A Bad Hair Day Everyday Book 1
Author: Amy Mah; Heby Sim
Date: 2016-02-12 05:00:00+00:00
Description: A unique take on Male to Female body changing, M2F, gender change, Age Regression, gender bender, possession and School work. Wearing a dress on a job to steal alien technology had not been JJ’s idea, and it did not help that they said he looked cute in high heels. Willingly being infected by an alien parasite had been more of a mistake than clear thinking on his part. Perhaps it had not been the best of ideas to ask for help and protection from a gender confused parasite, whilst wearing a dress and pretending to be a woman. Being blown up, shot, thrown off a cliff and then drowned, looked to
Rights: &#169; Amy Mah

Reardon Publishing

PO Box 919, Cheltenham, GL50 9AN, UK, EU.

www.reardon.biz

Copyright © Reardon Publishing

Written by and Copyright © Amy Mah
www.amymahvampire.com

Illustrations by Heby Sim

Layout and Design by Nicholas Reardon

ISBN: 9781873877944
k12

Contents

A Bad Hair Day : Book 1

When Things Go Wrong

Earlier

Back to Now

Companion and Host

Camouflage

More than just Camouflage

Back to Normal?

The Wrong Plan B

Companion

Companion Makes a New Home

Time, Tide and Tom

Lost and Found

New Start to Life

New Start

Birthday Girl

Life’s a Beach

Lost

Guidance

Keeping Warm

The Way Home

Home Safely

Time to Consider

Special Friends

Brother and Sister

Normal Teenagers

Not-so-normal Teenager

School Days

Bad Hair Day

Hair/Host Relationship

Special Skills

Putting the Skills to the Test

Thoughts on being a Mermaid

Back to Normal?

Caught on Camera

Fighting Barbie!

Facing her Fears

Practice Makes Perfect

Between rocks and tangled webs

Self-reliance

Made it!

Aftermath of Adventure

Telling it all

Consequences

And More Consequences

Next Day

Next?

Sharing Love

Serious fighting

Sharing of Powers

Taking Stock

Acting Their Age

A Bad Hair Day : Book 2

School and the Art of War

Analysis

Other Books

Fangs Rule

Vampire

Smoking Hot

A Bad Hair Day

Everyday

Book one

When Things Go Wrong

Some believe that the world was created in six days and that it will end with a second coming of Christ, or perhaps the anti-Christ. Others say the world will end with Ragnarök when the Norse gods fight the ice giants. Still others maintain the universe started with a bang and that it will end in the same way. To JJ, a small but still a very deadly local big bang seemed the most likely way he was going to die; right now, the end of his world was just about to start as if fate had taken a personal dislike to him.

There was a blinding flash of light followed by a roar of a sound, which JJ felt as much as he heard as it hit him.

“This is it! This is it! Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! This is really it!”

At that point the large and so-safe-looking metal cabinets behind which he was currently crouching decided to join him in his cramped little hiding space. The room seemed unsure that it needed all four of its walls, while the ceiling made up its mind that four walls was the minimum number it needed and was soon going to have a meeting with the floor to discuss this decision.

As for JJ, well, fate had decided that he was just in the way… and his present life paraded itself inside his mind as he waited for the end. His real name was John; at the orphanage, he’d been called Just John, which over time had been shortened even further to JJ. He had to admit that it was better than the other names he had, such as “short-arse” and sometimes “dick-arse,” perhaps hinting that he was gay. He was not; he was a normal, hot-blooded guy, but that would be difficult to prove when they discovered his body nicely clad in a short, blush peach-colored cotton dress with matching shoes and clutch bag. The only good thing about being a corpse was that he would not have to explain the dress, let alone the black bra and panties. JJ was not a transvestite and certainly was not gay, but that was not what the papers would say when they reported his death as a burglar who had died more as a drag queen than the master criminal he so believed himself to be.

JJ did not like pain, and playing Atlas had not been listed as part of the job specification. The job had looked so easy for someone with his skills. The dressing up had not even been his idea, and he only reluctantly agreed after it had been pointed out that that if he wished to terminate the contract he had signed, then the termination would be with a bullet. He was sure he would not fool anyone, but the fact that he soon found himself lying down and shivering, wearing only some paper shorts while some pervert of a make-up artist waxed his legs and plucked his eyebrows meant his clients thought otherwise. If it worked, he could bypass a lot of security under the cover of darkness, joining some girls who were attending a very unofficial party in the same building.

The clients had been very pleased with his transformation, and the mirror showed him looking far more girl-like than he thought possible. His outer appearance may have been okay, but due to all the discomfort getting there had caused, he wondered whether a bullet would have been a better choice. He felt sick, either from nerves or perhaps due to the strange tablets they had given him to change his voice. His male parts had been taped up in place by the make-up guy, who had seemed to take far too much pleasure in it. JJ’s new underwear was far too tight. His padded bra cut into his shoulders; the wig made his scalp itch, and the shoes were torture to have on, let alone to try and walk in.

Under the circumstances he had done very well. Apart from ruining his tights and getting crushed to death, he was still alive. Things had in fact been going far better than he could have hoped for….

Earlier

Earlier that evening, the world had been a much better place for JJ. The extremely desperate and perhaps very shortsighted security guard was tied up, and his plans of showing JJ where he worked had been thwarted when he had put his hand up JJ’s dress. The shock of what he discovered was followed by unconsciousness as JJ damaged two of his perfectly manicured nails putting him to sleep behind a desk; the sleep was due to the drug he administered, while the broken nails resulted from hitting the sleeping guard as payback for painfully grabbing his balls. He removed the ID pass card along with a copy of the guard’s thumbprint on a clever little device that could be said to be a modern version of a set of picklocks and carefully made his way to the top floor.

He did not have long, but he did not need long so long as he did not break his legs in the shoes. After the first flight of stairs, he took the shoes off and carried them. If all continued to go well, he should have time to complete the task and be long gone before the alarm was raised. The office located twelve floors above the party he had pretended to attend took longer to break into than he wished, though the codes his employers had given him got him though the first set of doors had worked along with three more rooms and eventually a very secure hidden door. This took all his skills to find, let alone open, but it finally led JJ into what was not so much a room but an overgrown safe.

“Well, this is what I would call a safe room!”

It wasn’t much of a play on words, but JJ liked the sound of it.

The walls were clad in metal, as were the floor and ceiling. In the center of the room, there was a metal cabinet with a slot containing a small silver case that resembled those very expensive document cases designed for high-level businessmen who do not need to carry their own documents; they just keep a daily schedule in their heads. Documents are carried by less important people who have big, heavy cases to carry what their bosses need at their meetings and who probably could not afford one like JJ was currently looking at. It appeared to be very special and expensive and should have come with a prefix of “Bespoke” so he would be sure to check it out before leaving.

“Oh! Well, back to work!”

He removed a small box from his bag and fixed it to one of the metal walls with a satisfactory clunk. A flick of a switch lit up a display of numbers, which slowly and relentlessly started to count down from 10,000: 9,999… 9,998… 9,997 …

“Okay, job well done! Now, for the fast getaway, and maybe time for a bite to eat on the way home…”

JJ took another look at the numbers: 9,984… 9,983… 9,982… beep… 81… 80… 79… 76… 75… 74… beep… 20… 19… 18…

“What the hell!”

He grabbed the small silver case and ran across the room, slamming the door as he left to reseal the room. JJ got as far as the second room and then dove between some heavy-looking filing cabinets.

“Metal room, small bomb, strong heavy cabinets, perfectly safe… please, please, please, perfectly safe...”

Back to Now

As the dust settled, the ringing in his ears and the choking dust were only the first of the problems that now faced JJ as he pulled himself free of the fallen cabinets, which luckily had created a small, tight space that would have been nice and snug if it had not been for dozens of heavy box files that had landed on him on their way to the floor. Coughing from the dust, he stood up and almost fell over again as pain shot up his leg.

“One painful ankle and a lot of bruises, but still alive, no thanks to cheap foreign equipment! Well, next time I will use my own timers.”

Alarms began to ring in the distance.

“So much for a fast and discreet exit!” k'12

JJ brushed the dust from his clothes and reluctantly put the shoes back on to walk over a nice selection of shards of glass that now covered the floor.

“Plan B! Go to Plan B, and that is “Do not panic! Improvise!”’

Limping along, looking more like a refugee from a war zone than a smooth, top-class independent spy in drag (which he thought sounded a lot better than a hired, inexpensive crook that wore a dress for money), JJ knew that any hope of not attracting attention was long gone as he pulled large chunks of plaster from his now dust-gray wig.

“And so much for the new frigging hair style! I’ve gone from hot chick to looking like a crack whore in a single night.”

As he made his way to the window he was looking for, he tried to remember the plans of the building, which he had studied so carefully.

“What I need right now is a perfect escape route. Here we go…”

He smashed the glass with a nearby fire extinguisher. If he moved along the outside edge of the building, made a short jump to the roof below, and then exited through a door he had left open earlier in the day onto a staircase, it would lead him right onto the street below and provide a fast getaway. But his injured leg would not allow him to do so. Instead, he turned away from the now-broken window and opened an unlocked door into an empty office. Locking the door behind him, he made his way through several rooms until he found the particular locked door he was looking for; this one was soon opened and locked again as he entered the large storage cupboard.

“Plan B: If someone is after you, then you give them a nice trail to follow. Just be sure you are not on the trail when they come looking!”

It was going to be a long wait, so JJ set about making himself as comfortable as he could, which meant mostly just kicking the shoes off.

Companion and Host

“Let’s see why they wanted this thing destroyed.”

JJ placed the small silver case on the floor in front of him. It was locked, but he had skills; within moments, it opened with a click. Disappointment surfaced on his face as he stared at the contents. Three-quarters of the case was occupied by some sort of transparent gel with thin tubes leading to or from it from under a handbook, which also concealed a small screen and keypad and which filled the last quarter of the case. JJ picked up the book, opened it, and read at random:

…The Companion and the Host are best introduced slowly so that they can bond and build up a strong telepathic link...

…as yet, no problems have been encountered in any of the short-term test subjects, and full separation can be made up to 72 hours afterwards without any problems. The Host has only to place one hand back into the holding area (see Fig. 4), and the switch (see Fig. 5) will cause the Companion to leave the Host, pour itself back into the storage area, and re-enter its original dormant state…

...Camouflage can be obtained with just a thought as the Companion can manipulate the body characteristics of the Host to protect the Host from danger… as the protection, health, and safety of the Host is the Companion’s major concern… As with any fixed parasite, it will only survive as long as its Host does. The Companion is believed to be intelligent in its own way, so everything in its power can at times be quite inventive…

…Fig. 12 shows the skin-blend process…

…The stated subject, which will now be called the Host, need not be concerned with the nourishment needs of the Companion, as the Companion will take for itself what it needs. This will normally not be noticed as long as a varied diet is followed, but extra nourishment can be added to the body by the use of multi-vitamins in the form of tablets obtainable from any drug store…

…One of the essential alkaloids it needs to function at its peak is theobromine, and this must be added to any diet. The easiest form this substance can be found in is chocolate…

…The starting process is both fast and simple. The future Host undresses and places one hand in the holding area (see Fig. 4) and switches off the holding control (see Fig. 5)...

…rest for several hours is recommended as the process is…

Camouflage

JJs mind mulled over what he had read.

“Camouflage sounds interesting. So what we have is a super high-tech way of changing one’s looks: just what every up-and-coming terrorist group would pay a fortune for… I wonder why my employer wanted this destroyed and not sold on the open market?”

JJ stared at the case for a few moments.

“Okay, it’s a risk, but why not try it out now and walk out of here? It’s back to Plan B again. Second version: Plan B mark 2.”

He placed his hand in the case, and a handprint shape appeared, suggesting the correct hand placement, which he followed. The screen lit up with questions: mostly standard medical stuff along with gender, race, and age. It also warned him that he would feel a slight prick on his fingers, but this was normal as a small blood sample was required.

Unbeknownst to JJ, something that the handbook called “the Companion” awoke within the gel to the taste of JJ’s blood. Through the small puncture holes in his fingers, a minute trail of gel entered the bloodstream of what it was being told was now its new host.

The screen offered a menu for a temporary basic body change: either specified or random. JJ selected random with no gender change and pressed Start.

A warm and pleasant feeling gently enveloped his hand as the gel covered it with a fine film and slowly moved up his arm. JJ reached in with his other hand and reversed the switch, and the gel slowly crept back down his arm and returned to the case.

“Well, that seems to work okay and feels quite pleasant.”

JJ examined his hand and arm.

“Wow, that feels silky smooth! If nothing else, I could sell it as a pain-free waxing treatment! I so don’t want to ever have another experience of real waxing!”

Stripping down to his bra and panties, he sighed as he thought that he should not even know what waxing felt like and hadn’t until today. He put his hand back in the case and switched it on again.

The Companion was a little confused over the wishes of this strange creature, so it delicately tapped into the mind of its new host, interested in why none of the painful restrainers had been activated. Perhaps this host was more stupid than the ones that had trapped and caged it, and even they were little more than dumb animals that it had tricked into thinking it was a simple organism. Its previous host had been a k-lex , another stupid creature whose poor grasp on faster-than-light propulsion meant it had crashed on this backwater planet thousands of cycles ago. Instead of waiting to be rescued, it had gone exploring and ended up dead, forcing the Companion into a dormant state until another stupid species uncovered it.

The pleasant feeling returned as the gel once more left the case and moved up his arm and then further on to spread across his body like a small wave, leaving just a tingle in its wake. It dried quickly, and JJ examined his hands to find that there was no trace of the gel remaining: just his hands feeling the same as they normally did but a lot cleaner.

His attention was now taken away from his hands as he felt the underwear fall to the ground.

“Now, what’s going on?”

He picked up the bra and panties and examined them to discover that they were no longer wearable. By the look of it, they had been burnt by acid.

“Err! Okay, I should read instructions fully. When it says no clothes, it means no clothes. Well, I sure will not miss that bra thing.”

Then another thought hit him.

“Ooh! That’s great! Now I am going to have to find something else to wear as the dress is now useless without a bra to give me a fake shape.”

Looking down at his pubic area, JJ saw his pubic hair dissolve as the gel reached it.

“Okay, you have no need to go there! And just leave my frigging dick alone!’

JJ blocked the area as best he could with his hands, but as soon as the gel found its route obstructed, JJ had to pull his hands away with a yelp as the tape holding his equipment in place dissolved, giving him some much needed freedom and a burn to his fingers.

“Ouch! That stung!”

A tingle on his feet made him lift up first one foot and then the other. Just as he began to relax, the gel moved up his neck, so he shut his eyes and held his breath as it covered his face. Then a nasty thought struck him.

“No, no, not my hair!”

Once again he felt pain when he used his hands to protect his hair, but this time it was more like an electric shock that held him rigid for several seconds. The gel was now dissolving his hair as it covered his head. When movement returned, he again reached up and touched his head. To his relief, he discovered it was still there, but the wig he had forgotten about was now missing and presumed dissolved.

“Wow, that’s a relief!”

JJ didn’t know that the gel had in fact slowly dissolved not just the wig but all of the hair on his body, including that which covered his head. But unlike with the rest of his body, something that was not hair but looked like it grow from his skin to replace it, giving him eyelashes, eyebrows, and a full head of hair of duplicate color and style. It rippled a little until it settled down.

It may have looked like hair to any human eye, but it was the Companion’s hands, ears and eyes and was more like an independent thinking defense system that the Companion had used in the past to keep its hosts safe.

JJ examined his body as best he could with the help of a small make-up mirror. The skin was soft and silky and just the same apart from being hairless everywhere except on his head. He ruffled his hair, relieved that it had not gone the same way as the wig.

He did not notice it fall back into place after he moved his hand away. JJ then wiped his left arm with a tissue, and a black stain that marked where he’d had a small tattoo a few moments ago was soon cleaned off. He started reading the manual again, looking for the camouflage section he’d seen earlier. He was certain that he had not seen anything about tattoo removal in it.

...Camouflage can be obtained with just a thought as the Companion can change both the color and the body characteristics of the Host to protect the Host from danger… as the protection, health, and safety of the Host is the Companion’s major…

“Okay, yoga position room 101: Relax, and tune into your inner self.’

JJ focused on thoughts of danger and his need to look different but also the same, as he only had a dress to wear. He had to look female; if not, he would get arrested, and without the padded bra, his shape was all wrong for a dress! He looked a real mess as all the makeup had gone, and his untaped dick was going to hang lower than the dress, which would sure divert people’s attention from staring at his flat, manly chest. I need camouflage went though his mind over and over again as he built up his concentration. Then it hit him: pain. Lots of pain shot through his whole body along with a blinding migraine, which increased in intensity until he passed out.

Not having a head, the Companion could therefore not have a headache, so instead it shared JJ’s as it tried to make out just what the heck this stupid overgrown ape wanted from it. The jumble of thoughts just did not make any sense, so it rendered the creature unconscious so it could decide if it should kill this animal and go look for a better home.

