"Honestly, I wish Lake Point was the exact opposite of the suburban nightmare it is."
To their shared surprise, the stone in her hand flashed a bright flash, then started pulsing with an internal glow, as if it was the light on a computer working on a complicated problem.
Zoe looked from the stone to the girl in front of her. "What the fuck?" She exclaimed. The girl standing there was white, with blonde hair. "You changed?"
"I changed," the girl said..."Look at you!"
Zoe looked down. Her clothes were different—and more shockingly, looking at the hand that held the stone, it was the color of chocolate. "Fuck," she exclaimed and then covered her mouth.
"What just happened?" Melony insisted, pulling Zoe into the nearby restroom.
"Darned if I know," Zoe said, looking at herself in the mirror.
Melony did the same. She had blue eyes, blond hair, and was wearing a worn leather jacket. This was definitely not her look. "What are my parents going to say?"
Zoe reached into the bag she was carrying to look for her phone. There had to be something on YouTube to help with this, she hoped. She found her student ID in the bag. "Somehow, I don't think they'll notice," she said, showing Melony what she'd found.
At that moment, the bathroom door swung open, much to the girls' frustration. "Zoe? Ya OK?"
She turned around and was surprised to see another dark-skinned girl looking upon this scene. "Uhh...yeah..." She recognized the girl from around the school.
"Why'd ya just walk off?" she asked, moving to stand next to the mirror, checking herself out. She ignored Melony as if she wasn't there.
"I did?" Zoe asked, confused.
"Do you MIND?" Melony said. "We were talking."
That seemed to surprise her. "You and Zoe?" She seemed puzzled. "I didn't know the two of you ran in the same circles. I've known Zoe her whole life, and I've never seen her with you." She didn't wait for a response and turned back to Zoe as if Melony didn't exist.
Melony grabbed the stranger's arm. She had a few inches on Melony and looked down at her. "Get your hand off me," she said, grabbing Melony's hand firmly and extracting it. "I don't know what you want, but if you don't back the hell off, there's going to be trouble." She grabbed Zoe's arm. "Come on, let's get the hell out of this psycho bitch's way." Zoe weakly let herself be pulled away.
