Chapter 21

Tuesday, 4th of December, 2035

(Mandy)

I woke up the next day feeling pretty good. A quick check revealed that all the bruising was now faded to nothing and I had none of the soreness I'd had the previous day. I seemed to be all healed up. Sleeping lots, and getting a large quantity of food down me, must have given my regenerative abilities what they needed to repair my body.

I leapt out of bed and began to get ready. Gwen came in from her room getting up herself, "Hey you should be in bed," she said.

"I feel fine, look," I said lifting my pyjama top to show that the bruises were gone, "All healed up."

"Hmm, well we'll go and see a doctor to see if you are OK to return to school. If you are then maybe you can return."

"How would we get an appointment at this short notice," I said grumpily.

"Well maybe Joyce's friend Sarah could take a look, since you are so keen to be back in school. Though that worries me. I'm sure no normal teenager would want to be back in school. Perhaps you were hurt worse than we thought," Gwen smiled.

I stuck my tongue out at her, "It's not that I really like school, it's not so bad. I have my friends there. The main thing is I'm so far behind already I don't want to lose any more ground. Plus just hanging around in bed is pretty boring."

"Well, I wouldn't want you getting behind," Gwen said. "You get yourself washed and dressed. I'll see about getting you an appointment."

I rushed off to get ready, washing and dressing as quickly as I could throwing on an outfit at random. I could hear Gwen talking on the phone and as I rushed back into the living room she was just putting it down.

She looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "I thought your friends were teaching you how to dress properly."

I looked down at my outfit with its random assortment of colours and styles, "What? Is there something wrong with what I'm wearing?"

Gwen rolled her eyes, "Never mind I'm sure they'll drill it into you eventually, come and have some breakfast. I spoke to Joyce's friend Sarah and she said she luckily has a free slot just before lunch where she could look you over."

"Cool."

I munched my way through a couple of bowls of cereal with much head shaking from Gwen who muttered, "Probably a good idea to get you back to school. At the rate you eat you'll eat up all the food."

"It's probably 'cos I'm still healing," I said with a mouthful of cornflakes.

I finished off eating and then helped Gwen wash up. We pottered about the flat for a bit. I did some of my remaining homework and Gwen did some reading. Soon it was time to head over to see Sarah. We got wrapped up and took the bus to the MORFS centre.

When we got to the centre we told the nurse at the desk we were there and then sat down to wait. There was the usual compliment of new MORFS kids sat waiting. Some were examining themselves every now and again, obviously still a little freaked out by whatever changes they had gone through.

Next to me sat a pretty young girl with bright blue hair and a long pointed blue tail that was moving about like it had a mind of its own. The girl kept touching her chest occasionally pulling out the neckline of her top for a better look, she was pretty upset though she tried to hide it. While she was inspecting herself her mother spotted what she was up to.

"Eric! Stop that." she said, seeing me looking their way she looked extremely embarrassed, "I'm sorry, he ... she has just changed."

"That's OK," I replied, "I understand what she's going through."

"How could you!" exploded the girl tears in her eyes.

"Eric!" her mother said exasperatedly.

I smiled at the new girl and leaned close whispering, "I used to be a boy too."

"Really," she said eyeing me up and down, "Did you just change too?"

"I changed a few months ago. It gets easier with time. I'm still not sure about all this girly stuff, clothes, makeup, and so on. But it's getting easier," I replied.

"Do you miss being a boy?"

"Sometimes, but you have to focus on the good things. I've made some good friends who have helped me come through."

"I'm worried about going back to school. A MORFs girl got beaten to death there."

"What school is it, Wilynsford secondary?" she nodded, "That was exaggerated," I leaned in close, "I should know, I'm the girl. I wasn't that badly injured."

"But the news said..."

"I know, crazy isn't it. I was sitting at home watching that reporter say that I was at deaths door. I'm not going to lie to you, kids do get bullied, but if you are careful you can avoid the worst of it. The library is a good place to go, Miss Gordon won't let anyone start anything."

