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Author Note: Please email me at AngelJediGirl (at) gmail (dot) com before posting this story to any other site. Posting to a pay site is prohibited.

Comments and suggestions are also welcome at the above email address.

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Chapter 17 - Exams, Conferences, and Shopping?

Nina ran the test on Nikki as well. It looked like we were both done changing.

Nikki looked a little disappointed. Other than her breast enlargement, she hadn’t changed at all. I thought she was already beautiful though, and she didn’t really need to change. At least everybody she knew would recognize her!

"We had the checkups scheduled for five o’clock again," Nina said, "But we can do them now if you want."

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Its almost three," she replied after looking at her watch.

"Okay," I said.

"It will give us time to do something tonight," Nikki added.

"Alright," Nina said, "I'll contact Stacy and let her know. We'll be ready for you in the exam rooms in about five minutes."

"Who’s Stacy?" I asked.

"She's my doctor," Nikki said. I hadn’t realized that she had a different doctor up until then.

"Oh," I said. Then a thought struck me. "Um, do I get any clothes to wear?" I asked.

"Yes," Nina said. "Nikki, show her how to order some, and we'll have it delivered by the time the exams are done.”

"Okay," Nikki said. "What computer can we use?"

"You can use the one at the nurses’ station. She should be pretty close to yesterday, so the measurements should come up pretty close. We can measure again at the beginning of the exam to make sure. The only thing that’s really changed is her chest, order for a 32B and you should be safe."

"Okay," Nikki said. "What about me?"

Nina looked quizzical for a second before she realized what Nikki was asking. "Oh, you are a 36C now."

All three of us walked out of the room together. Nina headed down the hall and Nikki and I walked over to the computer at the empty nurses’ station.

"Okay, this website allows us to order some clothes. These clothes are provided by the project. We will need to go shopping for our own later, but we can get you an outfit for the day here."

"Okay," I said. I had never shopped for women's clothes before, so I was glad Nikki was here. We ended up ordering a light pink tank top that had a picture of a jasmine flower on it (her idea), a white denim skirt, a pair of sandals, and a beautiful bra and panty set. Nikki had to order another bra and top herself. The top she was wearing was a little too tight now.

"Ready for your first Gyn exam?" Nikki asked as we walked down the hall.

"I doubt it," I said. Apparently that was funny because Nikki burst out laughing.

We reached the exam rooms quickly and were ushered into separate rooms.

Nina started out by taking my measurements. When she read them off to me, I was amazed. I had a great figure. She then proceeded to give me a full physical, minus the dreaded coughing part.

Instead, she had me lie back on the exam bed while she pulled stirrups out of the end near my feet. I may not have been born female, but it was pretty obvious what was coming next.

"Now, Jaz," Nina started. "I’m a woman, so I know how you are going to feel during this part of the exam. I remember I was scared to death the first time. That’s okay, it's a natural response. I just want you to know that all women go through this, and I promise that you will be well taken care of."

That really didn’t do a lot to help my nervousness. "Now," she continued. "I would ask you when your last period was, but I guess that would be a pointless question for the time being."

I hadn't even thought about periods until she mentioned that, but the thought actually gave me a warm glow inside. I had heard many girls talk about how much they hated their periods, but I was looking forward to the confirmation of my fertility it would signal. Nina waited for me to finish my daydream before she continued.

"The first thing I’m going to do is called a pap smear. Basically I rub the tip of this Q-tip," she held up an unnaturally large Q-tip, "against your cervix to collect a cell culture sample."

That didn’t sound so bad in theory, but in practice it was quite different. The speculum was cold when she inserted it, and the feeling of an object inside of me was completely weird. How do women do this?

I just gritted my teeth and blanked out the rest of it. "That wasn’t so bad, just one more thing and we'll be done," she eventually said. She removed the speculum, which was a big relief, but it didn’t last long. She actually inserted a finger or two down there! That was almost worse than the speculum.

The feeling was like nothing I had ever felt before, not even with the speculum, but it didn’t arouse me like I thought it would. Every once in a while she would touch or rub or do something that would send a small feeling of pleasure to my brain, but for the most part I was too worked up to feel anything. I wasn’t quite sure what she was doing, but eventually she seemed satisfied and pulled her fingers out.

"Barring any abnormalities on the pap smear, it appears that you are a healthy young woman. I don’t see anything wrong at all.”

I smiled, but I still wasn’t certain if it was for the good news, or the fact that she seemed to be finished down there.

