Gender Studies
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Gender Studies
A story by Kayooger
Note: The character of Dr. Neuman and his technology are from Morpheus'
"Four Days."
PART ONE: PROPOSAL
"What makes a man a man? What makes a woman a woman? What defines our
sex?"
Dr. Miranda Meyer paced the front of her classroom, eyeing the students in
her Advanced Theories in Gender Studies seminar. It was a small class,
only 10 students, five male, five female. The gender balance had been
ensured by Dr. Meyer when winnowing down the long list of applicants to
one of the university's most popular courses -- popular both because Dr.
Meyer was an extremely charismatic, energetic professor, and because she
was a famously easy grader. In other semesters she hadn't been as strict
about an exact split, nor would she have selected some of these
applicants, but she had a specific project in mind, and these 10 young men
and women were ideal candidates for it.
"Is it one specific body part?" she asked. "Do your muscles make you a
man, Chris?" she asked of Chris Truffant, strapping senior linebacker.
Chuck Tam, with a reputation as both a class clown and campus stud, raised
his hand.
"I think you have another body part in mind, Dr. Meyer," he said, while
exaggeratedly spreading his legs.
Meyer smiled. "Maybe you're right, Chuck. But I have a way we may be able
to find out for sure. And it's one that would spare you all the hassle of
a final exam or term paper."
That had their attention.
"What would we have to do?" asked Ashley Parker, one of three Theta Pi
sorority sisters in the class and a young lady of impeccable style and
grooming.
"Well, it's a little unconventional, but with the help of one of my
colleagues from our school of engineering, you would all find a way to see
how the other half lives."
"Engineering? Is he going to build me some kind of tranny push-up bra?"
asked Dimitri Karros, an aspiring musician working the heavily-tattooed,
buzz-cut, goateed look expected of him.
"Not exactly, but gender-bending will be involved. You will be paired off
into five opposite sex duos, and each of you will swap some traits, be
they physical, mental or both, for one week."
"Swap?" asked Gina Wong, petite and graceful, a sophomore gymnast. "What
do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what I said," replied Dr. Meyer. "Dr. Neuman has a device that
could take something from a man's body and put it on a woman's and vice
versa."
That *really* had their attention.
"You're, like, kidding, right?" asked Beth Van Dyke, another Pi Theta and
Paris Hilton wannabe.
"No, I've heard about this," said Ron Howser, drummer in Dimitri's band
and an energetically nerdy boy whose midterm essay had been about gender
stereotypes on the "Superfriends" cartoon. "A friend of mine is in Dr.
Neuman's quantum mechanics class, and he's done all kinds of freaky stuff
there. There was some fat kid who suddenly got real skinny, and a skinny
one got fat, you know? He sent me the before and after pictures on my cell
phone. I can show them to you if you want."
Before Dr. Meyer could stop them, the entire class was gathered around
Ron's chair, marveling at the blurry images on his phone.
"No way," insisted Kelly Rhodes, a Theta Pi blonde with the sort of
curvaceous body for which wars have been started.
"Dude, that's just Photoshopped," insisted Tommy Duggan, a muscular
shooting guard on the men's basketball team.
"I don't think so," said Valerie Wolensky, a cute but shy girl who had a
tendency to blush once every three minutes during Dr. Meyer's lectures.
"Everybody take your seats, please," said Dr. Meyer. "I can assure you
that those photos and Dr. Neuman's technology is real, and if you're
interested, you can find out tomorrow. Are you all interested? It has to
be an all-or-nothing proposition."
"I don't know," said Valerie. "This sounds dangerous."
"My buddy said the fat guy and the skinny guy got switched back a few days
later without a problem," said Ron.
"What would you be swapping for each of us?" asked Ashley.
"That I can't tell you in advance, as your immediate reaction to the
change will be part of the project, along with each of you keeping a video
diary, meeting with me for interviews at various stages of the experiment,
and a few other details we can get into once the transformations have
taken place."
"I think it sounds kind of cool," said Dimitri. "I'm in."
"Me, too," said Gina.
One by one, all the students agreed. The longest hold-outs were Chris, who
finally gave in to appease Kelly, his on-again, off-again, currently-on
girlfriend for most of college; and Valerie, who needed 10 minutes of
cajoling from the other students and reassurances from Dr. Meyer.
"Wonderful," Dr. Meyer finally said. "Then I'll see you all at Bennett
Hall tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. Be ready for the most unusual week of
your lives."
PART TWO: CHANGES
The following morning, the class arrived at Bennett Hall, some looking the
worse for wear from the night before, which had included a long set for
Dimitri and Ron's band, a Theta Pi rager for the sorority girls and the
jocks, a threesome for Chuck (which he would not stop bragging about) and
a cram session for another class for Valerie and Gina.
"Does anybody really think this is going to work?" asked Chuck.
"I hope so," said Gina. "I don't want to have to take a test if it
doesn't. I'd like one simple grade this semester."
They entered a waiting room where they were greeted by Dr. Meyer, her two
teaching assistants Mark and Brian, and a tall, skinny man in his mid-
'50s, wearing a white lab coat and a crazy mess of white hair to match.
"This must be the mad scientist," muttered Chris.
"Class, may I introduce you to Dr. Neuman?" said Dr. Meyer. "Dr. Neuman,
these are my students."
Neuman barely looked at them, kept darting his eyes to the windows and the
exits as he said, "Wonderful, wonderful. Shall we begin?"
"Okay, our first couple will be Dimitri and Ashley," said Dr. Meyer. "Come
this way, please."
The two stood and studied each other, wondering what traits they would be
exchanging, and followed the two professors into a large adjacent room
containing two glass and metal boxes that resembled telephone booths, with
wires and cables connecting them.
"Whoa," said Dimitri.
"Remove all your clothing, please," said Dr. Neuman, as Mark turned on a
video camera.
"Here?" asked Ashley. "Why do we have to be naked? And on camera?"
"There have been, um, problems when clothing has been involved in the
process before," said Dr. Neuman.
"And chronicling the immediate changes to your bodies in real time is an
important part of the project," said Dr. Meyer. "Rest assured, the
recordings will be used for purely academic purposes."
"I'm sure some academic is going to have a lot of fun with the part where
Kelly turns up in the buff," cracked Dimitri.
"Or Chris," said Ashley. "Let's be fair."
Dimitri shrugged and quickly stripped, dropping his shirt, khakis,
sneakers and underwear in a random pile at his feet. After a moment,
Ashley followed suit far more slowly and carefully, making sure to neatly
fold her sundress and underwear and place them next to her sandals.
Dimitri tried to avert his eyes, but they were drawn to the bright red
triangle of pubic hair that Ashley was quickly moving to cover with her
hand.
"The male subject will go into the left booth, the female into the right,"
said Dr. Neuman.
Each stepped into their respective chamber. Dr. Neuman closed the doors
and stepped over to the control panel. After a moment, the chambers lit up
and began to loudly hum, and Dimitri felt a chill moving up and down his
body, followed by an unexpected sensation: hair tickling the back of his
neck, then his shoulders, then down to the middle of his back. He grabbed
a handful of it and realized it had the auburn color and silky consistency
of Ashley's.
"Wow," he said, as his eyes were drawn to the arm grabbing the hair. His
tattoos were fading rapidly, as was the coarse black hair that covered
those arms --and his chest and legs and everywhere else.
The humming stopped and the lights turned down so Dimitri could see his
reflection in the glass. He now had Ashley's hair -- or lack thereof --
all over his body, from the plucked and arched eyebrows to that little red
triangle he had just been so turned on by. He also had her creamy white
skin -- complete with all the lipstick, eyeliner and other makeup Ashley
had been wearing that morning -- her manicured, fire-engine red
fingernails and toenails, and not a single tattoo anywhere.
Dr. Meyer opened the chamber, smiling broadly.
"Don't you look wonderful," she told him.
Dimitri looked over to Ashley exiting the other chamber, knowing what he
would be seeing but still not believing it. Ashley had his body hair, his
beard, his buzz cut, the dragon tattoos that used to run up and down both
his arms -- all of it. Even her breasts were hairy, much to her chagrin.
"I'm a circus freak," she said. "Ugh."
"No," said Dr. Meyer reassuringly. "You're part of groundbreaking
research."
"What does switching our hair and skin prove?" Ashley asked.
"We'll find out," said Dr. Meyer. "That's why it's science. But you may be
reassured to know that you two have one of the more mild transformations.
Physically, your genders are intact, even if it may not appear that way
when you're dressed."
Ashley, still in shock, and Dimitri moved over to the piles of clothing.
Ashley held up the sundress. It showed a lot of skin, which had been just
fine a few minutes ago and now was not fine at all.
"I can't go out wearing this," she said.
"Wanna swap clothes?" offered Dimitri after a moment.
"You'd do that?" asked Ashley.
"Why not? I'm going to look like a girl no matter what, might as well
dress like one. Plus," he said, wiggling his painted toes, "who wants to
hide these babies in sneakers?"
After some haggling over who would wear whose underwear (Ashley still
needed a bra for support, though Dimitri's baggier clothes made her
breasts largely invisible to the casual observer), they quickly got cross-
dressed and exited, followed by Brian and his second video camera into the
debriefing room, to wait for the next couple to join them.
That turned out to be Tommy and Gina, also wearing each other's clothes,
not for vanity's sake but to accommodate even more radical physical
changes.
Tommy, who had once been 6'4" and muscular, was now only 5'2" and rail-
thin, while Gina had gone the opposite way. Gina still had some semblance
of a womanly figure -- at least as much as she'd had originally (like most
gymnasts, she had small breasts and mild hips) -- and Tommy was built more
like a boy than a woman, but beyond that they each had the other's basic
size and shape.
"Ho. Ly. Shit," said Dimitri.
"I could say the same to you," said Tommy, doing a double-take at Ashley's
new facial hair and Dimitri's flawless skin.
"They switched your size?" asked Ashley.
"More than that," said Gina. "Our height and our muscles and, according to
Dr. Meyer, our athletic ability."
"Watch this," said Tommy, as he did three rapid handsprings, followed by a
deep split.
"Or this," said Gina, who picked up the basketball Tommy had been carrying
and did some fancy crossover dribbling.
"That is pretty cool," said Ashley.
"Even if my hands were still big enough to do that," said Tommy, studying
his petite new digits, "I don't think I'd know how to right now. I'm just
glad basketball season's over, or Coach would kill me."
"And it's nice to be the big one for a change," said Gina, who flexed a
large bicep.
