Oh fuck.

I was in Maple’s apartment, Maple was right next to me.

“Oh shit oh shit oh shit.” I kept repeating myself.

“Calm down, Alex,” Maple said. “It’ll be fine, we’ll take care of this.”

“Yeah, and they’ve already landed. We have until they can drive back to deal with this.”

“Which will take a while. I already check traffic on the four-oh-one. It’s nasty today.”

“I’m still terrified, we need to get my stuff out of there immediately.”

“I’ll take you. Get ready.”

We ran down the stairs until we reached the parking lot where Maple had parked. We jumped into their car.

We’d had to leave Chrissy behind, but she’d made us promise to meet up with her tomorrow.

Maple pulled out of the parking lot, and we drove a bit east on Eglinton before turning north to drive up Yonge Street.

The whole drive up, I was feeling really anxious. It wasn’t until we reached York Mills that I started to relax a little.

“Ok… what do I need to get…” I started musing out loud.

“Clothes,” Maple said.

I snorted. “Most of my clothes don’t fit anymore.”

They turned west onto Sheppard. “Oversized clothes look cute on you.”

“They’re not practical.”

“Well, grab whatever you want, leave the rest.”

“Ok… Um, gonna need to grab my laptop. Phone charger.”

“Naturally. Toiletries?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I can grab those too.”

“Got a bag you can shove them into?”

“I can probably put it all in my schoolbag. I’ve got a suitcase I can use too.”

“Big suitcase?”

“Big enough.”

“Okay, what do we need to grab?”
“Uh… probably just the basics, my clothes, blankets, pillows, my laptop, and probably my stuffed otter.”

“You have a stuffed otter?”

I nodded. “Uh, yeah. It’s been in my closet since I was around eleven, but I really wanna take it with me.”

“Does this otter have a name?”

“Ophelia.”

“Like the character in Hamlet?”

I nodded. “Yeah, actually.”

“And you named her when you were what? Six?”

“Five. And no, I hadn’t actually read Hamlet by then, I’d heard the name and thought it was pretty.”

“Any other girl names you found pretty?”

“Ummm… no comment.”

Maple turned onto Don River Boulevard. We reached my parents’ house shortly after.

“Looks like we got here before them,” Maple said.

“Yeah.”

Maple backed into the driveway, and we both got out, running up the steps to the front door so we got rained on as little as possible.

“Where’s your suitcase?” Maple asked.

“My closet,” I said. “Everything we need is in my room.”

I led Maple upstairs to my bedroom. My laptop was where I’d left it that morning on my bed. I grabbed it and closed the lid, putting it and the charger cable into my school bag, along with my phone charger.

Maple opened up my closet and pulled out my suitcase. They spotted Ophelia sitting on the shelf near the top. “Oh, she is adorable!” Maple reached up to grab the small toy. “I can see why you want to bring her with us.”

“She is! I wish I had more stuffed animals. My parents told me not to buy them and ‘grow up’. Eventually, I believed them.”

“God, I hate your parents. I will make sure we get so many cute stuffies for you.”

“Yeah… I’m starting to not be their biggest fan too. Also, you really don’t need to.”

“I’m getting you a Blåhaj.”

“A what?”

“Blow-hai, the IKEA shark. They’re a trans icon.”

“Why?” I asked.

Maple shrugged. “I don’t actually know. But they’re cute, so…”

“Can you show me a picture?”

“Yeah,” Maple pulled their phone out of their pocket, tapped on the screen for a bit, then showed me the image.

“Oh, that is cute!” I said.

“I know! I've wanted one for a while.”

“How big is it?”

“Um,” Maple took their phone back. “One hundred- about a metre.”

“Ooo!”

“As soon as we get home, I am going to IKEA to get one.”

We continued to pack, Maple shoveled my blankets and pillows into their arms and carried the mass of fabric down to the car. I grabbed my shampoo, conditioner, body wash, razor, brush, and lotion and tossed them into the trunk. Maple and I both grabbed my laundry basket and shoved the clothes in.

I held up a pair of boxers. “I don’t know if these still fit lol.”

“Well, you can still wear them, if you want to be even more of a lesbian.”

“W…w…what?”

“Lesbian, you’re sapphic, you like girls and aren’t interested in guys?”

“Uh… yeah, I do, and no I’m not.”

“Then you’re a lesbian.”

“I… I’m a lesbian? I’m a lesbian!!”

“Yes, yes you are.” Maple ruffled my hair, “Did you not realise that before?”

“I didn’t stop to think about it.”

“I mean, you can still call yourself a lesbian if you're into guys. I like guys, actually. Well, in theory. Most guys kind of suck.”

