This is more or less a heavily extended caption. I've always liked the idea of a slow change, and this was an effort to write a story about something like that. I've been alternating between working on and ignoring this story for quite a while now. I don't think I'm entirely happy with it, but I think I've done all I can with it, and it's time to put it there and move on.
Summer had just begun, and Russell was
on his way to buy some more games on his birthday money when he ran
into another guy. Admittedly, he was paying more attention to his
handheld than the sidewalk in front of him, but he still felt like it
wasn't his fault he ran into the guy, and he had decided on that
before he even recovered from the loss of balance. “Hey, what are
you doing?” he said, glaring at the other guy. Glaring up,
specifically. Russell was a bit short for his age, and this
guy..well, his height was average, but his stomach wasn't.
“Oh, sorry,” said the guy. “I
thought I saw somethin' in these bushes here.” It was someone from
Russell's school..he'd had a couple of classes with him, but he
didn't exactly keep tabs on his classmates, so he didn't know the
guy's name for sure.
“Something..like what?” Russell
was calmed somewhat that the other guy had accepted the blame. He was
curious enough to even put up his game for a moment.
“I dunno, some motion?” The other
guy bent over and pushed some of the bushes aside. “Whoa,” he
said.
“What? Wha'd you find?” said
Russell, bending over to get a better look.
“It's
a cat!” the bigger guy scooped something up in his arms and stood
up, and indeed it was a small housecat. Its fur was a pattern of
white, black, and red colors, and it lay in his arms looking up,
apparently terrified. “Huh..never seen one with fur like this
before.”
“Me either. You sure you should hold it like that?
It might have rabies or something.”
“Well, ya asked
what it is. You wanna hold it?” Russell backed away from the guy
offering him a cat.
“No thanks. And,
you could've just told—whoa!” The cat suddenly stood up and
jumped at Russell, landing neatly on his shoulder. He didn't take the
impact of the jump so well, and stumbled back a few steps before
finally getting stable again. “What the heck?!” he said, looking
over at the cat. It just purred and rubbed its fur against his cheek,
before dropping down to the ground again and walking back over to the
big guy.
“I guess it
likes ya,” said the other guy, bending over. The cat was rubbing
against his ankle, so he pet it a couple of times. “D'ya like me
too, fella?”
“That
is not a normal way to
display affection,” said Russell.
Zander was out for
his morning jog when he saw a couple of guys from his school on the
sidewalk out ahead of him. He slowed down, eventually coming to a
stop a couple of feet away and taking out his headphones. While he
was catching his breath, he got a better look: They were playing with
a cat. “Hey, is that a stray cat? You know that might have rabies
or something,” he said.
“That's what I
said,” answered the short one, halfway turning around. “Oh, hey!
You're..”
“Zander, yeah. Nice to meet you.”
“Right.
My name's Russell.”
“Kale,” said
the overweight one, still bent over petting the cat and using his
free hand to wave. “Anyway, don't rabies make animals crazy? This
one's perfec'ly affectionate. See?” He offered his arms, and the
cat climbed up one of them to his shoulder, holding its balance there
while he stood back up. “You wanna pet it, man?”
“..Sure,
I guess. I can just be careful,” said Zander, walking around
Russell to get to the cat and holding out a hand. The cat sniffed at
his hand and then rubbed its face against it. Then he pet its head a
couple of times, and drew his hand back. “What're you gonna do with
it, then? It is a stray, isn't it?”
“I dunno, maybe,” said
Kale. “It mighta just lost its collar.” The cat hopped off of his
shoulder and walked over to Zander, rubbing against his ankle and
purring. “We ain't allowed pets at my house. Maybe I'll just visit
every once in a while.”
“Are you planning to feed it?”
asked Russell.
“Uh, maybe. I
mean, it's pretty healthy, so it's gettin' food from somewhere
already, right?”
“It'd be pretty
mean to come visit and not bring something to eat,” said Zander,
grinning.
“I guess so.
Ain't got anything now, though...huh?”
“What is it?”
said Russell.
“Where'd the cat
go?”
The three guys looked around, and there was no cat
anywhere in view. “That's weird, it was rubbing my leg a minute
ago,” said Zander.
“Maybe it just
hid somewhere. Or ran off when it heard we didn't have any food,”
said Russell. “Oh well. Anyway, I've got somewhere to go. See ya.”
He started off on his way again.
“Um, see ya
later!” said Kale. “He ain't too friendly, is he?”
Zander
shrugged. “I have a jog to get back to. Good luck finding your
cat.”
“Well, he ain't strictly mine..ah, whatever.”
With that, Zander
put his phones back in and started jogging away. Kale spent a good
half hour trying to find the cat, and wound up with no signs of it.
He gave up after that and went back home.
A few days later,
Zander woke up to find his bangs getting in the way of his eyes. He
got up and took a look in the mirror to find that his hair's length
had indeed snuck up on him, reaching about halfway to his shoulders
on the sides and back. After getting a shower and breakfast, he went
out to get a haircut. He was walking down the sidewalk and came
across Kale. His hair had been about average length the other day,
but it was visibly down to his shoulders today.
