So before I had my chance to get back at Bethany, I'd agreed to meet up with Max to watch a movie. He was the guy I met at the no-arms party. For those catching up with this journal, with my roommates 'help' I had my torso magically flattened, leaving my neck attached directly to my hips, only it hadn't worn off in the morning like it was supposed to. Hence I'd attended class as what we called a 'shorty' or sometimes a 'halfie', although halfie was typically reserved for someone without an upper-half at all.

I would know a bit more about the distinction as the day continued. But moving along, it wasn't much of a problem in class since I was only attending lectures anyway. In a normal school, a shorty might get some strange looks but around here it's only seen as something a bit slutty, akin to wearing a short skirt. And since this is college, I wasn't even the only one there.

I got Grace's help in putting on a skirt later to go over to Miles'. Bethany still hadn't showed at home, which was probably wise given she was the reason both of us were still had costume bodies. Grace's solution to the no-arms rule had been to have her arms changed into legs, which limited her dexterity but she was still much more capable of day-to-day tasks than I was.

I walked to his house which was about five minutes away. Most of the houses in the area were rented out by magic school students, but I always wondered if there were any laypeople around who might happen to see me. Extremely volatile laypeople scarcely lasted long around here, so even if someone wasn't a magician of one type or another, they'd met lots of people who were, and had most likely seen another shorty before.

I made it there with only a few whistles from one of the frat houses and the hostile glare of an old man raking his leaves, though I'm not even sure if he really saw me. I got to Max's address and kicked on the door until he opened.

He didn't see me for a second. Then he looked down.

"Really?"

I shrugged.

"I mean, I like you like that, but I didn't expect you to stay that way just because…"

"No, my roommate rewove the spell last night."

"Oh really. Well I might be able to do something about that. If you want me to."

"If you think you can un-weave it… can you really do that?"

"Hardly. But the nice thing about kinetics is it works at a lower level than most other magics, so if she used sorcery, then there's usually a way to cancel it out with a kinetic spell."

"How would you do that then?"

"Can I surprise you?"

"Yes please."

Max went into his bedroom and came back with a loop of silver wire leading into a small brass case with a button and a lightbulb on it. He had me sit down on the couch, then looped the wire around my neck.

Without even asking if I was ready, he pushed the button and the light came on. He nodded and then removed the wire.

"What did that do?" I asked. I'd felt a very slight tingle as the wire was filled with magical energy, but after that didn't notice any change.

"Come look and see," he said, leading me into his bedroom. He pointed to the cheap plastic mirror on his closet door.

I walked over and screamed a little.

"My head's gone!"

"Yep." He came over and set his hand down on the flat top of my waist.

"Why would you do that? It's gone!"

"Well, it's not completely gone. See, the sorcery adjusts the object — in this case your torso, and flattens it so that it's still there but takes up almost no space between your head and waist. In kinetics, we actually adjust the time-space the objects exist in, essentially meaning it's both "there" and "not there" at the same time. Your head is still where it was, but that space that it was in is copied over with a new space where it's not. But now the sorcery is negated since the ley energy required to weave it never enters the space where the spell is."

"So wait. That didn't answer my question. And how can I still see?"

"Well, that's how the ambiguity principle works. There's one version space with your head, so when light or sound enters that space it goes to your eyes and ears, and likewise can leave again when you speak. But outside of the space where your head exists, we've bent the space around your head so everything can also just pass through it."

"Okay, I think that makes sense. This seems like a step backwards though."

"Well, if you stay like that for a while, I can restore you once the original sorcery gets starved of all it's energy."

"How long does that usually take?"

"Should be done in about four hours."

"Well, I can wait that long. But still, I wish you'd waited for me to give you head first."

"I … um…"

"Relax I was kidding."

"I know I was trying to think of a comeback."

"If I wanted a comeback, I'd wipe it off your mom's chin! Burned!"

He broke down laughing.

"So do you want a beer?" he asked, leading me back to the living room.

"Yes, I would. But how would I drink one?"

"Beats me I just wanted to taunt you."

I giggled. "There has to be a way. You can do it. You just told me about how something can be two places at once and crazy shit like that, and you can't figure out how to get me drunk?"

"Girls are my biggest weakness."

"Hey, I know how. Give me your mouth."

"I … wait."

"Yea, like your trick you did last night. Unstick your mouth and give it to me."

He shrugged, and peeled off his lips. "Where?" said the disembodied lips.

"Anywhere?"

He stuck them on the smooth cross-cut of my waist, right in the middle. He started pouring beer in, a couple sips at a time, while he flipped through the channels.

