Chapter 25: Chapter 20 – Congratulations Party

Sleep didn't come easily and when I finally slept my dreams were X-rated. The dream faded away as I woke up. The more shameful thing was the wet spot I left as I stood up. My juices had seeped through my thin night shirt and panties. Whatever the dream was about it must have been good.

Because I slept so poorly, I was still tired, but my phone kept ringing every few minutes as text messages came in. Grumpily, I reached for my phone and scrolled through the dozen plus messages. As I read through them my mood became better and soon a smile was plastered on my face.

Janet, [I’m back]

412-676-xxxx, [The star has graced us with her presence. Make sure I get an autograph]

412-987-xxxx, [Stars get up too early! How was it?]

Janet, [Fantastic! parents were throwing me a congratulations party. Who’s coming?]

412-676-xxxx, [When? I’ll be there]

412-745-xxxx, [Me]

Victoria, [can’t wait!]

I kept reading and felt like a slacker because I was the last in our group to reply. Even Ann sent a sleepy emoji and [resting before the party] before going silent. By the time I finished, I knew the party was at three and multiple numbers that weren’t in my address book had replied they’d be there.

I quickly sent my [I’m coming. Save me a spot!]

I couldn’t wait to hear all she did. My sleepiness was forgotten as I grabbed some clothes and headed to the bathroom. I could hear my mom making breakfast and Roy’s mellow voice asking if she needed help as I started the shower, got undressed, and jumped into the shower. My nighttime dream, although unremembered, left me sweaty. I could live with that, but I had a bit of a feminine aroma about me. I was sure it came from my excitement during the night, and I wanted to wash it away before I saw my mom or Roy.

As I washed, I wondered if it was like my first dream. Did I have any new spells? I couldn’t tell and without knowing the names there were too many to just randomly cast. I was mid scrub and thought when I heard a knock at the door. “Stephanie, will you be long? I’m afraid I need to use the toilet.” I should have asked. I knew the problem with small places, but I was used to being with just my mom and as a man I had tended to shower fast. As a girl, I had more maintenance like longer hair and more areas to shave and it took longer.

His rapid knock came again, so I yelled “I’ll be right out” and began to rinse as quickly as I could. Still, I took longer than I wanted to. Because of that, I semi-dried off, wrapped a towel around my body, and after grabbing my clothes, made my way to open the door. I was mid grab when I realized that, in my rush, I had wrapped the towel just around my waist. I had to set the clothes back down so I could rewrap the towel.

I exited the bathroom and while holding the towel close, I scurried pass Roy. He did his best to give me room in the narrow hall and glanced away when he saw I wasn’t dressed. His pleasant voice filled the hallway as I opened my bedroom door, “My apologies. I had not thought out the limitation of one bathroom. I will try to correct that.” I didn’t answer as I stepped into my room.

‘That could have been worse,’ I thought as I finished drying off. If I “flashed” my mom’s boyfriend because I forgot I was a girl, I wouldn’t know how to explain myself. For the most part, I think I adjusted well, but there were rare moments where I acted like the old me. Old habits like going to pee standing up, only to find I was missing an important piece as I pulled down my pants zipper. Thankfully, I remembered. I finished dressing while repeating, ‘I’m a girl now’ like a mantra.

After eating breakfast with Roy and my mom, they dropped Victoria and me off at Janet’s. Her house was the biggest out of my new group. We got out of the lowkey sedan Roy had bought to fit in, but even though it was a cheaper model, it was new and still stood out. I waved goodbye to my mom before ringing the front doorbell, but Roy didn’t drive away until Ms. Hinkle, Janet’s mother, opened the door.

She waved excitedly, “Steph, long time no see! Why haven’t you come over lately? Well, come in.” She held the door as we walked by her. Ms. Hinkle was over forty and from what Victoria had told me was a retired movie star. Her dad had wooed her on set. It was a Cinderella story except Janet’s dad was Cinderella. He was handsome but wasn’t an actor. Instead, he had worked behind the scenes at the time and worked any job he could find to pay the bills such as an assistant, props boy, and gopher. How he managed to catch her eye wasn’t mentioned and I wasn’t sure of all the details. After they got together, she helped him get connections and resources and he managed to rise within the entertainment company by using them. Once his career was stabilized, she retired to have her son, John. Janet came later.

