The luck of the draw

When Jake returned from the kitchen, he found Dave and his mother at the dining table, with a sheet of notes before them. After taking in Daves slight apologetic smile and the expectant look of his mother his shoulders sagged “Back to being Bridget again?” he asked with a sigh.

“Not exactly.”

Laura expanded Daves vague statement “That would teach you being a victim, instead of anything about women or healthy relationships. The power-balance is too screwed up. So, yes you get to be a girl again but this time you won’t get the convenient excuse of telling yourself you are only doing something because we messed with your head. How long is still up for debate, but where and how you spend the time will be entirely up to you.“

“Aaaaaand on whatever official papers I manage to rig up.” Dave added “Like I said. Still working out the details.”

Jake didn’t seem very happy about the prospect, but stuck with a cautious “Okay.” And waiting for more information.

Something Dave was all too happy to volunteer “The basic idea is actually pretty simple. You spend the next few days growing up again from somewhere around twelve to roundabout where you are now, but this time as the sister you never had.”

“What the fuck? Bad enough you are dead set on turning me into a chick. But why make me a little kid too!?” Dave hadn’t really expected that to be a point Jake would object to. “Eh? Errr. Welllllll…” In hindsight it seemed quite obvious how Jake might think it was meant to humiliate him, but Dave had only been thinking about the nice symbolic meaning and so he was a blindsided by the question.

“Because it will give you a bit of time to get used to the differences between boys and girls instead of getting the shock treatment from last time.” Laura took over for her flabbergasted son ” And the bone would just change the minimum possible to turn you into a girl, but having you grow up anew with a different set of hormones will make it more interesting how you turn out.. It gives you time to sort out what kind of woman you want to be when you are grown up. Which the next part is all about.”

“The next part?”

“Ah yes.” Dave took over again, eager to show off his clever idea “That’s the interesting one. We will fill these index cards with three kinds of traits. The first are cosmetic attributes like ‘freckles’, ‘aquiline nose’ or ‘curly hair’. Until you finish growing you are free to choose whatever strikes your fancy, but you’ll have to draw another one at random too.”

Jake looked a bit confused “That sounds pretty complicated. Why not just ask me what I want and have done with it?”

“Because you don’t just get to cherry-pick everything.” Laura said ” You get to have a attributes you’d like so it will be harder to recognize you and to make it a bit easier to accept your new body. But each time the random card may contain something you aren’t stoked about. It seemed the fairest way to make you still subject to a kind of genetic lottery.”

“Hmm, I can live with that.” Jake decided “You mentioned three kinds of cards. What are the other ones?”

“No matter how pleased you are with it, what kind of hair you end up with will not have a great impact on your life. The Boons and Penalties definitely will. The Boons will make it easier or simply more enjoyable, like being naturally athletic or getting off lightly in regards to a less pleasant aspect of being a woman. For every Boon you want you take a Penalty to balance the scales.”

“Balance them how?” Jake asked.

“By being a minor hassle. Buuut….” He continued in a slightly apologetic tone “I don’t think you should really know about them beforehand or remember them afterwards.”

“What? Why?”

“Weeeeeelll, we tossed the one about having to keep your hair at least shoulder-length. Not really possible without messing with your mind. But if you remembered drawing it you’d always see it as something bad, even if you could learn to live with it otherwise. I mean you had that pony-tail in highschool….” He trailed off. “You know what I mean.”

“Kinda.” Jake admitted slowly “I’m still not sure I like it.”

“We both thought it would be best, but you can choose otherwise.” Linda interjected “Sleep on it and tell us if you want to know tomorrow. The bone can always make you forget if you change your mind.”

“Yeah. That sounds good.” Jake nodded “Anything else I should know?”

Dave chuckled as an idea hit him “Heh, yes. The big one: You get to keep the bone.”

“WHAT!?” Jake and Laura shouted in near perfect unison. After looking at each other in surprise for a fleeting moment, both focused their attention back on a nervously grinning Dave.

