Zach awoke with a start. His dreams that night had been tumultuous to say the very least, and the worst part was he couldn’t even tell what parts had been a dream and what parts had actually happened. However, after his mind began piecing together why he had woken up on the couch, it became clear that the vast majority of the dreaded events had in fact been reality.

From what he could tell from the quiet rays of cold sunlight trickling through the living room window, it was early. It was definitely earlier than any kid would like to be waking up on the weekend unless it was absolutely necessary. Unfortunately today it was necessary.

He peeked down the hallway to see his mother’s bedroom door was still closed. This was probably his best chance to be able to talk to Leah about everything privately. He quietly tiptoed across the room and up the stairs.

Once he got to his bedroom door he froze. Was he really going through with this? He had kept this secret for years, afraid of what would happen otherwise, but it just felt wrong now. He had to get it out. He would wake Leah up and tell her everything.

Without another thought, he opened the door and was met with an unexpected scene. Leah was awake and standing in front of the large mirror that sat on the vanity, wearing the blue sequined ball gown that had once been modeled by one of the mannequins. Her head was adorned with a collection of pink hair rollers, and she was currently in the process of carefully applying lipstick.

“What are you doing?!” Zach couldn’t help the words from leaving his mouth in his state of surprise.

Leah flinched, causing her to unintentionally draw a line of lipstick on her own cheek. “Huh? What? Nothing!” she squeaked, spinning around abruptly. After a moment of awkward eye contact, her face grew hard. “I don’t have to justify my actions to the likes of you!”

Her words stung, and looking at her now, he immediately regretted questioning her actions. She was right. She didn’t have to justify anything to him. He was at fault for not doing anything about this sooner, and now his friend was neck deep in a feminine state of being and awash with whatever physical or mental complexities that may come along with that thanks to his mom’s magic. She was only exploring what felt natural to her now.

“What are you doing in here?” Leah demanded.

“Technically this is my room,” Zach mumbled.

“Not anymore. Get out!” She pointed at the door in a prissy manner.

“No. I can’t”

“What do you mean you can’t? Leave me alone Zach!” Leah said, stomping her foot.

They were making too much noise. There’s no way his mother wouldn’t wake up. He had to say it now. “I can’t leave until I tell you that you were right.”

“What?”

Zach strode across the room toward Leah, causing her to shy back ever so slightly. He grabbed her shoulders and looked right into her eyes. “You were right Leah. You were right about it all. My mom can use magic and she’s the one that’s been doing all of this to you,” he said, gesturing to her body.

Leah’s breath caught, “I knew it! But why?”

“I don’t know! It’s probably to teach me some kind of lesson or something. It doesn’t matter. She’s always done weird stuff like this ever since I found out about her magic.”

Leah’s frustration could be seen plainly on her face, “But why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I promised my mom I wouldn’t. I think something bad happens if I tell anyone about what she can do.”

“Something bad? Like what?”

“I don’t know! It’s something about a secret and a promise or something. But I’m tired of keeping secrets and you’re my best friend. It’s not right for me to leave you in the dark while this is all happening to you. It hurts me to see you like this.”

“Like a girl?” Leah asked concernedly.

“No. Confused. You’re supposed to be the confident one, remember? You’re the one that was always so assured in who you are, so it hurts me to see you confused.”

“Zach…” Leah stepped closer to him. Close enough to where he swore he could feel her heartbeat fluttering in the small space between them.

It was then that Zach finally started to feel his usual bashfulness swell to the surface. As far as he could remember, this was the closest he had ever been to a girl. He could feel the warmth of her delicate shoulders. He could smell her scent, her perfume. She was beautiful. He had this feeling deep in his gut that he had never had for his friend before. He had to protect her and make this right. He felt his confidence begin to rise while they stood face to face in each other’s presence.

Leah’s mouth quirked into an odd smile, “You’re staring at me again.”

“Yeah. I guess I am.” He stepped away from her, self conscious of how red his face probably was. “You actually got a little something on your face.”

“Huh?”

“Lipstick,” he said, indicating to her cheek.

“Oh!” Leah said, turning back toward the mirror to see the streak of stray pink color on her face. She tried to wipe it away with her hand, but the stain of it remained.

