Crush Culture [M.Wheeler]

[06] TRANSFORMED

The boys and Nori spend their recess looking for the perfect rock that Lucas could use on the wrist rocket, though it was much harder than they thought.

"How about this one?" Mike suggests, walking towards Dustin. "Too big for the sling." He responds, reaching for the rock and taking a look at it.

Mike sighs, continuing his search.

"So, do you think Eleven was born with her powers, like the X-Men,  or do you think she acquired them, like... like Green Lantern?" Dustin inquires, bending down to pick up another rock.

"She's not a superhero. She's a weirdo." Lucas raises his eyebrows, throwing another rock to the side.

"All superheroes are weirdos. That's what makes them super, Lucas." Nori chimes in.

"I agree with Nori. The X-Men are weirdos." Mike nods, causing her to smile.

"If you love her so much, why don't you marry her?" Lucas teases, turning to look at him.

"What are you talking about?" Mike asks, unamused. Dustin exchanges a look with Nori, who was confused as to where Lucas was headed.

"Mike, seriously?" Lucas says, lifting his hands. 

"What?" Mike asks.

"You look at her all, like.. Hi, Tiny! Tiny! Tiny! Tiny! Or whatever name you call her now. Nori." Lucas chuckles.

"Nori, I love you so much. Won't you marry me?" He attacks mike in a hug while he continues to speak in a high pitched voice.

"Lucas, that's enough." Nori comments.

"You too, Tiny." Lucas adds.

"We're just friends." Nori argues, shaking her head.

"Shut up, Lucas." Mike rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, shut up, Lucas." Says another voice. It's Troy. They pause, all turning to look at them. "What are you losers doing back here?" Troy asks, arms crossed.

"Probably looking for their missing friend." James chuckles, nudging his friend.

"That's not funny. It's serious. He's in danger." Dustin responds angrily.

"I hate to break it to you, Toothless, but he's not in danger. He's dead. That's what my dad says." Troy sneers.

"Your dad doesn't know jack shit about any of this." Nori fires back, glaring at the curly headed boy.

"He was probably killed by some other queer." The bullies both laugh. Dustin seems extremely angered, yet forces himself to stay calm.

"Come on. Just ignore them." Mike sighs. When he goes to bump Troy's shoulder, the boy sticks out his foot, causing Mike to fall, his chin hitting the ground.

He groans, his friends running to his side right after.

"Watch where you're going, Frogface." Troy smirks, before giving James a high five and walking off.

"You alright?" Lucas asks, helping him up.

"Yeah." He responds with a sigh.

"You can't just leave it like that, Mike. Come, I'll help you clean it." Nori speaks up, nodding her head over.

"It's not that serious, Nori." Mike whines, following her none the less while Dustin and Lucas smirk to each other. "Mike, just come."

***

"This is weird." Mike complains while they sit in the hall, Mike leaning against a locker.

"It's not weird. No one is even around." Nori responds, wiping a wet paper towel over the cut.

"God, I just hate Troy. With his dumb face and his dumb hair. I just wanna slap the shit out of him sometimes." She says angrily.

Mike looks up from the ground, screaming, standing up.

"What? What is it?" She asks, now confused as her voice sounded much lower.

"Troy?" Mike asks in confusion.

"What? Troy? No, it's Nori. It's Tiny..." she trails off. "I sound like Troy.. Wait.." she runs off into the girls' bathroom, making eye contact with two other girls at the sink.

"Oh. Hey, Jessica—" She is quickly cut off by the girls running out.

"Creep!" They call after her. She rolls her eyes. She never liked Jessica either way.

Once she walks over to the mirror, it was her who screamed this time. She nearly falls from how frightened she was.

"This is not real." She mutters.

"Nori— or, whoever you are, are you coming out or what?" Mike asks from outside, banging on the door.

"We heard screaming! Is everything alright?" Dustin's voice sounds, causing her only to stress more.

"I'm not coming out like this." She calls back.

"Ugh. What's wrong with her voice?" Lucas says.

"I'm Nori. I'm not Troy. I'm Nori. Nori who has fairly long blonde-ish hair with blue eyes." She whispers to herself, hoping she wasn't insane.

"Tiny!" Dustin shouts. She looks up from the sink, relieved when she sees her own self in the mirror.

"I— I'm coming! Hold on!" She calls, then calms herself, walking out.

"You're Nori." Mike says in confusion.

"That, I am." She purses her lips, nodding awkwardly.

"Your voice is back to normal." Lucas adds.

"Yes it is."

"Okay, are we just going to ignore what just happened?!" Dustin points out. "Mike, you said she transformed into Troy?! What prank are you two trying to pull?"

"Nothing, I swear." Nori says.

"This is mental." Dustin comments.

"You think Troy switched at the same time?" Lucas suggests.

"Like Freaky Friday." Dustin points out.

"It wasn't like that. It was like— one moment I was just thinking about him, getting angry, and then the next, I was him." Nori says.

"That's So cool." Dustin smiles.

"No! That is not cool! We're ignoring something big! Nori just transformed into Troy. That's not even possible." Mike shouts.

All of a sudden, the bell rings. "We'll talk later. Come on, we have class."