“Hey. Kale,
isn't it?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah! Zander. Nice to see ya again.”
“Did you ever
find that cat?”
“Nah. Looked all
over, too.”
Kale seemed to be
walking in the same direction as Zander once they both started moving
again. “So..you getting a haircut?”
“Yeah. I dunno what's
up with it, it just started growin' up a storm lately.”
They walked for a
minute or so in silence, before something occurred to Zander. “Hey,
uh..have you been exercising lately or something?”
“Uhm..not more
than usual, no. Why?”
“Well, you look
more fit than the other day, is all. Thinner, I mean.”
“Wow, really?
That's great. I always wanted to, ya know, look better. Maybe my
metabolism's started catchin' up or somethin'.”
Just outside of
the barber shop, the pair found Russell sitting on a bench playing a
game. His hair was normal, except..Kale could've sworn it was darker
before. He thought about it, and figured maybe the lighting was
different and didn't catch the reddish highlights before. He paused
outside, while Zander went on in. “Hey.”
“What?”
Russell looked up to see the overweight guy who'd been with the cat
before standing in front of him. “Oh. What do you want? And what
happened to your hair? You get extensions or something?”
“No..it
just kinda grew out this way. I dunno. Um..I was just wonderin' what
game you were playin'?”
Russell sighed. “Well, you can look
if you want.”
Kale managed to go
around to where he wouldn't block the light, and looked at the
handheld screen, watching quietly for a short moment. Then he said,
“by the way, did you dye your hair or somethin'?”
“No.
That'd be a pretty huge waste of money. I did just get a haircut,
though. I was overdue for it. Almost as much as you are.”
“Heh, yeah. It's
just I thought your hair looked like it was a different color than it
was before, is all. Must've just been the light.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
Kale straightened back up and walked into the barber shop.
Russell stood up
just as Zander was walking out of the barbership, his hair now
cleanly trimmed back to its usual length. Zander paused, looking at
Russell for a few seconds. “..What?”
“Uh, nevermind,
it's nothing. I just thought you were shorter, is all. Maybe you got
taller.”
“Oh. Maybe I
did.” Then they walked away, going their separate ways.
Now that he'd had
attention called to it, Kale paid attention to his waistline. The day
after he got a haircut it was definitely, noticeably thinner than
before; his shirt even looked loose. The hem hung down an inch or so,
too. The odd thing was that the leggings of his jeans were trailing a
little bit, so he had to roll them up to walk without tripping. He
couldn't help but notice that his hair hadn't slowed down its growing
since getting it cut; it was already halfway to his shoulders again.
Two days after
getting his hair cut, Zander found himself trying to reach the top
shelf on a bookshelf, and paused. He stood back, looking at the
shelf. He was certain that shelf had been easier to reach before, and
the shelf two below it had been about head height..right? He walked
up to the shelf and put a hand up to the top of his head, running it
over to the shelf, and found his hand almost at three shelves down
from the top. His hair was getting out of hand again, too, already
down to where it had been when he woke up two days earlier.
Russell looked at
his hair when he got home from the barber shop, and again the next
day, and the day after that. It was growing long, already near his
shoulders on the second day, and each time he looked at it the color
was a little bit brighter. By the morning of the third day, his hair
was decidedly a dark red instead of brown. He took a shower, and
couldn't help but notice just how little hair his arms, legs, and
chest had. He knew he'd been hairier before..right? And when he put
on his clothes, his shirt was very loose around his stomach, and his
pants were slightly tight at the hips, but loose below there.
Somehow, the three
of them all found themselves drawn back to the bush by the sidewalk
where they had found the cat nearly a week ago. They all paused to
look at each other. Russell noticed that both of the other guys were
now the same height, even though Zander had definitely been taller
than Kale before, and both of them were definitely shorter than they
had originally been compared to him. Kale noticed that Russell's hair
was down to his shoulders, just like his own, but Zander's hair was
still slightly short of his shoulders. Zander noticed that everyone's
clothes looked slightly baggy around the stomach, legs, and arms. And
they all just stood there, looking at each other, for a couple of
minutes, before finally Russell said something.
“What
is going on?” he
said; when he put emphasis on the first and last words his voice
cracked slightly. “Something's happening to all three of us. What
is it? And..Why?”
“I dunno,”
said Kale. “I mean..seems like we're all gettin' shorter, 'cept for
you..and our hair's growin' out.”
“Your voice
sounds..different,” said Zander. “I think..mine does too, doesn't
it?”
“What do you
mean?” asked Kale.
“Well, you had
kind of a deep voice before, right? The pitch of your voice has gone
up. Are you just talking different on purpose?”
“No..not on
purpose. So..”
“We're not just
getting shorter with longer hair,” said Russell, interrupting
whatever Kale's next thought was. “Look at how your shirt is on
your stomach.” Both of them looked. “And..look at this.” He
held out an arm to both of them.
“That's an arm,”
said Zander.
“No,
I mean look at it.
