I had to part ways with Maddy as I made my way to my next class. She had some history paper and I was going to a helpfully labelled Principles of Design paper. As soon as we had said goodbye with little awkward waves, I’d wished I could rush over and keep hanging out with her. Being around her. It felt… nice.

Nevertheless I had a dream to chase, and that meant going to my next class. I’d missed the lecture, as it had been yesterday, but I was going to make it to the class so hopefully I wouldn’t have too much to catch up on. Our papers were divided up into two parts, a lecture that was usually an hour, and a class that could be anywhere from an hour to four hours long. Professors usually liked to err on the side of longer classes.

When I entered the room, I was surprised to find Ms Monahan sitting at the desk, quietly tapping something out on her phone. I was early, so the class was still mostly empty and I took the opportunity to pick a seat at the side of the room. I always picked the side. No one cared about the people on the side of the room. You avoided notice more easily that way. Sadly, avoiding notice was not something I could as easily achieve.

“Yo, she’s hot as fuck. I’m sure I would’ve seen her at the lecture yesterday,” whispered one of two guys who were sat near the back.

“Yeah damn. That outfit, holy shit,” the other one replied quietly.

Did these two muppets really think I couldn’t hear them, or were they keeping their conversation loud enough for my benefit as well. I was actually kind of flattered by it, in a weird way. It was odd to be checked out like this, but I couldn’t help but feel a little glow of happiness at not only being recognised as a girl, but also as attractive.

Making sure they could both see, I casually flipped my feet onto the desk and crossed my legs, my rainbow coloured shoes on full display.

“Dude stop staring!” I heard one of them whisper, I think it was the second dude.

“Why? Look at her legs!” number one shot back.

“Cos it’s creepy dude!” number two growled.

“I can’t help it! She’s right in my field of vision!”

They weren’t getting the hint, so I turned my head to look at them, wiggled and pointed at my shoes, then brought my hands together in a scissoring motion.

Both guys cracked up laughing and I swear number two was crying. Number one gave a sheepish shrug and flashed the Okay hand gesture at me. Alright, clearly these two were going to be the class clowns. The way they had backed off when I made it painfully obvious which team I played for had bolstered my confidence though. It was odd, guys just weren’t as scary as girls. The big rough ones were terrifying of course, but these two were anything but that.

One was a tall lanky dude wearing a beanie and big hipster glasses, while the other was a well built but kinda short dude with the most immaculate beard I’d ever seen. Both guys had that calm demeanour that spoke of being unphased by most of life.

Taking a chance, I stood up from my lonely table and joined them in the back, sitting down at the four person table and raising a challenging eyebrow at them. I hoped my inner terrified whimpering confidence wasn’t showing, because by the goddess was it howling up a gibbering storm.

“Hi,” I said meekly.

“Sup,” number one, aka beanie guy said, giving me the chin raise thing that guys do.

“Hey, uh. What’s happening?” asked number two, aka beard guy.

“Nothing… My name is Elsie,” I said quietly.

“Nice, cute name. My name is Eric,” smiled beard guy.

“And I’m Oliver,” beanie guy said.

“Your names are also… cool?” I said, my tone turning the compliment into a question by accident.

Oliver snorted and shook his head wryly, “I get it, guy names not your thing huh?”

“Uhm, yeah. Something like that,” I smiled, nervously playing with a strand of hair.

“That’s cool. You love who you love,” Eric said, nodding like a wise man, even though his beard was much too short to really pull it off.

“Or you fuck who you fuck. I heard about you and Josh,” Oliver grinned, elbowing Eric playfully.

“Shut up,” his friend shot back, the hint of a blush peeking out from his beard before he turned to me, “So Elsie, I see you skate…”

I nodded and looked down at my board, “Yeah. I only got back into it recently. Since I Emerged.”

“Ohhh was it third Emergence for you?” asked Oliver, leaning forward and looking over my glowing freckles.

