With Adele's help, I found a pair of camouflage cargo pants I liked a lot. They had a green and gold and maroon pattern that resonated with my sense of color—and they had a ton of pockets. It kind of went against my shopping instincts to buy something at my first stop, but I really did need the pockets.

"Take them in and try them on," she said pressing a stack of clothes on me. "There's the green in small and extra-small and I included both in the other colors you were looking at, too."

I'd made the mistake of checking out a pair in fake camouflage colors of lavender, magenta and navy, thinking of my "sister," Karen, aka Maiden Fly. Adele assumed that I would want them, too. I didn't argue but headed toward the dressing room. The girls' dressing room, of course, but I didn't even waste mental effort on resenting that.

I hadn't seen myself in big mirrors before, and the ones in the dressing room wrapped around and gave me a 360 view. I looked so much like my sister Tanya that I almost wanted to puke but frowning or pouting just increased the resemblance. I tried a big goofy fake smile and almost made myself laugh: Tanya when she was really trying to be human had a grin like that.

Sigh.

I still had Gumpy's $300 clutched in my hand. I carefully put that down on the bench, kicked off the slippers I had ruined and pulled down the green slacks I had been wearing since the garage. My legs looked fine, I decided, but I didn't want to be showing them off to anyone, so I hurried to try on my possible purchases.

Unfortunately, the cargo pants in extra small fit me like they were tailored to my new shape. The small felt about two sizes too big. I almost resented being tiny more than being a girl. I even tried on the pinkish ones to be sure that they would fit Karen, if ever needed. The bright colors went with my complexion better than the drabber ones, but that wasn't what I was buying them for.

I put the extra-small green pair back on. I would wear these out of the store, I decided. I turned a few times in front of the mirrors, just checking out the fit and suddenly stopped, staring back over my shoulder at the rounded, upside-down heart-shape my ass made in the new pants.

"Crud," I said out loud.

Nothing for it, though, any clothes I wore that fit halfway decently would likely make my new sex obvious. I gave myself an over-the-shoulder Tanya-look and stuffed the money into my new pockets. I snagged everything else, including the shoes and pants I had worn to the mall, before leaving the dressing room to pay for things.

* * *

Adele had been helpful, but I wanted to buy shoes from a shoe place, and there were several outlets in the mall. Two pair of cargo pants had cost less than eighty dollars so I still had plenty of money and a bag holding my old green slacks and the pink pair of cargos I had gotten for Karen. I buttoned my money into one of my new pockets and headed on down the mall.

What kind of shoes did I want? Cross-trainers sounded like a good idea or perhaps running shoes, maybe a pair of each. I stopped and looked in the windows at a couple of places. Nothing caught my eye until I lingered in front of one of the major brand outlet stores and saw a pair of black and orange trainers with neon green stitching. Women's sizing but not especially feminine looking, I figured they might work well with my new cargo pants.

I looked up and realized that two of the shoe guys in the store were looking back at me. I smiled by reflex and, I swear, they both got big grins of the kind Gumpy would probably call 'shit-eating'. They must really need a sale, I thought. The shoes had a price beside them of $58 marked down from $109. I could afford that and have enough left for some real running shoes, maybe.

The guys inside looked at each other and something went on between them, the taller one headed toward me, and the other turned away looking disgusted. What was that about, I wondered?

The shoe guy walked up to me, and I realized he was probably only nineteen or twenty, maybe younger. A good-looking sort with that self-satisfied smirk of a jock in one of the mainstream sports. He didn't look tall enough for basketball or bulky enough for football so I would guess baseball, the season just beginning.

"Can I help you find anything, miss?" he asked politely, though he stood a bit closer to me than I really liked.

Backing up half a step, I pointed at the trainers. "I'd like to try those on," I said, not looking at him because I would have had to look up.

"Sure," he said, taking note of the style number. "What's your size?"

I knew I had tiny feet, so I guessed; "Six in most sneakers," I said.

"Noobs run small," he said, "I'll bring them in six and six-and-a-half. You wanna see any other colors? They also come in blue and gray."

I shook my head. He had moved up close to me again, and I felt a bit of something. Not exactly unpleasant but nothing I was used to feeling. Damned antenna, I thought.

He disappeared into the back, and I took a seat in one of the chairs. I took off my battered slippers and put on a pair of footies offered by the other shoe guy who lingered nearby, not quite staring at me. I thought about glaring at him to discourage whatever he might be thinking, but I guess I am just too polite.

The first guy returned with four boxes in one hand and two in the other and pulled up one of those trapezoidal shoe-salesmen stools in front of me. "I brought the other colors, anyway," he said. "Maybe if you really like them, you'll buy more than one pair."

I had to grin at that, he was a salesman after all but when he flashed a brilliant smile back at me, I felt like I had swallowed an ice cube. Unable to tell him not to for a moment, I let him try the first pair of black and orange shoes on my feet. They seemed to fit perfectly, though I felt a little short of breath when he touched my instep.

He slid his stool back and stood, offering me a hand. "Wanna walk around in them?"

I stood up without his help and strode around the store a bit, even doing a ten-yard dash down one aisle, which made him laugh. "Oh," he said. "You're a runner!"

"You can tell?" I asked. "Just from that?" I was pleased though.

"Sure," he said. "You've got the moves. Track and field or cross country?"

"Uh, cross," I said.

"Me, too," he said. "I play baseball in the spring."

I blinked. "Me, too," I said.

"You mean softball," he suggested. "Infield?"

"Utility," I said. "You're a pitcher?" I asked, considering his height and lean build.

He nodded, looking pleased. "How'd you guess that?"

"Probably the swagger," I said. Nobody can pitch without enough ego to stand in front of someone trying to hit a 90 MPH ball back at them.

He grinned and nodded with a self-deprecating smirk, and I had to laugh. His eyes twinkled as he laughed, too. I looked away, surprised because... I wasn't sure why I was surprised.

"Wanna see the other colors?" he offered.

I nodded. The gray pair had purple accents and magenta laces, and I surprised myself again by wanting them. "I'll take those, too, and the ones I'm wearing," I said. Maybe Karen could wear them.

"You wanna try on the bigger size?"

I shook my head. "These fit perfect." I dug into my pocket for my money.

He put my old slippers into the box the trainers came in, and we moved toward the register. I added the bag he handed me to the one holding the extra pair of pants I had bought. The total came to about $126, and I still had almost $100 left of the money Gumpy gave me.

"Jimmy," he said as he handed me my change. "I'm Jimmy."

"D-Darla," I said. When our hands touched, I felt an electric current run up my arm. I felt sure it had turned my ears red when it reached them.

"You're in high school? Where at?"

"Rancho Palos Verdes," I lied, naming a school up in L.A. County.

"Slumming down here in the Orange?" he asked grinning.

"Something," I said. I had to get out of there. I had to get away. I knew I might give him my phone number if he asked for it. I turned toward the mall, trying to get moving without saying anything else.

"Bye, darlin'," he said. Not Darla, which was bad enough; I felt sure he had said, "darlin'."

I didn't quite hurry getting out of there but when I reached the next corner of the mall corridor and looked back, Jimmy and his partner in shoes were still watching me. They waved.

I waved back. I don't know why I did that.