I stared at the cute purple panties in my hands. Why had Rachael thought to give me these? Did she somehow know? They even matched the bra that she had given me. Both had a lacy trim with a cute little bow in their center. I couldn’t help but bite my lip in excitement at the idea of wearing them. At the same time though, I felt my anxiety spike at the possibility of anyone knowing. I had taken a quick rinse off after Estus woke me up, grabbing my bag to change into the clothes Rachael had leant me. The panties were a nice surprise I had to admit. The fact that the pants she had given me were in fact shorts though was less so. I liked them, but it felt like wearing them would be a form of admitting to the world that I saw myself as a girl. Looking at myself in the bathroom mirror, I had to admit anyone else would already see a girl either way.

Making a mental note to ask her what she was trying to pull, I decided to just give in to what I wanted for the time being. I could worry about others' perceptions later. I chewed on my lip as I put on the panties and bra, feeling foolish as I struggled with the clasp behind my back. After a few close misses, I finally succeeded, thanking my new body’s flexibility for the lack of pain I felt at the awkward movements. Next, I moved on to staring at the shorts. They were pretty basic. They were black and I remembered that meant they could pair well with just about anything. Looking up at the mirror, I couldn’t help but smile at my reflection. I could feel a fluttering in my chest at how feminine I looked. It was strange realizing just how much I had avoided looking at myself previously. 

Feeling narcissistic, I looked away and quickly pulled the shorts on. They were even shorter than I thought they would be and I felt my face heat up at the idea of wearing them outdoors. I turned around as I watched myself in the mirror. It felt like my ass was practically hanging out of them. I laughed at the idea that my pants matched my bra in that way since it was also a bit too tight for my chest. I did like the way they looked, but it was too much for today, especially as they felt just a tad too tight in front for comfort. I sighed and took the shorts off, sliding into my pants instead. I tossed on my shirt from the day before. A change of underwear would hopefully be enough for me to not feel too gross throughout the day. 

As I finally stepped out of the bathroom, I was hit by the heavenly scent of pancakes, bacon and eggs. I let my nose guide me to the kitchen, where Estus was humming a jaunty tune while they expertly flipped a pancake in the air. “Feeling a little less grumpy now that you’re showered and awake?” They teased as I entered the room. I paused, not realizing they had heard me.

“Um, firstly: rude. Secondly…yes…” I admitted with a repressed grin. They looked back over their shoulder at me with a grin of their own at my words. “How are you so functional at this hour? Usually, I wouldn’t even be awake for another…45 minutes. And awake would still be an overstatement.” I had to look at my phone as I spoke. The lock screen showed that I had a few missed messages from the night before, but I ignored them. They waited a full night; they could wait until I was finished with a delicious breakfast.

“No idea honestly. I haven’t needed more than 6 hours of sleep in years. I’m good enough at going to bed before midnight that my body just wakes itself up at 6 nowadays. A nice cup of tea does the rest.” Estus took a drink out of a mug next to them as if to prove their words. “Mel’s convinced I used magic to do it, but I would never use it for something so frivolous.” They passed me a plate with a wink. I stared at the heaping pile of food in awe. “Hurry up while it’s hot. I’ll join you in a minute.”

That was all the urging it took for me to dig in. I pulled out a stool and ate at the counter. I had eaten similar breakfasts in the cafeteria in the past few months, but nothing there could even come close to home cooked food. I found myself cursing my father yet again for never letting me learn how to cook. I could practically hear his deep voice droning on that it was a woman’s duty to her husband. I rolled my eyes at my internal monologue as I continued digging into the meal. 

True to their word, Estus joined me a minute or two later as their last pancake finished cooking. They obviously enjoyed watching me shovel their food down more than the food itself, but I chalked that up to the fact that they were used to their own cooking. “So what more did you find out last night?” I asked the moment I was done eating.

They chuckled as they responded. “Oh no you don’t. There will be no talk of magic and solutions this morning. I happened to notice that a certain magic-obsessed girl has a test this morning. You will get nothing out of me until afterwards.” I opened my mouth to argue, but found myself closing it again. They were probably right to stop me before I began. I was so wrapped up with everything happening that I had completely forgotten I even had a test. Instead, I asked about what they were studying.

