Ken felt attracted to Pete--well, not that way!
At least, not at first...

by Bill Hart

Part 1 - Kara

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Ken wasn't entirely certain what he was doing wandering about in this ritzy neighborhood. He was positive he didn't know anyone who might live in this neck of the woods. Schoolteachers, like the one he'd been for the past two decades, simply didn't make enough money to even think about living in an area like this.

And yet, here he was. For some strange reason he couldn't begin to understand, he'd left his condo, wandered around aimlessly for over an hour, and finally ended up here. As strange and impossible as it seemed to Ken, something he couldn't hope to resist seemed to be drawing him here.

Just then he saw the large multi-storied house looming before him.

Ken stared at the house. Even though the huge house seemed somewhat familiar to Ken, he was certain he'd never seen this particular house before. How could he? He'd never been in this neighborhood before. At least, he didn't think he had. But at the same time, he somehow knew this was the very place that was somehow drawing him here. And without really knowing how or why, he knew this place was right where he was supposed to be.
Slowly and cautiously, Ken went up to the door. Although he had no idea who - or possibly even what - he should expect to answer, Ken knocked on the door.
After several minutes had passed, the door swung slowly open.

"Ken Rawlings!" exclaimed a very surprised, not to mention apparently disappointed, Pete Quinlan. "What the hell are you doing in this neck of the woods?"
Ken stared at Pete. They'd gone to high school together, but aside from their reunion a few weeks ago, Ken hadn't seen Pete in years. "To be honest, Pete, I don't really know. I didn't even know you lived in this neighborhood," replied Ken. "I know this will sound strange, but I can't really explain it any other way. For some strange unknown reason, I somehow seemed to be drawn to your house tonight."

"You actually think you were drawn here?"

"Odd as it sounds, that was just what I just said. Wasn't it?"

"Are you sure?"

"Why would I ever make something up as stupid-sounding as that?"

"I'm sure you wouldn't, Ken. It's just that... you're not quite who I was expecting to come knocking on my door tonight."

"What do you mean?"

"Why don't you come inside, Ken? I think we need to talk," replied Pete. "I don't really know how or even why it happened, but you apparently came here in answer to the summoning spell I cast."

As he entered the house, Ken looked around the room he'd just entered, but what he saw made little sense to him. There were smoking candles sitting at the points of a large pentagram inscribed within a circle. "Summoning spell?" muttered Ken. "Just what the hell are you talking about, Pete?"

"It's probably not important now," replied Pete. "It obviously didn't work the way I thought it would."

"What didn't work?" asked a very puzzled Ken. "I still haven't the foggiest idea what you're talking about."

"It's a little complicated. It's also a rather long story."

"I seem to have plenty of time to listen," said Ken. "Maybe that's why I'm here."

"Perhaps," replied Pete, although his tone of voice clearly implied he didn't believe that explanation. "If you want to listen to my story, that's fine with me. How about I get us something to drink first?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"What would you like?"

"Have you got any root beer?" asked Ken. "I sure could use a good old-fashioned root beer right about now."

"Root beer?" Pete stared oddly at Ken for a long moment. "As a matter of fact, I just bought some root beer earlier this afternoon." Pete motioned towards the chair. "Have a seat, Ken. I'll be back in a few minutes."

Ken wondered what strange yarn Pete had to spin. For as long as he'd known him, Pete had always made up stories because he thought it made him look important. It was probably that same need that had forced him to buy this large house.

As he looked around the room again, Ken wondered what the pentagram actually meant. Maybe this wasn't just another of Pete's tall tales. But if it wasn't, then what strange things could Pete really be up to? After sitting down in the chair, Ken wondered what Pete had meant about casting some kind of occult summoning spell. But why would he use something weird like that to summon him here? They'd never been what Ken considered friends. However, if Pete had actually used his spell to summon him, then why had he been so surprised when he showed up at his door? "I'm sure this must be one long, really weird, tall tale," mumbled Ken. "It might turn out to be one of his best."

