Oppur Town Girls #1

Chapter 1
Oppur Town Girls #1

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Chapter Description: There's an odd wind in the Parsons family's attic. And some poking around makes things turn awkward for the Parsons twins and their friends...

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Oppur Town Girls

#1

"Wendy! Honestly..."

"Aww, c’mon, why do you have to be such a stick in the mud, huh, Katey-Cat?"

The teasing tone of Wendy Nancy Flowers was a nice clash with that of one of her friends, Katlyn Ruby Parsons, as the "Katey-Cat" snatched her glasses back. The other two girls in the company of friends - Suzanne Vanessa Parsons and Mel Su Nunez - seemed to take Wendy’s side in things more, each chuckling at the girl’s reaction.

"Hee, ya know, she is kinda right, sis," spoke up the as-slightly-as-possible-younger, although much more cheerful, of the Parsons sisters with a smile. "You needa lighten up!"

"Hmph."

Katlyn and Suzanne were twins, each a redhead of 5’7"; each had glasses, Katlyn’s a little more of the sharp, practical variety while everything that needed saying about Suzanne was covered by the fact that her pair of glasses had pink grips and a butterfly in the lower right corner of the right lens. Katlyn was born to the world on June 10th twelve minutes ahead of Suzanne, and now each of the two of them was two days into their sixteenth year. The only real difference between the two sisters was hairstyle - Katlyn wore hers in a practical ponytail, while Suzanne’s was in childish pigtails anyone else in the world would have already gotten rid of.

While Suzanne may have been called cheerful and Katlyn was stern, their longest-known friend Wendy was a geek and a trickster in its purest form. It probably said enough about her that she had blue tips applied to the tips and bangs of her blonde hair; probably quite a sight to see, especially on a girl who at 5’0" looked out of place among fellow high-schoolers, but she never seemed to mind terribly much.

"You know..." The fourth member of the unit, Mel, was speaking now; with a raised pointer finger as she was ought to do when chiming in with her thoughts on a subject, she brought up something, "If you want Wendy to stop taking your glasses, you could switch to contacts."

Mel was the tallest of the unit, a surprising 5’11" at 15 and six months, and she also had the biggest brain of the bunch. Her own hair was a sandy blonde, and she herself wore contacts which to Wendy’s amusement made her the only one with decent vision.

"Yeah, yeah. I’ve begged the folks, they’re not interested in shelling out the money for them when they can just get a new pair of glasses very few years." With a huff and a frown, Katlyn crossed her arms, "Also apparently Dad’s afraid we’ll hurt our eyes or something."

"’Sides, glasses are easier to put on in the dead of night." Draping herself over the larger girl’s shoulders as much as she could manage, Wendy smirked as she kept speaking. "And I wouldn’t know what ta do if my Katey-Cat was blind in the face of an intruder."

Oh, yes, the most irritating fact about Wendy was probably the fact that the closet she was in had a door that had been kicked open long ago.

"Get off of me!"

Katlyn naturally flicked Wendy off without the greatest of difficulty, which again made their two companions laugh.

"Heh. You know you love me, Katey-Cat..."

"Were it not for Mel and Suzanne I would get a restraining order, Wendy."

"Hmm? Hey, sis..."

The lot of girls were walking down the street, approaching, but not necessarily heading toward, the Parsons household; there was a moving truck outside, and it was Suzanne who first seemed to take notice of it.

"What’s that truck doing here?" It certainly had Suzanne confused, although her sister reacted casually to it; which got her confused, until Katlyn got to reminding her.

"C’mon, don’t you remember? Mom said some guys were supposed to be bringing by some of Grandma’s stuff to store in the attic while she gets set up in her new apartment."

Suzanne blinked, but after a few seconds the memory hit her straight on, "Oh, yeah..."

"Funny, I’ve never known many elderly people who move around," Mel commented with that sort of look she tended to get when thinking too hard about something. "Did anything prompt it?"

"Yes and no." Before anyone could actually ask Katlyn was already on the ball in explaining that one, "Our grandma has always moved a lot, and recently she’s been getting bored with her place. So while the boredom is what’s inspiring to move, what’s really leading to it is the fact that she’s never been one to stay in place."

"Ah, okay."

"Well... You three ladies know what this means..."

The two redheads and the sandy-blonde all turned toward the shortest (yet oldest, by about a month) of the bunch, who grinned in a devious way before making the declaration of, "This means we must investigate my Katey-Cat’s attic!"

"No, it doesn’t!"

Well, with the expected objection out of the way, Wendy only smirked and waited for positive answers. The first one predictably came from Suzanne, who cheerfully answered, "Actually, sis, I bet it’d be fun! We haven’t been up there since we were little, have we?"

"We got Christmas lights out from up there a few months ago, and all that there was up there was dust and stuff. So no--"

"C’mon, I betcha didn’t even really look at the place!" Getting progressively more hyper herself, Wendy raised a finger and went right on talking, "And you forget, now your attic is populated by old-people stuff!"

"Actually, that could be a fun use of an afternoon," chimed in the tree of the bunch. "It isn’t too dusty though, is it? I have allergies."

"Nah, we clean the place up every once in awhile." After a pause to take in what she said, though, Katlyn felt the need to tack on, "Not that that means we’re going up there, though!"

Naturally Wendy had declared victory before the debate had even begun, although now was the time to cite exactly why she knew from the start they were going into the great beyond of the Parsons house, "Ah, but we’ve already got a 75% majority and the other sister’s in on that. You lose, Katey-Cat."

Of course, nothing was complete without proper teasing, and as Wendy nuzzled into the taller girl’s side she was absolutely certain to assure her that, "Don’t worry, I love you anyway!"

"Gee, how comforting a thought... Here, wait one second, then."

With a sigh the older of the twins shuffled over to the moving guys, where one was standing by the truck. "Excuse me, sir?"

"Mmm?" The man, who looked to be maybe forty and was scruffy in every way including moustache, looked down to the redhead confused. "Yeah?"

"How much more is there to carry inside? I live her, so I’m just curious."

"Eh, other guy just wen’ up widda last of it. Couple’a lamps."

"Mmhmm. Thanks."

With that resolved, Katlyn turned and walked back to the group. It was tempting to claim that they had mountains of furniture left to carry in, but Wendy was apparently perfect at knowing when someone was lying to her and so with another sigh she admitted, "Just finished."

"Woo!"

In an amusing case of how cruel reality can be, even with her arms thrown up in celebration Wendy could not pass Mel in height, and the girl seemed to acknowledge that, giving of all things Wendy’s left fist a friendly pat before her arms were lowered once more. When that happened Mel went from patting to chatting, "It is probably best to establish this before we go inside - is anyone wearing an outfit they mind getting dirty?"

Neither of the twins did anything but give a quick, "Mmnmm," while only Wendy answered with a much more character-appropriate, "C’mon, it’s me!" With that established, Mel could only smile and wait for one of the Parsons twins to lead the way into the house.

They were all perfectly familiar with the home, however, and so before either Katlyn or Suzanne could step up to take the position Wendy had already elected to march - literally march - to the lead position of the girls.

"Right this way, ladies! Second house to the right of the curb and straight on for about 30 seconds!"

"Cut that out!" Katlyn quickly grabbed the short girl’s collar from behind, although predictably she saw the opportunity to start running in place frantically like a real life cartoon character. She was also too savvy to make more of a fool of herself than usual as well, it seemed, as the very instant Katlyn let go she stopped the insane squirming of her arms, her legs, and her head. "Ugh, just go..."

"Ya know, Katey-Cat, I--"

"Just go!"

"Don’t havea be mean, sis." Suzanne gave Wendy a quick pat on the back with one hand while her sister got one from Mel, and then a second later she set to leading the crew into the house herself. As they walked she talked a bit more, "Heh. ’Member when we were kids and we’d go up and put on all those old clothes upstairs, sis?"

"Oh, wow, I bet seeing my Katey-Cat playing dress-up was sooo cute!" Wendy extended things a second later by feeling the need to tack on, "Personally? Hoping there was nekkidness, and that you get nostalgiac."

Predictably Katlyn groaned as this, and then she made a point of asking a question that could just barely, barely be considered a joke of the group’s smartest member, "Mel, how do you go about reporting someone for sexual harrassment?"

"Well..."

"Eheh..." Biting her lip, Suzanne twisted the doorknob then stepped aside as the moving guy who had been inside came out the door without acknowledging them besides a quick thanks, "Listen, can’t you two stop fighting for just a little bit?"

"Who’s fighting? I’m just talking about how much I loooove my Katey-Cat."

"Har. Really, I think most of the time you’re like this just to annoy me. If that is, in fact, the case, mission accomplished, Wendy."

The quartet of girls went silent for a second there, the walk to the attic thankfully being quiet enough for everyone to collect their thoughts. Most of their days were like this to varying degrees, although contrary to how it appeared to outsiders there were those times when Wendy and Katlyn got along just fine. Usually those were on days when the other two members of the group were preoccupied or when Wendy wasn’t feeling all that playful, but the days weren’t as rare as one would probably think.

Naturally, though, with Wendy being her usual self she did not stay silent for too long; to be exact, she got to speaking as soon as the girls reached the attic.

It was clear enough where she was aiming to go with things when Wendy grabbed Katlyn’s hand, but when she spoke it became undoubtable, "Ooo, Katey-Cat, let’s go get you dressed up..." Granted, there was such a size difference that triying to tug Katlyn around the room failed spectacularly. "Aww..."

"Yeesh..."

Mel, meanwhile, was trying her best not to cough. After a couple of minor ones slipped out, however, she seemed to get a bit better. "I’m sorry, but this room is rather dusty. It’s not too bad so I should adjust soon, but right now..."

"Uh huh, we understand." With that established Suzanne headed off on her own before the rest of the group, over to where Grandma’s couch had been placed amongst other old furniture and a fine selection of cardboard boxes; it was one of the boxes in particular that seemed to get her attention, as within an instant she gave a call of, "Everybody, c’mere!"