The four sat down to marvel at each other's transformations, and a few
minutes later Chuck and Valerie came out. Both were wearing their own
clothes, but something wasn't quite right. Chuck looked ashen, and Valerie
was red-faced.
"Didn't they change you guys?" asked Gina.
"It's gone!" moaned Chuck. "It's gone!"
"What's gone?" asked Tommy.
"IT!" wailed Chuck. "Now she has it!"
Valerie, still blushing furiously, moved up to Ashley to whisper in her
ear, but before she could even speak, Ashley knew what it was from the
bulge pressing into her from Valerie's midsection.
"You got his thing?" Ashley asked, laughing uproariously. "That's
hysterical!"
"Shhh!!!!" insisted Valerie, more embarrassed than ever.
"Oh my god," said Gina, pointing to Valerie's rapidly-tenting skirt,
"she's got a boner!"
"That's my boner!" complained Chuck, whose pants seemed especially baggy
at the moment.
"Dude, then you have..." said Dimitri.
"A'yep," said Chuck. "I am the proud owner of her virginal little pussy.
Her other lady parts, too. Dr. Meyer even told me to be careful so I
wouldn't get pregnant."
"You are not going to have sex with my, my... my flower!" said Valerie.
"Like I would want to," muttered Chuck who, without realizing it, had
crossed his legs in a very feminine style. "And you better wear a condom.
I don't want to get Big Chuck back with some social disease."
"You think I..." Valerie started to say before all the air rushed out of
her head and she began to faint. Tommy moved in to catch her, not
remembering he was now much lighter and weaker, and both crumpled to a
heap on the floor.
"Dr. Meyer! Help!" Dimitri called, while Gina picked up Valerie in one
arm, Tommy in the other, and helped them into two adjacent chairs.
Dr. Meyer rushed in, trailed by Dr. Neuman and by Ron and Beth, who seemed
unchanged, other than their swapped wardrobes.
"Is everything all right?" Dr. Meyer asked.
"Valerie fainted," explained Ashley.
"With my boner," griped Chuck.
"She had an erection?" asked Dr. Meyer, obviously pleased. "Does anyone
know what she was thinking about at the time?"
As the gender-mixed-and-matched students looked at each other, not sure
how to respond to this, Dr. Neuman examined Valerie and Tommy. Dimitri
went over to get the scoop from Ron, who looked very silly in Beth's pink
blouse and frilly skirt.
"Oh my god, your hair looks awesome, Dimitri!" squealed Ron, who
immediately reached out to touch Dimitri's silky new locks, then to study
his hands and his arms and the rest of his changes. "You're, like, so
lucky."
"Sweet. This is like that 'Gilligan's Island' episode with the friendly
physician," said Beth, who was tapping Ron's drumsticks against the back
of a chair. "Or maybe that Superman comic where Myxyzptlk turned Superman
into Superwoman and Lois Lane into Louis Lane."
"So, um, what did you guys change?" asked Dimitri, though he suspected he
knew the answer.
"Theirs was a purely mental swap," explained Dr. Meyer. "They have the
core of each other's personalities: their likes and dislikes, their manner
of speaking, etc."
"Then why are they wearing each other's clothes?" asked Ashley. "They
don't have anything to hide."
"Like I would be caught dead wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt and jeans from
Sears!" sneered Ron. "I'll buy something more flattering later. Beth, loan
me your plastic, 'kay?"
"It's in my purse, which you're already wearing, duh," said Beth.
"So, wait, are you Beth now?" Ashley asked Ron. "And she's Ron?"
"No," said Beth. "I'm still me. I remember my parents and sorority rush
and everything else. I just... I'm into other things now, I think."
"Yeah, all that dorky crap I used to obsess over," said Ron, who then
flashed back to something Beth had just said. "Oh, god. Which one of us
gets to be in Theta Pi for the next week?"
"We can figure all of that out once the final transformation is complete,"
said Dr. Meyer, who looked to Dr. Neuman for approval.
"Both subjects are undamaged," said Dr. Neuman, talking about Tommy and
Valerie as if they were lab mice or car parts or something else
impersonal.
"Wonderful. So let's finish up Phase One," said Dr. Meyer, as she and Dr.
Neuman headed back into the lab.
"The only ones left are Chris and Kelly, right?" asked Dimitri.
"Yeah," said Chuck. "What's left to change, though?"
Almost everything, it turned out. Kelly emerged from the lab a few minutes
later, wearing Chris's t-shirt and track pants. From the neck up, she was
still the blonde bombshell. From the neck down, though, she was an All-
American tackling machine, not as tall as Gina now was, but wider and
stronger, and the tightness of the pants showed that, like Valerie, she
now had an impressive piece of male equipment.
"I don't know whether to be turned on or disgusted by that," marveled
Ashley. At the discussion of arousal, Valerie blushed again.
Then came Chris, his chiseled jaw topping an impossibly soft, curvy body
that was squeezed into a backless halter and Daisy Duke shorts. Where
Tommy had walked confidently in his new proportions, Chris seemed
uncertain in his movements, teetering on his platform sandals and knocking
his ample hips this way and that.
"I keep feeling like I'm going to break something," said Kelly.
"And I feel like I'm going to get broken," said Chris, who finally gave in
and slipped his now slender feet out of the shoes.
Dr. Meyer followed, and as Mark and Brian continued to videotape
everything, she gathered her transformed flock together.
"As you can see, you've been through a variety of changes: cosmetic,
muscles and size, sex organs, personality, and complete physical exchange.
"In addition to the parameters we discussed in class yesterday," she went
on, "there are some additional ground rules. For those of you borrowing
some physical aspect of your partner, you are not to make any significant
changes. Ashley, for instance, can't shave and Dimitri can't get a haircut
or a tattoo. Those of you with borrowed sex organs must use protection if
you choose to have sex, both to avoid disease and, if it comes to that,
pregnancy. Any drastic physical changes could complicate Dr. Neuman's
reversal process."
"There can be complications?" said Chuck. "You promised that we'd all be
put back to normal in a week."
"And you will be," Dr. Meyer reassured him. "You just have to be careful.
Obviously, there will be adjustments required, so I'd like each of you to
spend the rest of the day with your respective partners, learning as much
as you can about each other -- and, if need be, making arrangements about
wardrobe, lodging, and whatever other issues arise. I'd like you to record
as much of your interactions as possible with the cameras Mark and Brian
will provide, and if you have any concerns, don't hesitate to call me on
my private number."
"What if we want to change back now?" asked Chris. He was poking at his
breasts, until Kelly grabbed his hand away, more forcefully than either
one was expecting. He winced in pain.
"Sorry, Chris," Kelly apologized. "I don't know your own strength -- my
own strength. Whatever."
"And that is the sort of thing you'll have to start learning today," said
Dr. Meyer. "As to your question, Chris, it can't be done. First, because
your bodies need 18 hours to adjust to Dr. Neuman's process before any
additional exposure to the machine is possible. Second, because I need all
10 of you for my study to have validity."
"Come on, Chris," said Tommy, "be a man."
"That's easy for you to say," said Chris. "At least you're still a guy...
underneath."
"And I'm not," said Chuck, "and I'm dealing. Just because you have a pussy
doesn't mean you have to be one."
Gina put her now large arm on Chuck's shoulder. "Let's try not to be so
crude and sexist, okay?"
"Sorry, ma'am," said Chuck. "Sir. Whatever." They were all having noun and
pronoun trouble.
"This'll be fun, Chris!" insisted Kelly. "I can dress you up in all my
favorite outfits! You'll be like a Barbie doll!"
"That's not helping, Kelly," sighed Chris. He looked around at his
classmates, all of them radically changed in some way, and sighed. "What
the hell. My daddy didn't raise a quitter." He paused for a second and
looked at his now muscle-bound girlfriend. "But you're not due for your
period, right?"
"No, sweetie," she said, wrapping her arms around him. "That's not for
another week and a half."
"By which point you will all be restored to normal," said Dr. Meyer. "And
on that note, it's time for you all to get oriented."
PART THREE: EQUIPMENT MALFUNCTION
Chuck and Valerie sat in the dorm room she shared with her best friend
Wanda, who was out of town until late that night and didn't know anything
about the experiment. Valerie shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
"How do you sit with this thing?" she asked. "Or walk with it? It always
feels like it's in the way."
"That's because you're still trying to sit and move like Little Miss Prim
and Proper, when you're now the proud owner of the biggest, baddest snake
on campus," he told her, as she glared at him.
He knelt in front of her, put his hands on her knees and pulled her legs
apart. She flinched, but he also got a foot in there to kick her feet
apart.
"Relax," Chuck said. "I'm just showing you a better way to sit. I'm not
going to have my way with you."
"You couldn't, anyway," noted Valerie, who realized that she did feel much
more comfortable with her legs splayed out like this. She made a mental
note to start wearing pants for the duration of the experiment.
"I've been thinking, though," Chuck said, as he demonstrated several ways
to stand and walk that would keep her new equipment out of the way.
"About what?" she asked.
"Remember how I said I had no interest in breaking your flower? Well, I'm
still not into dudes, but it occurred to me that if you and I did it..."
"No," Valerie insisted, backing away. This was making her more
uncomfortable by the minute. She was a good girl, a wholesome girl who had
barely even been on kissing dates, and now she had a, a penis! And some
boy had her vagina! And he wanted them to have sex! This was a nightmare.
"No, no, no!"
"Hear me out, hear me out," Chuck said. "If you and I did it, it wouldn't
be like gay sex or anything. It'd be more like masturbation, since it'd be
our own junk. Plus, if you're really a virgin like you say, I could break
in your pussy for you. I hear it's always painful the first time, anyway,
and you wouldn't have to ever experience that."
"You are the grossest man I have ever met," said Valerie, whose new body
part immediately betrayed her by standing at attention. She was near
tears. "Oh, why does it keep doing that?"
"Maybe it's confused, being attached to a girl's body and getting touched
all the time by girl's hands," said Chuck, amused. "Or maybe it's like
when it first went through puberty with me, and everything got it hard. Or
maybe you really want to do me."
"How do I make this go away?" Valerie asked, as she felt her lacy panties
begin to rip from the strain. Finally, she just tore the panties off
altogether in frustration.
