-3-
Melody
By Shardy

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Damn it all to Hell! Stupid-ass alarm clock! I fumbled in my sleep for God's curse to mankind with no success.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

My half-dead mind told me the alarm would turn off on its own if I ignored it. And so, in my half-dead state I obliged, pulling my pillow over my head and scrunching into a tiny ball.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"FUUUUUUUUUCK!!!" I screamed into the mattress. I shot straight up in bed, jerked the cursed digital machine out of the wall, and threw it completely across the room. It slammed against the mirror, which cracked terribly but I didn't care. The clock itself busted on the floor, several gears rolling out of it.

Normally, I'm not this violent. But ever since I got out of the hospital from being shot two days ago (not to mention that bizarre dream I had with that Isis chick), waking up at 5:30 in the morning ONCE AGAIN was just adding oil to the flames.

I forced my feet to the floor and stood, yawning loudly and stretching my limbs. I stumbled into my private bathroom and began running the hot water in the 48-inch across bathtub. A good scalding soak would wake me up.

Even though it has been two days, I still couldn't get that dream out of my head. Why did I have a dream about that Isis chick anyway? I wondered as I reached into the mini-fridge and began pouring myself a glass of orange juice (nothing fancy, just plain ol' orange juice). She said something about me seeing the world through the eyes of a woman. What the heck did she mean by that? Nothing strange has happened to me yet. Unless you count this morning then I guess I am changing quite a bit: I have gained more potential to go postal.

I put the jug of juice back, and that's when I happened to look down at my hands. A thought struck me. My hands. They seemed more graceful somehow. Long but slender, as if made of porcelain.

You may find this hard to believe, but I do not have girly hands like other rich boys do. Back at the orphanage, I was always involved in a fight of some sort. Now, every weekend I worked out and sharpened my fighting skills to further defend myself and Mokuba should the need arise. I don't always fight with my deck, you know. I may be richer beyond belief, but I'll be DAMNED if I'm going to be some prissy boy as well!

I took a sip of juice and decided it was the lighting and my own state of mind. It was 5:30 in the morning after all!

But I did feel a bit strange. I felt shorter somehow, something silky tickled my neck and back, and there was a strange weight on my chest.

Was I completely losing it?

Shrugging, I pulled down my boxers and over-sized shirt (fancy pajamas do not fit my character very well), and tossed them in a corner. Then I swept my hair back over my shoulders.

Wait.

Since when did I have long hair?

Slowly, ever-so-slowly, I dared to turn around to the body-length mirror hanging by the tub. My jaw hung open as I stared at my reflection.

And screamed.

And screamed.

And screamed.

***

"How could this have happened, Seto?"

"I don't know! I woke up this morning and discovered that my lower assets were replaced with upper ones!" I pulled the towel tighter around me, blushing with embarrassment. Mokuba gave me a sympathetic smile and shook his head. At least I got him to believe I was me. I didn't believe I was me!

Mokuba had come running in when he heard me screaming. Luckily no one else had heard. Yes, the Kaiba mansion is THAT big. Of course, Mokuba did not believe me at first and we argued about it back and forth for ten minutes before I finally had said, "Mokuba, do you remember the time I chained you to the back of my skate-board and went down the street dragging you with me?"

"Yee-ah."

"I have a car now."

I guess that was what made him believe considering I've often used that threat to him. Now as I explained to him my dream and stuff, he just sat there giving me an amused grin. I guess I was glad to see that someone was finding the humor in my situation. I wonder how he would feel if he woke up the next morning and discovered he was of the opposite sex.

Well, I did make him a girl in my virtual-reality video game.

An hour and half later, we managed to sneak out of the mansion without running into another soul. We would have to walk to school today. Yesterday, Frosty the Snowman would have taking over Hell before I ever walked to school. But yesterday, I was a boy. And I wasn't about to take neither my car nor my limo. I never did like drawing attention to myself, considering I'm a loner by nature, but now I just wanted to disappear all- together. My waist-length hair swayed behind me in its pony-tail. I wore my spare school uniform; my pants seemed looser around my legs, but I was practically busting at the seams of my shirt.

Okay, so I only wear a small C, but with these tight shirts, I felt like I was busting out.

"I could've gotten the school to send you a girl's uniform," Mokuba informed me.

"Hell no!" I exclaimed. "I wouldn't be caught dead wearing that skimpy PINK thing!"

Mokuba rolled his eyes. "You sure are a lot moodier," he muttered. It was one of those moments where I wanted to be a tied-and-true older brother and smack the crap out of him, or hold him by his ankles at the top of a tall building. Maybe a swirly will do the trick. I wonder what he would say if I suggested we go "terd fishing"?

"Watch out!" I heard a voice cry behind me.

I whirled around just in time to see someone slamming into my face. We both fell on the concrete with a thud! Pain shot up my back. Good Lord, first I get yelled at, then turned into a girl, then knocked over. This was just not my week.

The person got up off of me, a tall boy about my age with golden hair and large brown eyes. "Oops, sorry," he apologized awkwardly with a Yorkish accent.

Saint Peter, James, and John, it was the dog!

"Are you all right?" Joey Wheeler asked me, offering a hand to help me up.

I smacked it away. "No thanks to you, pup!" I snapped, too mad to remember that I was trying not to be conspicuous about my true identity. But if there was one person who knew exactly how to send me on the edge of my nerves by simply looking at me, it was Joey.

"Pup?" He raised a brow at me. Oh, shit! Did he know who I was?

He sighed. "Man, why does everyone associate me with a dog for?"

"Because you look like one," a female voice snapped before I could reply. Joey's pathetic friends, Tea, Tristan, and Yugi approached us, each looking amused and embarrassed at the same time. Great. Now I had to put up with these guys, too. "Joey, you need to watch where you're going and not glue your nose in a book while walking on the street," Tea continued in that know-it-all voice of hers.

Joey reached down and scooped up a book lying on the ground. "I have to finish this chapter before first period," he replied.

"So, why didn't you do so at home?" she demanded.

"I had better things to do."

I stood up, figuring I could sneak away while they were distracted. But as I said, this wasn't my week.

"But seriously, I am really sorry for knocking you over," Wheeler said to me before I could make a move, and I thought I saw his face glow a little red. Oh, shit. "My name is Joey Wheeler by the way. What's yours?"

"I'm, uh, I'm." Great! Brilliant! Wonderful! Here I am having been transformed into a girl and I didn't even think up a name for myself! And I'm pretty sure "Setta" wouldn't go over very well. At best, they would think I was some freakish Seto Kaiba wanna-be.

"Melody," Mokuba spoke up quickly. "Her name is Melody. She's our cousin who had just moved in from out of town." He gave the group his sweetest smile. Unlike me, he was actually very nice to these people, even liked them.

Melody? I glared at Mokuba. Melody? Of all freakin' names, why Melody? Why not something simple and regular like Amber or Jessica or better yet, a boyish name, like Kody or Jamie or Charley? But "Melody"?

That was it. When I got home, I was really going to beat up Mokuba now.

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