I stared into the mirror. A green mask covered most of my face but it wasn't quite my face, was it? Blonde hair came out of the top of the mask, only a bit more than I had before but enough to fall nearly to my shoulders.

The stupid-looking, foot-long, green antenna on my forehead had purple tips to them. I bent one down to look and I felt that!

But they were attached to my mask, not my head, weren't they? I tried to check by putting my hands inside the mask and feeling of my forehead but there didn't seem to be an edge to get my fingers under. It didn't feel like a mask at all, it felt like my own skin.

The rest of my costume felt the same, like skin all over. I had on gloves with yellow rings encircling them and my boots had sort of purple circles around my ankles. I could feel through the gloves like bare skin, and even though I could see I was wearing boots, I couldn't feel them at all.

A green all-in-one covered me from mask to boots, tighter than any spandex. I ran my hands down my sides. My waist felt smaller, hips wider. Strategic holes in the fabric showed pink skin at upper arms, shoulders, hips, thighs, belly, midriff and um, cleavage. It wasn't a lot of cleavage, but I'm a boy, I'm not supposed to have tits.

I said it aloud. "I'm not supposed to have tits!" That came out louder than I meant it to, and I put both hands over my mouth.

I decided to try to cool it. Either that or I would just go nuts and start banging into walls and making loonie noises. The blasted ring had turned me into a girl. I checked the mirror again. I looked effably cute, as in the ef-word.

I checked my crotch. “Oh, crap!” I said. The transformation seemed complete; my groin was flat. I wanted to fall through the floor and disappear.

But Kevin appeared in the hallway outside the bathroom, instead. Or rather, Mighty Skarab Junior, I guess. "Wow!" he said. The dealie-bobbers on his head quivered.

I looked at him. It didn't take a genius to read his expression. "Oh, shut up!" I said. He looked even bigger than before and I realized that I must have shrunk. His muscles had muscles and his costume was just as tight as mine. I couldn't help it; I glanced down at his crotch and wished I hadn't.

I quickly looked back up at his face, located several inches higher than mine now. Before we put on the rings, Kevin and I had both been about five-seven, though he had probably outweighed me by ten pounds or more. Now he topped six feet by a couple of inches, judging from the doorframe, and I had lost an inch or so. Even more than I first thought; I looked down again and noticed that my costume boots had two-inch heels on them.

Kevin still stood there staring at me, his mouth hanging open, his dealie-bobbers stiff and still quivering.

“Shut up!” I said again. His staring made me fell odd, tingly in places I had never noticed having places before.

"I didn't say anything," Kevin protested in his rumbly new voice.

I wondered what I sounded like; my voice didn't seem to have changed, to me, but would I be able to tell? "That look was enough," I said. "Dweeb."

He grinned. "Lambchop," he said. "You're one hot chick, you know? And that costume is like painted on." His obscene antenna moved like they were trying to get a better look, too.

"I didn't...." I started to say but had no way to finish the thought, let alone the sentence. My mind was stuck in neutral. A glance at the mirror showed my own antenna quivering, too. I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around it. Magic rings weren’t supposed to… to… do what this one had done… were they?

And Kevin… Kevin wasn't supposed to look so good I had trouble not staring at him.

"Tell her to come back out here," Uncle Steve said from out in the big room with the car in it.

His calling me 'her' got my mind moving again.

"You crazy old man!" I yelled. I started out there, all right, and ran smack into Kevin who felt solid as a wall. “Get away from me, pervo!” I tried to shove him out of the way but he didn’t move. Instead, he sort of leaned forward and I realized he was going to look down the front of my costume.

I put one hand over the boob window and tried to bust him in the face with the other, but he caught my hand without even looking. “Wow,” he said. He looked me up and down as I struggled with one hand caught in his grip. "You've got legs, too!" he commented.

"I'm going to put foot where it will do the most good if you don't let go of me!" I told him, not wanting to think about how his looking at me made me feel. I pulled and twisted and when I stepped back a step, he let go of me and just stood there grinning like a sitcom character.

I could see Uncle Steve past him, and that distracted me from trying to fight the guy who used to be my best friend. "That blasted magic ring turned me into a girl!" I shouted at the old man.

Uncle Steve said the worst thing possible. "I kind of expected that." He walked up to stand behind Kevin. His wide face with its grizzled jowls might have been wrinkled up in a smile.

"You what?" I yelped. My mouth ended up hanging wide open. The two idiots glanced at each other then both grinned at me. I wanted to smack them with something heavy and maybe radioactive.

"Oh, man, that's cold, Unk," said Kevin. “You knew it would grow tits on Darryl?”

I managed to get past Kevin and stormed into the big room to confront the old man in front of that huge old car. "You better explain that right now!" I demanded. "What do you mean, you expected it to turn me into a girl?"

"It's done that before," he said. His eyes twinkled in their wrinkly old pits.

"What do you mean, it's done that before?" I shrieked. Nothing made any sense, everything he said seemed like something he thought of just to make me crazier. And he was staring at the hole in my costume, too! I crossed my arms on my chest to hide the cleavage.

He looked down at my legs then up and shrugged. "Three or four times." He seemed to think about it. "Every time a boy put on the green ring, except maybe twice." He looked at me. "There was a chance it wouldn't."

"So you decided not to tell me? Just because, it might not make my balls and dick disappear and give me a set of tits!" I knew I was waving my arms around like a lunatic. I wanted to stomp and scream and cry but I managed not to do that.

He shrugged again, and the corner of his mouth quirked up a little. He didn't look like he felt guilty about it at all, but maybe just a little sad.

Kevin seemed to be stifling a laugh. I glanced at him and he shrugged, too, but he didn't say anything. His mouth kind of stretched over a grin; he tried to look away.

Okay, I lost it. "You guys are laughing at me! This is not funny!" I turned around to face Kevin, a quicker movement than any I think I had ever made in my life, and that made me feel my butt jiggle. I uncrossed my arms and grabbed my ass with both hands.

That broke the dam; Kevin guffawed and chortled and snorted through his nose and it was so gawdam funny that Uncle Steve winked at me!

It knew it would probably take a really big gun to hurt that old man, but if I’d had one just then, I would have shot him right between the eyes. I think I called both of them several words I had never said before and they just stood there, the old man smiling and my best friend laughing his head off.

And in the worst of my own yelling, I knew I sounded like my sister when things hadn't been going her way like me hogging the bathroom on one of her date nights. That just made me madder; Tanya can be such a bitch. My voice was higher; I probably sounded just like her.

When I started to repeat myself it occurred to me to try to take the ring off. I pulled and twisted and yanked and cried with frustration. It wouldn't come off, but the jiggling I did while trying entertained Kevin entirely too much.

"You wouldn't want to lose the ring," said Steve, in what he probably thought of as a reasonable voice. "It won't come off while you're in costume."

"How do I get the costume off?" I wailed. I pulled at the edges but it really seemed to be painted on like Kevin had said.

"Twist the ring around again," Kevin suggested.

It seemed logical; I grabbed the ring on my right hand with my left and twisted it again.

"That's right," Steve said but I didn't stop to hear the end of it. "Back the other way," he finished.

The other way? Which was the other way? Too late, I'd already twisted the ring. Something happened; I could tell right away since Kevin's eyes got as big around as saucers and his dealie-bobbers stood up stiff and straight, pointing at the ceiling.

I didn’t feel that ripple effect again, like when the costume replaced my clothes; instead, I felt a draft, even more of a draft than I'd felt before.

I glanced down, fearing the worst.