Lori’s Continuing AR Adventure – Out of Control

Chapter 3
Part 3

Darcie surveyed the dancers and partiers in the crowded gymnasium, which had been decorated with paper streamers, colored spotlights, and a retro mirror ball to lend it a festive atmosphere. She couldn’t resist the temptation to make a few minor adjustments to her classmates.

Elaine Thomas was the tallest girl in Darcie’s class by several inches. Elaine was rather thin, and sported a pair of wire rim glasses that gave her a somewhat nerdish appearance. Darcie surreptitiously gave her a couple of quick zaps with the control, and was rewarded by seeing the twelve year old loose a bit of her height. The effect was subtle, but Elaine no longer stood out as being exceptionally tall for the seventh grade. Although there was no immediate way for her to find out, Elaine was now about a year and a half younger than she had been. Darcie was amused to notice that geeky Elaine hadn’t even noticed what had happened to her.

Pleased with this result, Darcie similarly zapped a couple more of the unsuspecting seventh grade girls with mild does of the youth ray. Like Elaine, they became a bit shorter, and the small bumps in the front of their slinky dresses shrank or disappeared altogether as their barely developed young breasts receded back into nearly flat chests again. The changes weren’t immediately obvious unless you knew what to look for. Darcie chuckled to herself as she imagined the frantic scenes that would be playing out in a dozen or so of her classmate’s homes tomorrow morning when her unsuspecting victims discovered their small beginner bras were too big for them.

At first, Darcie was careful to use the device’s powers very conservatively. She didn’t want to call unnecessary attention to herself by doing anything too noticeable or obvious. After a half hour or so of reducing people a year or two, she grew bored and decided to adapt a more adventurous outlook.

=====

Toward the back of the gym, three of the dance chaperones were engaged in a discussion. Melody Loomis taught 8th grade social studies at Washington Junior High; her friends Anna Jerwinski and Michelle Hamilton were both 7th grade English teachers.

Darcie watched the trio for a while. She decided it would be really funny to see these women - all in their mid 30s - reduced to the same age as their eleven and twelve year old students. They had congregated together in one corner of the gym, one or another of them straying from their conversation occasionally to look over the crowd of junior high students dancing. Darcie waited until she was sure that no one was looking in the direction of the three teachers.

“Going down, ladies,” Darcie laughed to herself as she took aim at group, who were standing at least 50 feet away. “Next stop - junior high.”

Ms. Loomis was first. She was a bit overweight as an adult, but - after a judicious application of a few seconds worth of youth ray - turned out to be quite a skinny little 12 year old. She squealed in surprise and attempted to hold onto her big sweater as she youthened back into adolescence. Ms. Jerwinski and Ms. Hamilton were next; in just a few seconds, the well endowed Ms. Jerwinski found herself rapidly reduced to training bra status, and Ms. Hamilton’s suddenly oversized glasses slid down her nose as she looked down to discover that her blouse was now almost as big as a tent.

Darcie marveled at the sudden transformations of the women into adolescents. She amused herself by watching their initial reactions for a while, then went off in search of other prey.

=====

Darcie cautiously peered around the corner. She saw Donna Ramsey, the eighth grade class president, reading a book. Donna was sitting alone at the reception table near the gymnasium door, taking tickets as students entered. With the occasional exception of a few late stragglers, most of the students attending the dance had already arrived, leaving Donna with a boring job. Satisfied that no one was watching and that Donna was engrossed in her book, Darcie aimed the device at Donna and pressed down on the age reduction button. In a few seconds, Donna looked like a middle school girl. Amazingly, she kept reading, unaware of the fact that she now possessed the body of a fourth grader.

=====

Darcie noticed a group of eight grade girls standing near the entrance to the restroom. She recognized Blair Walton with her friends Amber Douglas and Cassie Garrigan. Blair often argued with Darcie in student council meetings, and was captain for both the girl’s tennis and volleyball teams. Darcie and Blair were fierce rivals. Darcie had long resented what she perceived to be Blair’s superior attitude, but being a grade younger made it difficult for Darcie to compete with Blair on a social or athletic basis. Darcie knew she now had the means to correct the situation.

“Hello, Blair,” greeted Darcie in a sarcastic tone.

“Hi, Darcie,” said Blair, a sneer in her voice. She noticed that Darcie was holding a small object in her hand. “What’s that...something from the seventh grade science fair?”

Amber and Cassie giggled.

“It can do some cool things,” smiled Darcie, unperturbed by the teasing.

“What cool things can a loser like you do?” demanded Blair.

“Cool things like this,” replied Darcie, aiming the device at Blair and pressing the reducing button.

Blair felt a slight tingling sensation. “Cut it out, geekazoid,” she said. She noticed that her voice seemed to sound a bit different.

“Look at yourself.”

“Blair, you’re getting shorter,” said Amber, her mouth hanging open in disbelief.

“Hey! My boobs!” gasped Blair as she watched, incredulous, as the front of her dress slowly flattened.

“I think that dress is a bit big for you,” observed Darcie, continuing to direct the youthening ray toward her rival.

Blair was suddenly alarmed. She tugged on her dress straps, which seemed to have grown longer and now threatened to slide off her shoulders. Blair was now the same height as Cassie, the shortest of the group.

