Stacy sat in the school nurse's office, trembling. The tears were done, but she was still traumatized. She'd nearly cried herself dry before Ms. Tennenbaum had gotten her up on her feet long enough to get her to the nurse. She felt a little ashamed of having broken down in front of the entire locker room; she'd always managed to suppress and hide her weaknesses as Steve. But then, as Steve she'd never had to deal with having her entire life stolen from her, right down to her own body.
The nurse looked up from her paperwork. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No."
"It sounds like you were even more worked up before you got here. If you don't mind my asking...is something the matter, or is it just one of those days?"
"One of those days?" Was she asking about some girl thing? Stacy had no idea. "If I told you what was wrong," she replied, "you'd think I was crazy."
The nurse smiled. "Dear, I've heard crazier things in my time than you could ever hope to offer."
She shook her head. "No, seriously, you'd think I was insane. Literally."
The older woman nodded. "I doubt it, but I don't think you want to tell me right now. if you ever do want to talk to anyone, I'd be happy to discuss it."
Stacy sighed. If only she could tell someone. Just being able to talk to one person about her problems would make living with this so much easier, but nobody would ever believe her except Ms. Fletcher...God, was she just seriously contemplating how to live like this? She couldn't! How could Steve Farber, the biggest ladies' man in the school, ever live as a girl!? She had to find some way to change back, she just had to!
...but how?
Karyn stared at Jon wide-eyed. "You're joking. You've got to be kidding me."
Jon shook his head. "No. I'm being completely serious. I guess you were affected by the reality alteration, but that's seriously the truth."
"So Stacy Farber used to be the school playboy? And one of the Hayashi sisters was a thug in the making? Anything else I should know?"
Jon shrugged. "Not that I know of, but who knows? Now that the stone's been sealed, there's no way to even find out what's been changed any more."
Karyn groaned. "Great. Just great. Not only could everything we know be a lie, we have no way of finding out, and no way of fixing it if we did. Who knows what they'll change next?"
"I dunno," Jon said. "The one comforting thing is that Fletcher doesn't seem like the kind of person to abuse her power. But who knows?"
"And I have to live with these things until we figure out how to hack the universe," Karyn grumbled, indicating her breasts. "Just peachy. I don't suppose she'd fix things for me if I asked?"
Jon shrugged. "I dunno. She seems decent enough, all things considered, but she's also kind of adamant on the living-with-your-mistakes thing, so I kind of don't think so. You could try asking, though."
Her face fell. "God. I'd like to, but if she can really do all that, I'm not sure I really want to draw her attention. I just might, though...I don't know. What do we do about the two victims?"
"Beats me," Jon said. "There's not really a lot we can do, at this point. And even if we do get the stone working again, I'm not sure what we should do about them. I mean, yeah, they've been changed into different people against their will, but...well, would it really be better to bring Steve and Jason back into the world?"
"A good question," Karyn sighed. "Heh, I'd like to see them discuss that in Ethics."
Sitting in class was less frightening than roaming the hall, at least, because most of the other kids were sitting down, rather than looming over her in all directions. Still, Moroiko's heart was pounding as the teacher showed her to her seat. She sat down ramrod-stiff, more unable to relax than ever before. For the first time in a long time, she was wondering what her classmates were thinking about her. The principal had said that nobody remembered Jason, but she couldn't help but wonder.
When the kids looked at her, did they see anything other than a fourteen-year-old girl? Did she want them to? If anybody did know, if anybody could tell that she and Jason were the same person, she'd probably die of embarassment, but...if there were nothing about her mannerisms that suggested her old self, did that mean the principal was winning? Was she going to lose herself? Was Jason Alder going to die and be replaced by a teenage Japanese-American girl? Would she even be able to tell if that happened?
Moroiko was so lost in her worries that she nearly jumped out of her skin when a voice spoke up behind her. "Hey," someone said, "what's your name?"
She turned around. It was a boy about her age, smiling congenially at her. "Sorry," he said. "I knew your last name back when your sister was dating my brother, but I'm terrible at remembering these things. You're...um...?"
She opened her mouth to speak, but stammered for a moment before getting a word out. "M-Moroiko," she said. "Hayashi." She could almost feel her gorge rising when she gave him her "new" name, her made-up name, but it was a lot better than claiming to be Jason in front of the whole class, even if nobody remembered who Jason was. What bothered her more was how naturally the name had come to her, almost like it actually was her name.
The boy smiled a little wider. "Hayashi, that was it. I'm Ben. Nice to meet you."
Moroiko struggled to think of something to say, but finally just nodded, turning back to her seat as the teacher began the class and thinking about what she had done. How was she supposed to respond to people being nice to her? She couldn't even remember how she would act as Jason in these situations...
