me. It seemed like mom and dad had wasted the money for my laptop, but whatever. This way I could actually follow the rules and have one for school and was still free to fill the other one with games and porn.
***
“Hey, freak, you look like the bastard child between a squid and a sand puppy,” someone shouted just as I entered the subterranean tunnel towards the Crystal Hall.
Filling the tests had taken longer than I’d ever expected, which meant I was probably late for lunch. Taking the tunnels had been the obvious choice. It was raining cats and dogs outside. The sun’s rays waking me had deceived me about the weather, I hadn’t even thought about taking a jacket. Accordingly, the tunnels seemed like the obvious choice after I looked out of Dunn Hall’s front door. Considering the argument in the tunnel in front of me that decision didn’t seem so wise anymore.
Crap, bullying again. This school had looked so good so far, like they tried to make sure it didn’t happen, but now it was right before my eyes. Even though I felt the sudden need to walk away - it wasn’t my problem after all - I just couldn’t. How often had I been in the same situation as the other kid? How often had I hoped someone would come to help me? It never happened. People just turned away or laughed about it. No, I couldn’t be that way. Just No!
Decision made, I went to investigate. Dashing around the corner I found myself in the main tunnel. Two guys and a girl were threatening a… well, rather freaky looking person. He was growing four tentacles from his head and his arms looked rather weird under his shirt, as if they had too many joints. While his appearance was truly alien to me, the expression on his contorted face all too common. I’d worn it myself often enough. It was the face of someone who was forced to make another ugly decision. I knew the alternatives: Just strike at them and ignore the consequences, try to make a run of it or try to ignore them and hope for the best. It looked like he tried the third option, but it rarely worked well, painful experiences told me. The other options weren’t really better though, since they’d just use it as a justification to blame you for the whole situation. I knew the game.
It only got worse when the bullies were better looking than you. Because seriously, society judged people almost solely on their looks. If you were ugly or creepy, you were guilty. It was that simple. The fact that their victim looked somewhat inhuman wouldn’t help him at all. Especially since the bullies were easy to look at. There was this classic Caucasian guy, balling his fist in a threatening gesture - he could have been from one of those Hitler Youth posters they’d showed us in history class. Meanwhile his companion was a tall, buff looking guy who could have been from Italy or anywhere else in the Mediterranean - the “cool” Mafioso guy. The girl in the trio had a really cute look - cute if I didn’t know she was a despicable bully - she was a black haired mix of Asian and Caucasian ancestry.
“What are you doing?” I asked loudly hoping to distract them. Maybe they were the type who’d be reluctant to do stuff with audience. Cowards...
“What we’re doing?” The girl sneered. “We’re showing this queer-thing its place. Abominations like it shouldn’t be allowed to exist.”
What the fuck?! Abomination?! Wasn’t Whateley supposed to be a safe haven for mutants? Why were they allowed to talk like that? Hell, why were they here in the first place if they had this attitude? These… freaks talked as if they were from one of those H1 chapters my cottage mates had mentioned.
“Ähm… are you serious?” I asked, trying to stall them, while I desperately thought about something to distract them.
“What? Of course we are,” the Mediterranean looking guy said, eyeing me suspiciously, “say, you don’t sympathize with freaks like it?”
It?! Well more than with freaks like him that much was for sure. But it wouldn’t be a good idea to say this out loud. They looked like they were searching for trouble, not just being bigoted assholes. Still, I couldn’t just look away, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
“Ähm… maybe you should just let him go?” I suggested, in vain hope they’d leave the GSD kid alone. Bullies usually weren’t as aggressive if the support was lacking.
Sadly these were. “It’s a freak lover,” the bitch decided. “Leave’ er to me. I’ll show her what we think of traitors like her.”
I wasn’t a ‘her’, but that was beside the point. They wouldn’t like she-males very well either. Although apparently it was enough to not hate GSD-kids. Sure, he had a freaky face and tentacle head and in any other situation I’d probably stared at him like hell, but that was no reason to hate him. The bitch obviously though otherwise, she was coming at me, balling her fists. Did she really want to fight with me?
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” I said, instinctively taking a step back.
I really didn’t want to be involved into a fight on my second day here. Hell, I didn’t want to be involved into a fight at all. Only total idiots went out looking for fights.
“Give that bitch what she deserves!” The Hitler-boy shouted, edging the bitch on. “Disgusting freak lover!”
What the hell was wrong with these people? Freak, freak lover, thing and queer… only fag was missing. Why did people have to be like this? They really pissed me off. Well, if they wanted a fight they could have it! I wouldn’t bow down to assholes like them. Activating my shell, I felt the characteristic tingling run over my body. Bloody instinct reaction! I grimaced; long hair was tickling my neck and reminded me of the consequences once again.
“Hah... you’re bluffing,” the bitch gloated. “I know this doesn’t make you stronger - whore.”
Whore... what a joke. I wasn’t very likely to get any sex, lest be paid for it - seriously, who would want a freak like me? Sadly she was right about the other thing. Although it looked like a magical girl-transformation power up it didn’t give me any super powers nor did I gain Kim Possible’s skills - I’d tested it. No, it just sucked.
“Stop it! This is enough!” a very strange sounding voice shouted – it was so raw, barely human, as if it was slipping out of the hearable sound range. Turning towards it, I realized it was Tentacle-boy who was shouting. And not just that, his hands and the tips of his raised head tentacles were glowing in a dangerous looking purple. It was quite fascinating.
“Owie!” I instinctively jumped backwards after I’d been hit. “Ouch!” That hurt.
Owie? That sounded so girlish. I was a man; I wasn’t allowed to cry like a girl! She’d pay for humiliating me like this! Coward she was, Bitch-girl had used the short distraction to get in a hit in on my face. In my fucking face! What a fucking bloody mangy bitch daughter of a dog and a rat. I’d make her pay, my cheek hurt.
Readying myself, I balled my fist in an angry gesture. I’d show her what a real fight meant. That prissy whore wouldn’t know what hit her! She’d get the thrashing of her life. I gritted my teeth. She wouldn’t get away with this. Bullies needed to get a good beating and Tentacle boy might need my help against the other two assholes. Grimacing from the pain of my throbbing cheek I slowly stalked forward.
Something didn’t seem right though. She didn’t behave like prissy princess bitches were supposed to behave. Crap, her position looked as if she knew what she was doing. Although... I didn’t, so she might just be copying one of those Asian fight-film stances. I also wasn’t an expert for those though.
Still, there was something else. She was retreating... she had the drop on me, but now she was retreating. Why didn’t she use my distraction to try and pummel me into submission? Strange... It wasn’t right. Should I attack? Or was this...
“Miss Smith, we’ve seen you attack her,” a deep voice said from behind me, “playing innocent won’t help you now.”
Oh... that would explain it. Someone was here to stop the fight. Quickly turning around, I saw a bunch of older, military looking guys. Campus security. Yes, the fight was over. But then it wasn’t like I’d wanted it in the first place. These assholes deserved good thrashing, but certainly not from me. The best thing was that they’d probably seen bitch hit me... oh she was in troubles...
“You can’t prove shit,” mafia-boy said. “We’ve checked, there are no cameras around.”
I grinned. Was he stupid or something? Well he was a bigoted bully so...
“Well, Mr. Jeffries, I fear you haven’t checked well enough,” the brown haired security guy at the front said. “We’ve improved the system over the summer break. And even if we didn’t, you’ve pretty much confessed anyway.”
Yes he did. It wasn’t like any school administration cared much for due process. It was rather impressive though that they really had cameras here. Considering that the students were all super powered it was probably necessary though
“Idiot!” Hitler-boy said and hit his co-bully into the side. “You really got no brains.”
“Fuck you!”
I just stood there looking baffled at the scene. Seconds ago they’d been ready to beat me up and now these bastards were fighting with each other. Not that I minded much, but with friends like these you definitely needed no enemies.
“Enough!” the security dude suddenly shouted. “I’m sick of your shit. Do you really believe you get away with a slap on your wrist again? You’re here the first day after vacations and you’re already starting the same old crap again.” He turned to his men and said: “Get them to Kane Hall and someone should call Mrs. Carson.”
“The old dragon will be so happy about it,” the man in the back of their group said rolling his eyes.
“Don’t let her hear this,” his comrade joked, yet his eyes never left the bullies.
“Ähm... what about us?” I inquired. “Do you need us, or can I go and eat something?”
“What do you think?” Another security guy, standing next to the boss of the group said, raising his eyebrows.
What did I think? If I knew what to think I wouldn’t have asked. I wasn’t a soldier, who stood around stupidly until they got new orders. I was new at this bloody school, how was I supposed to know. Running into a few idiots didn’t make me know the procedures.
“We can’t,” the tentacled boy said with his strange voice. “They’ll need to record our statements.”
Damn, my stomach was complaining, but I didn’t want to let these assholes get away. Not that they should, considering the fact they’d apparently recorded everything with invisible cameras. In this rare case it actually felt good that big brother was watching me. Surveillance was better than being a puddle of melted Goo when one of those Champion guys tried their powers on me, or something.
I shuddered. Crap, these people had thought nobody was watching them... and I’d just picked a fight with them. No, they picked a fight with me, but that wouldn’t have made a big difference if one of them really had eye-lasers.
Quickly collecting myself, I tried to act cool. “Okay,” I said with a faked shrug. “What are we waiting for?”
“Nothing, let’s go,” the leader of the security group said. Then he turned towards his men. “Make sure they don’t try something stupid.”
Thankfully, we didn’t have to walk very far. Kane Hall was the next building on our way. After going up the stairs, and into security central, they separated us. It was annoying, but they told me I had to wait for a few minutes in a single room. I was starting to wonder if it was like being social health insurance patient in a doctor’s office. Waiting like an hour until the doctor deigned to come to you. Thankfully, it didn’t take that long and after a while an older looking dude came in.
“Hello, I’m Franklin Delarose and the chief of campus security,” he said, introducing himself.
Interesting. I’d expected one of the minions. Why was the boss doing this in person?
“Hi, I’m Jan Edler,” I introduced myself, not sure what to say.
“I’m going to cut to the chase. Why did you get into a fight on your first day at Whateley?”
“Second day,” I absently corrected him, before realizing who I was talking to. “I was attacked by that bi... Smith-girl.” He probably wouldn’t appreciate if I called the bitch a bitch.
“Yes, we were aware you’ve been attacked by Mrs. Smith, but that doesn’t explain why.”
They had surveillance cameras in the tunnels; didn’t they have microphones or something? Well, the obvious answer was because I hate bullies and wanted to stop them. Yet taking my experiences at my old school in consideration, I wasn’t so sure if that was the right answer here. They might think I provoked them or something. When there weren’t bruises to show it was all too easy to ignore bullying after all. As long as it didn’t got violent they didn’t care.
“She decided freak-lovers such as I deserved a good thrashing,” I summed it up.
It turned out that this wasn’t enough for him and he forced me to recount everything from my point of view. How I found them, how I reacted, why I got involved... Seriously, this was a hassle. Couldn’t they just kick those assholes out of school, or give them detentions for the rest of the semester? Why did they have to bother hungry me with this crap?
Apparently, even those answers were still not enough for the security chief. “Why didn’t you call Security?” he asked.
What the fuck? This question made me pause. Why didn’t I call security? Because I didn’t think about it? I figured they were nothing but loudmouths. Looking at him I realized he seemed to be serious about this question. Did he want to shift some blame on me or something? Or even worse, was he another one of these freak-bashers? That would suck ass. I had to be careful.
“How was I supposed to do that?” I slowly asked, straightening myself up in the chair. “I don’t know your number by heart, I left my Handy[3]... my mobile phone in my room and I feared they’d do something before I could have run to alarm you.”
“That’s interesting, nonetheless you shouldn’t have interfered. Superpowers are dangerous; we have campus security and our auxiliary to help in such cases.”
Oh what a surprise. Superpowers were dangerous... Run to the authority whenever you think you might be in trouble. If I’d do that, I’d pretty much have to camp in their headquarter! The man was really pissing me off.
“I told you I didn’t intend to get into a fight,” I groused. “Neither you nor your auxiliary were there. And if I cared that much about risk, I would have never gone into your insane country!” I almost shouted. “You have more deaths in shootouts than Germany has in car crashes!”
What the hell was this asshole thinking? I had been attacked and now he was going at me as if I’d caused the situation. I wouldn’t stand for this. It was worse than I’d feared.
“What the hell do you want anyway?!” I shouted before he could say anything. “I’ve been attacked and now you behave as if I’d been to blame for this situation. Considering the comments of your minions these assholes have been known for pulling shit like this. Maybe you should just supervise them or kick them off the school instead of picking on me for doing my civic duty!” I glared at him angrily.
“I won’t be a coward that runs away like a mouse whenever something looks like it could be possibly troublesome. People like you just piss me off! You’re supposed to be the chief of campus security and here you are blaming me for a situation that only exists to the lame assedness of your people! If you want to punish me for trying to talk some idiots out of violence you can forget it. I won’t accept it.”
“Enough!” Delarose said, silencing me with a glare. “Nobody said anything about punishing you. Have you vented your frustrations now?”
Not really, but then more yelling wouldn’t help. I only nodded and glared back at him in an effort to stop my damn girl tears from falling.
Chief Delarose surprised me when he leaned his chair back and thoughtfully studied me for a second. “I’m curious, how did you get the idea we’d want to punish you?”
Now, I was really getting mad. Who was he trying to fool here by pretending to care? Everyone knew that schools coddled the rich, famous and beautiful. Sure the assholes had kind of fucked up by actually hitting me, but that bitch was the only one who’d get punished. The other’s had thrown insults so they’d just get off with a slap on their wrist...Whateley was no different than my last school in that regard, I knew this game.
“Why else would you tell me not to interfere with them?” I asked cynically, wanting to rant at him again. “They’re good looking exemplars, so it’s obviously easier to shift the blame to the freaks.”
Delarose shook his head as he looked at me disapprovingly. “You’re assuming things. I just wanted to warn you to be careful. We’ve students here that can melt you to slag with a glance.”
I shrugged helplessly, maybe I’d misspoken. “I was aware of this, it’s not like I charged in an tried to beat them up, did I?” My stomach rumbled. “Um... can we finish this? I’m hungry.” Seriously, there was no point in this... conversation.
“Okay,” Delarose said, raising his eyebrows. “You didn’t do anything wrong, although I’d prefer if you could alarm us in the future.” He pulled a business card out of a drawer. „Here, just in case that you forget our number.”
Nodding, I took his card. There was no point in embarrassing myself any worse than I did already. “Can I go now?”
Chief Delarose brought me out of the room and to the other students. I could only hope we were done now and they didn’t try to do another interrogation with all of us.
“You two can go now,” Delarose said, motioning at me and the tentacle boy. Then he turned to the three bullies. “The rest of us will have a meeting with Mrs. Carson.”
Tentacle boy actually winced hearing this. My suspicion seemed right, meeting the headmistress was never a good idea. Especially under such circumstances. Made me kind of wish to be a fly on the wall in that meeting. Hanging around here any longer wouldn’t be a good idea though. God what was I thinking when I yelled at the chief?
“You’ll get what’s yours,” the bitch-girl hissed at me when I passed her.
Yeah, did she have nothing lamer to say? I was soooo scared, not. Hell, she didn’t even pack that bad a punch. My cheek didn’t even hurt anymore. I decided to not react to her taunt, since that would only encourage her.
“Um… say, why did Delarose take so long with you?” the tentacle boy asked curiously as we left security central.
“He went on my case for not running away and leaving you to your fate,” I replied, trying to avoid staring at him, “kinda pissed me off, so I ranted at him.” God, tentacle boy looked so strange.
“Seriously?” the boy asked as he made a strange gesture with his head tentacles.
“Uh um…” I nodded. “Not my smartest decision ever, but I thought he wanted to give me detention for standing up to those assholes. Wouldn’t be the first time…” Okay, I was exaggerating; it was the first time. Usually, I was the victim of the assholes after all.
“I’ve never seen you here before,” he stated, making a curious weird with his eyes – It looked a bit as if he wanted to raise his eyebrows. They were gone though.
“I didn’t mean here,” I said. “Anyway, I’m new here, freshman at Poe. Jan Edler is my name.” Hopefully, he’d introduce himself now. I couldn’t really call him tentacle boy – that would be too rude.
“Poe?” he grinned. “That might explain your rant at Delarose.”
Great, another one who thought I was a loony. Great cover story, really. Freak, loony, freak, loony… what was preferable?”
“Ähm... sorry, don’t take it wrong.” He quickly added. Apparently I had shown my thoughts on my face again. “Your cottage kinda has a reputation.” He shrugged. “Whatever, my name’s Leonard Maier, Codename’s Kraken.”
“Kraken?” I echoed.
“Well, it’s better than tentacle boy… or tentacle monster.”
Ouch. Well, I’d kinda thought of the first, but especially the latter had unfortunate implications. Apart from the whole monster thing.
“I wouldn’t want to call myself something like that, either,” I easily admitted. “but Kraken is cool.” It actually made me think” Ähm… does that name mean you can swim?”
“I can,” he replied, slightly shaking his head, which looked rather strange with the tentacles. “But the same way everyone else can. It’s no super ability or something.”
“And there aren’t so many cool names for guys with tentacles,” I said, thinking loudly just as we missed the stairs to Crystal Hall. My hunger could wait. I didn’t want to leave him yet, maybe I could make another friend. “Ähm… where are you going?”
“To the hospital,” Leonard said. “Some necessary checkups thanks to my mutation.”
Yeah… Ayla had mentioned something about more complicated cases. Last year there had been a girl that actually turned into a cow – with a cow brain and everything. Thankfully, they’d found a solution before it was too late for her. Hopefully, he didn’t have a problem like that. I was kinda curious about it, but it was too sensitive a topic to ask.
Quickly nodding, I tried another, less sensitive topic: “Say, did you get some powers with the mutation?”
“Yeah, I’ve got energizer powers,” he lit his tentacles up with this strange purple light I’d seen in the fight, “and I’m a bio-devisor.” He sighed. “The bio-devisor thing is probably the reason for my troubles. Apparently, I designed my own BIT into this… and I’ve no idea how to reverse it. Not that I haven’t tried.”
He managed to change his BIT? Sure his result wasn’t too enticing, but maybe if he’d learned more about his ability…
“Ähm… sorry if I offend, but curious how you managed to do this.”
“I wish I really knew,” he said, sighing again. “We were supposed to design the perfect creature for bio-class and it seems like I’m turning into what I designed then.”
“This sucks,” I said, rubbing my forehead. God he was unlucky. I really didn’t know what to say about it.
Leonard probably realized this, since he changed the topic: “Say Jan, are you from Germany?”
“Yes... why do you ask?” Some people still had issues with Germans thanks to WW2. I really hoped he wasn’t one of those. He seemed nice.
He grinned at me. “Ich bin auch aus Deutschland.”
That would explain it. Hell, I should have known. Leonard and Maier. Neither were common American names. Well, as far as I knew.
“Cool,” I replied, switching to German. “I’m not the only one anymore. I seriously couldn’t have told though.”
“Yeah,” Leonard said, rolling his eyes. “It’s kind of hard to tell with my voice, isn’t it.”
I nodded. “Sure, but you’re also very good. I don’t think it’s just your voice.”
“Well, you’re good too, I really wasn’t sure. Did you do an exchange year before?”
Shaking my head, I began to explain about my powers. Like the weird language thing and the fact I rocked even more at math than I did before. I didn’t say anything about the turning into a girl thing though. Sure, I liked him, but I didn’t trust him that far. As we continued our conversation, it turned out that Leonard knew about possible complications and asked me if I’d been checked for those. I had been, but only once. It was different for Leonard. He needed constant checking since he turned into something really alien. They feared life threatening complications, so he had to go for checkups every day and couldn’t leave campus until his transformation was finished.
God, I felt like a drama queen for complaining about mine. A girl was still a human. What he described was something right out of one of the more sophisticated science fiction movies. No human with a strange nose, but some tentacled, flying telepathic thing. That was actually the reason for his strange voice. Since the race he designed was supposed to be telepathic he was losing his voice – and the telepathy hadn’t even manifested yet. It made my problems seem somewhat laughable really. I could still wear jeans, but when he was done he wouldn’t even remotely resemble something human.
“How can you stand this?” I asked, I just couldn’t stop myself.
“My… best friend helps me… and I can always tell myself there are people worse off than me.”
Some were dead.
We had to wait when we arrived at the hospital. Apparently there had been an emergency with burnout on someone’s first day and his doctor was busy. I didn’t just want to leave Leonard alone, so the two of us used this opportunity to get to know each other further. The nurse at the reception desk glared at us and complained when we spoke German, so we changed back to English. Some people had issues, seriously... We continued our conversation though and it turned out he had the same compulsory subjects as me.
“Well, I’m officially a sophomore,” Leonard said. “But I came here as somewhat of an emergency case in spring, so I didn’t do really much so far.”
At least they didn’t really force him to redo two grades. Although considering my mutant classes that might actually not be such a bad idea. If I continued to waste my time on mutant powers an extra year might not be enough. My stomach grumbled, making meI fidget nervously on my orange plastic chair. God, I was hungry, but I didn’t want to leave him here alone.
Trying to distract myself, I switched our conversation to another topic. My decision to talk about Videogames was gold. I’d found another hobby geek and he actually knew more about the rumored GEO game. There was something really strange about it, he told me. Apparently it somehow knew stuff about your real persona and offered you possible characters in accordance. To his surprise those turned out to be mostly evil characters, although he usually played with a good alignment.
“I can’t stand to see people suffering, but apparently the game thought that my body was more defining than my moral alignment,” Leonard joked. “Well it’s not like the good side has many character options with tentacles.”
“I can imagine,” I replied shaking my head. Tentacles almost always meant evil. Apparently, the majority of people thought them creepy... I couldn’t understand. Tentacles were weird. Spiders were evil!
Just when he tried to tell me how I could get an account of my own, the nurse called Leonard in. Apparently, the kid they’d brought in had just died from her burnout. Dead on her first day! Or that was what I gathered from the hushed whispers. God, could something like that happen to me? I shivered. Yes it could, if I got unlucky… Why did I have to be a mutant? Why couldn’t I just turn into a dynahost or have a batson event? Once that was done, I would have been safe. Not like this mutant crap where I turned into a girl and could die whenever my body felt like it.
“Um, see you tomorrow or something,” I said subdued. While I’d just made a new friend the death was just a mood killer.
“Okay,” he said following the nurse. “Ah crap, I should have given you my e-mail... anyway, I guess I’ll see you somewhere around or in class.”
***
“That Jan girl is still weak,” a boy said. “We’ll get her once her guard is down.”
“It’s not that easy,” a young woman replied. “There are protections at Whateley.”
He just laughed derisively. “You’re such a woman. Always too weak to act, like all of you. But it’s not your fault, changing the world is a man’s job.”
“I think you need to... grow, before you can call yourself a man,” the woman retorted, throwing a meaningful glance at his crotch. “Fucking Potter changed everything; I just don’t see how we can still use her.”
“Typical woman,” the boy snorted. “Only creative painting your nails. Well, it’s easy; if we can’t use her, we have to take her out. It’s not like the plan depends on her.” A smirk played over his face. “And it would send a nice message, don’t you think?”
The woman just raised her eyebrows, but decided to say nothing. It wouldn’t have helped with him anyway.
Shaking his head, the boy muttered: “Sorry, I forgot, women can’t think… actually makes me wonder who Potter’s husband is.”
Glaring at the boys retreating back, the young woman whispered to herself: “I wish I didn’t have to deal with him.” Now it was her turn to smirk. “Men are all the same, but that’ll be their undoing.”
#tbc
***
[1] Sort of like High school - it’s complicated.
[2] You can pick two or three Leistungskurse (advanced courses) in German Oberstufe (sorta high school) they’re five hours a week and at advanced level. The other courses were Grundkurse (basic courses), which were two or three hours a week and were teaching stuff at an easier level. This allows you to avoid specializing too much at high school and gives a better general knowledge. Or at least that’s the idea.
Authors Note: Okay, this was the introduction part for Jan's tale. Not the quickest start ever, I guess :) but I hope you enjoyed Jan's views on American culture and Whateley in general. Like most authors I'm greateful for feedback. Comments are welcome, just try to keep your critic constructive. Anyway, thank you for reading this story, I hope you enjoyed it.
Jan's tale 3 - Party at Poe
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Jan’s Tale 3
Party at Poe Jan is not a happy camper. As if his life didn't suck enough already, turning into a mutant was everything but an improvement. Jan didn't get real superpowers, Jan got to be girly. To make it worse his parents decided in their unimaginable wisdom that exile to America was the solution for his problems. He is not so sure though.
Copyright © 2013 Beyogi
All Rights Reserved. Thanks to djkauf for editing.
Thanks to my proofreaders Drawflow, landing, DAW, Wrayth and last but not least Sleethr for their help. Picture Credit to mking2008 |
Disclaimer: This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but since it's fan fiction, who cares? To see the canon Whateley Stories, check out www.crystalhall.org
3rd. September 2007:
Jan’s tale 3 - Party at Poe:
Mrs. Horton had assembled us in the meeting room on the ground floor to tell us about the introduction parties the next two days. It was mostly more introduction stuff, but we were also supposed to socialize with the other dorm members. It was nice even though I wasn’t really someone to make friends at parties. Hell, I wasn’t really a party person at all. Although, it wasn’t like I got many chances to go to parties, anyway.
A strange boy stepped forward when I exited the meeting. “Hi, you’re one of the new changelings, right?”
Changeling? That was Ayla’s term for transgendered student, right? Another politically correct term for freak. Being on this side of the equation it was kinda nice though. Well, as long as you didn’t get insulted. Anyway, what did he want from me? Considering that he hadn’t been in the room and I hadn’t seen him yesterday either, he had to be an upperclassman.
“Ähm... do I know you?” I began, eyeing him suspiciously. He could have asked if I was one of Ayla’s crowd, but why did he pick that particular term? “Why do you ask? I thought we weren’t supposed to talk about it.”
“We’re at Poe, duh. And the lights are green” The boy replied, pointing at some kind of stop light over the door. “Sorry for ambushing you like this. I’m a Poesian myself. Third floor, room 18.” He took a step back and leaned against the wall. “I’ve kind of heard Phase… Ayla Goodkind talk about you and figured you might be interested in our project.” He said, gesturing with his hands.
He had a project? With Ayla? Not that I cared much for extra schoolwork, but it would be the polite thing to listen. What was his name anyway?
“Ähm… I’m Jan,” I introduced myself. “Who are you?”
Okay, maybe that was a bit crude but what would you have done?
“Name’s Lara… or ‘Luke’ outside of Poe,” he replied. “I heard you’re like me – not happy with the way your little transformation turned out.” He raised his hand. “Wait, let’s go over in the library, we can talk there safely.”
I wasn’t sure what he wanted to be safe for, but followed him over into the library. I’d kind of forgotten that Poe had one… Thinking about it, Mrs. Horton had sort of mentioned it yesterday. It looked like someone was seriously unhappy with turning into a guy and that was a problem I could easily understand. Well, not really the turning into a guy part, but the turning into something that you didn’t want to be part. It wasn’t like the body change was the real problem... okay, it was scary... but the problem was that well, it sucked. Hell, I knew how he felt. Made me really wonder what this was about though.
Nobody was in the library so I began as soon as the door had closed behind us. “You mentioned a project with Ayla; so what about it?”
He shook his head. “No, no project with a Goodkind. But I’m part of a group of GSD students who want to change their bodies back to the human norm. I wanted to ask if you were interested.”
Interested? Hell yes! My only issue was that he seemed prejudiced against Ayla. She was nice and it was really small minded to judge her solely based on her last name. It wasn’t her fault after all. And it wasn’t her fault for mutating either. Behaving as if she was named Hitler in an Israeli University was just silly and sad. Not that I really cared. I needed help against my transformation and if they could their attitude towards Ayla wasn’t important. My only problem was that we were in America and Americans believed there was no such thing as a free meal. They wanted something and they didn’t do it for free, otherwise everyone would look like that redheaded girl in Ayla’s group.