“You shrunk me with that thing!” accused Blair, torn between the emotions of panic at what had happened to her body and anger at Darcie.

“Hey, everybody! Check out Blair Walton, queen of the sixth grade,” laughed Darcie.

“I’m not in the sixth grade!” insisted Blair, but the suddenly baggy fit of her homecoming dress and relative reduction in height indicated otherwise.

“You leave her alone!” demanded Amber, trying to protect her friend.

“Shut up, Amber,” replied Darcie. “Unless you want the same treatment...” she added menacingly, nodding toward the age-altering device in her hand.

Amber contemplated the possible consequences of facing off against Darcie and wisely decided to hold her tongue.

“Blair, she made you the same size I am,” noted Cassie, seeing that Blair was in fact about the same height. Cassie was short for her age, but was a developing young woman with small but noticeable breasts. Blair may have been just as tall as Cassie, but now looked much younger by comparison - like a gangly preadolescent.

“You creep, change me back!” said Blair, putting her hands on her hips (or what remained of them) and directing a murderous glare toward Darcie.

In reply, Darcie aimed the device at Blair again. “You never learn to shut up, do you? I hope you like going back to middle school,” laughed Darcie, reducing Blair another year to become a fifth grader.

Blair’s dress now looked ludicrously big on her. Cassie was at least three inches taller than she was. Cassie and Amber both stared openly in amazement at their diminished ringleader. Blair looked down at herself in a combination of puzzlement and annoyance. She had gone backwards through puberty - her breasts were completely gone, her clothes and shoes were several sizes too big, and she was now probably the smallest and shortest girl at the dance (if not the entire school).

Blair looked down again at her girlish body, then glanced up at her friends. She had to do something - there was no way she could be seen like this. How could she compete in the eight grade junior high school social scene with the body of a fifth grader? If she wound up staying at her reduced age, would she get kicked off the volleyball team?

Blair gave a cold stare at Darcie. She was about to hurl some expletives at her nemesis when Darcie preempted her.

“Before you open your mouth, middle school girl, I’m going to give you a warning. For every bad word you use, I’m going to reduce you another year,” said Darcie.

“You bitch!” shouted Blair.

“That’s it! You asked for it. I’m afraid it’s back to the fourth grade for you,” said Darcie, pointing the control at Blair and pressing the regression button again. Blair was now a nine year old. She struggled to hold up her dress and, having lost her nerve, began to cry.

“Don’t make me stay like this,” sobbed Blair.

Darcie ignored Blair and now turned to face Amber and Cassie. The two girls stepped back in fear.

“Please don’t make me little,” begged Amber.

“We’re sorry, we didn’t mean to laugh at you,” said Cassie, a hint of desperation in her voice. Cassie had a younger sister in fifth grade, and didn’t want to wind up reversing roles with her.

“If you two behave yourselves and take care of your little friend here, I’ll let you off easy,” grinned Darcie. “Now scram.”

The three girls needed no persuasion. They hurried toward the exit, both Amber and Cassie assisting Blair as she did her best to scramble away while holding onto her tent-sized clothes. Just for the fun of it, Darcie delivered a mild parting shot at the trio as they left through the door, shrinking them all another year or so.

=====

“Chris, listen! There’s somebody downstairs,” said Peggy, hearing distant voices coming from the stairwell outside the bedroom door.

“Andrea must be back,” Christine guessed.

After considerable effort, Christine, with assistance from Peggy, was finally able reach the release lever on the side of the playpen. Dwindled down to baby size, it took Chris all of her strength to pull the small plastic tab. At last, the bar holding the plastic mesh swung down to floor level. Normally, releasing the side of the playpen would have taken her only a few seconds.

Neither Christine nor Peggy were able to walk. After a few attempts at toddling around on their legs, both of them realized their infantilized bodies were neither balanced well enough nor strong enough to walk unsupported for more than a few feet. They resigned themselves to the necessity of crawling on the floor to move around Christine’s (now gigantic) house.

The two women - or, more accurately, former women - both felt uncomfortable being stark naked.

"I think I left some of Stacey’s baby clothes in the bottom drawer of the dresser," said Christine. Her and Peggy made their way to the dresser drawer, only to be disappointed to discover that the selection of baby clothing was very limited. The few outfits she had kept were fancy (and, as Christine remembered, overpriced) outfits for special occasions.

"We can’t wear these things," complained Peggy. In spite of her initial protests, the practical fact of the matter was that there were no other clothes their size to wear. In a few minutes, the two regressed adults were outfitted in baby dresses - Christine in a tiny white dress with puffy short sleeves which had been purchased to take Stacey to a wedding, Peggy in a similar outfit in a floral pattern with a peter pan collar.

“I would die if anyone sees me dressed like this,” Christine remarked. She felt ridiculous.

"Well, at least we have something to wear. Now what are we going to do?" asked Peggy.

"We need somebody to help us," Christine replied, her brain racing for ideas. "We’ve got to get changed back."

Suddenly, a little girl entered the room. It wasn’t Andrea. It wasn’t any of Andrea’s friends that Christine would have recognized, yet the girl did look somewhat familiar. She was dressed in very loose clothes that were obviously sized for a much larger girl.