She helped me remove my feet from the stirrups and then stowed the stirrups in the table.

"Let me see if your clothes are here yet. I'll be right back," she said while walking out the door. I felt exposed so I walked over to the chair where I had left my robe and put it on.

About five minutes later she finally came back. I had started to wonder what was taking so long.

"Sorry," she said after closing the door. She handed me a bag as she spoke. "Here are your clothes. Get dressed and meet us in the conference room. We're going to have the briefing now as well so that you don’t have to come back later tonight."

"Okay," I said while taking the bag from her. "Thanks."

"You’re welcome. See you in a few." She left me alone to get dressed.

The clothes looked even better in person. The white jasmine on the light pink tank top looked spectacular in the way it blended between the picture and the color of the tank top. It may not have been my idea to put it there, but it certainly looked beautiful.

Just like me, I thought with a small chuckle.

I started with the bra and panty set. They were light pink, and had darker pink pattern of flowers that almost looked like they were growing. I pulled the panties on and was amazed at how much better they felt to wear now that I was female down there! I had worn panties after my penis shrunk completely, but for some reason they just seemed to fit better now.

Next I put the bra on. It was a lot different when the breasts were now my own! I had to be more delicate, because they are a little more sensitive than the forms. The bra fit perfectly and it brought a smile to my face when I realized I actually needed one now! My young breasts were still perky and didn’t sag at all, but the extra support from the bra just increased the comfort that much more.

The white denim skirt fell to about 3 inches above my knees. Short, but modest enough that I hoped Mom wouldn’t complain. It hugged my new curves like a second skin, and I loved the way it looked! The tank top was the same way. There was no denying that I had breasts and a small waist. The straps of the tank top didn’t completely cover the straps of my bra, which I felt just added to the allure. I felt pretty sure that I was going to get plenty of male attention in the future.

The strappy sandals that Nikki insisted I get with the outfit had a small heel. I was worried about being able to walk in them, but Nikki stated that I would have to get used to it sooner or later. After putting them on I experimentally took a few steps, and I was surprised at the ease in which I walked in them. Learning to move and act like a girl seemed to be a little too easy for me.

One thing that we didn’t order, but that was included with the clothes, was a purse. It was the same light pink as my top and also sported a picture of a jasmine on it. I picked it up and looked inside. Sure enough, it had some cosmetics inside that I figured I should probably make use of.

I walked over to the mirror above the small sink in the room and looked at myself. I looked beautiful. My hair was a little disheveled but I quickly fixed it. A second later my nails were also a light shade of pink.

I pulled the cosmetics out of my purse and was about to start working on my face when I had a sudden thought: if I could change my nail color, could I do cosmetics as well?

Yes! A quick concentration of what I wanted and I soon had a face made up to look like a young woman out for the afternoon. I tried to see how the power accomplished the look, but apparently it just changed the color of my skin. It wasn’t really cosmetics, it looked more like it was tattooed on, but you could only tell up close.

If nothing else, this power would make me a master of disguise.

After checking myself over one last time, I exited the exam room and headed down the hall.

Nina, both Doctors Young, and two other doctors were waiting. I didn’t see Nikki or Justin yet.

"Wow!" Nina said. "That was quick. Where did you learn to do makeup so fast?"

"I didn’t," I replied. "I can do cosmetics as well, I just thought of how I wanted it to look."

"Interesting," was her only response as she started writing on her clipboard again.

We sat in silence for a few minutes before Nikki showed up. "Wow!" she said. "You look amazing! Did anyone help you with your makeup?"

"No, I’m not actually wearing any," I replied.

"Huh?" she said. It wasn’t really a dignified response.

"My power lets me do makeup too." I explained.

"Oh my gosh, that is so unfair!" she said, sounding a little jealous.

It took Justin a little bit longer to join us. He had been back in his room so he had to be called down for the exam.

"Oh, wow," I said when he walked in. He looked great. He didn’t really look all that different than before, just a lot more toned. It looked like he had been working out for years.

"Wow to you, too," he said with a gleam in his eye that made me feel uncomfortable. "You look fantastic."

"Thanks," I said as he took a seat across the table from me. Thankfully, it wasn’t next to me, but it gave him the ability to stare at me all he wanted. That may be a bad thing.

Jay came in next and took the seat next to him. It looked like he was eyeing Nikki and me, but he didn’t say anything.

"Let's get started," Dr. Young began when we were all seated. "First off, I want to congratulate all off you on successfully completing the first three stages. The physical transformations can be taxing for some people." He was looking at me while he said it.

