Chapter 9

With both siblings frozen in fear, the blonde Eleanor's brown eyes were wide with sickening terror. "Oh my gosh…" she mumbled as she glanced at the mysterious boy wrapped in Brittany's priciest robe.

"Elli," the boy called as he held his hands up in defense. "Eleanor… please… I can totally explain-"

Ringing through Brittany's ears came his sister's ear-splitting cries as she ran past the boy, her breathing heavy with fear. "Stay away! Stay back! Jeanette, someone broke into the house!"

"No, Ellie, please!" Brittany pleaded, turning to face his distraught sister.

"Get back!" Eleanor heaved a warrior cry with the kitchen's broom wrapped tightly in her white-knuckled grasp. "Stay back! I will beat you senseless if you take another step!"

Brittany scoffed under his breath and disobeyed his sister's orders and took a mere step out in front of him. "Eleanor, be rational and let me explain, alright?" he spoke at his calmest.

Eleanor played no games and kept her unbroken promise, whacking the auburn-haired boy cross the jaw with the straw end of the broom. He collapsed to the floor almost instantly, curling himself up, preparing himself for any other blows.

"Damn it, Eleanor! Stop it right now!"

"How do you know my name?" she snarled perplexedly as she continued to hit the defenseless boy across the head.

"Eleanor, it's me! Brittany!"

Just as the blonde drew back the broom to produce another hit across his face, she stopped herself, her face morphing from anger to pure blankness. "What?" she spat, her breathing heavier than before. "What the heck do you mean?"

"Ellie… I don't know what's happened…" Brittany attempted to convince his heated sister. "But… I know I don't look like myself… at all! Something happened to me last night… and I don't know what… but whatever happened… I changed into…"

"You're not Brittany!" she retorted, her anger returning with a vengeance. "I don't know who the heck you are, but you better leave and stop playing this sick joke! Where's my sister? Where's Brittany, and what the heck did you do with her?"

It was then that the tears began to flow down the boy's torn-up face twisted with pure hurt. "Ellie… please… how can I prove to you that I'm Brittany, you're oldest sister? I'm standing right here; I just look different… and sound different!"

"Shut up and just get out!"

"Wait!" Brittany spat as he held up his hands in defense once more. "If I weren't Brittany…" he paused, his mind beginning to race with many memories. "If I weren't Brittany," he repeated. "I… I-I-I wouldn't have the necklace with the pink diamond in the middle that you gave to me for our birthday when we were ten. And I told you I would never take it off! Never!"

Eleanor raised a single eyebrow, her brown eyes narrowed with uncertainty.

"If I never take it off," Brittany began, "it should be around my neck this very moment, right?"

Surely, Eleanor didn't want to come off as being the naïve type and believe a total stranger that potentially broke into her abode, or she presumed so. But what did she have to lose? With great hesitation, Eleanor walked her way towards the hysterical boy and fanned away the collars of the robe away from his neck. Upon doing so… her eyes landed upon the necklace with the pink diamond resting nearly in the middle, a sudden shriek escaping her.

"Well… y-y-you could've taken it from her!" she contradicted as she shoved the boy away. "You monster!"

"Ellie, no!"

"If you say you're Brittany," Eleanor began as she flashed her brown eyes filled with rage and tear, "then what's so special about that damn necklace? Tell me now!"

With a cocky smile appearing on the boy's face, he knew right away what Eleanor was talking about. There was no way he could lose. "On the back," he began suddenly. "It says, "To my fashionista, oldest sister, B.L.M. With tons of love, Ellie."

"So what does B.L.M stand for?"

Brittany rolled his bright blue eyes and scoffed. "It's the initials of my name, silly. Brittany Linnae Miller…"

The undeniable truth had spilled out, and Eleanor couldn't believe her eyes. "Brittany…"

~7~7~7~7~

Simon snatched away from the red-head's ear and wheezed, his eyes wider than before. "Alvin? That scar… it's there! But-"

"I know it's there, because I'm Alvin!" she bellowed as she concealed her enlarged chest. So many emotions had built up in the young girl, she began to cry. "What's happened to me? I'm supposed to be a guy, not girl! This is so sick and nasty!"

"Alvin… I-I-I…" Simon stammered terribly, trying to find the words to explain this extreme predicament. "W-w-well… it's… humph… I don't know what to say!"

"Say something!" Alvin's girl-like voice exclaimed as her face beamed a bright red that matched the cap lying at her feet. "Anything! You're the smart one!"

"Alvin… ur, um… yeah, Alvin…" He cringed. He wasn't fully positive on what name he should give his brother… or sister. "I can't explain this phenomenon at all! This is scientifically impossible, as far as I know!"

"Great…" Alvin mumbled under her heated breath as she began to pace the carpeted floor. "Perfect! Just amazing! I'm probably stuck like this for the rest of my life!" she bellowed before collapsing to the floor, her legs curled tightly to her chest as she rocked herself to and fro.

"Alvin," Simon began with a roll of his eyes. "Don't be so melodramatic!"

With fury building up in the red-head Alvin, she lunged for Simon, taking him by his freshly ironed shirt. Had Simon crossed the line for Alvin? Well, of course; it obviously wasn't normal to change genders within a short time period, and Alvin felt Simon wouldn't understand; not by a long shot.

