Mikey found herself dreading school less the next morning than she had yesterday. Not a lot (she was still facing a radically altered life, after all,) but still. Things had actually not gone too terribly so far, and though she had yet to find out what her old friends thought of her, now that they knew, at least her one new friend was nice to her.
Mikey giggled as she thought back to Erica's clumsy and messy attempt at web-spinning yesterday; despite the fact that she'd gotten herself stuck to the bleachers so thoroughly that the custodian had had to bring in adhesive remover, the drider-girl never looked anything other than pleased that she'd even gotten that far. Mikey still had no idea how you would become the "best drider ever," but she had no doubt that Erica would manage it.
On the other hand, it was hardly all roses. Erica's accidental outing yesterday had made Mikey an easy target for anybody in her class, and as fast as word tended to get around, probably her entire grade. And while Erica's epic handling of the two bullies yesterday was heartening, it probably sent more of a "wait until the drider's gone" message than a "quit bothering the demon-girl" message. Not to mention that Chris and Kevin weren't the sort to take that kind of thing lying down. It was probably going to get worse before it got better.
She clopped down the hall as quietly as possible, mulling over these thoughts. It seemed like most of the other kids had gotten used to her by now, or at least the novelty had worn off to the point where nobody was trying to touch her anymore. Actually, it seemed like they were actively giving her space. Was it her? She looked around, but didn't see anyone else headed her way. But she did catch some glances that almost looked...frightened? What was going on here?
Mikey reached her classroom quite quickly with everyone giving her such a comparatively wide berth. She slipped inside quietly, but once again there was really no need. The room was in an uproar, and if the teacher had arrived yet, he must have left to get a drink before trying to quiet things down. At the center of the commotion, naturally, was Erica, along with two kids she didn't recognize: an angel-girl, and a girl with antennae and the lower body of a...a slug!? Nasty! But Mikey reminded herself that she wouldn't like it if people thought of her like that. In the interest of forcing herself to get over it, and since she knew Erica was going to latch onto her anyway, she walked over to join them.
The drider-girl's face lit up as soon as she spotted Mikey, and the two other girls turned to see who she was grinning at. To Mikey's surprise, they cringed as she approached. "Hey, Mikey!" Erica said. "You know Chris and Kevin from yesterday? They came down with the virus! They've got these cool new bodies, and they're permanent, too!"
Mikey gaped as she tried to process what she'd just heard. Was this for real? Now that she thought about it, their faces did look familiar, but the rest of them had changed so much! Even apart from the obvious stuff, Kevin had two soft fleshy antennae poking out from her forehead, reminding Mikey of her own horns, and Chris had an honest-to-God halo hovering over her! And she noticed she was looking down at both of them; Kevin was just low to the ground because of her new build, but Chris was, um, short. Mikey stood almost a full head taller than the new angel-girl, who looked up at her with a mixture of fear and resentment.
"It sounds like they changed last night," Erica said, peppy as ever. "Right while they were asleep! The nurse thinks they got it from the milk yesterday, so I guess it's kinda my fault, but she said they coulda caught it from either of us, since you stay infected for a few days after your change. Everybody's a little freaked out about us now, but we should all be over it by next week!"
Mikey stared at the two new girls, who stared back. What were they thinking, she wondered? Did they blame her? Did they blame Erica? Did they hate either of them? Were they as scared and traumatized as she had been? Were they going to be shunned because they were still infected? The past couple of days had been hard enough with Erica; Mikey hated to think what it would've been like if everyone was avoiding her. As she looked at the two of them, she found herself speaking words she never would have said otherwise.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I hope you get through this okay." The slug-girl and the angel-girl just stared at her, but the anger in their expressions was softened.
"Of course they will!" Erica beamed, completely killing the moment. "We'll help 'em! People like us've gotta stick together! Now, Chris's mom says she's Christina now, so we'll call her Chrissie, and Kevin's mom says she's Kelly!"
"My name is Chris." the angel-girl snapped. Her friend just blushed and stared at the floor. Mikey suddenly realized that she'd pretty much taken her mom's laissez-faire approach for granted; how were Chris and Kevin's parents treating their sex-change? She noticed that Kevin - or was it Kelly? - was wearing a skirt, just like she'd done on her first day as a girl. Of course, that might just be because she was incapable of wearing pants now, but if she'd also had her name changed, who knew how her parents were treating her? Maybe they really would need her and Erica's help.