“Let me help,” Zach said, jogging into the bathroom and coming back out with a washcloth doused in warm water. He gently rubbed her cheek until it was free of any unwanted color.

“Thanks,” Leah said softly.

Zach shrugged. “I guess I should try to be at least a little gentlemanly while you’re like this, but we’ll fix this, alright?

“How? Can you change me back? Do you have magic too?”

Zach shook his head, “No. But I can try to confront my mom about it. She’s probably just doing this in order to make me more comfortable around girls or something stupid like that. If I just tell her that I learned my lesson and that she needs to change you back, then I think she will.”

“What if she doesn’t?”

“Then I’ll…” He paused. What would he do? It’s not like he could fight his mom. She could quite literally do anything she wanted. He didn’t even know if he had it in him to try to fight her, but if it did come to that…

Leah interrupted his thoughts. “You said something bad would happen if you told anyone about magic right? What if she does something to you? I don’t want that.”

“Well I don’t know what else to do if I don’t just confront her about it,” Zach admitted.

“Well what if we don’t tell her and she just changes me back on her own? Has she done anything like this in the past?”

“A couple times. She does a lot of crazy things, but she likes turning guys into girls for some reason. There’s only one time I know of that she didn’t turn a guy back.”

“Really? What happened?” Leah asked.

“Remember when Matt moved away right before 6th grade?”

“Yeah.”

“Well… SHE didn’t move away.”

“Oh,” Leah said, a disturbed look crossing her face.

“That doesn’t matter now though. Whatever happens, I promise that I’ll fix this somehow.”

Leah didn’t respond. She just stared at him. No. She wasn’t looking at him; she was looking past him. Zach felt a chill run down his spine.

“Promises are binding Zach,” his mother’s voice hummed behind him. “You better make due on that promise.”

Zach spun to face his mom. “Mom!”

“Yes sweetie?” his mother asked mockingly with a false pout on her face.

“I-I told Leah everything. She knows about your magic and that you’re the one turning her into a girl.”

“Yes, but I’m sure she already had it figured out before then hmm? Leah is a bright girl, and I’d like to think I made it fairly obvious.” She stepped closer to the two of them, causing them to react by stepping backward. Leah gripped Zach’s arm hard, but didn’t say anything.

“So you were making it obvious on purpose,” Zach probed.

“Of course I was. A mother does what a mother does for good reason.”

“Well if your reason was to test me to see if I broke my promise, then you win. I broke my promise and told Leah about magic. But if I’m going to be punished, don’t punish her. Change her back into a guy, into Liam!”

Lindsay chuckled, “You’re right. I did win, and because of that, I don’t think there will be any punishment today.”

“But the promise…“

“Was upheld,” Lindsay interrupted. “For exactly five thousand days you kept your promise. Although I am a bit disappointed that you gave away my secret just now, you kept your promise for the exact amount of time that was needed just like any good enchantress would. And in the end, you stuck up for your friend and were quite the gentleman despite the circumstances.”

Zach’s brow creased. “What are you talking about?”

Lindsay continued to slowly stalk toward the duo. “Have you forgotten about the gift that I spoke of thirteen years ago? It takes five thousand days to fully mature, and this was the day.”

“But the promise was that I couldn’t talk about your magic until the day you told me I could.”

“And this is that day. You just happened to reveal it before I got the chance to tell you. I would say that you’re lucky, but you and I are far too similar for it to be luck. You have good instincts. I think I raised you rather well,” She cooed, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

Zach shook his head, “I’m confused…”

“Good. Confusion breeds the yearning of understanding, so listen well,” his mother said as she procured a glowing orb in her hand roughly the size of a marble. It emanated a bright white light that somehow danced and intermingled with a pitch-black hue. The room grew warm, cold, and then back to warm in a quickly repeating pattern.

Lindsay adjusted her unneeded glasses before continuing. “In this reality, magic is not something you can be born with. Magic can only be gifted. It is through the act of making promises and keeping secrets that magic can be cast, so it is through the same means that magic is passed on. Once someone makes the right promise to someone who already possesses magic, a magic seed is created within. That magic seed grows inside of the magic user until five thousand days goes by. Once that time is up, the seed will emerge and can then be gifted to the one who kept their promise.”

