[Ranma][Fanfic] Girl Days, part nine

[Rob]

Girl Days

A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction

by Robert Haynie

(And it's silly disclaimer thing goes here time again!)

Part Nine: Back to School

####

School starts tomorrow.

For Ranma Saotome those three words were more filled with horror
than the entire body of the works of Lovecraft, King, and Barker
combined. Her first day of attending school as a girl under the Girl
Days training was something she was NOT looking forward to.

It wasn't so much school as such, really, but rather the
reactions of her classmates. That was likely to be chaotic. She
wasn't sure which she was looking forward to the least-- the
reactions of the boys or those of the girls.

Right now she was so nervous she could hardly even concentrate on
the sundae in front of her. Which, for Ranma, was a sure sign of
trouble.

Akane looked at her fiance-- or was that fiancee at the moment?--
and sighed. "Ranma, it'll be all right. Just relax."

"Sure it will. The moment I hit that locker room I'm a dead man.
Woman. Whatever."

"I've been talking with Yuka and Sayuri, they're going to help.
Besides, there's not much way around it..."

"I'd love to find a way..."

"Konnichiwa, Akane-chan!" a female voice chimed. Akane looked
up, and smiled. "Here they are now, Ranma..."

Yuka and Sayuri took seats next to the two girls. And started to
carefully scrutinize Ranma. "Wow, you really are wearing a dress,"
Yuka said.

"I know. I know."

"Those earrings are really nice, Ranma," added Sayuri.

"Um, thanks..."

"I like the ponytail. You look so kawaii with that style, and
that blue bow," noted Yuka.

"Kawaii isn't my favorite word right now," Ranma groused,
thinking back to her bout with her period. And was very very happy
that it was over for now...

"Where did you buy those shoes? I want a pair like--"

"Sayuri, Yuka, we're supposed to be working on the introduction
of Ranma into school society, remember?"

The two nodded. "We've been checking out the wind, so to speak.
Actually, most of the girls we talked to after that fight aren't
really worried about Ranma, even in the locker room. They figure
that if she can wear an outfit like the one she did in public, she's
got to be a lot more feminine than they thought," said Yuka.

Sayuri nodded. "Besides, I think a couple of them want to splash
her with something hot to get a peek at HIS body. I don't think they
know that that's not going to work..."

Ranma blinked. "What-- a girl wouldn't do that, would she?"

Akane groaned. To her personal disgust, she knew of a couple of
girls who would cheerfully do just that. "Ranma... not all perverts
are boys..." (Just like not all boys are perverts), she mused.

"Anyhow," continued Sayuri, "There's a bit of expectation that
maybe Ranma will join one of the girls teams this term. Rhythmic
Gymnastics and Karate are the two that people are betting most on,
although someone wondered if she'd go for the girl's Kendo team..."

"Yeah, right. Can you see me waving a bokken around that don't
have Kuno on the other end?"

The other's giggled a bit at that. "I don't know," added Akane,
"Maybe you can also get a nifty nickname and learn some
speechmaking?"

"You have no idea how much that would encourage Kuno, do you?"

"Ranma Saotome, the Red Tigress of Furinkan High!" giggled
Sayuri. Yuka paused, and added, "No, that kendo gear would hide
Ranma-chan's figure too much..."

"You guys ain't helping any..."

"I wish I had the nerve to wear an outfit like that one from your
fight, Ranma-chan," added Sayuri. "You looked so cool in it..."

"Why does every girl in Nerima suddenly want to dress like me?"
wondered Ranma.

"Well, you DID look cool, Ranma," Yuka said. "Besides, it's kind
of we wish we had your nerve... I'd die if anyone saw me wear that,
but... I'd kind of like to try to, once."

Ranma shook her head. Even if she WAS one at the moment, she
would NEVER understand girls. What was so special about her
leathers?

Then she really thought about how she looked in them. And
blushed so furiously she looked a lot like a female apple.

"Um... those are just for fighting, you know? And they help keep
the opponent off balance..."

"Oooh, he was off balance all right! Did you see the way he was
staring at your--"

"Sayuri! Honestly!" Akane protested.

"Well, he WAS," interjected Yuka. "Almost every boy there was.
I don't think they could help it."

"Almost every boy?" Sayuri noted, quizzically.

"Well, some were looking at her rear more... those shorts are
pretty tight, after all, and there's not a lot to them, and..."

