Monkey in the Middle

Chapter 1
Monkey in the Middle

"Let me get it! I want a turn!"

"Sure, Jake, it’s your turn just as soon as you catch the ball." Alex tossed the ball over Jake’s head.

"Come on, you almost had it that time. Here, I bet you’ll catch it this time." Trevor tossed it back to Alex, letting it sail out of Jake’s reach as the younger boy tried to jump high enough to catch it.

"That’s not fair! You’re throwing it too high to catch!"

"I don’t know, Jake. Trev and I seem to be catching it just fine."

"That’s cheating!"

"You’re such a whiner. First you said you wanted to play with us, and now that we’re playing with you, you’re still not happy."

"That’s ’cause you’re just being mean to me!"

"If you don’t want to play with us, Jake, then don’t."

Jake stormed off, leaving his older brothers alone.

"He’s such a pain," Alex remarked, making sure to say it just before Jake made it out of earshot. Inevitably, it brought Jake barreling back to pummel Alex ineffectively, screaming denials and invective. This, in turn, summoned their mother from across the house, who proceeded to grab Jake and deposit him in his room for a time out.

"I don’t know what got into him, Mom. We were playing ball, and then Jake got upset that he couldn’t catch it, and threw a fit," Alex explained.

Trevor eyed his older brother, but waited until she was actually out of earshot before saying anything. "That was a little mean."

"He’s been bugging me all day. ’Play with me, Alex,’ ’Look at my drawing, Alex,’ ’Wanna play with my new toy, Alex?’ Now he’ll leave me alone for a little while."

"Yeah...but, it doesn’t help when you get him all upset. Now he’ll be in a bad mood all day."

Alex shrugged. "As long as he stays in his room, whatever."

"Gee, thanks. That’s my room too, that I can’t go into all day without him screaming at me."

Alex shrugged again. "So don’t go in your room. Anyways, I’m off."

"You’re off?"

"Yeah. I’m hanging with some friends."

"We were going to shoot some hoops, until Jake demanded to play."

"We were going to shoot hoops an hour ago. Don’t be like Jake, Trev."

And with that, Alex walked off.

Trevor sighed and made several nasty gestures at Alex’s back as he walked off. All mentally, in case mom walked in. He thought about going to play some video games, but figured he should go check on Jake, even if he was a whiny kid. He went to the shared bedroom, still wishing his mother would let him share with Alex, since they were only two years apart. Jake was only 7, and their mother seemed to treat him like his was much less mature than Alex just because he shared a room with a little kid. The other week, she’d even gone and bought him spiderman underoos, as if any teenager would be caught dead in underoos.

He poked his head into the room. "Hey Jake, you ok?"

Jake looked up, not crying, to Trevor’s surprise. He was munching on a box of Cracker Jacks, actually, so Trev slipped into the room.

Jake grinned smugly. "Mommy gave me popcorn cuz you were mean."

Trevor sad on his bed and sighed. "I was trying to get you to catch it Jake. Besides Alex won’t play with me either."

Jake pulled a small necklace with a gaudy medallion on the end out of the box. "Coooool! It’s a magic medal! I’m gonna be a wizard like Harry Potter!"

Trev grinned a bit at Jake’s enthusiasm. "Sure Jake. Do some magic so Alex will stop being so mean." He figured it couldn’t hurt to play along. "You can practice on me. Just don’t do anything permanent, ok?"

Jake smiled and waves his hands mystically. "Jake the wizard says Trevor needs to suck on a pacifier! That’ll be funny when Alex does it!"

"Yeath! Dat’ll be funny!" Trevor blushed and tried to figure out why his voice sounded so muffled, until he realized he was sucking on a bright blue and red pacifier.

He pulled it up with a soft pop, and stared. It looked just like one you’d give a baby, complete with Winnie the Pooh. His mouth began to ache and suddenly he popped the pacifier back in, relaxing as he sucked happily on the rubber. As much as he knew he shouldn’t, it just felt too good, and he couldn’t bring himself to stop. Like he needed it

Suddenly, even as Jake giggled at him, Trevor grinned. Alex was in for a surprise.

"This is awesome! Now to get Alex good."

"Hey!" Trevor exclaimed, around the pacifier.

"Oh yeah. Jake the wizard says Trevor doesn’t need to suck on a pacifier." And the pacifier--and, mercifully, Trevor’s urge to suck on it--vanished. "Where’s Alex?"

"He left to hang out with friends."

Jake run down the stairs, leaving Trevor to follow him as the boy darted out of the house and down the street, to the pizza restaurant where Alex and his friends usually "hung out."

Sure enough, they could see him through the store’s large front window. The two of them crossed the street and sat down on a bench, giving them a good view of the inside where Alex wasn’t likely to notice them.

Jake thought for a moment before proclaiming, "Jake the wizard says Alex is going to wet his pants without noticing."

The two sat, watching for evidence that Jake’s spell really worked. A few minutes passed, with no apparent reaction.

"They’re all sitting at that table. You said Alex shouldn’t notice, and none of the others can actually see his pants."

"Oh. I hadn’t thought of that." Jake thought for a moment. "Jake the wizard says Alex is going to poop his pants without noticing."

"You said he’d do it without noticing again."

"Yeah. But I didn’t say it wouldn’t smell." Jake giggled.

Sure enough, it only took a minute before they could see, even across the street, that something was going on. Several people were visibly holding their noses and looking around, presumably trying to identify the source of the unpleasant smell. Finally, the whole group stood up, and one of Alex’s friends pointed to his pants, and the whole group started laughing. Alex ran out of the store towards home, and Trevor and Jake ran behind him, far enough that their distracted older brother wasn’t likely to notice them.

