Jon ended up being a couple minutes late to her first class, but she managed to get to her seat without being noticed; the classroom was halfway to chaotic, and nobody had even sat down yet. This was because the class also included Steve Farber, who had been more or less coerced into showing up. She was sitting in a wheelchair parked at her old desk, surrounded by pretty much the entire class.
The teacher was trying to get people to sit down, but was barely able to hold them at bay. The other students, though most of them had heard about her state yesterday, were now finally getting a look at the school's first mermaid. Even though most of them had grown up in an alternate reality where this was not uncommon, it was still an attention-getter; doubly so, considering Steve's shapely upper half. The girls couldn't believe this was the boy who'd held so many of them in his thrall, and the boys could barely make the connection between the old Steve and the new, as they were too busy convincing themselves that they were only staring because of the novelty.
Steve herself wasn't quite sure how she felt about this. She was quite sure that she wanted to remain in hiding until whenever she proved the nurse wrong by returning to normal. On the other hand, that really didn't seem to be an option, and as much as she didn't want anybody to see her like this...she had never gotten this much attention before. As popular as Steve had been before, he'd never come anywhere near this. There was barely a single person in the room who wasn't paying attention to her. It made her feel...
Steve's eyes went wide as she realized what this was. It made her feel hot, just like it always had. And given her state, that was a deeply disturbing thought to her. She opened her textbook and buried her face in it, trying to get away from her classmates.
Fortunately for her, the teacher had had just about enough of this, and somehow managed to get everyone's attention long enough to get them into their seats. A couple power-glares later, things were sufficiently calm for class to begin. Jon felt relieved; her classmates had completely covered up for her tardiness.
Class progressed mostly as usual; there were more than a few not-so-furtive stares in Steve's direction, but teacher managed to keep order maintained. The class finished without further incident, although Jon did discover that Sarah had been right; by the end of class, a thin film of pink glitter had begun to form on the desk where she was sitting. Well, this was going to be inconvenient.
Mikey was finally getting the hang of doing things with her talons, and it showed in her schoolwork. It took lessand less assistance from the teacher to keep her on track, and she was even beginning to outpace some of the normal students. She didn't really like the work, but she was eager to make sure that she had full use of her claws, now that she was deprived of her hands. Cleaning up after using the bathroom had ceased to be a problem, and she had even managed, a few times, to reach above her waist reliably enough to pick things up. She still wished she could have her old body back, but...well, if she was stuck like this, at least it wouldn't be as terrible as it had seemed at first glance.
Mikey met Alan at lunch again, and the two of them sat together and talked about a number of different things, including quite a bit about Mikey. Alan had been reading all about harpies, and wanted to check everything he'd read with her. Mikey tried as best as she could, but really, she'd only been this way for somewhat over a week, and there were quite a lot of things she had no idea about.
However, their conversation was cut short by a kid at the table across from them. "Hey, look!" he jeered. "Mikey's got a boyfriend!"
As grade-schoolers are prone to doing, a number of the other kids at the table joined in taunting the two. Alan looked mortified, and Mikey, despite her best efforts to ignore them, began to flush bright red.
Finally, she stood up and slowly and deliberately walked over to the other table. Most of the kids trailed off as they saw her approach, but the instigator kept jeering until she was standing right in front of him. He looked up and saw her, then stammered for a moment and leapt to his feet, clenching his fists.
Presumably he meant to intimidate her, but she was beyond that now. Besides, whether it was due to the fact that girls tend to start developing into adults earlier than boys, or whether he was just short, Mikey was a good half a head taller than him. She reached up with one talon and grabbed him by the neck, two toes wrapped around the back and one, with its uncomfortably pointed claw, pressed into the soft underside of his jaw. She leaned down towards him, pressing her forehead to his, staring straight into his eyes.
"Shut. Up." she hissed. He was trembling now, the tension gone from his wrists, limp and afraid. She released him and walked back to her table without a word. Mikey sat down next to Alan, turned to him, and beamed. "You were saying?" she said.
