Chapter Text
Spring break seemed set to be a dull affair for Sarah. Her parents weren't going anywhere, and she didn't have the financial resources to travel herself, so she was trapped in Moperville for the duration. Ellen and Elliot were traveling with their parents ("An educational tour of historic sites—oh, joy," Ellen had remarked drily. "Maybe we'll get lucky and get to see the world's largest ball of twine, too."). But at least Tedd and Grace were staying in town. Upon hearing that Sarah wasn't going anywhere, and was at loose ends, Tedd had suggested that she join them for additional magical research, like she had done last summer. Sarah had jumped at the chance; despite having acquired some magical abilities of her own, she was ever hopeful of learning something more.
What Tedd had neglected to consider was that his studies were at a more advanced, theoretical level than they had been last summer. Which, translated, meant that he only ran a few fairly specialized magical experiments now and then, and then spent the rest of the time working on his computer, or scribbling madly in notebooks, when the magical symbology he was developing couldn't be properly entered into the computer.
The upshot of which was, Sarah spent a lot of time with Grace while waiting for Tedd to come up with new experiments. Which was fine by her; Grace was one of her favorite people. For the first couple of days they just hung out and played video games, the weather being too gray and dismal to want to do anything outside.
On Tuesday, Sarah also brought a sketch pad with her, to do some drawing. She enjoyed playing games with Grace, but she felt a need for a change of pace.
Grace perked up when Sarah walked in with her sketchpad under her arm. Sarah normally carried a small sketchbook in her backpack, which Grace had seen her use many times before, but this was the first time she'd seen Sarah with a larger pad.
"Oooh, what are you going to draw?"
"I don't know, I just wanted to have the option to do something other than video games to pass the time."
"Can I see what you've done?" Grace's smile was so hopeful that Sarah quashed her usual shyness about showing her work to others.
"If you want... there's not much in here, it's a new pad, mostly blank."
Sarah put the large pad down on the couch, and Grace flipped it open. Only the first few pages had any drawings on them. One was a color pencil sketch of a bouquet of flowers that her mother had bought the other day to 'brighten things up'. The next page had a half dozen pencil studies of Sarah's left hand in various positions. The next couple of pages showed a some figure drawings, of nude men.
"Who's that?" Grace asked.
"Dunno; I have some books of anatomy and poses for artists that I work from."
"Oh, so you didn't draw them in person?"
Sarah snorted. "No. The community art center has open life drawing studios, but I can't afford them." She flipped the page over to the next, blank page. "And even if I could—"
Grace waited for her to finish the sentence, then prompted, "If you could, what?"
Sarah flushed slightly. "I know this is going to sound stupid to you, but—I'm too shy to sign up for them anyway."
Grace frowned slightly. "Shy? Why, because you don't think your drawings are good enough? Isn't that what you're supposed to learn, how to be better?"
"No, not that; I'm an okay artist, and I am getting better with practice. It's just... well..." She trailed off. She tried to imagine how she'd explain being shy around naked people to Grace. Grace, who had all the body modesty of a squirrel, and whom she'd seen naked probably more times than she'd seen her own sister naked. She sighed, and just went for the direct approach, since speaking obliquely with Grace usually just resulted in more confusion.
"I'm nervous about the idea of being around a real live naked model."
Grace tilted her head. "I thought you were getting used to being around me naked."
"You, yes; random total strangers, not so much."
"So, don't they have drawing classes with clothed models?"
"Oh, sure, for younger students, or folks who don't want to work with nudes. But it's a normal part of art training to study the nude, to get to know anatomy better." She grimaced and shook her head. "I really need to get over this hang-up; when I go off to college, the introductory drawing classes will almost certainly involve working from the figure."
Grace perked up. "I could model for you!" she said.
"Ah..." Sarah paused. She had been considering asking Grace to pose for her later, but she had mostly been thinking of portraits, face studies. But she knew without asking that Grace was offering to be a nude model.
"I could even shift into a different form, if you want to get used to seeing different people naked. Or if you wanted to draw a male figure instead of female."
"I'm... not sure that would really help; I would still know it was you."
"But at least you could get some practice drawing the figure. And maybe I could keep one or two to put up in my room? Ooh, or give one to Teddy to put up in his room?"
Sarah grinned as she imagined how Edward, Tedd's dad, would react to that. The potential to tweak his nose a little appealed enough to overcome her usual shyness about sharing her artwork with others. "If you really wanted to, sure. I can't promise anything I do will be worth hanging up."
