The question of whether or not to accept Sarah's offer weighed-heavily upon Jon for much of the rest of the day; his first instinct, of course, was simply to say no; he had better things to do then wave pom-poms around, and the masculine parts of his mind (preserved in spite of being trapped within a newly-female body), rebelled against the very idea.
And yet...
And yet, at some level of his consciousness, he could hear a nagging voice urginging him to say: "yes!" Whether this voice was that of his new-found feminity gradually asserting itself, or whether it was simply based on some realization that sooner or later he would need to find his place in the world as a girl, Jon could not say, but neither could he ignore this council.
He spoke to Karyn about it on the way home from school that day.
"You," she laughed. "A cherleader?"
"I know it sounds dumb," Jon was quick to reply.
"You're not seriously considering it, are you?"
"No! Of course not! Well..."
"You are!" she was shocked.
"Well...why not?"
"For one thing, because you're a GUY!"
"No," Jon replied, "I WAS a guy. Now...now I'm not sure what I am."
"Even still, you don't seem the type to..."
"How can you know what type I am anymore? I don't even know my type."
Karyn smiled serenely. "Look, I can't imagine what this must be like for you. You want to learn what it's like to be a girl? Fine. But bare in mind that not all girls are cheerleading bimbos like Sarah!"
"Yeah," Jon replied, "but not all cheerleaders are bimbos either. Like Vicky- she's a cheerleader, but she's also the top our class in math. What if it's the thing for me? How will I know if I don't try."
"Look, do whatever you want," said Karyn exasperatedly. "Just don't be like Sarah."
Jon smiled. "I'll try," he said.
Arriving at his house, Jon found that his mother was still guiltily shut in her room, desperately trying to avoid him. He made himself a light supper, and started doing a little homework. After about half an hour, he felt the need to go to the washroom, and, (after having to remind himself that he couldn't pee standing-up anymore) caught his own reflection in the mirror over the sink.
"So," he whispered. "this is me from now on."
He wasn't much to look at, he admitted. That had been the idea, to begin with, but now a wicked urge overtook him; removing his mother's make-up from the drawer, he cautiously, almost frightfully applied it to his face. He had never done it before, of course, so the end result was something akin to a Vegas showgirl, but it was also something else: feminine.
It wasn't that bad, actually.
Cheerleading was feminine too. It wasn't the only feminine thing he could do, but it could still be fun.
But on the other hand, did he really want to be feminine? And di he really want to make a spectacle of himself?
At last, Jon finally decided that he would tell Sarah that...
