“Come on Jackie…stay down on the ball! Don’t get fooled by her riser; you know better than that!” Luke Higgins yelled at his daughter from the stands.

Jacqueline Higgins adjusted her helmet and gloves, gave a quick nod to her third base coach as she saw the sign he flashed to her and stepped back into the batter’s box. She dug her right foot into the dirt, twisting her toe down in her dirty black cleat as her left foot kicked back twice clearing the dirt. Her hands gripped her bat hard but she made sure her knuckles were in line to ensure a level steady swing. Her big blue eyes stared at the pitcher watching her every move as she went into her windup. Her muscles tensed and twitched as the ball came zipping in; low and outside her mind registered but perfect to drive to right field. She dove out and swung low connecting with a satisfying <Ping> as her bat made contact.

The ball lined over the second baseman’s glove as she jumped and stretched out fully to stop it to no vail. Jackie screamed out in joy as it hit the ground inches in front of the diving right fielder. The winning run dashed home from third; her team had just won the State Championship.

The Lions dugout emptied mobbing both Jackie at first base and the girl who scored at home. Both groups converged at the pitcher’s mound where the gaggle of screaming and crying girls hugged and let out every ounce of emotion.

Jackie was crying along with all the rest of them; the 17 year old junior outfielder was the teams’ best hitter batting cleanup with 11 home runs and 45 RBI to go with her .438 batting average.

There was a trophy presentation and all the girls got medals before having to stand on the field for an additional twenty minutes for pictures to be taken.

Jackie saw her Dad crying and beaming with pride with his cell phone out taking pictures; she could only imagine what his reaction would have been if that ball had been caught. ”That wasn’t your pitch Jackie, why were you even swinging on it” she could hear her Dad’s voice ringing in her head. Maybe he would forget about her pop out in the 1st inning but she knew she would hear about it at some point but just maybe not tonight.

Luke cleared the field along with everyone else as the team headed for the locker room. He watched with pride as his daughter disappeared into the dugout “That girl has her pick of scholarships…she should be so thankful for all that I’ve done for her”

Luke Higgins had pushed his daughter in softball since the age of 6 when he signed her up in a coach pitch league. He had been her coach all through the city leagues until she started playing for her school ran teams in middle school. But if you asked Luke, he was still her coach.

Luke had played baseball and it had been his life. He played in every league he could as a kid before going on to play in high school and college. He would tell anyone who asked about how he was drafted in the 36th round of the MLB draft by the Cleveland Indians.

He played 3 years in the minors in little towns like Steubenville Ohio for pennies but he didn’t care; all he dreamed about was making it to the big leagues. When he was cut and didn’t get picked up by anyone else, he had to deal with the fact that it was finally over.

Luke got a job selling insurance, met a girl and got married. That marriage produced a daughter, Jacqueline Robinson Higgins and his dream was born anew. The focus on sports eventually drove his wife and Jackie’s Mother away in an ugly divorce but joint custody meant that Luke made it to every single game she played.

The mood in the locker room was electric. Girls were dancing and singing and jumping off the benches. Jackie partied with them but she was also the first of them to sneak off to the showers. She was finishing up when she heard her coach yell at them to all get in because the bus wouldn’t wait all night.

She was rinsing out her long blonde hair when other girls started to come in. “Why are you done already Jackie?” a couple of them yelled.

“I just felt gross guys…I wanted to shower” she told them as she headed out.

The rest of the team created a solid wall of noise in the showers that Jackie escaped from as she headed to her locker. She wrapped a towel around her chest and packed her bag. She tossed in her dirty uniform and cleats before she added in her mitt, visor and game ball. She slid her two bats in the back as she stood up to get dressed.

Jackie was a tall, skinny girl. She stood 6’1” but only weighed 140lbs with her athletic build. She put on her 32B bra and a black t-shirt that said Shelby High School Lions in gold writing on it before she put on her black panties and black shorts. She slid her long size 11 feet into a pair of Nike slides as the rest of her team began to filter back out into the locker room.

