Morpheus’s Twisted Universe – Part 3.2

Hair and Now

by

Morpheus

 

Part Two

 

I leaned back and watched my shrink Amy with some amusement. She was turned to the side while typing something on the computer so all I could see was her blonde haired Caucasian side. It wasn't until she shifted position that I could see the Asian half of her body that made her look so eccentric.

At the moment, I was in my raven black hair mode so felt a bit smug and self-indulgent. It was so easy to find amusement at other peoples expense, even at that of my shrink. Of course, she was quite aware of my current mood and didn't seem bothered at all by it.

"I'm sorry about that," Amy apologized and gave me her full attention. "Have you been practicing those meditation exercises I gave you?"

"Of course," I responded absently, "But you already asked me that when I saw you the other day."

"True," Amy responded with a smile, "But it's important that you follow the exercises. The meditation will help you control your shifting emotional states so they don't dominate you. We can't really stop your emotional states from shifting, but you can learn to work through them so you'll be more balanced."

"That would be nice," I agreed, thinking about how difficult it was to deal with people when I wanted to run away and hide or tear their heads off. As it was, my current personality might be my most selfish, but it was also the easiest for avoiding trouble.

"Have you experienced the blue hair again?" Amy asked me curiously.

I nodded slightly. It had been nearly a full week since I'd first turned into my rebellious blue haired self, and I had only gone through that hair color again twice since then. I wasn't going through that hair color nearly as frequently as my other ones, though I didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed at that. There was something oddly refreshing about that persona.

"This morning," I told Amy with a slight frown. "I woke up with the blue hair this morning but changed to blonde right before school."

Amy nodded, looking interested. I stared at her for a moment, briefly thinking about how I could tell her a nice story about some fictional mischief I got into. It could be quite amusing to play with her that way and see how she'd react. I wonder if I could get her really shocked? But then I reminded myself that she was a shrink and probably wouldn't fall for it. That didn't mean I stopped thinking about what I could tell her though.

We continued talking about my various personality shifts and the problems they've caused me for the next fifteen minutes. I exaggerated a few things just to push some buttons, but Amy caught on quick and wasn't fooled.

Then it happened again. Appropriately enough, my hair suddenly changed color and my personality shifted with it. I felt on edge and immediately knew I was a red head again. Amy gasped, staring at me with interest. This was the first time she'd actually seen me shift like this.

"Okay, so I've shifted," I snapped in annoyance, "You can stop staring at me..."

"Sorry," Amy apologized, "It's just the first time I've actually seen it..." I snorted at that and she gave me a pleasant smile, continuing, "I have a few more mental exercises that should be particularly helpful in learning to control your temper..."

I grunted at that but listened as she described what she wanted me to do. I had a feeling that she was waiting for me to come back as a red head specifically before she gave me these anger management tricks to work on. I just hoped they really worked because I knew I could get myself into a lot of trouble with my temper if I wasn't careful.

Amy was all right, especially for being a shrink, but I was glad when our session was over and I could go home. I said a quick good by and rushed home as fast as I could, eager for dinner and a chance to relax with some video games. I only hoped I didn't lose my temper again. The last time I played games as a red head I lost my temper and threw the controller against the wall which left it in pieces. Fortunately I had a couple spares.

When I got home, I was surprised to find Leila there waiting for me. "She came over to see you," Tina told me with a grin, "So we've just been talking while she waited for you to get back."

I stared at Tina, suddenly having a bad feeling about that. I glanced to Leila who was snickering and groaned. Tina must have been telling some of those embarrassing stories from my childhood.

That was one of the few things that always reminded me that in spite of her apparent age, deep down inside she was still my mom.

"At least tell me you didn't break out the baby pictures," I groaned.

"You looked cute as a kid," Leila snickered, "I like the picture of you in the leotard..."

"That was a Halloween costume," I defended myself, "I was going out as Peter Pan..."

"Maybe you should go as Tinkerbell this year," Tina suggested with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes, knowing that I could retaliate with mention of a certain night where she'd come home drunk and wearing some kinky leather clothes. However, she'd paid me good money to make sure I never mentioned that incident again and a deal is a deal.

I was already getting annoyed with this topic of conversation and the fact that Tina would try embarrassing me this way, though I quickly locked that down. It was a little easier using a trick Amy had taught me.

"You know," I said with an evil grin, "I think I still have a picture of you dressed as a toddler for Halloween..."

Tina went pale, "You know that was a bet..."

"Yeah," I grinned, "But you looked so cute..."

Tina shook her head, "I think I'm going to go check on dinner..." And with that she got up and left the room. Leila and I looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"You really have pictures of her in a toddler outfit?" Leila asked, still laughing.

I nodded, "Yeah... Sometimes I need leverage with her." Then I sighed, "Trust me... With her I need it..."

"I don't know," Leila grinned, "She seems like a cool mom..."

I shrugged at that. "For a mom yeah... But most of the time she's more like my big sister. An ANNOYING big sister," I added in a louder voice so she might hear from the kitchen.

"I heard that," Tina called back from the kitchen, causing me and Leila to both laugh.

After this, Leila and I made our way to my bedroom where we could have a little privacy. She waited until the door was closed before asking how I was adjusting as a girl. I was a little surprised by the question since she'd been there to see how I was doing.

"I'm adjusting," I responded slowly, pushing back the surge of irritation that made me want to snap at her for asking such a stupid question. I actually felt proud of myself for not letting it show. Thanks to Amy, I was getting better at not losing my temper over nothing. "The girl part is easy. It's the new personalities that's tough..."

"I'd imagine," she nodded, giving me a sympathetic look.

"But on the plus side," I grinned, "I've got a great excuse whenever I do something stupid... I can blame it on my twist..."

Leila laughed, "I think you might be using that one too much at school..."

"Maybe," I agreed, thinking about the various incidents since I'd returned to school.

The true nature of my twist and how I changed personalities with my hair color was now a well known fact around school. In fact, the principal had even issued a cheat card to all the teachers that listed my various hair colors and what they could expect from each one. It actually took some of the fun out of it.

Then I felt a surge of anger rise in me as I remembered Mrs. Krevitz, who'd taken advantage of that knowledge to keep asking me questions and drawing attention to me in class when I had my mousy brown hair. I was so timid that I spent most of the class cowering while she and the other students laughed at me. Of course, she hadn't been nearly so amused when I came to class the next day as a blonde and wasted most of the time cheerfully asking stupid questions.

"Are you okay?" Leila asked, noticing my anger.

"I'm fine," I snapped, then took a deep breath, forcing myself to reign in my emotions. "Sorry..."

"It's okay," Leila told me with a cheerful grin, "I'm getting used to your mood swings."

"They're a pain in the ass," I sighed with a shake of my head.

Leila stared at me for a moment then changed the subject, "Have you seen the new Peregrine sports car? I saw one on the news the other day and they look wicked... I want to get one some day... A pink one..."

"Of course," I grinned, glancing over her bright pink clothes. "What other color would you get?"

"Well, there are different shades of pink, you know," she told me defensively.

"You wouldn't be so fond of pink if it wasn't for your twist," I reminded her.

Leila just shrugged, "I know. But I still like it."

I thought about the car Leila had just asked about and didn't remember what it looked like. I turned on my computer and my holographic display unit immediately hummed to life. A few seconds later, I was staring a picture of a sleek new hover car that was probably more expensive than everything I'd ever make in my entire life added up.

"Damn that's sweet," I agreed. "Too bad neither of us will ever be able to afford one..."

"Maybe," Leila responded doubtfully.

I grinned and pulled up a picture of another car right beside the one of the Peregrine. This one was a bit of an old cluncker, with a faded pink paint job. Then I asked Leila, "Which would you rather have?"

"That one," Leila immediately pointed at the junk car. She glared at me, "That's not fair though... I could always make the Peregrine pink..."

We both laughed, then sat back and talked about a variety of things for the next hour. It was strange how Leila and I had actually become closer friends since my twist, while Jason didn't hang out with me quite as much as before. It wasn't that he was avoiding me, but more that we didn't have as much in common anymore.

It amazed me to think about just how much Leila and I had in common. Now that I knew she used to be a guy too, we had a lot more to talk about than we did before. If anyone really understood what my suddenly gender switch was like, it was her. That certainly made it easy to talk to her about things.

While I was thinking this, I looked Leila over, struck as I frequently was by her appearance. She had a very sexy body in an exaggerated, almost cartoonish way. Still, she was very attractive and I had to force my mind away from the thoughts that wanted to form at the sight of her. Then again, that was nothing new either and was something I did quite frequently when I was near her.

The fact the fact that I wasn't her type and we were just friends made it much easier most of the time.

Just then, I was suddenly struck by the realization that the conversation had gone completely silent...and that Leila was staring at me with an expression of obvious attraction. She saw that I noticed and quickly turned away with a bright blush on her cheeks.

For a brief moment I was frozen in surprise, my mind swirling in realization. I'd always known that there was no chance of anything happening between me and Leila. She'd made that perfectly clear when we first met and that was one of the things that had made it possible to become friends. But now... Now I knew that Leila used to be a guy too and that she was probably still into girls. That meant...

"Oh..." I whispered, my eyes going wide as I stared at her.

One thing about my current personality was that some of my emotions are very raw and volatile, a fact which kept people on their toes around me when I was a red head. I was almost always on edge like this and could become completely furious and enraged in an instant, losing control in the river of my own emotions. But as a red head, anger wasn't the only emotion I was prone to and I was suddenly overwhelmed with a powerful surge of passion.

I was filled with desire and acted out of pure emotion and impulse, the same as I did when I lost my temper. I didn't even think about it as I grabbed Leila and gave her the most passionate kiss I could. She didn't respond at first, being shocked by my actions but then she began to kiss back and seemed to be enjoying it.

"Wow," Leila gasped when we pulled apart.

I stared at her, my whole body aching for more...much more. I wanted to throw her down on my bed and get wild with her. It was only her look of surprise and confusion that allowed me to regain some control over myself. I mentally ran through one of the exercises Amy had showed me to control my emotions and it worked...a little.

"I'm sorry," I apologized, blushing brightly. I couldn't bear to loot at her as I added, "I couldn't help myself..."

"You kissed me," Leila gasped, staring at me with a strange expression. Then she admitted, "And I guess I kissed you back..."

"Yeah," I grinned in spite of myself, fighting back the impulse to grab her and do it again.

"We...we kissed," Leila said again as though she couldn't quite believe it.

"I'm sorry," I apologized again, feeling guilty for doing something that could completely destroy our friendship. "I didn't mean..." I stared at the floor, feeling a mixture of excitement and shame. "I just lost control..."

Leila and I sat in an uncomfortable silence for nearly a minute before she hesitantly asked, "What does this mean?"

I blinked at that and forced a grin, "It means you're hot... You know how my emotions are when I'm like this..." I touched my hair to remind her of the hair color and the volatile personality that came with it.

Leila blushed, "I knew you thought I was pretty.... Most guys do, and I should know." Then she sighed, "I guess I got used to being friends..."

"I'm sorry," I apologized yet again, "We can pretend it never happened..."

"But it did happen," Leila insisted. "I don't know...."

Leila grabbed my bed cover with her hand as she stared at the floor, not even looking at the bed cover as it turned into a bright pink color. I don't think she even intended to use her trick on it. She was just so emotional that she wasn't controlling it very well at the moment.

"You're pretty," Leila abruptly said, still not looking at me. "I thought so ever since you twisted... But this is kind of weird..."

"Yeah," I agreed, "So what are we gonna do?"

"I don't know," Leila said as she got to her feet. She stared at me, blushing brightly again as she quickly blurted out, "But I kind of liked it..."

"You did?" I asked hopefully.

She nodded, "God, I don't know what to do... This is the first time that I really liked someone since my twist, and it's my best friend... This is just too weird for me..."

