Kat slowly turned the heavy old pages and skimmed over the titles. She’d noticed that all of the stories seemed to refer to some part of the female body, and only one. From what she could tell at a glance, each was about a girl whose body began to change in just that one aspect. Each was a few pages long and she probably only had enough time to read one before dinner, after which she really would need to get on with her homework for tomorrow. One particular title caught her eye.
Lucy’s Luxurious Locks
Kat had been a flaming redhead all her life and had mixed feelings about her hair. On the one hand it was bright and wild and she felt it gave her otherwise small and unimpressive form some character. On the other hand it was frizzy, tangled and difficult to manage and never seemed to look the way she wanted. Intrigued, she began to read.
Lucy was a lovely lass from a little village by the Long Lake. Lucy loved to lie languidly by the lake and look at the long white clouds littering the sky. Lately, Lucy had looked longingly at the local Lord’s son, Liam, loving him from afar. Lonely and languishing, she listened to the lore of the local wisewoman, Lady Lyra...
The story went on to describe Lucy’s plan to attract the attention of young lord Liam using a potion brewed by Lady Lyra. The potion gave Lucy the most beautiful locks in all the land which grew longer and lovelier until eventually Lucy and her locks caught Liam’s eye and the pair lived happily ever after.
The wording was archaic and a bit difficult to follow in places, but eventually Kat finished the story and closed the heavy tome with a thud. She pulled a lock of her own hair in front of her eyes and stared at it, wishing she could attract her dream boy by the beauty of her hair alone. It was a nice story, but not something that could ever really happen. Girl is plain and lonely, girl uses magic thingamajig, girl becomes beautiful and achieves all her dreams. As if.
“Kat, dinner time!” Came her Mom’s voice from downstairs. Tucking her new favourite book out of sight under some papers in the top drawer of her desk, Kat called back in response and headed down to eat.
***
It wasn’t until her morning routine the next day that Kat noticed the difference. While she’d been studying the night before she had tucked her hair behind her ears and out of the way, but it still kept falling into her eyes somehow. It was only when she took her morning shower and washed it that it became obvious that her very own lovely locks were about 3 inches longer than they should be. Drying off, she noticed they were also a bit nicer than before. Nothing spectacular, but maybe a bit shinier and smoother than normal.
It was completely impossible, but very welcome all the same. Kat felt like she should be freaking out more, as though magic being real and apparently contained within an old book she’d bought at the mall should be more of a world-shattering revelation. Something was keeping her calm though, probably the same thing that had kept her from worrying about buying the book on impulse the day before. Something was suppressing her concerns just enough that she noticed the change but didn’t go to pieces over it. Kat didn’t like the feeling that her mind was being messed with, but it didn’t bother her all that much, which she realised was probably part of the effect as well. There was nothing much she could do though, and she did like her improved hair, so she just went on with her day.
“Your hair looks nice today dear,” was all she got from her Mom over breakfast. Again, noticing a change but not really bothered by it. Maybe the magic worked on everyone, not just her. The same was true at school. Kat had a pretty normal day, caught up with her friends, was bored by some classes, frustrated by others and terrified by a sudden pop quiz in one. She got an unreasonable pile of homework and wandered slowly home at the end of the day where the Burgeoning Book was waiting safely in her top drawer.
At that point Kat noticed she had changed again. Her hair was shinier, thicker and another 3 inches longer than it had been that morning, having gone from shoulder length to reaching her shoulderblades in 24 hours. It would have reached her bra strap, she thought ruefully, if only she needed to wear a bra. The book was doing this to her, it was clear. She had no idea how it was possible, beyond the obvious answer of ‘it’s a magic book’, but there was no other explanation. She bought a weird book from a strange store that she’d never seen before, read a story about a girl magically growing long, beautiful hair and overnight she grew longer, more beautiful hair. Even without knowing the mechanics, it didn’t take a genius to figure out the trigger.
So Kat looked with interest at the other stories in the book, flipping through the pages until she found one she couldn’t pass up.
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