Roll With it
ENDING 2
A waterfall of applause exploded through the hall. On stage and dressed in her soft costume and peering through thick, essential glasses, Pearl blinked at the crowd with her breath held tight in her chest. Arm trembling, she struggled to raise the trophy until one of the helpers on the side assisted her and guided her back to her seat.
Looking down, May straightened the bulging wrinkles of her top covered in anime girls sprawled out on beds and cozied up to one another. Her breasts hadn't abandoned her. She brushed back her long, blond hair and glanced to her left. Eric was back, his eyes squinting at his normal hands returned in place of his dainty ones. Grimacing, Dean glanced up at the stage and over at the rest of the fallout with his hand on his forehead. He and Lodi were restored but Clair curled her legs underneath her and shot a hopeful look at Pearl as she approached the group.
Back at the room a short while later, Dean held the die in his hands. It still looked like a normal one, with maybe a shimmer to it he couldn't remember seeing in a long time. He declared, "This is not the most fortuitous result. Why, in all the theoretical outcomes, are half our group still the opposite sex?!"
May rocked her head and remarked simply, "Perfectly balanced, as all things really oughta be."
Dean pointed at May. "Not a reassuring reference. I can get that it seems like the die took mercy on me and let me stay with my friends and family. But YOU! Why, of all incongruous quandaries, are you still a girl?!"
Shrugging, May admitted, "Somebody's gotta be. Call it... fate, call it luck, call it karma, I believe everything happens for a reason. I believe I was destined to have big honking titties. May not make sense to you but it makes sense to me."
Dean muttered, "I can't believe you're engaging in such frivolity...especially when..." He glanced at the wall. Lodi had taken Clair and Pearl to their room to talk and Eric was shaving in the bathroom. With a breath, Dean finished, "When Edgar just had his life ripped away. And whatever happened to Clair. She's no longer a six but yikes."
May nodded at that. "I can only speak for myself. But I'm not gonna cry about the new ratio. Shame we couldn't pick up one more." She glanced at the open bathroom door.
Whispering, Dean mused, "The temporal logic doesn't work. I should've never met Lodi. None of you should be here but if you're not then we never get to this point and my headache is growing to inconceivable heights."
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
May kicked off her sneakers and admitted, "You have a reality-altering die filled with magic or aliens or alien magic. I have no idea. I'm just in this for the boobs and I'm glad to keep them as long as possible."
Dean sighed and inquired, "But not forever, right? I made sure about not forever. So, it's not fractured and discombobulated anymore. Which means....this could all go pop at any moment."
May pressed, "Did you want this result for a long time though?"
Dean pledged, "For as long as I can possibly live, I want Lodi in my life. I just didn't want to ruin anyone else's life."
As Eric was trying on the weird wig for a character Dean could barely remember choosing before all this (he admitted it was mostly there as an emergency wig in case someone lost their hair with a character), Lodi opened the side door and helped Clair and Pearl rejoin the group. Pearl's eyes were puffy and red behind her glasses but not wet.
With a deep breath, Pearl confessed, "I'm really freaked out. This was supposed to be a little vacation but I don't know what to do now." Without prompting, Eric came over to hug her. She leaned away at first but accepted the embrace. Clair seemed much like the adolescent they'd known through the weekend but there were glimmers of Sinclair, especially when she glared at May.
On the trip home, Eric did his best to treat Pearl the same as he'd treated Edgar. Pearl didn't have the same, booming laughs or easy calm but the smiles returned, even though she still had to force them. Every new minute as Pearl was a minute she felt further from herself.
Home didn't help as much as she hoped. Her mom treated everything like it was normal. And, no matter how many times she tried to sleep away this nightmare, it still clung to her. But she got on with her life, as best she could. Eventually, she went for the step ladder without thinking of jumping to get something on a high shelf. But she still shopped the way she wanted for clothes, much to the frustration of her parents. Clair stopped by to visit a lot, always arriving with a hopeful smile.
Despite the fact she still liked hanging out with Eric better, Pearl invited Clair to games from time to time. It wasn't the life she wanted but it was life. And she learned to chase away the frowns to show the kind of person she was underneath it all.