A week after the magic shower incident, Jon received a note from Ms. Carson, the school nurse. The note ordered Jon to report to the visiting team's locker room at two forty-five that afternoon, which was fifteen minutes before the normal end of classes.
Jon showed the note to his sixth period teacher, then headed for the visitor's locker room at twenty to three. When he arrived, the purpose of the conference was clear. All the attendees except Ms. Carson herself were magic shower victims. Jon sat on a locker bench next to his old friend Joseph. Jeff was seated on the oppsoite bench.
As Jon looked around the room he counted thirteen victims. Jon already knew nine, namely himself, Jeff, Alan, Mr. Burpie, Waldo Brinnerman, Waldo's three friends, and Joseph. The remaining four had apparently, like Joseph, changed later in the day or week. They were Ted Briski, Cody Sinko, Kurt Neitzel, and Fernando Bruggeman.
At first glance most of the group appeared to be wearing normal guy clothes. The exceptions were one of Waldo's friends, Lance Lemelle, who was wearing girl's short shorts, and Cody Sinko, one of the late bloomers, who was wearing a pleated denim skirt. Both had obviously shaved their legs.
Of the remaining eleven, Jon counted four wearing normal guy pants, two wearing guys' shorts, two wearing women's slacks, and three wearing girls' shorts. All those in shorts had shaved their legs except for Neil Helbert, who was another of Waldo's friends,.
"This meeting is just to check on how you all are doing, and to see what the school can do to help you out," Ms. Carson explained. "We'll wait just a moment for the principal to arrive. That's Mr. Carlyle, in case you don't know."
Mr. Carlyle appeared a minute later. "Good afternoon, students, and Ms. Carson. Thanks for being here, and for waiting. I apologize for running late. I was just checking a few last-minute details. Oh, and you can relax. No one's done anything wrong, at least not that I'm aware of.
"Now, I see that many of you are experimenting with clothing, and that's fine. We understand your situation, and you're not going to get detention or any other disciplinary action because of it. We're not going to call your experimentation cross-dressing or anything like that. You can pick freely from any part of the girls' or boys' dress code you like. We do ask, however, that you stay within the bounds of those dress codes.
"There have been a number of incidents regarding restrooms. Some of you have been turned away from the boy's restrooms, and some have created a commotion by trying to use the girl's room."
"I needed a tampon, and the girls' rooms are the only places that have them," complained Kurt Neitzel, one of the late bloomers.
"Yes, we're aware of those kinds of problems, and here's what we plan to do about them," Mr. Carlyle continued. "As you probably know, there's a boy's restroom in the Math wing with no girl's room nearby, and a girl's restroom in the Language Arts hallway with no boy's room nearby. Our plan, starting tomorrow morning, is to re-designate both of those rooms as unisex. That means you're going to find condom and tampon machines side-by-side, and there won't be any question as to who's allowed inside. Everyone's allowed. As a practical matter, however, we expect most students to continue using separate washrooms, and you'll have those two facilities pretty much to yourselves.
"Similar problems have, of course, occurred with gym classes and locker rooms. Some of you can't stand changing clothes in front of boys anymore, and some girls can't stand changing clothes in front of you. So here again, we're going unisex. This locker room, which is normally idle all day, will be classified as unisex effective tomorrow morning. Technically that makes it open to everyone but as with washrooms, we expect most students to continue using separate facilities.
"During the last week several of you have come to Ms. Carson with problems. That's excellent, and I hope you all keep that option in mind. I'm sure that each one of you, at some time in the near future, will have at least one health or hygienic problem that you didn't have before. Please consider Ms. Carson a resource for coping iwth these issues. If you need help finding a gynecologist, she can help you with that as well.
"Ms. Carson will also be teaching a Feminine Hygiene class targeting your special needs. We're still going over your schedules, but we hope to fit this in as a credit course you can take during regular school hours."
"What about a cure? Are you looking into that?" asked Alan.
"Yes, but don't hold your breath," Mr. Carlyle replied. "Ms. Carson, our school physician Dr. Kitt, and the librarians have all been searching the medical literature for mention of a magic shower syndrome that changes males into females, but so far they've found nothing. We're certainly going to keep looking, though.
"Now, we're just about out of time and I have two more issues to discuss. The first concerns research. As you might suspect, the school has already received numerous requests to examine you guys for research purposes. If you haven't heard of this previously, it's because our attorney is still determining whether the school can or should assist with those efforts, and if so how. I'll keep you posted as to status. If someone approaches you directly about submitting to research examinations, you can certainly ask them to work through us here at school.
"My last point is a surprising one, at least to me," Mr. Carlyle stated while double-checking his notes. "A number of, ah, persons have approached the school office asking for deliberate access to the magic shower. This is another matter we've referred to counsel but while we're all here, I wonder what you guys think about that. If someone wants to be changed, should we let them?"
There was a momentary pregnant pause, then Jon spoke up. "There don't seem to be any medical drawbacks," he stated. "I mean, I've been this way a long time and it hasn't made me more feminine in other ways, or made me sick, or sickly, or anything else like that. I guess anyone who wants it should be really sure, though. They need to realize its permanent, that they're really giving up their dick and balls forever. Someone should talk to them about that."
"Yes, I'm sure we would insist on counseling as a prerequisite to exposure," Mr. Carlyle assured everyone. "Ms. Carson and Dr. Kitt are consulting with transgender specialists to determine what that should be. Are there any other complications we should be aware of?"
There weren't so Mr. Carlyle thanked everyone, asked them to reconvene in a week, and then closed the meeting.
"I think those unisex washrooms and locker rooms are going to be more popular than Mr. Carlyle thinks," Joseph remarked.
"Yeah, they're not for everyone, but some people are going to use 'em because they don't care, or just out of curiosity," Jeff agreed.
"Jon, could I have a moment with you?" asked Mr. Carlisle.
"Sure, what's up?" Jon wondered aloud.
"In the time you've been aware of the magic shower, have any women or girls been exposed to it?" Mr. Carlyle inquired.
"No, why do you ask?" Jon replied, then he noticed Nurse Carson and Mr. Burpie, the transformed gym teacher, standing behind Mr. Carlyle and eavesdropping.
