9. Family & Friends
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"She'll be all right," dad stated. There was a quiet confidence to her voice, like she knew this was a surprise and maybe a scary setback, but it wasn't anything to get too uptight about.

Mom sighed, "I hope you're right. I know we talked about this sort of thing years ago, and I thought I could handle it back then? But when nothing happened, when we got past that age, I suppose I let myself relax. I thought she was a normal human like me, and I let it all go."

"That's understandable Laura," dad replied "And I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but if you feel like you can't cope with it I can take her in with me. That offer still stands."

"I'm not sure I could let her go," mom admitted. "Anyways it's got to be her choice, right? That's what we always said. And now that she's almost an adult... Um..."

Mom's voice trailed off, like she wasn't sure whether I still counted as 'almost an adult' after accidentally turning myself into a little girl.

"She's still eighteen Laura," dad said. "Even if she's stuck looking and maybe acting like an eight-year-old for the next three or four days."

Mom sighed again, and leaned over so her head was resting on dad's shoulder.

The two of them were sitting on the sofa, cuddled up together. They were hugging too, and I was both happy but also a little confused when I saw that. Neither of them had noticed me yet, since I tiptoed down the stairs and peeked through the doorway into the living-room.

Dad was still a blonde woman in her early twenties, she was practically young enough to be mom's daughter. I hadn't forgotten what mom said though, that no matter what dad looked like she was still the same person mom loved.

I bit my lower lip to force myself to stay quiet as I continued watching them.

"Why do you think she became so young?" mom asked after a few moments.

Dad shrugged, "She was trying to change her hair colour, but her mind wandered. It's part of the learning process. Being able to focus and concentrate is critical. And everyone screws it up at first, though its usually not that big a slip-up."

Mom pressed, "But why did she do that specifically? I'm sure there's a hundred other things that could have happened instead."

"You obviously have a theory?" dad asked.

Mom sighed, "I think it's because of what she said Thursday morning? Having you here with us these last few days reminded her of what it was like before you left. We all admitted we missed being a family. I think she made herself that age because that's how old she was last time we were a family."

"Maybe," dad shrugged. Then she teased, "Anyways I thought you taught history, not psychology?"

A moment later dad yelped in pain from something mom did that I couldn't see from where I was watching.

"I'm being serious Alison," mom stated. "Maybe this was her way of trying to tell us she wants us to get back together? To be a family again?"

Dad sighed, "Maybe? But it doesn't change anything, does it? You were worried what everyone would think if you replaced your husband with a forty-year-old secretary named Sandi. What do you think folks will say if they saw you spending time with a twenty-two year old nurse named Alison?"

"I don't know," mom responded quietly. "I'm starting to wonder if I really care what people think. I was mostly worried about our child back then, but now that she knows who and what you are I don't think that's a concern anymore."

My heart skipped a beat at the thought of my parents maybe patching things up, but before I could learn any more secrets I was betrayed by my rumbling stomach.

Mom and dad both suddenly turned to look. I had a sheepish grin on my face and my cheeks were red with embarrassment again as I slowly stepped into the living-room where they could see me.

"Hey mom, dad," I said. "I'm getting ready to head out? I'm going to meet Kelly and Craig for dinner at Sammy's Burgers ok? We'll probably be out late, we might go catch a movie or something afterwards. So don't wait up?"

They were both staring at me. Mom had a suspicious expression on her face, like she was wondering how long I'd been there listening to them. And dad looked even more surprised than she did when I made myself a little girl, she obviously didn't expect me to look like this already.

I was back to being eighteen and my hair was blonde again like before. And I'd got dressed in my stretch jeans, sneakers, and a cute purple scoop-neck top. I was all ready to head out, I even had some lipstick on.

On the other hand, my body wasn't exactly back to the way it was before. My eyes were now bright green instead of the blue-green they were for the past few days. And my complexion was probably a bit more fair, and now I had some faint freckles on my cheeks. My height was almost the same as before, maybe a half inch shorter than the five-foot-three I was this morning. And my body shape was pretty close too, but not exact. Fortunately my clothes still fit, mostly, and I hoped nobody would notice the slight differences.

