Sharla Winslowe
by Christy Lake and by Misty Dawn
Chapter 7
Part 21 School, Frustration, and other things
It was the first Friday of the new school year. Instead of going to the big pep rally, Kevin and Sharla were wandering along the creek bottom below the Trout Creek Lookout. Ostensibly, they were looking for plants that might grow in the moist shady creek bottom. Actually they were making up for three months of separation. They might have continued until past dark but the incessant chirping of Kevin's cell phone interrupted.
It was his dad. Kevin's Brother-In-Law had been in a major accident and was being transported to the City Bluffs Trauma Center. Kevin needed to get there immediately and make sure everything was taken care of. His dad would be in on the first available flight, but that looked like it might be his regular flight tomorrow morning.
Kevin had been in frequent contact with Sharla all summer and was concerned that there might be too many people in the hospital. Sharla decided that she could do it and urged Kevin to go straight to the hospital. While Kevin was taking care of the paperwork, Sharla slipped into a small waiting room off the main waiting area. High windows indicated that it was an outside room, about as far from the bustle of the busy hallway as she could get.
Six miles away, a charter bus driver suffered a heart attack and hit the accelerator, plowing into the group of sixty people he was going to take to a dinner theater. Ambulances started lining up, to disgorge their cargo of broken individuals and the Emergency Room driveway was just on the other side of the wall of the room in which Sharla had sought refuge. She was alone in the room; Kevin had gone to see if he could get an update on his brother-in-laws condition. The sudden arrival of people in intense pain crashed through Sharla's concentration.
The huge assortment of pains suddernly smashing into her, caused her to curl into a fetal ball. She barely felt it as she hit the floor. "The Energy, gotta find the Unseen Energy!" pounded through her mind. Forced to flee the searing pains, the witch desperately pushed her awareness outward and away from the hurt, seeking any trace of Unseen Energy. Suddenly she could sense flickers and flows of green and blue and red. As she focused on the vague flickers, the brutal assault of pain on her body retreated. She discovered that she was curled up on the waiting room floor. She managed to straighten herself and regain her seat before anyone found her there on the floor, and then turned her full attention on the red and blue flickers.
Throughout the hospital, different people, doctors, nurses, aids, and visitors were directing these pulses of energy toward the sick and injured. She noticed one person in particular, a grandmotherly type, hyper charged with the Blue Energy and trying without success to transfer it to the little girl suffering in front of her. Almost unconsciously, Sharla reached out and turned the blue thread, focusing it onto the little girl. The little girl was suffering from leukemia and Sharla, almost without concentrating, guided the blue energy to replicate and strengthen the blood producing marrow, much the same as she had done with Andrew last Christmas.
In another ward, in an intensive care section, she spotted an older man holding the hand of a small woman he loved dearly. The woman was loosing the battle to pneumonia. Sharla twisted and focused the Red Energy that suffused the man and linked it into the woman, reinforcing her heart and lung muscles, sweeping the liquid collected in her lungs into the blood system, and then reinforcing her kidneys and blood marrow.
A moment later she noted that a woman doctor seemed to be drawing Red Energy from a big ruby pendant she wore. Another doctor had a large star sapphire in a ring that seemed to provide him with a source of Blue Energy. By the time a very downcast Kevin returned and offered to take Sharla home, she had decided that the Red Energy and the Blue Energy were just different flavors of the familiar Green Energy.
A distracted Kevin delivered Sharla home before going to pick up his oldest sister and take her to the Hospital to be with her husband. Safely in the house, it did not take Sharla long to get to her room and strip out of her everyday "Self Defense Uniform" of baggy, shapeless, and plain. After a quick shower, comfortably naked and sinking into a lotus position, the psipnic redhead began to investigate. "Blue first," she thought and sought out the Vermont home of Aunt Sheila. With her new understanding of the Blue Energy she discovered it easy to slip through the wards undetected. Aunt Sheila was taking fresh baked bread out of the oven.
A quick check showed that the blue wards were still around Jenny's house. Sharla projected herself through these and saw that Jenny was busy reading for English Lit. Sharla thought about trying to contact Jenny the way she contacted Naomi but decided against it. The blond just might turn bimbo again and freak.
Slipping away, Sharla went looking for White Running-Bear's Medicine Lodge. The hut seemed congested with humanity as she drifted in. Wishing to observe a few moments before disturbing anything, she watched the steam rising from the superheated stones near the head of a bier bearing a naked youth.
A circle of what were obviously elders, chanting softly in their native tongue, surrounded the bier and youth. At each beginning of the chant canto, White dropped a pinch of herbs into the ruby coals surrounded by the stones. The pungent odor of the smoke created by the instantly cremated herb rose to mix and mingle with the steam wafting across the face of the recumbent youth who could not help but breathe it.
Sharla wondered why the powerful shaman was not able to direct more of the Red Energy produced by his efforts. It was not connecting to his patient. The youth showed all the classic symptoms of Severe Pneumonia, which the red-haired "witch trainee" was now all too familiar with. With a small, silent nudge, the red haired witch trainee guided the flow to the brazier then backed off. A small smile crept into the corner of White Running-Bear's mouth, and the tone of the chant changed in pitch slightly. Sharla then noted with satisfaction the Blue Energy released by the herbs and the Red Energy passing through the stones was suddenly flooding the youth with its healing properties.
A quick flicker of interaction brought forth a three dimensional picture of the hospital into sharp focus. A tall, graceful, woman wearing a necklace shaped like a pentagram and inset with beautiful blue sapphires came in and started spreading relief and comfort through the children's ward. She was only half way down the ward when the last of the energy flickered out of the blue stones. The woman seemed aware of the fact and changed her ministrations to comfort and encouragement as she worked her way through the rest of the ward.