Trevor and Jake high fived and sat down in their room, giggling as there heard Alex in the bathroom changing. Trevor saw the unopened pack of Spiderman underoos his mother had bought. "Hey, Jake. I’ve got an idea!" Jake looked at him. Trevor held up the underoos. "Make it so when he puts his clothes on they turn into little kid stuff. Like you wear."

Jake looked upset. "I’m not a little kid!"

Trevor nodded and winced, not wanting to offend his suddenly powerful little brother. "I know you’re not, Jake. You’re a big boy. So...ummm...make Alex have to wear really little kid stuff. Like training pants and stuff"

Jake giggled happily at that and peeked out the door. They saw Alex moving from the bathroom to his room, wet hair and freshly showered. Jake held his medallion and whispered "Jake the Wizard says all of Alex’s clothes are for little kids! But they still fit him!" Trev offered Jake a high-five, which he returned.

"That’ll be so funny, Jake! Awesome!" Jake grinned slyly and looked right at Trevor.

"And Jake the Wizard say Trevor likes to wear underoos all the time, just like me!"

Trevor blushed. He could feel the boxers he was wearing grow tight and snug, just like the briefs he used to wear. But it was different now. Spiderman undies suddenly seemed cool. And even better, Jake wore them, and it was awesome that they matched.

Jake grinned at Trevor. "Don’t call me a little boy again!"

Trevor squirmed a bit, and ran off to use the bathroom mirror to confirm what he already knew. He unzipped his jeans and sure enough, there was a pair of gaudy Spiderman underoos, a perfect match for the ones Jake was wearing. Trevor wanted to be upset that Jake had stolen his boxers, but he couldn’t quite manage. He knew that he used to think boxers were cooler, and they he should think that, but he couldn’t remember why. His new underwear had Spiderman webswinging all over. They even matched Jake’s. Trevor found himself both mortified and thrilled at his new underwear.

He left the bathroom to see Alex leaving his own room, wearing a bright Winnie the Pooh shirt and purple shorts that barely went to his knees. Checking to make sure his underwear wasn’t visible, he grinned. "Nice clothes, Alex."

Alex blushed, then tried to bluster his way through the confrontation. "Um. Yeah. Yeah, they are cool. Leave me alone." He rushed through the room, trying to escape the discussion.

"So, you going to go back and hang out with your friends more? Now that you put on your cool clothes." Trevor couldn’t hold back. "And took off the ones you went to the bathroom in?"

Suddenly, Alex turned to face him. "What did you say? How did you know that?" Alex crossed the room in two large steps, and before Trevor could react, pinned him against the wall. "This is your fault, isn’t? What did you do, you little jerk?" Still holding Trevor, he pulled an arm back, preparing, or at least threatening, to punch Trevor. Trevor tried to struggle, but the two years between them included a growth spurt that give Alex almost six inches on him.

Trevor shut his eyes, preparing for the blow, but it didn’t come. "Um...except...my favorite show is on..."

And Alex left Trevor standing there and raced out of the room. Trevor was surprised, until he saw Jake standing in the other corner, gripping his medallion and grinning wildly. "His show? What show is on in the middle of the afternoon?"

"Barney, of course. Let’s go see."

Trevor and Jake walked to the TV room and looked in at their fifteen year old brother sitting on the floor, singing and clapping along with the purple dinosaur on the television.

"Wow. Nice job, Jake."

Alex heard them, and looked over, giving a look of utter hatred. He struggled to say something, but only got out, "Don’t bother me! I’m watching Barney." He turned bright red, and looked like he was fighting with himself over something, but then another song started, and Alex turned back and began singing along with it.

The other two boys returned to their room.

"I really saved you there, didn’t I?"

"Yeah, you did. Thanks."

"So, want to play Operation?"

"Operation..." Trevor should have known this would come up. Jake’s absolute favorite board game. Not even regular operation--Shrek operation. A game Trevor and Alex both despised, but which Jake persisted in trying to play with them.

Jake looked at Trevor thoughtfully. Shifting in his underoos, Trevor decided that playing Shrek operation was better than letting Jake make it his favorite game, too. "Yeah, sure. Let’s play Operation."

--------------------------------------------------

Trevor sighed as he set off the buzzer in Operation again. Usually he could beat Jake pretty easily (on the rare occasion they played the stupid game), but he was nervous. After all, his kid brother was sitting there with a smug grin and the power to put him in awesome spidey undies, the coolest kind in the world, even though Trevor knew he should be wearing boxers like any middle schooler.

*BUZZ!* "You lose again Trevor!"

Trevor just sighed and rolled his eyes a bit. "You’re just too good at this, Jake. I can’t win."

Jake grinned an enormous grin at Trevor. "That’s cuz it’s my favorite game!"

"I know, I know." Trevor nudged Jake playfully, "You’ve told me a hundred times! Sheesh."

Trevor just kept giggling. "We better pick it up so you can get ready for bed though, Jake. It’s about that time."

Jake frowned, but started picking up the game. "Why do I hafta go to bed? I’m not tired!"

Trevor shrugged, trying to be careful and avoid mentioning the main reason: Jake was 6 years younger then him and had an earlier bed time. He shrugged and tried to sound sympathetic, "I dunno Jake. That’s just the rules, I guess."

