“Piss off, Perkins,” she drawled, laughing.
“Time’s running out, Jennifer,” Kyle’s grating voice toyed with her as she tutted, cynically.
“Listen, dickweed, I’m not gonna play your stupid game, so leave me alone before I call the cops,” Jennifer rolled her eyes as she tried to put the phone down. Her eyes widened. She couldn’t move her hand! “Alright, asshole, why can’t I put my phone down?”
“Ten seconds,” Kyle said in a singsong voice.
All colour drained from Jennifer’s face. “The curse…” she whispered. “The curse is real?”
“That it is, and would you look at that? Your time is up! I’m sure you know what that means…” if Jennifer could see Kyle, she’d probably see his smug grin stretching from one ear to the other.
She shook her head in terror. “Please, please don’t!”
“Sorry, Jenny, I’ve got to, the curse is forcing me to,” Kyle said with mock-sorrow.
“W-will you at least be kind?” she sounded like she was on the verge of crying.
“Well, since you asked so nicely…” Kyle started, giving Jen hope. “…No,” he laughed at the sound of her sobs. “You know you deserve this, so deal with it. I’ve thought about this ever since that… incident, you know,” she stood deathly still as he monologued. “About what I should do to get back at you. I dwelled on turning you into a dog, to show how much of a bitch you are, but I didn’t think that you’d suffer enough,”
Jen trembled. “Why do you want me to suffer? I pranked you, that’s all!”
Kyle groaned. “Do you really not get it? You’ve seen me, I’m the kind of guy who gets bullied from day one of school. Until I came to Glendale High. Everyone seemed so unbothered by me, so indifferent towards my existence. It was total bliss compared to my previous school. And then I met you, and the rest of your girlfriends on the cheer squad. You made my school life hell again, so I’m going to make your life hell,” he cleared his throat. “Now then, since you obviously love being popular, I’m going to take that from you. This is your transformation: Over the next two weeks, you’re going to slowly transform into a stereotypical nerd girl. Glasses, frizzy hair, ridiculous freckles and out-of-control acne, buck teeth and more than conspicuous braces. Checked shirts, suspenders, shin-length skirts. Completely lacking skills in physical exercise, including your precious cheerleading. Not to mention your changes in priorities. You’ll slowly learn to love math, and science, and homework, and strive for the best grades possible. Your love of Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and One Direction will be replaced by love of Star Wars, anime, and Harry Potter. Weekends spend talking to cute guys will eventually be replaced by hopping onto a Skype call with your buddies to play Dungeons and Dragons until midnight. Oh, and obviously you’re going to lose the cheerleader’s body. No nerd girl I’ve met has DD’s and a heart ass to rival Kim Kardashian. Sorry… oh wait, no I’m not!” Kyle laughed as Jennifer took in what was going to happen to her.
“I’m sorry, okay? Is that what you want to hear?” Jennifer began to cry. She couldn’t lose her popularity, her looks! They were all she had!
“Nope,” Kyle chuckled, popping the ‘p’. “And even if I did, it’d be too late, I’ve made the command, and you have to follow it. Speaking of which, now for your dare…”
“Please, I’m sorry, I’ll do whatever you want, just ask for something small, please!” tears were rolling down her cheeks as she stood completely motionless. There was a pause. “A-are you still there?” she stammered.
“Yeah, I’m still here,” Kyle said. “I’m just thinking. You’ve given me an idea. I was going to dare you to become a lesbian, or to fuck every guy in college until one of them got you pregnant, but you’ve inspired me now,”
“What do you mean?” she asked, regaining some of her composure. “What did I say?”
“You said ‘I’ll do whatever you want’,” Kyle answered. “Word around school is that you’re an active feminist. Going to rallies and doing public speaking, one of the few non-bitchy things you’re good at. Weird, considering how you seem to dress to please as many guys as possible,”
“I dress like I do for me,” she replied indignantly. “I don’t live to please guys,”
“You do now,” Kyle said, darkly. Jennifer gasped. “Jennifer, I dare you to take up the exact opposite of your current views once your transformation to nerd is over. Not only will you be a total submissive, your whole life will lead to you finding a nice man, getting married, settling down and raising your children, a basic housewife. Also, the kind of guy you’re into now will be reversed as a part of this. That’s not even cheating. But this is; as a part of this dare, when I hang up the phone you will only hazily remember this conversation as a bad dream, and go about your life as normal,”
“You’re going to turn me into a housewife?! Jennifer shrieked. “You asshole!”
“Well Jen, I’ve gotta go get ready for school. Enjoy your new life!” Kyle laughed as he went to hang up.
“Kyle no wait!” Jennifer shouted, but it was too late. Kyle had hung up. She scrambled to het mobile, scrolling through her contacts to find her mom, then blacked out.
After what felt like days, but really was only a couple of minutes, Jennifer woke up, rubbing her head. “Man, what a weird dream!” she stretched and pulled herself up, tugging the rest of her clothes on and making her way downstairs. She took out her box of gluten free cereal and wolfed it down, before running back upstairs to freshen up. She combed her hair, pulled it back into a ponytail, then went to brush her teeth. She screamed. On her cheek, just an inch from her mouth, was the beginnings of acne. It was almost nothing right now, but it still terrified Jennifer. She had to look good for the cheer squad! She took out her concealer and slathered it all over her face, before running out to her car and heading to school.