Chapter 4: Chapter 3 – School begins

I heard the front door open and my mom’s voice calling out to me. It was a little after nine and while I should have been in bed, I still poked my head out the door to say hi. She had her hair done up and was wearing a tight-fitting dress and high heels. He must have taken her on a fancy date, and she obviously had a great time judging from her smile and dreamy look.

I liked to see her happy, so I still said, “Hi mom, did you enjoy your date?” I wanted her to know I was ok with her dating, so I made sure I smiled. “You look great by the way. I’m surprised he let you come home so early.” I winked at her giving my statement a more dubious meaning.

“Stephanie! Ugh, you’re going to kill me with that mouth of yours. But yes, I had a great time. He took me to a spa, then shopping, and finally to the floating diner for dinner and dancing.”

“Roy seems like a nice guy. I’m happy that you’re happy. Just let him know if he hurts you, I’ll break his legs.” I flexed my skinny arms out of habit, only to sigh at how tiny they were.

“Ha-ha, sure you will honey. You don’t have to worry about him. I have been watching how he treats others. He even treats the waiters with respect. Just remember to use what your mother taught you when you start dating. It’s a sure-fire way to see a man’s true heart. Don’t be taken in by a pretty face.”

“Oh, I will but I don’t have any plans on dating until I’m much older.” I nodded enthusiastically to cover that I had no idea what she was talking about. My other mother never gave me such advice. I stretched, gave a fake yawn, and continued, “Well, I have school tomorrow. I’m heading to bed.”

She probably saw through my poor acting but still said, “Night honey. Get some sleep.”

I quickly escaped. I didn’t want to talk about boyfriends at all. Back in my room, I re-packed the schoolbooks and a change of clothes for tomorrow. I was planning on doing my morning exercise routine. I normally ran in the morning, use the equipment at the school and then a shower in the locker room. It was something the school allowed, and I had seen girls from other sport divisions doing the same. I just wasn’t sure if this world’s school was the same but worst-case scenario would be that I changed in the girl’s bathroom and was a bit sweaty. It wouldn’t be a big deal. I fell asleep shortly after I got everything ready.

I woke up early and put on the spandex shorts, a sports bra, and a half shirt to cover it. I was going for comfort and didn’t mind other’s looking at me. As long as they kept their distance I didn’t care. It was the same as my last life. What I failed to realize was that a six' four hulking man was a bit more intimidating than a five' two scrawny girl and men wouldn’t necessarily stay away like they had before. Still, nothing happened as I jogged to school.

Green Valley High was further away than my old high school, but much bigger and better equipped. Because of population growth, the township had combined the three old high schools into a centralized location and then used the old schools for middle schools. They had put a lot of money into the new school, and it showed. There were multiple sports fields, and the green grass made the three-story build stand out. There were three gym levels but only two that students could use in the morning. The bottom floor was off limits because it had a pool and without special permission nobody was allowed access. I planned on using the main gym since it had most of the workout equipment there.

I couldn’t do my normal routine. This body wasn’t strong enough nor did I want to turn Stephanie’s body into a muscled hulk. I could tell from my breathing that she exercised a lot but from her muscles she focused more on cardio/aerobic, stretching, breathing, and balance. While ignoring most of the weight-bearing and strength training exercises. She must have been going for flexibility and stamina which I would respect. If one day we switched back, I didn’t want her to be upset with her body.

When I arrived, I started with basic static stretches and moved onto dynamic ones. Most people don’t understand that a lot of football players that want to go pro must work on their flexibility and stability. It’s not something that comes up very often but because of that, I had learned Yoga, Pilates, and some dance moves although I wasn’t the best dancer. Once I was warmed up, I began exercising to a cheerleader schedule, I found on the internet. Day one consisted of three sets of fifteen of body weight squats, bench push-ups, bench dips, jumping jacks, bicep curls, tricep dips, and abdominal leg raises.

I tuned out the people moving around me as I worked out and focused on how well this body was doing. It was obvious to me that she put a lot of effort into her body, just like I did. We just took different paths to our ideal body shapes. I noticed when I grabbed my backpack and headed for the showers that several boys had repositioned themselves behind me. They looked at me and I eyeballed a few of them. I found my eyes drawn to the muscles of their bodies. Confused, I didn’t notice that the thin fabric of my shirt was now plastered to my body like a second skin, so there was a lot to see. Even if I had, I wouldn’t have cared.

Sadly, before I managed to get into the locker room a boy, I didn't know cut me off. He was only five' five with dusty extremely light brown hair. He was seating and looked nervous as he pushed out an envelope to me. I took it out of reflex and when I did, he turned and ran away, leaving me what that was all about. I opened it as I walked into take shower. Three handwritten pages were folded inside and as I began to read my eyebrows shot up...

