Chapter 7: Chapter 5 – Confessions

I didn’t work up much of a sweat but still made my way into the showers. I already had a dark bruise forming on my right breast and my bra was pressing into it. I wanted to use the Dynamic Neogenesis spell to heal it right away but because the location needed to be touched, I couldn’t do it in public. I tested it at home and already knew this spell didn’t go through any foreign objects like clothing. So, the showers or bathroom stalls were my best option for privacy. I only picked the shower stall because I was already here. The flimsy curtain would allow the people coming and going to see the bright light and my figure, but nobody would peek in to confirm who it was.

I whispered the chant as soon as I stepped into it and soon a mini laser appeared on my fingertip. I pierced it into my boob without hesitation and felt the soothing relief of the holy spell take effect. It felt so nice, I was a bit sad that I ran out of time. I finished, dried off, and made my way to the next class. It was English but unlike the English class from my old world, this one was broken up into two categories: practical writing and ‘How to Word a Spell’. The practical section was exactly like what I had been doing. The ‘How to Word a Spell’ worked in tandem with two other classes: ‘Basic Spell Construction’ and 'Natural Laws and How to Shape Them to Your Will'. Basic Spell Construction taught students how to build a spell using math. Natural Laws and How to Shape Them to Your Will taught you the laws of the world and what could and couldn’t change with your spells. English was the last step. Every spell except the most basic used a vocal section to help the caster guild their intent. The more complex the spell the longer the vocal section was. This class taught us the rules behind it and what words worked better to get your desired outcome. But from an outsider’s perspective, I felt it was more like a poetry and song writing class.

Practical Writing was every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and the other section was on Tuesday and Thursdays. I spent the next hour listening to ‘how to Use Context to Determine the Meaning of Words’. I had learned most of this class’s curriculum a year ago but there were slight differences because of the magical influence. Unfortunately, what was being taught today didn’t have those differences and I was half asleep by the time the bell rang.

The last class of the day was my favorite, Physics. It was now called ‘Natural Laws and How to Shape Them to Your Will' in this world but the core knowledge was still the same. It was taught by Mr. Montgomery. He was taller than I was in my old body and was over six’ five, but was spindly, like doh that was stretched too far. His high nasally voice filled the room, “Some teachers believe that math is the pinnacle and key to success. But he is wrong, math is just a steppingstone on your road to perfecting your spells. You can’t change the laws of nature if you don’t know them. Take E = MC2, such a simple equation teaches us that energy and matter are interchangeable but what if you could change that?” He continued on and I listened to the knowledge he instilled but also the hidden barbs in his words. If this world was following the same path as mine, then he just lost his wife to Mr. Schmell. Why she changed partners wasn’t known to the students but the whole school knew that it happened. Their rivalry became a joke that was whispered about in the halls.

He moved on to Newton's Law of universal gravitation and gave a brief description before assigning homework. The bell rang at three and I grabbed my over filled bookbag before heading in the direction where my locker was assigned. It wasn’t in the same location as my last life, but I had noticed that all the lockers had fingerprint recognition pads instead of the combination locks my old school had. I wanted to leave my books in school and just take my gym clothes home to wash.

I texted [be a few minutes. Meet you outside] to Janet, Victoria, and Ann and quickened my pace. My locker was now on the first floor and on the other side of the school. With the hallways crowded with students trying to leave in the opposite direction, it took me longer than I thought I would. But finding locker 1308 wasn’t hard and I quickly pressed my thumb against the pad. My locker opened with a click.

Since all my schoolbooks were in my bookbag, there wasn’t much inside it. A mirror was taped on the door, along with a few group pictures of her and her friends. There were two shelves above a larger section with a coat hook. The lower shelf only held a few notebooks. I couldn’t see anything on the top shelf but that was because I wasn’t tall enough. I had to step on the bottom of the locker to see if there was anything on that shelf. There was! An empty glass vial had rolled to the back of the locker shelf. It was hard to reach, and I had to balance on the lower shelf to get the extra few inches I needed to grab it.

The vial was smaller than my pinky, clear, and had a cork stopper. The cork had an open eye burnt into it. I held the vial up to the light and swirled the faint pink residue that had formed a tiny puddle inside the glass. I didn’t see any granules from a pill being dissolved but that didn’t mean much. I wasn’t even sure if this was what I had been given by Janet. But it was empty so the old me had probably drunk whatever was inside it. There wasn’t anything else inside the locker, so I placed my books on the lower shelf, stuffed the vial into the backpack before shutting the door and made my way outside.