“I’ve noticed.”

“But yeah, I call myself a lesbian.”

“But you’re not a girl.”

Maple nodded. “Non-binary lesbians are a thing. That’s me.”

“Cool.” I grabbed a wrinkled hoodie and shoved it into my bag. “I mean, I guess I could see myself being attracted to a guy hypothetically.” I pulled out some t-shirts and put them in my suitcase. “But, yeah, like you said, most guys suck. And I guess I’m into enby people too.”

“Considering we were making out the other night, I should hope so.”

I blushed. “I mean… you’re really hot…”

“Why thank you.”

We finished grabbing whatever clothes I wanted to keep, and put the clothes I wasn’t taking with me away.

“I think you need to go clothes shopping, Alex. Do you even have any bras?”

I shook my head. “Haven’t gotten around to it.”

“You definitely need some. Trust me on that. Honestly, you had time to grab that skirt, but forgot about a bra?”

---

We finished up pretty quick, rushing my bag and suitcase out to Maple’s car. I put the suitcase into the trunk while Maple dumped my pack onto the back seat. I climbed into the passenger's seat, and Maple drove out of the driveway and back towards Sheppard.

“I should call my mom,” I said.

“Your voice sounds very different, Alex.”

“I know, but they haven’t noticed yet, so… also, I don’t want them freaking out.”

“What are you gonna tell them?”

“The truth. Or at least part of it. I’ll just say I’m staying with you now since you live closer to campus.”

I pulled out my phone and opened up my contacts, tapping on my mom’s contact to call her.

She picked up pretty quick.

“Hey, sweetie. What’s up?”

I tried to make my voice sound deeper. “Hey, mom. Just wanted to let you know I won’t be home when you get back. I’ve uh- I’m going to be staying with M-” I paused, then said Maple’s dead name, shooting them an apologetic glance. “I’m staying with th- her during term. Closer to campus.”

“Awww, aren’t you sweet, I’m sure [Maple’s Deadname] would love to have you as a–” She paused, before adding with sarcastic emphasis, “‘Roommate’… just, be sure to use protection.”

I winced.

“But anyway, sweetheart. I’ll miss you, but if it’s closer to campus that is definitely a good plan.”

“Yeah.”

“We’ll still see you at Christmas, right?”

I panicked. I definitely could not show up looking like I do now.

Then again, my parents barely knew anything about trans topics. For all they knew, transition could take a foot away from my height. They might not accept me, sure, but…

“Yeah, sure. I’ll see you then.”

“Alright, sweetie. I love you!”

“Love you too,” I said, before hanging up.

“You’ll see them when?” Maple asked.

“Christmas.”

“Oh… that’ll be fun.”

I shrugged. “I’ll just tell them I’m trans. They don’t know that this couldn’t actually happen normally. You know, the whole ‘getting shorter’ thing.”

“Alex, your hair is a different colour.”

“Hair can be dyed.”

“Ok, yeah, it can. But what if they - correctly, barring literal magic - point out that there’s no way you lost as much height as you did?”

I shrugged. “I’ll figure it out.”

My phone buzzed with a text.

Dad: Hey, son. Your mother just told me that you’re moving out. So we discussed it, and we’ll be increasing your monthly allowance so you can help cover your friend’s rent. Need to pull your own weight if you’re staying with her, after all. We do, of course, expect you to get a job to help pay that, but we understand that’s not an immediate thing.

Dad: Also, good luck with the girl, she’ll be lucky to have a handsome young—

I closed the message.

“Oh, that’s nice,” I said.

“What’s nice?”

“My parents are increasing my allowance.” I decided not to tell them about my parents being weird creeps.

“Oh. Why?”

“Help pay for rent.”

“You don’t have to, but it would be nice, honestly.”

“I’m going to,” I said.

I tapped out a quick text to my dad.

Alex: Thanks, dad, and I will.

---

The rain had stopped by the time we reached Maple’s apartment building. We made our way to the elevators and rode up to Maple’s floor. Maple’s roommate was nowhere to be found, so we dragged my suitcase into Maple’s room, just barely fitting it under their desk.

Maple grabbed a plastic canister off their desk and a lighter. “I’m gonna go smoke out on the fire escape.”

“Ummm… Can I join you?” I asked.

Maple frowned. “I thought you didn’t want to smoke ever?”

I sighed,“That was before I got magically transformed and had to move out of my parents’ house in a rush. Right now, I feel really stressed and anxious and I want to relax. Also, ummmm… I want to spend time with you.”

“Awwwwww thanks.”

