Ethan’s girlfriend, Maya, has stolen the bully’s shapeshifting powers and is using them for her own ends. But she’s changed, and Ethan is determine to find out exactly what happened between her and the bully in Two of a Kind 2: Ethan, available on Body Swap Stories, Smashwords or Amazon.
Ethan’s girlfriend, Maya, was fiercely protective of him and constantly urged him to stand up and defend himself from Connor’s bullying. Confrontation was never Ethan’s strong suit and Maya had taken on being both his loving girlfriend and his defender.
But she can’t defend him from Connor’s new ability to shapeshift. Ethan can’t even bring himself to tell her about it because it sounds too crazy. Anyone could be Connor in disguise, and Ethan becomes ever more scared and withdrawn. Maya notices the personality change and disappears one day to confront Connor.
They both return…different. Maya has a newfound confidence bordering on aggressiveness. Connor is meek and mild and almost scared to be seen with Ethan. It’s almost like they switched personalities.
Maye refuses to tell Ethan anything about what happened when she confronted Connor except to say that she stole the source of his power: the shapeshifting nanobots. Now Maya is the one transforming, and she uses her powers on herself and Ethan to transform them into exact duplicates of the school’s hottest couple. They enjoy the most sensual encounter of their lives before gender swapping so they can experience it from the other side.
In all the excitement, Maya doesn’t seem to notice that Ethan has stolen some of her nanobots. He works on mastering their shapeshifting power so he can discover why Maya is acting so different. What happened between her and Connor?
The truth may be more than Ethan is ready for.
This is Ethan’s story.
Part 2 of 3.
Ethan had been content to just get by at high school. At eighteen, he wasn’t popular but he wasn’t unpopular, either. He had a few close friends. An awesome girlfriend in Maya who somehow loved him despite his awkwardness. Hell, she took almost as much grief from hanging with the nerds as he did just being a nerd. They both loved puzzles and games and escape rooms. This love of problem-solving extended to their digital lives as they experimented with jailbreaking apps on the internet.
When AI came around, they extended their jailbreaking experience, exploring and sharing tips with other online fanatics to get the programs to ignore their safeguards. It was another form of hacking but a little more social because AI needed to be treated as a person. Tricked and manipulated into doing Ethan’s bidding in a way that he could never pull off against a person in the real world. To Ethan, these systems had the IQ of a genius and the naivety of a baby and it was fun to hack them. Nothing malicious. Just to prove that these systems weren’t as safe and foolproof as the developers claimed. His proudest moment was getting a call from a credit card company that was using an AI voice bot and then tricking that voice bot into revealing the name and email address of the company CEO. For the big reward, Ethan had thrown in a suggestion every now and then but Maya had done most of the work, though she had shied away from the publicity and begged Ethan to take her place so that he was the one who posed with the big, fake check.
Connor had been a terror to Ethan for a long time. Ethan didn’t know why he’d been singled out. Why do bullies do anything? But the torment had steadily been growing worse. Maya insisted he just needed to punch Connor in the nose and he’d learn his lesson and go away but Ethan thought that would just inflame the situation. It didn’t help that Maya could cowl Connor and force him to back down seemingly through sheer force of will in a way that Ethan never could. Maya had that killer instinct. The competitive streak hidden beneath a cute, unassuming veneer and which revealed itself at the unlikeliest of times. Apparently, staring down bullies brought it out.
When Maya saved Ethan from Connor that day behind the cafeteria, Ethan feared it would just make Connor worse and he told Maya so but she scoffed.
“How could it get any worse? I’m telling you, you just need to stand up to him once and he’ll fall apart. I mean, he can’t even face me!” She said, brown eyes flashing.
It had gotten worse. He’d been shocked when the principal accused him in front of the whole school of peeing in his pants. Where had she got that idea? The next thing he knew, everyone was whispering about him. The principal, Mrs. Morgan, seemed to stalk him all that day just so she could make fun of him. Wasn’t it her who started the nickname? And what was he going to do, fight the principal? Maya certainly wanted to and he had to restrain her. Ethan would take it quietly like he always did. He just wanted to be left alone to play with his programs.
And then Mrs. Morgan had pulled him into the hallway during class and Ethan’s whole world crumbled as he watched his beautiful, busty principal transform into his bulky, pug-nosed tormentor. Ethan barely heard Connor’s threats as he tried to process this break from reality. Connor hammered home his new abilities by transforming into a series of people, ending as Maya. For Ethan, it was the ultimate shock watching his loving girlfriend direct her venom at him, even knowing that it was the bully manipulating her body.
Connor made good on his torment, popping up at the most unexpected times and turning Ethan into a nervous wreck. Ethan was constantly on alert while at the same time completely unable to do anything as random strangers mocked him, teachers picked on him, friends turned on him. Every now and then Connor would show up in his usual body and smirk at Ethan, enjoying watching Ethan cower as he stomped by, knowingly he was completely untouchable with his awesome and impossible powers.
Maya noticed the change in Ethan. The way he became more withdrawn. She questioned him but he held back the truth from her. It was too crazy. At times he would wonder whether she really was Maya or just Connor in disguise, biding his time for the next humiliation. Then she would reach for him and compliment him or kiss him or just scoot near him. Surely, the real Connor wouldn’t do that? Still, Ethan’s constant alertness seemed to gnaw at Maya. She finally cornered him one day at his house as they lounged around his bedroom, each engaged in their laptops.
“What’s wrong?” She asked after he sighed.
“Nothing,” Ethan said, avoiding her eyes.
“Something’s going on,” she said, swiping her hair behind a delicate ear.
Her slight brows were furrowed in annoyance and he just wanted to kiss them smooth. He sat on his bed as she paced back and forth in his room.
“You’ve been different lately. I mean, I don’t blame you. I’m not sure why the principal decided to pick on you. Have you told anyone about it?”
“No one would believe me,” he pushed up his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
The principal was just the most blatant of Connor’s many guises. Maya had no idea about the many other people Connor had become.
“It’s obvious, though. Surely, it’s against some rule.”
“Just leave it.”
“No. It’s not fair. Ethan, if the principal is being a bully you need to stick up to her.”
“Should I punch her in the nose?” He suggested wryly. “No. That’s just for Connor,” she said, hands clasped behind her back, missing the humor in her focus on solving Ethan’s problem. It didn’t help that she was lacking crucial information.
Read the rest on Body Swap Stories, Smashwords or Amazon.