“This,” Lindsay said, holding up the odd looking orb, “is your seed Zach. Happy enchantment day.” Without allowing for another second to pass by, the seed zipped straight toward Zach like a flash of lightning, hitting him directly in the chest.

Zach didn’t feel any impact at all. It felt like nothing had happened; the only sign that something had happened was a fast pulse of white and black light that moved across the surface of his skin before disappearing.

“Woah!” Leah exclaimed as she let go of Zach’s arm and stepped away from him.

Zach gasped, “What was that?”

Lindsay sighed, “Were you not listening at all? That was your magic seed. It’s inside of you now.”

“So does that mean…”

“That you can use magic now, yes.”

Zach’s mouth fell open. He didn’t know what to say. This was all way too much for him to take in. He looked over at Leah who seemed to have the same expression that he was wearing. Flabbergasted.

“I can’t believe this. Wait, but you always told me that only girls could use magic, that there could only be enchantresses,” Zach stuttered.

His mother smiled, “That may have been a little bit of a half truth.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well. If you were to try to use magic right now, you would never be able to, no matter how hard you tried. That’s simply due to the fact that you need to be a girl to use magic.”

“What?!” Zach exclaimed.

“Come now sweetie. It’s a simple concept. If you’re going to question everything I say, this explanation is going to quickly become redundant.”

“You just said that I have to be a girl to use magic! Is that seed thing going to turn me into a girl?!” Zach said in a panic, looking down at his body.

Lindsay laughed, “Heavens no. Nothing will force you to be a girl. Magic is all about opposing forces: light and dark, yin and yang, male and female. If you are born male, then you must be female in order to cast magic, thus becoming an enchantress. If you are born female, then you must become male in order to cast magic, thus becoming an enchanter. You can switch back and forth at will, but there are obvious caveats to doing that.”

“Like what?” Zach asked carefully.

“Think about it sweetie. If you change back into a boy, then you can’t use magic, therefore you can’t change back into a girl in order to use more magic. To remedy that, you have to cast a one-time use enchantment on yourself before turning back into a boy. Certain enchantments can be activated without the explicit use of magic, like a tool. As long as you have an enchantment specifically for changing genders set on yourself when you’re male, you can activate it to turn female so that you can then use your magic freely.”

Zach stood silently for a moment before cautiously asking what was on his mind. “So wait. If you have to be the opposite sex in order to cast magic, then that means you,” he paused as he looked at his mother, “You were born male?”

“That would be the natural conclusion to come to given the explanation I just gave wouldn’t it? Yes, that is correct. There is a reason I say you and I are just alike. You are the spitting image of me when I was boy.”

“Eww,” Zach shivered.

“Eww?” His mother quizzed with a raise of her eyebrow.

“It’s just that I can’t picture you as a guy at all. You’re my mom. And your so…” He gestured to his mother who currently looked like she could have been one of those librarians that teens fantasized about.

She wore a simple white blouse with a pencil skirt and pantyhose. Her hair was tied up in a bun with a pen sticking through it. Along with her glasses, heels, her ageless face, and eternally youthful physique to complete the look, there was nobody in their right mind that would have said she had ever been a man.

Lindsay waved away the comment. “Yes, well we all have our preferences. I became quite comfortable being a woman a long time ago. It became a hassle to switch back and forth, and after your grandmother died, there was no guarantee anyone else I knew would change me back into a woman if I ever forgot to apply my switching enchantment. Being stranded without magic is not something I wish to experience, so being male became far too much of a liability for me. I’m sure you’ll come to your own conclusion on the matter in time.”

Leah cleared her throat. “Um, what about me?”

Lindsay walked over to the edge of the bed and sat down, crossing her legs neatly, “Ah yes. You’re the second bird.”

“Second bird?” Leah asked.

“Two birds with one stone sweetheart,” Ms. Lindsay answered, holding up two fingers. “Both you and Zach had such misguided opinions of girls, I thought I would go ahead and teach you both a little something about the female sex.”

“But why did you do it the way you did it. Why did you mess with her mind, but still leave her aware that she was originally a guy? Was it a test?” Zach cut in, finally getting the question out that he had been wanting to ask ever since this had started.

“Well there are two reasons, but yes, the first reason was to test you. It is customary that on the final day of a seed’s maturation, the promise should be pushed so that the seed fully forms. It’s the final trial before magic can be passed on to ensure that the one receiving the gift is worthy of it. Terrible things can happen if you don’t know how to uphold difficult promises and keep important secrets,” Lindsay said, with a stern shake of her finger.