The idea of looking different but staying the same was a new concept to the Companion, so it slowly looked into recent memories and discovered that the creature had been tasked to destroy it but instead had rescued it or, rather, the box it had been trapped in, which was by all counts was the same thing. It should have wondered why, but being extremely intelligent did not mean it was not arrogant when thinking of lesser creatures. Its first and only idea was that this creature, like the k-lex , was willingly offering it a home in return for the many benefits it could bring. Why else would it have saved it instead of destroying it and then awaken it free of the painful restrainers? A willing host was just what it needed, and it did not need to be smart; the k-lex thought it was smart and had still died on this mud ball of a planet.

The Companion then spread the creature’s mind like a rainbow of lights to understand “different and the same.” It was male but of slight build and therefore did not fit into the norms for current male attraction, which the creatures mind revealed to be strong, tall, and attractive to the opposite gender. This explained why it was currently pretending to be female by its use of clothing, false hair, and makeup and just proved the stupidity of these creatures that could be fooled so easily. The Companion wondered what the outcome of any mating rituals would be, as no attempt had been made to produce the correct smell of a female of this species, let alone hide the male reproductive organs other than covering them with material.

So the answer was that this creature wished to look female while still remaining male. If the Companion could have sighed, it would have done so as now it understood the meaning of “different and the same.”

The reason must be the simple fact of time available; the creature needed immediate camouflage, so only minor cosmetic changes were sought. This was, however, better than the over thinking k-lex. No, this creature was willing to let the Companion handle the details, so it was happy to do what it was asked as well as looking into how it could do a better job when time allowed.

The human creature was correct, for in such a short time the best it could do was a few surface changes. The Companion slowly ate away at the skin and fatty tissue, replacing them with a superior surface construct of a softer, more feminine image.

At the same time, strands of what JJ regarded as his hair was spun into a thick cord and grew towards the holding transporting case, which it thought of as a prison. Like a finger, it punched a little virus code of a program into the case’s computer with the very simple intention of activating the self-destruct feature in the case so that it would explode the next time it was opened. The hair even shut and locked the case before unraveling and returning to the same length as the rest of JJ’s head hair.

More than just Camouflage

When he came to, JJ wished he hadn’t, as his whole body hurt in a way that made being beaten with a meat mallet for several days feel preferable. He did not know how long he had been unconscious, but he was ravenously hungry and was able to wolf down the single power bar snack he had with him in seconds. Waiting for the morsel to hit his empty stomach, he wished that he had brought some more, as he now had an urge to eat chocolate: lots of it.

“WTF has it done to me?”

He took a look at himself. After he finished examining his body, JJ pulled the small mirror from his clutch bag to look at his face.

“Er, well, very little. I kind of look the same as I did after the makeover, so why do I feel like I have been hit by a truck?”

He had an odd feeling that he was missing something as he flicked his shoulder-length hair but could not think what it was.

“A new wig?”

He reached up and pulled on the wig, only to discover it was fixed in place. It also gave him several painful paper cuts when he tugged at it. The hair was soon forgotten as his mouth dropped open when he checked to see what the odd feeling across his chest meant. To his shock, he saw his skin begin to ripple as two mounds of flesh were now featured on his once-flat chest, and both were topped by nipples larger than the normal small male ones he so had recently hidden under a very padded bra. If that was not bad enough, he turned his worries to the ache coming from his balls, which had been pushed back up into his body. His dick was now sort of somehow fixed back between his legs.

JJ was a little unsteady on his feet, but he knew he needed to read more of the instructions. When he tried to open the case, he discovered it had locked itself, and his hands were now shaking far too much for him to work on the locks. Instead, he decided that he should now see if he could make his way out of the building.

Back to Normal?

The image JJ’s eyes saw in the small mirror was not quite how others would now see him; his eyes showed him that he appeared to have much the same look as the makeup artist had created, which was for the best. The Companion did not wish to receive any counter instructions at the moment, as the process was inconvenient to reverse at this stage.

It did not finish the facial structure until after the Host creature had put the mirror away.

The Companion had done the best that it could to follow the “different but the same” request in the sort time available. Making improvements to the female camouflage, it moved layers of fat to give a softer and more feminine appearance. The breasts were not true mammary glands at the moment and did not have the correct feel, as that would have taken longer. When there was time, it would start to seed real ones capable of milk production. The vocal cords of the animal had been reshaped to give a correct sound range, but nothing could be done about the male reproductive parts, so it just hid them as best it could.

Ignoring the ruined tights, JJ slipped the dress back on without any underwear and found it fit much better than before. He did not feel uncomfortable that it was tighter on the hips, but he wished it was a not so short and told himself that he must remember not to bend over or reach up to avoid showing everyone his pubic hair free true nature.

Leaving his hiding place, he saw that it was now late in the afternoon of the next day, but he felt so hungry that it could have been longer! He returned to the staircase, noticing that the window he had broken had been repaired.

JJ’s stomach rumbled, and his ankle throbbed and made him limp painfully as he walked down to the ground floor.

“Food! I must get something to eat before I pass out. God, I have never felt so hungry! It must be the gel in the skin eating me alive!”

He went to the nearest small shop, one of several that covered the ground floor. If he had not been so hungry, he would have surely wondered why everything was open and normal so soon after he had blown the top off the building.

From the looks he was getting, he was feeling very self-conscious. A mirrored wall in the shop gave him both the answer as to why and also a surprise.

He could see that he looked like he had just stepped out of a disaster movie or, rather, a young, attractive woman had. Even without makeup, the person peering back at him was female and rather attractive. It was as if he were looking at his twin sister. He could recognize parts of himself still there, but the shape of the face and its features were all feminine.

“A fast getaway may be the best idea, and then I will have to open the sodding case to change me back before I need to buy a new wardrobe!”

Pain shot up his leg from the ankle.

“Okay, so a fast limpaway, then! But food first, and perhaps something different to wear to attract less attention.”

To change his appearance into something more casual, he tried on an extra-large white T-shirt from a remainder sales bin. It had a picture of a pop group on the back and the words B.F.S. World Tour on the front.

“Hey, that’s Bowling for Soup ! I like them!”

The new look was completed with a belt around the waist. The T-shirt was longer than the dress he still wore underneath it, and he softly hummed, “High school never ends,” one of the pop group’s more popular songs, as he went to pay. He did not even notice the added pile of 22 bars of chocolate on the counter. After paying, JJ started on the chocolate while innocently asking to use their phone to call for a ride home.

The Wrong Plan B

The only Plan B he had now was to risk phoning his employers. He did not like this plan, as it sounded far from professional, but it was the only Plan B he had left, so phone them is what he did.

They seemed surprised to hear from him, so they must have thought that he had made his getaway long ago.

Within an hour, a car with a couple in sharp suits picked him up and drove off. Neither of them spoke to him as they drove, but they did give him funny looks, which made him feel really ill at ease. However, an uncontrollable weariness descended on him as he finished off the last of the chocolate bars, and he soon fell asleep. He slept until the car stopped and then sleepily opened his eyes.

“Where are we?”

The two suits did not answer but just opened his door. JJ got out and saw that they had parked the car high up overlooking the sea. He peered over the edge to the water below.

“Err, are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

With no warning, one of the suits pulled out a gun and fired.

The bullet grazed JJ’s head as he turned to run, which, apart from being rather painful, would have been very lucky had it not been for the next three, which hit him firmly in the chest. The force of the bullets did less damage than would have been expected but still knocked him over the edge. His body hit the side of the cliff twice on the way down before hitting the water below, where he sank like a stone.

The last thing to go though his mind was,

“Mom, I need you. Where are you?”

At this point, JJ died.

Companion

The manual said that Companion was intelligent. It was wrong.

The Companion was made up of billions and billions of thinking cells, which acted as one. It was more than intelligent; if a descriptive name had to be given, then the word super- extelligence would have been a better fit.

So the Companion did not think or act as an individual, and the idea, for example, of it sitting quietly in the corner reading a book would be quite alien to it. Nonetheless, it ticked all the boxes to qualify as a living creature, plus the human box of Thinking . At the present moment, however, the animal (including human) instinct of Survive was so high on its list that all the other boxes may as well have been on a different planet.

Another difference between this species and the human one was the Companion’s ability to translate instant thought into instant action. The term “multi-tasking” didn’t even come close; everything that needed to happen just happened at once.

Companion Makes a New Home

In this instance, however, there was no way the Companion could leave its present Host, as it had taken over all the skin: the so-called largest organ in the body of the Host. It would take time to leave, and a new host would have to be nearby. It did not control the entire body; that was the Host’s mundane work, so the Companion still needed the Host to be alive to do that. This Host was as good as dead, but that would have been very inconvenient for the Companion, so it was determined not to let it die so soon.

At the first shot to the head, JJ’s skin had hardened to the maximum degree, so it absorbed the bullets to the chest without penetration. The Companion could not stop the internal damage and brocken bones from the impacts; even with the extra skin protection, it had not prevented the Host from receiving structural damage from the rocks on the way down. JJ had sustained two broken legs and a broken arm, and the damage to the head meant that the Companion could not ask for instructions, not that Hosts ever gave intelligent instructions anyway.

As soon as JJ’s body hit the water, the Companion’s reactions ticked another box, this time the one called Learn , which merged and joined with Survive . As if billions of minds were earning a Masters degree in body engineering, the following reactions occurred: a chemical was released into the blood stream, which sent the Host into a very deep sleep; all body apertures were sealed apart from waste disposal; a filter system was set up via the skin’s surface to extract oxygen from the sea water along with gill-type flaps in the neck to keep the lungs breathing; desalinated water would also be taken into the gut when needed. In this way, the Companion could live off the Host’s body for a long time, but not without doing the Host permanent damage, so the part of the Companion that the Host would have regarded as his hair was given independence from the whole to hunt and feed the Host, plus protect the host from hostile creatures; various chemicals would be added to the water by the Hair to attract small fish, which it could then trap and devour in a similar way to that of a sea anemone. This Thinking defense system also produced an awful lot of spite, The semi independent defense system created by Companion looked like long hair and had what was a purely defensive nastiness to start with, which larger sea creatures soon learned to beware of and avoid but would later evolve into something that would surprise even the Companion.

The Companion removed any useless and unnecessary attachments to the Host’s body that got in its way by rotting them away, so JJ’s dress and shoes were soon set free to find their own way in the world. The Companion retained what the Host thought of as something called a “large T-shirt” mostly because of the way it billowed out to make the Host appear to be a larger-looking creature.

At this point, the Companion could take things a little slower. If left alone, the body with its help was capable of repairing itself, but now the Companion had time to complete the requested task of full camouflage along with updating the body to be the superior female gender of the species, the gender the Host so clearly needed to be. It would be an interesting project, and when it was finished, the Companion knew that the Host would have been very pleased with the plans had it been conscious.

The days soon turned into weeks then months as the healing process ran its course. Changing the internal body structure was difficult, but the Companion was able to use DNA switches, which meant the body did most of the work itself. It took a little effort to remove the male reproductive organs and correct the plumbing to fit into the newly created exterior female parts. As soon as the new internal female organs began to grow, they linked up perfectly to the exterior aperture and began to produce their customary chemicals as well.

The brain began to swamp the body, which then demanded the body react in the way it should. The Companion had previously removed the fake breasts so that the body could start budding its own the way any other human female would do. The Companion spent its time tuning into the peculiar thoughts produced by the comatose creature that thought of itself as a human. The strange things that this creature dreamed it needed to be happy initially confused the Companion and were going to be very hard to achieve; however, the Companion as a species had flourished by giving its hosts everything they wanted, be it more food, greater strength, longer life, or more mates. It could do almost anything to make it a much-needed part of its Host body. But with this one, it was going to have to do more then it had ever done before and give it perhaps an entirely new life: a better one.

The more Companion tried and succeeded in understanding these thoughts and responses, and the more it built up an empathy through its protection of this creature the more it realized it became less and less possible to move to another Host, without a lot of effort. So for the time being they would be stuck with each other.

As JJ’s body repaired itself under excellent supervision, the Companion also made the changes that it had been requested to make to the body. The Companion understood the creature’s preference in being female; in return for a home, it gave the Host what it wanted. It was a pity that the memories had to be blocked, as the Host would have been so pleased with what Companion had done for it as it suited the body structure, shape, and size far better than being male. It was now fully female, so the chemicals constantly being produced by the body would shape the creature’s mind to fit its new body. This was another reason why the memories needed to be blocked; the changes in the thought process would have caused the Host distress. The Companion was also making extra improvements to the Host’s body, they were normally such short-lived creatures, but that would be inconvenient as the Companion had no plans on leaving its better-designed, longer-living, and more-comfortable home. With all the new blocked pathways in place against so many unpleasant memories, it mostly left it with a blank slate ready for new and better memories to be added.

The time came when the mutual support of the Companion and Host was as good as it would be. With the help of the Hair acting like paddles, the Companion was able to move the body to a current, which would take it near land.

Time, Tide and Tom

It was a wet and windy day as Tom slowly made his way over the rocks near his home. He was bored. If it had been a warm and sunny day, he could have watched the girls sunbathing and perhaps, if he had the courage, even talked to them, but not today. The only birds about were seagulls, and they were of no interest except as target practice. He threw a pebble at the nearest one and sent it noisily back into the air.

Scanning the coastline, Tom saw what looked like a body lying on the rocks near the water, and he slowly made his way towards it. He was thinking as he went that this was not the weather to be sunbathing, and certainly not in that position—half on the rocks and half in the water. He was not sure what he would find. At 14 he was all for meeting girls, and this body looked female. As a rule, however, he preferred them alive, a little older, and with nice, big boobs.

As Tom got closer, he saw she was younger than he was, just a little kid, and all she had on was a long, wet T-shirt—which sounded far sexier when he talked about it at school with his friends than what he was now disappointedly looking at. Even with the raging hormones of someone his age, the sight of what was before him did nothing for him. True, she was female, but because she was younger than he was, she was just a little kid in his mind. As he got closer, he noticed that she looked as if she were breathing, so he gently prodded her with a foot to see what would happen. She let out a soft groan and opened her eyes.

Lost and Found

A boy’s face that said its name was Tom swam unclearly into view and offered to take her to his home. All she could think of to say was that she was a little too old for him, but thank you anyway, which just produced an odd look on his face and an offer of his sweatshirt, as she was not wearing very much and could catch cold. She did not feel cold, but out of modesty she pulled it on with arms that felt as if they were made of lead. When she tried to stand up, it very nearly worked, too, apart from the world spinning at great speed with some very pretty stars. Then the ground leapt up and hit her quite hard, which was the most unfair of all as she could not remember giving it any reason to. Then the world went all fuzzy, and she passed out.

New Start to Life

The doctor sat down next to Tom’s mother.

“Well, Joan, I have had a word with the police, and they agree with me that she will be better off with you than in state custody. I am sure that they will do their best to trace her parents, if only to arrest them for child abuse. She is one very undernourished girl.”

Joan looked at the doctor.

“Thank you, Donald, but how was the examination? And who do you think she is?”

Donald was not only Joan’s doctor but had also been a friend of the family for many years, and he knew Joan would not let him get away until he had told her everything that he had found out.

“All right, Joan. She is a bit of a mystery, but so far, this is what we have and what I will be telling the police, who, incidentally, are at this moment searching their records for missing girls. She has some loss of memory due to shock or trauma. She is American by her accent but in the physical condition of someone from the third world, very undernourished as I said. I will leave you a prescription for some high nourishment supplements, which will soon get her to a normal weight. I am not even sure of her age, but she is certainly underdeveloped, which should soon change with proper care and nourishment. And I can safely leave that to you. As to her mind: she has no memory of who she is and is understandably both lost and confused with her current situation. I will need to book some appointments with the hospital to run some extra tests and to have a pediatrician see her. A blow to the head happened sometime in the past few months, which I would like to do a scan of. There are also signs of old bruising and cracked ribs, which could be from old beatings and severe mistreatment. A full examination will tell us.”

The Doctor got up.

“Now, with that, I will leave you to check on our mystery girl. I will give you a call in the morning.”

Joan kissed Donald on the cheek as he left.

“I do hope you know what you are doing, Joan. I know what you are like taking in strays, but this could turn out to be a long-term arrangement.”

New Start

Alone in the bathroom and feeling very weak, Abbey was able to relax a little and let the recent events run through her mind. She had passed out after putting on Tom’s large sweatshirt, which she had put over the wet T-shirt he had found her in for modesty’s sake. Her face warmed as she worried that he may have seen her nipples through the T-shirt. He must have carried her home, which was mega embarrassing as the next thing she could remember was Tom’s mother asking questions that she didn’t know the answers to, being given something to eat, and then being very sick. She was asked the same questions by the police and then different questions by the doctor. She remembered thinking,

“Yuck! Mega gross! An old man poking and prodding me, like all over! Yuck! While Tom’s mother watched, like real pervy, and as to some of the questions, like, how personal can you get? Double yuck!!”

She began running the water for the bath, pulled off the oversized sweatshirt of Tom’s, and threw it to one side along with a pair of his shorts, which had forced her to walk oddly to keep them from falling down. She tested the water and was happy with the temperature. She poured in some extra bubble bath to make it nice and super soapy. When she peered into the large bathroom mirror, she was taken aback by what she saw.

