Slacker- Part One by: Moongoddess Esther is certain she can remake her good for nothing, slacker of a son into a worthwhile and industrious member of society. Artie… well…

This story is dedicated to Cyclist for the profound and astounding story ‘Sweat and Tears’. Thank you also to Bailey Summers for Beta reading... Image is copyright SuperArtistbOy. All characters copyright 2011.

Esther came home from a hard day at the office to find her 19 year old son Artie, stoned on the couch, playing video games and surrounded by junk food wrappers and trash. She started to fume.

“Did you go to school today Artie?” she asked fully knowing the answer. The boy shook his head. Esther gritted her teeth and bit back on her anger.

“What did you do then son?” she asked a little more forcefully, demanding his attention. Artie looked at her quizzically from under his VR headset.

“Uh… I got up at noon, skated down to Game Stop, got a copy of Call of Duty 8, came home and blazed, then played multiplayer till now… when’s dinner?” he looked expectant.

Esther bit her tongue.

“Artie… oh damn!” she stormed back out of the house. Artie looked blankly at the door.
“What about dinner?” he asked no one in particular and went back to his game.

Esther sat alone at a small table in the bar where she had gone to have a drink and try to regain her composure. Artie had developed the ability to make her so angry without him doing anything at all. She thought back to the young boy Artie had been, so clever and polite and smart… he had been a genius. Then he became a teenager and everything had changed, her neat, tidy, clean boy had turned, almost overnight into the greasy, smelly, hairy, pot smoking… Slacker that was on her couch right now...

He had so much potential, but now he didn’t even care whether he had a job or an education or anything… And so much of it was her fault, Esther thought, ‘I coddled him and didn’t ask anything of him after his father died. I wish I could give him a second chance.’ She sat up straight in her chair, eyes bright with inspiration and alcohol.
‘A second chance!’ she smiled to herself and exited the bar to go to her place of business.

Esther was by no stretch of the imagination poor, her departed husband had left her his biomedical company and she had built it up to a near multinational in the years since. She may not have had her late husband’s genius in the lab, but her business skills were second to none. Tonight’s visit however, had nothing to do with spreadsheets and mergers, but a visit to one of the R&D labs. Esther had been following this project with interest, because if successful, not only would it ease a lot of mental and physical suffering, but make a fantastic profit for the company as well.

Human trials had just been approved by the FDA and were scheduled to begin shortly, so Esther felt well within her rights to begin them a little earlier and closer to home. She went to the medicine refrigeration cabinet and entered her code into the locking mechanism. She took an injector and the dose module and closed the cabinet. Smiling at her own cleverness, she turned out the lights and headed home.

Esther woke with a mild hangover and hazy memories of the previous night. She heard snoring coming from the next room. ‘Good, now I can give my child the second chance he... she deserves.’ She thought happily. From what Esther had read about the research, she could give the subject the treatment and it would start really taking effect in 24 hours or so… Perfect!

She walked into Artie’s room and pressed the injector into his forearm with a mild hiss. The boy didn’t even move.

It was just shy of noon when Artie rolled out of bed and into the kitchen. Esther noted with some disgust that he was wearing the same clothes he had been wearing for the last three days, but she still forced herself to be cheerful and pleasant.

“Sleep well Artie?” she asked with a smile. He blinked bloodshot eyes at her and grunted something that may have been English. Esther tightened her smile and pretended concern.

“Oh I hope you are ok sweetheart, maybe you need to get out of the house and be with your friends for a bit.” She opened her purse and took out a small wad of bills, “here, go to the beach or the movies or something darling, have some fun.” Artie brushed his greasy long hair from in front of his eyes and looked at his mother like she had two heads.

Uh… ok,” he mumbled through his cottonmouth, “if you’re sure it’s ok.” He took the money and shuffled out the front door. Esther waited till he was out of sight and called the number she had written down by the phone.

Esther had been very industrious that day, having boxes of Artie’s clothing and possessions boxed up and removed, getting painters to finish quickly and generally giving Artie’s rooms a total makeover. It was almost a pity when Artie stumbled up to bed, too wasted to notice that anything had changed at all. He shed his outer layer of clothing and collapsed onto the bed in his boxers.

Sometime around two am, the drug that his mother had injected him with started to take effect. First on his skeletal structure it narrowed his shoulders, widened his pelvis, and softened his jaw line and brow. His ribcage shrank as well giving his frame an overall slender look.

