"Uh mom?" I asked nervously. "What are you talking about? Who are you going to kill?"

  She still looked tense as she lowered her hand and shook her head, "No-one hon. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

  My friends and I exchanged a quick gnce, and it was clear all three of us were thinking the same thing. My mom seemed to know something about the magic ring, and maybe I shouldn't have messed with it on Friday when we found it in the mailbox.

  Meanwhile mom took a deep breath then sighed, "Bke honey I -"

  "What the hell?!" Amelia excimed again, reminding us all she was still standing in the doorway. "Mom what's going on here? What happened to Bke? Who's this girl?!"

  I grimaced, "Sorry sis. Like I said though, it's me? I'm Bke. But I'm not your brother anymore. I'm um, I'm trans. I'm a girl, I'm your sister now."

  Then I gestured at myself, or more specifically at the bustier and skirt, "The outfit is a little harder to expin. Same with the pink hair. But that's all temporary."

  Mom sighed, "Amelia I'll try and expin everything ter, all right? I'm sorry hon but I need to speak with your br- your sister right now. Will you please excuse us?"

  Amelia kept staring for a few more seconds, then finally shook her head and grumbled. "Whatever. I was just here to get a drink anyways."

  With that she moved to the fridge and grabbed a can of co, then turned and headed back out to the living-room, while both me and mom sighed quietly.

  I looked to my friends and asked, "Do either of you want anything to drink too?"

  "Sure," Ellie nodded. "Thanks Bke."

  Harper did as well, so I grabbed a couple more sodas for the three of us. And mom still had her coffee.

  Then I sat back down across from mom and asked her, "You're not mad at me are you? I know this is all a big shock and everything. It definitely shocked me when it happened on Friday."

  "But um," I grimaced again as I felt my cheeks heating up. "It's also what helped me figure myself out? I realized I like being a girl a lot more than my normal self. And um, stuff like just looking in the mirror or whatever? That always made me feel uncomfortable and bad, but when I'm a girl I actually like what I see in the mirror. And how I feel. And... I guess it's just everything? Like everything feels better when I'm a girl."

  Mom sighed again as she had a sip of her coffee. She was sort of quietly watching me while I talked, and I really couldn't tell from her expression what she was feeling. She still looked stressed, and maybe a little bit angry, but I wasn't sure if she was angry at me or at someone else.

  She finally shook her head, "I'm not mad at you hon. I'm... upset about the situation. It's very complicated, but it's not your fault. And I'm gd that it helped you figure yourself out."

  "I've been worried about you for a long time," she admitted in a gentle tone. "I could tell something wasn't right, that you weren't happy about something, but I never knew what it was. And from the sound of it, neither did you. So I'm grateful that we've found out what's been troubling you, and now we know there's a solution. And I promise hon, I'm going to do everything I possibly can to help you and support you on that journey."

  Hearing that sent another rush of emotions through me, like joy, relief, and gratitude. I smiled, "Thanks mom."

  She gave me a weak smile, then had another gulp of her coffee. And finally she let out a long deep sigh.

  "I'm sorry Bke but I have to ask you something," she began, "And it's probably going to sound really unfair. And after everything else we've just discussed, I really hate to do this? But I need you to take off that ring."

  I probably shouldn't have been surprised, since mom obviously knew something about the ring. But it still caught me off-guard to hear her ask that. And the way she said it made it clear that she expected me to turn back to my normal guy body if I took off the ring.

  That cold weight started creeping into my stomach again, as I gulped slightly. Then I shook my head, "I can't take it off."

  "I know I'm asking a lot honey," mom responded. "I can only imagine how this must seem like an ideal solution for you? But you already know about the medical options. I understand that they take time and that this must seem like a better choice. But there's other factors you don't know about Bke. So please hon, I'm asking you to take off the ring."

