"I wish," said Jon, "that the reason that I'm not late for my first period today is that I'm not having periods right now, and that therefore my pants aren't stained."
Jon looked down and his pants were unstained, though somehow they seemed tighter than before. He wasn't sure why. "I wish that my clothes fit me better" he said, "and that they do that by them changing, not me!"
He felt a sudden relief, but when he looked down he saw he was wearing a skirt, pantyhose, and women's shoes. The heels were only an inch and a half or so high, but still, Jon wasn't in the habit of wearing women's clothes, even on his lower half. He sighed and prepared to change clothes again without using the rock.
"Jon, the bus is here now!" yelled his mother. "You have to go!"
Jon picked up his bookbag, and hastily dropped the stone into it--he had no idea where the pockets were in the skirt, if it even had pockets at all. He ran right past his mother--who noticed nothing strange about him--and went outside to see a bright orange bus, stopping near his house as usual every morning. Except that according to his watch, the bus was fifteen minutes late.
"Hey," he asked the driver, "was something wrong with the bus?"
"Yeah" answered the driver. "The first bus got a flat tire so I had to use this one instead."
"Oh, and do you notice anything strange about me?"
The driver looked him over and answered "I'm not sure. Is that a new skirt?"
"Never mind" said Jon. He sat down and let the bus take him to school, where he ran into class. At least the lateness was excused.
There was no time to talk to Karyn before class, since Jon was late. His first real chance was at lunch.
"Karyn!" he said, "we need to do something... Look at this!" He pointed to the female lower half of his body,
"Your pantyhose has a run in it?" wondered Karyn.
"No," said Jon, "I'm a guy!"
"Of course you're a guy. Everyone knows that when they asked you if you wanted to register as a guy or a girl you said a guy."
"But I... I'm having periods!"
"Oh, that's great!" said Karyn. "I was getting a little worried there, with you missing your periods and all that."
Jon made his best attempt to explain calmly. "I'm not having periods, Karyn. I'm a guy. I made some bad wishes on the stone and I ended up half girl. Then I wished away my period, so I'm not having periods. You don't remember it, but I wasn't half girl until yesterday! I need to do something about this!"
"Oh, come on" said Karyn. "I suppose that's possible, because the stone does change what people remember, but even if it did change you there's really nothing wrong with you. It's a perfectly fine body. The only problem is that your periods have stopped."
"Look, Karyn" he said, taking out the stone, "you're only saying that because you remember me like this, so it feels normal. You don't want me to change from how you remember me being. Maybe I can do just as many things with half a girl's body as with a boy's body, but that doesn't mean there's nothing wrong, because it's not me. I don't even know how to go to the bathroom in it."
"Well, I don't remember it giving you any problems, even if I'm remembering something that didn't happen" said Karyn. "And you can't do anything about it, right?"
"No, I can't" said Jon. "I tried to reverse it but I couldn't."
"So why not put up with it for a while?" asked Karyn. "I remember you putting up with it, so obviously you can. I'm putting up with my hair and breasts, after all. If it really makes you upset, just use the stone to help yourself get used to it. Put a time limit on it if you have to."
Jon wondered if that was a good idea. But Karyn meant well, and it couldn't hurt, if he was careful. "I wish that I know how to use this body, and that for the next week I don't mind having it, though that won't stop me from changing back to a boy if I have the chance...."
