=::= Tally's PoV =::=

"So as far as my friends and the teachers and everyone else knew, I started a normal transition over the summer. From their perspective, at the end of grade seven I went into summer break as a boy and when I started grade eight in the fall I told everyone my new name and that I was a girl."

Jenny paused for a sip of her cola, then continued quietly "People thought I got hair extensions and stuff like that? They could tell I looked different from before, like I was obviously a girl? But there was no magic back then. Basically everyone assumed my mom and sisters were helping me figure out clothes and make-up and stuff like that."

She added, "Doing it over the summer break helped a lot. And having my mom and sisters all supporting me was huge too of course."

The three of us had all finished our lunch, but we had another fifteen minutes before we had to get to English. So we were hanging out in the cafeteria, and I was getting to know my girlfriend's sister a little better. We were all keeping our voices down as we talked about this stuff, since some of it was kind of secret. And it was definitely personal, like it wasn't stuff anybody else needed to know about.

"Wow," I commented quietly as I sipped my water. "So you had a complete magical transition, but you had to pretend you were transitioning the old-fashioned way? How'd you handle that with doctors or other health people?"

Jen shrugged, "Mom switched me to a different doctor and just didn't mention that stuff, so the new doctor assumed I was a cis girl? The coven got me updated ID so I didn't even have to do the paperwork. Of course it was a lot harder and slower back then, not like today where you can get it done on the spot at places like QSAW."

That made me grimace slightly. I knew about that stuff, 'back then' was only two years ago after all. I knew how complicated it was to do something as simple as updating your name or gender marker.

After draining the last of my water I commented, "I'm sure it didn't hurt that your mom's the head of QSAW. Like if any teachers or doctors or anybody else gave you a hard time, I bet your mom could totally put them in their place."

For some reason Beth blushed at my words, while Jenny cringed slightly.

"Uh," Jen sounded awkward and she gave her little sister a funny look. "Actually we had a different mom back then."

I looked back and forth between them and asked, "Huh? What do you mean, a different mom?"

My girlfriend was still blushing, while Jenny grimaced.

"It's a long story and we don't really talk about this much," Jen explained quietly. "Our real mom um, died, almost three years ago."

My eyes went wide at this revelation. I had no idea my girlfriend's mom died, she never mentioned anything like that and I always thought Ms. Watson was like a perfect mom to Bethany and Jenny. Though it did sort of explain why the two fair-skinned blonde-haired blue-eyed girls had a mom with olive skin, dark hair, and brown eyes.

Beth sighed and asked her sister, "Please don't say 'real mom', ok Jen? That makes it sound like Maria isn't a real mom. But she's our real mom now, since she adopted us. Maybe use words like bio mom or first mom for Liz? If that's ok?"

I watched in confusion as the two sisters exchanged a look, but I couldn't begin to guess what their expressions meant. It probably all came down to 'complicated'.

"Ok Beth. I'm sorry," the taller blonde backed down. She looked back at me and continued, "It was just a month after we started grade nine. My bio mom died, and our aunt Maria started looking after us. That's when Beth came to live with us too."

"Huh?" I looked at my girlfriend again.

Bethany nodded slightly, "Originally I was their cousin. Jenny Amanda and Sadie are all biological sisters, I was 'cousin Beth'. But our new mom adopted all four of us? That made us all sisters."

She added, "Didn't you ever wonder how me and Jenny were sisters but our birthdays are only like six months apart? That can't really happen normally."

"Right," I nodded slowly. "So if she adopted all four of you, then she's not your bio mom either?"

My girlfriend shook her head and said quietly, "I don't want to talk about that stuff ok? I'm sorry. Maria is my mom now, Jenny and Amanda and Sadie are my sisters. That's all that matters."

"Sorry Beth. Sorry Jen. I didn't mean to upset anyone," I apologized quietly.

Bethany smiled, "It's ok Tally."

I was still kicking myself for being so insensitive, like obviously both her and Jenny had a lot of bad stuff happen if they had to be adopted by their aunt. And I remembered Beth said just yesterday that her family went through a lot of trouble a few years ago, obviously it was stuff they didn't want to talk about.

Jen drained the last of her cola then said, "Anyways that's how I got away with it. Doing it over the summer, and luckily being only twelve I hadn't got too far into the wrong puberty? So yeah, it was timing and luck."

"That's cool," I smiled. "I'm glad you got to do that when you were twelve. I'm glad your parents and sisters were all so supportive and stuff too."

I added quickly, "Or your moms I mean? Sorry, I hope I'm not making it weird."

Jenny smiled, "It's ok Tally."

That made me feel better and I smiled back. It was kind of cool getting to know Jenny better. I'd always been a little scared of her, or at least in awe of her after she broke my brother's nose back when I was in grade nine. Not that I knew her back then, or Beth either.

And trying to get to know her better led me to another question that I probably should have thought about before just blurting it out.

"So how come I've never seen you with a girlfriend?" I asked the tall blonde. A moment later I added, "Or a boyfriend?"

Jen replied with a shrug, "I haven't really been interested in dating or anything like that? I think I'm probably aro/ace, like my mom."

"Second mom I mean," she added with a grin as she looked at Bethany. "First mom's obviously not aro or ace."

My girlfriend blushed and rolled her eyes slightly, and once again I was left wondering what all their little looks and smiles and things meant. It felt like there were a bunch of secret jokes or messages or something going on behind the scenes, stuff they probably didn't want to talk about or didn't want me to know.

