"Hello, Parker," Mrs. Anderson says. She sits down on the bed next to you, close enough that you can smell the subtle scent of perfume in her hair. "Since your mother is gone, Mr. Anderson asked me if I could come in and speak to you about the changes you're going through. I hope you don't hate us, though I wouldn't blame you if you did. In our defense, as Mr. Anderson told you, we really didn't think that you'd go through the Process. Everything your mother told us about you indicated that you were an extremely unlikely candidate, but we were wrong. We are really desperately sorry about that. If there's anything we can do to make it up to you, please let us know."
You soften a bit. "That's very kind of you," you reply.
"The least I can do," she says. "Now, I heard you went to the girls' gym class today. In fact, I saw some video of you doing cartwheels and I must say you looked awfully pretty in that cheerleader uniform. If I hadn't known better, I'd have said you were fully transformed already, in fact. You're clearly going to need a whole new wardrobe and a lot of lessons on hair, makeup, and that sort of thing. I would be happy to help you with all of that."
Comments