Grace scoffed at that notion. "I've seen your drawings. I'd love to have something by you to put up."
Sarah thought a minute more. She was getting more used to being around Grace when she was naked, yes, but the idea of Grace being naked at her request felt different. And she wouldn't just be 'being around' Grace naked, she would be actively staring at her, possibly for hours. The thought gave her a little shiver, which she ignored.
But she really did want to practice figure drawing. As well as work on getting over her shyness.
She called to Tedd, who had been working at his computer, apparently oblivious to the conversation behind him. "Hey, Tedd, how do you feel about Grace getting naked and dancing around the basement?" She deliberately phrased the query as provocatively as possible, wondering if his mind was anywhere in this world.
"Hmm? Grace? I'm not sure I could stop her if I wanted to," he replied absently. "Not that I would. Want to, that is." He finally paused in his work and turned around to look at them. "Why, are you going to have a naked DDR contest or something?"
Grace laughed, Sarah rolled her eyes. "No, nothing like that; I was just thinking of doing some figure studies of Grace. You don't have any experiments planned for us in the next few hours, do you?"
"No, I'm probably a day away from the next round. Say, could I have one of the drawings?" Grace laughed again, and Sarah smiled.
"Sure. Grace had already asked for one on your behalf, as payment for her work."
"Oh, I don't need payment—" Grace began.
"That was a joke. Mostly. Though I feel like I should pay you something; modeling is hard work."
Tedd grinned. "Standing around naked is hard work? Maybe for other people, but that just comes naturally to Grace."
"Maybe the naked part comes naturally, but the standing still part is a bit harder. Stiffness, cramping and sore muscles are common complaints."
"Oh, I can adjust my musculature to avoid cramps," Grace said.
"Okay. Wow. That could be handy."
"So, how do we start?"
"Uh...." Sarah had heard about life drawing classes, but had never actually attended one. "Well, usually, I guess we'd start with a bunch of short poses, like a minute long, just to let me warm up and get into the flow of things."
"Okay!" Grace peeled off her shirt and dropped it on the couch. She wasn't wearing a bra, of course, since they never knew what kind of transformations Tedd might be putting them through. Sarah looked away, embarrassed as always watching her undress, and opened her pencil case and pulled out her favorite 2B pencil. She pulled two chairs face-to-face, setting up one as an improvised easel to hold her sketchpad upright. She looked up to see Grace standing in front of her, as unself-conscious as she ever was in her naked state. Sarah's heart beat a little faster at the thought of trying to capture such beauty on paper, then she mentally shook her head. I'll be lucky to produce anything that looks even vaguely like her.
She pulled out her phone, and set a repeating timer for one minute. "Okay, every time the timer beeps, you change positions to something new, okay?"
"Sure!"
Sarah blew out a breath, and began putting pencil to paper.
An hour and a half later, the basement was quiet, except for the clatter of keys as Tedd typed away at his computer, and the scratching sound of pencil across paper as Sarah worked.
"Graaa–ace!"
Grace looked up at Sarah, startled. "Yes?"
"You moved again."
"I did?"
"Your left hand?"
Grace's left hand froze in the act of twirling her hair around her fingers. "Oh. Sorry! Where is it supposed to be?"
Sarah sighed, put down her pencil, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Never mind. Let's take five, okay?"
"Sure!" Grace bounced up from the couch where she'd been reclining, theoretically holding still. She crossed over to where Sarah sat with the large sketchpad on her lap, having given up on trying to prop it up on the second chair. "Can I see what you've done?"
Sarah pushed down her discomfort—part embarrassment at showing anyone else her work, part awkwardness at closer proximity to Grace's casual nudity—and said "Of course." She flipped the pages of her sketchpad back a dozen pages, to where she'd started sketching, and handed it to Grace.
The drawing session had started out well enough, with Grace flowing into an interesting variety of poses for the quick sketches. It was when they tried to switch to longer poses that things had gotten—problematic. Sarah hadn't counted on Grace's part-squirrel nature. She literally could not sit still for more than a few minutes at a time, no matter how hard she tried. In a human, Sarah would have offered a layperson's diagnosis of ADHD, but she wasn't sure it could really be called that in Grace's case—it wasn't a hyperactive disorder, per se, but a natural part of her non-human heritage.