Naturally following an order from Suzanne was not quite as divisive a course of action as it usually was when the order came from Wendy, so the remaining trio of girls all hurried over. What they saw in the most readily apparent box to the eye seemed to spark a series of different reactions.

"Hmm... Magazines? Wait..."

"Gyah!"

"Ooo, this one’s mine..."

"Hmm?" Not quite what Suzanne was calling them over for and in fact the most visible box had gone unnoticed, but when she turned to look at the same one as everyone else she was instantly reduced to only being able to ’say’, "Geh... ha..."

"Uh... Suzanne?" While what was apparently a box the father Parsons had intended to keep his children from knowing existed was now being raided by a girl with blue tips and a heart full of lust, Katlyn was addressing her sister as she, Mel, and the sister in question all tried to shake that box out of their memories, "I’m guessing that, uh, isn’t what you wanted to show us, huh?"

"N-No! Here..." The proper box was actually in front of where Suzanne sat on the couch as it turned out, and so Mel and Katlyn climbed over the back to sit on either side of her while a few seconds later Wendy shuffled around the side to do the same, eyes not darting from her new favorite box in the whole wide world. "See?"

Mel was the first to react, drawing her head in with a curious stare at the inside, "Photos?"

There was indeed a mountain of them, of what seemed like the entire family. They only filled maybe half the box, but just that many photos alone would probably take all day to sort through; ’twas Suzanne who was the first to properly dig in, and the picture she withdrew happened to draw a little smile from her before the other two girls portaking in picture-browsing moved their heads closer in to get a look themselves.

"Huh. Is that you, Katlyn, or Suzanne?"

"Heh... Uh, can we stash that one before--"

Too late, as the girl Katlyn had been dreading the inclusion of in this conversation was drawn to it by the mention of the name she seemed to most enjoy hearing.

"Let me see!" Wendy of course asserted herself by practically leaping across the twins’ laps, propping herself up on the legs of a now slightly shaken Suzanne in order to get a look. "Aww, look at whichever of you that is..."

"See, that’s Suzanne. See the pigtails?" Mel pointed to the tot in the picture’s hair to emphasize her point, although it was not until the pigtailed girl in question piped up that she was rarely proven wrong.

"Actually, when we were younger Katlyn wore pigtails while our parents had my hair cut really short, like a boy. It was easier to tell us apart that way."

"Gee, sis, thanks for ratting me out."

"I think the word is rattling you out, Katey-Cat." Pointing toward the item in the hand of a blissful baby that was now a grumpy grown-up, Wendy grinned in delight. "Ya know, I bet if we look in here we could find your precious toy and letcha give it a few more shakes for old time’s sake, huh?"

Mel had some thoughts on that, surprisingly, "Actually, it may not hurt to find out where any baby objects are being kept. You never know when the need might come up."

"Honestly?" Smirking a bit now, Katlyn went on to say exactly what the thought was that was making her suddenly look partially amused, "If I ever find any decent guys, chances are Wendy will kill them."

"You know it, Katey-Cat! You’re meant for me and just me..."

"In either case... Get off us already!" Amusingly enough to Mel, Suzanne, and even Wendy, Katlyn emphasized her point by shoving the tiny girl not just off of her lap and that of her sister but off of the couch entirely. The blue-tipped girl hit the ground with an, "Oof!", but she was back up and laughing with everyone else a second later.

After a few seconds of that, though, Wendy was naturally back to her feet. She got to them with something of a bounce, and once she stood before the three sitting girls (for once having the verticle advantage over them, if only barely in the case of Mel) she naturally took the opportunity to make a dramatic declaration of, "Now then, let us go dig through baby stuff!"

And before Katlyn could even actually protest her sister jumped into urging her to cooperate, "C’mon, sis, I bet it’ll be fun!"

"I always find these sorts of things interesting myself," Mel piped in, apparently content to argue once more for why they should do as Wendy was wanting, "It is a nice experience to see your things from when you were a child, you know?"

"Mm... Fine. Ugh, can’t you three ever do anything without my approval?"

"Sure, Katey-Cat, but we need you ta make it fun." Once again Wendy then took Katlyn’s hand in an attempt to tug her along behind her. In this case it worked, mostly because of the fact that the girl didn’t bother to put up any form of resistance.

It wasn’t as though Wendy knew where she was going exactly, but that did not stop Suzanne and Mel from following right behind the other pair of girls. It did, however, cause Suzanne to issue her thoughts on the matter, "The attic is pretty big, so we might have to dig a bit for that kind of thing."

"Eh, find the cribs and we’ll probably find the rest right there with it," the older twin pondered as the crushing girl dragged her about, although after a second of reflection she seemed to remember something, "Heh, sis, remember how when we were little we were terrified to come up here?"

"Aww, did something have my p’ecious Katey-Cat scared? Whatever could it be?"

"Shut it, Wendy." With that said, though, Katlyn did get to explaining quickly, "We used to hear all kinds of sounds and stuff up here, and we always thought the place was haunted. We realize now of course it was probably just rats or something though, okay?"

"Rats? Are you sure - rats carry disease, so if there are rats we may want to head downstairs before--"

"Tch. Mel, c’mon, don’t be a scaredy-cat." Grinning as she continued to drag Katlyn about, although at a slower pace now as they found themselves weaving through junk, "There’s only one type of cat welcome in this house, isn’t that right, Katey-Cat?"

"Ignoring the fact that we have a cat, aren’t you?"

"Eh."

"Back to the original subject, eh..." Suzanne seemed almost hesistant to say whatever it was that had come to mind, but she didn’t take too long to spit it out either, "Actually, I sometimes still do hear things up here at night and get scared."

Relief of course came when it became apparent by the looks on the faces of her friends and sister that they all found that strangely cute. It was only Katlyn who broadcasted the thought though, pulling herself totally free of Wendy in order to file in line beside her sister and tossle her hair with an assurance of, "Don’t worry about it."

"Heh. Ya know what’d be hilarious?"

Those were never good words to hear out of the mouth of Wendy Flowers, and the whole of the group came to a stop so she could turn and tell them to their faces exactly what it was that’d be hilarious in her mind, "This whole big sister, little sister thing you two’ve got going? It’s cute, but it’d be so much better if Suzie’d come out first. Or even better, even better... What if being around all this baby stuff made my Katey-Cat get all little and let her little sister be the big sister with a big age difference? Mel, agree with me, that’d be great."

"Well, I suppose theoretically--"

With a huff the older of the twins of course piped in to muse that, "Well, fortunately, these musings have no basis in reality." As if to just prove the point Katlyn was positive to tack on, "So that’s got no more chance of happening than people taking off flying or lifting cars over their heads, thanks."

Both Mel and Suzanne looked happy to jump in there, but Wendy did not let them as she made an observation that seemed to please her a good deal, "Well, the things you say are perfectly normal in comics. Therefore! I take that as permission - nay, a request - to immortalize little sister Katey-Cat in ink and paper form! I will get on it first thing when I get home."

"Urgh... You’re so tiny that I could probably break your fists to stop you from doing so just by staring at them hard enough, you know that?"

"Ah, but you would never hurt someone you love, Katey-Cat!"

"Had no quelms about it a second ago when I threw you on the floor!"

"Ahem..." Mel put a fist over her mouth to suppress giggles at the exchange, trying to turn this admittedly amusing argument back on the proper course, "I suggest we shelve this conversation for the time being and quickly set to finding what we were looking for, don’t you two agree?"

"Yeah, c’mon, sis," urged Suzanne as she took Katlyn’s arm in hers, "Just ignore Wendy, you know she’s just silly."

"And I take pride in that quality!"

"Quiet, you."

"Aww, but Katey-Cat..." Wendy was grinning despite her attempts to look mockingly solumn, and she soon made it clear why exactly that was, "You finally just confessed your love to me!"

"I did no such--"

"Oh?" Wendy was grinning in an almost insane way now, and the smile was just getting bigger. "I said ’you would never hurt someone you love’. And you said ’I’ - as in you, Katey-Cat - ’just did’. In other words... Gimme a smooch, my kitty!"

"Hee, uh..." Before Katlyn could get any more angry with the short blue-tipped blonde, her younger twin saw fit to break in once more, "Hey, sis, you know where in here those things were at?"

Unfortunately, Katlyn did not and so they had to keep properly searching. "Nope, sorry, it’s kind of hard to tell where you’re at up here..."

Wendy of couse had a comment on that one, although she chose to focus on a different target from usual in doing so, "Ya know what, nope. We’ve got an easier way - Mel, use your tree powers to find it!"

"Umm... I am not sure what you are referring to--"

"C’mon, you’re freakishly tall! How hard can it be to get up on one of these boxes or something and scan the place when you’re tall as an oak?"

Mel of course had reservations, although bringing up her height didn’t so much get a good rise out of her unlike what Wendy probably hoped for, "Boxes and things usually aren’t enough to support a person’s weight, so that would not be very safe."

"Alright, if you won’t, I will."

Of course, though, before Wendy could find a box to climb on she was already insulted out of doing it by the apple of her eye, "Not like there’d be a lot of point in that. You’re so tiny you could probably stand on an actual crate and not be able to see high enough to look into Mel’s eyes."

"Aww, why most you be so hurtful to the ones you love, Katey-Cat?"

"Hmm..." Perhaps Wendy’s plea toward Mel did have some basis, as the sandy-blonde spotted something while scanning about the room. "Girls, I think I see it."

Instantly everybody shut up before another argument could break out, and Mel got to lead the way now; it was not quite a straight line, however, as the Parsons family attic was loaded with stuff. Point of fact while working their way through it the clutter of the room made the younger of the redheads have the pondering, "Sis, I think Mom and Dad are packrats."

"Yeah, look in their closet sometime."

"I’d like to look in your closet, Katey-Cat - I’d be sure to drag ya out, even if you were kicking and screaming the whole way!"

"I came out as heterosexual years ago, Wendy."

"There’s an easy explanation - ya came out the wrong door!"

OooAAAaaoooooAAHoooooooo...

