“Come on Hallie; carve it out…clean cutback” Shawn Mullins yelled out to his star student as she worked a wave.

“Ava! Quit wasting your time on the ankle breakers…what’s your deal today? We’ve got corduroy. I want everybody lined up and ready to ride...no drop ins” he continued to yell over the sound of the waves at his students.

“I want to see you in the pocket Hallie…you too Ava”

Hallie Quatermain lined up her board next to Ava Bridger’s. Ava was only 8, but she was considered the top student in the 8-12 age bracket. She was a complete natural.

“You dare me to kick flip at the end?” Hallie asked Ava.

“You’ll be lucky to kick out let alone kick flip” Ava replied. “You eat it out here and Shawn will be all over your goofy foot stance”

Hallie just laughed and flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulders. Hallie was 16 and ready to turn pro. She had been surfing since she was three and had already won several amateur competitions. Shawn rode both of them harder than the other students because he knew they both had the potential for greatness.

“We both know you’ll be the one mullering out here today” Hallie said as she turned her long board and started paddling out away from Ava and the rest of the pack.

“I will not!” Ava yelled after her with a laugh.

Hallie rode her wave in and ended with a kick out. She caught Ava pointing at her, still waiting her turn on a wave.

Hallie paddled back out to Ava to wait with her. “Keep your eye open for the right one…Shawn’s going to call practice here in a few minutes so make sure you get a tasty wave to finish”

Ava smiled and cocked her head to see behind her. Her wet brown hair clung to her bare shoulders and the water lapped over her board. She thought the same thing that Hallie thought as they both saw a wave coming “Hit it” Hallie yelled and Ava started paddling.

Sure enough after she rode it in, Shawn blew his whistle to end practice. All the girls started catching whatever they could to ride in.

It was a hot day so no wetsuits were being worn; bikinis ruled the beach as the girls all finished up and came on the sand.

“All right Grommets…same time tomorrow” Shawn said as they began to scatter.

Hallie dug her board into the sand and sat down; she was in no hurry to leave today. She dug her wet toes into the hot sand, relishing the heat.

Ava sat down next to Hallie. “So when’s your first tourney?” she asked, her wet hair dripping.

“In three weeks; that’s why I’m trying to get in as much time as I can” Hallie answered.

“Wish I was going pro” Ava said wiping sand from her knee.

“You will soon enough” Hallie replied. “You’re way better than me when I was your age”

“Thanks” Ava said simply.

They turned towards the other and laughed again when their eyes met.

Hallie wiggled her toes deeper into the sand until she hit something hard. “What the heck?” she said as she pulled her feet out. As she started backing them out, she felt a strap, so she grasped it between her toes and lifted out the object she had found.

“Oh cool” Ava said seeing what Hallie had found. “It’s a Tiki Head necklace…leather strap and everything”

Hallie rested her right calf on her left knee and let the necklace dangle from her big toe before she grabbed it and wiped it off using her nearby towel. “Looks like it’s in pretty decent shape; someone must have lost it recently”

Once it was clean, Hallie looped it over her head and let it come to rest on her chest. The dark brown stood out next to the white fabric of her bikini top. She pulled her damp hair out from the leather strap to let it sit cleanly against her neck.

Lost in the bright sunshine was that the right eye of the Tiki amulet began to glow red.

“Can I try it on?” Ava asked. She got onto her knees to get closer to Hallie.

“Sure” Hallie replied and took the necklace off.

Ava held her brown hair up as Hallie dropped the leather around her neck. The Tiki head was heavier than Ava thought as it banged off the center of her chest between the triangles of her bright blue bikini top. “This thing is sweet”

As the amulet hit Ava’s skin, the left eye began to glow red but neither of the girls’ could tell as the sun was in their eyes.

“Do you want to go catch a few more on our own?” Ava asked.

“Sure…let’s go” Hallie replied.