Jackie smiled and chatted with her team but in the back of her mind, she knew this was her last game. She didn’t know how she was going to tell her Dad, but she was done playing softball, she had enough of it.

She was quiet on the bus ride home; her Dad had already left for home when she came out but she would see him back at school.

Whenever a teammate asked her why she was so quiet, she lied and told them she was starting her period and she felt sick; eventually they left her alone at the back of the bus.

Luke couldn’t wait to talk to his daughter about her college choices and he smiled the whole drive home just beaming about the prospects for her future “I can’t wait to see where she ends up”

Luke ran to the bus when it pulled into the lot. Students had gathered and everyone was honking for them. Jackie perked up and waved out the windows at her friends. She was congratulated by everyone and fussed over by her coaches but eventually, the party ended and it was time to go home.

“I’M SO PROUD OF YOU HONEY!” Luke shouted as he bear hugged her lifting her feet up off the ground. Luke was 5’9” and weighed 200lbs. He was a compact second baseman in his playing days and had always wondered if his career would have been different if had his daughter’s height back in the day.

“Thanks Dad” she replied.

“Why aren’t you happier? Why aren’t you totally ecstatic?” Luke said bouncing around his calmly walking daughter.

“I don’t know, it hasn’t sunk in yet I guess” she smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear.

“Well it will! You’re the hero and you get to come back next year! Even more scholarship offers are going to come your way just you wait and see!”

“Um yeah, I guess” Jackie said as she put her gear into the trunk of the car.

Jackie tried to get her mouth to open on the car ride home but she chickened out. It was the offseason now and why upset her Dad when he was so happy. It would be months before she got up the courage to bring up the subject.

It was a snowy Friday night in February of Jackie’s senior year; she was at her Dad’s house for the weekend when he asked her “How have your workouts been going…getting your time in the cages?”
Jackie stared at him with big eyes.

“What’s the matter…why are you looking at me like that?” Luke asked.

“Um…well” Jackie’s heart raced in her chest and she found it difficult to even breathe let alone talk “It’s like this Dad; I don’t want to play softball this year”

Luke was stunned into silence. He said nothing for several seconds; he just stared straight ahead before he muttered “What?”

“Yeah…I think I’ve done everything that I can do in softball. I want to try some different things…it’s my senior year and softball has been everything for so long. I want to try out for the musical this year, it The Sound of Music and I think…”

“No” Luke said quietly but firmly “No…this is unacceptable. You are on the verge of getting a full ride scholarship to any university in the country and you come to me and I say you want to quit”

“But Dad, I don’t want to play anymore” Jackie said.

“But this is your dream” Luke replied.

“No Dad…this is your dream” Jackie said and walked out of the room leaving her stunned Father behind.

She almost made it to her room before he came running after her “You wait one second young lady. You will not quit…I won’t allow it”

“It’s not your life Dad! You can’t live it for me! Why won’t you let me make my own choices and decisions and actually live the life I want to live not the life you want me to”

“You can’t just piss away college like this I won’t let you”

“I never said I wasn’t going to go to college!”

“If you quit I won’t pay one cent for your college knowing that you could be going on a scholarship” Luke threatened.

“I don’t care! I’ll pay my own way…I’ll get student loans!”

“You are my daughter and you will listen to me” Luke began.

“I’ll be 18 next month and the law says I can make my own decisions…I will fight for the next month until that day and then I’ll just stay with Mom. You can’t make me do this and if you do, I’ll just quit next year in college anyway and lose that scholarship so I don’t care. I hate softball! I hate the fact that you’ve made me play it my whole life: It stopped being fun for me years ago! It’s why you and Mom got divorced and now it’s why I hate my life! The pressure! God Dad…can’t you even see that? Why won’t you let me live my life the way I want to and not the way you insist on me living it? It’s my life…not yours!”

With those words, Jackie slammed the door to her room and went to her bed. Luke was speechless on the other side of it. He wanted to say so many things but kept his mouth shut for the moment. After minutes passed of him simply standing there, he finally walked away from the door and back down the hall to the living room.