When Pete finally returned, he was holding two mugs of foaming root beer. "I hope you like this brand." He held out one of the mugs to Ken, who quickly took it. "It's a new brand," smiled Pete. "But I was told by an unimpeachable source that it's an excellent brew."

"You haven't tried any of this yourself?"

"Not yet. As I said earlier, I just bought it this afternoon," replied Pete. "I guess we'll find out together if it's anywhere near as good as advertised."

"I suppose so." Cautiously, Ken took a small sip. "Wow!" he exclaimed as a wide grin quickly crossed his face. "I don't know who told you this was an excellent brew." He raised the mug to his lips and quickly guzzled its remaining contents down. "It's far superior to merely excellent." Ken looked down at his now empty mug. "If it's not a problem, I certainly wouldn't mind having a refill."

"I'll be damned," muttered Pete.

"Probably true - knowing you," replied Ken. "That sure as hell wouldn't surprise me." He looked at his empty mug again. "So do I get that refill now?" he asked expectantly. "Or would you rather tell me your story first?"

"We'll see. But first, there's something I need to check out." Pete stared at Ken. "Please set your mug down on the end table."

Although he seemed visibly surprised by his action, Ken swiftly set his empty mug down on the table.

"This is quite interesting," smiled Pete. "Now I'd like you to stand up." He paused for a moment. "And do five jumping jacks."

As quickly as before, Ken rose from the chair. "What the hell am I doing?" he muttered, once he started doing the jumping jacks and even though he clearly tried stopping, he simply couldn't until after he'd completed the fifth and final one Pete had requested. Then, when he tried sitting down again, Ken found he still couldn't.

"Absolutely amazing. It seems to be working after all," muttered Pete. "Go over there and stand inside that pentagram. But please be very careful not to break any of the chalk lines." Ken began walking towards the pentagram. "And once you're inside, stay there until I tell you that you can leave."

Although Ken clearly had no idea what Pete was doing or how Pete could be controlling him, he entered the pentagram, making certain not to step on any of the lines. He couldn't break one of the lines even though that was something he really wanted to do.

"What the hell is going on, Pete?" As he tried to leave the pentagram, Ken discovered to his surprise and consternation that his muscles were totally unwilling to do his bidding.

"Although I'm not entirely certain I totally believe what's going on, everything has occurred as I was told it would," replied Pete. "I kind of doubt you'll believe any of what I'm about to tell you. In any event, I think the time has come to begin telling you my story. And whatever else you might want to do, please don't interrupt me."

Pete struck a match and lit one of the candles sitting on the points of the pentagram.

"I'm sure you must know Julie, my wife of the last fifteen years, and I finally called it quits a few weeks ago. It was the talk of the reunion. It was a horrible experience and, as you might well imagine, I was totally devastated by it."
Pete struck another match and lit another candle.

"This morning I had a really strange experience. I met this peculiar old gypsy woman who knew exactly what had happened between me and Julie. I don't know why she did it, but she gave me this summoning spell and all the requisite instructions for invoking it. She told me if the spell were cast correctly that it would summon into my presence the one I most wanted to see. By now, I'm sure even you can figure out why I was greatly surprised and totally disappointed when you showed up at my door."

Pete paused again to strike another match and to light another candle.

"But that old gypsy woman must have suspected - gypsies are gifted with second sight, you know - something might wind up being amiss. Otherwise, why would she have given me that potion of obedience? And why would she have told me to serve it in the root beer my summoned guest would request? But I'm not altogether certain that this was quite what she had in mind."

The fourth candle was lit, once another match was struck.

"However, she also gave me yet another spell that I could use in case I wasn't totally pleased with the object of the summoning spell. And you'd better believe me when I tell you that I was very definitely not pleased it was you who had come calling."

He struck another match then lit the fifth and final candle.

"But, as I said before, I'm still not sure that this was what she had in mind. I really don't have any idea how this spell could make you more pleasing to me. To be honest, I was really expecting Julie to show up in answer to the summons, just as that old gypsy woman herself must have been thinking. I was figuring this spell I'm now about to cast on you would do nothing more than simply change her mind about our final breakup."
Pete looked up at Ken, as he stood within the circumscribed pentagram.