When his mother looked in at 8 am, the process was starting on his soft tissues and muscles; she quietly picked up his filthy boy clothes and closed the door on her soon to be daughter. Over the next twelve hours, Artie’s internal organs shifted and made space for her new internal reproductive tract, prostrate to uterus, testes to ovaries, penis to clitoris, and scrotum to labia. Artie’s body envaginated between her legs and completed the process, finally, adipose tissues formed beneath the skin, smoothing her new curves and gathering at the breasts and buttocks.

The little hair Artie had once had on her face and body became finer and very blond, the few coarse whiskers falling out. The hair on her head remained the same, its changes taking place at the roots. To look at her, you would think that she had been born female with only the greasy hair and stale body odor to give lie to the illusion. The changes to the body were nearing completion, with only a few trillion chromosomes to still change from Y to X. Artie slept on, neither knowing or caring about her incredible metamorphosis…

Esther checked in on her daughter around ten pm and was thrilled to see that her plan was working. She went happily to bed, to dream of the new wonderful life ahead for them both. Bright and early at eight am, Esther went to wake her daughter.

“Wake up sweetheart!” she greeted the sleeping form, “it’s a bright new beautiful day!” she got a face full of dirty boxer shorts in as a reward. She went over and shook the girl softly.

“Fuck off, leave me alone.” The sleeping figure buried her face in the pillows. Esther’s smile faded a bit but she remained positive.

“Alright darling, breakfast will be ready soon.” She left the room and closed the door.

Artie slept another two hours before dragging herself out of bed. She sat down on the toilet and just went, cleaning herself in a desultory manner after. She grabbed the robe on the back of the door, never noticing that it was a peach coloured silk creation and went into her room… she pried up the floorboards on the left side of her bed and got her stash. Artie quickly rolled and lit her first joint of the day.

“Oh yeah!” she croaked, “Wake and bake,” and wandered downstairs to the kitchen. Esther looked up from her coffee and newspaper, at first with interest, then dismay as she saw her wonderful new daughter stumble down the staircase, naked except for a silk robe that was untied and covering nothing. Her jaw dropped.

“‘Sup?” Artie grunted and made a beeline for the coffee maker, “why’re you home?” she took a big slug of the coffee from the mug she had poured. Esther struggled to regain her composure.

“I…uh…I thought we might spend some time together,” she stammered a little at first, “we haven’t done that for a while, you know go to the mall, have dinner, see a film?” sea blue eyes peered at Esther through a curtain of thick black hair.

“Huh… weird.” another grunt, “Are you dying?” Artie asked. Esther snapped head around in shock.

“No! Why would you think that?!” she huffed. Artie nodded slowly.

“Am I?” Artie blinked, “cause I feel really weird.” Esther’s brain reeled, could Artie not have noticed?

She stood up and guided Artie to a chair. “Weird how dear, like the flu weird?” She sat down again. Artie just sorta waved her hands around to indicate everywhere.

“No… I feel sorta off, all over…” Esther took Artie’s hand and held it to Artie’s face. The girl’s eyes widened.

“What’s wrong with me?” Artie whispered, “what the hell kind of flu does this?” she felt her face and body. “No frackking way, I’m a girl? Why am I a girl?” her hands continued to explore.

“Ohhhhh wow!” she giggled, “ohhhhh Fuck yeah!” Esther grabbed Artie’s hands before the girl could continue her explorations.

“Enough of that please.” Esther glared, “this wasn’t flu… I did this to you… to give you a second chance. Now you can live up to your potential!” Artie blinked, and then shrugged.

“Whatever dude… my friends always said you were making me into a pussy…guess they were right.” She shrugged again, stood and walked upstairs. Esther jumped up from her chair.

“But what about your second chance?” she sputtered. The girl on the stairs paused and shrugged.

Artie walked back up the stairs to her room and looked at what had been done to it. It was vomit inducing, all pinks and purples and a canopy bed? ‘WTF does she think, that I’m not nineteen?’ Artie sat on the bed to think, she was furious with her mother, but she wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of going along with this ‘second chance’ plan of her mother’s.

‘What prompted this anyways?’ Artie thought, ‘After dad died, she was so busy with that company of hers, she never gave me a second thought. She would just toss money at me and expected me to raise myself… Shit! She thinks this is good parenting? She didn’t like who I was so start over? If I wasn’t baked, I’d be furious!’ she giggled and was startled by the sound of her voice.

“Whoa! Trippy!” she giggled again, then frowned. ‘Good thing mom did just toss money at me, cause I’m gonna need some.’ She thought as she walked to her closet praying that Elise hadn’t looked too closely at the room when the fast forward renovation had happened. Artie crawled into the back of the closet and felt around till she found the wing nuts holding her ‘vault’ closed. To anyone looking at the bottom of the closet, it looked like a cold air return; Artie had turned it into a place to store things she didn’t want anyone (mother) to find. In fact Artie had bolt holes all over the house from the attic to the basement.