As a matter of interest, Sharla started looking for the twelve-sided crystals like the woman's cut stones had originally come from. There was a lot of the corundum or basic chemical structure, but the energy just was not interested. Very carefully, she caused operations that would collect individual molecules and restructure them into the twelve-sided prisms infused with the traces of titanium and iron to give it the beautiful transparent blue color
Some of the operations seemed to be conflicting, so Sharla set them to assembling six-sided prisms with a trace of chromium. Even though this was going on deep beneath the hospital, she set it to operate inside very powerful wards.
As the blue crystals grew, she saw them gathering very fine tendrils of energy from plants, animals and people. The growing red crystals were collecting very, very fine threads from streams, waterfalls, and a distant fault zone that was slowly moving. Both crystal collections had grown to about the size of cigarette packs and were attracting energy from a huge area. It was not enough. As soon as she opened the wards to allow energy to flow to the healers in the hospital, the Blue Battery and the Red Battery were depleted. "Really I should have Red wards around the Red Battery and Blue wards around the Blue Battery. Problem is there is not enough energy to maintain wards. Guess I'll just have to sleep on it." A very physically exhausted and sleepy Sharla thought as she finally made her way into bed.
**********
Very early Saturday morning, the burring of her bedside telephone partially roused Aunt Sheila. The first words she heard snapped her totally awake and on the alert. "Sheila, this is Janet. I just received a call from White Running-Bear out in Colorado. He said that something was upsetting the energy balance of the force and that it seemed to be migrating eastward. I summoned my coven, and we've also determined the energy is definitely moving, and I think to the south west."
"There seems to be something between us and Colorado that is absorbing energy like mad. I've contacted Covens all down the east coast and by mid afternoon we should have a direction triangulated."
**********
Sharla and Andrew shared an early Saturday morning breakfast. Andrew, very enthusiastically informed her he was going shopping with several members of both the "Ghosts" and "Gypsies" swim teams. This was so different from Andrew's normal behavior that she had to wonder again, briefly, if he had been the one who had invaded her room before she infused it with the Wards. She could only hope this was not the case, but suspected the worst.
After cleaning up the kitchen following their breakfast, Andrew went to his room to change and Sharla went to have a lovely, leisurely soak and while wondering why Andrew's cologne smelled more like Charly began idly considering her problem with the healing energy in the hospital and getting some wards established around her Blue Crystal and Red Crystal Batteries. Within moments Sharla forgot her concern for Andrew.
Before starting on the hospital, she decided she really should check and see where the energy was. Concentrating her focus on Green, Red, and Blue Energies, she slowly expanded her awareness. For some reason the effort was really depleting her own store of energy, so she connected a link to the Green Crystal Battery. Immediately, the entire North American continent came into focus. Almost everywhere she looked, the land was laced with a fishnet of white-grayish energy flows. Some were finer than a hair and others were rivers, as big as a two-lane highway. Examining the network closely, she saw that some of her three energies were merging into the lines. Something did not look right. Some of the traces of Red and Green were bypassing the network and heading straight towards her.
She followed the line the energy bits were following and discovered deep under the hospital two blocks of crystal, each block about the size of the big briefcase pilots carried their books in. They were natural self-charging batteries. With the constant draw from the healers that she had allowed, the new crystals were drawing energy from as far away as Panama, the West Coast, and the Artic Circle. Her green battery had not done that because Mikey had charged it. "Hmmm, maybe these need a charger," she mused.
A Mikey or a Scruffy would be totally out of place, and a Hazy would not be of any use in the hospital. Near the hospital, she found a solution. In a spotless building a worker was carefully weighing and then placing red plastic bags on a conveyor belt. The bags and contents were moved into a very hot furnace where they were almost instantly vaporized or burnt. Following the progress of the residue, she saw that it was ejected from the furnace onto an apron of ceramic strips as an almost white-hot mixture of ash, sand, and fine metal drops. Sharla selected two of the ceramic strips to be her converters, one for Blue and one for Green. As materiel slid across the surface, it was converted, and a flow of energy was directed toward the batteries.
The twin torrents flowed directly to the crystals. With power available, Sharla modified her green ward around the two batteries and then tapping into the new energy supplies, built a Blue Ward around the Blue Battery and a Red Ward around the Red Battery. The wards were adjusted to accept energy only from the converter and to release it only to her and the hospital healers. As soon as the wards were in place, Sharla felt a relief. Tracing the sensation, she realized that the draw of energy from all over had stopped.
Before calling her good deed done, Sharla translocated her Blue and Red crystal building operations to the area of the Green Crystal Battery. As soon as the first almost microscopic crystals had been built, she set up a charging link from the corresponding crystal battery under the hospital. This would take care of any overcharging and provide an additional reserve for the healers. Quickly, she set up wards to protect and contain the newly forming crystal batteries. With a very pleased sigh of satisfaction and a grin erupting on her face for a deed well done, the bath was quickly finished. There was a lot of homework to be done, if she was going to go out with Kevin tonight.
********************
After lunch, instead of going out to Trout Creek to look for plants, Kevin took her to his Dad's main office, just a few blocks from Turnbulls. His dad had purchased a number of new computers and the necessary software as a lot purchase. Because he had not purchased it through one of the big companies or one of the local shops, he was very low on their Support Priority. "Maybe in two or three months we'll be able to get someone to work on your project."
