The Phenomenon

As I drifted awake the first thing I noticed was bright sunlight pouring in around my bedroom curtains. The second thing I noticed was a bunch of hair in my mouth.

I made a face and fumbled to get the hair out of my mouth. Who's hair even was that anyways?

I was still half-asleep, my brain hadn't quite finished waking up yet and everything from last night was still a little fuzzy. My eyes slowly focused on my clock, which was quietly blinking '12:00' over and and over.

A few more seconds passed as I stared at that while my brain continued clawing its way back towards functionality. There was something important, but I couldn't quite remember what it was.

My eyes flicked around my little bedroom and stopped on the suitcase and backpack sitting in the middle of the floor. Then back to the clock again. A shot of adrenaline went through me as all the pieces suddenly fell into place.

It was Sunday morning. Today was the last Sunday in August. I was supposed to be up at six this morning so my parents could drive me to college. Except the power must have gone off overnight, my clock reset, the alarm didn't go off, and judging by the light coming in around my curtains it had to be at least nine o'clock and I was very very late!

I sat bolt upright in bed, and a second shot of adrenaline went through me as I realized something else was wrong. There was hair all hanging down in my face. It was the same sandy-blonde colour as my hair, but this was way longer.

It was one of those things that didn't compute, didn't make sense. Mom insisted I get my hair cut yesterday so I'd be all set when I started college. It was short, I wouldn't need another trim for at least six weeks. And even before that, I'd never had hair anywhere this long. Even if I did secretly want long hair, I'd never actually tried growing it out.

I blinked a few times as I reached up to brush the stuff out of my face, and found myself staring at a pair of hands that weren't mine.

They were small, the fingers were slim and delicate, the nails were long but pleasantly shaped. The hands were just poking out of the sleeves of my pyjama top, which seemed to have grown several sizes over night.

I stared at the strange hands for a few more seconds then asked quietly, "What happened -"

My eyes bugged out. That was a girl's voice. Those were girl's hands. And the long hair...

Holy shit.

I ran one of those delicate hands over my face and instead of the usual stubble and whiskers that were there every morning begging to be shaved, I felt only smooth soft skin.

There was a mirror on the wall next to my door and I got to my feet to go look, but my pyjama bottoms slipped off as soon as I was upright. Like the top, the bottoms had grown several sizes and were too loose to stay up on me.

I looked down and found myself staring at a pair of smooth, slim, shapely legs.

With shaking hands I pulled the top off as well and let it fall to the floor by my feet.

My eyes bugged out again and my mouth hung slack as I stared. I was a girl.

I found myself staring at the two perfectly shaped mounds on my chest for several seconds, before my focus shifted downwards over my flat belly and past my narrow waist. I took in my wide hips before my attention moved towards the small patch of sandy blonde hair at my groin. There was no trace of the thing that usually stuck out below the hair there.

My legs shifted apart as I leaned over a little more for a better look. At this point I basically knew what was coming, but seeing the proof with my own eyes still sent another shock through my system.

I was definitely absolutely positively a girl.

My feet shuffled a little on the carpet as I stumbled almost in a daze over to the small mirror by the door. It had moved several inches higher up the wall overnight. It used to be perfectly positioned to give me a good head-and-shoulders view of myself, but now it was more like from my chin up.

The girl looking back at me in the mirror was very cute, apart from the wide eyes and the deer-in-the-headlights expression on her face.

My eyes were the same hazel colour as before, my hair the same sandy blonde. My face was different though, like there was no trace of my old looks there. No family resemblance at all.

As I stared, my lips slowly started to curl upwards into a smile.

I was a girl. A cute girl.

Holy shit.

The thing I'd wished for and dreamed about almost every night for more than half my life suddenly came true.

I actually pinched my arm to be sure, then made a cute little "Ow!" noise. I was still looking at myself in the mirror, and holy shit I had a cute pout.

After a few more minutes staring at my reflection and looking down at my new body, I glanced at my luggage waiting on the floor and my joy and confusion started to shift into fear.

The reason I picked an out-of-town college was so I could start to transition away from my folks. I never came out to them, never talked to them about this stuff, because I already knew they wouldn't accept it. Growing up, I heard enough homomisic and transmisic comments out of the two of them.

I knew if I came out they'd kick me out of the house, or worse. This way I got them to pay for my education and set me up in another town. I could transition well away from them and hopefully get myself established, so when the shit finally hit the fan I'd have something to fall back on.

Waking up mysteriously transformed into a cute girl the morning I was planning to leave home was as much a curse as it was a blessing.

I quietly paced around my room for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do. I couldn't hide in here forever. Sooner or later my folks would wake up if they hadn't already, and they'd start banging on my door and yelling at me about being late. It was a three hour drive to get there, and they'd have another three hours after that getting home. They'd want to get started as soon as possible.

After fretting another minute or two I decided I had to just do it. Be proactive. After all, whatever happened it wasn't my fault. I sure as hell didn't cause this, even if I did secretly wish for it for the last nine or ten years.

