“Harper…what are you doing down here. I thought I told you to stay upstairs” Mia Reynolds told her younger sister who was lounging on the couch in the basement.
“It’s my house too Mia…I can go anywhere I want” Harper replied.
Mia bit her tongue and shook her head in frustration “You know Kevin is coming over right”
“Mom said no boys over” Harper replied “I can tell on you”
“So what’s it going to take this time to keep you quiet?” Mia asked.
Harper smiled and rolled onto her stomach “I don’t know yet”
“So you’re holding me hostage then” Mia replied sitting down. “God you’re such an annoying little brat”
“You’re the one who can’t seem to follow Mom’s rules. Make your dork boyfriend stay away and you wouldn’t have this problem” Harper said “What do you see in him anyway? The peach fuzz, wispy three hair mustache or his skinny chicken legs?”
“Shut up Harper! Like you know anything”
“I know a dork when I see one” Harper replied. “And I see one coming over here later to smooch the dork sitting across from me”
Mia made a disgusted face “You’re hilarious”
“I know I am” Harper said getting up. As she went by her sister, she reached out and grabbed one of her toes and pulled on it getting it to pop.
“You little jerk!” Mia yelled hopping up. She began to chase after Harper who had already taken off at top speed. Two quick turns after the stairs took them through the kitchen and then Harper was up the next flight of stairs to their bedrooms. She made it to her door, slamming it behind her and then leaning up against it.
The door jerked as Mia hit it with her shoulder. The 18-year-old steadily put her weight into it and could feel it sliding open.
11-year-old Harper was pushing with all her weight but losing the battle.
“I swear to God you are the most annoying little sister on the planet!” Mia yelled pushing, she almost had enough room to scoot through “I wish you knew how annoying having a little sister is!”
Harper strained and put her back into the door. Mia felt her feet slip against the wood floor and then the door pushed her back, slamming into the jam and sending Mia staggering backwards. She heard it lock as she stomped back towards the door.
Mia hit the door with her open palm three times “Good! You can hide in there all night!”
With that the door unlocked and swung open “You’re not that lucky!” Harper said and as fast as it opened, it shut again just in time to block Mia’s grab.
Harper just giggled as Mia reiterated “God I wish you knew how annoying this is!”
With the words just out of her mouth, the lights in the house flickered and went out.
Only out for a second, when they came back on a moment passed and then 2 loud, drawn out screams were heard.
The lights went back out and came back up.
Harper opened the door, her eyes wide as saucers, panting.
Mia leaned against the wall in the hallway, her chest heaving as she shook.
“What…what was that?” Harper asked in a very shaky voice.
“I don’t know…what just happened?” Mia said eyes locked with her little sister. Harper looked very disheveled. Her shirt had a tear in the chest that hadn’t been there before.
Harper looked at her big sister, Mia’s clothes were moved around and off to the side, her hair was messed up as well.
“How did you scream like that?” Harper asked “It was so high pitched and piercing…”
Mia just shook her head “I…I don’t know” she said thinking back a minute. She heard her own scream, uncomprehending of the situation but now she focused on the other scream she heard, so deep coming from behind the door.
“Wait a second…” Mia said “On the count of three, both of scream ok” Harper nodded “1…2…3”
They both screamed; Harper’s high pitched and sounding like a little girl’s scream mixed with Mia’s deeper and more mature one. Mia stopped and Harper stopped as well.
“What did you see when the lights came back on Harper? What made you scream?” Mia asked soberly.
“You’re not going to believe me” Harper replied.
“You’d be surprised”
“If I say what I saw, you have to tell me what made you scream too okay” Harper said.
“I will…I promise” Mia answered.
“Well” Harper squirmed “I was big” she shrugged “The lights went off and when they came back on, it took me a second but I knew something was off. I was looking down and the floor was farther away but…” she paused “But what really got my attention was…well…I had big boobs in the way! Like huge boobs. So I screamed. And I looked and my shirt was up and my shorts were stretched out and my legs were bigger, it was like I was an adult. Like my body was fully mature and I was looking at my hands and they were bigger and I could see my nose and it looked bigger out of the corner of my eye and my hair was darker and longer and then the lights went out again and when they came back, everything was, well, normal again. I was small again”
“Oh my God” Mia said shaking again “Holy Shit”
“What? What is it Mia…” Harper said but then it hit her; the high pitched scream from the other side of the door “Mia? Did you…did you turn into a kid?”
