It took the teacher a full five minutes to restore order after the other kids realized that the demon-girl who'd showed up yesterday was none other than Mikey Madison. Erica the weird girl becoming a drider was one thing, but one of the boys turning into a girl was deemed worthy of remark by very nearly every member of the class. By the time the pandemonium was over and everybody had returned to their seats, Mikey's face was an even brighter red than rest of her, and she wanted nothing more than to sink into the floor and disappear from the universe.
Erica, on the other hand, was pretty upbeat about the whole thing. She wasn't the kind of kid who realy thrived off attention, but she was pleased as punch with her new form and didn't care who knew it. She might have felt bad for Mikey, but she just couldn't fathom the idea that the new girl would be ashamed of her changes. Sure, it would be a weird thing to go through, and maybe a little upsetting, but there was no reason to be embarrassed by something that wasn't your fault, right?
Unfortunately, Erica's logic (sound or not) had no relevance to the rest of the class; while the teacher had managed to put the fear of God into them, at least for the moment, that didn't stop them from thinking about it. A sufficiently large group of middle-schoolers can work out the best taunts and insults for a given target with an efficiency that would make cyborg hive-minds of the distant future envious, and they had a doozy of a target. Mikey knew this, and it was a major part of why she was blushing; it was sort of a pre-emptive display of embarrassment.
Sure enough, the moment they were let out for lunch, things turned ugly. Mikey got to the cafeteria without much trouble, and Erica followed close behind, but they hadn't been sitting down a minute before two of the boys from their class, Chris and Kevin, came over to harrass them. The two had something of a reputation as bullies; they generally weren't violent, but they were pretty handy with verbal abuse. Mikey cringed as she saw them approach.
"Hey, girly," Chris said, leaning forward just enough to invade her personal space. "How do you like your new look? You must be pretty into it; weren't you in a skirt yesterday? Did you have to buy that, or did you already have it?" Kevin snickered, and Mikey shrank back, desperately wishing to disappear, wondering why it had to be her, of all people. Erica nearly said something, but took a deep breath and settled back, sipping her milk.
"Yeah," Kevin said, "you know that demon-girls grow up all sexy, right? That's what my dad says. Are you get all tall and sexy? Maybe I should start bringing a camera to school!"
They continued with a couple other remarks. Mikey was blushing madly and cringing so hard she looked like she'd fold in on herself. She looked to Erica for help, but the drider-girl just kept breathing deep and sucking milk through her straw. Finally, Chris made one remark with he and Kevin found so funny that they threw backs their heads in gut-busting, open-mouthed guffawing. Erica lurched forward, exhaling with all her might, spewing a fountain of 2% milk from her mouth. It arced gracefully across the table, dissolving into a spray of droplets as it went.
Her aim was true, and most of the payload hit the two boys square in the face. Their eyes bugged out so comically that even Mikey couldn't help but break out into a fit of giggles, and Chris and Kevin immediately went from laughing to sputtering and wiping their faces.
"Pffth! Gach! That was right in my MOUTH, you freak!" Chris shouted.
"I know!" Erica said, doubling over with laughter. "It was awesome!"
Chris got even angrier, and looked like he was about to hit someone, but he suddenly realized that they'd drawn the attention of the entire cafeteria. He stormed off, muttering something about staying away from freaks; Kevin followed.
"See, Mikey?" Erica said. "That's how you do it."
Whether because those two had been the only ones really willing to take an active role in tormenting her or because everyone had seen just how much of a wildcard Mikey's new friend was, nobody else really bothered the demon-girl that morning. She knew it was too good to last, but at least she had a little while with nobody making fun of her. Still, though Chris and Kevin's dairy-based humiliation had dulled the blow, some of the things they had said were really sticking with her. By the time they had P.E., she couldn't stand it any longer.
Ms. Leskova was running Erica through her paces the way she had with Mikey the day before, trying to get a sense for how her new body worked. Mikey watched curiously as she waited for Erica to be done so the teacher could explain what kind of exercises she'd be doing now. "So...is she like a bug, or what?" Mikey asked.
The teacher shrugged. "Yes and no. Obviously her lower body looks a lot like a spider's, but there's a number of things about insects and arachnids that just don't work at this size. So she's got an exoskeleton like a spider, but it's controlled by real muscles like you or I have. And she has lungs instead of spiracles. But generally she's more similar than not."
Erica raised an eyebrow. "Huh? I have what now? I'm gonna hafta look this stuff up! I can still do the web thing, right?"
Ms. Leskova nodded. "You have the right parts, yes, but I'm not sure what all you'd need to know to make it work. I'd have to do some research before I could tell you anything about that. Anyway, I think that's all for now. Why don't you go join the group."
Erica grinned and skittered off towards where the other kids were doing the group exercises. The teacher turned to Mikey. "Now then," she said. "I do have a tentative exercise plan, but you look like you've got something on your mind."
Mikey nodded. "Um, Miss Leskova," she said, fidgeting a bit, "some of the other-some of the boys were about talking about how demon-girls grow up to be all, um..." She blushed. "Um, you know...?"
The older woman smiled slightly. "Shapely?" Mikey nodded, and the teacher nodded back. "It's a common myth," she said, "at least for such an uncommon race. The truth of the matter is that girls of any species develop in about the same way. There's actually greater variation among human ethnic groups than among demihuman species."
"Really?" Mikey asked.
"Really. The reason people believe that is because of what's called 'confirmation bias;' they think it's true, so they only pay attention to the evidence that matches up with what they already believe. Then they tell someone else about their theory and all the evidence they've found for it, and later, if the other person sees some more evidence, they'll think 'oh yeah, that's what so-and-so was talking about!' People do it all the time, with any number of things."
Mikey sighed in relief, but Ms. Leskova continued. "But that's not to say you won't necessarily grow up like that," she said. "It just means that your species is irrelevant."
The demon-girl's face fell. "Oh."
The gym teacher smiled. "There, now, don't look so depressed. You need to remember that even if you do grow up into a shapely young woman, there's nothing wrong with that. I know this whole being-a-girl thing is new to you, and that's probably the weirdest part of it, but you'll get used to the idea. Just remember that being more or less developed than most girls doesn't make you any less of a person."
Mikey smiled slightly, in spite of herself. Ms. Leskova smiled back. "There you go," she said. "Now about that exerc-oh, Erica, that's not a good place to try your spinnerettes!" She sprinted off to deal with the drider-girl, and Mikey was left to ponder her future.
