“Ugh, why do I have to buy Trish a birthday present?”
    “Because she’s your stepmom and I told you to be nice to her.”
    Jenna wished she could reach through the phone to slap her dad, but she knew it wouldn’t help. The man was oblivious to what a bitch Trish really was. Of course Jenna knew how Trish won him over, and shuddered as she pushed away the thought of whatever that gold digger did to keep him happy.
    So now instead of hanging out with her friends or watching the latest gaming streams, Jenna was forced to wander the maze of the superstore, wondering what the hell to get her bitch of a stepmom as a present. Jenna had no clue what she liked. Except for money and lounging around their house all day like a bum. Trish loved those two things.
    “What am I even supposed to get her?”
    “Just something that shows you’re making an effort. Trish told me you’re making her feel really unwelcome.”
    “I’m making her feel unwelcome?” Jenna snapped, gaining the attention of some of the other customers. Jenna took a deep breath and lowered her voice. “She’s the one hogging the big screen all day so I can’t use the living room at all. And she always has some snide comment about my looks or my weight or what I’m wearing.”
    “To be fair, you could stand to lose-”
    Jenna held her phone at arms length, already knowing this monologue of her father’s by heart. Just because she was chubby didn’t mean she had to lose weight. She loved the way she looked, and she’d had more than a few girlfriend’s who’d loved her wide ass just fine. Not that she was gonna tell her dad that.
    Probably the only thing Trish had going for her was that she wasn’t judgmental about Jenna being gay. Instead she was judgmental about literally every other part of Jenna’s life. Trish was disgustingly perfect. She’d been a tennis pro at her dad’s country club, but now that she’d bagged herself a rich man Trish had quit her job so that she could lounge around Jenna’s childhood home and flaunt her supermodel body in Jenna’s face. Every day she had her trophy wife ass parked on the couch watching terrible reality shows.
    For the most part living at college meant that Jenna was able to keep her annoying new stepmom at arm’s length, but now it was summer break. That meant two months of staying at home cause she couldn’t afford her own place. Two months of staying with just Trish, since her dad was conveniently away on a business trip to avoid all of their fighting. It had only been a week and Jenna was already losing it.
    It would have been fine if Jenna could keep streaming her games, but her PC setup had to stay behind at the dorm. Her plan was to just hide in her bedroom watching actually good TV shows, only she’d made the horrifying discovery on her first night back that her TV was gone.
    “It wasn’t like you were using it at college,” Trish had simply replied when she explained why she’d sold it.
    Jenna put the phone back up to her ear, cutting off her rambling dad to say, “Can I at least get a new TV while I’m here?”
    “Me and Trish both agreed that it would do you good to get out of the house more. Go for a walk or see some friends.”
    Jenna gagged. “So it’s fine for her to watch TV all day, but not me?”
    “You know your stepmom exercises every day.”
    How Trish managed to be both athletic and lazy as hell was a mystery Jenna couldn’t solve. It was like every time she saw her stepmom they were either laid out on the couch eating snacks and watching TV, or dressed in tight revealing work out clothes and dripping with sweat. Lazy Trish was annoying because she was hogging the only TV in the house now, while workout Trish was annoying for making Jenna feel like crap for not exercising every day. It was a constant needling of invitations to join her at the gym or go play some tennis, subtle jabs at just how unathletic she was in comparison.
    Which didn’t even include how uncomfortably sexy her stepmom was in those tight Lycra outfits or skimpy pleated tennis skirts. Jenna refused to give her bitch of a stepmom the satisfaction of being horny for her. But that was harder said than done.
    “Why don’t you get a job, and then you can buy your own TV?”
    “Oh look, I think Trish might like that,” Jenna suddenly said, putting fake excitement in her voice as she changed the subject.
    “What did you find?”
    “D-don’t want to ruin the surprise!” She quickly hung up, then let out a long suffering sigh. How had her life come to this? Forced to buy a dumb birthday gift for her stepmom and not allowed to buy a decent flat screen TV for herself?