"Sharla, Kevin here tells me that you are a very talented, up and coming computer tech…"
The sexy psionic coed blushed, but interjected, "Well, I have learned a few tricks."
The man chuckled. He knew that anyone worth their salt in their preferred field of endeavor always learned "tricks." Hell, he had a few of his own he used. "Be that as it may, my deal is simple enough. I would like you to set up the computers, at least three a week, establish them in a network and see that it operates smoothly."
The winsome girl with green eyes alight nearly choked on her astonishment. She would have a steady after hours job until all the machines were fully networked and the installations debugged.
"Now," continued the construction overlord, "If it is OK with you, I'll assign Kevin, who everyone knows as a trusted employee, to be your helper, escort, and to interface with the company if you encounter problems."
Sharla asked, "First thing, I'd like to meet whoever is responsible for maintaining the present network and system integrity?"
Calvin Caldwell, the owner and manager of Caldwell Construction, with major projects in eight states, blushed like a kid caught in the cookie jar.
"Well," he admitted. "I was sorta hoping that you'd be able to tell us what we need. I hired a fancy consultant a couple of years ago. He charged me $25,000, gave me a thick book, and told me that I would need to spend several million a year on a mainframe and computer department. Kevin here knows the operation from the bottom to the top and a lot of the remote operations as well. If you work with him, and this new equipment, maybe we can get something reasonable going for a lot less than a million a year. Will you do it?" He ended with an undisguised hopeful smile.
Sharla grinned and replied, "Honestly, Mister C, I could not possibly make any promises beyond setting up the computers and installing the applications, but I do promise to consider the problem."
"When can you come to work?"
She looked over his shoulder at the mountain of boxes behind him and said, "Would now be too soon?'
Then, with help from the two men, she soon had eight computers connected and was installing the operating systems.
********************
With an almost feminine gait, Andrew moved lightly through the house from his room into the kitchen where he discovered Sharla, with a Dew, poring over one of those strange books from "La Caisse", as she called it. "Darned ratty old wooden box, it looks like to me." He never noticed he no longer cussed, even in his mind. He went to the "fridge" for a Dew and poured it from the can into a glass—he never drank from the can if he could help it nowadays—and pecked his sister on the cheek sat at the table across from Sharla. "What up, girl?" he asked lightly, straining to keep his voice in a low male register.
"Catching up on some reading." She smiled at him. "Is that a new shirt, Andy?" It looked like a sateen blouse, though it had a breast pocket and buttoned as a male shirt. She closed the book "Runes And Writing" and laid it under her hand beside her glass.
"Yeah! Dullard's was having a simply fabulous sale the other day and I just couldn't resist it." He reached up and fingered the collar in an unconscious but decidedly feminine gesture.
"That color is right for you," she added, commenting on the soft pastel lime color. The color brought out and defined the ruddy highlights in his longish light auburn hair. "It works with those slacks, too."
"Yeah, I guess." The boy squirmed a bit, suddenly somehow uncomfortable with the subject. Boys didn't sit around discussing clothes with their sister. "Whatever!" Besides, she might notice he was wearing penny loafers and knee-highs that matched the shirt's color. And if that happened, she might discover he was wearing a pair of panties of Sylvia's he particularly liked."
"Want a cookie, Andy? They're fresh-made this morning."
Andrew nodded. "Yes, thank you." It never occurred to him he was getting to be more polite, and not just with this brat of an older sister, who, for some reason, didn't seem to be quite the brat she used to, but with everyone. He watched her rise from the table and go to the cookie jar on the counter top near the end closest to the back door and was shocked to realize he was comparing the shape of her butt with his and thinking his was the better shape!
Without a warning, he felt a tingle run up his spine, like a mild scare one gets in a storm and then experienced a quick wave of dizziness and a moment of nausea. It felt as if he had been kicked in the groin. He gasped sharply, and then just as suddenly felt perfectly fine again.
Sharla heard the sharp, pain-filled gasp and glanced at the clock—1:27--as she turned back toward the table with a brace of cookies in two napkins, one in each hand. She took in the scene and knew what had happened. She knew exactly what day it was and what the equinox meant. She glanced at the calendar as if hoping it might not truly be September the twenty-second. He was bathed in Blue Energy that quickly faded into his body. The damage had been done. Although she was not that familiar with the Blue Energy, something about the pattern she had seen soaking into her brother said female. If her suspicion was right, the Blue Energy represented magic and the Blue Magic was changing her brother to her sister. "I probably ought to get used to calling him Andrea and Andi, thinking of her, instead of him now, I suppose."
"Something wrong, Sis?" he asked as he reached for the cookie and napkin. .
"Nothing that can be corrected, Dude." She looked at him ruefully, wondered again how much longer she would be able to call him "Dude"? "Now, eat your cookies. I gotta run."
"Later, girl," Andrew waved as Sharla swept up her book and left the kitchen in a bit of a hurry it seemed.
A few minutes later, when Andrew went to the bathroom, it seemed a bit different to sit to pee, and it was curious he no longer had anything contained in his scrotum. Though curious, it really didn't seem to concern him as much as it should have. "I really think I should be in a panic about this! Why doesn't it bother me that I no longer have them?"
"I better tell mom, so she can get me in to see Doctor Hollister," he told the reflection, and then went to his room to see if he could find a pair of shorts that would look good with this new shirt. It was going to be a nice warm fall day. He did notice it was now much easier to "tuck" and that the shorts fit, and looked a lot better with a smoother, flatter front.