There's practically no hair. I don't shave my arms. Do you?”
Zander looked down
at his arm, and noticed for the first time that it was just as devoid
of hair as Russell's. Kale was doing much the same thing when he
looked over at him.
“So..what d'you
think all this means?” said Kale.
“Well..oh. Oh,
no,” said Russell.
“What?” Zander
asked.
“I..okay, look.
What has long hair, high-pitched voices, small stomachs and is
short?”
“Um..well, it's
kinda a broad gen'ralization, but uh..girls?” said Kale.
“Yes! Exactly.
We..we must be, somehow, turning into..m-members of the opposite
sex,” said Russell.
“Well,
that's kind of an extreme conclusion,” said Zander. “I mean,
maybe we're just..turning more feminine?”
“Yeah, and if we
are, the logical end is that we actually do turn into girls,” said
Russell. “But..why?”
“I..I dunno,”
said Kale. “We didn't even really meet 'till the other day. Ain't
much in common between us.”
“The only thing
I can think of is that cat,” said Zander. “But that wouldn't make
any sense. There's no such thing as a cat that has that kind of
effect on people. Besides, why would it take so long to happen?”
“All good
points,” said Russell, “but..d..do you have any better ideas? I
mean, not that it would even help to know for sure.”
“Maybe we can
look for somethin' on this? Do some research?” said Kale.
“Yeah..I don't
think the internet's gonna have much about this,” said Zander.
“It's pretty bizarre.”
“It wouldn't hurt to try, though,”
said Russell. “I mean..either way, we're gonna keep changing..so we
might as well try and figure out why.”
“Okay then.
So..we'll meet back..here, a couple of days from now?” said Zander.
“Sure. And if we
find anything in the meantime, we can text.” Russell got out his
phone, and everyone exchanged numbers. Then they left.
That afternoon,
Zander started checking himself every couple of hours. He began by
looking in a mirror. The second time he looked, his hair had grown to
just where it was brushing against his shoulders on the side and
back, and after that it seemed to stop altogether..or at least go
back to normal speed. Now that he was really looking, he could see
that his face looked a bit smaller and rounder..softer, in a way.
After that, he would check his height against a point of
reference—usually the top of the mirror. Again, he could tell it
was just a little bit higher each time. And he tried to speak, as
deeply as he could, just a short “Hm.” He always felt like he
should be able to get a lower pitch, but each time he found his voice
cracking a little bit more, and he could never quite speak as low as
he had the time before.
When he got home,
Kale took off his shirt and pants, leaving on his underwear, and
really looked at himself for the first time in a while. His stomach
had a slight bit of pudge to it, but it was definitely way smaller
than before. And..it seemed like the sides were sloped inward. His
hips were slightly wider, making his underwear stretch on the sides.
And his body was missing a lot of hair, just like Russell had said.
His hair was tickling his shoulders, and as he got a closer look at
it, he couldn't help but think it had been a little..darker before.
It was as if the color had faded slightly, like old clothing.
Russell tried to
ignore what was happening to him, instead lying on the couch and
playing a game. But he had to keep brushing his hair out of his eyes,
and when he shifted position his shirt would always drape a little
bit more loosely across his stomach, and his pants slowly got less
comfortable as the afternoon went on. He'd said that it wouldn't hurt
to try research..but he just couldn't bring himself to go to a
computer and start typing. He really, deeply wanted to just not think
about it, as if that would make it go away.
The three young
men went to bed, none having found any clues to their common
predicament, each dreading what the next morning would bring.
Russell woke up
the next morning to the sound of his phone ringing. He sat up and
turned to the side of the bed to answer it, and found bright red hair
falling all the way down to sheets and covers. He picked it up, and
heard what sounded like a younger boy's voice from the speaker. “Hey
Russell, it's me, Zander.”
“Hey,” he
answered, and heard a voice naturally coming out that didn't sound
much deeper than the one on the other end of the line. “Did you
find anything?”
“No..you?”
“Um..n-no.”
Russell was just now looking down at his body to see just how
drastically its shape had been altered. He thought he had been
scrawny before, but now his stomach and arms were positively tiny.
His hips and upper legs looked strangely wide, and pushing his legs
together still left quite a bit of room between their tops, the
still-intact bulge in his underwear notwithstanding.
“So why are you
calling?” said the recently redheaded boy, looking forward.
“Well..I was
just thinking this morning..maybe..maybe this won't be so
bad?”
“Won't be so bad?”
“Like, you know..it could be
interesting. A new experience and all. Seeing the world from a
different perspective.”
“Are you
kidding? Being a girl sucks. You have to deal with periods, and
having weights dangling from your chest all the time, and..and..”
Russell could feel some heat in his cheeks just thinking about it.
But he was more angry than embarrassed. “Are you..are you giving
up?”
“No, no..it's not like that. It's just..I mean, it seems
pretty hopeless. Unless Kale found something, and I don't think he
did, we might be stuck as girls. And..if we are..it'd be good to have
a positive attitude about it. I mean..would you rather be stuck as a
girl and angry about it all your life, or..?”
