Gradual Change – Halloween Special - Chapter 1

OTHER PARTS | ALL STORY LIST

It was around 3 pm when Heather pulled in front of Erinna’s school. She still couldn’t believe all they had gone through. Looking back at it, she was happy. Who would expect that her boy would end up being the girliest girl in the world? She was still the fearless and intelligent kid that Heather is proud to call her child.

It was the 29th of October, and Heather had bought a surprise for Erinna. Heather spotted Erinna coming out of the school with her usual group. Stacy, Hazel, Shelby Oliver, and Dakota. Everyone was there. Erinna and Oliver were holding hands; honestly, she thought it was cute. Over the summer, their relationship had grown stronger, and they now seemed inseparable.

George was already home; surprisingly, George was sick at home. Even though he insisted on Heather going to work and not bothering him, he said he could take care of himself. George didn’t win the argument, though, and ended up being in bed while Heather cared for all of his needs.

Entering the car, both Oliver and Erinna took their seats before Erinna leaned in to kiss her mom. “You had swim practice today, right?” Heather asked, feeling Erinna’s dry hair. Erinna’s hair had already grown past her shoulders by a couple of inches. It was just like what Heather had imagined it. Beautiful was a small word to describe how she looked with her long hair.

Erinna, however, still struggled to dry her hair entirely after her swim practice. It surprised Heather that Erinna’s hair was dry. “Yes, why?” Erinna answered simply.

“Your hair is dry,” Heather commented, making Erinna giggle a bit.

“Coach Monica decided that we should blow dry our hair after showering, especially me,” Erinna explained. Coach Monica enjoyed having Erinna on the girls’ swimming team, and she was better than all the girls and the boys. Unfortunately, once Erinna was transferred to the girls’ team, the boys’ team performance had dropped significantly.

Heather nodded with a smile before starting the car. “I know you guys don’t want to go trick or treat anymore, but you still want costumes. For that, we have a surprise for you,” Heather said while Oliver and Erinna looked at each other, not understanding what Heather meant.

Heather headed home and dropped Oliver home first. She then drove home and parked in the garage. They entered the house, and immediately Erinna walked up to George’s room. George was rarely sick, and she was the one with weak immunity, not him. However, when George does gets sick, he’s very ill. George’s door was open, and Erinna caught him doing pushups on the floor.

“What’re you doing?” Erinna said with her hand on her hips. She didn’t look threatening in her blouse and skirt uniform, but George knew better.

“Nothing, listen, you’re not going to tell mom about this. She had locked the gym so that I can’t work out today,” George admitted standing up quickly. He was allowed to watch TV, play video games, or do anything without performing any physical work.

“I won’t but get back to bed, or I will tell mom,” Erinna threatened. George sighed and got on the bed. Erinna smiled and walked to George’s nightstand, and she took out the dirty glass. “Would you like chicken soup?” Erinna offered.

“Fine, but only if you make it. If mom makes it, it will be too much even for me to finish.”

Erinna just laughed and walked out of the room. She headed straight to the kitchen; Heather was already there baking a cake. She looked at Erinna as she put the dirty cup in the dishwasher, headed straight to the fridge, took out the soup, and started to heat it.

“Is that for George?” Heather asked. She looked at Erinna, who nodded poured some soup into a mug. “You don’t have to do that, you know? I can do that instead.” Erinna had been helping more and more around the kitchen, and she certainly helped more than any other daughter would. She knew that Erinna could take over the kitchen if she wanted to.

Erinna just shrugged. It’s not like someone was forcing her to do it, and she just liked working in the kitchen. Cooking is fun. Erinna’s home economics teacher was always excited to have her in the class since Erinna was her star pupil.

“I don’t mind,” Erinna admitted.

“You know I appreciate your help,” Heather said, walking to Erinna, hugging her and kissing her forehead. “You’re still my little girl, and it’s my job to take care of you, not the other way around,” Heather said, pulling away from the hug. “I will take this to George. You go change and start in your homework, ok?”

Erinna nodded and handed the mug of soup to her mom, and she then walked to her room to change her clothes. Her walk-in closet was now half-filled with clothes. When she was still Ryan, her clothes didn’t fill a quarter of the closet. Now she had so many clothes, and she was still receiving more clothes. She was offered a job as a model, but her parents refused since Erinna was not interested. She felt that she was busy enough with swimming and schoolwork.

Inside her closet, Erinna first took off her shoes, followed by her school uniform. She hung her uniform, took off her tights, and started to look for something to wear. She had so many Jeans, yet Erinna opted for a skirt instead of jeans, being such a girly girl. Erinna took out a black skirt with an elastic waistband and a white hoodie and got dressed before putting on a pair of tight black high socks.

Walking downstairs, Erinna retrieved her tablet and settled down in the living room to do her homework. This homework was not supposed to be easy for an average student, but for Erinna, it was nothing. In less than an hour, Erinna had finished her homework.

Being idle with nothing to do was annoying, so Erinna left her seat to look for something to occupy her time. Seeing some dirty laundry in the washing room, Erinna decided to sort through it and put it in the washer. Soon enough, she was done and started to look for something else to do.

Around 6 pm, Jeff arrived home after a long day at work. He was writing some new subroutines for his security system. There were new modules he had to incorporate into the system. Unfortunately, not many other of the company’s new programmers were yet as skilled as Jeff. He also had a meeting with the shareholders to show off his company’s new security system. He was looking forward to coming home, maybe cuddling with his Princess. But he wanted to cuddle her while watching the football game today.

