"Look," Mrs. Gerard said. "I understand that you want to get this figured out. I want to, too. But I'm not really comfortable with the idea of tracking down and interrogating someone who may not even know about this when she's out doing something with her friends. You can wait until tomorrow, dear."
"No!" Jason said, desperation evident in his voice. "No, I can't wait. I have to know if she knows anything about this, mom! I have to know what's going to happen to me!"
His mother regarded him dubiously. "Earlier on it seemed more like you didn't want to know. It's possible you may not like what you find."
Jason sighed. "I know. But...I tried ignoring it for most of today, and all it did was make it worse when I finally had to talk to you about it. I know, maybe it's going to be awful. But I need to find out now, or it's going to feel even worse."
Mrs. Gerard nodded. "All right. But we're going over there, and we're not even going in until we find out if she knows anything. I'm not going to bother the poor girl if she has nothing to do with this."
It wasn't far to Ellen's house, but they drove anyway; it was pretty cold out, and both Jason and his mother were anxious to get this over with as soon as possible. As Jason waited on the front porch, he could just about see his breath.
When the doorbell rung and the girls remembered that Ellen's mom was in the tub, Becky eagerly volunteered to get it. She was trying to keep herself open-minded and polite with her new friends, but they had just pulled out a make-up kit, and...well, if she had to go through with that, she'd at least like a breather beforehand. She ran to the front door and opened it.
Jason was there, with his mom. "What are you doing here?" she blurted out, before she could stop herself. Jason cringed noticeably. This was odd, she thought; last time she'd seen him, it hadn't seemed like he cared about her opinion of him. But why was he here, anyway? What was going on?
"I..." He faltered. "I, um, I just need to know..."
Becky eyed him with a mixture of curiosity and annoyance. He collected himself and continued. "Um...what do you know about post-it notes?" Becky just stood there for a moment, confused. "Post-its?" Then her eyes went wide. "Oh my God," she gasped. "What...what happened to you?"
He was visibly losing it now. "The...the same thing that happened to you," he stammered. "I th-think."
Mrs. Gerard put her hand on her son's shoulder. It looked like this girl knew what he was talking about, but she wasn't sure the news was going to be good. "We're sorry for bothering you," she said. "But, well, Jason really needed to know what was going on with this, and I must admit I'm almost as anxious to find out. What can you tell us about this? Is there any way for him to return to normal?"
It was a particularily bad bit of timing that Ellen and Laura, wondering what was taking Becky so long, arrived in the entryway just as Jason lost it completely. Tears welling up in his eyes, he grabbed Becky by the shoulder. "P-please say y-yes," he said, voice trembling. "I d-don't want to be a...a g-girl!"
The two other girls stared in confusion as Jason and his mother stared right back. Becky noticed the stares and turned to look behind her. "Crap," she said. "Okay, let's take this inside."
Becky had gotten about halfway through her story when Mrs. Carlisle walked in, having finished her bath, to find a woman she didn't know in her living room, holding a completely hysterical boy whom she assumed was the woman's son. Naturally, she wanted to know what was going on, and Becky had to start her explanation again from the beginning. By the time it was over, she'd let five other people in on her secret, and her family's as well.
Ellen stared at her. "Wow," she said. "This...wow, this explains a lot. We all bought your sickness explanation, but I heard that Jenny was taken out of school, too, and that really didn't make a lot of sense."
Becky nodded. "I'm just lucky everybody bought that story," she said. "I don't know what I'd have done if anybody had pressed me for details."
Mrs. Gerard gently rubbed her son's back as he sat in the middle of the floor; Jason had mostly settled down, for the moment, but there was still the occasional heaving sob. "I guess it seems like a stupid question now," she said, "but...is there anything we can do? I know you probably didn't like it any more than Jason does, and you seem to have come through all right, but he wants this over as soon as possible, and I can't say I blame him."
Becky shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you," she said. "We looked all over for a couple of months, and we didn't find anything. I guess that doesn't mean there isn't something out there that can change him back, but I don't know if you'd ever be able to find it."
Mrs. Gerard sighed. "I was afraid of that," she said. "Then what do we do? Just live with it? How can I send him back to school like this?"
Becky shrugged again. "I don't know," she said. "I guess we were able to make the home-school thing work, but I can't say if it would work for you or not. But if he goes back to school, it's only a matter of one gym class before everybody finds out. I dunno, maybe my parents might have some ideas."
"Your phone was off the hook all evening. Are they busy with something?"
"I don't know," Becky said. "I thought they were just going to have a quiet evening at home, or at least that's what they said."
Ellen's mom stifled a laugh, and Mrs. Gerard nodded, finally catching on. "I see. Well, will they be around tomorrow?"
"I think so. Why don't you come by then, and we'll see if they can help you."
Mrs. Gerard nodded. "All right, then. Sorry to bother you girls." She lifted Jason to his feet. "Come on, dear. Let's go home."
They turned to go, but Becky put a hand on Jason's shoulder. "Listen," she said. "I just want you to know that it's not as bad as it seems at first."
