Carter knew that he was awake, but didn’t want to open his eyes. What time was it? Maybe it was still early and he could get another few hours in before checking in on his sister.

Ugh… the thought still bothered him. He was glad his parents hadn’t gotten them a babysitter for the weekend, but this was the third trip out of state since the school year started. Didn’t they know he needed the weekends to himself and his own friends?

He still needed to know what time it was.

When Carter did open his eyes, however, the first thing he saw was not his bedside alarm clock but his little sister, standing by his bed in her pajamas and holding a large old book. She looked like she had been caught red handed, which wasn’t too far off because her simply being in Carter’s room was a crime.

“Victoria, what are—?”

He coughed, trying to clear his throat, but the movement alerted him to another problem. Hair was falling into his face, his clothes were pulling tightly, and his body was squishing in places where it shouldn’t.

“The hell?!” he cried, sitting up and pulling blankets off.

Victoria opened her mouth to say something but jumped back in surprise when a piercing scream filled the room. Carter clasped a hand over his mouth, still looking over his body.

He had breasts! Big, bouncy balls of fat sticking out of his chest! He had long hair! He was wearing girl’s pajamas! And a quick squeeze of his freakishly hairless legs confirmed that something else very important was missing.

There was a long moment of stillness, as if the slightest movement or breath would be enough to break his fragile mind. Then, Carter turned his had to look at Victoria, who was biting her lip and avoiding his gaze in the way that an eleven-year-old telegraphs “I’m super guilty! This is my fault!”

“What—” Carter winced at the sound of his voice “—what… happened… to me?”

Victoria glanced at him and opened her mouth, before closing it again and putting on a fake smile.

“I thought…” she said, “since mom and dad are gone… you could try being my big sister for the weekend instead of my brother, so I… kind of… cast a spell on you?”

An involuntary snort escaped Carter, causing Victoria to jump. And then he laughed as the ludicrousness of the situation came crashing down on him.

“I’m dreaming,” he said, falling back down onto his pillow, “This is all some sort of fever dream.”

“No it’s not!” Victoria proclaimed, “See this book? It’s my spell book. I have all kinds of magic in here. And if you want me to change you back on Sunday, then you’ll have to spend the weekend with me, Alisson!”

Then her posture lost some of its boldness as she waited for Carter to respond. She screamed when he lunged forward, quickly losing hold of the book as he jerked it out of her hands. Once she realized he wasn’t trying to tackle her, she looked away and balled her hands into fists.

Carter flipped open the book to several different pages, but while the markings inside looked like some kind of alphabet there certainly wasn’t anything resembling English. There were faded illustrations, but they were completely unrecognizable.

“This is all nothing!” he cried.

“To you,” Victoria growled, reaching forward, “Now give it back.”

Carter held the book out of her reach, demanding, “Where did you get this anyway? How did you pay for it? Why do you have it?”

Victoria huffed and began to explain: “Remember last year? The big week-long fifth grade camping trip?”

“No?”

Victoria crossed her arms and gave him a dark look.

“Well, one day I went off the trail, and I found these big rocks with a light coming through the holes. I squeezed in and found this little cave where the book was. I’ve been practicing since then.”

“There’s nothing in here. How can you possibly—?”

“Just because you can’t read it doesn’t mean I can’t! The book says that only the owner can read it, and it says that I’m the owner because I found it.”

“That’s…” Carter trailed off. He had wanted to call it stupid, but with every new moment it was getting harder and harder to disbelieve her.

And if she could do this, what else was she capable of?

He instead asked, “What do you want from me?”

Victoria’s eyes seemed to light up.

“If you want me to break the spell on Sunday, you’ll have to act like my big sister Allison until then.”

“No, absolutely not!”

She faltered for a moment, but then stepped forward and pointed a finger at him.

“Yes you will,” she said, “Or I’ll… I’ll turn you into a doll! Or make it so you can only talk like a cat.”

“And how are you going to do that without your magic book?”

Victoria’s eyes widened, but she stuttered out, “I’ve already memorized enough spells to use if you don’t listen to me. I don’t even need the book.”

Carter glared at her. He wanted nothing more than to call bullshit, but he didn’t know anything about magic.

“Fine,” he finally said, “But I’m not giving you this book back and I’m not going to be called ‘Allison.’ Got that?”

Victoria’s shoulders drooped, but then she took a deep breath and replied, “Fine, whatever. Just go take a shower already. And don’t worry about your clothes. They’ll transform to fit your body.”

Carter wanted nothing more than to ask how that worked, but he pushed it aside for now.

“I’m not taking a shower like this,” he said.

“You can’t be dirty all day! That’s gross. My sister wouldn’t do that!”

“I’m not your sister,” he growled, “And what? You don’t have a spell for that?”

“Oh… yes, I do!”

“Victoria? Victoria, wait!”

Carter tried to chase after his sister as she took off running out of his room, but only managed to fall out of bed and stumble back to his feet. By the time he made it to the kitchen, it was to the sight of her cutting off a small piece of soap from a larger chunk.

“What are you doing? You can’t play with knives.”

Victoria just turned to him with a smirk, the small piece of soap in her open hand. She leaned in and said a few words Carter didn’t understand.

Some sort of flowery smell filled the air as Carter watched the soap in Victoria’s hand vanish, and suddenly he felt like he’d just got done drying off from a long, thorough shower. His skin was dry and clean, and when he ran his hands through his hair it wasn’t the least bit oily.

“There, see? I don’t need the book to cast spells.”

Carter took a step back, half intending to make a dash for the front door and never looking back. What had been a mystery before had suddenly turned very, very real.

After a moment of stillness, Victoria started to shuffle around. Carter didn’t want to take his eyes off her, but also didn’t want to spend the day walking around in what basically amounted to dirty underwear, for how revealing these pajamas were.

“Don’t do anything until I get changed,” he said, slowly turning away and heading back down the hall.

Only after Carter had securely locked his door and confirmed that the damned book was still there did he sit down and breathe freely.

According to Victoria, his clothes would change to match his body. At the very least, it would explain where the pajamas he was already wearing came from.

Groaning, Carter grabbed the shorts by the waist and started to shimmy them down his legs. His smooth, shapely legs. Eww. As soon as they were loose, he let them drop, and when they hit the floor they were the same regular jean shorts he’d worn to bed the night before again.

Even though he’d been looking right at them, he didn’t really see the change. They were just pajama bottoms one second and regular clothes the next. Carter wasn’t even sure he’d be able to pinpoint when they changed if he’d gone through frame by frame with a camera.

A shudder overtook him and he quickly glanced over to the closed blinds. He’d have to be doubly sure that every window in the house was covered.

He kicked the pants over to the wall and moved over to his dresser. He pulled out a pair of boxers, a pair of shorts, and a tee shirt from the closet.

There was no telling how this was going to turn out.

“Fuck.”

It was probably like ripping off a band-aid, he thought: the faster the better. But he peeled off the shirt with an agonizing slowness, trying to focus on anything except the soft fleshy bits on his chest that got pulled around with it.

Carter flung that shirt against the wall too, his eyes stinging from tears.

Taking the panties off made him want to vomit. By the time he’d kicked them away they’d already returned to being boxers, but it didn’t make him feel any better.

As it turned out, the only thing worse than standing around in those clothes was standing naked in the middle of the room.

Without looking down, Carter bent over to pull on a new pair of boxers. They went on fine, but as he stood up it felt wrong. Against his better judgment, he chanced a look down, past the new breasts he was sporting.

“Goddammit,” he swore, closing his eyes tight and wiping away the tears forming.

They could have just been plain, single-colored panties. But they weren’t Maybe it was because of the football pattern of his boxers, but these panties were covered with various pom-poms and stars.

Carter didn’t want to see that anymore. He grabbed the new pair of shorts and slid them on, quickly doing the button and turning to grab his shirt.

“What—oh fuck no!” he cried, looking down at the restrictive denim skirt that had replaced his actual clothes. “What is this bullshit?”

He quickly made to undo the button and rip them off, but gave up and let his arms hang limp. That was just going to happen to all of them, wasn’t it?

Carter pushed his shirt into his face and screamed, using the shirt to wipe away the forming tears. Then he unraveled his shirt and made to put it on.