My new three friends had already arrived. Ann was a little to the side and was talking with Mike from the football team. Victoria and Janet were standing a few feet away waiting for her to finish. While several of Mike's friends were standing beneath the flagpole looking at Victoria and Janet.

I gave a small chuckle as I recounted the times when I was one of the guys staring at the cheerleaders and talking about who was the prettiest, which one we'd like to sleep with, and occasionally which cheerleader was sleeping around. It was such a different experience being the one looked at. I joined Janet and Victoria. Janet was currently saying, “I heard Gary was sleeping with Gail but asked Mandy out."

Victoria nodded, "I heard that too. I was so surprised because I had thought he was better than that."

They noticed me as I approached so I quickly added, "Oh, Gary is a dog. Don't believe his good guy persona. I am pretty sure he has at least five girls he's sleeping with." Well, that's what he claimed when we hung out in the last life. He even said he had pictures of each of them. Now, I wasn’t sure but still used my old information to try and fit in. "Devon is a way better choice if you ignore that fact that he looks like he should be in jail. He's actually a momma's boy that was taught to respect women."

"Really? I heard he was blackmailing one of the teachers into having sex with him."

I thought about how I should reply. That rumor had gone around my old school and almost got him kicked off the team. The teacher in the rumor had been dismissed a month later which made it “true” in the eyes of the students. It wasn't until four months later that we all found out it wasn’t him that had done the deed with the home economics teacher, nor was she unwilling. But… there were enough changes in this world that my knowledge could be wrong. My first statement didn't matter because at most Jeff would lose a date. But if I was wrong about this one, I could get a teacher dismissed and a kid expelled. Why did I even open my mouth? I finally said, "I heard that too but don't think it's true."

Janet gave a mock gasp at my words and asked with amusement in her voice, "Did our stainless warrior finally become enlightened? So, you like the bad boy types? Interesting, I never would have guessed."

"What?! No, I just think he's not that type of guy."

Janet gave me a look that said, ‘you're full of shit’ as Victoria asked in almost a half whisper, "Do you like boys?"

"No! No, definitely not" I vehemently denied it. I didn't need a rumor that I liked a boy getting around. But right after I did, I realized I overreacted. I wasn't a man anymore and a story of a girl liking a boy wasn't worth caring about.

Janet laughed and looked like she pulled off the greatest joke ever. I saw Victoria smiling at our interactions and with a nod said, "He's not good enough for you anyway."

Our antics drew the attention of Ann and Mike and soon Ann walked over to us with Mike following. “Ok, Mike agreed for us to use his place. So, get your bathing suit ready and we’ll go over when we have a free weekend.” The three football players, who had been eying the girls, walked up behind Mike. I knew these guys but didn’t have any good impressions for them. They were the benchwarmers on the team because they slacked in practice and partied too often. Mike was the ringleader of the small group, while Neal, Brad, and Paul were his flunkies.

The four football players seemed happy that we might be coming over and left with smiles on their faces. The milling students slowly converged toward the parking lot as we talked. My friends became more animated at the thought of a pool party and began to plan what to bring. I wasn't as happy and thought of what to say. Not many people knew that Mike and his group had sex parties. I did and whispered into Janet’s ear, “We shouldn’t go to their place. I heard that they take women there, get them drunk, and then… you know.”

“That’s not true. We just play. They have a pool, jacuzzi, and playroom. We never drink much, either.” She shook my arm playfully and continued, “Don’t back out. We’ve gone their multiple times and only Ann uses the bedroom upstairs. Just stay with us and enjoy yourself for once.”

I hesitated. Not because I want to go, but because I wanted to learn more about Stephanie’s friends. Also, what I knew may not be true in this world. There have been enough changes that I knew not everything was the same. So, in this world they could be upright, hardworking people. I couldn’t trust what I knew from before. Plus, there was the fact that Stephanie’s insular nature made her friends the likely source of whatever caused that “dream” and me being here. I still suspected Janet as the main source even if it was some horrible mistake, but until I could confirm that it came from that website, it was better to observe all of them to see if I could discover anything. Because of that I simply said, “Ok.”

Victoria walked to my other side and laughed replied in a low voice, “Ha, ha, we’ll be fine.” The boys trailed behind us as we walked to where the cars were waiting to pick up students.

“Have you gone before?” I asked her. I still doubted that these guys were different even if this was a new world. But I have seen enough discrepancies, like my locker being in a different spot, to know that this wasn’t a perfect mirrored world, so I hesitated.

