A Whateley Academy Tale
Jade 6-h – Dreams and Awakening
By Babs Yerunkle
51: Dress up
Whateley Academy, Poe Cottage, November 24, Friday, 6:25 AM
Her second full day as a girl had arrived, and with it, the
perennial curse of womankind. Waking up that morning, Jade ran her hand down
her side in secret delight, marveling at the way she curved where she had never
curved before. And then, her hand touched something new. Something as
unexpected as it was unpleasant. Leg hair.
She was as quiet as she could be, so as not to wake Billie
up. The other girl usually had an extremely early schedule, so when she got a
chance to sleep in Jade made sure it didn’t get ruined. She’d purchased
shaving supplies a couple of months back, but quickly realized that it would
hurt her disguise more than it would help it. The girls here weren’t shy when
they shaved and Jade simply couldn’t have survived a shaving encounter – not
with her disguise intact. But those days were gone for good. She could shave
in public. She was actually looking forward to it. Grabbing her kit, she
quickly charged up Shroud. She needed to do a little research, and it felt
wrong to abandon a sleeping Billie with no guard. It wasn’t like Billie
couldn’t take care of herself, but still…
Her shower was quick. She washed her hair, wishing it was
longer. She’d been growing it out for months now, but she wouldn’t be really
happy until it was down to her thighs at least. That meant she needed a towel
for her head. Nearly three months of practice had made her an expert at the
hair-twist trick. With her too-short hair she didn’t really need it, but it
looked so blatantly female that she couldn’t resist. Next there was the towel
“modesty wrap”, which covered her from breasts down to mid-thigh. She’d been doing
this for three months, too, but there were new tricks to learn once you
actually had a figure. Finally, she was ready for the benches that faced each
other across the entrance to the showers. Jade seated herself, then raised one
leg on a stool and began to cover her leg with the foaming gel.
She’d done this once before, as Tansy. Actually she’d only
watched, as Tansy shaved herself. Tansy had figured out a trick for using the
TK powers to pull the skin tight and flat when she was shaving. Jade concentrated
on duplicating what Tansy had done, as she began her very-first-ever leg shave.
With her left foot flat on the ground, she placed her right
foot up on the stool and applied her razor to the leg. As she drew the razor
up her calf, she felt it scraping away at both the hair and the foam. Quickly
enough, she gave herself a nasty nick, and then another one.
“Ow!”
There was a tiny bit of blood, but it scabbed over quickly.
She wiped the spot of blood off and continued. This was harder than it looked.
Her main worry wasn’t the cuts and scabs themselves, it was that they’d make
her legs look ugly. That was the whole point behind shaving – to make her legs
look smooth and soft.
She’d only been paying half attention, but one of the
showers shut off and a girl came out and sat on the opposite bench.
Duplicating Jade’s pose, the girl raised one leg up on a stool, to better reach
it for shaving. Jade looked up and spotted Bunny’s roommate and Toni’s
girlfriend. Riptide was impossible to miss. Her hair was jet black with a
strip of scarlet down the center. Now, as Rip raised her leg for shaving, Jade
gulped, as she realized that Rip shared that same color scheme with her hair
down below. As it was with Jade, Rip’s towel hung down to mid-thigh when she
was standing. Seated and bent forward, the towel provided a clean seat, but
pulled back to conceal very little from a girl who was sitting directly across
from her. Rip’s knee was raised unusually high in the air, exposing the girl
completely to Jade’s eye.
Jade gulped and tried to look away, but her eye was drawn
almost magnetically to the other girl’s private area. Jade had certainly seen
herself, both as Jade looking at Jinn’s chalk outline, and as Jinn looking at
Jade’s real body. There was the girls’ locker room in PE class, but that was
nowhere near this blatant. The thoughts ran through her mind in a total
jumble. She’s so different from how a boy looks – so strange, but pretty,
too. Do I look like that? I want to look like that. I’m a girl now, too, so
is it wrong for me to look?
The two girls shaved in silence for a minute, then Rip came
out with the most embarrassing question. “Like what you see?”
Jade was mortified, and knew that her aura had just flared
the intense orange of total embarrassment. “Um… I’m sorry. It’s just that…”
“So, like what you see?”
“You’re really pretty, Rip,” Jade admitted in a near
whisper.
“Thanks.” The other girl smiled easily back. “No harm in
looking, is there? Especially in Poe, there’s no harm in looking and
admiring. That’s one of the things I love about this place.”
Jade gulped again. “You’re looking … at me?” For a moment
she moved her knee, hiding herself, before she thought better of it. She had
to force herself to relax and allow her leg to move back to its normal
position, exposing herself to Rip’s frank gaze once again.
“Yeah. You’re pretty cute, especially in that, ‘Just
bloomed, ready to be plucked’ sort of way.”
