Katrina swung her backpack up on to her shoulder. The weight of it threw her off balance and she took a staggering step sideways to catch it. “Stupid little body…it’s going to take a while to get used to this again” she said to herself.

Katrina walked to the car thinking about just how strange the weekend had gone for her. Her thoughts were muddled; they were a mixture of knowing that she was seven, but had been seventeen just two days ago. The thoughts and memories of being seventeen were fading quickly and already had taken on a dream like quality for her. Even concentrating as hard as she could, she couldn’t remember most of the details. She closed her eyes just trying to recall what she had looked like at seventeen. She could still see herself if she thought about a few certain specific moments but yet as she caught a glimpse of her present self in the side mirror of the car, she knew that what it was showing, was the correct view.

She sighed as she climbed into the backseat and watched her brother Kevin get in the front. “I have to keep the thoughts in my mind…” she said to herself as they rode off for home.

Once home, Katrina went into her room. It felt comfortable and foreign at the same time as her mind adjusted to its surroundings. Katrina climbed up onto her bed and grabbed a pencil and a notebook. Despite being initially dismayed at her scrawling and childish handwriting and knowing that she should be a better speller than she was, she began to furiously write what had happened the past two days and everything that she could remember about her life.

She wrote all night and as thoughts popped into her head, she would quickly write them down as the summer sped onward towards the beginning of school and the coming fall.

Michael had a strange smile on his face as his family drove home that evening. It was a smile that he just couldn’t wipe off his face. The feel of the fresh air streaming in from his open window refreshed him and cleared his mind. As hard as he tried though, he still couldn’t shake that last sight he had of Katrina.

His mind played back that moment from the day before as they sat across from each other. The weird sensation that ran up his back as he began to grow older and bigger still brought chills to him. But it was that first sight of Katrina as his eyes left his own body and fixated on her that was front and center now. It had shocked him seeing her so small and seeing their roles reversed. He couldn’t believe it was true, but it was. He patted his hand down on his leg just reassuring himself that it was true.

He thought about how he had left her; there was a certain sadness and resignation in her eyes that he just couldn’t shake.  

When they arrived home, Michael immediately texted his girlfriend and hopped into his car to drive over to her house. The fact that he knew how to drive and where she lived and everything about their relationship were just second nature to him. “Damn, it’s great to be seventeen” he said to himself as he backed out of the drive.

That night, Michael awoke in a cold sweat. He was breathing heavily and while he couldn’t remember what he had been dreaming about, he knew that it hadn’t been pleasant.

As summer turned to fall, Michael certainly was enjoying his days but at least once a night, he would wake up in that cold sweat. He knew what he had to do.

Michael sighed heavily as he settled in behind the wheel of his car that Saturday morning. Last night’s football game had left him a bit sore and bruised but it had been worth it. He backed out of the drive and began the two hour drive that lay ahead of him.
Katrina heard a car pull into their driveway but they weren’t expecting anyone that day, in fact, her Mom had gone to the store and left the three kids on their own for a while.

She walked to the front window and her heart skipped a beat when she saw the figure walking up the front steps; Michael.

Katrina jumped off the couch and ran to the door before he could even knock. She opened it quickly and stared at him, her mouth open in shock. “What are you doing here?” she asked him, somewhat breathlessly.

“Um…I…Uh…” Michael stammered a bit before he took a deep breath “Look Katrina…it was wrong of me to not really try to let you switch back. I have to admit that while I love being seventeen…I can’t sleep out of guilt of taking away your age for my own selfish benefit.”

Katrina looked him up and down skeptically “So what can we do about it?” she asked as she waved him inside.

“I don’t know…it might be too late to do anything” Michael said as he followed Katrina upstairs and into her bedroom.

Katrina closed the door behind them and leaned back against it. “You’re serious about wanting to make this right somehow”

Michael sat heavily on the end of the bed, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands “Yes…the guilt is killing me. As much as I don’t want to go back to being seven, you don’t deserve to be stuck there either.” He looked up.

Katrina honestly didn’t know if she wanted to punch him or hug him at that moment, so instead she just made her way over to him and sat down next to him.