There was a soft knock at the door, and their mothers voice drifted in, telling Jake to get ready for bed, and Trevor to go take a shower. Trevor pulled out a clean pair of spiderman undies, which seemed to be the only underwear in his drawers. Blushing, he grabbed some loose fitting shorts and a baggy white t-shirt to sleep in to cover them up, though he normally slept in his underwear. Jake groaned, but pulled out his favorite pajamas, emblazoned with pokemon on all over, and made of slightly faded, but still bright yellow material. Jake watched Trevor leave the room and grinned. He wouldn’t be going to bed first tonight.

Trevor was getting dressed after his shower, blushing at his reflection in the mirror as he pulled on his favorite underwear. He pulled on his shirt next, reluctant, and yet aching to cover them up. The t-shirt suddenly grew snug and turned a bright yellow. Trevor blushed...this was Jake’s, not his. Except it fit him perfectly. He looked down at the shorts, which looked just like the pair he’s brought in. He pulled them on and winced. Sure enough, they rolled down his legs into pajama pants the matched his shirt perfectly. "Pokemon jammies...", the word rolled off his tongue instead of the more mature ’pajamas’.

He giggled softly. "Now Jake and I really match!" Even knowing that it was Jake’s magic at work, he couldn’t help enjoying it.

Even as he admired his new jammies, there was a loud bang on the door. Alex’s voice boomed through it. "Hey, hurry it up, I need to shower."

Trevor opened the door and let Alex in, noticing with some relief that the blue fuzzy piece of clothing his brother had brought to change into looked even more childish than Jake’s pokemon pajamas.

When he returned to his room, Jake had gotten some of his toys out. "You’re not in bed yet?" Trevor asked the question as neutrally as he could, not wanting to get Jake mad at him.

"Nope. It’s not my bed time. Alex has to go to bed at eight. You and I get to stay up until ten."

"I see. Poor, little, fifteen year old Alex."

"Yup." Jake grinned broadly. "We should play with my transformers now." He wasn’t even bothering to phrase it as a question, and Trevor didn’t take it as one.

"Yeah, of course. That’ll be fun." Fortunately for Trevor, all the magic in the world doesn’t give a seven year old the ability to pick up on sarcasm.

While the two of them sat on the floor, in matching Pokemon pajamas, playing transformers, they heard a horrible crunching sound coming from the doorway. Turning to look, they saw Alex literally stepping on Tomb Raider, Trevor’s favorite video game. He was clearly trying to look intimidating, but the full-size sleeper with a duck over the right side of the chest and padded feet ruined the effect.

"Oops. Did I break something? I don’t know what you two are doing, but it had better stop right now." He pulled a hand out from behind his back, and revealed Bugs Bunny, Jake’s favorite game. "Get it, brats?"

Trevor looked nervous, but Jake just turned around and mumbled to himself.

"I don’t think you should do that, Alex," Trevor warned, not sure what Jake was planning.

"Or you’ll do what to me Trevor? Put on my training pants for me?" Alex looked confused, as if the words had just slipped out without bothering to tell his brain they were on the way.

Trevor promptly had the same experience, when he heard himself say, "Yes, Alex, you know you need to wear training pants to bed." And then, without even thinking, he got up, took Alex by the hand, and led Alex over to his room. Even though he had, without question, never done this before, it all felt routine, like he’d done all the motions a million times. Without hesitating he unzipped Alex’s sleeper, and while his older brother stood naked, horrified, and helpless, Trevor opened a drawer and pulled out a set of training pants, which he helped Alex into one leg at a time, then pulled them up. Finally, he helped Alex back into the sleeper and zipped it up.

"Okay, Alex," Trevor said softly, disturbed by the whole situation, but unable to act as if it was anything out of the ordinary. "You can go to bed now."

Alex was clearly furious, but meekly got into bed. As Trevor walked away, Alex called out, "Trevor...could you leave the light on."

Feeling increasingly bad about what Jake had done to his brother, Trevor turned a light on for him without comment.

Back in his own bedroom, Trevor considered how to talk Jake down from this particular power trip. "That was a lot of fun, Jake." As nonchalantly as he could manage, he continued, "So, when are you putting him back to normal?"

"Back? I’m not putting him back. That’s Alex, now."

"That’s really mean. He’s still your brother." The look on Jake’s face made it clear that this was going nowhere, so Trevor groped for Jake’s underdeveloped sense of fairness. "You can’t leave him like that. It’s cruel...it’ll ruin his life." Seeing what might be a glimmer of understanding in Jake’s eyes, Trevor pressed on. "Look, I know sometimes Alex is mean, but he’s part of our family. We’ve had lots of fun times too. You have to make him normal again."

Or perhaps it was the glimmer of yet another cruel plan.

"Fine. I’ll make Alex normal. Come on." Jake walked across the hall to Alex’s room, followed by Trevor. Alex had apparently already fallen asleep, sucking his thumb, even.

"Jake the wizard says Alex is the youngest brother."

For a moment, Trevor thought this might be beyond whatever power the medallion gave Jake, since nothing seemed to happen. But perhaps it was just too much to do all at once.

A moment later, in some twist of perspective, Alex’s bed visibly shrank while still fitting Alex perfectly, even though Alex didn’t seem to be shrinking himself. A few seconds later, as railings grew out of the sides of the bed and the headboard transformed into the front of a fire engine, Alex’s body finally caught up, and he shrank (still, somehow, taking up the same amount of space in the already smaller bed). But the change in proportion was unmistakable, and his cheeks puffed out with baby fat. His thumb slipped out of his mouth and a pacifier appeared in its place.

And then, the rest of room followed, radiating out from the bed. As if following some obscure law of magical conservation, the room quickly become a strange parody of its former self. Wherever there was a poster before, there was a poster now--the snowboarder near the bed had become an alphabet, while the band on the opposite wall was now a medley of animals (arranged, disturbingly, in essentially the same poses as the band had been).

