The changes take hold, but has anyone noticed?

Day Six I

Today was the day. Today was The Day. The Day when Larry and I passed from just being “The Johnson Twins” to being high school legends… Until somebody else throws a better party, that is. But we had at least a good while before that would happen, we'd be fine.

I hopped out of bed and took a good long look at myself in the mirror, for whatever reason. I dunno. I looked like I'd just gotten out of bed, what with my raggy blonde hair and one nightie strap having slid down my shoulder, nearly pulling the front of my nightie down with it. I quickly pulled it back up and knew exactly what I needed to do.

And that was take a damn shower. I reeked. I thought I took a shower last night after cheer practice and before the movie. I guess making out with Grant was a little more exertion than I thought it had been. Or maybe it had been my… Playtime just before going to bed. Either way, I needed a shower and this was the perfect opportunity to use the new body wash I got earlier that week. If I ever needed a reason to smell like flowers, it would be the party.

After a long, hot, soothing shower, I wrapped my towel around my chest and had a brain fart for a few seconds where I thought my boobs were bigger. That was a stupid thing to think, since they'd settled into their current size for like six months now. Then again, I guess it wasn't impossible that I was going through a little bit of a growth spurt. Either way, I was wrong, because once I got in my room, my bra fit just as it always had.

I decided on a simple white shirt that exposed my stomach but covered everything above it. Then I slid a pair of denim short shorts up my legs. Last but not least was a pair of flip flops, the same ones I'd worn last night. Next, I tied my hair into a loose ponytail that brushed my shoulders whenever I turned my head. For a second, I thought about changing to a sleeveless top, but decided against it.

There was a knock on my door, and Larry was standing there leaning against my door frame. "Hey, we've still got like three hours before people start showing up. What are you getting all ready for?”

I glared at him. “Were you standing there the whole time I was getting dressed?”

He shook his head. “No, but you really should close your damn door when you do that, because I almost walked in on you naked.”

I rolled my eyes. “So, what are you complaining about me getting dressed for?”

He motioned at his own state of dress, which was a pair of pajama pants and no shirt. “We’ve got hours to get dressed. I don’t get why girls need to do that so far ahead of time.”

I sighed. “Yeah, because you’re not a girl, doofus.”

“You have a point, but you could at least explain it.”

“We like to be ready.”

“Three hours beforehand?”

“I’d be ready twelve hours beforehand if I could.”

He shook his head. “Girls are weird.”

I smirked. “Not as weird as boys.”

Later…

As it turned out, I was the only one ready our party guests when they started showing up. Wheeler and Kelsey were the first to arrive. I was almost surprised that he brought his little sister along, but then I realized he’d probably been told to babysit her while their folks were out for the weekend. Kelsey was a good kid, though, not like I’d been when Larry and I were growing up. I was a wild child through and through.

Less than twenty minutes later, the house was full. We didn’t have an outrageously large house, but I didn’t think we’d fill it up that quickly. There was barely enough room to get to the door whenever new people would show up, and I was pretty sure at least every member of the football team that wasn’t my brother managed to accidentally (or purposefully) grab my boobs or my ass.

(Actually, now that I think about it, Larry might have also done it but his was definitely by accident.)

The place was so loud that I almost couldn’t hear the music. Larry had Charlie hook up a nice set of speakers for the music, and it had been loud enough that I hadn’t really been able to hear the people. There was so much noise I could barely hear myself think. If this was how most parties went, I’d be happy if this was our only one. It’d probably take Larry and I all day on Sunday to clean it all up.

I took a sip of spiked fruit punch and couldn’t even taste the beer. I wondered if Larry hadn’t put in the right amount. I was hoping to at least have a nice buzz going by the time the party got into full swing. If I knew where he’d stashed it, I’d pour some more in. If I could find him in this sea of people, I’d tell him about it. Maybe I’d just try and chug the whole bowl. I remembered a time that I was over at Wheeler’s place and tried to do that once.

I just barely heard the doorbell ringing over the crowd of people. Larry was too busy making out with Chrissie on the couch, with a couple other people making out on the couch beside them. That meant it was once again my turn to get the door. One of these days, I’d havta find a way to get him to own up to his responsibilities. He got away with a lot at school because he was the star quarterback, but that wouldn’t work with me.

Luckily, by the time I got to the door (and about seventeen separate instances of third degree fondling and one instance of a hand that was not my own trying to push its way into my shirt), I realized it was better that I answered the door. My heart nearly burst out of my chest as Grant stood there, a smile on his face and fashionably wearing a polo shirt and gym shorts.

“Hey there, handsome,” I said, adding as much flirt to my voice as I could. “You look lonely out there.”

He smirked. “Oh, I’m plenty lonely, gorgeous. Wanna let me inside where there’s plenty of space?”

I laughed. “Yeah, plenty.” I glanced over my shoulder at the mass of people. “Either way, get your ass in here and put your arms around your girlfriend.”