“Yuck! Now, that can’t be right! What’s the reverse of anorix… er, anorais… anorexia? Perhaps I am fat, and I just think I look that thin! Oh God, you can count my ribs! I’m all knees and elbows, no “fur” (her own term, which had just came to mind, for pubic hair), and you call those boobs?! Like, where are they? My ribs stand out more than they do. All I have are booblets! Ohmigod! I’m a freak! Well, as for the Hair, blonde is nice. Yes, blonde is very nice and so soft. Well, at least I’m a blonde, so life’s not all bad, but its cut way too short at the back. It should be nice and long. And what’s with the crazy fringe that just flops to one side in front of my eyes? Something is wrong, very wrong, but what is it? And just who the hell am I, anyway?”

Abbey lay soaking in the bath, trying hard not to fall asleep, as drowning in a bath after being rescued from the sea would have been mega dumb. Tom’s mother entered the bathroom with the now-dry T-shirt they had found her in and a large towel. The woman helped her out of the bath and started to rub her dry. It was a nice feeling to just relax and be looked after. She began to say,

“Look, I am not a child, and I can dry myself, thank you!”

but she was far too tired to object. She thought she could hear a voice in her head say,

“Why not enjoy this? There will be plenty of time to grow up.”

Birthday Girl

It was her birthday. Well, it had been a year since she had washed ashore. Abbey was lying on her back on the top of her bed still too excited to sleep, wearing skin-tight bottle-green leggings and a matching long-sleeved top. Her best friend, Zoe, had given her a lovely necklace and a funny card pointing out that she was too old for toys but still too young for boys. The special birthday meal out had been fantastic—a really expensive Japanese restaurant—and she’d taken the waiters by surprise by loving all that sushi raw fish stuff. She had always loved seafood, but this was the first time she’d tried raw fish, and it had been heavenly. When Mom told the people at the restaurant that it was her birthday, the chef had made her a special platter with a bit of everything on it, and she ate it all! The chef even stayed and watched, saying she was a real connoisseur and had very good taste buds.

Abbey started writing the day’s events in her diary. Then she dragged a box out from under the bed that she regarded as her treasure chest. She opened the box, and at the bottom was her only link to her past: an old T-shirt that she had been wearing when Tom found her washed up on the beach this time last year. The T-shirt had been neatly ironed, and she spread it out on the bed as she had done so many times over the 12 months since then.

It had a picture of the pop group Bowling for Soup (BFS) printed on it; it also had three neat holes in it which she always wondered about. She remembered how lost and confusing the world had been back then, and the how the cops and newspapers had searched in vain to find her identity. Also in the box were cuttings from newspapers of the time, some with her photo and headlines such as “Mystery Girl Found Washed up on Beach.” After a while they must have stopped looking, as no one had ever came forward to claim her. One night, after weeks of not knowing what was to become of her, Mom sat her down and asked if she would like to stay permanently with Tom and her, at least until they found her real parents. She said she had always wanted to have a daughter and would be honored to have her as one.

Abbey remembered feeling so happy that she hugged her and cried buckets! Mom asked if she could call her “Abby,” as she’d been going to call Tom Abby if he had been a girl because she always liked the sound of it; so there she was: Miss Abbey Jones. The “e” in Abbey had been a spelling mistake on the government adoption papers, but even if it sounded like a building, the name felt right.

From the start, Mom treated her as if she really were her daughter, and to Abbey she was as real a Mom as it was possible to be; Mrs. Joan Jones was the best Mom any girl could want, and she loved her then and had done so ever since. As for Tom, well, you know what boys are like. He could be nice sometimes in a big brother sort of way. Opening her small jewelry box, she took out a delicate silver fish on a chain. “Fish” had been his nickname for her ever since he’d found her washed ashore. Tom had given it to her as a birthday present, and she would treasure it forever—not that she would ever tell him something so soppy.

Looking back in her diary, she read little snippets and even found comments on the day that Mom had had the famous mother-to-daughter or woman-to-woman talk with her. What a thing to talk about! She had been so embarrassed listening to the full, very full description she offered of giving birth to Tom! Abbey was expecting the standard old sex talk, not such a vivid study in gynecology, very painful childbirth, and pelvic floor exercises. “Yuck!” she’d thought because although she had the normal urges of any girl her age and got clingy panties the same as other girls when watching seniors play football, she wasn’t ready for full sex yet: no way, and especially not after that sharing session with Mom on what sex can lead to. How could she? Even now, the memory made her want to cross her legs! As for school, they did the “Sex-is-wrong-and-God-will-punish-you” thing and provided a talk on the silver ring pledge made by self-proclaimed voluntary virgins (though by the look of some of them, it may not have been just quite that voluntary).

She turned more pages in her life and read through some of her own secret thoughts of days gone by in the last year. At the start, school had been a drag, but she had made friends—well, one friend—and lots of the subjects turned out to be very easy, as if she had done them before, which allowed her to spend extra time on the things she really liked, like computers and other nerdy stuff, and activities that involved exercising her body. She even joined the school’s martial arts team.

Yes, Abbey was different from other girls in many ways. She had lots of ideas, fantasies, of being a kidnapped princess or an alien from a spacecraft that had crashed into the sea, even a mermaid washed ashore. But now she worried that she was just some sort of mad government experiment that had gone wrong and she had escaped. She even wondered if she were radioactive, and whether Mom and Tom would get cancer from her. At this point in the night, chocolate was needed, so she opened a family-sized bar and snapped off a large piece of chocolate with her teeth. It was too large, so she snapped it again, popped the largest piece in her mouth, and threw the other piece into the air above her, where it was plucked out of its flight path by her Hair and devoured nosily. Oh! She was different all right! But so far she had been able to keep it a secret.

As the months passed, long warm summer days turned to the glorious colors of fall then on to grey winter, but Abbey Jones, which was now her legal name after the adoption, did not care about the winter greys.

Life’s a Beach

Leaping from boulder to boulder a few dozen feet away from the sea, Abbey was happy and enjoying her scenic route back home from the shops. Safely tucked away were the bars of chocolate that had made the trip necessary. The onshore wind was wild, and it stung her eyes with ice. It would still be snowing hard inland, but here on the coast there were only a few small snowflakes in the air. Still, it was bitterly cold—not that cold weather ever bothered her. True, she had one of Tom’s scarves tied in a knot around her neck to stop it from flying off and making its own way home without her, but that was only to keep Mom happy, as she was as warm as toast in her new pants and sweater—and they looked fantastic on her! Mom had decided that she needed more winter clothing, so they had spent all of yesterday shopping, and she felt real grown up going from shop to shop trying on different things. Mom told her that she only ever got grunts from Tom when she tried to get him to go clothes shopping, and it was such a pleasure to have a daughter to shop with. At lunchtime they had stopped at a very posh English-type teahouse where she’d had three chocolate brownies with ice cream and a tall hot chocolate with extra cream and marshmallows.

Mom had laughed and said she was putting on weight just watching her.

The wind whipping through her Hair felt good; she had decided she wanted to grow it longer, and she loved the way it curled and danced it the wind. Abbey often admired it in shop windows when no one could see her doing so, and she loved to run her fingers through it. She also loved being a girl and being blonde; she was so blonde that her ancestors must have been Vikings, and she felt very lucky. Jumping down off the rock she was currently standing on, she removed the scarf, put it in the bag with the chocolate, and then began running along the beach, her fringe blowing ahead of her or out to one side depending upon the direction of the wind. She was alive and happy.

When she eventually ran out of energy, she stopped and bent over, holding her knees and gasping for air, which meant she was swallowing the snowflakes, which were now falling faster before melting on the ground. While she waited for her heart to stop pounding in her chest, a voice in her head addressed her:

“ WHY DO YOU FIND THIS SO ENJOYABLE ?”

She was too old to have invisible friends, so she had put the voices down to just being mad and normally simply tried to ignore them. She had never told anyone about them for fear that she would be locked away, but as she was alone on the beach she muttered out loud under her breath,

“You are not real, so go away!”

She turned the volume up on her music memory chip so her earphones blasted out the songs of BFS—an old group but one she loved for some strange reason. She now ran back along the beach to where she had left the shopping bags.

When she got back to the shopping, she used Tom’s scarf as a cushion to sit on the cleanest-looking rock, as all the rocks were now damp and she did not want to stain her new pants.

She was still breathing hard as she turned the music off and tore open the first chocolate bar she could find.

“YOU ARE AN INTELLIGENT PRIMATE. WHY DON’T YOU THINK WE ARE REAL? ”

Against her better judgment, she answered,

“If you are so real, tell me something I don’t know, like what is the circumference of the earth? Or what is the meal Mom is making tonight? See, you don’t know because I don’t know! All you are is crazy voices… Yes, that’s all you are: crazy voices in my head!”

Abbey almost spat out bits of chocolate as she shouted into the wind,

“Better still, tell me who I am and where I come from? Or just shut up, and let me be!”

The voices were now silent as Abbey swallowed the last mouthful of chocolate, picked up the bags, turned the music on, and made her way back home. They had spoiled her mood, but at least they had shut up.

“Huh, and I know that primate means monkey, so keep your insults to yourself!”

She had said it under her breath but still turned the volume up to max in case they were going to answer her. If she could pretend her Hair was normal, then it was no problem at all to ignore voices that referred to her as a monkey! Okay, so she had a little secret; it was normal for teenage girls to have secrets. And it didn’t even sound like much of a secret to say that you had uncontrollable hair. She knew that most girls complained about their hair; in fact, hers looked perfect, and she loved her wonderful blonde Hair. However, she just wished it would stop stealing her chocolates and threatening to bite people!

Lost

A few days later, Abbey was thinking that perhaps a long walk in the snow might have been a mistake. Okay, so it had been a mistake: of course it had. But it was not her fault, and that is what she kept telling herself. Even without the voices in her head, she knew that it was childish to think, let alone try and believe in … Well, she was not a child and would have to sort out her own mistakes. Yes, so she had forgotten to charge her cellphone, and her friend forgot to bring hers altogether… well, that was not her fault, but the walk had been her idea, and now they were lost.

She left her best friend, or should she say her only friend, shivering in the makeshift shelter of a fallen tree where they had spent the last hour sheltering from a blizzard that had now stopped and left behind a thick blanket of crisp, white snow. She looked around, trying to work out which way they had come from, but all directions now looked the same: dark trees and everything else mostly white. The long walk in the snow and a snowball fight while the sun was still shining had been fun, but then the weather had changed and the snowstorm had wiped out their trail along with her sense of direction. The storm had now passed, and the sky was clear, but it was soon going to get dark; Abbey knew that the temperature would plummet. She knew that as a fact in the same way she knew she was safe from the cold and in no danger.

Guidance

Why and how she knew this she did not know, but it would need to get a hell of a lot colder to cause her any problems, so she was Okay. But that was not the point, as it was not herself she was worried about. Quietly, under her breath, she muttered to herself.

“Okay, so why don’t you prove me wrong and be useful for a change? Well, are you there, or not?”

“WE ARE HERE. WE ARE ALWAYS HERE.”

The voice arrived in her head as if some one nearby had spoken to her.

Abbey took a breath and reluctantly asked what had crossed her mind.

“Okay, so if you are as real as you keep telling me you are, then can you lead us safely home?”

Words again formed in her mind.

“ YES, WE CAN HELP YOU HOME, BUT FIRST YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE THAT WE ARE REAL.”

“Okay. I give in. You’re real. So now, do something real, duh!”

And with that, a plan formed in her mind, and she went back to her friend.

Keeping Warm

Zoe was crouching down and shivering so much that her teeth were chattering as she said,

“I am cold, Abbs. I’m sorry, Abbs, but I really am very, very cold. I don’t think I want to move. Are we going to die out here?’

Abbey put on a smile to show more confidence than she felt and issued a command that for the first time ever was able to silence her friend. Zoe was normally so talkative that you had to book your side of any conversation in advance and preferably in writing, but just now she was silent as she tried to take in what Abbey was asking her to do.

Peering down at the silent Zoe, who was looking up at her with wide eyes, Abbey knew that she could have said it differently as she started removing her own clothing.

“I mean, take your clothes off, and I will warm you up by swapping clothes with you; mine are warmer than yours. It must be my Viking blood, as I never get cold, and these are my brother’s old things I have on. Come on! You know how boys’ clothes are always warmer than girls’, so let’s swap quickly so you don’t get any colder.”

Well, that was partly true, but Zoe’s mistake was she that she always wanted to look good. True, she was wearing a coat, but it was not thick, and she only had a T-shirt and stretch pants on under it, whereas Mom had forced Abbey into wearing things Tom had outgrown years ago—rubber boots that only stayed on because of the three pairs of socks she also was wearing, a thick tartan shirt over her T-shirt that was tucked into trousers held up by a belt and a lot of luck, then over the shirt a waterproof jumper Tom had used on his fishing trips. No matter how many times Mom had washed it, it still smelled, well, fishy .

Abbey actually felt a lot better wearing just a T-shirt and Zoe’s stretch pants finished off by Zoe’s damp Reeboks. It was so much lighter to wear, and it was true that she was not cold. All of Tom’s clothes had just slowed her down. She tried not to laugh at Zoe now wearing Tom’s cast-offs. Zoe could still be fashionable so long as it was in a scarecrow contest! When she tried to add her coat over the jumper, it really made her look like a fat scarecrow, but the point was to keep her warm so that Abbey could get her home safely.

Fashion was currently not what was on Zoe’s mind. She was already feeling a lot warmer, but also she was now feeling very, very guilty. She had accepted her friend’s kind offer without thinking, and now when she looked at Abbey she could see that her skin had gone very pale. She thought that her friend must also be very cold; when she touched Abbey’s hand, it was icy to the touch. However, she had accepted the warmer clothes without a moment’s hesitation, and she had only slightly objected when Abbey insisted that she also keep the coat. So now her friend was left wearing only a T-shirt and her stretch pants, which she had so willingly swapped for the boys’ trousers, and Zoe now felt rotten for letting Abbey do so much for her.

Abbey’s skin was indeed looking pale. Instinctively, she knew her skin no longer allowed much heat escape through it to keep the internal organs at the correct temperature. Abbey knew that if she had picked up a handful of snow, it would no longer have melted in her hands.

The Way Home

Closing her eyes, Abbey felt information flow through her mind: the position of the sun in the sky and how it was soon going to set in the west, how the trees grew slightly bent due to prevailing winds from the sea, how moss was more likely to grow on the south side of the tree. So many facts filled her head that she felt she was standing on a massive map covered with big, brightly painted arrows pointing the way home. Putting her bare arm around Zoe’s shoulders, she gave her a real smile this time as she said,

“Come on, Zoe. Home is this way.”

Home Safely

Zoe’s dad had said they were very lucky getting home when they did as the temperature had dropped suddenly after sunset, and the roads had become dangerous with ice. He was glad he had not needed to come looking for her. Mom said that she was going to tie her cellphone around her neck the next time she left the house. They had phoned Abbey’s mom as soon as they had both arrived, and from the conversation that followed, it had been decided that it would not be safe for her to come over to collect Abbey, so she would be a house guest until tomorrow, which would mean a fun sleepover.

Time to Consider

Because of her friend’s perfect sense of direction, just a few hours after her ordeal in the cold, Zoe was not only safe at home but also warmly tucked up in bed. But before she could sleep, she had to run some things through her mind. Abbey was such a strange girl, and at times she said and did the oddest of things; only last week, Zoe had complimented her on how nice her hair smelled… of, was it oranges? And she had given Zoe a shampoo called “Wild Citrus,” saying that it didn’t suit her own hair so Zoe could have it. Then she had apologized for what looked like teeth marks on the cap! Abbey had wonderful soft blonde hair, so light that it would curl around one’s fingers if you touched it, obviously due to static electricity. Well, that was what Zoe used to think, true she had discovered her friend had odd and strange hair but it still added to her overall oddness: an oddness that meant that she had few friends at school. Odder still was that she had no enemies either, and no one would dare pick on her. Well, no boy would due to her cute big brother, and as for girls, she could verbally defend herself in a way that would leave the attacker in tears.

Abbey could face a bully with a look of such disappointment over her behavior that the girl would often apologize and move away as fast as she could. The only time Abbey would really react was when someone touched her hair. There was somehow an unspoken rule that no one ever touched her hair. She was as possessive over it as other girls were over their boyfriends. Boys always had the stupid idea that it was funny to pull long hair, and one of the few times Abbey had gotten into trouble was when she had made a boy cry after he pulled her hair. A teacher had had to pull Abbey off him.

Zoe loved having Abbey as a friend, and after today she knew that Abbey really cared for her; she had never had a friend who was so kind. No matter how oddly she acted, she was always going to be her own very best friend.

Special Friends

Zoe lifted a hand from under the covers and reached out until she could feel the soft blonde curls of her friend, who was sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. The hair was the softest thing she had ever touched and always so very light that the static in her hand would cause it to cling to her fingers, or so she first thought. She now knew better. Zoe had always felt privileged in being allowed to touch it, and she was the only one who could do so. No special permission had ever been given. It was simply that Abbey did not even seem to notice, or if she did, it did not bother her. Very gently, so as not to wake her, Zoe touched her face and was shocked to discover that even after hot soup and a warm bath, she was still cold to the touch.

“Abbs, you’re still cold!”

