Chapter 3

 

Hunter stood in front of the mirror in the boys’ bathroom and rubbed his face. There was a lot he wanted to say, a lot he didn’t know how to say, and a lot he couldn’t say. Words formed in his mind like bubbles in particularly spicy carbonated water, and disappeared as quickly. He couldn’t stay silent, he knew. The skin on the back of his neck and head tingled like he was about to throw up. He looked at himself in the mirror, digging for the capacity for speech he knew was in there somewhere. 

“Fuck,” he said. 

“Yeah,” Ryan said, leaning against the wall. “I know.” Hunter counted them, but he already knew. Across all four mirrors were exactly forty-nine names. For obvious reasons, Olivia was no longer on it. “That’s not even the worst thing,” Ryan added, pointing to the top of the first mirror. Hunter groaned. The ostentatious pink script simply read: 

8:05:49

Just like yesterday.

“Fuck,” Hunter reiterated. “So right after last class?” He looked at Ryan, who looked even more miserable than him. Currently ignoring the fact that they had only five or so minutes left until class, Hunter was trying to figure out what this meant.

“It’s not just in the pink bathrooms this time, either,” Drew said as he stepped out of the bathroom stall and washed his hands, not really looking at the text on the mirror. He could afford to ignore it, after all. “Every mirror in the school has them this time.”

“But why?” Ryan asked. “Whoever did this, they got their laugh, turned Orson into a girl. Now knock it off, turn him back, and let us just get back to class?!”

Matthew stuck his head into the room. “I heard they’re going to be bringing them to people’s phones.” Ryan turned around like the Terminator. 

“They are what?!”

“You know,” Matthew said, sauntering in with his hands in his pockets. “Like an app.”

“Wh— Why?” He looked back at the mirrors. “How much longer is this going to keep going?” The question was rhetorical, but everyone there knew the answer, of course. If it was one person per day, then the ‘competition’ would last for forty-eight more days. Paxton was at the top again, of course. Ryan was at the top of the second mirror, and Matthew and Hunter were at the bottom of that one, just two points apart with one other person between them. Every once in a while, votes for this or that person pushed someone higher or lower on the rankings. The third and fourth mirrors were almost exclusively people with single digits. 

Drew saw Hunter chewing his lip. “Hey,” he said, “at the current rate you’ve got like, a couple of weeks at least before you’ve really gotta worry.” He stepped closer to the mirrors again after drying his hands. “And don’t worry you guys, I’ll vote for you every time.” He gave them an encouraging smile with his hands on his hips. 

“For who?” Ryan said. “There’s three of us, and you only get one vote.”

Drew shrugged and stepped closer. “Whoever’s in the last spot, right?” He walked over to the second mirror, where Matthew was just on the edge of slipping off onto the third one with twelve votes. He was about to tap the mirror, his hand almost touching the glass, when a message popped up at the top. 

TWO VOTES REMAINING.

“Oh,” Drew said. “Um.” He gave Matthew two points, putting him and Hunter both at 14, sliding a kid named Alan into the last spot of the second mirror.

“This is going to be good,” Matt chuckled. He walked over and tapped Ryan’s name twice. He went from 38 to 40. Not enough to push him up on the rankings, but that didn’t seem to stop Matthew. NO VOTES REMAINING, it said. “Actually, let me just check something.” He tapped Ryan’s name a third time. ONE VOTE REMAINING. He bit his lip. “Spicy.” He tapped Ryan’s name again, and the number went up by one again. 

“This is a nightmare,” Ryan said. “I’m going to have to do something.” He looked at the board again. He was high up on the second board, so Hunter didn’t know what he was worried about. He had, like, two months to get higher up. Even if people got two votes now, it wouldn’t make that much of a difference right? “Okay, okay, I’m going to have to start campaigning.” Ryan turned around to leave, then turned again, meaning he ended up doing a perfect pirouette. He ran over to the mirror, tapped his own name twice, gave the others a sheepish smile, and shrugged. 

With that, he ran out of the bathroom, leaving the others in his wake. Matthew just chuckled. “Maybe he should just start thinking of girl names,” he said. “You know, because there’s no way in hell he’s going to be beating Paxton.” Matthew looked up at the leaderboards. “Well, you never know.” He turned to Hunter. “What would your girl name be?”

“Um,” Hunter said, and all of a sudden he couldn’t remember a single name in any language. “I’ve never heard a girl’s name in my life,” he quipped. Matthew’s grin grew wider. 

“Yeah,” Matt said with a wink. “I bet you haven’t.”

“Hey!” Hunter said, only now realizing the implied accusation. “That’s not… You know that’s what I meant!” His words fell on deaf — or rather — absent ears. Matthew had already escaped the room. Hunter groaned and turned back to the mirror, almost jumping out of his skin when he felt a large hand on his shoulder. He’d almost forgotten his friend was there. Foolish of him, all things told. 

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“Hey,” Drew said, “it’s going to be okay. No matter what, I’ve got your back, okay?” Hunter smiled at him in the mirror, and the look he got back made him feel like curling up into a ball. There was a brief mental image of Drew picking him up and carrying him to Places He Was Not Ready To Explore Yet, One Crisis At A Time Please, Take A Number At The Nearest Anxiety Attack. 