No sooner had he gotten comfortable than the shirt began to feel tight around his torso. A quick glance down showed that it really hugged his new tighter waist and bigger chest.

There was a small hanging mirror in Carter’s room. It wasn’t enough for him to get a full view of himself, but he could see his face and some of his body. At least, besides the obvious of being a girl, he still looked a lot like himself. More like his mother rather than some twig-thin bond porn star.

It was like some kind of sick Halloween costume.

At the very least, the decal on his shirt was now a surprisingly badass rose-and-thorns motif.

The last thing Carter did was grab a pair of socks. By the time he was back on his feet, they’d already stretched up to his knees and taken on a garish white, pink, and blue argyle pattern.

“Well, I don’t have to look at my legs, at least.”

He pushed the hair out of his face, wishing he had something to tie it back with. Maybe if he were in a better mood he’d ask his sister for one of her headbands, but they were probably too small even for him.

Throwing his old shirt over the webcam just in case, Carter quickly pulled up Skype on his computer and sent out a group message.

Hey everyone—serious computer problems. Wi-fi barely working. I don’t think it’ll be fixed before the weekend is over. Definitely can’t use webcam. Probably can’t play any games. Feeling really pissed right now! If you don’t hear from me, I’ll see some of you on Monday.

By the time the message was fully composed, Carter was practically slamming his hands into the keyboard. All he’d wanted to do this weekend, the only thing he asked for, was to play some damn games and shoot the shit with his friends. And then his fucking sister—

He yanked the spell book from where it was sitting and glared at it, wondering what to do with the damn thing.

The closet? She’d find it easily.

Under the bed? Too obvious; that should have been the first place he’d thought of.

Behind the bookshelf? But then how would he get it out when he needed it again?

He decided that this wasn’t anything worth thinking too hard over. Not with everything else already swimming through his head. He zipped open his backpack and shoved the book in among folders and textbooks.

Would she find it there? Maybe. Or maybe it was hidden really well in plain sight. Either way, the day had barely started and Carter was too exhausted to care.

One last frightened moan escaped his throat, and Carter opened the door to walk out and face the day. He was surprised to find Victoria there, who jumped at Carter’s sudden emergence. Her hand was raised in a curled fist, but pulled close to her body as if uncertain if she was going to knock or not.

“Oh, um… there you ware. Um… actually, that outfit looks… pretty…”

She bit her lip and shrunk down a little under his gaze, but quickly straightened back up and cleared her throat.

“So, first we’re going to look up what movies are playing down at the mall. We’ll get lunch before the movie starts, so you’ll need to bring money for both.”

Carter folded his arms and snorted, a smirk taking over his expression.

“Oh? And how are you planning on getting there?”

“what? You’re going to drive us.”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

“And how am I going to do that, if ‘Allison’ doesn’t have a driver’s license?”

Victoria opened her mouth, though to say something or in surprise it was hard to tell, and then all at once seemed to deflate.

“I… I mean… so what? We’ll just move on to something else then.” She cleared her throat again and stuck her chest out, “Instead, we’re going to move on to playing video games together, and we’ll… order pizza for lunch.”

Without waiting for a rebuttal, she sharply turned and marched off toward the living room.

Video games with his eleven-year-old sister.

Carter rolled his eyes at the thought, but followed.

There was nobody outside when Carter glanced out the front window, but he still nervously glanced around anyway. All it would take was a stray neighbor with a phone to catch a picture of him and alert his parents that something was wrong.

A strong gust blew away some of the crispy brown leaves, but everything else was still.

Carter closed the blinds, and pulled the curtains shut just to be sure.

Victoria was waiting by the couch. Carter took the Wii remote from her, feeling more than a little silly as he followed her instructions to put the wrist strap on. She was literally blowing dust off the console, and practically bouncing with excitement as she put the game disk in.

Victoria plopped down on the couch and motioned for Carter to sit, informing him that they were playing Mario Kart first.

Carter groaned and tried to get comfortable. Normally, the plushness of the couch would be super relaxing, but the way it made him sink into the cushion caused his shirt to bunch up, making his chest shift and squish as well. At this point he was seriously considering whether a bra would help or not.

“Um… maybe if you—”

Carter shot a nasty look her way, and Victoria shut up and shrank back. His expression softened as she scooted away from him, but he didn’t need to put up with her right now. Even ignoring the shirt as best he could, the denim skirt made it impossible for him to spread his legs or even sit cross-legged like he wanted.

Victoria picked an easy level for them to start with, not that Carter cared. He was too busy pulling at the hem of his skirt that running off the road was inevitable. Too busy shaking the hair out of his eyes that he couldn’t reach any of the power ups. And it was getting hard to press the buttons with long manicured nails.

The most annoying thing, though, was catching Victoria continuously glancing his way out of the corner of his eyes. Every time she did, she made a mistake, which might have found worth a smug little smirk if the situation weren’t so unpleasant.

The second race wasn’t much different from the first, except that Carter grumbled a bit louder and fidgeted a bit more. Victoria noticed this, and leaned even further away from him. Halfway through the third race, as Carter came close to just tossing his controller across the room, Victoria piped up, “H-hey, why don’t we try something else?”

Without waiting for a reply, she leaped from the couch toward the stack of games. Carter just leaned back and sighed. He closed his eyes and continued fidgeting.

A familiar and welcome fanfare caused him to pause and check the screen. Victoria was practically bouncing to see a positive reaction from him.

“Yeah, I know you love this game!” she said, “And I’ve been practicing too!”

She threw Carter the other half of the controller for him to plug into the stick. Despite this surprise, though, Carter wasn’t exactly as bright and eager as Victoria seemed to hope. Still, eh did his best to sit up and avoid being swallowed by the plushness of the couch.

As the game loaded, Carter wished he’d grabbed his phone. At the very least, someone he knew might be doing something worth texting about. If nothing else, Facebook was probably at least moderately rage-inducing today. Election day was coming up.

“I’m playing as Kirby!” Victoria declared.

Carter wanted to roll his eyes. He didn’t care. He just picked out Link like always and waited for Victoria to pick out what other characters would fill the match.

“How about Samus?”

“That’s fine.”

“Or Ness?”

“Whatever.”

“What about Sonic?”

“Victoria,” Carter said, “Literally any character will work.”

“I just want you to enjoy the game.”

Carter bit his tongue and grunted instead of replying.

Victoria sighed and leaned back, deciding to just go with the lineup they had. When it came to the level select screen, she opened her mouth, but closed it again and selected one randomly.

It hadn’t occurred to Carter before, but maybe it wasn’t a good idea to jump right into a game he hadn’t played for years without relearning the controls a bit first. He spent the entirety of the first match getting his ass handed to him by the enemy AI. The only person he got a shot in against was Victoria, and only when her back was turned.

“The enemies aren’t too strong, are they?” Victoria asked as Carter was knocked off the screen again.

His response was a dark muttering under his breath.

When Victoria inevitably wo the match and they were taken to the results screen, Carter decided that he had no choice but to make a complicated maneuver. Trying not to lose his balance and fall off the couch, he pulled his legs up to the couch and tried squeezing them under him, so that he was not sitting half on his legs.

He was still adjusting his shirt when the match started, trying desperately hard to get his breasts out of the way without drawing too much attention to himself.

This time he did much better, managing to throw Meta Knight off the ledge twice before Victoria knocked him off the platform.

He snorted, asking, “So that’s how it’s going to be?”

And aside from occasionally having to push his hair out of the way or adjusting his legs, Carter did significantly better now that he had the controls down. He won each of the next three rounds, though Victoria came pretty close to beating him again once.

“We should do teams next,” she said, “Me and the enemies against you.”

“Don’t feel confident if it’s a fair fight?”

“It would only be fair if it was five on one,” she retorted.

He smirked, but paused a moment to stretch, more than a little miffed by the strange ways in which his body moved.

“Um… hey?” Victoria asked.

“What?”

“How about we ay a different game?”

Carter gave what he hoped was a questioning look.

“It’s a game I’ve always wanted to play with you. Here, let me put it in.”

Carter watched with uncertain curiosity as she walked over to pick out a game he’d never seen before.

A logo filled the screen.

“Epic Mickey 2?”

“Um… yeah. I mean, it’s not like the kind of games you normally play, but I thought it’d be fun.”

