“Oh, shit.” The blonder of the two teens remarked as he turned to his companion. “Bro, these kids are from that show where guys get turned into babies or whatever.”
“Whooaaaa, I think you’re right.” Scott’s stomach did flip flops as the brunette of the pair grinned at him and Kai, as the hunky teen studied the boys with renewed interest. “My sister loves that shit, she was talking my ear off this morning about how precious it was when the littlest one was too scared to sleep by himself and crawled into the bed of the biggest kid.”
“I wasn’t scared! I only did that because I had a stupid nightmare!”
Those indignantly chirped words slipped out of Scott quite without him meaning them to, the boy gulping and glowing red as the outburst earned himself the smirking attention of the bemused young men.
“Oh, did the poor widdle guy have a bad dream?” Brunette snickered. “That doesn’t sound very grown up to me. Did getting turned into a kid make you a wussy, too?”
“Don’t be mean, bro, you’re embarrassing him.” Blonde lavished condescending praise on Scott as he patted the mortified boy on the head. “Oh my God, just look at him blush! He’s so friggin’ cute! You’re telling me this adorable little dude used to be a grown man?”
Scott could do nothing but stew in abject humiliation as the snickering teens poked fun at him, feeling smaller than ever at being dwarfed and teased by a pair of jerk kids who were still in diapers when he became a federal agent. In that moment, however, he could take little solace from his actual age and his experience in dealing with individuals far meaner than these two morons. It wasn’t until now that Scott realized how completely he’d slipped into the role of a small child, so much so that he was now paralyzed by the fear, anger and shame that a genuine eight-year-old would feel when being bullied by bigger boys. It wasn’t until Kai stepped up – until he silently slapped Blonde’s hand away – that Scott felt himself freed from the spell, awed by the audacity of the twelve-year-old as he glared up defiantly at the stunned teens.
“He’s more of a man than either of you will ever be.” Kai hissed. “Now apologize.”
For a horrible moment, nobody said anything – though the darkening expressions of the young men suggested that Kai would pay for his impudence. To his and Scott’s surprise, though, the tension broke when Blonde and Brunette busted up laughing, the pair eyeing the boys with new respect as they regained their composure.
“Nope, no actual kid would ever have the balls to talk to me like that.” Brunette declared. “You’re right, squirt, we were both being assholes. I’m sorry. Seriously. Can I make it up to you with my number?”
“Sure!” Kai piped, beaming at having won the pair over. “Just – ”
“NEXT UP, GET IN POSITION!” The lifeguard suddenly bellowed. “KEEP THE LINE MOVING!”
“Oh – hold on one sec.” Kai took a seat at the crown of the slide and waited for the signal to take off. “Okay, go ahead!”
It wasn’t as though Scott made a conscious decision once Brunette began reciting his digits. If anything, he felt as though he were watching the scene from a distance as he stiffly placed his small hands on Kai’s sunkissed shoulders. The older boy gave the younger a curious look, opening his mouth to ask Scott what he was doing – only to instead release a high, shocked cry when the eight-year-old shoved him down the slide. Kai’s scream of surprise trailed off as Scott blinked and took a step back from the scene of the crime, trembling and wide-eyed as he realized what he’d done.
“Bro, what was that for?” Blonde frowned. “Did you seriously not want him to get the number?”
“I…I…” Scott stammered, paling beneath the teens’ disapproving stares. “It was…it was an accident…I didn’t mean to…”
“Yeah right.” Brunette snorted. “I saw how jealous you got when we were being nice to your friend, and even if I didn’t we all saw the way you clung to him while you guys were climbing up here. I hope you’ve got a better poker face as a grownup, dude, because right now everyone can tell how bad you’ve got it for that kid.”
“It’s not like that!” Scott squealed as park patrons within earshot giggled and murmured to one another, which to his panicked preteen mind only confirmed that everyone had seen him crushing head over heels on Kai. “We just met yesterday, we don’t even know each other!”
“Well, you can explain that to him yourself once you climb back down.” The lifeguard impatiently butted in. “Because rulebreakers aren’t allowed on the slides, and you just put your hands on another guest without his permission. Go on, get out of here.”
Scott was consumed by his shame as he hung his head, clenched his fists and dejectedly went back down the stairs. Though couldn’t see the faces of those he passed, his adorably oversized ears picked up their whispers just fine and burned crimson at the disgusted words those passersby had for such a traitorous child. It wasn’t until his small bare feet were back on the concrete that Scott felt he could breathe again, though his scrawny chest seized up once more when he looked across the slide’s splash pool and saw his co-contestants on the other side. Ernesto and Jackson had returned from whatever they had been doing to meet up with Kai, who wore a solemn look on his face as he spoke with the pair. That solemnity turned to fury when Kai noticed that Scott was quietly and hesitantly approaching the trio. All three boys, in fact, looked distinctly unamused by the repentant eight-year-old shivering beneath their hard, appraising eyes.