Mia nodded slowly.
“When the lights went out, I was standing in the hall and when they came back up, I felt all my clothes like slump off and down on me like they had all suddenly became too big for me. I looked at the door in front of me and it was higher, the floor was closer, my feet looked tiny against the floor and there was nothing on my chest to hold up my bra or my tank top. I grabbed my clothes before they fell off of me and I screamed at the top of my lungs. I was still screaming, hearing that high pitched little girl scream coming from me, incapable of sounding deeper. Then the lights came back up and, I was back to normal.
“Whoa…so it wasn’t just me” Harper said.
“And it wasn’t just me” Mia replied.
“So you’re telling me that for a few seconds…we, what…switched ages?!” Harper said. “Because if you turned into a flat chested shorty…a kid and I know what I looked like…I was tall and had boobs and long legs so I’d be at least your age…maybe I was older, I don’t know”
“But how…why?!” Mia asked “That should be impossible…it had to be some kind of trick or hallucination”
“By both of us?! I don’t think so! I know what I saw and felt and so do you Mia” Harper said. She pulled up her t-shirt and showed off the tear in her chest “If it wasn’t real, how did my shirt rip?”
Mia felt hot and ice cold at the same time, dizzy, a bit nauseous. She was scared to death.
Harper was also frightened but hers was mixed with something else; curiosity and possibility. As much as it scared her that something like this could happen and physically change her, she also grasped what it meant; she would be bigger and older than Mia. Mia would be just a little kid while she could be an adult!
“What if it happens again?” Harper asked.
“It won’t” Mia shot back a little too quickly and a little too loud.
“Sounds like you’re afraid over there…afraid it’s real and you’re going to become my little sister” Harper said.
“Shut up Harper!” Mia said.
“Wouldn’t that be cool? I hope it does hap…” Harper began.
“God would you shut up!” Mia shot out as the lights went out again.
In the total darkness, they were just inches away from each other.
Mia detected movement in front of her. She could hear fabric moving against skin just inches away from her. Then, she felt her body drop. Her shirt shifted sideways slipping off her shoulder, she felt her hair tickle her ears as it fluttered, her stomach dropped.
Harper detected movement in front of her. The presence that was large and looming over her was no longer there. What she sensed in front of her was smaller than her now. She felt her own body stretching, growing. She felt her clothes tighten on her; not as badly as before with the tear in her shirt. She felt weight on her chest and a little bit of cool air hitting her suddenly sensitive chest.
The lights came back up.
Both Harper and Mia stood frozen momentarily. They blinked and stared at each other in a state of disbelief and shock.
Mia screamed a high pitched blood curdling scream.
Harper was looking down, staring down at the little girl in front of her. She was so familiar and yet so totally different. She jumped upon hearing the scream and let out one of her own; deeper and more mature sounding before composing herself and becoming annoyed.
“Knock it off!” Harper said in a deep voice that surprised both of them “Screaming does nothing”
Mia stopped, scared. Mia stood trying to tuck herself away from sight. She was hyperventilating and had her arms pulled up tight to her chest. Her bottom lip quivered and her eyes were as wide as saucers as she panned the woman in front of her up and down.
“Harper?” she thought “She’s so big…how did she get so big? This can’t be happening! This is some kind of nightmare…” she was thinking unable to speak when Harper snapped her fingers in her face.
“Hey!” Harper yelled snapping her fingers; Mia had gone catatonic.
Now Mia blinked and let her shoulders relax a bit. She blinked “Ha…harper?” she asked in a very shaky and small voice.
“Yeah…check it out Mia…we swapped sizes or really I think we swapped ages because you look like a little kid. You look like you’re the 11-year-old.
“Uh…” Mia searched for words “Um…”
Harper rolled her eyes and turned. She starting walking away “Where…wait!” Mia cried out.
Harper waved her hand “I’ve got to see what I look like” she said as she turned at the bathroom door “No Fucking Way!” she yelled.
Mia heard her stomp her foot and slap her hands on the counter, she could hear Harper talking to herself “Oh…my…God…I look like I’m a fucking adult! This is so freaking sweet! What am I…18? I must be…like I said if she’s 11, that should make me her age…”
Mia came up to the bathroom door to see Harper turned sideways checking out her body. Her chest was stuck out, her butt was sticking out, she was up on her toes, her right hand on her stomach, her left hand on her ass.
