An explosion shook me from the inside, warm red liquid ran into my vision, and I was on my hands and knees. I crawled to a big block shaped phone attached to a cord on the wall but I didn't have the strength to reach for it. The pounding in my ears clouded my hearing, but I figured out the telephone was ringing. I tried to lift my body on the support of my knees, but I would only end up back on the floor withering in pain. I refused to give up and kept trying; till I pulled the cord and the phone collided against the polished wood floors.

A voice called out, "Alfred! Alfred! Are you alright?! Answer me!"

"Artie?" I groaned, but I quickly realized this was not my voice. It was deep and masculine.

Then I turned to face a full body mirror that was across the room and found Alfred staring right back at me.

I screamed as I rose out of bed, sweat ran like bullets down my back and chest and my hair stuck to my forehead. I began patting my face and body, checking for any signs of abnormally. Not fully trusting my hands, I ran towards the bathroom and examined myself in the mirror. My thin, toned body was still average height with slim hips. My A-cup sized breasts were still small, unfortunately. And my face was still feminine with long blond eye-lashes and white teeth.

I let out a huge sigh of relief and leaned my back against the wall, still facing my reflection.

A knock at the door made me jump, "Amy? Are you alright?" Mrs. Lope's voice sounded concerned.

I called out, "Yeah, it was just a bad dream." I began to sink down to the floor, "A bad dream," I whispered. Once my bottom hit the tiled floor, I curled my long legs towards me, and hugged them close to my chest, whimpering, "Just a bad dream."

Later that morning, I watched the sun rise from the hotel's wired style balcony. The sun's rays were glistening through the buildings as the sky changed from light orange to a calm blue. I had my IPod play Ellie Goulding's 'Anything Could Happen' as I watched the calmness of the city, slowly stir to life. It was almost peaceful, till Mrs. Lope tapped on my shoulder.

I pressed pause and pulled out my ear bud, "What's up Mrs. Lope?"

Mrs. Lope sighed, almost like what she was about to say was going to wound her pride. "I might have been a little harsh about the whole ordeal yesterday. And now that I had the chance to sleep on it, I decided for you to have your free day today."

"Really," I asked excitedly.

Mrs. Lope nodded, "Yes, mostly because I don't want to spend my free day babysitting you."

I smiled, Mrs. Lope may enjoy playing the hard-ass teacher, but deep down she was good person. When, she wanted to be. "Thank you Mrs. Lope."

A tiny smile played on her lips, but she turned away before I could see it. "Go and enjoy yourself. You're only young once."

I nodded, leaped to my duffel and dung through the bag for my cutest outfit. A light blue denim shirt with sleeves rolled up to my elbows, dark skinny jeans, with a pair of light blue Converses and a stylish white fedora hat with a single black strip.

I send a quick text to Ella: "Lope is letting me have my Free Day!"

Ella's reply was quick: "YAY!"

I grinned, took a fast shower and changed swiftly, not caring if my hair was a mess. That was the purpose of the hat. I applied lip gloss in the mirror, slid my phone and wallet into my pockets and ran out to meet with my friends.

New York City was massive. The skyscrapers almost seemed like they touched the heavens from our ground view. Hundreds of people walked the streets, taxi cabs, cars, and buses crammed together on the pavement. Languages collided together in the city from Chinese to Italian, to German to Russian, to Spanish to French and even Arabic to Japanese. Bill broads lit up town central with ads and posters of famous Broadway plays.

"I have such an urge to sing Glee's version 'I Love New York'," Jamie smiled to the memory of our favorite TV show from when we were preteens.

"We could," said Sam as he pulled out his small red video camera and tiny microphone.

Heisuke and Ella nodded as Daniela pulled Dimitri back, who was trying to walk away. "You're joining too."

"I'm not good singer," Dimitri said with blush.

"But you're a good dancer, and you can do the flips with me," I encouraged him.

After a moment he nodded and Sam grinned, "Nothing left to say but, action!"

We spent our morning and half of the afternoon filming each other at famous landmarks, stores, restaurants, and Central Park. We ran through the streets like crazy lunatics, singing at the top of lungs, "No other city ever made me glad expect New York, New York. It's the old, New Yoooooooorrrrrrrrrk!"

