Natalie Will Be Spending Her Night at Jill's

"You should come back to my place tonight," Jill suddenly said. I actually jumped. I'd been so engrossed in my own thoughts that I had completely forgotten that Jill was still walking beside me. I looked back at her. "Your place?" I asked, trying to hide my surprise. Jill didn't have a "her place". She was staying with us while she was on break from school. Obviously, this fell into the box checked "unexpected side effects". She gave me a weird look. "Why not?" she asked playfully. "It's been a long time since you and I have had any sister time. It'll be fun. I can invite a few friends over." "I don't know," I said. I wasn't sure I liked the sound of this. On one hand, it would give me an opportunity to see how badly I'd screwed up Jill's life, but on the other hand, I wasn't sure I wanted to go. I'd never been incredibly comfortable around people I didn't know. In pre-wish land, I'd never known any of Jill's friends, not that she'd had very many. It was quite likely that I wouldn't know any of her current ones anyway. "It's a school night and everything." She scoffed. "Second day of school Natalie. It's not like they're going to cover anything earth shattering." She paused. "Besides, if you're that concerned, I can give you a ride in the morning. Come *on*," she begged. "Please. It'll be a really good time." I sighed. I had the rock with me. I could probably fix anything that might go wrong ... *Whoa! Arrogant much?* So far everything I'd done with the rock had turned out wrong on one level or another. *Except for the initial wish,* I thought. As far as I knew, nothing too terrible had happened because of my sex-change wish ... at least *yet*. It was the rock that was making me feel like this, like I could fix anything, and I knew it. What worried me the most was the fact that as much as I tried to fight it, I was losing. "Fine," I told her. "We can go back to your place tonight." I thought about Karyn and how much I wanted to share with her. *Aside from that first wish, of course,* I thought. I still wasn't comfortable with the idea of talking to her about that. Maybe someday, but not yet. "But I definitely need to make it to school tomorrow." "Deal," she told me. "I'll give mom a call and let her know you're coming to my place tonight. Then tomorrow morning, I'll just drop you off at your house. Okay?" "Sure."