Playing the game seemed to help. I didn't forget about everything else going on, but for a couple hours I stopped obsessing about it and just focused on playing. I think Alexis did the same. We didn't talk much apart from commenting on the game play. And neither of us were making the same blunders and slip-ups we'd been doing last night before we stopped.

We just cleared another level and got our bonuses and experience points and stuff, when Lexi suggested "Hey Chloe? Do you mind if we stop here? It's almost two o'clock and I could use a break."

"Not at all," I paused it and made sure to save our progress. According to the campaign menu we were about halfway through the whole game now, we'd found twelve out of twenty-five pieces of the cauldron.

She stood up and stretched again, then headed for the washroom. I got the cola bottle from the fridge and poured the last of it into our two glasses. We'd need to make another trip to the corner store later if we wanted more.

I realized I didn't even know if she planned to stay tonight, or if she was going to head home. I'd just assumed she'd be here the whole weekend, but we hadn't actually discussed it yet.

"Hey Lexi?" I asked when she returned from the washroom. "Were you planning on staying tonight too?"

She nodded, "Yeah, if that's ok? I was going to stay the whole weekend. Like till your folks get home, if that's all right with you?"

I smiled, "Yeah of course! You're always welcome here."

She smiled back then asked "Do you mind if we leave the game for a while and do something else?"

"Nah that's fine," I shrugged. "What did you want to do?"

She bit her lip again as she hesitated. "I guess one or the other of the things we talked about? Figure out what the hell happened, or do some fun stuff for you."

Now it was my turn to hesitate. I was excited about experimenting with make-up and stuff, but also nervous. But we could do that another time. The other thing seemed more pressing.

"I guess let's try figuring out what happened," I suggested. "You said you're sure whatever it was happened either today or tomorrow right? So I think that's what we need to focus on."

Alexis nodded "Thanks Chloe."

We sat back down in the den but I turned off the game and the TV again.

"Where do we start?" I asked. "Like... I don't even know what to call this or how to think about it? It's huge, like reality's changed? How do we even begin to figure it out, when neither of us can remember what happened?"

Alexis picked up her glass and had a few gulps of cola then said "I've been thinking about that. This morning after I got up, I sat here and sort of puzzled it out in my head. It's just a guess right? But here's what I think may have happened."

She took a deep breath then explained.

"So last night we settled in for our usual thing, video games and take-out food. Except you came out to me, told me you were trans and all that. I was freaked out but I'm positive I'd have been supportive even if I was a guy. And like, I'd probably still have asked all the same questions? Probably got you to explain stuff for me. Maybe there'd have been less hugging and stuff though."

She bit her lip as she hesitated for a moment, then continued "So this is going to sound crazy, but I'm pretty sure one of us got the idea to fix things with magic? Like you're worried about your parents and stuff, and some of the medical stuff sounds scary to me and all that? So like, maybe we started looking for another way to do it? And maybe we found it? And uh..."

Finally she blushed. "Maybe it backfired somehow and I got changed instead of you?"

I listened quietly, but I was frowning now. "That's a lot of maybes, Alexis. But even if you're right and we somehow decided to try doing that, there's no such thing as magic. I mean, it's nice to fantasize about it, but magic's not real."

Lexi nodded, "Yeah. I get that. But you mentioned last night that getting magically turned into a girl would be great? That jogged my memory. I'm sure that's what happened, but I don't remember how. But something changed me from a guy to a girl, and either made it retroactive right back to when I was born, or edited all our memories and my ID and school records and everything else in the world so I was always Alexis. And somehow I was bumped back to Friday morning, to redo the weekend."

She shrugged, "I literally cannot think of any way to explain that without magic. So magic must be real. And somehow you and me found it, or figured it out, or something."

"Ok, you've got me there." I frowned, "I can't think of any other explanation for all that either... But that just makes me start doubting whether it's all real or not, you know?"

Alexis sighed. She stared at the floor and bit her lower lip as she looked thoughtful.

Finally she looked at me and I could see the emotions in her eyes. She looked like she was holding back tears again. She looked sad, and scared.

She whispered, "Chloe, I have to believe it's real. Otherwise I'm just losing my mind or something. And... I get that believing in magic is kind of crazy in itself? But right now it's all I've got to go on."

"Ok Lexi," I nodded. "I want to believe it's true. For both of us. So I'm going to keep any doubts to myself for now. So, magic's real. We're going to figure it out. How do we do this? Where do we go from here?"

"Thanks Chloe," she gave me a weak smile. Then she frowned and focused. "I don't know yet. But we figured it out once, right? So we can figure it out again."

She added, "So first thing, check the internet. I mean it's a long-shot but who knows, right?"

I laughed but nodded, "It's the logical first step."

We both grabbed our phones and settled back on the sofa to start searching. I tried a few different searches. How to turn into a girl, how to turn into a girl with magic, that sort of thing. I quickly figured out that was a dead end. I mean, it's not like I haven't searched that stuff before and the only good it did was introduce me to the world of trans fiction and trans authors.

So I tried a different angle, and started searching for reality-changing magic. That's something I hadn't tried to research before, and it gave me a lot of new, but ultimately useless results. There were lots of hits but it was all fiction. Comics, books, movies, tv shows, games, that sort of thing. But nothing real.