That statement warmed her face, and other places that she
couldn’t think about at the moment. Rip was looking directly at her most
private feminine areas, and telling her what a cute girl she was. It made her
want to … something. She wasn’t sure what, but it was an interesting feeling.
Rip snorted. “Man, you’re a shy one, aren’t you? Bet
you’ve never even kissed a girl, have you?”
Jade ducked her head down, pretending to look at her leg.
She kept glancing through her bangs at both Rip’s face and at her exposed
underside. “I, uh, I’ve been kissed once. By a girl. You saw the disk,
didn’t you? When I was possessing Tansy’s body?”
“Oh yeah! Hot little scene. I meant, you’ve never been
kissed on your true lips.”
“You mean?” Jade raised a nervous hand to her mouth.
Rip chuckled again. “No, no, no. Although that’s sweet,
too. I mean, you’ve never been kissed … down here.” So saying, she moved her
hand down and used her middle finger to ever-so-gently stroke over the exposed
swell of her labia. “You know? Kissed.”
By now, Jade’s heart was pounding so hard that she thought
she was about ready to die. “Wait a minute! You mean, you and Toni sensei
have… done that?”
Rip smirked back at her. “A lady doesn’t kiss and tell.”
“uh…” Her mind conjured all sorts of images of Rip and Toni
sensei in bed, sliding over each other, one girl moving to the other to kiss
her there. She suddenly wondered if she were hyperventilating. Trying
to move the conversation to something less physically disturbing, she tried,
“So are there any tricks to this shaving thing? This is my first time.”
Rip grinned, but followed the offered lead. “It helps to go
against the grain, if you can figure that out. Most girls shave bottom-to-top,
they way you’re doing. You might want to do your pits first, while your
razor’s sharpest. And it takes special care if you’re going to trim your muff
or more sensitive areas.”
Jade just blinked at that. “Excuse me?”
“You know?” With her left hand, Rip fluffed her pubic
hair. “You know, hedging the ol’ bush, shaping the muff. You don’t want to
wear a bikini or leotard without giving yourself a good bikini trim. I’d be
tempted to take it all off, but I’ve been told the whole red stripe thing is
kinda cool. What do you think?”
Jade nodded vigorously. “Definitely cool. It’s natural,
right?”
Rip ran her fingers through the curly hair again. “Sure
is. This happened when my powers manifested. Anyway, if you need to take care
of hair in the more sensitive areas, I recommend a waxing, ‘cause it’s almost
impossible to do the shaving yourself. Besides, a waxing can last almost two
months. I wouldn’t be shaving at all right now, but I’m a little overdue and I
can’t get out to Berlin. That’s where the nearest waxing place is. Well,
there’s a salon in Dunwich. They claim to do waxing, but no one’s very
happy with them. Way more painful than it needs to be, and then they toss the
wax and hair onto this big brazier, and it’s just sort of creepy. Anyway,
that’s what I got, right before the school year started. I got a ‘Brazilian’
wax job. That’s the absolute best of the bikini trims – takes off all
the hair, except for the little ‘landing strip’ patch here. The ‘explanation
point,’ as I like to think of it.”
“I see,” Jade replied weakly.
“Some girls like to take it all off. That’s a ‘Hollywood’
style. Some salons call it a ‘Sphinx.’ Maybe someday I’ll try it. The trick
is to get rid of the hair down you-know-where. It’s much better for … kissing
… and lord is it better when you’re having your period.”
The conversation continued for some time, with Jade’s face
glowing an almost incandescent red throughout. Other girls wandered through,
giving their own frank opinions. Nikki, at one point, came through and gave
some advice on shaving, but it turned out to be useless unless you could cast the
appropriate spells. All in all, Jade spent nearly forty-five minutes shaving.
She didn’t go higher than the top of her thighs – nothing had started growing
in yet. The experience was simultaneously embarrassing, informative, and
deeply satisfying to those parts of her that most needed to be a girl. So she
missed the start of breakfast, but didn’t regret it a bit.
And that day, she wore her Whateley uniform. The short
skirt and knee-highs she wore left her thighs bare. Every time the cold wind
hit her legs; every time she crossed her legs or her inner thighs brushed
against each other; she thought of that morning and all its intimate secrets.
She felt intensely feminine all day.
*****
She panicked during breakfast.
“Oh my god! I’m wearing my uniform!” It was a disaster of
unmitigated proportions.
The rather small breakfast crew looked at her blearily.
Nikki managed to pry one of her almond-shaped eyes all the way open. “What’s
the problem?” Except that it actually came out sounding like, “Whazza
prob’em?”
“I’ve got a date tonight! And I’m wearing my uniform!”
“You can change ahead of time,” Toni drawled. “In fact,
it’s recommended. Heck, knock yourself out and take a shower.”
“What for?” Ayla wondered. “Have you seen Thuban? The lizard
king? He won’t be smelling her unless he runs his tongue over her body.”