"We can still be friends," I reminded her, then on an impulse I suggested hopefully, "Maybe even friends with benefits..."

Leila paused to stare at me for a moment, making me since as I realized I must have pushed it too far. "This is too weird... I've got to think about it..." Then Leila left my room, saying, "We'll talk later," as she rushed out of my house.

I remained where I was for a minute, feeling horribly guilty for ruining our friendship. It was just so hard to control myself when I was like this... At least that was what I told myself. The truth was I didn't know how much of this was the real me and how much was the mood swings I got with the hair color. That thought scared me almost as much as the one of losing Leila.

"Damn," I grimaced as I kicked my dresser, causing red sparks to fly as my trick came on by itself. I grabbed the clock on my dresser and threw it across the room, smashing it against the far wall. Being angry was easier to handle at the moment than the other things. "DAMN!"

My bedroom door was thrown open as Tina rushed in, stopping in the door way to ask, "What's wrong? Leila just ran out of here..."

"Nothing," I snapped angrily, though the anger broke enough for the tears to come rushing through.

"Jen?" Tina asked gently, "Are you okay..."

She stared at me for a moment, obviously surprised since this was the first time I'd acted anything like this as a red head. Then I felt the tingle rush through me that indicated my hair had changed color again. I didn't need to look in order to know that I had mousy brown hair again. That made it feel natural to grab onto Tina and cry on her shoulder.

For one of the few times in my life, Tina acted like a mother and held me tight. She didn't say a word, only hugged me and offered me a shoulder to cry on. I had a feeling I may pay for this later, but at the moment I didn't care. This was what I needed.

I was quite nervous as I walked down the sidewalk with Jason, fighting back the impulse to turn on my chameleon field so that other people couldn't see me. It was hard going out in public when I was this shy, but that was the whole point of why I was doing it right now.

"I can do this," I tried convincing myself, mentally running the exercises that Amy had showed me in order to keep my shyness and self-consciousness in check. It wasn't easy to fight my own twist induced fears, but it was working. I was able to control my emotions enough to keep walking without fading into the background.

"How are you doing?" Jason asked me gently, well aware of how skittish I was at the moment.

"I'm managing," I forced a smile, "Thanks for coming with me... It's easier to go out when I have someone else along..."

"No problem," Jason shrugged, a bit embarrassed to be thanked for just walking with me. "I'm a little surprised you didn't ask Leila... I mean, you two have been hanging out together a lot since..." He gestured at me, not needing to vocalize the reminder of my gender change.

I frowned at that and stared at the ground, too self-conscious to even look at Jason. My first instinct was to just be quiet and avoid the uncomfortable subject. The topic of Leila was definitely an uncomfortable one at the moment.

I hadn't seen or talked to Leila since the awkward events of last night, and since she didn't come to school today, it looked like she was really avoiding me. I felt a surge of guilt at that and desperately wished I hadn't screwed up our friendship the way I had.

The strange thing was, I'd never really thought of Leila in a romantic way before last night. I'd usually just thought of her as a good friend who happened to be a good looking girl with an odd obsession with the color pink. But now that I was thinking of Leila like that, I couldn't stop. She was in my thoughts and fantasies almost constantly now. At first, I'd thought it might have just been my passionate red headed nature at the time, but I had the same feelings about her regardless of which hair color I had.

I could understand why Leila was so shaken up by my kiss though, and the fact that she was attracted to me. In spite of the fact that I was physically a decent looking girl, she'd gotten to know me as a guy and probably still thought of me that way. On the other hand, I'd first gotten to know her as a girl and even after learning the truth, I still thought of her as a girl.

"Are you okay?" Jason asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I began to withdraw even more, then caught myself and ran the mental exercises Amy had taught me again. I forced a smile and quietly told him, "I'm just thinking..."

"That's a first," Jason grinned, earning a faint glare from me which was all I could muster as a comeback. It was pretty pitiful, but about the best that could be expected with my current personality.

Jason seemed to have forgotten about the subject of Leila, for which I was thankful. I didn't want to talk about it but if he pushed I didn't think I had the guts at the moment to refuse. Instead, we just continued walking with no particular destination in mind. The point of this was for me to get out and about, not to go anyplace in particular.

We continued walking in mostly silence, my thoughts shifting back to Leila and how good it had felt to kiss her. I blushed brightly at the thought, knowing that I'd never have the courage to do that again with my current personality. I felt so embarrassed at having done so yesterday, but at the same time, I really wanted to do it again.

I was startled out of my thoughts though when Jason abruptly stopped and exclaimed, "What the hell...?"

I immediately became nervous and apprehensive, looking around carefully until I saw what had made Jason stop. It was the school bully Simon Casche, standing in a driveway of what I assumed to be his home. I shuddered, instinctively calling on my trick to call up my chameleon field and grabbing Jason's arm for support. I hated myself for acting like this but I couldn't help it.

"Let's go back," I whispered fearfully.

"That might be a good idea," Jason admitted reluctantly, probably thinking about how Simon had given him a hard time at school on a few occasions.

Then I noticed something strange... Simon looked almost...afraid. I stared at him in surprise, noticing that his clothes and hair were all roughed up and stained. He had a look of fear and shame on his face, with tears running down his cheeks. I was completely shocked by that, as was Jason. This was nothing like what I'd expect from the school bully.

A moment later, a girl came storming out of the house...if she could be called a girl. She was nearly seven feet tall and bulging with powerful muscle. The sight of amazons wasn't unheard of in Spiral where there are lots of twisted women. Tina told me that there's one personal trainer at her gym that gets big and muscular every time she exercises. However, the sight of this particular amazon was particularly frightening...perhaps because she looked so young and childish which contradicted her size and obvious physical strength. What truly made me shudder and want to be invisible was the nearly evil grin she had on her face as she marched towards Simon.

I'd heard rumors that Simon's little sister had gone through her twist and become a physical powerhouse, and I could now see with my own eyes that it was much more than just a rumor. I suddenly felt sorry for Simon.

"Let's get out of here," Jason said, though neither of us could quite turn and leave the scene before us.

"Leave me alone," Simon demanded of his sister though it sounded much more like pleading.

"What's the matter big brother?" she smirked down at him, "Afraid of your little sister?" She laughed in delight while he cringed with obvious fear.

"C'mon Suzie," Simon said, obviously trying to sound calm and in control but failing miserably. "Just leave me alone..."

"I'm Big Sue now," the amazon exclaimed with a proud smirk, "That's what everyone at school is calling me..." Then she glared down at Simon, "And you can't tell me what to do anymore..."

And with that, Suzie or Big Sue as she called herself grabbed Simon's shirt and lifted him off the ground with hardly any visible effort. He gulped, his face going pale with fear. Big Sue just grinned, obviously enjoying his reaction. Then she easily threw him to the ground a short distance away, giggling like a little girl with a favorite toy as she did so.

Big Sue came at Simon with a mischievious grin that made me want to run and hide, and I wasn't even the target of her attention. I could only imagine how horrible and humiliating this had to be for Simon to get picked on and bullied by his little sister like this.

"No Suzie," he cried out as she quickly grabbed hold of him before he could run away, then gave him a nasty wedgie that looked like it hurt. She laughed in delight while Simon just looked completely humiliated.

"You can't tell me what to do," Big Sue snapped almost angrily, "I guess I'm gonna have to teach who you whose in charge now..."

"Come on, Jenny," Jason tugged on my arm to pull me away. He looked as though he was going to be sick at the sight of this.

Big Sue got even rougher with her brother while he struggled and pleaded more pitifully. I wanted to leave and hide, to make sure she couldn't do something like that to me. But as I stared at Simon, I couldn't help but feeling something else... He might be a jerk and a bully, but he didn't deserve something like this. I'd always hated seeing people picked on bullies and this was no different. I began to feel something strange...at least strange for when I had brown hair. I began to feel a stirring of anger.

"Jenny," Jason tried getting my attention though I remained fixed on the scene before me.

The anger I felt suddenly exploded into the kind of fury I could only get as a red head. I barely even noticed the change in my hair color and personality as I marched straight towards Simon and Big Sue.

"Jen," Jason called out in surprise and a little worry, though I ignored him.

"Hey you," I called to Big Sue, getting her attention. She stared at me in surprise and confusion as I walked straight up to her and demanded, "What the hell do you think you're doing? Leave him alone..."

"What?" Simon stared at me blankly from where he lay on the ground, looking almost as though he thought he was imagining this.

"Mind your own business," Big Sue snapped at me in annoyance, then shoved me and knocked me to the ground.

Now I was really mad. I got back to my feet, furious enough that I was seeing red...literally. I'd instinctively reached for my trick and now had my glowing red pain field on. Without a word, I walked straight to Big Sue, planning on punching her though she made her move first. She grabbed me by my shoulder, digging in painfully with her powerful hand. However, that was nothing compared to the pain she felt as she suddenly yanked her hand back with a loud agonizing scream.

"MY HAND!" Big Sue screamed, clutching it tightly and staring at me in fear. She was crying as well, which I took as a good sign.

"Picking on people smaller and weaker than you," I spat out vehemently, glaring at her as I stepped closer. "What kind of chicken shit is that?" Then I snarled, "I hate bullies," emphasizing this by poking her with a single finger. She jumped back as though I'd just stuck her with a red hot iron, which I might as well have. It probably would have felt the same.

"Leave me alone," Big Sue cried, backing up in fear, staring at me with tear filled eyes.

"Isn't that what he asked you to do?" I gestured at Simon, who was staring at me with his mouth wide open.

I just stood there for a moment and stared at Big Sue, realizing that she was only about twelve or thirteen. She was big enough that it would be easy to mistake her as older, but she behaved childish enough that I could also mistake her as being younger. It was strange seeing someone so much bigger and stronger than me actually backing away in terror.

Of course, I had no idea how much Simon might have picked on her over the years, and she probably viewed this as just payback. But that didn't change the fact that she was hurting and humiliating Simon in ways that were completely and totally uncalled for, making his life a living hell that was probably far beyond what he'd ever even imagined doing to her.

"I hate bullies like you," I spat at Big Sue, tempted to grab her and give her a big bear hug with my pain field on. Only the reminder of her real age and a quick mental exercise to give me some self-control held me back. I glared at Simon who'd done more than his share of bullying, then back at his sister, "If I catch you beating up him or anyone else smaller than you again, I just might have to come back..."

Big Sue stepped back in terror, suddenly looking much more like the Suzie that Simon had first called her. She took one more look at me, nodded tearfully, then turned and ran back into the house. I even heard the door slamming and smiled faintly.

Simon stared at me in disbelief, the shame and relief both clearly visible on his face. He was obviously humiliated at having his classmates see what his home life was like, and I didn't blame him. He finally whispered, "Why...?"

I was still burning with anger and felt another surge of it as he spoke, reminding me of some of his behavior. Once again I performed the quickly mental exercise that helped me keep my temper under control. I silently counted to five, then grimly responded, "I hate bullies..."

With that, I turned and walked back to Jason who was shaking his head. "Damn Jen," he exclaimed, "I can't believe you did that..."

"Don't touch me," I snapped at him, forcing myself to stay under control and turn off my aura. I didn't think he'd want to touch me when I had that thing going, nor could I imagine ever being angry enough to do something like that to him. I shuddered slightly at the thought of intentionally causing that kind of pain for anyone.

I started walking back towards home with Jason silently walking beside me. Neither of us said a word for several minutes as I worked on calming down. Once my anger had subsided as much as it ever does when I'm like this, I allowed myself to grin and laugh. There was a certain thrill in being able to stop someone so much bigger and stronger than me with so little effort.

"I can't believe you saved Simon," Jason said with a shake of his head, "I mean, after all the trouble he's caused."

I shrugged at that, "I don't like seeing anyone get treated like that..."

Jason reluctantly admitted, "I guess... I guess it's a good thing you changed hair colors right then too..."

