Chapter 7

I woke a bit more refreshed than I had the past few days. I had a load of lectures this morning, so I quickly got myself up and dressed, then headed off to breakfast. I scoffed down my food quickly and was off back to the house to get my stuff. I grabbed my books then headed out the door.

I made it a few tens of meters up the road when I heard a voice behind me, "Hey Em, wait up," said Nat, dashing to catch me up, "Jeez, Em, what's the hurry?"

"Sorry, Nat I was just keen to get the lectures out the way," I replied.

"You just want to get to your girlfriends picnic," said Nat with a sly grin.

"Well, a little," I said with a grin, "It is more interesting than control theory and measurement techniques lectures."

Nat laughed and we carried on our way to the university. As we approached the front gate there was some sort of commotion, a large group of people with placards. I wondered what was going on. As we got closer I saw some of the signs said things like, 'MORFS out!', 'No Freaks in the classroom!' and 'Animals in the lab should be in cages, not in lab coats!". scoff

As we made our way hesitantly towards the group who seemed to be chanting various slogans, though we were too far away to make out more than the angry tone, I recognised Kathy amongst the assembled people, which made me even more nervous.

As we approached, Kathy spotted us and pointed at me, calling out, "Look, here comes one of them."

The group moved to block our path, preventing us from getting in the gate to the university.

"Hey, move aside we have to get through," said Nat, fairly put out.

"You can pass, but not that thing," said an angry young man.

"What's the big idea? We have lectures to go to," said Nat.

"We are taking a stand to prevent these freaks from ruining this place of learning for the rest of us," said Kathy, while scowling at me.

"You lot are out of your minds!" said Nat.

"Please, just let us past. I just want to get to my lecture. I don't want any trouble," I said, hoping to appeal to reason.

"Never, monster!" said Kathy.

"Look, what's to say any of the normal looking people haven't been through MORFS too. Hell, for all I know, most of you could have got it already, even Kathy here. Is that it Kathy? Is that why you hate other MORFS so much, because you went through it yourself? Maybe you were a guy before or something," said Nat.

"WHAT!" screamed Kathy, "How dare you!"

"I'm just saying, how do we know you're not one of them," said Nat.

By now the rest of the group were turning towards Kathy, looking on her with suspicion.

"Stop looking at me like that. I'm normal. I'm PURE! She's just trying to divide us!" said Kathy.

At this point the security people from the gate came over, "What's going on here? You are blocking the right of way I'm going to have to ask you to move," the guard said.

"We have a legitimate protest. We have every right to make ourselves heard!" shouted Kathy.

"That's as may be, but you are blocking people from entering and leaving the university. If you don't move I'll have to call the police. You can protest all you want, but you need to stop obstructing the public right of way," the guard replied.

"We're only blocking the freaks," said Kathy.

The guard raised an eyebrow, "Move or I'll have the police come down here and arrest you for harassing students and obstructing access."

Most of the group glowered at the guard, but after some talking amongst themselves they moved aside and let people through. They continued to shout abuse at the obvious MORFS people that came past, but no longer stopped people. Nat and I made our way past and had to run to make up lost time, making it into the lecture hall just as the lecture was starting.

"What time do you call this ladies?" asked the lecturer with a somewhat amused good natured smile.

"Sorry Doc. Some crazed protesters were blocking the gate so we couldn't get in," Nat replied.

"Oh yes I heard about that, some misguided religious fanatics. In that case I'll forgive you two, but take your seats," he said.

The rest of the lecture was fairly standard. I swiftly fell into the usual lecture routine of trying to follow as much as possible, while making notes for future use in exam revision. The next lecture was similar and the ones after that. I had to admit my mind was not really on the lectures, more on the picnic I was going to be sharing with Caitlyn. It occurred to me that we'd had very little time together without others. Even our little walk in the park had been rudely interrupted by the old woman and cop. I hoped that this time would go more smoothly, and we could have some quality time to get to know each other without outside interference. I shivered in excitement at the prospect.

When the final lecture finished I was out the door like a shot, with Nat following, barely keeping up. She had an amused grin on her face.

