Laurie stepped forward. "What the hell is going on?"

Mrs. Morfran shook her head. "Now now, young man, that's too strong a tone."

"So what? Answer the question," I said, my own tone firm but concerned.

"You as well, young lady. That's no way to speak to the goddess that fixed your wayward souls."

"What?!" Laurie almost shouted.

Mrs. Morfran looked up from her papers. "You couldn't see it, not by yourselves. You were too stuck, too… Lost. This gift I've given you, this change, is what you so desperately needed. If you hadn’t, things might have been very different indeed.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “How is changing us into the opposite twin a ‘gift’?”

She stood up and walked around and leaned on the front of her desk. “Did you not listen to my explanation yesterday, Ms. Johnson?” She tapped the desk with one finger and the paintings all changed to scenes of me in class, though they showed me as both genders. I couldn’t actually remember a version of this as Ash, but my memory as Ashe was definitely clear. “Artwork is change. It’s the process of taking a blank canvas and turning it into a masterpiece of color, of beauty.” She motioned to us. “You two are but another of my masterpieces. A talented young man created from a simple girl who didn’t push herself,” she said, pointing at Laurie. She then moved her finger toward me. “A spirited young woman created from a boy who never really tried at life.” She folded her arms under her breasts. “The two of you were blank canvases, and have now become works of true art.”

“What gives you the right to do this?” Laurie asked, his voice barely hiding his contempt.

“The right? Silly boy, do you not understand what a goddess is?”

“You think you can do this just because you’re a goddess?” Laurie was seething now. “Just what the hell are you the goddess of, anyway?!”

She smirked, then snapped her fingers. Suddenly, her casual looking blouse and skirt were replaced by the red dress she’d worn yesterday when she came into class. Her hair took on a mass of curls and a crown appeared on her head. She was barefoot, for some reason, but it didn’t seem to bother her. She went from looking like her late 30s to her late 20s, though she could actually pass for far younger very easily.

When she spoke, she took on an accent that I couldn’t quite place, but sounded vaguely British. “My name is Ceridwen, and I’m considered the goddess of rebirth… and transformation.”

I wanted to say something, but I didn’t know what. I’d think this was outright insane if not for the fact that I’d stopped mid-stride back at home and realized I was somehow two people. Either this was all the craziest fucking dream, I was actually going insane or the even crazier possibility that this was actually happening.

The only thing I could even consider asking was, “But… Why us?”

Laurie asked, “That’s all you can say?”

“What do you want me to say?! This whole thing is insane, we shouldn’t even think it’s real, but we both know it is! I wanna know why it was us that got changed as opposed to anybody else!”

Ceridwen started to giggle. “She asked the right question, Mr. Johnson.” She walked away from the desk, toward us. I realized right then and there that she was tall. I was maybe five-foot-four, Laurie was six-foot-two, but she was even taller than he was, somewhere around six-foot-ten if not taller. “You see, children, twins are special. From the days of the first humans, straight through today, twins have a special connection that transcends mere sibling attachment.” She set her hand on my shoulder. “They are tied to one another uniquely, some pairs adopting similar mannerisms subconsciously, others developing relationships that mirror one another without reason, others still taking on the same likes and interests without even knowing they’re related to each other.” She put her hand on Laurie’s shoulder now. “But then there are twins such as you. Neither of you shared any interests, had similar friends, or even shared looks. Twins such as you are rare, often only occurring once every hundred generations.

“When I saw you, realized a challenge: How far could either of you go seeing the differences in each other without seeing the differences in yourselves.” Her hand moved from my shoulder to my face, and it creeped me the hell out. “Could Ashley see her sister changing into a young man all the while she was focused on wooing the boy she’d had a crush on almost her entire life?” Her hand on Laurie’s shoulder moved to his face. “Could Larry watch as his brother became a spunky young woman while he focused on his football career and his high school stardom?” She thankfully took her hands off of us, but I felt a shiver run down my spine. “The two of you were so interesting to me, I just couldn’t wait to see which one of you noticed the changes first.

“As it turned out, neither of you did beyond a cursory glance. Ashley’s brain was already deep in creation, turning what little she actually did notice into fodder for her wonderful comic book. And while Larry did seem to have a bit more insight into the changes, he brushed it off and worried more about spending some wonderful time with his girlfriend.” She snapped her fingers again and the paintings around us changed, focusing only on our new lives asn Ashe and Larry. They weren’t even recent happenings, I saw the day I wiped out at the skate park and broke my arm in two places. In my life as Ash, I wanted to be the next Tony Hawk, but in my life as Ashe, I wanted to be the next Elissa Steamer. “The two of you had become so attached to your new lives, that noticing the changes was relegated to a subconscious feeling that you merely pushed away with a simple moment of logical reasoning. You both accepted what you were becoming before you’d even truly started to change.”