At this point the girls tail tapped me on the back, "Oh I'm sorry," she said, "It seems to have a mind of its own doing things without me wanting it to."

"That's OK I had the same problem with my tongue at first. I'm sure you'll get a better handle on it if you work at it," I said.

"What does your tongue do?" she asked.

"This," and I shot my tongue out grabbing a magazine and pulling it in dropping it in my hand before retracting my tongue fully, "It's like a chameleons very handy for stealing biscuits."

The girl giggled at that, she seemed much happier now that I had talked to her. I hoped she would get on OK. Largely I'd had other problems in my first few weeks as a girl. Still it was a tough and confusing experience having to sort yourself out again.

"Eric Marlow?" a nurse called and the girl's mother stood up.

"Come along Eric, say goodbye to the nice lady," she said.

"Bye," said the girl with a big smile.

"You were really good with that girl," said Gwen.

"I knew a little of what she was going through that's all," I replied.

"She seemed much happier after she talked to you. You have a really caring nature always thinking of others. I'm proud of you," Gwen said with a smile.

"Amanda Wilson?" the nurse called out.

"Do you want me to come with you?" asked Gwen.

"Sure, unless you'd rather stay here?" I replied.

We went over to the nurse and she sent us off to Sarah's office. Sarah came and greeted me with a hug.

"Hello Amanda, I like your new name it suits you. How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Hello Sarah, I'm feeling good thank you," I replied.

Gwen and Sarah shook hands, "Thank you for seeing us on such short notice Doctor," Gwen said.

"Oh no problem, and please call me Sarah. So then missy, you have been getting yourself into all sorts of scrapes from what I've been hearing."

"Well it's not really my fault that some people at school took a dislike to me," I said a little sheepishly.

"They are a bunch of small minded fools. I hope they throw the book at them. Anyway let see what the damage is."

She began examining me, checked me over, prodded the bits where I had been injured then sat me on the scanner and took a look at me with that. She showed me the scans compared to the ones from the previous day taken at the hospital.

"Remarkable, there is almost no sign of any injury. A few traces of bruising but nothing more serious. It looks like your hand is nearly fully repaired as well. Give it another few weeks and it'll be good as new."

"It was a bit odd after getting hurt. I was very tired and hungry but then the bruises began to fade very quickly. It caused some problems with the people at the hospital. They thought Gwen had beaten me because of it," I told her.

"Hmm, well I would guess your body went into some sort of regenerative state where it committed all its energies to repairing the damage. Which would explain your hunger and tiredness. I'll put a note in your file about this accelerated healing so that other doctors don't jump to the same conclusions the hospital staff did."

"Why did this happen like that though? I didn't get really tired when I lost my hand," I asked.

"At that time you were pumped up with adrenaline. Your fight or flight response would have been off the charts. I would guess that overrode the rapid healing. It makes sense if you are in a dangerous situation the last thing you want is to be in a sort of regenerative hibernation state. I guess you were on the run and scared for long enough that normal healing took over. It could also have something to do with where you were damaged. In this case your internal organs took a pummeling and they are more important to your survival than your hand."

"So am I fit to return to school?" I asked.

"Yep, your body is healed up nicely. You can return as soon as you like."

"Oh goody," I said clapping my hands together in excitement.

"Are you sure she's alright. Maybe she hit her head or something, a teenager wanting to return to school that much can't be a good sign," said Gwen with a smile.

"Hmm you're right it must be more serious than I thought," said Sarah laughing.

I stuck my tongue out at both of them causing them to burst out laughing.

There was a knock at the door, "Come in," called Sarah.

Anna stuck her head round the door, "Thought I might find you here you little minx," she said looking at me, "You trying to steal all my patients? First Sally and now you've gotten to young Eric before I've even seen her?"

She was smiling and I could sense here amusement so I played along, "Hey you snooze you lose, now if I can only get them to cough up I'll be the one laughing."

