“Now what’s going on here!” A male voice echoed through the club room in the aftermath of the explosion. The weird goop of rainbow coloured water was just everywhere, plastered on the desks and the walls as well as some on the door.
James looked shocked as a teacher; Mr Henderson walked in and staring at the sight of the clubroom. He was normally quite a calm and collected adult, a relatively young teacher in his thirties or so with striking black hair and some facial hair. He was a science teacher, so naturally was quite concerned at what he was seeing. “Who is responsible for this…” He gave the patented stern look.
James tried to explain feeling caught in the act. “We uh- just had a small accident-”
The pot of liquid started to bubble again, causing everyone to look towards it. Then the concoction gave another burst of an explosion, this time sending a strange ‘ring’ cloud of rainbow light across the ceiling. Mr Henderson was quite quick to shield his eyes though some of the water did touch his hands. Strangely, they didn’t feel wet… he looked at the stuff wiping it on his clothes watching the odd stickiness it had. “Hm…” Perhaps it was just a very strong oil? Though it was oddly metallic yet definitely not mercury. He started to get curious. “… just what are you doing here?”
“…experiments.” Sarah said in her typical deadpan tone. “Success or failure? Time will tell.” She tapped her own small ‘cauldron’ with a spoon, waiting for it to do something. “I think it needs more…” she seemed quite disappointed hers didn’t ‘explode’. It gave a small puff of black smoke instead.
Sebastian looked very distressed and tried to cover up the solution as more of it bubbled over with a heavy metal top. The liquid didn’t even ‘feel’ real… there was no moisture or wetness to it, it was more like he was touching a manifestation of light. It seemed to vanish when rubbed though, perhaps due to a low boiling point… or perhaps more concerningly, being absorbed. The young teen looked at the strange oily slick of not-so-watery water. “Are we in trouble?” He asked quietly. “My mom will kill me if we’re in trouble,” he whispered hesitantly genuinely fearful.
Daniel, for his part stayed quiet. He folded his strong arms, looking quite impassively at the entire scene. He had been observing Cindy, who had run off after getting splashed and was a little concerned for her. The muscular older teen had a bit of a splash on his cheek but wiped it off on his sleeve. “Eh, I’ll- go see how Cindy is,” he said perhaps a bit concerned. As he brushed past James he whispered. “Don’t squeal on me about these ingredients dude… otherwise I can’t get more.” Daniel simply left with no further word.
Mr Henderson glanced at Daniel leaving, though let him… focusing on James. “Well?”
James quickly evaluated his options. The magic club was now in danger of exposure. If they were caught using magical ingredients, there would be an uproar. He could be expelled… but surly Mr Henderson knew just how important it was to understand magic too? He couldn’t talk about the ingredients in order to project Daniel, and he didn’t want to get Sebastian in trouble as that would lose the spell book. If ‘he’ was suspended then the remaining potions couldn’t be translated…
“It was my fault,” Sarah suddenly said. “I turned up the heat a bit too much.”
Wait- what?! James glanced to Sarah.
“You always have a knack for getting into trouble Sarah,” Mr Henderson groaned. “I’m not so sure this club is a ‘good’ fit for you.” He paced a bit looking at her concoction.
“Wait-… it’s not her fault. we’ll clean this all-up sir,” He said hoping that will smooth it over. “Really no harm done.”
“Yes I expect you will James,” Henderson said looking at them. His expression softened… in truth it was ‘rare’ to have students take such an aptitude to learning and he didn’t want to discourage it. Though it had to be done safely. “Sarah, I am glad you are taking some initiative to improve your grades… but perhaps this is a little too ‘advanced’ for you.” He mused in thought. “Why not try for some beginner lessons again?”
“This wasn’t her fault,” James repeated.
“Eh, I don’t mind it being my fault.” The goth girl replied with a shrug again. “I’m more curious to see the results.” She gave a sheepish smile. “Chaos… magical chaos…”
Mr Henderson shook his head again. “Well… I suppose we can let it go this once,” he thought. “Try to not do anything so dangerous next time…” He had a ‘suspicion’ the girl was covering for James of course… it was quite obvious. Seeing that was actually quite... pleasing to the teacher. Sarah was so isolated and withdrawn… having a friend she was trying to protect was rather… heartwarming.
