As Tobi headed for Steve's house with Mike and Arnoldson, where the four would pass the morning goofing off and fooling around with a couple skateboards and a skate ramp they were building, Emily found herself troubled by something. Immersed in conversation that ranged from music on the radio, cute boys at school she Suzi and Vicky had no chance of dating, mostly because of age differences or because of the social click differences but also because two of the already had boyfriends, problems their parents were causing, issues related to their bodies and clothes in the windows of stores they were passing, Emily tried to sort out what was off, but found herself drawing a blank. Looking at Vicky as the girl indicated a cute skirt and said, "I have the perfect top that would go with that," Emily tried approaching the puzzle from a new angle as she acknowledged her best friend.
She was certain that she hadn't been a boy a few hours ago, yet something nagged at her that she was a boy. Smiling at something Suzi said, Emily thought, "Suzi is closer to being a boy than I am," as she mulled over how Suzi was rather tomboyish, Vicky was somewhere in between being a total girly-girl and a tomboy, while she, Emily, was closer to being a tomboy, but had heavy leanings toward the goth type.
"I'm going to go try on a couple things," Vicky announced, disrupting Emily's thoughts and glancing at the girl, she listened as her best friend asked, "You two wanna come in with me?" to which both Emily and Suzi nodded.
Inside the shop, as Vicky took a couple things and disappeared into the changing stall, Emily browsed a section of clothes that were dark or muted shades of colour. Adjusting the thin strap of her purse, she tried to figure out how to prove that she wasn't a girl, as well as why dressing like a girl suddenly left her thinking she was one and that everyone saw her as one. Glancing over at Suzi, who was browsing the make-up counter, Emily tried to figure out how the two knew her name, but the most she came up with was telling herself, "Of course they know your name. You've been best friends for years," which felt true, yet also felt like it was off.
Vicky coming out of the changing room, modelling a revealing dress, asked them, "What do you think?" to which Suzi gave her opinion and, before she could stop herself, Emily also stated what she thought by telling her friend, "You look adorable," to which Vicky commented something about the cut of the dress, to which the three began talking easily about the different dresses.
***
"That's totally sick," Tobi shouted as Steve tried a difficult move and managed to pull it off, whilst Mike and Arnoldson hooted with approval.
Moments ago, they had put the finishing touches on the skateboard ramp and now the three were trying various moves, with only Steve having managed to pull off anything remotely difficult so far. Taking his place, Tobi dropped his skateboard, pushed it about with his foot and let it roll back and forth a bit before stepping on it and kicking off. Taking the curve of the ramp down, focusing on the movement of the board beneath his feet, Tobi kicked again as he reached the bottom, let the momentum carry him up the other side and the instant he reached the lip, he shifted his centre of gravity and leapt up.
The board spinning a couple times beneath his feet, he breathed easily. Everything feeling like it had slowed down, he dropped back down. Feet connecting with the skate board, Tobi rode it back down, hit a slight in perfection in the ramp, felt the skate board shift and knowing he was about to lose it, stepped off and let his momentum carry him forward in a couple of steps. His friends applauding, telling him, "Dude. That was tight," Tobi reached down and grabbed his skateboard before it could roll past him.
"My turn," Mike yelled and joining Steve and Arnoldson, Tobi casually said to Steve, "You notice any imperfections in the ramp? I could have sworn I hit something on the way down," as Mike tried a tricky manoeuvre and only managed to lose his board, which awarded him a couple jeers from his friends.
***
Emily was now certain something was off. After she, Vicky and Suzi had left the store, they had wandered, continuing to window shop as they did so, and eventually they wandered up to the mall. In the food court, they had each ordered something to drink and sat at one of the various tables, idly talking about random things. After a moment, Emily excused herself and headed for the bathrooms. Without giving it a second thought, she entered the ladies room and only realised what she'd done when she spotted a woman in front of the sink and another exiting one of the stalls. Positive they would see her for what she was, Emily quickly ducked into the nearest cubicle, unaware that neither of the women where giving her the slightest look.
Inside, she undid her pants, pushed them and her underwear down to about midpoint of her upper legs and sat down on the toilet. Her bladder releasing, one of the reason she'd had headed for the bathroom, Emily listened to the people outside the stall for any hint they had seen her as the boy she actually was. Finishing, unconsciously reaching for toilet paper, she began to wipe the area between her legs, still unaware that evidence that something was off was right in front of her. Outside the stall, one of the woman left and Emily wondered if she was going to get a mall cop to report the pervert in the girl's toilets as she reached for her purse. Taking out her personal case, she flipped it open and taking a fresh tampon out, she shucked off the wrapper and, without giving it a second thought, reached down between her legs, fished about for a moment, grasped the string of the tampon she had on, extracted it and disposed of it, then inserted the fresh tampon.
Suddenly all too aware of what she done, Emily slowly looked down. Watching her hand move to the nearby trash bin, where she dumped the used applicator, Emily stared down, seeing for the first time the way her chest was thrust out and leaning forward slight how flat her groin was. Wanting to scream in terror, she thought, "What the fuck?!" as she touched the flat skin then pulled forward on the neckline of her shirt and stared down at her breasts. Staring at her B cup breasts, Emily thought, "How the hell did this happen?" and wondering if Tobi had also experienced a shift in sex and gender, even as her mind fought to reassure that everything was normal and that she'd always been a girl, Emily stood, hiked up her pants and underwear, all too aware of how the panties pressed into her vulva, and hastily flushed and exited the bathroom stall, grabbing her purse as she did. Rushing to the sink, setting her purse on the counter, Emily peered into the mirror and staring at her reflection, thought that she finally saw what was off.