Chapter 21 - Ben-t Gender

At least the changes hadn’t returned already. So far as to whether he’d see any fuller effects, I reminded him we were pretty close to halfway through class. So, if the pace was consistent, then class would be over before the…end results.

Ben nodded and expressed, “Oh…right. Wait. Do I have any other classes with you?” I couldn’t remember off-hand but, as we compared schedules, I realized that we did: Sixth-period history. Rebecca only shared this particular class with me though.

I wished they could’ve both gone with me along the way. Dealing with two classmates who now understood the situation and didn’t see me as some witch or unspeakable, unnatural cosmic horror was such a respite from the waves of people who didn’t know, didn’t care, or were just randomly afraid of the unknown.

He also asked where I usually took my lunch. I hoped I might stay in my math teacher’s class but, at this point, getting to then seemed like an eternity away. I didn’t mind if he hung out around me at lunch, but I didn’t really want to attract too much attention.

Rebecca’s arms looked slightly softer and maybe just a little narrower. At least it didn’t seem like she was turning into a boy. And her chest hadn’t changed either. Her hair also might’ve been fuller.

It took a bit of time before the effects started up again in Ben, so he pressed me, “What about my question? What if you were temporarily a guy, Kenzie?”

I’d dodged the question, but he caught me. For all the changing going on around me, I was the one who seemed immutable. I rubbed behind my ear and offered, “I dunno. It would be kinda scary to go around as someone different. I’d be unused to how people saw me.”

It would be like puberty going off all at once. At the same time, I could see Ben’s curiosity. But I didn’t want to be in his position on the flip side, by a boy who turned me into one too just sitting next to him. It was a weird sort of tickle thinking about that. A slight thrill. If only I could write about it.

I finished my answer by saying, “It might be interesting to try. Just to see. See if things are all that different.”

Rebecca raised an eyebrow and pronounced, “Oooh…I get it. You’re virgins.”

That wasn’t where I expected her mind to go. She snickered into her hand and smiled.

“It’s okay. But really…you learn a lot and fast. I mean it was really hard for me to figure it out when I was younger. I thought everyone kinda had the same thing. Just more ‘poofy’ for boys. But, you know, I had my sex-ed before I had it in class.”

This whole conversation left me and Ben without a whole lot to say and Rebecca full of amusement. She kept elaborating on those theoretical parts for boys in her younger self's head. They sounded like anatomical eldritch abominations. Another melancholic thanks to Wes for those words inside my head.

Thankfully, Bledsoe returned to give us the next section of classwork before this tangent could continue. He looked Rebecca and Ben over. Neither of them showed any obvious differences, although I wondered if he could see the added length to Rebecca’s hair. He didn’t stay long before a noisy outburst forced him back into the main room.

The next time I looked, I realized that Ben’s little mop of hair had become quite shaggy. The edges of his face had softened to the point that he appeared a few years younger than he was.

As soon as he realized the differences, he felt around his scrubs and adjusted the tie at his waist as he muttered, “It’s going again…dang. I didn’t reset my timer.”

He turned his hand to show the time still advancing from before. Roughly, I could estimate how long it had been this time compared to when he was tracking it before. It might’ve been a little bit shorter, but it wasn’t an enormous difference. Still, he seemed to be changing more this go around in the same amount of time. Perhaps a girl Ben would be sitting between us before the end of class.

His voice went next, going as high as it had been before. In a soft lilt, he remarked, “This is kinda freaky but I’m gonna…stick it out…”

I tried not to think of anything in particular, certainly not the sort of things I thought around Wes. But the mind has a way of rejecting exactly what you want to do and, for a moment, I felt the same heat I’d fostered in venting against Wes. For a moment…before I clawed at it in anger and regret like it was a loosed, wild animal.

I watched Ben with thundering in my chest. His change didn’t accelerate like Wes’s, but it certainly didn’t slow down.

As with the other changes, much of it was hidden. Still, as we tried and failed to focus on the assignment, he reported back to us about what was different.

