"Seriously?" I groaned as I sat up. I fumbled for my phone then squinted at the screen and added, "It's six thirty! C'mon..."

Dad sounded like she was trying not to laugh as she apologized, "Sorry Melody. I told you I'd be back first-thing this morning though? I work again today, I had to come early so we'd have as much time as possible together."

I grumbled as I clumsily dropped my phone back on the bed-side table then yawned and stretched.

After a few quiet seconds dad asked with an amused tone in her voice, "Not that it's any of my business, but do you need your mom to buy you some new pyjamas or a nightgown or something? Or do you just prefer to sleep in the nude?"

"Eep!" I squeaked as I pulled the sheets up over my chest. I could feel my cheeks burning, but the embarrassment had me wide awake.

"Sorry hon," dad said as she stifled a giggle. "How about you put some clothes on, then come meet me in the kitchen? I'll go help your mom fix breakfast."

Rather than trust my voice at that point I just nodded quietly.

Dad closed the door behind her as she left, and it took all my willpower not to slump back in bed and close my eyes. Instead I dragged myself out of bed, then spent a few seconds just standing in the middle of my room looking down at myself.

Once again I had a huge smile on my face and my heart was racing with joy. I was a girl, I was Melody. Yesterday wasn't a dream, all that stuff really happened!

My cheeks coloured as I thought back to last night. It was awkward and complicated at first, but both Kelly and Craig accepted me, even if the circumstances were impossible. Me and my mom and my best friends had pizza and wings for dinner, then we had birthday cake for dessert. The cake even had my new name on it, and was decorated with little music symbols.

And the four of us streamed a movie in the living-room, then mom went upstairs and me and Kelly and Craig watched another movie before the two of them had to go.

Then after I was in bed last night I finally had some time alone to get to know my new body and that was just the best thing ever. I blushed a little more as I thought about it, and those memories soon had my nipples tightening while a warm wet sensation settled into place between my legs.

At that point I realized I needed a shower before I got dressed and had breakfast with my folks. And my very first shower as a girl was just as amazing and wonderful as last night had been. Though I ended up spending a lot more time in the shower than usual, and that wasn't even counting the time it took to deal with my longer hair.

When I finally joined my folks in the kitchen it was half past seven and breakfast was ready and waiting. My folks were seated at the table and they'd both already started eating.

"Sorry mom, dad," I apologized as I sat down. "I needed to shower and stuff, and it all took longer than I was expecting."

"Of course," dad said, though I could tell she was holding back a smirk. "First shower after a change is always exciting. Lots of new things to explore and experience, right?"

I froze for a second, then I realized mom was blushing sightly, and it finally hit me. Maybe I wasn't as quiet in the shower as I thought I was. That led me to wonder if I wasn't so quiet last night either, and suddenly my whole face was bright red.

I forced myself to focus on my breakfast so I wouldn't die of embarrassment right then and there.

We were having pancakes and bacon, and I had a glass of juice in front of me while mom and dad were drinking coffee.

I started eating, but I quickly got distracted from the other stuff as I realized I couldn't remember the last time the three of us had breakfast together like that. It probably hadn't happened since mom and dad split up, which was about a decade ago.

It was kind of nice, though it was also extremely weird. Like ten years ago I was an eight-year-old boy, dad was a strong tough firefighter, mom was a stay-at-home mom. We were a fairly typical suburban family. Now mom taught part-time at the local community college, dad was a pretty young woman, and I was a cute eighteen-year-old girl. We weren't exactly your typical suburban family anymore, but I kind of liked this better.

"Are you all right hon?" mom asked, breaking the silence. "You've been awfully quiet the last few minutes."

I blushed a little, but not half as bright as I was earlier.

"Sorry mom," I replied. "I was just thinking? This is kind of nice. I mean all three of us back together, having breakfast. It reminds me of before, when we were a family. I missed this."

My parents exchanged a glance, then dad sounded apologetic as she said "I do too hon, but don't start getting your hopes up ok? Your mom and I aren't getting back together, I'm just here to help you for the next few days."

I sighed, "Yeah I know. I wasn't thinking you were going to move back in with me and mom or anything. I'm just saying this is nice, and I missed it."

"Me too Melody," mom said, and she sounded kind of sad. "And you're right, it's nice to have the three of us together again. Even if it's only going to be for a few days."

My folks finished eating and had another cup of coffee while I was still working on my last pancake, then all three of us cleared the table and did the washing up and stuff.

When that was done dad asked, "Do you need to finish getting dressed? Or are you ready to start some lessons?"

"I'm ready to go right now I think?" I replied.

I was wearing a pair of patterned light and dark grey leggings and a cute t-shirt with a red flower pattern. I hadn't bothered with shoes since I didn't expect to be going out yet, so I was barefoot. And my long hair was still damp.

Mom commented, "Your hair's still wet Melody. We'll have to get you a blow-dryer. And if you're going to keep it that long, I'll have to teach you how to look after it."

Dad added with a smirk, "She's going to need some lessons on women's health too, unless that's part of the standard curriculum these days? Maybe she needs 'the talk' again? I did it last time, so you're up this time Laura."

