The school day went by relatively uneventfully, at least by the bizarro standards of Jon's new life. Jon drew some odd looks for the shimmers of pink gliter dust she was now emitting, and every so often she had to stop and wipe a layer of the stuff onto the floor, but with Steve Farber drawing pretty much everyone's attention, nobody really bothered to say much to Jon.
After class, Jon flew over to the Phy Ed office, where Ms. Tennenbaum was finishing up some paperwork. She explained about the changes that had taken place the previous night, and the teacher nodded sagely.
"Well," Ms. Tennenbaum said, "I think I've explained this to you before, but as rare as pixies are, most of our information on them is pretty sketchy. I have heard of this kind of thing, but nobody's really sure of what the cause or purpose is. I've heard a variety of explanations, but none of them make that much sense."
Jon sighed. "You really don't know what's causing it?"
The older woman shrugged. "Nothing definite. Usually when the body is emitting something, it's either getting rid of something it has too much of, or sending some kind of signal. So you might be getting too much of something in your diet, maybe. But that wouldn't explain the hair color, so maybe it's a signal of some kind."
Jon cocked an eyebrow. "Like what?"
"I don't know," Ms. Tennenbaum replied. "You said Sarah had the same thing, only blue? Maybe it's sex-linked. Maybe it's an asy way for pixies to tell each other apart from a distance."
"I hope that's all it is," Jon said. "Or something as harmless as that. I don't think I could really take any more weird changes right now."
The teacher sighed. "I really wish I had more information for you, but I'm afraid the only real experts on pixie biology were outside our little area here." She scraped a little of the dust that had accreted during the conversation into a baggie. "I'll see if the folks up at the hospital can figure out anything from this, but I really wouldn't worry about it unless it starts having more obvious effects."
Jon nodded. "Thanks," she said.
"No problem," Ms. Tennenbaum smiled.
Jon flitted into the meeting room a little while before it was supposed to start. Only Carrie was there at the moment, getting things set up. Hearing the soft fluter of Jon's wings, she looked up and smiled.
"You came!" she said. "Wonderful! We'll be starting in a few, but like I said, you don't have to participate if you don't want to. I just want you to get a feel for what goes on here."
Jon nodded. "Thanks. I think I'll just sit back and watch for now."
The bunny-girl nodded, ears flicking this way and that. "Right. I won't drag you into anything, but feel free to join in later if you want."
"I will, thanks." Jon flitted up on top of one of the bookshelves in the room, finding a perch that gave her a good view, then sat down to wait.
It wasn't long before one member after another began to filter in. There were a variety of people there, and Jon recognized a few people she'd seen around, but hadn't realized had once been the opposite sex. But the biggest surprise came when one of the staff pushed in a wheelchair in which sat a mermaid with long black hair and a velvety-black tail, none other than Biff Meadows.
"Well, I think that's everyone," Carrie said. "And we have a few new faces, as well! All right, let's get started."
