“Where are you going Stella?” Lizzy asked as she saw her heading for the stairs.

“What do you care Ginger” Stella said.

Lizzy had been towards the back of the group and the closest to the stairs. Lizzy just shrugged as Stella headed up the stairs glancing over her shoulder occasionally.

The rain picked up again, lashing against the windows and beating down on the roof. Lizzy looked out the small windows next to the front door. She could see the rain pounding down on Charlie’s car beneath the street light. “Wish I could drive so I could get out of here” she thought idly.

Stella headed down the upstairs hall past both the girls rooms. Across from Mr. and Mrs. Milbright’s bedroom was the office and what Stella was looking for.

She turned on the small desk lamp as she entered the room and came around the desk. She took a paper clip off the desk and began to bend it. She knelt down and popped the lock on the small cabinet behind the desk “Jackpot” she said to herself.

Stella twisted and sat on the floor behind the desk and pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels from the now open liquor cabinet.

She twisted open the cap with a nervous smile “That shit is too weird for me man” she said to herself as she took a sip. She swallowed and felt the burn in her throat as the whiskey went down but she licked her lips and finally stood up.

She walked around the room carrying the bottle by the neck, knowing that everybody else was preoccupied with Mia and Aubrey. There was an old fashioned stand up mirror in the corner and she walked over to it and stood before it. She tugged at her tight white shorts and smoothed out her green top.

Her long jet black hair came half way down her back and she looked at her own dark brown eyes. Stella’s mom was Korean and she carried that heritage in her looks, her high round cheeks and small chin went a long way towards her innocent act that was getting harder and harder to pull off.

Stella was 16, the middle child, her older sister Cora was little miss perfect about to go to law school while her younger brother was already excelling at science fairs and was building complex robots in their basement. Stella was a good student, but not great.
Sports had never been her thing and now at 16, she just wasn’t quite sure where she fit in. She was getting a reputation as a party girl and frankly, she didn’t mind.

Stella heard the thunder outside getting louder again and she took another sip of the Jack. She blinked and closed her eyes as a close flash of lighting lit up the room.

Lizzy was right next to the door when the latest close strike occurred. She jumped back and it felt like her bright red hair was on edge with static electricity. She hurried over to the rest of the group and stood between Vicki and Katherine.

When she stopped in between them, she looked back and forth from Katherine to Vicki and saw that they were almost the same height; Katherine was just a bit taller than Vicki.

Lizzy shuddered and felt an odd tingling sensation in her stomach. She knew she was standing still, but it felt to her like she was moving.

She looked over to Vicki and went to say something but found that she couldn’t say anything. She looked down to the ground and wiggled her toes: The ground seemed to be getting further away from her. Lizzy was growing.

“Uh guys…” she finally said “Something’s wrong with me”

Lizzy lurched forward and bent at the waist as she grabbed her hips. Her center of gravity shifted suddenly sending her forward almost onto her face.

Katherine jumped back with an excited “AH” but Vicki stood ramrod straight next to Lizzy as she grew taller. Vicki had been several inches taller than Lizzy but Lizzy was gaining on her very fast. Soon, she was as tall as Vicki and then as tall as Katherine.

Katherine took another step back as Lizzy grew taller than her. “Am I shrinking?” she yelled in a panic.

Everyone was watching Lizzy grow and as far as they could tell, Katherine wasn’t shrinking or changing at all.

Lizzy’s wild red hair began to darken and straighten out; it was a lot less frizzy and seemed much more manageable. Her freckles lightened but didn’t disappear from her alabaster skin even as her mouth grew wider and her nose grew longer.

Her green eyes intensified on her more mature face as her body began to develop.

Lizzy’s hands hovered over her white t-shirt as breasts began to form and puff out on her chest. Her t-shirt had been pretty big, but it was getting tighter now just like Mia’s had. Lizzy’s chest grew long and lithe as she reached 5’5”.

Lizzy’s legs had grown long and strong; muscles stood out on her calves and thighs; she had the legs of a soccer player. Her black soccer shorts had grown very tight on her though. She could feel the fabric pull tight across the bottom of her toned rear and across her expanded hips.  “Oh my God…when is going to stop?” she said as she reached 16.

With her words, she did seem to stop. Lizzy let out a low “Uh…” as everyone stared.
Mia stood up “Lizzy; are you okay?” she asked.

Lizzy looked over and a smile began to spread on her face. She nodded slowly “I feel great Mia” she said in her lower more mature voice.

All the rest of the group began to look around at each other; everyone else looked the same.