As they finished eating and we drove over to campus, they answered in more detail than I expected. The overview was that they were studying history and linguistics over time. It was one of their largest interests in general so they kept getting sidetracked by minutiae that went well over my head. They were writing their thesis about how gender was viewed in many different cultures throughout history, focusing primarily on the societies of Asia, though they had touched on some African cultures as well. Their research had started as a method to find various spells around gender due to their personal interest, but the entire topic had drawn them in the more they learned. By the time we arrived at school, I felt as if I had learned more about Mesopotamian history in particular than anyone ought to ever know. 

Admittedly, almost all of that information never made it to any sort of long term storage in my head, but I felt that I hadn’t given Estus proper credit the night before. When they were passionate about a topic, they could explain it remarkably well. The fact that they had so little of that passion for magic confused me to no end, but I shrugged off that curiosity for another time. With the upcoming test, I tried to focus on running over the expected content as I split from Estus and made my way to the classroom.

I couldn’t tell if it was the breakfast, the 10 hours of sleep I had gotten, or the promise of getting to talk more about magic when I was done, but I had no trouble staying on task for my test and managed to finish with 15 minutes to spare. I couldn’t claim to be as confident about my answers as I would have liked, but I figured I’d at least passed. That was good enough for a week like this one.

I rushed back to the library, where Estus had planned on meeting up with me again. They were sitting in the normal nook, but had pulled an extra chair into the area. It didn’t look quite as nice, but I realized a temporary measure would make sense for us being able to talk. “Alright so. I have some good and bad news. And there’s more good news than bad. How would you like me to present it?”

I felt a coil of anxiety build in my gut. I was never good at answering these sorts of questions. “Um, I guess maybe a sandwich? Like half the good news, then the bad news, and then the good news again?” They nodded and gathered their thoughts.

“Ok so the first piece of good news is that I’ve narrowed it down to two spells that will deal with the spell linking you and Mel. They’re both pretty old and have full rituals involved so I’m not at all worried about power differentials. One will be a little harder to find the ingredients for while the other will be a little harder for me to learn the pronunciation for. Been a minute since I tried anything Arabic. That doesn’t matter for your purposes I suppose. Point being, we can get Mel out of the hospital tomorrow. That brings me to the…” They paused as they tried to think. “Fun news I think? Due to the nature of keeping magic a secret and all that, doing magic in the hospital isn’t ideal. Way too many people, cameras, etc. So we need to take her out of the hospital. She’s actually really stable other than being unresponsive, so we could do it pretty safely. Only problem is they don’t want to release her into anybody else’s care for another week, so—”

“Are you about to propose a heist? One where we steal a person from a hospital?” I interrupted incredulously.

“Does it count as stealing if we put her back afterwards?” Estus asked with deadpan innocence. I cackled. Somebody somewhere else on the floor loudly shushed me. With some effort, I managed to cut my volume to a more reasonable giggle.

“Holy shit, yes. You’ve been so knowledgeable and calm this entire time, I was starting to question whether you and Mel were actually related. Now I get the chaos that I was expecting. I absolutely love your crazy family.” I spoke between giggles as I got myself under control. I saw a grimace flash across Estus’ face, but it was replaced by their normal grin a moment later. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to —”

“Don’t worry about it Sophia. Really. Mel and I are indeed a special brand of chaotic even if the rest of my family wouldn't meet your expectations. Does that mean you’re in?”

“Oh you couldn’t stop me from joining even if you wanted to now! So what’s the plan, grab her, steal an ambulance, bring her home, cast the spell, and then return her? Hopefully with nobody the wiser?” I relished the thought of such an adventure.

“Oh come now. I may be adventurous, but I’m not completely reckless. Stealing an ambulance would be far too much attention.” They paused before teasingly accusing me, “you just want a car chase don’t you?” I looked away, giving all the confirmation they needed. “Maybe another time, when nobody’s life is on the line, you menace. We have access to magic, remember? We might not want to cast a complex spell in a hospital but a simple swap spell should leave almost no trace.”

“Excuse me, what? A swap spell? You-You’re telling me a spell that warps space to teleport people is simple? W-what sort of sense does that make?” I stuttered in shock.