Harper spun forward again and put her hands on her hips before she leaned in close to the mirror examining her facial features closely.
Everything was bigger, more defined and more mature. Her hazel eyes were larger, her eyebrows thicker yet more sculpted, her eyelashes thicker, her nose was bigger but fit her face, as did her lips and mouth. Her cheeks, chin and jaw had all become defined and her hair, which had been a frizzy dirty blonde was now a straight, manageable, chestnut brown.
Harper was smiling.
Mia had frozen up again. Harper intimidated her at this size. She was over a lot taller than her; her chest looked bigger than what she should have. Confusion and fear and held her but now, she had to see. She was trying to force herself into moving. She had made it to the bathroom door but the sight of Harper checking herself out had stopped her.
Harper smirked at her and motioned for her to come in.
Mia shook her head no.
Harper put her hands on her hips and jutted out her left hip “Get in here you big baby. You need to see what you look like in the mirror”
Mia moved more out of fright than anything.
She got to the sink staring down. She gasped as she looked up.
Her head barely cleared the bottom of the mirror. Her reflection stopped at her chin. She recognized that face. It looked exactly the same 7 years earlier. The same round face with shapeless cheeks and chin. Same thin, pouty lips, same small button nose, same small dark brown eyes and the same light brown wavy hair.
Mia shook her head no while still staring. She took a step back looking down at her small and skinny body when the lights went back out.
They were standing right next to each other. Mia felt her shoulder hit her sister, bumping into her as they both moved involuntarily.
Harper blinked and felt her stomach drop as the lights went out, she stumbled backwards as her sister bumped into her. As she made sure to keep her feet, she felt things deflating on her. Her chest, her ass, her hips, her thighs, even her hair.
Mia’s immediate reaction to seeing the lights go out was “Oh Thank God!” She felt herself rising up. She felt her clothes tighten up on her. She simply could tell she was the larger of the two people in the small bathroom.
The lights came back on and they both blinked and jumped seeing that they had returned to their original ages and sizes.
“Hooooooollllllyyyyy SHIT!” Mia yelled running her hands through her hair, a wide eyed expression on her face.
“Awww” Harper sounded more dejected by her return to her Tweens.
“What the actual Fuck is going on?!” Mia said stomping out of the bathroom back into the hall.
“I don’t know but that like, blew my mind” Harper said “We stayed like that for a couple of minutes this time”
Mia just shook her head again; confusion was fogging her brain.
“Is this going to keep happening? What if the next time we stay like that even longer? What if it becomes permanent?!” Harper gasped at the thought. “You as MY little sister forever…how trippy would that be…we permanently switch places…I’m the big sister and you’re the…”
“Would you shut up?! I need to think!” Mia snapped.
The lights wavered, dimming and making both of their stomachs flip, but nothing more happened. Yet.
Mia went downstairs and sat on the couch; feet firmly on the floor staring straight ahead, a concerned look on her face.
Harper followed but stayed just out of range, just out of sight, she perched on one of the barstools at the kitchen island.
The house was silent. Mia sat. She could hear her sister fidgeting on one of the stools; the slight scraping of the wooden feet on the kitchen tiles. “What can I do to stop this?” Mia thought “How can I stop something that I don’t understand…something that shouldn’t even be possible?”
Mia just felt Harper lurking behind her and it was frustrating her “What are you waiting for back there?” she finally snapped at her looking over her shoulder at her little sister.
Harper just looked back “Guess” she said raising her eyebrows and letting a rather wicked smile cross her mischievous looking face.
Mia sighed and looked away, boiling just under the surface “Did you have something to do with this? Because this really seems to only benefit you…you get to act like an absolute brat all the damn time and somehow you get rewarded by swapping ages with me”
She turned to look at her better putting her leg up on the couch and turning sideways.
“Brat? You’re the one who always sneaks boys over here when you’re supposed to be watching me. You break every rule Mom has when she’s not looking and you call me a brat. Maybe it’s your punishment for that and for picking on me all the time” Harper shot back “Maybe it’s a way to show you that I might be a better big sister than you”
“Uh!” Mia replied “How dare you sit there and lecture me! I was born first! That! Is just the way it is! You will never be my ‘Big’ Sister!”
