Even with Natalie getting home from school early, it was after two by the time we were ready to leave. I felt better than I did long before my change.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my mom and dad, brother, sister, and their kids, yet I had somewhat been estranged from them for a while. It was all on my part as well, and I had no excuses. I could see that Alex was having the same thoughts as well.

“I know we gave you those earrings, but you won’t be able to wear them for a while, Sasha. You should make sure to wear the studs until your ears heal first.” Natalie was explaining. She sat with me in the back while Alex was in the passenger seat and Rebecca was driving. “I’ll help you pick out something cute that will work.”

“Don’t you have to use something plain? That’s what I had when I got my ears pierced in High School.” Alex looked over his shoulder and asked.

“There are more styles to choose from than that,” Rebecca interjected. “My friend owns the salon we’re going to and has a good selection we can look at.”

“I didn’t know you had your ears pierced Alex. Why did you let them go?” Natalie leaned forward and tried to get a better look at his ears.

“I had to take them out for work one day and lost one of the beads. I was out of town and by the time I got home they had closed up.” Alex shrugged. “They kind of got in the way so it wasn’t a big deal for me.”

“You should get them pierced again.”

“I’m good. I don’t want to worry about them getting lost when I train.”

“Here we are. Are you ready Sasha?” Pulling into a parking spot, Rebecca cut Natalie off knowing she was going to try and argue. “If Alex says he doesn’t want to, don’t try to force it.”

“Alright, mom.” Natalie rolled her eyes. “You still want to, don’t you Sasha?”

“Ya, I do.” I did miss having my ears pierced so this made a good excuse.

Rebecca started talking to whom I assumed was her friend as Natalie drug me towards a display case sitting on a table in the back. The salon’s services ranged from hair cuts to messages, nails to… Well, you get the picture.

“What do you think of these ones?” Natalie pointed to a pair with two oval gems end to end vertically and two round ones on each side where they met, making a sort of plus sign. The gems were blue and the metal looked silver.

“I like them, they look cute,” I said cute, didn’t I… Can we pretend that didn’t happen? “Would these go with them?” I was looking at a pair that looked like a rounded upside-down triangle that had a clear gem in the center.

“They kind of look like a shield and cross. I think they would look super cute together.” She smiled brightly as she grabbed my hand and pulled me over to her mom and the salon owner. “You have to promise to let me help you pick out more sometime, and we should see about getting you some necklaces as well.”

“Umm, alright. We can do that sometime.” This girl, I swear. I can’t say no to her for some reason.

“My, you didn’t even flinch,” Julie said as she pierced my left ear. She was the salon owner and the only one licensed for piercings in the salon. “Most people at least have some reaction.”

I was a little surprised I didn’t react. That hurt. That hurt quite a bit more than it did when I was in High School. I had hardly felt it then. This time, maybe it was because of my ‘new’ body. Sitting in this chair for almost an hour while Julie, Rebecca, and Natalie made sure my new piercings placement would be perfect, probably hadn’t helped.

Natalie leaned forward to look at me. “Are you alright? It’s Ok if you need to wait for a bit. You look a little anxious.”

“N-no, I’m alright. It surprised me was all. I remember Alex telling me a long time ago that he didn’t feel anything when his were done, so…”

“You expected it to be the same. Everyone is different Sasha.” Julie nodded like she had seen something similar.

Natalie looked between Alex and me. “You knew that Alex had earrings?”

“Umm. I asked him why his ear had a little hole in it.”

Alex tilted his head and looked up in thought. “I remember that. I’m surprised you remember it though. You were four I think?”

Ok, this is weird. I had blurted that without thinking and now Alex is ‘remembering’ it. Should I be worried? This could be considered something to worry about, right?

“Do you want to wait a while, Sasha?” Natalie still looked a little pensive.

I shook my head. “No, I’m Ok.”

“Ok, do you want me to switch between ears or do one side than the other?” Julie was wiping the ‘gun’ down with alcohol.

“Whatever is easiest for you, I don’t mind.”

“Ok, let’s do the right ear since we opened that set,” Julie said as she readied the other earring. The cross earrings would be closest to my cheek, with the ‘shields’ outside of them.

