Sam re-entered the gym, handing Coach Burlington back the locker key and making his way over to the bleachers. Before he got to work, he watched as Jen did stretches on a mat she'd pulled out. The girl was amazingly flexible, and Sam found himself reacting in ways he didn't expect, particularly beneath his gym shorts.
He quickly looked away, and went to find Biff and Karyn, who were gathered with the other members of the cheer squad, practicing a routine where Karyn was apparently a flier. She came down perfectly into Biff's arms, and then ran up, chest bouncing, to join the rest of the girls in the dancier part of the routine.
This wasn't helping Sam as far as his reactions, so he furiously looked back down into his notebook, where he started jotting down what he could remember happening during the day, from losing his English to Renee, all the way to switching genders with Jen.
There was still plenty of time left in the class when he'd finished, so he started listing the things that had changed the previous day, in case maybe that would help, when another headache hit him.
No! He wasn't remotely near anybody! What could have happened?
Sam's head shot up and darted around, only to see Gordon Jones walking up the bleachers to meet him. But nothing looked different about Gordon. At least superficially. What had switched?
As their eyes met, Gordon called "Hi," and sat down next to Sam.
"Hi," Sam mumbled.
"So your friend Karyn tells me you've got a pretty good voice," Gordon said.
He did? Wait, what the heck was going on?
Gordon continued, "See, our band needs a lead singer. None of us are really good with vocals. We're gonna meet Friday afternoon at my place, you wanna audition?"
Sam just nodded his head.
"Cool," Gordon said and handed him a few sheets of paper. "This is the music for 'Brown Eyed Girl,' that's what you're gonna audition with." Then Gordon got up and walked away.
Karyn had been right. Before the end of the day, Gordon had asked him out. But not quite in the way Sam was expecting. And apparently, Sam had gotten Gordon's singing voice.
Sam added the item to his list, went over the sheet music, which he could now apparently read, and waited for school to end.
