In this magical romantic mystery, a teenage boy wakes up one morning to find himself afflicted with a strange musical curse. The boy tries to find the source of the curse to end it but finding magic in today's world isn't easy, especially when love is involved.

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This is a complete story of four parts and I'll post one part every Sunday.

Music Magic
by Terry Volkirch

Feminine Fugue in B Minor

Two years later….

Steve stood at the front door of his house, trying to make sure he didn't forget anything. He had his hand on the knob but hadn't yet opened the door.

"Don't forget your ear plugs!" his mother called from the kitchen.

"Got 'em!" he called back. "No way I'd forget those," he muttered. "But I'm sure I'm forgetting something else."

His mother walked into the room and shook her head. "I still wish you'd let me get you an MP3 player and set you up to be a girl all day at school. You might learn something."

"Mom!"

"But you make such a cute girl. Would it really be so bad?" She sighed.

"I bet Dad would think so," Steve replied.

"Your dad isn't here. He's at work. I'm asking you."

Steve pretended to think about it before blurting out, "Well… yeah. I don't care if my ID changes. Someone would find out and I'd get in a lot of trouble."

"That's not why you won't try it."

"It is too! Well… that and the clothes are a pain. It doesn't make sense that I change back but my clothes don't."

Sue shook her head. "Nothing about it makes sense," she said.

"True. And that includes keeping my girl clothes. I can't believe you want me to keep them. I'm not going to wear them again."

"I already told you. Clothes are too expensive to waste. We gave away a few things as you outgrew them, like your bras." Steve cringed. "But you might need an outfit again. What if you changed while you were taking a shower? What would you wear then?"

"Ew! Mom! Don't even."

Sue rolled her eyes but knew better than to press her point.

"How long do you stay a girl now?" she asked suddenly.

"Three hours," he reluctantly admitted.

"And how long did you stay a girl when you first started changing?"

"About an hour".

Sue gave him a warm smile. She wasn't trying to be cruel. "If you keep becoming a girl for a longer period of time, you might have to stay that way for days instead of hours. And someday, you might not change back. Did you ever consider that?"

"Yeah. Sure. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"So what if I would? I love you dearly, but I admit it. I've always wanted a daughter. Is that so bad?"

"It is if you had anything to do with my changing," he retorted.

"What?! You still accuse me after I fainted when I first saw you change?"

"Well... I can't help being a little suspicious."

His mother walked up to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "I only want what's best for you, my darling little girl." She realized her mistake too late and gave Steve a guilty smile.

"How can this even happen? And why? Why me?!" He started crying, something he did with increasing frequency. It disturbed him but he couldn't help himself. Crying had become somewhat addictive after he found how good he felt afterward.

"There there," his mother said as she embraced him.

~o~O~o~

He eventually remembered what he'd forgotten. Remembering didn't matter so much though. It would've made his walks to and from school more comfortable but it wouldn't prevent him from having to return home that morning. Sometimes things just happened that can't be helped, as Steve found out only fifteen minutes after school started.

As he slumped down in his seat near the back of his geometry class, half listening to his teacher drone on about the wonders of isosceles triangles, he caught another sound, a musical sound. A classmate was quietly humming a catchy little tune and he strained to hear more of it, not thinking about who was doing the humming.

Music held a strange fascination for Steve. He found it to be so beautiful, yet he feared how it could change him, making it a sort of forbidden fruit that he couldn't help but crave. Listening to the radio was like walking through a mine field. He still listened though, once he found stations that tended to play a majority of songs with male vocalists, and he learned all he could about music, including memorizing song lyrics and learning to read music. Reading music made it possible for him to hum popular tunes — according to the music charts — that were sung by female vocalists. He'd get the sheet music and lock himself in his room to hum his newest musical treasures. Humming became Steve's favorite way to hear a melody and made it almost impossible to resist listening, even when a girl was doing the humming.

His friend, Amber, sat diagonally to the left and up one row, and she absently hummed to herself. 'How odd,' he thought. She never showed any musical inclination at all. She was normally safe to be around, never singing, humming or whistling to threaten a gender change. Sometimes he wished he could be more than friends with her but for the moment, being her friend was enough. That and trying to figure out what song she was humming. It made the back of his neck tingle. It was that good. 'Oops.'

He realized his mistake too late. He began humming along with her before he knew what he was doing, and as he did, his whole body began to tingle.

"Oh, shit!" he muttered under his breath. "Not here!" He stopped humming but it was too late. He started to change, a process that only took about a minute to complete even though it felt like an hour.

Looking around, he didn't see anyone watching him. He'd changed in public before and no one other than his mother ever seemed to notice. It was part of the magic. During his transformation, he became the invisible… teen. He wanted to say boy but that was no longer true.

'Not again,' echoed in his head for a short time, until he looked to his left and saw Dave eyeing him with confusion and… interest. 'Oh, no.'

"Hey there," Dave whispered. "Where did you come from? Got a name? I'm Dave." He flashed a smile and Steve thought he'd puke.

By this time, even Mr. Packwood noticed something was happening that didn't involve geometry. He walked back to Dave's desk, glared down at him and asked, "Care to share?" He always asked troublemakers that same annoying question.

"Yeah," Dave replied. "I'd like to know who this girl is." He pointed to Steve.

That did it. Steve freaked out. He jumped up, shouting over his pretty little left shoulder as he ran out of the classroom in a skirt and low heels. "Oops! Sorry! Wrong class! How embarrassing!" His nervous feminine laughter faded away as he escaped down the hall, leaving a lot of confused students and a cranky teacher.

~o~O~o~

Music filled the world. With an ever growing population, the number of musicians and bands naturally increased, but electronics made the biggest difference. With speakers and stereo systems, songs could be played virtually anywhere at all hours of the day and it took constant vigilance to avoid them — an impossible feat as Steve found out.

Up to that point, his musical curse had activated just over a dozen times out in public. Sometimes, the music played too loudly for earplugs to completely block, and sometimes his own weak willpower sabotaged him. The music blared and seeped into his head. Before long, he started singing or humming along with it, and if the singer happened to be a woman, a minute later, he was Stephanie, or Steph as his mother liked to call him.

He'd discovered his new name when he'd had his wallet during a change. His wallet had become a small purse and all of his identification had displayed his new name as Stephanie Anne Hamblin. He had to get new identification and had stopped carrying it with him except when he absolutely had to. He'd recently gotten his drivers license and the thought of having to carry it around stressed him out more than a little.

His present transformation stressed him out more though. It was the first time he'd changed in school. Amber's humming caught him by surprise and he could have kicked himself. He could've easily avoided it if he'd tried. What was it about humming that he found so irresistible?

He thought long and hard about his curse as he walked home from school, not even trying to suppress the feminine sway to his denim skirt as he walked. He just carried on, hugging himself to keep warm in the cold autumn air.

