Chapter 1

If she hadn’t screamed, I surely would have. I swiftly pulled my hand from my pajamas as I blushed bright red. I opened my eyes in the dim light. I wasn’t home. I was further upset as the mattress beneath me shook. Two more screams, one more screamer.

“Where are we!” Shouted a third girl and I had my head on a swivel. I was lost. My comforting blue walls and seventies pulp movie posters were gone. My stiff half bunk bed had been replaced by a much larger much softer bed. Two girls were scrambling off either side. There were girls in the room. Another one started screaming. The first panicked screamer had shut up, hyperventilating.

More confused and incriminating shouts launched over each other. I could feel my heart racing, confused fear overriding the familiar fear attached to feminine proximity. I sat up, not quite alone in the big bed. There was a girl on my left, she sat up and retreated with me to sit with our backs against the white metal headboard.

“Shut the fuck up!” Shouted one girl and two more turned on her. They were snapping. I picked the sleep out of my eyes. These were girls from school.

“Dean? Are you OK?” I turned to the girl still in bed with me. Kia Parker. We got on at the same bus stop. I hadn’t spoken to her since we had shared classes in elementary school. My advanced placement and her french immersion had separated us before she had grown into one of many frustrated fantasies living in my head. She was as tall as me, but whether that made her tall for a girl or me short for a man was debatable. Her hair, the last I had seen it had been a dark purple, now showed her natural blond. She was dressed, in full pajamas, boring white but shiny, maybe silk. I was shirtless and turning a deeper red. I slept in a pair of pajama bottoms. They had been a boring green and blue plaid. They felt the same yet were as pristine white as Kia’s.

All the girls were in white. Two more in full button up top pajamas like Kia, a handful wearing t-shirts or tank tops with shorts, a few were in varying length night gowns and one girl had on a long t-shirt. Xiomara, my sister’s best friend, was yelling in the face of Connie, who I’m sure had called out the others to shut the fuck up.

“Your hair’s blond again.” I told Kia.

“Oh that too,” I perked my ears up as I watched her twirl her bangs in front of her dark green eyes.

“What else changed?” I asked, petrified to admit what I had learned moments before the commotion happened. I was calming down. Kia remaining on the bed, unlike the other three girls, had bolstered my ability to remain collected. I looked to the left but the other bed, which had held another five girls, was tempest tossed and empty.

Kia smiled at me. I had to smile back. She softened her eyes and pulled her lips even further away from her teeth. I finally realized what she was showing me.

“Your braces?”

“Yeah,” She nodded and looked over the room before turning back to me, “You didn’t seem surprised about me being different. Is it cause you don’t need your glasses?”

I burned red in a deep blush before she had made her suggestion and I could jump on it. She tilted her head, confused. I sighed.

“I, ugh,” I tried, unable to communicate. I looked down at my crotch and she followed her eyes but didn’t fill in the blanks. I needed a euphemism, “I’m, uh, not so Jewish anymore.”

“But your family goes to the same church as we do...” She missed the mark but after two beats her eyes went wide, “Really?”

“Yeah,” Could I get my ears to ignite from blushing alone? I had a very focused view of where my toes bumped up the comforter. All the bedclothes were also antiseptic white.

“Goddammit! Fucking shut up!” Shrieked Connie and finally her vitriol punched through the panicked noise. We all turned to look at her. She and I didn’t fly in near any of the same circles. Me and my two slacker buddies had never really connected with the Beaverton North High School social scene. Connie, a cheerleader, had a reputation of commanding it. Connie liked you? You went to the better parties, with the hotter girls and better sex. Or so the rumors circulated. The girls fought for her favor too. I had always just ignored her. Connie’s legend was propelled mostly through her cult of personality but her looks added to it. Our school was large but rural. A beautiful black girl in the senior class stood out and grabbed attention. I had done a bit of grabbing with her in mind since forever. Not as much as Kia or Xiomara, but those two were much closer at hand than Connie’s queendom.

“What’s going on?” I asked into the short empty calm after the silence changed from relieving to oppressive. The shriek was horrendous. Renée, the other cheerleader in the room, was dressed in a tank top and panties. She zipped to hide behind Suzi and Xiomara.

“This is your fault!” Was the other response. Apparently, no one had taken in the full room yet because three of the girls were very surprised to see me. Renée and Andrea reacted with embarrassment and modesty. A skinny redheaded girl, I might have known but couldn’t place, ratcheted up into anger.

