The three jocks looked at the boy who used to be their friend. The way he looked now, they could never associate themselves with him. People might think they were weird. It would ruin their image.
They took a few more steps back, clearly wanting to leave.
"Hey, where are you going?" Tom asked. He took a step towards them, but when he did, he realized that something was happening to ... his clothes?
He looked down and watched as his now-baggier shirt shrunk until it was a plain blue T-shirt, hugging tightly to his now-thin body. Then his jeans tightened and his belt changed, becoming a studded belt. His new clothes looked quite a bit like Derek's, in fact. No one would mistaken him for anything other than an emo now.
Tom looked back up at his friends, having to move his hair out of the way again, but his friends were gone. Seeing his clothes change right before their eyes must have freaked them out. He'd run away too, if he could. But he couldn't run away from himself.
Derek stood up and smiled.
"What hell are you smiling about?" Tom asked.
"You're like me now," Derek said.
Tom gave him a shove, but Derek didn't fall to the ground this time. All his strength had apparently left him. "I don't know how this happened, but I am not like you."
Without really knowing what to do, Tom headed home.
