“Hi Lynda,” drawled Cyndi with a smirk.

Lynda turned to face the other girl with a gasp, and then her heart sunk.  She knew that particular smirk all too well.  One hand pressed to her chest as if to still her beating heart, and she smiled when she felt her new pendant sitting where it was supposed to be.  “What is it this time, Cyndi?”

“Oh, you know what’s coming, don’t you.”

Lynda sighed long-sufferingly.  “Yes.  You’ve managed to earn another magic trinket, and now I’m going to be clothing.  Again.  Seriously, if you put half as much effort into your classes as you did into working at that shop, you wouldn’t be failing half of them.”

Cyndi waved her hand dismissively yet showily, displaying a flashy ring.  “Why bother, when things like this are available?”

Lynda chuckled.  “What is it this time?  Another gimmick that’ll only last a week?”

“You were supposed to be a miniskirt for a month,” grumbled Cyndi.  “How was I supposed to know the phase of the moon mattered?”

“Maybe you should learn more about magic before using it,” Lynda teased.

Cyndi shrugged.  “I know how this one works.  It can change anything into anything I want.  See?”  Her purple shirt shimmered and changed to a green tank-top.

Lynda frowned.  “That’s not your stepmother, is it?”

“No.  She bought me an awesome prom dress last week, something about a bonus from Dad’s new job.  She’s off the hook.  Her kids are too, ever since Dad installed a lock on my bedroom door.  Besides, she’d just get in the way.”

“In the way of what?”

“You see... the ring can only change one thing at a time.  So if I change something else... a pesky wand-user, for example, the other changes back.”

“How long do these changes last?  It took me a month to catch up on the homework I missed while I was stuck on your butt.”

Cyndi showed all her teeth in a big grin.  “It doesn’t wear off, until I change you into something else.”

Lynda put her hands on her hips.  “Come on, Cyndi.  That’s... damn it, I want to graduate.  Why do you keep doing this to me?”

“You turned me into ugly granny panties, that’s why,” Cyndi declared hotly.

“And then I spent a day in your panty drawer, and a week on your bum.  I’d say you’re ahead.  Please, stop this, before it gets worse.”

“No, I’ve made up my mind.  I’m going to keep you.  And in a few months, when I can afford another ring, I’m going to add Will to my wardrobe, too.”

“Seriously?  You’re still after Will after the way he treated Misty?”

“I don’t want to date him,” Cyndi growled, “I want to wear him.  Bastard deserves it.”

Lynda faced Cyndi squarely, a slight smile playing on her lips.  “You’re quite sure about this.  That you want to turn people into clothes and keep them forever.”

“Yes, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”  Cyndi closed her eyes, and Lynda saw a shimmer of magic flash toward her.  The mirror pendant at her chest flared with heat, and she sighed in relief that it had worked.  Her mother had given her the pendant after her last run-in with Cyndi.

Lynda crouched down and scooped up the pink cardigan that was lying where Cyndi had been, and bundled it into her backpack.  “I guess there was something I could do after all.  I’d better get you home, so we can talk.”

* * *

Lynda shook her head at the pink cardigan lying crumpled on her bed.  She touched it with the magic ear-bud, then put the latter in her ear.   “Cyndi?” she asked worriedly.  “Are you there?  Did this work?”

Cyndi’s voice was loud and clear.  “What the hell did you do to me you bitch?”

“Why are you blaming me?  Looks like you screwed up and transformed yourself instead.  Again.”  Lynda grinned and touched her pendant thankfully, confident Cyndi couldn’t see the gesture.

Cyndi’s voice was petulant, “It must have been you.  You’re always screwing up my plans.”

Lynda sighed.  “I just want to live my life, Cyndi.  You’re the one who’s playing Wile E. Coyote here.”

“What?  That was not an ACME ring.  It was top notch work, and... and...  Crap.  I have to be wearing it for it to work.  If it’s part of me now...”

“It really doesn’t wear off?”  Lynda asked incredulously.

“No.  Guaranteed to last until you change your mind.”

“Damn.  How did you score something so powerful?”

