Moments ago...
Ronnie shoved her hands into her hoodie, trying to ignore her mother. Same old, same old- going on about how she didn't appreciate anything, she didn't understand what it was like to be a parent. It was like her mom had long since forgotten what it was like to be a teenaged girl herself!
Her mother said something like "I wish you knew what it was like to be a parent.."
And then everything went lopsided. The colors of the world around her faded, becoming nearly greyscale, and Ronnie couldn't move, couldn't breathe...and then all color came back. She felt a weight on the front of her body, she was uncomfortable and tired. She looked down, and saw her belly was swollen, pressing against the fabric of her hoodie, and the waistband of her sweatpants was uncomfortably tight.
"What the hell?!" She distantly heard yells of shock and surprise from elsewhere in the shopping center, but she had her own problems. She felt a pressure in her bladder, and she moved as quickly as she could towards the nearest bathroom.
Making her way into a stall, she pulled down her now too-tight sweats and her panties, and relieved herself. Ok, that felt better. Pulling off her hoodie, she saw in shock the baby bump on her slender teen body. "Oh my God...I'm pregnant? How?!" She touched her hands to her belly, and she felt movement.
Meanwhile...
Laura Kerr was having a stressful day. Being a single mother of a teenaged daughter wasn't easy, and sometimes she wondered how Veronica could be so different from her. Ronnie (as she insisted on being called) had just turned 14, and she still wore the same old clothes- sweatpants (shorts in warmer weather), a t-shirt, tennis shoes, and her ever-present hoodie. She'd managed to set the day aside to take Ronnie shopping for a new wardrobe, something the girl didn't seem to appreciate at all.
Finally, exasperated by Ronnie's lack of enthusiasm, she'd lost her temper. If only there was a way she could get Ronnie to understand what it was like...then a wave of vertigo had come over her, and she felt like the world was growing huge around her. Her clothing was suddenly far too large, and she was falling...
She came to in darkness. It was very warm, and she seemed to be underwater. She thrashed about a bit, trying to find the surface, but despite her efforts, she didn't make any headway. Her arms and legs seemed weak and sluggish. She kicked and hit something taut and slightly elastic, like the surface of a volleyball. When she opened her mouth to scream, liquid filled it.
After a few moments where she was certain she was drowning, she swore she could faintly hear Ronnie's voice- the girl's voice was panicked. When Laura realized she wasn't drowning, she tried to figure out where her girl was. 'Ronnie, where are you?', she thought.
Ronnie froze. She'd heard a tiny, young-sounding voice in her head! 'I must be going crazy...who's there?'
'Ronnie, it's your mother! Where are you? Are you ok?'
The voice sounded too young to be her mother, but there was something strongly familiar about the way it sounded. 'Mom? Why are you in my head? You disappeared, and oh God, Mom, I'm pregnant!'
'Pregnant, what...' A wave of dread came over Laura as she realized where she was. 'Oh...Ronnie...how...this is impossible...'
'Mom? What is it?' Ronnie's mental voice sounded very concerned.
'I think...put your hand on your tummy, baby. Now tell me if you feel anything.' She tried to kick forward as hard as she could.
'Ow! What was that?'
Laura forced herself not to freak out. This had to be a nightmare! But she could feel it now- a heartbeat that wasn't her own. It was loud and growing erratic. 'Baby, breathe. Deep breaths. In through the nose, out with the mouth.'
Eventually the heartbeat slowed down. 'Ok honey, I know this is going to sound crazy, because it is, but..I'm inside you.'
"Wh...what?!" Ronnie spoke aloud.
'The baby that's inside your body...is me.'
"No..no way...but how?" Ronnie felt like the world was spinning around her, and she nearly vomited.
'I don't know, but you need to try and stay calm. This is like those stories you keep telling me about, the ones you read on the internet. About STS.'
Sudden Transformation Syndrome- a mysterious and poorly-understood phenomenon that afflicted several hundred people each year, changing their bodies and minds in various ways. Ronnie had become fascinated by it, and had read about those few cases that were public- people growing younger, changing genders, or even, in one case, turning permanently invisible! Secretly, she'd wished something like that would happen to her...and now maybe it had!
