"Oh," Mark said with a sigh. "Okay, so nobody here has actually seen Jennifer, right? So I’ll just change into a different girl and call myself Jennifer. We’ll just touch this to one of those new outfits."
"Yeah, I suppose it would make you the female version of yourself," Anna guessed. "Actually, that would be fun to see. Hold on, I’ll go get a dress." Anna got up and unzipped her luggage. She took the duffel bag of clothes out, unzipped that, and pulled out a slinky burgundy gown.
Mark looked at it. "Where am I supposed to wear THAT?"
Anna held it up and grinned. "There are going to be some dances with the boys’ camp across the lake and all the girls dress up nice and fancy. That includes you."
Mark grunted. "What the fuck did I get myself into by agreeing to this crazy plan?"
Anna placed the gown on the desk near Mark. She grabbed the pendant by the ribbon and removed it from the desk lamp. "Okay, you need to touch this while it’s touching the gown. That will give you the body for this."
Mark reached out and grabbed the medallion. It was larger than his body, but he managed to awkwardly carry it to the gown. Once the medallion was over the gown, he let it drop and touch the fabric while still holding onto the medallion. Mark felt a shock. "Ow!"
"You felt a shock?" asked Anna. "Good! That means it activated."
Mark let go of the medallion and let it drop on top of the dress. He stepped back and looked at his hands for any sign of change. As he looked, he started to realize his perspective was changing and he was growing. It made sense, he figured, since the size was likely the biggest difference.
Anna watched as Mark grew larger and larger as quickly as he had shrunk this morning. His arms and legs were growing out of his furry hamster body and starting to resemble human proportions once again. When he was several feet tall, she helped him off the desk and put the gown over his head so that he wouldn’t be completely naked when the fur disappeared.
Except the fur didn’t disappear. Mark rapidly grew into the gown. His arms and legs were proportioned like a human again, he had a figure with breasts and waist which fit the gown perfectly, but everything was still covered in fur. Mark looked his arms as he questioned what went wrong. "What the hell?"
Anna stated the obvious. "Well, that’s not good. The medallion made you fit the dress, so you’ve mostly returned to human proportions, but you’re like an anthropomorphic hamster. Even your head still looks like a hamster."
Mark reached up and felt his face. "Shit. At least my voice sounds human." He held out his hands to show four fingers. "I’m still lacking opposable thumbs." He stuck out a foot. "My foot definitely looks more human-proportioned, but they seem more like hobbit feet with a big toe on each side. My nails could sure use a trim, too." He felt his butt. "I think my tail is gone, so that’s good."
Anna sighed. "There’s no way we can pass you off as human even if we shaved your fur off. Now, instead of having to hide a 3-inch tall hamster, we have to hide a 5’9" hamster girl."
"Everyone’s at the opening party, right? At least we can get around unnoticed for another hour or so. I need to find a place to hide until about 7:30am."
Anna nodded. "Okay, so first, let’s get you dressed and cover up as much of you as possible. I’ll pick out some clothes. Take that gown off."
Mark did as instructed and pulled it over his head. He stood in the middle of the room naked. He walked over to the mirror on the back of the door and took a look at himself. He really did look like some sort of anthropomorphic hamster from a cartoon come to life. His waist and legs seemed so much slimmer than he was used to. He reached up and cupped his furry breasts. "This is SO weird."
Anna walked over behind him and reached her arms around his slender waist. "At least I can finally give you a proper hug." She rubbed her face into the fur in his back. "Mmm, so soft. This isn’t so bad."
Mark turned around and faced Anna. "You really want to kiss this face?"
Anna gave him a quick smooch on the cheek and they laughed. "Okay, let’s get you dressed." Anna walked over to the duffel bag and pulled out a bra, panties, socks, T-shirt, jeans, hoodie, and sneakers. She helped Mark put on the bra and then handed him other items for him to put on himself.
Before he put on the socks, he pointed out his long nails. Anna went to her toiletries and found nail clippers and gave Mark a quick trim. "Want some nail polish on those?" she asked with a laugh.
"Maybe later," Mark answered. "Right now, let’s get me dressed and find a place for me to hide." He pulled the socks on and put on the sneakers. "These are a bit tight. My foot’s a bit wider than the sneakers, but I think they’ll do."
Anna nodded and handed Mark his phone. "Okay, here’s your phone. I also got you a purse to carry it in since you’ll soon discover a lot of women’s clothes don’t have pockets."
Mark took his phone and the purse. "Wonderful."
"When we get you changed to 'Jennifer', you should probably change that lock screen image. It’s nice that it’s a cute photo of me, but that might raise questions for Jennifer."
Mark nodded. "Good point." He held up the phone to unlock it, but nothing happened. "FaceID doesn’t work. Big surprise." He held the phone in the palm of one hand and typed in his passcode with his other. "It’s so weird trying to use this without thumbs. Texting is going to be a challenge."
Anna handed him a duffel bag. "Everything you should need at camp this summer is in this bag. More clothes, toiletries, phone charger, makeup, and some…uh…girl things which I’ll explain later when we have more time. I also put a few books in there since nobody comes to camp without some books to read in their downtime. I put in some playing cards to help pass the time. Typical summer camp stuff."
Mark took the duffel bag and put the strap over his shoulder. "Thanks. You really put a lot of thought into this."
