“I can’t believe he told you about Magda,” Claire gaped. “He’s got some balls, that guy. What if you tell her everything tonight?”

Jill snorted. “He knows I won’t. Magda would just sneer and point out that she—of course—won him from me and I was a loser…again.”

Magda had made something of a hobby of stealing other girls’ boyfriends in school. She’d stolen Jill’s prom date a week before the prom, then gone on to steal Claire’s prom date on the actual night of the prom after he and Magda were crowned Prom King and Queen.

Claire pressed her lips together, then nodded. “Okay. We’ll do it. We’ll go to the reunion and rub Magda and Ted’s face in it. But only because I love you like a sister, and only this once.”

“Only this once,” Jill agreed, then squealed and hugged her. “Oh, you’re the greatest.”

Claire smiled wryly as she patted Jill’s back. “Yeah, yeah. Now, we have another problem.”

“What’s that?” Jill asked, pulling back to peer at her.

“How do I change back into myself?” Claire asked quietly.

Jill stared at her blankly, then frowned. “You…well…” She brightened suddenly. “I have tons of pictures of you. You can look at one and turn back.”

Jill rushed out of the room, leaving Claire to turn and survey herself in the mirror. In the picture of Brad Cruise, he’d had a serious case of five o’clock shadow going on. Claire now had that case herself. Curious, she lifted a hand and ran it over her cheek and chin, grimacing at the scrape of short hair against her fingers. Man, this was so weird…but kind of cool.

“Here.” Jill hurried back in and started to hold out a picture, then pulled it back. “Wait, first try to do it without the picture.”

“Without it?” Claire asked with surprise.

“Well, sure. I mean it is your body. Just close your eyes and concentrate on being you again. Just think ‘I want to be me,’” Jill suggested.

“Isn’t that a song?” Claire asked with amusement.

“Will you concentrate,” Jill said with irritation. “Just try to change.”

Sighing, Claire closed her eyes and concentrated on being herself. She didn’t have a picture to think of; she didn’t need one. She had lived with her face and body for years.

“Ooops.”

Claire blinked her eyes open as she felt a soft towel being wrapped around her.

“I guess the clothes you were wearing really were you,” Jill said with a shrug, holding the towel together until Claire reached up to take over the task.

Jill had wrapped a bath towel around her shoulders. Claire shifted it under her arms and wrapped it around herself sarong style. She was completely and utterly nude under the towel, which meant that the pink T-shirt and blue capri pants, the black satin dressy outfit, and the man’s black suit had been purely her. That seemed kind of weird.

Both women stiffened at the sound of the front door opening.

“I’m back! Claire? Jill?”

Claire was the first to break out of her surprise. Suddenly aware of her nudity, she quickly pushed the bathroom door closed.

“Hello?” Kyle apparently heard the door close, his voice now came from somewhere in the hall.

“Yes?” Claire called. “Hello.”

“Claire?” Kyle asked, his voice now right outside the door.

“Yes.”

“Are you okay? What are you doing?”

Hearing the worry in his voice, she said quickly, “I’m fine. I’m…I’m in the bath.”

When Jill’s eyebrows rose at her choice of activity, Claire gestured to her attire. She was in a towel and her clothes were in Jill’s bedroom, Claire could hardly tell Kyle she was just using the loo. He might wait in the hall until she came out so that he could see for himself that she was okay. He seemed terribly worried about her, and had every right to be. The destabilizer had affected her after all.

“Bath?” Kyle sounded surprised, then asked, “Where’s Jill?”

Claire’s eyes widened on her friend.

“She’s…er…”

“At the store,” Jill suggested in a whisper.

“She’s at the store,” Claire said dutifully.

“Damn it. She was supposed to watch you,” Kyle sounded irritated. “What if something had happened?”

“She only went a minute ago…to the corner store. She’ll be right back,” Claire assured him. “She could hardly watch me in the bath any more than you would.”

“Right.”

Claire heard Kyle’s sigh through the door. Silence followed, then he cleared his throat and said, “Maybe that’s for the best. I wanted to ask you something.”

Claire and Jill raised their eyebrows at each other.

There was more throat-clearing, then Kyle said, “I was wondering…”

“Yes?” Claire prompted when he hesitated, and found herself taking a step closer to the door as she waited.

“Look,” he said abruptly. “Would you go to the reunion with me tonight?”

Claire froze, sure her heart briefly stopped, then she swallowed and asked, “So you can watch me? Or as your date?”

There was a moment of silence, then Kyle asked, “Would you be interested in being my date?”

Claire hesitated, afraid to say yes and then learn that it wasn’t what he’d intended.

“You don’t have to answer that. It isn’t fair when I haven’t given you any indication of my feelings,” he said before she could decide how to answer him. “Look, I really suck at this kind of thing. I’m great with beakers and bunnies, but personal relationships are just kind of beyond me in some ways…But…Claire, I like you. I’ve liked you for the longest time. Since we were twelve years old and you were pestering me about the science kit my parents bought me for Christmas. I even almost asked you out in high school, but you were dating that football guy.”

“Jack,” Claire murmured, thinking she would have dumped Jack in a heartbeat if Kyle had said a word. Especially since he was the one who had abandoned her for Magda on prom night.

“Yeah, Jack,” Kyle muttered, sounding jealous even now.

Claire smiled and lifted a hand to the door, running her finger lightly over the wooden surface and wishing it was he.

“Then…” Kyle paused before offering a vague “Well, something happened that made me wait.”

“What?” Claire asked curiously.

“I’ll tell you another time,” Kyle promised. He cleared his throat. “So, to answer your question, what I’m interested in here is a date.”

Claire sucked in her breath, hardly able to believe he’d said it.

“Claire?”

“Yes,” she breathed.

“Yes?”

Claire could hear the grin in his voice and found herself smiling, too, until movement made her glance toward Jill. The blond was shaking her head frantically in a definite negative gesture.

“No?” Claire asked Jill with bewilderment.

“No?” Kyle said sharply through the door, obviously having heard her speak.

“No!” Claire cried. She hadn’t meant the word for him at all. “I mean yes.”

“Which is it?”

“Yes to going to the reunion, and no I wasn’t talking to you when I said no,” Claire explained.

“Who were you talking to then?” She could hear the frown in his voice and scrambled to think of an excuse.

“I—myself,” she said quickly, then added, “I saw I had a broken nail and…er…said no because…well, because I didn’t want it to be broken,” Claire finished lamely.

“Oh…I see.” It didn’t sound like he saw. It sounded like he thought her a fruitcake.

Claire frowned over the possibility. She didn’t want him to think she was a fruitcake. Or a freak, she added unhappily as she considered what she could now do. Kyle might not think it as cool as she and Jill did. He would probably find it exciting, scientifically. He’d want to study her and test her and…She’d become a lab animal to him instead of a prospective girlfriend.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to your bath,” Kyle said, interrupting her grim thoughts, then he offered, “We’ll go over to your place after you’re done your bath to pick up some clothes, if you like?”