"Wow," said Chuck. "I don't know if it's just me seeing it from a new
angle, or you being a girl, but Big Chuck looks even bigger on you." He
saw how confused and afraid she felt and said, "You've got three choices
here, and the first two are iffy. One, try thinking about the least
attractive thing possible. Ordinarily, I'd say think of a girl, but I
don't know if you're doing the thinking or Big Chuck is. Two, cold showers
sometimes work, but not if you're feeling really hard and horny."
"And three?" Valerie asked, afraid to admit how good this throbbing
feeling was -- or that images of both attractive men and women were
flashing through her head.
"Beat off or get off with some girl -- or me. Again, I'm happy to help you
in your time of need. After all, you're only going to have a cock once.
Might as well find out what it's like."
Valerie stared at Chuck for a minute, then went into her bathroom and
slammed the door behind her.
"Oh, so you want privacy for your first wank," said Chuck. "That's cool."
"Shut up, pig!" yelled Valerie through the door. Chuck could hear the
sound of the shower running.
"If that doesn't work," he said, "you can always make the water warmer and
use the soap to get yourself off."
"Go away!" she yelled. "Come back in 20 minutes with some of your
underwear! These panties are useless!"
Chuck eyed the torn pair on the floor, then started going through
Valerie's underwear drawer. He drew out several pairs of panties and let
himself out.
PART FOUR: MAKE-UP TIPS
Dimitri's eyes widened as Ashley reached into the bag she had packed and
pulled out one styling product after another: moisturizer, special
cleanser, a mud mask, shampoo, conditioner, three different hairbrushes, a
hairdryer with multiple attachments, and on and on.
"Do you do anything all day but sit at the mirror?" he asked her.
"Once you get used to it, it doesn't take long at all, and it's totally
worth it," she said, then half-proved Dimitri's point by spending the next
two hours explaining how to remove and apply makeup, style his hair, keep
his skin clean, etc.
"Do I really have to do all this?" he complained.
"Yes," she said firmly. "I spend a lot of time maintaining that skin and
hair, and you're not going to return it to me with pimples or split ends
or knots or anything else, okay?"
"Okay, okay," he said. He noticed her half-walking in place. "Do you need
to use my bathroom?"
"No, it's just so itchy down in my crotch now," she said, wincing. "Is
there anywhere you don't have these short 'n curlies?"
"Sorry, I come from a line of very hairy men," he said. "And I have to
admit, it felt kinda nice, the breeze blowing against my smooth legs in
this dress."
"Then you're in luck," she said, reaching for the second bag. "I brought
over nothing but skirts and dresses."
"In for a penny, in for a pound, right?" Dimitri said.
"You're taking this a lot better than I am, I think," she said. "Doesn't
it freak you out that you look so feminine now?"
"But it's the whole point of Dr. Meyer's experiment. Besides, I like
women. I've known a lot of great women in my life. I don't think it's so
terrible to look like one for a few days." He noticed her staring at him
with a slight smile. "What?"
"And here I thought you were some macho heavy metal shithead," she said.
"You surprise me."
"Good," he said, slipping into the bathroom to try applying the makeup on
his own. "And we're not a heavy metal band. I just like to look a little
badass. Mostly we play power-pop stuff. Ron's influence. Do you play
anything?"
"Took piano lessons for 15 years, and I was third soloist in my high
school choir, if that counts."
"It does. Everything does. Now how do I look?" he asked, emerging from the
bathroom.
She stepped back and studied him.
"Really hot, I have to say. You're skinny enough to wear any of my clothes
and look good in them, even with no breasts. You've got these high
cheekbones and full lips that aren't as noticeable behind the beard, but
clean your face up and slap the right coat of paint on, and you make a
foxy-looking chick."
"Who knew?" He studied his reflection in the mirror. "I'd do me."
She stood next to him and looked decidedly less pleased.
"I'm sorry, but I feel really gross right now. I just want to wax
everything and buy a wig."
"You'll get used to it," he said. "Plus, there's a bonus. Let me show you
my beauty routine."
He went back into the bathroom and returned a moment later with a bar of
Irish Spring and a pair of electric clippers. He tossed them on the bed in
front of her.
"That's it. Now go with God."
PART FIVE: WE CAN WORK IT OUT
Chris kept turning backwards in semi-circles, hoping none of his buddies
from the football team happened to be in the gym at the moment. He would
have been fine hiding out in his apartment or Kelly's room at Theta Pi for
the next week, but she had insisted on putting her new muscles through
their paces. Where he still felt off-balance and squishy, she was
obviously enjoying this. On the walk over from Bennett Hall, she had
stopped several times to do pull-ups on sturdy tree branches, and she even
slung him over her shoulders for a minute until he yelled at her to put
him back down.
"Now you want to take it easy," Chris told Kelly as she settled in on the
weight bench at the gym. He could no longer even load the barbell himself,
but he told her what to get. "My football career's over, but I still don't
want to pull a muscle, or, worse, get a tear."
"This is going to be so cool," Kelly said, clapping her hands together in
giddy anticipation. She took a deep breath, gripped the bar, and brought
it down and up so easily and quickly that it nearly flew out of her hands.
Luckily, another guy was standing nearby and helped her with the spot.
"That's way too light for you, man," the guy said to Kelly. Then he got a
load of Chris from behind and his smile brightened. "Well, hello there.
Are you two together?"
Chris turned around, and up close there was no disguising his masculine
face, especially after he said in a very deep voice. "Yes. Now get lost,
tough guy."
The guy did a very long double-take and walked away, but he kept looking
back to stare at both of them on his way to the locker room.
Kelly giggled. "Oh my god, he was totally hitting on you!"
"Shut up, Kelly," he said, again wondering why he agreed to go through
with this.
"Why wouldn't he? You're slammin'." She stood up and put her meaty hand on
his round, firm bottom. She leaned down and kissed him on the shoulder,
and a wave of pleasure went down his spine.
"How did you know how to do that?" he asked, looking up at her.
"I know what that body likes," she said. She whispered in his ear,
"Especially in the bedroom, if you know what I mean."
Chris backed away. Kelly advanced on him.
"What's the matter, baby?" she asked.
"I don't know that I'm ready for, you know... that. This is too much
already. Maybe it was a bad idea for us to hook up again right before we
did this stupid experiment."
"Okay, okay," she said, stepping back towards the weight bench. "So let's
see how strong I really am --no holding back -- and then I'll take you to
yoga class so you can see how I keep in shape. Don't worry about the other
thing. It'll be like we're still broken up."
"Good, good," he said, directing her towards the weights.
"For now," she whispered to herself.
PART SIX: SHE SHOOTS...
Tommy insisted that he and Gina put their getting-to-know-you orientation
on hold, as he had promised his girlfriend Claire that he would come see
her as soon as he was done with whatever Dr. Neuman was going to do to
him.
So instead Gina walked over to one of the outdoor basketball courts. She
couldn't get over how it felt to be so tall, so big and powerful. She
loomed over almost everybody she passed on the sidewalk, and when she
accidentally bumped into some jerk who was too busy talking on his cell
phone to look where he was going, he was the one who got knocked off-
balance, not her.
Even stranger was how natural it all felt -- the size and the strength
and, especially, the basketball part. The court was empty when she
arrived, but she had Tommy's ball and quickly went through an assortment
of layups and dunks that she wouldn't have even been able to name a few
hours before, let alone do. On one dunk, she went up very strong, stuffed
the ball through the hoop with both hands and hung on the rim for what
felt like several glorious hours.
"Hey, you want to play in our game, dude?" a male voice from behind her
asked as she let go and jumped to the ground.
She turned around and saw three guys who would have dwarfed her before but
now seemed relatively small.
"Whoa, are you a girl?" one of them asked when they got a better look at
her.
"Yeah, I'm Gina," she said, as she leaned over to shake that one's hand.
"Damn, Gina, you got some mitts on you," he said, still appraising her.
"Some guns, too. I'm Dwight, this is Marshall, and that's Kenneth."
"Do you play for the women's team?" asked Kenneth.
"No, I'm usually a gymnast," she said, laughing. "It's a long story. I'll
explain it to you after Dwight and I whip your butts in half-court, okay?"
PART SEVEN: ...HE SCORES
"That was, like, the most amazing sex we've ever had," gasped Tommy's
girlfriend Claire.
"Really?" asked Tommy, drenched in sweat but feeling less winded than he
often did after the deed was done. He wondered if Gina's body had been in
even better condition than his own.
"Yeah," said Claire. "No offense, but sometimes you're a little rougher
than you need to be. But now I get to control the action a little more,
and you're so... limber."
He grinned, thinking back to all the positions he never would have
contemplated before but that he had just pulled off with ease. "Gina must
be a hellcat in the sack."
"Well, you know what they say about gymnasts," said Claire. She stood up
and stretched. At 5'11" -- the height had been the thing that initially
drew him to her -- she was now the giant in the relationship. "Stand up, I
want to get a better look at you."
He did so, and she paced around his new naked form, giggling as she loomed
over him.
"I like looking down at you for a change," she said, still studying.
"Interesting."
"What?" he asked.
"For the most part, you have a guy's proportions, just smaller, but those
are some pretty girly legs and that," she cupped his tight little butt,
"is a very round, sweet behind."
"I guess that's what Gina's leg and butt muscles are like. Still, this is
nothing. You should see Chris's ass."
"I wish you had taken pictures or something. I'm trying to imagine what
everybody looks like now, but it's too weird. When you walked in that
door, I didn't believe it was you for a second. Aren't you totally wigged-
out by this?"
"A little," he admitted. "But it's sort of cool. Watch this. "
Slowly, he lifted his left leg so it was practically pointed straight in
the air, his hand holding up his ankle, his balance on the other leg more
than enough to keep him standing.
"You've just given me about 17 different filthy ideas, young man," said
Claire, as it occurred to Tommy that maybe he and Gina didn't need to get
together until tomorrow to swap clothes and advice.
PART EIGHT: LET'S GO TO THE MALL (TODAY)
"Are you done yet?" asked Beth. Ron had dragged her on an all-day odyssey
through the mall, as he bought (with her credit card, not that she minded
so much) an entire new wardrobe, styling products and more. Beth could
recognize that she used to love this mall more than any place on earth,
but at the moment all she could think about was how it didn't have a
decent comic shop or used record store.
"And voila!" said Ron, emerging from the dressing room wearing ironed
slacks, a crisp pink shirt, Armani jacket and about eight pounds of
styling gel in his hair.
"You look like you should be on Queer Eye," said Beth.
"It's called being metrosexual," snapped Ron. "Look it up. And I can't
believe you'd rather be wearing those hideous thrift store clothes of mine
instead of some of the beautiful outfits in your own closet."
