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

"Thanks Ms. Watson," I smiled to my girlfriend's mom. "We'll call or text when we're ready to come home."

She smiled back, "You girls enjoy yourselves!"

"You too mom. See you later," Bethany said as she closed the back door of the minivan, then we both waved at her mom and Jenny as they pulled back out onto the street and drove off.

The two of us turned and headed up the driveway to the front steps of my parents' house, in almost an exact repeat of thanksgiving. The main difference was this time there was a thick blanket of snow over everything, and parts of the driveway were a little icy and slippery.

It was also like minus fifteen degrees out, so I was bundled up in a long heavy coat and hat and we both had warm winter boots on our feet. My hat was specially made to accommodate my ears which was perfect. Unfortunately I didn't have anything like that for my tail, so it was sticking out the back of my coat. And despite the thick floofy black fur it was cold. Beth on the other hand didn't bother with a hat, and instead of a heavy coat she was just wearing a cute white jacket. Being an arctic fox definitely had its advantages in the winter time.

I reached out and rang the doorbell, then shifted back and forth on my feet while impatiently waiting for someone to answer. After a few seconds I complained quietly, "What's the point of learning how to teleport when we still have to drive places then stand around in the cold?"

"We teleported to the coven on Monday," Beth responded just as softly. "You know we can't do it in public, and that means we can't teleport into your parents' house."

She was right and I knew it, but I still felt cold and grumpy. Fortunately that's when the door swung open, which brought a quick end to that conversation.

"Hello you two!" my dad greeted us with a smile. Like I figured, he was smartly dressed in a button down shirt and tie, and he had a warm sweater-vest on top. "Come on in, you must be freezing out there."

We hurried inside where it was nice and warm, and the smell of roasting turkey and all the trimmings immediately hit my nose. That was another throw-back to thanksgiving. Mom even had the house all decorated again, but now it was xmas stuff instead of the autumn stuff she had on display in October.

Dad took our coats and my hat while Beth and I got out of our winter boots. Then while he was hanging that stuff up in the hall closet my girlfriend and I quickly straightened out our dresses. Bethany also helped make sure my hair wasn't too messy from the hat.

I was in a new black pleated skirt with red highlights and a matching dark red blouse, with a pair of cute red stockings covering my legs and feet. And I was carrying a little clutch purse for my phone and stuff. I was also carrying a couple small gifts I'd brought for my family.

Beth was wearing a new green and red dress, and she had green stockings to compliment my red ones. She also had a little purse hanging from her shoulder by a thin strap. And both of us had our hair done up and nice make-up and all that.

"Wow! You girls look wonderful," dad commented after he finished hanging up our coats.

Then he gestured, "Why don't you get comfortable in the family room? Can I get you both something to drink?"

"Thanks dad," I smiled at the compliment. Then I added, "Water's good for me thanks."

Beth nodded, "I'll have water too please Mr. Lambert."

I was expecting to find my brother waiting in the family room, but there was nobody in there when me and Beth went in to sit down. The TV was on, but instead of sports or some holiday special it was playing one of those fireplace streams, just a big full-screen video of some logs burning on a hearth.

The xmas tree was set up in its usual spot in the corner, so I placed the three small parcels I was carrying beneath it before joining my girlfriend on the love-seat. A few moments after we were comfortable dad came in with a couple glasses of water. Then he moved to sit down in his usual spot, where he had a mug of something waiting for him.

"Is mom in the kitchen?" I asked, after thanking him for the drink. "And where's Dylan? I figured he'd be hanging out here with you."

Dad grimaced and had a gulp of his drink. There was an odd tone in his voice as he replied, "They're both still getting ready upstairs."

After thanksgiving things with my family had gone pretty good, but suddenly I worried there was something else going on and maybe this was going to get awkward after all. I'd had enough unpleasant experiences with them over the years that it wasn't hard to imagine things returning to the bad old days again.

Then we heard someone coming down the stairs, and a moment later mom joined the three of us. She was in one of her best dresses, although she had a sweater on overtop of it. And she was wearing some festive holiday earrings shaped like xmas lights, with a matching necklace.

I noticed she seemed a little distracted when she came into the room, but her expression shifted to a smile when she saw me and my girlfriend.

"Tally, Bethany," she said as she came to greet us. "You're both looking lovely again, those dresses are beautiful."

I got up and gave mom a hug as I thanked her. Then I added, "You look really nice too mom."

She smiled as she hugged me back, "Thanks Tally."

After that mom got seated in her usual spot, on the sofa at the end nearest dad's chair. That's when I noticed dad had disappeared while we were talking to mom, but he returned at moment later with a mug for her too. I realized it was coffee, when I caught the faint aroma competing in the air with the smell of turkey.

Mom thanked him then addressed my girlfriend, "Bethany I hope your family aren't upset that you're having xmas dinner here with us?"

"No ma'am," she shook her head. "We haven't really celebrated it in years? My twin sisters are both off visiting their girlfriends' families today, and since me and Tally are here with you my mom's taking Jenny to go see a movie right now. Then they're probably going to get Chinese food for dinner later. We're going to have a family get-together tomorrow."