"Yeah," I nodded agreement, "It was pretty lucky..." And though I didn't say it aloud, I thought that it was too lucky. It was too lucky to be mere coincidence.

"Oh yeah," Jason suddenly changed the topic, "You never did tell me what's up with you and Leila?"

"None of your business," I snapped in annoyance, realizing a moment later that I should have just stayed calm and denied everything.

"So something is going on?" Jason asked, watching me with a curious expression.

"Don't make me hurt you," I told him, threatening to poke him with my finger even though my pain field wasn't on.

"Okay okay...jeez," Jason responded in mock fear, holding his hands up in surrender. "You know...for someone who hates bullies so much, you sure are good at doing it yourself."

"Thanks," I grinned at Jason cheerfully, "It's a talent..."

The world was a warm and wonderful place so I hummed cheerfully as I filled out my history test. I was confident that I'd do absolutely great on it, even though I'd done no studying at all. And if I didn't do very good, that wasn't a problem either.

"Let's see," I mused, swirling a strand of blonde hair around my finger as I made some cute doodles on the corner of my test.

Once I was finished drawing a rabbit, I decided to go ahead and turn in my test paper. After all, I had several sheets of blank paper I could doodle on and there was a lot more free space to draw. I smiled proudly at my work, hoping that the teacher liked it. She just rolled her eyes when I turned it in and complimented me on my nice drawing. I wasn't sure if she really meant it or if she was just being nice, but I felt happy anyway.

When I sat back at my desk, I absently wondered if I should try the exercise Amy had taught me for when I'm blonde. However, I quickly discounted it as it as boring and seemed pretty silly. In fact, the trick she showed me mostly consisted of counting to five and thinking about possible consequences before I did anything, which was pretty similar to the directions she gave me for my other hair colors. In fact, now that I thought about it, it seemed that she had some kind of an obsession about making me stop and count to five. I wondered if maybe that was part of her twist... I'd have to ask her about that the next time I saw her.

I looked back at the teacher who was scowling and going over tests. She looked pretty unhappy so I decided to help cheer her up. I grinned and used my trick, surrounding myself with a warm sunny glow. The teacher looked at me with a scowl that quickly softened and even turned into a smile. I could almost feel the tension leaking away from her and the other students who looked at me. I was quite happy with what I'd come to think of as my happy aura. It was so nice being able to make other people happy that easily.

"You know you're not supposed to use your tricks in class, Jen," the teacher reminded me with a pleasant smile. "But I don't think I mind so much this time..."

"So she's a night light," the girl next to me said with a grin, "Big deal..."

I looked to the girl who was a normal and usually not so polite. I'd always suspected she was really of us twisted and some of the cool tricks we get, though she usually showed this by being rude and insulting. I'd discovered that my trick had a great tendency to mellow people out and put them in a good mood. It might not be a really impressive ability like being able to make people to scream in pain just by touching them, bit it was certainly a lot nicer to use. And it helped make a lot more friends.

When the class was over, I made my way to the girl's bathroom to relieve myself. It was still kind of strange having to use the girls bathroom as well as the fact that no one thought anything strange about it. Sometimes, I still expected some girls to yell at me for going into the wrong bathroom or something. But that didn't happen too much anymore. I guess I was really getting used to this whole girl thing.

Once I was done relieving myself, I washed my hands and admired myself in the mirror. I was dressed kind of sexy today, which was pretty common when I got dressed as a blond. My views on being a girl tended to shift along with my hair color, though most of the time I just thought of it as something to get used to. But when I was a blonde, I thought that being a girl was fun and exciting. I wanted to take full advantage of my new gender and everything that came with it.

 

"I love this shirt," I beamed proudly, ignoring the fact that I'd been ashamed to have been caught wearing it last week when I had the brown hair. It showed a nice bit of cleavage which made me feel more feminine. I liked feeling like that when I was a blonde...and when I had black hair too. I wasn't quite as enthusiastic at other times, but I was adjusting pretty well. "I need to get some shoes to go with it..." I looked down at my plain shoes and imagined wearing some sexy high heels. I giggled at the thought.

"What are you?" one girl asked as she saw me staring into the mirror, "Narcissistic?"

"Something like that," I agreed cheerfully. "It's really fun being a girl, isn't it...?"

The girl blinked, stared at me strangely before shaking her head, "I guess..." Then she asked, "You're twisted, right?"

"How'd you know?" I asked with a grin.

She rolled her eyes, "Lucky guess..."

"Wow," I responded, feeling somewhat impressed, "You're good..."

A few seconds later, I tore myself away from the mirror and went to where I usually met up with Jason, sure that he wouldn't mind waiting a few extra minutes for me. Since we shared the next class, we usually met up on the way and went together.

Jason was right where I expected him to be, looking just a little annoyed. Then he took one look at me and grinned, probably relieved that I wasn't in one of my less sociable moods today. He always got so crabby when I was a red head.

"Hey Jason," I grinned cheerfully, "We had a surprise quiz in English today... Isn't that great? I love surprises..."

"Well I've got one for you," Jason told me, "You remember what happened with Simon yesterday?"

"Yeah," I nodded, "Boy he has a big sister... I wonder what it would be like being that big and strong... I bet it's really cool..."

"Yeah, probably," Jason agreed, then quickly added, "But did you hear about Simon?"

I blinked, trying to remember if I'd heard anything about him. I felt a tiny worry that his sister might have gone at him even worse after I'd left, but that quickly faded under the cheerful certainty that everything would work out fine. After all, why wouldn't everything be great?

When I shook my head no, Jason quickly blurted out, "Bryan Kramer...you know that big guy who got kicked off the football team last year? Well, he was messing with this kid and Simon...SIMON stopped him... I mean, Simon actually came and saved this kid..."

"Really?" I grinned in delight, "Good for him..."

"At least that's what I heard," Jason quickly added, "But I overheard him actually apologizing to some other guy for messing with him last week... It was kind of weird..."

I just grinned proudly, "I knew Simon had it in him..." Actually, I hadn't thought anything of the sort, but it seemed the right thing to say.

"Man," Jason shook his head, obviously having a hard time believing this, "You must have really shook him up last night Jen..."

"Maybe," I grinned, "Or maybe he's really a nice guy deep inside..."

Jason just froze and stared at me in disbelief before shaking his head again. "Man, that blonde hair really is doing a job on you..."

We walked to the classroom, then as we were going in Jason asked, "Oh yeah... You know Zach Moore..."

"Who ?" I asked blankly.

Jason rolled his eyes and let out an exasperated sigh, "The guy you saved from Maddy last week..." Then almost as an afterthought, he added, "And from Simon..."

I frowned thoughtfully as I tried to picture the boys face. Of course I remembered the incident, and I'd even thought about Maddy a few times since, mostly when she walked past me in the hall and pretended extremely hard that I didn't exist. But the boy...Zach hadn't really been all that memorable and I couldn't say that I'd given him a second thought since.

"Oh yeah," I grinned, feeling proud of myself for finally remembering what he looked like, "What about him?"

"Well," Jason grinned, "I heard some teachers talking about how he wasn't in school today because he twisted last night..."

"I hope he got something good," I said cheerfully. I didn't really know the guy but I wished him good luck with his twist.

"Who knows," Jason shrugged as he went to his seat, "I guess we'll find out how it went soon enough."

"Yep," I agreed cheerfully as I took my own seat beside him, "Twists can be really surprising... Did I mention that I love surprises?"

The rest of the class was much the same as my last one, with the teacher rolling his eyes at me and trying to pretend I wasn't there. At the same time, some of the other students were snickering and quietly making fun of me for being an air head, but that was all right. I didn't mind at all. In fact, it was kind of neat because I was getting all the attention, which made the teacher pretty annoyed. But that was pretty funny too.

When lunch finally came, I went to the cafeteria, eager to meet up with Jason and Leila. I felt just a little apprehensive about running into Leila, but that was covered with that warm fuzzy feeling of well being that came with being blonde. I grinned cheerfully, then waved at Leila when I saw her on the other side of the lunch room.

Leila looked at me, then blushed. She turned and hurried the other way before I could get to her. I was a little confused and wondered why she kept avoiding me like this. Of course, I knew it intellectually, but my emotions had a hard time accepting that at the moment.

"Wow," Jason said as he came up beside me, "Leila is really avoiding you... What the hell went on between you two?" He glared at me as though it had to be my fault.

If Jason had asked me that when I had any other hair color, I probably wouldn't have told him a thing. I would have evaded the question, lied, or flat out refused to tell him anything. But as a blonde, I wasn't great at keeping secrets. So I just grinned, "We kissed the other day and she's kind of freaked out about it."

"WHAT?" Jason gasped, staring at me with wide eyes.

"She'll get over though," I told him confidently. "She really liked it..."

"You kissed Leila?" he gaped... "But you're a girl now..."

"Yeah," I grinned cheerfully, "But Leila still likes girls so that's not a problem..."

Jason just stared at me with his mouth open, making me realize that I'd probably told him more than I should have. That was all right though. He was our friend and if we couldn't tell him things like that, who could we tell? I was about to tell him that Leila used to be a guy, when Jason suddenly grabbed my arm and pointed to the side.

"It's Simon," Jason hissed nervously.

I looked and saw Simon walking straight towards us with a dark expression on his face. He stopped in front of me and just stared at me for a moment before his eyes lowered and stared at the floor instead.

"Thanks for last night," he said quietly, sounding ashamed. He forced his eyes to look up and meet mine, then he repeated it louder and more firmly. "Thanks... I mean it. I know you don't like me, so I really appreciate your doing that..."

"You're welcome," I told him happily while Jason just gaped with his mouth open.

Simon looked as though he didn't know what to say, then he took a deep breath and stated, "I owe you... I owe you big... If you ever need anything...ANYTHING...just let me know." With that, he turned and walked off, looking almost as though a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"Did you see that?" Jason gasped.

"Of course I saw it," I grinned at him, "I was here, wasn't I? That certainly was nice of him..." Then I turned and went to get my lunch, humming cheerfully as I did so. Boy this was a great day.

I slowly walked down the school hallway with a calm confidence that came from the surety that I was in control. I watched my fellow students with a faint amusement, knowing that it would be easy to bend them to my will...that I could easily get them to do what I wanted. All I had to do was use my little trick.

"It would be so easily," I mused to myself, absently running a hand through my raven black hair.

I was more than a little tempted to use my trick, to get the students near me under my spell. However, I remembered Amy's advice and willed myself not to go down that path. It would be far too easy and would cause far too much trouble. As much as I might enjoy it, I knew that it would come back to bite me later on and that was something I certainly didn't want.

"At least I can keep out of trouble when I'm like this," I mused, looking at a strand of my black hair

I frowned in annoyance as I remembered how Maddy Sawyer and her friends had tried messing with me after lunch. Since I'd been blonde at the time, I'd been gullible enough that I nearly let her make a complete and utter fool of me with some silly prank. If I hadn't been blonde, I never would have allowed myself to get anywhere near that situation.

Fortunately for me, a rather ironic hero had appeared just in time to save me from both Maddy and my own stupidity. I'd been shocked when Simon himself showed up and warned Maddy to leave me alone, though I'd also been pretty confused a the time, not realizing the danger I was in. It was only afterwards that Simon explained that he'd overheard Maddy's plans, which would have resulted in my being half naked and humiliated in front of the entire lunch room.

"It seems he was quite serious about owing me," I smirked, absently wondering if I might be able to use that somehow.

I tore my thoughts away from such a direction and mentally performed the exercises that Amy had given me. She said that I would have to learn to control my self-absorbed tendencies when I was like this, but I didn't really see much of a problem with them. Not at the moment at least. After all, they kept me out of trouble much more than with any of my other personas. In fact, it might be quite beneficial for me if I could stay like this permanently.