"Gah!" Naturally in that instant Suzanne’s arms flew around Katlyn’s neck; none of the other girls was quite as disturbed by what sounded like a ghostly moan, even if most looked either shaken or suprrised by it. "Th-tha’--"

"Heh... It’s just wind, sis." Katlyn liked her personal space, but she didn’t move to pry her poor younger sis off just yet. In fact, she was prompted to wrap an arm around the waist identical to her own, giving a reassuring grin. "Old houses like ours have things like that happen all the time."

Mel stepped in to back the older Parsons up on this, even if she was not in as quite a big a hurry to join in on the physical comforting front, "Yes, it happens a lot. Attics are especially prone to it because they are often not as well insolated."

"Give..."

All eyes turned toward Wendy now, who was staring at her feet, silent after that initial word. The golden silence did not last too terribly long, however, as an instant later she mumbled out in a low voice, "Me..."

"Uh, Wendy?"

While Suzanne along with everyone else awaited to see exactly what was up with the usually hyper girl, the only response was another mumbling, "Your...."

"Wend--"

"SOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUULLLL!!!!"

"Gyack!"

Shouting out loud enough with a creepy enough expression and shaky enough palms was enough to make Suzanne terrified all over again.

And naturally, it also successfully ticked her big / equally sized sister off, "Wendy!"

"Aw, c’mon! That bit’s right outta Pok?mon, ya know - nothin’ scary."

"I hate to interrupt, but perhaps we should--"

"Y-Yeah, Mel. Yeah..." Still shaken but trying to force a smile over the matter, Suzanne decided to try to transition back to the subject at hand. "Can we keep g-going, please?"

"Sure." Just in case her sister wasn’t totally prepared to let go of her, though, Katlyn gave her a pick-me-up peck on the cheek, "You alright?"

"That’s sweet," observed Mel, who reached behind her head to tug back on her hair, getting it a bit more bunched together although not bound in any way, while she observed the twins have their moment. "I used to have moments like that with my sister, before she headed off to college."

Now that the crew started to move again, Wendy quickly got to pretending like she had never frightened the younger of the twins, instead choosing to focus on the person of the group besides her who was not a Parsons, "’Sat so, tree? As we all know I’ve got no brothers or sisters, so you’ve got me curious - what’s it like? Exactly like Suzie and my Katey-cat?"

"Well..." That took a little reflecting, both on the nature of her own relationship with her sister but also that between Suzanne and Katlyn, "In some ways. In some others, however, it is not very comparable. You have to keep in mind, my sister has six or seven years on me, and we have similar personalities."

"Well, know who ya take it from at least..."

"Personally I’d love to know who you take your personality from, Wendy," volunteered up Katlyn; the twins were no longer quite cuddling together, but the older of the pair was still keeping as close as possible to her sibling, "Just so that I can avoid them at all costs."

That seemed to make her sister uneasy, strangely; Suzanne quickly explained it, however, "Mmm... Sis? Can you and Wendy try not ta fight for a little while?"

"Sure, sis. You got it."

"Hmm..."

"Oh, God, Wendy’s thinking, that’s not a good sign..."

"Nah, nah, Katey-Cat, just got me thinkin’..." Wendy had a finger to her chin, tapping it lightly against in contemplation; after a few seconds, however, she turned to face the younger of the two girls with identical bodies and same-colored hair, "Suzie - when you were a kid, did you prefer ’Suzie’ or ’Anna’ or what?"

"Umm..." That was actually an interesting question, one that temporarily caused Suzanne’s troubles to fade as she started to mull it over, "Well, everyone kinda called me something different... Mom’s always liked Annie, and Dad still calls me Suzie sometimes."

Katlyn chimed in to give her own two cents on the matter though, poking her identical twin in the cheek as she did so, "And I always called ya Sissy myself, remember?"

"Hee, yeah..."

"You called your sister a wuss as a term of endearment?"

"No, Wendy..." With a sigh, Katlyn quickly elaborated to her bordderline stalker, "It’s like a kiddy way of saying ’sister’, get it?" Once she got a small but hesitant not in return from the grinning shorty the girl changed the subject, though, "What is it with you today and little kids anyway? Looking for the one type of person shorter than you are?"

"Hey, Suzie showed the world a picture of my Katey-Kitten. What better way is there to get me interested in something, huh?"

Mel jumped in to ponder on that one, although her answer was as close to sarcastic as someone like Mel was ever going to achieve, "Would the answer be to tie it into comic books and videogames as much as possible?"

"Right, but good luck doing that with babies."

That of course led Suzanne to offhandedly observe that, "Comics’d be pretty easy, actually." Only response was Wendy’s palm held out but facing the ground, tipping left and right as if to say ’Kinda’.

OooAAAaaoooooAAHoooooooo...

The violent sound of the wind would likely not have bothered Suzanne as much this time, were it not for the fact that it hit her dead on; the fact that she felt the gust, one as sudden and as strong as any she had ever felt, pour through the attic from nowhere made the girl throw her arms around her average-sized chest and shiver a great deal.

Far moreso, in fact, than any of the girls would expect from such a thing; naturally while Wendy and Mel were confused over the matter more than anything, Katlyn dived right in to seeing what exactly was the cause of her sister’s reaction. "Sis? What is it?", was the immediate question, as Katlyn moved over in a position to be hugged once again.

Suzanne accomodated on that one, but after she had her sister in her arms the only real answer, she could could muster was, "It’s like..." The redhead hesitated, but then finished with an incredibly vague summary of her thoughts on the matter, "It’s like this wind doesn’t feel right."

"Ya know, we need a fifth person in the group to be all snotty, and then Katey-Cat could argue with them until it comes out they’ve really got a hard of gold. It’d be fun."

All three girls were instantly distracted and confused by that one, although it was the bookworm of the bunch who was inspired to press it for details, "What inspired that thought, Wendy?"

"Eh, I dunno."

"Well, if anything, we don’t need someone we’re not going to like just so you can watch me argue with them," protested Katlyn, or perhaps she more just pointed out the obvious. "The easier route’d probably just be to haul around a video camera with you and turn it on whenever you say something to me."

"Sis..."

"Sorry, sorry." To make up for it Katlyn just hugged her sister a little tighter, before finally letting go. Still, she wasn’t quite going to let her twin fly solo just yet, "I’m sure the wind’s nothing major, but try to relax, okay?"

"Mmm, alright..."

With that whole matter straightened out the group finally got back to walking, maneuvering some more around the room until the youngest / tallest of the bunch got them to their destination.

"Huh. Underwhelming."

"That’s it?" Unlike Wendy, Katlyn’s response was not to the sight but to the girl; really she seemed visibly ticked, but she scaled it back when her sister gave her a sideways glance, "You have us search through this place and almost cause my sister to have a heart attack, then you’re underwhelmed?"

"Uh huh."

OOoooowhaaaaaaooooooooooo..UMPH!!

This time both twins were hit dead-on by a blast of air, and much like before neither sister could help but break down into shivers. Their solution of course was to hug, or rather that was Suzanne’s solution, but other than a pleased smile at the cuteness of it all on the part of Wendy neither of their friends knew how to treat the whole matter.

"Brr..." Katlyn was the first one to take any real action, and that was by giving her sister a quick squeeze before breaking away and backing up away from the group. "S-sorry, I just..."

Something suddenly seemed off about both twins, but Katlyn much moreso. While Suzanne had now put her hands over her stomach, holding it as if it was having a minor cramp, her big sister’s own problems saw her looking like she was having trouble doing anything, thinking and breathing included; eventually the girl put a palm to her head, turning away from the group with a simple explanation of, "I-I need to sit. I’m going over... over to the couch..."

Before anyone could press the point the redhead took off; her sister seemed to be in need of resting her legs as well as she lowered an instant later so that her bottom was seated on one of the boxes. "Uhm... Can one of you go for--"

"More than happy." A second later Wendy had taken off, leaving Mel to look over one inexplicably ill twin while she headed off to be with her person preference of the two of them; apparently despite whatever it was bothering her Katlyn was still more than capable of moving quickly though, as Wendy was surprised to see that her Katey-Cat had already slipped totally out of view and presumably was already knew the couch once more.

As Wendy walked the natural course of action was to shout a call of, "Yoo hoo? Katey-Cat?", although that yielded no results; a disappointment really, but hey, at least she knew where the girl was headed so catching her early was just the preference rather than the necessity.

And then, she reached the couch; no immediate sight of her love, so the natural conclusion was that she was lying down. With that thought in mind, the blue-tipped girl asked in a sweeted-up voice, "Katey-Cat?" before reaching her head over the back of the couch.

Meanwhile, of course, the other two girls of the four were still by the cribs they had found and quickly forgotten about. Mel, being the youngest and most scholarly of the bunch, wasn’t usually one to offer emotional support so much as provide facts, was rather awkward in her question of, "Suzanne, is everything okay?", even if she did do a fairly nice job of masking it.

"Mmm... I just feel... Kind of like..." The girl’s hands found themselves on her stomach once more there, the sound of it grumbling accompanying the action; relatedly, her face seemed to scrunch up, as though the girl with red pigtails was trying her best not to puke. "Ugh..."

"Here..." Mel decided to take the smaller girl’s arm, helping her back to her feet from the box she had planted herself on moments earlier, "It is not good for you to be in an attic like this if you are feeling sick. We’ll go find our friends and then get you two to your rooms, okay?"

"O-Okay..."

Mel felt Suzanne take ahold of her arm, the shorter girl’s head resting against it as she held the wrist; while certainly awkward, the girl heading into her sophomore year said nothing about it, instead politely allowing her friend to continue to use her as a crutch if that was what she was needed for.

"Suzanne, how are you feeling? Are you nauseous?"

"Mmm... Just hurts..." Was hard to really breathe or focus enough to say more than that, but the younger of the twins tried to explain a little better as Suzanne slowly walked her through the cluttered attic, "It’s like it’s burning. And knotting, and...