"This stuff's more comfortable," she said, "and I felt stupid when you
made me try on that dress."
"Evs," said Ron, which had been Beth's new go-to term, short for
"whatever."
As they walked to Ron's van -- which Beth now had to drive, since
apparently knowing how to drive stick-shift had been part of their swap --
Beth was whistling an old Matthew Sweet song when they were passed by two
big, good-looking guys. Ron's head turned around to follow them; Beth's
didn't.
"Those guys had smokin' bods," Ron told her. "Why didn't you check them
out?"
"I don't know," Beth shrugged. "Didn't really notice." She went back to
whistling the song, then lost her breath and concentration when a blonde
in a mini-skirt and spike heels emerged from her car.
When the blonde was out of sight, the two of them stopped to look at each
other.
"Dude, exactly how much did we swap?" asked Beth.
PART NINE: FUN WITH ROOMMATES
"Hey Val, I'm home," called Wanda as she entered the dorm. It was the
middle of the night, and Valerie was asleep in her bed with her back to
the door, but Wanda knew Valerie would want to be woken up to say hi and
find out how her trip went.
Wanda put down her bags, walked over to Valerie's bed, and pulled off the
covers. Valerie rolled onto her back, still mostly asleep, and Wanda was
stunned to see that her friend was wearing boys' underpants --with what
looked like a massive hard-on trying to burst out of them.
She screamed, waking Valerie from her slumber. She opened her eyes, saw it
was Wanda and tried to spring out of bed to explain, but the latest in
what seemed to be an endless series of erections got in the way. She
tripped, crashed into Wanda and fell to the floor on top of her.
"I have to stop falling down," she muttered as she tried to untangle her
body from Wanda's.
"Valerie, what the fuck!" asked Wanda as she scooted as far away as she
could in their small dorm room. "Is that what I think it is?"
"It is," said Valerie, "but I can explain. Just calm down, please!"
While Wanda insisted they sit on opposite sides of the room, Valerie
explained about Dr. Meyer's project, and Dr. Neuman's machine, and the
changes it had put them all through.
"I can't believe that's actually possible," Wanda gasped, her eyes now
locked on the bulge in Valerie's BVD's. "Can I see it?"
Valerie blushed for the thousandth time of the day. "Really?"
"I feel like I need to, you know?"
Valerie stuck her thumbs in the elastic waistband of her underpants,
pushed them down around her ankles and stood up straight.
"Wow," said Wanda. "That is so cool!"
"It won't go down," moaned Valerie. "I tried everything Chuck said. Well,
almost everything. But even when it goes away for a little bit, something
new gets its attention. I tried going to the library to study, and I wound
up having to hide in the stacks until it calmed down long enough for me to
make it home. Everything gets it excited!"
Wanda's eyes were very wide now. Where Valerie was sexually inexperienced
by choice, Wanda had spent most of their freshman year lamenting her
difficulty getting laid. She wasn't ugly, but she was quiet and bookish
and had a hard time getting noticed by guys. And here was this big (she
didn't have much experience, but she knew enough to realize this was much
larger than average), purple, stiff as a board cock right in front of her.
So what if it belonged to her female best friend? She walked across the
room.
"Can I touch it?" she asked, trying very hard to conceal her excitement.
"Um, okay," said Valerie, nervous but wanting to trust Wanda.
Wanda put her hand around the shaft, and Valerie moaned, this time not
with discomfort but with pleasure.
"It's so warm," said Wanda, as she slid her hand back and forth along the
surface. "I didn't know it would be this warm."
"Oh my god, please don't stop doing that!" exclaimed Valerie with a
ferocity that surprised both of them.
Wanda licked her lips and continued. "This is going to be a very
interesting night," she thought.
PART TEN: MAKE-UP TIPS, TAKE TWO
"Dimitri, how do you get your lipstick looking so good?" asked Chuck.
"Easy," Dimitri said, and he did a quick demonstration with the makeup in
his purse.
"Wow, you're really good at that," said Chuck, who couldn't get over how
much like a woman -- a very pretty woman, at that -- Dimitri looked. The
makeup wasn't overstated, working with his facial features, and the wet
red lipstick was a fine match with the flowing red hair.
"It's been three days now, and I've been practicing a lot," said Dimitri.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because I think the only way I'm going to get laid this week is if I look
like a girl," said Chuck.
He explained that on the first two nights since the transformation, he had
picked up a different girl and gone back to her place, but each time he
pulled his pants off, she went nuts and ordered him to leave.
"Guess they're not into hermaphrodites," he said.
"So you think looking like a girl will help how?" Dimitri asked while re-
moisturizing his elbows.
"Lesbians, bro. Lesbians are my salvation. I dress up like a chick, go to
one of those rug-muncher bars off campus, and go home with some lipstick
lesbo hottie."
"Isn't that false advertising?"
"How? I'm technically a woman now, and I'm into women. I'd say that makes
me a lesbian. I just need to look the part. I figure maybe a wig, a push-
up bra, some borrowed clothes and whatever makeup mojo Ashley taught you,
and I'm golden. We will eat each other out all night long."
Dimitri thought about it. "Okay, but on one condition: Beth and I get to
come. I want to see this when it blows up in your face."
"Beth? Why Beth? I thought you and Ron were the buddies."
"Not right now. It's weird, like he's still sort of Ron, but not. Beth and
I have been hanging out more the last two nights. I even think she's going
to play drums in the Battle of the Bands on Friday."
"Dude, Beth's wicked hot," said Chuck, "especially now that she's not
being so stuck-up. You should totally do her."
Dimitri shook his head and laughed. "I don't think so. I'm bringing her
because I think she's technically a lesbian now, too."
Chuck laughed, too. "No way! That's awesome! So does that mean Ron's..."
"Yep. It's been very strange around the breakfast table, me in my silk
nightie and Ron all over some random guy. He got lucky twice in two
nights. I don't know if he had that much sex in two years when he was
straight."
They stood up and began walking towards Dimitri's apartment. Dimitri was
wearing a pink sweater set, his heels click-clacking on the pavement in a
pair of Ashley's black slingbacks, a silk skirt swaying with him as he
walked.
"Can I ask you something: Is that hard to do?" Chuck asked, pointing at
the shoes.
"Took me like a day of practicing, and it hurts like hell after 20 minutes
or so of walking, but they look really good on me, and I'm trying to get
the full experience. Now let me ask you something."
"Shoot."
"When those girls shot you down for having Valerie's equipment, did you
take care of business on your own?"
Chuck stopped him and put a hand on his arm.
"Bro, you have no idea. You have no frikking idea how amazing the female
orgasm feels. I barely was able to leave my house to come see you. I have
half a mind to spend the rest of the week just touching myself, it's so
awesome."
"But you want to try it with a partner instead."
"Yeah."
"Have you thought about a guy?"
"No way, bro," said Chuck. "Not going there for a million bucks. So let's
get with the lip gloss already."
PART ELEVEN: EVICTED
"There's been a vote, um, ladies," said Theta Pi president Veronica Moss,
"and while I want you to know we all still love you like sisters...
brothers... whatever... we'd prefer you not stay here for the rest of this
week."
Ashley, Kelly and Beth sat surrounded by their suddenly-judgmental
sorority sisters, and as Ashley looked at herself and the other two, she
could see where Veronica was coming from. She was now hairy and rough-
looking, and after a few days of trying to mix and match her own wardrobe
to look presentable, she had given in and was wearing Dimitri's clothes
(most of them making her look like a gas station attendant) until they
switched back. And she was the least problematic one.
"There have been several incidents in the shower," said Veronica, and
Ashley flashed back to two days earlier, when Melanie Cho had walked in on
her as she was toweling off and passed out from the sight of Ashley's
hairy chest and legs. "You scared poor Melanie half to death, Ash, and
you, Beth -- all the girls say you've been staring at them."
"Can I help it if I appreciate the female form?" shrugged Beth. "I'm
admiring my sisters, that's all."
"You were drooling, freak," snapped Shelly Palmer.
"And as for you," Veronica said to Kelly, whose massive arms were folded
smugly across her chest, "I don't care whose body you have, I don't care
if it was consensual, sex with another sister against the wall of the
common room in the middle of the day is not acceptable!"
"You're just jealous I got with Angela instead of you," Kelly said as she
stood up and put a hand on Veronica's cheek. "Don't worry. There's enough
of me to go around, ladies."
Veronica's face turned purple with rage and confusion. "Out! All of you!
And you'll all have to undergo a disciplinary hearing before we'll even
think of reinstating you!"
Ashley and Beth stood up to follow Kelly out the door, Kelly miming "Call
me" to several girls on her way.
When they were gone, Veronica slumped on the couch and exhaled deeply. A
comforting hand patted her back: Ron's.
"There there, girlfriend. You had to do what you had to do," he cooed as
his hands began to massage her shoulders. "We don't want this place
turning into a freak show."
"Thanks, Ronnie. I wish the bylaws would let you join. You're the best gay
friend we've ever had."
"I know," he said. "I know."
PART TWELVE: COURTSIDE
"Kelly and Angela Wilkes?" Tommy asked Chris. "I can't believe it."
"Believe it," Chris said glumly. "When I told Kelly I wasn't ready for sex
like this, I didn't realize I was giving her permission to sleep her way
through Theta Pi."
"Who would have thought she'd take to being an alpha male so easily?" said
Claire.
"I had an inkling, actually," said Chris. "You wouldn't have guessed it to
look at her, but sometimes she would get into really kinky stuff in bed:
tying me up, spanking me, that kind of dominatrix crap."
"And you put up with that?" asked Tommy.
"To get my hands on this body?" said Chris, who currently had that body
concealed -- as he had since the humiliating trip to the gym -- in the
baggiest sweatshirt and sweatpants he could find. "Abso-damn-lutely. There
was one time she even suggested sticking her vibrator in me, but I drew
the line there."
"So she had interest in being the dominant one already," said Claire.
"This must be like her ultimate role-playing fantasy come true."
"Great," muttered Chris.
They were seated in the bleachers, watching Gina play an outdoor scrimmage
with the women's varsity team. Though all the women on the court were big,
Gina was the biggest, fastest, strongest and most creative, and she was
dominating both ends of the court with an array of dunks, steals, blocks
and rebounds.
"Damn," said Tommy, admiring the way Gina fought through a pick, stripped
the ball from the opposing point guard and fired a cross-court pass to a
teammate who banked the ball in. "Look at that move. How often did you see
me do something like that?"
