Emily pushed through the front door of the Wilson estate, her designer backpack slung over one shoulder while her best friend Jade Morrison followed close behind, already critiquing everything in sight.
"Emi, girl, I still can't believe you live in a place like this," Jade said, her voice carrying that particular tone she reserved for when she wanted to sound impressed but also slightly superior. "Like, it's gorgeous, but don't you get lonely in all this space?"
"It's fine," Emily replied, though she was only half-listening. The house felt different somehow. Quieter than usual. Almost eerily so.
They found Emma in the kitchen, standing over the stove attempting to make something that smelled suspiciously like burnt grilled cheese. Emma looked up when they entered, offering a small smile.
"Oh, you're back," Emma said, flipping what was definitely a charred sandwich.
"Hey, Emma," Emily replied, then gestured toward her friend. "You remember Jade."
"Hi," Emma said politely.
Jade gave a dismissive wave. "Hey there, little sis." Without waiting for a response, she drifted toward the living room, already pulling out her phone. "I'm just gonna make myself comfortable, Emi. This couch is way too expensive for me to not test it out. Oh, and let me text Sophie real quick to let her know we got here safe."
Emily nodded absently, her attention elsewhere. Looking around the quiet house, she turned back to Emma. "Where's Mom? I thought she'd be downstairs by now."
Emma's expression grew uncertain. "I think she's still upstairs in her room. I haven't really seen her since yesterday."
"Since yesterday?" Emily frowned. "And you didn't check up on her?"
"I did last night," Emma said defensively. "But she said she didn't want to talk, so I just let it go."
A knot of worry formed in Emily's stomach. When she'd left for school yesterday morning, Victoria had seemed off. Claiming everything was fine in that way that meant everything definitely wasn't fine. It was exactly the kind of thing her mother would do. Putting on a brave face to keep them from worrying even though it was eating her inside.
"I'm going to check on her," Emily said, already heading toward the stairs.
The hallway leading to Victoria's room felt strangely oppressive. When Emily reached the door, she noticed an odd smell. Not unpleasant, exactly, but unfamiliar. She knocked softly, then pushed the door open when there was no response.
Victoria lay sprawled across the bed in a slightly loose robe, fast asleep with the strangest expression on her face. It wasn't quite a smile, but something close to it. Like she was having the most wonderful dream of her life. An empty coffee cup sat on the nightstand, indicating she'd been awake at some point today before returning to sleep.
Emily checked her phone. Nearly 3 PM. That was unusual, but at least her mother appeared to be resting peacefully. She backed out of the room quietly, not wanting to wake Victoria from whatever pleasant dream had put that expression on her face.
Back downstairs, she found Jade sprawled across the couch, remote in hand, flipping through channels with the kind of bored entitlement that made Emily sometimes question their friendship.
"How's Mom doing?" Emma asked, looking up from her definitely-ruined sandwich.
"She's fine, just sleeping," Emily replied, grabbing a piece of what Emma had made despite its questionable appearance. She glanced over at Jade. "Hey, what did Sophie say? Is she on her way?"
Jade didn't look up from the TV, still flipping through channels. "She just texted back. Said something came up and she can't make it anymore. Family stuff or whatever."
Emily sighed. "Figures."
"Her loss," Jade said with a shrug, finally settling on some reality show. "More couch space for me."
Emily shook her head and turned back to Emma. "Where's Isaac? I haven't seen him."
"Probably in his room," Emma said with a shrug. "I haven't seen him either."
Emily nodded, remembering her original mission. Isaac had some nerve asking for his allowance money in front of everyone at dinner the other night. She was going to march upstairs and collect what she had decided he owed her. It didn't matter that she was the one who had been borrowing his allowance for months. In her mind, that was irrelevant.
She was halfway across the living room, food in hand, when the sound of footsteps on the stairs made everyone turn to look. The collective expression that settled across the room was pure shock, though each person's reasons were entirely different.
The person descending could not possibly be Isaac Wilson.