“Yeah,” Hunter said, “thanks, Drew.” He closed his eyes again and splashed some water in his face. “I appreciate that. A lot. This is all just so weird, you know?” Not that magic on school grounds was all that rare, of course. Plenty of students had taken AP classes in arcane or occult arts, hoping to get into some of the more prestigious schools. Rules of the school were obviously that magic wasn’t allowed to affect other students. So why weren’t the teachers intervening? Was this some big conspiracy, or was the magic just too powerful? 

Hunter stood up straight, shook his head, turned around, and bumped straight into Drew, who hadn’t moved a muscle. How a guy his size could be both soft and, well, hard at the same time baffled him. Like someone had put a memory-foam sweater on a marble statue. He quickly took a step back, not wanting Drew to feel like he was deliberately pushing up against him or admiring his abs from up close. He mumbled an apology, but Drew put a hand on his shoulder again, and the weight of his friend’s arm shut Hunter up immediately. “I’m here for you no matter what,” Drew said again. His expression of painful honesty was burning a hole through Hunter’s composure. “Boy or girl, you’re my friend and I’m taking care of you.”

“O-okay,” Hunter mumbled. His senses were telling him to hug his friend, but he was worried that that was a faux-pas. That wasn’t even getting to the fact that he felt predatory for even thinking of wanting to be close to his friend, like he’d be using his vulnerability as an excuse to get those big strong arms to keep him safe from the stress and the anxiety.

“I’ll be here if you need anyth—” was as far as Drew got before the bell for first period went off, and they had to cut whatever this moment was short. They made to leave the bathroom, but Hunter realized he hadn’t voted yet. He looked at the mirrors again, and told Drew to go on ahead. 

He studied the names. The boy from last time, Daryl, was at the bottom again. He had six votes this time. The two people above him had seven. But if he voted for Daryl, then one of those two would be on the bottom. Had the boy looked relieved yesterday, when Orson had turned into a girl? Or had he looked more frightened? 

Hunter looked at his own name. He was barely edging out the second mirror. He’d be fine. Well, that was that. He tapped Daryl’s name twice, taking him to third-to-last place. That ought to give the boy some breathing room, right? Maybe more people would vote for him tomorrow?

No time to really worry about it, he didn’t like being late for class. The feeling of everyone looking at him always filled him with dread. He didn’t like being looked at. He scurried out of the bathroom and almost bumped into a girl leaving the girls’ lavatories, throwing himself to the side to avoid hurting her. She was petite, and he would have bowled her over effortlessly if he hadn’t crashed himself into the bathroom door. 

“Uh,” he said. “Sorry, h—”

“Hi!” Olivia said. She looked cheerful. Her clothes were a bit too big for her, but the whole ensemble gave her a skater girl vibe that she hadn’t had when she’d been… in the boys’ bathrooms yesterday. Back then, she’d just looked kinda nothing. Just very bland and forgettable. That wasn’t Olivia. Her hair was in a messy bun and her smile was positively radiant. “Oh, you were there yesterday, right? You’re the one that put in the last vote!”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Hunter said. “Look, I’m so, so sorry. Daryl just looked really upset and I didn’t want to let him down and—”

“Oh hey, you’re fine!” Olivia said. “Didn’t do anything wrong, man.” She gently patted him on the arm, even if the difference meant that she had to do it at an upwards 45 degree angle. “You were just helping someone out, and honestly, I really don’t mind.” 

Hunter frowned. “You mean, like…” He eyed the bathroom. 

“Oh, I mean, uh, yeah, I don’t mind that part, but that’s not, no, what?” 

“What?”

“I mean that I’ve always wanted to try out, like, certain clothes and stuff, but those never look good on guys, so now I can just kinda try stuff out!” she said excitedly, waving her arms. Her sleeves were a good three inches too long, giving Hunter the distinct impression of talking to a miniature skydancer. “And like, other than one or two people being shitty, the girls in school are super supportive. Like, yesterday a bunch of them gave me their Insta, and this morning they had all kinds of clothes so I’m just…” She stopped, out of breath, and Hunter quickly took the moment to interrupt her.

“You really don’t mind?” he asked. “You got turned into a girl against your will, and you’re just… fine with that? I would lose my mind if that happened to me.” That wasn’t entirely true, Hunter realized, because he didn’t actually know what he’d do if he’d turned into a girl. He hadn’t given it any thought, and he wasn’t about to get started now. 

“Not really,” Olivia said. “I mean, sure, at first I wanted to immediately beg someone to turn it back because of like, logistical stuff but the school said there was no problem changing name and stuff like that on my records.”

“Oh,” Hunter said.

“And like I said, there’s a bunch of girl stuff I think I always kinda wanted to try but didn’t let myself so now that I am a girl I can do all of that guilt free and like yeah sure I have some stuff to sort out like do I like guys or girls and maybe I want to try being goth and the underwear is a lot let me tell you but like yeah all in all good move thanks.”

“Okay,” Hunter said, feeling his brain turn to soup. “I have to go to class.”

“Okay!” Olivia said, and she skipped away.

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