Chapter 1
Full Story
Olivia just didn't understand where she had gone wrong. In spite of her best efforts to be a good example of a confident and powerful professional woman, her teenage daughter, Stephanie, was still a timid, anxiety-ridden mess. She did well in school, and always did her chores without needing to be asked, but Stephanie kept to herself and didn't have any friends at all as far as Olivia could tell. She didn't do anything after school - just got off the bus and disappeared straight to her room until dinner.
Olivia's husband Jack said she worried too much, and would always point out that Olivia had been shy as a kid as well. However, Olivia had gotten over that little hurdle in 7th grade, and Stephanie had just finished her freshman year in high school. Surely it wasn't unreasonable to expect her own daughter to be able to do what she did, on a similar schedule? How else was she going to end up as a famous scientist like her mother? (Of course, Stephanie didn't *need* to become a scientist - Olivia was prepared to accept any STEM field for her daughter.)
Jack was against any kind of intervention, but as usual Olivia got her way after putting her foot down. And so it was that Stephanie was signed up for Coyote Trails summer camp. Olivia had always loved going to Coyote Trails every year as a girl (in fact, she credited it in large part with making her the woman she was today), but Stephanie had always been overwhelmed by the idea of being in a camp of total strangers for a few weeks, and had always finagled her way out of it. Until now.
Olivia was sure that once Stephanie got to summer camp, it would be just like it had been for her.
But as Olivia thought about it more and more, her doubts grew. Even though she *loved* Coyote Trails, she remembered that she had always gone with friends, and that cliques had quickly formed. Stephanie didn't have any friends, or any experience making friends, so there was a big risk that she'd end up an outsider to all the cliques just like she was at school. And far from "fixing" Stephanie, it might push her further inside of herself.
No, no, no! Olivia's heart went out to her daughter. There had to be some way to stop her from being a pariah.
And that's when inspiration struck.
Olivia had been putting the finishing touches on a temporal manipulation device. It would have been exciting to call it a "time machine", but Olivia was too aware of its limitations to call it a self-aggrandizing name like that. Right now, her prototype could return an object to a previous state and mix and match the traits of an object with past and present versions of itself.
However, that feature was incredibly dangerous - as soon as the machine was turned off the timeline would be rewritten based on what had occurred to the past version of the object while it was on. That's why Olivia had created a component to prevent nasty time messes: the causality dampener. With that baby on, no matter what happened while the machine was on, the original timeline would remain intact. (A rather trivial piece of engineering in Olivia's opinion.)
Olivia's plan was simple: she'd make herself her daughter's age and then attend the camp posing as a distant cousin of Stephanie. Then she'd befriend her daughter, mentor her, make sure she got into the right clique and everything would be perfect from there out.
Olivia made all the arrangements at work for a "vacation", and signed up under a pseudonym at the camp, and after Jack left with a rather forlorn-looking Stephanie in tow for camp, Olivia went to the basement.
She looked at the screen in the middle of a mass of wires and electronics. She keyed the device to her biosignature, and entered the settings to make her body 16 (a little older than her daughter - she wanted to be someone her daughter could look up to), and mix in her 39-year-old mind. She double checked to make sure the causality dampener was on and pressed the green button.
The changes were subtle. At first, Olivia wasn't sure if she had even changed - her top might have gotten a *little* looser, and she might be *slightly* shorter, but that could have been in her head. The only obvious sign that it had worked was the sudden surge in energy Olivia felt. She walked up the stairs and looked in the hallway mirror.
Her jaw dropped. Olivia took good care of herself nowadays, but she still had a few pounds that she wouldn't mind getting rid of, her face had more lines that it used to, and every so often she found a grey hair. But staring back at her was unmistakably her 16-year old self - she just looked so fresh and youthful. No stray grey hairs, a flat perfect stomach and a cute-as-a-button face.
She complimented herself on settling on 16 - when she had already mostly filled out. She thought about what it would be like to be even a year younger when her blooming was still largely ahead of her. She shuddered - no, this was perfect. Her 18-year-old self was probably her in her prime, but her 16-year-old self was certainly a contender.
She crept up to the attic to get her old clothes, but when she saw how 90's her clothes looked she resolved to do a quick shopping trip before going to camp.
* * *
Stephanie had not left her cabin since she had arrived. She wasn't "hiding" exactly, but she was underneath the bunk bed with a light so she could read. That's when a smiling face popped under the bed, and almost made Stephanie scream.
