The Curse of Switching

Molly McGee was humming a tune and baking cookies for school. She had to bribe Scratch with a promise to make him a taco buffet later in order to keep him from eating any of the cookies. However, when she opened the fridge for some of the ingredients to make more cookies, there was a note where the eggs should've been. She picked it up and read it.

"Needed lots of eggs for new plan. Darryl."

Molly got annoyed and shouted "Darryl!"

Elsewhere, Darryl had put together a kart using a thrown away frame, some tricycle wheels nobody was using, a leaf blower he borrowed from his dad, and some other random things he found. He was at the top of a hill with lots of kids watching. Then down the hill he went, using the leaf blower to go faster. He purposely crashed into some trash cans set up like bowling pins and stopped like a pro. It wasn't one of his more infamous actions, but he felt proud of it. That is until the kids laughed at him. He didn't understand why until he saw a trail of rainbow glitter made by the leaf blower.

"Molly!" he shouted.

Molly and Darryl have been getting on each other's nerves a for a while lately and it didn't go unnoticed. Scratch and the parents tried to be patient with them until one morning on a school day.

"Darryl, Did you steal all of the toilet paper!?"

"That depends, Molly. Did you plant lame flowers in my exotic plant collection!?"

"As if what I did is just as bad!"

"Well as if everything you do is a good thing!"

They kept arguing and soon ended up rolling on the floor and attacking each other. In the kitchen, the rest of the family had enough of it.

"Could someone please make it stop!?" Scratch begged.

Pete walked to the entrance of the kitchen and shouted "Molly and Darryl McGee! In the kitchen, now!"

The bickering siblings stopped and instantly came, knowing that they were in some kind of trouble.

"We know it's normal for siblings to fight," Sharon said. "But you two have been overdoing it and it needs to stop."

"Yeah, so shut your yaps and make up already." Scratch said.

"Let us handle this, Scratch." Pete said. "Now we all know you're both better at getting along than this, so at least try to bury the hatchet."

"I want to, Dad, but sometimes Darryl makes it so hard."

"Says the girl who's too much of a good thing." Darryl commented.

*GASP!* "You take that back! There's no such thing!"

"Goody two-shoes!"

"Juvenile delinquent!"

And like that, they were at each other's throats again.

"Alright, that does it!" Sharon shouted, instantly halting the fight. "Pete, Scratch, a private word with you please. You two, don't go anywhere."

The three of them went outside and whispered while Molly and Darryl wondered what was going to happen. After a couple minutes, the parents and Scratch came back in.

"We've decided on a punishment for both of you which Scratch will carry out." Sharon said.

"Oh, that's not so bad." Molly said.

"Yeah. I thought it was going to be a real punishment." Darryl said.

"You mean like switching places?" Pete asked.

For the first time ever, Molly and Darryl were actually afraid of being cursed.

"AAAHHH!" Molly ran for the front door and Darryl went for the back door.

"Oh no you don't!" Scratch stretched his arms and pulled Molly and Darryl back to where they started. "One way or another, we are ending this!"

Then he did his usual thing and cast his curse.

"IF YOU CAN NOT MAKE PEACE WITH EACH OTHER, THEN YOU SHALL REMAIN CURSED TO BE EACH OTHER!"

Molly and Darryl floated in midair unable to escape the curse. Then two bright auras of light came out of them and traded bodies. Molly's aura was yellow and Darryl's was purple. When they came back down, they looked at themselves, then at each other. (Or was it the other way around?)

"Oh no! I'm my own sister!" Darryl whined from Molly's body.

"Scratch, how could you!?" Molly asked from Darryl's body.

"Sorry, Molly, but this was driving us all crazy." Scratch said.

"Uh, Scratch. You were only supposed to cast it for a couple days." Pete said.

"Oops." Scratch honestly forgot about that part. "Well it's too late now. Hopefully, they'll sort it out themselves and soon."

