Synopsis: Sometimes you find yourself saying the wrong thing, at the wrong time for the wrong reason. Sometimes you aren't the only one.

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane

Chapter Ten
The Wrong Things to Say

---

Cindy was driving her sporty little Mazda with Terri in the passenger seat with Allyssa and Lexi sitting in the back. They were casually moving down one of the winding roads that marked one of the more affluent sections of town. Houses were constructed along the slopes of the small valleys that had once sheltered a golf course that had long since gone out of business.

As they passed along the trees, Terri could still make out where old sections of the course used to be. Overgrown with tall grass and weeds, they were still visible all the same.

Allyssa broke the silence. "So, can I ask a question? You father is a head shrinker, but how come you aren't sitting in his chair right now? You must be a case study in and of yourself. Being intelligent and getting A's but acting like a total brainless idiot in public."

"Daddy is quite aware of it, in fact he approved of my charade. We were planning on basing my college study thesis on this."

"Oh boy, I don't know what's worse. That Cindy thinks I need to see a shrink," said Terri.

"Or that she should hardly be in a position to recommend one." added Lexi.

"Exactly." Terri and Allyssa both said, nearly in unison.

"Seriously though." Cindy quipped. "My father and I are both quite sane and this experiment has succeeded far beyond either of our expectations. It's surprising how easily that teachers glaze over me in class because they expect me to answer like a dumb blonde, yet praise me for getting straight A's in class."

"You mean they don't notice the contrast?" Terri asked.

"On the contrary, during every parent teacher conference since sophomore year, dad has to stifle laughter as almost every teacher brings up concern about not being confident enough to participate in class, when I report on the number of times I raise my hand to answer a question, yet I don't get picked."

"Creepy." commented Allyssa.

"Intriguing." Lexi mumbled.

---

"Alright, Cindy asked for me to speak with you, and I accepted because you are one of her friends. I normally won't see relatives or people I know, as a rule, but I will give you the benefit of a consultation. If I feel it prudent, then I will be happy to recommend a colleague." Cindy's Father stated from his desk, as Terri settled onto the couch in his den.

The girls were touring the rest of the house, partly because Cindy wanted to show it off and mostly to give her father and Terri some time alone.

"I'm all a flutter," replied Terri. "That was so inspiring."

"Cindy says you were having a school problem, lets start there."

"Alright." said Terri. "Now this is only going to work if I am perfectly honest, right?"

"Yes, that's correct. You will slow down the process if you lie or omit anything that is bothering you."

"Fine." said Terri. "On the Friday before last, I found out that I am a witch. I can cast magic spells if I wanted to.

"A witch. I see. Keep going."

"But, it's not as simple as that." Terri continued. "To find out that I was a witch, I had to set off a trap spell that changed me from a man to a woman, changed all my clothes into female attire, and put a spell on anyone that knows me, including my parents and everyone at school. Since Friday, I have been forced to attend classes looking like this."

At this, Cindy's father looked up and stopped jotting his notepad. Getting his attention seemed to be Terri's intention all along, as she was now propped on her elbow on the arm of the couch, her legs stretched out until they nearly touched the other arm. She had the most satisfactory smirk on her face.

"You don't believe me don't you?" Terri said, verbally recounting her observation.

"It is a little hard to... believe." Cindy father was suddenly hesitating, mostly because he had noticed a change in his own speech patterns.

Anxiously looking down at himself, his fears came to fruition, along with something he hadn't counted on.

Terri still did not make any move as Cindy's father, now just as female as she was, stood up and moved to a large antique looking floor mirror that he sometimes used as part of therapy.

'She' was wearing a replica of a playboy bunny outfit, complete with the satin ears, corset bodice and cuffs hanging onto her wrists. Black pantyhose drifted down slender legs into, quite opposite of the norm, bunny slippers.

After a few moments of looking herself over, she whirled to face Terry, who was now in his gratuitous male form, sitting up on the couch, but leaning backward, arms crossing his chest, the grin never having left his face.

"I... I... don't believe..." said Cindy's Father.

"Now now Doc, please don't say that again. You can't tell me that you can't believe, not when looking at yourself in a mirror like that."

There was a few seconds of pause before Terri remarked, "I know, it must be the outfit. I'll fix that."

Cindy's father turned to face the mirror again, just in time to watch her current risqué attire bleeding off into thin air. She was now standing completely naked.

She found herself unable of say anything as she stared at herself. She found herself quite attractive, and judging by her features, Terri had made her younger than his fifty-one years.

She decided it would be prudent to 'Test' certain attributes. A hand cupped one breast, lifted it gently then both hands went toward her nipples.

Terry was sitting there, having closed his eyes firmly and snickering to himself. He finally could not hold in the smarmy response.

"As much as I'd love to watch a pretty naked woman play with herself in front of a mirror, I could do it myself in my own bedroom. Have you finally let go of your skepticism, or should I go further?

"No, no, I believe! I Believe." She cried out. "This is amazing."