It felt as if someone wanted him to be a girl, someone very devious. That someone must have realized that music made a great way to trigger a series of temporary transformations. That way, he could hide away for short periods of time until he became a boy again. It allowed him and perhaps, eventually, everyone around him to slowly get used to his gender change. 'Simply devious,' he thought. He couldn't completely avoid music and he hated to admit it but he found himself slowly getting used to being a girl. It no longer bothered him nearly as much as it did his first time.

What bothered him most was how it was even possible. Everything he learned, everyone he knew said that spontaneous sex changes didn't happen. But they did happen! His body proved it. The real world obviously had limits, and beyond modern knowledge something else, something magical took over to fill the gaps. Magic existed.

The next logical questions were who did it and why? Finding who did it might lead to an answer as to why. He could simply ask the person why they cursed him. But how could he find the person responsible? And could he get that person to end the curse? More importantly, by the time he found the culprit, would he want to end it?

'Oh!' he thought. 'Logic is so frustrating! I'm so sick of logic!'

He realized that he sounded like a human sci-fi character who vented her frustration at her unemotional alien husband and son, but instead of crying, he laughed. He amazed himself by relating to the female character and he laughed. Then he sighed and wondered if he'd ever go back to staying male, though he vowed to at least find the person who cursed him. He wanted answers. He felt that he deserved that much.

~o~O~o~

Steve got home without mishap. He unlocked the front door and locked it again behind him. Then he ran upstairs to his bedroom and sat down on the edge of his bed, carefully keeping his knees together and spending a good five minutes trying to will himself to go back to being a boy. It didn't work.

"Hey!" he said, looking down at his chest. "That's right, boobs. I'm talking to you. Stop growing. I mean it. That's an order. Stop! Growing!"

Over the past two years, his breasts had increased to a small B cup when he transformed. They didn't usually seem to grow but once in a while, they had a sudden growth spurt after one of his transformations, and just like that, all of his bras — except the one he got with his latest change — no longer fit. It made him wonder how much his breasts would've grown if he'd been a girl full-time. Perhaps they occasionally had a magical growth spurt to catch up to the size they'd normally be at his current age. Who knew how magic worked?

"I guess I can't stop you," he told his boobs. "But I hope you'll forgive me for trying. Maybe someday I'll… like you. Both of you." He knew he was being silly but he didn't have anyone else to talk to about it. His father still didn't know — or more likely had a serious mental block — and his mother kept trying to encourage him to be a girl.

He flopped on his back, flipped his hair out and away from his head and stared up at the ceiling. He suddenly realized that his hair grew faster — or perhaps independently — as a girl. He had several haircuts as a boy and yet his hair as a girl was longer than ever. He wondered if he might have to go to a salon to get his hair cut as a girl and that thought really depressed him. A few tears ran down the side of his face as he waited to change back into a boy.

~o~O~o~

"Hey, Steve!" Amber called from a lunch table. "Over here! I saved you a seat!"

He raced over to her and waited to catch his breath before he drank down a full bottle of water that he'd brought from home. He also prepared a bag with a few things to eat before he changed so he'd be ready to run back to school right away. Lunch with Amber was often the highlight of his day and he didn't want to miss it, though that day, he nearly did. Timing himself at home, he discovered another fifteen minutes had been added to his girl time. By the time he got back to school, he only had another quarter of an hour before lunch hour ended.

"What happened to you in geometry?" Amber asked him. "Where've you been?"

She wore jeans and a light blue, long-sleeved knit top that hugged all of her curves perfectly. Her long, straight golden hair seemed to glow from the light of the heat lamps behind her in the kitchen area. The sight of her inspired a wonderful daydream that involved just the two of them and a picnic lunch and it took a moment for Steve to come back to reality and answer her.

"Family emergency. Sorry. I slipped out the back. I didn't want to interrupt such a fascinating lecture."

He'd thought of an excuse and rehearsed it in his head on his way back to school. It sounded plausible enough, though Amber raised a skeptical eyebrow.

'How does she do that?' he thought. She always looked like she knew when he wasn't truthful. 'So why doesn't she ever call me on it?'

"You missed something really weird," his friend told him.

"Oh?"

"Some girl ended up in your seat. She caused a scene with Dashing Dave and suddenly realized she was in the wrong class. She flew out the door and no one has seen her since. The few who saw her face said they'd never seen her before."

"Yeah," Steve said. "That does sound weird." He paused to nibble a carrot. While he chewed, he began feeling guilty about his lie. He normally confessed soon after getting the skeptical eyebrow treatment.

"Uh…," he began, after swallowing. "About that family emergency. I… I'm sorry. That's not really true. It sort of is. I mean, it was kind of a personal emergency… for me. I… I just can't…."

"What?" Amber interrupted. "Just say it."

"I can't. I'm not ready to tell you. Just… just forget it."

Amber shrugged and sighed, wishing he'd open up to her. She wished a lot of things, but they rarely came true. She really wanted to like him as more than a friend. That couldn't happen though. She sighed again.

"Hey," Steve said. "Don't be like that. Come on. I'll take you to see that movie you wanted to see. What was it again?" With his earplugs stuffed in his ears during the music, he figured it would be safe enough to sit through a movie. He made it through all but one out of a dozen or so movies without changing. The only reason he changed in the one movie was because the sound in the theater's sound system blared louder than normal and the movie featured several songs with female vocalists. He didn't have a chance.

Amber looked at him like he was from another planet in spite of his best intentions. "Brimstone and Broomsticks," she said, with very little enthusiasm that had nothing to do with the movie.

"Yeah. That one. Wanna go this Friday night?"

"No, thank you."

"How about Saturday night then?"

"Take a hint, Steve!" Amber shouted as she began to cry. "I can't be your girlfriend!" With that loud proclamation, she jumped up, did a perfect slam dunk of her lunch bag in the nearest trash can and ran out of the lunch room.

"Shot down again," he moaned quietly. He kept telling himself he was happy just being her friend but he couldn't help asking her out every so often.

~o~O~o~

Amber avoided eye contact with Steve the rest of the day. They had two more classes together and then everyone spilled out into the parking lot. The pair of them usually walked home together but Steve left his friend alone that day. Her stiff posture whenever he came near her made it clear that he wasn't welcome.

Since he started transforming into a girl, Steve picked up more subtle cues in voice tone and body language as well as whatever words were spoken. His social and communication skills improved in leaps and bounds. That part of being a girl never bothered him. Instead, he looked on with fascination as we watched and eavesdropped on groups of girls. He could follow several conversations at once and he loved it. He found his life very strange but it had its good moments.

As the crowds thinned out, Steve gave up on his people watching and entertained himself by watching his breath billow out ahead of him in the cold air. But he didn't like what he saw in the sky beyond his breath. Heavy clouds rolled in, threatening rain and making for a gloomy mid afternoon. The boy quickened his pace to try to get home ahead of any rain. He wasn't dressed for it.

