Welland Revisited - Ch.1 - Totally Not On Purpose (Patreon)

=::= Bethany's PoV =::=

"Thanks mom," I said as I slipped out of the mini-van. 

Jenny added, "Yeah thank you!"

Mom smiled, "Have a good day you two. I'll be back to pick you up around four."

I waved as she pulled away, but Jenny was already heading up the stairs towards the front door. It was the first of June, about half past eight Monday morning and like usual mom dropped us off at school on her way to work. I hurried to catch up to my sister, and the two of us walked in through the doors together.

"I can't wait till I get my license," Jen grumped as we walked together towards our lockers. "Only four more lessons, then I can take my test. I'll be able to drive in time for summer break!"

She started getting driving lessons as soon as she turned sixteen. I wouldn't be sixteen till September but I didn't really need lessons. I hadn't been behind the wheel in almost three years, since I got cursed into a young teen. But after I got all my old memories back I could remember knowing how to drive so I was pretty sure I could still do it. I figured I'd get my learning permit in three months, then maybe mom would let me do some practicing to make sure. 

I flashed a mischievous grin at my sister and teased, "Even when you get your license that doesn't mean you'll get to do much driving. We've only got the one car."

Jenny gave me a sly look then leaned in closer and whispered, "Mom doesn't need the minivan, she could just teleport to work if she wanted."

"You know she'd freak if she found out you were talking about that sort of thing," I warned her. 

That was the biggest thing mom drilled into both of us, and Sadie and Amanda too for that matter. Now that the world knew magic was real, mom and the rest of her witch friends were super paranoid about anybody finding out they what they could do. According to mom, magic was only accepted by everybody because the two spells Cindy shared were really safe and could only work on the person using them. Mom said if people knew what her witch friends were capable of, it might lead to people attacking all of us.

"Yeah I know," my sister rolled her eyes. "I didn't say anything."

She started dialling the combination on her locker, and I glanced around as I opened mine. I hadn't seen my boyfriend yet, and he was usually around to meet me in the morning. Normally he'd have been hanging out by the front door to see me as soon as mom dropped us off. 

With her locker open, Jenny checked her hair again in the mirror. It was still mostly sunny blonde, but the first full moon after her sixteenth birthday she used Cindy's spell and added a wide pink streak on the right side by her ear. 

I stuffed my afternoon books into my locker then closed it and looked around again for my boyfriend, but there was still no sign of him.

The halls were filling up, and apart from all the normal boys and girls there were a handful of kids who weren't entirely human. Not a lot, but in the two years since Cindy started her 'Change the World' thing we had a catboy, a catgirl, a wolfgirl, and as of two months ago there was even a non-binary fox-kin attending classes. That wasn't even counting the three or four trans kids used the spell over the past two years. 

As I looked around I spotted a foxgirl walking through the hall. That was a new one on me and I ended up staring.

She looked about my age, fifteen or sixteen. Her black hair was in a short pixie style, and sticking up above her hair were two tall pointy fox ears. They were coated in black fur, except at the tips which were white. And the inside parts had tufts of dark grey fur. The glimpses I got of her tail as it swished back and forth behind her revealed it was long and floofy, coated in more black fur except at the tip which was white like on her ears. Her skin was fair and her eyes looked sort of amber coloured from what I could see. And her face was kind of pretty.

Most of the kids who'd used the spell tended to look stylish, but this girl's clothes looked out of place. She was wearing track pants and a t-shirt and sneakers, and she was carrying a back-pack in her left hand. 

"Full moon was yesterday," Jenny commented.

I glanced at her then realized she was looking at the foxgirl as well. 

"Oh right," I nodded. That made sense, it explained why I hadn't noticed a foxgirl around school before and why her clothes looked off. She probably hadn't had time to get a tail-friendly wardrobe yet.

Me and my sister started heading towards class when an unfamiliar voice behind us asked "Um, Bethany?"