She strolled over to Terri, and stood right in front of her. "This is incredible."

"You are taking it much better than I did last Friday when the same thing happened to me."

The excited look on her face disappeared as Terry's word registered. "I see, well if you would like to fix this, we'll talk about it."

Terry nodded, his own body almost deflating back into a female one.

Cindy's father looked down, to find she was now wearing the attire she had started with, but that she still possessed breasts.

"Uhm, this isn't quite what I meant."

"I knew exactly what you meant, but I thought this would at least level the playing field. Make you about as comfortable as I was when you gave me that cold bit just as I was sitting down."

"Touché." Cindy's father said. "Okay, this has gone well beyond being able to just refer you on. You've demonstrated something that forces me to now keep your secret."

"You just want to experiment with this new body."

Cindy's father contemplated this for a few moments, her head bobbing back and forth, weighing the pros and cons.

"From a professional standpoint, there may be some truth to your 'Experiment' accusation. But seriously, now that I can accept what you said before, it makes what you said just a few moments ago so ominous. What happened last Friday exactly?"

"Well, it all began..."

---

Two hours has passed since Terri and Cindy's father had been left alone to talk.

Cindy and Allyssa had left Lexi to play with her dollhouse, which despite her intelligence, the hand-made elevator that Cindy's grandfather had added was fascinating her.

They tiptoed up to the den door, hoping to prop their ears on the walnut door, but they found it was ajar slightly and the room empty of people.

Allyssa motioned that she heard Terri's voice coming from the kitchen and both decided to stroll in.

There they found Terri sitting on one of the tall stools around the island and Cindy's father, still female, trying to impart wisdom with a mouthful of cake.

"Nahh, tehh loss fuu dahs haff...(gulp) sorry, now the last few days have actually been rather calm, right?"

"Right. In fact, at this point, I think I am confident enough that I could make it through the rest of the year looking like this."

"Terri! What did you do to Daddy?" Cindy cried out as she saw what happened.

"Calm down hon. We had a minor disagreement, but it's fine now."

Cindy ran over and threw her arms around her currently female father.

"Hey, your dad refused to believe that I was male once. I had to prove it. For a moment it sounded like a southern revival."

"Praise the Lawd." Allyssa added in with a bad drawl and a smile.

Cindy's father was meekly sitting on her own stool, being crushed by her daughter's embrace. "Princess, would you mind letting go?
I'm not as structurally reinforced as before."

"Terry, you change Daddy back now." Cindy snapped across the table.

Terri looked at them for a moment, the smile leaving her face. "Would you like that with or without the impending heart attack?"

Cindy froze, and her father leaned forward, "What do you mean by that?"

"When I changed you earlier, I was crafting the spell in my head, when certain attributes of your body became known to me, as though I was already monkeying with you. You have an arterial blockage plus a bit of tar in your lungs. Want to see where I put them?"

Terri stood up and walked back toward the den, and picked up the wastebasket along side of the desk.

"Here, I can stand looking at that, since I've done it once already." she said, as she held it out for the group to witness.

In the bottom of the bin was a black gooey-looking lump the size of a softball with a smaller, pill-shaped white lump on top.

"Oh, that's gross." Cindy commented, then had to put her hand over her mouth and run off to find a place to vomit.

"Would it have killed me?" Asked Cindy’s father, looking at the semi-solid mass.

"No idea, but you are better off without it."

"Agreed." added Allyssa. "So are you going to stop smoking, or you want to grow another one of those fat wads in your chest?"

"You might have saved my life, I take it the white thing was the block?"

"You got it. Had I ignored it when you became a girl, it would have likely hit you a few moments later and then where would I be?"

"In much more trouble with Cindy than you are now." quipped Allyssa. "Terri here did you a favor. What's that worth to you?"

Cindy's father nodded. "Besides taking her on as a client, and possibly paying her, I would say I couldn’t think of much I could do to compete with that."

"So, when do we start?"

"Saturdays, every week. Does that sound fair? We'll do this here at my home as so to keep it off the books."

"Well, this ruins my weekends." Terri said with a pout.

"Nonsense, I think this could be good for you," said Allyssa. "It might make you less likely to start transfiguring people on a whim."

Terri was about to answer when they were interrupted by a voice coming from the end of the hallway.

"Hello... Honey? Cindy? I'm home!" came the call of Cindy's mother as she stepped into the hallway. She heard whispered voices from the kitchen and headed toward them.

Cindy's father swallowed hard, she was standing in the kitchen, where the island was a mess, the remains of a sheet cake left out as well as three plates with the half-eaten confectionery on them.

Not to mention he was still a she.

Cindy's mother came round the corner and gasped. "Marshall!"
She exclaimed.

Cindy's father's eyes were tensely closed expecting a scream, when her outburst caused his eyes to open.

"You did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen! How sweet." Cindy's mother announced as though he was the winner of Olympic gold.

He turned around to discover that the entire mess, including the cake, plates and every surface clean down to every single crumb.