'That's what I forgot this morning,' he thought, missing his coat. 'I'm too used to hoodies. I hope I don't get soaked.'

He caught up to the last two students, a boy and a girl who'd been ahead of him on the sidewalk, and almost screeched to a halt. He saw a colored glow around both of them. The boy mostly glowed red-orange and the girl glowed yellow. He could see the colors distinctly against a white house across the street from where they were walking, and he watched in amazement for several seconds as the colors changed slightly in hue and intensity as the two teens talked.

"Ah. Excuse me," he said to them as he finally resumed his fast pace and passed, shaking his head.

He spent the rest of his walk home deep in thought. The colors meant something important, something related to his sex changes. He was sure of it. He just needed to do some online research when he got home to figure it all out.

~o~O~o~

Steve sat at his little wooden desk, looking at his computer and listening to the radio. He found a classic rock station that rarely played songs with female vocalists. When the odd song came up with a woman singing, he could easily jump up and turn it off before he changed. He wasn't paying too much attention to the radio at the moment though.

The current website on his computer displayed an article about auras. According to the article, auras had colors and could be seen if a person sensitized their eyes to them. On the odd occasion, trauma could also sometimes trigger the ability to see auras.

After checking on the meaning of colors and how they reflected the current spiritual development and emotional states of a person, he was sure he was seeing auras, and it made him wonder if his musical curse could've triggered his new ability.

'But that doesn't make sense,' he though. 'I was traumatized when I first started changing. Why see auras now after two years?'

His mind wandered to various subjects — school, his parents, friends, very good friends — and he soon found himself wondering what color Amber's aura was at that moment. He imagined seeing a hint of blue around her, with purple and pink occasionally flaring up. He thought that would look good with her blonde hair.

He found himself very focused on Amber as he stared out through the window above his desk. He suspected that he loved her and idly wondered about the color of his own aura and whether he could see it. If he concentrated on Amber, he suspected that he'd see pink, the color of love, but fear and frustration kept him from trying it.

He switched back to thinking about auras again and suddenly realized something important. His day had been quite traumatizing, with two events that he'd certainly never forget. Changing into a girl at school scared him well enough that morning, and at lunch he endured something even worse. Amber's loud and clear public announcement that she couldn't be his boyfriend shook him to his core. She'd never gone that far before. She'd rebuffed his subtle advances before but up until that day, she'd always been polite and gentle about it, leaving the door open for the possibility of a future relationship, at least in his mind.

Dwelling on Amber took up a large amount of Steve's thoughts, making it difficult to pay attention to the radio. That's how he'd ended up changing into a girl the few times before in his bedroom and it created the perfect storm that afternoon. When a certain song started playing, it completely overwhelmed the lovesick boy.

When the truth is found to be lies
An' all the joy within you dies

Don't you want somebody to love?
Don't you need somebody to love?
Wouldn't you love somebody to love?
You better find someone to love

The song sucked him in with the female vocalist's strong voice and very appropriate words. He started singing along with the chorus the next time it came up and he felt the tingling. He knew what it meant but he didn't care. He almost wanted it to happen. He wanted to cry and he wanted to be a girl so he wouldn't feel any shame when crying.

By the last verse, he'd changed completely, and tears dripped down onto his breasts. The words matched his reality and mood perfectly.

Tears are runnin', runnin' along down your breast
And your friends, baby, they treat you like a guest

With a last little tingling on the back of his neck, he sang along with the chorus as he got up from his chair. The song finished and his hand swatted his clock radio, turning it off in one easy swipe. Then he flopped back on his bed to continue crying in perfect comfort.

~o~O~o~

"Steve? Are you in there? Dinner's ready. Steve? I'm coming in."

Sue barged into her son's room to find a familiar girl, fast asleep. She looked down and smiled, staring for a short time before covering her daughter with a blanket to keep off the chill. She kissed the girl's forehead and then quietly shut the door behind her. Stephanie apparently needed her beauty sleep.

Steve's mother couldn't stop smiling as she slowly walked back downstairs to rejoin her husband for dinner. She'd always hoped that her son would grow to like being a girl and wondered if it might not be happening. Her son had been turning into a girl more and more frequently lately. She knew she was being selfish but she couldn't help wanting a daughter.

"Well?" her husband, Jack, asked as Sue sat down at the dining table. "Where is he?"

"She…." Sue quickly stopped herself after crawling out of a pleasant daydream of shopping with her daughter.

"She?" Jack frowned.

"Sorry. I was thinking of someone else. Steve fell asleep. He must have had a hard day at school. I know he sounded stressed out this morning. I'll reheat something for him later."

"Ah. A little stress is good for him. It'll make man out of him."

Sue playfully slapped his arm and he laughed.

"Seriously, Jack. Haven't you wondered what it would be like to have a daughter?"

"My mother has often told me she wanted a second granddaughter but I haven't really thought about it."

"Yes, I don't blame Mother Hamblin about that. Our niece isn't the most feminine girl, is she?"

"Nothing wrong with being a tomboy," Jack said firmly.

'If only the reverse was true,' Sue thought, and she decided to pursue the matter. "Isn't it interesting that girls can wear anything but a boy would be attacked if he wore a dress?"

"What? That's different."

"How so? I admit that dresses probably wouldn't flatter a boy's frame, but what's wrong with a skirt? Scottish men wear kilts."

Jack paused to think. He tried to be fair in spite of years of conditioning by the mainstream media and his peers. Still, the majority of American men fell back into sexist stereotypes so easily.

"I guess it might work if all the boys were wearing skirts. The Scots all grew up with kilts so they're used to them. But here, if only one boy wears a skirt, the other boys would beat him to a pulp — not the best way to fit in."

"And why do boys feel they have to beat up a boy wearing a skirt? Does it somehow insult their male pride?"

"Maybe. I think it's just too different… and disturbing. You know how bad peer pressure can be."

"You wouldn't like it then?"

Jack looked confused. "Like what?"

"A feminine son. Ben has no trouble wooing young ladies but Steve isn't the most masculine boy, is he."

"Is that what this is about? Steven? He's had an eye on some girl…."

"Amber," Sue said.

"Right. Amber. He's had his eye on her for a while now. What happened?"

"Nothing so far. Nothing after months of trying."

"Well, there are plenty of other fish in the sea. I'm sure he can find some other girl."

"Jack! He doesn't want another girl. You know Amber. She's been here several times. They're perfect for each other."

"How do you know? Has Steve been talking to you about girls?" Jack raised his voice a little as he got a little defensive when it came to dating advice for his sons. It didn't sit well with him that his youngest boy would confide in his mother instead of him.

"No, he hasn't been talking to me, not in any depth anyway, but I can read the signs well enough."