Carter began fidgeting again, and Victoria’s expression faltered.

“Just give it a try,” she said, “It’ll be fun... I promise.”

Carter wasn’t so sure. Apparently, he was in control of some Disney character he’d never heard of, and they were participating in some ridiculous plot h was having a hard time following.

And speaking of trouble with controls, Carter had never imagined he’d be the dumb friend who needed to be coached through every little thing the game asked of him. Of everything so far, this definitely had to be the most emasculating. The very thought of what his friends would say to see him struggle like this…

He couldn’t help but feel that this was really stupid. He could be playing Dark Souls right now, but he was stuck with his baby sister playing Epic fucking Mickey 2. He could be playing Dishonored again, or any of the Dead Space games. But he was watching Mickey Mouse run around with a magic paint brush. Because his sister was holding him hostage.

The screen went dark and returned to the menu screen.

Victoria was avoiding Carter’s gaze.

“What if we play Lego Batman instead?”

“No, I’m done.”

Carter made to stand up, struggling against the clothes he was wearing.

“W-what about—?”

“I just want to be left alone,” he said, finally pulling himself off of the couch and heading toward the hallway.

“But… but what about… it’s almost lunch time! We were supposed to get pizza!”

“I’ll order us a damn pizza,” Carter assured her, not turning around.

Carter made sure his door was locked, and then stuck his chair against the door just to be sure. He didn’t know if that would work or not, but better to be safe.

His friends had sent him various messages of condolences and regret. They even did it with fewer swear words than he had anticipated. He quickly started sending messages back out, stopping only to tug at his shirt some more.

Things were almost normal for a moment.

He did quickly order a peperoni pizza for himself and Victoria. He didn’t know if Victoria liked peperoni, but he wasn’t very inclined to care right now.

While he waited for anyone to message him back, Carter unzipped his backpack and pulled out the spell book. He supposed there wasn’t any way for Victoria to have gotten it while they were playing games together, but it was good to be sure.

Flipping through it, it still proved to be gibberish to him.

He put the book back and returned to his computer.

This wouldn’t end well.

Carter quickly googled “magic book” and skimmed through a few pages of results. Bunk, bullshit, and a lot of people with way too much free time on their hands. He couldn’t even tell what was RP and what was genuine insanity.

Of course, it’s not like he had the experience to know what to believe anyway.

He pulled at his shirt again, letting out a loud, strained groan.

“I hate this!” he cried, wiping tears from his eyes, “How does anyone deal with these things?”

But Carter knew the answer to that, as much as he hated to admit it.

But he wasn’t going to wear a damn bra. He wasn’t going to give into Victoria’s little game. There wouldn’t even be a way to be discreet about it; as thin as his shirt was, a bra would be obvious to anyone looking.

More obvious than seeing his nipples through the fabric already—

Fuck!

He wasn’t sure what was worse. The thought of his sister seeing his nipples all day, or the pizza man who’d be there soon. His sister was at least a girl herself, but she was his sister.

Carter and Victoria were the only two in the house, but Carter still closed the door to his parents’ room behind him.

There was a full-length mirror on the room, finally giving Carter the chance to get a better look at himself. Well, less of a chance and more of a forced reckoning. There was a redness around his eyes from where he’d teared up. His clothes, if they could even be called his, were wrinkled and twisted. His hair was all over the place.

The girl in the mirror looked like she’d been dumped by her boyfriend and spent the day crying into her pillow.

And she was a girl, despite how hard he clenched his fists in anger.

He could see her nipples poking through her shirt. And through the tears forming he got a good sight of her exposed sight of her exposed thighs, supple and bare and clean-shaven.

It took Carter a moment to realize the strange feeling welling up inside of him, despite the heat rising in his cheeks. Utterly disguised in himself, he ran into his parents’ bathroom and splashed cold water all over his face.

Carter focused on the sound of running water to clear his mind. He couldn’t help getting a good look at his face in the mirror, and decided to test whether or not looks really could kill.

And then he dropped his shoulders and sighed, even though it came out as a distressed whine.

“What the fuck happened to me?”

He waited, but no answer came, so he left the bathroom.

Trying not to think too hard about it, Carter searched through his mother’s dresser until he found a plain beige bra. His parents would be so disgusted with him. If he were in a better state of mind, he would be too.

Glancing back at the door, he quickly stripped off his shirt and threw it onto the bed. He’d never worn a bra before, obviously. He practiced with the latch a few times before actually trying to put it on. One arm, then the other.

The thick fabric against his nipples was very sudden and uncomfortable. He took a gulp and powered through it, slipping his arms through and reaching back to grab at the hooks.

A minute later, when the door opened and Victoria poked her heat in to ask “Cater? Are you in here?”, he had given up and planted his face firmly into the blanket of his parents’ bed.

Carter almost jumped at the surprise, but simply asked “What?” without lifting his head.

“Um… the pizza’s here. I need money to pay for it.”

“Help me with this.”

“Um… sure.”

Carter felt his sister hook the bra and he mumbled a brief “thanks” before lifting his head and telling her, “I’ll pay for the pizza. Just toss me my shirt.”

He only briefly glanced at the bra in the mirror as he pulled his shirt back on. It hadn’t changed save for fitting slightly better. He grabbed his wallet from his room and headed toward the front door.

Okay, he thought, I can do this. He doesn’t know who you are. Just don’t give him enough time to think about having sex with you.

He opened the door. Standing there was a girl a little older than he was.

That’ll work too.

He gave her the money and took the pizza in return, very aware of how his voice and knees were shaking throughout the exchange. She gave him a worried look, but didn’t say anything.

“Thankskeepthechangebye!” he managed to blubber out, and even waited for her to thank him and step away before calmly closing the door.

Carter let out a deep breath he hadn’t been aware he’d been holding.

The pizza looked good, probably better than it would have if Cater had already eaten anything today. He grabbed two slices and set them down on the table, then sat down himself as he folded his skirt beneath his legs.

“Looks good, right?” Victoria sked, sitting down beside him with her own plate.

Carter didn’t respond.

“How are your friends?” she asked, and Carter gave a frustrated sigh.

“Okay, um… so, in my history class we’re—”

“Please stop,” Carter said, finally looking right at her.

Victoria hesitated for a moment, then looked away. He could see her fighting back tears.

“Fine then!” she snapped, “What do you want to do for the rest of the day?”

“What do I want to do?” he asked, “Are you serious? I want you to change me back and let me get along with my life!”

Victoria reeled back, nearly falling out of her chair, but then snarled and retorted, “Well not with that attitude, ‘sister!’ We had a deal!”

“There is no deal!” he cried, “There is only you and your goddamn magic. And I am not, nor will I ever be, your sister. And unless you change me back right now—”

“What could you possibly do to me?”

Career jumped from his chair, tossing his pizza to the ground and causing Victoria to nearly fall from her own chair in fright. Her eyes were wide and her breath had caught in her throat.

Without another word, Carter stormed off back to his room.

He heard Victoria’s chair start to move, but he swung around and pointed a finger at her.

“You leave me alone, you monster!”

She froze, and he turned away.

Carter paced back and forth across his room for a while, occasionally glancing back at his door as if it would suddenly become unlocked. Eventually, he was shaking so much he had to sit and take a breath.

He was losing control. How could he possibly fix this situation? What could he say to Victoria to convince her to change him back? What would happen if somebody came by to check up on them? Who would believe him, the way he looked now, over Victoria?

He almost didn’t believe it himself.

The book. Carter scrambled, pulling open his backpack and grabbing the book.

Gibberish. Still gibberish. Page after page of words he couldn’t read. He got to the end of the book and flipped back to the front.

An uncertain knock at the door caused Carter to yelp and drop the book. He covered his mouth, but the sound had already escaped him.

For a moment there was silence, and then a soft voice came from the other side of the door.

“Carter?” Victoria asked.

Carter didn’t answer. He picked up the book and set it down on his desk before walking up to the door.

He placed his hand on the knob, but didn’t unlock it at first. Then he sighed and opened the door

Victoria was standing there. She looked like she was about to apologize, but then shook her head and glared at Carter with determination, before her expression softened and she opened her mouth to say something.

After a moment, she finally said, “We’re going to watch a movie together.”

“Absolutely—”

“Please.”