"Hiya!" the perky girl said. "Don't you know you're missing the campfire commencement ceremony? It's one of the best parts!"
Stephanie closed her book and looked at the girl. It was hard to put her finger on it, but the girl looked very familiar to her. Stephanie was too nervous to make eye contact with the girl, so she looked at the space just to the left of the girl's eyes and said:
"I-I can't go out there. I'm s-sorry. There's just too many people out there. I can't stand that many people staring at me. J-judging me. I'm just going to stay her and r-read my book."
The smiling girl shook her head.
"You, know I used to be just like you Stephanie. Everything is going to be fine. Here, take my hand."
Stephanie looked at the girl, extending a hand to her. She wanted to say several things, but she decided on one:
"Uh, how do you know my name?"
The girl pretended to be hurt. "You really don't remember me, cuz? I mean it *has* been almost 10 years, but I definitely remember playing with you at the old family reunions."
Understanding dawned on Stephanie's face, and suddenly it made sense why the girl looked so familiar. This girl was definitely part of the Anderson family - she had red hair, and her voice and face reminded Stephanie a lot of her mom or aunt. Stephanie forced herself to make eye contact, and confirmed that the girl had the same green eyes as herself. She didn't actually remember this girl (it had been ages since she had visited any of her cousins), but realizing she was family made things a lot easier. It meant she wasn't a stranger.
Stephanie took the girl's hand, and let herself be helped to her feet besides the bunk bed. She shuffled nervously before speaking.
"Um, I actually don't remember your name. It has, uh, been a while," Stephanie admitted.
The girl's smile never wavered. "Oh, don't worry about it. You were probably, what, four? I'm Ol-" the girl looked uncertain for a moment, but quickly regained her composure. "I'm Olana."
Stephanie nodded, and let Olana lead her by the hand out to the center of camp, where a large campfire was burning. Stephanie's heart started racing when she saw how many girls were gathered around the fire listening to the counselors. She tried to pull away, but Olana gave Stephanie a comforting look that reminded Stephanie so much of her mom.
"Don't worry, Stephanie. I'll stick with you all night. I wouldn't let my baby cousin get hurt - just watch how it's done."
After the counselor’s finished their introductions the girls split off into groups of five and played ice breaker games to get to know each other. First up was two truths and a lie. Then they played a game where one person stood in the center with a pool noodle, and whoever they tried to hit with the noodle would have to shout another person's name before they got hit, marking them as the next victim. Every minute or so, they merged with another group.
In spite of herself, Stephanie found herself having fun. Having Olana to offer quiet encouragement made all the difference, and soon she wasn't even thinking about what the people around her must be thinking of her - she was too absorbed in the games.
The final game of the night was one where people went around and said their names and made up a wacky action, and every person after the first had to remember the name and action of every single person who came before them. Stephanie's heart fell when the circle started with Olana on her left and went clockwise. Stephanie was going to be the last person. How was she going to remember all those names and actions? But Olana nudged her and gave her a reassuring smile, and Stephanie decided to do her best, if only for her cousin's sake.
And sure enough, when the circle came around to Stephanie, she was able to do the entire circle's worth of names and actions without missing a beat. When she breathlessly finished, she could tell that several of the girls were impressed with her memory.
Back in the cabin, all of the girls chatted for hours. Stephanie would have gone back under her bunk bed and started reading, but Olana kept asking for Stephanie's input and pulling her into the conversation, so Stephanie gave up on reading and did her best to keep up with her cousin. She really admired her cousin, but there was also another feeling in the back of her mind. She didn't want to admit it to herself, but she was envious of Olana and it kept her from really feeling as warm towards her as she wanted to. Why did Olana get the perfect body and easy confidence, while Stephanie was a beanpole and struggled so much to interact with people? Didn't they both have the same blood - how was that fair? It was questions like these that Stephanie had to force herself to not think about throughout the night, in order to not have her mood soured. She tried to reason through it intellectually. Olana was nice. Olana was family. There was no reason to feel anything negative towards her. And yet...
* * *
After the first week, by some miracle Stephanie and Olana were both in the "cool girls" clique. Stephanie knew that she was more of an honorary member of the clique, there because of Olana, but it felt kind of nice to have the other girls outside the clique treat her with deference and admiration. It was so refreshing to feel like she was on the top of the social totem pole, instead of on the bottom (or outside the totem pole entirely - off in a sad corner by herself.)
The seven cool girls were all sitting around, when Jenny, the second in command after Olana, spoke up.