Ranma buried her head in her hands and groaned. This was like
listening to a female version of Daisuke and Hiroshi.

Akane, for once, was thinking VERY seriously about beating the
hell out of her friends, instead of Ranma. She restrained herself
with an effort, and said, "I don't suppose we can get back to the
matter at hand, could we?"

And plans were made...

####

"I HATE this uniform."

Somehow Ranma looked like a totally different girl when in the
Furinkan blouse and jumper combo. An overly ordinary schoolgirl. A,
at the moment, very very pissed ordinary schoolgirl.

She adjusted the straps on her jumper, checked her hair-bow, and
sighed. At least it fit. She tugged at the bloomers she was wearing
under the skirt-- needful if she was going to go to school in her
accustomed manner-- to adjust them, and grabbed her bookbag.

After a quick breakfast, she and Akane passed by the pandafied
Genma (who had once again discovered that his daughter was dangerous
in the mornings) and skipped to the top of the fence. Ranma walked
on with her usual confidence, Akane following after a little wobbly
but proudly.

Akane was, in fact, improving a lot under Ranma's tutelage. And
it tended to be an education.

Ranma had indeed begun with what SHE considered the basics. How
to fall. Akane had thought she knew how to fall-- that was, after
all, the first lesson in nearly any martial art.

Ranma, she discovered, meant how to fall off a roof. The
Saotome-ryu was, after all, a midair art-- and Ranma meant Akane to
start hitting the midair.

Jumping was also weird. Ranma would say strange and hard to
understand things about focusing chi and jumping with the heart, not
the legs, and it never made any sense-- if she thought about it.

But-- if she didn't think about it-- she could now jump eight
feet straight up. Nothing like Ranma could-- yet-- but her sensei
said that she would soon enough. Ranma said that she'd be
roofhopping and the like with the best of them.

Akane wasn't sure she liked that part. Would she find herself
getting as weird as the major players? Did she really WANT to get to
the levels that Ranma was teaching her?

For all she knew Ranma would start her on some really weird
training next. Something scary. Something... that would make her
like Ranma.

She had a vision of herself in Ranma's Chinese clothes again,
fighting off multiple fiances, while a bandanna wearing girl was
attacking her with a pink parasol and screaming about ruining her
happiness.

NOT fun.

Ash, they were close to the school now... she could stop thinking
about that sort of thing. She hoped she could, anyhow.

And there he was-- they hadn't dodged him after all. Nerima's
number one poster child for the terminally deluded. Tatewaki Kuno.

Who was, at the moment, not noticing them.

Instead, he was suspiciously examining many many inanimate
objects, trying to determine if the Sorcerer Saotome was inside one
of them.

Kuno's firm conviction that Tsubasa was actually Ranma had begin
to take on new levels of lunacy. Anything-- ANYTHING-- could be the
hated foe. There were threats from furniture, street signs,
machines-- the demon could be anything!

Ranma and Akane passed by Kuno, who was at the moment poking an
innocent fire hydrant with his bokken, and went to the one place
Ranma never really expected to go-- willingly, that was. The GIRLS
locker room.

Sayuri and Yuka were waiting for them along with a couple of
girls who wanted to actually see a female Ranma enter. Ranma began
to feel very very nervous. Understandably.

She skinned off the bloomers and slipped on more comfortable
underwear without lifting her skirt. It was, to her... disturbing.
The new girls stared at the fact that Ranma was actually going to
wear panties. That, if nothing else, suggested that the Girl Days
thing was the truth and not just some plot to start peeping.

Then again, if Akane was okay with it, it HAD to be true. The
concept of Akane helping a boy-- ANY boy-- to indulge in perverse
practices was, well, inconceivable.

It didn't make them completely trustful-- but it did suggest that
things weren't as bad as they might have feared.

As Ranma and Akane left the locker room, gossip began...

####

"Nihao, Ranma!"

(Oh, joy. Shampoo. And it's not even lunchtime, and... and...
what the HELL?)

Shampoo stood there, in a Furinkan uniform, her hair trimmed with
wide red bows instead of the usual Amazon ornaments. "Shampoo go to
school! Hibachan say if Ranma go, and Akane go, and Ukyo go, then
why not Shampoo go?"

"She did, did she?" Akane said, evenly.

"She say Shampoo have accent. Not understand, no use MSG at
Nekohanten, but if Hibachan say so..."

