"I wish Luke and Brian could have parents again," Matt whispered into the night sky, not really thinking to include himself. "They deserve it." Concluding his wish, the young boy opened his eyes and looked in front of him again. His eyes widened, however, when he realized how long he had been out there. He had been walking for at least ten minutes now, and knowing Mrs. Millers, she would be checking up on everyone soon. He still had enough time to walk back to the orphanage normally, though, so he decided to walk for now. He turned around and had just begun moving forward when a mild itching sensation appeared on his chest. He paused momentarily, wondering what it was, but decided that it wasn't anything major and continued walking.
As Matt walked, he noticed that the itching was starting to spread. He tried scratching his chest, but that only seemed to worsen the itching. When he finally stopped due to the itching becoming unbearable, it had already spread across his body. As he was scratching his chest, arms, and legs for what seemed like the fortieth time, he noticed when his left arm passed through the light created by the street lamp beside him that it looked slightly different. His forearm looked to have gotten a bit darker; it wasn't that the skin itself had gotten darker, but it still looked darker for whatever reason. Intrigued by this discovery, he ran a hand across that arm, ignoring the itch for the moment, and he noticed that it felt different, too. It felt... fuzzier, almost. Before he could wonder what that meant, the itching suddenly changed into a burning sensation; it felt like a fire was spreading throughout his entire body. A sudden pain seized both of his legs, and it hurt so badly that he had to squeeze his eyes shut and grit his teeth to prevent himself from crying out.
As his eyes kept closed, the pain in his legs worsened until it felt like someone was about to pull them in two. He would've collapsed onto the ground by this point, but something seemed to be holding his body up. The pain had migrated to his arms and torso as well during all of this, and the burning in his throat had worsened, too. Eventually, the pain became too much for him to keep himself silent for any longer, and he let out a yell of pain. The yell surprised him, however, as it was much deeper than he was expecting. What came out was closer to the voice of a 14-year-old, not an 11-year-old. What was happening to him?
Once the pain had subsided, he finally managed to open his eyes. The first thing he noticed when he opened them was how much smaller everything appeared. It looked like he was viewing the world from a height of 5'7", not from his typical 4'6" viewpoint. His 11-year-old mind didn't understand much of what was going on, but it did understand one thing: this isn't normal. A person doesn't just grow over a foot in height all at once. I mean, he was tall enough to be mistaken for a 15- or 16-year-old, for God's sake! A scrawny one, yes, but one nonetheless! He looked down at himself, noticing that his pajamas had ridden up severely, exposing much of his torso, which he noticed had gotten slightly darker than before, as his arm had previously. Speaking of which, both his arms and legs had gotten considerably darker and fuzzier, and he immediately recognized it as hair. Wait, hair? No, no, no, that couldn't be right! 11-year-olds shouldn't have hair anywhere aside from the top of their heads, right? And yet, it seemed that he now had hair just about everywhere, as the newfound bulge in his now-much-too-tight underwear generously showed for him. Not able to fully comprehend what was going on, he began to panic, but before it could completely set in, the pain returned, this time twice as strong. He immediately doubled over, letting out another cry of pain, his voice seeming to have gotten deeper than when he did so previously.
Had Matt been able to see what was happening to him in this second wave of pain, he would've seen several changes nearly all at once. His arms, hands, legs, feet, and torso all began growing once again, bringing him up to a stature of 5'11", a little taller than the average for an adult male. His chest hair grew out some more, giving him a treasure trail that extended a little bit onto his breasts as well, but there still wasn't that much hair there. As the changes moved to his face, light stubble grew, getting darker towards the bottom and forming a small, brown beard on his chin. His face changed, getting larger and the jawline getting sharper. His brown hair fashioned itself into a semi-short crew cut, and his voice became slightly deeper, as well, finally finishing off with an averagely deep voice and a semi-prominent Adam's apple. His "package" got a little larger, stopping at slightly-above-average size. Even after all of this, there were still some finishing touches to be added. His pajama shirt began to grow larger and get darker, forming a somewhat tight plain gray shirt that seemed a little too large for his body. His underwear formed into a pair of men's boxers, suiting his new growth much better than before, and his pajama bottoms changed into a pair of khaki shorts, and a pair of white socks formed around his bare feet, a pair of white and gray sneakers forming immediately after. To finish it all off, his muscles finally caught up with the rest of his body, giving him a healthy, semi-athletic build. His muscles weren't huge or anything, but they definitely wore the shirt much better than before, his arms now nearly filling up the sleeves and the shirt bottom now coming up to just below the top of his shorts.