Everyone understood why Jade blushed at that, but they
didn’t understand whey she looked quickly at Toni before she blushed. “You
take that back, Ayla! I mean it!”
The punker girl waved her hand dismissively. “Yeah,
whatever. He won’t be running his lizard tongue all over your body.”
“I’m serious Ayla! You take that back or… or… you’ll regret
it!”
The punk girl ruffled her hand through her spiky Halle Berry
shag, as if she was pleased to get some irritation out of the former kid of the
group. “Give it your best shot.”
Jade glowered at the other girl, held up a fist and leaned
over close to Ayla. When they were only a foot apart, Jade flicked out a
single finger and touched Ayla’s sleeve. “Check.”
Ayla looked puzzled for a fraction of a second, then began
gasping, “Ukk – can’t breathe!”
Jade leaned back, looking smug. “Of course, you could
phase out of your clothes before they choke you to death, but we’re in public,
and you might be intangible, but you sure aren’t invisible. You could turn
your body and clothes intangible, but I’m betting that once I’ve got a grip on
them, I can maintain my hold.”
Ayla relaxed and took a deep breath. “Yeah, or I could go
dense on you. Makes my clothes stronger, too, but it doesn’t make you any
stronger, does it?”
Jade scowled. “Darn it!” She felt it as Jinn let go and
flowed back into her.
“Now,” Ayla continued, leaning toward Jade. “Let me show
you a trick I’ve been working on.”
Attaining the slightly blue tinge that was a clue to her
intangible state she reached a finger toward Jade. At the last second, her
finger darted down, to and through Jade’s skirt. Before Jade realized what was
going on, Ayla pulled her hand back, holding a pair of panties.
Nikki was shocked awake. “Oh my God!” She looked again.
“Sailor Moon panties? Jade, how could you?”
“Give me those!” Jade snatched the undergarments away from
an unresisting Ayla. She stuffed them in her purse.
“That’s not really where those belong,” Toni remarked.
“Well I can’t put them on in the middle of the cafeteria,”
Jade whispered back.
“Hi, guys!” Billie only brought one tray, but she had three
plates on it and every plate had generous portions. “Did I miss anything?”
“Well…” Nikki began, “Ayla was teasing Jade about her
sweetie being a lizard, and Jade tried to crush her until she passed out –
subtly of course – and when that didn’t work Ayla retaliated by stealing Jade’s
panties, which are now stuffed in Jade’s purse so as far as I can tell she’s
bare to the world right now.”
“A proper lady sits with her legs together!” Jade told them
primly. “But I’m suddenly realizing that our uniform skirts are really short.”
“Huh.” Billie responded. “Sleep in one day and it hits the
fan. Any other news?”
“No word from Hank or Lily on the little ‘meet the parents’
adventure,” Nikki said.
“Jinn spent most of yesterday helping that new girl from
security—”
“Samantha?”
“—yeah. Helping her build an apartment up in Kane tower.
Harry was there too, Billie.”
Toni picked up the news recitation. “And last we saw of
Sara and the furball—”
“Erin?”
Toni nodded. “Yeah. Last we saw of them, they were going
into Sara’s room to ‘study.’”
“Probably doing the wild thing again,” Ayla interjected.
“Damn I’m glad that girl has a soundproofed room. Why do I feel like
everyone’s getting some but me?”
“Because you’re a sick degenerate,” Nikki muttered.
“That’s rich,” Ayla countered. “You know, you’d be the most
powerful mage on the planet, if you could just harness the energy generated by
all the horny boys flogging the dolphin to that poster of yours.”
“What is going on with everyone today?” Billie wondered. “I
haven’t seen a mood like this in weeks.”
“Ayla must be on her period,” Jade grumbled.
“Hey, I’m a guy!” the girl in question protested. “Unlike
you poor ladies, Aunt Flo’s never going to be dropping by to visit me.”
She nodded decisively. “So stuff that in your … pipe.”
“Ouch,” Toni admitted in admiration.
“Yeah,” Billie agreed. “I think that one left a burn.”
*****
Back in the room, she charged Jinn and sent her off to do
more construction work. With luck, she might be able to start paying off
Bunny. After that, she went looking through her school uniforms. Fortunately,
she still had one fresh uniforms. She selected the best and laid it aside for
that night. Then she started wondering about jewelry. Once she got more
money, she was going to buy some things. She had a set of Jade studs that she
sometimes wore. In Boston she’d seen several earrings that she’d really liked,
but her money mostly went to pay for food on that trip.
How would those jade studs look now, with her school uniform
and proper body? She moved to put the stud in her left ear – and stopped in
consternation. Where was the hole? Moving to the mirror, she looked
carefully.
Her ears were no longer pierced.
“Wow!” Billie said, slamming through the door, “another
whole day free. I am so going to enjoy this.”
