Notes: The next chapter will take a while longer until we post it. We are currently working on it though.

Blink's POV

I moved around Emi's...I mean my bedroom, picking up things here and there. I could tell that Emi liked her room a lot. It was carefully decorated with pictures of people I had never seen. Apparently they were movies posters of old movies, classics I heard. I looked around the room and realized I had cleaned it up. I cleaned up the room because the rest of the guys were coming over.

What's wrong with me? Was I really turning into a girl? I stood in the middle of the room, my toes curling and uncurling on the soft white rug. Finally I snapped back into reality and went to the closet quickly, tossing some clothes on the floor. I pulled back the covers on the bed and kicked a pile of papers over. Satisfied, but a little unhappy about the mess, I smiled, and then promised myself that as soon as the guys left I'd clean it back up.

I flopped down on the bed and sighed. Emi's mom was really mean, I didn't understand why. She asked me this morning why I wasn't smarter. I don't think she knows her daughter very well, I feel really smart in Emi's head. She knows a lot. A lot about art, about history, about English, about the world.

I was impressed once I started realized what this girl knew. I noticed that the other guys were realizing things about the girls they were at the time. Like Race, this girl Flit, she was a good writer, a great writer. And Jack found out that Scribble is really talented with music. And Misery isn't so miserable all the time; she's actually a nice person, something that nobody else at school seemed to know.

Aqua is this really good actress, Medda would love her. Ann is always off in her own little world, which is why everyone calls her Dreamer, but she's always thinking about someone else. Crutchy found that out when he realized he was overly concerned about Mia and her black eye.

Skittery was having the hardest time with his switch, being Shakes and all. She just never sat still and Skittery couldn't seem to control his own limbs. Except one day when he felt the need to sit down at a piano. Turns out Shakes is a talented pianist.

Pianist, before all this I would have laughed at that word, thinking it was something else. Don't get me wrong, so would've the rest of the guys. Speaking of, that must be them now.

Jack's POV

I approached the door to Emi's house and knocked. I waited for the sound of footsteps inside, but heard nothing. Frustrated, I knocked harder. There's no way they shouldn't hear this.

Looking around, I spotted this button by the side of the door. Curious, I pressed it. I jumped when I heard chimes coming from inside. After a few more minutes of waiting, the door opened slowly. It swung open however once they saw that it was me.

"J-Scribble," Blink exclaimed, "You made it. Come on, everybody's upstairs already." Once I stepped in, I realized why they hadn't heard me earlier. Loud noise from coming from above.

"No, that makes it louder," a voice, I believe Spot, was saying, "You turn it this way." Seconds later, the sounds got louder.

"I told you it was this way," Mush said, and the noise lowered. I shot Blink a confused look.

"They're experimenting with everything in there," he explained, "I can't count the number of times Emi's mom has told us to keep it down." He led me upstairs. I was almost scared to enter the room. What exactly was going on?

"Jack's here," Blink yelled when we entered the room. Almost immediately, Spot tried to turn the music down, but Mush stopped him. Mush turned it down while Spot shot him a glare.

"Great, we can start now," Spot said, "It's about time you showed up Jack. What took ya so long?"

"Nevermind," I told everyone, "I just had some things to do. We have something more important to do anyway. Does anyone have any idea how this happened?" I waited while everyone found a seat before continuing, "Remember anything from before?"

"Don't ask me," Spot told us, "I was in Brooklyn, not Manhattan. And since all but me were in Manhattan…"

"It must have happened to us," I cut in.

"It probably occurred that night," Crutchy commented, "If it had happened earlier, then we wouldn't have woken up as girls."

"Except me," Race said, "I switched in the middle of the school day."

"Either way, I agree with Crutchy," I said, "Did anything strange happen?"

"It was like any other night," Mush shrugged, "We were all playing poker and running around like usual."

"There was that fight we had," Skittery spoke up, "Remember? Race was boasting about his poker skills and Blink tackled him. Mush got in the middle of it too."

"Yeah, everyone was cheering for us," Blink said, "They knew Race couldn't win. Right Mush?" Mush nodded while Race glared at him.

"That was just before Kloppman came up," Crutchy told us, "We almost didn't hear him."

"He said something," Skittery said, "I was standing right by the door." He immediately had everyone's attention.

"What did he say," I asked. There was silence as Skittery thought for a while.