"So you got your picnic now. Well think of me as you lounge with your girlfriend in the park, as I must sit alone in our room, in the dark, and waste away. Oh, woe is me!" she said, placing a hand to her forehead in mock anguish.

"Ha! But you have lunch with Shaun. I bet he'll make sure you don't waste away," I said with a smile.

"Oh yes, I'd forgotten about that. Still, I doubt he will be hand feeding me sumptuous treats of his own devising."

"Well, maybe that's a good thing. He looks like the sort that considers a can of beans and beer a four course meal."

Nat laughed, "Maybe you're right. Still, appearances can be deceptive."

We wandered over to the quad where I had arranged to meet Caitlyn and I saw her waiting. She was carrying a big backpack, I guessed stuffed with tasty provisions for our picnic. It was nice of her to prepare this for me, I would have to work out a way to do something equally nice for her.

She grabbed my hand and gave me a kiss on the lips. "Hello gorgeous, ready to go?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," I replied. "See you later, Nat."

"Bye Bye girls, have a nice time," Nat ran off in the direction of the canteen.

Caitlyn and I headed off towards the park hand in hand.

"That looks heavy," I said indicating the backpack, "do you want me to carry it?"

"No, I'm okay."

"Did you see those idiots at the gate this morning?"

"Yeah, I saw then on my way in, they tried to get in the way, but some of the people I was with pushed us through them."

"One of them is my lab partner, so things got a little heated. Nat managed to almost get them fighting each other by suggesting that any one of them could have been through MORFS and they would never know. Then security came up and told them to move out the way."

"Well I'm not going to let them ruin our day, even if they are still at the gates."

We made our way up to the gates, and sure enough, the group of protesters were still there. Their angry chants increased in volume when they saw the two of us coming. Caitlyn put her arm around me and strode defiantly forward at a fast pace. They hurled abuse at us, but we just kept walking and were soon past them. Once we were past their hateful glances and nasty tongues, we were able to relax a bit and we eased our pace.

It was a lovely day, just the sort of weather for a picnic. I wished I had brought my camera along. When I mentioned this to Caitlyn, she insisted we go get it, so we swung by my room to pick it up. After that we made our way over to the park. Caitlyn took us to a quiet area where there were few people about. She picked a nice spot in the shade of a beech tree and began setting things up.

I asked if she needed any help, but was shooed away. Soon she had set out a blanket for us to sit on, as well as plates of various sandwiches, some fruits, and all sorts of tasty little morsels. She seemed to have brought enough food to feed an army. Maybe she hadn't been joking when she said she was trying to fatten me up.

She had me sit down on the blanket, then began offering me sandwiches and various dips with sliced vegetables to dip in them. I took a few snaps of Caitlyn and the picnic she had laid on while there was still some left of it, then tucked in. We ate our feast, enjoying the food in the sunshine and fresh air. Caitlyn had put on a fabulous spread. She would playfully feed me bits and bobs, then kiss me afterwards. It was heavenly.

We slowly managed to consume most of the food till there was nothing but scraps left, and I felt completely stuffed.

I laid back and relaxed enjoying the clement weather and the company. Caitlyn snuggled up against me and we lay there enjoying the sun.

"That was wonderful. Thank you for all your hard work," I said.

"You're welcome, sweetie. Actually, I have a little confession, one of my friends from my hall helped me put it together."

"Well you'll have to pass on my regards. It was a wonderful feast."

"I will. Clive is a fabulous cook."

I laughed a little at that, thinking of my discussion about Shaun with Nat earlier.

"What?" asked a bemused Caitlyn.

"Oh it's nothing, just reminded me of something I was saying to Nat earlier."

"What, that men can't cook?"

"No, that one in particular doesn't seem the cooking type."

"Ah yes, Mr Chips n' Cheese is a balanced diet."

"Maybe we are being unkind to him, he could be a good cook."

"Could be, but somehow I doubt it."

