Evelyn felt a niggling bit of doubt in her head and said, "Hold up, before we go anywhere, shouldn't we be trying to find out what caused this?"
Mary Lou glared and said, "We had a deal, sister. You said you would help me out of here."
"I will, but aren't you curious about why we're like this?" asked Evelyn.
Mary Lou snorted and said, "Curiosity is a human quality."
Evelyn poked Mary Lou in the chest with one webbed finger and said, "You're part human now. You're smart enough to be self-aware now. Surely you have to be wondering how this happened in the first place."
Mary Lou gave a growl of annoyance which made Evelyn jump before saying, "Ok, fine. What do you think caused this?"
"I'm not sure," said Evelyn, "I didn't upset a gypsy witch and I haven't gone into any magic shops or anything. You didn't eat any mutagen or roll around in nuclear waste, did you?"
Mary Lou snorted again and said, "Just because we alligators can eat almost anything doesn't mean we will. And how could I have been rolling around in nuclear waste here? Besides, you would have washed that stuff right off me."
"Wait a minute, that's it! The shampoo!" said Evelyn before walking to her bag. Her walking was a bit clumsier than she remembered, probably because she was built more like an alligator standing on its hind legs than a humanoid alligator. She reached into the bag and pulled out an unopened bottle. "We bought this stuff at the store today and I rubbed it on you. Somehow, it must have turn us into...into..."
"Gator girls?" asked Mary Lou with a grin. Evelyn tried not to look too much at all those teeth, even if she had a muzzle full of similar teeth now.
"I guess it did. But maybe if we used more of this stuff on ourselves, we can change back," said Evelyn as she opened the bottle.
"Whoa, wait a minute," said Mary Lou, "I don't want to go back to being a gator in that little pool and goggled at by all those people again. You made a promise to free me, remember?"
"Mary Lou, you may be used to being a gator, but I'm not," said Evelyn, "I scare myself just looking in the mirror. I have to know if this stuff will change me back. It might not change you back either, I'm not sure what will happen, but we have to try. And if we do end up being changed back to the way we were, I promise I will do everything to see you freed. I'll personally lead a movement to have you released from the wild. There's always some animal right nuts, er, I mean, enthusiasts, who are wanting to see zoo animals returned to their natural habitat. I promise you from the bottom of my heart if you'll just use this shampoo with me."
Mary Lou gave Evelyn a cross look before saying, "Swear it by your first clutch of eggs."
"I'm not likely to lay eggs if this works, but yes, I do swear. Please, Mary Loud, at least try. If nothing happens, we can still escape this zoo," said Evelyn.
Mary Lou sighed and said, "Some of your human softness must have slipped into me. Ok, we'll give it a shot, not that it'll help."
"Thank you so much," said Evelyn. The two gator girls moved into the break room and Evelyn filled a small pot with water. She wasn't sure if the shampoo would require water or not, but she wasn't taking chances. She poured some water on both her and Mary Lou and Evelyn had to admit that the water did feel good on her scales. After that, the two gators rubbed the shampoo on each other and waited for something to happen.