"He mentioned something about us acting more like girls," Skittery exclaimed suddenly, "Could that be it? He said that they behaved more than we did."

"But then why were we the only ones," I questioned, "Why not all the other guys?"

"We are the older ones of the group," Blink said, "Most of the younger kids look up to us. Could it be possible that it we could be better influences? Even Spot?" Everyone laughed as Spot glared at Blink for even thinking that.

Blink's POV

"What the heck's this?" Race asked from his seated position on the floor of Emi's room. He was holding out a black tube and looking at it curiously.

"Make up," Skittery replied. "It's for your eyelashes," he added.

"How do you know that?" Spot asked with a laugh. "You like being a girl?"

"You know for someone in Emi's closet you really shouldn't be talking," I spoke up. Spot put the dress he was holding back in the closet and blushed furiously. "Besides, from what I hear about Caitlin she wouldn't be caught dead in that."

"It doesn't look like something Emi would wear either," Jack observed. He went to the closet and pulled the dress out again. It was dark pink and kind of fluffy, for lack of better word.

"Hey," Mush called, he pick up a picture on Emi's desk. Curiously I peeked over his shoulder. It was a picture of a younger Emi in the pink dress standing next to an older girl in a white dress and a man in a suit. "She wore it at a wedding," Mush explained.

"Who's that?" Jack asked, also looking at the picture. He pointed at the older girl.

I shrugged, "I don't..." Suddenly I knew who the girl was, an intense feeling of sadness washed over me, "Emi's sister."

"What?" Crutchy asked, his mouth full. Next to using both legs Crutchy liked junk food best about the future.

"Her sister," I replied. "She got married four years ago and then she died last summer," I explained, feeling weird that I knew the story. A few images of how Emi's sister died flashed through my mind but I didn't share.

"Weird," Spot and Race said in unison.

"New topic please," I said, shaking the feeling of sadness away.

"No problem," Skittery said with a smile that seemed a little forced. "Anyone ever wondered what it would be like to wear make up?"

Mush's POV

The first thing I noticed about makeup was that it was extremely uncomfortable. I will never have any idea why girls like to wear it. I have a feeling that it was more uncomfortable for Aqua than it was for me. She may be in my body, but I knew that a part of her was still here. Something also told me that she never wore makeup unless absolutely necessary.

Everything that I felt vanished the moment I saw Spot. I may not know fashion much, but I knew that the combination he was wearing didn't match. I immediately started laughing quietly, not wanting to make him too mad.

"Does this dress make me look fat," Skittery asked suddenly, twirling around and watching himself in the mirror. He sounded so serious saying that. That was enough to send me into a fit of laughter. A strange feeling came over me suddenly. It was a weird kind of joy, like Aqua hadn't laughed this hard in a while. Everyone turned to give me confused stares.

"Sorry," I managed to say between breaths. It was almost like I was starting to feel Aqua's emotions, like they were finally coming to the surface. I know that Aqua didn't care what others thought of her, but still I could sense a bit of discomfort at being around so many people, even though I, myself, had known them for years.

I almost mechanically brought my legs in closer, covering them more with the dress I was wearing, which I was getting tired of wearing. It was like I couldn't control what I was doing. Automatically, I looked down at the ground, feeling extremely uncomfortable at the moment.

"Ow," a shout drew my attention away from the floor. I looked up to see Race holding his finger as if in pain. Glancing over, I saw a curler plugged into the wall. While the situation itself wasn't funny, seeing Race with messy curls was hilarious.

"Mush, are you okay," Jack asked suddenly. I knew that I was acting stranger than usual, but it wasn't all my fault.

"Yeah," I answered, "It's just that…" I trailed off, having second thoughts about telling what may be a secret.

"It's just that what," Blink asked. Then I knew that I couldn't keep it secret. Blink was my best friend. If I didn't tell him now, I would eventually. Might as well get it over with. It took me a second to notice that everyone was looking at me. I found myself involuntarily blushing.

"You can tell us," Crutchy told me, "We'll keep it a secret if you want." I nodded quickly in answer.

"It's not me, it's Aqua," I explained. The others looked like they understood, which they should considering that they're also in girls' bodies, "She…doesn't like herself very much." I found it hard to say, though it was me saying it, not her, "Doesn't think that she's pretty or that anyone would ever like her." Everyone exchanged glances and I knew that everyone else probably felt the same about the girls they were in. Suddenly, I had a thought…a serious one. Maybe there was more than one reason for this sudden switch.

