This story isn't going to feel original. There's no spaceships, or swords, or superpowers. This is the story of a high schooler, plain and simple. The only difference is that the high schooler just happened to be me.

Part 1

The first day of any new school year always goes the same. I'd reconnect with friends that I hadn't kept up with over the summer. Every teacher would hand out a syllabus and bore the pants off of their students. Again, nothing new.

I was your nerdy teenage white boy, nothing special. My height came in just below average at 5' 8" and I had rather boring brown hair and gray eyes. I would ride the bus to school with my best friend Kai. We'd known each other since the third grade. He was six feet tall, with dark brown skin, and a smile that was downright contagious. On the bus, we chatted about the new superhero movie, which of course escalated into our never-ending debate about comic companies. The bus pulled up to the school and we all filed into the auditorium where we waited before class. The girls were waiting for us by the time we got there. Sadie had been my best female friend for almost as long as I'd known Kai. Both Sadie and I were on the cross-country team, although she was always faster. She was slightly shorter than me, but she had a fighting spirit that more than made up for it. When I walked over, we did our special handshake that always ended in a high five. I heard a laugh come from beside me and I turned to see Lily: my girlfriend.

I'd had a crush on Lily starting in our sophomore year history class, and had worked up the courage to ask her out at the beginning of junior year. In fact, we were quickly approaching our one year anniversary. Lily had black hair, brown eyes, and olive skin. As a couple, we worked pretty well. Both of us were adequately nerdy, as she was into Harry Potter and biology. We worked out pretty great.

"You know that handshake looks stupid right?" she said. Sadie and I both broke into fits of laughter.

"You're just jealous," I taunted back, beaming. She stuck her tongue out at me and laughed. We weren't allowed to show any PDA once at school, but I sat down next to her and gave her a small kiss on the cheek anyway. She hugged me and rested her head on my shoulder. The four of us discussed classes and complained about teachers for the next couple minutes until the first bell rang indicating that we needed to get to homeroom. Kai and I had the same teacher for homeroom, so we said our goodbyes and headed off.

As we finished filing into homeroom, the teacher, Ms. Hudson, got everyone's attention.
"Alright, settle down. It's nice to see all your faces again," she cracked a smile, "Okay maybe not all of your faces." The class let out a laugh. "As some of you might know we have club sign-ups during lunch Wednesday, and sports sign-ups at lunch today. If you intend on participating in either, you've got to have a physical cleared by your doctor." Some students in the class groaned at the effort, and some anxiously worried that they had forgotten and would miss the opportunity to sign up.

"Don't worry," she said, "During break period, we'll be providing rudimentary physicals that'll be enough to get you cleared to participate." I sighed with relief, having forgotten to get an updated physical over the summer. Cross country practice started today and the coach was a stickler for attendance.

The first official bell of the day rang, and Ms. Hudson sighed before finishing, "Alright everyone! Have a good first day, and don't get too bored." The joke elicited smiles, rolled eyes, and groans as the class made its way out.

My first two classes of the day went by smoothly. They weren't too boring, but they certainly were not interesting. Break period rolled around and I got in line for the physical. They reassured us that it wasn't going to be intrusive. We filled out a questionnaire beforehand.

The line got shorter until it was my turn. I stepped into the makeshift medical tent they had put up in the gym. A thirty-something guy in scrubs greeted me. I handed him my questionnaire and he looked it over.

"Have you felt anything unusual in the past couple of months?" he asked.

"Not really," I replied, "A couple of minor headaches, but nothing serious."

He nodded, "Well you seem pretty healthy, I'm going to give you a slight finger prick, and I think you'll be on your way." I agreed and he used one of his small finger prick compressors on my finger. I always thought it was funny how finger pricks could hurt worse than a giant gash to the knee.

We finished up and it was on to my next class. My third and fourth period classes seemed to stretch on forever in anticipation of lunch. Not only was I starving, I was eager to meet up with the gang and vent about my fourth period English teacher.

The final bell rang and I did my best speed walk towards the cafeteria. Just as I was about to get in line, I heard something over the PA system.

"Could Isaac Baker and Jordan Hayes please report to the office."

I was taken aback. I couldn't figure out what would possibly pull me into the office, much less anything that I would have in common with Jordan. He was in the same grade as me, and I knew him okay, but we were far from friends.

I made my way down the hallway, and I saw Jordan walking in the same direction.

"Do you have any idea why they called us?" I asked him.

He shook his head, "I was hoping you might."

We exchanged worried looks, but I figured it couldn't be anything serious. I opened the door to the office, and we were directed into seats outside the principal's office. This had me even more spooked. Usually, people only ever interacted with the vice principal. We waited another minute or so before Principal Bates poked his head out and told us to come in.

We sat down, and I realized that the man in scrubs from my physical was sitting in a chair off to the side of the room.

Principal Bates closed the door and sat down at this desk. "Now, gentlemen I'd like to clear the air. You've done nothing wrong, and you aren't in any trouble."

He'd figured that would clear the air, but it just had Jordan and I even more confused.

Principal Bates started again, "I've notified your parents already and they are on their way over. Everything is alright and there's no reason to panic, but Mr. Weber here has some news for you."

I turned my head to the man sitting off to the side. "Gentlemen," he started, "As I'm pretty sure you're aware, we've had a series of odd... medical happenings... across the country."

My stomach sank, and I wanted to throw up. I knew what was coming.

"The blood tests you had done earlier today confirmed that both of you tested positive for a rare, but emergent condition."

I felt more nauseous with each word that he said, hoping that it wasn't going where I thought it might. Jordan didn't seem to catch on like I had, "Are we going to be okay?" he asked nervously.

"Yes, of course. It's just that things are going to be... different. For an undetermined reason, we've had several cases of extreme hormone imbalances occurring in young men across the country. There have been some cases close to here, but none in the metro area, until now," the man paused before delivering the final blow, "You two seem to have developed a strong hormonal mutation that is going to put you through some serious changes. We have a facility to help with cases such as yours..."

Jordan still looked puzzled, "What exactly is going to happen to us?"

The man took another moment before answering, "You're bodies are going to slowly adjust to new hormones and a suppression of testosterone which... will result in taking on new secondary sex characteristics. In other circumstances, this could be reversed with certain hormone therapy, but your condition doesn't respond to what we currently have at our disposal. The changes will be physical and irreversible. To put it bluntly," he took a long pause, "Your bodies will be indistinguishable from your female peers."

Jordan finally understood what I had figured out minutes before. He slumped back in his chair, silent. My nausea had subsided, but it was replaced by an empty numb feeling. "Nothing is going to be the same again," I thought.

The doctor started again, "After an adjustment period, most if not all cases return to a life nearly indistinguishable from their own," he said trying to reassure us. At this point, nothing he said was getting through. The numbness I was feeling made it hard to concentrate, and I had a feeling Jordan was feeling it too.

The doctor went on, but I stopped putting in the effort to listen. My mom arrived fairly shortly after and she drove me home. I flopped on the couch. The numbness was fading into something akin to a heartbreak. I was just afraid. Tears silently rolled down my eyes as I cried myself to sleep.

blue98

Now that we've completed the obligatory "establishing of life before inciting incident", let's move on to some actual story...