Surprising encounter (August)

[Richard McAuliffe]

While Richard's favorite sports were without doubt Football and soccer and he played both with the school's teams, he always felt that trying out other sports every once in a while would benefit him greatly. So today he had decided to try out tennis. While it wasn't really his field of expertise, he did well in sports in general and was quite good considering he had never trained in tennis.

He entered the area wearing a simple outfit consisting of a white t-shirt, sneakers and a pair of black shorts. On his left arm he had a sweatband while he carried the tennis racket in his right.

Unfortunately, Richard hadn't talked anyone into coming along with him so didn't actually have a partner. Hopefully there would be someone already there who was also lacking someone to play against. Donning his friendliest smile he looked around, hoping to find someone willing to play against him.

[August Swan]

Having done all of her homework for the next day, August had hit the courts early, hopefully to get in a few hours of practice before the sun went down. She had asked around for someone to go with her, but unfortunately all of her few friends were either busy or had previous plans, and so she was stuck just going by herself. There was a chance there would be someone there that she knew anyway, though she could practice by herself if she needed to.

She arrived in modest running shorts and a light green t-shirt, finishing with a pair of high-quality sneakers (a gift from her parents on her birthday). Her auburn hair was tied back in a ponytail to prevent it from getting in her face, and she carried her racket loosely in her right hand. Once inside the courts, she paused, looking around. She didn't recognize the two people that were already in a match, and they were busy anyway, so it looked like she would be playing by herself.

She was about to set down her bag and pull out the tennis balls when someone arriving caught her attention. Maybe one of her friends had changed their minds! But no, when she looked up and got a look at who it was, her stomach dropped slightly. It was a guy, and an attractive one at that. He, too, looked like he didn't have a partner, and she found herself hoping he wouldn't approach her. She was already feeling a blush cross her face from where she was standing, and she knew it would only be a matter of a few seconds before she shifted if he started talking to her.

[Richard McAuliffe]

It didn't take Richard long to notice the other people in the vicinity. Two of them were already playing, so approaching them for a game wasn't going to be an option. Luckily, he quickly noticed this red haired girl all by her self. Furthermore she was carrying a racket and balls, so it looked like all she was lacking was somebody to play against her.

Full of confidence, he started to casually walk towards her, looking at her with his normal smile all the way. Along the way, he eyed her from top to toe. She maybe wasn't the hottest girl he had seen in his entire life, but she was certainly not bad looking. As a matter of fact she was kinda pretty. He couldn't help but wonder how old she was, she looked like she was a year or two younger.

Walking right up to her, he greeted her "Hey, i'm Richard" while looking directly into her eyes. "I couldn't help but notice you were all by your self. I don't have anybody to play against so I was wondering if you were up to it?" Richard swung his loose, medium long, blonde hair to the side and rested his racket on his shoulder as he waited for her answer. Of course she might be just waiting for her partner, but he hoped that he could at least play one game against her.

[August Swan]

Oh no, he was walking towards her. He was smiling, which was nice, but August felt her heart rate pick up a couple notches as she tried to swallow her nerves. She kept her eyes on her bag, fumbling around with the zipper as she took out a couple balls, trying not to wince as his shoes came into her line of sight.

He greeted her politely enough, and she managed to glance up and catch his eye before she got too nervous and looked down again. "H-hi," she replied haltingly. "I'm August." His offer was kind, but August was sort of in her own world at the moment, trying to battle against the feeling of change that was overcoming her. She managed to push it aside for just a moment, enough to stand up with racket in hand and two tennis balls in the other.

"Y-yeah, um, I didn't bring anyone to play against me today," she stammered, crossing an arm over her chest. "Sure, w-we can, um, we can have a match. Have you p-played before?" Her stuttering was getting worse, and she hated herself for being so insecure, but she just couldn't help it. Still, she didn't want to turn down his nice offer - she really did want someone to play with. As she glanced up at him again, she felt her skin start to tingle, a sure sign that she was about to shift. Oh, no.... Not so soon.

