Nerd Camp
Chapter One:
“Next entrant: Bernard White,” the receptionist called out to the lobby.
“That’s Ben,” answered the high school senior as he rose to his feet.
“Sure it is,” the receptionist said dismissively as she handed him a form to fill out.
Ben, the captain of the varsity football team, hated his full name. It reminded him of when his mother was angry at him, which of course was why he was at this location in the first place.
How had it come to this? As Ben took a form from the frumpy looking lady at the front counter and sad down, the sequence of events flashed through his mind again. He had shoved a freshman into his own locker, locked him in…and left him.
Ben had figured that the kid would have found a way out, or called out to one of his classmates. But apparently, nobody had listened, and the kid had been trapped in there for the night. But of course, the next day was Saturday. And, as it turns out, it was a three day weekend.
The kid was lucky to be alive, surviving by the grace of all those juice boxes he had stashed in his locker. But that didn’t matter, they needed to prove that they took hazing seriously, so Ben was being punished.
“Stupid little nerd,” Ben muttered to himself. Given the circumstances, he was grateful not to be in juvenile hall, but he still didn’t like being confined to any kind of institution for a weekend.
Of course, just what kind of institution was this? The form was asking him for all kinds of information – not just the nature of his offence, but his GPA, his interests, how many women he had slept with…
Ben hadn’t asked a lot of questions about his involuntary visit to this place. Asking questions really wasn’t his style in any event – he always got what he wanted from pushing people around, or by at least subtly threatening to do so. Making inquiries was just a waste of time. This time, they were bigger than he was, and he simply was going to suffer here – that was that.
The idea of suffering briefly left his mind as a cute looking young woman entered the lobby. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties, with thin rimmed glasses, a short skirt, and a tight fitting but conservative sweater.
“Ben, if you’d like to come with me, we could begin your counseling,” the young woman said.
“I’d like to ‘come with you,’ all right,” Ben muttered under his breath, as he impolitely gazed at the woman’s figure. After following her for a while, Ben spoke up. “So, are you taking me to see a behavior counselor then,” Ben began.
“No, Ben, I’m your counselor,” She sad as she turned around and placed her hands on her hips.
“You, get out of here. What makes them think a chick like you can handle a man like me?” Ben asked gruffly.
“First of all, Ben, I’m not ‘a chick.’ I have a name, and it’s Tasha Williams. Please refer to me as ‘Miss Williams’ while in this setting. Second, I’m more than capable of handling you. I handle men like you every day.”
Ben was about to make another vulgar association with her word choice, but before he could begin his sentence, Tasha grabbed his form from out of his hands.
This was, in and of itself, no small feat. Although Ben was quite tall and very muscular, he was quick and agile as well. He didn’t like getting startled or having other people think they could take stuff from him without asking – even if it was something as simple as a form. He was about to try to grab it back when Tasha spoke.
“Just as I thought. I think we’re going to have to skip over the direct counseling and put you right into the modification program.”
“Yeah? What’s that?” Ben asked with attitude, eager to challenge Tasha’s every move. He had offended his pride, and she was a skirt, and that was enough for Ben to feel angry. Though, to be honest, he was angry a lot.
“It’s our program for the most extreme of offenders that we get here, Ben. You’ll leave a new man,” Tasha said, the corners of her mouth starting to quiver into a smile.
“I’m sure. You’ll try to break the balls of the baddest of boys, huh? Just try me, honey, and I’ll…” Ben was cut off.
“Honey? After how rude you’ve been, you have no right to call me that.” Tasha said, starting to lose her cool.
“I’ll call you whatever I want, sweater-meat,” Ben said as he grinned, flashing his big smile and perfect teeth at her.
Tasha stared at him for a moment and then slowly sighed. “Put your stuff in this dorm,” she said as she pointed to a door on her left, “and then report to building 2-A in 15 minutes.”
Ben opened the door to the room to find a couple of other athletic young guys who had already unpacked.
“Woah, you played that one totally wrong,” said taller looking of the two boys. “I’ve heard bad things about 2-A. You don’t want to have to go there.”
“What is this place, anyway?” Ben asked, finally frustrated enough that he knew getting information was necessary.
“I think it’s some kind of diversity sensitivity training course for people that pick on nerds,” said the other kid. Shorter than the first boy and Ben but by no means short, he had a wide and sturdy look about it. He smoke with a deep voice and played with a golden chain around his neck as he spoke.
“Well, that’s not so bad…” Ben started.
“You’re saying that because you just got here,” said the taller of the two. “You’re headed to room 2-A. That’s the Pokemon room.”
“Pokemon?” Ben asked with a groan of disgust. “So you weren’t kidding when you said nerd tolerance.”
“Unfortunately not, but you better get going – if you are late, they’ll make you suffer.” These two guys looked tough, nearly as tough as Ben, and so if they were worried, he was worried. It wasn’t a feeling Ben had too often, and he hoped it wouldn’t become a regular occurrence during his time here.
Chapter Two:
Ben strutted to room 2-A, not wanting to be late but not wanting to appear nervous either. When he entered the room, he was surprised to see a young kid already speaking.
“And that’s why you need the Professor Oak trainer in a combat deck,” the nerdy looking kid droned, explaining the rules of the Pokemon training card game. The kid reminded Ben of the one he had shoved into his locker - short, scrawny, with that same nasal voice. The more Ben looked at him, however, he thought that if anything, this one might be even worse. He wore suspenders, and a tight, poorly fitting button shirt. His hair was red and rumbled, freckles decorated his face, and his eyes were covered in thick, coke bottle glasses. He also made wild, strange gestures with his hands to explain things and often seemed out of breath during his speech.
