Here's the next set of three chapters. If I leave you with a cliffhanger, I hope you don't mind.

~o~O~o~

1.

“So,” Steve said, taking hold of my hand. Why was he holding my hand and why was I letting him? “What do we do now?”

I shook my head. “I don’t get it.”

He grabbed my other hand now. Were we about to do the Ring Around the Rosie thing? I didn’t want to do that. “Amanda, c’mon, we’re just sitting around.” No, we’re not. We’re clearly standing.

“So what?”

He let go of my hands and grabbed me by the shoulders. “C’mon! We never do anything fun anymore.”

“We do plenty of stuff.”

“Not really.”

Why was he making a big deal out of this?

“We do lots of stuff!”

“We haven’t really hung out since you finished changing. You barely talk to me anymore.”

I looked away from him. He wasn’t right, was he? Was there even a chance that he was right? No. No, there wasn’t. Steve was my best friend, and I’ve clearly hung out with him more than a few times since…

2.

I sat upright and started coughing. What the hell?! What was with that dream? What caused me to dream that?

I scratched my itchy chest again. It was mild irritation, but it was constant. What the hell caused that? I sighed. Itchy chest, weird dreams, were these signs of that curse, or just me being freaked?

I stood up and grabbed a shirt. I slipped my arms through the sleeves, then pulled the shirt down over my head. As it brushed against my chest, I felt something odd, but I couldn’t quite place what it was. I glanced at myself in my mirror and realized that nothing looked any different than it had yesterday. Great. Either I’m going nuts, or these changes are going to happen so slowly that I don’t notice them.

As I kept looking at my reflection, I could have sworn my hair was a little longer. I didn’t really have short hair, but I didn’t remember it completely covering my ears. Had it? Dammit… I’m going nuts again.

I sat at my desk and just stared out the window for a minute. What was I going to do with my Sunday? I didn’t really have anything to do. Sunday was a lazy day for me, always had been.

There was a knock on my door. “Come in, Melanie,” I said. It was obvious who it was. She opened the door and tossed me a pair of pants. “What’s this for?”

“Put those on.”

“Why?”

“I’m curious.”

I looked the pants over. “These are your pants.”

“And you’re going to put them on, this isn’t rocket science.”

“Why?”

“Suppose you’re turning into a girl slowly, then at some point soon, you should be able to fit in those pants.”

“Why soon?”

“Because you only have five days before you’re officially supposed to be a girl.”

I sighed. Why was I even entertaining this idea? I slipped my legs into the pants and then struggled, only a little, to get them over my hips. I tried zipping them up, but that was futile, and the button was nothing but a lost cause. “There, you happy?” I asked, certain I looked like an idiot.

Much to my surprise, there was a look of shock on her face. “You… uh… shouldn’t have been able to get that far.”

“Why?”

“Remember my old boyfriend, Billy? He was smaller than you, and he couldn’t get my pants on that far.”

The only question that ran through my mind was, “Why was Billy wearing your pants?”

She rubbed at her arm. “Well… He kinda liked to wear my clothes...“ She shook her head. “That’s not important, what’s important is that you’re smaller now than you used to be.”

I looked at myself in the mirror again, but I couldn’t see anything. I didn’t look any smaller, I didn’t feel any smaller, but the pants barely looked out of place on me, aside from not being zipped or buttoned. Was Melanie right? Come to think of it, my shirt seemed a little bigger than it used to be, now.

I rapidly stripped the pants off and tossed them back to Melanie. “Get these pants away from me,” I said, and even I could hear the fear in my voice.

She folded them up and came closer to me. “Your hair’s different,” she said, reaching out and touching it. I jerked back. “It’s okay, jeez. It’s just a little longer, is all. That’s not something to worry about, right?”

I threw my arms up. “I don’t know! Has it ever been noticeably longer before?”

She shook her head. “Not really.”

I collapsed into my chair. “Great. So, what, I’m turning slowly?”

She sighed, then sat down on my bed. “I dunno, little bro. I think it’s time we called Mom and Dad.”

I shook my head. “No. We wait this out, and if I’m more girl than guy on Tuesday, we call them then. I don’t want to rob them of their second honeymoon just because I’m turning into a girl.”