“But if you’re older now…” Aubrey started when they heard a high pitched scream come from upstairs.

They took a quick inventory before Athena said “Stella!”

Stella had turned her back on the mirror and was watching the lightening as she took her third hit from the bottle. As she drank it down, it seemed sour to her and she shuddered hard against the burning feeling in her chest.

What Stella dismissed as alcohol was actually the first shudder of shrinking down to age nine again.

Stella was only 5’2” and quite skinny so she didn’t even notice she was getting smaller by herself in the low light of the office.

She shuddered a second time as she dropped below five feet tall. Her long black hair remained long, but it was getting thinner and stringier. Her almost black eyes widened as her already small features got smaller. Her chin came in along with her nose and her mouth shrank down to tiny.

She brought the bottle back up and thought, “It seems so heavy”

Her hands and arms were getting smaller and weaker and the bottle slipped out of her hand and dropped to the carpet.

“Shit!” she whispered and she got down on her knees to grab the bottle before too much leaked out. After standing the bottle upright, she realized that something wasn’t right.

“What the…” she said seeing her legs. They looked too skinny and she noticed that her arms were loose in her sleeves. She stood up quickly and noticed that her clothes were big on her “OH NO!” She said in a voice that no longer sounded like her own; it was too high pitched. “I sound like a little girl!” she thought as she spun around and looked in the mirror.

Stella breathed heavily upon seeing her reflection. She took in a lungful of air and screamed as loud as she could.

Stella couldn’t even believe what she was hearing as she was screaming: The high pitched little girls’ scream echoed through the room and the house. She heard footsteps coming toward her on the run and she was shaking when she saw Athena standing tall in the door way.

“What happened to you?” Athena asked.

“I got turned into a little kid just like Aubrey did stupid” she said. Athena came closer and Stella realized that she only came up to her chin. “Help me!” she demanded and stomped her foot.

Charlie and Skyler now stood behind Athena in the office. They could smell the whiskey in the air and they were shocked to see little Stella standing in the middle of the room swimming her clothes.

“Don’t you dare laugh at me” Stella said as Skyler’s eyes popped out.

“No…it’s cool Stella, just take it easy” Charlie said.

Stella looked at him and asked “So did somebody get older downstairs?”

Charlie nodded “Yeah, yeah…Lizzy just grew up before our eyes”

“That little ginger got my age!” Stella said.

“And you got hers” Skyler said.

Stella’s eyes crossed and her cheeks puffed out “Excuse me” she said and bolted from the room clutching at her large clothes. Stella sprinted toward the bathroom where her three sips of whiskey took their toll. It was bad enough at her original size, but with her decrease in weight, the alcohol had to come out.

Mia stood outside the door “Stella honey…are you okay in there?”

Stella ignored to condescending tone as she slumped on the bathroom floor and thought long and hard about what had just happened to her “I’m really nine again”

The door opened and Charlie and Mia stood there.

Stella shook her head and said “If I’m really nine now, that means I’m the youngest in my family. My brother Liam would be three years older than me and Cora would be like eleven years older than me now”

“Sorry…” Charlie said.

Stella looked at him and cocked her head. “I’m not…I can work this to my advantage really. I’m the baby of the family now”

“But aren’t you mad about being nine again?” Charlie asked.

Stella smirked “I still think like I’m sixteen…school will be a cinch…”

Mia came in with a pair of jeans and a pink top that she thought would fit the now reduced Stella.

Stella took them from her hand and began to change her clothes as Athena, Charlie and Skyler drifted away.

“So, you seem to be taking this in a positive way from what I heard” Mia said.

Stella sighed “Yeah, why not look on the bright side of things you know. So I’m a kid again; that just means sixteen is going to come around again for me one day soon” she said as she put on the small pink top. “I hope we can find a way out of this still, but I mean…”

Mia smiled and shook her head. She stood up next to Stella and couldn’t get over how small she seemed to her. “I’m still freaked out and I am not used to being this size yet” she admitted.

“Maybe it’s harder getting bigger than it is getting smaller. I’ve been nine once before but you’ve never been seventeen, let alone sixteen, fifteen…” Stella said as they headed downstairs.

Aubrey was waiting at the bottom of the stairs as Stella and Mia came down. “How are you doing Stella?” she asked.

Stella smiled “I’m okay all things considered” she said as she reached the bottom. She was shorter than Aubrey at nine but both of them were in the same boat; they had started out the night as 17 and 16 year olds and were now both only 9.