“Thank you Terrence, for that helpful instruction,” Tasha said, from the back of the room. “Now, we are all going to play Pokemon cards together.”
Ben lout out a loud groan, and Tasha shot him a dirty look. “Everyone is required to play and try to be a good sport.”
Ben glanced around the room and was both surprised and distressed by the fact that the majority of people there were also quite nerdy looking. He was matched into a small group of these people, and rolled his eyes. With his muscular frame, square jaw, and masculine body language, Ben stuck out like a sore thumb.
The game was actually a lot harder to pick up than it looked. Ben had played give games and hadn’t one a single one when the incident occurred.
“My Vulpix uses Ember. I get Prize 6. I win,” the short, stubby little nerd in from of him gloated.
“Screw this game,” Ben bellowed as he slammed the table and caused the cards to fly everywhere.
Everyone stopped and looked at Ben with a worried gaze. For just a moment, he felt a bit embarrassed- they were trying to teach him a game, after all, not subjecting him to Chinese water torture. But he didn’t lose his angry expression, and glared at the rest of the room menacingly.
“Ben, calm down. Here, have something to drink.” Tasha tossed him a can of cola, which Ben caught with one hand. He opened it and chugged half of it at once, then let out an impressively loud belch.
Ben half expected Tasha to flip out at this, but instead she actually smiled. “How about some candy to go with that?” Tasha offered with only a hint of annoyance in her voice.
“Sure, what the hell,” Ben replied, and Tasha opened her purse. She rustled through it for a while and then pulled out a box of “Nerds” candies.
“Oh, very funny,” Ben said. Tasha shook the box very carefully and a single, small unit of candy fell onto the palm of her hand. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ben started, but then Tasha quickly put her hand to his mouth and pushed the candy in.
Ben didn’t mind swallowing the candy, and for just a moment enjoyed the sexual thrill the close proximity of their bodies brought. That moment quickly faded, however, as Ben started experiencing a mild headache.
“The first one is the worst, don’t worry,” Terrence mumbled just loud enough to Ben to hear – though he didn’t understand what it meant.
A few moments later, when the pain subsided, Ben looked around and found that nearly everyone else had gone back to playing the game. He shrugged, figured it was worth another try, and to his surprise actually won a game.
Figuring it was luck, Ben played again, and won a second time. Before long, Ben had racked up 5 consecutive victories.
“Wow, look at our new Pokemon champ,” Tasha exclaimed as he finished up the game.
“This game’s not so bad, kinda fun actually,” Ben said, smiling. The smile faded, however, as he thought about what he had just said. Pokemon? Fun? That didn’t make any sense…
“Alright, you guys, time for dinner,” Tasha announced before Ben had enough time to really think it over.
The food at the little cafeteria was quite unpleasant. Greasy pizza, Ramen noodles, donuts, crackers with cheese whiz, and all other kinds of unpleasant dork food littered the counters. Ben reluctantly piled his plate with some of the junk and sat down on an isolated table.
Whatever plans Ben might have had for a meal in solitude, however, were disturbed quite quickly. A wobbly-legged, incredibly nerdy girl had just taken a seat next to him. Her hair was frizzy, and her face was pudgy – though her chest looked pretty flat. Her walk was wobbly and unfeminine, and her eyes looked crossed. Her nose was wide and upturned, and her shoes were untied.
“Hi, you’re new huh? I’m (snort) Bernice?” She said her name with a voice so high and squeaky, it sounded more like a question than a statement.
“I’m Ben, and I’m not in the mood for company, geek,” Ben muttered, and she scampered away.
“I saw that, Ben,” Tasha said as she walked towards his table, seemingly from nowhere. “That’s exactly the kind of behavior you’ve been sent here to stop doing.”
“Why do you care?” Ben challenged her. “Just leave me alone.”
“That does it, Ben, you’re not going to get any sleep tonight. You’re going to have to watch a marathon of Star Wars movies. All of them. In order. By episode number.”
“No thanks,” Ben said, as he avoided eye contact with Tasha. For some reason, she was a bit more intimidating now than he remembered her when they first met.
“If you are worried about keeping up your energy, you can have another candy.” Tasha said as she started to reach into her purse.
Ben remembered the brief headache he had experienced after he had the first one earlier. “Uh…no, that’s ok,” he protested.
“I insist, Ben.” Reluctantly, Ben swallowed another single candy, and then followed Tasha towards the movie room.
This time, he didn’t experience a headache. But his eyes were getting a bit fuzzy after only a few minutes of watching the film. His perception seemed to grow increasingly worse as the movie wore on.
Ben was seated next to his dorm mates, who had apparently also landed themselves in hot water and had been forced to watch Star Wars too. After the film was over, as they walked back to the dorm, he asked there names, and discovered that they were brothers, Harry and Tony.
“Did you say you were having trouble seeing the movies?” Harry, the older and taller of the brothers, asked.
“Yeah? So what of it?”
“Oh, that’s not good Ben. You should go see about getting glasses tomorrow.”
“What do you mean, glasses? I’ve had perfect vision my whole life!”
“That may be the case, but I’ve heard about a lot of cases of myopia coming on suddenly.”
“Myopia – what’s that?” Tony, the younger brother asked.
“It means poor vision,” Ben responded quickly. “But how did I know that?” He asked himself with confusion.
“They’re changing us…” Harry said at last. “Somehow, they’re making us less like ourselves.”
“How is that even possible?” Ben asked.
“Does it matter? All you need to worry about, Ben, is how to find a way to stop it before it’s too late.”
