"Sure we can, dear," said Jon's mother. "I'll let you do stay out of school for a day. We have to take you to the doctor anyway. But if nobody can cure you, you're going to have to go to school at some point. As far as I can tell you're perfectly able to study, take tests, and do anything else you have to do there."
"Except use the men's bathroom," said Jon.
"Don't get smart with me, young man. You know what I'm talking about."
"Look at this from my side," said Jon. "Okay, I'm glad you believe me. But nobody treats girls the same as boys. And everything feels a little bit wrong--I feel off balance, my clothes are rubbing me in weird ways and they don't fit anyway, and I've never used a girl's bathroom in my life. It's the whole experience, even if you can tell me that it's easy to open a door and walk into a bathroom."
"Honey," said Jon's dad, "let me talk to him. Okay?" She nodded. He explained to Jon, "Honestly, Jon, I don't know much about this. Nobody does. Your mom and I are all as confused as you. What can we tell you, really, other than that you should still go to school because there's no reason why you can't? And maybe get you some clothes. I'd suggest going to the bag of old clothes in the attic and trying to see if anything you wore a few years ago that's smaller fits you."
"I don't have to wear skirts, I hope," said Jon.
"Of course not. Even normal girls don't wear them that much."
"He needs a bra," said Jon's mother. "Women wear them for support, and there's no male equivalent. The rest, I think Jon can get away with. We don't want to buy lots of things and figure out how to change back next week anyway."
"Are you going to change my name?" asked Jon.
"His dad responded. "If this lasts a long time you may have to pick something to use just so you don't sound too strange. You don't need to use it much if you don't want to. And... wait."
"Hm?" replied Jon.
"Jon, it occurred to me. Do you realize how strange this is? You're going to become a celebrity unless we're very careful. And if everyone cooperates. About the only way to hide it that I can think of is switching schools. And switching schools isn't as easy as people think. There's one other choice."
Jon waited. "You figured out something, Dad?"
"Not really. The other choice is, you go to school, you tell people what happened, but you ask them to change the records to give you a new name and gender. It'll work until someone leaks it to the media and someone else believes it. I don't know how long that'll be. And you don't want to switch school or change the records now anyway, since there could always be a cure. What if there's some secret society that handles spells? What if the bracelet works once a week or something like that?"
"What do I do now?" asked Jon.
"Anything you want. Stay home. Go out and see your friends. I bet you feel like this is some kind of punishment, to become a girl, but it's not a punishment from us. Okay?"
"Thanks, Dad. Thanks, Mom. And thanks for not calling me 'she'. Or telling me how you'd always wanted two daughters." Jon walked back upstairs to his room. It went better than expected--but still by no means changed the general suckitude.
