Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Author: Zorlond
Title: Grand Ted
Part: Chapter 3
Summary: A 13-year-old boy named Ted has just moved to a new house, and
discovers a magical surprise in the basement.  Let the temptations begin.
Keywords: no sex



   Chapter 3 - Proof and Pudding

   ----

   Ted looked around the basement, shining the light this way and that.  He
was definitely alone down here.  No strange, beautiful, green-skinned
women. He looked down at the lantern in his hand.  Did he really speak to
her?  Or, as he had suspected, was he just having some sort of delusion? 
He thought about rubbing the lantern again, but, even as he brought his
hands up to give the lens a rub, decided it was best not to tempt fate. 
Besides, it might be rude to bring her out right after she went back in. 
Then he wondered if being polite to a delusion was a sign of sanity or
insanity...

   Ted shook his head, clearing it.  "Circuit breaker," he mumbled to
himself.  "Just do what you came down here to do." Once again, the light of
the lantern made it's rounds of the basement, this time looking for
something electrical.  Idly taking stock, he noticed the furnace and water
heater again, along with a very large tank.  Oil storage?  Ted idly hoped
it wasn't a septic tank.  He noticed some light sockets with bare bulbs as
well, but with no electricity they wouldn't be much use.  Eventually,
walking around and checking behind stuff, he found an electrical box
mounted on a wall behind another structural support.

   Popping the box open, Ted coughed at the plume of dust that fell out,
clearing the air with a wave of his hand.  There, at the bottom, was a big
switch labeled 'Master Breaker'.  Heaving the switch over to the other
position rewarded him with a loud click, but nothing else.  Looking over
the box up and down, he guessed all the smaller switches needed to be
flipped as well, so, he started forcing the switches over, one by one.  As
he went down, he heard a joyful cry of surprise from upstairs, likely his
mom, and figured he was making progress.  Eventually he got down to the
last one, and as he flipped that toggle, the light bulbs behind him lit up.
Nodding self-contentedly, Ted closed the electrical box with some effort,
the latch resisting him for a few seconds, before turning the lantern in
his hands off and heading back upstairs.

   Closing the basement door, Ted looked around the dining room once more.
It looked better with the lights on, though the sheets on the furniture
would need removing for a real judgment.  Heading through another door, Ted
found the kitchen.  "Hey, there's the man of the hour," Carol said as she
looked over her shoulder at him, in the middle of unpacking a box of
dinnerware.  "Thanks for getting the lights on."

   Ted shrugged.  "No big deal, mom, just had to find the box.  It was
hiding on me." Ted paused as he looked at his mom again.  She turned back
to her unpacking efforts, and Ted found his mind flickering back to
Chantelle, her hair extending down her back to a point over her backside.
Ted just looked at Carol, and noticed the differences, most notably the
wider, motherly hips with much less of a butt behind them.  Ted pushed the
thoughts aside.  Last thing he needed was to compare his mother to some hot
girl he just met in a dingy basement that was likely all a figment of his
imagination.

   "So we live in a modern age after all, will wonders never cease?" The
sarcasm cut heavily through Ted's thoughts as Amber pushed her way into the
kitchen, arms laden with grocery bags.  Plopping them down in the center
island next to the sink, she paused to wipe some sweat from her brow. 
Turning to look at Ted, Amber glanced downwards briefly.  "Ransacking the
place for junk already, Ted?"

   Ted looked at her, then down at his hand, still holding the lantern. 
"No, just found it in the basement.  It was really dark down there."

   "So unusual for a basement," Amber observed.  With her apparent
allotment of sarcasm done, she pushed back through the door, presumably to
continue unloading the car.

   Carol, fully turning around to go over Amber's delivery of groceries,
took notice of Ted's hand.  "Don't put that flashlight down in here, Ted.
It's all dirty.  I just got the counters clean.  Why don't you help your
sisters with the car?" Popping the buzzing fridge open, Carol started
loading it up with perishables.

