Walking outside in tow with a woman he never knew, Mike was at a loss as to what he should say or do. Or how he was supposed to act. A kid? A little kid!? His mind was blown!
He was pondering his new situation, when they came upon a large black SUV. His....uhhh...."mother"....opened the rear passenger door for him. Now why would he sit in the back when there was a perfectly good empty front seat? He peered inside, having to look up. His stomach dropped. A booster seat? He wasn't.....a.....child. Mike looked down at his short school boy uniform-covered waif-thin little frame and his strange pale little hands with long skinny fingers. He then looked back up through his new long blond hair.
"Come on, Noah! Let's go! We don't have all day! We're already behind, thanks to your behavior!" his mother said; looking down at what she thought was her young son's wide green eyes partly shaded by his pretty blond hair.
Mike sighed, knowing he had little choice with one imposing woman before him, and another with petrifying powers behind inside the school building. With his tail tucked between his legs, metaphorically speaking, he hopped up inside the truck with surprising ease. At least this body is limber. This vehicle was HUGE, and he wasn't completely sure how to get up and in. A problem he would face for the rest of time. Things were big, and he was small.
With trepidation, he took the seat in what was supposed to be the real Noah's position. His legs wouldn't even touch the floor!
"Now, buckle yourself in"
Mike noticed without any hesitation, he knew exactly where to reach the belt buckle. Up and over his head, down over his body in an X-shape, and buckled in the center between his legs.
"What the...?" he thought. "What kind of.....oh god. Some kind of custom child-safety harness." A new humiliation at his much lower level thrusted upon him. And the crazy thing was, he knew just where and how to buckle it in. He remembered his new principal had said he would begin taking on young Noah's personality. Maybe that included muscle memory....
The car ride home was mostly Noah's mother lecturing him. He could see her eyes in the rear-view mirror, and noticed she would look back at him periodically with a mirthful gleam. She loved her little boy, and must have found him very endearing to look at.
Mike was inwardly seething with the new thought that he was now "cute." Not "cute" like a handsome man. But "cute" like a helpless innocent little puppy that needs to be watched over. He still hadn't seen his face yet. At least, not from his perspective. He had, of course, seen Noah Baxter on many occasions as he was his son's best friend. But he hadn't yet looked in a mirror. He still had a mental picture of himself as Michael Salvatore.
Simultaneously, he thought "my son's best friend!" Which made his little belly drop yet again. Over whatever there was to this kid's belly inside his thin frame. He felt on the verge of tears. Great, now he was about to sob like a little boy! He tried to control it, and found he was still able to, but barely. He looked down between his short little legs covered in blue slack pants. His feet wearing black sketcher-style dress shoes. Purposely using his hair to cover his eyes. Last thing he wanted, was to cry in front of this kid's mom. As this kid!
They pulled up to a really nice house. Not quite as large and fancy as his own, but still a nice upper-class home. They pulled into the driveway, his new mom pressed a button to open the garage door, and they pulled in. He keyed off the ignition, and said:
"Ok, mister. I want you to go inside, get cleaned up, and started on your homework."
"My homework?" He thought, horrified. "I have.....HOMEWORK!?"
He didn't remember bringing any sort of backpack. But looked down and noticed a little red one below his feet, and on the floor. Noah's mom must have placed it there. Sighing, he unbuckled himself, grabbed the bag almost instinctively, opened the door....and took a big leap. He turned and tried shutting the car door, but it was surprisingly heavy and barely moved. It hadn't closed tight.
"I got it," said the much stronger mom. Much to Mike's irritation, the woman that was once smaller and physically weaker than him, was able to easily open and shut to door correctly.
"Now. To your room! Get moving!"
Mike grabbed this kid's red backpack, hoisted it over hus right shoulder, and stepped into the stranger's house. As soon as he stepped through the doorway, he immediately felt at home! He noticed he began to recognize the open-floor-plan of a house he had never stepped foot in!
"Uh oh, " he thought, instinctively knowing he was quickly becoming 10. His mother followed him up, and he just as quickly retreates further into the house. He sigh, threw his backpack on the floor, and started heading for the stairs.
"I don't think so, kid!" Called his mother. "Is that where we throw our things? In the middle of tge living room?"
"Kid, she called me," he thought," and found hinself speaking for the first time:
"No, mom, " he said with yet another new-found horror. His voice was pre-pubescent! And he answered like a kid naturally would! He did it without thinking!
"Good. Now out your backpack where it belongs!"
He somehow knew it goes into a closet next to the garage door that led directly into the "living room." (It was an open-floor plan, so there really were no "rooms," per se. It was a living room, dining room, and kitchen all combined into one large area.
But Mike found himself opening a closet door, and finding a large walk-in coat room that was now familiar. He found a hook with a jacket for a small boy, and dirty black-and-white sneakers that would fairly soon be on their last legs. His things! Or rather, Noah's! That Mike had now inherited. Another small piece of Mike Salvatore died inside. This was going to get some getting used to.
"At least I'll have his instincts, I suppose," he thought. He noticed he was still seemed to be retaining all of his old memories, remembering who he once was. That was part of the magic's "punishment." It wouldn't be much of a "punishment" is the adult who switched into a random child completely became that child.
But Mike now found himself racing across the house, and flying up the steps two at a time.
"No running the house-!!" His mom called "....UGH! That kid sometimes, I swear....." she finished. A typical mother with a typical young boy with too much energy.
Mike found himself in a bedroom for a young boy of about ten. Mike was entranced. He quickly recognized all the stuff! His toys! His youthening mind took an inventory of his things, wondering what he wanted to tinker with first. Mike was trying to resist his boyish temptations. He managed to pull himself away. He had to do what his mom told him to do. Get cleaned up.
He wandered over to a dresser, and opened the top drawer. Whitey-tighties! He hadn't worn these since he was a....kid....well, he's a kid now....
Holding up these impossibly tiny underwear that seemed to go with his small pale hands. His stomach churning. Mike sighed, and opened the next drawer. He found a boy's youth size small pair of blue shorts, then found a white undershirt next. Boy's youth size small, of course.
With clothes in hand, he opened another door adjoining his room and found a medium-sized bathroom with another door on the opposite side. He instinctively knew that other door led to another bedroom. An older brother's? Oh great! I'm a younger brother! He didn't know Noah had an older sibling.....wait. Make that TWO siblings! His older brothers were identical twins! Teenagers. 17 years old. High school seniors! His thoughts of them were mixed between awe, mysterious of their older teenage lives, and somewhat of intimidation.
"Why should I be intimidated by a couple of teenagers?" Mike thought. "Must be another part of this Noah kid's personality shining through."
He was thinking how he should know these things, as he was stripping. Finding himself naked for the fist time trying not to look down at himself, he turned and found a large full-body mirror hanging from his door inside the bathroom.
Mike stopped dead in his little tracks on his smooth young boy's feet and short little leg stalks. While he was slowly getting used to being short and small, and trying to get used to the idea he was now Noah and some of the humiliations that have been a part of that to this point; Mike never really realized just what he actually LOOKED like. Or that he was actually a small ten year old boy. He was still largely in denial of his situation and didn't know it until the very moment he came face-to-face with his reflected appearance.
His new smooth youthful jaw hung open as he completely froze in place in shock. He could only stand there like a deer in headlights looking at the face of his boy's best friend staring back through his new big green eyes; in the nude. His body completely undeveloped. That of a child's body!