"Oh, I can read signs. There's stop signs, yield signs, speed limit signs,…."

Sue playfully slapped his arm again and laughed. "Men!" she said.

"Love you," Jack said. It was his gentle way of saying that he'd had enough of the conversation.

"Love you," Sue responded. She decided to continue putting off the unveiling of Stephanie. Her loving husband sounded like he needed more time to get used to the idea of having a daughter.

~o~O~o~

Just over two miles away on a large acre lot that abutted a wilderness park, an uncommon family spent much of their time behind a veil of magical camouflage in a modest two-story split-level house. Painting the house to blend in with the trees and shrubs helped but strong magic handled most of the work. If someone wandered too close or was acquainted with the family that lived there, they'd suspect that a house would have to exist nearby, but the magic confused or distracted them just enough to make them forget all about the house. Witches needed all the protection they could get. People of the modern world could be just as cruel as those who instigated the Salem witch trials.

Amber sat in her father's soft black leather recliner, close to her mother who sat on a spotless white sofa. The television was on but Amber muted the sound. She wanted to have a serious discussion with her mother.

"Why can't I go to school with Max and Sarah?"

"Amber… you know why. Your brother and sister can wield magic and you can't. We've discussed this at least a dozen times."

"Maybe half a dozen," the girl muttered, a pout forming on her pretty face. She knew the reason that her mother always gave her. And with her uncanny ability to know when someone is lying, she knew it was the truth. But she also knew deep down that it wasn't the whole truth. That's why she never gave up. Someday, she'd get the full story.

"Even if your father and I wanted you to go — which we do — you can't pass the entrance exam, not without magic. You can't practice magic so you can't really learn it, and half of the required classes deal directly with the use of magic. I'm sorry, Amber."

"What about potions? You don't need magic for those, do you?"

"Yes. All magic items require an enchantment on one or more of the ingredients. Please, Daughter. Drop the subject." A tear rolled down her cheek. "You're breaking my heart."

"Oh, Momma. I'm sorry." The girl rushed to her mother's side and hugged her. She didn't want to cause her parents any emotional pain, but it always seemed to end up that way whenever she brought up the subject of her education. It just served to reinforce the feeling that something was being hidden from her.

"You have to go to school and that only leaves having to learn with mundanes."

Amber's lower lip trembled.

"Oh, Daughter. I don't think of you as a mundane. I never have. But you can't go to the Academy and I can't home school you. I have too many responsibilities, as does your father. I'm so sorry."

The girl looked deep into her mother's eyes and saw the love and at least some truth there. She would've smiled at that moment, except in addition to the pleasant view, she saw shadows of guilt and dread looming in the background. Her mother definitely hid something from her and she vowed to find out what it was.

~o~O~o~

The packed lunchroom buzzed with clattering tableware and boisterous voices. Friends huddled close together so they could hear each other speak. Steve looked around for a friendly table and made his way over when he spotted a couple friends that he'd been neglecting lately in favor of Amber. He came up behind one friend, Greg, and had to suppress the urge to give him a makeover. Greg's barber styled haircut, loud, short-sleeved dress shirt and tattered brown corduroy pants with canvas high-topped basketball shoes screamed geek. His second friend dressed quite a bit more normally at least, with colors that mostly matched and nice, if inexpensive, Levi jeans.

Steve sighed and compared his own school clothes. He did often wear hoodies but they displayed clever and interesting designs and they were always perfectly color coordinated with the rest of his outfit. On colder days, he might consider moleskin jeans but on that day, he wore black designer jeans with black Mephisto walking shoes. The shoes were by far the most expensive thing he wore that day but they were worth the money.

He briefly wondered what kind of outfit his clothes would become if he changed into a girl at that moment. His male outfit yesterday was nicer than he'd worn during any of his previous changes and it became a very feminine top and skirt. He almost froze to death on the walk home but he couldn't help appreciating the nicer clothes when he hung them in his closet.

He'd consider helping the boys dress better if he could get away with it, but he knew better. They wouldn't understand. Luckily, the urge to help them passed. He slowly shook his head and carefully sat on the bench next to his friend.

"Hey Greg," Steve said.

"Wow! Look at this, Dan," Greg said, smiling. "Steve really is still alive!"

"Yeah, about that. I guess I've been a little preoccupied with Amber lately."

"Preoccupied?" Dan shouted from the other side of Greg.

"He means he was stalking her." Greg tried to joke, but it fell flat. Greg didn't have the greatest of social skills.

"Chasing, lusting after, wooing…," Steve began, only to be interrupted by the two boys.

"Wooing?!" they chorused.

"My mom's word for it, okay? Just shut up. I'm trying to apologize."

"Real men don't apologize, dude," Dan huffed like he was serious but his eyes twinkled. He wasn't quite as bad as Greg when it came to casual conversation.

"Ha ha, Dan. Call it what you will, but I really like Amber. I thought she really liked me too, but after yesterday, I'm not so sure."

The two boys exchanged looks.

"Yeah, we heard," Dan said.

"Couldn't miss it, you mean," Greg added. "I think they heard Amber in the next state."

Steve turned away to hide his blushing and took his time, gathering his thoughts. As he stared into space, he started seeing a riot of colors mixing over the heads of his schoolmates. The auras returned with a vengeance, after being fairly dim and easy to ignore up to that point.

The curious boy looked around the lunchroom, seeing mostly red and orange among the boys and mostly yellow among the girls, just like the boy and girl he saw on the way home from school yesterday. As he continued scanning the room, his eyes fell upon Amber. Her aura glowed a light blue color, just like he imagined, until she suddenly got a funny look on her face and looked back in his direction. When she saw him, her eyes sparkled and her aura flashed a bright, clear pink, the color of love.

'What the f…," Steve thought.

Amber quickly looked away and Steve watched, fascinated by a storm of flashing purples and reds that swirled around the girl's head. He figured she must have felt his eyes on her because she suddenly jumped up and raced from the room, just as she'd done yesterday.

"Earth to Steve!" Dan's voice suddenly registered.

"What is it?" Steve turned to look at the two amused faces of his friends.

"Did you two have a moment there?" Dan asked. Both boys noticed who Steve was looking at.

"Pretty cool if you did," Greg piped up. "No words required. Dude, can you teach me that?"

"I think I need to go," Steve said quietly, leaving his lunch bag on the table.

"Can I have your lunch?" Greg asked.

Steve waved a hand towards his lunch bag as he turned to leave and both of his friend tore into the bag, looking for goodies. The carrots and celery didn't impress them but the small bar of organic dark chocolate made up for the vegetables. They split the chocolate bar between them and forgot all about their friend's odd behavior.

~o~O~o~

Steve drifted through most of the rest of the day, trying not to think about Amber and her aura, trying and failing. He managed to focus in his literature class but that was only because his friend wasn't in the class and the whole class period was devoted to reading their chosen books for book reports.