"Did you see that enormous zit that Stacie got?"
Another girl spoke up. "Oh my god, yeah. She looks like a freak. But at least one part of her is ballooning up." The girl pantomimed around her chest.
The girls all giggled, but Olana cut them off.
"Ladies, I can't believe you're sinking to this level!"
The girls looked taken aback.
Olana shook her head. "We're the coolest girls here - and that means we don't need to be insecure about our place in this camp. Do you know who gossips to make themselves feel better - the girls *almost* as cool as us. We're so much better that we don't need to engage in petty gossip to feel good about ourselves."
The girls actually seemed... relieved. All except for Jenny, who stared daggers at Olana. It was clear to everyone that she was plotting a way to take Olana's place.
And while Stephanie was relieved, as mean-spirited gossip did make her uncomfortable, she also couldn't help but notice that tiny, envious part of her getting a little louder. Who put Olana in charge, anyways? If Stephanie and the other girls wanted to do things that cool girls did, like *lightly* make fun of girls lower than them in the hierarchy, well who was Olana to stop them? Stephanie tried her best to focus on the positives of Olana - on how much kindness and genuine love she had shown Stephanie. But it was getting harder the more time went on.
* * *
A few nights later, the cool girls snuck off and decided to play "Never have I ever" in the woods.
"Alright girls, you know the drill. 10 fingers up, and we go around saying things we haven't done. If you have done it, put a finger down. First one out is the queen tonight," Jenny said.
"Olana" smiled. She'd have to lie about how experienced she was to not seem like a slut - the sexual history of a 39 year old woman would certainly be shocking coming from the mouth of a 16 year old.
When she put her 5th finger down (Jenny only had 4 down at this point), she suddenly felt a chill.
Across town, Jack was in Olivia's basement. She hated him being down there, but whenever she wasn't around he liked to try out some of her inventions. They were all so amazing and useful, how could he resist?
Today, the thing that caught his attention was the machine loudly humming in the corner. He walked up and read the screen.
> Temporal Manipulation Device v0.1
>
> [TIME]
>
> [CD]
Oh wow! Had Olivia really made a time machine? His mind was racing with all the possibilities. There were so many memories he'd love to revisit, and little things he'd love to change. He pressed [TIME] on the screen.
> Please enter [DAY] or [AGE] you would like to return object state to.
>
> [BACK]
Jack got a mischievous grin. He knew exactly what day he wanted to visit. It was the day he and Olivia had lost their virginity to each other. She had been his second girlfriend in high school. It was crazy thinking back to that time - a time when Stephanie was only a twinkle in Olivia's eyes, and Olivia, well she would have been about Stephanie's age. He gave a goofy smile, thinking about how young and awkward the two of them had been. He entered the day, and was greeted with a new screen.
> Would you like to mix traits from other times?
>
> [YES] [NO]
>
> [BACK]
Jack didn't know what this meant. He decided to go with [NO]. The fans of the machine whirred louder for a few seconds, and then... nothing. Jack frowned. He was again at the starting screen.
> Temporal Manipulation Device v0.1
>
> [TIME]
>
> [CD]
CD? Could it be that the machine requires a CD? He clicked the option. The screen said:
> CD has been disabled.
And then returned to the starting screen. Jack shook his head, either it didn't work, or it was more complex than he thought. He started reading Olivia's notes, but quickly realized that his lack of technical background was going to make deciphering them impossible.
"Oh well," he thought. "I've got almost two more weeks. I can try seeing if I can get this to work later." And he moved on to the other new inventions in the basement.
Meanwhile, back at camp, Olivia felt very strange. She blinked a few times, and wondered where she was. She looked around and saw woods, and girls lit up by flashlight. She recognized the woods, but not the girls. Why was she back at camp? Hadn't she just been with- She blushed. She unconsciously pulled on the shoulder strap of her top - it was a little too big for her all of a sudden.
Olivia was still disoriented, but she noticed all the girls had their fingers up. Ah, "Never have I ever." This at least was something she understood. Olivia felt a little bit of her old nervousness returning, but she squished those feelings down. Even if she was in a strange situation surrounded by strangers, she knew she was better than this. People liked her now, she had friends. She'd never go back to being that shy girl nobody liked.
One of the girls said, "Never have I ever gotten drunk."
There were mocking shouts of "no fair!", but all of the other girls except for Olivia and Stephanie put their fingers down.