Sebastian rubbed his hands nervously again glancing at the pot as it seemed to still be ‘bubbling’ and boiling despite no heat being applied now. Was it supposed to do that? “Please stop,” He tapped it and it seemed to go quiet, almost as if it was ‘alive’.
Henderson sighed again looking at all the students finally at ease. “Well, I suppose no harm was done. This looks more like food colourant to me… are you attempting cooking or chemistry?”
James was somewhat glad the teacher was looking at this a little more humorously now. He gave a sheepish grin. “Uh- maybe a bit of both.” He nodded. “We’ll fix it don’t worry.”
Henderson nodded. “Well, I would like a report on your results. I’m surprised you haven’t set off the fire alarms… but please do such works in the fume hood next time, that is what it is there for.” He shook his head and left to go to his office.
James heaved a sigh of relief. “Unbelievable…” He had to quickly write down all the ingredients that resulted in that explosion. He slowly recalled every part he did and noted it down. “Okay… let’s take a break and start cleaning up today. Experiment Phoenix Potion is a bust… we’ll try again next week on something. Assuming Daniel can get us more ingredients.”
Sarah simply smiled. “I like this club.”
Daniel had only got so far as he realised Cindy had retreated to the bathroom. He waited for a bit, realising she seemed to be taking his time. “Eh, I’m sure she’s fine,” He decided. He had a few more ‘issues’ to deal with anyway.
He looked at his M-phone, quietly activating a program on it. It worked a lot like a VPN, though instead of changing location it tricked the phone into thinking it was dealing with an actual mage. The lockouts they put on it were suddenly down. So many more ‘interesting’ things could be seen on the phone now, as he connected to the magical websites. “Where’s the shop going to appear next…”
This was Daniel’s secret… access to the magical world through a wondering shop, by using a cracked M-phone. He grinned a bit as he thought of the possibilities…
Money was his motive… he had a lot of things going for him. Looks health, brains… but he didn’t have money. He didn’t quite stand out to get scholarship money… and he knew he wanted to live in a big house one day. A mansion.
He desired wealth and the comforts that wealth could bring. An elevation in society beyond most his peers… and he was quite certain that working to access magics into the normal world was the way forward. He didn’t care so much for ‘knowledge’, just a chance to make money. Magic was the way to that easy future.
James’s club seemed like a good ‘venture’ to him. A way to ‘buy’ goods from the magic shops, and turn them into products anyone could use. When he heard James was going to attempt to turn them into potions Daniel jumped at the chance. It wasn’t that different to what he normally did. He always bought the magical goods and sold them to places who ‘wanted’ the money… mostly those underground academies. Sending some of the material to the club increased the chance of a high valued item being created… and selling potions to normal people would be a billion-dollar industry someday.
…if he could make sure to secure that first. He half wondered if he should introduce James to those underground academies… no doubt he would be a good fit there… but exclusivity was also extremely valuable.
After a bit of time, he found where the shop was going to appear next on the M-phone. “Heh... easy money,” he thought to himself... If he wanted to get more ingredients though he would have to go now though. He should just about make it.
Though Daniel was unaware of an ‘odd’ change suddenly happening to his eyes. They went from pale brown to a very sky blue… his facial hair slowly receded…
Cindy, the blonde cheerleader kicked up a bit of a storm in the aftermath of that explosion. She was briefly splattered by this odd liquid and feared it was an acid or something worse. She had run to the bathroom, angrily thinking how best to complain to the faculty about this.
“Urgh I can’t believe this! The liquid was mostly around her hair so… no real harm done. It seemed to wash off easily anyway. Odd swirls of rainbow colour cascading down the sink. She took a few more rinses until she was satisfied it was all gone. She shifted her flowing locks of blonde hair to the left and right, making sure there was no damage.