Chapter Three:
When Ben awoke, he found that Harry and Tony had already gone and that he was in the room alone.
“Rise and shine, sleepy head,” Tasha’s voice drifted into the open door. “Come on, everyone else is at lunch. I let you sleep past the normal time because I felt sorry for you having to stay up so late last night. But you slept even longer than the other two. It’s time.”
Ben hoisted himself up, his body feeling tired and heavy. As he pulled open his trunk, he was surprised to find that all of his clothes had been replaced. White buttoned shirts, bow ties, corduroy slacks, and other ridiculous clothing existed in the place of his skull T shirts and leather jacket.
“Tasha, give me back my stuff!” Ben cried out.
“Tasha is better than honey, but like I said, my name is Ms. Williams,” she cooed.
“Fine…give me back my stuff…Ms. Williams.”
“How about this, Ben, how about you try wearing these clothes now, and if you don’t think they are a perfect fit for you by tonight, I’ll give you back your old clothes,” Ms. Williams offered.
“Fine…” Ben reluctantly conceded. “But none of these clothes even fit me. I’m too tall for this.”
“Well, you haven’t tried them on. You know, you were having eye trouble earlier, maybe you are just eyeballing those pants wrong.”
Ben thought that explanation might have some merit – but then again, he hadn’t told her about his eyes, so how had she known?
“Have some candy with me, Ben, then we will see if you fit into those clothes.” She rummaged through her purse and pulled out a Snicker’s bar and a case of Nerds. To Ben’s disappointment, the Snickers was apparently for her.
Ben swallowed the candy and felt his body feeling warm in tingly, though not in a bad way. His body began to change – though it was impossible for him to notice. His muscular frame shrunk down a bit, and he lost about two inches of height. His eyesight grew even fuzzier, and he didn’t object when Ms. Williams reached into her purse and pulled out some thick glasses for him to wear. They fixed his eyesight perfectly.
Ms. Williams slowly unwrapped the Snickers bar and licked the tip of it seductively, while looking right at Ben. Yesterday, her mimicry of sexuality would have elicited jokes or his own passes, but now, Ben felt frozen. Her teasing only served to make him uncomfortable, and when he looked away, she smiled.
“I’m glad you aren’t going to be making any more upsetting remarks about me, Ben,” Ms. Williams said. “Ironically, you’re much, much cuter this way, all shy and blushing. You could never dream of making a pass at a confident, beautiful, older woman, could you, Ben?”
Ben’s heard was now pounding in his chest. He had never felt more nervous – largely because she was completely right. He could scarcely manage a nod as he stared deeply into those large, inviting brown eyes of hers.
“That’s ok, Ben, because I remember you had a romantic moment last night, didn’t you? With Bernice?”
Ben remembered the nerdy girl – but his earlier feelings of disgust seemed to have faded from his mind.
“That’s the kind of girl who you want now, huh, Ben? Someone who will let you be yourself.”
Again, Ben could feel himself nodding.
“You were really rude to her last night – and to be honest, you’re still not quite her type. But I’ll help you, Ben. I’ll help you win her heart. That’s what you need, right? Someone to hold your hand for this? Because I know how hard it is to talk to girls – even girls like Bernice.”
Ben started to think to himself that it had always been easy for him to talk to girls, that he had even lost his virginity at a young age to the head cheerleader – but all of those memories seemed fuzzy, as if it was part of a dream.
What was unquestionably real was that he was unable to talk to a girl right in front of him, right now.
“I’ll help you, Ben. You aren’t quite her type, not just yet. But I’ll help you win her over. I’ll give you more candy. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
This time, Ben nodded vigorously.
“I’ll give it to you, but first…kiss me.”
Ben thought he must have heard her wrong? Kiss her? He hadn’t ever even held hands with a girl – had he? Two pasts spun in his mind, and he didn’t know what to believe.
“Kiss me, Ben, and think of her.” She leaned in and pressed her mouth up against his, and kissed him hungrily.
Ben nervously reciprocated the kiss, and despite how beautiful Ms. Williams was, he found himself starting to think about Bernice, just as he she had told him to. Her nerdy looks no longer mattered, as he now thought about her as the kind of girl he was always meant for. In fact, he couldn’t even imagine not being attracted to a girl like her.
Eventually, she pulled away the kiss and stared at Ben.
“You did it, Ben. I can see it in your eyes. You’re thinking of her. Good boy,” she said, as she played with his hair in a loving and maternal way. “You’ve earned your candy.”
Ben eagerly swallowed it down, still not understanding what it did but wanting very much to be the kind of man worthy of a girl like Bernice.
His body seemed to spasm on its own accord, and a warm, calm feeling fell over Ben. He could feel his strength leaving his limbs. He could feel himself tingling again, and his features became slightly more pinched, and his body became smaller and thinner again. Just as Ms. Williams predicted, when he tried on his clothes, they fit perfectly.
Chapter Four:
It was soon time for everyone to play video games in the main room together. Ben, now wearing his new glasses, noticed Tony and Harry looked a little different. Both of them seemed shorter, more wimpy looking, and both also wore thick glasses. Tony now had a goofy expression pasted on his newly boyish, chubby cheeks, while Harry nervously chewed on his fingers and was wearing a pen protector in his shirt pocket. They didn’t even answer him when he called out their names; Ben soon found out that they now preferred to go by Harold and Anthony.
Bernice was there too, in a polka-dot dress that showcased her unfeminine, scrawny body. She held the controller tight in her grip and concentrated on the games feverishly, her eyes glazed and her jaw slack. She breathed heavily and noisily and when she won a game, she laughed and snorted, her pigtail hairdo flying around wildly.