“Yes, I’m interested,” I slowly nodded my head as I considered the possibility. “I’d rather not permanently turn into a girl, but what do you want from me?”
“We need help transporting stuff.” Some of the tension left Luke. He... she pulled over a chair and sat down like girls always did. Legs together and all proper.
Just help with transporting 'stuff'? It made me worry about the implications. “Seriously? Can’t you carry stuff yourselves?” I asked suspiciously. There was some stuff I definitely wasn’t willing to carry. Illegal drugs could get me busted and put in an American jail. I certainly didn’t intend to waste my life behind bars until I was fifty.
He waved with his hand. “The school frowns on people trying to tamper with their bodies,” Lara explained. “Well, except for those who’ve been authorized and seldom get results.” She shrugged. “I’m known for my stance on that issue... and I can’t afford to pay 50,000 dollars for a ride in such a gizmo.”
Excessive safety testing, a school administration that didn’t want to take any risks as well as high prices for the components, I could imagine the problems. They’d look thrice at him if he even ordered components that could be used for transformations. It was nice to know that there was hope though.
“I can’t afford those prices either.” I said, flopping down as usual. I certainly didn’t want to look girlish. I was still a boy where it counted, so I could sit like one. “So what do you plan to do?” I inquired, since I had a few reservations. Using experimental medical technology was... not risk free. Maybe mutant stuff was better... trust was good, control was better.
He looked around quickly, checking for any listeners. But there was nobody; we were sitting in a corner and otherwise the library was clear. Seemingly satisfied Lu… Lara said: “We plan to use a device for the actual transformation to avoid affecting our powers and magic to find the way to reconstruct our original body frame.”
“Okay... I’m not an expert but this sounds good,” I shrugged. “I’m happy as long as it works.” If it worked...
“Phew...” he exhaled with relief. “I’m glad you’re on board. I have something to show you.” He pointed onto the ground in front of him and suddenly a pentagram appeared.
"Whoa! Ahm, I'm not so sure about this..." I anxiously took a step back because I have only seen pentagrams in one place before, horror movies.
“Part of our security system,” He shrugged like it was not a big deal to have magical pentagram as a security system. “Step in, I activate it and you can enter the library and our lab whenever you want.”
His explanation sounded reasonable, but then I didn’t know shit about magic. Maybe they used pentagrams in the movies because they looked evil. Maybe pentagrams were like hydrogen; they could be used for both good and evil. Like rocket fuel and nuclear bombs.
The pentagrams apart, what he told me about their security system sounded impressive. “I gather you need to get into the library, find this pentagram and get it to accept you before you can actually find the lab?”
“Yeah, pretty much. Magic works better if it is more complicated. The same goes for security systems,” he... she said. “Our magic geeks got the stuff from Harry Potter. The Library is under a notice-me-not and our lab is hidden by a fidelius. We have to be careful though, I doubt whatever our wizards have cooked up is as good as the Harry Potter original.”
Okay, this really sounded difficult. Apparently this little conspiracy had been running for some time already. This kind of system couldn’t be set up from one day to the next. It seemed too complicated. Yet if they went that far, they were probably close to success; otherwise there would have been no need.
“Okay, step in here, I need to check something,” Lu... Lara said, pointing at the pentagram on the ground.” A pentagram... “Don’t worry,” he continued. “It won’t hurt you and I won’t summon a demon either. I just want to make sure of something.”
Whatever, I wasn’t all that convinced it would work anyway. Stepping into the pentagram I felt a shiver running over my skin. Next to me Luke mumbled something and suddenly the pentagram flared green.
“You can come out now,” Lara said, waving at me. “I’ve bound you into our wards. You can come in here without problems now...”
“Nifty,” I grinned, turning around as I stepped out of the pentagram. “You’ve really blocked the library for everyone else right?”
“Not really... some people are immune against the distraction spell,” Lara said. “I need to show you our lab next. Follow me please and remember the way..”
He led me out of the library and down the stairs into the cellar. There was some kind of airlock between the cottage and the access to the tunnels. Weird, why would they need a thing like that? It was something I would have expected in a spaceship, not a school... or did they build a spaceship under the school? Project Mutant Exodus... Mutants fleeing from earth and the prosecution by the MCO. Nah that was like a plot from a bad Hollywood movie.
After opening it and walking around underground for a while, I began to worry. Did he really just want to help me or was this something more sinister, a setup? Why did he need to show me their lab? Hell, who recruited people into a secret project when they didn’t know them? It did sound kind of shady after all. I really hoped I hadn’t outed myself when I agreed with this changeling stuff. I had no mobile with me and running into one setup was enough for a day. Even if the last one wasn’t targeted at me.
My worries turned out to be needless as soon as we stopped. We hadn’t walked all that far anyway. I didn’t exactly have the plan of the school in my mind, but something told me that we were somewhere in the middle between Hawthorne and Poe. I guess it made sense. It wasn’t like the beautiful would have been interested in this anyway. It was more like the last hope of the freaky.
“Okay, we’re here,” Luke stated, ripping me from my thoughts. “You see this door right?”
Yes, now that he mentioned it I saw it. Obviously they’d done more than just magic. They didn’t just trust the mystic mumbo jumbo, which was rather smart in my opinion. Especially with mutant powers around that could cancel out whole types of power. The door looked just too similar to the wall and was also hidden in the shadows. It was almost impossible to discern.
“You press this stone...,” she said, touching a stone in the center of the door. “And then it opens.” The wall vanished into the space behind.
I followed him into the room and found myself in a laboratory with several strange gizmos and runes at the floor and walls. If it hadn’t been so clean and white it could have been right out of a horror movie - like Doom 3 - okay that was a game, but you know what I mean. Actually the only thing missing was the blood smeared over everything. Not that I missed it. Thankfully Luke didn’t seem like the Demon summoning type, even if she was a bit desperate.
Maybe this was just the way a mad... mutant scientist’s lab would look in reality. Not like these weird things in cartoons where stupid villains tried to conquer the world. No, while this lab looked somewhat strange, I couldn’t deny its obvious professionalism. It definitely wasn’t a demon summoner’s den. Thanks god. I really didn’t want to have anything to do with something like that.
“Okay... this looks... interesting,” I said. “What does this do?” I pointed at the strange gizmo in the center with many different buttons, Tesla coils and overlapping rune bands.
“Oh this?” He asked. “Jan, this is our transmogrification machine. You see this over there?”
Lara was pointing at a strange cage like structure that was also painted with runes and had some rather techy looking devices bracing its bars.
“Yes, it looks like a cage.” Which didn’t exactly make me feel good about this. Transformation cages were something out of evil-mad-scientist fiction. Well and those super villain labs that’d been busted by superheroes or the police.
“It’s to prevent movement during the re-transformation,” Lara explained calmly with a shrug. “That’s a bad idea, you know?”
I didn’t know, but I could imagine. No... I didn’t want to imagine. It would probably make this lab really look like a Doom 3 science lab. Well, after the demon invasion.
Trying to distract myself I asked: “Okay this is interesting and you seem to know much about this. I’m curious, are you’re one of the engineers?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m just the recruiting officer and have a small talent for magic. Nothing special really. Except for this stupid turning into a boy part.” He sighed, looking down on the offending part of her anatomy. “I think we’re done here unless you have some questions. I’ll tell you if your help is needed. Just remember to keep secret about our group...”
I didn’t really have any questions and I didn’t want to miss the others again. I hadn’t seen them at lunch, but okay, I’d been really late and he’d caught me after the assembly before I could catch up with the rest of my group.
“Good,” I replied. “I need to go anyway. See ya.”
After leaving the lab, I quickly hurried back to Poe and went up to our floor. Looking into my dorm room it turned out that Lisa wasn’t there. Not sure what to do next I left my stuff in the room and went to the sunroom. Thankfully the rest of the changeling group was there. Lisa, Felicia, Ashley and Susan were sitting in front of the TV, watching some girl-TV-series. I didn’t know it and considering how the protagonists were bitching around I didn’t want to know either. Seriously, what was so great about stuff like that? My sister also liked the trash... but maybe that explained her behavior. Stuff like that could only teach girls to be total assholes.
“Hey Jan,” John shouted, waving me over to the three guys of our TG-group. Alan was in his boy-form once more, sitting next to Hunter, who lounged around on the couch.
“Yes?” I said, joining them. “What’s up?”
“Where have you been?” Hunter inquired. “We kinda lost you after breakfast.”
‘Well you guys ran away! Sheesh,’ I thought feeling a bit irritated.
“Schedule and stuff,” I replied shrugging. “Made a friend… I think and was distracted after Mrs. Horton’s little speech.”
“That’s interesting,” Alan said – his voice sounded really boyish, he’d probably missed voice change or something. “Anyway, we were talking about GEO.”
If he really thought it interesting he wouldn’t have instantly changed the topic. Seriously, if they weren’t interested they shouldn’t have asked. Not that I minded much, I didn’t really feel like recounting my adventures this morning. GEO was a good thing to talk about though.
“Good and Evil Online, right?” I asked. “The game really sounds interesting from what I’ve heard, but what about it?”
“We considered buying it,” John said, flopping down on the couch right next to me. “You see, everyone here plays it and we can buy it at the Campus Store. And it’s really the best MMORPG around. WoW can’t hold a candle to it.”
Seriously? Some of my friends had been totally addicted to the latter, but I wasn’t quite sure why it was supposed to be so awesome. On the other hand I hadn’t tried it so far, so I probably couldn’t judge. Even if GEO was supposed to be better, I still had one issue though.
“What about the payments?” I needed to know. “I get some pocket money from my parents, but that’s not the world.” I had to buy everything from it, so I couldn’t just throw it away on a mood.
“Well… the first month is free,” Alan explained, “if you buy the game and you can buy two-month prepaid cards for 32 Dollars.”
That would be even less in Euro… Well, it was actually affordable. Good thing the Dollar was so weak compared to the Euro. But seriously, it was no big surprise considering who was in power. My doubts about the competency of my host nation’s government aside, buying GEO sounded like a good idea. Surfing the net got really old after a while.
“Okay,” I said and nodded. “What are we waiting for?”
“Just for you,” Hunter laughed and shouted. “Hey girls, we’re going.”
“Go quietly,” Lisa yelled back, although I could tell she wasn’t angry.
Thankfully, the Campus Store wasn’t that far away. Only five minutes later we were there. I wasn’t quite sure what I’d expected, but it wasn’t this. We found ourselves in a large hall, filled with things that looked like they were out of a superhero/villain Walmart. And while that probably was what it really was, we still found what we were looking for. Somewhere in the electronics corner, just behind the science-villain costumes, right next to the home build set for EMP-bombs and in front of the entrance to the gun section was the Games-stack.
They didn’t just sell GEO, but for some reason it was put prominently into the front. Someone here definitely had an interest selling the game. I wasn’t a big fan of giving credit card information to every company that wanted it, so I was rather grateful when I saw their stack of prepaid cards. Did they really need like 30 of those lying around? Strange... Apparently my cottage mates hadn’t lied about the Game’s popularity at this school.
Alan, Hunter and I went and bought one, while John only needed another prepaid card. I should have guessed he’d bought the game before, but then it was a bit of a surprise considering his history. With a mother like that... Or maybe not. She probably allowed it to him when he still was a her. MMORPGs were a men’s sport after all. And if her daughter wanted to conquer a territory of the patriarchy she’d probably be all for it. I didn’t ask John if my theory was true though.
Afterwards we went back to Poe and installed it on our laptops. When I logged into the school net they asked me for permission to register with them, I clicked one of those annoying Vista checks away and instantly got started. This was easier than establishing the W-Lan at home! No wasting hours reconfiguring IP-addresses until it was finally willing to work. This was almost too good to be true, but then they seemed to have a capable IT department.
Meanwhile I was quite happy with the laptop I’d gotten as a bribe. My parent’s gift turned out to be better than the school version. Even in a high tech school like this it was only to be expected, considering that they didn’t want us to use them as gaming stations. John also had his own, but Hunter had to use his school laptop and Alan had no PC at all.
“It’s okay, you can have my school laptop for now,” John offered, before I could do the same.
It wasn’t like MMORPG’s had limited installations or something. That would be silly... or too greedy for their own good.
Soon we found ourselves on two couches in the Sunroom with the laptops on the table in front. Thankfully installation didn’t take too long and we could begin with character creation. The process was really really really weird. I mean, it asked me questions about how I felt about my gender… it was as if it already knew about my problems and only wanted to test my reactions to the confrontation or something. I remarked on it and the others said it was the same for them. How could a bloody computer program ask so accurate questions?
The weirdness didn’t stop when I got to character creation. Or rather archetype selection. That’s the concept GEO has instead of classes.
“Jan, it’s so you’re not so limited by your class choice,” John explained. “In theory you can become an arch mage with a warrior archetype. The archetype only gives you your beginning skills and determines what gives you experience points.”
Cool! I’d played a few RPG’s before, but the limitations in character development were somewhat frustrating. Anyway, these archetypes were strange. The gender was determined from the beginning and I couldn’t choose everything. Some options were recommended, others not so much.
This meant I had mostly female characters to choose and my few male options were all archetypes I didn’t like. Seriously, what kind of person played rogue? ‘I have the bigger dagger than you have…’ or something. Apparently I wasn’t the only one, considering Alan’s angry mutters next to me. Something about guys in dresses… he ended up with a female Warrior. A real Amazon. John created a mage for himself, which somehow didn’t surprise me at all. Meanwhile Hunter… well, he picked a hunter. I thought it was rather funny.
Well, I had no really appealing male options. Rogue, Warrior and Archer. Meh. Or even worse, Soldier. Warriors were idiots, soldier’s cannon fodder. I wanted to be neither. They weren’t “easy” characters to role play anyway. Or so the interface told me. Considering I was an absolute noob at role playing, I figured it would be smarter to pick an easy Archetype. In my case that meant the Adventurer archetype. It was sort of in the center of my screen anyway. Going out to discover the world and slaying a few monsters on the way. That was what I wanted to do.
Afterwards it went exactly as John had told us. We appeared in different regions of the game and had individual beginning quests. While I’d liked to play with my cottage mates from the beginning, this disappointment was soon forgotten. The game was totally captivating. I’d never expected an online game to have a better storyline than most single player games.
“Boys, boys!” Lisa suddenly shouted from behind me.
“What?” I asked annoyed. Did she really need to interrupt me? “Could you please shout more quietly?”
“No… I can’t,” she laughed. “Anyway, it’s dinner time so you might want to find a way to finish your game.” Seeing our incredulous looks she amended: “Or at least pause it.”
“She actually has a point,” John admitted, looking at his watch. “Um… just have your characters auto-walk to the capital, and then we can continue together, tomorrow.”
It was a good idea. I probably shouldn’t miss the Poe Party for gaming if I didn’t want to totally isolate myself once again. After using this auto-walk options – it was an awesome feature in my opinion – we deactivated our laptops and went down for dinner with the girls. We were totally talking about GEO and even the girls were curious. Considering my roommate’s questions maybe I could convince even her to join.
“Hey Jan, John, what do you guys use as character’s names?” Ashley inquired and grinned at us. “My brother named his WoW rogue Roxxormaster.”
“Seriously?” John laughed. “How old is he?”
“Older than me,” Ashley said shaking her head. “Sometimes it looks like guys never grow up.”
Whatever, it really was a stupid name. Who actually wanted to grow up though? I wouldn’t have minded to stay a kid forever.
“Theala, that’s how I named my character,” I said.
“T..T... Thayala... how the hell do you write that name?” Lisa asked. “I can’t even speak it. I mean it sounds cool.”
Seriously it wasn’t so hard, was it? “Wasn’t English supposed to be a Germanic dialect?”
“Yeah, but we’ve unlearned how to make these barbaric guttural sounds,” Felicia said, blowing me a raspberry.
An American calling someone else a barbarian... But well, I could enlighten these fools by using the English pronunciation. “You’d probably speak it ‘Theala’.”
“Okay...” Lisa said raising her eyebrows. “Interesting how you can make a simple word sound so complicated.”
Interesting my ass. I remembered my own problems learning English. Just trying to learn to speak ‘the’ was bad enough. Not to speak of the fact that every vowel sounds different depending on whatever letters come in front of it. Just think about the many different ways to pronounce ‘e’... Meanwhile my new friends didn’t care much about my inner musings and continued the conversation.
“Herkules,” Hunter exclaimed grinning as he played his considerable muscles. “That’s my name!”
“He’s full of shit,” Alana interjected. “His real character’s name is Pussyman.”
“Very funny Ranma-girl,” Hunter replied, rolling his eyes. “Although... No, not a topic for the cafeteria... My character’s named Sekulas. It didn’t accept the cooler names.”
“Yeah, Harry Potter didn’t work either,” John mock-sighed. “Mine is Arlinius. Why did you want to know anyway?”
“Just curious...” Ashley said. “You know we need to find code names, so I wanted to know if you had an idea.”
“Well I have one already,” Alana said. “Lupeine.... I got it after I had my Were-style transformation and beat those bastards up.” Seeing our confused looks she elaborated: “Oh didn’t I mention it during our introduction? Some assholes tried to bully me when I transformed for the first time. I beat them up, but it was on video so the MCO couldn’t abduct me for being a dangerous mutant or something.”
It sounded very similar to my own story, only that I didn’t beat the assholes up. And there was the MCO again. I was only a day at Whateley and I was already getting paranoid about them.
“Okay...” I said. “Lupeine? Does that have a meaning?”
She shrugged. “It kinda refers to my Werewolf like transformation. I’m just a were-girl... well, were-Amazon. And Lupine was already taken. Apparently by someone here at Whateley. Well anyway, my in-game Warrior is sort of called Brandhild... Jan kinda helped.”
“Yeah it sounds somewhat German,” Lisa agreed. “Anyway, everyone is done eating right?”
Well, my plate was clear and it had been that way for the last five minutes.
“I could have another bite,” Ashley said. “But on the other hand I’m pretty full and we really need to get going.”
Suddenly all the girls were standing, ready with the trays in their hands - well all except for Alana, but then she was really one of the boys. Even after we left the trays with the dishes on the conveyor the girls continued their rush. For some reason they were all in a hurry and only when we returned to our rooms at Poe I understood what it was about.
Unbelieving I was sitting on my bed, watching Lisa standing in front of her opened wardrobe. “Oh God, what should I wear?” she asked almost panicked, wringing her hair.
I began to snicker and then broke into outright laughter. She just couldn’t decide what to pick. God, it couldn’t really be that hard, could it? It was like a scene out of a movie. Why couldn’t she just grab a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and be done with it? Girls were just weird that way.
“What?!” Lisa glared at me. “It’s not funny.”
It only made me laugh harder. “Sorry,” I said through my snickers. “Sheesh, just pick something or stay the way you are... it’s just a welcoming party for god’s sake.”
She glared at me. “It’s easy for you to say, you don’t care about your looks.” Then she focused on her wardrobe again. “What should I pick? Formal, semi, casual? I kinda like the soft colors.”
God this was ridiculous. She was a bloody exemplar, she could go out in sportswear and she’d still look hot. She didn’t even need face paint to look good. And seriously, why would I care about my looks? I didn’t want to look like a girl and I didn’t have formal male clothing - which would have been my only chance to actually look somewhat male. Her behavior kind of annoyed me though.
“Heaven, just pick a short skirt in a color you like, something that allows all who might be interested to see your breasts and make sure it doesn’t clash too hard.”
“It’s not that easy okay? I don’t want to look like a slut,” Lisa retorted glaring at me, stemming her hands into her hips. “Try some skirts yourself if you want to criticize me.”
No way in hell. I knew how that would go... no no, not with me girlfriend. Simply no way.
It was an effective way to shut me up though. “Whatever,” I said shrugging and pulled my Harry Potter book from the nightstand. God, I so wanted to play GEO, but I knew I wouldn’t enjoy the party if I did. That would be too distracting. If I started I would only be annoyed if I had to stop. No, I had to distract myself with reading my book until the party began. Lisa wasn’t good for anything right now.
Trousers were a bit too warm in bed, and I didn’t want to sweat them all stinky, so I threw them into a corner before I snuck myself under the covers. Lying on my back, I watched her over the edge of my book. It was strange how much she needed to do... and scary that people would actually expect me to do the same. *shudder* Why did girls complicate their lives so much? Hours wasted for dressing! I didn’t understand.
*knock* *knock*
“Come in,” Lisa chirped before I could say anything.
The door opened and a rather tall blonde haired girl glided through gracefully, she was another one of these exemplar-beauty types. “Hi... I’m Zenith,” she introduced herself. “Considering what Ayla said, I figure you’re Jan,” she said, looking at me.
“Yeah,” I said and stood up from my bunk. “That’s me.” She was the Senior Ayla had mentioned. “Ayla said you could help me with this.” I pointed at my boxer shorts.”
“Yes... I’ve had some experiences with this problem myself,” she nodded as she grabbed herself a chair and sat down. “It seems rather flat though...”
“It’s her manifestor shell,” Lisa interjected, interrupting her efforts in applying war-paint.
Zenith shrugged. “So just deactivate it or I can’t really help you.”
Crap. “I can’t. It only deactivates when I fall asleep,” I said. “Is there really nothing you can do?”
“Well... I’m a telepath; I could knock you out or something.”
“No, that wouldn’t work,” Lisa said shaking her head. “I got up to go to the bathroom half an hour after you went to sleep and the shell was still active.”
“Okay... I guess we don’t have this option right now,” Zoe sighed. “Anyway...” I felt something strange before she looked at my roommate. “Lisa... do you still have your... balls left.”
Lisa shook her head. “No... Alan has though.”
“Ah she’s the Ranma of your year, right?” Zenith said. “No... It’s not really necessary and I doubt he’d like it very much if we experimented around with them.”
Experimented? That didn’t sound good. Experiments were always risky and I certainly didn’t want to risk my balls. Alan probably wouldn’t appreciate it either. The fact that Zoe was giggling didn’t make me feel safer at all. I wanted to hide my balls, not lose them!
“Okay, I don’t think you like to hear it, I didn’t either,” Zoe began as if she’d guessed my thoughts, making me fear the worst. “But you need to do it.”
“You don’t want to hack them off, right?,” I asked, instinctively retreating towards the wall. I really didn’t like the way they were talking about my precious balls.
They looked at me as if I’d grown wings. “What?” I said irritated. “Please tell me what you mean.”
“I was talking about panties,” Zoe said, shaking her head. An amused smile was playing over her lips. “You really go to the worst side of things, don’t you?”
“Sorry,” I said but didn’t mean it. “I’m so used to the worst that assuming it from the beginning seems like the safest bet.”
Zenith was just staring at me. Crap... I said too much again. They probably didn’t care about my past anyway and who wanted to associate to a depressive freak? Why couldn’t I keep my mouth shut once in awhile? She’d said something about panties and I went off about my issues.
“Ähm... sorry, forget it,” I said, definitely meaning it this time. “Anyway, what about panties?”
“Okayyyy,” Zoe replied, raising her eyebrows. “You mind if I touch you?”
I shrugged. Being touched by a hot blonde wasn’t something I minded very much. Thinking about it made my nipples feel strange - my dick was kind of deactivated at the moment. Which was probably for the better, or this could have become very awkward.
“Alright,” she said stepping closer and suddenly pulled at my boxers. “You see how far I can stretch this? It doesn’t press your genitals against your body at all.”
“Yes...” I saw it. “But wouldn’t further pressing hurt even worse?”
Zenith shook her head. “No, not if it’s done right. If you’re lucky you can just kinda shove your groin up into your body cavity. Otherwise you might need to wear a gaff, a protection pad and another pair of panties, or maybe a panty girdle above it.”
For some strange reason - well probably my mysterious real power - I actually knew what a gaff was. Essentially it was a front panty. One used it to hold one’s junk after one tucked it back.
“That’s nice to know, but I still have no idea how to do it... and I have no panty girdle...”
“For god’s sake, Jan get a grip! It’s really not that bad,” Lisa groaned. “A panty girdle is a freaking pair of girl-boxer-shorts!”
Crossing my arms under my chest, I glared at her. “I wasn’t complaining about it. I simply have none! That was my condition to actually come here. I mean I’m forced to run around in girl clothes so I demanded that they’d leave my underwear alone!”
“Perfect deal for your mom,” Zenith said grinning. “She tricked you Jan.”
Mom... dad... I still needed to write them a message. “Ah crap... I totally forgot about them.” I shook my head. “Anyway, where do I get this stuff from?”
“Campus store,” Zoe said, rolling her eyes. “Um... Lisa,” she said hesitantly. “Would you mind to lend Jan a pair of yours? Just for tomorrow?”
Um... what the hell was that about? It was just underwear and Zoe was behaving as if she’d just asked Lisa to give me her brand-new car or something.
“Isn’t that supposed to be unhealthy?” Lisa asked reluctantly.
“Only for two girls. It’s Vagina on Penis contamination...” Zenith rolled her eyes. “If that was too dangerous humanity would have died out by now. Anyway, you’re only going to do it for a day.”
I decided to say nothing about this. Not that I ever switched boxer shorts with my friends or something, but I didn’t get their problem. God, would I become like that? Worry about pointless crap, waste hours in front of my wardrobe and mirror?
“If it’s that bad I can wear boxer shorts tomorrow or something,” I shook my head. “Seriously, it’s not like I’m too fond of that idea anyway.”
“No Jan... you won’t get away like that,” Zenith laughed. “Seriously though, I’ll bring some gaffs tomorrow and show you how to do this without hurting yourself, okay?”
“Sure,” I said. She had to know better how it worked.
“Hey don’t look so glum,” Zenith said. “Maybe you’ll even like how it feels.”
No. Way. In. Hell. And even if it was true I wouldn’t admit it. Or I could kiss my male card goodbye.
Sitting down on my bed, I tried to distract from our previous topic: “Zoe, say, when does the party begin?”
“Um...” she looked onto her watch. “Good that you mention it. It begins in ten minute... I need to go.”
Zenith left and Lisa finished whatever she needed to do to get ready for the party. Meanwhile I started up my Laptop and sent Mom and Dad a message. They really needed to know I arrived well. Even though they probably deserved it, I didn’t want to make them worry too much. Well, and dear Svenja had some serious snark coming, stupid cow she was. It wasn’t all niceness though, I asked some pointed questions. They really needed to tell me why they’d really send me here and if they’d been threatened by someone. My dorm mates’ reports scared the shit out of me.
After Lisa had forced me to don a new blouse - a t-shirt was enough sheesh - we went to join the rest of the party. I didn’t give a shit about career options, hell I was only a freshman, it wasn’t like that affected me anyway? The alternative sexuality at Campus was my first destination, but I realized this wasn’t something I cared for. It was mostly about homosexual relationships anyway and they only wanted to say something about changeling stuff in the end. Considering that I didn’t feel ready for relationships anyway, I just backed out as soon as I saw their program.
Introduction to Whateley turned out to be more of the same stuff that I’d already learned from Ayla and Mrs. Bell. And I really knew enough about Campus Security. If I never saw that Delarose dude again it would still be too early.
“Sorry, Ashley,” I said. “I don’t think this is something for me. My student counselor already told me about making my schedule and stuff.”
“Okay,” she whispered back. “I guess I can tell you tomorrow what you missed.”
I shrugged. “Sure, I’ll go down to the party. See you later.”
The party on the first floor turned out to be fun. Almost all of our group was there and John introduced me to the two guys that had started off the whole playing GEO thing in the boy’s shower this morning. They were both gay and had already hit it off in the train to Whateley. Apparently the game had made them admit their feelings about their sexuality. It was rather weird, really.
“Hey, Jan,” a female voice said from behind, catching my attention. “Are you game for some fun?”
I turned around and saw the lesbian girl from the showers this morning. Julia something or other. She was kinda nice though. “Hi,” I said. “You have an idea?”
She nodded. “Yeah, over there in the meeting room they’ve sort of created a Karaoke bar.”
