(First two paragraphs by Nobody14.)
"You're never fully dressed without a smile!" Sophie Burger proclaimed enthusiastically. She was hoping to get the lead role in this year's school musical, Annie. She had spent much of her spare time in the last few days going over the lines and practicing her heart out. At least, that was how she remembered things. The junior had a modest bust, and stood a little shorter than other girls her age. She empathized with orphan Annie, and knew she wouldn't let anything get her down or stop her.
The clock struck 3:47PM.
Keun-hye Lee, mother of the two Kim girls, suddenly found herself on the stage of Lake Point High's auditorium. Literally in Sophie Burger's shoes. Her shoes now. The petite middle-aged Korean woman lost years and melanin. Only her bust and height hadn’t changed. Connie Burger was a pale blue-eyed brunette without any connection to Korea. Not even the slightest interest in K-pop.
And yet someone who had known Keun-hye as a teenage girl would have noticed a resemblance between her old and new selves. The proportions of her face were still roughly the same. Her hair had turned brown, but it was still shorter than Sophie's. And her reluctance to accompany her husband Mr. Kim who had moved to Lake Point for his job had been translated to a reluctance to audition for Annie. But just as Keun-hye was resigned to make the most out of living in a foreign country, Connie was resigned to give this tryout her best shot. She sang in flawless English,
"Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya, tomorrow! You're always a day away!"
Connie wondered if she'd know by tomorrow that she got the part. This was all new to her. Even newer than she thought, as Keun-hye had no idea what Annie was, let alone the lyrics to its signature song.
Would Connie even be Connie tomorrow? Today the stone had decided that a female parent in the Lake Point High bleachers counted as a girl at the school. But would Connie still count wherever she might be twenty-four hours from now?
The stone insured that question would never cross her mind. Connie believed she had always been a White American girl born right here in Lake Point fourteen years ago. Not in Daegu, South Korea forty-four years ago. Connie assumed she'd remain White for the rest of her life.
And she assumed the redhead auditioning after her had also always been White. But Jill Stott had been her younger daughter Ji-woo Kim until a few minutes ago. No one would guess that Connie and Jill used to be related - or that they had been thirty-six years apart. Now they were classmates.
Instead of watching eight-year-old Ji-woo play soccer, Connie was watching fourteen-year-old Jill come up to sing "Tomorrow." With her freckles and naturally curly hair, Jill looks as if she had been born to play Annie. But looks weren't much of a consideration for the director, who was ...
