Jerry feels trapped in his sisters shadow, and when he undergoes his own twist, it becomes even worse. This story takes place in the Twisted universe

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I sat at my desk, listening half-heartedly as my history teacher droned on about the Antarctic Flu, the virus that hit North America over fifty years ago. The rapid infection caused a lot of panic, resulting in some martial law, mass quarantines, and even other countries blocking Americans from entry. Before the virus ended, over two million people had been killed.

“As you all know,” Mr. Morgan said as he finished his lecture. “Those who contracted the virus and survived were later found to have had their DNA altered.” He paused at that and looked around the class full of bored sixteen year olds, his eyes settling on me. “The descendants of those survivors are the Twisted. Like young Jerry here.”

Every pair of eyes in class turned to look at me and I squirmed uncomfortably under the attention. I was the only person in class who was descended from one of those Antarctic Flu survivors, so I’d known when Mr. Morgan started talking about that topic that this would be brought up.

“Hey Jerry,” one of the other guys in class asked me curiously. “What’s it like being Twisted?”

“How should I know?” I responded with a roll of my eyes, having heard this very question countless times before. “I haven’t gone through my twist yet.” Then I paused for a moment before adding, “Besides, I don’t even know for sure if I will. I mean, my mom might be Twisted but my dad isn’t.”

There were a few more questions while Mr. Morgan just observed with an amused look. I gave him a quick glare, knowing that he’d set up this question and answer session as part of his lesson plan. Of course, I suppose that I couldn’t really blame him for taking advantage of the resources available. After all, my sister and I were the only Twisted…or at least possibly future Twisted in school. In fact, we were the only Twisted family in town.

After a few minutes, Mr. Morgan got everyone’s attention again. “Remember,” I called out. “Your thesis papers are due in a couple days.” He looked at me and added, “And Jerry, your sister turned in an excellent paper on this topic last year. I expect you’ll do well.”

I grimaced at the mention of my sister Shelly and muttered, “Yeah, right.”

It seemed that no matter what I did, everyone always compared me to Shelly, including all the teachers who had her last year. Nearly every one of my teachers brought her up at one point or another, usually with comments about how she’d done better in class or how I should ask her for tutoring. It pissed me off.

When class was over, I waited a minute for my best friend Rich, who’d been seated on the other side of the classroom from me. We used to sit next to each other but Mr. Morgan had separated us to keep us from talking to each other during class.

Rich was 5 foot 7, two inches shorter than me, but also a bit more muscular. He was on the school wrestling team so was always working out with weights and trying to get stronger.

“Dude, I bet you’ll do pretty good on the next test,” Rich told me with a grin. “I mean, with the topic being about the Antarctic Flu and all…”

I rolled my eyes at that. “Yeah, someone in my family once got sick.” Then I snorted and added, “That was ancient history. I don’t know any more about it than you do.”

Rich chuckled at that and responded, “Then you’re in big trouble, dude.”

“Don’t I know it,” I muttered with a sigh.

Rich and I started down the hallway towards our next class, but we were only halfway there when I spotted my sister Shelly standing to the side with several of the more popular kids in school. I paused, staring at Shelly’s best friend April, a hot looking blonde who all natural laws said should have been a cheerleader. The fact that April wasn’t a cheerleader went against nearly every stereotype for hot blonde high school girls.

“Damn,” Rich exclaimed from behind me. “Your sister is smoking…”

I nodded absently, knowing good and well that Rich had a crush on Shelly. It was no surprise since nearly every guy in school had a crush on her. Shelly was a tall, athletic, and gorgeous brunette. Not only was she probably the hottest girl in school, she was also one of the most popular. However, in spite of being pretty and popular, she was certainly no bimbo. Shelly had been the star player on the girls baseball team last season and she was a straight A student.

Shelly hadn’t always been like this though. Just a year and a half ago, she’d been plain looking, a little plump, and a total slacker. Then she went through her twist, and literally overnight, she became the smart and sexy overachiever that the other boys all crushed on.

I was still watching April, whom I had my own crush on, when I realized that Shelly was coming towards me. Rich stood up straighter beside me and tried to act as though he didn’t notice her. It was all I could do to keep from chuckling.

“Hey Jerry,” Shelly greeted me, giving Rich a quick nod as well. “Rich.”

“What’s up?” I asked Shelly suspiciously. I wasn’t in the same social circle that she now occupied so she usually avoided me at school unless she wanted something.

“I need you to tell mom and dad that I’m going to be home late,” Shelly told me. “After kickboxing, I’m going to April’s house to study.”

“Sure,” I responded with a sigh, not exactly happy about playing her personal messenger.

“Thanks,” Shelly told me before she left.

Once Shelly was gone, Rich asked me, “Why didn’t she just call home?”

“Because she doesn’t want to give my parents a chance to question her,” I answered with a shrug. “This way, they don’t get a chance to tell her to come home earlier and she can still claim that she let them know about it.”

Rich and I continued to our next class where we were able to sit next to each other. One of the other boys in glass glared at me but didn’t say anything, though I was used to that. Craig didn’t like the Twisted, and even though I hadn’t gone through my own twist yet, that meant he didn’t like me.

There was a lot of fear and hostility towards the Twisted, and though most Twisted didn’t like to admit it, there were good reasons why. When someone went through their twist, they connected to a powerful source of energy which could transform them body, mind, and soul. A plain looking girl could become beautiful and outgoing, but on the other hand, someone who was kind loving could become a psychotic serial killer with the power to turn flesh to dust. You never knew what the results would be until after it happened.

In spite of the fact that my family was Twisted, the only ones in the entire town, most people didn’t really make a big deal about it anymore. I used to get some shit about it when I was younger and I still did on occasion, but most people in school were fairly tolerant. And of course, they’d all become a whole lot more tolerant since Shelly had gone through her twist.

After Shelly suddenly became a knockout, most of the people who used to pick on her began to regret it. Now, no one even wants to try bullying me since they don’t want to take the chance that I might turn into a muscle bound brute with a grudge. It made things a lot easier on me since all I really had to deal with was the occasional snide comment, or worse yet, being compared to my sister.

A minute later, our teacher tried quieting everyone down and getting our attention. Mrs. Gatzby was an elderly woman of African descent, and when the class didn’t settle down immediately, she pulled out a whistle and blew it. The piercing shriek got everyone to immediately pay attention.

“Now then,” Mrs. Gatzby said, giving the class a grandmotherly smile that seemed to ignore the method she’d just used to get our attention. “I’m going to pass out the tests you all took yesterday so you can see how you did.”

“Nice,” Rich commented from beside me as he held up his paper with a smug grin, showing the A that was written on the top.

“Not so nice,” I responded with a sigh, looking down at my own paper with the barely passing grade.

“I know you can do better than this,” Mrs. Gatzby told me with a faintly disapproving look. “I know you’re an intelligent boy. You just need to start applying yourself more…like your sister.”

I just groaned at that and dropped my head onto my desk with a slightly painful thud. I had a feeling that it was going to be a LONG day.

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I was thankful to be out of school for the day but not quite as thrilled about being home. Our report cards had been released today and it was only a matter of time before my mom and dad checked them online and saw my less than impressive grades. But until they did so, I could continue to ignore that looming threat.

I was a little startled to find my mom sitting in the living room since she usually didn’t get home for another hour. She was an attractive woman with brunette hair that was currently waist long and tied into an intricate braid. At the moment, she was absently playing with her own braided hair while watching TV.

“You’re home early,” I said as a way of greeting.

“They were doing construction work near the building so I wasn’t getting many walk ins today,” mom explained pleasantly. “I decided to take off a little early because of that.”

“Besides that, how was work?” I asked her, not that I really wanted to know but more to distract her before she thought to ask me about school or how the big test in Mrs. Gatzby’s class had gone.

Mom gave me an amused look that suggested she knew what I was up to, but she answered me anyway. “I had one man come in because he passed out while drunk and his friends shaved him bald. I took care of that for him. And then there was my regular Catherine. Well, last week she had me give her a short bob cut and this week she wanted to do a long hair style…”

There was obvious excitement in mom’s voice as she talked about her day. She ran the most popular hair salon in town, which was due no doubt to the nature of her twist, and especially to her trick.

My mom’s twist was pretty focused, though fortunately it was something that let her live a normal life. She had a minor obsession with hair, which is what drew her to her chosen career in hair styling. Her own hair also grew at a rate of about a foot a day, which meant that she couldn’t style it and usually had to keep it cut short, in a ponytail, or braided. The irony of her owning the best hair salon in town but having her hair like this wasn’t lost on us, and was probably the biggest frustration in her life.

And then there was my mom’s trick. A lot of Twisted have tricks…what would be called super powers in the comics. These can vary from cute and harmless tricks like to being able to make explosions. These tricks were one of the things that made normals nervous about the Twisted, though my mom’s trick definitely fell into the harmless category. She had the ability to make people’s hair grow longer, something which was extremely useful in her career.

Shelly didn’t have a trick, as far as we knew, or if she did, it was probably something so subtle that no one had really noticed it. I personally suspected that she might have a trick that helped her succeed with everything she tried, though that might very well just be all her hard work and almost obsessive dedication.

“Is dad going to be home for dinner tonight?” I asked mom curiously.

My dad worked as a general contractor and often worked long hours when he was in the middle of a project. In fact, since he was in the middle of remodeling a house, I expected to see very little of him for the next couple weeks.

“Not exactly,” mom told me with a grin. “He isn’t working late tonight but the two of us are going to go out for a romantic dinner. I’m afraid that you and Shelly will be on your own for dinner.”

“Great,” I responded with a sigh, knowing that it was going to be just me for dinner. “Mac and cheese it is.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” mom said, giving me one of those ‘parental’ looks. “I know you have that thesis paper due in a couple days, and if I know you, you probably haven’t even started.”

“It’s not a problem,” I protested with a sigh.

“Tonight would be a good time to work on it,” she pointed out flatly. “And if you have any trouble, you should ask Shelly for help…”

“Mom,” I protested again, not wanting to hear where this was going.

“You know she aced that class last year,” mom added with obvious pride, making me want to puke.

With that, I went to my room and sat down in front of my computer. In seconds, the holographic display came up in front of me while the motion capture system would log my hand motions so I could use the virtual keyboard and move the cursor. I checked my email and then did a little surfing, ending up on one of my favorite sites.

“Damn,” I exclaimed as I looked over the picture in front of me, nearly drooling. “What a total package…”

The picture in front of me was that of the new Kia Razor, the latest and hottest sports car on the market. It was a sleek and smooth hover car with the lowest point being six inches above the ground while it was active. It had a maximum speed of holy shit and a cost of oh my fucking god. It was also my dream car, as in I could only dream of ever riding in one of those much less being able to buy one.

“When dad said I could look into buying a car, I don’t think he meant this,” I said with a sigh. Of course, dad really meant that he’d help me buy a cheap car with four wheels, not anything new or fancy, and especially not a sports car like that. “Well, a guy can always dream.”

After I looked up a few more realistic car choices, I switched my computer to video game mode, activating two more holographic displays on either side of me. I grinned as I slipped into playing my favorite game, the one thing that Shell didn’t have me beat on. Of course, that was probably just because she hadn’t played any video games since her twist, but I’d take what I could get.

I’d been playing for about an hour when I heard my dad calling me from the other room. “Jerry,” my dad called again.

“Coming,” I called back, halting my game and going out.

Dad was obviously back from work, and when I saw him in the living room with mom, I saw that he’d already cleaned up for their date. However, I also saw the look on his face as well as on my mom’s, which told me what was about to happen.

“We just got done looking at your report card,” dad said, obviously not happy about it. “You just barely passed most of your classes.”

“We’re very disappointed,” mom added with a sigh. “You used to get good grades. What happened?”

I didn’t answer at first as I was fully aware of the disapproval in their eyes. “I don’t know,” I muttered, staring at the ground.

“We know you can do better than this,” mom told me with a shake of her head. “You just need to put some effort into it…”

“No video games for a week,” dad told me with a scowl. “You can use the extra time to study and get your grades up.”

“But,” I protested, already knowing it was no good. Mom and dad were already starting towards the door.

Mom stopped before leaving and gave me one more look before saying, “I wish you’d try to be more like your sister.” Those words struck me as though it was a physical blow.

As soon as my parents were gone, I spat out bitterly, “Try to be more like your sister…”

I clenched my fists, angry at having to listen to that AGAIN. Ever since Shelly had gone through her twist, I’d been hearing variations of that. All I ever seemed to hear anymore was ‘Shelly is better than you’ and ‘why can’t you be more like Shelly’. It was infuriating, especially since they all seemed to have forgotten that the only reason Shelly was little miss perfect was because of her twist. Before that, she’d been the slacker with the poor grades, not me.

Then I looked at the shelf on the living room wall which held the trophy’s and ribbons Shelly had won since her twist. I especially glared at the ones for kickboxing and the MVP award for baseball. I couldn’t help but feeling a dark glee that she’d never be able to compete professionally. The Twisted were banned from competing in almost any professional athletics due to unfair advantage.

I felt a mixture of jealousy and bitterness as I looked over the trophies. Baseball used to be my thing. I’d started in little league and had played for several years. I’d been a decent player, though not great. Then after Shelly went through her twist, she became interested in playing and joined the girls team. She practiced until she became good, even better than I was. Before long, people seemed to forget that I’d been playing baseball for years and started to think that I’d only begun playing to follow in my sister’s shoes. And even worse, people told me I should go to Shelly for advice on how to throw and hit the ball better. It had been humiliating so I stopped playing completely.

After I’d dropped out of baseball, I started taking kickboxing lessons. I’d always been interested in martial arts and this seemed like a good time to start taking classes. I enjoyed the classes for the first two months, but then, Shelly decided that she wanted to learn self-defense as well. She joined my kickboxing class and practiced with fierce determination, quickly catching up to me and then overtaking me.

Our instructor thought it was amusing have us spar with each other but Shelly kept beating me more and more easily. I worked even harder so that I could beat her, only to discover that when Shelly faced direct competition, she became almost obsessively competitive. She practiced even harder until she humiliated me over and over again. I dropped out of kickboxing as well rather than continue to deal with that. Now, I didn’t bother getting involved with any activities besides my video games. Fortunately for me, Shelly no longer had any interest in beating me there.

I went back to my room, still grumbling to myself and looking for something to do for a distraction. But as I entered my room, my eyes were drawn to the small picture frame that was sitting on my desk. It was a picture of me and Shelly. The REAL Shelly. This was probably the last picture in the house of Shelly from before her twist, or at least the last one that was still set out where it could be seen. The rest of the pictures had slowly been replaced with pictures of the newer and more photogenic version.

In spite of my current relationship with Shelly, the two of us used to be very close. We used to hang out with each other and even spent a lot of time playing video games together. Not only had Shelly been my big sister, she'd also been my best friend. But that all changed when she’d gone through her twist. The real Shelly had died and this too perfect imposter had been left in her place. An impostor who couldn’t bother to spare even a minute for her brother, unless it was to prove that she was better than me.

Thinking about the old Shelly made me sad, but it also bothered me that I was the only person who seemed to miss her. I was the only one who actually mourned the loss of my sister. Everyone else seemed to prefer the new one, especially my parents who were so proud to now have a pretty, popular, and perfect daughter.

Dad may have grounded me from playing video games, but that didn’t stop me from going back on in order to distract myself. Once I’d calmed down again, I logged off my game and decided that I should probably take care of that thesis paper. I normally didn’t bother putting much effort into any of my classes since I’d learned that no matter how good I did, it was always pointed out that Shelly did better. However, I didn’t want to fail either, and this paper was a major part of my grade.

I grabbed my portable computer tablet and then went to the living room where I plopped myself on the couch so that I could watch TV while I worked. In spite of being bored in class, I had paid attention and knew most of the subject matter. However, I had no idea where to actually start with the thesis paper. I wasn’t even sure what topic I wanted to write it on.

“Damn,” I muttered in frustration, especially when I remembered the way mom had suggested I ask Shelly for help.

Whatever I thought about Shelly, she was definitely smart and knew her material. And since she’d aced this class last year, there was no doubt that she’d be able to help me. Of course, being able to help me wasn’t the same thing as being willing to do so. Even if she was here, I knew that she’d be too busy studying or doing something else to bother.

I grimaced as I remembered mom’s earlier words of ‘I wish you’d try to be more like your sister’, which only made it more painfully ironic when I muttered, “What would Shelly do?”

I suddenly felt a strange tingling through my body as all the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck seemed to stand up at once. I gasped in instant realization and horror, jumping to my feet and dropping my tablet to the floor. However, I barely noticed that as the world seemed to explode and go dark.

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I woke up to a splitting headache, an odd sense of wrongness over my entire body, and a nearly overwhelming feeling of dread. At first, I remained where I was, taking deep breaths and trying hard not to panic.

Even with my head pounding, I clearly remembered the strange feelings that hit me right before I’d lost consciousness. The tingling, the feeling of static electricity, and the pressure I’d felt building just a second before everything exploded. Those were the signs preceding a twist.

“Oh shit,” I whispered, sitting up and having a very bad feeling about this.

I slowly got to my feet, noticing that the carpet and couch were blackened and charred. My tablet was on the floor next to me, looking partly melted and completely ruined. There were even torn and burnt remnants of my clothes scattered about.

While I was looking around, I was trying hard to ignore my own body. Trying and failing. Everything felt completely wrong, and when I looked down, there were two bulges pushing out from my chest.

“Oh shit,” I said again with a cold hard knot of dread in my stomach.

I grabbed these softball sized mounds of flesh on my chest and gulped. I had breasts. Real breasts, just like a girl. That thought was enough to make me immediately reach between my legs, only to find little Jerry was gone.

For a moment, I just remained frozen where I was with one hand on my breast while the other was between my legs. I was stunned…shocked. I couldn’t believe it, but neither could I deny it. I’d become a girl.

I tore my hands away from my sensitive spots but continued to look myself over, seeing that I definitely had a female body. Everything about my body had changed, and every bit of it looked like it belonged to a girl rather than to me.

“I’m…I’m a girl,” I whispered, trying to absorb that simple fact. Then I gulped and added, “And I’m Twisted.”

The second part wasn’t nearly as shocking as the first since I’d always known there was a good chance I’d be Twisted like mom. However, since the odds were about fifty percent and Shelly had ended up Twisted, I’d sort of suspected that I’d probably dodge that bullet. Obviously, that wasn’t the case.

I stood there for a minute, staring down at myself in stunned disbelief and trying to wrap my head around this…and trying not to freak out. Then I took several deep breaths, knowing that I had to take this one step at a time.

“I went through my twist,” I told myself as calmly as I could, which took some effort. “I’m Twisted…and I’m a girl.” Then I closed my eyes and took another deep breath, feeling my breasts sort of rise in the process. When I opened my eyes, I poked at my breasts and let out a sigh, then muttered, “What the hell do I look like now?”

Since the only way to get a real good look at myself was to find a mirror, I went to my mom and dad’s bedroom. Mom had an antique full length mirror that she kept in there, and I knew that would give me my best view.

When I reached the mirror and saw the girl who was reflected back, I let out a loud gasp of shock. The girl was gorgeous, with dark hair that went down to her mid-back. She had a body that was curvy and athletic at the same time, having round and firm breasts and great muscle tone. However, she was also extremely familiar.

“Shelly,” I blurted out with a cold knot forming in my stomach. I looked exactly like Shelly. “No,” I exclaimed in growing horror. “No…”

I leaned forward and examined my reflection more closely, in spite of the fact that I wanted to scream and smash the mirror. There was no doubt that I looked exactly like Shelly. My ears were already pierced, just like hers, and I even had the exact same haircut, though admittedly, I needed to brush my hair.

I finally tore myself from the mirror and backed away, feeling as though I was about to start hyperventilating. It was bad enough to turn into a girl, but to turn into Shelly…

Then I remembered what I’d been thinking about when my twist occurred. I’d been thinking about Shelly, about how mom had wished I was more like her and I was even wondering how she’d go about that thesis project. I gulped, knowing that those thoughts were what had directed the nature of my twist.

When someone goes through their twist, the form it takes is usually patterned somehow off of what they are doing or thinking at the time it was triggered…especially if it was something new or different. In my case, looking to Shelly for any kind of guidance must have been enough.

“SHIT,” I exclaimed in frustration. “Why couldn’t this have happened when I was weight lifting? Or trying out kickboxing?”

I left mom and dad’s bedroom and went to my own, sitting down on the edge of my bed and trying to calm down. I couldn’t look like Shelly. I couldn’t. I’ve already had more than enough of people comparing me to her that I didn’t need this as well.

It was just a couple minutes later that I heard noise from the living room, followed by dad yelling, “What the hell happened here? What happened to the floor and couch?”

“Oh my God,” mom’s voice exclaimed a moment later. “JERRY?” Then she must have been explaining to dad as she added, “He must have gone through his twist…”

A moment later, I heard them both calling my name while running towards my room. I desperately grabbed the blanked from my bed and pulled it over me, trying to wrap myself in it and hide at the same time.

“Jerry,” mom exclaimed as she burst into my room, only to find me buried in blankets and hiding from her.

“Go away,” I snapped, not wanting them to see me like this.

“You did go through your twist,” mom said, obviously worried. “Are you all right?”

“Go away,” I repeated, feeling ashamed and even afraid. “Just leave me alone…”

“Your voice…,” dad gasped. Then his voice became much more firm as he ordered me, “Show us what happened?”

All I could do was shake with tears starting to form. “No,” I said, huddling up inside the blanked even more. “I don’t want you to see me…”

“Jerry Andrew Sinclaire,” mom snapped in her form ‘mother’ voice. “You come out from there right this instant.”

I hesitated a moment before reluctantly pulling the blanked away enough to show my face. Since I was completely naked beneath the blanked, I kept the rest of my body naked.

“Shelly?” dad asked in surprise a moment later.

“I’m NOT Shelly,” I exclaimed angrily.

Mom stared at me, her eyes going wide. “Oh Jerry…” Then she threw her arms around me in a hug and said, “I’m so sorry…”

“Unbelievable,” dad whispered, staring at me in surprise. “Is that really you, Jerry?” All I could do was nod my head weakly.

“I think,” mom said carefully, looking to dad. “Jerry and I need to have a little privacy.” Dad gave me an odd look and nodded before leaving the room. Then mom stared at me for a moment before carefully asking, “How much have you changed?”

“Everything,” I answered in a whisper, wincing as I did.

“Oh dear,” mom responded, giving me a sympathetic look. “Can you show me?” When I didn’t respond, she let out a faint sigh. “It won’t be anything I haven’t seen before. Now let me see.”

I hesitated a moment and then slowly dropped the blanket, letting mom see my body. I blushed brightly and couldn’t bring myself to even look at her since I knew she was staring at me.

“You really do look like your sister,” mom said in amazement. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that you really were Shelly.”

I winced at that and then bitterly muttered, “You did say you wished I was more like her…”

Mom didn’t respond to that other than to give me an odd look. After a few more seconds, she said, “Let’s get you something to wear and then we can try to figure out how much you’ve changed.”

I nodded at that, knowing that she had to be wondering what kind of personality changes, compulsions, or obsessions I might have gained during my twist. I gulped, not having thought about those until now. But I did still feel like myself in my mind, so I hoped that was a good sign.

“I don’t think your own clothes will fit you very well,” mom mused thoughtfully. “Stay here…”

With that, mom left my room and came back a minute later with Shelly’s silk bathrobe. Fortunately, it was her silvery white one rather than the pink one. I didn’t bother arguing as I put it on since at least it was something to wear.

“Have you noticed any odd thoughts or emotions?” mom asked me carefully. “I mean, anything different from how you’d normally feel?”

“Does feeling freaked out count?” I asked.

“I think that counts as normal under the circumstances,” she answered with a faint smile.

Mom asked me a few more questions then insisted I leave my room. I reluctantly went to the living room where dad was waiting, feeling extremely self-conscious. I didn’t like him and mom seeing me like this.

“I always knew you could be Twisted,” dad said awkwardly. “But even after Shelly, I’m still not sure what to think.”

“If we were in Spiral,” mom told me gently, “We’d be able to take you to the clinic for a full examination and testing. But as we found out when Shelly twisted, that isn’t an option here. Fortunately, we found other options, but we’ll worry about that later.”

“I can’t believe it,” I said awkwardly, holding up my hands and staring at them. Even my hands looked different. They were girl hands.

My nails were oval shaped and a little longer than normal, but not too long. Shelly didn’t let her nails get too long because they’d get in the way playing baseball or practicing kickboxing, but they were still well manicured and feminine.

Shelly returned home a few minutes later. As soon as she’d come into the living room, she saw me sitting on the couch and froze, staring at me with her mouth dropping open.

“What’s going on?” Shelly demanded, giving me a suspicious look.

“It’s Jerry,” dad said, giving me an odd look. “He went through his twist.”

“Jerry?” Shelly asked in surprise while I cringed.

“Um…yeah,” I responded self-consciously.

“You look like me,” Shelly blurted out.

“Think of it this way,” dad joked weakly. “Now you have your very own twin sister.” No one laughed.

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Breakfast was extremely awkward and was an experience I could have done without. After spending a very uncomfortable night in bed, not able to get to sleep because of the way I kept rolling onto my new breasts, I then had to get up and face my family again.

I felt very self-conscious as I sat at the breakfast table in some of Shelly’s clothes. I was less than thrilled by having to wear my sister’s clothes, regardless of the fact that they now fit me perfectly, and she wasn’t very happy about my borrowing her clothes either.

“I still can’t believe it,” dad said, looking back and forth between us.
“You two look…identical.”

That just made me cringe, especially since it was true. Last night, mom had insisted that Shelly and I stand side by side while she looked us over. I had grown an inch taller and was now 5 foot 10, the same height as Shelly. And we found that I had a scar on the back of my hand that was a match for the one Shelly had. Every detail seemed to be a perfect match, which only made this seem even creepier.

Shelly stared at me for a moment but didn’t say anything before frowning and turning her attention back to her breakfast. Shelly didn’t seem any happier about my transformation than I was.

It was strange eating breakfast with everyone on a weekday like this, but things were a little odd. Dad was going to work a little late while mom had cancelled all of her appointments so she could spend the day with me. Of course, I wasn’t going to school today, but Shelly still was.

Once we were done with breakfast, Shelly hurried out of the house without saying a word to me. I didn’t mind since I wasn’t sure what to day to her either. Dad gave me a hesitant hug before leaving just a few minutes later.

“Why don’t you go take a shower,” mom suggested, absently reaching up to brush my hair with her fingers. “When you wash your hair, make sure you use conditioner.”

I rolled my eyes as I responded, “Sure.” Leave it to mom to be concerned about my hair when that was the least of my worries.