"Melodramatic? Melodramatic? I'm a girl… who was a full-fledged boy just hours ago, and you are telling me not to be melodramatic?" she roared before tightening her grip on the frightened Simon, but she slowly relaxed, her emotions gradually withering away. "I should sock you… in the nose… with an iron fist…"

With irritation, Simon loosened Alvin's grip from around his collar and sighed in defeat. "Okay… maybe you're right; no… you're fully right… I wouldn't know anything about how you feel right now!"

"Thank you…"

"So…" Simon started awkwardly as he studied Alvin's new physique. "Do you have a single thought about how this ordeal could have happened?"

Alvin scrunched her face in thought, and slowly shook her head after her thinking process weakened. "Not a single idea. I wouldn't know where to begin!" she exclaimed as she unknowingly circled Simon, her mind racing to just hours prior to the incident. "I mean, I lifted weights, passed out, went to the hospital, and then I went-"

She suddenly paused, her voice getting caught in her throat at the sudden realization. "The hospital…"

Simon raised an eyebrow as he tilted his head to Alvin's plump lips. "The what?" he asked.

"The hospital!" Alvin repeated excitedly as she fanned her hands about. "That night Brittany stayed late at the hospital; the night we argued! It happened!"

Simon crossed his arms tightly over his chest and gave Alvin the look he hardly gave anyone or anything; the look of bewilderment. "What happened?"

Alvin inhaled through her nostrils and exhaled through her mouth and began. "Me and Britt were going back and forth at each other… then this… weird… pink thing… I don't know what to call it; it was like some kind of tornado thing, you could say; and it had blue specks that looked a lot like stars. I-I-It sucked us in! Y-y-yeah, it sucked us in and spit us right back out! A-a-and the entire night, I was coughing up this pink cloud of smoke!"

"Wait," Simon began as he cupped his chin in his hands thoughtfully. "By what you're telling me… whatever happened to you and Brittany that night plays an extremely big role of why you… look like this…"

A look of astonishment made its way across Alvin's face as she produced a sigh that matched her facial expression. "You actually believe me? If I knew you would believe me, I would have told you a long time ago! Damn!"

"I somewhat believe you," the skeptical Simon corrected sternly. "You say nothing else happened to you that day, so whatever occurrence you and Brittany went through has got to be explanation. But… a pink tornado with blue stars the size of a hospital room? If I put all my belief in this, I'll be going against everything scientific and everything I so deeply have faith in!"

"Simon, please…" Alvin moaned as she crouched down to her knees, wrapping her tiny arms around Simon's legs. "I know what you believe in… but just consider! Maybe there's research out there you and Jeanette have never conducted before! M-m-maybe whatever happened to me and Britt is a new discovery! Have you ever thought of that?"

"Alvin, that can't be poss-"

"Si! Please! You have to change me back!"

"But wait…"

"What now?"

Simon's eyes widened frightfully as he gazed at Alvin's feminine body. "If… you are like this… and the same thing happened to Brittany… what does Brittany look like?"

Alvin gasped suddenly before making his way to the bedroom door. "Dude, I'm a chick! That means Brittany-"

"… must be the exact opposite…" Simon finished dreadfully before grabbing his emergency book bag and slinging it over his shoulder.

Alvin snarled as she gazed down at the blue and black book bag hanging over Simon's shoulder. "Why do you have to bring that thing wherever you go?"

"You'll see… but we have to sneak you out so Dave won't see you!"

"Gosh, I forget about him!"

With his mind racing, Simon quickly grabbed his discarded sweatshirt and threw it over Alvin. "Come on!" and with that, he took Alvin's hand and practically dragged him down the stairs and to the door.

"Fellas?" the surrogate father's voice boomed before Simon could even grab hold of the brass doorknob.

They both shuttered at the sound of his voice and halted suddenly. "Yes Dave," they replied in unison; however, Alvin had quite a difficult time deepening her new voice.

"Where are you two headed off to?" he asked as he soon appeared around the corner. "And… why is Alvin wearing your sweatshirt, Simon?"

Through a fit of nervous chuckling, Simon readjusted his book bag on his shoulder and shrugged. "Uh… well, Alvin here forgot his sweatshirt at the Chipettes' house a week ago and… and… we're off the retrieve it! Isn't that right, Alvin?"

With no words spoken, Alvin nodded his head, giving Dave the thumbs up.

"Is Theodore going with the two of you?"

Simon nodded. "Of course Theodore's going!" he exclaimed, projecting his voice just enough to make Theodore look up from his breakfast plate in curiosity. He jumped to his feet and ran to meet the family by the front door, his green eyes gazing around.

"I'm going…" he dragged on, hoping Simon would give him an answer.

"To the Chipettes' house, remember?" he asked, giving him a look that read urgency and 'you better not blow this for us'.

"Oh!" Theodore exclaimed with a wide smile, the notion from Simon finally received. "I remember!" he lied stiffly. "I totally forgot about it, Dave!"

Dave raised an eyebrow, but soon shrugged his shoulders in defeat. "Well, if it's okay with the girls, I don't see why-"

"Thanks Dave!" the three spat before racing out of the house and down the street.