Sharla thought ruefully as she tucked the useless Volume on "Runes And Writing" away in "La Caisse." "I can't get outside of the wards without getting swamped by everyone's emotions, my Grimoire has decided not to share any secrets, and now it looks like the Blue Energy, magic?. is turning my brother into my sister. It felt like her whole world was about to come unglued.
********************
Naomi, ever since a clear mind-to-mind communication link had been established with Uncle White, had been getting a half hour of Shamanism tutoring every Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 9:00 P.M. Colorado Time. Whenever possible Sharla had joined. White Running-Bear could follow Naomi's explanations to Sharla and Sharla could follow Naomi's comments and questions to her uncle. Though they tried often, Sharla had not been able to join the conversation. A tremendous side benefit of these sessions was that Naomi, as a medium, had made great progress in assimilating the oral traditions of the several different tribes Uncle White ministered to. As result, he had promised, with a chuckle, that the next time she visited, her Chamois Shamanni would be put to good use and often. He declared he needed a good assistant healer these days.
With the start of the Fall School Term, White Running-Bear had changed the curriculum to include the magical and medical properties of plants and minerals. After Sharla's experience with Blue and Red Energies at the hospital, she found she could hear Running-Bear and see what he was doing. As he described the different plants and explained when they should be harvested and how to harvest them, Sharla could see the traces of Blue, Red, and even in some grasses and vines, Green Energies.
********************
It was a warm, comfortable autumn day and Sharla, with Kevin's aid, decided it was a good time to look for the plants she needed. Having been in the area many times before, her beau suggested hiking the trail leading down from and behind the new lookout. They were both wearing shorts and T-Shirts, and Sharla knew Kevin was getting turned on from watching her shapely buns dancing from side to side as she walked. "Phooey, why not? It's not as if I don't get just as turned on walking behind him and watching his tush!"
The images projected from his mind as they moved down the trails were lust-filled, though as always, from him, tastefully erotic. Sharla was, as usual, becoming highly aroused and sexually agitated. The perky redhead knew nobody else was out today as the air was very hot and muggy, and that knowledge only added to her self awareness.
A shimmery sheen of sweat on her skin caused it to glisten, and in her mind's eye she was all too aware of Kevin becoming horny, and of his thinking about what he'd like to do with her. The images were so strong she could almost feel his hands moving to cup her breasts, rub them through her shirt.
Finally surrendering to the female need building within her, she stopped abruptly, avoiding a loose spot, and he walked right into her backside. Instinctively his arms went out and around her. Instantly, a soft moan escaped her as she felt his manly grind into her buns and she felt her own body push back into him boldly.
Kevin kissed her neck, tasting the sweat covering her sleek skin. Helplessly, she giggled and turned her head to accept his kiss. Her hand reached back to cover his firm flesh, and he groaned as stroked, causing it to grow even firmer. His hands worked over her breasts, fingers, and thumbs pinching her nipples. In an instant they were hard and she bit her tongue to keep from screaming her pleasure as he pinched them and then fed her more of his thrilling tongue.
They were on a trail too steep to permit what they both now wanted. When they broke apart, Sharla gave one last squeeze and a promissory laugh, telling him to hold on to that thought. It was difficult, but they forced themselves to head on down the trail; Kevin's eyes were glued to her buns. Several times she had to slow down and choose her footing carefully, and again Kevin closed the gap between them. Whenever he could catch her, his hands worked on her nipples, or he would nibble on her delicate ear lobe, or slide a hand down into her shorts to rub her hairless mons inside her panties.
By the time they reached the bottom of the ravine, she was a wreck, emotionally. The creek area into which Kevin had finally directed them was deserted; trees hiding it from the rest of the world encompassed the whole area. There was a trail of sweat running down the back of her shirt and her shorts were soaked with a combination of perspiration and girl dew seeping through her panties. The crystal clear water rippling over the gravel was just too inviting. It took only a moment for the witch to strip off her shorts and top, kick off her hiking boots, and stuff the socks into the tops. On an impules, bra and panty followed the shorts and tee shirt. An instant later she was a naked nymph splashing and dipping in chill water, playing amongst the rocks and calling taunts at her "slowpoke" boyfriend.
"A slow poke, am I?" Kevin laughed as he caught and carried her squealing and giggling toward a flat spot near the left bank. "I'll just show you what a "slow poke" I can be!" he growled low in his throat as he deeply embedded his turgid member into her receptive femininity.
Long moments later, they lay side by side in languid satiation, allowing the water to cool their bodies and their lust. "I'd like to take you to the Mall's Halloween Fete, Sharla?"
"Darn it, Kevin, you know I can't go, and you know why." She sighed. "Why can't you understand that."
Rolling onto his side so he could reach over and stroke her lovely form, he spoke softly, in hopes of changing her mind perhaps, while toying with her smooth intimate. "Because you're my girlfriend, and I want to take my girlfriend places where I can show her off! Plus, I want to show the world you belong to me, Sharla."
"No, Kevin," her hand gently but firmly removed his hand from the smooth mound at the juncture of her firm thighs. "That is NOT going to work this time. I am not, cannot, going to take the chance of disrupting everyone's fun as I did last month! And if it is so important to you to have a girl you can "show off" then I think you had better find another girl. One that is willing to "belong" to you and can enjoy that sort of status!"
With that said, she went back to where they had left their clothes and dressed. On the trail back, they sort of "discussed" their relationship and decided not to see one another for the next two months, to test out the old theory that "absence makes the heart grow fonder." Late that evening, Kevin dropped Sharla and her plants off at her house without coming in to kibitz with her dad as he usually did when he brought her home.