"You look like you might have a question or two. You may ask them if you like. But please try to remain calm."

"What will this do to me?" Ken asked nervously.

"To be perfectly honest, I don't have the slightest idea. That old hag didn't really tell me what it might do to whoever was standing within the pentagram when the spell was cast," replied Pete. "But I really think finding out should be very interesting. I just hope it doesn't make you fall madly in love with me, since you're really not my type," he grinned. "I have my reputation with the ladies to protect. How could I ever hope to explain having some scrawny guy like you following around after me with those lost puppy dog eyes?"

"Then why are you doing this?"

"Why shouldn't I?" replied Pete. "I'm very curious about what might happen to you. It should make another great story that no one will ever believe." Pete smiled briefly. "Besides, this is really all your own fault, Ken. You got in the way. You were never intended to be the one I summoned here tonight."

With that, Pete invoked the spell.

But nothing seemed to happen...at first.

Ken's eyes slowly glazed over.

As Pete continued watching, Ken appeared to be shrinking. In a very short span of time, instead of the two of them standing eye to eye as they had for several years, Pete now looked down a good half-foot at the shorter Ken.

"That was pretty much a waste of a spell," Pete muttered. "He wasn't very pleasing before so why would losing six or seven inches of height make him any more pleasing. The damn wuss wasn't much of a man before and now he's even less of one."

Suddenly, as if he were having trouble breathing, Ken began taking increasingly deeper and deeper breaths. His scrawny frame soon began filling out in ways Pete had never imagined possible. With each new gasp of breath he took, Ken's chest seemingly expanded more than the time before. What Pete found particularly interesting was the fact that with each complementary exhalation Ken's chest never returned to the same size it had been before.

His shirt, although clearly losing the battle to adequately cover his expanding chest, also seemed to be continually reforming with each new breath Ken took.

His waist thinned noticeably.

His ass billowed.

His entire body became more rounded, and increasingly more curvy.

A mass of jet-black hair suddenly spurted from his scalp and flowed out onto to his shoulders.

"This certainly wasn't something I ever expected to happen," mumbled Pete, as he stared in growing awe at the shapely raven-haired beauty Ken had become.

And yet, very clearly this spell he'd cast wasn't quite finished with Ken.

As impossible as it all seemed to Pete, Ken now appeared to be getting younger.

What little remained of his former shirt that now just barely contained his bountiful new assets swiftly shifted into a form far more capable of restraining his large new breasts. And yet, the altered shirt still managed to display plenty of his newly gained and quite enticing cleavage.

The legs of his pants fused seamlessly together, then split upwards to his knees along their former outer seam to reveal long and slender, slinky legs.

Suddenly, Ken seemed to grow a few inches taller. But his spurt of apparent growth was only because his shoes, in reforming to a shape more appropriate to their wearer, had grown three-inch heels.

The flames burning from each candle suddenly surged.

But after only a moment of brilliance, the flames just as quickly dispersed. As the last of the radiance finally faded, Pete noted that the pentagram, the circle in which it had been inscribed, and the five spent candles had all vanished.

With his awareness slowly returning, Ken just stood there shaking his head, while his raven colored hair swished wildly about his head. "What the hell just happened to me," he mumbled, in a soft voice clearly no longer one of a male. Slowly lifting his hand to his face, Ken stared at it in disbelief. "This isn't possible, he muttered." But despite all his protestations, his hand was clearly smaller than he remembered it being. Not only that, but his fingers had become long and slender. And his fingernails had also grown longer and were painted with clear nail polish. Ken turned angrily towards Pete. "What the hell have you done to me?"

"Isn't it obvious?" grinned Pete.

Without thinking about what he was doing, Ken slapped Pete's face... rather hard.

"What the hell did you do that for?" asked a very surprised Pete, as he rubbed his aching jaw. "You could have broken my jaw hitting me as hard as you did. All I meant was, isn't it obvious you're female now?"