"Oh..." she groaned, watching as her hair turned blond and grew longer, and slightly curly, as her skin darkened into a light tan. She couldn't tell what her eyes were like, but she could feel her features sharpen - higher cheekbones, a more defined mouth, even her eyelids felt heavier, probably because her eyelashes had grown longer and thickened. Then came the more painful part - she grew about an inch, while her hipbones slid out as her waist thinned slightly, creating a more hourglass shape. Lastly, she closed her eyes as she felt her chest grow heavier, which nearly always happened when she shifted - guys were attracted to well-endowed girls, for the most part. "S-s-sorry," she stammered, wincing as pain bloomed in all of the areas that had shifted.

[Richard McAuliffe]

Mere moments into their conversation, Richard began to suspect that this girl was terribly shy of him. She only glanced at him for a second before looking down again she seemed to be a little bit struggling to talk to him. The girl was even stammering, that's how shy she was. But at the end of the day it wasn't so unusual, so he just continued to smile politely at her.

But as they continued to converse he gradually got the feeling that she wasn't just shy, but maybe even terrified of interacting with him. Well, clearly not everyone was gifted in the confidence department. "Perfect!" he replied enthusiastically to her when she said that she was all by her self and not expecting anybody. "Neither of us have a partner so that's a problem solved," he added smiling.

Her stuttering seemed to be getting worse. She was pretty decent looking, but the way she was acting, all insecure and stuff was starting to be a little bit of a turn off. Not that he had approached her to ask on a date or anything, but he always kept his eyes open for potential candidates. "Nah not really, just a little bit. I'm of course no Björn Borg or anything but i'm okay."

Richard was starting to back up, about to move to the other side of the court as something strange started to happen. He heard August groan so he stopped to look at her. He could swear that August's face looked a little bit different. Scratch that, she was actually changing right in front of his eyes! He knew that there were people who could transform their bodies and he had seen it happen before, but this looked like it was unintentional. So he was absolutely stunned as her face and body completely changed.

Now, Richard was a guy that was known to be always full of confidence in social situations and him being caught off balance when talking to a girl was a very rare moment. This was one of such moments and he just stared at her speechless, almost dropping his tennis racket. For a bit he just stared at her, eyeing her from top to toe as if he still couldn't believe his own eyes. This decent looking girl had all out of sudden become absolutely smoking. "Holy shit," he mumbled quietly as he continued checking her figure.

It wasn't until a couple of seconds later, when he noticed that she actually seemed to be in pain that he was regained connection to the world. "Uhhh.... are you...okay?" he eventually managed to ask her, still unable to take his eyes off her features.

[August Swan]

August nodded hesitantly. Maybe once she started playing, her nerves would die down a little. "Yeah, problem solved," she repeated meekly. At least she had found someone to play with, right?

"That's okay," she replied about his lack of experience. She could almost consider herself an expert in the sport, but she would make a note to keep things easy for him. That was, if she could even focus on actually playing tennis. She was very aware of his handsome face looking down on her. "I'm s-sure you're fine."

She wished he hadn't watched her as she changed - it was embarrassing enough as an end result, the process itself was even worse. However, she couldn't do anything except wait it out and hope he wasn't too freaked out.

As she tried to get used to her new shape, and worked out the aches and pains that permeated her hips and chest, she cast a nervous look up at Richard, unsurprised but still mortified that he was looking at her with obvious desire. Well, that was her ability after all, wasn't it? God, she hated it. Some people couldn't get to know her without almost immediately wanting to get in her pants. It wasn't fair. She crossed her arms over her chest, reaching up to feel the sharpness of her chin, the thin nose, the fullness of her lips. It was, she thought, a very stereotypical desire.

"I-I'm fine," she muttered; her voice had changed a little too, a little throatier and musical, though the stammer was obviously still there. She cast her eyes back up at him, giving a small shrug as she shifted uncomfortably. "I c-can't control when I change sometimes," she explained, not wanting to tell him what exactly her ability was. "I should turn b-back in twenty minutes, t-tops." In the meantime, she hoped she would be able to distract herself with tennis, although it would be really hard to adjust her skills to her changed body. Her legs were thinner, less athletic, and she felt weirdly top-heavy, which wouldn't help her balance. And she knew Richard was still staring at her.

