“Oh, I forgot something!” Melissa suddenly piped up.
“Sheesh, Melissa, try and be quiet,” answered Paul. “I need to concentrate on finding the right spell or you and Tim are going to be living each others lives for a long time.”
“But I was supposed to go to my soccer game today,” whined Melissa. “It's in like an hour. Can you change us back in time?”
Tim panicked as he saw Paul hunch his shoulders with a heavy, sad sigh.
“No,” Paul said sadly. “I really don't think so. This could take the rest of the day... or... or even a couple days, maybe weeks. I'm sorry, Timmy.”
“Don't call me Timmy,” grumbled Tim reflexively.
“Guess I should call you 'Melissa' now,” said Paul with a weak smile.
“No way!” snapped Melissa, sticking her tongue out at the two boys. “That's my name!”
“You still don't get it, do you?” said Paul. “To everyone else in the world, you are Timmy Sherman – a teenage boy. And he's Melissa Hodgson – a fourth-grade girl. Now do the two of you want to wind up being tossed in the loony bin and getting legally declared froot loops? Or can you play along and pretend to be each other until I can find a spell to put things back to normal?”
“But I have a soccer game in an hour!” whined Melissa.
“No,” said Paul, turning and pointing to Tim. “He has a soccer game in an hour. Sorry, Timmy. Guess you'd better go back down to Melissa's room and put on her uniform.”
“What?!?” shrieked Tim. “Nuh-huh! No way! Absolutely not! Forget it, dude! It's bad enough I'm wearing a skirt and this girly shirt and silly knee socks... but there is NO way I'm going to put on your little sister's soccer uniform and go play on a team full of fourth-grade girls!”