A minute later, I went to the bathroom and stripped off the clothes I’d put on after waking up, then I climbed into the shower and tried to wash myself. It was extremely aware of my altered body and the way my chest…the way my breasts pushed out. The hot water on my breasts only made it more obvious.

While I showered, I noticed that my skin was all soft and smooth as well as more sensitive than normal. This seemed even more true of the skin on my breasts. It was weird, but what made it all the worse was the fact that my body was an exact copy of Shelly’s. I felt like I was invading her privacy and that I was being some kind of perverted voyeur.

“Better get used to it,” I told myself bitterly. “This is going to be you from now on.”

My first impulse was to rush through my shower as quickly as possible, but I knew that I couldn’t ignore these changes forever. And of course, if I didn’t deal with my long mess of hair properly, mom would probably throw me back into the shower to make me do it again.

I was used to having fairly short hair, so having hair this long was definitely strange. I had to use a LOT more shampoo than ever before, and it almost felt like I was using half the bottle. Then I had to go and do the whole thing over again with the bottle of conditioner. I’d never used the stuff before but was pretty sure that mom would notice if I skipped it.

Once I was finished with the shower, I dried myself off and carefully avoided looking into the bathroom mirror. Looking into the mirror now would have been like walking in on Shelly while she was in the shower. I knew that if I was going to be like this for the rest of my life, I’d have to get over that eventually. Just not now.

I was just about to put the clothes I was wearing before the shower back on when I heard mom call out, “I put some fresh clothes out on your bed.”

With a sigh, I wrapped myself in a towel the way I’d seen mom and Shelly do before, then I went to my bedroom. I looked over the clothes that mom had set out, thankful that she’d chosen a blouse and pants rather than getting too sexy a top or a skirt. However, I did pause when I saw the bra and panties sitting on my bed.

“Why aren’t you getting dressed?” mom asked when she came up behind me.

“I can’t wear Shelly’s underwear,” I blurted out.

“I know,” mom responded with a sigh. “But they are clean and we’ll go get you some of your own later today.”

Mom left me alone to get dressed, much to my relief. I hesitated for another minute before I decided to get it over with. I put on the underwear and then reached for the bra, hesitating again. For a brief moment, I considered calling mom to ask how to put it on, then I realized how obvious it was and slipped it on without any problems.

When I was fully dressed, I left my room, only to have mom take one look at me and shake her head. “You need to use a hairdryer,” she told me, gesturing to my hair. “You should have dried your hair before getting fully dressed. You’re getting your shirt wet.”

I grimaced, reaching for my hair which was still went, in spite of the fact that I’d rubbed and rubbed at it with a towel. It was kind of heavy and awkward.

“Can I cut this?” I asked abruptly, looking to my mom. I grimaced and said, “I don’t want to much hair…”

“It is a bit much to deal with if you aren’t used to it,” she agreed pleasantly. “Sit down in the dining room and I’ll see if I can find a style that works a little better.”

A minute later, I was sitting down while mom pulled out her styling tools. The first thing she did was use the scissors to cut her own hair off at shoulder length, then she went to work on my hair.

Mom cut my hair about shoulder length as well, which was still longer than I was used to but would still be a lot easier to deal with than the way it was before. But then I felt a tickling feeling in my scalp while mom simultaneously let out a loud gasp and stepped back.

“What’s wrong?” I asked nervously. I reached for my hair and noticed that it had grown back to the same length it had been before mom cut it. “Why’d you make it grow back?”

“I didn’t,” she answered, giving me a curious look. She ran her hands through my hair and added thoughtfully, “The new growth is dry…”

Mom cut my hair again, but then it quickly grow back to its former length a second time. This time, all of the wet hair had been cut off so my hair was now long again. A quick look in the hand mirror that mom held up showed that it had even grown back into Shelly’s normal style as well.

“I suppose that is one way to try your hair,” mom said, running a brush through my hair until she was satisfied. “But it looks like your twist isn’t letting you change the style.”

“Just great,” I spat out in annoyance, wondering what other surprises my twist held in store for me.

“We need to find out exactly what your twist entails,” mom told me thoughtfully. “Have you noticed any tricks or quirks?”

“Besides my hair growing?” I asked wryly. Then I shook my head.

“When Shelly when through her Twist, we found an online resource that helped a great deal,” mom explained pleasantly. “It might help.”

Several minutes later, I was back in my bedroom and logging into my computer. The online resource mom had been talking about was a website that had been created to help the Twisted determine what personality changes and obsessions they might have developed.

You were supposed to take a test every six months, then take one again after going through your twist. After comparing the new test with the most recent from before your twist, it would point out your psychological differences. I hadn’t taken the test previously, in spite of the fact that mom had urged me to do so a couple months ago, so I had nothing to compare the results to.

In spite of that, I took the test anyway and spent the next hour answering countless questions about my opinions and what I’d do in certain situations. I had to stop and think about a lot of them which made me consider if what I felt now was the same as what I would have felt on the same question before. When I was finished and saw the results, I was pretty confident that I hadn’t gained any personality changes or obsessions, or if I had, they were too subtle to find that easily.

“At least that’s good news,” I said in relief.

Having my body change was scary enough, but becoming someone else mentally as well would have been terrifying. At that thought, I suddenly felt sorry for Shelly, wondering what it would have been like for her when she’d gone through it.

When I went back to the living room, mom immediately started going over our plans for the day. “We’ll need to get you some new clothes,” she mused thoughtfully. “You can wear some of Shelly’s for now, but you will need some of your own. Fortunately, we won’t need to worry about finding out your sizes.”

Mom continued discussing her plans for the day while I just sat on the couch and sighed. I didn’t like the idea of going shopping for girl clothes, but I also accepted the fact that I didn’t have much choice. Whether I liked it or not, I was female now and none of my old clothes would fit me anymore. I wanted to deny that, but I was realistic enough to know that I couldn’t. I’d gone through my twist and I couldn’t undo it. All I could do is deal with what I’d become as best I could.

While mom was going on in a lot more detail than I cared about, I absently stared down at my breasts and past those to my hands. Then something suddenly struck me about my nails. Something about them seemed…off. I held my hands up and just stared at my nails for a minute before I realized what it was. They needed polish. Specifically, they needed dark red polish, though I wasn’t quite certain why they needed to be that exact color, only that they did.

“Jerry,” mom said, abruptly distracting me from my thoughts.

I gasped, suddenly realizing what I’d been thinking and feeling a knot in my stomach. I didn’t want polish on my nails and had absolutely no interest in putting any on. Yet when I glanced to my hands again, I had that vague feeling that my nails should have dark red polish.

“You were staring at your hands,” mom sad carefully, giving me a curious look. “What were you thinking about?”

“I was thinking about putting polish on my nails,” I admitted self-consciously, unable to meet mom’s eyes.

“Were you just wondering what they’d look like with polish?” she asked evenly. “Or thinking that you wanted to put some on?”

I hesitated a moment before quietly admitting, “The second one.” Then I quickly added, “But I don’t really want to…”

“It looks like you may have stumbled onto another part of your twist,” mom told me gently. Then before I could say anything about the online test I took a short time ago, she told me, “That test is probably good for finding large personality shifts or obsessions, but I think there is a lot that would slip past it.”

“Just great,” I grumbled, though I’d already known that was the case.

“Let’s get going,” mom told me gently. “If you’re still interested in getting your nails polished later, we can stop for a manicure.” From the look on mom’s face, I think she was likely to use that as excuse to get a manicure anyway.

I felt extremely self-conscious to go out in public for the first time as a girl. Intellectually, I knew that I looked like a pretty girl and that I was even wearing the right clothes. However, I kept feeling like people would point to me and laugh, though no one did so. Everyone in the store seemed to accept me completely as the female I appeared, which relieved my worries in one way but created new ones as well.

The sales guy at the shoe store was in his late teens and obviously took an immediate interest in me, much to my embarrassment. Mom seemed amused at the attention he was giving me but I just wanted to finish and go as quickly as possible. Fortunately, mom was satisfied with only two pairs of shoes, a pair of sneakers for casual and athletic wear, and a pair of black shoes with a low heel for nicer wear.

“This should do for now,” mom told me as we left the store. “If you need other shoes for some reason, you can borrow them from your sister.”

“Just what I always wanted,” I responded sarcastically. “To borrow my sister’s clothes.” Then I let out a sigh and asked, “Can we go get underwear next? That is definitely one thing I don’t want to ever have to borrow from her again.”

“Of course,” mom agreed with a laugh. “Honestly, I thought I’d have to drag you kicking and screaming for that one…”

I had expected to go to a store and just buy a few packs of underwear, but found that we’d gone to a lingerie store instead. It was the kind of store I’d never gone into before, one with panties and bras everywhere. Mom seemed perfect comfortable so I did my best to act like I belonged.

“I know Shelly’s sizes so you shouldn’t need a fitting,” mom told me. “Though you’ll still have to try a few things to make sure they fit.”

I just nodded and looked around, then on an impulse, I went to one rack on the side. I flipped through the bras on the rack and pulled out one of them, holding it up and silently examining it. With that size and this brand, I knew that it would be a perfect fit for me.

Just then, mom exclaimed, “Hey Shelly, look at this one. It’s it cute?”

“Shelly isn’t here,” I reminded her with a wince.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized with a chuckle. “It’s just that you look and sound so much like her that it’s easy to forget.”

With a snort, I said, “Well I’m not her.”

It was bad enough that I was stuck looking like Shelly, I didn’t want everyone to keep mistaking me for her too. Unfortunately, due to the nature of my twist, I had a bad feeling that I’d have to get used to that as well.

“What have you got here?” mom asked, snatching the bra from my hand. “Did you find something you liked?” She chuckled, seeming amused by that. Then she looked at the tag before pulling out a sheet of paper where she’d written down Shelly’s sizes. “You picked out the right size.” She seemed surprised by that. “You’ll have to try it on to make sure though.”

After I found a few more bras, I went into the changing room and tried them out. The one I’d picked out first was a perfect fit, while oddly enough, the one mom picked out for me next was just a little too snug.

When we were done, we walked out the door with three bras and a dozen panties. I was stunned and even a little horrified by just how much it had all cost. If all girl clothes were this expensive, I had no idea how I’d ever be able to fill my dresser back up.

“I was thinking,” mom said as we walked out the door. She gave me a thoughtful look before adding, “I think you might need a new name to go with your new look.”

I paused and looked down at my breasts and then let out a sigh. I’d known this was coming, though I’d expected another day or two before the subject was brought up.

“I know,” I finally said. Of course, that didn’t mean I had to like it.
“I was thinking Kelly,” mom suggested with a smile. I just groaned, knowing that she’d picked that name simply because it rhymed with Shelly.

“No thanks,” I responded. I might be stuck having to look like Shelly, but I didn’t want to play into the whole ‘twin’ thing. Rhyming names was just too much. “I was thinking of just changing the spelling. Make it Jeri with an I.”

“That would make it easier for you to answer to,” mom admitted, obviously disappointed that I wasn’t taken with her suggestion. “Jeri Anne Sinclaire. That could work.”

With that decided, we continued with our shopping trip, getting me everything else that mom thought I would need…and a few I probably wouldn’t. I just couldn’t believe how much money mom spent on me, nor did I think that dad would be happy once he found out.

And after we were finished with shopping, mom insisted on stopping so we could each get a manicure. I’d been a little hesitant, but after they put on the dark red polish, the faint itch I’d been feeling all day went away.

I had mixed feelings about having gone for a manicure and getting my nails polished. On one hand, it was more feminine than I was comfortable with yet, but on the other, it somehow seemed right as well.

As soon as we got home, I changed out of Shelly’s clothes and put on my newly purchased ones. I could have waited to do that but there was a definite difference between wearing my sister’s clothes and wearing my own, even if they were nearly identical.

“I know things are a little chaotic right now,” mom told me, almost apologetic. “But you do still have school work that needs to be done. I talked to your school and they’ll be e-mailing your classwork.”

“Great,” I grumbled in complain. “I turn into a girl and I still have to do homework.”

I wasn’t in the mood to do any school work at the moment, but I still got some of my materials out and made a show of it just to satisfy mom. While I was doing this, I realized that with my tablet destroyed during my twist, it would be a little more awkward doing some of this work. I’d have to do it on the computer in my room until I got a replacement.

Just then, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my finger, and when I looked at it, there was a cut with blood coming out. I gasped in surprise and looked for whatever I’d cut it on, but I didn’t see anything. I held my hand for a moment, just feeling confused.

“Damn,” I exclaimed, holding my hand up to show my mom. “I cut myself on something…”

“Well go put a bandage on it,” mom said with an exasperated voice.

I went to the bathroom and washed the blood off my finger and put a bandage on it. Getting cut and bleeding wasn’t a big deal, but the fact that I hadn’t been doing anything that could have caused it was. There hadn’t been anything sharp near me.

“Is ANYTHING ever going to feel normal again?” I asked my reflection in the mirror, still feeling shaken and a bit startled to see Shelly reflected back.

But as I stared at my reflection, it suddenly struck me that I needed makeup. Makeup and earrings. It was the very same certainty that I felt earlier about the nail polish.

“Not again,” I complained, looking away from the mirror, though the faint nagging desire to put on makeup and earrings remained. “It looks like I really did get some compulsions…” I grimaced at that, not at all happy about it. But at least they were minor compulsions, I told myself, knowing that it could have been worse. These ones might be annoying, but they weren’t dangerous and they were weak enough that I could try to ignore them.

After this, I would have distracted myself by playing some video games, but mom was quick to remind me that I was still grounded. Apparently, going through my twist and having my entire body and life forever altered wasn’t a good reason to make an exception. Because of that, I used my school work to distract myself instead.

I started with the reading projects, figuring that I’d just skim over those. However, when I was reading the pages that Mr. Morgan had assigned, I had a strange sense of deja-vu...a feeling that I’d read them before even though I was sure I hadn’t. Reading ahead of the class lessons was Shelly’s thing, not mine. When I was done glancing over the reading assignment, I filled out the quiz, surprised again by how easy the questions all were. I didn’t even need to cheat and look up any of the answers.

I finished the school work in record time, or at least everything but the thesis paper that I still needed to do. I was feeling proud of myself but also just a little worried. In spite of my grades and what my teachers and everyone in my family seemed to think, I wasn’t stupid. I knew that the quiz had been just a little too easy and wondered if that might have been tied to my twist as well.

“I wish my twist came with a manual,” I muttered, thinking about how much easier it would be if I had all the details of my twist spelled out clearly. Just stumbling across them on my own was a pain in the ass.

Shelly returned home from school just a short time after this, though to my embarrassment, she wasn’t alone. April came into the house right behind her, and the moment she saw me in the living room, she froze and stared at me with her mouth dropping open.

“You weren’t kidding,” April blurted out, looking to Shelly and then me.

“Unfortunately, no,” Shelly responded, giving me a look of annoyance as though it was my fault I now looked like her.

“You’re like…twins,” April exclaimed, looking amused by the idea.

“We’re not twins,” Shelly and I both blurted out at once. April burst out laughing at that while Shelly glared at me.

April walked up to me and then began looking me over. I felt extremely self-conscious as she examined me, and if it had been anyone else looking at me like that, I would have pushed them away or at least backed off myself. However, I still had a crush on April and this was the most attention she’d ever given me.

“Do you mind?” I asked awkwardly.

“Sorry,” April told me with a broad grin. “This is incredible… I mean, you two look exactly alike. If I didn’t know you were you, I’d never guess you weren’t Shelly.”

I winced at that and muttered, “Incredible isn’t the word I’d use.”

Suddenly, mom exclaimed, “Shelly…what happened to your hand?”

Shelly held up her hand, revealing that one of her fingers had a bandage around it. It was the same finger and place where I had my own cut. She shrugged and explained, “A beaker broke in chemistry and I accidentally cut my finger on it.”

I stared at Shelly’s hand, at the bandage on her finger and on her nails which were painted with a dark red polish. Her nails were nearly identical to the shade that I’d picked out for myself while getting my manicure. I gulped, then held my own hand up, showing that other than the brand of bandage, it was identical to hers.

“Wow, that’s just weird,” April said, looking fascinated by this.

“I want to try something,” mom said, rushing out of the room and calling back. “You two stay there…”

Mom came back into the room a minute later with her scissors and proceeded to cut my hair short again. And as with this morning, it immediately grew right back to the former length and style. April gasped in amazement while Shelly watched with a thoughtful look.

“Now for you,” mom told Shelly, who immediately backed away. “Don’t worry. I’ll fix your hair when we’re done.”

“Fine,” Shelly responded reluctantly.

Mom cut Shelly’s hair at shoulder length, and a moment later, I felt a tingling in my scalp. To my amazement, my hair shortened so that it was once again a match for Shelly’s. Mom then made Shelly’s hair grow longer, all the way down to the ground. Again, my scalp tingled and my hair grew until it was the same length as Shelly’s.

“We’re…synchronized,” Shelly exclaimed, glaring at me again. “Or at least she’s synchronized to me…”

I could only stare back at Shelly, feeling horrified by this discovery. Mom had wished that I was more like Shelly, and now her wish had been granted but I was the one who was paying the price…and would continue to do so for the rest of my life.

Not only was I stuck looking exactly like my sister, I couldn’t even differentiate myself with my own hair cut. And then there were the compulsions I was feeling as well. Being Twisted was turning out to be my worst nightmare come true.

--------------------

It was my second morning to wake up in my new female body and it wasn’t any better than the first. I’d had a poor night of sleeping, though admittedly it was a little better than the previous night. The best thing about climbing out of bed was finding that Shelly had already left for school.

I grimly remembered yesterday and the discovery that I was still somehow synchronized to Shelly and her physical state. We’d done a few more experiments on my condition, proving that if Shelly dyed her hair another color, my hair would change color as well. And if we dyed my hair, the dye would almost immediately vanish. It seemed that no matter what I did, I was cursed to remain a physical copy of Shelly. Mom thought that this was not only part of my twist, but was actually my trick as well.

“Yeah,” I muttered bitterly. “A trick on me.”

I shuddered when I thought of what this would mean for me. What would happen if Shelly got injured somehow? I’d already learned that I’d get the same injury, which meant that anytime she competed in kickboxing or anything else, I was taking the same physical risks that she was. On the other hand, if I got hurt on my own, my injury would probably vanish. I didn’t consider that much of a compensation.

When I went in to take my shower, my first impulse was to go as fast as I could so I could get it over with. However, I forced myself to go slow and take my time instead.

Last night, I’d read an article online for Twisted who’d gone through drastic twists. It recommended taking your time to familiarize yourself with your new body in order to become more comfortable with it. The article said that doing this could help you to adapt and adjust more quickly. I was skeptical but was willing to try just about anything so that I didn’t keep feeling like such a freak.

I slowly washed myself, exploring nearly every inch of my body as I did so. I still felt like a voyeuristic creep and had to remind myself that I might look like Shelly, but this was still my body. No matter what I looked like, I would have to accept this and get used to it. That helped a little.

After I was finished with my shower, I looked at the blow drier mom said I should use to dry my hair with but then paused. With a wry smile, I reached into the medicine cabinet for the scissors and quickly began cutting all of my hair off and tossing the mass into the garbage. My scalp tickled as I cut and quickly began to grow my hair back out again. In almost no time at all, I had a full new head of hair that was completely dry.

“Way easier than drying it,” I said, feeling a little proud of myself.

“I put several outfits out on your bed,” mom called out to me. “Pick out which one you want to wear.”

A minute later, I was looking at the three outfits mom had set out for me, feeling annoyed that she’d done that. I might not be used to dressing in girl clothes, but I was still perfectly capable of dressing myself.

One of the outfits was a T-shirt and pair of jeans, similar to what I’d usually worn as a guy. The second outfit was some kind of long sleeved blouse w slacks which looked feminine but a little conservative. The last outfit consisted of a feminine purple top that revealed a little cleave and a pair of tight black pants were folded next to it.

Normally, there was no way that I’d even consider that purple top and I would have immediately gone for the jeans and T-shirt instead. However, for some reason the purple top was the one that caught my attention. It seemed to scream ‘wear me’.

I got dressed as quickly as I could, and when I was done, it suddenly dawned on me that I couldn’t wear my sneakers with this outfit. I needed the other shoes mom had bought me. But after I put them on, something still seemed off. A moment later, I realized what it was. I needed a little more heel in my shoes. But even more than that, I suddenly realized that I should be wearing a black skirt, not the black pants.

“Where is that all coming from?” I demanded of myself when I realized where my thoughts were going. I had absolutely no interest in dressing so girlie, yet a part of me definitely wanted to. I felt a cold chill go down my spine as I realized that it was just like the nail polish again. “My compulsions…”

I muttered a few profanities, not happy that I’d gotten caught up in those new compulsions before I’d even realized it. I was still grumbling to myself when I walked into the living room.

“Very nice,” mom told me with amused look. “I had a feeling you’d pick that outfit. It’s the closest to what Shelly was wearing when she left. Of course, she was wearing a skirt, but I doubted you’d go for that.”

“Why am I not surprised?” I muttered in annoyance.

It seemed that my compulsions were as tied to Shelly as my body was. My body automatically adjusted to match hers while I felt these urges to match her clothes and makeup as well, even when I didn’t know what she was wearing

“Damn,” I said with a grimace, knowing that I was going to have to be careful. I obviously couldn’t trust my own impulses anymore.

“Shelly has very good taste,” mom told me pleasantly. “It’s a good thing you’re picking that up from her.”

I bit my tongue to keep from saying what I wanted to. Instead, I focused on eating breakfast, trying not to think about how much Shelly was intruding into my life, though not succeeding very well.

“I’m going to have to go to work today,” mom told me, sitting at the table and sipping coffee while I ate. “I have several appointments I have to keep so you’re on your own.”

“Not a problem,” I muttered, looking forward to getting some privacy, or at least some time when I didn’t have my family giving me odd looks.

“And no video games,” she reminded me with an amused smile. Then she mused, “And I believe that thesis paper is due today… I know it’s Friday and you won’t be going back to school until Monday, but I believe you can still e-mail it to your teacher in time for the deadline.”

“Um…yeah, sure,” I responded, wincing since I hadn’t even started on the thesis.

After mom left for work, I took advantage of the opportunity to hop on and play my favorite video game for awhile. However, I didn’t let myself get too caught up in it since I did still have some work to do.

When I logged off of my game, I looked down at my nails which were still painted dark red and grimaced as I felt the compulsion to change the color. They needed to be dark purple instead.

“Shelly must have painted her nails this morning,” I muttered in annoyance.

Since I was off my game, I finally turned my attention to the thesis paper. I was rather nervous about working on it since I clearly remembered the last time I’d tried doing that. I shuddered but knew there was no chance I’d go through another twist.

At first, I was exactly where I’d been the last time I tried working on the assignment, stuck and with no idea where to start. Then it suddenly came to me and I went to work.

I spent the next two hours writing my paper, alternating between writing and checking resources. Once I got into the groove, the words just came to me and the paper nearly wrote itself.

Once I was done with the assignment and had caught up on all my homework, I just needed to figure out what to do with the rest of my day. Video games were the obvious choice, followed by TV.

While I was considering what to do, I went to the bathroom to relieve myself. As I’d found last night, going to the bathroom as a girl wasn’t really that much different than going as a guy. Sure, I have to sit down to pee, but that wasn’t really a problem.

As I washed my hands, I looked up into the bathroom mirror and felt my compulsions click in again. I needed makeup and earrings. However, I knew what to expect so wasn’t completely overwhelmed by these urges.

“This is going to get old fast,” I told my reflection with a sigh. If I had to deal with these urges every time I looked into the mirror or at my hands…

I turned away from the mirror but still felt the urge to put on makeup. It wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t ignore it, but I suddenly wondered why I should bother. After all, I was home by myself and no one would see me if I experimented a little.

By this point, I was getting a little curious as well. Getting my nails painted yesterday hadn’t been bad at all, and it had satisfied those urges at the time. I only hesitated a few more seconds before I opened the drawer that contained Shelly’s makeup kit.

“Shelly will kill me if she finds out,” I reminded myself, though that also motivated me to continue. “Of course, I’d kill myself if she finds out.”

A few seconds later, I began putting the makeup on, being hesitant at first but quickly growing more confident. I’d never put makeup on before and had never even considered it, but everything seemed pretty obvious to me so I just went with it.

When I was finished, I examined my reflection in the mirror and announced, “Perfect.” Then I scowled slightly and said, “Too perfect.”

I’d done a good job of putting the makeup on and making it look subtle. In fact, it looked exactly the way Shelly did it, which should have been nearly impossible for someone who’d never used makeup before.

“Surprise surprise,” I said with a sigh. “Another part of my twist.”

Suddenly knowing how to put on makeup seemed harmless on the surface, but the ramifications hit me hard. This was the same thing as yesterday when I was doing my homework and already knew the reading material even though I’d never read it. It was the same thing that gave me the answers to the questions when I shouldn’t have known them. I was not only stuck looking like Shelly and had urges to maximize that resemblance, but now it seemed that I had her in my head as well.

I nearly screamed in frustration at how much Shelly was intruding into every part of my life. I glared at the image in the mirror and spat out, “You’re ruining my life…”

With that, I turned away from the mirror and left the bathroom, shaking from the emotions. I clenched my fists in frustration, feeling my nails digging into my palms painfully. When I opened my hands, I saw a little bit of blood as several of my nails actually broke the skin. But as I watched, the small cuts sealed up and vanished.

My emotions were a mass of confusion as I felt anger and frustration not only at my situation but also directed at Shelly and my parents. If mom and dad hadn’t kept pushing me to be more like Shelly, then I might not have twisted like this. At the same time, I also felt the faint nagging urges to put on earrings, a skirt, and shoes w higher heels. But also present was a sense of curiosity.

As I calmed down, the curiosity grew stronger. I wanted to know more about this, about how much of Shelly I had in my head. I was pretty confident that I hadn’t gained any of her personality, much to my relief. If I had, the online test would have picked it up, but more than that, I would probably have been spending all my time studying rather than looking for ways to goof off. However, the idea of Shelly being in my head in any way was just plain unacceptable.

I went to Shelly’s room, pausing at the doorway and looking around. I’ve actually gotten yelled at by my parents before for intruding into her sanctuary, but for some reason, neither of them seemed to care at all when she came into my room. After a moment, I stepped into the forbidden zone and looked around for something I could use to test this latest twist to my twist.

There was a binder on Shelly’s desk for a history project that she’d worked on a couple weeks ago. I remembered that she’d been busy doing a lot of research for it and that she’d got an A for the finished work. I didn’t know what exactly it was about, or at least I hadn’t known before. With one look at the binder, I knew that it was all about the Alaskan separatists and how they’d eventually caused Alaska to secede from the United States. Alaska had officially been its own separate country for just over a year, until President Ling negotiated a reunification without having to resort to violence.