Karaoke... It sounded kind of cool, but I’d never tried it before. And I also wasn’t confident about my singing abilities - I’d lost them during my first voice-change and I hadn’t tested it since my first transformation.
“If you want,” I said. “I might sound like a drunken sailor though.”
“I doubt it,” Julia laughed. “Or you’d be the highest pitched Sailor I’ve ever seen.”
I was kinda trying to speak low... but apparently I was failing. Why did I have to inherit that annoyingly high voice of the German voice actor? It was like I couldn’t go deeper! On the other hand I could actually sing before my first voice change...
“Good, lead the way,” I said and smiled at her. She was kinda cute, but she wouldn’t be interested in me anyway. I was just too freakish... and everyone knew lesbians hate penises.
Soon we found ourselves in the crowd, dancing and waiting for our chance to sing. Right now a beautiful black girl was singing on the stage and she was better than most super-stars. By all right she should be one of these teen stars!
“Ouch! Jan, be careful,” Julia reminded me. “You kinda dance like a lumberjack.”
“Well, tell me how to do it better,” I replied a bit miffed. “I don’t exactly have much experience.” I really didn’t. How would I? People didn’t want to be associated with a freak… fag like me. And I stopped caring anyway.
“Guys...” she rolled her eyes. “Just copy my motions.”
It wasn’t a guy problem, but a lesbian probably wouldn’t know.
“Okay…” I said. “Hey look, I think it’s our turn.”
It was. Julia had picked some Rihanna song – of all artists – and we were singing it in duet. Considering the ovations, we probably did a good job. It felt like I actually hit the right notes. Curious, but really neat. During our second time on stage I tried to mimic one of those dances in the music videos.
“It looks cute when girls do weird stuff,” was Julia’s opinion. “If guys can’t do it right it just looks totally gay.”
Right, the infamous double standard… At least it was on my side this time. Yeah... looking gay was exactly what it was. It also was the reason why I never was on parties before. I couldn’t do it right and I didn’t need to invite the derision I already got for existing and not being like everyone else. Teenagers were like fascists in that regard. You were either part of the group, or you were an unworthy Untermensch, breathing air reserved for your betters.
“Um... I didn’t mean it like that,” Julia said, ripping me from my depressing thoughts.
“Ähm? What do you mean?” I asked confused. “What do you not mean like what?”
She sighed and her shoulder slumped. “I’m a lesbian and I go and say stuff like ‘guys doing weird stuff look totally gay’.”
Yeah that was a bit stupid, but still. “It’s just the way it’s used.” I just didn’t like if it was used on me. Especially since I was a heterosexual guy and not gay. Sheesh.
“But it’s not supposed to be used that way,” Julia explained. “It’s supposed to be a term to empower us. The happy ones. Not the awkward, stupid, freaky, weird ones.”
I didn’t get that. “Ähm... why happy ones? I thought gay was just another term for homosexual. Like ‘schwul’ in German.”
Julia shrugged. “Homosexual used to be the term when gayness was considered a mental illness. The first gay-activist took a term for happy... gay... and used it as a term for us.”
So gay used to mean happy, but nowadays it just meant homosexual. No big surprise, considering that the majority of people still considered homosexuals weird freaks. Even if it got better. Most didn’t want to see them dead anymore, just didn’t want to be ‘infected’ by their queerness. Bigoted, ignorant assholes. Inventing new politically correct terms didn’t help at all with these people. They’d either continue to use the old term or turn the new one into an insult anyway.
“Well, shit happens,” I said. “I’m certainly not angry at you or something.”
“Phew,” she exclaimed with a smile and we changed the topic of our conversation.
Talking with Julia was kinda interesting. She totally over-shared and told me stuff I’d never tell someone I’d just met that day. It just wasn’t done among guys. On the other hand it was neat, this way I wasn’t stuck with a lack of topics. I just let her tell stuff and added a few cents of my own. I mean seriously, someone called her ‘Nigger’ to her face. What assholes.
Still, the reactions of the others around us surprised me a bit. I mean it wasn’t nice, but they were like it was the end of the world. Turned out that it was how they used to call their slaves… a term to make blacks feel they were lesser people. I could actually understand why they reacted like that. Not like the hubbub about the German term ‘Neger’ at all, which was just the Latin word for black.[1] It was probably the same as making Jew-jokes in Germany.
Political correctness was complicated and a minefield riddled with pitfalls and fall strings. I was glad to leave this awkward and dangerous conversation behind and do another duet with Julia. This time we’d chosen to do a random song and were surprised with a punk song. “I’m just a kid” from Simple Plan. I didn’t know the song before, but thankfully they showed the notes of the melody. This way I had at least some idea what to sing.
“I think I've got a lot of friends but I don't hear from them
What's another night all alone?
When you're spending everyday on your own”[2]
Not that I ever had that many friends, but even the few I had didn’t really care.
“I'm just a kid and life is a nightmare
I'm just a kid; I know that it's not fair
Nobody cares, cause I'm alone and the world is
Having more fun than me tonight”[3]
Well, not this night, thankfully. My first real Party since fifth grade. Five years alone, but no longer. Fuck you, world;’ and thanks Julia and Lisa and Susan and John and all the other people here. The lyrics were so depressing, but deeply resonated with me. It was like the hymn of my life before Whateley. I couldn’t help myself, my rage and frustration poured into the song. Considering the applause afterwards it was well liked though.
“Heaven,” Susan told me, catching up with me as we left the stage. “Jan, this was impressive. You really felt this song, didn’t you?”
I only nodded. I didn’t feel like talking about it right now. It brought up too many miserable memories. Sure, it fired me up, but I didn’t like the reason for it.
“Well it was great,” she repeated. “Anyway, you mentioned you didn’t understand girl stuff at all, right?”
“Yes…” I admitted reluctantly – I had a bad feeling about the avenue of this conversation.
“Okay…then this is the perfect opportunity for you,” Susan decided. “Just follow me.”
“Ähm… wait a second!” I protested. “Why do I get the feeling I won’t like this very much?”
A smirk played over Susan’s lips. “You might be a precog.”
That didn’t sound good at all. “You can’t just abduct me.” I was having fun with Julia; hopefully she would stop my abductress.
It wasn’t to be. Crushing my hopes, Julia just laughed. “It’s alright. See you later or something.” Crap.
“Okay, let’s go and do your makeup,” Susan said, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the exit.
“What?” I said, too stunned to resist her.
“Ha-ha,” Susan laughed. “You should see your face. Juuust kidding.”
I kinda wanted to hit her. Sure, she was a girl and guys weren’t supposed to hit girls, but she really deserved it... and I had a good excuse with not totally being a guy anymore. On the other hand I was just glad she wasn’t serious. If she’d gotten one of the other boys to join... I couldn’t be the one left out again. I’d do almost everything to avoid being the loner freak again.
“Um... sorry,” she said and quickly hugged me, “I didn’t think you’d take this seriously.”
Great, now I felt like crying. What was wrong with these female hormones? First the rage and now my eyes were growing moist, making me blink. It was like I was a kid again, breaking into tears whenever someone said something unfortunate. It sucked! Why did I have to be like this? I felt like I was on drugs.
“It’s okay,” I sniffed, suppressing the need to wipe my eyes. I really didn’t want to have tear stains on my cheeks. “So what did you really want?”
“Just have some fun as a group,” Susan shrugged. “We thought you were kinda missing and Ayla and her friends wanted to talk to us.”
“Okaay...” Well, Ayla had been helpful so far, so it couldn’t hurt to talk to her. I could only hope that the rest of her friends weren’t like creepy-sword-girl, but I probably didn’t need to worry. From what I’d seen so far, they seemed more like the wacky kind and not the murderous kind.
“Just follow me, Jan,” Susan said. “Apparently they’ve got the common room in the new wing for our instruction, but Mrs. Horton forgot to tell us or something.”
“Or something...” I echoed, walking behind her up the stairs into the new wing of Poe.
“Well, I don’t know,” Susan said shrugging, “I didn’t ask. We figured it would be smarter to see what they had to say.”
Whatever, the room they’d reserved for us was also on the end of a corridor, but the design was decidedly different from the Sunroom on our floor. The front was all glass, with some heavy blinds - they were probably a good idea in summer - and the equipment was newer. While I wouldn’t call the couches in the sunroom ratty, these were brand new.
“Hola,” Felicia greeted us as we stepped into the room. “Finally managed to find Jan?”
Seriously I wasn’t that hard to find. Was it that inconceivable that I was having fun with Julia on the dance floor? Felicia wasn’t alone though. There was the rest of our group, as well as Ayla and her friends. At least those that I saw at breakfast.
“Okay, now that everyone is here, I guess it’s time to formally introduce ourselves,” the redheaded beauty began. “I’m Nicky Reilley, Codename’s Fey. You all know Ayla here already and these three are my quirky roommate Tony,” Nicky said, motioning at an athletic looking beautiful Afro American girl. “Billie’s the blue haired anime escapee, this is Jade”, she pointed at the kid of the group, “and here we have our token guy Hank.” She went from left to right. Meanwhile Hank just rolled his eyes - I probably would too if I’d been called token guy.
Hank resumed: “Tony also goes by her Codename Chaka and many people call Billie Tennyo. Jade’s also known as Generator, but us two usually use our real names.”
Seriously, they really called people by their codenames?! It had been bad when my ‘friends’ called me by my gaming pseudonym Nadjed, but it had only been them. I certainly hadn’t introduced myself that way. It was obviously handled differently here. Another thing I needed to consider... If they actually used it as an alternative first name I couldn’t take some random shit that popped into my head.
“So what’s your Codename,” Hunter inquired grinning. “Superman?”
“No, Ayla won’t give it,” Hank mock complained. “Until I manage to convince her I’m stuck with Lancer.”
“Lancer?” I echoed, and asked: “Does that have a meaning?”
Meanwhile Ayla rolled her eyes: “You know I have no influence with DC Comics.”
“Yeah, like the cool second in the team,” Lancer explained, ignoring his Teammate, while he grinned at me. “You know, like Han Solo to Anakin Skywalker, or Lancelot... or Ron Weasley, although he kinda fails on the cool.”
Another person who thought Ron sucked... Seriously, why did they all need to bash the Harry Potter character I could identify with most... well, except maybe Hermione... No, bad thought. Just because I liked her character that didn’t mean I wanted to be a girl. Really!
“Ähm... I don’t want to be rude or something,” I began, interrupting the building conversation, “but it would be rather nice if you could tell me what this is about, since you pulled me rather... abruptly from the party.”
“We just wanted to get to know Ayla’s cute protégés,” Tony, the Afro-American girl said grinning.
“She used protégé!” Ayla stated as if that was a miracle. “My gift proves its worth once again.” She sniffed, before she started to chuckle. “Heaven, your theatrics are contagious.”
“Very funny Ayles,” Tony said, rolling her eyes. “No-fun-guy at her best. Anyway, I didn’t get it from your magazine, I actually read other stuff, you know?”
“Really?” The kid, Jade, asked, looking at Tony with overly theatrical surprise.
Chaka just raised her eyebrows, but didn’t say anything. I figured it was for the better. While the quirky act was probably somewhat funny, I didn’t really appreciate it right now. I was full of adrenaline, wanted to move and not just standing around to watch two hobby comedians snipe at each other.
“Ignore these jokers,” Fey interjected, looking at me. “When Mrs. Horton heard of your run-in with security she decided it would be better if we’d inform you about the pitfalls at Whateley.”
“Jan?” Lisa said. “Did we miss something?”
“Ähm...” I blushed. “Well, I kinda ran into some assholes who were bullying Leonard, and then I kinda tried to convince them not to and they took offense. The bitch of the trio attacked me... but then security was there. And then chief Delarose got on my nerves and I kinda ranted at him.”
He just shouldn’t have implied the situation was my fault! Bullies were bullies and bullied. It was not my fault if they decided to get violent. It wasn’t like I’d provoked them or anything.
“Chief?” John asked. “Chief Delarose as in boss of campus security?”
“Who’s Leonard?” Lisa inquired at the same time.
I decided to hold my tongue; I really didn’t want that conversation. Ayla, Fey and Hank nodded though.
“Crap, dude,” Alan said as he shook his head. “You really have a way to get in trouble.”
What? This was my first time I ever got into trouble since that stupid event during my manifestation. Where did he get that idea?
“And that’s why we’re here,” Chaka said. “Mrs. Horton decided that we need to teach our cute underclassmen how to stay out of trouble.”
“Which is rather strange, all things considered,” the kid said, poking her stuffed animal lion. “I don’t know why she asked us of all people.”
“Yeah!” The lion agreed, jumping up from her lap. “We always get into trouble.
“Could you please stop your comedy routine,” Ayla ordered, glaring at her teammates. “We can entertain them with our exploits later.” She shook her head and looked back at us. “There is something I need to warn you about. Some people are seriously interested in you, Jan. My contacts informed me about suspicious inquiries.” She looked at the rest of our group. “That rarely is a good thing. I hope you’ll support each other.”
Great, just great. Like it wasn’t enough to be banished to America – for my own good – no I needed to be pulled right into a mystery or adventure novel. Maybe I could find a secret tunnel and this would be a story right out of a famous five book. I guess I was George and Lisa was Anne…
I sighed. “Can it get any more mysterious? Maybe a prophecy?” I shook my head and declaimed: “She who was once a boy, and is made in the image of a fictional hero, will come to the school in the forest. She will save the world… or end it. SHE WILL COME!”
“Since when do you call yourself a she?” Lisa inquired, raising her eyebrows.
Shit, I did. What people always ‘she-ing’ me did to my self-image.
Meanwhile Chaka clapped her hands. “Decent mysterious oracle impression, there is some room for improvement. Like less irony in ya voice, sista.”
Oh well, what could I do? As if I could take myself seriously when claiming outrageous crap like that. Superheroing wasn’t my thing and seriously, ending the world? Why the hell would I ever want to do something like that?
“Can we get to the point,” Felicia raised her voice. “So someone is interested in Jan, so how is that my problem?”
Great, thanks for the empathy. But what was to be expected of an avatar of a Diva?
“You’re living in the same dorm as her,” Fey stated coolly. “It might behoove you to take some interest in your fellow changelings’ lives. Or it’ll come back to bite you in your ass.”
Felicia threw a glance at the door. “Is this a threat?”
“No, just a warning,” Nicki shrugged. “The wrong sort of people has shown… interest in avatars lately. So Jan might not be the only one of you who’s got problems.”
Well, her attitude was like she was begging for problems. Diva’s were only great as long as they were famous. Afterwards they were just glorified aged whores. Okay, maybe I was a bit mean, but honestly, even my old asshole classmates wouldn’t have been so open about it. At least not if they weren’t assured of a cheering audience.
If she wanted to be that way I didn’t care. I couldn’t have everyone for a friend and I had bigger problems anyway. “Did you find out who was interested in me? I’d like to know whom I should avoid.”
“Not really,” Ayla shook her head. “That’s why it raised red flags with my informers. They couldn’t find out who was behind it.”
“So we won’t know anything until they approach Jan or one of us directly,” Ashley said. “I had enough of this secret conspiracy crap before I even arrived at school.”
Yeah, the pervert-villain incident, I remembered. I certainly felt the same way. Ayla and the rest of TK couldn’t tell us more, but told us we should be careful. And ask them for help if something happened. Apparently they’d sort of trained as a superhero team for fun – or so I thought when they mentioned it in the beginning. This changed when they properly introduced themselves and told more about their last year at Whateley. Seriously, three fights with a real A- list super villain! Everyone would try to improve their teamwork after something like that.
“Someone invaded Whateley?!” Lisa shouted. “I thought this was supposed to be a safe haven for mutants.”
“Yeah, but we kicked their ass,” Chaka said, pumping her fist. “You should have seen Billie blasting their dropships.”
“I could have done without,” Tennyo said. “The attackers got a bloody nose and none of the students died.”
It only got worse when they continued their story. Apparently there used to be a campus elite group and they got into one fight with the Kimba’s after another. It only ended when one of them tried to mind control Nicki, or bind her soul or something – I hadn’t even known something like that was possible. It was stuff from a bad Hollywood movie, stuff that happened when the horror regisseur thought gore and dismembering wasn’t enough anymore.
Thankfully this story had a happy end, since Jade and her kicked their asses, blew up a syndicate base and freed some other mind control victims. The boss of that elite group was sort of involved and they fell apart afterwards. Jade gleefully described how that bastard was anally raped with a bedside lamp. I wasn’t someone to approve rape normally, but it kinda felt like he got off easy for me. That elite group, the campus “alphas”... apparently they’d somehow reformed. Why someone would want to be involved with them, I certainly didn’t understand.
“Thanks for the warning,” I said. “It’s good to know what to look out for.”
“Probably won’t help you much if they’re really out for you,” Hank sighed. “If someone is making trouble, try administration. If they won’t help you ask us. We’ve got some rep to throw around.”
Which was no surprise after their adventures. Ayla had fought a real demon in Los Angeles, which she tried to play down, but apparently was a major thing according to the others. She’d also been abducted by the MCO afterwards, which was why she really felt bad about them. Knowing that they really did shit like that and also knowing that you had been their fourth biggest financer had to hurt. On the other hand the MCO obviously were good at putting up a false front, considering that they even managed to deceive their biggest sponsors.
We had a discussion about how they got away with it, which was really worrisome, since something like that should have been impossible. Apparently things got better though because the MCO had stepped on the wrong people’s toes. Afterwards we somehow talked about Ayla’s attempts at curing her condition. Right now she wasn’t very hopeful, but certain that she wanted to learn more about it. I wondered if I should mention Lara and his project, but decided against it.
“Um... something is still bugging me,” John said. “How the fuck did you manage to have to fight all this crap? There are professional Superheroes, right?”
“Adults are useless,” Tony laughed. “Either the Superheroes got their asses kicked or they simply weren’t there.”
“Not really,” Ayla interjected. “But I couldn’t let some crazed Demon or Villain kill my family, before some Hero could be bothered to show up.”
I nodded. “Yeah that makes sense; if I had powers I wouldn’t let my family die either. Even Svenja.”
“So… what now?” Susan inquired. “I mean this was totally interesting and stuff, but over there a party is raging.”
“Good idea,” Chaka quickly agreed. “I‘m getting restless.”
“Did you have sugar again?” Nicki asked, rolling her eyes, before she shrugged. “She’s got sort of an allergy.”
We went down afterwards and had a singing contest. A team competition to decide who sang better or worse. Hank was bellowing like a Lumberjack and Hunter wasn’t much better - even if he still had a rather feminine voice. We tried to get the two of them on stage for a joke, but the organizers didn’t feel like this was a good idea. There had to be songs even they could sing. Ballermann-party-hits couldn’t be just a German phenomenon, it just couldn’t. That would be too embarrassing.
Meanwhile I had fun singing with Chaka. That girl was almost as good at that Superstar... Siren, who had sung a while ago. She’d left when we came in. It kinda sucked, because she was the best singer by far. Against her pure talent and maybe skill the rest of us were all hopeless. Well, it made the competition fairer, I guess.
I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I could actually sing myself. That was an ability I’d lost with puberty. Bellowing with the rhythm, sure, but real singing? I felt like singing that Britney spears song... “Delight in my eyes...” that had been on air before my voice change. Just because I could again, not because I thought it particularly awesome...
“Hey Jan,” Lisa said, stepping closer with two paper cups in her hands. “You should drink something. Singing without drinking is bad for your voice.” She held out one of the coke bottles.
“Thanks,” I said, grabbing it and taking a sip. “Ah crap, it’s my turn again. Thanks, I’ll just take this with me.”
“No biggie,” she said, “have fun.”
And then I went to the stage again. Hank had somehow managed to convince Ayla to join him on the stage, but before they went they’d also signed me, Chaka and John up - yes John could sing... somewhat. The rest didn’t seem to be the big fans of Karaoke, or they didn’t want to embarrass themselves. Well, I could understand. With those Sirens and Exemplars around a person who was tone-deaf wouldn’t dare try. I wouldn’t have either with my old voice.
Anyway, dancing to other’s efforts was fun enough. Lisa came back from the bathroom and joined the rest of the group. Well, she probably had something important to do if she missed our song. I took another sip. It was an awesome idea of hers to organize a drink for me. She really was a good friend.
I didn’t get to sing the next song and neither did anyone from our groups, so I returned to the kids who’d hopefully become my friends. Dancing was fun, too, I realized. Apparently shaking one’s limbs along awesome music activated something primal in my mind… with my clan… ähm friends. Considering how the others behaved it was probably just another mating game, but not for me. I didn’t feel like impressing girls… or guys, but it was fun nonetheless.
Actually it made me strangely happy. I’d been kind of depressed ever since... well, ever. It wasn’t just my manifesting as a mutant, the bullying before... I just got into a rut and didn’t find the way to leave it. Computer games were just the way to distract myself from my problems. A drug... medicating myself with artificial excitement. Still, now I felt a strange clarity. Maybe it was because I felt like I could trust these cottage mates of mine. I’d never felt like people could actually understand me before, but Ayla and Alan were going through something similar and Lisa was like the nicest person ever. Just dancing with them, it activated a primal sense of belonging and made me sad when we had to stop.
“Kids, it’s enough,” Mrs. Horton announced. “You can still party tomorrow... today”
I didn’t like it very much, but as soon as the music was out tiredness caught up with me. I quickly brushed my teeth and moved into bed. Thankfully I’d chosen the lower bunk, my limbs were so heavy, I doubted I would have managed to reach the top. After throwing my clothes into a corner, I barely managed to pull on my pajamas. Afterwards I dropped down on my bed and was pretty much asleep before I hit the sheets.
***
“So did it work?” the boy asked, drumming his fingers impatiently on the desk.
“My operative reported success,” the woman stated. “She drank it.”
“So the problem should be solved...” the boy said, leaning back in his chair. “I didn’t think your sisterhood could do it, but apparently even the blind hen finds a corn once in awhile.”
***
“…shaking all the time and hot as hell,” Lisa’s voice penetrated my haze as I woke up from a nightmare. I remembered something was clawing at me, devouring me.
A freezing cold hand touched my forehead, making shivers run down my spine. It was as if the hand had been immersed in ice water before. Like a snowball on my forehead. I opened my mouth to protest, but I couldn’t motivate myself. I just wanted to sleep. My muscles ached, and even moving my mouth took all the strength I had. Why did they need to wake me? Not that I minded to get out of that nightmare, but I was tired. Couldn’t they stop this ruckus?
“Shit, she’s burning up!” another female voice exclaimed. Groaning I turned my head towards the voice.
God, I was tired and felt hot. My head hurt and they made this ruckus. What was going on anyway? I slowly forced an eyelid open and it took an effort like lifting a car with my bare hands. I didn’t like very much what I saw. Lisa was pacing in front of my bed, wringing her hands. Next to her was Mrs. Horton who looked really worried herself.
“Was… Was ist los?” I asked, only garnering strange looks.
“She’s talking German,” Lisa said clearly agitated, “is her condition getting worse?” Meanwhile Mrs. Horton pulled a mobile phone from her poach.
Oh… I was. Didn’t realize it. What were the correct English words again? What did she mean with condition? The fact I was feeling hot and tired and my head felt strange?
“What… What is… going on?” I asked again. Somehow my mysterious super-language ability had left me, making me stammer and search for the right words.
“You’re ill,” Lisa replied, taking my hand, “Mrs. Horton is calling for help.”
I was ill… I guess that was to be expected considering how hot my head felt. I didn’t have headache or something, but that would explain why my limbs were too tired to move. I’m not quite sure what happened next, Lisa was gone and then she was there again.It wasn’t quite unconscious but certainly spaced out and thinking about nothing specific.
Staring into the room, I watched the world pass in front of my eyes. The next thing I registered was when I was levitated by John and put onto a stretcher - no idea where he and the stretcher came from. I learned later that Lisa had alarmed the other changelings. Susan, Hunter, Alan and the rest of our group were all in my room. They looked really worried! I hadn’t expected they’d care. This was so nice... tears were rolling from my eyes.
Mrs. Horton put a cool, wet washcloth on my forehead. It felt nice, like the hotness was draining out of my head,allowing me to focus better. The wooden panels at the ceiling looked neat.
“Ashley, Hunter, grab the stretcher and move towards the hospital,” the housemother ordered, “the emergency crew should meet you on your way. Hurry, Burnout is nothing to trifle with.”
First I thought it was strange that she chose Ashley of all people, but then I saw her lifting one end of the stretcher as if it was a feather. I remembered she was an energizer and apparently that meant she could increase her own strengths or something. But I wasn’t an expert on mutant powers. On the other hand our muscle guyrl Hunter was an obvious choice.
God... what was I thinking about? Burnout! I had bigger problems than pondering about how Ashley was able to lift me. Here I was, my new friends carried me down the stairs on a stretcher and I was thinking about their capabilities. Maybe it was just the fact that my mind didn’t work correctly at the m... or the fact that the Poe bust was super interesting.
“Hunter,” I said, raising my arm to point at my target. “Kann ich die Büste haben?”
Why were they looking so confused? Oops... I’d been talking German again. “Can I have the bust?” I repeated the question, “I kind of want to keep it... It’s important for our mission.”
“What mission?” Hunter asked, looking at me as if I’d grown a second head as they carried me towards the exit.
What mission? Sheesh, it was The Mission. We needed the bust to graduate. Was he stupid or something? That was why we were here after all. Sensei had ordered us to get it. We had to regain our honor after last year’s class had failed. But now it was right in front of us and we only had to grab it and make a run back to the dojo... the Yama-dojo in Nippon.
What the hell was I thinking about? I wasn’t from Japan, I was from Germany. Where did these thoughts come from?
“She’s deluded from her fever,” Ashley said, continuing on her way. “It gets worse, we need to hurry.”
No... I wasn’t deluded. I just knew what they wanted and I wasn’t one of them. What the ninjas wanted. One was directly above me, sticking at the wall like a spider. It was them who wanted to steal the bust. While I didn’t particularly care about it, it felt wrong to let thieves get away with it. Maybe they were pedophiles like Orochimaru.
“Ninjas, above!” I rasped - shouting didn’t work, my voice was too weak.
“What do you mean?” Lisa asked, she’d suddenly appeared somehow. “I don’t see Ninjas.”
Well duh, they were Ninjas after all. That didn’t change the fact they were there and hiding in the shadows. We were nearing the door and just as I wanted to correct her, they attacked. First I could see nothing but another shade at the ceiling and then suddenly, a girl clad in black jumped towards me, carrying a strange knife in her hands. I wanted to scream, but my voice failed me.
Attacking me turned out to be a bad decision for the girl. One moment I thought she’d spear me with her knifes, the next Ashley was above me, crackling with electricity as she kicked the ninja girl into the solar plexus. It was like a scene from an anime. The Ninja crashed into the wall while Ashley stood ready for further opponents. She smelled like ozone.
The stretcher was falling for a second, but then Hunter reacted. Now a scream finally escaped me, but it was already over before I’d really started. Hunter caught me almost instantly, stabilizing the stretcher before I could hit the ground.
“Attack on Poe!” Hunter shouted with his strangely female voice. It was as loud as if he’d used a megaphone point blank. “Lisa, Ashley, keep them away, I’ll run to the hospital.” Hunter suddenly took a step back and I only saw something flying by in front of my eyes. An arrow was clattering on the floor.
Why they attacked were attacking me was beyond my understanding, but Hunter decided enough was enough and simply picked me up from the stretcher. Carrying me away bridal style, he quickly passed the doors. Any other time I’d been mortified and would have protested the treatment, but right now I was glad he cared and to get away. I always thought I was rather heavy, even after my partial transformation into a girl, yet it seemed like I was a toy balloon to Hunter. He was running, seemingly not impaired by holding me. Looking back I realized nobody was following us. The cottage was distancing rapidly though. God, how fast was he moving? It was almost like he was a car.
*bang*
A lance of fire shot out of a window in Poe, enlightening a black ninja sticking at the wall. Next moment Ashley rushed out through the door. She was so fast I almost couldn’t see her, but the lightning in her wake was a pretty good indication. Another black clad figure tried to hit Lisa with something that looked like a freeze ray, but it was blocked by a flying table. Then a hill got into my view and I lost sight of the combat.