Estus tilted their head as they responded. “I suppose when you put it that way, it is strange to think about. But yeah, pretty much. I mean, think about it this way. Throughout all of history, people have wanted methods of traveling distances easily. So those spells have always been in high demand and constantly being improved upon. Some get tossed due to high cost of materials; others get scrapped eventually due to excessive complexity, etc. Better yet, swap spells are even simpler than teleport spells since you can have an anchor on both sides.”

“I…I think I’m starting to understand why you’re not so enthusiastic about magic.” I put my hand to my temples, feeling a headache starting to form. “I mean in that context, I guess I understand, but it still doesn’t make any sense. Also, you mentioned materials again, but you never explained how those factored in last night.”

Estus chuckled. “Yeah, sometimes it seems like magic itself doesn’t want people to ever figure it out. Every once in a while, a spell that has worked for centuries will just stop working all together. It’s incredibly frustrating. Oh and materials are just random stuff basically. Most modern spells ignore them if they can get away with it. And if they are needed, we try using something that’s relatively easy to find or replicate such as a glass figure. Essentially, because several cultures decided they were necessary, they were. I suppose the specificity of objects tends to work out to a greater effect; not sure if that’s due to us thinking that’s how it works or if it’s actually how it works though. It's a whole thing. I’m sure you’d be interested to know that the whole goat sacrifice thing is technically real. Most people would rather skip that since you can accomplish the same effects without bloodshed though.” They rolled their eyes as I grinned at them.

“Anyways, the actual plan is to get one of my friends that work at the hospital to block off the view of the bed while we perform the swap. We’ll have a dummy setup to swap with her. The obnoxious thing that I’ll have to deal with this afternoon is getting all that together. Not looking forward to asking Petunia for this favor, but oh well. The things we do…” They trailed off into muttering as they spoke the last sentence.

“Anything I can help with? I could help collect some materials? Maybe make a simple carving or get a small model printed if it's needed?” I tried to wrack my brain for materials that fit their description.

“You can help by going to your classes today and coming by my house after your classes tomorrow. If I remember correctly, you just have the one around noon, right?” At my reluctant nod, they continued with a deep breath. “Ok onwards to the other news. The bad news is technically nothing new. We’re going to need to completely undo Mel’s spell still. Seems like it’s affecting your manners too? Not really sure the significance of that one, but since we’re countering the whole thing, I didn’t look into it too much. But good news! I found another spell that’s got enough in common with an undo spell that we can cast it right after! Assuming you still want to and all. Oh and I suppose thinking up exactly what you might want to look like would probably be a decent idea? Nothing too crazy so that people can still recognize you but it will help guide magic if you know what you want.” I grinned at their words. I could deal with five minutes in my old body. I couldn’t say I looked forward to it but such a short period of time was nothing next to the years that made up most of my life.

“I don’t know what you mean by if I still want to, but I can deal with that. Are you sure there are no spells I can help with?” Even I noticed the whine in my voice as I practically begged for something magical to do.

Estus rolled their eyes as they smiled. Thinking for a moment, they gave me an answer. “Well, I am also working on another spell that we can cast to avoid questions about your sudden transition. I suppose I can give you my notes on it and we can compare ideas before we cast it. The fact that you’ve worked on it might even help since magic likes things being more personal. That one is on the backburner though since I doubt I’ll be able to safely cast all those spells in one day.” They gave an embarrassed smile. “I’m not as powerful as I could be, sadly.” 

Before I could ask my next question, they continued after seeing the glint in my eye. “No, I don’t know what determines magic power before you ask. I also can’t determine how powerful people are just by looking at them. Ironically, nobody can get an accurate reading on things like that. Another one of those things that magic seems to dislike the idea of for whatever reason.” I looked away, face burning. The fact that they could read me so easily wasn’t fair. True, I was only going to ask one of those questions, but they managed to predict where my mind would go next too. Since when had I become so easy to read?

With no more significant events to talk about, I spent another half an hour chatting with Estus, before heading off to grab food before my upcoming 4 hours of class. I wasn’t particularly hungry due to breakfast, but after how Tuesday had gone I figured I would rather be safe than sorry. While I ate, I looked over the notes Estus had given me. It looked like their plan was to create a spell that would make my appearance to others seem to change slowly over the next year or two. I liked the idea generally, but it seemed like it could get complicated. I didn’t love the idea of everyone seeing me that way honestly. It felt so much more wrong than letting them see me as I was, but there wasn’t much way around it short of revealing magic. Unless…maybe we could make it based on what people expected? That way I could change their expectations and they’d see me correctly? I wasn’t sure if that train of thought made sense, but I continued following it.

