"Good. I think you're okay to go back to class now," Nurse Evans said, "but just to be certain I'm going to have a student from your class come to pick you up. What teacher to you have third period?"
Sarah hoped her schedule hadn't changed with all the weirdness going on and responded, "Mr. Katz."
Sarah waited as Nurse Evans worked the intercom. It shouldn't take too long for someone to get there. The question was, who would show up? She knew none of her old friends would do it, and other than them, she couldn't remember who else was in Mr. Katz' class with her. After a few minutes, somewhat to Sarah's relief, Jon Gibson poked his head through the door to the nurse's office and said "Sarah, you ready?" Jon was probably the least problematic of all the new "friends" she'd made today.
Sarah regarded Jon as they left the front office. He wasn't so bad a guy, now that she was forced to consider him. Maybe if Sarah had everything to do over again, she'd have treated him a little better. She probably wouldn't go as far as being his friend, but she wouldn't have teased him so much.
That line of thought was interrupted, though, as a blinding headache wracked Sarah yet again. Her hand shot out to grab Jon's shoulder for support, and Sarah found herself leaning on a somewhat more muscular boy than she would have thought previously.
As the headache cleared, Sarah found Jon's hands holding her by the arms, his face before hers asking "are you alright? Should we go back to the nurse?"
But Sarah just said, "No, that won't help anything. I'm okay." She stood herself back up and resigned herself to figuring out what she'd lost this time.
Jon did seem to have a bigger physical presence than she remembered. Wider shoulders, tighter arms. Sarah looked at herself. She didn't really look different, but she felt, somehow, weaker? Going on a hunch, Sarah asked Jon, "So what do you think about cheerleading?"
"What?" Jon asked, a bit surprised, "You know gymnasts hate cheerleading. It's like doing all the easy parts of gymnastics, but the cheerleaders insist they're more important."
"You're a gymnast?" Sarah asked.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Jon asked. "I've done gymnastics since I was a kid. You know the owners at my gym just offered me an assistant coach job last week. I definitely told you about it."
"You're right," Sarah mumbled, "I'm just thinking weird today."
So that's what happened. Jon got Sarah's cheerleader inclination, but as someone who isn't as petty as she had been, and particularly as someone who is male, he channeled that inclination towards gymnastics. He'd probably gotten his share of teasing for that as well, but Sarah knew with someone like Jon, if it wasn't gymnastics, it would have been something else.
But what was more concerning for Sarah was that this was the first change that seemed to be something internal. Hair, clothes, makeup... those were things you added on to yourself to show the outside world. But being a cheerleader, Sarah felt, was a core aspect of who she was, and now it was gone. As she thought about it, she couldn't even remember a single routine, and she couldn't bring herself to care about that. It wasn't interesting anymore.
By the time Jon and Sarah got back to the classroom, Sarah felt like a zombie. She was walking, but her mind was blank. She didn't want to think about what all these changes were doing to her, she just wanted to finish the day, and hope tomorrow was better.