“Okay, we’re here,” Hunter stated, not even panting from the effort. “Bloody emergency doors. I wished this thing was automatic!” Then he turned around and hit the doors with his back to open it.
It was all too fast for me. My vision was smearing in front of my eyes and my head was growing hot again. Why couldn’t he move a bit slower? All this swinging made me want to puke. I managed to hold it though; I didn’t want to soil my friend. Only when he stopped moving I managed to focus. We were in front of a reception desk, manned by a young man.
“Burnout case!” Hunter almost shouted, kind of pushing me forward. “Where do I need to go?”
Jumping up from his chair, the young man told us to follow. What happened afterwards was a blur. White shapes put cold stuff on my body and shoved painful things into my limbs. I think I threshed around, tried to get away, but after some time I simply passed out.
***
Authors Note: Sorry for the delay, but it took me some time to get this chapter right. Or rather to get my ass up and finish editing. Like most authors I'm greateful for feedback. Comments are welcome, just try to keep your critic constructive. Anyway, thank you for reading this story, I hope you enjoyed it.
Jan's tale 4 - Hospitalisation
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Jan’s Tale 4
Hospitalisation Waking up in a hospital is never nice. Waking up to learn that someone poisoned you is worse. There is one positive thing though, you'll have much free time to play MMORPGs. Nonetheless Jan is not happy about his situation. Burnout is never a good thing.
Copyright © 2013 Beyogi
All Rights Reserved. Thanks to djkauf for editing.
Thanks to my proofreaders Drawflow, landing, DAW, Wrayth and last but not least Sleethr for their help. Picture Credit to mking2008 |
Disclaimer: This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but since it's fan fiction, who cares? To see the canon Whateley Stories, check out www.crystalhall.org
Jan’s tale 4 - Hospitalisation:
“Your poison failed.” The woman grouched, hitting the table with her hand. “I risked one of my operatives and IT is still alive.”
“Your intelligence was wrong. The poison is perfect. If you hadn’t overestimated her powers I’d chosen another means. Now they’ll be… suspicious.” Not that he cared anyway. The burnout should have destroyed her powers.
“That’s your problem, you could have chosen a simple poison, not some elaborate devisor stuff that doesn’t work half the time. IT should have been dead.”
“Transmorphic Interruption Acid causes deadly burnout in mutants above level four,” the boy glared at her. “I knew women lacked reason, but I had no idea it was this bad. ‘World shaking powers’? My ass! She was level three maximum.” He paused a second before asking: “Why do you call her an it? Is she one of those unfortunate who lose their male rationality to female insanity?”
“Yes, disgusting Patriarchal filth!” The woman exclaimed angrily.
Meanwhile the boy shook his head. “Why do I need to deal with creatures like that? The Greeks were right to treat them like the talking dogs they are.”
“I heard that, boy,” the woman stepped closer, balling her fists. “You wouldn’t have your beloved radioactivity without a woman.”
“You mean Curie?” He sneered. “There are exactly two possibilities. Either she was transgendered and really a man, or her husband did all the work and she published his research over the rest of her life. History has proven it, women are good for nothing but talking and bearing children. You and your kind are just deluded.” Even if they made useful pets once in awhile.
“I’ve heard enough from you!,” The woman momentarily raised her hand as if to strike the boy, before stopping herself and dismissively turning her back on him. “I’ve never understood why we cooperated with patriarchal filth like you, but we can certainly do without.”
The boy watched with bemusement as she stiffly exited the room. ‘Ah, I never understood why she insisted on cooperating with their group. Mutantkind is earth future, not some deluded female supremacists. She didn’t even realize I was mocking her.’
***
*Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep*
What in the hell was this? What happened? Thinking back, I recalled hotness… and pain… and people holding me down… and something as cold as the surface of Pluto on my forehead.
*Beep* *Beep*
It was too annoying to be an alarm clock. Not that I owned one. My back hurt, and I felt like I had a muscle ache in my limbs. Although it wasn’t like I could move them much anyway. Something seemed to block them.
*Beep* *Beep*
Okay, enough with the noise! I’m awake.
Now, I needed to find out why I couldn’t stretch. Decision made, I opened my eyes. What I saw was thoroughly unimpressive. A greyish-white drop ceiling made from the ever characteristic ceiling panels, a window and a door at different corners of my field of vision. This definitely was not my room.
*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*
This was annoying; this Scheisse was going on my nerves! I couldn’t move, something was beeping and I wasn’t in my room. Looking around I tried to find out what was going on. A drip led to my right arm, giving me a strange icky feeling at the place where I could see the needle.
*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*
The annoying sound again. Now I could tell where it was coming from, a monitor thing that had cables going to my chest. Looking down I saw electrodes above my heart. A bloody heart monitor. It wasn’t a good sign at all. I’d gone to bed last night after the party and then… I didn’t know.
*Beep* *Beep* *Beep* *Beep*
My heart was going faster. “Macht diese Lärmmaschine aus!” I yelled – or better tried to yell. My voice was failing, leaving only a silent rasp.
*Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep**Beep*
I wanted out of here! I pulled at my bonds, but they didn’t budge!
*Beepeepeepeepeepeepeep*
“Hilfe!” I begged, as loudly as I could manage. “Bitte lasst mich frei!”
*Beepeepeepeepeep*
The door opened and a nurse stormed in. “What’s going on?” she asked, “Oh… you’re awake.”
*Beepeep* *beep*
“Last mich frei!” I said as forcefully as I could. A tear rolled down my face. “Ich will hier weg!”
*Beepbeep* *Beep*
Hair rolled down my back. Due to my blind panic triggering my transformation, my long girl hair was trapped under by back and it hurt when I tried to lift my head. Fuck, fuck, fuck! As if my ever progressing sex change wasn’t bad enough now it also hurt like hell.
“Um… I don’t speak… your language,” the nurse said. “Could you please talk English or I can’t help you…” *beep* *beep* “… Um… you speak English do you; you don’t have forgotten it, right?”
*beep* *beep*
If I didn’t speak English how could I possibly understand her? Stupid question. God, I’d moved towards girlhood once more and there she was standing asking stupid questions. I wanted away here! Tears were pouring out of my eyes.
*beep*
“Please…” I begged. “Please… make this… thing out… make the beep go away… please!”
*beep* *beep* *beep*
“The heart monitor?” She asked, pointing at the monitor thing. “Um… I need to ask the doctor.”
*beepbeepbeepbeep*
She couldn’t. She had to make it go away. “Please,” I begged again, tears were streaming down my face. “Please!”
“Okay…” the nurse said, looking suspiciously at the source of my desperation. “I think I can reduce the volume.”
*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*
She could? “I beg you, please… silence this thing.” Maybe I could think once it was out.
*Beep* *Bee*
Silence, god sent silence. Fuck, my head hurt. I’d missed it before, the infernal noise was just too distracting. Now I could hopefully find out why I was here. After taking a few breath to focus myself, I looked at the nurse again.
“Ähm… what happened?” I asked as calmly as I could. Hysterics probably wouldn’t help. My unmanly display was enough of a disgrace already.
“Do you know where you are?” The nurse asked back, not answering my question at all. Maybe she just couldn’t stand people talking back to her. She was a rather old, forceful looking woman, about five years or so before retirement age.
Why did she ask? I didn’t have amnesia, did I?
“Yes… at Whateley, I think,” I said, trying to calm my breath. “Why do you ask?”
“You had a very dangerous case of Burnout.” The nurse grabbed a chair from a corner and sat down in front of my bed. “Amnesia wouldn’t be the strangest thing that ever happened.”
Okay, this had me worried. “It’s only been a few days? …since I arrived at Whateley?”
“I think so,” she said, rubbing her forehead. “Yeah, the doctor mentioned you were a new kid.”
“Ähm… would you mind to make me loose?” I asked, pulling at my bonds. “This… bondage is… not nice.”
Crap, was my English-ability gone? Or was it just the throbbing of my head. It could be either option, considering what I’d learned about this Burnout stuff so far. It was something a mutant really didn’t want to have, if I remembered correctly it was one of the major death causes for mutants. My hospitalization indicated this had been serious; I’d been all too close to kick the bucket. At least I was still alive.
“... permission,” the nurse said, but I hadn’t listened.
*oops* it wasn’t a very polite thing to do.
“Ähm... sorry, I was... distracted, spaced out,” I said. “Could you repeat... what you said?”
She sighed but did it. “Okay... I said I need the doctor’s permission. I’ll call one though, if you don’t mind.”
I didn’t like the idea of being left alone, bound to the hospital bed, yet I also didn’t want to stay that way until a doctor deigned to visit us.
“Yes, please call one, but please hurry.”
The nurse left and I was lying on the hospital bed, worrying about my situation. Burnout... on my first day. And there had been Ninjas, trying to steal the Poe bust. The Kimba’s had told us about it, apparently they’d been involved in a similar thing last year.
God, right now I wished I had telekinesis powers. These restraints were really annoying. Made me think of certain Japanese hentais my “mate” Lukas had recommended. Seriously, what was it with Japanese porn writers, schoolgirls, nurses and tentacle monsters? The plot for this situation was quite obvious... when the nurse returned with the doctor, he’d open his lab-coat and tentacles would sprout from his body. Where after he’d rape the nurse first, allowing me to watch. Then his tentacles would enter my ass, somehow growing me a pussy and turning me into a futanari, while my boobs exploded forward... God there was too much porn on the net.
My head hurt, I wanted to rub my forehead. “Hello,” I tried myself at shouting again, yet my voice was still too raw. “Someone there?” I bloody needed something to drink. I should have remembered to ask the nurse.
Should have didn’t help me right now though. “Hello,” I tried again. “Lalalala... I feel so alone... lalala.”
“Sheesh, can’t leave you alone for five minutes,” the nurse said, returning to the room. “You’re singing already... What’s up with your voice?”
“I probably screamed too much tonight,” I snarked. “Um... hello, who are you?” A brown haired older man had just entered the room.
“I’m Dr. Alfred Bellows,” the man introduced himself as the nurse left again, “I’d hoped to meet you under more fortunate circumstances, but I guess we have to make do with what we have. I’ll loosen you, but be careful with the IV.”
I eyed the tube connected to my vein suspiciously as the doctor loosened my restraints. I’d rather not have it, but considering what I’d heard when I’d been here with Leonard... Well, I didn’t want to end up dead like that poor girl and maybe the stuff in there was necessary for my survival. While I’d heard the name Bellows somewhere already, I couldn’t recall where. Anyway, I had more important things to worry about.
“Ähm, do you know what happened to me?” I asked, turning my focus back to the doctor, who was fumbling around with the computer in the corner of the room.
“Well, you had a burnout, and...” Dr. Bellows recounted, looking at the screen. “Oh... this isn’t good.”
Scheisse! I sat up with alarm. “Am I going to die?”
“Oops...” the doctor said, rubbing the back of his head in an awkward gesture. “No, don’t worry. If nothing drastic happens your most likely cause of death should be old age.”
Phew. Thanks God. He had me scared. “Ähm... so what isn’t good?”
“You’ve been poisoned. They found traces of TIA in your system,” Dr. Bellows shook his head. “Bloody Evolord and his burnout drug.”
I had a super villain out for my hide? Why the hell? “Why does he want to kill me?”
“I don’t think he does. The bastard just sells his poison to anyone willing to pay. He’s got a serious hate on everyone with more power than himself. He got rated Devisor three and decided anyone with more power was a threat to him,” he shrugged helplessly, “delusional. Apparently that means they don’t deserve to live. Your power is probably barely above whatever power he considers too much, which is the reason you’re still alive and not a pile of ash.”
Great... so because someone obviously had miscalculated my strength I was still alive. For all I knew it was about this prophecy/balance crap again. Although creepy sword girl seemed more like the ‘skewer you with my dick-replacement’ type than the poison your food type.
“Do you know who was behind it?”
Dr. Bellows shook his head, grimacing. “Not yet... not sure. I don’t want to accuse someone who might have been used as an unknowing patsy.”
So, they had an idea who could have been responsible for it. Probably someone close to me. An involuntary shiver ran over my body. God, this was supposed to be a safe haven and I’d been threatened and almost murdered on my second day here.
“Was that Chou girl responsible?” Maybe I’d disturbed her precious Balance somehow.
“Chou? As in Bladedancer?” He asked, looking at me as if I’d suddenly grown horns. “Why would she poison you?”
Great, another person who thought that psycho couldn’t harm a fly. “Maybe because she threatened to kill me? Maybe she just decided to follow through with it?”
The doctor just raised his eyebrows. “She’d probably useher sword or magic. Not a rare devisor drug.”
Right... and using that drug she’d make sure nobody would suspect her. I guess that sounded paranoid, but then someone obviously was out to get me.
“Well, now that I’m here we can use this opportunity to talk about your situation,” Dr. Bellows said, probably taking my silence as agreement as he closed the door to the floor. “Mrs. Bell had made an appointment for you anyway.”
An appointment with him? Why would I want to meet a doctor? I was distracted from this train of thought, as he came over and finally removed my bonds.
“Be careful with your right arm,” he hissed at me, when I instantly tried to scratch myself. “I told you about the drip.”
“Sorry,” I said, taking the other arm to scratch my head. “Why did my counselor make an appointment for me?”
“I’m the psychologist for the changelings at Whateley,” Dr. Bellows said, raising his eyebrows. “I thought your counselor told you about it.”
Yes… she did, but I’d kind of forgotten about it. Well, it sucked. I hoped to avoid this kind of conversation. I already had one of those and really didn’t need another one.
“So this is where you tell me that my transformation is irreversible and I better learn to live with it,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Being a girl is also awesome or something.” I glared at him preventatively. It could never hurt to show you meant business.
“I didn’t want to convince you to join the girly side,” the psychologist replied calmly and took the wind out of my sails. “MATD is also far from hopeless. We could try hypnosis therapy for example.”
“Hypnosis?” I echoed, raising my eyebrows. “Like making me moo every time someone claps their hands?” I knew crap like this was only supposed to work if you didn’t resist it, but with mutant powers around...
He shook his head. “No, like changing the template of your manifestor shell into something more agreeable.” Dr. Bellows sighed. “Look, I can’t really promise anything. This only works if the template for your shell has something to do with your unconscious, but trying can’t hurt.”
“I guess,” I shrugged. “It can only crush my hopes... but then they weren’t exactly high in the first place.”
“Okay,” he said, smiling at me encouragingly. “Do you want to try it right now?”
Did I have to? This hypnosis stuff sounded scary. And with the burnout and everything... “Is it safe?” I inquired, way too meekly for my own liking.
Dr. Bellows nodded. “Yes, it’s not some magic outside influence. Hypnosis only helps me to help you help yourself.”
That was an interesting way to put it, but if I remembered correctly, he was probably right. With hypnosis he could sort of program my unconscious, but only if I allowed him.
“You don’t need to if you don’t want,” he added. “We can always try this later.”
And I’d probably freak myself out and avoid it. “No... let’s do it right now, or I’ll probably never do it.”
“I think that’s a smart decision,” Dr. Bellows agreed. “You don’t need to worry. I’m a professional and not a hypnosis ‘artist’.”
I only nodded. And gulped down heavily. This scared me, but I needed to do it.
Dr. Bellows gave me an encouraging smile before he began: “Okay, listen to my voice...”
It turned out that I was very easy to hypnotize. It also turned out that my visualization capabilities sucked. He still tried to change how I imagined myself and he actually succeeded. But in the end it didn’t do anything. When he pulled me out of hypnosis I wasn’t a boy like I’d imagined myself to be, but still old Kim Possible.
I could barely suppress my tears, when I cussed: “This sucks! Why doesn’t it work?”
“I guess you have no conscious control over your shell,” Dr. Bellows answered although I couldn’t have cared less. “It probably imprinted during your manifestation. Maybe it works more like a BIT... but you’d have to ask the Power Testing guys.”
A BIT? Please, everything but that. A Body Image Template would mean I was utterly stuck. Everyone said so. If Ayla couldn’t find anything against his condition I didn’t stand a chance.
“What am I supposed to do now?” I said as tears started flowing down my cheeks. I didn’t want to cry, but the situation and my damn hormones made me feel so bad.
The doctor gently took my hand. “It’s not so bad. I’m sure we’ll find some way to help you.”
Like suddenly loving to be a girl or something, I thought cynically, but somehow it was lacking the bite. It didn’t really feel right to vent at him. He wasn’t at fault. Hell he told me the hypnosis thing probably wouldn’t work after all. It probably was totally awesome for someone like Lisa or Susan, or kind of interesting for Ashley, but not for me. It was just more confusing rules for me to learn and old social rules to unlearn. All of that on top of this scary, unwanted transformation of my body. God, there were enough transsexuals around who’d give almost everything for something like this, so why did it have to be me?
“Please tell me what’s on your mind,” Dr. Bellows reminded me. “I can’t really read your thoughts and even if I could it’s unethical. You need to tell me so I can help you.”
“Help me?” I echoed, wiping the stupid tears from my eyes.
“Yes, that’s what I’m here for.” Dr. Bellows smiled sympathetically as he handed me a tissue. “If you let me, I can help you understand yourself and what you are feeling, but if you are uncomfortable with that, I am a good listener. I know it might sometimes feel like you are alone, but you are not and I have learned that sometimes simply listening to a patient is all they need.”
There was no way he really wanted to know all my crap. And seriously, how did he want to help, or thought he was able to help? I was turning into a girl and if no miracle happened, it would stay that way. I told him that , but somehow he managed to get me to talk about other stuff. Like the fact that I was scared like hell about people wanting to kill me.
He’d tricked me by starting with the Ninjas. I’d been so scared when that asshole had appeared above me with his sword. Thanks god for my friends, or I’d been a goner. What was wrong with this school? I was here for two days and already in more dangerous situation than all the rest of my life. Maybe the bullies at my old Gymnasium[1] were better. They at least wouldn’t kill me. They enjoyed tormenting me too much.
“And you don’t think that’s alright, do you?” Dr. Bellows inquired.
“No, but it’s better than... that saying doesn’t work in English... well being a corpse, okay?”
He didn’t say anything, but that only caused my frustrations to spill out: “I really thought this school would be better. My cottage mates are really nice. But then I ran into the bullies, someone poisoned me... and then I almost ended up collateral damage. I was just in their way so they were willing to kill me. What did those ninja-freaks want anyway?”
“Steal the Poe Bust, I guess,” the doctor said. “Your Team Kimba friends prevented them last year and now it’s about their ninja honor.”
Ninjas had honor? Since when was putting a knife into someone’s back honorable? Although... Japanese culture was weird, so who knew?
“Super! Japanese honor Scheiss got me almost killed.” I grimaced. How many times could I survive crap like that? My shell could prevent paper cuts at best. I wasn’t even close to invulnerable. “Is it always like that here? What am I supposed to do?”
“Hmmm..." Dr. Bellows didn't look happy as he considered my question. "Campus security is planning on increasing their patrols, but I'd suggest trying to always walk with a buddy." He sighed and shook his head slowly from side to side. "No, I know it doesn't really make you feel more secure, but I'm afraid this is probably just the tip of the iceberg and you will need to be more alert in the future.”
“So I’ll just have to live with the fact that people want to murder me?”
“No, this won’t happen again,” he seemed sure of it. “They’ll regret this. Whateley is supposed to be neutral ground. This is not a place to live out vendettas.”
That was good to know. I had my doubts after yesterday’s events. I told him so, yet he only affirmed his opinion that it was a freak event. When the doctor tried to switch to a talk about my new gender, I deflected him. I didn’t want tell him how I really felt about the transformation. He could know that I didn’t like to be a girl, but more simply wasn’t his business. He didn’t need to know that imagining what it would be like to be a girl used to be a wank fantasy of mine... A nice one, but none I ever expected or wanted to become reality.
And seriously, he was a guy. I simply couldn’t tell a guy about my sort of excitement over the physical changes. The idea of my dick shrinking, a hole opening and... things entering me, manipulating super sensitive nipples on my chest... the idea was arousing, but reality was scary as hell. I just couldn’t tell him. It was too embarrassing and he’d never understand anyway. He’d probably think I wanted this. This dressing as a girl crap, talking about feminine nonsense and talking about boys or makeup shit. No, he’d only want to help me to accept the changes I’d “wanted”. No thanks.
“Oh, someone wants to visit you,” Dr. Bellows suddenly said, pointing at a light above the door. It had changed to orange.
"I hope it's not another assassin..." I muttered as I considered how my day was going because it wouldn't surprise if it was.
He shook his head, after doing something on the PC. “No… It’s your friends, I think. Do you want to see them?”
Well, if the others wanted to kill me they’d have had ample opportunity already. Talking to Dr. Bellows also got a bit boring. Or at least annoying. Maybe the other changelings had something better to talk about then how I felt about my transformation and the attack. Or my life before Whateley.
Dr. Bellows opened the door and let my friends in. Well… I hoped they were friends, but since they could be bothered to come to visit me they probably were.
“Hi,” I said smiling, when they came in. “Ähm… where is Lisa?” Everyone was here, but my roommate. Did something happen to her? Or was she angry because I interrupted her sleep?
“Also hi,” Susan said, “We were kind of wondering about the same thing.”
Dr. Bellows left the room and the others came closer to my bed. Suspiciously eying the IV, I decided to sit up. Hopefully it wouldn’t rip out. Meanwhile John and Alana were admiring the machines in the room. They looked kind of cool, but I didn’t like the fact they were probably needed to keep me alive.
Seeing my confused look Hunter explained: “Campus security snatched Lisa and we have no idea why. Do you know something?”
Did I know something? “Ähm… someone poisoned me.” That might be an explanation. “But Lisa?” I shook my head. That couldn’t be true. Lisa wouldn’t do something like that. She had no reason to. Hell, she’d even alarmed Mrs. Horton!
“Yeah, I don’t see it either,” Felicia agreed. “She doesn’t have the balls to do something like that."
No, Lisa’s balls had become ovaries after all. Like mine would if I continued my stupid transformations. Stupid comment, making me feel the hair in my neck again. I glared at Felicia.
“Hey no need to be so angry,” Felicia quickly interjected before I could say anything. “It’s true, Lisa’s no killer.”
She was probably right, but she could have voiced it nicer. Seriously, some of us didn’t like our transformations and didn’t want to be reminded at every opportunity. I hadn’t even had the time to check out my latest transformation before the shell reactivated. God, if it continued like this, I’d be a complete girl before the month was over.
“Well, Campus security obviously thinks otherwise,” Ashley said, sitting down on the edge of my bed. “Are you alright?”
“It doesn’t look like I’m going to die,” I shrugged. “Apparently, I’m stable or something…” I nodded towards the drip. “I can’t take this annoying thing out though.”
“I feel for you,” Felicia said. “I had one myself in the hospital… after I got involved in a mafia shootout. Got hit by a stray bullet… but that was way before my powers cracked on.”
Interesting… that was something she hadn’t mentioned before. Actually she hadn’t told much about herself since the introduction tour. Sure, her awesome plans in the future, but nothing about her past really.
“Sounds hardcore,” John said, raising his eyebrows. “Anyway, Jan-dude, I got a surprise for you… ‘licia figured you’d be bored to death here.”
I wasn’t. Well not yet. Looking around I saw that there were no books, well none that would interest me. Dr. Bellows had kept me busy so far, but now he was gone and I had nothing to do except for my friends.
“Okay, thank you Felicia.” I tried to smile at her. Maybe she wasn’t really an asshole. “So John… what is the surprise?”
He put his Rucksack on a table and pulled it open. “I’ve kinda thieved ya laptop.”
“I’m not sure if it’s stolen when it’s in front of me,” I grinned. “Thanks mate.”
“No problem,” John said. “We figured you’d want to join our adventuring tonight.”
“Guys!” Susan interjected. “No GEO discussion now, okay?”
Meh… and I wanted to ask him if they’d done anything in the meantime. Although she was right. It would have been really rude. Instead I decided to tell them what happened to me. Well, what I knew about what had happened to me.
“Wow... Burnout by a devisor drug,” Alana said after I’d told my story. “And they think Lisa is responsible?”
I shrugged. “You guys told me about Lisa... I’ve no idea, but I don’t see a motive and she wouldn’t be rich enough to buy the drug anyway.” There was simply no way Lisa was responsible. It made no sense at all. “It’s more like someone sent an assassin or something,” I said looking suspiciously left and right - if they’d gotten me on the Poe Party, who knew if the hospital was safe.
“Your mysterious powers again?” Susan asked, raising her eyebrows.
“How would she know?” Hunter interjected, saving me from another awkward answer. “Come on, either someone wants her dead or they just confused the target, or Jan picked up the wrong drink or something.”
Considering how strange the situation got it was probably or something. Maybe I was destined to rule the world and someone wanted to stop me. Hah, that would teach Svenja. I’d become ruler of the world and she’d not even get to be bitch-minister. At least one thing where she wasn’t better than I. Oh, sweet revenge. Maybe I should “sponsor” her a sexual reassignment surgery so she could see what it was like.
“Well, we can’t let them get away with this,” Ashley said angrily. “They’ll just try again and again!”
“I agree,” John said. “Whateley was supposed to be a safe haven and then something like this happens.”
Wow, they were really willing to stand up for me. Stupid eyes began misting again, but I didn’t really mind right now. Never before had people my age been this nice to me.
“I think we should talk to Ayla,” Susan said. “She seems to have some information she shouldn’t.”
No big surprise. Rich people always had lackeys trying to get their favour. And money almost always helped if they didn’t do it for “favours”. Strange enough, I didn’t mind it in Ayla’s case... He was pretty open and helpful about it, so that might explain it.
“I’ve met some guys at the Gym... maybe they’ve heard something,” Hunter suggested. “Needed to blow off frustrations this morning.”
“The girls at Venus Inc might know something about it,” Felicia suggested with a shrug.
“What would the beauty Nazis know about murder?” Ashley almost sneered, rolling her eyes. “I thought you were all about doing clothes style dick wagging contests.”
“Just because you’re a wallflower you shouldn’t project your issues on others,” Felicia snarked back. “Anyway, interested?”
Well, she hadn’t seemed very helpful so far, but if she wanted to do something for our group... “Sure, thank you,” I agreed. “Not sure how much we can actually find out... I mean they even managed shift blame on Lisa... I hope.”
“Don’t worry,” Susan waved off my concerns. “We’ll be careful and you can’t pull complicated stuff like that without leaving clues. There is always something they haven’t thought about. Like the fact you were not powerful enough for example.”
I shrugged. Sure, but it wasn't like we were the Famous Five or the Three Investigators. While they might find something, I didn’t want to get my hopes too high. That was the way to disappointment and I had enough disappointing stuff in my life lately. On the other hand it also looked like I’d found real friends for the first time in years.
“Okay,” I smiled at them. “Thank you...
*knock* *knock* *knock*
Someone was knocking at the door and the light above had also changed.
“Oh... it seems like someone wants in,” Felicia stated. “Maybe we should leave.”
“Let’s check who’s there first,” Susan said. “Maybe I’m slightly paranoid, but I think it’s justified.”
Yeah... they were really out to get me after all. Wouldn’t be the first time that gunmen snuck into a hospital and opened fire as soon as the door opened.
“Let me go first,” John said, stepping forward.”I can make myself bullet resistant.” A blue aura flared around him, before settling into a barely visible azure sheen.”
“Okay,” Susan agreed and pulled some strange gun-like looking thing out of her pocket. “I’ll give you backup.”
“And I’ll beat them up.” Hunter added, balling her fists.
Ashley just shook her head. “You’re silly, guys.” She obviously didn’t believe something would happen. Meanwhile, Felicia went into cover behind one of the night desks.
John slowly opened the door and we beheld at a confused looking woman in a lab-coat.
“Is... there something wrong?” She asked, slowly raising her hands. “I’m just the doctor.”
“I told you so,” Ashley laughed.