“Oh my Gosh” Lizzy said coming forward. She let out a little laugh at seeing Stella reduced down to her age, or rather, her former age. ”We swapped ages”

“Yeah, obviously “Stella said looking up at Lizzy.

“But we didn’t even really know each other” Lizzy said.

“You were just another annoying little kid running around here Lizzy”

“Um…Lizzy sounds a bit too childish, call me Elizabeth please and who’s the annoying little kid now by the way”

Stella smirked “Okay Elizabeth, whatever, like you said, we had no connection and we weren’t even near each other when we swapped”

“What can be going on here?” Elizabeth asked rhetorically.

Katherine was standing in the living room with Allie and Maddie; she shut off the TV just as Henry Winkler’s Principal Himbry was getting stabbed in his office in the movie.

Aubrey led Elizabeth up to her room so she could get some clothes that fit; Stella’s would be too small they thought.

Once inside Aubrey’s room, Elizabeth stripped down and took in her new mature body “Oh my God, look at me” she said as Aubrey shoved clothes at her. Black shorts and a black top went on as Elizabeth wondered aloud over and over about what her brothers would say when they saw her.

She had been the youngest, but now she would be the middle child, a year older than her brother Frank.

Since they were alone, Elizabeth asked Aubrey “Since you and your sister swapped and now Stella and me swapped…do you think everybody’s going to?”

Aubrey stopped; she hadn’t really thought about it as she had been more focused on what had caused them to change and if there was a way to reverse it. She hadn’t thought about if it was just getting started.

After they had come back downstairs, Skyler and Athena started talking and went off in their own direction so Charlie had gone into the kitchen and grabbed a Coke. He had just put the empty can down on the counter when he saw his sister coming toward him. “Holy shit balls bro bro; what the heck is going on here”

“I don’t know and I don’t like it” Charlie replied to Caroline.

“What if we’re next?” Caroline said.

Charlie’s eyes widened “Don’t say shit like that. This is no time to joke about that”

“Sorry, I’m just saying it’s like those Friday the 13th movies we were watching earlier; nobody makes it out of those alive, maybe nobody makes it out of here unswitched”.

“No…that’s bullshit” Charlie said.

“Is it? How can you say that after you just watched Mia and Aubrey change ages and now you’ve seen both Lizzy and Stella” Caroline said.

“But what’s causing it? If we can figure that out, we can make sure no one else changes ages tonight” Charlie argued.

“What do they have in common?” Caroline asked.

“I don’t know… if this was solely a sibling thing than I’d say we were in big trouble” Charlie said.

“No, you’d be in big trouble; you’d be my little brother” Caroline joked.

“Now my big sister wouldn’t pick on me now would she?” Charlie said and punched her in the shoulder.

Charlie and Caroline got along well for a brother and sister. They both loved sports and played as many as they could. Charlie worked with Caroline all the time in soccer, basketball and their favorite sport, lacrosse.

Caroline loved the extra work with Charlie and appreciated how he pushed her to be better and didn’t let up on her when they practiced. The six year age gap between 16 and 10 could have given him an excuse to not work with her, but Charlie had never blown her off when it came to sports.

But he also had never let her win and deep down; Caroline really wanted to beat Charlie someday. It had made Caroline into the best player on her team and she was very strong for her age, but not strong enough to take down her ultra-competitive brother yet.

Skyler and Athena came into the kitchen; they had decided to stick together and not leave the other’s side until they figured out what was going on.

“You two need to get away from each other if you don’t want to end up a shrimp Charlie” Skyler told her boyfriend.

“I don’t think being siblings has anything to do with this” Charlie said leaning on the counter.

“Aubrey would have to disagree with you” Skyler said. “What happened to her and her sister was weird, but what happened to Lizzy and Stella; well now it’s just getting downright scary”

“What do you mean?” Caroline said.

“I mean I think this place is haunted or cursed or something” Skyler said. “Anything I guess can happen once no matter how freaky it is, but having it happen twice in a half hour…” she shook her head “Nuh-uh, something is definitely up. And by up I mean all the little kids ages and I don’t know how long it will go on”

“Yeah, Caroline here thinks it’s like in Friday the 13th where everybody gets picked off one by one” Charlie said.

“Bingo” Skyler agreed. “But you know in every horror movie I’ve ever seen, somebody always escapes. You know like Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween or Neve Campbell in Scream…somebody gets away and I’m not taking any chances”

“You’re nuts Sky” Caroline said.

“Yeah, nobody else is going to swap ages tonight” Charlie agreed.