The other three didn’t catch me off guard as much and we were done pretty quickly after that. Glancing at the mirror Julie held up, I liked how they looked. It wasn’t too flashy or anything like that. They were cute, actually.

Crap.

“Oh, they look good Sasha, You’re so cute!” Please, Natalie… Can’t… Breathe…

“I agree Sasha, they look wonderful.” Rebecca crossed her arms and smiled at me like a proud parent.

I blushed while looking in the mirror. “Thank you, Julie. I really like them.” Ok, now that I see myself blushing, it is kinda cute. Not being to be a narcissist here, just saying. Can we please forget that this conversation ever happened?

Julie’s delighted smile made her eyes shine. “I’m glad you like them, Sasha. It was my pleasure.” Turning to Alex she slapped him hard on the back, making him take a small step. “You’re gonna have it rough in a few years. Hope you’re ready for that. Hahaha”

More than a few people started laughing at his reaction. Me? Well, I was trying to ignore that. Nope, not thinking about it.

Alex collected himself quickly and tried not to look embarrassed. “They look good Sasha. How are you feeling?” Yep, he’s trying to ignore that as well. Good luck to both of us.

I nod at him as I stand up. “I feel alright. My ears are a little sore, but it’s not bothering me.”

“That’s good. What do you say to getting some ice cream?”

“I’m not a ki…”

“Oooh, That’s a good idea, Alex. Come on Sasha, let’s go!” Natalie grabbed my hand and started for the door.

“Natalie,” Rebecca called to her over-excited daughter. “I know you’re having fun, but you need to calm down. We can go for ice cream, though you must remember it will be dinner soon.” She then turned to Alex. “Would you and Sasha like to eat at our house tonight?”

“Ah, right. It’s almost dinner isn’t it?” Alex paused and looked at me so I nodded. “Dinner sounds great, thank you, Rebecca.”

“Ya ya, I get it, mom.” Natalie rolled her eyes. “We…” Her phone interrupted whatever she was going to say. It was probably a good thing considering the look Rebecca was giving her. “Hey, Jaz, what’s up?… Ya, that homework was a pain…” She stepped away while continuing to talk.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

“That must be Jasmine, one of Natalie’s friends from school,” Rebecca told us after watching her daughter walk away. " They usually study together at our house. I doubt Natalie will ask or even think of it, though would you mind if she comes over as well? We don’t want you to be uncomfortable so…”

“That’s fine with me if it’s Ok with Sasha. We don’t want to inconvenience you either.” Alex shrugged and looked toward me.

“I’m fine, though I don’t want to bother Natalie. She’s done so much for me already and…” I started to reply while looking up at Rebecca.

“You don’t need to worry about that Sasha. You are welcome at our house any time. As we said earlier, you’re family now, so quit worrying about it. Same to you Alex.” Rebecca cut me off with a somewhat stern expression.

“Hey mom, is it ok for Jaz to come over for dinner as well? We could pick her up on the way to get ice cream.” Natalie asked after turning back around.

Rebecca sighed and placed her hands on her hips. “You do realize we have guests Natalie.”

Natalie’s eyes got big and she blushed. “O-oh, sorry. Hey Jaz…”

“I already asked if it was alright. We can pick up Jaz on the way.” Rebecca shook her head with an exasperated sigh. “You need to remember these kinds of things. Go ahead and tell Jasmine we will be there soon and let’s get going.”

After getting into the SUV, Natalie told me how she had met Jasmine in Middle School and they had been best friends since. It sounded to me like Jasmine was somewhat forced to become friends at first, and knowing what Natalie was like I could believe it.

As we pulled up to a nice two-story house Natalie jumped out and knocked on the door. After a minute, a pretty blond came out and they hugged. After she shut the door they started walking toward us. I was unsure if I should move to the center so I unbuckled my seat belt and started to move when Natalie opened the driver-side door.

“It’s alright Sasha, I can sit in the middle.” Natalie started scooting over. “Jaz, this is Sasha and that’s Alex.”