I wasn’t that sure though, women were the most feared hitmen after all. Nobody ever expected one of those innocent looking fragile creatures of beauty and good to do evil. Well, they’d obviously never met my sister. Or never had one in their life’s. True evil comes in the disguise of good after all.
“She has no hostile intentions,” Felicia declared as she scrambled up from behind her cover.
“I told you so,” Ashley repeated, still grinning. She turned towards the doctor and explained: “They kind of expected someone else to come in and try to off Jan again.”
The doctor slowly nodded. ”I can see where you’re coming from, but we’ve made pretty sure that something like that can’t happen... again. Last year really taught us...” She’d probably seen our scared looks, since she elaborated: “The demon girl... People snuck into her room and tried to stab her to death. She got better though.”
Good for her. I didn’t have awesome regeneration abilities though. That test had hurt! Stupid sadistic amateur testers. I really hoped they wouldn’t do something like that here. Who’d actually volunteer to be hurt anyway, just so they could find out?!
“Um... would you please let me through?” The doctor asked, raising her eyebrows as she looked at my friends blocking her way.
“Oh... sure,” John said, scratching his head before he stepped aside.
Hunter was still eyeing her suspiciously, but went back to his previous place.
Shrugging the doctor came in. It really seemed as if we’d confused her. Apparently she wasn’t used to such a reaction. Well, she probably should at a superhero school.
“Hi, what’s your name?” I asked, honestly curious and trying to break the awkward situation.
“Oh..” the doctor shook her head. “Um... sorry... I guess I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Doctor,” she rolled her eyes, “Michelle Trappatori. You can call me Michelle, though, I’m not a big one for formal.”
Trappatori? She didn’t look very Italian, but then it probably wasn’t to be expected with the melting pot and everything.
She sighed and continued: “Anyway, I’m not quite sure how to put this, but you need to leave now for privacy reasons...”
Hunter stood again, her hands balled to fists. “There are ways to fake good intentions,” she shot a look towards Felicia. “Seriously, do you think we’d believe this?”
“Ashley would you mind helping me here?” Dr. Michelle asked, glaring at the laughing girl. “Seriously, this isn’t so funny.”
“Are you sure that I can trust you?” Ashley smirked. “You could also be a shifter or someone using an illusion.” the girl’s evil grin widened. “Say, what happened when you met me the first time?”
If glares could kill, Ashley would have dropped dead. Thankfully Dr. Trappatori wasn’t a mutant with eye lasers. “I slipped and fell face first into dog poop!”
Ouch... that would explain it. Although as security questions went this was one of the best I’d ever heard. Who’d admit something like this to anyone if they weren’t forced to?
“She’s for real,” Ashley admitted. “Sorry, Michelle, I needed to make sure.”
“Whatever,” the doctor said, rolling her eyes. “Please get out now. I’m not going to knife Jan or something.” She shot a look at Ashley. “Unlike a certain green haired girl, who should run for her life.”
Seeing Ashley just shrug, it was quite obvious she didn’t take the threat serious. Felicia didn’t say anything after all and she could read emotions. No, the doctor didn’t seem like the homicidal type.
“Okay,” John said, moving towards the door. “We’ll see you in GEO later, right?”
“Sure,” I nodded. “Thanks for everything. Um... doc... Michelle, don’t take it personal... but I hope to be out of here soon.”
“I can understand,” Dr. Trappatori agreed, while my friends said their goodbyes and left.
“What now?” I asked her after the door had shut and we finally were alone.
“Well,” she said, sitting down on the chair Hunter used before. “I’ll check your health and then tell you what really happened to you, okay?”
“Ähm... yes, I guess,” I said a bit confused. “What do you mean with really happened to me?” Did something happen beyond the burnout poisoning?
“Beyond the Burnout poisoning?” the doctor asked. “Young lady, Burnout isn’t a beyond thing. It’s one of the most dangerous things that can happen to a mutant besides a date with Deathlist.”
Did I just say that out loud? Anyway, Burnout was really that bad? I felt pretty good actually... it couldn’t have been that dangerous, could it?
“You don’t believe me?” Dr. Trappatori asked rhetorically. “Burnout is when you overuse your powers and they run out, of course. Mutants have been known to melt to slag. Hell, some actually exploded.”
“Yes, I know! Verdammt, I heard how someone died yesterday!” I replied, getting angry. Did she think I was stupid or something? “I feel alright though, like I could just stand up and walk away.” I wasn’t that stupid though. Well, at least not without express permission from the doctor. Who knew, that drip might be all what kept me alive. Although Dr. Bellows would have been more careful then... probably.
“You just feel like it, you didn’t do it, right?” The doctor asked and raised her hands as I speared her with my eyes. “I needed to ask, okay?”
Maybe she really did. I certainly wasn’t an expert on medical protocol - not even the German one. “I didn’t. I’m not stupid and I’m not suicidal either... but I don’t like being bound to the bed.”
“Phew... sorry,” she said, dropping back down on her chair, “it was kind of a close thing with you this night.”
“Scheisse... this is nothing I like to hear,” I replied without much thinking. “I... I really was about to die?” I was too young to die. And maybe too beautiful. Even though I’d rather be handsome.
She nodded. “Pretty much, well if we’d gotten you earlier it wouldn’t have been that bad.”
And Lisa was the one to alarm them... did she wait intentionally? It totally didn’t seem like my roommate, but then I didn’t know her that long. Yet she had alarmed them and not pretended to sleep. God, why did this need to happen to me? Why Lisa?! She couldn’t have done this to me, she just couldn’t.
“I don’t think I want to know more about the badness,” I said, “can’t you just check me and tell when I can go home?” Home? The doctor raised her eyebrows. “Ähm... I mean back to my room.”
“Well, Jan, most likely the worst is behind you. Once the burnout is survived most mutants have no further complications,” the doctor said, waving my concerns aside.
But ‘most mutants’ didn’t mean all mutants. And considering my luck lately... well, would it be a big surprise if I was one of the unlucky few?
Oblivious of my thoughts Dr. Trappatori continued: “We’ll begin with the basic tests, I’ll just check if everything is alright with you and then you’ll get to see the more interesting apparatuses.”
“More interesting apparatuses?” I echoed, while the doctor went to a cupboard and pulled out a rubber mallet.
“We’re a mutant school and some of our students or sponsors are gifted with a mutant-talent for devising or gadgetry. Well... and some actually develop something that doesn’t make ‘boom’,” she sighed. “I used to say ‘boys and their toys’, but nowadays even the girls build guns.”
Two days ago I’d probably scoffed about the gun thing. However I couldn’t deny their point anymore. People were making strange prophecies about me, bullies had attacked me and someone had poisoned me with a deadly toxin. A nifty gun that could actually take mutants out would be rather useful. I decided to say nothing, since I wasn’t sure what to think.
She came over to the bed and put her hand on my forehead. “Hm... seems normal... Jan, sit up please, but be careful with the drip.”
Was she really supposed to test stuff like that? My doubts about her methods aside, I slowly forced myself up. It was hard, way harder than I’d expected. I’d felt fine, but now that I actually tried to move it became obvious that my body was severely weakened. Still, I managed to sit up. My legs were dangling over the edge of the bed.
“Ähm... what do you want with this?” I asked, suspiciously eyeing her mallet.
“Just testing your basic motor functions and reflexes,” she said, hitting me on my knee cap. “Standard procedure, you know?”
No I didn’t know. “This was weird,” I commented, seeing my leg kick out without my own will. “Ähm Doctor...”
“Michelle,” the doctor interrupted me, “it’s Michelle. Don’t be so formal, I’m not gonna bite you.”
I didn’t expect her to bite me, but that was beside the point. “Ähm... Michelle,” I began again, “could you please tell me before you do weird stuff to my body?”
She raised her eyebrows. “Are you sure you won’t cramp or something?”
I could only shrug. Maybe... knowing you were about to be hit by a rubber mallet wasn’t very scary... on the other hand I didn’t really like the fact she could sort of remote control my body. Apparently that meant my reflexes were okay. Weird.
“Don’t be so silent, Jan,” she scratched her head and laughed, “or I’m going to eat you.”
She actually showed me her teeth. Strange. I guess she just wanted to be funny or nice, but I didn’t really feel like that for now. I shrugged again. “What next?”
“I’ll check for brain damage,” she said, raising her index finger. “Follow your finger with your eyes.”
She didn’t want to hypnotize me, did she? Although… no that wasn’t it. She just wanted to see if my pupils were dilated or if my eyes moved jerkily. Something like that could indicate a concussion if I remembered correctly. Although if I had, Dr. Bellows should have realized that already. I had had a super fever, so why would I have a concussion? Did they drop me on my head? Maybe it was just a standard test or something. No reason to protest, it would only delay the inevitable. So I did as she said and followed her finger with my eyes.
“Everything seems alright here,” the doctor said. “Well… the next test.”
Her next test was to make me undress my nightshirt – which I was still wearing – and to have me breath in and out while she felt around on my chest and back.
“Okay,” the doctor concluded. “You seem to be out of danger, but your breathing is still rather weak.”
“So what does that mean for me?” I inquired. “Can I go back to Poe?”
She shook her head. “No. I want order an X-Ray or two and probably a CAT and a S.U.P.E.R. scan. I want to make sure there won’t be a relapse. You’ll stay here for the next few days.”
Great, just great. This way I totally missed the phase where everybody got to know each other. They would have their introduction and I would sit here alone, playing GEO. Well at least I had my dorm-mates. Hopefully they’d introduce me to others or I’d probably fuck it up anyways.
“Don’t look so glum,” the doctor admonished. “It won’t be forever.”
I just shrugged. It would probably too long. Not that I liked to have endless introduction activities, but at least you could find friends there. And I sucked at finding new friends.
“I’ll miss everything,” I explained with a groan. “How am I supposed to meet my new classmates, or learn about the campus when I’m stuck here?”
“You could do the digital campus tour,” Dr. Trappatori said, bowing down to loosen the brakes of my hospital bed. “Please lie down again, I’ll roll you to the scanners.”
As if that suggestion would help. In the worst case I’d just ask for a map or something. The problem was the people. Maybe I should ask that Dr. Bellows guy. He seemed to understand, but then he might just be faking. Well, there was nothing I could do about it right now. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. Most activities seemed to be for the cottages anyway, and I’d already made friends there. I’d meet the students from the other classes soon enough...
“But I’ll be out of here before the classes start, right?” I asked hopefully as I lay down on the hospital bed.
Nodding the doctor loosened the brakes and began to push me towards the door. “Yes, if nothing unforeseen happens we’ll be able to release you on Thursday.”
Thursday wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. Well, at least I had an excuse to game GEO without interruption. I would have to be careful not to level away from the others though, or our adventures might become boring.
“Okay,” I said as she rolled me through the floor. “So what are you going to test now?”
“I’ll try to find out if anything about your body severely changed or might endanger you in the future,” she explained. “I’ll push you into the tube over there. It might remind you of a CT, but it’s actually something cobbled together by our local medical engineering students.” She sighed. “I wish every hospital could have something like this, but they can’t produce it since they’re currently involved in a patent war with Johnson&Johnson.”
My uncle had worked for them once. He hadn’t talked about something like that, but then he’d only been a salesman. It was no big surprise though. Human lives didn’t matter if money could be made. Hell, that was the reason why most wars were fought, why did I actually expect different from the medical industry?
We were in a new room now, after Dr. Trappatori had quickly pushed my bed over the corridor. I saw what she meant by a tube. Nothing like the CT’s I knew from television, this thing was almost as big as a room. She could actually push my bed into it and did so. A few seconds later the wall began to spin, which made some rather annoying rattling sound. After what felt like an eternity, but probably wasn’t more than ten minutes the contraption stopped and the doctor opened the door.
“Still alive?” She asked, smirking at me - she’d obviously seen the expression on my face.
“Barely,” I groaned. “Is it even allowed for a doctor to have so much fun torturing her patients?”
“Probably not,” Dr. Trappatori replied. “Anyway, we’re done here. I’ll roll you back and then do the analysis of this scan.” She waved towards a computer behind her. “That’s the drawback of the technology. So much data to interpret.”
I felt for her, but honestly I wanted answers for my most pressing question: “So you still can’t tell me if I’m going to die?”
“Not right now,” she replied sighing. “I told you before and what I can tell so far the machine only affirmed it. If you don’t use your powers nothing should happen.”
Crap! “My powers?” I asked panicked. “But my shell is active!” That bloody thing had activated by itself again.
The doctor raised her eyebrows. “It doesn’t seem like a very strong shell. I mean if the mallet could penetrate it well enough to cause reflex reactions,” she shrugged and pulled my bed out of the tube. “There is no sign of another burnout. I guess the power affected by the poison and your shell are different ones.”
So it had affected my mysterious unknown power that allowed me to speak English... “Ähm... I’m still speaking English fluently...”
“Maybe you learned it?” she shrugged again. “Burnout is already somewhat mysterious in normal cases. Some die, others get greater powers... others lose theirs. But I can tell you there is no more burnout coming right now. Your body temperature is normal and your nervous system isn’t overstrained either. You really don’t need to worry. Lie down on your bed, read something or play some computer games and wait until the good doctors have made sense of the data, okay?”
So I was panicking for no reason again. Seriously though, could anyone resent me for it? I mean not everyone was threatened by their body blowing up on them. On the other hand getting the doctor’s order to play computer games certainly was a novum for me. ‘Play less’ that was something I would have expected, but ‘chill and game a bit’ was a surprise.
“Ähm... sure,” I replied. “Ähm... can you give me my laptop and plug it into a … Steckdose... electrical-wall-thingy?”
“Electrical-wall-thingy?” the doctor echoed, while she pushed my bed back to the room where I’d been before. “You mean a power socket?” She pointed at one on the wall. “Is your mysterious English learning capability offline right now?”
It might be, but then I’d had troubles before. It obviously wasn’t perfect. “Yeah I meant power socket. Anyway, could you?”
“Sure,” she nodded as she fastened the brakes. “This is your laptop, right?” She pointed at the case that John had brought.
I nodded as I pushed myself up into a sitting position. It was hard to play lying. “Do you have a book or something? I need a... Unterlage... fuck, I don’t know the word...” the doctor raised her eyebrows and I shrugged. “Well a base to use my mouse.”
“Yeah... actually we have something better,” the doctor said and grabbed my laptop bag. “We’ve got students here who need to do their homework once in awhile,” she rolled her eyes. “Wait a minute and unpack your laptop first.”
***
*knock* *knock* *knock*
Someone was at the door. Crap, I had to interrupt my game and I just wanted to do another quest. Apparently someone had stumbled over an interesting cavern in the ground. There had been growls and dangerous sounds and he was scared. Well, not everyone was an adventurer like me, so I was glad for the opportunity to explore.
I’d probably played too long into the night and then I couldn’t really sleep. Sure, I guess I went to bed at 2am, but then I woke up at 6am, ready to continue my questing. This stuff was so exciting! No big surprise that people could actually get addicted to it. Anyway, after stopping my character just before the city walls, I put the laptop aside.
“Come in please,” I shouted, wondering who wanted to visit me at this ungodly time.
The door opened and Zoe strutted in. Something was strange about her though... she was wearing baggy clothing and no makeup. God, what did I care. She was an unwilling transformee, herself, of course she wouldn’t run around like a supermodel all the time.
“Hello, Jan,” she smiled at me. “You look like you didn’t expect visitors. I hope I’m not too inopportune... I figured I’d come to visit you after breakfast.”
“Breakfast?” I echoed confused. “Already? Isn’t that a bit early?” Or maybe she was just an early bird. My sister would have ripped her head off for waking her at this time.
“Um... no?” Zoe raised her eyebrows. “It’s almost ten o’clock.”
It couldn’t be, could it? I threw a quick glance at the computer clock... it really was 9:48 hours. Why hadn’t anyone told me?
“Ähm... ja,” I replied. “Okay...” I thought it was maybe 7.30 hours... “Äh... What can I do for you?”
Zoe shook her head. “Not what can you do for me... what can I do for you.” Zone grinned as she opened her handbag to pull out a few pairs of panties. “Ayla sponsored,” my visitor declared, rolling her eyes. “Your very first girlish underwear...”
“Thank you,” now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “So if my brain hasn’t totally fried, I recall that you mentioned I need those to pass better, right?”
“Yeah, I wanted to show you how to wear female clothing without hurting your genitals or showing a bulge...”
While I didn’t desire to grow a pussy or something, I also didn’t want to hurt down there all the time. And I definitely didn’t want to be outed as a she-male. The thought alone made me shudder. Considering what my class ”mates” had done when they didn’t even have any proof for my “gayness”, I absolutely didn’t want to experience whatever super powered teenagers could or would do with a confirmed freak. It wasn’t like I’d be able to resist, without real superpowers of my own.
A hand was waving in front of my face. “Are you dreaming?” Zoe asked and peered at my Laptop. “I hope you didn’t play all the night.”
I shook my head. “No, I did sleep, you know.”
“But woke at 4 o’clock, right?” She replied, raising her eyebrows. “Anyway, do me a favour and strip.” Zoe said and pulled away the covers.
She was right about me waking up that early, but... “Strip?” I blushed. “Do I have to?”
“You didn’t have any problems Monday in the showers, or so I’ve heard.”
Sheesh, what was this? Granny’s gossip-club?
“I did,” I countered as I slowly pulled down my pajama trousers. “I was forced though.”
“Whatever,” Zoe shrugged, before smiling at me. “Little Janni seems quite excited. I fear we’ll have to make it go down, before I can show you how to wear your panties...”
She didn’t mean... She wouldn’t, would she? There was only one way to make a boner go away and she said we... If my dick had been hard before it was like a steel rod now. The thought of that hot blonde bowing over my crotch and taking little Jan into her mouth…. Dirty Jan! God was I perverted sometimes.
“Um... Jan? Why are you blushing like that?” Zoe’s voice pulled me back into reality.
“You... want... want to...” I stammered, “help me to get it down?”
“Yes,” Zoe said, rubbing her forehead before she started to laugh and blush herself. “Oh, not that way.”
I raised my eyebrows. Seriously? How else was she supposed to do that?
“I’m a telepath, didn’t I tell you?”
A telepath? Maybe she did, but I didn’t remember. “Does that mean you read my thoughts?” That was a prospect I didn’t like all that much. She would know, I’d love to touch her boobs... oops?
“Nah,” Zoe said. “I’m not allowed if I can avoid it.” She shrugged. “Although I can help you with your embarrassing little problem... if you allow me, that is.”
Why would she need my permission to do something like that? “Okay...” I slowly said. “Well, if you don’t break it.” I crossed my arms. “I don’t want to lose it.”
She gave me a sad look, before she shook her head. “No need to worry. That won’t happen.” then she grinned at me. “I might need to touch you though,” a meaningful glance at my crotch followed.
“Aus!” I shouted. “Enough Zoe, please.” Did she have to make jokes about it? The whole thing was embarrassing enough. If she continued like this it would never go down. “Can you just do your thing and then explain the panty stuff?”
“Okay, Jan,” Zoe agreed and blew me a raspberry. “I guess I have to live with the fact my tomboy disguise didn’t work. I’m just too hot.”
Tomboy disguise? “I thought you practiced the high art of male self-dressing,” I joked. She had a point though, she was simply too hot to be able to not look hot - if that made sense. And something like this was my future... Another new changeling might drool over me next year and wonder where I got my knockers. My good mood was gone.
Suddenly I found myself embraced in a hug. “It’s not that bad...” Zoe said, while I got a prime, distracting view of her boobs. “Anyway,” she continued as she let go of me, “can I make your dick go down or not?”
It seemed like she really needed my permission. “Sure,” I shrugged. “Okay...”
Zoe touched my shoulder and I felt my genital go flaccid. Not sure what she did, but it obviously worked and was fast. “I wish I had that kind of control over it,” I remarked a bit envious.
“Practice makes perfect,” Zoe joked before she sighed. “Look, Jan, let’s get to the point. If you want to hide your male genitals you need to hide your balls in the cavity behind them and then fasten them with tape... or panties.”
I just raised my eyebrows. There was a cavity behind my balls? Why hadn’t I ever heard about that before?
“Eh... sorry,” Zoe continued before I could say anything. “I guess that explanation was a bit useless.” She stepped closer to the bed. “Well, to do that you need to pull up your scrotum...”
Seriously? Right now? My thoughts had to be written on my face, since she answered: “Yes, right now. I can do it for you, if you want.”
She probably wasn’t seriously, but I wasn’t really willing to call her bluff. It might not be one after all. Throwing my mentor a quick glare I pulled up my balls. “What now?”
“You need to maneuver your testicles so that they’re in line, one above the other. Otherwise they won’t go in and it’ll hurt like crap.”
That didn’t sound safe. “And they really won’t get broken?” I quickly asked. I didn’t want to lose my balls in a cross dressing accident.
Zoe slapped her forehead. “Bollocks, just stop if it starts to hurt. You shouldn’t have a problem though, with your female innards forming and everything.”
So transforming into a girl made me better at cross dressing. Not a big surprise if I thought about it. Although, I wasn’t quite sure how much “cross” dressing it still was. How much guy was my body after all these transformation? I could easily pass as a girl from the outside. Maybe a bit bigger than usual, but a girl nonetheless. I mean I didn’t like it, but on the other hand I was happy I couldn’t be ‘read’. At least I hoped so.
“Um Jan... it’s not that hard,” Zoe began again. “Just be careful and you won’t hurt yourself. They’re not that sensitive.”
“Okay,” I sighed and carefully grabbed my scrotum. Pushing it up was no problem, and maneuvering my balls around wasn’t either. “They’re in line now,” I said after accomplishing this step, “what am I supposed to do now?”
“Well, they should slip in...”
I rolled my eyes. “They don’t.” And I really didn’t want to squeeze them. Seriously, who would squeeze their own nuts? You’d seriously have to hate your sex or something. And be a masochist... “It just doesn’t work.”
Zoe came over and checked what I actually did. I blushed as she looked at my balls. This was totally embarrassing. “Well, you should pull them up, towards your dick you know.”
I’d already tried to do that. They didn’t flop in though. I showed her, it wasn’t like it could get any more embarrassing anyway. “Like this?”
“Pretty much,” Zoe nodded. “You only need to move them a little... and then it should work.”
I moved them a little, but nothing happened. Seriously, where was this cavity where my balls were supposed to fall in. Sure, I could kinda press my scrotum down, so there was no bone - no big surprise for someone who’d ever seen a human skeleton. But it was kind of hard to believe that there really was a hole for my balls.
“It doesn’t...” I began, just to feel my left ball slip into the channel.
“It does,” Zoe grinned as I pushed the other one in.
“This feels weird,” I said, looking at my crotch. “Is it like this to have a pussy?”
Zoe laughed. “No, not really. You still have your dick. Pull it towards your backside before you pull up your panty girdle. Considering your problems with putting them in it should hold now.”
I rolled my eyes. “Thanks. I don’t see how my problems with hiding my balls make this any easier.” It had taken me more than five minutes to get this done. I could only hope it wouldn’t take this long in the future or I’d take more time dressing than my sister even before I grew a... pussy...
“Now you only need this,” my mentor in all things girlish said, distracting me of my angsty thoughts as she waved a pink panty girdle in front of my nose.
“It looks awfully girly,” I stated, before I sighed and simply grabbed it out of the air. It wasn’t like the color really mattered. Nobody would see it and even if they did, it would only confirm what I wanted them to think. I sighed again. I didn’t want this, but being the freak again was something I wanted even less.
“The backside is where the label is,” explained Zoe, pulling me from my thoughts. “It can be a bit complicated with female underwear.”
I knew that, but I was glad of the distraction. I quickly slipped into the underwear and finished the process by simply pulling up the panty girdle while I held down my dick. It felt weird, I couldn’t deny that, but at least it didn’t hurt. The bulge was missing, even though I could see the form of my penis through the pink fabric. It wasn’t perfect, but good enough that nobody would be able to tell anything.
“Okay, this works. Thank you, Zoe,” I said. I really was rather grateful. Girl-jeans were uncomfortable as hell if you had junk in the way.
“No problem, I suppose,” she smiled. “I’m glad I can help you. It’s not like most of the other changelings need help like that...”
I nodded and sighed. “Yeah, they’re rather happy with their new genders.” I hugged myself. “How does it work? How are you so happy?” I was scared. I didn’t know how to deal with it. How did she manage?
“Do you mean them or me?” Zoe asked, giving me a quick hug.
I was a bit surprised and flinched for a second. “Yes... both, you?” I said, before I hugged her back. The touchy feely thing about being a girl was rather alien, but it was one of the parts I could get used to. To be honest, I rather liked it.
“Well... the others were either transgendered in with or they got brainwashed by their transformation. It switched something around in their brains or they’re influenced by their avatar spirit.” she looked rather grim as she said that.
I could understand. Someone like Felicia... I wasn’t sure how much of her personality was actually her and how much was the spirit.
“Me, I didn’t,” Zoe continued. “Or at least I think I didn’t. At least it didn’t happen that fast. And I’m not convinced being a girl is the best thing ever happened to me.” She sighed. “On the other hand it isn’t exactly horrible either. It can be rather fun to go shopping with friends - girls have about four times as many choices as guys.”
“Ähm...” What was I supposed to say about that? Didn’t that mean shopping would take about four times as long?
She rolled her eyes. “Jan, it’s not that horrible if you actually get to choose stuff and not just get to watch your mother or sister take forever.”
“Okay, I guess,” I said. Not all convinced, but maybe she had a point.
“You’re also allowed to do interesting stuff with your clothing,” she added. “More than just take ‘jeans in one color’ plus ‘t-shirt in other color’.”
I always thought that was one of the big advantages of maleness. Simply not having to worry about stuff like that.
“Well, simply put girly activities can be rather fun...” Zoe said before she grimaced. “As long as it doesn’t remind you of your lost maleness.” Then she grinned. “You can do pretty much all the guy stuff as a girl and get nice bonuses. Actually being a girl is an advantage most of the time. Except when you’re over-eager I guess. I’ve heard it can get annoying if people underestimate you.”
So she’d heard. I couldn’t help but grin. Considering how much crap my sister had gotten away with over the years... maybe I too would get the girl bonus now.
“Don’t abuse it too much,” Zoe reminded. “You know what it’s like as a guy.”
Yeah, she didn’t need to remind me. I had made some experiences of my own. I slowly nodded.
“Hey don’t worry too much,” she continued. “I doubt you’d ever do something like that anyway. Just remember that being a girl also can be fun,” she smiled at me.
I wasn’t really worrying. “Well, I only hope the different social conventions won’t drive me nuts.” I didn’t get the guy ones, so I doubted the girl social norms would be any better.
“You can always ask me, I suppose,” Zoe said. “And the other girls at Poe usually understand too.”
“There are no stupid questions, right?”
“That’s the right attitude,” she said, smiling at me. “Um... Jan, do you still need to know something? Sahar said she wanted to meet me...”
I shook my head. “Ähm... no, I don’t think so. Anyway, thank you for your help.” I pointed at my crotch and an awkward grin played over my face. “I doubt I would have managed this without you.”
Zoe said her goodbyes and I was on my own again. I pulled my covers up again, trying to ignore the panties. They still felt kind of weird. I didn’t want to think about it anymore though. The solution was obvious. I turned to my favourite distraction. Reviving my laptop out of its standby mode took only a few seconds.
When my gaze swept over the desktop, it stopped at the browser button. I realized that the whole GEO gaming thing had me thoroughly distracted from my favorite web-stuff. I needed to check out my conspiracy theory website, some news to see what happened back home in Germany and… my e-mails… I’d totally forgotten about that one.
Well, duty first… but I really hoped that mom and dad had checked out my mail. Wondering didn’t help though. Leaning back in my seat, I opened my browser and directly went to my email-client. Good old GMX. I still used the address I’d made five years ago. Anyway that was beside the point. There was a mail from mom and dad… and a follow up asking me why I hadn’t answered.