Ben quickly shot a couple of glances at her, then looked away, blushing. A couple of times, Ben put down the controller and walked towards her, but he always turned away at the last minute, consumed with nervousness. He didn’t get the courage he needed to speak with her.
Later that night, at the cafeteria, he thought he might get his chance. Everyone was eating dessert, and Bernice was just one table away. Ben stared at her intently, noticing how awkwardly she held her cupcake. She accidentally smeared some icing and sprinkles on her cheek as she noisily wolfed it down, then wiped it on her sleeve.
Ben got up to say something to her, but just as he was about to approach her table, he tripped on an untied shoelace and fell face first. He landed on a drink cup and spilled soda all over his shirt.
His accident was greeted with a chorus of nerdy sounding giggles, and he quickly excused himself – though that was not to be his only humiliation that night.
Later, Ben found himself in a group with Bernice playing Lord of the Rings trivial pursuit. But try as he might, he couldn't get the correct question more than about 2/3 of the time, which was dismal by the standards of the others.
Luckily enough, however, Ben got some solid dice rolls, and found himself one question away from winning the game.
“The Motion Picture The Return of the King won 11 Oscars: name them all,” asked Bernice with a slight lisp.
“Oh my gosh,” Ben sputtered, “I know this…Picture, Director, Music, Editing, Visual Effects, Art Direction, Costumes, Makeup, Song, Screenplay…Oh boy, I can’t…I dunno.”
As his sand ran out, all three of the other players shouted out “Sound mixing!” Ben felt his heart sink when Bernice looked at him and snorted out “Come on, everyone knows that.”
Ben hung his head low in shame.
Chapter Six:
“You’ve got to help me. Please, Ms. Williams, I’ll do anything,” Ben told his counselor as soon as he had a moment to pull her aside the next day.
“I think you’ve learned your lesson about picking on nerds, haven’t you, Ben?” Ms. Williams said as she led Ben to her private office.
“Yes, yes, I have,” Ben whined as Ms. Williams shut the door. “Please help me. I lost a game of Lord of the Rings trivial pursuit last night. Do you know how humiliating that is?”
Ms. Williams looked at him and smiled. “I suppose you’re not too far gone just yet. One or two more would make the changes irreversible. But I could still probably restore you to what you were. That would solve your little dilemma, wouldn’t it?”
“What do you mean?” Ben asked, not understanding.
“You could go back to being a football-playing, nerd-bullying jerk. If that’s what you want.”
Ben couldn’t even imagine that he had once been someone like that.
“Or, I could give you the rest of the box of Nerds, and I’m sure you and Bernice would make the perfect couple.”
“Yes, please…”
“You want me to make you even more of a nerd, don’t you? Even scrawnier, even more awkward, even more geeky looking…you need to be complete…to shed every last shred of the former strength and power and confidence you once had, huh?”
“Yes,” gasped Ben, “You’re right about everything. You’ve always been right about everything.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear, Ben,” she said, and pulled out the box from her purse.
“Here you go,” she said as she handed him a candy. Ben quickly gulped it down and felt his ears growing bigger and starting to stick out more. He took another and felt his nasal passages tighten, his voice no doubt becoming more nasal. He took another and felt his teeth shifting position in his mouth, becoming more “buck teeth.”
“I wonder how many more are in here?” Ms. Williams asked playfully. She handed him another and he felt himself shrinking again – so much so, this time, that he was practically at boob to eye level with Ms. Williams. She leaned down and said seductively, “Another?”
He nodded, and as he continued to go through the box, the changes piled up. His hips changed alignment, giving him a crooked, knock kneed gait. His skin became filled with freckles. His muscles retracted into his flesh, leaving him with spindly, wimpy looking arms and legs. Ben’s hair became courser and greasier, making it likely impossible to comb and always sticking out in every direction. His mind swam with knowledge of chess and stamp collecting as years of football expertise faded away.
Miss Williams stared down at him. He was tiny, nerdy, hunched over figure. His teeth where out of place and misshapen, his glasses made his eyes buggy, and his hair was a mess. His face was greasy and his skin was pale, as if he never spent much time in the sun.
“That’s the end of the box, Ben,” she said at last, and he immediately started laughing. It was a loud, full-bellied ‘hyuk’ of a laugh, and ended with him rolling on the floor and slapping his knees.
“You must tell me what’s so funny, Ben.”
He continued to laugh so hard he cried and snorted. “Stop it, you’re killing me,” he said in his ultra-nasal, squeaky voice. “Nobody ever calls me Ben. It’s Bernard.”
Epilogue:
“It’s so hard to see you go,” Ms. Williams said as she signed Bernard’s release form. “I’ll certainly miss you. I think you’ve changed quite a bit, wouldn’t you say?”
“Nope, I’m a pretty (snort) consistent fellah,” Bernard said squeakily, his memories of his former self long gone.
“I’m glad things between you and Bernice have worked out so well,” she said. Bernard remembered how he had tried to ask her out and had been reduced to stuttering. Fortunately, she knew what he meant and had grabbed his hand with her sweaty one, squeaking out “Yes.”
“Hopefully the other kids at high school will be nice to me. I’d hate to think about one of the football players shoving me in a locker or something. Nothing good (snort) could come of that,” he said with a hint of fear in his voice.
“Oh, you never know,” Ms. Williams said wistfully, “you never really know…”
THE END
“Next entrant: Bernard White,” the receptionist called out to the lobby.
“That’s Ben,” answered the high school senior as he rose to his feet.
“Sure it is,” the receptionist said dismissively as she handed him a form to fill out.
