Whatever had happened on the beach that day seemed to be permanent. Jennifer knew she’d shown up as a man and that she’d had a different name but now things were seriously messed up. Her crush and best friend were acting as if they were her parents and reality seemed to agree. There was literal proof that Tristin had given birth to her. Birth certificates, stretch marks, and photos of her pregnant. Tristin had also aged a few years in the process and had been married at twenty four years old and had Jennifer at twenty seven which put her in her early thirties. Tucker was roughly the same age and both of them had university educated jobs and worked. Tristin telling her to brush her teeth before bed was accompanied by horror stories from her job as a dentist. Suddenly Jennifer was a lot better at brushing than she’d ever been as an adult man and that was partially out of fear relating to the stories Tristin would tell. Jennifer knew immediately that Tucker had become an insurance broker thanks to several dinner table talks about numbers and insurance. She typically picked at her food when this happened surprised by how little she could actually eat in comparison to being an adult man.
It had been two weeks now and as much as she hated to admit it Jennifer was now starting to get used to life as a five year old girl. She figured out the schedule of her new life, she played with dolls and coloured pictures, and watched animated movies about princesses suddenly realizing they had a higher quality than ever. Daycare was honestly the reason she had adapted so well. After two weeks of constant exposure and forced activities she had the eccentric life of a five year old down to a science. She even caught herself running around playing tag with some other girls in the playground. She could easily adapt, a man trapped in a little girl’s body but she wanted to return to the beach and figure out why she’d transformed in the first place, maybe she could even transform back and leave her existsnce as a toddler behind her. She knew she would adapt some day, actually come to enjoy being Jennifer and maybe let her inhibitions go. She didn’t want to become like the other five year olds, throwing tantrums when they didn’t get their way, screaming instead of talking, and actually enjoying some of the absolutely insulting entertainment on television. The only reason she’d bonded with movies so much was that anything was better than a space man teaching her to count like she was literally a moron. The only issue was her parents clearly thought she liked princesses not the movies that contained princesses. The same went for dolls. When told to goof off with them she would let go of any embarrassment for a while and act out intense plot lines including strippers being killed, mafia bosses fighting dirty cops, and evil witches cursing lands. Her parents had no idea that the content of playtime was vulgar and she wanted to keep it that way. Truth be told it wasn’t the toys, lack of energy, and activities that bothered her. It was the expectation. Everyone expected her to be an idiot and she hated it with a passion. So unfortunately she partook in one of the stereotypes of being five.
“Can we go to the beach?” She would ask only for her mother to claim it was too late or that they had something planned already. So instead of going to fix whatever happened to her Jennifer ended up just spending more and more time imagining weird stories with the dolls she owned, watching princess movies until she could quote them, and working on her very poor and childlike artistic abilities. Summer passed and it got far too cold for a beach visit. Suddenly Jennifer was stuck and the questions about going to the beach ceased as she got invited to little girl’s birthday parties which were just the worst. It didn’t help that her parents enrolled her in kindergarten and her classmates would invite her out of necessity. Kindergarten was even worse than television as the teacher was mandated to teach her basic counting and letters. Jennifer found the subject very boring and Mrs. Neco paid close attention to her often having her recite the entire alphabet or count to a hundred. She was the only one who could do it and half expected to be labelled a gifted child and sent up to grade five or something.
Tristin decided that instead of a birthday party they’d go to the movie theatre on Jennifer’sbirthday, or rather four days after when it was convenient. Much to Jennifer’s shock this apparent “first time to the movies” was to see the latest animated princess flick. Her parents must have picked it because of princesses but Jennifer was blown away by another aspect, the use of Japanese culture in it. Everything from samurai to actual ninjas with research put behind them was present and instead of diverging from the culture it just embraced it. Legends and myths played a role, things Jennifer didn’t think existed were present, and she banked about it on the entire ride home while her parents smiled.
Halloween brought about a costume contest at school consisting of cheap dollar store costumes. Jennifer’s was no different. She just wore an alien mask that came with black robes and called it good. She loved in an apartment so instead of trick or treating her parents just bought a bulk box of small chocolate bars and a massive bag sour and sweet chews and called it good. Jennifer watched ancient Halloween specials on streaming services her parents deemed appropriate before she fell asleep on the couch and woke up the next morning realizing her parents had watched horror movies after she’d been ticketed out.
The holiday season brought about a thin layer of snow and Jennifer was expected to play in it. Bunched up in a big coat she’d wander about the schoolyard leaving trails of footprints in the snow lost in her own thoughts while other kids cried that the snow was too cold and dry to make snowmen with and some of the annoying boys filled snowballs with rocks and threw them at everyone. She ended up earning their fear when she beat one of them up despite the fact he was two years older than her and twice as big. No one messes with her after that save her parents grounding her off movies and her teachers making her stand against the wall with a frown.