“IT’S BEEN A WONDERFUL DAY AT THE WATERPARK, HASN’T IT BOYS AND GIRLS?” Barrie’s voice boomed over the loudspeakers before Scott could say a word. “BUT AS MUCH FUN AS WE’VE HAD, THE BEST IS YET TO COME! WE’VE GOT A TREAT FOR EVERYONE WHO’S STUCK AROUND ‘TIL CLOSING TIME – HEAD TO THE STAGE AT THE FRONT OF THE PARK FOR A SHOW YOU’LL NEVER FORGET!”
The intrigued crowds dutifully began moving that way while the silent quartet remained frozen in place a moment longer. Though it wasn’t hard to guess what would be on show, all four boys seemed surprised that the consequences Kai faced couldn’t wait until they got home – especially Scott, who found his voice as he cautiously drew closer to the scowling twelve-year-old.
“Kai, I – ”
“Don’t talk to me.”
The spat words were like daggers for how deeply they plunged into Scott’s soul, resonating hollowly within the eight-year-old as Kai turned and followed the crowds without another word. Though Jackson caught up with Kai and tried to raise his spirits, Ernesto hung back – offering Scott a sly grin and a fist to bump.
“That was some vicious gamesmanship, hermano. Maybe I was wrong – maybe you’ve got what it takes to win after all.”
Scott simply stared at the dirty player until Ernesto shrugged and skedaddled after the other two, leaving the shamed and shrunken spy alone with his disgrace. A second passed before he forced himself to follow his fellow contestants, determined not to let his cowardice get the best of him again. It was Scott’s fault that Kai was being punished – the least he could do was be there to support the boy he’d grown so infatuated with, who’d defended Scott from those teasing teens only to get stabbed in the back as thanks. As he approached the entrance to the park, Scott could see the few hundred people that remained crowding around a clamshell stage that the other three boys stood shoulder to shoulder in the center of. The eight-year-old hastily scampered onto the stage and took position beside Kai, who refused to so much as look Scott’s way.
“HEY HEY HEY! DO WE HAVE ANY FANS OF NO GIRLS ALLOWED OUT THERE?” A respectable response in the affirmative from the crowd. “THAT’S AWESOME! AS LOYAL VIEWERS, YOU’RE WELL AWARE THAT, SO FAR, ALL OF THE SHOW’S REGRESSIONS HAVE OCCURRED WITHIN THE BOY’S HOUSE. THAT’S ABOUT TO CHANGE, BAY-BEE! KAI, WOULD YOU BE SO KIND AS TO STEP FORWARD?”
Scott’s heart broke all over again when Kai was stoic in the face of what he was about to endure, thinking that he’d gladly suffer a one-way trip back to Pampers if it would spare his friend the indignity of a public regression. For a moment, Scott even considered piping up to offer himself as a victim in Kai’s stead. The sober, cold thinking of his grown-up self was now fully back in control, however, and the dedicated agent knew that his mission would become nigh impossible to complete should he go through with such a grand sacrifice. As much as he wanted to atone for what he’d done, Scott’s first priority always had to be the lives of those who could be saved by the technology he and Kai had agreed to steal together. Scott wanted to believe that would still be possible.
“OUR LITTLE FRIEND KAI HAS HAD A ROUGH GO OF IT…” Barrie started, syrupy tone dripping with mock sympathy for the twelve-year-old with the stiff upper lip. “POOR KID SPENT THE WHOLE DAY RUNNING HIMSELF RAGGED, TRYING TO GET A NUMBER WITH NO LUCK. THEN, JUST WHEN IT SEEMED HE’D WON THE CHALLENGE AT THE BUZZER, HIS SUPPOSED FRIEND SCOTT BETRAYED HIM OUT OF NOWHERE!”
Scott squirmed where he stood as a chorus of boos rang out from the audience.
“DON’T BE TOO HARSH ON THE BOY, YOU CAN’T LET SOMETHING AS SILLY AS FRIENDSHIP GET IN THE WAY OF VICTORY!” Barrie lectured. “IN ANY CASE, IT’LL BE UP TO KAI TO GET REVENGE ON SCOTT FOR WHAT HE DID – BUT THAT’LL BE EASIER SAID THAN DONE WHEN THEY’RE THE SAME AGE!”
The words had hardly been spoken when Kai’s posture suddenly relaxed, steely eyes softening as he was overtaken by the now-familiar calm that heralded his next regression. He began shrinking while gasps and cries rose from a crowd that was otherwise stunned into silence, as the dwindling preteen grew younger and younger before their very eyes. Scott was every bit as fascinated by the rounding of Kai’s chin and the puffing of his cheeks, by his limbs losing what muscle they had left as they retreated into their joints, by his tummy plumping with a thin, wobbly layer of stubborn baby fat. Though Kai had become adorably chubby, he had also grown far too small for his swimsuit to maintain their purchase on his stout hips. The floral print shorts slithered their way down his little legs and puddled around his tiny bare feet just as the regression drew to a close, as Kai blinked himself back into cognizance. He was only dimly aware of the squeals and catcalls that rose from the audience as his eyes fell, as he realized that his impossibly childish eight-year-old form was completely bare before the crowd and the world at large.