Ben, the captain of the varsity football team, hated his full name. It reminded him of when his mother was angry at him, which of course was why he was at this location in the first place.
How had it come to this? As Ben took a form from the frumpy looking lady at the front counter and sad down, the sequence of events flashed through his mind again. He had shoved a freshman into his own locker, locked him in…and left him.
Ben had figured that the kid would have found a way out, or called out to one of his classmates. But apparently, nobody had listened, and the kid had been trapped in there for the night. But of course, the next day was Saturday. And, as it turns out, it was a three day weekend.
The kid was lucky to be alive, surviving by the grace of all those juice boxes he had stashed in his locker. But that didn’t matter, they needed to prove that they took hazing seriously, so Ben was being punished.
“Stupid little nerd,” Ben muttered to himself. Given the circumstances, he was grateful not to be in juvenile hall, but he still didn’t like being confined to any kind of institution for a weekend.
Of course, just what kind of institution was this? The form was asking him for all kinds of information – not just the nature of his offence, but his GPA, his interests, how many women he had slept with…
Ben hadn’t asked a lot of questions about his involuntary visit to this place. Asking questions really wasn’t his style in any event – he always got what he wanted from pushing people around, or by at least subtly threatening to do so. Making inquiries was just a waste of time. This time, they were bigger than he was, and he simply was going to suffer here – that was that.
The idea of suffering briefly left his mind as a cute looking young woman entered the lobby. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties, with thin rimmed glasses, a short skirt, and a tight fitting but conservative sweater.
“Ben, if you’d like to come with me, we could begin your counseling,” the young woman said.
“I’d like to ‘come with you,’ all right,” Ben muttered under his breath, as he impolitely gazed at the woman’s figure. After following her for a while, Ben spoke up. “So, are you taking me to see a behavior counselor then,” Ben began.
“No, Ben, I’m your counselor,” She sad as she turned around and placed her hands on her hips.
“You, get out of here. What makes them think a chick like you can handle a man like me?” Ben asked gruffly.
“First of all, Ben, I’m not ‘a chick.’ I have a name, and it’s Tasha Williams. Please refer to me as ‘Miss Williams’ while in this setting. Second, I’m more than capable of handling you. I handle men like you every day.”
Ben was about to make another vulgar association with her word choice, but before he could begin his sentence, Tasha grabbed his form from out of his hands.
This was, in and of itself, no small feat. Although Ben was quite tall and very muscular, he was quick and agile as well. He didn’t like getting startled or having other people think they could take stuff from him without asking – even if it was something as simple as a form. He was about to try to grab it back when Tasha spoke.
“Just as I thought. I think we’re going to have to skip over the direct counseling and put you right into the modification program.”
“Yeah? What’s that?” Ben asked with attitude, eager to challenge Tasha’s every move. He had offended his pride, and she was a skirt, and that was enough for Ben to feel angry. Though, to be honest, he was angry a lot.
“It’s our program for the most extreme of offenders that we get here, Ben. You’ll leave a new man,” Tasha said, the corners of her mouth starting to quiver into a smile.
“I’m sure. You’ll try to break the balls of the baddest of boys, huh? Just try me, honey, and I’ll…” Ben was cut off.
“Honey? After how rude you’ve been, you have no right to call me that.” Tasha said, starting to lose her cool.
“I’ll call you whatever I want, sweater-meat,” Ben said as he grinned, flashing his big smile and perfect teeth at her.
Tasha stared at him for a moment and then slowly sighed. “Put your stuff in this dorm,” she said as she pointed to a door on her left, “and then report to building 2-A in 15 minutes.”
Ben opened the door to the room to find a couple of other athletic young guys who had already unpacked.
“Woah, you played that one totally wrong,” said taller looking of the two boys. “I’ve heard bad things about 2-A. You don’t want to have to go there.”
“What is this place, anyway?” Ben asked, finally frustrated enough that he knew getting information was necessary.
“I think it’s some kind of diversity sensitivity training course for people that pick on nerds,” said the other kid. Shorter than the first boy and Ben but by no means short, he had a wide and sturdy look about it. He smoke with a deep voice and played with a golden chain around his neck as he spoke.
“Well, that’s not so bad…” Ben started.
“You’re saying that because you just got here,” said the taller of the two. “You’re headed to room 2-A. That’s the Pokemon room.”
“Pokemon?” Ben asked with a groan of disgust. “So you weren’t kidding when you said nerd tolerance.”
“Unfortunately not, but you better get going – if you are late, they’ll make you suffer.” These two guys looked tough, nearly as tough as Ben, and so if they were worried, he was worried. It wasn’t a feeling Ben had too often, and he hoped it wouldn’t become a regular occurrence during his time here.
Chapter Two:
Ben strutted to room 2-A, not wanting to be late but not wanting to appear nervous either. When he entered the room, he was surprised to see a young kid already speaking.
“And that’s why you need the Professor Oak trainer in a combat deck,” the nerdy looking kid droned, explaining the rules of the Pokemon training card game. The kid reminded Ben of the one he had shoved into his locker - short, scrawny, with that same nasal voice. The more Ben looked at him, however, he thought that if anything, this one might be even worse. He wore suspenders, and a tight, poorly fitting button shirt. His hair was red and rumbled, freckles decorated his face, and his eyes were covered in thick, coke bottle glasses. He also made wild, strange gestures with his hands to explain things and often seemed out of breath during his speech.
“Thank you Terrence, for that helpful instruction,” Tasha said, from the back of the room. “Now, we are all going to play Pokemon cards together.”
Ben lout out a loud groan, and Tasha shot him a dirty look. “Everyone is required to play and try to be a good sport.”