The current scene in his chosen romance novel featured a woman, Janey, trying to get the attention of a man named Will who seemed perfect for her but was completely oblivious to her flirting. What Janey didn't know was that Will knew she was interested in him. He was interested in her too. He just couldn't get up the nerve to flirt back. Shyness plagued him most of his life and threatened to leave him with a life totally devoid of any deep, meaningful relationships with women.

The frustrated teen could totally relate with the woman in the story, and he mentally shouted at the man to get together with her. He also took careful note of everything the woman tried to get the man's attention. He evaluated each and every technique to see if they might work on Amber.

Dressing well didn't work for either him or Janey, though he kept dressing well once he started. He found himself drawn to nicer clothes. The style of clothing he used to wear when he changed remained fairly similar, and with a closet full of casual girl outfits, the idea of changing sex while wearing nicer clothes appealed to him. He developed an appreciation for nicer clothes in more vibrant colors, and that included girls clothes — probably girls clothes more than boys if he was honest with himself.

Smiling more to get Amber's attention seemed promising at first. It didn't last though. Smiling so much either desensitized her or made her wonder if he was up to something — probably both. Janey had the same results so he shouldn't have put so much hope into it. He shouldn't try so hard. That's what Janey concluded after all of her attempts. Love either happens or it doesn't. It can't be forced.

Steve sighed and vowed to try a variation of Janey's latest failed method. She sent her love interest a greeting card, something that had to fail. Most men don't appreciate pretty covers and long, sentimental verses like Janey used. She should've just given the guy a short, hand-written note. But Steve didn't have the same problem. He wanted to try a nice card and add a short note, asking her why they can't date and see what happens. It couldn't hurt to try.

He turned his tablet off and set it on his desk, sighing again. Who was he kidding? A note would hurt because he knew what her answer would be. There was something odd about Amber. What was he missing? And why was he looking for answers in a romance novel? He shook his head and tried not to cry.

~o~O~o~

Mid afternoon sunshine filtered through dead leaves that still clung to branches of a long line of oak trees. The trees had been planted a couple hundred years ago along the narrow road that passed by the Hamblin home, providing welcome shade in the heat of summer but not doing much to help during the colder months. The stiff leaves rattled as a strong gust of wind hit them and Steve crossed his arms to try to ward off the chill.

'Screw this,' he thought. 'Tomorrow I'm not forgetting to wear a heavy coat, a very nice but heavy coat. I need to get one first though. I'll have to go shopping tonight.'

The cold air momentarily allowed him a reprieve from Amber. His thoughts roamed ahead of him in time. He imagined walking through the warm shopping mall with all the nice department stores and tried to decide which one he'd like to hit first. He didn't even notice when he ended up on the porch of his house until he found himself blocked by a closed door. He shook his head as he pulled out his house key to let himself in.

After a small snack of some carrot sticks, the preoccupied teen ended up in his bedroom, sorting through some music choices that he'd recently downloaded to his computer. He hoped to lose himself in music and forget all about Amber for a while.

Since he'd started listening to the classic rock station on the radio, he found a lot of older bands that he liked. One band that really caught his attention was Pink Floyd. They had a unique sound that caught his ear, and all the members were male. He wouldn't have to worry about female backup singers.

The first album he chose to listen to that afternoon, Dark Side of the Moon, had actually been recommended by his friend, Dan. Dan liked a lot of the same older bands that Steve did, one of the many things they had in common, and the great majority of the bands they both liked had male vocalists. Steve really appreciated that fact.

Dan made a good friend, appearing fairly normal in spite of having a strange mother who was into astrology and Wicca. But really, she was cool, and she never forced her beliefs on Dan or anyone else. If only she didn't burn so much incense. Steve hated visiting their house. He had a strong sense of smell and hated incense so he usually avoided Dan's house and listened to music in his room. It was safer that way.

The lovesick teen shook his head and started playing the music, falling in love with the album after only the second song. He laid back on his bed and let the soothing sounds wash over him, helping him to forget all about his problems.

After a song called "Time" finished, Steve remembered that he'd heard parts of it before as bumper music for a late night radio show. The strong bass chords had caused a thin, glass vase on his dresser to vibrate, reminding him of some of the strange topics on the radio show that played on the weekends. They covered many fringe ideas from aliens and UFOs to telekinesis and levitation. The distracted boy imagined being responsible for the vibrating vase by using telekinesis, and while he had his fun, he missed the beginning of the next song.

The Great Gig in the Sky seemed interesting for a title for a song, but the vocals were even more interesting. Mellow piano started the song and Steve barely noticed. Nearly a minute later, a man briefly spoke and very soon after that, a woman began wailing to the melody. There were no lyrics. She just inserted herself into the song like another instrument. It was unlike anything the boy had ever heard before and he found himself transfixed. After hearing the melody repeat, his lips and voice tried to match the wailing woman and a familiar tingling began.

The song ended and the next one called Money began. The words to that song reminded him of his plans to go shopping that evening. But he just called off those plans because he wouldn't be able to fit well in any boys coats. Instead, he kept very still, trying to ignore his curves and the call of his relatively new floor-length mirror on the back of his door, urging him to look at his reflection and see his new outfit.

"Dang," he said in a clear soprano voice.

~o~O~o~

The next day started out well enough. Steve made it through school and made it home without hearing a single note of music. Amber ignored him and he ignored her back, allowing him to focus on lectures and actually learn something. All he had to do was resist the temptation to play any music before dinner and he'd be at the mall in no time. He was determined to get a new coat.

The family quietly dined on meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans for a ridiculously long time of forty five minutes or so, and before his father could even think about loosening his belt and belching, Steve called his mother into the kitchen and begged her to let him drive her car to the mall — he knew better than to ask to drive his father's beloved car. The teen quietly but forcefully explained that he needed a nice winter coat to keep from freezing on his walks to and from school — and to keep from looking drab as well.

Sue smiled at her earnest son and nodded. "Sure, I'll let you. But I'd like a favor in return."

Steve gulped and gave her a half smile. "You want a mother-daughter outing. Right?"

"Mmm hmm," she nodded.

"Fine. When and where?" he asked, looking down at his feet.

"Oh… some future date at a place to be determined."

"Mom!" he looked up, horrified. "Please not the mall. Anything but that."

Sue frowned. "Oh, poo. You like shopping. But fine then, never mind. I understand. Let me get my car keys and you can go."

"Thanks, Mom," he said quietly.

She waved him off and Steve soon sat behind the wheel of his mother's dark blue sedan, heading towards the mall. He purposely left his tired old coat at home and hummed as he drove, enjoying the anticipation of replacing the coat. He couldn't understand how he could've ever liked such a ratty old thing.

