Tom stared at the gemstone in his new, smaller hand, torn between thinking about it and all the strange new sensations that were running through his clearly adult body. The sensitivity of his new nipples, hidden somewhere beneath the yellow fabric that was now draped across his body, or the soft feeling of his new rear as it pressed against the confines of the skirt he now wore. The warming void between his legs and the soft, cool morning breeze as it curled around his bare legs and sent his newly expanded hair fluttering.
'This...feels really good!' Tom said to himself. 'It almost feels normal?' The last thought should have sent a shiver of fear through his body, but there was very little reaction other than his new lips pursing together in thought. He should change back, he wasn't this chick, he was Tom Ackerton and the football star of the school! But at the same time...
"Tom, make the wish and change back! This is way too weird!" Bill said, and Tom's train of thought derailed as he was jerked out of the comforting sensations of his new body and truly back to the matter at hand.
"Yeah. Yeah I really should. Thanks, Bill" Tom said, shaking off the strange thoughts in his mind as he curled the red-tipped, well manicured fingers around the green gemstone. The changed teenager clenched his eyes shut and squeezed the Stone as tight as he could, and with with every ounce of his being he willed the magic to work once more as he made the wish.
"I wish I was a guy again!"
Both Tom and Bill braced for the flash of light, but nothing happened. Tom opened his palm and the gemstone continued to lay there lifelessly, the only thing that made it stand out was the strange glittering from the golden core.
Tom's mind went fuzzy again, and he released his grip on the magical rock.
"What are you doing?" Bill asked as his face filled with worry and confusion as Tom's (admittingly very pretty) face un-scrunched. "Why aren't you changing back?"
"Because it's not going to work, Bill" Tom said, his airy voice suddenly taking a harder edge. "Maybe it only worked once. Maybe it requires something to work, or-"
"That might be it, you were really mad just a second ago! That must be how it works!" Bill interrupted, much to Tom's annoyance as a frown creased his pretty face. Bill could be such a child! It was rude to interrupt! And Bill was always doing that! Not to mention doing fuck all to actually help him out with his problems at school! This could be his blessing in disguise! A way out of the endless nightmare that had been his life for the past two years! A painful spike ran through Tom's mind.
Why didn't Bill understand that!?
As Tom's annoyance shifted over to anger far more quickly than either the boy or the new woman expected, the Stone flicked to life.
"SEE!" Bill shouted, and his friend's voice made Tom's bejeweled ears tremble.
"Do you have to be so loud? God, you're so inconsiderate, Bill!" Tom barked back, clenching his fist tight around the gemstone which had turned from cold to warm once more. Bill's eyes widened and he took a step back from the angry woman that had been his friend.
'If the Stone is really powered on anger, I really don't want to piss him off. He might use it on me!" Bill's mind raced in alarm. His first instinct was to try to grab it from his friend before anything else could happen, but Tom was faster than Bill and always had been and Bill wasn't willing to put the hastily cobbled together theory that maybe Tom's new body wasn't to the test.
"Woah! Woah, ok, my bad. Sorry" Bill said apologetically, and Tom's stance relaxed somewhat, although the green-gold light still shone from the tiny fist clenched around the gemstone.
"Apology accepted. Thank you" Tom said with a feminine huff.
"At least we know how it works now, right" Said Bill, hoping to continue talking his friend down from making the situation worse.
"Yeah, I guess. But frankly, I don't think it would have worked anyway, Bill" Tom said as he opened his fist and stared at the gemstone, the light emanating from the artifact, shimmering like the glitterlamp that Gloria made Tom buy for her, rays of strange light shinging upward into the darkening morning sky over Shermer as the predicted rainstorm began moving in.
'Ugh, fucking Gloria...' Tom thought darkly and the anger welled up again. But before his train of thought could go down the path of bitter rage and hurt, Bill stepped closer and pulled Tom's attention back to his friend.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because of my wish. I wanted to understand women, right? Well then by that logic I have to truly understand what women want before I can change back! So I guess I need to go do...whatever it is women do before I can change back into Tom"
"But...You ARE Tom!" Bill protested, to which Tom just gave a exhausted sigh.
"Do I really look like a Tom right now? I look more like a Tammy than anything else..." Tom sighed. It was clear Bill wasn't getting it. Something in the back of Tom's mind, maybe the source of whatever was making his brain feel so...fuzzy, was telling him that this was correct. If he wanted to become Tom Ackerton again, he needed to embrace his femininity and experience life as a woman. It was clear the magic rock was still responding to his anger, so Tom could still use it to make other wishes. But changing himself back? Not until the terms of the previous wish had been fulfilled.
"You can't be serious. Give me the rock then, I'll change you back! Let me help you, Tom!" Bill urged. Every second the former football star seemed to stay in this body, the more he seemed to be...different. Even now Bill could see Tom's body taking on a more womanly posture. He had to get his friend out of there, but his offer to help only seemed to make Tom angry again.
"Oh, so NOW you want to help!? What happened to having my back with Gloria and all the shit she's given me? Or the goddamn assholes that pick on everyone? You're selfish Bill, you don't want to help me! You just want this thing back!" Tom closed his tiny fist and waved it it front of Bill's face.
"Tom, I-" bill started, but his sentence remained forever incomplete as Tom gritted his pearly white teeth together, reared backwards and held the magical gemstone high in the air and made a wish.