Before Emily had time to think of a plan, all her ideas would come crashing dow as the front door began to open. At first, her spirits raised, as she hoped Rick would walk in and help her figure out how to turn her father back to normal. Instead, she experienced the shock of her life when the person who opened the door was Paul, Emily's father himself.
Emily's jaw dropped. No, that couldn't be right. She refused to believe it. "But, her name was Paula, and she was at the construction sight!" She thought, trying to understand. "Is it possible that he just took a picture of the sight, and because of that he appeared somewhere else? But I thought his thumb was in the photo... did someone else take the picture for him?! Oh god, then who was the poor girl I thought was him?! Was she an innocent bystander, a male coworker of dad's?! Oh god what have I done?!" She internally screamed.
"Oh god." Paul sighed as he placed a plastic down beside the door. "What has she done this time Pablo?" He asked, seemingly unsurprised at the latino officer in his house.
Paula quickly realized who he was talking to, but a after a quick glance at the panicking Emily, she figured she'd need to just stall for time or make something up.
"Well, um, hey Paul, sorry to bother you but... um... do you recognize this camera?" Paula asked awkwardly.
"Yeah! How the hell did you get that? If I recall I found that camera here and was going to use it at work. I remember giving it to my intern to take it but when I came back he said he hadn't seen a camera like that!" Paul explained. "Where'd you find it?"
Emily finally put the pieces together. Her father would have handed the camera to his intern who was the one who changed the original construction site into a school. Paul would have transported to the nearest other site for reality to make sense if he wasn't in the shot. The intern would've become a student or something, then would've wondered why they had a camera and ditched it... which is where Paula must have found it, if she wasn't originally the intern to begin with.
"Well, you see... that why I brought Emily here!" She said quickly, finally coming up with a good lie. "She snuck out of school and I followed her and found her near that site with this camera. I.... think she probably wanted to sell it." Paula lied, received she could come up with something.
"Emily is this true?" Paul asked his daughter sternly.
Emily stared at her father with a black expression on her face. Then, her face scrunched up, and tears began to flow. Paul's stern expression morphed to be completely confused as his usually rebellious teen ran over crying and gave him a big hug. Paula watched concerned, but figured with this crazy camera thing she probably had a lot going on.
"Woah honey, I haven't seen you like this since you were little." Paul said. "Are you alright?"
"Sorry Dad, it's just, a lot happened today that I can't even begin to explain... I'm just glad you're back." She smiled through the tears.
"Ummm, thanks I think? This isn't some manipulation tactic or something to get you out of trouble is it? Your mother and I talked with you about this you know!" He said.
"Trust me, it's not." She smiled back.
Just then, the door opened once more, and in walked a very exhausted looking Rick. He was still a middle aged woman version of himself, dressed in the same clothing as before, but clearly had to re-put those clothes back on as he had been forced to go through dress up sessions with her gal pal. He walked, in looked up, at the scene, and raised an eyebrow.
"Wait, but I thought Paul... who's... okay I need an explanation." he sighed.
"I still need a more complete one too." Paula chimed in.
"Hi honey, I'll try to help fill you in once they fill me in." Paul agreed.
"Right, hey dad, do you mind the three of us taking this discussion in private? Pa- I mean, Mr. Mendez needs to be there but I'd rather explain with M-mom." She explained, struggling to still call her boyfriend mother.
Paul sighed. "Alright, but I expect to be filled in later. Especially with all this potential thievery and school skipping involved." Paul said as he walked out back to lay by the pool.
The three looked towards each other once they confirmed Paul was out of earshot and nearly all of them almost freaked out fully.
"What the hell is going on, why are you like that who is this?!" Rick asked confused.
"Emily has your mom always known?! Why is she aware but your dad isn't? You said she was your boyfriend but why do I always remember her as your mom? And what was all that crazy stuff you said back at school about me and your dad again?!" Paula added, confused and annoyed.
"Okay okay, this is going to take some explaining." Emily began.
The three sat down on the couch as Emily held the camera close to her, unwilling to let it leave her sight till all was fixed. Emily recounted the events to Paula about how Rick became Riley, and how Paul had taken the camera, and the school that became of it. Then, Emily explained the mistaken identity with Paula, and the whole series of events which led to Paula's other change and her own change to an equally baffled Rick.
"Wow, this has been a freaking day." Rick sighed, leaning back into the couch, watching his big boobs bounce slightly s he fell. As fun as they were, they made his back ache.
"You're telling me?!" Paula asked distressed. "I literally just found out about magic today, I turned into a boy, and my entire life may not have been real until like a couple hours ago?!" She whined, which sounded odd in the gruff Latino voice.
"I know everyone here is changed and messed up and tired, so let's just all focus. We have the camera now. We can fix everything that's possible." She said confidently.
"What do you mean possible?" Rick asked, leaning back up. "Isn't there an undo option? Can't you just undo everything?"
"No I can't Rick. I tested it... a bit without you." She whispered.
"Uh huh, so against my direct order?" He replied exactly as a disappointed mother would.
"Yeah... sorry, but, at least we got info out of it?" She tried to laugh it off. "Regardless, the undo button works if you have one change. If you changed twice, and hit the undo button, it would undo the second change, but if you hit it again it would undo that action and you'd change to the second transformation again. The only change we'd be able to undo right now completely would be the real resource officer's change." She explained.
"Oh shit, so if I hadn't changed her I could've instantly been me again?" Paula asked defeated.
"Don't feel too bad about it... I was hard on you but I doubt we could've gotten out of there safely any other way." Emily comforted her.
"Ok ok, so we can't jus that undo... but a week ago we were able to use the camera precisely right? We just have to undo us and then..." Rick said before Emily interrupted him.
"I'm afraid that's also not a possibility anymore." Emily stated.
"What?" Rick asked confused.
"Remember when you fell down the stairs and caught the camera?" She asked.
"Um, yes, obviously." He scoffed, giving his right boob a tight squeeze.
"Well it was sparking a bit right?" She continued.
"Oh, oh no." Rick sighed.
"Yup. After failing with to change Paula here to what I wanted and from what I've been able to tell by looking at it, I think the precise options are on the fritz... Basically, they may get us closer to their specifics, but odds are they also have huge randomness to them, meaning all our change options are fully random."
"Wait, so if every time we take a picture it randomly changes someone, then that'll take forever, even to fix us?!" Paula yelled.
"It'll take a while to fix us, but it will literally take a lifetime to fix every person in that school." She said plainly.
Each of them sat back in place, all realizing how hard it would be to get everything in order again. After a few moments of silence, Rick finally looked back up.
"Okay, we aren't gonna fix it by procrastinating. Where do we start?" He asked.