Ella and Daniela would walk into thrift shops and strut like models in clothes from the 1920's to the 1970's. Heisuke and Jamie would fan themselves with colorful Asian styled fans and toss them in the air. As the fans were in the air, Heisuke would pull Jamie into a ballroom spin. Once she stopped and both held on to one another by their forearms, they would catch the fans with their free hands. That whole skit took about twenty takes.

Dimitri and I would climb on sculptures and flip ourselves off them. We were chased away by officers every time and Sam would only laugh, "This is brilliant!" and we would laugh along with him. People actually stared and that was something in New York. We singed and danced with no music at various places.

Jamie, Sam, and Heisuke song most of the parts; they were the better singers. Ella and Daniela song some parts, mostly the chorus. Dimitri and I had maybe one line and were we fine with that, we're better dancers. But we couldn't help but giggle when Dimitri sung the part, "Isn't that were they golf." In his thick Russian accent, he blushed in embarrassment but still laughed along with us.

We were such dorks.

After Sam gathered enough footage and recordings of our voices, he would send them through his phone, and then email it to his computer back at his dorm room in California. "There, all saved. I'll edit it when we get back home."

"Awesome," I said as I licked away at my ice cream cone.

We all sat around a large fountain eating hot dogs, pretzels, pizza and ice cream.

"Hey there's a book store," Ella pointed across the street to a small brown building with leather bound and paperback books displayed at the windows.

"Seriously?" Daniela asked expecting no answer.

Paper books slowly died out in the year 2015, especially when digital books were cheaper and the government raised taxes on paper. New Green Energy Laws were pushed and slowly newspapers and magazines moved to websites. Printing paper and ink were doubled in price and school textbooks became special tablets that only entered the required readings for students. I don't think any kid born after 2016 even owned a real book. Luckily public libraries still had them, but if a book was too damaged, they placed them in storage. Then the only way you could read the story was either borrow it from the public library's website through your tablet or buy your own digital copy.

"Let's check it out!" said Jamie.

Dimitri snorted. "Why bother? We can't afford to buy anything."

"True," Sam added, "books are so expensive now-a-days. I have an old Sherlock Homes novel that's worth at least two pounds."

No one asked, "Why don't you sell it?" Our generation grew up with books like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Maximum Ride, and The Mortal Instruments. We would clutch on to them no matter how much they were worth.

I rose to my feet and finished my cone in three bites. "I'm going," I exclaimed and skipped to the store. My friends either wolfed down their food or threw whatever they had into the trash, and chased after me.

We entered the store and an old fashion bell ringed from above. An elderly woman greeted us with a kind grandmother like smile. We all returned that smile and ventured into the maze of towering shelves filled with books. Sam was mystery and suspense fanatic while Dimitri preferred classics and Daniela enjoyed fantasy from medieval to streampunk genre. Ella and Jamie loved the supernatural and romance, while Heisuke and I cared for all genres.

Heisuke spotted a small section for graphic novels as I turned into a corner to skim through the art section.

As I was about to pull out a book about Greek sculptures, another hand reached over for the same book. Our fingers brushed and an electric shock zapped through my body, the same kind of shock I experienced with Arthur and Francis. I jerked my hand away, ready for a fight, but I ended up facing a new person. It was a young boy, might have been a little older than me. He had light brown hair with a long curl to the side and wore a simple white button down shirt with pants and dress shoes. His auburn eyes widen in confusion.

My gut feeling informed me that he might be connected to the strange men I met yesterday, so I played it cool. Better to be safe than sorry. "Um, ha, electric shock, we really should watch out for these carpet floors." I gestured to the tan carpet on the floor and the boy tilted his head to the side.

Dear God, please let him buy this!

Then he smiled, "Si! Your right, we need to be very careful here."

He's idiot! Thank you God!

I chuckled, "yeah."

He continued with same innocent smile, "I'm Feliciano Vargas, what is your name bella?'

I smiled, "Il mio nome รจ Amy Hawkfeather."

His eyes widen in surprise, then he grinned with delight, "You know Italian?!"

"My mom's best friend is from Rome and she owns a restaurant with her husband. Both of them taught me when I was a kid." I answered as my shoulders shrugged; displaying that it wasn't a big deal. Even though, it kinda was.

"That's amazing! Not many Americans bother to learn any other language, but still come over to my place and they expect us all to know English," he said irritated.

I didn't know what to say to that, so I kept my mouth shut.

