Jennifer hung her head, ears drooping. "Well, nothing, I suppose, it's just that I'm not supposed to be one."
Karyn sighed. "Aw, c'mon, Jen, it's only for a year. It's not like it's the rest of your life or anything. Besides, I'll be here to help you get used to being one. And after all, the point of this was to see what life would be like if things were significantly different, so why don't you make the most of this? Get all the experience you can?"
Jennifer moaned. "I don't want to get used to being one!" she said. "I'm not a girl, I'm a guy!"
Karyn smirked. "The mirror says otherwise."
"Well, I'm not supposed to be a girl, then! What if I start to think like one? What if I fall in love with a guy?"
Karyn shrugged. "I already told you, that's not likely to happen at ten years of age. But even if it did, so what?"
Jennifer sputtered. "That's... I... Rrgh!" Her ears were backnow, her tail twitching. "I don't want that!" she snapped, before breaking into tears. Karyn sat Jennifer down on the floor and put her arm around Jennifer's shoulder. "It's OK," she said. "You'll be fine, I promise. I'll help you with anything you need help with. After a year, everything will go back to the way it was. And besides, every guy in town who hasn't fathered a child is a girl now. You'd have to go out of town to find anyone you could fall in love with. Things won't be so bad. If it makes you feel better, I'll sleep over and help you get ready for school tomorrow."
Jennifer sniffled. "Really?"
Karyn grinned, ears perked. "Sure. After all, you don't know the first thing about taking care of a girl's body, do you?"
Jennifer almost smiled, then went to check with her parents and make sure it was OK for Karyn to spend the night. She sighed, a little bit relieved. She didn't want to become comfortable as a girl, but she was stuck this way for a year, and she didn't have the energy to try and fight it that long. She'd just have to live with it until then.
"Daddy?" she called. Her dad answered from the living room, and she went in there to ask him.
"What's up, sweetie?" he asked. Jennifer internally balked at being called "sweetie" by her dad, but decided not to fight it. "Can Karyn spend the night?" she asked. Her dad had always found it a little odd that a teenage girl like Karyn would be such good friends with his ten-year-old daughter, but they'd been practically inseparable for a very long time, and Karyn had always seemed to be such a good influence on Jennifer. He consented, and she went back to her room to tell Karyn.