But Grace was wonderful for doing gestural sketches—quick poses where Sarah tried to capture the feeling of the pose in quick, broad strokes. Grace was flipping through the first pages of the sketchbook where Sarah had done a good dozen of those.
"Oooh, I like this one," Grace said, holding up a sketch of when she'd been standing en pointe, arms over head and back arched like a ballerina. Grace had proven good to her promise of being able to hold contorted poses without cramping; no normal human could have held that pose for a full minute.
Although Grace was posing in human form, some of the quick strokes Sarah had used to depict her legs also seemed to imply a large bushy tail, which was part of Grace's natural form. Looked at literally, the sketch barely resembled a person at all, but more like a dancing flame caught in motion; yet it was still, unmistakably, Grace.
"Yeah, I'm pleased with that one too," Sarah reluctantly admitted. "I think it's the best one of the lot."
Grace kept flipping through the remaining pages. "Really? Not even any of the longer pose—oh." She came to the last few pages, where Sarah had tried to do some longer, more detailed sketches. Each image was roughed in, but not completed; just Grace's face and one arm were finished on the first, her legs and feet on the second, and so on. Grace seemed to shrink in on herself a little. "I'm sorry, Sarah; I tried to hold still, but it's just so hard."
Sarah surprised herself by putting an arm around the naked woman's shoulders and giving her a squeeze. "It's okay, sweetie. Maybe we just need to take more frequent breaks." She let go of Grace and took her sketchpad back. "Or maybe you can do something to distract yourself? Play with your DS, or read a book? Or we could put something on TV for you to watch."
"Mmmm. Maybe," said Grace dubiously. "But I tend to be a pretty active gamer. I've accidentally tossed my console across the room more than once. And Tedd tells me I, uh, bounce when reading a good book."
"Bounce?"
"Yeah, I get so excited, I just sorta' bounce up and down in my seat."
"Ah. What about non-fiction? Any good science books you haven't gotten a chance to read yet?"
"Same problem. Good science is exciting too!"
Sarah laughed. "Boy, Tedd sure found the perfect girlfriend for him. Right, Tedd?"
Tedd, working away at his computer, said "Hunh?" He didn't look up from what he was doing.
"I said—oh, never mind. Do you have any ideas?"
"Millions." After a long pause, he added, "Ideas for what?"
Sarah sighed. "Ideas for how Grace might manage to sit still for half an hour or so, so I can sketch her."
"Hmm." He typed in a flurry of code, then said distractedly, "Well, she usually mellows out pretty well after two or three orgasms."
Grace laughed. Sarah's eyes went wide and she felt herself flushing. Tedd froze, as what he had just said sank in. He finally looked up from his computer, turning towards Sarah and Grace, his face almost as red as Sarah's. "Uh, that is—"
Sarah started to turn away from them, but without consciously willing it, she felt her magic surge through her body, and Grace and Tedd froze in place beside her. They were magically frozen in what Sarah thought of as a bubble of 'other-time', where she could move around and explore a magically created duplicate of her environment for several minutes, before snapping back to just a few moments after she'd cast the spell. The first time she had cast the spell had been in a moment of panicked embarrassment, at the possibility of her sister walking in on her naked. Though she had cast the spell many times since then, this was the first time since that initial incident that she'd done so reflexively, out of shock, not volitionally.
She looked at them, frozen in place, both looking like they were about to speak, Tedd blushing, Grace smiling. Of course they're having sex. I knew that. It had been pretty well implied from various comments dropped here and there. Well, and the fact that Tedd had only watched Grace dancing around the room nude for a couple of minutes before turning back to his computer to do some work. No one attracted to women could not watch that display unless they'd gotten laid recently, she thought wryly. Fortunately, she'd had a sketchpad to hand, and so had an excuse to keep staring at the beautiful young woman. And if the occasional curve of her breast, or arch of her neck, had caused a little frisson of pleasure to run through Sarah's body, well, that was nobody's business but her own.
Still, to have their sex life flat out confirmed, by mistake, was disconcerting. She was also surprised to feel a pang of jealousy, and sorrow.
She stared at them, and briefly considered swapping her consciousness into Grace's body, just to see how it felt to be that sexy, but she pushed the thought aside. They're your friends. Be happy for them, she scolded herself. She shook her head, then exerted her will and popped her other-time bubble, returning to the real world.