I nodded.

“Second for me. I got these sick scales,” he said.

He lifted his arms up, which were bare up til the rolled up sleeves of his navy blue dress shirt. Like a wave, his arms rippled and changed, starting at his fingers and rolling up his arm. In moments, his arms were covered in deep dark red scales that caught the light in the way a translucent gem would. They were honestly really pretty, and I instinctively reached out to touch his arm. They were lukewarm and very hard. I had a feeling they would be pretty damn good protection.

“I thought you weren’t into dudes,” Oliver teased, watching me inspect his arm.

“I’m not!” I squeaked, jerking my arm back. My face betrayed me again by firing up in a probably flattering blush.

“Hello gentlemen, hello little lady. Can I borrow Elsie for a bit?” Ms Monahan asked, having snuck up behind me.

I squeaked again and whirled around to look up at her, my eyes wide with surprise.

“Elsie?” she asked, indicating her desk.

“Y-yup!” I said, hopping up out of my seat and following her back to the front.

When we got to her desk, a playful smile flitted onto her face, and she said, “That was an interesting little exchange. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’d been doing the lesbian thing a lot longer than you have.”

“O-oh! Uh… I just… it just happened!” I said quickly.

She reached out and put a placating hand on my shoulder, “Hey, no pressure girl. It was well executed.”

“Th-thanks!”

“Now, I printed out my notes from the lecture I gave yesterday. Feel free to skip over all the admin bullsh- stuff, I know I would. Feel free to ask questions, and if anyone harrasses you over who you are and who you love, I will see that they are dealt with alright?” she told me, growing almost scary as she threatened those who might hypothetically hurt me.

“Thanks Ms Monahan!” I grinned, happy to have someone in my corner.

“Call me Diana. I only make those... people over in finance call me by my last name,” she said with a wink.

“Thank you Diana!” I said, still with a grin on my face.

“Alright, you can go back to making friends now. I’d watch out for that Oliver though. He’s always up to something,” she warned, but her eyes told me she was joking.

I nodded and scampered off back to my seat, printout in hand.

****

It was pretty amazing to see the difference between the Ms Monahan I had known from that one finance paper last year, and the Diana who stood before us during the design class. She was animated and passionate, although when she caught Oliver being a doofus she turned stern and lecturing. He deserved it, and I shared an amused look with Eric at Oliver’s expense.

The class, all three hours of it, went quickly. We got an overview of what we were going to be learning, then she launched straight into typography and all the many uses it could give us in our design careers. She had the lesson set out so that those who had not taken design in high school could figure out what was going on. Still, I knew I had a bunch of studying to do if I wanted to catch up to my peers who had that background in design.

All too soon, the class was over and it was time to meet Brook at the skatepark. I waved goodbye to Oliver and Eric, then rode off in search of my friend.

Rolling towards the skatepark where Brook was supposedly waiting for me, I couldn’t see her straight away. Had she left already? I tentatively made my want into the park, checking the vert and the grind rails for her. Nothing. It was only when I got to the bowls that my question was answered. She flew up out of a bowl like she’d just been fired from a cannon, and I gaped as she tried to get her board back under her.

My expression turned to one of fear as her feet fumbled the board and it went careening off out of her reach. I knew I could help, my powers were practically begging me to, so I dumped my stuff on the ground and rushed forward.

There was no way I could make it, I was certain of it, but then I felt a strange surge of energy, and the space between here and there got smaller. The space between us simply bent with a deafening thunderclap, and I was suddenly there in time to catch her.

I wasn’t strong enough to stop her descent properly, so my body and powers decided the best way to do this was to get her to fall on top of me, allowing me to control the impact. I acted as a spring or a training mat, softening the blow enough so that she wasn’t hurt.

What I hadn’t counted on, was the position my powers would get us into.

