She still believed it had been a mistake. Yet, even though she wanted to correct it, Chris found herself at a loss as to how to do so. In a few days, despite what her memories insisted, she would begin school for the first time as a girl, which she found she wasn't looking forward to and desperately wanted to find the amulet so she didn't have to. But this was turning into no easy feat, as there appeared to be no trace of the necklace, and that it seemed Tanya had given up, who’d even had gone so far as to tell Chris, "Why don't you face the truth. Yes, we made a mistake. And now we had to live with it. You as a girl, me with having to know what I did. "
Displeased by this, Chris had gotten in a row with her sister, which their mother had broken up, and when neither had been willing to say what they'd been fighting about, their mother had sent them to their rooms until they could be civilised with each other. Of course, Chris hadn't wanted to speak with Tanya, and had purposefully gone out of her way to avoid the other girl.
This made things even more difficult, as Tanya was the only person in the house who had a computer. Finding she’d forced to do her searches at the local library, Chris found she had even less time to do so as the first day of school approached and her mother wanted to make sure she had everything she needed for her classes. Dragged from one store after another, Chris was frustrated to learn that, as a girl, she needed more stuff, especially for gym. Before, when she'd been a guy, she had been able to get away with only a couple pairs of shorts, a couple shirts, a pair of trainers, and a pair of swim shorts in addition to all the usual binders, notebooks, pens, pencils and such. Now, she had to have a small purse for feminine hygiene stuff, which ended up packed with panty liners, pads, tampons, body wash, combination shampoo and conditioner, deodorant, concealer, other facial items, brush, and hair ties.
In addition to the gym bag, Chris found she needed also three swimsuits, all of which were one piece style and black, plus shorts, leggings, shirts, tank tops, sweat shirts and sweat pants, extra underwear, sports bras, as well as a pair of trainers and a pair of running shoes. When it finally came time to purchase her school stuff, which was only after her mom had bought Tanya's gym stuff, did she start to get into the usual stuff; binders, calculator, notebooks, pens and pencils, highlighters, among other things, with the one difference being the backpack, which was bright purple and white, had unicorns on it, and could hold not only her school stuff, but also her purse and gym bag, if she didn't want to carry them about.
All this took up a couple days in which Chris found she couldn't get away, or out of it. To further the issue, she found school shopping also meant that her mother insisted on buying her and Tanya new clothes, then having each them go through their closest and dresser to discard anything old, unsuitable to wear, or that they no longer wanted. When she finally was finished, and free to do as she felt until the first day of school, Chris found she only had a couple days, which didn't seem like enough time to search for and find the Amulet of Zulo.
Faced with the truth that she would have no choice but to start ninth grade as a girl, she became despondent, which seemed worse when she started to menstruate. Depressed by a number of things, it took her another day before she finally made the effort to go down to the library. There, she headed for the computers and content to ignore anyone, even the couple friends she thought she saw and Lee, the son of the girl's basketball coach, Chris began her search. Starting simple, she revisited several sites to see if she could glean anything new. When that didn't pan out, she revised her parameters and tried to make herself come up with more elaborate and complex searches.
Focused on specifics, she tried to keep her hunt for the amulet limited to certain things. She ignored made-up stories and things that were claimed to have happened in the past and instead relied on so called sightings, tracking where it had been and where it might appear, and any claims people might have posted about having interacted recently with the necklace. When she came to sites that had to do with how it had effected a person and their life, she only scanned it and if it wasn't recent, within the past three to six months, she closed the site and tried again. She opened browser after browser, worded her searches one way, tried another, attempted to make them complicated sounding, as well as simple in phrasing. Ignoring everyone around her, she was only distracted when she stopped to stretch, and saw a young woman who looked like she was in her early twenties, and only pretending to read a magazine, watching Lee, who also seemed busy with something on the computer. Putting it out of her mind, figuring it wasn't her business, Chris turned back to the computer, closed all the tabs, thought about her next step, opened a fresh window and started all over again by trying to approach the issue from the perspective on someone who wanted the Amulet of Zulo to change themselves.
By four she had started to get a headache from looking at the screen. Out of ideas, she logged off, but didn't get up. Looking at her purse, still upset she carried one, she reached for it and fished about for a minute before she found a bottle of pain reliever. Dry swallowing two Midol, she closed her purse and stood. Heading for the bathroom, her thoughts going over what she hadn't found, how she could revise her searches, and what else she could try when research on the internet didn't pan out. After she'd used the toilet and freshened herself, Chris wandered outside, passing by the young woman she had seen earlier.
Outside, she leaned against one of the brick supports that held up the Victorian style awning over the entrance. Still despondent, she hugged herself, which caused her top to pull tight across her chest. Looking down at the two mounds of flesh that pushed outward, Chris wanted nothing more then to see her usual flat chest, to not wear a pair of tight jeans that sat low on her hips, and to not feel the pad she had placed in her panties to collect the blood that bled from her body. She didn't want to have to pee sitting down, or have stranger sensations she thought were arousal when she thought of boys, nor the dreams she sometimes had about them. She just wanted to be a guy again, but was faced with the reality that she likely would never be one again. Sighing, she stared out at nothing important, as, from behind her she heard the soft hiss as one of the doors to the library opening. Not want to be caught moping about, she considered that maybe it was time to head for home.
"And give any hope of ever finding the necklace," she thought to herself and about to do exactly that, Chris stopped herself from moving when she caught site of the young woman who'd been watching Lee.
Slipping around the pillar so that she couldn’t easily be seen, Chris watched her as she went over to the bike rack, but didn't unlock any of the bicycles. Instead, she stood about, looking like she was waiting for something or someone. After some time, in which Chris had gotten a good look at her, and pegged her to be about twenty and probably a college student, the young woman unlocked a bike, wheeled it out, and leaned it against her leg. Starting to lose interest, Chris almost turned away, but a gut feeling stopped her. And when Lee exited the library moments later and the one Chris thought was a college student mentioned the Amulet of Zulo, the teenage girl almost stepped out from where she was hidden, but kept herself from doing so as she listened to the conversation betwixt the two.
Afterward, when the young woman had biked off and Lee had wandered away, Chris stepped back around the support and peered in the direction the biker had gone. Thinking of all that she'd heard, what she'd had been looking for, she wondered if this was some sort of trick. Her thoughts going to some of the horrible stuff she'd read that some did with the amulet, unaware she was sharing the same doubts Lee had had, Chris wondered if Charlie could be trusted before she asked herself, "Why does Lee want the Amulet of Zulo?"
Not answer presented herself. Turning away, she started home, thinking that whether or not Lee turned up for the meeting with Charlie, Chris planned to be there herself. "And maybe get the necklace back to so I can go back to some sense of normalcy," she resolved.