Cool

The last thing Harold remembered was turning on his invention that was supposed to enhance traits to “make him cool.” It was a device he had envisioned in high school, but never acted on creating, thinking college would be better. College was no better. He was still made fun of daily for being a scrawny, nerdy loser. But waking up and getting to his feet, he realized something had gone wrong. He wasn’t a cool version of himself -- he was a woman!

“Hey, Bro, you’re up!” Harold heard a voice say. He turned to see  a vaguely recognizable version of himself enter the room. The guy was buff, tan, and -- simply put -- cool.

The other Harold continued, “Just so you know, our invention actually worked. I’m everything we dreamed of. Unfortunately, there was a side effect. All the super lame parts of my personality became, well, you.”

“But I’m a woman!”

“You know we always used to get shit on for being girlie. You probably got whatever chick hormones we had too.”

“You mean estrogen?” The female Harold asked. He paused thinking abut that exchange, realizing he didn’t truly get the short end of the stick. Yes, he retained his effeminate nature and the bodily hormones had made this form a woman’s; he was still scrawny, pale, and nerdy. But his had unwittingly considered his intelligence a “nerdy” trait, and retained that as well. His male counterpart, while now buff, attractive, and totally masculine also seemed to be relatively dumb. The female Harold knew he could fix it and merge them back together but also had a hunch the male Harold might object.