“Are you saying the reason you picked us was because we were too stupid to realize what was happening to us?” I asked.

She shook her head. “On the contrary, I picked you because you were too clever. You both saw, you both took it in stride, you both discovered ways to adapt.” She looked at me. “It helped that you were writing that comic. You had already laid the groundwork for your own gender bending experience by creating one for your character, one based both on your former and current lives. That you involved your brother almost instantly was another masterstroke, as it acclimated him as well. You really are a talented writer, Ms. Johnson. I look forward to reading your works in the coming years, you have a great future ahead of you in that field.”

I felt an annoying sense of pride that the woman that had changed my life without my permission actually liked my writing, but that was beside the point. “And what about Laurie?”

“Mr. Johnson also has a promising future ahead of him.” She turned to him. “Not just in football, but in business as well. It’s a shame you don’t apply yourself as well as you should, but that college scholarship will be just the thing you need to come into your own.”

“But what about the lives we would have had before you changed us?”

She turned back to me. “Your future as a writer was set in stone from day one. As was your brother’s future in business. Of course, as a woman, Laurie’s business career would have been a bit more limited, just as your writing career would have been a little more difficult as a man.”

“But there are lots of best selling male authors, why would that have been a problem?”

Laurie nudged my elbow. “I think you just answered your own question, sis.”

“Indeed,” Ceridwen said with a hint of amusement in her voice.

“So, you did this to help us?”

She turned to him. “No, I did this to create beautiful works of art. Changing your futures to accommodate your interests was a bonus.”

“So we’re right back to the what gives you the right argument and your only answer is that you’re a goddess.”

She nodded. “That’s the answer, alright.”

“You took away the lives we had and shoved us into different ones just for the fun?” I asked. “Don’t you see how we could, maybe, not be happy about that?”

She snapped her fingers and a notebook appeared on one of the desks. “Brenda was very happy as Brian, was she not? And yet, what you’ve written so far has her discovering love and happiness as a young woman she never was before.” She opened the notebook and flipped to one of the later pages. “Ooh, from the looks of things, Brenda and Joey have quite the future ahead of them. Children?”

Laurie whispered, “When did you write that far ahead?”

I shrugged. “Last night, I think. Grant and I talked about it when he brought me home from the movie.”

Ceridwen shut the notebook. “You understand the double standard, I assume?”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t. Those are fictional characters, not real people.”

“Fictional to you. Real to those that live in that world. Who’s to say we are not all fictional characters in someone else’s narrative? Brenda enjoyed her life as Brian, then came to realize her life as Brenda was significantly better.” She tossed me the notebook. “As you’ll both come to realize soon.”

“You mean you’re not even gonna give us the option to change back?” Laurie asked.

She shook her head. “Of course not. Once a change has taken root, it can’t be undone. Your only choice in this matter is whether or not you want to remember your old lives.”

Laurie scoffed. “Yeah, right, like that’s a choice. You think we want to go nuts remembering two separate lives? If we’re gonna be stuck like this, we should just be this.”

I wanted to agree with him, but… I couldn’t deny Ceridwen’s comparison between us kinda hit me hard. In both lives, at least some aspect of Brenda was based on me, and she remembered everything about her old life as Brian. She didn’t get the opportunity to forget being Brian and just live her life as Brenda. If I was gonna be stuck as Ashe, in a happy life where I had a great boyfriend and a promising future as an author, maybe I should be more like Brenda. But was that the wrong choice? Was it stupid of me? Was it a selfish thing to not go fucking crazy remembering two lives when I had the choice to forget one?

“If you wish not to remember,” Ceridwen explained, “you can simply leave. You’ll wake up the next morning, and Laurie and Ash will be gone forever. If you wish to remember, you need to tell me now.”

Laurie -- Larry, I had to call him Larry now -- turned to me. “You’re gonna remember, aren’t you?”

I looked up at him. “How can you tell?” I asked.

