I tried everything on the way home.

Chapter 5: "Weird Science"

Well, almost everything.

I hopped into my dad's bronco and went to town. The old garage smell, oil and gasoline? Gone. I waved it away like a fly. He'd gotten lunch at the nearby deli. I could tell because of the mustard stain that went unnoticed on his collar. I pointed at it and pretended to scrub it away from my spot in the passenger seat. Just like that it was erased, like pencil on paper. I straightened out the wrinkles in his pants. I brightened the white of his shoes.

It was like magic. And I didn't stop there.

I let my imagination loose, starting with my nails. I didn't like the simple burgundy coat I'd gone with. I changed it to black. I changed it to pink. I made little patterns. I tried textures, little drawings. They all appeared exactly as I had them in my head, as if I'd gotten them done custom. I settled on the image of a tiny beach, with a little circle of a beach ball in the water. They were perfect.

I could change outfits, my hair, my nails, with nothing more than a thought. Yet I wasn't satisfied. I'd felt uncomfortable in my body for years now, but what if I could finally do something about it? I stared down at my chest, feeling the weight of my breasts, bouncing after hitting every single bump in the road. I pictured them in my mind's eye, smaller, just a little at first.

They responded immediately. I felt the tension in my bra go slack as my flesh no longer **** itself against fabric. I felt the air conditioning flood the vacancy, cool against my skin. And then my stomach wrenched. I felt the changes inside myself, but they were delayed. Like vertigo, but felt in my muscles and bones. It wasn't painful, but it didn't feel good. The change meant that there was less flesh in existence, and I hadn't specified where it should go. So it went inside. I felt the fat from my breasts redistribute up and around my neck, rippling over my belly, past my shoulders and down my back. I resisted the urge to retch.

My dad asked me if I was okay. Apparently I hadn't hid my disgust well enough. I said I was fine and tapped my foot against the floorboard impatiently, waiting to get back home. I didn't have much time. The date with Kat was pressing on the back of my mind, but I needed to know more about my power.

First, I set out a small blanket and some pillows. I didn't want to fall over or pass out if I changed something and had a bad reaction. I also made sure to lock my door. I got undressed, letting my clothing fall to the floor unceremoniously, stepping towards my closet mirror to inspect my starting point.

The me in the mirror was the one I recognized, but tweaked for the better in a few places. I noticed my hair was slightly darker than it was before, now closer to a feathered brown cut. My freckles had multiplied, and I hadn't even done that on purpose. I felt like my nose, my lips, my cheekbones all filled my face ever so slightly differently, but couldn't actually discern a tangible difference. The easiest thing to notice was my boobs. I used to fill out a D cup; they would barely fill a C at this point. I looked closer at them, cupping them with my hands in the mirror. They felt real, both inside and out. They weren't airbrushed or anything either. My areolas were the same as before, every fine hair and blemish. The only thing that had changed was their size.

"Okay." Speaking out loud made me feel better somehow. I braced myself. "Grow."

I felt it this time, as they began to move on their own. My flesh rippled, pulling from elsewhere on my body. I felt my stomach tighten, each of my arms go lean. My boobs began to go out, then down, as gravity found purchase on them again. They swelled, and I felt my gag reflex in my throat, trying my hardest to ignore it. "Good," I said, trying not to panic. "Feel good!" The sensation became entirely different in an instant. And fuck did it feel good.

The waves of change no longer felt unnatural. I breathed clean air for the first time, smelled the best cooked meal in the world, tasted the sweetest candy. The rush that came over me had me panting after it stopped only a few moments later. Thank god I'd set out the pillows, because I almost fell down despite already being on my ass.

I scrambled back to my feet, and wobbily made my way over to the mirror again. I smiled, greeted by the tits I used to know. It was weird, feeling my weight redistributed in the same place again, and I decided I didn't like it. Why did I have to keep it that way? I turned around in the mirror, looking at the rest of me. If I wanted to have smaller boobs, that would have to go somewhere, right? My ass wasn't small by any means. But I supposed, fuck it, who doesn't want a bigger ass? Besides, this was all inconsequential. I could change it all back if I wanted.

I stood in front of the mirror, and watched my mouth hang open involuntarily as the change began. My tits pulled back up towards my chest, my nipples pointing higher and higher. My skin continued to ripple all the way up my chest, and then over my shoulders, following my spine until it pooled around my rear end. My cheeks looked like they were slowly inflating. The sensation was still good, but it wasn't nearly as overwhelming as last time. I figured I'd get used to it, but decided that unless I wanted to start panting in public anytime I made a change, it wouldn't be prudent.

"Normal." I said, and the sensation left me. Once complete, I bent over, sitting on my bed. I didn't feel any different, but the weight distribution was much better. I smiled at myself. I was getting the hang of it. I stood and gave myself an impromptu makeover.

