Sarah still wasn't 100% clear on how it had happened, but she'd woken up in the waiting area outside the principal's office; judging by the dent she'd made in the bench cushions, she'd been sleeping there for some time. She was wearing her sports bra, too; had the rabbit teacher brought? She honestly couldn't remember. She could, however, remember everything leading up to her visit to the principal, and everything they'd said to each other.
It kind of boggled her mind to think about everything she'd said and done that afternoon, but...she didn't think she really disagreed with or thought better of any of it. As scary as it was to admit to herself, it was true: she was no longer human. So much about her life had changed in the past month, what was the use of pretending it was still the same? It wasn't. She wasn't.
She had wings instead of arms, she had feet that almost passed for hands, she was half-covered in feathers, she could fly, and she laid eggs where other girls bled. She was a harpy, not a human, and no amount of trying to act like she was human would bring her arms back or change anything else about her. It was time to suck it up and admit it.
In a way, it was freeing. If she didn't pretend to be human, she didn't have to worry about looking stupid in the attempt. If she didn't wear clothes, she wouldn't have to worry about anybody else doing what Tiffany had done, and better yet, she wouldn't have to sit around for an hour waiting for Karyn to wake up already so she could get dressed.
Besides, what did she have to hide? Sarah had always been proud of her body; wasn't this just the ultimate expression of that? Maybe...maybe this was the way to truly come to terms with her new body, to show the world that she didn't have anything to be ashamed of. It wouldn't bring back her hands or make her monthly clutch not hurt, but it might at least bring her a little peace.
Sarah was distracted from this line of thought when a little robot-girl walked in. Sarah recognized her; it was Jon's little brother...sister. Mikey, that was it. She found it interesting that Mikey was dressed kinda femininely; she wasn't wearing a dress or skirt, but Sarah, with her eye for clothing, could tell that those were definitely jeans for a preteen girl she was wearing, and the top wasn't quite gender-neutral, either. She didn't seem to be bothered by it; did she not notice, or was she just okay with it? Sarah wondered if younger transformees had an easier time of it.
"Uh, hi, Sarah," Mikey said. "What're you doing here?"
The harpy sighed. "I...uh, I got in a fight."
The robot-girl frowned. "Oh. Are you okay?"
Sarah pondered for a moment. "...yeah," she said. "Yeah, everything's fine."
Mikey smiled. "That's good." She glanced at the clock. Sarah did, too. God, was it really that late? It was nearly time to go home! How long had she been out!?
She said a quick goodbye and headed off to gather up what little stuff she'd brought with her today. "...everything's fine," she murmured to herself.
Sarah had only been gone a minute and a half when a thick, soft whisper of a voice said "Please come in...Michael."
Taking a deep breath, Mikey marched into the principal's office. She sat down in the visitor's chair and gazed into the dimly-lit room at the figure behind the desk. So many individual points...what was he?
"Michael," the principal said, "it's my understanding that...while you were in the library, by the school computers...the main server's records were accessed...and your grade was the first changed. Do you have anything to say...?"
Mikey thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yes," she said. "It wasn't me."
The principal nodded slowly, grains of...sand? plinking into a bowl on the desk. "I see...now why would I believe that? I hear...a lot of stories in this job...Michael."
Mikey was starting to feel huffy and defensive, but Effie skipped up her shoulder and whispered in her ear. The principal looked at her curiously as she cocked her head to hear what the invisble fairy had to say. "I can give you my MAC address," Mikey said. "That's unique to my hardware. If it's so important, you can talk to the Internet provider and see where the request came from; it wasn't me."
"I see...if it wasn't you, then...do you have any idea of who it was?"
Mikey was hesitant to answer, but she really didn't know how serious this all was...and besides, the principal felt trustworthy for some reason. "Um, do you know what 'digital fairies' are, sir?" she asked.
"I've...heard reports...you'll forgive my not having verified them, but...I don't possess the capability..."
Mikey nodded. "They're software-only AIs that live in a larger host system. I met one in the library today; he said his host was having him change the grades, but he disappeared before I could get ahold of him. He might have gotten enough information to spoof my IP address, or maybe he just decided that changing my grade first would be enough..."
"I see...and I presume that you didn't tell us because...?"
Mikey stared at the floor. "Because I thought you'd think I was crazy, I guess," she said.
"Of course...remember, Ms. Madison...the bar for 'crazy' is...significantly higher than it used to be."
Mikey nodded. "I'll let you know if I see anything else like this."
"...thank you," the principal said. "You may go...have a good evening and a pleasant sleep."
That night, as Jon was getting ready for bed, she noticed the full-length mirror on the inside of the bathroom door. She'd almost forgotten it was there; there was usually a towel hanging in front of it, and she'd avoided paying much attention to mirrors after her change. But...after what Karyn had said today...
She took a deep breath and undressed. First her shirt, then the bra - her bra, the one they'd bought to fit and support her breasts, now hanging free - then the skirt, which she still kind of resented, but...it was better than flashing the general public. She closed her eyes, removed the towel, and opened them.
A lovely young woman stood before her. She'd seen these parts before - the jaw-length brown hair, the face so much like her mother's and so much like her own, the slender, sturdy frame, the breasts that weren't especially large but certainly weren't small - but she'd never seen the whole. This was the first time she'd really looked at herself since her change.
And...Karyn was right. She noted the way the antennae decorated her head, loosely mimicking the bends and twists of her forehead like a second set of eyebrows, the way the bright yellow skin merged smoothly into her own warm creamy pink while the translucent white down the front of her foot came to a sudden stop just below and around her privates, and the way the skin and muscle flowed seamlessly, never once breaking the lines of her body. The slug half - her slug half - wasn't awkwardly kludged on like a B-movie monster, it was a coherent, aesthetically meaningful part of a whole, just as much as her breasts or face. This - all of it - was her new body.
She still didn't like it - she still wanted to go back to being a guy, a human male, as she had been. But...for the moment, it was nice to reakize that she wasn't so much of a monster and a freak as she'd assumed.
