As soon as she had made the wish to get the whole CJ thing sorted out, she had found herself inside a bathroom stall. Leaving the stall revealed that JC was still there.
Sarah recognized her--this part, at least, did go like she had intended--and brought her back to her mother. CJ suspected that somehow, JC was also Jon--but JC was treated like a stranger by everyone except maybe Sarah. If there actually were two of her now, as far as her mother was concerned, there was still one of her, and nothing unusual had happened.
Of course, the whole point of staying as CJ was to see how far Karyn and her mother would take it. Was this the point where she should stop and say "Enough"?
But come to think of it, Karyn hadn't been involved in this for a long time. Maybe Karyn did think this was enough, or would have if she had been there.
"Mother," said CJ, "you told me you wanted me to at least try ballet."
"Yes, dear," she said. "I told you. Four classes and two recitals. Cindy dismissed the class today, but you can still attend the next class tomorrow instead and once a week for the rest of the month. If you still don't like it, of course you won't have to continue."
"All right, mother," she said. "How about how long it is before I don't have to try being a girl?"
"The way to stop being a girl, CJ, is by becoming a woman."
"But I don't want to be a girl or a woman. You shouldn't choose that for me. I want that choice myself."
"CJ, my daughter. In this world, nobody gets to choose whether they are a boy or a girl. It's not wrong to deny you a choice that no other person has anyway."
"There are such things as sex-change operations..."
Her mother replied "Don't get smart with me. We both know very well that you are asking me for a magic spell, not a sex change operation. There are billions of people in the world and they're all 'denied' a magic spell. Being without a sex-change spell is normal."
"I don't like being a girl."
"Her mother smiled. "If that's really a problem, I'm sure there is a wish that would help. Are you upset at having crushes on boys? Wearing dresses? You don't want to grow up to be a woman? I could make it so that you aren't upset."
"No, mother, that is all right."
"I wish that you want to grow up into a woman, at least for the next day."
CJ was stuck. If she didn't end the whole thing right now, she had two choices: accept the wish and end up wanting to grow up to be a woman. Really wanting it. Or reject the wish and have to pretend to want to be a woman, and she didn't relish the idea of having to pretend. There weren't any good choices, and she had to pick one, so....
