Jeff simply can’t seem to be able to decide what to do, he’d love to test the program out, he looks around his room. Whenever his eyes land on an item, be it a piece of clothing, a toy, his gaming console, or anything else, he quickly withdraws from the idea of using the item as an “guineapig”. The other option would be to test it on either his family, a neighbor or some random person, but this to seems to not sit well with Jeff. Jeff groans, “the next best option would be to test it on myself,” the 16-year-old mumbles, “but I really would rather not do that. What if something goes wrong? I don’t want to be stuck as some object, girl or worse… poop.”
The teen grabs his head with both hands, “gaaah! Why is it so hard to decide,” he whines.
“What’s the matter, big bro,” he suddenly hears a voice behind him.
When Jeff turns around he sees his 6-year-old sister Hailey standing in his door, looking questionably at him. “Oh, it’s nothing,” Jeff says, “it’s just that I am trying to decide what to do with the new game I just received,” he adds without thinking.
Hailey curiously steps into the room, “what kinda game is it,” she asks.
“It’s…,” Jeff starts, but then hesitates,
Hailey tilts her head, “it’s what,” she asks.
‘I probably shouldn’t tell the squirt about the program… I might regret it,’ Jeff thinks to himself, ‘on the other hand though, maybe she’d allow me to test it on her. She might be curious to know what it would be like to be a teen or animal.’
Hailey continues to look up at Jeff, “I promise I won’t gonna tell,” she says, “if it is a game for grown ups.”
Jeff has to chuckle at this, “thanks, Hailey,” he says, “there is no age behind this game, so technically anyone, no matter how old they are, are aloud to play the game.” Being a playful teen, to Jeff the Chronivac, even though it is such a powerful and, in the wrong hands, dangerous program, is nothing more than just a game.
Hailey smiles, “then you can tell me,” she says, “maybe I can help decide?”
Jeff thinks for a while, ‘fuck it,’ he thinks to himself, then he smiles at his sister, “you probably could help in some way,” he says.
Hailey’s eyes sparkly with excitement, “how?”
Jeff moves his chair to the side, “come here and I’ll explain what my issue is,” he says.
Hailey walks up to Jeff and stops in front of him, Jeff starts to explain the “game” to his sister, his sister becomes more and more confused. “So, you are telling me,” she says after Jeff has stopped explaining, “that this… game… is able to do all of those things?”
Jeff nods, “yeah.”
“But you are not so sure, because magic only works in fairy tales,” Hailey continues, again Jeff nods, “so to be sure that the program really is able to do all this, you’d like to test it out, but you can’t decide on what or who?”
Jeff nods once again, “that pretty much sums it up,” he says, “so, now you heard what my problem is… do you still want to help?”
Hailey raises an eyebrow as she understands what Jeff is asking for, “you want ME to voluntarily be your… guineapig?”
Jeff nods, “I promise not to do anything you don’t want to,” he says, “I’d do something small, like change your hair color… just to see if the game really works.” Hailey tilts her head, Jeff can tell she is thinking it over, for a 6-year-old the small girl is pretty smart and also seems much mature than the average 6-year-old. “Please Hailey,” Jeff says, “I promise you will not regret it.”
“I’ll only accept to do it,” the girl says, “IF you promise to let me change something about you next.” The girl holds out her hand, “do we have a deal?”
Jeff looks at his sister, then at her outstretched hand, he thinks for a while if he really should go through with this. After a minute or so, Jeff lets out a sigh, “deal,” he says as he takes his sister’s hand and shakes it.
After they shook hands, Hailey looks up at Jeff with a smile on her face and excitement in her eyes. “So, I’d suggest you change my hair color,” the girl says, “that sounds like a safe test.”
Jeff nods, “I agree,” he says, “what kind of color would you like to have?”
Hailey thinks for a while, she then smiles and says, “I’d like my hair to be turquoise, that is my favorite color.”
Jeff nods, “okay, so first I would need to scan you,” he says, “go and stand in the middle of my room.” Hailey does as told, Jeff opens the scan screen and moves out of the way of the in built camera of his Laptop. He turns to face his sister, “ready,” he asks, Hailey nods and Jeff activates the scanner.
Both let out a surprised gasp, when suddenly a red beam of light shoots out from the camera and hits Hailey. Hailey manages to stand her ground and both watch as the beam travels down her body and back up, then it vanishes and a “ping” is heard coming from the Laptop. When both look they see a message saying that the scan was a success and to please return to the “folder screen”.
When Jeff opens the “Folder Screen”, both widen their eyes when they see a folder with Hailey’s name below it. Jeff opens the folder and both gasp when they see all of the information.
“Man,” Jeff says, as he reads through the file, “the program knows EVERYTHING about you… I mean… I didn’t even know that you were interested in boys in THAT kinda way. I mean… you are 6… 6-year-olds normally aren’t supposed to… you know…,” Jeff trails off and rubs the back of his head, looking awkwardly at his sister.
Hailey looks at her brother, “what are you talking about,” she asks.
“R-right... you might not know what it means when you feel a certain way when seeing a boy,” Jeff says.