Carter’s mouth hung open, the rest of his rebuttal forgotten. He stared at her, and she kept looking right at him.

He reasoned that it was probably better to keep a direct eye on her anyway. At the very least, he could still browse the internet on his phone.

“Alright, fine,” he said, “Give me a minute.”

“Oh… okay,” Victoria said, “You… will you get snacks?”

“Sure,” he said, closing the door on her.

Carter quickly returned the book to his backpack and grabbed his phone. He made to put it in his pocket, but only the pocket-less back of the skirt greeted him.

Carter clenched his fists in anger, but relaxed when the long nails started to bit into his skin. He’d simply have to carry the phone in his hand.

He could hear Victoria in the living room looking through DVDs as he entered the kitchen. He dreaded to think of what girly piece of shit she was going to subject him to. Probably a Disney movie if he was lucky. She was just eleven, after all.

The popcorn was easy enough to fine, but Carter had to push aside a lot of food in the pantry to find the candy. It was all the way at the top and back, where their parents hoped they wouldn’t find it. Or maybe just Victoria. She had much more of a sweet tooth than Carter did.

He kept all the sour and spicy candy for himself, piling the sweet stuff into Victoria’s bowl like she’d want. He frowned at the idea of rewarding her with candy for her actions, but whatever. Maybe she’d get a stomachache and learn something.

Victoria gave Carter a small “thank you” when he passed her the bowl of candy, but he merely grunted in response as he sat down on the couch beside her. He separated them with the popcorn bucket.

“You ready?” Victoria asked, practically bounding up and down.

“Sure, why not?”

Victoria seemed to falter, but grabbed the remote and turned the TV on to show what movie she’d picked out.

“Oh.”

“Yeah!” she practically cried, “I thought we could watch this now and then see the sequel when it comes out.”

Carter ignored the suggestion, since he was planning to see the movie with his friends when they first got the opportunity.

Still, he set his phone to the side for now. His friends could wait a while for a response if it meant getting to watch Chris Pratt and a talking raccoon break out of jail and save a planet.

It wasn’t long, though, before the reality of his situation started getting to him. He shifted, trying to get his legs into a comfortable position. Sliding down the seat shifted the bra, and he had to adjust it slowly in a way that Victoria wouldn’t notice. Every time he leaned in his hair fell in his eyes, and when he tried to push it away his nails would scrape across his forehead. Little annoyances, the lot of them. The only reprieve from his discomfort was the action on screen and Victoria’s distracting excitement at the film

Come to think of it, this movie was PG-13, and kind of long at that. Carter was beginning to think that Victoria was using the situation to get away with seeing a film their parents wouldn’t have allowed her to otherwise. Which was pretty silly to think, because of course that’s what she was doing, and Carter had straight up allowed it to happen.

Still, at least he’d gotten to watch it again. So the weekend might be ruined, and his enjoyment of the movie slightly tainted by this experience, but at least something good had come out of today.

The credits began to play and Carter started shifting around, trying to stretch without moving his body too much.

“Did you like it?”

“Uh-huh,” Carter mumbled, hating the way his voice sounded as he did it.

“So you think we can see the sequel when it comes out?” she asked, almost on the edge of her seat in anticipation.”

Carter didn’t respond, and Victoria seemed to understand what he was saying. Her face fell and she dropped back into the plush seating.

Carter sighed.

“Maybe,” he said, and Victoria lit up.

“Maybe,” he repeated, “Mom and dad probably won’t like it.”

Victoria’s expression was uncertain, but she was still smiling.

“So,” she began, “I was thinking about what else we can do today. I could of wanted to braid your hair. And then maybe we can try on some clothes and see what they look like on you…”

She trailed off before Carter could say anything. He’d balled his hands into fists, and his glare was probably more frightening than stern.

Then, he blew up.

“Do you think this is some kind of game?” he cried, “Look at me! Fucking look at me!” He was standing now. “Does what I want mean anything too you?! Do you just not care about my free will?! Am I just some sort of doll to you?!”

Victoria looked to be on the verge of tears. She’d shrunken back into the seat as far as she could go.

“No!” she shouted, “That’s not fair! It’s not a big deal!”

“How is this not a big deal? You made me into a fucking girl! Do you think I wanted this?! Do you think I want to go play fucking dress up with a little brat who keeps threatening me?!”

“You… you can’t… it’s just for fun.” But her voice was getting smaller. “Sisters. You and me. Our little secret.” Carter could barely make out her last words.

“I’m not your sister,” he told her, “I don’t even want to be your brother. You need to—”

The sound of a ringing phone broke him off.

His wide-eyed expression of fear was mirrored exactly by Victoria. For a moment, the two of them locked eyes while the kitchen phone rang on.

Carter narrowed his eyes, while Victoria narrowed hers.

Carter took off running, but Victoria had leapt from the sofa and managed to slide around him. He grabbed at her, but the skirt bound his legs and he couldn’t stay balanced. His knee hit the floor before the rest of him did, causing him to swear loudly and grab his injured knee.

“Hey mom!” he heard Victoria say. She was looking right at him through the kitchen archway.

“No, Carter’s here,” she said, “But he’s feeling a little sick. Keeps blowing his nose and feels super-tired. You want to talk to him?”

Carter growled, but she just held out the phone to him.

Slowly, Carter got to his feet, blood pounding hard in his ears.

He jerked the phone out of her hands and, shaking, held it up to his ear.

He cleared his throat. Twice. Three times, and tried to make his voice sound as deep and sickly as possible.

“Hi mom,” he said, heart bouncing around his chest.

“Carter? Is that you? You sound terrible.”

“Yeah… I’m fine. Mostly resting. Watching Victoria. Trying not to get close to her.”

He glared at Victoria, who shrunk a little under his gaze.

“If you need us to come home…”

“No!” he quickly replied, losing control of his voice for a moment, “It’s… too long a drive for you guys to quit and come home so early. I’ll be fine. The neighbors are there if I need anything.”

As if, he thought.

The phone was silent for a few moments, and Carter’s stomach turned.

“Alright dear,” his mom said, and Carter’s knees gave out in relief, “We’ll be back tomorrow night. Try not to move around too much. I’ve got to go now, but your father and I love you two.”

“You too,” Carter replied, hanging up and hanging his head.

There was silence, then Carter looked up at Victoria.

“That was dangerously stupid,” he said, “What if she didn’t believe me?”

Victoria didn’t answer at first, and then only responded with, “But she did.”

Carter stood back up and tossed the phone to her.

“Change me back now,” he said.

For a moment, it looked like she was going to give in. But then she shook her head.

Carter turned around and walked back to his room, slamming the door behind him.

Once he was sure the spell book was still in his backpack, Carter backed up against the wall and slid down, ignoring the way his shirt rode up his back as he did so.

It took a while for his breathing to slow down. The door was locked and he felt like he should block it with the desk. There was no way a simple lock was going to stop her when she decided to burst through his door and…

A girlish whimper escaped him, despite Carter’s best attempt to contain it.

He hated her. He did. She changed him, and then threatened him when he called her out on it.

And she was probably already planning another spell to act on her threats.

What had happened to his baby sister?

How much worse was it going to get?

Carter crawled over to his backpack and pulled out the book. It was still incomprehensible. The pages were thick, but he thought he had a pair of scissors in his room somewhere. If he could tear out most of them, he might be able to get to the fireplace without Victoria realizing what he was doing.

She’d try to stop him, probably hurt him in the process, but she’d be safe from learning anything new from the damned thing.

A knock at t door caused him to jump.

Carter sat still, his chest rising and falling with every shallow breath.

“Carter?”

He didn’t respond.

“Carter, I’m… I’m sorry.”

He turned to face the door.

“About everything,” she continued, “I thought we were going to have fun. I didn’t want to hurt you. And I…”

Carter waited.

“I’m sorry that I lied. I can’t undo the spell.”—Carter’s blood chilled—“It wears off after twenty-four hours.”

Carter relaxed and started breathing again. He stood up and slowly walked over to the door.

“I just… she started sniffling, “I wanted to spend time together. I knew you wouldn’t want to so I found a way to… I thought you’d be interested in what it was like…”

Carter’s hand was on the doorknob, but he didn’t unlock the door. Part of him wanted so hard for this to be a trap, so he could ignore her and start tearing pages out of the book.