“Alright,” Maple said, “I’m not gonna stop you. Keep in mind this is technically illegal since we aren’t nineteen yet.”

“I know,” I said. “Wait, if you’re eighteen, how do you get your weed then?”

“My older cousin buys it for me.”

“Oh, ummmm, okay!”

Maple and I headed out to the fire escape.I was super nervous. Maple popped open the canister with their teeth, and pulled a joint out, closing up the canister and shoving it into their pocket.

“Let me show you how to light it. Or, at least, how I light it.”

“Ok.”

“You see this bit at the end, where the paper is twisted up?” They indicated the end of the joint. I nodded. “Ok, that’s done like that to keep the weed inside the paper. There’s a few ways to light this, but what I do is I untwist it, like this.” They demonstrated by untwisting the paper, and started fanning it out. “You want to spread out the paper a bit. So what I do is I burn it off.” They lit their lighter, holding the end of their joint in the flame. It caught quickly, and the excess paper started burning away. They pulled it out of the flame. The end was smoldering a bit. “Then, I hold it in my mouth, and I light the end while breathing in. Watch.” They put the end of the joint between their lips, and held up the lighter to the end, lighting it. The end started smoldering more. Maple let the lighter go out. After about a second, they took the joint out of their mouth, shortly after breathing a plume of smoke out. “Anyway, when you take a hit from this, you wanna breathe in, obviously, but you wanna keep breathing in for a bit after you take it out of your mouth before you breathe out.” They demonstrated nice and quick, before holding the joint out for me to take. “Your turn.”

I took the joint, holding it up to my lips. I started inhaling, then pulled the joint out, continuing to inhale. Suddenly, I started coughing. “Fuck,” I said. “That’s… wow.”

“You don’t have to keep smoking.”

I shook my head. “I’m good. Lemme try again.” I held the joint up to my lips again and took another hit. This time I managed to exhale the smoke without coughing up a lung. “This is actually kind of satisfying.”

“It is,” Maple said, taking back the joint to take another hit. “It’s also a really good stim sometimes.”

“Really?”

Maple nodded. “Oh yeah.” They took a hit, then talked while exhaling some smoke. “It’s relaxing too.”

“I bet it’s pretty relaxing, yeah.” Maple handed me the joint, and I took another hit. “Damn, starting to feel a bit.. Uh… something, I dunno.”

Maple laughed, “Yeah, you’re new, so have no tolerance.”

I took another hit. “That makes sense… fuck, I feel like there’s something I wanna say, but there isn’t, actually. Or maybe there is and I forgot.”

Maple snorted. “Ok, I think that’s enough for now, Alex.” They took the joint back, taking a few hits off it.

“You’re not as stoned as me?”

Maple shook their head. “I have a higher tolerance. Much higher.”

“Right.” I looked down at the street traffic driving by below us. “Fuck, this feels so weird.”

“I know.”

“It feels hard to think, all my thoughts feel… I don’t know, floaty?”

“It can be like that. It’s nice, makes it harder to focus on everything happening.”

“It feels hard to sit up too. My body feels weighted, it's cozy actually.”

“Lay against the wall. Just vibe there for a bit.”

---

I groaned. My head felt really fuzzy.

“Hey there, sleepyhead,” Maple’s voice said.

I groaned, “What?”

“You fell asleep, dork.”

“No you fell asleep!”

“Sure I did, now get up, I have a surprise for you.”

Maple helped me up and let me lean on their shoulder into their room. On their bed were two fuzzy cyan sharks. Between them was Ophelia, staring adorably at me.

“One for you, one for me”

“Yay!!!!”

“What do you want to name them? I think I am naming mine Cypress.”

“That is so cuuuuuute!”

I thought for a while, “I think I am going to name them Pearl.”

“I like that!”

I picked up my new shark. “Hello there, Pearl. Nice to meet you.”

Maple giggled. “I was also thinking of picking up some clothes for you. No bras, I don’t know your size. But I got you some leggings. They’re stretchy so they should be fine. Definitely will fit better than your old oversized jeans.”

“Oh, thanks Maple, that’s awesome. Let me try them on.”

Maple handed me a plastic package. I opened it up and pulled out a few pairs of leggings in various colours. I selected a dark red pair. “This is a nice colour.”

I stepped out and into the bathroom. I closed the door behind me, and turned to look in the mirror.

My clothes were extremely baggy, the jeans barely being held up by my belt. I pulled my hoodie over my head, tossing it to the floor. The t-shirt I had on underneath was an older one, so it fit fine, mostly, but it was obvious it wasn’t made for someone who had boobs. I slid my skirt off my hips. I was wearing a pair of my old boxers. I rolled my thigh-highs off my legs, folding them up.