Ben glanced around the room and was both surprised and distressed by the fact that the majority of people there were also quite nerdy looking. He was matched into a small group of these people, and rolled his eyes. With his muscular frame, square jaw, and masculine body language, Ben stuck out like a sore thumb.
The game was actually a lot harder to pick up than it looked. Ben had played give games and hadn’t one a single one when the incident occurred.
“My Vulpix uses Ember. I get Prize 6. I win,” the short, stubby little nerd in from of him gloated.
“Screw this game,” Ben bellowed as he slammed the table and caused the cards to fly everywhere.
Everyone stopped and looked at Ben with a worried gaze. For just a moment, he felt a bit embarrassed- they were trying to teach him a game, after all, not subjecting him to Chinese water torture. But he didn’t lose his angry expression, and glared at the rest of the room menacingly.
“Ben, calm down. Here, have something to drink.” Tasha tossed him a can of cola, which Ben caught with one hand. He opened it and chugged half of it at once, then let out an impressively loud belch.
Ben half expected Tasha to flip out at this, but instead she actually smiled. “How about some candy to go with that?” Tasha offered with only a hint of annoyance in her voice.
“Sure, what the hell,” Ben replied, and Tasha opened her purse. She rustled through it for a while and then pulled out a box of “Nerds” candies.
“Oh, very funny,” Ben said. Tasha shook the box very carefully and a single, small unit of candy fell onto the palm of her hand. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ben started, but then Tasha quickly put her hand to his mouth and pushed the candy in.
Ben didn’t mind swallowing the candy, and for just a moment enjoyed the sexual thrill the close proximity of their bodies brought. That moment quickly faded, however, as Ben started experiencing a mild headache.
“The first one is the worst, don’t worry,” Terrence mumbled just loud enough to Ben to hear – though he didn’t understand what it meant.
A few moments later, when the pain subsided, Ben looked around and found that nearly everyone else had gone back to playing the game. He shrugged, figured it was worth another try, and to his surprise actually won a game.
Figuring it was luck, Ben played again, and won a second time. Before long, Ben had racked up 5 consecutive victories.
“Wow, look at our new Pokemon champ,” Tasha exclaimed as he finished up the game.
“This game’s not so bad, kinda fun actually,” Ben said, smiling. The smile faded, however, as he thought about what he had just said. Pokemon? Fun? That didn’t make any sense…
“Alright, you guys, time for dinner,” Tasha announced before Ben had enough time to really think it over.
The food at the little cafeteria was quite unpleasant. Greasy pizza, Ramen noodles, donuts, crackers with cheese whiz, and all other kinds of unpleasant dork food littered the counters. Ben reluctantly piled his plate with some of the junk and sat down on an isolated table.
Whatever plans Ben might have had for a meal in solitude, however, were disturbed quite quickly. A wobbly-legged, incredibly nerdy girl had just taken a seat next to him. Her hair was frizzy, and her face was pudgy – though her chest looked pretty flat. Her walk was wobbly and unfeminine, and her eyes looked crossed. Her nose was wide and upturned, and her shoes were untied.
“Hi, you’re new huh? I’m (snort) Bernice?” She said her name with a voice so high and squeaky, it sounded more like a question than a statement.
“I’m Ben, and I’m not in the mood for company, geek,” Ben muttered, and she scampered away.
“I saw that, Ben,” Tasha said as she walked towards his table, seemingly from nowhere. “That’s exactly the kind of behavior you’ve been sent here to stop doing.”
“Why do you care?” Ben challenged her. “Just leave me alone.”
“That does it, Ben, you’re not going to get any sleep tonight. You’re going to have to watch a marathon of Star Wars movies. All of them. In order. By episode number.”
“No thanks,” Ben said, as he avoided eye contact with Tasha. For some reason, she was a bit more intimidating now than he remembered her when they first met.
“If you are worried about keeping up your energy, you can have another candy.” Tasha said as she started to reach into her purse.
Ben remembered the brief headache he had experienced after he had the first one earlier. “Uh…no, that’s ok,” he protested.
“I insist, Ben.” Reluctantly, Ben swallowed another single candy, and then followed Tasha towards the movie room.
This time, he didn’t experience a headache. But his eyes were getting a bit fuzzy after only a few minutes of watching the film. His perception seemed to grow increasingly worse as the movie wore on.
Ben was seated next to his dorm mates, who had apparently also landed themselves in hot water and had been forced to watch Star Wars too. After the film was over, as they walked back to the dorm, he asked there names, and discovered that they were brothers, Harry and Tony.
“Did you say you were having trouble seeing the movies?” Harry, the older and taller of the brothers, asked.
“Yeah? So what of it?”
“Oh, that’s not good Ben. You should go see about getting glasses tomorrow.”
“What do you mean, glasses? I’ve had perfect vision my whole life!”
“That may be the case, but I’ve heard about a lot of cases of myopia coming on suddenly.”
“Myopia – what’s that?” Tony, the younger brother asked.
“It means poor vision,” Ben responded quickly. “But how did I know that?” He asked himself with confusion.
“They’re changing us…” Harry said at last. “Somehow, they’re making us less like ourselves.”
“How is that even possible?” Ben asked.
“Does it matter? All you need to worry about, Ben, is how to find a way to stop it before it’s too late.”
Chapter Three:
When Ben awoke, he found that Harry and Tony had already gone and that he was in the room alone.
“Rise and shine, sleepy head,” Tasha’s voice drifted into the open door. “Come on, everyone else is at lunch. I let you sleep past the normal time because I felt sorry for you having to stay up so late last night. But you slept even longer than the other two. It’s time.”