The similarity stopped on the far side of the room, where Alex’s desk transformed itself into a second bed. Not just any bed, but Jake’s bed. And then, one by one, all of Jake’s belongings, from his dresser to his toys, popped up on that side of the room.

There was an audible pop as the changes finished, and Alex awoke with a start. "Hey!" he cried, loudly enough to summon their mother from down the hall.

"What are you two doing in here? You woke the baby."

"I’m not a baby!" Alex responded sharply.

"Oh, of course you’re not." Their mother picked him and held him against her shoulder, missing that Alex’s tone was not the petulance of a toddler asserting that he was not longer a baby, but the confusion of a teen who has woken up a fraction of his former size with a pacifier in his mouth.

Alex looked like he was trying to say something else, but their mother popped his pacifier back into his mouth, and, despite a visible effort to sort the situation out, his eyes started drooping as soon as his mother started rocking him back and forth gently.

"You two are supposed to be extra quiet if you have to get something from here once Alex goes to sleep. Trevor, I don’t know why you’re in here in the first place." Trevor left, more confused than ashamed. As he left, his mother turned on Jake, "And Jake, you know that the condition of getting to stay up late is that you’re supposed to get whatever you want from your room before he goes to sleep. Now get whatever toy you wanted and shoo."

It sounded like Jake stayed to argue about having to share a bedroom with Alex while Trevor went to his--now his alone--bedroom. Jake’s stuff was all gone, and Trevor’s had expanded to fill the room. It was clear that he needed it, too. He simply had more stuff than he had before. Apparently being the oldest child had its perks: he recognized some of his new possessions as having been Alex’s before--the new stereo, for instance, far nicer than the simple CD player he and Jake had shared before. And Alex’s small television had migrated here as well, taking the place of Jake’s stuffed animal stand (before, he and Jake had only had use of the large family television in the living room). Trevor looked down at his pokemon jammiers...er, pajamas...and shrugged. It seemed a fair trade. All this magic was working out to his advantage after all.

Jake came into Trevor’s slick new room, clutching his favorite teddy bear and pouting. "My room smells funny now, and Alex keeps crying." Jake sat down on Trevor’s bed. "Why do I gotta share with him?"

Trevor gulped nervously to himself, not wanting to upset his little brother, for fear of ending up in Alex’s room, especially seeing as Alex blamed him for all of this. He looked down at his little brother, unable to stop grinning at their cute matching pokemon pajamas. "You know how mom is, Jake. She thinks the oldest boy deserves privacy and his own room."

He looked at Jake warily. "Please don’t take it away, Jake! I’ve wanted my own room for years! I’ll do anything!"

Jake nodded. "Well. OK." He grinned a very very unsettling seven year old’s grin. "Jake the wizard says that he’s just as old as Trevor."

Trevor gasped softly as he watched a soft glow surround his little brother. The pokemon jammies turned to Yu-Gi-OH, then turned into a plain t-shirt and pajama pants, and then just a pair of sweats with a pair of boxers clearly sticking out around the waist. It was the exact outfit Trevor used to wear around the house at bedtime.

Jake grew, too. Taller and more lanky, all traces of baby fat gone from his frame. He looked quite a lot like Trevor this way, Trevor had to admit to himself. Jake grinned. "Wow! I feel way different!"

Jake ran his hands up and down his new body, grinning all the while. I’m growing hair in my ’pits!" He chuckled as though that was the most amusing thought in the universe.

Trevor just stared. His kid brother was now his twin, and not just a twin, but one looking a lot more developed then he was. Jake seemed to have started puberty months earlier then Jake. He had broader shoulders, a slightly deeper voice, and pit hair. He was even wearing boxers. Trevor looked at the waistband with envy. Boxers! Real teenager underwear, but he was still stuck in pokemon pj’s and spiderman underoos

The room shifted around, too. His bed faded and duplicated, so did his computer desk. Pretty soon all the necessities were doubled. Worse still, one side of the room had a decidedly immature twist. Pokemon sheets on the bed, Spiderman poster on the wall. Somehow he knew it was his. He and Jake might be the same age, but it was pretty clear he was somehow still the middle brother.

Jake beamed and sat down on the bed with plain navy sheets. The sheets Trevor had had this morning. He grinned over at Trevor. "See! You get to keep your room and I don’t have to sleep with the baby! I’m such a nice brother!"

Trevor looked around, trying to decide if he should dare ask the question on his mind. He decided on a conditional yes...maybe if he were a bit sly about it...after all, Jake was recently seven.

"Wow Jake...that was impressive. How do you like being all grown up?"

Jake grinned back. "This is great. I’m not going back to being seven again. He stretched. I’m so big! I see why you liked your clothes too. This is way better then pokemon pj’s and underoos."

Trevor felt a flutter of hope. "Can I have mine back then? Since we’re the same age? I-" Trevor caught himself as he realized what words were about to come out of his mouth, but the magic forced them out anyway, "-I wanna match with you!"

Trevor blushed and buried his head in his pillow. Seemed like Jake had tricked him instead.

"Aww. It’s cute that you want to imitate me." Jake yawned. "Maybe tomorrow."

------------------------------------------

Trevor woke from a tumultuous dream, full of vaguely defined threats and a manically giggling Jake towering over him, to the sound of Alex crying for their mother, a sharp reminder that the previous night’s changes were quite real.

