There was nobody outside when Carter glanced out the front window, but he still nervously glanced around anyway. All it would take was a stray neighbor with a phone to catch a picture of him and alert his parents that something was wrong.

A strong gust blew away some of the crispy brown leaves, but everything else was still.

Carter closed the blinds, and pulled the curtains shut just to be sure.

Victoria was waiting by the couch. Carter took the Wii remote from her, feeling more than a little silly as he followed her instructions to put the wrist strap on. She was literally blowing dust off the console, and practically bouncing with excitement as she put the game disk in.

Victoria plopped down on the couch and motioned for Carter to sit, informing him that they were playing Mario Kart first.

Carter groaned and tried to get comfortable. Normally, the plushness of the couch would be super relaxing, but the way it made him sink into the cushion caused his shirt to bunch up, making his chest shift and squish as well. At this point he was seriously considering whether a bra would help or not.

“Um… maybe if you—”

Carter shot a nasty look her way, and Victoria shut up and shrank back. His expression softened as she scooted away from him, but he didn’t need to put up with her right now. Even ignoring the shirt as best he could, the denim skirt made it impossible for him to spread his legs or even sit cross-legged like he wanted.

Victoria picked an easy level for them to start with, not that Carter cared. He was too busy pulling at the hem of his skirt that running off the road was inevitable. Too busy shaking the hair out of his eyes that he couldn’t reach any of the power ups. And it was getting hard to press the buttons with long manicured nails.

The most annoying thing, though, was catching Victoria continuously glancing his way out of the corner of his eyes. Every time she did, she made a mistake, which might have found worth a smug little smirk if the situation weren’t so unpleasant.

The second race wasn’t much different from the first, except that Carter grumbled a bit louder and fidgeted a bit more. Victoria noticed this, and leaned even further away from him. Halfway through the third race, as Carter came close to just tossing his controller across the room, Victoria piped up, “H-hey, why don’t we try something else?”

Without waiting for a reply, she leaped from the couch toward the stack of games. Carter just leaned back and sighed. He closed his eyes and continued fidgeting.

A familiar and welcome fanfare caused him to pause and check the screen. Victoria was practically bouncing to see a positive reaction from him.

“Yeah, I know you love this game!” she said, “And I’ve been practicing too!”

She threw Carter the other half of the controller for him to plug into the stick. Despite this surprise, though, Carter wasn’t exactly as bright and eager as Victoria seemed to hope. Still, eh did his best to sit up and avoid being swallowed by the plushness of the couch.

As the game loaded, Carter wished he’d grabbed his phone. At the very least, someone he knew might be doing something worth texting about. If nothing else, Facebook was probably at least moderately rage-inducing today. Election day was coming up.

“I’m playing as Kirby!” Victoria declared.

Carter wanted to roll his eyes. He didn’t care. He just picked out Link like always and waited for Victoria to pick out what other characters would fill the match.

“How about Samus?”

“That’s fine.”

“Or Ness?”

“Whatever.”

“What about Sonic?”

“Victoria,” Carter said, “Literally any character will work.”

“I just want you to enjoy the game.”

Carter bit his tongue and grunted instead of replying.

Victoria sighed and leaned back, deciding to just go with the lineup they had. When it came to the level select screen, she opened her mouth, but closed it again and selected one randomly.

It hadn’t occurred to Carter before, but maybe it wasn’t a good idea to jump right into a game he hadn’t played for years without relearning the controls a bit first. He spent the entirety of the first match getting his ass handed to him by the enemy AI. The only person he got a shot in against was Victoria, and only when her back was turned.

“The enemies aren’t too strong, are they?” Victoria asked as Carter was knocked off the screen again.

His response was a dark muttering under his breath.

When Victoria inevitably won the match and they were taken to the results screen, Carter decided that he had no choice but to make a complicated maneuver. Trying not to lose his balance and fall off the couch, he pulled his legs up to the couch and tried squeezing them under him, so that he was now sitting half on his legs.

He was still adjusting his shirt when the match started, trying desperately hard to get his breasts out of the way without drawing too much attention to himself.