"Hehe, that's what I have all that training for, it's not to teach you how to help people, but how to extract money from them while you do it," she chortled, "All kidding aside you did good with helping both of them. With some training you could probably work helping kids like I do. Your empathy combined with your caring personality could make you very good at this sort of thing. Something you should think about when career day comes around. Anyway I need to be going, more patients to see. I've got to get to them before some amateur gets there first and steals all my glory, glad to see you are OK." she winked at me then dived back out the room.

"You been playing therapist in your spare time?" asked Sarah.

"Kinda," I said, "There was this girl at school I sort of helped without really realising it. I tweaked her emotional state, then today I chatted with a kid in the waiting room who had just changed and seemed to be having a tough time because of it."

"You tweaked her emotional state, interesting, well empaths do often work healing emotionally disturbed people. It takes a lot of skill and power to do well, but from personal experience I can say that healing others is a very rewarding profession so if you have the aptitude, it may be worth considering. Anyway I'll write you a note to say that you are OK to attend school again. Try to stay away from bullies in the future," said Sarah.

"I do try," I said. It wasn't so much a problem of me staying away from bullies more that they wouldn't stay away from me.

Armed with my note that said I was cleared to return to school, we headed back home for some lunch. I was keen to return to school immediately, but Gwen said I should at least wait till tomorrow before going back.

I helped Gwen make some sandwiches and salad for lunch and then we sat down to eat. After we were done and we had cleaned up it was time for Gwen to go to work.

"Are you going to be OK?" she asked.

"Yeah I'll be fine, I can catch up on my homework. I might see if I can arrange to see that lady about the job later." I replied.

"OK but you be careful."

"Will do."

She gave me a kiss and was out the door, I settled in to get some of my homework out the way. I hated to think what I had missed while I was ill. It seemed every time I was making some headway into the huge mound of work something happened that put me behind again. After I had got through a fair amount of my work I decided to call the lady at the restaurant.

The phone rang a few times then it was answered by a woman's voice, "Hello."

"Hello, this is Amanda Wilson. I was going to come for an interview, but I had to cancel due to being in hospital. I was wondering if I could reschedule if you are still looking for someone," I said.

"Certainly, we still need people. If you don't mind my asking what happened to you?"

"Well I was beaten up at school. I'm all better now though."

"Hmm you too! I saw on the news that some other girl was badly beaten at school. Seems a lot rougher than when I was a girl. Anyway I can see you anytime, in fact now is a good time if you are free."

"Sure, it will take me half an hour or so to walk down there."

"That should be fine. Come to the back door of the restaurant, ask for Angela."

"OK see you soon, Bye."

"Bye," she said and rang off.

I grabbed my coat and then left a note in case Gwen got back early. I took my mobile so she could contact me if she needed to and I was out the door. It was getting pretty chilly of late so I pulled my coat tight around me, the bitter wind cutting in to me. I wished I had a hat to keep my ears warm. I tucked my hands deep into my pockets to keep my fingers from getting cold.

The various businesses had all their Christmas displays out trying to get in on the lucrative present buying season. They had just started putting out the decorations. When I had been with my parents we didn't have decorations or a tree. We spent a lot of time in church listening to my Uncle Richard give his long sermons on good and evil. It was not a happy time of year for me, hours spent in that cold church with its uncomfortable hard wooden pews. There wasn't even the big meal or presents to look forward to as compensation. My parents didn't believe in such things.

I hurried on moving swiftly to counteract the cold and was soon outside the restaurant. I considered whether I should disguise myself, but I decided after my last experience it would be better to do this au naturel so to speak, they would only get their knickers in a twist later if they found out. Steeling myself, I found the side alley and made my way past a load of dustbins to the back door, I knocked then waited.

A short while later a man dressed in a white uniform answered, "Yes what do you want?" he asked.

"Hello, I'm here to see Angela," I replied.

"Hmm, wait here I'll get her," he said and slammed the door shut. It was a bit rude to leave me out here in the cold but I tried not to let it bother me.