“And what’s the other reason?” Zach asked.

“It’s simple really. Liam wouldn’t have gotten anything out of this experience if I had done it any other way. I’m giving him a gift too after all.”

“Liam. That’s my name? My boy name?” Leah asked.

Zach looked concernedly at his feminized friend as she shifted awkwardly in her shimmering ball gown, “Yeah. You’re real name is Liam.”

Leah smiled uncomfortably. “It doesn’t feel like that name suits me anymore.” She looked at Ms. Lindsay wonderingly, “So what is the gift you’re giving me Ms. Lindsay?”

“Wisdom,” Lindsay said matter-of-factly. “Just like Tiresias in Greek mythology, there is untold wisdom that comes with having experience living life on the other side. I can speak from personal experience. It’s unfortunate the most don’t get the chance. Going off of your little opinion yesterday, I think this little test drive on the feminine side of things will help you a lot in the future.”

“But why did you make her change so slowly?” Zach asked.

Lindsay sighed, “Must I really explain everything? One reason was for you Zach. You were so terrified of girls, it wouldn’t have helped to have one just appear in front of you. I had to let you dip your toes in the water first. While you saw your familiar friend change gradually into Leah, you got to become gradually more comfortable around her. The main reason however, was for Leah herself.”

“For me?” Leah asked.

“Yes. I’ll show you. Zach could you twirl for me?” Lindsay asked.

“Twirl? Why?” Zach questioned guardedly.

His mother motioned for him to spin with her finger, “Do as your mother says and give me a twirl dear.”

Zach reluctantly twirled on his heal as his mother asked of him. As he spun, the room seemed to spin around him. He felt sick. His stomach felt like it was doing flips inside of his body, and she felt numb and tingly from head to toe. But as soon as she completed her twirl, the room came to rest, and everything felt normal again.

“That felt weird,” Emory said, wobbling slightly. “Why did you want me to twirl mom?” She looked between her mother and Leah.

Her mother was giving her typical pleased smirk, while Leah was staring at her wide eyed and slack jawed. “What? Is something wrong?” Emory asked.

She looked down at her herself and didn’t see anything out of place. She was wearing her favorite green summer dress with a cute pair of pumps. She brushed her wavy brown hair behind her ear, and looked back to Leah. “Is something on my face or something?”

Leah shook her head quickly, a shocked expression still plastered on her face. “Zach?”

“Who’s Zach? It’s me, Emory. Did something happen?” Emory asked anxiously, looking between her friend and her mother.

“If you had changed in that manner Leah, I don’t believe you would have learned from any of your recent feminine experiences, do you?” Lindsay asked.

Leah shook her head, “It happened so fast. Does he… she remember anything?”

“What are you two talking about? What do you mean ‘changed in that manner’?” Emory asked again, growing more concerned.

Lindsay ignored her daughter’s question. “This is Zach if he had been born as a girl. Instead of Zachary, it’s Emory. This is what Zach is used to seeing whenever I changed anyone in front of him in the past. It kept it easy to keep his secret, but ultimately left me unable to gift anyone with the usual boons that come from the experience of switching teams unless I allowed for some of their memories to stay after I changed them back. That usually proved confusing for them though, trying to sort through memories of being born as the opposite sex. It usually isn’t worth it, except for special cases.”

Leah gulped audibly.

“Wait!” Emory spoke up. “Did you use magic on me mom?! What did you do? Did you change me? How?!”

Ms. Lindsay continued her explanation calmly “Vice versa, if I had just changed your body, but not altered anything in your mind, you wouldn’t have gotten anything out of it either due to the fact that you would probably have freaked out more than Emory is right now. Also, I find that a male mind in a female body is not a good mix.”

“Mom!” Emory shouted, causing a flash of bright light to emanate from her body, finally garnering her mother’s attention.

Emory looked down at herself as the glow began to fade, “I just used magic?”

“Yay! I’m so proud of you sweetie,” Lindsay cheered. She snapped her finger, causing the female visage of Emory to morph into to the familiar form of Zach. “Although you do have to be careful, you could have just exploded the whole house just then.”

