Chapter 1
Full Story
Rosaline was getting quite desperate. Once again, Valentines day was fast approaching and she couldn't find a date. it was to be expected since she was an introvert and although she wasn't ugly, she was far from the most attractive girl in her college. But this time, she had a plan.
She had spent the last two months researching about alchemy and she might have finally found the solution to her problem. She was going to make a love potion. She found the recipe on an obscure internet site but thanks to her previous research, she knew it had a good chance of working. She began gathering the ingredients : Rose petals, pure water, various different spices, honey, cherry juice and the wings of a butterfly. She hurried to the store because there were only 3 days left. She got most of what she needed but the butterfly wings were tricky to obtain. After hours, of trying, she finally caught a butterfly in a jar and brought it back home. She then cut off its wings and mix them in the brew with the rest of the ingredients. After mixing it for 30 minutes like the recipe recomended, it was ready. This potion would make any boy that saw her fall in love with her. The night before Valentines Day she drank the potion.
The next day, at college, she finally got the attention she wanted. Every time a boy looked at her, she could see the list in their eyes. A lot of them didn’t want to look away until she turned a corner and left their field of vision. During her first class, she caused many of the boys to get distracted.
Once it was lunch time, she walked up to Kevin, the boy she had a crush on. She just said hi and he looked up to her confused as to why a stranger would talk to him like that. But soon he began blushing strongly and was so captivated by her charm that he couldn’t speak. She then asked him out on a date. Normally this would be very weird to ask for a date this quickly but the boy accepted. A boy named Ethan was talking with his friend Brian when he saw Rosaline. He got so captivated by her that he stopped talking and Ethan looked to see what was taking up his attention. He saw that the girl was followed by many admirers which was strange because she wasn’t this popular before. As he looked at her to analyze what she had that was so special he suddenly felt that she was very attractive. It began clouding his other thoughts and he got a boner from it. But he realized something was wrong. Why did d everyone suddenly fell in love with this girl? He forced himself to look away. He also knew good bit about alchemy so he could tell that the sudden wave of lust he and the others felt while looking at her was the result of a love potion. He grabbed his friends head and turned it away to free him from the spell.
Making people fall in love with you by manipulating them with magic is highly unethical but he couldn’t confront her about this because he would just end up falling in love with her instead. He hoped that she would stop after the effects of this potion run out. It usually only lasted 24 hours. If she does this again, he would have to stop her.
He and Brian spent the rest of the day avoiding her. Meanwhile Rosaline got invited to a party which she gladly accepted to come to on the weekend.
The next day, things seemed to have gone back to normal. The effects of the potion ran out and Ethan was relieved. But Rosaline missed all the attention she was getting. She decided to prepare another potion for the party. Ethan wanted to get ready just in case this happened again so he invited his friend to his home to talk about a potential solution.
Ethan warned his friend that Rosaline still has the recipe and might try to make another love potion. She went from a reject to the most popular girl in school so she is unlikely to give that up for very long. Brian said : “Well how can we stop her if we too love struck to think coherently whenever we get near her. Do you have a way to block the effects?” Ethan answered: “I can create an antidote but Rosaline has to drink it for it to work. I don’t know of any potions that make us immune to a love potion that someone else used though.
They both thought about it for a while and Brian proposed : “Well since the potion doesn’t seem to affect girls then maybe you can use your alchemist skills to turn us into girls.” Ethan said: “It would take months for me to figure out how to do that. I need to read through old archives and figure out the exact quantity for each ingredient. I never tried to make a gender bend potion because I never felt it would be useful.” He started thinking for a bit then he added: “I have to make a youth potion before so that I could relive my teenage years once I get past 30. But this might work in this situation. The love potion shouldn’t work on children who don’t have a sex drive yet. So we just have to make a potion to turn into little kids and we will be immune.” Brian was worried at first but since it was their best bet, he agreed to it.
The potion required pure water, white sugar, maple syrup, fern leaves and spit from a person of the age which you wish to become. The first ingredients were easy to obtain but the fern leaves were the hardest to get at this time of year. Luckily they managed to buy a fern at a botanical shop. They then asked Brian’s 7 year old cousin to spit in a cup when Brian went to visit his uncle.
The next day, at school, Rosaline invited them to the weekend party that was coming up soon. She seemed to be inviting so many other boys too. Ethan and Brian accepted knowing that the party would probably be when she would next use the potion. That was in only two days so they had to hurry up to prepare the antidote.
