Jon plunked her backpack down on the cafeteria with a heavy sigh; it had been a bit of a rough morning. First she'd had to deal with the shock of waking up to find it hadn't all been a dream; then she'd had to shower (awkward) and detangle her hair (she'd have to get it cut to a more manageable length.) Getting dressed hadn't been too bad, now that she had pants in her size, but it was a little weird that shirts designed for pixies were backless. And she had learned the hard way that she wasn't going to want to forgo the bra, after all; while she didn't have the bouncing or backstrain problems normal girls had, she'd neglected to take into account that her nipples were now more sensitive, and the fabric of her shirt had been rubbing against them all morning. This was merely unnerving at first, but had progressed to downright uncomfortable by lunchtime.
And while class was about the same as it had always been, she'd caught a lot of whispers and stares; the other students were beginning to notice that Jon Madison's spot was occupied by a tiny fairy-girl, rather than simply being empty, as they'd assumed the day before. Jon wondered what sort of reaction changed students got from the other kids; if Sarah's reaction yesterday was any indication, she'd be shunned by the "cool" cliques, but that was certainly nothing new. How the rest of her classmates would react was a different matter, but she really didn't have any idea, although the unchanged kids would probably stay away from her while she was contagious.
After she'd cleared the crumbs and other debris off of her spot on the table, Jon flitted off toward the lunch line. Now that she knew to fly in a prone position, she wasn't nearly as starved as she had been yesterday, but flying all the time still made her pretty peckish. Thankfully, the cafeteria staff had managed to get a few micro-sized trays and plates out of storage, so she didn't have to use anything as a makeshift tray like yesterday. Once she had loaded up with a variety of fruit and meat, Jon flew back to the table, set the tray down, and began eating. Before long, she was joined by Karyn, who had also grabbed herself some lunch. As the two sat down to lunch, they were joined by someone else.
She was a lithe, slender girl about the same age as Jon and Karyn, with long, jet-black hair and white-furred rabbit ears. Jon peeked around back, and yes, she had a tail as well, sticking out of a second fly in the back of her jeans. She set her tray down on the table next to Jon and sat down. "Hi," she said.
"Uh, hi," Jon replied.
"I heard about your condition," the girl continued. "It must be pretty inconvenient, being that small."
Jon wondered who this girl was and what she wanted. "Uh, do I know you?" she asked.
The bunny-girl smiled. "Carrie Logan. But nah, you don't; I'm in a different class. But I have my connections, and I take a special interest in people who've undergone sex changes."
"Uh...you do?"
"Yep. See, for the first eleven years of my life I was Kenny, so I know how hard it can be when you first wake up with the wrong parts."
"Um..." Jon wasn't quite sure what to say. It was nice that this Carrie girl was trying to help, but Jon wasn't sure she wanted to let random strangers in on her personal struggles, similarity of experience notwithstanding.
Carrie chuckled. "Yeah, awkward, I know. But hey, the whole thing is pretty awkward, isn't it? You don't have to accept my help if you don't want; just remember that the offer's always open, okay?"
Jon nodded, and the bunny-girl grinned at her before scooting down to the other end of the table. Jon and Karyn finished their lunch in silence. After lunch, Jon went to her locker to get one of the textbooks she'd left there. She had just managed to get the door to her locker open when she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, a much smaller figure than the normal students that loomed around her. Turning to look, Jon saw another pixie, a teenage boy of average build, with a sloppy bowl-cut.
"Hi," she said. The guy didn't respond. Jon got her book out from her locker, put it in her bag, and shut the door. The other pixie was still there when she had finished.
"Hi," she repeated. "Something I can help you with?"
Again, there was no response. The boy seemed to be waiting for her to leave, and seemed inexplicably annoyed. Jon wasn't sure what she had done to merit the silent treatment, and the irritation with which he was regarding her made her feel a little stubborn. She folded her legs into a sitting position under her and waited for him to make a move.
He simply fluttered in mid-air for a couple minutes, seeming less irritated and more worried as time went by. Finally, he hung his head, sighed heavily, and flitted over to the locker next to Jon's.
Sarah's locker.
