Jess looked at the young cat-girl, who was pouting at her large friend. She thought Mary looked incredibly cute, and certainly enjoyed the prospect of teasing her for a day. "This'll make up for that time she stole my boyfriend." That boyfriend later turned out to be gay, but it didn't matter. Principles were principles, after all, and it was about time Mary was on the receiving end of some tough love.
She picked out the vial with "Age 9" marked on it. "Okay, Mary, drink this and you won't be a ten-year-old anymore."
The girl snatched it out of Jess' hand, leaving claw marks on her palm. "Ouch!" Jess shook her hand to get rid of the feeling, and was glad to notice Mary's claws hadn't broken the skin.
Mary gulped down the vial, gasping for breath after she was finished. Then she slowly started shrinking again.
"What?" she stammered. Her ankle-length shirt lowered to touch the floor as she lost a small amount of height. "Wha happened?" she mewed, confused.
"I changed you to a nine-year-old," Jess lectured, "Because you were behaving like a child. Now give me the vial."
Mary sadly looked up at Jess, clutching the empty glass in both hands. "GIVE." Jess said sternly, and Mary lifted it up so she could take it.
"Now, we're going back to my place where I'll teach you how to behave properly. If you ever want to be 25 again, you'll have to learn to act like it first."
"But I mrrrwanna stay herrrr," Mary said meekly. She was having even more trouble keeping the cat out of her voice now.
"Come on, child," Jess insisted, grabbing Mary's paw. She took up the box of vials in her other arm and lead Mary out the door.
In Jess' car, Mary was safely fastened into the back seat. Jess activated the child lock and closed the door. While Mary struggled with the door handle, Jess got in the driver's seat and turned on the ignition. "Settle down back there, or you'll be age 8 by the time we get home."
"But I aaammrow home..." she fussed. She became silent after Jess gave her a stern look through the rear-view mirror.
* * *
Once they had arrived at Jess' house, she let Mary out of the back seat. Mary bolted out of the car trying to squeeze past her, but Jess caught her by the collar of her baggy shirt. Mary easily slipped out of it, but didn't get very far. Now Jess had her by the tail, and she began to pull Mary into the house.
Mary shrieked a strange sound between a child's wail and a cat's anguished meow. "Come!" Jess commanded, but Mary continued to resist. "Come!" Jess picked up the flailing cat-girl and finally brought her inside.
She plopped Mary on the couch and forced the shirt back over her tiny body. "BAD GIRL," she said coldly. "Not only did you ignore my commands, you made a scene! Naked and everything! It's a good thing nobody was around to see you. What would they have thought?"
It was probably the combination of Jess' loud, commanding voice and Mary's young brain, but Mary couldn't help but feel like she had truly been a bad girl, even though she realized Jess was the one that had done this to her. She quietly sat there, ears tucked against her head as Jess lectured on.
"Take it," she said, holding out the Age 8 vial. Mary didn't move. "TAKE IT."
Mary silently took the vial in her paw, slowly drinking the potion. Every gulp made her feel as if the world was ending.
Once her body had shrunk again, Jess took the vial back. "Thank you. Now, up. Let's get you measured. We can't have you walking around in that ridiculous shirt. It's practically a gown." She lead eight-year-old Mary to a desk, where Jess produced a ruler. "Well, now. Exactly two feet. You're smaller than other girls your age because you're more kitten, of course, so I'll need to find clothes for toddlers to fit you. Now..."
Jess took Mary back to the couch and turned on the television. "I'm going out for a while to get your new clothes. Stay right here while I'm gone. If you do, I'll give you the Age 10 vial again as your reward." The television was a helpful distraction, as Mary's young mind was most entranced by it. The local station was showing one of their puppet educational shows.
Jess took the box of vials with her, but had a nasty little thought as she prepared to leave. "Now, Mary, if you stay put and behave all day, I just might give you this." She showed the cat-girl the vial labeled "Age 25," pausing to give Mary enough time to read it. "I'm taking the other vials with me, but I'm putting this up on top of the refrigerator so that you can't reach it. Remember, be good!"
With that, Jess closed the door behind her. Mary waited until Jess' car was so far away even her cat ears couldn't detect it, then pounced off the sofa. She ran into the kitchen, wondering how she was going to get up to the top of the fridge.
She pulled a chair close to the counter and climbed up. Now she still needed to climb almost four feet of the fridge's flat plastic casing with no place to grab onto. She clambered out of her shirt so she wouldn't be bogged down, then mustered all her strength.
With a powerful push from her feline hind legs, she leapt up high. She grabbed the top edge of the refrigerator with her claws, sinking them deep into the material. She clawed at the side with her hind paws, slowly gaining altitude, until she finally pulled her entire body up. There sat the vial, the number on the label still recognizable to Mary's diminished intelligence. "25." She was going to be back to normal!