I started with the things I always thought could have been improved. I straightened my teeth a little, and that felt weird as hell. I left my eye color the same hazel it had always been, but brightened it up around the edges. I made my nose a bit smaller, and lifted it up. My ears became rounder at the bottom, taller on the side of my head. I gave myself a chin I thought would be gorgeous. Then I got greedy. I smoothed the wrinkles on my knuckles. I erased the hair on my legs entirely. I had already changed my boobs, but decided they should be hair free, so I cleaned them up, smoothing out the skin around my areola. While I was at it, I took care of the fine hairs around my face and cheek, whittling down my eyebrows.

When I was done with my main appearance, I was pleased - no, ecstatic- with the results. A full body plastic surgery for free? It was a miracle. I couldn't wait for Kat to see me like this. She obviously already thought I was hot. If she didn't immediately cream her pants at the sight of me...

"Oh fuck."

I don't know how it took this long to occur to me, but I finally put two and two together. I was about to go on a date with a trans girl. A trans girl with insecurities about her body. And I had the ability to change anything I wanted.

"Oh fuck!" I quickly ran to my bag that I'd haphazardly tossed in the corner when I got home, yanking my phone out. No missed calls, one message from Kat telling me that she'd pick me up at eight. I typed out a quick message: "You're not going to believe what I have to show you."

My finger hovered over the 'send' button, but I couldn't press it. Something nagged at the back of my mind. The first time I'd changed anything about myself I almost puked. And that was the tiniest change. Making major changes to Kat's body would probably cause more mental damage than anything else, even if I could change it back. That is if I could change anyone else's body in the first place.

I knew I could change inanimate things, and myself, but it was entirely possible that it didn't work on living beings other than me. I wracked my brain, wondering what I could use to test. I considered Sam as the best option in the moment. I'd already messed with him a bit, and mental changes didn't seem to cause any discomfort. Thank god I hadn't tried to change anything physical about him at first. But I didn't have any way to contact him. It wouldn't do any good if I tried to make changes at a distance. I tried something else.

"Sam knows my number." I spoke the words aloud with authority. Then, I held my phone up in front of me. "Sam is calling me right now." A few seconds passed. And my phone rang.

"Holy shit." I almost dropped the damn thing. I frantically tapped at the screen.

"Cassie?" came his voice. I could hear the billboard all the way from here.

"Hi, Sam." My voice changed. What the fuck? It was deeper. Sultrier. I liked it. I didn't even need to focus on myself to make changes it seemed. It also seemed like I was attracted to Sam. It was hard to deny at this point. "What's up?"

"Uh. Yeah, I wanted to let you know that I have you covered for the rest of your shift earlier."

"Thanks." I waited for the real reason.

"I don't think I had your number? How-"

"I gave it to you earlier," I lied quickly. The lie became truth. I remembered it happening now. My brain had a new memory, freshly created. I'd given it to him before I left. My mouth hung open as I wrapped my head around it. I hadn't just said something and believed it, or gotten him to believe it. It had happened. I looked at the screen on my phone, and watched as his contact info said "Unknown" one second and "Sam @ Spots" the next. I remembered entering his number myself.

"Oh right." He gained the same memory from his point of view.

Could I change the events of the day? Just like that? I took a deep breath.

"You should come inside." I heard him hesitate. He agreed with me, he should. But that was such a strange thing to be true.

"I... Uh." The lie couldn't become truth yet. I hadn't given it a reason.

"Aren't you almost here?" I asked. I thought of an alternate sequence of events that this new reality could fall into. "You closed the store early for the day and drove over to my house. I gave you the address. Whenever you get here, you should just knock and come in. I already told my parents you'd be here, and they were fine with it." I felt my stomach lurch like the first time I'd changed anything. It didn't feel bad, but I could feel the strain. Atoms rearranging, my neurons finding pathways that hadn't been there before. I felt the air shifting around me as reality caught up to my demands. And then I felt something snap.

The muscle I didn't know how to use. It... broke. It cramped up. I couldn't think of a way to describe it because my body became rigid, doubling over as I dry heaved. My skull split, and I felt my spine physically shift inside my body. All my changes, those had to be redone in accordance with the new history I'd created. It was like tipping a domino, but a million years ago. I dreaded the question forming in my mind: how far could the butterfly effect reach?

I found out right then, as my bedroom door opened, and Sam walked in. I looked up at him, my face straining as it shifted back and forth. I must have been nightmare fuel for him. I felt my teeth shifting, my jawbone melting and reforming. I felt my skin become liquid, my injuries from earlier resurfacing, then healing again.

"Help..." I could barely croak. My throat wasn't connected to anything. I couldn't breathe.

"Cassie?" he widened his eyes. I grunted, feeling my body finally reform. I took a slow breath. "What the fuck is happening?"

I stood back up, and quickly realized two things. First, I hadn't put any clothes back on, so Sam was getting a free show of the hottest girl he'd ever seen. I knew that from the way his mouth refused to close.

The second thing I realized was that my previous concept of 'girl' was now something entirely new.