"I should probably get even with Maddy for even attempting something like that," I thought aloud, wondering what I could do to her that wouldn't get traced back to me and end me in trouble. "I need to discourage her and anyone else from ever messing with me again..."

I was still considering possible revenge plans a minute later when I found myself face to face with Leila. She stood there with a determined expression on her face, staring at me intently. She didn't say a word, perhaps waiting for me to speak first.

"Leila," I said with a faint nod, immediately thinking of our shared kiss and just how nice it had been. Her presence in front of me evoked other emotions, soft and gentle ones that didn't quite mesh with my current persona.

"Jen," she said cautiously, forcing a nervous smile. She glanced to my hair and sighed, "I'm not sure this is the best hair color to catch you with."

I smiled with some amusement, "You could always wait a few hours until it changes again." I felt a faint tinge of nervousness that probably would have been much greater had my hair been some other color.

Leila gave a very unladylike snort, "Watch it or I'll turn your hair pink... I wonder what that would do for your personality."

I took an involuntary step back which made Leila laugh. I shuddered to think what pink hair might do to my personality, though to be honest, I didn't know if Leila's artificial change to my hair color would have any effect at all. However, that wasn't an experiment I wanted to risk trying.

Leila giggled, "I was just messing with you..."

"I kind of gathered that from your giggle," I told her with an embarrassed smile.

"I've been thinking about...about the other day," Leila said carefully, her expression going more serious again. "I've been thinking about it ever since..."

"Me too," I admitted cautiously, my heard beating a little faster in spite of myself.

"I liked it," Leila blushed, "And I like you. I like you as a friend..."

"So this is the 'just a friend' speech," I said with a wry smile, not wanting to show the disappointment I was feeling.

"Will you shut up and let me finish," Leila told me, giving me a steady glare. "You and Jason are my best friends right now...but I've had bad luck with best friends in the past. I just really don't want to lose you as a friend, but then I realized that I'm losing you anyway..."

"I don't know what to say," I responded honestly

"Then don't say anything," Leila told me with a self-conscious smile, "This is hard enough to say as it is." She took a deep breath, "Like I said... I like you as a friend...and I'm really turned on by you now." She blushed brightly at that which looked quite nice on her.

"You're quite pretty when you blush," I said with an amused smile, earning another blush. Pushing her buttons this way was quite enjoyable, though I forced myself to bite my tongue and let her continue.

"I'm having a hard time getting over the fact that you used to be a guy," she told me with a sigh. "I know I used to be one too, but it's different... You've never known me as a guy...only a girl. I grew up in a real conservative town, so this whole thing about liking a former guy is hard to accept..."

I stared at Leila, feeling a little apprehensive. She seemed to be dancing around the subject, offering one excuse after another about why this would never work out between us. I decided that it was time to take matters into my own hands and remind her why they just might.

With that, I grabbed Leila and kissed her on the lips. She resisted slightly at first, but only for a moment before she began kissing back. We kissed for nearly a minute straight with it growing more passionate the entire time. When we finally broke it off, several boys who'd been hanging around school were cheering.

"I think we should talk somewhere a little more private," I whispered into her ear.

"Yeah," Leila blushed, looking a little shaken. "That was...nice."

"Nice?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Okay," she blushed even brighter, "It was fucking fantastic. You've got me all wet now..."

"Really?" I asked in amused delight, only to earn a faint nod and a blush so bright that I thought she was turning into a lobster.

"You didn't need to do that," Leila told me with a nervous smile, then quietly added, "But I'm glad you did..." She put her arm around me and kissed me again. "I was trying to say that this wasn't easy, but I want to give it a try. I want to keep you as a friend...and maybe more."

"Friends with benefits?" I asked with a wink, loving the look of embarrassment on Leila's face.

Leila punched me in the arm and I noticed that my shirt had suddenly turned pink. "Something along those lines," she told with a self-conscious grin, "though I was thinking of something a little nicer."

"Something nicer," I mused, hiding the delight I felt inside, "I like the sound of that."

"I'm going to try hard to think of you only as a girl now," Leila pointed out, then surprised me by grabbing my breasts, "Fortunately these help..."

"You know," I reminded her with a blush, "there are people still watching..."

Leila giggled at that, "Then lets find someplace a little more private to...talk."

"You know," I smirked, looking over Leila's body and admiring her slightly exaggerated curves, "Tina is working late tonight so we should have plenty of privacy at my house to...talk."

Leila blushed but nodded, "Lead on Jen..."

I just smiled in smug satisfaction as I we started off towards my house hand in hand. I hadn't really expected anything like this from Leila, but this was working out quite well for me. Quite well indeed.

I hate school, especially all those arrogant know-it-all teachers who are all over the place. If I had my way, I wouldn't come to school at all, or at least not when I was in my current blue haired persona. Coming to school always got on my nerves when I was like this, so I guess it's a good thing I don't get this particular persona very often.

The biggest reason I even bothered to come to school this morning had nothing to do with school itself, but with the fact that this was where my friends happened to be. Or to be more specific, this was where Leila was.

I smiled as I thought of Leila, feeling a little more cheerful. So far Leila and I had only been going out as more than just friends for a couple days, but things were going all right so far. Things hadn't really changed as much as I would have expected, though now there was a lot more touching and kissing. I was certainly a lot more aware of her looks and body than I used to be, even when I'd still been a boy.

A few deliciously naughty thoughts passed through my mind, making me grin in anticipation. So far Leila and I hadn't gone beyond a lot of making out, but I didn't think it would be long before we did. We were taking our time as we got used to our new relationship, but there was no doubt in my mind that we both wanted it.

Once Jason got over his initial shock, he became supportive of our relationship, which was a lot better than being jealous which is what I'd feared. I only wished he'd stop trying to take credit as a match maker, though it is kind of funny.

Then I saw Leila standing in the hall and my mood improved a hundred percent. Even being surrounded by all the pushy teachers in this school didn't bother me at the moment, though I still felt the constant irritation at them and all other sources of authority.

"Leila," I grinned, grabbing her in a hug and giving her a long passionate kiss. Then I turned and glared at a couple students who were staring at us, snapping, "What the fuck are you looking at?"

"Easy Jen," Leila laughed, "You need to stop being so irritable..."

"Maybe the next time I shift," I responded with a chuckle. "I think I'm do to go blonde again... Damn, I hate being a fuckin blonde..."

"What's wrong with being blonde?" Leila asked with a grin, fingering her own golden blonde hair. "Besides, I thought you liked being blond."

"Only when I am blonde," I snorted with a roll of my eyes. "Sure, I'm all happy all the time... But I'm like some kind of fucking idiot..."

"You're not that bad," Leila assured me, "Just a little ditsy at times."

"Whatever," I shrugged, running through the mental exercise to keep my irritation under control.

It was kind of ironic that I was using the mental tricks Amy had shown me since I felt suspicious of her and her motivations at the moment. That happened whenever I got into my current persona. However, she'd made a pretty good argument that I couldn't ignore about how I should at least listen to whatever advice and information others gave me and then decide what to do with it on my own. She'd pointed out that if I could use something for my own benefit, it shouldn't really matter where it came from. And though I resented being told what to do by a shrink, it did help me keep from screwing things up with Leila and that was important to me.

"This being on edge all the time is fucking annoying," I told Leila, "I'm almost looking forward to switching again...even if it is blond."

Leila gave me a sympathetic smile, "I can't imagine what it's like changing like that every couple hours... It was hard enough just changing the one time..."

"I'm getting used to it," I shrugged. It wasn't like I really had a lot of choice though. "But its been a lot easier learning how to be a girl though..."

I winced the moment the words came out of my mouth and glanced at Leila. After we finally got together, the last thing I wanted to do was remind her that I'd been a guy up until a couple weeks ago. I didn't want her to start freaking out about it again. But to my relief, Leila didn't seem bothered by the reminder.

"I wonder when Jason's going to twist," Leila abruptly said, then grinned, "I wonder if we can get him to turn into a girl too..."

"That would be funny," I chuckled, "But he might end up as some snobby bitch, and that would totally suck..."

"But he could end up getting tall and muscular instead of turning into a girl," Leila reminded me, a tone in her voice making me think that she wished that was what had happened to her. I didn't blame her, though I tried hard not to think about what might have been myself, only on what was. "Maybe I should cross my fingers for him..."

"C'mon," I smirked, "Misery loves company and all that... We should hope he turns into a girl too..."

Leila laughed at that, then grinned, "That's funny... I don't really feel all that miserable, though I sure did at first..."

"You can get used to anything," I shrugged, "Especially if you grow up knowing it could happen."

"I didn't," she reminded me with a sigh, "I had no idea my real parents were Twisted. I was shocked as hell when I went through my twist..." She shook her head and sighed again, looking unhappy as she thought about her life before coming to Spiral. She'd told me a little about it and what few things she'd said sounded rough.

"Well you know now," I told her with a snort, "So quit worrying about it... It's not like you have to worry about going through your twist again..."

"I guess you're right," Leila responded and gave me a quick kiss. Then she abruptly said, "Talking about snobby bitches..."

I looked to where Leila was pointing and saw Maddy Sawyer coming down the hall. I immediately glared at her, not forgetting about what she'd tried pulling on me a couple days ago. I still haven't gotten even with her for that and was definitely going to. With my current persona, I especially wanted it to hurt.

Maddy glared at me for a moment, though there was a hint of fear in her eyes a she remembered the last encounter she had with me when I had the blue hair. Then she quickly looked away in an obvious attempt at snubbing me, though I wasn't bothered by in the least.

"What's the matter Maddy?" I called out to her with a smirk, "Too afraid to look me in the eyes..." She didn't respond, but she did start moving down the hallway a little faster.

"You know you shouldn't mess with her," Leila snickered, "It's not her fault she's a snotty bitch... It's part of her twist."

"Maybe," I shrugged skeptically. I probably shouldn't have been so skeptical since my own personality kept getting shifted around by my twist, but I couldn't help but thinking that it would be extremely easy for someone to blame anything they did on their twist. "That still doesn't mean I'm forgetting what she tried to do."

Leila and I started walking down the hall again when a couple of girls walked past us. They were both very pretty and so excited that I couldn't help but noticing them.

"I can't believe how great he is," one of the girls gushed to the other. "I am SO in love with him..."

"No way," the second girl exclaimed, "I love him more... He's going to be mine..."

The two girls continued to argue over which of them loved this boy more before one of them hit the other. Suddenly they launched into a full fight, punching and scratching at each other. One boy immediately yelled out, "CAT FIGHT!"

"Watch it," Leila snapped as one of the girls was shoved into her.

I just stood where I was watching the fight with more curiosity than anything else, until the other girl was thrown into me. I activated my trick, turning on my force field aura just in time to keep from feeling the impact. But I was getting really getting annoyed now and tempted to kick both their asses.

When one of the girls tumbled towards Leila again, Leila managed to dodge her but grabbed the girl and turned her clothes all pink in retaliation. Neither of us left he scene of the fight though and by the time a teacher arrived, the other girl had bright pink hair. Leila smirked as they were both hauled off by the teacher for fighting like that in the hall.

"Her hair is MUCH better that way," Leila told me with a smirk. "I turned my own hair pink a couple times, but it always wears off for me when I go to sleep." Then she smirked almost evilly, "She'll have to either dye hers or grow it out..."

"Nasty," I told her in appreciation.

Leila just shook her head, "What the hell got into them?" Then much more quietly so only I'd hear, she whispered, "I would have loved having two girls fight over me like that back before my twist."

"I did once," I scowled, earning a surprised look from Leila. Then I added, "They were fighting over which one was going to be stuck with me as a lab partner in biology..."

Leila laughed, then grabbed my arm, "C'mon... We're gonna be late for class..."