Neither Molly nor Darryl were happy about this problem. Now they had to either end their sibling rivalry or stay in each other's bodies forever. To make things worse, it was time for school.

Later at school, the siblings had gone to each other's classes and Scratch followed to keep an eye on them, hoping for any progress (and maybe a little entertainment). He started with Molly naturally and watched her try to act like her brother.

"Hey, dudes!" Molly greeted, making people look at her funny. "Who's ready to get in trouble today?"

All she heard as a response were crickets. After feeling awkward, she just went to the first empty seat she could find. Next to her was a confused african boy with with a beanie hat.

"Darryl, are you okay?" he asked.

"Oh yeah. I just got excited." Molly lied.

"Why do you sound funny?"

"Uhhh, laryngitis."

"Cool, can't wait for the new plan at lunch, bro."

It was obvious that this boy was a friend of Darryl's. All Molly needed now was his name. Luckily, all classes start with attendance. Turns out that his name is Otto. While class went on as usual, Molly thought about her predicament.

"Maybe this curse is actually an opportunity for me." she said in her head. "I can experience life as a boy, I'll get to know Otto and any other friends Darryl might have, and I could set him on a path to being a better person. It's perfect. Molly, you're a genius."

A short while later, Molly needed to use the bathroom, so she got permission and went there. To Scratch's amusement, Molly made a mistake. She forgot she was in her brother's body and went into the girl's bathroom.

"AHHHH!"

"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" Molly quickly ran out after realizing her blunder.

"Hahahahahahaha!" Scratch was rolling in the air as he laughed at Molly's expense.

"I can hear you, Scratch." Molly flatly said.

"Oh look at the time. I better go check on Darryl. Okay, byyye." Scratch took off with a teasing tone.

Later in Molly's class, Scratch was watching Darryl struggle being comfortable sitting down while trying to get used to wearing a skirt.

"Molly, are you okay?" Libby asked.

"Yeah-uh, you bet, bestie." Darryl said.

"What happened to your voice?"

"Uhhh, puberty."

Libby thought her friend was being suspicious again, but she let it slide. She figured if it was anything important, than Molly would tell her after everything that has happened in the past.

"This is all Molly's fault." Darryl thought. "If she had just let me be me, we wouldn't be stuck as each other."

Then an idea came to him.

"Wait a minute. If I'm Molly, then this is the perfect chance to get back at her. She may have ruined my garden, but now I'm gonna ruin her goody-goody reputation."

While concocting his evil revenge scheme, Darryl felt the need to use the bathroom. Thankfully the first class of the day ended, giving him the best chance to go. Scratch followed him, hoping to get a good laugh again.

"This is gonna be weird going in the girl's room." Darryl whispered before entering the correct restroom.

Scratch followed him into the room, but not the stall and listened for anything funny. Little did he know that what he was about to hear would be priceless.

"Hey. How am I supposed to aim like this?" Darryl said out loud. "Ah! I'm missing! I'm missing! Yuck! It's on my legs!"

Scratch held it in until he left the bathroom and burst out laughing like crazy. Molly and Darryl may not like this curse one bit, but he was sure
enjoying it.

Later at lunch, Molly and Otto were eating together while Scratch was stealing food again. Molly tried earlier to find more of Darryl's friends, but it seemed like Otto was the only one he had.

"So, Darryl, when does operation gas attack begin?" Otto whispered.

"Actually, I was thinking I'd try something different for a change." Molly quietly answered.

"Oh really? What do you have in mind?"

"Well as you know, I like to cause trouble so I can make a name for myself. But maybe I can get an even better name by doing something nice instead. After all, it works for Molly."

Otto looked at his friend like he had three heads.

"Seriously? You want to hold off one of your better ideas for charity?"

"Of course. It runs in the family. In fact, the new plan is about to begin. I just needed something out of my locker."

"What are you going to do?"

"You'll see." Molly got up and walked around the cafeteria with a big bag of something.