I noticed that Janet’s face resembled her mother’s but failed to gain her chest. We stepped inside as she continued to talk, “The others are in the living room.” She had to be making conversation because I could hear the people that were one room away. I smiled politely and followed Victoria in that direction.

I mingled with the others, listening to some of the backstage gossip. There wasn’t much. The Younger actors were housed on a different floor so if there was anything going on with the older actors at night, she never saw it. Most of her stories revolved around the day-to-day operations. Things like Mary was as nice off camera as on, but Johnson was a narcissist who thought others should worship him. The director had even given clues to one of the teams because they were too far behind. I sat near Ann and listened to her stories about the things that happened off camera.

Neal and his friends Brad, Paul, and Jeff were also here and were probably the numbers that had replied to this morning’s text. Brad and Victoria had wandered off and I knew why. She had gone to reject him. He had sent a text asking her to date him officially, but she wanted to let him down easy in person. I listened to several more stories and realized that Victoria had not returned.

Being entertained by Janet's stories time had passed quickly. I got up and went in the direction she had left. I heard a female's voice coming from upstairs. The plush carpets hid my approach even though I wasn't trying to be quiet. I saw Victoria standing next to a purple haired youth at the end of the hallway. It was a boy I knew because he had attacked me twice since I arrived in this world. They were being quiet, but I could still hear parts of their conversation.

Victoria while taking a vial of yellow liquid was saying, "this should do the trick."

"Anything else?"

"No, but are you sure this will be painless?"

He scoffed and arrogantly said, "The potions I sell are all top-notch. Isn't that why you came to me?"

I stood frozen as I saw her nod and slip the vial into her purse. I turned around to go back only to collide with Jeff. He must have followed me when I left. His right hand gripped the rail, while his left arm wrapped around my waist and kept both of us from tumbling down the stairs. It was just that the noise we made wasn't small and didn't go unnoticed. I was facing away from Victoria, but I heard a door open and close.

But I barely heard it. Being held so close gave me a close look into Jeff's eyes. It was just that his eyes weren't normal. At a distance, they looked grey but now I could see that there were lighter and darker gray lines. As I stared into his eyes, I could make out his grey irises resembled a clock. A slightly darker grey line came out of his pupils and were slowly ticking away. It was so amazing, that I ignored that I was being held in his warm embrace until I heard Victoria cough behind me.

Jeff slowly let me go while giving me an apologetic look. Even though he let go, he was still close enough that I could smell his cologne. Once I was free, I turned to look at Victoria. She gave me a questioning look and I quickly explained, "I was worried about you when you didn't come back, so I came looking. When I saw you weren't with Brad, I turned to leave and got tangled up with jeff." I spilled everything like a naughty schoolboy caught doing something bad and even I thought my story was rushed.

I collected myself, straighten my shirt that had become twisted from the friction of Jeff’s arm, and asked Victoria, "Who's the boy you were talking to?" I tried to keep my voice as calm as I could. I wanted to know what was going on. Why was she talking to a boy that was openly hostile to me and why was he even here? I ignored Jeff and focused my attention onto Victoria. Trying to gleam anything from her reaction.

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“Who? Oh him, he’s just John’s friend,” her eyes flickered and replied, “So why were you hugging Jeff on the stairs? I know you said you tripped but that doesn't explain the loving gaze. Were you and him sneaking upstairs for naughty time?” She glanced between him and me, while looking like a lecher. She was doing her best to insinuate that we were having a sexual rendezvous. It wasn’t that I didn’t notice that she changed the subject, but what could I do? She obviously didn’t want to tell me.

“I’m not sure why Jeff is here but…” I turned back to face him, “Thanks for saving me.” I hadn’t forgotten his saving grace and even though I was pretty sure he caused my plight; I didn’t want to seem ungrateful.

We looked each other in the eye as I spoke. Whether in the last world or this one, it wasn’t something that happened often. I had either been too tall or too small, so I was always looking down or up. It only happened now because we were around the same height since he was on a lower step. So, I got to see his eyes widen in disappointment before he looked away. “It wasn’t anything big,” he mumbled before he went back down the stairs and rejoined the others.

'That was weird,' I thought and then asked, “Was it me?” He acted so weird sometimes, but at least he seemed to be a better version of himself compared to the one I knew from my world.

Victoria laughed at my question and answered even though it was rhetorical, “Yes, it was definitely you.” When I looked back, I saw she had a huge smile on her face.

“What did I miss?”

“Ha, ha, the same thing you always miss. Don’t worry about it.”