He grabbed me by the waist and pulled me close. “I’ll havta find her, first.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Oh, wanna do some exploring?”

“So long as you’re only saying this because you’re not drunk. I don’t wanna take advantage.”

I nearly broke out laughing. “Please, there’s more fruit punch in the bowl than beer right now. Larry must have saved most of it for after the party.”

“I think he offhandedly mentioned yesterday that he and Chrissie were going to go up to his bedroom and have a few before bed.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ugh, naturally. Would you do that with a girl?”

He kissed me on the nose. “I would never get you drunk if you didn’t want to.”

“I mean the whole drunk sex thing.”

“Oh, no. I’d rather remember having sex with a pretty girl.”

I kissed him on the lips. “Good boy.”

“Did you… Y’know…”

I shook my head. “No. That is a very big decision and as much as I’d love it if you were the first boy I’d have sex with, I’d rather wait until we were actually ready.”

“Second date?”

“Maybe third. Just to make sure.”

He kissed me again. “You got it, Ashe.”

“Until then, you’d damn well better hold me close and make sure yours are the only hands fondling me.”

“Have other guys been fondling you?”

“Hopefully on accident, but there have been incidents.”

He backed me into the house and shut the door behind us. “Let’s just deal with that by sticking to the wall and going around. I think we can probably kiss all the way from here to the kitchen by doing that, what about you?”

I smirked. “We can damn sure try.”

Later…

It wasn’t all that difficult to make out from one side of the house to the other by sticking to the wall. I was pretty sure Grant’s weren’t the only hands on my ass, but his were the only hands trying to get inside my shirt with very little in the way of resistance. I didn’t want sex just yet, but I didn’t have any problems with being touched.

By the time we made it to the kitchen, I was actually more than a little surprised with how nobody else had decided to use it as a make out spot. It wasn’t like the kitchen was locked or anything, all we really had was a swinging door that didn’t even latch. Granted, it meant that our little session of intimacy would probably be interrupted many times now that we had come back here, but that was no big deal, really.

I hopped up on the counter all the while our mouths were still tightly pressed against each other, his tongue entwined with mine. I couldn’t tell what it was that made this so… Different. I’d made out with boyfriends more than once, to the point that I had a bit of a reputation that I wasn’t sure I enjoyed. According to Larry, my cell number was scratched over at least four urinals at school with “For a good time call” above it.

But making out with Grant just felt so new, so fantastic, like it was my first time all over again. I couldn’t even figure out why, because Grant and I had been friends for so long that people thought we were dating in elementary school. Out of all of Larry’s teammates and friends, Grant and I had always been close. The fact that it took us until now to officially start dating was kinda crazy, really.

But I didn’t mind this feeling. I loved this feeling. It made me feel like a little girl having her first kiss again. I didn’t know if that meant anything, really. Maybe it just meant that Grant was The One, the guy I was destined to spend the rest of my life with. Kind of a stupid notion so early in life, really. My high school life alone had been filled with so many boyfriends that I could barely remember. I was pretty sure I’d dated most of the athletes from middle school onward, and they’d only ever been just that: boyfriends.

Grant, though… Grant felt like a lover.

Everything about being with him felt so romantic that I was pretty sure it had all been written down in one of those cheap romance novels that Chrissie liked to read. But I didn’t care, I didn’t care at all. Nothing. Not. One. Thing. Could ruin this moment.

Naturally, I was wrong.

Grant’s phone rang, ruining the moment for the both of us. He pulled away and sighed, then reached into his pocket and took the call. “Yeah? Oh, shit... Yeah, Coach, we’ll be there. Wait, how did you know…? Yeah, that makes sense.”

“What?” I asked.

He hung up the phone. “I forgot there was a game tonight. And Coach heard about the party from Tim Hyun. He never could keep his mouth shut about this kind of stuff.”

The door to the kitchen burst open and Larry, in the process of buttoning his shirt up, came in nearly exhausted. “So, I dunno about you guys, but I forgot we had a game tonight and Coach heard about the party from Tim.” He glanced back and forth at the two of us. “Were you two…”

I rolled my eyes. “Kissing, that’s all.”

He smirked. “Yeah, I’m sure. You may wanna put your top back on, sis.”

I looked down and saw that he was very right about that. Despite wearing a bra and both guys in the room knowing what I looked like wearing a bra, I felt the need to cover up, so I did, with my arms. Larry just left the room laughing his ass off and then shooing people out of the house.

I looked over at Grant. “Did you do that?”

He shook his head. “No, but I havta say, I did not mind.”

I felt myself smile. “Did you… Y’know… Cop a feel?”

He smiled. “Yeah, but so did you.”

Later…

I was starting to feel the effects of that punch by the time I got on the field in my uniform. The boys were all lined up, Coach berating them for forgetting about the game. Honestly, I don’t know as I’d forgotten the game, but I didn’t remember it being in the middle of the afternoon.