The house was eerily silent as he slumped on the couch “What am I going to do?” he said as he ran his hands through his short brownish gray hair. “I can’t…she can’t…why is she doing this to me?”

“I can’t let her throw her life away” He said to himself as he stood up and began to pace “What can I do to get through to her?”

Luke walked past the closet and tried to push it all the way closed but something was in the way and blocked the door from going shut. He opened it and saw that it was Jackie’s equipment bag “The irony” he thought as he picked it up.

Instead of shoving it deeper into the closet though, Luke pulled it out and opened it up. Her cleats were on top and he picked one up and held it before his eyes. He turned it back and forth as if examining an object from an archeological dig “If only I could put myself in her shoes to stop her from making this huge mistake” he said to himself.

He dropped the cleat back into the bag and tossed it to the back of the closet where it hit with a thud. The sound echoed in the silent house for a moment as he slammed the closet door shut behind it.

Luke put his forehead against the door and stared at the floor while he balled up his fist and put it to the door frame several times in frustration.

As his right hand went back for a third time, his fingers began to slim and elongate slightly. His fingernails rose up and rounded off and grew out slightly longer than the ends of her finger tips.
The back of his hand smoothed and the few black hairs along his knuckles receded revealing smooth milky white skin as the thick callouses on his palm shrank down. His left hand was sitting palm down against the other side of the door frame when it too began to change and become more feminine yet familiar.

“She can’t do this to herself” Luke thought “It would be the biggest mistake of her life” He closed his eyes as his arms began to reshape themselves. His arms thinned but his muscles tightened into ropy lengths of raw power that reflected lightning quick reflexes in the wrists.

Luke blinked his eyes open as a tingling sensation ran up and down his arms as if they had fallen asleep. He shook them out and rolled his shoulders at the moment his shoulders narrowed and contracted and changed on him. “That’s weird” he remarked as he reached his right hand to his left shoulder and squeezed “Feels tight…I’m all tensed up about this”

Jackie lay on her bed, tears rolling out of her eyes with her hands behind her head. Some tears rolled off the sides of her cheeks while others pooled up for her to blink away “Stupid!” her mind screamed “I can’t believe he won’t let me live my own life…why does he think he can control me and make me do something I don’t want to do anymore”

Jackie wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands; she was done crying and now just getting angry. She tucked her hands behind her head again as her fingers began to broaden and thicken. Callouses broke out across her palms as they flattened out. Tiny black hairs broke out across her clenched knuckles and veins appeared across the backs as her nails shrank down to stubby chewed on nubs.

Her jaw clenched in determined anger and her cheeks flushed as her arms thickened. Hair broke out thicker on her forearms which were flipped down against her sheets and out of her sight. Her arms thickened and shortened and her muscles clenched and reshaped.

“That asshole!” she thought as her shoulders broadened and rose up. “If he thinks he can stop me, he’s got another thing coming! This is my life! Not his!”

Jackie sat up and swung her legs off the bed but something felt off and not right. Her back was broadening and actually shrinking down more compact. “What the hell?” she thought. She twisted her back thinking she had a muscle cramp but her body moved differently on her. She reached up and took her sweatshirt off over her head revealing her chest in just a tank top. She saw her arms and shoulders and her eyes bulged “What the hell?!” she repeated.

Hairs were popping out on her shoulders and if she could have seen it, her back as well. With the heavy sweatshirt on, she had skipped wearing a bra. Now Jackie put her chin to her chest and saw hair breaking out between her breasts. Thick black curly hair with a few grey hairs mixed in grew out “AH!” she let out as if a huge spider crawled over her chest. She slapped down at the growing and thickening hair and it tangled in her fingers.

“That! That’s not my hand!” she said taking in the sight before her “What’s happening to me?!” She wanted to scream out in terror but was unable to. She instead yanked off her tank top exposing her chest. “Oh…My…God…” she said slowly as she watched her breasts shrink back into her chest.

