"So, Doug..." started Nancy, expectantly, she held Dickie's hand as they walked back to his car.
Doug could guess where this conversation was likely going to go, so he said, "Before you say anything, I apologize for getting you a sibling without asking first."
Nancy looked at him and then laughed.
"Wasn't that what you were going to talk about?" asked Doug.
"I think my parents are more responsible for Dickie's existence than you are, right Dickie?" asked Nancy.
"Yep!" encouraged Dickie eagerly.
That confused Doug for a moment as he remembered the look he and Nancy had shared after Dickie's transformation, but apparently what he'd interpreted as a co-conspirator's reaction, to not being that made him wonder. No, Nancy was just trying to save face in front of Dickie. So he waited until she'd gotten him fastened in his spare car seat that now almost lived in the back of his car so he could take them both home after cheer practice as they did in this reality. She also had given Dickie her cell phone to play games with.
"One sec, Dickie, I gotta talk to your sis alone briefly," said Doug before readying to close the car door.
"Ooo!" responded Dickie before laughing and returning to his games. Thankfully being able to hear that was over.
"So what is it that you wanted to talk with me alone briefly?" asked Nancy.
"Tell me you were just playing along in front of him," said Doug.
"Playing what along?" asked Nancy.
"Nancy, you still know what this is right?" he asked holding up the gold ring.
"The golden ring that turned us and Luis into teenagers," she answered, making Doug both relax but also worried.
"Okay... so you thankfully still remember all that."
"Did you change something else?" asked Nancy, finally catching on to what he was asking.
"Yes. When we walked to your cheer practice--"
"We didn't walk to my cheer practice, I had to swing by and pick Dickie up from daycare for my parents, like I do everyday in this new teenage life...okay, judging by your face we walked to cheer practice then..."
"While you and the cheer team were practicing, Luis and the Track Team were getting ready themselves, and getting chewed out by their old racist coach who--"
"I wouldn't call Coach Allen a racist! Okay, so I'm guessing it wasn't Coach Allen originally?"
"Correct."
"Who was their coach originally?"
"I'll give you one guess."
"No... not Dickie... no..."
"Stop and think about it for a second--who, besides Batman and Nightwing comic fans, would ever want to willingly name their kid "Dick" anymore?"
"And you're saying, my cute little brother who's currently perfectly contented to be playing games on my phone right now, an hour ago was an aging racist track coach?"
"Yes."
"All right, that explains why you started to apologize for no apparent reason... and now I'm starting to get the idea of why you're asking all these questions, because I don't remember Coach Dick before you turned him into Dickie, nor apparently the part where we talked about something before cheer practice. But I did remember when Luis and I were changed and that the ring changes reality... is there like a radius limit to remembering the changes?"
"That's my guess. Perhaps since we talked through your transformation, you remembered that, and since we were both right next to each other for Luis we remembered that change... and then Dickie's change I was at least 20 - 30 yards away from you. So somewhere between being right next to each other and at least 20 yards, would be the dividing line."
"Let's...