The local college wasn't a very large campus, but it was probably bigger than some community college. The place was two large, L-shaped buildings -- the Cuttler Building and the Williamson Building, named after the two founders of the school -- surrounding a square courtyard in the center, and in the middle of the courtyard was a fountain. There was a smaller courtyard off to the west side, in front of a separate building that seemed to hold the administration offices. To the east were the dorms, which were just two buildings that didn't seem as big as a small apartment building. I assumed most of the students were like me and lived close enough.

I cursed Debi for making me wear a skirt. At the very least, she didn't object to me wearing tights so that my legs weren't completely naked. Having people gawk at me at work was already degrading, I wasn't going to show myself off to everybody at school, too. She also hadn't complained when I decided on wearing a light sweater, even though it was a warm day. I was still cold, for whatever reason, and that was after taking a hot shower before work and then another one after.

I chained up my moped at the bike rack. I wasn't sure if I could at first, but I saw three other mopeds hooked up to it. Places really needed to think about moped parking and taking it seriously. Of course, I was saying that because I owned one. If I drove a car, I probably wouldn't give a shit about moped parking, just like everyone else.

I adjusted my bag and looked at the pamphlet that Lucas had given me. The creative writing class that I was taking, apparently with Evan, was on the third floor of the Williamson Building, with Professor Matthews, room 3910. I wasn't sure why the rooms were numbered in the thousands when there didn't actually seem to be enough room for them, but I assumed there was some sort of system I wasn't really aware of. Hell, maybe I'd figure it out on the way.

I rubbed at my arms for a little warmth, which naturally made me drop my bag. Debi had gifted me her old messenger bag, the very bag she had when Lucas changed her into a girl. I quickly picked it back up and this time brought it over my head. The strap going between my boobs was awkward, but I'd much rather deal with that minor discomfort than constantly dropping it. I still didn't understand why I kept feeling chilly. That was a bigger annoyance than anything else.

I found room 3910 and still found no sense of logic, internal or otherwise, to the numbering of the rooms. The one beside it was 3825, which honestly made it seem like there was even less sense than before, which was quite impressive. Regardless, the room was barely bigger than a high school classroom. I expected it to be this big auditorium-like room with the professor at the front at a podium. Instead, it was basically an ordinary classroom with a white board at the front, room for forty students and while there was a podium, it was in the corner opposite the professor's desk.

I wasn't the only one in the room, thankfully. There were sixteen others just lounging around, talking to one another. Evan wasn't one of them, I noticed, or at least not as I knew him. He was a shape-shifter, after all, and I'd already seen three of his forms. Sure, he wouldn't be in his monkey king form here, but I had no way of knowing which --

"Nora?" his voice asked. I spun around and saw him standing there, looking as he had yesterday, though his hair seemed slightly lighter, more of a sandy color. "What are you doing here?"

I rubbed at my arm. "Lucas enrolled me in some classes after he found out about us talking yesterday."

"Wait a minute, how did he…"

"Reality warping."

"Oh, yeah."

"Yup, so now I'm here and I… Have no idea what I'm doing."

He patted me on the shoulder. "It's okay, Professor Matthews is cool. She's really loose with everything."

At about that moment, an older woman with chestnut brown hair in a white blouse, black pencil skirt and black four inch pumps had basically materialized out of thin air. Apparently, I'd been paying too much attention to Evan to notice her. Her blouse was only buttoned upto a certain point, exposing a pretty good amount of cleavage. "Loose, huh? Is that why you're taking my class, Mr. Tang?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Your last name is Tang?"

Professor Matthews held out her hand for a handshake. "You must be my late arrival, Nora Cooper."

I nodded, then returned the handshake. "That's right."

"Your brother, Lucas, has told me a lot about you. Says you have a knack for creativity."

I giggled nervously. "It's mostly a hobby. He talked me into even going to college."

She nodded. “Well, I intend to hone that hobby into something that can serve you for the future.” She gestured to the desks. “Now, if you two will please take your seats, we have a particular favorite of mine to go over today.”

Evan and I both sat down close to everybody else, but far enough away for us to not bother anyone. Then, a small girl with long brown hair sat down beside me, which surprised me. For a second, I wondered if I had taken anyone's seat until Evan told me there was no assigned seating. She looked perky and cheerful, which was probably the opposite of how I felt on a daily basis.

