But JC figured it out. As a matter of fact, she figured out quite a bit about herself over the next two and a half years...
"Jenny, hurry up! We are going to be ell-ay-tee-ee LATE!"
With a hair tie in one hand, a sensible high heel in the other, and her toothbrush precariously balanced in her mouth, JC stutter-stepped out of the tiny bathroom while doing her level best to stay upright with the other shoe already on her foot.
Of course, dorm room facilities tend to be rather cramped, and the one she shared with her best friend Sarah McMillan was no exception. Fortunately, Sarah was far more punctual than her bestie, so she and JC -- or "Jenny," as Sarah (and Sarah alone) was allowed to call her -- weren't sparring for mirror time all that often, but it wasn't an uncommon sight to see Sarah standing in the hallway, arms folded and impatiently waiting for JC to catch up on any given day.
"I'm working on it!," JC fired back after literally spitting her toothbrush (and everything that came with it) directly into the sink. Score! she thought. Three-pointer from downtown!
"If we don't make it to Hoover on time, we won't be working at all after graduation. Seriously, I'm going to start using your pointe shoes as smelling salts to get you out of bed at a decent time," Sarah threatened.
As if to prove a point about her perceived lack of organization, JC deftly tossed her hair into a messy-but-office-appropriate bun and slipped her nylon-covered foot into the second pump almost simultaneously, straightening her pencil skirt as she stood back up. "Cool?"
Sarah relented, letting a wry grin spread across her face. "The coolest. C'mon, let's move!"
Since the fateful day that JC had made the series of wishes that led her to this life, she slowly but surely had become accustomed to it all: living with a new family, hanging out with new friends, and perhaps most importantly, being an entirely new gender. Jon, as she'd once been known, had never seriously considered the other side of the fence, but after becoming JC to escape his mother and former best friend Karyn's ill intentions to keep him as a little girl indefinitely, it didn't seem especially prudent to return to any semblance of her old life anytime soon. She barely even had to confront the boyfriend issue head-on; he moved away within the first week of her transformation, and they mutually agreed to part ways. JC didn't date again after that.
Soon, days had turned to weeks, then months. JC graduated high school (with honors, no less!), snapped up a bevy of scholarships for both her academic talents and ballet as well, and accepted an invitation to the local DeVille University alongside Sarah, where they both quickly declared themselves education majors.(Granted, that was Sarah's idea, but JC liked working with the younger crowd at their studio, so she figured she'd give it a shot too.) Life was good. Jon, for all intents and purposes, had ceased to exist.
And JC hadn't made a single wish since.
"Class, we have some very special guests with us for the next few weeks. Please give a warm welcome to Miss McMillan and Miss Calloway!"
The familiar chorus of monotone pre-teen voices greeted Sarah and JC as they stepped into the classroom and politely waved at the students. Hoover Preparatory Academy had accepted the two college freshmen as student teachers for the end of their spring semester; specifically, Janet Adams agreed to have them assist with her overloaded sixth-grade room. Janet was in her early fifties and looked every bit of it; years of hard work and rambunctious students had not left her especially motivated to take care of herself, and so the young men in the room were especially excited to see the two pretty co-eds.
JC surveyed the room while rocking back and forth in her heels, dipping her right heel in and out of one already. She was far more accustomed to flat shoes...or something with an actual sole, at least, she thought.
The sea of uniformed students before her was populated by at least thirty sixth-graders, split almost entirely down the middle between boys and girls, but one girl in particular had taken notice of JC...and when JC spotted her as well, she could barely suppress an audible gasp.
There, in a tartan skirt, white knee socks, and black flats, for the first time since she'd left the ballet studio with Mom and Karyn that fateful day, was CJ.
