The rest of the week I made a point of seeing Amber every day at school. On Wednesday at lunch I didn't really see much difference. She was still happy and excited, and I knew she was already a tenth of the way along, but I assumed whatever changes happened so far were fairly subtle. She still dressed the same, in her loose dark pants and oversized black hoodie.
When I saw her Thursday morning I did spot some differences. Her brown hair was already a little long to begin with but I could tell it was longer now. And her face looked smoother, her skin looked softer. And I couldn't be sure, but I had a feeling her clothes were a little more loose and baggy than before.
She met me and Melissa for lunch again on Friday and I could definitely see some differences. Her hair reached her shoulders, her face had changed subtly, and when she spoke, her voice was softer and the pitch was slightly different.
As we all started eating I asked her, "Has anyone said anything? You know people might be shocked on Monday, you're going to change so much over the weekend."
Amber blushed, "I know. Luckily most people just ignore me, and I'm not going to go out of my way to draw attention."
She looked at Melissa and asked, "After lunch, could you come with me to talk to the admin folks here? I want to update my student ID and get my records updated."
"Sure," Melissa smiled. "Me and Mara have drama after lunch, but if we don't spend too much time eating we can visit the office then get to class."
"How's the job hunt coming?" I asked. "Or actually do you have to go and find the new job or is Lily going to arrange it somehow?"
Amber thanked Melissa then grimaced slightly as she replied to me, "I haven't started looking yet."
She leaned in closer and said quietly, "I want to wait till I'm further along before I start?"
I smiled, "Right of course. Like it would be weird applying for a job in guy-mode, then showing up a few days later for your first shift in girl-mode."
"Hey!" Melissa grinned, "That's what I said last summer! You're stealing my bit."
I just giggled while Amber looked back and forth between us both.
She finally nodded, "Yeah, that's more or less it. I'm not going to try and get the new job till I look more like the real me. As for Lily helping, she said she'd lend a hand if I had trouble on my own? But to start with it'll be up to me. Like I have to go out and put in applications and stuff."
"Ok Amber," I responded. "Sorry if I seem nosy about it, I'm just curious and excited for you."
She smiled, "It's ok Mara, I get it."
That was the end of the conversation for a bit as the three of us focused on our lunch. We didn't rush, but we didn't dawdle either since we needed to get over to the admin office before our afternoon classes started.
We were just about finished eating when Amber's friend came up to stand next to our table.
"Hey Ethan, I..." Matt's voice trailed off as he stared at Amber. From the look of surprise on his face it was obvious he'd noticed how Amber was already changing. She was three-tenths of the way along already, and if Matt hadn't seen her since last Friday it would be a noticeable difference.
And it made me worry again what sort of reactions she'd get on Monday, when she'd be more than halfway done.
Amber looked up at her friend and her cheeks coloured slightly as she said "Hi Matt. It's Amber now, ok? I'm not going by that other name anymore."
Matt stared for another few seconds then finally asked "Dude what the hell? You're... You look different!"
"I told you," she stated in a calm but firm voice, "I'm transitioning. My name is Amber, my pronouns are she/her. I'm a girl. And I'm not a dude. I was never a dude, ok?"
The blond jock stared for a few more seconds then sighed. "Ok... Look I came to apologize? I was sort of freaked out last week. Actually I'm still kind of freaking out? But yeah, I'm sorry I haven't answered your texts, and I was kind of avoiding you because I didn't know what to say."
"Thanks Matt," Amber replied. "I'd like to talk more, but right now I have to get over to the college admin office. I have to get my records updated and get a new student ID card."
"So you already changed your name?" Matt asked in surprise, as the three of us got up from the table.
Amber nodded, "Yes. I'll text you later, maybe we can talk over the weekend."
Matt tagged along as the three of us headed off, but his focus had shifted from his friend to my girlfriend. "Hey Melissa? If you're not busy tonight, how about you and me get together?"
"Yeah sure," Melissa replied with a grin.
Amber seemed a bit awkward with Matt and Melissa making their evening plans in front of the two of us. Probably because she already knew how the date was going to end, with Melissa being part-succubus and all. I just smirked, it was kind of funny how cool and casual Melissa was about the whole thing.
Once their plans were made, Matt headed away as the three of us reached the office.
It only took about ten minutes to get all the records and stuff updated and Amber got a new student card with her new name on it. The lady we talked to was nice and understanding, and the whole thing was done very professionally. That seemed to help Amber relax, like it was nice not to worry about people giving her a hard time or freaking out or anything.
She'd still have to talk with each of her profs, to let them know to address her by her new name and everything but we all hoped that would go smoothly too.
