“Please can we go! I can protect her!” Erina stomps a foot down on the carpet impatiently. Principal Rockford rubs his temples, I think Erina might be giving him a headache.

“Fine” he sighs, looking out at us. Erina nearly prostrated on his desk, leaning forwards with a huge grin on her face, I watch them like a comedy act from where I am, leaning against the doorframe of his office. “But if I hear of any harm having come to her then you’re in a world of trouble Erina. Sylvie is delicate, you should know that”

Erina had concucted a trip for me and her to a mall that is close by. She’d carry me to the rooftop parking and from that point we’d go in. No walking out along streets or anything like that, minimal public interactions or anything. She knew the manager of one of the stores from a part-time job she’d worked during the last summer and said that she would help us. We’d go in a free period in the middle of the week when the mall would be the least populated. I must admit that I agreed that I needed new clothes, a lot of my old ones had suffered in my absence, and I looked a bit odd amongst my peers (well sort of, I am technically 15 years older than them all). I tugged at the sleeve of my jacket, looking at the faded material. I tuned out of Principal Rockford’s warnings as I often did years ago.

I was looking forward to this trip. It was going to provide an experience I had never felt for one, seeing the city from above. Occasionally I used to imagine touring the world like singers do, it reminded me of working towards that dream. That dream…

I could feel sadness bubbling to the surface of my emotions, smothering the excitement I had previously felt. I quickly tried to hide it and swipe the tears away but Erina had heard my quiet sob and had turned and embraced me in a big hug.

“Whats wrong Sylvie?” even Principal Rockford had stood up with a worried look on his face, he was always a big softie, despite the stern external facade he has up most of the time. Its why I liked him so much. I waved them away, it wasn’t their fault. I need to forget that dream, Zombies can’t be singers, just impossible.

I smile wearily, my glowing green eyes probably still glistening with sadness, Principal Rockford ducks his head apologetically. “Look girls, have fun, be safe. And please please just don’t let anything bad happen to each other, stick close okay?”

“We will!” Erina fist bumps the air slightly and I nod vigorously.

***

That Thursday...

The one thing we hadn’t told the Principal was that Leo would be accompanying us as well, in order to pick out some better fitting clothes for them.

We met up on the balcony of the dormitory, Leo having flown in as a bird and transforming in my room. They were wearing an oversized hoodie and a pair of jogging bottoms. This was the first time Erina had gotten to see Leo’s new body in the flesh.

“Oh wow you look even cuter in person Leo, nice!” Erina said, sitting on the bed whilst I search for my purse. I hadn’t had to use it since Guy had given it to me with some money. The college’s meals were all provided to me because of my special needs after all. I eventually found it in the bag I brought with me and placed on top of my closet. I returned back to the room to find Erina squeezing Leo’s cheeks in a cutesy fashion whilst they giggled incessantly. I must admit it was a rather funny sight.

I waved it in their faces so they got the memo I was ready to go. Leo turned back into a bird and I opened the glass to the balcony so the little creature could hop outside. Erina followed them. “We were having fun!” she pouted. I was a bit jealous of Leo, I wanted her to squeeze my cheeks like that, although I couldn’t say that. Leo took off in the direction of the shopping centre, whilst Erina unfurled her wings. “You ready to go?” she winks at me, offering her arms out. I was a rather small girl and she was athletic and in top physical condition. We’d done a number of test flights and she would not drop me.

She wraps her arms around my waist tightly, just under my chest, and squeezes tight enough to keep a good grip, but still to let me breathe. And then…

With a whoosh of her mighty wings we launched into the air. My hair flicks back and forth, slightly stinging when it hits me in the eyes. I kept my mouth firmly shut and just watched the streets, trees and buildings soar by. I don’t think Principal Rockford had this sort of flight in mind.

It was exhilarating and quite scary, I look up at Erina and she is loving it. “Flying never gets old Sylvie! Never!” she yells above the wind. We eventually set down on the roof of the shopping centre, startling a cluster of pigeons nearby. We found Leo leaning against a wall nearby, and we went inside. The big building had glass elevators that descended with a silent whoosh. It slowly reveals a large open space with a glass ceiling lighting up a brilliant white centre space with benches and a big pond, giant koi swam up and down it.

I must admit I was a bit slack jawed, this place was much nicer than it was 15 years ago. Back when the lights were dim and buzzy and the ceiling had missing panels in it. Erina guided us down one of the many great big corridors towards a clothes shop she liked. I stopped momentarily and looked over a car that was advertised to have come from a local dealership.

Everything was so different from how I was used to, the cars were more angular and the lights brighter, everything was cleaner and brighter. I was not used to it, my old world was a lot dirtier and well, I felt like some of the charm had...disappeared.

“Sylvie! In here!” Erina waved from the entrance of a very feminine looking clothing store. Her slightly raised voice had attracted a few looks in my direction, it was the first notice I had gotten and some people had gotten phones out. I yelped and quickly trotted over to Erina and ducked inside. The feminine theme continued with signs pointing to male clothing upstairs.

