The next day in class, Liam noticed that Tommy awfully quiet. Mr. Jeremy was giving another lecture about the T-People and other T-subjects. Liam also noticed that Christin was using leggings that day and not the habitual loose slacks she typically used to hide her lower body.
Mr. Jeremy showed the class a slide with a diagram of a human eye.
“Yesterday Christin said that people affected by the T-gene could see in the dark. Well, that’s half true. The eyes of T-People are more sensitive, with the eye sensitivity and density of a mature T-Woman reaching a level ten to fifteen times greater than ours. To them, moonlight can give just as much light information as sunlight. T-Girls are also able to see colors that we can’t as a result of their tetra-chromatic vision. Their brains receive an additional color channel, near the ultraviolet spectrum. Apples have an additional color for T-Girls. Unfortunately, it is impossible to represent what T-Girls actually see as we are unable to see such color. And while the visual acuity of T-Men is better than ours, it is not nearly close to what a T-Girl’s vision can do.”
Liam noticed Pris drawing three apples with her multicolored pen: one green, the other red and making an integration point on the third. He idly wondered if the new T-color had a name.
“Optically, T-Girls eyes are virtually the same as ours. But their fovea develops much differently. Their cone cells are smaller, more compact, and more efficient, too. This same manifestation happens with other senses as well. At the present rate that T-Girls have demonstrated, a fully developed mature T-Woman would have a sense of smell equivalent to a Basset hound. They would be able to differentiate each person’s unique scent, their invisible fingerprint. Not only this, but it would be pretty hard to fool an Amazon, as such senses could actually smell fear, anxiety, possibly even sadness. It all goes undetected by us: the fight or flight hormone, adrenaline, all the body chemicals that quickly reach the skin surface. But they can read it. A mature T-girl could read all your emotions with a single sniff of your neck.”
While most male students were still daydreaming about the chances of becoming the next T-beefcake, Liam knew already the hard truth - that from that moment on, they all belonged to Pris, Christin, Marion and Summer.
Maybe more T-Girls are on their way; maybe it is an epidemic, Liam thought. Strange - all four of the girls currently affected have a history with Tommy.
Marion was another girl that watched Mr. Jeremy’s lectures with profound interest. Liam remembered the mixed school social-tournament. Tommy had been paired with Marion for the week. She was already taller than him even at that time. She walked like a clumsy big goose, so every activity with them was funny to watch. While Marion was blissfully oblivious that the whole school rooting for them as a joke, Tommy was acutely aware of the situation. On one fateful afternoon, he exploded at Marion. And to this day they never talked or even looked at each other again.
Liam watched Marion smile at something that Christin said to her. Suddenly Marion yelped as she felt a sharp pain in her mouth. She held her hands over her mouth, like she as trying to keep her teeth from falling out.
“Anything wrong, Marion?” Mr. Jeremy asked.
“My braces!”
Marion dropped her hands and opened her mouth, revealing wires all out of place and spiking over her gums. Marion had to speak slowly.
“It just snapped! Exploded… they’re like everywhere in my mouth!”
Liam and Tommy eyed each other as Marion quickly made her way to the infirmary.
“Do you need any more evidence?” Liam texted Tommy.
“Why her? Of all the girls in this hellhole, why Marion?” Tommy wrote back.
Mr. Jeremy continued his lecture, showing the class two microscopic images of brain cells. One appeared more crowded than the other.
“Here we can see the major difference in a T-Female brain. Like the fovea and cone cells - and other sensory neurons, as well - their brains develop more density with age, making them heavier and several times more rigid. This image is from an Amazon after three years of T-development. If the rate of growth shown here had continued for a few more years this T-woman would have accumulated a number of neurons closer to that of an elephant rather than a normal human being. Unfortunately, she died in a plane crash. Her body was one of the few things intact on the ground but the head injuries were fatal, even for a T-Girl. Pretty much everything we know about the anatomy of T-Girls comes from her… to this day, she is the only known T-Girl to have died.”
Mr. Jeremy faced the class. He could see that the excess of information was causing them to phase out.
“Okay, class, any questions?”
Christin raised her arm.
"How would someone know if it is happening to them? Is there any kind of test?”
“Well, no. Some hormonal tests might tell us something in the future. But for now... well, most T-Women notice some symptoms in the first weeks. After all, fever and stomach pains are hard to ignore.”
Christin disagreed, as usual.
“No, that’s not true. Girls learn to ignore fevers and stomach pains all the time. I just had one today… but there is nothing happening to me.”
“She does not know,” Liam whispered into Tommy's ear, covering his mouth to hide it from the principal. “How can she not notice the ten pounds she lost? That’s not normal …”
“She might be a bulimic, like Summer,” Tommy said. “Christin’s breasts didn’t even change size. They look even bigger than they already were. Now how is that possible?”
Mr. Jeremy interrupted Liam and Tommy.
“Do you boys back there have any questions?”
Liam quickly raised his hand.
“Tommy wants to know how T-Females can be so strong, so muscular.”
“What the fuck, dude …” Tommy mumbled to Liam, noticing Pris holding back her laughter.
Mr. Jeremy directed the answer at Tommy.
“Well, we will have another talk later and it will be all about T-Female strength and growth, Tommy. It is indeed a fascinating matter. We will talk thoroughly not only about their impressive muscularity and power, but their extraordinary agility, reflexes, speed, and capacity to adapt."
Mr. Jeremy sighed and hesitated before continuing.
"And other more sensitive topics like sexual behavior.”
“How can sex be any different?” Pris asked.
"It is not, actually. It is more about the behavioral changes of T-Females, found both in animals and humans."
"Fascinating," Pris said skeptically.