They both grabbed their boards and ran into the surf. They started to paddle out with Ava in the lead. She was paddling harder and faster than Hallie and pulling away from her “Come on slow poke” Ava yelled behind her.

Hallie was paddling as hard as she could and couldn’t understand why and how Ava got out before her “Must be tired” she thought as she came up.

Ava was already sitting on her board “What took you so long?”

Hallie sat up and straddled the board with her long legs. She was slightly out of breath and as she adjusted the straps of her bikini on her shoulders she said” Don’t know…I was paddling as hard as I usually do; how did you get out here so fast?”

“Don’t know” Ava said with a shrug. She too adjusted her top; it felt tight on her shoulders.

A wave was forming behind them and Ava got out faster than Hallie. Hallie backed off and watched as Ava stood up and began to ride it.

“Wow…she’s shredding that wave” Hallie said as she watched Ava ride more aggressively than she usually did.

Ava though didn’t feel right as she was on her board. After riding it in, she ducked down and slipped off into the water. She paddled back out and shook her head as she sat astride her board.

“Why did you bail…you were doing great?” Hallie said a bit in awe of Ava’s skill.

Ava rolled her shoulders and adjusted her top again “I don’t know…it just didn’t feel right: It felt like my balance was off”

Ava now ran a finger underneath the waist of her bikini bottom; it felt tight and it was pinching along her hip. “You take the next one Hallie” she said.

Ava kicked her feet back and forth beneath her board, her legs feeling stronger than she could ever remember. She looked down and cocked her head, her legs looked bigger. They seemed fuller and rounder, not to mention stronger and thicker. She griped her hands across her thighs, slightly confused until she focused on Hallie paddling away from her to catch the next wave.

“Go Hallie” she shouted but thought that her voice sounded hoarse.

Hallie was paddling furiously trying to just catch the wave. “Why is this so hard this time?” she thought as her arms burned with her effort.

“What the…” she mumbled as she kicked the side and the tail of her board. She jumped up and planted her feet but her balance was way off; her board felt too big for some reason and she immediately bailed.

Hallie felt the ocean water wash over her as her ankle strap pulled tight. In a moment of horror, she clamped her arm tight to her chest as it felt like her bikini top was about to pull off with the force of the wave.

Hallie popped up out of the water, her eyes wide and her mouth wide open along with her right arm held tightly to her chest.

As she sloshed through the water trying to make her way to shore, she could feel her bikini bottom sagging and feeling like it was about to slide down off her hips. She dragged her board behind her, fighting the current. She reached down and undid her ankle strap. Just lifting up her board was a struggle all of a sudden; it felt like it weighed a ton.

She managed to get it under her arm, but even then her hand kept slipping out from under it. Her board was super heavy and seemed wider than her arm span. She more or less hauled it in on her thigh as she struggled to just keep her suit on. She dropped her board to the sand “Stupid thing” she yelled at it in a frustrated and higher pitched voice as she kicked weakly at it.

Ava saw Hallie struggling so she decided to take the next wave in easily to check on her. She paddled and kicked twice thinking that her board seemed too small suddenly. She jumped on it and as her feet came down, her board submerged more than usual. Ava tried to stand up, but her balance was also off. She looked at her feet as they were positioned on the board. They seemed to take up the whole thing.

Ava crouched down and cruised in feeling top heavy. “Are you okay?” she yelled over the sound of the surf at the struggling and frustrated Hallie.

Ava easily made her way in and undid her tight ankle strap, even noticing the mark it had made in her skin. She quickly gathered up her board and made her way over to Hallie.

“Hallie what’s wrong?” she asked as she jogged over.

“Everything is wrong…I don’t even know where to begin to say what’s…wrong” Hallie said before losing her train of thought as Ava drew near.

As Ava got closer, she realized that something was wrong but she couldn’t put her finger on it immediately. Hallie didn’t look right, she looked smaller than usual. “Hallie!
What’s going on with you?”

“Ava…is that you?” Hallie asked.

