“Hi Mum, hi Dad.”

“Hello Grace, how’ve you been?”

We crowded around the door to the dining room, ears pressed against it as we listened to the conversation going on next door.

“Yeah, not too bad. It’s nice to be on uni break, though.”

“Oh, did you get up to much while we were away?”

I can hear both Grace and Mum, but why hasn’t Dad said anything yet?

“Not too much, really. Mostly just catching up on sleep.” Grace’s voice was shaking slightly as she spoke. Come on, keep it together! You can do it!

“What’s with the hoodie?” My Dad’s booming voice echoed loudly through the door.

“I-it’s comfy.” Grace faltered for a moment under Dad’s pressure.

“Don’t wear the hood inside. It’s rude.” He responded.

“O-okay.”

Is she taking the hoodie off? If they see her horns…

 

“What’s with all the cars outside? Are there visitors?” Mum asked.

“Uhh…” Grace stammered, unable to respond.

Uh oh. We didn’t come up with an excuse for that…

“Aeriel. You said that normal humans can’t see you?” I asked, trying to be quiet enough that Mum and Dad couldn’t hear me.

“That’s correct.”

An excuse… I need an excuse… A study group?

“Can you go in there and tell Grace to say that she was in the middle of a study session?”

“Huh? Why?”

Now is not the time to act confused!

“Just do it!” I said desperately. “We need to explain to them why everyone’s cars are parked-”

 

My explanation was interrupted as a loud, anguished scream rang out from the dining room.

“Aaaaaah!”

“Grace!” I yelled, opening the door before I could think. Emily and Zoey pushed through from behind, causing me to fall and tumble into the dining room, with them landing on top of me.

Ow ow ow!

I looked up at Grace, who was desperately holding her rear.

…Her tail’s come back!

Mum and Dad stared at the three of us, collapsed on top of each other in the doorway.

“...Who are you?” I flinched as Dad spoke, his voice low and threatening.

 

“Ack, sorry!”

Zoey quickly levered herself up off me while apologizing, shortly followed by Emily rapidly clambering upright.

“Emily?” Mum spoke up. The bag in her hands fell to the floor as she froze in shock.

“Um, hi Sarah.” Emily responded, embarrassed and nervous.

“What’s with… the ears?”

“Ah, eh, um,” Emily flailed her arms around, trying to come up with a response.

 

“Sarah?” Melissa poked her head around the doorway, peering into the dining room.

“Melissa? Hi, how’ve you been? Um, what’s going on? Why is everyone wearing costumes?” A bright smile flashed briefly on Mum’s face before disappearing as she stared, confused, at the other people in the room.

Costumes? Well, I guess that’s one way to interpret it.

“It’s… a long story?”

 

“Can you explain it to me?” Dad interjected, forcing his way into their conversation.

“Umm… I’m not sure,” Melissa faltered, “It might take a while.”

“That’s fine, we can wait,” Mum replied. “Just let us unpack first.”

Good, that gives us a little bit of a breather.

 

I scrambled upright, pulling Zoey and Emily with me back into the living room. Grace quickly composed herself, following behind me. Melissa pulled the door shut behind us as we dashed past her.

“Alright, everyone into my room.” I called out, running into the hallway while still dragging Zoey and Emily with me.

Wait, did Mum and Dad just hear me say “my room”?

 

*****

 

Less than a minute later, we were all crammed into Grace’s room, rather than mine.

“Wouldn’t it be weird if there were voices coming from your room? You’re meant to be at school,” Grace had pointed out. We quickly changed course, heading to her room instead.

 

“Alright, what’s the plan? How do we explain this?” I stood towards the side of the room,  directing the discussion as best I could.

“What are our options?” Grace asked. “Mum already thinks that these are costumes, and Dad likely thinks the same.”

“If you can hide your horns and scales as well, then that works for you, but…” My voice trailed off as I agonized over my situation, trying to figure out what to do.

“I might be able to, actually. I felt something weird when my tail popped out before. Aeriel, can you come over here for a bit?”