Jackie was in shock. She slapped at her now flat chest and felt nothing…no breasts or sensation at all remained just hair and muscle. Her bottom lip quivered in fear and shock but her eyes managed to get even wider as she saw her stomach; her totally flat and washboard stomach begin to change before her eyes. A slight belly appeared as muscle turned to fat and more hair came up and covered her navel and much of her stomach.

Now Jackie screamed.

Luke grabbed the wall to combat a wave of dizziness that broke over him suddenly. He broke out in a sweat on his forehead as he grew two inches taller; his back and spine elongating in the process. He shut his eyes but the world seemed to swim on him so he unbuttoned his flannel shirt and took it off.

When he opened his eyes, he saw his arms “What in the name of…” he turned his arms over and back examining them. They were smooth and skinny “What is going on with my arms?”

Luke felt a tingling sensation deep in his chest. It struck him in the core of his body and made his mouth water. Nerve ending came alive and a deep seated itch came over him. He pulled his plain white t-shirt up and off to see his hairy chest thinning out. Hairs disappeared right and left on him before he noticed his nipples and areolas beginning to grow larger.

Luke’s jaw clenched and his mouth went dry. His ears began to burn intensely and he felt his heart beating in his chest at maximum speed “Am I…?” he said in a hoarse whisper as his chest began to change and reshape. Fat began to build up around his puffy nipples “No way.”

Mass and weight formed up and pushed out into a pair of small pert breasts “Holy Shit!” he said “What the fuck?! I…I’ve got boobs?!” he said full of confusion.

He bent at the waist as a sudden stabbing pain hit him in the gut. His newly formed breasts hung down and swung like a pendulum as he grabbed his stomach. It clenched and pulled inward, sucking backward as rock hard ab muscles formed up “What’s happening to me?!”

Luke took a step backward and stumbled, tripping over his own feet. Once stabilized he looked down and saw movement in his socks. His toes were moving but he couldn’t control them and make them stop. Instead he lifted his right foot up and yanked off his sock “Holy Shit!” he said again a bit louder.

“That’s not my foot!” he said putting back down. His foot was thin and long and paler than usual. The skin was smooth on top and his heels were a bright pink color with absolutely no rough edges at all. His toes were still moving on him; growing long and skinny. His nails thinned and rounded and grew out slightly before a bright pink nail polish appeared on each nail “Oh No…” he said. “No” he repeated.

He pulled off his left sock and found and matching left foot for his right…long, thin, milky white with bright pink nails topping off skinny toes.

Luke recognized the feet and felt faint, his whole world went out of focus and he swooned and swayed trying to maintain his balance and consciousness as the words “In her shoes…” played over and over in his head.

Luke unbuttoned his jeans and dropped them to the ground, his legs were still thick and hairy, but that was when he heard his daughter scream at the top of her lungs. Without a thought about how he looked, Luke bounded up the stairs.

Jackie stood in place screaming as she squeezed her new hairy and soft belly. She looked beyond it to the floor and her bare feet. She had on a pair of black tights that showed off her long, lithe legs. As she looked down, she felt a shuddering sensation rack her entire body. The floor and her feet looked closer suddenly, she had just shrunk 4 inches down to 5’9”.

She felt her toes curl and grip the carpet and she leaned forward to see what was happening. Her long blonde hair cascaded down next to her face as her toes lifted up. She had stopped screaming as her feet widened and fattened. Her heels became rough and she felt them itch as hair popped out across the tops. Her pink nail polish faded to nothing as her nails flattened and thickened. “EW…What’s happening to me?!”

Pounding at her door and her Dad’s voice on the other side brought her out of her stupor.

“Open the door Jackie!” Luke yelled as he pounded on it.

Jackie finally moved, lumbering to the door and pulling it open. Jackie was totally shocked when she saw her Dad. She gasped at the sight and let out a confused “Dad?!”

Luke was equally unprepared for what was standing before him “Jackie?!” he said confused.

“What in the… What’s happening to us Dad?” she asked.