Either way, the rest of the cheer squad and I were ready to get started once we were called out. I shook my pom-pom in my face for a second to try and clear the cobwebs out of my head. Something seemed… Off about this. I couldn’t really tell what, though. Like I said, what little alcohol I managed to squeeze out of that punch was probably starting to get to me.

Chrissie was next to me, adjusting her top. “Gawd, I can’t wait until this is over with. I wanna get home and get into something a little more comfortable.”

I rolled my eyes. “By a little more comfortable, are you talking Larry’s bedroom?”

She looked both shocked and amused. “Hey! Is it my fault your brother is a cutie pie?”

Kristie on the other side of her laughed. “Please, babe, you almost let him do it right there in the middle of the party.”

I acted prissy. “At least I went into the kitchen with Grant.”

Amber, to the other side of me from Chrissie, patted me on the shoulder. “Yeah, but I popped in there to grab a soda and almost tripped all over you two.”

I hadn’t noticed that at all, but I also hadn’t noticed when my shirt came off in that whole ordeal, so it honestly wasn’t a surprise. It was more of a surprise that Amber was even there, because I thought she wasn’t gonna come. “Yeah, we were kinda… Yeah.”

“Were you actually gonna… You know?” Helena asked.

I blushed. “Uh, no! I’m not ready for sex right now.”

“Yeah, but you and Grant are so cute together!” Kristie almost screamed.

“Still, I wanna take it really slow with Grant. He’s… He’s so special to me, I don’t just wanna jump into bed with him as soon as possible.”

Amber nodded. “That’s the smart thing to do.” She smirked. “I mean, you two have been dating for so long that his balls must be ridiculously blue by now.”

I smacked her in the back of the head. “Hey! We’ve only been dating for two days!”

Helen looked like she was about to lose it. “Yeah, officially, but you had to notice that Grant hasn’t dated anybody else since freshman year. He’s probably been waiting for the best time to ask you out.”

I had to admit that I hadn’t noticed that. Had he really been waiting this whole time just to find the perfect way to ask me out? I sorta felt like a bitch for never seeing that. “Really?” I asked.

Kristie looked shocked. “No way, you didn’t see it? Girl, he picked you as the model for that comic he’s been drawing.”

“I knew that!” I folded my arms under my breasts. “After we decided on the story, he went around asking girls if he could use them for her design.”

Chrissie shook her head. “No, he didn’t. He didn’t ask anybody.”

I blinked.

“He didn’t actually want me to tell you this, but… You were the only girl he ever considered using for the comic. At first, he said it was because you were writing it, so he wanted to make it sort of like a… Um… Tribute? I guess?”

“I think the word you’re looking for is homage.”

“Turn off the writer brain for a second, Flashy,” she said with a smirk, “the point is that you were the only girl he ever wanted to draw. The boy loves you.” She giggled. “You’re almost living a real life romance novel.”

The rest of the squad just made an Oooooooooooooooooooooh noise that just made me feel even more embarrassed than I had been when I realized my top was off when I was alone with Grant. I almost wanted to hide, but I knew it was all good-natured. The squad was my best friends, they obviously cared that I find a guy I could fall for.

”And now, geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet ready for the beautiful Trumbull High cheerleading squad!”

I sighed. We’d spent the entire warm-up period just talking about my love life. “Alright, girls,” I said, “let’s get out there and get everybody excited.for the best game of the season. The guys will kick ass this week, and it’ll be because we got ‘em there!”

Day Six II

The game ran over by about twenty minutes, but once all was said and done, our team beat the other guys 23 to 3. It was such a complete change from last week that I almost wondered if the guys had been replaced by a different team while we weren’t looking. You’d never think our team would be able to do that with a slight buzz.

After we changed out of our uniforms, we waited for the guys in the hallway outside the locker room. I realized then that all of us were dating football players. I’d never noticed that before, but we were. It was weird, in a way, but cheerleaders dating jocks was kind of a stereotype. Not that I saw the guys as jocks, or at least not the way the trope usually goes. Unlike on TV, none of the guys were dickhead bullies or that kind of thing.

I wondered if I should write an asshole bully into the comic. He could just start off as a minor character and become more important later on. Hopefully Grant wouldn’t mind, but I’d ask him first. Maybe he’d have some ideas for that sort of thing.

When the team finally came out of the locker room, joking and laughing about something or another, Grant’s eyes lit up right as he saw me. “Hey, Ashe,” he said as he put his arms around me, “you and the rest of the squad were great before the game.”

I blushed. “Thanks. You guys kicked ass out there today.”

He smirked. “Anything to see you out there in that little skirt.”

I rolled my eyes. “Hey, now, you get to see me in a little skirt whenever you damn well want.”

Chrissie, clutching Larry’s arm like she was holding on for dear life, just whistled. “You two should really get a room.”

Larry added, “And please, keep it down when you do.”

I coughed out a sound that either meant I was laughing or scoffing, or some mixture of the two. “Like we’d ever do that with you across the hall.”