“Oh shit,” I gasped. I’d barely known anything about those historic events, yet now the names, dates, and details all flooded into my head as though I really knew the subject. “I know everything about it that Shelly does.”

I was a bit shaken to have my suspicions confirmed in this manner, and even more so by the fact that this link to Shelly’s knowledge seemed to be even stronger than I’d guessed. I took a deep breath and knew that I had to continue and test this more. As uncomfortable as it made me to have Shelly in my head, I needed to know just how far it extended.

After looking around for another minute, my eyes settled on the violin case that was sitting in the corner. Shortly after Shelly had first gone through her twist, she said that she’d always wanted to learn how to play a musical instrument so began to take lessons. In usual Shelly fashion, she’d practiced quite a bit at first and became pretty good. And though she hadn’t taken lessons in nearly a year, she still practiced every once in awhile.

My hands shook slightly as I pulled the violin from its case. I’d never played the violin before in my life but I already knew that I could play this one, a fact that I quickly proved as I began to play a pleasant tune. Shelly’s skills were there in my head, just as though I’d been the one to take the lessons and do all the practice. Playing the violin was almost easy and it felt like I’d been doing it for awhile.

I continued playing for a few more minutes, feeling amazed that I was actually playing a violin. But at the same time, I couldn’t help but feeling just a little scared by what this meant. Then I set the violin back into its case and put it back where I found it.

As I was backing out of Shelly’s room, my eyes caught her jewelry box and I once again felt the urge to put in some earrings. I shook my head to shrug it off and then left.

I went to the living room and watched TV, though I was too distracted to really pay much attention to it. While I sat there, I realized that it was kind of silly to be upset about gaining knowledge or suddenly being able to play the violin. Most people would consider that a gift and be grateful for it.

My problem wasn’t so much with the knowledge but with the feeling that Shelly was intruding into my very mind. Or more specifically, I felt like my very sense of identity was being stripped from me in nearly every way possible. My appearance, my name, and now even the things I knew… It was as though everything that had defined me as Jerry had been taken away and Shelly’s identity was being pushed on me instead.

Then I suddenly realized there was one piece of knowledge that Shelly possessed which I actually wanted. I gasped at the thought and immediately ran to the kitchen to see if I had that too. Mere seconds later, I was pulling ingredients from the cupboard, growing excited as I realized that I had gained this. I did know how to make it…

Back before Shelly went through her twist, she used to help mom out in the kitchen and had liked to do a little experimenting on her own. She’d figured out how to make some brownies that were absolutely delicious. Shelly used to make them every once in awhile and I’d always loved it when she did. Unfortunately, once Shelly went through her twist, she seemed to lose interest in doing anything in the kitchen and hadn’t made the brownies since.

A short time later, I had a pan full of fresh baked brownies that were filling the air with their aroma. And as I took my first bite of a warm and gooey brownie, I smiled and felt a moment of happiness. It tasted exactly like I remembered. But what really made me happy wasn’t the taste, as delicious as it was. It was that at that moment, I actually felt I was connecting with Shelly. Not the know-it-all snob who made my life miserable, but the old Shelly…the sister I missed so much.

I smiled faintly as I sat there, remembering the last time I’d had these brownies and the sister whom I’d shared them with. I couldn’t help but thinking that maybe…just maybe…I could live with this.

--------------------

It was Saturday morning, getting near time for lunch. I was in the living room with mom, dad, and Shelly, though Shelly and I kept giving each other silent glares.

Shelly’s normal weekend routine was to get up early and go out running, then to go to kickboxing class afterwards. Today was no different, though unfortunately, she got a nice bruise on her leg during the sparring so I now had to deal with the discomfort as well.

Last night, I’d been embarrassed when mom came home from work and caught me with the makeup on my face. I’d almost forgotten that I even had the stuff on, which only made it more awkward for me. This also resulted in the revelation about how I was gaining knowledge and skills from Shelly.

We’d spent the last hour testing my mental link to Shelly and seeing how far it went. They read some questions from her recent homework assignments and I answered them. We tried to see if she gained knowledge from me the same way, but she didn’t. And we tested to see if I could actually read her thoughts and memories, but I couldn’t, much to Shelly’s obvious relief.

“I wonder,” mom mused, giving me a curious look. “Did you just get a copy of her knowledge when you twisted…or are you still getting anything new she learns.”

“Let’s get this over with,” Shelly said impatiently, giving me another glare. “I do have other things I need to do.”

With that, Shelly used her tablet to pull up a book on a subject that she wasn’t very familiar with. She spent the next ten minutes reading with a look of intense concentration on her face. She had that same look just about every time I’d seen her studying, as though she was forcing herself to memorize and understand every bit of it.

“There,” Shelly announced, giving me a flat look and asking, “Who was the author of the book Microcosm in a Quantum Eye?”

I’d never even heard of that book, but I still knew the answer. “Malcolm Stevens.”

“What’s the main character’s name?” Shelly asked me. “And his dog’s name?”

“Edgar Riley and Owen,” I answered.

“There,” Shelly said, giving me a glare. “Now we know.” She was obviously not happy about it either.

“So you really do know everything that Shelly knows,” dad said, giving me an odd look. “That’s impressive…and kind of disturbing.”

Shelly nodded agreement while muttering, “Tell me about it.”

“I’m not exactly thrilled about having your stuff in my head either,” I pointed out bitterly.

Mom quickly jumped in with an obvious attempt to change the subject. “You know Jeri,” she told me pleasantly. “You looked very nice with the makeup on yesterday. You should start wearing it regularly.”

“Stay out of my things,” Shelly exclaimed, having made it very clear last night what she thought of my using her makeup without her permission. Fortunately, she didn’t know about my playing her violin. “You’ve already taken too much without my permission.”

“Not intentionally,” I spat out. “And I sure as hell didn’t ask to look like you.” I gesture down at myself and added, “I could have done without the boobs.”

“All right you two,” dad interrupted. He looked to Shelly and said, “I think you can be more understanding of your bro…sister’s twist.”

Shelly didn’t answer dad, though she did tell me, “Just leave my things alone. Just because you look like me, that doesn’t mean you are me.”

“I don’t want to be you,” I argued. “And I don’t want your things…”

“I’ll get you your own makeup kit,” mom assured me. “Everything you need to help with these compulsions.”

That wasn’t at all what I was concerned about so I didn’t think that mom really understood. In fact, I kind of hoped that she forgot all about it because as long as I didn’t have makeup handy, it would make it easier to fight those compulsions.

Shelly was just getting up to leave the room when the doorbell began to ring. She paused to glance at the door but made no move to go answer it. Since I was the closest to the door, I let out a sigh and got up to do so.

When I opened the door, Rich was standing there. “Hey Shelly,” he greeted me, giving me a quick appreciative look like he usually gave my sister. I squirmed, suddenly feeling extremely self-conscious to have my best friend seeing me like this…and looking at me like that. “I heard Jerry was sick and thought I’d come see how he was doing…”

“I’m not,” I started to protest as I let Rich into the house. “I mean, I’m not Sh…”

Rich saw Shelly standing in the living room and suddenly blurted out, “What the hell?”

“That’s an interesting reaction,” dad commented with an amused chuckle. From the look on his face, I imagined that he would like to have had a bowl of popcorn to go with the show.

Rich stared at Shelly with his mouth dropped open and then me. He looked back and forth twice more before exclaiming, “There’s two of you…”

“He…she’s not me,” Shelly spat out angrily, giving me a flat glare as she added, “She’s just a…a cheap knockoff.” And with that, she turned and stormed down the hall towards her bedroom.

“What’s going on?” Rich asked, looking at me in confusion.

“I’m not Shelly,” I told Rich awkward, unable to meet his eyes. I gulped and gave him a weak smile before admitting, “I’m Jerry… I went through my twist.”

Rich gasped and his eyes went even wider, if that was possible, as he stared at me in stunned disbelief. “It’s true,” dad agreed with a sigh, giving me concerned look. “She really is Jerry.”

“Spelled J…E…R…I… now,” mom added almost pleasantly.

“Let’s go to my room,” I suggested uncomfortably, not wanting to talk about this in front of my parents. Rich nodded hesitantly and followed me to my room, staring at me the entire way. As soon as we were there with the door closed, I said, “Okay, stare at me and get it over with…”

Rich did just stand there and stare at me, his eyes scanning every bit of my body before locking onto my breasts. It was embarrassing for me, but I figured that I might as well just get this over and done with.

“Is that really you?” Rich finally asked, still looking uncertain. Then he blurted, “What the hell happened?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” I answered with a sigh, sitting down on my bed and looking down at myself. “And what do you think happened? I went through my damn twist…”

“Dude,” Rich gasped, still staring at me. “What’s it like?”

“Oh, I absolutely love it,” I responded with an exaggerated sexy purr. “I feel SO good and feminine… And I never realized before how cute guys were…”

Rich gulped, looking a little disturbed yet excited at the same time. “Really?”

“Fuck no,” I spat out, grimacing as I did so. “It sucks.”

“That was just wrong,” Rich told me with a chuckle. “You kind of had me for a moment…”

“Being a girl is weird,” I told Rich with a sigh, looking down at myself and the two bulges on my chest. “But I guess it isn’t too bad. I mean, I could probably get used to it eventually. The worst part is that I look like Shelly.”

“I’d imagine,” Rich responded carefully. He had a huge crush on Shelly, but he’d heard me complain about her enough times to know I wasn’t a fan.

“Fortunately, I didn’t get any of the personality changes with my twist,” I told Rich with a sigh. “It might have been easier for me if I had though…” I paused and shook my head before adding, “But I did get some annoying compulsions.” At his curious look, I explained.

After I’d told Rich about the nail polish, makeup, clothes, and other urges, he gave me a sympathetic look. “Dude, that’s got to be weird.” Then he quickly added, “But it could have been worse. I mean, you could have been stuck having to act like Shelly all the time too…”

“Good point,” I agreed.

Rich and I spent the next hour just talking, though most of that was me telling him about my changes and what it was like. It was difficult trying to describe it all, but I tried. However, it was also a very awkward hour as I was fully aware of the way that Rich kept staring at me, especially at my breasts. I did my best to pretend I didn’t notice that…or the bulge in his pants. I was just thankful that he didn’t point out how much I looked and sounded like Shelly, when that was obviously what he was thinking.

Eventually, Rich and I left my room to go get some brownies from the kitchen. “These are great,” Rich told me. “Your mom is a good cook.”

“Actually,” I told him with a faint smile. “I made those.” Then I quickly added, “With Shelly’s recipe.”

“Dude, I didn’t know you could cook,” Rich exclaimed, giving me another curious look.

“I can’t,” I responded with a chuckle. “Or at least I couldn’t.”

I didn’t have much cooking skill of my own and wasn’t sure how much I’d gained from Shelly. Anything she had related to cooking had probably come from before her twist and she’d been decent back then. One of the few things that Shelly had been willing to really do around the house back then had been to help in the kitchen…at least with the cooking.

“Well, these are still great brownies,” Rich repeated, adding with a grin. “Even if you made them.”

Just then, another voice exclaimed, “Brownies? I love brownies.”

I looked over to see April coming towards us with a grin while Shelly was beside her with a scowl on her face. I was a little startled to see April since I didn’t know she was here, but she must have arrived while Rich and I had been occupied in my room. Shelly might be popular in school, but April was the only friend she had who ever came to visit.

April helped herself to a brownie without asking then asked Shelly, “You want one?”

“I don’t eat junk food,” Shelly reminded her.

“Well these are really good,” April said a moment later. She looked at me and asked, “Did you really make these?”

I couldn’t help but feeling pleased from the compliment as well as the attention from April. I smiled at that and nodded, then reluctantly told her, “But it’s Shelly’s recipe.”

“Really?” April asked, giving Shelly a curious look. “Then why don’t you ever make these?”

Shelly let out a sigh and repeated, “I don’t eat junk food anymore so I don’t see any reason to make it.” Then she glared me and said, “Stay out of my head. It’s bad enough that you have to steal my face, I don’t need you stealing everything else too.”

“Well I’m glad you made them,” Rich said cheerfully as he helped himself to another brownie.

“Me too,” April agreed.

A minute later, Shelly and April went back to my sister’s room. Rich and I both watched them walk away, with him staring at Shelly’s ass while I watched April. To my delight, April turned to look back at me and even winked before she left my view.

“Damn,” Rich muttered. “Your sister is hot...” Then he paused to give me a weak grin and added, ”I guess that has to sound extra creepy to you now.”

“You have no idea,” I muttered grimly, not wanting to think about the fact that my best friend was sexually attracted to me.
Instead, I though thought about April, who I still found gorgeous. It was actually quite a relief to have this confirmation that I was still attracted to girls in spite of my new body. Unfortunately, my new body also made it far less likely that a hot girl like April would be interested in me.

The one thing I really was grateful to Shelly for was that she was friends with April. Otherwise, April wouldn’t come around to our house and I’d never see her outside of school. In fact, if it wasn’t for April being friends with Shelly, she probably wouldn’t even know my name.

Ever since Shelly’s twist, I didn’t think she could really just sit around and relax. Even when watching TV, she had to be doing something else, something like studying or working on some project. April was her only friend who didn’t mind always doing something ‘productive’ with her whenever they hung out. April was Shelly’s usual partner for jogging or going to the gym, and of course, for their frequent study sessions.

“Hey,” Rich abruptly exclaimed, distracting me from my thoughts. “I was wondering something…”

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Well,” Rich said with a smirk. “Now that you’re a hot chick, do you think I can see your tits?”

“Asshole,” I said, glaring at him, while he just stood there laughing.

“Dude, come on,” Rich joked. “What good is having a hot babe for a friend if I can’t even see some headlight action?”

Rich was being a little obnoxious but I knew that he wasn’t trying to insult me or anything. In fact, his jokes seemed just a little forced and I realized what he was trying to do. In spite of the material, he was just trying to treat me the same way he always did before. I rather appreciated that.

“Well, look at the good side,” Rich continued. “You can get into the girls locker room now.”

I chuckled at that and admitted, “Yeah, I do have that going for me. I’ll get to get in on some of that hot lesbian action we always hear about going on in there.” Then I grinned and asked, “Are you jealous yet?”

Rich let out an exaggerated sigh and said, “You know, you’re almost making me wish I turned into a hot chick too…”

“If you did,” I teased him, giving him a sexy wink. “Then we could probably be friends with benefits…”

“Please don’t tease me,” Rich told me.

I just grinned at that, feeling rather smug as I walked back to my room with Rich following close behind me. I couldn’t resist putting a little sway into my walk just to tease him a little more. There was nothing sexual to my actions, only me taking advantage of an opportunity to mess with my best friend. In spite of the odd circumstances, joking around with Rich like this almost made me feel normal again. Almost.

--------------------

I awoke from a strange dream, a strange yet pleasant dream. And though I didn’t remember the details, I remembered that I’d definitely been enjoying it.

As I lay in bed, my body felt odd but good. My nipples were all hard and felt kind of sensitive while I felt warm and wet between my legs. My first thought as I noticed that was that I must have pissed myself in my sleep, but then I quickly realized that it was something else. I was feeling turned on.

Some guys at school sometimes joked around about making girls wet, but I was actually feeling it myself. That realization woke me up the rest of the way though I remained where I was.

I felt my nipples, gasping as they were even more sensitive than before, but entirely in a good way. I pinched and played with them a little, feeling even more turned on as I did so. Then I hesitantly reached between my legs, gasping at the touch.

This wasn’t the first time that I’d touched myself down there. I’d done that while I was exploring my new body and every time I had to wipe up after going to the bathroom. But this time, it was different. This time it felt very nice.

I continued playing with my breast and rubbing my new sex, biting my lip to keep from moaning. It felt good. Really good. My finger slipped up inside of me and it felt very strange but also very nice so I kept it up.

Though this all felt very good and I seemed to build it even more, I didn’t experience the explosive multiple orgasms that I’d heard girls have. I was pretty disappointed by that but kept at it in the hopes that I would get to.

But then, I suddenly remembered that I was currently a physical duplicate of Shelly, and that in a way, this was sort of like molesting my own sister. I gasped at that thought, suddenly losing all interest in continuing.

“Damn,” I grumbled in frustration. Even masturbating had been ruined by my twist. And it had been feeling so good too.

With that, I reluctantly climbed out bed, shaking my head in disgust. When I spotted my shoes on the floor, I felt a momentary urge to put on my sneakers. I took that to mean that Shelly was already up and out for her morning jog.

“Good thing I don’t feel any compulsion to do that,” I muttered.

Thinking about my compulsions drew my attention to the makeup kit that was now sitting on my dresser, along with a small jewelry box. Mom had surprised my yesterday with both, announcing that a pretty girl needed this kind of thing.

Since Shelly was out of the house, I took the opportunity to take my shower before she returned home and monopolized the bathroom. Afterwards, I got dressed and intentionally put on my nicer shoes, just to snub my nose at my compulsions.

When I went out for breakfast, I found mom sitting in the living room, sipping a cup of coffee while looking through some magazine on hair styles. At the moment, her hair was cut very short, which was a clear indication that she’d just cut it a short time ago.

“Where’s dad?” I asked curiously.

“Something went wrong with the plumbing on that house he was working on.” mom answered told me, barely looking up from her magazine. “He ran out to see if he could help get it fixed before it ruined the whole job.”

I just nodded at that, not at all surprised since dad’s job often made him work late or run out to check on something that subcontractors were doing. I kind of felt sorry for him having the kind of job where even your day off wasn’t really off.

When I went to the kitchen a minute later, I started to pull out my normal cereal but then decided that I wasn’t in the mood for it. I was about to go ask mom if she could make some pancakes, but then paused for a moment. Shelly used to help mom when she’d make her pancakes from scratch.

“If I’m stuck with Shelly’s knowledge,” I mused to myself, already pulling out the ingredients I’d need. “I might as well use it.” Besides, making the brownies had actually been kind of fun.

Once I was done making the pancakes, mom came into the kitchen and helped herself to some. “I remember when Shelly used to help me with these,” she mused pleasantly.

I ate my own pancakes in silence, though halfway through eating I felt a bruise beginning to form on my upper arm. I grimaced in annoyance, knowing that Shelly must be in the middle of kickboxing now. I just wished she’d be more careful because I was already tired of getting hurt just because she was.

When Shelly returned home a short time later, she had April along with her. Both of them had wet hair and looked clean so I assumed that they’d showered before coming home. However, Shelly still immediately went to clean up a little more, which included putting on makeup. I could the compulsion to put some on as well. Like all of my compulsions, it would remain an annoying itch in my consciousness until I gave in.

April remained in the living room while Shelly did her makeup in the bathroom. She gave me an odd look and cautiously asked, “So…Jeri…how are you doing?”

“All right,” I responded with a forced smile, though it grew to a real smile as I watched her.

“I know this has got to be pretty weird for you,” she told me. “I can’t imagine what it would be like being Twisted…to change so much. I mean, if I suddenly turned into a boy, I think I’d freak.”

I just nodded at that. “I always knew I’d probably end up Twisted.” Then I let out a sigh and admitted, “But this is a bit more than I was expecting.”

April nodded and then gently put her hand on mine, giving me a sympathetic look. “It’s weird… I mean, you look and sound exactly like Shelly…but you’re obviously not her. I mean, your body language is off. You still sit and move more like a boy…”

“At least I have that,” I responded with a chuckle.

“Yeah,” April gave me a grin. “But you may want to fix the way you sit…especially if you ever wear a skirt. Girls don’t sit with their legs apart, and if they do, everyone kind of assumes they’re sluts.”

“Oh,” I gasped in realization, making a mental note not to sit with my legs apart anymore.

“I’m pretty sure you know that Shelly isn’t happy with you looking like her,” April said carefully.

I just snorted. “I kind of got that. I don’t like it either.”

“She thinks you’re invading her privacy and trying to steal her identity,” April told me with a chuckle. “I just think the two of you need to have a nice talk.”

“Maybe,” I reluctantly agreed.

“Still,” April mused. “Being able to know whatever Shelly knows has to be pretty useful. I mean, with as much studying as she does…” She gave me a thoughtful look and smirked faintly. “I don’t think I’d be able to resist using a little bit of that…”

I blushed faintly, feeling a little guilty about how much of Shelly’s knowledge I’d already used. But the truth was, when I knew something, it didn’t seem to matter the source of that knowledge. I couldn’t really separate the knowledge I’d had before from what I was gaining from my sister. That very fact would make it difficult to avoid using Shelly’s knowledge, even if I attempted to do so.

“You know,” April told me with a pleasant smile. “Being a girl isn’t bad. I mean, I certainly don’t have any complaints.” She smirked a little at that and added, “Just give it a chance…”

“It’s not really the girl part that really bothers me,” I pointed out with a sigh, hardly able to believe I was admitting this to April.

April nodded, giving me another sympathetic look. “You really should try to enjoy being a girl though. Put on some makeup, nail polish, and heels. Try to dress up a bit. It can actually be pretty fun…”

I just groaned at that, wishing that she hadn’t brought up the makeup and heels. Now that she’d brought my attention back to the idea, my urges grew more insistent. Then I saw the grin on her face and realized that she’d done that intentionally.

Before I could call April on that, Shelly came out of the bathroom and now had high heels on her feet and makeup on her face. I grimaced at the sudden surge in my urges, in the actual NEED to go put on real heels and makeup. Shelly gave me a quick glance before pointedly ignoring me while April joined her as they walked back to her bedroom.

“You have no idea how creepy it is having someone else with your face,” I heard Shelly tell April before they were out of my hearing. A minute later, violin music began to come from Shelly’s room.

“Damn,” I muttered, now fully aware of my needs.

At this point, it was almost useless to fight against these urges. I had to do something about them or they’d drive me nuts. With that, I went to my room and grabbed my new makeup kit.

Once I’d had makeup on, I felt a little better and putting in a pair of the stud earrings mom had given me relaxed me even further. Of course, I still wanted to put on a pair of real high heels rather than these wannabee ones I was already wearing. However, I’d be damned if I was going to ask Shelly to borrow a pair of hers. For now, I’d done enough that I could control the rest of my compulsions.

“Maybe a little nail polish too,” I mused, looking at my nails again and then shaking my head. The polish was in Shelly’s room so that was out as well. The fact that I was actually disappointed at that was annoying.

Eventually, Shelly and April emerged from Shelly’s room where they’d been hiding. “Tonight is going to be a blast,” April was telling my sister. “You’ve got to come…”

“I don’t think so,” Shelly told her. “I was going to work on my extra credit project for physics…”

“Eddie Ryan is going to be there,” April teased Shelly.

There was a long pause before Shelly responded, “Of course, I really should show up and show my support…”

I chuckled as I eavesdropped on their conversation. Eddie Ryan was one of the most popular guys at school, captain of the wrestling team but also a member of the debate team. I’d seen him talking with Shelly at school before, but I hadn’t realized that she was actually interested in him until now.

I’d heard that there was supposed to be some kind fundraiser event tonight for students with high school spirit, though for all practical purposes, it was probably just a party for the popular kids. That meant I hadn’t been invited, though I thought that Rich might have been. He and Eddie were friends.

I came out of my own room at that and joined them in the living room. April took one look at me and grinned. “You look great,” she told me. “You should wear makeup more often.”

“Um…thanks,” I responded awkwardly, not sure whether I should be pleased by that compliment or not.

April looked Shelly and said, “Hey, maybe we should bring Jeri with us…”

“No,” Shelly quickly responded. “This isn’t Jeri’s kind of thing.” She gave me a quick glare to tell me that I had better agree with her.

It was obvious that Shelly and April weren’t going to stick around as they were already starting towards the door. Before the left, April waved to me and gave me a thumbs up which made me chuckle in response.

Once Shelly was really gone, I went straight for her bedroom and the nail polish that she had stored in there. I’d been ignoring that itch for awhile and finally just wanted to scratch it. Unfortunately, it looked like I was going to have to ask my mom for nail polish and high heels to go with everything else. I was definitely NOT looking forward to that.

--------------------

I was extremely nervous as I stepped back into school for the first time since my twist. In fact, it took nearly every ounce of willpower I had to keep from turning around and rushing back out the door.

I was more than a little self-conscious about my appearance, about being seen as a girl and as Shelly’s twin. I was also very aware of the steps I’d taken to keep my compulsions under control, steps that were bound to get the attention of any classmate who wanted to tease me about being a girl.

Shelly had come to school dressed up in a pink shirt, a short skirt, and the highest pair of heels she had. I was pretty sure she’d done that just because she knew that it would give my compulsions fits and drive me nuts.

There was no way I’d be able to ignore the urges all day, especially not if I wanted to focus on anything else, so I’d had to take measures before leaving the house. I was wearing my nice shoes, which weren’t real heels but were the best I was willing to do. My nails weren’t painted the same color that Shelly had on, but they were painted and that would reduce those urges a great deal, much as the shoes were. I didn’t own a skirt and wasn’t about to borrow one from Shelly, but I had put on makeup and earrings. I’d satisfied enough of my urges that I was pretty sure I’d be fine.

When I stepped through the doors of the school, Shelly was right beside me. She didn’t seem happy to come in with me this way, but we’d both agreed that being seen together would make it easier for people to accept the truth rather than just assuming that I was her.

Students were stopping in the hallway and staring at us in surprise and just a little confusion. Shelly was very well known around school and most of the students would have known if she had a twin sister attending the school. Of course, circumstances had changed.

“I didn’t know Shelly Sinclaire was a twin,” one girl exclaimed.

“There’s two of her,” a boy blurted out.

“Wow, two hotties,” another boy told one of his friends. “Man, imagine the threesome…”

I blushed brightly at that and tried to pretend that I didn’t mind the attention. I was fully aware of the fact that I’d be getting a lot of this attention from now on, not only because I was now a hot girl, but I was also Twisted and would be a matter of great curiosity, especially for anyone who knew me before.

“Shelly?” a pretty girl exclaimed as she walked towards us, looking back and forth from Shelly to me with an expression of surprise and confusion. “Why are there two of you?”

“I’m Shelly,” my sister said, giving me a dirty look. “This is my new twin sister.” There was a hint of bitterness in her voice. “Jeri.”

“New twin sister?” the girl asked with an even more confused look. “How…” Then she paused before asking, “Don’t you have a brother named Jerry?”

Shelly rolled her eyes before answering, “Not anymore.”

“Do you mind?” I asked when the girl continued staring at me. It was beginning to make me very uncomfortable.

Since I’d been seen with Shelly long enough for a lot of the students to see us and confirm that there were now two of us, I decided that it was time to take my leave. I didn’t bother saying goodbye to Shelly or her friend before I walked off towards my first class of the day.

