Flitting her way to the cafeteria, Jon thought about Sarah's implication that she had a crush on him. She knew that wasn't the case; although he was less of an annoyance now that he wasn't the school's top dog, Sarah was still too annoying for that to be a possibility. She just felt sorry for him for having lost so much more in his change than she had, that was all. But he had touched on a subject that made Jon profoundly uncomfortable; namely, her feelings about boys.
At present, she really didn't have any; with all the chaos of the past six days, she hadn't thought much about sex or relationships at all, and on the occasions she had, it hadn't really elicited any kind of reaction in her. But Jon knew she'd have to deal with the issue eventually; she wasn't the sort of person cut out for a single life. She wasn't really sure what she thought of her options, though; right now, she couldn't really bring herself to think about sex in any detail, so she was left with just thinking about the general ideas.
It seemed like a lesbian relationship would be the obvious thing for a straight man turned woman, but that of course hinged on whether Jon was still attracted to women, which she wasn't sure of. But if her attractions had switched along with her sex, she'd have to get used to the idea of being in a relationship with a man, which was equally bizarre to think about. And then there was the fact that Jon had always figured he'd want to have kids, eventually; did that mean she'd have to be a mother? And then there was the fact that she was six inches tall to consider; she'd either have to find another pixie that she could stand being with or...no, thinking about the logistics of that squicked her out too much. She drove all these thoughts out of her head and continued on to the cafeteria.
By now, she had more or less gotten the hang of meal planning, which had become a bigger concern now that she was flying everywhere. Ms. Tennenbaum the P.E. teacher had been a big help in figuring out what she neded in her diet and developing a set of simple exercises that kept her flight muscles in shape, and now flying came almost as naturally to Jon as walking.
It was the one thing Jon actually enjoyed about her change; being able to move freely in all three dimensions really changed the way she looked at the world. The inches between the tops of the few standalone lockers and the hall ceiling had become her private spot, once she'd gotten the dust cleaned out, and the airspace above the different menu items was now her own private express lane through the lunch line. Holding her plate below her, she dipped down to the various pans, grabbed as much as she needed, and snapped back up and out just as quickly. Once she'd assembled a decent lunch, she made her way over to the table where Karyn sat, munching on a trout she'd brought from home.
Jon hadn't been paying as much attention to Karyn's changes as she had to her own, but had to admit that it was pretty fascinating to see the differences in her friend. Karyn had always been somewhat of a tomboy, but since her transformation into a cat-girl, she'd been noticeably more so. The feline behaviors were pronounced; cat-Karyn was more energetic than ever before, except when she was tired or in the mood for a nap. She was playful when she wasn't tired, and had taken to eating quite a variety of meats. Jon had yet to see her eating something she'd caught herself, but she didn't doubt that it happened. Her friend had undergone a fascinating metamorphosis, but somehow the thoughtful, intelligent personality of the old Karyn still shone through.
Jon wondered why Karyn had been so noticeably affected; was it because she hadn't been guarding against personality changes the way Jon had? Or did it have to do with how well Karyn's tomboy leanings meshed with the cat persona? She wasn't sure, but either way she was grateful to have her friend there with her whil she tried to deal with the most difficult period in her life.
The two friends talked over lunch, but Jon broke off the conversation when she finished eating; she had spotted Carrie Logan, the bunny-girl, sitting off in one corner of the room, and wanted to talk to her. She dumped her plate off at the counter and flew over to the otherwise empty corner table.
"Hey!" Carrie smiled, as she approached. "Jon, right? How're things working out for you?"
Jon shrugged, lowering herself into a sitting position on the table. "Could be better," she said. "But I guess I'm doing all right."
The bunny-girl nodded. "Glad to hear it. But I'm guessing you have something you want to talk about?"
"Yeah," Jon sighed. This was so awkward just to contemplate. "I...I want know what the deal is with sex-changed transformees and relationships."
Carrie smirked, ever so slightly. "A common question," she said. "But a tough one. Relationship preferences vary wildly enough among normal people; who can say what'll happen to a given transformee's tastes? What do you think about the subject?"
"I'm not sure," Jon admitted, blushing a bit. "I can't really bring myself to think about it very much."
Carrie nodded. "Well, it's hard to say," she said. "I'll tell you right now, I've been a fully heterosexual female since I hit puberty. It's wonderful, I highly recommend it, and I can't imagine being otherwise. And it's quite common for sex-changees to be heterosexual vis-a-vis their new gender, so I'm not the only one." She shifted in her seat, fidgeting, trying to maintain a neutral demeanor.
"But it's also not at all uncommon for someone's attractions to stay the same even when their sex changes. Nor is it unheard for someone to wind up bisexual or asexual. So really, there's no way to tell. The thing to remember is, figure out what fits for you. Don't try and make yourself conform to what you think you're supposed to be; that'll only cause problems down the road. Okay?"
Jon nodded. "I guess," she said. "But how am I supposed to figure this out if I can't even think about it?"
Carrie chuckled, ears bobbing. "You'll get there," she said. "Eventually, this'll stop being so weird that your brain tries to protect you from it. Until then, don't worry about it."
