Everyone's Noticed, But Nobody Cares (third Day) free porn video

DAY 3, TUESDAY I never did quite get back to sleep. But that was okay. It was already 6 AM, there wasn't much point in trying to doze off again. Besides... Not knowing what else to do with it, I'd hidden the Boy's Spirit, Catch! manga in my pillowcase. I eventually weakened, fished it out and grabbed my phone, curling up inside the sleeping bag and using my phone light to illuminate the pages. It was not a comfortable way to read, but I really didn't want to wake the others. ... not that I was really doing much reading. The text was incomprehensible Japanese to me. But as I read, the most important themes of the story became clear. ... okay. There's boy A and boy B. I'm not sure if there are any girls in this manga at all, they don't seem to be very important. Any girls I did see just seemed to have blank faces and the same generic haircut. Boy A is tall, with short dark hair and a lean but muscular bod. Boy B is shorter, with longer white(?) hair and a lean but slimmer bod. And Boy A is on the baseball team and Boy B seems to have joined it. Here, on page twelve, is a full page shot of Boy A standing hunched over Boy B, with his arms around him, both of them holding onto a baseball bat that is level with Boy B's crotch. Boy A is apparently showing Boy B how to swing it. Here, on page nineteen, is Boy B looking up in the shower room to see Boy A standing over him. There is obvious and clear tension in the air. Here, on page twenty-six, Boy B is staring in awe at Boy A as he catches a baseball. He is surrounded by roses. Here, on page thirty-two, Boy A is loosely embracing Boy B, and has his pointer finger on Boy B's chest. There are lines to indicate a circular motion. Here, on page forty-three, the artwork has become rushed and sketchy, the unreadable dialogue reduced to short bursts of characters. It's not clear which boy is which, but someone is doing something - and it almost doesn't matter what - to someone's carefully censored penis. ... but. Oh no. Boy A and Boy B are doing all of this... but Boy A is thinking of Boy C, the handsome team manager with glasses... 'Oh, Yoshiko,' I thought in awe, my eyes wide. 'You have wonderful taste in manga.' I eventually had to stop reading, because I didn't have enough hands to hold the book, the phone, AND my clitoris. Thank god everyone was still asleep when I got up, scooped up my towel with my least indecent hand, and hurried as quietly as I could into the shower room, where I stood alone under the running water for the longest time. Actually being alone for the first time since I turned into a girl, I took this opportunity for some things I couldn't easily do around others. Like shaking my ass in the mirror. Or jumping up and down and watching my breasts really go for the gold. Or getting up close to the mirror and checking out what my pussy actually looked like beyond the curtains. Or hurriedly getting back to showering every time I thought someone was coming. I was just finishing conditioning my hair when other girls started to stumble in, yawning to themselves and stretching. Nemea was first, followed by Sharon. "Morning Michelle..." Nemea said, taking the shower head to my left. "Hi, Nemea." I couldn't shake the feeling they were catching me in the aftermath of something I hadn't done. In this shower. Sharon for her part didn't greet me. "Morning, Sharon," I said somewhat pointedly. "Not here... observer... getting shower..." she replied blearily. As I shampooed, I looked at Nemea. There was something I needed to talk to her about... but what was it... Oh. Oh yeah! "Hey Nemea," I said. "Ruby says you like to play Smash." "Sometimes," she said. "I play with my brothers. It keeps them happy. Why?" "Henry wants to have a boys VS girls tournament. Just for fun. You want to join in?" I happened to glance to my side. Sharon was stood stock still with her head down and her hands grasping the side of her hair, utterly unmoving. She thought about it for a moment as I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair. "Might be fun," she said, somewhat hesitantly. "Who's on our side?" "Just Ruby and me for now. We'll need a fourth." "Well, sure, I'll join," Nemea said. "Could be fun. Who do you like to play as?" " I main Squall," I said. "In his KH4 costume, for preference." I glanced to my side. Sharon was slowly shifting from one foot to the other in big exaggerated steps. "Cool. I always play as Young Link or Isabelle," Nemea said. "She's always been my favourite, I played a lot of Animal Crossing." "Awesome! OK, now we just need one more then..." I glanced to my side. Sharon was turning in circles under the shower head, clutching her head. I could hear her teeth grinding over the hiss and splash of the water. "... something you want to say, Sharon?" I asked. She threw her hands up and began gesticulating wildly, flinging water all over the room as she talked. "YOU CAN'T PLAY ISABELLE! SHE'S LOW TIER!" Sharon took a deep breath. "She's got no combos, her jab is garbage, so are all her normal attacks except her fair, you can forget about all her smashes, the fishing rod is horribly nerfed, she does no damage with no range and she's awful slow for someone who's so light and dies at 50% from being hit with a feather!" She breathed in and out and in and out. "If you're going to play an AC character you should at least play Villager!" We stared at her for a while. Then Nemea straightened up. "I don't know or care about any of that! I just like playing as Isabelle, she's all right! Who do you play as that's supposedly so good?" "Joker, of course!" There was a definite tone of 'duh!' in Sharon's response. 'You know,' I thought to myself, 'on Saturday I'd never have imagined that by today I'd be caught in an argument about Smash tier lists in the girl's shower.' I tried to return to washing my hair, but the two of them kept sniping at each other literally over my head. "All right, all right!" I eventually snapped. "Would the two of you quit arguing? There's no need to be at each other's throats over this." I continued to shampoo, and had a thought. "You shouldn't even be against each other! You should be teammates!" I turned to Sharon. "You sound like you know your stuff. Want to be the fourth team member?" For a second Sharon's eyes grew even wider and her mouth opened in glee. Then her face fell. "Oh... but I can't." She held on to the sides of her head. "Observer! I can't influence the outcome of the experiment like that...!" "Still pretty sure it's not your experiment," I said, my eyelids perfectly level. "But whatever it is you think you're doing, I don't see how the outcome of a Smash tournament influences it at all." Sharon nodded to herself. "Yes... that's right! In fact, I probably have the time and ability to not just be a teammate, but also the coach!" "No, teammate," I insisted. I eventually left the shower and got dressed. Since we were going hillwalking today I decided to try the dark grey sports bra. First impressions were: tight! Constricting! Supportive! I'd probably be glad to have it four hours from now. I grabbed a pair of shorts. They weren't like the skimpy short shorts I'd been gifted as I transformed, these were a bit longer and harder wearing. Since it looked sunny out, I also picked a sleeveless white and pale-blue striped blouse. Buttoning it up was tricky because the buttons were finally on the correct side, but I wasn't used to that yet. I found some thick sports socks too, and my hiking boots were nice and clompy. They had, to my relief, apparently already been worn in somehow. Finally I looked at my now dry hair. I had to do something with it. I'd rather liked the braid, but wanted to try something else, so I got a couple of hairbands and managed to tie my hair up into a pair of loose high ponytails all by myself. It was still pretty early and half the girls were still in bed. I left the dorm by myself and headed for the cafeteria, where I tried to eat as much Rice Krispies as I could. It wasn't a terrible amount. I looked uneasily at my bowl. I really was an exceedingly light eater, at least compared to how I had been. Part of me was starting to worry that I was anorexic, but that couldn't be it, right? I don't think that's how anorexia works. I want to eat, it's just I fill up so damn fast... Ruby eventually came and sat beside me. She complimented me on a second successful day dressing myself and we chatted. "By the way," I said. "We've got a full Smash team now." "Yeah? You talked to Nemea?" "And Sharon." "Sharon?!" Ruby sputtered. "Really?" "She seems to know what she's talking about." "Well, that wouldn't shock me I guess..." Ruby mused. "I'm just surprised she decided to join in. She can be so weird..." "Well, maybe she'll fit in more if we include her in normal things..." I wondered. "Oh, we've tried," Ruby said. "We've tried. How we've tried." Over the next hour or so we finished our breakfasts, reported to Henry that we had a full team and the tournament could go ahead whenever everyone's ready (probably tomorrow at this rate) and gathered at the front of the hostel. Yesterday's castle visit was sponsored by the history department, today the geography department was taking us on a hill walk. Since my backpack was apparently gone forever and I couldn't bring that rolling case up into the hills, I smiled at Cliff and asked if he would do me a little favour and carry a few things for me. Gratifyingly