“And I… I…”

He heard a sob come through the door, followed by another.

God damn it.

Carter opened the door slowly, peering around it at Victoria. She had her palms pressed against her eyes, but looked up at him when the door opened. Her eyes were red and swollen, with tears streaking down her cheeks.

Carter sat leaning over his knees, which were pressed together so his panties weren’t visible beneath his skirt. The TV was on and the commercials were droning on, but he was looking at Victoria.

She was sitting beside him, off to the side so she wasn’t too close. She was looking at him too, some disposed-of tissues on the side table nearby. Her eyes were still a little red and puffy, and she looked… defeated.

Carter sighed. He was so bored.

“So…” he said, shifting in his seat and trying not to ask about magic, “How’s school?”

Victoria was silent for a moment as she mulled the question over, then responded with a grunt.

“Sure, me too.”

Carter thought back on what she said through the door. If Victoria was telling the truth, then the spell would wear off on its own by tomorrow. Maybe. If she’d read that in the book and never tested it, there was no way to know for sure.

“Any other movies you want to watch?” he asked quickly.

“Not really,” Victoria mumbled, turning to stare blankly at the TV screen, “You?”

“Not really.”

They were quiet for a while before Victoria said, “There’s nothing to do in this house.”

“No, there’s not,” Carter agreed.

“We could go play in the woods,” she suggested.

“I really don’t want to leave the house right now,” Carter told her.

She nodded.

Carter really didn’t want to ask her about magic.

“Any idea what you want for dinner?”

“Chinese?”

“Alright.”

Carter had had no intention of—

“What exactly can you do with that magic book?”

At first, he thought Victoria wasn’t going to answer but she finally muttered, “You know. Stuff.”

“Give me one example,” he demanded.

“Well… I can walk on walls?”

“Geez. How long does that last?”

“About five minutes?”

“So what’s the point?”

“Running away, I think.”

“Oh. Anything else?”

She shrugged.

“Victoria?”

“I mean… there’s a lot of stuff in there. I’ve only tried some of it.”

“What kind of stuff haven’t you tried?”

“Like… some spells require burning stuff or like… last too long.”

“How long?”

“Permanently?”

“Like what?”

“Like stuff. Like… I dunno.”

She was refusing to talk about the dangerous things in there, he was sure of it. And that made his stomach turn.

He didn’t press the matter, and she didn’t elaborate.

Carter adjusted his shirt, and then fixed his socks as well.

After a few moments, Victoria let out a sigh and glanced up at the clock. Carter followed her gaze. It was just coming up on three. There were a good few hours before dinner.

Carter pulled his legs up onto the couch and folded them under himself.

There was a show on TV, but Carter couldn’t bring himself to care about the characters long enough to keep his interest.

Finally, he asked, “So what exactly did you mean when you said ‘trying on clothes’ earlier?”

Victoria snapped to attention.

“Wha—? Um… well, I thought we could see what happens to the clothes as you put them on. Since the spell changes clothes to match how you look. So we’d be… um, playing dress up.”

Her cheeks were red and she refused to look right at Carter, as if the thought of watching her brother play dress up was only now something she found embarrassing to think about.

“What makes you so sure everything won’t turn out the same as this outfit?”

“It might,” she said, shrugging, “But it’d be a pretty useless disguise, then. And sneakers and sandals wouldn’t become the same thing, right?”

Carter nodded and stood up.

“Do… do you want to do this?”

Carter’s suppressed a groan, but nodded.

“Might as well,” he said, “But I don’t want you to watch me change.”

“No!” she blurted out, “Of course not.”

She was blushing even harder than before.

Carter returned to his room slowly, turning the idea over in his head as his stomach turned in sync. It probably wasn’t too late to give up and turn to a single-player game for the rest of the day. Victoria seemed to be too broken to care.

He had promised, though. Kinda. She’d thrown the idea at him, but he did softball it back to her.

So Carter grabbed five or six different shirts and a few different shorts and pants. His sneakers and sandals as well.

He decided not to grab any more underwear. Bad enough he’d have to see himself wearing panties at all. He wasn’t going to tempt fate any further towards putting him into a thong.

When Carter checked, Victoria was still sitting on the couch in the living room, fidgeting and glancing around at nothing.

Carter let out what might have been either a groan or a sigh before locking himself into the bathroom.

He gave one last glance down at his shirt, hoping that this particular shirt would still look cool and edgy when he put it back on after all this.

Turning his back to the mirror, Carter grabbed a tee shirt and slid it on. When it was settled, it wasn’t as snug as the other shirt, but it was clearly a thinner fabric, and now a soft blueish green instead of the strong forest green it had been. It was also very, very clear that he was wearing a bra under it.

He undid and dropped the denim skirt and slid into a pair of pants.

“Oh god!”

As soon as he had it buttoned, his pants had collapsed into themselves until they were constricting his legs. It took a moment for Carter to regain his balance, and then he dared to glance down. He could indeed see every curve in his hips and legs. A brief glance backward showed his ass to be very prominently displayed as well.

I felt less naked in a skirt, he thought.

When he finally managed to sit down on the toilet, he pulled his sneakers over and slid them on. Even before they’d been laced up, they’d gotten smaller and changed from bold red to soft pink.

Fortunately, as Victoria had predicted, the clothes he’d taken off had returned to normal. He reminded himself that this was only temporary, but as he checked himself out in the mirror the thought did not seem to comfort the scared girl reflected back at him.

It’s just like looking at an older version of your sister, he told himself.

That thought did quell his teenage discomfort at being around a cute girl, but did nothing to make the situation any less icky for him.

No use putting it off, he supposed.

As he tried to steady his breathing, Carter left the bathroom and returned to the living room.

“Oh… cool,” Victoria said. Her shoulders were tensed and her faced scrunched in uncertainty, but she was leaning forward and invested in what she was looking at.

Carter could sympathize with both her discomfort and her interest. He let her take it all in, as he just stood there and squirmed.

A silence began to draw out, and Carter gave a fake laugh to disrupt it.

“I’ll try something else, them” he offered, and Victoria nodded.

Carter next tried one of his button-down shirts, which didn’t change much beyond becoming thin enough to almost be translucent. The next pair of shorts became a ruffled skirt, which was actually a refreshing change from the leg-stranglers.

He also tore off his socks and slid into his sandals, which became incredibly strappy and tight.

Fashion over comfort, he guessed, for as little sense as it made to him.

Now that the initial tension was over, Victoria was clearly more relaxed and bouncy. He gave her a minute to look it over, commenting to herself about the way it looked at him.

For his part, Carter just tried to stand there and look more comfortable than he felt.

“Wait. Tuck in your shirt,” Victoria said, suddenly addressing him specifically.

“Uh… okay, but turn around.”

Victoria looked surprised at his command but did so anyway.

“Okay, there,” he announced when he was finished.

“Oh, that’s much better.”

The next shirt Carter tried became short enough to expose most of his stomach, so he quickly tore it off and grabbed a polo shirt from the pile. That simply became a bit more form-fitting. Again, the pants became incredibly tight, to the point where he feared a wrong move would tear them apart. His sneakers became a little different this time, with little butterfly patterns along the side, but didn’t change dramatically more than the last time or anything.

“I want to see a jacket this time!”

Carter let his shoulder’s drop. He did not like the idea of his little sister choosing his outfits for him. But he trudged his way into his bedroom, loathing the way these pants made him move his hips while he walked, and grabbed a coat from the closet.

He felt regret for the tank top as soon as he pulled it on. It was bad enough of a reminder that he no longer had the frame he used to, but it was cut just low enough for him to see the tops of the fatty newcomers to his body. He looked away and slipped the jacket on. His shorts again became a skirt, and the sandals did become entirely different from before, though still majorly strappy.

“How about a sweater?”

That seemed fine, until Carter realized just how much the sweater actually conformed to his body’s new curves.

Almost dreading the outcome, he pulled on a pair of khaki pants, and was amazed when they merely shrunk a little bit into a pair of capris, ending halfway down his lower leg. He made a note of these particular pants for later and went out to see Victoria.

“Wait, why aren’t you wearing shoes?” she asked.

“They weren’t changing all that much anyway,” he said, “Wasn’t that the point? To see the clothes change?”

“Yeah… hold on. Wait here a second.”

