"And the person going to swap with David is..." Mom's voice trailed off as the tension became thicker, her hand slowly opening the paper to create suspense.
"Alright, alright." Mom laid the piece of paper flat on the table. "Its Melody."
"Yay" yelled melody "I'm going to be big!"
"Do... do we really have to do it?" I said in shock. Mom said "honey, you can choose not to... but you know how much we need those money..." while dad added "it'd make a giant difference".
I nodded understanding "yes, you're... you're right"
"Beside that, Melody won't be such a nerd like you are, being you!" Amelia teased me, but I didn't really pay attention to her.
"I'm going upstairs to my room. I... I need some time" I started headed towards my room and turned on the TV. I figured I'd get in a few hours of videogames to get my mind off of all of this. A few minutes into my gaming the door opened and Cassandra sat next to me.
"Dude, are you okay?" Cassandra asked.
"What do you want?"
"This is my room too," she replied. "I'm allowed to come in here after dinner."
"Dinner's already over?"
"Yeah, it's been half an hour since you left."
Half an hour? It didn't feel that long. Then again, I wasn't really paying attention to the passage of time. Cassie sat on her own bed, facing me.
"Listen, I know that's a huge shock. I didn't expect that either. But you gotta keep it together."
"Easy for you to say, you're not the one who'll get turned into a litle girl next week."
"I know, but... look, you'll get used to it eventually. We all will. And then things will be normal again... mostly. And the rest of our problems will be solved. It probably won't even be that bad."
"I know. And Melody's always been intelligent, so I'm not worried she'll mess anything... She'll do fine. The problem is that I won't be me."
"You'll always be you... just in a different body. But you'll still have me, Stephen and Laura. It'll be okay."
"I hope you're right about this. I really do. I'm just... scared. When I voted in favor of the swap, I didn't think it would be me. I figured it might be something like you and Amelia, maybe."
"F**k no, that would've been horrible. Look, I know it sounds bad, but you don't have much of a choice, here. You'll just have to get used to being Melody. For what it's worth, I'm sure you'll do it a good child. And I mean, we'll even have the chance to be even more bounded: we'll be both girls... I promise I'll play dolls with you, if you want to" we both laughed at that
"Oh thanks, that makes me feel so much better," I replied, sarcastically.
"Now come on, you can't keep moping like that," Cassie said, as she turned on the TV. She handed me a DualShock. "I'm gonna play Killzone. Now you can either play with me and get your mind off this, or cry in a corner. Your choice."
She was right about one thing: crying wouldn't solve anything. If I was gonna be Melody for the rest of my life, I might as well enjoy my last week as me. I picked up the controller and started playing.