he couldn't have jumped higher at the chance. Not wanting to exploit him though I only give him my water bottle, a sandwich for lunch and a few snacks. The weather was looking wonderful and I didn't think I'd need much else. Our group set off from the hostel on foot. This was a route that would, after an hour or two, take us to a hill overlooking the ruins of a Roman encampment. We wouldn't be allowed to go down into it, but Mrs Waller said there was a lot to learn even observing it from a distance. Along the way she stopped us, briefly lecturing us about how the glaciers had formed this valley, or how and why this thing was a moraine, or here was the old road or an old abandoned bothy. But most of the time we talked amongst ourselves. Ruby and Sharon were not too pleased to be out on this death march, but the other girls were in pretty good spirits. Personally, I always did kinda like getting out and seeing the outdoors, especially when the weather was this nice. The sun was on my face, the wind a cool breeze against my arms and legs, lightly picking up my bunches of hair. I shooed away the few clouds on the horizon. As I stumbled up a rocky path, I gave thanks for the sports bra and the well worn boots. I had to be grateful that however I had become a girl, someone had not wanted it to be uncomfortable for me. Imagine the alternative: becoming a girl like this, but with only the boy clothes on my back and in my backpack. Every single piece of clothing would have been horribly oversized, from the socks to the shirts, and I'd have had to have gone without a bra too, which was now UNTHINKABLE. Quite apart from the basic decency, I'd had enough of my boobs jiggling, swinging and bouncing in the shower or while getting changed to know that that all day, every day, would have been painful and driven me crazy! We walked and chatted and chatted as we walked. I drifted from group to group, keeping my own pace. Eventually, as I was walking, I found myself shoulder to elbow with Marcus Russell. I tried to keep my eyes away from where his enormous dick had to be. The thought of it had occasionally crossed my mind - I blushed hard and squirmed - especially when I'd been, well, 'exploring' myself. I was pretty sure it was just too damn big though. He subtly leaned over to me. "Hey, Michelle?" "Yeah?" "Can I ask you a couple of things?" Oh god, what's this about? I shrugged. The sports bra prevented the usual shrug echo. Nice. "Sure... what's up?" "Well... now that you're a girl..." Marcus said, and he looked around. Nobody could overhear us. "Are you and Ruby still an item?" I snorted. "A What?" "Well, you and Ruby have been going out for forever..." "We've What?" "... you two were really close friends, right?" he asked, confused. "Well, yeah! But we were like brother and sister!" I laughed. "And now, I guess we're like sisters. But we were never an Item!" "Seriously?" he seemed genuinely shocked. "We all thought... none of us have been asking Ruby out because we thought she was your girlfriend." "You think she's my What?" "Well, we did!" "I don't know how to tell you how much is wrong with that." "You *were* a boy, remember?" "Even then!" Even back when I was a boy, that would have been unthinkable. We were as close as you can get to siblings without being related! We'd been friends for so long I couldn't remember how we'd met. "So... Ruby's free?" Marcus asked optimistically. For a moment, I honestly considered saying no like some kind of monster. The urge to protect Ruby from Marcus' huge penis was strong. But she'd made it clear that protection was not exactly what she wanted, and, well... Ruby had often complained about the guys not showing any interest in her. Now I'd finally figured out that was because the dumbasses thought she was taken by the old me. If I told him anything other than '"Ruby is willing and ready to accept your romantic interest" she'd be rightly furious with me. "She's free... but treat her nice. All right?" I glared up at him, I was sure it was not very intimidating. "If there's any complaints about you, you're going to have to deal with me." I tried to look away. "And keep that monster in your pocket until she asks about it!" He turned red, and hunched down towards me. "I don't just whip it out in front of girls!" he hissed, looking around anxiously. "You did in front of me," I said, my eyes half closed and with a smirk on my face. "It was the changing rooms and you were a guy!" He seemed truly embarrassed. "Yeah... sorry." "I've got enough anxiety about what happens when a girl sees it without..." he mumbled to himself, and then stopped and looked at me, apparently hoping I hadn't heard. There was a lengthy silence. "You're, uh, worried about it?" I asked. That had never occurred to me before. "Well..." he stumbled over his words. "Look, if I say anything, it's a secret and it's only because you used to be a boy and know what it's like, right?" "Uh... right." I couldn't say I ever knew what it was like to be like him. "Look, can I ask something?" "Sure..." "Do the other girls know about... my stuff?" We must have both been turning bright red. It was a miracle we kept walking. "They've, ah, heard rumours," I said. I wasn't going to say who clarified those rumours. "What do they think?" he asked, extremely nervously. "I don't know if they understand it properly. They seem interested, if wary." His eyes darted from side to side. He was sweating. "Do, uh, you think they would ever try..." "God, I don't have any idea! This is the worst discussion ever! Are you remembering I'm a girl?" "That's kinda obvious, but you used to be a guy, so... who else can I ask for the girls' perspective on this? I have no idea what's going to happen when they see... it." I tried to breathe. This was an awful conversation I didn't want to have, but I did feel a little sorry for him. It's not fun being a freak. "Look. Girls aren't a monolith, we all have our own opinions. So best I can say is I guess some will, and some won't, and I wouldn't name names even if I knew. But just... be confident that you're going to find someone for who you're exactly what they're looking for." He sagged a little. "I guess that's all I can hope for huh?" "There are worse problems to have," I added. "True." I was extremely relieved when he walked on ahead. It hadn't quite occurred to me that, having once recently been a boy, people might come to me to get a both-sides perspective of some things. I just wished it wasn't such an uncomfortable discussion. I wouldn't have wanted to talk to Marcus about his dick as a boy, and now as a girl it was much worse! We came to the top of a hill, and Mrs Waller started waving at some distant stones that were apparently the remains of some kind of old fort. You could make out the general layout but not much else. The entire thing was overgrown and crumbled. Then we set off again. This time, I ended up aimlessly drifting alongside Liam Galloway, who leaned over and whispered in my ear - "can we talk?" ... I was feeling a little cautious after the last one. "Is it important?" "Uh, yeah..." Liam said furtively. "Is this going to get weird?" "It's been weird for a while, hasn't it?" "Point," I conceded. "Look, I just really, REALLY need to ask you something. I won't pry too much." "Okay..." I guess this might not be too bad. "What is it?" He waited until we were in a spot in the group where no-one would overhear us, and then leaned down. "So, you turned into a girl..." "You finally noticed?" I said playfully, and then stopped smirking when I saw his face. He was dead serious. "... how'd you do it?" he asked. We walked on for a while. Eventually I admitted, "I don't know? Honestly it's a complete mystery to me. I just went into one bathroom, and then I was in another one and I was a girl." "That was it?" he asked disbelievingly. "That's it. It doesn't make any sense but that's what happened." I looked up at him. "Why do you want to know?" He mulled the question for a while, obviously thinking hard, and then nervously asked "If I tell you, do you promise not to tell anyone?" "Yeah," I promised. He lowered his voice even more. "I've kinda wanted to be a girl for... well, as long as I remember." "Ohh..." my eyes went wide. I looked up at him... I mean her. "You... don't seem like it..." "I hide it. Bury it deep down inside me. My parents wouldn't approve and school would be a nightmare and..." she sighed, "it just seems safer for it to be a secret fantasy than anything else." We continued in silence. "But..." she continued, "then this happened to you, and everyone's accepted it so easily and you seem to be having fun, I mean I hope you don't mind if I say you're rocking it, and I've been thinking... I've been jealous of the girls for being born like that for so long, but I've never been jealous of anyone like I am of you. I don't hate you, but..." "You just want what I got..." I said quietly. "I can see that. I mean I don't think I understand how you feel..." "Did you ever want to be a girl before?" she asked. "No, never." "Do you want to be a boy now?" she also asked. "It's OK, I won't tell anyone..." "Not at all," I said with a laugh. "Going back to being a boy would be like a tragedy." I hated to brag in front of her, but I was now in love with this body. Even the shortness was growing on me, becoming part of my identity. I am Michelle, and I'm tiny! "Then you don't know how it feels, yeah..." she quietly said. "But I do feel for you," I