Laura’s face burned as she tried to stifle her laughter. “Okay, fine. Maybe this was a little fun,” she admitted.
Kaitlin leaned back in her seat, smugly spinning her die on the tip of her finger. “Told you so. But you know, it’d be even funnier if—”
Before Laura could stop her, Kaitlin flicked the die off the armrest, sending it clattering onto the floor of the theater.
“Twenty-one years you have walked this earth. Now this number is but fifteen. Each roll of the die shall return more of what has been lost.”
Kaitlin gasped softly as the golden light surrounded her, drawing a few curious glances from other moviegoers. She shrank into her seat, stifling a giggle as the transformation completed. “Okay, maybe that was a little reckless.”
Laura shot her a sharp look but couldn’t hold back her own grin. “You think?” she whispered. “Give me that before you—”
Her own die slipped from her pocket as she reached for Kaitlin’s, tumbling onto the floor. It came to rest under the seat in front of her.
“Nineteen years you have walked this earth. Now this number is but fourteen. Each roll of the die shall return more of what has been lost.”
Laura clutched the armrest as the golden light swirled around her, eliciting a few quiet gasps from the couple seated nearby. She felt her body shrink, her clothes growing looser as her perspective subtly shifted.
Kaitlin turned to her, her widened eyes framed by a face that now looked unmistakably teenaged. “Oh my god, Laura!”
Laura gawked at her friend, noting the braces that had inexplicably reappeared on her teeth and the youthful awkwardness in her expression. “You’re one to talk! You look like you just finished sophomore year!”
“And you’re barely a freshman!” Kaitlin shot back, laughing nervously as she tugged at the oversized straps of her now ill-fitting dress.
The two exchanged panicked glances, fully aware of how out of place they suddenly looked in the theater. “Okay, we need to get out of here before anyone really notices,” Laura whispered.
“I think they already have,” Kaitlin muttered, gesturing toward a group of amused teenagers a few rows ahead who were blatantly staring at them.
Scooping up the dice and clutching their oversized bags, the two shuffled out of the theater in their ill-fitting adult clothing, faces flushed. Once outside, they ducked into a nearby photo booth to catch their breath.
“Okay,” Laura said, her voice high-pitched and cracking slightly. “This is officially too much.”
Kaitlin looked down at her hands, now smaller and free of any signs of adulthood. “You’re telling me. I look like I should be sneaking into PG-13 movies, not R-rated comedies!”
“We need to stop rolling these things,” Laura said, holding the dice tightly in her palm. “At least until we figure out what to do.”
Kaitlin gave a nervous laugh. “Yeah, well, I’d say we’re in a bit of a bind now. What’s our plan, genius?”
Laura groaned, her thoughts racing. “First, we need to find clothes that actually fit. Then, we go back to that magic shop and end this before we’re stuck wearing backpacks and riding bikes to school.”
Kaitlin hesitated before nodding. “Fine, but let’s make it quick. I don’t want to get carded buying a soda.”
With that, the two youthful women stumbled back into the mall, clutching their cursed dice and hoping to avoid further rolls—or awkward encounters.