   "Right," Ted muttered as he casually stepped out of the kitchen and back
into the living room.  There, he considered the lantern in his hand. 
Should he really do anything about it?  He still wasn't sure about the
whole 'genie' thing.  Sure, it'd be awesome if it were true, probably, but
he had to admit to himself that it might have all been a trick of his mind.
Heck, even the grabbing smoke might have just been part of a hallucination.
If sight and sound could be fooled, why not touch as well?  Turning the
whole idea over in his mind, Ted decided to just not decide right now. 
With that, he stuck the old lantern on top of the sheet-covered sofa and
headed out to the car to help unpack.

   The day proceeded with unpacking and cleaning.  Ted found himself used
for most of the heavy lifting, of course, while his sisters and mother got
to do actual unpacking and cleaning.  Ted kept an eye on where the lantern
was at all times, but he needn't have worried much.  Tiffany didn't want to
even touch it, calling it 'gross'.  Amber just didn't care, and Carol
didn't think about it as long as it wasn't sitting on something that had
been cleaned already.  Then came the ritual of room-claiming, and Ted found
himself with the last pick, although he didn't really mind.

   Stepping out of his room, he looked up and down the hallway that was the
upstairs floor.  The hall formed a right-angle, with the door to his room
at the corner.  At one end, the hall curled back on itself to transition
into the open stairs, with a railing to keep people safe from tumbling into
the open hole.  At the top of the stairs was the doorway to his mom's room,
and between there and his own room was the door to Tiffany's room, which
she had already started decorating with rainbows and kitties.  Looking down
towards the other end of the hall, Ted saw the door to the only bathroom,
which had sparked a brief argument with Amber over the lack of space. 
Carol had settled it with a declaration that if there were any problems,
they'd sort out a schedule.  At the far end of the hall was Amber's room,
which she had already threatened to paint black, but had to settle on
putting a heavy metal poster on it.  Ted pulled in his suitcase and
continued unpacking.

   By the end of the day, the house looked like it was an actual home, and
much less like an abandoned shack out in the woods.  All the dust sheets
were packed away in the basement, everything was cleaned, the cobwebs had
been brushed out of the rafters, and the ugly stuffed dear head had been
unceremoniously thrown in the garbage pile.  Carol had started a discussion
on what to hang from the empty hook, but nobody had come to any agreement
on it, so it was left for later.  Over a simple dinner, the main topic was
about bus schedules for school and basic chore assignments, and when Ted
settled in for the night, he admitted to himself that this house might
actually work for a home.  Eventually.

   The next day was a flurry of confusion and grumbling, as the kids were
forced from their beds to get ready for school.  Ted, after some thought,
decided to stick the old lantern in the bottom of his backpack, below the
empty notebooks his mother had given him.  There was some testing he could
do that he wasn't all that eager to try in front of his family.  The bus
stop was just him alone, the ride up uneventful.  As he stepped off of the
bus, looking at his new middle school and the crowd of kids milling about,
Ted thought about it and decided now was a good time to try a test. 
Slipping a hand into his backpack, trying to look nonchalant, he reached
down and briefly rubbed at the lantern's lens.  Once that was done, he
grabbed a pen that was down there as well and tried to act like that was
what he'd been going for in the first place.

   "Hi, Ted!" The cheerful greeting caused him to jump a bit, as he just
suddenly realized that, standing right there next to him, was Chantelle. 
His eyes met hers, then flickered downwards.  Ted jerked his eyes away,
trying to look casual, but completely failing to fool Chantelle.  She'd
changed her clothes and hairstyle.  Her hair was pulled up and back in a
style that Ted remembered as being referred to as 'twin tails', the ends
curled a bit as they bobbed with every head motion.  Her top was now a
clean and prim white blouse.  Or it would have been prim, if she had been
wearing it normally.  Instead, it had been unbuttoned completely and then
the two halves had been tied together underneath her mammoth breasts.  The
result was a display of cleavage that did nothing to hide the edges of the
frilly pink bra underneath peeking out.  Below her bare belly was a thick
leather belt that met at a right angle pointed downward, securing a plaid
skirt hung low on her hips that only just reached mid-thigh, and ended a
couple inches above the dark stockings she had on.  Her shoes were sensible
no-heel shoes, and probably the safest part of her wardrobe to look at. 
"Something I can do for you?" She asked, dialing up the sweet innocence in
her voice.

