"Okay," Nicki took a deep breath. She was about to tell her friend Katie something she'd never expected to tell anyone. She wasn't happy about it either, but she knew her best friend wouldn't like it if she just fell right off the face of the Earth. So this had to be done. She checked around to make sure nobody was within earshot, and proceeded.
"Y'know how when we first met, like, in 7th Grade? I was someone different?" Nicki noticed she was talking in questions like a regular teenage girl. It was a habit she was gaining she didn't like.
Katie nodded. "Yeah, and you wore all those like, swearpants and stuff?"
"Yeah. It's because before we met, before I started school, I was a different person."
"Huh?"
"There was this Medallion. Oh God I feel so stupid saying it, but it's all true. I found it at a garage sale and it said it was magic. It could turn you into someone else and I was curious. Then Megan..."
"Your aunt?"
"She's not really my aunt, but yeah. Megan, she accidentally made the medallion touch one of her old shirts from when she was 12, and I transformed into her at that age. Then somehow..." Nicki decided to leave the part out about the dog, since it was not very believable, "we lost the medallion and I couldn't change back. And so I had to basically, like, end my old life and start this new one."
Katie nodded along. "Really?" Naturally, she was skeptical.
"Yeah. And now, like, last night, I found the medallion on EBay and I bought it. So I'm going to be able to use my old clothes to change back into my old self. Katie listen, it's nothing against you. I love you," she said, in that platonic teenage girl way, "but I think I need to go back to my old life. It's only right."
Tears began to well up in Katie's eyes, even though she didn't fully believe it. "I don't know what to say." Nicki wasn't a liar, and somehow it all sounded very convincing. "Prove it. How old were you before the transformation?"
"27." It took Nicki a minute to try and remember.
"What did you do?"
"Office manager for a furniture company."
"How tall? What did you weigh?"
"6'1. 180."
"Wow, you were huge! What did you have an eating disorder?" she giggled, "just kidding right? I bet you were beautiful."
Nicki couldn't believe that she'd left one last detail out. She bit her lip. "Uh, Katie... before the transformation... I was a man."
Katie's face contorted in disgust. "What? No way. No way! If you were a man, why... I mean, why didn't you ever, like, go all lesbo and stuff? You like guys for God's sake!"
Nicki began to feel uncomfortable, "it's just, like, the medallion affects your mind, and I tried to fight it... but after a few months of being a girl, and you, remember how you were the one who started dressing me all pretty and stuff, I just couldn't hold out. It was my hormones."
"Oh bullshit," Katie sneered, "like it's my fault? Okay fine. Whatever. You'd be the gayest guy anyway."
"Not fair! You didn't know me before..."
"Well I know you now, and there's no way you could just change your life just like that."
"Watch me!" Nicki shouted, then looked around and lowered her voice. "Katie, you just don't know, okay?"
"Whatever. You're a lying bitch, Nicki."
Katie got up and stormed off indignantly. Nicki sat and finished her lunch, alone and on the verge of tears.