  Hearing that added to my discomfort and anxiety. She made it sound like maybe the ring was dangerous, and that's something I'd been questioning all along too. Except now that I'd finally come out to myself and my friends and my family, I really didn't care whether or not the ring was safe. I was sort of hoping Ellie was right, that we could come up with some solution that would let me be non-magical girl-me forever.

  In the meantime though I needed to expin something else to mom, because even if she knew some stuff about the ring she obviously didn't know everything.

  I shook my head again, "You don't understand. I can't take it off. Like I mean, I've tried. It won't come off."

  "What?" mom's eyes widened slightly.

  "Yeah," I nodded slowly. "I've tried a few times, and it's stuck. It went on easily enough, but something changed so it can't come off."

  Mom facepalmed again and let out another sigh.

  That's when Harper's phone buzzed. He looked to me and said, "That's five minutes."

  "Thank you," I told him as I stood up again. Then as I took a couple steps away from the table I looked to my mom again and expined, "We've been trying to figure out something with the way the ring works? So I need to um, undo the magical transformation now."

  My mom looked surprised, "You're going to undo this?"

  "Yeah," I nodded as I took hold of the ring. "I can't stay all pink like this forever."

  I gave it a little twist and that pink fsh happened again, and I was back in my non-magical girl form. My pants immediately slipped off and ended up on the floor, while my big hoodie covered everything down to my hips. And Harper set the stopwatch going on his phone, to track how long it sted this time.

  Meanwhile mom gaped at me, "What...? I thought you were going to turn back to normal?"

  "Yeah," I grimaced as I moved to sit down again. I ended up leaving my shoes and socks on the kitchen floor for now too.

  Then after another gulp of co I sighed, "That'll happen eventually, but we don't know when. We've been trying to predict how long it takes?"

  Ellie eborated, "Each time she reverses the magical transformation it leaves her in this non-magical girl-Bke form. It takes a while for this to wear off, but the amount of time varies and we're trying to figure out the pattern. That's why Harper's timing it with his phone."

  Mom looked to me again and in an uneasy tone asked, "Bke how many times have you done this?"

  "This is only the fourth time," I replied. "It was uh, once Friday afternoon when we found the ring? Then again Friday night when I went to bed. Then st night, when we were hanging out at Harper's pce. And now."

  She sighed and facepalmed once more.

  My friends and I exchanged another look, then I asked "Uh mom? It seems like you know about all this? Do you know about the ring? Or where it came from, or what it's for?"

  For now mom ignored my questions as she responded, "So you can't get the ring off at all? Even in this form? Or your normal form?"

  "Sorry mom," I shook my head. "Whatever it is, it's like bonded to me or something?"

  I held up my left hand and added, "It also turned bck, see? Like it was pink gold when we found it, but after the first transformation it turned into bck gold. Now it's only pink when I'm in the magical girl form."

  Mom frowned as she stared at it for a few moments. Then she sighed again, "Bke, Ellie, Harper, would the three of you please excuse me for a few minutes? I need some time to process all of this."

  "Maybe you can talk to your sister?" she added. "Let her see this version of yourself hon, it might be less of a shock for her?"

  I frowned, "Ok mom."

  The three of us all got up from the table, and we all had our drinks with us. I also picked up my pants and shoes, then led my friends back out to the living-room.

  "Ok what the hell?!" Amelia demanded as soon as she saw me.

  "Hey sis," I grimaced. "This really isn't how I wanted to come out to you. I'm still me though, still Bke. But like I said, I'm a girl. I'm trans, I'm your sister. And um, I'm using she/her pronouns from now on. Um, even when I look like my original self."

  My sister frowned as she stared at me. After a couple seconds she asked, "How did this even happen? This is impossible!"

  I sighed as me and my friends all sat down, "It's a long story. I guess the short answer is, I found a magic ring, turned into a girl, and realized I was way happier this way than I ever was in my original body. Except it took a while to figure that out, and I didn't do it on my own. I needed my friends' help before I could finally admit it to myself."

