CHAPTER 10 – Changes

Sunday.

On Saturday, Mama Josefina laid down the law and demanded that everyone come together for dinner on Sunday, and so it was done.

Eppie walked in the door to the stares of her dorm mother and her roommates, sweet sweat and steam rising from her burning body.

“Dios mío. Did you run to Appalachia? Your theatre teachers will think you’re a changeling! They’ll say, ‘What happened to our tiny Sophomore?’ and what will you say?”

I would say that I had a quasi-divine [System] embedded in my body. Is what went through Eppie’s mind, but no one, not even the university’s top philosophers or physicists, would believe her.

“You know, Josefina’s right.” Ava’s bushy brows wiggled as if alive. “Eppie, have you gotten taller? It’s not an illusion, is it? You feel taller.”

Eppie shook herself out like a dog. She wouldn’t exactly say that her calves were popping, but they certainly had substance. As a test, she performed a horribly unprofessional relevé, landing with an inexact toe touch before losing her balance. “No?”

Ava, a real ballet student, winced.

“Which Gym are you with?” Halle’s eyes were gleaming. “Who is your PT? I want her. What’s your thinspo?”

“What the hell is thinspo?” Eppie heard a little alarm going off in her head.

The younger girl flashed a perfectly fine leg. From what was exposed, she could see that they were well-proportioned. “I wish my thunder thighs were as toned as yours.”

“Whoa there,” Eppie felt her face turn suddenly scarlet, firstly because her achievements were karmic, and secondly because she was about to gain some major negative karma. “Stop saying that. Don’t even think about it! The body is a temple, not a prison.”

She advanced forward, propelling herself until she was looming above their dorm mother. “You see this? Mama Noceda, now this is peak performance. So soft, so thicc, pure allure, my girl. Keep her away from the musical theatre department, Ava. The boys will lose their minds.”

This time, it was Mama Josefina who turned a shade darker. She made the sign of the cross, gave Eppie the stare, and muttered “Ay, Dios mío” under her breath.

The girls fell about in rancorous laughter.

Eppie wiped literal sweat from her brow.

Crisis averted, for now.

“You know, you need a lot of stamina in theatre,” she told the Freshman. “You want to come run with me? At 5 AM, we rise, eat a light breakfast, drink water, and do a circuit around the campus. Back by 6 AM, wash up, pack, eat again, start class.”

“I don’t think I have the discipline,” Halle said. “I’d rather just skip breakfast.”

“Nope, terrible idea,” she wagged a finger at her junior. “How about you, Ava?”

“Er…” The Jewish girl nursed her tea. “I’ll pass. I don’t think my father likes me running in the dark.”

“We’re running in the dark?” Halle trembled. “Eppie! This is a college campus! There are other people about!”

“Yeah, like, a dozen guys, a few professors, the security staff, a cleaner or two, tops,” she smiled back at them. “This isn’t Venice Beach.”

“What if someone…” Halle pantomimed the Big Bad Wolf by folding her hands behind her head.

“You tell them you’re off to see grandmother,” Eppie replied without a beat.

The room fell about in laughter once more.

“Look at you girls, ¡qué bellas… so atrevidas! Mijas, listen to me: look out for each other and you’ll be alright, okay? It’s perfectly safe here if you stay near the college grounds. Don’t go past the station.”

“How about this?” She pursed her lips at the girls. “When school starts, the three. 5:30 AM Yoga, thirty minutes. I’ll teach you.”

“YOU KNOW YOGA?” Their eyes grew round.

“I know it very well.” Eppie nodded. “Where can we get mats? It’s summer, so we can do it in the courtyard of the building, near the back fence. Later, we’ll need to hire a place.”

“Mama Josefina will find you something,” their dorm mother said, giving her an approving look. “You are a buena mujer, Eppie. You girls listen to Eppie. In this dorm, you are all sisters.”

“I’ll get the mats.” Halle raised her hand. “Ava?”

“Alright?” The dark-haired girl relented after a moment. “I guess?”

Nice. Eppie gave herself a thumbs up. “Give me ten minutes, and I’ll be out and ready to help set up dinner.”

In the privacy of her room, Eppie checked her stats, accounted for the minute increase in [Causality], and performed a head-to-toe in front of the full-length mirror, an essential feature for a performing arts student.

Stepping back, she mimed the catwalk and admired her handiwork.

Compared to when she first saw herself at Dr Hughes’ studio… What a difference a full [20] suite of physical stats makes.

The girl in the mirror didn’t just walk; she moved with grace. She moved with line and poise, like the women she’d seen on the runways of the fashion shows she sometimes attended. Eppie had always projected a willowy aura, but now the willow had an unbreakable flexibility. As someone whose youth had come and gone, she loved her appearance—the exuberance, the contour, the well-proportioned limbs with their subtle curves, her flat abdomen, the uplifted glutes.

And to think this was only the beginning.

She fought down a sudden impulse to axe kick something. Knowing her luck, she’d probably hack her bed in two.

Is Martial Arts a [Trait]? She imagined karate-kicking the person responsible for Eppie’s fall with these stainless-steel gams at [Strength] 30. Would her assailant turn into pink mist?

She shuddered at the result of [Karmic Rebound].

Fifteen minutes later, Eppie was out, wearing an unbranded tee and Soffe shorts.

The table was already laid out, as was a big piping pot of Arroz con Pollo, chicken and rice.

The girls ate, laughed, shared stories from home, then Eppie offered to wash up while Mama Josefina brought out the heavies.

Flan.

A one kilogram Flan.

Holy FUCK. Eppie was choking on the rapid production of saliva. She LOVED Flan. Mama Josefina was an angel, and she deserved every possible good bit of [Karma] that she would now direct toward her and more.

It was such a shame then that Halle and Ava had to watch their weight. When it comes to flan, it really was, as the wise women say, “a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.”

Monday.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Halle could not secure the Yoga mats, and so Eppie took the girls on a circuit around the LAPA campus, waving at the arrivals as they ran. Less than twenty minutes later, both Halle and Ava were sprawled out on the lawn, swallowing the air, while Eppie doomscrolled early YouTube on her gifted Xperia.

They then ate, washed up, and went their separate ways.

On her first day of school, Eppie was very glad she was a campus kid, for unlike the students who travelled from all around Los Angeles, she wore only her base layers.

Soffe shorts, plain white tank top, ballet flats, K-Mart-branded, of course, and her hair in a messy bun via a cheap crunchie from the Two-Dollar store.

Everything she needed for the day was stuffed into a giant, cylindrical dance duffle given to her by Coordinator Carr. Inside were her copy of Norton’s Anthology of Literature, Algebra II, and World History. She omitted her French and Chemistry textbooks, of which she would have to ask Carr to intervene on her behalf.