Sharla wound up in her room in a dark sulk.
********************
The difficulties in her love life did not interfere with Sharla's learning from White Running-Bear. Toward the end of November, he started teaching the lore of using different combinations of plants and minerals. Since she could see the energy patterns, Sharla was able to adjust her mixtures when she tried it. Using her perspective, she worked with Naomi until the young Shaman developed a "feel" for the better mix and even suggested finer mixes to the old master.
********************
It was late Sunday afternoon and the Bulldogs had just won a well-played football game, their seventh win of the regular season. Well satisfied with the outcome, David Lowery was sitting in one of the over-stuffed wingback chairs provided by the University Library for the comfort of those seeking a quiet place to read. Or, as in this case, a quiet place away from the crowded frats to listen to the ballgame announced on the University's student staffed radio station. Now he sat savoring the pleasant memories of a hard-fought game, as well as considering what he would do with his winnings, after he had collected the fifty bucks from his dad.
A lonely "geek" he was wishing he had someone to share this pleasant windfall with. Shaking his self out of such melancholy, he rose and stretched, then prepared to pick up slight mess he'd made in the reading room and then head for his noisy dorm room. Just as he was about to leave, he heard some very odd sounds out in the stacks in the main room.
With the elementary caution borne of a stint in his HSROTC, David moved on silent feet up and down each row looking for the source of the strange mewling sounds. He very nearly turned the corner into the aisle between the last two rows of the tall bookshelves when he suddenly, and very delightfully, discovered what was causing the weird noises. Or rather, WHO.
"Damn! That's Sharla Winslowe!" He choked softly while the recognition of who the girl was, and WHAT she was doing registered and then rattling around in his mind, the WHERE she was doing it. She was lying back on one of the study tables scattered throughout the stack room! Just as he had, she must have thought she was alone in the library today!
She was wearing her "drabs" that seemed to be her uniform these days, but her baggy sweat pants was pushed down, her panties pulled to one side and her right hand was cupping her smooth mons and her left hand had pushed her sweater high enough to allow unrestricted access to her breasts. David watched for quite a while as Sharla played her sexy piano and caressed her breasts. "Well, they look a bit bigger than "A"s," The computer science major smiled to his self and recalled how warm and soft they had felt against his arms as he helped her to her home the day she had nearly passed out there in from of the frat house.
David had long admired Sharla from afar and had actually had fantasies of something like this, but he never once thought it would actually happen. He'd also dreamed of doing some thing sexual with her, but accepted the hard fact that it would never happen--it couldn't, not with him being a "nerd" and her a trend setting beauty. No, it just wouldn't ever happen. But even guys like him felt sexual stirrings, and urges. Though it had been a while, he felt his penis starting to quiver with vaguely familiar feelings, twitching and growing. It had been a while since he'd had a girl.
David could have stood there watching Sharla all afternoon long, never intending, never hoping never dreaming to do more, but something, perhaps the sound of his heart hammering inside his chest, or the sound of his male rising, caused the sensual coed to look up and see that he was watching her. A deep crimson flush spread over her face. But somehow, he was not certain whether it was the touch of her hands or being discovered like this that caused her color.
"Ohmigawd! David! How long have you been standing there?" she gasped and jerked her hands from under her garments.
"Not long."
"…but long enough," she suggested, surreptitiously wiping her right hand on the right leg of her sweats as she quickly adjusted her clothes to cover her nudity.
"You know, there's nothing to be ashamed of. It's perfectly natural to have feelings --"
Sharla continued to blush even deeper, closed her dark emerald eyes, and hung her head, her harvest auburn hair falling around her shoulders. She sighed heavily and without looking up, whispered, "I just couldn't help it. I really couldn't make it home this time. I really shouldn't have gone to the union. I only went there for a snack. And the crowd got to me again. I should have known better. There were a lot of the other kids there celebrating our win today. They were all talking about things and all those guys were thinking about the stuff they want to do to me, and the other girls, and well, I just can't help myself. It makes me want to do all those things too, but I'm just not like that. Kevin and I are separated and now I really don't know what else to do! I just have got to relieve the pressure when it builds up like that."
"I would love to help you, to help you work through this." David said, even more softly. He was starting to think that maybe--and just the thought made his own pulse pound and little David respond noticeably. He could feel his manly straining against the fabric as he moved slowly towards the trembling girl. Once again he was consumed with a curious feeling that made him wonder if the trembling was from embarrassment or something far different. An image of Kevin Caldwell formed in his mind. "Yeah, I know Kevin. Nice guy. But, if he's on the outs…"
David moved closer to Sharla and gently eased his arms around her shoulders, gazed into her eyes and then kissed her forehead lightly. The girl groaned, a soft, low growl from deep in her throat, then his tongue was suddenly engulfed and sliding easily into her mouth. Without realizing he was doing so his hands were then beginning to explore her body.
"Is it alright with you, if I do this?" David asked, hoping more than ever the answer was yes
Quietly gazing up at him, Sharla made a decision, and then kissed him again, though not quite as fervently. "But not here, not now," she sighed softly, leaning into his embrace as she slid her shapely body off the table and stood closely before him, "Would you mind very much walking me home again?"
"I'd be delighted, m'lady," he chuckled and took her hand. The sexy trendsetter, who had recently made "drab" fashionable on campus, found a strange comfort in his big hand holding her small one, and allowed the connection all the way to her door. While they made their way across campus, the witch noted several acquaintances that knew her to be sweet on Kevin Caldwell, were eyeing her with David Lowery in surprise. "Well, it serves him right! I can't help it if I can't stand to be in crowds! Hope he enjoys that perky blond cheerleader he was with Friday night."