“My legs feel really warm and soft…” His sneakers flopped on the floor, revealing small feet engulfed by white socks. He swallowed and watched with Rebecca’s offered compact as his face shifted to one he noted, “Reminds me of a cousin of mine. Dang…”

He seemed remarkably calm through the whole thing. Then came the shifting of his chest. He felt it before it became obvious in his loose scrub top. With a voice no longer pretending to be boyish, Ben said, “That’s so freaky…I…wish I had more privacy.”

Rebecca chuckled into a hand. Her nails had grown a little, but it was a marginal difference. She answered, “I don’t mind…Do you, Kenzie?”

Without an answer, I swallowed and scuffed my shoes along the floor. Carefully, but with full embarrassment, Ben methodically explored his skin. His clothes were much too large for him by this point and only because he could tighten the sash, did his pants keep from plunging to the ground.

“I don’t even…this…holy fuck…I’m kinda…freaking out.”

Rebecca gestured over her shoulder and mentioned there was a full mirror in one of the supply closets. Luckily, it wasn’t locked. So, standing behind a nearly full girl Ben, I watched as he traced his new body with new fingers and tried not to show to us how curious he was about the altered dimensions.

With a sharp gasp, he suddenly and softly admitted, “I don’t know what that was but…I think I’m a girl right now…”

Rebecca gave a quiet clap and announced, “Welcome to the club. We give out free tampons and bras…Not really. But that would be so nice…” I gave Rebecca a look and asked Ben, “You okay?”

She…might as well be technically accurate…gazed at her reflection and back at me as she said, “I’m kinda…it’s like an out-of-body trip. And I’ve never taken drugs.”

Rebecca muttered and shook her head, “No drugs and a virgin? Are you a Mormon?”

Ben arched her slim eyebrows and answered quickly, “No. But mom is a preacher.”

Sighing to herself, Rebecca noted, “Doesn’t matter. Preacher kids are the fun ones.”

I wished I had one of our few cameras from home right then, even the big bulky one that popped out instant photos.

When I wasn’t paying attention, Ben’s hair got even longer. It had settled as a heavy drape over her shoulders, retaining the same soft brown but needing a fair bit of brushing and treatment to really look good. She had much fuller hips, but her waist was enviable with how tightly she’d needed to cinch the tie. Whenever she took a step she stepped over the cuffs of her pants.

Rebecca inserted a random compliment of “Cute ass” quietly enough to not draw Bledsoe but still loud enough for it to echo in our ears. She seemed about to say something about breasts when Ben flashed her a look and she waved a conciliatory hand in reply.

Ben looked completely different and in less time than the end of class. That was interesting and a bit troubling as well. After she’d had a minute or two of time in front of the closet mirror, she nodded and resolved, “Alright…I’m really rather done because this is starting to freak me out…and I want to make sure I can go back.”

I then proceeded to take several steps away from her until I was on the opposite side of the room. At first, nothing shifted back, and she looked increasingly concerned. Then, slowly, like a rewind of what I’d just seen happen, I noticed her hair was not as long as it had been.

It was still impossible to catch it as it was happening, like one’s mind couldn’t process the actual change, just the results. But, more and more, she was less of a girl and more of the boy who had entered the room at the beginning of the period. Fuller hands. Narrower hips. Fitting his pants…and much flailing to loosen the crushing way he’d tied them.

It couldn’t have been more than a minute or two before he had completely returned to normal. Of course, we were too caught up in watching to check the clock. He gave a sigh and chuckle of relief at his restored visage, as he said, “That was kinda cool. Still freaky and shit. But dang…”

I felt a wave of relief too. It could be reversed. More often than not. Rebecca noticed the little blemishes and shifts she got back with me moving away from her. Happily, it seemed like the differences for her were mild and cosmetic. She quipped, “That was no biggie to me…girl, you can hang around all the time if I can lose some weight and look better. No prob.”

Art by Alexis Rillera/Anirhapsodist

Bonus - Perhaps someone in Kenzie's future?