Blink's POV

It was weird, I couldn't sleep, but everyone around me was dead to the world. Spot was even snoring, loudly. We had learned so much about each other that night. About us as guys and about us as girls, if that makes any sense. After the strange suddenly knowledge about Emi's sister I found myself keeping on ear on the guys and one ear on myself, trying to learn more about Emi. And I think the guys were doing the same. Mush looked like he was off in his own little world half the time. Jack and Crutchy would talk to the group, then to each other in hushed tones. Race kept glancing at himself in the mirror. Skittery seemed pre-occupied with make up, whatever that might mean. And Spot was completely un-Spot-like. Since I couldn't sleep I quietly crawled out of bed, over Skittery, who had fallen asleep next to me, and slipped out the partially closed bedroom door.

I started thinking about the others, not the guys though. I started thinking about the girls. They were so different than us. Kloppy would die if he found out some of the things girls do. I think he has this idea that girls are perfect. He's sadly mistaken. But they are pretty neat.

Take Flit for example. She's interesting. Race says she is always talking, like he can't control his own mouth. The first thing he said when he came over was that Emi's room is so much cleaner than Flit's, no matter how hard he tries to tidy it up. And she can't stand the color yellow, something he still doesn't know the meaning behind. She keeps to herself a lot, even I can see that. It's strange, a girl that talks that much keeping to herself?

And Scribble. She's like Flit in that they're both always writing, but she's much more subdued than Flit. Subdued, didn't know I knew that word. Jack told me about the time that he felt himself reaching for a violin, of all things. Apparently she plays so well. Won't let us hear it though. Jack says he can feel her struggling. He says that she's having a hard time being him, but that he can feel her starting to win the struggle. He told me in confidence that he's happy for her, and doesn't know why.

Misery, it's not a fitting name. Spot told me that everyone is afraid of her. He almost cried when we talked about it. He says that she's tired of people not bothering to get to know her. He insists that she's a good person, and I believe him. Sure, she can be loud and kinda bossy sometimes but she's genuinely nice. We all think so. She's kinda crazy, in my opinion, but who isn't? She loves the rain, she loves loud music. And she hates school. But miserable? I think she's just sad sometimes.

I think out of all of them, Dreamer is the one I know the least about. Crutchy is too happy with both legs to talk much. But I do know that she's really quiet and shy. Everyone knows that. But, does everyone know that she can have a sick mind? She's pretty too, all the girls are. But you can tell that they don't think so. Maybe it's a girl thing. Dreamer loves junk food, which is maybe where Crutchy acquired his taste for the stuff. Acquired, I'll have to remember that one.

I think out of all of us that switched bodies, Shakes and Skittery are the least alike. Poor Skittery, he told me that it's so hard to keep up with her. She's always moving. I've seen Skitts struggle with his own body, or her body. But underneath all the hyper-activity she's honestly a sweet person. Skittery told me that too. He also says that she's a great piano player, but like Scribble, we've never heard. I had to laugh when Skittery told me about his biggest problem with being Shakes, it's the condiments thing. It makes him ill, makes me ill just thinking about it. Another thing he told me was that he thought Emi was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen. But it made us both uncomfortable and we haven't spoken much since.

Aqua seems like she's very much in control. At least, that's what I thought. Mush tells me differently. Says she does seem to be in control, but that inside, she's scared. And I understand what he means. She is shy though, most of these girls are and I think that has something to do with why it was these girls who were chosen. But Aqua could be a female Jack, she may be scared but she knows what's going on. I know that Mush said she doesn't laugh much, but didn't elaborate.

As for Emi, she sure is smart. And I'm getting smarter because of it. She doesn't seem to show others what she's really like. Which is tough and feisty and really funny. I've come to realize that she's been through a lot of hardships. I have no doubt that most of these girls have. But I also think that she's had an exceptionally hard life. It also seems like everyone can talk freely to her. She's good at listening. She always seems afraid though, deep down inside. I'm not sure of what yet. I think it has something to do with being loved though. I know that it was her sister that loved her most and Emi misses her so much.

I was finally tired. I paused to catch a shooting star, something that I had never seen in all my life. I felt that something big was going to happen soon. Maybe not right away, but soon.