Mel cut her off with a simple use of the words, "That’s fine," which gave Suzanne free reign to quiet down as the pair of them neared the couch.

"Heehee... Katey! Katey!"

Two sets of giggling could be heard on the couch, although neither of the girls approaching it could see either of their friends over the back of it. And for that matter, the giggling that had to belong to the older of the twins sounded higher-pitched than her usual...

"Gah!"

"Ack!"

Looking over the couch did indeed yield the sight of Wendy, smiling and tickling the tummy of a baby. A baby with long red hair, at that.

"Uhh... Where did..."

Wendy quickly broke Suzanne, "It’s my Katey-Cat." And the girl said it in the kind of way she would in stating the name of a brand of jelly or something as casual as that, like this was something resembling possible.

"Mmm. Is this a prank?" That was the most natural explanation of course, and Mel presented her theory with a raised pointer finger as she often did, "If so, the two of you should have tried one a tad more... plausible."

"I don’t... I don’t think it’s a prank, Mel. But, Wendy, uh..." Breathing was still hard for Suzanne, and in large part due to the pain she couldn’t freak out as much as instinct told her to, "Doesn’t this seem a bit weird to you?"

"Not really. Think that’s weird?"

Mel took the initiative in answering that, "Well, hypothetically if what you’re describing is the case, then--"

"MMmm!"

A second after this odd noise from the younger - well, apparently older now - of the twins, Suzanne began to tug on the tree’s sleeve. Once the sandy-blonde turned to her, Suzanne explained in a whiny, almost tearful voice, "M-Melly, I... I think I did stinky pants..."

"Wha!?"

It was rare that Mel was confused, but now was she ever. Naturally she turned her head toward Suzanne instantly, curious what in the world she was talking about. Was not hard to see she meant exactly what she said, as the girl’s face was scrunched up in a distorted fashion, and even more noticeably a strong odor was clearly beginning to pour out into the air, only growing stronger as it did.

"Mmmmel-- Melly..."

"Hee! Heeha... We-Wendeeeheeheehee...." Katlyn was apparently trying her very best to calm down, but the way Wendy kept rubbing a finger on her tummy was doing another but making the tot laugh her head off, "Stahhhhpiht!"

"Aww, but you’re such a cutey-wooty, Katey!"

Still, Wendy relented. In fact, she even did her tiny crush a tiny favor, standing up from the couch and then turning so that she and the girl she was holding could see the enormous blonde and the apparently stinky redhead. And strangely enough to Mel, who at this point was only prevented from freaking out by her tendency to analyze everything as it happened, not even this whole, bizarre incident with Suzanne was enough to confuse either of them by the looks on their faces.

In fact, the toddler that everyone but Mel seemed to have no trouble believing was Katlyn even casually commented on this whole matter with the stray comment of, "Aww, think Sissy didda poop..."

"Mmmelly..." Suzanne didn’t even seem to notice / care about her tiny older sister’s observation or Wendy’s odd indifference, "Y-you know howta.... how to.... Mel-lly, c’n you gimme a change? Pleeeease?"

"Uhh..." Rare stammering now, that question and Katlyn’s prior interjection being what it took to get Mel unsettled enough to dissolve into that. In fact she paused to wipe a line of sweat from her brow, trying to be rational in the face of craziness that Wendy seemed perfectly okay with taking at face value, "L-Look, aren’t your parents--"

"Uh-uh." Katlyn was talking now, still a little giggly from all of the tickling even now that it had long since passed. A poke in the side by one of Wendy’s fingers did not help, though, as she just got back to squealing; after a few seconds she calmed down just enough to explain, "Mommy an’ Daddy wenta, uh...."

While Katlyn spent a few seconds stumbling over that question, her smelly sister broke in to explain with, "Uh.... They’re at work." The entire time, she had her arms crossed behind her and she stared at the floor meekly, only looking up occasionally toward Mel, pleadingly.

"Uh huh. Movin’ guys jus’ hadda key, an’ we gots a cam’uh jussa be sure dey didn’t take nuttin’... An’ big Sissa’s wiff’er boyf’end..." That idea sounded kind of icky to Katlyn now that she thought about it, but-- Well, okay, that thought didn’t last long either way, as she found herself dropped into a cradling position in Wendy’s arms and soon after began to kick and giggle in equally heavy amounts as the second-tiniest girl in the room began to tickle her once more.

Wendy didn’t coo to her again, though, as instead she decided to speak, "I can do it if you want, Suzanne! Heh... It’d be just like seein’ my Katey-Cat naked... Well, when she’s big, anyway. But she’s such a cutey-wooty right now I dunno if I want her back that way..." The blue-tipped girl began to rub her nose into the girl she was holding’s tummy after making the statement, which did not help at all with the squeals of joy coming out of her tiny crush.

"Uh..." While certainly open to anyone on Earth doing it at this present moment in time, Suzanne had to admit through her quivering and a red face (not to mention a bad smell and an icky feeling), "I th-iiink Melly’d be better, Winny... S-Sorry..."

"Eh."

Didn’t seem particularly bothered by the rejection, at least, as Wendy went back to playing with the redhead that didn’t stink a second later with no more thought to matter. The sandy-blonde found herself disappointed by the whole matter, though, mostly since at this point she was wanting to run home, lock the doors behind her, and beat her head up against the wall until she either woke up or suffered enough brain damage to be as accepting of this as the tiny yet teenage girl in the Pokemon shirt was.

Still... "O-Okay. Here, let’s go downstairs and we can... I don’t know, find something. Afterward, I may call an ambulance. If not for the two of you, then for myself."

Suzanne gladly went for that one; in fact, once more she made a point of attaching herself to the taller girl’s arm and waited to be walked down the stairs and cleaned up.

Not that the other two girls, who went back to lying on the couch after they were gone, really cared, though. Sure Katlyn was glad that her Sissy wasn’t going to be smelly anymore, but she was much more focused on the older girl playing with her and Wendy was much more focused on being the older girl playing.

Still, after a second, Wendy felt her thoughts seem to hit on something, something that had not occurred to her for whatever reason. "Hmm... Katey-Cat? I guess it is really weird that this doesn’t feel all that weird, huh?"

"Mmm?" While the Katey-Cat in question was vaguely aware of her grown-up self, she was not really sure what Wendy was making reference to. "Whatcha means?"

"Well, you’re all little, and I don’t think Suzie usually does that, does she?" Wasn’t entirely sure, really, but Wendy could not think of it having happened before and she had known the Parsons family since she was in the sixth grade. "And how about that wind? That felt really weird too..."

Ooowwhhaaaooowhoooooaah...

Meanwhile, just as they were reaching the bottom of the steps Suzanne managed to stomach past the state of her bottom in order to ask a question that was bugging her right now, "Mmmel-- Melly?"

"Hmm?" The tree was still trying to get a hold on things, but being away from the two upstairs and out of that dusty attic helped. Even if the dust having her slightly congested had also helped to offset the smell, which was now wafting through the air at full force. "What is it?"

"Uhh..." This felt like a silly question, but Suzanne had to ask it. "Uh, do I... Do I usually m-make stinky pants? Doesn’t feel norma... normal, b-but.... don’t ’member doin’ anything else..."

"Umm... No, you usually--" Mel trailed off there, though, having to think on this. She certainly wasn’t expecting five minutes ago to have to be telling Suzanne that she usually used the toilet, nor should there have been any reason to hesitate on it. But then again, Suzanne seemed awfully distraught, and the answer to this question could help to reassure her... Only problem was that Mel didn’t know what answer was the one she should give, then.

So she had to ponder the matter a tad. Either way she went she was probably going to have some repercussions to it...

"M-Melly?"

"Umm, no, you..." Alright, decision time, "No, you usually do it."

"Mmm..." Suzanne seemed hesitant for only a second before she reacted by cuddling greatfully into her tree of a friend’s arm once more as they approached her bedroom. "Th-thanks Melly... Jus’ wanted to be sure I wasn’t forgetting nothin’..."

After a few seconds, however, Suzanne was not able to let the issue drop. Not while something else was still bugging her. "Uhh... Mmmelly? Y-You don’t m-mind changin’ my stinky pants, do ya?"

"Hmm? What do you mean? I already promised that I would do it for you.

"Ya... It doesn’t bother ya, does it?"

Well, yes, it did. But Mel wasn’t going to say that, so instead she just put a comforting arm around her friend’s shoulders and lied in her most honest voice, "Of course it doesn’t." And that got her a loving hug from the smelly older girl.

"Th-thanks Melly... Don’t like doody booty..."

Well, that was disturbingly blunt. Mel could only sigh, though, giving her friend a supporting hand up and down her shoulder before walking her into her bedroom. That brought with it the sight of a particular variety of barred bed that Suzanne didn’t even respond to, while Mel was taken aback and even partially jumped back at.

Naturally, being pressed to the girl’s side and all, there was no way in the world that Suzanne was going to miss that one, soiled britches or not, "What’s wrong, M-Melly?"

"It’s nothing." Mel didn’t even have to think on this particular lie, instead making the statement as quickly as she could and then trying to turn the subject toward another uncomfortable one, "Alright, how does this work? I am familiar with doing it, but--"

"Mmmm...." Suzanne walked away from Mel now, legs shaking as she tried as best she could to walk in a way that was easy on her waste. Once she got to the very large crib, its side conveniently bent down, she laid across it. "I’m too big for tables, s-so.... So Mommy us’ly has me lay like this. All the stuff’s inna drawers... And, uh..."

The redhead was hesitant about this last part, but thinking about it actually seemed vaguely pleasant to the messy girl as Mel could make out a bashful smile as she approached herself. After a few seconds, though, the girl with glasses explained for her similarly visually impaired, contacts-equipped friend, "Uhh, you don’t h-hafta, but when Mommy changes me or my sissy, she, uh... Hee, afta she’s done she checks so we know fer sure that booty smells like clean..."

"I... I doubt that I will be doing that, sorry."

"Ah, okay..." Suzanne seemed to understand, but it was clear that she was strangely disappointed as well. "Jus’ wanna know for sure my pants isn’t still all stinkies..."

