"Oh good, you're here today." A dry voice cut through the murmur of the changing room.
Jon looked up from the bench, where he panted. Zoe was apparently winded after her trek from the main highschool building to the gym, and that meant he was winded now. Athena, he recognized the girl immediately but the familiarity felt different. His eyes darted head to toe, hoping to trigger his new memories a little quicker and avoid any more social awkwardness than he felt being in the girls changing room again. She was slender, but unlike Jon's former goth body this girl was lean and athletic, and was probably a bit taller than Zoe despite her flats. Dusty white hair was feathered out from underneath her dark slouch beanie. Her sharply androgynous face rested in a stoic expression, and though she didn't wear any noticeable makeup, her features seemed both pale and glowing with a lavender luminosity. A few initial impressions of her started to come to him, and he felt himself slipping into Zoe's role.
"Yeah, I have gym this period." Jon replied sharply. Despite his tone, he already knew this was normal for their conversations.
"That didn't stop you from skipping out last week." She quipped back with the same unyielding lack of emotion. "I thought I was going to have to face the normie verse by myself, but that's not why I wanted to talk to you."
She tossed her black canvas jacket on the bench, revealing a plaid amaranthine shirt knotted around her middle. She sat down next to him and slipped off her flats. Jon reluctantly followed suite, clumsily unlacing the tall boots. He was relieved to have something to focus on instead of the struggle of making sure not to focus on anything happening around him.
"I was on the bus to school, when I felt an incredible spiritual pressure. The sort that I felt a week ago."
"Yeah?" Jon muttered as he struggled to bend over and slip his first foot free of the boot.
"And I thought of your sister. Isn't that weird? Why would I think of that baby bat when something big was clearly going on?"
"That is pretty strange." Jon huffed as the second boot came free.
Athena's stoic tone persisted, but picked up speed, betraying her enthusiasm.
"So I stopped and pulled out my tarot deck, and performed a reading on the bus for Mina, and you know what I got?"
"Uhh... The devil?"
Athena appraised Jon stoically. "Sister troubles? That's interesting, because I got The Reversed Fool, The Hanged Man, and The Lovers. Past, Present, Future."
Jon blinked a couple of times blankly. "So this means..."
Misinterpreting his tone Athena continues. "That something big has started."
Jon glanced up to Athena and pursed his lips.
"You know what's going on?" Athena exclaimed, interpreting Jon's recognition. "Mina's suspended in some predicament of her own making now, and..."
Jon rolled his eyes and cut her off. "She's going to get a lover?"
Athena scoffed. "You know better than that. She might meet a lover, but traditionally it could also mean there's an important decision ahead of her. The baby bat is confronting something about herself and coming of age." Athena lets silence weigh on the conversation, then prods Jon. "So? Spill."
"It's nothing." Jon sighs as he slips a skirt down his waist, and just as quickly slips his PE shorts up. Athena gazes with an unyielding intensity. "Right now Mina is just fine. Better than fine actually." He concludes bitterly. Athena's eyes narrow, then suddenly, and gingerly touches Jon's arm.
"But you're not?" She gives Jon's arm a quick squeeze, and Jon finds himself surprised at how much the simple gesture meant to him.
He sighs, and despite feeling the call to share more he simply smiles. "Thanks, it's just been a wild morning, but it'll work out." She squeezes her corset, and unhooks the metal clasps at the front. She sighs deeply as her belly pooches out and she can take a full breath for the first time since her lost thumbwar. She traces her fingers along the skin crinkled by the ribs of the corset.
Athena interrupts his thoughts. "You know you don't need that. You're super sexy without it. It's just the bitch squad that gives you a hard time Nobody with a soul thinks otherwise."
"I don't wear it for them." Jon stated wryly.
"Oh?" Athena raises an eyebrow, but leaves her thoughts unspoken.
"You'd think the coaches would want to mix it up a bit." He hisses to himself as he leaps up and lays up the volley ball flying through the air. He huffs as he strikes the ball and the force ripples back through his body, but despite his discomfort it soars a satisfying distance towards the net. Athena launches herself at the ball maintaining an impressive amount of airtime before driving the ball over the net with a closed fist. The net was far too high for a spike, but the speed causes the poor girl on the receiving end to fumble the ball and knock it sideways to the ground. Their team cheers briefly and Athena smirks back at him. Jon wore a bemused smirk. He hadn't expected a pagan goth to be so sporty, but he found himself admiring her athleticism more with each serve.
By the end of PE, the pair had worked up a sweat, though Jon more despite doing less. It wasn't until he got back to his gym locker that he remembered his sisters complaints about the corset with a grimace. "Do you know how much this thing chafes when it's wet?"
Easy solution. He just wouldn't wear the corset, and with that decision made, he promptly changed back into his skirt, blouse, socks and then wrapped the corset around his waist. He sucked in his belly and pulled it together clipping each metal hook one after the other. He knew it wasn't the correct way to put on a corset, but it was expedient.
As he puffed and pulled, he cursed himself for the terms of his bet that morning. "The corset stays the same size," He mockingly parroted himself.
It wasn't until every last latch was in place that he realized what he'd done, and growled useless at the air. "OH great. So this bullshit is built into the bet" He glared at his gym shoes, then the high heels, and for a surprising moment found that he could just slip the black sneakers on. Marveling at that small victory, he put the heels in his backpack and trotted out of the changing room with Athena.
