The middle schoolers, Jake, Jared, Carl, and Zack, were back for more. After being certain that those dumb older kids were gone, Jake and his cohorts snuck back to the house. The intended to do a lot more damage, and this time inside. It was late, and few trick or treaters were still out so Jake snuck up to the front door. He turned the knob and....was met by the old woman. She was furious, but didn't let it show. Knowing now that the older kids had been telling the truth, she smiled sweetly to the three boys behind the bushes.
"Come on out, little guys! Granny won't hurt you. And I've got caaannnnnddddyyyyy..."
That did it. The spell grabbed all four boys who then eagerly accepted candy similar to chocolates the high schoolers had gotten. These had white chocolate instead of dark, and the boys, still caught by the old woman's charm devoured them. Then she whispered to them, "Go home boys, bigger treats wait for you tomorrow."
All four ran off home.
Zack was the first to wake up, with a stomach ache. He rubbed his eyes and jumped out of bed. He wandered sleepily down the hall, to the bathroom. As he looked in the mirror he saw that he hadn't even bothered to change out of his clothes from yesterday night. He shrugged them off, and though he would normally have changed into new clothes without bothering to shower, he really felt like he needed to this morning. So his shucked the black sweatshirt, t-shirt, camo pants, and his black "Bad Boy" boxers. He started the water and reached to turn on the shower, but instead, he slid into the water, and just started to relax. He hadn't been this comfortable in a bath for ages. He just let the water cover him, and almost fell asleep. Too soon, he heard a pounding on the door. "Zackie! Get out and get ready for school!"
Reluctantly he climbed out, put to put a towel around him and went back to his room. The towel seemed strangely large and heavy. His mom was waiting for him in his room. "Are you ready for you first day in Kindergarten, Zackie?"
"Ummm...mom, you're really starting to weird me out! I'm in seventh grade, remember?"
"Don't worry sweetie, there's nothing to be scared of. It'll be just like Preschool."
"But mom, I'm 13. I'm not going to kindergarten."
"You have to go, Zackie. You're a big boy now, and you're going to love being in kindergarten."
And with that she walked out. Zack quickly pulled on the blue boxer shorts, the jeans, and the "Nirvana" t shirt, and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. Looking in the mirror, he was shocked to see a five year old with a Winnie the Pooh t-shirt staring back at him. Zack looked down at himself. He looked normal, and was still wearing his Nirvana t-shirt. But his reflection looked like a kid. Stunned into silence, he didn't even protest when his mother drove him to kindergarten.
She escorted him in, where an excited teacher knelt down to greet him. "Hi! You must be Zack. I'm sure you're going to have a great time here in kindergarten. Why don't you come over here and play with the blocks!" And she took his hand from his mother and lead him over to the blocks. Not wanting to look suspicious, he began playing with them. A girl wandered over and said, "Hi. I'm Claire." And stuck out her hand. Zack ignored her. After a moment she grabbed his hand and shook it. "You're 'posed to say your name." Zack continued to ignore her, but, to his annoyance, the girl interpreted this as meaning she needed to be more outgoing, and she began playing with him.
Needless to say, the day was awful. The teacher interpreted his attempts to avoid people as shyness because it was his first day, and kept coming over to try and get him to play with other kids. Finally, during nap time, Zack had the chance to try and sort things out. It was obvious that something had happened to him, and his best guess was that it had something to do with that strange old woman the night before. Which meant he had to get her to turn him back. And, given that, he had better be on his best behavior.
After nap time was over, he set out to be as helpful as possible. He helped Claire build a tower with the blocks, and showed Ryan how to make a person shape with the playdough. Then he comforted Johnnie when he skinned his knee at recess.
Later in the day, when he got permission to take a trip to the bathroom, things got better. When he looked at the mirror when he began washing his hands, he saw the five year old he had seen earlier.
But when he looked again, his reflection was clearly taller, and the Winnie the Pooh shirt had been replaced by a striped one. After he left the bathroom, he guessed at which his new classroom was, and discovered that he was now a second grader.
Hoping that he could earn his way back to seventh grade, he kept on being on his best behavior. He paid close attention, and raised his hand. When they did a math worksheet, he explained the answers to the person sitting next to him. But, after his mother drove him home, he looked in the mirror and saw no difference.
After dinner, he made sure to offer to clean the dishes, and once that was done he took a risk and snuck out. The woman's house was only a few blocks away, so if he was quick he could get back before anyone noticed. He ran all the way to her house and knocked on her door. The woman opened it a crack and peeked out. She smiled. "I thought you might be coming back."
"Look, I'm really sorry about last night. I was wrong, I realize that, but I'll be better. But please, please, give me back my old life."
"I don't take well to being harassed by children, but as you've already discovered, you get time back for good behavior. If you stay good, you'll get back to one year younger then you originally were, but you'd better stick to it, or you can go right back." And with that she shut the door.
He ran back home, and breathed a sigh of relief once he determined that his absence hadn't been noticed. The next major surprise came when his mother told him to go to bed at 8:30. Of course, he could have remembered that that's when he used to go to bed, but he hadn't thought about it. At first he was going to try to fight it, but remembering that he was trying to get older, he went along without protest.
The next morning he was more excited to get up than he could remember. He looked at himself, but to his own eyes he looked like a thirteen year old wearing boxer shorts. He ran to the bathroom, but was disappointed to see the same seven year old staring back at him, wearing a red pajama set. He changed for school and was driven back to the same classroom he'd been in the day before.
Zack gave up. He'd spent all of the day before trying to be good, and he was still in second grade. He slouched in the back of the room, bored out of his mind by the basic material the class was covering. This lasted all of an hour, until (while writing down answers he knew were wrong on a worksheet) he happened to see his faint reflection in the window. Winnie the Pooh had appeared on his shirt again. Scared back to good behavior, he started working hard, and at recess it finally paid off. He went outside with the rest of the second graders, but once everyone scattered around the playground, he quickly ended up with a bunch of fourth graders, who seemed to recognize him from class. They still looked like a bunch of kids, but it was another step up. Class was almost interesting now, and, he actually had to work a little to make sure he understood what was going on. He went to the bathroom as many times as he could, reasonably, and still got weird looks from his teacher. Nothing changed though. His shirt read "Soccer is life; The rest is just details" every time he went in. He rode home not as dejected as before, and childishly excited as he told his mom what he'd learned. This time his mom made him take out the trash. "Any ten year old can handle that, Zack.' She said.
His bedtime was 9:00 now, so he watched an old cartoon movie. It really was funny, and he drifted off to sleep quite content.
The next morning he was determined to get into sixth grade. He put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, looked in the mirror and promised himself that the soccer shirt would be gone by the end of the day.
Fourth grade was a real challenge. The math was trickier, but Zack paid careful attention and got an A+ on his test. He asked to be excused and saw a familiar face staring back at him from the bathroom mirror. A year younger, but he'd made it!
People noticed a change in Zack from then on. He wasn't a perfect student, but he always tried, and everyone knew he'd try and help you if he could.