Chapter Four

I could barely believe that just down the street was the sailor scouts. I wiped my eyes, making sure I wasn't seeing thinks, wishful thinking or something and at last, my search around Tokyo was over. I started to run to catch up, when I stopped after a few paces… Running in a skirt. No, no! Or at least till I learn to run as a girl. I could never understand why girls ran so differently then boys. Boys it's on simple action. Lean forward and get to where you want to go. Girls tend to do some kind of hopping run, with their arms moving back and forth and in and out. I wasn't about to try running like that. I walked after them so I wouldn't loss them. Maybe they'll window shop, stop and talk or go in somewhere. I can catch up to them walking if they do that.

While I was following them, it occurred to me. How do I join the group? I have to act like Ami now. By all rights I should be reading something and they find me. That's how Ami usually meets the others. Or our paths cross. I don't think I've ever seen Ami come up behind them. And what do I say, "Hi?", "What's new?" As much as I wanted to meet the scouts, now I was thinking I didn't. What if they found out who I really was? Would they accept me like this? So far I had forgotten things at home, including my transformation pen and mini-computer, I got lost (well kind of), and I kissed Andrew. Apparently I can't control my emotions. I probably couldn't act like Ami either. Maybe this was all a bad idea. Maybe I should've hide in my bed and hoped this would all go away.

I was about to turn around and leave then I heard a male's voice call my name, "Ami-chan!" My heart skipped a beat. Maybe there was a cute guy Ami was dating or someone I could talk to instead of the scouts. I pivoted around to 180 degrees turn, and looked, no one was there. Anyone who could have called my name would have had to yell. This didn't make any sense. I looked from left to right trying to figure out who called me, when I heard it again, "Ami-chan!"

I guess the sound was coming from the ground, as I looked down a white cat was there. "Epp!?" I said, reacting without thinking, as I jumped back.

"Ami-chan, Are you ok?", Artemis the white guardian cat asked me.

"Ah, fine Artemis. You spooked me.", actually just the fact that a cat was talking to me was enough to spook me. Ami probably would have found it normal, I on the other hand wasn't expecting it.

He looked up at me, "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean?", I replied.

"Weren't you following the others?"

Oh boy, caught by the fur ball. Now I'd have to think of an excuse why I was walking a block behind them. I looked at him for a split second trying to think about a excuse he'd believe. As I looked at him, he looked at me, waiting for an answer, that or looking up my skirt. Wait a sec; is he looking up my skirt? That dirty little pervert. From his angle he could look up my skirt. Or any other girls skirt. He could even walk under girls that didn't know him and they would never suspect. I was ready to kick him as punishment for his evil acts. I wondered if any of the other scouts suspected him of peeping. Especially when they're scouts.

I was ready to yell at him, when I realized that I had no proof and I don't think he was looking up my skirt. At least not right now. His angle of his head suggested that he was looking at my face.

"Ah, I wasn't sure if it was the others or not.", I replied.

"Not sure? You can't recognize Usagi's hair?"

"Bunny? What's a bunny have to do with anything?"

* (If you don't know, 'Usagi' means 'Bunny' in Japanese, this is something I didn't figure out till later.)

"Usagi... You know..." his voice lowered, " Sailor Moon."

"Oh, yea, Usagi. Of course I knew her hair." I replied. Actually I had no idea what he was talking about. Serena was Sailor Moon, not a bunny. Maybe Artemis is on drugs or too much catnip or something. IN retrospect, I could see her having a nickname of Bunny. Her hair kind of resembled two bunny ears. But I know the more common nickname for her was meatball head.

"Well, let's go join the others." He said, as he jumped onto my shoulder. Initially I was unsure about him sitting on my shoulder, but decided to let him. The moment he tried anything I was going to throw him into next week and at least he can't look UP anything from the high position my shoulder height provided.

I walked towards the scouts, a little faster. At least with Artemis on my shoulder I had an excuse not to run. Plus I doubt he would like it. He'd probably bounce right off my shoulder, among other things bouncing.

It took a few second till I caught up to the other scouts. I didn't know what to say. Should I say 'hi?' or someother greeting? The plus side of having Artemis with me was he had a big mouth.

"Hey girls!" He practically yelled in my ear. But he did make the initial contact for me, which made my life easier.

"Ami-chan, where were you?", Serena asked me straight out.