Cyndi snorted derisively, and Lynda could almost imagine her expression.  “It was in the remainder bin, because it only turns stuff into objects.  Everybody wants the ones that can be used to give their lover bigger boobs, or disguise themselves so nobody recognizes them when they’re off to meet her.  When I saw it there, I knew I had to have it.  I had to work 50 hour weeks for months to get it, and now... and now I’m stuck.  What am I going to do?”

Lynda sat beside the transformed girl and patted her sympathetically.  “Well, I guess I can use a new cardigan.  I’ll be sure to wash you by hand.”

“What?  No!  Please, you have to do something,” cried Cyndi.

“What am I supposed to do?  You know Mom made me swear never to touch the wand again.”

“Please,” Cyndi begged, “I don’t want to be like this forever.”

“That’s what you were going to do to me,” replied Lynda, crossly.  “Just a sweater, forever.”

“No!  I’d have changed you.”

“Back?”

“Uh... no,” Cyndi admitted, “I would have changed you into something stylish.  I’d always have the latest clothes to wear.”

Lynda threw the ear-bud down in disgust.  “I cannot believe you.”

Lynda spent the next hour fuming, and the hour after that alternately explaining the situation to her Mother and pretty-please asking if she could use the wand one more time.  Her Mother didn’t think it would work, but did eventually relent.

Lynda picked up the ear-bud again.  “Hey girl.  I got the wand.”

“You... you did?” sniffed Cyndi, sounding almost miserable.

With a tap of the wand, Cyndi was human once more.

“About time!” she shouted with glee, bouncing to her feet.  “Give me that.”  Cyndi grabbed the wand from Lynda’s hand.

“Seriously?” was all Lynda had time to ask before the wand came swinging her way.  There was another flash of heat from her pendant, and she sighed.  She picked Cyndi up from the floor, and shook her out.

Lynda touched the ear-bud to her friend once more.  “Panties again?  What is it with you and panties?”

“I wanted to wear you out of the house where you wouldn’t be seen,” Cyndi stated boldly.

“You were going to...”

“Steal you and the wand, yes.  It could have kept me human if I used it every day.  Are you happy?  Now my life is totally ruined.”

“Yes.  Yes it bloody well is.  You will never see the wand again.  So you get to spend tomorrow as a human, and the rest of your life as a cardigan unless we find that stupid ring.”

“You really didn’t see it back at school?”

Lynda shook her head, then remembered Cyndi couldn’t see her.  “No, I looked.  I scooped you up, and put you in my backpack and there was nothing underneath you.”

She touched the backpack, then shrugged, and dumped it out onto the bed.  Most of a year’s worth of accumulated this and that tumbled out.

“Oh, I cannot believe this.  I’m going to be stuck forever because you couldn’t find a stupid ring.  This is all your fault.”

“My fault?  MY fault?  I’m not the one who used stupidly powerful magic for revenge.”  Lynda tumbled the pile of oddments this way and that with her hands, then gasped as she saw something bright and circular.

“And who brought magic up in the first place?  You.  You had to go and turn me into a dress, then into panties.  God, how I burned with the need to wear you, to show you what you’d done to me.  That week with you as a miniskirt was so empowering, and I was looking forward to wearing you again and again and again...”

“Cyndi,” said Lynda softly.

“What is it now?  Have you found some new way to ruin the tattered shreds of my life?”

“No.  I found your ring.  It must have been caught up in you, and it ended up in the bottom of my backpack.”

Cyndi gasped.  “You can change me back?”

“I could.  But I won’t.”

“WHAT?”   Lynda pulled the ear-bud away from her ear for a minute until she could hear again.

“If I change you back, you’ll try again.  You just proved that.  So, no.  You are staying in my wardrobe until I graduate.  Then you go your way, and I go mine.  Got it?”

“Got it.”  There was a long silence, and Lynda was about to pull out the ear-bud when Cyndi spoke up, softly.  “Just... one request.”

Lynda sighed softly.  “What is it.”

“Wear me.  Use the ring, make me something, anything.  I don’t want to be stuck in a drawer again.  If I have to be clothes, I want to be worn.”

