“Thank you all!” Becca yells into her microphone to the screaming crowd as we all wave happily. “Thank you all so, so much!”

“Thank you Glasgow!” I scream into my microphone, taking several deep breaths (despite my tight clothing) to rest my tired voice.

“We love you all!” Lauren yells into the microphone, her long, ginger hair pinned to her face with sweat thanks to our two hour long concert- our tenth in twelve days, and thankfully, our last for the time being.

“Look man, when you said shooting the rapids would be an adventure I kinda thought, you know, a nice sort of civilized outing with trucks and guides and whatnot!”

“Yeah, I kinda figured there’d be some water involved too…” Pete gestured around them. “Think the rafts wills slide down these things?”

Kevin stared off into the distance, fuming as the wind hummed over the dunes.

PROOF OF AGE

by
Emma Finn

A teenage girl makes a bargain to increase her age in the hopes of gaining freedom for her and her boyfriend to be together but being older is not all it’s cracked up to be and she may just have made a terrible mistake.

A female to female magical weight-gain and age-progression transformation.

1

“It’s just not fair mum!” cried Trinny, feeling more and more exasperated. “I wanna go to the disco with Andy!”

“You don’t lie to me,” I sing in my low, sultry voice.

“You don’t lie to me,” Lauren repeats in her own rich singing voice.

“You don’t lie to me,” Kayla sings with a devilish look in her eyes.

“You don’t lie to me…” Adeola sings as we all so a single turn before we all throw our arms in the air.

“No more lies!” The five of us sing in unison, earning a thunderous rounds of applause from our producer Stuart and our choreographer Krystie.

“BRILLIANT,” Krystie giggles. “Choreography was spot on, well done, girls.”

Where does one person end and another begin? Usually not a difficult question to answer as each mind is confined to the brain it inhabits, but as our ingenuity enables us to overcome the barriers nature would impose on us, so we discover there are unforeseen consequences.

Nietzsche famously said that when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. I'm not sure this is what he meant by it, but it fits. Physics predicts that you can't observe something without changing it, and as you exert an influence on it, so it responds by exerting one on you.

Not in any way a Valentines story, but it's finished, so it might as well go up.

“Everyone’s staring at me again,” Jessica moaned, relaxing back into her chair.

“Staring at US,” Paige said. “And let them stare. Nothing they can do about it, they can hardly throw us off the plane now, can they?”

“God knows there are people who’d want to,” Jessica replied. “America may have legalized gay marriage, but that doesn’t mean everyone in America agrees with the Supreme Court.”

“I’m heading out now,” I say, grimacing in advance at the inevitable response.

“Kayleigh-Ann,” mum says in an obviously fake pained voice, “come here…” I roll my eyes, before heading into the living room and facing my mother, whose face is scrunched up in a look of pure disapproval.

“What is it?” I ask. “I don’t want to keep Ollie waiting…” I don’t want to keep Ian waiting, either, I think to myself.

“WHY are you going out with him?” Mum asks, barely restraining herself from spitting. “He’s a nerd…”

My hands shake with nerves as I- and everyone else in the vast room- watch the action unfolding on the television with baited breath.

“Come on,” I whisper. “I know you can do it…”

“The winner,” the blonde TV presenter announces in her refined northern accent, “of Strictly Come Dancing 2015 is…” A long, agonising pause fills the room as everyone holds their breath, waiting for the inevitable announcement.

“…Hannah and Robin!” The presenter says in a happy voice, prompting a loud, riotous cheer from everyone around me- myself included.

A Whateley Academy Short Story

Medicine Girl

by

ElrodW

Wednesday, May 16^th, 2015, dinnertime

Crystal Hall, Whateley Academy

When my cell phone beeped to tell me I had a message and I saw the number, I tried really hard not to show it, but I was a little nervous, and I guess that my team-mates and friends noticed.

THE MIXED TAPE MYTHOS STORIES

In the Australian outback a solitary traveller stops at a strange roadside store and leaves with a mysterious cassette. A homeless busker tells of the night that they became a conduit for a wild and otherworldly force. A young writer meets a man with no shadow. We will encounter her again, a student at an academy for witches and warlocks. The results of a pitched and secret battle in a secluded valley shapes humankind’s destiny amongst the stars. The wondrous and terrifying magic of the Mixed Tapes links disparate tales of sex, superheroes, fantastical kingdoms, and human and inhuman monsters. If you have ever wondered what the little indulgences that frame my anthologies add up to, here they are, all in one place, for your reading pleasure.

Concludes with an announcement regarding the first Mixed Tape of 2016

“Don’t see why you’re moaning,” dad laughs as I pass him yet another handful of pink and silver streamers. “You’re the one who insists on hanging out with these celebrities, attending their parties… There’s no ducking out of it now just because it’s your turn to organise one!”

“Give me a break,” I sigh. “I’ve been at work every day this week…”

“Ooh, poor you, having to work for a living,” Beverly laughs, making me sigh. “Thanks for helping out today, Chris.”

“My pleasure,” dad says. “She’s my future daughter-in-law, that makes her family, right?”

This is your usual disclaimer. It's fiction people! It was inspired by a number of popular shows and movies, but I do believe that my take on them is all mine. That also mean that despite Cathy's best efforts all the mistake are mine. Please enjoy and take it in the spirit that it is meant. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all and the rest of that Jazz!

Robin or Robyn - That the girl’s spelling - yes?

How would Robin cope with losing absolutely everything in the fire. It is amazing how people will help a hero-ine in a pretty nightdress. But the noise the people made - shouting at her to keep calm. Terrible.

Mention of the SisterDom / SisterDy as a support group.

Chapter 43 - A Reunion of Sorts

There is no love without forgiveness and there is no forgiveness without love.

I punched the cat-thing again, and a sparkly, silvery liquid burst out from its body.

It was beautiful.

The scene around me was of devastation - the street was pockmarked with crater, and a good chunk of them literally burned with high-precision laser. The buildings were similarly devastated - cut-apart by laser, smashed by thrown chunks of asphalt, or hollowed out by cat-thing’s ear.

It was surprisingly capable. Why did it need to contract magical girls at all?

The Development of the Male - and the learning of Female attributes. Mrs. Grant was an excellent teacher - and she had some new ideas on teaching the basic facts of life.

This is a story which indirectly mentions the SisterDom group which in previous stories encourages boys and men to learn the benefits of getting in touch with their feminine component.

"Project!" Miss Fullerton- my ballet teacher- shouts in a clipped voice as I balance en pointe, reaching forward with elegant, flowing arms. My face is a picture of perfection- immaculately made up, wide, expressive eyes that make it clear to everyone watching that I am not just a ballerina, I am- or at least aspire to be- a PRIMA ballerina, the ultimate expression of feminine beauty.

A wife discovers her husband's hobby and offers to help him experience what it is like to be a woman.

A young woman is singled out of superherodom, but is having none of it. A group of teenagers disturb a malicious spirit. A radical plan to improve the American political process. Hit play on the last TG Mixed Tape for 2015 for all these stories and more, featuring contributions from Efindumb, Ellie Dauber, Desert Willow, Misaania, Jenny North, Callie Messenger, Person42, Hikaro, Shauna, Trismegistus Shandy, kandijayne, Desert Willow and Anon Allsop