James had just fastened the medallion's chain around his neck when Barty "The Bartster" Adams burst into the room without knocking. "Are you ready yet?" Barty asked.
Nineteen years old like James, Barty was an irrepressible prankster and he had targeted the college's football team for his next prank ever since an incident between some football players and Barty and some of his friends, who had been using the unoccupied football field to launch some of their model rockets.
"Barty, you're just asking for trouble," James tried to persuade his buddy against the foolhardy endeavor.
"They all think they can do whatever the hell they want," Barty objected.
"They're football players," James said. "That's what they do!"
"Well, I am going to make them sorry they ever broke my rocket," Barty said.
James decided that humoring Barty might be the best course of action, which is how he ended up driving the get-away truck for Barty's caper. He had been bored and waiting in the cab of the truck for nearly half an hour when he heard a horrible racket. Before he could react, Barty pulled open the passenger door and got into the truck with a squealing pink pig in his arms.
"Get us the hell out of here, James!" Barty shouted.
In a panic, with the damn pig squealing in his ear, James burned rubber on the asphalt in the parking lot as the truck sped onto the road and headed off campus back to the apartment he shared with Barty and Todd.
"Barty," he asked after the pig settled into nervous grunting instead of ear-splitting squealing. "Why do you have a pig?"
Barty turned and grinned maniacally. "It's not just a pig," he said. "It's their mascot!"
"What have you dragged me into?" James lamented too late.
Once they arrived back at their apartment, James warned Barty to keep the pig quiet. "All we need is Mr. Sanchez hearing it," he said. Mr. Sanchez, their landlord who lived in the house next door to the apartment, was always on their case about one thing or another.
"Relax," Barty said. "I have this planned."
Barty's plan consisted of shoving the pig inside a dog carrier that he had placed inside his bedroom. Both of the college students looked down at the caged pig, which was only a juvenile based on its size.
"Great plan," James said sarcastically.
"You just wait," Barty said. "Those jocks will go nuts."
James wondered whether the jocks would really miss the pig as much as Barty seemed to think they would.
The next morning, James woke to the sound of a squealing pig. He yelled for Barty to take care of the damn pig, but Barty didn't answer and the pig's squealing grew louder.
"Sanchez is going to hear that," James said. He stumbled out of his bedroom dressed just in a pair of boxers with the medallion still hanging from his neck. He felt the heavy piece of jewelry swing on its chain. "Damn, did I wear that all night long?"
He started to remove it, but the pig squealed again. He rushed into Barty's room and found the protesting pig squealing louder by the minute.
"Be quiet," James told the pig, which didn't listen.
He leaned closer and again urged the pig to stop squealing. As he did, the medallion dangled between the bars of the dog carrier. The pig, one moment squealing and frantic, became curious and sniffed of the medallion. Interested, it kept snuffling until its big, pink nose contacted the medallion.
There wasn't a shower of sparks or a burst of light. Instead, one moment James was staring down at the pig, begging the animal to be quiet. In the next, the world went topsy-turvy and he found himself looking up at his own body, with the medallion hanging from his neck.
"What the hell?" James started to say, but all that came from his mouth was some frantic oinks.
Later...