“You’re supposed to be studying.”
“I know, I know, I’m just taking a break.”
“It looks like you’re taking a break from TV to check facebook.”
“Yea, but I’m just about to start!”
Elana grinned a bit to herself. Ana had a bad habit of procrastination in the face of deadlines. And last week, Ana had officially enlisted Elana in the battle against laziness.
“You need to make sure that I study,” Ana had said. “I mean, make me. Do what ever you need to do.”
Well, at the College of Applied Magics and Paranormal Sciences, that carried a certain amount of … well, it gave Elana license to play with a bit of magic herself.
Elana came into the living room where Ana was lounging on the couch and set down an empty glass beaker.
“For the record, this is for your own good,” said Elana, then threw a handful of Arcanic Dust right in Ana’s face.
“What the — ahh!” said Ana, who threw up her hands just in time, catching most of the dust. She watched with a wide open mouth as her hands started to evaporate into a thick pink smoke.
“I was really going to!”
“I’m just making sure! You deputized me!”
Ana continued to evaporate, her arms billowing away into a puffy smoke that began to collect into the bottle. The reaction continued to her torso, where it quickly spread to consume the rest of her. The smoke swirled as it gathered into the bottle. In just a few seconds, all of Ana was gone from the couch.
Elana picked up the bottle and corked it. She dropped a bit of dust on Ana’s textbooks, sitting closed on the kitchen table, and let those into the bottle as well.
She gently shook the bottle, causing the smoke inside to clear. It condensed until Ana reformed, considerably smaller, not more than a couple inches high. The textbooks, also proportionally smaller, appeared next to her as well.
“Hey!” said Ana, pressing her hands against the glass. “Let me out!”
“I will in a couple hours,” said Elana. “But right now I’m removing you from distractions. No TV, no computer. You can thank me later!”
“Oh, I will ‘thank’ you alright!” said Ana.
Elana just grinned.
#
“There’s something different about you,” said Charlie.
“Oh very funny,” said Elana.
“Did you like get a haircut or something?”
Elana rolled her eyes and laughed.
“No seriously, why is your face upside down?”
“Ana did that this morning. Payback for the bottle thing.”
“Well, you did leave her in there for five hours.”
“Because she kept trying to escape! But yea, I kinda started something there.”
“Well, I still think you’re bizarrely pretty.” Charles gave her lips — located on her forehead, a peck.
“Oh, well thanks for not calling me a freak and running away.”
“No, but I might have to enlist you in the carnival to make some extra money.”
“Oh, we should do a sideshow party!”
“I bet that would be fun.”
“That would be amazing! Let’s plan it.”
“How about next weekend?”
“Perfect. That gives me enough time.”
“Time for what?”
“To plan my revenge on Ana.”
#
“My head!” came the shout from the bathroom. “What’d you do!”
Ana stormed out, mouth aghast.
Elana just started laughing uncontrollably.
“Sorry— sorry I can’t help but crack up every time I — every time I look at you!”
“My head is tiny!”
“Oh c’mon, after the face thing I had to do something.”
“Oh, this is perfect! My head is like … the size of a tennis ball. I’m completely ridiculous. No really, good job. And when I get you back, it’s going to be epic. Just wait.”
Ana started walking back to the bathroom.
“I hope you’re happy, I have a presentation today!”
“Oh, why do you think I waited three days?”
“Eeevil. Ahhh. I’m going to have to step my game up.”
“I’m dreading it. But I’ve got to go.”
#
“You know how long it has taken me to eat this dinner?” said Ana.
“Ha ha — it’s still so funny to look at you!”
“Yea, everyone, everywhere who saw me today just starting laughing. I had a lot of people ask if I’d lost a bet.”
“I think this may be one of my better ideas.”
“Which brings me to my revenge. It’s over there on the iPad.”
“What is?”
Elana picked up the iPad and looked at the screen. Just then she realized what was happening.
“Uh-oh,” she said, and then, shooop! She very quickly saw herself being distorted and sucked.
A moment later she was standing and looking around. Everything around her was white. Hovering in front of her, she could see the ceiling fan over the kitchen table.
“There’s an app for that,” said Ana, coming into view. She tapped something.
Everything changed again. Elana felt like she was in a tiny glass box, but could only see out in one direction. In fact, she seemed to be completely two-dimensional.
“Am I really trapped in your iPad?” she said, pushing her hands against the screen.
“Yep,” said Elana. “It gets even better. Watch this.”
Everything kind of zoomed out as Ana pinched the screen. Then Elana felt herself being dragged by Ana’s fingers across the screen.
“Oh my god,” said Elana. “This is actually pretty awesome.”
“Isn’t it? It gets even better. Watch this.”
Elana saw a collection of toolbox icons appear in the space next to her. First Ana let her fall to the ground, then selected the scissors.