It was only softly spoken but was enough to cause Abbey to change her sleeping position; she rolled onto her side, facing away from Zoe. The change in position was not going to stop Zoe now that she had decided what to do, and Abbey was so soundly asleep that she did not feel her friend move over and wrap herself around her. As Zoe buried her face in Abbey’s soft hair, tears formed in her eyes, but she spoke no words this time to avoid disturbing her friend. She just silently made a decision that neither of them would ever be cold as long as they had each other. As she held on tightly to Abbey’s sleeping body, she could feel heat returning to her friend’s skin, and a strange sensation of peace and comfort now came over her. Zoe felt very natural to be still curled around her friend, who was so very huggable, and she was soon fast asleep.

As the girls slept, Abbey’s Hair gently moved over Zoe’s face. Ever so carefully, the fine Hairs began to penetrate Zoe’s skin. Like Abbey, the Companion also liked this girl. If the Host had decided that this girl was worth keeping safe, then it would also help, and it knew just how to do that as the Companion sent some of its cells through the Hair to enter her body.

Brother and Sister

The years passed. Another winter was slowly turning to spring as the sun shone warmly through Abbey’s bedroom window and gently roused her from her sleep. She spat out her Hair, which always ended up in her mouth at night; she felt a bit childish to be sucking her own Hair, but as long as no one else knew, then who cared? She sleepily let her right hand move slowly between her legs and let out a little sigh as she felt a tingle and a comfortable familiar moistness on her fingers. Suddenly the bedroom door burst open, and a loud voice filled the room.

“Wake up, Fish! Mom says get up right now! Your friend will be here soon.”

A pillow just missed Tom as he slammed the door shut.

“Get out of my room, you, you, perv! Mom says a girl should have some privacy, so that means you stay out of my room, Thomas Jefferson Jones!”

From outside her door, she could hear Tom’s reply.

“I’m not in your room. Fish! It’s called a doorway, you dumb Fish! And if Mom sends me up here again to wake you, then I will come in and drag you downstairs by your smelly fishy tail! Now get up!”

Still not fully awake, she trailed to the bathroom and slipped the little bolt on the door so that Tom could not burst in as he had done a couple of weeks ago while she had been peeing. Of course, it had been a mistake, and he was the one who’d turned bright red on seeing her, but there was no need to risk also giving him a peek at her while showering. She had, of course, walked in when he was showering many times, but that was different as she was a girl, so it didn’t count. Anyway, it was so much fun to see him turn red and try to hide his boy bits from view!

She turned the shower on full power, marked super turbo, and felt the water, which was just right as always; no matter what setting she set the faucets on, it was always the same. She’d told Mom it must be broken, but Mom said it was just her imagination. She slipped off her PJs and tossed them towards the washing basket— missing as usual—and admired herself in the bathroom mirror before it misted up.

“Not bad. Boobs could be larger. As for the body, it may be small, but it’s getting to have a wow factor. Boys are beginning to notice…”

What she saw was a sleek but well-formed, lightly tanned body. Using two hands, she pushed her breasts up and smiled at the result. Firm-breasted and with an air of someone who looked after her figure, she was “Hot”: shoulder-length natural (or maybe supernatural) blonde Hair had a cute fringe that curled down one side of her face. As she watched, the fringe began to braid itself until it looked more like a snake than a cute hairstyle, and the rest of the Hair had now decided to form a tight bun on the top of her head.

“Okay, cut that out! You have been in my mouth all night! Again! And so it is bath time for you as well!”

Abbey had heard of other people having uncontrollable hair, but she was sure that they did not mean it in quite the same way. She never told anyone, and it always behaved itself in public. Because it had music by BFS, she had kept the copy of the old film Sky High , which she found in Tom’s room last year, and taken it to heart. Anyway, the actor who played Warren Peace was mega hot. Besides, people in Hollywood really did know that people with superpowers existed, even if the rest of the world did not. She needed a cool name, but all she could think of was Medusa Girl, which sounded as if she should get a job at the zoo, perhaps as an exhibit. The Hair tightened its bun shape as she stepped into the shower.

“Look. It’s a new shampoo with lots of vitamins and minerals. You’ll love it!”

The Hair did not move.

“Okay, suit yourself!”

She opened the shampoo and poured the bottle over her head. As she showered, she could feel the movement of the Hair as it twisted and turned, building up a good lather then hanging limp as the shower hit it full blast.

“Now behave, or I will take you to the hairdresser!”

It was an idle threat; the one and only time she had tried to trim her fringe, it had bitten her so hard that it made her cry.

Wrapping herself in a towel, she returned to her bedroom to dress. The Hair had already somehow dried itself and formed her usual hairstyle. Fifteen minutes later, Abbey carried her overnight bag ready for the sleepover downstairs to the kitchen, where Zoe was waiting for her.

“Has Tom been keeping you entertained?”

Zoe quietly answered, “Oh, I wish!”

Abbey opened the fridge and took out a tube of extra dark chocolate sauce, which would act as breakfast, and gave a mock sigh.

“Whoremones! Ohmigod, you should see what a sight he looks first thing in the morning, snoring in bed!”

Zoelooked up with a smile. “Oh yes! Yes, yes, please!”

Putting the tube to her lips, Abbey squeezed, and then said through a chocolate covered smile.

“Girl, will you control those hormones of yours! Anyway, you still have Rick, don’t you?”

“Rick is not as cute as your brother, and anyway, he’s off skiing or something energetic like that with his parents. And how do you do that?”

Abbey had absentmindedly squeezed some of the liquid chocolate onto her palm, made a fist, then opened her hand to reveal that the chocolate had vanished.

“What? Oh, trade secret! You know, like a magic circle secret; I’d be thrown out if I said, so don’t ask. Shall we go?”

As they were leaving the house, Abbey called out,

“Mom, we’re leaving now.”

Joan came to see them off at the door.

“Okay, but not too late back tomorrow. Don’t forget, Monday’s a school day, and you can never get up at the best of times.”

Abbey gave her a hug.

“Don’t worry. Bye, Mom.”

Normal Teenagers

The sleepover was just a ploy to enable Abbey and Zoe to spend some time hanging out at the mall, shopping, and then going to crash a high school party. Then they would go back to Zoe’s afterwards; her parents were away for the night, as they thought Zoe would be staying with Abbey.

The day went as planned, with the extra bonus of finding a new burger bar in the mall, which had a super double-choc-shake with real Belgian choc crushed and sprinkled on the top that was so good Abbey had two. Well, she ordered two but only got to drink one herself—she had to discreetly remove the Hair, which had a tendency to dunk itself into the shake every time she moved forward to suck on the straws; all anyone watching would have seen was a teenager with chocolate milk in her hair.

Only Abbey knew that the problem was that her Hair had the same liking for chocolate that she did. There were lots of names for colors of hair, but she likely was unique in having a style called Chocolate Blonde but only after drinking milkshakes.

The girls started getting ready for the party. They showered and laid out the new clothes purchased during the day. Abbey was especially pleased with her new dress, which was a blood red color, but she still sought reassurance; she called out to her friend.

“Zoe? Are you sure red is Okay? You know, what with being a blonde and what they say about blondes in red?”

“Nah, that’s old stuff!” replied Zoe. “As long as a dress is short enough, then it can be any color. And you look good in red; remember all your spots at the pool party?!”

Abbey narrowed her eyes.

“Not spots! Just an allergy: a rash from that filthy, dirty pool, that’s all.”

Her skin had been covered in a rash after just one swim, and old Doc Donald had given her some antihistamines for it. She also remembered that for a short time her Hair had seemed a bit off-color; in fact, it had had a slight green tint to it for several days.

Alone, as Zoe was in the bathroom, Abbey stared at herself in the mirror. She placed her make-up bag in front of her, opened it, and then ignored the contents. She used it for show and mostly as a warning to the body that she may one day use it!

As she peered at her reflection, the eyebrows narrowed down, shaped to a fine curve and darkened to eyeliner 4 in shade. The eyelashes thickened and lengthened to a dark black color, Her Hair was nice and bouncy with a blow-dry style. The fringe produced a red streak that matched the dress in color, and her lips took on a red color that also perfectly matched the dress.

She pouted in satisfaction, and asked Zoe when she came out,

“Well, am I not so cool as to be now mega volcano-hot?!”

Zoe groaned.

“Ick! Like, we have been friends for nearly forever, but don’t be using words like ‘mega’ and ‘cool’; you are some oldie trying to be in on the ‘convo’! And, yes, of course, you look fantastic! Why, you may even be lucky tonight and at long last lose that cherry of yours!”

Abbey made a face.

“Zoe!! God, girl! The things you say! Are you hinting that you and Rick - and forgive the wrinkly slang - are ‘having some action?!”

Zoe giggled.

“No way, but he is mallow!”

Abbey playfully pushed Zoe away from the mirror.

“You mean mellow.”

Zoe pushed Abbey back.

“No. ‘Mallow’ as in marshmallow—you know, sweet, but can get sticky at times if held in the hands for too long!”

Giving Abbey a little knowing smile, she grabbed her coat.

“Shall we go?”

They reached the party, which was only a couple of streets away at some boy’s house; neither of them knew him. Abbey was sure they were too young to get in, but Zoe had been correct when she said that as long as you had boobs, you always had an open invitation to any high-school parties put on by boys, and boys were sure what she wanted to meet tonight. She was not sure how the night would go, but she hoped that sometime during the evening it would involve a nice long snug with a fit-looking guy.

Not-so-normal Teenager

Later that same night, Abbey was walking with confidence and determination—completely lost but with confidence and determination. He had been far too old for her in any case, and a total dick. She was not angry, no she was well beyond the meaning of that word, the blow-dried hairstyle of earlier now looked as if it had been struck by lightning. Dozens of plated coils of Hair now stood out from her head and swayed gently in the wind, even though there was no wind to speak of!

The romantic drive with Raymond, who had been so cute at the party, had turned out to be a wrestling match. Raymond had the ability to find a way up her dress unless she used all her strength to pin his hands down; if she wanted that sort of body invasion, she would have turned to a box of tampons. He must have had some type of competition point system as to where he should touch - and a simple kiss must have been very low on the list!

An inner voice warning her not to mate was not the sort of inner voice she wanted to hear at the best of times. It wasn’t what she was planning in any case-and certainly not now with the octopus Raymond! When he ran his hands through her Hair, it gave her cold shivers down her spine, and she could feel the skin of her hands harden, which added a lot of weight to the slap she gave him just before getting out of his car. She did not notice that her hair had left deep burn lines in the car’s paint as she got out.

Abbey slammed the door as hard as she could, muttering as she went,

“No one touches my Hair without my permission, let alone other parts of my body! And pinching a nipple is not sexy! It is just frigging painful!”

“Well, things just could not get any worse!” she thought.

But she was soon to find out that she was as incorrect as she could get.

A hand touched her on the shoulder, and as she turned, she came face-to-face with a sharp-looking knife with a potential rapist attached to it. She really was not in the mood for this sort of thing, but what she did next surprised both herself and the attacking stranger. Abbey hit him full in the face with a skin-hardened fist.

Unfortunately, however, although it might have been enough against a person of her same weight and size, in this case, the return blow sent her sprawling to the ground. When she tried to stand a very strong hand gripped her throat and stopped any more movement.

As he held her down to the floor, a voice said,

“I like a girl with fight.”

She was held down and heard a tearing noise as she felt the blade against her skin. With a single movement, he had cut through her new party clothing. Then he used the blade to play with her blonde locks.

“Perhaps I will also take a little of this as a souvenir!”

As he laughed, all she could think was, “Why am I not frightened?”

It came as a shock to find herself so calm in such a situation. “I may not be frightened but I am very pissed off! Bastard, that dress was brand new today! Okay, so that knife looks sharp, and he is far too strong for me to fight, so this could be a problem. Some help would be useful right now!” she thought.

An idea that she was not sure was her own occurred unbidden in her mind.

“Okay, it’s Plan B again. Go to Plan B! And that is: “Do not panic! Improvise!”’ Abbey thought.

She began to speak, softly, under her breath, which forced him to loosen his grip a little and move closer to hear her whisper.

“Don’t touch the Hair! It doesn’t like it!”

She then wrapped her arms and legs around his body so quickly that as he moved back she came up with him as she said out loud,

“So, what are you waiting for? Defend me! Bloody well attack him!!’

Many a TV wildlife documentary has had a title like “Danger in the World of Snakes” or “Snakes Go Wild in the West,” showing snakes attacking a journalist or cameraman stupid enough to prod a snake to make it look more dangerous for the viewers. A face full of angry snakes usually focuses the mind quite well! This is what Abbey’s attacker experienced as her blonde locks reared up like snakes and attacked his face. Bringing the knife up to cut them back proved to be as good a move as sticking one’s hand in a hornet’s nest.

His hand released her throat, and the knife fell from the burnt fingers of his other hand as he attempted to protect his eyes and face. The girl was holding on tightly, so he could not get any distance from these burning, biting strands, which were currently ripping his hands and face to bits.

She let go when he passed out, knowing instinctively that the Hair had put him into a drugged sleep and he would be out for hours. The idea did occur to her that the Hair could have done all that in the first place, but then he did try and cut it, so it was just self-defense, really. He was now lying at her feet bleeding, so after kicking him in the balls twice to check whether he was really unconscious, she searched his pockets, taking his wallet, watch and cell phone. There was not much cash, only about 30 dollars, but she could sell the phone, watch, and credit cards at school next week and spend the money on new clothes when next out shopping with Zoe. “Hey, is he stupid enough to report the theft to the cops?” She did not think so!

She watched as the cuts on her skin healed. They had not been deep and had not even bled. She brushed her Hair back and smoothed it down with her fingers; the fringe was now a dreadlock hanging down in front of her eyes. With a backhand swipe, she knocked it to one side where it wisely decided to stay but changed into a neatly braided lock of Hair. Abbey’s Hair then added the streak of red again, just because it liked it!

She looked at her dress and underwear lying on the ground, and she realized getting home naked was now an extra problem to solve. Well, she was not going to put on any of that pervert’s things.

“Yuck! That’s just sick!”

Abbey then had an idea. It had not worked fully before, but she knew that she could change her skin texture, so she sat down on the ground.

“Okay, yoga position 101. Relax and tune into your inner self, trying hard to forget that your outer self is stark naked!”

She closed her eyes and concentrated. After a few minutes, and an imminent headache, she opened them again.

“Wow! Now that’s cool!”

She was now wearing black skintight cycle shorts and a matching top, and when she touched it she knew that it was more than just skintight.

“Okay, I must practice that more often, and perhaps with a supply of painkillers. How can one look cool with a thumping headache? Anyway, now for the transport.”

She phoned Tom on her newly obtained cell phone.

As it was Saturday night, Tom was still out with friends when he got Abbey’s call.

“What do you mean; you have been to a party? A boy did what?! Now you’re alone and stranded at the docks! What have you been up to, Fish? Mom will kill you! Oh, frigging God! She will never believe that I didn’t know. I’m going to be grounded for months because I have a brat for a kid sister!”

Abbey cut in on Tom’s monologue.

“Thomas Jefferson! Please just borrow Mom’s car and come get me now! We can discuss this later—and not a word to Mom, or I will make your life hell, as only a little sister can! Now hurry! It is starting to rain, and you know my Hair doesn’t like getting wet! Bye!”

She put the phone away and relaxed. Tom would be there soon. As for the rapist, she again aimed a few well-placed kicks into some of the more sensitive parts of his body to make sure he was still out and then ignored him. Tom did not take long to reach her, and by the time he had finished moaning at her they had reached home, she had almost forgotten all about the attack.

School Days

As she waited, her mind wandered. “It’s nice to have a big brother to look after me… and I must give Zoe a call in the morning and tell her that Raymond is a total dick and that I went home early, complete with cherry!” She planned in her mind the activities of a superhero for the rest of day: sleep then collect her overnight bag from Zoe. Find out if anything interesting happened after she left the party. Get that homework done, and think of what to wear for Monday. As BFS would say, “High School Never Ends!”

When first attending high school, Abbey had found it unbelievably boring, full of stupid kids. She was so bored that Mom had to find her lots of after school things to do, which is how she met her best friend. Zoe was the daughter of one of Mom’s friends, so now life was good. Maybe she wasn’t one of the “most popular” kids, but she was fitting in at high school; she’d even been asked if she wanted to be on the cheerleader reserve team. Well, she nearly fitted the requirements: blonde, slim, fit and dumb - but having only three out of the four, she declined. She did have lots of energy but was not that sporty, so team sports were out. However, Abbey had discovered that she did really excel in the various martial arts the school offered; it was so easy to harden her skin to both take hits and give them that she was able to hand out far more punishment in a contest than she would take.

Coach Jed said she was a natural and had placed her on the school team. He told Zoe that she may even get a school letter jacket. All Zoe had said was that she would never get a boyfriend if they found out what she could do to them with a short, sharp stick! At the other end of the scale, to keep her mind active, she also joined the school nerds with her love of electronics, computers, and gadgets. As Zoe often said, she was one mixed-up kid and with her hobbies would likely die a virgin.

As for boys, she did see Raymond about, but he stayed well out of her way; apparently Tom had had a quiet word with him, pointing out that kid sisters were out of bounds - or would he like to be hit again?

Bad Hair Day

One day the following month, high above the sea along the cliff top, Abbey climbed over the rocks near the cliff edge. She was in a bad mood. It was the wrong time of the month, and life was not fair! As a teenager, she knew when the world was picking on her. The results of the last set of tests on why she was not growing had just came in and showed that she had reached her full height and would not grow any more. Old Doc Donald said it was unusual but could be due to her near starvation and mistreatment when she was younger. There were drugs that might help, but he did not recommend them because of their various side effects.