The pain subsided once again, and Matt was left panting from the amount of stress the transformation had caused. He looked down in shock at his new body, still trying to comprehend what had happened.
"What...?" he whispered through his new voice, turning his hands over to stare at his palms. Before he could go any farther, however, a ring, seemingly dropped from above, found its way onto his right ring finger. It seemed to be just the right fit for him, strangely enough, but before he could even react to the ring's sudden appearance, it began to glow green, putting Matt into a trance as waves of memories and new information flooded his mind. Despite trying to convince himself internally that none of the new events that were entering his mind from all directions were real, he ultimately failed to do so; it just felt so... real. Like he had actually experienced them. He gave in to the new life that the ring seemed to be offering him, and the glow faded away just as the clock struck 10:30. In the span of just 20 minutes, the 11-year-old boy known as Matt had ceased to exist. In his place was Matthew Harris, a 25-year-old man with a highly prospective future. The job that he had secured as a software developer just a few months ago was fairly well-paying, but he planned to finish up college and medical school soon and become a doctor in a few years. Until then, the job he had was good enough, certainly enough to support a small family.
When Matthew awoke from his trance, he felt rather disoriented, so he put a hand up to his forehead and shook his head to make his mind less cloudy. He wasn't sure why he had felt so dizzy all of a sudden; as far as he remembered, he was just walking down the street and had spontaneously gotten a bad sense of vertigo. The dizziness soon passed, however, and he stood there, trying to remember what he was doing. When he did, his eyes widened slightly and he slapped his palm against his forehead as he groaned in frustration at himself. How could he have forgotten what he was doing when it was as important as this? Ever since he and his wife had gotten married two years prior, they had been trying for a baby, so when it was discovered that his wife, Cheryl, was infertile, it came as a bit of a letdown. Fortunately, though, they had found an orphanage not too far from where they lived--about a two hours' drive--that was willing to let them adopt a child of their own. As the child they were looking at turned out to be one of two brothers, the orphanage let them adopt both children for a discounted price, stating that the two were "completely inseparable... they won't let one leave without the other in tow." Seeing as they both had fairly well-paying jobs, they were overjoyed at the opportunity and immediately took it. With this knowledge fresh in his mind, Matthew set out towards the Westdale Central Orphanage.
The young man arrived at his destination just five minutes later. When he entered the building, he was immediately greeted by the sight of Mrs. Millers sitting at the front desk, reading a book. When she heard the door open, she looked up at Matthew and smiled warmly.
"Oh, hello! What brings you here at this hour?" she asked.
"Hello," Matthew began. "My name is Matthew Harris. I'm looking to adopt two kids," he stated. The woman scrunched her face in concentration for a second before her expression became one of recognition.
"Ah, yes, Mr. Harris. If memory serves, you called about a month ago, is that correct?" The man nodded, though Mrs. Millers already had her back turned to him, looking for the proper forms that needed to be signed. "Ah, here we are," she muttered, more to herself than to him. She brought over several sheets of paper and laid them on the desk. "If you'll just sign these, please," she requested. Matthew nodded in reply. "I'll go get them," she stated, flashing him a smile before going upstairs.
By the time Matthew had finished signing everything, the two boys were already bounding down the stairs. Soon after he heard the footsteps, the man was greeted by the sight of two boys smiling widely and looking up at him. He smiled back in response, and Mrs. Millers appeared shortly after.
"Mr. Harris, allow me to introduce you to these two. This is Luke," she introduced, gesturing to the eight-year-old, "and this is Brian," she finished, this time gesturing to the five-year-old. "Boys, this is Matthew Harris, your new father." She had barely gotten these words out before the children ran toward him, grabbing his legs. Brian shouted, "Daddy, Daddy!" as he hugged Matthew even more. He chuckled at this and kneeled down.
"Hey, sport!" he said, having already taken a liking to the two. After about a minute, Mrs. Millers politely cleared her throat.
"Well, they're all yours now. You're free to go whenever you want." The new father smiled at this as he looked up at her before looking back down to his new kids.
"All right, boys, what do you say we get this show on the road?" The children excitedly stated their assent, and Brian cried out in joy when Matthew reached around them and picked them both up. Mrs. Millers watched on as the man carried Luke and Brian out the door, happy that they had finally found their home. And indeed they had.