MTU: Hard To Look At - Chapter 12 (Patreon)

Thursday morning, Elliot and I were walking to school together. A car pulled up beside us. It was Stacy. “Get in,” she called from driver seat. “Melody, get in back. Her legs are so long she can't fit in the back.”

“What about me?” Elliot said.

Stacy looked at me and then said, “This time, okay.”

Elliot sat behind me. I had to adjust the seat so it was all the way back and still my knees where pressed against the dashboard.

“Thanks. What's the occasion?” I said.

“I wanted to invite you to the mall after school. You really need better clothes.”

“Pardon my interrupting,” Elliot said. “I know you'd rather be dead than be seen with me. But, why are you being so nice to Medusa?”

“That's none of your business,” Stacy said.

“I suppose that's fair,” he said. “But, you should tell her.”

“I will,” she said. She looked at me, “I will. But, not here. So, are you coming to the mall with me after school?”

“Sure, I guess,” I said.

“I'm not inviting you, Elliot,” Stacy said.

“Don't worry. I wouldn't want to be invited on a shopping trip.”

“You could use a makeover,” Melody said.

“No thanks.”

“But, you wear such frumpy clothes. Change out those shapeless tees for some polo shirts and you could look sharp.”

“I could look sharp?”

“You'd still be a loser. But at least it wouldn't be offensive to look at you.” After a moment Melody laughed. “You believed me, didn't you?”

“Which part? Am I actually offensive to look at or a total loser?”

“Neither,” Melody said. “I guess I've never looked at you up close.”

“Please stop flirting with Elliot, Mel,” Stacy said. She parked the car and everyone got out.

People in the parking lot took note that we were getting out of Stacy's car and walking to the entrance with her.

“Meet me back here after last bell and we'll hit the mall.”

“Okay.”

Classes went as well as they had been going this week. No one knew about my drama with Duke and I had already become last week's news when a freshman I didn’t know twisted, she had been flat chested last week. Now she had two, perhaps three, pairs of breasts of sizable girth. This problem was compounded by her near constant lactation. Rumors were going around that she spent most of her time attached to a milking machine.

I understood how she might feel less than human. She did not seem to have any down time at school that matched my own as I did try to seek her out to see if she wanted to talk about it.

Shortly after lunch, I was stopped in the hall by Marie. “Hi, G- Medusa,” she said.

“Hi.”

“We were supposed to get together last Friday but you were out that day.”

“Sorry. We never exchanged phone numbers or I would have called you.”

“Are you available tomorrow?” She said as we exchanged phone numbers.

“I suppose so.”

“Good. I'm only available on Fridays.”

“Okay. See you then.”

“Sounds great.” She gave me a friendly hug and walked away in the opposite direction to where I was going.

The rest of the day slipped by and soon I was in the parking lot with Stacy, Melody, and Tess, three of the most popular girls in school.

“Why are we doing this?” Tess said.

“Because it'll be fun.” Melody said.

“Okay.”

We arrived at the mall and they led me to store after store where they tried to find clothes that would look good with my wild proportions and oddly colored skin. They spoke in a cryptic code of colors and styles. They explained to me how sometimes a top was just a top and sometimes it was a blouse.

When they saw my stomach was naturally buff, they traded out some clothes that were keepers for some more mid-riff baring clothing. I spent a lot of time going in and out of the changing rooms and being met with anything from flat nos to mehs to wolf whistles. Melody was disappointed I couldn’t wear pants, pantsuits, or leggings. They had me try on sheer hosiery but the normal colors for hosiery did not go with the coppery tone of my skin. Tess suggested mail ordering silver colored hosiery.

I had to admit I was having fun when we hit the food court several hours later and we had a bunch of bags we were all carrying. They did buy a few things for themselves and each of them paid for some of my things, mostly when I was not aware they were buying something for me.

We went back to Melody's home, she supposedly had the largest bedroom with the largest full length mirror. Here the lessons continued with mixing and matching all the clothes I had bought.

“It's too bad you can't wear a hat,” Tess said.

My snakes, who had be relatively quiet all day, hissed at the comment.

“Did they just wake up?”

“I have no idea what they do or don't understand when I'm not focusing on them.”

“That must be so weird,” Melody said. “Having parts of your body that can just do stuff if you aren't paying attention to them.” She looked at particular snake. “Can I pet you?”

The snake reached toward her and rested its head in her palm. She stroked the back of its head with her other hand.

“This isn't weird is it?” She asked me.

“I'm not sure. But, you don't have to stop.”

“Oo, I want to try,” Tess said and she reached for me too fast.

“Wait, no!” I said, too late. The snake she had been reaching for was cool. But a different one had freaked out and bit her. The snake Melody had been holding whipped back out of her hand.