I quickly opened the first one: …apparently mom and dad hadn’t been forced or pressured to exile me. Not sure if it really made me feel better though. Apparently they wanted the best for my schooling and someone at the hospital had warned them that prejudices could get really bad. Especially if you got a prejudiced judge when you wanted to fight it. One crow doesn’t take another’s eye… or so granddad always used to explain the judicial system. He was dead now, but I still got the wisdom of his words.
So it was more legal concerns and fear of prejudice than real pressure. Oh… and my chances for a good education. I didn’t care too much about those. I’d rather been with my family. Apparently they somehow got a government stipend for me. That was a good thing. I’d already wondered how they could afford a posh school like this. Chances for education were all well and stuff, but not if it ruined them. I knew my parents were smarter than that.
They did have troubles with Svenja though. Apparently the stupid girl got herself bullied by her classmates for having a mutant brother or something and decided to take it out on said brother. She’d changed schools now. I could only hope it helped her, but considering how useless it had been for me I wasn’t too optimistic. Maybe she wouldn’t be such a stupid brat now. I could hope, couldn’t I?
They ended it with wishing me well and asking for a reply. Maybe they were really worried. They were… as I could tell from the second mail. That one was from yesterday and they wanted to know if something had happened to me. Apparently they’d even tried to phone me. Couldn’t they just call the school? Or maybe they did…
I told my sister she might tell stuff next time before taking it out on me and mentioned what had transpired over the last few days. I also remembered to mention my awesome GEO character so they wouldn’t be too worried about me. And I couldn’t help to tell them about my friends. They’d probably feel super smug about it, but better than giving them more grey hairs than they had anyway.
After writing my reply, I went to check out the news at home. Apparently some super Villain had failed to attack the Bundestag. The NPD[2] was making propaganda against mutants and thus the mainstream media made propaganda against them. Everything seemed like business as usual. Except that our dear minister for women, children, families and seniors... (Aka women and stuff[3]) decided that the internet was an evil source of child pornography and needed to be censored. I added my voice in a petition to make her stop this madness. Alas the joys of a conservative government.
Bored by the news and not really motivated to check out the latest conspiracy theories on Allmystery, I restarted my GEO game. Hopefully the cavern would contain something interesting and I didn’t waste my time killing a few oversized rats. Turning around on my bed, my underwear itched. Panties felt kinda weird.
***
“Buh,” a voice from behind said, scaring the crap out of me.
“Eeek,” I screamed, before I could squelch my voice. Turning around I saw who’d snuck up on me.
“You’re like my little brother,” Dr. Trappatori joked. “I think the world could end and he wouldn’t realize it when he’s playing his computer games.”
“Obviously I heard your ‘buh’,” I glared at her, as I closed my laptop shut. Why did a grown doctor have to be as bad as my little sister? They weren’t supposed to do things like that! “I hope my pants aren’t brown.”
“Panties you mean,” the doctor laughed at me. “I’ve never seen pink pants with the flower design before.”
Yeah, they weren’t the manliest, but with all my other concerns that was the last of my problems. I’d even tucked my balls as Zoe had instructed.
“So what do you want?” I asked grumpily. First she scared me and now she made fun of my panties. Why couldn’t she behave like an adult? There was a difference between being funny and being childishly silly. Not that I was a good judge on humor. Still, weren’t doctors supposed to be professional?
She just rolled her eyes. “I’m here to tell you about the results.”
What results? “Of the tests yesterday?” The ones that should tell me whether I was going to die or not. Suddenly she had my undivided attention. Hopefully the childish act wasn’t her way to prepare me for horrible news.
“Yes,” Dr. Trappatori nodded. “So far everything seems alright, but we want to keep you here for two days to be sure.”
“Great,” I sighed. On the one hand I was happy that I wasn’t going to die;on the other... “So I get to lie around for two days?” That would suck and my stomach was beginning to complain.
She must have heard it. “You haven’t had lunch?”
What? It was that late already? I hadn’t even had breakfast yet. Why hadn’t anyone come or something? Did they want me to starve or did I need to call them somehow? I didn’t know how hospitals worked. The last time I’d ever seen one was when I’d visited my granddad.
“No,” I shook my head. “I didn’t have breakfast either. I wasn’t supposed to stand up after all.”
“You could have used this button,” she pointed at a yellow button next to my bed. “to call a nurse. But I guess you didn’t know that.” I simply shook my head and she continued: “Okay… I think I’ll cut this short so you can still have lunch. Anyway, to get back to the topic. You won’t die from the burnout. You should be able to walk again, but you should be careful about it.”
“Well, that’s good news,” I had to admit. “I didn’t want to spend the rest of my short live bound to this bed.”
Dr. Trappatori shrugged. “Well Jan, as far as we can tell you have a normal life expectancy. But that’s not what I’m here for. We’ve found some irregularities in the scans…”
“Irregularities?” I echoed, raising my eyebrows. Irregularities didn’t sound good at all. Irregularities sounded like GSD on top of MADT. “What do you mean with irregularities?” I said sharply, but couldn’t prevent a small pout sneaking on my lips: “Do you need to make this a mystery novel? I thought you wanted to cut this short.”
“Okay,” the doctor said, raising her hands in mock surrender. “You’re no fun. Anyway, we’ve found some interesting changes of your brain and brainstem. Especially the latter is grown extremely. It’s become enlarged and looks almost like an entirely new organ. We’ve found changes like this in Psi’s or Espers before, but never to this extent.”
What? Something was growing in my brain and my back?
“Ähm… is this dangerous?” I couldn’t help myself to inquire. I didn’t want to die from some weird mutant cancer after all.
“Normal life expectancy,” the doctor replied rolling her eyes. Could she read my thoughts? “As far as we can tell it’s not dangerous, but it’s probably the source of your mysterious English powers.” She pulled up a picture on the computer screen at the room’s PC. “Do you see that?”
“I didn’t get super vision,” I retorted. “Except if you call getting spared by my family’s tendency for nearsightedness by manifesting as a mutant that way.”
I used to be nearsighted. But Kim Possible wasn’t. So I wasn’t anymore. Another thing on the “plus” side of my sex-change. Not that it was really worth it. I hadn’t minded wearing glasses.
“Well, there’s no printer around, so I fear you have to get up,” Dr. Trappatori said as she came back to my bed. “I’ll hold you if you have problems.”
It couldn’t hurt, I hoped. I quickly moved my legs over the border of my bed and to my great relief nothing hurt really. Reassured of myself, I jumped down and immediately started to wobble. My legs felt weak and I instinctively grabbed the bed to stabilize myself.
“Scheisse!” I yelled, kinda wanting to stamp with my foot. I didn’t dare though. Maybe my leg would break or something. “Please doctor, tell me I won’t have to do rehab.”
“The name’s Michelle.” the doctor said as she grabbed my arms to help me. “God, why do you kids need to be so formal all the time? Anyway I feared something like this would happen. It shouldn’t be too bad though. Jan, I’ll help you over to the chair.”
“Okay...” Walking turned out to be less problematic than I feared. Maybe it was because I hadn’t really used my legs over the last few days, but after a few steps I felt like I could walk alone. After my first wobbly experience I didn’t want to risk it though. It would be all too ironic if I lived through a burnout and broke my neck for something like this.
Sitting down before the computer I let go of a breath. This was harder than I’d expected.
“You’ll be alright, don’t worry,” doctor... Michele said, before she pointed at the screen. “Well, do you see this area here at your spine?”
I wasn’t an expert, but even I could tell it was bigger than normal. “Yeah, what is it?” It did kinda look like some weird mutant cancer. On the other hand it kinda looked like my brain. Weird.
“It’s something we’ve seen in other PSI’s before. Especially your friend Zenith. Only yours is bigger. As far as we can tell this organ is the way how psi’s access the memories of other people.”
“So it’s no awesome language learning ability?” I asked a bit disappointed. “I simply read the language from your mind...” was it just the language?
Oblivious of my thoughts, the doctor explained: “Your English yesterday was pretty good as well. And the readings indicate your power slowly went online during the tests. I’m pretty sure it was offline when we first spoke with each other.”
“Ähm... okay, so I remember stuff I use... maybe?” I thought loudly. Her confused look told me she hadn’t understood. “Hm... How do I phrase this better? I think... Do I remember the words or knowledge that I use afterwards?”
“You’d need to test that during Power Testing, Jan” she nodded, “but that’s how it probably works. I suppose.”
“Okay... so you had what for breakfast?” I squinted at her. That knowledge didn’t miraculously appear in my head though.
“So?” the doctor asked, raising her eyebrows, “do you know what I had for breakfast?”
I shook my head. “No...” obviously not, or I’d gleefully tell her, “are you sure those extra brain cells aren’t just overcharged language cells?”
“It doesn’t work like that,” doctor... Michelle shrugged. She was my doctor. Why did she want to be called by her first name? “So it apparently doesn’t work on mid-term memory, or you can’t control it consciously,” she scratched her head. “It was a bagel with cream cheese and a cup of coffee by the way.”
My stomach grumbled suspiciously. “Did you need to remind me of tasty food?” I complained. “I haven’t eaten anything today and the nurse pulled off the drip yesterday evening.”
“Sorry, but you started it,” the doctor rolled her eyes. “Anyway, as far as we can tell you are developing some psi powers... the growth of your new organs seems to have slowed down though.” She scratched her head. “‘Maybe it was the burnout, or it was supposed to happen.”
“So they fucked up my real superpower with the poison?” I asked disappointed. “Great... it seemed like I actually got something out of the mutant thing and an asshole fucks it up.” And the girl hormones were at work again. I couldn’t squelch the tears flowing from my ducts.
I suddenly found myself in a hug. “Sch.... it’s not that bad. It only looks like the development of your powers has slowed not stopped,” doc... Michelle said and smirked at me: “At least you don’t need to worry about your head bursting now.”
Rolling my eyes, I decided that was a question I didn’t need to ask. My stomach once again reminded me with a growl. “Ähm... is there something else, or can I get lunch?”
“Well, your body seems weakened and you should rest for a few days,” the doctor said. “Observing you for the next days also can’t hurt.”
“I feel like I am in the Big Brother house,” I pouted. “Can’t I go back to my friends?” Considering friends... I’d almost forgotten about something. “Do you know what happened to Lisa?” I still couldn’t believe she would poison me. That made no sense at all.
Dr. Michelle sighed. “No, sorry, I don’t. I gather campus security is determining her involvement before they let her visit you.” She shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. You should ask your friends though.”
I probably should. John and Hunter hadn’t said anything when we’d played GEO yesterday evening, but then we’d been busy role-playing and not talking ooC. Seriously, raiding a thief's lair was too distracting to think about worrisome real life problems.
“Okay,” I nodded. “What’s next?”
“I’ll help you back to your bed,” she said to my chagrin. I was a lazy ass, but that didn’t mean I liked to be bound to my bed. Ignoring my grumbling, the doctor continued: “and you’ll press the yellow button to call the nurse. I don’t think you should walk to the cafeteria yet.”
***
„Our allies have failed. “ the young woman told the girl, “she is still alive.”
“That’s interesting,” the girl shrugged. “Not really, we just need to take her out ourselves.”
***
[1] German Highschool
[2] Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands - The neo-Nazi party
[3] Actually a quote from last chancellor Schröder: “Ministerium für Frauen und Gedöns” - Some people call it ‘ministry for everyone but men’.
AN: Sorry for the delay for this chapter. I was kind of busy with preparing for my Bachelors this semester and the last weeks writing it... There was also the problem that I had troubles with a certain scene that needed to be rewritten like five times :(
Anyway, here it is. I hope I didn't write Zenith too OOC, she got maybe a bit more prominence in this story then I originally intended.
I'm grateful for all comments and constructive criticism. Thank you for reading :)
Jan's tale 5 - Aftermath of a missed Assembly
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Jan’s Tale 5
Aftermath of a missed Assembly
Jan is not a happy camper. As if his life didn't suck enough already, turning into a mutant was everything but an improvement. Jan didn't get real superpowers, Jan got to be girly. To make it worse his parents decided in their unimaginable wisdom that exile to America was the solution for his problems. He is not so sure though.
I’d like to thank Sleethr, Landing and D.A.W for beta reading this chapter. I’d also like to thank Djkauf for editing.
Copyright © 2014 Beyogi All Rights Reserved.
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Disclaimer: This is fan fiction for the Whateley Academy series. It may or may not match the timeline, characters, and continuity, but since it's fan fiction, who cares? To see the canon Whateley Stories, check out www.crystalhall.org
“Sorry Jan,” The nurse shook her head. “But, we can’t let you out yet. You still have a date with the doctors.”
Great… No, not really. I’d hoped to meet my friends at the general assembly, but apparently it wasn’t to be. They still hadn’t released Lisa or declared her guilty and I wanted to know what was going on. She was my roomi and even though I’d only known her for two days, she’d already become a friend. Did she just fake all that or had someone framed her? I certainly didn’t see a motive. While I’d kind of been an ass on our first day, she hadn’t really been better either. It certainly wasn’t enough to try to murder me.
Not knowing was driving me up the wall, but I couldn’t find out about it from my bed. Nobody was telling me anything! And despite my admiration for the geeks and computer nerds, I wasn’t one of those hacking talents. Just because I was decent at playing video games and using MS-Word didn’t mean I knew how computers really worked.
“I’m so sick of it. Yet another missed introduction event.” And, that annoyed me more than I expected. I sighed with frustration. “Great, I’m going to be the outsider again and don’t have an idea what’s going on at this school on top of it.”
Jill, the nurse, unsympathetically rolled her eyes at me. "Relax. You haven’t missed anything substantial and your cottage mates came to visit you thrice. I’d hardly call you an outsider.” She shook her head. “Seriously, most students would be grateful if they could beg out of the introduction speech.”
She was probably right, it didn’t change the fact this situation sucked. “Why couldn’t they just tell me what’s going on right after the scans?” I complained, pouting at the nurse. It wasn’t really her fault, but I didn’t care right now.
“Because they needed to work through the data,” the nurse said. “Jan, stop pouting, I can’t do anything about it.”
I wasn’t pouting, was I? That was a girl thing to do.
The nurse laughed at me. “Gosh, now you’re pouting even more.”
Gosh? Who said that? If there was a God it wouldn’t strike her with lightning for invoking its name. It certainly hadn’t struck me and I didn’t even believe in it.
I wanted to protest her insinuations. It wasn’t a pout, I’d made an unhappy face. In the end I didn’t, because I figured she’d only laugh more at me. Bloody nurse. Trying to regain my dignity I glared at her.
“So what now?” I grumbled. Bantering with Jill was fun enough, but I really wanted to go.
“I suggest you wait for the doctors and watch the Assembly on your room TV,” she said, pointing at the TV in the right corner. “If you really want to suffer through Mrs. Carson’s speech.”
The TV, yeah… I’d never used it so far, GEO was better than passively staring at a TV screen. Playing yourself was simply more fun than simply watching something other people had produced. Not that there really was stuff that would have interested me. I couldn’t allow myself to be caught watching kiddy cartoons - that would be way too embarrassing. There was also the fact that most life action stuff simply didn’t interest me. All that soap or sitcom crap and there was never enough science fiction. Seriously, how could people get addicted to watch actors sitting at a table harping at each other?
No, GEO was simply more fun. I hadn’t even checked what kind of channels they had here on the TV. Maybe they had something like a shooting channel? “How to teach your kid to kill other people without them accidentally or intentionally murdering their siblings with the pistol you keep hidden under your pillow.” Hah, that would be a hoot, but it probably was just my prejudices speaking again.
Meanwhile the nurse was oblivious of my thoughts about the TV in general and American channels in specific. She was doing something with the remote - it looked rather arcane to me - switching through some kind of input channels until she’d found the right one. The screen flashed for a moment. The next I had a bird’s eye view on a large assembly hall that slowly filled with students.
The perspective changed to a camera behind the podium, allowing me to recognize some of my cottage mates in one of the front blocks. I was soon distracted though. In the block right next to them were the really mutated mutants. I couldn’t help myself but to stare at them. GSD cases were kind of amazing in their own shocking way. I’d thought Leonard was kind of freaky, but some of these people here managed to surpass even him in strangeness.
Suddenly the camera perspective changed again, focusing on the speaker’s desk. An important looking woman had stepped on the podium, while I’d been distracted. The headmistress was here, so it might finally begin. She had long blonde hair that carefully framed her face. Her clothing looked pretty normal, if a bit expensive, but otherwise she looked like every other woman in her late thirties.
It surprised me actually. She seemed to look too normal for a head of a superhero academy. I’d honestly expected someone more eccentric. A dumbledoresque person of sorts. But she wasn’t. The only strange thing was her age, really. My old headmaster was over sixty… and she looked like she’d just finished her studies five to ten years ago. Wasn’t there some kind of rule that headmasters had to be aged and wizened?
“Good morning, students! I am Mrs. Carson, the headmistress here,” the headmistress began, stating the obvious. “Welcome to Whateley Academy. Don’t worry, I’m not going to give you the ‘one big happy family’ speech, or the ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ speech, or the ‘learning can be an adventure’ speech.”
I sure hoped not because I'd heard them all from my previous headmaster. Well, a mixture between the happy family and adventure speech. Students of some half-assed Gymnasium[1] in Bremen usually don’t have power issues. Not that we really were a happy family, considering that bullying may have been some kind of initiation ritual.
“Instead,” Mrs. Carson continued, “I’m going to give you the ‘it’s all up to you’ speech. You probably haven’t heard it before.”
Actually I did. It was one of the favourites of my former headmaster. He actually combined the three of them in one half hour long monologue. Maybe it was good that I actually manifested, or I’d probably been forced to sit through another one of these. The man really loved to hear himself talk.
“Most schools in North America and Europe tend to run on the ‘assembly line’ principle, where students are moved along a very slow conveyor belt from one class to another, where the teachers regurgitate facts all over them, in the presumption that at least some of the facts will fall into open ears.”
Right... and the others run on the principle that if you bore children long enough they might go and learn something on their own. The very idea of school was mass production of education. How else would it work?
“The majority of students here, and a good number of the faculty and staff are mutants. Along with the usual classes in the Arts and Sciences, you will receive training in controlling your individual abilities, physical training, and even some combat training.”
And also surviving assassination attempts? I snorted, when I realized people actually looked shocked. Did they miss their introduction tours over the campus or something? Even I had gathered that students here were supposed to get some sort of militia education on top of a top of the mark conventional education. It was apparently necessary or a mutant wouldn’t live past the first week on “the outside” or something. Americans were insane.
“Here at Whateley, we won’t try to make you learn, mostly because we know that it’s a waste of time and effort, no matter how well intentioned. We can’t control what you’ll become during your stay here- only YOU can decide that.”
So the very same as with normal schools. Or did they do away with the tests? I severely doubted it. Could I just skip classes without consequences? Like hell. She was probably just talking.
“But there is one very important thing that we WILL demand from you: that you be responsible for your actions.”
One is always responsible for one’s actions. Except when one is drugged or mind controlled or something. Could she please get to the point?
“In order to keep operating without having legions of militant mutant-haters storming our gates, we have to keep as low a profile here as possible.”
And there it was again: The evil outside world - Don’t make trouble or H1 is going to eat you. Maybe that was her way to make us learn… Scaring us into submission?!
“In order to learn, you and the other students have to feel safe, so you can’t go around threatening everyone with your power, just because they tick you off.”
She’d probably also told that to the assholes on Monday. It was doubtful that they’d learned anything from it. Bullies would be bullies. With or without super powers.
“And, while we know that accidents happen, and sometimes your powers can run away from you. Nonetheless you have to understand that repairing the damage from using your powers is very expensive. We simply can’t afford to keep rebuilding the cottages every time that someone loses their temper.”
Right... laser eyes + wall wasn’t a good combination. But that was kinda beside the point. Who cared for the fucking buildings? What about people who just happened to be not immune against the others’ powers? I certainly didn’t want to stand in Lisa’s way if she decided something deserved to burn. Who cared for the building if I was burned to ashes? Not that this was likely...
“It is dangerous for you and all of us around you if you won’t control the powers and abilities that have been entrusted to you by fate. Please believe me when I say that the damage to our properties is insignificant to the loss we experience when one of you is injured or killed.”
Probably less loss than I would. She certainly couldn’t care about every student. The dent into their reputation was most likely the bigger problem. Although, maybe not. Considering how many people seemed to die on campus it might not make a difference.
“As some of you have already found out, there are many enemies, both groups and individuals, who desire, and hope, and work to make your time here and in the future, unpleasant, short, or both. Some do it because they fear you, some because they DON’T fear you. There are those who want you to sacrifice yourselves for their purposes and those who fear that you will block them and the desires that they seek.”
Well, apparently I’d already experienced that. The burnout poison... And now she told me that was only to be expected in a super-whatever school?! Maybe I should go home if there’d already been a first murder attempt on my second day in the school.
“Many of you will be at risk all your lives. Those that are your friends will also be at risk. Simply because they will be a part of what you will be attempting to accomplish in this life. Whether that will be good or bad is not for us to decide. We are here to help you develop the skills that will make it possible for you to make your way in this difficult world. And hopefully, survive to see what you are attempting accomplished.”
Oh great, so even if they’d try to murder me at Whateley, I wouldn’t be safe elsewhere? Survival should be my goal to aim for?! I didn’t want to fight every day of my life. Nobody could without becoming a psycho. What a depressing speech.
“But maybe you think this doesn’t apply to you. You won’t be running any clever plots or fighting for a cause you believe in. Instead, after graduation, you plan to just head out somewhere and mind your own business. You’ll never be bothered by suspicious neighbors, or religious extremists, or simply the common rabble that might see you as a deadly threat to everything they hold dear.”
While that sounded like a good plan it was obvious Mrs. Carson didn’t think so for some reason. She was probably right though... The very meekest cannot be at peace if his ill neighbour will not let him rest.
“If that’s the case… FINE. We’ll wish you luck. We honestly want every mutant to lead a successful and fulfilling life.”
Somehow that felt personal. Did something happen to her children? Did she have children?
“But you might want to know that of those that try this approach, over half fail. Their cover is blown, or the unexpected happens, or any of a dozen other things. And then, you may be suddenly wishing that you’d paid a bit more attention in class. If we can take any lesson from the tragic case of Shep Packard, I’d like to think that might be one of them. Shep tried to live the quiet, inoffensive lifestyle. Perhaps… maybe if we’d just tried a little harder, he wouldn’t have been burned at the stake, there in the back hills of Kentucky. A victim of a senseless witch hunt.”
Americans are crazy! A witch-hunt? In America? In the twentieth century? Why hadn’t I ever heard anything about it? Or did they just call it another anti-mutant hate crime and simply ignored it? Mutants were politically incorrect victims after all. People with superpowers couldn’t be victimized, every child knew that. She had a good point though. I didn’t intend to live in America, but then the German people had already once proven what we were willing to do when serious about a moral panic.
The headmistress looked pissed. Moments later I saw why. The camera showed some kids snickering on the banks in the back. Seriously, that wasn’t funny. They’d burned a poor guy at the stake and all they thought about was how funny it was. They wouldn’t laugh when the fire was licking at their feet.
“I know even now,” Mrs. Carson continued, staring at the funny-crew, “many of you are not taking this seriously, some of you will think ‘I won’t live somewhere in the backwoods, some last place of civilization deep in Kansas. It can’t happen to me in say... Sacramento California’. Wrong. You can easily get maneuvered into a situation where it is less trouble for the authorities to kill you than admitting they made a mistake.”
Crap, what was she talking about? I’d never cared much about Super-whatevers, but the way she was looking into the crowd it seemed it was something that affected the pupils personally. Did something happen to some fellow students of ours? What happened in Sacramento? I’d have to google it later.
“Mutants are monsters after all,” she added with a stony face. “Take these lessons serious, otherwise you can call yourselves lucky if a bullet through your head is the worst thing that happens to you.”
So we were in the worse fate than death territory already? She seemed serious. It sounded like an idle threat... but with the stories before... God damnit, why did I need to mutate? I didn’t want all this crap! … I just wanted to go home to mommy, but I wouldn’t ever say that.
“We can only hope that learning just how seriously we mean this will not be too severe a lesson for yourselves and your friends. Remember, only YOU can make the decision to learn and accept what we, through long hard experience, have come to place before you.”
That wasn’t exactly a way to encourage students to put much worth on their traditional education. But at least it made me feel better about the fact I’d chosen martial arts. I guess I could have also taken the survival training course, but offense was always the best defense in my opinion. I’d learned that the hard way in my Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne games with one of the few “mates” I had at school. Knowing how to fight back was superior to just knowing how to run away. Running away was probably easier though.
“Now we need to speak about the general rules on campus. There are times when you’re allowed to use your superpowers and others when...
*knock**knock**knock* Someone was knocking at the door, distracting me from the events on screen.
“Come in please,” I said, muting the TV.
Maybe I should have listened to the rules, but seriously that was the boring part of the speech. If I really needed those, I’d just have to read them in the school book or something. It wasn’t like I intended to skirt around them anyway. Well, not to the point that knowing the rules would actually help.
A balding middle aged guy in a lab coat stepped through the door. “Good morning Miss Edler,” he introduced himself. “My name’s Doctor Sanchez and I’m here to give you a final checkup.” He put his medicine case on the table. “You should be okay, but we’d rather make sure.”
He didn’t look like a Sanchez, more like a Müller or maybe a Smith. Did he just change his name - I’d heard that was possible in America… someone apparently called himself Jesus Christ - or was he a mutant and got a racial change when he manifested?
Meanwhile the Doctor shut the TV down. “No need to be distracted by the boob tube,” he shrugged, “You’re not missing anything. Carson’s telling the same crap every year anyway.”
That was good to know, but that didn’t explain why he was here. “Hi... um where’s Dr. Trappatori?”
“Michelle’s got an emergency to deal with,” the doctor shrugged. “I fear you’ll have to do with me.”
“Sorry, I was just curious.”
“No problem,” Dr. Sanchez shrugged again. “Anyway, let’s begin with the tests. I figure you want to get done with this. Please take off your top.”
Great, another bunch of tests. At least this gave me an excuse to get rid of the stupid hospital pajama. It itched when it moved over my nipples.
After I’d pulled it off the doctor began with a battery of tests. He measured blood pressure, checked something in my mouth hole and listened to my breath. He even took another blood test. Made me wonder if they needed to feed vampires or something. Next thing was checking my pulse, but then it got really awkward. Or so I thought in the beginning.
“Miss. Edler, would you please undress fully, mandatory tests require that we check the effect of burnout on your sexual function.”
“Ähm...”
“Just show me your testicles please,” the doctor said calmly.
“You know?”
“Yes,” he grinned at me, “the men in white know everything. Seriously, we need to know about our patients particularities.”
That would make sense. Especially with mutants that didn’t exactly have baseline human physiologies. My transgender status would probably be in my patient’s record.
“Anyway that’s besides the point,” Dr. Sanchez said with a wave, “You’re hardly the first transgendered patient here at Doyle’s.”
“Ähm... okay.” I said. “I don’t like to be a Miss though.” I felt he needed to know that.
“Oh... sorry, I guess that sucks for you,” he shrugged again, obviously not too bothered by my problem. “There was a female name on the form. Anyway, could you undress please.”
It didn’t seem like he cared too much, which kind of pissed me off. I considered saying something, but then he was a doctor and they’d probably go nuts if they cared too much about their patients. Still, he didn’t need to be an ass. Throwing a glare at the man, I got up from my bed and pulled off my pajama trousers. It was good I hadn’t gotten myself dressed yet. Wearing panties would have been really awkward to explain after my previous comment.
Nonetheless I was rather glad it was him and not Dr. Trappatori who tested my balls. This coughing test was awkward enough when a man did it. With Dr. Trappatori - I still didn’t get why a grown woman like her preferred to be called by her first name Michelle - it would have been even worse. Especially since she had sort of a Milf thing going... Her fondling my balls... That would have been awkward as hell.