Sarah was back to turning away from Tedd and Grace. The little physical moment of freezing in place that went with the spell was more like a flinch. "Well, I don't think that's going to help us much here," she said dryly. She stepped back to her chair and dropped her sketch pad onto it, then began fiddling with her pencil case. She looked back at them, Grace standing beside Tedd sitting at his desk.
Grace had apparently not noticed Sarah's momentary freeze. "Maybe there's something there we could work with," said Grace cheerfully.
Tedd, more magically attuned than Grace, was looking at Sarah with a thoughtful little frown, though his blush was still rising.
Sarah turned away and pulled out her sharpener and gave her 2B pencil a few savage twists to put a point back on it. Then she realized she now had a palm full of pencil shavings—Where is the trash can? Oh, of course, next to Tedd's desk. She sighed, tossed her pencil and sharpener onto her sketchpad, and turned back, hoping that her blush had faded a little.
Tedd's blush hadn't. Really, with that purple hair, he should try to avoid blushing, thought Sarah. The colors just clash. She snorted, then brushed her hands off over the trash can.
"Sarah? Is something wrong?" Grace asked.
"No. Why would something be wrong?"
"I'm not sure, but—you're suddenly more tense. Not talking. And you and Tedd are both blushing.... Did I say something—Is it a sex thing?"
Sarah and Tedd looked at each other, then at Grace—beautiful, gloriously naked Grace, her face a picture of concern and confusion—and they both started giggling.
"Uh, yeah, you could say that," Sarah said. She felt her shoulders drop a little—she hadn't even noticed them tensing up.
"I'm sorry," Tedd said, "I should think before I speak. But, no, sweetie, I don't think there's something there that we can work with."
Sarah's giggles increased. "I can just see it, calling you up, 'Hey, I'm going to come over to do some sketching in a couple hours, so start making out now!'"
"It doesn't always take us a full two hours to—"
"TMI! TMI! TMI!" Tedd interjected hurriedly, which made Sarah both blush and giggle harder. Tedd and Grace both joined her in the laughter. Sarah dropped to the floor and sat cross-legged, giggling some more. She buried her face in her hands and laughed harder, then her laughter slowly faded out, but her shoulders kept heaving, as the laughter gave way to gentle sobbing.
It took Tedd and Grace a moment to register the change. Tedd reached out a hesitant hand toward her shoulder, then dropped it. He looked helplessly at Grace, shrugging in confusion.
Grace dropped to her knees beside Sarah and wrapped an arm around her. "Sarah, what's wrong?"
Sarah started to turn to bury her head in Grace's shoulder, but then she pulled back. Her crying hiccuped back into a single laugh, then stopped. "Grace, could you put something on, or at least, grow some fur? I don't think I can hug you like this, and, and, and I really want a hug right now." She swiped her sleeve across her eyes and sniffed, then watched, fascinated as always, as Grace transformed into what Sarah thought of as her basic squirrel-human self. Slightly smaller, with soft brown fur covering her body. Two furry antennae sprouted from her head, her ears elongated and pointed out to the sides, and the tip of her tail became visible behind her, twitching slightly.
"You know I'm still naked under this fur, right?" Grace smiled.
"Yeah, but that's kinda' like saying I'm still naked under my clothes. Well, maybe not exactly like, but..." She shook her head, then pulled the now-smaller woman into her arms, resting her chin on top of Grace's head. She took a deep breath to get herself under control, then blew it out. "I'm sorry." She gently stroked Grace's back, distracting herself with the feel of the soft fur under her hands.
"For what?"
"For—I don't know. Crying. Being stupid."
"You're not stupid! But... I'm not sure why you were crying."
"That's what's stupid. I'm—I'm happy for you, you two, glad that you've got each other. And I'd already figured out months ago that you were, um, sleeping together, but hearing it said out loud like that..." She trailed off.
"Yes?" prompted Grace.
Sarah buried her face in Grace's hair. "I know it's stupid and it's petty and selfish and I'm sorry, but I just can't help feeling—jealous." She hesitated, then honesty compelled her to add, "And sad."
"Sad? Um, I kinda' get the jealous part, but why sad?"
"Elliot. He—" She broke off and looked up at Tedd, Elliot's best friend, still sitting on the chair beside them. "Promise not to tell him about this?"
Tedd blinked. "About what?"
"It's—old relationship stuff, stuff that no longer really applies, since we're not dating any more."
Tedd chewed on his lip for a moment, then said, "As long as you don't tell me anything I think he needs to know."