“How the hell is this my fault!” I retreated against Kia’s shoulders. She shuffled away from me; I felt targeted, alone.

“Some sick male fantasy? You kidnapped us all for sort of sex thing!” She was nasal and her eyes and nostrils flared. She stepped away from me, “I won’t be raped.”

“I wouldn’t!” I finally went white over red. I looked around. Connie’s eyebrows were coming down in anger. Kia was frozen next to me. Hannah covered herself with crossed arms. Suzi stiffened. Renée gripped Suzi and Xiomara’s arms. Xiomara gave me a smile.

“Dean didn’t do this,” She asserted, “If he was going to kidnap a bunch of girls for a sex thing, there’s no way he wouldn’t have picked up Elizabeth.”

“Elizabeth who?” Asked Hannah.

“Elizabeth Briggs?” Renée suggested, “She’s on the student council with me. She’s pretty.”

“Yeah, that’s her,” Xiomara declared, “Plus I’ve known Dean for, like, fifteen years. He’s a nice boy, way too shy for any of this.”

That hit me hard as the redhead’s accusation. The redhead had scared me and horrified me. Xiomara just hurt me. She was smiling though, sympathetic. She had never been the kindest to me. She and Zoe had been terrors for all my life. She had grown up nice though. Slender and leonine. Her black hair was all wavy, falling over her shoulders down to her elbows. Her eyes were bright, her smile was full. She usually wore a bit too much makeup, she was beautiful and had been determined to flaunt it.

“I’m pretty sure he’s as much of a victim as we are,” Kia returned at my side. I finally let out a full breath. I nodded.

“I’m not a victim,” The redhead seethed, “I won’t be.”

“That makes me feel better,” I said with a smile and she looked just as angry. We all turned as the room brightened a little more. The room was a long rectangle. The over-sized beds were laid head first towards a short side, with a thin walking path between them and along each wall. The lights were overhead, two strips ran along the long walls with sectioned blocks. So far three on each side were lit up, but fairly dimly, showing the beds clearly and the room’s features but not really displaying everything. Two meters past the foot of the bed, a large square table sat in the center of the room. Its surface was the same antiseptic plastic white as the walls and floors. The legs and stools surrounding it were more of a clean dull metal color like the bed’s headboards or the roof. Walls of lockers lined the right side and a counter over and under metal cabinets lined the left. Further down, at the opposite wall were two large glass enclosures on either side of four toilets. There was no privacy here. I blushed again, for me and for the girls.

“Let’s get up and see what’s here,” Kia touched my shoulder. We smiled at each other and started off either side of the bed. Everyone was quiet but not silent. One girl was sobbing and another was wordlessly comforting her. Renée’s foot rapidly vibrated as she nervously tapped the floor. Connie was controlling her breathing with loud relaxing full breaths. The redhead was swivelheaded looking at the ceiling, daring, or hoping for, more of the lights to come on.

“OK,” Hannah said as I touched down between the two beds. Kia was off the other side, looping around, “Can we sit down? Figure out what’s happening?”

I was surprised at that from her. She was the most different looking from how I knew her. She was thinner (I touched my own gut and found it flatter.) I wondered where our excess weight had gone. Her hair wasn’t inky black with a blood red highlight at her right ear. It was auburn, closer to brown than red but definitely reddish. Her eyes weren’t ringed in thick eyeliner and her lips weren’t black or blue. Her eyebrow piercings were gone and it didn’t even seem as if they had ever existed. She was wearing white, not her color at all, a knee length night gown that draped awkwardly over her shrunken body remind us of how she had once looked. She was like a different woman. Maybe we were all different people? Could that happen?

“Yes, let’s sit down at the table. Let’s make sure we all know who’s here, what we have and maybe find out what we can do.” Connie taking charge from Hannah felt right. I exchanged looks with Xiomara and Suzi while Andrea and Renée booked it to the far side of the table.

On each side of the table there were two stools. Connie and Kia took the seats on the right. Renée and Suzi took the seats opposite the beds. Hannah sat down with Andrea on the left. I was left standing, socially paralysed, there were two more seats and four more of us. Xiomara walked up next to me while Marin and the little redhead watched me. One glared and Marin just seemed thoughtful. I took the seat on Kia’s left, Xiomara walked up beside me.

