SRU – Date Night (TG)
A Transformational Tale By ThatGuy

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The full moon shone down in the night, making for a strong air of romance in the city this evening: a very special evening indeed for the young couple making their way down the sidewalks - a shaggy but very happy looking man strolling and laughing arm in arm with beautiful, equally happy brunette. It had been a perfect evening: dinner, a movie, a walk through the park, completely magical – or so you might say, anyway.

"I had a wonderful time, Gloria," the man said as they reached an apartment building.

"So did I, Sean," she replied, blushing. "I hope I wasn't overdressed." She looked down at her long, low cut red dress, which had turned a head or two the night, and ran her hair across the bun in her hair. "I mean, it was only dinner and a movie…"

"You looked wonderful," he grinned, trying his best not to glance down at her chest – easier than you'd think, when he had a face like that he could look at instead.

She blushed again but beamed from ear to ear, "thanks. This really was a great evening."

"I want to see you again," he responded a little too quickly, "I mean, y'know, if you want. When can we go out again?"

"Next week?" She said hopefully.

"How about next Friday? Same time?"

"I'll be waiting," she swapped here wide grin for something a little more sultry, "but until then, here's something to remember me by…"

She leaned in, stood on the tips of her toes – not entirely easy in heels - and kissed him full on the lips. He stood stunned for a second, and then pulled her into a further embrace that lasted for quite a while before they finally pulled apart, their eyes meeting.

Gloria turned with a smile. "I'll see you then." With a soft wink, she slowly made opened the door and walked into her apartment. As the door closed, she waited until she heard Sean leave – it took a while for him to stagger away: the kissed left him temporarily dazed – and then gave a whoop and danced in place a little, trotting over to her wall calendar and happily crossing off the date next week before falling back against her bright pink walls.

She sighed in that lovesick way people do. "That was…"

Whatever it was she never got a chance to say, because in that moment – the very moment Sean reached the end of the street - everything started to change. She jumped off the wall as she felt herself start to tingle oddly, while the room around her shifted wildly. Red curtains became simple shades, the neat loveseat in front of the coffee table turned into one of those tried and true lived-in couches (the coffee table didn't change much, except the extra purse she left on it became a wallet), and the carpet all but disappeared. All around the room, pictures of a young woman going on her first date, graduating from college, standing with a group of friends, were replaced with similar pictures, only now a young man stared out of the frame instead. If one were to look out the window, they would be astonished to find that Gloria's first floor apartment had now moved up to the fourth floor, and to a different street besides.

From the door to the den to the bedroom, the apartment suddenly looked as though someone completely different lived there – and that was nothing compared to the changes the very stunned and confused young man in a sweater and slacks standing in the middle of the floor just went through. Though he looked pretty surprised nonetheless.

"What the heck...?"

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It was a bit of a boring day at Spells R' Us. Or, at least, about as boring as it got in a place like that anyways, after all, the place was magic. The old man who ran the place was used to slow days: truth be told, he could always move the store to someplace a bit more interesting, but he actually liked taking a break from tricking idiot frat boys with veiled promises of loose women every once in a while. It wasn't that bad having some time to think – while it lasted anyway.

It was the middle of the day and there weren't too many customers - just a kid in his early teens browsing around, with scraggly blonde hair poking out of his skullcap and a fairly expressive t-shirt, carrying a skateboard. Contrary to what some more timid shopkeepers might assume, he knew the kid was no trouble though, and he would deal with him later. At the moment, however, he had it on very good authority – his own – that his dry spell would get a bit of excitement very soon. In fact, his afternoon appointment should be here in – yes, there he was now.

At that very moment, a furious young man burst through the doors, nearly knocking the kid over (though he took the time to mutter a short apology before marching to the counter).

"What the hell did you do, you old wizard!"

The old man smiled. "Whatever do you mean, Gregory?"

"You know exactly what I mean! Your crazy magic calendar turned me into a woman!"

"Yes, and quite an attractive woman you made. Nice bun by the way. It worked well with the dress."

Greg gritted his teeth. "That is really, really not funny. Why the heck did I turn into Sean's date?"