"I see." Akane supposed that might be PART of the reason, but
she was pretty darn certain that Cologne was also still planning to
entrap Ranma. And anyhow, with Shampoo in class she could keep an
eye on her. Then again, half the population of the school was
already keeping an eye on her.

Shampoo had altered her skirt to the shortest anyone could get
away with, and her jumper fit just a little too snugly for proper
school attire. And there wasn't a single boy in class that hadn't
noticed it.

"Whoa-- first Ranma and now this girl!"

"Man, she's a fox!"

"Damn, but she talks cute!"

"Look at those legs!"

"I wonder if she's a aquatransexual also?"

Many many boys suddenly turned green. THAT would make perfect
sense.

"I know her," said Daisuke. "She's Shampoo. Trust me, might not
be a good idea to bother her."

"They won't listen, Dai," noted Hiroshi. "After all, if we
didn't know about her, would we listen?"

"Good point. Wonder how Ranma's feeling right now? He's got to
be in pain..."

"Naw, I talked to HER yesterday, and she says she's adapting.
Even likes it a little bit at times."

"Hmm....."

"But she's not going to go out with you, Dai. "

"You are no fun."

"Not when I'm thinking about keeping my arms and legs attached to
me, I'm not... Hey, there's proof there. I think that guy's about to
try to pat Ranma's--"

Sudden screams of pain erupted from nearby.

"Whoa, that was intense."

"You got it, Hiroshi... wonder where Ranma got the mallet?"

"I ain't gonna ask her. Let's get to class."

####

Hinako-sensei stared at her seating chart, then at Ranma, then at
her seating chart, then at Ranma, then... her 'lil kawaii head was
beginning to hurt.

"You're CERTAIN this isn't something delinquent, Ranma?"

"No, Sensei. It's part of special training to face my femininity
with masculine determination."

Hinako looked uncertain. But so far, Ranma hadn't done anything
wrong-- except inasmuch as being in class in female form in a girl's
uniform while sitting properly at her desk was wrong. Akane sat to
one side of her, keeping an eye on certain new students who were
eyeing her fiance speculatively-- especially the one with purple
hair.

Ukyo-kun sighed. Her hopes to eventually enchant Ranma with her
true devotion were even more complicated by Shampoo's sudden
attendance at Furinkan. And there was going to be the usual problems
with new female students hitting on what they thought was an
exceedingly handsome boy. Well, that was nothing new...

Ranma toyed with her ponytail and sensed that something would
happen soon. Something bad, something dangerous, and most certainly
something stupid.

And Ranma froze as she checked out her course mix for the term.
Something stupid already happened...

Because she had the course mix for female students. Home
economics. Literature. Family... she really didn't like this at
all.

"Well, if that's the, ah, case, Ranma, I suppose-- you look very
uncomfortable. Do you need to go to the nurses' office?"

"No, Sensei."

Hinako paused for a moment, and then added, "Well, would you go
for me while I take roll? She's got these yummy lollipops in and I
really really really want one... Please, Ranma, don't bang your head
on your desk like that. You could break it and it's not ladylike..."

####

Home Economics. Cooking, cleaning, sewing, washing, keeping a
household budget. Except for the budget part, Ranma already knew how
to do it all. Except for the cooking part, Akane was decent at these
things also.

It was Akane's fourth term straight in Home Ec. Not because she
had to-- she'd done well enough on the rest of the course to pass the
previous times-- but because of sheer bloodymindedness. She was
going to learn to cook SOMETHING besides a salad or a sandwich.

Of course, this term her partner was Ranma. Her past partners
had just smiled and gulped when she went to cooking. Ranma, who had
to live with the results, had a different agenda. As in, MAKE her
learn better.

"That's baking soda, not flour."

"Oh?"

"That's sesame oil, not corn oil."

"Is there a difference?"

"Oh, yes. No, not peppers. You don't put hot peppers in tempura
batter..."

"But they look so colorful?"

"Arrgh."

"Let me guess, you really really want to insult me, don't you?"
A slight sigh.

"You have no idea... look, just match the ingredients to the
recipe, exactly."

"Oh-- you mean that's important? I sort of thought it was more
of a suggestion..."

(She can't possibly be serious-- oh, yes she can. This is gonna
be a LONG term.)

Akane got,for once, a passing 70 on her tempura. Ranma got a 90
on hers, and would have had a 95, but Akane had passed her the salt
when she'd asked for sugar...