“Ow,” Tess cried out and shook her hand. Before she could say anything else she stopped moving.

“What just happened?”

I shook my head. “What's the time?” I said. “Tess has become test subject number one for the paralytic poison my snakes' bites.”

“You paralyze and petrify people?”

“Usually not on purpose.”

“Usually?”

“Elliot has be helping me learn the extent of my abilities so, occasionally, I have turned him to stone on purpose.”

“What's that like?” Melody said.

I noticed Stacy seemed very interested in my answer. “Well, I wouldn't know myself. But, from what Elliot, Nurse Rhymes, and others have said, it's very calming. If no one is engaging with the statue, they lose track of time and the hour or so that the petrification lasts might only seem like a couple minutes.”

“Can you do it to me?” Melody said.

“Well, not while we're waiting to see how long Tess is paralyzed for. And I don't know if you want us hanging around while you are indisposed for an hour.”

“You can do me when you are ready to leave. I'll tell my parents not to disturb me and to see you out.”

“If you insist.”

The topic drifted to school work and boys. Stacy did not stop Melody from talking about a few of the cute boys she saw in class today. But neither of them seemed to expect me to join in if I did not want to.

About forty minutes passed before Tess grunted. She still could not move, apparently. But, it was the first sound we had heard from her in a while. As more moments passed, she was able to make small movements and soon able to talk. She had been saying, “What happened?”

I explained to her about the poison and asked her if she had not heard about the poison warning in school.

She had thought it was an exaggeration. It was another half hour because she could move sufficiently to walk but her movements were still obviously stiff. “Isn't your petrification instantaneous? Why did this take so long?”

“Do you want the long answer?” I said. “The venom is just a toxin. It has to get into your system. And then it has to get out of your system. So, you get to feel like you did as the poison gets out of your bloodstream. The petrification is a quantum effect much like twists are quantum effects. One moment you are flesh and blood and the next moment you are stone.”

As it was getting late, Stacy and Tess said goodbye to Melody and said they would meet me downstairs. I turned to watch them leave her room and watched them go downstairs. When I heard them talking to Melody's parents I went back into her bedroom where she was out of her clothes.

“Can you take some pictures, too, before you leave?”

“The camera cannot be active when I do it. I broke a lot cameras at the institute.”

“Okay. Just take them after I'm stoned.” She said with a giggle.

“Like I haven't heard that before.”

“You should get use to it. Stoned is easier to say than petrified.” She set her feet shoulder width apart and cocked her right hip out. She put her right hand on that hip and placed her left hand on her head. “How do I look?”

“Great. Ready?”

She turned her head a little to the left so she could see the mirror and said, “Do it.”

I did. I then picked up her phone and took a few pictures of her. I took another pic with my phone before saying, “Enjoy an hour of stillness.”

“Did you do it?” Melody's mother said.

“Yes, your daughter is a statue at the moment. Should last about an hour.”

“Okay, well, you girls get home safe.” As she closed the front door behind us I could hear her rushing up the stairs.

On the ride to Tess' house, she said, “I kind of want to have you do me, too. But, not tonight. I'm still a bit out of it from being poisoned.”

“Some other time. Sure,” I said.

After Tess was dropped off, Stacy drove me home. “You never did ask me why I'm being nice to you.”

“I figured you would tell me when you needed to.”

“That just makes me feel worse. I tried to get Jenny to talk sense into Tommy about picking on Gordon. She tried but failed to get him to ease up. Eventually he convinced her I was trying to break them up so I could date Tommy.”

“Were you?”

“Date Tommy Radner? He isn't all that,” she said with a sneer. “I invited Jenny to come with us this afternoon. She isn't talking to me apparently.”

“I hope I didn't...”

“Shut up. You didn't do anything. Why are you so nice?”

I did not answer.

We drove in silence for several blocks before she continued, “My cousin was put down after her twist.”

“I--”

She pushed forward over my attempt to give condolences. “She was reading some weird book and she turned into an obscene tentacle monster covered in eyes and mouths. She ripped her brother in half and devoured part of him. My aunt and uncle managed to flee from the house. The authorities put several dozen bullets into her before she stopped moving. The autopsy said she probably was unaware that she killed Eddie because she was probably disoriented by having too many eyes and mouths in random parts of her limbs. She probably could still be alive today except the people who first responded overreacted.

“When I heard they thought you had kill Mrs. Rhymes, I had a panic attack. I thought I was going to witness in school what I heard had happened to my cousin. You even have more eyes and mouths than usual, like she did.”

I did not respond immediately. Then I said, “What was her name?”

“Rebecca.” She said. “We had always wanted to go to the same college when were old enough.”

“Well, I’m sorry you had to worry about me.”

“You didn’t need to say that.”

