=:= Sean =:=

"Hodges! Get your ass in here!"

Sean rolled his eyes and called back, "Yes Mr. Weston."

He stepped out from under the Jeep and pulled a rag out of his pocket, to wipe some grease off his hands as he trudged up to the front office. It had been a busy morning and he was looking forward to his lunch break. He had to get the Jeep finished and down off the hoist first, and he wasn't keen on wasting time listening to whatever his boss wanted to bitch about now.

"What is it Mr. Weston?" Sean asked as he stood in the doorway of his boss's office.

Greg Weston was just past middle aged, heavyset, with short greying hair and beady brown eyes. He could put on the smiles and charm when he was talking to customers, especially attractive customers, but he usually had a scowl or at least a frown when he was talking to Sean.

It was a scowl right now, as his boss demanded "Did you fuck anything up on that Rio?"

That was the job right before the Jeep, just a simple tune-up and tire rotation.

"No way boss," Sean shook his head. "It was straight-up simple, no problem at all."

The only possible issue he could think of was the car looked like it hadn't been driven in a long time. The tires had flat spots on them from sitting still too long, the old oil was pretty bad, and there was all kinds of dust and old leaves and crap in the engine compartment. But none of that was his fault, and he was sure he'd done a good job on the tune-up.

Mr. Weston gestured towards the customer area, "Well the customer's asking to speak with you. Go wash up then find out what's wrong." He added, "It's the blonde."

Sean sighed, "Yes Mr. Weston." He turned and headed for the employee bathroom, muttering some curses. He was positive he didn't screw anything up on that job, but whatever the bitch was going to complain about it was going to cost Sean time, and maybe money.

He continued swearing to himself as he washed the grease off his hands. He figured the woman found a scratch or something and decided to blame it on him.

Finally he trudged up to the front and through the door out into the customer area. There were two men sitting in the guest chairs, but no blonde. He moved to Shirley at the counter and asked quietly, "Weston said there was a blonde here who wanted to talk to me? About her Rio?"

Shirley nodded and pointed to the right, "She's in there."

There was a little 'show room' off the side of the waiting area, with some dusty old displays. Nobody ever wanted that crap, the displays hadn't been touched in so long they were starting to turn colour with age.

"Thanks Shirley," Sean sighed and walked past the waiting area and into the little 'display' room, then stopped in his tracks. The blonde was short and skinny. She didn't look any older than sixteen, barely old enough to drive. She was wearing dark grey leggings, a short black dress, and black sneakers. And Sean recognized her.

"Holy crap," he said as he stared. "Cindy the shrimp! I haven't seen you since graduation."

Cindy rolled her eyes at the nickname then responded, "Hi Sean, how've you been?"

Her voice was calm, she didn't sound like she was here to mock him or whatever. And she didn't sound upset about anything either. She actually sounded a little sad.

He frowned at her. "What are you doing here? What do you want with me?"

She shrugged, "I wanted to see how you were doing. Did you ever talk to Becky, after high-school?"

Sean scoffed, "Seriously? She stopped talking to me in grade eleven. I haven't seen any of you three since graduation. Why?"

Cindy sighed as she looked down at the floor for a moment. Then she looked up at him again, "Becky was killed last year. In November."

For a few seconds, Sean didn't know what to say. Several thoughts and emotions ran through his mind. He was shocked, sad, curious, angry, confused.

Finally he just shrugged, "That sucks. Why interrupt my work to tell me this now?"

The shrimp shook her head, "I didn't come here just to tell you that. But I thought... I figured you should know. Since you and Becky used to be close."

Sean sighed. He didn't want to admit it, and definitely didn't want to let the shrimp know, but he was sad for Becky. He really did like her back then. And Becky had his old body. It suddenly felt weird to realize that his old body was dead and gone.

Finally he shrugged again and asked, "So what else then? I don't have all day, my boss will be getting impatient I'm wasting time here with you instead of doing my job."

Cindy nodded and asked "That's the main reason I'm here. I want to know, if you're happy? With the way things turned out, with your life and everything?"

He frowned at her, "What the fuck do you care if I'm happy?"

"Because it's my fault," she replied softly. "I only wanted to give you and Becky a little scare, then you made a decision and five minutes later both your and Becky's lives were changed forever. Three years ago I couldn't fix things. Now I can." She sighed, looking up at him. "So I'm asking. Are you happy with how your life's turned out?"

Sean was still frowning at her as his mind sort of raced through the past few years. He wasn't happy, but he wasn't sure he wanted to admit that either.