“Miss Vanowski?” she asked, looking down at the baby girls.

“Who are you?” asked Christine.

“Don’t you recognize me? I’m Heather - from next door.”

“Oh my God - Andrea got you too,” whimpered Christine. She felt sorry for Heather. Heather Mathews was very sensible and mature for a sixteen year old. She was a dependable babysitter, and certainly didn’t deserve the embarrassment of being reduced to the same age as her young charges.

“My little sister Darcie took the control from Andrea,” explained Heather. “She shrunk a couple of my friends too. We’ve got to find her and get the remote control thing back. I don’t want to be stuck like this forever.”

“That makes three of us,” Peggy chimed in.

“You can talk too?” asked Heather, surprised to hear another baby speaking like an adult.

“I’m almost the same age as Christine. I mean, I’m the same age as she used to be. We don’t want to wind up staying babies.”

“Well, I don’t want to wind up staying like a kindergarten kid either. Darcie went to the Homecoming dance at school. Is there any way we can get there and find her?” asked Heather.

“None of us can drive like we are now,” said Christine, stating the obvious. “Maybe I can call a friend.”

“Try calling Lori,” suggested Peggy.

=====

“What happened to my clothes?” demanded Melody Loomis, suddenly aware that her sweater had grown several sizes larger. She looked over at Anna and Michelle and saw that their clothing had also expanded and loosened. After only a few seconds of disorientation, she realized that their clothing hadn’t changed - they had. Instead of being a bit taller than most the students around them, Melody observed that she and her two coworkers were now about the same height as the rest of the crowd.

“My glasses are too big,” complained Michelle. She felt disheveled and tried to tuck her blouse inside her pants, only to find out that neither her blouse nor pants fit very well anymore. Even her shoes were loose. “And my voice - my voice sounds all weird.”

“How come our clothes are so baggy?” Anna asked, tugging on one side of her sagging top. “You guys look different. Melody, did you lose a lot of weight?”

“No...,” replied Melody, who suddenly realized that Anna’s normally attractive - and very ample - figure looked wrong. “Anna, your breasts...they look like they shrunk,” she gasped.

“Mine too,” exclaimed Michelle, putting her hands to the front of her oversized blouse and finding only small protrusions where she used to have moderate sized breasts. Her bra cups had become uncharacteristically roomy and slumped down much lower on her chest than she remembered.

Melody couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “Holy crap...we look like a bunch of eight grade girls!”

Hearing sudden laughter from behind, Melody turned around and saw one their students, Darcie Mathews, looking on with amusement at the predicament of the three teachers. Darcie was smiling and holding a small metallic box, like a remote control, in one hand.

“Darcie? What did you do to us?” demanded Anna. She was disoriented to discover that she was now a few inches shorter than her student.

“Well, Miss Jerwinski, since you enjoyed making us read all those boring Early American folklore stories in class, and since you relished making us waste time writing stupid reports on them, I thought it might be funny if you experienced some folklore first hand.”

“Huh? What folklore?” Anna asked, looking up into Darcie’s smirking face.

“Why, the Fountain of Youth, of course,” giggled Darcie. She turned to one side. “Hey, Rachel! Come hear a minute!” she called out to her friend. “I want you to meet some new classmates of ours.”

Rachel had been talking to Claire; the two girls turned to Darcie’s direction and for the first time noticed the three reduced teachers.

“What the heck...?” gasped Rachel, confused over the strange scene she was viewing. Standing in front of her, Claire, and Darcie were three girls approximately their own age - maybe a year or two younger - that bore an incredible resemblance to Ms. Loomis, Ms. Jerwinski, and Ms. Hamilton. It took only a moment for Rachel to notice the three girls were wearing oversized clothes identical to those she had seen her teachers wearing earlier.

“Ms. Hamilton? Is that really you?” Claire hesitantly asked one of the girls.

“Of course it’s me!” insisted Michelle. “Darcie Mathews did something that made us younger.” Michelle looked uncomfortable and kept tugging her pants up to keep them from sliding down her much slimmer, and decidedly girlish-looking, hips.

“It’s true,” beamed Darcie, proudly displaying the control so that Rachel and Claire could see it. “This little control box is how I added a few years to enhance myself - as if you guys didn’t notice.”

“Hmmmm...Darcie, I thought you looked different,” said Rachel, raising her eyebrows in sudden recognition. “You mean you can use that thing to change people’s ages?”

“Just ask these guys,” Darcie giggled, nodding toward the three budding young adolescent girls who moments before had been thirty-something adults.

“Wow! This is amazing!” gushed Claire. “They look like they’re our age now.” Claire couldn’t help sniggering at the sight of her reduced-size teachers dressed in baggy clothing.

“Claire Jarrett, we are not ?your age’ now, whatever may have happened to us,” admonished Melody.

“I expect you to restore us back to our rightful sizes,” added Anna.

“Look at the bright side, Ms. Janowski,” offered Rachel. “Tim Adams and the other boys in sixth period English class won’t always being trying to look down your cleavage in class anymore. At least for a few years.”

Claire and Darcie burst into laughter, while the diminutive Anna suddenly looked as though she were going to burst into tears.

