“L-listen you little prick," Jennifer said, trying to keep the sudden panic from showing in her voice.
"If you think I'm going to dance to your stupid tune freak," She continued, picking back up some of her familiar cruelty. "Then...then you're too dumb to deserve the title of nerd!!”
If she'd hoped to put him in his place with that line, she hadn't succeeded. After a short pause, the geek burst into laughter.
"HAHAHA! If that's the best you've got, then you're losing your touch," Jenny couldn’t see him, but from his tone she was sure Kyle was smiling from ear to ear on the other end of the phone.
"Back to before though," He continued gleefully. "Your minute is up, and you didn't answer my question. Looks like you get both!"
Jenny felt a trickle of sweat roll down her neck. A large part of her mind was screaming at her to slam the phone, cutting off this loser's ranting and letting her get about her day. Instead, she found her arm locked, the phone glued to her ear as she dutifully waited for what he was about to say next.
"You know," He said. "We're a couple days into December, yet I barely see any Christmas spirit from our fellow classmates or around town."
He tutted slightly at the idea. "My favorite season, the most magical time of the year, and instead everyone just mopes about in the cold, gray weather."
"I think that needs to change, and through the curse you'll be the perfect catalyst for that." Kyle said, the smugness in his voice practically pouring out of the phone into Jennifer's ear.
"For your transformation, after this phone call, a large roulette will appear behind you. On it will be a number of Christmas-themed roles that you can become to help liven up this holiday season."
"Reindeer, elves, trees, yetis, toys; there are any number of possibilities." Kyle was picking up speed now, clearly he'd been anticipating doing this for a good while.
"Whatever you land on you will slowly turn into, changing form and possibly even personality to best fit the role. You won't be alone though, as everyone else will be changing into the other roles at the same rate as you. The school and town will also alter to better reflect the holiday menagerie soon to be filling them up. Nobody except you and I will think any of this is strange; all just part of the holiday season.”
"Don't worry, I'm not without a heart. The changes will only last until the New Year, after which they will begin to revert. Also, in the giving spirit of the season there will be plenty of good options you can land on...at a severely reduced probability!" He snorted at his own cleverness. "You might find some aspects of this new winter wonderland to be more than a bit...naughty, as well."
Jenny felt a second trickle of sweat roll down her spine at this realization. As stupid as this all was, Kyle sounded fully sincere as he spoke. For however much of an unpopular dork Kyle was, he wasn't an idiot, and she didn't see him saying all this without some belief in it.
She wanted to yell into the receiver, cursing Kyle for this dumb prank. Yet still she stood here, listening with rapt attention, all potential retorts going no further than a faint gurgle in the back of her throat
If Kyle heard the faint bubbling of spittle as she struggled against this strange paralysis, he ignored it. Clearing his throat he continued.
"Ahem, for your dare, you will be unable to leave the room you are in until you spin the wheel and choose a role. You will forget about who gave this curse to you, and will find yourself unable to talk about the curse or to speak the words of it to anyone else as long as the holiday magic persists. Any attempts to escape or undo the curse will make the changes you experience more intense and will extend the days until Christmas by another two days."
He paused, and Jenny got the feeling he was running through what he'd said to ensure he'd not forgotten any important details.
"Well, I think that covers just about everything," He said at last. "Good luck Jenny dear, pick something good, I'd hate for my curse against you to be boring!"
With that, the phone line went dead.
Jen's muscles released all at once, causing her to gasp. The hand holding the phone dropped away, the other flinging out to brace against the wall as she breathed heavily for a few moments, collecting herself.
Ridiculous. She thought to herself. Who in their right mind would believe all that bullshit. She had to give Kyle credit for his imagination though, he'd certainly rattled her with how seriously he'd played all of that.
She straightened up, her breathing starting to sound normal again. Jennifer picked up the phone from where she'd dropped in on the floor, reaching up and putting it back in its holder. She was already thinking of some choice ways she could get back at...whoever it was that had just called her.
She frowned, thinking hard to what had just occurred. She remembered the words of the curse, and that she didn't like whoever had said them, but their identity, even the sound of their voice, were suddenly gone from her memory.
She started to turn around, puzzling over this, before abruptly freezing in place. A small squeak, made up of equal parts fear and surprise, escaped her mouth.
In the middle of the kitchen there now sat a horizontal gameshow style wheel. It was circular, about seven feet in diameter, and painted in Christmas colors of red and green. Soft yellow lights ringed the outside, twinkling invitingly around an inner circle she couldn't see down into.
Jenny's mind sputtered and sparked, her brain working hard to try and rationalize this, and utterly failing in the process.
She tried to turn, to run out of the kitchen and up to her room to hide, but it was no use. The same power that had compelled her to hold the phone and listen to all of the mysterious caller's tirade seized her legs, forcing her to step closer to the wheel.
As she stiffly arrived at the edge of the wheel, she was able to see beyond the edge of the twinkling lights and down to the board's face.
Like the famous wheel of fortune, the circle was divided into segments of alternating colors and varying widths. Written on them were various Christmas themed things. Jenny saw a very wide segment with the label "Elf", another good sized one that read "Toy - Doll", and others that read things like "Christmas Tree", "Snowman", "Reindeer" and many beyond that.
Peering closer, she spotted some very small sections, each sitting opposite from each other on the wheel. One read "Santa Claus", the other "Mrs. Claus."
"No fucking way," Jenny muttered, her breathing becoming shallow again as the enormity of the situation sank in. Not only was magic real, the town curse was real, and it was currently being used on her. She tried to read more of the names of the colored sections of the wheel, but didn't have time.
She could only watch in horror as her right hand reached out, grabbing one of the vertical pegs that ringed the edge of the wheel's face.
Her muscles tightened of their own accord, and she found her body yanking the wheel with all her strength before letting go as it began to spin. The sound of jingling bells played as it spun, along with a telltale clicking. Jenny only now noticed the classic little arrow sitting directly in front of her on the wheel, clacking as each vertical peg bounced off of it.
The names and sizes of each section blurred together into a red and green cyclone as it spun, leaving her unable to follow where any of the good or bad options lay, not that she wanted any of them. Finally, the cacophony of clicking and jingling began to die down as the wheel began to slow.
The spinning ebbed, and the wheel slowly turned its last before, with a final click, it stopped on a section. On the edge of a full blown panic attack, Jenny turned her head and read the name of what she was to become...