3.

She didn’t look happy, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t calling Mom and Dad. How would they even react? Would Mom be happy to have another daughter to poke and prod and dress up? Would Dad be sad that he was losing his one and only son? Now that I thought about it, would Melanie be happy that she had a little sister? Would both her and Mom be happy that there was only one person left to leave the seat up?

I slumped in my chair. “Mel…”

“Yeah?”

“How do you feel with all of this?”

“Whaddya mean?”

“How are you gonna feel when Mom starts mixing your panties and mine up when she does the laundry?”

She looked away from me for a second, then looked back at me. “Well, I dunno. You’re not the worst brother out there, and I don’t mind you the way you are. I can’t say it won’t be nice having a sister, but I don’t really want to lose you.” She put on a nervous smirk. “Plus, it’s gonna be tough teaching you all the new feminine stuff you’re going to have to learn.”

I don’t think she meant for that to be frightening, but the idea of what I’d have to put up with scared me. Even if I were to be a simple girl like Melanie, she still woke up about an hour before school started to get ready, and she didn’t wear much make-up or even outrageously fancy clothes. It just seemed to be something girls did, no matter what. And what if I had periods? Could I have periods? How would I deal with that?

“What?” she asked. “What is it?”

“All that new feminine stuff I’m gonna havta learn, that’s what.”

The smirk came back, this time far less nervous. “Oh. Hey, it’s not that hard. A little bit of fashion knowledge and use a tampon every month, it’s not as hard to deal with as guys think it is.”

I raised an eyebrow. “It’s not?”

She shook her head. “No. Probably the worst part for you will be shaving your legs.”

I looked at my legs. Even that probably wouldn’t be as hard as she thought it would be. I didn’t exactly grow a lot of hair. Then again, I’ve never shaved my legs. Maybe it would be the biggest pain in the ass in my life.

“And your armpits.”

“Wha?”

“What? Girls shave their armpits, because guys think it’s disgusting for girls to have pit hair. You trying to tell me you’ve never noticed?”

I shrugged. “I’ve never paid that much attention to a girl’s armpits before.”

“You’ve never seen me do it?”

“Not really.”

“I do.”

“And I’ll have to?”

“Well, if you want a boyfriend who’s not from Europe.”

Why was the idea of having a boyfriend not the most disturbing thing I’d heard all day?

4.

“What are we doing here?” Steve asked. “And why are you wearing your sister’s pants?”

“They fit better than mine do,” I answered. “And we’re here to see how people react to… well… me.”

He looked around at everyone, which wasn’t hard, considering how packed the gym was. Neither he nor I were regular attendees at a school basketball game, but this was the last one of the year, and it would be a less cliched public place to be in than the mall.

“What are they supposed to see? A kinda skinny guy wearing girl pants? That’s not exactly uncommon, y’know.”

I rolled my eyes. “Are you telling me that you can’t tell that I look a little different? Melanie and I could.”

“Like I said. Kinda skinny. You don’t look that much different.”

“But I look different.”

“I still recognized you when I spotted you outside, remember?”

He had a point. We hadn’t even tried to meet up, I was coming to the basketball game all by myself. He’d just been outside walking his dog. It was one of exactly three times he’d said he was happy to live half a block away from the school. I’d simply asked him to come because I really didn’t want to be seen at a basketball game alone.

The seats weren’t that great, but we had a decent view of the court. The opposing team came out first, much to the boos of one side of the gym and the cheers of the other. After that, our team came out, which incited cheers from our side of the gym and boos from the other.

It was then that I saw him. Dean Garnet, the very reason I was in this situation. He didn’t look like he was suffering from any punishment. I sat back in my seat and sighed. Dammit. If it weren’t for him and then Steve, I’d still be male on Friday. Hell, I wouldn’t be changing today.

It was about thirty minutes into the game that I saw something. The ball was passed to Dean, he made it to the shot line, tried for his shot - and the throw came up wrong. He was shooting like a girl. And he was shooting like a girl who’s never played basketball before.

“Do you see that?” I asked Steve, pointing to Dean.

“Yeah. Jock’s off his A-Game tonight.”

“Steve, what if that’s his punishment?”