At Grace’s gesturing, Aeriel followed her into the corner of the room. I zoned out for a bit, watching her fiddle around with Grace’s tail.

She can hide parts of herself inside her own body… Or was it inside magical compartments, or something? That’s not the same as completely changing your appearance, though. Can I do that? If I can somehow change my appearance to that of my old self…

“Flora,” Emily said, grabbing my attention.

“W-what?” I responded, slightly startled.

“I don’t think there’s any way to get around it. You’re gonna have to explain what happened to them.”

“How?!” I screamed. “What am I supposed to say? That I just woke up one morning as a girl? Let alone explaining to them that I’m no longer human.”

“Well, what else can you do?”

“I don’t know!”

 

“Can I point out something weird?” Grace said, interrupting our argument.

“What?” I snapped back.

Grace hopped forward towards the middle of the room.

“You know how my tail reappeared in the middle of the conversation before?” She queried.

“Yeah.”

“Didn’t you think that either Mum or Dad would react somewhat? I mean, their daughter… one of their daughters suddenly grew a tail right in front of them.”

Did they not see it? If it’s a similar thing to spirits, with how normal humans can’t see it…

“But, I know Mum definitely saw it. She looked directly at it, and yet… she still thought that it was a costume,” she continued. “So if she watched it appear, then why didn’t she think it was strange?”

I stared at Grace, dumbfounded.

What’s going on? Did Mum and Dad go through a change, and that’s why they don’t think it’s weird? No, but if they did, they probably wouldn’t think that it’s just a costume… but, if they did and no one’s explained it to them…

“If they think that we’re wearing costumes, can we keep going with that?” Elena suggested.

“That doesn’t work for me, though.” I responded.

We can convince them that everything is fine, except for my situation! What am I supposed to do?!

“Plus, we still don’t know what they can and can’t see. Like, can they see my wings?” Zoey added.

“There’s clearly something weird going on, though,” I pondered. “So if we can figure that out-”

Suddenly, a loud knocking sound echoed out from the door.

“Grace? We’ve finished unpacking.”

We’re outta time!

 

*****

 

My heart was racing and a cold sweat dripped down my back as we made our way to the living room.

We’re still not ready! If only we had more information…

We followed behind Mum in single file, eventually arriving at the living room after what felt like an arduous journey. Grace flopped down on the couch, twisting her body slightly to make sure that neither Mum nor Dad could see the horns on the back of her head.

As we all found places to sit, either on the couch or on the carpeted floor, Mira wandered forward to stand in front of Mum and Dad.

“Hellooooo?” She called out, waving her arm around directly in their line of sight. “Can you see me?”

There was no response. It was as if she was invisible.

 

“I didn’t know you were branching out into costumes.” Mum began, turning towards Melissa.

“Um, yeah.” Melissa stammered slightly. “I spend so much of my spare time making dresses, so I thought about trying something different.”

“Ah, that’s good. It’s nice to change things up, every once in a while.” Mum briefly glanced back towards Dad, who was standing behind the couch she was sitting on, with a hand on her shoulder.

Was that why they went on a trip? To ‘change things up’? They spend so much time getting on my case about where I am, and then never tell me where they end up going…

As I sat, quietly fuming, Mum continued speaking.

“I see a few faces I recognise, and a few I don’t. Could you introduce me?”

“Sure. Um, first off…” Melissa gestured towards Elena, who was leaning into the couch rather forcefully, trying to push her wings together behind her back.

“Hi, I’m Elena. I’m one of Melissa’s friends.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Sarah.” Mum said, her voice perfectly polite.

“I’m Zoey, and I’m friends with Emily.”

Mum bowed slightly in her direction.

“Give me a moment, and I’ll see if I can find some snacks for everyone.” Mum started levering herself out of her chair, before Melissa interrupted her.

“There’s one more.” She said, pointing towards me. Mum looked over at me, sitting on the floor next to one of the couches, and gasped.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t even notice you there.”

...So she can see me. If that’s the case, then I’m at least still slightly human, right?

“So what’s your name?”