As if the changes to their bedroom wouldn’t have been reminder enough. The worst part was that a casual observer might think he and Jake had merely traded sides of their bedroom. After all, on the one side of the room, a thirteen year old boy was pulling sweat pants back over the boxer shorts he’d slept in. And on the other side of the room was a boy in bright yellow Pokemon pajamas sitting in a bed with matching sheets, looking slightly dazed. The only real change was that the second boy was the same size and age as the first one, even if the Spiderman poster over his bed seemed to belie the fact.

Trevor steeled himself for the day ahead. He had one goal in mind--get Jake to put him back to normal. However much sucking up and making nice it might take.

"Morning, Jake!"

"Good morning, Trevor. I slept really well. I think the bed fits me better, now."

"Yeah, it’s really fun being thirteen. We’re gonna’ have lots of fun as twins!"

Jake looked happy at the reminder. "Yeah, it’s gonna’ be lots of fun."

"So, what’dya want to do today?"

Jake thought for a moment. "Hey, let’s play..." he paused on the word for a moment, recognizing that it didn’t quite fit. "Let’s hang out with your friends from school."

That didn’t even sound so bad. "Sure, that sounds fun. Let’s see if we can invite them over."

A quick conversation with their mother and a few phone calls later, Jake and Trevor had arranged for Trevor’s--now, presumably, both of their--friends to come over. The two boys sat in the living room, in front of the chips and dip their mother had put out, until the doorbell rang.

They ran for the door, and Jake made it first. With one hand on the doorknob, he turned to Trevor with a broad grin. "Oh, Trevor? You remember how you would never let me play with you and your friends when they came over before? Well Jake the wizard says they’re my friends now, because they all know that you’re so immature." And he pulled the door open, revealing Trevor’s best friend Mark.

"Hey Jake!" Mark walked through the door, then noticed Trevor standing to the side, looking more than a little worried. He wrinkled his nose. "Your brother’s not hanging with us, is he, Jake?"

Jake shook his head. "No, he’s just tagging along. You know how he is." Mark rolled his eyes and nodded while Trevor’s cheeks burned, remembering saying the exact same thing to Mark about Jake a few weeks earlier.

The two walked off to the living room, ignoring Trevor. "Hey, remember that time Petey pantsed him in gym class, and he was wearing spiderman tighty-wighties?"

"Remember it? I saw him get dressed this morning...he’s wearing them now!"

Both of them laughed, leaving Trevor fuming. Especially since, now that Mark had said it, he suddenly had a vague memory of that pantsing, even though he knew that it couldn’t have really happened.

Moments later, the doorbell rang again. Trevor knew he shouldn’t open it, that he was just inviting more humiliation. But a desperate hope that it might not be as bad as it seemed--and perhaps a touch of the magic that had made him Jake’s annoying tag-a-long--compelled him to.

It was Petey. "Hey, where’s Jake?" No hint that Petey remembered their long friendship.

"Hi, Petey. He’s in the living room."

"Hey, I’m just kidding man. I’m here to hang with you!"

Relief flooded Trevor’s face. "You are? That’s great!"

"Yeah! I even brought my teddy bear so we can play house!" And Petey began laughing uproariously. "Man, I can’t believe you fell for that. Hey, don’t wet your diaper," Petey patted Trevor condescendingly on the shoulder, "You can play with the big kids when you grow up...if that ever happens!"

And Petey jogged towards the living room. "Hey, guys, I ran into Trevor, and I told him..."

Trevor ran upstairs to avoid further encounters with his old friends, as well as having to hear Petey relaying what had just happened.

Perhaps playing it nice wasn’t going to work out after all. Trevor found Alex watching Barney in the TV room. "Hey, Alex. I need your help."

"Wha?"

"You know how...you know how you used to be the oldest?"

"Yeah! I was a big kid!"

"Yeah, well, the reason you’re not anymore is because Jake has a magic medallion, and he used it to make you little, and to make me wear kids clothes. We need to steal it back so that we can make you big again."

Alex nodded eagerly.

A few minutes later, Alex ran past the living room, carrying Jake’s precious skateboard with him. Trevor correctly guessed that Jake took that as seriously as Trevor would have the day before, when it had been his. Jake sprang after Alex the moment he saw it.

"Hey, that’s mine! You’re not allowed to play with it. If you break it, you’ll be in so much trouble!"

Alex slowed as he passed the kitchen door, letting Jake catch him just as Trevor stepped out, bumping into Jake and sending all three of them sprawling. Trevor managed to steer the landing well enough to get Jake to land on top of him, and in the process of "indignantly" shoving him off, it was easy enough to grab the medallion sticking out of Jake’s pocket without him noticing.

"Hey, watch where you’re going, Jake!"

"I was getting my skateboard back! Stupid brat." Jake grabbed the skateboard and stormed off.

Trevor ran into Alex’s room and grinned. "Great job Alex!" He dangled the medallion as he sat down on the bed.

"Ok. Trevor the wizard says that Mark and Petey are gonna start acting like little kids. Petey’s gonna carry a big teddy bear with him all the time, even at school! Mark’s gonna hafta wear training pants and kiddy shoes. Both of ’em need to suck their thumbs when they get upset. And best of all, they like it!" Trevor grinned at Alex. "That’s how it works, little brother. Lemme just fix myself and then you can get Jake back, ok?"

Alex smiled. "Lemme have it now! I’ll fix you! I wanna get Jake!"

Trevor shrugged and handed it over. He did feel obligated, since Alex had helped him. Alex grabbed the proffered medallion and grinned evilly up at Trevor. "Alex da wizard say that Trevor..."

