He'd met Bethany Hopkirk at the office on Take Your Daughter to Work Day. She was a spoiled brat who seemed annoyed to be there, found everything boring, and when his mother had gone off to a meeting, had sat around on her phone mostly. One Hopkirk was bad enough, but dealing with two of them...
On the other hand, game or not, he'd never been such a young person before...he wasn't sure how it would work. He headed toward the house, not wanting to look like some sort of pervert, looking for a young girl as he was. Bethany needed to do some serious growing up, the little brat. Of course, he imagined, the same way Zoe was reasonably sure she wouldn't kill anyone in surgery this week, that the magic would help with that. It would likely compensate even more.
He walked up the driveway to the front door and rang the doorbell, and to his surprise, Bethany herself answered. "You're not Charlotte...you're that...you work for my mom...She isn't here..." The girl seemed utterly disinterested in him, not even considering him a threat...just someone looking for her mother."
"Is that the way you answer the door?" He asked, curiously. He'd have to reproduce the attitude.
She looked at him. "What do you mean?"
"Some might be polite, or respectful with an adult," he said.
"Do you want me to give her a message or something? You can just text her, duh...." Bethany said, looking like she wasn't going to bother even if he did.
"You think you are smarter than everyone else, don't you? Even grownups...you know what happens when you grow up thinking that?"
"Nothing," she said, starting to close the door. However, as Roger began to wonder how he was going to proceed, the magic solved that for him. Bethany suddenly felt a twinge, then what felt like a stretching feeling as the floor began to rise away from her, leaving a large gap between the end of her shoes and the bottom of her jeans. As Bethany let go of the door in confusion, she spotted the loser who worked for her mom in front of her...and he was shrinking...his pants bunching up on the floor...but somehow staying on... Within a second, she was over a head taller than he was. "What just happened?"
"I guess you wouldn't be very convincing as an adult at your old size," Roger said. That was a new one on him...or maybe it was the other way around. A six foot two middle schooler might also be less convincing.
Bethany's bluster evaporated...She might be only twelve, but she didn't believe in magic anymore...that was for little kids. But...what could this be otherwise? "If you did something to me...my mom is going to..."
"She won't notice," Roger said. "Look...I didn't choose you, but once you get chosen...it is what it is. Going forward...I'm Bethany...and you're Roger Gibson...And maybe, you'll learn something."
"But I'm B.....I'm B...." she stumbled. "I'm Roger..."
"You won't be able to say it..." he said.
"But it's my birthday this week....and my friend Charlotte is coming over any minute..."
Roger put his hands on his hips in a pretty good imitation of Bethany's body language. "No..Charlotte is coming to see Bethany...and if you're here when she gets here...she'll want to know why some weird old man is hanging around..." His hair didn't change color, but it grew down to his shoulders. He tossed her a bag he was carrying. "Here's a change of clothes...You might want to go change..." He didn't want to change in front of her...or vice-versa. That would be gross...