When he paused at the door as if not going to enter the Winslowe home, she asked, "If you'd like to come in for a bit, I think I can find a fresh-baked cookie, or two, and a cup of chocolate?" She knew there was very likely no one home, and as the demands, which had driven her to seek solace in the library, were still very much upon her…well, David Lowery was about to get very lucky; she just didn't think he knew it as yet.
With a soft giggle, knowing his love of the "box" Sharla led David directly to her bedroom upstairs. "Wait here," she said and indicated the plush chair sitting before her pride and joy. She stepped into the walk in closet and pulled the door partially shut. The Lab Coat went on a hanger and the sweats went in the hamper. It only took a minute to slip on a sleeveless stretch top, some shorts, and her favorite sky high mules.
She stepped out of the closet and said, "I'll just run and get some snacks." She knew he would not mind at all when she added, "Go ahead and play with my box, its simply super as far as I am concerned."
The boy chuckled, but made no comment about "her box" as he watched her scurry away toward the kitchen. "Nice tush," he thought. "Too bad she has taken to hiding it all in those bags and that silly lab coat she wears now."
…It only took her a few minutes and then she was back with a plate of chips, crackers, and vegetable sticks; a bowl of dip, and two big cold mugs of Dew. Ever since he had helped her home that one time, she had a bit of a crush on David, thought he was incredibly handsome, with all that wavy, black hair and piercing blue eyes, loved the way he smelled and the sound of his voice, which had calmness to it that has soothed her so there in the library. Quivering with the urgency of her need, she imagined what his voice would sound like when overtaken with lust. It was all she could do to maintain her poise as she re-entered the room. The expression in his eyes when he looked up from the monitor, and took in the view she presented him, very nearly melted her then and there…
She parked this bounty on the corner of the desk and then pulled the vanity chair over near the corner of the desk before plopping herself on it and indulging in a well needed stretch of her arms and legs.
Reaching in front of him she called up an application and opened the current CompTech assignment. For maybe the next half hour they talked Geek and enjoyed it. Sharla could tell that her close proximity was affecting David but she was starting to smell the after effects of her earlier self ministrations.
"Would you mind if I got cleaned up a bit? If you want, there's a special Math Application on there you can call up and tell me what you think, when I'm finished." She knew that Math Application would pique his curiosity and hold his interest.
From the dresser, she picked a pair of electric blue Lycra dance shorts and a soft, white cotton tank top that would leave her midriff bare and expose her deep-set bellybutton. It went with the shorts. Once in the bathroom, she locked the door and indulged her body in a blasting hot shower. A quick blow dry and hair set by her water swatters and she was ready to slide into the Lycra dance shorts, no panty, as that would not be needed for what she had in mind. She slipped on the top and stepped into her mules. She knew what the three-inch heels did for her legs. She had not worn any makeup for months, and examining herself as she applied a touch of lipstick, decided she really did not need it.
Then she quietly exited the bathroom and stood just behind him. He was completely, utterly fascinated by the application. Reaching around his shoulders to position the mouse to activate a menu, she brushed her breasts against his back. A few heartbeats later he stood and faced her.
"How did God manage?" he asked, his eyes sweeping her from the tip of her toes to her loose flowing mane and then coming back to her emerald eyes. "So many brains and in such a beautiful package!"
Reading that expression, Sharla felt somehow compelled to show him that she could give him pleasure and to do so better than any women he'd ever found sexually attractive. But there was also something deeply personal about these desires. It was like, well, if she had just this one chance to be with him, it would fulfill her in some way. Looking into those eyes, she had this growing urge to show him how much of her self she had to give, how much raw passion was seething inside her. Suddenly her reality became graphically sexual. Sharla wanted to do what she saw in those eyes, his wanting her to devour him until she tasted the very essence of him in her mouth. She knew he imagined exactly what it would feel like to fill her body, front and, top and bottom, with his rampant manhood. More than anything else, she realized instantly, she imagined how good she wanted to make him feel. Though she doubted her skills, she had the need and desire and was determined to do her best.
Nearly two hours later, physically exhausted and sexually spent, wearing only a thong, ski-hi heels and her shorty robe, Sharla stood in the front door and watched as he went off down the front walk.
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In December, White running Bear started explaining how to make talismans by combining different plants, minerals, bones, and feathers. He started with the ritual tools of the Shaman. Each component was carefully explained in terms of Earth, Sky, Fire, or Water. Each combination and the method of joining were explained in terms of tradition. Sharla saw that there was a lot of reality, in terms of Red, Blue, and Green Energy in what the older Shaman was teaching. Each item selected had a distinct attached pattern of particular color energy. Different combinations resulted in different patterns. Late in December, he was teaching the arrangement of stones and pieces of plant to form a protective ward against spirit intrusion around a meditation point when Sharla was inspired. The pattern formed by the small interlocking swirls of energy served as a spiritual pole to draw forth energy from its surroundings and direct it outward in a specific pattern to accomplish a specific task.
It didn't take Sharla very much experimenting, tapping into her slowly growing energy reserves under the hospital, before she learned she could impose these patterns on any intersection. In her Valentine Jewelry case, she found a pendant. It was a pentagon inside a circle. Inside the pentagon was an inverted triangle with a ruby at one corner, a sapphire at the second corner, and an emerald at the bottom corner.
The week before Christmas, she had devised an amulet that would allow her the freedom to go out among crowds of people and not be swamped by their feelings. As long as she was wearing it, she was surrounded by a weave of green, blue, and red that kept the crush of emotions from reaching her. She could actually speak with men and not be affected by their masculine desires.