“Oneesan? Do you have pierced ears?”
“Uh, not exactly.”
“Oh,” Jade said with a little disappointment. “I used to.
I guess when I got your body image, it must have closed up my piercings.” She
thought about it some more. “You know, I think I got a couple of things fixed
up during the transfer. I had a scar on the back of my hand, and that went
away, too.”
Billie came over and gently pulled at Jade’s ear. “Well if
you had piercings, they’re gone now. Sorry about that.”
Jade hugged her friend, noticing again how different it was
with them the same height, and her having breasts. “No problem. I can always
get them re-pierced. Hey! You don’t have pierced ears, but I thought I saw you
wearing earrings a couple of times.”
“Not very often.”
“But they weren’t clip-ons!”
“Look,” Billie explained, “when you get your ears pierced,
they just jab the needle through, right? And you wait for it to heal, and then
wear the earrings, right?”
Jade nodded agreement.
“Well, I regenerate. And it’s gotten pretty fast, too. So
pierced ears is no big deal, I just had Harry sharpen all the posts on my
earrings. I jab them through, and it heals a couple of seconds later. No
problem. Then when I take the earring out, the hole heals up.”
Jade winced. “Doesn’t that hurt?”
“A little.” Billie shrugged. “I’ll bet that high heels are
worse. At least according to what most girls say. I don’t know, they never
seem to bother me. Anyway, us girls have to put up with a lot.”
Jade had done high heels a couple of times. She was still
learning to walk smoothly in them, but Nikki and Toni occasionally gave her
tips. “You’d have more problems with heels if you had to obey gravity, like
everyone else.”
“Hey, you know what?” Billie decided, “Let’s get your ears
pierced again. Right now!”
“Really? How?”
“You know that green-skinned girl down the hall?”
It took Jade a moment. “Oh, you mean ‘Verdant.’ Her real
name is Pilar something, but everyone always just calls her Verdant.”
“That’s the one. She pierces ears – she’d done if for a lot
of the guys on the floor. Couple of girls, too.”
So they headed down the hall, and within a couple of
minutes, Verdant had Jade sitting in a chair, while she sterilized her needle
over a candle flame and prepared some alcohol swabs.
“Hokay, this will sting a little,” the green girl warned.
“The ear lobe isn’t so sensitive, but still.”
“I know,” Jade said. “I had them pierced a couple of months
ago. The just got unpierced – I think when I suddenly grew up.”
“You’d be surprised at the number of re-piercings I do,” the
girl confided. “It’s what I get, being around so many mutants.”
“Hey,” Jade suddenly wondered, “do you know a girl named
Jana? She’s over in Whitman, I think. She had an accent that sounds a lot
like yours.” She refrained from mentioning that the girl was half animal most
of the time.
“Doesn’t ring any bells,” Verdant admitted. “I’m from Rio
de Janeiro, in Brazil. It’s a big country, so I wouldn’t be surprised to find
a couple more Brazilians here at Whateley.”
Jade felt a sharp pain through her right ear, then Verdant
handed her a pair of cotton balls soaked in disinfectant.
“There. Hold that for a second, while I get your other
ear.”
There was a matching pain in her left ear, and she got
another pair of cotton balls.
“How soon can I look at them?” Jade asked.
“We need to make sure they’re done bleeding, but you can
take a quick look.” She pulled Jade’s hand away from her right ear. “Aw,
Dios! You could have told me you were a regenerator.”
“But I’m not!”
Verdant looked at Jade’s left ear, now. “Well, that was
useless.”
Billie had to look, too. “She’s right. No holes. Nothing
at all. Give me a second, and let’s try it again.” She slipped out the door
and went running up the hall. A minute later she was back. “Here’s your
studs, Jade. You should be able to put these in right after the piercing.”
Verdant pierced her left ear again, and Billie immediately
slipped in the small jade stud. “There,” Billie told her. “Almost no blood,
and I think it’s just about healed.”
Jade reached up and rubbed her earlobe, fastening the back
onto the exposed post. “It doesn’t hurt any more. You mean, I can’t take
these out?”
“Not unless you want them to heal closed again,” Billie told
her. “That’s the way I am.”
So a minute later, the two girls returned to their room.
Jade’s ears had small green orbs adorning them, but she was trying to figure
out this new complication. “I must have picked this up from you, with the BIT
transfer.”
“Seems likely,” Billie agreed. “You didn’t pick up anything
else from me, did you?”
“No, I’m pretty sure I didn’t,” Jade admitted, guiltily.
“That first night I tried floating and energy stuff and whatever else I could
think of. Nothing. Besides, I think I’d notice if all of a sudden gravity
stopped being important.”
“I guess you’ll have to get Harry or someone to sharpen all
your earrings. It’s not that bad, poking them through, but it takes a little
practice.”
