The coin landed on tails. John jumped in the air and shouted in his achievement. Jessica was annoyed and
whined"Noo, flip it again!".
Bobby said "Now, that's not fair. You guys agreed that you'll let the coin flip decide, and it decided that
you'll be the baby and John will be the daddy".
She frowned at Bobby, while John did a celebratory dance behind her. Bobby helped them set up a little fort
between the sofas that would act as their house before setting his plan in motion. Then he excused himself to
the bathroom, deciding to try the ring on himself first. The wizard hadn't given him any directions on how to
use it. Did he have to twist the gem in the ring, or did he have to say some magic words, or was it thought
powered? He tried the easiest option, saying out loud "I want to be 20 years old". Suddenly, he grew an extra
few inches in height, surpassing 6 feet. He stared at his reflection in shock. His face lost whatever baby fat
still existed on it, becoming more square-like in shape. Facial hair started appearing, giving him a decent
coverage of stubble. His shirt stretched even tighter on him as his muscles expanded, before ripping entirely.
He pulled the rags off his increasingly hairier body as the changes slowed and eventually stopped. He may only
be 4 years older, but there was no way he could pass himself off as his original age to the kids downstairs.
He scratched his face, wishing he had time to actually shave, which could make him look younger. But then he
had an idea. "I want everyone to think I've always been the age I currently am". He felt a shiver after making
the demand, but couldn't tell if anything actually happened.
Bobby came back downstairs after finding another shirt to replace the one he ripped, to find John and Jessica
well into their game of house. John was pretending to be baking cakes for the tea party that Jessica was
holding for her soft toy collection. She noticed him come downstairs and shouted "Look, other daddy's home!"
and ran over to him. Bobby bent down to pick her up while she giggled and said "your face is so scratchy, it's
weird". Bobby thought his previous wish hadn't worked but neither of them asked him anything out of the
ordinary after that. He put Jessica down and she went back to pouring tea for her panda plush.
Bobby had to word his next command carefully so neither John or Jessica would notice the changes. He thought
about it hard before finally softly saying "I want John to physically and mentally age one year every ten
minutes until I say the word "papaya" out loud, and I am the only one who is able to notice he is getting
older". He felt another shiver after he stopped talking, and hoped it would work. He looked at the boy still
pretending to cook and he didn't look any different yet. Bobby joined Jessica at the makeshift table, enjoying
their game of make-believe.
After an hour, the changes to John were definitely noticeable as he was now 10 years old. His clothes were
changing with him, now wearing a shirt with a faded Bugs Bunny logo on it, his jeans just looking enlarged,
which Bobby was relieved by because he didn't want to find out what would happen if the clothes didn't change
with him. The boy was tall for his age, about 4'8", and was slightly husky. The kids had given up on playing
house a long time ago as John got bored of playing kiddie games, but Jessica didn't seem to mind, too involved
with her tea party to really care what he did. He now sat with Bobby on the sofa watching some primetime TV.
He suddenly had some intense hunger pains. "Bobby, I'm so hungry! Is it time for dinner yet?". Bobby looked at
his wristwatch, finding it was now 7 in the evening.
"Woah, I didn't even know that was the time! I'm sorry, what do you guys want to eat?".
"Pizza!" yelled out Jessica.
About an hour later, after finding no pizza in the house and neither kid would agree to eat anything else, the
pizza Bobby ordered had been delivered and they are. It turned out one large pizza wasn't enough for the three
of them as John devoured most of it, now having grown to 16. He had almost surpassed Bobby in height, and
still seemed to be growing. He now wore a sleeveless shirt, naturally tight to show off the 155 pounds of lean
muscle he now had. A healthy patch of chest hair stuck out the top, more than the average teen his age. A
scruffy goatee had appeared on his chin, grown with the hopes it made him look more mature. Bobby looked at
his watch again and said "Well it looks like it's time for you guys to go to bed". John gave him an
incredulous look.
"Hah, you're kidding right? It's only 8 o clock! Dude, I'm sixteen. You can't tell me when to go to bed". He
laughed at the idea. Bed at 8? Not since he was a little kid.
"Oh, right... But it's still bedtime for you young lady!" Bobby replied before picking up a squirming and
protesting Jessica and taking her upstairs to get ready for bed. He regretted letting her have some ice cream
after dinner as she was bouncing-off-the-walls-hyper, not able to keep still for a second. It took some major
convincing and an extra-long bedtime story before he finally managed to get her to sleep. Closing the door as
quiet as possible, he made his way back downstairs, the TV blaring some sort of comedy with canned laughter.
He could hear John laughing along with it, his voice rivalling the Winchester brothers in depth. Bobby thought
It was weird to think he used to be 4 years old a few hours ago. Now they were the same age as each other, a
quick look at his watch confirming this.
John heard Bobby coming down the stairs and yelled out "Yo dude, you got booze in the fridge? Get some for
me". Bobby grabbed some beer his dad kept in the fridge, briefly wondering where his parents had gotten to,
then came back into the living room to hand John the bottle. He was a bit taken back with how different John
looked compared to when he last saw him. His body was sprawled out across the sofa, now reaching a full 6'3"
in height. His previously lean body had now bulked up ever further, the contours of his pecs and abs easily
visible through the taut vest he had on. He reached out a large hand to take the beer with a gruff thanks, his
arms had a thick coating of hair covering them almost up to his shoulders, which had their own light patch of
hair on them connected to the sprawling fur coating his chest, left to grow wildly across his muscular body.
His wavy brown hair had lengthened considerably, flowing around his shoulders and upper back. Much of his face
was hidden behind a large dark brown beard, reaching 3 inches in length. "Dude, you OK? Have I got something
in my beard again?" John said to Bobby, who had been staring at him for an awkwardly long time now.
"Huh? Oh, no. It's just... I never really thought about how different you look compared to a few years back.
Especially that beard.". Bobby pushed John's feet off the sofa and sat down next to him.
John grinned at his friend's sudden interest in his looks. "It's just from laziness really. I can spend more
time in bed if I don't shave. And I can spend more time working out if I don't get my hair cut". He swiped
some stray hairs away from his face, wishing he'd tied it back. "Hey, you should think of growing a beard. You
have ever much better coverage than I do".
Bobby smiled back at his friend, scratching the stubble he forgot he had. He'd never really thought of growing
a beard before. But if John thought he'd look good, then he may as well try. He could always shave it if he
didn't like it. He turned back to John and said"By the way, thanks for helping look after Jessica for me. Or
at least for being here while I looked after her"
"No problem bro. It's nice to just sit back and relax for a while, you know? She's no handful at all"
"Yeah, but you didn't help at all putting her to bed. I hope paint is easy to get out of carpet...". John
chuckled at his friend's misfortunes and got back to watching TV.
fake memories were entering Bobby's head. Or could they be considered real now? He met John at college during
freshers week, He was majoring in film production while John was training to be a doctor and they bumped into
each other outside the booth for Archery Club. John had been clean shaven and had much shorter hair back
then... No wait, John was helping to run the booth. He'd been in college for a year by then, his hair was
already quite shaggy, along with a chinstrap beard. Wait, John was 21 now? He glanced at his friend again. He
didn't look that much different to him. John caught him looking again, and smiled at him. Maybe he should say
that word he made as the signal for John to stop aging. But he only had a vague memory of the word now. It was
something silly sounding. Guacamole? Krakatoa? Banana? He had to think about it.