I gave up because she was acting as weird as he was. Instead, I changed the subject, "So where's Brad? How'd he take it?"

Her amused look was replaced by anger, "Brad? Don't even get me started." She said that but without pausing she continued, "Just because he's richer than me and has more magic than me, he thinks I'd be his girlfriend. He took my rejection as me playing "hard to get". He then set up a date for next Friday night, ignored my "not gonna happen", and left after telling me he'd pick me up. I think he went to the basement."

We walked downstairs as we talked, "Basement?"

"Yeah, he said something about playing pool with Paul. Oh, right memory, the basement is a playroom, with a pool table, pinball machine, darts, and a TV. It's pretty nice."

"Oh," I didn't really care where he went. I just wanted to change the subject. As for him rejecting her rejection, "Just ignore him. It's not like he can make you to date him."

"The problem is that before this he had been a total gentleman and my dad has a good impression of Brad. As long as he doesn't push his luck, I don't want my dad to know about this because he won't let me hang out over at Neal's." She stopped talking as re-joined the others. It was just that half the people were gone. Janet's dad and a few of their friends had gone to the back yard to start grilling. While Ann and Neal had gone to join Brad in the basement, leaving Janet, her mom, Paul, and Jeff. They were still talking around the table when we walked back into the room.

Victoria, after confirming that Brad wasn't there, whispered "let's stay here" and walked to sit near Janet. She didn't wait for my reply, but I didn't want to see him either. So, we sat around and talked about what we did during the week, some of the less colorful rumors and the assignments we thought she missed. But it turned out the school had given her a homework packet that she had to do on top of the show. The cast had held onto it and helped her with it when she had questions, it just wasn't broadcast. So, she knew about all the assignments we did.

I was so involved in the conversation that I failed to notice that Jeff had gotten up at one point to get a drink and sat next to me when he came back. That was until two boys came rushing down the stairs. It was only when I turned to look, that I noticed him sitting there but the boy with the long purple hair at the bottom of the stairs drew my attention away right after I did.

Beside the Purple haired kid was another teen. His face was a blend of Janet’s mom and dad, so I was guessing he was her brother John. He was around five’ ten with messy light brown hair. Even though it was close to four-thirty, he looked like he just woke up. I clenched my fist and wondered if it’d be too much if I beat up the bully at the party. But nobody seemed to notice my indecision. Instead, I heard Ms. Hinkle calling to them, “Are you just getting up? Were you up all night playing games with Eric? Never mind, go, and see if dinner is almost ready.” By the end, her voice held exasperation. I didn’t think she was right. It was more likely that they had been playing games all day. That was because Eric, the purpled haired boy, had come out to meet Victoria and he wasn’t quiet when he went back into the room.

Janet’s brother gave a “Whatever” before turning to go out back. His friend followed but kept looking back at me as I scowled at him.

I felt Jeff's hand gently touching my arm. It snapped me out of my thoughts and when I looked, his face was scrunched up in concern. As I turned, I heard him say, "Are you ok?"

I put on a smile that I was sure looked fake, but still replied, "I'm fine." I tried to think more positively for the rest of the time I was here. After we ate, we went downstairs and joined the others. Ann was playing against Brad with Neal “helping” her. His big body held her close to guide her pool cue. Seeing that they were going to be awhile, Paul and Victoria went to play darts.

Jeff and Janet were next to me, so I told Janet, “My mom signed the waiver and contract for the show. She just needs to call the school tomorrow to let them know I won’t be there Friday, and I’ll be all set.”

“Thanks, I’m not doing well. They only showed one episode, but we filmed two and I didn’t win either of them. They gave us the option to invite a friend but if nobody came it’d be just Mary and me. I don’t want to be last and could use an extra set of eyes.”

“Well, I don’t mind skipping school for a sleepover. It should be fun.”

She gave me a weird look but said, “Umm, yeah fun.”

Jeff stood beside us and listened to what we were saying. He looked confused and finally asked, “Sleepover?”

“Yeah, I get to go onto her show to help and I won’t even have to sleep in the wild like she did.” I giggled, “It’s going to be much easier.”

“So, I’ll get to see you on TV?”

“Yeah, you can see Janet and me.”

“Well, I can’t wait. Come on future super star, I’ll challenge you to a game.” He pointed at the television in the corner. I nodded and we took turns playing various games. Soon, I forgot my displeasure from earlier and enjoyed myself until it was time to go home.

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