“Oh, he won’t be able to use it.” He assured his consternated mother “But if I use it once or twice a day to command Jake to grow up according to the cards he drew it should work.” He looked to Jake “And I don’t want you wondering if I am using it to influence you, on the sly.”

When neither Jake nor Laura said anything he added “If I kept it, the power-dynamic would be a mess. ”

“That’s…hmmm… I suppose that’s a good point.” Laura admitted “I …was getting a bit nervous about you having so much power over me. I DO trust you Dave. But….”

“But it is still intimidating.” Dave gave his mother a reassuring smile “Same thing happened when Joe got promoted and suddenly he was my friend AND my boss.” Dave held eye-contact with Laura a moment longer, before turning to Jake in an effort to change the topic away from trust-issues between him and the woman who raised him. “So! Does the new deal sound fair?”

“I still don’t get why you are dead set on making me a chick.” Jake raised a hand to forestall Daves explanation “But I guess I can live with it.”

“Great! Great. ” Dave said with a bit more enthusiasm than he felt, even if he could understand it, knowing that his mother had started to fear him on some level wasn’t a thought he wanted to dwell on “Then let’s get started.” A project to distract him- like working out the details of Jakes transformation – was just what he needed.

Clutching the bone in his pocket he told Jake to “Age back to shortly before you started puberty.”. watching his friend dwindle back into a heavyset child swimming in his borrowed clothes.

“Your libido will also be set back to that point in time.” Countering the hurt look that earned him from the shrunken Jake by explaining “Look, you’ll obviously need new clothes and this way you won’t have to worry about…. I mean … you know, mirrors.” Jake grimaced in understanding and nodded hastily, and Dave was all to happy to get to the next part” Ok, Mom kept a few bags with my old clothes on the attic, in case a relative wanted a few hand-me-downs. Not very stylish, but I doubt you’ll mind looking like a tomboy.” pale blue flames enveloped the bone at Daves next words “The next time you say the word ‘Kadabra’ you will turn into a girl.” Before guttering out again “There. Just get a few clothes and transform when you are ready.”

“Yeaah.” Jake nodded slowly, making no move to leave his chair “So how long do I have to stay like this?”

“Well that’s up to you.” Linda said, smiling and raising a hand in a placating gesture as Jake turned to look at her “That’s not a threat. You have some decisions to make,” she nodded towards the papers strewn over the table “but you are free to set your own deadline. ” she looked thoughtful for a moment “If you want to make all your choices as a child and jump straight into adulthood when you are done, that’s actually fine too.”

“Hmmm.” Jake sat there letting the situation sink in, occasionally glancing over to Dave who was busy scribbling a new idea down.

“And the …girlfriend-thing?” Jake finally asked.

“No, that….” “Dave didn’t….” Laura and her son looked at each other for a moment, before Dave signaled her to go ahead, before returning to jotting down the final touches of his idea..

“Forcing you into anything would not be right.” Jakes relieved expression fell again as Laura continued ” But. When you grow up, you’ll find that the new you is still very much heterosexual. So, no …juvenile heaven in the ladies changing room for you.”

There was a resigned note as Jake asked “Anything else?”

“No, that is pretty much it.” Dave exchanged his pen for the bone once more “When you go through puberty again you will develop the libido of a heterosexual woman. There. That takes care of that.”

He gave Jake a reassuring smile, “Look I know all this is a lot to take in. If you need some time to yourself, use my room. I will be pulling an all-nighter anyway and well… I feel like I owe you at least some privacy. I’ll just use the couch. ”

Jake just stared at him until Dave finally averted his eyes, before sliding off his chair with a toneless “Thanks”, leaving his shoes and jeans behind as he made his way to the stairs.

A few minute later the sound of two bags being dragged down from the attic could be heard, and then the sound of a door closing and that was the last Dave and Laura heard from Jake that night.

Jake didn’t emerge until shortly before noon, dressed in jeans and t-shirt -both slightly too big-

and still looking much like the night before. Dave wasn’t sure if Jake had changed until his friend mumbled a “Morning.” in a slightly higher voice as she took a place at the table.