~o~O~o~

Steve gave up trying to decide which store to hit first. Instead, he let his intuition guide him to the perfect parking stall close to the mall and hurried inside. As soon as the warm air hit his nostrils, he took in the scent of soft pretzels and the perfume of a nearby girl. They didn't really go together well but it didn't matter. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and sighed. It felt like home.

The half-filled hallways didn't slow him down at all. He strode towards Macy's, sensing a sure score of a long, double-breasted wool coat. Nothing would would stop him from his goal and nothing did, but unlike most men, he didn't stop after finding the perfect black coat. He browsed through the dress shirts, slacks and a couple racks of blazers, silently scoffing at the limited variety before drifting towards the women's clothing. He had to force himself to go past the shoe section and then he stopped to look at some cute purses that caught his eyes. He had yet to collect any large purses from any of his changes and he felt a strange compulsion to buy one.

Though he enjoyed it, the browsing didn't go well for very long. The strong feeling of being watched interrupted his fun. He looked up from a red leather hobo bag into the eyes of a blonde girl about his age and her eyes disapproved of his actions on so many levels.

'What am I doing?!' he thought as he turned and quickly hurried out of the store. 'I'm not a girl. I'm not!'

The flustered teen took his new coat out the shopping bag and put it on in preparation for going outside into the cold, but before he left, he ended up leaning back against the wall near the opening of a trendy clothing store. He took some deep, slow breaths to calm himself and cocked his head. He heard music coming from inside the store.

'That's right. A lot of small popular clothing shops play music. Damn!'

He left his ear plugs at home, thinking that he'd only hit a couple of large department stores. They never played music. Only the smaller stores where zillions of teens flocked to played the music, and he found himself outside one of those stores.

The music wasn't very loud in the hall but it should have warned him away. He should have paid more attention to where he stopped. He was safe enough for the moment. The store currently played a song with a male vocalist. His luck didn't hold though. A song started and just as he pushed off from the wall to walk away, he recognized the song. He bought the sheet music for it only a couple months ago and learned the melody. He loved that song!

Of course he couldn't leave. He had to hear it played as it was meant to be played — with a female vocalist. The intro ended and the beautiful breathy voice of Angela McCluskey began, pulling him back towards the store. He gently fell back against the wall and mouthed the words of the first verse until it got to the last two lines of the verse. He quietly sang those lines out loud.

Feeling A Change
In The Air

The tingling hit hard but he didn't care. The magic would protect him from being discovered. No one would notice him change.

'Bring it on!' he thought. He actually wanted it. He wanted to shop as a girl!

He closed his eyes and the tingling continued as he muttered his way through the chorus. The hairs on the back of his neck shortened and became finer and blonde as they stood on end.

To Look The Other Way
To Get What You Want
Throw Out Your Troubles
Find Your Song
Cause There's A Change
Change In The Air

The tingling stopped but Stephanie continued to quietly sing. She loved the song and actually hearing it for the first time was a magical experience. It gave her the excuse to do something that she'd wanted to do for a long time — the excuse to shop as a girl. Her inner male bristled at the thought but Steph wouldn't be denied.

The song ended. She took a single deep breath and opened her eyes before flipping her hair out away from the fur-trimmed hood of her new feminine coat with her left hand. She thought about how little money she had and debated whether to continue shopping for about three seconds. Then she pulled out her father's emergency credit card and quickly took her coat off, stuffing it back into the Macy's shopping bag before she walked into the small clothing store with the wonderful music.

~o~O~o~

Steph sat in the car in the driveway of her home, staring at the garage door through the windshield. She sighed and called her mother on her cell phone.

"Hi Mom."

"Steph?"

"Yeah, it's me. I'll tell you all about it in my bedroom. But first I need you to distract Dad, please."

"Right. I'll meet you in your room in five minutes. I can't wait to hear about this."

Mother and part-time daughter met up in the bedroom — with the door closed and locked — and had a very nice talk about earlier events. Sue felt disappointed but happy too. She liked that her son was at least giving his girl self a chance, and she loved helping whenever she could. If necessary, she would explain away the credit card purchases as gifts for relatives, which was true enough. Jack would understand. The total didn't run too high — only a few hundred dollars.

"A few hundred dollars?!" Sue gasped.

Stephanie shushed her and explained that she wanted to have a good and proper shopping experience as a girl. It wouldn't happen again.

"Right. Won't happen again," Sue said with a knowing look.

Stephanie noticed and rolled her eyes.

"Well, then," Sue began. "What all did you get?"

The two of them went through a half dozen shopping bags, most of which had several items in them. Stephanie modeled her nice new cobalt-colored wool coat first. The belted coat with a fur-trimmed hood looked good on her and Sue approved.

"You've got good taste, Daughter."

Stephanie responded by sticking out her tongue and Sue laughed.

After a short fashion show, they eventually got to the last shopping bag and Sue shrieked with joy. "Makeup?! You got makeup?!"

"Mom! Please!" Steph hissed. "Remember you-know-who?"

The two stood and held their breath, waiting to see if Jack heard. He did. He just happened to be passing by on the way to bed. He rapped lightly on the door and called out, "Everything okay in there?"

"Yes!" mother and daughter both shouted.

Jack looked a little confused but shrugged it off and continued on to bed. The two females of the house let out a sigh of relief.

"Mom?" Steph sat down hard on the edge of the bed and patted the bed next to her. Sue joined her on the bed.

"Yes, Sweetie?"

"I'm a little scared. I think… I think I might be starting to like this." She gestured to herself, her clothes and body.

"Oh, Honey. It's okay. It's understandable. Shopping is so addictive." Sue smiled.

"I'm serious, Mom. I know you like the idea of having a daughter but try to look at this from my point of view. I'm not saying this is true, but even if I wanted to stay a girl, assuming that it's possible, how could we explain my sudden, complete sex change?"

Sue paused to think. Her daughter had a point. People didn't magically change sex in today's world.

"I've been changing a lot lately, and it hasn't all been exactly accidental."

Sue raised an eyebrow. "How long does it take you to change back now?"

"Last time it took me a little less than five hours."

"Wow," was all Sue could think to say.

"I'm so scared." Stephanie sniffled and tried to fight back the tears that rolled down her cheeks.

Sue twisted around and hugged her, whispering in her ear. "We'll get through this, Baby. I won't let anything happen to you. Don't worry."

~o~O~o~

Steve fell asleep as a girl that night. As Steph, she dressed in her lavender sleep shirt, the article of clothing that she got the first time she changed. It still fit well enough, and when he woke up the next morning, he didn't mind it so much. His panties were a different matter though. He shimmied out of them while lying in bed and threw them into the farthest corner of his room.

'I'm not giving up yet. I can't,' he told himself. He renewed his vow to find whoever was responsible for his sex changes and get them to undo the curse.

