Earlier that day
After a while of standing guard, Zoe went in to check on Harry. She found the three-eyed girl standing in front of the mirror, staring at her reflection. The expression on her face was one of quiet confusion; Zoe recognized it from the times she'd helped Jon after his change.
"You look nice," she said. Harry startled; even though Zoe was clearly visible in the mirror, she hadn't noticed the slime-girl until she spoke.
"I, uh," she stammered, "I..." She paused for a moment as she processed the words. "Th-thank you," she said, almost reflexively. "Uh, really...?"
Zoe smiled and nodded. "Yep. How long have you been like this?"
"Two weeks..." Harry sighed. "I, I still don't know what to think of it...your brother, Jon...what does she think of being a...?"
"A girl?" Zoe shrugged. "I'm not sure. Jon can be kind of hard to figure out sometimes. She's not really bothered by the day-to-day stuff, I know. Something's on her mind, I can tell, but...I don't think it's being a girl. I think it might be something to do with our grandpa."
Harry glanced at her, not quite understanding. "Uh, family thing," Zoe said. "He died this summer. They were pretty close."
"Oh...I'm sorry to hear that."
Zoe nodded. "But...I don't think Jon's really used to it or anything. She doesn't sweat the little stuff, but I think she might be bothered by the idea of adapting. She's not the kind of person that gives in very easily."
"Oh..." Harry wondered; was she that kind of person? She wasn't even sure she'd been before; was she now? Could the sun change who you were?
Zoe smiled and out a hand on her shoulder. "Look," she said, "it's okay if you're still confused by this. That's completely understandable. Just take it slow and figure it out as you go; none of us are getting the hang of this all at once, and definitely not after just two weeks."
"But, those other girls, they..."
Zoe sighed. "Eh, screw 'em," she said. "They're not picking on you because you're new to being a girl, they're picking on you because they're assholes. They see vulnerability and they jump on it; that's all there is to it."
"Oh..." Harry sighed. Was that it? She'd been picked on as a boy sometimes, but she'd thought that was more based on physical weakness; were girls more exploitative of emotional vulnerability, or was it just that she seemed so obviously open for attack? She didn't know.
Harry dried her face, gently dabbing around her three eyes, and the two of them exited the girls' bathroom, where Dora was waiting. They were about to head back to the classroom when Zoe caught sight of someone.
"Athena?" she asked. A couple yards away, making her way through the hall, was her best friend, now riding atop the body of a giant black scorpion. The arachnid body was the size of a small desk, not counting the legs, and the sting-tipped tail curved up well over the top of her head. There were two large claws in front, held together and pulled back so as not to get in the way.
Athena turned to look at her. Confusion clouded her face for a moment, but as she looked at the face of the slime-girl creature, she recognized her. "Zoe?" she said. "Is that you?"
Zoe smiled. "Yeah, looks that way. You look a bit different yourself..."
Athena sighed. "Yeah, tell me about it. I got a body that would absolutely perfect...for your look."
Zoe nodded. She had been a black plain-clothes back-off type, but Athena had tended more towards the "elegant gothic lolita" look - which wouldn't quite look the same on top of a giant scorpion. "No kidding," she said. "How've you been?"
Athena shrugged. "Okay, considering," she said. "Mom's unchanged, but she works the night shift anyway, so that's no big deal. Aside from me becoming this and the entire world changing its schedule, it's been a pretty uneventful couple of weeks. So, who're these?"
"Oh," Zoe said, "this is Harry, and the girl in blue is Dora. They're in my new class."
Athena smiled. "Nice to meet you," she said. She looked curiously at Harry, but said nothing. Harry felt intimidated both by her imposing size and by the fact that, well, she was a giant venomous arachnid, but she tried to keep herself from shrinking back and put on a smile.
Effie still couldn't believe this was happening to her. The first boy she met as a girl, and her hormones were going completely wild! She knew she had the body of a teenager, but even so, this was just mind-boggling!
And it wasn't like she could just ignore him or run away, either. Dennis was her guest, the person she'd brought back to her host after a mission in enemy territory. He was the person she now shared her host with. And...he was one of the only friends Effie had.
No, she couldn't just stay away from him. But what then? Was she just supposed to act as though nothing was out of the ordinary? What if she got carried away by these feelings? What if she lost all sense of caution? What if they...what if they...
Effie was sidetracked from this line of thought when Dennis sat right next to her. Her entire brain pretty much went into pause right then and there.
"Hey," Dennis said. "I think I figured out why we're having trouble getting the socket library to work. Here, look..." He proceeded to explain his theory while Effie nodded along, leaning a bit closer to him thanshe really meant to; somehow, while this was making her heart race even more, it was oddly calming, at least compared to the frantic worrying she'd just been doing. What did this all mean? For her? For them? For the future?
Jon sighed. What a day. It hadn't even been that eventful, but...what a hell of a day.
Things had, for whatever reason, pretty much held steady throughout the day. No long-term elevations in the pain level, but no significant drops, either. It was alleviating a bit this evening, at least, but she wasn't counting on that happening every night.
Really, if anything, she was impressed by how well the born women in her life handled it. Did growing up with it make that much of a difference, or did Zoe, Karyn, and her mother just excel at keeping their feelings on the matter to themselves?
Ugh, and two or three more days of this to look forward to...she needed sleep. Jon got ready for bed, changed into her pajama shirt, and flopped down on her water bed. She'd meant to get to know some of the other people in her class, but she'd just been so thrown off...maybe tomorrow.
Before Sarah went to bed that night, she checked her e-mail on Karyn's computer. Aunt Iris was flying out tomorrow; she was supposed to be at Sarah's house some time in the afternoon. Sarah looked around Karyn's family's guest room; it was nice enough for a place to stay after her family turmoil, but it would be very, very good to get back to her own nest. Uh, home.