"Oh, ah, I was a little busy." I replied. Well, it was half true.

Luna, who was sitting on Serena's shoulder spoke, "You ever get those scans Ami?"

"Scans?" I puzzled, I didn't know anything about scans, but then again, I couldn't figure out Ami's mercury mini computer so I couldn't tell if she ever did any scans. "Nothing yet. I'll take another scan later."

All the scouts were there, Serena, Rei, Lita and Mina. Plus Luna and Artemis. I felt privileged to be in their presents. The famous sailor scouts. All the emotions I had when I had crushes on each of them resurfaced. I glimpsed at each of them discreetly. Lita's boobs looks as big as I remembered. She was wearing a one-piece green skirt with black spandex under clothing. Rei's legs, was pretty nice too. She was wearing shorts and a red shirt with a baseball cap. Serena was wearing over sized coveralls with a yellow T-shirt. Mina was wearing black jeans, and a blouse. She also had her normal red bow on. I wondered what her hair would look like without her bow.

"Well, what do we do now?" Rei posed the question to the group.

"There isn't anything we can do till we know more." Luna answered. Apparently there was some kind of issue going on. By the sounds of it, it must have been some kind of scout emergency. I was a bit more worried about my importance in finding out whatever information with MY scans. Then occurred to me. Could some enemy force have switched me with Ami so I couldn't report about those scans? I listened to their voices. I knew my voice sound strange, but did the others. I listened and knew all their voices were different. Also Luna, Artemis, Chad, and Andrew's voices were different from what I remember off the TV show. Not everyone could have been switched. Even if they were switched, this conversation would seem more confusing. Everyone would be tripping over what to say. Everyone knew what the other was talking about but it didn't sound like a social conversation about normal high school girl life.

I made a decision; I couldn't risk everyone else because I wanted to pretend to be Ami. "Ah, guys, I'm not Ami." I said.

They all looked at me. I could see them trying to understand the meaning of my words.

"What do you mean Ami-chan?", Serena asked in that sweet caring way she did almost everything when it came to her friends.

"Serena, I'm not Ami. I know I look like her, and I think I actually am her, but I'm not her up here." I pointed to my head, trying to illustrate my point.

The girls all looked at each other. I guess they were trying to figure out what I was saying. When Mina asked me, "Ami, this is Usagi."

"Usagi?" I replied confused. Artemis said bunny too, but I didn't understand what he was talking about till now. Could I be in some kind of alternate Sailor Moon universe? Sailor Moon was names Serena, not Usagi.

"Usagi?" I puzzled over it for a minute. "I thought her name was Serena."

"No", confirmed Rei.

"Well, your Rei, right?"

Rei answered, "Yea."

"And Lita?" I pointed to Lita.

The scouts looked at each other, probably trying to figure out if I had lost my mine or not. Unsurely Lita responded while pointing to herself, "Makoto".

Well, I knew my cover was probably blown. Ami would have known everyone's name. Oh well. Cover or not, I did realize that the voices sounded different but then again, their names were different too. Why? They had to know their own names. Maybe they were other people and were using their real names. I guess I was the only American transferred.

"Did anything weird to any of you happen this morning?" I posed the question testing the ground. The others seemed to look preoccupied with why I was acting so strange I guessed but 'Bunny', in true Serena fashion started telling a tale of her dreams, involving Derien, or at least whom I assumed was Derien. She used the name Manrou or something like that. But only Serena could talk about Derien with that love-struck look in her eyes. Love is blind I guess and watching Serena's reaction, Love is also deaf, dumb, and ignorant. The others had to call out Bunny's name and snap their figures to wake her out of her trance.

While they were trying to wake 'Bunny' up from her daydream it accrued to me while I mentally thought about some of the scenes from the Sailor Moon TV shows I knew. Bunny head images seemed to be all over the show. Serena's blankets on her bed had bunnies and Moons on it. Also the occasional reaction bubble had a bunny head in it. Could that be related to the mix up I was in the middle of? It also accrued to me, would I actually see one of those daydream bubbles? Being a cartoon and all.

Well I snapped my back to the situation at hand. I felt a little relived telling them that I wasn't Ami. At least now I didn't have to pretend and worry my cover would be blown. I decided I would avoid the subject of my true sex though. You could only really guess how the others would react and I prefer the freedom of doing what I wanted and not being second-guessed about everything I did.

