Party Prelude

Tedd found Elliot pacing in front of the school office, paperwork in hand.  “Hey.  Can I go back to calling you Elliot?”

Elliot shrugged.  “I guess.  That’s what the paperwork says.  Can you call me that a couple more times?  Mom was... clingy about Ellen.  I think she really wanted a daughter.”

“Hah, I bet.  How did Nanase take the news?”

Elliot smacked his forehead.  “I got caught up in talking about the party.  Nanase did ask if I’d be a boy or a girl for it, and I said girl, so that the genders are balanced.  And then we sparred and I kind of forgot about it.”

Tedd snickered.  “Before or after the post-spar kiss?”

Elliot blushed.  “Can you not make this weirder than it has to be?”

“Sure thing.  Elliot.  Buddy.  Pal.  Bro.  Dude.”

“Okay, dial it back,” Elliot said around his chuckling.  “Just be normal.”

“Normal?  Me?”

Elliot laughed.  “Fine.  Just be yourself.”

Tedd sighed softly.  “Yeah, that’s half the problem.”

“Za?”

“Just turn in your paperwork, Elliot.  It’ll be fine.”

At lunchtime, Elliot approached Susan and Sarah cautiously.  “Hey.  I’m back.”

Susan arched an eyebrow.  “You were here every day.”

“As Ellen.”

That got the other eyebrow.  “You are Ellen.”

“I was.  My paperwork now says I am officially Elliot Dunkel.  Had to tell a couple of my teachers at roll call.”

“How did Nanase take it?” asked Sarah.

“Take what?”

Sarah winced.  “You didn’t tell her?”

Elliot sighed.  “We’ve talked about it.  Early on.  She knows.”

“Men.”

“Hey!” Tedd protested.  “Both of us have spent some time as females.”

“You’re still oblivious.”

Elliot snickered.  “We’re not that different.  Okay, people do look at me differently, and I move a little differently...”

“And wiggle differently,” added Tedd, drawing a glare from Susan and a snicker from Sarah.

“That.  But you get used to your body being... just... there, you know?  Male or female, it’s still the same me.”

“That’s not what you were saying last week,” muttered Sarah.

“Yeah, well.  I’ll concede that periods do indeed suck.”

Susan stared at him with her eyes wide.  “I thought... I mean, Tedd set me up without them when he turned my hair black.  Why would you keep that, of all things?”

Elliot glanced at Tedd.  “We didn’t exactly plan that change.  Next time...”

“Bigger boobs?” asked Tedd with a playful smirk.

“Oh yeah.  Nanase likes them big.”

Tedd quickly looked away, disgust flashing across his face.  “Did not need to know that about my ugly cousin.”

*** *** ***

The gang filtered into the gym with the rest of the students.  There hadn’t been any mention of an assembly before the announcements that morning, and everyone was puzzled as to what it was about.

However, when the student council president announced that “due to instances of clothing-inspired violence, the school has decided to implement a mandatory dress code”, both Susan and Tedd slumped in their seats.  The outcry from the assembled students was immediate and chaotic, and only died down when the principal stepped in.

On the plus side, the school was offering three sets of the uniforms for each student... but then they showed off the designs.  The male uniform was a white collared shirt with black pants (no jeans allowed), but the female one included a mandatory skirt.

Susan was outraged, and let everyone know.  The principal threatened to have her thrown out of the assembly, but Susan correctly pointed out that his “narcs” didn’t have the guts to do so.

The principal rambled on about getting the students ready for appropriate wear for work environments, but Susan got in the last word.  “This isn’t over!”

As the friends filed out of the gym, Susan continued ranting about skirts and insisting she’d never wear one.  Sarah wondered if she’d look cute, and Tedd was too busy imagining a school full of girls in uniform to be worried.  “What about me?” asked Elliot.

“I’m sure you can scrounge up a black skirt or two once you’re Ellen again,” reassured Sarah.

“They expect me to wear white?”

Susan glared at him.  “That’s all you’re worried about?”

“Yeah.  I’m kind of looking forward to the skirts.”

“Me too!” cheered Tedd.  “The upside to all this is that girls all over the school will be looking sexy!”

Sarah snorted.  “Well, if that’s what you think, I know what you should wear for the party...”

