“Welcome to Camp Chippewa” Kate Lewis said as she greeted the kids that piled off the bus. “We’re going to have so much fun this week…It’s going to be awesome!”

She was met with a mixture of looks from the kids that ranged in age from 8 to 12. Some seemed happy and enthusiastic while others just looked scared and nervous. Bags were being pulled out from the bus’ compartments as the other camp counselors all began to arrive to gather up their groups of kids for the week.

After all the kids were gathered in front of the sign, the counselors began to call off their lists. Kate would have 10 girls and she scanned her list as she waited for her turn.

“Okay; my name is Kate and I’m going to be leading the Hawks…so when I call your name, come on up and join me” she read off her list and all 10 of her girls gathered around her. Kate was a tall girl…5’10”, so she got down onto her knees to talk to the 8 and 9 year old girls. She had her long brown hair braided into pigtails to try and put off a friendly vibe.

“We are going to have so much fun this week!” she said enthusiastically. “I went here when I was little and I loved it…that was 10 years ago if you can believe it. I can’t wait for all of you to swim and hike and I have so many crafts lined up…this is going to be so much fun!”

She led the girls down the trail and to their cabin and she noticed that one of the girls was lagging a bit behind.

As the other 9 girls giggled and talked and introduced themselves, one girl hung back by herself. They got to the cabin and the last girl just waited until all the other girls made their choices of bunks before she just took the last one left.

Kate went over to her “Hi…what’s your name?”

The girl looked up with scared eyes and said “Madison” almost on the verge of tears.

“What’s wrong Madison?” Kate asked her in her most sympathetic voice.

“I…I don’t know anyone here and I miss my Mom” Madison said.

Kate quickly shuffled out of the cabin with her so she wouldn’t cry in front of the other girls.

“I know it can be scary; is this your first time away from home?” Kate asked.

“Yuh…Yes” Madison choked out as tears started to form.

“Don’t be scared Madison” Kate hugged the small girl close to her chest. “You’re going to be just fine. I’m going to be here and I’m going to watch out for you all week and make sure you’re safe, but I’ll also make sure you’re happy and have a good time”

Madison nodded and sniffled a bit.

“And I’m sure that the other girls in there are scared too. They don’t know each other either but they’re meeting each other and making new friends. I’m sure when you talk to them, you’ll be just fine and you’ll all be friends” Kate said reassuringly.

As Kate exited from her crouched down position and raised back up to her full height, Madison looked up to her. “I wish I was brave like you Kate”

“Aww…thank you. You can be brave like me, you just have to try” she said as she flipped her pigtails back off her shoulders.

Madison cracked the first part of a smile “I hope I can have as much fun as you did when you first came here as a kid” she said.

“You know what” Kate said as she reached up behind her neck. She unhooked a small necklace that she was wearing and said “I made this necklace the first year I was in camp…I’m going to let you wear it to show you just how much fun you can have here this week”

Kate bent down and lifted Madison’s dark blonde hair off her neck. She hooked the clasp behind her head and let the small acorn amulet fall from her hand and bounce against Madison’s chest.

With a slight thump, the acorn hit off of Madison and suddenly she felt better. She felt confident and happy to be there. All of her worries were suddenly gone.

As Kate stood back up, she experienced a wave of overwhelming nerves. “Oh my gosh” she thought suddenly “I don’t know anyone here…what if no one will be my friend…I miss my Mom” as she clutched for her necklace that was now gone. As her hand grasped at the empty air, her eyes widened.

Madison looked up at the tall woman in front of her “What’s wrong Honey?” she asked in all seriousness.

“I…I…I don’t know” Kate mumbled. She looked down and into the calm eyes of the girl in front of her and thought “Why am I so scared and this girl is so calm and trying to reassure me. I’m supposed to be the one in charge…I think”

Kate was confused, she didn’t know what was going on and she thought “I just wish everything made sense to me again”

Kate felt her stomach drop and she took a small step backward.

Madison swallowed and blinked hard in reaction to the flip that her stomach performed “Whoa” she said succinctly. She felt like she needed to stretch and as she arched her back; she began to grow.

Inches began to accumulate as Madison began to grow taller and taller “What’s going on?” she said as she rose up.

