You stare into the mirror. At last, you realize what has changed...or rather, is changing. It's happening very slowly, but it's progressed far enough that you can see without a doubt. Your overall appearance is changing. Your hair is growing longer. Your facial features, already softened by your transformation into a girl, are gaining a subtle amount of makeup.
"What's happening?" you ask. "I thought I was finished changing into a girl."
"Changing into a girl?" the woman responds. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, my hair just started growing. Is it supposed to do that?" You look away from your altered reflection to directly face the store clerk. She's looking at you with a confused expression. "Just look. My hair is growing." You grab a handful of it and tug, just to make sure you're getting your point across. It's several inches long now, more than enough to grasp easily. "And what's with the makeup?"
The woman's mouth hangs open and she slowly shakes her head. "I don't see what you're talking about."
"It's growing very slowly, but it's growing! Can't you see this?" You feel something pinching your ears. "Ow!" You instinctively cover them with your hands. You feel something small and metal touching them. You turn back to the mirror and slowly remove your hands. A pair of crystal teardrop earrings hang from your earlobes. What's more, your hair hasn't finished growing and you can plainly see blush, eye shadow, and red lipstick have fully emerged on your face.
You turn back to the woman. "Tell me you didn't see that! I have earrings now, and my hair is like, a foot long!"
"You've been wearing earrings this whole time," the woman says in a stable voice that sounds like she's taking great pains not to call you a lunatic. "Are you feeling okay?"
"What's going on?" you ask her. "Can't you tell that I'm changing? Can't you make it stop?"
"Calm down, Lilly. You're starting to scare me."
She's getting scared? You're the one having the crisis. Without explanation, you're changing to look more like a girl. It all started with...the shoes! You quickly sit down on the bench and go for one of the buckles. Something's wrong. It won't open, as if it's been glued shut.
"It's stuck! Please, help me get these off!"
The woman doesn't protest. At least she recognizes that you're in distress. She gets down on her knees and tries to undo the buckles. Failing that, she tries to pull the shoe right off your foot. It doesn't come off. It doesn't even slip. She pulls harder and you yelp in a high-pitched voice as it feels like your foot is going to pop right off.
"Sorry," she says. She lets go of the shoe.
"Why won't they come off?"
"They've been cursed."
"Why would they be cursed?!" You decide to check your other garments, just in case. You can't pull up the vest. You can't unbutton the blouse or unzip the skirt. You can't even remove the earrings, or the necklace that's appeared around your neck. Gone from your mind is the keen interest of becoming female and experiencing a day of your life as one. That fascination has been replaced by fear of what has transpired. What has trapped you in these clothes? How could they be removed?
"This doesn't make any sense. We get our costumes from non-magical businesses. We screen inventory for curses daily."
"Get these off me!" You can't control the panic in your voice.
"We will, Lilly. I promise we will. We just have to figure out what kind of curse this is."
"It's the kind that gives me the appearance of a girl and traps me in a girl's school uniform! Can't you reverse something like that?" You pause for a second. "You just called me Lilly." You remember that she called you Lilly not once, but twice now. You can't understand why you didn't pick up on it sooner.
"Yeah," the woman said, not following.
"That's not my name...," you pause again. Strange as it seems, you feel a vague familiarity with the name. As if it truly is the name you've lived by all these years. But an even stronger feeling within you assures you it's not. "My name's not Lilly," you say with conviction, forcing yourself to believe it.
"Yes it is," the woman says.
"It's not! My name is..."
You freeze. You dig through your brain, trying to find the one memory that will preserve your identity...but it's not there. You look back into the mirror, hoping the image of yourself can somehow remind you. A pretty young girl around the age of 16 gazes at you with searching eyes. She has soft, waist-length brown hair and a beautiful face.
"I can't remember my name."
The woman stares at you with a pitying expression.
"Why can't I remember my name?!" You grab her arms and shake her, as if the answers could be wrenched loose from her lips that way. "What's happening to me?!"
"Calm down! Just calm down!" the woman says, grabbing you and trying to hold you still. "I don't know what happened, but we're going to figure it out. Just be still and tell me exactly what you think is wrong."
You describe in detail the changes you went through, starting with the costume, which the woman should have already known, but somehow didn't. Then you explain the changes of the past few moments.
"So you think that you were a boy when you came in, then changed into a girl?"
"Yeah. You saw me come in. We spoke. Until I put these shoes on, you acted totally normal."
The woman looks concerned. More concerned than before. You think you're finally starting to convince her.
"I'm about to tell you some facts. At least, facts that are completely true as far as I believe," she says. "My name is Rose. Your name is Lilly. You're my younger sister. We've always been sisters. You came in here looking for new school shoes, and put on this uniform costume to see how they would match. You haven't transformed at all today."
"No," you say and shake your head. You have no memory of this woman being your sister...but what's worse, you have no memory of what you really look like, or who your real family is. Any information regarding your identity is gone from your mind. If only you had a picture or something...something tangible that couldn't be forgotten.
Of course. Your clothes in the changing room. Your wallet! You jump off the bench. "I'm a boy, and I can prove it!" You break out into a run toward the changing rooms.