“To suck at basketball? Not really much of a punishment considering you havta turn into a girl. Why would the punishments be so completely different? Especially since I don’t even know what mine is yet?”

I shrugged. “I dunno, but Dean’s a billion times better than this all the time. I find it hard to believe that tonight, two days after we were cursed, he suddenly has a random bad day.”

The entire game, Dean’s shots came up short, he was suddenly the weakest link in the team as opposed to his usual role as the team point winner. I even saw Max Caulfield purposefully knock him down once. Max was his best friend, and now he was practically beating him to death.

Okay, so my punishment was turning into a girl, Dean’s was being humiliated at sports, what would Steve’s be?

~o~O~o~

1.

“So, how’d the basketball game go?” Melanie asked me when I got home.

I plopped down on the couch. “Well, our team won. Barely.”

“Whaddya mean?”

“Dean wasn’t playing all that well.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Dean? Dean the guy who’s house you broke into Dean?”

I nodded. “The very same. It was like he didn’t know how to play basketball. I could play better than he could, and I’m crappy at basketball.”

She scratched at her chin. “Did that sorceress say anything about Dean being punished?”

I nodded again. “She did, and I was thinking the same thing. I’m just confused about what’s going to happen to Steve.”

“If he was turning into a girl, we would have noticed it by now.” She sat down beside me. For some reason, she grabbed my arm and took a very close examination of my hand.

“What the hell?” I asked.

“I’m looking at your hand.”

“I can see that.”

“No, look at your hand.”

I pulled my hand away from her and took a good long look at it. There was something different about it, but I couldn’t place it. Was it my fingers? Was it my fingernails? What was it? “I don’t get it.”

She held her own hand out and put mine right up against it. “Look.”

That was creepy. Our hands looked identical. If somebody was looking at our hands, the only difference being that Melanie had painted fingernails.

2.

I sat on my bed and looked at my hands for awhile. It was weird how much they looked like Melanie’s. My nails looked a little different, but that was about it. When had that happened? Why hadn’t I noticed it before Melanie pointed it out?

I got up and grabbed my tablet, then returned to my bed. I tapped on the internet icon and stared at the Google homepage for awhile. What would I look up? I set the tablet back down on my night stand and laid down.

I felt myself drifting off to sleep, and the last thing that crossed my mind before sleep overtook me was how my fingernails would look with nail polish on them.

3.

“C’mon!” I said, trying to draw Steve’s attention. He wasn’t really talking to me. “You said you wanted to hang out more, so why are you the one who doesn’t want to hang out now?”

He shook his head. “I just… How is it gonna be fun sitting around watching you do your stuff?”

“‘Do my stuff’? What? That doesn’t even make sense.”

He sighed. “Y’know, like when you try on clothes or paint your nails, that sort of stuff. Girl stuff.”

Ugh! Really? “How often do I do ‘girl stuff’ around you? Huh? Last time we hung out, all we did was watch movies.” I plopped down on the couch beside him. I was happy I was wearing shorts. If I was wearing as skirt, I couldn’t just plop down. “Most of the time all we do is play video games. How has anything really changed?”

He looked away from me. “How can you say that? Everything has changed, and I think you’re the only one who doesn’t notice it.”

How could he say that? Of course I noticed what was changing, but how has our relationship changed?

“I… I’ve noticed,” I said, though my voice sounded weaker than I thought it should. “But… We’re still friends, right?”

He turned back to me and said, “Wake up, bro, Mom and Dad are on the phone.”

4.

I slowly opened my eyes and saw Melanie standing there holding the phone. I reached out, grabbed it, and then pulled the covers back up over my head. “Hello?”

Mom’s voice came over the phone. “Melanie, put your brother on the phone, seriously.”

What? What?! “What?!” I asked. I sat up and brushed my bangs away from my face. Wait, my bangs? I don’t have bangs. What the hell?

“I asked you to put Adam on the phone, remember?”

“Mom, this is Adam!”

“Sweetie, please, this got annoying when you two were little.”

Melanie grabbed the phone from my hands and pressed a button. “Mom, he’s not joking, that was Adam. I put us on speaker.”

Mom asked, “Adam? Honey? Say something.”

