=::= Beth's PoV =::=

"Any news yet?" I asked as I waited for the toaster to pop.

Tally was already at the kitchen table, munching on a slice of toast covered in peanut butter. She had her phone in the other hand, she'd been practically glued to social media all morning.

"Nope," she replied after swallowing. "The full moon peaked ten minutes ago but she, or he, hasn't posted anything yet."

"Who hasn't posted yet?" Jenny asked as she joined us in the kitchen. She grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and a box of cereal from the pantry.

"My sibling," Tally replied. "I don't even know what name or pronouns to use right now. They said they were going to change back at the full moon this morning? The month is over, everything's supposed to go back to normal for them now. They said they'd send an update afterwards, but I've been watching for the last fifteen minutes and nothing's come up."

My toast finally popped so I pulled it out and added some butter, followed by a layer of strawberry jam. Then I took that and a glass of water over to the table and sat down next to my girlfriend.

"I think you should stick with calling her Lina and using she her pronouns. It's best not to make assumptions," I said, before taking a bite of my breakfast.

Tally frowned, "I guess. But she was pretty adamant it was just a one-month thing, right? For extra credit so she wouldn't fail that class?"

I shrugged as I was munching on my food, then after I swallowed I replied "I'd still wait until she tells you herself. I think it's the polite thing to do."

Jenny gave me a look as she sat down across from us with her cereal. She didn't say anything though, she just smiled as she stuffed a heaping spoonful of the colourful sugary stuff into her mouth.

"Maybe I should text or something?" Tally said as she frowned at her phone. "What if something went wrong with the spell?"

Jenny rolled her eyes, "It's pretty much foolproof. More likely she's just got other stuff to deal with. It's the last day of exams week for her too you know? I'm sure she's busy. Or maybe she's so busy with school she forgot to do the spell? Or missed the prep spell or something."

"I doubt she'd forget or mess it up or something," I replied. "But I could see her doing it then rushing to get ready for an exam or something. So just chill Tally, I'm sure it'll be fine."

My girlfriend sighed and finished her toast, then decided "I'm going to send a text, to see if she's ok."

While she was doing that I looked to my sister and asked, "So are you ready for our big English exam this morning?"

"Pfft," Jenny rolled her eyes. "I guess? What about you?"

I nodded, "It's supposed to be an essay, so I've been going over all the stuff Mrs. Burrells has said this year about essay structure. That's about all I could think to study, since we won't know the topic until we see the exam."

"What about the afternoon? You're writing History today right?" Jenny asked.

"Yeah. I'm less confident about that one, but I've been trying to memorize all the important dates and events we covered this semester," I said.

Then I asked, "What about you? It's Geography for you, right?"

Jenny shrugged, "Yeah. I figure it'll be fine. I'm not going to ace anything, but I won't fail either."

Then she changed the subject, "What's mom up to this morning? Have you seen her at all yet? I figured she'd be down here bugging all three of us about last-minute studying and stuff. Is she still going to drive us to school?"

"Or do you figure I get to drive us in today?" she added with a grin.

I rolled my eyes as I finished the last of my toast. "I haven't seen her yet. I know she's up, I heard her moving around in her room, but as far as I know she hasn't come downstairs. And I'm not sure she'd be happy if you just helped yourself to the minivan without asking first."

Jen made a face, but a moment later that turned to a smirk. "We could always just teleport to school. That'd be even quicker and better than driving, we could avoid the snow and cold completely."

"You know how much trouble we'd get in if we did that," I reminded her.

"We'd be careful about it!" my sister protested. "Like teleport somewhere nobody would see us. Maybe we could use one of the washrooms or something?"

I just shook my head then decided, "If mom hasn't come downstairs by eight then I'll going up and check on her."

That was about ten minutes away, and in the meantime I asked Tally "Did you text Lina? What did she say?"

"I texted but she hasn't got back to me yet," she replied. "My mom texted though, she wanted to know if I heard anything yet. Apparently her and dad are both waiting for news as well."

"Or maybe it's just mom who's been waiting. I'm sure she's uptight about Lina changing back," she added with a frown.

