Jon went to the office and got her new backpack and textbooks; the backpack, fortunately, had clips on the straps that fastened in the front, so she didn't have to try and slip the straps on around her wings. After several minutes of trying to enter the combination on her locker while hovering in mid-air, she finally got it open; if she weren't going to be changing back right after school, she'd have to get a digital combination lock. She heaved the locker door open just wide enough for her to slip in and dropped off her backpack, then forced the locker door shut. The heck with just a new lock, she'd have to get a whole different locker her size. They probably had a few.
But it didn't really matter, because all she had to do was get through today, and things could go back to normal. They'd have to be a lot more careful with their wishes, but as far as learning that the hard way went, she supposed this wasn't so bad. Not nearly as bad as it could've been, that was for sure. She sighed and decided to get the day over with as quickly as possible. She had P.E. for her first class, so she shrugged her shoulders and flitted over to the gym. She nearly went into the guys' locker room before catching herself and heading into the girls'.
Jon was a little surprised when she got inside; the P.E. instructor was there, but she wasn't the same P.E. instructor as before. The old girls' P.E. instructor was a sixty-something cranky old bat who, Karyn had told her, pretty much just snarled at them while forcing them through, of all things, dodgeball. This instructor was a different woman entirely, a friendly-looking woman in her early thirties. She took Jon aside as she entered the locker room.
"You're Jon, right?" she asked. Jon nodded, and she smiled sympathetically. "I'm Ms. Tennenbaum. The school nurse told me about you while you were getting your textbooks. I just want you to know that I'll be happy to help you adjust in any way that I can. I know a lot of people can have trouble accepting a sex change, especially at first, but as far as I'm concerned you're one of my students and you're always welcome here."
Jon forced a smile, and Ms. Tennenbaum smiled back. "I'm afraid I don't have much for you today," she said. "You're the only student of your size in the school, so you obviously can't participate in team sports, and I haven't had a chance to come up with any exercises for you yet; pixies are a fairly rare kind of transformee, and they're not very well-documented. So what I'd like to do today is just perform a little inspection of your musculature. With that and a little research online, I think I should be able to develop a decent exercise program for you."
Now Jon understood why the P.E. teacher was different: in the wish-altered world, a school's P.E. instructor would also have to serve as a small-time occupational therapist, helping students who transformed adjust to their new bodies. So a withered old crank like the old teacher would fit the job description even more poorly than before, which meant that someone who knew more about keeping the body in shape would be more likely to get the job. At least some things were better about this wish-altered reality.
"Okay, Jon," Ms. Tennenbaum said, "why don't you come over here so we can get started?"
Jon flitted over to the bench Ms. Tennenbaum was kneeling next to. "All right," the teacher said, "can I have you take off your blouse, please?"
Jon started to comply, then hesitated, realizing that it was a slightly bigger deal now that she was a girl. Ms. Tennenbaum chuckled. "Oh, don't worry," she said. "All I need off is the shirt, so I can see what sort of muscles you've got powering your wings. Besides, you don't have anything that doesn't belong in the girls' locker room."
Jon sighed at that statement. Just get through the day, she reminded herself. Then it'll all be over. She pulled off her blouse and Ms. Tennenbaum began gently prodding at the muscles around the base of her wings.