Before I could ask about any of that, Beth suggested "We should get going or we'll be late for English."

Jenny agreed, and all three of us got up. We were all in the same English class, so we all headed out together and made our way up to the second floor. Mrs. Burrells' classroom was basically at the opposite end of the school from the cafeteria.

The halls were getting crowded again with everyone trying to get to their next period, and I was still getting lots of stares from people. I felt a little less self-conscious about it though. With Bethany and Jennifer on either side of me, and the way things went pretty good with Mr. Farran earlier, I was starting to feel like things were going to work out all right.

We were about a dozen meters from the door to our English class when I was completely caught off-guard by someone grabbing my tail and yanking on it so hard it's like they were trying to pull it off me.

I fell backwards and landed on my ass as I let out a bit of a shriek. Oddly neither the tug or the fall hurt in any way, but it definitely startled me.

Jen and Beth spun around to see what happened, as I found myself looking up at my big brother Dylan.

"Hey loser," he sneered down at me. "I heard you tried to change your name yesterday? You think just because you got a piece of paper, everybody's going to stop calling you -"

Beth interrupted as she stated forcefully, "Her name is Tally!"

She quickly moved to put herself between my big brother and me, while I scrambled to my feet. It was kind of crazy, Dylan was almost two years older, eight or nine inches taller, and probably seventy pounds heavier than Beth. But my girlfriend acted like she had no fear at all, she just glared up at him as if daring him to do something.

Dylan scoffed and told her, "Piss off you little freak. This is between me and my brother."

There was already a crowd gathered around watching, and he spoke loud enough that everyone could hear him. He also put heavy emphasis on that last word, rubbing it in.

Hearing it made my stomach churn, and the whole situation had my heart racing.

Even if I wasn't at home with the family, I'd have to see him every day at school for the rest of the month. I knew he was going to torment me every chance he got. And I knew he'd make a point of misgendering me and deadnaming me at every possible opportunity.

My tail was down between my legs, and I could feel my ears were folded back as well. It probably made me look meek and cowardly, but I couldn't help it. And even though I wasn't hurt when Dylan yanked my tail, I was still in shock about the whole situation.

My girlfriend continued staring up at him as she replied calmly, "Acting physically threatening towards us, assaulting and misgendering your sister doesn't really help your image any. Please just leave us alone, we have to get to class now."

"Whatever," was Dylan's witty retort. Then he shoved Beth aside hard enough that she crashed into some of the students who were standing around watching.

He got one step closer to me when another voice cut through the murmur of the students that surrounded us.

"Dylan Lambert, my office, right now!"

It was Mrs. Chaudhri, the school principal. I had no idea what she was doing there in the hall with us, we were nowhere near the admin offices.

My brother's shoulders slumped but he glared at me and muttered, "This isn't over yet, freak."

The principal pushed her way past the other students as she told them all to get to their classes. She had Dylan go stand a few meters away, then she asked if me and Beth were both ok.

I nodded quietly, but I was too shaken to give her any more detail than that. Beth answered that she was fine too, so Mrs. Chaudhri told us both to get to class. Then she turned around and marched my brother away towards the office.

The crowd of students who'd gathered around were all hurrying away to get to their classes, except one who moved towards us.

It was the non-binary fox-kin, and as they approached they asked "You sure you're ok? Last time my tail got yanked like that it was sore for a week."

Beth was at my side again and it felt like she was ready to stand up for me, but the fox-kin's tone wasn't mocking or teasing. They actually sounded worried for me.

"I'm alright," I replied quietly.

"Good," they smiled. Then they held out their hand and added, "I'm Sienna by the way. Nice to see another fox here at school."

I blushed as I shook their hand, "Hi Sienna. I'm Tally, and this is Beth."

"Hi," Beth smiled at them.

Jenny was next to me again now too, she had her phone in hand as she commented "That was lucky having Mrs. Chaudhri show up like that. I started recording the whole thing like Sadie told us, but I missed the start obviously. And hi, I'm Jenny."

"Hello Jenny and Beth," the fox-kin replied. "And it wasn't luck. I overheard him earlier, telling his friends what he was planning. These big radar-ears are pretty good for that kind of thing, you know? So I told the principal."

Sienna added to me, "That guy's your brother huh? That sure sucks. I hope you're going to be ok at home?"

"I'm ok," I half-mumbled. "I'm not staying at home. It's only here at school he can get at me."

They gave me a sympathetic look, "Sounds like things are rough. Been there, done that. Don't sweat it though, ok? Things will get better."

I wasn't sure how to respond to that, but the bell rang before I had the chance to think of something.

And by that point the hall was almost empty, apart from the four of us standing there near our English class.

Sienna turned and headed away as they said, "See you around Tally. Stay safe."

"Bye," I replied. "And thanks for the help!"

They waved over their shoulder as they hurried off down the hall and around a corner.

Then me and Beth and Jenny finally went into English class. Like at Mr. Farran's class this morning our late entrance meant everyone was staring at us.

Jenny headed for her seat while Beth stayed next to me as I quietly dug out my student card and introduced myself to the teacher. Mrs. Burrells wasn't anywhere near as nice as Mr. Farran was. She looked at my last name then deadnamed me asking if that's who I 'really' was.

I was still in a little shock over the whole incident with Dylan, but at the same time I was feeling kind of buoyed by Sienna's help. And my girlfriend and her sister were both there supporting me too.

So with confidence that surprised even me, I straightened my back and stated in a loud calm voice "No ma'am, that was just an act. I'm Tally, and this is the real me."