We lay there together, I watched the clouds with Caitlyn snoozing, lying on my arms. After a while this proved to be an issue, as she was cutting off the circulation on the lower two. I didn't really want to move, as Caitlyn looked so cute curled up against me, eyes closed, gently making purring noises like a contented kitten. I began fidgeting a bit as my arms became more painful. This woke, or at least disturbed Caitlyn.

"What's the matter honey?" she asked.

"My arms are going to sleep," I said.

"Oh I'm sorry, baby."

She sat up and I extracted my lower limbs from under her, pins and needles running through them. I rubbed them to try and get the blood flowing again.

"I'm sorry Em. I didn't mean to hurt you. I was just so comfy. Here, let me help you there."

"That's OK. It was nice till my lower arms started hurting."

She started massaging my arms to get them back to working order. Soon I felt better as her gentle touch worked some life back into my arms.

"Is that better, sweetie?" she asked, kissing my hands.

"Yeah, much better."

Caitlyn stretched herself luxuriously, "Mmmm, I feel good. Do you fancy a little walk?"

"Sure."

We packed up the remains of the picnic, disposed of our rubbish in a nearby bin, then headed off for a walk hand in hand. As we walked, Caitlyn turned to regard me speculatively.

"So how long have you known Nat?" asked Caitlyn.

"Not long I suppose. Only since we became roommates."

"You seem almost like sisters at times. She's very protective of you."

"I guess she kind of took me under her wing when we became roommates. She would make sure I did things, came out to the bar, and joined in some of the hall activities. She even took me out on double dates with her, though that was a bit of disaster, I was nowhere near as pretty as I am now. To an extent, all of my house mates used to treat me a bit like a little sister. Since I changed, Nat and I have become even better friends. She helped me through the initial shock of waking up like this. I don't know where I would be without her, probably hiding in a darkened room somewhere."

"I have to ask. You like girls, and you were in the same room as Nat who is without a doubt a total babe. What was that like? It must have been frustrating."

I thought about the question for a bit and looked at her shyly. "It's odd thinking about it now, maybe going through MORFS did something to me in that regard. I've always known that Nat is gorgeous, I'm not blind. I was often envious of her, but I don't know if I ever thought about her ... in that way. She was always obviously into boys, and I knew I was ugly, so I guess it never crossed my mind."

"Maybe it isn't so much MORFS tweaking your preferences. Maybe it was more you feel more confident in who you are now, more able to accept that you can have whoever you want. Even then, did you not feel anything towards Nat when you met her, before you knew her that is?"

"I remember when I first saw her. I was the first in the room, so I was sitting there waiting to meet my new roommate. It was my first time away from home, I was very shy and feeling a touch lonely already. When she wandered in looking the way she does, I was terrified of her. Girls that looked like that had tortured me for years, but she seemed to know how I felt, and treated me with kid gloves. She was very friendly, with common interests. Despite her looks, she's a geek at heart. Before I knew it we were talking about our families and so forth like old friends. By the end of the first week she was like the big sister I never had. I guess after that it was hard to feel ... the way I feel about you ... about her. I love her, of that I have no doubt, but it is love like a sister. Rather than love ... with an x rating."

"I guess I understand that."

"So do you have a roommate?"

"No I'm all on my lonesome. It's good sometimes, though I'd love a roommate like your Natalie."

When I looked at her with one eyebrow raised, she looked back, then tapped me on the arm, "Not like that, you have a filthy mind!"

When I continued to look at her with the same expression, she rolled her eyes and said, "Well maybe a little like that, but more as a friend."

"It is nice to be good friends with my roommate."

"Yeah sometimes I wish..." she stopped mid sentence her ears perking up.

"What is it?"

"Shhh!" she said putting a finger to her lips her cat like ears were swivelling this way and that as if trying to lock in on some sound, suddenly she jumped in the air and squealed, "Ice cream van. Quickly, this way!"

She set off at breakneck speed, pausing every now and then to reorient herself. After a short while I heard the sound of a ice cream van playing the signature, "Teddy Bears Picnic." Caitlyn pulled me along, homing in like a missile on the location of the van. Soon I could make out the brightly coloured van, with a small queue of children and their mothers buying ice cream. Despite our large meal, I reckoned I could find some room for ice cream.

