Tarmesha felt giddy and at the same time, terrified. Ever since she had been six years old playing house, and realized that she was the only one of her friends who thought she would grow up to marry a girl, she had been hiding her sexuality from her family, friends, and peers. In high school, she had played to perfection the role of the girl too busy with studying and athletics to have time for boys. She had dressed and presented herself in a manner too feminine for anyone to suspect her true self.
And now, thanks to something she could never have anticipated or planned for--a catgirl's sensitive nose--all the walls of the castle she had built around herself had been breached, and her heart lay fully exposed. She didn't know how she would get through the hours until her date with Jasmine that night.
Jasmine was discovering that she could now take a different attitude towards clothes and shoe-shopping. Her mother's babbling meant less when Jasmine could focus on the thought *It's about looking good for Tarmesha.* Her mother didn't seem all that happy with the androgynous clothes Jasmine was picking out for herself, but the fact that Jasmine was displaying any enthusiasm at all for girl's clothes more than made up for what her mom disliked about her choices.
The one thing that worried Jasmine was the reaction of her fellow catgirls. Klondike was too much of a shopaholic to pay much attention, but when Jasmine had rejoined the group after talking with Tarmesha she noticed Tabitha take a sniff from the air and get a puzzled expression on her face.