Becca drummed both fists on Jeff's door, making it rattle in its frame. "Jeff?" she called out. "I heard what
sounded like screaming. What's going on in there?"
"Nothing," Jeff replied. "Just dropped something heavy on my toe."
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. It was just a book. I'm decent, if you want to come in."
After a pause, Jeff watched the doorknob turn, and Becca stepped in. She hadn't done her makeup, her dishwater-
blonde hair spilled loose and uncombed around her shoulders, and she was wearing a black spaghetti-strap tank
and shorts. He couldn't swear to it, but he was pretty sure she wasn't wearing a bra.
At fourteen, Becca wasn't done growing yet, but she very nearly had a woman's body. Jeff wasn't a perv or
anything, to him she would always be the noisy kid who'd interrupted him and his friends while they were
playing GI Joe; but others told him his sister was a hot piece of jailbait. And if he was honest, Jeff could
admit, mentally, they were right, even if he didn't feel attracted to his own sister.
"So what book did you drop?" Becca asked, scanning the room. "I didn't know you could read."
"Ha ha," Jeff growled, sitting on the edge of his bed. "Hey, take a seat," he said, waving a hand at his desk
chair.
Becca sat, though she peered at him through her eyebrows, like she was studying a strange insect on the wall.
Though they didn't have real knock-down-drag-out fights, Becca and Jeff had never gotten closer, as brother
and sister, than an uneasy truce. Jeff supposed she must wonder why he was being so nice.
"Hey, Becca," he said. "Do you know my friends think you're hot?"
She paused, then nodded a bit. "I suppose I do," she said. "That hairy kid Matt you always hang around with
checks me out every time he comes over. I think he wants to knock you out and carry me upstairs."
Jeff chuckled at that. "He's never put it like that, but he told me he'd love to go out with you. Would you
date him if he asked?"
Becca squinched her face. "Are you kidding? Eww! All the girls at school call him Pigpen."
"Even if I told you he has his driver's license and some money?"
"Lots of boys his age have driver's licenses, and some even have money. Body odor is a deal-breaker."
"Are there any boys you'd like to date?"
"I've given it some thought, sure," Becca said, easing back in the chair and crossing her long legs. "But the
boys who are brave enough to ask me are cavemen, and any boy I have to ask out is too big a wuss to get me."
Jeff slid off the edge of his bed and sat cross-legged on the floor, looking up at his little sister. She had
B-cups and a 29-inch waist, if he had to guess. Slim, but shapely. "If I were as young and pretty as you," he
said, "I'd date lots. I'd date boys who asked me, and boys I had to ask, and I'd date girls too, just to say
I dated as many people as possible."
"Whoa, Jeff, are you asking me out? Because even apart from the brother-sister thing, you're really not my
type."
"Oh, no no no," Jeff said, waving his hands like he was trying to chase off a mosquito. "You're not my type
either, Becca. I'm just wondering, you know, what it's like to be a girl, and to be beautiful, and receive all
kinds of attention, just for looking how you look."
Becca smiled, but it was a thin smile, like she wasn't completely comfortable discussing her looks with her
brother. "It's not as great as you think. I mean, it's nice sometimes when a boy buys me a soda or takes a
heavy load off my shoulders. But it's all the time. I mean, you can't shut it off. I see thirty-year-old men
undressing me with their eyes, and checkers in grocery stores, and everybody. I'm pretty sure my English
teacher, Mister Munroe, has fantasies about me."
"Is it really that bad? Being pretty?"
"No, it's not all the time. But you can't really understand."
"I want to understand."
"You can't, Jeff, because you're a boy, and you always will be."
"No, see, that's where you're wrong. I've become something new, Becca, and I want... I want to understand you
better. I want to understand what it's like being a girl. Specifically, I want to understand what it's like to
be you."
With that, Jeff turned his gaze away, and started calculating.
"You know what I'll never understand," Becca asked. "You. You're such a weirdo. You're handsome and all, but
you just do weird stuff that drives girls away, like talking the way you just did. Maybe you deserve to never
understand girls."
Becca rose from the chair, but squeaked with sudden alarm. "I can't move my feet."
"That's because I've locked your ankles and knees," Jeff said. "I want you to be right here. Because we're
both about to understand what we never thought we would."
Becca tried to respond, but could only mention a scared, girly squeal.
Jeff rose and crossed to stand before his little sister. She was nearly a foot shorter than him. He put his
hands on her shoulders. "Becca," he said. "I've just programmed it so that you and I will swap bodies."
"Programmed... programmed what?"
"Never you mind," he said. "Just understand, our minds will transport outside our bodies for just a second,
then transfer straight across. I'll become you, and you'll become me. I've also programmed it so that we'll
have the knowledge to live each other's lives. Like, I'll know how to put on a bra, and we'll know each
other's class schedules. Don't worry, I've written the programming narrowly so we won't know each other's
embarrassing secrets, just how to pass in our lives."
"I don't want to be you, Jeff."
"But I want to be you, Becca, and I have the power to make my wants a reality. Just to avoid confusion, your
boy name will be Benny, and my girl name will be Jen, but other than that, everything will be just like it was
before, except you'll be the big brother, and I'll be the little sister."
"Don't do this, Jeff."
"You mean Jen."
"Whatever. Don't do this. I don't want to be a boy, and I don't want to live your life. I just want to be me."
"Too late, Benny, I've already programmed it. The only thing left is for me to give the command. I only wanted
to tell you this because you are my baby sister, and I thought you deserved some warning. Are you ready?"
"Please, Jeff. Don't do this."
"Jen. And it's done. Activate."
There were no sci-fi special effects, no swirly lights, no thunder and lightning. Brother and sister just went
blind for half a second, and when their vision returned, Jen looked up at her towering brother, Benny.
Jen jumped up, clapping her hands. "It worked," she said, jumping a couple more times. Then she put her hands on her chest, stilling her jiggling breasts. "Wow, that feels weird."
"Then give my body back to me," Benny said, tears rolling down his cheeks. "If it feels weird, if you don't
like it, then let me be me, and you go back to being you."
"Sorry, Benny. I want to try life as a girl, and my own sister is the perfect girl to be. But listen, I put a safeguard in. We'll revert back to ourselves in seven days, unless I give the emergency command to make the
change permanent. Come on, you get a driver's license out of it, don't you? And Mister Munroe will stare at
me, not you, for a whole week."
"There's... there's no way to make you change your mind?"
"No there isn't. Now listen, I'm going to go text Matt. His dream date just arrived."