Several of last night's purchases still hung about on the back of his desk chair and on door knobs. The rest were either neatly folded or hung in the closet — except for the makeup. That was kept in a small makeup bag in his top dresser drawer.

The makeup didn't bother him too much, being such a small amount and being out of sight. The makeup only consisted of mascara and a couple different shades of lipstick. Stephanie contented herself with starting small.

Steve shuddered when he thought of the makeup lesson that he got last night though. "Boys don't wear makeup," he muttered, and that much remained true, thanks to his mother's eye makeup remover. The lipstick wiped off easily enough but the one brand of waterproof mascara stubbornly clung to Steph's eyelashes. It took two tries to get normal looking lashes again.

"Normal," he huffed. "What is normal? I don't know anymore."

The teen got himself ready for his last day of school for the week. He got dressed, had breakfast and swore as he left the house. He still didn't have a nice warm coat to wear to school.

"If at first you don't succeed," he said with a brief grimace as he fumbled with the key to lock the front door. He had his back to the porch and flinched as someone behind him finished the thought.

"Try, try again," a feminine voice said. It was Amber.

Steve's heart thumped like a large, happy puppy's tail hitting a wooden chair leg. He swore that the sound could be heard for miles. He gulped and turned, flashing his friend a tentative smile.

She smiled back. "Ready to walk me to school? You and I need to talk."

He just nodded, and like a puppy, followed closely behind his friend until they got to the sidewalk, where they could easily walk next to each other.

"I'm sorry about yelling at you in the lunch room," Amber told him.

"It's okay," he said. "But I wasn't really asking you out on a date. I just wanted to see a movie with you."

"Steve… don't start."

"I'm not lying!"

Amber raised an eyebrow.

"Okay! Okay! I'm not exactly lying. I'm just telling a half truth. No, it wasn't an official date, but yes, I was hoping to try to see if I could turn it into one. Happy?"

"Not really, no. But I'm satisfied that you're being truthful."

Steve gave her a wry grin. "What about you?" he asked.

"What about me?"

"Why can't we date? Is it against your religion or something?"

Amber laughed. "No," she said. "It's not against my religion. I…," her voice got very quiet, "I only like girls. Sorry."

"What?! Really?!"

She nodded. "I thought you knew… or maybe I was just hoping you did. I guess I should've told you earlier. I wasn't exactly happy once I figured it out for myself. I… I want to like you as more than a friend."

"I know," slipped out of his mouth.

"You know?! How could you?!" She glared at him.

He wanted to tell her about seeing her pink aura a couple of days ago, but he wasn't sure how to explain it. And he was afraid she wouldn't believe it. He still wasn't sure he believed it himself.

"That look you gave me… across the lunchroom. I saw… love." Again, he told a half truth, or maybe it more like three quarters. It was enough to satisfy Amber at least.

She sniffled and walked a little faster. She hated putting him in the friend zone but she couldn't see him as anything but a friend.

"It's your fault, you know," she said suddenly.

"My fault? What the hell?" he said, matching her faster pace.

"Don't take this the wrong way but you've been acting a little strangely lately, for a boy that is."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean." She held out a hand and stopped with him, turning to face him. "You've been acting a lot more like a girl. I thought you might be trying to be more feminine for me. That's one of the reasons why I didn't say anything about liking girls."

"Until now," he corrected.

"Until now," she agreed.

Steve paused to think about what Amber said. She was right. He was effeminate for a boy, but he had a good reason for it. He wasn't going to tell Amber though, at least not yet. She wouldn't believe him without proof and he didn't feel like missing school again.

'That's not exactly true though,' he thought. 'Damn. Now I'm telling myself half truths.'

Amber liked girls so she'd probably love him as Stephanie, and she might never let Stephanie go! He couldn't take that chance. He couldn't be a girl, not full time. And he still had to find the person who cursed him. Didn't he? Suddenly, he wasn't sure it mattered so much any more. Amber liked girls, and he could transform into the girl of Amber's dreams. He just had to get himself to embrace his inner girl and hope that Amber didn't freak out about the magic. Easier said than done.

"Steve?" Amber said, snapping him out of his tortured inner debate.

He couldn't bring himself to tell all so he put her off with another three-quarter truth. "I guess it doesn't matter how girlish I act. It's my body that's stopping you."

"Pretty much," she said, turning to resume the walk to school with Steve lagging behind, deep in thought.

~o~O~o~

Steve and Amber didn't avoid each other the rest of the day. They just made an unspoken agreement to linger together and try to take some comfort in being close without speaking. They didn't need words. They had body language.

Steve actually liked keeping his mouth shut for a change. It kept him from accidentally saying too much as he was likely to do. The challenge of non-verbal communication kept him on his toes and satisfied his inner girl at the same time.

A raised eyebrow here. A smirk and sideways glance there. The whole, long exchange at lunch reeked of flirting. The two teens sat together once again and ate their lunches in companionable silence.

Amber liked it too. He could tell. Her eyes told him. So did her aura. The pink color surrounding his friend was unmistakeable. If only he could tell her. But if he did, he'd have to go into how he could suddenly see auras, and that led him back to his deep, dark secret, the one he only willingly shared with his mother.

He decided then and there to discuss the matter with his mother. He'd invite her to go shopping with him for a coat in the men's section of Macy's — or maybe Nordstrom. And he might even change into Stephanie after he got a coat. His mother would like that.

~o~O~o~

Later that day, in his Physical Education class, Steve sat on the wooden bench in front of his locker and blushed. For the first time in his life, he felt funny changing in the boy's locker room.

'Where the hell did that come from?' he wondered.

Dan sat next to him and noticed something was off about his friend. He playfully slapped Steve on the back of his head.

"Ow! Watch it, Dan!"

"Oh, come on. I barely touched you! Don't be such a girl."

Steve gasped. 'No. No way. He couldn't know. Just a coincidence. Moving on. Getting dressed now.'

"What's your problem?" Dan asked as he watched his friend look like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

"Nothing," Steve yelped, then calmed himself. "Nothing at all," he said forcefully. His inner boy was back in control. He was a boy, damn it. And he belonged in the boy's locker room.

"Yeah," Dan said. "Sure. Whatever."

The two boys sat and finished dressing in silence. But after they'd finished and got up to go into the gym, Dan stopped his friend.

"How come you never come over any more?"

"Your mom's incense, remember? I can't breathe with that crap burning."

"Oh. Right. You told me before. It's just as well I guess."

"What do you mean?" Steve asked, frowning.

"My mom thinks you're gay."

Steve gasped.

"Hey. It's not like she's against gays. I just don't want her to think I'm gay. I'm afraid she might give a love potion to the wrong person."

Dan laughed to show he was joking and turned to run out into the gymnasium, but Steve didn't share his friend's amusement.