At least I already had a name picked out. I'd dreamed of being Callie for ages. I already used it on Discord and one of my social media accounts. I just had to hope I could convince my family to start using it.

Most of my clothes were already packed up for college but I had a few things in my closet. The next hurdle was finding what would fit. I tried to get into the outfit I left out for today but that was a bust.

My boxers were way too big, as were my jeans. I blushed as I finally clued-in that it wasn't my clothes and pyjamas that got big, and my mirror didn't move. It was me, I'd gotten smaller. I still looked the same age, like my nineteenth birthday was a couple weeks ago and I looked like a nineteen year old girl. But at a guess I'd lost about six inches off my former five-foot-ten. And the rest of me was proportionately smaller too.

After some digging, I found an old pair of gym shorts I hadn't worn in a few years, they were just tight enough to stay up on me. And the t-shirt I was going to wear today was too big but it still worked. I was going commando since none of my underwear fit, and I didn't own a bra.

Before leaving my room I took a few minutes to brush my hair, just to get it out of my face and make myself a bit more presentable.

I took a few deep breaths to try and calm myself down, then opened my bedroom door.

The smell of coffee was drifting up from downstairs, and I could hear the faint sound of a TV news broadcast. That told me my folks were already up. They usually watched the news while they had coffee and breakfast.

My heart was pounding again as I padded barefoot out of my room. My boobs bounced as I made my way down the stairs, and that sensation sent some happy flutters through me. Finally I rounded the corner and stepped into the kitchen.

Then I stopped in my tracks and just stared.

There were three people in the kitchen, but I didn't recognize any of them.

Sitting at the kitchen table with a bowl of cereal in front of her was a cute teen. She looked fifteen or sixteen, she had long silky-smooth dark brown hair, dusky skin, and dark expressive eyes. Like me she was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Her tee had the local high-school logo across the chest, and the shorts were in the school's colours too.

Sitting at the end of the table was another attractive girl. She looked more like my age, about nineteen. She had shoulder-length black hair, and she was dressed in a pair of grey track-pants that looked much too big for her and a loose, over-sized t-shirt. There was a cup of coffee in front of her.

And standing by the counter next to the coffee machine was another attractive young woman. She looked about my age as well, another nineteen-year-old. Her hair was long, bright sunny blonde. She was wearing a nightgown that looked kind of frumpy on her, like she'd borrowed it from my mom's closet or something. It definitely didn't suit her lithe young body.

They all turned to stare at me as I stood in the kitchen door, and I noticed all three of them had the same shocked deer-in-the-headlights look on their faces that I did when I first woke up.

I blinked and asked "Um, sorry am I in the wrong house or something?"

The girl by the counter spoke up. She sounded as dazed as she looked as she replied, "No son, you aren't. It's me, mom."

She gestured to the two girls seated at the table, the older one first then the younger one. "That's your dad. And your little brother Kevin."

My eyes went wide and my jaw hung slack as I stared. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry or start screaming.

The blonde's nightgown didn't just look like my mom's, it was my mom's. She was my mom. My mom was a hot young blonde the same age as me. She was about the same height as before but she'd probably lost forty pounds in the transformation from middle-aged housewife to hot teen girl.

And the attractive brunette with the coffee, now I recognized the track pants and t-shirt. That's what dad wore when he went to the gym. Dad used to be a tall broad-shouldered imposing guy. Now I was looking at a rather petite attractive young woman.

The cute sixteen-year-old with the long beautiful brown hair was wearing my little brother's high-school shorts and t-shirt. Like me, that's probably the only clothes he had that fit now. He was slimmer and his body was girl-shaped, but Kevin seemed about the same height as he was before.

My heart was pounding and I felt lightheaded as I stood there and stared.

I finally asked, "What the fuck happened?"

Normally I'd get told off for swearing but nobody seemed to care this morning.

Dad pointed at the kitchen TV that was still running the news. He said in a shocked, monotone feminine voice "It's not just us. It's everyone."

I turned towards the TV and felt a chill go through me. The two anchors were a couple teenage girls, both looked about nineteen. The one on the left was a gorgeous black girl with short hair in a cute style, the one on the right was a redhead with adorable freckles over her fair cheeks. Both were wearing sort of professional news-anchor-type clothes that didn't entirely fit right.

The black girl seemed a little more calm and confident, the redhead had the same deer-in-the-headlights shocked look as Kevin and dad.

It only took me a second to realize, the redhead was a guy up till this morning. The black girl was probably already a woman, but she would have been older.

It took a few more seconds before I finally clued in to what she was saying.

"...Once again, authorities have declared a state of emergency. The government has issued a stay-at-home order, and are asking people not to panic. The phenomenon appears to be global in nature, reports are still coming in from all around the world..."

I finally stumbled into the kitchen and almost collapsed into my usual seat at the table.

The whole world.

Everyone.

Holy. Fuck.