The wizard's head tilted in mock confusion. "You came in here for something to create a girlfriend for your lovelorn friend, yes?"

"I didn't want to be the girlfriend! I thought the thing would, I dunno, make a girl out of the whole cloth or something!"

"I doesn't work that way. You know, most people don't realize it's a lot easier to alter something that already exists than it is to make something new."

"Well, you could have told me that before I bought it!"

The wizard shrugged. "Possibly. But didn't you say you wanted a your friend to find a woman who got along with him the way you do?"

"Just because I get along with him and want him to be happy doesn't mean I wanted to help him by being his girlfriend! For starters, I'm a guy for cripes sake."

"Well, you weren't last night, but that's beside the point," the old man chuckled, "However, I don't see what the problem is. You didn't have a good time last night?"

He turned red, both from irritation and embarrassment. "I wasn't myself!"

"Well, not exactly, no, you weren't. But you were mostly yourself anyways. Sort of."

Greg ran his hands through his short brown hair and sighed deeply, obviously trying to get some control over the situation.

"Fine. Whatever. I was the perfect date. Yadda yadda. Can you just take the thing back and stop whatever hocus pocus you put on it?"

The wizard chuckled again. "Well, I could take it if you want, but it wouldn't do you much good – I can't lift the spell."

"WHAT?"

"Gloria has a date scheduled right here for 7 PM Friday, so at 7 PM Friday you'll become her again and have a nice romantic night out. Period. This spell is pretty binding, I can't alter it now."

"But… but I wasn't, y'know, normal when I checked off that date, that can't mean-"

"- it can and it does. Gloria is still you, after all, and so when she makes a date it's totally valid."

At this point Greg completely lost his temper and started shouting in the old man's face. "Listen, you liar! I didn't ask for this, so you're gonna stop this spell of yours before- " The old man's eyes flashed dangerously. Greg quickly took a step back, not wanting to make a bad situation worse. "I… I mean… damn, this sucks."

"I suppose it does for you. But it certainly is entertaining for me."

Greg glared half-heartedly at him. He paced absently around the room, much to the amusement of the wizard – this is what he lived for, after all – and the kid, who was by now paying pretty close attention to what was going on.

"Aha!" he shouted suddenly, "I know what I'll do! I'll just call Sean. Tell him everything… or maybe not… but anyway I'll get him to cancel the date or something, that should solve everything, right?"

"In theory," the wizard said mysteriously. He twiddled his thumbs and tried not to smile – this should be amusing.

"Got your number, don't I?" Greg pulled out his phone, stuck out his tongue, and dialed the number. It rang a few times before-

"Hello?" Came Sean voice from the other end. Greg eagerly started talking into the phone, but as he put it to his ear something in his head twinked, and much to the surprise of the youngster watching the show the voice that came out of his mouth wasn't quite his own.

"Hi, Sean," said Gloria, as a wide cheerful smile spread over Greg's face.

"Oh, hey Gloria," Sean said excitedly, "how are you?"

"I'm just fine. I just wanted to know if we were still on for Saturday?" she said anxiously. It really had been a great date, and she was looking forward to seeing him again.

"Definitely. I was thinking about that fancy new restaurant that opened up downtown, and maybe some dancing afterwards – that way you won't feel overdressed."

She giggled girlishly, which looked a little odd coming from Greg's body language to say the least. "That sounds wonderful. I'll can't wait. See you then."

"See you." Sean said, and he hung up. Greg – or perhaps Gloria at this point – shut the phone with a smile, blinked, and then his eyes shot wide open in horror.

"What the heck just happened," he yelled. The wizard sighed, but smiled, as he made to explain.

"You became Gloria again – well, partly. Just your thoughts and voice this time."

"But… but why?" he stammered.

"Isn't it obvious? It's Gloria's date, isn't it? So it's only fair that only she can call it off, or, as it turns out, make subsequent ones."

"But I -I mean she- I mean… urgh… she would never cancel. She practically loves him! And she'll just keep making more dates."

The wizard smiled that smile again. Greg resisted the urge to growl. "That makes sense. After all, you two are so very close even without a spell… compounding it, should we say."