This time he did much better, managing to throw Meta Knight off the ledge twice before Victoria knocked him off the platform.

He snorted, asking, “So that’s how it’s going to be?”

And aside from occasionally having to push his hair out of the way or adjusting his legs, Carter did significantly better now that he had the controls down. He won each of the next three rounds, though Victoria came pretty close to beating him again once.

“We should do teams next,” she said, “Me and the enemies against you.”

“Don’t feel confident if it’s a fair fight?”

“It would only be fair if it was five on one,” she retorted.

He smirked, but paused a moment to stretch, more than a little miffed by the strange ways in which his body moved.

“Um… hey?” Victoria asked.

“What?”

“How about we play a different game?”

Carter gave what he hoped was a questioning look.

“It’s a game I’ve always wanted to play with you. Here, let me put it in.”

Carter watched with uncertain curiosity as she walked over to pick out a game he’d never seen before.

A logo filled the screen.

“Epic Mickey 2?”

“Um… yeah. I mean, it’s not like the kind of games you normally play, but I thought it’d be fun.”

Carter began fidgeting again, and Victoria’s expression faltered.

“Just give it a try,” she said, “It’ll be fun... I promise.”

Carter wasn’t so sure. Apparently, he was in control of some Disney character he’d never heard of, and they were participating in some ridiculous plot he was having a hard time following.

And speaking of trouble with controls, Carter had never imagined he’d be the dumb friend who needed to be coached through every little thing the game asked of him. Of everything so far, this definitely had to be the most emasculating. The very thought of what his friends would say to see him struggle like this…

He couldn’t help but feel that this was really stupid. He could be playing Dark Souls right now, but he was stuck with his baby sister playing Epic fucking Mickey 2. He could be playing Dishonored again, or any of the Dead Space games. But he was watching Mickey Mouse run around with a magic paint brush. Because his sister was holding him hostage.

The screen went dark and returned to the menu screen.

Victoria was avoiding Carter’s gaze.

“What if we play Lego Batman instead?”

“No, I’m done.”

Carter made to stand up, struggling against the clothes he was wearing.

“W-what about—?”

“I just want to be left alone,” he said, finally pulling himself off of the couch and heading toward the hallway.

“But… but what about… it’s almost lunch time! We were supposed to get pizza!”

“I’ll order us a damn pizza,” Carter assured her, not turning around.

Carter made sure his door was locked, and then stuck his chair against the door just to be sure. He didn’t know if that would work or not, but better to be safe.

His friends had sent him various messages of condolences and regret. They even did it with fewer swear words than he had anticipated. He quickly started sending messages back out, stopping only to tug at his shirt some more.

Things were almost normal for a moment.

He did quickly order a pepperoni pizza for himself and Victoria. He didn’t know if Victoria liked pepperoni, but he wasn’t very inclined to care right now.

While he waited for anyone to message him back, Carter unzipped his backpack and pulled out the spell book. He supposed there wasn’t any way for Victoria to have gotten it while they were playing games together, but it was good to be sure.

Flipping through it, it still proved to be gibberish to him.

He put the book back and returned to his computer.

This wouldn’t end well.

Carter quickly googled “magic book” and skimmed through a few pages of results. Bunk, bullshit, and a lot of people with way too much free time on their hands. He couldn’t even tell what was RP and what was genuine insanity.

Of course, it’s not like he had the experience to know what to believe anyway.

He pulled at his shirt again, letting out a loud, strained groan.

“I hate this!” he cried, wiping tears from his eyes, “How does anyone deal with these things?”

But Carter knew the answer to that, as much as he hated to admit it.

But he wasn’t going to wear a damn bra. He wasn’t going to give into Victoria’s little game. There wouldn’t even be a way to be discreet about it; as thin as his shirt was, a bra would be obvious to anyone looking.

More obvious than seeing his nipples through the fabric already—

Fuck!

He wasn’t sure what was worse. The thought of his sister seeing his nipples all day, or the pizza man who’d be there soon.

Carter and Victoria were the only two in the house, but Carter still closed the door to his parents’ room behind him.

