BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BE-

“Nyah! Turn it off, turn it off!” Shay yelled, jolting me awake. Looking up, I saw him dive under the comforter on the top bunk. 

“Shay!? What’s the matter!?”

A muffled voice shouted back, “Your alarm! It’s so loud!”

“Huh? It’s not that-”

“I have cat ears, dammit!”

“Oh, right!” I fumbled for my phone, turning off the alarm. “Sorry!”

Shay peeked out of his hiding spot with a massive case of bedhead. “Ugh… well, I’m awake now. Did Seth ever come back?”

“Mmm… I don’t think so,” I replied, looking at the empty bunk across from us. “Given that his stuff isn’t here and that this is technically a girl's room now, I think it’s safe to say that the whole reality thing means we don’t share a room with him anymore. At least the room number stayed the same.”

“Great,” he sighed, flopping back down onto his mattress. “Can you believe the first thing he did was try to flirt with me? What a creep.”

“Maybe he got his mind messed with or something. He was never that bad before, right?”

“Don’t defend him!” Shay hissed. “Look, we pretend that never happened, and we go about our day trying to figure out what’s going on.”

“Yeah,” I stretched, pulling myself out of bed and trudging over to the closet. “Hey, you don’t think…”

“Oh please no.”

---

The reality change was not kind to our wardrobes. I managed to find a pair of tight jeans and a plain t-shirt and jacket combo that looked at least gender-neutral. Shay wasn’t so lucky though; his entire closet had been replaced by all kinds of frills and thrills. The best he could do was a pair of leggings and a very oversized hoodie featuring a cute cat paw design. Shay grumbled the entire time he was putting it on, and it didn’t get any better when we went out. He was grabbing onto the end of my jacket when we passed the crowds of the student center, and it was taking all of my willpower to prevent myself from patting him on the head again.

“So where do you think we should start?” I asked, trying to make idle conversation before I absent-mindedly pet the cat again.

Shay’s ears twitched. “The cafe’s looking for volunteers to help clean up from the ‘earthquake’ last night. Let’s start there.”

“They are? Where’d you hear that?”

“From that person over there,” he said, pointing out an adult fox boy trying to flag down the passing college students. “Cat ears.”

“Powerful enough to pick out adults from the crowd, but not strong enough to endure an alarm clock, huh?”

“Hey.”

“I’m not sorry,” I teased. I left it at that and approached the employee. “Excuse me, we’d like to help out with the cleanup.”

“Oh, thank you!” he said, sizing us up. “You helped with the evacuation last night, right? As long as you’re not hurt, I’m more than happy to have you look around,”

“We’re… mostly fine!” Shay said. “We’d really like to get to the bottom of this so that things can go back to normal.”

The employee nodded. “Me as well, I already had a look around, but I didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Granted, the place was such a mess I couldn’t find much of anything. Let me know if you have more luck.”

“We will, thank you.” We left the employee to continue gathering volunteers and stepped inside the cafe. A few other unaffected people were inside, sweeping up broken glass and moving toppled computer towers out of the way. It was pretty disheartening to see the cafe in this state. One of my favorite gaming spaces would probably be closed until some bigwig sponsor bought us new computers.

“Man, what a mess,” I sighed. “Do you really think we’re going to find something in here?”

Shay put his hands on his hips. “Do you have any better ideas?” When I remained silent, he thrust a broom and dustpan into my hands. “No? Then roll up those sleeves, fairy girl.”

“Y-Yes, ma’am…”

Shay grunted a half-response as he began to move the bigger pieces of trashed electronics out of the way. I made a show of rolling up my jacket sleeves before getting to work too. It took us the better part of the day to clean up the cafe. The physical labor kept my mind from wandering down the rabbit hole of a full-blown panic attack. Better yet, our efforts finally bore fruit when I swept up the last pile of debris and something in there jingled.

“Hey, Shay?” I called out, emptying the dustpan back out onto the floor. A plant with silver flowers tumbled out, jingling like… jingly bells. Definitely suspicious.

“What’s up, Morgan?” Shay responded, coming over.

“Look,” I knelt down to grab the flower, presenting it to him. “I think it’s a real flower, not just some decoration. And it jingles!” I gently shook the flower to prove my point.

“Well, that’s cool, I guess? It’s definitely something, but I’m not sure how it helps us.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, deflating a little. “Do you think we could analyze it with something?”

To my surprise, a little text box popped up in my field of vision underneath the flower.

[Silverbelle Flower. Common. A medicinal herb found in the Silverbelle Woods. Can be used in alchemy.]

“Uh-”

Shay stopped mid-sentence. “What? There’s gotta be a professor that will let us into the chem lab somewhere, right?”

“No, um- you don’t see that?”

My friend blinked. “See what?”

“The text box?”

“No…? What text box?”

“I don’t know! I just see it under the flower now after I talked about analyzing it!”

“Huh? What are you? Some kinda isekai protagonist with cheat powers?” He put his wrists out and made some stupid pose. “Analyze! It’s not gonna be that- Oh. What the… it is that simple.”

“See? I’m not crazy. The Silverbelle Woods is a location in SSO, right?”

“You’re asking the wrong person, Morgan. I only played until I unlocked the card game.”

I sighed, pulling out my phone and checking the internet. “Yes, it is. So this flower is a real flower from Soulseeker Online. So… the game is real?”

“Maybe? Everyone transformed into races from the game, from what I saw. So if we’re following this lead, then the next step would be… trying to get inside the game?”

I nodded. “I have no idea how we’re gonna pull that off, but let’s deal with it tomorrow. I’m tired and sweaty and hungry.”

“What a baby. Should I bring you the finest fruit and honey the grocery store can provide?” my catgirl-in-crime teased.

I rolled my eyes. “You wish. I think we have a can of tuna in the cupboard to satisfy your cravings. Tuna salad sandwiches?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m super down! Uh- but not cuz I’m a catgirl.”

“Mhm.”

One uneventful dinner fit for a catgirl later, we settled into bed after a more or less normal day.

Shay spoke up shortly after I turned off the lights. “Hey, Morgan?”

“What’s up?” I responded to the darkness.

“I searched my ID on the school registrar, and, um, my legal name is changed.”

“That lines up with everything else we know, I guess. What’d it change to?”

“Shauna,” he admitted. “I’m not sure how to ask this. Um… can you call me a good girl? I was reading some things online and-”

“You’re a good girl, Shauna.”

“HEEE-! You jerk!” A pillow slammed into my face.

“Gah! What’d I do!?”

“I wasn’t mentally prepared for that! Ugh, whatever! Just- refer to me as a girl from now on!”

I stared into the darkness. I think my best friend since high school just told me she might be a girl. I had no idea what to say or do next. Was the whole reality-shift thing messing with our heads now? Or was this something she came to realize after spending a whole day as a girl?

My roommate’s quiet squeak broke me out of my stupor. “...Say something, Morgan.”

Well, hell. I’m not about to be that asshole who doesn’t believe their best friend when they’re being super vulnerable. Mental manipulation or not, friends support friends.

“Morgan?”

“Er, sorry! I was just processing. You’re a girl until you tell me otherwise from now on.”

The catgirl audibly sighed in the silence of the night. “Thanks. Let’s do our best tomorrow, too.”

“Right. Goodnight, Shauna.”

“Night, Morgan.”