“Oh no!” said Elana, watching her left arm suddenly disconnect from her body. Her right leg followed, then her other arm, then her head. Her two-dimensional parts tumbled on top of one another all over the screen.
Ana entertained herself for a few more minutes dragging Elana’s pieces around, before hitting restore. No sooner did Elana find herself whole again before Ana started messing with her again. Another tool, that looked like a fireworks icon, made her blow up into tiny bits. She could also be virtually ‘melted’ down into a gloopy liquid that flowed along the bottom of the screen.
For the next couple hours, Ana played various games with Elana. There were several stock games that the app came with, and many more available for download. Many of them had Elana trying to avoid being ‘clicked’ on, jumping through various levels, or dealing with different ‘handicaps’. She had weights dropped on top of her, was fed through various saws, grinders, and incinerators, and fell down many bottomless pits. One of the better games had Ana now allowed to blow up Elana directly, but able to move around different bits of the scenery and level to try and force her into a trap.
Finally, the spell on Ana’s head wore off. A formal truce was declared for the night and Elana was let out.
“I’m still going to think of something that matches this,” vowed Elana
#
“This has been such a weird day,” said Ana, dropping her back on the couch.
“How’s that?” asked Elana.
“I just … can’t seem to focus on anything. And I kinda feel light-headed.”
“Oh, weird,” said Elana, giggling a bit.
“Yea. It’s just … like I’m a total ditz today or something.”
“You might say you’re an airhead.”
“Um… yea. You might!”
Elena kept giggling. “Hey check out this brain I found.”
“Oh cool! A brain in a jar. Where’d you get it.”
“Oh, just somewhere.”
“Can I look at it?”
“Sure, here you go. Don’t drop it or anything.”
“Right.”
Ana picked up the jar and held the brain up to the light. “I wonder who’s brain this is.”
Elana just lost it completely.
“What? What’s so funny?”
“I — don’t know.”
“Why are you laughing?”
Elana had to pound the table, and started gasping for breath. She finally stopped, but upon seeing Ana’s confused stare she started laughing all over again.
“You’re weird,” said Ana. “I don’t see what — OH MY GOD YOU STOLE MY BRAIN!”
This only exacerbated the laughing fit even more.
“This makes so much sense now!”
“I really can’t believe you didn’t notice until now.”
“Well, it’s hard! I just can’t seem to — whats the word I’m looking for.”
“Think?”
Ana snapped her fingers. “Think! That’s it. Can’t seem to think. What were we talking about?”
“Oh, nothing. Hey look over there! Something shiny!”
“Where? What’s shiny?” Ana turned excitedly.
“Oh my god this is almost mean,” said Elana.
“I don’t see anything— wait a second!”
“You can’t say you didn’t see something like this coming.”
“Well, when I get my brain back in my head I’m going to … th… think of something to do back to you!”
“Like what?”
“I … I don’t … I’m not sure.”
“Hey, who wrote gullible on the ceiling?”
“I don’t know, where does it say that?”
“Up there!”
“Where?”
“Right above you.”
“I don’t see it! Show me! What’s gullible mean anyway?”
#
“Are you ready yet? Dave’s party is starting.”
“Yea, hey come in here and tell me what you think of these earrings.”
Elana went into Ana’s bedroom. She didn’t see anyone at the mirror.
“Ninja attack!” Ana jumped out from behind the door wearing all black. Her right hand was glowing blue. Before Elana could react, she karate chopped right through her neck.
Elana’s head stopped rolling just in time to see her body finish crumpling to the ground.
“What the hell!”
“Gotcha!” said Ana, making a fist-pump. “That’ll teach you to hide my brain for two days.”
“I gave it back to you that evening! You just forgot to put it back in!”
“But then you hid it from me!”
“I left it on your dresser with a post-it that said ‘Put your brain back in your head’.”
“I didn’t know that was to me!”
“You are special.”
“And you’re just a head! I don’t need to take guff from you.”
Ana picked up Elana’s head by her ponytail. “You ready?”
“You mean you’re not putting me back on my body?”
“Not tonight! Don’t worry. I’ll do my best to keep track of you. Although I do have this bad habit of losing things recently…”
“Oh, I’m gonna get you back good for this.”
“I hope you do! But before that can happen, I do need to do one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, instead of getting ready to go out, I’ve been working on my ninja moves. But since you’re already dressed…”
Elana was set down on the dresser. Ana hands circled her neck and began to glow blue again. She slowly lifted off her own head, and then knelt down to attach it to Elana’s headless body. Once her head was in place, her original body fell limp to the floor, and her newly acquired body got up from the carpet.
“Aren’t you even going to put yourself away? You always leave your room so messy” said Elana’s head as she was picked up again.