Melody felt anger flare up inside her as she realized how upset poor Anna and Michelle were becoming over their rather bizarre circumstance. Her body might only be twelve years old, but her years of teaching experience had instilled in her the ability to command the immediate attention of any student posing a disciplinary challenge. “Miss Mathews, I’m going to ask you nicely one more time before I go over to Principal Richards and recommend that you and your partners here are put on indefinite suspension from school. Change us back to our original ages - right now.”

Unfortunately for Melody Loomis, Darcie’s huge sense of power - combined with Melody’s sudden and ignominious loss of adulthood - made Darcie immune to any threatening references she made to school authorities.

“I’ll change you back to your original size, Ms. Loomis,” agreed Darcie, an evil grin on her face. “Or pretty close to it.” As Darcie’s friends looked on in amazement, and as Anna Janowski and Michelle Hamilton looked on in horror, Darcie pointed the remote at Melody and pushed the regression button again.

At first, they all thought the Melody had disappeared. After a moment, the pile of clothes where Ms. Loomis had been standing started to move, and a few moments later a tiny infant’s head emerged from the neck hole of the red sweater.

A bald-headed Melody Lewis - now reduced to infancy - looked up at the smirking twelve year olds who towered over her and started to cry. “Hewp me! Hewp me! I don’t wanna be a baby!”

Anna and Michelle looked down at their former coworker in horror.

The loud music from the deejay setup in the front of the gym, combined with the noise of the crowd, had prevented many people from witnessing what had happened. Most of the junior high students were too preoccupied with their own friends to pay much attention to the events around them. However, Darcie started to notice that more and more heads were turning in their direction to stare at the strangely dressed Ms. Jerwinski and Ms. Hamilton, not to mention a crying baby trying to crawl out of a heap of adult clothes. Darcie needed to move on to avoid a scene.

“If you girls don’t want me to change you into babies too, I suggest you take her out of here right away,” said Darcie menacingly.

“Darcie, you can’t leave us like this,” pleaded a twelve year old Ms. Jerwinski. “Especially Melody.”

“I’ll make you a deal,” offered Darcie. “Get Ms. Loomis out of here right away, and promise I’ll change you both back to your grown-up adult selves - tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Oh, I almost forgot. Besides getting little baby Loomis out of here, both of you have to do one other thing,” said Darcie.

“What do you want us to do?” asked Michelle. Darcie noticed that Ms. Hamilton now sounded timid and afraid, not at all like she had sounded as a teacher in control of the classroom.

“I want you and Ms. Jerwinski to swap clothes with Claire and Rachel,” explained Darcie.

“Swap clothes?”

“Claire and Rachel’s things will fit a lot better than what you have on now,” Darcie pointed out. “Let’s go to the girl’s room and change.”

Claire and Rachel looked quizzically at Darcie, having no idea what she was up to. She smiled and winked at them knowingly, signaling them to follow her lead. Anna picked up the crying Ms. Loomis out of her sweater, while Michelle retrieved the Melody’s clothing and shoes from the floor where they had dropped when she had been shrunk to infancy. The three preteens (and naked baby) all followed Darcie to the girls’ restroom, which was empty, and in a few minutes Ms. Hamilton and Ms. Jerwinski had swapped clothes with Claire and Rachel.

Anna Jerwinski was too frightened of Darcie to say a word, but felt as completely humiliated as she ever had when she was forced to hook on Rachel Thompson’s little bra. She was used to wearing a 38D, and Rachel’s undergarment was clearly not even an A cup. Worst of all was the discovery that it fit her regressed body nearly perfectly.

Michelle Hamilton was similarly concerned to see just how flat chested she was as twelve year old. She was secretly pleased that Claire’s small bra was lightly padded. She had always been a bit envious of Anna’s large breasts, but at their reduced ages - just starting puberty - Anna and Michelle had about the same chest size.

Still puzzled, Claire and Rachel donned the oversized underwear and outfits that Ms. Jerwinski and Ms. Hamilton wore. They knew they looked clownish, but possessed confidence that Darcie had something in mind.

With the addition of Rachel’s dance dress, Ms. Jerwinski looked like a nicely attired twelve year old girl. Nobody would mistake her for a teacher at the school. Similarly, Ms. Hamilton looked quite cute in Claire’s dress, which fit her very well.

“What...what do you want us to do now?” asked Anna, looking up at Darcie. “Are you going to turn us all into babies?”

“Just go home for the time being. Show up at school tomorrow. I’ll meet you on the corner at 7 in the morning.”

“But we’re too small to drive,” wailed Michelle, verging on tears.

“Just leave your cars here and take a cab,” suggested Darcie. “I’m sure you have plenty of money in your purse. I suggest you get going before I change my mind and decide to change you into a kindergarten kid.”

Anna scooped up the infant Melody, wrapped her up as best she could using Melody’s own sweater as a blanket, and hurried out of the restroom. The preteen teachers made it through the noisy gym with Michelle leading the way. The dancing and talking students were oblivious to their passage as they made their way out of the door.

“Now that we got rid of them, we can have some more fun,” said Darcie. “I’m going to enhance your figures a bit.”

“Us?” asked Claire, a mischievous sparkle in her eye.

“Please?” asked Rachel, a hopeful smile on her face.

