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Chapter 28 - Fus Ro GIRL!

It spread across the entire classroom and out of sight. It didn’t take long for the effects to flow. Summer’s changes accelerated, longer hair, softer features, and melted muscles along with the loss of several inches in height.

She was just the first. From me as the point of origin, the next was a lanky boy who’d been the valedictorian when I was back in junior high. His hair spilled over his shoulders and his breasts pressed against his oversized, sleeveless shirt. Just the beginning.

Mrs. Horwitz lost her salt-and-pepper and countless inches around her mid-section. Person after person changed, spreading outwards until the whole room erupted in chaos and confusion. Girls made soft, boys made girls. A whole room transformed with a single thought. And one common denominator: They all could’ve been my relatives.

I was replicating myself.

With a twitch and a whimper, I pulled myself out of this notion. I tried to take long, slow breaths...

The room was fine. Everyone was fine. Everything was fine. Nothing had changed. It was all just a notion. All just a moment of fear.

Summer leaned closer, noticing my sudden panic, and pressed, “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head and clutched the table in front of me. “Sorry. It’s nothing. I just spazzed. Sorry.”

I didn’t feel the little smile I presented her. I didn’t even really feel myself in that chair. My brain was flush with images and feelings. It was like bees had been set loose under my skull. They trashed everything and wouldn’t let me hold a thought beyond abject panic I couldn’t control.

What if what I thought in my head really could come true? What if with a thought I could turn loose a room full of what had happened to Wes? Then, I was basically a bomb sitting and waiting to blow. A Hulk about to go angry and green.

Summer rubbed my shoulder softly, finding a clenched point in the middle of my back. I still barely felt it but what I felt was nice. Horwitz noticed my distress and asked if I was alright. I heard the words, but I didn’t connect them with her. And the voice Summer wore answered back that I’d gotten worried, but I was okay.

Slowly, like a receding tide of anarchy, I returned to myself. The time between felt hazy but I reminded myself of where I was and why I was okay. A survey around the room confirmed that, aside from a few looks of concern tossed my way, nothing was out of sorts.

The one shard of it all that I held onto was how everyone in that imagined moment looked like me. It was utterly ridiculous. Wes didn’t look like me. Ben hadn’t looked like me. None of the others had either. And Summer looked no more like a sibling I didn’t have than when she’d sat down.

Her legs were still the envy of me and pretty much anyone else. Her shoulders were just as badass. And she still dwarfed me even when we were sitting. But the changes were pressing at the shape of her cheeks, softening them in slow, sculpted ways. She still didn’t look like a different person.  

I nudged my chair away from her an insignificant inch once she let go of my shoulder. I muttered, “I’m fine. Everything is fine. I just…maybe had a panic attack?”

She frowned above her less-jutting chin and said, “My coach recommends meditation for those. I used to get them all the time when I started swimming.”

Summer never told me that before. I raised my eyebrows and rubbed my elbow. Curling my lips, I asked her, “How come?”

She gave a half-shrug and admitted “I used to think water was scary. This was like ancient history, but I did. I was really into gymnastics for a little while but tore up my leg, so I had to quit. When I was getting better I had some therapy in the water and I kinda liked it at first. So I did more. But I had a really bad first coach and he basically like threw me into the deep end too early and I lost my shit…”

Mrs. Horwitz, who’d gotten up to check on papers, caught that and gave a look at Summer for her use of the “S-word”. She grinned and put a finger to her mouth in apology.

When she roamed to the other side of the room, Summer continued, “I would panic in water after that. I felt like I was drowning even when I was alright and I would thrash and then I really would start drowning. But I had a new coach, Miss Chou. She taught me meditation and how to relax in water and all sorts of awesome stuff. If not for her, I would never be swimming.”

Summer had talked about meditation before, but I hadn’t thought much of it. How she described it this time left me intrigued. I asked, “Could you teach me some?”

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So, that was how the rest of the class went as we half-listened to the rest of the lecture and leisurely filled out the remaining questions. Summer gave me the basics of meditation that she knew. There were plenty of things we couldn’t do because we were in a distracting classroom (and I was wearing uncomfortable clothes) with people talking all around, but she told me about breathing. Of course, I tried to be very precise about it even when she told me it wasn’t a big deal but more a thing of focusing. Focusing without anxiety was what I got out of her little lesson.

Of course, there was no way I could even hit the beginner level, but it was nice to have a lesson. She said she’d be sure to bring along a book of hers with techniques as soon as possible.

Her changes continued but they were subtle. Her hips dented her sweats a little more than usual. Her legs looked fleshier but still tautly muscular. She didn’t have many stray hairs but even those were gone after a while. The skin on her hands also looked softer, like she’d gone over them several times with moisturizer. Maybe her lips were a little fuller, however that wasn’t a detail I’d been tracking. But none of the details seemed important as I felt the idea of meditation, if not the actuality of it. I could imagine myself meditating, if only a little bit.

Eventually, we talked about funny movies. She wanted to go see a particular movie based on an SNL skit with her boyfriend. She did a little head shake and laugh when talking about it. I’d only seen some random ads, but I still chuckled. I wondered if things would’ve been better or worse if I had a boyfriend too. Still, I held onto a smile and the meditative lessons from Summer.

We didn’t even get close to finishing what we were supposed to have done, so it became homework on top of a new set of homework. Before the closing stuff, Mrs. Horwitz came over and questioned us. Summer was cool with joining me, but I knew she wouldn’t be happy with just the two of us cut off from everyone else. I wasn’t happy either, but I didn’t have many choices.

Folding her arms, Mrs. Horwitz had to settle, “We’ll take it one class at a time, alright? As I said, I can rotate things around. I’ve been meaning to mix up the seating plan.”

This prompted little cries of horror and begging from those students closest who wanted the permanence of their current seat. I conceded that, like Biology, every day would be like a reset with the frail hope that everything would go better from one to the next.

Sure, there would be times like English class but there were always times like that.

I left Summer’s side first and watched as, with little slips of realization, her features returned to how they’d been before. It was nice to hear her regular voice again.

Eventually, Natasha crept over with her expressive but pencil-thin eyebrows and a handful of questions.

I leapt in first, explaining, my words sheltered in the din of everyone finishing up their assignment, “I think I’m some sort of superhero now, but I can’t control it so everyone I’m around changes to be girlier…a little bit.”

Immediately, Summer chirped in, “Like the Incredible Hulk, only kinda backwards and reversed and stuff.”

Natasha, who I knew only had anecdotal awareness of superheroes, shook her head lightly and asked, “W-what?”

With a little shrug, Summer offered, “We kinda don’t know either…Say, where are you for lunch, Kenzie?”

I had no idea. I was thinking of visiting Cody’s little lunch group in front of the gym for a bit, but I’ve brought up my typical lunch plans before. It would’ve been nice to track down Ben or Rebecca, but I’d at least see Ben again for last period.  

Summer proposed that the three of us could hang out in her history class and chat. I wasn’t opposed. It was just a few rooms over from my Spanish class, so that could work out well. I’d have to get something at the little cafeteria annex thing behind THE DARK HALL.

Both of them had to talk to teachers first so the plan was we would all meet up later. That sounded fine. I could talk to Cody and friends and head over for the second half of lunch.

More than anything, I felt sharpened relief that soon the clock would cross the noon mark and the time left to this day could be counted in a reasonable number of minutes.  

I hoped against all hopes that it was a countdown to nothing...

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Art by Alexis Rillera/Anirhapsodist