Chapter 2

“Tori!” Mandy said.

Tori blushed, realizing she shouldn’t stay in character around adults. Sierra said, “It’s true, in the cartoon when he’s a girl, she has big boobs. Mom, Tori had me going for a long time. I didn’t know she was a she. Isn’t that cool?”

Cindy looked at Mandy, then back at her daughter. “Yeah, that’s nice.” She reached into her purse. “Don’t eat junk ... all junk, anyway.”

Mandy sucked in and squeezed her hand into the pocket of her jeans. Cindy noticed her hip bones and the signs of a V cut into her groin. Mandy was in excellent shape. “You too, Tori, eat at least one thing today that’s not bad for you,” Mandy said and pulled a crumpled wad of bills from her pocket.

Both girls agreed while rolling their eyes and took off.

“Ranma is perfect for Tori. She’s such a tomboy,” Mandy said. “I think that’s why we get along so well. I was a tomboy, too.”

Cindy gave the shapely woman a skeptical look. “That’s hard to believe. You’re very, ah, attractive.”

Mandy snaked her curvy body seductively. “Thank you, I was a late bloomer—”She pressed her boobs together—”and didn’t get a whole lot when I finally developed. Tori has more than me.”

Cindy tilted her head to the side. “Um, Tori—”

“Yeah, it’s hard to believe the lengths these kids will go to,” Mandy said. “Please don’t think I’m into these Japanese cartoons, I’m not, but my daughter is, so I know things.”

“I understand,” Cindy said, but she wasn’t sure she did.

“Tori’s character is a boy, but he turns into a girl if he gets wet with cold water. Tori does have breasts, um, crushed under there. Tomorrow, she’ll have red hair, and ponytails, and boobs. Oh, and the reason she said what she did to Sierra is because in the series, Akane and Saotome, argue about whose are bigger.”

Cindy said, “Oh, that explains it.” Why didn’t she know that much about Sierra’s character?

“Don’t tell Tori, but I think Saotome will lose that argument. Sierra has been blessed with your body.”

Cindy hung her head and let her long auburn hair fall forward to hide her blush. “At Sierra’s age, I think it’s more of a curse.”

“Hmm, she does have it going on,” Mandy said. “I bet her father has to beat the boys off ... some of the girls, too, probably.”

Cindy was struck by how forward this young lady was, but it made her smile. Since the separation, she had been isolated for the most part because she didn’t feel comfortable around shared friends, and now she wasn’t sure she had ever liked most of them.

Besides, Mandy was the first person she’d spoken to who was old enough to drink and wasn’t dressed up like a cartoon character. “We’re separated now.” Why did I volunteer that information? “We’re trying to work things out, so it’s a trial thing while we figure it out.”

Mandy grabbed Cindy and pulled her out of the way of a spirited boy waving a revolver. He was charging after a space creature. Cindy was close now, staring at Mandy’s face. The woman’s complexion was flawless except for a thin scar that ran from her cheekbone to her jawline.

Her expressive dark brown eyes should have made her extremely pretty, but they didn’t. Cindy stepped back and asked, “Are you hungry? We could get some lunch, too.” When Mandy wasn’t smiling, her face had a toughness to it that would have scared Cindy if they met on a dark street.

“That would be cool,” Mandy said. “We can talk more without all this ruckus. There’s a good Mexican place around the corner.”

Cindy looked around at the mayhem. “The girls?”

“They’ll be fine. Tori has street smarts, and she’s tough. Her daddy was tough, taught her to take care of herself.”

“Okay,” Cindy said. “I guess they’ll be okay. It will be refreshing to get a break from all of this. We still have two more days of it.”

“We do,” Mandy said and held Cindy’s upper arm, turning her. “This way, we can go out the door over here. It’ll be shorter that way.”