"What would you like? My treat." I said.

"Oh you're too kind, I'll have a flake please," Caitlyn said.

"Righty ho," I joined the queue.

One of the young children in the queue was staring openly at me, mouth agape, she pulled on her mothers arm, "Mummy, mummy!" she said.

"What is it darling?" her mother asked.

"Look at the funny lady," the small tot said, still staring at me.

I smiled at her and waved with one of my arms, she tentatively waved back, clinging to her mother.

Her mother looked at me and smiled apologetically. "Don't stare, sweetheart. It's not polite," she told her young daughter. The girl turned back to the front, giving me only the occasional glance, anticipation of her upcoming treat warring with the fascination I held.

It was oddly refreshing to be stared at with the sense of wonder the little child had in her eyes. Not hate, or fear, or revulsion, just simple joy and surprise at the strangeness of the world. I got the feeling that to a child of that age, many things, mundane and unusual, held such joy and wonder. It made me feel a bit more normal. I shuffled towards the front of the queue, the little girl in front of me was soon picking out her ice cream, a brightly coloured pink animal of some kind. Once she was given this I was no longer even in her awareness, her little face was a bright smile, her eyes focused on her treat.

I reached the van and after a moment's surprise, the ice cream seller asked me what I wanted. I bought two flakes and headed back to Caitlyn, whose smile was very similar to the little girls. She was like a kitten who had gotten some cream, which I guess was an apt analogy. We went and found a bench to sit on while we ate our ice cream. It was very nice to have the cold sweet ice cream on a warm day like this.

"So is your hearing better than normal then? I didn't hear anything, but you picked up on the van's music from quite a ways away."

"Yes, they offer better directional sound than a human ear and they are a touch more sensitive. It's one of their advantages," she said.

"Besides looking cute."

"Yes, besides that. Some people who are hybrids get the full package of upgraded senses. For me, the ears are the only boosted bit. My tail supposedly improves my balance, when it's not making trouble that is."

As if to prove this point, her tail began tickling me. We polished off our treats and sat for a bit.

Just as I was about to suggest a walk, my phone rang, "Hello, Emily speaking," I answered.

"Em," it was Nat, she sounded distraught.

"Nat, what is it, is something wrong?" I asked.

"It's Shaun, there was some sort of accident last night. He's been badly hurt!"

"Oh no! What happened?"

"I don't know. They say someone attacked him."

"That's awful! Where are you?"

"I don't want to ruin your date Em, I just needed to talk to someone. Hospitals get to me a bit."

"Nonsense I'll be right over, where are you."

"The hospital, Ward B2, second floor on the right."

"Hang tight, sweet heart, I'll be there in a jiffy. See you soon."

"Thank you Em, I'll see you soon."

Nat rang off, I turned to Caitlyn who was looking concerned. "Shaun's been hurt, Nat's at the hospital. Sorry to cut our date short, but she needs me," I said.

"No that's fine, if you like I'll come with you for moral support, plus I like to think both of them are becoming friends with me, too."

"I'm sure Nat and Shaun will appreciate you coming. Let's go find a taxi."

We made our way to the local taxi rank and jumped in the first cab we saw. It wasn't far to the local hospital, but still I was quite anxious. Nat had sounded pretty rough on the phone. Caitlyn, picking up on my anxiety, held one of my hands. When we pulled up to the hospital, I hurriedly paid and we raced in. After getting a little lost, we found our way to the right ward with some help from a passing doctor. We located where Shaun was and made our way over. He was in a room surrounded by machines and drips, his body all bandaged up. His face was barely recognisable, all bloodied and bruised. Sitting by his bed side was Nat, looking very small and afraid.

I rushed in, Nat threw herself into my arms, giving me a bone crushingly fierce hug.

"Oh Em, it's awful. I was waiting for him to show for lunch, and when he didn't I rang his mobile. A police office answered, told me Shaun had been attacked. I know we only knew each other for a short while, but it really hit me. This place is making me worse, I pick up all the emotions," she said as she began sobbing gently.

I held her tight and stroked her hair saying comforting words, "There, there, it'll be alright."