Jeanette's Mistake - IT
By: ThatGuy

“So, who’s this?”

Jeanette looked up from the ironing board to find her younger sister Caprice standing there, rifling through her laundry. Perfect. Just perfect.

“It’s a stocking.” She grunted, rudely snatching the stocking out of her sister’s hand. “And it’s brand new and part of a set, you little nuisance!” Hissing in irritation, she yanked the other stocking from the hamper and slapped them onto the ironing board.

“I know what it is now, but… you know…” Her sister looked to the left and right, like she was dipping into a big secret. “Who was it before?”

“Before?” Jeanette groaned, rolling her eyes. “Why do you always bug me with these stupid questions?”

“Come on, don’t you think it’s cool that you’re wearing, like, actual people?” Caprice said, giggling. “That’s so weird!”

“This is not ‘people,’ brat.” Jeanette said coldly. She lifted up the item in question. “It’s a stocking. Repeat after me. St-ooock-innng.” She drew out the word slowly, making simple hand gestures on each syllable as if talking to a toddler, making the stocking flop around like a sock puppet. “And where I got it from is none of your business.”

“Oh, fine.” Caprice huffed. She crossed her arms and turned away, but continued to look sideways at her sister. “It’s just… I remember you were at school late studying the day you got a run in your last pair.”

“So?”

“Well… Katsumi - you know, the president of the Martial Arts Club - usually stays late practicing. Especially now that the big inter-school tournament is coming up. Except nobody’s seen her, like at all, for a while. Ever since that day you started wearing these, actually.” She smiled coyly. “Any ideas?”

Jeanette rolled her eyes. She knew she forgot something. Making people completely forget was beyond her, but after she learned how to make them less likely to notice her spells life became a lot more convenient. But her sister often needed to be an exception to her wide-scale effects, lest she accidentally get turned into something nondescript without Jeanette’s knowledge. And that was getting to be a problem now that Caprice was attending Jeanette’s school as a freshman. Her little sister knew all about her powers - the ones their parents tried their best to pretend didn’t exist, and nobody else seemed willing to believe in - and she was getting to be a real annoyance about it.

“Congratulations,” she sighed, tossing the stocking back onto the ironing board.

“You did, didn’t you?” Caprice gasped. She stared at the stockings with newfound wonder, now knowing that in the past they had been a living, breathing teenage girl - someone she knew, even. “I knew it! You know, a lot of people had money riding on that tournament - myself included!”

“They’re just stockings, what’s the problem?” Jeanette grumbled. “With the outfit I had on, I didn’t want to be out without something on my legs. My skirt was too short.”

Caprice looked closely at the stockings, rubbing her cheek thoughtfully. “I don’t know, that’s a little messed up,” she said. Her excited tone was getting. “Katsumi was kinda nice. She was always looking out for us younger students. And didn’t you and her get along?”

Jeanette sighed again. She clearly remembered. She hadn’t minded Katsumi much, even if the boisterous girl was already trying to pull the outwardly lanky - but inwardly quite powerful - Jeanette into her club to “toughen her up.” She did that with everybody, so presumably her heart was in the right place.

But Jeanette didn’t see how that was relevant now. “What’s your point, brat?”

“Well… it’s just… I’d rather she not miss the tournament. Can’t you turn her back soon?”

Jeanette stopped what she was doing and turned to Caprice with a rare, completely confused look. The primary difference between her and her sister - while not fully sinking in for either - was on display.

Never had Jeanette ever given empathy to anyone, or in her mind anything, she used her powers on. As far as she was concerned, Katsumi no longer existed. She stopped being a person worth thinking about the moment she stopped being human. In Jeanette’s mind, they really were just stockings now, and the fact that once upon a time she had known someone who then became those stockings was just forgettable trivia.

But Caprice, much as she still idolized her big sister, still didn’t truly understand what that meant. She thought her sister’s powers were cool, but the full nature of what Jeanette had done to the people she wore hadn’t really dawned on her yet. Maybe it was because she had been Jeanette’s designated magical guinea pig in the past: she had been turned into things by her sister before, but Jeanette always changed her back. She had yet to notice that nobody else had ever gotten the same courtesy, even those unlucky enough to have been Jeanette’s close friends.

Jeanette didn’t understand this about her sister, and vice versa. So, after a long moment, Jeanette just turned back to her ironing and grunted. “No. Now go away.”

“W-what? No way!” Caprice whined. She leapt forward and grabbed Jeanette’s arm. “Why?”