The main thing was I looked like me, my family and friends would all recognize me as Melody.

"You got back to normal already?" dad asked. "How do you feel?"

"Hungry," I replied with a grin. I was still blushing though as I added, "And embarrassed, like I can't believe how much I cried and everything? It was a weird experience."

Both my parents stared for another couple seconds, before dad finally said "Make sure you have your phone with you ok? If you need a ride home you call. I don't care what time or how late. In fact even if you don't need a ride you call anyways. I'd rather come get you than have you walking around at night, especially alone."

Before I could protest dad added, "You've done two major changes today. You might feel fine right now, but you might run out of steam and feel exhausted later. So be careful, ok?"

"Ok dad," I agreed. "My phone's in my purse. And I'll be careful, I promise. See you both later!"

I turned and hurried out the door before things could get any more awkward, but I was also wearing a big smile at the thought of mom and dad cuddling together on the sofa like that. I kind of hoped the two of them would have a nice quiet evening together.

Maybe it'd even become a romantic evening for them. Probably not, but I could hope.

It was about a fifteen minute walk to get to the burger place, and both Kelly and Craig were already there when I arrived. I was absolutely starved so I headed straight to the counter as soon as I got in.

I ordered a couple cheeseburgers, extra-large fries with gravy, and a large chocolate milkshake. The guy behind the counter gave me a funny look but he didn't say anything as he rang up the order. I got my milkshake and went to sit with my friends while I waited for my food to come up.

They were in a booth, Craig was on one side and Kelly on the other. They both had their food already, and the half-eaten burgers and fries got my mouth watering. I greeted them as I slipped into the booth next to Kelly, then had a big gulp of my drink.

"Hey Melody," Kelly said with a smirk. "Your mommy let you out by yourself huh? Do you have to get home early for bedtime?"

My cheeks went bright red and I muttered, "Shut up. Please delete that picture and forget that stuff ever happened, ok?"

She just giggled, while a very confused Craig looked back and forth between me and Kelly. Thankfully she didn't share that conversation or picture with him, so I didn't have to worry about him teasing me as well.

Instead he stared at me for a few seconds then said "Something's different about you today."

I was still blushing as I shrugged and shook my head, "Not really."

Kelly turned to stare at me for a few seconds, then she exclaimed quietly "Holy crap your eyes are green! And you've got freckles!"

That's not what caught Craig's attention though. His eyes were fixed a little lower, and he leered a bit as he grinned, "Her boobs are bigger."

My cheeks were bright red as I tried to fold my arms over my chest and slouch back in the booth, but all that did was make it even more obvious. I'd been so focused on getting my boobs and curves back I overshot slightly and ended up a little curvier than I was to begin with.

With both my friends staring at me I mumbled, "It was an accident ok? It's been a really rough day and I just want to hang out and relax. Please?"

"Ok Melody," Kelly finally nodded. "Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. Maybe we can talk later if you feel like it, but this actually isn't a good place for those conversations."

That last bit was directed mostly at Craig, to remind him we really shouldn't talk about that stuff in public.

"Right," he nodded, then picked up his burger and started eating again.

I was almost ready to steal some fries off one of my friends' trays when the guy at the counter called, "Order up for Melanie!"

Nobody else in the restaurant moved, so Kelly smirked "I think that's you."

"Yeah," I sighed. "That's probably going to happen a lot."

I got up and grabbed my tray, then stopped by the condiments counter for a handful of ketchup packets and salt and napkins and stuff. Then I sat down with my friends again, and pretty much devoured one of the cheeseburgers in under a minute.

"Holy crap," Craig commented. "You're not gonna stay cute for long if you keep eating like that."

"Craig fuck right off," Kelly stated, and she sounded like she meant it. "Don't fucking body-shame people ok? Especially not friends, but it's not cool doing that shit to anyone."

He just rolled his eyes but he didn't argue.

I blushed as I had another gulp of my milkshake, but I didn't bother trying to explain why I was so hungry. I just kept eating to try and replenish all the energy I burned earlier.