Alex turned around in his seat and stuck his hand out. “I’m Alex, nice to meet you.”

“I’m Jasmine, Natalie talks about you quite a bit, Alex. I’ve wanted to meet you for a while.” Jasmine said in a soft, shy voice as she took Alex’s hand and then turned to me. “So, this is the little cutie you can’t stop talking about?”

No no no no. I did not just hear that. I think Natalie has been saying things that she shouldn’t, again.

“Yep.” Natalie put her arm around my shoulder and pulled me in close. “Sasha is my new little sister. Isn’t she the cutest?!”

“Oh, that blush just makes her even cuter! I’m Jasmine, Natalie can’t stop gushing about her cute little sister and I couldn’t wait to meet you!”

I hid my face in my hands though I knew it was useless. I could feel my ears were so hot it was almost painful. I could hear Alex chuckling while Natalie and Jasmine got even more excited. They started giggling and saying things like “So cute!” and “I can’t take it!”. I wanted to find a hole and crawl into it.

Taking a deep breath, I was able to calm down enough to answer… Kind of. “I-I’m Sasha, it’s nice to meet you, Jasmine.” I was going to shake her hand, but she grabbed mine with both of hers.

“I’m so glad to meet you, Sasha. Would you like to be friends?” Jasmine’s smile was radiant and there was a glint in her eyes. I have a feeling that there was a little more to it than that, but couldn’t quite place it.

“Umm… I… I would be happy to be friends.” Why was I so nervous? From what Natalie had told me about her, Jasmine seemed like a nice, sweet girl who was fairly shy. I could definitely tell that she didn’t have any animosity towards Alex or me, so it was strange.

‘Well, nothing I can do about it now,’ I thought. I had too many questions and worries as it was, and this one didn’t seem like it would be a high priority right now.

We stopped by one of those ice cream/frozen yogurt places on the way to Rebecca and Natalie’s house. That ended up being another “adventure” that I would prefer to forget. Between Natalie, and now Jasmine dragging me around trying to pick out flavors and toppings while fawning over me and the employees saying how ‘cute’ and ‘precious’ (seriously, they said precious) it was, I wanted to cry and run away. I ended up hiding behind Alex, who started laughing so I punched him in the side. That only made him start laughing harder while holding where I had hit him. Even Rebecca had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

JERKS!

Kennith wasn’t home yet when we arrived so Natalie and Jasmine put their books on the table and started studying while Rebecca started on dinner. Alex was helping her so I sat with the girls. I wanted to see what Freshmen studied now. I know High School was some years away, yet it might give me an idea of what I was in for.

Looking at Natalie’s paper, I could tell that something was off. “Umm, Natalie? I believe that says ‘This year the forest is beautiful’.”

“Wait, you know German Sasha?” Natalie snapped her head towards me and Jasmine looked up as well.

“Some.” I shrugged. “Mom and Dad used to speak German at home.”

“Ah, Zeke and Valeria did speak German didn’t they.” Alex turned slightly and looked at us. “I didn’t know that you spoke it as well Sasha.”

I looked down and shrugged again. “I’m not very good, but I know a little. They were starting to teach me though they used it to keep me from understanding what they were talking about when I was younger.”

Jasmine looked confused and was going to say something, but Natalie leaned over and whispered in her ear before she could. She nodded, then looked back to her homework. “Are you sure Sasha? That looks somewhat backwards.”

“Well, I think that’s right. English has different sentence structures than German. That’s what I was told anyway.” My voice was soft and quiet, trailing off at the end. Why was I so shy all of a sudden? I know I spoke really quietly now, but not usually this bad.

Natalie looked at me with a contemplative expression. “Are you really only ten years old Sasha? Sometimes it feels like you are older.”

“She is rather mature for her age at times,” Rebecca was wiping her hands while she spoke.

“Valeria was pretty serious most of the time so she probably got it from her. Zeke on the other hand was the laid-back, fun-loving person most of the time.” Alex had a nostalgic look.

“Yes, I can see how that would be the case. Sasha definitely has both of those traits, you can’t usually see her father’s influence though.” Rebecca looked at me with an easy smile.

