The next morning, Jon found himself filled with equal amounts of dread and anticipation as he walked to the front doors of Lake Point High School. He felt his hand shake as he reached out and pulled one of the four big entry way doors open and crossed the threshold into the massive atrium. He felt himself tense up but nothing seemed to happen. He saw Karyn sitting on their usual bench by the blue branched tree. She waved when she saw him walking towards her.
"What gives, Karyn? Wasn't something supposed to happen when I got here this morning?"
"I only said it would happen in the morning at school, I didn't say exactly when you got here. Besides, how do you know it hasn't already happened?" Karyn looked up at Jon with a coy smile.
"Because, you only use that smile when you're anticipating something. You have a terrible poker face, you know," Jon said. "Now would you get on with it or at least tell me when it will happen before I start developing an ulcer?"
"Fine, you big baby," she said as she winked at Jon. "Jon-boy, Jon-boy, Jon-boy."
As soon as Jon heard those words he felt a strange sensation wash over him. When she looked up she couldn't believe she was sitting next to Kara Black. Yeesh, talk about a loser, Brie thought to herself. Wait, it's not Kara...it's Karyn and she's my friend...isn't she? Brie felt that same twinge in the pit of her stomach that she felt the night before when she remembered she had been a boy a moment earlier but it went away as soon as made herself stop. Kara or Karyn, it didn't matter, it was bad news to be seen with her if she was going to make it onto the cheerleading squad. She jumped up immediately and scowled at the older girl.
"Just what do you think you're doing sitting here?"
Karyn looked at the girl and immediately felt annoyed. She knew it was Jon but all she could see was this tiny little pip squeak giving her attitude like a tiny Sarah. "This is my seat, shortie," Karyn said, standing up and forcing the girl to look up at her. "You sat down beside me, remember?"
Brie thought for a moment. She remembered sitting down as Jon but the harder she tried to think about why he would want to do something like that the more she felt that sick feeling again. If Jon wanted to be a loser that was up to him but Brie Watson wasn't going to take it. "Whatever. I'm gone, freak."
Brie spun on the two inch block heels of her coral colored sandals and walked away. She could feel her black low-rider skinny jeans massaging her legs as she walked. She knew she was wearing loose fitting peasant blouse with drapey bell sleeves that matched her sandals and a tight, teal camisole under it. She could feel her hair pulled back tight in a high ponytail that cascaded down behind her to show off her drop stone earrings. Just as the statement necklace she wore drew attention to her cleavage the earrings brought out her deep, shimmering emerald eyes. She might be tiny, but she knew she had all the right curves. Of all the things she knew about herself, she was proudest of her body. If only she wasn't quite so freckly she'd be perfect, but that's what makeup was for after all. She had a strange feeling of deja vu, like a memory of taking a quiz about freckles or something but she forced herself not to think of it barely even noticing her stomach tighten and relax this time.
"Hey, Watson, did that little Kar-Bear bother you?" a voice called as she walked away.
"OMG, Sarah!" Brie said. "No, she just felt like it was ok to get up in my space."
Karyn heard this and laughed. "Care Bear, Sarah, really? Is that the best you can come up with?"
"Well, yeah, Grumpy Bear. You're always crying and moping and sitting by yourself. It's like you're always waiting for someone who's never going to show up and then you start following Brie around like she has something to do with it. She's right, you are some kind of freak. If you actually gave a damn about your appearance you wouldn't have to worry about being by yourself all the time, but then the school wouldn't have any emo crowd any more. Come on, Brie, we need to talk about your routine for tryouts on Friday. Bye-eee!"
Brie sneered at Karyn. "Yeah, get lost, loser," she said and spun back around to follow Sarah.
Karyn felt an odd mixture of gut punch and relief. She realized now why she didn't like female Jon. He was apparently a Sarah in training. Watching her leave loosened the tension that had been building throughout her body since she'd triggered Jon's change but at the same time hearing those things come out of the mouth of someone she knew deep down was her best friend was more hurtful than she expected. Still, she knew Jon's name was Brie. She heard the bell ring and started to head to her locker then stopped. Or was it Brittany? Her last name was definitely Waters, right? Karyn started walking again, trying to figure it out but couldn't remember for sure. Then it hit her. I'm thinking of her as a freshman, and thus beneath me, especially a little twerp like her, so her name isn't really all that important to me. Karyn looked around the school and saw lots of freshman milling around and realized she didn't know a damn one of their names and wasn't going to go out of her way to learn any of them. This was going to make changing Jon back again difficult but not impossible. After all, with Sarah as her mentor the girl was sure to be in Karyn's face again before too long.
Unfortunately, Karyn wasn't really paying attention to where she was walking and didn't see one of those nearby freshman she refused to get to know drop his books thanks to some attention from Biff Cooper, Sarah's long time boyfriend. She tripped over the pile of books, falling forward and slamming her face into the poor freshman in a graceless, sprawling head butt. The kid fell back and tried to reach out to grab Karyn as he did, knocking her backwards instead. She landed on her back, hitting the back of her head so hard against the tile floor it bounded up and thudded a second time. She could feel the front and back of her head throbbing as the world swam around her. The last thing she remembered was hearing Biff laughing and saying, "Oh my God, all the freshman here are such losers even that pathetic emo babe Karyn can't help but beat them up."
As the world went dark she kept hearing it over and over again. "Freshman are losers. Karyn beats them up...freshman are losers...Karyn beats them up."