Meanwhile as the three young teens were goofing off in Trevor and Jake’s bedroom, Petey and Mark felt an odd surge wash over them. Petey suddenly found a large brown teddy bear, at least 3 feet tall, in his arms. He hugged it and felt a warm almost hypnotic tingle when he did. Teddy made him feel so good!

Mark, meanwhile felt a sudden snugness at his crotch and feet. He excused himself and about half way to the bathroom, realized his shoes were lighting up with every step he took. Worse still, his shoes were velcro, with Power Rangers! He yanked down his jeans...which had an elastic waist, he noticed...they hadn’t earlier...and saw the true horror of his situation. He was wearing Sesame Street underwear. Sesame Street training pants!

Jake caught on quick. He grabbed for a medallion that wasn’t there and headed straight for Alex’s room where he caught Alex finishing his first wish. "Alex the wizard says Trevor is only 3 years old!"

Trevor was about to shout, scream, whimper...something, but he just froze. His little brother turned big had just walked in as his big brother turned little had just uttered a sentence that condemned him to a fate worse then pikachu pajamas.

He could feel it starting already. The Spiderman underwear that had been an embarrassment before felt like it was inflating around him. He bowed his legs as they were pressed apart by the thickening bulk. His pajama pants vanished and he, (and Jake, and Alex) could watch as the seams and the spiderman prints vanished into glinting white plastic and little yellow ducks. His Spidey pajama top faded into white fleece, with little teddy bears and letters. The shirt grew down, covering, but not hiding, the buldge at his middle, over his legs and feet, into a soft toddler’s sleeper, zipper in back, where he couldn’t hope to reach it.

His tummy buldged a bit as he shrunk, and shrunk, and shrunk. Smaller then Alex, who continued to grin at him. Alex pulled the pacifier off of his pjs and rubbed it over Trevors lips. Trevor didn’t want the pacifier. He knew, deep down, that he was actually the teenager of the group. His body didn’t care, though. His lips wrapped around it and he began to suck on it like a toddler. He stared up at his older brother in fear, unble to do anything but sit, suckle, and stare.

Alex noticed Jake running towards him, and started in on his next wish: "Alex the wizard says Jake..." But before he could be finished, the much larger boy made it across the room and snatched the medalion out of his hands. "...is only two years old!" The momentary look of panic on Jake’s face made it clear that he wasn’t sure he’d made it in time. But as seconds passed and nothing happened, Jake began to grin, and Alex looked even more scared than the paralyzed Trevor.

"That was a very, very bad wish Alex."

"I’m sorry..."

"Yes, yes you are. Jake the wizard wishes that Alex hadn’t learned to talk yet."

Alex’s eyes practically bugged out in surprise, and he struggled to say something, but produced only a string of gibberish.

Then Jake turned to his other brother, now his youngest. He picked Trevor up effortlessly, holding him with one arm while holding the medallion in his other. Even as he was horrified at the experience, part of Trevor noticed with amusement that Jake was carefully keeping the medallion out of his reach, even though Trevor doubted he would have been able to persuade his hands to stop gripping the pacifier he was sucking on long enough to try to snatch it.

"You were very bad too, Jake. But I don’t really want to lose my twin, so I’m going to put you back."

Trevor nodded enthusiastically, trying to look as contrite as he could.

Jake put him down. "But you’re going to be punished. And since you were supposed to be Alex’s big brother, and you set a bad example for him, he’s going to get some of the benefit. Jake the wizard says that Trevor is a thirteen year old again. But he doesn’t know how to get dressed, and only me and Alex can dress him. And we can dress him in any clothes, and they’ll always fit. And right now, he’s wearing the clothes he’s already in."

Trevor felt himself growing, quickly passing Alex’s height and approaching Jake’s. Noticably, the clothes didn’t change a bit; the strange feeling of having his legs pushed apart remained, as the diaper expanded to his new size. And he was still wearing the fleece sleeper. At least, mercifully, the pacifier disappeared.

"Now, Trevor, since you seemed so eager to play with your old friends, would you like to go play with them now?"

Trevor shook his head emphatically. "I’m sorry Jake. I really am. It won’t happen again, I promise."

"I want you to go play with them." Jake looked at him menacingly. Clearly, the question wasn’t whether or not Trevor would go over to be embarassed again, but under what circumstances. As he walked over to his and Jake’s room, he heard Jake working further magic behind him.

When Trevor arrived, the two boys were sitting amid a pile of transformers, which Trevor recognized as having once belonged to Jake, but part of him recognized that they were his now.

"Hi Trevor!" Petey said eagerly, as if there was nothing odd about the situation. Trevor tried to explain, but instead found his body sitting down with them against his will, and he began playing with them. Three thirteen year old boys, one cradling a teddy bear, one in a sleeper, and two of them in diapers, playing with transformers. Once in a while, Trevor caught an anguished look, an indication that the others were aware of the situation too, but he couldn’t make himself say a word about the situation, and the others seemed to be in the same situation.

After a few hours, Trevor’s mother came in to inform them that they’d been spending too much time inside, and should go play outside for a while. Trevor winced as the words came out of his mouth--"Okay, I’ll go ask Jake to change me." The other boys just nodded as if this was perfectly normal.

Jake, however, passed the job off to Alex, who--unable to communicate except by gestures and exasperated whines--grabbed some of his own clothes and took them, and Trevor, into Trevor and Jake’s room. There, in front of the other boys, Alex pulled off Trevor’s sleeper and his diaper and began dressing him in Alex’s own new clothes, beginning with Sesame Street training pants, which caused Mark to cry out, "Cool, those are just like my training pants!" Mark winced, and his hands flew to his mouth too late to stop the words from coming out.