“I already have been twice!” Harper replied. “And you were scared to death of me…I could see it on your face”
Mia stood up and Harper jumped down off her stool “Are you just going to ignore what has happened to us tonight?” Harper said “Are you really that stubborn?”
“I don’t understand what’s happened to us tonight; I just want it to stop” Mia replied.
“But you can’t control it. I’m not controlling this and neither are you obviously” Harper said coming up closer. “Because if it was up to me, we’d already have swapped and we would never swap back”
“Oh you’d like that wouldn’t you?”
“Yeah…duh…If I could be older than you; bigger than you…get to boss you around whenever I wanted instead of the other way around; the only way we’ve known it. Yes, I would like that” Harper admitted “And then I would know how annoying having a little sister would be, because I’d have you”
Mia looked off at hearing her sister’s last phrase. She remembered saying that earlier in the day.
“And then you’d finally understand how awful it is to be a little sister. To not get to do anything without ME saying it’s okay for you to do so. Having to live by MY whims and decisions” Harper said “You’ve had 11 years to torture me as my big sister; maybe it’s time for the tables to turn and I get my turn to be your big sister. Sounds crazy but hey, we’ve seen crazy stuff already tonight”
Mia turned back and the world seemed to go in slow motion “You must be out of your damned mind if…” she started to say. She brought her hand up, pointing at Harper’s face when she saw the darkness begin to creep in.
Harper’s jaw dropped sensing it too. This time, it was different. They were surrounded by darkness but in a little bubble, the two sisters stood across from each other perfectly illuminated, almost as if there was a radiance glowing off of them.
Mia’s finger remained pointed but where it started being pointed down into her face, it ended being pointed up at her chest.
Immediately, the two sister’s heights began to reverse. Harper began to grow taller as Mia shrank down smaller.
Mia watched paralyzed as her sister began to grow. Not just taller, but wider. Her shoulders spread out, her hips shifted and her arms and legs lengthened.
Harper did a very fast look down at her own body confirming it was indeed growing but she watched her big sister lose the big part.
Mia began to shrink all over. Everything on her began to get smaller from her hands and feet to her legs and arms to her chest and back. Her facial features shrank and lost definition.
Harper’s face matured and defined as she grew taller. Her hair darkened and straightened, her hands and feet grew and her nails popped with polish.
A smile grew on her face as her lips plumped and her teeth straightened. She was equal to Mia in height.
Mia’s eyes widened in shock and horror as her lips thinned and her teeth went crooked. Her nose shrank down taking her defined cheeks inward creating a round, childish face equal to Harper’s in height.
Harper grew taller than her sister.
Harper grew older than her sister.
Mia felt a sensation like a punch to her stomach as it hit her that she was now smaller and younger than Harper “How can this be?!” her mind screamed out as her neck now shifted, lifting her chin up to maintain eyes contact with her big sister.
Harper’s confidence boosted; she knew she was the big sister and that this time it was going to last. Something just told her, deep down, that the first two times were just a preview; a warm up. This time was for real.
Mia shrank internally as well as externally. Her confidence and power vanished; somehow, SHE was now Harper’s little sister. Something inside of her told her it was true; it was a fundamental fact now. They weren’t going to change with each other again; this was the new order of things.
Harper’s hands went to her hips and her head cocked to the right looking down on her still pointing little sister.
The weight returned to Harper’s chest. She shifted her feet to accommodate her larger legs and bigger feet. Her clothes tightened up again.
Mia felt her clothes droop and nearly slide right off of her rapidly thinning frame. Nothing was on her chest to keep her bra and tank top up and nothing remained of her hips, thighs or rear end to keep her shorts up. She shifted her feet to accommodate her smaller legs and tiny feet.
The room around them began to brighten back up. Their surroundings came back into focus and both sisters staggered as everything went back to regular speed.
“What the…?” Mia said lowering her finger and her head. She looked down at herself. Her hands patted her small body through her big clothes “This isn’t fair…this isn’t right…I’m the big sister. I’m supposed to be 18…not 11…we can’t just switch like this”
“Well we just did and we both know the truth: This is how it’s going to be from now on, this is permanent” Harper said. “I’ll take an annoying younger sister over a mean older sister any day”
As she loomed over Mia, Mia quickly turned and ran to her room. Hearing the door slam she headed up to change her clothes “Good…you can stay in there all night for all I care; Kevin is coming over”