“I'd rather
not be stuck as a girl!” said Russell, barely keeping himself from
actually shouting. “I have hair down to my freaking hips. I can't
deal with this.”
“Okay, man,
sorry. I didn't mean to make you upset.”
“Upset!?”
“I mean, you're
so sour about everything. I don't think I've ever seen you
smile.”
“Well I haven't exactly had a lot to smile about
lately, have I?”
“I meant before last week. Like, I'd
see you in the halls and wonder what happened to make you so angry.”
Russell sighed,
trying to calm down. “Look. I'm not angry, I just don't like
dealing with people. It's always way too complicated.”
“Well, you can't
help but run into some people, though. Would it hurt to have a
more positive attitude about it?”
“I don't know. Maybe.
Probably, actually. Yeah. You act nice around people and they all
think you're a sucker.”
“Has that
actually happened to you, Russell?”
“I..I don't want to talk
about it. Especially not now! Look, if you don't find anything,
just..don't call me, okay? I'll meet with you guys in a couple of
days or whatever.”
“Okay then. I'm sorry...I really was just
trying to help.”
He sighed again.
“..I know.” And then hung up, and started getting ready for a
shower, dreading what he might see this time.
Zander was
thinking of calling Russell back when he got another call, from Kale.
So he answered it. “Yeah?”
“Um..h-heyyy, Zander.” Kale's
voice still sounded like a guy's, but maybe a high tenor kind of
tone.
“What's
up?”
“Um, I was just wonderin', did your hair ever stop
growin'?”
“Uh-huh. It
actually stopped right at shoulder length. The bangs are kinda in my
way a little bit, but it's tolerable.”
“Well, uh, mine got
down to the tops of my legs last night. I dunno how to deal with
this.”
“I'd suggest
cutting it, but..it'll probably just grow back again, based on what's
happened so far.”
“Yeah. And it's
also changin' colors. Kinda..looks bright gray now.”
“That is pretty
odd. Mine's still all the same color.”
“Uh, I think Russell's
hair is turnin' red. You might be the exception. But, um..”
“What is
it?”
“Well, that's not exactly what I was callin' about.
Um..how should I put this..is your, uh, are your ears lookin'
kinda..pointy?”
Zander reached a hand up into his hair to find
one of his own ears almost unconsciously. “Pointy? How do you
mean?”
“Well, uh, my
ears are lookin' kinda bigger than normal, and they're pointy at the
end. And..kinda..fuzzy.” By now Zander had found his right ear, and
as he ran his hand over it he found that it was being scratched by
little short hairs all over it. And the ear itself was indeed bigger.
“Oh..yeah..I
hadn't noticed, but mine's kinda weird that way too.”
“Do you know any
girls with pointy fuzzy ears?”
“Um, no. This doesn't really
make any sense based on what's happened to us so far.”
“Maybe we should
call Russell about it..?”
“No, we probably
shouldn't. He told me not to bother him unless we'd found something
on how to turn back or stop changing.” And he wouldn't
appreciate finding out something else weird is going on, I bet,
thought Zander.
“Well okay, if
ya say so.”
Russell's chest
felt strangely sensitive, and it looked slightly..puffy. He glared at
it in the mirror after his shower, thinking something along the lines
of What do you think you're doing? I'm still a guy! You're not
allowed to show up until I'm not a guy anymore! After a little
while, he had to stop and shake his head, trying to clear it and
forget about this development, too, but this had the unfortunate
effect of making his hair swish around all over the place.
“I've got to get
this under control,” he said, tugging at one of the strands. “It'll
just grow back if I cut it..hm..” He had an idea, and within a few
minutes he was dressed and off to the barber's again.
Zander resumed his
usual occasional checkup from the day before. He noticed on the
second look that he wasn't getting shorter anymore, which was
somewhat of a relief, as he was having some trouble adjusting to all
of the height he'd already lost. The way his legs and hips looked was
very girly, and he couldn't help but notice that there was getting to
be less and less down there. He could feel the hair brushing across
the fuzz on his ears more as time went by, and he occasionally felt
them wiggling around a little, almost involuntarily. Around noon he
noticed two odd little protrusions poking out from his hair on the
top part of the sides of his head, and had to brush back his hair to
see that they were actually his ears, their fuzz having grown into
thick, short, black hair all over them. His voice didn't stop going
up either; by lunchtime his pitch had risen almost past alto range.
Russell walked out
of the barbershop and back toward home, his hair now bundled together
into two big, long locks in the back. It was still annoying, but not
as bad, at least. The ribbons holding it were a little
strange-looking, he thought. He tried to ignore the way his hips
moved as he walked, and concentrate on other things. About halfway
home, however, he noticed an odd feeling coming from somewhere past
his lower back..yet above his hips. Like..something thin moving
around, brushing against his pants and shirt. He paused, made sure
nobody was looking, and turned around, rolling up the back of his
shirt some to try and see what it was. What he saw made him run the
rest of the way home.