I grimaced, not at all enthusiastic about sitting in a boring class and listening to some arrogant teacher droning on and on. But I let out a sigh and went with Leila anyway. It wasn't like I had anything else to do while I was stuck here at school.

Class passed pretty much as I expected, with the teacher droning on and on. The only thing I could do was keep myself from getting bored silly by making a few comments. I thought they were clever but the teacher obviously didn't. The only thing that kept me from getting up and walking out was the fact that Leila was in class with me.

Once the class was over, Leila and I had to separate and go in different directions since we didn't share our next class. "Why don't we skip and have a little fun?" I asked her.

"You know I can't do that," Leila told me with a roll of her eyes, "Besides, you know you'd regret it later on if you did."

"Maybe," I grumbled reluctantly, though I had to admit to myself at least that she was right. When my personality shifted again, I probably would regret it. That was one of the biggest things that kept me out of trouble when I was like this, but it sure was boring.

"I'll see you later," Leila told me, giving me a quick kiss before running off.

I just stood where I was and watched Leila, shaking my head, "Damn she has a nice ass..." Of course, the rest of her was pretty nice too. Then after a minute, I reluctantly turned and started for my next class.

I grumbled to myself and glared at nearly everyone I passed as I walked down the hall. I wasn't happy to be here and I was going to make everyone else miserable too. I shook my head, wondering why in the world anyone would come to school. Of course, I knew the reasons, but I was always like this when my hair was blue. It was no wonder most people were relieved I didn't shift to this hair color as often as the others. Shit, I even got on my own nerves.

When I got to my next class, I saw another similar scene with two girls talking about some guy, though this time one of them seemed confused. "You're kidding? HIM?"

"He's great," the second girl gave a dreamy sigh to which the first girl shook her head, looking even more confused. "He's so perfect..."

"You're nuts," the first girl exclaimed, "What about Ryan? I mean, you've been dating him for...

I listened to the two of them talk for another few seconds before I went into the classroom. The last thing I wanted to waste my time on was listening to a couple girls talking about their crushes. In fact, the only thing I could think of that was worse was listening to the teacher lecture on. Unfortunately, I was going to be facing that in just a short time.

The only good thing was that my teacher for this period was Thylan, who was less boring than most of the teachers and not quite as obnoxious. It wasn't Mr. Thylan or Ms. Thylan because Thylan was a fully functional hermaphrodite with blue skin. Obviously, Thylan was twisted, as were a number of the teachers at school. However, Thylan was much more obvious about it than any of the others.

I glared at Thylan in annoyance, just because he/she was my teacher. But when he started his lecture, I had to bite down on the comments that threatened to come and perform the mental exercise that Amy had shown me. Even though Thylan was a teacher, I normally had more respect for him/her than any of the other teachers in this school.

I stared at Thylan, looking over his/her androgynous appearance and absently wondering if he/she was originally male or female. Of course, I couldn't ask him/her. Among the twisted, it was considered rude to ask about what you were like before your twist. It wasn't a hard taboo or anything, but more like asking a woman about her age...or perhaps closer to asking someone about the first time they had sex. It was something you might talk about with a close friend or someone you knew well, but not usually with a casual acquaintance.

Thylan started his lecture on physics and I bit back my impulses and forced myself to stay under control. It wasn't easy when I had no respect for him/her at the moment, but I knew I'd regret it later if I did something now. Fortunately, Thylan didn't believe in giving lectures when a demonstration would work so soon he/she was demonstrating the effects of gravity by dropping various items on the floor, ranging from a sponge to a bowling ball. There were a few nice crashes in the process.

"Remember," Thylan reminded us gently, "the constant for gravity on Earth is 9.81 meters per second...regardless of the object..." Then he/she paused to give us a mischievious smile, "Of course there are exceptions..."

At this point, Thylan dropped the bowling ball again, but instead of falling straight down, it just started dropping slowly...almost in slow motion. I along with most of the class stared in surprise, then I realized that Thylan had to be doing this with some twisted trick.

"Wicked," the guy next to me exclaimed in delight.

"Fucking suck-up," I sneered at him, though I was impressed by the demonstration as well. However, I was also curious since Thylan always had a point to his demonstrations.

"You see," Thylan mused with a gentle smile, "as the very existence of the twisted prove, even the iron clad laws of nature have exceptions. The explanation for these exceptions often lie in areas that we have yet to fully understand."

"But we know you've got a trick now," I pointed out skeptically.

"True," Thylan answered, seemingly unbothered by my interruption. "But do you understand how a human being can possibly alter something like the effects of gravity with nothing more than a thought?" He/she raised an eyebrow, "Even the most brilliant of scientists still don't fully understand the quantum field that we twisted tap into... You should all remember that you can't take things for granted. Even when you think you understand the way things work, there are always other elements and unknown forces which effect them and could change the outcome."

"And your point is?" I asked with a strong note of sarcasm.

Thylan wasn't bothered by my attitude. He/she along with all the other teachers had learned what to expect of me since my twist. In fact, most of them were pretty understanding. There were a lot of odd things to get used to in Spiral and the teachers saw most of them when they first appeared.

"My point," Thylan looked around the class, "Is that you can't know and understand everything, no matter how much you know. Physics is not merely a list of natural laws... It is the process of discovering them and how they interact." He/she looked around again, "Just remember that you can't take anything, even something like gravity for granted."

After this tangent, Thylan went back to his lecture on gravity, giving a few more demonstrations of what he/she was talking about. This was actually pretty normal for him/her though, giving demonstrations and going off on philosophical tangents. Thylan's classes were never boring which was why he/she was one of the most popular teachers in the school.

When class let out, I hurried out with of the room with a sigh of relief. Thylan might not be as bad as most teachers, but I'd still been sitting in class thinking about other things I could be doing. Unfortunately, school wasn't done for the day.

I had barely left Thylan's class when I saw more girls going ga-ga over some guy. But this time, it was Maddy Sawyer gushing about it to her friends. She had the same dreamy lovesick look as the other girls I'd seen and it sent a shiver down my spine. There was something really weird going on here and I didn't like it. Not one bit.

"As long as it leaves me the fuck alone," I grimaced.

I was always irritable and on edge when I had blue hair, but today was worse than normal. I kept seeing girls who'd suddenly developed a new crush and were acting all love-sick. Normally, I'd mind my own business and ignore them...or maybe make a few side comments. But I couldn't escape the feeling that something nasty was just around the corner. I was getting more and more paranoid about this as the day went on.

When I met up with Jason between classes, I saw the grim look on his face and immediately felt even nastier. "What's wrong?" I demanded, not even bothering to keep the angry tone out of my voice.

"It's Leila," he blurted out with a pale expression.

"What about her?" I asked in an almost deadly tone. I might not have the temper I did as a red head, but I was more than a little on edge and ready to lash out at someone. Unfortunately for Jason, he was the only one in front of me at the moment.

Jason cringed back a little, then took a deep breath, "She's acting weird..." He gulped, glancing around nervously, "Really weird..."

"She says she's in love," Jason almost whispered guiltily, "With some guy... I...I've never seen her like this."

"Some guy?" I grimaced, that sinking feeling in my stomach getting much MUCH worse.

With the trouble Leila and I had hooking up because I was a former guy, I had no doubt that she'd ever be interested in one who was still a guy, much less in love. I clenched my fists, now absolutely positive that something was seriously fucked up. I might have overlooked most of it before, but now someone was fucking with me and mine and that made this personal.

"Where is she?" I demanded with enough viciousness in my voice that Jason took another nervous step back.

Jason hesitated a moment before saying, "This way..."

Jason started down the hallway without even waiting for me to follow. Of course, he didn't need to wait since I was right on his tail, about ready to snap at him to move even faster. I had no room in me for patience at the moment, even for one of my closest friends.

Jason led me through the school until we stopped at a spot where there were more than a dozen girls gathered around and gasping in delight. The girls were all going on at once so I couldn't make much of what was being said, but they all looked completely love struck. What was more surprising was that Leila was one of them.

"Leila," I exclaimed, though she didn't seem to hear me.

Then I finally noticed that all the girls were surrounding a single guy. He was tall, athletic looking and somewhat handsome. There was also something vaguely familiar about him though I couldn't place it.

"Leila," I grabbed my girlfriend's shoulder, "What the fuck is going on?"

"Isn't he perfect?" Leila exclaimed with a dreamy look on her face.

I stared at her in shock, hardly able to believe I was hearing this from Leila. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with you?" she demanded, suddenly angry. "You're just jealous..."

Sure, I was jealous, but I was more pissed off at what was going on, even if I had no real idea of what that was. Still, I knew that HE was involved. I turned my attention to the guy and shoved several girls out of the way, determined to give him a good piece of my mind and perhaps a few good injuries.

"Who the fuck are you and what the hell did you do to Leila?" I demanded, trying to stay focused instead of just flying completely off the handle. It wasn't easy but at least I didn't attack him...yet.

The boy stared at me with a look of surprise and then delight. Then he grinned, "It's you..."

"Yeah it's me," I snapped, "But who the hell are you?"

"You don't recognize me?" he asked in delight, then smirked, "I guess I have changed... I mean, I just had my twist and all..."

He flexed his arm, looking rather proud. The girls surrounding us oooed and aaaahed, even though one of them had muscles that were twice the size of his.

I glared at him, more than a little annoyed at this guessing game. Then I suddenly realized who he was. It was Zach, the same scrawny guy I'd saved from both Simon and Maddy. That's why he looked familiar. Jason had told me a couple days ago that he'd gone through his twist, which explained why I hadn't recognized him. It also explained what was going on.

"You're using your trick on them," I gestured to the girls, feeling even more angry. This offended me to my very core, and not just the part with my current rebellious persona. I also felt a little guilty because I realized his trick must be similar to the attraction aura I had when I had black hair. "Stop it...NOW."

"Why?" Zach asked, looking almost surprised that I'd ever suggest such a thing. "This is great... I mean, the girls always ignored me before, but now..." He smirked, looking more than pleased with himself.

"You fucking prick," I snarled, clenching a fist to punch him.

But before I could throw my punch, Jason cried out, "Watch out Jen..."

Suddenly several girls had grabbed me and where holding me back. "How dare you threaten him," one of them hissed in my face. It took me a moment to realize that it was Leila. She had a manic obsessed look in her eyes that actually frightened me.

"You just don't understand Zach," another girl cooed, "He's so wonderful..."

"You're fucking nuts," I spat into her face, "He's brainwashed you..."

"Don't be like that," Zach said, actually looking hurt. "I like you... You stood up for me when no one else did..."

I spat in his face, "And now I'm gonna kick your fucking ass..."

I struggled with the girls who were holding me, trying to get loose. I was about to turn on my force field to see if that would help, when I suddenly felt a strange cold chill on my arm. It was only then that I noticed Zach had reached out and touched me there. He had an almost eager grin on his face.

"I'll make you like me again," Zach said insistently.

"What are you...?" I started, then froze with a gasp as I felt my emotions swirling inside me and shifting to something unnatural. I turned on my force field and pulled back away from the girls, but it did no good. It was too late...

I staggered back, awash in new emotions. It was much like the first time I shifted to a new hair color and persona, except that this time I'd already seen the girls around me with the same one. I looked at Zach, suddenly realizing how cute he was. He was so nice and sweet....

"Jen!" Jason cried out with a look of horror on his face.

"NO!" I screamed, fighting against that swirl of new affection for Zach. I wanted to strangle him....to kick his ass. I wanted to kiss him and caress him. I hated him. I loved him. These new emotions and thoughts were quickly gaining ground, pushing aside my bad attitude.

I tried to think of a way to fight this but all I could think of were the mental exercised Amy had taught me to control my emotions. I grabbed onto that, trying to perform the mental exercises, trying to distance myself from my emotions and focus on what made sense from a logical point of view.

