As Jon took his seat, his teacher stood from her desk and took her position at the front of the classroom. Ms. Callister was an older woman, not quite grandparent-age, but more like an older aunt. She dressed modestly; where that had once meant long dresses and skirts with high-necked blouses, she now sported a white dress shirt and brown vest, with tan slacks. Her brown hair, streaked with gray, was now short and spiked in the front.
“Good morning, class. How was everyone’s spring break?”
She nodded as students chimed in.
“Very good. I trust you did your assigned reading as well?”
The class hushed. Judging by the looks on the other students' faces, Jon wasn’t the only one who was taken by surprise.
Ms. Callister seemed to notice this as well, as her expression soured slightly. “I see. Well, I suppose we’ll have to start with a review. Everybody get out your books.”
The students complied. Jon fished in his backpack and found an identical copy of Little Men.
“Can anybody give me a summary of chapter 11?”
A boy raised his hand. “Uncle March and the Queen family go on vacation and the March brothers stop doing their chores. After a week, Parpee and Henry stop doing their housework too to teach the boys a lesson.”
“Very good, Mason,” Ms. Callister responded. “How about chapter 12?”
As students took turns describing the next few chapters, Jon listened in awe. He had never read Little Women, but he was very interested in this gender-swapped version. He looked at the cover, which depicted four young boys. They wore modest, lacey 19th century dresses. Their hair was long, and they had no facial hair. At a glance one might think them girls, but their dresses were tailored to suit a male figure and Jon could make out their Adam’s apples.
“Jon?”
He started. He looked up to see that Ms. Callister was looking right at him, as were most of his classmates. “I’m sorry? What was the question?”
“Are you alright, Jon?”
“I’m okay. I just… I fell behind on the reading. My… my grandpa died during the break, and–”
“Don’t worry about it,” Ms. Callister said. “Just follow along for now and get caught up as soon as you can, okay?”
“Yeah. Uh, thanks ma’am!”
The teacher smiled. “Don’t mention it.”