After Cindy and her goth friend changed things that morning back in school, he'd kind of coasted through the next year and a half. He had pretty good grades up till then, but after that not so much. He had fun of course, and his life was a lot easier for a while. And he was glad he didn't have his folks all over him about school and grades and fashion and make-up and all that crap.

But then high-school ended, and he didn't have much to show for it. He graduated, barely, without any ambition or goals. He'd done ok in shop class, machine shop and auto shop were his two best classes. He couldn't find a job as a machinist though, so he wound up here. Doing oil changes, tune-ups, and tire changes.

On the weekends if he had enough spare cash, he'd go out drinking with Mitch and James. He still lived with his folks, he knew they were disappointed in him, but he didn't know what else to do.

After a few moments of silence, he finally sighed and shook his head. He kept his voice low, and replied "No, I'm not happy. I wasted that last year and a half of school. I had fun and goofed off, and forgot about plans and dreams and stuff. Now I work in this shit-hole and this is probably as good as it's gonna get for me."

Cindy sighed and whispered "I'm sorry Sean."

He was still watching her as he asked "So you said you could fix things now? What sort of things? Like do you mean turning me back? Into what I was before?"

The shrimp looked up at him then asked, "Do you wanna go out and get some lunch or whatever, talk somewhere more comfortable?"

Sean sighed, "I'm supposed to be working right now, remember? Mr. Weston's probably gonna chew me out for wasting so much time with you as it is."

"So quit," Cindy replied. "You're not happy here anyways. Go get your stuff or whatever, I'll wait out front."

He looked at her for a few seconds, then cracked a smile. "You know what? You're right. Fuck it. I'll be there in five minutes."

Cindy smiled back, then as he headed into the shop area again she went out the front door into the parking lot.

Sean walked past the hoist where the Jeep was still waiting, and into the lockers at the back. He pulled off his Weston's Garage shirt and tossed it into the trash, then he pulled on his own t-shirt and grabbed his jacket.

On his way back to the front, he waved and called to his boss "Hey Greg? I quit. Have a good one."

He didn't even slow down as Mr. Weston started yelling at him.

"Bye Shirley, see you around," he said as he strode past the counter, then out the front door. Cindy was there, sitting in her little Rio with the engine running, passenger door open and waiting for him.

He slid into the seat and as soon as he closed the door Cindy pulled out of the lot.

Sean chuckled, "That was more fun than I thought it'd be. But now you better be able to fix things, otherwise I'm screwed. My folks will kill me if they find out I quit without having anything else lined up."

"Don't worry about that," Cindy replied. "What do you feel like, for lunch?"

"Well since it's your treat, how about steak?" he grinned.

Cindy shrugged, "Ok."

Twenty minutes later they were sitting in a large private booth in a quiet, fancy restaurant. Sean smiled as he looked at the menu. Some of these entrees cost more than he made in a day. He wound up ordering a large prime rib with a loaded baked potato, and an appetizer. And a beer.

Cindy ordered a tiny fillet with a side of fries and a soda.

While they waited for the food, Sean asked "So what have you been up to since school?"

"Not that much," Cindy shrugged. "I never went to college or anything. I spent the first year studying magic and stuff, getting better and stronger at that. Since last summer I've been travelling a lot with my girlfriend."

"You still hanging out with Tanya?"

Cindy shook her head, "After high-school, Tanya went to college in Toronto. She's still there. She's got a girlfriend there now." She added, sounding sad, "And Becky went to university at Western."

"Huh," he frowned. "So both your friends moved away as soon as school ended."

The waiter brought their drinks and his appetizer, so he started on that. He offered her some, asking "You like calamari?"

Cindy shook her head, "No thanks."

They were both quiet for a bit as he enjoyed the food. He washed it down with a mouthful of beer, then asked "So about fixing things for me? What's the plan?"

She shrugged, "What were your plans? What would you be doing now, if I hadn't messed up your and Becky's lives?"

He had a few more gulps of beer then shrugged, "I was gonna go to university. I was gonna be a veterinarian. I'd probably still be doing that? I guess I'd be in my second year at University of Guelph. That's where I wanted to go."

"Aw," Cindy smiled. "That's kinda nice." She looked serious again as she asked, "Is that something you'd still want?"

He frowned and drained the last of his beer. He set the empty glass down on the table and leaned back. He ran a hand through his hair as he thought about it.

Finally he shrugged, "It doesn't matter. I don't have the grades to get in, and even if I did, I couldn't afford it. My folks would have paid, before. Like for the old me. They won't do fuck-all for me now. They even make me pay rent now to live with them."

Cindy had a thoughtful frown on her face after that. She stayed quiet as the waiter brought their meals, and Sean ordered another beer.

