Amelia Vega, student stripping her way through grad school

Probably everyone's least favorite part about the role reverser was how unabashedly biased it was. What was reversed was based on whatever vibes you gave off in a metaphysical sense, essentially. That meant it very much depended on the social groups you were in. You could be 20 pounds overweight on the BMI scale but if you were the skinniest person in your friend group, congrats, your weight has now doubled because the universe read your role as "the skinny one." What was even worse is that what social group it shows was as arbitrary as the way it compared you.

Amelia was feeling that now. If she had time to be asked what she would be like if her role was reversed before it happened, she'd probably say she'd end up a prude, maybe even a man. Amelia was thinking of her academic friend group. One of the few women in a sea of male chemists, and the only one comfortable enough with it to wear short skirts and talk publically about paying for her degree dancing. It wouldn't have been a bad bet. Except, Amelia neglected to realize that even then there wasn't much contrast between her and the other similarly-minded 20-somethings she went out drinking with. No, the real contrast that made her stand out was Amelia and her co-workers.

Amelia was a stripper in her off time, and honestly, not a very good one. She was what the more-experienced dancers called a "baby stripper." She rarely did dances, saw the work as temporary instead of a career, and put little effort into improving. She was the last one in the club and the first one out. Whenever it was her turn to clean the poles, she attempted to pay another girl to get out of it. Worse than not really caring about the job though, was how she acted toward her fellow girls. Amelia was the youngest dancer at the Luscious Lovebird by far, and she let it be known. She rarely listened to what the other girls had to say but was quick to talk about her own good fortune.

"Yeah, in a year or two, I'll be out of this deadbeat town and off to bigger and better things." "Wow, your fake boobs cost how much? Luckily I'll never need that, I'm naturally busty." "Wait, you want me to take your shift so you can pick up your kid? Why are you stripping with a kid at home?" On and on and on. It did not endear her to the rest of the club. Amelia didn't really notice because she never hung around enough to get to know the other women, her real friends were all smart and capable STEM grads.

Well now, Amelia was regretting that. She was currently in a side room trying to do her homework on her laptop while the latest raunchy club hit was making her head pound. She told Derrick to apply for the grant to soundproof these rooms but he waved her off. He was really becoming the typical landlord. She looked into the black screen of her computer as her assigned video loaded. The face that looked back wasn't her's. Or it wasn't supposed to be. Not yet.

Amelia's changes fixated on her flakiness at the club and her relative youth compared to her fellow strippers. Her body went from a 23-year-old who still looked 19 to a perpetually 35-year-old woman. The doctor said her outward appearance just looked like that and she'd still live a full life, but it didn't make it easier to look in the mirror and see her mother. At least she was still hot. Not that it made her feel much better.

The other change was her mental one. Since she almost never stayed around at the club, the Role Reverser pushed her to spend as much time there as possible. She was addicted to overtime now. Whenever it came up she would jump at it. She was pretty sure that annoyed the other girls. She just couldn't win. If she was flaky and dodged responsibility they didn't like her. If she took as much overtime as possible and invested a lot in the club they didn't like her. They just didn't like her.

It wasn't just overtime though. She truly could rarely leave the club. Right now she could average about 5 hours a day at best outside of the club. That wasn't enough for in-person classes and wasn't even enough to sleep in her apartment. Instead she moved into one of the back rooms. Derek, the owner of the club, seemed upset about the arrangement but she didn't care. The government subsidized the loss of income he got from not using all his rooms. She was the one who actually had to deal with it. Sleeping in a strip club was terrible. She didn't have the youthful body that could stay awake all night anymore so constantly being kept up by the music was hurting her mental health severely.

She had to take all her classes online now. She didn't know what she could even do with a chemistry degree if she was stuck in the strip club all day, but the role exchanger had already taken so much from her she refused to lose that too. She rarely got to see her friends because of her hectic schedule but they made do with facetimes. None of them had as big changes as she did. The worst physical change was just Allison growing a beard! She really envied them but she envied one of her co-workers more. Crystal, originally the oldest dancer, got 20 years younger! It was infuriating.