Mel could only counter that with a sigh, rubbing her brow as she did. Deciding she certainly was not going to commit to something such as this even if her friend was insistent on it, the sandy-blonde instead chose to attempt to change the subject by way of walking over to her friend’s dresser and getting to searching.

Found the right drawer right off the bat, although it was filled with things that, in light of present events, Mel was not as shocked to see as she should have been but still was not quite counting on. "Uh, Suzanne? You do know that this is filled with diapers, right?"

"Uh huh. Wh-what else would I have, Melly?"

"Umm... It’s nothing, Suzanne."

That seemed the safest answer. Apparently so, as the redhead did not press the matter any further -- instead she turned to other matters, "Uh... M-Melly? Think you c’n call me somethin’ else? Not real used to usin’ my big name..."

"That’s fine.... What do you prefer?"

"Uh... I d’nno..."

"I guess I will think up something, then." Not that Mel particularly cared about this line of conversation while presenting rounding up supplies to clean up a friend who apparently had something very wrong with her right now, but it was at least a decent diversion from the whole matter. "How does Annie work?"

Got a giggle from the stinky teen in response to that, who quickly explained, "Hee, that’s what Mommy calls me..."

"I remembered that you mentioned it in the attic, actually."

"Hee.... Forgot that..."

Mel probably would have as well, had that not been just before the point that reality decided to hit the pipe. Regardless, having gotten the supplies there was no more putting off this particularly inexplicable clean-up that the tree was now tasked with.

Well, she guessed the place to start was removing the slightly older girl’s pants, which naturally was not a welcome prospect. No sense actually focusing on this though, so instead the sandy-blonde chose to look at and talk to her soiled friend, "Where is your sister’s bed, anyway?" There also was, of course, the question of what had happened to the bed of Suzanne’s that had been replaced with the crib she was being changed in.

"Huh?" The girl in glasses looked at the girl similarly visually impaired with confusion, blinking numbly while she tried to figure out what exactly was being referred to. After a few seconds though, she decided to forget whatever Mel was talking about and instead just correct her, "Me an’ Katey share this’un. She jus’ sleeps while I hold ’er..."

Well, that would have been kind of cute to consider regularly, but since these were two of her three best friends being spoken about here Mel couldn’t quite see it that way and didn’t really want to. Either way, as she got Suzanne’s jeans off she was a bit surprised by one particular thing -- despite all of the replacements in Mel’s objects to accommodate her present problem, her underwear were still of a sort never fit to contain the substance they were visibly full of.

"Okay, S-- Annie, you’re going to need to help me to... to get your panties off."

"M--My what?" As if to check what on Earth the girl changing her was talking about, Suzanne craned her neck up to get a look. And sure enough, when she saw pink cloth rather than white plastic she let out a squeak of surprise.

"Ah! Wh... Mmmelly, where’s my dydee!?"

"Wait... what!?"

"My dydee!" Apparently Suzanne didn’t quite get what about that had her friend confused, so instead she began to squirm while caught somewhere between embarrassment and fright, "I’m not s’posedta have grown-up pants yet!"

Mel had no idea how to approach this situation, but she quickly decided that just trying to calm down the girl was the safest option. Besides that, with the frenzy Suzanne was working herself into getting her underwear off was going to be impossible, "S-- Annie, I’m sure that it is not that big of a--"

"Nuh uh, it is!" Suzanne squirmed more now, red for what several different and equally valid reasons, "These’ve gotta be Hannah’s! An’ if Mommy finds out I stinkied in ’em I might get a spankin’!"

"Hmm..." Well, if Mel were to tell the girl the truth, that’d probably just raise plenty of questions especially in regards to the lies she had already told. But there was another way.

With a forced but genuine-looking smile, one light and kind, Mel made an offer, "Well, how about I throw those out and then she never has to know?"

"B-but... what if, uh... Um... Mmmelly, what if Hannah notices them missin’?"

"Well..." Considering these weren’t even Hannah’s Mel could guarantee she wasn’t going to notice, but that again wasn’t something she could just come out and say outright. Instead, it was time to tell the truth to further a lie, "Hey, I have panties but I don’t have any clue how many I have or what they look like. Because of that I do not think that your big sister will notice."

"R-really, Mmmelly? Not just sayin’ that?"

Gentle little smile still forced, Mel reached forward to tossle the slightly older giggle’s hair in reassurance, which also served to make her giggle, "No. And if she does notice, I can take the blame for it - your sister never has to know."

At that Suzanne could’ve bounced up and given her large friend a hug, but she managed to restrain herself. Instead, she settled for a happy little gurgle and a, "Thanks, Melly..."

"You’re welcome. Let’s just get to work then, alright?"

"Hee... K-kay..."

As Mel finally managed to get Suzanne properly stripped, it was pretty hard not to gag at seeing her friend’s feces-covered bottom, much less smelling it or considering the fact that she was about to be wiping it for her.

Still, Mel tried not to show that on her face. She was not quite able to force a smile or anything, but as she grabbed wipes and Suzanne raised her legs she did at least manage to get a look of a casual sort of concern. Helped that she was definitely concerned, even if not casually.

"Heeah!"

"Mmm?" The noise that Suzanne had made the second Mel started to wiping her was quite a pecuiliar one. The girl doing the cleaning could not help but look up and ask, "S-- Annie, is everything alright?"

"Hee..." Apparently so, since the girl was smiling and looked to be trying to suppress giggles, "Jus’ tickly, Melly..."

"That’s alright, I just thought that I would make sure."

Suzanne seemed to appreciate that detail; while she had to struggle to suppress further giggles as her friend got back to work, she had to say, "Th-Thanks Melly, butcha don’t need to worry..."

"It’s hard not to." Suzanne smiled at that, but Mel was saying it as both a friendly assurance and the actual truth (although not quite for the given reason). Either way, no sense focusing her mind on this whole situation or the cleaning job - was just going to be awkward and uncomfortable no matter which of those she thought about.

It was easier, as such, to talk about their friends upstairs. "Annie? What... Hmm. How old is your sissy?"

"Hee, uh..." That question was something that Mel figured Suzanne would be able to talk about pretty easily, but she seemed to have to take a few seconds to think about it. That made Mel wonder if it was due to any further mental effects of whatever had happened or if it was more Suzanne being distracted as she would stop and giggle a little every few seconds during the nasty clean-up. Still, after maybe 10 or 20 seconds the girl answered, "I th-think about eighteen months, Mmelly..."

Was that right? Suzanne seemed hesitant, like there was some nagging feeling that things weren’t as they were supposed to be. Mel decided not to press her on it one way or the other, instead simply forcing a tiny smile and giving her friend’s bare leg a friendly pat.

"I bet you two love each other a lot, don’t you?"

"Hee... ’Course, Melly. She’s my twin-- W-wait, that’s not right..."

Well, great. Now Suzanne suddenly looked almost distraught as she considered how this could be; no sense letting her get herself too terribly worked up about it though, as the cleaning continued and Mel changed the subject, "Annie, how about after we’re done here we go upstairs and get our friends and then we can see if the fridge has any snacks in it?"

"Ooo..." Turned out that snacks were just the thing to get Suzanne’s mind totally off track. With a smile on her face that Mel couldn’t quite make out due to the girl’s position relative to her own, the redhead couldn’t help but ask with a hint of reservation, "Mmelly, uh... C-C’n it be cel’ry and peanut butter, please?"

Well, that was certainly an unusual snack request. If Mel had had to bet money, given Suzanne’s current mindset, she would have wagered ice cream or cookies would be the desire of the day.

"It sure can." The tree would have thrown in something in the way of a tossle of the hair or something, but with the present wiping there wasn’t much room or ability to do it. Besides, cleaning Suzanne up was apparently all it really took to get her laughing as she was still giggling her head off as she was cleaned up.

"Hee... Th-anks Melly... Dunno if Wendy and Katey’ll like that - heehee! - though..."

"If not, I’m sure we can find them something." Was weird to note that Suzanne didn’t seem to have a nickname for Wendy like this. Maybe that was nicknamey enough or something - sure the name was typically in the aftermath of Peter Pan rubbing off on society, but in Wendy’s case it actually was a nickname (for Brenda), so that just made things confusing.

"Hmm? Melly, somethin’ wrong?"

"Huh? Oh, no, sorry. I was just thinking about something." Nice to know that she was still entirely capable of getting lost in her own thoughts, the tall girl supposed. Still, she got back to clean-up then, handling the last bit on that front before taking the used wipes and panties and throwing them into a nearby waste basket she’d have to make a point to empty out for the older girl’s benefit later. With that out of the way, the sandy-blond moved on to grabbing the diaper that had been set out, unfolding it properly before moving it into the proper place. Suzanne was cooperative as ever, raising herself when she needed to to get it just right under her.

As Mel was grabbing the bottle that she needed for the next step, Suzanne felt the need to comment on it with a giggle and a statement that, "Hee... Like the powder..."

"That is good, then, because it’s time for it." It became a little easier to let a smile come, not even a particularly forced one, when it was seen how happy that seemed to make Suzanne - and Suzanne did look very pleased at the idea, in the process looking far cuter than she had any real right to.

From there, the changing process was pretty straightforward. Suzanne laughed her head off as Mel poured the powder on, then she was swiftly, promptly all taped up.

"Alright, now we have to get those pants back on and we’re done," Mel was quick to to assure her, but then suddenly Suzanne did not quite seem as happy as she had during most of the change. Mel wasn’t the best people person, but she still caught it and was sure to ask, "Annie, what is it?"

"Umm..." The redheaded girl in the glasses seemed bashful to say whatever it was exactly, but after a few seconds delay she got to it, "You... Ya sure you can’t, ya know... I j-jus’ wanna be extra sure, ya know, I’m not stinky no more..."

"Oh, yeah... Annie, I--"

"Please?" Suzanne’s voice had a pleading tone, enough so that it sounded like her whole world was riding on this weird, weird request. "Mommy always does it for me an’ Katey..."