She went from kid to kid and gave each of them from the bag a much smaller bag of a colorful treat.

"Are these jellybeans?"

"Thanks, Darryl."

"Yes! Junkfood!"

Otto was flabbergasted by what he just witnessed. Ever since they met, he has known Darryl for causing trouble just for fun. It was the root of their friendship. Molly noticed his confusion as well as Scratch's dropped jaw.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were somebody else." he said. "Where did you even get all those jellybeans?"

"I went to a candy store and guessed the right number of them in jar." Molly explained, glancing at Scratch as a sign that she was technically telling the truth, but it wasn't Darryl who did that.

While Otto tried to contemplate the whole thing, Scratch went to Molly's side and asked her a question.

"You were holding out on me!?"

"You would've eaten them all if I didn't." Molly whispered as she gave Scratch a bag of jellybeans.

Scratch was happy now, but he had that evil look in his eyes.

"Don't even think about it." Molly said.

"Fine." Scratch crossed his arms and pouted.

Scratch had gone to Darryl again who was now in gym class. The students were playing dodgeball in which Darryl and Libby were both recently hit and had to sit on the bench.

"Phew, tough game." Darryl said.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Libby asked. "Because you're usually better at dodgeball than that."

"Oh, must be an off day for me."

"Hmmm." Libby knew something was up, but couldn't guess what it was.

A few minutes later, the game was over and some of the kids were asked to put the balls away. Darryl snuck behind the bleachers, but Libby noticed and got even more suspicious. Then Libby heard a strange sound from behind her. She turned and saw the ball cage shaking all by itself. Suddenly there was some kind of explosion from in it, sending all of the balls flying up. The students ran from the surprise, but a lot of them were hit by the balls. By some miracle, Libby managed to avoid all of them and had a good idea what or who caused such a scene.

"Heh-heh-heh-heh. I got them good." Darryl whispered. "And nobody suspected a thing."

"Almost nobody, you mean." Libby said from behind.

"Ah! Oh, hey, Libby. What brings you back here?"

"Apparently the trouble you just caused." Libby grabbed Darryl by the arm before he could run. "What's going on, Molly? This isn't like you at all. It's as if you..."

At that moment, Libby had a shocking thought. Above her head was a thought bubble that showed a typical cartoon equation.

Molly + Darryl x Scratch = Body Swap.

"Darryl!?"

"Drat, I'm busted." Darryl said.

"Why did Scratch even do this to you?" Libby asked.

"Because they were fighting so much, it was driving the rest of us crazy!" Scratch appeared right next to Darryl.

"And thanks to somebody's screw up, we're stuck like this until we can somehow make peace with each other." Darryl added.

"Wait, then why are you making Molly look bad." Libby asked. "That'll only keep you two fighting for even longer instead of breaking the curse."

Darryl realized Libby was right and facepalmed himself.

"I knew I forgot something."

Scratch had gone back to Molly again in science class. The students were assigned to mix some harmless chemicals with partners. Molly was with Otto and holding a beaker of one chemical while he poured in two others from test tubes. Everything was going smoothly, but Otto couldn't take it anymore.

"Alright, Darryl, what's going on?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Molly replied.

"All day you haven't been yourself. You've gone from chaos to kindness almost instantly. Why?"

"I told you, I wanted to try something different to make a name for myself. If it weren't for my parents, all I'd ever do is bad things, and it hasn't gotten me very far. I don't even remember the last time I did something nice before today."

"Then you must have a very short memory." Otto commented. "Because last week, you told me all about what you did for your sister."

"Wait, what?" was all Molly could say.

"You grabbed all the eggs you could get your hands on and set a trap for that girl who tried to mess with Molly and some of her classmates over something about baseball. What you did was awesome!"

Molly was shocked by this information. She quickly recovered and said "Oh yeah. Now I remember."

She knew at that moment that she needed to talk to her brother as soon as possible. Suddenly, she noticed the mixed chemicals acting funny due to nobody paying attention. Before she could stop it, the mixture exploded into a pile of bubbles, causing Scratch to laugh again.