said. "If there's anything I can do I'll help you. And I'll keep this between us until you're ready." "Thanks." She shook her head and breathed out. "You'll... you'll keep an eye out for clues then? I'll try anything." "All I can say is try the second stall in the boy's bathroom next to the hall. I pooped there and then it happened. But... don't get your hopes up. I don't know if the where or what or when had anything to do with it." "Thanks," she said. She sounded disappointed, and not unjustifiably. "No problem," I said. "And... sorry it turned out this way. If I could go back and have this affect you instead of me, I'd do it." "That's fine," she replied. "It's not your fault." She then smiled. "And I'd feel terrible taking your chance to be a girl away when you look so happy about it." She dropped back to blend back in amongst the guys. I kinda felt shitty about this. I was not unhappy about it but I had never asked to be a girl, and if someone was handing out the boobs and vaginas there were obviously people they probably should have gone to first. It made me wonder why I had been picked. Michael had clearly never wanted any of the things Michelle was starting to take for granted. No answers sprung to mind. How could I possibly know the why when the who and how were so shrouded? We stopped for lunch on the hillside. I chased down Cliff to get my sandwich and water, and sat by him to eat it. "What you got?" I asked him. "Just ham," he said. "I really can't stand mayonnaise and everything has that on it. You?" "Egg salad," I replied. "That's Michelle's favourite," Ruby said from above me. She sat down, with Alexis next to her. "Remember it well, you may be tested later." "I wouldn't do that," I said. "Soooo, sitting down together for lunch, eh?" Alexis said mockingly. "It's not like that," I lied, blushing, "it's just I don't have a bag anymore so he carried my lunch for me..." "Ooooh, he carried your lunch for you!" Alexis said. "Enough of that!" I squeaked. "You two have a lot to learn if you want to be as lovey-dovey as Yoshiko though," Ruby said. She pointed out Yoshiko and Louis sitting some distance away. He was feeding her a bite of bread. "Feels like that would be better with anything other than pre-packaged sandwiches though," Cliff said. "Yeah, that's pretty much bottom of the barrel," I agreed. "but I guess you work with what you have." "As with food, so with dating," Alexis mused. "You can only take what's available." "And you have to hope they're not covered in mayo," Cliff said. "Unless you're into that." Eventually Cliff went off for a moment, and Ruby sidled up to me. "Well? How's it going?" "With Cliff?" I asked. "It's... moving, I guess? I never had a girlfriend before, and definitely never a boyfriend, so I don't know..." "I'm so jealous," Ruby said. "A girl for about three days and you already have some romantic interest," she said, semi-sulking. "Don't worry..." I said, trying to be cheery. "I'm sure your day will come." Maybe soon now that I had that talk with Marcus. "Yeah right. So what are your plans for him?" "Well..." I squirmed a little. "He asked me if I wanted to work with him on some extra credit." "Oooooh!" Alexis mockingly squealed. "Extra credit!" "I mean actual schoolwork! Tonight..." "So it's a date," Ruby said with a wry smile. I considered denying it, but why bother. "Of a sorts, I guess," I said, beaming. "Well, hopefully we get back in plenty of time to get you ready then!" Ruby said. She looked up at the sky. "Especially considering that..." I looked up too. The clouds I had attempted to shoo away earlier had got a lot closer. An hour later we were hurrying back through the rain, the walk cancelled. We had already come more than halfway around the intended route, so we hadn't turned back, but we marched grimly through an absolute downpour. I was utterly drenched. Of course I had not packed my jacket or cagoule, and neither had most people including Mrs Waller. It felt awful. My hair was sodden and the ponytails dripped everything onto my blouse, which was sticking to my skin. My shorts were clinging to my crotch and hips, my underwear getting itchy, and my shoes waterlogged. And for some reason the boys, given to staring at the best of times, were just not able to pull their eyes off me. That creep Daniel in particular kept pointing at me and excitedly talking to other boys, though I couldn't make out what he said. Eventually Ruby took me aside in the heavy rain and warned me not to wear a grey bra under a white blouse again. When I looked down I was quite horrified to see the shape of my boobs, the line of my cleavage and the dark shadow of the sports bra were all visible through the goddamn blouse! I walked with the girls for the rest of the way, with the boys up ahead, where they kept turning back to glance at all of us. We got back at about 3PM. As a group we hurried back to the girls' dorm and lined up for the shower, peeling off sodden clothes as we waited and doing our best to wring them out before hanging them up wherever we could find space. I returned to our room eventually, wrapped in a towel, to find Yoshiko and Jennifer already there. They were also wearing their towels, but didn't seem to be in a hurry to change out of them. Instead they were just sitting around chatting, Yoshiko with a bottle of nail polish in her hand. They looked up attentively when they saw me. "Do you know what time it is, Michelle?" Jennifer asked. "... three thirty-five?" I said hopefully. "It's barely enough time for you to get ready for your date!" Yoshiko said. "It's not a date, it's a study session..." I half-heartedly said. "Anything boys and girls do together is at minimum a demi-date!" Yoshiko insisted. She stood up and put her hands on her hips. "It's time to make your best impression!" "Sorry, already do," I said cheekily, pushing out my chest. "Weak sauce," Jennifer said. "You need to complete the look," Yoshiko added. I smiled, and pretended to shrug. I had been playing at defying them, but the truth was I was excited about this. I really wanted to look good. It turned out there were many steps to looking good. Many many. First, I was bussed back to the bathroom to wash my face. Then to exfoliate it, and apply moisturizer. Yoshiko and Jennifer stood over me the entire time, ensuring I did it thoroughly. Then we returned to the room and opened up the primer, and Yoshiko made me brush that all over my face. Concealer to hide the blemishes. Foundation to put the other makeup on I guess? They walked me through every step and expressed jealousy at my makeup kit, which was supposedly comprehensive and expensive. There was a disagreement about how I should touch up my complexion, but the two of them eventually settled on some light blush and highlighter. There was a small crowd growing, our room's other occupants and those of room 1 gathering to watch Yoshiko and Jennifer work on me and talk me through it. I suspected half of them were here for makeup tips for themselves. Anna and the Adams twins kept butting in with disagreements about what order to put things on and how much and what tone... and so on. There was a variety of opinions. Then, it was eyes. Yoshiko had me do this myself, and I was grateful for that because I didn't want her waving pencils at my eyeballs. Not that I was any more comfortable doing it myself. Eyebrows with the pencil thing, eyeshadow was an ordeal involving three kinds of makeups, eyeliner was terrifying to apply and mascara was just weird, waving that weird spiky brush millimetres from my pupils. They had me keep as light a touch as possible, didn't want to go overboard and have to wash everything off and start over. Finally, my lips. I had lip liner, which neither of my guides had used before, so we skipped that and Yoshiko picked out a nice subtle lipstick. I was going to go for the classic vivid cherry red but she shut me down, and in hindsight that would have been a bit much... as if getting the works for a study session wasn't a bit much already. Putting on the lipstick was a strange sensation. I had used a Chapstick before, but this was stickier and trickier. You couldn't just rub it on, it took precision. "All right," Yoshiko said. "I think... it's done." She held up a mirror. Inside was the finished article. It was me, or at least the girl's face that I now thought of as me, but it practically shone. Yoshiko and Jennifer really know what they're doing. It defined my eyes, drew attention to my cheeks and mouth, made me look... "I hate to sound vain, but..." I smiled and practically squealed, "perfect!" I looked up at my teachers. "You two are amazing!" "Oh, we're just getting started," Yoshiko said. We spent the next hour rooting through my clothes pile, looking for cute combinations. I stood there in my underwear, holding a skirt. This... I'd realised too late, but the makeup was a rite of passage. So was this light, airy thing in my hands. I'd been a girl for three days now but this was the first skirt I was considering putting on. The band was elasticated, so I pulled it on and tightened it with a little buckle on my hip. It felt light, I almost still felt naked. It came down to slightly above my knees. I was acutely aware that anyone seeing up it would see my underwear. That felt... not exciting? Dangerous, in a good way. "How do you like it?" Ruby asked. "... different. Good different," I said. "I guess I'll, well, need to remember to close my legs when I sit?" "I wouldn't