Mary, who along with the sluggish pregnant Jane, was much closer to the camera, and as such managed to grab it way earlier than anyone else. As the others closed in, she began to panic, wondering if Auntie Jane would take her camera away from her! In her struggle, she managed to have the firmest grasp on it, and pulled it from the group. The camera in her arms faced the others as the button was pressed.
FLASH
"Isn't it pretty!" Mary said, suddenly much chipper looking. "I think it used to belong to my Mommy."
Jake was completely thrown off. Once again, he found himself much shorter than he was. He realized quickly that Mary, who was still holding tightly to the camera, was now at eye level to him. "Oh no." He thought, hoping with all his heart that he wasn't a toy again.
"Wow it's so nice." Another little girl's voice arose.
Jake turned his head to see another girl about Mary's age, but who was an Italian looking girl with tanner skin, dark brown hair, and a cute yellow dress with matching mary-janes and a headband.
"I'd love one of those." She giggled.
"We're just lucky Mary and my Mommy let us see it and take some pictures." A third voice rose. "But Maybe Mommy will let you use it Kendra!"
Jake glanced back towards Mary, clearly worried about the pattern he was seeing. Next to Mary was another redheaded girl, but unlike Mary's wavy hair, this girl had curly hair tied in two unruly pigtails. She was also wearing a pink dress instead of a purple dress like Mary. Jake stared at the girl's face, and realized why it looks familiar. "That's Mr. Jameston!" He thought, eyes bugging out in shock. "But who the heck is Ke... oh my god, Kendra?! As in Ken?!" HE thought with his mouth agape. The unborn fetus that had been a ken doll was now a little girl named Kendra.
"Do you also like it Jada, Maarika?" The former Mr. Jameston asked, looking towards Jake.
"Huh?" Jake muttered, and covered his mouth upon hearing just how squeaky it sounded. He looked at his hands, and his skin was a dark chocolate brown. He moved his hands to his head and felt course, rough hair which felt a little goofy. He felt two little afro like pom moms on either side of his head. He looked down and saw two black arms, connected to a little girl's body wearing light blue overalls and a light pink shirt. "Oh my gosh, I'm a little black girl." Jake whispered to himself.
"Are you guys ok?" Mary asked concerned. "Taylor, maybe we should get Mommy."
"Wait, we're fine." Jake heard yet another little girl's voice behind him. A pair of tiny hands appeared on his shoulder as he felt someone lean against him.
He turned to see a little Vietnamese girl smiling next to his shoulder. She had dark black hair which reached to her shoulders, and had darker skin and an adorable dimple. She opened her eyes, and from what he could tell, she was secretly furious. Also from the gaze, something in her Asian eyes wrung familiar to Jake.
"Wait, Maarika... Mark?" He whispered in a panic.
"Shut up 'Jada', I'm trying to recover this from your dumbass plan." He whispered back, which only sounded funny with a little girl's voice instead of the intimidation Mark was going for.
"Wait, why were you guys looking at yourselves weirdly?" Mary asked concerned.
"Yeah, and why didn't you answer? Are you homesick? It's ok, I was really nervous too the first time I slept over at someone else house." Taylor added on, trying to be supportive.
"No I was just... amazed at how nice the camera was!" Mark lied, still holding a bright smile. He gave Jake a quick nudge.
"O-oh yeah, me too! We just really wanna see that camera." Jake added.
"Yeah, it looks super cute! I want to see it too!" Kendra jumped in, clapping happily.
Mark and Jake tensed up, they couldn't let the former Ken doll have the camera, especially with an eight year old's intelligence and patience.
"Can I try it first?" Mark asked.
"Then me please?" Jake added.
"What! No fair! I was the quickest before to say how nice it looked, I should use it first!" Kendra jumped in.
Kendra started to reach for the camera, which Jake and Mark couldn't allow. They jumped in too and the girls were all debating who should get it first. Mary, Taylor and Kendra were laughing, thinking it was a funny competition while Jake and Mark were fighting for their old lives.
"Girls!" A loud voice wrung out behind them. They all turned to see a middle aged, slightly chubby woman walk into the room. She had curly red hair tied up into a bun, was wearing a nice blouse and mom jeans which tightly gripped to her wide thighs, and had a very pissed of expression in her eyes. She walked over and before Mark or Jake could react she swiped the camera from Mary's hands.
"Aww Mommy, I promise we were just playing." Mary said.
"Yeah Mommy, we weren't gonna drop it." Taylor jumped in.
"No buts missys, this is a really old camera from my college days." She chuckled. She walked over to a shelf, where with the help of her high heels she was able to just reach the top shelf where she placed the camera. Jake and Mark watched as their hearts sunk. It may have been a moderately sized shelf, but in their current forms it may have well been two stories tall.
"Now, pizza's on its way." She announced. "What do you girls wanna do before it gets here?" She asked.
"Frozen II!" Kendra, Mary, and Taylor yelled, surprising Mark and Jake.
"Ok, the movie it is." She laughed.
A few minutes later, all 5 of them were lined up on a large sofa and the movie was playing on Disney Plus. Jake and Mark made sure to scoot far away from the others to whisper, and discuss what to do next.
"Great plan Jake, really great plan." Mark whined.
"Shut up Mark, it was a good plan. You just messed it up." He retorted.
"I messed it up?" He said shocked.
"Yeah, I was pregnant Mark, how would you expect em to chase after the camera?" He complained.
"Oh I'm sorry, I just didn't expect to have to chase after it... speaking of which, what was that about? Why did you hesitate so long?" He asked sarcastically.
"I don't know... I had pregnancy brain." He sighed. "I also started thinking about what else was changed."
"What do you mean?" Mark asked.
"Mary and some crumbled up photos in her pocket... so how many things did she change before we got there?" He asked rhetorically.
"Shoot... so, what do you think changed?" Mark wondered.
"I don't know, but maybe Sarah was an object before or something." Jake said before the two glanced over at her. She happened to be looking at them and raised an eyebrow. She was wondering if Jada and Maarika were alright.
"Shit, start giggling." He said.
"What?" Mark asked.
"Just do it." Jake growled and the two giggled.
Sarah saw this and figured the girls were just being girls before walking into the other room. Once she was gone, Jake looked back at Mark and explained.
"Look, we gotta stop drawing attention to ourselves. If we're gonna get that camera, we gotta try later tonight. That's our best bet."
"No way." Mark said. "Your plan completely flopped last time. I say we rush over there now, climb up the shelf, throw it down to the other and change ourselves quickly.
"What!?" Jake said shocked. "That's way too risky. If we mess up anything there, we're out of here. We could get sent home to our new houses, and never be allowed over again! We could loose the camera, forever!" He quietly whisper screamed at Mark.
"But if we try your plan of waiting and we fail again by being too slow or cautious, then it falls into one of these kids or Sarah's hands and then things just get way worse." Mark retorted.
Jake looked over at the three other little girls all happily munching popcorn and sighed. "Look, I see your point Mark, but it sounds way too risky. What if they try to stop us? What if we fall and break our tiny kid bones? What if the camera drops and breaks forever?" He asked.
"Look, I get there's risk involved, but its' the fastest, most direct way of assuring we get the camera and the control." Mark argued "Or do you wanna be a little black girl and have to grow up all over again?" He asked.
The two thought for a moment, before the decided on a plan.