“Not a problem,” said Darcie. “Stand over there, so I can hit you both at the same time.”

The girls stepped aside into an alcove where nobody could see them. Darcie aimed in their direction and pressed the button that accelerated the aging process.

The drooping clothes and underwear that Claire and Rachel had appropriated from their regressed teachers started to straighten out and fill in as the two girls progressed through their early teens.

“This is great,” said Rachel. “I’m starting to fill in Ms. Jerwinski’s bra a little bit.”

“I’m going to grow you up to be about the same age Jerwinski and Hamilton were,” Darcie explained. “Everyone will think you two are new teachers.”

In a few minutes, two women in their early thirties exited the alcove. Claire and Rachel were dispatched to the supermarket about four blocks away to buy some beer, while Darcie mingled into the dancing junior high crowd of to plan some more age-changing entertainment.

=====

Melody Loomis had no way to know that her threat to Darcie about contacting Principal Richards was a completely empty one. Kathleen Richards, the 43 year old principal of Washington Junior High School, had been hiding upstairs in her office most of the evening. When Darcie had first arrived at the dance, one of her first clandestine pranks was to hide behind a corner and shrink the hapless woman to the stature of an eight year old girl. In a panic, Kathleen had managed to sneak back to her office before anyone had seen what had happened to her. While the dance continued downstairs, a very distraught Kathy was busy trying to formulate an escape plan. Not knowing how or why she had suddenly been changed into a little girl, she had ditched her extraordinarily oversized business suit and donned some spare clothing from one of the girl’s dressing room lockers. She hoped to wait until the dance was over and all of the teachers, parents, and students had departed. She could then call someone for help.

=====

As soon as she arrived at the Vanowski’s house, Lori hurried up the to the front door. After trying the doorbell several times without a response, she tried the opening the door. It was unlocked.

“Anybody home?” she called out to the apparently empty house.

A reply came from the kitchen. “Lori! We’re in here!” The voice sounded like a baby’s.

Lori rushed into the kitchen.

“Oh geez...,” gasped Lori in dismay as gazed down at the two baby girls who stared up at her from the floor. She recognized them as Christine and Peggy. Even though they each had become so young that only whips of baby hair adorned their nearly bald heads, they were quite cute as infants.

“Lowi, wook at what happened to us,” lisped Peggy.

“Andrea found this wemote contwol thing - and it changed us into babies,” lisped Christine. “I think you’ve alweady met my daughters, Andrea and Stacey. Girls, say hello to Mith Sheffield.”

“Hello Miss Sheffield,” said Andrea shyly.

“Who’s your friend, Andrea?” asked Lori, nodding toward a girl who looked to be the same age as Andrea.

The kindergarten girl looked as though she had been insulted and put her hands on her hips. “I’m Heather Mathews. And I’m not Andrea’s friend, I’m her babysitter. I’m sixteen years old. Or, at least I used to be sixteen years old, until Andrea did this to me.”

Lori listened to their stories and pretended to be surprised; the truth, of course, was that she had experienced the regression effect first hand and needed no convincing that it was indeed possible for adults to be changed into children - or even babies. Her problem now was to find out what had happened to the device and how she could get it back.

For Lori’s benefit, Heather recounted her belief that Darcie had taken the age control with her to the Homecoming dance at her school.

“Come on. We’re all going down to the school to try to get that thing back,” Lori directed. She felt like a soccer mom presiding over a large family; Peggy and Christine were babies, and Heather looked just old enough to start school; only the “real” child, Andrea, remained at her correct age.

“We can take my minivan,” suggested Christine. “My keyth are in my purth on top of the counter in the kitchen.”

There was only a slight delay resulting from a shortage of safety seats for the children. After a short discussion, it was decided that it would be most appropriate for Andrea to use it. Lori jumped in the driver’s seat, and they zoomed off toward the school at breakneck speed.

After running through several stop signs, Lori screeched Christine’s minivan to a halt in the parking lot at the school. She felt a sense of impending disaster that lent urgency to the mission of retrieving the age changing control. She had to get it back before anything really bad happened.

As she sprung open the door and jumped out of the driver’s seat, Lori looked back at her passengers. Christine and Peggy were babies and would only slow her down. Heather and Andrea were too young to be of any help. She was going to have to go in alone.

“You wait here for me,” she said, dashing toward the entrance.

Nobody questioned Lori as she strolled into the gymnasium of Washington Junior High. The students and teachers milling around the entrance at the annual fall Homecoming dance assumed she was just another parent or school administrator acting as a chaperone; furthermore, there had been a score of improbably strange occurrences that continued to distract the attention of those in attendance.

Lori couldn’t help overhearing part of a heated discussion that was going on off to one side of the entrance. There was a sobbing ten year old girl dressed in oversized clothes standing next to a woman who was apparently her mother. The mother was distraught, directing her wrath at another woman who Lori guessed must have been one of the teachers.

“...find out what happened to my daughter. Just look at her! Her clothes don’t even fit - the poor girl isn’t even as tall as her younger sister now!”

“Mrs. Gabella, I’m sure that there’s some perfectly normal, logical explanation for what’s going on...”

Lori knew she was close.