As I walked to class, several people greeted me with calls of, “Hey Shelly.” I winced with each one of them.

When I reached my first class, I took a deep breath and nervously went inside. About half the other students were already there, along with the teacher.

Mr. Nelson, my math teacher looked at me and had a momentary expression of surprise. “Shelly,” he greeted me pleasantly. “I heard your brother went through his twist. Is he all right?”

“I’m not Shelly,” I answered him flatly. He gave me a blank look until I added. “I’m Jeri.”

A look of realization slowly spread over Mr. Nelson’s face. Then he gasped, “Jerry?” There were gasps of shock from all the students who heard that and that was immediately followed by whispers from the entire class.

“Um…yeah,” I admitted in embarrassment. Then I gave a weak smile and added, “I’m Twisted now.” I hesitated a moment before adding, “And I kind of had to change my name…” I wrote Jeri Anne Sinclaire onto a piece of paper so he could see how my first name was now spelled.

“My God,” Mr. Nelson whispered, staring at me with an uncertain expression that was filled with curiosity, sympathy…and wariness. After all, I was Twisted now and he didn’t know the extent of my changes. Then he carefully asked, “How are you doing?”

I gulped at that, not sure how I should answer. After a moment, I decided to be honest, and to relieve his worries at the same time. “All right,” I told him carefully. “I don’t have any personality changes, but I do have some annoying compulsions…” I held up my hand to show my polished nails, hoping he’d get the idea. He seemed to.

After that, I took my normal seat and was immediately assaulted with questions from my classmates. I tried to answer them as generally as I could, not wanting to go into too many details.

“Damn,” one boy exclaimed. “You look totally hot.”

“Too bad you’re still butt ugly,” I responded. The other kids all laughed at that while the boy who’d made the commented just blushed and backed off.

“I can’t believe you’re buying this,” one girl exclaimed, standing there and giving me a very suspicious look. Carrie had always been one of the smartest girls in my grade. “Can’t you all tell that this is just some kind of joke…?”

“A joke?” another girl asked.

“Come on Shelly,” Carrie said to me. “Did you really think we’d all fall for this? Where is Jerry really at? Home?”
“I’m not Shelly,” I responded in annoyance. “And this isn’t some joke. I went through my twist and now I just look like her. Trust me, I’m not happy about it.”

“Bullshit,” Carrie told me with a smug look. She pointed to my face and said, “No boy would suddenly know how to put on makeup that well. You don’t just learn that overnight.”

“Not unless it’s part of your trick,” I pointed out in exasperation, having a feeling that I’d be dealing this this a lot over the next few days.

“Hey Carrie,” another girl said as she came up. “I saw Shelly come in a few minutes ago. There were two of her… I mean, there were two Shelly’s standing right next to each other…”

“Yeah, I saw them too,” a boy added. “She’s on the up and up.”

Carrie continued giving me a suspicious look for a moment before she snorted and then went to return to her seat. She didn’t seem to fully believe my story, but she didn’t seem ready to continue accusing me at the moment either.

The attention from my classmates continued halfway through class before Mr. Nelson finally decided to take control and put everyone back on track. The reactions of my classmates varied with some of them being curious, a few still being skeptical about my identity, and several of the girls being obviously jealous of my looks. To my surprise, there were only a couple who seemed hostile or freaked out but they just kept their distance.

When I went to my second class, it seemed that word of my twist had already spread. I got much the same attention from the students who hadn’t been in my first class, but our teacher put a lid on the talk much quicker.

Rich was in this class with me and seemed amused by the reactions of the other students. “Dude, the looks on their faces…”

“Shouldn’t that be dudette?” another boy asked Rich with a grin.

“I thought you would have told everyone,” I told Rich, surprised that everyone hadn’t already known that I’d turned into a girl.

“Wasn’t my thing to tell,” Rich answered. Then he grinned and added, “Besides, this way I got to win the pool on what kind of twist you’d have.”

“Figures,” I responded.

Then I looked around the class and took note that everyone, including the teacher, was staring at me. I tried not to show just how much that embarrassed me.

“I can’t believe it’s really you,” one boy exclaimed. “I mean, you’re a girl…”

“Welcome to the club,” one of my female classmates teased.

“She’s not a real girl,” another girl exclaimed, giving me a suspicious look.

Just then, boy called out, “No, she’s a freak. A Twisted freak.”

I looked at the speaker and saw that it was Craig. He sat on the other side of the classroom and glared at me with even more hostility than before. Before now, he hadn’t liked me because I would probably become Twisted. Now that I had actually gone through my twist, that hostility seemed to have grown.

“You’re a freak too,” I called back, “but you don’t see me making a big deal about it.”

“Good one,” Rich told me with a loud laugh.

Craig looked like he was about to say something more but the teacher decided that this was the time to take control of things. I was actually relieved because I would rather deal with a boring lecture than all the attention from my classmates.

A few minutes later, our teacher passed out the test while I groaned. I’d missed a couple days last week because of my twist and I’d forgotten all about the upcoming test so hadn’t even thought to study for it. Then again, even if I had remembered the test, I still wouldn’t have studied.

As soon as I looked at the first question on the test, I let out a sigh of relief. It was an easy question that I had absolutely no problem answering. The next question was the same and then the third. Then I remembered that I had access to everything that Shelly knew. I finished the test in record time and knew that I’d aced it.

Once class was over, I went to the bathroom to relieve myself. I nearly walked into the boys bathroom, but then paused and realized that I couldn’t use that one anymore. So with a reluctant sigh, I went to the other bathroom, the girls bathroom.

I had barely stepped into the bathroom when I suddenly found my path blocked by a girl who exclaimed, “Get out you pervert… You don’t belong in here.” It was the same girl from my last class who’d accused me of not being a ‘real’ girl.

“Well I don’t exactly have the plumbing to use the boys bathroom anymore,” I snapped at her in annoyance.

“This is the girls bathroom,” she told me firmly. “It’s for REAL girls.”

I just stood my ground and stared her in the eyes. “Whether I like it or not, my body says I am a girl now.” Then before she could argue further, I continued, “Now you can get out of my way so I can do my business, or I can prove my qualifications to be in here…”

With that, I reached down as if to undo my pants. Her eyes went wide and she paled a little before she snorted and hurried out of the bathroom. I let out a sigh of relief, thankful that she hadn’t called my bluff.

I started for a stall, only to hear someone else laughing from another stall. A moment later, the toilet flushed and April came out.

“That was…entertaining,” April told me with a smirk. Then she teased, “What if I asked you to prove your qualifications?”

I groaned at that, blushing self-consciously. “It was the only way I could think to get her to let me in.” Then I gave April a suspicious look, wondering if she was going to insist I leave.

“Well, it was still pretty funny,” April told me with a broad grin. “Good for you.”

“Just…please don’t tell Shelly about that,” I half begged April. My sister would be pissed that I threatened to expose myself to someone else when I was now a physical duplicate of her. The fact that I had no intention of actually doing that would be irrelevant.

April gave me a strange look before grinning. “Sure, I’ll keep quiet…on one condition.”

“Oh?” I asked suspiciously.

“You’ll owe me a favor,” April told me with a smug look.

I hesitated a moment and then nodded agreement. “Deal.”

“Great,” April responded with a grin. “Then I’ll let you get on with your business…” And with that, she left the bathroom while I shook my head, wondering what I’d just agreed to. “I guess I’ll find out soon enough.”

I was thankful when lunch finally came since it meant that I could get out of class for awhile. However, I quickly discovered that I had new problems to deal with, such as the fact that the people staring at me were no longer limited to the students in a classroom. The moment I stepped into the cafeteria, a lot of eyes locked on me.

Many of those watching me had no idea who I really was and merely thought that I was Shelly. A lot of the boys and even several of the girls were watching me with looks of obvious interest and attraction. I shuddered slightly as I realized that, feeling very uncomfortable. And then there were those who’d heard about my twist and were trying to decide whether I was me or Shelly.

One girl who I recognized as a friend of Shelly’s came up to me exclaiming, “Hey Shelly, I heard about your brother…”

“Hey Clarisse,” I greeted the girl, not having known the name until Shelly’s knowledge supplied it. Then I gave a wry smile and said, “Sorry, but I’m not Shelly.”

Clarisse paused and gave me a blank look. “What?”

“I’m Jeri,” I pointed out, continuing to give her a weak smile as I added. “The former brother you just mentioned.” Then I pointed to Shelly’s usual table where my sister was currently sitting with April and Eddie Ryan. “Shelly’s over there…”

Clarisse stared at Shelly for a moment and then back at me with a look of surprise. “Oh…,” she responded in embarrassment. “Sorry.” And with that, she hurried away.

I let out a sigh, thinking that this was only my first day back at school but being mistaken for Shelly was already getting old. I grabbed my food and then sat down at the table with Rich and a couple other guys I usually ate with. Rich had been in the middle of talking to a friend named Corey when he saw me and suddenly grinned.

“Hey Rich,” I greeted my friend with a sigh.

“See,” Rich told Corey with a smirk. “I told you…”

“No way,” Corey blurted out, staring at me and then Rich. “You mean it’s really true…?”

“Unfortunately,” I responded with a sigh.

“Damn,” Corey replied, turning to Rich and saying, “I guess I owe you twenty bucks. When you told me you were dating Shelly, I thought you were full of it…”

I nearly choked at that. “WHAT?” I demanded, glaring at Rich.

“Hey, it was just a joke,” Rich protested, holding his hands up defensively.

I glared at Corey and snapped, “I’m Jeri… I thought you were asking about my twist…”

Corey stared at me with his mouth dropping open. “Holy shit…”

Then I looked back at Rich and told him, “You’re an asshole.” That just got everyone else at the table to start laughing and to relax. It seemed that after that exchange, they all accepted that I really was me and not Shelly.

I had to continue putting up with the stares and attention for the rest of lunch, but it seemed to slowly settle down once word of my twist spread. However, I had a feeling that it would be a long time before it went away entirely. I couldn’t really blame everyone though because if it had been some other guy who’d suddenly gone through a sex change and turned into a copy of the hottest girl in school, I’d probably be staring and talking about it too.

Once lunch was over, I went to my next class, history with Mr. Morgan. I stepped into the classroom and immediately got a look of surprise and curiosity from the teacher, an expression that I was beginning to get used to. However, it was also obvious that he’d heard about the nature of my twist. By now, I would have been surprised if he hadn’t.

“I went through my twist,” I told him unnecessarily, suddenly wondering if he’d want to use me for another example about the effects of the Antarctic flu. I felt self-conscious under his gaze but I was getting a lot of practice in hiding those feelings.

“Are you really Jerry?” he asked me with a slightly suspicious look. “I wouldn’t imagine that most boys who turned into girls would be willing to wear makeup so quickly.”

I blushed at that, feeling even more self-conscious. I held up my hands and stared at my polished nails for a moment before quietly admitting, “That’s part of my twist…” I didn’t want to go into details about my compulsions, and thankfully, Mr. Morgan didn’t seem inclined to push further.

“When your parents called the school to report that you were twisted,” Mr. Morgan said carefully. “They assured us that your twist wasn’t dangerous, but they didn’t give many details other than that you’d gone through a drastic physical change.” He paused at that and chuckled, “Or if they did say more, it wasn’t passed on to me.”

I nodded, not sure what I could say to that. I imagine that when dad called the school to tell them about me, he was probably a bit uncertain about what to say. After all, I had a weird twist, and one that was a bit embarrassing, not only for me but to Shelly as well.

“Before class begins,” Mr. Morgan said, his expression turning rather grim. “We need to talk about the thesis paper you turned in.”

“Okay,” I responded carefully, a little confused but suspecting he was going to tell me it sucked. I had kind of rushed on it.

“The paper was very well done,” Mr. Morgan said, catching me completely by surprise. However, he still wasn’t smiling. Then he added, “But much of the paper was copied word for word from the paper Shelly turned in last year.”

“What?” I gasped in surprise.

“You may look like your sister now,” Mr. Morgan told me with a look of stern disapproval. “But I will NOT accept you copying her work. Plagiarism will NOT be tolerated.”

“But I didn’t,” I protested loudly, offended that he’d accuse me of something like that. “I’ve never even seen Shelly’s paper.”

“Several sections are nearly word for word copies,” Mr. Morgan repeated.

“I DIDN’T COPY HER,” I snapped angrily. Then I gasped, suddenly realizing what must have happened. I’d never read Shelly’s thesis paper from last year, but I now knew everything about it that she did.

A short time later, I was sitting in the principal’s office with Mr. Morgan, as well as Shelly and my mom. My mom wasn’t happy to have been called in because of my ‘cheating’ and Shelly was angry at having been pulled out of her class as well. The school principal, Mrs. Levitz was looking back and forth between Shelly and me, obviously stunned by just how much we looked alike.

“This is an unusual situation in that you are Twisted,” Mrs. Levitz said, giving me a flat look and then glancing to Shelly. “However, the matter of cheating and plagiarism is rather simple. That kind of behavior is not allowed in this school.”

“But I never even read Shelly’s paper,” I protested again. “I sure as hell wasn’t trying to copy it…”

“I told you to stay out of my head,” Shelly exclaimed, giving me a glare.

“I wrote this before I even found out I could do that,” I argued in frustration. “I just wrote what I thought sounded good…”

“What do you mean stay out of your head?” Mrs. Levitz asked with a curious expression.

Mom stared at me with a look of realization and then told Mrs. Levitz, “This is all due to Jeri’s trick…”

“What trick is this?” Mrs. Levitz asked calmly, though I could see her tense up. Most normal were afraid of the tricks that Twisted could possess, at least until they were proven to be harmless like the one my mom had.

“Part of Jeri’s twist is that she knows everything that Shelly knows,” mom explained with a sigh. Then she repeated, “Everything.”

Mrs. Levitz looked to Shelly for confirmation and my sister nodded agreement, not looking happy about it. Mr. Morgan gasped, giving me a look of surprise…and doubt.

“Jeri wrote this paper after her twist,” mom explained, giving me a slightly disapproving look, probably because I’d procrastinated until then. “Before she found out about this trick. She probably used Shelly’s knowledge without even realizing it.”

Mrs. Levitz and Mr. Morgan both looked surprised at that. Then the principal said, “Unconscious cheating? I have to say that this is the first time I’ve ever heard that excuse.”

“I just know things,” I muttered self-consciously, staring at the desk and not being able to meet anyone’s eyes. “I don’t remember if it was something I read in the book or if I got it from…” I glanced to Shelly and then shrugged. “I can’t help it either… I tried breaking this weird link but it didn’t work.”

Ever since my twist and the discovery that I was still linked to Shelly, I’ve been trying to figure out how to break that link. I willed myself to separate from her, to not be affected by her physical state and to not know what she does. Of course, it had no effect whatsoever. I was starting to suspect that there was no way to break this connection.

“I want to see this,” Mr. Morgan announced. When Mrs. Levitz nodded agreement, he hurried out of the office, coming back several minutes later with two copies of a test. He handed one to me and one to Shelly. “I’d like to see you both take this please.”

Shelly and I each went to work on the test, using opposite ends of the desk to write. When I looked at the questions, I was pretty sure that Mr. Morgan hadn’t covered any of this in class this year, but I still knew the answers anyways. I finished the test in a very short time, as did Shelly.

Once Mr. Morgan looked over the tests, he gasped in amazement. “You both only got one question wrong…and it was the same question. This is the end of year test for Shelly’s history class…”

“It was question fifteen,” Shelly said with certainty, looking annoyed at herself. “I didn’t know that one. I’ll have to study that when I get home tonight…”

“You aren’t scheduled to study that topic for awhile,” Mr. Morgan told her with amusement. “Or several of the others that you did get right.”

“Shelly is a very bright girl,” mom said proudly.

I scowled at that, annoyed that I did good on the test too and she got all of the credit. Of course, I knew fully well that I only did good because of her, but that was beside the point.

I felt a cold knot in my stomach as I suddenly realized that because of my link to Shelly, it would probably be like this for the rest of my life. She was miss perfect, so anything I knew would be attributed to her. No matter what I did, she would get the credit for it. The very thought hit me like a physical blow.

After this, I was in a bit of a daze while Mrs. Levitz told Shelly, “I think we’re done with you. Why don’t you go back to class.” Shelly nodded but gave me a cold glare before she turned and walked out the door. “And as for you Jeri…”

I gulped and asked, “Yes?”

“I would imagine that if you have access to everything Shelly knows,” Mrs. Levitz said carefully, “that would make your current classes very easy.”

I nodded faintly at that, having noticed that already this morning. Everything in those classes had been easier than normal. Everything the teachers talked about had felt like old information that I’d already learned.

“Now you have no excuse not to get good grades,” mom told me, looking almost smug about it.

Mrs. Levitz gave me a thoughtful look before carefully saying, “Considering the unusual circumstances, I think it might be wise for you take some new placement tests.”

“More tests?” I asked with a loud groan.

I had already taken more tests today than I liked. And though I didn’t want to admit it, it was kind of creepy to take a test and discover new things that I now knew but hadn’t even known I knew.

“Yes,” Mrs. Levitz told me with an almost amused look. “A lot of tests.”

--------------------

I awoke to a sharp pain in my thigh, one which caused me to bolt upright in bed and become immediately wide awake. I grabbed at my leg where I felt like I’d been stung by a bee but found no sign of what had caused the stinging sensation.

With a grumble, I looked at my clock and saw that it was only half an hour before I was supposed to get up anyway. Since I was already awake, I reluctantly climbed out of bed to get ready for school. While going to the bathroom a few minutes later, I saw a light from under Shelly’s door that showed she was already up too. That was no surprise though as Shelly always got up before me. I don’t think she’d even slept in on the weekends since before her twist.

“At least I get the bathroom before her,” I muttered, though for all I knew, Shelly had already taken care of her morning business. Then again, I usually had to fight with her to get any bathroom time in the mornings so that was doubtful.

I was less than enthusiastic as I got ready for school. This would be my third day going back to school since my twist and only the second day with my new class schedule. I sighed as I thought about how I’d spent all Monday afternoon doing placement tests, only to have Mrs. Levitz decide that I should be placed in new classes where I didn’t have such an advantage. After all, she thought it was silly for me to be taking algebra while Shelly was already in calculus. Fortunately, mom talked her into not changing all of my classes, saying that I needed to keep something stable.

“At least I still have two classes with Rich,” I muttered to myself.

Mrs. Levitz had briefly talked about putting me in all of Shelly’s classes, until Mr. Morgan pointed out that I might end up relying on Shelly’s studying even more. Instead, I did get put into more advanced classes than what I’d been taking, but they chose ones that they thought would force me to learn on my own. I didn’t like starting classes in the middle of things, but at least they couldn’t say that any success I had was entirely because of Shelly.

Once I was done taking my shower, I finished getting ready by putting on makeup and the new high heels mom had bought me yesterday. I wasn’t really feeling the compulsions to wear either of those yet, at least not more than a minor itch, but I knew full well that the itch would become intolerable over the day if I didn’t scratch it now. I wished I could go without either, but Shelly seemed even more determined than before to dress up for school, just to make me uncomfortable no doubt.

I didn’t like having to dress sexy for school and getting stared at and drooled over because of it. I would have preferred to go casual and comfortable, avoiding as much attention as I could. However, the other day, Shelly had told me, “I’m not going to let you make me look like a slob.” It appeared that she really meant it because she was working even harder to make sure my own compulsions forced me to play along.

A few hours later, I was sitting in my second period class, one of the new classes that I’d been assigned during my schedule change. My placement test showed that I’d moved beyond my old general English class so I was no longer going to be bored with learning conjugation and the like. Instead, I had been placed in a literature class where I’d be reading classic novels and discussing them instead.

I looked around the classroom, feeling even more out of place than before. In my other classes, I at least knew who all the other students were. I didn’t share any other classes with anyone in this one, or at least I hadn’t before my schedule change. All the other students in class were a year ahead of me and were used to sharing classes with Shelly.

Fortunately, I did know one other student in the class and I’d ended up being assigned to the seat next to her. April sat beside me, seemingly amused to have me in class with her. She kept glancing to me, probably having to remind herself that in spite of my appearance, I wasn’t Shelly.

“This is kind of weird,” April told me quietly, confirming my suspicions. “I mean, I sat next to Shelly last period and now I’m sitting next to you…”

I grimaced at that but nodded agreement as well. It was weird being in the same class as Shelly’s best friend, someone who was a grade ahead of me. I could tell that a lot of the other students thought the same thing that April did, about how odd it was having a class with me when they shared other classes with my sister. A few of them seemed a bit confused and I’d already been called ‘Shelly’ several times, including from the teacher.

“Not that I mind,” April added with a grin.

I just looked the book that the rest of the class was already halfway through, groaning as I did so. “Pride and Prejudice,” I grumbled. “I can’t believe we have to read this stuff…”

April seemed amused at that, then leaned over and quietly told me, “Think of it this way. If you read that, you’ll know something Shelly doesn’t.”

I paused at that to consider, realizing that I knew something about the plot of the book but not a lot of details. I hadn’t known even that much about this book before so the little knowledge I did have had obviously come from Shelly. However, it was more like she’d read the cliff notes or just a general summary rather than the book itself.

“You might have a point,” I admitted reluctantly. Of course, I’d rather learn things I wanted to know, or at least read some more exciting books.

“Of course,” April mused almost to herself. “Once Shelly finds out you’re reading this, she’ll probably feel like she has to as well.”

“You really think so?” I asked, almost hoping that was true just so I could avoid having to work my way through that book.

“Don’t worry,” April told me with a faint smirk. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t do that until we’re done with it in class.”

I gave April a half-hearted glare then rolled my eyes. “Gee, thanks a lot,” I told her sarcastically.

Just then, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of my hand, much like the stinging sensation that had woken me up this morning. I gasped in pain and grabbed my hand, seeing a drop of blood there. My eyes immediately darted around for sign of a bee, especially since this was the third time it had happened to me today. I’d also felt like I’d been stung right after I first arrived at school.

“Damn,” I muttered, suddenly having an idea of what was causing this.

“Are you okay?” April asked, giving me a curious look.

“Fine,” I told her with a scowl, thinking about these annoying sharp pains.

I didn’t feel any more stings during class, but I was struck again almost as soon as class was over. I was now even more certain of what was causing this than before. Since there was nothing around me that was causing this, it was obviously coming from Shelly. I was pretty sure that she was using herself as a living voodoo doll just to mess with me.

I hurried to Shelly’s next class, now knowing her schedule as well as my own. In fact, since my schedule had recently changed, I knew her schedule even better. I caught her just as she was arriving to class, earning looks of surprise from people who saw the two of us standing together.

“Stop doing that,” I snapped at Shelly.

Shelly gave me a too innocent look and asked, “Stop what?”

“Using me like a pin cushion,” I respond in annoyance.

“I haven’t touched you,” Shelly pointed out a little smugly.

I grimaced in frustration which only seemed to amuse Shelly. “You know,” I told her quietly, “It would be a shame if naked pic of you were to show up around school.”

Her eyes widened at the threat. “You wouldn’t,” she blurted out. Then she quickly added, “No one would believe them…”

However, she knew as well as I did that there wasn’t any physical difference between the two of us so any pictures of me might as well be pictures of her. And more than that, even if she told everyone that they were pictures of me and not her, there would still be a lot of doubt and skepticism. Of course, this was a complete bluff on my part since I had no intention of humiliating myself that way, but it still made for a good threat.

Shelly stared at me with a cold look before responding, “Fine. No more needles. I wasn’t planning on poking myself anymore anyway.”

I would have let out a sigh of relief at that, except for the expression on Shelly’s face. It was a look of determination, one that I’d seen before and which usually meant her overachieving nature was about to kick in. Shelly had given me the same look after the first time we’d sparred seriously in kickboxing and I’d easily beaten her. It was the look she gave when she decided that there was no way she was going to let that happen again. As I walked away from Shelly, I had a cold chill down my spine. I had a bad feeling that I may have just made one of the worst mistakes of my life.

--------------------

It was Thursday afternoon and I was thankful to be home from school. School had been rough enough before my twist, but now it had become even more exhausting. Not only did I have to deal with all my classes but now I also had to deal with everything that came with being a girl, such as remembering sit with my legs closed, to use the right restroom, and to keep my makeup touched up. Add to that the fact that I’d felt like crap all day and I was ready to just collapse in bed.

Ever since my twist, I’d been uncomfortable in my own body. I was almost constantly aware of the long hair getting in my way, the shift in my balance, and especially the weight on my chest. Admittedly, I was starting to get used to those sensations and they were bothering me less and less. However, today I’d felt extremely uncomfortable and somewhat sick. My nipples were very tender and my guts almost felt like they were twisted into knots. Shelly hadn’t said anything about feeling sick so I wondered if this just might be more side effects from my twist, possibly due to the stress of being linked to Shelly.

When I got home, I downed a glass of orange juice and then just sat down to relax. I was thankful that I had the house to myself for the moment. Mom and dad were still at work while Shelly had gone off with some of her friends on a sort of group date. I had little doubt that the reason Shelly was doing that rather than something more productive was due almost entirely to the fact that Eddie Ryan was part of that group. The two of them had been spending a lot of time together lately.

“Poor guy,” I muttered as I thought of Eddie. He probably thought he’d hit the jackpot to have such a smart, beautiful, and popular girl interested in him. “I should probably warn him. Not that he’d listen.”

For a brief moment, I wished I could go see Rich to kill some time playing video games with him. Technically, I was still grounded from playing games, but that only stopped me when my parents were around. Unfortunately, not only was I not feeling good at the moment, but Rich was still at school for wrestling practice.

After awhile, I got up and wandered into my room to play some video games. I wasn’t really in the mood to play much at the moment, but I was bored so it was either that or doing my homework. Shoot aliens or read Pride and Prejudice? It wasn’t a difficult choice.

I played on my game for a little longer than I’d planned before I began to feel warm and a little dizzy. It seemed that the symptoms I’d been feeling all day were starting to change a bit, though the aches and discomfort were definitely still there as well. I finally logged off the game, not wanting to be caught playing when my parents got home.

“They’d ground me for a year if they caught me playing,” I mumbled with a sigh. For some reason though, that idea almost seemed funny at the moment and I couldn’t resist giggling. After all that had happened to me, I was actually worried more about being grounded than about the fact that I now had to wear a bra now.

As I stood up and walked out of my room, I was even more aware of the vague dizziness and that it took just a little more effort than normal just to walk straight. I went to the kitchen to get something to drink, feeling a little worried about this latest symptom. But then, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my stomach, right above my belly button.

