As soon as you can

On the drive home, you find yourself drawn to the rearview mirror, adjusting it so you can look at yourself, examine your face, your features...

You have to slam on the brakes a few times to avoid hitting the cars in front of you, so you push it back and decide to wait until you're alone.

Entering your building means running the gauntlet again. Davey and his goons whistle as you walk in, but thankfully none of them challenge you and you slip through to your apartment. As you pass by the door of Maxie, your foxy ginger neighbor, you can hear music coming from inside - but you've got a mission and don't have time to stop in.

Fumbling with your keys, it startles you how eager you are to get in front of a mirror. What is this feeling? You know your body, you've had it all your life - it must be the chance at improvement. The Doctor has given you hope. That's it, you're just excited to build confidence.

Inside, you strip immediately, pulling off your shirt and unbuckling your pants as you rush to the bathroom.

There it is, your face. Same as it ever was, with those soft features that you can't seem to shake. You run your hands across your skin - smooth, except for a light dusting of facial hair that never seems to fully come in. Your stroke your lips, pillowy and pouting, a combo plenty of women would kill for but you're frankly embarrassed by. Those eyelashes that run so thick you've thought about plucking them... but it always hurt too much.

All these features and more go on the list - you're got your phone out and are writing them down as they come. But you feel... unsatisfied. That urgent feeling hasn't subsided - there's something you're supposed to be doing, something you're not...

Of course! This exercise was for your body, not your face! What a ditz you've been - for some reason part of you wishes you could tell the Doctor, that he'd somehow enjoy that.

You go to the full length mirror in your bedroom - and there you are in full. That ass the boys are always slapping at. The wide hips, the puny muscles, the fragile-looking torso. No wonder you don't have any confidence - you've got nothing to back it up with. At least you don't have much body hair, you've heard girls are either really into it or really not. But without much else to offer...

The list is long. Reading it over is just depressing. There's so much wrong with you, so much you don't like... but then a thought lifts your spirits.

I did it. I took the first step. The Doctor will be pleased with me.

And suddenly the list doesn't seem quite so bad...