Kelly was sitting at the counter at Alice's kitchen. He spent most afternoons at Alice's. Alice didn't work anymore after winning her harassment suite from her old job. She now had enough to live in the upscale condo and now go to school to finish her degree. Alice made a good role model for the boy and they enjoyed each others company. Kelly at 14 and Alice at 25 were about the best friends each other had. Kelly lived in the condo with his parents and they seem like a normal happy family. Well the normal part was accurate but happy was another story. Kelly had not sat down to a meal with both of his parents in the last 6 years. Not that they needed the money it was just that his parents careers were the most important thing in their lives. They were drifting apart and worse not noticing the pain their son was in. Kelly was in a depression over not fitting in, and not knowing where he fit in.
Alice was showing Kelly the costume she had made for the Halloween party she was attending. It was a sparkly Las Vegas Showgirl outfit with a long feathered headdress. "Alice you will look beautiful in this" Kelly said examining the dressmakers dummy that wore the costume. "I will once I use this" said Alice holding up the spray bottle. "Are those Humbugs? I've seen their commercials on T.V." Kelly asked. "HuggleBugs you silly, not Humbugs. This spray is going to give me the body for that costume" said Alice posing. "I just wish there was someone to show it off for" "But you already look beautiful Alice." Kelly said trying to perk up his friend. "Thank you but nature needs a little help sometimes. I did get carried away though this bottle has enough for 20 transformations". said Alice "They do have great service, I ordered it yesterday and its here already".
Kelly's mind was racing, this was just what he needed. This stuff was supposed to change you like magic. Since he was leaving this would be perfect. He hated stealing from Alice, she was the best friend he had. This weekend would be it. He slipped the spray bottle in his backpack when Alice wasn't looking. He had emptied his bank account so he could leave money behind for Alice. The bus ticket to Vegas was in his room. When he was back in his room he striped and read the directions on the bottle. One spray in his mouth and then a few on his body. The change began ,but did not complete. He was female but a 14 year old girl, not a woman like he planned. He called the help line on the bottle to find out what went wrong.
"HuggleBugs, this is Rose how can I help you?" a pleasant voice said.
"Yes, my name is Alice Wilson and my HuggleBugs isn't working right" Kelly said.
Its always our fault, never that they didn't follow the directions. "Let me pull you up on the computer. Lets see you ordered a Showgirl transformation, What seems to be the problem, Miss Wilson"? asked Rose patiently.
"I haven't grown, I'm still 5' tall and .."
"5' tall you didn't tell us you wanted to change your height, but that is easy to fix, just drink a lot of milk and eat milk products. You need the claim for the nanites to use in the transformation. By tomorrow you should see the results you were looking for" answered Rose "any other concerns we need to know about"?
"No that's about it, I feel silly now" Kelly said thankful he had not blown his plan. "thank you bye bye".
Kelly sat at the table with a tub of ice cream and a tall glass of milk for his dinner. His parents were not supposed to come home before 11 anyway. His bags were packed and ready to go in the morning. He went through a gallon of milk, a quart of fudge ripple, 36 slices of cheese and a pint of cottage cheese. Thankfully he felt the changes start again before he reached for the pound of butter they had. Kelly went to bed in case his parents looked in on him when they came home.
Kelly woke at 5:30 while his parents still slept. He was still shocked seeing her reflection in the mirror. Her brown hair turned honey blonde, she grew to 5'8" and her figure was a knock out. She brushed out her long blonde hair and made a ponytail, made up her face with the make up she had taken from her mothers room the day before. Slipped on a mini skirt and white blouse that she had bought mail order with her Mom's credit card last month and snuck out of the house to the bus station. Kelly left a note attempting to explaining why running away was the only option and to apologies to Alice for stealing her HuggleBugs and not being able to confide in her.
It was a short walk to the bus station. Kelly bought a cheese danish and a pint of milk, thinking she might need more dairy products in her system. Even though she had planned this for months she still felt a shiver of fear while waiting for her bus to be called. It would take most of two days to reach Las Vegas and then would she be able to find work. She had to be able to afford the permanent HuggleBugs soon, the spray bottle she has will only last for sixty days at best. Well no time to worry now that's my bus, Kelly thought.
At 9:01 the phone began to ring. "Hello" Alice said still sleepy.
"Good morning, I'm sorry to disturb you so early. My name is Rose I'm calling from HuggleBugs about your order."
"Oh yes I received it yesterday, I wanted to thank you for your prompt service. Is there something wrong with my order?" Alice asked.