“Whatever. You wanna pick the party back up where we left off before this whole thing?”

I shook my head. “Nah, I just wanna go home and spend some time on the couch with my boyfriend.”

“Only if there’s room on that couch for doubles,” Chrissie said.

“Uh, no,” Larry responded, “I have a couch in my bedroom, we can use that.”

Grant asked, “Why don’t you have a couch in your room?”

“Uh, where would I put it?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure my vanity and my wardrobe take up more room than his couch.”

“Didn’t you used to have a couch in your room?”

Now that he mentioned it, I kinda did remember having one, but I couldn’t remember how long ago that was. It had to be before I started going through puberty and decided I needed to stop being such a tomboy. That was a long damn time ago. “I did, didn’t I?”

“You did, when we were kids,” Larry answered. “Damn, man, how’d you remember that?”

Grant shrugged. “I dunno. I thought it wasn’t that long ago, though.”

Why did I think he was right about that?

Later…

By the time Grant and I landed on the couch, I was pretty sure we had tripped over a ton of junk that was still left over in the floor after the party. In fact, the couch itself was kind of a sticky mess that we were gonna have trouble cleaning up before Dad came home, but we'd have all day on Sunday to deal with it, so I didn't really see any big problems arising.

The sticky couch did not, however, stop Grant and I from practically jumping on it and making out like we'd never done before. That wasn't really even an unfair assessment, either, we never had done this sort of thing with each other before. I'd made out with Bobby Keenan before, which he’d considered the best day of his life if his locker room talk was to be believed. Of course, he hadn’t exactly been the best boyfriend I’d ever had. He liked to bite down on my tongue and suck on it, which was… Just all kinds of weird.

But Grant wasn’t like that. He was gentle, he was firm, he was warm and he was making sure this was as much for me as it was for him. His hands never moved from my waist until I moved them to my ass, which he finally took as an invitation to fondle and squeeze as much as possible, but he wasn’t rough with me at all.

It really took me a lot to not just pull my shorts off and let him have his way with me. I couldn’t be that ready for sex, was I? Maybe Larry’s stupid little comments were starting to get to me. No, I was just outrageously horny and not thinking straight, that was all. I could get over that quickly enough, hopefully. Besides, I didn’t think either of us had a condom and I was not ready to become a teen mom.

Although, maybe Grant would be a great teen dad.

I put the thoughts out of my head and got back to thinking about Grant’s warm, delicious lips. He tasted so sweet, so lovely. I couldn’t believe just how different this was from any other boy I’d kissed. Maybe Chrissie was right and my life was turning into a romance novel. That would make exactly no sense, but here I was currently loving the shit out of my boyfriend and wanted nothing more than to stay with him forever.

I couldn’t ignore the irony, really. Grant and I were making a webcomic about a couple of friends who eventually grow to love one another and all the wacky antics that led to that, and that was really what was happening with him and me. To really parallel everything, I would have had to be a guy before all the kissing started, but it was such a minor thing that it didn’t matter. Of course, the idea of that seemed kinda funny.

After the kissing subsided, the two of us just sat there on the couch, the TV on but nothing really interesting was on at the time. Some reruns of The Big Bang Theory on TBS was about all we watched. Funny, but the only thing I was concerned about was sitting there in Grant’s arms, comfortable in his embrace.

At some point, I must've fallen asleep, because I woke up somewhere around midnight with Grant snoring and still holding onto me. He looked so adorable there. I carefully slipped out from under his arms and sighed. I didn't want to just leave him there, but I had to pee something awful.

Making my way to the downstairs bathroom, I tried to be as quiet as possible. Last I'd known, Larry and Chrissie hadn't gotten in, but there was a chance they had while I was asleep. Hopefully, neither one of them was passed out in the bathroom. Luckily, the bathroom was completely devoid of life when I opened the door and turned on the light.

When I caught sight of myself in the mirror, something seemed… Wrong. It was me, as I'd always been. Golden blonde hair, tanned skin, bright blue eyes, the whole shebang, but something just didn't feel right. What was it? I didn't have any zits or anything, so it's not like my face looked gross. What the hell was I seeing that wasn't there?

Well, now that I realized it, my shirt was gone again. I must've taken it off while Grant and I were snogging on the couch. This was either going to be too common or a running gag and I couldn't tell which. In the comic, I meant. Brenda being based on me meant I could use the weird crap I did as fodder for comic gags.

I dropped my shorts and underwear, let it flow, and then wiped away the excess. I wondered if Grant had woken up while I was in the bathroom. Maybe he was ready for kissing.

By the time I got out into the living room again, I felt a weird headache coming on. I’d never really been prone to migraines, but I was definitely feeling one now. I’d had another cup of that spiked punch after we got back from the game, so maybe that’s all it was, like the beginning of a hangover. I’d only had one hangover before, after the guys and I had a particularly bad game.

