13The Boy Who Lived
Diligent as he was, the first thing William did when he got home was doing his homework. Neither of his parents was home, but he was a very responsible kid and did not need to be told to start working on his assignments. When he was done, he took the book he bought out of his backpack and flipped through it. To his surprise, there were only blank pages after the dedication page
"What a rip off!" William said bitterly. He had lost five pennies over this piece of junk! Imagine that!
Because he was a cheapskate, he settled with reading the dedication page over and over and over and over.
"To E.B.
You made me sour
Then you gave me power
Now look at what I have
At you forever I shall laugh
Hahahahahaha.
S.V."
Then, after his thirtieth time rereading it, something strange happened. William felt like he had been struck by a thunderbolt. His heart ached and he thought he was having a heart attack in spite of his bacon-free diet.
I'm going to die.
He thought so because he felt a black hole formed inside his body was sucking in his soul. So he lied on his bed and closed his eyes because he knew dead guys looked unpleasant with their eyes opened and he did not want to scare his mom silly when she came back from shopping. After what seemed like hours, the pain finally disappeared. He did not feel like himself though.
Not effortlessly, he got himself off his bed. The ground shook when his feet touched the floor. William thought this was strange and ignored it. Then he walked to his desk and started sitting on his chair, only to find himself on the floor soon after. He broke the chair! How did that happen?
Something weird is going on, he noted sensibly. It wasn't until he accidentally caught the sight of his reflection on a mirror on one side of his wall that he knew what that something weird exactly was. Gone was the skinny boy with funny hair he was so used to seeing and in his place was a big, bad-looking boy with funny hair and a bouncy belly.
At first William thought he was hallucinating, but when the big, bad-looking boy's jaw dropped along with his, he knew he wasn't. Reading that dedication page must have had something to do with it. Maybe it was really a curse and the writer was really a contemporary wizard. In any case, William grinned. He liked his new look. With this body, no one was going to pick on him anymore. Thus was born Billy the Big Bad Bully with a Bouncy Belly.