Twenty minutes later, Kyle still hadn't turned up. The transformed pair spent the time talking about what they would try with him, and discussing the curse. They both found that at various times they suddenly became literally unable to mention anything at all about it, and realised that this happened whenever anyone else came close enough to overhear. Eventually it was only a few minutes to class, and despite the changes to his body, Rich still felt he had to go. The two of them hopped down the corridor to Jennifer's locker and received a surprise; next to it was a second large locker with a paw scanner just like hers. It had Rich's name on it, which was a little odd since his locker had originally been some distance away. Shrugging his armless shoulders, he moved in front of it and placed his right paw on the scanner, which obligingly opened the door to him.
Pulling the door open wider, he peered inside. All his stuff was there, as it had been yesterday for Jennifer, but like her experience, everything was altered to allow a kangaroo-taur hybrid to use it. She showed him how to pick up the required books and put them into his pouch, which was another unpleasant reminder of his condition. Looking down, he was barely able to see past his ridiculous breasts to the book-handles protruding from his built-in pocket, and shook his head once more. His large ears flapped at the motion and he winced.
Jennifer noticed that he had a couple of the special halter-tops hanging in his locker. "Rich, look. We should put those on if we can. They'll help with our breasts and stop them hurting when they bounce."
Rich stared at the items of clothing, then at her. "Wear a bra? But won't everyone think..." She shook her head.
"It's not really a bra, and anyway you'll have to get used to it. Everyone thinks you've always been half kangaroo and had huge breasts. No one will care what you're wearing, really." Rich sighed and nodded, defeated. He reached in with his forelegs and managed to pick up one of the hangers, which contained a dark blue halter. With some effort he was able to remove the hanger with his teeth and get both forelegs into the neck of the top, holding it as far up and out as he could. Jennifer bent over with her tail out behind her as a counterbalance, and pushed her head and torso into the opening at the bottom. When her ears protruded through the neck hole, Rich let go, then hooked his stubby claws into the bottom of the material and managed to pull it down over her chest. It took a little squirming to get it pulled over her breasts properly, with her long nipples through the holes, but he finally managed.
Once it was on, she returned the favour with the other halter, an off-white one. He felt even stranger when it was on, the sensations of his nipples dragging across the inside and then popping through the holes had made him feel things he wasn't sure about. Poking the underside of his massive mammaries with his forepaws, he got everything settled, then pushed his locker shut. Hopping off to class he had to admit that the bouncing and wobbling of his huge chest was much less of a problem than before, although still extremely noticeable and unwanted.
Jennifer had English that period, while Rich was due in Mathematics, so they said their goodbyes to each other and hopped off down the appropriate corridors, following the last stragglers to class. Rich found, as Jennifer had the previous day, that the classroom had been altered to make room for his new body, and resignedly took his place behind the special desk. Halfway through the lesson, the teacher was called to the door by someone from administration, and had a short conversation in hushed tones. Looking rather shocked, he came back in and stood at the front of the room.
"Class, your attention please. I'm afraid I have some bad news. You probably all know Kyle Perkins..." He was interrupted by a snort from the back of the room.
"Little dweeb", said John Roberts, who was leaning back in his chair and looking pleased with himself about the comment.
"Mr. Roberts, that was uncalled for. You may see me after class for details of your detention", said the teacher dangerously. John looked upset, while most of the rest of the class laughed slightly. Not many people like John much, having been the butt of his practical jokes once too often. Even Rich, who agreed with the sentiment, found John's predicament funny. The math teacher continued after a short pause. "As I was saying, you probably all know Kyle, and I'm sorry to announce that he has been involved in an accident. Last night, on the way home after school, his moped was involved in a traffic accident. He was not wearing a helmet and was apparently critically injured. The air ambulance was called and flew him to hospital, where he is in a coma in intensive care. I'm afraid the prognosis isn't very encouraging at the moment."
Most of the class looked shocked, Rich more than any of them. The only person who might be able to allow him to be restored, and the idiot had to go and nearly get himself killed. 'Nearly' might, by the sound of it, turn into 'actually' at any moment. Now what was he going to do?
After a pause, the teacher said, "The principal will be informed if Kyle's condition changes, and will let everyone know. I'm sure you will all join me in wishing Kyle and his family good luck." A couple of the girls were almost in tears, and the teacher remained silent for a while. Eventually, class was resumed in a somewhat subdued fashion. When it ended, Rich quickly left to find Jennifer for the next class, Geography, which they shared. He needed to talk about what this meant to them.
They managed to have a short whispered conversation during Geography class, which rather conveniently had them sitting next to each other. Eventually, they realised that there wasn't anything that either of them could do until or unless Kyle recovered. There was simply no way to even talk about the curse in front of anyone else, and no way that either could think of to restore themselves except the curse itself. Even then, only Rich might have a chance, Jennifer was probably stuck for life. If Kyle died Rich was screwed as well.
The rest of the day passed slowly. Rich found that several of his pre-kangaroo friends seemed to no longer be friends, although a number of Jennifers girlfriends apparently liked him as well, considering him to be a long-time acquaintance. Becky had seen them outside the lunchroom, standing together, and had squeezed between them with an arm around each narrow waist. Rich had jumped a little at the feeling of her hand on his furry hip, which once more brought home the extent of his transformation. When she accidentally stepped on his tail, that made him fell even stranger. She apologised, and hugged him briefly.
The last period of the day, PE class, was weird. Obviously, being half kangaroo like they were, neither was going to be playing basketball for example. 'Pity', thought Rich when he realised this. 'I bet I could jump higher than anyone else now.' He almost smiled at this, then looked down at his forelegs and paws. 'Not that I could hold a ball, of course.'
It turned out that they were both still expected to participate in the track exercises, which not surprisingly they were faster at than any normal human, and swimming. Both were rather worried at this last, but discovered that kangaroos could actually swim quite well, and so could they, using their tails for propulsion. When Rich climbed out of the pool at the end of the class (a ramp had appeared at the shallow end, apparently just for their benefit), he hopped toward the shower room, but stopped almost immediately. Becky, who was nearby, saw the odd expression on his face and asked what was wrong.
"My pouch is full of water", he replied, looking down at himself and holding his breasts apart so he could see the thing. Sure enough, his lower belly bulged strangely, and wobbled when he bounced on his hind legs. Becky laughed, and said "You look like that's never happend to you before! Just bend over and tip it out like you always do." He stared at her in disbelief, then shrugged. The curse had certainly changed things if she accepted the situation like that. Bending forward into his hop-walk position, he placed one foreleg on the floor to steady himself and hooked his pouch open with the other. A gallon or so of pool water gushed out, along with some loose fur and a pen. Becky grabbed it and said, "I've been looking for that. You said you gave it back."
Shaking his head, Rich straightened up and hopped into the boys shower, realising as he did that perhaps now he should use the girls one. After all, he was technically female where it counted, although he still felt and considered himself to be male, huge breasts and genitalia notwithstanding. However, none of the boys in the showers seemed to notice or care. A few greeted him as he entered, and he nodded to them. There was one shower cubicle that was twice the size of the others, and he headed towards it after a brief pause. Sure enough, it had been modified for a kangaroo-taur, with large paw-friendly faucet handles, a suitable soap dispenser integrated into ths shower, and a sort of industrial hair-dryer arrangement since obviously he wasn't going to be able to utilize a towel.
After school, Jennifer and Rich met up and after some discussion, hopped back to Rich's house to discuss what the next step was, with Kyle out of the picture for the foreseeable future.