Linda Madison was nervous. The scientists had promised her everything would be fine, and the experiment offered them a good sum of money to participate, and it was promised to be perfectly safe.
However, when you agreed to participate in an experiment, not only with yourself, but your family, you got nervous. It was only natural. She wasn't even quite sure exactly what sort of personality swap they were going to give her.
She was strapped into the chair and could feel the machinery kicking in, her hair starting to stand on end. Then it stopped. "Well, that was disappointing," she said, sarcastically. "Hey, Doctor, it didn't do anything but mess up my hair," she told him as he unstrapped her.
He looked at her. "Why don't you go wait in there with the others? We'll get you a ride home in a few minutes." He didn't think any of them should drive in an atypical state of mind.
She left, mumbling, and he went over to the other chair. Zoe was sitting there, patiently. She didn't look angry at all, which was a change from when she'd come in. "What do you hope to accomplish from this experiment anyway?" She asked, in a conversational tone.
"Well, I can't discuss that fully during the experiment, but we do hope to learn a great deal. That is why all of you talking about your thoughts using the recorders we gave you is so important."
She nodded. "I'll make sure everyone does that," she said as he released her. She walked into the room where everyone was waiting, and saw Mikey and Sally sitting and talking, Karyn and Jon running around the room, and her mother Linda looking sullen and annoyed. She frowned. "What are all of you doing?" She asked.
Zoe chased after Jon, stopping him. Karyn stopped a few steps after. "Stop behaving like that. We're guests here," she said, with a distinct air of authority.
She paused. Something seemed off about this. She didn't usually care what other people did. But she did right now...very much so. She felt like she needed to hold the family together.
"Come on everyone, we're going home," she said.
"Yeah, whatever," Linda said.
Zoe looked at her mother and frowned. She didn't feel like this woman was her mother. Thinking of her as Linda seemed much more appropriate.
A van came and drove them back to the Madison house.