Wait, what? That wasn’t right. The guys… And I… But…

I stopped and looked at my reflection in the hall mirror. That…. That wasn’t me. That was Laurie, right? But, no, it kinda still looked like me. We weren’t identical twins, but we had certain similarities, but the girl I saw in the mirror wearing short shorts and a bra looked like some weird combination of me and Laurie.

What the hell was going on? I ran upstairs into my bedroom and slammed the door shut. Something was strongly wrong. It was still my bedroom, at least for the most part, but everything was feminine. Vanity, wardrobe, desk, bed, even my couch was replaced by a simple chair that had the word PRINCESS written on it. This just… No. This was not right in any way.

I rooted around in the purse on my dresser and pulled out my phone. It was still the same, but there was a big pink heart sticker on the back. I checked my text messages, my emails, my contacts. So much was the same, but so much was different that I almost started hyperventilating.

And I saw texts with Grant that clearly showed we were dating.

That didn’t scare me as much as everything else did, somehow. Grant was my best friend, and if I were to suddenly turn gay, he’d probably be the kind of guy I’d want to be with. Strong arms, tender, caring, focused on satisfying the needs of others before his own. Not to mention he was gorgeous and I knew from the locker room that he…

No, no, no, NO! I had to get that out of my head. Was that a me thought or a… Different me thought? What the hell was happening with my brain? What the hell was happening in general?!

There had to be some sort of explanation. Some reason why I was suddenly some amalgam of myself and my sister. Had the same thing happened to Laurie? Was she a guy version of herself? That might explain why one of my contacts was some guy I’d never met named Larry. I had some vague memory of him as the guy Chrissie was dating.

I walked over to the wardrobe and grabbed a shirt. It was a pink spaghetti strap tank top that looked perfect with my shorts, but I honestly needed to shut that thought of my head because that seemed like a girl thought. I had to go somewhere, do something, but I had no idea what that would be. It was midnight on a Saturday (technically Sunday) and the odds were good nobody would believe me if I said I was turned into my twin sister.

Just after leaving my room, things started to get weirder. It was already somewhat dark in the hallway, seeing as the only light was a small lamp at the end by Dad’s room, but everything started to lose saturation, turning solid black and white. It almost reminded me of Grant’s art for the comic before I added the color.

All except for me, that is. I still looked exactly as I did before. Still full color, still a girl. Things were just going out of control, really.

The door to Laurie.. Er… Larry’s? Oh, the hell with it, the door to my twin’s bedroom opened and a guy who looked vaguely like I remembered myself to look but also somewhat like a male version of Laurie stepped out, buttoning up his shirt.

“Ash?” he asked.

“Laurie?”

The both of us asked each other in unison, “What the fuck is going on?!”

As if in answer to our question, the floor began to glow, then turned from carpet into… Bricks? The bricks took on a yellow shade, then extended outward, down the stairs and straight to the front door.

“Seriously?” Laurie asked, “The yellow brick road?”

“We are in Kansas,” I said. He gave me a look of pure annoyance. "What?"

He sighed. "I guess we follow it. Can't be any weirder than waking up as a guy cuddling with one of my best friends." He nudged me with his elbow. "How'd you wake up?"

"Cuddling with Grant, then suddenly confused about everything."

He nodded. "Basically the same."

I cocked an eyebrow. "You weren't… You didn't have sex with Chrissie, did you?"

He turned red. "That is… None of your damn business and completely unimportant to this weird shit going on, so let's just follow the yellow brick road and find out what's waiting for us in Oz."

Later…

The yellow brick road led out the house and down the street, for a few miles directly to the school. I felt both odd and normal as we walked, never once feeling like I was in a body that wasn’t really mine. I wasn’t sure if it was because I’d been… Whoever I was for I don’t know how long, or if it was because of whatever the hell was happening, but it was definitely disorienting.

As we finally got to school, my head started to hurt again. I remembered both scoring a touchdown to win a game and standing on the sidelines cheering the guys on while we waited for our turn to go back out on the field and do our thing. I remembered hanging out in the locker room with Grant as we worked out the details of our comic and waiting for him to hurry up so that we could go out for a bite to eat while we discussed some of the characters we each had made up. My head was split between these memories as Ash “The Flash” Johnson, star quarterback, and “Flashy” Ashley Johnson, the fashion-crazed girl-next-door with the kissing reputation. It was like I’d lived two separate lives at the same time, both of them trying to force their way outside.

I glanced at Laurie and saw that he was rubbing his forehead, most likely under the exact same pressure as he tried to make sense of his lives as Laurie Johnson, the school’s hot geek girl, and Larry Johnson, the football player everybody wanted to be like. Hell, me remembering simultaneously being both his younger sister (by seven minutes) and her older brother (by seven minutes) was exhausting all on its own. I remembered picking on her for dressing trashy the first time and getting angry with him for making fun of my outfit that day at the same time and it was nearly driving me insane.