“Well it’s not going to be me” Skyler said. “No way I want to go back in age and be a little kid again”

Skyler and Athena turned and left the room leaving Charlie and Caroline alone.

“Storm’s picking back up again out there” Charlie noted as the rain intensified again and thunder rolled overhead.

Caroline smiled at her brother. She was wearing a gray t-shirt with her lacrosse team’s name ‘Warriors’ in burgundy letters across it and burgundy shorts. She picked up the empty Coke can and gave it a shake.

As lightning struck nearby, Caroline jumped and dropped the can. It hit the counter and rolled off, landing at Charlie’s feet.

“Jumpy sis?” he said as he bent down to pick it up. He tossed into the trash can and turned back around.

“Oh no” he said flatly as he looked at his sister.

Caroline stared back at him; she stood absolutely frozen in place. Finally, her lip trembled and she said “Us too”

Charlie slowly closed his eyes; he nodded his head slowly as he felt his stomach just drop. His shoulders sagged in resignation, then rose up close and tight as he tensed up. “Shit” he said as he began to shrink.

Charlie’s brown hair stood on end and began to pull back into a very close buzz cut like the one he had when he was a boy. The light stubble he had on his cheeks disappeared and his skin became soft on his rounding cheeks and chin.

His jaw line weakened, his mouth drew in and his nose shrank back. Charlie had a young boy’s face again as his body shrank and became younger.

Caroline’s motionlessness allowed her to feel everything that was happening to her body. She felt her legs stretch out longer and wider. She felt her feet getting longer as she griped the tile with her toes. Her feet moved without her consent as they grew bigger.

She felt her shorts pull tight against her thighs as they grew round and firm, muscled and strong with more years of sports under her belt. Her hips grew out, but not as much as her thighs as she felt her butt change shape.

It too got stronger and fuller just as her back spread out and her abdominal muscles toned. Caroline felt stronger than ever as she grew taller at the expense of her brother’s shrinking.

Charlie’s athletic build was disappearing; being replaced as his muscles weakened and contracted on his smaller frame. Charlie had stood 6’1” but not any longer. As he swapped ages with his little sister and became the ten year old out of the two of them, he would drop all the way down to 4’10”.

His legs and arms thinned as they got shorter, his pecs and abs went flat and weak as he was no longer at an age to have that kind of muscle definition. His black shirt hung like a sail on him and his gray basketball shorts dropped down past his knobby knees.

He quickly grabbed the strings and yanked as hard as he could to keep them up and on his narrow hips and skinny legs “Oh man” he said in a high unchanged voice.

Caroline’s t-shirt began to lift outward as she began to develop breasts. Her athletic build though meant that they didn’t get very large as she grew to a height of 5’7”.

Her arms grew longer and stronger; Caroline felt her muscles building and tightening in her arms as biceps came up. Even her neck felt stronger as her face began to tingle.

Her brown hair lengthened and thickened, her mouth grew longer, but her lips stayed thin over a strong jaw and chin. Her cheeks rose up defined by her now long nose that showed the marks of being broken several times through the years. Her blue eyes widened as her eyebrows came under control and thinned out in maturity.

The tingling sensation was passing away from her body and Caroline finally exhaled and said “Is it over…it’s over isn’t it” in a deep, slightly scratchy sounding voice.

The siblings stood a few feet across from each other and took in the sight off the others new state.

“You’re so big Caroline” Charlie marveled.

“You’re so little…” Caroline said.

“You look so strong” Charlie continued.

“You look awfully scrawny” Caroline conceded.

“I…I’m sure you could beat me now if we played against each other” Charlie admitted.

“Ha” Caroline laughed despite herself “You bet your ass I could beat you”

Charlie blushed now looking up at his sister. That was when he heard his girlfriend scream from the doorway.

“AHHHHHH!!!!! It happened again!”  Skyler screamed. “Charlie! You’re a little boy!”

She rushed to Charlie “Oh my God honey…you’re so short and so…so…little” she grabbed him and pulled him in for a hug.

Charlie’s face went straight in between Skyler’s breasts as she embraced him. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight even as he squirmed and tried to get away.

Maddie and Allie were the next two into the room. “Caroline!” Allie yelled. Her two best friends were now both teenagers.

Caroline just shrugged her shoulders and tilted her head “What are you gonna do you know”

Maddie was wide eyed as Mia pushed past them and went to Caroline. “Oh my God Caroline” she said as she hugged her “Are you okay?”