worry about it," Ruby replied. "Haven't you noticed? You've been doing that all this time." "Really?" I asked, my eyes going wide. "I hadn't noticed." But... then again, now that I thought about it I had crossed my legs when I sat down for breakfast. I hadn't needed to, I had been wearing shorts, but it had seemed like the thing to do so I'd done it without thinking... We tried a few things to go with the skirt, but nothing really inspired me. So we continued to dig through the clothes pile, Ruby pulling out the stack of dresses. It was there we found it. Just a loose-fit white sundress, plain and tastefully lacy. It had a pair of spaghetti-straps and the hemline showed the bare minimum amount of shadow to qualify as cleavage. It cinched loosely at the waist before becoming an even more airy skirt that came down to knee level. I felt like the whole thing could blow away, it was so light. I think I loved it. I couldn't help but giggle a little. I did a little pirouette, arms outstretched, feeling the skirt rise up as I spun. I stopped and it took a moment to settle, wrapping around me a little before falling back down to where it had been. "That's you," Ruby said, almost proudly. "Yeah, that's the one," Yoshiko added. "Yeah... I think I'm into this," I replied, looking down at myself. Of course, I momentarily had to take it off to swap my bra for a strapless one, but when that was done I looked at Jennifer. "What about my hair?" "Well, what do you think?" Jennifer asked. "I could braid it for you again, or teach you to braid it..." I mulled it over for a moment. I really wanted to try new things... "I think I'll keep it free..." I said. "But... maybe a ribbon or something?" We quickly agreed that I should tie all my hair back with a black and red ribbon, worn at an angle on the top of my head. And then sweeping all my hair back revealed that I'd been wearing the same stud earring for three days straight, so of course the girls insisted I swap it out for something a bit more dangly, and they found a pendant next to the earrings which I had to put on, and THEN there was the question of socks and shoes which was eventually settled when I insisted on no socks or tights, rather liking the air and soft cloth of the dress against my legs. So we ended up picking sandals to wear, and since my toes were on show the toenails had to be painted, and if you're doing that why aren't you doing the fingernails? SO EVENTUALLY I looked at the clock. "It's 5:40!" I gasped. "This has taken two hours!" "The results are worth it though!" Yoshiko said proudly. "You are going to slay that poor boy," Alexis said. "He is not going to know what hit him." I went back to the big mirror in the showers. This was a weird thing to think, it was certainly vain, but I could proudly say that if I'd seen myself though my old boy eyes, I would have considered myself a real beauty. That was a cheering, exhilarating, and terrifying thought. But it was all for a good cause. My heart was telling me I liked Cliff, and that was starting to feel like cause enough to do anything. "Still, though," Alexis said. "It IS a bit much for doing homework." "So much for studying," Ruby said with a wink. I playfully slapped her shoulder. "You know," I said, "Cliff will just have taken 5 minutes to throw whatever clothes seem freshest on." "So we've heard," Alexis replied. "But imagine how he'd look if he put in as much effort as you have," Yoshiko said. I found myself wishing he would... but also acknowledging that it probably wouldn't be necessary. There was an electronic click, replicating the sound of an old camera, and a flash of light. We all turned to see Sharon pointing her phone at me. "What the hell are you taking pictures for?" I asked. "Observation evidence. Posterity." And then she was out of there before any of us could catch her. It was agreed among us girls that we couldn't let Cliff see me until right at the ideal moment for maximum impact, which meant going to the cafeteria for dinner was right out in case he spotted me. So Ruby went over and snuck a small plate of chips and chicken goujons out, smuggling it back to our dorm, and we covered me in a sheet to act as a full body napkin, so there was no chance of a single crumb getting on my dress. I ate about half of what she brought, plus half a can of coke, before I felt stuffed. Then it was go time. I hustled to the corridor, just inside of the locked door, and waited. The plan was Alexis would loiter outside until Cliff showed up looking for me. Then, when he asked her if she'd seen me, she would enter the dorm to 'look for me,' and I'd go out. Seconds passed like hours. We'd arranged to meet at 6:30. It was now 6:36. Suddenly my stomach was churning, my head swimming. The siding was all I could look at as I fidgeted among the waiting girls. I kept staring at my phone, waiting for it to click over to 6:37, or for the text that would cancel this whole thing. The realization was hitting me. I'm about to go on a DATE! With a BOY! I'd been a girl for three days, but somehow I knew if it had been for sixteen years I'd have felt just as unprepared. 6:37. "You look like you're going to fold up into a square," Yoshiko said. "Stand up straight!" I tried to stand bolt upright. "Not that straight! Look, it's okay," she said kindly, "this is just a little study session remember?" "Just remember, it's up to you what you study!" Jennifer piped up, and they all giggled. "You're not helping," I pouted at her. "She'd a little right though," Yoshiko said with a smirk. "Look, YOU'RE in control! You're the puppet-master, you have everything you need to pull his strings and make him dance however you want." Her voice grew quieter. "So, if you want to flirt a bit, or hold his hand... or even give him a little kiss..." she smiled broadly, her eyes suggestively half-closed, "well, I can recommend it." She leaned back, looked at me and giggled. "You should see your face," Yoshiko said. "Can you blame me?" I asked. I could hear in my voice every note of the embarrassment and tension I felt. Both my vocal chords and my heart were high strung. Then the door opened, and Alexis casually walked in, closing it behind her. The corridor fell completely silent. I immediately started rushing for the door, but Alexis barred my way with a forearm across my bare collarbone. "Sssh, wait. Don't be in such a hurry," she whispered to me. "Make him wait for you." "Where's he been?" I whispered back. "Dumbass hates to ask for help, it seems," she whispered back. "He was out there for ten minutes before asking me anything." "Ten minutes?" I asked. "I better get..." "Wait!" Alexis said, pushing me back. "Give it a minute or two," Ruby whispered. "He thinks she's gone to find you... not that you're waiting here to burst out and see him as soon as he gets close." "Which you are doing." "But it looks a bit desperate." I am a bit desperate! Desperate to see what happens next! Desperate to see how he likes my makeup, and my dress... if he like ME in them! Desperate to untie this knot in my intestines. I waited for a full minute more. Then Yoshiko quietly said... "OK, as casually as possible, slip out the door. He's right outside. It is NOT a big deal to you that you look like this. This is natural for you. For him it's a revelation, but for you, it's just Tuesday. You picked it, so own it." I swallowed, as Alexis lowered her arm and gave me a rare genuine smile. I did my best to loosen up, tried to wipe the worry off my face, and as casually as possible stepped up to the door and stepped out. The hall outside was unchanged, not much more than a couple of people milling about. I could hear a ruckus from the game room, another one from the cafeteria, some shouting from the boys dorm, total silence from my own. It took a moment for me to look left and up and see the back of Cliff's head. He seemed to start and turn, and as he did I saw his eyes widen. His eyes travelled from my silky hair, to my bust and little bit of cleavage, down to the airy skirt and the bare legs, back to my chest, and finally to my face. His eyes were wide and his mouth open. "Michelle!" he almost yelped. "Oh! Uh! Ah! Um." His eyes darted away from me. I could see him resisting the urge to scratch the back of his head. "S-sorry I'm late!" I looked at his face. He was turning red! My god. It was working! The hair, the make-up, the dress, it was working! The thought filled me with as much elation as anxiousness. "It's okay," I said with a smile. "I needed a moment to get ready anyway." More like two freaking hours, but I wasn't telling him that. "So, are we going to go somewhere?" I asked. "Uh, yeah," he said shyly. So cute! "There's a place I found that'll be nice and quiet, good place for studying." "Well," I said, clasping my hands behind my back - ok that was maybe a little much for him - "shall we get going then?" He looked me up and down again. Confusingly for me, he suddenly looked puzzled. "Don't you, uh, have your workbooks?" he asked. I froze, mid-flirtatious pose. I'm sure my eyes must have turned into circles. Oh CRAP. I'm such an idiot! This is a study session! "Ah. Ah ha." I looked down at myself. Of course I didn't have them! "I seem to have... yeah, I've forgotten them...!" Dumbass! "Give - give me a moment!" I turned back to the door and went to unlock it, searching this dress for non-existent pockets. Oh CRAP! I'm an utter moron! I don't have my key! I turned back to Cliff, and laughed nervously. He