Chapter 11

Mandy

I wasn't very keen to go into school on Thursday. I didn't feel very safe and it had kept me up a lot of the night worrying about it. In the time I did sleep, I had several nightmares. I woke up a few times in a cold sweat terrified, with images of Stacy coming at me with various weapons burned into my brain. In the end, I went at Gwen's insistence that this was exactly what these bullies wanted, for me to give up.

I met with D and we walked in to school, I was quite apprehensive, almost expecting an angry mob to be waiting for me at the gate. When we got there, Jane was waiting, she didn't look or feel too angry, and it was hard to describe her as a mob.

We walked through the school and into our classroom with almost no incident, a few name calls and the odd angry stare, but nothing too bad. Once we were in our classroom we were met by a stony silence.

One girl said, "So she's the traitor!"

Another said, "She's the monster that beat up Stacy!"

Then, "Not only that, but she stood up to that nasty bully Trisha, that makes her a hero in my book,"

There was general dissent on what I was, it seemed opinion could be divided into roughly 4 groups of thought. 1) I was an animal who would attack students on sight, 2) I was a traitor to all MORFS kind, who thought I was better than the rest of my fellow survivors because I could pass as normal, 3) I was some sort of hero for beating up Stacy the most anti-MORFS girl in the school, and 4) I was some sort of hero for beating up the nastiest MORFS bully in the school, Trisha.

I'm not sure I was happy with any of those options, hated or idolised for all the wrong reasons. But there was nothing I could do about it.

One or two wanted to get the real story and asked me directly what I was about. I tried my best to answer them honestly.

One girl a small vaguely elfin looking girl with blue hair asked me earnestly, "Are you really a traitor, and think you're better than the rest of us because you can pass for one of them?"

"No," I said.

"Then why did you do it?" she asked.

I paused and tried to consider my response, "If you looked like me, and could hide it, wouldn't you?"

She looked at me for a second, then nodded. I could feel she was more happy with me now she understood why I had done it. I doubted it would make a lot of difference in the long run, but at least I would have some people in my class besides D and Jane, who knew what the real deal was.

Mr Griffiths rushed in after that, stopping the Mandy Q&A session. He quickly took the register. When he got to my name, he glanced up at me when I replied, he did a double take, but continued without saying anything. He had some announcements about some assembly that we were going to go to next week, then it was time for lessons to kick off with German. I got the cold shoulder from most people.

I sat quietly with D and Jane got on with my work. Learning a new language was interesting. Our school in Little Greenvale didn't do languages, it was part of it's imperial throw back ethos, assuming English was the only language you would ever need. I had a lot of catching up to do, so I was at the moment very behind. It was fascinating none the less.

Next was English Literature, more reading this time, war poems and other bits of literature. It was fairly easy, just read the stuff and learn about what the people were talking about. They were covering WW1 poets like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, some powerful stuff in there, and despite myself, I was quite wrapped up in reading.

Then it was time for break. We spent some time in the library then headed over to our next lesson, I was dreading this most of all, P.E ... There was the odd excitement about being allowed into the girls changing rooms, an echo of my previous life as Mort. But it was overshadowed by my fear and embarrassment of having to get changed in front of all these girls. As we wandered into the changing rooms I stuck close to D and Jane. Though part of me would have liked to look around, I kept my eyes averted and tried to act as normal as possible, not wanting to alienate myself any more than I already had.

As I slipped out of my clothes and put on my gym kit I heard a few comments from some of the anti-MORFS group when they saw my scales ran all the way down my back, but I had changed quickly enough that no one had really got a good look at me.

We were soon taken down to the gym to do various sports. We did a warm up followed by some netball. I was not really enjoying myself, as I didn't know the rules and I had never been much of a fan of sports. My more physically capable body made the activity easy, but I had no idea how the game worked. The Gym teacher, a hyped up woman called Miss Adams, who always wore a tracksuit no matter what she was doing, came over and prodded me in the shoulder with her whistle. She seemed to be of the "sport is about competition, you must do your best no matter what, if you're not first place you're nothing," school of thought rather than the "sport is supposed to be enjoyable, it doesn't mater what sport is played, and who wins, so long as every one has a good time," group.

"You, Wilson! Why aren't you moving to receive the pass? You've just been standing there. You should be running around. Move, you lazy girl!"

She blew a whistle and we continued the game. I did my best to move around more, but I still didn't know what to do. I found I could outrun most of the other girls and didn't tire very easily, which meant I could run rings round most people. This didn't really help, as I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing, so I was in all the wrong positions and was hardly ever useful to my team. I got the ball once, and had no idea what to do with it, so lost it pretty quick. Lots of pointless running around later, Miss Adams declared the other team the winner and I assumed we were moving on.