I kept searching, I used different search terms as I tried over and over, to find whatever magical combination of words might yield useful results. The two of us burned through a couple hours without either of us getting anywhere.

Finally Alexis sighed "My battery's almost dead and I'm getting frustrated."

I nodded, "Ditto. On both counts."

She had her charger upstairs in her backpack, mine was in my bedroom. So we both went upstairs and plugged our phones in.

"What do we do now?" she asked, looking up at me.

I sighed and thought for a minute or two, "Well we're not giving up, but I think we need a break. We're out of soda, so how about we go for a walk down to the corner store? We can stock up again, maybe grab some more chips or snacks or whatever. And figure out what to do later for dinner too. Maybe some fresh air will help."

"Yeah, ok." Alexis nodded. "I need a few minutes to get ready though."

She put on a clean pair of socks and her ankle-boots, then went into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. She left the door open and started brushing her hair. She commented while she brushed, "You know, I haven't had any of those deja-vu things all day today. That's kind of worrying me, because it means we're not on the right track. We're not doing what we did before, nothing's jogging my memory."

"Ok," I frowned. "I guess that's like a catch-twenty-two or whatever though? Like we can't figure out how to jog your memory until something jogs your memory."

She frowned as well, "Right. Damnit."

It took her five minutes to brush her hair, then she put on some lipstick. After that we both got our hoodies on again. Her oversized hoodie made her look even smaller, despite the height-boost she got with the heels. On me, the baggy-hoodie look just emphasized how much I was trying to hide who I was. And once again her hair was gorgeous, and the lipstick added a little pop of colour to her face.

She usually carried her wallet in her pants pocket and her phone in her hoodie, but the leggings didn't have any pockets. She went back into the guest-room and dug into her backpack. Out came a cute little black purse with a long thin strap. She slipped it on so the strap was on her right shoulder and across her chest, the purse hung at her left side just above her hip.

I felt another little pang of jealousy, and stifled a sigh as the two of us set out.

We didn't talk much as we walked. I was sort of daydreaming about stumbling onto whatever this magic was we'd been looking for and getting my own miracle. Fantasizing about what I might look like if my whole life got rewritten to make me a cute girl like her.

I almost walked right past the store, but Lexi grabbed my arm and pulled me in the right direction.

As soon as we were inside I groaned silently. Ray was on cash. He was a year older than us, but he was in the same grade. He was a big guy, probably six-foot-one, and muscular. He was also an asshole. Back in grade-school he'd bullied both me and Alexis. He stopped doing the physical bullying when we all started high-school, but switched to mouthing off instead.

"Hey if it isn't Alex and Steve," he said sarcastically as he watched us walk past the counter. "Or is it Alexis and Stephanie? Did you two losers ever figure out if you're a couple gay dudes or gay chicks?"

I cringed but Lexi just laughed, "Raymond, I promise you'll be the last to know."

He glared, "The name's Ray, bitch." He hated being called Raymond.

Lexi picked up a couple two-litre bottles of diet-cola and asked, "Are you sure? That's not what it says on your plastic name-tag."

I just kept quiet as I grabbed us a bag of pretzels and a bag of chips. Lexi was always braver than me, always more self-confident than me. Even when Ray used to pummel us back in grade-school she'd at least try to fight back sometimes.

Ray muttered some swears as he took his name-tag off and stuffed it into his pocket.

He was still grumpy when we came to the counter, but he rang everything up without giving us any more grief. Lexi paid for the snacks, then we turned to leave.

I was already out the door before I realized she'd stopped inside, so I had to turn around and go back in to find out what was wrong.

Alexis was standing just inside the door, looking at a bulletin board on the wall. It was supposed to be like a community message board, where people could post about lost dogs or garage sales or whatever. She was staring at a business card.

She reached up and pulled it off the board, then we both left the shop together.

"What is it?" I asked once we were back outside.

She replied quietly "I had another deja-vu thingy when I saw this."

She handed me the card and I frowned as I read it.

Magic of the Moon
- Occult, Pagan, New Age Boutique -
Madame Selene, proprietor

The address was on Main Street downtown. There was also a phone number and a website.

I looked back at Lexi, "Seriously?"

She replied quietly "Yeah. Not only that but I'm pretty sure I've heard of the place before. It was a few years back, but this girl who used to live next door to me? I'm positive she had a summer job there, before she moved away."

After a moment she sighed, "I don't know. The deja-vu thing makes be want to follow up on this. Like maybe we've been looking in the wrong direction. Like we spent a couple hours searching the internet, maybe we should have been looking around locally instead."

"Ok," I shrugged. "It's the only lead we've got so far."

We had to head back to my place before we did anything else, since both of us left our phones there charging.

When we got back to the house we went upstairs and grabbed our phones. I tried calling the place while Lexi looked up the website.

A minute later I hung up and reported, "It went straight to voicemail. Says they're closed."

She was staring at the her phone screen, and she looked freaked out.

"Lexi? You ok?" I asked.

Alexis nodded, "Yeah. I just got chills looking at this. Another deja-vu thing. I've been there before, recently. I'm sure of it."

She scrolled down the page then added, "Crap we missed them by like ten minutes. They closed at five today. They're open tomorrow though, noon till four. Then closed Monday, for the holiday."

She looked up at me and stated, "We're going back there tomorrow Chloe. For noon sharp, ok?"

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