The day started out really bad for Peter. He had overslept and woke up too late. He was late in class and received a tardy. Because he was running late, he forgot to bring his completed homework. Not only that, but he sensed that he was coming down with a sore throat and a cough… He had probably caught a bad cold or possibly even the flu. And to top it off, he had a quiz in History class that he had forgotten to study for! It was going to be one bad day for Peter.
To make matters worse, he had to work on a project for Geography class. They had done all the work for the project, but in the end the group was only awarded a ‘B’ grade for their work. When they discussed the project in class, Peter realized that they only needed two more points in order to get an ‘A’ grade in the project. Geography wasn’t his best subject, being that he was more of a scientific kind of person, and he was getting a high ‘B’ in the class anyway. But his other teammates were getting all ‘A’ grades in the class, and they did not want to bother the teacher a go plead for the additional two points. This infuriated Peter on what was already becoming a bad day filled with one frustration after the other, and a big discussion erupted outside of Geography class, which stretched Peter’s patience to the limit.
“Come on, guys! We’re a team! We need to go up to Mr. Barrett and ask him to reevaluate our grade for the project! I can’t do it alone, because it was a team effort! Help me out here!” Peter argued with Sarah, David, Chris, and Nicole. They were standing in the crowded hallway just outside of the classroom. It was the end of fifth period and there was one more period of class to go, before Peter could go home and put what seemed like a horribly bad day at school behind him.
“Peter, just do the extra credit to get the grade up! We don’t want to go up to Mr. Barrett! He never changes his grades!” Nicole argued, while holding her books in her arm as she stood in the hallway, discussing the class grade with Peter and the other teammates. About a hundred other students were walking past them, as they were discussing the issue in the hall.
“Forget about the two points, Peter! It’s not worth the time or the effort. We already have ‘A’s in the class anyway!” David replied, feeling a little proud of the fact that he had a higher grade than Peter. This just angered him even more.
“Oh come on, dude! Help me out here! I just need two points…” Peter replied in frustration.
“Guys, I gotta go to my next class! I’m going to be late! See you tomorrow…” Sarah said. “And, Peter… Mr. Barrett is NOT going to give you those points! Forget about it!”
Peter was slowly becoming filled with anger when he noticed that his project teammates were leaving him on his own.
“Peter, chances are that if you bother Mr. Barrett, he is going to take off even more points from our paper! He’s a very mean teacher! So I say NO! Don’t go up to him! Forget it!” David shouted at Peter. David, Sarah and Nicole turned around and began to walk away. Peter felt hurt and angry, because none of his teammates wanted to go up to the teacher with him.
“Good heavens! What’s the matter with you guys? What are you so afraid of?” Peter shouted back in frustration. But his teammates completely ignored him, as they continued to walk away. There were still about thirty students in the hallway.
“Good grief! What kind of a school is this? YOU’RE ALL LIKE A BUNCH OF LITTLE BABIES!” he shouted back, at the top of his lungs.
He was very angry and hurt when he shouted that. He immediately regretted saying it, but couldn’t do anything anymore. Something happened to him. He felt his transformation powers working full force, and he suddenly began to feel light headed and dizzy.
The hallway began to spin, as Peter stumbled towards the wall in the hallway. He then turned around and leaned with his back against the wall. But it seemed as if all his strength was suddenly being sapped out of him, causing him to slowly sink through his knees. He ended up sitting on the floor, with his legs extended in front of him, and his back against the wall. His face was red as a tomato, and sweat had broken out all over. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and immediately opened them, when he heard a soft weaning sound, which sounded like the cry of a little baby. He then opened his eyes and went into shock when he saw what he had done.
Every single person that was in the hallway suddenly began to age backwards. The jocks, the geeks, the nerds, the football players, the girls… Every one of them was rapidly becoming younger and younger. Their clothes were suddenly too loose and too wide, as most of them began to feel the effects of Peter’s careless wish.
Some of the girls began to scream, when their dresses or shirts were becoming too loose, too wide, or too long! Most of the guys had their jeans, shorts, and underwear fall off of them, as their wastes became smaller and thinner.
Suddenly there was a widespread panic, which could even be heard in the classrooms, as teachers, students, administrators, assistants and custodians were all growing younger.
“What is this? What’s happening?” one screamed.
“I’m getting smaller! OH NO I’M A LITTLE KID AGAIN!” a teacher screamed.
“Holy cow! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!” another girl screamed, as her voice became higher while her body grew younger.
“CALL THE POLICE! SOMEBODY!” one of the administrators shouted, before becoming a little baby who could only cry, after having lost the ability to speak.