Thanksgiving was accompanied by a trip to Tucker’s parents house in the suburbs and her grandparents greeted her with hugs, way too many sloppy kisses, and the order to go play outside while her parents, aunts, uncles, solitary cousin, and grandparents argued about politics and religion while sharing in family memories and sending her away whenever she got close to the house. Tucker was the youngest in his family by a long shot and her one cousin was fifteen and she was certain he hated her so she decided to hate him too.
She fell asleep listening to her parents rant about that side of the family and wake up all groggy when they arrived home and she realized her dad was carrying her upstairs.
Christmas was accompanied by a trip north out of the city. The long drive was so boring and long, filled with awful music, and random comments about people that Jennifer didn’t know. She actually partook in a classic game of “Are we there yet?” With her dad and he was so frustrated with her by the end that she got one of his rare flashes of anger and shut up.
Tristin’s family was both better and worse than Tucker’s. There were twelve cousins she could choose from but because she was a girl she was expected to hang out with her lame girly cousins while the boys fooled around with an old gaming system in the basement and played racing games. Instead cousin Lucy braided her hair and every adult did that mock positive comment thing to her except her parents who clearly thought she was into hair care now judging by their interest. In addition Tristin’s mom was not a good cook, nowhere near as good as Tucker’s dad and religious to an obnoxious degree. Jennifer had said prayers before but her grandma improvised one half drunk at the dinner table and everything was lukewarm after she’d held nose picking cousin Gregory’s hand for seven minutes. Then the girls had to be dished up first in some archaic and sexist tradition that could have easily been remedied by passing things around but instead she had to listen to Gregory whine and cry until they broke pattern and dished him up. He didn’t even take anything, just meat and bread. It was like he was allergic to vegetables or something. By the time everyone was served everything had gone cold but every adult there choked it down anyway. Jennifer however wasn’t freed from the idiocy of Gregory taking her fork and still eating with his hands or Jackie getting up to find her mother to cut her meat or salt her food every twelve seconds. Her baby cousin Brian kept bawling and his mother didn’t pay him any attention and she was also certain her definitely pregnant aunt Karen was drinking wine. She was the only kid under twelve to actually eat anything until dessert showed up. Since Lucy was the oldest cousin that meant that she was lumped into the generalization of kids whenever her single uncle George commented negatively about them. She hated that man by the end of the night. All the kids got up and ran around before dinner ended and besides Lucy she was the only one to ask to be excused like a polite human being. But to top it all off the end of the night should have been after midnight but Jackie threw a tantrum and her mom decided that they should open presents early. Grandma agreed and while her cousins tore under the tree like a bunch of gremlins she sat back between her parents feeling so annoyed that she didn’t bother to get up. All her cousins pulled out bags and boxes of chocolates, toys, and in some cases books and money. Most of them whines to have the toys opened and after the chaos had erupted it was clear that one of the brats had torn open a gift for her as well but Grandma couldn’t remember what she bought her so whomever it was got away with it. Not that her aunts and uncles cared. Most of the ones with kids left the second presents were opened and unfortunately that meant Lucy had to leave as well. It left her with Gregory and because they were roughly the same age drunk and pregnant auntie Karen forced them to play together. Except Gregory had toys from his parents and grandparents while she had absolutely nothing thanks to one of her annoying cousins. By this point she just wanted to leave but her parents stuck around and Gregory refused to share so she got the full attention of the game system for about ten minutes before Gregory discovered it and threw a fit because, “Video games are boys toys!”
“Well I am a boy,” Jennifer replied before sticking her tongue out at him. He responded by hitting her over the head with a toy truck half the size of her body. Crying and in pain she reported this to the adults only for Gregory’s parents to demand to know what she did to aggravate him. He got away with it and as if to punctuate the evening her childish digestive system decided poorly cooked turkey and mashed potatoes made with expired milk were bad so she ended up being driven home in the dark for two hours sick to her stomach and annoyed from the evening. Her mom fed her medication and some toast with actually flavourful jam on it before tucking her in.
Jennifer woke up well past noon the next day but for some reason felt fully rested. She jumped out of bed to find her parents already awake and well past cleaned and dressed. However they greeted her in a chipper mood and for the first time since she’d become a kid bubbling excitement filled her body as her parents directed her attention to the Christmas tree and the gifts under it. Instead of grabbing as many as she could and tearing them open and figuring out whose gift was whose she had a Santa had pushed onto her head and was tasked with bringing gifts to everyone. Once everyone had one she could tear open her present and have that boiling excitement fill her limbs. Paper tearing under her fingers, presents held up under the light, and even the upholding of a belief in Santa. She decided to play along with her parents and overreacted to the concept getting joy from their faces. She decided then and there while she opened up a package containing a cross between a doll and an action figure that this wasn’t so bad. She smiled and hugged her parents willing to accept them as such despite how her mind had remained intact. It helped make the day way more enjoyable.