“Uh…Um…I don’t know…I uh…” He looked his daughter up and down trying to comprehend what he was seeing. Luke was taller than his daughter again for the first time in several years. She had a bare hairy chest that he immediately recognized along with hands and arms that had been his.

“Holy Shit Dad…You…oh my God…you have boobs” Jackie said looking him over. “Ohmygod! Are we…Am I turning into you and are you turning into me?!”

Jackie could feel her tights getting tighter and she could hear it happening too as the fabric stretched out over her expanding legs. Her legs were shorter but heavier and bulkier. Hairs poked out through the thin stretched out fabric. She could see them on the bottoms of her stubby calves.
A tear started along her right thigh with a distinct ripping sound. It quickly blossomed out wider as her legs continued to grow harder and wider. The inside seams of her thighs went next popping forcefully as her flesh came out.

Luke was just in boxer shorts having removed his jeans and now his legs shuddered and grew 2 longer as hair disappeared and his legs trimmed and thinned. His thighs filled out rounder as his calves shrank down dramatically to delicate ankles. His boxers hugged his full thighs tight as his ass began to round and fill out making the shorts a very trim and tight fit.

Luke’s hips spread out to female dimensions and his eyes popped wide open as his hands went to the front of his boxers. “Oh No!”

“No!” Jackie screamed as her ass flattened and her hips narrowed “Nooooo this can’t be happening!” she cried. Her badly stretched out tights seemed to bulge slightly in front as her body shifted and prepared itself. She felt a rumbling and churning feeling in her guts. Her mouth went dry “Oh God No” she said in a hoarse whisper as she shut her eyes and squinted.

“Oh shit” she said as she felt skin slide and form a sack just as testicles descended out of her body. A penis began to form up and push out bulging her tights out as her cheeks burned bright red in embarrassment, fear, anger and horror. “I have a dick” she said breathlessly.

Luke heard Jackie repeating the words “I have a dick” over and over and he suddenly lost his. The tightening boxer shorts loosened in the front as his penis retracted and his testicles pulled up before popping back inside of him. His penis shrank down to a tiny nub as skin folded over it, reshaping into a vulva and vagina.

Their eyes met in terror with each other, Jackie now looking up at her Dad’s face on her body. Jackie shook her head violently back and forth “This can’t be real! This isn’t happening to me!”

Luke felt his face go numb and tingly. He brought his hands up and rubbed his cheeks, they felt softer than ever before as his stubble lessened and his rougher skin smoothed out, softening as it changed.

Jackie looked up, she saw her Dad’s face changing into her own “Dad?” she said cautiously.

“It’s okay Jackie” he said in his deep voice “It’ll be okay honey” his voice was pitched higher with those words. “We’ll figure this out…” his hand went to his throat as Jackie’s voice now rolled out of him “…don’t be afraid” he finished fully in her tone.

Jackie’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped at hearing her voice coming out of her Father’s mouth. She watched as his chin came to a point, clear of any stubble and hair. His jawline rose and shifted and his lips softened.

His teeth straightened and changed size and shape inside his shifting mouth. His smooth upper lip dipped down and dimples appeared in his rosy and round cheeks. His brown eyes sparked a bright blue as they widened and opened up in wonder over a nose that thinned and shrank back. His forehead rose and his brow softened. His eyebrows thinned and his eyelashes thickened, batting up and down as he adjusted to them.

Luke’s ears shrank and holes appeared in them for earrings as his gray brown hair began to lighten and lengthen. Soon it was a blonde color and coming down over his shoulders and back. He stared at his daughter in shock.

Luke watched below him as his daughter’s face began to break out in stubble across her cheeks, upper lip and chin. Her chin rounded and her jaw jutted out drastically altering her appearance already. “What’s happen…” came out of her mouth in her own voice before it dipped mid word “…ing to me. Oh God my voice…My voice…MY voice…” she tested it as her lips thinned and her nose came down closer to her upper lip as it broadened and grew larger on her broadening face.

