✅ Unusual Vacancy

Part 7 - The Child

"Oh, you're so cute!" Cass beamed, a giant smile on her face. It was the first time she'd shown any real emotion beyond what the company required since Amy had arrived, and she could only take that as a good sign. "You're going to fit in so well, I just know it. There's a few other adjustments that the Doctor might want to make, the things we expect from all members of the play team, but they're all batched into a script now. You understand of course? Some tweaks to ensure you're in the acceptable size range to play with all the little ones safely. I see you've got some size reduction already. If that's within our bracket the script won't have any additional effect and it'll leave you with your own choices. And of course there's the necessary implementation of appropriate age behaviours."

"Like not cursing and stuff," Amy nodded, "I thought about applying something like that. But you already requested permission, so I assumed you have a pre-tuned model ready for me."

"Perfect, I'm so glad we understand each other. It takes some time, but I'm sure the specialist on duty will press the start button as soon as he sees that you're ready. Why don't you go any introduce yourself to your little friends while we wait for it to take effect?"

Amy nodded, and strode off in the direction Cass had indicated. She was ecstatic, she had never expected to get a job so easily. This was the kind of interview she might have expected in the olden days before automation, when there were almost as many job opportunities as people in the world. But she still had a little fear, a little nervousness. What would happen if the kids didn't like her? Or if she found herself getting angry and yelling when they became too unmanageable? She knew that the building computer was going to make some temporary changes to her mind and personality specifically to prevent that last option, but she was sure something could still go wrong. Different people reacted differently to mental changes, so she might find that their changes weren't so strong. Or they might be super strong, and she'd act a little bit like she was a kid herself, and she didn't know if she'd get in trouble for that.

The alcove Cass had pointed to had a set of stairs in it, with little steps made for little paws. She held onto the rail carefully and went down one step at a time. She'd got smaller, and that might make her trip easier until she got used to it. So better safe than sorry. She smiled, and repeated the words out loud. Always better safe than sorry, that might be something she could teach her new friends out there in the courtyard.

And now she was in the courtyard, running towards them. Her caution and nerves disintegrated when she saw the cubs at play, so happy and excited. They were having so much fun, all she had to do was play with them, and she'd even get paid for it. That must be the best job ever!

She hadn't thought properly about getting smaller, though. She hadn't expected how little she was going to be. By the time she was halfway across the grass, she could see that the tallest cubs in the crowd, the ones who might be five or six, would almost come up to her shoulders. Her legs were getting shorter, and her boobs were almost gone. Her clothes changed with her, so they always fit, and that was great. Her hair didn't change quite so much, so it was half way down her back now and she could feel it bouncing against her as she ran. She didn't know if the kids would see that she was getting smaller. How quick was the change? All of her clothes and every bit of her body was changing at the same speed, so it might not be so easy to tell when she was coming closer at the same time.

Not everything was changing though. The bagel Amy had grabbed for breakfast was still the same size in her tummy as she got smaller, leaving her feeling just a little overstuffed. She wasn't the kind of person who'd ever try an eating contest, but she guessed that by the end, it would feel a lot like this. She was full, not enough to hurt, but it was enough that it wasn't comfortable. In future, she knew she'd have to remember not to eat the morning before her assignment started.

Her coffee didn't shrink, either. It wasn't made of living cells, and it didn't have virtual space fibres to sync with the app, it was just a bunch of colours and flavours mixed into a large cup of water. Amy slowed down her energetic run to the kids as she realised that was more water than somebody her size would normally be able to drink, and every inch she shrank made the need to pee more and more urgent.

She couldn't decide. Her body was yelling that she needed to go right away. But she was supposed to be meeting her new friends, and it would be rude if she turned around to run to the bathroom. She told herself she could cope, and she'd say hi to everybody and ask if they could tell her where the bathroom was. That would be a good way to make friends anyway, asking them for help instead of putting herself in charge. She practised the line in her head, to make sure she didn't accidentally say something weird. "Hi, I'm Amy. I'm new here, can you tell me where the little girls' room is?" Yeah, that would work.

Lost in thought, she didn't think hard enough about where she was going. Her legs were shorter than normal, and she stumbled, tumbled forward onto the grass. It was softer than concrete paving, but the earth still hit her hard enough to bring tears to her eyes. The jolt knocked the breath out of her, and the force was more than she could take. Without time to think about it, she couldn't hold it anymore. She started to pee, lying right there on the ground in front of all the kids she was supposed to be looking after.