A long walk was all she could think of, so here she was, wearing a woolly hat that her Hair hated - and that was why she had it on. She was angry with her Hair and meant to punish it, so she pulled the hat on tighter as a few Hairs tried to sneak out. She knew that people often complained about having a “bad hair day,” but surely they did not wake up in the morning to find their Hair had eaten a whole box of chocolates while they were sleeping! She had put a sealed box of chocolates on the bedside table last night, and this morning it was empty, apart from one hard one - and that one had had all its chocolate licked off!

Hair/Host Relationship

The Hair at this time was in a tight bun, sulking under the hat. Over time it had developed a personality of its own; it may have derived its uncontrollable nature from her unconscious thoughts, but the large amount of psychopath in its nature was all its own! The extelligence of the whole Companion knew that it was not possible for any part of the extelligence to have an individual personality, so the Hair did not bother to tell it that it was wrong. The Hair had also started to think of the Host as a partner: an intelligent partner and not just a mobile home. Of course it knew that the Host was an intelligent female animal called Abbey, and it also knew Abbey had been very angry with it this morning.

All it had done was have a little snack during the night, but she had used the dreaded metal hairbrush on it, so it had snapped at her. It was only a minor burn that hadn’t even marked her skin as its venom was harmless to her, but it had been a major mistake, which it now knew was never to be repeated! She had taken it to the bathroom and used a hard block of soap and a nailbrush on it for over ten minutes, tied it up with elastic bands, then stuffed it still wet into a woolly, smelly hat. It had single-handedly taken on sharks in the past and had torn them to bits, but now it knew its partnership with this girl was not quite as equal as it had once thought.

The Hair knew that it could never hurt her, but that was one sided as it could so clearly pick up Abbey’s current thoughts, which included plans for hot irons and a pair of pruning shears ready for the next time it dared to even dream of biting, her let alone touching a box of chocolates she had personal plans for.

Special Skills

As for the rest of her body, she may not have been getting taller, but she was still having teenage growing pains. Puberty should not have prevented her from wearing bras, but they rubbed and made her nipples sore and were generally too uncomfortable to wear for too long. They should have helped, not hindered, but they also made her boobs itch when worn all day. Ever since she’d discovered that she could mind-create clothing, she’d also found that any tight clothing became uncomfortable if worn all day—and she would not have been caught dead in baggy panties! Okay, so she could create her own underwear just by thinking about it, but that wasn’t the point as it was not real underwear. She also worried about whether or not it actually existed. Talk about a wardrobe failure! What if it was not even there unless she was looking! This thought had stopped her from wearing short skirts at school and skirts of any length on windy days, and it made changing for games and showering in public an act of extreme concentration.

Putting the Skills to the Test

Abbey sat on an outcrop of rock at the top of the cliff over looking the ocean. It was in fact over 50 feet from the edge, which was quite close enough for Abbey. She had a fear of cliff tops, which must have come from Mom telling her not to go near the edge. The dull overcast sky, which had so matched her mood, was slowly being replaced by heavy black clouds and a strong wind as a storm built up. It was invigorating to feel the wind on her body. She wasn’t cold; in fact she couldn’t remember ever feeling really too cold—or, for that matter, too hot. The ozone in the air smelled good, and her mood was lifting. She felt a lot better.

As the clouds boiled above her, Abbey released her Hair from its prison cell of the hat, and like a puppy unleashed in the park, the Hair took off in all directions at once as it was blown one way then the other in the strong winds. The unspoken joy Abbey could feel radiating from it made her laugh out loud as she thought of the time it would take the Hair to untangle all the knots it was currently getting itself into.

Abbey looked about as the strange feeling of being watched came over her, which she had felt several times over the past few days but had put down to just her imagination. She climbed off her vantage point and sheltered under the outcrop as the rain began to fall. Opening her backpack, Abbey took out a pack of sandwiches and watched the paper wrapper spring to life and head out to sea as she hungrily bit into the bread. She was always hungry and grazed all day long, but so far she’d never put on any fat, a condition she attributed to doing the right exercises, so there was no harm in a bar (or four) of chocolate to finish off. She took these out of the backpack too and peeled the silver paper back to reveal the firm, brown block. At the same time, the rain became considerably heavier, so she quickly but reluctantly put the bar back in the pack. The rain was being blown in on her now, and she was getting wet. Her jeans felt wet and clammy as she sat down to take off her expensive and very this-year-fashionable Reeboks and placed them in the backpack to keep them safe and dry.

“Well, there’s no point in being a superhero if you can’t have some benefits!”

She mumbled to herself as she pulled off her jeans and sweatshirt and stuffed them in the pack with the Reeboks, rescuing the chocolate at the same time. She looked down at her body and at the mind created skin tight T-shirt and panties she was wearing under the real clothes and concentrated. A dull headache started, then her skin rippled for just a second. She was now looking down at a black double-strapped leather halter top and tight black leather pants, which were tucked into ankle-high black moccasins. Abbey let out a squeal of delight.

“Wow! Now that is mega cool, and no matter what Zoe says about my slang convo, that really is mega cool!”

She swallowed a couple of painkillers to help with the headache then left the backpack under the rock and climbed back on top. Holding the bar of chocolate in her teeth, she raised her arms to the sky like some storm-worshipping savage and stood in the wind and rain. It felt wonderful, and she knew without the so-called real clothing that she would stay warm and dry no matter what the elements did.

At first it was a feeling of being able to see in all directions at the same time that filled her mind, but then it changed to a voice in her mind commanding her to turn. When she did, the bar of chocolate dropped from her teeth, as a man was standing just ten feet away and pointing a gun at her.

An icy chill ran through her body as she looked at the face of this gunman. Burnt and scarred as it was, she still recognized it as belonging to the man that had tried to rape her after the party.

As the memory of the attack came flooding back all she could think to say was,

“How did you find me?”

He smiled.

“Well, freak, if you are going to steal a phone, perhaps you should not use it on numbers that can be traced. And don’t look so worried! Your virtue is quite safe today. All I am going to do is kill you!”

At gunpoint, he forced her to move backwards, ever nearer to the cliff’s edge, but he always kept a good distance away from her so that she could not think of anything to do. Her Hair did not move; how it could see always puzzled her, but she could feel it like a pent-up spring just waiting for its chance to strike.

She did not know what she could do. She knew she was getting too close to the edge, and she could not control the panic welling up inside her. All her fighting skills vanished amidst the uncontrollable panic. The Hair was her only weapon, but the gap between her and her adversary was too great, while the gap between her and the edge of the cliff was too small. The combination robbed her of any ability to think. Taking a quick look behind, all she could see was empty space and the sea far below; her body along with her mind froze, as both were paralyzed with fear. She let out a scream as he fired the gun. The bullet struck the ground harmlessly near her feet, but it was enough to make her take an involuntary step back into thin air and start falling.

Pain shot through her body as her falling stopped abruptly and wrenchingly. She opened her eyes and saw that she was dangling just a few feet under the edge by Hair that, on a normal girl, should do nothing more adventurous than just hang down her back looking pretty. Her Hair had wrapped itself around every rock or stone it could reach; many of these just could not take the weight and were now dropping painfully on her, so the Hair was constantly trying to find new places to attach itself to.

Abbey looked up past her Hair to see her nemesis looking down on her from only a few feet above, but she was still helpless as she had no hand or foot holds and her Hair was still fully occupied with stopping her falling. He pointed the gun down and directly at her head. Panic gripped her again, but this time it did not last, and her mind was suddenly clear and sharp as an inner voice in her head said,

“TRUST US!”

But to itself, the Companion was thinking, “Not again! Just what is it with guns, cliffs, and death by drowning with this Host?”

At that point, the Hair suddenly released its grip on the cliff face and wrapped as many of its strands as it could around one of the legs situated just above it before gravity noticed or could explain the true meaning of falling. When gravity did notice that nothing was holding Abbey up, it gave a sudden pull that meant it had an extra body to play with, and both of them fell into the sea far below.

The shock of the impact of falling into water from a height is much greater than most people realize; just ask any protester hit by a police water cannon! Just because water is liquid doesn’t mean it is always soft.

Thoughts on being a Mermaid

Deep under the water, Abbey opened her eyes. Instead of panic, she felt calm, and in her mind the thought “SAFE” arrived. She looked around.

“Okay, Tom was right. I am a fish!” k'12

Bubbles coming from both sides of her neck made her touch the area to feel what she could only think of as gills; her mouth and nose were sealed, and a transparent membrane covered her eyes.

She looked down at her body.

“I’m naked again! Companion, you are a pervert! This is so not fair! If I am a mermaid, I should have a seashell bra and seaweed covering my private parts!

She quickly formed a thought that created a swimming costume for herself.

“So what if only fish can see me? A girl can still be modest, can’t she?”

She then studied her body some more to see that she had webbed fingers and extended skin on her feet, making them more like flippers than feet. She did not know how she could breathe, but obviously she could, so she decided that it was best not to worry about it. With no feelings of fear or surprise - which in itself would have seemed unusual if she had thought about it - she was able to play and explore this wonderful new world around her.

After a while she grew tired and hungry and swam down to the ocean floor to rest, but when she got there her energy returned as she saw a line of lobster pots and decided, just for fun, to free their contents. She broke a camera that was attached to the end of a line so it could not spy on her. In the excitement of swimming, she had stopped concentrating, so the swimming costume had vanished, which meant she was quite naked again. Nevertheless, she went about trying to set them free. It turned out to be harder than expected, as most refused to be rescued, but eventually she was able to set three of the ex-prisoners down in front of her. As she leaned forward to watch them in more detail, one after the other they shot up towards her, at far more speed than should be possible for something with just legs, and then fell back again as empty shells! “Ohmigod, Hair! That’s gross! Cooked with a sauce is okay, Hair, but raw! Yuck!”

Back to Normal?

She decided that making her way back to dry land would be a good idea; if she thought about the way her Hair had eaten the lobsters any more, she thought she might be sick. So she headed up to the surface instead. The currents must have been stronger than she thought, as it was now a long swim to get back to the coast, but she discovered that the Hair could act as a second pair of arms, so she soon saw a rocky beach in front of her as she bobbed up and down in the waves. Abbey concentrated for a few moments and then slowly walked out of the sea. A dull day greeted her, but at least the storm had passed. If anyone had been looking, all they would have seen was a girl in a black wetsuit leave the sea, go behind some rocks to change, and come out wearing black spandex shorts and a dark blue top, then leave the beach and head towards the cliffs.

Abbey arrived at the outcrop of rock she’d sheltered under in the morning, found her backpack, and pulled on the damp clothes she had left inside. No trace of the struggles she’d been through this morning were visible, apart from a half-eaten bar of chocolate, which her Hair lassoed and ate. Could the Guy have survived the fall? She did not know, but it would not matter; her Hair had dragged him down, too, so hopefully he should have drowned. She vowed to be more careful from now on.

Caught on Camera

The Captain was staring at the monitors covering the various lines of lobster pots, which they had laid down yesterday. Monitor 7 was dead and showed no image, which in itself was not particularly odd as the special submarine mini-cameras were always failing. “Designed for the roughest sea environment” the manufacturers claimed, but every trip the batteries failed or the cameras were eaten by some short-sighted fish, so it was nothing unusual to find a dead monitor. And of course, he had been working very hard over the past few days; they say too much coffee is not a good substitute for a good night’s sleep. So that is what it was: too much coffee and not enough sleep. He was glad that was sorted out. Well, he could hardly tell the crew he had watched a young and very naked girl—perhaps it was a mermaid playing with the lobster pots at the bottom of the ocean floor—who had shamelessly moved right in front of the camera and given him the finger!

Fighting Barbie!

As nicknames go, it was not that bad, and it was really her own fault. They now called her Ino, just because of her Hair and the fighting. The nerds had started it, as they watched Japanese cartoons with subtitles, then it reached the ninja jocks, who one day presented her with a T-shirt after a match that had the image of Ino with the wording, “I Don’t Just Fight Like Ino” on the front and “I Am Ino” on the back . After that stormy day and the reason she had fallen from the cliff, Abbey had doubled all her efforts with the fighting, pouring far more energy into it than ever before; anytime someone came at her, she just imagined them holding a gun. The Coach, who now also called her Ino, had warned her not to get too carried away—it was still against school rules to kill opponents from other school teams, even if they were twice her size and called her “Barbie doll!”

It took a whole term to rope Zoe onto the martial arts fighting team, and it was the fancy-dress party that finally did it. Jilly and Sue, the other two girls on Abbey’s team, suggested a group theme: to go to the party as the Naruto Girls from the cartoon strip. They said it would be a perfect idea for Abbey, as she did not need to dress up! All she needed to wear was a short skirt over cycle shorts. It even forced her to buy real cycling shorts, which was such a waste of money, but she had to have something that could go into the wash. With Zoe it was the usual story of her wanting to get closer to boys (the ninja jocks were on her current crush list), but she had to promise to turn up to fight practice to be able to come along to the party. She did look good, as she wore a wig dyed pink to look like a character called Sakura.

Once Zoe got involved, it was even more fun, as Abbey didn’t like leaving her best friend out. Zoe thought the training program was a perfect way to keep slim. It had the added advantage of being able to literally throw herself at boys - then burst into tears if they looked as if they might hurt her! Coach Jed said it was a very unorthodox way to fight but was not against any rules and she had won two away rounds doing it her way - but if she did it again, he would really give her something to cry about! Zoe also liked the idea that other girls were jealous of her hanging out with the ninja jocks. Besides, no one ever picked on any kid in the ninja jocks group apart from other ninja jocks. Then it could turn very nasty, so she stayed well away from Sue, who was a large girl, and everyone including the boys stayed away from the small and permanently foul-tempered Asian girl called Jilly.

It was only on the rare nights when Abbey could train on her own that she could use extra parts of her body: when she could practice with her Hair as an extra limb to hit with or to hold onto things to give her better balance. All she had to do was remember not to do it in company. The Hair enjoyed it, and she was sure it took part in the tournaments with her against her wishes. Well, with her Hair it could be no accident to spin around and flick someone in the eye—three times in a single match. She had been told to tie it up or be disqualified.

Facing her Fears

Abbey had so been looking forward to summer. It was a nice sunny day during the summer recess, and today she was going to grow up! She could not stay a girl forever, so today she would risk it all. For a week now, she had let some boys show her how to use her body in the best way to get it to do what they wanted. They first took her to a test wall, but that was too easy, so they tied her up with ropes and tested how flexible she was in her mind as well as body. Cold sweat ran down her back as they forced her to walk backwards towards the edge and the long drop below. She placed her heels over the edge, staring directly at her “tormentors.” She could not move a single muscle as she pivoted, balanced on the very edge over a drop that could so easily kill her.

A bird shrieked above as she held onto the rope in front of her. Pulling it at an angle that she had so little faith in, all she could remember was that it had to be at the correct angle, but she couldn’t remember what the angle was. The other ropes were let out, and she slowly, so very slowly, went backwards over the edge! Standing at 90° to the world, she was now looking directly up at the sky and at a single seagull circling in search of food. As long as she stared into the sky, she did not have to think about what was below her. Today she would get over her fear of heights and cliffs or die trying! She moved one foot behind her followed by the other so that she was walking very slowly backwards down the cliff. After what felt like days, she was standing at the bottom of the cliff, and her whole body was shaking. A pull on the ropes warned her that it was not over yet, so she placed a foot on to the rock face in front of her and fell backwards, letting the ropes hold her in place as she climbed back up the cliff face, one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other, until she was pulled to safety at the top, where she burst into tears of relief and release and joy. She had done it! She had overcome her fear of the cliffs! She hugged and kissed them all—then went around and kissed each one again! She then spent the rest of the day watching them climb the cliffs with a warm feeling inside her as she sat on the edge dangling her legs over, no longer afraid.

Practice Makes Perfect

The next day she went off for a long walk to a deserted section of beach and cliff well away from any roads. To her climbing friends, this bit of cliff would be no fun; it was too far to walk for such a rubbishy easy climb, but it was fantastic for her as the lack of onlookers meant she could do all sorts of things she could not do in company. To start with, she laid a towel out and sat on it before opening her packed lunch—three Jell-O sandwiches, two bars of chocolate, two cans of Coke, and an apple, which Mom insisted she take and eat for health reasons and even her hair refused to touch.

After a quick snack, she took off her jeans and sweatshirt and stood in mind-made tight shorts and top. She wore no elbow or kneepads or special boots. She went up to the cliff wall, grabbed hold of a chunk of rock, and pulled herself up. Abbey no longer had a fear of heights - or rather, depths. Heights were fine - it was the depths that could kill you. She could climb like a spider. The Hair formed itself into groups of strands to grab onto any surface it could reach and helped her climb. She knew how painful it would be to just hang just from the Hair alone, but the extra grip and support it gave made the climb so simple. At the top, she walked along a bit further and then descended in the same way back down to the beach and walked back to her makeshift picnic. The Hair had worked very hard this morning, so she opened a bar of chocolate while taking a bite out of the apple. She broke it up into manageable pieces and fed it to the Hair as she finished off the apple.