“WHAT’S HAPPENING? MY GOD… I’M TURNING INTO A… WHAAAAA!!” one of the football players screamed, as he went from a large 7-foot athlete to a small, newborn baby within seconds.
Slowly the screaming turned to crying, as it turned out that every single person who was in the building was suddenly growing back in time until they had become little babies again.
“Oh no…” Peter whispered to himself, as he witnessed how a crowded hallway filled with high school students was transformed into a large day care center. He went into shock, as he realized that he was the cause of the complete chaos as school. Not only was he feeling terrible over the act itself, but he was completely drained of his power. It had taken every ounce of magic that he had in him to age almost 300 students back, and he was left completely exhausted and depleted after it happened. The fatigue, the guilt, on top of the anger, the frustration, and the shock of having made such a careless wish, just added to a very bad day for Peter.
Within just a few minutes, there were little, naked babies crawling around the hallways of the high school. There were piles of clothes covering the hall, and books, backpacks and papers were covering what was left of the hard, concrete floor.
All Peter could do is look at the situation in complete horror. He was too weak to even get up! He had never used his power to the limit before, and this was definitely not the way he had intended to find out what his limits were, either. But for the first few moments, he had no clue to how to solve this problem.
In the classrooms, every single person, including the teacher, was transformed into a baby. Babies were crying everywhere, and it was the sound of 300 babies crying all at the same time that made the situation unbearable for Peter.
“I need to get help…” Peter whispered to himself, as tears began to roll from his eyes. He felt horrible, and it dawned on him that he could be in really big trouble at that point. What was he going to do?
It was almost as an answer to a prayer when one baby crawled towards him. The little guy crawled right up to him and started pulling on his shirt sleeves. Peter looked at him and realized it was his best friend John. Peter stared at him and took a deep breath. Slowly but surely the baby began to grow and now started to resemble a 2-year old. He kept on going till he was about 3 and then stopped. Peter felt exhausted. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, while the little 3-year old continued to pull on his shirt.
After about 5 minutes, Peter concentrated on him again, and the little boy grew from a 3-year old to age 4. Moments later, he looked like a 5-year old, standing a little taller and being able to speak. When John was a 6-year-old boy, Peter had to stop. He couldn’t do it anymore. Little john stood up, walked towards a pile of clothes that was lying in the middle of the hallway, and he quickly got dressed.
“John, go get Ty!” Peter said to him, barely able to keep his eyes open.
“What happened? Why did you turn us into babies?” John asked him, feeling a bit of panic.
“I got frustrated and I made a mistake. Have Ty come here and tell him to call on Prince to reverse the spell… I can’t do it right now, I feel completely drained…” Peter whispered to him. John immediately stood up and started looking around for Ty. When he saw that Ty was nowhere in the building, he ran back to were Peter was sitting in the hallway. He wanted to tell him that he was going outside to look for Ty, but he couldn’t. Peter had fallen unconscious and had collapsed on the concrete hallway floor.
“Oh no… he fainted… Where’s Ty?” he said to himself. He quickly ran towards the double doors and ran through the schoolyard looking for Ty.
John went out to the parking lot. From there he ran to the softball field. He remembered that Ty was probably in PE class, and figured that if he were not inside or on the field, that he would then be in the gym. He ran over to the gym and was relieved when he found Ty playing basketball with his classmates.
“Ty! Tyler! This is an emergency! Something happened to Peter and you need to help him!” John shouted at him. Ty stopped playing and got another classmate to substitute for him, while he put his shirt back on and grabbed his backpack out of the locker.
“But… who are you, little guy?” Ty asked him, not recognizing that the little boy was in fact John, who was Peter’s best friend but who had been regressed by Peter’s spell.
“It’s ME! John! Peter did something and all the students who were in the main building were turned into babies! I happen to look older because Peter aged me back to six years old! He told me to get you and to tell you that you had to get prince. He fainted right after he told me this!” John explained to him.
“Holy smoke! Take me to where Peter is now!” Ty said. Ty then followed John to the main building where the classrooms were.
When Ty and John entered the building through the double doors they were astonished when they found all these little babies crawling around the floor. Some of them were just sitting at one spot, crying their eyes out. And some were laying on the floor, sleeping in a pile of clothes which just seemed too big for them.
Peter was unconscious and on the floor, leaning against the wall in the middle of the hallway. Ty ran up to him and noticed that he looked pale and he had sweat all over his face. He placed his hand on Peter’s forehead and he quickly withdrew it in shock when he felt his high temperature.
“Oh my gosh! He’s sick! And he’s burning up with fever!” Ty said, while looking at the little 6 year-old boy who was a younger version of John. “We need to get some help to age all these babies back to their current age, before Peter made them all grow younger”. Ty then closed his eyes and wished for Prince to show up. While Ty still had his eyes closed, John noticed a tall man wearing a black suit who was standing right in front of him. John started pulling on Ty’s shirt. When Ty looked back at him, John just pointed at the man.