He pointed at the notebook I had clutched to my chest. “I could tell it was going through your head as soon as she used Brenda on you. And I don’t blame you for it. You can handle knowing two lives at the same time, you can just use it for your writing. I can’t do that, and I admit that, so I’m gonna go. When you wake up tomorrow, you’ll remember Larry and Laurie, and I won’t remember Ash, but I will remember Ashe. Instead of my dopey big brother who teased me for dressing slutty when I was twelve, I’ll remember my geeky little sister who though she had to dress that way to fit in until she realized she could still be a popular girl while being a total dork.”

I lightly punched him in the chest. “Hey! I’m not a total dork! And I’m very fashion conscious.”

He smirked. “See, that’s why you’re the better little sister. Maybe the goddess over there is right, and our lives will be so much better, but it still chaps my ass that we didn’t get to make that decision for ourselves. I’d just rather not remember being what I can’t be anymore.”

I nodded. “I get you, I really do.”

He patted me on the back. “See ya tomorrow, sis. You’ll remember me saying that, but I’ll just remember going to bed with Chrissie in my arms.”

I smiled, then asked, “Did you have sex with her?”

“That is none of your business.”

“You won’t remember telling me.”

“But you’ll remember that I told you.”

“You’re an asshole, you know that, right?”

“Besides, if you think I didn’t notice you cuddling Grant with your shirt off, you’re wrong.”

I blushed. “We didn’t have sex though!”

“You just weren’t trying hard enough.” He reached out and hugged me. “See ya in the morning. We’ll probably both have a major hangover.”

I felt a tear drip down my cheek. “See ya tomorrow, bro.”

For a moment, it almost seemed like he wanted to stay, but in the end, he turned and walked out the door, forever erasing Laurie from everything but my memory. As if to drive the point home, the paintings of Laurie around the room faded away, leaving only paintings of Larry. I recognized all of the scenes that played out in the paintings, from his first touchdown on our preschool playground to just this last game, where he scored the game ender and everyone cheered.

Nobody but me would ever remember anything but that smiling boy I call my twin brother.

I turned around to face Ceridwen, who had changed back to her Mrs. Morfran form and returned to her seat behind the desk. I hugged my notebook a little closer as I walked up to the desk and waited for her to explain exactly how I’d remember everything. I was almost worried how this whole thing would work out.

She was grading what looked like one of Grant's pages for the comic, showing Brian and Brenda standing back to back. It was one we'd decided to use as Brenda reflected on her new life and how it was different and in a lot of ways better than her old life. The difference was that Brian and Brenda were replaced with Ash and Ashe, the two people that made me up. I saw the parallels she was trying so hard to draw between Brenda and me -- this time literally -- and that in a lot of ways, I’d written this whole crazy story about me and Larry changing genders.

“You changed us because Grant and I made the comic, didn’t you?”

She smirked. “I did. It was the inspiration I needed for this change. I could have simply changed you from a football player to a photojournalist, changed Laurie from the business-minded young woman to a singer/songwriter. But you, dear Ashley, proved that your imagination is a creative well that must be drawn from for the future to be bright.” She then added a comically large “A+” to the corner and handed me the paper. “Just place it in your notebook before you walk out the door. You’ll wake up comfortably in the arms of your wonderful boyfriend and live your life knowing of what was and what now is.”

I took the paper and held it for a moment, then asked, “Am I doing the right thing? What if Larry’s got the right idea?”

“Your brother is right about one thing: You’re strong enough to carry on knowing both of these lives, and to understand which one you prefer.” She leaned forward. “I never mentioned around Larry that your comic was wish-fulfillment.”

I looked down at the drawing and felt more tears begin to well up. “It really was, wasn’t it? I don’t… I don’t know when I really figured that out, but… It was.”

She motioned to the drawing. “And now your wish is fulfilled, and you still remember it. When you leave, you’ll be the only one who knows.”

“Well, you’ll know.”

“I meant humans. You’ll be the only human who knows.”

“I don’t know if I want to, now. What if…”

She shook her head. “Ah ah, Ms. Johnson, trust me. It would be better if you remembered.” She smiled. “Think of all the fantastic stories you’ll write with the experiences of both a boy and a girl.”

I sighed. “I guess you’ve got a point there.”

“Exactly. Now go home, Ms. Johnson. Go home, wake up to your boyfriend and enjoy your life. I believe you and your brother have a house to clean up before your father returns home.”

My heart stopped for a second. In all of this craziness, I’d actually forgotten about that. And Larry and I would need to do that with a hangover. In a bit of a rush, I slid the drawing into my notebook and ran out of the classroom, into a bright, white light…