20: I Woke to a Kiss

20 I Woke to a Kiss

 

I woke to a kiss. “I’m sorry love,” he said, pulling on his shirt and pants, and then sitting down to put on his socks and shoes, “I have to go. I have a job pretty early today.”

I watched him finish dressing. He had warn some nice brown pants and a tan shirt, which were rather rumpled as he had just thrown them down last night. My eyes followed him with disappointment comb his hair, and slip out.

“That boy is Iron Man!” Came Tess’s voice from under her covers.

“He is insane, if you ask me,” Said River, sitting up in bed. “Did he at least grope you?”

“None of your business,” I said, “and it is only five o’clock and I, at least, have classes today.”

“Have you two made some kind of pact?” Tess asked, ignoring my plea for sleep.

“Sort of,” I said, rolling over and looking at her, “When he talked to my Dad.”

“What is it like?” River said, coming and sitting on my bed.

“It’s just that, if he wants to sleep with me, that’s OK, but then I have to move in with him and all… you know, do the whole husband and wife thing.”

“Weird,” Tess said, but River said,

“I kind of like it.”

“What?” I said, sitting up in bed, “I thought you would hate it!”

“No. It’s not for me, obviously, but it is kind of noble. So you don’t have to go through some kind of ceremony or anything?”

“No,” I said, “my father doesnt’ believe in all of that. He says it is just the state sticking it’s nose in where it doesn’t belong. Or the church. He says people were getting married long before there was a state or a church around to marry them. So he says if he gives his OK, then we can get married, and no one else needs to stick their nose in it.”

“Wow,” Tess said, finally sticking her head out of her covers and looking at us, “I think I want a big wedding.”

“Whatever for?” River said, taking her pajamas off and putting them in her drawer, “You are already doing it.”

“I dunno,” Tess answered, putting her head back under her pillow, “I just always wanted a big wedding. And I wouldn’t feel married unless some preacher said, “I now pronounce you man and wife…” She looked dreamy.

“Please don’t say that around my father!” I said. “That is, like, his least favorite phrase in the whole world!”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He rails on about how it isn’t the preacher that pronounces you man and wife, it is the girl’s father.”

Tess’s dreamy look vanished into a thoughtful one, but she didn’t say anything.

“Hey, if we are going to be up anyway, could you two take me to the shower? I have to do the whole ‘bag’ thing over my cast.”

“Sure,” said River, helping me out of bed and, with a loud groan, Tess joined us. Tess was in pajamas already and went to get my robe from the closet, which they helped me into. I was going to leave my panties in the room but, at the last minute I remembered that I was on my period and left them on. “Grab me a pad, will you River,” I said, and pad in one hand and me in the other, she led me through the door that Tess opened.

“So, how was your break?” Tess asked, as we went through the hall, filled with various girls moving back and forth from the restroom.

’You mean, besides getting engaged and breaking my wrist?“ I said.

“Yes, besides those minor details,” Tess giggled.

“Well, someone got seized by the goverment right from our church,” I said, causing instant and total silence. When I looked at her Tess was crying.

“They took Jennifer,” she said, “and her whole family.”

“Oh, Tess,” I said. I knew Jennifer had been a good friend of hers.

“Here, let us wrap your arm,” Tess said, and put one of the plastic bags on it and wrapped it with tape.

“Thanks, guys,” I said, “I can take it from here.”

Showering was very awkward, and drying was worse. I made it back to the room, and my roomates were sitting studying.

“You need me to get your clothes out for you?” Tess asked.

“No,” I said, going over to my pill bottle, “I hurt some, but not that bad, and these pills usually kick in fairly quickly,” I added, swallowing one of them. “I will just study until I feel like getting dressed.”

A couple minutes later Tess got up with a sigh, grabbed her own robe and towel, and left for the shower. I giggled to myself. I knew from Jenny that Tess couldn’t study without Stan. Not that she was stupid or anything. She was just so wrapped up in him that whenever he wasn’t there she just got all distracted and all.

River looked at me and smiled. River was a certified genius and had no real need to ‘study’, but she enjoyed her books almost as much as she enjoyed her boys. Eventually I decided I couldn’t study myself with all of everything going through my head and went to the closet.

