In early elementary school boys and girls mostly kept apart due to an unspoken rule. In junior high they separated mostly because boys and girls that were close were presumed to be romantically involved. Late elementary was the in between time where girls and boys could still be friends, but romance and adult life started to be acknowledged.
Ranma had nothing against girls, he tried his best to be nice to them without being a doormat. It was just that boys didn’t play with girls and his father was very vocal about reinforcing that belief. Boys should rough-house together.
Ranma’s problem was that he played on a different level from the boys his age. If he wanted a challenge he had to go after much older guys. Cutting loose around the guys his age would generally lead one of them doing something stupid trying to keep up with him. So Ranma tried to limit himself around the other boys so he wouldn’t cause any trouble.
The recent voting results of fourth bustiest in class had changed all of that, and Ranma was willing to give hanging out with the girls a try. Some of them were fun after all and Ranma really didn’t have a problem with girls or think they were stupid.
The girls wanted to meet up later, but now Ranma had to go to the nurse’s office for a talk instead of going to gym. Disappointed about missing out on gym, the confused boy was hoping to get some sort of answer from the nurse at least.
Ranma refused an escort to the nurse by the teacher so she could explain the reason for his visit. Her sympathy actually grated on his nerves a bit, causing Ranma to salvage some of his pride by doing it himself.
None of that made walking into the nurse’s office any easier.
The nurse was a forty-something woman with children herself and quite used to the job, greeting Ranma with a warm smile. He was memorable and often visited for the free treatments, mostly for injuries received during training. “Ranma-kun? What brings you here today?”
Looking around the room briefly, Ranma confirmed they were reasonably private first. “Well, I’m a boy, but I seem to have boobs like a girl.”
Taking a glance at his chest, the nurse realized it had been month since she’d last seen him and it did look to be true. “Okay, shall we go behind the curtain over there and do a little exam?”
Ranma nodded, walking over to the indicated bed and remaining standing. The nurse followed, closing the privacy curtain around them incase another student entered her office. “Could you remove some of your clothing so I could have a look?”
It was an open ended question, allowing Ranma to choose how much to take off. It was late summer, so all he was wearing to school were shorts and a shirt. Pulling the shirt off overhead and tossing it on the bed, Ranma slipped off his shorts as well and kicked them up to his hand before tossing them atop his shirt. Clad in only his under-shorts and socks, Ranma waited with his hands on his hips for her observation.
The nurse eyed him with a critical eye, long used to seeing kids in various stages of early puberty from physical exams. Ranma had a figure that was slender and girlish, slightly wide hips even for a girl his age and clearly budding breasts. If it wasn’t a glimpse of something swaying against the fabric of his undershorts she would have pronounced Ranma was a girl short of a full check.
It wasn’t odd for development to get a bit off, for a boy or girl to wonder if they were developing oddly, but Ranma was clearly far more along the path of female development than was normal for a boy. “It seems that way, as if you’re experiencing a girl’s puberty instead of a boy’s. Have you felt odd lately, perhaps taken some strange medicines?”
Ranma self-consciously touched his nipples, swollen and a bit red atop his pert little mounds. “Uhm, well these have been kinda extra sore. It’s kinda worried me.”
Taking a closer look at his chest, the nurse realized this problem might ease his concerns a bit. “Ah, jogger’s nipple. Your shirt has been rubbing you raw because those points stick up. It’s common for girls and boys that run a lot, a tight fitting undershirt or a sports bra will prevent it, or even a bit of tape.”
Reaching into her kit, the nurse cut two pieces of medical tape for the athletic boy, getting a bit of salve as well. “Here, this will help for now.”
Ranma tried not to squirm as the salve was applied and his patience was rewarded once the tape was applied as that instantly prevented any further irritation.
Satisfied to have made some progress, the nurse went back to her original question since this one wasn’t related. “So, have you remembered anything else strange that happened?”
This was obviously a difficult question for Ranma since he was aware that there was a lot of stuff that was different in his life. His father was often coming up with hare-brained schemes for training and trying various short-cuts. Wait, didn’t that strange medicine do something to his manhood that one time? “Ah, pops made me take a whole bottle of this weird medicine that was expired. For a week I had two Mr. Elephants instead of one... err, well, two trunks actually.”
She hadn’t expected something so clear, so the nurse was surprised despite how outlandish it sounded. “Really?”
Ranma nodded, eager now that he’d thought of a reason. “I’ve still got the bottle if you want to see.”
The nurse nodded her head, curious to see if there would be anything to it. If nothing else she could perhaps set Ranma to ease a little bit.
Putting his clothes back on, Ranma headed back to the classroom since the bottle was in his schoolbag. It was a neat place to store stuff so it wouldn’t get wet and ruined, like candy and paper. Grabbing the bottle, he hustled back the nurse’s office.
Opening the glass bottle up, he reached inside and pulled out the label. As it had been Chinese style medicine, the label had simply been placed inside the bottle. Ranma had since reversed it so he could draw his own label on the formerly blank backside.
Taking the label, the nurse realized he at least wasn’t making it up. “When did you take this medicine?”
Ranma frowned in thought. “Last year, after spring break.”
The nurse realized that placed it long enough in the past that the stuff had run its course already. “Well, be careful about taking any more strange medicine. Since it was so long ago, I doubt it will suddenly wear off. Most likely you will continue to develop like a girl.”
That was not news he wanted to hear, but Ranma had already considered the possibility. “There’s nothing else to do?”
The nurse gave him a smile. “Oh, I can take some samples and send them in for testing, so we can have a better idea why you’re different. Mhmm, I think a little urine sample should do for now.”
Looking at the clear cup she got out, Ranma was more doubtful than worried about peeing. “...and what will that tell us?”
The nurse continued to smile, thinking of how to explain it. “Your kidneys and liver filter stuff out of your body and then get rid of it in your urine, which is why it changes color. Too much protein for instance will cause the excess to be flushed out and make your urine cloudy. Medicines and the hormones that cause puberty to happen also get flushed out that way, so we can quickly test to see what’s making your body grow this way.”
Ranma absorbed that for a second, already being somewhat familiar with the idea that the visible differences had some meaning. He supposed the medicine and stuff weren’t visible. “Oh, okay.”
After having a copy made of his medicine label and leaving a urine sample, Ranma was back on his way in time to join the class for the rest of gym.
Now was a good a time as any to get to know the girls.
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(Posted Fri, 13 Sep 2013 07:50)
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