Shortcuts

A paranormal superhero story with a supernatural twist

Two daughters and a son in one

Comments have been blocked for this story but kudos and private messages are always welcome. Even highly critical private messages are welcome. I don't mind criticism when it's private.

Shortcuts
by Terry Volkirch

Chapter 10

Sarah tweaked a few things and spared a minute to stare at herself in the mirror, committing her new look to memory. Then she had Erin scout outside to see if the coast was clear. It was, and Sarah quickly changed back into Lester and escaped from the girls rest room, much to his relief. Just to be on the safe side, he pulled his sweater off and had his friend stuff it in her hobo bag. The white tee shirt that he wore under his sweater made him look different enough that he didn't think the black-haired girl would suspect anything if she saw him again.

"I hope you don't get too cold wearing just a tee shirt," the redhead told him.

"I'll be okay. I'll probably be blushing for a week after what happened in the rest room. That should keep my face warm at least." He gave her a silly grin.

Erin appreciated the humor and briefly smiled for him until she got a sudden cramp and started fishing around in her bag for her medication. She led the boy to a drinking fountain to wash down a couple pills. "I hope this starts working soon. These cramps are most unpleasant."

'I can't wait to go through that,' he thought sarcastically and sighed. He couldn't seem to stop himself from being sarcastic lately.

The two friends found a secluded spot and had a quick conversation. Lester told his friend about his plans that would allow him to be Sarah more easily at school and Erin approved. She wasn't looking forward to the next several days.

"I wonder if my healing ability can help you," Lester thought out loud.

The redhead shook her beautiful hair. "I don't think that's a good idea. This is a natural process. There's nothing really to heal."

"Seriously? It sounds unnatural to me, but I guess I know what you mean."

The girl playfully swatted his arm and then hooked arms with him as they slowly walked to their next class. "Thanks, Sarah," she whispered.

* * *

After school, Lester walked Erin the usual few blocks from school, and before they parted, she told him that she'd like to visit him Saturday afternoon. She wanted to practice aikido and help him with outfits for Sarah at school. She looked forward to more time with Lester's new girl self to help her get through the weekend.

"What about my mother? She can help you more than I can."

"Perhaps. At first. But I'd rather have you," she said, staring deeply into his eyes.

'More mixed signals,' he thought. He still couldn't read her very well but he could've swore that she just professed her love for him even though she didn't come out and say it; except he suddenly remembered that she was speaking about him as Sarah and he groaned.

"Are you okay, Lester? You're not having cramps too, are you?"

"I'm fine," he said, giving her a sickly smile that made her look at him with concern.

When he didn't say any more, she shrugged. "Okay," she said. "I'll see you tomorrow."

They said their goodbyes and once again, Lester took his half dozen steps and turned to see her disappear into the mist, that mysterious mist that seemed to devour his friend along with all hope of ever dating her.

* * *

Lester had a long, eventful week, and he looked forward to a nice, relaxing Friday evening. He did his homework right away when he got home from school, had a nice dinner with his parents and settled down in his old squeaky chair for some light reading. It was dark outside but he left his bedroom lamp off, preferring to use his computer monitor as his sole source of light.

As the boy sat at his desk, reading some online web comics, his smart phone suddenly hummed next to his laptop. It was a text from Brian, asking why he was never online to chat.

He texted back, "too busy lately. duh."

And received, "go 2 laptop plz."

"why?"

"easier 2 type. duh."

Lester logged on to his chat program and started typing. He did appreciate being able to touch type. "What's up, Brian?"

"i want to see you-know-who tonight."

Lester rolled his eyes and then realized that the gesture was wasted since his friend couldn't see him. "Seriously? It's been a long week."

"seriously, dude. please?"

"It's kind of hard to get out. You know. Eyes everywhere."

"oh, yeah. disguise?"

"Should we be discussing this here? Like I said - eyes everywhere."

"can I come over?"

"Not tonight. I need some down time. Maybe tomorrow night or Sunday night? I need to get some clothes for Sarah first."

"sarah? you mean you-know-who?"

"No, I mean Sarah. You-know-who already has a wardrobe after a shopping fit with Erin and my Mom. Don't ask."

"so who the hell is sarah?"

"Language!"

"sorry. who is sarah?????"

"Sarah is Erin's new best friend since you-know-who can no longer hang out. You know. It's those pesky eyes again. Being everywhere."

"?????"