I took a deep breath, feeling more relieved. Unfortunely, the other scouts didn't quite understand what I was telling them.

"Ami-chan, maybe you should lay down, you might be sick." Mina suggested.

"I agree Ami-chan, you don't seem to be acting like yourself.", Lita, or was it Makoto agreed with Mina.

I sighed. Apparently I wasn't getting anywhere. I was tempted to going back to my original plan, and try to say I was only fooling. But after more contemplation, I decided my original thinking that this scan business and the fact that a enemy could have been the cause of my swapping bodies with Ami was too important to ignore. I'd have to try to explain it again. At least this time they were more receptive to what I was saying.

"Ok, Mina, everyone!" I started.

"I'm Minako." Mina stated.

"Right, Minako...", I tried to submit that to memory, as I figure out how to recap my situation. One thing was for sure, I wasn't going to tell them what I did when I woke up and my true sexual preference. I figured the best thing to do was start off with my name, " My name's Sam.", I started without realizing the implication the name Sam implied. Luckily, Sam stood for Samantha as well as Samuel. SO even if they were tipped off to me being a boy from my name, it would have been shrugged off. I personally didn't realize the mistake I almost made till after I was done telling my tale. I continued, outlining 'REAL' life as a American teenager, leaving out anything that could hint to my being male, but the lack of information could have also been as tragic as my confessing. I suppose I should have mentioned something like, "I'm a cheerleader at school." Or something to reinforce my female persona, which I tried to imply, was my normal everyday life; but I didn't. I then briefly, purposely avoiding any mention of my confirming and exploration of womanly form of which I was now in. I did pass on a brief description of my travel trying to find them, also leaving out the fact that I had kissed Andrew. I knew some of the scouts would probably skinned me for revealing that I, or that is Ami kissed Andrew before they did.

After my tale was brought to the current period, I waited for their reaction. I'm not sure which parts they had the hardest time absorbing, the fact I wasn't Ami, they were in a TV show and everyone knew that they were Sailor scouts, or the living cartoon bit. I don't know if I would have believe any of it if someone I knew tried to pass on the same information onto me while I was in my own world. The more I thought about it, the more I understand their initial reaction.

"Ami, your sick. We should take you to the hospital.", was Rei's first response. I didn't quite know how to convince them past what I just told them. Any fact I knew watching the TV show, Ami would know. They defiantly thought I was mad or unbalanced. I had very little recourse, but to use my last card and try to blackmail them into believing me.

"Look, girls, I know you think I'm crazy, but if you guys dismiss what I told you and try to send my to the nut house, I'll yell out who the Sailor scouts are, by name."

This gave them a reason to humor me and it looked to work. They all looked to each other, trying to decide what to do. I just hoped they wouldn't risk sending me to the nut house assuming that anything I said to anyone about the scout's identities would be taken as confirmation of my madness. "Look, give me a chance, and if I still seem crazy to you then I'll go to wherever willingly." This seemed to help me a bit, since now they seemed to be more agreeable.

"So, what do you think we should do Ami…I mean Sam." Luna quired.

I had to think about it for a second, then I assumed the logical step would be to see about those scans. "Well, those Scans Ami was suppost to make might help me figure out what happened."

"Alright, where's the mini-computer." Rei asked me, with her hand out.

I sheepishly turned red as I told them; "I left it at Ami's place, along with my transformation tool." I could see them look at each other. This was something Ami would never have done, which only helped them believe me. I couldn't help but to think of a Star Wars analogy, or Luc Skywalker and Dark Vader. Dark Vader telling Luc that he, was Luc's father, and to join the dark side. The scouts must be thinking something similar, 'I am not Ami, and follow me into my delusional madness.' At least we aren't trying to kill each other with light sabers.

We All started to head back towards Ami's home, which I was useless navigating back to. The irony was, we were only a few blocks away. As we reentered the building I fished out the key I had taken so I could open the door. The look of the others indicated that they were semi-surprised to see me with it. I briefly mentioned that in my world, we locked doors too. I seemed to be less nervous about looking at my reflection now. I don't know why, maybe it was because I also had the other scouts with me. Why look at one beautiful girl when you could look at four?

The elevator door opened and I headed to the apartment door, remembering where it was from the elevator. I slipped the key into the lock, turned it and heard the door click as it unlocked.