Chapter 22

I stared at the boy before me.

He stared back at me with creamy brown eyes framed by thin circular glasses. His black hair was chopped short with most of it slicked back and spiked along the top of his head. He raised an eyebrow and disapproval radiated from his gaze as I turned my attention down to his clothes. A tight, collared black shirt, long brown pants and black shoes made him look like he was a school nerd. Even the bag, a satchel now slung across one shoulder and down to his side accented the impression that he belonged to a rich family.

I groaned and raised both arms up to my head and the boy before me copied every movement exactly.

Gone was my long, wavy brown hair. Gone were the comfortable jeans and shirts. Gone was my old backpack.

I stared at myself in the mirror with growing disgust and horror leaking onto the face I saw reflected there. I looked like a complete stranger.

"Are you almost ready to go?" asked a familiar female voice as an unfamiliar girl entered the tent I had been given for my stay in the Dream Yard. "Oh wow, they certainly did a good job on you. You look nothing like the Chris I met!"

I stared at Joleen. Her own hair had been dyed to a dark red color which bordered brown. Her ever perky blue eyes peered at me through semi rimless pink glasses. Her clothes matched mine with a black vest over a white blouse and a knee-length skirt.

"I feel like a stranger," I muttered, absently sweeping a hand up to tuck a non-existent strand of hair behind my ear.

"What else did you expect was going to happen?" she asked with a grim grin. "Plasma knows what you look like. We can't journey across Unova with you looking like you. Fennel and Amanita where right about that. We would set foot in Striaton only to be caught. We're not going to take any chances."

I sighed deeply. "I know. I don't like this, but I know."

I turned back to the mirror and swept over my features again. With Joleen behind me in her own makeover, she could almost pass as looking like my sister. I wouldn't doubt that was what Fennel and Cilan had been aiming for.

"Is this what I think it is?" asked the girl while picking up my small, blue, leather-bound book from the table next to the mirror. She flipped it open to a random page. "Huh."

"Hey!" I yelped and tried to grab it out of her hands.

She raised it up and out of range of the first lunge. I caught it on the second attempt and pulled it from her grip.

"How come your journal is written differently from how you speak and act?" she asked while settling on the small bed and spreading her skirt out like a delicate flower. "I mean, you come across as a kid who doesn't want to be in your situation, but from what little I saw, it looks like you're writing an essay rather than a journal."

I looked down at my shoes as I tucked the journal in with the items and Poké Balls I'd moved over from my previous bag. "My mother is Professor Juniper. She was the teacher at school in Nuvema. She was strict with how she wanted things to be written."

The girl opened her mouth only to be interrupted by Amanita at the opening to the tent.

"We're waiting on both of you," said the young woman while shooting a knowing look at Joleen who grinned innocently and shrugged. "Joleen was supposed to summon you so your journey across Unova could start."

A/N: Just something short I'd been wanting to write in here for a while. Both Joleen and Chris have had a change of appearance.