“Do you mind?” She asked brushing her hair over her ear. She pulled my stool out further and walked in front of me. Her round bottom rested on my thigh. I just looked at her, a little dumbstruck. She collided her shoulder with mine, “There’s not enough seats for everyone.”

“Of course he doesn’t mind!” Scoffed the little redhead viciously. She walked around the table and poked Hannah in the shoulder, “Though there really isn’t enough seats.”

“OK, Pat,” The name meant nothing to me but Hannah shuffled over and shared half the stool with the rage girl. Nope, I guess I shouldn’t have looked at her because she harrumphed at me.

“I guess I sit here then,” Marin announced and settled in beside me with a smile. There were three redheads in the room, nominally Hannah and vibrantly Pat. Marin was a bit more an orangehead than a redhead. Her freckles were missing, they normally covered her nose and cheekbones. Her eyes were blue and a little smokey. Her lips were naturally pinkish despite her otherwise lack of complexion. She had been in my art class; she was super talented. I remember fawning over her sketchpad in grade 10, and what started as a sorry excuse to get next to her had turned into real respect for her work. She made me ashamed of my sorry sketches and I think I offended her when I refused to share my work back. We hadn’t really talked in the two years since. I often regretted that. Not enough to motivate me to course correct or anything.

“Well, we’re all here. We all know each other,” Connie started.

“Um,” Kia mumbled, “I don’t think I know her.” She pointed to Marin.

“Yeah,” Marin sighed relief, “I was thinking the same thing.”

“I also have no idea who Pat is,” I gestured towards the little redhead.

“Oh fuck off, Dean! You piece of shit!” She slammed the tabletop and leaned towards me. “I should claw your fucking face off!”

“What! I don’t know who you are! I’m sorry?”

“Don’t be an ass, Dean,” Kia joined in the glare at me. Xiomara was stifling a chuckle as Kia said: “That’s Pat. She lives three doors down from your place. She and I share a backyard.”

“Um, yeah, I don’t. I really don’t.” I tried to look contrite but all I was getting were mixed looks. No one was angry but Pat, though Kia wasn’t impressed. Xiomara started belting out raucously laughing.

“It’s not funny.” Pat pouted as she sat down awkwardly sharing the stool with Hannah. Hannah looked like she wanted to change seats. Xiomara collapsed against me and I held her, tentatively, very aware of the way she felt and smelled. She was warm. She always had cold hands. She whispered, between breathless guffaws. “Trishie.”

“Trishie! Holy shit!”

“I get to hit him in the face.” Pat announced.

“That seems fair,” Marin said through a smirk. She wasn’t being mean or vindictive. She was just amused.

“No it isn’t!” Trishie had been in my grade 6 class and she had been the second tallest girl there. She was now the shortest person in the room. Still, I remembered a few things about her, “Aren’t you like a kickboxing champion or something?”

“No, I never won anything for my Muay Thai,” She said behind a venomous smile, “I got my titles for Brazilian jiu jitsu.”

“That’s really cool,” I admitted.

“Yeah,” agreed Renée.

“But please don’t hit me,” I tried a smile and she relented a little. She was still freaked out. All of us were, but she calmed down.

“OK, but all bets are off if you call me Trishie.”

“Right, so, I’m Kia.” Xiomara and I were pushed back by the girls on my right and my left.

“Yeah, I’m Marin,” the artist replied.

“We all good now?” Connie asked, “I guess the first thing we should point out is we all seem a little bit different.” She gestured specifically at Hannah, she and Kia being the most obviously changed. Connie was wearing full pajamas like Kia and Andrea. She rolled up her left sleeve above her elbow, “My tattoo’s gone.”

“And your ears aren’t pierced, either,” Renée said from her seat at Connie’s right hand. Most of the girls reached to their ears to check themselves as well. It seemed all piercings were gone. The next three overhead lights came on. We all looked around. There was nothing really new to see, just that the big glass structures on the far wall were multi-headed showers. If the beds were big enough for five, the showers were big enough for four. I shifted under Xiomara and she turned to me. She brushed my hair with her fingers. She was blushing, nervous and teasing all at once. She always had a brave face. I wasn’t looking around as much as the others because Kia was on her feet and dashing towards the counter behind Suzi, Hannah and Pat.

“What is that?” Asked Connie standing up. We all turned. Hannah knocked Pat off the stool. I smiled with Suzi, silently, laughing along with her. I felt a little vindicated after how I had been accused and treated.