My back was flat on the cold concrete, and she was laid out on top of me, every part of our bodies touching. We were both breathing hard, our chests pressing tighter together with each desperate intake of air. Her face was an inch from mine, her eyes a blur of blue in front of mine and her warm exhalations mixing with mine.

I was about to say something, when in a rush she covered my mouth with her firm warm lips. My eyes flew wide, even as I subconsciously leaned into it, the feelings of lust for my best friend overpowering my better judgement. The kiss was hot and urgent, and I found myself biting down lightly on her bottom lip. I don’t know where that came from, but it must have brought her to her senses. She jerked back off me and her hand flew to her mouth with a terrified expression.

Still straddling me, she blurted, “Fuck! Fuck! I-I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean- it was just that I was so- I thought I was going to eat the concrete and…”

I lifted myself up to a sitting position and placed my hands on her shoulders. I didn’t say anything. Couldn’t really, my brain was a sparking fizzling mess, but I could still act, so I did. I leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the cheek, then pulled back and flashed her a smile and a shrug. Actually, I couldn't stop smiling. Why was it suddenly so hard to breathe, even though I could feel my lungs taking in air, each breath feeling lovely and sweet.

“You’re okay with this?” she asked with a confused frown.

I pulled a hand back and wiggled it in a gesture of uncertainty in reply. I was unable to hide the the flaming reaction my cheeks had had to that kiss. It was a nice kiss, even if it had the potential to make things very awkward between us. I kinda wanted more? Why did i want more?

“Oh… you’re nonverbal. I’m sorry!” she said, understanding why I couldn’t speak. My brain just did this sometimes, shut down my ability to speak. It was like I sent the signals, but there was no response from my vocal chords.

I gave her another smile and nodded confirmation.

“I should get off you. That probably isn’t helping,” she smiled, a note of flirtation entering her tone again. Did she really have to though?

We both struggled to our feet, and I looked around awkwardly at the other skaters. A few were watching us with grinning interest. Mostly the guys. Ew.

“Lets go sit on one of the benches,” Brook said, picking up my stuff for me and retrieving her board.

I followed her away from everyone else, and Brook arrived first. She turned and watched me, her eyes raking up and down my body.

“That outfit is so fucking hot Elsie. Who are you and what have you done with my nerdy friend? It’s like you became the world’s most alluring unintentional tease overnight. It’s driving me crazy,” she told me, her lust more than evident in her eyes and tone.

Her own outfit was pretty damn hot too. She had her normal scuffed skater jeans on, as well as an off the shoulder baggy T-shirt that showed off her slim shoulders and neck. It was a cute sexy look that had me more than a little interested.

“I don’t know,” I croaked, my voice just barely above a whisper, scuffing my shoes on the ground as I sat down next to her. I hadn’t meant to, but I’d sat down with our sides and hips pressed together. Oh gosh.

“Now look at you, you’ve sat down practically on top of me! Are you trying to seduce me?” she asked, her breathing a little ragged.

I looked up into her almost glowing hazel eyes and allowed her to see my blazing pink cheeks. She was so damn pretty, I was having trouble thinking anything but dirty thoughts right now, so I just shrugged and dropped my gaze down again. Was I trying to seduce her? I could feel my heart beating at a mile a minute, and everywhere we touched was a tingling mess of anticipatory pleasure. Goddess… this was overpowering.

I felt her hand nestle itself in my hair and I practically purred when she began scratching lightly at my scalp. I fell slightly onto her and gave a little quiver.

“I think that it’s time for you to get home little Glow. As much as I’d like to take this further, I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Brook whispered into my ear as she kept scratching.

“I-I’m going to jump you if you keep d-doing that, and I won’t be responsible for what happens or who sees,” I mumbled, trying to get the words into some semblance of order.

“That is mighty forward for my timid little Glowstick. You’re getting a little bold aren’t you?” she chuckled, removing her hand from my hair.

I wanted it back. I wanted her to scratch my hair more. I’d told her not to and it was a mistake.