But this just resulted in another rarity for Jeanette. She jumped, and in doing so nearly dropped the iron. “BACK UP!” Jeanette hissed loudly as it slipped, and Caprice shot back to avoid both the hot edge and her sister’s temper. Naive or not, she knew very well what her sister could do if properly enraged.  

Jeanette put the iron aside and took a deep breath for a second. With stockings, she had to be very careful not to burn them while ironing. Her distaste for chores made this extra tedious, and the constant distractions were not helping. “Ugh… I cannot ruin another pair of stockings.” She said, scowling. “Mom’ll kill me, and I’d have to go shopping for another pair.”

There was a fifty/fifty shot that “shopping” for Jeanette meant something very different, depending on which was more convenient. Speaking of convenience… she shot her sister a pondering look for a moment, but quickly shook it off.

Caprice laughed under her breath. She smirked, ever so slyly. “You could always use your magic to do the job for you. Isn’t that what it’s for?”

Jeanette blinked. For a person who was all about making things easy for herself, she had missed something very obvious. She didn’t usually do that. “I suppose I could…” she said, mostly to herself. But when she did talk to Caprice, it was with a glare. “But you have to clam up. I don’t want to get distracted.”

“Cross my heart.” Caprice said, still smirking.

Jeanette closed her eyes and spread her hands over the stockings. This was her first time doing this, and she wanted to be careful. “Iron flat… iron flat… iron flat…” she whispered over and over again, under her breath. This wasn’t necessary for the magic to work, but with tricks she wasn’t used to performing it helped her keep her focus.

Or so she thought. While she wasn’t looking Caprice leaned over until she was right next to Jeanette’s ear, giggling under her breath. Then suddenly, she shrieked at the top of her lungs. “CHANGE BACK!”

Jeanette jumped again - two in five minutes, practically impossible - and in the instant she did her famously methodical and perfectly composed mind lost focus. It was only for a moment, but in that time her subconscious latched onto the thing she has been told to do, and her magic followed suit.

At once, the stockings began to unravel and re-ravel around each other. The sheer legs stretched, becoming hips, waist, bosom, arms, head… until there was a 5’5’’ of scrappy senior with a jiu-jitsu blackbelt and every reason to react very badly laying on the ironing board.

“Wow, cool!” Caprice squealed, like she always did. But Jeanette did not think it was so cool. In fact, she was furious. And so was the shocked and confused girl laying on top of the ironing board.

“W-what happened?” Katsumi stammered and she rose to a sit, her voice a mounting explosion of horror and fury. “Jeanette! What… what did you do to me?”

“Damn it, Caprice!” Jeanette rounded on her sister, who put up her hands sheepishly. She still didn’t get it. “Those were mine! What do you think I’m supposed to wear tonight now?”

“What are you saying!” Katsumi shrieked, in sheer disbelief. “I’m a human being, you crazy bitch!”

“Not according to- hey!”

Jeanette had to admit, begrudgingly, that Katsumi’s reflexes were something else. She would have won that tournament easy. Not a minute ago she had been a simple piece of fabric, yet within just seconds of returned consciousness and human form she had pieced together the situation she was in and gone on the attack to keep herself from going back under the iron. By wielding that iron herself, no less. She grabbed its power cord and swung the iron around like a bola, leaping off the board and pushing Jeanette and Caprice back to the wall.

This delay was seriously testing Jeanette’s patience. “That’s our mother’s favorite iron.” She said coldly. “Put it down.”

“Jeanette, don’t be rude! A-and Katsumi, calm down!” Caprice tried to explain, or at least keep anyone from getting knocked out. “It’ll be alright. This is just a misunderstanding!”

“You’re the one who doesn’t understand, Caprice!” Katsumi cried. Despite her obviously kick-ass training, her hands were trembling. “What your sister tried to do to me, I-I can’t even…” She took a deep breath, trying and failing to center herself as her training taught. “I’m going to get out of here, and neither of you are going to stop me.”

Jeanette sighed in sheer exasperation. The combination of her peppy little sister and the pissed off martial artist in the room was severely annoying her. All she wanted to do was finish up her ironing and go out with some friends - maybe even catch a date. Why did everyone have to make that so difficult?

But it didn’t matter in the end. Jeanette had never lost yet, and - swinging around her mother’s iron or not - Katsumi only had her fists to resist with. She should’ve taken the opportunity to run, rather than attack. If so, she might have gotten to taste her missing humanity for a little longer. This mistake would not happen again. Once someone, or something, became one of Jeanette’s possessions she never let anyone take it from her. Ever.