"NO!" I cried out again, tears rushing down my cheek as I fought the nearly overwhelming urge to throw myself on Zach's mercy and beg him to forgive me. I didn't deserve his love, but I still craved it. He was so perfect...so dreamy. I bit back on my emotions again, then used all the willpower I had left to turn and run as fast as I could, hoping that distance might weaken his old on me.

"JEN!" Jason called out behind me, though I paid no attention to him. I was too intend on the emotional war that was being fought in my own mind.

"She'll come back soon enough," Zach exclaimed proudly and I knew that he was right. I couldn't stay away from my one true love...

I ran as hard as I could, shoving people in the hallway out of my way. I had no concerns for them, just the emotions swirling inside me. If it wasn't for the fact that I was used to shifting emotions and that I had those mental exercises to handle them, I would have lost already. As it was, I was barely hanging on.

I was halfway to the other side of the school before I final collapsed to my knees in the middle of the hallway, not sure that I could run or fight a moment longer. I so wanted to go back to that perfect man... I wasn't even sure why I was fighting this anymore, though I still was for some reason. It felt so nice to love Zach... But still, a small part of me held on...

Then I felt the familiar sensation of my hair color and personality shifting again. In an instant, I felt absolutely calm and clear headed. It was a complete opposite of the emotional storm that filled me just moments before. My love for Zach hadn't completely vanished, but it was faint and distant...almost detached.

"Interesting," I mused as I slowly got back to my feet, absently noting that I had taken on another new personality.

I considered my emotions, or at least the forced emotions that Zach had given me. From my new perspective, I could examine them almost as though they belonged to someone else entirely. And though they had seemed completely overwhelming just moments before, I now saw them to be weak. Whether they were caused by some empathic power, pheromones, or some other emotion manipulation trick, I could see them for the false constructs they were. And with that realization came the power to erase them with little more than a thought.

"I'm free of Zach's influence," I stated simply, a little confused by the fact that I didn't feel excited by this. Intellectually, I knew that I should be celebrating my victory over Zach's trick, but I didn't feel excited. I suppose I felt a vague excitement, but as with the forced emotions it felt vague and detached.

I knew that I had taken on a whole new persona, but I didn't yet know what color my hair had become. With only a faint curiosity, I reached for my hair and took a long look. It was pure white, the same color as fresh snow. I let it go and considered what my next move should be.

"My trick," I thought aloud, knowing that my trick always shifted along with my personality and hair color.

I looked around the hall to ensure that no one was close to me...just in case, then I activated my trick. I had no bright glowing aura around me, yet I could sense that it was indeed there. In fact, I could suddenly sense a great deal.

For several seconds I just stood there motionless, absorbing all the information that came to me from my aura. It was as though I could see in every direction around me at once. I could see in other spectrums than just that of visible light. I could even see that one student who walked past me had an extra heart, in spite of the fact that nothing on the outside gave the slightest hint of this.

"Fascinating," I mused with a faint stirring of excitement deep inside. However, what remained on the surface was that calm clarity I'd felt since shifting.

I considered for a moment that it was extremely fortunate that I shifted to this particular persona when I did. Calm and clear thinking were what I needed to control my emotions. This was the perfect personality to fight off a trick that controls people's emotions. However, it was far too fortune to be coincidence.

This wasn't the first time that I'd shifted persona in such an overly coincidental manner. When I'd watched Big Sue beating up on Simon, my own anger seemed to have triggered my shift to my redheaded persona, one much more suitable for dealing with the situation. When Leila had run away from me, I had shifted to my brown haired persona...one that could cry and seek comfort more acceptably. It seemed that my shifts weren't entirely random as I'd thought, but that my environment and emotional state could influence them as well.

"Interesting," I mused, realizing that if this was the case then I might one day learn to control when and how I shifted. That could be quite useful.

Since I was thinking about useful things, my thoughts turned back to my new sensory field and all the new information it was providing me. I stretched my senses out a little more, finding it difficult to manage so much mental input at once. Then I wondered if I could turn my senses inward. I concentrated on what I could sense from the inside of the field and found myself bombarded with more information.

"Too much," I winced, feeling a faint stirring of fear though it didn't reach the surface. I shifted my focus until the information was easier to manage.

With my new internal senses, I became away of things in my body that I had never before noticed. I could see that my first period was due to start within the next week. I could see a tiny knot of tissue in one breast that had the potential to become cancerous one day. I would have to have it removed before then. Then I became aware of other more important things.

I realized that my new awareness extended beyond the mere physical. I could sense other things as well, though much more vaguely. One thing I became aware of was that my twist wasn't quit what I thought. My various shifting personas were not just my becoming the stereotypes I held of those hair colors, but were actually aspects of my own personality coming to the surface. What that said about my various personas was something I would have to talk with Amy about.

I felt surprised, or at least a stirring of it deep inside as I realized that I also had two more personalities which had yet to emerge. Up until this point, I had assumed that I'd already discovered them all. Of course, my latest one proved that theory wrong so I shouldn't have assumed it was the last.

My awareness of these two new personalities were rather limited and I had to focus my new senses in order to learn more than just that they existed. Even that only provided a limited amount of information though.

The first of these personalities somehow gave me the impression of being very caring and compassionate. I also had a vague sense of the color green, though whether this was my hair color, the color of my aura, or both I didn't know. With a little more concentration, I picked up enough to guess that my trick would have something to do with healing... Considering the nature of that persona, I suspected it might be a healing aura that would let me heal injuries that came in contact with it. However, this was pure speculation based on my understanding of how my tricks worked with each persona.

My second hidden persona was even more vague than the first, feeling almost slippery and mercurial in my mind. The only things I could truly sense about it were the color violet and a strong feeling of mischief. I didn't even have a clue as to what my special aura might do. It would also seem that this persona was much less stable than the previous one, making it harder to understand. I had a feeling that it could also get me into a great deal of trouble if I wasn't careful.

"I'll have to speak with Amy about learning to control myself before then," I considered aloud.

I actually felt a vague relief at learning what my two remaining personas were. I could very well have gained one that left me sociopathic or with a suicidal depression. Other extremely bad possibilities came to mind, making me realize how lucky I actually was.

After a minute, I turned off my sensory aura and blinked as my senses returned to a more normal level. After that experience, I almost felt blindfolded in comparison.

It was only then that I remembered why I had been running and fighting my emotions in the first place. I'd been so distracted by my shift and the sensory overload of my new trick that I'd almost completely forgotten about Zach and Leila. I felt a faint stirring of anger and urgency, but I wasn't going to let that drive me to doing something rash.

I couldn't help but briefly thinking that Amy had been teaching me to control my emotions, to make decisions based on careful consideration instead of what I felt at the moment. It seemed that my current persona exemplified that. I wondered what she'd say about this.

Of course, I didn't have time to consider such things when I still had to deal with Zach. My emotions might currently be weak and distant, but I was still worried about Leila. When I thought about what Zach had done to her, my emotions grew strong enough to almost break through to the surface. However, my calm held for the moment.

A moment later, I started walking back towards where I'd encountered Zach and Leila. A little voice in the back of my mind demanded more urgency, but I ignored it. I might not have a plan, but I didn't want to rush into things either. That was how you made mistakes.

Of course, I knew that time could be very important in this situation. I had no idea how Zach's trick really worked. Was his touch permanent? With the ease that I'd broken it, I doubted that. However, it was possible that the longer someone was under it's influence the harder it would be to remove. My best option at the moment was the hope that Zach could actually turn it off...and that I could convince him. I wasn't foolish enough to believe it was that easy however. I would need to find some form of leverage first. And to do that, I would have to get closer to him.

Zach wasn't quite where I left him, though I had no problem finding where he went. I could hear the voices of girls talking excitedly a short distance away and knew exactly where to go. I quickly found him, still surrounded by a dozen or so girls. I wasn't sure, but I thought that at least one or two of them might be new additions.

I saw Jason as well, though he was well back from the group and just watching them. "Jen," he exclaimed when he saw me, staring at me nervously, obviously afraid that I'd fallen under the same spell as Leila. "Your hair changed again...."

"I know," I responded simply, not taking my eyes off of Leila and the lovesick expression on her face. I'd come extremely close to having the same expression on mine. If I'd been more connected to my emotions, that probably would have made me sick and disgusted just thinking about it.

Zach looked over and saw me, then grinned in delight. "You came back..." His expression turned smug as he added, "I knew you would."

"Now you know how great he is," Leila beamed, causing me to feel a faint swirling of emotion that would have been overwhelming had I been in any of my other personas.

"I know that he's using a trick to make you feel that way," I said simply, realizing as I said it that this might not be the most effective tactic. It might have been better to pretend I was under his spell as well until I could discover a way of freeing Leila. However, it was too late to worry about that now.

"What?" Zach stared at me in confusion and disbelief. I was probably the first person to have shaken off the effects of his trick.

"Release them all from your control," I told him calmly. "You know there are laws against using your trick on people in this way."

"So what?" Zach glared at me, angry that I wasn't under his spell.

"There are consequences to your actions," I pointed out, thinking that these people he was controlling all had friends and family who'd want revenge as well. I counted myself among those. "Do you honestly think you can get away with doing this?'

Zach's glare grew even more furious. "I finally have something good happen to me and you want to take it away..." His eyes narrowed dangerously, "I thought you were different... But you're just like them... You're just like everyone else, trying to tell me what to do?"

"How could you?" Leila demanded, staring at me with a look of anger and betrayal. "He liked you and you betray him like this..."

"You'd better get out of there Jen," Jason called from behind me, sounding extremely nervous. "I think things are about to get nasty..."

Before I could do anything, several of the girls jumped at me. I struggled to pull away from their grabbing hands, almost feeling guilty when I had to push Leila in order to get away from her. However, she wasn't in her right mind and I had no doubt that she'd eagerly tear me apart if Zach asked her to.

I turned on my trick sensory aura in order to gain some advantage, but it backfired and I gasped as I was overwhelmed with more sensory input that I could handle. I turned it off again but was dazed and confused for a moment as I tried to regain my footing. The girls took that moment of distraction to swarm over me. I was held tightly by a dozen girls.

"Let her go!" Jason yelled, rushing to my aid and trying to pull the girls off.

One of the girls was pretty tall and muscular, though not nearly at the level of Simon's sister Big Sue. However, she was at least five inches taller than Jason and much more muscular. She shoved him and send him flying back without much trouble. Then she stood between him and the other girls with a look of determination.

While I was held tight and Jason was unable to come to my assistance, Zach took the opportunity to come closer again. He paused to stare at me with a smirk before touching me again. I suddenly felt the effects of his trick again, the growing swirl of love and obsession towards him.

"It must have stopped working when you changed hair colors," Zach said, stepping back with a smug look.

I just stared at Zach with a calm expression, then calmly erased the emotions he'd tried forcing onto me. It was even easier than it had been the first time. With my current persona, I was virtually immune to his trick. Unfortunately, the trick that came with this particular persona was great for gathering information but useless for actually defending me. At the moment, it would have been extremely useful to have my pain field or even my own attraction aura.

I realized that I'd made yet another mistake when it came to dealing with Zach. Instead of coming back to confront him, I should have gone to some teachers for help. Unfortunately, emotional control doesn't equal clear thinking

My mind raced as I quickly tried thinking of something I could do. There wasn't much I could do against more than a dozen girls, several of which had useful tricks. Nor could I do much against Zach who was physically larger and stronger than me now. I would have to find another option. It took me a moment but I quickly came up with a plan. Maybe it wasn't too late to rectify one of my mistakes after all...

I changed my expression and tried to give the same kind of dreamy grin that the other girls around me had, though I wasn't certainly how successful I was. Without close contact to my emotions, it was hard to really fake them.

After a few seconds, I gasped, "Wow... You're so smart..."

I was sure that my acting was bad, but it was good enough to fool Zach who grinned smugly and ordered the girls holding me, "Let her go... It worked..."

