At first, as he stepped out into the natatorium and gazed at the pool, Drake suddenly felt very self conscious as he realised that he was a thirty six year old man in junior school, attending gym class and wearing a girl's swimsuit. Sure that somebody was going to see this at any moment, he froze, but then Cecilia grabbed his hand and told him, "Come on!" as she kicked off her foam sandals and dropped her towel on one of the several benches that ran along the walls.
"Everyone believes that I am a young woman," Drake thought as he took his own beach towel and dropped it on the same bench and then kicked off his own sandals.
Following Cecilia toward the pool, ignoring the snide comments Diana was making, Drake thought about how he didn't want to be female, let along a young woman, but at the same time, how he felt that there had been something missing in his life. "Can I really do this?" he asked himself as he followed Cecilia into the waters and shivering as the cold water immediately soaked through, he asked himself, "Is becoming a female, whether it be young or old, really a way to answer the question of what is missing in my life?"
Unsure how to answer this, Drake began to do laps across the pool, keeping pace with Cecilia, keeping a steady dialogue with her whenever they reached the shallow end. After about forty minutes, Ms Donaldson blew a whistle and told them, "Out the pool ladies," and following Cecilia over the bench, Drake realised that he still didn't have an answer to his question of what he should do.
Heading into the locker room, not even thinking about what he was doing as he slipped his feet into the sandals and wrapped the beach towel around his torso, just below his armpits, Drake headed for the locker where he had stored his stuff and collecting two other Ziploc bags, these filled with an assortment of feminine hygiene supplies, he headed for one of the shower stalls, happy that it wasn't an open room like what he remembered. Shucking off his bathing suit, which he quickly rung out and hung on a hook, he flipped on the shower and began to wash himself. As he did so, he found himself asking himself, mentally, the question, "Should I become a young woman, despite my hesitation? Or should I find a way to reverse what is happening before the change finishes itself."
Lathering up a loofah sponges with a scented body wash, Drake continued to think about what he should do, but stopped after a couple moments when he realised that something about his body felt off. Looking down, slowly rubbing the loofah from top to bottom, he stared at his body, trying to figure out what could be different. After a couple seconds, he realised that, in addition to his normal set of nipples, he had four extra.
As he touched the two on the right side of his torso and then the two on his left, Drake noted that there was no areola surrounding them, that they stuck straight out, looked like four, small pink pimples and that that the last two stopped just a couple inches above where his ribs ended. Quickly washing off the lather, realising that the reason it felt so weird to be touching his torso was because of how sensitive his nipple suddenly felt, Drake tried to remember if had read anywhere about woman having six nipples instead of two.
Remembering an article he had read about some people being born with a third nipple, he thought after a moment that it didn't really apply and what he was seeing was something different. Finishing, he towelled himself off and then, wrapping the towel around his torso, he exited the shower stall, going back to get the Ziploc bags, his swimsuit and shower supplies when he realised that he almost forgotten them.
Stuffing the various items in the appropriate bag, he headed toward his locker, noting as he approached that Cecilia was already standing before her locker, a towel wrapped around her torso. As she pulled on a pair of underwear without removing the towel, Drake decided to follow her example and leaving his towel wrapped around his body, he began to dress. As he did so he thought about asking Cecilia, who was pulling on a pair of jeans, if it was normal to have four extra nipples. But the question was driven out of his mind as she dropped her towel onto the long bench in front of the lockers, exposing her naked flesh from the waist up. As he turned away and began to hastily pull clothes from his own locker, she began to pull on a bra, covering her small breasts.
Still wanting to ask, Drake suddenly found himself unsure how to form the question as a slew of feelings about Cecilia overtook him. Telling himself, "Your a thirty six year old man and she's a thirteen year old girl and it wouldn't be right," he pulled his backpack from the locker and finished dressing, thinking, "Besides. You have a more important question you should be answering for yourself," as he touched the pocket that held Zulo's Necklace.
"See you at lunch," Cecilia told him as somewhere a bell rung, and realising that if he didn't hurry, that he would be late for his next class, Drake muttered, "Yup," as repacked the Ziploc bags back into his backpack.
Dressed again, Drake hurried down the hall, knowing that his next class was English and as he pushed past several people, he once again asked himself, "Should I let the transformation continue or should I find a way to transform myself back?" and taking a seat in the back of the classroom, he pulled out a notebook and a mechanical pencil.
In front of the class, as the final bell before classes rang, the professor began to take attendance and when he called, "Tess," Drake absently raised his hand without thinking about, idly doodling on a piece a paper.
Barely paying attention to what was going on around him, taking notes without really seeing what he was writing, just knowing that it was important, Drake began to weigh the different sides of switching sex and gender with each other. When the bell rang signalling the end of period two, Drake packed up his stuff and immediately headed for the nearest restroom.
Slipping into the girl's lavatory, he made sure that it was empty and dropping his pack onto the floor, he stood before one of mirror, staring at his thirty six year old reflection. After a couple minutes, in which he noted that nothing about his appearance had changed, Drake lifted up shirt and stared at the front of his torso, taking in all he could about his four new nipples. After a moment, his eyes drifted up to his two normal nipples and for a moment, he thought that something appeared off. And then he had it as he realised that it was actually a number of things, including that his chest hair was gone, the areolas around his regular nipples appeared to be slightly more pronounced and that if he didn't know any better, he had the beginnings of a pair of breasts forming.
An understanding that what he was looking at was the start of a double AA cup came to him and unsure how he knew this, he dropped his shirt. Reaching for his backpack, Drake pulled the amulet out and holding it up, as the second bell rang, he asked his reflection, "Stay the course and become a teenage girl or return to being a guy?"
Switching the medallion from one hand to the other, Drake eventually thought, "Three months. That's your time limit. Six months and then you become a guy again," and settling on ten months, he put Zulo's Necklace back into his backpack and glancing back into the mirror, he took a deep breath and muttered, "In the name of science and curiosity, you are going to learn what it is that is missing in your life and perhaps learn something about yourself and the opposite sex and gender," and picking up his backpack, Drake hurried out of the bathroom, realising that if he didn't hurry, he was going to be late for math.