The girl approaching her looked like Ava if Ava was a lot older and bigger. This was a woman approaching, not an eight year old girl.

Ava had been so preoccupied with checking on Hallie that it came to a surprise to her when she took a step and felt weight shift on her chest and a breeze come across what she thought had been well covered up.

Ava looked down and gasped “What the heck?” as her hand came up to cover her exposed breast. “But I don’t…I shouldn’t…I…” she stopped in her tracks, feet digging into the soft sand as she heard her name spoken by a little girls voice “Ava…is that you?”

“Uh…Hallie” Ava said trying to comprehend what was occurring but failing at it.

“What happened to you Ava? You look so…so …big!”

“I uh…wait…Hallie is that you?” Ava asked incredulously to the small girl before her. “How’d you get so little?”

“I…WHAT?” Hallie now looked down at herself. Shock came upon her as she saw her bikini hanging off her skinny frame. “AHHHHH! What happened to me?!”

Ava now looked down at herself “What the heck?” she said as she registered the fact that she had a full set of breasts now along with full curvy hips and long full legs. Her right breast had come free from her tight blue bikini top that was several sizes too small of her body now.

Hallie clutched desperately at her huge white bikini trying to keep it up on her small frame. “You’re big and I’m little!…Ava?!…what happened to us?”

“I…I don’t know Hallie” Ava stuttered out. She looked at Hallie and realized it was more than just size; Hallie looked young, like a little kid.

Hallie too was coming to the realization that Ava wasn’t just bigger than her; she looked older.

Luckily the beach was almost deserted as they now scrambled backwards.

“You look like you’re the eight year old now Hallie” Ava said.

“And you look like you should be 16” Hallie agreed. “But how?”

Ava looked down to her chest at the Tiki Head hanging between her now large breasts. Her hand lifted it up slightly “No…” she said.

“That has to be it!” Hallie said as she lurched forward and took ahold of the amulet. “How else to do explain that I got turned into a little kid and you grew up into a teenager”

“But…” Ava struggled.

“But nothing…give me that amulet”

Ava bent down, surprised at how her body felt in motion as Hallie tugged it off her neck.
Hallie put it around her neck and said “Come on…change us back” as she stared down at her diminished body. “I don’t want to be eight again”

“Ah!” Hallie let out as her white bikini flashed bright blue and shrunk up close to hug her body. She looked over quickly at Ava who she saw was now wearing her old white bikini and looking down.

Ava had been watching to see if Hallie would start growing again once the Tiki head was back on her but she was just surprised as she saw her clothes change followed by the sensation that her bikini was no longer super tight on her. When she looked down and saw that it was also white now, she realized that the amulet had only changed their clothes, not their fates; that had already been decided.

“Hey…what’s the deal Ava?” Hallie said sadly “Why did we only switch clothes? I’m supposed to be the older one…not you”

“I guess the Tiki head feels different…guess I’m the one who’s going pro next month” Ava said taking in her new age and what it could mean “I mean, who’s ever heard of an eight year old on the pro tour?”

“Hey, that’s not nice and it isn’t fair!” Hallie shouted back as she picked at her small blue bikini, somewhat relieved that it at least fit.

“I’m just teasing you” Ava said as she stood Hallie board up “Guess we need to swap boards too…yours will be too big for you from now on”

“Um…but…um…” Hallie said as Ava worked around her as she stood still, tiny feet digging into the sand.

“I think I should wear the amulet…don’t you think?” Ava said as she reached down and lifted it up and off easily from Hallie’s small frame.

As the Tiki head came off, Hallie’s right hand made a quick and ineffective grab for it.
Ava swiftly dropped it back over her neck and felt the weight of it once again against her chest.

As it hit home, both girls shook their heads violently back and forth.

“Hey Ava” Hallie said.

“Yeah Hallie” Ava replied.

“Can you teach me to cross step today?” Hallie asked.

“Sure…anything for the girl who will eventually beat me in like 10 years” Ava said with a laugh.