“Yes, we have gone as a group whenever Mike’s parents leave on business trips. His place is very big and even after going three times nothing happened so I think it shouldn’t be like what you heard. Ann hangs out with them more often so she’s more in the know.”

Ann said goodbye to Mike while Jeff's eye's never left my body. Even when walking I could feel his gaze lingering. It was kind of creepy, but I ignored it and got into the car with the other girls. Victoria’s dad’s car was an old rusty Toyota Camry. Nothing like the shiny blue F-150 truck I saw Jeff and his friends getting into. But the old car ran smoothly showing that he took care of the motor if nothing else. I learned from the others banter that he normally came to pick us up. He dropped off Ann and Janet before heading to my apartment building and judging from the single-family homes they both had, they were both better off than I was. He parked in the lot in front of my apartment building and got out. Victoria took that opportunity to ask, “Want to come up for dinner?”

“I was going to eat with my mother…”

I didn’t get the chance to finish because her eyes became red, and she swiftly got out of the car with a “I… I understand. I’ll talk to you later, I guess.”

I was left in a car that wasn’t mine and by the time I got out, Victoria had run into my building. Her dad looked at his fleeing daughter and then at me. He questioned in a neutral tone, “You girls fighting?”

I shook my head, “Not that I know of. Maybe I should talk with her.” I said but I had no idea what just happened and if seeing me would upset her more.

Her father nodded and said, “That’s a good idea. Better to talk things out.” He started walking into the building with me following behind him. They must also live in the same building, but I had no idea where. As I followed, I took out my phone and texted my mother that I was going to Victoria’s, so she knew where I was.

Her apartment was one floor above ours. As we walked in her father said, “You go talk with her and I’ll order dinner for you girls.” He said it so naturally that I was sure Stephanie had come here often.

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Victoria’s apartment was set up exactly like mine so finding her room wasn’t hard. I knocked on the only closed door in the hall. “I don’t want to talk about it, dad.” She sounded like she was crying but why? Girls were so weird sometimes.

“It’s me. Can we talk?”

There was some movement in the room and after about a minute, the door finally opened. ‘Yup, she was definitely crying,’ I thought. She stood there. Her eyes were puffy, and a tissue was still clasped in her hand.

When she didn’t move or speak, I asked, “Can I come in and talk?”

“Do you still want to talk to me?” Her replied was strange but I still nodded. There had to be something I didn’t know that caused this. She went and sat on her bed leaving me to enter. I closed her door and looked at her room for the first time. It wasn’t what I expected. There were serval posters of big breasted anime girls in sexy outfit on the walls. Female figurines sat on the top of a bookcase that was full of manga novels. Everywhere I looked there were anime girls. Even her pillows had characters printed on them.

I pulled out her desk chair and sat across from her, “Can you tell me what happened? I thought we were cool.”

“I know your upset because of me. I’m sorry. If I could go back, I wouldn’t have asked you to…” Her voice cut off as the floor in the hallway creaked.

‘Her dad must be listening,’ I thought. She must have heard it as well. I thought about it and said, “You can always talk to me. We’re friends. Doing favors is what friends are for. Don’t be upset, it wasn’t that big a deal.”

She had her head down but at my words she looked up, hope filling her eyes. “Do you mean it? You’re not upset?”

“Of course, why would I lie to you.” I heard the floor creak again and I half turned my head to listen to see if he was retreating. But then I heard the rustle of the sheet as Victoria got of the bed and when I turned back, I felt her wrapping me into a tight hug. My mind gave an ‘oh?’ of confusion. "I'm sorry. I'm so confused and what we did only made me more confused."

I held onto her as she pulled back. I needed an ally and while I wasn't positive what happened between them, I could see she cared about Stephanie. I paused and then before I could talk myself out of it, began talking, “I have a secret and I need to tell somebody. You can’t tell others. Is that ok?”

”I won’t tell anybody” She said.

I figured if she cared enough that she wouldn’t be part of why I was here. So, I said, “Last Friday night, I had a dream that involved two men. It was that kind of dream if you know what I mean.” I ignored her surprised reaction and quickly said, “after the dream something happened to me, and I lost all my memories except for that experience. I’ve regained most of the book knowledge, but people and places are still a complete blank. I… I don’t know who to trust and why it happened.”

At first, I was embarrassed about saying I had a sexual dream but as I continued, I realized that I was more upset than I thought. I had a tendency of suppressing my emotions and just deal with the external issues. I had wanted to be a strong man to support my mother. I didn't realize that my cheeks were wet until a tear dropped onto my arm.