I turned around and was surprised to find myself face to face with the foxgirl. She was about the same size as me, which was another surprise. Thanks to getting cursed by a Goddess a few years ago I was the smallest girl in grade eleven, and was one of the smallest in the whole school.

"Uh, yeah?" I asked. I added, "Sorry I don't recognize you."

The foxgirl blushed but nodded "Yeah. Um, so you know how the full moon was early yesterday morning?"

Jenny suddenly burst into giggles, then she patted me on the back. "I'll see you in class sis. Or if you have to skip a few periods, we'll catch up at lunch. I'd love to stick around and watch this but I bet you and miss Fox will want some privacy."

"Huh?" I asked as I looked at Jen. I had no idea what she was talking about, but she didn't stick around for me to ask. She was already walking away through the hall.

I sighed and frowned at Jenny's back as she headed to class, then looked back at the foxgirl again. "Sorry, I have no idea what my sister's talking about."

She was blushing even brighter now, and asked "Do you think we could go somewhere quiet to talk? Like the library maybe?"

"Um," I hesitated. I didn't really want to be late for my first class, and I had no idea who this girl was or what she wanted with me. Plus I was getting more worried about my boyfriend, it was unusual not to see him at all before class.

I glanced around again hoping to spot him but still no luck. Finally I focused on the foxgirl again and asked, "Shouldn't you be checking in at the office? That's the procedure right? Any student who's used the spell has to report to the office to update their student info and all that stuff?"

The girl's tail twitched back and forth and she looked a little frustrated. 

"Please Beth," she asked in a half-whisper. "I really need to speak with you."

I frowned and took another quick look around for my boyfriend.

The foxgirl leaned closer and whispered, "You can stop looking for me, I'm right here! Now please let's go to the library?"

"You what?!" I almost yelped. I found myself staring at her in shock as I finally understood what Jenny was talking about and why she was laughing.

"Can we please just go talk?" the girl begged. She grabbed my hand and started pulling me through the hall in the direction of the library. The halls were already emptying out again as everyone started making their way to class.

I followed along, but I couldn't help muttering to myself "Why does every guy I'm with end up turning into a girl?"

The bell rang as the two of us entered the library, and the foxgirl who may have been my boyfriend up till yesterday morning pulled me into a private study cubicle at the back. 

"Seriously?" I half demanded as we sat down. It was hard to keep my voice down but I tried. "We've been together since March and this is how you come out to me? You couldn't just mention at any point in the last couple months that you were trans?"

Her face was bright red and she shook her head, "This was a mistake! An accident!"

"Right," I rolled my eyes. "You accidentally used the prep spell for two weeks, then accidentally got up at four o'clock yesterday morning and used the main spell while you accidentally concentrated on the image of a foxgirl."

Everybody in school probably knew how the spell worked by now, the second anniversary of magic being released to the public was last month. Two years ago most people never heard of Cindy's spell and the ones who did mostly laughed it off as a joke.

Now they mentioned magic like three times this semester in health class, they wanted to make sure students knew not to mess around with any spells they found on the internet and what the potential dangers were. They also had a whole procedure set up for students who did use it and completely changed their appearance.

Jenny didn't have any trouble since all she did was change her hair slightly, but people like my boyfriend would have to go through a bunch of paperwork to change their name and everything.

She wore a frustrated frown along with a blush as she responded, "It's not like that ok? Yes I did the prep spell and yes I got up early yesterday for the full moon. I wasn't trying to turn myself into a girl though! I just wanted to turn my hair black! I swear! I didn't like the stupid streaky blond brown look. I don't know what happened ok? I think it's because I was half asleep? Maybe I dozed off while I was doing it or something?"

I rolled my eyes again, "It doesn't work that way. If you don't give it a clear goal or you mess that part up, it goes with your subconscious desires. So if you dozed off while you were doing it, then it turned you into what you really wanted."

My former boyfriend bit her lower lip and managed to blush all the way down to her shoulders. She asked nervously, "How do you know that?"

