“Why don’t we take a wide angle shot?” Cecelia suggested. She’d always been into photography—after all, what better way was there to make sure the photos she was taking of herself looked absolutely fantastic? There was a reason she had so many Instagram followers, she thought to herself. Rick shrugged and nodded, tapping a few buttons on the camera’s control panel to zoom out. “Okay babe. Smile!” He called out, pressing down on the button.
FLASH
Caught in the full power of the camera’s energy, the mall itself, and everyone inside, rapidly began to transform. The stores shifted into classrooms, locker rooms, a massive gymnasium complete with a pool, a library and offices for the teachers on the second floor. The people inside began to change as well, ages, races, ethnicities, and genders shifting as the magic swept across the building.
Cecelia’s blonde hair darkened to a jet black as her features shifted, now those of an Asian woman in her mid 30s. Her top and jeans morphed into a conservative blouse and skirt, her shoes transforming into slight heels.
Rick’s change was much more drastic. He rapidly began to shrink, winding up just a little over five feet tall as his muscular build melted away. Long red hair cascaded down past his shoulders as his clothing changed, his shirt and pants melting together into a silver and white cheerleading uniform. His chest expanded outwards as a pair of breasts materialized, helping him fill out the top as his manhood reformed into a vagina.
As the the light from the flash faded and the new reality set in, both Cecelia and Raegan blinked repeatedly, their minds adjusting to the new reality. The red headed cheerleader stared, baffled, at the camera in her hand. That was funny, she didn’t remember picking up it. It was, like, ancient or something. She liked taking pictures for the boys, but not with some kind of dinosaur. Belatedly, she realized that someone had been repeatedly calling her name. She looked up and her heart dropped. It was her English teacher, Ms. Tanaka, and she looked annoyed.
Cecelia Tanaka shook her head as Raegan suddenly realized she’d been asked a question, the vacant look on her face replaced with one of alarm. The girl was a ditz, but she meant well. Still, they couldn’t have students randomly wandering the hallways. Too many would just sneak by and distract their friends actually in class. She asked again “Do you have a hall pass? And what’s with the camera?” She didn’t remember Raegan being particularly interested in photography, and that camera looked like a relic from when she was in school.
As the cheerleader stammered a reply about finding it lying around, Cecelia raised an eyebrow. “Maybe I should hold onto this for now. I’ll make sure it gets to the lost and found, if the yearbook club doesn’t know anything about it. I’m sure someone is worried about it.”
Reluctantly, Raegan agreed to hand it over. For some reason the camera felt really important to her, like something she needed to keep track of. But why? Raegan knew thinking wasn’t really her strong suit—that was okay, when you looked as pretty as she did, there was always someone willing to help out—but she knew this was going to bug her all day until she figured it out.
“Now, don’t you have another class to get to?” Ms. Tanaka asked, and Raegan, glancing at the big clock hanging on the wall nearby, saw that she only had a few minutes to get to her history class halfway across the school. With a startled squeak and a hurried goodbye she rushed off, leaving Ms. Tanaka watching her with an amused smile.