####

"This boring."

"It's also all your fault."

"For once I agree with Ranma. You don't call the teacher a
idiotic male waste in class, you know."

"And did you have to drag the rest of us into the argument? I
mean, honestly, who cares if there were no female emperor's in
Japanese History anyway?"

"Should have been. Why hold buckets anyway?"

"Ranchan, you explain it this time..."

And Ranma tried to explain bucket duty to Shampoo while Akane and
Ukyo fumed.

####

"The square root of seven? Tokugawa Ieyeisu? Admiral Perry?
The Brady Bunch? A dead frog?"

"**sigh** No, Miss Saotome."

"Shampoo think Brady Bunch close?"

A teacher groaned. Like many others.

####

Lunchtime. Sweet release for a short while.

Ranma sat under a tree, sighed, and smoothed her skirt. She then
opened her new lunch bento (wrapped in what was becoming her
signature motif-- a large hurosiki (kerchief) decorated with horses)
and sighed in satisfaction. Nodoka, deciding to be a good mother had
beaten Akane to making lunch that day.

She looked up to see with some surprise Yuka and Sayuri standing
there. "Mind if we eat with you, Ranma?" asked Sayuri.

"Um, no, not at all... although you usually eat with Akane,
right?"

"Well, we saw you alone, and besides, Akane's with Ukyo trying to
explain a few things to Shampoo about school. We were half expecting
you to be with Daisuke and Hiroshi, but..."

"They don't feel... comfortable with it. Boys usually hang with
boys, and girls with girls, and they aren't certain which I am right
now. (And sometimes I'm not either.) Besides, it looks wrong kinda
since girls usually only eat with a boy if they're interested in
them... which I ain't."

The other two nodded. "Oh, what a cute hurosiki! You like
horses, Ranma-chan?" Yuka enthused.

"I AM a horse, remember?"

Sayuri giggled. "She got you there. Like the socks, too. Guess
horses are your trademark now, Ranma? That and leather shorts."

"I told you, that's only for fights--"

"Just kidding. Hmm... not very kawaii a filling, though..."

"Huh?"

Yuka nodded. "You mom may be teaching you how to be a female,
but she don't know much about being a girl. You should have a cuter
lunch, really. And the bento box itself is kind of plain..."

"Well, I'm a tomboy after all," Ranma joked. "More concerned
with the quantity and quality of the food than the looks of it.
Which reminds me--" and she began to eat in the peculiar high speed
but ladylike fashion she'd now mastered.

"Why do you eat so fast, Ranma? I've always wondered," asked
Yuka.

Ranma paused. "Well, I kinda had to fight Pop for meals most of
my life, if you don't eat fast around him you don't get a lot of
food. So it's a habit."

Sayuri gasped. "You had to fight your father for food?"

"Well, he called it training. Of course, he called every stupid
thing he ever did training. That or an understandable error. Pop's
got a unique value system."

"I... see."

Ranma ate some more. "Hey, gotta say it's not been as bad as I
thought it was going to be. Guess the iron test comes when gym class
starts..."

"Oh, that reminds me, I have some notes people gave me to give
you," said Sayuri.

"Notes?" Usually the only notes she got were from Ukyo, Akane,
Daisuke or Hiroshi. These didn't look like any of those-- and
certainly not though Sayuri as a go-between.

"Hai. People know that we're supposed to be helping you. So,
are they personal?"

"Not really. Two from girls warning me to behave myself. Two
from girls asking me why I'm doing this horrible thing-- I think
they're interested in my guy form. One from a guy asking-- hmm.
Have to pound the jerk later."

"That was Enzo."

"Good, want to make certain I pound the right guy."

"Why pound him?" asked Yuka.

Ranma passed the note to the girl, who read it and began to grow
rather pink. "That... that pervert! How can he ask you to take
notes on the locker room so he can figure out where to bore a hole?"

"Guy OR girl, I'd never do that. I just wish I knew why this
idiot thought I would. Anyhow, in feminine solidarity or something
like that I guess I'll have to pound him."

"Pound who, Ranma?" said Akane as she walked up.

A note was explained. For a moment Akane started to get angry at
her usual target-- i.e. Ranma-- but realized that she'd never do
that. Besides, it was obvious that Sayuri and Yuka were busy
suggesting the best places for Ranma to pound the errant Enzo--
Sayuri suggesting geography, and Yuka body parts. And Ranma was
nodding and taking notes.