“Bitch,” I spat out angrily. Shelly had to be poking herself with needles again. “Damn it…”

I pulled up my shirt and stared down at my stomach where I saw a little blood, more than there had been when Shelly had been using herself as a voodoo doll. I wiped the blood away and saw that I now had two small holes in my navel, and as I stared at them, I suddenly realized that I needed to put nice ring through there. Then I gasped, caught by surprise with this new urge.

“She just got pierced,” I exclaimed in realization.

Then I stood there, clenching my fists in frustration. It pissed me off that she could do something like giving me a haircut or piercings anytime she felt like it, and there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop her. The fact that she seemed to have no hesitation to do so nor any concern about what I thought of it was just as bad.

I muttered a stream of profanities as I grabbed an ice cube from the freezer and held it against my navel. The cold helped to numb the pain a little though it did little to ease my anger and frustration. By the time the bleeding had mostly stopped and I’d put a bandage on my new holes, I was at least calm enough to no longer be cursing aloud.

When mom returned home a short time later, I immediately noticed that her hair was currently shoulder length and dyed an electric blue. When she had extra time at work, she’d sometimes do things to her own hair. The fact that she only had an inch of root showing suggested that she’d done this just an hour or two ago.

“Are you all right?” mom asked me, giving me a curious look.

“I’m fine,” I responded with just a slight slur to my words. My anger at Shelly was momentarily forgotten under the distraction from mom’s hair. “Wow…does your hair glow in the dark?”

I walked towards mom and nearly tripped. Her eyes went wide and she demanded, “Are you drunk?”

“What?” I asked in surprise and a little confusion. “No…”

“Don’t lie to me,” she snapped angrily, giving me a cold glare. “It’s obvious.”

“What?” I responded again, feeling even more confused, as well as a little offended that she’d accuse me like this. “I am not…”

Before I could finish my protest, mom exclaimed, “Jeri Anne Sinclaire. You are only sixteen years old and I will not have you drinking like this in my house. You are grounded…”

“But,” I tried to defend myself again.

“No buts,” mom snapped back, giving me that cold look of determination which I knew meant that she’d made up her mind and that there was absolutely no changing it. It suddenly struck me that it was similar to the expression Shelly had once she’d made up her mind. “Go to your room right now young lady and I’d better not see your face outside it again tonight other than to use the bathroom.”

“But I’m not,” I started, though it was obvious that mom wasn’t listening. I snarled in anger and spat out, “This isn’t fair,” as I stomped to my room.

“At least Shelly would never behave like this,” mom said to herself when I was nearly out of hearing.

Those words nearly made me scream in rage and frustration as I went into my room and slammed my door behind me. Right at that moment, I decided that there was no force on Earth that was going to make me come out of that room tonight.

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I was in a bad mood as I sat down at the desk in my second period class, right beside April. Of course, I’d been in a bad mood all morning long, a bad mood that had carried over from last night.

When I woke up this morning, the faint dizziness and confusion from last night had vanished, but unfortunately, the other aches and discomforts hadn’t. Between that, Shelly’s activities last night, and being grounded for something I hadn’t done, I was really in a mood to take it out on someone else. Rich seemed to have sensed this because he’d taken one look at me this morning and then avoided me.

April stared at me with a worried look before finally asking, “Are you mad at me for something?”

I just gave April a flat look, reminding myself that she was Shelly’s best friend and accomplice. She’d been there last night with Shelly and been a part of this. After a moment, I asked her in a cold tone, “Did you guys have fun getting drunk last night?”

“What?” April asked in surprise. Then she grinned, “Sorry about that. I told Shelly we should have invited you so you wouldn’t feel left out…”

“I wasn’t left out,” I spat out bitterly. “I got grounded for being drunk…when I didn’t have a single drink.”

“What?” April repeated, looking even more surprised. “You mean…? Oh my God, I didn’t know your twist could do that…”

“I’m not happy about this either,” I spat out, holding up my leg and showing the tattoo of thorny roses which now circled my ankle.

Last night while I’d been locked in my room, I’d felt a burning itch from my ankle. As I watched, black lines had appeared and spread, eventually forming the image that now decorated my skin. Then the roses had colored themselves in with crimson ink while I was helpless to do anything but watch.

“Do you have any idea what it’s like having someone else give you tattoos and piercings without your permission?” I demanded.

April just stared at my tattoo for a moment before blurted out, “No way…”

Just then, our teacher called out, “Am I boring you?” She looked at me and April both and the two of us immediately pretended like we’d been paying attention the entire time. Her attention kept going back to us so April and I didn’t talk again for the rest of class.

As soon as class was over, April said, “I’m sorry…” She looked apologetic, which confused me. “It’s my fault.”

“Your fault?” I asked, feeling a little confused.

“We were trying to get Shelly to relax and have some fun,” April told me with a sigh. “She’s been even more tense than usual…” She gave me a faint smile at that. “And well, you know Shelly… As soon as she got into it, she got carried away…”

“And I get a tattoo,” I responded with a snort.

“To be honest,” April admitted, “I kind of suggested she get a tattoo…” Then she quickly added, “But I didn’t think she’d actually go for it…or that you’d get one too. We thought that since it was ink, it would be like your nail polish. I mean, you don’t suddenly have nail polish when she puts it on…”

I snorted again. “And what a way to find out…”

“It must be because the ink is inside her body,” April mused. Then she explained, “The only reason she got it was to try making herself different from you. She wanted to differentiate her appearance.”

I nodded, still not happy though at least it was a relief to know that neither the alcohol or tattoo had been intentional. However, Shelly definitely would have known that getting a piercing would affect me as well so that just made me wonder if maybe she did suspect the other things would but just didn’t care.

“I’ve got to go,” I told April with a sigh.

With that I said goodbye and left her, knowing that I was going to have to have a little talk with Shelly. Maybe I’d have to remind her about the possibility of naked pictures showing up around school.

I went to the bathroom to relieve myself, no longer finding it too weird to go into the girls bathroom. After all, in spite of all the mystique, it was just like the ones I was used to using except for the lack of urinals. I was even starting to get to the point that when I had to take a piss, I no longer instinctively stood and reached for my equipment.

When I pulled down my pants and was about to sit down in my stall, I froze and stared at my panties. “I’m bleeding,” I blurted out in shock. For a brief moment, I was terrified that Shelly had done something else to hurt me, but then it dawned on me. “Oh shit…”

I sat down on the toilet, feeling stunned and horrified. I was actually having a period and I hadn’t even realized it. I suddenly felt stupid for not figuring it out before this. All the cramps and aches… If Shelly felt like that every month, it was no wonder she was such a bitch whenever she was on her period. Of course, that didn’t explain why she was the rest of the time.

“Oh God,” I groaned, grabbing a wad of toilet paper and trying to wipe at my panties.

In spite of this shock, I had enough presence of mind to continue with my business. I wiped myself afterwards while trying to think of what I should do about this. Knowledge that had obviously come from Shelly told me how to use pads and tampons, but that didn’t do me any good when I didn’t have either. I finally settled on grabbing a handful of toilet paper and stuffing it into my panties so that at least I’d have something to absorb the blood.

“I can’t believe this,” I muttered, feeling shaken.

With some effort, I pulled my pants back up and left the stall, though I really wanted to just stay in there and hide. I had already accepted the fact that my body was now female, but this had been the final nail in the coffin of my manhood.

As soon as I stepped out of the stall, a girl from one of my classes asked, “Jeri? It is Jeri right…not Shelly?”

“Um…yeah,” I responded in embarrassment.

“I kind of heard you,” the girl said carefully, looking embarrassed as well. “Is this…? Are you having your period?”

I was absolutely mortified at that but nodded weakly, sure that I was blushing bright red. “Um…yeah,” I said quietly.

She gave me a sympathetic look and said, “I’m guessing you weren’t prepared…”

“No,” I admitted, unable to meet her eyes. Then I tried to save some face by joking, “This wasn’t exactly covered in the birds and the bees lecture I got…”

The girl giggled at that and then reached into her purse, pulling out what I immediately recognized was a feminine hygiene pad. “Here,’ she told me, giving it to me and adding awkwardly, “Congratulations.”

With that, my classmate hurried out of the bathroom while I ran back into the stall so I could switch the toilet paper out for the pad. I never would have imagined that I’d be so happy to be wearing a pad.

When lunch finally came, I went into the cafeteria and looked straight at Shelly’s table. She was sitting there with April and several of her other friends. I glared at my sister and then started walking straight to her.

“Shelly,” I exclaimed, stopping by her table and glaring at her.

“Ah,” April said, “I guess you two need to talk about that tattoo…”

“Is something the matter?” Shelly asked me with a smirk.

“You knew this was coming,” I exclaimed angrily. “You knew I was about to…” I paused at that, blushing brightly and being unable to finish that sentence in front of so many other people.

“Of course,” Shelly responded smugly.

I snarled and demanded, “Then why the hell didn’t you warn me?”

“You know everything I do,” Shelly replied sarcastically. “I shouldn’t have to.”

I glared at my sister, wanting to hit her as hard as I could. Since I couldn’t do that at the moment, I just spat out, “You bitch,” before I turned and walked away, knowing that this wasn’t over.

“What was that about?” April asked Shelly from behind me.

“Oh, Jeri just experienced her first monthly visitor,” Shelly told her smugly.

“And you didn’t warn her?” April gasped in surprise. “That is cold. She’s right… You really are a bitch…”

I just walked out of the cafeteria, no longer feeling like eating anything. What I really wanted to do was scream and curse out whatever sadistic deity had decided to stick me with this twist.

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It was Saturday afternoon and I was stuck at home, still grounded for things I hadn’t done. I’d given up on trying to convince my parents of the truth, knowing that they thought of Shelly as the perfect daughter who could do no wrong. In spite of the fact that I now looked like Shelly, they still thought of me as a screw up who could no right, at least not unless I was following Shelly’s example.

At the moment, I was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching TV with my feet on the coffee table. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really enjoy it much. I was still angry and frustrated, not to mention the fact that I was still on my period as well.

Thankfully, I did have the house to myself for now, which meant that I could at least try to just sit back and relax. The fact that I wasn’t currently wearing makeup, heels or having any real compulsions made that a little more likely. Of course, I felt a faint urge to put on some exercise clothes, but it was easy to ignore and pretty harmless.

“Fucking bitch,” I muttered to myself, wishing that I’d been an only child.

Shelly seemed to be taking a sadistic delight in my situation as well as doing everything in her power to make things worse for me. If it wasn’t getting me grounded for her actions or letting me get caught by surprise by an unexpected monthly visitor, it was something else unpleasant.

This morning, I’d found that Shelly had taken the pads and tampons which she normally kept in the bathroom and had locked them in her room just to keep me from using them. I’d been forced to use some tampons from mom’s bathroom, and then I had the humiliation of asking mom to buy me some of my own so that I wouldn’t have to rely on using Shelly’s supply.

“My life sucks,” I grumbled, thinking about how uncomfortable I felt and how gross it was having a period.

I was settling down into a nice comfortable bout of self-pity when the doorbell rang. Since there were only a couple people it could have been, I crossed my fingers and then went to answer it. When I opened the door, I was relieved to see that it was Rich.

“Hey,” I greeted him a little awkwardly.

“Hey,” He responded just as hesitantly.

Ever since my twist, my friendship with Rich had become a bit awkward. I now looked exactly like the girl he had a crush on so he was starting to think of me more and more as a girl. He barely even told dirty jokes around me anymore.

And there was the fact that I couldn’t actually talk to Rich about some of the problems I had to deal with no. There was no way in hell that I could tell him what it was like having a period. Rich wouldn’t understand…couldn’t understand. If I even tried to bring up the subject, he’d find an excuse to leave as quickly as possible. I would have done the exact same thing a very short time ago.

“Dude,” Rick said as he came inside. “I was wondering if you wanted to go see that new movie that just came out at the holo-theater”

“Which one?” I asked curiously. “There are a couple good movies out…”

“You know, the sequel to the Star Wars remake,” Rich pointed out with a grin. “It has Chloe Grace Moretz as the Empress… This is her first movie after getting that lifetime achievement award.”

I just chuckled at that, remembering the preview for the movie that showed the heroes having to fight off an army of Sith. I wasn’t into sci-fi movies as much as Rich was, but it did look like a good movie.

“I wish I could,” I told Rich with a sigh. “I’m grounded and if my parents come back and find me gone…” I ran a finger over my throat to mimic getting my throat cut.

“Damn,” Rich responded in obvious disappointment. “That sucks. Then I guess its video games…”

“Wish I could,” I said again with an even deeper sigh. Then I bitterly explained, “Last night, someone reminded my mom and dad that I was still grounded from games too, so the pulled my game unit from my room.”

“Damn,” Rich repeated. “Dude, that is rough.” Then he paused to give me a grin and ask, “Or is that dudette now?”

I shook my head at that, not wanting to encourage Rich. I was a girl now but I wasn’t sure I wanted my nose rubbed in that fact every time I talked to him.

“So, where is Shelly now?” Rich asked hopefully.

I just scowled at the mention of my sister’s name. “She’s at a kickboxing tournament,” I answered with a shake of my head. “Mom and dad went to watch her compete. I’m expecting the bruises to start appearing any time now.”

Rich stared at me for a moment before saying, “Being twisted has got to be freaky…”

“You have no idea,” I pointed out wryly. “None.”

“No offense, dude,” Rich told me. “But I am SO glad I’m not twisted.”

“I wish I wasn’t,” I muttered in response, thinking about how much nicer my life would be if my family wasn’t twisted. I’d still be a guy without any idea of what it was like to have a period, and the real Shelly would still be around.

“How about car shopping?” Rich abruptly asked me. “Do you still have computer access?”

“Yeah, I still have that,” I responded with a grin. “I couldn’t do any of my homework without it.”

With that, we went to my room and began looking up used cars. It was more window shopping than anything else as I was starting to doubt that I’d ever get a car of my own.

Dad had said that when Shelly graduated from high school, he was going to buy her a new car. He must have worried that I’d feel a little left out because he told me that if I could save up enough money to pay for half a used car, he’d pay for the other half. However, I suspected that he’d only offered that much because he didn’t think I’d be able to get a job or earn enough for my half. And unfortunately, that seemed to be the case.

Rich and I looked for used cars for a short time before we began looking at less realistic options instead. We kept alternating between looking at pictures of the Kia Razor and the Honda Griffin, drooling over both and arguing over which was the better car.

“Dude, the Griffin is definitely better,” Rich insisted. “I mean, look at those sweet curves… I bet she rides really smooth…”

“Are you talking about a car?” I asked him with a smirk. “Or a girl?”

“Well, cars are easier to deal with,” Rich started, then paused to stare at me. “I…I’m sorry,” he stammered, blushing.

I felt a surge of anger at him, as though his little joke had been a personal insult to me. I was about to snap at him when I realized that my reaction made no sense. I took a deep breath, realizing that this was one of those mood swing things I’d heard of.

“No problem,” I told Rich, feeling extremely self-conscious over what I was feeling, or the fact that I now felt like crying. I wiped my eyes and tried to pretend that everything was fine.

“Are you okay?” Rich asked me with a worried look.

“You see how you feel when you’re bleeding in places you shouldn’t,” I muttered bitterly.

Rich stared at me with his eyes going wide. “Damn,” he exclaimed, taking a step back.

“Don’t worry,” I told him with a sigh. “It’s not contagious.”

Rich’s reaction wasn’t really all that surprising. My dad had been reacting somewhat similar since finding out that I was going through my period. He kept giving me odd looks and kept his distance, almost as though he was afraid he’d catch it.

“Is there anything good about your twist?” he asked me uncomfortably.

I hesitated a moment, and without a word I tore a sheet of paper from notebook and then began to fold it. After a minute, I set a little origami frog onto the table in front of him.

“I didn’t know how to do that kind of stuff before,” I told Rich with a weak smile. “I was bored in class and began messing with some paper. I kind of surprised myself when I realized I knew how to do this…”

“More of that stuff you know because Shelly knows it,” Rich said in understanding.

“It’s kind of freaky finding out that I know stuff that I shouldn’t know,” I admitted. “But I guess it’s kind of cool too. Honestly, it’s kind of confusing. It’s kind of neat but I’m afraid of it too… I mean, how much of me is really me?”

“Can you hear what Shelly is thinking too?” Rich asked curiously.

“No,” I answered after a few seconds. “I can’t read her thoughts and I don’t have any of her memories. I mean, I know how to do origami but I have no idea how she learned it.” I shrugged at that.

“Dude, that has got to be freaky,” Rich told me before grinning. “But definitely cool too…”

“Yeah,” I responded with a wry smile. “I can walk in high heels and put on makeup like a born girl, but I don’t remember learning how to do either.” Knowing how to do that stuff was very convenient for satisfying my compulsions, but it was also a bit of a bruise to my fading male ego. “And the thing is, I don’t even know what I know until someone asks me a question or I happen to need that knowledge for something.”

“Yeah, I can see how that would be pretty weird,” Rich said thoughtfully. Then he grinned and pointed to the image of the car that was currently in front of us. “Do you know how to rebuild an engine?”

“No,” I responded with a shrug. “I haven’t a clue and I’m pretty sure Shelly doesn’t either.” I closed my eyes and tried thinking about what it would take but I drew a blank. “Nope. I still haven’t got a clue.”

“I’ve been saying that for years,” Rich teased me.

I felt a little hurt at his joke though I knew he’d only been joking around the way he always did. My emotions were definitely getting a bit out of whack, though I wasn’t sure if that was due to the general female hormones or if it was specifically due to the ones from my period. After a moment, I concluded that it was probably a bit of both.

Rich was giving me an odd look, probably noticing my distractions. After minute, he said, “I should probably get going…” It was obviously just an excuse to get away from what was becoming an even more uncomfortable situation.

“I guess I’ll see you later then,” I told Rich, trying not to show that it bothered me that I was making him uncomfortable.

Once Rich left a few minutes later, I found myself sitting on my bed crying. I wasn’t even sure what I was crying about specifically, though I certainly had more than enough things to pick from. When I finally stopped and wiped my eyes dry, I was thankful that I hadn’t been wearing mascara.

The rest of my family returned home a short time after this and the first thing I heard as they stepped through the door was mom exclaiming, “I’m so proud of you honey. You did so good out there…”

“It’s just too bad this is the last tournament you’ll be able to compete in,” dad said with obvious disappointment. “But that new rule banning the Twisted from competing goes into effect in less than two weeks…”

“I still say that isn’t fair,” mom protested in annoyance. “It’s discrimination, pure and simple.”

“Maybe,” dad agreed, “but I can see their point. It wouldn’t be fair if some Twisted with a trick that lets them be invincible tried to compete…”

“I still didn’t win the tournament,” Shelly said, talking more to herself than anyone else. “Even if they don’t let me compete in the next tournament, I still have to get better…”

“At least you can still spar against the people in your class,” dad pointed out.

I stood there and watched the three of them talking, scowling in annoyance that they hadn’t even noticed me there. Of course, I knew I should be used to it by now.

“I was thinking,” dad told Shelly with a proud grin. “Maybe sometime this week we can go and get that car we promised you a little early…”

I clenched my fists so that my nails dug painfully into my palms and drew blood. Without a word, I turned and went back into my room where I locked the door behind me and then began to cry again.

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I let out a long sigh as I returned home from school, though it wasn’t a sigh of relief. I supposed that it said something about my home life that as weird as school had been since my twist, I rather would have been there than dealing with my own family.

At school, I had to deal with some crude jokes and insults because I was Twisted, but it never really went beyond that. Craig tended to glare at me a lot and point out how Twisted weren’t natural, but he wasn’t the type to resort to violence. Most of the guys who might get physical were hesitant to do so with a girl, even a newly minted one. And I was pretty sure that some of them actually felt sorry for me…or held hopes of getting into my pants someday.

The worst taunting at school came not from the stereotypical male jocks but from the girls. I’d begun learning that they could be quite catty and vicious in their way, though they tended to be more passive aggressive than directly physical. However, most of that hostility had more to do with them being jealous of my looks than because I was twisted.

But in spite of the occasional teasing and insults, school wasn’t really that bad. Most of the other kids left me alone, other than to pester me with questions about what it was like being Twisted or turning into a girl. I’d lost track of how many times boy I barely knew came up to me, acting all ‘buddy buddy’ and trying to talk me into showing them my breasts. That could be a little embarrassing, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as dealing with my own family.

Ever since Shelly had gone through her twist, I’d been stuck in her shadow. And ever since my own twist, that had become even worse. It was as though I was fading away in everyone’s eyes and all they saw anymore was a cheap knockoff of my sister. It was infuriating, especially since Shelly wasn’t even the real Shelly.

I started for the bathroom, but Shelly, who’d come home right behind me, ran there ahead of me, calling out, “I need to get ready for my date tonight…”

I rolled my eyes at that and couldn’t resist calling out, “You know, I have some hairs on my lip that are starting to look like a mustache. You might want to take care of that.” Of course, I’d completely made that up just to mess with Shelly. Then, moments after the bathroom door slammed shut, I felt a sharp pain that told me she’d found a safety pin.

While Shelly got ready for her date, I hid out in my room, just so she didn’t think to make things even more uncomfortable for me. I was also expecting to feel some new compulsions, but all she did was put on some nicer clothes, a different pair of heels, and she redid her makeup. Since I was already wearing heels and makeup from school, I didn’t feel any new compulsions. Oddly enough, I’ve worn heels, nail polish, and makeup so often lately just to keep the mental itch at bay, I was actually starting to get used to it all.

Mom came home from work at her usual time while dad arrived just a short time later. He was in a good mood because the house he was working on was going ahead of schedule and was still within budget. From what I understood, both of those things were very rare in his business.

“You look beautiful, honey,” mom told Shelly with obvious pride in her voice. “Eddie is a very lucky boy.”

Dad nodded at that, not looking quite as happy. Then he mused, “I wonder if polishing a nail gun the next time he comes over would be as effective as polishing a shotgun…”

I smiled faintly at that, imagining dad siting in his recliner and trying to intimidate Shelly’s new boyfriend. Somehow, I found the image hilarious and wished I could be there to see it for real.

With a sigh, I turned and went back to my room, wishing that the whole voodoo doll effect I had with Shelly worked the other way as well. It would be fun to stick her with needles as well, especially in the middle of her date.

When dinner came a short time ago, it was quiet as I didn’t feel like talking to my parents, nor did they seem interested in talking to me. Instead, I ate in near silence while they talked to each other.

“I did have a crazy guy come into my salon today,” mom told dad with a sigh. “He insisted that all Twisted were abominations and that my salon should be shut down.”

“Not again,” dad responded with a worried look.

I just nodded at that, not at all surprised. About one or twice a month, mom had to deal with someone causing trouble because she was Twisted. Sometimes it was a lone crazy coming in and making a scene while other times there were people protesting out in front.

“At least this time I didn’t have to call the police,” mom said almost pleasantly. “He gave his speech and then left.”

I nodded again as I ate. Occasionally mom had to deal with a smashed window or the threat of violence, but not often anymore. The local police had made it pretty clear that they wouldn’t tolerate people causing trouble just because my mom was Twisted. That might have had something to do with the fact that the mayor’s wife and daughter were both regulars in my mom’s shop.

Right after dinner was over, I put my dishes into the dish washer and was about to go back to my room when the doorbell began to ring. I went to answer the door, only to find April there.

“Hey Shelly,” April greeted me.

“I’m not Shelly,” I snapped as she came inside. Then I saw the amused gleam in April’s eyes and realized that she already knew that. She’d just been messing with me.

“So, is Shelly here?” April asked curiously, still giving me an amused look.

Before I could answer, my mom told her, “I’m afraid Shelly isn’t here right now. She’s out on a date.”

“Oh,” April responded with a shrug. “Good for her.” Then April looked to me and said, “Well, since I’m here, do you want to go over some of our homework?”

“That’s a great idea,” mom said, not giving me a chance to answer. “Jeri can use the help…especially since Shelly doesn’t take that literature class you two are in.”

A minute later, April and I were in my bedroom where we could study without my parents watching. I was a little excited to have April in my room, but also a little nervous. I wasn’t quite sure why.

“It’s a bit of a mess,” I apologized.

“I have seen your room before,” she reminded me with a grin. “It still looks like a boys room…almost.”

Then she looked around, pointing to my makeup kit on the dresser, the high heels by my closet, and the bra that was hanging over my hair. I blushed brightly as she brought attention to all the feminine articles that were starting to dominate my space.

“It is definitely starting to look more like a girls room though,” April added thoughtfully.

“I guess,” I agreed awkwardly, not bothering to protest.

“Maybe add some posters of a cute boy or two,” April mused with a smirk. “Throw in a few stuffed animals…”

I grimaced at that. “No thank you. Besides, Shelly doesn’t have any stuffed animals…” Or at least, she didn’t have anything like that anymore. She’d packed up all that kind of stuff shortly after her twist and put it into the attic.

“It’s certainly not a requirement,” April told me with a grin. “But I still have some in my room. Leftovers from when I used to collect them as a little girl.” Then she gave me a wink and added, “Maybe I’ll get you a couple to help you get started.”

“Um...no thanks,” I told her with a chuckle. “Stuffed animals were never my thing and I don’t plan to start now.”

After that, April and I began talking about the assignment from our shared class. However, neither of us was very focused on it and kept getting distracted.

I watched April, having a feeling that something was just off though I couldn’t place what it was immediately. Then I realized what it was. She was Shelly’s best friend and I’d even overheard Shelly and her talking about the date that Shelly was on right now.

“You knew Shelly wouldn’t be here,” I finally said, giving April a curious look.

April stared back, suddenly looking self-conscious before nodding. “I didn’t really come to see Shelly,” she admitted with a nervous looking smile. “Not this time.”

“Then why?” I asked, feeling a little confused about why April would come just to see me. I was pretty sure it didn’t have anything to do with our literature class.

April was silent for a moment, though she was blushing bright red. Then hesitantly asked, “You remember how you owe me a favor?”

It took me a moment to remember what she meant. When she’d caught me in the girl’s bathroom on my first day back to school, offering to show my qualifications to be there, she’d said she wouldn’t tell Shelly about that but that I’d owe her a favor. I nodded at that.

“For my favor,” April told me quietly. “Don’t tell Shelly or anyone else about this…”

And with that, April leaned forward and surprised me with a kiss in my lips. At first, I was stunned and a little confused, then I felt excited instead and began to kiss back.

When April pulled back, the two of us just stared at each other for a moment, both blushing. “I…I’ve got to go,” April stammered, quickly picking up her things and leaving.

I just stared after April, still feeling stunned by her unexpected kiss. I licked my lips, still tasting her and hoping that I could taste her lips like that again.

--------------------

It was Friday afternoon and I was in a good mood, something that I hadn’t had much of recently. Not only was it the end of the week, but I was no longer grounded. But even more importantly, my disgusting period was finally over.