Over the next few days, whenever she could, she would test out her new skills on a different rock face until she got bored with it; it had in fact become too easy to do, though it was difficult to find good places to climb away from prying eyes. Now, a bit more shopping therapy with Zoe was far more important.

Between rocks and tangled webs

Time moved on, as is the nature of time. Now, the rock face she was looking at was in a different league from the ones she was used to. It was not the sort of rock face she ever fancied climbing; any lump of rock that rose upwards out of her field vision was a lump of rock that was way too big for its own good, so Abbey sat on a small rock of a size that knew its place in the world and stared instead at a little box she had in her hands. Then, putting it back in a pocket, she now looked around at the wilderness and at Zoe slowly making her way towards where she sat.

“So, how are the boys?”

she asked as Zoe sat down by her.

“James is okay, well, as okay as you can be when you are a total dick with a broken arm and a damaged ego, but I am worried about Billy. His head is still bleeding, and I am not sure if wanting to keep going to sleep is a good or bad sign.”

Abbey looked over at the bent remains of the sand buggy.

“What about our transport?”

Zoe sighed.

“James says the buggy is a dead heap of metal—but with extra swear words added. And to make things worse, the bastard told everyone we were going down to the lake for a skinny dip, so don’t expect anyone to think of looking for us up here.”

A thought formed in Abbey mind. When did Zoe grow up? She was no longer the silly girl she had once played with. She was taking control of the situation, whereas Abbey felt so helpless. Just then, to prove her wrong, Zoe put her head in her hands and softly began to cry.

“Abbey, I’m so worried about Billy! He needs to go to a hospital. We have to do something—and very soon—or he may die,” she said.

Abbey put her arm around her then pulled a bar of chocolate out of her pocket and handed it to Zoe.

“I don’t know what we can do apart from wait. We are miles from anywhere. Just look.”

Abbey then pulled a slim box from another pocket and held it up. It was a GPS unit.

“You know how I like gadgets? Well, I borrowed this from Will before we left. Phones are less than useless at this range, but this little toy picks up from satellites, and it agrees with me that we are miles from any help. It really doesn’t help having that damn mountain between us and the town: no wonder our cell phones are useless. If it wasn’t for that big lump of rock, we would be only a few miles from help, but as it is, there’s nothing we can do but just sit and wait. They will need to send a helicopter to find where we are!”

Zoe looked straight at Abbey.

“Okay, so what are you going to do, Abbey? Not we , but you. James is laid up, Billy is probably dying, and I am so useless I can’t even make a bandage for his head. The best help I can be is just to hold his hand and watch him die. But you, you are different; you are so special, Abbey. You can do anything you set your mind to. Look, you don’t even have a mark on you from an accident that nearly killed the rest of us! So what are you going to do?”

Abbey had not seen Zoe like this before and could only sputter her words.

“Me? What can I do? I am as helpless as you: just a useless girl, as the boys would say.”

Even with the sun behind her, Abbey could see the look on her face as Zoe stood up and then slapped her hard across the face.

“Stop treating me like a fool, Abbey. I need your help, so no more lying please. Not now: we all need your special help.”

Abbey felt her cheek and slowly said, “What do you mean? I haven’t lied to you; I’m no different than you. What was that for?”

Zoe’s second slap had real power behind it, and it knocked Abbey to the ground.

“I said, don’t lie! All this martial arts practice rubbish was your idea, so perhaps this is the only way you can understand me?”

Abbey stayed down on the ground. She had never seen Zoe so angry before, and she certainly did not want to fight with her, so she remained where she was and said nothing. Zoe ripped the paper off the chocolate bar Abbey had just given her, crushed the wrapper into a ball, and threw it at Abbey.

“So? Nothing to say? Just hand me a chocolate bar and everything in life is okay, huh? No reason for our Abbey to do anything, huh? Do you think I’m blind, or stupid? Does our friendship mean so little to you? If I have to make it clearer, I can. Oh, yes! I can make it a lot clearer for you. We have been friends since we were kids, and I have let you keep your little secrets all through, but no longer! How many sleepovers have we had at each other’s homes over the years? How many times have we slept next to each other? Don’t try to work it out! It must be hundreds! You say you are my friend, yet you have never even trusted me! I have never asked for help before, but now, when I do, you just shut me out with, ‘I’m only a girl, what can I do?’ Sh*t! Who do you think you are talking to? Some stupid boy who would swallow that sort of sexist trash? Don’t you dare treat me this way, not anymore! And perhaps you are not as bright as you think you are! If you were, you might have wondered if your hair also sleeps at night when you do!”

Abbey’s bewilderment changed to shock, and as she listened to Zoe’s tirade, she felt large tears roll down the cheeks Zoe had so recently slapped. Zoe broke pieces of chocolate from the bar, made a double clicking noise with her tongue as if to a horse, and threw the pieces towards Abbey’s head, where they were quickly snatched out of the air by dozens of blonde strands.

“The first time I found out, I nearly wet myself,”

Zoe continued.

“I was eating a bar of chocolate while you slept—which is the only way someone can safely eat it around you - when you lightly touched me on the shoulder, which I ignored. Then you pinched me, so I passed a piece over my shoulder to you, then another, and another, until I looked at our reflection in the bedroom mirror at what I was feeding! I would have screamed if your hair hadn’t looked so funny trying to get the silver foil off the last piece I gave it! After that, on other nights when I couldn’t sleep, I used to give it a piece of chocolate, and it would massage my forehead until I fell asleep.”

Zoe’s stream of words came to an end.

Abbey lowered her head, as she could no longer look at Zoe.

“I’m so sorry, Zoe, but I didn’t want you to know I’m such a freak! I only wanted to be normal, but I’m a monster! Probably a nasty failed experiment! I don’t even know what I am. I haven’t told anyone about being so different, not even Mom or Tom. I just wanted to be a normal girl. I didn’t want to frighten you away. I’m sorry, so sorry. You are my only real friend. I can’t lose you. Please forgive me!”

Zoe knelt down on the ground with her friend and put her arms around Abbey’s shoulders as Abbey’s body shook with loud sobs. Zoe wiped her own tears away and then wiped Abbey’s tears as well with her hand. She pulled Abbey’s head in to touch hers, forehead touching forehead.

“You are no monster, so don’t shut me out anymore. I’m your friend for as long as you want, but friends must trust each other.”

Then with a laugh, she said,

“Oh yes, I think your hair also likes me, but then it should after all the chocolate I’ve fed it over the years!”

They helped each other up, and Abbey looked at Zoe. She had been pretty lucky in the accident, but she still had bruised arms and little cuts on her face. Then she looked down at her own unmarked body; yes, it was obvious that she was different. She could do something. Zoe was right, and she felt ashamed and embarrassed. If anyone could have done something, it was she. Monster or not, she had capabilities that others did not.

Abbey took a couple of deep breaths and turned back to Zoe.

“You are right! I have lots to tell you, and I will, but first I need to go and get us some help. That mountain is really nothing more than a large cliff, and you wouldn’t believe how good I am at climbing these days!”

Abbey rubbed her jaw.

“You stay with the boys, and if James is a problem, just hit him the way you hit me! You have a very powerful swing! Coach should move you up a level. Let’s see how Billy is doing, then I will tell you what I have as a plan.”

Again, well away from the boys, Zoe looked deep into Abbey’s eyes as her friend explained her plan.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Having removed most of her clothing, Abbey stood up just wearing her shorts and a top.

“Oh, yes, quite sure. One thing I know for certain that I am good at these days is climbing.”

She looped some rope they had found in the back of the buggy over her shoulders so that it would not get in her way as she climbed.

Zoe gave her a hug and said, “Take care.”

As Abbey turned, Zoe pulled her back and hugged her again, holding on longer this time.

“I mean it; be very careful. We have a lot to talk about when you get back.”

Then she turned and walked away.

Self-reliance

Abbey turned to the rock face, grabbed hold of the nearest rock as a first handhold, and pulled herself up. Yes, she was good at climbing, as she had told Zoe. With her special abilities, she had not yet found anything she could not climb. The GPS showed that the fastest way to reach the town was in a straight line; in fact, as the crow flies, it was only about five miles in that direction.

It had been fine for her to show Zoe the GPS, but she did not really need it. Her own sense of direction told her everything she needed to know. The only problem was that someone had placed a damn great mountain in the way! She knew that it was going to get dark long before she even reached the top; she had no worries about getting cold, and hopefully she was right about a full moon tonight. Good as she was at climbing, she did not like the idea of climbing in the dark; night climbing had extra things to think about - like getting lost, falling, and dying.

Made it!

They had been booked into a large hotel by the tournament committee, and Abbey had moved their suitcases up from the holding room near the lobby. This should have been done when they first arrived, but for some reason the luggage had been on another bus that hadn’t reached the hotel until sometime later. Then James and Sammy, boys from the local school team, had invited them out for a drive, and, well, it had seemed like a good idea at the time. They had nothing to do until the next day, and it would have been fun if James hadn’t acted like a fool with his showing-off that had almost killed them all.

As she had the longitude and latitude from the GPS of where the accident had occurred, the cops had been able to send a Jeep with a doctor as soon as she got within phone range. They even sent a vehicle to pick her up, and the Coach came with it! He tried to find out how she had gotten to where she was, but she told him that she was in such a daze after the accident she didn’t really know; she had walked and climbed following the GPS and just kept trying to call 911 on the phone until she was in range. Then she fell asleep on his shoulder, so the questions stopped.

The climb had been hell, and Abbey never wanted to see another rock face again. She had been lucky with the full moon and a cloudless sky, though strangely she could kind of see without looking, as her Hair could somehow see or feel its way. It was bitterly cold, but that was not a problem for her. She had even hummed, “the cold never bothered me, anyway” from a Disney movie. What no one had warned her about, including the Companion, was the wind; it had made her climb into a personal battle with the way it wanted to rip her fingers off the rocks she clung to and tried to toss her back to the ground below.

How stupid she had been to ever think her puny cliff climbs would have prepared her for anything like the real thing! To try something like that without even the most basic of equipment! Well, she was lucky she was still alive. Every muscle in her body ached, as did her hands and feet, which would have been ripped to pieces if her fingers and toes had not had skin as tough as leather covering them. As it was, her fingers were bleeding—and it was the first time she could remember seeing her own blood. Her back and head had also taken a beating; her head was the worst because of the help from the Hair. Her scalp was so sore it had given her a pounding headache, and the painkillers she had been given by her rescuers just changed the color of the flashing lights she could see without removing the pain.

Aftermath of Adventure

Apparently, the cops got most of what they wanted to know from James and Zoe, but they were still going to speak to her sometime later. She then had to phone Mom and stop her from driving over by saying that she was perfectly okay and would not even leave the hotel without the Coach’s permission. From the look on Coach Jed’s face after he had spoken with Mom, she would be very lucky to be even allowed to go to the restroom without a signed note from him first.

When they had reached the hotel, it was early evening; the sleep she’d had on the way back had taken care of the headache, and finding out that Zoe and the boys had been picked up safely made her feel a lot better. Billy had been taken to the hospital, and they said her prompt action to get help had saved his life. Zoe was right; James did have a broken arm, but he was going to suffer far more pain from his own Coach in the future over the past day’s events. As for herself, she still felt upset and guilty about Zoe having to force her to help, and a lump came to her throat as she knew that she had lost her friendship. Zoe had known all along but had kept all her secrets to herself as only a true friend would—and now she had lost her.

Zoe came out of the shower and pulled on a large T-shirt, which was what she always liked to sleep in, then flopped down on one of the single beds and exhaled loudly.

“So, it looks like we’re sharing a room again.”

Abbey looked over from the other bed. “Sorry, but we are the only girls and...”

Zoe cut her off.

“Don’t be silly. I wasn’t meaning anything: just that fate means us to stay friends. So come over to my bed so that we can talk without having to shout across the room.”

Abbey had also changed for sleeping; with company, she liked light cotton pajamas. As she walked over, Zoe got in her bed and then pulled back the sheets, beckoning Abbey to get in with her.

“It’s okay. I have a bar of chocolate if either you or your hair gets hungry! Now you are going to tell me everything, and I mean everything, right up to that spider girl act you did yesterday.”

Telling it all

Abbey started at the beginning and told it all. Once she started, she found she couldn’t stop. It all came tumbling out: her fears of being found out along with the fears of not even knowing why she was the way she was; the way her skin could be controlled to the way her Hair couldn’t; the rapist and the swim in the ocean, which had been so exciting but which she had never tried again for fear that it might not work a second time; the odd nightmares she had had over the years; strange images of explosions and an older woman, perhaps her mother, getting out of a car with two men and being shot by one of them; dreams of falling; and the feeling of being a freak of nature. She had seen enough TV to fear what would happen to her if the government ever found out about her. It felt so good to be able to tell someone. Tears ran uncontrollably down her face as she told Zoe everything; she left nothing out, not even her deep-down fear of being some sort of monster, and how her, Zoe’s, love and friendship had helped to make her feel a little more human.

Zoe held her tight and stroked her Hair, feeling it curl around her fingers. As it stroked her hand in return, the thought occurred to her that if it had been a cat, it would have been purring, and then it even gave her a playful nip then stroked her cheek to say it was sorry.

“You are no monster; in fact, you are very lucky. What you have is a wonderful gift. If you are a freak, then I wish I were also a freak. You silly girl! You should have shared this with me years ago. I could have helped.”

She kissed Abbey’s tear-stained cheeks.

“I said we no longer hide things from each other, okay?’

Consequences

And then she kissed her full on the lips. Abbey tried to say something, but as soon as she opened her mouth, Zoe’s tongue filled it. Abbey then tried to push her away, but something strange happened: in her mind she heard the words,

This is good, this is normal, enjoy it ,
and then her body just melted into Zoe’s arms.

The Companion knew it was just a normal stage in human animal development. It should let its Host explore this side of its nature, but yesterday had proven it was a mistake to allow too much uncontrolled freedom. There was no real need for the Host to have male-female sexual contact at the moment, but it also knew that the chemicals the Host’s body was producing were strong and were affecting her mind. This type of animal needed to bond at times: normally male to female or with the same sex if reproduction was not needed.

As for Zoe, the Companion had even less control of her emotions and physical needs. True, it had been making small changes, as she was needed for the Companion’s future plans. Her physical needs were very strong, so the best the Companion could do was to channel them into a more beneficial direction. She was going to be a handmaiden to the Host, so it could not allow her to follow the normal sexual needs of her development as that could lead to her distancing herself from the Host. Instead, it would use the hormones that were currently swamping her brain for a better purpose and also to create a stronger bond between Host and handmaid.

It was early in the morning when Abbey opened her eyes. She was naked and on top of the bed with her arms and Hair around Zoe’s also naked body.

Zoe opened her eyes and said, “Morning, monster.”

Then she kissed her.

Abbey felt her body react with such pleasure that all she could think of was to kiss her back again and again. As Zoe’s hands slowly explored her body more intimately, she let out a soft moan of delight.

It was nearly 9 o’clock when they awoke again. This time it was the telephone that woke them. Coach Jed wanted to see them.

Zoestood up, stretched, then pulled Abbey up off the bed and said,

“Let’s shower together. You never know where soap can go!” and giggled.

“If we’re lucky!”

And More Consequences

The meeting with the Coach was one long lecture, and the punishment was that they were not allowed to take part in any of the tournaments or even watch them. Instead, they were to stay in their room until they left tomorrow, and meals would be sent up to them.

Upon leaving the Coach, Zoe turned to Abbey.

“Wow! What a nice punishment from old Coach Dread! Come on! I’ll race you back to our room!”

When they got back to the room, Zoe grabbed the phone and called room service.

“Well, that’s breakfast ordered, and the good news is that I have also ordered a whole jar of chocolate spread for our toast, so that should keep all three of us happy!”

After breakfast, Zoe put the trays outside the door and hung a Do Not Disturb sign on the handle. Carefully locking the door, she turned back to Abbey and started undoing the buttons on her blouse as she walked over to where Abbey sat on the bed.

“Well, we have all day. Whatever can we do to pass the time?”

Abbey stood up.

“Um, look, I think we should talk about last night. This is all happening far too fast. Um… er… look, I like boys… um… I’m not a… er… lesbo…”

Zoe laughed.

“I should hope not! I like boys, too! And do you mean just last night, or shall we also talk about this morning as well?”

With that, she reached out and brushed the Hair away from Abbey’s face; the Hair then arose like a curtain and wrapped itself around Zoe and pulled the two girls closer. They slowly kissed. As soon as their lips touched, Abbey’s senses all tingled, and she knew that this was no time for talk; her body’s needs could not be controlled any longer. The pants and tight polo-necked sweater she had on turned back into naked flesh, while her Hair pulled Zoe’s shirt off and was now working on her bra strap, while Zoe removed the rest herself.

It was dark. Abbey got up, went over to the window, and shut the blinds. She then turned the lights on, which woke Zoe.

She slowly opened her eyes and said,

“Hi, monster! Oh boy, am I hungry! It’s your turn to order the food, babe.”

“Okay,” said Abbey, “but I think we should tidy up first. It looks as if a bomb has hit the place. Oh, and perhaps you should put on a bathrobe?”

Then a thought made her laugh.

“Well, at least until after the food arrives.”