For some stupid reason, the only thing that popped into my head was: “Can you hear me now?” That was when I heard it. I didn’t exactly sound like Melanie, but I didn’t sound like a boy anymore.

“What’s going on? Why do you sound so strange?”

Melanie sighed. “I was gonna call you guys and tell you later. Adam’s kinda… Well… He’s…”

“He’s what?” Mom asked. “You’re what, Adam?”

I really didn’t want to answer that question. I knew I’d need to eventually, but that didn’t make this any easier. How do you tell your parents that you’re turning from boy to girl? How do you explain to them that a sorceress cursed you because you broke into a dumbass’s house to steal something back from him? How? How?

A part of my brain told me that this shouldn’t be hard at all. Tell the truth, that part of my brain told me. They’ll understand. Except that they won’t, obviously. The whole thing sounded so damned fantastical that if somebody really understood it, they should be committed to a nut house.

“Adam?” Mom asked again. Every time she asked, I wanted to hang up the phone, but I knew that’d scare her even more. Dammit, dammit, dammit!

“I’m… Turning into a girl, Mom.” Was that so hard? Was that so hard? Yes. Yes, it was. That was ridiculously painful. I felt like I’d just told her that I was dying. I almost felt like I was dying. Well, technically, I was. Male Adam was dying, so very slowly, while Female Amanda was just as slowly being born.

Except it didn’t feel like I was changing so slowly. I reached under my shirt and scratched at my itchy chest. That was when I felt a strange puffiness to my chest. Oh. Great. I knew what was coming next. What’s that one thing a boy notices about a girl? Every boy I came into contact with was now going to start noticing me.

Well, that’s not true. They weren’t big enough to even be noticed under my shirt. For at least a little while, I’d still be able to somewhat pass for a boy.

“What did you say?” Mom asked, bringing me out of my boob daze and back into the current situation.

“I said I’m turning into a girl, Mom. It’s… A whole weird story, but it’s happening. By Friday, I’m not gonna be Adam anymore.”

“Honey, that’s impossible.”

Melanie shook her head, like Mom could see her. “He’s not lying, Mom. He looks more like a girl than he does a boy, now.”

That wasn’t a good thing to hear. I was only three days into this curse and already I looked more female than male? Crap. How much more female would I get in the next four days? Or would I be done on day six? Crap, crap, crappity, crap, crap.

5.

“Does anyone else know about this?” Dad asked. I could hear the concern in his voice.

“Just Steve, since he was there.”

“The Garnet boy doesn’t know anything?”

“I dunno. I don’t think he’d try to play last night if did know about the curse.”

“Why didn’t you call straight away?”

I laughed. ‘Would you have really believed me? This doesn’t sound crazy to you?”

“I didn’t say that, kiddo, but you still should have told us.”

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see that. “I know. I was just… Scared.”

I hoped he would understand that. I’ve never seen my dad scared of anything, but I assumed he’d been scared of something before. Hell, maybe he was scared now. I didn’t know.

“Dad… What’s gonna happen to me?” I asked. My fear was asking the question, really.

He didn’t say anything at first, then, “I dunno, kiddo. I dunno.”

6.

I walked into Melanie’s room and sat down at her vanity. She wasn’t home, so she wouldn’t see me. Not that I cared, it would probably be a good thing if Melanie were here. She was taking this all very well, and I was pleased about that. I don’t know if I could stand teasing from her while I’m turning into a girl.

I looked at all the make-up she had just sitting around on her vanity. She didn’t have too much, but it looked like a lot to me. Mascara, eyeliner, eye shadow, blush, lipstick, four or five different shades of each. How did she keep track of all this?

I took a breath, then reached for one of the lipstick tubes. Why was I even considering this? Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid… I pulled the cap off and found a weird dark purple shade. Do girls really like weird colors like this on their lips? It looked goofy as hell to me. I took another breath and put the tube to my lips.

What was I doing? Why was I doing this? What if Melanie used this the last time she had the flu? I could be giving myself the flu. I’m an idiot. I drew the lipstick across my upper lip, then my lower lip, then put the cap back on the tube.

I puckered my lips and looked at myself in the mirror. I did a surprisingly adequate job, just a little mistake on my lower lip.

