Crown of Throns: Ch 3

I never claimed to be a morning person. Or rather, I never claimed to be a person that was happy after waking up. I was generally grumpy. Waking up in an unfamiliar bed, with the memory of burning green eyes stuck in my mind, was not my favourite way to wake up. But, as the short moment of disorientation lifted, I realised that it was better than my last awakening. That memory caused another groan. My grown was answered by a growl, as my stomach reminded me that it had needs, needs that I had ignored yesterday. And now, it wanted to be sated.

Following the suggestion of my stomach, I decided to move. As I was too self-conscious to walk around in shorts, I grabbed the jogging-pants I had been given and, after a short deliberation what was worse, going commando or using the shorts I had slept in, decided against going commando and pulled the pants on. Now, more or less dressed, I felt ready to  leave the room, in search for Sandra. Or, the kitchen, if I couldn’t find her. Either was fine. If I couldn’t find her, I would have to raid the fridge, or risk that my stomach staged a revolt and started gnawing at my spine. 

As I only had a rough idea when it came to the layout of the house, I left the room I had slept in and was back at the front-door to start my exploration. Well, almost, there was a small cloak room before one entered the rest of the house, but I doubted that she was hiding in there. The room I had slept in, was directly to the left after leaving that cloak-room and on the opposite side was a closed door. I knocked softly but got no answer, so I walked further into the house, following the hallway.

The next door was on the right side and open, so I took a peak and realised that I had found the living room. But it was not only a living room, there was also a dining room table, so I had a clue where to find the elusive kitchen. It should be quite close to the dining room, so I advanced towards the newest hint I had found. As I walked through the couch-area, I noticed a picture, or rather painting, on the wall next to me, it was a painting of a castle, built on a windswept mountain and illuminated by flickering lightning from dark sky.

For some reason, the painting drew me in, captured my senses, it was simply fascinating. I had never been a great art-buff or really cared about art but this was something else. Not the subject or even the style, there was something, different about the painting.

My musing came to an abrupt end when the soft sound of someone clearing their throat ripped me from my trance. The surprise caused me to flinch, or that was what would have happened normally, but apparently I was still a little wired from the events of the night and I jumped in surprise, jumped away from the sudden noise. Only that the small hop that would have turned me to the noise turned out a little bigger than I had anticipated. I easily jumped a meter or two away from the noise, landing slightly awkward and imbalanced, causing another noise to fill the silence. A soft giggle came from the same direction the previous sound had come from.

“I see you are awake.” Sandra said with a wide smile on her face. “And you got some physical enhancement out of the events. Unless you were a human pogo-stick before.”

“Um, yes, I mean, no, I was not.” I tried to explain but my stomach felt it was the perfect moment to announce its presence and its need and issued another loud growl, causing me to blush. 

“Oh, my. I think we should do something about the monster you are hiding, before it feasts on both of us.” Sandra said with a small laugh and guided me forward, passing the dining table and into the kitchen. Sandra gestured for me to take a seat at her kitchen table, while she busied herself with a little bit of food preparation. Judging by her clothes she had already been up, maybe for some time, or she slept in jeans and a blouse. 

Breakfast or lunch, depending on your definitions, was a simple affair, some sort of bread with a selection of sliced sausage or cheese. I was offered either a choice between tea and coffee and quite happy when the tea was quite good, the familiar taste of green tea bringing a sense of normalcy to the strange situation. While I was eating, Sandra told me of the current state of affairs.

“I got into contact with the admissions-office at Potestatem and their school-years lags slightly behind ours. You should start highschool next week, right?” she asked, to ascertain things.

“Yes, I should. I was looking forward to it, actually.” I admitted with a wry smile.

“Potestatem officially starts a week later, but they have a freshman orientation the week before and open campus for that week and the week before that. Nobody ever thought it would be a good idea to have hundreds of Metahuman children arrive on the same day, all stressed out and nervous, so they give people a two-week period to arrive, stretching things out quite a bit. Trying to corral Metahumans is like herding cats anyway, no need to make it harder on yourself.” Sandra explained.

It sounded quite a good thing, but I was still wondering just why Sandra was doing so much for me. I had always heard about people keeping their private and professional life separate, but here was a Heroine, someone who should take that idea seriously, and she had brought me, something only connected to her via her work, quite literally home with her.

