She woke up face down on the pavement, her head feeling very warm. "Ow, that was weird, did it work or-" she stopped and stared at her long legs and blue shorts.
"Oh my god!" She squealed, "I did it, Tamara! Er...Call. Us. Wow, this is confusing!"
What was it that Master Rufus had said at the beginning of the term? That the two of them put together were trouble?
"Yeah!" She stood up quickly and began to wobble. "Here comes Trouble! Whoah!" she slipped and fell into the pool with a splash. Trouble came up spluttering, wet hair clinging to her face. "Okay, this will take some getting used to."
Trouble flailed around for another minute trying to get used to walking. She went back down on her knees and stared at her reflection in the pool. She had long brown hair that was now wet and falling out of her braid. Her skin was a dark tan, one of her eyes was grey, and the other was brown.
"And I only have two arms and two legs!" She said cheerfully.
"Wait! You thought you'd have more than two?" Tamara asked.
"Well, yeah." Call responded. "Maybe, if something went wrong. But it didn't!"
She tried standing up again. Her legs wobbled a little and she put out her arms to steady herself. "Okay, so far so good." She took a hesitant step, then another.
Trouble giggled, "It doesn't hurt when I walk!"
Her smile faded, "It hurts to walk?"
Call was silent.
"Call? Do you want to stop?"
"No, I'm fine. Just keep going."
"Okay, if you're sure."
Trouble wandered around on the grass for a while getting a feel for her new body.
She wiggled her toes and hopped around a bit. Laughing, Trouble started to walk faster and began running across the grass, gaining confidence.
"This is great! Woohoo!" She yelled, and ran to the edge of the lawn and back. "I've never moved so fast before!" Trouble used a bit of air magic to get off the ground and spun around. Then she lost concentration and fell onto the grass giggling.
"Tamara! Call!" Aaron's voice echoed across the yard.
Trouble sat up straight, her eyes wide. "Aaron's here! We have to show him!"
"Wait! What if he doesn't like it?!"
"Oh come on, it's Aaron! Of course he'll like us. He's our friend when we're separate, why not when we're together?"
Call didn't respond to that and Trouble cheerfully strolled towards the front of the yard.
"Hey! Where are you two!?" Aaron had a backpack slung over his shoulder, his hair had grown out since last year and was now hanging in his eyes.
Arron saw a girl approach he didn't recognize her. He had thought at first that it might be Kimiya, but she was really tall and wearing a strange combination of lavendar bathing suit and navy blue shorts. "Hi! I'm Aaron, are Call and Tamara..." he stopped when she got closer. The girl had partially braided hair, one brown eye, and the other grey.
Trouble held up her hands. "Aaron, please don't freak out."
Aaron's eyes went wide, "Oh my god!"
"Aaron..."
"Oh my god! What did you two do?!" Aaron ran his hands through his hair. "Did you two fuse?! Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to make an amalgam?!"
Trouble hugged him, "We're fine, Aaron. Look! It worked!" She stepped back and twirled around. "Isn't this awesome? I managed to fuse with Tamara! I mean Call. Us. Together. It's a little confusing."
"Can you unfuse?"
Trouble stopped twirling. "Umm..."
"You decided this was a good idea without knowing if you could separate?! What if you're stuck like this forever?!" Aaron was definitely freaking out.
"Umm... we'll never get lonely?" Trouble suggested timidly. She toed the ground shly, seeing that Aaron wasn't that happy about it.
"Okay," Aarond dropped his backpack. "You stay here while I go find Tamara's mom."
"No!" Trouble grabbed his arm. "Aaron, it's fine, we can unfuse without help. Really."
"Then do it," Aaron challenged, looking upset. "Before you become permanetly stuck together.
They hesitated, "We don't want to. Not yet."
"Why not?" Aaron asked.
"We just fused together a few minutes ago, let's have some fun first!"
"You can have fun when separated."
"It's not the same," Trouble argued, although she was looking a bit uncertain now.
"Do both of you want to stay together? Or is it just Call?"
Trouble sat on the ground and didn't look at him.
He dropped his backpack, sat down next to them, and took a deep breath, "Call?"
Trouble looked up, a tear trickled out of her grey eye.
"We're not going to leave you, okay?" He put a hand on Trouble's shoulder. "Tamara and I are here for you. You won't be alone."
Trouble slowly unfused, first as a blurry mass, then as two people sitting on the ground. Both Call and Tamara looked sad. Aaron reached over and hugged Call who was still crying.
"We can always fuse again, Call." Tamara comforted him. "Now that we've done it once I'm pretty sure we can figure out how to do it again."
"Yeah," Call sniffed and wiped his face. "Just put on some k-pop songs and swing me around. We'll make an amalgam no problem." They all laughed.
"It was pretty cool that you two managed to fuse though," Aaron said.
"We were pretty cool weren't we?" Tamara grinned.
"We were awesome!" Call agreed.
Aaron looked thoughtful, "Do you think one of you would be able to fuse with me?"