Dr. Sanchez was using some weird hand device to scan me. It looked like it had escaped from a sci-fi series, but apparently it worked and didn’t find anything dangerous. Something I was rather glad about. I really wanted to get out of here. Playing GEO undistracted was neat, but it really wasn’t the same as being with my friends. While I’d never been a very social person before, I was had been very happy that the changeling group had come to visit me. It was nice to have friends. Hospitals though... This was my first long stay at a hospital and hopefully my last one.
“Can I go now?” I asked when the doctor seemed to have finished his scan.
“Yes, we’re done,” the doctor shrugged yet again, making me wonder if it was some kind of weird tic of his. “As far as I can tell there are no further symptoms of burnout. You should be alright.”
“Okay, thank you,” I said, shaking his hand.
“No need, Miss. Edler,” Dr. Sanchez said his goodbye. “Just doing my job.”
Miss... Why? I’d told him I wasn’t a Miss! Sure, with every transformation I looked more like a girl, but he knew! Asshole. Did he have to insist on parading my new, unwanted status in front of me? It wasn’t like I could really ignore it anymore either. My once slightly stubby boy fingers had turned into slender girl fingers with neatly rounded, elongated girly nails! My once broadening shoulders and bulging upper arms had been reduced to a weak, small girl size. My hips and ass had blown to up like a balloon. Even my innards were changing. Maybe I was lucky and the burnout had slowed it. Probably not. My stupid shell wasn’t the trigger for the drug after all.
Sadly sighing to myself, I watched the doctor closing the door behind himself. Good thing that he was done. Now I could finally get ready and leave this blasted hospital behind. Once again I pulled off my pajama trousers and grabbed a pair of panties out of the dresser. Their girlish pink flower design just fit the irony of the situation. I hated that I turned into a girl, was angry at the doctor for treating me like a girl, but here I was voluntarily dressing like one just to fit in better.
At least the panties should fit. Zoe had really done me the favor when she’d gotten me enough underwear for a week. But seriously she hadn’t cared to get gender neutral ones. Or maybe weren’t any of those. Not that I knew, I’d never shopped for female underwear before. I sighed. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, it was nice of her to shop for me and it wasn’t like anyone would get to see under my trousers anyway. I also needed practice tugging.
Laying down on my back on the bed I quickly managed to maneuver my testicles into my body cavity and pressed down my dick against my body. Then I pulled up the panty girdle as far as I could. Next I dressed my thankfully not girly socks and took an old undershirt before I grabbed my school uniform.
After packing my laptop and the rest of my clothing, I was finally ready to go. Taking the first step into freedom I ran into a nurse. I’d been so glad to be out of my room/prison that I didn’t look where I was going. The fact that the nurse wanted to come in didn’t exactly help either.
“Oh... Jan,” Jill said, holding me, “sorry, I didn’t expect you to come out right now.”
I shrugged as I straightened myself. “The doctor was done with me. Did you want something?”
“Yes,” she nodded. “I kinda forgot it last time, but Campus Security called. They want to interview you as soon as you can.”
Right now? Classes supposedly started directly after the assembly. Couldn’t they talk to me later? I didn’t want to arrive late on my first BMA lesson. Something like that always left a bad impression.
“Do I have to?” I asked reluctantly, I really didn’t need another confrontation with the chief. “I’d rather go to my classes.”
She laughed. “You’d really rather go to your classes? Well, anyway, I don’t think you need to get there that badly, but you should probably go over during lunch-break.”
At least it wasn’t now. I still needed to return to my room and grab the school stuff. Crap, I still needed to pack it. “Okay, I’ll try to remember it. I need to run though.”
***
“Are you sure she’ll come through here?” I heard a familiar female voice ask, just before I opened the door to the tunnel that led to the building of my next class..
Maybe I shouldn’t have taken the way through the tunnel system. It seemed like every other time I was in here I ran into some scene of sorts. On the positive side it would be hard to snipe me here. No, I wasn’t really that paranoid yet, just cynical. The reason I was down here was pure laziness. Mrs. Horton had run into me when I grabbed my school rucksack and talked to me on her way down into the basement. She’d wanted to know if I was alright and what really happened.
She’d also offered her help. I wasn’t sure what I would need it for though. When I was already in the basement my laziness prevailed. Simply taking the tunnels seemed the obvious choice. It was the shortest way to Laird Hall either way. It didn’t seem so smart now.
“Yes she should,” a male voice explained. “It’s the shortest way.”
And this was definitely the next scene. I didn’t know who these people were waiting for, but considering my luck during the last days it was probably me. God, why couldn’t I simply go to class without something insane happening? I slowly stepped back from the door and turned around. Whatever these people wanted, I didn’t want to take my chances. Someone here definitely wanted me dead and I didn’t intend to help them by taking stupid risks. Why the hell didn’t I get bodyguards or something?
“I feel someone behind the door,” another male voice said. “It’s moving away... Get her!”
Fuck! I stopped sneaking away and broke into a run. Throwing a glance back over my shoulder I saw the bully crew from Monday storming through the tunnel door. I’d feared they’d try to get back at me, but something like this? What the hell was wrong with them? As if the ambush wasn’t bad enough each of them - cutie-bitch, Mafioso-guy and Hitler-boy - were carrying strange guns. Holy crap, what was wrong with this school?
“Take the bitch down,” the bitch cried, raising her own weapon.
Crap this wasn’t good. These tunnels were like a shooting range. I needed to get away here, out of sight! I got the bad feeling these weren’t just fancy stun weapons - not that I wanted to be at their mercy anyway. Fuck, I was so screwed and I really didn’t have the time to stare and listen to them until I ran into a wall. Quickly turning away to face forward, I felt long hair tickle down over my shoulder and an uncomfortably common bouncing feeling appeared on my chest.
My mind was on something else entirely though. The intersection right in front of me. If I went to the right, I’d get back to Poe. It seemed like a good idea since I was on the right side of the tunnel anyway. I was almost there when some inner instinct made me throw myself to the left, against the wall. From the corner of my eye I watched yellow bolts of light searing through the space I’d occupied only moments ago.
My knees were scratched and bleeding, but I didn’t feel the pain. My focus was on the wall before me, where concrete had simply dissolved into nothingness. Scheisse, they really wanted to kill me, disintegrate what remained of me and then deny everything to get away with it. I gulped heavily.
Dear god in heaven! What had I done to deserve this? What? I didn’t want to die! Adrenaline whipped through my body as I scrambled to get back on my feet. I had to get away here.
“Fuck we missed,” Mafioso-guy cussed, while I threw myself behind the wall of the tunnel to Crystal Hall.
A wave of green goo spilled through the space to my right. I stumbled again and saw the edge of the tunnel dissolve behind me. God, I so needed to get away here! I’d be dead if one of those bolts hit me.
“Fuck, I missed,” bitch cussed. “I almost had the bitch.”
“These crappy things shoot too slowly,” Hitler-boy complained. “Why couldn’t she give us normal guns?”
I ran down the tunnel as fast as I could. Quickly taking one step in front of another, even if my knees were dragging. I needed to get away here. The stairs up into Shuster Hall was only a few meters away.
“Shut. The. Fuck. Up. And kill the bitch!” Bitch girl wheezed, just as another yellow bolt hit the wall right next to my head. “Come on; don’t let the whore get away.”
If I wasn’t running for my life, I’d probably given her the finger. But I knew I had only seconds until the next barrage would be coming.
“Eat glue, bitch!” the bitch yelled and I heard a strange sound. A moment later another wave of green goo surged against the stairs. Stairs I’d thankfully just managed to mount.
Now storming upwards, I took three stairs at once with each step. I needed to get away. Get out of sight. It probably still wasn’t enough. I knew they were angrily awaiting for their guns to recharge. And then.. they pressed the trigger. I just knew they’d aimed at my back. I wasn’t out of sight yet. It was a split second decision. I instinctively knew I couldn’t get up the stairs fast enough to escape the yellow bolts of death. There was only option to get out of certain doom. Scraping my arms, elbows and knees I hugged the wall.
Next moment I heard bolts whooshing past my head and moments later something was cluttering down the stairs. At that moment I couldn’t have cared less, even though I realized they’d just destroyed my loyal backpack of six years. Surviving was far more important.
“You suck so much, Leonard,” bitch-girl exclaimed. “You bastards missed again.”
Thanks goodness. I thought I was toast. Or air. Scheiss Vaporizers.
“It’s Leonardo, dumbass,” mafia boy corrected. Not that I cared.
I took the last few chairs, slammed the door and was out into the central corridor. It was empty, the students were in their classes. Nobody was around. Scheisse. No crowd to hide in. Running onwards, I looked around. I had to get out of my followers line of sight. Otherwise I was as good as dead. I’d gotten lucky so far. I couldn’t rely on it. I needed to disappear.
There, on the left, was the entrance into Crystal Hall. I didn’t really think. Instinct told me it was a way to flee. And I reacted. Changing my direction I dashed through the large entrance.
And found myself in front of the cleaning crew. And also in clear view of everyone coming from behind. The eating tables certainly didn’t make a very good cover. Not against disintegration rays. This was not good. I continued to run, but a look over my shoulder only ascertained my fears. The bully trio was wheezing around the corner, raising their guns at the sight of me. I’d dawdled too much.
I threw myself behind a table. Pain surged through my already battered extremities, but at least the next wave of disintegrator rays missed, sailing above me. Cursing the throbbing of my knees, I saw a possible avenue of escape. It wasn’t even far away. Right in front of me, ten meters away were the food counter and the kitchens.
Scrambling onto my feet again, heard the cleaner screaming out in terror and outrage. I hoped nobody had been hit, but I had bigger problems. I needed to get away. A moment I considered yelling for help, but I didn’t want to waste a breath. They didn’t look like they could help me. Right now I simply needed to get away. Arriving at the food counter in full run, I took a jump. My ankle twisted and instead of sailing above the counter I began to spin.
“Do you suck dick as bad as you shoot, Rose?” I heard Hitler-boy sneer. “Can’t even hit a slut like that.”
Seriously slut? Didn’t they have better insults? Was all I thought before I found myself face first in a waste bin. Grimy plastic rubbed my cheeks, smearing something disgusting, which was hopefully nothing more than ketchup, all over my face. I didn’t have time to worry though. I heard shouting behind and I knew this had only delayed the inevitable if I didn’t get some cover between myself and the bully-crew quickly. God damnit, why were they still trying to kill me? Did they really believe they could get away with it? Or were they just that nuts?
“Where did she go?” Mafia boy asked.
“Behind the counter!” the Rose-bitch replied. “You’re as blind as a mole, are you?”
“No, I’m invisible you ass,” came the annoyed reply, warning me of the powers of one of my assailants.
Fuck, of course they’d seen where I’d gone. No big surprise considering my painful accident with the counter, but still disappointing. Forcing myself to ignore yet another bout of pain I jumped up and ran through the door into the kitchens. A glance over my shoulder and I saw the bin disintegrate behind me. Lord in Heaven, it was good they couldn’t aim for crap or I’d been free atoms by now. Nonetheless, even idiots like them could get lucky. And considering my luck lately... I just knew they were aiming at me again. I didn’t think much, just reacted and ducked behind a stove.
Not a second too late. A frying pan disintegrated at the wall in front of me. If I’d stayed where I’d been that would have been my head. God, why couldn’t someone stop these fuckers? This school was supposed to be a safe place, not Jan assassination central. Did they have something against Germans or was it just me?
“Why. Don’t. They. Shoot. Faster?!” the bitch shouted. “I almost had the whore!” A surge of green goo followed through the door, spilling over the stove and onto my jacket. Trying to get up I realized I was stuck. The goo glued me to the stove. I panicked for a moment, before I managed to pull myself out of my jacket.
“I told you so,” Hitler boy sneered somewhere behind me. “Bitch should have given us normal weapons.”
Whatever the reason, I was grateful that whoever that mysterious ‘bitch’ was thought I was bullet proof or something. The disintegration bolts were slow and the guns didn’t shoot very often. I still needed to get away though. Yet I didn’t know the way out. A window would be enough, but this room didn’t have one.
“Fuck, you take the gun, I just blast glue at the whore,” I heard the bitch girl say. She wasn’t even that loud, fuck they were too close. I’d dawdled too much.
“Help! Please somebody help me!” I yelled, as I ran towards the left door. Maybe someone here could do anything against the assholes. Scheisse, I could only hope there was an exit here. I’d be fucked if I got out in a broom closet or something.
Seeing a wave of green goo from the corner of my eye, I quickly ducked behind another cooker. Thankfully the glue harmlessly splashed against the wall this time. The next moment I got up again, dashing for the door.
Just before I got there a blonde girl stepped out of it. “What are you yelling for?”
“Disintegration gun!” I panted as I stumbled past her. “They want to kill me!”
This was one of the moments where I was actually thankful for my mutant powers – and my fucked up body. Now at least I was rid of my chronic asthma. Before… I wouldn’t have had the air to speak… and they’d probably already caught me anyway.
“What?” the blonde said confusedly. “You shouldn’t be here!”
Like I cared. I had bigger problems. Like the yellow bolt of certain death that suddenly appeared from behind the freezer.
“Deckung!”[2] I shouted as I grabbed her to pull her past the door.
What I saw there didn’t exactly make me happy. Instead of the exit I’d hoped for, I found myself in the kitchen’s storage area. Cans were in one corner, while the main part were several freezers as well as some closed cupboards. Thankfully it wasn’t a blind alley. There was a door to another room.
“Come with me,” I ordered, before letting the girl go and making a run for the next door. If she wanted to stay it was her problem.
She just stared at me and was drenched in the green glue goo a moment later. Fuck. I hope the nutsos didn’t kill her. But then they only seemed to be after me and I couldn’t allow her to drag me down. If I stopped I was dead.
Something between a sigh and an exhausted wheeze escaped me. God, what wouldn’t I give for a gun to end them? Maybe an AK47 like in Counterstrike? Was it always like this on this blasted continent of doom? No wonder all Americans were gun nuts!
Right now though I had bigger problems than wishful thinking for a method of death dispersal. Namely the footsteps of my pursuers in the next room. I broke into another desperate sprint. God, I needed to get away. I needed to get out of here! Slamming the door behind me, I ran into the next room. And almost broke down in relief.
Windows. A door to the outside. Heavily panting, my vision blurred as I focussed on the door. Strange shapes were moving at the edge of my vision, but I didn’t care. I needed to get out. Mobilising my reserves, I dashed over to the door and ripped at it. Thankfully it wasn’t locked and I managed to stumble outside, making sure to also slam the door behind me. Every hurdle counted. Buying me valuable seconds. Seconds I would need to get out o sight, seconds I would need to cut around the corner of the building. Time I would need to get away alive.
I began to stumble to said corner, trying to break into a run again. That was when it happened. I have to admit I simply screamed when a hand grabbed me.
***
“And then Officer McGraw stopped you?” the campus security interrogator asked to clarify the situation.
“Yes, weren’t you there?” Why did he need me to retell it? Didn’t they have camera records or something?
The man raised his eyebrows. “Actually I wasn’t. Wasn’t my shift.”
Well, I guess I could tell him then. “Ähm… Okay, as I told you I ran for my life, shut the door behind me and was ready to run for a better cover. Well and then she grabbed me. And then it was pretty much over. Your colleagues stormed through the windows and took out my attackers with some sort of tranq gun.”
“Gizmatic Unconsciousness Inducer,” Lieutenant Reynolds corrected, absently shrugging.
“Yeah, whatever.” I didn’t get the man. Moments ago he was asking me about stuff and now the brown haired man was twitching on his chair as if it was him who just wanted to get out of here instead of me. “Well, your colleagues shot them and then they escorted me here.” And since then annoying Campus Security guys were debriefing me or maybe interrogating me.
“Okay, I guess I know everything then,” Reynolds decided, after making a few quick scribbles on his paper.
I doubted he knew everything, but I didn’t want to encourage him to ask more questions. My stomach was growling and I simply wanted to get out of here. God, what was wrong with this school? Bullies, interrogations, stays at a hospital and murder attempts. What were my parents thinking?!
*Growl*
It was my stomach again. “Can I go please? Or can you at least get me something to eat?”
“Sure, I think so.”
Thanks God.
Scratching the back of his head Reynolds added: “The chief wanted to talk to you by the way.”
Great… Thanking God was obviously pointless for atheists like me. Some might call this attitude stupid with all the evidence of superpowers around, but for me it was only more proof that there was no real God, or if there was it wasn‘t an entity I’d ever revere. What kind of creature would give a minority of humans inheritable superpowers? Which kind of deity would allow supervillains summon demons without repercussions, hell at all?
“Okay... I guess,” I said. I’d rather go and get something to eat, but seriously, what else was I supposed to say?
Maybe that I didn’t want to see the chief because it would be awkward after my rant at our last meeting? Not that I regretted it. ‘You should have called Campus Security.’ Haha, very funny. I’d had neither phone nor their number. I hoped it wouldn’t be something like that again. Maybe I should have teleported myself to Campus Security or allow them to disintegrate me because that would have been less messy?! Okay, maybe it was unfair, but sheesh after his reminder last time… I was a freshman and not a Whateley senior.
It was then that Lieutnant Reynolds left, silently clicking the door. I wondered if they’d let me wait again, but I didn’t take long for Chief Delarose to appear.
“Ähm… hi,” I said as he took place behind the desk.
The man raised his eyebrows. “A good afternoon to you too.” He sighed and shook his head, “when I told Dr. Trappatori that I wanted to see you it wasn’t like this.”
Yes, I could imagine. I didn’t want to meet him like this either. “Ähm, yeah… I guess you wanted to speak about Lisa.”
“That was the plan… originally,” Delarose nodded. “I’d intended to clear the situation, but now we need to talk about what… happened to you.”
“Happened to me?” I echoed. “You mean the assassination attempts.”
“Well, let’s begin with your roommate,” he said focusing his gaze on me. “She definitely didn’t have anything to do with any attempted murders on your person.”
I let a breath go that I didn’t know I was holding. If someone so totally nice like Lisa was a fake, how was I supposed to trust anyone? Thanks god she wasn’t.
“While it’s definitely her form on video it’s easy to tell that the real her wasn’t even in the room when the poisoning happened. We’ve determined it really was someone else with shape shifter powers.”
A shape shifter had tried to kill me? That meant I could trust nobody until they were caught. Literally everybody could try to shove a knife under my ribs.
“Did you get him… or her?” I really really hoped so.
“Her,” Delarose stated. “We found her next to the… comatose body of the most likely organizer of the assassination attempts.”
I somehow got the feeling this wasn’t everything. “And? What happened to her? What did she do? What did you do to her?”
“Nothing much. Someone wiped the memories of the last three years of her life. She thinks she’s fourteen and doesn’t understand how she got here.” Delarose said. He looked angry as hell, so I decided not to interrupt. “We’ve found evidence of massive prolonged psychic tampering with both of them.”
“Someone tried to get rid of evidence?” I asked. It was some time since I last read the famous five or the three investigators, but I still knew the basics of a crime/detective novel.
“I’m not sure.” The security chief grimaced. “We did find evidence. More than enough actually. But what we’ve gleaned from the evidence so far, the comatose woman is responsible for the attempted murders. But they did have an ally. But… well, we don’t have a clue who that person is.”
“So Lisa is innocent. The assassins are caught or at least neutralized and whoever pulled the strings managed to hide.” I shivered. “Can I go home please? I don’t want to die!” Stupid tears began to well from my eyes. I’d suppressed them before, but now I simply couldn’t stop it.
Mom and dad had said this was supposed to be safe. A safe space for mutants. I sniffed. It seemed everything but. I found myself at the center of an arcane plot to kill me.
“It’ll be okay,” Delarose said, standing up as I was sniffing into my sleeve. “We will get them.”
“Right…” like I would believe that. “Isn’t this school supposed to be the safest place in America?” I sniffed again. “What have I ever done?”
He took my hand. “It’s your power. As far as we can tell they were members of some... conspiracy and got wind of a prophecy that marked you as the chosen one to end them.”
“You’re joking right? Please tell me you’re joking.” It couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t. Prophecies only happened in stories and usually only when the author didn’t find a better way to make his story happen.
Delarose sighed. “It’s a bit more complicated. Apparently you’re supposed to have a power that can either end them or bring them to rule the world.”
The grimace on his face told me he liked that idea about as much as I. “The power he knows not?” A small cynical giggle escaped me. It really wasn’t that funny. “How do you know this anyway?”
“More like a power to rule them all, one power to find them, one power to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”
“Lord of the rings, right?” I asked not sure about it. He nodded and I continued. “The German version is better. It actually rhymes.” That was kind of beside the point though. “Ähm... you’re not serious, are you?”
“I’ll be frank,” Delarose said, straightening himself. “While we don’t have the prophecy, what we could glean from their communications really looked that bad.”
Super... awesome, not. So fate had chosen me as her bitch. My transformation should have clued me in, but then I wasn’t the only one who ever got girled. Scheisse, I actually started to use the Poe slang. I’d probably think of myself as a changeling soon.
Anyway, I needed information. “What did those assholes want? What was their conspiracy?”
“Female world domination apparently,” the chief said, rolling his eyes. “Reducing men to 10% of the population, enslaving those 10% to do the heavy lifting, creating a matriarchy, living happily ever after when the evil men are gone. The usual bigoted crap.”
“The usual?” I echoed. “You have more of those?”
“Well, this particular brand of crazy is a first one here, but they’re not the first chauvinistic group on Campus.”
What kind of chauvinists would a mutant school have anyway? Probably some local evolution rocks! Fanatics, some gay-haters (I severely doubted there was a school without them) and some classical racists. And apparently the Femi-Nazis...
“Ähm... why would they come after me?” I was joining the pink side after all.
He shrugged. “We don’t really know yet. I can only tell you conjecture.”
“Ähm okay...” I wasn’t sure if half-baked assumption would really help me. On the other hand he seemed professional and I really wanted to know what was going on. “So?”
“It seemed like they planned to recruit you but then suddenly decided it was impossible and wanted to eliminate you,” Delarose explained. “The best explanation we have so far is that they don’t have a real prophecy but a precog who saw rather diverse futures. You probably made some decisions that made their world domination future impossible.”
“Heaven, I’ve really gone and went into a superhero comic?” I groaned. What the hell was wrong with this school? “Is there some way to prevent these precogs from seeing me? If this continues I will be dead!” I felt tears welling from my eyes again. I didn’t want to die.
“You mean like the precogs in the Dune novels, where you’d simply have to be around another precog to be safe?” the security chief asked, raising his eyebrows. “I fear it doesn’t work this way.”
While I didn’t know Dune, apart from some scenes from the Movie, I’d heard about the thing he was talking about. The reasons for why it wasn’t supposed to be possible was weird though.
I shuddered, “so I just have to survive one assassination attempt after another?” I continued crying. Scheiss girl hormones. It didn’t help at all. “I can’t be alone for ten minutes without someone trying to kill me. And worse, they’ll even know when I’m alone thanks to this insane precog scheiss. Why are they even allowed to stay alive?”
“Because killing people for their powers would only lead to a lot of civil strife. There is also the fact that those precogs who can make long term predictions usually can’t make them very precise – you are alive after all.” He shook his head. “And most precogs want to stay alive the same as you do.”
Great. Really great. “I hate prophecies.” It’s bad enough in novels, but apparently it’s was the same way in reality. As soon as there was a prophecy, everything would be about the prophecy.
Delarose just nodded. He didn’t seem to be happy either. “I can’t help you against precogs, but I can help you against bullies. I suggest you join the Underdogs, our local group of low powered students. Underdogs get some extra protection.”
“Underdogs?” I echoed. “That sounds like outcast in a superhero school.” A social position I definitely, absolutely didn’t want to have again.
“We’re not a superhero school,” Delarose reminded before he shook his head. “In your case being an Underdog probably means that you won’t be part of the socialite group, but then I doubt you would want to be part of the “Alphas” anyway.” I could hear derision in his voice as he said that.
“Ähm… what is with them?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“The administration allowed the group too much slack, which culminated in a minor catastrophe during the last Christmas break,” Delarose said, rubbing his arms.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know what counted as “minor” catastrophe at a superhero school. Maybe I should ask Ayla later, the chief seemed uncomfortable about the topic.
“Ähm… Okay, I guess,” I shrugged. “Ähm… Mr. Delarose, how does this Underdog thing help me? What extra protection does it afford me?” There had to be another advantage besides being out of sight of the campus in-group.
“First thing you’ll get a tracer patch, that’ll allow us to find you everywhere on campus.” Delarose explained, leaning back in his chair.
While that seemed potentially useful I wasn’t convinced. There were drawbacks. “What keeps people from using that tracer to find me? And wouldn't they just remove it if they wanted to abduct me or something?” I grimaced. “How does it help me if someone tries to murder me again?”
The security chief grinned. “Not really, but that is what you get a caller button for. Usually we don’t give them to students, but considering the assassination attempts it is obviously necessary.” He pulled a round disk out of a drawer in the desk and handed it over to me. “Just press the button in the middle and a security team will descend on your position.” He shrugged. “The Underdog position is just so the other students know not to use their powers on you. It can get rather rowdy sometimes and someone making assumptions can end with deadly consequences.”
“Ähm… sure,” I said. I wasn’t exactly happy with getting marked as a weakling - God, it was unmanly -, but I couldn’t afford pride like that. It wasn’t like I went here to become a superhero anyway.
“Okay. Good,” Delarose decided. “I’ll register you right now and then we can get an armband for you.”
***
I was lying on a couch in the Sunroom, checking the school website as I attempted to find out what activities I could actually do in my free time. Apart from playing GEO of course. But something told me I should probably do something else to make friends in real-life. Maybe the Underdog club was a good idea. Considering that the security chief had signed me up with them anyway.
After my talk with Delarose he’d also assigned me a guard for the day. He didn’t want to risk any more ambushes. The woman was military through and through and wasn’t good for any real conversation. Or maybe she didn’t like me. Nonetheless we made a side trip to the Campus Store and I bought a replacement school rucksack and school supplies that either got damaged or confiscated as evidence.
My guard wasn’t really talkative and I didn’t really know how to start a conversation with a military woman anyway. What was I supposed to ask her anyway? How many people she had killed over the course of her career? I doubted that would go over well.
While my family weren’t exactly pacifists, we also didn’t have anything to do with the military. And truth to be told we didn’t want to. Dad had been forced into the draft and he always told me I should get out of it if I could. Understandable. Who wanted their kids signed up as cannon fodder? How anyone could actually volunteer for it under any normal circumstances was beyond my understanding. Maybe it was just the way I was raised, but volunteering as a soldier was anathema to me.
Still, I figured it would be smarter not to ask her why she was stupid enough to do it. It wasn’t a good idea to antagonize the people with guns. Especially if I depended on their protection. So we’d spent the time in silence, not talking with each other.
Now I had something else to do though. Figuring out what I was going to do in my free time. Underdogs was a given. Sports? I guess I could try, but I’d probably get my ass kicked, being basically a baseline human without any super abilities.
“Jan?” Zoe said, pulling me from my thoughts. “Are you okay?”
I slowly nodded. I was as okay as I’d probably get.
My tutor for all things girly took that as encouragement and continued: “The rumor mill said you got into a fight in the crystal hall during the afternoon lessons...”
A sigh escaped me. “I got shot at with disintegrator guns...” Did she really need to remind me? Just when I was thinking about comfy topics such as foolish fools volunteering for foolish cannon fodder service.
“That would explain the shell,” Zoe mumbled to herself, before she asked me whether I was alright.
“I’m as all right as I’m going to be...” I sighed again. “I’m practically under house arrest. I’m only allowed to go out in groups and if I need to go out otherwise I have to call security.” I balled my fists. “Some asshole actually made a prophecy about me!”
“This sucks!” Zoe stated as she sat down in an armchair next to me. “What does it say?”
“Apparently I’m supposed to be the end of a group of Feminazis or help them to world domination,” I groaned, rolling my eyes. “And they seem to have decided I’m going to end them, which I may already have accidently done already - at least with their Whateley branch - but Campus Security thinks they’re probably just be a smokescreen for the real masterminds of the assassination attempts. The prophecy might not be real at all and only be a way to give me a false sense of security.” I balled my fists. “The only thing they managed is to confuse me... Scheisse! God damn, it sucks!”