Grabbing a few tennis balls again, she slowly made her way to the other side of the court, shielding her face with a veil of blonde hair. "Are you ready?" she asked, trying to get her mind focused on playing rather than what she looked like.

[Richard McAuliffe]

This whole situation was some what awkward. It wasn't often that he became so speechless and although he wasn't complaining, this looked awfully embarrassing for August. Not to mention painful, he couldn't imagine it being very comfortable for someone's body and facial structure to change so drastically in a matter of moments.

But still, he couldn't complain about the results. It was almost as if somebody had gotten into his head and pulled out a girl from his wildest fantasies. Richard, made no attempt to hide the fact that he found this new August to be attractive and it was obvious that he could hardly keep his eyes off her. Not only because of the way she looked, but also because he was still in a mild shock from watching he transform so all out of sudden.

"Uh - it's a pretty cool power, huh?" he asked slightly awkwardly. He found it hard to admit it to him self that he was a little bit jealous. A whole bunch of kids at the school had these awesome powers that enabled them to change their appearance, fly, control energy and so on, but all he had was just augmented physical strength.

When she said she was fine he was slightly relieved, although he doubted the truth of her words. He was pretty sure that she wasn't entirely OK after going through this. So when she started preparing to play and indicated that he should get ready, he was again caught slightly by surprise. She was just going to play as if nothing had happened? Did that mean she was used to this kind of situations? Richard chuckled slightly out loud at the thought. He bet with this power she was probably quite popular among the guys.

Richard moved to the other side of the tennis court and readied his racket. It was just as he was waiting that another thought struck him. "Isn't a little bit more difficult to play like this?" he asked and couldn't hide the amusement in his voice. Not that he knew what it was like, but he could imagine that a drastic change in physical proportions like this could heavily affect the way you played sports.

[August Swan]

The staring got so old sometimes, and August had to keep herself from sighing as her lips trembled. Her clothes felt all weird, too, which didn't help. "It's cool if you like being s-stared at," she replied, making no effort to hide the fact that she didn't. "And if I could actually control when it happens." She would do anything to have a different ability, telepathy or animal communication or super speed. But no, she had been stuck with this.

While she was still in a decent amount of pain and certainly unbalanced because of what had just happened, August was determined to put the topic of conversation on something else. Seriously though, how did girls walk with such skinny legs and heavier upper bodies? She had changed into this sort of form enough times to know what it was like for short periods of time - she would never want to be this way all the time. And yes, she was much more popular with a lot of the guy population than she would like to be. Some of them just wouldn't leave her alone, and tormented her into shifting for them. It was terrible.

She sat one of the balls on the ground and was about to serve when his question his her ears. Her arms (what scrawny arms) dropped, and she looked at the ground. "Y-yeah," she admitted. "So, forgive me if I'm n-not very good at first." Great, his first impression of her would be a blonde, well-endowed beauty with crappy tennis skills. Not the type of impression she liked to make.

[Richard McAuliffe]

Richard got the hint when August said it was a cool power if you like being stared at, something which she obviously didn't like. So he at last managed to take his eyes off her (although it wasn't easy). Slowly he finally started to realize that this wasn't something she could control. He couldn't imagine how much it probably sucked to have such a random power, although admittedly, he found this whole situation absolutely hilarious.

Turning again around to finally make his way to his side of the court, he couldn't help but burst out chuckling. For a few moments he couldn't control him self, but slowly regained control and managed to suppress the chuckle. "He-he, i'm... sorry," he said and did his best to hide the grin. Oh god this truly was hilarious.

And now he was going to see her play tennis in this new body. It couldn't get any better since, well tennis was an interesting sport to watch girls play. When ever he turned on the TV and there was women's tennis, vast majority of the chicks were super hot! "Common, your move!" he called out to her and readied his racket.

[August Swan]

The situation really WAS quite hilarious, but August had never been able to see it as such. All she knew was that boys liked her simply for the way she was able to appear for them, and that it was hard for her to get close to anyone without feeling like that was all they cared about. Which was why she tended to isolate herself from them most of the time.

She winced as she heard him start to chuckle, but didn't say anything. It was a common reaction that she had slowly tried to get used to. At least he hadn't tried to physically go after her - yet. 'It-it's okay," she replied sadly, looking down. It wasn't really, but what else was she supposed to say? "It's... That's everyone's usual reaction."