Next Alex pulled cotton shorts with a dinosaur on the leg on him, and then a matching sleeveless t-shirt. The clothes looked impossibly small in Alex’s hands, but as Jake had arranged, they fit perfectly as Alex pulled them on.

And so the three boys played outside on the front lawn, eliciting more than a few odd looks. Trevor wasn’t surprised when Petey’s mother drove up to bring him home, even though Petey routinely walked to and from Trevor’s house. A few minutes later, Mark’s mother did the same, and Trevor went back inside.

Trevor went back to his room, and, given a few minutes of peace, tried to put some normal clothes on. He managed to get his pants off, although with some difficulty, and the diaper was easy enough to take off. Then he grabbed a pair of boxers out of the drawers on Jake’s side of the room and tried to pull them on. Somehow, now matter how he turned, he couldn’t manage it; he’d get one leg in and then stumble around trying to pull on the other, or sit on the bed and get all tangled, with neither leg in the right hole.

Eventually, Jake came in and saw him. "Aww, that’s so cute. You’re trying to dress yourself. Do you want me to help?"

"Please, Jake. You’ve made your point, okay?"

"Here, I’ll be nice. I’ll just help you with those boxers you’ve picked out."

"Thank you, Jake."

Jake came over and guided Trevor, one leg at a time, into the boxers, and then pulled them up. As soon as he did, they began tightening, pulling into the Spiderman briefs like the ones Trevor had worn earlier. Trevor tried to hide his disappointment with only mixed success.

Jake just shrugged. "Sorry, Trevor. I guess that’s the way it is. Here, let’s get your pants back on." Trevor just stood, as stoicly as he could, as Jake put him back in the cotton dinosaur shorts.

Soon after, their parents announced that the family would be going out to a restaurant for dinner. Their mother casually informed Jake, as if Alex and Trevor weren’t present, that she’d get Alex dressed, and Jake should "help your twin get ready." This meant another round of getting dressed by Jake, this time changed into a "suit" with shorts, conveniently matching Alex’s clothes. Jake changed himself into a button down shirt and nice pants, the ones Trevor used to wear for nice dinners.

When they arrived at the restaurant, as they were getting seated, the waiter brought a booster seat for Alex, and Jake felt the need to add in, "We need one for Trevor, too." The waiter looked momentarily surprised, but brought a second. Trevor reluctantly sat on it, not wanting to provoke Jake. For a moment, he didn’t fit, but then, like the clothes, it seemed to expand to fit him, and the chair even seemed to lower, so that he was at just the right height--and making it look like the seat was necessary.

Trevor just kept his head down and avoided the conversation, and his parents, for their part, acted like Jake was the only person at the table worth conversing with. Worst of all, they kept asking Jake about him--"Is Trevor having problems in school, Jake?", "Do you think your twin will be potty trained soon?" And Jake threw Trevor a nasty, gloating look each time a question like that was asked. Trevor remembered these conversations from before, when their parents would ask him and Alex humiliating questions about Jake--"Did Jake behave today? He didn’t bother you too much, did he?", but Trevor had never thought it the least bit odd at the time.

When Trevor just sat quietly through the meal, Jake started answering questions as insultingly as he could, trying to get him to react. But, for once, Trevor held on to his composure. Finally, Jake muttered something under his breath, presumably trying to make the situation even worse for Trevor. Trevor closed his eyes and waited for something about him to change, but nothing did.

Then, moments later, Kate’s family--Kate, the cute, slightly mousy girl no one knew Trevor had a crush on--came in. Jake waved at them, and Kate said something to her parents and walked over. "Hi Jake, hi Trevor." She took a longer look at Trevor, and then added, "That’s a really cute suit, Trevor."

Jake interjected the introduction: "Mom, dad, this is Kate. She’s in our class. Kate, these are our parents, and this is our baby brother Alex."

Alex babbled something in protest, which everyone ignored.

"Well, I have to go eat with my parents. But it’s nice to see you, Jake. You always take such good care of your brother." And she tousseled Trevor’s hair and smiled shyly at Jake. It was obvious, to Trevor at least, that Jake had arranged for her to have a crush on Jake, on top of everything else. As she walked away, Jake smirked at Trevor, who tried to fight back tears.

The rest of the meal was a blur; Trevor couldn’t think about anything but not reacting and giving Jake an excuse to do something else.

By the time they returned home, it was time for bed. Jake helped Trevor out of his clothes so he could shower, then helped him into the Pokemon jammies he’d worn the night before. Then Jake stripped and headed to take his own shower.

For a moment, Trevor was too stunned to do anything. Jake had just undressed and left his clothes in a pile on the floor.

Including the pants with the medallion in the pocket.

Trevor picked up the medallion, determined not to repeat his earlier mistake. "Trevor the wizard says the is 13 years old again; he can put on his own clothes and he wears whatever he picks out"

He was rewarded by the feeling of his clothes shifting. everything grew looser and he found himself sitting on his bed in grey sweat pants and plain red plaid boxers. The sort of thing he wore to bed long before this craziness started.

"Trevor the wizard says he has a normal bedroom for a thirteen year old." In moments, his sheets returned to normal, and his posters followed moments later. He grinned; now that he was back to normal, he could put Jake back in his place.

"Trevor the wizard says that Jake is seven years old again, and that he shares a bedroom with Alex."

He waited. No screams from the bathroom. Nothing in his bedroom changing. Something wasn’t right at all. He snuck over and peeked in the bathroom. Jake was still in the shower, and still as tall as before. Trevor fumed silently. Was the medallion broken?