With that out of the way, Amber headed off to her classes while me and Melissa hurried to our drama class. I was still putting in more effort at that, and I actually found I was enjoying it more. Like goofing off and joking around was ok, but it turned out the class was actually better when I took it seriously.
The rest of Friday went by ok. After classes were over me and Melissa went home and she got ready for her date with Matt while I got comfortable for a quiet night in. Sue got home a little later, and the two of us had dinner then curled up on the sofa together to watch a movie while Melissa went out.
Saturday morning I made breakfast for me and Susan, while Melissa just had some coffee. Then around noon the three of us went over to Sue's place to meet Mr. Goranov.
He didn't normally work on the weekends but we couldn't see him during the week without cutting classes. He was already there when we arrived, and after the greetings and stuff he gave us a brief tour.
The place looked very much like a construction site, both on the inside and outside. There were still tarps over all the windows on the outside, but it turned out that was just to keep the new windows covered for now. They were all double-glazed with some kind of magical gas in between the layers to make them extra insulated.
On the inside the place was almost completely gutted. The main level was basically empty from one end of the house to the other. There were no appliances, no walls, the floor was bare wood. The upstairs was almost the same, most of the walls were gone and the floor was bare. The bathroom fixtures were gone, just the pipes remained. It was pretty much the same thing in the basement, except the downstairs bathroom still had its fixtures. And the laundry utility room still had the washer and dryer. There was a brand new furnace and water heater, and a brand new electrical box.
So the house had power and heat, which was important since Mr. Goranov needed that to work. And having the downstairs bathroom intact was important too, for obvious reasons.
There wasn't really anywhere to sit and talk, so after the little tour the four of us wound up standing around a work table that was set up in what would eventually be the living-room.
"I'm going to give you the bad news first," Mr. Goranov said. "Moving the upstairs bathroom isn't going to be practical. I've looked at what it would take to move all the plumbing, and getting it where you wanted it would mean getting it around a structural support beam. If you absolutely have to do that, it's going to add another two weeks to the overall project and it'll bump up the cost as well. So I recommend we leave the bathroom where it is. I can still shift the walls to give you the changes you wanted to the three bedrooms and the bathroom."
The three of us looked at each other, and we all quickly agreed that wouldn't be a big problem so we'd leave the bathroom where it was.
That was the only bad news, everything else was going great. And with that out of the way, Mr. Goranov had a bunch of product catalogues for us to look at. We needed to pick the new appliances for the kitchen, and the new fixtures for the bathroom. He also had a book of paint chips so we could choose what colours we wanted for the different rooms. And finally he had two books for flooring, so we could pick what we wanted for the different rooms.
That took us most of the afternoon, and I kind of felt bad for the guy having to put up with the three of us all talking and trying to decide on everything. My girlfriends let me pick the kitchen stuff since that was my thing, and the two of them picked all the bathroom stuff together. Then we went back and forth a few times about the paint and the flooring and stuff.
We did come to some decisions eventually, and Mr. Goranov took lots of notes as usual. The main floor would be a sort of simulated hardwood from one end to the other, since it was going to be open-concept. And we picked two tones for the walls, that would kind of match the floor, the kitchen appliances and counter and everything, while still looking kind of stylish and fun.
The upstairs would all have nice thick carpeting, except the bathroom of course. And downstairs would be comfy carpeting in the den, while the office bit would be practical office-style carpet. We also picked some different fun colours for the bedrooms and the downstairs.
When we were done, Mr. Goranov had a few pages of notes, and he also gave us some of the paint chips so we had references incase we were going to buy furniture or stuff like that and wanted it to match.
He said he'd start ordering the paint and flooring and everything else, and if there were any other problems he'd get in touch. He also figured he was still on schedule for mid-March. And we found out he wasn't doing all this work alone, his oldest son Pete worked with him. We didn't even know Troy had a brother, but apparently Pete was really good at this work and Mr. Goranov sounded proud and happy that at least one of his sons was interested in keeping up the family business.
For a moment I worried he was unhappy with Troy for not doing the same thing, but I got vibes that Mr. Goranov was proud of his younger son for going to college and getting an education and stuff.
When we all left, Mr. Goranov said he'd probably have us come by again in two weeks for another tour and update.
Me and Melissa and Susan were all really excited, it was basically only five or six weeks till the place would be done and we could move in. But we were all kind of tired too, like even though we didn't really do anything, just standing around making complicated decisions left us all a bit weary.
When we got home the three of us ended up just having a quiet night. Melissa still wasn't eating, so me and Sue just made something simple for dinner.
She sucked that guy dry so hard she won't need to eat for 2 days straight, I bet.
Mr Goranov sounds like a good guy