"Well when you called last night"
"I didn't call last night" alice interrupted.
"You didn't, but I took the call last night. The person I talked to was upset because the transformation did not change their height." Rose said with a little confusion.
"Hold on let me get my spray bottle." Alice said.
While Alice and Rose tried to figure out what had happened, Kelly's bus was heading out of town Kelly started having second thoughts, maybe she could talk to Alice about her fears. She got up to ask the bus driver where she could get off the bus and go back home. Just after the bus reached the interstate tragedy struck. A stolen VW bug tried to outrun a police car and swerved in front of a tractor trailer. The truck driver hit the brakes causing his truck to jackknife. The bus driver swerved to the right to avoid the truck and crashed through the guardrail. The bus rolled down the side of the hill and came to rest on its side.
By 4:54 Alice was very worried, Kelly had always stopped by her place by this time. She had not been able to find her bottle from HuggleBugs and Kelly had been the only one over the day before. Could Kelly have taken It and why would he. Where was Kelly? Alice sat down and turned on the early news while she tried to think of what to do.
"Recapping our earlier story a Bus was forced off the interstate this morning with 17 injured one seriously" the news anchor stated. Alice was shocked at the scene on her television screen. A bus on its side, rescue workers treating the injured and bloody victims. A helicopter lifting off. "One victim was taken by Life flight to Memorial Hospital in serious condition"
Mrs. Berger came home early, well 5:30 was early for her. Kelly's school had called when he had not arrived. There had not been an answer when she had called. Kelly was not home now, so she went to his room and found the note and an envelope for Alice. Mrs. Berger ran to Alice's door and started beating it madly. Alice was startled by the frantic pounding on her door, she checked the peep hole and saw Kelly's Mom standing there beating on her door. She opened the door and Mrs. Berger rushed in.
"Have you seen Kelly?" she cried "he left this note and envelope to you".
Alice took the note and tore open the envelope. It contained $100.00 . "Oh no he did take my HuggleBugs" said Alice. "And he was leaving on a bus this morning, lets go".
"Go, go where? What HuggleBugs?" his Mom asked confused.
"Someone took My HuggleBugs I bought and Kelly left me money for them. His note says he's leaving on a bus this morning and one was in an accident leaving town. The injured were taken to Memorial Hospital." Alice said dragging Mrs. Berger out the door. They left in Alice's Honda and quickly drove across town to the hospital.
Dr. Wright was just finishing up with Jane Doe's chart when Alice and Mrs. Berger came rushing down the hall. He looked up as they were asking the nurse about the bus accident victim that had been brought in today. Dr. Wright walked over when he saw the resemblance of his Jane Doe and the woman at the desk. "Your here about the patient from the bus accident?" he asked.
"Yes where is he?" Mrs. Berger asked.
"I'm afraid your mistaken my patient is a young woman, I assumed she was your sister" he said looking at Alice "the resemblance is remarkable"
"How is she, may we see her?" Alice asked
The Dr. led Alice and a confused Mrs. Berger to Kelly's room, explaining that her condition was not as bad as first thought. There was no major injuries she was still unconscious but showed response to pain. They entered the room and saw a near twin of Alice lying on the bed with a bandaged head, a cast on her right arm and left leg. Alice ran to her and held her left hand . "Oh Kelly please be all right". she said. Mrs. Berger stood looking confused when Kelly started to stir. "Alice" a soft voice asked. "Right here and your Mom too" Mrs. Berger looked shocked when she realized that Alice had been telling the truth and ran to her child.
"Kelly, Why did you want to runaway? What was bothering you so much, I never knew you had problems". she asked softly.
"Mom when were you or Dad around to notice me at all?" Kelly said weakly, a small tear running down her cheek.
"Oh God, I am such a terrible mother" Mrs. Berger said the realization coming over her. She hugged her child and cried.
***********
Four days Later Kelly was released with his parents and Alice taking him home. A councilor had visited the family in Kelly's room each day. They would be making a lot of changes in the weeks to come. The first and most important lesson they learned was not to take each other for granted. His Mom and Dad had taken a leave of absence from their companies to care for their child and help him through the troubles he was going through.
Once he learned that his patient had used Hugglebugs he read all the literature available. The nanites actually helped speed Kelly's recovery. He after learning Kelly's parents didn't know much about Kelly or the Hugglebug's in her system. So Dr. Wright and Alice spent many hours talking. When the change back occurred he was truly astonished seeing this beautiful young woman change into a nice looking but plain young teenage boy. And a final note, Alice now had someone special to take her to that Halloween party.
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