"Yeah, well, apparently not quite enough, hamster girl." Anna reached behind Mark’s head and pulled the hood to his hoodie over his head. "Okay, you’re as covered up as we can get you."
Mark tried to think of where to hide out. "Should I go to Jennifer’s assigned room? Does she have a roommate?"
"Yeah, Abby is supposed to be Jen’s roommate. You won’t be able to hide there." Anna though for a moment. "I wonder if there’s any empty camper dorm rooms." She reached for a folder of paperwork from her desk and flipped through. There was a list of room assignments. She looked down the list. "If I can find a room that’s not assigned to anyone, that would be perfect." She handed a list to Mark. "You check the other dorm. I’ll check this one."
Mark took the list and started to examine it. "How many rooms per floor?"
"They start at 100 and go up to 112, 200 to 224, 300 to 324, and 400 to 424."
After a moment, Mark revealed, "I don’t see anyone in 213."
"There is no 13th room on any floor," Anne pointed out to Mark’s disappointment.
They stood there quietly looking over the list. Anna finally broke the silence. "Damn, I think they’re all full. They’re short on counsellors, but that means they’ve got a few with their own room instead of doubling up and leaving one empty. Even with campers, they’d apparently rather do doubles and triples than have quads and an empty room."
"Makes sense." Mark was disappointed. "So I guess dorms are out. Where else won’t there be any people until after 7:30 tomorrow morning?"
"Admin offices are out. Some people in charge might show up at 6am, particularly on the first days of camp. The canteen is also out since the breakfast crew will start long before 7:30. We also can’t get you into the main hall since people are there for the party right now and I don’t know how late some people may be there cleaning up."
"What about one of the athletic facilities?" asked Mark.
"There are lockers, showers, and bathrooms and some padding could make good bedding. I’m not sure how early people may show up. If someone goes in early to get set up, it could be really hard to find a place to hide." Anna thought about remaining options. A moment later, she snapped her fingers. "I know! Down by the beach there’s a hut where they keep the sailing gear. Nobody will be getting the sailboats out on the first morning, so you should be left alone. It’s not heated, so we’ll take an extra blanket." Anna went to her closet and took out a blanket and pillow. "Okay, we should head out before people start leaving the party."
The pair walked out of the room to the stairs. Anna held him back at the top of the stairs. "I’ll walk ahead and speak up if I see anyone to give you a chance to hide. Don’t fall too far behind."
Mark watched Anna go down the stairs and gave her a head start. He followed once she got close to the bottom and caught up to her as she held the outside door open for him.
"Okay, the coast is clear." They walked out and Anna got to the corner of the building and peeked around. "I don’t see anyone. Let’s go."
Mark looked around as they hurried across the camp. They were out in the open and the sun hadn’t set yet, so anyone who came outside would see Anna walking quickly with someone in a hoodie following about ten feet behind her. Although he was worried about being discovered in his current state, he was glad to finally be able to get out of the dorm room and get a look around. He could smell food from the canteen and pine from the trees around the camp. He found the smells quite intense and realized it was likely due to his sensitive hamster nose. He figured his large hamster ears would explain why the music from the dance seemed so loud.
Anna led Mark down a path through some trees and they emerged on a beach by the lake. Anna pointed to the left and Mark could see a small weathered gray hut. Anna retrieved a key from behind a log. "Great! They still hide the key here." She unlocked the door and they stepped inside.
Mark noticed a couple small sailboats stacked on one side and bundles of sails on the other. He walked over and patted the sails. "I suppose I can sleep on this." He put the duffel bag down on the floor.
Anna laid a blanket on the sails. "Should be comfy enough for one night."
Mark hopped up on the makeshift bed and put a pillow under his head. "Can you hang out for a bit?"
"Yeah, everyone will just assume I’m with Jennifer." Anna got a serious look on her face. "We need to figure out how to change you in the morning. Like I said, I don’t have Jennifer’s uniform, so I can’t change you into her. I also can’t change you into anyone at camp without someone raising questions about why they have a twin."
Mark pointed to the duffel bag. "Has anyone worn any of the clothes in that bag?"
"It was all new. The only thing in there that’s been worn is that gown that you wore to change into your current form. Everything else was brand new."
"None of it was from a second-hand store? …or is there something someone else might have tried on in the store?" asked Mark.
"The best chance we had for that was if someone had tried on the gown and then returned it to the rack. That obviously never happened or else you’d have become whomever that was. I’m positive the underwear has never been worn and I seriously doubt any of the shirts were tried on by anyone. I suppose someone might have tried on the jeans, but you’re wearing those now so that’s invalidated any previous wearer. Even if someone tried on one of the other dresses, we can’t waste 12 hours each trying them all. We need you to change at 7:30 in the morning or else 'Jennifer' can’t show up until at least 7:30pm tomorrow night. That would raise a number of questions I really don’t want to have to answer."
“Maybe some camp bedsheets? If someone slept on it, does that count?” asked Mark.
“It seemed to work for Nibbles and my swimsuit, but we’re still limited to people from camp. Even if the sheets haven’t been used since last year, the person who slept on them might be back. The odds of getting a counselor are also fairly low. You might end up as a 10 year-old.” Anna raised a finger. “I do have an idea though. I basically need to get something worn by someone about our age who is not at camp, so I’m going to have to leave the camp.”
“And go where?” asked Mark. “We don’t have a car here.”