The girls all let me go though a couple of them gave me skeptical looks. It didn't seem to matter if they believed my acting or not, just as long as Zach did. They weren't about to disobey him or question his orders.

"NOOOO," Jason cried out in horror.

I couldn't warn Jason that I was just playing along, so I continued with my fake smile, "Isn't he wonderful..." Most of the girls around me nodded agreement while Jason looked even more horrified.

"I'm glad you've realized that," Leila told me with a happy grin.

"No Jen," Jason called to me, "Remember who you really are..." He stared at me for a moment longer before turning and running down the hall away from us as fast as he could.

"I guess he chickened out," the big muscular girl smirked, almost looking disappointed that she'd missed her chance to beat him up.

"That'll teach him not to try messing with me," Zach bragged, as though Jason had actually been afraid of him. Then again, Zach was a lot taller and more muscular than he had been so perhaps Jason was afraid. However, I doubted that kind of fear was what drove Jason to flee.

"Look at him run," Leila snickered, though there was a faint look of doubt in her eyes for just a moment. It seemed that Zach's trick wasn't enough to make her forget about her past loyalties entirely.

"Too bad my trick doesn't work on guys," Zach muttered, more to himself than anyone else. Then he brightened up, "Then again, it might get kind of weird if guys were all over me like this."

I just smiled and nodded while absorbing his comment. I'd already suspected that his trick only worked on girls since I'd only seen girls fawning all over him. This confirmation merely gave me more confidence in his ability to be stopped.

Just then, Zach grabbed me and surprised me with a kiss to my lips. If this had happened at nearly any other time, I would have been overwhelmed with anger and disgust. I had absolutely no interest in kissing boys and would normally react quite strongly to this. However, my current persona was a bit more reserved. I felt those emotions in the background, but they didn't erupt to the surface or even show. I kept the same dreamy expression and showed no sign of what I really thought.

I knew that I would really regret this later, that I'd be disgusted at myself. But I was driven by something other than my emotions at the moment and I continued playing along, looking for my opportunity. I only wished that I had a better idea as to what that opportunity would look like.

Seconds later, I heard Jason's voice yell, "There he is...!"

I turned and looked down the hallway where I saw that Jason had returned, but not alone. He stood beside Mr. Edwards, a short and squat man who I immediately recognized as the school music teacher. He certainly wasn't a person that I'd consider as useful in stopping a mind controlling megalomaniac with plans for school conquest, but beggers can't be choosers.

"What's going on here?" Mr. Edwards demanded in a less than threatening voice. In fact, his soprano voice might be great for singing, but it made Zach and all the girls near him burst out laughing.

"You leave Zach alone," the muscular girl snarled as she moved towards Jason and Mr. Edwards.

I had no idea of Mr. Edwards had any tricks that could be useful, nor did I intend to wait and find out. I recognized this opportunity and took immediate advantage of the distraction, turning and slamming my knee right into Zach's groin. He let out a loud yelp of pain before collapsing to the ground, curled up in a ball and crying.

"I fully understand how much that hurts," I stated calmly and without sympathy as I dropped my fawning mask.

"You...you hurt him," one girl exclaimed, staring at me with a look of blank confusion.

Several girls looked angry for a moment, but most of them were just dazed and confused. Leila stared at me with a look of confusion as well, as though not sure she should be angry with me or something else. I felt a faint fluttering of hope deep inside.

"You bastard," Zach squeaked out, a look of anguish on his face.

"You're the bastard," Leila suddenly snarled, kicking Zach in the ribs as hard as she could while he was still on the ground. Now there was no doubt as to her expression. She was pissed. REALLY pissed. And so were all the other girls as they began regaining control over their own emotions.

"It seems your trick wore off," I told Zach, not sure if it was the pain or if just being distracted was enough. However, the fact that the girls were all free from his control was undeniable.

"What's going on here?" Mr. Edwards demanded, looking confused.

I looked at Jason and Mr. Edwards for a moment before gesturing to Zach. "Zach Moore has been using his new trick to control the minds and emotions of various girls around school, myself included."

"You fucking bastard," the muscular girl snarled furiously, taking her turn to kick at Zach.

"No," Zach gasped as all the girls started to kick him, eager to take their revenge on the boy who'd emotionally raped them.

"Don't touch him," I warned loudly, though they all ignored me until I added, "He might infect you again..." That was enough to have all the girls back away, though several of them continued to spit on him.

"Is this true?" Mr. Edwards gasped, staring at Zach in horror. The accusations were severe enough that he didn't even seem to care that the girls were taking their anger out on Zach.

"He made me love him," one girl exclaimed while the others began to echo similar statements.

"My God," Leila grimaced, looking disgusted, "I can't believe I felt like that for him..." She looked at me, her eyes going wide, "Oh God Jen...I'm so sorry."

"Quite understandable," I answered simply, earning a strange look from Leila.

"Your hair..." she started, cautiously touching out to touch my white hair.

"My new persona is...calm," I explained, "I don't feel much emotion at the moment."

"Really?" Jason asked as he came up. "You sure did a minute ago..."

"No," I shook my head. "I was pretending in order to get close to him. Right now, I'm effectively immune from his trick."

"I wish I was," Leila grimaced, turning to glare at Zach once more.

Zach was getting to his feet by this time though all the girls were keeping back. One of them warned Mr. Edwards that Zach had to touch a girl in order to manipulate her emotions. He just glared at Zach with barely contained anger. These accusations were quite serious and enough to not only get Zach expelled from school, but possibly facing criminal charges as well.

My emotions might have been dimmed, but I was suddenly thankful that I hadn't used my attraction aura like that. That kind of power would be far too easy to abuse, as Zach had just shown. I could have gotten myself into the same kind of trouble and still might if I wasn't careful. It was a good thing that I'd kept the existence of my attraction aura quiet.

Suddenly Leila threw her arms around me and gave me a kiss on my lips. It was enough to spark my hormones if not all my emotions. My emotions might be dimmed at the moment, but I could still feel something from the kiss, even if not as much as normal.

"Thanks," Leila told me, shaking a bit as she did so. "I can't believe what..." She clutched my hand for comfort while glaring hatefully at Zach. "That weasel..."

"I didn't do anything," Zach protested, looking as though he might be bruised all over his body now, though not in nearly as much pain as a few minutes earlier. "They're lying... She's out to get me..." He pointed at me.

Leila lost it at that and suddenly punched Zach as hard as she could, which was quite a bit harder than I would have expected of her. His head snapped back and a spurt of blood burst out of his nose. However, Leila wasn't quite done and a moment later, Zach's skin all turned a bright...almost neon shade of pink.

"He made me love him," Leila hissed to Mr. Edwards, daring the teacher to make something of Leila's use of her trick on another student. He wisely decided not to make an issue of it.

"Look what she did!" Zach cried out with a look of horror and near panic on his face as he held up his hands, staring at their new pink color.

"Come with me," Mr. Edwards ordered Zach.

"NO!" Zach yelled, "You're all out to get me... You're just jealous..."

Zach suddenly lunged at me and Leila, but before he'd even covered half the distance he suddenly collapsed to the floor. He shook and spasmed a little, but made no more threatening moves. In fact, he reminded me of nothing so much as a fish flopping around on dry land.

"I can't move," Zach gasped, his voice shaky and weak, not to mention filled with fear and confusion.

"My trick," Mr. Edwards resounded grimly. "If you'll behave and come with me, I'll let you move again. If not, you can stay here until the police arrive..."

"I'll testify against him," the muscular girl told Mr. Edwards, "We all will..." The girls all nodded agreement and I could see the eagerness to get even in nearly every one of their eyes.

Jason, Leila, and I watched as Zach reluctantly nodded agreement to Mr. Edwards and then was allowed to get back to his feet. He looked at the girls surrounding him, his eyes filled with a mixture of fear and desire. I could almost see the temptation to reach out and start touching them again. The only things keeping him from starting this all over again were the facts that the girls were all keeping out of arms reach and Mr. Edwards was there with the threat of his trick.

Once Mr. Edwards had led Zach down the hall in the direction of the principals office, Leila threw herself against me again and gave me a passionate kiss on my lips. "Thank you... Thank you so much..." She had tears in her eyes as she said this.

Before I could think of anything to say in response, the other girls started patting me on the shoulder, saying things like, "Thanks a lot girl..." and "I owe you big time..."

"The way you took him out," the muscular girl shook her head, looking at me in admiration. "That was priceless..."

"I knew you were fooling," a purple haired Asian girl grinned at me before walking off, "You're not much of an actress..."

The girls all drifted off after this, many of them heading towards the school office so they could give their statements, or at least leave their names. The muscular girl was the last one to go and she nodded to me before leaving, "If you ever need me for anything, just let me know..." Then she paused for just a moment to look at Jason with an expression of embarrassment, "Sorry about that..."

Once they were all gone, Jason exclaimed, "You had me worried..." He shook his head, "I thought he'd gotten you..."

"He had," I pointed out. "I broke his hold though."

"How?" Leila demanded, looking more than a little jealous, "I knew what he did and I still didn't even want to be free..."

"And now here you are acting as calm as can be," Jason snorted.

I shrugged, "It's the nature of my current persona." I touched my white hair, "I'm calm... Calm and controlled. I barely feel any emotions at all like this, which was how I was able to break free of his control. He only controls emotions."

"Nasty," Leila shuddered, "You do know I'm jealous..."

"Of course," I answered, earning a glare and then a chuckle.

"At least tell me more about this new hair color," Jason urged, trying to change the subject, "I mean, do you have a new trick."

"Of course," I answered as though it was the most obvious thing.

"Well?" Leila gave an exasperated sigh as she put an arm around my shoulder, "What is it?"

I looked back and forth at the two of them for a moment, considering the idea of changing the subject and reminding them that we all had classes to get to. However, I could see the looks in their eyes and knew that they would continue pestering me until they got answers.

"Very well," I finally answered, already walking towards my next class while my friends came with, "I'll tell you everything I know about the three new personas I've discovered..."

"THREE?" Leila and Jason demanded as one. Both of them stared at me as though sure I was joking.

A small voice in the back of my mind was absolutely delighted with their reactions and urged me to drag this out. However, I ignored that and began to calmly tell them everything, as though this and my final two personas were nothing unusual or important. In hindsight, I later realized that this behavior got to my friends even more than if I'd intentionally teased them.

It was a nice day with near perfect weather. The sky was mostly clear and it was warm without being too hot. In short, it was perfect weather for a fair. And a fair in Spiral was unlike a fair anywhere else.

I stood back and sniffed the air, catching scents of popcorn, cotton candy, and a thousand other scents I couldn't identify. Some of them weren't nearly as pleasant as popcorn, especially since the petting zoo area was a short distance away. Still, I was surrounded by the unmistakable scent of a fair, the same scent that lingered around every fair regardless of where it was.

There were other things though that were more distinct to Spiral. There was a fortune tellers tent, probably occupied by a Twisted with a trick to read minds or see the future for real. Another tent had a woman who promised a 'natural' means of breast enlargement using her trick. Only in Spiral could you find stands like that.

"All right," Tina exclaimed with a bright and eager grin. Her eyes darted around, "I'm going to have an elephant year... I love elephant ears. I used to get them all the time when I was a kid. Then I'm going on that ride," she pointed at one that stuck out in the distance before finally winking to Leila, "Then I'm going to go looking for some cute boys..."

"Take it easy," I warned Tina, "You don't want to overdo it... And you should probably put on some sun block too..."

"Yes mom," Tina responded with a roll of her eyes, causing Jason and Leila to both burst out laughing.

"You are acting kind of motherly," Jason pointed out with a smirk.

"It's not my fault I care," I responded, feeling a little hurt. They all laughed again.