“Victoria? Where are you—don’t go into my room!” he called after her.

“I’m not!” she cried back, and that did not ease Carter’s worries.

He followed the sound of her voice, and found her in their mother’s closet picking out shoes.

“No, I am not wearing mom’s shoes.”

“Oh come on,” she whined at him, “I just want to see if they change more than the bra did or not.”

Carter squirmed a little bit at the mention of the bra. But even that didn’t make him as uncomfortable as the thought of putting on women’s shoes.

“No,” he insisted.

“But you wore the bra!”

Carter squirmed some more. The bra had been a compromise. This would be giving in.

“I did it because I had to.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“I didn’t want to either.”

Victoria began to huff, and Carter could feel an argument coming on.

So he swallowed his pride one more time today.

“Fine.”

Victoria’s jaw dropped.

“But I’m not wearing heels.”

Victoria made a face, but muttered, “Fine.”

“And I’m only wearing each pair once.”

“Okay…”

“And no more than three.”

Victoria gave him a look, but nodded.

She picked out three pairs and pushed them into his hands before storming off.

Carter, left alone in the closet, just shook his head and turned out the light.

This time, the tank top was a different pattern, but still clung to his boobs a lot more than Carter would have liked. He unhappily took off the capris and set them off to the side with his original outfit, and slipped into another pair of pants that clamped down tight on his lower body as soon as he buttoned them.

With socks back on, Carter looked over the shoes at his disposal. He settled on the boots, which were no sooner on his feet than had transformed into a pair of suede ankle boots.

He didn’t understand the appeal. One trip on the carpet and he was going to break his ankle.

A shiver ran up Carter’s spine. He could not go to the hospital looking like this.

Victoria was still scowling when he came out, but it wavered as she examined him.

Carter glanced at the clock.

3:12

A long way until his twenty-four hours were through.

Unlike the other shorts, the next pair actually became a very clingy pair of denim short shorts, showing off even more of Carter’s legs than the skirts did. He considered sliding out of them, but it was getting a little hard to care.

The tee shirt was nothing special, but when he pulled on the next pair of shoes they instantly became what he recognized as ballet flats. He rolled his eyes and took them off to get rid of his socks.

As long as it’s harmless, it doesn’t matter, he told himself.

It didn’t matter how emasculating this all was, it wasn’t like his sister was sitting out there with a camera to blackmail him later or something.

Victoria clearly liked this outfit more than the others, sitting up straight and taking it all in as best she could.

It was there that Carter realized she had to know how similar they looked, and was probably using this to measure what she’s look like in five years. The thought was somehow simultaneously creepy and endearing, and he didn’t like that it wasn’t wholly creepy to him.

There was only one more pair of shoes left. This time, much to his relief, his pants became a long, flowing skirt instead of tight pants.

Indoctrination through discomfort, he thought briefly, but dismissed it.

His shirt, however, had become a long-sleeved shirt that cut off at the bottom of his ribs, exposing his whole tummy.

I just don’t even care anymore.

This time, it took much longer to figure out what his mother’s shoes had transformed into. They were familiar, but the name “Mary Janes” escaped him.

He returned to the living room, where Victoria “ooh”ed predictably at the sight of him.

“I like it,” she told him.

“I’m glad,” he half-snarked, folding his arms, “What else can we do around here?”

“That’s it?”

He’d done this eight times now!

“I’m basically out of clothes to try on,” he said.

She was silent for a few moments, clearly deep in thought, and it took Carter longer than he’d admit to realize how dangerous that was.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Victoria had already stood up.

“I’ll get one of mom’s dresses for you to try on.”

Carter stamped a foot into the carpet.

“No! What is wrong with you?! I am not—repeat not—wearing a goddamn dress!”

She looked so hurt.

“But… we were having fun…”

“You ordering my around is not ‘fun’!”

Victoria clenched her fists.

“Well I only have to order you around because you’re a bad sister!”

“I am not your sister!” he howled.

“You’re just a bad person!” Tears had begun to run down her face. “Why do you have to ruin this for me? Why couldn’t you just play along?”

Carter kept yelling, but she barreled past him and into her room, slamming the door loud enough to cause him to stutter and stop.

For a moment, Carter stood there. Only when he felt collected enough not to scream himself hoarse did he return to the bathroom and grab his clothes. He threw them all onto the bed and collected up his mother’s shoes.

As he placed the shoes back in the closet, hoping that he correctly guessed which order they went in, he scolded himself for having ever agreed to do this stupid thing. How had he let himself get so caught up in her delusion. Of course agreeing to any one of her stupid demands would only give her the illusion of power over him. He wasn’t going to feel guilty about this.

Frankly, she needed to be called out on her bullshit. Before it got to her head and she was forcing him to spend all his time and money serving her absurd fantasies. She’d probably try to convince him to let her make the spell permanent before the weekend was over!

He refused to feel guilty for what he’s said,

The spell probably got stronger the more he played into it, anyway. The thought made Carter want to throw up. It could be changing the very way he thought and he didn’t know it.

It didn’t matter. He was going to grab a pair of sweatpants and finish the night out with Call of Duty. Even if he had to do it single player.

…

God, why did he feel so shitty for making her upset?

Carter sat down and leaned back against the wall of the closet, closing his eyes to think. He was right—he knew that much. But he also knew that there was a way to be in charge without being a bully. He knew why she was wrong, but he never even tried to really explain it to her.

Everything about the way he handled the situation was wrong, and for that he felt guilty.

And Victoria definitely deserved and apology for that.

Carter sighed and opened his eyes, only to freeze in shock. His sigh had sounded very family, as if he’d been hearing it not just today but much longer. And the closet, for some reason, looked bigger than it had a moment ago.

Looking down confirmed his fears. He was in a child’s body. And when he ran into his parent’s bathroom to check, nearly stumbling over the long skirt he was still wearing, the mirror confirmed his fears.

He was still wearing the same outfit, although the shirt was just a normal long-sleeved shirt now, but he looked just like Victoria.

Admitting that he’d been wrong made him transform into Victoria!

No.

No, that was stupid.

She did this.

“Victoria!” he cried, storming down the hall.

He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he was going to—

Why wasn’t he moving?

Carter was stuck in position, completely paralyzed mid-stride.

Oh shit, he thought, What happened? Why can’t I move?

He was stuck, but he still feel his insides turning and his heart sinking.

The sound of a knob turning got his attention. Victoria came out of her room and closed the door, wearing shoes herself now. She wasn’t crying anymore, but her face was all read and there were tears all over her cheeks. She walked towards his room, not sparing so much as a glance or word in his direction.

Carter heard closed doors open and a few drawers pulled out before he heard the sound of his backpack being unzipped. Soon after, Victoria came out out of his room with her magic book in his hands.

So it was just badly hidden after all.

“You should have listened to me,” she said, rubbing at her eyes with her spare hand, “But you never learn anything. You’re just a jerk.”

She turned away so he couldn’t see her face.

“It’s only for a few minutes, but I told you I would do something to you. Maybe a day alone with nobody to care about you will get you to finally understand how I feel.”

She walked away, and then he couldn’t see her anymore.

Carter heard the sound of the back door opening, then closing.

She did not come back into view.

But she had to be bluffing, right? She wouldn’t leave. What would that accomplish? What would any of this accomplish? What the hell did she mean by any of that?! How dare he accuse him of ignoring her?! After all that she he did for her today alone?!

Oh god, it hadn’t worn off yet. He was still frozen.

It would only be a few minutes, he told himself.

Unless she was lying.

Unless she didn’t know for sure that it would wear off at all.

But eventually Carter collapsed and fell to the ground. He pulled himself up and ran to the living room, then the kitchen, and the bathroom, and then all the other rooms just to be sure.

She was gone.

Carter dropped to the floor and sat there.

He had to find her.

A friend’s house? That was the most obvious place. She could just pretend she was just coming over for the afternoon, and maybe spend the night. But then her friend’s parents would want to call her parents, and that wouldn’t work, so…

As Carter thought, his eyes wandered. It was so weird being the size of an eleven year old. Even from the floor, it was clear how much bigger everything looked.

She might be hanging out at the neighborhood pool… but not while carrying the book; it might get wet.

