Chris couldn’t help but smile as she lied back under the hot summer sun, it had been an interesting 6 months which had changed everything in her life but she had to admit she was happier now. Three months ago, she had been a he and had spent day after day doing the same call center job as he slowly died within. Now she was a neko monster living in a government reservation but she couldn’t be happier, she had made some wonderful friends some of whom her parents would never have approved up but they didn’t approve of her now so screw them. She now lived in a much better apartment with four roommates that she got along with very well, they had their arguments of course but they always settled it. Now she no longer worked in a horrible call center, instead she had gotten a job in the field she actually went to school for Architectural.
She was not designing buildings like she wanted since he was a little boy, however she was designing ways to modify buildings to work for monsters. Adding larger elevators so centaurs and other monsters use the building, reinforcing floors to stand up to the added weight of some monsters. She had submitted some of her designs to the main office in New York but no word yet if they had accepted her design. She was basically a front woman, talking to the monsters within the reservation and translating their needs/wants into something the main office can understand. It was a lot better pay and she enjoyed it.
She had gained more friends as well, one of the people she was closest too was Willow and her husband Jack, the two of them lived a few doors down and maybe because Willow had once been William and Jack used to be Jane that she was able to relate to them a little better than her own roommates. Chris was able to talk to Willow about the change from being a man to being a woman, she couldn’t do that with her roommates none of whom had that happened to them.
“It is only 5 ft of water.” Laughed Jack at his wife who was sitting on the edge of the apartment pool in a snow white bikini, her pale skin was almost as white as the bikini and her pure white hair was pulled back in a short pony tail showing off her pointed elf ears.
“I am only 5 ft…I am not as tall as I was when I was a man.” Joked Willow, she was a snow elf as she looked at her husband former wife, who was a sun elf. His blonde hair and almost bronze skin stood in contrast to her white pale colors.
“I know.” Laughed Jack “I remember how you used to make fun of me for being short, just returning the favor.”
“I know…” said Willow with a shake of her head as she turned and looked at Chris who entered the pool area dressed in a yellow and white bikini with a towel wrapped around her waist and a gift in her hand.
“Sorry for being late.” apologized Chris as she walked up to Monica who stood there with a smile on her face. “Office work held me up a bit.”
“Not a problem.” said Monica as Chris placed the gift on the small table along with the other items for the baby shower. A month after Chris had moved in Monica had announced that she was expecting and that her and her werewolf boyfriend had put in for a new apartment together. They had just been accepted and Monica had moved two floors down. In the next couple of days, they would likely be getting another roommate.
The number of people becoming Monsters was climbing at a rapid rate, the CDC estimated at current rates that by the end of the year 1 out of 10 people in the United States would be Monsters and by the end of the following year a quarter of the population would be monsters. The government had set up 5 more reservations and expanded 3 others, the lawsuits arguing that putting all monsters in Reservations was moving forward only to hit a road block when 2 of the justices on the supreme court came down with the flu and became Monsters themselves, so now they had to argue if they had to recuse themselves or even if they where allowed to remain on the court. Still all the lower courts had sided with the monsters and it being illegal to keep them on walled reservations. The loaming threat of monsters being free to go wherever they wanted was causing unrest among some of the more religious elements. None of that mattered at the moment.
“Any idea what it is?” inquired Sachi as she sat the edge of the pool with her feet in the water. There other roommate Barbara was lying on a beach chair with a book in hand watching as everyone enjoyed the baby shower/house warming party. Aside from some of the people from Monica’s work, their where all of her boyfriends roommates, so it was a rather strange mix of monsters.
“Not yet.” answered Monica, they where not talking about gender but what type of monster the unborn child growing within her was going to be. It wasn’t as straight forward as one would think, some children born of monster became an almost a cross of their parents, some became one of the monsters of their parents be it the mother or the father, still others became brand new monsters. There where ways to bend the odds to a certain way, Willow and Jack, both being elves if not the same type of elf would almost certainly have a child that would be an elf, but Since Monica was a fawn and her boyfriend was a werewolf there was about a 2/3rd chance the child would be either a fawn or a werewolf but the other 1/3rd meant it could be almost anything.
Chris smiled as she went to put her stuff next to Barbara. The two of them had gotten very close, she wasn’t sure if they where a couple yet or not, she had just as hard time reading the signs as a woman as she did when she was a man. They went out for coffee or bars often, a few dance clubs as well, Barbara would often read a book beside her while she played a video game, or the two of them would work out in the gym. She had taken up boxing which was a lot of fun and had really helped keep her in shade. On some levels she thought they where a couple, yet they hadn’t kissed or do anything more then a hug every so often.
“Did I miss anything?” inquired Chris as she sat down on the free chair.
“Not much, Willow and Jack arguing again but that is normal enough.” Stated Barbara as her fox tail moved back and forth a bit.
“Was it about the temperature again?” joked Chris, as an snow elf Willow could walk through a snow storm in a tank top without a care but the temperature today would be extremely hot to her even though it was only in the low 80s, while as a sun elf it was the opposite for Jack.
“No…some play fighting about which of the food taste the best.” Stated Barbara “I swear the two of them fight as a type of foreplay.”
“Some people do that.” stated Chris, she could see like everyone else that Jack and Willow loved each other.
“Can you put some sunscreen on my back?” inquired Barbara as sat up and lifted her short hair up a bit to show her bare back. Chris gulped a bit before getting the sunscreen out and applying it to her back.
“You didn’t have to work late, so what happened?” inquired Barbara as Chris’s hand was on the back of her neck. She tensed a bit which was enough for her. “You got a message from your sister?”
“Ya…” admitted Chris, with a shake of her head. She had to sneak face times with her sister, in the six months since she had turned they had talked maybe once a month. “I am going to be an Aunt again.”
“Congratulations.” Said Barbara then her eyes narrowed “What?”
“I never liked my sister-in-law; she is to put it bluntly a religious Karen.” Stated Chris “And from what I heard she disowned her own widow mother because she came down with the virus.”
“Does this surprise you? Your family minus your sister seams to be like that.” Countered Barbara
“Ya…but with I am just concerned about what she or the rest of my family would do if one of their kids got it.” Admitted Chris “My own father is calling for the mass murder of us, we aren’t human in their world. Apparently my brother has done some sermons about it and some members of my former church actually killed themselves and murdered their family when they came down with the flu.”
“Some people are just horrible.” Said Barbara
“I know…” said Chris as she gazed out into the distance for a moment. “Well…that is an issue for another day, time to enjoy ourselves…care for a swim.”
“Sure…” said Barbara as the two of them headed into the pool with the rest of their friends.
Later that night, Chris lied in her bed, sound asleep when suddenly….