The rest of class passed by without any more major incidents. However, David's little stunt had shoved Jon's mood over the edge of nervousness into full-blown despondency. She really wished that Karyn could have stayed by her side for class, but the cat-girl had her own to attend across the building. Apparently, the school felt that being the sphinx's helper did not excuse her from her own education.
Thankfully, fourth period led straight into lunch. So afterward, when Karyn met up with her, Jon had plenty of time to recount the whole sordid tale.
"He did that?" Karyn twirled her fork deftly around her fingers. "What a jerk!"
Jon glanced around at the rest of the lunch crowd in the cafeteria. Every now and then, someone would lean over to a friend and whisper, eliciting snickers and giggles. To be honest, who could blame them? A sphinx trying to navigate eating meatloaf without thumbs for the first time no doubt made for a very entertaining sideshow. Still, she absolutely refused to allow Karyn to help beyond putting her hair back in a ponytail. With some deft manipulation of lips, tongue, and paws, she made steady, if messy, progress with her meal.
Across the table, Karyn frowned to herself. "I wonder when David got so mean. He was always a loudmouth, but he never did anything that malicious. What changed?"
Jon shrugged. "Maybe he always had it in him, but he just never had the right opportunity. He certainly has a lot more influence over people than I recall him having before. I'd bet this virus turned the whole school's social order inside out. Just look at Sarah. She was actually nice to me!"
"Sarah? Nice? Are you kidding?"
"No, really! She's different somehow, I mean, besides being a fox."
Karyn grinned, flashing a bit of feline fang. "What's different about that?"
"Huh?" Jon blinked for a moment before snorting. "You know very well what I meant. She's an actual fox, or a fox-human hybrid, at least. Even her face is a fox's so I didn't even recognize her. Not until she came to my rescue and faced off against David."
Karyn whistled and shook her head. "So David's now a jerk and Sarah's nice. It's amazing what a new disease can do, isn't it."
"Yeah, but it's all wrong. We need to change it back, or at least tone it down a little. The risk of losing your gender and hands is kind of extreme."
"Maybe." Karyn smiled. "But it is fun seeing you this way. You have a pretty face, and it only gets prettier when you have a bit of meatloaf on your nose."
"What? On my nose?" Jon blushed at her friend's giggles and immediately rubbed her face in her napkin. In her awkward state, she ended up bumping her head on the table, right on the bruise by her eye. "Ow!"
Despite herself, Karyn burst into all-out laughter. Jon found herself joining in, and for a few minutes, she enjoyed letting loose without worrying about the attention the noise garnered. Finally, she calmed down enough to muster a little dignity. "That did hurt, you know."
Karyn was unapologetic. "You should've seen yourself. That was just too cute! And clonking yourself on the table? Priceless."
"Well, laugh all you want now. When I fix things tonight, it'll be like this never happened."
Laura stepped into Jon's room and sighed. Things were going to be so different now, and the entire family would have to adjust.
She placed her purchases on the bed, a hands-free hair brush apparatus she had seen in the ads and a large round mattress made from fabric specially designed to avoid snagging on claws. The leg band she left on the end table.
After collecting the loose pieces of the closet door, she went about gathering up Jon's clothing. Normally, she would have let Jon clean up her own things, but with her daughter's distinct physical limitations, she felt she should lend some assistance at least.
When she found the tattered pieces of pajamas scattered around where Jon had slept, she found tears running down her cheeks. She let them flow for now, but resolved to have herself calm and composed when her daughter returned home. Jon's pain, both physical and emotional, would take some time to heal. At such times, a mother needed to be strong for her child.
Then, as she reached for some scraps under the bed, she noticed an odd little box. Picking it up, she turned the container over in her hands. Something rattled inside.
"What's this?"