Even weirder was, if not for Victoria’s long hair and one other, obviously missing thing, Carter couldn’t really tell that this was any different from an eleven-year-old boy’s body. If he had the right haircut and the right clothes, he’d probably look like he did five years ago.

For all he knew, Victoria was just sitting in the car and pouting, but if she really wanted to hurt him she’d need to get somewhere he couldn’t find her just by looking out the window.

Now that he was looking closely, there were a lot more subtle differences in the way his clothes were designed now than when they were for an older teenager. He hadn’t even noticed before in his hurry, but the bra had become a child’s camisole underneath his shirt.

The only place she could go in the woods was…

Carter stood up quickly and ran out the back door, barely stopping to close it behind him.

The treehouse wasn’t very far into the woods, but it had been a while. It took Carter about ten minutes longer than it should have to get there with how many times he needed to retrace his steps. He moved quickly, kicking up dead leaves and keeping watch for other people about that he’d have to avoid. Once or twice he tripped over his skirt and tumbled.

He was low on time. The shadows of the trees were getting longer, and the light against the ground was noticeably tinted yellow.

When he finally found the treehouse, Carter hesitated. What if she wasn’t there? Because unless he’d been wrong and she had run to a friend’s house, that meant she’d be spending the night alone in an unknown, unsafe location.

As much as he hated her right now, he’d rather get into trouble because she told the neighbors he scared her away.

The treehouse itself was pretty dilapidated. It had been three years since Carter and his friends had last used it, and even then they’d been using it since they were nine and their families put it together for them. A short four-year tenure for the treehouse, if not for the face that Victoria and her friends had moved in afterward to girl it up when the boys left.

He approached slowly, trying not to step on any leaves or twigs. But his shoes kept sinking into the wet dirt and it was clear they were made to look good and not endure any kind of serious trekking.

She’d probably heard him stomping through the leaves on the way here, but he still walked slowly as not to alert her of his presence. There were curtains over the windows, so even though he kept his gaze trained on them he couldn’t see anything inside.

Once he reached the rope ladder, though, stealth was out of the question. Hoping not to slip off with the slippery shoes he was wearing, he took a deep breath and started climbing.

There was the sound of scuffling inside. So she was here.

Or, at least, he hoped it was here.

And that she was alone.

He pushed the trapdoor open and pulled himself inside.

Victoria was easy enough to find. She was curled up into a corner and sniveling, the book clutched firmly to her chest. She was glaring at him, but didn’t maintain eye contact.

She was angry, but Carter wasn’t entirely sure she was angry at him. At least, not exclusively.

Carter closed the trapdoor, causing Victoria to jump when it slammed shut. He sat down on the bench, which was covered in dirty, girly cushions.

There was silence for a time, broken only by the occasional sniffle from Victoria.

“Why did you do this?” Carter asked.

Victoria gave an empty laugh before saying, “I just wanted to spend time together. That’s all. If I left you alone, you’d just spend the entire weekend on your computer and pretending I don’t exist. Just like always. It sucks not having a brother or sister who wants to be a brother or sister.”

Carter didn’t want to look her in the eye after that. It was true enough that he’d wanted the weekend to himself; he still felt like he’d earned that much. It wasn’t like she couldn’t have asked to do something together any other weekend.

But he also couldn’t convince himself that he’d have wanted to say yes to any such offer.

“Why not just tell me this, then?” he asked.

“You wouldn’t have listened,” she said, “Or just called me a liar.”

“That’s not—”

“Ever since middle school started,” she continued, “all the kids stopped hanging out together. They found other friends. I didn’t, and nobody in the neighborhood wanted to stay my friend. Now there’s nobody to come over and play. I wanted just one friend, and I wanted it to be you. At least you might be able to tell me what to do about it.”

Carter was having a hard time blinking away tears. It must have been the child’s body that was causing him to be so emotional. There was no way he’d…

Dear God, that stung.

“Why weren’t you just honest with me at the start?” he asked, wiping away the tears from his eyes now. “I would have believed you about that.”

“I…” she started crying again, “I was afraid you’d say I was just a loser or something. That I didn’t deserve any friends for being so weak.”

“Victoria…”

“I thought… if I made you act like an older brother or sister, you’d see what you were doing wrong. And then I’d get to spend time with a sister for once. I was always jealous of Amy and Tiff for having older sisters.”

Carter was silent. He wondered if it was him spending so little time with Victoria that made her want a big sister, or if she’d have felt like that anyway.

How was it she had a family and still ended up a lost and lonely kid?

“Did you ever talk to mom about this?”

“She’s always just saying to ‘be patient’ and ‘try talking to people’. She doesn’t care.”

“She cares,” Carter said quickly, “She just doesn’t… know what it’s like to be in middle school. It’s been like… a hundred years since she was in school.”

Victoria laughed at that, despite herself.

At least she could still laugh, Carter thought. He felt pretty shitty himself, to learn that all this was happening to his sister and he’d done nothing but make it worse.

He wasn’t ready to forgive her for what she did. But he understood where her heart had been this whole time.

“So what about the spell?” he asked.

“Sorry about that,” she whispered.

“No, does it really last twenty-four hours? It will wear off, right?”

“Yeah. I was telling the truth about that. I never got good at dispelling things.”

“Well, can’t you at least try?”

“No!” she cried, causing him to jump, “I don’t know what it will do to you!”

Carter took a moment to recompose himself and changed the topic.

“So… how does the spell work, then?”

Victoria glanced down at the book in her hands and set it off to the side.

“There’s a spell,” she said, “I have to take a picture of the person being transformed, place it on top of a picture of the person you should look like, and rip them both at once while saying the spell. I didn’t have a second picture of you, so I had to use a different spell to fix the first picture.”

“Convenient,” he mused, “Wait… you need a picture? Then how come I looked like just a girl version of me the first time?”

Victoria opened her mouth, but didn’t answer immediately. Then she shrunk down even further and said, “I used mom’s high school yearbook picture.”

Carter wasn’t entirely sure he was going to be able to keep his balance. His vision was pretty blurry and he could almost feel vomit crawling up his throat.

He saw his teenage mom in her underwear.

There was not enough therapy in the world…

“Are you okay?”

“Fine,” he eventually managed to stutter out.

It was getting pretty dark in the treehouse. Carter glanced out the window to see the ground shrouded in darkness and only a few beams of light dancing through the trees.

Victoria was still curled up in the corner and walking gently. Occasionally a whimper would escape her.

“We need to get home pretty soon,” Carter said, “I don’t want to be stranded in the dark. I don’t think either of us remembers the way home well enough for that.”

Victoria just nodded and slowly stood up, grabbing the book as well.

Carter was the first down the rope ladder. Briefly he considered taking off the shoes, but then he’d be walking on the cold ground with nothing to protect his bare feet.

Plus, they’d return to full size and he didn’t want to have to carry a pair of his mother’s dirty shoes.

Victoria followed Carter slowly, meaning that they weren’t outpacing the darkness like Carter wanted. Victoria clearly wasn’t in a good place, though, barely responding to Carter’s questions with only a grunt or two.

Carter was worried about her, but he was also worried about getting lost in the woods or somebody they knew seeing them and taking a picture.

Still, there was probably nothing to be done about it. They made it back to the backyard and in the house without too much difficulty.

The twins kicked off their shoes, one pair transforming back to normal except for being caked in dirt (Carter would have to do something about that before their parents got home), and Carter told Victoria to wait while he ordered Chinese for delivery. Neither particularly felt like leftover pizza right now.

They might have a lot of leftovers to explain to their parents when this weekend was over. But of all the things on Carter’s plate at the moment, that was definitely the single-least worrying.

Once the order was confirmed, Carter sighed and leaned back into his chair. Now that he was wearing a less-restrictive skirt, he had gone back to stretching out his legs as he sat. His arms were a little sore; at his height now, the desk came all the way up to his chest, so he had to keep his arms up high to reach the keyboard.

Now that he had a moment to reflect, the surreality of being his sister’s clone was finally starting to sink in.

Carter returned to the living room and plopped down on the couch beside Victoria. She tensed up a bit, but didn’t say anything and didn’t scoot away. The spell book was sitting on the side table, out in the open and unguarded.

She wasn’t even trying to take control anymore. It was like she’d lost any agency whatsoever.

Maybe he wasn’t remembering everything correctly, but somehow Carter found that more frightening than anything else he’d encountered today.

