1A/N: Chapter 7 is dedicated to Alex, who gave me an idea for a line in the story after reading the fanfic during Sugar rehearsal. Thanks again to all my reviewers and friends: RAVIE, JELLO, Alex, Jackie, Tessa, cameragirl, and An Anonymous Soul! (Hands Ravie, Jello, Alex, Jackie, Tessa, cameragirl, and An Anonymous Soul pizza toast). Again, sorry for the delay in the updating. In upcoming chapters, look forward to Roger's band practice, dodgeball, special appearances by Jackie and Tessa, going to the mall, and a dedication to one of my favorite other fandom pairings (originally supposed to be in this chapter). Yay! REVIEW!

Chapter 7: And the Mark/Roger slash fans rejoiced!

Rhode Island

When Lauren drove up to Mel's house, Tara could hear the pulsating rock music from outside. A seemingly endless line of cars stretched out from the driveway of the small house. Lauren struggled to find a parking space on the street.

"Well, this is it. Mel's house. From the looks of it, this is gonna be one hell of a birthday party," Lauren commented.

"Birthday party? Did you and Miranda get her a present?" Tara asked. Lauren pulled a twenty out of her pocket and handed it to Maureen.

"Give this to Mel for me. And don't go on about how we're not getting her an actual present. Everyone loves money, right?" Lauren said. Before Maureen could protest, saying that she didn't even know who Mel was, they were already walking to the door. Lauren rang the doorbell, and a tall girl with wild, cotton-candy pink dyed hair emerged.

"LAUREN! MIRANDA! I'm SO glad you're here! And you brought some friends with you! Great! Mom and Dad aren't here, as you know, but that just makes it all the better! Hey Don! Miranda and Lauren are here!" Mel shouted as a tall, muscular guy came running to her side. Maureen walked up to Mel.

"Here's your present, Mel," Maureen said as she handed the twenty to her.

"Thanks! Who're your friends?" Mel asked.

"Well... that's...Tara, and Mi-I mean, Christine's over there," Maureen said, trying to remember that Mimi was really Christine.

"Great! Well, you can go down to the basement to play pool if you want, and there's tons of other stuff here to do," Mel said.

"Hey Mel! Happy birthday! Your hair looks great!" Lauren complimented.

"Thanks! Dad freaked when he saw it."

"I thought you said Uncle John was fine with you dying your hair," Lauren mentioned.

"He was- I just didn't tell him what color I was dying it. This led to him and Mom getting into another fight, but what else is new? I'm surprised that they let me have the party here- I accidentally let Mom find out about my cell phone bill, and she practically exploded. Just because she doesn't talk on the phone nearly as much as I do doesn't mean that I can't talk on the phone at all," Mel rambled.

Meanwhile, Mimi and Tara were milling around the party, heading towards the living room, where the huge stereo was blasting rock music, but no one was really dancing. Don, virtually ignored by Mel after she greeted Miranda and Lauren, walked up to Mimi and Tara.

"So, you two are Miranda's friends, huh? Glad you could make it. Um, we have some drinks in the fridge, if you're thirsty or anything," Don said, trying to make conversation. Tara and Mimi shrugged and went over to the refrigerator because they had nothing better to do. While Tara pulled out a can of Coca-Cola, Mimi immediately reached for a beer.

"Mimi! Stop it! You know you're underage now- we can't have this stuff!" Tara exclaimed, trying to stop her.

"Tara, please. I've just switched into the body of a fifteen-year-old. I need this. Besides, I drank the stuff all the time when I was fifteen. I don't care about what's going to happen- everyone at this party is fucking stoned anyway. I mean, look at Cotton Candy over there," Mimi said as she gestured towards Mel, who was jumping off the living room couch.

"But you don't understand! You're not Mimi anymore! You're Christine, who definitely wouldn't be at this party, let alone drinking beer!"

"Oh, who gives a fuck. So I'm not a copy of the perfect 'Christine.' So? I'm at a party, and I, for one, am going to try and have a good time. Get off my back already!" Mimi yelled as she stormed off. Tara thought about yelling back at Mimi to give her a piece of her mind, but she knew Mimi wouldn't listen. Tara stood near the refrigerator, listening to the music, when a tall, obviously college-aged guy walked up to her.

"Hey there. Are you one of Mel's friends or something? She never introduced us,"

"I guess you could say that," Tara remarked. She found him extremely attractive, and even though she knew that flirting with a college guy would most likely get her nowhere, especially when she already had Steve, too much crazy stuff had happened that day for her to think it through. Besides, she rationalized, Steve probably wouldn't find out- he was somewhere in New York right now.

"So, how old are you, baby?"

"Eighteen," Tara lied. Fortunately, he couldn't tell that she was lying, or didn't care. With all the crazy stuff that had happened today, Tara was happy to finally escape into a normal conversation.

Lauren couldn't find Miranda, Mimi, or Tara after she started talking to Mel, but she didn't care. She was just glad to have a place to not think about all the homework that she had due and how much senioritis she had. The music, which was drowning out all other sounds of the party, began to play a familiar tune, and she suddenly remembered what she had to tell Mel, and she rushed off to find her.

"Mel! Guess what! I won tickets to a Sulky Boys concert!" Lauren exclaimed.

"Really? That's AMAZING! Am I coming?" Mel asked, her speech slurred.

"Erm... I thought you didn't like the Sulky Boys," Lauren remembered.

