For the a moment, Emily wanted to laugh and tell Jay that he was a boy and that his real name was Jacob. And almost doing this, she started to explain all that happened, but stopped when she actually took a good look at him. Seeing how distressed Jay actually was, that he couldn't tell, Emily found herself alarmed by how far gone he was. Scared this was what would eventually happen to her, she quickly calculated the odd and factors of when it might. Reaching too many inconclusive answers to correctly factor the variables, missing completely that her mind had just processed a problem the way Kaitlyn's normally would, Emily walked over to Jacob. Drawing him into a comforting, sisterly hug him, she guided him toward Kaitlyn's bed.
As she did this, she explained, "Of course you're a girl. And your name is Emily," and taking a seat on the bed, pushing some of the stuff her mom had bought her so that Jay could sit, she told him, "It's just. You've been under a lot of pressure lately. What with you starting to date Michael, the clubs and activities you've been considering joining, the pressure of making sure you keep up with all your schoolwork, and any number of issues."
"Since when did you get so observant?" Jacob/Emily inquired and laughing, she nodded and said, "And you're right. It must be simply a lot of pressure. I need to, I don't know, find a way to relax," before her sister could say anything.
A sensation coming over like she was fighting a losing a battle, Emily studied Jay for a couple seconds, again, wondering if this was to be also her fate. Suddenly remembering what she'd seen whilst shopping with her mom, she went over the variables of whether it was important or not. Aware that she was staring, Emily took a deep breath, reached and took Jay/Emily's hand. "Hey. If you need me, to like talk, or, whatever, I'm here."
Comforted by this, Jacob/Emily felt like a weight had been lifted. Leaning forward, she hugged her sister and asked, "When did you get so grown-up?"
"I don't know," Emily replied. "Maybe I just always have been so and, I don't know, found a way to express it in appropriate terms that acceptable to all of those life form that are present at the particular time," and giggling, she asked, "You want to see what mom bought me?" to which Jacob/Emily said that she had homework, but, maybe she'd later.
"Maybe later," Emily concurred and seeing something was still eating at the boy-turned-girl, she started to ask, "What's up?"
Jacob/Emily at first, didn't say anything. Then in response, she softly said, "Yeah. It must be because I am under pressure," sighed and the explained, "And I suppose breaking up with Michael doesn't help."
Emily, almost crying out, "What?!" caught herself at the last moment and instead remained silent, thinking. After a moment, she said, "Why? The two of you, I don't know, seemed so compatible. It was like two firing neurons, operating on proper frequencies, that they nearly hum in the same tonal frequencies."
Unsure what her sister was talking about, Jacob/Emily sighed, "The date was great. But, well, I found out today what type of person he really is," and raging off into a tangent, she explained what she'd learned Michael was saying and everything that had happened afterward.
Emily, silent, listened to all of this, curious to know if she'd gone on the date, if everything would have turned out the same. Unable to answer such a what-if question, she waited until she was certain Jay was done before commenting, "Maybe he wasn't right for," was tempted to say, "for me," but at the last second switched tactics and said, "you."
Silently, Jacob/Emily nodded and after a moment quietly said, "Maybe you're right," then, offering a tight smile, exclaimed, "Hey, I'm sure you don't want to hear about my problems. But, thanks for listening all the same," and standing, stated, "I really need to get to my homework. We both know what mom is like when she finds out that we haven't doing what she calls 'The Necessary tasks,'" and turning, she walked slowly across Kaitlyn's room and out the door.
Emily, after watching Jay leave, sat for a moment longer. Thinking, she found the excitement of what she felt in her discovery didn't seem so important when compared to the disturbing factor she'd been confronted with, she eventually vowed, "One way or another, I'll fix this. For both of us."
Satisfied with this resolve, she turned her attention to her new clothes and taking them from the bags. Pulling off the tags and size stickers she set the garments off to the side to be washed. After she did this, she asked herself, "Is this what will eventually happen to me? That I'll forget about my old life? Become convinced that I really am my own sister?" and shuddering at the notion, resolved to fight as much as she could, she stood and headed for her sister's dresser.
There, she began to sort out the clothes into piles to keep, to donate and to be tossed. Immediately, she knew that all her sister's stained underwear would be thrown out, finding it disgusting that Kaitlyn couldn't even bother to take care of herself enough to know when to get rid of undergarments beyond hope. When she found things she deemed childish and such, she tossed the garments in a pile to be donated. And, in the end, she would up tossing nearly three quarters of her sister's wardrobe, figuring that if she had to be Kaitlyn, she was going to continue her plan to get even with the twerp for forcing her into such a position that, she figured, was astronomically loaded with so many undesirable factors, she didn't often didn't know where to begin in sorting some of them out.
When she'd finished, she headed over to her sister's bed. Laying down, she stared at the ceiling and mused over things as she waited for her mother call her down for dinner. Foremost on her mind, as she smelled the meal that was being prepped, was what she'd witnessed whilst clothes shopping, what she wanted to share with Jay. Yet, now, now it didn't seem like she would be sharing anything with him, unless it was things two sister normally shared with each other. Perturbed at how far gone her former childhood was, Emily sighed as she mentally played out the scene of being in the clothing section, her mother and her deciding on various garments, when she'd been surprised to see Mrs Smith there. And what was even more intriguing was that she was in the accompaniment of two children.
At first, Emily didn't pay the kids too much attention. Her mother insisted on chatting with Mrs Smith, leaving Emily to examine the skirts, dresses, tights and other clothes piled on the tables and hung on the wracks. And then it suddenly dawned on her on who the children Mrs Smith had with her. Rolling over onto her side, Emily whispered, "What have you done, Kaitlyn? And why?