   "Uh, erhm..." Ted cleared his throat, which elicited an impish smile
from Chantelle.  "Sort of...  I just..." He thought for a moment, trying to
avoid the word 'wish'.  "I just wanted to see...  how real this is."

   "You don't trust me?" The sadness in her voice, clearly exaggerated,
still caused Ted to look up into her face, where she made a show of pouting
briefly.  "Well, how's this for convincing?" With that, Chantelle raised
her hands over her head and started dancing wildly, her hips swaying from
side to side as she slowly spun and gyrated.  Ted was entranced for a
while, just watching her hips and breasts shake and jiggle.  But it wasn't
until she lifted up several feet into the air, started hooting musically
along with whatever music she was hearing in her head, and glowing random
colors like some daylight rave party that Ted snapped out of it.

   "Stop dancing!" he called out, then slapped his hand over his mouth. 
That had been far louder than he'd intended.  His eyes shifted about,
paranoid of every glance his way or any whispered question about the crazy
kid yelling at the sky.

   "See?  Told ya," Chantelle smugly said.  Ted instinctively glanced up at
her, then away, trying to act like he hadn't just looked up her skirt. 
"Nobody is noticing the glowing green girl dancing and floating over their
heads.  And they didn't notice you telling me to stop." With that, she
stopped glowing and casually walked downwards as if using an unseen set of
circular stairs back to ground level.  Looking around some more, Ted had to
admit that nobody seemed to care about the big display going on in front of
them.

   "Okay, okay," Ted sighed.  "Even if you were a figment of my
imagination, people just wouldn't ignore the crazy new kid who's talking to
himself.  Thank you for not wrecking my reputation on my first day." With
that, Ted rooted around in his backpack for his schedule and map, looking
around.  After a few moments, he started walking along, entering the main
building and navigating along the halls.

   "So, that's all?" Chantelle asked, falling into step beside him.  "Just
called me out to check up on me?"

   "Pretty much, yeah," Ted mumbled.  "I don't actually have any..." Ted
stopped himself as he felt his lips form a 'w' sound.  "...anything for you
right now."

   "Nice catch," Chantelle said pleasantly.  Ted glanced at her and
realized she had caught the near-miss of 'wish'.  "But, if I may?  I think
you're going in the wrong direction."

   Ted looked at her.  "Huh?"

   She reached out to the map and schedule in his hand.  Gently pulling it
up so they both could see it, she pointed with her free hand.  "That's your
homeroom?  See, we're here, going that-a-way, and it's over here."

   Ted looked at the map, then up at the hallway around them, then back at
the map.  "Oh.  Thanks." He re-seated his backpack on his shoulder again
and turned to the correct direction.  Then a thought struck him.  "Uhm,
that didn't cost me anything..?"

   Chantelle, once again falling in step, shook her head.  "Nope. 
Non-magical help doesn't count as wishing.  But don't expect a lot, that
sort of thing is kinda complicated."

   "Fair enough," Ted said.  "I also notice you're not bumping into
anyone."

   "Of course not, if they bumped into me, they would notice me."
Chantelle, stepping ahead of him a little, turned to Ted and leaned over,
smiling again.  Ted had to admit that it'd take a robot to not notice
bumping into her.  And the other students seemed to step around her without
realizing they were avoiding what should have been empty space. 
Straightening up and resuming her position beside him, Chantelle asked,
"So, are you done poking and prodding?  Well, the boring kind, anyways..."

   Ted's mind flashed with some other kinds of 'poking and prodding' he
could try, wildly guessing that Chantelle would consider it far less
boring...  But then he was reminded of the 'no sex' rule.  He tried to push
the thoughts out of his mind.  "Yeah, I'm sorry about bothering you like
that.  Guess you really weren't kidding."

   "I rarely do," she said.  "See you later." And with that, Chantelle was
gone again, fading from sight.  Ted looked around briefly, then stopped,
reminding himself to try to avoid looking a little crazy.