That led me to hesitate a moment. I couldn't tell her I met the girl who created the spell, or that my big sisters were both witches and knew all sorts of stuff about magic. Luckily it only took a second to come up with a plausible answer.

"My mom works at QSAW remember?" I replied. "They have experts there who know all about the spell, who help people with it."

She leaned back in her chair as her shoulders slumped. She whispered, "I really didn't mean to do this Beth. I was just going to do the hair thing, I swear. I..."

Her voice trailed off for a few moments, and she was staring up at the ceiling rather than look at me. Finally she admitted, "I thought about this, but I meant to wait? Like till we were done high-school. It's just another year right? Yesterday was... I only meant to change my hair. I just wanted to try the spell out to see how it felt."

"Ok," I sighed. "So what name do you want me to use? I'm guessing you're going to stick with this since you've gone and done it now, right?"

She was blushing again and switched from staring at the ceiling to looking at the carpeted floor. She snuck a glance at me, maybe to gauge my mood, then half-whispered "Tally."

"Ok Tally," I leaned over and gave her a hug. "How have your folks handled this?"

I saw her eyes light up when I used her new name, and when I hugged her it felt like she almost melted slightly in my arms. 

When I let go it looked like there were tears forming in her eyes and she whispered, "Thanks Bethany... I'm sorry you had to find out this way. I wasn't kidding about this being an accident, but yeah. You're right, since it's done I'm not going to undo it. And uh, my folks knew. I told them a few months ago? So the only surprise was that it happened early."

"That's a relief," I gave her a smile. "I'm glad your family are ok with it. Now c'mon. Let's go to the office so they can update all your records. Then if you want, we can skip the rest of the day and I'll take you to QSAW. Even if you're cool with all this, you obviously weren't prepared for it and they can help with stuff like changing your name and all that."

We both stood up, and she pulled me into a quick hug. "Thank you Beth. Like I said, I'm sorry I surprised you this way but I'm so glad you're not mad at me."

I shrugged, "Almost my whole family's queer one way or another, and my mom runs QSAW. It's not like I don't get this stuff."

As we left the library together she asked hopefully, "So um... Maybe I'm pushing my luck but are we still together? Like... I guess, could I be your girlfriend?"

It only took me a few seconds to think it over before I shrugged, "Yeah ok. I'm willing to give it a try. Considering every guy I hook up with ends up turning into a girl, maybe I should just take the hint."

We were at the door to the office, but instead of heading inside Tally stopped and gave me a funny look. "What other guy have you been with that turned out to be trans?"

I opened the office door as I flashed her a wry grin and teased, "I'll never tell. Now c'mon!"

We stepped into the office and the secretary took one look at my friend then rolled her eyes. "Right. Full moon yesterday."

Tally didn't even get a chance to say anything before the lady thrust a tablet into her hands. 

"Here you go, Fill out the form, all the questions marked in red are required. I'll need your old student card and one piece of ID."

Me and Tally sat together on the uncomfortable wood bench next to the door. She started tapping away at the tablet while I found myself staring at her tail. It was wrapped around her side between us on the bench and I couldn't resist.

As soon as I ran my hand along the soft thick floofy fur her back stiffened and her eyes went wide while her face turned bright red. She looked at me like she wanted to say something but nothing came out.

"...!" 

"Sorry," I grimaced. "I couldn't resist. It's really soft!"

Tally kept blushing as she turned her attention back to the tablet. 

The whole process was pretty painless. It took less than five minutes to fill out the form, then she gave her ID and student card to the lady. She used the tablet to take a picture of Tally, then focused on her computer. Five minutes later she returned the old ID along with a new student card.

"Here you go," the secretary said as she handed over the cards. "You should update your government ID as soon as possible, and of course you'll have to re-introduce yourself to your teachers. Everything else is taken care of."

"Thank you ma'am," Tally responded with another blush. She was smiling as she stared at her new student card, then turned to show it to me. 

I smiled back at my new girlfriend, "Very cute. Now let's go take care of the rest of your ID."

*** This chapter comes courtesy of Jess who commissioned it! ***