[Contains transformation topics]

On this bright and early morning Keith found himself in Sam’s room with both Sam and Sarah. It all started yesterday with a phone call from Sam inviting him to hang out with the two of them to play some basketball at the park. Sam didn’t say any more over the call and Keith accepted the invite, but he assumed something was afoot. It wasn’t a common occurrence that Sam would invite him to something so it must have been another one of her plans. But for Keith it was worth it, as it would give him a chance to hang out with Sarah. That is how Keith found himself alone in Sam’s bedroom with the two of his friends.

“Ready?” Sam asked the group.

“Yep” Keith responded.

“Well...” Sarah started, looking away slightly as she talked. “I actually need to use the bathroom. Be right back.” Sarah exited the room. That just left Sam and Keith alone in the room.

“So Keith...” Sam started, a half baked look of innocence plastered on her face. Keith, fully ready and aware of what Sam probably wanted, just played along.

“Yes, fine” Keith interjected, barely giving Sam a chance to plead her case. The girl was taken aback by his directness.

“Uh, great. Let’s do it then” Same responded, hesitant as she felt like she had lost her edge on the boy. Sam walked up hesitantly to Keith, expecting some sort of trick or trap from him, but Keith just stood there calmly, watching Sam as she approached. “Am I really that obvious with my plans?” Same asked Keith as she placed a hand atop his head.

“How often do you invite me over and something doesn’t happen?” Keith countered.

“Oh ssh you” Sam drove her palm down hard on Keith’s head, driving it into his body and leaving only his face sticking out from between his shoulders. Next she grabbed both of Keiths wrists while planting a foot on his chest. With a slight strain Sam yanked back hard on his arms while kicking out with her leg, stretching out both of the boy’s arms into rubbery ribbons and forcing an ‘Oof’ out of him. Thinking quickly, Sam twirled the arms around the boy, wrapping them around a few times before tying Keith’s hands together to keep them taunt.

“Now what to do?” Same thought out loud as Keith rocked back and fourth, his hands twitching irregularly.

“Maybe.. hurry...up!” Keith gasped, struggling in his only partially crushed state.

“Yeah, yeah” Sam responded casually, planting a foot on the boy’s chest and kicking him over. She repeated the process with the boys legs, wrapping them around and around till Keith looked like a small keg on the ground. To round him out Sam started the roll the boy on his edges, slowly squishing them out he was nice and spherical. Throughout the entire process Keith had been compress more and more till he was perfect regulation size.

“There! Perfect. Thanks for cooperating Keith” Sam commented as she tucked her balled up friend under her arm and left the room. The two of them made there way downstairs to the entrance, where Sam dropped her ball into her sports bag before zipping the bag up, plunging Keith into darkness.

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Sarah finished with her business and made her way back to Sam’s bedroom. “Guess they are already downstairs” she stated to herself as she found the room empty. Sarah followed her assumption down the stairs and to the entrance, where she found Sam, alone. Her raised eyebrow must have been enough of a hint to what she was thinking as Sam immediately tried to defend herself.

“Keith decided to leave early for the park. Said he had to grab something from his house first.” Sam blurted out.

“Sure” Sarah decided to humor her friend knowing full well what had happened to Keith.

Just then, however, the sound of running feet came from upstairs.

“Crap! Crap! Crap!” the voice grew in volume as Emily, Sam’s oldest sister, came charging down the stairs. “Hey Sam, hey Sarah. Sorry! Gotta Go!” she called out as she ran past the two, grabbing her gym bag before running out the door. Emily was the athletic on of the two sisters and a member of their schools basketball team, which usually met up every Saturday morning for extra practice.

“Well, that was interesting” Sarah commented as the door clicked closed behind Emily. Now that the interruption was over she returned to her original plan. Sarah reached for Sam’s bag, with Sam hemming and hawing in the background. She opened the bag.

“Aha! Oh...” Sarah had exclaimed triumphantly before immediately realizing her error. The bag was filled with only a plain old basketball. “I guess you weren't joking then, sorry Sam” Sarah said apologetically as she gave a hug to her friend.

“Yeah, it’s fine...” Sam responded, lost in thought.

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The bag Kieth was in jostled this way and that, sending him spinning around in its small confines. He couldn’t quite find out why his friends were in such a rush to get to the park on a Saturday morning. The bag finally settled for a bit, allowing Keith to try and get his bearings. He wondered if Sarah knew, or was this going to be another surprise for her. He was growing quite font of being handled by his friend, even if he couldn’t outright tell her to her face.

The zipper started to crackle as it traversed its track. Light began to peak into the bag as Sam’s face looked in from above. Only it was not Sam, similar yes, but not the same. “Oh no, I grabbed the wrong bag!” the girl cried out, the confusion that edged her voice making Keith nervous. She glanced at her phone, taking in the time, and then back at the ball while biting her lip as thoughts filtered through head. “Crap, I don’t have time for this” the girl stated, annoyance filled her vocals. She started to dig through the pockets of the bag, her actions causing clinking sounds to echo from Keith’s left and right. “What was my sister thinking”

‘Sister’ Keith thought to himself. He tried to remember anything about the girl, but was drawing only blanks. The only thing he could recall was that Sam had a sister. Her name might be Emily. Emily reached into the bag and pulled Keith out, twisting him this way and that as she inspected him. She turned him so they could look each other in the face.

“Hey, whoever you are. Look, I’m really in a bind right now and we need a ball for practice. You wouldn’t mind right? Well it’s not like Sam wasn’t going to treat you any differently. And hey, what guy wouldn’t want to be handled by the entire sports team” Emily rambled, her train of thought trying to justify the course of action she had settled on. Keith, even though he couldn’t say anything about it, couldn’t really fault her logic.