I continued my musings on the way to my next class, letting my body run on autopilot. It wasn’t until someone almost knocked me to the ground by bumping into me that I paid attention to my surroundings. “Oh I’m sorry—” I started as I turned towards them, only to be greeted by Kyle’s punchable face.

“Sup jacka— oh shit, sorry I thought you were my friend.” He looked confused as his eyes roamed over my body lecherously. They shifted to my backpack with a final doubtful look before shifting up as he contorted his face into a confident smirk. I rolled my eyes as he began to speak in the idiotic ‘player voice’ he liked to use on girls. “I don’t know how though, you’re pretty damn hot, girl. Wanna skip whatever boring class you’re going to and go have some fun?” I laughed. I couldn’t help it. His attempts were always bad, but this was just plain lazy on top of that.

"I can't believe someone's actually laughing at whatever bullshit you came up with this time." Dante said, ambling up beside us. I just began laughing harder at his words. "Oh. Or maybe not. Sorry for my idiot friend here. We thought you might be our friend given the backpack and the direction you're headed." I wiped a couple tears from my eyes as he continued, trying to regain some semblance of calm. I was used to my friends’ antics, but only from the inside. Being on the outside was odd to say the least. As I looked over, I noticed Garth and Jordan trailing behind us. As our eyes met, Garth raised an eyebrow but otherwise said nothing. “I will admit that he’s right about you being way too cute to be our friend though.”

I thought for a moment about what was happening. I hadn’t thought I was unrecognizable, but I was undeniably feminine. Most people wouldn’t immediately jump to the idea that magic was involved, so my friends’ lack of recognition might make sense as some sort of cognitive dissonance I reasoned. Should I roll with it or correct them though? Garth had recognized me on Tuesday at the very least, and it seemed like he still did. Shrugging internally, I figured I’d just ignore it for now and see how long it took them. “Yeah that checks out. And we are heading in the same direction as you said. You’re in the same class as me after all.” I tried to suppress my grin as I set some mischief into motion.

“Woah really? You’re in ethics too? How did we never spot you before now?” At Kyle’s surprised face, I giggled before responding. This was going to be fun.

“Well of course not! You’re always too busy trying to get in Melissa’s pants despite having no chance in hell. I mean really, you should just learn when to give up.” The other three laughed at my on point ribbing as Kyle’s face turned pink. Garth and Jordan had fully joined us now, both of them being on my left while the other two were on my right. “At some point you’ll have to learn that lesbians only like girls, you know.” I added a phrase that I had said countless times in the past couple years, seeing if he’d pick up on the hint if it was from someone he thought he didn’t know.

“Oh whatever, she’s not even a real lesbian. She’s constantly flirting with Nate and he’s a guy.” Kyle’s words almost made me pause until I remembered that normal friendships between guys and girls didn’t exist in his mind. “And now that I know there’s a cuter girl in our class, maybe I won’t need to bother with her. One that seems a lot cooler too.” I rolled my eyes as I felt him leer at me. If he kept this up, I’d lose my patience and have to drop the act sooner than later. I had known he was the reason we had never gotten a girl to join our friend group, but being said girl really enlightened me as to just how annoying he was to deal with.

“Yeah whatever gross thing you’re thinking about is never gonna happen Kyle. Keep dreaming. And just because she’s friends with Nate, doesn’t mean she’s flirting, you dolt.” I tried not to snap but I couldn’t help but let some of my annoyance creep into my voice.

“I dunno, he does have a point there. She does seem a little sweet on Nate. Gives him a lot more leeway than I’ve seen her give any other dude. And some other girls.” Jordan finally piped up in a drawl. “Any of y’all seen him by the way? He seemed outta sorts on Monday. And he never skips…what was it Wednesday?” he trailed off as he muttered various other words starting with W. I smirked and barely resisted the urge to fill in the name.

“You mean well-worn warrior Wednesday? Still can’t believe they came up with such a dumb name for us just hanging out all day.” Garth took up what I was going to say, helping me keep my anonymity for now. He winked at me as he poked fun at me. “I mean who uses that much alliteration? Especially when it barely even makes sense. I mean sure we play games involving fighting sometimes. And we get worn out with basketball or whatever but come on. Anyways, sounds like the typical going through shit and needing space thing.”