"But now," he continued, "We get to the fun part. Tomorrow will be a lot like your first day here, minus the medical checkups that we did tonight.

"We'll start tomorrow morning at about 8:00. You will all go through the benchmark tests again. After that, you will have a short lunch break before we head down to the Powers lab, where we will try to determine what you are capable of. Hopefully, Stage 4 will be completed by mid afternoon and we will be able to get results."

"So we will have all of our powers by tomorrow?" Justin asked.

"Not necessarily," the doctor replied. "The majority of the powers should be developed tomorrow, but there is always the potential for new ones. We have no way to tell for sure what you will develop, and when. We've had agents develop powers years after the Procedure, but we don’t have long term data yet. The Procedure has only been used for 5 years."

"This is going to be so cool!" Nikki said.

"Yeah," Justin agreed. I felt the same way, but just nodded my head.

"The procedure should be finished by tomorrow evening. Saturday will be a rest day. You can make use of the facilities at the complex and have a good time. Sunday morning you will all be flown home, and we will see you again after the school year ends. Does anyone have any questions?" Dr. Young asked.

"Is developing the powers dangerous?" I asked. I’d hate to see someone catch on fire or something like that.

"Yes and no," Dr. Young replied. "It has never been a cause for concern as far as you guys go. The body seems to adapt very well to the power. None of the people who underwent the Procedure have been directly injured by it. It is possible, however, to harm others and even yourself indirectly."

"What does that mean?" Justin asked quickly.

"We have had a couple of incidents where a power has harmed other people when it was used for the first time, and one agent managed to burn herself when she lit the rug on fire, but fortunately there were no major injuries," Doctor Young said.

"Does it hurt?" Nikki asked.

"No more than the rest of the Procedure. Some of the powers may be painful to use, or leave you feeling a little drained, but it shouldn’t hurt in the way you are asking. Anything else you would like to know?"

"Why aren’t we heading home on Saturday if the Procedure is finished by then?" I asked. I really wanted to see my family.

"Saturday is more of a buffer day than anything else," Doctor Young said. "The procedure isn’t always finished in four days. Saturday allows us to have that extra day if the Procedure is still active, or it gives us a chance to make sure nothing new develops after it is not."

"What if the Procedure is still active after Saturday?" I asked.

"That hasn’t happened so far," he replied. "Our longest Procedure has been 4 1/2 days. If that happens however, we will probably keep that person an extra day, and send them home on Monday." I hope that didn’t happen to me.

I was certain we all had many other things we wanted to know, but none of us seemed to know how to ask to get the info. We sat in silence for a brief moment before Dr. Young spoke again. "If that’s the case, we will see you in the morning. Please be down here and ready by 8:00 so that we can begin on time. The rest of the evening is free for you to do whatever you would like."

After the doctors had left the conference room, Jay spoke. "What do you guys want to do tonight?"

"Jaz and I are going shopping," Nikki stated quickly. "At least for the time before dinner," she added when both of the guys’ expressions turned grim.

I hadn’t realized that she had planned that, but it sounded like fun. I also had plans though. "I really need to call home sometime tonight."

"Again?" Justin said. He seemed upset I would even suggest doing that.

"Yeah again," I said in a very irritated voice. "My family is really important to me, and this has been one of the biggest days of my life. I think I have the right to call them and talk about it, don’t you? "

He looked a bit chastised, but it appeared that he was really upset at something else. "You promised," he started. "You promised," he repeated again. It looked like he was struggling to say something. "You promised," he started again, but very meekly, "that you would go dancing at the club with me, uh, us!"

Finally the truth came out. He wanted to dance with me. I had promised to go sometime this week, though.

"Well, how about I call right after dinner, and then we can go after that," I said. "That should still be plenty of time."

He seemed to really cheer up when I said that. But I knew he was going to make this hard for me. I knew that I was attractive to boys now (the Procedure seemed to make sure of that), but I wasn’t sure if I was ready to take that step yet. To make matters worse, he was starting to look cute too.

"That sounds like a plan then," Jay stated. "How about we meet up for dinner in the cafeteria at 5:00, and then Jaz can make her call afterward. A1 wants to meet the new A2 so we're going to eat with them."

It wasn’t an order, but it seemed obvious that we didn’t have a choice in the matter. Frankly, I didn’t think it mattered anyway. We needed to eat, and the members of A1 were nice people.

"Sounds good to me," I said. The others agreed as well.