Kale sighed at the
mirror image of his shirtless self. He'd wanted to be thinner for a
while now, but just couldn't put up the effort..and now that his
stomach was perfectly flat, it was really hard to enjoy it. His hair
had turned purely white, but now it was getting a little bit of
reddish color to it. His hips and legs looked all wrong, he was
short, and his ears were huge triangles covered in white fur with
black near the tips. Actually, the fur was changing color, too.
“Well..I guess you gotta be careful what you wish for,” he
muttered, in a girly voice. His ears stood up, and he jumped
slightly, at the sound of his phone ringing in his bedroom. He
quickly put on his baggy shirt, which now draped all the way down to
his thighs, and ran out to pick it up.
“Hello?”
“This
is all your fault!” It sounded like an upset woman on the phone.
Lower in pitch than Kale's voice was now, but definitely female.
“Um..is this
Russell?”
“Yes! This is
Russell with a freaking tail growing out of my back!”
“Oh.
U-um..that sounds pretty weird.”
“No, you think?!
Why am I getting a tail? This has nothing to do with turning into a
girl!”
“I dunno, but,
uh..well, I have big fuzzy ears, so you're not alone in that either.”
“Great. So now
we're not just turning into girls, but freaks, too.”
“Aw, come
on..it's not..well, it ain't that much worse, right?”
“What do you
mean?”
“Well..you make
it sound like bein' a girl is just like bein' a freak to you anyhow,
so..”
“It's definitely
worse.”
“Um..well, maybe
this is the last surprise at least? That'd be..sorta good,
right?”
“I..I just..what even is this? Why is this
happening to me?”
“Why's it
happenin' to any of us? If I could answer that, I'd love to tell ya.”
Russell sighed. “I
know. I just..rrrrRRRgh! You know—Zander called me this morning,
and he said—he said 'oh, well, maybe being a girl isn't all that
bad. Maybe it could be fun'. Can you believe it?”
“Well, he's
just tryin' to stay positive. He's a stay-positive kinda guy.”
“He's gonna be a
stay-positive kind of girl soon.”
“Well, yeah.
That's kinda old news by now though, right?”
“I can't..I just
can't deal with this. Maybe..I could go to sleep, and forget about
this for a while.”
“You know you'd
wake up more different than ya remember. You're not curious how it's
all gonna happen?”
“No. I don't
want to think about it. I just..I..look, I'm not happy I'm turning
into a girl. At all. But it's so drawn out—I just want it to
be over, and then I can start to deal with it.”
“Well, uh..if ya
put off dealin' with it until it's all over, that's gonna be an awful
lot of dealin' with.”
“I..I guess
you're right.”
Zander couldn't
sleep. His last checkup before bed confirmed that his ears had grown
into big, black triangles, but with white tufts of fur on the inside,
and they were moving around nonstop and picking up way more sound
than he remembered being able to hear before...and that he wasn't
going to be the same downstairs for much longer. He lay in bed for an
hour or so, and as he did he could actually feel something moving
around, shifting in his lower stomach. It didn't hurt, but it was
sort of uncomfortable. He began to go numb between his legs, and then
he couldn't resist getting up, sitting on the side of the bed and
looking. After a little while, the discomfort in his lower stomach
subsided, and he was completely changed down below, definitely a
young woman.
“Well..” she
said, “I guess..I guess I'm gonna have to sit down in the bathroom
from now on. Haha..” It was hard to make any better than a weak
joke in light of the strangeness before her. She lay back down in bed
and tried to sleep, but couldn't get comfortable. Her chest was more
sensitive all of a sudden, and itched a little bit, but more than
that, sleeping on her back, side, or front just felt uncomfortable.
After a while she instinctively curled up into a ball under the
covers, and then, despite the slight discomfort of her chest, drifted
off at last.
Kale found himself
growing a tail just slightly after sunset. He could feel something
like a very flexible appendage coming from his back, and when he
checked he saw a little mass of white fur with a black tip..just like
the fur on his ears had originally been. It was definitely fur, he'd
decided, and his hair and the non-black parts of his ears were
definitely pink now. Within the space of just a few hours, that tail
kept on growing out until it was almost as long as one of his arms,
but much thinner. As it got longer, he could see thin black stripes
breaking up the white of the rest of the fur. It stopped right around
bedtime, and as he got into bed he found that he felt incredibly
exhausted for some reason. He slowly curled up into a ball as he fell
asleep, and thought he could hear at the last moment a soft purr
coming from inside his own throat.
Russell's chest
continued to feel weird all evening, and he could feel his shirt
hanging off of the pair of bumps on it no matter which way he
positioned himself, sitting, standing, or lying down. It was always
there, and it kept getting a little bit bigger at a time. And that
tail, too! It kept getting longer, making it hard to sit like he was
used to sitting (as if the widened hips didn't make that hard enough
already). It was all covered in red fur, the same color as his hair,
but with a tiny bit of white at the rounded tip.