    Her credit card burned in her pocket, begging masochistically to be abused just like in the good old days. When her dad, constantly off on business trips so much that Jenna barely saw him, would just let Jenna buy anything she wanted out of guilt. It had been a wonderful life of skating by her classes and enjoying whatever she wanted.

    And then Trish had hooked up with her dad at some country club event and three months later they were sending Jenna a wedding invite. Now Trish was suddenly making decisions about Jenna’s life, none of them good. Like that Jenna was spending far too much money. Money that could go to getting Trish more jewelry or fancy clothes.
    For the first time in her life Jenna was stuck to a strict allowance that barely covered more than food and bills for the month. She couldn’t even buy the latest gaming systems like she’d wanted. What was she supposed to do? Get a job? Why didn’t Trish get a job and keep her perfect nose out of Jenna’s business?
    Jenna stared longingly across the store at a display of TV’s. She could just buy one. Justify it later. But Trish would see, and then she’d get Jenna’s dad to check her credit card statement and find out just how much it had cost. Which meant the only thing Jenna could use her neglected credit card on was this dumb, stupid birthday gift for Trish.
    She spun around and stormed down a random aisle, fists clenched in rage. “I hate this! Why’d she have to ruin everything? Why can’t she leave me alone? Why does she have to be such a- a-”
    Trish stumbled, trying to find the perfect obscenity to describe Trish. And then, by some miracle, the perfect word appeared in front of her on a dog bowl.
    “A bitch.” Jenna grinned. Somehow she’d wandered into the pet aisle, and sitting on a shelf in front of her was a round blue bowl that had Queen Bitch written across it in a cutesy font. All the dog dishes had fun little nicknames, but it was the raunchy, funny blue bowl that kept Jenna’s attention.
    It was so wonderfully satisfying to imagine giving Trish a wrapped present. To see her stepmom’s excited face turn to outrage as she saw a dog dish with her name on it. And Jenna could give her a big, grateful smile as she wished her bitch of a stepmom a happy birthday.
    “God, that would be amazing.”
    She knew that Trish would kill her. Or at least yell at her for several days until Jenna wanted to kill herself. But for that moment of giving her stepmom what she deserved it would almost be worth it. Although, if she was fantasizing anyway…
    Jenna imagined her stepmom on all fours like a dog, barking happily. No more yelling or complaining at her. Instead Trish was sitting just as Jenna had ordered, like a good pet. And the dog dish held a neat slice of birthday cake inside, with a candle that Jenna lit.
    “Happy birthday, you annoying bitch.”
    Jenna smiled as she imagined Trish barking with delight and rolling over like a dumb pet.
    Then she sighed and banished the fantasy. Treating Trish like a pet would be the revenge she deserved, but there’s no way Trish would go for that. And it wasn’t like Jenna could get away with treating her stepmom like a dog without her knowing.
    She stopped, considering the idea. If Trish didn’t know she was being treated like a dog…
    Jenna went to the end of the aisle, passing the colorful chew toys shaped like everyday items. Those were too obvious, though Jenna giggled at the thought of Trish chewing daintily on a plastic bone that squeaked. 
    She stopped and considered a muzzle, more to enjoy the idea of Trish unable to say a word. Not that a muzzle would actually work on Trish. For that she’d need an actual gag. Suddenly the imagined muzzle on Trish turned into a ball gag. Trish mumbling into the rubber red ball, unable to get out a word. A bit of drool slipping down her chin.
    Jenna shook her head hard. “Stop it, that’s too sexy,” she scolded herself. “We’re going for humiliation here.”
    Finally she found what she was looking for as a selection of dog collars dangled before her. Jenna could even get a custom name tag to go with it. A proper collar for Trish, just like the bitch deserved.
    Except all the collars were too obvious. They were all too big, or different bright colors, or just obviously not meant to be worn by a person who wasn’t some kinky pervert.
    Jenna was about to give up when she saw the weird white box on a top shelf. The writing was in Korean or some other language Trish couldn’t understand, but the picture was of a happy dog sitting with it’s tongue hanging out. And beside it was a picture of the collar, only it didn’t look like any collar Jenna had ever seen before.