Natalie nodded her head. “Well, I guess that makes sense. As long as you’re not trying to act tough Sasha. Just be yourself and you can talk to me about anything. Remember that.”

Alex started chuckling. “I think she is being herself, Natalie. She has always been somewhat serious as well. At least until she does something she enjoys. The smile she has when we train could blind you, and when she gets to talking about cars you can tell she is in heaven. I’m afraid I got her hooked on anything automotive and she is a bigger gearhead than me now.”

Natalie and Jasmine looked at me with surprise. “You did say you liked to train,” Natalie said. “Didn’t know you liked cars though.”

“Interesting, I would have never guessed you like cars Sasha,” Jasmine mumbled at the same time.

I looked down with a blush painting my cheeks. “Umm, Ya. I’ve been interested in them since Alex gave me a ride in his Camaro and Rock Crawler. I used to ask him to teach me how to work on them every time I would see him.”

“That’s so cool.” Natalie leaned in and grabbed me by the shoulders, making me look at her with wide eyes. “Wait… Are your eyes alright Sasha?” She leaned in so close our noses almost touched and stared into my eyes making me jerk back.

“Umm, Natalie? Wha-What do you mean?”

“Your eyes. Are you alright? They look different, like they have something in them.” Natalie had a worried look while she searched my eyes.

“N-No? They don’t hurt or anything and I can see fine.” I was blushing and trying to pull back. Why was she so close?

“Hmm.” Natalie pulled back slightly. “Now that I look closer, I see some gold flecks around your pupils. I don’t remember seeing that before. It’s stunning though.” She explained with a thoughtful expression.

“M-Maybe you just didn’t notice it before? I-I d-don’t think anything is different.” I was stuttering like crazy, my mind racing. It was when Jacobus did his little gene therapy thing. Not like I could explain anything about that though.

“You would think we would notice something so pretty…” Natalie started to say when the door opened, Kennith walked in and interrupted her.

“I’m home.” He called. “I see Alex and Sasha are here, and Jasmine as well.” Walking over to the table he sat down with a big smile. “Are Eric and Brandon coming for dinner tonight?”

Rebecca walked around the bar and sat down between me and Kennith. “No, Brandon has a team meeting and Eric has a project that is due soon.”

“If I remember right Eric is going for an engineering degree, right?” Alex swung his seat around and looked at Kennith.

“Ya, mostly structural stuff,” Kennith replied while waving a hand. “He wants to be able to take some of the strain off of the company is what he said.”

Rebecca set down her tea. “He always did like working on road and bridge projects.”

“I remember him coming to work with Kennith. It was funny watching him try to act like an adult while he really looked like a kid hopped up on coffee.” Alex said while laughing.

“Hahaha, never tell him that!” Kennith laughed as well.

Kennith, Rebecca, and Alex talked for a while longer as I paid attention to Natalie and Jasmine doing their homework. I was able to help them here and there with their German and was surprised to find that I remembered quite a lot of algebra. I had learned German from my grandparents and had even learned some Swedish, and Icelandic along with Japanese. I know, that sounds weird. Why those two? I bet you can guess Japanese, as for Swedish and Icelandic? Vikings of course. I’m weird, I get it. Don’t judge.

Rebecca’s dinner was delicious. She made a Salisbury steak, sauteed carrots with onions, and a side salad. The girls chatted about school, boys, and clothes (ugh, school and clothes I can handle, boys? Not so much. For some reason I wasn’t interested in either sex right now…), while Rebecca talked to Alex and Kennith about the barbecue this weekend, going over the plans that she and Alex had discussed. Kennith seemed to think that would be a great idea, and came up with adding a “Good luck to Alex” aspect to it. I could only laugh at Alex’s expression.

By the time we left, it was a little before nine pm, and I started to fall asleep during the drive home. I was a little worried about that. Maybe it had something to do with my age now? I’ve been going to bed way earlier than usual as well.

Meh, that was probably it.

The next thing I knew, Alex was waking me up and telling me to get to bed. I think he was uncomfortable getting me ready himself. I couldn’t blame him though.