Ken stared angrily at Pete. "I slapped your face because if I'd made a fist and slugged you, as I'd wanted to do, I would have probably broken one of my nails." As he realized just what he'd said, Ken, feeling suddenly confused, shook his head. "Just what the hell was that crack about me being obviously female? Whatever you think your damn spell did to me, I don't feel any different than I did before."

Pete looked surprised by Ken's last comment. With a body like he now possessed, how could Ken not feel different than before? "I think it would be better if I showed you." Pete casually slid his arm around Ken's now slimmer waist.

"Remove that damn arm from my waist immediately!" demanded Ken coldly. "Or would you rather I break it off at the shoulder?"

As if bitten by a snake, Pete quickly gave in to Ken's demand. "Just go look in that mirror over there." Pete watched as Ken swayed sexily over to the mirror as if he'd always walked that same way, as well as on the three-inch heels, for several years.

As soon as Ken saw his reflection, he gasped in stunned surprise. "What the hell are these things doing here?" he queried, even as he gently hefted one of his new large breasts.

"Isn't it obvious?" asked Pete warily, not really wanting to be slapped again. "They're female breasts," he replied once he'd joined Ken in front of the mirror. "Or, if you'd rather, you can take your pick from among boobs, tits, knockers, gazongas, or any one of several other terms I can think of that mean the same thing."

"But they're so damn big," remarked Ken. "At the very least, I'll bet they're a good 48EE." He shook his head. "Just what the hell are these big boobs doing hanging from my chest as if they belong there?"

"As I told you before, they do belong there now," smiled Pete. "Apparently that spell the old gypsy witch gave me turned you into a girl for some strange reason."

Ken stared at Pete and then at his reflection. "But I don't want to be a girl."

"Why not? You're one very pretty young girl," said Pete with an admiring smile. "Based on your former scrawny male self that was the same age as me, I would have never believed it remotely possible that you had the makings of such an attractive young girl inside you."

"Very funny. Ha, Ha," snapped Ken. However, another quick look at his image in the mirror only served as more confirmation for what Pete had just told him. He was pretty...very pretty. And the way his jet-black hair framed his young angelic face only seemed to highlight his new feminine beauty. "Even though that might be true, I still don't want to be a girl."

"I really don't see why not," smiled Pete. "It's just that you're so young and very beautiful now." Pete slipped his arm around Ken's shoulder.

"If you don't take that damn arm of yours off my shoulder right this instant, I'm going to yank it right out of its socket and toss it to the ground."

"I'm sure you don't really mean that," replied Pete. However, with discretion being the better part of valor and not being entirely certain that Ken might have actually meant it, he removed his arm from Ken's soft shoulder. "I love you, Ken," he suddenly proclaimed.

"You love me?" snarled Ken. "I think you're one really sick puppy, Pete." Ken slowly shook his head. "Just in case you've forgotten - although I don't know how you possibly could - I'm really another guy despite my current physical appearance." With a casual stroke of his hand, Ken easily brushed his hair away from his face. "And besides, what about you and your wife Julie? Didn't you do this for her?"

"What about me and Julie?" snapped Pete. "After fifteen years of marriage, she up and left me for that asshole down the street Dirk Andrews. But that's all right with me. Now that I've found you, I've decided it's time for me to move on to greener pastures. Even you must know that as you are now you're absolutely perfect for me." Pete continued leering. "I think that old gypsy woman really knows her shit. Don't you agree, Ken?"

Ken, visibly angry, glared at Pete. "If that old gypsy battle-axe of yours knows her shit as well as you say she does, then she probably knows a counterspell that will turn me back into me. Wouldn't you think so, Pete?"

"It's highly likely," agreed Pete with a smile. "However, with all the other things taken into consideration, just what does that have to do with anything else?"

"I want you to take me to see her," demanded Ken.

"Why would I want to do something like that?"

"Even to you, isn't what I have in mind obvious?"

Pete's smile rapidly faded. "You can't possibly mean that."

"Of course I can. How many times must I tell you I don't want to be a girl?"

"That's tough," replied Pete. "I'm not taking you anywhere near her."

"If you don't do what I want, then I might just have to hurt you."