Kate looked across and watched in shock as Madison began to grow “She must be growing pretty fast and really tall” she thought “She almost looks as tall as me already…unless…”

Kate looked down and saw that the ground looked closer than before, her shorts looked looser than they had before, and her top looked longer than before “I’M SHRINKING!” she yelled out in a voice that was higher pitched than before.

Madison looked across and saw that she was almost as tall as Kate and as she stared in wonder; Kate continued to drop smaller before her and in a few seconds, Madison was looking down at her camp leader.

“But…but…this is impossible” Kate said as she slapped her hands against her diminishing chest. She felt a lot of fabric, but not much flesh. Her arms were getting skinny; her shorts were barely staying up on her narrowing hips and flattened rear. Her skinny legs stuck out like toothpicks from beneath her large shorts. “AAAAHHHHH!!!!” she yelled.

Madison continued to grow taller and taller than the shrinking Kate but it was more than just height that was changing she realized. Madison saw that Kate was not only getting smaller; but also getting younger. She watched as her face began to change. It rounded and her eyes narrowed, her lips thinned and her cheeks puffed out. When Kate opened her mouth to say something, Madison was sure that she saw a gap where she was missing a baby tooth.

“What’s happening to me? What’s happening to us?” Kate cried as she continued to shrink smaller and smaller in front of Madison. She stared up as Madison’s shirt began to stretch outward and lift up, exposing her stomach. With her midriff showing, it also magnified how tight her shorts were getting.

Madison felt as if her shorts were about to burst right off of her expanding body. They were tight across her waist, over her thighs and against her rear. But as she looked down, she saw that her clothes had begun to change in accordance with her body. The small pink cotton shorts that she had been wearing were gone; replaced by a pair of large khaki shorts that she was quickly filling in to. Her red camp kids T-shirt suddenly changed into a counselors green collared shirt that fit her bust and length.

Her white canvas shoes had grown extremely tight on her growing feet right before they too changed into a pair of women’s size 9 leather Nikes that her fit her feet perfectly along with a pair of cotton socks that sat at her delicate ankles at the bottoms of her long and now shapely legs.

Kate looked down and saw that she was swimming inside her green shirt until it changed into a red T-shirt like all the kids were wearing. As her chest continued to get smaller, the shirt continued to fit better and better. Just as her shorts were about to slip off her narrow hips, they too changed into a pair of pink cotton shorts that fit her much better. And before she even tried to take a step in her tennis shoes that felt as big as clown shoes on her; they too shrank back to a kid’s size to fit her small childish feet.

Katie looked way up now and saw Madison and was shocked. Madison was so tall and so pretty. Her dark blonde hair had become fully blonde and it cascaded down over her shoulders and sat just at her bust line. Her face was mature, with blue eyes, a pert nose and full lips with defined cheekbones and a strong chin and jaw line. Madison twisted back and forth adjusting to her new size and frame. She rolled her shoulders and stuck out her chest as she ran her hands down her sides and over her jutting hips. She leaned over at her waist as she slid her long and smooth right leg out and pointed her toe to see the full line of her leg.

“Oh…My…God…I’m an adult” she said in her mature voice. Madison looked over at the very young and very scared Katie. “And…and you’re a kid again!” she added.

Katie looked up and down at herself and took in her childish body and then over to Madison’s mature body. “But…but…how? How am I a little girl again?” she asked shakily in her high voice. She pulled nervously at one of her pigtails and saw that the color in it had turned red, just like when she was eight originally. She was also sure that she had a face full of freckles and her tongue had already proven to her that she was missing two of her teeth. “I’m eight…”

“And I’m eighteen” Madison said. “Well…um…I guess I don’t have to worry anymore about not being brave” she said with a guilty shrug.

“How did this happen!” Katie said exasperated. “How did you get to be big and I…” She looked down at herself “I’m so small!”

Katie’s hands began to fly around and slap at her body. They ran over her chubby cheeks and flat chest and skinny legs “AAHH…I can’t look like this!”

Madison looked around and saw that the other girls in the group hadn’t seen them change. They were starting to come outside of the cabin and look around for them. The two turned toward them and smiled.

Madison recognized one of the girls as Izzy, who had talked during their walk up to the cabin. She waved and said “Hey Katie: Aren’t you going to unpack your bag?”

“What?” Katie said.

