Melissa and Zelda walked into Melissa's bedroom and swapped outfits.
"I feel so weird looking like this," Melissa said, standing in front of her mirror. Pale skin, her strange blue-dyed dreadlock hairstyle, a black latex body suit and black lace-up boots with three-inch stacks.
"Weird is good."
"How come I look so different than my friends? None of them look this strange."
"That's because you're a cybergoth now."
"Cybergoth? How is that different than a regular Goth?"
"Well, for me, I'm really into computers, as you can already see. And I like going to raves. In fact, you can hear some of my favorite music. Which, I suppose, is your favorite music now."
Zelda put a disc into her CD player and out of the speakers came electronic music with a pounding beat. "That's trance."
"It's okay, I guess," Melissa said.
"You'll have to learn to like it then. They play this type of music at the club a lot."
"What club?"
"The rave club I go to. If you're gonna live like me, you'll eventually have to go there. Don't worry, I'm sure the music will grow on you."
Melissa wasn't as sure.
"Can you turn it off?"
"Fine," Zelda groaned.
"Take a look at yourself in the mirror," Melissa said, pulling her towards it.
Zelda really didn't want to look. Already she missed dressing in her latex and vinyl outfits. But Melissa made her look. Tanned skin, blond hair, a pink halter top, a denim miniskirt, and brown 3-inch heels.
"Are you gonna have a problem walking in heels?" Melissa asked.
"No, I've got some boots with heels, so I'm used to it."
"Really? I didn't see any in the closet."
Zelda walked to the closet and opened the doors. Desires for her old life rushed back into her mind. She searched the closet for the heeled boots, but there weren't any. "That's weird. I guess you don't own any in this reality. Maybe not everything is exactly the same."
For a moment there, Melissa felt relieved that she wouldn't have to only wear flat-soled boots. But that moment was very short.
Zelda backed out of the closet and headed towards the computer. "Listen. Since we might be stuck with each other's lives for a while, I'll let you use the computer." She moved the mouse and the monitor came on. "Just don't click on this icon," she said, pointing to the icon on the desktop, which had a background consisting of a bunch of blue and violet laser beams shooting around. Melissa actually found it to be pretty.
"Why? What's it do?"
"It's the hacking program I created."
"You created a program?"
"It's child's play. Just don't touch it, okay?"
"Can you show me?" Melissa asked.
"Show you what? My hacking?"
"Yeah."
Zelda didn't like doing this when other people were around, but she decided to humor her. Melissa was now part of this world, she should at least witness some of it.
She clicked on the desktop icon and a window filled the screen. Then she froze. It was really weird, but she didn't know what to do next.
"Aren't you supposed to click on that?" Melissa said, pointing at something on the screen.
"Uh ... yeah. That's right. How did you know that?" Zelda asked.
"Lucky guess?"
"I created this program. No one but me uses it." She put her hands down on the keyboard, meaning to type, but she just sat there.
"What's wrong?" Melissa asked.
Zelda was smart enough to see what was going on, but she was desperately trying to deny it.
She didn't know how to hack.
She remembered herself doing it, but she couldn't do it now.
She suddenly stood up from the chair. "Sit down."
"What? I don't know how to hack."
"Unfortunately, I think you might."
Melissa sat down and placed her hands on the keyboard. Then she began to type.
"I don't believe it," Zelda said.
Melissa stopped typing. "What? It's just a bunch of nonsense."
"No, it's not. It's computer code."
"What?" Melissa said, stunned. She looked back at the screen.
"Keep going."
Melissa continued until another screen came up. It had the high school's name on it.
"You just broke into the high school database. You can change grades, teacher salaries, anything."
"But I didn't want to hack into the school. How do I get out?"
"Hit 'cancel' maybe?" It scared her that she didn't even know how to operate a program that she created.
Melissa did and the screen went back to the window with the black background. It looked just as it did before she began typing.
An instant messenger window suddenly popped up.
TranzeMan: I just hrd about the hack yu just plld.
"Who's TranzeMan?" Melissa asked.
"That's an online friend of mine. I guess he's now your friend."
"I think he's waiting for a reply."
"Let me do it," Zelda said, and she sat down at the keyboard.
BlueDemon: Just a tst. Gonna hack it l8er.
"BlueDemon?" Melissa asked. "And what's with the weird spelling?"
Zelda logged out of the instant messenger and stood up from the chair. "Until you learn how to spell like that, you should just stay logged off. You have to make people believe that you really are BlueDemon, since they can't see you."
"This all seems so complicated," Melissa said.
"Can I put the music back on?" Zelda asked.
"Sure," Melissa hesitantly said.