Jackie’s cheeks flattened as stubble kept creeping higher and higher. Her eyes narrowed and changed color to dark brown as her eyelashes thinned and her eyebrows grew bushy on her thicker brow line.
Her ears grew wider and the piercings closed up as her hair crept up. It pulled higher and higher off her body to a close cut along her thicker neck, changing from blonde to brown and becoming flecked with gray along the way.

Jackie knew from the look on her old face in front of her that her transformation was complete. She saw that her Dad now looked exactly like her meaning that she must look exactly like him.

“Dad” she said in a deep quivering voice. “Dad!” she repeated with her voice still shaking. “How did this happen to us?”

Luke stared straight ahead, he couldn’t believe just what he saw. He saw himself before him and his daughter beneath him, below him…him. “I…uh…I don’t know!” he said and burst out crying. Full on sobs racked his body as his hormones and body chemistry changed from a 42 year old man to that of a 17 year old girl.

Jackie just stared as the man she had always looked up to was reduced to a crying teenaged girl before her, unable to control her emotions. She had felt like crying but now, it was anger that rose up in her. Her mind began to work again and replay the night so far and as she did, she got madder and madder. “You did this to us” she said.

Luke looked up, his big blue eyes puffy and red “Wha…no…what are you talking about?” he whined.

“You” Jackie pointed at her old body “You somehow did something to us…you were so upset about me quitting softball…oh man why didn’t I see this before? I don’t know how you did it but you just couldn’t accept the fact that I was going to disobey you and wanted to live life and not play your precious little softball anymore and somehow you managed to switch our bodies so you could continue to control me! You’re going to get me to play softball one way or another you sick fuck!”

“No! I wouldn’t…I couldn’t…” Luke murmured confused.

“You think taking over my body you’ll take over my life and play softball as me! You bastard! Give me back my body! You can’t have my life!”

“I didn’t have anything to do with this you have to believe me! Please don’t be mad at me! I didn’t want to switch bodies with you…I swear…I mean I thought you were making a mistake but how could I possibly make us physically switch bodies just to stop you!” Luke pleaded.

Jackie stomped out of her room and out into the hall way. A stunned Luke breathed heavily. He looked down at his heaving chest and scrambled for a shirt to cover up with. He found a black t-shirt with the high school logo on it and put it on quickly covering up his breasts.

He heard his old voice muttering and heard Jackie punch the wall with a distinct “Fuck” as punctuation.

Luke hung back inside the room. He was in a very defensive position; chin down, knees together and rubbing his right hand up and down his left arm “I never did anything that would make us switch bodies…I mean…I don’t know the first thing about anything like that” he said in a very soft voice.

Jackie let out a long sigh through her nose and shook her head “Well we need to try and figure
something out…a way to switch back or something. I have no intention of staying in your body or letting you live my life in mine!”

“But what?” Luke said timidly.

“I don’t know!” Jackie yelled and Luke cowered, surprised at how loud her voice was.

“Look I’m angry too you know. You think I want to be my teenaged daughter”

“Yeah…I think you do want to be me. It gives you what you always wanted: The skill and opportunity to continue playing ball, albeit softball instead of baseball. You’re the one back in high school. You’re now the one with a scholarship waiting for you. What is it that you want Dad…Olympic team…professional softball league? All with my body…”

“I…” Luke began but Jackie walked away.

Jackie went down the stairs and looked around “How did he do this?” she thought.

Jackie sat down on the couch in frustration. Her body felt so different, so odd to her. So many thoughts ran through her mind all at once that it was impossible to sort it all out or to slow it all down. She ran her hands through her short hair confused even at the feel of it. “What am I going to do?”

Luke sat down at the top of the stairs and began to cry again “Why doesn’t she believe me? I didn’t do this to us?” He looked at his long smooth legs, so foreign looking on him. He put his arms out and traced down the thin appendages to his long skinny hands and fingers. He ran those fingers through his long blonde hair, the nails catching on the abundant hair on his head. He finally put his head down and just cried again.

Jackie fell asleep on the coach while Luke crawled into Jackie’s bed and covered up still sobbing and drifted off due to pure exhaustion.