It was months later and spring vacation from school was almost upon the four friends but sitting in the school cafeteria on the Friday before it, they were less than excited.
Tony had broken up with Kristin. She was the girl after Jennifer. And to Tony's distress, things had gone just as they had with Jennifer. He was wild about her, they went out several times. They made out and he realized that they had nothing in common and that the girl didn't care at all about the intellectual things that fascinated him. He'd had sex with Jennifer and it was great. It was great for her, too and well it should have been. He'd morphed into her body twice to be fucked by Jack morphed into a Tony body and Jack had changed into Jennifer once for him, too. But Jennifer wanted him to make some kind of commitment. Tony didn't want that, not with her. She was no longer even polite about his books and ideas. She openly derided his "brainiac shit" and wanted to go to every party possible. "Shouldn't 'us' include some actual me?" had been Tony's parting words to her.
Kristin had been similar. He realized that they had nothing in common but that she would do anything to stay together because she was so infatuated with how he looked. He should have seen it but he was still new to being considered a total hunk. He could easily have had sex with her but passed up the chance. Ironically, among his three friends, he was more hesitant to admit that than to joke about the gay sex he and Jack had had. Jeff and Eric had, if anything, surrendered more easily to the joys of boylove than Jack and Tony had. Amongst themselves all four laughed and joked readily about their experiences on the other team. But denial of easily available sex? Tony knew that that would bring down scorn and simply told the guys he and Kristin had split up.
Jack and Jeff were unattached and Eric was barely so, his relationship with a girl named Ellen seemingly in its death throes.
Their romantic options seemed few as vacation approached, but sitting around the cafeteria table the last period of the day, all four told of extensive work expectations for the upcoming days off. Tony was scheduled to work every day at the gas station off the interstate and felt certain that he'd get stuck working at least one double shift on each upcoming weekend. Eric and Jeff were going to be working full days at the Burger King in the center of town almost every day and Jack was going to be stuck painting his family's house. They sat in silence punctuated only by sighs at the lackluster prospect of the days before them. Facing toward the huge windows that bounded two sides of the cafeteria, Jeff watched a school bus dropping off elementary school kids. Every one leaped or ran joyfully off the bus shouting and already breaking into play with each other. Jeff smiled.
When the final bell sounded, Jeff insisted that his friends go over to Tony's house where he'd meet them. Tony's parents had already left on vacation with their cherished daughter, his sister. Tony was charged with taking care of his little brother Mark. Tony told Mark that he'd pretty much be on his own as he, Tony, was going to be working all vacation. "Just don't get into trouble little bro" he told Mark and rubbed his squealing 13 year old brother's head as hard as he could before letting him go with a friendly shove. Tony loved his little brother. Mark was equally as bizarrely forsaken by their parents in favor of their little sister as Tony had been and Tony actually did feel protective toward him.
Mark was apparently over at a friend's house when Tony, Jack and Eric came through the door and went straight for the kitchen. Tony opened the fridge and grabbed an orange juice container. "Look Mom!" he shouted. "I'm drinking straight from the container! The apocalypse is upon us!" He gulped and then broke into laughter along with his pals. Eric and Jack helped themselves, too. In a few minutes, Jeff joined them. He had the chronivac. Eyebrows were raised.
"No, I'm not suggesting that we spend the vacation as wolves or greyhounds or eagles. I want to ask you guys what kind of person will enjoy the vacation the most?"
There was only perplexed silence broken by a squinting Eric. "You're not still looking to screw me some more, are you?" he asked and they all chuckled.
Jeff punched him. "No, but who's going to enjoy this next 8 days the most? I'll tell you who, little kids. No jobs. No responsibilities. Just play for 8 days. I saw the weather report and we're supposed to get some kind of freakish warm front. It'll be like summer time in April, the whole vacation."
Jeff's pitch was met with no reluctance and after some kibitzing, they settled on 10 years old, clearly pre-pubescent and not tiny or feeble. Jeff turned the chronivac and emitter toward Tony and hit enter. Tony felt the usual electric wave pass through him and then felt himself shrinking and become more slender. He kept up a steady chirp of dialog with Jack just to hear his voice crack in reverse. In a few moments, he was a head shorter then his friends and finally, just as his penis shrank and his balls ascended back within his body, he ended up chest high on his pals. "Oh shit, my clothes!" he realized they'd forgotten to program his clothes to change with him. His dress pants and shorts dropped to the floor before he could catch them and his droopy dress shirt extended down to his shins. He had stepped out of his shoes and was getting his shirt off when Eric picked him up and threw a laughing Tony into the air, passing him around with his friends. Finally put down, Tony slapped Jeff. "You big dope!" he laughed. "You forgot to give me a 10 year old's clothes". Jeff apologized and smirked at how reed thin this Tony was. He changed Jack, Eric and then himself and remembered to convert their clothes to appropriate t-shirts, shorts and sneakers. 10 year old Jack was almost as thin and startlingly slender as Tony and a little shorter, with red hair even brighter than he had at full size. Eric was a few inches taller than Jack, the same height as Tony and significantly more muscular than either. Jeff was the same height as Tony and Eric and somewhere between the two in weight. Immediately upon finishing, all four broke into laughter and playful wrestling.
Their ecstatic laughs and gasps were only stopped when they saw Tony's 13 year old brother, now towering over them, standing there staring in wonder. The wrestling ball of four 10 year old boys slowly untangled itself on the floor. Naked Tony stepped forward.
"Mark. Don't-"
Tony's brother laughed. "Oh my god! You're a little shrimp. You got turned into a little shrimp!" Mark broke up in laughter. His suddenly smaller older brother advanced toward him with the intent of keeping Mark away from the chronivac. But Mark had no interest in the chronivac. He went straight for Tony grabbing his reed thin bro about the shoulders and rubbing Tony's head of short cropped hair as hard as he could till Tony squealed. Then he lifted his smaller brother off the ground and tickled him. Tony tried to resist but found himself shouting his laughter against his will. "Who's the little bro now?" Mark laughed along with him. "Who's the little bro now?"
"I . . I . . I am" giggled Tony.
But the disparity lasted only a few moments of play more. Mark St. Martin felt an odd wave of electricity pass through him and quickly found himself unable to control his 10 year old brother. Then Tony wrestled him to a draw, the two facing each other with hands locked in a pushing contest and Mark realized he was no bigger than Tony.
"Hey! What'd you do to me?" he demanded of Jeff at the chronivac. Mark's jeans and Led Zeppelin t-shirt had re-formed into a pair of shorts and a tasmanian devil t-shirt.
"You shrimpified me, too!"
"We can't take the chance that you'll try and take the chronivac and control us and everybody around you."
Mark looked perplexed. "What?! I don't want to do anything like that. I saw you guys do this and I just wanted to kid my new little bro"
"How about hanging out with us over vacation?" asked Tony immediately trusting his brother.
"Sure. I always wanted to hang around with you guys but you wouldn't let me because I was just a little kid. Now . . " He held his arms out taking in all of them and broke into giggles that his brother and friends soon joined.
Chronivac had done its work and all of Mark's clothes had been changed into a 10 year old's clothes fitting him. His naked brother ran upstairs and found some shorts and a t-shirt that fit okay. Even slender Mark's shorts billowed out around Tony who saw the others smirking at him. "There's nothing to you" cracked Eric. "Hey, I still have buns!" Tony protested, patting his still round rear. "Yeah, but I could get these hands I have now around your waist" Tony just shrugged. "I'm a 10 year old boy. What'd you think I'd look like at this age when I looked the way I did at 16?"
"Enough of that" laughed Jeff. "Let's go swimming!"