Tedd brightened.  “A uniform?  Oh, that’d be great.  I’ll look hot!”

“Of course you’d think that,” laughed Sarah.

*** *** ***

Justin waved to Ellen as she entered the studio, then did a double-take.  “Elliot?”

Elliot grinned at him with that heart-melting smile.  “Yeah.  Month is up.  I’m looking forward to this, getting used to sparring in a new body.”

“But this is your old body,” protested Justin, shoving away several other objections.

“Then it shouldn’t take long to adapt.  Want to do some warm-up drills while we wait for the others?”

Justin swallowed and nodded.  He tried to be casual about it, but seeing Elliot reappear had brought his old crush on his friend roaring back.  As they set up he tried to imagine Elliot as Ellen instead.  It helped some, but also served to highlight just how bad he had it.

Elliot didn’t call out his lack of focus, even after a clumsy tumble that left Justin on his ass.  He wordlessly offered Justin a hand up.  As Justin took it he was struck by the resemblance to how they’d originally met.  His thanks died on his lips as he saw Elliot’s gaze lock on to someone else.  He didn’t even need to look to know Nanase had entered the dojo.

Nanae’s stereo call of Ellen’s name got Justin to turn to see.  Both blue and red haired variants were waving to them.  She showed up with her clone every now and then to practice teamwork, but her mother had insisted they couldn’t afford to feed both of them all the time.

The practice had paid off.  Nanase sparred with two of the juniors at the same time, and both instances fought with the same level of skill Justin had come to expect from her.

When sensei Greg called for a spar between Ellen and Nanase, Justin was about to speak up to correct him about Elliot’s name... then he saw both Nanases step up.  Like everyone else in the dojo he oohed in expectation of a spectacular fight.

They did not disappoint.  Nanase’s coordination with her duplicate was amazing, and Elliot moved blindingly fast to escape their attempts to pin him down.  Justin barely saw the slip that gave Elliot the opening to toss red-Nanase off the mat and out of the match, where she landed badly.  He spent just a moment too long watching to make sure she was okay, and blue took advantage of his distraction to sweep his legs and floor him.  

The post-spar kiss that followed was brief, punctuated by Nanase shouting, “Elliot?”

Elliot smiled up at her winningly.  “Yes?”

“But... Ellen?”

“Month is up.  Back to plain old Elliot for a month.”

“Just a month?” Nanase asked, eagerly.  Justin leaned forward to hear the answer as well.

“Yeah.  I know I’ll miss Ellen by then.”

“God, so will I,” breathed Nanase.

Justin privately agreed.  It had been nice not to spar against his crush for a few weeks.  The absence had done nothing to weaken his obsession.

Justin watched the two of them go over to make sure red-haired Nanase was okay after the throw.  She wasn’t as badly off as the time one of her clones had broken an arm, but still got ordered to take it easy for the rest of the class.

The class moved on to demonstrations, with Greg using Elliot to demonstrate how to properly roll out of a throw.  Justin walked over to where his red-headed friend was watching the proceedings and nursing her dislocated shoulder.  He sat cross-legged beside her and followed her gaze to where Elliot was bouncing back up off the mat with a grin on his face.  “Not sure what to think?”

Nanase chuckled wryly.  “Too much to think.  That kiss.”

“Lucky,” murmured Justin without thinking.

Nanase caught it and laughed.  “You want him for the next month?”

Justin stared at her.  “What.”

Nanase’s delighted laugh managed to draw a small grin from him.  “I don’t find Elliot as attractive as Ellen.  Maybe we should take turns.”

“I wish,” sighed Justin.  “He doesn’t swing that way.”

“He didn’t mind being a girl.  I think he really enjoyed it.  I would never have guessed that.  He might be open to other things...”

Justin snorted.  “He only has eyes for you.  And you two are so cute together.”  He pointed to where blue was helping Elliot to stand after yet another throw.  Both stared as blue leaned in to give Elliot a kiss.  “Isn’t she you?”

Nanase blushed.  “Sparring separately has... dissociated us a little.  She’s... who I want to be?  Maybe.  I wish ‘surprise, I’m a guy again’ didn’t hit so hard.”

“He didn’t tell you?  Bah, he probably barely noticed.”