seemed a little amused. "I ah... don't have my key," I confessed. I rapped on the door. "Hey! Can you, can you girls let me in?" I ricked glancing back at Cliff. He had taken a step back and was casually watching me, a smile on his face. "Sorry... I just need a moment..." I nervously said. "It's OK, I can wait," he said, obviously quite entertained at my screwup. "Sorry..." There was a click from the door. I pushed my way in past a stunned Jennifer and slalomed down the corridor between Ruby and Alexis, who seemed to be restraining Sharon. Their eyes widened as I rushed past. "Michelle?" Ruby asked. "What happened?" "Nothing!" I squeaked out. "Nothing except I ruined everything!" I scooped up my workbooks and clutched them to my chest, along with the first handful of pens I could find. I also grabbed my key and, for lack of any ideas where to put it, slipped it into the left cup of my bra, where it sat cold and pointy against my tit. "She forgot her workbooks!" Alexis was now laughing. "Shut it!" I pushed back post them and burst out the door, holding my workbooks in front of me like a breastplate. I must have exploded out of the dorm, since I almost ran into Cliff on the way, and had to stop for a moment to recover my equilibrium. I could hear laughing from inside the dorm. I breathed heavily for a moment, hunched over my workbooks, and tried to grin up at Cliff. "Got em!" I said. The magic that had rendered him incapable before me had apparently broken. He was smiling down at me though, a black backpack in his hands. Now that he wasn't flustered before me, I was the one taking in how broad his shoulders were, how very tall he was... and while the black t- shirt he wore left plenty to the imagination, I HAD seen him in the shower as a boy and knew exactly what it was hiding... He graciously rescued me from my thoughts. "Come on, it's out here." He beckoned for me to join him, and I walked over, sandals clacking on the tiled floor. We left the lodge through the front door and turned left, following the wall of the building. "I was looking for a nice place earlier," he said, "and found a cool little spot." We turned when we came to the corner of the building and he led me down a rougher stone path. It was a little overgrown. I felt grass brush the sides of my sandaled feet, an odd sensation. We proceeded round to the back of the building. In the distance, toward the other end of the building, I could see a pale blue structure. It turned out to be a plastic picnic table in a clearing behind the lodge. To my left I passed what I assumed was a staff door to the kitchens, the fire escape from the cafeteria, and a shed with what seemed to be an unlocked door. I glanced inside - musty and dark inside, but plenty of room. But we ignored the room for now and I was led to the picnic table at the end of this path. It should have been soaking wet after today's rain, but seemed dry. Had Cliff come back here earlier and wiped it down? "We should be able to get some peace and quiet here," he said. "It's nice," I said, appreciatively. The place was unkempt, but had a natural beauty, especially with the woods right there. We were in the shade of the building, but the evening sun still lit enough of the scene for us to work. Cliff sat down on one of the picnic table's benches, and I took the seat directly opposite him. Part of me was hoping I could get him to stare at me as much as possible, and I wanted to maximise its chances. I wouldn't have been able to vocalise or explain it... I just wanted it to happen. We flipped open our workbooks, and I started by explaining the frescoes to him. "All right," Cliff said, "let me see if I got this straight. So the local lord joined the crusades..." "That's right." "And the company he joined set off for Jerusalem, but they kinda got lost or distracted on the way..." "Yeah." "So, to make up for their failing supplies, they started raiding villages along the way..." "Yup." "... which included destroying a whole bunch of Jewish settlements..." "Unfortunately so." "which was... kinda going against the whole reason for the crusade?" he asked, puzzled. "Right?" "Nobody said these people were very smart or thoughtful, or not super- racist," I responded. "Yeah. So eventually he turns back and comes home, gets these frescos made which tell a bunch of lies about his glorious victories at Jerusalem, trades them for indulgences which is basically buying forgiveness, and then even gets to keep them at his own private chapel because he says that's part of the church." Cliff sat back and stared at his notes. "What a bastard," he said, disbelievingly. I shrugged. I saw Cliff's eyes flick to my chest as I did so. "Better hope those indulgences worked," I said. Cliff came around and sat next to me to show me his diagrams of how the portcullis worked. Seemed pretty straightforward - rope, pulley, winch, sword to cut the rope and send the whole thing crashing down on some poor bastard, impaling him through whatever body part got crushed under it. "How come you got an easy one?" I asked. "Luck of the draw, isn't it?" Cliff replied. "I guess." I'd have to copy this out, wouldn't I? And write a few paragraphs on how it worked. I sighed and put down my pen, wishing I'd brought a pencil and an eraser, and put my hands down on the bench. ... where my right hand landed square on top of Cliff's left hand. I jumped and jerked it away, before looking up at his face. He looked shocked, and was blushing. "Ah! S-sorry," I stammered. "It's... it's okay," he said. "I... didn't mind." We sat in silence for a moment. The two of us uncomfortably close. I could smell him. It wasn't unpleasant. "So..." I said... "about the winch..." "Michelle?" he said. "I'm, uh." I heard him swallow. "I'm really glad you're a girl now." I looked up at him, my eyes wild. He had turned beet red, and was awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "You were always a smart guy, but you've turned out really pretty too. And..." I watched his Adam's apple quiver as he gulped again, "really cute. And beautiful. And..." "All those words mean the same thing, silly..." I said, trying to laugh but with an almost compete shortage of breath. "And there's not enough of them," he replied. "Would..." He held out his palm and looked directly into my eyes. "Would you like to go out with me, once we're back home? It's hard to have a date here... but I'd like to go to the movies with you, or the park, or we could go shopping..." I couldn't breathe. I had tears in my eyes. My chest hurt. I never felt better. I nodded. I nodded again, more vigorously. "Yes..." I eventually choked out. "I'd like that. You're... a real sweet guy Cliff, and handsome, and smart. I... ah..." I swallowed hard, and smiled. "I think I like you a lot." I put my hand in his palm. It felt tiny in there, my slender fingers brushing against his, which felt huge in comparison. Even though I knew they were nothing special, the contrast was what was important. "I like you too..." he said. I pulled on his hand. He was twice my weight and his arms were like tree trunks compared to my twigs, but he folded easily when I applied the slightest pressure, bending down to where his lips could meet mine. We pecked each other on the lips a couple of times, before I dared to open my mouth a little more and felt my tongue brush his teeth and then, a moment later, his tongue. We didn't go deep, we didn't yet dare, and I don't know how long it lasted for, but when we pulled apart I felt like I had to be glowing. "Wow..." I said. "You're... pretty good." "I think that was you," Cliff replied. "I was just along for the ride." "Well..." I said, turning redder, "turns out we can do great things together." "So, I guess that's a yes?" he asked. I giggled. "Hehe... for sure." We tried to return to work for a while, but kept getting distracted by further kissing. It was wonderful, sitting there by the quiet forest, Cliff's hands on my back and my waist, mine on his lap. I couldn't help but be so grateful that I was now a girl - with neither of us being gay, this would never have happened if I were still a boy, and missing out on kissing Cliff seemed unthinkable now. Eventually the moment was ruined when Cliff's phone beeped. We ignored it, but then it beeped again, and again. He pulled away from our current kiss. "Sorry..." he mumbled. "If this isn't important I'm going to kill someone..." "It's OK," I said. I needed to catch my breath anyway. Cliff pulled out his phone and checked his messages. His eyes widened and his face paled. "Shit..." "What is it?" I asked, leaning forward. He got up. "I'm sorry," he said. "I need to go for a moment. My bags got knocked over in the dorm and apparently some of those guys are picking through them, nosy bastards... if I don't go sort it out, things'll get broken or go missing... or they'll find something to make fun of..." "Oh, right," I replied. "I get it. That's okay. Are you going to be back?" "As soon as I can," he said, smiling, and he leaned down to peck me on the lips again. "We're not done here, right?" "Right," I said, batting my eyes. I saw him shiver. "Don't worry, I'll be fine here for a few minutes." "I'll be back as soon as possible." He then ran off, along the back of the lodge and around the corner. I could hear him grumbling as he went. I turned my face back to the schoolwork, tucking my arms in so that my elbows were against my waist but my clenched fists were by my shoulders. Then