“I-I’m, uh-.” My voice caught in my throat as I tried to speak.

She doesn't recognise me at all! What do I say?

I froze up, and my hands began trembling.

“---” I opened my mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Emily immediately leapt out of her chair, rushing to my side, closely followed by Zoey. She knelt down beside me, grabbing my hands and holding them close to her. Zoey sat down on the other side.

 

Even though Emily was holding my hands, my anxiety didn’t fade. My brain worked at a million miles a minute trying to work out what to say, but it was no use.

“I can’t do this!” I wailed, burying my head into Emily’s shoulder. She released one of my hands and began stroking my head, trying to calm me down.

I just… completely blanked! What am I supposed to say? Am I supposed to pretend to be someone else? Could I even explain what happened?

“What’s going on? Are you okay?” Mum said, her voice full of concern.

Can I even call her ‘Mum’ anymore?

 

“Sorry, she went through a bit of a rough time while you were away.” Emily spoke up, turning to face Mum. Relieved, I looked up at her.

Suddenly, Emily's eyes began glowing, and a few small spurts of flame popped up on her tail.

“Her name is Flora. She’s your daughter.”

 

“I don't have a daughter,” my mother replied.

 

 

“Uh, um-” I stammered.

“I don't know you. Who are you, really?”

I shrunk back under her intense gaze, as she leaned forward to scrutinize me.

Even if I tell her, she’s not gonna believe me!

“I’m… I…” I blanked, completely unable to think of what to say.

 

After a few moments of panicking, I bolted.

I can’t, I can’t, I just can’t! There’s no possible thing I could say that would make her believe me!

Arriving at the front door, I reached for the handle in order to pull it open, but my hand went completely through it.

...Huh? What?!

Frantically reaching for the doorknob, I tried to grab it a few more times, before realising that my feet had left the ground.

When did I start floating?! Did… did Mum see me?

Suddenly, footsteps began echoing down the hall behind me. I spun around just in time to see Mum appear, followed by Emily, Zoey, and Melissa. Flailing my legs around, I tried to land on the ground as Mum approached, a confused expression on her face.

“Huh? Where’d she go?”

Mum continued walking forward, eyes focused on the door. I quickly floated to the side as she nearly walked into me, pressing myself close to the wall.

“Can… can she not see me?” I whispered to Emily, who had stopped just next to me.

“Probably not.” She said, gesturing towards Mum, who had opened the door and was peering outside.

“Hey, Sarah?” Melissa called out to Mum, who promptly pulled her head back inside, spinning around to face us.

“I think we’ll head home now.” She continued.

“Um, alright. Goodbye, then.”

 

“Come with us,” Emily whispered.

What is she planning?

 

*****

 

Once I had managed to land back on the ground, the four of us clambered into Melissa’s car. It took me a while to find my footing again, but I couldn’t sit down on the car seats if I was floating, as I just phased right through them.

It’s the same thing as the doorknob. If I’m floating, can I not touch things? Aeriel said something about ‘materializing’...

“Flora,” Melissa said, breaking my train of thought.

“Y-yeah?”

“Right now, you’ve got two options. You can either try and tell Sarah who you are again, or you can stay at someone else’s place.”

I don’t think there’s any way I can convince her, to be honest…

“I’ll… I’ll stay somewhere else.” I replied.

“Alright,” She continued, stopping the car just outside her and Emily’s house. “In that case, do you want to stay at our place? We have an extra room.”

“Yes, please!” I immediately took her up on her offer.

 

“If you need to,” Zoey spoke up as we climbed out of Emily’s car, “you can crash at my place too. We don’t have any extra rooms, but we have a couch you can sleep on. My parents are pretty understanding, as well.”

“Thanks, Zoey.” If Mum comes to… investigate here, I may have to do that. Especially if… she ends up thinking that ‘Felix’ has gone missing.

 

Following Melissa inside, I slowly made my way to the living room.

Will I… never again be able to go home?

Wandering over to the couch, I flopped down into it, exhausted. Grabbing a throw cushion from beside me, I buried my face into it, curled up into a ball, and cried.