Walking through the clothing aisles I was reminded that I didn’t want to show off the bandages at all, this means no short skirts or tops that show midriff. My sizes had not changed from before so I quickly grab a few new sets of underwear, and joined the other two amongst the many rows. Erina was educating Leo on some of the clothes.

“This is a camisole, this is normally formal and worn with a suit, but can be worn free to cool down” She placed it back on the stand. “If you find something you like I’ll help you find something that fits you” she smiles at Leo gladly and they looked rather happy to go wild and express themselves. I left them and perused the shop by myself. Quickly picking up a light brown skirt that had lovely red jagged stripes running along it. I scooped up a low cut sweater too for lounging about at home. The biggest stumbling block was that I wanted something fancier for the autumn event. I moved into the dresses section and was slightly shocked by some of the designs. They were getting even more and more intricate. I settled on a tight fitting but long strapless dress. It would hide enough of the wrappings that I didn’t look like a mummy.

Whilst I was admiring the dress I heard the clicking of heels towards me. A girl that looked to be about my age was headed my way. “So you’re Sylvie? Erina’s new friend?” she asks, smiling happily, the name on her nametag read: Claire. I nod warily. “That dress would look good on you, would you like to try it on in the changing rooms? They’re over here” She gestures to the back of the store. I nod and I follow her back to the changing rooms. She passes me one of the keys and lets me in.

I start undressing myself down, the dress has built in padding and so it shouldn’t need a bra. I unzip it and step in, pulling it up and securing it. It fitted better than I expected it, it was tight around the waist and hips but I could deal with that, dresses aren’t designed to be practical to move about in after all. I look a little ridiculous in socks but I leave the changing room area to try moving about in it to find Erina and Leo outside. I immediately blush and cover my chest with my hands, slightly embarrassed.

“Oh my god Sylvie, you look so beautiful!” She rushes forwards and grabs my hand. “So cool!” Leo nods furiously, agreeing with her. Claire just stands by a little stand, smirking. “Did you put her up to this Claire?” Erina asks.

“Nope, nope. I found her looking at it herself, I wasn’t wrong about what I said. You do look good in that dress” I made up my mind after Erina’s reaction. I’m definitely buying this, it might be an irrational purchase but my crush swooning over it certainly made me pleasingly irrational. I carefully retract my hand from her grip and retreat back into the changing rooms to get back into my normal clothes. Once done, its Leo’s turn to try on some clothes. “I’ll pay for it, don’t worry. My parents are quite well off” She pats Leo on the small of their back, slowly pushing them forwards.

“Okay, thanks Erina” Leo enters the changing room with a stack of clothes. I take out my tablet from my satchel bag.

“Thank you for the compliments! I mean it”

“No problem, I meant them all too”

“No, seriously, I thought I’d look wrong, off. I was doubting myself. Thanks”

“Its nothing Sylvie, you’d look great in anything”

I was considering asking her then and there, but something, something stopped me. Some niggling doubt I had. I’ll do it another time. We sat on some of the soft plushy stools and waited for Leo to return. It took a little bit of time but they did eventually emerge from the stall. Leo wore ripped skinny jeans, boots with a short heel and a crop top with short sleeves that showed their thin waist. It suited them very nicely, if not very practical for the current weather.

“That looks good on you, you might want to get a jacket or something to go with it though”

“Yeah I agree, the weather it not there for crop tops, but you absolutely shine like that Leo” Erina agreed.

“T-thank you” Leo tried a few more outfits but left the store in the first, with a long figure hugging coat over it. We left the store together, but Leo kept looking towards the exit.

“Thanks for letting me join you two today” Leo says “I think, I think I am going to come out to my parents. Today was really confidence inspiring” they did a little twirl, the coat fanning out.

“Good luck!”

“Yup, good luck! If it all goes badly. Come straight to my dorm okay?”

They freeze up and their mood seems to dim “Yeah. I..will”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that” I try to reassure them. I really believe that was the happiest I had ever saw Leo.

“Me-me too” Leo stutters slightly before recovering their composure. “Right! I’ll see you two later!” I wave and they spin around and walk towards the exit. Erina turns back to me.

“I really hope everything works out for Leo. They looked the happiest I’d ever seen them before. They never used to speak up unless prompted to by me or a teacher or anyone. I always felt a bit of pity for them” She shakes her head. “I regret not trying harder to figure out what was wrong. Thanks for pushing me to do this with you Sylvie”

“Its all new to me, as a concept. I just figured that, you know. I wanna help others, if I can’t really help myself” It was true, everything surrounding my wellbeing wasn’t in my control. I was being researched. I felt like an experiment. I was being fed not feeding myself.

“Hey! Thats not true! Look, lets get back to the college before someone reports this to the media and they all storm in” I nod, and we made our way back towards the lift, my head still swimming with thoughts about my condition.