Henry! Welcome to the game...

Bet! Your! Life!!

The audience cheered as Luke and I took the stage as contestants. The energy was high, and the atmosphere was intoxicating. Luke had bet me he could beat me, and the game, and volunteered to go on the wild gender-swapping game show if I would take the bet. Should he lose, he would be obligated to keep my house clean, help with the cost of my Master's degree, and attend to my every need for the next two years. However, should I lose, I would be responsible for the same. Luke was headstrong and confident, and happy to gamble a bit with his friend for the chance at a free education and personal assistant.

In the last round I was offered ten more questions, each progressively harder than the next. Mastering math, geography, and economics, I hit a pop culture reference that stopped me dead in my tracks.

"Mattel makes the popular children's doll Barbie. Henry, if Barbie were a grown woman, what would her bust-waist-hip measurements be?"

After a quick buzz from the announcer and the groan of the audience, he announced, "36-18-33!! Thank you for playing Henry, please line up with the rest of the contestants for the Booth of Change!"

Backstage, a small Japanese man rushed up to quickly remind us of what we signed up for, blending a lot of contract terms too quickly to decipher.

The announcer called from the stage, "What do you say, folks? Should we bring back our contestants?"

One by one the contestants were marched on stage while the audience was standing and applauding. The first few contestants went, changing into a soccer mom, a coed, and a tall black woman. Luke was marched up next while I stood in line behind him.

"Now Luke! You played well today but you just missed that last obstacle by a hair. We read your bio at the beginning of the story, it says you made a bet with your friend right behind us, yes? Something about helping with chores, studying, and being a personal assistant for two years, does that sound familiar?"

The announcer held no malice in his tone, but was utterly entertained.

"Don't worry champ - we can help. Go ahead and step up into the booth and lets get started!" The handler moved Luke up to the booth and fastened his wrists and ankles onto a vertical wall. Luke was still, accepting fate at this point. The frosted glass door closed and inside was a bright light, smoke, and a loud humming sound. It would have been hard to see from the audience, but you could see him start to change. Large breasts began to sprout, and the silhouette of longer hair began instantly growing. The booth turned around for a moment while the door opened and the handlers dressed Luke for the reveal.

The booth door closed and turned one more time. "Well Henry, I think you are going to enjoy the next few years with your friend, or at least, someone will. Since Luke wanted to help in so many things, we thought it would be appropriate to turn him into an attractive young woman who will come with a variety of outfits. You'll have your classic maid uniforms for housekeeping, nurse uniforms for when you feel sick, and of course, with all that administrative work she will be doing for you, we've put together quite a few secretary uniforms."

The door closed abruptly as the audience roared in laughter. "So Henry made a mistake on a Barbie question, what was it, something about her measurements?"

The audience recited in unison, "39-18-33!!"

"Ah yes, that's right! Well, I think Henry is going to be a little more conscious about measurements in a minute. In fact, he is going to be one of the models in our newest app! That's right everyone, if you go to your mobile devices and download the Bet Your Life app, you'll be able to find Henry and modify his measurements in real time!" The announcer turned to the screen displaying an outline of a female form. To the right were sliders for breasts, waist, hips, hair, weight - you name it. "As long as you have a Bluetooth connection, you will be able to 'pair' with our newest model and modify her to your liking if you are within range. You can change anything from hair and eye color, height, weight, even..."

The announcer slid the breast size left and right, displaying the outline of the woman rapidly shrinking and growing her cup size. The audience laughed as his eyebrows hinted at the implications.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, our handlers have our last contestant Henry backstage now, picking out an outfit for her debut. Let's take a look and see how we did!"

The TV above the booth lights up to a camera backstage with a blonde woman, all but naked in a tiny metallic pink bikini and heels, for the audience to see - relatively flat chested with no hips. The audience murmurs to each other as the screen switches back to the app.

"Well, that won't do at all, now will it audience? Not for someone with the name, Barbie, right?" The audience laughs as the announcer pulls out his phone, walking up next to the Booth of Change. "Now, remind me again, what were those measurements?

39!!

The announcer slid the chest button to the right on his phone, displaying the change to the app's outlined female in real time on the TV.

18!!

He continued to slide the waist bar left, almost as far as it would go, showing an almost unrealistic proportion on the screen. "Careful gentlemen, you won't want to break her!" The audience laughed and stood up, all shouting in unison one last time:

33!!!

(Part II is below!)