"I trust you both enjoyed your purchases?" Amber asked as she sat down with her lunch tray. She even managed to keep a straight face, at least for a few more seconds.

I giggled, "Oh yeah! That gel stuff was fun, so were the toys."

Our cute brunette friend blushed and shrank into her hoodie rather than taking it off. I got the distinct feeling she was suddenly regretting that she'd mentioned the topic at all.

The three of us met up in the cafeteria again for lunch as usual. It was Friday today, and me and Melissa had a few days to try out the goodies we bought Tuesday night. Today wasn't just any normal Friday though. For one thing it was Friday the thirteenth, but none of us were superstitious or anything like that. More importantly, it was the last day before spring break and everybody was eager to get through the last few classes.

Melissa had a slight grin on her face as she asked, "If you don't mind talking shop over lunch Amber, I actually have some questions."

The brunette was still half-hidden in her oversized clothes as she grimaced, "I guess I brought it up, so ok. What did you want to know?"

Our tall blonde girlfriend smiled but she asked her question in a calm casual tone, and I quickly realized it was a serious question rather than an attempt to tease Amber.

"That rabbit thing's a lot of fun, but the battery's only good for an hour or so? And it's obviously not meant to be 'worn' all day long. I was wondering if you had something that was similar, that could be remote-controlled through an app like that but was also better suited to be worn through the day?"

As soon as Amber realized Melissa was serious she sort of relaxed. Her hoodie came off and was draped over the back of her chair, and the three of us started eating as we talked.

"The biggest problem is always going to be the batteries," Amber replied. "There are some toys that can be worn like that, but they have an external battery pack. You'd have to clip that on the waist band of your clothes, or attach it to a garter around your leg to keep it hidden. I assume the idea is so someone on your 'authorized' list could trigger it during the day?"

Melissa grinned as she nodded "Pretty much. I thought it might be a fun distraction. Better than getting a text message, right?"

After a sip of her root beer Amber smiled, "I read about something they had back in the eighties, when they used to have pagers? You know those little things people had clipped on their belt, if someone called the thing beeped and displayed the phone number that called you and you had to go find a phone to call back? Anyways you could get panties that had a special pocket that the pager would slip into. Then you turned off the beeper and just had it set on vibrate mode. So whenever anyone paged you, bzzt bzzt bzzt. Only drawback was you had to strip to find out who called."

I stared at Amber for a few seconds then burst out giggling, "Is that for real?"

Melissa was grinning too, "That sounds perfect. I don't suppose there's anything like that still around though?"

"It's for real," Amber replied. "And I don't think they even have a pager network anymore, everyone just uses smartphones right? Too bad, it sounds like a fun product."

"Aww," Melissa pouted.

Amber shrugged, "I'll look into things when I'm at work tomorrow, I'll see what I can find for you. I'm sure there's something to meet your needs."

The three of us continued eating, and as that subject seemed to be over I switched to a new topic.

"No Matt today?" I asked Amber in between bites of my pizza slice.

She shook her head, "I think he was busy or something today. Why?"

I smiled, "Just curious. I've been wondering if you two are getting a little closer lately?"

She blushed but rolled her eyes, "We're still just friends Mara. I'm not into him like that and I doubt he's into me that way either."

"Ok," I replied then busied myself with another bite of lunch. I already knew her friend's feelings had shifted but apparently Amber didn't know that yet.

Melissa commented, "You might find that changes in time Amber. I know you two were just friends for a long time but now you're a very cute girl, and he's a guy. And you said he's not clinging to the way you used to be, like he's accepting you for who you are?"

Amber blushed brighter as she shrugged, "Yeah, he's been accepting and getting to know the real me? But I don't know. I haven't noticed anything different about him."

"You don't have to answer this if you don't want," Melissa said quietly, "But I'm curious. If he did get interested in more of a relationship, would you be up for that? I guess what I'm getting at is, are you into guys at all?"

I stayed quiet and kept out of this part of the conversation. Though it left me wondering if Melissa had noticed that Matt was getting more interested in Amber, or if it was more like she was smart enough to know there was a strong possibility.

Amber shrugged again, "For me it's not really about what's between someone's legs, like being straight or gay? That feels like it's not applicable to me? I need a strong emotional attachment to someone before I can get interested in them in any kind of sexual way. And that usually means I need to be friends with them before that emotional attachment can form. So I get attached to and interested in them as a person for who they are, not their body or how it's shaped."

Me and Melissa were both quiet for a few moments after that, as we thought through what Amber was telling us. After a minute or so it was our tall blonde girlfriend who spoke up with another question.

"Usually? So do you sometimes form an emotional bond before friendship? How's that work?"

She added quickly, "Sorry if I'm asking too many questions, I'm still really curious about all this. You can tell me to shut up if I'm annoying you."

"It's fine," Amber replied with a smile. "And it's not that I get emotionally attached to someone without being friends first, but there's situations where you can become emotionally invested in someone without being friends at all."

She blushed slightly and elaborated, "Like basically I mean, characters in books or movies? You can relate to and become emotionally invested in a character, but obviously there's never any possibility of friendship because they're not real. Sometimes I'll get interested in a character like that, after I've got to know them and become invested in their story or their life."