“I'm just lucky to have people who care about me. Including you.”

She parked the car, as we had arrived at my home. She hit a button to open the trunk of the car. “Do you need help carrying stuff inside?”

“No, I am much stronger now than I once was.”

She pointed at my snakes and said, “Behave!” My snakes, as one, recoiled. She gave me a kiss on the cheek before they could react. “Have a good night,” she said.

“Good night.” I got out of the car and grabbed my bags from the trunk. After I closed the trunk, she drove away.

Mom entered my room as I was unpacking the bags. “Did you have fun with the girls?”

“Elliot told you, didn't he?”

“You didn't tell me.”

“I said I'd be out late with friends.”

“Elliot was more forthcoming.”

“He needs a good talking to.”

“These are lovely clothes. I suppose these popular girls thought the clothes we bought together were too old for you.”

“Your tastes are apparently not those of teens today.”

“Probably true.” She held up a tube top. “Is this even allowed by the school dress code?”

“Not normally. But, I have a registered shoulder compulsion that means they might have to allow it.”

“Did the girls suggest that?”

“No. They didn't know about the compulsion.”

“Medusa!”

I shrugged.

* * *

After school Friday, Marie gave me a ride home. Elliot was nowhere to be found so I assumed he was giving me some space with Marie. Though, I wasn’t sure why.

We talked mostly about school. She complimented me on my outfit, one of the new ones I had bought the day before. When we entered my garage, I pointed out the chair she should sit in so I could start her bust.

“I was wondering,” she said. “It'll probably be boring just sitting here. I heard when you did your trick, time seems to go by faster.”

“Are you asking me to petrify you?”

“Do you mind?”

“Only because I realize you asked Gordon to make a bust of you. So, it's not like you planned for him to be able to petrify you. This is a new idea you've had.”

“Well, yes, since your twist I've wondered what it would feel like. But, no, it's not the first time I've wondered about that. Athena and Perseus were the villains of the myth.”

“Let's talk about that later when the light is less natural. It only lasts an hour.”

“Then, you can keep doing it to me until the bust is complete.”

“Fine. Stand up. I was only having you sit so you would be comfortable. Standing I won't have to lean down to check out the details.”

She stood up. “Should I smile?”

“A slight Mona Lisa smile is good. A big toothy grin would just be scary on a bust.”

This caused her to smile naturally and I flashed her into stone before she even knew what was happening.

“Hope it was everything you hoped it would be.” I said. I snapped a pic of her before getting into the clay. I already had a bust started with the head a bit too big and waiting to reveal Marie within the clay.

The hour passed quickly and I was so in the zone I was startled when she laughed.

“That wasn't fair,” she said. “I had no warning. And it was exactly what I had hoped for. Can I see the pic?”

I unlocked my phone and handed it to her.

“That's so fabulous. It's too bad it only lasts an hour.”

“Why is that bad?”

“I'd love to be in an art gallery standing there as a statue for a weekend. Being seen by people and they have no idea I'm alive watching them look at me.” She looked at the sculpture. “Wow, it already resembles me a bit.”

“Got started with the gross structure, eye placement, cheekbones, etc. Once all those proportions are correct, I'll then spend time getting all the little detail right. Ready for another hour?”

“You didn't say you couldn't make last longer.”

“No, I didn't. But, I'm not going to do anything like that without your parents' permission. My folks would flip if I experimented with making your petrification last longer than usual.”

“Why?”

“I should not tell you this. If you tell anyone I'll deny telling you. Swear you won't tell anyone.”

“I swear.”

“Check out that bird on that shelf.”

“Did you do that?”

“I did that a couple days after my twist.”

“It's been a statue for a couple weeks.”

“And it will remain a statue forever.”

“That's so cool.”

“Until they throw me into a jail cell forever. Then, it's not so cool. I'm fairly certain this would not happen to you. But, I don't think your parents or a judge will be happy hearing me say, I warned her this might happen and I told her I was fairly certain she'd be fine.”

“I get it. So, just hit me for an hour.”

She settled her face into a nice smirk and I flashed her to stone. I got into a good grove and got a lot more done than I thought I would.

Daddy entered the garage. “Are you and your client coming to dinner?”

“What?” I said distracted. “What time is it?”

“Almost seven o'clock,” he said. “That really does resemble the young woman whom I assume wanted to be a statue.”

“You have to admit, standing still for a bust is much easier when you can't move.”

“I suppose so.”

“Well, when she's normal again, come to dinner.”

“We will.”

After he left I looked at Marie. She should have turned back to normal two hours ago. I had been so in the zone I had no idea I had been sculpting for three hours straight. She was holding the bird statue. I opened my life-sight and she seemed normal, slightly dimmer than I would have expected. The bird also had life lines in it.