Terrified, you close your eyes and try to think. You made a wish, that's right. Was it a one-time deal? There's no time to wait as Zach bangs on the door again.
"I wish I was a girl again!" You whisper to yourself under your breath, your eyes still scrunched tight. After a moment, you feel an instant of slight warmth. You are almost too scared to open your eyes. What if nothing happened? How would you explain this to anyone? Would you end up as a scientific freak in a lab somewhere? Or would your family hide it for fear of anyone knowing? Finally, startled by a particularly loud thunk as Zach kicks the door, you open your eyes.
Staring back at you is your normal tomboyish, but definitely female, self. Albeit naked. You gasp, not realizing you had been holding your breath in nervousness, and look yourself over once more in the mirror, wondering if you were just seeing things before, or maybe you are now? Have you lost your mind?
"C'mon, shrimp! There ain't THAT much you could do in the bathroom!" Zach rails at you through the door, and you hurriedly pull your clothes back on. Eager to get back into your room, you quickly pull open the door. "Finally, I thought you were gonna live in there!" Zach grouches as he shoves you out of the way and barrels into the bathroom. Still numb from your experience, you don't even bother reacting, and simply stumble into your room, closing the door behind you. Your room is considerably lighter now as the dawn breaks, and you shuffle over to the bed and flop down on the edge. You still can't believe it.
Did you really turn into a boy? But why? It never happened before yesterday! Was it a one-time thing? Or are you just hallucinating? Should you try it again? What if you couldn't turn back? What if someone found out? The questions are swirling inside your head and giving you a headache.
"I'm heading over to Jason's! I'll be back after the game!" you hear Zach yell just before the front door slams. A little while later, there's a knock on your door.
"Are you up, honey? Dad and I will be at the Robinsons' today, so I left your lunch in the fridge, and breakfast is on the table," you hear your mom say through the door, although you are still too wound up to respond. After a few minutes, you hear the front door close again, but this time you also hear the car pull out of the driveway. You are home alone.
No one there to see you. And no one there to stop you. By now, your curiosity was getting the better of you, so far as to outweigh the possibility of what could go wrong. There was only one way to find out if this was real or not, even if you weren't sure yet why it was happening. Getting up and taking a deep breath, you stand in front of the full-length mirror in your room.
"I wish...I was a guy!" you grit your teeth and say firmly, staring at the mirror. For a second, it's like your reflection ripples as though it were on the surface of a pond, and you feel a slight flush of warmth. When your vision clears, staring back at you again is the boy with the close-cut hair and rather handsome young features that vaguely echo your own.
"Wow..." you breathe out, and are reminded again of the change in your voice. It's definitely deeper, but not yet quite manly. It's closer to Zach's, but probably more like what he sounded like two years ago. You shake your head in disbelief, but move on to the next phase of your plan. There's one way to know for sure if you're insane or not. Grabbing your cell phone, you take a picture of yourself - or more accurately, your male self - careful to ensure there was only a blank unrecognizable wall in the background, and trying to make it look as though the picture were taken while you were unaware. Pulling up the contact for Carrie, one of the more girly of your friends from school, you text her the picture with the caption, "Think there's someone new in the neighborhood." You sit on the edge of your bed nervously and wait for her response. Finally your phone vibrates.
"Hey, he's pretty cute! Think he goes to our school?" You stare at Carrie's reply. "HE". Carrie said "he." It's official, you weren't insane, you were definitely a guy. How did you end up like this? Your mind oddly calm, you finally remember. You wanted to play baseball with Zach and his friends, that was why. And why not? You were now just a guy from the neighborhood. If you dressed the part, Zach would never suspect anything. You could go to the store as a girl, buy some boy clothes, change, and go join the game. After all, you had no problem becoming a girl again last time and no one knew any better. Why not again?