Suddenly thinking of something, Jade bent over and ran a
hand down her shin. “Hey, and you can’t tell where I nicked myself, shaving.”
Billie nodded. “Yeah, regeneration is handy that way. Just
don’t expect it to make your period any easier.”
“Actually,” Jade quietly confessed, “I’m looking forward to
that.”
Billie rolled her eyes. “From you, I can believe it. I’ll
bet the first time is enough though. Trust me, it gets old real quick.”
*****
Still in her uniform from breakfast, she and Billie headed
down to Shuster Hall to get their pictures taken for their MIDs. Even with the
appointments they’d made, there was already a line of about twenty freshmen.
They quickly double-checked their makeup before joining the line. Nikki had
helped both of them, so the effect was very subtle, but you wanted to look as
good as you could for a permanent ID. They were just coming out when Jinn
arrived.
“Better switch to normal,” Jade suggested.
Jinn agreed, then performed her regular transformation, with
her skin and clothes imploding inward, leaving her as a metal box with black
metallic arm and leg bones. A moment later, the process reverse, and Jinn
exploded back outward with plastic skin and a school uniform. When things
finally settled in place, she looked like an ordinary girl, a near twin of
Jade, with a slightly slimmer figure, four inches taller, and looking a year or
two older.
“How do I look?” Jinn asked.
“I think you could use just a touch of blush,” Jade decided,
examining herself critically.
That settled, the three girls rejoined the line and waited
for their turn.
*****
Jade wasn’t sure what “biometrics” meant exactly, but she
expected it would be like a dress fitting or something, with a girl going over
her with a tape measure, getting all her vital dimensions. She was glad she
hadn’t rushed to get her MID on Wednesday afternoon. Now she’d be photographed
and measured as a real girl, and there would be no issue on lying about her
gender.
When she was finally let in, the biometrics room was a
fifteen foot wide cube, with tall assemblies of equipment in each corner. In the
last corner, an older woman sat typing at a control station.
“Please stand in the center of the turntable and state your
name,” the woman instructed.
Jade noticed a grey metallic disk inset into the floor. She
stood on it and looked back at the woman. “Jade Sinclair.”
“Right. Age?”
“Fourteen.”
“Hold your arms straight out sideways.”
The turntable began to slowly rotate, and Jade saw the three
equipment stacks lighting up. Some played patterns of laser light over her as
she rotated. She noticed other beams, and felt vibrations in her bones. It
half reminded her of a very slowly turning version of the BIT-slicer, and half
felt like she was standing in a giant microwave oven.
“Arms at your sides now.”
Again she turned, and was scanned.
“Excellent. Step off, place each hand on this plate.” As
Jade did so, a more detailed scan was made of each hand.
“Is there any reason why I should not take a sample of your
blood?”
“Noooo, I guess not.” That procedure was quickly taken care
of, and the woman carefully labeled the vial of red fluid.
“This completes your biometric scan. Administration will
handle the rest of your dossier. Next!”
*****
Jinn’s experience was a bit different. She stood on the
turntable and said, “Jinn Sinclair,” but as the first scan completed, the woman
looked up with a scowl.
“There’s nothing there. Just empty space and some parts.”
“I’m deceased,” Jinn explained. “Sort of a poltergeist.
You can’t see me, except when I possess inanimate objects.”
“I see,” the woman replied in a bored deadpan. “Arms at
your sides now.” After that scan, the woman asked, “Is this your normal
appearance?”
“I look a little different when I’m in costume,” Jinn
admitted.
“Can you change and come back?”
“Sure, I can change right now.” Jinn did so, and a second
later was wearing her chalk-white skin and her Shroud costume. “See?”
“One more scan,” the woman insisted. “Can you do that
intermediate form, where there’s just the floating metal? I need you to hold
that for both scans.”
“Yeah, sure, no problem.”
After that had finished, the woman asked, “Any other forms
or shapes?”
“Well,” Jinn admitted, “I’m like a poltergeist. I can
possess almost anything, so I’d look like whatever I was possessing. You
know? Mop and bucket, blanket, whatever.”
“You posses other people?”
“Uh, only in special circumstances. They have to be
avatars.” Jinn decided that would be a good answer, since it was both true,
and made it sound as if avatars were vulnerable to her rather than the other
way around.
“Do you have any bodily fluids?”
“Just whatever I’m possessing. If I possessed a bicycle,
I’d have some oil and grease, I guess.”
The woman made a few more notes on her console. “This
completes your biometric scan. Administration will handle the rest of your
dossier. Next!”
*****
Walking toward the cafeteria, Jade asked, “So what did you
think of that lady at the scan room? What was her problem?”
“I think she was sent over from the MCO,” Billie suggested.
“If she’s any clue, they aren’t that fond of us mutants.”
“Did you get the ‘bodily fluid’ draw?”