She readied herself as he called out to her, letting out a nervous huff as she arched her back and threw the ball into the air, before snapping her arm forward and sending it flying with a smack. Almost immediately she felt off-balanced as she watched it fly over the net, but fortunately it landed in the right area, even if she was struggling to get herself ready to receive it again. Her legs were just too thin, and she fought to readjust herself to the proportions. At this rate, she wasn't going to do well at all. Not to mention, she was not used to dealing with such... well, restrictions in her chest. That made everything much, much worse.

[Richard McAuliffe]

Although he didn't show it visually, the way she said it's okay made him feel a little bit embarrassed for laughing at her rather unfortunate transformation. Richard had to admit after all that this was probably a horrible thing to experience, especially if it happened on a regular basis. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said genuinely meaning it, although he faked a smile in order to somewhat keep up his jerk act.

Finally, their game started as she sent the ball flying into his direction. The sight of her almost loosing her balance as it flew over the net made the muscles in Richard's face flinch as if he was trying really hard to have a serious facial expression instead of smiling like an asshole. She didn't do that bad at all though, pretty decent considering the restrictions. He knew he sure as hell wouldn't be able to play tennis efficiently if the same thing happened to him.

But still, he didn't find much difficulty to send the ball flying back across the net towards her. He probably wouldn't win against someone who regularly trained, but if he gave his best then he'd most likely be able to slightly surprise people with his performance, considering he had never practiced the sport seriously.

[August Swan]

August was starting to think Richard was exactly the type of guy that she tended to avoid, but what else could she do at this point? At least she would probably only stay like this for another ten minutes at the most, and then she would be normal again. She looked away again as he spoke, catching the smile he sent her way. "Y-yeah, sure," she replied, not believing him. Why would he care?

But now she was focused on the game, and she put as much effort as she could into finding her balance and preparing for the return. It landed close enough near her that she had only a little trouble hitting it and sending it back, but it was a bad hit, and she stumbled slightly, letting out a small noise of frustration. There was no way she would get back into place before he returned it again.

[Richard McAuliffe]

August managed to hit the ball and send it back over to his side, but obviously lost her balance in the process seeing as she stumbled and he could vaguely hear her let out a frustrated sound.

There was no denying it that Richard was an asshole in many ways, but he was also an athlete who took sports very seriously. He loved to win, but how would he be able to take pride in winning this match when she was at such an obvious disadvantage.

It was true that he did have a major advantage in many sports because of his power such as football, but this wasn't football. Playing and winning in other sports where physical strength on it's own wasn't a major advantage was very important to him. It helped him proving that he wasn't good just because he was strong.

With only a mere moment to think this all through, he made a last second decision. Intentionally, he just barely "missed" the ball and it landed on the ground, scoring her a point. "Good shot," he called out and picked up the ball again.

Preparing to shoot again he shot her a question. "Are you sure you want to do this? I mean we can take a break, i'm cool with it." Hopefully she knew some ways to get out of this. He shot the ball over to her side while waiting for her decision.

[August Swan]

August was pretty surprised when he missed the hit - though it hadn't been a good one, it had landed close enough to him that he should have returned it pretty easily. Nevertheless, she felt a little relieved, and bent over as she took a couple deep breaths. She managed to find her balance again and prepared for him to serve it back, but then he spoke, and she paused.

She mulled it over. If he was fine with it, she supposed, it wouldn't hurt to wait until she shifted back. "I-if that's alright with you. It shouldn't be more than, uh, maybe five or ten minutes." Fortunately, she never stayed in a different body for long, be she did always dread changing back. Shifting was painful. She caught the ball that she shot over the net against her racquet, letting it drop to the ground.

But there was the problem of what to do in the meantime. For something to do, she walked over to her bag and grabbed her water bottle, taking a drink even though she wasn't really thirsty. She could practically feel his eyes on her as she walked - it made her incredibly uncomfortable, but she was too nervous to say anything about it. She opened her mouth to come up with a topic of conversation, but her mind was blank. She had never been good at starting conversations.