I took stock of my face for the first time in the last two days. Overall, I didn’t look too different. My eyes a little wider, my lips a little fuller (though that could have been because of the lipstick), I swear my cheeks were a little puffier. I reached up and touched the barrettes that Melanie had given me to clip my bangs back. That was the closest she’d come to making fun of me, but she’d apologized for it straight away. These are pink, but that shouldn’t bother you, too much, she’d said, sorry, bro… I didn’t mean it like that.

I sighed. Time to wash off the lipstick. I stood up and made my way for the door, then stopped. Melanie’s closet was right there, right beside the door. I sighed again. Yet another thing that I really shouldn’t be doing, but since I’d be wearing stuff like that soon enough…

I reached inside and grabbed a tank top and a pair of shorts that were easy to get to. I took off my own shorts and shirt and then my own morbid curiosity made me take my underwear off. I’d already promised to do the laundry today, Melanie wouldn’t get too mad, would she? I reached into her underwear drawer and laughed as loudly as I could. Right on top was the pair of panties that had been involved in the event that had caused this whole sad affair in the first place.

I pulled the panties out of the drawer and unfolded them. They were pink with an orange waistband. They looked so tiny, like they’d never fit any girl that ever wore them. Again, I asked myself why I was doing this. I sat down on the edge of Melanie’s bed, slipped one leg in one hole, and the other leg in the other hole, then pulled the panties up. After getting them over my hips, I took another breath and looked at myself in her wall mirror.

I started to sweat some. I didn’t look goofy at all. The bulge in the front of the panties wasn’t even that big. I’d never say I was the biggest guy around anyway, but I wasn’t that small before.

I put my shrunken “head” out of my mind and reached for the shorts. They were tighter than the jeans I’d worn the night before, but still not painful, or even awkward. Another look in the mirror, and I’d almost swear I was a girl from the waist down. What little hair I had on my legs didn’t even hinder the image.

I grabbed the shirt and pulled it down over my head. As the shirt touched my nipples, I felt something… Odd. Was this feeling just the shirt rubbing against my nipples? I pulled the shirt back off and looked at my chest in the mirror. Were my nipples a little more puffy? I looked down and saw, for the first time, the slight curve of my breasts. They were actually starting to pop out, as opposed to how they were even this morning.

The reality of the situation was hitting me hard, now. I couldn’t wear any of Melanie’s shirts with my nipples - no, let’s just say it, my breasts - this sensitive, and wearing one of my own shirts would be completely against what this little curiosity experiment was all about. I knew exactly what I’d need to do, and the idea of it was embarrassing. Almost as embarrassing as I knew it would eventually be to go into a store and get the measuring done. I pulled open the drawer underneath Melanie’s panty drawer and found them. Something compelled me to actually try and match tops to bottoms, so I found the bra that went with the panties I was wearing.

Dammit, this was awkward. Not trying to put one on, just the idea that I would need to put one on. I slipped my arms through the straps and struggled to reach behind me and get the hooks together in the back. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to do it after a little trial and error. Then I adjusted it on my chest, made it feel a little more comfortable. Yet another look in the mirror and the image of me wearing a bra and girl shorts was just creepy. I pulled the tank top on yet again and the image was complete.

Amanda didn’t actually look too out of place. Really, she looked very natural, very real.

I sat down on Melanie’s bed, my eyes never leaving that reflection. I wasn’t even Adam anymore, was I?

~o~O~o~

1.

The doorbell rang, pulling me out of my horrified daze. Oh, for God’s sake, was Steve here? He really wanted to hang out a lot.

Did that have anything to do with my dreams?

I left Melanie’s room and made my way downstairs. I made it to the door just as Steve was about to ring the doorbell again, and watched his eyes widen in surprise. “What?” I asked, then realized that he hadn’t heard my voice all day. “Look, I know I sound a little different, but that’s all that’s changed, okay?”

He shook his head slowly. “No… No it ain’t…”

I raised an eyebrow, then I realized what he was looking at. Me. His eyes were tracing my body from head to toe and back again. Suddenly, I felt a little chilly, and rubbed at my exposed arms. “Are you gonna hurry up and come inside, I’m kinda cold.”

“Um… Yeah,” he said, nervousness in his voice.