Abbey just knew that her stomach would start making odd noises if she didn’t get some food soon. Breakfast had been a long time ago, and as she looked through the room-service menu she wondered if it would look bad to order everything on the list but with extra fries.

Zoe came out of the bathroom. She was now wearing a bathrobe, but it was undone, which made her look far more naked than before. Abbey looked back to the menu but then felt her Hair rise. She saw Zoe holding the empty pot of chocolate spread from this morning and licking her fingers and then rubbing them on the inside of the jar.

“That tickles!”

she giggled as she held her fingers out for the Hair to lick clean.

“Will you two stop that!”

said Abbey, shaking her Hair to try and get it to release the grip it had on Zoe’s fingers, which it refused to do.

“Look, go and get a room together or something, and leave me to order some food!”

Zoe moved closer, and as she did the Hair wrapped itself around her as if caressing her.

“Oho! I’m sorry. Are we making you jealous?”

She kissed one of her now-clean fingers and ran it from Abbey’s lips slowly down her body, stopping at her panties, and giggled.

“Wow! Now who has the magic touch?”

Abbey glanced down to see her panties dissolve back to naked skin where Zoe touched her. She gave a sigh and lifted Zoe’s hand up to her lips to kiss it.

“Please, go get me a bathrobe as well, as I will never be able to concentrate enough to order the food with you so close.”

Zoe went back towards the bathroom.

“You do know that every girl in the world would kill for your ability to create instant underwear, let alone a whole new summer wardrobe just by thinking about it.”

Abbey picked up the phone.

“Its only underwear and tight-fitting clothes that I can do, and I can’t even feel them on, so it also comes complete with the fear that every time you bend over in a short skirt, the short skirt is all you have on! Now let me order food, or I will have to eat you!”

As Abbey dialed room service, she could hear a voice from the bathroom.

“Oh, yes! Yes, please! It will be just like last night all over again, but let’s order the food first!”

Next Day

The next morning they were late. Coach Jed had phoned them and told them to get ready to leave. That was an hour ago. They had gotten up on time, but one thing had led to another and now they were late—and not just late, but very late,

“Look! The bus is leaving! Just throw everything in the cases. We can sort it out when we get home. Now hurry!”

Abbey was hopping around trying to pull on a pair of jeans on.

“And I’m borrowing one of your T-shirts. You keep melting mine, and I don’t have any real ones with me!”

When they reached the buses, everyone was on board waiting for them, and the driver was standing by an open hatch waiting for their cases. The Coach just growled.

“Get on!” he said and pointed to a pair of seats.

“And sit right there, where I can keep an eye on both of you!”

The journey back was peaceful as they decided to keep quiet and just text each other so that Coach would not hear what they were saying. Abbey then passed an earpiece to Zoe along with her phone and watched her eyes light up as she watched the cartoon character Ino kiss Sakura on the screen and a music clip played.

I wake up in the morning put on my face… I’m naked around you
does it show… you see right through me and I can’t hide…

Next?

A few weeks later, freedom came in the form of a Psychic Fair being held in town, and the need to check it out for a school project; there were endless amounts of rooms filled with boring tables full of boring tarot cards and crystal balls, but they were together at last. A $10 student-discounted palm reading told Zoe that she was going to find a good, handsome husband and have children. The woman showed more puzzled interested in Abbey’s hand and said it showed major changes in her life for someone so young—she then went silent and gave her the money back, saying she couldn’t see anything else.

Zoe found some gemstone earrings that would bring her good luck as they were her birthstone gems, and Abbey found a crystal that was said to help with relaxing.

A blind old fortune teller sitting in a little room on her own had kicked them out, saying she did not do mass readings on crowds of school kids! Zoe had said it must have been the Hair, as it had enough personality to make a crowd all on its own.

What they did not see, after they left, was that the old woman took a bottle out of a bag and, with shaking hands, took several gulps from it, and in a trembling voice muttered a prayer.

Sharing Love

They left the event early, partly out of boredom and partly because of the way Zoe was holding Abbey’s hand and using one of her fingers to make circles in her palm, which was sending chills down Abbey’s back. They both felt a growing need to be alone together.

Outside the halls, a group of Christian protesters had gathered to demonstrate against the devilish ways of those inside. One of the protesters had even tried to lay a hand on Abbey’s head - in God’s name - and Abbey had hit him hard! They then both ran off before anything else happened.

“No one touches my Hair without permission!”

Abbey panted after they stopped running.

Zoe looked back.

“I think he was only trying to bless you.”

Before Abbey could reply, Zoe grabbed a handful of Abbey’s Hair, pulled her nearer, and kissed her firmly on the lips.

“I hope that doesn’t mean me as well.”

Abbey kissed her in return, then grabbed her hand and dragged her down the street with a laugh.

“Anyone else doing that with my Hair would be missing several fingers by now, so it looks like it has given its own permission. Now, come on! We only have the afternoon to ourselves.”

After an expensive cab ride, they were back at Abbey’s home.

“Mom will be out until at least 6 o’clock.”

In Abbey’s room, Zoe was quickly pulled down on the bed, where they slowly kissed and hugged for several minutes. Zoe gave a squeal when Abbey started licking her ear.

“Umm! You taste better than chocolate!” Abbey whispered in her ear.

Zoe playfully pushed her away.

“Stop it! Don’t lie! Nothing will ever taste better than chocolate for you! And you’re making me all wet–and I’m only talking about my ear before you say anything else.”

Standing up, Zoe undid her jeans and pulled them off.

“Now don’t get excited! I only want to show you something.”

She pulled down the front of the panties then pulled them up again and sat back on the bed.

“Er? Nice waxing. Was it painful?” said Abbey. “When and where did you get it done?”

Looking straight at her, Zoe said, “I didn’t. No waxing, no shaving, or even a painful plucking. All my pubic hair has just vanished overnight along with the leg and underarm hair. I have spent hours on the web checking, and it is just not possible! There is not a single hair left anywhere apart from my head. They have all just - vanished! And don’t even think of suggesting I ask Mom. She would have me straight down to the family doctor, and there is no way I want him poking me about down there!”

Abbey sat further back on the bed with her back against wall. Zoe leaned up against her.

“I don’t know anything about pubic hair. I’ve never had any body hair, let alone pubic hair, to lose. Doc Donald says it’s genetic, I was born this way, and it’s nothing to worry about. I don’t think I can be contagious in any way, or Mom and Tom would have noticed years ago, and no way can you catch hair loss through what we do–or half the girls at school would be bald! Perhaps it will grow back?”

Zoe sighed as Abbey’s Hair slowly massaged her shoulders. She looked down to see buttons popping open on her blouse and golden strands working hard at the task.

“Hey, now! That is pervy! Is that you or just the Hair?”

Abbey softly laughed as the Hair moved under the blouse and over Zoe’s body, causing Zoe to giggle.

“Well, sometimes I can get it to do what it’s told, and with you it never needs much encouragement!”

“That tickles! Oh boy! Does that tickle! Oh, but… but nice… yes. Nice!” She could feel the familiar little nips from the Hair, like little love bites, which they always did when they were making love–but they never left a mark… “Okay, okay! Forget about the ear licking! I’m turned on! Oh god, yes, I am!”

Zoe turned slightly and put both arms around her lover, pulling her forward and kissed with all the pent-up passion that the weeks apart had created.

“I love you! Ohmigod, do I love you!”

The kisses between them became more adventurous in their locations, and the worries of being teenagers vanished into a world of passion.

That world that the girls shared was even more personal then either girl realized. If they had been discovered, nothing would have been said as nothing was visible. Whatever passion the girls were experiencing, all that would be seen by the outside world were two tired, fully dressed teenagers asleep on a bed after a busy day of shopping.

Serious fighting

It was Saturday, and with help from the sat nav, Abbey had driven Tom’s beat-up old car to the next town to attend a martial arts demonstration illegally and without her mom’s knowledge. They had reached the hall without a problem, but it was not located in the best of areas and had lots of odd characters hanging about, including what Zoe called a group-of-old-men-on-bikes–who looked more like Hell’s Angels to Abbey.

After the show, the girls found a store on the next street that sold plastic-sealed sandwiches and cans of Coke, which would have to act as lunch until they could find something better. Retracing their steps to where the car was parked, they ran into the bikers, who saw them, decided that a couple of girls would provide some entertainment, and started circling them.

One tried to pull Abbey to one side, so Zoe pulled her back and planted a smacking kiss on Abbey’s lips. She announced loudly,

“She is my girlfriend, so f*ck off, old man!”

This stopped the bikers for a moment, but as they walked away Zoe suddenly crumpled to the ground as she was struck by a thrown bottle. Abbey knelt down to see blood running down Zoe’s face as she tried to sit up. She looked pale with shock but was able to get to her feet.

“It’s okay, Abbs, mostly just some cuts and,” she reached up to touch her head, “… I’m going to have a whopper of a bruise to go with this pounding headache.”

Loud laughter reached their ears from the group of men coming back towards them. As Abbey looked down at the broken whiskey bottle lying on the ground, the Hair on her neck rose–and not just in a figurative sense–when she heard one of them utter a remark which made her see red.

“Good shot, Bill! I think you got a direct hit on one of them dikes!”

Abbey’s mind cleared and became as sharp as a knife as she took in the whole situation: the targets walking so foolishly her way.

She put Zoe behind her.

“Stay back, babe! I will sort this out!”

Zoe backed away.

“I’m okay, Abbs. Look, don’t do anything! There are too many!”

But she saw the look on Abbey’s face as she stood her ground. Even her voice sounded different: older and far more confident.

“I do so hope that was an accident and that you are now going to apologize to my girlfriend.”

Abbey waited for a reaction and then said, “If not, I am sorry to say you are about to meet your worst nightmare!”

And with that she shook her head so that the golden strands fell neatly around her head, kicked off her shoes, and faced them.

“This dike thinks she has balls! Go on, Joe! Take a look! If she hasn’t, she might like some of your dick instead!”

Joe was going to be first tonight with the fun. He thought,

“This little minx looks well old enough to bleed, so she was sure old enough to be butchered!”

Abbey stood relaxed. No fancy Kung Fu type stances were needed. Joe came right up to her then dropped to the ground at her feet. It was not a move Coach Jed would ever allow, but it was still effective; her knee got him in the groin. As he doubled up, his head was at a perfect level to receive a single punch that broke his nose. She stepped back a little, and as his hands went up to his face to feel the broken nose, she did a quick spin and landed a kick back in his groin area, which meant that as he hit the ground he lost all intention of getting back up any time soon.

She had now proved herself capable of defending herself, so it would be an insult to their male pride to stop, but they would be more careful.

“Yes, boys. He did have some balls, but now he needs some new ones!”

It was just enough of a taunt to tip them into unprepared group action, which was just what she wanted; group attackers had a high chance of hitting each other every time they made a move, whereas every one was a target for her. What gangs always forget is that only about three people can attack at the same time without hitting each other, and the more weapons they have, the more dangerous they are to each other.

Her anger was a cold anger that was still going to burn them, but in a different way; her mind was in tournament mode, but this time the tournament did not have rules, which made the game so much more fun to play. At her command, she could feel her skin ripple to harden her hands and feet, and she knew she was prepared to block any pain until afterwards. As for the Hair, she fired a mental thought to it.

“Enjoy yourself! No restrictions!”

It deserved to have some fun, too.

The first attacker to reach her met a slightly built blonde-haired girl who dropped down then sprang up and with a twist to the body spun around in the air to whip her Hair around to rake nearby faces with its razor-edged tips and surprisingly also remove a flick-knife from someone’s now-burnt fingers.

Overconfidence had been a bit of a mistake, she thought to herself. She had allowed one of the gang to get behind her; she had not seen him, but her alien senses were shouting at her to turn. In contrast, her own normal senses knew that if she took her eyes off this one in front of her, he would have her.

“Hair! Protect rear! I’ll cover front.”

She might not have been able to see behind her, but that had never stopped her Hair before; dozens of long slim-braided strands vanished from her forward vision as they twisted around to back up the rest of the head of Hair.

Pain burnt across her back and scalp for a brief second until she was able to block it with a thought, then she dropped the oncoming opponent with a single high kick to his head. Using the momentum to keep spinning around, she was ready to face the next. She almost fell when she saw two bodies lying on the ground, one still holding a blade the size of something between a large knife and a sword, and Zoe standing over the body, holding a three-foot long chunk of wood.

A quick glance around showed that the fight was now over and the ones still able to walk were gone.

Zoe dropped her chunk of wood and, looking down, said, “Right leg broken, left arm broken, and he will have one hell of a headache when he wakes up!”

Sharing of Powers

Going up to Abbey, she gave her a quick kiss on the lips, looked around, then gave her a sharp slap across the face.

“Take that as warning, my brave Ino! The next time you try and leave your Sakura out of a fight, she will be your worst nightmare!”

Abbey almost stepped back when she moved closer, but this time it was to kiss the cheek she’d just hit.

“My brave heroine! Stupid and such a show-off, but so brave! The Coach would have been so proud or you. Now, sit down let me take a look at your back. Good news! That horrible top your Mom got you is ruined, as it is all soaked in blood. I will give you one of mine, which will make you look far sexier!”

Abbey sat down, and Zoe said,

“Yes, as I thought, good and bad news. Apart from the ruined top and the blood, no cuts are visible, which would be very odd on a normal person, but apparently not for you. Now, brace yourself for the real bad news; your Hair is hurt and damaged.”

The Hair arose and spread itself over Abbey’s head so that she could see the damage for herself, while Zoe searched around on the ground and picked up five thin ponytails of Hair and carefully cradled them in her hands.

“You could say they died in battle, as they were trying to defend you against that guy I took out: the one who had the sword.”

Abbey had tears in her eyes thinking of the poor locks of Hair protecting her back. She turned to hide the tears as she picked up her shoes, and said they had better leave before anyone started showing interest in what had been happening. They hurried to where they had parked the car and locked the doors after they got in.

Abbey looked over to Zoe, who was still cradling the Hair, and said,

“I know you are the expert, but I think I should take a look at your head.”

Abbey poured some water onto a tissue and wiped the now-drying blood from her friend’s face and hair. Dozens of tissues later, Abbey was more or less happy with her work and got out a small mirror to show Zoe the results.

“Well, there you are, as beautiful as ever.”

As she held up the mirror, she added,

“Er, Zoe, will you promise to be calm if I tell you something?”

Zoe took the mirror from her and pushed her hair into a better shape.

“Okay. Go on.”

Abbey thought for a second.

“Well, I don’t know quite how can I put this, but apart from the blood, you don’t have a cut or bruise anywhere on your head!”

Zoe handed the mirror back, ran her fingers through her hair again, then said,

“Yes, odd isn’t it! Just like your back. Not a mark there. I had noticed earlier, and even better news is my acne has all cleared up as well. Let’s talk about it, but not now.”

She lifted up the Hair she had been cradling earlier and held it out.

“What are you going to do? Burial or cremation?”

And she tenderly kissed the strands of Hair goodbye before handing them over.

Abbey took them carefully from Zoe, and as soon as she did, she felt them move, which almost caused her to drop them. Before she could do or say anything else, lots of golden strands reached out from her head and took them from her.

Zoe was staring so hard that Abbey begged to know what was happening.

“Er, growing back, I think, but this is nothing like the biology they teach in school!”

Getting the mirror back out, Abbey tried to see how they fitted back, but they all looked as normal.

“Perhaps it’s like the way hair extensions work?”

Lots of strands now began stroking Zoe’s face.

“I think it wants to thank you, Zoe.”

Abbey laughed as her Hair intertwined itself through Zoe’s hair and pulled the two girls’ heads together until Zoe let out an “Ouch!” and tried pulling away, but the Hair had locked them together.

“Tell it to let go! It’s hurting me! Ouch!” cried Zoe.

Abbey was nose-to-nose with Zoe, so she gave a tug and sent out a command to release.

“Ow!” repeated Zoe. “Abbs, that is not helping! It is not romantic, nor is it funny, and all it is doing is giving me a headache! Now, please let go!”

“Sorry, Zoe, but it seems to be ignoring me! I will see if I can pull us apart.”

Abbey took her Hair in both hands and pulled.

“Ooow! No, no! Please, stop! That really, really hurts!”

Zoe pulled Abbey’s hands away from the Hair.

“Look, babe, if this is about the slap I gave you earlier, I’m sorry, and I won’t do it again. But this is not very comfortable! Now, please stop it!”

“I really don’t know what it is playing at,” said Abbey, “but I get a feeling that it wants us to kiss before it will let go. I know it sounds silly, but we can’t stay like this forever, so please give me a quick kiss, and let’s see if that’s what it wants.”

Zoe reluctantly gave Abbey a quick peck on the lips—or rather, that is what she intended—but as soon as their lips touched she lost all control. The kiss sent such ripples though her body that she almost fainted, and it left her gasping for air.

“What the hell was that! No kiss should be able to do that to a girl’s body. It felt, well, sort of, I don’t know, like, well, like being really turned on—and I mean really turned on! I am not saying that our kissing is not normally good and sexy, but that one was adult-rated!”

Abbey sat back in the driver’s seat as the Hair released them. With her eyes tightly closed, she said what she had sensed.