I was currently at Rich’s house, celebrating the fact that I could actually leave my house for something besides school. Things were still a little awkward between us but I was trying to act as though everything was the same as before, as if that could somehow make it so.

“Dude, you still kick ass,” Rich exclaimed after I beat him on our latest go at video games.

I grinned, looking at the holographic display and then gesturing to start the game again. “Of course,” I responded smugly. “Just because I lost my balls, that doesn’t mean I lost my skills.”

Rich blushed at that and then muttered, “It sounds kind of weird when you talk like that…”

“You mean, when I talk like I always did before?” I asked him with a smirk.

“Yeah,” Rich answered with a nod, still looking a little uncomfortable. “You know…”

I nodded, knowing what he meant. I looked and sounded like Shelly, so it threw him when I started talking like a guy. Of course, that was one of the reasons I did it. I wanted to keep reminding him that in spite of how I looked, it was still me in here.

“I take it you’re still crushing on my sister,” I said, though I wasn’t surprised at all.

“Well, she is totally hot,” Rich admitted, not looking at me.

“She already has a boyfriend,” I pointed out, deciding not to mention that she was out of Rich’s league as well.

Rich snorted at that. “Yeah, but if she ever dumps Eddie, I’ll be here waiting…” He said it with a grin that showed he was half joking. Then he stared at me for a moment before hesitantly asking, “So, are you interested in anyone?”

I immediately thought of April, who Rich knew I had a crush on. More specifically, I thought of that kiss the two of us had shared on Monday. April had been sort of avoiding me since then, acting as though nothing had ever happened…much to my disappointment.

“There is someone,” I admitted, though I didn’t say anything more. After all, April had asked me not to tell anyone about the kiss.

Rich and I played another game, though he was obviously distracted the entire time. He kept glancing to me and then quickly looking away. I tried to pretend that I didn’t notice it, though it was making me a little uncomfortable.

Then, Rich suddenly leaned over and shocked me by kissing me on the lips. For a moment, I had a flashback to my kiss with April, but then I responded in a completely different fashion.

I shoved Rich back, nearly screaming, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Rich stared at me with a look that seemed to hold confusion and embarrassment. “I…I thought you wanted me to…”

“WHAT?” I demanded, whipping my mouth with the back of my hand. “Why in the world would you think that?”

“You said you were interested in someone,” Rich told me defensively, “And then you got all weird about it. I thought…I thought you meant me.”

My mouth dropped at that and all I could do was gasp, “What…?”

“Dude, we’re best friends,” Rich explained awkwardly. “Now that you’re a girl, I kind of thought…”

“I still like girls,” I snapped at him, feeling offended and embarrassed by his assumptions.

Without saying another word, I went straight for the door. I was fully aware of the irony that I was walking away in a pair of high heels because my male pride had taken another serious hit.

“I’m sorry,” Rich called back.

“Later,” I snapped as I walked out the door.

I went straight home, only to find Shelly’s new car siting in the driveway to let me know she was home. I glared at the car, a fairly new model, though not a hover one. It was a clear reminder that she was the favorite child, as if I needed any other reminders.

When I went inside, I found Shelly in the living room, all dressed up for her date tonight. I was a little more surprised to see April with her.

“You look great,” April told Shelly, giving her an odd look. “Eddie is a lucky guy…”

Shelly smiled at that, looking quite pleased. “Are you sure I didn’t overdo it?”

“No,” April assured her. “You look absolutely perfect.” Then she turned to look at me and said, “Hey Jeri.”

“Hey,” I greeted her back. April grinned cheerfully while Shelly gave me a slightly hostile look.

Less than a minute later, another car pulled into our driveway. I glanced out the window and saw that it was Eddie, though Shelly already seemed to know that as she hurried out the door and then drove off with her date.

April and I were now alone in the living room and we stood there staring at each other awkwardly. I suddenly realized that this was the first time that the two of us had been alone together since our kiss.

“About what happened Monday,” she started awkwardly.

“I didn’t tell anyone,” I assured her. Then I admitted, “You kind of caught me by surprise…”

April nodded at that, somehow looking both smug and self-conscious at the same time. “You might have guessed,” she said carefully. “But I like girls instead of boys.”

I just stared at April for a moment before whispering, “Then you and Shelly…”

“No,” April quickly responded, blushing brighter. “Shelly doesn’t know… I mean, I never told her.” Then she paused to give me a wry smile and added, “Besides, she only likes boys.” April had a sad look on her face at that.

I had no idea what to say next, though it seemed that I didn’t need to say anything. April hesitantly took my hand and held it in her own. When I didn’t pull away, she let out a sigh of relief.

“I knew you liked me,” April said with a self-conscious smile. “I noticed how you kept looking at me whenever I came over…” Then she quietly admitted, “I actually thought it was kind of funny…”

“Because I was your best friend’s kid brother,” I responded in understanding. That alone was a good enough reason for why she’d nearly ignored me before my twist, and the fact that she wasn’t interested in boys was another.

“I know you aren’t very happy about your twist,” April told me. Then she looked embarrassed as she added, “But I’m kind of glad…”

Then April leaned forward and kissed me on my lips again. I happily kissed her back, feeling my body responding. My nipples were poking out so hard that I was suddenly grateful for the bra which helped hide them.

When we pulled apart again, April stared at me for a moment before whispering, “You’re so beautiful…” Then she gave me another quick kiss before rushing out the door and leaving.

I was left standing there, feeling turned on and excited. However, there was one thing that kept me from enjoying this as much as I would have liked. She said that I was beautiful…which meant that that it was really Shelly whom she was attracted to.

An hour later, after dinner was over, I was in my room, thinking about April and our kisses. The fact that he girl I’d been crushing on actually seemed to like me back was something of a dream come true. Unfortunately, it wasn’t me she was really attracted to. It was Shelly.

“It’s always Shelly,” I spat out bitterly.

I tried to get my mind off of the situation by distracting myself with some video games. Before long, I began to feel a little flushed and dizzy. Then it suddenly struck me that I was feeling the same way I did when I got grounded for being drunk.

“Great,” I grumbled to myself. “Shelly must be getting drunk again. I’d better not leave my room or I’ll get grounded again.”

Playing my game while a little tipsy was fun, though I didn’t seem to be doing as good as I normally did. I finally turned off the game and sat down on my bed.

I’d barely managed to sit on my bed before I began to feel turned on again. My nipples hardened and I began to feel moist in my nether regions. It was a little startling because I hadn’t been fantasizing about April or any other girl. Then again, I used to get hard-ons for no good reason as well.

Since I was already feeling hot and horny, I decided that I might as well experiment with my new body a little more. I’ve already played with myself a little, thought it had felt awkward since I knew that I looked like Sherry. But as I’d started to get used to my new body, it was becoming easier and easier to think of it as ‘my’ body.

But before I could really feel myself up, I suddenly felt as though I’d just pinched one of my nipples. However, my hand wasn’t anywhere near my breasts. Then I felt it again, this time from both my nipples.

“What the hell?” I gasped, feeling as though both of my nipples were being gently pinched and played with. It felt good and was getting me turned on even more. Then it felt as though someone was playing with them more. “Oh God…”

I just sat there, feeling confused at first and then I suddenly realized what was going on. I could feel it anytime Shelly got injured, but now it seems that I was sharing more than just her pain.

“Hell no,” I blurted out with a growing sense of horror.

Then I felt it, as though someone was rubbing my neither region. I gasped at that and closed my legs, even holding my hands up to block access but it did no good. It felt as though someone’s finger slipped up inside me and began to massage me from within.

“No,” I whispered, moaning from how good it felt while simultaneously being filled with horror.

I desperately tried to fight this but there were no physical hands to knock away and no way to block the sensations. And then I felt something new pushing inside of me, something larger than a finger.

“No,” I cried out, closing my legs even tighter. “Please no…”

Nothing I tried could stop the sensations of something pounding in and out of me. It felt so good, which only made this experience all the worse. All I could do was bite my pillow to keep from making any noise that would alert mom and dad to what was going on.

I had no idea how long I experienced this voyeuristic secondhand sex, though I eventually came and came hard. I probably would have screamed out from the pleasure of it if it hadn’t been for the pillow in my mouth.

Once it was over, I lay on my bed, my whole body tingling and feeling good. However, my emotions were anything but good as I felt absolutely mortified…humiliated…and violated. All I could do was curl up and cry myself to sleep.

--------------------

It had been a quiet Saturday morning and was now early afternoon. Shelly had been gone for most of the morning, going to kickboxing and the gym, and she had yet to return. Mom was gone as well, working at the salon as she did nearly every Saturday. That meant that dad and I were currently the only ones home, though he was out in the garage cleaning it up.

Normally, dad would have made me clean the garage and mow the lawn, but today he’d gone out to take care of those things himself without a single word suggesting that I should do it. If being a girl meant that I could get out of some of those chores, I wasn’t about to complain.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t feel very enthusiastic about my newfound ability to avoid certain chores. Instead, I spent all morning thinking about last night while my emotions seemed to be a caught in a swirling maelstrom.

Experiencing secondhand sex without warning had been more than a little shocking. It had also been an unbelievable violation. I had happened without my permission…and against my active will. For all intents and purposes, it had been an act of unintentional rape. And the worst part was that I couldn’t help thinking about how good it felt.

“Damn it,” I muttered bitterly, alternating between feeling humiliated and feeling excited as I thought about it. Then I cursed Shelly, “How could you do that to me?”

I didn’t think that even Shelly would have done that to me intentionally, not when it intruded into her own privacy so much. But with as much as she’d been giving me a hard time since my twist, I couldn’t be certain.

“I should probably go see Rich,” I mused, trying to distract myself. When I left him yesterday afternoon, things had been pretty awkward. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to deal with that again right now.

I was in the process of trying to think of what I could do to take my mind off of last night when the doorbell began to ring. When I went to answer the door, I was startled to find Shelly’s boyfriend Eddie standing there.

Though I didn’t know Eddie very well, I felt a knot of emotion clench up inside of me at the sight of him. After all, there was no doubt that he was the one Shelly had been having sex with. He was partly responsible for the good time that I’d been forced to share in.

“I really enjoyed our date last night,” Eddie told me with a goofy grin.

For a moment, I was a little confused by his statement, even feeling a surge of shock as I thought that he and Shelly had messed with me intentionally. However, after a couple seconds, I realized that he merely thought I was Shelly. I blushed at that, feeling even more uncomfortable about being in Eddie’s presence.

“I...,” I started, about to tell him that I wasn’t Shelly when I suddenly realized that this was my chance to make sure last night didn’t happen again. I blushed brightly as I awkwardly told him, “I enjoyed it too...”

“That’s good to hear,” Eddie told him, about to come in until I held up my hand to stop him.

“But I’m afraid,” I said carefully, my mind spinning as I tried to think of what to say. “I think we should see other people.”

Eddie froze with a look of stunned confusion. “What?”

“It’s not you,” I told him, trying to think of how most girls would do something like this. “It’s me. I just can’t do this anymore…”

Then before Eddie could respond, I closed the door in his face, feeling guilty about what I’d just done, yet relieved at the same time. I took several deep breaths, regretting that I’d had to do something like that to Eddie. He’d seemed like a pretty decent guy and I knew how much it hurt getting dumped. But I told myself that I didn’t have much choice. I had to keep him and Shelly apart if I wanted to protect myself.

“Shelly,” I heard Eddie’s voice calling through the door. “Come on, talk to me… What’s really going on?”

“Maybe I should have told him Shelly was seeing someone else too,” I muttered, feeling ashamed of myself. Then I tried telling myself, “Shelly deserves it…” That didn’t make me feel any better about what I’d just done. After a sad shake of my head, I went back my room where I wouldn’t have to hear Eddie calling for Shelly through the door.

When Shelly returned home half an hour later, Eddie was gone and she had no idea that her boyfriend thought that she’d dumped him. She came into the house with a smile on her face, obviously having had a good session at the gym or with kickboxing. I felt little surge of guilt over what I’d done in her name, but that faded as soon as she looked at me and her expression turned to a cold glare.

April came into the house right behind Shelly, which wasn’t a surprise. Though April didn’t take kickboxing, they usually met up to go to the gym together afterwards.

“What’s wrong?” April asked Shelly with a confused look.

“Jeri,” Shelly spat out, turning away from me and walking back to her room with April, not bothering to say a single word to me and acting as though I wasn’t even there. “It pisses me off that I work my ass off and she gets the benefits without having to lift a finger…”

“That’s not fair,” April said, turning to give me a sympathetic look.

“I know,” Shelly agreed. “It’s like she’s stealing from me…”

“I mean, you’re not being fair to her,” April told my sister. “It’s not like she’s doing it on purpose or has any choice in the matter…”

At that, the door to Shelly’s room closed and I couldn’t hear the rest of the conversation. I appreciated the fact that April was trying to defend me, though I doubted that Shelly would bother listening.

Since Shelly and April were both occupied, that left me with either the choice of going out to help dad or trying to figure out how to entertain myself. I didn’t feel like any more video games at the moment, nor did I even feel like hanging around the house. I could have gone to see Rich, but that would still have been a bit awkward so instead I decided to just go for a walk.

I’d gone just a short distance down the sidewalk when I suddenly realized that I was going for a walk in my low heels when I could have been wearing my sneakers instead. Since Shelly had been kickboxing and working out all morning, I’d felt the occasional faint urges to be barefoot or put on sneakers, but I’d put the low heels on instead. It was embarrassing to realize that I’d been wearing makeup and heels so much lately that I’d even begun to wear them when my compulsions weren’t urging me to do so.

“Just great,” I grumbled to myself, not happy at the thought that I was getting into the habit of putting on makeup. Then I sighed and mused, “I am a girl now so I guess that isn’t a bad thing. I guess it just means I’m starting to get used to it…” Then I thought about my period and hoped that I never had to get used to that.

In spite of my shoes not being quite as comfortable as they could be for a walk, I was too stubborn to turn around and go home. Instead, I muttered a quick thanks for not having worn the regular high heels today and continued on my way.

I went to a nearby park and just sat down and watched the people go past. I was well aware that a lot of guys were paying attention to me while trying to appear as though they weren’t. That kind of attention still made me a little self-conscious, but I was getting used to it, often getting that same kind of attention every day at school.

One guy in his late twenties was staring at me especially hard, not even bothering to hide it. I squirmed uncomfortably, knowing from the look on his face exactly what he had to be thinking of doing with me. That just made me remember last night, which made me even more uncomfortable. Fortunately, that guy didn’t make any move to come over to me, perhaps because I was still too young for him to bother with. I was just glad that he probably thought of me as jailbait because if he’d actually come over and tried flirting, I probably would have puked.

In spite of the creepy guy’s staring, I left the park in a much better mood than when I’d arrived. Getting away from the house had been just the thing I needed to clear my head a bit, not to mention, get me away from Shelly for a bit more.

I had just barely left the park when I suddenly heard someone calling out, “Hey, Jeri…” I quickly looked for the source and saw April standing on the sidewalk on the other side of the street. She waved to me and then hurried across the street to come closer.

“What are you doing here?” I asked her curiously.

“I was just walking home,” April told me pleasantly, gesturing to the back pack full of gym clothes that she had slung over her shoulder.

I nodded at that, not surprised since I knew that April lived in this area, though I didn’t know exactly where. “Same here,” I responded, feeling my heart race just a little. Her close presence reminded me of how we’d kissed twice now, and I couldn’t help but wanting to do it again.

April stared at me for a moment, looking just a little self-conscious. Then she abruptly said, “You’ve never seen my house, have you? You want to come over for a bit?”

I hesitated for only a moment before answering, “Sure…” Not only would that give me some time alone with April, it would also keep me from having to go home for a little longer.

We went across the street and then to April’s home which was only a few houses down. It was a nice house, though I couldn’t help but noticing that the grass needed mowing and a few of the bushes needed trimming. Until recently, that had always been my responsibility at home so I tended to notice when it needed to be done.

When we stepped inside the house, April told me, “My parents are out of town for the weekend so It’s just us…” She gave me a nervous smile at that. “Let me give you the nickel tour…”

“It’s a nice place,” I told her as she showed me around.

Then she showed me her bedroom, which was to my surprise, even more disorganized and cluttered than my own. The only thing that seemed even remotely organized was a book shelf that had small stuffed animals lining the top two shelves.

“It’s…a little messy,” April admitted with a weak chuckle. Then she quickly added, “I wasn’t expecting company.”

“I wasn’t expecting to be company,” I responded with grin, feeling a little more relaxed.

“You wouldn’t believe how often my mom gets after me to clean in here,” April told me with a shrug. “I try, but it just doesn’t take.”

I just nodded at that and told her, “Yeah, that definitely sounds familiar.”

“I always feel bad when I see Shelly’s room,” April told me with a chuckle and a shake of her head. “I mean, hers is always so neat that I feel like a total slob in comparison…”

“Yeah, that sounds familiar too,” I muttered.

April just stared at me for a moment with a sympathetic look before responding, “Yeah, I guess you would understand that better than anyone. Being Shelly’s friend can be hard sometimes because it’s so hard to keep up with her. I couldn’t imagine what it’s like having her as a sister.” April sat down on her bed and gestured for me to sit beside her.

After I sat down, I admitted, “It’s not easy…” My voice began to shake a little so I asked, “If it’s hard being her friend, then why are you?”

April had a thoughtful look on her face for a moment before saying, “I like hanging out with her partly because she is so hard to keep up with. I mean, whenever Shelly does anything, she always gives it everything she has. It’s kind of…inspiring. Whenever we do anything together, I have to push myself harder just to try keeping up. I mean, thanks to studying with her, I’ve got great grades. And since we go to the gym together, I’m really in good shape. I guess, being with Shelly encourages me to give my best effort too and helps me bring out my best.” Then she hesitated again, blushing as she added, “But I have to admit…when I first started hanging out with her…part of it was because I had a bit of a crush on her.”

“I think you kind of mentioned that before,” I said carefully, feeling a little jealous.

“Of course, there’s nothing there,” April quickly assured me. “She isn’t interested in me that way and I accepted that a long time ago. In fact, now that I know her so well, I know that there is no way we could have had that kind of relationship, even if Shelly was into girls. She’s just too…intense… Shelly doesn’t really know how to just relax, though I certainly do my part to try helping with that.”

“Yeah, Shelly is a bit…high strung,” I agreed with a chuckle. Ever since her twist, she seemed to have forgotten how to just relax and have fun. Now she only seemed to really enjoy herself when she was pushing herself to some new level, breaking some new record…or proving that she was better than me at something.

“I’m a little surprised she can relax enough to have a relationship with Eddie,” April pointed out with a chuckle. “But I think he’ll be good for her…”

“Um…yeah,” I responded, suddenly feeling extremely uncomfortable and guilty.

April seemed to notice my discomfort because she abruptly asked, “So, how are you doing…I mean…being a girl and all?”

“Being a girl isn’t bad,” I admitted with a shrug. It was being Shelly’s duplicate that was a real pain in the ass. “I’m getting used to it.”

Again, April seemed to read my mind as she carefully said, “I know it can’t be easy looking like Shelly…and especially being linked to her like you are.”

“You have no idea,” I responded with a sigh. “You have no idea how tired I am having people mistake me for her…” I scowled at that, thinking of Eddie and how easily I’d fooled him.

“Well, I can tell you apart,” April said rather proudly. “It’s actually pretty easy.”

“Oh?” I encouraged her to continue, feeling curious.

“Well, your body language is different,” April explained thoughtfully. “No offense, but Shelly is a lot more graceful and confident with how she moves. Your body language is getting more feminine, but all I have to do is watch you two for a few seconds and I can usually tell you apart. Of course, you may have the same face, but you two also use different expressions. And then there’s your clothes…”

“My clothes?” I asked in confusion. I was wearing girl clothes now so didn’t quite see what April meant.

“Shelly likes to wear pastels and bright colors,” April told me, looking a little smug that she’d noticed this. “You tend to wear dark colors or earth tones. And of course, she likes to show off her body a bit more than you do.”

I just stared at Aril, feeling both surprised and delighted. I’d been so caught up in looking like Shelly that I hadn’t given much thought to the subtle things that I could control. Sure, I felt compulsions to dress and look more like her, but there were still things I could do with the color and cut of my clothes to help separate me from her. Of course, I still really wanted to break that link I had with her. Doing that would fix about half my problems.

April put her hand on mine and then gave me a gentle smile. “I do like you,” she said, blushing as she did so. “And not just because you look like Shelly. I just wish I’d gotten to know you better before your twist…”

“I…I like you too,” I admitted, knowing that I was probably blushing as brightly as she was. “I’ve kind of had a crush on you for awhile…”

“I know,” April responded with a giggle. “I noticed the way you looked at me…that you still do.”

April and I stared at each other for several seconds and then moved in for a kiss. This was the third time we’d done this, but this time, we lingered and took our time. When we finally pulled apart, we stared each other in the eyes and smiled self-consciously before leaning in for another kiss.

We continued kissing for awhile, though our hands began to wander and feel each other up. I was excited to touch her breasts through her shirt and just as excited by the fact that she was touching mine. I was really getting turned one.

“Do you…do you want to go further?” I asked April hopefully.

“Yes,” she answered in a near whisper before she began to take off her shirt. I followed her lead.

Moments later, we were both topless and staring at each other’s breasts. Then we began to reach for each other, hesitantly at first. I grew even more excited as I touched her naked breasts, then moaned slightly as she touched mine in turn.

“Have you…have you ever been with a girl before?” April asked me as she caressed my breasts.

“No,” I admitted, feeling embarrassed to at revealing that I was a virgin.

“Me either,” April told me, looking just a little relieved. At my surprised look, she grinned self-consciously and added, “Just because I like girls, that doesn’t mean I’ve had the opportunity to do one until now…”

Neither of us said another word as we went at it, losing our pants and exploring each other’s bodies. When April began to pinch my nipples and lick them, I gasped, fully aware of how much it felt like last night when Eddie had been doing that to Shelly.

April and I were both awkward as we went at each other, but we were also enthusiastic. When I actually reached between her legs and began to rub her slit, I thought I’d gone to heaven. When she began to play with mine, I knew I had.

I’ve played with my new parts a few times, but that was nothing compared to having someone else playing with them. I felt fantastic and was sure that I was so wet that I was pouring juices out.

April put her finger up inside of me and began to flick it, driving me wild with how good it felt. I might have been embarrassed at the thought of having something inside of me like that if I hadn’t been enjoying it so much. The pressure built and built until I exploded in an orgasm, one that was much better than what I’d felt while jacking off as a guy.

Then it was my turn to focus on April. I slipped my finger up inside of her and duplicated her movements since they’d worked so well on me. She moaned and squirmed, obviously enjoying it just as much as I had.

“Oh yes,” April gasped, closing her eyes and moaning. “That feels so good…”

“It sure does,” I agreed, licking my lips and then giving her a kiss while I continued to finger her.

“Oh God,” April exclaimed as she began to shake with an orgasm. “God yes…”

I was enjoying the way that April squirmed and moaned at my touch so kept it up, trying to push her buttons even more. “Do you like that?” I teased her.

“Hell yes,” April blurted out. “Are you sure you haven’t done this before?”

I just grinned at that, “Fairly sure.” I didn’t want to bring up how I’d been the unwilling recipient of some secondhand sex.

A minute later, April was sprawled out on her bed gasping, “Damn, that was incredible, Shelly…”

I froze at the sound of my sister’s name, suddenly feeling a cold chill through my body. In an instant, I went from feeling totally turned on to being angry. Without a word, I jumped off the bed and began grabbing up my clothes, scrambling to get them on as fast as I could.

“What’s wrong?” April asked, sitting up and looking at me in confusion.

“You called me Shelly,” I blurted out, feeling horribly hurt and betrayed. “I’m not gonna be a…a stand in.”

“Oh God,” April exclaimed, “I’m sorry…” I didn’t say a word as I grabbed the rest of my clothes and rushed out of her room while she called out, “Jeri,” from behind me.

I barely finished getting my clothes on as I hurried out the front door, tears running down my cheeks. Just when I thought that I’d finally found something good, something that was mine, I was once again thrust into Shelly’s shadow. My emotions were a swirling mass of anger, grief, and frustration as I hurried home, crying the entire way.

--------------------

Sunday’s were normally a quiet day, the one day of the week where the whole family was home together. Neither Shelly or I had to go to school while both mom and dad both took the day off. However, I had no intention of dealing with my family today.

Shelly was up before me as usual and had left for kickboxing before I’d even gotten up. I knew that once she was done with kickboxing, she’d meet up with April and go to the gym for a second workout.

I wasn’t looking forward to Shelly returning home with April. After what had happened yesterday afternoon, I didn’t want to see April right now. I cringed at the thought, still feeling hurt and feeling even more humiliated as I imagined that April and Shelly might be joking about it while they excised.

“I should have known,” I whispered to myself. “Why would someone like April really want someone like me?” I’d always known she was out of my league, but I’d started to think otherwise. “I should have known better.”

I needed something to distract myself from these thoughts, and after a little consideration, I called Rich. The last time I’d seen him had been pretty awkward, with him kissing me and all, but he was still my best friend. Or at least, I hoped that he still was.

“I was thinking of going to the amusement park today,” I told Rich as soon as I had him on the phone. “I just need to take my mind off things and have a little fun… Are you interested?”

“Sounds great to me,” Rich answered eagerly, probably already looking forward the coaster that was our favorite ride. “Dude, I think I can even get my dad’s car…”

“Great,” I told him, beginning to grin. “Way better than asking my dad to give us a ride.” Then to make sure that he didn’t get the wrong idea, I added, “I just need a day where I can pretend that everything is the way it was before I went through my twist…”

“I guess I can understand that,” he responded.

Rich arrived at my house a short time later with his dad’s car, an older model that was still in good condition. His dad had been talking about getting a new car sometime in the near future and I knew that he hoped that he’d be given this one when that happened.

When I went out and hopped into the car with Rich, he took one look at me and gave me a mischievious grin. “Going slumming today or something?”

I glanced down at myself, wondering what he was talking about when I realized what he meant. I was currently wearing sneakers and was going without makeup, which might look a little odd considering that I’d been dressed up a little more nicely every other time he’d seen me recently.

“High heels would be a pain in the ass at the park,” I told Rich with a shrug.

Of course, the truth was that I just didn’t want to wear that stuff at the moment. I didn’t want to look any more like Shelly than I absolutely had to. I wore it during the week because of my compulsions…to keep the mental itch at bay so that I could focus on school and everything else. Right now, I didn’t need to worry about school, nor did I feel the compulsions. Of course, once Shelly returned home and got cleaned up, the lack of compulsions would change. However, I could handle the annoying compulsions, especially if I kept myself distracted the way I intended.