"That's—uh, convoluted, but—okay. It really is just old stuff, about our old relationship, not our current friendship. At least, if you feel like you have to tell him some of this, would you tell me first?"
"Okay. I promise."
"Me too," added Grace.
"Hmmm." Sarah had lost her momentum in this side-track. She hugged Grace and rocked back and forth a little.
"Why sad?" prompted Grace.
"Me and Elliot—" She felt her face starting to redden again, and her eyes felt prickly. "I don't know why we never, never—you know. Did it. I tried to seduce him, or set him up so he could seduce me, but—" She closed her eyes, not quite believing that she was actually admitting this to anyone. "It's just—what's wrong with me? Why didn't he want me?" She hid her face in Grace's hair, and tried to keep her tears from starting up again.
"Oh, sweetie," Grace murmured. She rocked gently with her. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with you. You're wonderful, and cute, and sexy."
"There's the whole reason he broke up with you in the first place; the he 'loves you like a sister' thing," Tedd offered.
"Yeah, but why does he feel that way? Am I that plain, or ugly, that I couldn't excite his interest in other ways? Fuck!" The unexpected profanity made Grace and Tedd jump a little. "I hate this! I think he loved me, loves me—"
"He really does, you know," said Tedd.
"—but I look at you two, and at Nanase and Ellen, and Elliot and Ashley, how happy you all are, and I wonder—is there something missing from me? What's wrong with me that I can't have that kind of happiness?" She gave up and let her tears flow, quieter this time, soaking Grace's head. Grace continued to rock with her in silent sympathy. "And it doesn't help that it seems like Elliot and Ashley are, are being, are, well, intimate, after dating for only a couple of months," she finished miserably.
Tedd got down from his chair and sat next to them, putting a tentative arm around the two of them, with Grace in the middle."Sarah, there's nothing wrong with you, it's not your fault—it's not anybody's fault if things just didn't work out that way. Things just—didn't click. You're still hella cute and sexy."
Sarah sniffed, and said "Right. Sexy. You've never looked at me that way before, now you're just trying to be nice."
"That's not true! I—" He broke off and looked at Grace.
After a few moments of silence, curiosity penetrated Sarah's misery, and she looked up. "You what?"
Addressing Grace, he said slowly, "I don't think you'd mind me saying—" He shook his head. "What am I saying? Of course you wouldn't mind."
Both women were staring at him now, slightly confused. "Mind what?" asked Grace.
Tedd dropped his arm from around their shoulders, and brought his knees up to wrap his arms around them. He turned his attention back to Sarah. "Do you know what one of my biggest regrets about the whole cat-girl transformation mess-up was? Even more than worrying about scaring you off of transformations for good?"
Sarah, puzzled by this apparent non-sequitur, just shook her head.
"I—" he glanced briefly at Grace again, then blurted out "I was sad that you'd probably never trust me enough after that to want to go out with me." Now Tedd's blush was returning. He closed his eyes. "This was all before you came along, of course, Grace. But—you're so artistic and clever and beautiful and creative and sexy and nice—I had a huge crush on you for a long time," he finished in a rush, then hid his face on top of his knees.
"Also, you were a really hot cat-girl," he mumbled into his knees.
Sarah was flabbergasted. There'd never been anything in Tedd's past behavior that would have lead her to believe he had any interest in her. She opened her mouth several times to speak, but could think of literally nothing to say.
Grace, of course, had no such problem. "Awww, that's so sweet! See, Sarah, it's not just me, Teddy thinks you're sexy too!"
"I—what?" Sarah's attention snapped back from Tedd to Grace. "You—what?"
Grace, oblivious, went on, "And you know we can't be the only ones! You've just got to get out there and look some more. You're too wonderful to not find a special someone someday. They might not just turn up on your doorstep in a trench coat, but they will show up." She finally noticed that Sarah was staring at her, and her smile turned uncertain. "I'm sorry, is this the wrong time for a pep-talk?"
Sarah closed her eyes briefly and shook her head. "No—not the wrong time, I—Yeah, yeah, you're right, I've just got to keep looking." Her emotions had reached a breaking point, and she felt she had to get away from this conversation. She disentangled herself from Grace's arms and stood up abruptly. "Oh, hey, look at the time, I've got to go." She picked up her sketchpad and pencil case and fled for the stairs. "See you later."
"Sarah! Wait, what—did I say something wrong? I don't understand."