With a snap of Jeanette’s fingers, the iron became too heavy for Katsumi to lift. She was thrown, bending over in a way that would have made her very embarrassed if anyone else were around to see it. But instead, she looked up to see Jeanette standing over her. One finger was raised, and Katsumi could guess what that meant. But the most terrifying thing was the look on her face. It was terrifyingly blank, the kind a person would give something that wasn’t important. Like an object.

“Oh n-no… wait!” Brave Katsumi was trembling again. The look on her face made Caprice shudder. Her eyes were tearing and panicked. “Jeanette, no! I’m begging you, please don-“

But Jeanette, not listening, just pointed at her forehead, and she vanished. Her humanity twisted away, so quickly that even if you knew to look for it it was hard to follow. In a second, the same pair of stylish black hosiery dropped down to the floor. The iron landed beside them with a heavy thud.

The room was quiet as Jeanette undid her spell and picked up the iron where it fell. She gently placed it back onto the board and turned it off. Then she turned - very slowly - to her sister. Caprice mouth felt very dry all of a sudden.

“You… little… shit!” Jeanette spit. Her eyes made Caprice want to run from the spot. But her sister would never hurt her… would she? “You realize how much trouble I would’ve had to go through if she got out?” She shouted. “God, it’s just a stupid pairs of stockings! You’re worried about a few measly bucks!”

Caprice backed against the wall. “I-I’m sorry! I didn’t think that she… that you…” She gulped. Jeanette was well and truly angry now. She had no idea what her sister would do, nor did she understand why things had to go the way they did. “B-but, why would you treat her like that? She wasn’t-”

“No.” Jeanette barked, with the same coldness she showed Katsumi. “I’m done.” She waved her fingers, and there was only enough time for her sister to utter a quick gasp.

Even seeing Jeanette move, even fearing it was coming, Caprice never truly knew what hit her. This wasn’t at all like the other times, where her mind was left intact and she had all assurances that she would be back to normal in time. Now she got the same treatment as everyone else. Her head felt weak, her body fluttered, and then she was gone. Utterly.

Jeanette picked up the soft silk pants where they slipped to the floor. They were the form fitting variety and slightly shorter cut than the usual fare - a surprise from such an irritating source, but acceptably fashionable by Jeanette’s standards.

As she admired her latest bit of “shopping,” she also glanced down at the stockings that had caused so much trouble. With a groan, she snatched them off the floor and tossed them back into the laundry without bother finishing ironing them out. After this ordeal, she was suddenly less interested in wearing them - and besides, the fiasco had just rumpled them up again. Maybe she could find a friend her size who might like them. Someone in the karate club, perhaps. And if not, her mother could always use new dishrags…

She milled the pants’ fabric over, surprising herself with how well it came out. She had transformed her sister on occasion before, even into clothes at times, but it had never felt so right in her hands before. The cute piece of clothing she held were as indistinct from any other as the stockings that used to be Katsumi. She laughed a little, feeling a bit excited. To think that sweet little Caprice had just literally become Capris.

Jeanette would still turn her back. Probably. Her parents would likely not be happy to lose one of their daughters, and the last thing she wanted to do was upset them. And she had to admit she actually liked having the little bug around sometimes, but like most of the possessions she acquired over the years she couldn’t help but the think there was far more use to be had to keep her this way.

In fact, she found herself sliding them on without thinking - just to test them out, she said - and now that she could feel them on her legs, it seemed like a waste to lose something so chic and comfortable just to return her meddling sister to normal. The breeze outside would be wonderful.

At least Caprice might finally stop annoying her, either way. Indeed, if she made it out of this with her humanity intact, her fawning sister would finally learn just how dangerous Jeanette truly was.

It wasn't hard for Jeanette to make a decision. Thanks to her sister’s meddling, she had nothing else good-looking enough or functional enough to wear, so thoughts of whether to keep Caprice this way for good, or at least for a long time, would have to wait. Just keeping her for now would suffice.

She twisted her hips, gauging the way her bum looked in the mirror. Not bad! Already, temporary or not, she was getting less fond of thinking of her new capris as the annoyingly cheery freshman they used to be. Needless to say, someone would be missing classes for the next few days. She would technically be sitting in on Jeanette's of course, but that was hardly the same.

After all, only people attended class, and as far as Jeanette was concerned Caprice no longer qualified.

Come to think of it, maybe she should look to the freshman class more often. Her sister had tons of perky freshmen friends who were constantly buzzing around their house, annoying her to no end. There was little use for them now, what with there no longer being anyone here for them to hang out with, but Jeanette always had tons of holes in her wardrobe worth filling…