School was almost over and Scratch returned to Darryl again. The teacher temporarily left the room after forgetting something, so the kids took the opportunity to either do some homework or talk. Darryl and Libby chose the latter.

"For the last time, we're stuck like this, and there's nothing we can do about it." Darryl said.

"Yes there is and you know it." Libby argued.

"We've been fighting so much lately that I don't think we can make peace at all." Darryl crossed his arms and sighed.

Libby felt bad for Darryl and figured Molly was feeling the same way Darryl is feeling right now, so she tried to say anything that could help.

"Why have you even been fighting so much in the first place?" she asked.

"It's a sibling thing. You wouldn't understand, but I'll try to give you an idea." Darryl explained. "We always do things that get on each other's nerves. We have no choice. For example, this morning Molly put a bunch of lame flowers in my exotic plant collection."

Libby held up a finger to stop Darryl, pulled out her cellphone, and looked for something, which left him confused. She seemed to have found it, because she then showed him what it was.

"Did those flowers look like this?" she revealed a picture of some pink roses.

"What? How'd you know?" Darryl asked.

"Obviously your knowledge of exotic plants doesn't include flowers." Libby said. "Molly bought them as a gift for you after you sold some of your collection to help your family. She figured some rare pink roses would add some variety to what you had. It was supposed to be a happy surprise."

Darryl then realized that he should've known his own sister better than what he assumed and everything else she has done before like the rainbow glitter was meant for him, not against him.

"Alright, I'll try to make peace with her."

School was finally over for the day as Molly, Darryl, Libby, and Scratch all traveled home together. After Libby informed Molly that she knew what was going on, Molly and Darryl tried to think of something to say to each other.

"Hey, I'm sorry." they both said.

"Wait, you're sorry?" Darryl asked.

"Yeah. I found out what you did for me and the team." Molly explained. "It's easy to forget sometimes that you really can do nice things. So thank you, Darryl."

"Well I should be thanking you too." Darryl said. "Libby told me why you put those flowers in my garden. I probably should've asked you about them in a nicer way."

"That's okay, Darryl. We may not always get along, but at least we know we have each other's backs."

And so they hugged. When they let go, they froze and floated again. The same two auras came out and returned to their original bodies. When they came back down, they checked themselves and smiled.

"I'm me again!" they said at the same time.

"I'm so glad this curse is over." Libby hugged her best friend. "It was a little weird hanging with your brother in your body."

"I'm glad too." Scratch said. "Now they won't give me such a headache."

"Come on, let's go tell Mom and Dad the good news." Molly said.

"Yeah!" Darryl said. "By the way, Molly. You have detention this week."

"What!?" Molly cried out.

"Just kidding." Darryl laughed.

"Oh you're gonna get it now. Courtesy of the tickle monster!" Molly wiggled her fingers and chased after her brother.

With Scratch and Libby trailing behind, they ran and laughed all the way home like the happy family they are.

Author's Note: First of all, I'd like to apologize to a guest reader called VRM. I know you asked for a body swap between Molly and Libby, but I already had this planned as one of my first ten chapters. Besides, I thought about it, but I can't see the story potential of that like I do with Molly and Darryl swapping bodies. I am very sorry, VRM. Also, for those of you who are wondering why I didn't have Molly swap with Andrea either, it's because when I think of that, I picture them entering each other's houses, and we've barely seen the interior of Andrea's home. In other words, I feel like I need more info about her even though this is just a fanfic. I'll admit, this story feels like my weakest in this anthology yet. But hopefully I at least did a few things right. I definitely hope I didn't go too far with that bathroom joke. And in case you're also wondering about the Otto character I made up, I only came up with him out of necessity for this story, but I am a little curious of your opinions about him. I think that's all I have to say about this one. Next time, a curse I'd especially love to see in the show will happen.