"Great, see you all at 5," he said as he got up and walked out the door.

Justin was still sitting there looking at us when I had a great idea.

"Want to come shopping with us?" I asked innocently. I knew that I had achieved the desired effect when he got a horrified look on his face and he rushed out the door yelling for Jay to wait for him.

Nikki and I burst out laughing. "That was awesome!" Nikki said a few minutes later when we were able to catch our breath. "I thought he was going to have a heart attack."

"It certainly was fun to watch," I agreed.

"Come on," she said while dragging me out the door. "This will be fun."

"You’re saying that like I think otherwise," I replied.

"Ah, good point. You are a girl, after all."

*  *  *

Even though I was looking forward to it, I was actually having more fun than I thought I would. Alpha Complex had a mini mall off the courtyard that contained five or six different stores. I was kind of disappointed when there wasn’t a Victoria's Secret (I always wanted to shop there), but I figured that it could wait until I got to a real mall at home.

The only store that seemed to be of importance to Nikki and me today was American Eagle. It was the only store that catered to people our age.

"Okay," Nikki said when we entered. "We need to hurry, because we've only got about half an hour. You are going to need underwear, four outfits to last through Monday, and a bikini. We can go shopping Monday night for the rest."

"Only if my sister is coming." I told her. "I promised her I’d go shopping with her."

"Oh," she sounded a little deflated. "I guess you probably want to go alone with her."

"You can come too. I’m sure she won’t mind." That seemed to cheer her up again, and she was back to her animated self. Girls, I was learning, are very sensitive, and that included me now.

A salesgirl who looked about my age headed over our way, but stopped when Nikki told her she already knew what she needed.

"We might as well start with the underwear," Nikki said while pulling me toward the intimates. There were so many to choose from I could have been there all day trying to decide. I feared that was going to be the case for everything we bought tonight. We finally ended up with 6 matching bra and panty sets in various colors, all beautiful.

She then pulled me over to the jeans. "Okay," she said. I had a feeling she already had my wardrobe planned out and I wouldn’t have a lot of say in my clothes. "We are going to get you a pair of jeans, a pair of shorts, and 2 more skirts." I decided I would just let her go with what she wanted. I could always get what I wanted later.

She handed me a pair of jeans. They were tiny. Even as small as I was, I didn’t know how I was going to fit into them. "Hold these," she said. "They will be perfect on you." She also pulled out a denim mini skirt and a pair of white denim shorts. She loaded them all into my arms and we headed over toward the tops.

The tops were just as beautiful as everything else in the store, but once again I didn’t have a chance to pick anything out.

"You already have everything picked out, don’t you?" I asked after she had piled a number of layering items in my arms and started with a few tops and tanks.

"Yeah," she said. "I hope you don’t mind, we don’t have enough time before dinner to really shop. That’s why I figured we could do some real shopping Monday night when we get back home."

"That’s okay with me. Everything you’ve grabbed has been so beautiful so far."

"Good," she said, "Because it's almost five already. We need to get your bikini and get out of here. Come on, let’s take these to the counter so that she can start ringing it up."

"How am I supposed to pay for all of this?" I asked. I just realized I didn’t have any money on me.

"You aren’t paying for it. It is being billed to the project. They have given each of us a stipend to get a new wardrobe after the changes. I just wish my stipend was as big as yours."

"Oh, okay," I said while placing the clothes down on the sales counter.

"I wish we had more time so that you could try these on before we bought them, but everything else has fit you perfectly so far, so these should too."

"Is this where all the other clothes came from?" I asked.

"Yeah," she replied. "Now come on, we need to get your bikini."

We walked over to the swimwear and Nikki started looking around. "I hope they have one," she said.

"A bikini?" I asked incredulously. How could she miss them? We were surrounded by them!

"A particular one I saw online. It would be perfect for you."

She went through a rack or two before she found it. "Here it is!" she said excitedly while holding up the suit.

"Wow, that does look nice." It was white, but it had a strand of flowers going up both cups of the halter style top. There was also a small bouquet on the front left side of the string bikini bottoms. Full panels all around made it a beautiful swimsuit, but also a modest one. "Can I try it on?" I asked excitedly.

"No," she said sadly. "We don’t have time if we are going to make it to dinner."

I pouted, but that only caused her to laugh. "You really are a girl, you know that?" she said.

"Yeah," I said while giggling.

"I guess I can wear it tomorrow for the tests," I said hopefully.

"You won’t want to wear a bikini for that. The one pieces they gave us will provide better support for the actual testing."

