“Bill! Gloria! Tammy! You coming?” Willow's voice called out from the front door. Bill ignored his future daughter-turned older sister's voice as he attempted to console Gloria, but the longer he stood staring at the picture of his changed family, the angrier he became. He was just about to explode when he felt two soft hands on his shoulder and arm. Bill's head snapped to the left and the anger he felt faded away as he saw Tammy's concerned face.
"Hey, we can figure it out at school, okay?" Tammy's voice was soft and calm as she stroked Bill's broad shoulders and gave his arm a supportive squeeze.
Bill felt the anger fading away as the touch of his best friend-turned wife-turned...something brought back Bill's level-headedness. They did have all day to figure out how to control the gemstone and get everything back to normal. Right now they just needed to get to school before anything else happened.
"Yeah. Yeah, we can." Bill said with a nod, and the three teenagers soon piled into Willow's economy car and were off to school. As Bill stared out the passenger side window, listening to Willow talk to the girls in the backseat about...something pointless, he considered it at least something of a small miracle that reality had ended up this way. Two blocks later, a small thunderstorm had interrupted the pleasant morning weather, heavy raindrops pouring down on anyone caught on the street, including Jon Ingerman and Rob Bolstrum. The bullies of the high school, both with a grudge against BIll that apparently persisted in this new reality, the two ogre-like teens had clearly been waiting for Bill on his usual path to school before being dislodged by the surprise rain. Despite the similar downpour of thoughts running through his mind at the moment, Bill couldn't help but grin at the sight of the two bullies getting soaked as they dashed for cover.
But then Bill blinked as Willow pulled to a stop at the intersection. Instead of the two bullies there was now just Big Jon and a...girl? The two of them were hunkered under the short awning of an apartment building, BIg Jon's letterman jacket covered arms craned almost protectively over a red haired girl dressed to the nines in full punk clothing, leather jacket, bare mid-riff, torn apart jeans and boots, a cigarette clinging to life in her fingers. She looked almost like a...female version of Rob? What was going on? The two shared a quick kiss as Bill blinked in confusion and worry before Willow's car accelerated forward.
Meanwhile, in the backseat, Tammy was going through a similar cascade of thoughts and emotions. She loved this body, she felt happy, happier than she could ever remember being as Tom. But that happiness was tempered by worry over the stone, which was still in Gloria's possession, worry that Bill, her darling Bill, didn't want her to remain Tammy, and remorse over the fact that Willow, her baby, was no longer her baby. At this point there was very little Tom left within Tammy's mind. She could still remember being him, but she also remembered two entire lifetimes of being Tammy. The greater sum of memories being her older self; a wife and mother and an entire life lived, while now she also had full memories of this life. Of being Tammy the teenager, being Bill's best friend and sharing a deep, almost soul-mate like bond with despite the two of them never acting on it.
Both of these realities were preferable to what Tammy had been and if nothing else, she had to figure out a way to get the stone so she could make everyone forget she was ever Tom. She could live with this reality, but no matter what, she had to erase Tom Ackerton from whatever level of existence he still remained on. No matter what.
And for Gloria, well, Gloria was the target of a intensive, gossipy interrogation by Willow, whom she was still incredibly weirded out by. From the few minutes of small talk that kept her thoughts from drifting towards more paranormal matters. Apparently Willow looked up to Gloria's mother, which gave the younger Vanapolous chills. Willow was still persuing an artistic career in this reality and Ariadne, Gloria's mother, had apparently been something of an short-lived splash in the art world before motherhood had sent her down another path. Willow was a big fan of Ariadne's art and was clearly smoozing for a meet and greet, while Gloria had no real idea what the newly created woman was talking about. To her knowledge, her mother had never shown any inclination towards creativity, instead just that constant sneer of cold command and logic, the need for more power and control. But as strange as it might have been, it could have also possibly been true; Gloria knew very little about her mother's past.
And during the final silence as the high school loomed in the distance, Willow decided to drop a bombshell.
"So Gloria, are you still seeing Matt Harris?"
Gloria blinked in confusion, "Matt Harris?"
"You know, pride of the school, captain of like all the ball teams? Oh no, are you two fighting?"
"Uh...." Gloria's thought process scattered into static as it struggled to process the information. The only Matt Harris that she knew had been that loser Sophmore, a greasy little pervert with anger issues that she would occasionally pick on, whenever she hadn't been blasting Tom or some poor girl that earned her wrath. And he definitely wasn't captain of any of the ball teams! She'd NEVER date such a little turd! Out of instinct she cast a sidelong look at Tom...But only saw Tammy, who was staring at her blankly, seemingly unconcerned about Gloria's dating life. Any mention of 'another man' in Tom's presence had been enough to drive him into a rage but this...girl that she had turned him into appeared to give zero fucks. And she looked so comfortable in her geeky, slightly chubby but still cute form. Like she'd always been that way. Was Tom in there at all? Gloria could feel the edges of the gemstone cutting into her palm as real fear set in.
She wasn't sure if she had loved Tom, but something about how naturally at ease that Tammy looked made part of her heart break.
"Gloria?" Willow asked from the driver seat, but her timing was poor. They had just pulled into the drop-off lane of the high school, and the three teens were quick to leap out and race through the rain to the school doors. Willow just stared at her younger brother and shrugged.
"Man, what is up with them today?" She said to herself as she slowly accelerated away from the high school and off towards the local community college.