Zoe looked suspiciously left and right. “Um... maybe I can help you. If you suspect someone...”
She could read thoughts, right... but... “wouldn’t that get you into major trouble?”
“Only if they catch me,” a quick grin played over her lips before she went serious again. “We’re not supposed to do that since thought reading and mental manipulation can get addictive and is morally wrong, but it’s not something easily caught.” She gave me a hard look. “I’m only offering this because of the murder attempts. You don’t want to befriend people who’re out for your blood.”
Well, I hadn’t planned to use her to spy the answers for the tests from my teachers’ minds or something - I was probably able to do that myself if Dr... Michelle was right. Considering the fact it was passive it wasn’t like they could really do anything about it. Or so I assumed. Maybe they really had some sort of psi-blocker.
“Thanks, Zoe,” I said. I really was thankful. It was good to know people cared. My eyes grew moist. Stupid girl hormones! “I was worried…”
She gave me a quick hug. “It’s okay. I’ll help you to check out possible friends, okay? Anyway, I was thinking about your problem with your shell…”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the possibility of her checking out friends. Were they really friends if I suspected them of backstabbing? This seemed really paranoid to me.
“Yes? Do you have an idea how I can deactivate it?” That would be great, maybe it would slow the changes if I could simply deactivate it. Or maybe avoid activating it at all!
“Um… not exactly, Jan,” Zoe replied. “No! Not like that…” she quickly interjected as she saw my crushed expression. “But I do have an idea.”
I just looked at her and she continued: “Okay, my idea depends on the time when your shell actually deactivates on its own. When does that happen Jan, when you fall asleep or when you wake up?”
“When I wake up, I think.” Why was it important? It wasn’t like I could make myself fall asleep and wake up at will.
“Well, so what about if I simply make you fall asleep?” She grinned at me. “I make you fall asleep and wake you up again. And voila, the shell is gone.”
I jumped up from the couch. “What? You can? …isn’t that dangerous?” I knew that falling into a coma was no good idea. If her putting me to sleep was similar it wasn’t worth it.
“Well, it’s one of the self-defense techniques psychics learn. It’s harmless as far as I know,” she shrugged. “The teacher explained we should use that one if we actually couldn’t avoid a fight. She used it on each of us as a demonstration and had us practice it, so I doubt it’s actually dangerous.”
I wasn’t totally convinced, but one time probably wouldn’t damage my brain too much. On the other hand that might be a get-out-of-Kim-Possible-shell for free card. I couldn’t refuse the possibility on the remote chance that it might be dangerous. Even better, it would allow me to get out of the stupid shell right now!
“Okay, let’s do it,” I decided. “Ähm, please…” I quickly added. I didn’t think Zoe was a stickler for form, but it couldn’t hurt to be polite if I wanted something. And I really wanted Zoe’s help to deal with my shell.
Her lips twitched. “I can understand… I wish…”
Probably that something like that would have been possible for her too. It was a bit strange though. She seemed to take girlhood pretty well. On the other hand it wasn’t like she had much a choice – well if she didn’t want to sit in a corner and mope all the day. So pretty much the same reason why I went out dressed as a girl – not that I liked it. Maybe it was the same for Zoe.
There was still something I needed to ask her: “Zoe, before you put me under… ähm… I wanted to ask you if you could ask your teacher if repeated use is safe?”
“Sure,” she nodded flopping down on an armchair. “I’d planned to do that anyway.” She raised her eyebrows. “Um… Jan, could you please sit down on the couch?”
Good idea. Putting me to sleep while I was walking tracks in the carpet would make a painful waking up. I followed Zoe’s suggestion and sat down on the couch again. “What now?”
She seemed to ignore me, focusing on something. I was looking curiously at her when my eyelids began to flutter…
***
“Jan? Jan!” something shook me and ripped me right out of Morpheus’ sweet embrace.
“What?!” I said grumpily. Why couldn’t I sleep in peace?
“I just realized a drawback of the ability…” the voice that I now recognized as Zoe sighed.
I opened my eyes and sat up. Apparently I’d slipped into a lying position during my sleeping time.
“How long did I sleep?” I asked with a yawn, worried that the drawback was that I’d be asleep for hours afterwards.
“Five minutes,” Zoe replied. “But now you’re probably tired… which means we can’t really use it during school hours.”
“I’m sure it’s not that big a problem.” I hoped. “It’s been a long day after all.” And I really wanted to get my out-of-shell-free card.
On the other hand it might be a problem if it really rendered me utterly tired. I doubted the teachers would appreciate it. And I wouldn’t either, I had to admit. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of school – it retracted from my gaming time after all – it was better to do it awake and not dead tired. Awake I could at least focus on what was going on. Tired I would just be waiting for the time to pass.
That made me think though. “Ähm… Zoe, do you think I’ve missed much today?”
“I don’t think so,” She shook her head. “It’s probably just been introductions, getting the books and finding out how much the students really know.”
That confused me. “Why would they have to do that?” I scratched the back of my head. “Didn’t we do those placement tests so they’d know what we know?”
“Oh…” Zoe said. “Those… Um… not everyone does them. I think they’re only for students from outside the US and those who want to skip a class or something.”
Okay, that explained it. Obviously they wouldn’t do something like that for everybody. It took a lot of time for me. Americans probably had state controlled curricula too, so it wouldn’t be necessary for the majority.
“Good,” a sigh escaped me. “It would have really sucked if I started with a handicap into the new school year.” Especially if they gave homework… Although I could probably expect they’d excuse my not doing them with today’s events.
Another yawn escaped me and Zoe took that as her clue. “Jan, you seem tired and I kind of need to talk to my girlfriend about our powers-project…”
“No problem,” I smiled. “Have fun with your homework.”
She rolled her eyes. “Suuure… Anyway, you’re alright?”
I nodded. “Only a bit tired, but I guess we can’t do anything about that.” I shrugged. It wasn’t like I’d planned to do anything today so it didn’t really matter. “… Ähm, thanks for helping me. I really don’t want to know how much more I would have changed if the shell had stayed online.”
“Yeah…” she seemed to look into the distance for a moment before she grinned and waved good bye. “See you tomorrow or so…”
“Yes, see ya.” I watched her leave before returning my attention to the campus map displayed on my laptop. I still needed to find the safest ways to get from A to B on campus... and maybe get another meeting with Dr. Bellows. He hadn’t tried to drug me yet and I’d probably have to be careful or I’d really grow a paranoid nutso in this school.
Writing a mail to him was no problem. Figuring out what to tell my parents was. I’d never really wanted to go here, but if my parents knew what had transpired, they’d probably try to pull me out. I’d hoped they would, but I couldn’t really let them do it now. If there really was a prophecy that somehow called for my head, I wouldn’t be safe at home... god, my whole family would be at risk if I went back.
I wrung my hair. What the hell was I supposed to do?
“Jan? You alright?” Lisa interrupted my thoughts of doom and gloom, surprising the hell out of me.
Where had she come from?
“Ähm... yes, I think... I hope,” I said, putting my laptop aside.
Meanwhile Lisa just stood close to the door, eyeing me warily.
“Ähm, is something wrong?” Something definitely didn’t seem quite normal with her behavior. She usually wasn’t so shy. That was my part! “Lisa?”
She looked to the ground as she said: “Um... I wasn’t sure that... you...” she whispered the rest and I couldn’t really understand her. I might have gotten super-fitness - although the ‘super’ part was somewhat relative at Whateley-, but I certainly didn’t get super hearing.
Still... she wasn’t sure I what? It wasn’t like she’d done anything... just campus security being stupid. But I got what she was worried about. “As if you’d poison me personally in the presence of witnesses,” I rolled my eyes. “Sheesh, you’re smarter than that.”
Lisa actually looked surprised for a moment. “Ass.” It obviously didn’t take long. “And I was actually worried...”
“Thanks,” I replied seriously as I stood up. “Look, it wasn’t like someone looking like you shoved a knife in my gut.” I shuddered at the thought. No, my guts were not for stabbing. Or disintegrating.
“Yeah,” my roommate nodded thoughtfully, “that would have been...”
“Awkward?” I asked, finishing her sentence. “Different? Horrible?”
“Obviously worse,” she rolled her eyes, before she went back into her awkward timid mode. “I’m glad you don’t hate me... I thought...”
She’d probably feared I didn’t want to be her friend anymore since someone looking like her had tried to kill me. Or maybe that I didn’t believe the official story and still thought she was responsible. Yeah, no wonder she felt bad. The girl looked like she needed a hug. But was I allowed too? Guys weren’t supposed to hug random persons. Especially random girls. But Lisa was my friend and roommate, so she should be alright. Although… Guys? Considering my looks, did I even count as a guy anymore? Scheisse, social rules were complicated.
“Jan?” Lisa said, pulling me from my thoughts as she waved her hand in front of my face. “Did you just space off?”
I nodded. “ I was just wondering... Is it okay if I hug you?”
“Yes,” Lisa sniffed and suddenly tears began to well from her eyes. A moment later and I found myself in her embrace.
“It’s okay,” I said unsure of the situation. “I’m not angry at you or something.” It was me lately who didn’t have his emotions under control. And now I was here with my crying roommate in my arms. What the hell was I supposed to do now?
“Sorry,” she said, untangling herself. “Here I am dissolving into tears and it is you who’d being targeted by nutters.”
“Yeah…” I sighed. I could understand her though, I’d probably feel the same if I’d been worried that a new friend would suddenly hate me. “Do you need a handkerchief or something?”
Lisa shook her head and pulled one out of her bag. It looked properly chaotic - like my mothers. I never quite got how she managed to put all her crap in there. I always supposed it was really a secret female transdimensional vacuum-compression method, but my mother claimed it was just skill.
It was also skill how Lisa managed to change the topic: “Um... sorry for the waterworks, did I interrupt you, Jan?”
“Not really, no,” I replied. “I was just wondering how I’d explain my parents that someone tried to murder me again without having them pull me from Whateley.”
She raised her eyebrows. “I thought you didn’t want to come here. Why would you want to stay now?”
“I’d like it even less if those nutters blew up my parents house,” I balled my hands to fists. It wasn’t like these were some xenophobes who wanted to drive me off this school. No, they wouldn’t stop until either their organisation was done for or I was pushing up the Daisies. A cynical laugh escaped me. “Here at least I have quick access to a security force and a good hospital...”
Suddenly I found myself being hugged again. It was unusual - I’d never been hugged that much before, most girls in my class would only touch me with a ten foot pole - but I realized I enjoyed it. Maybe that was a perk of girldom, or maybe Americans were just more inclined to hug.
I decided to hug Lisa back. It was a bit weird, but in a nice sort of way.
“God, this sucks so much!” Lisa took a step back and balled her fists like she was ready for a fight. “It’s just not fair.”
I completely agreed with her, but what was I supposed to do? Complain to god - whom I didn’t believe in - for doing such unfair things to me? “I guess I have to deal with it.” I had no choice.
“You’re not alone.” Lisa turned back and faced me with a determined look in her eye. “We’ll come with you. I’ll come with you. If someone tries something funny, they can try to eat lava!” From one moment to the next flames were dancing over her hands.
“Lisa! Your clothes!”
“I got a fireproof shirt, don’t worry,” she replied as she vanished her flames. “Sorry for scaring you... um...”
She apologized a bit much lately. It wasn’t like she’d hurt me or something. “Yes?”
“Eh, I actually came to ask if you wanted to come with us for dinner,” Lisa said, throwing a look towards the door. “I got a bit distracted, I guess.”
I couldn’t prevent myself from raising my eyebrows. “Distracted, huh?” It was good that she thought about me though, I’d have hated it to call security just to grab a meal. “Thanks for thinking about me. Let’s go.”
***
“So, lemme see if I got this right...” John asked, leaning on the cafeteria table as he focused on me. “You got shot at with disintegrator guns by known bullies who’ve apparently been brainwashed by some female supremacist cult who supposedly have a prophecy that says you’re the chosen one to end them?”
“Delarose said it’s probably not a prophecy, but a precog who had a few visions about me. Apparently there was another possibility where I’d help them to world domination…” I shook my head at the thought as I looked around. The cafeteria didn’t look much worse for wear. The crystal spires were in the same condition as they’d been this morning and if the dome had been affected it had either been repaired in the meantime, or it was somehow immune against disintegrators.
“The Femi-Nazis? You?” Susan looked at me as if I’d just walked through the table.
I shrugged. “Maybe they could have pulled a sisterhood of the unshaved armpits thing on me if you all hadn’t been so super nice to me.”
“You mean they could have offered you protection from the enhanced girlification process that is Poe cottage?” Alana said, theatrically shivering at the appropriate moments.
“I guess,” I said, glancing at Lisa and Susan. “Some of us are rather enthusiastic about becoming girls after all.”
I guess it could really have happened if Ayla hadn’t said anything on the first evening. Lisa and I had been on the best way to become worst enemies… And I really wasn’t any good with people. It was impossible that I would have ended up utterly isolated.
“Hey,” Lisa protested. “Just because I’m beautiful...”
I just rolled my eyes at her, before I focused on Alana: “Enhanced girlification process? Did I miss something I really wanted to miss?”
“They’ve been buggering Alana about using warpaint and nail-polish since you’ve been gone,” Hunter said from behind me. For such a big guy he was quite sneaky. He hadn’t been with us for some reason, but considering that he held a loaded tray in his hands, he was probably late.
“Uh, Jan would you mind moving over a bit?” He said, making a motion with his tablet.
“Oh sure,” he wanted to take a seat too, I realized belatedly. “Take a seat, dude.” After moving a bit to the side, I turned back to Alana, “I hope they didn’t manage to convert you.”
“No,” she laughed nervously. “I managed to avoid the mob by using the boys’ shower.”
Oh yeah, she could do that. Transforming between genders whenever she felt like it. I was sooo envious about that. All the advantages of being a girl without being stuck. If she could get her transformation under control that it didn’t randomly trigger it’d be perfect.
“We wouldn’t do that to you,” Susan quickly interjected, calming burgeoning fears of mine.
“But I’m free to be tortured with beauty products,” Alana pouted. “They’re bad for the skin, you know? Too much nail polish makes nails rot.”
“Seriously?” Ashley asked. “Mom just said I should be careful to leave some margin at the edge of my nails.”
“She’s kidding,” Lisa rolled her eyes, while John was mockingly covering his ears.
“I’m not!” Alana protested. “My chemistry teacher said so.”
“He was a guy, right?” Susan inquired.
Alana nodded and Susan just scoffed.
“Um... guys, the stuff really isn’t exactly healthy,” Hunter interjected. “Maybe he was talking about that. I know for a fact that nail-polish-remover is slightly toxic if you inhale it.”
“Could we please change the topic,” John groaned. “Nail-polish was one of those things I thought I’d finally left behind, you know?”
“Good idea,” I enthusiastically nodded. It was one of these things that I didn’t want to touch with a ten foot pole. “Where’s Felicia by the way?”
“Up there, with the beauty-Nazis,” Ashley sneered, pointing at the upper platform. “Her Divineness needs better friends than us.”
Ähm… Did I miss something? This sounded like there’d been some seriously hurt feelings.
Hunter sighed and whispered to me “They’ve been at each others throats since this morning. Felicia called her boring and unattractive...”
That really wasn’t nice. Sure, Ashley was kinda unassuming and her genital changer ability was a bit weird, but all of us were in a similar situation. On the other hand it was a fight between girls. I didn’t have that much experience being my new gender, but I did have a little sister. Getting involved in this kind of crap was a bad idea. No. It was time to play dumb.
“And now they’re bitching at each other?” I completed his sentence. “Why can’t they just solve it with their fists?”
“They’re girls?!” Hunter rolled his eyes. “Thanks God, I don’t have to deal with this kind of shit anymore.”
Wow. Someone was already beginning to identify with his newly chosen gender. Great for him, or her - I still wasn’t quite sure what Hunter’s gender really was. He probably wasn’t sure either. Didn’t change the fact that I was now officially recognized as a girl and thus far more susceptible to be involved into this kind of crap. Not that I wasn’t before - the designated school fag was open season for the rumor mongers after all.
“I think it’s not the girl-thing,” Lisa corrected from my right. Apparently she’d listened in on our conversation. “It’s more like Ashley might accidently flatten her.”
“Right,” I nodded. “Ashley is a speedster after all.”
“And she has that electro power going on,” Hunter added. “Not a good thing when you’re angry and want to slap down a squishy.”
Squishy? Seriously? I raised my eyebrows, but didn’t say anything. It wasn’t like he didn’t have a point after all.
“You’re talking about me?” Ashley inquired. “Obviously, I’d floor that cow.”
“If she didn’t have you crying in a corner,” John mercilessly pointed out. He was right. Projective empathy was a bitch. I’d seen flics on the net… “Anyway,” he raised his voice. “I’m sure she was an ass, but nobody here is interested in a feud.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. Considering Ashley’s very public bitching, she seemed quite willing to start one. I agreed with him though. An idiotic feud would only lead to a split in the group. I’d just made new friends, I didn’t want to lose them to a stupid argument that might require me to take sides. Oh I could see it, the Ashley side sneering at the Felicia side in the showers. Putting rotten food in their bags and stupid stuff right out of one of those disgusting high school TV dramas my sister devoured.
Hunter sighed and nodded. “Yeah, please stop it. I didn’t grow a dick to be caught up in stupid girl-drama.”
“No, that’s why you grew boobs,” Susan said, poking her tongue at my bench mate.
Hunter quickly looked left and right. “Hush.”
“Oops...” escaped Susan. “Crap. I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”
“Yes, you weren’t thinking.” Hunter rolled his eyes. “So what happened to Jan today? I heard the strangest rumors...”
Great, this again. Could we please talk about something that didn’t involve assassination attempts on me or teenage girl high school drama?
“Some assholes tried to kill her. They’ve found the masterminds behind it, but those are in no condition to tell anything,” Lisa summed it up. “The masterminds behind the masterminds managed to hide their involvement.”
“Great,” Hunter sighed, looking at me. “Ah... forget it.”
Thanks man... girl... whatever. I really didn’t want to talk about that this moment. Just thinking about it made me paranoid. Made me feel this itch to look over my shoulder, check if someone with a blade was nearing, or just focussing their laser-eyes on my unprotected back. I shuddered involuntarily and my heart clenched. Why me?
Thankfully Hunter and Alana managed to distract me from my disturbing thoughts. Figuring out what epic Quest we should do this evening was enough to check the direction my thoughts were going. Better to think about what kind of virtual monster I would chop up with my virtual penis replacement than what kind of plot would hit me next. GEO was always a good way to get away from uncomfortable topics, even if it raised eyebrows with Lisa and Susan. I snorted. Girls! We’d also get them to play, I was pretty sure. Nobody could resist the awesomeness that is GEO.
***
After dinner we’d returned to Poe Cottage. Since we didn’t really have anything to do our group was hanging out in the Sunroom. The “Boys”, that is John, Hunter, Alan and me were putting up our laptops, discussing what to do in GEO this evening. I was all for going out to discover some ancient ruins or maybe cave systems. There was always the chance evil had set up shop somewhere in remote parts of the Light Regions. Something for us to discover, fight and smite. Alan agreed, but John didn’t like it very much. He’d rather go out to a nearby battleground and directly duke it out with the forces of evil. ‘More fighting and less walking’, as he put it. While Hunter tried to mediate in our argument, I could see that he’d also prefer a straight battle to exploration.
That was when Susan interrupted us: “Guys, can you stop for a minute or so?”
“Sure,” John nodded. “What’s up?”
“Oh, well, it’s about Hunter,” she said, looking at our muscled friend. “I’ve been wondering since dinner: how do you hide your breasts?”
Good question. Hunter had had rather large boobs when we’d met on Sunday, yet when I looked at him now there was only a flat chest behind a very guyish T-shirt. While he’d looked like a big, strong woman on steroids then, now you’d think he was a long haired bodybuilder type of guy.
“Ehe,” Hunter said, looking embarrassed. “It’s like this... power testing said I got a minor magical talent...”
“Cool,” I burst out. My language talent was kind of neat, but getting a super body and some Harry-Potter power... I was a bit jealous actually.
“You already had power testing?!” Ashley interjected, her eyebrows raised in a frown. “How comes you got to do it already? I’m scheduled for December, I think.”
“My advisor had me tested early,” Hunter shrugged. “Said exemplar traits are dangerous and everything over five could easily go messily wrong. Anyway, some magic faculty teacher gave me a rechargeable charm or talisman - I’m not sure what it is really called.” He shrugged again. “I push magic into it and it hides my breasts. I also use a special bra - wouldn’t want someone accidently touch them.” He grinned at us.
Well that explained it. It didn’t explain why he used it though. “Ähm Hunter,” I began. “Say, why are you going around as a guy now? Sunday you looked like an overly muscled girl...”
“Um... why?” He looked confused for some reason. “Didn’t I talk to you already?”
What? No! Did I suffer memory losses on top of everything else?
“Um… guys,” Lisa interrupted the awkward situation. “Jan was still in hospital when we talked about it.”
“Yeah, you brought it up, when we left the hospital,” John added.
“You’re right, she wasn’t there,” Hunter nodded.
“But it was like she was with us in spirit,” Alan added, blowing me a raspberry. “It was an important decision…” he gravely nodded to himself.
“Leute!” I protested. “Ähm.. guys, I mean. What the fuck are you talking about?”
I knew they were probably just teasing me, but it was kind of mean. What had Hunter decided to do and how was that relevant now?
“I asked everyone to help me with a decision,” Hunter said. I just raised my eyebrows, waiting for him to continue. “Well, I could have probably continued as a girl - hide my dick and just dress girly,” he rolled his eyes, “but that’s not really me. Or well not all that is me. I had a talk with Dr. Bellows and he suggested I could just try being a guy.”
“So you just decided to change your gender?” I was confused. “Were you transsexual before?”
He shook his head, “not really. But I was a tomboy.” He grinned at me: “Dr. Bellows said - and I figured he was right - that I could pretty easily and safely test out being a guy here.”
Well, maybe he had a point. I still didn’t quite get why he’d do something like that.
“You didn’t really figure that,” Ashley interjected, “you needed us to help you figure that out.”
“I needed moral support,” Hunter corrected her. “Anyway, I’m kind of between genders. Boy things… girly things… I like some of both. Not everything, but some stuff. I guess I mentioned how boys had things easier,” he shrugged, “and now I can check out the truth myself.”
“People are less willing to help you,” John said. “While it’s kind of cool that people don’t assume you need help all the time, it can also suck. I mean now they assume that I’ll be able to do everything on my own.”
So he’d already found out about the sucky parts of being a guy. I’d actually had the opposite experience at the airport. Guys were actually asking if they could help me. Weird.
“Bollocks... I don’t know,” Hunter said. “I’m just glad I don’t have to deal with the stupid girl drama anymore. No more popularity games...”
“Dude,” Alan interjected. “You don’t seriously believe that.”
“I thought pretty much the same when I could first pass as a girl,” Lisa added snickering. “Oh, how did mom correct me…” suddenly she seemed somber.
Oh yes… her parents had been killed. I’d almost forgotten about that. Fucking mutant hating assholes. However she was probably right. Both boys and girls had their own social games to play. Games where I sucked horribly.
“It’s just more straightforward for guys, I think,” Hunter defended his opinion. “Just who’s best, not who’s the biggest bitch.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, but he was probably right. Guys usually showed you a measure of respect if you could kick their ass. At least they left you alone for the day. Girls would just run to the next authority figure to get you into trouble. I had experienced both before. Just have someone throw around some nasty rumors, have people point out strange clothing, good grades and a few peculiar habits and you’re the school fag. One time was enough in my opinion.
And it was supposed to be only worse for girls. They’d made verbal bullying their culture, or so I’d heard. Rumor mongering was a survival skill or something. If you wanted to be on top of the girl-hierarchy you had to be good looking, “normal” and the biggest bitch on campus. That was why I intended to keep myself out of those power plays. I had a group of friends now. I didn’t need to deal with assholes like that more than I actually had to. I had already made more friends than I ever had actually, so I definitely didn’t need to involve myself in that kind of crap.
“...sucks if you aren’t the best,” Alan coolly finished whatever he’d been saying. “I guess that’s not a problem for you… with exemplar powers and everything, but for the average, or less than average guy,” he pointed at himself saying that, “it can be a rough deal.”
I only nodded. Being a guy could also suck. Hard.
“Yeah,” Lisa agreed. “Be careful not to do anything girly.”
Meanwhile Susan shook her head and rolled her eyes at our antics. John didn’t look annoyed for some reason.
“Guys,” he groaned, pushing his face into his hand. “Don’t make the male gender sound horrible. I mean I could tell you stories about being a girl…”
He was right. “Right, sorry,” I admitted, looking down ashamed. “That’s really a bit assholelish of us. Don’t worry Hunter, you’ll do alright as a guy.” I sighed somberly. “Probably better than I ever did.”
Teasing him a bit was okay, but I didn’t want it become bullying. It had also started as teasing with me… No, it was fucking brave of him to try being a guy. I doubted I’d have had his balls in the situation. Not that I had a choice. I was going to be a Kim Possible look alike whether I wanted or not.
“Yeah sorry,” Lisa said, looking unhappy with herself. “You shouldn’t take me too serious. I was transsexual before that happened… I don’t have many happy memories as a guy I guess.”
“Hey no problem,” Hunter said, raising his hands in a calming gesture. “No harm done, Dr. Bellows told me these things already. I think I can deal with them.” He looked at me, and then to John next to me. “So guys, what is it going to be, discovery or battleground?”
“Well, I don’t care,” Lisa decided, standing up, “I’m going to wash my clothes.”
Clothes? Washing?
“Ähm… Lisa, what do you mean with washing?” I felt as if my heart dropped. Ms. Horton had said something like that, did she? But washing? I’d never done that before. I’d just put my used clothes in a basket and mom had just magically made used clothing into fresh clothing. That process somehow involved a washing machine and a laundry dryer, but I certainly didn’t know the particulars of this arcane ritual.
“We need to do our own washing,” Lisa mercilessly affirmed my worst suspicions. “You didn’t really think they’d do that for us, did you, Jan?“
“Well, I hoped…” I definitely wasn’t happy with that. I’d have to waste time washing my stuff when I could be playing GEO.
“Don’t pout,” Lisa laughed at me.
“I don’t pout,” I protested. That was a girly thing to do. I brooded.
“You know Jan, you might want to wash some stuff too,” she reminded me, a gigantic smirk plastered on her face.
“Yes,” Ashley added and blew me a raspberry, “you wouldn’t want to run out of underwear, Jan.”
Pha. I still had my guy stuff... but I couldn’t wear that if I didn’t want to risk outing myself. A sigh of resignation escaped me. “So how does that work? Washing was mom’s and Svenja’s job. Me and dad, we did the kitchen.”
I really didn’t want to make them think I was a spoiled brat. We simply had an efficient work distribution - and I was sticking with that.
“Come,” Lisa grabbed my hand, pulling me up from the couch. “I’ll show you how it works.” I nodded and she added: “Just don’t think I’ll do your washing in the future…”
Well that would have been too good to be true. Anyway, it was a good time to get this done. While I actually had enough underwear to last me a few days, I might run out of socks.
***
***
AN: I’m sorry that this chapter took so long, but writers block, writing my Bachelor’s thesis and starting at a new university for my Masters has taken up a lot of time and motivation. Still, I guess it’s better late than never.
The first wave of attacks is over, but Jan still has no idea why it really happened. Precognitive powers... I'm almost ashamed of myself to use this plot device. But then it makes a lot of sense in universe and isn't just an asspull. Mrs. Potter invervened with Sara and now she and others intervened with Jan.
In case that you're surprised that spelling mistakes reappeared in older chapters that is because I needed to upload/edit the texts with the finished versions from my harddrive since their formating was apparently broken in one of the server updates.
Thank you for reading my story. I'd be grateful if you could give me some feedback and tell me what you thought about this chapter.