My face must have shown my displeasure, because she laughed again before giving me some hope. "Don’t worry, Jaz, we'll go swimming on Saturday and you can wear it then.

I think I pouted again, which only made her laugh harder.

*  *  *
Chapter 18 - The Flower Blooms

Once we had the bags in hand, we raced to the cafeteria. It was about 5 after when we arrived. We found everyone sitting at a table, but none of them had food.

"Finally," Justin nearly shouted. "I thought I was going to starve."

"Sorry, everyone," Nikki said as we put our bags down and took a seat. "We only had half an hour to get what she needed for the rest of the weekend."

"That's okay," Theresa said as she glared at Justin.

"Can we eat now?" Justin asked. It was obvious he was irritated.

"Yeah," Jay said as he stood up. The other guys got up as well and headed for the line.

"Don’t worry about them," Theresa said. "They’ll forget about it once they get food in their stomachs."

"I’m sorry," I said. "I didn’t mean to make us late. We were so pressed for time I didn’t even try anything on."

"Like I said," Theresa repeated. "Don’t worry about it. Five minutes isn’t going to kill anyone. Come on, let's get some food."

"Is it safe to leave the bags here?" Nikki asked.

"Yeah," Theresa replied. "We usually sit at this table. Nobody will try to take it."

*  *  *

When we got back to the table with our food, the boys were already chowing down. We took a seat and started eating as well. The conversation was light for the most part. It wasn’t until the end of dinner that it started shifting toward "work" related topics.

"Have you guys thought about codenames yet?" Lary asked.

"You can’t come up with a code name without knowing their powers," Rock stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Sure you can," Cary added. "We got the name 'Twins' way before the Procedure finished.

"That’s different," he argued.

"How?" Cary shot back. Rock didn’t seem to have an answer to that one. He shrugged and leaned back into his chair, deflated.

"I want to be called Titan," Justin said.

Everyone kind of looked at him for a bit. He didn’t really look like a titan.

"Why Titan?" I asked.

"Because it's cool," he replied as if that was reason enough.

"Okay," Jay said. "Titan it is, at least for now. You may want to change it when you learn your powers." He turned to Nikki. "What about you?" he asked her.

"I don’t know, I think I'll wait until I know what my powers are." she replied.

"What about you, Jaz?" Theresa asked.

"I think I’m with Nikki, I'll wait for my powers." I replied between bites.

"No you won’t," Nikki said. "You’ve already got a codename, you just don’t know it."

"I do?" I asked warily. I had barely started to get to know Nikki, but I was beginning to learn how her mind worked. If she already had a codename for me, there was a good chance it was going to stick.

"Yeah, between your name..." she said.

"My name?" I asked for clarification, but she didn’t give any.

"And your wardrobe," she continued.

"Which you picked out," I pointed out.

"It's obvious what your codename should be." We all stared at her, because nobody seemed to make any connection.

"Flower," she finally said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The rest of us gave an "ah" of understanding when we connected the dots, but no one spoke.

Seconds later I realized that I really liked the name, and looking at the others, I could tell it had already stuck.

*  *  *
Chapter 19 - Family Dance

We finished eating and agreed to meet in the upstairs lobby in forty-five minutes. That would give me plenty of time to call home and then get ready to go to the club. It was a casual dress club, so I could just wear what I was wearing now.

The guys headed off toward an arcade to waste the time while the girls headed back toward the rooms. I did learn that A1 stayed in rooms 101-104. Apparently 105-108 were reserved for the two sets of team handlers, and then our rooms were after that. Theresa informed us that there were enough rooms in our hall to hold 2 more teams and their handlers, but we were the only two teams currently stationed at the complex.

Once inside my room I managed to stow the clothes I had bought earlier into my closet and dresser. Then I picked up the phone and stretched out on my couch. I dialed my parents’ number and waited for someone to pick up.

"Hello?" It was Ben. I was hoping Cami would pick up so that I didn’t need to talk to anyone else yet.

"Hi," I said. I figured anonymity would be a good way to handle this. "Is Cami there?"

"Let me check." I heard him say before apparently covering up the headset and yelling for her. I vaguely heard my mom say that she wasn’t here, and then ask who it was. "May I ask who’s calling?" he asked a second later."

"Um," was all I could come up with. I didn’t really want to do this yet, but finally I responded. "This is Jasmine."

I heard him cover the receiver and repeat my name to my mom. What I didn’t expect was the excitement I heard in Mom’s voice when she told him she would take the call upstairs. Cami must have told her my new name.