She wanted to celebrate being a part of the human race, able to become a participant of the college scene again. A mental conversation with Naomi, and a few phone calls were all it took to get the double trio prowling and partying that Friday night. The girls, Sharla with a very contrite Kevin, Jenny with the insufferable, Macho Man Kurt, and Naomi with her cuddly Charles were all once again "struttin their stuff" through all the hot spots. Saturday afternoon, Kevin offered the use of a three bed room, three bath, model home his dad had just furnished in one of the suburbs. It did not take long for everyone to pick up an overnight bag and some groceries.
********************
Sunday, December 21st was a day that Andrew was sure he would remember. Friday, for the first time in a long time, Sharla had gone out with Naomi and Jenny. Last night she had grabbed an overnight bag and split again, saying that she probably would not be back until sometime late Sunday evening.
Just for the heck of it, he called the national time service and was setting the digital clock in the kitchen. He had unplugged it for a while last night when he was cleaning the counter. He reset it to 8:36 and then sat back with the phone to check and see how close he had got it. "At the tone after ten seconds of silence it will be 8:37." He looked at the calendar Sharla had posted on the Refrigerator door and noticed that today was marked Solstice. He heard a beep and felt a sharp, short shock. A short gasp later he looked around, but could not figure where the shock had come from.
"Oh well, Momma and Daddy probably won't be down until lunch or later." It never occurred to him to consider why he had just used the feminine terminolgy in referring to his parents. He checked to see that plenty of OJ was mixed, and then grabbed a warm jacket and headed out for a walk. "Oh darn, I just bet someone is going to be awfully upset," he thought as he spotted a large cardboard box sitting forlornly on the edge of the street, almost in the center of their driveway.
Almost skipping, he moved to check out the box at the end of the driveway. It was just a common ordinary cardboard box, like the ones ten reams of computer paper came in. It was sealed with packing tape, and after he had checked all sides, he still could not find any shipping labels or invoice. "Must be someone's lost some Christmas Decorations," he thought. "I'd better take it inside and see if there is anything in the box to indicate where it belongs."
"Hmmm, it's not too heavy, so it can't be paper. And the bottom is just barely damp, so it has to have just landed here a few minutes ago." He shook the box experimentally. "Huummm! It doesn't even rattle, so it must be well packed." The kitchen looked somehow too neat, and some quiet compulsion urged, so he carried the box into his room. After checking the bottom again, he spread a towel, to protect his pretty new bedspread, then centered the box on his bed. Going to his new desk, he plucked a small knife out of the drawer, and wriggled his way back to cut the tape.
The lid literally popped apart, surprising him. He lost his balance and landed softly on his saucy, shapely rear end in the middle of the floor. He had grabbed the edge of the box as he went backwards. As a result, the contents, a veritable avalanche of soft lingerie in a rainbow of delicious colors suddenly flowed over and around him. His eyes widened, first in surprise, then in sheer delight! And frankly, more than just a little true feminine appreciation,
The box had been stuffed with fine, exquisite, young girl's lingerie, and some of it was very sexy. Soft silky slips, half-slips, camisoles, panties, bras, girdles, frills-and-lace garter belts, and seamed stockings, all in fine satin, silk, cotton, nylon and rayon. And there, right in front of his slim-fingered hand, was a gorgeous, matching bra and panty set in a sinfully delightful electric blue. There was a delicate black lace--just too divine—trimming each garment. Another incredibly powerful, impossible-to-ignore compulsion urged him into impossibly female action.
A few seconds had him stripped to his sensational buff beauty. Almost frantically the boy-girl pulled the black lace trimmed blue French bikini panty into place, very carefully tucking Little Andrew back and out of sight. He had learned to do that when he had started dressing in feminine clothing last June. The panties felt delightfully female. With fingers quivering he picked up the matching bra, slender fingers tracing the lines with anticipation. A tag said Princess 32 A. To his amazement it fit perfectly and proved to him, and anyone he might encounter, he truly had breasts.
Unable to fathom how all this could be happening, he then picked up a simply too-frilly garter belt he had noticed just before putting on the bra. Disbelievingly, he opened it and glancing at the tag, saw Princess 26. It slipped around his widening hips and fit perfectly. Giggling, he adjusted the straps to their full extension to lace them under the panty and depending down his legs from the leg openings. Without the slightest hesitation, he reached into the box and found a package of sheer, top-of-the-thigh, suntan, sandal foot nylons.
Almost frantic, he then ripped the package and literally savored the silken sensations as he slipped them up shapely legs to the tops of his firm thighs. With all his previous experience, he had no problem fastening the delicately webbed tops of the stockings to the garter tabs. Shivering deliciously, pausing briefly to allow breath and heartbeat to return to normal, he had then walked around all around his bedroom, softly caressing the panties and bra. "Oh, gawd, they feel so perfect on me!" He sighed happily, and realized the snug embrace of the nylons, being tugged by every step was just too delicious to describe.
"No! Something's wrong! Something's missing." There on the floor before him was one more piece of shiny light blue material with delicate black lace trim. With a nearly uncontrollable desire, the boy-becoming girl snatched it up and held it before him. Except for the lace across the front and up the shoulder straps, it looked like a miniature tank top. He didn't have to look at the tag to know it said Princess 34, nylon/lycra. Tiny quivers of purely girlish delight raced up and down his spine after he had slipped it over his head and pulled it into place. "There, now everything is perfect!"