Billie nodded. “She asked, but I told her that I had highly
explosive blood and referred her to some guys in the science department. Did
you get your questionnaire from admin?”
“Yeah,” Jade admitted. “I think I’ll want to talk to some
people about it before I turn it in, though.”
“I’m definitely not telling them about my past.”
Billie was firm on that. “If I can keep my parents, or even my stupid brother,
from being linked to these records, so much the better.”
Jade thought some more as they walked. “Maybe we should run
this by Zoe. She’s our fixer; she must have dealt with all of this before.
And you know what? I’m going to see what Thuban has to say, too. It’s not
like he doesn’t already know all my secrets.”
“Well, be careful. I still don’t trust that guy.”
*****
At lunch, she and Billie told about signing up for their
MIDs. The other girls listened eagerly, but Sara had a guarded look in her eye
as Jade and Billie described their interactions with the dour scanner woman.
“I heard she was an MCO operative,” Billie volunteered. “I
understand why you’d be nervous, Sara. Did they do this sort of scan for you
at ARC? Maybe you can use that.”
“We’ll see,” the Goth teen said, ominously.
Harry joined them after that and eagerly began to narrate
for Billie the pitfalls and excitement of putting in a new apartment. Jade was
a bit amused that, at a table filled with good-looking girls, Harry seemed to
focus all his attention on Billie. Of course, they shared a dance class, but
still. Then things got stranger. Samantha arrived, spotted Harry, and seemed
to home in on him. Jade had never been disturbed by the wolf-man’s appearance,
but it was odd to see him with a beautiful girl hanging off each arm.
“Before I forget,” Samantha said, “Sunday, I’m going to
throw a little house warming for the apartment. Since I don’t know many people
here, I thought I would invite those I know. What do ya’all say?”
Everyone at the table nodded eagerly. After Harry’s
description, the others were eager to see the place. Sara seemed particularly
interested.
“I wouldn’t miss it,” she carefully told Samantha, licking
her lips.
Samantha seemed confused by that, but said, “Anyway, I have
a few finial things I need to get set up and it will be ready.”
“Shall I tell Jinn to meet you there?” Jade asked.
The blonde considered. “I have to stop by admin. Tell her
to give me a couple of hours. There might be some minor moving and arrangement
left, but that’s all.”
*****
They checked the mail on the way up to the room, and Jade
was surprised to see a large, flat box waiting for her. Although her name was
on the front, there was no return address.
Billie’s eyes narrowed. “Soak it in water, first. Then get
Bunny to scan it.”
“Oh, don’t be so paranoid. We haven’t had a really major
attack since Halloween.” Jade reached forward and touched the box with a
finger. The box floated into the air and announced, “Unless I’m coated with
contact poison, it’s probably safe. It’s from Thuban.”
“All the more reason to soak it in water,” Billie growled in
her gruff voice. “What is it?”
“I’m a surprise,” the floating box replied.
Billie wasn’t done grumbling. “And if it really has been a
month, then we’re due, aren’t we?”
“You’re cute like that,” Jade popped out, unexpectedly.
“WHAT?” Billie’s eyes almost bugged out as she stared at
her roommate. “Now that you’re growing up, you aren’t going all Poe on me, are
you?”
“Ewww! With my body-twin sister? No way! It’s just …
sometimes, you really look like her, you know? I mean, I can see why you had
her poster in your room, ‘cause you’re so cool. Like mega-tough and also cute,
all at the same time.”
“Uh…” to cover her incipient blush, Billie changed the subject.
“Maybe we have been attacked more recently. There was that stupid Monkey King
and his dumb panty raid. That was only a couple of weeks ago. And don’t even
remind me of Parents’ Day!”
They bantered up the stairs and down the hallway, the box floating
along ahead of them. Once inside, the box settled down on Jade’s bed.
“Okay, open up!” Billie ordered the box.
Compliantly, the lid lifted slightly and a card floated out
to Jade’s hand. “If it pleases you to wear this, I would pick you up in Poe’s
front hall promptly at four PM. Thuban.”
With that, the lid lifted off and moved aside, exposing the
elegant dress, which lifted itself gently out to display itself for her. It
considerately inflated, molding itself as if an invisible girl were modeling
it.
“Oh my God!” Jade breathed. “It’s beautiful!”
The dress was a traditional cheongsam with a high neck and
closed collar, but sleeveless. The fabric was a deep, forest green, with
yellow-green and gold embroidery tracing out a floral design. At the bottom of
the box lay a matching clutch purse and high heels.
“How’s he know it’s going to fit, though?” Billie wondered.
Then she spotted a card in the bottom. “Rogers’ Fabric Boutique? Hey, I’ll
bet that slug had this made to my measurements!”
“I’ve got to try it on!”