A short time later I heard another receiver being picked up, and then Mom spoke. "Jasmine?"

"Hi, Mrs. Campbell," I said. I didn’t want Ben to find out about me yet. Calling her “Mom” would be a dead giveaway.

To my mom's credit, she was smart enough to play along. "How are you doing? We haven’t heard from you in a while."

Thankfully Ben finally hung up, letting us speak freely. "I’m doing fine, Mom. The physical changes are done, and I'll be home in a couple of days."

"You sound so different, I can hardly recognize you."

"I AM different, Mom, completely different."

"I know, sweetie. This will take some time to get used to, but it will be nice to have another daughter around."

I smiled, and I’m sure it was evident in my voice when I spoke. "Thanks, Mom, I love you."

"I love you too, honey. Now tell me all about the new you."

*  *  *

I spent nearly half an hour talking to my mom. She seemed to be a lot more accepting this time, which really made me happy.

I told her about everything that had happened to me this week, and we talked about what the future would bring. Eventually I had to hang up to make it to the lobby in time, but not before promising to call again tomorrow. I asked her to tell Cami that I was sorry I missed her, and that I would call her later tonight after the dancing.

After hanging up the phone I had just enough time to use the restroom and check my makeup (which obviously looked fine since it wasn’t applied), before heading out to the lobby.

I was the last one to reach the lobby apparently, because everyone stood up when they saw me coming down the hall.

"Sorry," I apologized as I approached. I didn’t think I was late, but I hadn’t checked the clock in my room, and I wasn’t wearing a watch. As a matter of fact, I didn’t have any accessories on. I was going to have to remedy that.

"It's okay," Jay said. "You aren’t actually late yet." He motioned toward the elevators. "Come on, let’s go."

We got into the elevators and headed down to one of the recreation sections. I had never been in this one before, but everyone else seemed to know where to go.

Inside there was a small lobby with three doors, much like the gymnasium. The middle door appeared to lead to some kind of restaurant named Brick Oven. The left door led to a bar, and the door on the right led to a club named Molten Core. This is the door we headed to.

The inside was not what I expected. There was another small lobby here that led to 2 doors. Apparently one was a club for people age 21 and over, and the other was for those under 21. The lobby was designed to look like the inside of a volcano. The room was lit by lamps along the wall that were pretty convincing in looking like fire. The lighting was bright enough to see clearly but dim enough to give the impression that we were in some sort of cave.

The others headed for the under 21 door, so I followed behind them. Inside was a large room that had a number of tables surrounding a dance floor that looked like molten lava. The floor appeared to be made of some kind of transparent material, and a waterfall on the far side of the room, lit with red lights to give the impression of lava, fell into a small slow moving stream that flowed toward the dance floor. Next to the door was a small bar that I was certain only stocked non-alcoholic drinks. The only thing that did not fit the theme was the temperature. It was very cool in here, for which I was grateful.

"Wow," I yelled over the loud music. "This place is cool."

"It used to be really dull," Jay explained. "Then they hired some guy who completely changed it, and now it's one of the hot spots in the complex."

"I bet."

"Come on," he said to all of us. "Let's get a table."

He led us over to a large table near the waterfall. I could feel a small mist coming from the waterfall when we sat down, which just added to the décor.

"Can I get you girls a drink?" Rock asked while turning to Theresa and Cary. He hadn’t sat down yet.

"Just some water, please," Theresa said.

"I'll have some 7-Up," Cary said.

"And for you two?" Rock said while turning to Nikki and me.

"I, uh," I was caught off guard. I hadn’t really thought of myself as being included in the "girls" category, but that was something I was going to need to get used to. "I'll have some Fresca if they have it," I finally stammered.

"Water for me please," Nikki added her order.

The boys all headed for the bar. I hadn’t noticed, but none of them had sat down.

"You ready for this, Jaz?" Nikki asked me when they were out of earshot.

"Ready for what?" I asked, confused by her question.

"You know he is going to ask you to dance." she explained.

"Oh, that." I didn’t think I was ready, but it was too late now. "I guess so."

"It's not that bad," Theresa tried to calm my nerves. "Dancing with guys can be fun."

"It's not dancing with guys that I’m worried about," I explained. "But I get the feeling he wants to do more than just dance. I’m pretty sure I’m not ready for that yet."

"Just do what you feel is right," Cary added to the conversation. "If you get in over your head, we'll be here to help."