“Prince! You’re here! Thank you so much for coming!” Ty said, feeling a deep sense of relief to see Peter’s old instructor standing before him.
“I can see that something must have gone seriously wrong here. It isn’t normal to walk into a high school and to find it crawling with babies!” Prince said. Then he knelt down besides Peter and took off his right hand glove. He then gently placed the palm of his hand over Peter’s forehead.
“He’s sick, alright…” Prince responded, “We need to reverse Peter’s spell and then we need to safeguard his powers. Then we need to get him home and safely in bed as fast as possible.”
“How are we going to reverse his spell? It takes a lot of power to turn them back into teenage students! I don’t think I got enough power to do it on my own…” Ty observed.
“None of us do, Ty! It took and extraordinary amount of power to regress all these people all at once, and Peter is the only one who has that kind of power to do that alone. We need to transfer his power to someone else who is healthy and trustworthy and then we can reverse the spell when all three of us band together…” Prince replied, looking over at Ty and John.
“He needs to grow me back, too!” John shouted out loud, still only six years old.
“Tyler, I got an idea. I know for a fact that John is Peter’s best friend. I want you to grow him back to sixteen years old so that we can give him temporary custody of Peter’s transformation powers.” Prince responded. Both Ty and the younger John gasped when he offered them that solution.
“Me? You’re going to give me Peter’s powers?” John wondered, looking at prince in complete surprise.
“Yes. Peter trusts you completely. He considers you his best friend and to me that is enough to qualify you to be the guardian of his power for the next seven days, while Peter recovers from his illness. Now, Tyler, please grow him back” he said.
Ty stood up and began to stare at the little boy. Within seconds, John began to grow back. His legs grew longer and his torso became wider. His shoulders grew wider and he was slowly growing taller and more muscular until he was back at the same height and weight he had before Peter had changed him with his spell.
“Alright, now we need to transfer Peter’s power” Prince said, as he placed his palm of his right hand on Peter’s forehead. He concentrated for a few seconds while he had his eyes closed. Then he finally opened his eyes and looked John straight in the eyes.
“John, your friend has an enormous amount of power. He has grown so much because he uses his powers for just about everything. I will grant you usage of Peter’s power for a period of exactly seven days. After that, his powers will fade away and he will gain them back again. You’re just holding his power for him, allowing him to rest and recover from his illness. You must take care and be careful with what you wish for, is that understood?” Prince asked John in a serious tone of voice.
“Yes, sir…” John replied politely. Prince then placed his hand on John’s forehead and concentrated. John was completely in awe as he felt his mind and body fill up with Peter’s power, making him psychic and capable of causing transformations in himself and in anyone else he wishes. Prince removed his hand and then embraced the teenager.
“Thank you, John. This is your assignment: You need to become Peter’s guardian. You must watch him wherever he goes and whatever he does. You must help him any way you can by staying in contact with him using your new psychic abilities. You must assist him with everything he asks for, because he will no longer be able to use his power on his own, is that understood? If you do anything to hurt him or anybody else, you will automatically lose your power.” Prince warned him.
“Yes, I understand. Thank you, sir…” John replied cautiously. Then Prince stood up and grabbed hold of John’s right hand. Ty stood on John’s other side, and grabbed hold of his left hand.
“Alright, John. Grow all these poor babies back to the age they were before Peter regressed them. Allow them to be dressed right away and make them forget what had happened just this past hour…” Prince instructed. John closed his eyes and concentrated. Every baby in the building began to quickly grow back to the age the students had before Peter had made them grow back to being babies.
One by one they gained height and weight. Their faces became like that of teenagers again, and they gained their hair, muscle, and weight back that Peter had taken away from them with his careless wish. As soon as they were their original age, their own clothing appeared on them in an instant, and they were left wondering what they were doing since they had no memory of the past hour when they were forced to grow back into babies.
All the students in the classrooms and in the hallway were confused and wondered where the past class period had gone. The final bell had just rung, marking the end of the day. Nobody had noticed Prince, Ty, John and Peter.
“Tyler, take Peter home and put him in bed. Make sure he gets plenty of rest! And John, you know your duty. Please take good care of Peter and his powers, alright?” Prince asked the two teens. They both nodded as Prince slowly disappeared in thin air, right before their very own eyes.
Ty then tried to lift Peter up. But when he noticed that Peter was too big and too heavy, he realized that he probably had to make Peter younger as well.
“I can’t lift him up. He’s too big! I guess we’ll need to turn him into a baby now!” Ty said to John.
