I became so excited about my last update that I had to write chapter eight, too :). Enjoy!

~Theatrelove

Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon. I also don't own High School Musical.

Chapter 8: Change us back!

Clarissa and I slowly made our way through the tunnel leading to the Goddess and her pond. Clarissa seemed to be silently planning how we were going to persuade the Goddess to change us back. The catlike eyes that she now possessed were narrowed in thought.

Man, I thought as I watched her walking down the dimly lit tunnel. I will never get used to watching myself.

I looked down past Clarissa's breasts to my skirt. I don't think I'll get used to that either.

Finally, we reached the light at the end of the tunnel.

"Woohoo! Woo—mph!" I shouted until Clarissa covered my mouth.

"We haven't won anything yet, so don't start celebrating." She hissed at me before continuing to walk forward. I wasn't too concerned with her threat, until I realized that she was now much stronger than I was. I remembered her hoisting me up into the air leaving me to dangle helplessly only a few minutes before. It was then that I resolved to keep my mouth shut.

When we emerged from the tunnel, my eyes met the most beautiful landscape I'd ever seen. We walked into a brightly lit wooded area, a large canopy of trees hanging above us. In front of us was a pond, clear as crystal, with a stone path leading through it. My first reaction was to jump in and start splashing around, but I stopped myself because 1.) I was in Clarissa's body, 2.) It was just too still and too peaceful for me to disturb, and 3.) I was in Clarissa's body. Did I mention that I was in Clarissa's body?

We slowly walked across the stone path, careful not to fall in. All around us, small animals were stirring, just waking up. And at the other end of the path stood the strangest and most beautiful thing in the area. A tall, thin, pale lady stood there. She had long blue hair that curled in wavy rivers down her front and calm, sea green eyes that looked as if they knew exactly what you were thinking. She was wearing an elegant, flowy gown. I stood there looking at her, my mouth agape. Wowza…

Clarissa noticed my being awestruck. "Luke, please tell me you're not having any perverted thoughts about the Harvest Goddess!"

"What? Of course not Clarissa! Gosh, sometimes you seriously underestimate my maturity…" She rolled her eyes.

"You don't need to worry about anything Clarissa. I think that the Goddess already has a thing with Ignis…" Finn muttered, talking somewhat to himself.

"What? What made you think that, Finn?" Clarissa asked.

"Oh! Nothing, nothing…" he quickly dismissed the subject. It was almost as if he were shooing away an unpleasant memory. Clarissa and I just shrugged and made our way up to the stone platform that the Goddess stood on. I had to be careful not to step on the little Finn lookalikes that were wandering around everywhere.

"Ah! Clarissa, Luke, what a pleasant surprise!" The Harvest Goddess said a little too happily. Even I could see behind that dazzling smile. She was up to something.

"All right, your goddessness, let's get down to business." I told her straight off.

"Why, whatever do you mean Clarissa? " She said to me, giggling.

"That's just it," Clarissa said. "I'm Clarissa, and over there is Luke. You've switched us around, and we think that you've made a terrible mistake."

"Oh Luke you are so silly!" The Goddess said, ruffling Clarissa's hair. She definitely knows what's going on...

"Finn was delusional!" Clarissa pressed on, determined. She really wanted to switch back fast. "Honestly, there aren't many people I care for more on this island than Luke here." I knew it was my turn to speak.

"And Clarissa is one of my best buddies on this island! I don't know what I would do if I hadn't met her." I said. And, as I said it, I realized that it was sort of true. I was happy I'd met Clarissa; she was kind, funny, pretty, smart…

"Well isn't that nice!" The Harvest Goddess exclaimed. We looked up at her hopefully. Does this mean she'll change us back? I wondered.

After a slight pause, she spoke again. "It's getting dark, so I'll let you two friends be. Have a nice rest of your day!" She giggled again. My face fell. I guess that answers my question. I'd given up on the matter; obviously the Goddess wasn't going to be of much help to us.

Clarissa, on the other hand, wasn't ready to give up just yet. "No, no, no! You don't understand! We have to get back to normal right now! I'm entered in a farming competition, and Luke probably has stuff going on, and we can't do it when we look like this! And…and…"

"Ohohoho, you humans do amuse me! I take such pleasure in your little jests! Thank you for the visit. Now I insist you run along, it's almost time for dinner, is it not?" The Harvest Goddess asked, a glint of mischievousness in her pretty eyes.

"I…I mean…Luke…me…bodies…you did this!" Clarissa stuttered, at a loss of anything else to say.

"Luke, you seem like you could do with a bit of rest. I think that you two should go eat a nice dinner and then get a good night's sleep. Toodleloo!" She practically pushed us down the stone path and out of the little forest glen.

"Well that was incredibly rude." I said as soon as we were out of earshot. "She could've at least been up front about it."

Clarissa began raging."She knew! She did do this to us! I could tell, the whole time, she knew exactly what we were talking about!" She roared. Then something I never would have expected happened. Clarissa's knees buckled, she fell to the ground, and she began to sob. Clarissa was crying, something I was sure that nobody in Castanet, not even her closest friends, had ever seen her do. What was even more disturbing about the whole thing was that, to someone who wasn't aware of our switch, it looked like I was crying. And that was not okay.

"Hey, Clarissa?" I put a hand on her shoulder. "It's gonna be okay, but you've gotta stop crying." She nodded teary eyed and stood up.

"There we go, big dudes don't cry." I told her.

"But that's just it!" She wailed. "I don't want to be a dude. I want to be me!"

"Well, that's gonna take awhile. You heard what Finn said, we have to get along before she'll change us back." I reminded her. It felt strange, acting like the older comfort figure in this situation. I would've expected it the other way around; me punching and kicking angrily with Clarissa calming me down. Boy, everything sure is mixed up today.

"This is completely whacked." She said, wiping the final tears off her face, which looked so pitiful that I felt almost as though I was going to cry.

"It is, isn't it?" I laughed. "Well, at least we've got each other. In the immortal words of Zac Efron; 'We're alllll in thiiiis together'!" Clarissa smiled at me as I sang, and she began laughing.

"Hey, Luke?"

"Mmhmm?"

"Don't go into show business. Please. Your singing is terrible."

"Guess I should stick to carpentry then, huh? You don't think I'm going to star in the next High School Musical movie?"

"No," she said. "I don't."

"Look, I hate to ruin the moment, but can we please eat dinner now? I'm starving!" I whined. As if to agree with me, my stomach growled. She smiled and looked up at me, her eyes still shining a bit from crying.

"Sure." She said, nodding in agreement. "Let's go."