Then the bell ranged and a voice called out, "Feliciano? Are you in here?"

"Oh," the Italian jumped up and down excitedly and called out. "Ludwig! Ludwig! Over here!"

A tall man stepped around a book shelf and stood next to Feliciano. He wore a dark causal suite with a loose tie and matching shoes. The outline of his muscular arms and wide shoulders could be seen through his blazer and his face clearly displayed that he was annoyed.

"You shouldn't run off like that." He said disapprovingly as he pushed back his blond locks, which were already sleeked back with gel.

"But I met a new friend!" Feliciano said to his defense. He gestured to me, "This is Amy, isn't she pretty."

I rolled my eyes at the comment, Italians, such flirts.

Ludwig's blue eyes glanced to me and he quickly presented a professional image. "Hello, I'm Ludwig Beilschmidt." He held out his hand for me to shake.

I didn't think, for my parents always taught me manners and that shaking hands showed respect. But the moment our palms touched, an electric urge vibrated through our bodies. The shock was intense making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I pulled my hand away hoping that I could pull off the carpet excuse, but when I met Ludwig's eyes, he was serious and looked at me with a new found interest.

"You're-"

I burst into a run back in the direction where I left Heisuke. I could hear them both as Feliciano whined, "Ludwig! What did you do?"

"I didn't- Feliciano did you not see?"

I heard stomping and I quickly ducked into column of shelves. Moments after, Ludwig stopped in front of the book shelf I was at, but on the other side. He cursed in German as he scanned the store for me while I watched him through the open areas above the books on the shelves. I couldn't run straight ahead, he would easily see me and catch me. The opposite direction didn't help, it lead to a dead end.

Shit! What do I do?!

Then I glanced to the books in front of me, erotic titles popped out; The Erotic Adventures of a Naughty Flight Attendant, Sex Experiment II - Erotic Exploration, (real books, no lie) and the Fifty Shades of Gray trilogy.

An evil grin played on my lips as I searched through and found a small leather bound book called, Confessions of a Beastiality Addict. I bend down and slowly reached out to pull his blazer outer pocket open and slipped in the book smoothly.

Once the book was planted, I ran out into his line sight and he called out, "Stop!" He chased after me and I purposely lead him out of the store. I stepped through alarm with ease, but the ear piercing siren rang out when Ludwig ran through.

Lucky for me Dimitri happen to be looking at old magazines in front of the store when he and I passed by. The old woman shouted, "Stop!" and Dimitri pulled him back inside.

I couldn't help but watch from the window as Dimitri patted him down.

"This is a mistake," Ludwig said annoyed. "I didn't take anything."

That's when Dimitri pulled out the book and read out loud, "Confessions of a Beastiality Addict." Dimitri gave Ludwig a disgusted look and the elderly woman shook her head and said, "Oh Lord help him."

Ludwig's face became bright red, "I didn't- this isn't mine! I-"

"If you think that's bad, you should check out his porn collection." Feliciano said with a carefree smile.

"Shut up you idiot!" Ludwig shouted at him and Feliciano began to cry.

I stepped back and ran down the street to a small coffee shop. I hasty texted my friends: "Meet me at the coffee shop down the street, Don't let beast man and cry baby follow you." I pressed send, order a coffee and take my seat in the back of the cool, hipster styled shop.

Later that afternoon, Jamie suggested to spend our last night in our hotel room watching Broadway plays in movie form, for none of us had enough cash to see a real show. Mrs. Lope wouldn't allow us to watch a movie with both genders in the same room so we stayed in her room, under her watchful eye. We watched Hairspray, Mamma Mia, and the new film Wicked with Mila Kunis playing the Wicked Witch.

As Hairspray played, Dimitri commented, "God, she's fat."

I elbowed him in the ribs and nodded towards Mrs. Lope who was about the same size of the main character.

Mrs. Lope glared at him and Dimitri said, "Sorry."

The girls, Heisuke and I sang along with Mamma Mia as Dimitri and Sam finished off the popcorn.

Wicked made Ella cry as Daniela shrugged, "Eh, I prefer the books."

Evening came and went as the sun set on the opposite side of the building. Shadows of the towering skyscrapers clashed against the last rays of sunlight, but in the end the shadows won. The sky turned black, and in place of the stars were bright lights of enormous city.