Then he started on the food, which was great. He didn't get to eat this good very often at all. Like once a year maybe, if his folks wanted to take him out for a birthday celebration or something. A minute later the waiter brought him his beer, and he had a swig of that.

The shrimp ate quietly as well, and she still had that thoughtful look on her face. She was about halfway through her little meal when she stopped and put down her cutlery.

She looked at him and said, "So I can't like, go back in time and fix things that way. There's stuff I can do, but it's like, here and now. If you still wanted to be a vet, I could change your transcript so you had the grades, I could get you into Guelph for the September semester. And I could take care of the tuition and stuff too." She shrugged, "It'd be like, you'd be two years behind where you would have been if you'd gone in straight from high-school. But that's not a big deal I think. Lots of people take a year or two off before college."

Sean stared at her for a few moments, then asked "How could you do all that?"

Cindy shrugged, "You know what I did to you and Becky? That was after just two months of learning magic. I've had three more years since then. I can do a whole lot more now."

He frowned at her. Then he raised an eyebrow, "If you're such hot shit with magic, how come you're still a shrimp?" He knew it was kind of dumb to antagonize her, especially now, but he couldn't help it. And he was curious.

She just gave him a half smile and shrugged, "I look like this because I like looking like this."

"Huh," he frowned. It hadn't actually occurred to him that she'd like that. He had another swig of beer and continued eating for now.

Cindy seemed to have had enough of her food as she just relaxed and sipped her cola. She watched him, and after another minute or two she said "You still haven't told me if you want to go to university, to be a vet. While you're thinking about that, I have another question."

"Yeah, what is it?" he asked before taking another fork-full of steak into his mouth.

"Do you want to stay a guy?" she asked. "Are you still happy with that body?"

Sean was silent as he chewed, then swallowed. Finally he shrugged, "What's it matter? You can't swap us back, Becky's dead."

"I wouldn't swap you back even if she weren't," Cindy stated. "Not unless Becky agreed to it, and I don't think she would. Becky was happy and comfortable with herself by the end of grade eleven, and she was making a good life for herself up until..."

Sean saw the look of sadness on Cindy's face as her voice trailed off. He frowned, then asked quietly "How'd she die? What happened to her?"

Cindy stared at the table as she sighed, "She was murdered."

"Fuck," Sean shook his head. "Poor Becky."

After a few moments of silence, he asked "Did they ever catch whoever did it?"

She sighed once more, then said in a very soft voice "I caught the guy who did it, and I killed him myself."

"Woah." He didn't know what else to say about that. After a few moments, he just started eating again.

Cindy stayed quiet for now, and drank the rest of her cola.

Finally Sean finished his lunch. He sat back, feeling nicely stuffed. He picked up his glass and drained the last of his second beer, then just looked across the table at Cindy.

She finally looked up at him again. "Anyways, so I wouldn't swap you back. I can change you though, if you wanted to be something else. I...couldn't change you to look like you used to. I couldn't make you look like Becky. But I could make you a girl again, if you wanted to go back."

He ran a hand through his hair again and frowned. "I've almost forgot what it was like, you know? I remember all the hassle though. Spending like an hour every morning screwing around with make-up and long hair and worrying about clothes and shit."

Cindy shrugged, "That stuff's got nothing to do with being a girl. That's a choice on how to present yourself, though I get that our society kinda expects that more of girls than it does of guys." She added with a smile, "I don't spend an hour on make-up and hair. Neither does my girlfriend. I know a couple people who do, but it's their choice."

"It wasn't my choice," Sean scowled. "My fucking parents were the ones who insisted I had to be 'proper' and 'presentable' and all that crap."

"I'm sorry," Cindy sighed. "I didn't know. I thought you liked all that stuff. I thought you were a fashionista girly-girl, and I thought you liked it that way. That's why I was so sure you'd be dying to be switched back, same as Becky."

He sighed and shook his head. "I wanted to play baseball. I wanted to join the girls softball team. If my folks hadn't been the way they were, I'd probably have been the tomboy Becky was at first. Before she got into skirts and make-up and stuff."

Cindy sighed again and apologized once more, "I'm sorry. I wish I'd known back then."

He shrugged, "Whatever. Water under the bridge."

When the waiter came by to check on them, Cindy ordered another soda so Sean got a third beer.

Eventually she said, "I've been making suggestions and asking questions, but you haven't actually told me what you want, or if you wanted to take me up on any of this stuff."

He nodded and sighed. He had another swig of beer and confessed, "I guess I'm kind of scared. Like, I know what's going to happen if you don't do anything. I'll go home, get in a big argument with my folks about quitting, my dad'll probably kick my ass, and I'll have to find a new job. Life will suck for a couple weeks, then it'll go back to what it is now."