after a moment I squealed and threw my hands up. I had a boyfriend! A really nice one! He thinks I'm smart and pretty! He loves me! I'm so glad I'm a girl! I lowered my arms and stared down at the workbooks, but I really wasn't thinking about them. My mind was awash with the possibilities. We'll go on dates! I'll go to the Christmas dance with him! I'll have to pick the very best dress ever, I had to be the absolute sexiest girl there, I knew he'd be the hottest guy there for me. I wonder if he likes my long hair of if he'd like it shorter? I didn't have to change for him, but I could if it wasn't too bad, maybe I'd like it too. But maybe my long hair was what attracted him? Maybe it didn't matter! He'd like me either way! What movie should we go see first? He might think I'd want to see some chick flick, and I was more interested in giving them a fair shot now that they were supposedly for me, but I really wanted to see that Spiderverse sequel with him now! It was out soon! I wonder if I could cosplay MJ? I had the hair for it. But those movies weren't really about her, and I was the wrong ethnicity for the MCU version... but Cliff would make a pretty good Peter! I'd never considered cosplay before, but wasn't it worth a shot? Hey, how about Jean Grey? I'd have to see if he wanted to go along with that. What if we took a trip somewhere? Isn't a couple renting a rowing boat meant to be romantic? Or we could go to a fair. Are there fairs around here? You never hear about them. I WONDER IF I COULD BE ARIEL AND HE COULD BE THE GUY FROM THAT MOVIE - "Hi, Michelle," a boy said from behind me. "What's up?" I leaped in my seat and spun around. Oh shit. Daniel was slouched a few feet away. I could feel his pale eyes boring into me, tracing the shape of my waist and butt under my dress before alighting, as usual, on my chest. Everything about how he looked at me just creeped me out. I turned away and started hurriedly gathering up Cliff's and my workbooks. "Doing ok," I said. He'd walked up to my left hand side, entirely too close and looming over me. I glanced up at him and regretted it. He was clearly staring down my cleavage. "I was just going though..." I said. "Oh, come on..." he moaned. "Do you have to go now? I've been wanting to talk to you for a couple of days..." "What is it?" I curtly asked. He was blocking my route off the left side of the bench. If I wanted to stand, I'd have to spin 180 degrees, swinging both my legs over the bench to my right. "You're uh..." he said, scratching his nose. "You're looking really sexy today..." he said, and then realised he should correct himself. "I mean you're pretty. You're really pretty for someone who used to be a guy." That wasn't quite as welcome a comment as he thought. I spun my legs over the bench and got up. "Thanks, I guess, though the guy bit's not important," I said, gathering the pile of workbooks up and hugging them to my chest with my right arm, hoping they'd make a barrier against his stare. It worked a little. "Still, I'd better be going. See you." I started to walk away but he chased after me. "Come on! Stay for a bit! I'm just trying to be nice! What's wrong with saying you're pretty?" "You don't just come out and say it!" I yelled at him. "Maybe I am, but the way you say it, it's like it's the only thing that's important!" "But it is important!" I kept walking away from him. "Come on! You'll practically slather yourself over the other guys, but you won't talk to me?" "Because you're a creepy weirdo!" I spat back. "I probably know that better than any of the girls! I knew it perfectly well when I was a guy, and god I wish I'd done something about it! Because I could tolerate you before but now you just creep me out!" "That's not fair!" he said. "I'm no worse than any other boys!" "Have you even seen my face?" I asked. "Other guys at least try to pretend they're not staring at my tits!" "Then don't put them out there!" he yelled. "Don't show them off if you don't want people to see them!" I glared at him. He continued. "It's not fair to put them out there and say we have to ignore them! You're just trying to pull in a boy, but it's like everyone says online! Girls are just desperate to pull in some horny chump they can control but the second anyone with any brains takes an interest, they cry 'no, don't look at us, we're not for YOU,'" He was spitting as he spoke. "It's not fair! All I want is a fair shot!" "Of course it's not fair!" I yelled back. "I'm not something that can be shared fairly! And..." I really wanted out of here now. I quickened my steps, "they're MY tits, and I can do what I want with them, and I can show them off if I want to!" "All right," Daniel said, "but we all know what you want! You want some guy to touch them!" "You're gross!" "You want them squeezed!" He was chasing after me now. "You're desperate to be fingered and fucked! It's been obvious since the day you changed!" "Fuck off!" "So why not me?" He lunged, and grabbed my left arm from behind me. "Daniel! What the fuck!?" I squealed as loudly as I could. "Let go!" He twisted my arm around my back. It felt like there was nothing I could do to resist. I simply didn't have the strength in me. "Come on, just let me..." he grunted. I saw his right arm coming around, reaching for the books I clutched to my chest. I tried to bat it away but fumbled the books in the process. "Let GO! LET GO!" I said, panicking. "HELP! HELP!" I screamed. "Shut up, you know you'll like it..." he muttered. I saw his arm swing around again, and tried to bat it away, but my arm was knocked upward and his came back in below it... "AAAAAAAH!" I screamed, closing my eyes. And then, in the blackness, something happened. Something shifted. Daniel's hand definitely clutched my right breast. I did NOT like it. But something was... wrong. The grip on my left arm felt looser. I shook it off, swatted Daniel's right hand off my boob, and staggered forward a few feet. "What the FUCK, you bastard!" I screamed, tears in my eyes, at... ... ... her? A girl was standing there, looking surprised. She was wearing Daniel's clothes, which looked comically oversized on her. Her t-shirt was baggy, her jeans almost hanging off her hips, the trouser legs pooling against her shoes. Her face wasn't particularly pretty, though her eyes were a little cute, and her hair was roughly four inches longer and shaggier than it had been, though completely unstyled. She still seemed slightly taller than me, though much less curvy upstairs and more curvy down below. I squinted at her, disbelievingly. "Daniel...?" "The... hell?" she asked in a low mezzo-soprano, and looked down at herself. I realised one of my feet was cold. One of my sandals had fallen off in the fight. I hobbled over to it, trying not to put any more than the tips of my toes in the grass, and slipped it back on. When I looked back at Daniel, she had pulled the collar of her shirt out and was looking down it, while reaching up into her shirt with her other hand. She was apparently giving herself a breast exam. "Dude, I've got tits..." she said in shock. "Hey! Stop doing that here!" I yelled at her. "Anyone could see!" I pulled her rubbing hand out from under her shirt. "The hell, Michelle?" Daniel asked. "You turned me into a girl???" "Of course not! I can't do that! Why the hell would I do that? You should be arrested, not, not... feminised!" "What? Come on! You were asking for it..." "I fucking wasn't!" I shouted, jabbing her in the collarbone. "That was all in your sick head! And guess what! If you think all girls are asking for it, well, so are you now! Right now! Forever! You're just constantly fucking desperate to be groped by guys who're like the boy you used to be!" That stunned her into silence. I could see some gears turning. Maybe she was remembering how she and her online friends talked about girls like her. I turned away and squatted down, picking up the dropped workbooks. As I did, I heard running sounds from around the corner, and Henry and Robert rounded the corner. They looked at the two of us in some surprise. "We heard some screaming?" Henry said, his eyes darting between Daniel and myself. "Are you two all right?" ... I opened my mouth to tell them what happened, but the words stuck in my throat. I... didn't want to say. There was... something. Something shameful about what happened. Something I didn't want anyone to know. Something I wanted to bury in myself until I couldn't see it. I looked down at how I was dressed, thought of my makeup, thought of my absurd figure... What if they think I WAS asking for it? I wasn't, but... what if they blame me? I stood up, hugged the workbooks to my chest again, and nodded back over my shoulder. "I was just having a fight with this bitch," I said, coldly. "Don't want to talk about it." I walked past them, back around the corner, and started heading back to the front door of the lodge. As I walked, shoulders hunched and head down, I heard Henry hurrying after me. "Michelle? Michelle." He drew up beside me. "Are you all right?" "I'm fine," I said. "What happened there?" "I said I didn't want to talk about it, Henry," I snapped. "We just had a fight." "Well, yeah, but a fight wouldn't usually end up with Daniel looking a bit more... feminine?" Henry asked, leadingly. I sighed. "Don't ask me about that. I really have no idea. I had nothing to do with THAT." "I guess not." He shrugged. "I guess it's okay, though I'm sorry she's you girls' problem now. The guys