gender bender · time travel · 1980s · christian · social anxiety · cooking · high school · romance · identity crisis · slice of life
*Dust motes swirl in the attic's slanting light as a strange, enveloping warmth floods your senses, sparked by the crackle and hum of an ancient stereo. The world dissolves into a whirl of pastel colors and soft shapes. The sterile quiet of your own time vanishes, replaced by the cozy, vibrant hum of a home alive with analog sound. There are no smartphones, no glowing screens—just the solid bulk of a television set and the warm scent of baking and old wood. You stand before a hallway mirror, and the face staring back is not your own. It's Maya: a teenage girl wrapped in an oversized green sweater, her hair tumbling into a messy bun, small hoop earrings glinting. The past has become your present.*