“Yeah…I mean…I guess I’m alright” Caroline responded.

Elizabeth came in and smiled widely and clapped at another member joining their ranks.

Skyler had pulled Charlie out of her chest and was stroking his short shorn hair and giving him a pouty face. “My tiny little guy…I guess we can’t date anymore can we? Not with you looking like this we can’t”

“Is that all you’re worried about Sky?” Charlie asked her.

Vicki and Katherine had come in along with Aubrey and Stella.

“Whoa Charlie” Stella said as she came up next to him. She was smaller than him so she tried to cheer him up “At least you’re not the shortest one here…I’m smaller than you still”

“Thanks Stella” he responded as Mia rubbed his back. Charlie was only about an inch taller than Aubrey but was a few inches taller than the very short Stella.

Katherine leaned forward and rubbed Charlie’s buzz cut too. All three of the regressed teens found themselves hovering around Katherine.

“You know what this means don’t you” Athena said addressing the room.

They all turned and looked at her “We have to find out what’s causing this or else we’re all going to end up swapping ages with someone else here tonight”

The remaining girls began to scan the room at each other. Six girls were still at their original ages and a sense of inevitability filled the air.

Mia looked over Charlie and said “I don’t know how we’re going to get you dressed. Your sister’s clothes will probably fit you the best”

Skyler snickered behind her hand and Charlie blushed again.

“Um Mia…” Aubrey began.

“What is it Aubrey?” Mia answered back quickly.

Aubrey shrunk back from her big sister and mumbled “Nothing…”

Mia was leading Charlie and Caroline up the stairs so they could change clothes. Aubrey drifted over to Katherine, who ran her fingers through her short bobbed hair. Stella worked her way around too, still looking paler than usual after her run in with Jack earlier.

“First Aubrey, then Stella, now my Charlie” Skyler said looking around.

“Not even Daddy’s money will solve this one for you Skyler” Elizabeth said.

Skyler spun to face her “What did you say you little jumped up bitch”

“I said your Daddy’s money won’t save you from this tonight and watch who you call little, you little bitch” Elizabeth shot back standing eye to eye with Skyler. She put her hands on her hips and took a step toward Skyler “I’m not afraid of you anymore: You think you run this town just because your Dad has money and you live in a big house. Have you ever asked yourself where your family got that money? It was by running that old factory off the work that people like my Dad and Grandpa put in working there. They never made much money because your family kept it all”

“How dare you talk to me like that?” Skyler responded as Katherine pushed Elizabeth away.
“My father works harder than you think” Skyler responded somewhat lamely. She had always liked the money she had at her disposal but that had come at the expense of actually knowing her father. He was always gone on business and her mother was not the affectionate type. Skyler had been raised by her Grandmother for the most part.

“What, I’m just teasing her…she can’t hear anything form someone that’s not afraid of her” Elizabeth said as she walked away.

“Why don’t you take it easy Elizabeth” Katherine said as she led her away.

“You’re not my babysitter anymore Katherine” Elizabeth shot back.

“No I’m not, now I’m acting as your friend. There’s no need to pick a fight tonight; not with everything that’s already going on” Katherine reasoned.

Skyler was now stalking after Elizabeth “Don’t you dare lecture me about work and economics; you’re just a little girl in a big body but you still only have the mind of a kid. You don’t understand and you never will. When we figure all this out and you and Stella swap back to your real ages, you’ll be sorry you talked to me like that.”

“We’ll see” Elizabeth replied.

Mia had Caroline in Aubrey’s room and Charlie in her room. She made Caroline strip down and she brought those clothes to Charlie.

“Please don’t watch me Mia” Charlie said as she lingered in the door a moment too long.

“Oh sorry, you’re right” Mia said as she backed out and closed the door behind her. She called out another “Sorry” as she headed to her sister’s room.

Caroline stood there naked, taking in her new body. “Can you believe this Mia?” she asked. “I look amazing…this feels so good being this old”

Mia smiled and closed the door behind her. A huge smile spread across Mia’s face as she bounced toward Caroline. She grabbed her by the upper arms “I know! I can’t believe this! I feel so powerful and…and…I’m in charge now. My parents are gone and I’m now the older one; I’m the big sister. Aubrey should have never left us: this must be her punishment”

“Well Charlie should have taken it easy on me at least once in his life. This must be his punishment for rubbing it into my face that he could beat me whenever he wanted to”
Caroline said finally picking up a pair of Aubrey’s panties and one of her bras. She ran her fingers through her long brown hair, straightening it and taking out a few rats’ nests that had developed.