  Amelia continued staring at me for another few seconds. Then she pointed out, "You're a lot smaller like this than your normal body. I think maybe you're even smaller than me now."

  "Uh, maybe?" I shrugged. "Why?"

  She smirked, "No reason. Just means I get to call you my baby sister, since I'm the big sister now."

  I rolled my eyes, but before I could comment on that we all heard mom's raised voice from the kitchen. She seemed angry again, but she wasn't talking to any of us. It sounded like she was on the phone, and we ended up listening in on her side of the conversation.

  "How could you just leave something like that in my mailbox?!" she demanded.

  There was a pause, then mom stated angrily "I was at work! I told you I worked, I even told you where I worked and what my hours were on Friday! I thought you were going to come and give it to me at the restaurant!"

  Mom was quiet again for a couple seconds before responding, "You didn't even put my name on it! I have two children, and one of them found it!"

  "Yes!" mom replied angrily. "Of course she did! Because it didn't have my name on it, nothing to indicate it was for me! If you'd bothered to just write my name on the outside, she wouldn't have touched it!"

  Hearing mom call me 'she' left me feeling good, but at the same time that was kind of lost against the realization that my mother somehow knew about the ring. She was actually expecting it, and she seemed to know what it was.

  "She says it won't come off," mom stated after another couple seconds. "She's already figured out how to use it, and that's led to some other unexpected side-effects that I'm not going into right now."

  My friends and I exchanged a worried look, but I could tell Ellie was excited. She had that look on her face, this whole thing probably seemed like a huge conspiracy to her. Only instead of reading about it online, this one was close enough for her to get involved in personally. Or maybe she was thinking this time she'd be the one to 'blow the lid off it' or whatever.

  "Fine," mom stated angrily. "But this conversation isn't over yet. In the meantime I'm going to have to figure out what to tell her, and how to expin some of this."

  There was another pause then mom sighed, "No. Two of her friends already know about it, and now my younger daughter knows too."

  "That's on you," she added angrily. "All of this is on you. You should have been a lot more careful. Anyways I'd better go."

  Me and my friends and even Amelia all exchanged another uneasy look, as we heard mom finally put down her phone. There was another long sigh from the kitchen, and I could imagine she was trying to figure out what to tell us, how to expin all this stuff. And for maybe the first time ever, I found myself suddenly wondering if I could trust my own mom. Like if whatever story she was about to tell us would be the truth, or if she was trying to come up with a pusible lie to cover up whatever was really going on with her.

  It was another half minute before mom emerged from the kitchen, then stopped and stood in the living-room doorway.

  "Hey mom?" I asked, and my voice definitely sounded uneasy. "You said before there was something you wanted to talk to me about, in private? Was it something to do with this stuff?"

  She sighed and reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose. Then she nodded, "Yes hon. I wanted to ask if you'd seen any packages or envelopes addressed to me. I was expecting something very important on Friday, but now we all know what became of it."

  "Sorry," I grimaced.

  Mom sighed again and shook her head, "It's not your fault hon. I'm the one who owes you an apology, and Amelia too. I'm sure you both have a lot of questions, but the situation is even more complicated than it seems. I -"

  She cut herself off when my phone arm started beeping, and I felt my gut tighten up as I pulled it out of my hoodie pocket to double-check the screen.

  "Oh crap," I grimaced. "It's eleven o'clock, that's my reminder that I have to be at work in an hour. I was going to shower and get changed before heading out, but I'm still in girl-me mode..."

  Harper gnced at his phone then reported, "It's been more than ten minutes."

  "That disproves our first theory," Ellie stated with a slight frown. "Which means we need to wait it out and mark the time when you do change back."

  I gulped, "So what do I do about work?"

  "You obviously can't go to work looking like that," mom said, sounding stressed again. After a moment she sighed, "I'll call your boss and tell him that you're sick and can't come in today."

  PurpleCatGirl