"Dude, she's better than you ever were," said Chris.
"You think?" asked Tommy. "You're not just saying that because she's
playing against women with my strength and speed?"
"No, he's right, Tommy," said Claire. "Sure, it's an advantage to have a
man's body and game and go up against women, even really good women like
this, but she's got an extra gear that I've never seen on you."
"Yeah, like she wants it more," said Chris.
"Huh," said Tommy. He thought about it. He had always been tall and strong
and well-coordinated. Basketball came easily to him, and so he played
basketball. But as he watched Gina carve up a defense with a shark-like
grin plastered on her face, he realized that it had been a long time, if
ever, since he had felt that driven, that happy on the court. "Some things
you never really notice until you're on the outside looking in."
"Maybe you'd be a killer gymnast," said Chris.
"Not competitively," Tommy said. "Men's events are more about strength,
and Gina's got most of that. I'm graceful, but I wouldn't be that great on
something like the rings, and my privates would get in the way if I tried
a woman's event like the uneven parallel bars."
"Ouch," said Claire, picturing Tommy's pelvis crashing into those wood
bars. "There are some definite advantages to what you got, though."
"You know it," Tommy said, thinking of their amazing love life. He and
Claire had been on the verge of breaking up out of boredom, and this
change had revitalized everything about the relationship.
"Chris," he added, "I hear Dimitri, Chuck and Beth are going to go in drag
to some lesbian bar downtown tomorrow. I'm thinking it might be funny to
go, too. Maybe you want to come? Do you some good to have an evening out,
wouldn't it?"
"They want to act like girls, that's their right," said Chris. "I'm just
going to ride this one out low-key, okay?"
Claire tried to think of something to say that wouldn't make Chris's
discomfort even higher than it already was, but before she could, Gina ran
over, drenched in sweat and ecstatic.
"That rocked!" she said. "Coach Torella even said it was a shame this
switch is temporary, because she'd give me a scholarship and a starting
spot on the team in a heartbeat if I was going to stay this way."
Tommy and Claire looked at each other for a second, then shook their heads
and said, "Nah."
"What?" Chris asked, but neither answered.
"Hey, isn't that Valerie?" asked Gina, pointing across the quad.
They all turned and saw Valerie wearing baggy cargo pants and a tight t-
shirt that accentuated a bosom nobody had realized that she had. She was
holding hands with a cute black girl Tommy recognized as her roommate
Wanda, and as they continued to walk, Valerie started nibbling on Wanda's
ear.
"No way," said Tommy.
"Chicks with dicks, man," lamented Chris. "This is what happens when you
give dicks to chicks."
He stood up and told them "I'm going to talk to Dr. Meyer."
PART THIRTEEN: THE WOMAN IN THE MIRROR
Dr. Meyer was in her office, taking notes into a digital voice recorder.
"Both female subjects to receive male sex organs have reported multiple
sexual encounters with other females. Both were heterosexual before, but
neither seems troubled by the shift. Subject 114 in particular, the female
half of the genital exchange, has made the most radical change in
behavior, from a virginal female to a sexually voracious genetic male.
Whereas their male partners both claim to have avoided any sort of male-
female intercourse, and Subject 126, the male half of the full body swap,
has been the least willing to embrace the study of any participant. Is
there something in the female DNA that makes the women recipients more
willing to experiment? Are they being driven more by their new sex organs
than the men are? Is it a cultural bias? Something unique to their
personalities? Note to self: for Phase Two of study, consider dramatically
increasing number of swaps along these lines, if Neuman's equipment is
available and capable of such."
There was a knock at the door, and Chris poked his head through.
"Can I talk to you, Dr. Meyer?" he asked.
"Of course, Chris. My door's open to you at any time."
Chris sat down and made an effort to spread his legs out, as if he still
had male genitalia in need of space.
"In fact," she added, "I was just thinking about you and your difficulty
getting into the spirit of this experiment."
"I already told you, doc, I'm not having sex with a dude, no matter what."
"And I'm not saying that you have to," she assured him. "Or with a woman,
or even to masturbate -- though I feel fairly confident that you would
enjoy it."
As he winced, she changed tactics. "Look at Dimitri and Ashley. Unless
they're lying to me, they've been completely celibate so far this week,
but they've been willing to walk in each other's shoes -- literally --in a
way that you haven't."
"I'm wearing Kelly's sneakers," he told her.
"Probably the most masculine piece of clothing she owns, and you've paired
them with those oversized potato sacks designed to hide any hint of your
new feminine curves."
"So, what, you want me to show a little skin?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. You need to really look at that
skin, let other people look at it, to feel truly comfortable in it, and
only when you do that can I get the data this project needs. Would you
have a problem disrobing in front of me here?"
"I'm sorry, what?" he asked.
"Please. It's nothing I haven't seen before, either on my own body or at
the time of your transfer with Dr. Neuman's machine. I really think this
will help."
Chris thought about it and reluctantly agreed. Anything to make him feel
better about all this. He pulled off his sweatshirt, then the sports bra
he had been using (traditional bra hooks gave him a problem, and his
breasts were too big to go unsupported), then kicked off his shoes, his
socks, his sweatpants and a pair of his boxer shorts he had tightened up
with a safety pin.
"Very good," said Dr. Meyer. "Now, please, go stand in front of that
mirror on my closet door."
Chris did as instructed, but he averted his eyes, as he had for most of
the last few days when the possibility of seeing this body -- which he had
examined so many times when Kelly was wearing it --came up.
"Now, please, I want you to look at yourself. Really study this gift Kelly
has given you."
He took a deep breath and stared at himself full-on in the mirror. If he
ignored what he could see from the neck up, it was really a spectacular
sight, he had to admit. Perfect teardrop-shaped breasts, big but not too
big (except the nipples, which were large and pink and perky), tan and
slender arms, a taut stomach, an ass you could use as a bottle opener, a
golden tuft of pubic hair concealing the vagina he knew so well, long and
shapely legs, even the prettiest feet he had ever seen on a girl. God was
not messing around when he built Kelly, Chris thought as he swiveled this
way and that to get the full view.
"So? How are you feeling now?" asked Dr. Meyer.
"I've got the hottest bod on campus," he said, barely noticing that his
manicured hands were working their way down below his waist.
"See?" she told him. "So why don't you try to enjoy it for the time you
have left in the project?"
Chris continued to stare at himself, to the point where he didn't even
mind the incongruity of his head on her body. Eventually, he turned to Dr.
Meyer and nodded.
"Tommy said some of the guys are going to take Chuck to a lesbian bar to
pick up girls. Maybe I could get dressed up and go with them."
"Excellent," said Dr. Meyer. "You don't have to try too hard, just so long
as people can see some of what you have to offer." She waited for him to
put his clothes back on, but he had returned to staring at himself in the
mirror, and his hands kept creeping down below his waist. She decided to
let nature take its course.
"Chris, I just realized I have this big coffee craving I have to satisfy.
Are you okay if I step out for a little while? That way you can take your
time getting dressed."
He barely even noticed her exit, she realized with a feeling of scientific
pride.
PART FOURTEEN: GUYS (OR WHATEVER) NIGHT OUT
"Glad you could join us, Chris," said Dimitri as they walked towards the
bar.
"I figured I'd been staying inside long enough," Chris said. "If Kelly can
score with women, maybe I can too."
"That's the spirit, bro," said Chuck, as he teetered on the red pumps
Claire had loaned him.
They were an odd group: four men of varying degrees, all dressed
convincingly like women, and a woman in body only who was wearing jeans, a
Ramones t-shirt and canvas sneakers.
By now, Dimitri was an old pro at dressing in drag. He was sporting one of
Ashley's little black dresses and strappy sandals to show off the new
black toenails he had given himself (fingernails matching, obviously).
Tommy had to be creative to hide the male parts of his anatomy, but Gina
had turned up a hoop skirt that flared out enough, which he paired with a
red spangly top and flip-flops. Chuck had squeezed himself into the
tightest pair of pants Claire had to offer ("So there's no confusion from
the ladies about what I'm packing," he explained), along with a pink
blouse augmented by a stuffed push-up bra.
Chris needed no special padding, and he had chosen the flimsy white dress
Kelly wore that year she was Marilyn Monroe for Halloween, along with
open-toed white pumps that were higher than he had thought himself capable
of walking in.
"Man, you're almost as good in those things as Dimitri," Tommy noted.
"I guess once I stopped fighting the change, the muscle memory kicked in,"
Chris figured.
The new guys were all sporting make-up jobs courtesy of Dimitri and Ashley
(who had participated only after everyone agreed to let her videotape the
process and take pictures on her digital camera) and wigs courtesy of
Valerie's "friend" in the theater department. No one had wanted to ask
whether the "friend" was male or female, or the nature of their
friendship, but all of them had been hearing rumors that Valerie was
putting some of Chuck's old records to shame.
"It's not fair that she's cool getting sucked off by gay guys," Chuck
complained. "If I was willing to do that, I could be cumming all day,
every day, you know?"
Chris returned to his earlier "chicks with dicks" theory, still amazed at
how much more aggressive both Valerie and Kelly were since the
transformation.
"But I'm worried about you, Dimitri," he said.
"Why's that?" Dimitri asked, as he adjusted the diamond-studded choker
Ashley had loaned him to complete the outfit.
"Dr. Meyer said you haven't been getting any this week. Valerie and Ashley
are nailing anything that moves, Tommy and Claire barely see daylight
anymore, Ron, Beth and Chuck are all trying to play for the other team and
I hear Gina went home from Murph's last night with some Sigma Nu guy who's
into big girls. How come you're not putting yourself out there?"
"Who says I'm not?" asked Dimitri as they entered the bar. "I've been
hanging with Ashley a lot."
"Dude, there's hanging and then there's hanging," said Beth.
"Yeah, have you sealed the deal with her hairy self yet?" asked Chuck, who
was scanning the place for a likely conquest. "She's been sleeping on your
couch since they booted her out of Theta Pi, but I don't see any rug burn
on you. "
"It's not like that," said Dimitri.
"So what's it like?" asked Chris.
"I just like her, you know?" Dimitri explained. "Like, you wouldn't have
thought it to look at her before we did our switcheroo, but she's really
down to earth, she likes a lot of the same music I do, and she's starting
to really own her new look. Like she's had a shaved head and a beard all
her life, and if you want to say different, she might just mess you up."