Zach blinked rapidly, trying to take in everything that just happened. He had been a girl? Emory. He was born as a girl, but he wasn’t. He was Zach. He was a boy who had been turned into a girl and made to think he had always been one. Above all else, he had just used magic. He went down on one knee, overwhelmed by the whiplash of confusion, “Holy shit.”

“Language Zach,” his mother scolded. “Did you get that whole explanation that I told Leah about why I changed her the way that I did?”

Zach rested heavily on his knee, slumped over and breathing heavily. “Yeah. I think so,” he said tiredly.

“Good. You’re mind needs to be resilient when faced with things like that. Retaining memories is important, especially in regards to the amount of secrets that you’ll be privy to in the near future. Though I do really need to teach you how to guard against unwanted transformations, but that will be a lesson for another day.”

Leah knelt beside Zach, putting a delicate hand on his back. “Are you okay Zach?”

Zach nodded, looking up at her. “Yeah, it’s nothing I’m not used to already being around my mom.”

Leah looked at him sympathetically as she rubbed his back. “And I thought my parents were tough.”

Ms. Lindsay shrugged, “Tough subjects, come with tough lessons. It takes a lot to thrive in this world, and being an enchantress is more complex than either of you could fathom.”

“Fun.” Zach said sarcastically, standing back up with Leah’s support.

“So what now?” Leah questioned.

“For you sweetheart? It’s time to go back to a normal life if you wish. If you want, I can make you forget any of this ever happened, and you can move on completely oblivious to magic and the things you learned this weekend.”

“I don’t want that!” Leah shook her head. “I don’t want to forget about magic now that I know about it. And the things that I learned from being a girl are… it’s nice,” she fumbled at the end of her thought.

“Very well then. Since you’re Zach’s friend, I’ll leave him accountable of you. No word of magic to anyone who doesn’t already know about it, do you understand?” Ms. Lindsay said crossly.

“Yes ma’am.”

Ms. Lindsay nodded her approval. “Now to change you back into a boy,” she said, lifting her finger.

“W-wait! Don’t!” Leah exclaimed, waving her hands.

“Oh?” Lindsay questioned amusedly.

“Leah what are you doing?” Zach asked. “She’s just going to change you back into Liam, your normal self.”

“I know. It’s just that I’ve already come this far, and I’m not actually a full girl yet,” Leah said embarrassingly. “I’ve gone through all of these changes; it would be a shame to not at least let it go all the way, you know?”

“Interesting. I can’t argue against sound logic. Very well, if you wish for the changes to complete, I won’t go against your wishes,” Lindsay shrugged.

“But. Can you give me back my memories?” Leah asked. “My brain still feels all foggy, and I really want to remember everything clearly about my life as Liam. I promise I won’t freak out or anything.”

Lindsay looked at the soon-to-be girl ponderingly. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you clarity on all of your memories again, but you’ll still identify as female. Like I said before, a male mind in a female body is not ideal.”

“That's fine,” Leah confirmed.

“Done,” Ms. Lindsay chimed with a snap of her fingers.

Leah gasped as her blurry memories came into focus. “Oh my gosh! I really was a boy! I was Liam. I remember everything now.”

“Now that you have your memories back, do you still want to fully become a girl?” Zach asked curiously.

Leah breathed a sigh of relief, “Yeah. Definitely.”

“If you’re sure…”

“I’m sure.”

“That’s worked out then,” Lindsay said. “One more thing. Zach, I’ve just placed a switching enchantment on you. Your first lesson in magic is figuring out how to activate a set enchantment without the use of magic. Once it’s activated, you’ll turn into a girl, and your magic lessons will begin in earnest.”

Zach nodded silently, unsure of what to say. It was so much to process. He still didn’t know if he should be angry or grateful, maybe a bit of both?

“Well then,” Ms. Lindsay said, making a show of dusting off her hands. “I’d say my work here is done for the time being. I’m sure that you two need some time to think by yourselves. I’ll be downstairs making breakfast if you need me.”

For what seemed like the hundredth time that weekend, Ms. Lindsay left the pair alone together and surrounded by entirely new circumstances.

Zach stumbled over to one of the chairs by the vanity while Leah flopped down on the bed. Neither of them shared any words for a time until Zach finally broke the silence.

“What the hell just happened?”