Samantha was sure she knew her way to Trish's house from the cafe, but they had traveled far since then. It didn't help that everything looked so much bigger, so much more confusing from her perspective.
"Okay, we can follow this street, and that should take us back to the road the cafe is on," she thought aloud. She had to talk to herself, or else the strange sensations of her transformation would distract her train of thought. Not only were her ears feeling odd, but a numbness had manifested just above her butt.
They walked two blocks and stopped. "Are you sure this is the right way?" Tricia teased.
"Oh be quiet, 'sis,'" Sam mocked. "You're just saying that to confuse me." The truth was, Sam wasn't sure if this was the proper street or not. She tried to peer into the distance to locate the cafe, but from her angle she couldn't pinpoint it. There were too many people and cars in the way. She wasn't sure whether to turn left or right.
She decided to turn right, and continued down the block. She caught a glimpse of herself in a store window, and was startled to see the extent to which her ears had already changed. They were gigantic, pointing up out of her hair like an animal's.
"Don't stop now," Tricia said. "Unless you want to walk on all fours by the time we get home."
"Yeah, you'd love to see that," Sam thought to herself. They continued onward. Sam's fingers started to hurt, but she tried her best to ignore them as she continued to look for familiar landmarks. Finally she spotted the cafe across the street.
That was both a good and a bad thing, though. At least she now had her bearings, but from where they were, they'd have to go back in the opposite direction to find the road Trish's apartment was on.
"Back this way," Samantha said, determinedly. She grabbed Tricia's hand to lead her, but when she clutched it, Tricia yelped.
"Ouch, careful with those claws!" Tricia warned.
"Claws?" Samantha wondered. She finally looked at her hands, and found they had changed considerably. There were only four fingers on each, and thick paw pads were forming on her palms. Her nails had grown into sharp claws.
"Sorry," Sam apologized before grabbing Tricia's hand again and pulling her down the street at a faster pace. Her platform shoes clopped underneath her as she sped up, entering a crosswalk.
"Geez!" she heard Tricia cry out before Sam was lifted off the ground and pulled backward. A car raced by just a foot from her, honking its horn loudly.
Tricia put Sam down and looked her over frantically. "Are you all right? I can't believe you did that!"
Sam was still shaken up from the experience. Even her tail's fur had gotten frizzled. Wait a minute...
"A tail?!" Sam grabbed the puffy orange tail in both of her paws and beheld its sight incredulously. She stroked its bushy fur into a straighter arrangement. It felt unusually pleasant. The tail was mostly covered in thick orange fur, but it was tipped in white, like a fox's tail. "So that's what I'm becoming. A fox."
Tricia was still wide-eyed from Sam's brush with death. At the sound of her voice she blinked several times and shook her head. "Yeah, yeah, you're going to be a fox. Are you really okay? You didn't even notice when you walked into the street that the light was still green!"
"I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking."
"I'm the one who's sorry. This game is turning out to be a little too dangerous. I'm definitely not going to let you get killed over it." She pulled the remote out and zapped Samantha once more to stop Samantha's changes.
The two girls collected themselves on a bench. Sam could see her reflection in the window across the sidewalk quite plainly. She had two large, orange fox ears that were tipped in black fur. She also had her little, meaty paws with their black fur, claws and pads. She guessed from wiggling what felt like only six toes instead of ten that her feet had changed as well. Under her shirt sleeves she had black fur that changed to orange near the elbow. Her face now had a black nose and a light coating of orange and white fur. Her fox tail had grown though a hole that had magically formed in the back of her skirt, and she flicked it testily.
"This tail is freaking me out," Samantha said after a contemplative silence.
"It looks good on you, though."
"Don't blame yourself for my accident. I shouldn't have been rushing like a kid. I know better."
"I started all this. I made that bet with you. I just wanted us to have fun."
"Then let's have some fun," Samantha said. "That remote is unbelievable, but we've only scratched the surface. Besides, I think it's about time you started zapping yourself for a change."
Tricia glanced down at Sam with a proud smile. "Then let's get to it, 'little sis.' The day is far from over!"