"Oh, right! I love my party!" Mel exclaimed.

Lauren sighed. What had made her think that this was going to be a great party in the first place?

Maureen searched for Tara and Mimi as a Sulky Boys song blared through the room. She found Mimi first, gripping a can of beer, her makeup smudged, kissing a guy with a long mop of brown curls.

"Hmm, Mimi probably got that Christine girl her first kiss without her even realizing it," Maureen thought. Then she heard a scream coming from the other room that sounded oddly familiar, and she ran towards the sound. Mimi immediately pulled away from the guy she was kissing at the sound and followed Maureen.

Lauren heard the scream also, and was the first to see Tara, fallen on her back onto the stained floor of Mel's living room.

In New York

Mark and Collins walked up to where the store where Collins bought the television set was, but it was no longer there. The windows were boarded up, and there were no signs of life anywhere around the store.

"You sure you bought it here, Collins?" Mark asked.

"Yeah. I have no idea what happened. This afternoon, it was a fully functioning store, and now..." Collins trailed.

"Maybe they were having a going out of business sale?" Mark suggested weakly.

"Come on Mark, get serious here. No, they were not having a going out of business sale. I have no idea what happened," Collins admitted. Defeated, Mark and Collins walked back to the loft, where Miranda, Steve, and Christine were waiting.

"So, did you get the TV fixed?" Miranda asked once Mark and Collins were back. One look at their faces gave her the answer.

"It was the weirdest thing," Collins explained. "The place was all boarded up, and no one was there. But I bought the TV from the store a couple hours ago! It didn't make sense."

"Don't give up hope, guys," Mark said as he stared at Miranda, Christine, and Steve's dejected faces. "Maybe the TV isn't what's causing it. I mean, who's ever heard of a TV causing people to switch bodies?"

"Who's ever heard of anyone switching bodies?" Miranda said sarcastically.

"Yeah, I know. It probably sucks for you guys. Hey, why don't we try to plug the TV in again. Maybe we'll find out what's going on that way," Mark suggested.

"Well, I don't see how that'll help, but ok!" Christine said, trying to remain optimistic.

"That's the spirit! Let's just untangle this wire and then..." Mark trailed.

"Then what? Mark, are you ok?" Steve asked. But it was too late. Mark had fallen to the ground next to the television set.

"Not again!" Christine exclaimed.

Mark woke up after a couple minutes. His eyes had turned a vibrant green, and his voice definitely wasn't the same.

"What the fuck happened? Lauren? Brian? Where is everybody?" Tara yelled. While Miranda and Christine were shocked and surprised at Tara's voice coming out of Mark's body, Steve was overjoyed.

"Tara? Is that you?" Steve asked, running towards "her" and giving her a huge bear hug, completely ignoring the fact that she was now in a guy's body. They started to kiss...

AND THE MARK/ROGER SLASH FANS REJOICED!

But the kiss was cut short by Steve almost immediately after it started.

"Tara? What the fuck are you doing in a guy's body?" Steve shouted.

"What do you mean, what the fuck am I...Oh, shit!" Tara exclaimed as she looked down at her new form.

"This is fucking great. I get to finally see my girlfriend, and she's a guy! What the fuck is up with that?" Steve shouted.

"Yeah! Me and Brian were having a great conversation over at Mel's party, and..." Tara trailed off.

"Wait! Who's this 'Brian' that you were talking to at Mel's party?" Steve asked, obviously angry.

"He's some friend of Mel's. Nothing happened, Steve," Tara reassured.

"How do I know that? How do I know that my girlfriend didn't just throw herself at the first guy she saw because I wouldn't know?" Steve yelled.

"No! It wasn't like that! Fuck... I'm sorry, Steve. Man, it's hard not to just run up and kiss you right now," Tara admitted.

"Me too, baby. But, I have to admit, seeing you as a guy is quite amusing," Steve said, stifling a laugh.

"Shut up, Steve. Why did I have to switch bodies with a guy, of all people? I would've been fine with stripper-girl over there, but no, I had to switch with a guy. I always have such rotten luck!" Tara exclaimed, gesturing to Christine.

"Hey, who are you calling stripper-girl!" Christine exclaimed. Tara, like everyone else, was shocked to hear Christine's voice coming out of Mimi's body.

"Woah! Christine! I didn't realize that was you!" Tara shouted.

"Join the club. So, I'm guessing this means that the TV isn't fixed yet?" Miranda said lightheartedly.

"Um, no. And now I'm even more sure that the TV is causing the problem, since Mark was fixing the cords when he switched with Tara," Collins said.

"So, you guys don't have any idea what's going on either?" Tara asked.

"No, we don't. We thought that our television set was causing the problem, but we brought it back to the store and the store was all boarded up, which caused us even more confusion," Collins explained.

"Well, that's just great. As soon as Lauren figures this out, she'll kill us! And not just me, either- Mimi was practically smashed. She was making out with this one guy..." Tara explained.

"WHAT! Did I just hear 'she was making out with a guy?'" Christine asked, stunned.

"Yeah, she was. And, from what I overheard, she was planning on doing more than that," Tara added.

"So, does this mean that I got my first kiss without realizing it?" Christine asked.

"Um...hmm, I've never thought about that," Tara admitted. "I guess it would count."

"Wow. By the time this is over, who know what will happen?" Christine said.

"I don't know. I'm just glad that I don't have to see the look on everyone's face when they see that I've switched with a guy."