Nanase stared at Justin for a long time then started to laugh.  “Yeah.  That would be just like him.  I wish I could take it in stride like that.  Blue can see Ellen in his eyes.  I...”

“Talk to him.”

“And say what?  Turn into a girl for me?”

Justin looked away.  “I... look, I’m probably not the best person to ask about this.”

Nanase patted Justin’s arm.  “Sorry.  Worried about the party?”

“I’ll be fine.  Just... it’s a lot, right?  Are you looking forward to being a guy?”

“Being twins has been cool,” replied Nanase with a casual shrug.  “If I could afford to pay for the extra food I’d spend way more time this way.  So... yeah, I’m up for more changes.  It will show me what Ellen... I mean Elliot’s going through, right?”

Justin turned to watch Elliot spar and tumble once more.  “I guess that’s a good thing.”

“Of course it will be.  You’ll see.”

Justin sighed.  He supposed he would at that.

*** *** ***

Susan glared at the student at the uniform distribution table.  “Is there a problem?”

The spiky-haired guy shrugged.  “You’ve got the wrong line.  Girls need to go in one of the lines for the girl uniforms.”

“I’m not wearing a skirt,” Susan grated, trying to suppress her memory of Sarah’s sketching session with her as a catgirl.  “I want the uniform with pants and no vest.”

“I’m not allowed to accept girl vouchers for guy uniforms.  Orders from the top.”

“But...”

“Sorry, rules are rules.  NEXT!”

Susan was stomping away from the table and planning to buy her own uniforms when she heard a familiar commotion, this time a female voice enforcing the rules.  “Get out of this line!”

She turned to see Tedd stalking away from the line for the girl’s uniforms.  “Excellent.  Oh, Tedd!”

Tedd glanced over at Susan, then approached with a puzzled look on his face.  “What?”

“Want to swap?  I’ll get you the girly uniforms you so clearly want...”

“Yes!  Wait, why would you do that for me?”

Susan just raised an eyebrow.

Tedd stared at her for a beat then grinned.  “You’re going to come to school as a guy?”

“No!  I’m going to wear the guy uniform.  I don’t do skirts.”

Tedd tilted his head as he studied Susan’s face.  “Then why are you blushing?”

Susan shook her head.

“Come on,” Tedd wheedled.  “I never get told the good stuff.”

Susan sighed.  “I let Sarah venn me into a catgirl.”

“Oh!  Yeah, pants and fur don’t mix well.  That hardly seems blushworthy.  What’s the rest of the story?”

“That’s all you’re getting from me.”

“Fine.  I’ll get the rest of the story from Sarah next time we do a slumber party.”

Susan rolled her eyes.

“What, we’ll both be girls, it’ll be fine.”

Susan started to chuckle.  “Stop doing the puppy dog eyes.  It...”  She shook her head, but the image of Sarah and female Tedd in pajamas wouldn’t go away.  “You’re going to be trouble, aren’t you?”

Tedd grinned.  “Want an invite?”

*** *** ***

Justin waved to Tedd.  “Hey.  Where are the others?”

“I wanted to be ready early, and the others had to go pick up changes of clothes.”

“And you don’t need to?” asked Justin

“It’s possible to change clothes with the Venn Machines.  Just takes a little practice.”

Justin did his best martial arts bow to a master.  “I shall observe and learn.”

Tedd narrowed his eyes.  “You’re mocking me.”

“A little.  But I also want to learn.”

They’d beaten the Friday rush, so Tedd and Justin were soon at the front of the line for the Venn Machine.  “Just the day?” asked Tedd.  “I’ve got time to spend the whole weekend as a girl...”

“Can we go with just eight hours?” Justin replied.  “I’m feeling really unsure about this whole ‘girl’ thing.  Kind of all wrapped up in identity and who I’m attracted to and all that...”

Tedd waved off the second concern.  “The machines don’t mess with your mind.  Though... your body may have... um... physical reactions that don’t match your mental ones.”

“Joy.  No, it’ll be fine.  I’ll be attracted to guys either way, right?”

Tedd nodded.  “Should do.  So... a day?”

“Eight hours.”

Tedd sighed and set the machine appropriately.  Once they were inside he instructed Justin on how to use “history” to find Tedd’s usual female form.  He started working on Justin’s look after that was settled.  