After another sip of beer he said, "I have no idea what it'll be like if you 'fix' things. I don't know what'll happen, what it'll feel like, and I don't know if I'll be able to deal with it. Like going to vet school? What if you go to all the work and set it up for me, then I just flunk or something? I mean, I nearly flunked grade twelve."

Cindy was quiet for a few moments, then finally said "Well that's got nothing to do with your ability. You're the same person you always were. If you got good grades before, you're capable of getting good grades now. So all that's changed is your motivation."

"My motivation used to be my folks cracking the whip," he reminded her. "They stopped doing that when I became a guy."

She shrugged slightly, "If you need external motivation, then find some. For now though, I can't make the decisions for you. I can fix things if you want, change things if you want. But it's up to you to do the wanting part, and the telling me part."

Sean sighed, nodding. He had some more beer and shrugged, "I guess this is my problem. I've just been coasting through life, ever since you swapped us. That's kind of the last big decision I made really. Telling you and that goth chick that I wanted to stay like this. I thought it would be easier. I thought life would be easier."

After another swig of beer he continued, "And it was, at first. Like, my folks stopped hounding me and I goofed off and had fun. Coasted through the rest of school."

Cindy nodded, "Well if you decide to try university, you won't be coasting any more. You'll have to work at it. I can't just like, magic you up a diploma or whatever." After a moment she added, "Ok I could, but you wouldn't actually know what you're doing so it wouldn't help you any."

Sean stared at the table for a few moments then asked "So if we did that, what would I do for the next four months? I mean, I just quit my job, and it's a few months till the fall semester starts."

"I dunno, do whatever you want?" she shrugged. "We could set you up with a place in Guelph, like an apartment or something, get you settled in. Maybe you could get a head start on studies. Or find a part-time job or whatever while you're there?"

"What would I tell my folks?" he asked.

Cindy shrugged again. "Depends on how you want things to play out. You wouldn't hafta tell them anything if you didn't want. Or tell them the truth. Tell them I messed up your whole life with magic back in high-school, and now we're gonna straighten stuff out."

He chuckled at that, then frowned. "Wait are you serious?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I talked to Becky's folks in December. I told them the truth. They'd already found out some of it, they'd got their old memories back before she died, so they were really confused about stuff. I told them what happened, what I'd done."

She added, "I didn't tell them about you or that you and Becky were swapped. Just that I'd changed her and it ended up being permanent."

Sean thought it over for a few minutes then shook his head, "I don't think I want that conversation with my folks."

Cindy just nodded, watching him.

"How long do I have, to decide?" he asked.

She sighed, "I don't want to pressure you. But I'm only in town another day or two, and I'm gonna be busy tomorrow for the full moon."

Sean frowned, "In town? Did you move away or something?"

"Pretty much," Cindy replied. "I kinda live in Australia, except me and Zoe have been travelling a bunch. We've been in Wales most of this month. And we'll be heading back there as soon as I'm done stuff here. Probably Wednesday morning."

He sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. It was a lot to think about, some big decisions he had to make. It'd be nice to have a goal again, have a purpose to his life. On the other hand, he'd have to actually start putting the effort in. No more coasting, no more path of least resistance.

Finally he nodded "Ok. I wanna make something of my life. If you could make it so I can get into the vet program at Guelph, that'd be cool. I know it'll be up to me to make it work, but if you can get me in that's a start. And if I can move there now, like find a place or something, that'd be good. I can start looking for work to tide me over for the summer."

Cindy smiled "Ok Sean. And what about the other stuff. You wanna stay a guy, or not?"

He sighed, "I don't know. That's a tougher one."

The small blonde nodded, "Think it over." She opened her purse and pulled out a couple hundred dollar bills, and her key-fob. "I'm going to go and get things set up for you in Guelph. I'll leave you the car so you can go home and pack or whatever, and some money to cover lunch."

"What?" he blinked at her. "You're just going to give me your car and some cash?"

Cindy slid the money and key across the table to him, "Yeah. I'll see you in a couple hours."

He stared at her in confusion. "How are you going to get to Guelph without your car?"

She just grinned, then vanished without a trace. Sean stared in shock at the empty seat across from him.

PurpleCatGirl

If you're confused, don't worry - this prologue just serves as a step between the Brotherhood of Diomedes and the rest of the series. It takes place between chapter 36 and the Epilog of the Brotherhood story, and revisits a minor antagonist from the Witches of Welland series (chapters 6.2 and 6.3).

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