“You want to watch TV?” he asked. He knew his voice must have sounded the exact same as hers, but coming from him it sounded different.

If he recorded it, he’d bet it would sound just like Victoria on the playback, though.

“Not really in the mood. Here.”

She gave him a weak toss of the remote.

Carter simply put it to the side and brushed some hair out of his face.

“Maybe next weekend we can do something to patch up the treehouse,” he said, “It’s probably still good enough that we can fix all the problems. Maybe install a glass window on top to look out at the stars? Or… the branches of the tree I guess. Never mind that part.”

Victoria just grunted and slid down in her seat.

Carter sighed and flicked on the TV to a random channel. Sound and light filled the room, but it didn’t really improve the mood. Carter let his shoulders drop and sank down in his seat as well. He began to rub his head against the couch, causing his hair to frizz up with static.

“So my friend Ben and I have been fighting about this game…” he started.

Victoria gave him a weird look.

“…it’s all pretty stupid,” he admitted, “But things are still pretty tense between us. He won’t even let me copy his homework. Which sucks because Mrs. Johnson is a bi—er… she’s really throwing on the homework.”

A chuckle escaped Victoria, but she crossed her arms and looked away.

“Mr. Cecil is just as bad. Less homework, but we have an essay due every two weeks.”

“Ugh… I hope I don’t have to take his class.”

“He teaches geometry.”

“What?” she turned to face him. Carter was keenly aware that she didn’t have to look up towards him anymore. “How can he do that? He can’t make you write an essay for a math class.”

“I know, right?”

“That’s just as bad as Ms. Miller. She assigns all the homework at the beginning of the week, but we can’t do any of it because she hasn’t gone over it all yet.”

Carter winced.

“I remember Ms. Miller. Does she still have that mole on her left cheek?”

“Well duh, how do you get rid of a mole?”

“Makeup?” he offered, “Cosmetic surgery?”

Victoria laughed, and Carter joined her. They were laughing at the expense of someone else, but they were laughing again.

They continued, and dinner arrived about halfway through their conversation. Carter, the eldest despite his appearance, had to handle the delivery ma. He also had to lie and say that their mother was home and in the shower to alleviate the man’s concern.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Victoria eagerly awaiting to tell him something new and continue the conversation. Despite himself, he couldn’t help but smile.

They talked through dinner, though they did take a… probably inevitable turn.

“You know… Alex and Daisy would probably freak out if they woke up in each other’s bodies.”

“What about that cheerleader down the street? What’s her name? Can’t you just imagine her suddenly looking six feet tall?”

“The first thing she’d do is pass out in terror.”

The two laughed, and Victoria put down her fork, her plate empty.

Carter added, “You know that if we ever did any of that, we’d have to tell them about the magic and they’d just want in?”

“Yeah,” Victoria admitted, “But it’s fun to think about.”

Carter nodded in agreement.

Victoria shuffled about in her seat a bit.

“Hey… can I ask you something?”

“Yeah?”

“Would you… brush my hair for me?”

“Um… okay. Sure, yeah. Just let me put away the dishes and leftovers.”

Carter met Victoria in her room. She was sitting on her bed with a brush that she handed to him.

This was pretty surreal, Carter thought. If not for everything else that had already happened today, he’d be almost certain this was a dream.

He sat behind her and placed the brush uncertainly on the top of her head.

“Ahh! No!”

“What?” he asked, “I thought you wanted this?”

“You have to start from the bottom so it doesn’t get tangled.”

Carter rolled his eyes but did as she asked, pulling the brush through her hair and moving it around every few strokes.

“So…” Victoria began, “Is it really that bad, being a girl?”

Carter stopped for a moment to consider the question, and continued brushing.

“It isn’t being a girl that’s the problem, he told her, glancing at his small hands and hairless arms, “It’s just that you forced me into it and tried to control my behavior. I probably wouldn’t have said yes if you’d asked me, I know, but it was still wrong of you to do.”

Victoria began to shrink underneath him.

“But…” Carter continued, trying to salvage the situation, “It did make me curios. So there’s good with the bad as well.”

Victoria didn’t respond, but it seemed like she was thinking it over.

“Hey, so… feel free to say no,” he began, “But, um… I was thinking…”

He definitely had her attention now.

“Can I try on one of your dresses?”

“Now you want to try on a dress?”

“It’s stupid. Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s just…”

She got up from the bed and went to the closet, where she picked out a yellow dress and brought it back to Carter.

“Here, this is one of my favorites.”

Carter took the dress in his hands, his heart pounding ferociously in his chest. He stood up and looked toward the door.

“Okay,” he said, “I’ll be right back.”

He returned to his own room and stripped out of his skirt and top before sliding the dress over his head.

It fit… perfectly, of course. And it still looked the same as when he was holding it.

He returned to Victoria, his stomach churning once again.

“Oh, so that’s what I look like,” she mused, “Except your hair’s a mess. Let me brush t.”

Carter followed her motion towards the bed and sat down. The feel of a brush through his long hair was a brand new sensation. But she was gentle, probably more gentle than he was with her own hair.

“So… if I’m wearing your clothes when the spell wears off… what happens to them?”

“Um… I guess they get torn up. You’re going to have to take it off before that.”

“Well I’m not wearing this forever,” Carter said, rolling his eyes.

Victoria finished brushing his hair and let it fall around his shoulders. He stood up and swayed a little, noticing how the dress and his hair responded to his movements.

“So what’s it like wearing a dress for the first time?” Victoria asked.

“A lot like wearing a skirt for the first time,” he replied, “Just… roomier. Like a toga or something,”

“Have you ever worn a toga before?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then how to you know what it feels like?!”

“Ugh.”

He sat back down on the bed, pulling his legs together so his knees touched. Victoria sat beside him, still looking at him for direction.

She still looked tense and uncertain, as if she were a deer waiting to bolt at any moment.

She still didn’t really feel comfortable around him.

He couldn’t leave this hanging over her head forever. Even if it meant that his heart wasn’t going to be in it.

“Victoria, I… I forgive you for what you did.”

Victoria looked stunned. Carter opened his mouth to say more, but she quickly grabbed him in a very tight hug. He started to object, but closed his mouth as she started sobbing in relief.

“Thank you,” she said, once she had stopped crying, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

He patted her on the back, insisting, “It’s okay. Just try not to get too many tears on your dress.”

Carter did give the dress back to her and changed into his own pajamas, which then immediately transformed into a bright pink ensemble decorated in cartoon kittens. When he got back into the living room where Victoria was waiting in her own pajamas, she looked as if she wanted to trade outfits.

“You sure we can’t have ice cream?” she asked, plopping down on the couch beside him.

“After all that candy earlier? No. We’d both feel sick.”

He changed the TV’s input to the DVD player and hit play, also stifling a yawn in the process.

“No we won’t. You’re my age now, remember? You’re not an old man anymore.”

“But I am in charge, and I remember being your age and thinking I could do the exact same thing. I couldn’t then and I couldn’t now.”

Victoria just rolled her eyes.

“I’m already letting you watch a second PG-13 movie today,” he reminded her, pointing at Iron Man on the menu screen, “We can have ice cream tomorrow.”

“Alright, fine,” she said, rubbing her eyes, “Just hit play already.”

It was barely 7:30 when they started the movie, but Carter saw Victoria yawn a few more times (it must have been contagious, because so was he) before she eventually just couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore. And after such a long day, he couldn’t blame her. He was going to be out soon enough.

He quit the DVD and turned off the TV set, throwing the remote to the floor before leaning back himself.

Technically, there was still a full day of him looking like his sister to get through. And he might just go stir crazy sitting in this house all day. And there would be problems if their parents got home early or they had to leave the house themselves for some reason. And for all he know falling asleep made the spell permanent or something—though if that were the case it probably wouldn’t last twenty-four hours. But it was late and it was getting hard for him to care.

At the very least, he knew that he wouldn’t feel nearly as much outside his comfort zone tomorrow. And it would be a relief not to have his stomach doing backflips all day.

And, if he were being completely honest with himself, in the last few moments of consciousness remaining that he wouldn’t remember in the morning anyway: in a roundabout fashion, Victoria’s plan did work. They were indeed closer as siblings, and hopefully would be for the rest of their lives.