Bored out of his mind Maxine, Jeff's younger sister, excused herself. There was not much for her to in the living room to do beside listening to the adults chatter, (and her father shamelessly crying rivers) so she got in what was now her brother's room. Earlier she had tried to get better acquainted with Julie, the girl that spent so much time with her brother now that he shared Jenny's body. But it was clear being assaulted by her uncle had done a number of the girl, who was very jumpy if anyone was behind her, and seemed scared in the presence of any male outside her father (or Jeff), which Max had been mistaken for because of her boyish look, to the point she preferred to leave her alone rather than cause a fear induced panic-attack to the poor thing.
Once in her brother's (in reality Jenny's) room, Max saw the Chronivac and, believing it to be an old computer, switch it on. Once it was booted up, she saw what she thought to be an ‘Adventure you are the Hero’ kinda textual game, one coded by Jenny and/or his brother since it was so obviously based on their own life.
Wanting a world were Julie wouldn't fear her, as virtual as it might be, she started to write that instead of only meeting with her after almost being raped, they were long time friend and even were besties.
She also wrote that, unable to live in the house where ‘uncle Freddy’ almost raped their youngest and killed the (boy)friend of their oldest, the parents of Jenny & Julie had changed house and invited her own parents to move in with them. If you asked them, it was so both family could more easily support each others but, while it was true, the main reason was so Jeff wouldn't be separated from his own family. The boy had gone through so much, separating him from his loved ones would only make things worse for him.
Finally, thinking it was a handicap for Jenny & Jeff to only be able to communicate orally now that they shared a body, Maxine wrote that the very fact they were now two beings in only one body made them able to ‘telepathically’ communicate which each other, and not only with words.
Max validated and, since the awareness parameters had stayed the same from when Julie used the Chronivac, forgot she had used it. Believing she had come to her brother's room thinking her friend and housemate would be here, and only took a look at the ‘old computer’ and its ‘textual game’ out of curiosity, she powered off the Chronivac and directed herself toward Julie's room.
Maxine couldn't help but find funny how peoples as different as Julie and herself could be so unlike each others and still end up being the best of friends. Where Julie was the girly-girl type, Max herself was a true tomboy, to the point some wondered if she wasn't an actual boy. Most girl would be offended, in fact Julie often got offended on her behalf about it. But because some peoples wouldn't let her practice her favorite sports or play video games with her if they knew she was a girl, Maxine had learned to use it to her advantage.
Let's be clear, Max may be a tomboy, she is a girl from the depth of her heart. She just hate how some people try to stop her from doing what she like and push her toward activities she doesn't because of it.
Finally in her friend's room, she made said friend aware of her presence before asking "Do you want us to do our homework together?"
— – - – —
Back at Laura's, Jenny & Jeff were again aware of reality's newest change, knowing it was Max who did it this time, no more aware of it than Julie had been of her's. They only thought one thing about it: "As soon as we get back home, we need to put the Chronivac under lock."