Maggie May hated her life. She was twenty years old, still living with her father and her idiotic step-mother and on top of that she had a step-brother who at the age of ten was a complete and utter brat.
It was Saturday and that meant only one thing for her, two day rest from the Temp. Agency she worked at. Her latest job had been at a Golf Range, mostly cleaning. Her job was to make sure the Pro Shop, the showers, lockers and bathrooms were kept clean. On the one instance they had let her clean something else, a shed out on the edge of the driving range, she had found something half buried in a sand trap.
It was what appeared to be a copper amulet with the word Zulo printed on it. Pocketing the medallion, figuring she would turn it into lost and found later, Maggie continued on with her duties.
Only she had forgotten to turn it in and now the Amulet of Zulo, she'd figured that this might be a suitable name for the medallion until she could figure out what it really was, was hung up along with the rest of her jewelry. Outside she could hear Alex running and down the hallway. Wishing her life could be better, wishing her brother wasn't such a brat, wishing she had a name that didn't sound so babyish, Maggie got up.
Despite how crummy her life may have been, Maggie was really beautiful. At five foot ten, she still had a small frame that allowed her to wear the same clothes from when she was roughly fifteen. She had red hair that trailed half way down her back, pale smooth skin and eyes that her father said she got from her grandmother on her mother's side; an odd combination of bluish grey with greenish yellow specks on the right iris.
Taking off her tank top and boxers she slept in, she pulled on a fluffy white bathrobe, tied it shut and made her way to the bathroom. Out in the hallway her bother, who was playing with his favourite action figure, was yelling something about Tofurkey. Choosing to ignore him, she made her way toward the bathroom.
Closing the door tightly, she made sure it was locked, knowing full well Alex's habit of going were he pleased. Undoing her bathrobe, Maggie was about to take it off and hang it up when her reflection made her stop. Clean shaven because she'd had electrolysis on her legs and armpits, she'd had taken to shaving her privates recently. She was still flat in the stomach area and had only a B cup. Wondering why she could never get a guy to notice her, she pulled off her robe, hung it on the bathroom door and started the shower.
Half an hour later, Maggie had finished her shower. Drying herself off, she wrapped her hair up in a towel. Next she wrapped another towel tightly around her body. Listening at the door, she made sure Alex wasn't still out in the hall and collecting her bathroom, she exited back to her room.
Noticing her door was wide open, she hoped Alex hadn't been in there and had not taken anything. Maggie knew the stink Alex would make if she accused him of taking anything and how her step-mother would take his side. If that happened again, it would be a couple of weeks before she got the missing item or items back and than she would be blamed for leaving her stuff lying around the house.
Sighing heavily, Maggie closed and looked the door to her room. Dropping the towel wrapped around her body into a laundry basket, she then sat down at her vanity and prepared herself for the day.
A pair of low cut bikini briefs, a pair of tight button fly pants that accented her figure, along with a short sleeve shirt and bra. The bra would also make her look about one cup size bigger. Selecting a pair of pleasant smelling perfume and a set of small hoop earrings, she than headed for the kitchen for breakfast afterward.
Part of the agreement for her living with her step-mother and father, she was told she had to provide her own groceries and pay an eighth of the electric bill. Collecting a bowel, spoon, some cereal and milk, Maggie had just sat down when her brother came running in some of her clothes.
Or more correctly, a costume she had not worn since she was about six. It was something her mother had made for her; a one piece dress that was supposed to be a fox girl. There was a tail that poked out of the back of the dress and if tide properly would line up with the base of the spin. There were ears that poked out of a hood that attached to a cloak sewn to the neck of the shirt part of the dress. All in all the costume had three ties that needed to be tide before it could be worn; one for the tail, one for the cloak and one around the waist.
She was very attached to it, seeing as it was one of the few items father hadn't thrown away. It was costume her mother had put a lot of love and care in and supposedly gone to great lengths to get the pieces for the tail and ears. From what she had been told, mom had made them from real fox fur. Looking at her brother Maggie said, "Take it off, please."
"No," screeched Alex, "I'm a beautiful fox princess."
"You’re not a princess, now take it off." Maggie countered as her step-mother walked into the dining room.
Before Alex could reply, his mother said, "Oh let him play with it. You never use it anymore. All it does is sit in your closet and collect dust. Is it so difficult to share with your brother?"