Mel of course knew that this was just how Suzanne’s somehow extremely screwed-up mind was reading the whole sequence of events. Either that or the Parsons family was much weirder than it looked on the outside looking in.

Okay, there were ways to defuse this... "How about your dad and Hannah? Do they do it, too?"

"Oh... Uh huh!"

Well, great. That was not an answer that Mel had wanted to hear - if they didn’t, it’d be easy to argue for why she didn’t have to. As this made it though...

"S-- Annie? Is there anything else that I can do to take your mind off of it?"

"Mmm.... I dunno..." That was all that Suzanne was really capable of thinking on the subject, or so it seemed - not quite the case, unfortunately, as after a second Suzanne brought up the excellent point, "Already gettin’ a snack, so nothin’ I can think of. Mostly just wanna make sure I’m ex’a clean..."

That caused Mel to sigh, mostly as it was actually a pretty decent argument. Well, as much as something like this could be decently argued. "Alright, how about I..."

Do what, exactly? That was the question - while Suzanne looked with caution, apparently disappointed by the younger girl’s continued attempts to deal her way out of this one, all that Mel could do was try to come up with something that would satisfy the girl. She could... No, toy bribes wouldn’t work because she wouldn’t be able to actually deliver short of leaving the twins with Wendy to dash off to the store and, no, she wasn’t doing that. And she was already giving a snack, so it’d be cruel to recall that and put a condition on it...

What else was there, then?

"Mmmelly?"

"Mmm... Alright, fine... I’ll do it."

"Yay!"

Well, no escaping now... With a small sigh, Mel bent forward and sniffed away - which got plenty of giggles out of Suzanne, although it also made Mel realize the main problem with how much resistance she had put up. It was plastic - all there was to smell was plastic and baby powder.

Well, good way to feel like an idiot. Still, Suzanne was happy as it could be at that, which was something - Mel decided though to quickly get the girl’s pants put back on her, and then helped her back to her feet from where she had been lying on the crib wall.

"Aww, thanks Melly!" Next thing the tree with contacts knew the redhead with glasses was squeezing the life out of her. That got a half-hearted return as best Mel could manage it with her arms pressed down by the girl, and after a few seconds Suzanne let her go. "C’n we go backta Wendy and Katey now, then get our snack?"

"Sure. Sure, Annie, c’mon."

Mel turned and began to walk, but stopped momentarily when she felt the smaller yet older yet diapered girl take a grip on her hand. She quickly decided that that was fine, though, and got right back to walking like nothing was the matter. The pair reached the attic once more pretty quickly, the same attic that Mel was at this point kicking herself for being in support of entering, and soon began to navigate their ways back over to the couch.

"’Atey, ’Atey! Hee, ’Atey!"

"STAHAHAHAPIT!!"

The other two girls exchanged a quick glance, before walking forward to peer down over the piece of furniture; as they did Suzanne dawned a big smile on her face with a call of, "Ooo, Katey? Wendy? I--"

"Gah!"

That was Mel taken aback now. Katlyn was just as small as the two girls had left her, but Wendy wasn’t. No, Wendy was even smaller than normal - in fact, she was just as tiny now as her crush was.

"Stah-HAHA!! M-hehehelly, make’er stahahahahap!"

Well, no room for being stunned stupid, then. Mel quickly let go of the hand of the girl who was now the only member of the four older than her, in order to pull the blue-tipped baby off of her particularly ticklish crush.

"Wendy, when Katlyn tells you to stop, you should stop." That sounded like a good thing to make sure Wendy at normally tiny size learned one of these days too, but Mel only thought about that for a second before lifting Katlyn with her other arm.

"Hmff. Tatey-Tat was waughin’, so I dun’ see how she dun’ wite it."

Not that Mel much cared about excuses - presently, she just wanted to get out of this attic ASAP. She turned to Suzanne, who was quickly passed her baby twin and told her, "Annie, let’s go downstairs."

"Kay, Melly. Uh... We still get a snack, don’t we?"

"Sure, everyone will get a snack. For now, though, we need to go downstairs."

The pack of four got moving pretty quickly, as much as it could be considered that Wendy and Katlyn were moving seeing as how they were only being carried along. Well... Wendy was still plenty active, namely squirming and reaching as much as she possibly could for her redheaded crush in the other redhead’s arms.

"Stay still, Wendy," warned the blond carrying her simply, not really sure what exactly she would threaten her tiny friend with if the need arose but knowing something had to be done. "I can’t carry you if you don’t stop squirming."

"Lemme dow den!" Sure enough, the little blue-hair’s fussing didn’t stop for a second, "Wansa be wid Tatey-Tat!"

From where she was being carried in her big / little / whatever sister’s arms, Katlyn stuck her tongue out at the fellow infant - not that Wendy could notice between all her fussing, though. Suzanne did notice, though, and decided to try to change the subject.

"Uh, ya know..." After looking down for a second at her baby-sized twin in her arms, Suzanne turned her head over to Melly, "M-Melly? Ya did a real good job cleanin’ up all my smelly."

"Um... It was no problem, Suzanne--"

"Dat’s whushoo awe!" Wendy pointed up an accusing finger at the tree carrying her, before shouting, "Fwom now’un, you’s dunna be Thmewwy Mewwy! Tuz you’s jussa bid meanie an’ won’t wemme play wid my Tatey-Tat."

"I dun’ wansa play withya anyway!"

"Yeth ya doeth, tuz ya wuv me."

"Nuh uh!"

"Umm... Katey?" That was coming from her currently much larger twin, who gave her a little squeeze as the set of girls reached the seconds set of stairs they would need to take to get to the ground floor. "Ya know, it’s prob’ly better to just ignore her..."

Katlyn stopped, as if to ponder that point - after a second though, she apparently decided that she supported this measure, as she got a little smile and turned her head over to the fellow tot in Mel’s arms, "Hear dat, Wendy? I’m ignorin’ ya now!"

"Hee, Katey..." Suzanne smiled, giving her fellow diapered Parsons girl a little hug before explaining with a smile, "When ya ignore somebody, that means you don’t talk to ’em any more."

"Wha? B-But..." The little sister seemed hesitant now about the ignoring thing, though it wasn’t immediately clear why she would be. Then she explained, though, "But Wendy c’n be nice sometimes! I shouldn’t havesa stop talkin’ to her foreva..."

"Thee?" Wendy pointed an accusing finger over at her crush from where she sat in Mel’s arms, turning up to the big girl who didn’t bother to look back down at her, "Tatey-Tat do wite me, tho I thould detta pway wiffer!"

"Jus’ sometimes!" Katlyn pointed her finger right back, though her presently older sissy was watching as she did so in this case, "I dun’ like ya when yer bein’ a meany!"

Now was the time for Mel to jump in, then. With Wendy looking split on how to answer that, the tree took it upon herself to explain to the girl, "See, Wendy? Katey would be much happier to play with you if you were nicer to her."

"I’th pwenta nice!"

"Uh uh!"

"Shh, settle down." Mel sighed a little, before making a proposal that would hopefully accommodate everyone, "How’s this? After everyone has their snack, you two can play together but Wendy, to make sure you don’t act up, Annie’ll play with you two too."

"Hmph." Wendy was less receptive to that idea than Mel had figured and hoped she would be, "Dat not faiw! If Thuzie pwayth too, den dey’ww detta dethide ev’wyfin’ we do!"

Mel had hoped that she could get them playing and then be free to try to figure out what the heck was going on while they do so, but now that apparently was not an option, "Alright, Wendy, then how about I play with you three too? Then we can vote on what to do instead of it just being two against one."

"Hmm... Tay."

"Good. First, though, I promised Annie a snack, and it’s not good to break a promise."

The group reached the kitchen just seconds later, and conveniently now there was a high chair set up for the little Katey-Cat. Of course, though, there was not one in sight for the girl the same age as her, which could be a problem.

"Hmm... Annie? Do you have any trouble eating by yourself?"

"Wha? N-Nuh uh." After maneuvering her little sister into a position where she could be held with one arm, the padded teenager pointed at herself with her thumb proudly, "I c’n make a little messy, but Mommy still lets me eat all by myself now!"

"How about you, Katey?"

"Same ’ere! Hee... Me an’ ma sissy learned ta do it togedda."

"Good, good... Alright, here’s what we’ll do, then. Katey, today you will sit on Annie’s lap, while we’ll put Wendy in the high chair."

"Hey!" Great, now the blue-tipped tot was offended, "Why’th I gotta use duh baby chair?"

Fortunately, this time there was already a response planned for the protest, "Wendy, I could let you sit on my lap, but I wouldn’t be able to work on fixing the snack. And it would be unfair to sit on Annie’s lap and keep Katey away from her, wouldn’t it?"

"Hmph. Duetho..."

"So, how about you, Wendy? Do you know how to eat by yourself?"

"Mmm..." Seemed like Wendy was hesitant now, possibly out of bitterness - that told everything Mel needed to know, although the girl did still answer with, "Nuh uh."

"I’ll have to feed you, then." Wendy pouted a little at how matter-of-fact the biggest girl of the lot - normal or fun size - was about the whole matter, which didn’t stop when she was promptly set into the seat. When Suzie saw that that had been done, she opted for sitting down herself, lifting her sister to get into the booth that made up the majority of the Parsons dinner table in lieu of chairs, then lowering her back to her lap once she was seated herself.

No sense dropping the ball when things were running smoothly now, and so with a clap to get attention Mel spoke further, "I’m going to get everyone’s snacks ready then. I know what Annie wants, but what about you other two?"

Katlyn had to mull that one over, but with the way Wendy enthusiastically exclaimed, "Nanath!" the second that question came out. Suddenly looked to have gotten over her grumpiness in a hurry - apparently the little girl liked bananas.

Presuming this was fixable, Mel had something to tease Wendy about regarding her orientation, then. Still, she did not think too much about the future, as right now things were more about an odd mixture of the past and present, "Bananas it is, then. Do you have anything in mind, Katey?"