All around us, everything was black and white, just like back at home, but as we walked I saw that there was more. We didn't have a whole lot of people on the road at midnight, but what two we passed were stopped mid-drive, completely oblivious to the two teenagers passing their cars or the yellow brick road we were following. It was like their world had just totally frozen.

The front doors to the school were unlocked, naturally, and the yellow path continued on inside. I felt my heartbeat racing, most likely in fear of what was about to happen. Everything about this was weird, freaky, and just plain wrong. I wanted so very much to go home, go back to bed and hopefully wake up never remembering the life of the body I didn't wake up as. I didn't care if I was Ash the boy or Ashe the girl, either one was fine with me because both seemed like good lives. The only problem would be if I woke up as one and Laurie woke up as the other, but hopefully we could reconcile that.

The path led through the building, up to the second floor on the east wing. I found myself scratching my head when we arrived at the art room. The lights were all on, the room had all its color, hell, it almost looked like a class was in session, which was just plain… Well, weird.

For the longest time, Laurie and I just stood there, not wanting to go inside. Finally, I took a deep breath and then walked inside the classroom. The new art teacher, Mrs. Morfran, was sitting behind her desk, apparently grading papers.

I looked around at the room and almost gagged. All around the room, paintings of my life -- my lives -- were hung up on the walls. Paintings of Laurie's lives were also there, which clearly weirded him out as much as my paintings did for me. This whole thing was just plain creepy.

"The Johnson twins," Mrs. Morfran said as we came closer to her desk, "I was wondering when you'd arrive. My changes must have finally taken root if you're able to come here now."

Day Six III

Laurie stepped forward. "What the hell is going on?"

Mrs. Morfran shook her head. "Now now, young man, that's too strong a tone."

"So what? Answer the question," I said, my own tone firm but concerned.

"You as well, young lady. That's no way to speak to the goddess that fixed your wayward souls."

"What?!" Laurie almost shouted.

Mrs. Morfran looked up from her papers. "You couldn't see it, not by yourselves. You were too stuck, too… Lost. This gift I've given you, this change, is what you so desperately needed. If you hadn’t, things might have been very different indeed.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “How is changing us into the opposite twin a ‘gift’?”

She stood up and walked around and leaned on the front of her desk. “Did you not listen to my explanation yesterday, Ms. Johnson?” She tapped the desk with one finger and the paintings all changed to scenes of me in class, though they showed me as both genders. I couldn’t actually remember a version of this as Ash, but my memory as Ashe was definitely clear. “Artwork is change. It’s the process of taking a blank canvas and turning it into a masterpiece of color, of beauty.” She motioned to us. “You two are but another of my masterpieces. A talented young man created from a simple girl who didn’t push herself,” she said, pointing at Laurie. She then moved her finger toward me. “A spirited young woman created from a boy who never really tried at life.” She folded her arms under her breasts. “The two of you were blank canvases, and have now become works of true art.”

“What gives you the right to do this?” Laurie asked, his voice barely hiding his contempt.

“The right? Silly boy, do you not understand what a goddess is?”

“You think you can do this just because you’re a goddess?” Laurie was seething now. “Just what the hell are you the goddess of, anyway?!”

She smirked, then snapped her fingers. Suddenly, her casual looking blouse and skirt were replaced by the red dress she’d worn yesterday when she came into class. Her hair took on a mass of curls and a crown appeared on her head. She was barefoot, for some reason, but it didn’t seem to bother her. She went from looking like her late 30s to her late 20s, though she could actually pass for far younger very easily.

When she spoke, she took on an accent that I couldn’t quite place, but sounded vaguely British. “My name is Ceridwen, and I’m considered the goddess of rebirth… and transformation.”

I wanted to say something, but I didn’t know what. I’d think this was outright insane if not for the fact that I’d stopped mid-stride back at home and realized I was somehow two people. Either this was all the craziest fucking dream, I was actually going insane or the even crazier possibility that this was actually happening.

The only thing I could even consider asking was, “But… Why us?”

Laurie asked, “That’s all you can say?”

“What do you want me to say?! This whole thing is insane, we shouldn’t even think it’s real, but we both know it is! I wanna know why it was us that got changed as opposed to anybody else!”

Ceridwen started to giggle. “She asked the right question, Mr. Johnson.” She walked away from the desk, toward us. I realized right then and there that she was tall. I was maybe five-foot-four, Laurie was six-foot-two, but she was even taller than he was, somewhere around six-foot-ten if not taller. “You see, children, twins are special. From the days of the first humans, straight through today, twins have a special connection that transcends mere sibling attachment.” She set her hand on my shoulder. “They are tied to one another uniquely, some pairs adopting similar mannerisms subconsciously, others developing relationships that mirror one another without reason, others still taking on the same likes and interests without even knowing they’re related to each other.” She put her hand on Laurie’s shoulder now. “But then there are twins such as you. Neither of you shared any interests, had similar friends, or even shared looks. Twins such as you are rare, often only occurring once every hundred generations.