“Another thing we have to take care of, is your wardrobe. We will have to drop by your mother’s house and check how much of your old things is still wearable and fill up the rest so you don’t stick out too much.” she continued.

That idea was once more hammering home that things had changed, that I was no longer who I was used to be. Part of me wanted to just curl up and cry but a much bigger part told me to hold my head up high and deal with it. That the world had thrown me a curveball and I would just have to swing away, hoping for the best. Or something like that, I had never been into baseball.

“My sister will be ecstatic. She always tried to make me dress like a girl.” I said with a grimace. Not that I actually considered dressing girly. The idea to wear a skirt felt so utterly alien that I could not even imagine what it would feel like.

“Well, she can join us. Maybe, your mother as well. You should spend as much time with your family as possible before we have to leave. Unless you have some sort of tremendous reason not to, we will leave early tomorrow morning and get to Denver in the evening. As I have no desire to drive up to Potestatem during the night, and it would not do the school justice, we stay there for the night and I drop you off at the school Thursday morning.” Sandra told me, laying out the plans for the next few days. Her plans sounded as if she planned to drive the whole way, making me wonder why we couldn’t simply take a plane.

I finished my breakfast, focusing on the individual steps that I had to take, trying to keep my mind from thinking about the big picture. Going home, that was an easy step. Going shopping, possibly with my sister, that was, maybe not an easy, but certainly a manageable step. Thinking about the big picture, the fact that I was now a girl and a Metahuman, about to go to a school full of Metahumans, getting training in the usage of a power strong enough to melt rock? That almost made me lose my breakfast again, due to anxiety. So, one step at a time. 

“Let’s go, we are wasting daylight.” Sandra said, in a joking manner.

The drive home was mostly quiet, I was still milling about the things that had happened, were happening and would happen in the future, in particular, I wondered just why Sandra was doing what she was doing. It seemed like she was doing well above and beyond what anyone would have expected of her, even if I was not quite sure just what kind of expectations were levelled at one considered to be a Heroine.

“What is it like, being a hero?” I asked, trying to approach the topic from that direction. Maybe, if I understood that part, I was able to understand her motivation.

“Depends on the day of the week, Thursdays are the worst. Basically, we are glorified mascots that do double duty as emergency response-crews. We don’t interfere in normal police-work, unless specifically asked to, so it is mostly training and help during emergency work. For example, there is nothing like someone who can control fire, to help with a burning building. Or someone with physical strength, when they need the jaws of life. The big Hero against Villain fights you see on television and the news are a lot rarer than people think, for the average civilian, the chance to die in such a fight is roughly one-tenths compared to the chance to die in a car-crash. It is just that Metahuman-fights are so much more impressive, compared to the average car-crash.” she explained.

“At the same time, the heroes protecting a city are a big part of the cities image now, so if the heroes are popular, the city benefits in reputation and quite often the tourism numbers go up as well. Why do you think Shining Star and Powerhouse are the front-people of the team? A large part is because of their looks. Not that they aren’t competent and quite powerful but for example, there is a Metahuman, I think in Paris, who looks rather malformed, with a huge hunchback. He has power out the wazoo, but they keep him out of the media. Of course, that’s not official policy, people would cry ableism or body-shaming or something along those lines, but aesthetics and fashion develop for a reason.”

Listening to Sandra was quite interesting in itself, but I was no closer to understanding her, than I had been before and we were at my house, so I was unable to ask further.

Walking up to the door was an almost surreal feeling, I knew it was my home but at the same time I was no longer the one who had lived here. I still had my key, so getting in was no problem and I saw my mother’s car out front, so she was at home.

“Hey, I’m home!” I called out, after entering with Sandra on my heels.

Walking on auto-pilot, I walked towards my own room while looking for my mother, when my sister came out of the living room, with an angry scowl on her face.

“Who the hell are you?!” she asked, her voice angry, almost a growl. The challenge caught me flat footed, I wanted to say that I was her brother, but was I? I tried to get out some sort of response that would make sense, when her scowl broke into her evil grin.

“Just kidding, little bro. Even if I can’t really call you that, can I? Mom told me what has happened, unbelievable as it is.” she explained, while laughing.