=====

Lori looked around the room, seeking signs of Darcie’s mischief. She didn’t have to look very far. Standing in front of her was a curly-haired blond girl in a very baggy dress. She was wearing a plastic name tag that said “Miss Garvey - Phys Ed”. She appeared no older than 13 or 14.

“Excuse me, young lady. Can you tell me where I can find Darcie Mathews?”

“She’s over on the other side of the gym,” said the girl, pointing. Pamela Garvey looked up at Lori a bit strangely, wondering why she had been referred to as a young lady. After all, even though she kept herself in good shape, she was nearly forty years old! She couldn’t resist smiling at the complement, wondering again why none of her clothes seemed to fit very well today.

=====

“Pardon me, can you tell me if you’ve seen Darcie Mathews?”

“That’s Darcie over there,” said the boy, nodding toward a tall girl. To Lori, she looked like a high school girl, not a junior high student.

Lori approached her cautiously.

“Hello, Darcie? Darcie Mathews?”

Darcie turned to look at Lori. “Hi. Who are you?” she asked, suspicion in her gaze. She had never seen this woman before.

“I understand you may have found something that belongs to me,” said Lori, looking directly into Darcie’s eyes.

Darcie felt a shiver go up her spine.

“It belongs to me, now,” snapped Darcie, suddenly in a panic. The age changer! She had feared that someone would discover it was missing from the Vanowski’s house, or that someone would find out what she was doing.

“Darcie, please return it to me,” Lori said evenly, holding out her hand for the control.

“Look, lady, I don’t know who you are, but I’m not giving this up!” insisted Darcie, gripping the control tightly.

“I can see what you’ve been doing,” said Lori, looking around the gym at the various regression victims. “You seem like a nice person who knows that stealing is wrong. And I’m sure that you know what you’ve been doing to people with that control is mean.”

“It’s not mean!” insisted Darcie. “I just cut a few people down to size. They deserved it! It’s not like I really hurt them or anything.”

Darcie’s voice betrayed her sudden defensiveness. The girl did have a sense of right and wrong, and she knew in her heart that what she was doing was wrong. Lori hoped that this would provide the psychological leverage she needed to convince Darcie to do the right thing.

“You’ve got to give me that back to me so we can change all those people back to normal,” said Lori calmly, again extending her hand for the device.

“No way,” pouted Darcie. “I just gave everyone exactly what they deserved. It’s not like what I did is permanent...I mean, they’ll grow up again eventually.”

“Darcie, you can’t leave your sister and your classmates here like they are,” said Lori.

“Lady, stop bugging me! Leave me alone!,” shouted Darcie. She had been pushed slightly too far. Darcie pointed the control at Lori and pressed the regression button.

Lori realized she had made a terrible mistake in confronting Darcie directly. While trying to appeal to the girl’s conscience, Lori hadn’t been prepared for Darcie’s level of desperation. It was too late now. Lori flinched and held her hands in front of her, as if she could block the age changing radiation. Of course, once the beam struck her, there was nothing she could do to prevent it from making her younger.

The room expanded rapidly and in a few seconds Lori was an infant. She struggled inside of her clothes, most of which had fallen immediately into a pile on floor around her, and after floundering around for a while finally managed to poke her head through the neck of her shirt. Her hands were lost inside her shirt sleeves somewhere, and she felt both of her bra straps slip off of her shoulders. Darcie towered over her, laughing in triumph at having reduced Lori from a mature woman to a helpless, crawling baby girl.

“Hey, short stuff, how’s the weather down there?” Darcie gloated, looking down at the baby wiggling on the floor in a pile of clothes. “I think you need a new tailor.”

“Change me back,” demanded Lori, her voice now a tiny baby’s.

“I’ve got a better idea,” said Darcie, a note cocky assurance in her voice. “I think I’m going to change myself instead. I’d like to be your age - or, should I say, the age you used to be. What was that - thirty or so?”

“I’m thirty-two,” lisped Lori.

Darcie chuckled. “You’re not even thirty-two months now,” she laughed. “I’ll dress you up real cute in little baby clothes and put you in a playpen. You are cute as a baby, you know.”

Seeing Lori’s clothes heaped on the gym floor gave Darcie a new idea. “I’m going to change myself to be thirty-two. Maybe I can wear some of your clothes - they don’t fit you too well now, do they?”

Darcie aimed the control at herself, once again trying rather awkwardly to hold it sufficiently far from herself to engulf her entire body while pressing the age progression button. Lori felt frustrated, but their was nothing she could do now. She was absolutely helpless as she watched Darcie prepare to change her body into that of an adult. There was now no way Lori would be able prevent the irresponsible girl from using the device to increase or decrease people’s ages at whim.

For the one time that day, luck was in Lori’s favor. The excitement of feeling absolute power mixed with adolescent hubris had made Darcie careless. Too busy gloating, she had pressed the wrong button.

Darcie let out a shriek that increased in pitch as she shrank. The control dropped to the floor. Darcie was almost instantly reduced to the size of a baby girl, and suddenly found herself trying to fight her way out of the tent of the clothes she had borrowed earlier from her older sister.

The two babies - both struggling in tangles of oversized clothes - were starting to attract the attention of the other students at the dance.

“Hey! Who let those babies in?” asked one chubby girl with glasses.

