“Why didn’t you do that in the bathroom!” Victoria griped as soon as we were out of earshot. I sighed. “Victoria, I’m very tired. I’ve used my powers a lot today, I am literally running on fumes right now” I expined. “Oh… should we go back to town? Aren’t we only cleared to be here because your power is so overwhelming as to render most threats moot?” She asked. I took a moment to think it through before answering. “Maybe that would be wise, but it would be a shame to cut the day short. It took so long to get here, I want a better return on my time” I responded. “You sure that’s smart?” - “No, but sometimes the best course of action is what makes you happy, not what makes you safe”.

  I found another charity shop on the fifth floor, this one for the Trevor project. I walked in and was immediately greeted by a cornucopia of second hand DVDs. Alice and Rose made an immediate dash for a rack of dresses. Leah hovered near me like a shadow. Victoria just stared on with apparent boredom.

  “Do you not want to look at dresses with Rose?” I asked. “What, so I have something slightly more graceful to burst out of when I lose my temper?” chuckled Leah. “You don’t seem like a particurly angry person” I noted. She ughed again. “You should see me around Mom and Seth. Practically every mealtime someone loses an arm because they touched someone else’s leg of mb” she responded.

  “OH! That reminds me. Are beastshifters not vegetarian?” I asked. “I mean… some of us? Why would we be?” she responded curiously. “Well, you turn into an animal. Wouldn’t that make eating animals seem weird?” I asked. “… I mean it would probably feel really weird to eat wolf meat but… you know wolves eat meat, right?” she asked bnkly. “I suppose” I said. “What about the herbivore ones. Do the rabbit shifters and goat shifters eat meat?” I asked. “I… don’t know any rabbit shifters but I’ve literally seen Seth eat twice his weight in chicken legs once. MAN that kid can eat!” she reminisced. “Why do you ask?”

  “The elders had me hunt something to prove my mettle and I killed a rabbit. I was worried I had committed a faux pas” I expined. “Ha! you’re good. They do that with all the young beastshifters when we’re 6 to get us used to the idea we might have to hurt someone to protect our home and our neighbours” she responded. “Isn’t that a little messed up? We’re you not traumatized?” I asked. “Nah! We had a competition to see who could hunt the biggest kill. It was really fun actually” she chuckled.

  “Are you a vegetarian Vanessa?” She asked. I hesitated before answering. “I mean… I’ve never been comfortable eating anything I had to kill myself. It doesn’t sit right with me. I feel like their spirit’s going to take their vengeance on my body or something. But I can eat meat if someone else caught and prepared it. Its… too delicious to pass up” I admitted.

  “Oh my God! Little miss ‘I’ll kill you if you mess with me or my friends’ is squeamish about killing for real” she ughed. “I wasn’t bluffing. I don’t like hurting people but I won’t hesitate if I have to” I warned. “Sure you will” she chuckled.

  “HEY!” called Alice. “How much money do we have left?”. “Well we have… Oh Rowling’s balls!” I groaned. I pulled out the receipt from the st charity shop and my phone and quickly redid the calcutions on who’d spent what. 2 tees each, Rose bought the hair ornament… “you have 37 and Rose has 35” I replied. “Is that enough for these” she called. She was holding 3 dresses. One was a poofey blue number with too many buttons, like you might see in an old Disney movie. The second was a wine coloured cocktail dress. The third was green and screamed “Explorer”. The sort of thing Jane might wear in a Tarzan movie before going feral.

  “They’re 20 dolrs each. You can afford one of them unless someone wants to give up some of their budget for you” I said frankly. She gave me puppy dog eyes. “I bought Lunch! I’m down to 17 and I haven’t even bought anything for myself yet!” I compined. She looked at Rose. “Why would I give you money just so you can snatch up all the good dresses?”. She looked at Leah. “Sorry, I’m running pretty low myself”. She looked at Victoria. “Hell no”. She looked at the cashier. “The profits of this store support trans kids. You wouldn’t steal money from trans kids would you” chuckled the clerk.

  “I am trans kids!” She pouted. “Right Vanessa?” she asked. Bless her, still new to having actual terminology to describe herself. “That’s right” I replied with a smile. She smiled back and then trained her gnce on the cashier with a brattish “so there”.

  The cashier ughed. “Alright tell you what. 2 for 35. That fair?” he asked. Alice gave an angry pout. “He’s being more than fair sweetie” I told her. “But which one to leave?” she groaned. “The cocktail dress. It wouldn’t suit you anyway” offered the clerk. “Would too” she pouted. A lost look crossed the clerk’s face and he gnced toward me. I gave it a moments thought. “The roads in town are crap. Leave the poofey one, it’ll be covered in mud in 10 seconds ft” I advised.