"Really?" said Beth. "That last part doesn't sound like the Ashley I
know."
"I thought you had Ron's memories," said Tommy.
"It's jumbled. It's hard to explain," said Beth. "I know that I'm friends
with Ashley and all those girls, but right now I don't feel like I have
anything in common with them. On the other hand, I see a girl right over
there I want to have a lot in common with. Excuse me, gents."
Chuck watched Beth walk across the dance floor and quickly make a
connection with a knock-out in a black leather miniskirt.
"That's totally not fair," he whined. "You take a hot babe like Beth and
you give her that nerd Ron's libido and interest in chicks, and she's
gonna own us all at being a lesbian."
"Maybe that's because she's a real woman," said Tommy, who was sipping on
a strawberry daiquiri, the kind of fruity drink he would have been mocked
for trying days ago.
"Hey, I'm a real woman, too," insisted Chuck. "Sort of."
"Then go out there and prove it," said Dimitri. "And remember, call
yourself Charlie. It's more gender-neutral these days."
Chuck gave them a salute and tottered on his heels towards the bar.
"So how's it feel, Chris?" asked Tommy.
"After what happened in Dr. Meyer's office, I feel like I've wasted half
this week. Not anymore, though."
Chris marched to the center of the dance floor, climbed up onto a platform
and began writhing and gyrating like he was a Pussycat Doll. Dimitri and
Tommy just stared, awe-struck, as did most of the bar's clientele.
"He wasn't kidding about that muscle memory," said Tommy.
"Are you as turned on as I am right now?" asked Dimitri.
"More," said Tommy. "This is so wrong, isn't it?"
"No, it's an experiment," said Dimitri. "And one I don't think Chris is
regretting anymore." He started rifling through his purse. "Now where did
I leave that camcorder the professor gave me?"
PART FIFTEEN: GIRLS (OR WHATEVER) NIGHT OUT
When Dimitri had told Ashley about the lesbian bar expedition, she decided
that she and the girls (plus Ron) had to have their own outing. There was
much discussion over whether to truly parallel the guys and go to a gay
bar, but in the end Ron was the only one really pushing for it, as
everyone else was fine just going to Murph's.
As she and Ron walked out of the apartment, she realized this was the
fastest she had ever gotten herself ready for a night on the town. No time
slaving in front of a mirror, making sure every eyebrow hair was the right
length and every blemish covered. She supposed if she had made the swap
with any of the other guys, she might have needed to spend a few minutes
drying and brushing their hair, but it would still be vastly quicker than
her old routine, especially if she didn't care about seeming masculine.
Ron, on the other hand, was practically living in front of the bathroom
mirror, and it had taken the threat of Gina or Kelly coming up to forcibly
evict him that finally got him moving.
Ashley had dressed for the evening in some of Dimitri's Army surplus
stuff, including camo pants, combat boots and an olive drab jacket. Ron
wore a yellow silk shirt and tailored brown slacks. When they arrived at
the corner, she saw that Kelly was again going out of her way to
accentuate her muscles, in a white tank-top that seemed in danger of
bursting to shreds if she flexed too much, tight jeans, and a baseball cap
to hide her long hair. Gina's shirt was looser but still sleeveless to
show off her big arms. Valerie remained a mix of masculine from the waist
down with her cargo pants and hiking shoes, and feminine from the waist up
in a tube top. She was a girl who was ready to go both ways, possibly at
the same time.
As they walked toward Murph's, Ron put his hand on Valerie's forearm and
said, "So I heard a rumor that you had your way with the girl's softball
team this afternoon."
"Get out!" said Kelly.
"That's not true at all," insisted Valerie. "It was just the second
baseman... and I got the shortstop's number."
"Gotta keep that middle infield in synch," said Gina.
"What happened to the girl who fainted at the thought of doing anything
with Chuck's penis?" asked Ashley.
"She had a lot of orgasms and got okay with it in a hurry," said Valerie.
"Amen, sister," said Kelly, who gave her a too-vigorous high five.
"I just think it's cool that nobody's getting too bent out of shape when a
cute girl like you turns out to be packing major male weaponry," said
Gina.
"Word spread quickly," said Valerie. "I'm a curiosity. Half the girls on
campus want to try me out. Some of the guys, too."
"And I'll take the other half of the girls," said Kelly.
"Have you thought about sex with guys at all, Kelly?" asked Ashley. "You
used to be the boy-craziest girl I knew."
"I know, right?" she giggled, and it again sounded completely incongruous
coming from that big strong body. "But I haven't even thought about guys
since the change. Except for Chris. And he's not really a guy anymore, is
he?"
"Nope," Ashley acknowledged. "Check this out." She reached into a pocket
of her Army jacket and pulled out some photos she had printed while Ron
was still getting ready. "I took these of the boys before they went on
their little fishing expedition."
Kelly grabbed a shot of Chris in the Marilyn Monroe dress. "Oh my gosh,
that is the sexiest thing I have ever seen. I want to do unspeakable
things to this body."
"That's your body," said Gina.
"Not right now it's not," said Kelly.
As they arrived at Murph's, Gina noticed a sign on the door.
"'Ladies Night,'" she read. "Think any of us could drink for free
tonight?"
"Oh, please," said Ron. "I'm the only lady here, and I'm not foolish
enough to try dressing like one in this body."
They entered, and Kelly saw some of Chris's old football buddies having an
arm-wrestling contest by the pool table.
"Gina, we can totally take those guys," she said. "Wanna go?"
"Absolutely," Gina said.
As Gina and Kelly stretched their muscles and Ron tried to explain to the
bartender how to make a proper Appletini, Valerie approached Ashley.
"Do you have any photos from tonight of Chuck?" she asked. Ashley handed
her the stack, and when Valerie came to a picture of Chuck all dolled up,
she smiled hugely, "He has a camel-toe! I love it!"
"Valerie, what are you thinking of?" asked Ashley.
"Just something Chuck said to me a few days ago," she said.
PART SIXTEEN: REUNION
Chuck sighed as he approached his house. Beth had gotten seven numbers and
gone home with a real hottie, and every girl in the place was hitting on
Chris (who had politely declined and said he was just there to shake his
rump), and even Dimitri had drawn some interest (which he also politely
declined).
But Chuck? Chuck had struck out, repeatedly. Maybe he was too desperate,
or maybe he just wasn't any good at pretending to be a woman, pussy or no,
but every girl he approached could tell there was something not right
about him. He felt clumsy, even tentative, around women for the first time
in a long time.
So he was left to his own devices again -- or so he thought.
"Hey, Chuck," a familiar voice from behind said. He turned and saw
Valerie. From the porch light, he could immediately see two things in her
eyes: she was drunk, and she was very, very horny.
"Oh, uh, hey Valerie," he said, suddenly nervous. "What's up? How's Big
Chuck treating you?"
"He's the best friend I've ever had," she said, leaning in towards him. "I
wish I'd gotten him years ago. Think of what I've been missing."
"Yeah, well I haven't been so lucky," muttered Chuck.
"Maybe I can help," she said. "Remember what you told me that first day?
About how it wasn't gay sex if it's your own cock?"
"I was just having some fun with you, you know?" he said. "You were
freaking out and I was trying to lighten the mood."
"Oh, I don't think so," she said, moving closer, her cargo pants tenting
outward. "You were ready to have sex with me."
And he was at the time, Chuck had to admit. But things had changed. The
longer he had been this way, the less comfortable he felt about the notion
of anything penetrating him. He had even been afraid to use a vibrator,
even though Dr. Meyer had suggested several models, satisfaction
guaranteed.
"Maybe I was and maybe I wasn't, but I'm not now, okay?" he said, pushing
her away. "No means no."
"Your loss," said Valerie, who held up her hands in surrender and walked
off. "Maybe I can still get my date with the shortstop."
PART SEVENTEEN: THE PIECES JUST FIT
The shortstop didn't answer her phone, so Valerie returned to Murph's,
where Kelly was showing off by bench-pressing a freshman girl, Ashley was
comparing tattoos with the bouncer, and Gina was sitting alone at the bar.
"So no go with Chuck?" Gina asked.
"Nope. He was so uptight, like, like..."
"Like you used to be?" suggested Gina.
"Close enough to it," said Valerie. She studied Gina for a minute.
"What?" Gina asked.
"You know, it occurs to me that, after me and Chuck, you and me are the
perfect match, anatomically-speaking. You're basically all guy except for
one part, and I'm all girl except for that same part. What do you think?"
Gina was less weirded-out by the suggestion than she might have expected
to be. After all, she thought, Valerie (and Chuck before her) had to be so
in demand >from all the girls on campus for a reason. She missed the
flexibility she had enjoyed in bed as a gymnast, but being the dominant
partner was interesting, and she wanted to try more of it before the week
was up.
"What the hell," she said. "I'm sure Dr. Meyer will love to hear about
it."
PART EIGHTEEN: SECOND THOUGHTS
"I understand you and Valerie got together last night," Dr. Meyer said.
"And how was that?"
"Not great, to be honest," said Gina. "I thought it might be fun, but I
realized halfway through that I still like boys -- real, 100% boys. Too
weird to look down in the middle of it and see breasts and a pretty face."
"Interesting," Dr. Meyer said. It occurred to her that of her 10 subjects,
Gina and Tommy had seemingly changed the least -- emotionally, anyway.
Even Dimitri and Ashley, who had the most mild physical transformation,
had displayed subtle personality changes. Dimitri was far more soft-spoken
and open about his feelings in their interviews, while Ashley had a
swagger to her that had never been evident before she grew a beard and
lost her long red hair.
"I've been thinking, Doctor," Gina said.
"Yes?"
"Would it be bad for the study if I didn't switch back with Tommy at the
end of it?"
Maybe Dr. Meyer had decided too soon about Gina's lack of a change. She
shook her head.
"I'm sorry, Gina, but that's not possible. It's not even about the data --
frankly, the study would be far more interesting if all of you stayed
changed for a longer period, if not forever -- but it simply wouldn't be
fair to Tommy. Everyone agreed to this experiment knowing that the changes
would be temporary."
"But you don't understand!" Gina insisted. "I've never felt this good in
my whole life! I've always been so small, always felt at the mercy of
bigger people. I love being this strong, not having to stick to the stupid
diet my gymnastics coaches have me on, all of it. And I'm really good at
basketball now. Tommy even says I'm better than he was! And he's about to
graduate, so it's not like he's going to lose a scholarship or anything!
Please?"