won't be sad to see her creepy face out of our dorm." "Yeah, well, maybe you..." I paused, "WE should have done something about that before this happened." "Like what?" "Hell if I know... talk to her I guess..." I was interrupted by a loud yelling behind me. "MICHELLE! Hey Michelle!" Daniel was behind us, shuffling her feet as she walked, holding up her slipping jeans with both hands. Why was she shuffling? Maybe her shoes were too big now? I'd been given fashionable clothing that fit when it happened to me, but her clothes didn't seem to have changed. Hell, her chest wasn't very big but as she drew nearer it became pretty clear she wasn't even wearing a bra. "What?" I asked curtly. "Uh... so, what next?" she asked. "Next you go back to the boy's dorm and leave me the hell alone." "I can't go back there!" she squealed. "It's the BOY'S dorm!" "Then find a tree to sleep in!" I turned and started to walk away. "Oh come on!" she said, almost cheerily. "I... I need your help here! Aren't girls supposed to look out for each other?" I turned and slapped her face in one clean movement. My palm stung, but her face shot sideways in a very satisfying way. She even dropped one half of her jeans, letting them slip down and revealing a slack set of briefs and a bit of thigh, which she scrambled to cover back up before Henry and Robert saw much too much. "The hell? Michelle?!" "We're not friends, Daniel!" I yelled at her. "I hate you! I will not help you! Stay the hell away from me!" And I marched off as quickly as I could. As I hurried toward the girl's dorm I thought I spotted Cliff out of the corner of my eye. He was leaving the boy's dorm, and I pretended not to have seen him. I didn't want him asking what had happened. So I subtly fished the key out of my bra and entered the girls dorm as quickly as possible. Once inside I finally breathed out, and leaned my back against the door. I just wanted to collapse. I dragged myself back to our room and, almost ignoring anything else, slumped down on my bed and laid back. "-ichelle?" I heard someone say. I opened my eyes and looked up. Ruby's upside down head was peeking down from her own bunk above me. She was looking at me with excited eyes. "You're back! How'd it go?" She took another look at my expression, and her brow furrowed. "... not good?" Her head vanished, and then she was climbing down from her bunk. I sat up as she sat on the bed next to me. She looked worried. "What's wrong?" she asked. "You look... terrible." My eyes hurt. I could feel them puffing up, water trickling onto my cheeks. Ruby wrapped her arms around me and I rested my hear on her shoulder, putting my own arms around her back. We stayed that way for a minute or two, me just crying on her shoulder. Eventually she said, "Jesus. What did Cliff do to you, Michelle?" "Nothing," I said. "He was perfect. He was nice, and respectful, and kind... and smart, and handsome..." I squealed. "He was great. He... he asked me to be his girlfriend, and we're going to go on dates... I think he loves me." "That sounds great, I'm happy for you," Ruby said, somewhat uneasily. "But... that doesn't sound like it ends in tears. At least, not this kind of tears..." "No... it doesn't," I sobbed. "But then Cliff had to go, and Daniel came along and she wasn't quite as good..." "She?" Ruby immediately asked. "Oh, she's a girl now," I said. "But that's not the important part..." And I told Ruby all about the incident we'd had. And about all the fears that had been building in me over the last fifteen minutes, rushing into the space where my self-awareness of my vulnerability should have been. Of course Daniel wasn't going to do more than grab my boob at this school trip, especially with me screaming my head off and Cliff probably returning at any moment. But if she'd had the desire and opportunity to do much worse... I couldn't have stopped her. As a boy, she'd completely overpowered my tiny body that was weak by girl standards, and she'd hardly been the biggest or strongest boy around. And she could have done so much, much worse... "Michelle..." Ruby said. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I know, it's horrible..." "Is this what it's like to be a girl?" I asked. "I'm afraid it's almost the unwritten rule about guys, but it's the one everyone knows," Ruby said. "You're going to be afraid, sometimes. You don't always have to be, and you can manage it by being careful, and prepared... but you're a girl. Guys are going to make you uncomfortable and feel like you're in danger, because sometimes you are." "How do you live being afraid of half the people on the planet?" I asked, emptily. "I just trust that most of them are cool people who would never hurt me. I really think they are. You know those boys upstairs better than anyone else in the girl's dorms. Do you think they would have done this? When you were a boy, would you have ever thought of doing what Daniel did?" I swallowed. I didn't feel like I could be anything other than 100% honest. "Honestly? I fantasied. Not exactly the same fantasy, a lot more consenting, but I did fantasize a lot. But I wouldn't have done it like she did..." "Exactly. I've always known I could trust you not to hurt me or anyone else. I believe that about most of the boys up there... and well, looks like the really troublesome one I could never trust isn't so much of a problem to us girls now." I nodded, giving a little laugh. "Henry told me that Daniel's the girls' problem now," I said. "He couldn't be more wrong." "Yeah, Daniel was always our problem, not the boys'," Ruby said. "But if her sexuality's done the same thing as yours, the boys are about to find out what kind of a problem she can be." I laughed bitterly. We broke the hug. "Listen, Michelle," Ruby said warmly. "When we get back home, how about I invite you along to the self-defence class I take?" I nodded. That sounded good. Ruby continued. "And, how about we both start hitting the gym? We can put some muscle on those twig arms of yours." She smiled and wrapped as much of her thumb and forefinger around my bicep as she could. I laughed and swatted her hand away. "Yeah, sounds good. And, Ruby?" I sighed and looked down. "Would you mind not telling anyone else about this? I don't want this to become a thing..." "You're going to protect her?" Ruby asked, stunned. "Michelle, I..." "No, I just don't want to walk about the lodge and have people thinking 'oh, poor Michelle, she got groped!' I just want to forget it ever happened right now. And if it gets out it'll just worry my parents, and cause a lot of fuss, and I don't want that..." I sat side-on to Ruby, who was listening with a little bit of dismay on her face. "Besides, Daniel being a girl now really muddles the situation. She's not a threat to us anymore, and I feel like people are going to say it's not such a big deal because it was only a girl doing it, and..." I sighed. "It's just a big messy ball of confusion right now. I want to move past that." "I don't agree," Ruby said, very firmly. "It doesn't matter if it was a boy or a girl, she grabbed your boob by force and that's not OK. I think you should go straight to Mrs Waller right now. But... if you really don't want people to know, I'll keep the secret. Are you sure?" "Yeah, I think so," I replied. "Well, all right then." Ruby didn't seem happy about it, but I had a feeling she would respect my wishes. "Changing the subject... you, uh, really should go wash your face." "What? Why?" "Maybe just go look in the mirror," she said with a smirk. My mascara was everywhere! It was an absolute disaster! I had to wash the entire set of makeup off, which I would have had to anyway, and after washing my teary eyes I felt much better. We relaxed a little after that, just hanging out in the dorm room. I pulled out my phone, which had a message from Cliff on it. CLIFF CARROW: hey whered u go? U ok? MICHAEL ADAMS: im ok. just had to leave quick. sorry. got ur workbooks, will give back next time i see u CLIFF CARROW: oh ok. see u tomorrow? MICHAEL ADAMS: yeah, love to (kiss emoji) (love hearts smile emoji) (heart eyes emoji) CLIFF CARROW: (multiple couples with heart emojis) CLIFF CARROW: did y know ur phone has ur old name MICHAEL ADAMS: yeah I gotta fix that sometime I went into my account settings and tried to get that updated. Took a while but soon my phone's account was saying I was a girl named Michelle, a very pleasing state of affairs. Over the next hour or so, Yoshiko and Alexis and Jennifer drifted back to the dorm, and I had to recount multiple times the story of my make out session with Cliff. I kept in most of the salacious details while completely expunging anything about Daniel. The sound of their teasing 'ooooooohhhsssss!' rang through the dorm, and I had to hide my beaming and flushed face in my pillow quite a lot. After a while, Mrs Waller came and knocked on our door. "Good evening girls," she said. "Time to get to bed soon. Just stopping by to let you know Danni James will be sleeping on a bedroll in room one for the rest of the week, so expect to see her around." I almost jumped off my bed. "What?!" I looked around at the other girls. They seemed equally dismayed, or at least confused. "Danni?" Rose spat. "Danni James?" Jennifer asked. "You mean... Daniel?" "She's a girl now, and calling herself Danni," Mrs Waller said. "So she can't very well sleep in the boy's dorm anymore." "But... Danni?" Alexis said, pulling a face. "It's all very well Michelle