Jenny asked, "Why exactly are any of you uptight about it? What's it matter to you if she changes back to her old self?"

Tally grimaced, "I don't know? I'm not saying I want her to change back, but I'm not saying I don't want that either? I was hoping we'd get a chance to talk more while she was Lina, but other than xmas and we only really had one long phone conversation before the break ended. Then a couple texts at the start of January, but I haven't really heard from her at all for the last two weeks?"

"You're worried about her huh?" I asked.

"I guess," my girlfriend blushed. "It's weird, but yeah. I mean, I'm positive she's not trans. She's not going to stay like that. I'm worried she's been quiet because of dysphoria or depression or whatever? And even though she bullied me and stuff, she's still my sibling. And the last few times I've seen her and talked to her she's been a lot nicer to me."

I smiled, "It's nice that you're worried for your big sis, but I'm sure she'll be fine Tally. And I'm sure you'll hear from her soon, so don't sweat it ok?"

She nodded slowly, "I guess you're right. Thanks Beth."

I leaned closer and gave her a hug, then got up and picked up her empty plate along with mine. Jenny was finished her cereal by that point so I grabbed her bowl too, and took everything over to the sink.

I was just starting to rinse things out when I was surprised to see Sadie walk into the kitchen, wearing one of Amanda's casual outfits. For a second or two I wondered if she came home with us last night after the coven meeting, instead of going back to the city with Amanda Ashley and Brittany. Except I knew all four of them had exams this week just like everyone else.

Part of the surprise was seeing my brunette sister dressed so casually. Sadie was the fashionista of the family, her showing up in faded jeans and a t-shirt was even more unusual than having her appear out of the blue first thing in the morning.

Jenny and Tally were both staring as well, and I started to ask what was going on when the next shock hit me. Now that I was actually looking at the young brunette woman standing in the kitchen doorway I realized that she wasn't Sadie at all.

My mouth hung open as I stared wide-eyed, while Jenny took the words out of my mouth.

"Mom?!" the tall blonde teen gasped. "What the heck happened to you?!"

Our middle-aged forty-something year old adoptive mother now looked like she could pass as one of the twins. The fact that she was definitely wearing some of Amanda's old clothes made that abundantly clear. Mom didn't look a day over twenty now, and I was positive she'd lost a little bit of height. Her body shape was similar to the twins too, and her skin tone matched as well.

The biggest difference I could see now that I was really studying her was her hair and eyes. She still had the same eyes as before, and her hair was a darker shade of brown than Sadie's. It was as long as Sadie wore hers though, hanging straight about halfway down her back.

By that point mom was blushing from all the stares. She asked nervously, "Is it too much? It's too much, isn't it? Maybe I shouldn't have done this. I can still reverse it, as long as nobody outside the house has seen me I can just go back to normal and pretend it never happened..."

Her voice was different from the twins too, but not by much. I was positive if she was next to Amanda and Sadie the three of them could probably pass as triplets. Definitely sisters anyways.

Jenny shook her head, "Why though? Did you use Cindy's spell? Is that what you've been up to this morning?"

"Not exactly," mom replied. She was still blushing, maybe even cringing as she got herself a glass of orange juice. She stood by the counter instead of sitting down at the table, and after a sip of her drink she started to explain.

"I've been thinking a lot lately," she said, "About the fact that my job at QSAW involves dealing with a lot of people who've used that spell. I've been giving people advice without any direct first-hand experience. Almost everyone else there has used it, or benefited from magic in some other way. But I run the place, and I've never used it myself."

Mom frowned, "That's not just the case at work either. I'm sure you all know I'm probably the only one in the entire coven who hasn't been directly touched by magic. I'm also the only one in our family who's never been touched or changed by magic. I've spent the past few years clinging to that for some reason, without seeing the hypocrisy of it. Until someone pointed it out recently."

"So you decided to make yourself younger?" I asked.

