“Ahh… she is so cute…” is all David could say when looking at Annette. He didn’t know what exactly he loved the most about her. Was it her long black hair she always puts up into a ponytail? Her blue eyes? Her beautiful voice? There was no specific thing, David loved all of her features, beyond the features, he just loved her.

David had been in love with this girl for as long as he could remember meeting her, but the closest he ever got to her was simply being a friend. He wanted more in his relationship with her but… he could never work up the courage. “Why don’t you just ask her out to the movies or something?” asked Jim.
“Well… I just don’t want to risk it, what if she says no?” asked David.
“Who cares? She would be bound to say no if you never asked her, it’s either she wants to go with you or she doesn’t. If you don’t ask her, you don’t have a chance at getting into any type of relationship with her.”
“I want a sure fire way to get closer with her though! I don’t want to risk this chance by asking her! I know she is the one for me!”
“Your 15, you have many more years and chances to date more girls, you shouldn’t let Annette’s rejection, if she rejects you, be the end of your love life.”
“No, unless I find a sure fire way for me to get closer with her, I will not try it! Don’t try to convince me, I’ve made my choice! She is the one for me!”

But suddenly, their conversation was interrupted when they heard a girl’s voice say “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but overhear your dilemma…”
Both Jim and David turned around to see a red headed girl that neither have seen at the school before.
“Who are you? Are you new here?” asked Jim.
“Yes, I… I recently transferred over here.”
“Nice to meet you! My name is David, and this is my friend Jim.”
“My name is Ruby! Nice to meet you both. So… what’s this I hear about ‘getting close’ with another?”
“Oh that’s just about David’s love interest, but he’s too afraid to try to get anywhere with her and refuses to go out with anyone else.”
“Shut up Jim! Everyone doesn’t have to know about this!”
“They might as well, if you’re too afraid to take action it isn’t going to make any difference.”
“I am not going to take that big of a risk and ruin my chance to get closer with Annette just so I can get you to quiet down!”
Ruby smiled and said “Well… I might have a solution for you, a way for you to get as close to this girl as possible…”
David, intrigued by Ruby’s offer, asked “What is this solution?”
“Come after school to the yard behind the lockers, and I’ll show you.” Ruby replied.

Throughout all of the last two periods of the day, all David could think about was what Ruby was offering. How could she help him bond with his soul mate? Would she simply teach him lessons on how to get girls? Would she offer to spy on her, learn all of her interests, and tell him them for a modest fee? He wanted to figure out. He stared at Annette while she was looking at her paper and wondered if this was all going to work or if it would ruin his chances for Annette forever. He decided to wait until after Ruby explains what she will do to decide if it’s the best approach or not, whether there would be any chance at failure or not…

After school David walked toward the back of the locker. It was a small field with a bit of trash, wild grass, weeds, and a few trees. No one really went back there as there was nothing of interest and there were better places to hide if any truants wanted to hide from teachers to ditch class. David went forward into the empty yard, looking for Ruby. He couldn’t find her and guessed she was either late or ditched him. After looking behind a tree, he turned around, shrugged, and headed back the way he came until suddenly…

“Hello~!” Ruby said after she appeared out of what seemed like nowhere jumping off the tree onto the ground in front of David. “Whoa!” exclaimed David “Where did you come from!?” “The tree silly, I’ve been waiting there for you up there for quite a while.” Ruby responded. “Why?” David asked. “No reason, just thought it would be funny, and it was!” Ruby said while smiling back at him. David put the palm of his hand into his face and asked “So… what exactly are you going to do to help me with Annette?”

“Oh yes, you wanted to get ‘closer’ with her, correct? Well, I have the perfect idea!” Ruby responded after pulling out a small glass cup. She held out the cup to David, put it onto the ground right in front of his shoes, and then said “Alright, all you have to do is look down into this cup for a few minutes. Simple, isn’t it?” David, confused at the idea, asked “How would this help with-” “You’ll see soon enough! Now, just concentrate on that cup, okay?” interrupted Ruby in a gleeful way. “Okay.” David hesitantly responded.

David, still confused, looked down at the cup. The idea of looking down at a cup hooking him up with Annette made absolutely no sense, but at the same time, it didn’t seem to ruin his chances with her either. He decided to just play along for now. After a minute he realized something odd, the cup seemed somewhat larger than before, but only by a bit. “Must be tired from school.” He thought. A minute and a half later, his suspicion grew; the cup defiantly was getting bigger and wider. Not only that, but the grass around it seemed to grow as well. Suddenly, the cup, the grass, even his shoes started growing larger and larger.

