"Maybe the book has a real centaur spell," said Josh.
"Maybe... but this is pretty cool. He's sort of like a centaur but he can still fit in his office at school. And if I made him a real centaur his hooves would probably mess up the linoleum and Mom would get mad and wouldn't let him come over anymore."
"That's true... hey, try the spell on me!"
"What? I thought you didn't want to get transformed."
"I didn't know how cool it would be. Please?"
"Well, okay. You asked for it." Ric picked up the book and read the spell again, concentrating on Josh this time.
"Whoa!" yelled Josh, as he suddenly shot up a foot in height, much taller than Ric now. Ric saw he wasn't just taller either, he looked like one of the eighth-grade athletes at their school that had just graduated before the summer. Josh had been a late bloomer, now he looked bigger, taller, and older than Ric! Ric was a little jealous.
"Whoops!" exclaimed Josh, as he did that almost-falling-backwards thing that Mr. Mendes had done. He looked behind himself and laughed. There were his new legs! The back of his shorts had been pushed down to give them room to grow out, and his hind was bare like Mr. Mendes's had been. He giggled and spanked himself, shouting, "Giddyup!"
Ric watched as his newly transformed brother galloped in circles around him, giggling. Soon Ric was giggling too, trying to catch him. They ran in circles around Mr. Mendes's living room, until Ric finally caught up to Josh and jumped on to his back, grabbing his shoulders.
"Hiyo, Silver!" Ric shouted.
Josh neighed and reared up on his hind legs, and both boys started laughing. Josh kept trying to buck Ric off, but Ric held on tight. Soon Josh was laughing too hard to try to buck Ric off anymore.
Eventually Ric slid himself back off Josh, and Josh suddenly became really quiet.
"Um, Ric?"
"Yeah?"
"Why do I remember having two legs and Mr. Mendes doesn't?"
"I dunno, I guess it's because you asked to be transformed."
"Oh." Josh looked back at his bare butt. "What are Mr. Mendes and me going to do about clothes?"
Ric could see his brother was starting to look worried, so he quickly picked up the book and started rifling through it.