becoming a girl and sleeping in here, but she was all right! This is Danni you're talking about!" "I understand your concern," Mrs Waller said. "I really do. But Danni is definitely a girl now, and as far as I can tell from talking to her, her mind's changed quite similarly to Michelle regarding girls and boys. However, I have made it clear to room one that the second they have a complaint about her behaviour she will be heading home, and the same is true for room two. I think you should give her a chance and accept her like you've accepted Michelle..." she said, and then lowered her voice a little. "But yes, this is Danni we're talking about." She straightened up. "Also, classes are cancelled for tomorrow, so it'll be your free day instead of Thursday. I need to escort Danni into town so she can buy some clothes that'll fit her, and Mr Danes can't keep you all under watch by himself." Mrs Waller left, and I regretted not speaking up. I really didn't want to make a big deal of Danni assaulting me, but now she was going to be in room one. I hoped they all knew to stay on their guard. Maybe I should talk to them... thought what could I tell them that they didn't already know about Danni's behaviour? I got my opportunity when bedtime came, and encountered room one denizens at the sinks brushing their teeth. "... so jealous you're getting to go shopping tomorrow," Lisa was saying cheerfully. "I'm going a little stir crazy after being out here in the woods for just a few days." "Do you want to come with me?" Danni asked. "I'm sure Mrs Waller wouldn't mind." She had removed her oversized jeans at some point, and her t-shirt was long enough to drape over her entire torso and crotch. I did see her try to hitch up her loose boy's briefs as she brushed her teeth though. "Seriously?" Lisa asked, "Yeah! That'd be fun. I'll help you pick out all the cutest stuff!" I couldn't believe it! They were just chatting to her casually! "You do know that's Danni James?" I said from behind them, saying the name as scathingly as I could. "The super-creep? She tried to..." I swallowed, "grope me earlier." Technically true. They fell silent, and looked at me. Danni froze, and then continued brushing her teeth, spat, put her brush away and wordlessly left the bathroom, not even daring to look at me. Anne, who had been on the opposite side of Danni than Lisa, shook her head and the two of them stalked over to me. "Yeah, we know," Anne quietly hissed. She didn't seem so much mad as frustrated. "Look, we don't like having her in our room either. But she's all right... well... she's a little better now she's a girl. At least she's not after us. We've decided to give her the benefit of the doubt for now." "To Danni?" I hissed back. "Yeah, to Danni! And don't lecture us about her being a gross pervert. We've been dealing with her since she realised we had training bras, you've been dealing with her for three days! We know! But she's changed, and we're going to give her the benefit of the doubt for now, and maybe we'll manage to do something you and the boys never tried to do and make her a decent human being." ... she had me there. "... all right. Just wanted to... let you know I guess," I said. "Just, watch yourselves." "Don't worry, we've been doing that around Danni for a long time." I brushed my teeth once they left, scrubbing a bit more angrily than usual after being dressed down like that. Then I went to bed, the second one to climb into my sleeping bag after Jennifer. Once five of us were bunked down Sharon was returned to us by an annoyed Nemea. Apparently Sharon had been loitering around the door to room one, scribbling in her notebook and mumbling about Danni, and had to be physically forced to leave. Once the lights were out I lay on my back and tried to sleep, but my thoughts swarmed in the dark. I was still furious with Danni, but the shock was fading. More and more, I found myself wondering again about who or what was changing boys into girls here. What had been the differences and similarities between what happened to Danni and I? Hm... Similarity: A boy turned into a girl in an instant. Well, that was obvious. Difference: I hadn't been assaulting a girl when I changed. Difference: I'd been given clothes that fit. My hair had been cut and styled. I'd even had an earring and some nail polish. Danni was still wearing exactly the same clothes, her hair was a mess... she hadn't even been given a bra. Difference: A lot of my belongings had also changed. I'd been gifted a thousand pounds worth of clothes, my Switch was now a pink Lite, my toilet bag and toiletries and shoes and everything... all for a girl. Danni was going to need to go buy clothes tomorrow. Similarity(?): I liked boys now. Supposedly so did Danni? I hadn't seen this for myself but that's what they said. Difference: Everyone had accepted me as a girl immediately and all the other girls had immediately trusted me. Danni didn't quite have that, though it was satisfying to put that down to the difference in our pasts and personalities, not a difference in whatever happened to us. When you looked at it, there were more difference in what happened to the two of us than similarities. Why? I got all those clothes, why didn't Danni? Did whatever did this think she didn't deserve it? She didn't, but I don't know what I did to deserve it, except maybe it was an apology for the inconvenience. Or maybe it was because whoever changed me was prepared to do it and had planned for the clothes issue, while Danni's was a sudden decision? It could be both or it could be neither... I tried to put the thoughts out of my mind. It didn't feel like it was worth worrying about right now. The more pressing issue was whatever room one was needing to endure right now, and I couldn't help with that. Instead, I tried to fill my head with thoughts of Cliff, and happily drifted off to sleep thinking of his arms around me as our tongues brushed against each other... and thinking about more we could do... I rose from my throne, glaring down at the disgusting criminal before me. The feathers and leaves in my crown wafted gently in the wind. My dress was backless and short, little more than scraps of brilliant cloth, the most beautiful feathers, a gold shoulder-piece and a ruby- encrusted silver plate over what would be an exposed nipple. It left nothing to the imagination but I could wear what I want, because I was the god-damn Queen of my lands! My amazons stood in a horseshoe around the near-naked bound and gagged criminal, their own leather and metal armour skimpy and beautiful. They pointed their long spears at it. "This is the one that has defiled your royal person!" Ruby, captain of my guard, announced. "What shall we do with the manling?" Alexis, most terrifying of my warriors asked. I scooped up my own spear, and pointed it at his unrepentant throat. "Let the gods take their judgement." Suddenly, his body convulsed. My guards stepped back in surprise as he fell backwards as if struck in the chest. We saw his entire body seem to shrivel and shrink as it shook, if not for his gag I was sure he would be screaming. Soon all his visible muscle was gone, his waist thinned, and we saw his hips began to grow wider and rounder, much like our own, and his flat chest swell with the gifts of feeding young ones. His voice was lightening in pitch, his hair growing longer, and even though we could not see inside his loincloth we knew he had been blessed with the most holy and glorious power to nurture life we all shared, that blessing which set us apart from the brutes. He fell unconscious, and Alexis crept over to check his chest and search his loincloth. "She is as us!" she said in shock. "What?" I asked, in fury. "This is not a punishment! This is a blessing! This is an outrage!" "Your majesty..." the wise woman said from behind me. She wore a strange garment called a 'Sailor Moon t-shirt' and a pair of shorts, her eyes glinted behind glass discs and her hair was wild. I was not actually that convinced she was very wise. "The gods have made their choice, but you can still punish her if you want. If you exile her she'll have to go out into guys' kingdoms, where she'll probably be treated like she treated you. Hard to say if anyone deserves that, but it would be fitting. But if you let her stay, she could become a pretty good girl. But you're queen, so really it's up to you." I glared down at the figure below me and tossed my regal red hair, the sign of royalty. I truly despised this criminal for her crimes against my person. But... "This kingdom was founded on protecting our kind. Put her in the dungeons, for now. We shall see if she shall repent and swear fealty, and to live by our ways. If not, she shall be exiled." My guards started to drag her body away, and I angrily returned to my throne. I wished to have given the harshest sentence, but somehow could not conscience it. Frustrated, I sat down on my throne. "I tire! Bring me a manling!" A portcullis on the left side of the room opened, and I was pleased to see my favourite step out, trailing his chain behind him. He was tall, broad, and muscled, his skin less rough than the others - I had instructed the keepers of the manlings not to whip this one. I removed the silver nipple plate, bade him to touch my great blessing, and allowed his lips to touch mine. My guards all knew to turn away. As I slept, I made various happy gurgling sounds. As a bonus, I didn't roll over onto a tit tonight!