In poorly written cursive, I read, 'How I wish words could express the thoughts that I have about you. If I could only say, "I love you," then most of my feelings would still be unexpressed. But I have to say something. My heart longs for you, and I must tell you that. Every day, I long to see your face, to hear your voice, and just thinking of you helps make my day better...'

I kept reading his confession but did the old me even know him? I didn't know, nor did I know how to respond, so I was happy he had run away. I would think of a nice way to reject him. With this thought, I made sure to go to the girl’s locker room. They were side by side along the gyms back wall. Inside there was a coaches’ office that connected the two rooms, but you needed a key to access the room. It was placed in the front part of the locker room, away from where the students changed so even though it had windows nobody could spy on the students. It was there so the different teachers could interact or hear students if there was a problem.

I didn’t want to cause a commotion by walking into the boys out of habit. The girl’s locker room looked pretty much the same as what I was used to. The only difference was that the tiles were a soft beige instead of the steel gray I normally saw. The showers were still set in the back section of the room after passing the changing area. The main area held rows of lockers with a long, lacquered wood bench in each row. There was a wide doorway that led into the showers and then small stalls ran along both walls. I placed my backpack on a bench that ran between the lockers, stripped, wrapped a school provided towel around me and went to take a shower.

The girls’ showers had thin semi-clear plastic curtains for a bit of privacy, but you could see enough to know the general body shape of anybody inside. They used them instead of solid doors to prevent bullying and sexual activities inside the school. I wasn’t alone even though it was early in the morning. I could hear some showers were already on and girls moving in different locker rows. I picked a shower, did a quick rinse, and went to get dressed. When I came out several girls were either in towels, naked, or getting undressed to go shower. Because they were all athletes their bodies were in good shape, just in different ways. The swimmers had broader shoulders, those that played basketball were a bit thicker, while track and fielders had thighs that were thick with corded muscles.

I did my best to not ogle but it was harder than I thought it would be. It wasn’t that they were naked although some were. It was that some of the older girls had shaved their bushes away and one girl that had done that also had a tattoo of a cupcake right above her slit. It was cute with a smiling face and pink icing. The words “Eat Me” was written along the bottom of it. I wasn’t expecting them to be shaved and I couldn’t help but take an extra glance or two. But I was extremely nervous, so although I was surrounded by naked girls, I wasn’t aroused. It was more like I was looking at art, really curvy art.

I looked away and quickly put on my bra and shirt, put my gym clothes into a plastic bag and then my backpack. But not before the girl with the tattoo noticed. She didn’t say anything, just smirked and went to shower. It was getting close to seven twenty and so I had a little time before homeroom would start. As I left, I tossed the towel into the school hamper. A lot of Stephanie's clothes were either short, tight, or revealing. Just judging on her clothing choices, she was a girl that was very happy with the shape of her body and liked others noticing her. I didn’t mind but it left my options a little limited.

Janet and my friends were already in Home Room. Janet had dark brown hair and was tall. She stood around five’ ten but her breasts were only a ‘B’ cup. They seemed small on her tall figure, but her face was extremely well proportioned. High cheek bones, full lips, and an oval face. She was pretty. Next to her was Annie who liked to be called Ann. She was one of the other fliers in our squad. She was around five’ one, ‘A’ cups, short blond hair, and a plushy ass. Her face was rounder and from the text messages, it was because she took on weight more than the rest of us and was always dieting. I wasn’t sure that was the case. Judging from her soft appearance, I was guessing that she reduces food, so she didn’t have to exercise as much. Victoria was the last girl in Steph’s friend group. Her light shoulder-length brown hair was pulled back into a short ponytail, revealing her heart shaped face. She had bright blue eyes and a charming smile but used makeup to coverup some light acne she had. She was laughing at whatever Janet had just said causing her double Ds to jiggle.

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They spotted me as I walked over. Victoria was still chortling as I heard Anne replying, “Yeah, while Luna is captain there is no way her body is going to pull off that move. It’s just like Janet said. She is too big to have Moyer lift and hold her up. She just wants him to fondle her. Who doesn’t know she likes him?”

Based for the pictures on my phone and the chat history, I already knew they were on the squad with me. So, it didn't surprise me that they were talking about different moves that we might learn. What surprised me is how they were badmouthing the captain of the squad. I greeted them but kept it brief. I wasn't sure exactly what to say, so I took the empty seat that was next to them hoping that it was the right one and listened to them gossip.

They chatted up until the teacher walked in the room. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was the same teacher I had before, Mr. Stagnik. In my last life, he taught Geology and was known as a "fun" teacher. He was always taking students on field trips to explore a mountain close to the school. He also brought in rare stones he had collected over the years to liven up the class. Because he was always exploring and hiking around the mountain, he was in fairly good shape. So, while he was in his forties, he looked closer to mid-thirties and from the rumors that went around the locker room, I knew that some of the girls had crushes on him. In this world he taught a class called 'How different earth elements influence magic' but while the name was longer it was basically the same thing as Geology.

