Lisa and Aaron strode through the mall, one relatively at ease, the other self-conscious and nervous. Aaron couldn't shake the feeling that everyone was staring at her, but given that she was, to the best of everyone else's knowledge, a very attractive girl in an exceedingly realistic harpy costume and not much else, that was probably true. At Lisa's insistence, she kept walking, trying to pay it no mind. It took a while, but they finally rounded the corner they remembered the magic shop being around.
It was gone.
The space was still there. But the shop wasn't. It wasn't even empty. Where the magic shop had been there was now a thrift store. They looked around. All the surroundings were the same; this was the right place, but it wasn't the right shop. Aaron crumpled to the ground and began to cry again.
Lisa knelt down to comfort her. "It's all right, Erin," she said. "If magic exists that can change you into this, there's gotta be some that can change you back, right? School's out, we've got all summer. We're not gonna stop looking until we get you back to normal. But you're gonna need to hold it together until then, okay?"
"I can't!" Aaron wailed. "I can't take this for a whole summer! I'm not supposed to be a girl! And I'm certainly not supposed to be a bird-girl-thing!"
"Harpy. The term for what you are is 'harpy.'" Lisa sighed. "There's no other option," she said. "With the shop having disappeared, you're going to have to live with this until we find something that can change you back. That might be a week. It might be two months. Who knows, it might even take years. But we will change you back, whatever it takes. And being a girl isn't so bad. Take it from me. It'll take some getting used to, but you'll be fine."
"Get used to it?" Aaron moaned. "I don't want to get used to it! I'm not a girl!"
Lisa rolled her eyes. "Yes, you are," she said. "You didn't used to be, and you might not be a girl inside (although, with magic, who knows,) but you most certainly are a girl. And unless you want people being more weirded out by you than they already are, I wouldn't protest that point in public. You're unmistakeably a girl. Anyone could tell that, even if you were wearing baggy clothing instead of swimwear. And people are going to treat you as such. I'm not saying you have to wear dresses or flirt with cute guys at the beach, but if you don't want people finding out that you used to be a guy, you need to accept the fact that people see you as a girl, Erin."
Erin thought about it. Dammit, Lisa was right. She sighed. "Fine. I guess I don't really have a choice."
Lisa nodded. "I'm sorry to have had to say that, but protesting the situation isn't going to do any good. Now as long as there's a thrift shop, let's get you something to wear. I don't think we want to turn any more heads than absolutely necessary today."
Slowly, hesitantly, Erin stood up, taking Lisa's proffered hand. "No," she agreed. "No, we don't. I just want to get home."
They went into the shop. It took a little looking, but Lisa found a Chinese-style dress in Erin's size. Pulling out her pocketknife, she carefully cut stitches until the sleeves were removed and the seams down the sides were open enough for Erin's wings to fit through, then grabbed a long trenchcoat and an oversized pair of work boots. She ran up front and paid for the clothes while Erin waited in the dressing room. The dress went on first; it fit perfectly, covering her body down to mid-thigh and leaving room for her wings to fold up against her body. Then Lisa draped the trenchcoat around her shoulders - the sleeves, though large, were still too small for her wings, so they hung limp at her side as Lisa buttoned the coat up. The trenchcoat hid her wings and hung down to mid-calf, obscuring most of her unusual legs. The boots hid the rest; they were much too large for her, but her unusually-shaped feet wouldn't fit in any smaller sizes.
The outfit looked silly, but served its purpose well. She couldn't really do anything other than walk, but at least she looked like a normal girl in an odd outfit instead of a creature from Greek myth. They didn't get out of the shop until some time later, as Lisa was a thrift-store fanatic, but finally they headed for the parking lot, laden with obscure LPs from performers that redefined the term "one-hit wonder" and a complete ZX Spectrum setup.
The ride home was uneventful; Lisa waited for Erin to say something, but Erin didn't, so she didn't either. Erin was lost in her own thoughts, worrying about a hundred things at once. Chief among these was the issue of her parents. They were wonderful people, to be sure, and pretty open-minded (Aaron had talked them into letting him get a purple mohawk a few years before, although he'd changed his mind before actually getting it.) But...even the most open-minded people would be a little weirded out by what had happened today. What would her parents say when they found out their son had become a beautiful teenaged harpy? Before she could ask Lisa's advice on the subject, the van pulled up outside her house.
Well...it was time to face the music.