He went to bed
dreading waking up the next morning, but then found going to sleep no
easy feat. He couldn't lie on his back without getting in the way of
the tail, he couldn't lie on his front or sides without the weights
on his chest feeling all wrong. As he tossed and turned, his tired
mind raced around in angry loops, never really letting any thought
go. The harder he tried not to think, the more thoughts would come.
Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, he felt too physically
exhausted to continue, and found his head up against his knees, which
were themselves up at his chest. He felt his hair brushing across his
ears strangely, but couldn't quite process it before falling asleep.
It was morning the
next day when the three of them met at what was becoming their usual
spot. Zander had woken up to find her chest fully developed into
breasts, small but seemingly fitting for her small build, and as she
looked at the other two she noticed that Kale still seemed to be
flat, but Russell's chest looked to be about the same size as her
own. Then she noticed something else. “Whoa..you grew tails?” Her
voice was high and almost squeaky, sounding like a somehow more
mature version of a cheerful child.
“Yeah,” said Russell,
awkwardly crossing his arms under his chest, “and if there's any
justice in this world you'll get them too.” His ears were lying
flat backwards against his head.
“Um..did you,
uh..are you girls now?” said Kale.
“No,” said
Russell, “my chest just decided to start early. Ugh.”
“Well,
I am..” said Zander, her face turning slightly red. “It uh, it
happened last night.”
“What is it
like?” said Kale. “I mean, uh..what's it feel like when
it's..when you're..does it hurt?”
“No, it didn't
hurt,” said Zander. “I just felt kinda weird at the pit of my
stomach for a while, and then I went numb down there, and..next thing
I knew I wasn't a guy anymore.”
“Oh..uh, um..”
This time Kale's face reddened a bit.
“What is it?”
“I m-might
be..it might be happening to me, now. I started feelin' weird when I
was walking over...” He pulled the tops of his legs together, which
didn't clarify much since there was now a gap between his thighs
either way.
“..Did you
notice your eyes turned pink?” said Zander.
“Um..nope. They
were brown, l-last time I checked..”
“And..” She
turned toward Russell. “..yours were definitely a darker color
before.”
“Blue.”
“They're bright green now. Are mine
the same color?”
“I don't know.
Whatever, there's something more important to talk about than our
freaking eye colors.”
“I think they've
always been blue,” said Kale. “Wh-what's so important?” The
discomfort in his lower stomach was getting stronger, and there was
starting to be a feeling like a limb going to sleep.
“What are we
gonna do about this? When it's all over. How are we
gonna..do..anything? None of my clothes fit me anymore, except
in a stupid comical kid-wearing-dad's-clothes kind of way. I mean,
this is supposed to be a t-shirt and it goes past my elbows!”
Zander put a
finger to her lower lip. “Well, I guess we'll just have to buy some
new clothes. Underwear for sure, and jeans and shirts that fit.
Maybe..we could try on some skirts or something?”
“No way,” said
Russell.
“Oh come on, it
might be fun. Aren't you curious what wearing one feels like?”
“M-maybe a
little. But..not enough to actually put one on.”
“N-not as a guy,
maybe,” said Kale, “but if you're a girl, what's the..the..” he
trailed off.
“Oh, great,”
said Russell. All of a sudden, the numbness between Kale's legs had
been replaced by a very different feeling. “You just crossed over,
didn't you?”
“Um..” She
drew her legs together again. “Y-yes. This feels really weeiird..”
“Yeah, it kinda
does,” said Zander. “I guess we'll get used to it eventually.
What's so bad, Russell?”
“I..now I have
to deal with turning into a girl by myself, after everyone else
already has,” he said.
“Well..you don't
have to go through it by yourself. I mean..I can be there, for
moral support..if you want.”
“M-me too,”
added Kale.
“What're you
gonna do, sit around at my house waiting for it to happen?”
“Yeah,
sure. I mean, it'll probably be today, right? You play games all the
time, at least one of them is multiplayer, right?”
“Y-yeah..”
Russell's ears moved slightly away from their post up against the top
of his head.
“Well, we can
play it together for a while, and maybe you won't even notice.”
“I.really doubt
that. Based on how she's acting,” said Russell, pointing a
thumb at Kale.
“It's just
weird..I'll g-get better.”
So the three of
them walked to Russell's house, and wound up all sitting on the front
edge of the couch. When Zander sat down, she turned around and looked
at her back.
“What?” said
Russell.
“I just felt
something brushing against my..shirt?” she said, watching as a
short stub of black fur pushed the back of her shirt aside a little
bit.
“Yess! Welcome
to the inconvenient appendage club,” said Russell.
“I dunno, it
probably isn't that bad. I mean, tails help with balance,
right?”
“Well, sitting
and lying down is w-weird,” said Kale. “Umm, my chest feels
funny..”
“Kinda sensitive
and itchy?” said Zander.
“Puffy?” said
Russell.
“Y-yeah,
kinda..”
“You're getting
boobs,” said both of them together.
