12 - Alyssa tries to keep up

"Suit yourself. But it's gonna be my turn in a few minutes. And I'm not planning on holding back. Anything you want to get in before the buzzer, now's your chance, lol."

The phone line was silent for a little bit. Alyssa was walking around the front of the Social Sciences Building, toward the little university coffee shop where she'd met Lauren earlier that morning. She was still getting used to walking at her new height. A foot, it turned out, was a lot. Her shorter legs couldn't keep the pace she was accustomed to, and her lower perspective made everything seem bigger and farther away. The little bit of mass the penalty had added to her curves stood out as well, shifting unfamiliarly, though not unpleasantly, under her t-shirt and jeans with every movement.

The only time that Alyssa had seen the app really do its work was the bonus choice which doubled Lauren's tits. But that alone, watching her best friend's internet-famous sweater-stuffers multiply from two to four, and Lauren behaving like nothing had ever been different, was enough to dispell any skepticism in Alyssa's head. Even the many, many photographs she'd saved of Lauren, (decent or otherwise,) reflected her new assets. In the past hour, scrolling back through old photos while she caught lauren up on the memories she'd missed out on from the 'new reality', she'd been especially grateful for her friend's lifelong penchant for bare skin and copious cleavage.

Alyssa's other change, the free-form bonus command, was going to be a real sneaky little trick. From what she understood of the app's rules, she probably wouldn't notice the effects of that one at all. But Lauren would. Whether she realized how her commands had been twisted was another question. It seemed like she hadn't, even if the effects of her command about the weather, and the change to her sexuality, (still a surreal thing for Alyssa to think about,) should have been a dead giveaway. Alyssa wondered how long to give her to figure it out. Maybe she'd just tell her; she wanted to have some more fun with the 'stealing' penalty.

She got in line to order a latte. Sure, it was a little late in the day for caffeine, but if this afternoon was half as fun as she was planning, she wouldn't be doing much sleeping anyway.

Maybe she could eliminate the need for sleep entirely. Maybe just for her, or maybe for everybody. She added the idea to her list. As long as she didn't erase coffee from the world too, by accident. She liked her lattes.

She was getting to the front of the line. The prices had gone up again. Only by a quarter, but it was the principle of the thing. She didn't have Lauren's Lonelyfans revenue to lean on, and her parents, even though they were (barely) talking to her again, still weren't that hot on giving their stupid, sinful gay daughter an allowance. Or her college fund. She was getting by the old-fashioned way, on part-time work and student loans.

~ Da-Ding! ~

There was that chime again. Lauren must have changed something. It had done that a few times this morning, after the WorldMaster app had installed itself. Alyssa had realized after the first time that there was no point in trying to figure out what had changed. Whatever it was, It would probably be something she had taken for granted all her life, and would hardly believe was knew even if she was told. Like the tropical paradise of the Pacific Northwest, or Lauren being her long-time best-friend-slash-lover. She could have been turned into a little green tree frog, and she would probably just keep hopping along and eating flies, unaware that anything was the slightest bit out of the ordinary.

Despite all that, she couldn't help looking around anyway. Maybe she'd get lucky. The sun was out, the student body was milling about in between classes, and a latte cost twenty-five cents more than it did last week. The barista, Claire, a cute, slender half-Asian girl with a septum piercing, leaned down, further than usual, for a friendly peck on the cheek when Alyssa reached the front of the line.

"Oh damn, Alyssa. You're tiny. The usual?"

Alyssa did a double take. Claire had acknowledged her penalty change, but she didn't seem all that confused by her suddenly being a foot shorter. It was as if she had showed up with a new hair color, or wearing a novelty hat.

"Yeah, uh, the usual. Thanks."

Alyssa paid for her latte. A quarter extra. If Brandon was working she'd have taken it out of the tip. Sometimes she envied Lauren, with all her Lonelyfans revenue going unspent. For something like a cup of coffee, it was easy. On the other hand, when her tuition bill came due... Well, it sure beat student loans, anyway.

She found a place to sit and wait for her coffee, when Lauren's voice came back over the phone line. "Hey, Alyssa... Do you really think I dress like a slut?"

Alyssa did a double take. "...What?"

Lauren went on to explain how, in some previous timeline, before they were permanent best friends forever, they'd had a fight, and Alyssa had made some mean remark about Lauren's trademark way of dressing. Which was weird, because as far as she remembered, Lauren had owned it since senior year. She'd even picked Northern State University partly for its tropical climate, where she could get away with showing even more skin. Of course she dressed like a slut. That was, like, her whole thing.

This version of Lauren didn't seem to share that outlook. She groaned over the phone. "Alright, alright. One second."

~ Da-Ding! ~

Alyssa blinked. What had they been talking about? Clothes? Had Lauren changed something about clothes?

Of course, everything still looked normal. Alyssa was still wearing her modest black sports bra, the one with a band logo printed across the front, and her running shorts. She scanned the building's atrium, drinking in the sheer amount of skin on display. Most of the girls were wearing some kind of casual bikini. The more confident ones weren't wearing much more than string, with a couple patches of material for the sensitive bits, perhaps embellished with a little lace or some beads. One, a particularly tall and stunning redhead, was just wearing a couple little black strips of tape. Alyssa sighed. They were by the beach, after all. She tried not to stare too overtly.

Two tables over, a couple of particularly well-dressed girls were standing on either side of a laptop, arguing about something. Alyssa wondered what they were dressed up for. Maybe they had a presentation together. One, a tall black girl was wearing a smart green strapless one-piece, cut high over her generous hips, showing off her tremendous ass. Her partner, a tallish, curvy blonde, was wearing a corset-style button-up top and a professional-looking skirt that almost came down past the curve of her butt. Alyssa realized, belatedly, that the black girl was wearing high heels. She loved high heels. She'd practically begged Lauren to start wearing them on the regular.

The third member of their group, the boy in a sweatshirt sitting at the laptop, was looking from one to the other, flustered and clearly not contributing to the conversation. Straight girls these days liked to complain how insufferable guys could get, even when they were dressed up all proper and modest. They didn't understand just how sexy formal wear could be.

For the second time, Alyssa failed to recognize any sort of change. That was going to take some getting used to.

Even so, she couldn't shake the feeling of disorientation. She knew Lauren had just been talking about something.

"Hey, sorry, what were we talking about?"