Once again, I wondered just how my sister had survived that long without getting strangled. Part of it had to be the fact that she was small and, even if I was not allowed to say so as her brother, quite cute. She had the kind of face that made people go, ‘Oh, she’s just too cute to be mad at.’ and had always abused it with impunity. Luckily, she had rarely used it against me, mostly against teachers at school.

“Now, let me get a good look at the little sister I always wanted.” she demanded and started looking me over. While she did that, I thought about our relationship, we had always been opposites in many ways, she was outgoing, gregarious and personable, something I was decidedly not. 

“I’m afraid we’ll need to get going, there are a couple of things on our to-do list.” I told her, trying to get away from her. Dealing with her and her directness brought things to mind that I didn’t want to think about. Sadly, the avoidance was not to be, she happily followed along to my room, oblivious to my discomfort. Sandra split off when she saw my mother, leaving me to deal with my sister.

My old room gave me a sense of comfort, just being in the familiar environment, seeing the posters I had used to decorate my walls, some calligraphy from Grandfather, some manga-art and some images from martial arts movies, made me feel at home. The walls, lined with bookshelves, mostly fiction, mixed with some philosophy books and martial arts manuals helped, evoking cherished memories. Grandfather had often given me books to read before talking with me about them. It was part of his way of teaching me his particular style of thinking, forming me into the person I was. But I knew that trying to ignore the changes I had gone through was impossible, I could only move forward with them.

So, I would have to get to work. My sister entered the room just after me and I ignored her as much as I could, focusing on the task at hand, dividing my clothes into piles to take with me and to discard. Just looking at the things I had, I realised that I would have to replace quite a lot of stuff, due to anatomical changes. There were two parts of me, that had been altered drastically, my hips and my chest, both would make a lot of clothes no longer fit. 

As I was sorting through my clothes, Mayumi, my sister, had plopped herself down on my bed, watching me. 

“You know, little bro, it’s kinda strange. When we were younger, I always wanted to play with you and dress you up. Now, you turn into a girl and I just feel like I lost my little bro.” she finally spoke, her voice strangely soft. 

“Try being me. I have no idea who I am.” I snarled out. When I heard a small hiccup, I turned and focused on her. I had expected many things, but not tears streaming down her face. It was a shock, the times I had seen my sister cry could be counted on one hand, with fingers to spare. Feeling bad about snapping at her, I moved over, pulling her to me. We had never been big on physical contact, but hugging her felt appropriate. Somehow, seeing her tears tugged at me and I wanted to cheer her up. My sister should not be in tears, least of all because of me.

After a few minutes of her clinging to me and crying wordlessly, I tried to comfort her, “You will always be my big sister, you know?” I told her in a soft voice.

“Really?”

“Yes, really. You will just have to deal with a little sister, instead of a little brother.” I said, for the first time acknowledging my change out loud.

“Mhm. Little sisters are supposed to be a pain in the neck, but you won’t be, will you?” she asked, her voice sounding more like her.

“No more than I’ve already been. But, you have heard that I will go to some school out west, somewhere in Colorado?”

“Yeah, mom told me. I’ll miss you, you know?” I handed her a tissue and went back to sorting.

“I’ll go with you, when you go shopping. Your sense of style was alright for a boy, but I can’t have my sister walk around like that.” she announced.

“That might be a good idea.” Sandra’s voice added from behind. “Hi, I’m Sandra, I’m helping your sister with her changes.” she said, obviously directed at Mayumi.

“Yeah, mom told me. But still, I should introduce myself. Hi, I’m Mayumi, that one’s big sister.” she nodded towards me. 

“So, would you help me with giving your sister a crash course in how-to-woman?” Sandra asked and I could just hear the smirk in her voice. 

“Sure. What is the first lesson?” Mayumi readily agreed.

“Well, she is currently sorting just by size, right? We should add sorting by style and she’ll need to try things on. Oh and Cal, you will have to prepare for quite the temperature range, the Academy is in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, so you’ll have to be prepared for everything from mountain blizzards to blistering heat.” Sandra explained.

Soon, I had divided all my clothes and would have to try on most of the things I wanted to keep, just to realise that the pile had shrunken quite a bit, as Sandra and Mayumi had discarded clothes.

“I’ll need to change, could you get out?” I asked the two of them.