And with all that said, and done, nothing he had ever experienced before had felt as right as wearing these beautiful lingerie items. With no further questions concerning ownership, Andrew, no it was Andrea now, carefully stored the new treasures he'd found in his drawers, and vowed to benefit from, and enjoy to the fullest, this surprise gift of a girl's most intimate clothing.
Somehow, he knew, he needed to talk to Sharla.
A nearly exhausted, butt-tired but jubilant Sharla arrived home to discover an anxious Andrew waiting for her. She promised him that after she bathed and dressed, she would be his for the entire evening. Something was very different about Andrew. Sharla soon realized that he was suffused with low intensity Blue Energy laced with fine threads of Red.
After getting cleaned up and dressed in matching thong, peignoir, and negligee with ski-hi mules, Sharla opened "La Caisse" and removed the second Diary. She was determined to try and read one of the volumes. She had done it every day all autumn with no results. Today would probably be the same.
She was ecstatic; she could read it. Unwilling to release it, she carried the book with her and settled at the kitchen table to find out what had Andrew so up tight.
"Nice, Sis" Andrew said, indicating her exotic garments.
"Thanks, Andy," Sharla replied, then grinning, "But, it is not my dressing gown you want to discuss, is it, Dude?"
"No. Sharla, early today, I found…" slowly, haltingly, Andrew explained about finding the box, then, more excitedly, telling of putting on the lingerie, and how good he felt while wearing such filmy flimsies.
"Sharla, don't expect me to explain it, I can't. Just believe me when I say it feels right for me to wear lingerie! Please?"
Under Sharla's gentle prodding, Andrew soon opened up the floodgates and poured out the story of the past year. Holding back his tears, he told her how he felt after his pneumonia bout, and how his lungs and body had been completely healed, showing no sign of scar tissue. About how weird he had felt, being almost completely hairless, not a single hair on his arms, armpits, or legs.
"Gad, Sharla, all the guys, and the girls on the team, had to shave. I didn't!"
He went on to explain how he had kept up the swimming to have an excuse for hairless legs.
"Then that didn't seem to matter much once I started hanging out with the girls."
"The girls all liked you, huh?"
"They all just treated me like I belonged there with them." He chuckled softly and said, "and it didn't matter to me all that much." He looked at her a bit dismayed. "You know, I didn't realize until just now how little it had mattered to be treated as one of the girls on that summer job. Or how good it felt when Sylvia had me dress in all that feminine finery as part of our lovemaking all summer.
A powerful shudder shook him and he looked at Sharla again with an expression of dismay. "Sharla, it felt so perfect to wear a dress and makeup that whole week before Halloween, and all the times I've gone out dressed since then!"
Taking him in her arms, she waited until the shudder passed to released him and brushed his hair back from his cheeks. "God, Andrew, I am so sorry I have…"
"No, you've always been here for me. I never came to you because I didn't want you to know…" he looked up at her again." …that even after you warned me not to, I went into your room and…" He choked on the confession and whimpered, "Darn it, sis, do you have any idea how confusing it is to think of your best buddy the same way the other girls on the swim team think about their boy friends. Sis, I have dreams of Frank making out with me like any of the other girls."
During this emotional purge, Sharla had glanced at the calendar on the refrigerator door.
"Do you have any idea what it makes me feel like to actually want to do to with Frank, my best buddy for God's sake, the same things the other girls talk about doing for with their guys?"
Today was the Winter Solstice. She remembered the flash of Blue Energy around Andrew on the Autumn Equinox. A bit more prodding and she discovered that her suspicions about someone digging in her room had been correct. On the Summer Solstice, Andrew had been trying to discover the "Secrets" of "La Caisse."
"Honest, Sharla, I just wanted to know what was so great about a musty old wooden box full of ragged old books with blank pages."
Something clicked. Sharla grabbed the Diary and started searching for the passage where Misty Dawn described having to put emergency wards on the box and books. Andrew stood at her shoulder and read the book along with her. "That isn't one of the same books, is it, Sharla?" She found the passage starting at the top of a left hand page. "They…that one…looks new and it has words in it?" She did not realize that Andrew was reading over her shoulder until he stopped her from turning the page. The book worked for Andrew the same way it worked for Naomi last summer. As long as Sharla was touching the page, he could read. When she removed contact with the page, he saw it as blank. "Gee, sis, this is so kewl!" They read through the description of the preparation of the books, the box, and the protective wards twice more. "Yes, it is. It has been a while since we studied together, hasn't it, Dude?"
Sharla closed the book and sat lost in thought while Andrew got glasses of milk and a plate of cookies. "Ha! There's not a whole lot of DUDE left in this package, sis." Again he laughed, but without humor
Taking a seat facing his sister, he said in a lifeless tone, "According to that, I am going to become a woman and be a witch when I am twenty one." The boy-girl looked at his sister and shook his head. "It's not 'will I or won't I' is it?" He laughed without humor. "Heck, I always thought magic was something for fiction, a storyteller's tool. But, the way that book acts and with what has happened to me, it makes me think it might be real." They finished the milk and cookies in silence. "Me? A witch! Can you imagine?"
Andrew rinsed the glasses and plate and placed them in the dishwasher. Bracing himself against the kitchen counter, a resolute expression on his too-pretty, too feminine features, Andrew announced. "Mom, Dad, Janine, and most of the people I know understand I am changing into a girl. Heck, most everyone already sees me as a girl. Your book says I will change completely. Since that is what is going to happen anyway, I think, starting, as of right now, I am Andrea, your little sister."
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© 2003 by Christy Lake. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos,
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