There was a full-length mirror on the room, finally giving Carter the chance to get a better look at himself. Well, less of a chance and more of a forced reckoning. There was a redness around his eyes from where he’d teared up. His clothes, if they could even be called his, were wrinkled and twisted. His hair was all over the place.

The girl in the mirror looked like she’d been dumped by her boyfriend and spent the day crying into her pillow.

And she was a girl, despite how hard he clenched his fists in anger.

He could see her nipples poking through her shirt. And through the tears forming he got a good sight of her exposed sight of her exposed thighs, supple and bare and clean-shaven.

It took Carter a moment to realize the strange feeling welling up inside of him, despite the heat rising in his cheeks. Utterly disguised in himself, he ran into his parents’ bathroom and splashed cold water all over his face.

Carter focused on the sound of running water to clear his mind. He couldn’t help getting a good look at his face in the mirror, and decided to test whether or not looks really could kill.

And then he dropped his shoulders and sighed, even though it came out as a distressed whine.

“What the fuck happened to me?”

He waited, but no answer came, so he left the bathroom.

Trying not to think too hard about it, Carter searched through his mother’s dresser until he found a plain beige bra. His parents would be so disgusted with him. If he were in a better state of mind, he would be too.

Glancing back at the door, he quickly stripped off his shirt and threw it onto the bed. He’d never worn a bra before, obviously. He practiced with the latch a few times before actually trying to put it on. One arm, then the other.

The thick fabric against his nipples was very sudden and uncomfortable. He took a gulp and powered through it, slipping his arms through and reaching back to grab at the hooks.

A minute later, when the door opened and Victoria poked her heat in to ask “Carter? Are you in here?”, he had given up and planted his face firmly into the blanket of his parents’ bed.

Carter almost jumped at the surprise, but simply asked “What?” without lifting his head.

“Um… the pizza’s here. I need money to pay for it.”

“Help me with this.”

“Um… sure.”

Carter felt his sister hook the bra and he mumbled a brief “thanks” before lifting his head and telling her, “I’ll pay for the pizza. Just toss me my shirt.”

He only briefly glanced at the bra in the mirror as he pulled his shirt back on. It hadn’t changed save for fitting slightly better. He grabbed his wallet from his room and headed toward the front door.

Okay, he thought, I can do this. He doesn’t know who you are. Just don’t give him enough time to think about having sex with you.

He opened the door. Standing there was a girl a little older than he was.

That’ll work too.

He gave her the money and took the pizza in return, very aware of how his voice and knees were shaking throughout the exchange. She gave him a worried look, but didn’t say anything.

“Thankskeepthechangebye!” he managed to blubber out, and even waited for her to thank him and step away before calmly closing the door.

Carter let out a deep breath he hadn’t been aware he’d been holding.

The pizza looked good, probably better than it would have if Cater had already eaten anything today. He grabbed two slices and set them down on the table, then sat down himself as he folded his skirt beneath his legs.

“Looks good, right?” Victoria sked, sitting down beside him with her own plate.

Carter didn’t respond.

“How are your friends?” she asked, and Carter gave a frustrated sigh.

“Okay, um… so, in my history class we’re—”

“Please stop,” Carter said, finally looking right at her.

Victoria hesitated for a moment, then looked away. He could see her fighting back tears.

“Fine then!” she snapped, “What do you want to do for the rest of the day?”

“What do I want to do?” he asked, “Are you serious? I want you to change me back and let me get along with my life!”

Victoria reeled back, nearly falling out of her chair, but then snarled and retorted, “Well not with that attitude, ‘sister!’ We had a deal!”

“There is no deal!” he cried, “There is only you and your goddamn magic. And I am not, nor will I ever be, your sister. And unless you change me back right now—”

“What could you possibly do to me?”

Career jumped from his chair, tossing his pizza to the ground and causing Victoria to nearly fall from her own chair in fright. Her eyes were wide and her breath had caught in her throat.

Without another word, Carter stormed off back to his room.

He heard Victoria’s chair start to move, but he swung around and pointed a finger at her.

“You leave me alone, you monster!”

She froze, and he turned away.