“No, lesson time. You will have to learn to change in front of other girls, the Academy has communal showers, not to mention your roommate.” Sandra announced.

Remembering that I had changed next to her the day before and had seen her naked, with her acting as if nothing special had occurred, I bit my teeth and started pulling off clothes. I was intensely aware of them, but they were good, not giggling or anything, not even moving. Trying on clothes proved to be an exercise in frustration, nothing but a few wide t-shirts and jogging pants was even remotely wearable, thanks to the changes my hip had undergone and the small, but definitely existent, breasts I had gotten. 

“I guess we’ll have to go shopping.” I announced, after going through the pile.

“Yes, and you will get some lessons in fashion-sense.” Mayumi announced.

“I’ll take you.” Sandra added, before turning her head sideways, as if just thinking of something. “We also will have to come up with a backstory, I think. If someone sees you, especially with Mayumi, you should have an alias. It would be better if nobody knows what happened to Calvin, any ideas, either of you?”

“She looks too similar to be anything but a relative. How about, my second-cousin from Japan came to visit her family, on her way to school. Sadly, the airlines have messed up and her luggage was lost somewhere, so we need to get her a new wardrobe.” Mayumi suggested. 

Sandra looked pensive for a moment, before asking, “Sounds plausible, is there actually a second cousin or are we just making that one up?”

“I don’t think there is a second cousin. But is that really necessary?” I finally managed to ask. 

“Yes, it is. And, to be honest, you need to get used to a new name anyway, it is something I wanted to address but had yet to find a good moment, but now is as good as anytime. Let’s face it, you don’t look like Calvin Sage any longer.” Sandra’s calm voice drove the point home. And it was true, when I had tried on clothes, I had noticed just how the little changes to my body added up. Slightly wider and differently angled hips, small, but clearly existent breasts and a myriad of other changes, each miniscule by itself but added together, they made me clearly female. Before, I had been a rather androgynous guy, now I was clearly all girl. And a girl called Calvin? Well, there was a song about a boy named Sue and I had no desire to get that treatment.

“So, what do you suggest?” I asked.

“Why don’t you get with you come up with a good name for you and you can try it out? Maybe ask your mother, she gave you your current name, so I think she would be happy to be asked.” Sandra suggested, keeping things logical and reasonable. In a way, she was an invaluable guide, keeping me sane when my reality had turned insane.

Mayumi and I went searching for our mother, finding her in the living room, going over something.

“Hey mom, want to give little sister a new name? Calvin hardly fits any longer.” Mayumi blurted out. Mother looked up and I realised that she was looking at an old photo-album, containing pictures of our father. She almost looked calm, but there was a tension around her eyes. 

“Don’t worry mother. I’m still your child, just a little different than before.” I told her softly, trying to calm her. “As I told Mayumi, I will just be her little sister, instead of her little brother. So, I’ll just be your daughter, instead of your son.”

The tension around her eyes lessened a little, as she gathered herself, “Your father and I had a deal that girls would be named in my tradition, boys in his. We never wanted to know the sex of our baby before birth, so each of us picked a name. If you had been a girl, you would have been named Kana. What do you think, do you want to be named Kana?” mother asked.

My mind went over the name, it was a rather simple name in english, but unless my memory deceived me, there were multiple meanings for it in Japanese, as were for most things. It was a name I could live with. 

“Kana, Kana-chan, yes, I think I’ll like that. Now, I just have to get her to call me onee-sama and I’ll be happy.” Mayumi mused. She had developed quite a bit of interest in japanese anime and had, from time to time, tried to get me to address her in the traditional style. It was a little strange, she was thoroughly western in her behaviour and speech but wanted that part. Maybe, I should make the effort, if I was playing the tourist from Japan and it would make her happy.

“Kana? Thank you, mother, I will treasure the name.” I said, smiling to calm her. It seemed to work, the tension vanishing so I continued, “Mother, Mayumi-neesan and Sandra-san have proposed that I should go shopping for the things I lack, there are quite a few. Would you like to join us?” Mayumi looked slightly shocked, it was the first time I had indulged her. Well, almost. 

“No, I don’t think so. I will prepare a nice dinner for the family, Sandra told me that you will leave in the morning.” she told me, while standing up and walking over to Sandra, telling her something in a low voice, that I could not hear.