Leanne D'Carentan sighed as she lounged on the couch, doing her best to drown out the incessant crying of her charge, Oliver Lindquist. Honestly, if only apartments weren't so expensive; then she wouldn't have to do part-time babysitting-or, in this case, babyhearing. Or perhaps 'babytolerating' was more apropos...

"But my parents promised that I'd get a BB-8 for Christmas; and I didn't! I don't know why they hate me so much!" The boy in question wailed, pounding his hands and feet against the ground. He was so lost in his rant that he hadn't noticed the sitter had completely stopped paying attention to him.  "Even Gramma promised me one; and she always keeps hers!"

Leanne massaged her temples irritatedly and tried to think of anything other than how loud the kid was. "You know Oliver; that toy is one of the really popular ones... And it's expensive. Maybe they didn't-"

"No, no, they're all stupid and I hate them!" Oliver screamed even louder, glaring up to Leanne angrily. "All they got me was the dumb toys to go along with him; and all Gramma got me was a dumb piece of paper; and it wasn't even for me!"

Leanne paused, arching an eyebrow. "Wait, what?" That certainly piqued her interest. She hadn't worked for the Lindquists that often, but she'd met the boy's grandmother before. The old woman had been battier than a dark cave; but she'd seemed to genuinely love the boy.

"She gave me a card with a piece of paper that was for you!" He pouted, crossing his arms and glaring.

Leanne did her best to keep a straight face, patting the boy on the shoulder. No doubt his parents had accidentally given him her paycheck; claiming it was a gift from his grandmother. Her own parents had done something similar; but they hadn't messed up like that. "Hey, it's okay... How about you let me get that piece of paper, and I'll see what I can do about getting you your gift."

Oliver sniffled; then looked up to her with a huge smile. "Really?" He asked, oblivious to the snot that dripped from his nose.

"Sure." Leanne forced a smile on her face, promising herself that after this job she'd quit babysitting. Kids were really; really gross.

The boy wiped his nose with his right hand; then used it to grab Leanne's, leading her into a side room. She stiffened but managed to keep the squeak of distress from escaping her lips, though only barely. Her hand would need at least three washings after this...

"Right in here!" Oliver chirped, all sadness seemingly forgotten. He let go of her hand and picked up the scrap of paper, handing it to the girl happily.

The babysitter chuckled at his mercurial mood, looking down to the small slip of paper her hands. There were a bunch of strange symbols on it that made her head swim; her mind struggling to associate language with them. Then, just as the strange scrawl began to make her dizzy; it vanished from the paper, leaving it blank.

"Okay... That was weird..." Leanne said nervously, chuckling to ease her own nerves.

"What was?" Oliver looked up to her enthusiastically, and Leanne waved him off.

"I don't know... I feel... Funny." She began, dropping the paper and looking to the door. "Hold on, let me just..."

Her legs gave out and she whimpered, a shudder of something unspeakable passing through her body. It was like her whole lower body was slowly but surely beginning to expand; to inflate.

Leanne knew such a thing was impossible; but couldn't help but glance down and glance to her legs. She immediately regretted the action, seeing that her legs had somehow disappeared; vanishing as though they were no longer there.

Worse yet; she was now acutely aware that her arms had gone missing as well; and that the strange bloating sensation she was feeling was a little more than a feeling. "Oh my God!" She yelped, looking to Oliver for help.

His eyes were round as saucers, and the boy gawped as he stared at her. "Is this some kind of magic trick?" He asked tentatively, no doubt as confused as Leanne was.

"I don't know; just... What's going on!" The babysitter squealed, hearing the pops and rips of splitting fabric from her lower body. She sent another panicked glance to her body to find an oddly familiar shape tearing out from her clothes, ripping what was once a stylish outfit to shreds.

It was a white, metal ball with orange bands and silver panels lining it. It was a sight that she recognized from the seventh Star Wars movie. She felt something aching within her body; then a distinct numbness; an absence of all feeling. Though her mind rebelled against the fact, she knew that the cold numbness was because her nerves had become lifeless circuits and servos.

Somehow, impossibly, her body had become BB-8's ball; which meant that her head was surely next on the changing block. Just as she'd dreaded, her head immediately slid to rise at the top of her body. It was like there was some sort of gyroscope that let her head always rest atop her ball body; and Leanne hiccuped with terror.

"Oh my God! Are you gonna be my BB-8?" Oliver exclaimed, eyes wide and sparkling as though Leanne was the Christmas gift he'd so dearly desired.

With a shudder of dread, she realized that just might be the case; and the girl looked at him with panicked eyes, trying to convey how wrong this all was. The time it took to think cost her dearly, and her neck remolded into a collar for her new droid head.

"No!" She yelped, finally finding her words as her skull began to ache. "You don't understand; I'm nweet dwooperntbwaap." Her eyes widened as her mouth stopped moving; sealing over into the a small speaker only capable of mechanical chirps.

"Beeewrnrmnwoopwoop." Leanne tried in vain, that strange musical lilting escaping her head even as her skull rounded even more; as her eyes merged to form a single large mechanical bulb.

A pair of antennae slid out from the top of her head, and Leanne shivered as she grew another eye, one that swiveled within its socket and gave her a view of different spectrums. It was almost too much for her brain to handle, and her vocal transponder flickered different colors as she bleeped and blooped more.

"Oh my God, this is awesome!" Oliver clapped delightedly, rushing over to her side and tugging off the scraps of clothing that still stubbornly clung to her ballish body.

Leanne tried to pull away in fear, but it was hard to think of why. Those were her clothes, right? But she was a BB-series astromech; she didn't need to... No, she was a person!

"BWOOP!" Leanne squealed, her little head swiveling across her body in an attempt to center herself; to remind herself that she was a human. But something in her mind was changing; just as her body had changed.

It was getting harder and harder to think of herself as anything other than a BB-droid-no, as anything other than BB-8! She squealed as she forgot her name; then it squealed again as it forgot its gender. But it was a droid; and droids didn't have gender...

"BB-8? Are you okay?" The young human in the room asked, and the droid swiveled its head to him, recognizing him as its master.

"Bwoopwoop!" BB-8 chirped, glad to be with its new master. That's right! It was a service droid; and its purpose was to safeguard and entertain Oliver!

"Oh my God; I can't believe I have the real BB-8! People at school are going to be so jealous!" The boy clapped his hands, and BB-8 tilted its head in confusion.

Whatever did he mean by that? Didn't Oliver always own BB-8? Either way; he was happy, so the droid didn't focus too hard about the nuances of his words. It rolled up to him and nestled its head in his embrace, glad to finally be home.

"Bwarmnwooo." It cooed contentedly, delighted to hear a happy chirp of laughter from the boy as he hugged his new droid back. Then he stood quickly, clapping his hands with glee.

"Come on, let's play!" He beamed, running out to the living room and laughing as BB-8 rolled after him, its ball easily trundling across the carpeted floors.

They played for nearly a full hour; running and rolling until both were too worn out to do anything but cuddle. That was how the Lindquists found the two upon coming home; the two adults soon recognizing the elder Lindquist's magic.

For a few seconds, they considered changing Leanne back; then they soon decided against it. After all, it looked like Oliver would have the perfect sitter of his dreams from now on. And besides that; BB-8 worked for free!

With just one spell and one parental decision, the girl known as Leanne D'Carentan ceased to exist. In her place remained a perfectly functioning droid; the best and cutest babysitter around.