Hannah Buckworth crossed her arms and gave a resounding "Wow" at the wonder of what she was privy to-- her first high school party. A throng of beautiful girls surrounded her in the crowded house- dancing, gyrating to the beat of the catchy hip hop song playing loud enough to wake the dead, laughing, joking, flicking their hair back. Some were even in the middle of passionate embraces with their partners. Many of these couples had previously been best friends, either as guys or two heterosexual girls, but now that everyone on the planet was a gay woman, those labels and barriers seemed rather irrelevant. It wasn't exactly Free Love, but people were more now open with their sexuality than Hannah had noticed before the Great Change. Hannah looked down at her own girlfriend, the bespectacled Cat Thorfinnson.
"I- I love it, Cat. I-"
Hannah wiped a tear from her face and combed her sandy blonde hair nervously, her hand shaking.
"I'm sorry for being such a bitch for all our lives" Cat apologized meekly. "I never realized that all it would take for us to be friends was a world changing cataclysm and the extinction of males."
Hannah laughed. "Your vocabulary has certainly improved since the Change. But I-I just can't believe that I finally get to see what it's like to be popular."
Cat grabbed Hannah's hand, despite being much shorter and smaller.
"You just needed a boost of confidence. Shall we dance, my lady?" she asked hopefully.
"Only if you lead" replied the much taller girl.
Cat led Hannah into the horde of beautiful feminine grace, and both got lost in the music and the moment.
**
"It's clobbering time!" heard Larry Buckworth before he felt the fury of Josh Thorfinnson's fist break his nose and two front teeth. Larry was so small and weak, and Josh so big and strong, that he literally could not save himself if he tried.
He saw the white of Josh's knuckles with traces of his own blood on them before he felt a crushing blow like a wrecking ball to his stomach. He fell over, worrying to death whether or not he had ruptured an important organ.
"That's for talking to my girlfriend you little nerdy bitch!" screamed Josh with a frightening fury. His eyes were full of hate, his labored breathing full of the exertion of someone who really wanted someone dead, and face as red as a tomato. As brutish as he was, however, he was not stupid. He calmed down and ran off before anyone could see what he had done. He banked on Larry being too terrified to snitch on him to the teachers or his parents. After all, Josh had been bullying Larry and treating him as his own personal punching bag ever since the third grade, and the little pipsqueak hadn't squealed yet.
**
Ten minutes later, Larry's pain had finally calmed down enough for him to attempt to get up from the ground. His striped shirt was full of sweat and covered in splotches of blood from his broken nose and missing teeth.
He had it. He finally had had enough. Larry was going to kill Josh. He didn't know how he was going to do it. He didn't have any connections to buy a gun from somebody- and neither of his parents owned one. He didn't have the strength to wield a baseball bat. He was too clumsy and awkward anyway.
Larry continued to stumble around the hidden field of grass a short distance from the high school he attended, his head still pounding, his eyes still seeing stars. He could barely walk, but he knew where Josh lived. It was a short ways away- less than four blocks. He wasn't going to put up with Josh anymore.
Larry stumbled, the only thing keeping him from falling the determination of somebody mad for vengeance.
**
Another ten minutes later, Josh heard a knock on his door. He looked out the window and saw Larry's shambling body as the source of the noise.
"Come back for more?" he said, startling Larry as he looked up. Josh laughed mockingly.
"I'm going to kill you, Josh!"
"Take your best shot!"
Then The Great Change happened.