I sighed and absently ran a hand through my green hair, wondering when I was going to shift again. Several hours ago, Tina had accidentally cut her finger in the kitchen and I was so worried that I shifted to my green haired persona for the first time. Suddenly, I'd become extremely caring about other people...and as Tina kept pointing out...very maternal.

Fortunately, my latest persona came with a nifty trick. I could create a glowing green aura around my body and then heal minor injuries in other people just by touching them. I quickly took care of Tina's cut, then sat around worrying about her since.

"You are a bit of a stick in the mud," Tina told me with a shake of her head. "But at least you have a useful trick..."

I frowned, reluctantly having to agree that Tina was right. I was a bit of a stick in the mud right now. I cared so much about everyone else, spent so much of my thoughts wanting them to be safe and okay that I didn't have much left for myself. I was acting like a mother and I couldn't really help it. It was the personality that came along with my new hair color, much to my annoyance.

"It could be worse though," I added, then absently reached over and plucked a piece of lint from Leila's shoulder. She stared at me for a moment and giggled. "I'm sorry..."

I let out a long sigh, wishing that I could just shift back and forth between personas at will. It would make things so much easier for me. Of course, I was trying. Ever since I'd discovered my white haired persona and realized that I had the potential to control my shifts, I'd been meditating and working with Amy just so I could. So far there hadn't been a lot of progress, but I was still pretty hopeful.

"I've been trying for two weeks and I still can't control it," I muttered to myself with a sigh.

"You'll get there," Leila assured me with a grin.

Just then, a little girl went running past us, laughing and giggling as she pulled a balloon behind her on a string. She hadn't gone much further though when she tripped and fell face first onto the ground. Her balloon slipped loose and floated away, and whether it was the loss of the balloon or whether she hurt herself, she suddenly burst into loud tears.

I felt an immediate surge of sympathy and ran to the girl before I'd even thought about it, "Are you all right?" I asked her as I gently helped her to her feet, trying to see if she was okay. Her knees were scraped up, making feel want to take care of her even more. "I'm Jen..."

"I'm Nina," the girl responded tearfully, looking oh so sad and pitiful.

"Are your parents around?" I looked around but didn't see anyone who seemed to go with the girl. Then I looked down at Nina's scraped knees and knew I had to take care of that. "Let me help you..."

I took a deep breath and turned on my healing aura. A faint green glow sprang up around me, causing Nina to gasp in surprise. I gently assured her that everything would be all right and put my hand to one of her knees. I felt a strange tingling where my aura touched her knee and when I pulled my hand back, there was no sign of an injury on that knee. I quickly turned my attention to the other knee and healed it as well.

"It doesn't hurt anymore," Nina said a little more brightly. She gave me a nervous smile as she touched her knees.

"Good," I smiled in relief, "I'm just sorry I can't do anything about your balloon..."

"Nina!" a woman's voice suddenly cried out. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"She's all right," I quickly assured the attractive woman who came running up with a worried look on her face. "She just scraped her knees a little and lost her balloon..."

"Hi daddy," Nina grinned up at the woman. I was a little startled that Nina would call the woman 'daddy' instead of 'mommy', but this was Spiral and there were lots of strange twists. "She made my knees not hurt..."

Nina's 'daddy' gave me an appreciative look and said, "Thank you so much," before she pulled Nina off, saying, "Let's get you a new balloon...okay..."

"Wow, you were like a natural," Tina said with an impressed look as I came back.

"If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were the mom here," Leila teased me and Tina both.

Tina just responded by sticking her tongue out at Leila, then shrugging, "She's welcome to the job if she wants it..."

I blushed at that, not sure what to say. It was kind of embarrassing to be so emotional and everything. In spite of all that had happened to me, I still thought of myself as a guy deep inside and probably always would to some degree. But at least I wasn't dangerous to anyone when I was like this.

A moment later, Tina broke out in a huge grin. "Oooh... I just saw a really hot boy I'm gonna go talk to..." She winked at me, "I'll see you later MOM...." And with a loud laugh, she hurried off.

"Be careful," I called out after her, only to get even more laugher from Jason and Leila.

"Man, it's a good thing you didn't have this one come out after Zach touched you," Jason exclaimed, "He would have had you wrapped around his fingers..."

Leila and I both shuddered slightly at that, though she was the one who glared at Jason. It had been two weeks since that encounter with Zach, and I still had nightmares at the thought of just how close I'd come to being his love slave. It was hard to believe that the skinny guy everyone picked on had become one of the biggest threats in the history of the school. And in Spiral, that's really saying something.

"At least you stopped him before he really got going," Leila reminded me, "Imagine if he got all the girls in school... We would have been like an army for him... No one would have been able to get close..."

"I could have taken him," Jason bragged, then more quietly admitted, "If I could have gotten close..."

"I rest my point," Leila smirked. "No guy could get near him..."

"The poor guy," I sighed, feeling sorry for Zach in spite of myself. I knew I shouldn't feel sorry for him, that I should be really pissed at him instead. But at the moment, anger wasn't an emotion I was really in touch with. Instead, I was caring and nurturing. "He must be so lonely..."

"I felt sorry for him before he turned into a lunatic," Leila grimaced. "I mean, give him a little power and it goes right to his head..."

"What do you expect?" Jason shrugged, "I mean, one day just about everyone was picking on him, and the next he can make people like him for a change... Of course he's gonna do it..."

"You would take his side," Leila glared at Jason again, "You weren't the one under his control..."

"I just feel sorry for him being locked up," I told them, also thinking of the fact that his skin had been permanently turned bright pink. Neither Leila or Jason looked very sympathetic though.

After Zach had been removed form the school, he'd been put into the local detention center and kept away from all girls. From what I'd heard, they planned on keeping him there for a bit longer, making him go to counseling until they were sure it was safe to release him.

"I guess that's one of the downsides of Spiral," Jason scowled, looking almost depressed. "I mean, some Twisted are dangerous and some really get nasty twists..." He shook his head and asked, "You remember David Lucas from last year?"

"Yeah," I shuddered at the memory.

I hadn't really known David personally, but I saw him around the school. He'd been a fairly popular guy who played on a few sports teams, at least before his twist. After he went through his twist, he became a severe masochist, obsessed with hurting himself. The last rumor I'd heard was that his parents took him away and had him locked up in a padded room where he could be protected from himself.

"Who?" Leila asked with a blank look. The whole David thing had happened long before she moved to Spiral and our school so she had no idea who we were talking about.

"Zach isn't anything like that though," Jason said with a forced smile, "I mean, he just needs to learn a little self control and all... After this, people know what to look for when he's using his trick. He'll never be able to get away with something like that again. You know the school takes precautions..."

"Like having teachers with wicked tricks?" Leila asked with a wry grin, obviously remembering how easily the non-threatening looking Mr. Edwards had dropped Zach.

"He'll probably be back in school in a month or two," Jason shrugged.

I suspected Jason was probably right. Of course, since all the girls in school now know about Zach's trick, they'll be avoiding him even more than before.

"Well," Jason grinned, "Since we're at the fair, we should probably find a good ride..." Then he looked at me and grunted, "I just wish you were a bit more fun at the moment..."

"He does have a point," Leila admitted. "You do tend to worry too much like this." She gestured to my green hair.

I just nodded at that, biting down the comment about how it might be too soon after eating lunch for fast rides. I knew that wouldn't be appreciated just as well as I knew that I'd hate myself later for saying such thing. But at the moment, I couldn't help but being concerned about those I cared for.

"I'm sorry I'm ruining your fun," I apologized, feeling bad for the way I was making them feel. I just wanted them to have fun here at the fair and I wasn't doing anything to help it.

Then I suddenly felt it, the familiar tingle that meant I was going through a persona shift. A moment later, I suddenly felt light and free. I grinned automatically, feeling amused though I didn't know what I was amused by. What I did know was that this felt different. This felt new.

"Your hair," Jason exclaimed unnecessarily.

I reached for some of my hair so I could get a better look at it, already knowing what I'd see. My hair was now a sort of violet color. I'd just unlocked my final hair color and persona. I grinned with amusement, feeling rather mischievious as I saw the look on Jason's face.

"I wondered when this one would come out," I laughed, feeling so carefree.

I closed my eyes, trying to get a better sense for what I felt...for who I now was. I felt amused and somewhat excited, not to mention a bit mischievious. That seemed to define my current persona. I felt mischievious. Of course, I'd already had a vague sense of that from when I'd sensed deep within myself as a white haired bore, but feeling it myself was different.

Without warning, I grabbed Leila and gave her a long and passionate kiss which she returned just as passionately. I'd surprised her with that move and I think I liked that reaction almost as much as I liked the kiss. It was definitely amusing to surprise her like that. I wondered how else I could surprise them...

I turned to Jason with a grin, then exclaimed, "God I want to kiss you..." Jason and Leila both gasped in surprise and Jason almost staggered back away from me. I burst out laughing, "Just kidding..."

"Thank God," Jason muttered with an embarrassed expression, "I don't want to deal with that kind of problem..."

"And you'd better not be interested in him if you know what's good for you," Leila warned me with a grin.

I just grinned back in delight, musing, "You know, I think this is much better for the fair..." He stood there and grinned, thinking about how perfect the timing was for my latest shift. "I think I might be starting to get some control over this..."

"What about your trick?" Jason asked.

I thought about it for a moment but decided it might be more fun to surprise them with it later on. Of course, I had no real idea of what it was myself and was looking forward to finding out. In fact, a little anticipation just might make the discovery all the more interest. Besides, it might be a good idea to wait until there were less people around before I tried it out.

"It'll wait for now," I grinned, enjoying the exasperated looks of impatience they gave me. "Come on... We're at the fair... Let's go have some fun..."

"I'm all for that," Jason grinned, "I think I like this new personality of yours..."

"Me too," Leila winked at me, still pleased from the kiss I'd surprised her with.

I grabbed Leila's arm and started leading her towards the biggest and most exciting roller coaster. If nothing else, this new persona seemed a perfect match for the fair. I was going to have a blast, of that I had no doubt.

As we went to the ride, I couldn't help but thinking about how much fun it would be to take Tina on it with us. Of course, I also thought about how much fun it would be to catch up with her and show off my new hair color and persona. Who knows, by the time we catch up with her I might even have my new trick ready to show off as well. I grinned at the thought of surprising her with something interesting.

"The new me is definitely interesting," I mused, "My whole life is..."

My life was strange and chaotic, even by the unusual standards of Spiral. I had no idea who I'd be from hour to hour or what my personality would be...but that was okay. I was getting used to it and suspected that I'd get bored now if I had to stay the same all the time.

Life was pretty strange, especially for us Twisted. A simple bad joke could lead to a massive transformation and a change in everything about your life. But as well as being Twisted, I was also human and one thing that the people have proven time and time again is that humans can adapt to almost anything, no matter how strange.

As strange and twisted as my life was, I wouldn't give it up for the world. My twist might have turned me into a girl, given me more personalities than I know what to do with and left me unsure of what I'd think and feel from one minute to the next, but that was all a part of who I was now. All that baggage came with a lot of good thins too, such as a variety of interesting tricks, an ability to see things from new and exciting perspectives, and a great new girlfriend in the form of Leila.

In spite of living a life full of constantly changing hair colors and emotions, I was quite happy with the way things were. Perhaps my current persona was influencing my perspective, making me see interest and excitement where I would otherwise see problems and difficulties. But I doubted it. I'd been having these thoughts for some time, through a variety of different hair colors and perspectives. With all my passing hair colors and personas, there were some things that remained stable and solid, such as the real me...my core personality that the others were reflected from. Even in that part of me, I was happy with who I was.

Then I got close to the roller coaster and broke into an excited grin. Enough thinking about such sappy things. Today was a day for fun and excitement. I pulled Jason and Leila with me to the line, eager to get on and squeeze every bit of excitement out of today that I could. After all, today was a great day, if for no other reason than that it was the first day of the rest of my life.

 

THE END