A tear escaped Michael’s eye and he put his head on Katrina’s shoulder and whispered “I’m sorry”

Katrina didn’t know how to respond other than to hug him tightly and stroke the back of his head.

After a minute he pulled back and took Katrina’s hands in his own and said “I wish we could switch back to how we were or just make this right somehow”

Katrina was a bit dumbfounded but she pulled herself together and said “I wish we could make this better or right somehow too”

Michael picked up “If somehow Katrina could be the oldest in her family again, I would go back to being the youngest in my family”

“Please…whatever force changed us the first time…I wish you could help us again” Katrina said in all sincerity.

“Yes…please…I wish…”Michael added in.

With those words, Katrina felt her stomach lurch. Her hands flew to her midsection and a look of surprise crossed her face. She stood up slowly but as she did, it felt to her as if she just kept going up. “Am I…Am I…growing?!”

Michael now felt his own stomach do a somersault. He gripped the comforter on the bed tightly as a wave of dizziness washed over him. He shuddered and could tell that with that shudder, his body diminished in size. Michael now stood, overcome with emotions as he was happy, nervous, scared and relieved all at once. “You are growing Katrina!” he said.

“Oh My God” Katrina said through a wide smile. Her hands touching her hips, then chest then face as she grew taller and began to develop once more. Her pants grew tight on her thighs and she felt them rising up her calves. Katrina’s eyes widened as she began to feel weight reappear on her chest.

Michael meanwhile was getting smaller and smaller. His chest and back and shoulders all lost their muscle mass and bulk and his skinniness returned to him. Soon he found himself looking up at Katrina again by a few inches.

Katrina was still turning and trying to get a good look at herself when she too noticed that Michael was now about 6 inches shorter than her. “It’s feels good to be taller than someone again” she said.

“Yeah, I like looking up to you anyway Katrina” Michael said.

A good full minute passed before Michael said “Why didn’t I get any shorter…you were like over a foot taller than me before”

Katrina looked up and over at him with a look of dawning confusion. “Yeah…why am I not any taller than this?” she turned to the mirror and looked at her reflection. There, staring back at her was a girl in her early teens. “It must just be paused or something for a moment, yeah…that’s it”

Michael made his way over to the mirror and saw his own reflection. He was undeniably younger again, but he wasn’t seven. He was waiting for the rest of the changes to kick in, but time kept passing and nothing additional was happening to either one of them.

“What’s going on?” Katrina said nervously. “I’m not seventeen again but I don’t feel anything else happening to me”

Michael was just as confused. He didn’t feel anything at all any more. The moving sensation in his stomach and limbs had stopped but he wasn’t sure why. “Uh…I…I don’t know but I think we stopped” he said, his voice was high once again, but not as high as it had been at the summer family reunion.

They both took turns looking into the mirror, looking at themselves, and looking at each other before it hit them.

A sudden realization broke into their minds as to what had happened. “Oh my God Michael…I’m thirteen” Katrina said slowly,

“And I’m eleven…we got our wish in the strictest way possible. You’re the oldest again and I’m the youngest, but just barely” he said as he turned to his older cousin.

Katrina pursed her lips and nodded. “Oh My Gosh….how…?” she now shook her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe it. We wished to change back didn’t we? How am I just a thirteen year old again now?”

“Well…I guess it beats being seven” Michael said trying to be cheerful.

“Don’t try to spin this” Katrina snapped. She looked around her room to find it changed once more. Gone were the trapping and things of a seven year old: They had been replaced by everything that an eighth grade girl would have in her room.

Michael began to laugh; he couldn’t help it “If we don’t laugh about it…we’ll cry about it” he said coming into his own realizations about what his world now encompassed. He reached up and patted Katrina on her shoulder.

Katrina looked down and saw that her clothes had modified themselves on her to both fit her size and age. She cracked a slight sideways smile. “Yeah…I guess it’s better than nothing. At least I’m the oldest again…finally”

“I won’t take anything like that for granted every again….I can promise you that. It sucked being the youngest in this family” Katrina admitted.

“I liked being the oldest, but it wasn’t right. Maybe now I can sleep again” Michael said with a shrug. He walked to the window and glanced out to the empty driveway “Now how am I supposed to get home?”