Hailey tilts her head, “I just think boys are cool,” she says, “and somehow interesting. I get a strange feeling in my tummy when I see certain boys, like butterflies flying all around my tummy.”
Jeff scratches his head, “the so called “butterfly effect” only appears when a woman, in your case a girl, finds herself confronted by a handsome male,” he starts to explain, “the feeling means that you find the boy handsome, good looking, atractive... in other words: your body is telling you, that you and the boy should be more than “just” friends.”
Hailey blinks in confusion, “and what is THAT supposed to mean,” she asks.
Again Jeff scratches his head, “I should probably shut up,” he says.
“Why?!”
“Because you are not at the right age to discuss such a... topic,” Jeff says carefully, “better wait until you are at least 12.”
“Pl-please Jeff,” Hailey says, “I wanna know what is happening to me! I wanna understand!”
Jeff groans, one part of him wants to tell Hailey everything, the other part though prefers to end the conversation. The 16-year-old looks at his sister, seeing her hopeful expression and those big innocent eyes, he let's out a sigh, “okay... fine,” he says, “BUT this has to stay between you and me, mom and dad must not know anything about our conversation! Understood?”
“Yes, yes,” Hailey says, nodding her head.
Jeff takes a deep breath, “okay, then let me explain,” he says.
Hailey sits down on Jeff's bed and listens closely to her big brother, the more Jeff explains the wider the little girl's eyes seem to become. After Jeff has finished explaining, Hailey seems pretty thoughtful, “so, you are saying that my body,” the girl pauses, “is telling me th-that I want to see... see the boy n-naked... and do... um... “big girl” stuff, like kissing with tongue, cuddling naked and...,” she stops as her face turns red like a tomato.
Jeff nods, “y-yeah,” he says, “I know it is a lot to take in.”
Hailey nods, “y-yeah,” she says.
“Ju-just out of curiosity,” Jeff says, “is... is there a boy you know... who causes the “butterflies” in your tummy to flapp... um... stronger?”
Hailey looks at Jeff, “m-maybe... why?”
“Be-because, if there is such a boy,” Jeff says, “then that feeling means that you find that boy especially attractive and would love to do those... things... with him the most.”
“S-so you mean,” Hailey says, “that I... that I seem to w-want him as a b-b-boyfriend?”
Jeff nods, “y-yeah,” he says, “so... do you get a such a feeling towards a certain boy?”
Hailey lowers her head and nods, “h-his name is Damian,” she mumbles, “he... he is 5. He has such be-beautiful blue eyes, cute freckles on his face, short ginger hair, a light brown skin tone and... and a b-body... almost like you.”
Jeff's eyes widen at the description, “damn... so he has an athletic body,” the teen says, “do you know if he does any type of sport?”
Hailey thinks for a while, “he loves playing soccer and basketball with his big brother Jared,” she says, “at least that is what he told me.”
Jeff nods, “he does sound like a very handsome young man,” he says, “I'd like to meet him some day.”
“I... I could ask him if he wants to come over sometime,” the little girl says.
Jeff smiles, “let's stop talking about this topic for now,” he says, “and let's see what you look like with turquoise hair.”
Hailey agrees, she watches as Jeff changes the setting in her file, changing the color of hair from black to turquoise.
Before confirming the change, Jeff looks at his sister and asks, “ready?”
Hailey nods, “I... I guess so,” she says.
“Walk over to my mirror,” he says, “that way you can watch your hair change color.”
Once Hailey is positioned in front of the mirror, Jeff confirms the change, he then turns to see what will happen.
At first nothing seems to happen, but then Hailey says, “I feel as if ants are crawling all over my head.”
“Does... does it hurt or feel weird?”
“It feels weird, but it does not hurt,” Hailey replies, “hey... look I think it is working!”
Sure enough, when Jeff looks closely, he sees that Hailey's hair is slowly changing color, the turquoise color seems to flow like water over his sister's hair, starting at the roots and traveling down to the tips. Soon enough, Hailey is staring in disbelief at her new hair color, “s-so... what do you think,” Jeff asks.
“I... I...,” Hailey says, “I LOVE IT! I look like a mermaid,” she says, giggling a little.
Jeff smiles, “I am happy you like it,” he says, “and yeah, only thing missing would be a fish tail... but... I could fix that,” he says, nodding towards his laptop.
Hailey is silent, Jeff can tell that she is thinking about it, “m-maybe not now,” the girl says.
Jeff nods, “yeah... let's wait until I am more experienced with this program,” he says.
Hailey nods in agreement, “so, can I have a go now? You promised.”
Jeff looks at his watch, “hmm... dinner will be ready in ten minutes,” he says, “better we head down stairs and see if mom needs help. We need to change your hair back to black though, I promise, after dinner I will let you change something about me, okay?”
Hailey is about to argue when they hear their mother call them to set the table, the girl let's out a sigh, “okay... fine...,” she says.
Jeff is already editing her file, “don't be sad,” he says, as he hits confirm and turns around, watching his sister's hair return to it's natural color, “you have whole dinner to think about what you would like to change about me.”