Her blue eyes shone on her face and her wide smile stayed firm as she now ran her hands over her chest once more.

“And Stella got what she deserved for her partying…” Mia concluded.

Caroline put on a pair of Aubrey’s jeans and a black top “Still…”

“What?” Mia asked.

“When they first got in and we were in the living room, Skyler told me that we’d act differently if we were their age. And I said back to her that they’d all act differently if they were our age. That was when the lightning hit and took out the power” Caroline said.

“Aubrey and I switched right after that” Mia said.

Caroline nodded. “I think that was what started this off and now…” she waved her hands up and down.

“Now we’re the ones in charge…we’re the older ones” Mia concluded. “So who do you think will be next?”

Caroline smiled slyly. “I wonder how Charlie’s doing.”

Mia smiled and stepped aside “Go check on him”

Charlie whimpered at the sight of his small body as he took off his huge clothes. “I can’t even wear any underwear” he realized. In a house of girls, his didn’t fit and he couldn’t bring himself to wear his sister’s panties.

He pulled on the burgundy shorts and her t-shirt, noting that her shirt smelled like cheap perfume.

He looked at himself in the mirror. A 10 year old boy stared back out at him. His round chubby cheeks just stood out on his immature face below his narrow eyes but above his weak chin. “I probably can’t even pick up my lacrosse net, let alone do anything good with it”

“This can’t be…” he muttered. He thought about Skyler and wondered what she would say to him when she saw him again. “If I stay this age and she stays 16…I’ll never be able to even look at her again. Even if she gets turned into a kid again, we can’t date…that’s stupid for two 10 year olds to date…I mean, what could we even do?”

A knock on the door made him jump and hearing his sister’s deep and scratchy voice outside made him want to hide. “How’s it coming in there bro bro” she said.

“Fine” he chirped up hating the sound of his voice.

Skyler had come upstairs and was standing behind Mia and Caroline “I want to see him” she said.

“So do I” Caroline replied. And they both waited with arms folded.

“Open the door Charlie” Caroline said.

“I don’t want to…go away” Charlie replied.

Skyler was trying not to laugh but having a hard time of it hearing his voice.

“We’re not leaving until you come out” Caroline said.

Charlie sighed and ran to the door, flinging it open to get it over with “Here…” he said with anger that quickly faded as he saw the three larger girls outside his door.

“Nice shorts honey” Skyler said. She was trying to portray innocence in her voice and face but it wasn’t working.

“You need to come downstairs with everybody else” Mia said. She grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him out of her room.

“Hey” he protested vocally but was unable to protest physically. He was frightened by how easily Mia had yanked him forward.

Standing in the hall, he was at breast level with all three girls. Mia went first down the stairs followed by Caroline. She glanced over her shoulder one more time just to see her brother reduced down again. He looked even smaller standing next to Skyler since it was a scene so familiar to Caroline, yet now, so different in scope.

“Give us a minute okay” Skyler said as the other two departed. She found herself in front of her boyfriend, now a ten year old little boy.

“Um Skyler…I don’t know what to say” Charlie began. He was totally confused as he looked up at his girlfriend. He was attracted to her still, yet scared of her and intimidated by her size and age. The change in perspective in talking to her was disconcerting for both of them.

Skyler looked down with eagerness. She rubbed his buzzed hair as he squirmed to get away.
Charlie grabbed at Skyler’s hands to get her to stop touching him. “Do you remember all the times we just sat and talked and held each other Sky?” he asked her.

She smiled and nodded and giggled. “But now I would have to hold you instead of you holding me” she said.

“We can get out of here Sky…we can…” Charlie started to say.

“No we can’t Charlie; I can’t drive and neither can you now…you couldn’t even see over the steering wheel or reach the pedals with your short skinny little legs” Skyler said.

“Sky…this is serious…I’ve been turned into a little kid and I don’t want to see the same thing happen to you” Charlie said.

“It won’t happen to me, I’m sure of it” Skyler said.

“Why not”

“Because someone always gets away and it’s going to be me” she said with all the confidence in the world as she ruffled his hair.

“I can’t get over how cute you are” Skyler said as she pinched his cheeks and put her arms into Charlie’s armpits. She lifted him up and kissed him on his cheek.

Charlie kicked and struggled to get away but it was no use, he was helpless to stop his girlfriend from simply picking him up whenever she wanted. “Cut it out Skyler” he whined.

“No need to cry about it” Skyler said as she put him down and headed back down the stairs.