“Alright, then! Let me do it…” John said. John then stared at Peter and allowed his newly acquired transformation powers to slowly grow Peter younger until he had turned into a little one year-old baby. John and Ty just stood there as they watched the 6 foot 3 inch tall basketball player slowly grow back in age, becoming shorter and losing his height and muscle rapidly as the many years’ results of weight training faded from his body.
Then Ty picked up the little baby from the floor in the hallway.
“I’m taking him home. You keep in contact with him, okay? We’ll keep him as a baby for now, and we can grow him a few years tomorrow” Ty ordered John.
“How old should I make him?” John wondered.
“Make him grow to about six years old, I guess. After that, we’ll make him a year older every day until he is sixteen again or until he has fully recovered and has his powers back!” Ty instructed him.
“Alright, little Peter. Time to go home…” Ty said to the little baby who he was holding in his hand. The baby was sound asleep, and Ty was very happy with that. In an instant he wished himself to be in Peter’s bedroom at the house, where he carefully placed Peter on his own bed in the bedroom.
“How ironic… First you change every student at school into babies, and now you end up as a baby yourself. Not only that, but a few weeks ago you followed John around using your power. And now you’re a normal kid again while John has your power!” Ty thought out loud.
Peter slept the whole day and woke up that night, crying out loud. He woke up Dustin first, who on his turn woke up Ty.
“Whose idea was it to turn Peter into a little baby, anyway? You go take care of him, or make him grow older. Whatever you do, make it stop!” Dustin complained.
“Alright, alright… I’ll take care of him!” Ty said, while he rolled out of bed. Dustin went back to sleep, while Ty went into Peter’s room.
As soon as Ty walked in, Peter stopped crying. Ty had placed a diaper on him, but realized that having a baby in the house was a lot of work. Still, he couldn’t help but kneel down by the bed and stare at the little baby, who was supposed to be his 6’3” tall cousin Peter. He grinned when he saw the look in Peter’s big, blue eyes.
“Hey Petey, you look so adorable!” Ty said, as he began to play with the little baby. “I almost hate to make you grow bigger, but none of us are willing to take care of a baby, so I’m left with no choice but to make you a little older!”
The little baby just stared at Ty and began to giggle when Ty poked him in the stomach with his fingers. Ty spent a few minutes playing with him, and then he stood up and stared at him for a few moments.
The baby began to grow older, as his arms and face lost the baby fat. He became a little slimmer, although he also grew taller at the same time. Within moments, the newborn baby had become a young, skinny six year-old boy, with short brown hair and big, blue eyes.
“Hey big guy, how are you feeling?” Ty asked the little boy, who was sitting naked on his bed. “Let me put some clothes on you so you don’t catch cold. You’re still fighting the flu, so…”
Ty grabbed some underwear, a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. He made the clothes shrink so that they fit on the younger version of Peter, who was now ten years younger than he was barely a day before.
“Thanks, cousin. I appreciate you taking care of me…” little Peter said to Ty, who seemed much bigger and taller than the little boy, who seemed two feet shorter than he was before as well.
“Well, I just want to make sure you’re getting over the flu. How do you feel right now?” Ty asked the boy.
“I’m alright, although it feels strange not having my powers anymore. In a way it feels nice to be normal again, although I know that I will eventually begin to miss not having them anymore.” Peter replied.
“Prince transferred your powers to your friend John, so he will be watching over you as soon as you get over this illness, okay? In the meantime, your job is to get a lot of rest and to get better!” Ty said to Peter, in a strict tone of voice.
“Gosh, I need to get used to being smaller than you now! I guess you’re my big cousin, for the time being!” Peter said, with a smile on his face.
“Crawl back in bed and I will get you something to drink. I will take your temperature in a bit, and we’ll get you something to eat. Other than that, you are supposed to get plenty of rest so that you will fully recover from the flu.” Ty said, as he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Peter got back under the covers. Ty returned a few moments later to take his temperature and to give him something to eat. He loved the idea of having Peter as a little boy now; it almost made him feel like he had a little brother to take care of, for the first time in his life. And Peter was a normal kid now, since he did not have his powers. Peter could not grow himself back to a sixteen year-old teenager! And Ty and John had made a plan that they were going to let Peter stay as a little kid, until he got his powers back again.
As soon as he had finished his food, Ty left him alone, and Peter slowly drifted off to a deep sleep. Ty went back to the living room, where Dustin was watching TV, when John came knocking on the door. John had seen that Peter was asleep, since he was telepathically linked to him. But he came over anyway, to hang out with Ty and Dustin, while they allowed Peter to sleep so that he could get well as soon as possible.