Michelle Gets Cut Off, Gets Her Youth Back

It was a scorching summer day in Houston, Texas when Michelle, a 16-year-old girl from a small town discovered a taste of the city life unlike anything she's ever known. Michelle was visiting her aunt in the city over the summer, enjoying her newfound independence and the thrill of driving alone for the first time. Visually with her fiery red VW Beetle, she was driving at a slower pace compared to the hustling and bustling Houston traffic. Suddenly, her tranquil drive was cut short when a pink Toyota Corolla aggressively cut in front of her. Michelle’s heart rate spiked as she tried to maintain her composure, but the city was too new, the anger of the other driver too palpable. Her Beetle and the pink Corolla naturally ended up beside each other at a busy traffic light. A feeling of anxiety prompted Michelle to check out the other driver. Through her Beetle's window, Michelle glanced at Elisa Hernandez, a 31-year-old woman who embodied a fiery Texas persona. Elisa with her large hoop earrings, stylish sunglasses, black crop top, short shorts, and open-toed high heels, was everything Michelle wasn’t. The older woman turned to look at Michelle, furrowing her brows, and in a soft yet angry Texan accent said, "I don't know where you're from but we drive properly down here in Texas." Stunned, Michelle, tears welling up in her eyes, stuttered as she replied, "I'm sorry. I’m not trying to be annoying. I've just never been this far from home, driving alone before." Elisa's sarcastic interjection sliced through the air, "Apology accepted but I've been driving faster than this since I was your age." The conversation continued, with Elisa displaying no sympathy, asking Michelle how old she was. Michelle, with a shaky voice, said she was 16. Elisa couldn’t resist a sardonic wink as she said, "I'd love to see things from your perspective," and muttered something indistinguishable. Suddenly, everything turned black for Michelle. When she came to, she found herself in a parking lot, sitting in a car that wasn't hers. She was wearing sunglasses and her clothes fit terribly wrong. Her heartbeat drowned out the surrounding noise as she pulled the sunglasses up and looked down at her outfit - in utter shock, she realized she was wearing open-toed high heels. Looking in the rear-view mirror, she almost screamed, seeing Elisa’s hardened face staring back at her. Out of the side window, she noticed her cute red VW Beetle parked across from her, with Elisa inside. Elisa, now in Michelle's body, smirked, looking every bit the exuberant 16-year-old teenager. Michelle, helpless and terrified about what had transpired, sobbed and pleaded with Elisa to undo this bizarre body-swap that had occurred. Elisa, thoroughly enjoying her newly regained youth, wasn't about to give it up so easily. "I like being 16. You can be 31 and known around this city for your assertiveness. I'm erasing your mind now and replacing it with mine," she said, her voice shrill with vindictiveness and a newfound power trip. The real Michelle, now in Elisa’s body could only whimper as the last bits of her original identity slipped away to oblivion. "Oh please, I just wanna, no, I’ve had enough of your babble…” Her voice trailed off, morphing into a confident, dominant tone that was Elisa’s, “Drive properly, or get off the roads, little girl." And with that, the assertive Elisa, now embodying an insecure 16-year-old Michelle, started her beetle, flicked a disinterested look toward the older woman in the Corolla - a woman who was once Michelle, but now only a matured, assertive, and aggressive Elisa. No one would have seen this coming, one a naïve teen and the other a seasoned city woman, swapping lives in a bizarre turn of events. Unbeknownst to them, this summer in Houston was going to change their lives forever.