“When I saw you, realized a challenge: How far could either of you go seeing the differences in each other without seeing the differences in yourselves.” Her hand moved from my shoulder to my face, and it creeped me the hell out. “Could Ashley see her sister changing into a young man all the while she was focused on wooing the boy she’d had a crush on almost her entire life?” Her hand on Laurie’s shoulder moved to his face. “Could Larry watch as his brother became a spunky young woman while he focused on his football career and his high school stardom?” She thankfully took her hands off of us, but I felt a shiver run down my spine. “The two of you were so interesting to me, I just couldn’t wait to see which one of you noticed the changes first.

“As it turned out, neither of you did beyond a cursory glance. Ashley’s brain was already deep in creation, turning what little she actually did notice into fodder for her wonderful comic book. And while Larry did seem to have a bit more insight into the changes, he brushed it off and worried more about spending some wonderful time with his girlfriend.” She snapped her fingers again and the paintings around us changed, focusing only on our new lives asn Ashe and Larry. They weren’t even recent happenings, I saw the day I wiped out at the skate park and broke my arm in two places. In my life as Ash, I wanted to be the next Tony Hawk, but in my life as Ashe, I wanted to be the next Elissa Steamer. “The two of you had become so attached to your new lives, that noticing the changes was relegated to a subconscious feeling that you merely pushed away with a simple moment of logical reasoning. You both accepted what you were becoming before you’d even truly started to change.”

“Are you saying the reason you picked us was because we were too stupid to realize what was happening to us?” I asked.

She shook her head. “On the contrary, I picked you because you were too clever. You both saw, you both took it in stride, you both discovered ways to adapt.” She looked at me. “It helped that you were writing that comic. You had already laid the groundwork for your own gender bending experience by creating one for your character, one based both on your former and current lives. That you involved your brother almost instantly was another masterstroke, as it acclimated him as well. You really are a talented writer, Ms. Johnson. I look forward to reading your works in the coming years, you have a great future ahead of you in that field.”

I felt an annoying sense of pride that the woman that had changed my life without my permission actually liked my writing, but that was beside the point. “And what about Laurie?”

“Mr. Johnson also has a promising future ahead of him.” She turned to him. “Not just in football, but in business as well. It’s a shame you don’t apply yourself as well as you should, but that college scholarship will be just the thing you need to come into your own.”

“But what about the lives we would have had before you changed us?”

She turned back to me. “Your future as a writer was set in stone from day one. As was your brother’s future in business. Of course, as a woman, Laurie’s business career would have been a bit more limited, just as your writing career would have been a little more difficult as a man.”

“But there are lots of best selling male authors, why would that have been a problem?”

Laurie nudged my elbow. “I think you just answered your own question, sis.”

“Indeed,” Ceridwen said with a hint of amusement in her voice.

“So, you did this to help us?”

She turned to him. “No, I did this to create beautiful works of art. Changing your futures to accommodate your interests was a bonus.”

“So we’re right back to the what gives you the right argument and your only answer is that you’re a goddess.”

She nodded. “That’s the answer, alright.”

“You took away the lives we had and shoved us into different ones just for the fun?” I asked. “Don’t you see how we could, maybe, not be happy about that?”

She snapped her fingers and a notebook appeared on one of the desks. “Brenda was very happy as Brian, was she not? And yet, what you’ve written so far has her discovering love and happiness as a young woman she never was before.” She opened the notebook and flipped to one of the later pages. “Ooh, from the looks of things, Brenda and Joey have quite the future ahead of them. Children?”

Laurie whispered, “When did you write that far ahead?”

I shrugged. “Last night, I think. Grant and I talked about it when he brought me home from the movie.”

Ceridwen shut the notebook. “You understand the double standard, I assume?”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t. Those are fictional characters, not real people.”

“Fictional to you. Real to those that live in that world. Who’s to say we are not all fictional characters in someone else’s narrative? Brenda enjoyed her life as Brian, then came to realize her life as Brenda was significantly better.” She tossed me the notebook. “As you’ll both come to realize soon.”

“You mean you’re not even gonna give us the option to change back?” Laurie asked.

She shook her head. “Of course not. Once a change has taken root, it can’t be undone. Your only choice in this matter is whether or not you want to remember your old lives.”

Laurie scoffed. “Yeah, right, like that’s a choice. You think we want to go nuts remembering two separate lives? If we’re gonna be stuck like this, we should just be this.”

I wanted to agree with him, but… I couldn’t deny Ceridwen’s comparison between us kinda hit me hard. In both lives, at least some aspect of Brenda was based on me, and she remembered everything about her old life as Brian. She didn’t get the opportunity to forget being Brian and just live her life as Brenda. If I was gonna be stuck as Ashe, in a happy life where I had a great boyfriend and a promising future as an author, maybe I should be more like Brenda. But was that the wrong choice? Was it stupid of me? Was it a selfish thing to not go fucking crazy remembering two lives when I had the choice to forget one?

