Reality overload

This was my life now...

I was being bullied by a goddess. A literal goddess. Meanwhile my sister and best friend were practically vibrating with excitement, and I was over here trying not to keel over. My entire worldview was collapsing like soggy paper towel.

”Guys... we had a game goddess show up IRL MIND YOU, and drop world‑lore Easter eggs, and all you can think about is how you have a new sister!?” I said, voice cracking as I tried to drag them back to reality.

”Kris... I’m just trying to lighten the mood.” Charlie stepped closer, hands on my shoulders, looking at me with this soft, worried affection that only made the panic worse.

I exhaled shakily. ”What am I going to do, Charlie...? It’s all real.

”It would’ve been better if it was all in my head. Better than being turned into some real‑world ice princess.”

Just my luck . I was champion of a goddess with a penchant for gender changing, and cryptic puzzles about world veils.

Fantastic...

”Hold the phone!!”

Riley approached slowly, staring at me like I was a lab rat that had spontaneously grown wings. Her eyes were huge.

”What... something wrong?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

”KRIS... your hair.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

”What about it?” I asked, but Charlie was already steering me toward the mirror.

And then everything inside me dropped.

”NO. NONONONO!?!?!? WHY IS IT CHANGING!?”

”This can’t be happening,” I whispered, voice trembling.

My hair was growing longer!!! Visibly longer brushing my chin, and the roots... the roots were turning pure white. Right in front of my eyes.

I tore myself away from the mirror, staring at Charlie like she’d just told me my house burned down.

”W‑well this is... not... I wasn’t. I...”

Words failed. My brain blue‑screened. Full system crash. Bricked.

Then a horrifying thought hit me.

”Oh no...”

I bolted.

I didn’t explain. Didn’t look back. I just ran. I needed a bathroom. I needed to check. My dignity, my manhood was on the line.

”Kris, WAIT!!!”

Charlie’s voice faded behind me as I sprinted down the hall. I didn’t care. I couldn’t care. The corridor blurred, girls turning to stare as I flew past like a panicked ferret.

THERE!!!

A bathroom. Thank god. I slammed the door open, dove into the first stall, and yanked my pants down.

I looked down purring to God that I was wrong.

”OOOH THANK GOD.” I cried.

It was still there. My little buddy hadn’t abandoned ship. The relief hit so hard my knees almost buckled. I let out a shaky, borderline hysterical breath.

”H‑Hello...? Are you okay in there?” a girl’s voice asked.

I froze.

A girl’s voice.

”Dammit...” I whispered.

I hadn’t even checked the sign. I was in the girls dorm. Of course this was a girls bathroom. If I got caught, I was socially dead. Buried. Cremated. Scattered to the wind.

”Hello...? Are you still there?” she asked apprehensively.

I had to answer. Had to sound normal. Had to sound... girly.

”U‑Um... I’m okay!” I squeaked the only thing I could think of. ”I just... forgot pads. It’s fine. Thank you though.”

”Oh! I have some. One sec... here!”

I hear rummaging from inside my stall. Then a hand slid a purple‑wrapped pad under the door.

I died inside.

I reached out and took it with the shame of a thousand suns burning across my face.

”T‑Thank you...”

”It’s Cecilia, by the way.”

”Huh...?”

”My name. Cecilia. Good thing I was here or you’d be stuck in here!”

”Oh. Y‑Yeah. Thanks again... I’m Kris.”

I shoved the pad into my pocket, fixed my pants, and prepared to flee before the universe threw anything else at me.

I stepped out.

Cecilia stood there in pink‑and‑white floral pajamas, messy bun, soft smile.

I thanked her again and headed for the exit . Wanting to hide in a deep dark hole.

Only for two more girls to walk in at that very moment.

Damn you universe.

We all froze. Their eyes widened.

”You...!!!” one of them gasped.

My heart tried to escape through my ribs. I was done. Caught. Exposed. Arrest me, officer, I deserve it. Just take me away from here post haste.

”You’re that new girl in the Maple Hall wing, right? We saw you earlier!”

Their faces lit up like the Fourth of July.

”E‑erm... y‑yeah. Hello. Nice to meet you...” My voice shrank to the size of a gerbil

Their faces lit up like they’d just spotted a stray kitten, and for a second I couldn’t breathe.

Not the dramatic kind of ”couldn’t breathe.”

The real kind. The kind where your lungs forget how to work because your brain is too busy screaming.

I stood there frozen, every muscle locked. My heartbeat felt wrong, too fast, too loud, like it was trying to punch its way out of my ribs. The bathroom suddenly felt too small, too bright, too full of eyes.

I swallowed, but my throat was dry.

My voice came out thin, barely there.

”E‑erm... y‑yeah. Hello. Nice to meet you...”

The words didn’t even sound like mine. They sounded like someone else’s voice , higher, softer, trembling. The kind of voice you’d hear from a girl who was nervous on her first day.

And the worst part?

None of them questioned it.

The two girls exchanged excited looks, stepping closer like I was some new species they’d discovered.

”Oh my god, we knew it!” one whispered, like she was sharing a secret.

”You’re even cuter up close,” the other added, smiling like this was the best moment of her morning.

My stomach twisted.

Cuter.

Up close.

I felt my knees wobble. I wasn’t supposed to be here. I wasn’t supposed to be this.