“I said…you need to unpack your bag and get changed into your bathing suit. Don’t you know that we have our swimming test first?”

“Um…yeah, of course I know that swim test is the first thing that campers do”

Izzy smiled “And we were wondering Madison if you were going to tell ghost stories to us at the campfire this week?”

Madison just blinked “They think I’m their counselor” she thought before she said “Uh…of course we’re going to tell ghost stories. What would camp be without ghost stories” as she tried to adjust her bra without anyone seeing. “We’ll be there in a minute okay”

“What just happened?” Katie said. “They think I’m a camper and you’re the counselor!”

“Yeah…it sounds that way doesn’t it” Madison said while looking over Katie’s head and out into the distance. She focused back up and got down on her knee; she took Katie by her slim shoulders and looked her in the eye. “Look…I don’t know why you got turned into an eight year old camper and I’m now the 18 year old boss but it happened and everyone else thinks that this is how it’s supposed to be, so we need to just play along until we figure out how to switch back, okay”

“No! I can’t be eight…I just can’t” Katie whined.

“Hey, you said you loved it when you attended here when you were a kid; look at it that way. You get to experience it all over again.” Madison said.

“I. Don’t. Want. To. Experience. It. Again. As. A. Kid!” Katie said through gritted teeth. She folded her arms and stomped her foot. “I want to be an adult again!”

“I don’t know if that’s going to happen right away” Madison said. “You need to get into your bathing suit for your swim test”

“But!” Katie tried to protest but Madison had taken her by the arm and was easily leading her back to the cabin.

When they got to the door, Madison said “Change quickly girls…we need to be down at the lake in a few minutes”

Katie was dumbfounded, but for some reason, her legs kept moving her into the cabin where she saw a large backpack with Katie embroidered on the top sitting on a bunk. The other girls were already changed and ready to go so she quickly found her swimsuit and changed into it.

She tried to do it as fast as possible so she wouldn’t have a chance to look over her tiny, tiny body. And as she finished, she realized just how tiny she was.

Katie looked at the other 9 girls in her cabin and saw that she was the shortest one there. “Oh No” she thought to herself “How did I get so small and skinny?”

“Come on Hawks; let’s go” Madison yelled out to them and all 10 girls came out, Katie in the rear.
Madison began to lead them to the lake as if she had been there hundreds of times before. They met another group; the Eagles and their leader Amanda.

“Hey Maddie: How’s your group?” Amanda called out.

“They’re great…I think we’re going to have an awesome week” Madison called back naturally.
When they got to the lake, Madison explained the exercise of swimming out to the dock and back and asked if anyone would like to go first. Surprisingly, only one hand went up.

“Katie! You want to go first?”  Madison said.

“Yep” Katie replied.

Katie strode past the other girls with her head held high and her shoulders slung back. She ran into the water and began to swim in perfect form.

Despite looking great to the others; Katie was struggling. Her weaker arms and legs and smaller lungs were all aching as she dug deep to swim as fast as she could. “I have to do this!” she thought, feeling the water sting her small round face as she splashed through the cool lake water. “If I do good enough, maybe I can get my age back” she thought.

Katie stopped swimming as she saw that the water was getting too shallow to keep going.
She stood up and carefully pulled the straps of her swimsuit up onto her shoulders; there was no way she was going to give out a free show.

Madison was leading all the girls in applause “That was great Katie! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an 8 year old swim that fast and that hard”

Katie sucked in her bottom lip and walked past her counselor to get her towel. She wrapped it around her slim shoulders and mumbled “Thanks”

Katie dug her small toes into the rough sand on the lakeshore as the other girls swam one by one. “I just have to get my necklace back” she thought. “It all started when I put my necklace on Madison…”

After the swim tests, they went back and changed back into their regular clothes. Katie mumbled to herself about how humiliating it was being the shortest girl in the cabin but as they headed to lunch, she got to talking to Izzy and another girl named Beth.

At the table though, Katie kept her eye on the counselor’s lunch table and all the laughs that Madison was sharing with them. She looked like she was fitting right in and while she hated to admit it; Katie was having fun getting to relive camp again.

It turned out that Madison knew a lot of great ghost stories and even Katie was scared when she told them.

