Five years had already passed since she tricked people into thinking she was a boy. She still could. It wasn't fair! She was eighteen today and still, she looked like a plank. Apart from her thick hair, there was nearly nothing feminine about the way she looked. There were no hips, nearly nothing in the way of breasts, nothing to suggest that she was a girl.
"Jack! Wake up girl! Your breakfast is getting cold!" She could hear the excitement in Imam's voice. The holy man had been the closest thing she ever had to a father.
"I'm coming Imam!" She called back down. Glancing back into the mirror once more before getting dressed, she couldn't help but sigh. It was ridiculous to think that she would wake up one day looking like a woman. She had gotten her hopes up too high again. But even half a cup size would have been appreciated. Jack wasn't going to let that ruin her birthday. After all, she was eighteen today and that was major. Bounding down the stairs, Jack fastened a smile to her face and hope that Imam wouldn't sense what was bothering her. He had always been good at that.
"There you are!" suddenly she was enveloped in Imam's robes, the holy man holding her tight. "My little Jack is eighteen today, I can hardly believe this!"
"Imam, let the girl breath!" Sita pulled her husband from the girl before giving Jack a tight hug of her own. "Come, I've made french toast and bacon and eggs as you like them and I promise no one will mention how much you eat." She smiled lovingly at the girl she had come to think of as her own daughter.
"Thank you Sita, thank you Imam. You both are the best!" her grin was real this time, she could not hold back the joy and humor in what Sita had said. Jack had always eaten a lot and never gained an ounce. Sita and Imam had found it hysterical, Sita almost laughing in disbelief the first time she had seen Jack eat when she moved in with them a year and a half prior.
Sitting at the table, Jack laughed so hard she almost cried, there were candles in the french toast and a beer had been set in front of her plate.
"Beer? Imam you never drink, defiantly not for breakfast."
"I seem to remember a certain mirror eyed friend of ours saying the best way to start a birthday was with a beer for breakfast. Today, you are old enough." His smile faltered for a second.
"Thank you Imam." They both looked down for a moment, remembering the man who had saved their lives three years ago. The man who had stayed with them for only a few months before leaving silently without telling anyone.
"Enough of the pensiveness you two, eat before I eat it all myself." Sita said as she piled Jack's plate with food.
"Happy birthday Jacky!" her friends had surrounded her at her gift-wrapped locker, all with a sharpy ready to write more notes of love and lucky wishes and inside jokes.
"Wow! Thank you guys so much!" Jack couldn't believe how many friends she had made in the two years she had been at her school. It had taken her a year to be comfortable around so many people before Imam finally stopped homeschooling her. "I can't believe you guys did this all for me!" she laughed with her friends, reveling at how she had finally become a normal teenage girl. It had been so long ago that she had almost died on a planet of monsters, ridden away in a ship with the universes' most notorious convict and a holy man, and had been picked up by a ship full of holy men on their way to Mecca.
"Oh my god Jacky, I can't believe you're the first one of us to turn eighteen and you're not having a party!" Celine handed Jack a plate full of brownies, in fact, almost all her friends had made her sweets. Jack appetite had become somewhat of a legend.
"Imam and Sita offered but I figured I could use some other things instead. Thank you guys so much! I can't wait to eat all this stuff!" she grinned and giggled and laughed at the things they had written on her locker.
"We're gonna be late for first period!" the bell had rung and they had all scattered to their respective classes, but not before shoving a crown on Jack's head and demanding she keep it on all day. Walking to class after class, Jack was greeted by friends who commented on the frilly pink thing on top of her head. She had never been one to like pink frilly things and was just as likely to play football with the guys as she was to go shopping with the girls.
The day was almost over, two more periods to go and one of them was s study hall. Thank whatever god Imam prayed to that she could get her homework done before she went home. It was bad enough she had to study for three hours everyday, added homework would only make that worse. But in Imam's house, she would have to study and go to college, all of which he had offered to pay for. "Jack Al-Walid please report to the main office." The intercom had buzzed on. Everyone turned to look back at her.
"What? I didn't do anything this time." She grinned at them before picking up her bag and leaving. Walking down the hall, she fell into a contemplation. It really had seemed like another life. Imam and Jack had built a life without Riddick but when he had been there, things had always been fun. Except at night. When Jack woke up screaming from nightmares that Riddick shooed away. Some nights he would sleep next to her bed just so he would be there when she woke, assuring her that those monsters were back on their own planet and that Johns wouldn't get her.
"Jack, there you are. Your guardian is here to pick you up, it seems you have a doctor's appointment." The receptionist opened the door for her. "Happy birthday, by the way."
Sita waited on a bench for her, grinning from ear to ear. Jack brow knitted together. As they walked out of the high school, Jack finally questioned Sita.
"Oh no dear you don't have a doctor's appointment. I didn't think you would mind getting out of school early to do a little shopping." They both laughed.
"Happy birthday dear Ja-ack! Happy birthday to you!" Sita set the cake down before Jack and the couple cheered as she blew out the candles. There weren't many presents on the table, things from her friends and from Imam and Sita.
"Open ours first!" Sita pushed a box into her hands as Imam smiled. Jack tore off the paper and opened the box to find a book. Most Dangerous Convicts of the Century jumped out at her in dark shined print. Her head jerked to Imam.
"Guess who's number one." Jack laughed so hard she cried as she opened the book and saw her hero staring up at her. The flash from the camera made his eyes shine up through the mug shot. She began to read the note next to the picture, forgetting about the other presents. "Read it later, Jack. There are others." Imam gently took the book from her hands and set it aside, handing her another box.
Jack had received more books, clothes, even some makeup and hair dressings. All of her friends had chipped into to get her a huge gift they had stapled a note to. Things that every woman will need! Imam turned an amazing shade of scarlet as Jack pulled out thongs, condoms, bras that were much too big for her, a small bullet shaped thing that vibrated when Jack pushed a button that made Sita spit out her coffee and a pack of things call breast enhancers that came in three sizes. They looked like little chicken cutlets. There was more in the box but Jack thoughts she would spare Imam the embarrassment, although she had laughed so hard she had almost peed a little.
"There's one more left Jack." Sita picked up a very small box. "But it doesn't say who it's from." Jack looked up and took the box.
"Probably from Jen, she always forgets to sign things."
"But didn't she give you the eyeshadow kit?"
"Yeah…" Slowly, Jack unwrapped the gift and opened the box. Inside was a crystal that she had never seen before, shaped as a circle. She pulled it out of the box to reveal a silver chain and a tiny note.
Sorry kid.
Was all the note had said. Two words that struck her down to her very core as she turned her wide gaze to Imam. He took the note as she turned the crystal up to the light. It turned from silver to a purple color and from that to a shade of orange. It looked like a sunrise.
"Who in their right mind would send a young woman such a gift without telling her who it was from?" Sita saw the look on her husband's face a settled down into her chair. "What is it Imam?" Jack slowly put the necklace around her neck and closed the clasp. It fell to her breast bone on it's short silver chain.
"You do not need to worry Sita, it is merely an old friend making a long awaited apology." Imam stared into the crystal sphere.