"Ranma, it's your first day at school as a girl, and you
shouldn't have to stress yourself so soon after-- you know. So I'll
pound him. I have long experience with pounding perverts, anyhow."

"Naw-- he's not only insulted every girl in school AND been a
real perv with this, but he's also personally insulted me by thinking
I'd ever do anything like that. Or that I'm stupid enough not to
realize he'd be peeping on me also... so it's a matter of personal
honor. Anyway, I'm finished with lunch so I'll just go talk to him
about this note..."

A short while later a terrified Enzo was fleeing a rapidly
closing Ranma. Hinako started towards the pair, coin in hand,
muttering "delinquents" under her breath when Akane stopped and
explained Ranma's actions. Hinako's eyes widened. And then she
shocked most of the student body by yelling, uncharacteristically,
"Go GET that little weasel, Ranma! You can come late to class if you
need the time!"

After all, she might have been a chi-draining age-shfiting energy
vampire-- but she was a girl too.

####

Class resumed. Ranma was slightly mussed from the chase. Enzo
had a black eye. Most of the girls had learned through the grapevine
of Enzo's plan and were redefining glare. Well, those that weren't
looking at Ranma with new respect.

That new respect was manifested as Ranma went, with considerable
nervousness, to change for gym-- expecting scorn, or mistrust, or hot
water, or screams, or anything than what she received.

"Oh, Hi, Ranma-chan."

"Hey, thanks for that thing with Enzo. I knew he was a pervert,
but to ask a girl to do that... disgusting."

"Which clubs are you joining this term, Ranma?"

Acceptance?

They were undressing without staring at her? Without killing
glares? Without whispers of "pervert" or "freak"?

They were actually treating her like another girl? What the HELL
was going on?!?

And Akane grinned and said, "Congratulations, Ranma-chan. You're
in."

Ranma started to change-- a lot more apparently nervous than the
girls around her-- and shook her head. Sometimes life was just too
weird.

####

Softball. Oh, she remembered softball very well from her early
days at Furinkan. As in one delivered at high speed into her face
once.

But she'd never thought she'd be playing it with a pack of other
girls. With Shampoo on the other team pitching. Life was weird.

As she swung the bat she realized that Shampoo didn't QUITE
understand the game yet. The volley of at least a dozen balls flying
towards her said that. Once again, Shampoo had approached a normal
Japanese pastime with a unique Amazon slant.

What was to become the first Anything Goes Martial Arts Softball
game began.

Ranma stared for a second at the barrage of ovoids, and then
said-- very quickly-- "Tenshin Amaguriken Revised-- Chestnut Roasting
batting technique!" Her bat became a flurry of motion.

Her team gawked-- and so did the other-- as the various balls
went flying in all directions. The umpire shrugged, and said, "Well,
none were fouls..."

As the outfield scrambled to try to catch way too many softballs,
Ranma began to run the bases. Then she started to dodge the many
attempt to tag her out.

Hiroshi and Daisuke were, as their wont was, watching the girl in
their tight-fitting bloomers playing. This time, instead of casually
leering and commenting on how cute this or that one was, they were
laughing hysterically as Ranma leaped, ducked, and basically wove a
complex path from base to base, avoiding the many attempts to tag
her. Being Ranma, it was a home run-- but not the simple one that
most had expected.

A little later, the teams switched. Akane was pitching. As
Shampoo came up to bat, the Amazon grimaced at the unfamiliar tool.

"Strike one!"

Shampoo growled. Akane smirked.

"Strike Two!"

Shampoo FUMED. Akane smirked LOTS.

As Akane threw her third pitch, Shampoo snorted, tossed the bat
away, produced one of her bonbori, and swung--

CLANG!

The umpire paused. Then she reached for her rulebook, to see if
there was any rules about how to call a softball half-embedded in the
business end of a bonbori. "Um... Srtike Two and a half?"

As both Shampoo and Akane blushed in chagrin, Ranma keeled over
laughing. Since most of the other girls did the same, she was spared
Akane's anger.

"Shampoo just have to learn bat, guess. Try again?" the Amazon
said, picking the bat up.

This time Shampoo connected. The ball sailed straight-- of
course-- for Ranma.

As she prepared to catch it-- easy pop fly, easy out--

"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!!"

(Aw... CRAP. Why NOW?)