Except for now. Honestly, being in class felt… Soothing. The chill that I didn't understand had started to fade, almost disappearing entirely. I didn't really know how to react to that, since the whole thing was so damned confusing anyway. Either way, I had to admit, I actually wanted to be as perky and cheerful as this girl beside me. Hell, maybe she could even be a friend.

Professor Matthews stood at the white board and wrote two words. "Conflict" and "Challenge". She then stood between the two words and held out her hands as if she were holding them up. "This, ladies and gentlemen, is what every piece of writing exists for. A central conflict makes up the backbone." She pointed to a blonde haired girl in the front row. "Katie, what's the central conflict in The Lord of the Rings?"

Katie answered, "Destroying the One Ring and defeating Sauron."

The professor nodded. "Good girl. And it is this central conflict that the challenges of a work revolve around. The planets to the conflict's sun." She pointed to a boy who had his feet propped up on his desk. "Mitchel, I've told you to stop that, but for now… What are some of the challenges of Twilight?"

He shrugged. "I dunno, I never read it."

"And what about Fifty Shades of Grey?"

"Nope."

"Well, in both cases, the woman's romantic attraction to an older man with a dark secret presents challenges. For both of these women, a challenge is learning and accepting the man's lifestyle." She smirked. "I know, that doesn't mean much to you boys in class, but keep in mind, your girls will need to go through that challenge with you one of these days." She took a step forward. "Conflict and challenge define your work, they are that which carries the reader forward. You may consider things such as plot advancement and character development to be the key pieces of a tale, but these are in themselves conflicts and challenges both." She walked over to the podium. "By next Friday, I want all of you to write something, ten thousand words at least, and give great focus to the conflicts and the challenges your characters are going to endure."

She then walked over to her desk and sat down, leaving us to our work. I leaned over and whispered, "So, we just… Write for the next hour and a half?"

Evan nodded. "Yup. Told ya, really loose. The next class, she'll talk about something else she wants us to incorporate, then again, then again until the assignment is due. She'll grade us on how well our writing takes all those little lessons into account, as well as style, general quality, and so forth. It's actually a pretty easy class unless something stops you up."

I reached into my bag and pulled out my laptop, just like everyone else. I honestly hadn't checked in all my time on Earth, but I wondered if my Google Docs would still be in my account now that I wasn't on Asgard. I had something I'd already started working on that I hoped would suffice.

* * *

I sat on a bench in the courtyard between the two buildings and kept staring at my damned Google Doc like an airhead, which I honestly felt like at the moment. How had I come up with absolutely nothing that entire time? Even with Evan giving me encouraging pats on the shoulder, I'd managed exactly zilch.

I put my laptop to sleep, closed it and stuffed it back in my bag. I didn't have either of my other two classes until tomorrow, so I had plenty of time to kill. Hopefully something would come to me before the next time I had class, because I didn't want to sit through another ninety minute class with an annoying case of writer's block.

The girl from class sat down on the bench beside me with a rather large Subway sandwich. I was almost afraid to ask her what was in it, but the thought of it made me hungry. I wondered if Evan was free for lunch.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry! I didn't realize you were here!"

I felt myself turn red. "It's okay, really."

"I saw the first bench that had an empty spot and I just took it, I'm so sorry! You were probably waiting for your boyfriend."

I was probably redder now. "Nope… No boyfriend."

She looked surprised. "Really? I thought Evan was your boyfriend."

I shook my head. "Oh, no! He's a friend that I just met the other day."

"Oh. He's talked a lot about you since then."

I blinked. "He has?"

She nodded. "You're Nora, right?"

"Yeah."

She reached out for a handshake. "I'm Mirabella, and Evan was telling me so much about you yesterday. I tried talking him into seeing you after classes yesterday, but I don't think he was really listening to me."

"He did, actually. We spent a whole afternoon and evening watching anime on Netflix."

Her eyes lit up. "That's adorable!"

Jesus, this girl was almost frighteningly perky. I was starting to get a sugar high being around her. "Yeah… Adorable." I quickly searched for something to change the subject. "Do you have a job or are you waiting until you finish college?"