As we drove to the amusement park, Rich hesitantly started, “About the other day…”

“Forget it,” I told him, then quickly changed the subject. “Has your dad said anything about when he’s going to buy a new car?”

The change in topic resulted in a conversation about cars that lasted not only until we arrived at the amusement park, but also until we were in line for the first ride. At that point, the conversation shifted into a brief argument over the order of the rides we were going to be going on.

The first ride was a roller coaster, which was a lot of fun but whipped my long hair around in ways that I didn’t like. After the ride was over, I put my hair into a pony tail to keep it under control, though I almost immediately felt the urge to undo my hair and let it fly free the way Shelly did. Since I was now beginning to feel the urges to wear high heels and makeup as well, it only added to the growing mental itch that I was trying to ignore.

“I’m glad we came,” Rich told me when we stopped for hot dogs. Then he patted his stomach and grinned, “But after we’re done today, I’m gonna have to spend an extra hour in the gym tonight burning this stuff off…”

I chuckled at that, then told him, “One good thing about my situation is that I can eat all the junk food I want and not gain a pound. At least not as long as Shelly keeps watching what she eats.” Then I scowled at that, annoyed at myself for thinking about her when she was the very thing I was trying to distract myself from.

“I think you’re safe then,” Rich responded with a chuckle of his own, knowing just how active my sister was. Then he hesitantly suggested, “Maybe we should have asked her to come with… You know, to try getting her to relax…”

I just glared at Rich, saying, “I think that would defeat the point of trying to forget about her for awhile.”

Of course, I was fully aware of Rich’s real reasons for wanting Shelly along. He’d happily find any excuse he could to spend more time with her…just like I would have with April. Unfortunately, thinking about April only reminded me of yesterday and left me depressed. It was hard to believe that something could have been so awesome and so frustrating at the same time.

“Dude, she’s your sister,” Rich told me with a shrug. “I mean, you should at least try to get along.”

“Now you sound like my mom,” I teased him with a grin.

Rich gave an exaggerated wince and asked, “Can’t I sound like your dad instead?”

Just then, my stomach began to churn uncomfortably and I felt the pressure from Mother Nature, telling me that I had better find a bathroom fast. “Damn,” I blurted out as a way of explanation. “This park food isn’t agreeing with me.”

I ran to the nearest bathroom as quickly as I could, nearly exploding the moment I sat down. Though there was a moment of relief, I was also disgusted to see that I hadn’t gotten there quite in time. Some had leaked out, getting into my panties and even a little into my pants.

I muttered a stream of profanities as I simultaneously continued to empty my bowls and used a wad of toilet paper to clean my panties and pants. If I’d been alone in the bathroom, I would have taken my panties to the sink and washed them out a bit, but unfortunately, there were several other women present, using other stalls and the sink. I doubted that I’d get any kind of privacy here at the park.

Once I was finished with my business and had cleaned myself as much as I possibly could with the toilet paper, I stuffed a wad of the paper into my pants to soak up any remnants from my pants and panties. After I had my pants on again, I was thankful that the wet spot from my leak was small and almost unnoticeable. Still, I felt extremely self-conscious and embarrassed by it having happened at all.

When I came out of the bathroom, I found Rich standing there. He asked, “Feeling better?”

I snorted at that, knowing that I was blushing. “A little,” I responded, giving him a weak smile. “But I am NOT eating the hot dogs here again…”

“So where to now?” Rich asked, looking around and adding, “We’ve got the Shuffler or the Zombie Horde…you remember, that one with the great holographic special effects.”

I hesitated a moment, wanting to leave the park so I could get some clean clothes on, but not wanting to look like a wimp. I especially didn’t want to have to explain that the reason I wanted to leave so soon after arriving was that I’d crapped my pants. Since my accident wasn’t noticeable, I decided that I might as well stay for a little longer, though I wasn’t sure I was ready to go back on one of the violent rides.

“Zombies,” I finally answered.

“Ladies first,” Rich responded, gesturing for me to lead the way. I just gave him a glare, stuck my tongue out at him, then started for the ride.

Rich and I made it to the front of the line and were just climbing into the car that would take us on the ride through adventure when I suddenly felt it again. My guts were churning and I absolutely had to go to the bathroom again…now.

“Oh shit,” I blurted out in near desperation, immediately jumping out of the car to rush back to the bathroom.

“Jeri?” Rich called out in surprise. “What the…?”

I had barely left the cart when I stumbled and nearly fell face first onto the ground. That was enough to make me lose control, much to my horror as I felt my own waste running down my leg. All I could do was freeze, caught between the urgent need to get to the bathroom and the fear that moving at all would make it even worse.

Suddenly, a little boy pointed at me and exclaimed, “That lady pooped her pants…”

I turned bright red as everyone turned to stare at me. I felt absolutely horrified and humiliated. I couldn’t even look at Rich as I ran back to the bathroom, feeling extremely uncomfortable and disgusted the entire way. I could even feel my own shit in my shoe.

“Oh shit oh shit oh shit,” I muttered over and over as I sat on the can, feeling miserable and disgusted. I couldn’t believe that I shit myself like that, but this nasty case of diarrhea had come out of nowhere and hit hard.

This time, there was absolutely no hiding what I’d done as my own waste had dripped run down my leg, ruining my pants completely. As I sat there, I realized that I couldn’t wear them home yet I couldn’t go without them either. I was stuck.

“That is nasty,” some woman exclaimed from outside my stall. “It’s on the floor…”

I grimaced, though it was hard to feel bad about getting it on the floor when I had it smeared all over myself. I tried wiping myself up with wads of toilet paper, but what I really needed was a hot shower and new clothes.

Then, as if I wasn’t feeling bad enough, my stomach churned again, but this time I exploded from the other end. I felt it coming in enough time to turn my head so that I didn’t puke on myself, and a moment later, there was vomit all over the wall of my stall as well as the floor.

“Oh my God,” a woman blurted, though I wasn’t sure if it was the same woman or a different one. “Are you okay in there?”

“I don’t know,” I responded weakly before I was hit with another wave and spewed again.

A minute later, one of the park’s janitors arrived and gasped in horror at the mess I was creating. Fortunately, she was understanding enough to hand me a bucket under the stall so that when I had to vomit again, I didn’t have to do it on the floor.

“Do you need a doctor?” the janitor asked, beginning to sound worried.

“No,” I answered tearfully, feeling completely and totally humiliated. “I need pants…”

There was a long pause before she responded, “I’ll see what I can do.”

After this, the janitor shut down the bathroom, keeping park visitors out until it could be cleaned. This also gave me the opportunity to take off my nasty clothes and try cleaning up with the paper towels and wet naps that she provided.

I had to go back to the toilet and bucket several more times, but before long, I no longer seemed to have anything left in me to come out. That didn’t stop the dry heaves from coming though.

Eventually, the janitor came back with a pair of pants that one of her coworkers had donated, as well as some towels and wet naps. Once I was cleaned up enough and no longer seemed to be exploding uncontrollably, I was finally able to leave the bathroom.

“Thank you so much,” I told the janitor, still feeling mortified and ashamed.

Rich had been waiting for me outside the bathroom and gave me a worried look when he saw me. “Are you okay? That janitor lady said you were really sick…”

I nodded at that, unable meet his eyes. “I just want to go home,” I told him quietly. And hopefully, I’d be able to get home before I got hit with another attack.

Rich found some plastic bags to cover my car seat with before we left, just in case. Between that and bag in my hand in case I had to puke again, and we were set. Fortunately, we made it home without another incident, though neither of us said much either. I was just too humiliated to talk about it.

“I hope you feel better soon,” Rich told me as he dropped me off. He gave me a sympathetic look and promised to call me later before he left.

When I stepped into the house, mom came and gave me an odd look probably due to the fact that I was wearing pants that were obviously way too big for me and which were definitely not mine. She looked me over, scowling as she did so.

“From your expression,” she said carefully, “I take it that your trip to the amusement park didn’t go well…”

“I need a shower,” I blurted out, not wanting to talk about it.

But as I started for my room, mom said, “I think Shelly is still in the bathroom. She’s been in there for the last few hours.” Then mom sighed, “She’s gotten sick…poor girl.”

“Of course,” I muttered in realization. If Shelly got sick, I got all the symptoms as well. “Let me guess…food poisoning.” That would certainly fit my symptoms.

“I’m not sure,” mom answered.

I just grunted and continued towards my room, calling back, “If Shelly’s in the bathroom, I’ll use the shower in yours.”

Once I’d showered and changed into clean clothes, I felt much better, both physically and emotionally. I was still a bit shaken and disgusted by what had happened to me at the park, but I was trying not to think about it now that it was over. Unfortunately, it was difficult to forget when I was hit with another bout of both the diarrhea and of the dry heaves, though this time the toilet was close enough that there was no repeat of what had happened earlier.

Since I’d lost a lot of liquid due to my runs, I was a little afraid that I might be getting dehydrated. I went to the kitchen to get something to drink, only to find Shelly already there ahead of me. She had a large bottle of juice in her hands, the kind that athletes and sports teams used to keep hydrated when they worked out. She took a long drink from the bottle then watching me with a cold look in her eyes and a smirk on her lips.

“It looks like you had a little accident today,” Shelly finally said, looking smug as she did so.

I hadn’t said anything about what had happened since I got home and I was pretty sure that Rich hadn’t called to tell anyone. Of course, Shelly might have guessed from the fact that I brought my filthy pants and panties home in a double layered plastic bag. The disgusting smell had probably been enough to give me away.

“Bite me,” I spat out bitterly, getting a glass of water and then turning to leave.

“You know,” Shelly taunted me before I could leave, “you should learn what us big girls call…self-control.” I glared back at Shelly, but before I could think of a good response, she added, “Or at least start wearing diapers.”

“Fuck you,” I replied angrily, which only seemed to amuse her.

“Did that ruin your time at the park?” Shelly continued to tease me, smirking in a way that made me even angrier. “Were you in line when you shit yourself like a little baby? Or even on a ride?” Then she laughed, “Oh God, if you were on a roller coaster…”

My fists were clenched tight at this mocking of my humiliation. My nails dug in deep enough to draw blood, though I didn’t care. Then I gasped in sudden realization. “You did this on purpose…”

“Of course,” Shelly responded with a look of cold hate in her eyes. “A bottle of laxative and some syrup of ipicac and I can make sure you have a REALLY bad day…” Then she sneered even more and spat out with a dark glee, “Just wait until I do it while you’re in class…”

I stared at Shelly with my mouth dropping open, shocked and horrified at the same time. “WHAT?”

“DON’T YOU EVER TALK TO EDDIE AGAIN,” Shelly nearly shouted at me, revealing that she’d found out what I’d done to Eddie. I’d known that there would be consequences to fooling him, but I hadn’t expected anything like this. “I’m going to teach you to NEVER fuck with me again…”

“You started it,” I spat out at Shelly, now just as angry as she was. “After what you and Eddie did to me…”

“What we did to you?” she demanded furiously, suddenly slapping me so hard that it almost felt like a straight punch.

I threw my own punch at Shelly, not bothering with some girlie slap. She blocked it and returned it with her own punch, a real one that caught me on the other side of the face from where she’d already hit me. I was knocked back but then snarled and jumped at her.

Shelly and I went at it, throwing punches and blocking. She had spent a lot more time and effort in kickboxing than I had, but I was borrowing her skills. When she kicked at my chest, I blocked it but was driven back. The two of us quickly ended up in the living room.

“What the hell is going on?” mom screamed as she ran into the room, just in time to see Shelly blocking my kick with one of her own. “Stop that right this instant! What do you two think you’re doing?”

“She made me shit myself,” I blurted out, realizing how stupid that sounded even as the words left my mouth.

“She just attacked me,” Shelly told mom with a barely contained smirk.

“Enough of this,” mom snapped, glaring at Shelly and then me. “Jeri, you can’t keep blaming Shelly for everything that goes wrong…”

“What?” I demanded, angry but not too shocked that she’d automatically take Shelly’s side. It had happened often enough in the past.

Mom gave me a steady look and tried to sound gentle as she said, “I know your twist has been difficult to adjust to, but you can’t take it out on your sister.”

“That’s not my sister,” I spat out bitterly, glaring at Shelly. “She’s just a damn pod person…”

“Jeri Anne Sinclaire,” mom exclaimed, giving me an angry look. “You apologize to Shelly right this instant.”

“It’s all right,” Shelly said with fake smile. “I’m not going to be bothered by a few words…”

Mom gave her a gentle smile and then glared at me. “Now, you should follow Shelly’s example and try to get along…”

I winced at those words, knowing that getting along was the last thing Shelly wanted. I could see her watching me with that smug look, knowing that she had mom on her side no matter what happened.

“You should really try to be more like Shelly,” mom told me with an exasperated sigh.

I literally screamed at that, making mom and Shelly both step back. Then I glared at mom and snarled, “Being more like Shelly is the last fucking thing I want!”

“JERI,” mom snapped at me. “I’ve had enough of that…”

“So have I,” I spat back, glaring at her and Shelly before running to my room and slamming the door behind me. “So have I…”

I threw myself on my bed, crying in shame, and anger, and frustration. After everything else that had happened today, this was the last straw. My emotions swirled inside of me like a violent maelstrom while my tears flowed freely.

“Be more like Shelly,” I bitterly repeated mom’s words, more than sick of hearing them. It was the same thing as always. The same thing that had led to my particular twist. I looked down at myself and muttered, “How much more like Shelly is enough? Isn’t there anything about ME that’s good enough?”

With that, I made a decision and wiped the tears from my eyes. I grabbed a back pack from my closet and began stuffing clothes into it. Then I grabbed the stash of money that I’d been trying to save up for my part of buying a car and stuffed it in as well.

A minute later, I hesitated, glaring at my wall in the direction of the living room where I’d just had that argument. I took a deep breath to brace myself, then I climbed out my window and left.

--------------------

I scowled as I walked down the sidewalk, looking around for any sign of my parents. I’d run away from home yesterday afternoon so I assumed that they probably realized I was gone by now. Whether they were actually going to bother looking for me or not was another question.

Though I was a little embarrassed at how I’d acted during that argument last night, I was still angry as well. A part of me was surprised that I’d actually run away yet another part kept saying that it was about time.

After I’d first left home, I’d been hit with a few more bouts of the runs, though I was able to reach a bathroom in time and stay close enough to one that I didn’t have any more nasty accidents. I’d ended up staying the night at a park on the other side of town, in one of the covered shelters that people often used for family picnics. I’d considered going to Rich’s house but knew that he’d be the first person my parents contacted when they noticed I was gone.

When I’d left the house, all I’d wanted to do was get away from the situation, from a family who didn’t want me there and from a sister who was making my life a living hell. I hadn’t had any specific plans for where I was going to go or what I was going to do, but I’d done a lot of thinking about that since then.

What I’d decided was that I needed to get as far away from Shelly as I could. Maybe if I got far enough, the link between us would fade so I would no longer be tied to her directly. I’d go someplace where no one had ever heard of Shelly, where I could be my own person without constantly being compared to her.

“Spiral,” I said, naming a town that was famous for being welcoming to Twisted. It was the one place where I could go where I knew I wouldn’t be considered a freak or an oddball for being Twisted, and it was far enough away that I hoped I’d be free of Shelly. “A good place to start over…”

I was currently on my way to the bus station where I hoped I could catch a ride to Spiral. I was thankful that I had as much money saved up as I did, though I suspected that I’d be using most of it just for the trip. I still had absolutely no idea of what I’d do once I got to Spiral, but I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.

I was shaken out of my thoughts by someone loudly exclaiming, “Damn she’s hot…”

Since I’d been looking around for any sign of my family, I was already aware of the small group of boys who were on the sidewalk ahead of me. I just hadn’t given them much attention until now. The one who’d called out was a year or two older than me and was dressed in some sort of sports jersey. There were three other guys with him, one of whom I actually recognized.

“She goes to my school,” Craig blurted out, gesturing to me with a scowl on his face which reminded me of his usual contempt of me. “I’m not sure which one she is…but she’s Twisted…”

“She’s twisted?” exclaimed a darker colored boy of indeterminate ethnicity. “Damn, what a waste.”

The largest boy also appeared to be the oldest, if only by a year or two. He had the bulky kind of build which left you wondering I it was mostly muscle or fat. He was watching me with a growing dark look.

“You said you didn’t know which one?” the boy in the jersey asked Craig.

My classmate nodded at that, then explained, “There are two of them at school...sisters. They’re both Twisted and they look identical.

“It’s Jeri,” I pointed out to Craig in annoyance. “You insult me enough in class that I’d think you’d at least be able to tell which one I am.”

“Get lost,” Craig told me, obviously acting tough because his friends were with him. “We don’t want to talk to some Twisted freak.”

I just rolled my eyes and continued walking, or at least I tried to. The bulky boy stepped into my past and glared at me with a sneer on his face and a look of contempt.

“Well I want to talk to her,” the bulky one announced. Then he glared at me and said, “I bet you think you’re something hot because you’ve probably got some of those freaky powers…”

“Like looking hot?” the boy in the jersey asked with a snicker.

“Actually, I think that is her power,” Craig added awkwardly. “She used to be a guy…”

Suddenly, the boy in the jersey glared at me with a look of anger in his eyes, as though I’d somehow tricked him into thinking I was cute. In an instant, his attraction to me had turned into clear and obvious hostility.

“Fucking Twisted,” the darker skinned boy spat out. “You know they’re all infected…” He glared at me and said, “All Twisted freaks should be quarantined…”

Craig remained where he was but his three friends began to surround me, making me realize that I needed to get out of there fast. I tried to make a break for it, only to find the boy in the jersey blocking my escape.

“Maybe you guys should back off,” Craig said uncomfortably. When his friends gave him a questioning look, he quickly added, “You know the Twisted can be dangerous…”

“I sure as hell ain’t afraid of this hot thing,” the boy in the jersey responded with a cruel laugh. “It don’t matter what kind of trick she has…”

“I mean, she might infect you or something,” Craig added.

The bulky boy shook his head. “No, these freaks aren’t contagious. They’re dangerous…but not contagious.”

“Just leave me alone,” I said. “I don’t want any trouble…”

“Neither do we,” the larger boy responded. “That’s why we don’t want your kind around…”

Then without warning, the large boy slapped me…or at least tried to. I easily blocked his arm, using one of the same moves that I’d used while fighting Shelly last night. He was surprised at that, then suddenly angry. It was almost as though I’d offended him by not letting him hit me.

“You smug bitch,” the large boy exclaimed, this time swinging a real punch at me.

I blocked the bulky boy’s punch and moved to the side, dropping my back pack in the process, but his friends had taken his attack as a signal to jump me as well. I kicked the darker skinned boy as he charged me, catching him right in the stomach, but the one in the jersey punched me painfully in the side.

“Normally, I’d never hit a girl,” the boy in the jersey said with a sneer of contempt. “But you ain’t really a girl… Craig said you’re just some dude pretending to be a girl…” And with that, he punched at me again.

I punched the boy with the jersey and then swung a roundhouse kick at the bulky boy. He was large enough that my kick didn’t seem to do much damage. And while I was about to try something else, the darker skinned boy grabbed me from behind, putting his arm around my throat. I had to elbow him in his stomach to get him to let me go.

“What the hell do you guys think you’re doing?” Craig yelled at his friends with a look of worry. “Do you want to go to jail?”

“We’re teaching this freak a lesson,” the bulky boy told him with a sneer. “Her kind shouldn’t be near normal people…”

“Yeah,” the boy in the jersey added. “You remember what that Twisted bastard did in Las Vegas last month… It was all over the news... I sure as hell ain’t gonna let some freak do that here…”

The dark skinned boy swung a punch at my face but I blocked it and punched him back, hearing a satisfying crunch as his nose broke. He fell back, grabbing at nose which was now gushing blood.

“Don’t make me hurt you,” I bluffed. “My trick is that I can disintegrate people… I don’t want to do that, but I will if I have to…”

“I told you she was dangerous,” the bulky boy exclaimed, pulling out a knife and adding, “You’re going down freak…”

The boy with the jersey grabbed me, and while I tried pulling loose, the one with the knife lunged at me, catching me in the side. There was stinging along my side and my shirt began to turn read.

I let out a loud gasp, suddenly feeling terrified. I’d been afraid of these guys before, but I’d been outnumbered and beaten up before. The knife had taken this who a whole different level.

While I was stunned from the knife, the boy in the jersey was punching at me frantically, hitting me several times in the face. The boy with the broken nose had gotten up and had rejoined the fight, swinging at me with a furious rage.

I was trying to defend myself from the three attackers but they outnumbered me and get getting through. The knife stuck right into my shoulder, making me scream in pain. That only seemed to encourage the bulky guy to come at me again, slicking me across the back of my arm when I tried blocking it.

Though I was terrified and in pain, I was also angry and growing desperate. I had a lot of anger and frustration that had been building inside me for a long time, and it all exploded at once.

I snarled and jumped at the bulky boy, using my arm to block the knife again while I moved into him and drove my knee into his groin. I followed that up with a punch to his solar plexus, dropping him to the ground.

Then I swung around, kicking the jersey boy in the knee in what would have been considered a dirty move in kickboxing. Then when he dropped in pain, I kicked him in the face and took him out.

I might have gained all of Shelly’s kickboxing skills, but she’d never been in a real fight. Sparring in class or fighting in tournament competitions was completely different to fighting someone for real. In this particular case, my own fighting experience was proving to be just as useful as what I’d gained from Shelly.

Another kick caught the bulky boy in the face while I immediately followed that up by punching at my last attacker. He staggered back, giving me enough range that I was able to thrust myself forward and kick him in the stomach. He hit the ground and curled up in a ball.

Then I turned my attention to Craig, who was standing back and staring at me with a look of absolute shock. He slowly backed away, though he kept looking at his friends with a worried expression. Since he hadn’t attacked me like his friends had, and he’d even tried stopping them, I made no move towards him.

“Oh God,” Craig exclaimed, staring at me again and blurting out, “I’m sorry… I didn’t think they’d try something like that…”

I just nodded faintly at that, wincing from the pain. I looked down at myself and there was blood all over my clothes. Without thinking about it, I removed my shirt for a better look at the wounds. I still had my bra on so I wasn’t giving Craig too much of a look.

The first place where I’d been cut on my side was completely healed while the rest of my wounds were nearly healed as well. I let out a sigh of relief, thankful for one of the few times that I had this link with Shelly.

With that, I dropped my slashed and blood soaked shirt to the ground and reached for the back pack I’d dropped a minute ago. I pulled out a fresh shirt and walked away, thinking that I’d have to change my pant too once I got to a place where I could.

“Damn,” I muttered, wincing as I glanced back one more time.

I was shaken by what had just happened, and not just because of how I’d been attacked. What really shook me was that if it hadn’t been for my link with Shelly, I’d be seriously hurt if not worse.

Just then, I heard the sound of police sirens coming towards me and winced. It figured that they’d show up after the fight was done, not when I really needed them. But now that the fight was over, I didn’t want to face them since it was likely they’d just take me home. Because of that, I hurried away as quickly as I could.

I spent the next hour making my way towards the bus station, trying hard not to think of the attack or of the urges I was feeling. I was simultaneously feeling the need to put on moderate high heels instead of my sneakers, makeup, a different color of nail polish, a skirt, and something else that I couldn’t quite make sense of. The constant mental itch was very annoying.

When I finally reached the bus station, I looked over the schedule and saw they didn’t have any busses that went straight to Spiral. I’d have to go as far as I could in that direction and then change busses, probably more than once. My best option was still another hour wait so I sat down and tried to be patient.

While I sat there, I watched a boy sitting on another bench with his mom, using a marker to draw pictures on a note pad. I smiled faintly at that, thinking that it was a good way to keep him occupied.

But as I watched the boy, one of my mental itches kept hitting me hard. It was the pen. It was triggering one of my urges, one that made no sense to me.

“Excuse me,” I finally asked the boy, feeling self-conscious as I did. “Can I borrow your marker for a moment?”

The boy hesitated for only a moment before giving me the marker while his mom gave me a curious look. I wasn’t sure why, but I had a powerful urge to doodle on my own arm so I raised the pen and began to do so. My hand seemed to have a mind of its own though when it came to what I needed to write, because of nonsense, I’d actually written two words on my forearm. Come home.

“Thank you,” I told the boy as I gave him back his pen, then I returned to my seat, thankful that at least that itch had been scratched. This was obviously Shelly’s attempt to send me a message. I snorted at that and muttered, “She can bite me.”

My bus was finally starting to load, but as I got up to get on, I suddenly heard someone calling out, “Jeri…”

I snapped around, seeing my parents running towards me with Shelly right behind. I felt a moment of surprise, thinking that mom and dad should have both been at work. Then I shook it off and turned to run.

“Come back here Jeri,” dad yelled out, but I ignored him, not wanting to deal with them anymore.

Then I felt a sudden sharp pain in my foot and nearly fell on my face. When I looked back, I saw Shelly crouched down with what I assumed was a pin in her hand. Her actions had stopped me long enough for mom and dad to catch up.

“You’re all right,” dad exclaimed when he reached me, holding out the slashed and bloody shirt that I’d abandoned at the fight. “We were so worried…”

“The police said you were in some kind of fight,” mom blurted out with a worried look on her face. It looked like she’d even been crying. “And when they found this, we were so worried…”

“Why did you run away?” dad demanded. “What in the world are you thinking?”

“Just leave me alone,” I blurted out in a mixture of anger and fear, already backing away.

“Is this just because I yelled at you?” mom demanded, actually looking confused. “What is wrong with you? Why can’t you be more like…?”

“LIKE SHELLY?” I screamed in anger, surprising them as they both took a step back.

My parents both looked confused and worried. “Jeri,” my mom started.

“I ran away because you don’t want me there,” I spat out bitterly.

“How could you possibly say that?” dad demanded, looking offended.

I just glared at them, feeling all the anger and frustration that had been building for the last year and a half. “I say it because it’s true,” I exclaimed. “You’ve made it more than clear to me…”

“Nonsense,” dad snapped at me.

“Ever since Shelly’s twist,” I began, glaring at Shelly and then my parents, “all I ever hear is how she’s better than me. How she’s smart and pretty, and popular, and better than me in every way possible.”

“What?” mom gasped with a look of surprise.

“Every day,” I snarled. “Every fucking day I hear that. I hear how she’s better than me…about how you wish I was more like her.” I glared at mom and spat out, “Right before my twist, you told me that you wished I was more like Shelly…”

“But…,” she started, her eyes going wide.

