He watched the fly ball float up into the air and knew right away. It was going far, but not far enough. The ball fell unceremoniously into the glove of his rivals from the state college team. It was his chance for glory snuffed out at the last minute.

Dejected, Casey Rivera couldn’t even look at the guys from either team. His gaze fixed firmly on the ground, Casey trudged toward the locker room. No, it wasn’t the end of the season, but it almost felt like it.

“You’ll get them next time, champ,” the head coach said as he walked past the dugout. “You’ll be at full strength come the postseason.”

Casey had tweaked his shoulder earlier in the season and it was still nagging at him. He had to sit out a couple of games, but was getting back to the point he thought he could add something.

“You gave it a ride longer than most healthy guys on the team could,” Craig Bachman, his best teammate on the squad, said.

“But it wasn’t good enough,” Casey argued.

Craig looked around as the guys started to file in. They weren’t pleased.

“Look on the bright side,” he said.

“There’s a bright side?” Casey asked.

“Of course, there is,” Craig continued. “You’re getting a rub down from the doctor later on, right?”

Casey smirked. The after-game massage was not something to be celebrated.

“Are you serious?” he asked. “You think that’s going to get me excited?”

“It will when you see who the new doctor is. Doc Reynolds is gone for a while. His replacement is way younger, and way more female. She’s something to see.”

“Yeah,” Casey rolled his eyes. “You and I sometimes have a different definition of what’s hot.”

“Trust me. You’ll like her.”

A half an hour later, Casey was a believer. The team’s fill-in doctor could not have been more than a month out of med school, by the look of her. Casey smirked as he walked into the examination area. Veronica Pace had been out of medical school longer than a month, but her curves were undeniable and the form fitting skirt and blouse she had on only accentuated that.

With straight blonde hair to the base of her neck, and blue eyes, she looked like she could have been cast as the villain in a World War II movie. However, her voice was warm and seductive.

“How’s the arm feeling?” she asked as he stripped his shirt off.

“It’s not as bad as the ego,” he said.

“Well, only one of those things we can fix in here,” she said as she began a deep tissue rub up around the rotary cuff.

Casey smirked again, “I think we can work on both.”

She hesitated a moment and looked into his eyes. He glanced back at her with a smug, confident expression. College athletes, especially those in the popular, elite sports, were mostly the same. She had dealt with their kind before.

She gave a quick jarring motion, which caused Casey to wince in pain and suck air through his teeth.

“Sorry,” she offered as she turned and made a note on his chart.

“I know a way you can make it up to me,” he said.

She sighed and shook her head. Even after being put in their place, college males still didn’t know where they were. Some lessons needed to run much deeper.

“Seriously, babe, ain’t nothing wrong with a little bit of fun,” Casey said.

“I tend to spend my time with winners,” she said turning back around, wanting to see if her insult registered in his eyes at all.

He smiled, “I’m a winner.”

“The scoreboard today indicated otherwise.”

“No, ma’am. I almost hit a homerun.”

“Hitting a homerun would have been – satisfying. Popping out short is somewhat less than satisfying. I’m all about satisfaction.”

Casey stared at Doctor Pace. There was nothing else he could do. She almost felt a little sorry for him. But she knew there was more she could do.

“Casey, I’m sorry about that, but I have a question to ask you. Is the treatment and rehab on your shoulder really progressing at a pace you would like?”

“Not really,” he admitted.

“What if there were something we could do about that?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been in the process of developing something that is absolutely revolutionary.”

Casey perked up. He had never taken anything other than medicine prescribed. But if there was something he could do to rebuild his body quicker, than it was something he needed to consider. It was not only the postseason at stake, but the rest of his baseball career.

“You’ve been working with Doc Reynolds on something?” he asked.

“No,” Dr. Pace admitted. “This is my own special project.”

“And you really think it can rebuild my body?”

Dr. Pace nodded, “In ways that you cannot possibly imagine.”

“Is it OK?”

“What do you mean by ‘OK’?”

“Is it legal?”

“This formula is far beyond anything conventional science is aware of at this point. They can’t test for something they don’t know exists.”

Casey smiled. This was his lucky break. He didn’t know if it would work, but it was worth a shot.

“What do I have to do?” he asked.

“It’s a two-step process, really,” Dr. Pace said. “The first is the injectable, which I can give you before you leave. The other step is a serum you take at home. The serum must be taken at least four hours from the injection, but within six hours. The injection is the active ingredient, but the serum is what activates the process.”

“Just one time?”

“One time.”

For a moment, Casey seemed hesitant. His gaze fell to the floor.

“I don’t know about this.”

She grabbed a syringe and vial and walked toward Casey. She smiled reassuringly and nudged up close to his ear. What she whispered removed any doubt he had.

“If you did, I would be very, very … grateful.”