“I think that’s a pretty great name personally.” I cut in, glaring at Garth playfully. “Sounds like your friend might just be the smartest of your little group. Alliteration is awesome and all that, after all.” Garth and Dante chuckled at my words.

“Oh come on really, he’s not even here and girls are on his side? The fuck.” Kyle’s complaints made the entire group start laughing. “What’s your name, new girl? You can replace Nate until he starts hanging out again. You’ll be a much better addition to the group anyway.” Garth had to stop walking from how hard he started laughing at that. I grinned but managed to keep myself from collapsing like Garth.

I waited for him to get himself back together before I answered hesitantly. “I um…my name’s Sophia.” Garth gave me another look of curious consideration as I continued. “Have you considered the possibility that your friend gets the benefit of the doubt because he doesn’t hit on everything that moves? You know, Kyle, I’ve heard girls like being treated like people a whole lot.” I couldn’t help but poke fun at my irascible friend. I knew I was acting a bit too much like my normal self to keep up the ruse for long, but I didn’t really care if they figured it out. I mean, I’d have to come out to them eventually anyways so if they could save me the effort and stress of doing it myself, I wouldn’t mind one bit.

“Wow, she pulls off the role almost perfectly. She’s got the sass and dumb jokes already. She’s a little nicer than Nate, but this is just the entertainment I’ve been missing.” Dante smiled at me as he spoke. I didn’t know what kind of smile it was, but I smiled back nonetheless. “Wait, how do you know Kyle’s name already?”

“Um, first how dare you call my jokes dumb. They’re just…alternate dimension intelligence is all. And we’re in the same class and y’all are really loud. How could I not?” I gave a half answer, hoping that nobody would question me further yet. They nodded their begrudging agreement as we entered our classroom. I noticed with amusement that my friends opened all the doors for me. It made me curious as to how they would react when they found out who I was. Garth was already showing that he didn’t care and if anything was enjoying the way the others were acting almost as much as me. I figured Kyle would be a dick as per usual, but I hoped Jordan and Dante would be ok with the new me when they found out.

Ethics passed without much fanfare, though professor Farasik pulled me up after class to ask who I was. After a lot of awkward back and forth, he managed to get me to admit that I was going by Sophia now. He made a comment that he was glad I seemed happier and that if I needed help with any other faculty to come ask him. In retrospect, I don’t know why I was scared of an ethics teacher that constantly espoused the idea that we have a moral obligation to allow people to pursue their own sources of happiness as long as it does not impede others.

I headed off to my next class in a good mood. It stuck around through the next two classes, though I found myself writing various poems instead of taking notes quite frequently. I found focusing hard with the chance to make a spell hanging over my head. I spent most of my time trying to come up with stanzas that I thought would allow me to easily disable the spell for certain people. I also tried to think of a way to make the transformation happen slowly or steadily over time, but had very little luck in that area. I hoped that Estus would be able to handle that portion as I knew I had no clue what I was doing. I knew there was very little I could come up with that Estus wouldn’t also think of; and their version would probably be better. The final thing I tried to come up with wording for were methods of making the spell pull from my surroundings. Ideally I would love for it to pull from me since Estus had mentioned that was safer, but I had no clue if that would work, so pulling from the area around me sounded like the logical option.

It wasn’t until I was on my way home that I finally checked my phone. I had pulled it out with the plan to text Estus to confirm that they didn’t need my help, but found several notifications waiting for me. None of them were from Estus so I went through with my original plan before I could forget. With that done, I started looking through my messages. My most recent message was from Garth. Holy shit Soph, you’re KILLIN me. I know that I’m more perceptive than most but this is ridiculous. Other than the new name, you didn’t even try to pretend you were anyone else. I smiled at my phone as I responded.

I mean to be fair, you can’t expect them to guess I’m me with how different I’ve been looking this week. I guess if you’re calling me Sophia, I don’t need to go over pronouns and such. Thanks for being awesome Garth. Also sorry for not being able to talk about exactly what’s going on? I’ll probably take a step back next week and explain stuff to everyone. This week has been quite enlightening. I hit send on my phone, hoping my friend would let me get away with a delay on explanations. Of the other messages, the only one that stood out was a message from Rachael asking for me to swing by the architecture building before I went to dinner. I sent her a quick message that I’d head over after dropping some stuff off at home.