He tried again. "Trevor the wizard says Jake is a seven year old! You know, a scrawny second grader who wears cartoon underwear and still sleeps with a teddy bear and a nightlight. A kid who thinks fart jokes are the funniest thing in the world and can’t even add fractions!"

Trevor shook the medallion, hoping that would help. Still nothing.

Well, not nothing. His description was echoing in his head, and he started thinking about Jake as a second grader. He grasped the medallion tight and grinned. "Trevor the wizard says that J-Trevor still sleeps with a teddy bear."

He gasped. He’d meant to say Jake! Why on earth had he said his own name? He picked up the large fluffy bear that was leaning on his pillow and hugged it tight. This wasn’t so bad. Now he’d get Jake good!

"Trevor the wizard says that Ja-Trevor wears cartoon underwear. NO!"

But it was too late. He felt his boxers getting snugger already. He pulled the sweats down and peeked. Back to Sesame Street. Trevor tried to stop, but he couldn’t. Couldn’t even let go of the medallion.

"Trevor the wizard says Trevor thinks farts are funny!"

He grinned as he felt one coming on. He laughed loudly as he let it rip. Even as he blushed that he found it funny.

"Trevor the wizard says he needs a nightlight."

A small pikachu light appeared on his dresser. And it was worse. Dozens of wishes were welling up in Trevor’s mind, every one designed to make him a bit more like Jake had been.

"Trevor the wizard says he doesn’t like taking baths. I don’t like broccoli or liver! I want to eat pizza and macaroni and cheese for dinner every night! I still wet the bed sometimes! I watch pokemon every day! I’m only in second grade! I barely know how to ride a bike! I go to bed at 8:30! I think girls have cooties!"

One after another, the wishes poured out--everything he’d imagined happening to Jake, he wished on himself, unable to stop. By the time Jake got out of the shower and stood wrapped in a towel, smirking at him, Trevor had removed everything he’d learned in school bit by bit, changed what he wore, what games he played, even ensured that he’d be leaving track marks in the cartoon underwear he’d wished himself into wearing. He’d be scared of horror movies and not get the jokes in comedies. Not only would he be sharing a bedroom with Alex, but he’d be sharing baths with the toddler, too.

All his belongings, the ones he’d wished back minutes earlier, had vanished, and Trevor knew that Jake’s old belongings were all in the other bedroom waiting for him. And then, Trevor felt the last one coming: "Trevor the wizard says that he’s seven years old." This time, the change was almost instantaneous--his body shrank so quickly that he fell a few inches, hitting his butt hard enough that he cried out in surprise.

Jake shook his head in mock consernation. "You said you wouldn’t try to steal my medallion again, so I thought I wouldn’t have to worry about you misbehaving. I guess it’s a good thing I took some precautions."

"What’s...what’s pre-co-tons?" Trevor asked, knowing he would have known the word just minutes earlier.

"Don’t worry about it. Just give me back the medallion, and I’ll put you back." Jake grinned broadly.

But giving Jake back the medallion didn’t seem like a good idea, and Trevor darted under Jake’s outstretched arm. Jake hadn’t expected resistance, and took off after him, grabbing and tripping him. The medallion went flying across the room, and Alex, who’d watched the whole scene quietly, grabbed it and started babbling something. Jake and Trevor paused for a moment, waiting for something to happen, but nothing happened, and Alex babbled at it again, sounding more frustrated.

Jake and Trevor ran at him, and both tried to grab it while Alex held it close to his chest and screamed.

Their mother showed up and, with a loudly ordered word, silenced all three of them.

"Give it to me." She held out her hand and Alex, reluctantly, handed it to her.

"The three of you were fighting on this piece of garbage? Well, now you’ve lost it." She looked at all three of them in annoyance, but focused her gaze on Jake. "Honestly, Jake. You’re supposed to set a good example for your little brothers. Really, I say you should still be in kindergarten if you’re going to act like that."

All three boys’ eyes went wide as she walked away, oblivious to what she’d just done.

Epilogue:

Trevor opened the box of cracker jacks and immediately searched the box. A medallion.

Holding it front of him, as commandingly as he could, he pronounced, "Trevor the wizard says Trevor is thirteen!"

Moments passed, and nothing happened. Trevor tossed it to the ground in disgust. Six months, dozens of boxes of cracker jacks. This had to be the sixth or seventh medallion he’d found, but none of them did a thing.

"Enjoying your snack, Trev?" his mother called from the kitchen.

Trevor forced himself to smile. "Yup! Cracker jacks are my favorite! Yum." In truth, he hated cracker jacks more each time he ate a box, but it was his only hope for getting things back to normal. Their mother insisted that she’d tossed the medallion, but he and Jake, and probably Alex, had searched for it in vain anyway.

He and Jake had agreed that, if either of them found the medallion, they’d go back to being thirteen year old twins and then destroy it. Trevor doubted that Jake really would, and wasn’t sure he’d keep the deal himself if the opportunity came.

Meanwhile, life went on normally. It was harder and harder to remember what it had been like being thirteen. He saw Jake doing things, and remembered doing the same, but couldn’t understand why. How could Jake not think farts were funny? They so obviously were. And showering every day, on purpose. Yuck.

Still, it could be worse. Jake said the worst part was having to curl up to fit on the little mats they slept in during nap time. Apparently his teacher always noticed if he was hanging off, but invariably blamed it on Jake "goofing around," rather than the more likely explanation, that Jake was much, much bigger than anyone else in kindergarten.

Trevor glanced at the clock. Time for pokemon! He darted off, thoughts of cracker jack boxes and what they might contain crowed out by the more pressing concern of seeing the next epsiode of his favorite show.

 

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