Ben hoisted himself up, his body feeling tired and heavy. As he pulled open his trunk, he was surprised to find that all of his clothes had been replaced. White buttoned shirts, bow ties, corduroy slacks, and other ridiculous clothing existed in the place of his skull T shirts and leather jacket.
“Tasha, give me back my stuff!” Ben cried out.
“Tasha is better than honey, but like I said, my name is Ms. Williams,” she cooed.
“Fine…give me back my stuff…Ms. Williams.”
“How about this, Ben, how about you try wearing these clothes now, and if you don’t think they are a perfect fit for you by tonight, I’ll give you back your old clothes,” Ms. Williams offered.
“Fine…” Ben reluctantly conceded. “But none of these clothes even fit me. I’m too tall for this.”
“Well, you haven’t tried them on. You know, you were having eye trouble earlier, maybe you are just eyeballing those pants wrong.”
Ben thought that explanation might have some merit – but then again, he hadn’t told her about his eyes, so how had she known?
“Have some candy with me, Ben, then we will see if you fit into those clothes.” She rummaged through her purse and pulled out a Snicker’s bar and a case of Nerds. To Ben’s disappointment, the Snickers was apparently for her.
Ben swallowed the candy and felt his body feeling warm in tingly, though not in a bad way. His body began to change – though it was impossible for him to notice. His muscular frame shrunk down a bit, and he lost about two inches of height. His eyesight grew even fuzzier, and he didn’t object when Ms. Williams reached into her purse and pulled out some thick glasses for him to wear. They fixed his eyesight perfectly.
Ms. Williams slowly unwrapped the Snickers bar and licked the tip of it seductively, while looking right at Ben. Yesterday, her mimicry of sexuality would have elicited jokes or his own passes, but now, Ben felt frozen. Her teasing only served to make him uncomfortable, and when he looked away, she smiled.
“I’m glad you aren’t going to be making any more upsetting remarks about me, Ben,” Ms. Williams said. “Ironically, you’re much, much cuter this way, all shy and blushing. You could never dream of making a pass at a confident, beautiful, older woman, could you, Ben?”
Ben’s heard was now pounding in his chest. He had never felt more nervous – largely because she was completely right. He could scarcely manage a nod as he stared deeply into those large, inviting brown eyes of hers.
“That’s ok, Ben, because I remember you had a romantic moment last night, didn’t you? With Bernice?”
Ben remembered the nerdy girl – but his earlier feelings of disgust seemed to have faded from his mind.
“That’s the kind of girl who you want now, huh, Ben? Someone who will let you be yourself.”
Again, Ben could feel himself nodding.
“You were really rude to her last night – and to be honest, you’re still not quite her type. But I’ll help you, Ben. I’ll help you win her heart. That’s what you need, right? Someone to hold your hand for this? Because I know how hard it is to talk to girls – even girls like Bernice.”
Ben started to think to himself that it had always been easy for him to talk to girls, that he had even lost his virginity at a young age to the head cheerleader – but all of those memories seemed fuzzy, as if it was part of a dream.
What was unquestionably real was that he was unable to talk to a girl right in front of him, right now.
“I’ll help you, Ben. You aren’t quite her type, not just yet. But I’ll help you win her over. I’ll give you more candy. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
This time, Ben nodded vigorously.
“I’ll give it to you, but first…kiss me.”
Ben thought he must have heard her wrong? Kiss her? He hadn’t ever even held hands with a girl – had he? Two pasts spun in his mind, and he didn’t know what to believe.
“Kiss me, Ben, and think of her.” She leaned in and pressed her mouth up against his, and kissed him hungrily.
Ben nervously reciprocated the kiss, and despite how beautiful Ms. Williams was, he found himself starting to think about Bernice, just as he she had told him to. Her nerdy looks no longer mattered, as he now thought about her as the kind of girl he was always meant for. In fact, he couldn’t even imagine not being attracted to a girl like her.
Eventually, she pulled away the kiss and stared at Ben.
“You did it, Ben. I can see it in your eyes. You’re thinking of her. Good boy,” she said, as she played with his hair in a loving and maternal way. “You’ve earned your candy.”
Ben eagerly swallowed it down, still not understanding what it did but wanting very much to be the kind of man worthy of a girl like Bernice.
His body seemed to spasm on its own accord, and a warm, calm feeling fell over Ben. He could feel his strength leaving his limbs. He could feel himself tingling again, and his features became slightly more pinched, and his body became smaller and thinner again. Just as Ms. Williams predicted, when he tried on his clothes, they fit perfectly.
Chapter Four:
It was soon time for everyone to play video games in the main room together. Ben, now wearing his new glasses, noticed Tony and Harry looked a little different. Both of them seemed shorter, more wimpy looking, and both also wore thick glasses. Tony now had a goofy expression pasted on his newly boyish, chubby cheeks, while Harry nervously chewed on his fingers and was wearing a pen protector in his shirt pocket. They didn’t even answer him when he called out their names; Ben soon found out that they now preferred to go by Harold and Anthony.
Bernice was there too, in a polka-dot dress that showcased her unfeminine, scrawny body. She held the controller tight in her grip and concentrated on the games feverishly, her eyes glazed and her jaw slack. She breathed heavily and noisily and when she won a game, she laughed and snorted, her pigtail hairdo flying around wildly.
Ben quickly shot a couple of glances at her, then looked away, blushing. A couple of times, Ben put down the controller and walked towards her, but he always turned away at the last minute, consumed with nervousness. He didn’t get the courage he needed to speak with her.