"No, I have a job. It's super boring, though. I'm a cashier at the bowling alley over on sixteenth street, and not a lot of people go bowling these days. What about you?"

"Waitress."

"Oh, wow… And I thought my job was bad…"

"Whaddya mean?" I asked, trying not to sound confrontational. I knew being a waitress was kind of at the bottom of the Jobs for Women totem pole, but I didn't think it was that much lower than being a cashier at a failing bowling alley.

She turned red. "Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean… It's just… My job is just boring, I just stand at a cash register and handle money and don't really deal with people for very long. You have to deal with people gawking at you, leering at you, or even looking down at you just for being a waitress all while they're looking down your shirt. I don't think I could handle that."

Okay, at least she wasn't really being insulting. I still didn't quite like how she felt about my job, but I couldn't exactly deny that she was right about the gawking, the leering and the looking down my shirt while being demeaning to me. It wasn't a great job, but it was still a job and the tips were pretty good. And everybody had to start somewhere. Nobody leapt into the adult world in their dream job.

I didn’t say anything for a bit, which likely made her feel like she’d insulted me again. I told her, "Sorry if I kinda made you feel like I was snapping at you."

She shook her head. "No, no, it's okay. I did kinda say your job was demeaning. I just hope you can forgive that."

"Trust me, I can forgive a lot. You're fine."

She sighed with relief. "Thank god… So… What classes are you taking?"

"Creative writing, cosmetology and marketing."

Her eyes lit up. "Cosmetology with Mrs. Kramer?"

"Yeah…?"

"I'm taking that class, too!"

I laughed nervously. "That's a pretty cool coincidence."

She stood up and threw her crumb-filled Subway wrapper in the trash. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Nora! I've got a gymnastics class here in a bit, so I'll see you tomorrow!"

I nodded. "Yup. I enjoyed meeting you too, Mirabella."

She gave me a light wave. "You can just call me 'Mira'. It's what I let friends call me."

"Alright, Mira. See you tomorrow!" I had to admit, her enthusiasm was a little infectious. I started to wonder if going to school and meeting more people could turn me into something like that.

I started to wonder if being a bubbly girl was really such a bad thing.

* * *

I waited in line at Subway for the better part of an hour. There was an obnoxious asshole at the head of the line who stopped everybody up because he wanted his sub very specific and wouldn't take anything less. I swear, I thought he was going to hop over the counter and make it himself after about the fifth "No! The cheese goes between! The ham and the salami! Not on top of them!" He was probably the weirdest person I'd ever seen at a restaurant.

When I finally reached the head of the line, I heard my text chirp. I pulled my phone out of my bag and blinked. Evan knew my number? Since when?

"Ma'am?" the girl behind the counter asked. "What bread?"

I felt stupid for letting Evan surprise me. "Uh… Monterey cheddar."

She put on a disappointed face. "I'm sorry, we stopped selling that at this location."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, um… Italian herb."

After telling her I wanted ham and cheese and that I wanted it toasted, I returned my attention to my phone. I felt that weird chill return as I read the text.

I can come over and help you brainstorm if you want. I have Iron-Blooded Orphans on Blu-ray.

Hmmm. I was kind of in the mood for mecha violence. There's no reason it would be any different than last night, right?

I texted back, That'd be great. See ya soon.

I paid for my sub and hopped onto my moped. I didn't know how far from the house he was, but presumably he had to leave his place first. I would at least have time to get changed into my lounge-around-the-house clothes.

I was instantly proven wrong when I got home and he was just about to knock on the front door. His attention was caught as soon as I pulled into the driveway, and he stepped off the porch. I started to panic. Had he texted me on his way to the house?

"Hey!" he said with a wave. "I didn't realize you weren't already home, sorry."

I shook my head. "It's okay." I held up my sub. "Half of a ham and cheese with pickles and lettuce?"

He smirked. "Ooh, a girl with exotic tastes."

"Yeah. Exotic. Lemme, uh… Lemme change before we get started."

He raised an eyebrow. "Changed?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm not gonna wear street clothes to watch anime and fail to think up anything to write."