"If Tommy's willing to consider it, we can all sit down with Dr. Neuman on
Saturday to discuss the risks involved. What if one of you were to change
your mind down the road and a reversal was no longer possible?"
Gina sensed that she wasn't going to get any further with this at the
moment, so she left and started scripting the speech she would give Tommy
about why he should let her keep his size and strength.
PART NINETEEN: BEER FIGHT
As a thank you for being allowed to crash in Dimitri and Ron's apartment,
Ashley and Beth were going on a beer run.
"Just remember: if they card us, you have to buy it," said Ashley. "My
ID's no good. No way is someone going to believe I'm the same girl as in
my driver's license photo."
"Affirmative, Captain," Beth said in what sounded like a bad Russian
accent. Ashley had given up days ago on trying to identify all the geeky
TV and music references her friend kept making.
"Does it bother you that Ron's turned you into a lesbian at all?" she
asked.
"I don't even think about it," Beth said. "I just want to score with girls
so badly, like it's all I've ever wanted."
"Do you think you'll still feel the same way after you've switched back?"
"I don't even know what I'm going to remember at that point," she said.
"Ron and I went to see Dr. Neuman the other day. At first he acted like he
didn't know who we were, then he seemed worried that we were trying to
steal his equipment, but when we finally got him to calm down, he said
something like, 'Personality exchange is the most delicate part of my
process. I'm still learning how it works.' I asked what had happened when
he switched people back in the past."
"And?"
"And he didn't say. He demanded to see our ID's again and then pushed us
out the door. He is a weird dude."
A man bumped into Beth and knocked her over as he tried to reach a case of
Heineken.
"Hey, watch it, pal!" Ashley exclaimed as she helped Beth to her feet.
"Whoa, take it easy, tattoo boy," the guy shrugged. "Accidents happen."
"There's accidents and then there's people being dicks," Ashley said.
"Fuck you," the guy said. He tried to move on, but Ashley stepped in front
of him.
"Apologize," she told him, her eyes blazing.
"Or what?" he said.
"Or I'll have to apologize to you in a minute for the hurting I put on
you," she said.
Ashley was tall for a girl at 5'8", but this guy was taller by three or
four inches and outweighed her by at least 50 pounds. She didn't think she
had a prayer of winning a fight with him, but she didn't want to back
down.
The guy looked at what he assumed was some crazy man, and after a moment
he bowed his head and said to Beth, "I'm sorry I knocked you over." Then,
to Ashley, he said, "Satisfied?"
She nodded and he slouched away. Beth patted Ashley on the back.
"Where the hell did that come from, Ash?" Beth asked her. "Demure
debutante girls don't pick fights with random guys in liquor stores."
"Well, I haven't been feeling so demure lately."
Ashley smiled, but a part of her almost wished the guy had tried to hit
her. She probably would have lost, but now she wondered what it would have
been like to throw a few punches, get a bloody lip or a black eye, and not
have to freak out about how to hide it with concealer afterward.
PART TWENTY: FUN IN THE SUN
Since that guys night out, Chris had grown increasingly at ease in his
borrowed body. He still wasn't ready to even consider the possibility of
sex with someone else, male or female, but he was pleasuring himself
regularly and he enjoyed showing off his figure.
On a hot, sunny day, with a break between classes, he was ready for his
boldest display yet. He had squeezed himself into Kelly's tiniest white
bikini, grabbed some sunscreen and a towel, and gone out for a stroll to
the quad. Jaws dropped everywhere, both from those who looked closely at
his face (partially hidden by a hat and big sunglasses) to notice the
incongruity and those too distracted by all that golden flesh to even
notice that he had a face.
He lay out for an hour. The sun felt great on his skin, and the grass felt
so nice on his bare little feet. Finally, it was time to head back to his
apartment. Again, the stares, and again he reveled in them.
"This is how it feels to be Kelly all the time," he thought. "Now I know
why she's always smiling and giggling."
He entered to the sound of the shower running. Kelly had been staying with
him since getting bounced from Theta Pi, and it had turned out better than
he expected. She hadn't tried putting the moves on him, and she had
avoided bringing any girls home with her.
Chris went to the fridge and got out a pitcher of lemonade Kelly had
mixed. He was looking for a footstool to reach the shelf where he kept the
highball glasses -- it hadn't been an issue at his old height -- when
Kelly lumbered into the kitchen, clad in nothing but a skimpy pair of
running shorts. He thought of making a comment about that, then realized
his bikini put him in no position to throw stones.
"Let me help you there, babe," she said, reaching past Chris to easily
bring down two glasses. Though he tried to fight it, his eyes were drawn
to the interplay of her muscles as they went past him.
"Showering in the middle of the day?" he asked, trying to make polite
conversation while pouring them each a glass of lemonade. "What have you
been up to?"
"Your friend Brent was giving me a boxing lesson," she said, holding the
cool glass to her cheek. "It was so much fun, just pounding on that bag as
hard as I could. I wish I'd thought of trying it sooner in the week."
"No reason you can't do it again once we change back," he said. "I see
lots of women trying boxing at the gym. It's great exercise."
She put her big hand on his slim bicep. "It won't be the same when I'm
back to these pipecleaners. Though I suppose I could try weightlifting,
too. Maybe get arms like Jessica Biel had in 'Blade: Trinity.' Would you
like that?"
"That might be interesting," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He had
been lying in one position too long during his sunbathing, and he had a
crick now.
"Here, let me," Kelly said, and before Chris could say anything in
protest, she was vigorously massaging his neck and shoulders.
"Wow," he said. "You're really good at that."
"You're the backrub master," she said. "I'm just borrowing your tools for
a little bit."
Soon, all the strain was gone from his muscles, but Kelly kept rubbing,
and Chris began to feel something more than tension-release. He didn't
want her to stop, but he made himself twist out of her grip and take a
step back.
"Thanks," he said. "That's all I needed."
"Gotcha," she said, recognizing his continued discomfort around anything
remotely sexual between them. "I forgot to do some push-ups before I
showered. Might as well get them out of the way now."
Kelly strode into the living room, stretched her long, muscular arms, got
down and the floor and began her push-ups. Chris watched her through the
doorway, his eyes transfixed on her muscles -- his muscles, he tried to
keep reminding himself -- still glistening >from the shower water, pumping
and expanding and contracting as she moved up and down. He realized he was
getting short of breath, and took a long swallow >from the lemonade glass.
"This isn't right," he thought. "I'm a man, I don't care what I look like
right now. I shouldn't be turned on by big biceps, or that broad back, or
those tree-trunk legs, or...
He tried another drink of lemonade. It didn't help. He felt his eyes
getting wider -- and, worse, he was starting to feel moist in that place
he knew Kelly got moist when their roles were reversed.
He took a deep breath, and whispered to himself, "It's okay. She's your
girlfriend. It's okay."
He reached behind his neck, undid the bikini string and let the top fall
to the floor. He stepped out of the bottoms, walked into the living room,
and stood in front of Kelly.
Her eyes were still pointing at the floor, but when she saw Chris' bare
feet in front of her, she looked up, then quickly scrambled into a
standing position.
"Baby, are you…?" she asked, gentler and more cautious than he had
expected.
"Yeah, I'm ready," he said, nodding furiously to keep himself from
changing his mind. "Now or never, right? We change back tomorrow."
She looked him in the eye for a long time, then said, "I don't want you to
look back on this later as something you regret, like I pressured you..."
"No," he insisted. "You've been cool about it. I mean, you banged half of
Theta Pi, but you've been cool with me. And I think I'd regret it more if
I realized 10 years from now that I had this once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity and I didn't take it."
He turned and walked towards the bedroom, then stopped at the doorway and
asked, "Are you coming?"
"Oh, hell yeah!" she said, practically ripping off the gym shorts away
from her engorged member as she followed him. He lay down on the bed, she
climbed on top, and before he knew it, she was inside him.
"HOLY SHIT!!!!" he screamed.
"Are you okay, baby?" she asked, concerned that he already regretted it.
His nails raked her back. "I'm fucking way better than okay, Kel," he
said, panting.
"Good," she said, smiling and thrusting.
In between moans of pleasure, he complained, "I can't believe we waited
until the last damn day to try this!"
PART TWENTY-ONE: LET'S ROCK!
It was the final night of the experiment, as well as the night of the
campus-wide Battle of the Bands, and Dimitri and Ashley thought this would
be as good a way as any to celebrate the end of their transformed lives.
"Bet you'll be glad to be back to normal, right?" Dimitri asked her
backstage as he adjusted the halter strap on the gorgeous purple evening
gown with the plunging neckline Ashley had loaned him for the occasion.
"I don't know," she admitted, dressed in a white tank top and khaki shorts
designed to show as much skin --and body hair, and cleavage -- as
possible. "I'm going to miss getting out of the house so quickly, for one
thing. How about you? I'm sure you're relieved you won't have to do my
maintenance routine anymore."
"I guess," he said, "but the softer look agrees with me a little. I feel
more mellow, and it's nice to spend so much time pampering myself now and
then."
"No reason you can't go a little metrosexual once we switch back," she
said, inching closer to him.
"And no reason you have to be so obsessed with skin and haircare all the
time," he replied, closing the gap himself.
They kissed. They had been circling each other for the whole week, but
unlike their friends with the borrowed muscle or genitals or personality,
they hadn't felt in a rush to have a lot of sex while they still could,
instead content to become friends and see what happened.
Dimitri laughed.
"Your beard tickles," he said.
For the first time in days, Ashley felt self-conscious about her facial
hair.
"I'm sorry," she said. "We can wait until we switch back to..."
"No," Dimitri insisted. He kissed her again. "I like it. It was just an
unexpected feeling, but a good one."
They looked at each other, then at the clock, and realized there wasn't
time to do much more.
"After the show," Dimitri said.
"After the show," she replied.
Beth entered, wearing a powder blue tuxedo with ruffled shirt and matching
bow tie; she had found the entire ensemble at the Salvation Army for five
bucks.
"No time for love, Dr. Jones!" she said. "We're almost on."
"Any sign of Chris and Kelly?" Dimitri asked. They had planned, for
dramatic effect, to have the two of them dancing on opposite sides of the
stage while wearing the minimum amount of clothing allowable by the health
code.
"Nope," said Beth. "You don't think they're..."
"Stranger things have happened," said Dimitri.
"This week," said Ashley, "the two of them hooking up would qualify as one
of the least strange things possible."
Ron poked his head in: "Guys, you're on!"