"You're a pretty quiet guy, aren't you?" I taunted. "That's okay. I don't like guys who talk anyway. I should keep your mouth, that's what I should do. It's the least you can do for me for taking my pretty head away."

He furrowed his eyes at me then poured in beer until it spilled. I had to gulp it down or else I'd cough.

"Fine, fine. Take your stupid mouth back."

He peeled it off my waist and stuck it back on.

"I'm impressed you thought of that," he said.

"Hey, I've been thinking about your little trick last night. That was cute."

"You think so?"

"Yea, cause you made a cute shorty."

"Well, likewise. You make a cute halfie as well."

"Aww. I notice you're looking a little… whole."

"Yea, so. If I'd have stayed like that, who'd bail you out tonight? Who would have opened the door to let you in? One of us needs to have arms, if nothing else to open the fridge.

"Well, you know what, you're right. I'll be a halfie tonight and you can stay whole. But next time we hang out, I get to turn that around, okay? I'll think of something and surprise you with it."

"That sounds far. Now what movie do you wanna watch?"

We settled on watching an episode of Planet Earth. Max was insistent on the version with David Attenborough, which I had to agree was better than the other one. After the first thirty minutes, we'd moved closer on the couch and our legs were touching. I was trying to figure out how to make a move on him, when I felt his hand on my leg.

I squirmed closer, hooking my leg over his knee. I pulled myself up so I was sitting against his lap. He tapped on the cross-section of my waist, which was a startlingly tantalizing sensation. His hand was right where my head had just been attached, and right where I could still see and hear from. A bit of an odd sensation on multiple levels.

"It's like your hand is inside my head. Or is should be," I said.

"But it actually isn't. Like I told you, my hand is in one space, your head is in a different one, folded underneath. Only it's a five-dimensional fold, instead of a two-dimensional one."

"That's… ow, it makes my head hurt just to try and think about it."

"Yea, basically whenever someone tries to understand this, the best advice to give them is 'don't.'"

"And it's feels you're touching my stomach, but the sensation is somewhere else. Like its coming from above."

"I don't know a lot about the neurology of re-shaped bodies, but I've heard that our brains still map incoming signals the same way. So it seems right that you'd feel this on your stomach, at least to me. But we only covered that in passing, it's a different field of research."

"I took an intro class into the psychology of magic back when I was in the Summer Wizards Programme. They did a demonstration to show how someone's brain could be used to control machines. The lecturer took his grad students head and put it on two mechanical legs and she could walk around no problem. Something that wasn't nearly as easy for a robot. Then they wired her into a two-wheeled cart and she just fell over because she didn't have the right 'software' for it."

"It's actually pretty cool stuff. If my parents hadn't seen it as such a 'soft' major I might have looked into it more."

"Ooh, wait. Penguins!"

We turned our attention back to the documentary for a while. Even though my head wasn't in the same plane as the rest of me, I was beaming with delight. Even my boyfriends back in high school hadn't been the type of people I could really bond with intellectually, and a lot of the guys who were smarter than me were either unsociable arrogant snobs or insecure needy headcases. Max seemed mentally healthy, self-assured, intelligent, attractive and single. I almost stopped believing that such men existed.

After a while longer, his hand resting across my waist, I couldn't quite take the tension any more.

"I wish I could make out with you," I blurted out.

He laughed. "Really?"

"I mean, isn't that where things were heading the other night?"

"Yea, but your head isn't going to reappear for at least a couple hours."

"Hmm… yea, just thinking it'd be nice. But feel free to get more handsy."

In response he pulled me closer to him, shoving his hands into my back pockets. With on hand on my ass, he pulled me closer into a hug.

"I can't see like this," I said.

"So turn your head around."

"What? How do I do that?"

"Well your head is in another plane right now. It's not even technically attached to you. It can face any way you want, it can even hover in the air because it doesn't interact with the gravity in this space."

"So I just …"

It was much easier than I expected. My field of vision turned to face the TV again, then, following what

Max had said, I moved my head farther away until I was looking at myself and him cuddling on the couch.

"Woah this is cool," I said. He looked up towards where my voice had come from.

"Where are you?"

"Up here! Can I just fly anywhere?"

"I don't know. I think there's still some conditions of proximity or your legs will start acting on their own."

"Really?"

"No, I just have no idea."

"Okay, so can I confide something Max?"

"Sure," he stoked my butt, smiling a little. He must've known where I was going with this.

"If I can't make out with you, I want to watch you have your way with me tonight."

He didn't say anything. Just unbuttoned my pants.