“That’s horrible! You don’t remember me or Janet and Ann? Ahh, that’s why you didn’t know where your class was, and I didn’t even notice. I’m sorry Steph. I’m such a horrible friend.”

“It’s ok. It’s not completely a bad thing. Look…” I cast the Stone Skin spell because it was a quick spell and didn’t harm anything. My skin became a mixture of browns showing that the spell was successful. My skin just looked more like mud compared to the "stone" in the spell's name. “When I woke up, I gained a few spells."

“You can cast? Wait you can cast?! Then your problems are over!” She beamed at the discovery but them calmed down. “You said a 'few' spells? How many?”

“Two, once for each time they ummm… deposited their stuff.” The tips of my ears quickly turned crimson. Fuck; this was embarrassing.

What I said seemed to click and her eyes widened like copper bells and her voice broke as she said, “... So, you don't remember what we did? And you need men's cum.”

She paused as if thinking about something. It was as if I was only hearing one part of what she wanted to say. It wasn't hard to see that she was upset, and I figured it was probably the loss of the girl she liked. I used my thumb to rub away the tear that started to fall. “I’m not sure. It could work with girls. I don’t know.”

“You... you might want to do it with a girl?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know what I like. I don’t know much actually. But from everything I read in the last couple of days, I know that the old me trusted you and wasn’t upset by your mistake.”

I jumped at the knock on the door. “Girls, foods here.” Her dad’s voice sounded right outside it. Had he been listening? I stood up in a panic only to have Victoria pull me back into a hug.

“It’ll be ok. I’ll help you to remember.” She whispered to me and then louder, she yelled, “We’ll be right out!”

“I don’t know what I can offer you but...,” Her face was so close that when I turned to face her, I could feel her breathe. “I’ll help you if I can. Let’s get something to eat and then we can come back and talk.”

We when out after cleaning ourselves up and were soon sitting around the small dining table eating pizza. Victoria's father was a construction worker. Because of the years of working outside, his skin had a worn look and was darker than his daughters, but his eyes were a bright, ruddy red. He kept asking how our day was and kept the conversation light. Soon our moods lightened, and I found myself laughing at a few of his corny jokes.

Victoria and I went back to her room, only to stare at each other unsure of how to start the conversation. I finally asked, "Can you tell me what we talked about Monday? I only had your texts to go off of."

She sighed, nodded, and began her story. "Well, you know... oh, umm well I had to go to a family wedding over the weekend before we talked. We got their Friday night and my dad, and I stayed over her uncle's house. During that time, I met with my cousin's friend, a girl that lives next door. We got along and had a lot in common, so I hung out with her since everybody was busy getting ready for the wedding. Things were going fine but on Sunday, after the wedding, everybody was drinking, and we snuck a few before going over to her house. Ummm... One thing led to another, and soon we began kissing but before anything could progress, my father called me to come back. It was getting late and had to go home. It felt so nice that I was unsure if I liked girls. On Monday, I came over and wanted to... but you told me you had to think about it. It wasn't until early Friday morning that I snuck over, and we did some things. I left but later when you didn't reply to my messages, I began to panic."

She stopped talking and was waiting for me to judge her. "So, you wanted to sleep with me to see how you felt?" I didn't need her nod to know that was what had happened, so added, "I don't mind. From your story, I take it you liked men prior to the incident, or you wouldn't be confused." Her story had a lot of similarities with mine. We both enjoyed the experiences we had, and we both were left confused. Because of that I felt I needed to add the last part, but it was her life, I wasn't going to judge her choices. I didn't know what else to say so I changed the subject. "Anyway, I could use your help trying to figure out what’s going on with me and maybe how it happened."

“I can come over to your place after practice tomorrow. We can't talk about anything here. My dad would hear us."

I shook my head, “Ok, I'll let my mom know.” After that we settled down and hung out as Victoria recounted some stories about me until I finally hung my head in shame. It turned out that I was in the body of an unreasonable Tasmanian Devil with height issues. The issue was all her stories about my fights ended with "And then you broke your hand when you hit him", "I think you dislocated your ankle that time", and "Why you thought throwing a boy that can turn to stone was a good idea, I'll never know." Not once did Stephanie win one of her fights. Instead, there was a continuous list of injuries she had received. The 'stainless warrior' label I heard at school turned out to be a joke title that made fun of me being a virgin and a poor fighter.

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