Chapter 1:
/
"You win, I hope you're happy, Emma." The girl smiled radiantly from the front of the class.
Greg thought she was beautiful in that moment. Lips that were normally considered to be too wide and too thin finally finding their purpose in that wide carefree grin.
She turned to the rest of the class, her gaze swinging from person to person, resting on him for longer than the others. "I hope you're all happy."
His heart skipped a beat, she'd stared at him when she said it! She must like him! She proba-
With her smile never once faltering, Taylor Hebert pulled the revolver from her hoodie pocket and blew her brain out.
/
Greg stared at his hands, completely ignoring the school counselor. What was the point? Greg already knew that it was his fault, anything the counselor could say was meaningless.
He had sat by and done nothing when Taylor had been bullied. When she'd been shoved into that locker, and she'd screamed and begged, he'd ignored her.
As if looking the other way would make the problem go away.
He was a coward of the worst sort.
He wished he could be someone else.
[DESTINATION]
He wished he could be better.
[AGREEMENT]
He wished-
/
Greg shot out of bed with a gasp, he rubbed fiercely at his sweat-soaked face, it took more than a few swipes for him to realize he wasn't covered Taylors' gray matter.
He'd washed that off weeks ago after all.
He grabbed for the water cup on his nightstand, his hand closed around the cool glass. Instead of meeting resistance, his finger kept going to the sound of shattering glass and splashing water.
"Damnit!" Greg's hand jerked back on reflex.
It was only as he was halfway through examining his hand -his too-thin and delicate-looking hand- that he realized just what had happened. He'd activated his powers in his sleep.
Being able to see in the dark should have been his first clue really, but he had been a bit preoccupied with not hyperventilating.
With his heart still beating a mile a minute, Greg held no hope of being able to revert back anytime soon. He grunted in annoyance, floating out of bed and towards the bathroom, better not to step on any creaky boards and wake his mom up.
The last thing he needed was to have to explain this to her.
Splashing some water on his face seemed to help calm him down somewhat.
Not even a week ago, he would have been startled by the sight in the mirror. Now, he merely frowned at it.
Long nearly elbow-length golden blonde hair. Blue eyes that were well on their way to being inhumane in color. Full pink lips quickly thinning into a frown.
His eyes darted lower.
When he'd gone to bed that night, the matching Triumvirate pajama set had been noticeably baggy on his scrawny frame, now it was uncomfortably tight and far too short. Alexandria's face was distorted by the prodigous curve of-
His eyes darted up, the face in the mirror almost incandescent with embarrassment. His heart pounded in his ears. God how his power was a confusing mess.
If asked a week ago, he would have jumped at the opportunity he now had. What teenage boy wouldn't?
But as he had found out, reality was a much different beast compared to his idealized imaginings. It was as equal parts embarrassing as it was anxiety-inducing.
Greg Veder was many things, but a ladies man he was not. The closest he'd come to touching a girl was in the third grade when he'd held hands with Marcy at the aquarium field trip. Suddenly becoming a girl didn't change anything for him, if anything the suddenness of it all made it worse.
Just looking at his reflection was enough to make him feel like he was going to get yelled at by the blonde in the mirror for being a creep. Touching was worse, far worse, lets just say he'd tried that once, just once. He couldn't look himself in the eyes for days afterwards. It was silly, but it was how he felt.
Needing some fresh air to clear his head, he floated downstair and out into the backyard. Taking a deep breath of the nice cool air, he rocketed upwards. Only a few seconds and he was above the clouds, so fast that he was certain anyone watching would have shrugged him off as a trick of their eyes in the dark.
He floated on his back, admiring the stars. Eyes flickering across the spectrum, turning the heavens into an aurora of shifting colors never before seen by humanity.
His powers came with all sorts of baggage, but he thought that maybe it had some nice benefits too.