Since people are posting the fics they wrote for the 1 hour challenge, here's mine. Slightly edited from that version, but not by a lot. Thy Outward Role by Ken Arromdee Ranma had never expected she'd be going to a better school than Akane. But one athletic scholarship made all the difference; they rarely existed in Japan, but for someone who could break five ton rocks and jump dozens of feet at once, getting one was a lot easier than she had expected. The daily fights had pretty much ended with Ranma's entry to college a couple of weeks ago, though she had been sure to practice martial arts every day. Unfortunately for Ranma, one thing hadn't ended. Shampoo's rival Gel, wanting to destroy her happiness, had stolen the Chiisuiton and locked Shampoo's "husband" in her female form, then destroyed the only cure forever. Ranma had never seen Shampoo come so close to killing someone for real before, but no matter how much Gel was punished, there would be no way back to being a man for Ranma. "Hi" said the person behind her in the lunch line. Ranma shuddered a bit. Nine times out of ten, when someone did that an offer of a date would follow a few minutes later. Then she'd have to explain the entire curse story. The guys would never believe it, but they'd get the message. Wait a minute, thought Ranma. She looked closely at the person... it wasn't a guy. It was a girl. Judging from her books she was taking classes in her sophomore year. "Hi" said Ranma back. "I've heard all about you, or your strange story, anyway" said the girl. She was tall and had short blonde hair. Very tomboyish. "I'm Ten'oh Haruka" she said. "Welcome to the school." "I'm Ranma. My strange story? Oh, eh, you mean the curse... It's just something I tell people so they know I'm not interested. There's no such thing as magic. It's not real! Yeah, it's not real...." "Nice to meet you, Ranma." "You too, I guess." "Is something wrong?" "Oh, no, nothing at all." Haruka leaned over to Ranma's left ear and whispered "You don't like guys at all. You're attracted to girls, right?" Ranma began to feel embarrassed. "And all that curse story is true" continued Haruka. "How'd you figure that out?" said Ranma. "Well, first of all I can tell you're not an average girl just from your expressions, the way you react. Second, I once found a package of instant Jyusenkyou mix in an antique store last summer and I know it's all real...." "You got me", said Ranma. "It's real. It's a relief even saying it. I can't just go around talking about curses, but every time a guy looks at my chest or tries to get too friendly, I get this sinking feeling. It's... well, you wouldn't know, anyway." "Try me." Haruka stared at Ranma's chest. Ranma growled. She gripped a banister, leaving fingerprints in the solid metal. "I told you I hate it when a guy looks at..." She didn't finish the sentence. "I'm not a guy, Ranma. I'm a lesbian." "Lesbian?" "A dyke." "Oh." "I would know. Ranma, you don't like when guys get interested in you. You can always say no, right?" "Yes, but I keep imagining that some day I'm going to not say no and then me and some Kunou wannabe will do something that really grosses me out thinking about it." Haruka laughed. "But you don't want to. Why would you think you would someday?" "Because I'm a girl now and I can't be a guy again, and girls... do that." "Ranma", said Haruka. "Let me tell you a story." "We're standing on line. Do I have a choice?" replied Ranma. Nevertheless, she didn't turn away, and did try to pay attention. Ranma hated to admit it to herself even now--especially now, since Akane was gone--but she did like tomboys. "It was a year and a half ago" said Haruka. "I caught my girlfriend in bed with a singer, one of the Three Lights. We'd been going out for almost two years, and I was really depressed after we broke up. So here I was, without anyone." "I know the feeling." "Wait, don't interrupt. So anyway, I met a guy when racing. I bet you don't know it but I'm pretty well known among racing fans. This guy was named Taro. He had lost to me, but good. And later on when I'm working on my car he came up to me. So we started a conversation. I told him a lot about me. Some things I couldn't say... if you get to know me really well I might let you in on them, Ranma... but there was a lot I did say. "And I told him that I had lost my girlfriend. He looked disappointed, and I think you can figure out why. Well, he was all sympathetic. He told me that he understood. That he could sympathize, and you know, I think he really did. It wasn't just a set of lines. "We did become pretty good friends, and then of course he told me he really wished we'd be more than just friends." "And then?" asked Ranma. "To make a long story short, Ranma, he was kind, sympathetic, had respect for my abilities, wanted to learn with me, and all that. If I told you that eventually we ended up in bed, you wouldn't believe me, would you?" "No", said Ranma. "I wouldn't." "Good. That wasn't what happened. It took months, months of him being sweet enough and intelligent enough and persistent enough that if Taro weren't a guy, we might have gotten closer." "But you didn't", said Ranma. "I didn't. And neither would you. Because you may be a girl now, but like me, you're a dyke. And you can't turn a dyke into a straight woman by being nice and respectful and buying her dinner and being interested in her hobbies and trying to act like a perfect gentleman. Ranma, there are lesbians who try to like men. Some of them even get married, and then one day they wake up and realize they've been fooling themselves for years." "Uh-huh..." "And Ranma, those are women who are trying as hard as they can to like men. And they can't. Is there really any chance that it's going to happen to you?"