"Don't be thick, Brian. Sarah is just a little shorter than I am, with long brown hair. She arrived suddenly in the girls rest room at school today. Erin needed some support."

"lol."

"You are so cruel sometimes. Just be thankful I don't fill you in on the details about what Erin is going through."

"?????"

"Okay. You asked for it. But don't worry. I shall be merciful and quick. Hissss."

"you are such a sci-fi geek sometimes."

"Yeah, but you got the reference."

Brian replied with an emoticon of a winking face.

"Okay. Here are the details I promised you. Two words: Erin's period."

"dude!"

"I warned you!" Lester added an emoticon of a face sticking out its tongue for emphasis.

The two friends agreed to check in with each other over the weekend to find a good time to meet up. Lester told Brian about meeting with Erin both days but the budding superhero, or superherione, promised at least one night with Brian and they signed off.

Lester finished reading his web comics and soon drifted off to sleep for yet another visit to the Akashic records.

* * *

Lester had a long, twisted journey as the Dark Librarian secretly nudged him through the Akashic records that night. He picked up zillions of strange and useless bits of information until he finally discovered the wondrous paranormal ability of clairvoyance. With clairvoyance, he could project his sight over vast distances, effectively working like a super powerful telescope to magnify anything he wished to see. He could read the fine print on a nutritional label from miles away, and he could do even more with the ability. He could direct his vision anywhere, not just line of sight. His projected vision could show him things around corners or even inside buildings. Clairvoyance made a perfect tool for spying, and it unnerved him when he finally realized it.

The boy woke up and without even trying, he immediately projected his vision through his bedroom wall to look throughout his house, seeing his mother cooking breakfast in the kitchen and his father sitting at the dining room table, typing on his smart phone. He looked over his father's shoulder and saw that his father was sending a text to a friend. They were meeting at the shooting range later that day. That was sort of good news. It meant that his father would be gone for hours so he'd be free to be Sarah when Erin came to visit.

He vigorously shook his head, both to help wake up and to cancel his clairvoyance. The closet beckoned to him then but he avoided looking at Golden Girl's clothes. Instead, he threw on his favorite gray sweatshirt and a pair of blue jeans; easy enough since he slept in his underwear. Wearing enough clothes to suit him, he padded barefoot to the kitchen in search of breakfast, arriving just in time to see scrambled eggs and bacon, cooked to perfection.

"Smells good, Mom. Got enough for your poor, hungry son or is that all for Dad?"

Susan smiled. "I figured you'd be up soon so I made sure to make enough for both of you. Grab a couple plates and some silverware and I'll bring the food and something to drink. You want the usual orange juice?"

"Sure. But what about something for you?"

"Why, Lester! I do believe that's the first time you've ever asked me that."

"What?!"

His mother laughed and he wrinkled up his nose in annoyance.

"I've already had my breakfast. I'm an early riser, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. Okay. It's feedin' time then!" He grabbed everything he needed, including salt and pepper, and joined his father at the dining room table, setting a plate, knife and fork on the table where his father sat.

"Hi Dad."

"Morning, Son," the man said, not looking up from his phone. Lester's father was normally a man of few words and that morning was no exception. The man just kept texting his friend and absently shoveled fluffy scrambled eggs into his mouth after Susan dished him up a plate full. The greasy bacon he'd leave until after he finished his texting.

In spite of his taciturn father, Lester couldn't let an opportunity get away. "Hey Dad. Have you seen anything about Golden Girl yet?"

"Hm? It's a hoax. Has to be." The man still kept his eyes on his phone.

Susan tried to warn her son with her eyes but he didn't notice. He wouldn't have stopped if he did.

"It's not a hoax. We were there. Mom, Erin and I were all there when it happened."

Matthew finally looked up from his phone then. "Is this true, Susan? You saw Golden Girl?"

"Yes, I did. She was amazing."

The man scratched his head and smiled. "Well, that's interesting. She really exists. Huh."

"Yeah, Dad. Wouldn't it be great if she came to visit someday?"

Matthew gave his son a long look. "Are you trying to tell me you know her?"

"No!" he said a little more loudly than he wanted. "I'm just curious what you think about her. She looks to be my age so she might go to my school. It's possible."

"You're not thinking of chasing after her too, are you? I thought you liked Erin."

"I do! I do like Erin. It's just…. meeting a superhero would be so cool."

Susan had been watching the exchange between her husband and son with increasing agitation. Lester seemed to be trying to soften up his father a little sooner than she expected and she decided to intervene before things got too awkward.

