Chapter 2: Changes

The next morning, Erin opened her locker, grabbing a few books from inside, then closing it. She was anxious to find Samantha before their first class started, so that she could find out what happened the night before. She wasn't so much curious about the details of her and Blackbird's romantic activities while they were on stakeout together, but she was definitely interested if the person they had been watching for had showed up. She wanted to know who it was, and if Lightburst and Blackbird had fought them. She wanted to know all the details. Erin was a walking encyclopedia of the costumed heroes and villains, and now that her best friend was a part of that community, she had been waiting for Samantha to fight one of the villains, so that Erin could get all the juicy details.

She weaved her way through the other students that were gathered in the hall, stopping at their own lockers or talking to their friends before the schoolday actually started. As she turned down the hallway where Samantha's locker was, she passed a group of boys looking behind them, making wolf whistles and cat calls at someone. Erin rolled her eyes and walked past them. She then saw why they had been whistling. Someone was kneeling in front of Samantha's locker, putting books into a bag. It was a girl, wearing a black leather jacket with a thin white tank top underneath. She wore a black leather miniskirt that was so short it ended just inches from her crotch. Even as she was bending down and putting books into her bag, Erin could see the black panties peeking out from under the skirt. She was wearing black high heels.

"Oh my God," Erin breathed as she realized who it was. Samantha heard her and looked up at Erin. She smiled at her best friend, her lips painted with a ruby red lipstick. Dark blue eyeshadow and a crimson blush completed the makeup on her face. Her long blonde hair hung freely around her shoulders.

"Samantha?" Erin asked, not believing her eyes as she walked up to her. "That's a... new look."

"You like it?" Samantha grinned at her as she stood up. "I've been receiving a lot of compliments on it."

As if to underscore her words, two more boys walked by, their eyes glued to Samantha. One of them said, "Fucking sexy."

She smiled and waved at them while Erin shook her head in disbelief. "Are you feeling okay?" she asked.

"Never better," Samantha told her, waving at another boy who walked by, whistling appreciatively at her. "I really love all this attention."

The electric bell for the school rung, warning them they only had a couple of minutes to get to class. Samantha leaned over, kissed Erin on the cheek, then walked away, waving a hand at her friend. One of the school's jocks who wouldn't have looked twice at Samantha before suddenly came up, asking if he could carry her books for her. Samantha grinned widely and handed her bag to him.

Erin stared after them in complete disbelief, wondering what in the hell had happened to her friend.

Erin only saw Samantha twice more the rest of the schoolday. At lunch, she sat alone at the table her and Samantha usually sat at together. Samantha was sitting at the table occupied by the jocks and the other popular guys in the school, talking, laughing, and flirting with each one of them. The girls at the table, all of them girlfriends of the guys who Samantha was flirting with, kept giving her dirty looks, looking like they wanted to kill her.

The next time Erin saw Samantha was in the only class they shared together during the day. When Samantha sat down behind her desk and took off her leather jacket, Erin could suddenly see that she wasn't wearing a bra under her thin white top. Some of the guys in the class had clearly noticed that too, their eyes staring at Samantha's chest.

"Alright, what is going on here?" Erin whispered to her, leaning across the aisle between their desks. "You're not acting anything like yourself!"

"This is a new me," she replied. "The old Samantha was boring. She never had any fun, never got any attention. Well, that's changed now, hasn't it?"

Erin blinked in amazement. "Dressing like a slut will usually get you lots of attention," she pointed out, her voice edged.

Samantha glared at her, then her face softened in understanding. "Oh, I get it now. Dear Erin, you're jealous. You're jealous that I'm paying attention to the boys, and none to you." She reached across the aisle and lightly placed her hand over Erin's. "I'll be sure to pay more attention to you," she told her, her fingers lightly stroking over Erin's hand.

Erin pulled her hand back like she had been burned, her eyes staring in total shock at Samantha. Samantha gave her a soft, seductive smile, then turned her attention to the front of the class as the teacher started speaking.

Erin couldn't concentrate on the rest of the class. She kept looking at Samantha out of the corner of her eye, knowing that something had happened that had drastically altered her friend.

After school was done for the day, Miss Harris sat at her desk in her classroom, going over some of the homework assignments and grading them. She was single, had no children, and really didn't have much of a social life, so she was in no particular hurry to get home. Besides, she liked the quiet of the classroom after the students had left. She could still hear them out in the hall though, giving her some background noise as she worked.