"Wilson! Come and stand here!" shouted Miss Adams with a scowl on her face. She wasn't that old, maybe a few years older than Gwen, but she seemed to be quite an angry, bossy, person and this seemed to age her.

She then picked out a load of girls who all seemed very sporty types and set them up each on a line on the gym floor with me at the far end of the room facing them. She took the ball and placed it on the far side of the gym to me.

"Right, since you refuse to play the games properly, I'm going to give you a choice. Either you play, or it's detention every day for 3 weeks. You have to get past these girls, they can't leave their lines, if they touch you, then you have to go back to the start. You have 10 minutes to get to the other side and get the ball without using any powers, starting now," said Miss Adams blowing a whistle.

I assessed my chances, it didn't look good, but then I didn't want to get a detention. I made a run for it, the first girl tackled me, knocking me painfully to the hard wooden floor of the gym.

Miss Adams actually laughed at that. I tried a few more times, getting past the first girl only to be stopped by the second. I tried again and again, but it didn't make any difference, I just kept getting caught. I might be quite quick on my feet, but they could easily see me coming, and only had to touch me to win, so I was far too slow to get past all of them.

"Ha, ha, ha, you are pitiful Wilson. You have 4 minutes left, I'm going to enjoy seeing you in detention for the next 3 weeks," Miss Adams taunted.

I looked at her with anger, she had set this up just to get me in detention, I was sure of it. I considered my options. she had said no powers. so I couldn't use my invisibility, but maybe I could use my grip. It wasn't a power as such, but a physical aspect of my body. Besides, I doubted I would get out of this without some sort of detention, better to wipe that smile off her face and feel better about my punishment.

I examined the room, then slipped off my shoes and socks. I ran at the wall and leapt up it scrabbling my way to the top, to a chorus of shocked gasps. I made my way across the ceiling, having my mostly reformed hand helped me a lot. I could do a fairly normal crawl moving one limb in turn.

"How does she do that?" I heard one girl say.

I swiftly traversed the ceiling, moving through the metal braces that held it up. Once I got to the far wall I scurried down it head first. I picked up the ball and, as the final insult, took it and threw it through the netball net.

Miss Adams had turned bright red, "I SAID NO POWERS!!!!!" she screamed.

"I didn't use any, I have very good grip. That is nothing to do with powers. If I'd wanted to use powers, I would have done this," I replied, promptly vanishing, then ran back across the hall, past all the girls to the start point, where I reappeared, putting my shoes and socks back on.

"You dirty little cheat! I'll see to it that you spend every day till this time next year in detention for that sort of cheek!" She was now shaking she was so angry.

"Now just a minute," I said, tired of playing her game. "You said, cross the gym without getting touched and without using any powers, to get the ball in under ten minutes. I did that fair and square. If you want to go changing the rules of the game after it's been played, that's hardly sportswoman-like." The sportswoman line was probably a low blow, as she looked like she was about to burst a blood vessel. Her whole face had turned bright red.

"NOW LOOK HERE... ," she started when a man dressed in rugby kit stepped into the gym.

"Miss Adams," he said.

"Yes, Mr Roberts?" she replied, suddenly more calm and pleasant.

"I'd like a word with that girl there," he said, pointing to me. "You go on about your lesson and I'll deal with her."

"Yes, Mr Roberts." she said contritely.

The man motioned for me to follow him out of the room. I guessed I was in more trouble now, although as I was walking out of the room, D gave me a smile and a wink. The teacher took me into the sports office and sat me down. There was another woman doing some paperwork in the corner, also dressed in a tracksuit.

"Now I was watching from up here," he motioned to the window. "What did you get the punishment for?"

"I wasn't playing her game properly, or enthusiastically enough," I replied

"I see, and why was that?" he asked.

"I don't really like sports, and I don't really know that game. I've never played it before, so I didn't know what to do."

"You've never played netball before?" he replied incredulously, at which the woman in the corner looked up with a surprised look on her face.

Rather than use the, 'I was a boy before, I played rugby, ' I went with a slight lie, "I just transferred here. I was from a small village, they didn't really do sports at our school."

"Hmm I see, now when she punished you, what were you supposed to do."

"Lose," I said. "She said cross the hall and get the ball, without getting touched and without using any powers, in under ten minutes. She set the thing up so that I couldn't win, and then laughed at me. She's very mean. I thought sport was supposed to be fun, not some sort of torture and amusement for the teacher."

I was probably pushing it with that, but I was annoyed, and getting tired of constantly getting shafted no matter what I did. The woman in the corner was now watching us more closely. Her eyebrows went up at my comment.