Walking inside the house, Jeff relieved himself of the necktie and hung his coat. “I am home,” Jeff announced, closing the door behind him. Hearing Jeff’s voice Erinna left her seat and ran to the door to meet her dad.

“Daddy,” Erinna squealed, hugging Jeff, who smiled while picking her up and leaving his 11-year-old daughter in his arm.

“How was your day, Princess,” Jeff asking kissing Erinna’s forehead. He had been treating Erinna like a treasure. As a girl, Jeff could spoil Erinna to no end, and no one would say anything.  By now, everyone knew that Erinna was her daddy’s girl, and he always made it clear how much he loved her.

“It was boring, daddy,” Erinna pouted, making Jeff chuckle.

Heather appeared, and both she and Jeff shared a kiss. Jeff then asked about George and how he was doing.

“George is much better now, and he doesn’t have a fever anymore. Last time I checked, he had fallen asleep,” Heather told Jeff, who just nodded.

“By the way, I have the item you asked me to bring with me here,” Jeff said, showing Heather the shopping bag he was holding in his arm.

Erinna looked at the bag with curiosity, trying to figure out what was in there. Unfortunately, Erinna was not able to see what was inside the bag.

“What’s in there, daddy?” Erinna inquired, using her best puppy eye look. She knew that Jeff could never say no to her puppy-eyed face and used it to her advantage.

Jeff chuckled before kissing Erinna’s forehead again. “I have clear instructions from your mommy, and I can’t tell you yet,” Jeff informed Erinna. She was still the curious child she used to be, and many other things remained the same for Erinna.

“Not fair,” Erinna pouted, making both Jeff and Heather chuckle.

“Would you like to help me with dinner while your daddy relaxes for a bit?” Heather suggested. She knew that Erinna loved to work in the kitchen, and it reached a point where Heather had to hold her back.  Some of Heather’s friends expressed their envy, telling her that their daughters didn’t help in any way around the house. Some of them even joked about it, asking if they could swap their daughters for Erinna.

Erinna eagerly nodded, and Jeff put her down. Erinna followed her mom to the kitchen, and both of them started on dinner. Once dinner was ready, Heather turned around and looked at Erinna. “Why don’t you go wake George up?”

“Ok,” Erinna replied and walked upstairs towards George’s room. Opening the door, she found him asleep, and she crept into the room, making sure not to wake George up.

“Wake up, George!” Erinna shouted as she ran towards the bed, and she jumped on the sleeping George knocking the air out of his lungs.

“Mom said to wake you up for dinner,” Erinna said while laughing.

George groaned and sat up, looking at Erinna, who was grinning at him. “You’re too big to be doing that,” George sarcastically said.

Erinna gasped and put her hand on her mouth, faking a surprise.

“Are you calling me fat?”

George shook his head and looked at his sister, who had become a master manipulator.

“What do they teach you at the true-lady school?” George said with a smirk.

Erinna just giggled and walked out of the room, heading downstairs. Erinna helped her mom serve the food on the table, and she took her place, sitting down at the table before Jeff and George joined them.

“How are you feeling now, son?” Jeff asked as everyone took their seats.

“Expect for a little monkey who almost broke my ribs; I am fine, dad,” George replied. Everyone laughed, and Erinna stuck her tongue out at George.

The dinner was full of chatter as always. Once the family finished eating,  Erinna helped her mom clear off the table and took the leftovers to the kitchen. She returned to her room to change and get ready for bed. Erinna checked her tablet first, and she was surprised to find a notification from ‘NTW.’ Opening the message, Erinna found an Email from the game addressed to Ruby.

“Dear player Ruby, we would be honored to invite you to take part in our first Cosplay event on the 30th of this month. We have provided you with a VIP ticket, and you may bring four other players to attend the event with you. Would you please read the attached PDF file and click on the link at the bottom of this email for further information?

Best Regards, TWA.”

A pdf file was attached to the email, as well as the link. Opening the link, Erinna found more about this event. It was a cosplay party where NTW players dressed up as their Avatar or favorite Avatar. She entered the address on a map app and found that the event’s location was 30 minutes away by car. The event also allowed players of all ages from 10 and above, and no alcoholic drinks were allowed at the event.

Erinna took her tablet and walked to her parent’s room. Knocking on the door, Erinna entered after they told her to come in.

“Do you need something, sweetheart?” Heather asked, looking at Erinna.

Erinna nodded and began to explain the NTW Email to her parents. She told them about the cosplay party and everything else. They agreed that Erinna could go, but George must go with her, which sounded even better to Erinna. Erinna decided to tell Oliver tomorrow, and she knew that Oliver and Nancy would love to go. Erinna still didn’t have a  costume, but her parents had been busy; they already had the perfect custom-made outfit for her.

She walked to George’s room to tell him the news and knocked on the door. George opened his door only for Erinna to flash her tablet in his face.

“Couldn’t you decrease the brightness a bit before you decided to stick it in front of my face?  And take a step back. I can’t see anything with it right in front of me.” Taking a step back, Erinna showed George the tablet and the email again. It took George a second to read the email before responding. “That’s great. Who will go with you then? If I accompany you, I can give you a ride if you want.”

“You, Nancy, and Oliver. I don’t know who should be the fifth,” Erinna admitted.

“That’s great. I am sure Oliver and Nancy will be happy to be invited. Now, you still have a day, so don’t worry about finding a fifth person,” George said to Erinna, who nodded.

She walked to her room, placed the tablet beside her phone, and connected both of them to the charger. Erinna then changed into her nightie. She then walked to her bathroom and brushed her teeth. She walked to her parent’s room, and after kissing each of them goodnight, she returned to her room, got under the covers, and quickly fell asleep.