All the dishes that had been in the sink were clean and dry in the rack to the side. The cake was back under its lid and all the stools around the island were tucked away, nice and neat.

He looked down, relieved at his renewed male appearance.

Cindy was being held captive, a hand over her mouth on the other side of the far door by Allyssa and Terri.

"Don't get bent out of shape." said Allyssa. "Terri fixed her mess and cleaned up the kitchen with a simple twitch of her nose. Now, lets make ourselves scarce."

Cindy nodded and they let her go, and she motioned for them to follow her outside to the back yard.

After reaching the fresh air, Cindy spun on her heels and got right into Terri's face.

"Did you really change Daddy back?"

"Well, I did do the unclothed parts first, but before we left, I assure you he was fully male."

"Don't you dare do something like that again!"

"You worried for your father, or are you scared I might do something to you?"

"Me, I am worried about me. I do NOT want to find myself with a penis, EVER. Do you understand me."

"Whoa, calm down there. How come that frightens you?" Allyssa asked.

"Because," said Cindy. "Terri might want revenge on me for the way I treated him!"

There were a few moments of silence, before Marshall interrupted from where he had been listening in at the door.

"So now it all comes together. It's why Cindy has such a strange attachment toward you. It's all starting to make sense."

"Daddy!" squealed Cindy. "Stop analyzing me!"

"You have never done a hurtful thing in your life, except that one time. Do you know, Terri, that she felt miserable about it for weeks afterward."

"I hardly noticed," said Terri sarcastically. "She did an excellent makeup job covering up her tears, at least so I noticed after I was able to return to school."

Cindy's face suddenly changed to one of remorse. She was looking away from Terri, trying to hide her shame.

Terri shook her head. "I promise, I wouldn't do that to you."

"Do you want to?" asked Cindy. "You can tell me the truth. You want to wait until I'm in the middle of a crowd, so you can cause the most amount of embarrassment."

Cindy turned around to face Terri, and noticed everyone staring at her, along with her father motioning her to stop.

"No," Terri replied solemnly. "A week isn't enough time to forget how I felt all last weekend. I would never put someone else through that."

"Whoo boy, you screwed that up." Allyssa remarked. "You could have just beaten on her like the last time. She'd probably not feel as bad than she does now. What's your problem, oh wait I get it now. You are just being nice, hoping she would retaliate!"

"No, it's not that at all!" Cindy screamed back, only to realize she was changing into a man. Not a strong, able man, but a frail, weak, sickly looking twelve-year old boy wearing his older sister's blouse and skirt.

Allyssa smiled. "I think you should stop worrying about what Terri might or most likely Won't do to you and instead focus on what I just DID!"

"Aaaaackkk! Change me back Now, Allyssa!"

"Make me, you lying windbag! I know the truth now. I suspected something from the start, but your self-centered motives make me sick." Allyssa seethed.

"From the moment you realized what happened to Terri, you've been doing nothing but trying to get on her good side." Allyssa nearly shouted. "You've seen how she acts; yet you worried about some kind of retaliation? You should have been more worried about her feelings and her sanity. This has been anything but easy for her and frankly I think she is taking it rather well."

"Well, maybe if she has popular friends, she won't turn out like you!" Cindy snapped back, his eyes in tears.

"You did NOT just say that." Allyssa responded, less as an accusation, but more as an acknowledgment.

Allyssa then turned and stomped off, leaving a shocked group of people in her dust.

"What did you mean by that Cindy?" Terri asked.

"Those two used to be best friends," replied Marshall. "It all changed on a single day."

Terri looked at Cindy and waved her finger about in the air, and Cindy became her usual self. "Thanks."

"I only did it so you'd pick up where your Dad left off." Terri announced.

"Well, it was tryout day for the cheer squad," Cindy said, as she adjusted her bra and then her skirt. "And she didn't make the team. It devastated her overnight and she started being all Emo and crap. She was a real downer to be with, so we drifted apart. Then she met Sam and Jen, and I guess that's how she learned magic."

"So, you thought you'd win an argument by pouring salt into an old, festering wound." Terri said, with a hint of displeasure in her voice.

"She started it, with the talk about worrying about you doing something to me." Cindy snapped back, defending herself.

"Well, are you?"

"Yeah, just a little. Less now than earlier, I swear." Cindy confessed.

"You know, it wasn’t Allyssa that brought it up. I did."

"I forgot, sorry. With all the shouting and accusations, plus her actually changing me, I got confused."

"Lets hope Allyssa will calm down and start talking to both of us again."

"Last time I opened my big mouth," said Cindy, "she avoided me for a month."

There was a brief silence as both girls thought very deeply.

"I hate to bring in such a tangent right now," interrupted Marshall. "But you never mentioned how you managed to have a child who looks nearly kindergarten age in just a week."

"Why does Everyone and their bloody dog think Lexi is mine today? She's not my daughter!" Terri nearly screamed.

---

Upstairs, Lexi momentarily paused in her inspection of the doll house's elevator controls, "Not yet anyway... Mom."