Like all potions, the antidote required pure water. It also needed honey, rose thorns, ginger and the wings of a moth. Most of the ingredients were easily acquired from the store but the moth was tricky to get. It was to hard to hunt one at night around their homes so they set up a light to attract one. They finished creating the potion the night before the party. Now they just needed to find a way to make Rosaline drink it. Easier said than done.
The house party started at 7 pm on Saturday and as expected there were a lot of people there. Ethan also noticed that all the boys were suddenly interested in Rosaline again including Mark who was gay. But she was mostly interested in Kevin who she was currently holding hands with. They resisted the urge to stare at her and went inside the house hoping to find the bathroom so they could use the potion in their backpacks to turn into children without anyone noticing the transformation. But on their way, Rosaline intercepted them and said: “I notice that you are staying away from the group. Don’t be shy to socialize, it’s a lot more fun that way.” The two boys thoughts about there plan were then replaced with thoughts about their love for Rosaline and how they would like to kiss her or even get intimate with her. Luckily, another boy arrived and shoved them out of the way to get closer to Rosaline which broke their transe. Ethan and Brian quickly rushed to the bathroom before this could happen again.
They got the youth potion out of the bag and drank it. Then they took off their clothes and waited. After a few minutes they began shrinking and soon they were back at 7 years old. After the shrinking stopped, they looked in the mirror to see their new bodies. Then they put on the children’s clothes they had brought in the bag and put them on. They looked in the mirror with the clothes and got out of the bathroom. Everything and everyone looked so big now. But once they looked at Rosaline they were satisfied to know that their strategy worked. They didn’t get obsessed with her like they did before. In fact they didn’t understand why adults would want to kiss on the lips or worse have sex. That’s so gross, holding hands is enough to show you love your friend anyway.
But now they faced another challenge, getting Rosaline to drink the potion. It was hard to think of a plan now that they had the mental capacity of young children. So they just pulled out the antidote from the bag and walked up to Rosaline. Brian asked : “Rosie we made this for you, can you taste it please?” The girl asked : “What are you kids doing at my party, I made sure to only invite adults and older teens. You should really go back to your parents or guardian now.” The boys froze. Their presence here was suspicious now. Then Ethan answered : Our babysitter brought us here because he wanted to be with you. He only wants to play with you and never with us so we thought you could play with us instead.” But she just said : “Sorry but no, I am busy with more important stuff right now.” Then Kevin said : “Why not? These kids made it just for you.” Rosaline answered : “Kids are cute but they can’t prepare any meal properly at that age. They probably added shampoo or something in that drink.” Kevin said: “You are being a bit too hard on them my love. If you won’t try it then I will.” Before the boys could react he took the potion from their hands and drank it in front of the children’s panicked eyes. How would they stop Rosaline now?
As they walked around the house, they noticed two girls bickering about how Rosaline stole their boyfriends. The boys suggested that they go tell her to stop which they decided to do. Hopefully this could get her to free the minds of the men. But when the girls walked up to her and got mad at her for taking their partners she just said: “Don’t worry, I have a quick fix for you girls.” She then pulled out a spray bottle and sprayed them both with it. Soon after, the two young women looked at he other with lust and began kissing. Rosaline said: “There now you can be each other’s girlfriends.” Well that was another plan down the drain.
But then the boys saw a potted fern in the house and it gave them an idea. They went to the fridge and saw they had all the ingredients they needed for a youth potion. There was even pure water because Rosaline needed it for her love potions. So they brewed their potion while Rosaline was too busy enjoying all the attention she got to notice them in the kitchen. They used their own spit to set the age. Once the potion was ready, they asked one of the boys to give it to her saying that she would surely find the gift sweet. Desperate to impress her, he did just that and she assumed he made it so she drank it. Soon after she shrank down and became a child too. One of the guests at the party went to there home that was nearby to get some of their younger sister’s old clothes. They gave them to Rosaline so she wouldn’t have to swim in her shirt to avoid being naked. But that was the least of her worries, because of her love potion, everyone now thought she was super cute and wanted to pinch her cheeks or tickle her. It was a long night for her.
When the effects ran out and the three kids grew back up, Ethan and Brian confronted Rosaline about her love potions. She promised to stop using them and realized it was wrong to manipulate others like that but she broke down crying when explaining that she was so lonely and felt rejected otherwise. So the two young men promised to help her.
Over the course of the next year, they helped her make conversation with new people and even thought her to bake cupcakes so that she could offer some to her new friends. By the next Valentine’s Day, she had a boyfriend. It wasn’t Kevin but at least she wasn’t alone anymore and he actually loved her without the need for a magic potion.