    It looked like a loop of leather with a clasp, slightly thick and with grooved indentations running all along it. The real focal point was a green bead in the center that resembled a crystal. Jenna wasn’t sure how good of a dog collar it was, but the collar definitely didn’t look like a normal dog collar. Someone could easily mistake it for a weird necklace.
    Trish could mistake it for a weird necklace.
    And every time she wore it, Jenna could smile smugly to herself and think how good that collar looked on the bitch.
    Then she saw the price tag and balked. “Two hundred bucks for a collar?”
    Although it wasn’t like it was her money. Her dad did say to get something nice, and surely spending more on Trish would look better to him. 
    A minute later Jenna was checking out, sliding the box over to the employee. The young guy had a wispy mustache and acne, and he broke into a smile when he saw the box.
    “Oh hey, I heard about these. They’re supposed to be some kinda high tech dog collar. Trains the dog for you.”
    Jenna frowned. “What, like it talks or something?”
    “No, more like… it makes dogs more eager to listen to their owners? My coworker was saying it used electrical charges. Or magnets. Or electromagnets, some science thing like that.”
    “So does it zap the dogs?” She could trick Trish into wearing the collar, but not if it was gonna zap her. Although that would be equally satisfying to watch Trish suddenly jump and yelp as Jenna zapped her anytime she got annoying. Unfortunately that was a prank she’d only ever get to play the once.
    But the guy quickly waved his hands and shouted, “No, no! The dogs don’t even notice it’s doing anything. The whole point is that it’s subliminal or something.”
    “Whatever, just ring it up.” Jenna handed over her dad’s credit card, but the employee still looked nervous.

    “Seriously, I promise your dog won’t feel a thing. It’s supposed to be really good.”
    Jenna groaned. “Look, I don’t even have a dog. So just ring it up already.”
    The guy frowned in confusion. “Then why are you buying-”
    Jenna gave him a death stare, and the guy quickly swiped the credit card. Then Jenna had the box hidden away in a shopping bag as she sauntered out the door, eagerly imagining how to give Trish her birthday present.

 

~ ~ ~

 

    The collar was both simple and incredibly complicated. Mostly because all of the instructions were in a foreign language. As far as Jenna could tell the weird collar didn’t have any moving parts, or visible electronics. The whole thing looked like nothing but a loop of leather with the crystal in the front and a clasp in the back, except when Jenna squeezed it she could feel the impression of wires and electronics underneath. She was surprised to find the collar came with a charging plug, and it took a close search before she found a small slit hidden in one of the grooves of the leather. No one would see it unless they were looking, and Jenna was able to slip the plug in easily. There was no visible light that showed how much battery it had, which meant she didn’t know how long it would need to charge.
    Not that Jenna knew why she was charging it anyway. The only dog it would be going on was her bitch of a stepmom, and that was just for a trick. Still, it was already plugged in. Jenna decided to just leave it there while she checked out the instruction book, which was about twenty pages thick and not a single page made sense to her. Presumably it was all steps or instructions on using the collar to train your dog, which was no help to Jenna’s prank. Although it did make her think of her fantasy of having Trish actually trained like a pet.
    The idea was wonderfully fun to play in her head. Something about humiliating Trish, actually having her stepmom acting like a dog, and her being totally happy with her new place in life. And admittedly some of Jenna’s fantasies were starting to get kinky. 
    Jenna glanced over at the collar. Imagined what it would look like around Trish’s neck as the trophy wife now barked and panted happily at her feet. She’d sworn that she would never get herself off thinking of her stepmom. But wouldn’t it be fine if the fantasy was super degrading to Trish? 
    While Jenna bit her lip in indecision, her hand was already stroking at her stomach and inching closer to her shorts. She could just let it happen. She was already incredibly wet. And Jenna had never fantasized about anything this kinky before. She knew people wore collars and leashes for sex stuff, but it had never had any particular attraction for her.