Greg half-ignored him, and kept on his train of thought. "So… what… if I were to go over to Sean's place right now-"

"You would remain yourself. You could even talk about Gloria, in the third person at least. But the moment you tried to explain or serious try to get him to cancel the date, you would completely change into Gloria until you left his presence, and he would believe she had been there the whole time."

"But then… what am I supposed to do?"

"I suggest buying a new dress for the occasion. Something nice." At the look on Greg's face, he laughed. "Or perhaps not. It doesn't matter – all of your clothing will change into the female equivalent once the spell activates anyway."

Greg fell silent. He was struck momentarily speechless as the full weight of the situation had landed in sunk in.

Off to the side, the kid chuckled. "Dude, you are so screwed."

Greg turned and glared at him – he took a step back. "Oh yeah? Laugh it up now, kid, but if I were you I'd get out of here. You keep hanging around this place and you'll probably end up the same way." He gave the old man one last glare, then turned and left the store in defeat. The old man watched him go with an amused smirk on his face, before turning to his other customer.

"So, Christopher," he said to the young teenager, with a soft smile, "how may I help you?"

Said youngster gulped.

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That Friday afternoon Sean was hanging out at Greg's apartment before he left for his second date – a particularly irritating afternoon for Greg, because Sean wouldn't shut up about his first date, let alone how much he was looking forward to the second.

"… and have I mentioned how totally beautiful she was? I mean, I was stunned! And that kiss-"

Greg grunted. "Yeah, you've mentioned it."

"- I thought I was going to pass out it was so good!" Sean continued, not hearing a word (or noticing Greg wince, for that matter). "I'm telling you, man, she's a keeper. I am so grateful you set us up. Where did you meet her?"

Greg shrugged glumly. "I dunno. We met… somewhere. Can't remember."

"And you didn't try to get with her? With all the girls you've gotten? Missed opportunity, man, she's one in a million. I've never been with a girl who clicked so well with me."

"No kidding."

"- And that body. Oh, man. Hopefully after a few more dates she'll let me get a little closer, you know what I mean?"

It was very lucky that Sean was so caught up in his reverie and thus didn't see Greg flinch so hard he nearly fell off the couch and go into a coughing fit. By the time he recovered Sean was a few sentences ahead of him.

"- in fact, I'm already thinking of inviting her to my Uncle's ranch. You know, the one we used to go to as kids? We could spend the whole week there, alone."

Greg was looking grim. Sean, however, was looking at his watch.

"Is that the time?" He shot up from his seat and turned for the door, "sorry, gotta run. I have to go get ready! Wish me luck, buddy!"

"Yeah… sure…" Greg muttered as Sean shut the door behind. "Well, here we go." He said resignedly.

He winced, if Sean was already going to get ready, then he was sure that meant that any minute – yep, uh oh… there was that same tingle. Here it comes.

He tensed as the tingle spread across his whole body. He shrank some, first one or two inches, then a couple more, then a couple more. As he shrank, his body slimmed, especially around the waist, though his hips flared and rotated – stretching his shorts – and his chest grew out into a pair, pulling his loosening t-shirt up. He winced felt his, now her insides shuffle around, and now in almost a minute it was nearly done, just a few more shifts to go: her skin softened, her formerly short hair fell down to her shoulders, and her t-shirt and shorts turned into a blouse and skirt.

She blinked, and looked around her apartment. It took her a moment to recognize everything, almost like she was a little sleepy – she must have dozed off. She shook away the feeling – now was no time to stare at her living room, she had a date to get ready for!

As she rushed off to raid her closet for something decent to wear, she thought of what was to come and smiled.

Tonight was going to be a good night.

End

Well, Not Yet...

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Epilogue:

All's well that ends well, the wizard thought to himself as yet another slow day in the shop crawled by. With nothing attracting his attention, so he took to watching his customer. Today, Greg had attempted to take Sean to the store in an effort to show him what was going on without physically explaining it, which naturally turned into Gloria taking her boyfriend shopping in the mall.