Jenny smiled. "Wow, Olana. I was expecting Stephanie to have never gotten drunk - no offence, but the way you talked it always seemed like you were more on the experienced side of life."
Why had the girl called her Olana? Was she being mocked? Olivia could see a barely concealed hatred in the girl's eye. She seemed like a queen bee, and Olivia wasn't sure she was confident enough to go toe-to-toe with a girl like that.
The next girl went. "Never have I ever sent nudes to someone."
Jenny and three other girls lowered a finger. Jenny was in the lead now. Olivia wondered what kind of girl would send naked pictures to someone else - the logistics alone were hard to wrap her head around, but she kept her mouth shut.
Now it was Stephanie's turn. She looked thoughtfully around, and then gave a self-pitying smile. "Never have I have ever had boobs bigger than B-cup."
All of the other girls put a finger down. Except Olana. Everyone went quiet for a moment. Olana had at least D-cup breasts, right?
Jenny got up, and walked over to Olana, grabbing at her breasts. She had to know what was up. She was surprised to find... nothing. Olana was flat as a board.
"Oh my god, Olana. Have you been stuffing your bra this whole time?" Jenny said with a malicious smile.
Olana's face turned bright red. She didn't know what was going on, but she decided to say the truth.
"No, I would never do that! And my name's not Ola-"
Jenny cut her off, "She totally has, everyone come over and feel this!"
Olivia had thought she had gotten over her body image issues, and found confidence and peace now that she was 15. It helped that Jack was super into her exactly as she was. But Jack wasn't here, and she normally didn't have girls crowding around her to feel her up.
One by one, they verified the truth - Olivia had nothing up top, and with each new person Olivia's embarrassment grew. The only person who wasn't saying or doing anything was the girl Olivia had heard Jenny call "Stephanie."
Jenny looked at Stephanie. "Come on Stephanie, why don't we compare you and your cousin?"
Stephanie looked down ashamed. On one hand, that tiny part in the back of her mind was thrilled to see Olana being taken down a peg. On the other hand, she was ashamed at how thrilled she was to see her kind-hearted cousin being humiliated. And on the other other hand (!), Stephanie knew her beanpole body still probably didn't favorably compare to her cousin's. Still feeling a conflicted mess of emotions, she walked slowly over to Jenny. Jenny felt her up, and laughed.
"Stephanie, I definitely wouldn't have thought it, but you've got a respectable A-cup. That's more than Olana here can say."
Stephanie felt a venemous pride welling up in her. No one had ever thought her A-cup boobs were anything worth talking about, but now she had someone even worse off than her...
Olivia's head was spinning at this point. Cousin? Olana? Who exactly was Stephanie, and what was happening? Was this a nightmare?
Jenny looked around at the other girls. "Olana, Olana, Olana... Why'd you stuff your bra? What other lies have you been telling?"
Jenny grabbed the hand that Olivia had closed, and painfully forced it open. Jenny pointed at Olivia's thumb.
"Have you really been outside the country?"
Olivia wanted to protest, but all of the girls looked so imposing. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes, but she did her best to choke them back. How did she get into this situation?
"N-no?"
Jenny continued. "Oh wow, you were lying from the very beginning. Just like you've been lying from the beginning of this camp about how big your boobs are! I bet you haven't even made out with a boy," she pointed at Olivia's middle finger.
"No, I've definitely made out with a boy!" she insisted. "I-In fact, right before I ended up, uh, here I was actually about to, uh, do it with him."
Jenny shook her head dubiously. "Oh, this is rich. You really don't know when to quit, do you? If you really have a boyfriend, which base had you already gotten to with him?"
Olivia looked desperately around. She tried to remember what the bases were - she had grown up with conservative parents in a conservative school system, but she had heard people use Baseball bases to refer to... something?
"Uh, I got to, uh, second base with him?" she said, still on the verge of tears.
Jenny poked Olivia's non-existent breasts. "Not much of a base there, is there? So you've never even gotten to third base?"
Except for Stephanie, the girls started laughing, and Olivia's efforts to choke back her tears finally failed. She started openly sobbing and her knees felt like they would give out any second.
Seeing her so vulnerable, Stephanie wanted to go to her cousin and comfort her, and to tell all of the other girls off. She wanted to. She really did. However, Stephanie also realized that this was an opportunity. She was only part of the cool girls clique because of Olana. But this whole situation probably meant that Olana was going to be on the ouster. And Stephanie didn't want to be forced to live on the bottom of the totem pole again. She wasn't proud of herself, but she started joining in with the laughter.
