She saw a very tall, shirtless man in gym shorts standing, curling a pair of very heavy weights in his hands. "97... 98... 99," he grunted, muscles bulging as he continued the reps unaware of the previously "older" girl watching him. Sherry squinted at him.
It just couldn't be, could it? The young man brought the weights up with some difficulty, huffing as he pushed them higher into the air and starting a new routine, before slamming them down and breathing. It couldn't have been possible, but as Sherry looked at her husband, his face had grown more chiseled, more... Roughened than she remembered. Bill sighed, pulling off the snapback on his head and fanning his shirtless body as he noticed her staring and waved. She tried to play along, gulping as she tried to maintain focus.
"You uh... Busy?"
Bill chuckled, wiping the sweat off his brow as he pulled the velcro gloves off his hands.
"Buzz off, sis. I'm not done with my curls, Coach says if I can get a leg up in weight room I'd get that extracurricular club credit on my resumé." Ah, Bill was raving about his senior yea- No, no, that wasn't right. Bill and Sherry were just thanking Jasmine for watching the house and...
Sherry paused, biting her lip as Bill ignored her and checked himself out, flexing his biceps in the nearest mirror and kissing the peaks, to which she frowned. This certainly wasn't the Bill she remembered whatsoever... But... Was it not really him to start?
"Heh, don't think anyone can resist these gains." He said. "And maybe he'll finally notice me..."
Sherry was about to press Bill further, but a wave of coolness washed over her and she froze. Suddenly, she looked at Bill as though he was annoying her very presence and stuck her tongue out. "You're so gross Bill!" He was always like this, always trying to be cool or be something she didn't want. Not like boys would understand, Sherry was at the age where she just hated boys, they ruined tea parties, they made her dolls lose their hair, and even worse, Bill's friends always used to come over and he wouldn't let her hang out with them either!
Bill looked back at her and rolled his eyes, getting up and towered above Sherry's meager height.
"Beat it, shrimp, last I checked, you should be in your room doing homework, yeah?" Sherry backed away, realizing Bill was in the right once again and sheepishly turned down the hall to what was once the home office but now a darling pink princess themed room complete with a vanity dresser and dolls of many kinds to reflect Sherry's shrinking physique just as she brushed off the red polka dot dress she wore in case Bill-Cooties had gotten onto it. She placed her cup of milk down as she noticed a fancy looking laptop sitting on her nightstand, and grabbed it. She groaned, realizing the object, before stomping back to Bill to tell him to take "his" thing.
"100...101..." Bill continued his curls, blasting music to workout to as he continued to feel the testosterone pour into his body. He was ready to leave behind his former years as a nobody and mingle with the in-crowd, get the coach on his side, and maybe make a few... trophy runs with the cheerleaders and that one nerd who always watched his games and asked to be his towel boy. Sherry banged on the door, catching him off guard and he growled as he was once again toppled out of the zone. He swung open the door to have his laptop shoved into his arms briskly by his new younger sister, who chided him for leaving his stuff again and left just as quickly.
Bill paused the music to take a quick look into his computer, when he saw the colorful logo of a "Chronivac" on it... Version 4.0, no less and mused as he peered into the application. Something was supposed to be happening, and he could choose to cancel it... Or change the upcoming edits. Confused, he hit pause, unaware of the modifications he would be making, as at the same time on the other side of town, Sherry and Bill's daughter, Megan, had just stepped off the soccer field and was walking with her friend Eric, toward his mother's car, talking about the recent games for the season. She froze, almost immediately to a sound no one else could hear.
"Megan..?"
"I-"
What neither could understand what was going on, time had essentially slowed to a standstill, as Bill effectively paused the Chronivac's work on his and Sherry's current predicament until his or Sherry's edits were to be followed with.
Meanwhile, Bill browsed the contents of the Chronivac rather easily, musing how one could change the world or the body with just a few... adjustments and was more than eager to experiment on his own. However, there was still the matter of the currently paused changes the Chronivac would need to render. Puzzled, Bill read aloud the warning message of discarding the changes paused:
"WARNING: IF COMPLETELY DISCARDED, CHANGES WILL BE RESET AUTOMATICALLY TO PREVENT ANOMALY. THE CHRONIVAC IS EQUIPPED WITH AN AUTOMATIC OPTIMIZER* TO REDUCE THE POTENTIAL RISKS OF TEMPORAL ANOMALIES AND FACILITATE STRUCTURE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO KEEP THE AUTO-OPTIMIZER* OPTION ON?"
Bill could certainly see the urgency in the first part, but reading the next lines confused him only further, he wasn't interested in phsyics, he wasn't even taking that class. Seeing the auto option, he shrugged, thinking that at least having the application as is would at least not give him any trouble. With a click, he had just severed the original ties to the reality he and Sherry had come from.
Megan felt vertigo as the feeling came back into her body, she flexed her fingers as Eric voiced his concern over her sudden freeze-up and she made an offhanded excuse about pins and needles. Something was missing, she thought, in the back of her head. She tried to register what it could be, but for some reason, as Eric was continually speaking about how their mom would be worried if Megan would make this a constant thing, Megan's mind clouded what it could be.
The Chronivac whirred to life as a new reality was created in favor of another set of possibilities: A loss of a daughter, a gain of youth regeneration, and the missing voids of what Sherry and Bill had "lost" only to regain in the form of their new lives. The world ran on give and take, but for this jock, he was only going to receive... As the Chronivac had a new canvas to create on.