Later that night, at the cafeteria, he thought he might get his chance. Everyone was eating dessert, and Bernice was just one table away. Ben stared at her intently, noticing how awkwardly she held her cupcake. She accidentally smeared some icing and sprinkles on her cheek as she noisily wolfed it down, then wiped it on her sleeve.
Ben got up to say something to her, but just as he was about to approach her table, he tripped on an untied shoelace and fell face first. He landed on a drink cup and spilled soda all over his shirt.
His accident was greeted with a chorus of nerdy sounding giggles, and he quickly excused himself – though that was not to be his only humiliation that night.
Later, Ben found himself in a group with Bernice playing Lord of the Rings trivial pursuit. But try as he might, he couldn't get the correct question more than about 2/3 of the time, which was dismal by the standards of the others.
Luckily enough, however, Ben got some solid dice rolls, and found himself one question away from winning the game.
“The Motion Picture The Return of the King won 11 Oscars: name them all,” asked Bernice with a slight lisp.
“Oh my gosh,” Ben sputtered, “I know this…Picture, Director, Music, Editing, Visual Effects, Art Direction, Costumes, Makeup, Song, Screenplay…Oh boy, I can’t…I dunno.”
As his sand ran out, all three of the other players shouted out “Sound mixing!” Ben felt his heart sink when Bernice looked at him and snorted out “Come on, everyone knows that.”
Ben hung his head low in shame.
Chapter Six:
“You’ve got to help me. Please, Ms. Williams, I’ll do anything,” Ben told his counselor as soon as he had a moment to pull her aside the next day.
“I think you’ve learned your lesson about picking on nerds, haven’t you, Ben?” Ms. Williams said as she led Ben to her private office.
“Yes, yes, I have,” Ben whined as Ms. Williams shut the door. “Please help me. I lost a game of Lord of the Rings trivial pursuit last night. Do you know how humiliating that is?”
Ms. Williams looked at him and smiled. “I suppose you’re not too far gone just yet. One or two more would make the changes irreversible. But I could still probably restore you to what you were. That would solve your little dilemma, wouldn’t it?”
“What do you mean?” Ben asked, not understanding.
“You could go back to being a football-playing, nerd-bullying jerk. If that’s what you want.”
Ben couldn’t even imagine that he had once been someone like that.
“Or, I could give you the rest of the box of Nerds, and I’m sure you and Bernice would make the perfect couple.”
“Yes, please…”
“You want me to make you even more of a nerd, don’t you? Even scrawnier, even more awkward, even more geeky looking…you need to be complete…to shed every last shred of the former strength and power and confidence you once had, huh?”
“Yes,” gasped Ben, “You’re right about everything. You’ve always been right about everything.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear, Ben,” she said, and pulled out the box from her purse.
“Here you go,” she said as she handed him a candy. Ben quickly gulped it down and felt his ears growing bigger and starting to stick out more. He took another and felt his nasal passages tighten, his voice no doubt becoming more nasal. He took another and felt his teeth shifting position in his mouth, becoming more “buck teeth.”
“I wonder how many more are in here?” Ms. Williams asked playfully. She handed him another and he felt himself shrinking again – so much so, this time, that he was practically at boob to eye level with Ms. Williams. She leaned down and said seductively, “Another?”
He nodded, and as he continued to go through the box, the changes piled up. His hips changed alignment, giving him a crooked, knock kneed gait. His skin became filled with freckles. His muscles retracted into his flesh, leaving him with spindly, wimpy looking arms and legs. Ben’s hair became courser and greasier, making it likely impossible to comb and always sticking out in every direction. His mind swam with knowledge of chess and stamp collecting as years of football expertise faded away.
Miss Williams stared down at him. He was tiny, nerdy, hunched over figure. His teeth where out of place and misshapen, his glasses made his eyes buggy, and his hair was a mess. His face was greasy and his skin was pale, as if he never spent much time in the sun.
“That’s the end of the box, Ben,” she said at last, and he immediately started laughing. It was a loud, full-bellied ‘hyuk’ of a laugh, and ended with him rolling on the floor and slapping his knees.
“You must tell me what’s so funny, Ben.”
He continued to laugh so hard he cried and snorted. “Stop it, you’re killing me,” he said in his ultra-nasal, squeaky voice. “Nobody ever calls me Ben. It’s Bernard.”
Epilogue:
“It’s so hard to see you go,” Ms. Williams said as she signed Bernard’s release form. “I’ll certainly miss you. I think you’ve changed quite a bit, wouldn’t you say?”
“Nope, I’m a pretty (snort) consistent fellah,” Bernard said squeakily, his memories of his former self long gone.
“I’m glad things between you and Bernice have worked out so well,” she said. Bernard remembered how he had tried to ask her out and had been reduced to stuttering. Fortunately, she knew what he meant and had grabbed his hand with her sweaty one, squeaking out “Yes.”
“Hopefully the other kids at high school will be nice to me. I’d hate to think about one of the football players shoving me in a locker or something. Nothing good (snort) could come of that,” he said with a hint of fear in his voice.
“Oh, you never know,” Ms. Williams said wistfully, “you never really know…”
THE END
Enjoy nerd/weight gain stories? Then check out my ebook, From Nikki to Nerdy: The Ring of Change Saga. Zeke and Nikki are studying for a social sciences exit exam for their grad school program. Nikki is a vapid, skinny airhead, more interested in fashion than in her college education. Zeke, the geeky head of her study group, finds her annoying and not at all attractive. He says he wishes he could find a girl "even nerdier" than he is, after unwittingly providing her with the magical "Ring of Change." Little does he know, but is Zeke is about to get his wish. Can he really handle a woman who can out-nerd him?