"Thanks," I said as the boys returned with the drinks.

Rock passed out the drinks while the other boys sat down. Thankfully, all of the girls had sat down on one side of the table, and I had managed to sit between Nikki and Cara. Justin looked longingly my way as he sat across from me, but I tried to pretend I didn’t see it.

We talked for a little bit about what life was like at the complex before Jay got up and asked Theresa to dance. I cringed inside because I knew it was only a matter of time before Justin did the same.

I was right. Almost immediately he jumped up. I think he must have just been waiting for someone to break the ice.

"Come on, Jaz," he said while walking around the table quickly. "Let’s dance."

I figured there was no way to get out of this, so I started to stand. Unfortunately, Justin picked that same time to try helping me up by pulling my seat out for me. Instead, all it did was put me off balance, and I fell straight back onto my behind.

"Ow," I said reflexively. It didn’t really hurt. It also didn’t endear me to Justin, either.

"Oh my gosh!" he practically screamed, turning many of the heads of the teenagers in the tables around us. "Are you okay?"

I just sat there. My pride hurt more than anything else, but the least he could do was help me up! Instead he just stood there with a look of horror on his face.

"Help her up, stupid!" Nikki yelled. She wasn’t impressed with his response either.

"Oh, right," Justin said as he reached out and actually lifted me by putting his hands under my armpits as if I was a toddler!

"Oh my gosh!" I heard Nikki say. She sounded like she couldn’t believe he had just done that! Frankly, I felt the same way. A simple hand was all I needed. I could have gotten up on my own, for crying out loud!

To make matters worse, he just held me with my feet in the air for I don’t know how long before he finally realized that he should put me down. It was a good thing my back was to him, because I was becoming very irritated and I'm sure my face was showing it.

When my feet were finally on the ground, I turned to Nikki and asked politely, "Is there a restroom in here?"

"Yeah," she said while glaring at Justin. "Come on."

The two of us walked away from the table, and I still had not even looked at Justin.

*  *  *

"How stupid can he be?" I asked when we were in the restroom. "I mean, jeez!"

"He's definitely got a crush on you, if nothing else." Nikki said. "I’ve never seen him act like that before. He’s usually all calm and collected, but tonight he was as nervous as I’ve ever seen him. Still, he showed almost no common sense!”

Before I could respond to that, Cary and Theresa came through the door.

"Are you okay, Jaz?" Cary asked.

"Yeah, the only thing hurt is my pride. How’s Justin?"

"He was actually crying when we came in. I don’t think he meant to do that." Cary said.

"Yeah, I don’t think he meant to either," I said. "I’ve just never seen him act like that before. I don’t know how to handle this yet. I mean, I haven’t even been a girl for a day! Three days ago, he hated my guts for being girly, and now he's got a crush on me."

"Boys are stupid, Jaz," Nikki said. "You’ll learn that eventually."

That got us all laughing, which lightened the mood considerably.

"Somebody go see if he's composed himself. I don’t want to embarrass him more by walking back when he's vulnerable. Tell him I’m fixing my makeup," I said.

"But you aren’t wearing any," Nikki pointed out.

"He doesn’t know that," I exclaimed.

"Oh," Nikki said as she was walking out the door. "I'll be right back."

The other girls went with her, and I stood alone in the restroom for a few minutes before she finally came back.

"I think he's ready now. Be gentle on him, Jaz, he's taking this hard for some reason."

"Okay," I replied as we walked out of the restroom and back to the table. As we approached the table, it was obvious that he had been crying.

"Ready to dance?" I asked him before he had a chance to say anything.

He looked surprised for a second before he responded. "Yeah," was his excited reply.

I let him take my hand and lead me out onto the dance floor. I was never much of a dancer before. I was so nervous that I was going to make a fool of myself.

It was a fast song. Thank heaven for that! I didn’t think I would have been able to handle a slow dance with him. He started to move with the music. Apparently he knew what he was doing. I tried to follow his lead and surprisingly, I wasn’t doing too badly.

We danced for a couple of songs before we headed back to the table for a breather.

Lary and Cary were the only ones at the table when we returned. Looking back out to the dance floor I noticed that Theresa was dancing with Jay, and Nikki was dancing with Rock.

I thought I was going to be out of breath from all the quick moves, but I was quite surprised to find that I wasn’t even winded. Apparently, the improvements from the Procedure counted for something.