As they played the
game, Zander's tail slowly snaked its way out from her back, growing
longer and longer until it was about the same length as the others'
tails, its black fur slightly thicker. And Kale's voice slowly inched
upward in pitch, her chest slowly pushing out into bumps, the bumps
into breasts, which finally settled their size about when Zander's
tail stopped growing at slightly smaller than the other girls, but
definitely fitting for her slim, short frame. By then her voice had
risen to the same high tone as Zander's, but it had slowly become
breathier, her speech seeming shyer and quieter than the more excited
black-haired girl.
It was then that
Russell began to feel just slightly strange in his lower stomach. He
looked over at the two catgirls sitting on either side of him on the
couch. “Um..I'm curious..are you guys..when you turned into girls,
are you attracted to girls still?”
“Um..no, I don't
think so,” said Kale.
“Pretty sure I
like guys now,” said Zander.
“Oh..g-great..w-well,
I just want to say, while I'm still a guy, you're both adorable. I
mean..I, you guys are great. And you look good. You're both so
cute..um..I'd ask either of you out in a heartbeat.”
“Aw..” said
Zander. “Russell, are you..are you changing?”
The feeling in his
stomach got stronger. “Y-yeah. I..I still can't believe this. I
don't..” He could feel tears coming out of his eyes all of a
sudden, and he bent forward. “I don't want to be a girl..” he
said, and then started sobbing uncontrollably.
“I..whoa..Russell,
it..” Zander patted him on the back of the head a couple of times.
“It'll be okay. It's just..a new perspective, is all. A new way to
experience life.”
“I've always
been so short, you know,” he said, sniffing. “I just..I always
thought I'd grow up and be bigger, look like an actual man. But I
know..once this is over..that'll never happen.”
Zander said,
“Well, never's a pretty long time. I mean, if there's something
that can make us go this way, there's something that can go the other
way, too...”
“I k-know you
mean well, but it's..not likely. I mean, nobody's ever heard of
something like this happening. If it happens again, it won't be to
us. No way.” He began to go numb. “We're gonna be stuck like this
forever..” The sobbing eased off some. He felt drained, like there
wasn't much left to let out.
“R-Russell..”
He turned to see Kale's face, bent over to look him in the eyes. She
looked so cute, he thought, but he didn't feel attracted to her. Not
anymore. “You may not be able to be a real man..but at least you
c-can be..a real woman, right?”
“I...I guess
so,” said Russell, as he felt the numbness and discomfort fade off,
completing his transformation into a teenage girl. With cat ears and
a tail.
She sat up.
“Are you okay?”
said Zander.
“I'm done. It's
over,” she said. “I feel okay, I guess. Really weird, like you
said...”
“..Hey,” she
said, getting up. “I'm gonna wash my face. You guys want to go..get
the clothes thing over with after that?”
“You really want to
try on a bunch of outfits, don't you?” said Zander, grinning.
“Don't push it.
I'd just rather do it now than put it off 'till later.” Her voice
had kept a lower tone than the other girls', lending her voice a
somewhat more serious tone.
“Heehee, okay.
We'll 'get it over with' with you, then. Right, Kale?”
“S-sure!”
The three girls
were walking toward the mall within a few minutes. “So..” said
Zander. “We're gonna need some new names..don't you think?”
“Yeah, I guess,”
said Russell with a resigned sigh.
“So..what's
yours gonna be? I'm thinking mabe Zandra or Alex..you know, since my
old name is kind of short for Alexander..”
Kale said,
“Umm...maybe..Kiara?”
“Ohh, could I
call you Ki for short?” said Zander.
“I-if you want,
I guess..”
“My gosh, you're
so adorable, Ki..”
“Uh..th-thanks.
What about you..?”
“I have no
idea..” said Russell.
“Well, what
about Rayna? Or, um, Rae? Rina? Rosa?”
“..I don't know.
I don't think I like any of those...”
“What about
Rell?” said Kiara.
“That..isn't too
bad. It's almost Russell..but doesn't sound as much like a guy's
name. So which one are you going with..Zandra or Alex?”
“Hmm...Zandra.
It's more unusual, don't you think?”
Rell nodded.
“Yeah. So..what's the plan for once we get there?”
“Well, I think
we should go from the inside out. I mean..start with underwear.
'Cause girl clothes aren't really made to be worn with no bras and
boy boxers.”
“I was afraid
you'd say something like that. What if people start staring at us
because of our tails?”
“Oh..I hadn't
thought of that. But hey, there's three of us. Maybe they'll think
it's normal wherever we're from.”
“There isn't a
country where having cat ears is normal,” said Rell.
Zandra shrugged.
“Well, we gotta buy clothes one way or another. It's a progressive
world; I'm sure they won't refuse us service at least.”
The three girls
met outside of the store. Zandra said, “So, did it go okay?”
“Yeah. It
was..weird..having someone measure my chest..having a chest to
measure,” said Rell. “But I guess nothing really went wrong.”
“A-are you guys,
um..wearing what you bought?” said Kiara.
“Sure, Ki. It
actually feels better.”
“Yes,” said
Rell. “It's nice having something to help with my chest, but I
don't like how close the underpants are..I even bought some boxers,
thinking they would be like guy boxers..they're not.”