"Uh... Umm..." The little redhead was clearly very, very split over the whole matter - in fact, the way she pondered it with her tiny hand against what she had resembling a chin, it looked like a choice that would decide the fate of the world. Eventually, though, the girl decided, "Jus’ gimme what ma sissy gets."

"Hmm. Are you sure about that, Katey?" At this point, a nickname was the more natural route for the little redhead in Mel’s eyes. Suzanne was still taking some adjustment, though, and Wendy was a nickname in itself anyway. "S-- Annie wanted celery, are you sure that your teeth could handle that?"

"Hee, um..." That was Suzanne speaking up, smiling a little as she presented a solution, "I was gonna get peanut butter too, right, Melly? Maybe Katey could just eat some of that?"

That definitely worked. With a smile, Mel moved over to the counter, "That’s a good idea, Annie - nice job." And naturally, Suzanne was quite proud of herself for that, doubly so when her little sister gave her a congratulatory pat on the arm in celebration.

Wendy, though, was happy to interrupt things, "Wha’ happen when Thmewwy Mewwy than’ed ya neewayth, Thuthie?"

"Umm..." Seemed like such a long time ago to Suzie, with all of the chaos that had played out since then, but after a moment she had had enough memories resurface to recap, "Well, I did a doody, an’ Melly was real, real good at cleanin’ it up. She even did the sniffy thing our mommy does! Dunno why, but I had on big-girl pants ’til Melly changed me, but now I’ve got a dydee again so it’s okay!"

"Wait a thecond." Wendy didn’t find the part of this that most people would find odd to be worth commenting on, since something else had already caught her attention before Suzie even mentioned it, "What thniffy tang?"

"Hee, well, afta me or Katey poops, Mommy always gives our dydees a sniffy so we know we don’t got no more stinky."

"Dat’th dumb."

"’Ey!" Now it was Katey who was making the interjection, although she didn’t focus on the subject that made her object after she did so. Instead, she was more concerned about the last bit of her sister’s brief summary of events, "Why ya thinks ya hadda big-girl pants on, Sissy? Ya din’it take Hannah’s, didja?"

"Uh uh!" After making this, Suzie waited an embarrassing second before explaining, "I dunno howta take off my dydee, so I couldn’t’ve... Wha’s weird is, my brain started feelin’ kinda funny while Melly was changin’ me, like things felt real weird but I didn’t know why..."

From where she stood at the counter, having rounded up supplies and now in the midst of dividing them in such a way that a trio of babies could be trusted with them, Mel saw fit to pipe in, "We can talk about that later, can’t we? For now, how about you three have your snack? I’ll try to explain things the best I can in a little bit."

That would buy Mel an opening to try to make sense of it herself, at least. Still, the babies were going to need a new subject to talk about, and since she shot down their previous one Mel decided it best that she volunteer a replacement, "How about you three talk about what you want to play after everyone’s had a snack? If you decide now then you won’t have to stop and think about it when you’re done eating."

"Ooo, uh... I know!" Wendy was the first to volunteer, frantically waving an arm around the air as though she was in grade school while she did so, "Wet’s aww pway tad!"

"I dun’ think that’d be good," Katey answered, which got a pout from the blue-tipped girl until she explained her reasoning, "Melly an’ Sissy’re real big, so it wouldn’t be fair..."

"Hmph. Duetho..."

"Oh, how ’bout we play blocks?"

"Nah, Thuthie..." Wendy wasn’t much up for that idea, apparently. "You tan thtat tuff higha dan we’th tan..."

Well, that was true. Katey was the next to volunteer an idea, then, and at that one without the issue of size, "We c’n play with me and Sissy’s toys! We gots lotsa good’uns!"

Blue-tip speculated on that one a moment, before she asked a question for further clarification, "Dotth any Poteeth?"

Now the mission was to figure out what exactly ’Poteeth’ was referring to. The first to venture a guess was Katlyn, who smiled before exclaiming, "Uh huh, we got ponies!"

"Nuh-uh!" Wendy shook her head violently at that, a little fist pounding lightly on the quasi-table part of her high chair, "I wan’ poteeth."

"Uh..." Suzie was the next one to volunteer an answer, though she wasn’t sure on it as she did, "Uh.... Potties? I d’nno, do they make toy potties?"

The sad thing was that Mel did know that such things actually existed. Still, from where she was preparing snacks for everyone, though, Mel did turn her head in order to guess herself, "Hmm... Wendy? Are you trying to say ’Pokeys’ - as in ’Pokemon’?"

"Uh huh!" Now suddenly happy, the bluetipped baby pointed at Mel with a great big smile on her mostly toothless face, "Poteeth!"

"Hee..." While Suzanne started to giggle a little at the solution to that riddle, she stopped after a moment to actually answer the initial question, "But nah, we don’t anyuh those. Sorry..."

"But s’okay!" That was the normally older, now much, much younger of the two twins shouting up now, "We gots all kindsa toys dat’re nice!"

"Aww... Tay den."

The bluetip did certainly seem a tad disappointed, but thankfully she seemed to take it well. Part of it was probably in the way the girls broke the news to her, Mel decided.

Speaking of, the girls had chosen a good time to resolve this whole matter - food was ready. "Heh..." Okay, seeing her three friends get on like this was... Well, it was still pretty disturbing, but there was a slight fun to it. Maybe if this turned out to be a hallucination or this was in some manner resolved she could tease them on it sometime. In either case, "The snacks are ready," she told them simply, causing all three of her diapered friends to immediately turn their attention to where she stood at the counter.

Snack time was done in pretty clean, simple fashion - Mel was actually mildly amazed how cooperative Wendy was about the whole thing, considering she was Wendy of all people. Now the four girls found themselves entering the living room - once inside said room, those in diapers all took their seats on the carpet and Mel was stopped in doing so at the last moment.

"Uh, Melwy?" That was Katey again piping up, to raise a little problem present with things, "We needja go get our toys..."

"Oh, right." Well, at least that was a simple task and she wasn’t looking at something in the vein of another diaper change or something. Though having just fed three babies if this situation wasn’t given some sort of resolution soon then that would probably be a very real possibility. "Where are they?"

"We keep’em in our bedroom," Suzie explained with a nod, before tacking on a request, "Though... Since we’s probably gonna hafta take a nap after ya should grab an ext’a blankie from the attic too."

The attic...

"The three of you can just share one, can’t you?"

"Uh... Guesso, but..." Suzie squirmed a little, before explaining, "If you take a nap with us den we wouldn’t be able to fit in the crib..."

"No need to worry there, because I won’t be doing so."

"Hee..." Wendy was quick to but in there, to turn the subject to something else. Namely, she crawled over to Katlyn and knocked her to the ground, face hovering just over her crush’s as she pinned her down, "It otay, tho wond ath I det to be wiff Tatey-Tat!"

"Off! Sissy, Melwy, get’er off!"

Suzie was the one who took charge in this case, easily lifting the bluetip off of her tiny twin and setting her down in another place after a second. That got a huff and a pout from Wendy, while all Katey could do was reach for a hug from her sister. The fellow redhead was happy to grant it.

"Hmm... Well, I suppose it would be best to keep Wendy and Katlyn away from each other--"

"Nuh-uh!"

"-- but would you not have blankets anywhere else?"

"Well..." It was Suzie answering, as she set Katey back to the floor, "Mommy an’ Daddy and Hannah wouldn’t like us using theirs..."

"Hmm." Well, truth be told, at the moment, especially under threat of having to enter that attic, Mel couldn’t care less what the Parsons family wanted. "How would they feel about me putting you in one of their beds, while Wendy and Suzie use the crib?"

"Ooo!" Before a hesitant Suzie could give her answer to that, Wendy felt the need to pipe in, "I wantha thweep wiff Tatey-Tat!"

"B-But I wansa be with ma Sissy!"

Well, great. It looked like there was a bit too much dissention to... Wait, there was a completely logical solution here. "The three of you could just all sleep in the crib, then."

"Arentcha gonna nappy with us, Melly?" Suzie looked at her with wide eyes that’s effect were mostly blocked off by her glasses. "I’d feel better if ya did...."

"Well, I’m not someone who needs to take naps, because -" The girl broke off there, deciding to instead simply sigh and answer, "We’ve lost track of things. I’ll go grab your toys and we can play for a little while, okay?"

"Tay, Thmewwy Mewwy!"

That was a nickname the girl hoped she wouldn’t hear again when this whole situation was resolved. Assuming there was a resolution to be found... In either case, the tree turned and got to heading back upstairs to the twins’ bedroom.

Darn... Looked like in the rush to get downstairs earlier the door to the attic had been left wide open. That was a good indication that the upstairs probably had quite the draft going on.

OooAAAaaoooooAAHoooooooo...

When Mel came back downstairs some time later with a handful of toys in her arms, Suzanne was quick to come rushing up to her, frantic for the help of a grown-up, "Uh... M-Melly, we need s’melp..."

"Hmm?" Mel was smiling, noticeably, but the expression wavered a bit at Suzie’s desperation, "What’s wrong, Annie? Did something happen?"

The diapered girl nodded, before she explained, "Mmm... Uh huh. Wendy and Katey kinda--"

Mel responded by calmly setting the toys in Suzie’s arms, before moving past her and walking to where she had left the other two infants. Sure enough things appeared to have gone downhill in short order - the most instantly visible thing was Katey, who had seen free to liberate herself of her clothing, but a sniffling Wendy sitting alone in the floor also quickly caught the tree’s attention.

"Awww...." It was a tough call to decide which girl was more in need of addressing, but ultimately Katey looked quite giggly and so Mel scooped up Wendy. "What’s wrong with my little Wendy, huh? What’s wrong?"

"Uh... Melly?" Even in her present frame of mind Suzie could tell there was definitely something different about the younger yet much larger girl - this didn’t fit with her or the way she’d been all day. At all.

Of course, Mel had bigger things to worry about than someone thinking she was acting weird - how could she focus with a poor little baby on the verge of crying? Especially so when Wendy choked out an explanation of, "Dot thtinty..."