“What’s taking so long?” asked Justin after a minute.

“You see all the bubbles around me?  Those are all possibilities.  And each time you touch one, more connected possibilities show up.  I’m walking through various female versions of you, trying to find one that... fits.  That’s you, and female, and wearing a cute outfit.”

Justin shuffled from foot to foot.  “Just pick one already.”

Tedd sighed.  “Fine.  This one’s pretty cute.”

Moments later they emerged and Justin rushed to the mirror.  The girl in the mirror looked somewhat like him, with flowing hair past her shoulders and a sleeveless yellow top over a grey skirt.  “Wow.  This is how I’d look if I was born as a girl?”

Tedd shrugged.  “It’s a possibility.  It’d be easy to turn you into a girl that looks nothing like you, but that’d be more confusing.”

“Huh.”  Justin shrugged.  “Now what?”

“Off to my place, and we do your makeup.”

“Makeup?  Nobody said anything about makeup.”

Tedd sighed.  “You’re a girl now.  For a few hours at least.  You said you wanted to learn...”

“Fine.”

Once Justin was seated at a remarkably well-stocked makeup table in Tedd’s room he started to get nervous once more.  “You’ve only been a girl a couple of times.  How do you know about all this?”

“There are so many makeup tutorials online.  So many.”

“Still...”

“No, really,” said Tedd as she picked up a brush and approached Justin.  “I know what I’m doing.  Now don’t flinch.”

A few minutes later Tedd said, “Done.  You look cute.”

Justin snorted.  “Yeah, right.  I’m a gangly ass guy turned girl, there’s no way.”

Tedd spun Justin’s chair around to face the mirror.  “Tell me that’s not a cutie in the mirror.”

Justin tilted his head as he studied the image.  “Sorry.  Not seeing it.  I do see a purple haired cutie, though.”

Tedd blushed.  “Uh, thanks.  All I have time for is a little lipstick.  We don’t have a lot of time before the others will arrive.”

“So?

“We barely have enough time to bake a cake.  C’mon.”

Justin followed Tedd dubiously to the kitchen.  “Why are we baking a cake?”

“Treat for the party, and... okay, I’ve been hankering to be super-feminine for ages now, and put it all off until tonight.  Baking’s feminine, right?”

“Um...”

“Work with me here.  Just two cuties baking up a storm in the kitchen.”

Justin sighed.  “You’re cute.  I’m just...”

Tedd put her hands on her hips.  “Stop that.  You are all dolled up, especially so in that dress.  You are very, very cute.  Or would you prefer pretty?”

Justin harrumphed.

“Fine.  Cute it is.  You are cute.”

“You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Tedd laughed, and turned to the baking in earnest.

*** *** ***

Susan stared at the open Venn Machine, trying to suppress the memory Tedd had stirred up.   Sarah had already entered the other side, so she straightened her shoulders and strode inside hoping she looked more confident than she felt.

“No catgirls this time.”

Sarah grinned.  “Deal.  How hunky do you want to be?”

Susan shrugged.  “Just... me as a guy.”

Sarah nodded.  “Ditto, I guess?  Just say ‘male’ and see what pops up.”

Susan did so, and surveyed the bewildering array of male Sarahs.  “They’re all cute.  Ooh, now they’re cuter.  Um, I should probably stop talking.”

“Don’t worry,” replied Sarah with a dismissive wave.  “I’ll be fine with anything, especially after last time.  Are you ready?”

“Just a moment.”  Susan hastily tapped a bubble that mostly resembled Sarah.  “Ready.”

Susan suddenly felt different.  Not as radically as being covered in fur, but she felt much stronger than before, and weirdly energized.  She flexed an arm, touching her bicep to feel the unfamiliar muscles swelling there.

“Ahem.  Time’s running out to change me.”

Susan looked at Sarah, wondered briefly at just how far down she had to look, then carefully touched the green crescent.  The doors opened and Susan rushed to the mirror.  Staring back at her was a handsome guy with short dark hair.  Her long sleeved blue shirt over a black top looked good on him, and she stared at the muscular chest it revealed.

“Earth to Susan,” joked Sarah after she’d taken time to retrieve her backpack.