"Lester, stop pestering your father about Golden Girl. He's going out soon. Aren't you, dear?"

"Yeah," Matthew said, looking at his wife. "I am." He turned back to his son for some final words of advice. "Remember the bird in the hand, son."

Lester rolled his eyes. "Is worth two in the bush. Yeah, I know."

"Don't give up on Erin, boy. She's a very nice girl, a real girl that you're already friends with."

Both Susan and Lester had to suppress a laugh at the man when he said Erin was real. If only he knew.

Matthew practically inhaled his bacon after informally declaring the conversation to be over. Then he got up from the table, kissed his wife goodbye and ruffled his son's hair before heading out the door.

"Too soon," was all Susan told her son. Then she started clearing off the table.

Lester shrugged. He finished his breakfast and took his dirty tableware out to the kitchen to put in the dishwasher.

"I have a request, Mother," he told her.

"Oh? This should be good. It usually is when you talk so formally." She smiled to show she was teasing him.

He smiled back. "I need more clothes."

"For whom? You or Sarah?"

"Sarah, but not the Sarah you're thinking of."

"Whatever are you talking about, Lester?"

The boy went on to explain the new body he shapeshifted into yesterday at school. When he described the scene in the girls rest room, Susan nearly died laughing in spite of it being such a close call. The boy was lucky he'd shapeshifted quickly enough.

"I'm sorry," she told him, "but that just strikes me as funny. Who was the dark-haired girl?"

"I don't know her name. I think she's a sophomore."

"Ah," Susan said, pausing a moment in thought. "You'll need a new name for Golden Girl if your other girl self is going by Sarah. Have you thought of one?"

"As a matter of fact, I have. I was going to call her Crystal Lynn Dawn."

The woman stared at him a moment. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. I've been giving it a lot of thought and I think it fits nicely."

"It sounds a bit corny to me but I do like Crystal as a name."

"Thanks. So can we go shopping soon? I wanted to go in the morning because Erin is planning on coming over this afternoon."

"Don't you want to wait for her so she can come with us?"

"I thought it would be nice if it was just the two of us this time. I was a little overwhelmed when it was all three of us."

"Well," she said, moving to the living room with Lester following. "what are you going to wear to the mall? You told me that Sarah is only about an inch shorter than you. Golden Girl's clothes won't fit you. Wouldn't it be good to see if Erin could get you something to start you out?"

"Ah. Good point. I suppose we could wait then."

* * *

Erin showed up around one o'clock wearing jeans and a sweater, and she'd stuffed her hobo bag with her gi as well as most of her other items from the previous shopping trip. The bag looked overly full so Lester cleared out some space in one of his drawers to store some of her things for her. She looked relieved.

After removing all but the essentials from her bag, the boy explained that he wanted to go shopping for the new Sarah, and the redhead knew what to do. Lester soon stood in just a tee shirt and boxers as Erin visually measured him. Then she had him put his jeans and sweatshirt back on.

"It'll take about an hour or so," the redhead told him. "Sorry for the wait."

"That's okay. How about practicing some aikido while we wait? Is that okay? I have a surprise for you." Neither of them changed into a gi since they'd likely be wearing their normal clothes if they actually had to defend themselves. A gi wasn't necessary for practice. It just made it a little easier to learn new moves by allowing freer movement.

Erin felt a little too uncomfortable from her period to practice katas so she just watched, and after Lester telekinetically cleared some space in the living room, he practiced the first kata that he learned in class and performed flawlessly. Erin noticed but she didn't say anything. When he started showing her a new kata, she did finally say something. "Don't tell me. Akashic records."

He nodded. "It kind of takes the fun out of it but it's still good practice for me. And it means I can help teach you. You should learn a lot more quickly that way."

Erin didn't say anything. Instead, she just hugged him.

* * *

Practicing aikido made the hour pass by quickly. Erin stopped in the middle of a simple, new self-defense technique and suddenly handed Lester some new clothes that she pulled out of nowhere. He soon stood alone in his bedroom, naked with his bed full of girls clothes.

"Here we go again," he said to himself.

He changed his body just as he did at school except he rounded and filled out his, then her, hips a little more while becoming all girl. The dark green corduroy pants once again seemed too snug so she used her shapeshifting ability to temporarily slenderize herself and easily slipped into them. As soon as she fastened the top button of the pants, they fit like a glove.