Sarah paused at the foot of the stairs. She knew how sensitive Grace was; she couldn't leave her hanging in doubt like that, blaming herself for what Sarah was feeling. She sighed, and, staring at the stairs so she wouldn't have to look at Grace and Tedd, said "No, Grace, you didn't say anything wrong. You either, Tedd," she added. "I just—you gave me a lot to think about, that's all. Don't worry about it. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed her jacket and ran up the stairs and left.
Sarah walked on autopilot, not seeing the neighborhood around her, her thoughts in turmoil. Grace thinks I'm sexy? Heck, Tedd thinks I'm sexy? She wasn't sure which thought flustered her more. Or which she disbelieved more. I'm sure they were just trying to be nice to the stupid crying girl. Except Grace was the world's worst liar; she even had troubles with most polite social lies.
And Tedd—he had been genuinely embarrassed by what he was admitting. Tedd was brilliant at many things, but even after months with Grace, his social and emotional skills were minimal at best. And he was a lousy actor. No way could he have created an emotionally involved story like that on the spot, just to make her feel better.
Sarah kept playing the phrase over in her mind: It's not just me, Tedd thinks you're sexy too! Not just me? Tedd? Too?
She shook her head. So what? So they think I'm—not ugly. They're both already in a relationship—with each other!—so it's not like it has anything to do with me. It's just a compliment. Like telling me my blouse looks nice today. The ache in her stomach made her wish she could really believe that. Yeah, just a compliment.
Her feet stopped moving, and she looked up to realize that she had headed, not for home, but for Elliot's house. Fudge. Stupid subconscious. Not that he's even here. No-one was home except for Brownie, the cat, whom she had fed that morning on her way to Tedd's house. For a moment she considered letting herself in, to snuggle with the cat for a while, but she shook her head and turned towards home.
Approaching home, she was glad to see that her mother's car wasn't in the driveway; she wasn't in the mood to talk with anyone just yet. She went in, hung up her coat, and went to the kitchen. She put her sketchpad and pencil case down on the kitchen table. She poured herself a mug of milk, heated it in the microwave, then squirted some chocolate syrup into it and stirred. Returning to the table, her gaze fell on the bouquet that she'd previously drawn, in a vase on the table. Let me sketch just that one rose, she thought. Drawing allowed her to escape her thoughts, pulled her away from her worries. She rummaged in her pencil case, then cursed as she realized she'd left her sharpener and 2B pencil behind on the chair. Heck with it, I can work with an HB. She flipped open her sketchpad.
The partially finished sketch of Grace's face looked up at her.
Damnit. She is a walking definition of sexy. What am I in comparison? Flat-chested, pudgy, zit-faced, straight thin hair... An hour of staring at Grace's beauty had not helped her self-esteem any.
Without thinking about it, her pencil started to dance across the page, refining details and adding shadows and depth she'd not had time for before. It's not a perfect likeness, I don't think her nose is really that wide, but it's pretty close. Then she laughed to herself. If I showed this to Grace, she could make it into a perfect likeness by changing her face to match. Now, there's a different approach to doing accurate portraiture—change the subject to match the image. Her pencil slowed, and she stared at the page. There was something in that idea that gave her pause.
That is what Grace is doing, in a way, she thought. She's slowly reshaped herself to more closely match Tedd's image of a perfect girlfriend. Sarah thought back to the first time she'd met Grace, to take her clothes shopping, right after she had shown up on Tedd's doorstep in nothing but a trenchcoat. She was basically the same person, a photo from that time would not be mistaken for anyone else, but she had subtly shifted over time. She was a bit more curvy, more muscular, an inch or so taller. Nothing that an outside observer would think twice about; it could be rationalized as a late growth spurt, or the results of a new exercise program. Except Grace's human form was purely voluntary, self-controlled. Her human face closely matched the face of her human-squirrel hybrid self, but the perfect hair and skin and perfectly symmetrical features were Grace's choices, conscious or not.
Heh. I should tell her that if she wants to blend in better, she should grow a pimple on her nose now and then.
She shook her head and dismissed the thought as unworthy. She stared at her drawing a moment longer before flipping to a blank page. What did it matter? Even if she was right, it just emphasized the difference between what Grace or Tedd really thought was sexy, and her.
She stared at the rose in front of her for a few moments, then bent to her drawing pad and began to sketch.
It was a very intense picture of a flower.