But she'd never imagined anything like this! 'So I...absorbed you?'
'I don't know, I did feel like I was shrinking inside my clothes, then I was in here...in you. I must have been transforming into an infant!'
'So what do we do? I'm too young to be a mom!'
'Honey, stay calm. I'm not exactly thrilled at being my own granddaughter. But there are people who can help us, they passed laws for this.'
'Oh yeah, the STS agency has a number. Let me look it up.'
Laura felt very tired. 'Baby, I think I'm falling asleep...' And she was out.
Ronnie called the hotline, and eventually a social worker arrived to help her to a doctor's office. After a full checkup, the doctor pronounced her and her 'child' to be completely healthy. Ronnie was quickly approved for government assistance, which, alongside money her mother had saved (as well as the trust fund set up for her with the money from her father's life insurance policy), she was able to live comfortably along with a government-assigned caregiver.
After a few weeks, Ronnie considered returning to school, but after a long talk with Laura, it was decided that she would learn from the home, so as not to deal with the social issues of being such a young parent.
'Once I'm born, honey, you'll be able to go back to school. We can have our caregivers take care of me.' Laura didn't want to be a burden on her mother.
'No, I should have to take care of you too. You did that for me!'
'Oh baby, you're just a child, it's too soon for you to have to do that.'
'Too bad. You said I needed to learn to be more responsible. Well this is me, being responsible.'
Laura was forced to concede the argument. A few months later, she was born for a second time. The process had been frightening, and painful for Ronnie, who wasn't yet fully grown, but the event happened without a hitch.
Opening her eyes to see the world again had been painful- it was still hard to adjust to all the brightness. The world was populated by giants, and it was cold- a part of her actually wished she could go back to her daughter's womb! Sometimes, even though she was mentally an adult, she couldn't help but wail and cry like a real infant.
Only being in her daughter's arms brought her peace. Ronnie had elected to breastfeed her, something Laura herself had been loath to do. By the time she could crawl under her own power, the doctors had discovered that Ronnie wasn't aging- in fact, her body had quickly shed any signs she'd been pregnant at all, and once Laura could eat solid food, her breasts quickly shrank back to their normal size (even though Ronnie had breast fed her as long as she was able- they had both found the experience to be quite profound).
Two years after her birth, Ronnie was back in school, and Laura was remarkably independent for a toddler. She wasn't able to go back to work in person, but she was able to consult remotely (mostly by email or text- few clients felt comfortable taking advice from a two year old girl).
Ronnie decided to graduate early- her grades had picked up considerably as she'd started to apply herself more. She was a quite intelligent girl to begin with, and she'd quickly become a responsible young woman- mentally and emotionally, if not physically. Plus, as she still wasn't aging, she felt it would be harder and harder to interact with her classmates as they grew into adults.
"Really, Laura, the only thing I missed was dating. But who would want to date a kid? Only a perv or something." Laura and her daughter had been on a first-name basis for years now- it had been Laura's decision, as she felt it would be too strange for her daughter to be calling a toddler 'Mom'.
At almost 4 years old, Laura was very slender for a little girl, with very little baby fat. Her doctors had been concerned that she was malnourished, but tests had concluded she was in good health. She looked up from the book she was reading at her daughter. "I know, Ronnie, and I'm sorry. Though at least you didn't have to grow up all over again."
"That's true, I'm sorry."
"No, I didn't mean it like that, honey. All things considered, this...hasn't been too bad for me. Oh at first, being helpless, unable to walk or talk, and being such a burden on you bothered me, but now? I'm really wondering what I have to look forward to. Working full time?"
Ronnie laughed. "Yeah, you kept telling me adulthood was nothing to be excited about. I'm glad you got a second childhood. You seem to be really enjoying it lately."
"I think I have been, actually. You know, I think I could use more social interaction. What do you think about me going to school?"
Ronnie scratched her head. "That'd be weird with little kids. You're so much more mature than they are. But I get what you're thinking- we could both use more friends."
"At least we have each other." And it was true- the two had become very close, more like sisters than mother and daughter.
Ronnie put her arms around Laura. "Yeah, we do. I love you, Laura."
"I love you too."