For the next few minutes the girls were relentless, taking turns tearing her down, and in order to cement her position in the clique Stephanie was the most relentless of them all. By the end of their taunting, Olivia was sitting on the floor hugging her knees. The girls left her alone in the darkness of the woods.
* * *
The next day, the camp was abuzz with rumors about what had occured the previous night. Everyone had a different version of what happened. But one thing was certain, the old Queen was dead. Long live the Queen.
Olivia sat by herself at lunch, her curveless body visible for all to see. Some of the girls felt pity for her, and most remembered how nice she had been to everyone, but no one wanted to upset the new queen bee, so they treated Olivia like a leper. For her part, she didn't even feel like talking to people for the most part. She knew she was backsliding, that every interaction with those around her were reopening the old wounds she thought were completely healed. She didn't even feel like protesting when people called her "Olana" now. What was the point? Whether she was Olivia or Olana, the truth was that nobody liked her, and who could blame them?
The cool girls never wasted any opportunity to mock Olana in the following days. When they went to the lake, they mocked her one peice swimsuit. When they had campfire nights they stole her smores. They were horrible to her. Stephanie sometimes felt pangs of guilt for what she had become, but she almost couldn't stop at a certain point. It was just too much fun taking joy in Olana's suffering. She wondered if this was what the bullies at school felt?
Things continued in this way until the final night, when everyone was about to go back. Jack had gotten his fill out of Olivia's other sci fi gadgets, and since he only had one night left he decided to give another crack at the time machine. He decided ther first thing to do was the IT professional's classic stand by: turn it off and on again. He clicked the power button off-
* * *
SNAP!
Olana looked around the room she was in, confused. The other girls had been bullying her, so she had hidden herself in a supply closet, and now... What was going on? It looked like she was in an office. She looked down and was surprised to see the body of a mature woman. And then it started coming back to her. She wasn't a 15-year old girl, she was a 39-year old woman. And this was her office. She shook her head to clear the cobwebs. She remembered her invention, and her trip. Everything else was a bit of a blur. Had her plan to make Stephanie confident worked?
She walked downstairs and noticed that her house seemed... different? It was less nice than she remembered. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Stephanie downstairs, and she was ecstatic when she saw that Stephanie wasn't alone. Three other girls who seemed vaguely familiar were with her.
Stephanie looked up, "Oh hey mom. My friends and I want to go shopping, give me $200."
Olivia was taken aback. Stephanie was certainly more confident, but she was also rude! Olivia was going to give her a piece of her mind, but suddenly she felt a chill and the fight went right out of her.
"Alright, Steph," Olivia said quietly. She got out her purse and handed the money over. Something about this felt wrong.
A girl (Jenny?) laughed, "Oh my god, Steph. I can't believe you have your mom wrapped around your finger - I wish we could trade."
All the girls laughed, and Olivia wondered what that meant. She was a strict disciplinarian, the uncontested matriarch of the household and- She felt a chill, and felt so nervous around the girls that she retreated to the kitchen.
"Oh honey, there you are," it was Jack. "Can you take out the trash? And do the dishwasher? Oh, and I don't see dinner on the table yet."
This wasn't like Jack! She normally made *him* do things. What had gotten into everybody? But then Olivia felt another chill, and found herself nodding and starting to take out the trash. Then it hit her - reality was rewriting itself! That's why her house, her daughter, even her husband were treating her different. She tried to think back to what had happened. She had been in the camp for a week or two, and then... suddenly she was back with Jack about to have sex for the first time. She had been so emotionally vulnerable after the girls had humiliated her.
It was like being back in middle school again. No matter how much Jack tried to reassure her, she couldn't believe that he really thought she was beautiful. A beanpole like her? Over the next few months three years of progress were undone, and even when her breasts started coming in, her confidence didn't return.
After that, Olivia had been pushed around for her entire life. Jack basically forced her to marry him, and when Stephanie - Steph - had been born, she had become servant to a new master. Steph was spoiled, thanks to her spineless mother.
Olivia ran to the basement hoping to undo this somehow, but it was empty. She put her head in her hands. It couldn't be. Memories came flooding back to her. She didn't make the push for a promotion at her job and was still working just above entry level after 15 years. She didn't make fantastic inventions, and she had certainly never gotten close to inventing time travel.
She was about to cry, but then Jack called her up. She pushed her feelings down - if Jack needed her to do something, she'd didn't have time to cry.