My mom was surprised at that, and for a moment I worried she was going to start asking some insensitive questions. Like maybe she wondered why the Watsons didn't celebrate the winter holiday, and I could almost imagine Beth telling my mom that her whole family were witches and they worshipped a Welsh goddess.

That led to me imagining the look on my parents' faces when they heard that, and how they might look if I went ahead and told them I'd become a witch as well. Or that we all went to a big coven sabbat festival on Monday night and had a party with all the other witches.

Fortunately before that scenario had a chance to play out we all heard someone else coming down from upstairs. It didn't sound like Dylan though, it wasn't my big brother's usual stompy sort of footsteps.

My ears tracked the movement, but rather than joining us in the family room they went into the kitchen first. I heard the fridge door open and close, and figured if it was my brother he was getting himself a drink before joining us. I still had one ear aimed at the kitchen when I noticed my parents exchanging an uneasy look.

"Mom, dad?" I asked with a frown. "Is something going on?"

My mom started to respond but hesitated, and my ears twitched again to the sound of someone emerging from the kitchen and coming towards the family room. I turned to look, and that's when things stopped making sense.

Standing in the doorway was an unfamiliar girl carrying a glass of soda. She was an older teen, around the same age as me and Bethany, or maybe a year older at most. She stood almost as tall as Jenny, but she was much slimmer. Like where my girlfriend's sister had some muscle on her, this girl's arms and legs were just as skinny as mine and Beth's.

She was pretty, she had an attractive face with high prominent cheekbones and beautiful bright blue-green eyes. Her hair was black like mine, long loose curls that cascaded halfway down her back. Her skin was fair and flawless, and her full pouty lips were coloured with bright red gloss.

Her belly was flat and her waist narrow, while her hips and behind were both a little bigger than you'd expect on someone who was otherwise kind of skinny. The same with her chest, she filled out the top of her dress quite nicely in fact.

The last thing I noticed was apart from lipstick she didn't seem to have any other make-up on, and for that matter she wasn't dressed up like the rest of us. Her dark green long-sleeve tea-dress was kind of relaxed and casual, and that was overtop of a pair of dark grey leggings. Finally she had some cute white footie-socks to keep her feet warm.

After a few seconds of awkward silence I realized the girl was blushing, while my mom and dad both looked kind of awkward.

I took a breath to ask what was going on when the strange girl suddenly spoke up, in a light airy voice that matched her tall slim willowy figure.

"It's just until the next full moon, ok?" she stated defensively. "I need the extra credit, otherwise I'm going to flunk that stupid social sciences course. And if I have to repeat that one it'll mess up the rest of my schedule."

I found myself staring at her as a hundred questions flashed through my mind. I opened my mouth to talk, but ended up closing it again because there were too many questions and not enough words.

Fortunately my girlfriend got over the surprise way quicker than me. Beth looked the girl up and down then asked, "Would you like us to use a different name for you now? And what pronouns do you prefer?"

My older brother... My sister? That was a concept my brain stumbled over.

My older sibling who'd bullied and beaten me up for most of our life, who'd insisted on deadnaming and misgendering me when I transitioned, who didn't start being civil to me until our dad put his foot down and forced the issue...

That same older sibling blushed even brighter as they responded to my girlfriend's question, "I need to get used to this so um, please call me Lina. And um, she her pronouns."

"Only until I change back though," she added firmly. "I just want to make that clear. I'm only doing this for the grades."

When I finally remembered how to words I demanded, "I thought that interview on Monday was for your course? You had to be planning this all along though, right? Doing the prep spell for the last two weeks? Why didn't you say anything?!"

She huffed as she finally moved to sit at the opposite end of the sofa from our mom. Then after a gulp of her soda she responded, "The interview was my back-up plan, in case I chickened out on this during the full moon Wednesday night. Or in case it didn't work or something."

"Anyways it's no big deal ok?" she tried to insist. "It's just until the next full moon, and I'm only doing this for the extra credit so I don't flunk that class."

I still had a hard time believing it, and I looked to my folks next. "Did you know about this?"

Mom and dad looked even more awkward about the whole situation. Mom shook her head, "No Tally, we had no idea. Having your er, sister come down from her bedroom looking like that Wednesday night was even more of a shock than finding out you'd turned yourself into a foxgirl last May."

She gave Lina a hard look as she added, "I certainly wasn't planning on spending half my day at the mall yesterday, helping someone shop for clothes because it didn't occur to her to do that ahead of time."

The tall slim ravenette was still blushing, and that only got brighter as she also cringed and mumbled an apology. Meanwhile I was staring at my mom as something else went through my mind.

I couldn't help thinking back to my own transformation, when mom flat out refused to get me new clothes despite my telling her I was never going to change back. Part of me wanted to feel angry or upset that she'd rush out to buy Lina new clothes despite the fact that my new sister was only going to need them for a month.

Instead of being upset I decided to focus on the positive. The fact that mom was using the name and pronouns Lina wanted, and she helped her get some new clothes on the busiest shopping day of the year proved to me how much mom had changed in only seven months.