He came in and sat down on the couch, and I sat down beside him. “So… What’s going on?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Well, I’m kinda bored, so I came over here. You’re wearing short shorts and a tank top. And we’re not really doing much of anything.”

Dammit, dammit, dammit… Why had I decided now would be a good time to try on Melanie’s clothes? I finish doing that and suddenly my best friend arrived, I was just stupid.

Before I could suggest anything, Steve said, “You look nice, by the way.”

I blushed. I blushed! He complimented me, and I blushed! What the hell was wrong with me? “Thanks,” I said. Stupid goosebumps, causing me to to be nervous now. “Wow… It’s funny how something so minor as clothes can cause so much awkward between us, huh?”

He let out a chuckle. “Yeah.”

“Do you wanna do something?”

“Like what?”

“I dunno. We never finished playing Resident Evil Six the other day.”

He shook his head. “Nah. Let’s find something else to play.”

“Okay. I don’t have a whole lot more co-op games, though.”

He shrugged. “We don’t have to play a co-op game. You could play a game while I watch, I could play a game while you watch.”

I nodded. “Okay. Go pick something.”

He nodded, then got up and walked up the stairs. I just sat there, hugging my knees to my chest. Wait, what?! That is so something that girls do! Why was I doing it?! I uncurled and let my feet touch the floor again. I didn’t like what I’d just done. Why had I hugged my knees to my chest? Was I… Scared? Was I… Concerned?

Was I happy to be around Steve?

He came back down the stairs with a stack of games and set them down on the coffee table. “Well… Here’s our options.”

“How many of my games didn’t you grab?”

He flashed a weak smile and rubbed at the back of his neck. “Um… Two?”

I rolled my eyes. “Alright, let’s do process of elimination, then.”

2.

I sighed. Twenty minutes of going through all my games, and we couldn’t think of anything to play. I just sat back and propped my feet up on the coffee table. “For the love of God, just pick at random!” I said. It brought attention back to my voice, because it sounded even more feminine than it had before.

He sat back down on the couch beside me. “Hell, let’s just watch a movie.”

I shrugged. “Okay with me.” I picked up the TV remote, flipped to a Starz channel and caught the tail end of the credits of Iron Man 3. “Ugh, they’re still showing this? Aren’t there better movies they could show?”

Steve laughed. “You’ve never told me why you don’t like Iron Man. What’s wrong with ‘em?”

I shook my head. I dunno. I’ve just never liked them that much. I liked Thor better.”

He smiled. “Yeah, I wonder why.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He lightly poked me in the arm. “Look at how you’re dressed!”

“What? I’m gonna havta wear this stuff eventually!” I was trying to justify this. Why was I trying to justify this? “Besides, at least I’m not wearing the same ratty jeans I wore yesterday, like you are!”

He burst into laughter, which surprised me. “You are such a girl now! You’re trying to ‘fix’ me already!”

I blushed again. “No I’m not! You’re just… y’know… You have other pants, right?”

He nodded through his laughter. “I can’t believe this. You’re wearing your sister’s clothes, and you’re trying to fix me, how are you not a girl right now?”

“I’m just… I’m not!” I was lying to myself and I knew that.

“You’re even wearing lipstick, man!”

Oh, crap, I forgot about that. I brought my hand up to my lips, like covering them up would erase the purple stuff on them. Why had I forgot about that? Why hadn’t I washed this stuff off while he was looking through all my games?

“Um… Yeah?” I said, with obvious embarrassment in my voice.

He patted me on my exposed shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay. I think it looks good on you.”

I swear my face had to be beet-red with how much I was blushing, and I could almost feel my masculinity draining away as I asked, “Really?” Why had I asked that? What possible reason could I have for asking that? Steve was my best friend, and the very reason I got into this situation, not a potential boyfriend!

“What?” he asked, taking close observation of my face. I must have had a disturbed look, or something.

“I think you should leave,” I said, and I meant it. This was getting out of hand. Steve wasn’t just looking like my best friend anymore, and that scared me. “Please, please leave.”

He grabbed me by the shoulders and said, “What is it?”

“I just… I want you to leave, okay?”