Steve paused to wonder if he might have a second suspect for his musical curse, the first being his own mother. He still hadn't taken his mother off the list, not considering how much she loved having a daughter.

The suspicious boy shook his head and followed Dan to start warming up for his class. They were playing volleyball. He loved volleyball.

~o~O~o~

Right after school, Steve sent Amber home with a sideways glance at Dan. She nodded acknowledgment and went on her merry way. She might have been humming but Steve didn't notice for once. He had a mission, and he went over the details in his mind as he walked with Dan.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? Dan asked him after they'd walked a couple blocks.

"Hey. It's Friday. We don't have to do any homework. It's a good time to relax, unwind and have a little fun."

"You know what I mean," Dan grumbled. "My mom?"

"What about her? I'll set her straight. I'll tell her about Amber and she'll leave you alone. Okay?"

"Yeah. Sure. If you say so." Dan hunched his shoulders and kept a close eye on the ground directly in front of him as he walked.

Steve appraised his friend's tone of voice and body language. He saw some skepticism and suspicion, which wasn't too surprising given that he invited himself over to Dan's house at the last minute. But it was Dan's fault. His friend did mention that he hadn't visited for a long time. Going over to Dan's house might give Steve a good opportunity to do a little detective work.

"Hey. I forgot to tell you. I listened to the Dark Side of the Moon album a couple days ago. Pretty cool."

Dan looked up and nodded. "Yeah. I thought you'd like it."

"The Great Gig in the Sky was pretty awesome. I've never heard anything like it."

"Which one is that again?"

Steve lightly punched his friend in the arm and teased him about not being obsessive enough about his music. They fell into a long, involved discussion about bands and the passage of time went unnoticed until they arrived at Dan's house.

~o~O~o~

The two teens made a first stop in the kitchen, looking for snacks, and it wasn't long before Dan's mother made an appearance.

"Hey Mrs. Griffin."

"Hello Steve."

The woman looked like an ordinary housewife, dressed in loose black slacks and a short-sleeved knit top with a random mix of various shades of gray. She didn't wear an apron but Steve noticed that her fingernails were trimmed short, as was her slightly messy ash brown hair, and she wore minimal makeup. Considering all of the freckles across the bridge of her nose, he felt sure that she wasn't wearing any foundation.

She noticed him giving her a good look and gave him a funny look back, so he decided to just dive right in and get it all over with. "Do you know Amber Jones?" he asked her.

Her growing smirk quickly changed to a look of confusion. Steve liked that. Keeping her off balance could help get her to give something away, assuming she had something to hide.

"If you don't, that's okay. I'm just trying to figure out where she lives. I've known her since elementary school. We're very good friends but she's never invited me over to her house. She's been to my house several times yet I have no idea where she lives."

Dan rolled his eyes. Steve noticed and still continued. "I guess I should say that I've been trying to date her but she's playing hard to get."

"Really?" Mrs. Griffin said, smiling.

Steve gave her a wide-eyed innocent look while Dan interrupted to answer his mother. "She certainly is." Then he turned to his friend. "I thought you'd given up on her after she yelled at you in the lunch room?"

Steve sighed. "I can't give up on her."

"I see," Mrs. Griffin said. "Sorry, but if you're looking for a love potion, I can't help you. I don't do love potions."

"I'm not looking for a potion," Steve told her. "I just want to know where she lives. I thought about trying to serenade her or something."

"Dude," Dan said. "You've got it bad."

"Yeah, I do."

Dan's mother looked thoughtful and decided that she'd misjudged her son's friend. "I'm sorry but I can't help you with Amber's address either. I have no idea where she lives. I've seen her parents at parent-teacher meetings but never talked with them. They seemed a bit… different."

"Different?" Steve asked.

"I'm not sure how to put it. They had this aura about them that kept everyone at a distance. I don't know how to explain it."

Steve found that to be very suspicious. It sounded almost like magic to him. But then he keyed in on a particular word that Dan's mother mentioned. "Aura? Can you see auras?"

"See them? I was speaking figuratively. I've heard of some people seeing auras but I never have."

"Oh," Steve said, obviously disappointed.

"Wait… do you see auras?" she asked.

"Yeah, I do."

"Dude!" Dan shouted. "Are you serious?"

"Very," Steve said. "You're glowing mostly yellow at the moment and your mom's aura is a murky green."

Mrs. Griffin sat down hard on a tall wooden stool, looking quite surprised and impressed, maybe even a little envious.

"I dabble in the magic arts a little but I haven't been serious about it," she said, mostly to herself. "I never really believed everything I've read."

"Wait," Steve butted in. "Are you saying magic isn't real?"

"Oh, I think it's real enough," she said. "There's so much we don't know about the universe. I'm sure there's room for at least a little magic."

"Hey," Steve said, ready to cross Dan's mother off his short list of suspects. "Thanks for the chat but Dan and I want to chill out and listen to some music. Right, Dan?"

"Yeah. Sure." Dan gave his friend a puzzled look and grabbed a bag of potato chips off the kitchen counter on his way out.

Steve found some carrot sticks to nibble and followed his friend after giving a little finger wave to Dan's mother.

"What a curious young man," Mrs. Griffin said to herself once the boys left the room.

~o~O~o~

The two boys bonded with some classic hard rock in Dan's bedroom for a couple hours while Steve carefully made sure there were no female vocalists — it wasn't that difficult. And after a nice, incense-free visit, Steve walked home for dinner.

He thought about Mrs. Griffin and though he couldn't bring himself to cross her off his list of suspects — just in case she happened to be a good actress or something — his intuition put her in the very low probability category.

'Then who?' he wondered. 'Who else could it be? And how do I find them?'

After some reflection, Amber's parents sounded interesting. A sudden flash of inspiration whispered to him that they had motive. He felt sure that Amber had mentioned him to them. He could see her confiding in at least one family member that she wished he was a girl so she'd be attracted to him, or her actually. It made sense, in a completely irrational way. If they could use magic, they might consider cursing him to become a girl for their daughter — not the most ethical use of magic but some parents had trouble saying no to their children.

'I have got to find out where she lives,' he thought. He really didn't know where she lived, strange as that sounded. Maybe they had something to hide. The more he thought about it, the more likely it sounded. He couldn't blame Amber. He felt certain that she was totally oblivious to his sex changes. But he knew next to nothing about her parents. They suddenly became his top suspects.

~o~O~o~

Playlist for Part 2

3. Somebody to Love by Jefferson Airplane
4. The Great Gig in the Sky by Pink Floyd (no lyrics)
5. In the Air by Morgan Page

~o~O~o~

 © 2012 by Terry Volkirch. This work may not be replicated in whole or in part by any means electronic or otherwise without the express consent of the Author (copyright holder). All Rights Reserved. This is a work of Fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional and any resemblance to real people or incidents past, present or future is purely coincidental.