Getting a hurt look Maggie May said, "It was something my mother gave me."
"And now it's time you let it go. Your mother is dead and it's time you grew up and get used to that idea." Her step-mother replied to this.
"Fine, Judy!" Maggie huffed and began to eat her breakfast.
"There, now that wasn't so hard, was it?" Her step-mom said in a tone that suggested she was talking to a disobedient child. “Oh, and don’t call me Judy.”
As she disappeared into the kitchen attached to the dining room, Alex stuck his tongue out at his sister and said, "I'm a fox princess that has been banished from her castle and will be raised by a blacksmith." and promptly went running from the room.
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Having finished her breakfast, she quickly left to go down to the library to see if she could find something online that would lead her to a better job. That, oh maybe she could even find information on the local colleges.
After wasting an hour online, she then perused the library stacks in the nonfiction section for anything she felt could be helpful. After spending over half the day there, she returned home.
Home, she found her brother sitting in the living room, still wearing the costume and beating on several items with her dad's ball-peen hammer. Looking at him strangely, Maggie watched as he picked up the Amulet of Zulo and began beating on it with the hammer.
This was too much for her, she marched into the room and was just about to take the medallion away from him and demanded her costume back, when a bright blue flash that reminded her of a light bulb popping, emitted from the amulet. Dropping the hammer, Alex ran crying from the room. Walking the rest of the way across the room, Maggie picked up the Amulet of Zulo, noted a large crack running down the center and quickly exited to her room.
Hanging the medallion up, mentally kicking herself for not locking her room, she went and locked the door and than laid down on her bed.
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She awoke with a start and looking at the alarm clock noted that it was eight o'clock. Exiting the house she noted that the house was quiet and walked to the kitchen to find something to eat. After dinner Maggie sat and watched the telly for until about nine thirty. She had just gone to her room when she remembered the costume.
Creeping into Alex's room, she found that her brother had left the costume lying on the floor. Collecting it, she returned to her room and started to get ready for bed.
Dressing in another tank top and boxers, she had just laid down when she heard the front door slam and her brother running through the house screaming about not wanting to take a bath. Choosing to ignore all this she made sure her door was locked climbed beneath the covers.
She dreamed that night about her mother and waking with a start, wondered why. Her mother had died when she was eight years old. About a year later, dad had married Judy and shortly after her tenth birthday they had Alex. She lay there, not wanting to get up. Looking at the alarm clock, she noted the time was about eight thirty.
Knowing Judy, dad and Alex had gone to church and wouldn't be back until after twelve, she chose instead to get up and have a shower followed by breakfast.
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The rest of the family returned about one and Maggie would have been glad to ignore them except for a few things that caught her attention. One had to do with Judy and how her step-mom asked Maggie to help clean. But that wasn't what really took the cake. What got the most attention from her was Alex.
Usually she chose to ignore her brother, but today she noticed something different. Mainly it was the fact that he looked younger than ten and the fact that he now had a pair of ears sticking up through his red hair. Out of the seat of his pants was a red tail with a white tip at the very edge. And the strange thing was, not Judy or her father noticed anything different.
They acted like this was normal and so instead of commenting on it, Maggie just decided to ignore it and help clean.
Helping Judy clean meant that Maggie had to do all the work, while her step-mother sat around watching the telly and drinking a margarita. After about six hours of this, Maggie was excused to get something to eat and than she had to continue until about ten thirty.
Stripping naked, not even caring about her usual pajamas, Maggie fell exhausted onto the bed and was asleep in only a matter of minutes.
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Monday dawned and except for the fact that Alex looked more like a six year old girl with a fox tail and ears, nothing much happened in the morning. The Temp. Agency said that they had no work and would call when they did.
And so after a shower and breakfast, Maggie announced that she was going to the library. Making sure her bedroom door was locked, she headed out.
In truth, she was going to the library to see if she could find anything on the Amulet of Zulo and if there was a connection between it and her brother’s odd transformation. She was just passing two strange looking woman, one in a pair of blue overalls, when she stopped as she heard there conversation.
The older one was saying something about the Amulet of Zulo. But before she could inquire, the older one, she looked about fifteen, took off across the street, followed shortly by the younger one, who looked about nine.
Weighing her options, she decided to follow these two and entered Malarkey's Uniform Plus.