*  *  *

We were still there a couple of hours later. I had danced with all of the members of the two teams, as well as a couple of other guys my age who were wandering around the club. I had managed to miss the slow dances throughout the night, and I could tell that Justin was getting frustrated because of that. It was obvious that the dancing was winding down for us when the DJ started playing another slow song.

"Come on, Jaz," Justin said while gently tugging my hand. "Just one more dance."

I knew he was using it as an excuse to slow dance with me, but he had been a perfect gentleman since he dropped me so I felt it was the least I could do.

"Okay," I said as I stood up and let him lead me to the dance floor. It was obvious we were both nervous, because we were both moving a little awkwardly and not quite sure what to do.

I started to follow his lead and it wasn’t long before we started to move with the music. We still kept our distance from each other, I didn’t lay my head on his chest or anything, but we did start to have a good time.

"I’m sorry about earlier," he said when we had both calmed down a little bit.

"Don’t worry about it," I told him with a smile. It was still a little awkward and that didn’t change until the song ended and we headed back to the table.

Everybody was sitting down this time, talking about what to do for the rest of the evening.

"Do you guys want to go to a movie?" Lary asked. That sounded like fun. "Or swimming?" Ooh, bikini!

"Actually…" Theresa said. Because she was the leader of A1 we all stopped to listen. "I think if we are going to be entertaining them this weekend, I think it would be best if we let them rest tonight before the tests tomorrow." There were a couple of groans. I think most of us wanted to do something else tonight. "I think we should see a movie tomorrow night, because they will be worn out from the testing. And Saturday would be a good day to go swimming."

"That sounds fine to me," Jay said.

"Besides," Theresa added. "I really want to take a bubble bath."

"Oooh," Nikki and I said at the same time, which then turned into laughter.

"Now that sounds like fun," Nikki said.

"Yeah," Justin agreed with a silly smile on his face. I think everyone realized that he wasn’t talking about taking one himself, which just made me blush because he was staring at me.

"For those of you who don’t want to take a bath," Jay said. "You can come to my room and watch the baseball game." That just made me want to take a bath more.

*  *  *

I need a tub like this at home, I thought!

I doubt that I had taken a bubble bath since I was a little kid, and I finally realized I had been missing out. The bath oils and the bubble bath Nikki told me to use before leaving for her own bath were lavender scented, and I thought they smelled great.

I had brought my phone in with me, and after soaking for a while I decided to call my sister.

"Hello?" she answered after I called her cell phone.

"Hi, Cami."

"Hi, Jaz, sorry I missed you earlier."

"No problem, it gave me a chance to talk to Mom for a while."

"So it's over now?" she asked.

"Physically it is. I’m all girl now," I replied.

"That’s awesome! How do you feel?"

"I feel great," I said with a huge smile on my face. "I feel complete for the first time in my life."

"That’s great to hear. I can’t wait for you to get home. I miss you."

"I miss you too. I'll be home on Sunday, but it won’t be soon enough," I said.

"I know what you mean. So what are you up to then, if the changes are over?" she asked.

"We went dancing tonight, which was kind of fun. But right now I’m just relaxing in a nice bubble bath."

"Oooh," she said. She also sounded a little jealous. "I haven’t had a nice bath in a while."

"I haven’t had one in like forever. I didn’t realize what I was missing. And the tub I’ve got in my room is to die for. It's big and the jets are very relaxing."

"Stop it," she said with a slight giggle in her voice. "You are making me jealous."

"So what are you up to tonight?" I asked her.

"I’m out with some friends right now. We're going over to Chad's place for a while. I’m not sure what we are going to do though, probably hang out and watch a movie or something."

"Sounds like fun." I said. "I’m just going to go to bed. It's going to be a long day tomorrow."

"What’s tomorrow?" she asked, but then remembered before I could say anything. "Oh yeah, powers and stuff."

I heard someone talking to her through the phone, but I couldn’t make out the words. "My sister," I heard her reply. I hope whoever she told could be trusted.

I couldn’t make out much more of the conversation, just a couple of things like "I do now," and "You'll have to meet her."

A short time later she addressed me again. "I’ve got to go, Jaz, talk to you tomorrow?"

"Okay," I replied. "Just be careful who you tell about me."

"It's just Jacqueline," she said as if it didn’t matter that she knew. I realized a second later that Cami was right. I knew Jacqueline, and I knew I could trust her.

"Oh, okay," Was how I replied. "I'll call again tomorrow then, good night."

"Night, Jaz," she said before hanging up.

It was another few minutes before I was able to pull myself out of the tub and get ready for bed.

*  *  *