I stood for a few minutes trying to decide what to wear. I was already one of the most conservatively dressed girl on campus, from what Jenny had told me. But I wasn’t going to wear pants… I hated girls in pants, and it was too, I don’t know, too reminiscent of being a boy. I needed my dress to reflect who I was now, not confuse me. Although why I didn’t want to wear a dress was still confusing. Or a bra. Then I thought, blushed, and figured I knew why I didn’t want to wear a bra.

I heard Tess come back in and she came up behind me, pulling on her bra, “Wardrobe issues?” she asked.

“Oh, just first day issues. I have all this new stuff that Caleb bought me, and I can’t decide which to wear.”

She pushed past me and pulled at the clothes on the rack, “How like a boy,” she said, “very feminine, and very practical. Let me guess, not a single pants suit, no dresses?”

“Yes,” I said, laughing, “You guessed well. But I like it as well.”

She laughed at me, “Since he does, I’ll wager. But anyway, it makes your choices easy enough. He did a good job of picking some nice basic colors and things. You can really mix and match with this stuff. How about this?” She asked, picking out the pink blouse and blue skirt.

“That’s actually my favorite combination,” I said, “and he got me a new bra that goes with it.”

I went to my dresser and pulled out my new pink bra which I handed her, and then I worked on getting the bunny panties on one handed, and then put on the pad. When I was done I looked back at her. She was looking at me, confused. “I didn’t know you liked sports bras.”

“Well, Caleb…” I began and she giggled,

“Oh, Bobbi! I never figured you for such a soft touch. You are sooo taken by this boy!”

“Well, I am marrying him!”

She collapsed in giggles, “Well, I am marrying Stan but I don’t let him pick what I wear!”

“Oh?” I said, “How about what you don’t wear?”

“Well, that. I enjoy that!”

“And I enjoy these,” I said, struggling into the skirt one handed.

“Let me help, silly girl,” Tess said, and I noticed River grinning at my discomfiture as Tess tucked me in and zipped and snapped me closed.

“Thanks, Tess,” I said, and started work with the brush.

My first class was one that I was absolutely not worried about. I love biology, always have. I wasn’t real thrilled with the textbook, it hadn’t made nearly as much sense as some other book I had read, and it wasn’t nearly as fun to read as the European History class. I got to class early (having gotten up so early) and took a seat toward the front of class.

The other students came in, many of whom I knew (from my other body) and those I didn’t know, but who greeted me, I greeted back. “Hey, how are you doing?” Can cover a multitude of ignorance; and a bright pink cast can distract a lot of conversation.

At the hour that class was supposed to start, however, things got weird. The professor, who I had had a couple of times already, came in with another man, a young man in a suit. “Ladies and Gentlemen,” he said, “I won’t take up much of your time. I’m sure that you have heard about the events of the last few weeks. I would like to remind you all that the Federal government is seeking to contact all of those who participated in, or knew anything about, the experiment which you have all had reported in the papers. A failure to participate in this investigation, the failure to report any information, is a punishable offense.”

“That’s unconstitutional!” A boy said, from the back of the room.

“I can assure you that it is not,” the boy at the front said. “I will turn you over to your professor now.”

I am sure I was not the only person who got absolutely nothing out of that class. First day classes are boring anyway, but, other than the homework assignment, which he wrote on the board, I got nothing out to the class at all.

“Did you hear that?” A girl next to me said as we got up, “How can they do that?”

“They have the guns,” a boy said. “Stupid law won’t let us carry them on campus. Let them try to carry that off somewhere where the citizens are armed.”

I didn’t stay to listen to much more, it was too scary. When I was outside I got out my cellphone: “Caleb?”

“Bobbi? How is it going?”

“Caleb, you won’t believe it. They are coming into our classes and telling us we have to turn people in!” I whispered.

There was a long silence. “Do you want me to come get you?”

“No, we can’t.”

“Ok. Call me later, OK. Love you.”

“I love you,” I said, and hung up.

I had two hours till my next class, but I didn’t want to go back to our room. For one thing I was worried that Tess would be there with her boyfriend, and for another, I didn’t really want to run into anyone else I knew. So I went to the Student Center to study.

But I didn’t get much studying done. First of all various friends and acquaintances came up and asked me about the arm, and wanted to sign it. I was running out of room and one boy, who I think was not very happy by my ring, signed my arm instead. He had a nice signature tho. Silly thing was so close to my cast it probably wouldn’t come off when I showered.

And the second thing was that I was feeling guilty. I was supposed to be trying to transform back, and all I was doing was going through the motions of class while I waited for Caleb to figure out what to do. I should be doing something. But what?

