Leaving their house Jon started to notice Mikey acting a bit strange. It had taken him a while to notice though as he himself was distracted by the promise of what the stone could offer and the terrible responsibility it was. He glanced back to his little brother, noting his awkward silence.
"You okay?" Jon finally asked
Mikey glanced up. "Oh- uh- yeah, I'm just thinkin' about school."
Jon wasn't sure he believed him. Something had to be up. He thought of his mother's words and the drifting relationship he had with his little sister. He didn't want that with Mikey either. "Well, you know you can talk to me right?" he promised to his younger siebling.
"Yeah I- I know." Mikey felt a bubble of emotions. Dare he.. divulge to his older brother that he was changing in ways that were just not normal? He could feel the little feathers down there like a new layer of warmth. It felt.. weird and a bit ticklish. Still he didn't really want to show that, or even talk about it right now.
Jon sighed. "Say I have a weird question for you" Jon finally let out his own thoughts. "Say you could have anything absolutely anything in the world, what would it be?"
Mikey bit his lip. "A-Anything? What you mean like a wish?"
"Yeah, if you could wish for anything what would it be? I'm serious here..." Jon couldn't admit he had a way of making it happen. Still maybe if he had an idea of what his innocent little brother would want that would be a good wish?
Mikey gave it a thought. Right now he just wished he wasn't a freak. Still if he let that on, Jon might figure out his secret. Of all the things to ask, why did he ask this right now? Most of his wishes were pretty simple; a new racing car toy, or a video game. Still if there was anything in the world he could have "World peace?"
"Heh, I don't think that would work." Jon chuckled. There was a range limit of some kind on the stone, so such wishes just wouldn't work. Or could be re-interpreted to cause a virus that made people lose their voices. No that wouldn't work at all. "Maybe something a bit more basic?"
"Well I dunno I guess just.. um I wish I was normal..." Mikey eventually admitted tense. The fear of something happening to him that was just.. weird.
"You are normal Mikey," smiled Jon oblivious to his concerns.
"I'm.. not so sure."
After about twenty minutes, they were at the school. "See you later Mikey," said Jon.
Mikey went into his classroom wondering what was planned for the day. Hopefully it would put his mind off things. At least that was what he hoped but what he saw on the blackboard filled him with dread. It looked like a spider diagram with a man and woman drawn crudely, followed by a bunch of other boxes depicting other creatures.
"Please sit down Michael," said Mrs Wyngate.
Mikey sat down quickly looking at the diagram. He also couldn't help but study his teacher more. She had really long hair, and was a light blonde. He blushed a bit finding that he did like it. He was considered lucky to have this teacher, and very happy with her.
"Today we have a very unusual topic and I want you all to remain calm about it," said Mrs Wyngate. "Now we've talked about the changes males and females go through as they grow up.. however lately there are other paths changes could take. I will take you through some examples of this."
Suddenly Mikey looked bolt up right. "W-why is that miss? I mean- why do people change like that?" He asked.
"Good question. It's happened occasionally in history, usually no more then a few tens in the world. However lately it has been happening more often. Some suggest it could be a virus laying dormant, but it doesn't act like one. Others think it could be a form of mental force affecting them. I'm afraid nobody really knows why it happens."
"Is that why Sally has extra nipples miss Wyngate?" giggled Shawn.
Mikey glanced to Shawn with a mixture of surprise, annoyance, then the whole class glanced to Molly. The poor girl was under her desk upset. Was that true? Molly wasn't saying anything though, the shy black haired girl look indigent "I- I do not!" She protested. "Maybe you do!"
"She's gonna be a freaky devil girl! I bet she'll have green skin!" Shawn pointed to Sally and laughed.
"I'm not! I'm um.. a bit rabbit," she bit her lip.
Miss Wyngate shushed the class. "Sally, it's okay you don't have to talk about it. Shawn you have detention for the next three weeks."
"What! Why! I ain't lyin, I know I saw-"
"I don't care. You can't make fun of any changes that happen to others like this. It's a perfectly natural part of growing up for some of your friends, you have to get used to that and certainly not make others feel bad about it."
Eventually the class settled down. Mikey got to learn more about the changes that happened. In some ways it was a bit calming but still.. he didn't know what to make of it. Sometimes humans gained animal parts it happened when they were growing through puberty. However there have been rare occasions it also happened to older people, usually accompanied with a mild or severe age-regression So how come he never noticed any of this happening before?
The changes were random but usually didn't cause harm Occasionally they even went away on their own but for others it was permanent. The one thing though that was not said was when someone had to tell when they were going through the changes. Given it was happening now to him, he didn't know when.. but since everyone else in his class looked normal, he decided he would just not say anything, for now.