When she got to the bra, she hesitated. She appreciated that the light green color nearly matched the color of the thin sweater. She'd been schooled about not having her bra show up through her tops. But the cup size seemed much larger than the initial breast size that she gave herself.

She shook her head. 'What is with Erin and large breasts? And the color green for that matter?' But she took it in stride, putting on the bra and enlarging her small breasts to fill the cups. She pulled on a sweater, put on some small sage-colored ankle socks and slipped into forest green leather boots that were several inches shorter than the boots from Golden Girl's first outfit. They came up to about mid-calf and had the same size heel.

"She seems to like boots too," the girl muttered, trying out her new voice. But again, the new girl liked the two inch heels as they made her close to the same height as her boy self.

She opened her bedroom door and peeked both ways, watching for an ambush. When it didn't come, she quickly went into the bathroom to check her face and hair. Her face and hair were consistent with what she'd done to herself in the girls rest room, but she tweaked her eye color from Lester's gray-blue to hazel. It seemed to look a little better with her clothes. And as she thought about it, she changed her hair color to auburn. That looked even better with her clothes.

'I bet girls would love to be able to do that too,' she thought.

"Sarah!" her mother's voice suddenly called, startling her. "Are you ready yet? I want to see you!"

"Coming, Mom!"

She walked to the living room where Erin and her mother waited. They were sitting on the couch together, quietly talking, but as soon as the new girl entered the room, they both shot up and swarmed Sarah in a group hug.

"Welcome back, Sarah," Erin said in her ear.

They separated and Erin immediately noticed some differences. "You changed your hair color. And your eyes!"

Sarah blushed. "They seemed to look better with these clothes."

Her mother laughed. "Spoken like a true girl," she said.

"Mom!"

"Aw. Don't be angry." She paused then to give her daughter a good look. "You could be your own sister. There's a strong family resemblance to your father."

"Yeah. Crystal looks more like you but Sarah looks more like Dad. I didn't plan it that way though."

Erin looked puzzled. "Who's Crystal?"

"That's the name I'm giving Golden Girl since I'm going by Sarah when I look like this. Golden Girl's full name is Crystal Lynn Dawn."

"Oh! I get it. Crystalline dawn. That's beautiful."

"Thanks. I'm glad someone appreciates my creativity."

Susan playfully swatted her daughter. "Come on, you two. We've got some serious shopping to do."

The new girl hesitated. "Uh, remember what I told you earlier about that."

"I'm not having my second daughter go without a decent wardrobe."

"Oh," Erin said. "I didn't think of it that way. You've got three children in one now!"

Susan nodded. "A son and two daughters. I'm a lucky woman."

Sarah sighed. "It's a little expensive, isn't it?"

"Not really. You can cut down on your boy clothes and we can buy relatively few girls clothes. It'll all work out."

"I've got one word for you, Mom: Accessories."

Susan laughed. "You got me, daughter dear. But we're still going shopping."

With that, the happy woman started getting ready to go out. It was nearly time for a grand day of shopping. In the meantime, Erin wanted a little help.

"Before we go, I think I need a new tampon."

"Uh…." Sarah started blushing.

"What?" Erin cocked her head at her friend. "My flow is getting heavy. I want to make sure I don't bleed out while we're shopping."

The new girl started sputtering.

"Hey. Don't be that way. You're all girl at the moment."

"Sorry. I'm still not used to all this."

"Oh. Yes. That's true. But I haven't had that much more experience than you have. This is my first period after all."

Sarah chewed her lower lip and her determination set in. "Right. I said I'd help and I will. Just tell me what you want me to do."

Erin actually squealed, surprising both girls. She led Sarah into the bathroom, shut the door and just had her friend sit on the floor while she went through her ordeal. She talked a little as she worked and then neatly disposed of the used tampon. It wasn't quite as bad as Sarah expected, but it wasn't pleasant by any means. It was just something that girls endured, and sharing the experience did seem to help.

The two girls shared something extra just before they left the bathroom. Erin looked deeply into Sarah's eyes and thanked her. The gesture seemed to be more than simple friendship. It spoke of love, a love of Sarah's soul. Both girls were falling in love with each other, just in different ways, and Sarah was never more confused and frustrated.

* * *

© 2015 by Terry Volkirch. This work may not be replicated in whole or in part by any means electronic or otherwise without the express consent of the Author (copyright holder). All Rights Reserved. This is a work of Fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional and any resemblance to real people or incidents past, present or future is purely coincidental.