Annie awoke to loud bells chiming through her window. Stretching luxuriously, she was distracted by the resistance on her feet. Pushing herself into a sitting position, she saw that instead of her lumpy twin size bed, she was in a firm, very even full size bed. Not only that, her tiny, worn out childhood blanket (one that she had already outgrown in late middle school) had transformed into an elegant wine-colored blanket that looked brand new. Confused, Annie rose to her feet and took stock of her surroundings.
She was no longer in her tiny bedroom with its low ceilings, surrounded by frumpy, sagging furniture containing her worn belongings. Instead, immediately next to her bed was a sturdy no-nonsense wooden desk with books neatly lined along the edge, accompanied by a similarly sturdy no-nonsense four-legged wooden chair. The desk was pushed right in front of a large window, with glass that reached up to the extremely high ceiling of the room. On the wall opposite of the bed were bookshelves, containing books and items Annie had never seen before. Next to the bookshelves, on the wall directly across from the excessively large window, was a single door with what looked like a school uniform hanging from a hook on the middle of the door. Next to the doorframe was a full-length mirror on the wall, and next to the mirror was a large, heavy dresser made of dark red wood. Resting on top of the dresser was a slim leather briefcase-looking bag, something that looked like it came straight out of one of those high school animes Annie used to watch.
Bemused, and more to establish that she was dreaming, Annie tilted her head to look at the books stacked on the desk. Wyndian History. Mana:Balance. Beginner Water Techniques. Intermediate Water Techniques. Advanced Water Techniques. Beginner and Intermediate had colored tabs poking out at various intervals throughout the book, and Advanced had a bookmark nestled within the first few pages. Presumably, whoever owned these books was only beginning to read Advanced Water Techniques. Through the window was a breathtaking view of a large courtyard, edged with plenty of trees, grass, and flowers, and a large statue spouting water in the center of the cobblestone bricks. The layout reminded Annie of the fancy quads that were a staple of university marketing materials. Annie rubbed her eyes. The fancy quad was still there.
Backing away from the window, Annie turned to the bookshelves, peering at the objects, but careful not to touch anything. She expected the shelves to hold some trinkets, photos, decorations, or any other personal effects that could indicate the type of person who lived in this room; but all she saw were some items that might look at home in a curio shop: a few rings, a couple necklaces, some dice with unfamiliar markings, a number of small pouches containing who knew what, a slender rod of wood with a small jewel embedded in one end. Annie rubbed her eyes and squinted at the objects again. No question about it - all of these items were glowing faintly, as if they were traced with a blue outline. Cautiously, Annie placed a finger on the rod of wood, and immediately snatched her hand back when it started vibrating. Heart pounding, Annie poked at the other glowing items on the shelf, to witness the same effect - but none of the items vibrated as hard as the wooden stick. Perplexed, knowing in her gut it was a bad idea yet unable to stop herself, Annie reached for the rod.
Gripping the wand tightly—because there was no doubt that’s what it was—Annie felt something explode from her stomach - zip through her shoulder, through her elbow, to her wrist, through every joint of her fingers—and blast through the tip of the wand.
Annie shrieked, her hand flying through the air from the kickback. The wand arced from her hand, clattering against the wall before thumping onto the bed. “What the–”
A knock sounded on the door. “Aida? Are you okay?”
Annie froze, staring into the mirror next to the door. Instead of the overlarge T-shirt and short shorts she wore to bed, she was dressed in a pale-blue gossamer nightgown that extended to her knees. Instead of the messy bun that was piled on top of her head, she now had long, flowing waist-length black hair, and a face that most decidedly was not her own.
Approaching the mirror cautiously, Annie pressed a finger against her cheek, stuck her tongue out, smiled - the perfectly symmetrical face in the mirror matched her movements exactly. Annie now had clear, unblemished pale skin, large deep blue eyes, delicate features, and lips that naturally turned up slightly at the corners.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Annie’s reverie was interrupted by more insistent knocking, accompanied by a girlish, worried voice. “Aida? Can you open up? Are you hurt?”