   The day was more or less what Ted expected.  Teachers giving him books
and piles of schoolwork to catch up to the other kids in the middle of the
semester.  Eventually classes gave way to lunch, and once Ted had his
loaded lunch tray, he stepped away from the lunch counter and towards all
the tables.  Of course, most of the kids had already settled on a regular
seating pattern, and Ted had to spend a few moments going around asking
various people if this or that seat was taken.  He was rebuffed a few times
until he finally heard "Nah, go ahead."

   "Thanks." Ted sat down.  Deciding the friendly thing would be to
introduce himself, he gave a tiny wave to the others at the table.  "I'm
Ted."

   "Kevin," was the first to reply.  He was a mousy kid with scruffy brown
hair and a relaxed attitude.  "That's Mitch." Kevin pointed at the other
boy, a dirty blonde with heavy glasses.  "Welcome to the unpopular table."

   Ted paused.  "Excuse me?"

   Kevin smiled, self-mockingly.  "You already tried the popular tables, I
saw you.  Turned you down, right?  Don't worry, we take anyone here, and we
won't give ya grief about it."

   "Even unpopular kids need somewhere to belong," Mitch said, his voice a
low monotone.  Ted looked at him, but Mitch had already turned back to his
food.  "You're new here, so you're not popular.  It's just how it is."

   Ted considered that.  "I guess so," he offered.  Not that he really
minded, he could probably turn things around given time.  Although...  His
thoughts drifted to the lantern, in his backpack, currently in his locker.

   His thoughts were interrupted by Kevin.  "Hey, Ted.  Let's play a game."
Kevin pointed over towards the lunch counter, where kids were still filing
past.  "I call it 'Hot and Not'.  The ones going past the cash lady.  What
do you think?  Hot or not?"

   Ted just looked at Kevin for a moment.  "Really?"

   "Yeah, why not?" Kevin answered.  "I play this with Mitch all the time,
but all he does is agree with me, it's so boring."

   "That's because I do," Mitch inserted.

   "Whatever," Kevin told him.  "You in?" He looked at Ted.

   Ted thought about it then shrugged.  "Alright." Looking back at the end
of the lunch line, he considered the first girl to reach it.  "Mmm, pretty
hot."

   "Yeah, that's an easy one," Kevin said.  "What about her?  I'd say hot."

   "Meh, not really," Ted said, trying some of his desert pudding.  He
nodded to the next one in line.  "But her, yes."

   "Really?  Huh." The three of them proceeded to make snap calls on the
various girls coming down the lunch line idly.  As predicted, Mitch ended
up agreeing with Kevin when pressed for an answer, although he noticeably
hesitated any time Kevin and Ted didn't agree.  Ted could see how that
would get annoying over time.

   Eventually, a girl got to the end of the line that made all three of
them pause.  Raven hair, lightly browned skin, and a confident attitude
over her face.  Her nose was already strong, and her lips starting to puff
out.  She was probably a year older than Ted, and her figure was already
developing, breasts clearly grown under her shirt and hips nicely shown off
in her jeans.  Ted just mumbled, "Whoa.  Hot." She had to be the most
curvaceous girl he'd seen in school so far.  She was no Chantelle, by a
mile, but being so much closer to Ted's age made her seem all the more
desirable.

   "Yeah, dude, that's Cass Whitmoore." Kevin said.  His words brought
Ted's attention back.  "I agree, she's hot, but way outta our league."

   "Very," mumbled Mitch.  "Popular girl like her wouldn't give us the time
of day."

   "I guess," Ted mumbled, trying not to stare as he noticed Cass heading
over to a table to sit down.  One of the seats he'd been declined, in fact.
And, even as the game of 'Hot and Not' resumed, he couldn't help but think
about the lantern waiting for him in his locker...

   *****

   This is a work of fiction, if that wasn't clear enough.  Nothing I write
about has ever or will ever occour in reality.  Any resemblence characters
may have to real people is entirely coincidental and unintentional.  And I
can not and will not condone real sexual activity involving minors.

   I do however, condone positive feedback, and encourage it.  :)

   If you feel like sending me some feedback, you can reach me at zorlond
AT yahoo DOT com.