Lynda smiled faintly.  She didn’t hate Cyndi, she was just so terribly frustrated with her.  “I guess I can do that.  Maybe I’ll learn why you’re so keen on wearing people, and at the very least I’ll get to wear fancy clothes every day.  I’m sure Mom will let me keep the ear-bud, so you won’t be alone.  I’ll even tell you what’s going on in those classes you’ve been sleeping through.”

“Thanks,” said Cyndi with feeling.  “You’re a real friend.”

* * *

Despite being ‘out sick’ for the remainder of the school year, Cyndi managed to graduate.  Barely.  Being unavoidably awake and present for her classes helped a lot.  Lynda let her out for Prom, but kept the ring to make her own dress spectacular.  Cyndi spent most of the evening trying to persuade Lynda to use the ring on “someone, anyone”, and got her wish in the end.  She spent the rest of the night draped happily around Lynda’s neck.

Late the next morning, Lynda used the ring to upgrade her clothes for the day.  Cyndi appeared from where last night’s fur stole had been draped over a chair.  Lynda gave the other girl a warm hug, and said, “You’re free now.  Go find something productive to do with your life.”

“I won’t stop, you know,” Cyndi said with a smile.  “I will have you in my wardrobe one day.”

“Gah, just stop it.  I’m wearing the ring right now.  You’re practically asking to get turned into my panties again.  And this time I will wear you as panties, I swear I will.”

Cyndi just grinned wider.  “I’ll be back.”

She was, too, about a week later.  Cyndi surprised Lynda in the park, and barely had time to cackle, “I have you now!” before fluttering to the walking path as pile of fabric.

Lynda sighed, adjusted her now ill-fitting shirt, and picked up her friend.  She still had the ear-bud in her purse, so she dug it out, touched it to Cyndi and put it in her ear.  “What am I going to do with you?”

“You promised you’d wear me.”

“Really?  I thought you were taking another shot at me.”

“Nah.  I haven’t even been back to the shop.  I packed up my stuff and stored it in my parents’ basement.  I told Dad I was going walkabout.  He said it was my life, and to make sure to write if I found myself. You’ll let me write to him now and again, right?”

“I don’t...”  Lynda stared at the pile of fabric in confusion.

“Oh come on.  Just let me be human for an hour or two, once a week.”

“But...”

“OK, OK.  Once a month is fine.”

“Why?”

“To write home, duh.  Otherwise Dad will worry, then he’ll come looking for me, and you’ll have to explain why I’m stuck as your clothing.”

“I don’t want you stuck as my clothing.”

“Too bad.  I’ll keep trying to change you if I’m human.”

“Why?” moaned Lynda.  “I don’t want to be stuck in your wardrobe.”

“I know.  But... sweetie, being your clothes has been pretty much the best time of my life, second only to wearing you.  Please?  I don’t want to go work at some boring dead-end job for the rest of my life.  If I can’t wear you, I’d rather be your pretty things to wear.”

“This is so wrong,” Lynda sighed, resignedly.  She looked around, and as far as she could tell, the park was empty.  So she slipped off her comfortable old panties, and willed the ring to change Cyndi into a sexy pair of satin panties.  It was the least she could do, after all.  She slipped her friend on, shuddering a bit at the feel of satin against her privates.  “This feels... this isn’t supposed to feel this good.”

“Yay!  I’ll convert you yet.  Maybe we can get another ring, and you can find me a friend.”

“Cyndi!  What am I going to do with you.  You’re a terrible influence.”  But Lynda was grinning as she said it.

Cyndi cackled in her ear.  “We’re going to have such fun.  Come on, let’s go traumatize Will.”

“What?  No!”

“You know you want to...”

“You are impossible, you know that?”

“Says the woman wearing someone as her panties.  Feels good, doesn’t it?  Imagine how it would feel to have this power over that bastard Will, too.”

“I’ll take the ear-bud out, I swear I will.”

“Fine, fine.  I’ll stop.  For now.  Just enjoy how it feels to wear me, and think about it.”

“Cyndi!”  Lynda blushed so deeply even her panties felt it.

The laughing in her ear didn’t die down until she was halfway home.