Emily placed Keith down on the ground next to a few things Emily had taken out of the bag. The first was a can of paint, the cap a dull orange color. The second was a chunky permanent marker, labeled ‘thick’. And the last were a set of gloves, which Emily now put on.

“Okay, what to do. What to do” Emily muttered to herself as she grabbed the marker and the can before putting them right back down. This wasn’t her plan, and she wasn’t executing it with instructions. She eventually settled down with the paint can in her hand, as she worked out what to do next. POP went the lid of the can before she placed it down. “Well, here goes nothing”

Keith felt Emily shift her grip so that her fingers were holding the ball firmly by only the tips of her fingers. Her other hand rested on his cheek. Emily breathed in, tensed, and suddenly Keith’s world began to spin into a blur of gray, white and chalky blue.

SMACK

A pain erupted on Keith’s backside as the rate of his spin increased.

SMACK

Again, this time across the ball’s face. This world spun as a hissing filled Keith’s ears. Suddenly his vision start to tint an orange hue the grew stronger and stronger with each moment. It felt like he was looking at the world through orange hued glasses. Suddenly the spinning stopped with a sudden shocking jolt as Emily finished with her task and placed Keith down on a nearby counter that was attached to a mirror.

A large, orange sphere stared back at Keith as a large girl with an uncapped marker approached the ball.

SQUEEK SQUEEK

The marker was cold and noisy as it traced thick black lines across the balls body. The rough texture of the markers head tickled Keith as it passed, causing him to quiver on the spot. Emily paused. “Is something wrong?” a genuine concern filled the question to Keith, but of course he couldn’t answer. Emily decided to continue, drawing thick black lines across his skin. Soon Keith looked true to form and Emily had her ball. She gave Keith a few tentative bounces, sending him flying to the ground, slamming into it, then rebounding into her awaiting hand.

“That works. Now all I need to do is act like this is an ordinary ball and not Sam’s friend and I should be good” Emily commented aloud, trying to shake how weird what she was doing was. Keithm somewhat dizzy from being dribbled, tried to emphasize with her, be he to knew how weird what they were doing was.

Emily gripped the ball with both hands before she walked out the door, gaining confidence with each step. Her nervousness did not leave her hands though, as Keith was spun again and again in the basketball players hands. For the ball, it was like his world would not stop spinning, even when he was not being spun. Every adjustment and movement rotated Keith’s body, shifting his perspective this way and that.

“Hey Emily” a female voice called from a distance. Emily picked up the pace, jogging over to the source.

“Hey Leah. Sorry I’m late” suddenly Emily clapped her hands around her ball before throwing him strait into the other girls awaiting hands. Leah didn’t even fully catch Keith, instead spinning her wrist as she directed the force of the throw into an aggressive dribble. Keith started to notice, between rounds of his face slamming into the ground, more sets of legs and feet gathering around.

“No worries. But we were starting to get worried, since you were supposed to bring the ball this time” a murmur of agreement emanated from the group, a clear indication that Emily was late.

“Yeah, sorry. Buses you know”

“Hey, we all take those buses to you know” Leah stated as she passed off Keith to a random member of the troupe, who began to spin Keith absently as she moved.

‘Can non of these girls hold still’ Keith though as his would would not start spinning, even when he was being held stable.

“Ready?” a deeper woman's voice called from above. “Go” Keith flew into the air, sky and earth slowly rotating around him. Two large shadows loomed up to meet him, one on each side. Indiscriminate shouting filled his ears.

SLAP

Keith shot off to the side, spinning, where he was received into an aggressive dribble across the concrete floor. His handler paused, passing him through the air where an arm shot out, knocking him to the floor into another dribble in the opposite direction. Up do up down, the slapping of shoes complemented the slapping of Keith into the ground. Another pause, and suddenly he was soaring through the skiy, safe from the chaos below.

TWANG

The hard metal hoop rim bit into Keith’s face, sending him flying back into the air. Another shadow rose to meet him. The wide hand wrapped around the ball’s behind as it whipped him down. He was released as he passed through the hoop, the lack of any net to slow him sent him crashing into the ground, the angled impact sending him spinning off to the side. Spinning...spinning...spinning.

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“Spinning, spinning...” Keith though to himself as the sky slowly stopping moving. “Sky?” the boy thought to himself as it start to look like a ceiling. He rubbed his eyes, realizing he was resting on a carpet.

“You going to be alright?” a female voice called out as someone leaned over him.

“Sarah?” Keith asked.

“Oh thank god!” Sarah hugged her friend. “I though we were going to lose you there” she sounded worried.

“What? Lose me?” Keith shot up, the world suddenly lurching to the side. Sarah caught him.

“Yeah, you have just been muttering ‘spinning’ for the last hour”

Keith took a moment to look around, finding himself back in Sam’s room. Sam, he noticed, was sitting on the floor facing the corner in a crouched position. “What did I miss?”

“What do you remember.”

“Beyond being turned into a ball by Sam?”

“Yeah”

“Well Sam’s sister brought me to basketball practice. They started playing and the world just kept on spinning”

“That is basically what I know. Emily brought you back and apologized for the mistake. Say’s he owes you one Keith”

“And Sam?

“Oh, I told her to sit in the corner after she fixed you”

“Can I leave?” Sam called out

“No” Sarah responded firmly. Keith glanced out the window, noticing it was now dark out. Sarah looked back at him and held his gaze for a moment. “Are you going to be okay?”

“I think so. Just promise me one thing?”

“Yeah?”

“No more balling me up for a bit”