Emily's grip went slack. Her food hit the marble floor with a wet splatter. She found herself pointing at him, mouth agape, staring at what had to be some kind of joke or mistake or something else entirely.
But no. The facial features were unmistakably Isaac's. Just perfected. As if someone had taken her stepbrother and run him through some kind of enhancement filter. His jawline looked sharp. His hair fell in perfect waves. His entire frame looked like he'd spent years sculpting it in a professional gym. He wasn't overly muscular, but he was fit. Incredibly fit. Like a model.
Emma's reaction was equally stunned. Her eyes went wide as she struggled to reconcile this transformed figure with the scrawny boy they had been living with in this house for months. The change was so dramatic it seemed almost impossible. Like looking at a completely different person wearing Isaac's face.
Only Jade seemed relatively unfazed.
"Damn, boy," she said, looking up from the TV with mild interest. "I see you've been working on yourself. Good for you. You were looking like a twig the last time I saw you. Guess you decided to bulk up."
Isaac rubbed his eyes as if he'd just woken up, his expression confused and innocent. "What do you mean?" he asked, his voice carrying that same slightly raspy quality it always had after sleep. "Is something wrong?"
Emily couldn't process what she was seeing. The person standing on the stairs couldn't possibly be Isaac Wilson. Yes, they had noticed subtle changes in his face a few days ago during that dinner with Andrew, but this was beyond comprehension. The transformation didn't follow any logical progression. It was as if he'd undergone some impossible overnight surgery. But what kind of procedure could accomplish this in a single day? She had only been gone since yesterday morning, and now she was looking at what seemed like a completely different person.
Jade glanced between Emily and Emma's shocked faces, her confusion growing. "Why are you guys staring at him like that? It's like you've seen a ghost or something."
Emily turned to her, voice shaky. "Seeing a ghost would be better. At least then I could brush it off as my imagination or something false. But this..." She gestured helplessly at Isaac, words failing her. "I'm certain he wasn't like this when I last saw him."
She whipped around to face Emma, desperation creeping into her voice. "Tell me I'm not crazy. You see it too, right?"
Emma opened and closed her mouth several times, clearly struggling to form words. Her usual quiet composure had completely cracked under the weight of what she was witnessing. She managed a small nod, but nothing else came out.
Isaac tilted his head slightly, maintaining that perfectly innocent expression. "See what? I'm confused about what's got everyone so worked up." He descended the remaining stairs and ran a hand through his transformed hair with practiced casualness. "Oh, wait. Are you talking about how I look different?"
"Different?" Emily's voice cracked with disbelief. "That's what you call this? You look like a whole other person. Completely unrecognizable. If not for your face, I wouldn't even know it was you."
A slow, almost embarrassed smile spread across Isaac's face. "I guess I should have mentioned it earlier." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I've been doing this new workout routine and diet plan. You know how I mentioned I was tired of being scrawny? Well, I finally decided to do something serious about it."
"In one day?" Emily's voice pitched higher.
"Not one day," Isaac chuckled softly. "It's been building up gradually over the past few weeks. I think maybe you just haven't been paying attention because..." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "Well, we don't exactly spend a lot of time in the same spaces."
The explanation hung in the air. Perfectly reasonable. And completely impossible at the same time.
Emily found herself actually considering it. Had she been so wrapped up in her own life that she'd missed gradual changes? Had she really been that oblivious? But no. This wasn't gradual. This was something else entirely. Something that defied explanation.
She opened her mouth to press further when a sharp voice cut through the tension from the top of the stairs.
"WHAT IS ALL THIS NOISE ABOUT?"
Victoria's voice rang out, sharp with irritation and grogginess. Everyone's heads snapped upward. She stood at the top of the staircase, her hair disheveled, adjusting her robe to cover herself properly as she began to descend. She looked like someone who had been woken from the deepest sleep of her life and wasn't happy about it.
The living room fell into complete silence. All eyes turned upward as she approached.