"Oh, babe, why didn't you say anything?" Karyn asked as she hugged her girlfriend. Suddenly Jennifer's reticence today made more sense, she knew how much her grandfather meant to the girl. "I wondered why you hadn't been posting anything on Insta..." Madison murmured.
"I didn't want to bring you down while you were on your vacation." Jennifer replied. Her mind whirling at the idea she was now a prolific enough user of social media that a lapse in posting would be noticed. She surreptitiously checked her phone and opened to the Instagram app to find she now had 14 thousand or so followers. Her feed was full of pictures of herself, both posing in her knew extensive wardrobe, and just living her life. Jennifer thumbed through photos of herself having brunch with Karyn, going ice skating with Zoe, riding a roller coaster with Maddie and Elizabeth, and cuddling up to watch a movie with Linda and Roxie in their home theater. Jennifer felt herself tearing up with emotions; this was a life, and it was hers now. It was in that moment she decided, even if she could figure out how to, she wasn't going back. She was Jennifer Gibson now and that's how she wanted to stay.
Unfortunately the girls' impromptu cuddle was broken up when Ms. Nakahara came into the room and directed them back to their desks so homeroom could begin. Classes proved to be not dissimilar to what Jennifer had known before as Jon. She'd always been a decent if not exemplary student and that didn't seem to have changed here. The main difference in her first two classes seemed to be that she sat to the front of the class rather than the back.
The big change came when she got to third period, gym. As Jon, she had dreaded the class, as she wasn't in the best shape and it was prime location for teasing from Steve and Biff. However, the class was different from the moment Jennifer walked into the girl's locker room for the first time. First of all, her high quality purple sports bra and tank-top combo, with black compression shorts, was a lot nicer to wear than her old ratty t-shirt and shorts. Secondly, when the class began playing volleyball, Jennifer got the first taste of the deeper changes to her body. When the ball was served to her team, the brunette acted on instinct and leapt a solid foot and a half into the air to spike the ball back, earning their first point.
Throughout the class Jennifer was the star player and it was exhilarating. She wasn't as good as someone like Zoe who played the sport on the team, but her innate fitness and acrobatic ability served her well. She wasn't even breathing hard! This was contrasted by a figure on the opposite side of the net, Sam McMillan. The boy seemed to be glowering at Jenn, and his gaze only intensified every time he fumbled a bump or missed a shot. Eventually, as the class began to shuffle back to the lockers, he approached Jennifer and hissed "You!" in a low voice.
In the previous world, Jon might have stepped back and cowered at an irate McMillan. But here Jennifer possessed all the confidence and self-assurance that had once belonged to Sarah, so instead she turned, placed her painted hands on her hips and thrust her chest out proudly. "Is there a problem, Samuel?" she asked in an imperious tone. Madison, who shared this class with her, subtly came up to flank her side in support. This was her life now and there wasn't a damn thing Sam McMillan could do about it.
Sam fumbled over his words. He'd been all set to confront Jennifer when he first learned about the new Cheer Captain from Steve that morning. Had that been humiliating, expected to act like a crony for a boy who wasn't even the top jock like his Biff! Obviously Jon must have done something to the two of them, so he was going to put the twerp in his place. However, upon being confronted with the beautiful confident Jennifer, he found himself tongue tied. The girl seemed so definitively feminine, he was having trouble believing she had once been Jon. Did she not remember the old world?
"Uh, nothing... I thought you were someone else..."
Jennifer giggled, "You'd think you'd remember me after three years of school together. Let's go, Maddie." Inside Jennifer was jumping for joy as she strutted away. While Sam couldn't reverse the magic, she didn't want to get drawn into a fight with the boy.
ELSEWHERE
Jasmine Duncan sat rubbing her temples as the Newton's Cradle in her office clicked and clacked. Her mind was a dreadful mix of contradictions. On the one hand she knew she was supposed to be 16 year old Jay Duncan, a dorky kid trying to survive highschool. Yet another part of her was just as sure that couldn't be correct. She had the knowledge that went along with her doctorate in Education floating around in her mind, a ring on her finger, and a picture of her six year old daughter sitting on her desk. How could she be in highschool? Marvin Lafayette, who she'd been disciplining for his poor attendance record, was similarly out of sorts, sitting on the small chair she kept for students in her office. The boy kept ranting about how she was wearing his clothes, but that couldn't be right?
She was wearing a tailored skirt suit with a deep red blazer and sheath skirt. It would look ridiculous on Marvin's shorter male form. Right?
