Jon sighed. Neither the explanation he got from von Stupple nor the information from the stone were definite enough to let him know what to expect. And while he could simply wish to know exactly how he, personally, was affected by the disparity between his physical desires and his mental attractions, he couldn't quite convince himself that he wanted to. On the one hand, it would be nice to end the uncertainty, and it was silly to think that knowing what his preferences were would affect them one way or the other. On the other, it did seem weird to be trying to magically pry into his own head, and wouldn't he find out soon enough, anyway? After all, human sexuality was an ever-present thing, not something you dealt with once every couple of months and then forgot about. He'd figure out how this all worked when it was relevant - or so he hoped.
Jon stood up and made for the door. As he was exiting the ladies' room, he turned to go back to the lab...and nearly smacked into someone coming out of the men's room. Both of them stopped suddenly and nearly lost their balance, but neither actually fell. Jon stepped back a couple paces and started apologizing to the other person, who had just begun to start apologizing to him. Both of them stumbled over each other's words for a minute before they stopped talking and looked each other over.
The other person was a girl who looked to be about his age. She was on the shorter side, with firey red hair hanging down to her mid-back and piercing green eyes. She was fairly shapely, though not remarkably so, and while her blouse and skirt certainly didn't hide her figure, she wasn't dressed as though she was trying to draw attention to it. Jon thought she looked a little familiar, and realized that she was one of the students at his school. She was in a different class, though, and he didn't know her name. But wait, why was she coming out of the-
"Ah, Jon!" interrupted von Stupple, coming around the corner from where the drinking fountains were located. "This is Laura, one of my other subjects. Laura, this is Jon."
Laura nodded hello, looking at Jon curiously. Jon put on a smile and nodded back. "An amusing coincidence, your meeting," the doctor continued. "You see, Laura has had the effective inverse of your procedure. Very fortunate, really; I was hoping to get data on both possible outcomes." He looked at his watch. "Oh, I must get back to the laboratory now. Please come back whenever you're ready." With that, he rounded the corner and headed back towards the lab.
Laura and Jon regarded each other awkwardly for a minute or two, neither one wanting to just walk off without saying anything, but neither quite sure what to say after the doctor's casual revelation of their secrets. Finally, Laura broke the silence. "So," she said, "you're, uh, you're a girl where it counts?"
Jon nodded. Laura regarded him with the same curiosity she'd shown earlier. "What's, uh, what's it like?" she asked. "From your perspective, I mean."
Jon thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I dunno," he said. "It's not something I'm used to, but it's not bad or anything. Just...kind of weird, is all. ...You?"
"Okay, I guess," she said. "It's kind of inconvenient having it moving around whenever I walk, but I guess you probably get used to that. It, uh, it does make taking care of business easier, at least."
Jon nodded. "Yeah. Uh..." He paused for a moment, failing to find anything else to say, at the moment. "Um, I guess I better get back to the lab. Nice to meet you!"
Laura nodded, smiling. "Nice to meet you too. ...See you around sometime?"
Jon hesitated for a moment. "Yeah. See you around sometime."
Jon returned to the lab for the rest of the check-up, but nothing particularily notable happened. If von Stupple had any thoughts about their meeting, he kept them to himself. They finished up, and Jon returned home. He figured that was that for the events of the morning.
But for some reason, his thoughts kept returning to Laura. A week ago, it would have been bizarre and off-putting to think of a teenage girl having a boy's genitals in place of her normal parts, but by now it didn't seem any stranger than his own predicament. He found himself trying to picture what she'd look like underneath her skirt. Purely out of curiousity, of course...
Or so he thought, until he felt himself beginning to get a little damp. He was startled. Was he...was he attracted to her? Attracted to the idea of a girl with a penis? He pictured her again, and pictured himself together with her...
Yes, he was. Jon was getting aroused by the idea of being with her, or a girl like her. Was this the answer to his question? It seemed like it. Laura represented the reconciliation of his mental attraction to girls with his altered body's physical desires, with neither the conflict of interest in the idea of being with a man nor the potentially incomplete physical satisfaction in the idea of being with a woman. It was bizarre and seemed like something he should find perverse, but he couldn't convince himself that he wasn't okay with the idea. Jon's breath began to grow shallower, and his hand drifted south as he wondered if Laura was experiencing similar feelings...
