After being embarrassed by this curse...or whatever the hell was going on, Victor stared at the clock behind Mr. Schmidt impatiently, ignoring the older man's spiel as he waited for the bell to ring.
5...4...3...2...1...
*Ring *Ring
“...And I guess that nugget of wisdom will have to wait. OK kids, see you tomorrow” said Mr. Schmidt as his pupils began to fill out of his class. Miles and Victor in particular were the first to jump out of their seats, as they were anxious to just disappear into the crowd and be forgotten about.
“Bathroom. Now” whispered Victor into Miles's ear.
Miles had trouble walking in his sneakers as they were too big for his now dainty feet. He reluctantly slipped out of the footwear and was forced to carry them. Now he was walking barefoot in the hallway as he struggled to keep up with Victor, who could now take two steps for every one step Miles took, although that may have been because Miles was cringing again. His toenails were painted the same color of red as his fingernails.
Once they reached the bathroom, Victor shut the door behind them and looked around, paranoid about being heard.
“OK, the coast is clear” Victor said, wincing at his soft melodious voice, paranoid about being heard.
“You sound just like my sister” said Miles.
The scene was completely incongruous. Victor Mattingly was a handsome teenage boy with even a hint of a five o'clock shadow coming in, but his voice sounded about as girly as a voice could possibly be.
“Seriously, what's going on? Did you piss off a witch or something?”
That actually wasn't very far off from the truth, although Victor had only meant it as a dark joke.
“I don't know!” said Miles. “We've got to hurry to Science, though. I can't be late again or else I'll get suspended.”
Miles looked worried, his eyes showing a person half in denial but still trying to figure out a rational explanation for all of this weirdness.
Victor's eyes showed a caged animal, a person who knows they are in a bad situation and will do absolutely anything to get out of it, they just don't know how.
“OK” said Victor sweetly to his friend. “Go. I'll catch up with you. I just need a minute alone.”
Miles nodded and walked to class, carrying his now over sized sneakers with him.
As the students were filling into their 10:00 A.M class, Miles sighed as he noticed several kids who he didn't want seeing him like this. In the middle rows there was Stacy, Janice, and Diana, who had already teased him about his hair earlier, but there were also several boys who he knew were going to give him a hard time as well if they noticed him. So Miles went to the very last row of the class where no other students were and sat down.
**
Back in the boys bathroom, Victor was staring at himself in the mirror, trying to get used to the sound of his new voice.
“Hello. I'm Victor Mattingly.”
He had to face it. He sounded just like a teenage girl. Not even one with a raspy, sultry voice like Margot Sanchez. He sounded like the most bubblegum, Disney princess, suburban girl next door there was.
Victor tried a couple of times more to disguise his voice, talking through gritted teeth to try and sound like Clint Eastwood or Batman...but he ended up just sounding ridiculous, like a woman trying unsuccessfully to sound like a man.
He sighed.
“Maybe I'm just going to have to be a mute until I can get rid of this. Chicks dig the strong, silent type” he rationalized to himself as he stared at his reflection. He wasn't happy, but he seemingly had no choice but to accept this new development.
It was then when Molly's spell over Victor entered Phase Two.
Victor was about to head to class himself and accept Ms. Arroyo's tardy slip when he felt his hair crawling down his neck.
“Oh no!” he screeched like the heroine in a horror movie as the monster was approaching her. He saw in the mirror that his hair indeed WAS crawling down his neck, long wavy tresses crawling down to his mid back like an army of snakes. He was even growing bangs.
When it stopped, Victor gasped as his hair dyed itself from his normal sandy brown hair color to a brilliant redhead.
The hair itself was healthy looking and well taken care of, which irritated and disturbed Victor, but what bothered him even more was how aroused he was becoming by it. Nobody knew this, but he had a thing for redheads. He called it a preference, but it might have been more accurately labeled a fetish. Ever since he started becoming attracted to women when he entered puberty, Victor had masturbated to several famous redheads in the media like Christina Hendricks, Emma Stone, Karen Gillen, Amy Adams, and the younger Weasley girl from Harry Potter. Hell, he even had lusted over Ariel from The Little Mermaid and Anna from Frozen, and not even actresses dressed up as Ariel and Anna, the actual cartoon characters. Gingers just turned him on.
Now Victor himself was the object of his own lust.
“Fuck my life” he said sweetly at his reflection.