This one though, she kept money in. Contrary to her mother’s beliefs, Artie was still very smart and thrifty as well. At best guess, in the past seven years since her father died, his mother had given him in excess of fifteen thousand dollars. Artie had indulged in some day trading and managed to turn that over into about seventy five thousand dollars, give or take. Dumb stoner, huh?

She grabbed three thousand from the lockbox and re-sealed her hiding place. Now, as Artie expected, all her regular clothes were missing: replaced by this girly shit. ‘Dresses? Sheyeah, right…’ she thought scornfully, grabbing a pair of Capris, ‘now these denim things have possibilities though, almost board shorts.’ There was a knock at her bedroom door which she patiently ignored, ‘Now, something to cover up these… things and a couple of large shirts.’ She padded quietly to the fancy dresser and started tossing its contents across the room. She held up something that looked like jockey shorts without a fly and pulled them on. Two tight tee-shirts later and Artie felt reasonably covered.

Scissors were where she expected, in her desk, ‘mom really didn’t think this one through’ Artie sighed as she sat on the edge of the bed and started to cut the denims down to just below knee level. Artie paused for a moment and lit a roached joint she had, taking two or three deep tokes. She would have to lay in a couple of ounces of a good strong sativa just to keep her cool, even though she felt like bawling, ‘I won’t give her the satisfaction’ Artie thought savagely. With the shorts finished, she tried them on and looked in the mirror.

‘Gah! I look like a twinkie!’ she thought furiously for a moment, ‘The attic! There’s old stuff up there from back when… dad was still with us…’ she turned her thoughts away from that path and dragged her desk chair to the closet. There were two attic access hatches in the house, which could work out well for Artie, especially as the other access was in the guest bedroom across the hall… the guest bedroom where the big tree was nearest. Also, if her mom thought Artie was in her room, sneaking in and out would be a snap.

Her smile widened as she climbed up through the trap door in the ceiling, it was warm and bright with dust motes dancing in the sunlight of the front window. Artie had loved coming up here with her father when she was younger, errands to find photographs, Christmas ornaments, and old games. She shook her head and headed towards the boxes of clothing that was stored for reuse or recycling, but mostly her dad’s stuff that they couldn’t part with after he passed.

Artie dug through several boxes before she found a long sleeved tee, a hoodie and a flannel shirt… these would work. In another box a fanny pack and Score! Dad’s old RayBans! Shoes were gonna be a problem though. She dug around in the boxes for a bit before she found some small navy blue deck shoes that looked like they might fit. Artie headed to the other trap door when she stopped in her tracks, ‘Argh! My boards… mom will have gotten rid of them by now… SHIT!’ she looked around, where was it; it had to be here… and ‘Yes! In the corner by my first bike, now I’m glad mom was all nostalgic about saving stuff!’ she grinned happily as she dug out her first skateboard and headed down the trapdoor into the guest bedroom.

Finally dressed now, Artie took a look in the mirror. With the hood up and the RayBans, she almost looked like a skinny guy. She checked her waist pouch and made sure her money and stash was secure before zipping it closed. Last thing she checked was the board, the trucks had flex and play, but the bearings were nearly seized…Damn! Where could she find some oil… the garage was out so it was the 7-11 around the corner or nothing.

Artie unlocked the window and slid the sash quietly up, grabbing her board; she slipped out the window onto a large bough and gently slid the window closed. She almost lost her footing as he balance seemed to be off. Artie snorted quietly to herself and worked her way down the tree to the ground. As soon as she was sure she had not been seen, Artie bolted around the hedge and down the street as fast as her now shorter stride would take her.

Inside the house, Esther was starting to worry about the lack of sound coming from her new daughter’s room. Artie’s reaction to her second chance had been less then promising, she had barely acknowledged the changes to her body and had acted like it didn’t even matter that Esther had gone through such an effort to make Artie’s life better. The more Esther thought about it, the more irritated she got with her child, ‘rude girl, coming down here dressed like that and touching herself and was she stoned again?’ she fumed and stormed up the stairs to Artie’s room.

She tried the door but found it locked, well no worry, she had a key and wasn’t afraid to use it, especially today. Esther unlocked the door and pushed it open only to find sheer chaos, the drawers in the dresser were all pulled out and clothing was strewn everywhere. The closet was disarrayed and there was evidence of clothing being cut on the bed. The one thing that wasn’t there was her daughter, but how? There was no way she could have slipped out of a locked room, and it was a two story drop from her window…

“How did that little stoner manage this?” she wondered aloud.