As my own surprise continued to fade I started to realize how funny and weird the whole situation was. Like my big strong tough-guy sibling was now a blushy skinny weak-looking girl. Even if her height hadn't changed that much she probably lost half her body weight in the transformation, and most of that probably came from muscle. In fact she was probably no stronger than me or Beth now, which felt even more ironic.

And while I definitely wasn't going to start bullying her, I couldn't help having a little fun with the situation. Considering how much she'd been blushing in the past couple minutes I decided to try and keep her blushing the rest of the afternoon and evening.

I had a sip of water then smiled, "So Lina, does this mean I can start calling you my big sister?"

Sure enough that brought more colour to her cheeks, and she mumbled "Yes Tally. But only until I change back. Once I'm my normal self again we're all going to forget this month ever happened."

"Of course sis," I replied as I tried not to smirk. "I understand completely."

Unlike me, my girlfriend was actually taking the situation more seriously. She asked, "Lina are you managing ok with the dysphoria?"

My new sister's cheeks remained bright red as she shrugged. Then she replied in her soft airy soprano, "Yeah it's fine. Even though I look like this for now, I'm still the same person inside and I know it's only a month until everything goes back to normal. I can handle it."

"I'm honestly surprised a college prof would give students an assignment like this," Beth commented with a frown. "Did she at least warn you about the risks? Even if it's only for a month, dysphoria and depression can be serious."

Both mom and dad looked surprised and concerned when they heard that, and Lina cringed slightly under the added scrutiny as our folks both gave her a worried look.

"Yeah she warned us about that stuff," my sister mumbled. "And it wasn't an assignment, nobody was forced to do it? Like I said, it's for extra credit. My grades in that class aren't great though so I really need the boost."

Then she added to me and Beth, "Anyways that's why I was also asking you two about um, tails and stuff like that when we talked on Monday? That was the other option, to go demi-human. A month with some furry parts, or a month as the opposite sex."

I smirked again as I said, "And you picked girl. Instead of just adding some fuzzy ears and a tail to your normal self, you completely changed your entire appearance? You didn't even pick a tough butch girl, you went with that?"

By the time I was done Lina's cheeks looked like they were about to burst into flames, she was blushing almost down to her neck. She had a gulp of her cola then stared down at the glass as she fidgeted a bit, before finally mumbling "I thought a tail would be too awkward, especially dealing with chairs and cars and stuff. I didn't want to cut holes in the back of all my pants."

Then with a cute pout she added, "Anyways I didn't pick this exact shape, this is just what happened when I did the stupid spell."

That gave me even more ammunition, but a gentle elbow in my side from Bethany told me it was time to knock it off. So I stopped teasing my temporary sister for a while, and the five of us mostly talked about normal stuff instead.

When the time came I offered to help mom in the kitchen again, and Beth came too. Lina and dad joined us not long after. Mom even put my new sister to work, she had Lina stirring the gravy while I was preparing the squash and Beth mashed the potatoes.

During dinner I managed to subtly tease Lina just enough to keep her cheeks red through the meal. Then after we'd tidied up the dining table we all returned to the family room to exchange gifts.

That's when I realized my mom was in on the whole 'keep Lina blushing' plot, and mom had obviously taken advantage of her last-minute shopping trip the day before. The first parcel my new sister opened from our parents was full of cute lacy bras and panties, and I'd honestly never seen my older sibling so flustered in all my life.

Me and Beth got some cool clothes too, mom gave us matching spring jackets. They were cute and fashionable, and mine was black while Beth's was white.

My family seemed to like the gifts I brought for them as well. I got my mom a couple books on her wish list, and dad was happy with the blue-ray movies I gave him. And Lina thanked me for the video game I gave her, which was another opportunity to tease.

"I was surprised to see that one on your wish list sis," I commented with another smile. "I thought you were mostly into first-person shooters and fighting games, but now I get why you wanted to try something cute and friendly."

That earned me another blushy flustered response from my temporary sister, along with another gentle elbow in the side from my girlfriend. Which was totally worth it, as far as I was concerned.

In fact the whole visit was fun, easily the best xmas I'd ever had. It was surprising, even a bit shocking, but it was also really nice. Me and Bethany actually ended up staying later than we planned, it was nearly ten o'clock when I finally texted Ms. Watson and asked if she could come and get us.

After we got into our boots and coats and stuff my mom and dad both hugged me and thanked me and Beth for coming and all that stuff. Lina came to say goodbye as well, and I couldn't resist getting her flustered one more time.

I pulled her into a surprise hug, then as I held her tight I whispered "You look really good sis. I'm sorry for teasing you so much but I couldn't help it. Seriously though, if you have any more questions or need to talk about stuff let me know, ok? And after you turn yourself back to normal I hope you remember all the stuff you're going to learn this month."

Sure enough her face went bright red again as she squirmed for a second or two. Then after she realized she couldn't break free of my hug she just stood there awkwardly as she whispered back, "Thanks Tally. I'll uh, keep that in mind."

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