As I dropped my bag in my room, I paused. Even my friends hadn’t recognized me today. What were the chances anybody else would? Before I could lose my courage, I closed my door and changed into the shorts Rachael had given me. With a little shifting, they ended up being quite comfortable. Significantly cooler than the pants I had been wearing for the past few days. I grabbed my phone and wallet and promptly sprinted back to campus.

“Alright, so it’s been killing me, I’ve gotta know, did you end up wearing my surprise gift?” Rachael cut straight to the chase as we sat down with our food some time later.

“Wh-what? Y-you can’t just ask that out of nowhere!” I stuttered as my face blazed so hot I thought I was going to melt. “A-and I don’t have to answer that! It’s bad enough you gave me these shorts when you said you were giving me pants! Why would you give me those too?” I had to keep my voice down as my indignation fought to lift my volume.

She started to smile but then forced a pout at my words. "Well I can't help it. The shorts look so good on you! And you've just been so happy the past couple days and I wanted to push you a little bit further. I mean I don't think I've ever seen you so comfortable. Well other than the whole freaking out thing temporarily. As your little sister, one of my responsibilities is to help you get through your own thick head sometimes. And don't you dare try to pretend that you didn't at the very least want to wear them. I know you’re enjoying the effects of this spell." By the time she finished, her smile was back and I had to look down at my food for a few moments before responding.

"Am…am I really that obvious?" I finally asked with a sigh.

"No. But I've known you for almost our entire lives Nattie. I’ve tried avoiding your name ever since I got a smile out of you with a nickname. I have pretty vivid memories of playing together with both Legos and dolls when we were kids. I know that you started acting out when puberty hit and your dad started forcing his expectations on you. I also know that you've taken out your anger at the world on your friends for years, but you always toe the line between saying things that might actually hurt them while staying on the side of surface level crap that you knew they could laugh off. I know that when we originally made the so-called ‘Sibling Convention’ it was called the Sisterly Symposium because you had just learned the word and loved your alliteration even when we were 10. I even have the damn booklet somewhere in my room still." I stared at her in shock as she finished speaking. While I was gaping like a fish at her, she used the opportunity to add more. “Finally, and I cannot emphasize this enough, you’d look amazing in a dress and I’m making you wear one as soon as you’re comfortable. Fuck is that good to finally say!”

Her use of a curse word finally got through my stupefied haze and I giggled as I blushed again. “I…thanks Rach. Thanks for sticking with my dense ass. I guess I should have told you when I saw you yesterday, huh. Not that it would have changed anything, sounds like. Might have saved you some time or something though…” I trailed off not really knowing what to say.

Before I knew it, Rachael had slid around the table and was hugging me. “Of course sis. We’re family, you know that. Whenever you figure out a name you’d rather I use, feel free to tell me.” I blushed at her statement. “Oh, but also you’ve gotta tell me what’s been going on since yesterday. Any word on Mel? Did your friend manage to track her down?”

"Oh um. Well uh…I guess I'll answer the easy question first. I really like the name Sophia?" I blushed and fidgeted while I looked down at my hands.

"That's so cute!" Rachael all but yelled, making several other students nearby jump and tell us to shush. "That name totally fits you!" She continued at a more reasonable volume. I rolled my eyes and cut her off before she could get too excited.

"Bad news is Mel's in the hospital though. Turns out my friend is actually her sibling. Good news is we have a plan?" I proceeded to tell her everything I had learned over the last 24 hours along with the plans for the next day. We went back and forth throughout so that I would have chances to eat. She also made a point of using my new name almost every time she spoke, which had me grinning like an idiot despite the serious discussion we were having. I felt lighter by the time we finished and we hugged again before parting ways again.

By the time I got home, I was completely worn out. Sadly my day wasn't quite done as I had let my laundry pile up for too long and had to try my best to sneak around the house as best I could while doing it. I felt ridiculous sneaking around in my own house, but I just didn't have the energy to do any more socialization today. Talking with Amanda might have been alright, but even that sounded exhausting. I passed the time coming up with more ideas for the spell. The minute my laundry was done though, I curled up around my shark and fell asleep in minutes.