Dimitri, Ashley and Beth walked on stage. Beth took her spot behind Ron's
drum kit, Ashley sat at the piano, Dimitri strapped on his guitar, and
scanned the crowd. Claire and Tommy were having an animated but not
unfriendly discussion with Gina. Valerie and Chuck were serving as
videographers for the evening. Even Dr. Meyer had come, and dressed down
for the occasion in gender-neutral jeans and a t-shirt.
"Hi, we're The Gender Freaks," Dimitri went on. "Maybe you've heard of
us?"
The crowd, who had been hearing stories of this motley group all week,
roared its approval, Beth did the count-off, and they tore into a medley
of gender-bended rock songs: Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like a Lady," Lou
Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side," Barenaked Ladies' "I'll Be That Girl," and
more. Dimitri did lead vocals (his rumbling bass voice clashing as planned
with his red carpet starlet look), Ashley harmonies (her lilting soprano
voice contrasting nicely with her appearance) and Beth pounded the drums
in the same wild-armed style that Ron used to.
As for Ron himself, he was sitting backstage, looking forlorn, when
Valerie wandered in, needing a new battery for the camcorder.
"Hey, you okay?" she asked.
Ron looked up, and his expression changed from sadness to hunger.
"I am now," he said, moving in quickly to kiss her.
Valerie was surprised, but she kissed back for a moment, then realized he
was being way too forceful. She pushed him away.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Ronnie!" she exclaimed. "What's going on? I thought you
were into boys this week."
He sat back down, again looking sad and confused. "I am! But sometimes I
don't want to be! I wish Dr. Neuman had completely switched our
personalities instead of this half-assed thing where I never know if my
thoughts are mine or Beth's! I hate it! And I thought I could try to
satisfy both sides at once by hooking up with you!"
He began to cry. Valerie sat down next to him and put her arm around him.
"It's okay, Ronnie," she said. "Let it out."
"Thanks," he said through the tears. "I'm sure you'd rather be out taking
advantage of Big Chuck one last night instead of sitting in here with a
crying freak like me."
"We're all freaks, Ron," she told him, "and we were even before this
experiment started. And I think Big Chuck could use a rest tonight --
especially since Chuck's probably going to go on some kind of 12-state sex
spree as soon as they're reunited."
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Definitely, " she said. "Why don't we go catch the rest of the show, and
then maybe we can go rent some bad movies and watch them in my dorm?"
"Can we get Legally Blonde?" he asked, perking up.
Valerie laughed. "I think we both know whose thought that one was."
PART TWENTY-TWO: REVERSAL OF FORTUNE
They staggered up to Bennett Hall, most of them even more tired and hung
over than they had been a week earlier. No outside girlfriends or
roommates, just the ten of them who had changed so much, inside and out,
over the last seven days.
But when they entered the waiting area, Dr. Neuman wasn't there, nor Mark
and Brian the teaching assistants. Just Dr. Meyer, her face horrified and
apologetic.
"What's going on, Dr. Meyer?" Tommy asked.
"Dr. Neuman's gone," she told them.
"What?" they asked, practically in unison.
"We came here this morning, and he wasn't here, and his equipment wasn't
here," she said. "He's not answering his phone or his cell, his house has
been emptied, and his department chair doesn't know where he is. Mark and
Brian are out looking, but he's gone."
"This is a joke, right?" asked Ron. "Please tell me you're getting over on
us here."
"I wish I was, Ron, you have no idea," Dr. Meyer said. "If I for a moment
thought this had a chance of happening, I never would have gotten you all
involved in this. I am so, so, sorry."
Dr. Meyer began to cry, and the subjects began to argue -- all except for
Gina and Tommy, who didn't think it was the appropriate time to explain
that they hadn't been planning on switching back in the first place.
Finally, Dimitri shouted them down. "Guys, guys, guys! There's nothing we
can do right now, okay? Why don't we just relax, go back to our rooms,
sleep the rest of the night off, and worry about this if Dr. Neuman
doesn't turn up in a day or so."
"That's easy for you to say," grumbled Chuck. "All you need is a haircut
and some cold cream and you're practically back to normal. Some of us are
going to be permanently deformed, okay? I'm going to sue. I'm going to
sue!"
There was more arguing, but in the end, everyone realized there was
nothing to do, and they all went their separate ways, some in shock, some
secretly elated.
EPILOGUE: ACCEPTANCE
Dr. Neuman didn't come back. There were reports of him over the years
making brief appearances on other campuses, sometimes under assumed names,
and wreaking similar havoc, but nobody could ever track him down in time,
and in the meantime the 10 members of Dr. Meyer's class accepted that
their changes were permanent.
For some, it was easy. Gina took that basketball scholarship and
eventually became the star whose high-flying, fancy-dunking style took the
WNBA mainstream. Tommy enjoyed the end of a lifetime of "How's the weather
up there?" jokes, and he and Claire planned to marry down the road and
have three beautiful, very acrobatic children.
Ron was bitter at first about not turning back into a straight man -- or a
straight woman, he was never clear on where he ended and Beth began -- but
with help from a therapist, he gradually made his peace with it and moved
out to LA, where he became the life of every party. What had been
borderline bitchy behavior coming from Beth became softer, almost expected
and charming, out of a gay man. Everybody wanted to be his friend.
Contrary to Chuck's suggestion, Dimitri chose not to shave off his long
red hair, or lose the makeup or get new tattoos. The Gender Freaks' maiden
performance became a sensation on YouTube. A record executive explained to
Dimitri and Ashley and Beth (whose personality had integrated with Ron's
better, for some reason that Dr. Meyer could never determine, than hers
had with him) that androgyny was really hot right now and they could make
a lot of money on the trend. Where Dimitri chose to look feminine all the
time on stage (his fans expected it, especially the female ones) and more
than half the time off it, Ashley put some of her record deal money
towards painful electrolysis for everything from the neck down. She kept
the beard, though, figuring it was good for the band's image and she could
wax it whenever it got annoying. Besides, Dimitri never seemed to mind
when they kissed. She even got a few new tattoos.
The night after they learned of Dr. Neuman's disappearance, Chuck and
Valerie slept together, both for comfort and because even this bad news
couldn't curb Valerie's libido. The first time was as painful as
anticipated, but after a few goes, Chuck had to admit that being on the
receiving end of intercourse was pretty nice. While the two didn't stay a
couple, they became good friends and each other's wingman (or woman, or
whatever), bouncing back and forth between male and female partners --
and, from time to time, each other.
Chris and Kelly decided to stay together for good. Whatever factor kept
breaking them up when they were in their original bodies seemed to vanish
in this new configuration. With a shorter haircut and voice lessons to
make her tone deeper, Kelly could pass for a guy full-time, and she found
a career she loved as a high-priced bodyguard to the stars. (Female
clients particularly liked her, since she could kick ass and still give
informed fashion advice.) Chris grew out his hair, and over time all the
estrogen pumping through his body softened his facial features just enough
that he no longer looked like some kind of sex Frankenstein. They got
married a year to the date the experiment had started, the other eight
subjects getting into the spirit as the wedding party, the guys all in
bridesmaids dresses, the girls in tuxedos. Everyone agreed that Chris was
one of the most beautiful and happiest brides they had ever seen.
Dr. Meyer and the university took care of all the bureaucratic and legal
tangles -- having Chris reclassified as a woman, for instance, or proving
that Gina shouldn't be disqualified from competitive sports, since Dr.
Neuman's device didn't fit the definition of a performance- enhancer. She
kept in touch with all 10 of her subjects, for clinical purposes, personal
reasons -- or, in the case of the day she filmed the birth of Kelly and
Chris' first baby, both. She frequently invited her old students back as
guest lecturers -- Valerie telling the story of her first male orgasm was
always a big hit -- and she shared the profits from her books and
documentaries equally among the 10 of them. It seemed only fair.
Nearly a decade later, she got a call from the FBI explaining that they
had seized Dr. Neuman's old equipment, though the good doctor himself had
eluded the authorities once again. The machines were in working order, and
so one by one Dr. Meyer called her test subjects, elated to finally be
able to repair what she had done to them.
To her surprise, most turned her down. Tommy and Gina were a given, but
The Gender Freaks were too big a success for Dimitri, Ashley or Beth (who
was moonlighting from the band as an actress on a new "Star Trek" spin-
off) to consider it; ditto Ron, who had become a high-powered agent and
part of what Hollywood called "The Gay Mafia." Chris said he needed time
to think about it, but called her back a few days later to say he just
didn't have the heart to turn his children's mommy into their daddy and
vice versa.
That left Chuck and Valerie, and Valerie was really only interested
because she felt she owed it to Chuck. They reconvened at Bennett Hall a
week later, Valerie wearing a skirt for the first time Dr. Meyer could
remember.
"I figure the bulge won't be a problem in a few minutes," she explained,
looking not that enthusiastic but duty-bound.
"Cheer up, Val," said Chuck. "Now you'll finally get to experience sex as
a woman, and I have to say it's kinda sweet."
"I know," she said. "I'm just afraid I'm going to turn back into that
virginal little mouse I was 10 years ago."
"Never happen," he promised. "I mean, I haven't been scoring as regularly
as I did when I was packing Big Chuck, but I'm not like a nun, either."
Dr. Meyer turned the camera on to record the final official moments of the
experiment and asked them to strip. As she studied the pretty girl with
the large penis and the handsome man with the vagina, she still marveled
that she had made all this happen -- with some help from a lunatic
scientist she should never have trusted.
But something was different about Chuck, she realized. His skin looked
healthier, his hair seemed fuller. He was -- dare she say it? -- glowing.
"Chuck, before we continue," she asked, "when did you have your last
period?"
He did the mental math -- menstruation being by far his least favorite
thing about the change, and something he tried to pretend didn't exist,
even all these years later -- and finally said, "You know, I'm not sure."
"Uh oh," said Valerie. "Have you slept with any guys lately?"
"Other than you?" he said. "No. Why?"
Then it hit him. "I'm not. I can't be... Oh, fuck me, I'm pregnant!"
"Dr. Meyer warned you about using protection way back when," Valerie said,
trying to seem sympathetic. Inside, though, she was pleased, both because
she would get to stay how she was for another nine months -- if not
permanently -- and because the idea of being a father appealed to her.
Dr. Meyer tried to console Chuck, but she was secretly pleased, too.
"Between Chris and Kelly's kids and this baby, I'm never going to run out
of research material," she thought.
THE END