“Wha- what’s going on!? Am I going insane!?” David asked. “It’s all part of the plan! Just keep staring down!” Ruby replied to him. David realized he couldn’t even look elsewhere either, it seemed like his neck and eyes locked into place onto the cup. He started to feel the rest of his clothes becoming very loose. “Why is everything getting bigger!? I must be dreaming, there’s no way!” he thought. “Almost done!” Ruby shouted. The cup grew up to his waist, his shirt and pants grew so large they fell off, his socks no longer felt like they were attached on to him. He then felt as if something pushed him as he moved into the cup and tripped face first into it.

The cup quickly grew around him until it became a few feet taller than where his head would be if he were standing up and wide enough for him to sit down inside the cup. David stood up and realized he could once again move his head. He looked around, very confused how Ruby managed to grow the grass, all of his clothes but his underwear, and the cup. Suddenly, what seemed like gigantic fingers wrapped around the cup and brought it up into the air, causing David to lose his balance and trip into the cup. “Perfect! Step I complete!” exclaimed a loud booming voice.

David realized in horror what had happened. The cup, his clothes, and the grass didn’t grow. “Wh- What did you do!?” he yelled at Ruby. “I thought by your view point it would be obvious. You shrank!” she replied. “But… but why!?” he asked “It’s part 1 of my plan of course!” she replied. “How would this get me closer to Annette!? How did you even do this in the first place!?” he yelled angrily. “As I said, it will all become clear soon enough. Now for part 2!” she said.

“Part 2!? Make me normal size now! I don’t want to do your… your ‘plan!’” he shouted. “Now now, it’s far too late for that. Well then, let’s begin the second part!” David yelled at her and banged on the cup at her, but in vain, she did not respond back. David watched as she waved her hand which glowed with a blue light, and as she muttered words unknown to him. He wondered what she had in store for him next, hopefully returning him to normal size.

Suddenly, he realized his feet were feeling a lot more loose and flexible. Eventually his feet started to feel like blood no longer flowed in them. He knew something was up after the shrinking, but before he could try anything, he realized his feet no longer under his control. He couldn’t move them or feel anything on them. “Oh God, when is this dream going to end!? When!?” he thought. He then realized his legs stopped working, causing him to fall backwards into a sitting position. Finally his arms stopped working. All he could move now was his neck, eyes, and mouth.

“It’s just a dream, yes, it’s just a dream. It’s just a dream…” he murmured to himself. David looked at his feet to realize they looked flabby. It was as if his skin was stretched out. In horror, he then realized that it was not just the skin, but the entire foot, and it wasn’t flabby any longer. It was becoming liquid. “Just… JUST A DREAM!” he told himself in denial. Next, his legs melted along with his feet into a gooey mess. “No, no, no!” he started repeating to himself.

In only a few minutes, it was up to his neck, the cup was about half full of what used to be his body. “Haha… Ill just wake up, say to myself, ‘what a crazy dream!’ Then go to school, hehe… that’s what will happen.” He told himself. Slowly it was going up to his chin, “Oh just any moment now, then I’ll tell Jim and we will laugh all about it! Ahaha, that’s what will happen, yes! Thot issh whot wbell hap-“ he said before his mouth melted off.

Next his nose melted off as well. Before his eyes melted, he saw Ruby standing there, smiling. It seemed as if she were always smiling he was thinking. The image of Ruby slowly seemed to melt away, the colors mixing into each other, and slowly black appeared from the bottom of his vision slowly to the top. Finally his head slowly melted away into the fluid. “Part 2 complete!” Ruby said to herself. “Now I know you can’t hear me anymore, seeing how your ears are gone, but there are only two steps left. These ones are easy.”

Ruby looked at the cup of skin colored fluid, then murmured more words. Her hand started to glow yellow this time. The fluid nearly instantaneously became clear and looked as if it were water. Ruby picked up the cup, put on a lid, then ran off to the school’s track field. There Annette was found running around the track for her practice.

“Hey Annette!” Ruby yelled toward her. “Oh, hey! You’re the new student right? What do you think of the school?” Annette asked her. “Oh, I love it, the teachers are nice, the campus is beautiful, and I’ve made quite a few friends. Do you know a boy named David?” Ruby asked. Ruby started walking toward the back of the lockers. Annette followed her to stay in conversation with Ruby.

“Oh, David…” Annette said after blushing. “Yes, I know him… I’ve always been a friend with him, but… I don’t know, when I see him, I always want to go further. It’s kind of funny.” “Why? Do you like him?” Ruby asked slyly. “I… I’d rather not say…” she said getting even redder. “It’s like a case of the girl who likes shopping and the bag boy…” Ruby thought to herself. At last, they made it to small field at the back of the lockers. Annette then said “Ah… I am tired. Say, by chance, do you have anything to drink?”