Jade shucked off her blazer and blouse, and shimmied out of
the pleated skirt. And wearing her knee socks and flats would have been just
silly with the elegant dress, so a moment later she was in bra and panties.
She carefully undid the buttons on the side and slipped the dress over her
head. It was snug around her waist, and once she did up the buttons on the
right, it was snug but not tight around her chest.
“I can see your bra line,” Billie pointed out.
“I think maybe the dress has enough support that I could go
without a bra,” Jade guessed. She pulled it off and removed her bra. For a
moment, she stood there in nothing more than panties, contemplating the
beautiful dress and her new body.
“Well?” Billie demanded. “Hey, are you crying? What’s
wrong?”
“Nothing,” Jade whispered. “Nothing at all! Thanks to you,
and Thuban, and a bunch of other people, nothing at all is wrong! I’m so
happy! Thank you!” The nearly naked girl flung her arms around Billie and
hugged her as hard as she could.
Billie stood there in stunned surprise. It hadn’t been all
that long ago that she’d been a guy herself. Now she was seeing naked girls
every day – heck, she was a girl. But sometimes, like right now, the
strangeness of it all washed over her. It didn’t seem right to be turned on by
the topless girl hugging her. Heck, that was her body, when you came
down to it. It was one of those moments when the wonder and absurdity of her
new life suddenly crashed over her, leaving her awed and speechless.
There was a rapid knock on the door and then Toni flung it
open. “Hey have you two seen—” The black girl stared at them for just an
instant, then quickly closed the door. “Sorry. ‘Private moment.’ Got it. Be
back later.”
“What?” Billie slowly snapped out of her daze. “Wait!
It’s not what you think! I’m not like that!” she yelled.
Jade started shaking, as she continued to hold Billie. It
slowly developed into a laugh. “Sorry, oneesan.” Before Billie could react,
Jade quickly kissed her on the cheek. “And thank you.”
“Ooooh!” Billie roughly scratched her hands through her
spiky mane of hair. “How am I ever going to explain this?”
52: First Date
At a quarter to four, Jade was dressed, made up, and waiting
in Poe’s common room. Nikki and Ayla had both advised her to be just a few
minutes late, out of principle. Jade had been too nervous. Her shower had
been two hours ago, so she took another, dressed, then undressed, then
redressed. From Ayla (of all people) she’d borrowed a pair of those panty hose
with the panty built in. And since she was wearing no bra, she knew there
would be no seams at all to spoil the lines of the magnificent dress. Nikki
had helped her with a subtle eye shadow that had just a mild hint of green, to
match the dress. She’d played with putting her hair up. It might look good
once she had more hair, but right now it didn’t quite work. So she sat there,
trying not to sweat out of nervousness, and simultaneously dreading and
anticipating what was to come as the clock ticked toward four.
She was all over the board emotionally, as she fretted about
Thuban. Was he a nice guy? Was he a jerk? Evidence pointed to the second,
even if he had given her the greatest gift ever. What would he think of her? Was
Billie right to be leery of him? Should she call this off right now?
Several people gave her a thorough look over, as they passed
through the common room. Most all of them had an approving glance, or comment.
Then came Sharisha. “Oh, Christ. I’d heard you’d grown a
proper set of ‘em, but look at you now!” Her words might have been
complimentary in some rude sense, but her tone turned the sentence into an
assault. “All dressed up? Who’s the lucky bitch?”
Jade smiled smugly. “He will be picking me up in
five minutes, and his name is Thuban.”
“Sounds like a dope, whoever he is. Sure would be a shame
if that pretty dress got a tear or anything.”
Sharisha narrowed her eyes and Jade felt a small tug near
her collar. Jade instantly cast Jinn into her dress, purse, shoes, and hair.
Sharisha was a telekinetic, but she was nowhere near being a TK-3. With her
dress protected, Jade raised her left arm and pointed her closed fist at the
overweight black girl. She was extremely glad that she’d worn her new bracers.
“Go ahead,” Jade almost purred the phrase. “Try anything.
I’ll slap you down so hard you won’t wake up till Christmas!”
Sharisha stared at her, then looked at the bracers,
obviously trying to figure out whether Jade was bluffing. Finally, “Oh, get
real. Like I even care about you anyway.” And with that, she turned and
walked off.
Jade just stood there, blinking. Had she won? Was it that
easy? Had the obnoxious girl just walked off, without them getting into a
fight or ruining the dress or anything?
Of course, she left Jinn charged into the dress, and
watching in every direction for threats.
Slowly, Jade began to smile, and then she actually beamed.
She really had done it! She’d out-toughed someone! And not only that, she
sure wasn’t nervous about the date anymore. She felt great!
Which is when someone knocked at the cottage front door.
One of the residents opened the door, and Thuban came striding in. He was his
regular lizard-man self, dressed in deep blue mandarin robes that complimented
her dress. With his sleeves held together, he approached her and bowed deeply.