“I’m just… I don’t know. I don’t feel like I have to be scared anymore. I feel calmer when I’m Elsie. More in control of myself and my life,” I said, speaking my thoughts as they formed in my mind, “I think a bunch of my anxiety came from being a guy and hating it. It felt wrong, but it wasn’t a huge burgeoning wrongness, it was weird underlying wrongness that I didn’t realise was there until I was forced to acknowledge it.”

“So you’re happy like this?” she asked.

“Definitely!” I nodded enthusiastically.

“It’s good that you realise it… because I could see it pretty much the moment I saw you in this body. It’s so great to see you peeking out of your little shell and blinking at the world with those wonder filled eyes of yours,” she said, getting oddly poetic as she rubbed my shoulder with hers.

“Hmmmm,” I hummed, unable to think of a way to reply.

“Let’s head out. It’s almost time for you to be home anyway,” she said, leaning down to get a look into my eyes.

I nodded and we began getting our things together. I had a lot to think about, and I believe Brook did too.

****

Chores, my parents and then dinner had been excruciating. A small part of that had been finding out that my parents were hosting a bunch of our extended family tomorrow evening for dinner. I’d have to sit through my awful family as they all ranted about all sorts of awful shit. Before the Emergence it had been racism and homophobia, and afterwards the Emerged hate had been added to their awful repertoire.

The predominant reason the evening had been hard on me though, was how damn turned on I was. It was odd too, because I hadn’t gotten an erection this whole time in my Coby body as I pretended to still be their son. My body had maintained the more feminine arousal of a fuzzy warmth that was spread throughout my chest and groin. I had no explanation for it.

Dad had asked something weird though during dinner.

“Are you wearing makeup?” he growled angrily, staring daggers at me as he inspected my face.

“Not in this house!” my mother had exclaimed, reaching for her napkin and scrubbing angrily at my face to remove any makeup that I was definitely not wearing.

When the scrubbing revealed I wasn’t wearing any, they both subsided, but sent suspicious glances my way during the rest of dinner as they went on a rant about “boys just deciding to be girls”. Hearing them spout their hate about a group of people I was almost definitely a part of had sucked, and I retreated to my room in record time.

Why did they think I was wearing makeup? I had done literally nothing to either of my faces. It might be nice to learn how to use makeup though, for when I was Elsie.

I had been feeling upset, but when I returned to my real body, my girl body, I felt a sense of calm overtake me, and I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. This caused my chest to rise and fall, and suddenly I was back in the skatepark, pinned under Brook, our soft breasts pressing against each other.

The heat that had been simmering inside me since that moment surged and I felt the inside of my thighs twitch. Gosh this was so different from what I was used to. I was used to a single pulsing greed between my legs and a driving subconscious desire to push that need forward.

This new desire was totally different. It was warm and buzzing and inviting. I wanted someone to press me down and… and put her fingers… oh goddess.

I thought of Brook, of the things she might do to me, of the things I wanted to do to her. The way my heart went funny when she got close, or the way it calmed down when she got closer. Oh dear, I was totally fantasising about my best friend. I couldn’t get the intoxicating idea out of my head. I wanted to have her and for her to have me in a wild heated encounter that would mean nothing in the end. I wanted to go through the rest of our friendship afterwards thinking, I fucked her. We’re still friends like nothing ever happened, but we have this dirty little secret.

I stumbled towards my bed, allowing the now too big pants and underwear to slide down my legs even as I lifted my shirt and hoodie over my head in one go.

* (Naughtiness ahead)

* (Naughtiness Over)

I felt incredible, the aftershocks of my fun crashing through me at random. It wasn’t just the pleasure itself that was contributing to my mood, it was the realisation that I had just masturbated as a woman. There was no fevered grunting and desperate jerking arm rhythm, no sense of awful self loathing afterwards. Instead, I was laid naked and womanly on my bed, basking in the pleasure I had given myself. I was definitely a girl.