Dave didn’t comment on the fact that her eyes look slightly red and puffy. Everyone might have a good cry at having their life completely rearranged, but Jake had probably hated acting so ‘weak and girly’. Instead he gave her a polite nod and a “Morning” in return “There are pancakes in the kitchen, if you want.”

“Hm.” Jake grunted her understanding, nodding towards three neat stacks of index-cards resting on the table “That it?”

Dave nodded “Yes. We didn’t want to keep you waiting.” And were too excited by the possibilities “so we used to bone to put of sleep and worked through the night. Moms at work right now, but I called in sick so you wouldn’t have to wake up to an empty house.”

“’kay” Jake nodded absently but most of his attention was focused on the cards “Mind if I….” he leaned forward his hand hovering over the stack called ‘Minor’.

“Sure. Go ahead.” Dave watched his friend flip through the cards, stop and raise an eyebrow

“Late bloomer?”

“In case you wanted to put off the more ..dramatic changes a bit. Just ignore it if you prefer.”

“Ah.” Jake nodded “And what’s with the multiple choice ones?”

“If you pick one choose whatever you like. Or use a dice to pick if you drew it at random.”

“Hmm, sounds easy enough. ” Jake gave the cards a once over again before laying them back “Can’t help but notice most of the options would make me more attractive….” Jake remarked casually as he picked up the Boons.

“Heh, yeah. Choosing those was just more fun. But if you’d prefer to be ugly or a plain Jane….”

Jake stopped shuffling through the Boons at the thought “Not ….really.” he admitted finally, resuming his inspection.

Dave allowed himself a small smile at that, Just as he had hoped Jakes pride wouldn’t allow him to take the offer. And even if they would be no more make-out sessions, Dave was still looking forward to having a pretty girl around the house. Speaking of …“Have you put any thought into your preferred deadline?”

“Midnight.” Jakes answer was nearly instantaneous. “No sense dragging it out, and twelve hours should be plenty.”

“Okay.” Dave got up and walked towards the side table where he’d put the bone “Then I’ll leave you to it.”

“Huh?” Jake looked up “I already have something I’ll pick.” Putting the card down before him.

“If you want to tell me that’s fine.” Dave said picking up the bone “But let me finish this first. ” blue fire started to play around his hands “Your body will age rapidly until midnight, when you will be biologically in your mid-twenties, before resuming its normal aging process. Until then every time you pick one of the Minors cards you will pick another one at random and develop both aspects written on them during your rapid growth phase. When you pick a Boon, you will draw a penalty card at random and develop these traits until midnight. Once midnight comes around you will forget which penalties you picked. Oh, and once you picked a card you won’t try to get me to reverse a choice even if you don’t like it.” The flames died down again. “There, I thinks that covers it. What you pick will be just between you and the cards.” So Jake would be more likely to be honest with himself. Speaking of honest ….blue flames kindled once again “Actually, one last thing: You will make sure any random drawings are actually random, no marking cards or memorizing the backsides of the good ones. ” Now there was only one last thing to do before giving Jake the Bone for safe-keeping. “You will trust me not to secretly mess with your mind. You also won’t consciously remember the last command.” The ability to edit someones recollections was one of the bones most frightening powers. Dave had spent quite some time trying to come up with a way to prevent Jake from devolving into paranoia, -questioning his every thought and memory- but in the end messing with his mind was the only thing he had come up with. A single command and Jake would trust him implicitly in that regard! That kind of power was truly insidious. The flames surrounding the bone shifted from blue to green as Dave recalled all the subtle little manipulations he had come up with during the night while trying to get his head around the power of the bone. It had just been a thought exercise, but who’d ever know?

“Dave!?” Jake was clearly uncomfortable with the way her friend was looking at her.

Who’d ever know?

The flames flared a sickly yellow as Dave muttered "Who are you in the dark?" under his breath.