PING!
Chloe was caught totally off guard as she kicked a small shiny object several meters ahead of her. She watched as it bounced on the sidewalk with a unique sound every time it hit the concrete, before eventually it finally stopped. The shiny glint reflecting from he sky, catching her eye. She slowly made her way towards it.
Chloe was average height, average build, average everything. The only thing she felt she had going for her were the cute freckles on her nose. Aside from that, average. And that’s how it had always been.
She was wearing a grey ‘Jenny Zeppica’ band t-shirt underneath a green over-shirt, a shoulder-bag, jeans, and a pair of well-worn converse. It wasn’t her most glamorous outfit, but she liked it.
She leaned down, inspecting the little object. It was a ring? A small, golden looking ring. She picked it up, looking at it closer. It was a plain gold band, but something about it was… gorgeous. She couldn’t seem to put it down. Not that she wanted to. Chloe casually slipped it onto her finger and admired it amongst the rest of her rings.
It didn’t really fit in with the rest of her silver jewellery, but she wasn’t about to put it back on the… the—
“Huh?” Chloe said, staring at the ring. Maybe it was the sunlight again, but the ring. It looked, silver now?
She looked closer. It had to be silver, there was no doubt about it. She had to have imagined it was gold before, right?
Her imagination got the better of her, and she told herself that the ring wasn’t silver. It was… rainbow coloured!
And like magic… there it went. Shimmering in the sunlight, like a collection of multicoloured gemstones forged into the shape of a simple wedding band… “what the actual fuck…” she said to herself, her mouth agape.
Stunned, and unsure of what to do, Chloe decided to keep on walking back home where she could do some real inspection on this thing. What made it do that, and why did it respond to her thoughts? She spent several minutes just willing the ring into different colours and materials, before she decided to give it yet another experiment. She looked at a bus on the other side of the road. Maybe she could make the bus a different colour, or even a different material.
She stared at the white colour, and with all her focus and attention, willed it to become red.
But it didn’t work.
“Damn.” She said to herself. Maybe she really was getting her hopes up, the prospect of being able to change things made her… well it got her excited, to say the least. She spent the rest of her walk home playing with her new colour changing ring, enjoying it’s very interesting qualities. She was certain there was more to this ring, but she just wishes she understood it better…
—
“Hey.” Chloe said, opening the front door. Expectedly, she found one of her roommates, Natalie, sitting on the couch eating in front of the TV.
“Hey.” Natalie said, turning to see Chloe, “nice ring.” She said.
“Right!?” Chloe said excitedly, “I’m glad you noticed.” She said, smiling, “look, it changes colour.”
“Like a mood ring?” Natalie asked, turning to look at Chloe,
“I guess.” She said, “but look, I can change it whatever colour I like. Give me a colour.”
“Uhm… like, bronze?”
“Watch.” Chloe said, thrusting her hand into Natalie’s face, but as she did, the colour shifted, turning a beautiful bronze.
“Oh that is pretty cool… can you make it like red?”
“Yeah, look!” The colour shifted again to a red,
“How much was it?” Natalie asked, turning to her bowl,
“Nothing, I found it on the way home from work. Pretty neat, huh.”
“Yeah. Probably belongs to someone,”
“Whatever.” Chloe said, brushing her off, “I’m sure if you found a magical colour changing ring, you’d take it.”
“Absolutely, that’s cool as hell. It’s a shame you don’t have more colour changing jewellery.” Natalie said, retuning to the TV.
“Yeah, honestly I wish I did.” She laughed, “it would let me accessorise better.” She smirked… but was hit with a strange feeling… all over her body. Her neck, her face, her fingers, even on her wrist.
She looked down, and out of thin air… suddenly she was covered in various coloured jewellery! Rings, bracelets, necklaces, she even found her face with a few piercings around her nose and her eyebrows, on top of her earrings, “w-what the fuck…” she said to herself. But Natalie didn’t hear.