The worst part was after clearing every last speck of food on my tray and the entire milkshake I was still hungry. I ended up getting a second shake and two slices of cherry-apple pie for dessert, and the guy behind the counter gave me another one of those looks as he rang it up.

So I was blushing and felt incredibly embarrassed and self-conscious as I sat back down with my friends.

It was exactly like my folks warned me though. Any big changes took lots of energy and made me hungry, but making myself bigger was worse. And in just one afternoon I'd gone from an eighteen-year-old down to a tiny eight-year-old, then back up to eighteen again.

You'd think if the net result was almost zero it shouldn't be that bad, but the truth was both changes cost energy and the second one was like ten times worse than the first.

Fortunately neither Craig or Kelly said anything as I ate everything on my tray once more. And thankfully that seemed to be enough, for now at least.

I couldn't wait to get out of there, and soon the three of us were walking to Craig's place on our way to the woods. When we got to his house he went in for a few seconds then emerged with the beer, and a few minutes later we were back in our favourite little spot on the side of the hill overlooking the creek.

Like usual I was in the middle, with Craig on my right and Kelly on my left. We each grabbed a bottle, and as usual Craig whipped his cap into the water then me and Kelly told him off and put ours in the box.

After a swig of my beer I sighed, "The thing with the food... It's because I did some big changes today? I'm learning how to do it and it takes a ton of energy, so after all that I was starving. I needed to refuel I guess."

Craig had a couple gulps of his beer then said "That's cool with me. If a couple burgers and some pie is what it takes to make your boobs bigger, you eat all the burgers and pie you want."

Kelly reached over behind me and gave him a smack across the back of the head, then when he complained she told him off about objectifying girls' bodies. Meanwhile I just cringed and felt embarrassed again. And I couldn't help thinking this was one of the reasons dad said not to tell people about our secrets.

Fortunately that was the last of the embarrassing stuff, at least for a while. Instead we talked about school, and all the stuff I was missing. Exams were starting on Monday and both my friends had to spend all day tomorrow studying. They'd been doing that the last few days in fact.

It felt weird that I wasn't cramming and studying too, weirder still that I wouldn't be there in class with them. I'd only really missed three days of school, but it already felt so far away.

Like having everything I knew about myself and my life and my family all turned upside-down, finding out I wasn't even human, and learning all this stuff from my dad who was now called Alison... It felt like that other stuff was a whole different life. Like that person, the closeted trans girl living under my deadname, it almost felt like all that died or whatever.

And what happened today was freaky and I still had some stuff I needed to unpack about the experience of accidentally becoming a child again. And like, normal people worried about schoolwork and grades and stuff. If they get a question wrong, worst thing that happens is they lose a few marks on their grade or something.

I slipped up in 'class' today and accidentally turned myself into a child, had a little tantrum, and worst case scenario I might have been stuck as an eight-year-old for three or four days. I was incredibly lucky I managed to fix it in only three or four hours.

So Craig and Kelly talked about school, complained about teachers, and compared notes about their studies and stuff, while I just sat quietly between them. They went through three or four beers apiece while I slowly nursed the one. And even though it was Saturday night and normally the three of us would be out there till well past midnight, I got my phone out and texted my dad at about half past ten and asked her to come pick me up.

"I'm going to head home now," I told my friends. "Sorry. Like I said, it's been a rough day and I could use some sleep."

"Are you going to be ok getting home?" Kelly asked, the worry evident in her voice.

I nodded, "I'm fine, my dad's going to pick me up at the edge of the woods."

Despite my assurances, Kelly decided she'd walk me out of the woods then wait with me for dad. And Craig decided he had to do that too, something about him being a guy he had to look out for us girls. Even though I was positive Kelly could kick his ass with one hand tied behind her back.

So the three of us walked out together. Dad was already there, her big black pick-up sat by the side of the road.

I opened the passenger door and climbed in, then turned and said "Goodnight Kelly, Craig. Talk to you both tomorrow."

They both just nodded, but their attention wasn't on me. Both of them were staring at Alison. Which of course they would, neither of them had seen her before.

I sighed and pulled the door closed, and two minutes later we were back home.

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