My mind kept looping back to the mirror , the white roots, the length, the softness. The way my reflection didn’t look like me anymore. The way it felt like I was watching someone else’s face move when I talked. Yet weirdly still me?

I tried to breathe, but it came out shaky.

Too shallow.

Too fast.

I needed to get out. I needed air.

I needed... something. Anything.

Cecilia stepped beside me, smiling warmly, completely unaware that I was seconds away from unraveling.

”Don’t worry,” she said gently. ”The first week here is overwhelming for everyone.”

Overwhelming!!!

The word hit harder than it should have.

Because this wasn’t normal first‑week nerves. This wasn’t homesickness or social anxiety or being shy around new people.

This was my body changing without my permission.

This was Hestia whispering in my head.

This was my identity slipping through my fingers like sand.

I felt my chest tighten again, a slow, crushing pressure that made it hard to stand up straight.

I forced a nod. Forced a smile that didn’t reach my eyes.

”Y‑yeah... just... a lot going on.”

My voice cracked on the last word. The girls didn’t notice. Or maybe they did, but they misread it, like everyone else had been misreading everything about me all morning l.

I took a tiny step back toward the door, hoping they wouldn’t block me.

Hoping they wouldn’t ask anything else.

Hoping I could just escape before the panic swallowed me whole.

But one of them leaned in, eyes bright.

”Do you want to walk back together? We can show you the lounge!”

My breath hitched.

I couldn’t do this. Not right now.

Not when my head felt like it was full of static and my heart was trying to escape and my reflection didn’t belong to me anymore.

I opened my mouth to answer to say something, anything but nothing came out.

Just silence.

Thick, suffocating silence.

I stood there, trapped between three girls who thought I was a cute new junior , my lungs tightening like a fist was closing around them. My vision felt too sharp at the edges, too bright, like the world was leaning in on me.

I needed to leave.

I needed to breathe.

I needed—

”Kris!”

Charlie’s voice cut through the air like a lifeline and a warning siren at the same time.

I turned just as she burst through the bathroom doorway, slightly out of breath, eyes wide with panic that mirrored mine except hers wasn’t subtle. It was loud. Obvious. Charlie‑shaped.

”There you are!” she said, too loudly, too brightly, too everything.

The three girls turned toward her.

Charlie froze for half a second, taking in the scene me cornered, the girls smiling, the pad still awkwardly stuffed in my pocket, my face pale and tight with panic.

And then she made a decision.

She marched straight to my side, wrapped her hand around mine, and pulled me close like she was shielding me from paparazzi.

”Sorry, sorry,” she said with a breathless laugh. ”My sister gets overwhelmed really easily. First week nerves, you know how it is.”

My stomach dropped so hard I thought it hit the floor.

Sister?!?

She said sister.

In public.

The girls’ eyes lit up even more.

”Ohhh! That makes so much sense!” one of them said.

”She does look like you!” another added.

Charlie nodded vigorously. ”Right? I keep telling her that.”

I stared at her, wide‑eyed, silently screaming. She gave me a tiny, apologetic smile that said, I know I know, but just go with it.

I couldn’t breathe.

My chest tightened again, worse this time, like the air had been sucked out of the room. My hands felt cold. My legs felt unsteady. The panic didn’t spike, it redlined , slow and heavy, like a blanket soaked in ice water being draped over me.

One of the girls stepped closer, concern softening her expression.

”Are you okay? You look a little pale.”

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

Just a thin, shaky breath.

Charlie squeezed my shoulder. ”She’s fine. Just... sensory overload. Happens a lot.”

She.

She.

She.she she she she sheeee!!!!?!?!?!?!?

Every time Charlie said it, it felt like the floor tilted a little more. I wasn’t sure if I was going to pass out or run or cry or all three at once.

Charlie leaned down slightly, whispering near my ear, her voice low enough only I could hear.

”Just breathe, okay? I’ve got you. We’re getting out of here.”

But then, because she is Charlie she immediately made it worse. She turned back to the girls with a bright, confident smile.

”Anyway! We should really get going. My sister needs to lie down before she melts into a puddle.”

A puddle.

I wanted to melt into one like the wicked witch of the west.

The girls nodded sympathetically, stepping aside to let us pass.

”Feel better!” one said.

”Come hang out with us later!” another added.

Charlie tugged me gently toward the door, guiding me out of the bathroom like I was fragile glass.

The moment we stepped into the hallway, the door swinging shut behind us, the air felt colder. Quieter. But my chest was still tight, my breath still shallow.

Charlie didn’t let go of my shoulder.

”Kris,” she whispered, voice soft now, ”I’m sorry. I panicked. I didn’t know what else to do.”

I swallowed hard, my voice barely a whisper.

”You... called me your sister.”

”I know,” she said, wincing. ”But they already thought you were a girl, and you were about to pass out, and I just... I was trying to protect you.”

My throat tightened.

”I don’t... I don’t know who I am right now,” I whispered.

Charlie’s expression softened, her hand squeezing my shoulder again.

”I know,” she said quietly. ”But you’re not alone. I’m here. Even if I say the wrong thing. A lot. Even if you change completely. I’ll still be here, no matter what.

My breath trembled, but for the first time since the mirror, it didn’t feel like it was going to break me.