I gestured down at myself and nearly yelled, “And now that I am, it’s still not enough… You don’t want me…you only want another Shelly. Another miss perfect…”

No one wanted me, only Shelly. I’d thought that April had really liked me, but even she had really only wanted Shelly.

“Oh Jeri,” mom exclaimed, staring at me with tears coming down her cheeks. “I didn’t realize… Oh God, I never meant to make you feel like that…”

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” dad asked, looking confused.

I just snorted at that. “Yeah right… Like you’d listen. You always take Shelly’s side. ALWAYS. Every time I say anything against her, you just call me jealous and say I should try being more like her…” Mom gulped, suddenly looking guilty as she probably remembered that very thing happening last night before I ran away.

“Jeri,” Shelly started to say.

“You win,” I spat out at Shelly. “You win again…just like always. I’m leaving just like you want, so now you won’t have to have someone else who looks like you…”

Shelly stared at me and gasped, “But I never wanted you to run away like this…”

“No, you just want to make my life a living hell,” I exclaimed angrily. “Ever since your twist, you’ve done everything you could to make me look bad. Every time I did anything, you had to prove you could do it better. Every time I had something that was mine, you had to take it away… I get A’s in math and biology but no one cares because you got A’s in all your classes. I hit a double at the big baseball game and my team wins because of it, but no one cares because you pitched three perfect innings.”

I paused for a moment, seething with the anger and frustration that was finally coming loose. Mom, dad, and Shelly were all staring at me with worried looks, perhaps thinking that I’d totally lost it.

“I loved baseball,” I continued, still staring at Shelly. “But people started saying that I was only on the team because your reputation…that I should have you teach me how to play.” Then I grimaced and blurted out more loudly, “The fact that I’d been playing for years and that I was the one who taught you to throw didn’t mean shit. So I went to kickboxing so I could have something of my own again…and you took that away too. Anytime I did anything, you came along and had to prove you could do it better… You had to come along and take it away from me…”

Shelly blinked at that and said, “I’ve never… I mean, I…” She paused as though unsure of what to say. She surprised me by giving me an almost sympathetic look.

“Since my twist, it’s been even worse,” I continued. “You’ve done everything you could to hurt me...to humiliate me.” Then I clenched my fists and snarled, “And what you and Eddie did… YOU FUCKING RAPED ME!”

“WHAT?” mom, dad, and Shelly all exclaimed at once.

“I felt everything you did,” I snarled at Shelly. “I couldn’t say no and I couldn’t stop it…” I stood there shaking at the memory, and even more, at the humiliation of having enjoyed how it felt.

“Oh my God,” Shelly gasped, her eyes going wide with a look of sudden understanding. “You felt that… I didn’t think you would…”

“Bullshit,” I exclaimed angrily. “You’ve already used our link to hurt me every other way… You used yourself as a voodoo doll to poke me with pins. You go out drinking and I get grounded. You get tattoos and piercings and I’m stuck with them too. And you used the laxative to make me shit myself in public… You knew good and well that I feel what you do…”

“Shelly,” mom exclaimed with a look of shock on her face. “Is this all true?”

“So that’s why you told Eddie I broke up with him,” Shelly blurted out, making an obvious attempt not to look at mom and dad. “Oh God, I honestly didn’t think you’d feel…that.” She was blushing brightly, suddenly looking extremely embarrassed. Then she stared down at the ground and said something that caught me completely by surprise, something that I hadn’t heard from her since before her twist. “I’m sorry.”

I stood there with tears pouring down my cheeks, not even being able to look at them as I quietly whispered, “I miss the real Shelly…”

“I am the real Shelly,” she responded, looking hurt at that. “I know my twist changed me, but I’m still the same one who used to play games with you…” She paused at that, wincing and looking like she was about to cry as well.

There was long pause where no one said anything. Then Shelly told me, “You said you changed like that because mom wished you were more like me…” She looked to mom, who winced. Shelly looked back at me and continued, “Before my twist, I used to be jealous of you…”

“Yeah right,” I responded.

“Really,” Shelly said. “I mean, you were the one with the good grades…the one who was good with baseball and was sort of popular. You actually had a life and I had…nothing. Nothing but you.” She looked back to mom again before continuing, “Then mom gave me a lecture on how I should try being a better example to you…”

“You didn’t,” dad said, looking at mom in surprise. Mom nodded with an almost pained look.

“I realized mom was right,” Shelly said, looking me in the eyes. “I wanted to be a better big sister for you… I wanted you to look up to ME for a change… So I decided to try harder…to be better at everything so that you’d respect me.” She paused at that before quietly adding, “And that’s when my twist hit.”

“Bullshit,” I protested, feeling more than a little skeptical of that, though I wasn’t sure.

Shelly nodded at that, with tears coming down her cheeks. “When I went through my twist, my whole perspective changed… It was like my eyes were suddenly open and everything I ever wanted to do was now possible. I got so distracted with all the new possibilities… I never meant to ignore you…or to make you think you didn’t matter. The next thing I knew, you were treating me like I was some kind of complete stranger.” In a near whisper, she added, “It hurt.”

I was silent at that, not sure what to possibly say…or if I even believed her. I’d never really considered what things had been like for Shelly after her twist. Or at least, I’d always assumed that everything was suddenly perfect for her. That was certainly what it had looked like for me.

“I started playing baseball because I wanted us to have something to talk about again,” Shelly explained quietly. “I wanted us to connect again… I wasn’t trying to prove I could play better…but you know me, whenever I do anything I give it everything I have. I can’t help that any more than you can help looking like me.” She paused at that wincing. “When you quit playing and went to kickboxing, I was disappointed… I started kickboxing to try connecting with you again…but that backfired too…”

“Shelly,” mom said gently, though my sister didn’t even look at mom.

“I never wanted to make you look bad,” Shelly told me in almost pleading voice. “I never wanted to make you feel like you were inferior. All I was trying to do was impress you…”

“Yeah, right,” I responded, still skeptical but I wasn’t sure. I could feel my voice shake as I pointed out, “After what you’ve been doing to me since my twist…”

“I’m sorry,” Shelly said for only the second time since her twist. “I…I suppose I felt threatened… It felt like you were stealing my identity...that you were trying to steal everything that I have. I worked so hard to learn what I know and you get it without even having to try…” She shook her head and admitted, “I overreacted and went too far… It’s the down side of my twist. I have a hard time not giving everything I have to everything I do…even when I really shouldn’t.” She was crying fully at this point. “I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean for things to go so far…”

“I…I’m sorry too,” I whispered, not sure of what else I could say. I tried wiping the tears from my eyes, feeling self-conscious about how I’d been crying.

Shelly wiped her own tears away and looked me in the eyes. “I’m sorry I wasn’t a better sister. If you give me another chance, I promise I’ll do better. I promise I’ll be a better sister.”

I stared at Shelly, surprised to see that look in her eyes, the look of determination that told me she was absolutely serious. These weren’t just words to her. She actually meant them.

All I could do was nod at that and quietly responded, “Okay…”

Suddenly, mom had a hand on Shelly’s shoulder while dad came over and put one on mine. It was almost like a family hug that didn’t quite get to that point.

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” mom told me with tears of her own. “We never meant to make you feel like you were less important than Shelly…”

“Your sister isn’t the only one who gets carried away,” dad admitted with a weak chuckle. “We really are sorry that we let things get to a point where you thought you had to leave… Please, come home and we’ll sit down and talk about how we can make it better…”

“Yes,” mom said, reaching over and running her fingers through my hair. “I’ll make some cocoa and…” She looked to Shelly and gave her a pointed look as she said, “We’ll have a nice long talk.”

Shelly gulped but nodded. “Okay.”

I nodded as well and without another word we all began to walk away from the bus station. While we were walking, I looked to Shelly and saw where she’d written ‘come home’ on her arm. Then I looked to my own arm and smiled faintly. Maybe she’d really meant it after all.

--------------------

I stepped into the living room where Shelly was already sitting, making a conscious effort to relax and watch TV. It was obvious that it was difficult for her to just sit there without actually doing anything herself, but I appreciate that she was actually trying to control her own urges to do something productive.

Shelly and I had decided to do something that we hadn’t done in a very long time, since before her twist. We were going to sit down and watch a movie together…and heckle the hell out of it.

After we returned home yesterday, we had a long family talk and we all got to air out our grievances. I’d obviously had the most, but it was nice getting it all out in the open. Everyone had actually been understanding and sympathetic now that they realized what things had been like for me.

Of course, Shelly had come clean about what she’d been up to so mom and dad didn’t think of her as miss perfect anymore, much to my relief. They’d even grounded her over what she’d been doing to me. Unfortunately, I’d been grounded as well for running away. I suspected that part of their reason for grounding me was to put me and Shelly on even ground, and to make us spent some time together at home.

Shelly looked up at me from where she was sitting on the couch, her eyes going a little wide. Then she blurted out, “Are you really wearing that?”

“What’s wrong with this?” I asked innocently, gesturing down at myself.

I was currently dressed up much the way I was every day at school, with high heels and makeup. Admittedly, I was actually wearing a skirt for the first time as well.

Then I looked to Shelly who had a look of confusion on her face. She was in sneakers, pants, and had intentionally avoided putting any makeup on today. To my surprise, this morning she’d actually done everything she could to avoid triggering my compulsions to dress in a feminine manner.

After the almost constant urges to dress up, it was very strange for me to feel the compulsions urging me to take off the heels and makeup. However, it was well worth getting dressed up like this when I didn’t have to, just to see the look on Shelly’s face.

I sat down on the couch beside Shelly, smoothing my skirt as I did so. She watched me with a somewhat bemused look, obviously wondering why I hadn’t taken advantage to dress in a more relaxed manner.

“To be honest,” I answered her unspoken question about why I was dressed like this, “I’ve kind of gotten used to wearing this stuff…”

“I see,” she responded, seeming relieved that I wasn’t going to try forcing her to change her entire way of dressing. She’d shown that she was going to try being considerate of me and my compulsions, so I thought it was only fair that I show that I was willing to be flexible as well.

Since I’d made my point, I added, “Of course, it is nice to not have to wear this stuff all the time too…”

We started the movie and almost and almost immediately began to make fun of it. However, Shelly was a little slow to get into it and kept getting distracted. I noticed her glancing to the digital tablet sitting on the coffee table and knew that she was still tempted to study or do something else.

“You really need to learn to relax,” I told Shelly.

“April keeps telling me the same thing,” she admitted with a self-conscious smile. “I am trying…but that seems to be one thing I’m just not good at anymore.”

Still, once Shelly got caught up in the movie, she did relax and began to heckle it properly. After all the anger and resentment, it seemed strange to put it all aside and just spend time with her like this. But as she relaxed, I could see glimpses of the old Shelly shining through. It was enough to make me tear up at the realization that the sister I’d once been so close to wasn’t nearly as gone as I’d thought.

“I don’t know what to tell Eddie,” Shelly commented more than halfway through the movie. “I don’t know that he’d understand…” She paused, blushing at that.

I nodded at that, blushing myself. “I…I can see why you like him,” I said awkwardly. “And he seems like a nice guy…”

“But I’m not going to do that to you again,” Shelly promised, looking a little sad. “It’s not fair to you…”

“I…I appreciate that,” I told her, feeling relieved though guilty as well.

“My God,” Shelly told me, giving me a sympathetic look. “When I think about what our link means… What happens to you if something happens to me? I mean, if get killed in an accident or something, does that mean you die too?”

“I don’t know,” I answered, having thought about that myself. “I hope not…”

“And what happens if I ever get pregnant?” she asked, making me gulp as I considered the possibility. I didn’t know how our link would translate something like that to me and I didn’t want to think about it too much.

“I hope I never have to find out,” I muttered.

Shelly looked like she was about to say something when the doorbell rang.
She let out a sigh and went to go answer it while I stood up. A moment later, I saw her open the door and reveal April.

“Um…hi,” April greeted Shelly awkwardly, looking at her and then looking into the living room and seeing me. “Hey Shelly,” she greeted me, obviously confused by the fact that I was the one with high heels, makeup, and a skirt while Shelly was the one without. Shelly smirked faintly at that, apparently amused by the mix-up.

I stared at April, feeling extremely self-conscious. This was the first time that I’d seen her since our aborted encounter. Neither Shelly or I had been at school during the last two days, due to our family situation and wanting to take another day to let things settle.

April stared at me for a moment and then looked to Shelly. She frowned slightly and then looked back to me, appearing confused. Her eyes darted back and forth two more times before her gaze settled on Shelly and she blurted out, “You aren’t Jeri…”

“No,” Shelly responded with a grin. “How’d you know?”

“I just do,” April answered weakly, her eyes locking on me.

“Come on in,” Shelly told her. “Jeri and I were just watching a movie, but we can study a bit when it’s over…”

“Actually,” April said carefully, “I came here to see Jeri…”

Shelly looked surprised at that. “Really?”

“I heard you’d run away,” April blurted out as she came to me. “Is it true? Are you okay?”

“Um…yeah,” I answered awkwardly.

“Some guys jumped her,” Shelly exclaimed angrily. “With a knife…”

“Oh my God,” April exclaimed, looking me over. “Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

“I was hurt,” I admitted, giving a weak smile. “But I healed…”

April suddenly threw herself at me, grabbing me in a hug and crying. “I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean to hurt you…”

“What?” Shelly asked, looking a little confused.

April took a step back and looked me in the eyes, crying a little as she did so. “I knew how sensitive you were about that… I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean for that to come out and I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“It’s okay,” I lied, fully aware of the fact that Shelly was standing right there.

“It’s not,” April insisted. “You aren’t a substitute of any kind and I don’t want you to think you are. I like you…not just the way you look.”

April leaned forward to give me a kiss and I couldn’t resist kissing her back. I was still a little upset with her, but that quickly burned away under both her apology and the taste of her lips.

“Does that mean I’m forgiven?” April asked me once we pulled away.

“On probation,” I teased her, giving a wry smile and adding, “But I expect a real date.”

“Deal,” April agreed with a grin.

Only then did she pause and turn to look at Shelly, suddenly looking quite embarrassed. My sister was just watching us both with an amused look.

“I was wondering if you were ever going to come out of the closet,” Shelly said with a faint smirk.

“What?” April blurted out in surprise. “You knew?”

“Of course,” Shelly responded, looking just a little smug. “I’m not blind you know. I’ve seen you looking at me and at other girls…”

“Then why didn’t you say something?” April asked, looking a bit stunned.

“Because you didn’t,” Shelly answered with a wry smile and a shrug. “I figured you’d tell me if you wanted me to know. Besides, I didn’t want to embarrass you…” Then she paused to look at me for a moment before adding, “I just didn’t think that you and Jeri… I mean, I know Jeri had a crush on you, but I didn’t think you two would get together…”

I squirmed uncomfortably, wondering if I’d really been that obvious about my crush on April. When I thought about it for a moment, I realized that I probably had been. After all, Rich was kind of obvious in his crush on Shelly as well.

Shelly grinned at me and then turned back to April. “I’m happy for you two, but if you hurt my sister, we’re gonna have words.”

April looked a little startled at that, though I wasn’t sure if it was with Shelly giving her blessing or with the implied threat. Then she said, “I thought you two were fighting…”

“We’re…working on that,” I answered carefully. “There were a few misunderstandings we had to clear up.”

“Like the fact that I was acting like a total bitch and didn’t realize it,” Shelly added with a self-conscious chuckle before jokingly adding, “Who knew?”

April hesitantly put her hand up and gave Shelly a wry smile. “Not warning her about her period was a good clue…”

“Bite me,” Shelly responded, though she was grinning when she said it.

After this, all three of us sat on the couch to continue watching the movie, with me sitting in the middle. April smiled at me and then gave me a quick kiss before just holding my hand. I grinned, more than content with this much at the moment and knowing that there would be plenty of opportunity for more later.

Just a few minutes ago, I’d though that any chance at a relationship with April was over, that she wanted me only as a substitute for Shelly. But now, now I was sure that she really did care about me. It wasn’t just her apology, though that had been convincing. It was the fact that she’d been able to almost immediately tell me apart from Shelly, even though the two of us had been dressed in an opposite manner of what she might expect from each of us.

I felt quite happy as I sat there between Shelly and April, happier than I’d felt for a very long time. Not only did the girl of my dreams really like me in return, but I actually had my sister back as well. At that moment, I didn’t see how I could be happier.

--------------------

I sat on a chair in the living room, hunched over and carefully practicing on my new guitar. I had to pause to brush my hair back from where it had fallen into my face, but then I continued with the song I was trying to master.

Mom and dad were both in the living room, watching the news while simultaneously listening to me practice. Oddly enough, they didn’t consider my presence here a distraction and had actually asked me to practice here rather than in my room. They seemed to get a strange sort of kick out of watching me.

“You’re definitely getting better,” mom said proudly.

“Thanks,” I responded, setting my guitar down and taking a break.

It had been two months since I’d run away from home, and since the family had talked everything out. Since then, neither of my parents had told me to be more like Shelly even once, nor had they done anything to suggest that they thought I was inferior to her. Instead, they actually tried being supportive of me and our relationship was much better as a result.

My relationship with Shelly had definitely improved as well, though it had become a little odd at times. She took her promise to be a better big sister very seriously, and in typical Shelly fashion, she gave it everything she could. At first, she’d done this by trying to take me under her wing and mentor me in the ways of being a girl, but then she realized that I already knew everything she could teach me. Our link ensured that.

Shelly’s next method of trying to help me still had me shaking my head. Since I knew everything that Shelly did, she took full advantage of this fact to intentionally start learning things that she thought might help me in some fashion. She’d read fashion magazines, articles on makeup, and even flirting with guys… And of course, that had just been the beginning.

Every time I turned around, I was discovering that I had skills and knowledge that I had no idea I possessed. I was discovering that I knew things from hair styling to speaking some basic Spanish. Shelly seemed to think of this as some sort of game, taking a strange delight in forcibly educating me in whatever she wanted me to learn.

The latest topic of Shelly’s interest and intense study was cooking. I wasn’t sure how much of this interest was her own natural curiosity and how much was her desire to make sure I had the skills. What I did know was that she spent a lot of time reading cook books and practicing in the kitchen. I helped her out with a few things she wanted to make and now mom was threatening to have the two of us take over the responsibilities for cooking dinner every night.

Of course, Shelly wasn’t the only one learning new things. She encouraged me to actually apply myself in school again…and to learn new things on my own. She even promised not to try outdoing me, making it clear that she didn’t want to get caught up in that competitive spiral again. Because of that, my grades improved in school and I found several new interests of my own.

I only took kickboxing lessons for several months, but I’d really enjoyed it during that time. I’d also found Shelly’s kickboxing skills to be extremely useful when it came to saving my own skin, so I decided to try martial arts again. I didn’t want to go back to kickboxing since that would put me back with Shelly, so instead, I started taking lessons in jujitsu, something that was both fun and useful.

The guitar was something else that I’ve been learning on my own. Shelly played the violin, and I’d discovered that it was actually a lot of fun being able to make such beautiful music. Because of that, I’d signed up for guitar lessons so that I could learn to play an instrument that my sister couldn’t. I wasn’t progressing as rapidly as Shelly would have, but this was something that was mine and I was enjoying it a great deal for that if nothing else.

But in spite of finally having some things that were just mine again, or perhaps more because of it, I’ve also enjoyed spending time with Shelly. It was nice to actually have a real sister again, though a little weird as well. Shelly had begun introducing me to people as her twin sister and the two of us had even dressed identically a few times, just to confuse people and make them guess which of us was which. I was quite pleased by the fact that April was never fooled for long.

Shelly and I actually did things together now, much like we did back before either of us went through our twists. Of course, we made sure to avoid anything that would trigger Shelly’s competitive urges since those could turn anything sour pretty quick.

I also frequently joined Shelly and April when they went jogging or worked out at the gym, not because I needed to stay in shape but because I enjoyed spending time with them. And though I wouldn’t admit it to Shelly, it also made me feel less guilty about getting the benefit of her hard work when I put a little of it in myself.

My thoughts then drifted to Rich, who I still considered a good friend, though we weren’t quite as close as we used to be. We still hung sometimes, but not as much as we used to. Rich thought of me as a girl now…and one he was attracted to. Because of that, he was usually on his best behavior in my presence, which meant that he didn’t swear or tell dirty jokes. It was actually kind of annoying.

The truth is, I’d also changed a great deal and didn’t have as much in common with Rich as I once did. There were things in my life now that he just couldn’t understand. Trying to talk to him about uncomfortable bras, getting unwanted attention from guys, and especially my period, always brought our conversations to an awkward end.

Fortunately, Rich and I were still able to talk at school and even pretend that things were just like old times. Of course, school itself had changed for me, not only with the influx of knowledge from Shelly but due to the fact that I’d begun trying to get good grades again.

Now that my twist was no longer such a novelty, most of the kids at school had moved on and didn’t bother teasing me about it much. In fact, most of them almost seemed to have forgotten that I used to be a guy and treated me as though I’d always been Shelly’s twin.

I still had some classes with Craig, though he avoided me and no longer made his old anti Twisted comments. The whole fight had really left him shaken, especially since the three boys who’d attacked me had all been arrested for it. The large boy who’d come at me with a knife turned out to be Craig’s brother, and he’d been charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Only the fact that Craig had tried stopping the others had prevented him from sharing their legal troubles.

Of course, there were other people around who didn’t like Twisted and made that clear, but I wasn’t too concerned with them. People like that would be something that I’d have to deal with for the rest of my life. As long as they stuck to words, I could do my best to ignore them. And if any of them tried to get physical, I could take care of myself that way too if I had to.

“You know,” dad abruptly said, distracting me from my thoughts. “You and Shelly should play together sometime…”

“Once I get a little better,” I agreed, holding up my guitar. “I still need a lot of practice.”

Then I sighed, wishing that April was here for me to show off to…and do other things with as well. The two of us were openly dating now, which made both of us frequent targets of jealousy from nearly every guy in school. Unfortunately, she had family obligations tonight in the form of having to babysit a cousin, which meant that I was home alone with just my parents.

“I wonder how Shelly is doing on her date,” mom mused.

“I’m sure they’re having a good time,” dad said, pausing to scowl a little before adding, “Just as long as it’s not too good a time…”

Just then, my cell phone began to beep, letting me know that I had a text message. I checked the message, seeing that it was from Shelly and consisted of a single letter, X. It was a message that I’d been expecting.

“I’m going to go play some games for awhile,” I said, picking up my guitar and heading back to my room.

Once I was in my room, I locked the door and began to get undressed. Then I just sat down on my bed to wait. It didn’t take very long before I began to feel turned on with my nipples getting hard and my slit getting wet.

“Okay,” I said, laying down and beginning to play with myself. That helped take away from the weirdness of feeling someone else playing with my parts as well.

Shelly had been willing to forgo sex in order to avoid forcing it on me, but that had hardly seemed fair when I was having my own fun with April. Because of that, Shelly and I’d come up with an alternative that would let Shelly actually have a life while keeping me from being caught so unaware.

Whenever Shelly thought that there was a good chance of things getting physical, she’d text me a code to warn me of the possibility and give me a chance to find some privacy. And then there was another code for when sex was not only a possibility but eminent. That was what Shelly had sent me.

At first, I hadn’t been sure that I’d made the right decision when I offered this deal to Shelly. After all, I’d been a guy before and still had no interest in guys. The idea of having sex with one left me feeling uncomfortable, even when it was secondhand sex. However, I couldn’t stop thinking about how good that secondhand sex had felt either. Now that I’d gone through this a few more times of my own free will, I’d gotten to the point where I actually looked forward to Shelly getting lucky.

“Damn that feels good,” I moaned, thinking that Eddie definitely knew what he was doing. Of course, so did Shelly.

In typical Shelly fashion, once she and Eddie had gotten physical with their relationship, she had decided to improve her own skills and do it even better. Not only had she read the Kama Sutra, but she’d also read a few other books on sex as well…and then practiced some of it with Eddie. I’d been a bit shocked when I first realized the secondhand sexual knowledge that was percolating through my brain, but I’ve definitely taken advantage of it to improve my time with April.

I bit my lip to keep cry crying out as I enjoyed every sensation that Shelly did. I still felt a little like a voyeur, but not too much. After all, not only did Shelly know that I was getting this too, she tried encouraging my own enjoyment as much as she could. This was a little less like spying on them and a little more like being part of a threesome, though admittedly, Eddie didn’t know about his other partner.

I orgasmed several times before Shelly and Eddie were finished, and once they were, I just lay spread out on my bed, grinning like an idiot while I savored the afterglow. This was MUCH better than sex could possibly be as a guy. The only thing that could make this better was if April was here too. There was absolutely no experience like having sex with April while simultaneously experiencing Shelly’s sex with Eddie. On the one time I’d done that, it had been sensory overload.

“Maybe one day, I’ll do this with a guy for real,” I mused to myself with a faint giggle. “Maybe I’ll even give Rich the time of his life…”

Since Rich had been my best friend for so long, it somehow seemed right that if I did decided to do it with a guy, the first time should be with him. However, I had no intention of doing that anytime soon. And if I ever did it with a guy, I’d probably have to do it in the dark so I didn’t have to look at him.

As I lay there, cupping my breasts and thinking about how good they felt, it suddenly dawned on me that I absolutely loved my twist. It wasn’t because of how good the sex felt, though it was certainly more than nice. If it hadn’t been for my twist, I never would have had a chance at dating April. And more importantly, I never would have reconnected with Shelly. I never would have found the sister I’d lost more than a year and a half ago.

I sat up in bed and stared across the room to the full length mirror that hung from the wall. I climbed off the bed and slowly walked to the mirror, continuing to stare at the reflection that no longer seemed surprising or unfamiliar. It was no longer just Shelly’s face that stared back, it was mine.

When I first went through my twist, I’d been horrified to find myself looking like Shelly. After having spent so much time trapped in her shadow, this had been a nightmare come true. Back then, I never could have imagined that I’d become content…even happy to look like this. Nor could I imagine that I would actually have such a good relationship with Shelly.

I spent so much time being filled with anger and frustration, feeling unwanted and trapped within Shelly’s shadow. Part of that had been my own attitude, creating a self-fulfilling situation. But all of that was gone now. Ironically, even though I looked like Shelly, was tied to her more closely than anyone else could understand, and even experienced part of her life vicariously, I no longer felt like I was in her shadow.

After staring at myself for a moment more, I smiled and imagined that I was talking to Shelly instead of my own reflection. “Funny that I had to look like you before I could really be my own person again.”

Then I turned away from the mirror, smiling as I thought of my new life and everything that my twist had brought me. Sure, it had been shocking as hell at first, but it had resulted in getting April, finding my lost sister, and just as importantly, finding my own sense of self. I was not my sister’s shadow, but I was more than happy to once again call her sister.

The End