Artie was less than a block away from the house, sitting on a parking curb, oiling the wheels of the ancient skateboard with the bottle of 3 in 1 she had bought from the 7-11. She lit up a smoke from the pack she had bought from the non-attentive clerk in the store, ‘what the hell,’ she thought, ‘new lungs came with the package’. She coughed a bit and worked till the wheels spun like new. Placing the 3 in 1 into her pouch, she tested out the board. It rolled beautifully but she found her balance still to be a bit weird, she shrugged to herself and headed out of the burbs towards the nearest oasis of civilization, Fairview Mall.

Artie rolled up to the glass doors and popped the tail of the board, catching the front truck smoothly with her right hand. This caught the attention of some of the mallrats hanging and thrashing on the low steps. Artie looked at them and flipped her cigarette towards the parking lot.

“‘Sup?” she grunted, keeping her voice low, “good gear here?” she added nodding towards the mall. The leader looked Artie up and down and gave a half nod.

“West 49th, Source, Wet Seal and a GAP, like if that’s what you wanted?” he half asked. Artie grunted her thanks and went in.

She stowed her board in a locker because rent a cops got all sticky about boards in the mall. She sighed; one of the stores was a girl’s store, so the Skater had seen through her disguise. She decided to start at the GAP and have one of the sales twinkies help her with some underwear that wasn’t all froofy shit like her mom had bought, but first… Timmies!

Extra large 3x3 in hand, Artie braved the ladies section of the GAP feeling totally out of place when a blond girl around her age snuck up with a cheerful “Hi! Can I help you miss?” Artie blushed but was determined.

“Um, I need some underwear and like junk,” she stammered, “stupid airline lost all my stuff…” Artie trailed off. The clerk pouted.

“Oh you poor dear, do you have your sizes?” she consoled Artie insincerely. Artie thought furiously.

“Well no, I’ve been in training for BoardStock and I've lost weight, so I want to be sure I have good sports underwear for the competition.” The saleswoman arched her eyebrow.

“I… see, and you want to try these on in the store.” The clerk became somewhat less than friendly, “Perhaps you could come back later this evening…?” Artie blushed brightly but fought down her embarrassment and flaring anger.

“What sweetheart?” she smiled savagely, “after I check into my hotel, after a shower perhaps? I am well aware that I am not fresh as a daisy. Not that I have to explain anything to you, but I have been training for a sports competition, I was on a long flight and I have no clean clothing.” Artie looked the blond girl directly in the eye, “Now get your manager and you can explain to him or her why you are willing to let a large sale walk out the door and why you don’t seem to want your commission on that sale. I’ll wait right here.”

The clerk almost ran to the office door across the store. ‘Damn, the last thing I wanted was attention.’ Artie thought angrily. The clerk returned with a twenty something woman in tow, Artie took about five hundred dollars in fifties and twenties out of her pouch and started counting it casually. The manager slowed and walked toward Artie, regaining her composure.

“Good afternoon Miss?” The manager, Elizabeth by her name-tag, began, “is there a problem I can assist you with?” Artie smiled inwardly.

“Well, before you send your spun candy clerk back to her job of being a decoration,” she snapped, “you might want to teach her not to assume anything about a potential customer. And then Elizabeth, you can find me a saleswoman who understands that all customers are potential commissions and would like to share some of my money. Preferably someone who is an athlete herself, please and thank you.” The manager eyed the cash and shooed the blond towards the cash registers.

“Of course Miss,” Elizabeth used her most soothing tones, “I think Sonya is available to assist you…” she flagged a merchandiser over, “if there are any other problems, please don’t hesitate to ask me for help. Ahh Sonya, if you could assist this customer?”

Elizabeth strode off to the safety of her office as Artie turned to look at the newcomer. Sonya was no twinkie that was for sure. The tattoo sleeve on her right arm was easy proof of that. Standing around 5’8”, she looked out of place in the GAP standard issue sales clothing. Her raven hair was tipped with an almost white blond and pulled back tightly into a bun atop her head. She had eyes the colour of sun cured bud and they danced with amusement at the scene she had just witnessed. Artie would have had a raging hard on if she had seen this girl three days ago, as it was; she had a strange warmth in her belly. Sonya extended her hand.

“Way to put Barbie girl in her place Miss,” Sonya grinned crookedly, “How can I separate you painless from your money?”