“If you wish not to remember,” Ceridwen explained, “you can simply leave. You’ll wake up the next morning, and Laurie and Ash will be gone forever. If you wish to remember, you need to tell me now.”

Laurie -- Larry, I had to call him Larry now -- turned to me. “You’re gonna remember, aren’t you?”

I looked up at him. “How can you tell?” I asked.

He pointed at the notebook I had clutched to my chest. “I could tell it was going through your head as soon as she used Brenda on you. And I don’t blame you for it. You can handle knowing two lives at the same time, you can just use it for your writing. I can’t do that, and I admit that, so I’m gonna go. When you wake up tomorrow, you’ll remember Larry and Laurie, and I won’t remember Ash, but I will remember Ashe. Instead of my dopey big brother who teased me for dressing slutty when I was twelve, I’ll remember my geeky little sister who though she had to dress that way to fit in until she realized she could still be a popular girl while being a total dork.”

I lightly punched him in the chest. “Hey! I’m not a total dork! And I’m very fashion conscious.”

He smirked. “See, that’s why you’re the better little sister. Maybe the goddess over there is right, and our lives will be so much better, but it still chaps my ass that we didn’t get to make that decision for ourselves. I’d just rather not remember being what I can’t be anymore.”

I nodded. “I get you, I really do.”

He patted me on the back. “See ya tomorrow, sis. You’ll remember me saying that, but I’ll just remember going to bed with Chrissie in my arms.”

I smiled, then asked, “Did you have sex with her?”

“That is none of your business.”

“You won’t remember telling me.”

“But you’ll remember that I told you.”

“You’re an asshole, you know that, right?”

“Besides, if you think I didn’t notice you cuddling Grant with your shirt off, you’re wrong.”

I blushed. “We didn’t have sex though!”

“You just weren’t trying hard enough.” He reached out and hugged me. “See ya in the morning. We’ll probably both have a major hangover.”

I felt a tear drip down my cheek. “See ya tomorrow, bro.”

For a moment, it almost seemed like he wanted to stay, but in the end, he turned and walked out the door, forever erasing Laurie from everything but my memory. As if to drive the point home, the paintings of Laurie around the room faded away, leaving only paintings of Larry. I recognized all of the scenes that played out in the paintings, from his first touchdown on our preschool playground to just this last game, where he scored the game ender and everyone cheered.

Nobody but me would ever remember anything but that smiling boy I call my twin brother.

I turned around to face Ceridwen, who had changed back to her Mrs. Morfran form and returned to her seat behind the desk. I hugged my notebook a little closer as I walked up to the desk and waited for her to explain exactly how I’d remember everything. I was almost worried how this whole thing would work out.

She was grading what looked like one of Grant's pages for the comic, showing Brian and Brenda standing back to back. It was one we'd decided to use as Brenda reflected on her new life and how it was different and in a lot of ways better than her old life. The difference was that Brian and Brenda were replaced with Ash and Ashe, the two people that made me up. I saw the parallels she was trying so hard to draw between Brenda and me -- this time literally -- and that in a lot of ways, I’d written this whole crazy story about me and Larry changing genders.

“You changed us because Grant and I made the comic, didn’t you?”

She smirked. “I did. It was the inspiration I needed for this change. I could have simply changed you from a football player to a photojournalist, changed Laurie from the business-minded young woman to a singer/songwriter. But you, dear Ashley, proved that your imagination is a creative well that must be drawn from for the future to be bright.” She then added a comically large “A+” to the corner and handed me the paper. “Just place it in your notebook before you walk out the door. You’ll wake up comfortably in the arms of your wonderful boyfriend and live your life knowing of what was and what now is.”

I took the paper and held it for a moment, then asked, “Am I doing the right thing? What if Larry’s got the right idea?”

“Your brother is right about one thing: You’re strong enough to carry on knowing both of these lives, and to understand which one you prefer.” She leaned forward. “I never mentioned around Larry that your comic was wish-fulfillment.”

I looked down at the drawing and felt more tears begin to well up. “It really was, wasn’t it? I don’t… I don’t know when I really figured that out, but… It was.”

She motioned to the drawing. “And now your wish is fulfilled, and you still remember it. When you leave, you’ll be the only one who knows.”

“Well, you’ll know.”

“I meant humans. You’ll be the only human who knows.”

“I don’t know if I want to, now. What if…”

She shook her head. “Ah ah, Ms. Johnson, trust me. It would be better if you remembered.” She smiled. “Think of all the fantastic stories you’ll write with the experiences of both a boy and a girl.”

I sighed. “I guess you’ve got a point there.”

“Exactly. Now go home, Ms. Johnson. Go home, wake up to your boyfriend and enjoy your life. I believe you and your brother have a house to clean up before your father returns home.”

My heart stopped for a second. In all of this craziness, I’d actually forgotten about that. And Larry and I would need to do that with a hangover. In a bit of a rush, I slid the drawing into my notebook and ran out of the classroom, into a bright, white light…