There was a knock on the bathroom door. “Um, Alex, I also got you some boyshorts underwear. Should fit a lot better than your old boxers.”

I walked over and opened the door. “Thanks, Maple.” I accepted the package from them.

I opened it up and pulled out a half dozen pairs of what looked like briefs. I exchanged my boxers for a pair, then pulled on some leggings over top. I turned to look in the mirror.

I couldn’t help smiling at my reflection. It hadn’t even been that long since I had transformed, so the novelty of getting to look like, well, that had yet to wear off— I don’t even think that it could ever fully wear off.

I got a brilliant idea. I thought about shifting back to my foxgirl form. My ears shifted back to the top of my head. My tail grew out of my back just above the waistband of my leggings. My hair changed to a bright white, and my eyes regained their purple colouring. I smiled. Perfect.

I grabbed my skirt and pulled it back on, leaving my tail out above it. Then I left the bathroom and headed back into Maple’s room.

Maple was sitting on their laptop, and looked up when I came in. “Oh, you’ve got your ears and tail out again.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I just feel more comfortable like this.”

“You look very cute like that. Not that you don’t in your human form.”

I blushed. “Um, think we could go clothes shopping again tomorrow? Like you said, I need bras, and I also think I want some jeans that actually fit me now.” I hesitated, “I also think I want uh… some fishnets.”

“Oh hell yeah! You’d look sexy ay eff in those. Anyway, I have work in the morning, but we’ll go in the afternoon.”

“Awesome, you're the best!.”

Maple cleared off their desk and put my computer on it. “I’m just unpacking your stuff. I’ll keep our clothes separate.”

I helped them, I put all my toiletries in the bathroom and I helped them fold my old clothes. Then we came to my blankets.

“Where am I going to sleep?”

“Well, I was assuming you were going to sleep in bed with me. We can get another bed if you really want.”

I buried my hands in my face to cover up my blushing. I shook ‘no’ violently.

“I thought so. Do you want to sleep by the wall or the edge?”

“Edge,” I replied

“Okay, good, I prefer sleeping by the wall anyway.”

“We still have a few hours before bed. What should we do? We already got all of our work done.”

“We could play some Stardew together?”

“I’ve never played it before, is it good?”

“It’s very good. I adore that game.”

“Okay! I’d love to play it with you.”

“Cool, I’ll start downloading it on your laptop and then I’ll grab some snacks”

They went over to my laptop, asked me to log in, and then went to steam and downloaded Stardew Valley. While it was downloading, they went to the kitchen and grabbed 2 Pepsis and some chips.

“You ready?”

“Of course.”

Maple and I booted up the game. Maple hosted the server.

“What do we call our farm?

“Syrup Farm? Since it's your farm, so it’d be Maple of Syrup farm.”

“You are silly. I am naming it that.”

Then, I created my character. I gave her white hair and purple eyes just like me. I set her name to ‘Alexis’ and I put my favorite thing as ‘girls’ (Yes, the lesbian comment was still at the forefront of my mind.)

We played for hours; I was a little slow at understanding parts, but it was really fun. Maple said their favorite character was Abigail. When I met her, I totally agreed.

“She’s pretty.”

“I know, she eats rocks.”

“What do you mean?”

“Whenever you give her a rock, she replies, ‘How’d you know I was hungry.’”

“Honestly, kinda cute.”

“For real though, I love her.” She added, “and I love you.”

I blushed.

We continued playing until eleven. I had a ton of fun, we made it all the way through Spring and Summer of the first year.

“Can we play this again soon?”

“Of course! I had so much fun with you! There is so much I can’t wait for you to learn.”

I smiled and hugged them, “Thank you so much Maple, you are amazing.”

“And so are you. Now, let's go to bed, I have work in the morning, and you need your beauty sleep.”

“Hmph, okay, whatever you say.”

I went and plugged my phone in, and texted the Shifter Discord server “goodnight everyone!” and then closed my phone. Maple and I grabbed a pair of night clothes and got changed. I was still not used to seeing Maple naked. I only saw their ass, since they were facing away from me, but still. They were so hot, but I was really embarrassed. After I finished changing, I turned around. Maple was wearing some cute light blue PJs and a black shirt. I just had on a plain shirt and sweatpants.

Maple and I walked into bed. They got in first and I followed. Between both of us was Ophelia. We were both holding onto our sharks. The bed felt so warm. I was so happy I could be safe with my best friend instead of being with my parents. I made small content yips and went to bed.