Edits - Ch 7

Chapter 7 - He grows up.

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As Tim headed for his next class, his mind was focused on anything but high school. He had the power to rewrite reality at the tip of his fingers. What did high school matter now? He could walk out the door any time he wanted without fearing any serious consequences. In fact, he could just make himself into an independent adult right now.

“Why don't I?” he asked.

He stepped over to a secluded area beside some stairs, opened the app and, switching to the selfie camera, snapped a photo of his face. Then, he selected himself as the new subject. The caption that appeared below read:

Tim Smith is a 16-year-old boy. (Show more.)

A quick edit changed it to read:

Tim Smith is an 18-year-old man. (Show more.)

Two years was all it would take to fundamentally change his life.

Tim looked around himself, seeing all the students crowded in the halls rushing from one class to another, trapped here for the foreseeable future. He decided that it was time for him to escape.

“Goodbye, high school,” he said and pressed save.

As the progress bar appeared and began to fill, he noticed his clothes begin to cling more tightly to him. His shoes started squeezing his toes, uncomfortably. He could feel his body stretching, limbs lengthening almost imperceptibly, muscles swelling slightly, subtle little changes that made him feel more substantial, more solid. Months of growth passed by in a matter of seconds. Just as he felt as if his clothes were about to come apart at the seams, the growth stopped.

Then, he sensed the world begin to grow around him. First, his clothes and shoes stretched to fit his enlarged frame. Then, the building around him seemed to expand away, coming apart like a reflection in a shattered mirror, exposing a void behind the known world, the unreality ever present beneath the surface of existence.

Gazing into the void, Tim felt his mind recoil and shut down. Confused, he was hit by a rush of new knowledge and memories, filling the mental space that had been momentarily vacated, like water being poured into a pitcher, filling it up.

More shattered fragments of reality emerged from the void, forming piece-by-piece into a new reality around him. He recognized the shape of a room, a square of walls, a floor, a ceiling, a desk, a window, and beyond it, a world.

Before Tim could get a sense of where he was, the progress bar finished filling, and his phone began a high-pitched whine that grew louder and louder until it was cut off in a bright flash of light. After a moment of feeling dazed by the intense sound and light, Tim blinked and looked around himself.

“What is this place?” he asked, his voice sounding a bit deeper and less croaky than it had been just moments before, a man's voice. “Where am I?

After briefly considering the situation, he realized that he knew the answer. “I'm in my dorm room.”

He gazed out the window, seeing a sunny park space between other dorm buildings. Beyond that were university buildings.

“This is my school. I'm a student here,” he stated, astonished. “I remember.”

New memories were waiting there in his mind, two whole years of experiences. He remembered high school classes, graduation, two birthday parties, being accepted to university. He remembered it all and could recall everything he had learned along the way. It was as if he had just jumped two years into the future without missing anything that had happened during the jump. Now, here he was, a university freshman.

“This is my room,” he said, glancing at the bunk bed behind him. “I have a room… and a roommate.”

The realization that he had no parents watching over him, that he was living on his own now, that he was fully independent, made him smile.

“I'm an adult,” he said, feeling the truth of that statement in the core of his being.

Anything seemed possible now. Not only did he have the power of the app, but also he had the freedom of adulthood. He could do as he pleased without having to answer to any other authority than his own will.

“What do I do now?” he pondered.

What will he do as an adult university student?

He goes to get food with his roommate. (7.1)

He goes to class.

He goes to the library.

He goes to a fraternity party.

He makes some alterations to his body.

He chooses to "undo all." (2)