He smiled, the confidence returning to his face. He nodded his head and Dr. Pace prepared the shot. Casey stared blankly ahead as the injection was given.

Dr. Pace handed him the oral solution and then turned to him and gave him a simple reminder.

“Remember, that must be taken no sooner than four hours, no later than six. Otherwise, the results are very much unpredictable.”

“You got it. Just remember what you said – about being grateful.”

Later that night, Casey did as directed, but not before he noticed some strange things happening. Apparently, the doctor was incorrect about some things, changes would be seen rapidly. One side effect seemed to be rapid hair growth.

Casey jolted out of his sleep like he had just been hit by a semi truck. His stomach was in knots and he was sweating profusely. He started taking deep breaths trying to calm himself. And he thought back to the medicine he had taken the day before. Was something wrong? He was hot and his skin was clammy. He thought he might have a fever.

He cursed Dr. Pace. She didn’t tell him about any of these side effects. Then, he remembered his head. He reached up and touched his hair. It was definitely growing. He would need a haircut in the morning for sure.

When his alarm clock rang a couple of hours later, Casey reached over and slammed down the snooze button. Unlike many college students, Casey lived for the morning, but this time was different. He yawned and had to convince his body it was time to start the day.

His eyes barely open and focused, he made his way out to the living room of the dorm he shared with Craig, from the baseball team. Craig was already up, getting a bowl of cereal from the kitchen. When Craig looked up, his eyes widened and his mouth fell open.

“Well, hi there!” Craig called, quickly composing himself and smiling. “You must have come home with Casey last night.”

“Huh?” Casey responded, confused. He was still tired, maybe he heard something wrong.

“So how are you?”

“Fine, I guess. I was a little sick last night, but it’s better now, I think.”

“Bummer. Would you like something for breakfast?”

Craig was being very accommodating, too accommodating. And why did he keep staring? Casey was beginning to feel a little weird. His dorm mate was definitely not acting normal.

“I can get it myself,” Casey said, taking his eyes off Craig.

“Sure, if you want cereal, bowls are in the cupboard just to the right of the sink.”

“What the hell are you talking about? I know where the bowls are!”

Craig held up his hands, not wanting to cause offense and flashed an uneasy smile. “Oh, all right.”

Casey made his way into the kitchen and Craig moved to one side. The dorm apartment was not very big, but certainly better than the single room dorms that many students had to endure. The kitchen was small. As Casey moved past, Craig touched him on the shoulder. Casey froze. What was going on with his friend?

“Some people look really awful in the morning, but you’re not one of them.”

Casey turned and looked at Craig.

“What the hell are you talking about? Are you turning gay?”

Craig laughed, “Far from it. You know, you have very cute boobs.”

The words stunned Casey, but it did cause him to look down. Just below his chin, two perky breasts jutted out from what had been a very flat chest the previous night. The hair he had on his chest had also seemed to have fallen out.

Almost not believing it, Casey reached up and felt the underside of the breasts. He pushed against them. They receded toward his chest but bounced right back out again. Casey briefly ran his hands across the nipples.

The sensation sent shockwaves through his body. Despite his present condition, it was pleasurable. Casey had never been one for playing with his own nipples, but this was different. He continued to rub and even closed his eyes for a second, enjoying the moment.

“I’ll do that for you, baby!” Craig offered.

“Shit!” Casey said, almost in a hushed whisper. In his shock and confusion, he had forgotten about Craig being there.

“What?”

Casey immediately turned and rushed to his bedroom. He shut the door and looked in the mirror that stood on his dresser. What he saw shocked him. It was not just the breasts. He knew they were there, but his hair was another thing. It was significantly longer than it had ever been in his life – dark hair extending past his shoulders.

He touched his face. There was no stubble. He hadn’t shaved in more than a day.

Casey’s mind was spinning. He had heard about the dangers of steroid use, the possibility of growing breasts and – crap – shrinking testicles. But what about the hair? Hair growth was another side effect, but why was it growing some places and falling out others? And it wasn’t just the hair. His whole body looked different. His hips were wider and waist was narrower. He couldn’t blame Craig for thinking he was a girl. He looked like a girl. He didn’t even recognize himself in the mirror.

Despite the warnings, Casey had never heard of changes happening quite so rapidly. But the testicle thing was really starting to worry him. Shrinking testicles? And he needed to pee. Why didn’t he have a boner this morning? He quickly pulled back the elastic band from his boxers and looked in the down through the valley in his breasts. There was nothing.

“Fuck!” he yelled.

He put on a pair of jeans as well as a shirt, then put a jacket on over the shirt. He figured the more layers he put on, the less apparent his changes became.

After getting dressed, he looked at himself in the mirror one more time. He didn’t have a brush or even a comb.

“My hair’s a mess,” he said out loud, but to himself.