Chapter 11: Shopping Trip (Mort)

After speaking to my sister, I felt quite elated. D, Jane, and I started out on our shopping trip with gusto.

First, we needed to get things like underwear, which took a bit of the shine off my happiness. Still, it was a necessary evil, so I tried to suppress my embarrassment. Since we had no idea of my sizes, beyond a general shorter than D, taller than Jane, I had to be measured. The lady in the shop was more than happy to help out with that. A short while later we knew my statistics, and I was blushing so incandescently I was sure I was about to burst into flame, something that both D and Jane seemed to find immensely amusing.

We picked out a few packs of generic panties, and a few bras which I had to try on to make sure they fitted me properly. I was dispatched to the changing room with a basket of bras in what should be the right size, with orders to try them on.

After taking off my top, I then struggled to figure out how the bra was supposed to work. I understood the basic theory of how it should go on, they had hooks and eyes that were supposed to go together, but it looked somewhat difficult to manage with only the one hand. I was just trying to work out what to do, when the curtain of the changing stall was pulled back. "How are you doing" said D.

D and the saleslady were standing outside the stall. "Hey, where'd she go?" asked the sales woman, for being surprised as someone pulled back the curtain, I had gone invisible.

"It's alright, it's just us," said D. When I didn't immediately become visible again she tried to reassure me "Hey it's not like you have anything we haven't seen before."

I became visible again which caused the saleslady to gasp. I was still a little nervous, so I brought my arm up to cover my chest. D put a hand on my shoulder trying to comfort me a little, which, seeing as I was nearly naked, didn't help overly much. Still, I felt a bit more relaxed.

"How are you getting along, did you find any that fit?" D asked.

"I had some trouble putting them on," I said.

The saleslady said, "It just takes some practice, Dear,".

"Well, it's not just that. I only have the one hand at the moment. so it's difficult to do up." I held up my stump. "It probably won't be a problem later."

The sales lady gave me a quizzical look. "Are you getting a prosthesis then?"

"No, my hand is growing back," I said matter of factly.

"Oh." I could hear the surprise in her voice.

D said, "OK. Well let me help you get that done up for now, and hopefully later, you can do it for your self once you get your fingers back.".

D helped me try on the bras and we checked to see which ones were most comfortable, and soon we had enough for day to day use. D went up to the counter with the stuff and paid for it. I was beginning to get a handle on my odd empathic senses, and could now differentiate more than extremes of emotion, so I could sense that Jane was struggling to hide something that felt a lot like amusement.

But she was spoiling her hard work by smirking when she thought I wasn't looking, so, even without the empathy, I would have known something was up. "What?" I asked.

"You'll see," she said, realizing she was partially caught.

Wondering what the two of them were up, to we moved on to other shops. After the embarrassment of the underwear, shopping for other girl clothes was not nearly as bad. We went into a generic department store, and headed for the women's clothing section.

Unlike when I had been clothes shopping before, when I had been a boy, it wasn't a case of just looking on the rack for something in my size I liked, then just buying it. Jane and D insisted I had to try on each piece of clothing to make sure that it fit and looked OK. While I could understand this, since we weren't sure what would fit my new shape, I didn't see the point of trying on all the clothes once we had found which sizes fit in a particular brand, since I assumed the size would be the same.

I felt a bit like I was some life sized doll that D and Jane were playing dress up with. I found the whole clothes shopping process quite boring. Still, I got to try on lots of outfits and see how I looked in a variety of colours. To my horror, I found I looked quite good in pink.

After we had a selection of clothing picked out that would see me through most situations, D and Jane picked out an outfit for me to dress in to try out the new clothes in public.

D also took a package I didn't remember us buying out of the lingerie bags, for me to wear as well.

Both D and Jane's faces were full of mischief, as in the changing room, D revealed the package to be a sexy red bra and thong set, which D practically forced me into.

"Wow, that looks even better on you than I thought it would," said D. "You look totally hot!"

I was a little uncomfortable with that thought, but I had to admit it did make me look pretty sexy, plus the soft silky material of the underwear felt very good against my skin. Wearing a thong felt really odd, as I had always been more of a boxers person.

I put on the rest of the outfit, which was much more understated than the racy red bra and thong set, and took a look in the mirror. The bra made my breasts look bigger, and the top's neckline was just low enough for a glimpse of cleavage, though still respectable enough to be seen in public. The jeans hugged my new curves and made me look much more feminine.

We rounded it off with a pink zip up jumper, which I left unzipped. The tall, exotic, curvy young girl staring back at me from the mirror looked nothing like the old Mortimer. Even after the weeks that I had been in this body, it was still hard to think of her as me.

We went out to the register, where D paid for the clothes, including the ones I was wearing. Then Jane and D decided we should have a bite to eat, so we head over to the food court. I was still quite nervous being out in public dressed as a girl. I soon realized I was attracting a few glances, but none seemed hostile, more interested, which in some ways worried me more. We had a drink and a burger, and I tried to ignore some of the attention I was getting.

"Hey, relax," said Jane, noticing my discomfort. "You look great."

"Yeah, that outfit really suits you, Tish," said D with a smirk.

"Tish?" I asked.

"Well, while we were waiting for you, I remembered this really old TV show I saw a while back about this spooky family. There was this woman in it called Morticia, which sounds a lot like your name, so I figured I'd call you Tish." She smiled, "At least till you pick another name."