He took a deep breath. “I have something to tell you. I’ve been having these weird dreams, ever since we met that old witch. One of them had me walking into your house and finding you standing there, but you weren’t a guy. There was another one where I was complaining about how we don’t spend much time together anymore, and another one - “

I cut him off. “Where I’m the one complaining because you don’t want to spend time with me?”

He nodded. “Yeah. We were in here, and you were all bouncy and girly and… I think I realized that my punishment would be us drifting apart. I don’t want that to happen, because you’re my best friend, y’know?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“So, please, Amanda, don’t ask me to leave again.”

Suddenly, I felt something welling up inside me, and it was anger. He just called me Amanda. He just called me that goddamn name! No! “Get out!” I said, my voice firm.

“But, after I just - “

I cut him off again. “I said get out!” I yelled this time. Even with my more feminine voice, there was a bit of the authority that I’d felt as a boy.

Steve got up off the couch, nodded, and left, just like that. No muss, no fuss, no protest. He was there and then he was just gone. I just sat there on the couch, shaking, shuddering, shivering…

Angry.

3.

It took me at least an hour to stand up from the couch. I didn’t want to move, I didn’t want to do anything. I was angry. Angry at Steve, angry at that sorceress, even angry at Melanie for no reason whatsoever, just because I was wearing her clothes. I didn’t have any reason to be angry at Melanie, or Steve (really), I should have just been angry at the sorceress.

I walked upstairs to my room and practically dropped onto my bed. My tablet was still on my nightstand, so I grabbed it, tapped the camera icon, flipped the camera to the front lens and looked at myself, really looked at myself. My face in particular. It was obvious why Steve had called me Amanda, because I didn’t look like Adam at all anymore. If somebody was just looking at my face, they’d wonder how I could have ever been Adam. I still had three days of this, how much more changing could I do? Well, aside from Little Adam shrinking inside me completely, and my breasts growing more.

I tapped out of the camera and got to the internet, where I searched for all those nutjobs I’d read about before. I quickly registered at the forum and started a new thread.

My name is Amanda, and I used to be Adam.

4.

I sat on my bed, hugging my knees to my chest, and waited for Melanie to come home. I didn’t have much else to do. I had the TV on, but I wasn’t watching anything. The thread I’d started had taken off, with over sixty different people saying things ranging from absolutely believing me to thinking I’m, and I quote, “Some dumb cunt who wants people to think she’s nuts.” I rolled my eyes at that guy.

I heard the front door open and Melanie did something downstairs, then she climbed the stairs. “Adam? You still here?”

“Yeah,” I said, “in my room.”

She walked into the room and stopped dead in her tracks. It probably looked odd to her to see her younger brother wearing her clothes - not to mention her lipstick - and not looking strange in any way. “Um… Is there anything wrong?” she asked.

I stood up. “Look at this.”

“Yeah, you managed to pick clothes I don’t wear anymore, what about it?”

“No! Look at this!”

“Bro, I don’t - “

“Mel! I’m… I’m not Adam anymore!”

She sighed. “Look, bro, I hate to tell you this, but you really haven’t been Adam for a little while now. Pretty much since I woke you up this morning.”

“And you didn’t say anything?”

She walked over to me and sat down on my bed. “What would you have said if it was me or Steve that was changing? I wasn’t trying to make you feel worse. I already felt bad making you talk to Mom and Dad this morning.”

I sat down beside her. “What’s this mean for school tomorrow? How is anybody gonna recognize me?”

“We’ll see the principal tomorrow morning, it’s that simple.”

I laughed. “Yeah, what’s the principal gonna say about this? What are we going to tell him? ‘Hi, Mr. Malski, a sorceress cursed me and I’m turning into a girl during this last week of school’?”

She put an arm around me. It felt comforting, to have my sister hugging me. “We’ll think of something. Don’t worry.”

I put my head on her shoulder as she put her other arm around me. This wasn’t the same type of brother/sister hug that I’d experienced before, this was a hug between sisters, a knowing, loving hug that siblings of opposite genders just don’t understand. It was a feeling I’d never had before.

I felt a tear drip down my cheek. Adam was gone. He was gone, he was dead, he was never coming back.

I wasn’t crying because he was gone, I wasn’t crying because I was happy, I wasn’t crying for any reason that made sense.

I was crying because I accepted what had happened.