"You wouldn't dare," smiled Pete. "But then, unless you were to try smothering me in your boobs - what a marvelous way to go - I doubt you could purposely hurt a fly."

"Wanna bet on it, asshole?" replied Ken with a menacing grin.

Pete swallowed nervously. "Okay then, you win. Why don't you grab your purse? And then, we'll go see if we can find her."

"What the hell do you mean 'grab my purse'?" asked Ken. "I don't own a purse; I've never owned a purse."

"You must," replied Pete. "Although if it's not yours, then I'm not sure from where it came. It's still sitting there on the end table near the chair where you were sitting. It's unmistakably a woman's purse. And that simply means it's just as unmistakably not mine. Since you're the only other person in the room, I must therefore conclude - given your current female condition - the purse must be yours."

"But it can't be mine," objected Ken. "I've never owned..." His voice trailed away as he curiously opened the purse and found the ladies' wallet inside. No sooner had he opened the wallet, then Ken gasped at the ID he found inside.

"What's wrong now?"

"It's this drivers' license." He quickly flashed the ID at Pete. "I don't understand. It has a picture of me... that is, it has a picture of this girl me I am now." Even though he didn't want to believe any of this weird shit going on, did he have another choice? "But it's made out in the name Kara Roberts. It also says I'm twenty years old, which is not quite half the age I was before you cast your stupid spell."

"Kara? That's a pretty name. And it certainly fits you a lot better than Ken." Pete began smiling. "Maybe you were simply meant to be her all along. I've read stories about this, you know. I'll bet everyone you ever knew, other than me of course, thinks of you as Kara Roberts. It's also a safe bet they never heard of anyone named Ken Rawlings."

"But that can't be true," argued Ken. "I know I'm not this Kara Roberts, because I know I'm really Ken Rawlings. I know I'm not female for the simple reason I know I'm male."

"You're just a little confused," grinned Pete. "But perhaps I can help you out after all."

"Are you going to take me to see your old gypsy woman?"

"I'm afraid that's no longer real high on my list of priorities, my dear." Pete reached into his pocket. "I don't know why I didn't remember it until just now, but the old gypsy gave me this odd little bauble to use in case I still had trouble with you after casting that last spell." Very slowly, Pete took a large red crystal from his pocket. As he held out the crystal for Ken to see, Pete smiled. "The gypsy woman told me I'd only know how to use this gem if and when the time came." His smile widened. "I guess that time must have come because I know exactly what to do with this now."

Ken couldn't take his eyes away from the crystal in Pete's hand. He kept looking increasingly deeper into the heart of the bauble. "It's so very pretty and sparkly." But as he continued staring at the gem, his thoughts dulled and his eyes slowly glazed over.

Pete couldn't keep from smiling as he looked at the entranced young girl. Although he knew what he was doing must be done, he still wasn't entirely certain he understood why it must be done. All he knew was how important it was that Kara be as she was meant to be.

"You will completely forget about being someone named Ken Rawlings. You are not male now. You have never been male. And you have never wanted to be male in your entire life." The crimson crystal began glowing. "You are female now. You have always been female. And you have never wanted to be other than female. You will only remember being Kara Roberts, my hot sexy young girlfriend."

Satisfied with his commands, Pete slipped the crystal back into his pocket. As he did, the girl, no longer entranced by the gem, moaned softly then shook her head slowly.

"How are you feeling now, Kara?" asked Pete as he once again slid his arm around the girl's slim waist.

A mischievous smile quickly spread across the girl's face. "I'm sure you know I'm feeling really hot and horny, you handsome hot stud." She wriggled about in his grasp in order to face Pete, slid her own slender arms around his neck, rubbed her body against his, and kissed him as if she were auditioning for the lead role in 'The Life and Times of a Hoover Vacuum Cleaner'.

"Wow!" exclaimed Pete, even as his knees buckled slightly. "I would have never guessed you had that locked up inside you."

Kara looked Pete over from head to toe. "I know something else I want inside me, my manly hulky hunk," she grinned mischievously. "What do you say we go straight to your room? I'm sure we can be a lot more comfortable there."

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TO BE CONTINUED...