Realizing the moment was perfect, Ruby told Annette “Yes, I do have a drink for you. David told me to give it to you, heh, I guess I forgot.” She gave herself a playful smack to the head for forgetting and then gave Annette the cup to drink. “David gave this to me?” she said after blushing again, “I… I have to thank him.” Annette said. Annette then opened up the cup and starting drinking the fluid inside of it. After drinking every last drop, she then told Ruby “Hmm… this water tastes a bit odd… doesn’t taste like ordinary water… but I guess he wouldn’t want to give ordinary water as a present.” She said. Suddenly, she stopped moving altogether.

She didn’t move an inch, she remained in a paralyzed like state for a few seconds, then fell to the ground unconscious. “Part 4 complete!” Ruby said with pride.

“AAHH!” David thought to himself as he woke up from what felt like a nightmarish dream. “… What… what happened?” he thought to himself. “So you’re finally awake!” a familiar voice said. David then saw Ruby staring down at him. “Oh God. It was only a dream…” he thought to himself. Ruby grabbed David’s hand and helped him up. “Oh, thank you Ruby… I had one of the worst… dreams…” he said slowly when he realized something was off about his voice. It was familiar… but not his own.

In fact, it was not even suited for a boy. What he heard was a girl’s voice. “… What… what is wrong with my voice…?” he asked. “Nothings wrong, that’s your body’s natural voice, silly…” Ruby told him, while she started reaching into her backpack. “But… bu- Oh… God…” he then saw his old clothes that he was wearing during his nightmare. He put his hand onto his chest… which… felt completely different than how it used to. His body was completely different now, the body was not one of a boys. “Ah! Hear it is!” Ruby said after pulling out a mirror.  

“Now you get to see the results of my plan! I’m very proud of it I must say.” Ruby told David. David looked into the mirror to see a very familiar black haired blue eyed girl staring back at him. He then put his hands onto his hair to realize it was put into a ponytail. After a few seconds of silence, David screamed. “What happened!? Am I still dreaming!? This is impossible!” David exclaimed. “Hmm? I only did what you wanted.” Ruby told David. “I said I wanted to be closer to Annette!” he yelled at Ruby. “Exactly! And what closer to her is there than actually being her, Annette?”

“Why… why are you calling me that!?” David asked. “Because that’s your name Annette. Aren’t you supposed to call someone by their name?” Ruby replied. “No! I mean yes, I mean… gah… how did you do this!?” David asked as he started to feel new parts of his body to confirm what he was seeing.

“Well, after turning your old body into a liquid substance, I gave it to your new body. After she drank it, the water didn’t go where water is meant to, instead it went straight up into the brain, surrounded it, then allowed it to absorb your old body. This allowed you to take complete control of your current body, Annette.” She replied to David.

David fell to the ground, brought his knees to his chest, and then went into a fetal position. “No, no, no. I’m a guy, I’m a guy… I’m a guy! This is all a dream! This is all just a simply dream! That’s it…” he said to himself denying the events that have taken place.

Ruby simply looked at the girl in front of her, and sighed. Suddenly, she turned her head toward a tree. “Crap! She caught me!” Jim thought to himself, “Okay… Ill just play it cool…” to which he said to Ruby “Oh, hey! I normally go back here to uh… meet up with one of my friends in track. I forgot he didn’t come to school today. So… uh… what’s wrong with Annette?”

“Oh, that’s a common thing that happens after what these people go through. She will eventually come to, accept the position she’s in and go home.” Ruby said to him. “Well… her parents probably are looking for her, track ended an hour ago. I’ll just take her to their car then.” Jim told Ruby. “Oh, okay then, I’ll see you later, if Annette comes out of that state, tell her that I was happy to do what I could do to help.” Ruby replied. “Uh… sure…” Jim told Ruby as she walked away.

“Oh God… Jim… this… this isn’t who you think it is…” the girl that looked like Annette in front of him told him. “I know David.” Jim replied. “… How… how did you…” asked the girl. “I saw the whole thing, I couldn’t do anything to help, by the time I noticed what was going on, it was already too late for me to try anything.” Jim replied. “Whoever this girl is… she’s no normal person. She defiantly has some type of magic power.” “I… I don’t know what to do… I…” the girl replied to him. “Don’t worry, for now, just go to Annette’s parents and act like Annette. I’ll tell your parents that you’re sleeping over with me. We will get to the bottom of this soon enough. At least… I hope.”

The girl got up and started walking slowly, trying to stop crying. She still wasn’t used to her new body, still putting her hand onto new different parts of her body.

Jim looked at the girl who was walking away crying, then thought to himself. “Who is Ruby… how did she do that? Why did she do that? I better keep a watch of her…” Jim then looked toward the direction Ruby was going, then thought “And here I was hoping I could ask her out.”