He seemed to understand. "Oh, okay. I thought… Nah, never mind. I don't know what I thought." He opened the door for me. "I'll just wait in the hallway."

He followed me inside and upstairs. He stopped for a second to look at the hammer-shaped hole I put in the wall the other night, to which I just giggled nervously and said something about me being angry at Lucas, but I didn't say why. I certainly didn't want him to know it was because Lucas teased me for potentially having a crush on the very monkey king in front of me.

I left Evan outside my room and locked the door. I was starting to feel almost unbearably warm now, enough that I was tempted to set the air conditioning to something cooler. I quickly changed out of my other clothes and into a tank top and a pair of pajama pants. There was no way I was going to sit next to Evan on the couch in a pair of shorts.

I stopped for a minute. Why was I suddenly warm? I’d felt that weird chill the entire time I’d spoken with Mira, the whole long ass wait at Subway, even the ride home. Every step of the way, the chill. Now, suddenly, warmth. What was the common denominator? Was it something I even knew right now or was it something I’d need to find out later?

I sighed. There was no way to really know yet. I'd just need to pay attention to what makes me chilly or warm. It would come to me eventually, I was sure. For now, there was an Evan outside my door that wanted to help me with our writing assignment, and I wanted to watch some bloody mecha action and political intrigue -- y'know, every girl's favorite.

I opened my bedroom door and there was Helen talking to Evan and I was fairly certain I was about to die.

Helen saw me and her eyes lit up. “Nora! You didn’t tell me you were inviting a boy over today.”

I rubbed at my arm behind my back. “I… I didn’t know until he texted me when I was at Subway.”

“He tells me he’s here to help you with an assignment in class.”

I nodded. “Yep. Creative writing, I’m… Having a little trouble coming up with something to write.”

“Oh? That’s not something you usually have trouble with.” She turned to Evan. “You should’ve seen the things Nora came up with when she was younger. She was quite the romantic.”

He blinked. “Even when she was...“ He didn’t actually say that I used to be a guy, but he was definitely hinting at it, likely to probe whether or not Helen actually knew.

“Oh, you know about that? Oh, yes. Even back then, little Nora had a knack for knights rescuing princesses and that sort of thing.”

I was turning more and more red the longer this went on. “Yeah, I wrote out probably a dozen different variations of the princess trapped in the tower story. It got worse after I saw Shrek for the first time.” I really wanted Helen to let us get to watching anime and writing.

She patted me on the back. “I personally think she was trying to say something about herself at the time.”

I giggled nervously. “Maybe…” I didn’t think I was trying to say anything about myself, but… Wasn’t I basically a princess trapped in a tower right now? Granted, the “tower” was my current predicament at the moment, which was being a princess. Waiting for a shining knight to save me from that would probably reinforce my dad’s opinion of me. Talk about a rock and a hard place. “So, let’s get downstairs and get started.”

Helen shook her head. “Nope.”

I blinked. “Nope?”

“The TV downstairs took a crap today, that’s why Lucas and Debi are out looking for a new one. Sorry to say, but you and the handsome boy here will need to make due in your bedroom."

I felt the color drain from every part of me, like I was now some monochrome blob standing there in the hallway. Evan, of course, just said, "Handsome?"

* * *

Okay, this wouldn't be so bad. We were both sitting on my bed, but we were just watching the show and talking about writing, that's all. Nothing to worry about. Nothing. At all. To worry about. I just had to keep telling myself that, that was all.

Because, of course, it never felt like there was nothing to worry about. I was almost desperate to grab a top that covered up my cleavage, because I was positive he was looking down my shirt every time I looked at something other than him, even if there was no evidence to support my theory.

What was worse was that there was a part of me that had exactly no problem with the idea of Evan looking at me that way. I felt so nervous with him around, and yet I wanted him there. I couldn’t understand what the hell was going on with my head, and I just wanted to work on a friggin’ assignment for class, but things just didn’t seem to be that simple.

The only good part of this was that I had actually managed to find something to write. Evan suggested I start with another princess-in-a-tower plot and move on from there in a direction I’d never gone before, which at first seemed almost impossible, but I just decided to see what would happen if I slipped a few snippets of inspiration from my current situation in there. I guess living a form of the princess-in-a-tower plot made me feel some form of a connection that I hadn't before.