"Yet you managed to complete her task. You thought outside the box, and used your innate skills to accomplish her purposefully impossible task."

"I suppose." I was wondering where this was leading.

"What made you think to go over the ceiling?"

"Well, it was the only way I could get past them without using my powers."

"And what if you could use your powers?"

"Well I would have just gone straight past them. So long as I moved slowly, they wouldn't see me."

"Show me."

I sighed, and vanished. The woman in the corner gave a shout of delight, a big smile split her face.

"What do you think, Nancy?" Mr Roberts said.

"Well I'd say she'd be perfect. She can walk on walls and make herself invisible, plus that jump was pretty good," the woman replied.

"Yep, that's what I was thinking. Now then Miss Wilson, ... hmm, can you reappear? It's hard to talk to thin air."

I made myself visible again. "Good. Now, I'm going to commute that detention Miss Adams handed out, if you will come along to one tryout session for a little sports club after school that myself and Miss Barton run. You will have to come to one practice and give your all for that one session. After that, if you have what it takes, you may chose whether you come along any more."

"What sort of club is this?" I asked.

"I don't want to spoil the surprise." He grinned, It's better to have you turn up without any preconceptions."

I thought it over, then said, "OK, when is it?" It might be a pain, but it was one after school session, then I could drop it, or be dropped when they found me not good enough for whatever it was. That struck me as far better than a years worth of detentions.

"Monday after school. Do you know Dorothy Newman?

"Yes," I replied a little surprised. D didn't seem to be the sporty type.

"She can tell you where and when. She is the club secretary. Now then, you'd better get back to your lesson."

"See you Monday," called the other teacher as we left the room.

We got back to the entrance to the gym and Mr Roberts turned to me and gave me an amused look, "Try to look sufficiently punished. It will make Miss Adams feel she's got her way and make things easier for both of us."

He put on a stern face and marched me into the hall. "I've given this little reprobate a very stern talking to, and a very severe punishment. She won't be taking liberties again. In future though, it might be wise to teach your students more theory. This girl has absolutely no idea how to play netball! We ran her through the test, her score was appalling," he said turning his stern gaze on Miss Adams.

"She doesn't know netball? But..." Miss Adams started.

"She is a transfer student, and it is unwise to assume that other institutions have the same high standards of sport education that we have here. See that this doesn't happen in future. Now the girl has been properly punished for her indiscretions, I will be watching her closely, so there should be no more trouble."

He turned to me, "I hope you learnt a valuable lesson today."

"Yes sir, I'll try harder in future sir, and try to be more sportswoman like," I replied.

Miss Adams was behind him, so completely missed the big grin and wink he gave me.

"Good, see that you do, and you, Miss Adams, I'm disappointed. I expected more from you. Miss Wilson, rejoin your classmates. Miss Adams, you may continue with your lesson," he said as he strode out of the room.

Mr Roberts seemed to do a good line in wind-ups. I walked back over to where D was, she was grinning ear to ear.

"He signed you up, didn't he?" D said excitedly.

"He said something about a club on Monday, but wouldn't tell me what it was about," I said.

"Sounds like Mr Roberts, he likes his little jokes. I won't spoil his fun by telling you, but I think you will enjoy yourself. I should have thought to suggest you to him. Really, you are perfect, with all the stuff that's been going on, it sort of slipped my mind. Still, better he see you in action first hand," D said.

After that we did some running about and soon it was the end of the lesson. We hit the showers. That was uncomfortable, partly down to being stark naked and soaking wet in a steamy room with a large group of girls. But also because of the exclusion zone that seemed to form around me.

When I got out, I found some nice person had taken all my clothes and my towel and dumped them in the water. That really annoyed D, who demanded to know who did it so she could beat them to death with their own shoes. Surprisingly, no one came forward.

I stood there soaking wet trying to work out what to do, when a thought occurred to me. I didn't need a towel, I could use my own inbuilt drying system. I wouldn't have to worry about setting my clothes on fire, since I wasn't wearing them and the floor was ceramic tile which should stand at least some heat.

D turned to me and held out her towel, "Here, you can use my towel."

I just gave her a big smile and shook my head. "That's alright, I've got a better way."

I took a few steps back so I was away from everyone, then carefully called the fire inside me. I tried not to actually burst into flames, as I figured this would be bad. I just focused on increasing my body heat. Pretty soon steam was rolling off me in waves as the water evaporated. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. It was a very strange image. I was a steaming hot naked girl, I laughed a little at that, thinking about the normal implications of that mental image, I giggled even more at the thought that I could probably add smoking hot to my repertoire, if I was wearing clothing.