Both mom and me blushed, though my cheeks were brighter than hers. Then she rolled her eyes and said "You two go take over the living-room or something. I've got to get ready or I'll be late for work."

Dad grinned as she got herself another cup of coffee, and I grabbed a glass of water. A minute later the two of us were sitting together in the living-room.

"So before we get started, do you have any questions?" dad asked in a teacher-like voice.

I almost laughed, "Yeah. I have about a million of them."

She grimaced, "We'll do a couple then see how we are for time. What's on your mind hon?"

I took a sip of water as I kind of organized my thoughts, then asked "So first thing is ID. I know how to do a legal name-change, I already found out how that works when I was hoping to come out and transition normally. But how do you do it? I mean, according to mom you've been like four different people since she's known you? And with changing your age and stuff, and height and all that? You can't be doing normal name-changes right?"

Before she could respond I added, "And that ties in with the other thing? What do you do for like, qualifications? I mean, if you're working as a nurse does that mean you spent a few years going through nursing school? And before that you learned to be a firefighter? Like basically how do you handle that?"

"And what do you do for clothes? Buying a whole new wardrobe isn't cheap. Even if you only have to do it once every few years. What do you do about friends? Neighbours? How do you handle all that social stuff, when you change who you are overnight?"

Dad giggled, "Slow down kiddo, one thing at a time!"

She had a sip of coffee then became much more serious as she answered, "Friends, coworkers, neighbours, basically anyone you interact with comes down to three categories. And how you deal with them depends on what category. Most people are in the last category - regular humans who don't know. Those are the ones you leave behind when you change. You don't have to ghost them, you can tell them you're moving out of town or relocating or something along those lines. But basically you never see them again. Or if you do, you have to shift back first and make it a brief or temporary thing."

She continued, "The second group is very small. That's humans who know. For me, that's basically just your mom? Those are the people you trust with your life, who you're comfortable knowing who you are regardless. People who know you're not human, and will do anything to help you keep that secret. Those are the ones you have life-long friendships and relationships with."

I nodded slowly as I thought about Kelly and Craig. I trusted them both not to purposely out me or anything like that, but I wasn't a hundred-percent sure that Craig wouldn't do something by mistake. He wasn't malicious but he could be thoughtless sometimes.

Meanwhile dad finished, "The last group is another one that'll be small. That's other supernaturals, other non-humans. Shape-shifters like us aren't the only non-human out there Melody. We're not even the most common, we're actually pretty rare even among the non-humans. There's quite a few different kinds of folks out there, living quietly among the humans."

"No way," I stated as I stared at her. "So what else is there? Are we talking like vampires and werewolves? Fae? Um, what else... Witches? Wizards?"

She smiled and shook her head, "We'll get to that later. We're on the clock here this morning, remember? So next thing was clothes, new wardrobe. There's no shortcuts there, you bite the bullet and pay the money. I can help you out, but you'll want to take some classes in money management. Odds are you're going to be around a lot longer than a standard human, and if you invest now you'll be well off later. Compound interest is key, but mostly you'll want stable long-term investments."

I frowned at her as I remembered asking mom about ages and birthdays and stuff. I gulped and asked, "How old are you, really?"

Dad blushed, "This is just between you and me ok? I'm a hundred and forty-seven. And that brings us back to your first question, about ID. We fake it, forge it, bribe folks working for the government, that sort of thing. I'll get a picture of you before I leave today, and try to come up with some realistic-looking ID for you in the next couple days."

She added, "It's the same for credentials. Fakes, forgeries, and bribes, to get the right documentation with the right name and dates. There's no shortcut for actually knowing the job though. I might have a new forged diploma with the name Alison on it, but I still went through nursing school...four or five decades ago. I try and cycle through careers along with my shape, to keep my skills fresh in everything I do."

I was left stunned as I stared at her. I quickly did the math in my head then half-whispered, "You were born in eighteen-seventy-three?"

"Yes," she replied softly. "When you can make yourself any age you want, you never have to worry about getting old. But that's enough about me for now all right? Let's get on with the actual lessons. The first thing -"

"Wait I have one more question," I interrupted. "I promised Kelly I'd ask this. Is there any way to use our shape-shifting mojo on someone else? Like what if we knew someone who was maybe trans, could we help them out?"

Dad sighed and her expression got a bit darker. "Your mother told me you've already shared your secret with Kelly and Craig. I'm sorry I forgot to tell you yesterday how critical it is to keep this stuff secret hon. Like I just said, very few humans are trusted with this knowledge. For me, your mother's the only one who knows... Unless you've told your friends about me. If you haven't, then I'm asking you right now not to. That's like outing an LGBT friend without permission. That information in the wrong hands could get someone killed."

She added, "I'm not saying your friends can't be trusted, but if one of them were to slip up and this stuff got out, our only recourse is to move and change immediately. Start over from scratch, become someone completely different, and leave behind everyone you know and love."

I gulped, "Sorry dad. I didn't know."

"My fault for not telling you," she replied. "As for your question, the short answer is no. The long answer is complicated and maybe we'll discuss it another time. For now let's get started with the lesson, ok?"

"Ok dad."

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