“Shouldn’t somebody be watching them or something?” wondered another sixth grade girl. “They might get hurt.”

“Aren’t those Darcie Mathew’s clothes?” a boy standing nearby inquired. He couldn’t understand why Darcie would leave her dress on the floor in the middle of the dance, much less her shoes and even underwear.

Lori had by now freed herself from her clothing and, exploiting her temporary advantage, rapidly scampered to grab the device where the rapidly regressed Darcie had dropped it to the floor. She only hoped that it hadn’t been damaged in the fall. Lori’s tiny hands gripped the control while she pressed the progression button with her baby-sized index finger as hard as she could, and at the same time tried to point the business end of the device at herself.

Her first attempt missed; the barely visible blue beam from the device streaked past her and struck a group of three sixth grade girls who had just turned to gawk at the spectacle of the two infants struggling on the floor. The girls were hit by the ray and, to the amazement of the gathering crowd, instantly gained several inches in height. The rapidly growing breasts of one of them suddenly popped out the top of her spaghetti-strap red dress, eliciting a shriek as she tried to cover herself.

Baby Darcie managed to grab one end of the device while Lori was still struggling to point it at herself. Lori and Darcie were now in engaged in an infant-sized tug of war. Darcie desperately attempted to pry the control from Lori’s grip, accidentally hitting one of the buttons and firing it again.

This time, the misdirected beam managed to strike the large 70s-style disco mirror ball that had been suspended above the streamers as part of the d?cor prepared for the dance. The reflected rays scattered across the gymnasium. Some of the reflections from the rotating ball harmlessly illuminated the ceiling or walls, but many of them bounced randomly into the crowd.

Lori and Darcie paused momentarily in their struggle as noisy pandemonium suddenly broke loose. Evidently, the optical properties of the mirrored ball had somehow altered the effect of the age-changing radiation in unpredictable ways, causing havoc as on or more of the reflected spots struck most of the people in the room.

An eighth grade boy timidly dancing with his girlfriend suddenly found himself staring at her breasts, which were unexpectedly at eye level. He now looked like an eight year old, while his date appeared to be about 25. Similarly mismatched couples throughout the crowd were letting out gasps of disbelief as they found themselves and their partners abruptly increased or decreased in age, often in different directions.

A cluster of parents, engaged in conversation near the refreshment table in the back of the gymnasium, unexpectedly found that it was hard to reach the plates of snacks - their bodies were now those of five and six year old children.

A group of four sixth grade girls shrieked as they suddenly expanded into women in their mid-thirties, their dresses stretching and tearing at the seams.

=====

Claire and Rachel had just returned from the liquor store with a couple of bottles of vodka stashed in their purses. As they expected, they had no trouble purchasing alcohol; they looked to be in their mid-thirties, and the old clerk at the store didn’t even ask them for identification. Their luck ran out as they returned to the dance; unfortunately for them, their reentry into the gym coincided precisely with the age ray scattering off the mirror ball. A couple of fleeting reflections danced across the two girls, exactly reversing the age progression effect that Darcie had applied to them previously. Claire and Rachel almost instantly shrunk down to their original statures as twelve year olds. Since they had previously traded their own clothes for Ms. Hamilton and Ms. Jerwinski’s, they found their borrowed outfits had become vastly oversized.

“What just happened?” Claire asked, startled to find her clothing had become several sizes too large.

“Shit! We changed back!” exclaimed Rachel, staring first at Claire and then at herself.

=====

Principal Kathleen Richards, who now had the physique of an eight year old child, had managed to don some appropriately sized clothing borrowed from the girl’s gym. Luckily, the girl’s volleyball team had just received brand new uniforms a few days previously, and Kathleen had been fortunate to find a decent fit - an extra petite size - among the new clothes that hadn’t yet been distributed. Sized for junior high school girls, most of the uniforms were too big for her.

Kathleen felt more than a bit silly to be wearing an athletic outfit proportioned for a preteen girl, but it fit her much better than her adult sized business suit had. After momentarily pondering what to do about underwear, Kathy concluded that, given her new condition, she had no reason to worry about not wearing a bra.

Kathleen was still trying to understand what had happened to her. A few hours ago, she had arrived to oversee preparations for the Junior High dance. She had just finished talking with a few of the parents who were attending as chaperones, and had stepped back to the other side of the gymnasium, when - through some bizarre and inexplicable means - she had suddenly dwindled to the stature of a child. Frightened, confused, and embarrassed by her appearance, she had ducked into her office and hidden there while trying to figure out what to do. Because she now looked like an eight year old, she realized that nobody would recognize her.

After contemplating various options and dressing herself in more appropriately sized garments, Kathleen had decided to risk sneaking back into the gym and attempting to convince a member of her teaching staff what had happened. After some hesitation, she saw Nora Mataris, one of the school counselors, standing nearby and decided to approach her. Nora seemed much taller and bigger from Kathleen’s new - and much shorter - vantage point.

The conversation didn’t go very well. Nora refused to take the matter seriously, and was totally unwilling to believe that Kathleen was who she claimed to be.

“Look, young lady, I don’t know who put you up to this, but you can tell your big brother or sister that Miss Mataris is not going to fall for their stupid joke,” smiled Nora dismissively. She had to admire the creative fantasies of some of the students, even if they were a bit na?ve to think she would fall for such a wild story. Imagine - the school principal had been magically transformed into a little girl! Nora supposed it appealed to the junior high students’ desire to turn the tables on authority figures.

