At first, Alex thought he was a guy again. More like a little boy, really. He was at least three years younger than the cheerleader, and short enough to prove it. Heck, at this point he was probably younger than his own sister. That wasn't such a big deal. It might be fun to be a kid again, especially for the rest of the day.
He didn't quite look like he had as a kid, though. His hair was a light brown, cut short and gathered beneath a backwards baseball cap on his head. His face was rounder, and his skin was a lot tanner than it had been when he was actually this age. The band-aid on his elbow attested to the rough-housing nature of his new self. Bright blue eyes peered out from a face caked in dirt. Denim overalls stretched over the shoulders of a bright orange t-shirt. His new new favorite color. That was gonna get annoying, eventually. Right now it was just kinda exciting.
Oh, yeah, and that was another thing. He felt really excitable. He could feel a sort of boundless energy tumbling around inside him, an energy that told him all he wanted was to play outside in the dirt with the kids across the street. He grinned impishly, enjoying this new attitude thoroughly. He might as well embrace it, right? Whoever he was now was basically the opposite of him as a little kid.
One step forward let him know the biggest difference, though.
"What the? I'm a girl? Again?"
"Yes, you are," the mirror replied stoically.
Alex felt like that should have bothered him more than it did, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He was a girl now. So what. Girls could play just as rough as boys. They could have just as much fun, too. So he was going to have some fun. And if he didn't like it? He'd just come back here and snap it away. Besides, this might give him the chance to find out what was wrong with Kate. Maybe even get closer to her.
Alex barely gave the mirror a backwards glance as he bounded out of his room and down into the living room, where he quickly ran into his mother. She didn't look like she was in the mood for games.
"Young lady, what did I just ask you to do?"
Alex racked his brain and found a memory he was sure he hadn't had just a few minutes ago.
"Go upstairs and take a bath?"
"So?"
Alex stuck his tongue out at his mom, a childish and somewhat dangerous thing to do in front of a woman known for her discipline.
"So, I wasn't finished playing!"
"Alexandria..."
"It's Alex," Alex corrected firmly, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Alexandria," his mom insisted, "Would you please relax? You remember what happened the last time you played too hard, don't you?"
Alex winced at the memory of a broken ankle. Lots of tears had been shed that day. Except...the day hadn't existed until he'd made it exist. Alex shook his head and focused on his mom.
"That won't happen again, I promise! I just want a few more minutes with my friends, please, mom, pleaseeeee...." Alex whined, giving his mom the best puppy-dog eyes he could manage.
"Fine. But just a few minutes. And then you shower. We have a lunch to go to."
Really? Alex didn't remember his mom taking him to lunches when he was a kid. Maybe out to eat, but not to a lunch lunch, which is what this sounded like. Maybe in this universe she had a different job.
Alex shrugged, simply overjoyed at the opportunity to play outside with his friends-- friends he had never met, mind you. He practically skipped outside to join them in their improvised game of soccer. They were practicing kicking the ball as hard as they could. There were three of them-- and Alex was surprised to find he actually recognized their faces. There were two boys, twins. They were from the Rodriguez house across the street. The last boy was a bit taller than Alex and the two boys. He belonged to his neighbors, a young-ish couple. He didn't know their names, but he knew now that the boy was called Theodore, but everyone called him Teddy, especially Alex.
"I'm back, Teddy," Alex shouted proudly.
Teddy grinned and pumped a fist in the air.
"Yesss! I knew you could do it, Alex. Come on, lets see how far you can kick this dumb ball!"
Pretty far, as it turned out. So far, in fact, that it was sent spiraling over the fence and into the yard of the abandoned house next door. It was an old and dilapidated place. No one had lived there in years, and the wooden construction had fallen into disrepair. Old wooden slats stuck up out of the patio like the rib-bones of some old, wicked beast. It was the last place Alex wanted to visit while he was like this. Tetanus was no joke.
"Oh noooo!" One of the Rodriguez boys cried out. "That was my ball!"
The other one shook his head. "Mama's gonna kill us!"
Alex was sure they were being over-dramatic, but a part of him wanted to climb that fence and get the ball, just to prove their dumb faces wrong. Even if he knew that was a bad idea rationally.
Teddy shrugged.
"Maybe we should just find a new game to play?"
That was an idea.
Alex decided to...