The last class Dawn had for the day was History. Of course, getting there was an experience in itself. Slithering through the halls, she kept expecting some kind of reaction, but no one gave her a second look. People just milled around, on their way to their own last class, and ignored the fact that Daryn was now a snake, and a girl.
Slithering still felt very strange. Dawn was amazed that she could do it at all. She still fell every so often, when she tried to think about it, or tried to walk, but as long as she wasn't thinking about it directly, it seemed like her body would pretty much take care getting itself from point A to B. Aside from some odd looks the time she stumbled, no one paid any attention, except to occasionally politely step over the fifteen feet of tail trailing behind her.
One major side effect Dawn noticed, was the height. While it was hard to tell for sure, her body (well, the human part) seemed about the same size as it had been when she was Daryn. But it was much more of an effort keeping herself upright, and so her waist tended to be a bit closer to the floor. So even though she wasn't any "shorter" (and in fact was quite a bit longer, if you counted the tail) she found herself having to look up at people a lot more. Oh sure, she could lift herself up when she put her mind to it. Dawn even figured that if she had to, she could probably raise herself to be taller than she was before. But when she wasn't making a special effort, she tended to fall back into the path of least resistance, which in this case, meant that she was about a foot shorter than she was used to.
Finally, she made her way to History class. She stopped in surprise when she saw her friend Tony at the door, waiting for her. An hour or two ago, when she had still been a boy, Daryn and Tony were close friends, and while Tony wasn't quite as brave about getting into mischief as Daryn, the two were still frequently inseparable. Dawn wondered briefly how Tony would react, but like everyone else, he didn't even seem to notice. He just gave a big wave, and said "Dawn! I wanted to catch you before class! Did you have time to do the assigned reading? I slept through my studyhall and didn't get anything done, and was hoping you could give me the cliff-note version."
Dawn was taken aback. This was not a reaction she had expected. "Um. No. I was, um. Distracted."
Crestfallen, Tony sighed. "Oh well. Hopefully there won't be a pop quiz on it today. Hey, if Professor Sammons assigns any more reading tonight, want to come over to my place tonight and muck through it together?"
Still a little bit in shock from the whole day, Dawn did nothing but nod. An irritable "hrumph" from the professor signaled that he was getting ready to begin class, and cut off any further chance for conversation. Everyone started filing in and finding their seats. Dawn had a moment of panic. There didn't seem to be an open seat where she remembered sitting, and she found herself wondering how she would manage at a desk and chair, for that matter. It didn't seem like she was really built for it any more. Mr. Sammons, the teacher, finally gave an exaggerated sigh, and said "Dawn Thomas, would you please take your place, so we can get started?"
Dawn was about to protest that she couldn't find her seat, before realizing that he had nodded towards a corner of the room, which she now realized had several cushions and a low writing desk. Apparently she was no longer expected to sit in chairs. "Probably just as well", she mused. She still couldn't figure out how she'd use one if she had to. Instead, she curled herself up on the cushions into a little mount of black and red snake coils, put her notebook on the desk, and got ready for the lecture to start.
History class was boring. There was no pop quiz, but there was lots of droning lecture. Dawn hoped that the class would somehow tell her something about her new predicament. She kept hoping that he'd branch off into something like "...and that's when mythic beings such as Dawn here, showed up", or "... now class, let's talk about the Gregorians, and their so-called Bestiaries, or 'books of magic beasts'" but no matter how much she hoped, Professor Sammons steadfastly refused to talk about anything other than the socioeconomic ramifications of the industrial revolution.
At least she recognized the pattern. When Professor Sammons got like this, he would generally lecture until the end of the period, and not ask for any real participation from the students. He'd just sort of drone on about whatever the next lesson was right up until it was time to go, and then usually assign some reading as everyone was getting up to file out the door. This meant that she could fairly safely let her mind wander, and not worry about being called on. So Dawn started thinking about the rest of her day, and trying to decide how to go about getting things back to normal.
The problem was, she decided, that she didn't really have a lot of leads. She'd fallen back into her routine at school because there wasn't really anything obvious to do instead. Sure, she could run (slither, she reminded herself. No running any more) through the library frantically searching for the book that seemed to trigger this, but she had searched as much as she could, and in all the places she could think of, and it didn't seem to be there. Heck, even the records no longer made any real mention of it. It seemed to have vanished entirely, along with Dawn's previous life as Daryn. No one remembered it at all.
She shivered a little at that thought. Was that it? Was it just ... gone? Was there nothing else to be done except get used to the idea of spending the rest of her life sliding around on her belly, while everyone else continued to think that this was normal? Her fingers drummed idly on part of her coiled tail. It felt both natural and unfamiliar at the same time. It was so strange how the world had apparently changed to make it as though she had always been a snake girl. Things rearranged. Cushions instead of chairs in class. A satchel instead of a backpack. At least it seemed to have left her personal life intact, Dawn thought with some relief. She still lived at the same place, and she still had the same friends, such as Tony...
Her fingers stopped, mid-drum. Tony. What was her relationship with Tony now? Before they had been best friends, but before, he hadn't been female. Were they still just friends, or ... How much "adjusting" had been done to her life to make the "new Dawn" fit? She'd want to be cautious, she realized, until she had a chance to figure out how Tony saw her now. "Of course, this would have been nice to figure out BEFORE I agreed to go over to his place tonight" she thought with a groan. She thought about calling it off, but without knowing more about their relationship, she wasn't sure how he would take that. And, Dawn realized, she really needed a friend right now.
Dawn was shaken from her reverie by everyone starting to get up and pack away their books. Class was over, apparently. Tony waved from his desk, and shouted "My place, at 7:00!" before darting out the door, leaving Dawn to her thoughts.