“If you are ready?”
Jade’s nervousness returned like a ton of bricks. She was
torn between an equally cool return nod, and a relieved skipping forward to plant
a big wet kiss on him. Thuban’s sheer presence and rather frightening
appearance put a stop to that. Surreptitiously, Jade pressed the ring-finger
knuckle on her right hand, thinking, I want to accept him, to appreciate and
enjoy his appearance. But a moment later, that seemed stupid. After all,
what was the problem, anyway? Admittedly, Thuban was a bit “lizardy”, but in a
different-and-interesting way. She almost kissed him on the cheek, but stopped
herself. Nope, she thought, not on the first date. I’m not that
kind of girl. But she smiled as she said it.
“Let us be off.”
“Let me get my coat,” Jade said. “I don’t know if you’ve
noticed, but it’s freezing out there.”
“I’ve noticed,” Thuban agreed, hissing slightly. “Come, you
only have a few feet to walk.”
Trusting his words, Jade merely wrapped the coat around her
shoulders, as they headed out into clear and icy dusk. The coat kept her arms
warm, but the icy wind whistled up her dress. Even with pantyhose on, her legs
were cold. Thuban led the way, traveling not toward the center of campus, but
around toward the back of the cottage and the access road there. Jade was
astonished to see a black limousine waiting for them, with a normal human
(appearing) chauffer waiting to hold their door for them.
“Uh… what’s this?”
“You may not have any money to pay, but I have no lack of
funding. If you don’t object, I’ll upgrade our date slightly. Berlin has some
excellent Chinese restaurants.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess. That would be nice.”
She didn’t want to wait outside while they discussed it.
Beside, the chauffer was standing there silently holding the door open and
letting all the heat out of the car. So Jade offered her hand to Thuban, since
it was hard to get into a car in heels, and gave the step and half-turn that’s
necessary to sit properly without ruining your dress. Thuban stepped in
immediately afterward, sitting in the opposite seat facing her, with his back
to the driver. The chauffeur closed the door and came around front to start the
car.
Thuban pressed a small button to raise a partition, sealing
them off from the front of the car.
Jade was realizing that she could have gotten in herself,
particularly with Jinn’s help to levitate/slide in and to keep her dress neat.
Still, she didn’t regret letting Thuban help her.
The lizard-man nodded at the bracers on her forearms. “An
interesting addition to your ensemble. Not entirely expected, but I think it
works.”
“Thanks. A girl’s got to have some protection, you
know.”
He raised his eyebrows at that. She was surprised to
realize that he even had eyebrow. Or brow ridges, or something. “I’m almost
sorry that there was no room for your gun.”
“I know! I feel practically naked without it! Uh… I mean,
not ‘naked’ naked. You know what I mean.”
He merely smiled back at her, in a way that was a little
unsettling.
“You didn’t bring it in your purse?”
“I tried,” she admitted, “but it was too bulky. So I chose
between fashion and firepower, and fashion won. This time.”
She didn’t mention her other precautions. She had her kitty
compact tucked into her purse, she was wearing her missile cuffs, Jann sensei
was currently cast into her clothes and the cuffs, and Jamie the SpySpec was
silently shadowing the car as a flying spec of dust, fifty feet above them. If
there were any threats inside the car, Jann would deal with them. Any threats
outside, and Jamie would spot them and return to her instantly. It still left
her a little worried, since the Halloween attack had proven that you couldn’t
always rely on your powers. A powerful enemy might have ways of stripping them
away. But without her powers, all she had was her gun and her martial arts
moves. And sometimes you had to draw the line somewhere. She’d just have to
gamble that she wouldn’t have to face a major power-stealing attack while out
on her first date.
“Why four o’clock?” she asked. “Isn’t that a little early,
even if we’re driving to Berlin?”
“Look to your right,” he commanded. “The weather is crystal
clear, and we’re just starting to see it. This time of year the sun sets at
4:14 PM. Anticipating a departure at four, we’re off campus grounds by 4:10,
and just seeing the sunset as we crest the hill.”
Jade looked, and had to admit that it was pretty nice.
“Wow. You really have a thing about controlling every last detail, don’t you?”
“Er…”
She smiled. “I’m not complaining, it’s really pretty. Just
promise me you won’t get too stressed out if things don’t go absolutely
perfect.”
As Jann touched her, she watched as Thuban’s emotions pulled
back into guarded caution.
“Are you anticipating some sort of trouble?”
“Not really,” she said. “But you know how it goes. Last
time I got out, we went to Boston. We were sitting there eating lunch, and all
of a sudden all these sirens went by. And then… kaboom! Big fight with
supervillains! You know?”
“Actually,” Thuban admitted, “I can’t say I’ve had all that
many fights outside of Whateley. I see myself more behind the scenes, putting
others in position to do the fighting.”