Amber finally shrugged, "Anyways I guess it's complicated, and at first I just assumed that's how everyone else was too? Eventually I figured out that I was the weird one and most other people can get turned on by complete strangers if they have the right-shaped body."

"Not weird," I stated firmly. "It's just another way to be, no different than being gay or bi or pan or whatever."

Melissa rolled her eyes, "And those are weird too, according to cis-hetero-normative society."

I frowned, "Well they shouldn't be."

Neither of them could argue with that.

As we all finished lunch Amber asked, "You're all still on for dinner tonight right?"

"For sure," Melissa replied with a smile. "We'll be there for six, is that ok?"

Amber nodded, "Yeah. Mom's probably going to have dinner ready for seven, but if you're all there around six that gives us lots of time to do introductions and talk, maybe have some drinks?"

Me and Melissa and Susan had all been invited to go have dinner with Amber's family, and I could tell she was anxious about it. Excited, but anxious. And to be honest I was a little wary as well.

My plan was to just stay quiet and be polite and not get too talkative. That would keep me from accidentally blurting out anything I shouldn't. And I'd be extra careful to keep my horns and tail hidden and absolutely positively wouldn't show them off, no matter how tempted I might get.

"Me and Sue will keep an eye on Mara," Melissa added with a grin. "I'm sure Lily will too, so everything will be fine."

I pouted, "I'm not that bad that I need three people monitoring me."

"Uh-huh," Melissa said with a smile. "Says the girl who thought xmas day was an appropriate time to come out as half-demon, and did so by surprising her mom and her mom's girlfriend by revealing her horns and tail right after we all exchanged gifts."

Amber's eyes widened as she stared at me, while I cringed and blushed.

Our tall blonde girlfriend smiled to Amber, "Don't worry. Emma and Carol got over the shock, and they both accept Mara for who and what she is."

"That's good to know," the cute brunette replied. "And that's a story I think I'd like to hear, but it'll have to wait. It's time to get back to class I think."

Drama was our last class of the day, and last class before spring break. I was still making an effort and it had become one of my favourite classes. I wasn't ready to change my major or anything, but I definitely enjoyed it. I still had trouble when we were doing really boring stuff, but I had fun with most of it.

When it was finally over me and Melissa gathered up our stuff and headed out to the parking lot. We had a few hours before we needed to be over at Amber's place, but we both wanted to shower and get changed and dressed up nice and everything. And Sue would probably be doing the same thing, so all three of us would want a turn in the bathroom.

Out in the parking lot we got to the far end where Melissa's car was parked, then we both came to a halt as we stared at it.

"Fuck," Melissa sighed.

The back window of her car had been smashed, all four tires were slashed, and there were transmisic slurs scratched into the paint.

I clenched my teeth and my fists. I didn't know which of them did it, but I had four suspects in mind.

Before either Melissa or I could say anything else I felt Lily's presence. She didn't exactly step out and take over but it felt like she suddenly came much closer to me. And as me and Melissa stared, the damage to her car was magically healed.

The tires sealed and re-inflated, the scratches faded from the paint, and all the broken glass in the back seat came back together into a rear window and the cracks all disappeared.

"Holy shit," Melissa grinned. "That was cool. Thanks Lily!"

My demon mom replied, "Tell her she's welcome."

I passed that on as the two of us climbed into the car.

She started it up and commented, "You figure it was those guys who used to hang out with Matt?"

"Who else?" I asked.

Melissa pointed out, "At least they didn't hurt anyone, it's just a car. And it's really nice that Lily was able to fix it."

As we pulled out of the parking lot me and Melissa and Lily all saw them. Jim and Rahul were standing by the exit, probably watching for us. The two guys looked over at us as we slowly drove past, and both Melissa and I saw the shock on their faces as they stared. Meanwhile the two of us were completely unfazed and her car was obviously undamaged.

My demonic intuition thing kicked in as I kept my eyes on them while we slowly drove past.

They'd been watching and waiting to see if a tow-truck showed up. Or if the police would arrive. The guys weren't going to interfere, they just wanted to watch the excitement from a distance. I also learned all four of them were involved, like between vandalizing the car and acting as lookouts to make sure they weren't caught.

And finally, these two were both convinced they must have vandalized the wrong car. It was the only explanation for what they were seeing.

A few seconds later we were on the road, and Melissa glanced at me then said "Let it go Mara. Like I said, it's just a car. Don't go looking for more trouble."

"It's just a car this time," I said quietly. "But it wasn't simple vandalism. Scratching those words into the paint made it a hate crime. And now I'm worried what they'll try next."

Lily spoke up, "Melissa is right Mara. Let it go. I'm here watching over the four of you, that's all that matters."

I sighed, but I relayed what she said to Melissa. Then I replied, "Ok Lily. I'll try."

As we pulled into the underground parking my girlfriend reminded me, "We need to get prettied up to go meet Amber's folks tonight, remember? And it's the start of spring break, so we won't have to see those guys again any time soon. So let's focus on the fun stuff, and don't worry about those assholes."

"Ok Melissa," I forced a smile. "You're right, we've got better things to think about."

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