“The Hair hopes that this will make you happy—and before you ask, I do not have the faintest idea what it is talking about as it is does not use words as such but thoughts that I have to convert to words. But it has released us, so that is something. Not that it has left me in any fit state to drive; that explosive kiss didn’t just hit you!”

“No kiss should leave a girl needing to take a cold shower!”

Zoe also closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing down.

As soon as her heart was beating at a more normal rate, Abbey opened her eyes, looked over at Zoe, and said, “Oh, sh*t!”

Turning away, she got out her mirror and handed it to Zoe.

“Please don’t scream or drop the mirror! It’s bad luck to break it, and it’s the only one we have with us.”

Zoe stared into the small make-up mirror.

“When you are okay to drive, please see if you can find me a ladies’ washroom. While I’m there, I think I might change into something more comfortable, and maybe a little less damp, for the drive home.”

Taking Stock

An hour later they were sitting facing each other across a table. As a waitress took their order, she gave Zoe an odd but knowing glance when she made a remark to Abbey about having the chocolate pudding or chocolate milkshake or perhaps both because of her condition.

“How are you feeling?” asked Abbey.

“Oh, fine. I’m just glad I packed plenty of spare underwear,” replied Zoe.

Abbey passed her a packet of wet wipes and giggled.

“I find it best to keep a pack of these handy for use after drinking chocolate milkshakes. You do know the waitress now thinks you are pregnant with all that ‘in my condition’ talk; and stop looking at yourself in the mirror! No one will notice, and I think it looks fantastic: a positive fashion statement if ever I saw one!”

“Mom paid for extra biology tuition, you know,” answered Zoe,

“and as for the sex lessons we’ve had over the years, I’m sure I remember about getting pregnant and going to hell if you kiss a boy before marriage. But I must have missed the one about girls kissing other girls and changing hair style?”

Anyone watching would have seen two teenagers deep in conversation over milkshakes; both slim, the shorter one with long blonde Hair that hung loose down her back, who had just passed a packet to the taller girl with dark brown, shoulder-length hair who was putting a small mirror away.

Zoe began staring at her own reflection in the mirror on the wall opposite while she played with a small, neatly braided ponytail of Hair - one of two that framed either side of her face. The fingers on her left hand wound the braided Hair around and around as if she were lost in concentration; there was nothing odd or strange at all, unless it was the fashion you objected to. That said, as a brunette you could not braid first and then dye locks of your dark Hair a golden blonde color.

Acting Their Age

The next day was Sunday, and Abbey had walked over to Zoe’s, where Zoe’s Mother had given them a plate of cookies and a glass of milk each to take up to Zoe’s bedroom.

As soon as Zoe shut the door, she blurted out,

“Milk and cookies! She gives us milk and cookies to take up and go play in my bedroom!”

Abbey almost spilt the milk due to her uncontrollable laughter. Zoe gave her a cold stare, which forced her to put the milk and cookies down and bury her face in Zoe’s pillow to try and gain some control before she could speak.

“What on earth does she think two girls our age would do in a bedroom together!”

Then she buried her face again, still shaking with laughter as Zoe continued to give her an icy look.

“Okay, I get the picture,” said Zoe,

“and the answer is nothing, which is due to the noise you would make if we did do something! You haven’t asked yet, but I told Mom it was hair extensions, and she was pleased that we spent our money at the beauty parlor instead of buying oriental weapons. Dad says I look ‘cute’ and ‘real cool,’ which I expect means that to him I look like I’m nine and still play with my Barbie doll hair set. They are so embarrassing! Nobody ever says ‘cute’ and ‘cool’ in the same sentence!”

Zoe turned to Abbey.

“Well, apart from you, and we both know that you are really weird! Okay, also gorgeous, lovable, and sexy, but still weird, and now I’m weird as well!”

“Well, thank you for such compliments!”

Abbey wiped away the tears from all the laughing, smiled, and reached out to touch one of Zoe’s blonde locks of Hair.

It wound itself around her fingers in greeting, so she added,

“And how is our child getting on? I see you have been feeding it with chocolate. Well, wet wipes may not be the coolest things to use, but if you go to school with chocolate in your Hair, your street cred is really going to suffer.”

Zoe, who was still holding her plate of cookies, sat on the bed then slowly dropped her head back to rest on Abbey’s lap. She licked a chocolate cookie until the chocolate melted and rubbed her finger into the chocolate before popping the cookie into her mouth. As she chewed, she held her hand up to her face where one of the locks of golden Hair wrapped itself around the chocolate-covered finger for a few seconds. When it let go, the finger was clean.

“Okay, let’s talk,” said Zoe as she flicked crumbs off her top.

“Since falling in love with you, I have lost all my body hair below the head. I now have skin that repairs itself. And to make up for losing some of life’s little pleasures, such as waxing, I have now grown blonde Hair extensions with a chocolate addiction!”

Zoe raised her head and looked at Abbey.

“I can hear it in my mind, Abbs. Not words as such, but I know its thoughts when it tells me it loves me, and then it asks for more chocolate!”

Abbey pulled Zoe to her, and they hugged.

“I’m so sorry, babe. I’ve never told you, but I hear things all the time. You are lucky it is just the hair with you. I feel as if I am running my own personal online social group sometimes. My Hair moans all the time, but it has never, ever told me it loves me unless I have chocolate. It mostly complains and keeps repeating old stories about fighting sharks!”

Zoe pulled away from the hug, then she kissed Abbey very slowly until they both felt their Hair caress around them.

“You know when you read in magazines about women who love or hate their hair? Well, it’s just that I’ve never read of their Hair loving them back in return! So I guess I’m lucky!”

Zoe got up and touched a small remote, which sent music bouncing around the room.

“Anyway, let’s have some music to go with our milk and cookies!”

Abbey looked up as the sound filled the air.

“That’s BFS’s Melt With Me ! But you hate them!”

“I know!” said Zoe. “They are like so yesterday! Just see what I have to do for love! Now, I will lock the door, but you have to promise not to make too much noise if we are going to play together, like girls!” k12

Now For A Taste From Book Two

Of A bad Hair Day

Follow Abbey as she finds that getting older does not mean that life gets any easier.

A Bad Hair Day
Book 2

A Taste From

A bad Hair Day Book Two

School and the Art of War

The Coach had them all stay late, and Abbey thought that no one could have assembled an odder group of students if they had tried.

First was Sue. She was a large girl, but not in a fat way, as she was an ex-ice-hockey player who apparently had been thrown off the girl’s team for excess violence to other players, including those on her own team. In its infinite wisdom, the school had enrolled her in an anger-management course, which included martial arts training. She could now do things with a quarterstaff that ruled her out of ever being allowed to join a hockey team - or, in fact, any team sport. Abbey expected firearms training would be next on the anger-management list!

Next was Jilly Tan. She was Oriental and was even shorter than Abbey but made up for it by having a massive ego. She must had had a private trainer since she was born, and she was good at everything connected to fighting: not just good, but outstandingly good, and she knew it. If her father hadn’t had plans for her to take over the family business, she could have easily turned professional. Abbey couldn’t help but wonder what type of city finance business they had that required martial arts training.

Third, of course, was Zoe, the love of her life, who had only joined to be close to her. But she was getting better all the time, if you could call the love of using fighting batons or anything hard she could hit people with a character-building trait. Zoe looked soft and gentle but was a lot tougher than she looked. Only last week one of the football jocks had found out the hard way not to make fun of her locks of blonde Hair. He was over six feet tall and must have weighed over two hundred pounds. His first mistake was to make fun of Zoe just before her period, and his second was to forget to wear his cup. Abbey blamed Zoe’s mother; if she hadn’t insisted on all the extra biology lessons, she was sure Zoe wouldn’t have been able to bring the footballer to his knees with just one hand slipped gently inside his shorts.

The last in the quartet was, of course, herself, and she was far more of a misfit than any of the others: a freak, monster, or a genetic experiment. She didn’t know or, recently, even care. Zoe’s love helped keep her sane, and apart from worrying about her underwear dissolving whenever Zoe was close or making sure that her psychopathic Hair didn’t try and kill someone while she wasn’t looking, life was good.

Abbey looked again at the other three and thought they were less a “team” and more of a “soap opera!” Just then, the Coach returned. When she heard what he had planned, she mentally changed “soap opera” to “cartoon!” To help with her people skills, he had decided that Jilly Tan was going to spend time training them up before the next inter-school match.

All eyes looked at Jilly, and Abbey gave another amendment to the imaginary piece of paper, underlining cartoon but adding in parentheses “(not the Walt Disney sort)” but instead the Japanese type of cartoon that has a 15-rated warning for violence on it and lets the characters get killed off while there are still ten minutes left until the end. The words “Jilly” and “people skills” so did not go together that she wondered whether perhaps they could kill her while the Coach wasn’t looking if they all worked together?

Jilly stepped forward and produced a clipboard, which apparently had their names and details on it. She read aloud each of their skills and faults, but with greater emphasis on the faults, which was just another one of her aggravating habits. She was also very intelligent, and she knew it, too.

With the Coach still watching, she called them over to her one at a time to use their skills against her. Sue chose the quarterstaff and spun it with such force and speed that Abbey expected Jilly’s head to roll across the hall minus a body. However, the staff did not even reach her body; as it was still moving through the air, Jilly plucked it effortlessly out of Sue’s hands, leaving Sue instantly weaponless and Jilly now armed with a quarterstaff.

“Strength in fighting is a bonus, but without skill, it is useless,” remarked Jilly.

“You next, Zoe.”

Zoe grabbed two fighting batons, which were similar to the old sort of police baton - a format that could give the user two feet of extra reach with each arm. In the hands of someone like Zoe, they could cause the maximum level of pain with little risk of retaliation.

Jilly had armed herself with the same weapons, but the force of Zoe’s strikes had driven Jilly into a corner and made her drop one of the batons. Jilly then threw down her remaining baton in a huff and almost looked as if she were going to burst into tears! Zoe had won! Abbey saw a smile on her face as she looked in her direction, so what happened next came as a shock to both Abbey and Zoe.

Jilly stepped forward, grabbed both of Zoe’s baton tips and forced them back with such force that Zoe had to let go before her wrists snapped. Then a foot shot out and tripped Zoe so that she hit the floor hard. Before she could move, a baton was pressed down into her throat, stopping any thoughts of getting up.

“Force in an attack is good, mercy to an opponent can be good, but to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory is crass stupidity!”

Jilly then looked towards Abbey.

“She’s using our best skills back against us,” thought Abbey. “Bursting into tears was just the sort of ploy Zoe would have used to put off an opponent!”

Abbey faced her with her long blonde Hair loose and just her hands as weapons. Jilly undid her own hair, which was jet black, and also let it fall loose. Abbey stood relaxed.

“Okay, Jilly! Just try and duplicate me! This should be interesting, as even I don’t know fully what I can do!” she thought.

As Abbey stood in her relaxed stance, her mind was rushing out commands to various parts of her body. She warned the Hair to be on guard but to also be careful, as they were being watched.

Jilly performed a sudden spin, which forced Abbey out of her normal stance, and also flicked her with her black strands of hair, which had something attached to them. She felt the sting of the flesh being cut on her hands where the hair touched her skin.

Abbey spun herself out of range at the same time as Jilly vanished from her sight, and she lashed backwards with a reverse kick intended to surprise Jilly, who had somehow been able to get behind her. It would have taken out a normal opponent but had somehow missed Jilly and left Abbey slightly unbalanced. She hardened her hands, and with a move as fluid as water corrected her balance and sent in a shower of blows that should have given her something to think about - if only they had connected - but they only found empty air.

Knowing Jilly was again just behind her and this time slightly to her left, Abbey spun as she stooped down slightly to give extra power to a forward kick, but she was hit full force by Jilly’s hair, which had been flicked to meet her as she turned and was enough to blind her to the punch that landed very firmly on her solar plexus. She slumped to the ground and decided to stay down.

“The ability always to know where one’s opponent is during a fight will take you halfway to beating them; you just ruin the benefits that gives you with poor fighting skills and holding back. Not using your true abilities fully is just an insult to me, so we will fight again and again. I cannot improve if you do not use everything you have against me.”

She looked over to the Coach.

“With the Coach’s permission, the real training starts tomorrow night.”

Analysis

Unbeknownst to the girls, the Companion was very interested in this new girl. It liked the way the animal - again, another female - moved and reacted. She would make a perfect second handmaiden to the Host.

They were alone in one of the training rooms, and Zoe was mad.

“How dare she trick me like that! I really did have her, and that trick only made it look as if it was all planned. I’ll give her ‘crass stupidity,’ whatever ‘crass’ is supposed to mean! Can’t she even talk American?”

“Zoe! Your Hair!”

Abbey quickly checked that they were alone.

“It’s moving in time with your speech! Emphasizing your speech the same way your hands do!”

“Stop that, Capillus!”

Zoespoke out loud, and the two braids of golden Hair unbraided themselves and fell loosely to either side of her face.

“Sorry, Abbs. We both get carried away at times.”

“You call your Hair Capillus? Why?”

“Because that’s his name, silly! I really don’t know why you are always fighting with your Hair! You two should really get on better; it’s not as if you can ever leave each other!”

With that, she took out a mirror, held it in front of her face, and stared at her reflection. Lots of golden strands took the mirror out of her hands while she searched her bag for something; eventually, she took the mirror back from Capillus and showed him what she had taken from the bag: a small pack of chocolate drops, which she carefully opened and fed to Capillus.

After a couple of minutes, she said, “Oh, sorry! Where’re my manners?”

Then she popped one in Abbey’s mouth and offered the rest to Abbey’s Hair. It reminded Abbey of a frenzied piranha attack!

“Forget my Hair!” Abbey flicked it back in place. “So what are we going to do about that bitch, Jilly?”

Zoe passed a pair of batons to Abbey.

“What are we going to do? We are going to practice, babe! We are going to practice till perfect! I want to be ready for her next time!”

Abbey sighed. “Okay, but I am sure that this is just what the Coach wants us to do.”

To herself, she reflected, “Oh, well. We now have a normal relationship. Just like any normal relationship, it all starts off with hugs and kisses, and then you end up fighting!”

To be Continued

Other Books

By

Amy Mah

FANGS RULE
a girls guide to being a vampire …. is a for anyone between Puberty and Senility as it takes a close up look at life as a female teenage vampire in easy to follow A to Z advice for the reader, the book is also full of manga art which helps show the human world what life is like in a vampire world……….

Giving helpful advice such as how to explain to your Mom that as a teenage blood curdling denizen of the night you would like to paint your cave bedroom black without having a shouting match over why you don’t like the way she painted the stalagmites bright pink to go with the large stuffed pink bats hanging from the ceiling. Everything is explained from how to polish your fangs to fashion tips and ways of climbing across a ceiling wearing a nightdress without showing your underwear.

Fangs Rule is a must for every teenage vampire and from these pages you will see why Amy says “Vampires Don’t Sparkle! ….

Life as a teenager is normally a living hell but even more so when you have fangs.

The world is just out to get you, and not just by people trying to stake you because you have better teeth than they do!

VAMPIRE

This very funny vampire novel is very different from your normal vampire book and not just because it is bursting with full colour art fitted in with the text showing the life of a young vampire forced to walk about in a transparent nightdress all day without underwear because that is what female vampires are supposed to do! “The massacre on 22nd and 3rd was greatly exaggerated by the human newspapers and not altogether my fault. It was my very first hunting trip, and a girl should not be judged by her first bite night. And no one ever talks about me saving the life of that cat. Besides, most of them kind of killed themselves without any help from me...."

Books With Teeth Reviews: Vampire: By Amy Mah offers exactly what I was looking for in a Vampire novel. She creates a vampire society that lives just out of sight of humans but close enough to get a midnight snack...or take out if they feel like staying home! The story takes place around the life of Amy Mah a typical teenage girl in every way except for instead of painting her nails and worrying about shoes she polishes her Fangs and sharpens her claws both hand and foot! That of course does not sound typical at all but for Amy it is. Our teenage Vampire soon finds herself swept up in a world of social intrigue and ancient hierarchy as she enters the hidden world of the Vampires. Adopted Amelia becomes one of the clan and quickly finds she needs to grow up fast and catch up on the rules of being a Vampire if she is to survive long in a cut throat society filled with political feuds and clan territorial disputes. Being a Vampire is not as Romantic as Hollywood makes it out to be! Amy has a writing style that is refreshing and well thought out. She handles the romance tastefully and you can tell the character is an extension of the author herself. The illustrated version is a real treat because you get to see, obviously, illustrations of the characters done by the talented Heby Sim. This adds a significant value to the book. I suggest that everyone read this book. Give it a try because there will be more coming from this EXTREMELY talented author.

Smoking Hot

Swapping bodies with a young female demon had not been part of the planned vacation.

Nor was having to attend a demonic high school for the magically gifted.

When the most magical thing you could do was set your own underwear on fire.

Life was not going to be easy, even less so with a painful tail that everyone trod on.

Owning a magic sword that always tried to look up your skirt when fighting, was not helpful.

But then nor was having a telepathic diary that corrected your thinking instead of your spelling.

The Author Amelia Mah is a snarky, sarcastic and cynical author who has a very popular blog of how she sees the world from the point of view of a modern teenage vampire. Following the success of her vampire Novels she has now expanded into Demons and the problems in owning a pair of horns and a tail.