She blushed again, "I spent the last ten days trying to figure out what to do Beth, what to try. I considered something more radical but... I know dysphoria is no joke and perhaps I'm a bit of a coward but I didn't want to subject myself to that for a full month. I also considered something more like what you did last summer? But I don't really feel that strongly about any particular animal that I'd want to have some furry anatomy for the duration either."

"So this seemed like the best, least-disruptive option," she said as she sort of gestured at herself. "I suppose people will think it's a vanity thing, and maybe it is? But it's an unmistakable change. Once I step out the front door and take you girls to school people will know what I've done. And I'll have to stay like this until the next full moon."

"Unless I chicken out and change back first," she added quietly, as if talking to herself.

All three of us were quiet for the next minute or so, still staring at mom while all that stuff sank in.

Mom drained the last of her juice then glanced at me and Jenny as she asked, "What do you think girls? Is it too much? Should I reverse this? Or tough it out for a month?"

Once again Jenny was the first to respond. She shrugged, "Keep it. You look good. Other grown-ups might start treating you like a teen again but whatever."

"Jenny's got a point there," I added. "Until they realize it's you, they're going to assume you're a college student or high-school grad."

Mom grimaced, "I figured. Maybe I went too young? It was really hard to decide what to do, it honestly came down to a last minute decision this morning. That's why I took so long."

"I think you look good Ms. Watson," my girlfriend finally spoke up. "And I think you're brave for doing that, when you didn't really have to. I think it helps show people that the spell isn't just for folks who are different or marginalized. When normal people start using it too it shows other normal folks that it's ok."

Mom smiled, "Thank you Tally. Another young woman told me something very similar last week."

"Anyways let's all start getting ready ok?" mom suggested. "I need to get you girls to school, then I need to go and re-introduce myself to my colleagues at QSAW."

Tally and Jenny both started to get up from the table, when my girlfriend's phone started buzzing. She checked it then said "I have to take this! It's a video-call from my sibling."

"Ok Tally but please don't be too long," mom said.

She and Jenny headed out of the kitchen while I moved to my girlfriend's side as she swiped the screen to answer the call.

There on the screen was Tally's big sister Lina. She was still a tall slim willowy girl, but there were a few notable differences from when we saw her back at xmas. The most obvious was her hair. The long wavy raven locks were now a very pale blonde, while her blue-green eyes had faded to a pale light green. Her skin remained fair, and with the blonde hair and pale eyes the over-all effect made her look even more fragile and delicate than before.

"Hello sis," Lina spoke, in the same soft airy soprano as before. "Surprise? I'm sorry it took so long to get back to you this morning. I had to get dressed and everything, and I can't talk long. I have an exam in less than an hour, and I'm sure you've got one or two today as well?"

Tally was definitely staring, I had to give her a little nudge to get her to respond.

"Uh yeah," my girlfriend nodded. "Sorry sis. So um, what happened?"

Lina blushed, "A lot's happened Tally. The past month... Actually the past five months have changed a lot of things for me. I'd love to meet up with you in person so we can talk about it. I'm going to come back into town for the weekend, can I pick you up tomorrow and take you out for lunch somewhere? My treat."

Tally blinked then nodded, "Yeah Lina. That sounds good actually. I was hoping you and me could talk before you changed back and uh, I guess it looks like I'll get a chance to do that after all huh?"

"Yeah," her sister smiled. "You will. Anyways I have to run. Good luck with your exams sis, I'll text later so we can make plans. See you tomorrow!"

Tally nodded again, "Ok Lina! Good luck to you too, see you!"

The call disconnected and my girlfriend slowly lowered her phone down to her lap. Then she turned to look at me. Her eyes were still wide and she looked like she was still in a bit of shock.

"That's it," she said quietly. "The world's officially gone crazy."

PurpleCatGirl

This is a commissioned story, so updates only happen when patrons commission a new chapter. Patrons always get chapters one or two weeks before anyone else, so if you're eager to get caught-up join are Patreon and you'll get all the latest chapters and new stories! And if you'd like to help move this story along, think about sponsoring a chapter!
Today's chapter was courtesy of Lucy who commissioned it!
https://www.patreon.com/purplecatgirl