"THIS time, witch, you WILL tell me where my Ranma-sama has
goog."

Ranma blinked. Goog? Where she'd goog?

And turned around to see the leotard wearing Kodachi standing
with a mouth full of softball.

As the Black Rose fumed at this most preposterous of
humiliations, a heated argument began between the two team captains.
Ranma's captain insisted that the ball had been caught on a pop-fly,
so Shampoo was out. Shampoo's captain insisted that Kodachi wasn't
on the team, wasn't in the game, and wasn't even in the school, so
the ball was live. The umpire was beating her head against a tree
and saying something about moving to Australia.

Then Shampoo started yelling at Kodachi for getting in the way of
the game.

Akane started yelling at Shampoo about her aim.

Kodachi tried to yell but her mouth was occupied. By a softball.

Ukyo passed by and started yelling that she wanted to know just
what in hell was going on here.

Kuno appeared, yelling on general principles.

Gosunkugi didn't yell, but he did start taking snapshots of
Akane.

Various other girls started yelling because, well, everyone else
was and they didn't want to feel left out.

The only one not yelling was Ranma.

She was just staring. And feeling frustrated.

So she walked up to the tree, gently moved the umpire to one
side, and punched it to let off a little steam.

The tree screamed in agony.

Everyone froze. And then Kuno screamed, "SAOTOME!"

Yelling degraded to brawling.

Kuno chased the tree-- and yes, it WAS Tsubasa-- around the
softball diamond.

Ukyo joined Kuno.

Shampoo started to chase Ukyo on general principles, yelling that
she wanted to know what was going on.

Akane fumed in the middle of the diamond.

Kodachi tried to remove the softball without success.

Ranma just stared, feeling very much that at any moment Rod
Serling would come out to explain something. Although she doubted
that the American would be very good at it.

Tsubasa-tree, in his mad dash, stepped on Gosunkugi's foot. Said
voodoo-priest wannabe yelped in pain and anger, and somehow managed
to pull four lit candles and a hatamaki out of his pocket, tie them
on, and started chasing the tree with a small mallet and a straw doll
with the obvious intent of pounding it in.

By now, everyone who wasn't chasing the tree was yelling at it,
with the exception of Ranma, who was in a state of mild shock, and
Akane, who was in a state of extreme fury. She HATED being angry
when she wasn't sure who to be angry at.

Kodachi, only noticing that the main focus of exertion seemed to
be a rapidly moving tree, continued to try to remove the softball
with one hand while whipping out her ribbon with the other and using
it to grab any convenient object.

The convenient object was Gosunkugi. She launched the spooky boy
at the tree-- and Gosunkugi, scared out of his wits, landed in the
branches. He slipped, and desperately tried to hang on with his
knees. He actually succeeded.

Then he saw his opportunity. He raised his hammer, positioned
the nail, readied the doll...

WHAMP!

"YYYYEEEOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!"

And a pink-frocked Tsubasa shot straight out of the top of the
tree like a cork out of a champagne bottle, rubbing his butt the
whole way.

Four boys raised signs, reading 10, 10, 10, and 6.5 (He was the
Rumanian judge).

Tex Avery passed by, and nodded, saying "Good hang time on that
girl."

Kuno stared, and then embraced Gosunkugi, saying that as lowly as
he was, his noble blow against the sorcerer suggested that the pale
lad had potential after all.

Gosunkugi was glowing over his victory over what he knew to be a
dryad.

Kodachi tried to say something but was still eating leather.

Shampoo stared in dull amazement.

Ukyo, laughing, gave Gosunkugi a peck on the cheek and a coupon
for a week's free okonomiyaki.

Akane went off to find some bricks to break. And Ranma...

Just sat and started shaking in helpless laughter.

####

"How was school, dear?"

"Not so bad, Mom. I can handle a month of this."

"Um... I'm afraid I have bad news. The school principal called--
he said that if you started the term as a girl, you'll have to finish
it as one... and something about pineapples."

"The principal's a Kuno, Mom, and he makes this stuff up."

"Ranma, you will have to respect authority, so we have no-- a
Kuno?"

"Yup."

"Anything like that Tatewaki boy?"

Ranma explained Principal Kuno.

"Ah. Never mind, then. You won't have to unless it's a Girl
Day. Oh, and during gym. I'm afraid that the schedule can't be
changed... I know that's hard on you, but..."

"Actually, Mom... it might not be..."

####

end part nine