“Y-yeah..it's so
weird to think how I'm wearing something that would've been too tight
down there this mornin'..but now it feels kinda comfy..”
“By the way..did
anyone mention your tails?” said Rell. “Nobody said anything
about me being part cat..no one's even given me a second look.”
“Yeah,” said
Zandra, “it's like they can't even see them. Pretty convenient, I
think. So anyway...now we just need to get clothes. Meet back here in
an hour?”
“Sounds fine,”
said Rell, “should be enough time.”
“Yeah,” said
Kiara.
Zandra was
surprised how excited she was at the idea of trying on a bunch of new
clothes. Sure, it was strange and interesting, but she felt an
unfamiliar kind of eagerness to see what this or that outfit would
look like on her. It didn't take her very long to try on a skirt, and
before long she had bought five or six of them, along with pants and
various kinds of tops. Every time she tried on a new outfit, she
would see her own reflection in the dressing-room mirror. The cute,
slim, petite catgirl in a bra and panties seemed like a strange sight
at first, like it wasn't quite her..but after the first few times she
started to get used to it, and barely paused at all on seeing it.
Kiara felt so
small around all of these other people. She hadn't really appreciated
just how much height she'd lost in the past week before now; she was
looking up at the store clerks and nearly everyone else, for that
matter! She picked clothes out at random and tried them on until
something she liked showed up in the mirror, and before long had a
bunch of outfits already, just coming out of the first store. She
chose to wear one of the new outfits out rather than the old, baggy
boy-clothes: A pair of shorts, a pink stripey long-sleeved top, a
sweater (well, she thought it was a sweater, but it wasn't very
thick) so long it hid the shorts, some black-and-white stripey
stockings, and a hat. It wasn't clear to her why she needed the hat
indoors, but it didn't look right without the hat, she thought, and
that was enough to justify wearing it.
Rell bought a
t-shirt and a pair of jeans right away, and wore them out of the
store, keeping her old clothes in a bag. The girl-clothes, despite
being equivalent to what she would usually wear as..well, wouldn't be
able to wear as a guy anymore, fit very differently. They were so
snug, and the shirt seemed custom designed to remind her she had a
slight figure now. But it wasn't uncomfortable at all—it felt okay,
maybe even better than what she'd exchanged them for. She went and
bought more of the same sort of things, but something caught her eye.
A red skirt, a black pair of stockings..she shook her head. She
didn't want to try that. But as she went back and forth from the
changing room, making sure the new clothes she was getting fit, she
kept seeing them, and a little voice in her head kept wondering how
she would look in them, and maybe a top to go with it, and how the
skirt matched her hair and fur pretty well...
After she had
bought everything she thought she wanted, and was on her way out, she
looked at them one more time and sighed at herself before picking
them up. Her curiosity for how it would feel was too great, even if
Zander was probably going to tease her about it.
Zandra looked at
her phone and realized she was half an hour late. She ran toward
where the three of them were supposed to meet, a short blue skirt
swishing around her thighs the whole way, but when she got there,
slightly out of breath, the others were not present. She wondered
whether the others had left without her, but thought that unlikely,
so she waited. It was a good ten minutes before Kiara showed up.
The dark-haired
girl waved her over. “Wow, you look so cute, Ki~,” she said.
“Th-thanks..”
The pink-haired girl's cheeks went slightly red, which only made
Zandra grin a little wider. “You, uh, you look good too. Um..sorry
I'm late.”
“Hey, I was late too! And Rell still hasn't shown
up, either.”
“I thought she'd
be done first,” said Ki, “what with not wantin' to try on
anything different..”
Zandra nodded. “Me
too...oh, look!” She raised her arm over her head and waved at
Rell, who was walking up in a tan long-sleeved top, black stockings,
and..a skirt!
As she came
closer, the dark-haired girl said, “Hey Rell! You look really cute
in that.”
“Whatever...look,
I was just curious what it felt like is all.”
“And you weren't
curious at all how you'd look?”
“M-maybe a little.”
“So, uh, we're
all set to leave then?” asked Kiara.
Zandra nodded
again. “Looks like it.”
Zandra started
leading the way out, but stopped abruptly near the doors. “Hey,
look! It's one of those photo booth things,” she said, going over
to it.
“If you want to
take a picture, I have a camera..” said Rell.
“Why don't we
take a picture together?”
“Why do you want
to?” countered the redhead.
“I dunno, kind of to commemorate.
Like, a celebration. To new friends, new experinces..?”
“I
don't really think this is something to celebrate,” said Rell,
crossing her arms and frowning.
“Come on,
pleeaase?”
Zandra pulled
gently at the other girls' arms. Kiara let herself be led, while Rell
got her arm loose. She only stopped for a moment, seeing Zandra's
pleading face, before sighing. “Okay, okay..you're paying, though.”
With that, she followed the others into the booth and they lined up
together for a few pictures.
The three
boys-turned-girls then walked out of the booth, out of the mall, and
into something a little bit like a brand new life.
