Mary greedily gulped down the vial's contents. Excitement welled up inside of her as she felt the change begin.
However, she wasn't growing bigger. Not at all. She had shrunk again!
It was only a couple of inches, but it made a noticeable difference to Mary. She looked back at the vial, not understanding what went wrong. Then she saw a corner of its label was coming off. She pulled it off with a paw and discovered another label underneath.
"Age 7." She had been tricked! Jess had changed the labels to teach Mary a lesson. "Oh nooowwrr..." the cat-girl sobbed. She sat there, wailing from the fridge until her voice gave out.
Jess came home an hour later with a bag of clothes. She saw Mary, young and small, watching cartoons. She checked the kitchen and saw the empty vial, still uncorked, laying on top of it.
"Ah-ha! I see you still have a lot to learn, Mary," she called. "Come over here, Mommy's got your new outfit!"
Mary slowly approached her "Mommy" with a low head, her hands behind her back.
"This wouldn't have happened if you had done what I said," Jess lectured. "It's a good thing I thought ahead and got you even smaller clothes. These normally go on four-year-olds, but I think you'll fit them just fine the way you are."
Mary put on pink underwear with little rainbows on them. Then she was helped into her new skirt. It was knee-length, with a layer of frills. The outer layer was light blue with a white stripe lining the bottom. She put on white socks and pink shoes with little red hearts on the sides. Mary fumbled with the laces, but Jess helped her tie them, demonstrating how to make the right loops and knots. Then Jess put a tee-shrirt over her head. It was white with light blue around the collar and ends of the sleeves. A picture of a black cat was sewn into the front. Then Jess clipped a blue bow to the short blond hair behind her right ear.
"Blue goes with orange," she explained, noting Mary's orange fur. The cat-girl meowed.
"All right, now let's have some lunch." Jess lead Mary into the kitchen.