The class quieted down as mister Stagnik walked into the room. He made his way to his desk and made a few announcements. They were all pretty standard things like there was going to be a carnival fund raiser in two weeks, an away game for field hockey, school pictures would be taken in a few weeks so please bring back your order forms, and so on. As he finished, a TV in the front corner of the room crackled to life. I looked up to see four students sitting at a large desk. They were dressed up like adults and were pretending to be news anchors. A small 'Hellcat News’ logo was in the lower left hand of the screen. Seeing it caused me to grin. My old school had the same tradition of having student broadcast the news. The fact that this world was so similar to my last one helped me to stabilize my mood.

The hardest thing to accept was being a girl. It wasn’t so bad, but it had only been a day and a half since I got here. My biggest complaint so far was being a foot shorter. I liked my old body’s size and strength. But I was ignoring some of the more obvious downsides. Worrying about things like pregnancy and periods were such foreign concepts that they never even crossed my mind. I still viewed myself as a miniature man. At least, on a problem-solving level.

The class listened to the freshman weather girl giving a monologue about the weather and how it was going to be eighty degrees, sunny, with no chance of rain today. A boy picked up right after her and played clips of several games that happened over the weekend while pointing out some of the more dramatic plays. The broadcast spotlighted the star players on each team and had little interviews. I did notice something I had overlooked before and that was that the cheerleaders didn't have a lot of time on the screen. Unlike the other sports, they were never highlighted but were in the background jumping and cheering teams on.

When I left home room Janet pulled me to the side and whisper to me, "How was it? Did it work?"

Because I couldn't remember what it was and I want to find out, I put on a frustrated look and said, "I lost it. I put it in my backpack and when I went to get it out it was gone." I looked away to hide any flaws in my appearance. I wasn't the best actor, and my expressions usually gave me away when I was lying.

She seemed a little upset but still comforted me, "That's okay. It was pretty rare but where there is one there is bound to be another. Maybe I can get you another one."

"That would be great. I really want to fix my magic. Maybe you can tell me where you got it, and I can help you look."

She looked nervous when I asked and looked left and right to make sure nobody was listening to us and then whispered, "You can't tell anybody but my brother's friend gave me a site that sells rare items but how they got them is a bit questionable or so he hinted. I can give it to you, but you have to be careful and don't pick up any item alone. From some of the items being sold, I know they aren't good people."

"You really are a good friend. I don't want you to do something so risky for me. Why don't we look together and if either of us finds anything, we'll tell the other to increase safety."

She took out a notebook and after writing down the site on a page ripped it off and handed it to me. "That's a good idea. We can check more that way."

I took the paper, glanced at it, and then shoved it into my backpack. Come on let's go to our next class," I said. I was a little relieved that she seemed to have been tricked by the website. I didn't want to fight a palace drama because I wasn't good at subterfuge. I was more prone to punching away my problems.

We walked into what use to be my algebra class but was now called 'Basic Spell Construction' and I followed her to our seats. My class schedule was the same as what I had prior, other than some classes had different names. I was glad it was still the same seven. Even though I "remembered" what Steph had studied before my prior knowledge and understanding wasn't completely the same. I didn't know if the world just lacked those bits of knowledge or Steph just missed them but like adding mortar to bricks, our combined knowledge melded and worked well together.

Our teacher was a middle-aged man named Mr. Schmell although the students had nicknamed him Mr. Smell. He was on the chubby side and balding, but he did his best to teach the students and in my opinion was a good teacher. Because of that, I did my best to stay focused throughout his class, although I found it too easy.

It wasn't until the end of the class that I got a surprise. Mister Schmell was describing quadratic equations and how they influence spells. What I didn't expect was that he actually gave a live demonstration. He wanted to show us a real-life example so with a “Harold, like we talked about, shoot me with your lightning bolt spell.” He did just that.

Harold stood up and cast but the ‘bolt’ was more of a spark, but I still saw it shot at the Mr. Schmell without hesitation. It never made it. A shield made of wind formed two feet in front of the teacher, stopping it with a tiny puff noise as the shield snuffed out his attack.

“With these formulas you can set times for your spells to activate, set locations, distances and so much more.” He paused and recast the spell and the name came to my mind before he ever said the incantation, “Swirling Air Shield.” It’s just that he ‘adjusted’ the spell using what we just learned and asked, “Harold, if you’d be so kind and shoot at me again.” Harold did but our teacher kept talking. “As you can see my spell was already set before he cast but I set “Y” as a fire spell and moved “X” location…” With a poof, the shield appeared an inch from his nose, “so that it would only trigger when a lightning spell got within range which was right in front of me. This is just the beginning of what math can bring to your spells, so study hard.”

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