    Until she was imagining her annoying stepmom at the other end of a leash. Her leash. Jenna could walk Trish through the neighborhood, with her stepmom’s athletic body naked and on display for everyone to see. A proper trained bitch.
    “Fuck,” Jenna mumbled as she gave in, her fingers sliding over her pussy lips as she pictured Trish’s face. Pictured herself yanking on the leash and pulling Trish in between her legs. Trish panting with her tongue out, such an eager to please pet, ready to dive in and-
    Footsteps coming down the hallway. Jenna heard them just soon enough to yank her hand out of her shorts before the door swung open.  The fantasy of an obedient, dog-like Trish vanished as the real Trish stormed into the room. Jenna had forgotten that her bedroom door didn’t have a lock, unlike her door back in her dorm.
    Luckily all Trish saw as she glared at Jenna was the college girl sprawled out on her bed, covertly wiping her slick fingertips off on her blanket. Jenna was so grateful she didn’t get caught masturbating, especially to THAT fantasy, that she forgot to yell at Trish for just barging into her room.
    Trish flipped her silky brown hair over her shoulder and said, “There are still dishes in the sink.” She gave the accusation all the weight as if it was proof of a murder.
    Jenna rolled her eyes. “I’ll get to them later.”
    “I told you to do them yesterday. Today you were supposed to do your laundry.”
    “Well I’ll do that later too.”
    “Honestly,” Trish scoffed. “You’ve been here like a week and the house is already a mess. Do you know how hard I work to take care of this house?”
    “I know how hard the maid you hired works to take care of this house.”
    “That’s just on the weekends,” Trish said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “The least you can do is clean up after yourself. I didn’t ask to be responsible for some lazy college girl.”
    “I can take care of myself.”
    “Then maybe you should actually prove it. I swear all you do is sit up here all day doing god knows what.” Trish’s eyes roamed over Jenna’s room, her lips crinkling in distaste at the video game posters lining the wall. Jenna was all set to hear another rant about how unladylike her nerdy interests were, even for a girl into other girls, when she saw Trish’s eyes widen. Her stepmom was staring right at the collar on her nightstand.
    Jenna leapt up to hide the collar from view. “I’ll get right on those dishes. And the laundry. Promise.”
    “What is that?” Trish asked, pointing right through Jenna. 
    Jenna gulped. “It’s nothing.” Her hands fumbled with the collar, trying to unplug the black charging cable from it.
    “I mean it, what was that? Did you go buy another useless expensive thing? I swear when your father hears about this-”
    “It’s for you,” Jenna blurted out. She’d wanted to come up with a good plan for giving it to Trish, a way that would make sure she at least wore it for a night so that Jenna could laugh behind her back, but if her dad got involved and checked her recent purchases there was no way Trish wouldn’t hear that the purchase was for a dog collar. So Jenna had no choice but to bring the collar out from behind her back and hold it out to Trish. Once she saw it in her hands Jenna knew how stupid this whole idea really was. While the collar had looked thin on the box, now it was a thick loop of leather that was grooved like a car tire, with a dumb gaudy green jewel on it. Not only was it ugly, but there was no way the collar wouldn’t instantly give away that it was some weird thing. It certainly didn’t resemble a necklace as Jenna held it out and said, “I got you a necklace. For your birthday.”
    Trish just blinked and stared back at her for a few seconds. “You got me a necklace?”
    “Dad said it was your birthday next week, and that I should get you something. I didn’t know what you liked,” Jenna added, feeling ridiculous the longer she held out the weird, ugly collar. Then she smiled and thought fuck it. Might as well enjoy this prank while she could. “Then I saw this in the store and it made me think of you.”
    Which was technically the truth.