Suddenely I had an idea. If the government was so big on getting people who had changed, maybe if I found someone on my own, then Caleb could use the information. But how?

I looked at my watch. Time for Calculus.

Calculus was not going to be my favorite class. Indeed, I thought of dropping it just from my first day. But I needed it if… if I was going to continue my pre-med track. Or at least pretend to. There was no way that Caleb wanted me to be a doctor. I had no idea why Roberta had taken this track. It started, as the other class had, with the announcement from a federal agent. Most students had heard of it by now, tho, so there was less outrage.

I walked back to my room after class to change books. My statistics class wasn’t till two oclock. When I got there, there was no one there. I changed my pad, and was glad to see my flow was slowing down a bit. I thought about taking a quick shower, as I felt dirty from all of this bleeding, but I needed some help and didn’t see anyone I knew well enough to help me.

Lunch was awkward, but a boy volunteered to help me carry my tray and cut my food. I didn’t know how much pain I should be pretending to have, and so I was hesitant to use my knife. The food was good, though. It always had been.

“River,” I said, when I get back, “can you help me take a quick shower?”

“Sure Bobbi,” she said, and we went off to the showers. “How were your classes?”

“You heard about the announcements?”

“Oh, yes. Nothing but. It’s all everyone is talking about.”

“Well, except for that, they were pretty boring. You know how first days are.”

I got my skirt and panties off, but I was moving to slowly and she helped me with my shirt and bra. “A new bra?”

“Yeah. I am trying this kind. Tape it,will you?”

She wrapped the tape around my arm and I got in the shower. I took longer than I had really planned, using one hand, and then drying was awkward. “Here, let me help,” she said, and dried me briskly and efficiently. I hate to think if I had had to do that to a guy friend of mine. Girls were different that way, and it didn’t seem hard to have her help me back on with my clothes and help me with my pad.

“Thanks, River,” I said, and dashed off to class.

The most interesting thing in the whole Statistics class was the federal agent. I spent the whole time trying to think of how to find other people. It seemed impossible to do what the Federal agents hadn’t. I went off to the Library, this time, and found a quiet corner. But a couple of hours of thought interspersed with study didn’t help, nor did dinner.

“Hey, everybody,” I said,when I arrived back to a full house. I tried hard not to stare at River. She was quite a sight in her birthday suit. She was so tall, and so flat chested, that she looked boy-like almost. But her long straight black hair, which she had down in front of her, made her look like Eve or something. Tess and her boyfreind were studying together at a desk, and they greeted me and then ignored me. “Help me get undressed, will you River. I want another shower.”

I went through the whole process of changing my pad and it was, ironically, as I was throwing it away that I thought of something. I had come up on my old ‘girlfriend’ once, in her room, throwing a way a pad, and she had gotten all embarassed. I still remember her, yelling at me, “Robert Michael!” My name, my old name at least. Would she know it? This girl here? She might if she had changed.

As I took off the robe and she taped me again I thought, furiously, how could I find out if she knew the old me, without either giving myself away or scaring her to death?

I sat down at my desk, my robe still on, and went over the biology homework. But, as I had already read this chapter five times, my mind was free to roam, and I suddenly had an idea. I pulled out a notepad and began scribbling in it. Finished, and excited, I looked around.., and took out another notepad, writing on it: Bobbi Smith, My Journal. I opened to the first page, wrote the date, and then,

I miss Caleb terribly. And Jenny and all of them back home. They have been so supportive of me

I paused, thinking then grinning,

since my accident. Caleb is terribly worried. And oh, so noble. But I think he is right, it is better if we wait. But I can’t wait to share his bed, and his whole life. He is so strong, and handsome. I think he is going to grow up to be like my father. But I want to have lot’s more kids. I know Mom and Dad wanted more kids, and Caleb’s folks wanted them something awful… losing at least three, that I knew about, to miscarriages. I remember crying over the last one, which was just four years ago. Mrs Jones had been so happy when she found out she was pregnant, and then do devastated when she lost the baby.

My classes today were boring. Why did I sign up for these? Next semester I will be home with Caleb, and out of these boring classes. Although I might take one or two… maybe art, and voice. Choir perhaps. If I had time what with helping him with his job.

Play practice begins tomorrow, and I am not looking forward to it.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and we all looked up. “Is everyone decent?” a loud voiced asked.