The week progressed and Katie realized all the things that she took for granted when she was big. Hiking wore out her legs; she couldn’t shoot a bow and arrow as far or as fast; her fingers were clumsy when she did crafts and she couldn’t outrun very many of the other girls. And the time they played basketball…well she got stuck with the nickname short stuff.

Madison also realized things that she was missing by being the counselor and not a kid. She mostly just watched all the activities instead of getting to do them. She actually had to fill out paperwork at night after the kids went to bed and a few of the male counselors were total creeps and weirdos.

Friday night came before either one of them were ready. Madison made sure all the girls were ready for bed for their last night at camp. “Your Moms and Dads will be here first thing tomorrow to pick you up” she said.

“I really hope you all had a great time here. I know I had a great time as your leader and this will be a week that I will never forget”

“Me too” Katie said before the other girls could ring in.

Madison smiled at the small girl who was curled up on top of her bed.

As the girls began to settle in, Katie slipped out and followed Madison out the door. She ran on her short skinny legs to catch up to her at the edge of the trees “Hey! Wait up Maddie!” she whispered loudly.

Madison spun around and saw Katie approaching her. She smiled faintly and pushed her long blonde hair back off her face “Katie…” she said simply.

Katie walked right up to her. She was wearing a pink nightgown with puppies on it and no shoes on her feet. She folded her arms and said “So what happens now?”

“What do you mean?” Madison replied coyly.

“What do you mean, what do I mean? Are we just going to stay like this now? Are my parents going to show up her tomorrow to pick me up and act like nothing is wrong with their daughter being 10 years younger? Are yours not going to have a problem with you being 10 years older? How about the fact that you’ve had your fun and it’s the right thing to do to let us switch back to our right ages?”

“Look Katie…I…” Madison fumbled with her words. “I know we need to switch back and part of me wants to switch back and yet: Well, another part of me doesn’t”

“Look Madison; I get it that it’s fun to be grown up but it’s not your time yet. You got to play teenager for a week and boss around little kids, including me…the person who should have been in charge, so that should have given you an extra thrill. See the big girl turn small and get her age and position…I get it; ultimate thrill ride of a power flip, but it’s time for us to make this right” Katie said.

Madison dropped her head. “What if I don’t give you the chance? What if I refuse to switch back…it’s not like you could make me?” she said as she stood up tall and straight.

“Give me the necklace Madison; you know you should” Katie said calmly as she put her hand out. “Don’t leave me like this”

Madison sighed and reached up behind her neck and undid the clasp of the necklace. She smiled as she looked at in her hand “Fun week” she said.

She swished Katie’s red hair away from her neck and reached around and worked the clasp…

Katie closed her eyes as the acorn dropped from Madison’s hand. Gravity took hold and she felt it bounce against her chest.

She opened her eyes and saw that nothing was changing. She wasn’t growing and Madison wasn’t shrinking. “What’s going on? Why aren’t we changing back?”

“I…I don’t know” Madison said truthfully. “Believe me, I thought I’d be regressing back by now; but I don’t feel a thing”

“Neither do I…” Katie said beginning to panic. “Why aren’t I getting older now?”

Madison shook her head “I don’t know…maybe it doesn’t work like that in reverse”

“No; no it has to work” Katie said and stomped her foot.

Time continued to pass and neither of them felt or saw any physical changes.

Katie sucked in her lips and began to tremble. “I can’t believe it didn’t work…I’m really stuck like this”

Madison looked down at Katie and gave a sympathetic smile.  “I don’t really understand why it worked the first time and I don’t know why it’s not working this time”

“Madison…make sure all your girls are in and ready for lights out” the head counselor called out as he walked by.

“Um…you have to get inside the cabin Katie, I’m sorry…” Madison said as she led her back down the path to her cabin.

“But…but…” Katie managed as she stumbled her way shell shocked down the path barefoot.

“I’ll see you in the morning okay” Madison said as she ushered her inside the cabin and backed away.

As Madison walked away, she broke out into the widest smile she had ever had. Once out of sight of the cabin, she did a dance and enjoyed how her body swayed and moved.

She put her hand in her pocket and brought out the acorn. Old and hard and shellacked; she had worked hard all week to create an exact duplicate to give back to Katie. She walked down to the lake and with all her strength; she threw the acorn deep into the water. “Bye-Bye” she said as she walked to the counselor cabin.