“Everything’s fine,” Annie called back. Geez, even her voice was pretty now. She quickly unbolted the door, opening it no more than a crack to peek outside. Annie stared.
Standing right outside, wearing a worried expression on a face that made Annie’s new visage seem average, was the character Annie had spent close to ninety minutes tweaking the previous night. Upon seeing Annie - Aida - safe and sound, the familiar stranger relaxed into a smile. “Aida! That was kind of a scary noise in your room. What happened?” Floating through the door without waiting for an invitation, the stranger prowled straight to the bookshelf, her long, wavy, nearly platinum blonde hair surrounding her in a halo. She picked up the items scattered on the ground along the way. Annie fumbled the door closed and followed after her.
“Hey–”
“Wow, I haven’t seen you make this kind of mess since our first year here. What happened? What made you lose control?” she flashed a lovely lilac eye at Annie, a mischievous sparkle in her eye. “Did you finally get matched with someone?”
“Uh–” Annie paused, panicking. “I–”
“There, you can organize your things properly later.” The newcomer spun around to face Annie, hands clasped neatly in front of her. Her eyes widened. “How come you’re not dressed yet? We need to get some breakfast before class starts!” completely ignoring the flummoxed Annie, the new girl bustled over to the uniform hanging on the door, and proceeded to undress and dress Annie like her own doll. “Where do you keep your comb?” she fretted, opening the dresser drawers randomly.
“Um–”
“Never mind, I found it. I really should remember where you always keep your things, you’re so good at being organized.” Approaching Annie with a small wooden comb in her hand, the main character sat her on the bed and began pulling the comb vigorously through her hair. “Let’s get this done so we can go eat!”
Annie squeezed her eyes shut, overwhelmed and in pain. “Ouch! Okay, I get it. Let me do my hair myself and I’ll meet you outside in a minute.”
The blonde girl beamed. “Okay, sounds great! I’ll go get my things.” She held out the comb to Annie, literally causing the air around her to sparkle with her beauty. Annie numbly accepted the comb from the girl, her eye drawn to a red gleam at her chest. A metal name tag, embedded with a glowing red gem, etched with SUELINA, was pinned to her blazer.
Annie sighed as the girl skipped out. Suelina was way too energetic, and brought more questions than answers. Was she in a dream? But there was no dream-logic impairing her thoughts. Her reasoning skills were still intact; there were no inexplicable time skips or decisions made that she could blithely gloss over and accept as she marched unquestioningly towards whatever story her mind was trying to tell herself. But I can’t just stand here and try to figure this out - Suelina is going to come back.
Stepping back to the mirror, Annie began untangling her hair (after the female lead’s ministrations, her hair was actually worse than when she first got out of bed). Going through the familiar motions reflected the utter incongruity of her situation.
Here she was, brushing out her hair as if everything was fine - but she wasn’t at home, wasn’t about to head out to work, and had no idea what caused her to wake up in the side character’s body.
Annie wasn’t a stranger to doing things just because she had to - she had been a cog in the system for years now, and had learned long ago that it was easier to follow the processes in place than to try to tease out what the best solution was on her own. This situation seemed to warrant following the process - follow Suelina’s lead - if only so she could buy herself more time to figure out what was happening. Then she could try to figure out what the best solution was.
Placing the comb back on top of the dresser, Annie smoothed down her pale gray blazer and pink skirt, gave a final pull on her pink-and-gray plaid tie, and straightened her name tag: AIDA, with a blue gem. So I’m Aida now, best friends with the character I created for More to Love.
Aida glanced into the mirror. It was really weird seeing someone who wasn’t her moving just like her; she hadn’t ever really noticed how little quirks and habits that people subconsciously did defined the person she was interacting with. Or were the little quirks defined by the person? Would she be able to sufficiently pass as Aida, having no idea what kind of person Aida was, or what specific and personal habits she had?
Firming her resolve, Aida grabbed her schoolbag, checked the doorknob to make sure there wasn’t a lock other than the deadbolt on it - there wasn’t - but how would she get back inside? Praying that Aida really was as organized as Suelina flippantly commented and had the key to re-enter her room packed in the schoolbag somewhere, she stepped out to face her new life.