Around two thousand words in, I started to feel that damned chill again. I tried putting it out of my mind, but it was difficult. The chill was creeping through every part of my body like some kind of serpent. I shuddered, then pulled my blanket around me to get warm, but that didn't much help.

Evan looked up from his tablet. "What's up?" he asked with a hint of concern.

I shook my head. “I just hit another block,” I lied, “I’m gonna take a little break and get back to it after… Fifteen minutes or so.”

He looked like he didn’t believe me, but he nodded. “Okay.” He set his tablet down on my nightstand. “I could use a little bit of a break, too.”

The chill started to fade. I still couldn’t figure out what was causing it, what made it go away and what the hell that abnormal warmth was earlier. I just couldn’t see a connection between any of the times I’d had to contend with it.

“Are you cold?" he asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, somehow."

"It's like seventy-five degrees in here."

I nodded again. "Yes, and yet I feel like I'm naked inside an igloo." That was an exaggeration, but it also very expertly conveyed that I was cold, which he didn't seem to believe.

He slid across the bed to sit beside me. "Well, if you're cold," he started, and I was seriously worried about where it would end, "cover up a little more," he said as he pulled my comforter out from under himself and wrapped it around me.

I blinked. "You… Most guys would've taken that as an invitation to get under the blanket with me."

He shrugged. "Yeah, but I know you're probably uncomfortable with that sort of thing.” He leaned back against the wall. “Not like I wouldn’t jump at the opportunity if you wanted it, because you're honestly the coolest girl I've ever met and I've been crushing on you since we met."

I smirked. "How am I the coolest girl you've met?"

He sat back against the wall. "Let's see… You're smart, you're funny, you're magic, you're a Norse goddess… You went on a harmless date with me without even knowing me. You like anime, you like to write. I have never met a girl like you before, Nora, and I honestly think that's what I like about you the most."

I was so dumbfounded by what he said that I didn’t even realize right away that the chill had completely vanished. “I guess if I’m the coolest girl you’ve ever met… How would you classify your ex?”

He scratched his chin for a second. “She was nice. She just… She wanted more than I did, I guess. I wanted a relationship with someone that was more than just sex, someone who I could just talk to and enjoy their company.” He laughed. “Not that the sex was bad, but that was all it was. I wanted nights where we could just cuddle on the couch and watch TV, or sit on a bed and just be together.” He chuckled again. “That probably sounds cheesy as fuck, right?”

I didn't say anything for a good while. I was silent for so long that I was pretty sure he was worried that he'd said too much, or that what he said had bothered me. To an extent, it had, but not in the way he had thought.

Instead, I just sat there on the verge of tears. Everything he said, everything he wanted, it was what I'd never been when I was a guy. He wanted a companion, I'd wanted sex partners. I'd never really given what the girls might want any consideration,and I'd always blindly told myself that all they'd need from me was sex. What if some of them had been looking for the same thing Evan had been looking for?

I had been a terrible guy.

Evan was sitting there, wanting a romantic partner more than merely someone to sleep with every now and again, he wanted someone who shared his interests and genuinely wanted to be around him. He wanted… Someone to love. He was so much more respectful than I had ever been when I was male.

And the girl he described? He and I had done everything he’d described in the last couple days. I was the girl who shared his interests and I genuinely liked being around him, even after only knowing him a few days. Did he feel that way about me? Did he see me as the girl he was looking for?

The chill returned. I rubbed at my bare arms underneath the blanket and felt like I was covered by a sheet of ice. Evan seemed to notice. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, which was a lie. "I just can't stay warm." I nudged a little closer to him, hoping that his body heat might warm me up a little.

He took notice. "Okay, I'll take it that's why you're cuddling up against me."

I sighed. "I'm not gonna lie, I was trying to avoid that, but then the idea just sounded too good.”

He smiled. “See? You tried to avoid getting under the covers with me. My ex didn’t want to go two dates without having sex, and this is just being close to one another.”

“Don’t make this any weirder than it already is, please.”

“No problem. Now, you stay here while I get up and change the disc, because we really don’t want to lose this momentum.”