Rachel Meets the New Katherine

Rachel looked down at the branding on the palm of her hand. Maybe there was something in the spell book that could tell her what it was and what it was for. She hadn't read the entire book. Maybe there was something she hadn't read yet that could help. She groaned, realizing that it might take forever, and she didn't actually know if there was anything in there to tell her what she had done anyway.

Shaking her head in frustration, she then took a deep breath, stood up, and decided to walk back to her empty dorm room. At least she could get away from all these plain, boring drones that were meandering around the campus.

It was when she was about to head back to her dorm that she spotted a very peculiar sight. It was a girl, someone who looked very out of place among the throng of plain-looking people. She was Goth, that was for sure. Black clothing, pale skin, blue hair. But she didn't look familiar to her. The only Goths she knew were from her hometown. This girl wasn't one of those.

When she got closer, though, Rachel started to think that the girl did look kind of familiar after all, like she had seen her around the campus. But that couldn't be. Rachel was the only Goth at this place. Maybe it was a new student? She had a feeling, though, that that wasn't the case.

A moment later, Rachel realized that the girl was heading straight towards her, a smile on her face, as if she were genuinely glad to see her. Who was this girl?

It was when she finally met up with Rachel that it dawned on her who this girl was. But it couldn't be.

"Katherine Gates?" Rachel asked, stunned.

"Rachel, what's wrong with you? You're acting like we've never met before," the Goth girl said.

Katherine was the girl who called her a freak, not a half an hour ago, when Rachel had accidentally bumped into her and a bunch of other girls. But she didn't look like this.

"Is this some kind of joke? Are you making fun of me?" Rachel asked, getting offended.

"What are you talking about?" Katherine asked, clearly confused, but also kind of irritated by Rachel's odd behavior.

"Why are you dressed like that?" Rachel asked.

"I always dress like this."

"Since when?" Rachel had seen Katherine around campus before. She never dressed like this.

"I don't know. Since high school? Rachel, what's wrong with you. You're acting weird."

"I'm acting weird?" Rachel asked, stunned.

"Listen, I want to tell you something. I finally did it. I finally broke up with him," Katherine said, her mood changing for the better.

"Him? Him who?"

Katherine got irritated again. "My boyfriend Tom, obviously. I finally worked up the courage to dump his dumb ass. I don't even know why I dated him in the first place. He's totally not my type." It was at this point that she sat down on the bench that Rachel had just gotten up from earlier. "Too bad this crappy college is so vanilla," she said.

Rachel looked down at Katherine and that was when her eyes zeroed in on something that immediately caught her attention. The same "lightning bolt" shaped branding that was on Rachel's hand was also on Katherine's arm. Remembering back to their encounter a half hour ago, Rachel recalled that that was where she had touched Katherine when she pushed her out of her way.

Suddenly, something clicked. Katherine was Goth now. Rachel wanted more of those around, among other things. Maybe that branding that she had made her that way. Maybe that was the result of her spell-casting. It wasn't what she expected, but the results were hard not to like.

"... and there's this girl in my Literature class that ..." Katherine continued saying. Apparently, she had been talking all this time, but Rachel wasn't paying attention.

"Katherine," she said, interrupting the other Goth, sitting down on the bench next to her.

"Yeah? What?" Katherine asked, annoyed that Rachel had interrupted her.

"How long have you been a Goth?"

"Since high school? I already told you that."

Okay, so the changes were retroactive. Katherine was most definitely not Goth just a half an hour ago, but now the girl thought she had been a Goth for years.

Rachel realized that if one of her "wishes" had come true, then maybe another one had too. She leaned in towards Katherine, causing the other girl to back away.

"What are you doing?" Katherine asked, a confused look on her pale face.

"I ... uh ... I just thought that ..." Okay, maybe she was wrong, unfortunately.

"Rachel, I know you're into girls, but I'm not. I'm only into guys." She sighed, then said "I just wish there were more guys around here that were my type."

Okay, so Katherine wasn't a lesbian, but she was Goth at least. That was something. And if Rachel was right, this could only be the beginning. All she had to do was touch more people, like she did for Katherine. Soon, this campus would be more like her kind of place. Goths, lesbians, a lot more diversity overall. Rachel couldn't wait.

At that moment, a girl walked by and sneered at them. "Freaks," she muttered, before heading off. Rachel recognized her as a girl who the original Katherine was gossiping with earlier. But the girl didn't register the fact that Katherine was one of her friends. It seemed that not only were Katherine's memories different, but reality itself was changing. Interesting.