Heh, that particular couple would make for some interesting entertainment in the future. And speaking of which:

Nothing else was going on… well, nothing else besides the approaching duo of teenagers, a boy and girl, both carrying skateboards, who were about to storm into the store – well, one storming, the other being dragged – to complain. He was starting to remember why he tended to disappear before his customers could return.

They burst in a moment after he saw them coming. An angry looking boy with mousy brown hair, pulling along a very annoyed looking girl in matching shorts and shirt with blonde bangs poking out of her cap.

"Ah, yes," the wizard said. "Christina. How are you?" The girl waved with a hard but confused look on her face. Obviously, she wasn't exactly the problem.

"Oh, not you too," the boy groaned.

"Of course not," the wizard turned to the boy, "Theodore, is it?"

"Yes… how did you know my name?" The wizard just rolled his eyes in reply – if he had a nickel for every time someone asked him that, he could swear he wouldn't even need a shop. When the old man didn't reply, Theodore continued. "Anyways, you know why I'm here, so could you turn him back into a boy already?"

"Would you just stop with this already?" the girl named Christina said to her friend, "it's not funny!"

"You see? Look at that!" Theodore yelled, pointing at her. "She doesn't even remember being Chris! What happened?"

Christina glowered at him. "I told you to stop calling me that. And for the last time I'm not a boy, and I'm not having memory problems, you jerk!"

"Yes, you are!"

"She doesn't look like a boy to me-" the wizard added helpfully.

"Thank you!"

"Well, not mostly anyways…"

In a fury Theodore shouted louder. Giving him a break due to his age and situation, the wizard did not get angry. "He's not supposed to be a girl-"

"Hey!"

"- and you know it!"

The wizard smiled at the déjà vu. "Ah, well, yes. I've had my fun, but the spell I cast does seem to have run it's course in and interesting way, doesn't it? Ah well, no harm done?"

"NO HARM DONE? HE'S A GIRL!"

This seemed to finally have done it. The girl glared at him with gritted teeth. "That's it. I don't know what kind of joke you two are trying to pull on me, Teddy, but it's starting to get annoying. I'll be skating in the parking lot when you're ready to drop it." She turned and stomped out. The old man chuckled. Theodore, however, looked distraught.

"Look at that! What happened? He wasn't acting like that before!"

"Ah, well, I think I know the problem. You boys wanted to enter this skateboarding competition in town, so you could win the top prize, yes?"

"Yeah, but it was sponsored by this girls' club and only girls could enter. We could've won easy otherwise!"

"Yes, and so he tried to circumvent that by buying a gender changing spell from me, intending to change himself into a girl so he could enter and then change himself back afterwards? A nice little scheme, if I say so myself."

Theodore shuffled his feet guiltily. "Er… yeah. But the reverse spell didn't work, and after he won the tournament he starting acting… well, like he was always a girl."

"Well, there you go. Cheating and some magics don't go hand in hand. Obviously, manipulating himself to enter a tournament is borderline cheating – so to make sure he wasn't, the magic had to make it so that he truly was the person he was pretending to be, naturally."

Theodore gaped. "I-I think so. So… he's stuck this way?"

"The reversal spell will never work, no. But it could be worse. She's essentially the same person, but remembers life as if she were born female. She remembers having long been your friend, and you have essentially the same relationship. Everyone else remembers her as if she were always this way… I'm not sure why you don't. Curious."

"So… what am I supposed to do?"

"I'd apologize if I were you. As much of a tomboy as she seems to be, you still probably offended her. And, maybe, in a couple years…"

Theodore flinched. "Gah! I meant what am I supposed to do to get my friend back! I still remember who he used to be, after all!"

"Well, I could sell you something to make sure you two are still the same kind of friends you always were…"

"Ohhh no you don't," Theodore snapped. He pointed his finger accusingly at the old man. "You're not fooling me. I'm not buying some mumbo jumbo from you so I can end up just like her… him… or worse! No way. I'll take my chances." And with that he stormed out, presumably to find his friend to apologize and get used to the new situation.

"Tsk, almost got him," the old wizard said with mock disappointment. "'Ah well, there's always next time. Heh… young love. So much fun to mess around with."

And with it's business done and one last cackle, the Spells R' Us  store disappeared.

The Actual End