“That’s the last time I ever see those geeks” she grumbled. The smell of whatever they were concocting was really interfering with their routines though thankfully it wasn’t in this weird liquid. She had never seen a chemistry club like that before anyway…
“Huh? What’s… going on- my hair!” She stared in the mirror as it started to lighten in colour. Her normal blonde hair started to take on an unsettling bright white. It wasn’t going ‘grey’ as one might expect with age, it looked vibrant and healthy just a silvery white in colour! It just now had this odd moon-like bright quality to it. She stared in the mirror, trying to wash it off thinking that the chemical was stuck still… but no more was coming off. She looked at it in confusion. “What’s happening?”
Then her hair suddenly ‘grew’… Cindy already had rather long hair, going to her shoulders but this was overkill. It quickly cascaded down past her hips flowing like a river to the back of her legs. “AH!” She gasped. “W-what the…”
She took a few steps back from the mirror, unable to believe what she was seeing…
In the late evening, Sebastian had taken back the magic book home. The young teen looked over it, still feeling a bit guilty on where it actually came from. Thanks to James, he now had a decent translation of what it was about… he clutched it close to his chest, heaving a sigh as he sat down on his homework desk.
His room had changed very little growing up. He still had old silly shows that had long lost meaning to most people… but he still liked his toys and the stories they all told. In some ways he was still ‘just a kid’… and it felt like that would always be so.
“I would like a chance to return the book,” he thought. “It’s not like non-mages can even go to those schools though.” The young teenager defended himself on what happened that day. Sebastian always tried to be the ‘good guy’… but it often meant he was never noticed. Everyone could rely on him to just do the right thing.
“I wish I wasn’t such a weakling,” he thought to himself. He was always just ‘afraid’ of things… he didn’t know why. It made him so anxious, that he mostly just did what everyone expected of him, or told him to do. If he had a chance to be just a little ‘more’ exciting… more noticeable? He thought being in the club would help him stand out… but they only liked him there for the book. Would James want to be friends with him if he didn’t have such a powerful item?
There were times he wished he could be as bold as James was, skirting the rules and figuring out magics…What would he do with magic though? He imagined helping people, meeting magical entities… it would be a lot of fun. Why couldn’t normal humans do magic? Why couldn’t they just try going to a magic school and see what happens?
Sebastien felt something strange suddenly.
He rubbed his pyjamas as it felt like something just ‘poked’ him on his stomach. He quickly set the book down and stood up, feeling a little peculiar. Lifting up his top he was surprised- and scared as he saw what appeared to be…
A first he thought they were spot. Oddly symmetrically laid out spots… but in a few seconds, they started to puff out into…
Nipples?!
Soft pink areolas, not unlike his normal ones were now situated on his hips… there was another brief tickling sensation as another set of nipples formed above those, and then another set for a total of eight. “W-what the-“ The young teenager squirmed as he quickly touched them, feeling the slightly sensitive skin. He tried to rub them off, as if they were a pencil mark on a piece of paper… but he couldn’t- he was stuck with them!
The boy started to panic. Was this because of the potion?! He had to tell his parents- no! If he asked for help, they might find out about the book! His thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of his mom coming up the stairs.
“Honey it’s nine o’clock! Time for bed you have school tomorrow.” His mom was quite strict with schedules.
“Uh- yes mom.” Sebastian quickly put the magic book away. Maybe things would be better tomorrow… he anxiously tried to sleep it off.
It was rather late at night now in James’s room as he tried to sleep. What happened in the club still made him wonder if he was doing the right thing. It was so hard to figure out magic without even the slightest idea of what they were doing… if only they could go to one of those schools!
He was trying to lie down on his pillow, his head on his side but… ‘something’ started to feel wrong. James shifted his head to the other side, hoping that would help but… again it felt ‘weird’. “Ugh, what’s wrong with me?”
He got up yawning and turned on the light. He tried to put on his glasses but encountered some odd ‘resistance- and for some reason a rather ‘pleasant’ feeling that made him blush. “What the…” What the heck was that? He stared in the mirror. “Huh?” James stared at his face. The slight acne he once had was gone… which was good… but… his ears!
They were stretched out and pointed. He looked at it from the side, staring at them. They were both so long! He touched his left ear and felt it twitch at the sensation again sending a shiver through his body. “Oh.. dear… God…”
He looked like an elf! What happened to him!