"It sounds more girly than Mort," Jane added.

I shrugged, figuring it was not the worse nickname I could acquire.

We ate our food then talked for a bit. D and Jane discussed the various bands they liked. Jane was into mostly girl bands, whereas D was into a wider selection. tallying a bit with my like of rock and metal, something I had always had to hide, since my parents considered anything that wasn't hymns as satanic music.

After discussing the finer points of rock with D, much to the disgust of Jane who kept trying to convince us that some, (in my opinion) whiney, girl pop act was the best thing since sliced bread, we went on to find me some shoes.

The ones I had borrowed didn't really fit properly, so we went into the local shoe shop to get some new ones. We had been in the shop for a few minutes looking at various styles, when I felt what I had come to recognise as hate radiating from three people behind me. I was standing away from D and Jane looking at the trainers, while they were giggling about some high heels I was certain they were intent on making me try on, when I felt it.

"Look at its hands," I heard a girl's voice say.

"You really would have thought they would have prevented an animal like that being allowed in the shopping centre, let alone into a shop," said another girl. "It should be tied up out front with the other animals."

I turned to see what was going on. Three well dressed young girls about my own age stood at the entrance to the shoe shop. They were staring at me with hate and disgust. When they got a better look at me their anger intensified. "My god, it's hideous! I can't believe it can walk around displaying a face like that," said one of the girls, a pretty redhead. Though the tallest of the bunch, she was still a good six inches shorter than me.

"In a decent society, all these animals would be rounded up and locked in zoos, where they belong." said the short light brown haired girl, whose body language and attitude projected the fact that she was the leader of this group.

"Yeah" said a thin dark haired girl dressed all in black. She would have struck me as a goth, except she had on hot pink lipstick and no piercings or tattoos. She also had the most amazing emerald green eyes. They seemed to almost glow, due to the contrast with her dark hair.

I felt hate burning at me, with an undercurrent of fear from the leader and the red head. The other, quieter girl seemed different. The hate was there but it almost seemed like it was there to mask the feeling underneath, which felt odd.

It was like the feeling I had been getting from some of the people staring at me in the food court. Could it be attraction or lust? This threw me a bit.

"You animals should learn you are less than human, and should be tied up outside with the rest of the animals," said the leader. She started to move at me, her arm raised. I thought she was going to hit me or grab me, so I went invisible and backed away.

"What the fuck! Where'd the freak go?" shouted the red head.

I ran over to where D and Jane were. They had been right over the other side of the shop, so had missed the commotion. On the way, I bumped into a woman, who naturally hadn't seen me, so walked right into my path. This was a down side of invisibility. not being visible, meant everyone would assume the space I occupied was empty air, so they would just try to walk right through me, with predictable results. I would have to remember this in the future.

"There it goes" said the leader, my mishap tipping them off as to my location.

I dodged round the confused woman with a muttered apology, and ran slightly more carefully to D and Jane. "D!"

Both she and Jane turned sharply at my voice and tried to work out where I was.

"What is it? Where are you?" she said.

"Some girls, ... They..." I started, and then I heard the leader's voice.

"It came this way," she said in a cold voice.

I positioned myself behind D, and dropped my invisibility.

"Out of the way, you big dumb lump. That animal needs to be taught a lesson." said the girl.

D's expression turned cold as ice, and I could feel her anger boiling under the surface. This girl was making a very bad mistake, I was worried D might rip her to shreds.

"Leave her alone, Stacy!" D told her.

"I should have known the big simpleton would stand up for her, given your mother is a filthy animal. I guess under the skin, so are you," the girl said, making D so angry I felt sure the whole place would burst into flames.

The girl's companions seemed to realise the danger of pushing someone of D's size and strength, and began backing away.

At this point, the shops manager, and one of the staff showed up. "What is going on here?" She asked.

"We were just doing you a service by getting rid of that animal," Stacy said, gesturing at me. "But the big lug here seems to have taken this lizard as a pet"

The manager looked at Stacy with a cold glare, then said, "I know you. You've caused trouble like this before. I suggest you take your prejudice elsewhere, unless you want me to call security and have you thrown out of the centre." the manager gave her a look of contempt. "And if I hear of you pulling a stunt like this again, I'll see to it you're banned from the centre permanently!"

The look of shock and indignant rage on Stacy's face was priceless. She was seemingly about to launch into a tirade about being treated this way, when the redhead grabbed her by the shoulder. "Come on Stacy, we don't want to be shopping in a place that allow these animals as patrons anyway."

After a little fuming, Stacy let herself be led away. The dark haired girl was still staring at me seemingly lost in thought. "Come on, Helen!" shouted the redhead, which snapped her out of her trance and she ran out after her friends.

After watching the three girls leave, the manager turned to us, then with a pleasant smile said to me, "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine. Thank you for stepping in."

"My pleasure," she replied. "Now, what can I help you girls find?"

She then helped me find some comfy trainers in my size, even giving us a special price on them.

After we were done there, we were all set to head back, but I needed to use the toilet. So the girls pointed me right direction. Jane grabbed me as I made to head over, and whispered in my ear, Don't forget use the ladies"

That was good thinking, as I might well have just gone straight into the gents on auto pilot.

I headed over and did my business, I was just washing my hands when the door opened, and someone came in.