"Poor thing..."

Mel passed Wendy to Suzie now, instructing the girl to, "Hold her gently or something might happen to her diaper. We don’t want that, do we?"

With that matter settled, Katey was the next one to get scooped up by the babysitting tree, "As for you, what are you doing naked, huh?" The question was asked in a silly, teasing kind of tone, another odd fit for the girl.

"Hee... Like bein’ nakey," was the extent of the little redhead’s answer, but that seemed to do enough for Mel as the tree held Katey up and rubbed her nose into her tummy for a second.

"That may be, but you need to keep your diaper on. How do you think your mommy and daddy’d feel if you wet in the floor, huh?"

"Uh... Dey wouldn’t like it?"

Feeling thoroughly confused and not much liking the smell coming from the girl she was holding, Suzie decided to butt in here, "I woulda put it back on for ’er, but... I dunno how."

"That’s okay, Annie. That’s not your place to do."

Smiling still, Mel lowered herself to the floor and laid Katey to the carpet, before quickly rounding up the discarded diaper and taping it back onto her. She didn’t grab the other clothes the girl had ditched though, deciding that if the smaller of the twins didn’t want to wear them, what was the harm?

With that issue resolved, Mel scooped the girl up and rose to her feet, before offering Katey to her twin and taking Mel in return.

"There we go." Now there was something else to attend to, "Katey, Annie, we can play in a minute - before we do that, though, I have to take Wendy upstairs and get her nice and clean again."

"Hee, kay--" Katey seemed to have something else to say, but things cut out when she gave a little yawn.

Of course, seeing that, Mel couldn’t help but comment on it, "Aw, Katey, do you think you should take a nap? We can still play with you after you wake up if you want."

"Mmm... Wansa be with Sissy..."

Mel took that in, bobbing the tiny, smelly lessy in her arms as she looked to Suzie, "Annie, do you think you might want to go ahead and take a nap before playing, then?"

"I guess I c’n--"

Suddenly, the oldest of the four at this present moment broke off. The eyes of Mel and Katey alike went to her - Wendy was a little too busy trying to calm herself by laying against Mel’s chest to much care.

As for what in particular had caused Suzie to break off, that became apparent after a moment of hesitation as she explained, "M-Melly... Think I... I s-smellied..."

"Aww, poor Annie!" With a gushing tone to her voice that seemed very out of place with the typical Mel, the tree Was quick to transition Wendy to one arm while another went around the much larger of the two twins’ back. "We’ll get you and Wendy all cleaned up and then everyone can take a nap. Is that okay?"

Once the girl nodded, the four friends began their second group trek upstairs of the day.

Epilogue

"Nnng..."

This didn’t feel like her bed, Katlyn thought. It almost felt like her parents’... Wait.

Memories of the day not quite coming to her just yet, the redhead was all prepared to slide off the side of the bed - but the problem was that she was settled in the middle between two of three still-slumbering friends. Actually, now that she looked she was arm-in-arm with...

"Wendy?"

Okay, sleeping with Wendy. That was not a good thing in its own right - but as the girl slid down off of the bottom of the bed and a chill hit her, she realized that it got much worse than that.

"Where are my clothes?!"

That was not a random shout - that was directed at the girls in the bed. As it stood, Katlyn had nothing on besides a pair of panties (though her arms had been quick to fling over the part of her body most needing hiding), and she was quite anxious to know what had happened to...

Oh, God. She’d been sleeping with Wendy. While nude. What’d happened, what’d...

The girl couldn’t think too long, as one of the three girls started to rise.. and it was the one who had Katlyn must scared about the possibilities of.

"Hee... Katey-Cat?"

Wendy rubbed one eye sleepily as she rose from bed, all while Katlyn couldn’t help but be red over the whole deal. What was she supposed to do here exactly? Where were her clothes?

"Ooo..." Still, the bluetip couldn’t help but enjoy what she saw. Her memory was a little clearer at the moment, and so she could fully remember that the two had fallen asleep together herself, "Heh... Ya know, Katey-Cat, everyone’d like it a lot more if you moved your arms."

"I’ll ask again - where are my clothes, Wendy?"

"Eh-nyuh." That odd sound of denial out of the shorty aside, she had a question to ask, "Hey, Katey... Sleepin’ with ya was fun and all and I’m lovin’ the view, but... do you remember what was goin’ on earlier?"

"Like... Okay, seriously, I’m going to go get clothes before I say a thing to you. You’re just impossible to talk to with that smile on your face."

"Ooo, I’ll come with!"

Of course, that just made Katlyn frown all the more. Sighing, the girl started to reply by saying, "No, I think I’d prefer you just go home .We can meet tomorrow or--"

After a moment, though, the redhead changed her tune a bit, "Well, fine, I guess I can be nice, especially with things being cut short for the day or... something. But if I catch you actually trying to peek, I’ll start pestering you daily until you get Suzanne and I those birthday presents you’re running late on."

"Hee, kay, fair enough."

It was a few minutes after Katlyn and Wendy left the room that Mel woke up - when she did, with her own memories in full force she was quite confused for a moment.

"Huh.... Wendy? Suzie?"

The names were called out in case the toddler forms of said girls had crawled off somewhere or other. No response, though...

Well, there was Suzanne still, bundled up nice and warm on the opposite corner of the bed. Seeing that through slightly blurry eyes, Mel held off on fetching and re-inserting her contacts as she was able to see decently enough without them, instead crawling over a little and shaking the redhead’s arm.

"M..."

As the girl blinked her own not-particularly-good eyes until they could adjust to the light, looking over at the girl waking her as she asked, "Mel?"

That actually surprised Mel for a moment. Smiling, though, she helped the girl up to a seated position before asking, "How are you feeling, Annie?"

"Huh?" Suzanne was quite confused by the use of that nickname, especially seeing as how it was Mel using it. Wendy called her Suzie all the time, but her and her parents were the only ones who did anything of the sort... "Why’d you call me that?"

"Hmm... I thought it would be appropriate."

"Oh... W-Wait!"

Suddenly red, Suzanne was all prepared to jump out of bed until Mel having taken a light hold on her wrist calmed her enough to stay in place. The girl still started freaking out, though, "Wh-where are Katlyn and Wendy? Are they normal now? Am I normal? W-Wait, you, uh..."

While memories of what all had happened, changes especially, hit against the inside wall of Suzanne’s mind and made a heavy thud, feeling Mel give her a pat on the back made things a little better, "Annie, it’s okay. It took awhile, but about the time I went to get your toys I started having a lot of fun with it."

"B-But.... So... How’d that--?"

"I don’t know. Though I must confess, I’ve been dealing with it all day so I’ve done all of my freaking out." Smiling, Mel went on to assure her, "How about we go figure out where our friends are and you can sort through whatever poor rationalizations you wish to apply to this in the meantime?"

"Eh... Well, see, th-this kind of makes me wonder about something that happened--"

Suzanne broke off, though, instead deciding to stand up. And it wasn’t hard to notice a rather noisy crinkle as she rose off the bed.

Next Time in Oppur Town

"Ooo..."

So long as they didn’t look particularly violent, the rare street vendor could make for a fun little diversion for Wendy. Seeing one before her now, the bluetip walked up to the lady running things on a carpet on the sidewalk.

"Whatcha sellin’, stranger?"

"Hee, well, whatcha lookin’ fer?" The lady had a thick southern accent, sitting in the middle of a circle of assorted stuff. She was tiny herself, though not as small as Wendy was - still, the bluetip towered over her until she bent her knees to not be quite as high above the girl.

"Hmm... Well, I do need to get a birthday gift for somebody. Do you have anything that’d work for something like that?"

"’Course!" The blond that didn’t any other color mixed in with her hair smiled, asking, "Who is it? Frayend? Lovuh? Mom?"

Wendy grinned, mulling it over before answering, "Well, if you’re not too anal about describin’ it, lover’d be a good fit."

The peddler nodded, smiling as she went on to say, "Well, I’s got plenya stuff a boy might lauk..."

"Hee... Not quite my thing."

"Oh?" After a moment of staring at Wendy, the girl had a realization, though, and just grinned further, "Well, good! Ah’ve got much more fer girls anyway. How ’bout..."

The girl dragged off there, feeling around through a box near her left knee until she found what she was looking for - a necklace, a gold chain connected to which was a little golden seashell, "How ’bout this?"

"Oh, nice..."

"Uh huh! Now, this is a nice necklace, but Ah’ll offer ya a deal since this stuff’s been sellin’ real well - forty dolluhs."

Wendy was a little thrown off by that. Rubbing her chin and carefully inspecting the necklace as the seller held it up for her to see, "Hmm... That’s a little steep, isn’t it?"

"Uh uh! See, this is special..." The young woman - actually, now that Wendy really got a look at her she looked like she couldn’t be much older than she herself was - cupped her hand around the piece of jewelry before elaborating, "This neck’ace can grant any of ya most romantic wishes if you’d really loveta have ’em happen!"

The bluetip would have been all for dismissing things there. But given the recent experience in the attic, maybe, just maybe, there was a little truth to it - who could say, right? Thinking of that further reminded the girl that Katlyn had let her know earlier that Suzanne had suffered no lasting effects from their transformation after all, the celebration of which at the local Pizza Hut Wendy had been on her way to when she met this girl.

"Ya a littuh ’stracted, frayund?"

"Hee, yeah, sorry."

"Well, if it helps ya make yer decision it’s a good quality gold - Ah’m not good with those karat things ’sides at eatin’ ’em, but it’s good gold!"

"Heh. Well... Okay, sure, lemme have it."

"Great!" While Wendy got to fishing out the money for the necklace, the woman selling it to her volunteered a little advice, "I give gifts plenty, so Ah know what Ah’m sayin’ when I say ya might wanna wait ’til you’re alone with yer gal to give it to’er. Jus’ some friendly advice - ’sides, who knows? Some one-on-one ’tween ya two might make it a little more powerful?"

"Hee... Right, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks, lady!"

 

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