Susan turned to face her friend, surprised at just how far down she had to look.  Sarah’s head didn’t even come up to her shoulder.

“Yowza...” breathed Sarah.  

“What?”

Sarah waved her hands at all of Susan.  “You look hot.”

Susan turned back to her reflection and waved her arms.  “Yeah.  It’s really weird seeing that guy in the mirror acting like me.  I feel like I’m not even me, like I’ve left my body and someone else is here instead.”

“So what’s it like being a guy?”

Susan glanced away from both the mirror and her friend.  She ruthlessly suppressed the unbidden memory of Sarah in the shower after gym class, but her body had other ideas.  Her pants were suddenly feeling much too tight and she could feel the blush rising on her cheeks.  “I’m... taller now, so everything else seems smaller...  I also feel stronger than before.”

“Yeah, I’m not getting either of those,” joked Sarah, flexing an arm to show just how noodly it was.  “Any ‘guy’ thoughts yet?”

Susan’s blush got worse.  Several other naked girls joined Sarah in the shower in her mind, and an unfamiliar voice inside her head was cheering at the view.  “No,” she lied.

Sarah shook her head.  “It’s okay to have impure thoughts.”

Susan stared at Sarah helplessly, her blush growing even worse.  “I...”

“Everyone has impure thoughts.  We both had them at the sketching sessions.  Stop worrying about it!”

Susan slumped, letting go of the tension in her shoulders.  “I guess that’s right...  Thanks.”  With the admission and acceptance, she felt her blush finally drain away with the tension.

“You’re welcome!  I, Sarah, am here for you to help keep your feelings of awkwardness over being a guy to a minimum!”  She made her best puppy-dog eyes up at Susan, enhanced by her overall cuteness.  “Aren’t I cute when I’m helpful?”

Susan’s blush returned in force.  “Foul!  FOUL!”

Ellen clapped as she approached.  “Feeling better?”

Susan spun to face Ellen and a masculine Nanase that was nearly as tall as she was - though at least some of that was a ridiculous crest of hair.  “Did you bring hairspray?”

Ellen laughed.  “No, I got distracted and had to fix a mistake.  I think Nanase’s actually part cockatoo right now.”

“You could go fix it...”  Susan looked toward the Venn Machines then saw how long the line was.  “Or not.  Are you okay?”

Nanase nodded.  “It’s weird, but that’s half the point tonight, right?  Get used to how the other side sees things?”

Susan swallowed and nodded.  She patted the notebook in her satchel.  “I... yeah.  I should write down how I’m feeling.”

“You’re the one driving, remember?”

“Just... give a minute, okay?”

The others gave Susan a little space to sit and write, returning to the mirror to stare at their reflections and compare notes.

Susan wrote about her expectations thanks to her mother’s diatribes and her father’s actions.  Tempering that were her experiences with her male friends.  Despite his dirty mind even Tedd had a good side...  She still had expected perversion.  What she’d found instead was a low level horniness.  “Memories are treacherous,” she wrote.  “Ones that felt innocent at the time have a dramatically different impact.  And then there are the ones that didn’t...”  Sketching with Sarah had been shocking at the time.  She closed her eyes and the image of Nanase and Ellen was as sharp as ever.  As arousing as ever.  Even the new voice in her head agreed.  “I need more data.”

“And the best place to get that will be at the party,” replied Ellen.  “Come on, let’s go!”

Susan closed her notebook.  “Very well.”  She led her friends out of the mall.  A trio of catgirls caught her eye as they walked, triggering yet more blushing.  They noticed Susan’s reaction and moved closer to flirt with “all the cute guys”.

Susan fled for the sanctuary of her car.  Halfway there she started laughing for the sheer joy of running in a body well suited to it.  Nanase caught up to her near the car, and Sarah was the last to straggle in.  “What was that?”

Susan shrugged.  “Getting hit on is still weird as a guy.”

Sarah laughed weakly.  “Hadn’t noticed.  Around you two, it’s probably not going to happen.”

Nanase slapped her on the back.  “We’ll get you to your sweetie and you’ll forget all about that.”

Sarah winced and rolled her shoulder.  “Tedd isn’t my sweetie.”

“Sure she isn’t.”