    “Oh,” was all Trish said. It was only a few seconds but it felt like Jenna stood there for an eternity holding out the collar, waiting to see if Trish would take it. Suddenly Jenna felt certain that Trish would scoff and refuse. Not even because she was smart enough to see it was a dog collar, but simply because she was such a bitch that she’d refuse to wear something so ugly. Or simply something Jenna had gotten her. Why hadn’t Jenna realized that the annoying stepmom would reject any gift she’d get her? It seemed so obvious in hindsight that Trish would never go for-
    Trish stirred, a faint blush in her cheeks as she reached out and took the collar from her. Her smooth fingers touched Jenna’s as she took it, and Jenna remembered that she’d just been about to finger herself to the thought of Trish. Of humiliating her completely, but it was still an admission of her attraction to her stepmom.
    “I-” Trish held the collar up to inspect it. She ran her fingers over the thin grooved sections of it, trailing over the collar until her fingers rested on the green crystal bit. She looked up at Jenna, her smile seeming a little forced as she said, “I love it.”
    Jenna sagged with relief. At least Trish felt obligated enough to say she liked it. Now she just had to figure out how to get Trish to actually wear it. Then she would at least get the satisfaction of knowing her stepmom was walking around in a collar fit for a dog.
    But before she could think of a way to suggest that Trish should wear the gift, her stepmom suddenly turned around and headed quickly out of the room. “I forgot I was in the middle of cooking dinner. Could you get the dishes done?”
    “Um, sure,” Jenna said, watching as Trish vanished down the hall. She was disappointed her prank hadn’t instantly worked, but it hadn’t failed either. She might get the chance to laugh at perfect housewife Trish yet. 
    A fluttering warmth filled her stomach at the thought of Trish naked on all fours, collared and eager to be laughed at. Jenna squirmed and considered putting off the dishes to fuck herself. She was certainly worked up enough to need it. But then not doing the dishes would upset Trish more than she usually was, which would make it harder to get her to wear the collar. 
    So as much as she wanted to be lazy and finger herself to this surprising new fantasy of hers, Jenna trudged herself downstairs and towards the kitchen to deal with dirty dishes instead. Trish was already cutting away at some vegetables, leaving a wide berth around the sink for Jenna to work. Jenna was ready to groan and complain when she saw Trish turn to grab something. There around her neck was the weird dog collar she’d bought her. 
    Jenna filled with joy. Somehow the collar looked even better on Trish that it had in Jenna’s fantasies. It had been an abstract idea, something she’d never considered and tried to piece together with her imagination, but now the reality was right there for her to drink in. Her bitchy stepmom, wearing a dog collar.
    To be fair Trish was hot enough that it legitimately looked good on her. Still a bit gaudy and strange perhaps, but it was a perfect fit around her lithe neck, with the green crystal bit nestled against her throat. 
    Jenna’s eyes narrowed. Maybe it was just the light in the kitchen, but the green crystal almost seemed to be glowing. Nothing noticeable, but not as dim as it had looked sitting on her nightstand waiting to be used.
    But then Trish glanced at her, and Jenna realized that it might look like she was staring at Trish’s tits. So in a panic she ran over to the sink, casually forcing herself to say, “I didn’t think you’d wear it.”
    “Well, it’s not my usual style,” Trish said, with a tone that hinted that the collar would quickly get buried in a box with the rest of her old jewelry. “But it is a nice gift. And I’m sorry about ruining the surprise.”
    “Surprise?” Jenna paused with the sponge in her head, afraid her prank had been found out.
    “That you had to give it to me early.”
    “Oh right. Your birthday is next week.” A flash of inspiration hit her. “I guess you could just wear it until your birthday then.”
    From the corner of her eye she saw Trish bite her lip. Then Trish reached up and caressed the collar, her fingers lingering on the crystal. Which really did seem to give off a faint bit of soft green light against Trish’s fingertips. But before Jenna could wonder what that meant Trish smiled and said, “Alright. I suppose I could do that. If you take care of the laundry right after this.”
    “Deal,” Jenna eagerly agreed. As Trish went back to cooking, Jenna happily began scrubbing at the pile of dirty dishes. It might have sucked having to do chores, but it was totally worth it for the way things worked out. Her stepmom was gonna be wearing that dog collar for a full week. Which meant Jenna had a whole week to figure out how to mess with her.
    Suddenly her summer vacation was really starting to look up.