“Nora, please believe me! Somebody has to help me!” pleaded Kathleen.

Kathleen was about to give up in despair. As fate would have it, at that very moment, Lori and Darcie’s struggle caused the age ray to scatter about the room.

The reflecting rays from the mirror ball hit Kathleen and Nora.

In seconds, Kathleen Richards was restored to adulthood, while simultaneously, Nora Mataris rapidly shrank down to preschool size. They looked at each other in shocked disbelief.

“Holy shit,” gasped Nora, realizing that she was now only waist high to Kathleen. Her previously tight-fitting clothes slumped off her shoulders and slid down to the floor in a pile, giving her a comical appearance.

“Now do you believe me?” asked Kathleen, looking equally ridiculous and uncomfortable in her now seriously undersized volleyball uniform.

=====

In the midst of the confusion and panic caused by the wildly careening age rays, Lori and Darcie continued to wrestle for control of the age changing device. The two infant girls both vied for a secure hold on the box. Making a final desperate exertion to the limit of her remaining strength, Lori snatched the control away from her rival at last and managed to press the progression button while the device was aimed in her general direction.

The faint blue ray emanated from the control, and Lori found herself rapidly growing back to adult size - and standing naked in the middle of a gymnasium packed with sixth, seventh, and eight graders. Luckily, the mass confusion caused by the random age transformations continued to create an overwhelming distraction - virtually everyone was in a still in a state of shock from being reduced or increased in age. Lori grabbed her clothes from the pile on the floor (where she had been shrunk out of them a few minutes before) and quickly pulled her top and pants back on.

======

Lori looked around the gymnasium and let out a weary sigh of frustration. If she hadn’t been so careless as to misplace the device in the first place, none of this would have happened. Once again, just like the incident at the mall several weeks ago, there were dozens of randomly age-altered victims in various stages of undress trying to comprehend what had happened to them and their friends. Bewildered parents and teachers had been reduced to teens, toddlers, and various ages in between, while several of the junior high school students now looked more like college kids (a few of them who had been most strongly affected appeared to be adults in their thirties).

Glancing around, Lori saw how the consequences of the changes were slowly beginning to sink in to members of the crowd. There were many unexpected role reversals. Some of the younger girls in the sixth grade had blossomed through puberty into buxom beauties and were now busy admiring their new endowments; their less fortunate friends, who had not been hit by any of the ricocheting age rays, looked like younger sisters in comparison to their now much taller classmates. Random members of the girls and boys athletic teams were shrunk back to middle school size; some former sports stars would no longer be big enough to compete. Eldest siblings were now realizing they had become little sisters and little brothers. Many of them would have a hard time adjusting to their new statures.

Lori felt a moral obligation to fix things as much as she could - applying what she had been able to learn about the age device would enable her to eventually change many of the victims back to their normal ages. It would take a long time. She would have to debate whether or not some of the victims who were largely responsible for their own predicaments (the infantized Darcie Mathews came to mind) deserved to be grown back to their physical age. Perhaps people like Darcie would benefit from spending additional time being treated as children.

Lori had originally promised to loan the control to her good friend and coworker Lisa, but that would be out of the question for a while longer. Lori’s first item of business would be to change Christine, Peggy, and Heather back to normal. Restored to adults (in Heather’s case, restored to a teenager), they could help her sort things out in the gymnasium. They wouldn’t have long, perhaps only a few minutes; Lori knew that the authorities would soon be descending on the school, and she had no intention of being around when they arrived. She had a limited time to change at least some of the people back to their rightful ages (or reasonably close to them) before the police, paramedics, and other responders arrived on the scene.

Heather had also mentioned that Darcie had changed Heather’s classmates Diane and Cindy into five year olds. They were still at Heather’s house, hiding in her bedroom, too small to wear their own teen-sized clothing and mortified at the prospect of being seen by anyone they knew. Lori would stop by Heather’s house and repair the damage.

As she hustled back to the minivan in the parking lot, Lori again studied the weird control in her hand. Although she had figured out many of its functions, many others still remained unexplored. The buttons that exhibited no apparent effect continued to intrigue and annoy her. If only she had an owner’s manual!

Lori was no closer to figuring out the device’s origin than when she had first found it. Who had created it? Was it some kind of secret scientific or military device, or something...alien? How and why was it abandoned?

In spite of her uncertainty, Lori smiled. She knew that she would be quite busy for a while, working behind the scenes with the age controller to undo the damage indirectly caused by her carelessness today. Nevertheless, she also knew that this self-imposed corrective duty wouldn’t take forever, and after it was completed she could look forward to using the device in more “creative” ways. The thought of being able to change anyone’s age - even her own - to whatever she wanted at a whim gave Lori a visceral thrill. The idea of having such an absolute power over everyone was intoxicating...and she was already dreaming up new ideas and new scenarios for age-changing fun.

One thing was for certain - Lori’s daily routine was no longer boring since she had discovered the age control. She grinned as she realized that things were starting to look more interesting every day.

=====

THE END (of the beginning?)

 

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