  Alice left with two dresses. Rose bought a pink one with a hoodie style hand pocket and a bck tee-shirt with a cracked red heart which appeared to be smiling even as it broke. That ate basically all their remaining budget. Leah donated a bit of her budget so I could buy more DVDs. I somehow managed to score boxsets of monster high, the Barbie movies and the Tinkerbell movies. Plenty of stolen childhood to catch up on and plenty of time to do it before it started looking like an unhealthy coping mechanism.

  “Well I think that’s the end of the budget. Except Victoria. Got anything in mind?” I asked. “Can we look at piercings?” she asked. I sighed. “Sure, I’ll check the directory for a tattoo shop” I said. “Why not the chemist” she asked. “Tattoo shop will have more variety and gnarlier designs” I noted. At least I think that’s how piercings work. I’ve never gotten any myself.

  I dropped her off at the tattoo shop. “I need some stuff in the supermarket. We’ll pick you up after” I said. “Shouldn’t we stick together?” she asked. “Don’t worry. We won’t be long.

  Taking Rose, Leah and Alice to the supermarket turned out to be a mistake. “What’s that?” - “A microwavable burrito” - “can we get one?” - “no, we’re out of money”. “What’s that?” - “An avacado” - “can we get one” - “no, we’re out of money”. “What’s that?” - you get the point.

  I bought a bar of chocote and a box of tampons. I remember promising Alice I’d buy her a bar to share with her brother Jared, And despite literally not having the anatomy to use them I seemed to be going through tampons like an AI serverfarm through water. When we got back to the tattoo parlor Victoria wasn’t done so we pyed the wildest game of truth or dare that could be pyed while sitting in the waiting room of a tattoo parlor.

  “So first the dice roller decides truth or dare. Then we all call numbers. If your number or the number on the other side of the dice comes up, you get to pick what happens to the dice roller. If they said truth you can ask them any question and they are honour bound to answer honestly. If they said dare you can give them an order and they are honour bound to complete it. Simple enough?” I expined. I got a chorus of “Yes”s.

  “I’ll go first. Dare” I said. I really wasn’t in the mood to answer personal questions. And what’s the worst that they could ask me to do in a tattoo parlor waiting room? “one” called Leah. “two” called Rose. “three” grunted Alice. I threw the dice. four. “Lets hear it Alice” I said with a smile. “How do you know she won” asked Leah. “The opposite sides of a dice add up to seven. Seven minus four is three, Alice called three” I expined. “Really? I didn’t know that” said Leah. “Its a fairness thing. Alice?” I asked.

  She gave an evil smile. “Kiss me!”. “Really?” I choked. “Honour bound” she sang. “But we’re in public!” I protested. “Honour bound”. I sighed. I tried to be quick about it but she grabbed me by the jaw and had her tongue sliding over my mors before I could think to clench them. It was… not an unpleasant experience and I quickly became lost in it. The sounds of the tattoo shop faded to nothing and all that existed were her lips and mine. SEE CHARLIE! NOT, ASEXUAL!

  Eventually she pulled back. She gave me a brattish smile. I threw the dice at her. “Picker rolls next” I pouted. I would GET her for that, that was my first kiss god dammit!. Alice chose Dare. Rose’s number came up. “Kiss Leah” she said with a vicious grin. Alice looked at Leah who was giving her a predatory smile. She looked at me for aid. “Honour bound” I said with an ironic lilt. She gave a nervous frown and leaned over to whisper in my ear. “I… I think I want to go home” she muttered.

  “Shhhh… its okay. Its just a game. Don’t worry so much” I whispered back. “But what if she bites my tongue” - “But what if she falls in love with you and out of love with Rose? Never interrupt your enemy when they’re making a mistake” I chuckled quietly. She considered this for a second then giggled. She stood back up. “You forfeit?” asked Rose with a mocking smile. “Never” smiled Alice. Then she walked over to Leah, grabbed her by the cheeks and started making out with her like she was auditioning to py Sappho herself. At first Rose smiled maliciously, but after 15 seconds of them intensely making out her face fell into an envious scowl. After 25 seconds her fists were clenched. After 40 seconds she pulled Alice off her with her telekinesis. A whole foot of tongue came sliding out before Alice quickly retracted it.

  “What?” ughed Alice. “You told me to kiss her” she smiled. I gnced at Leah, who’s brain seemed to have shut down and who was catching her breath. Rose grabbed her by the arm and whispered something in her ear. Leah shook her head. “You have GOT to expin how that trick with the tongue works” she panted.

  Needless to say every subsequent dare turned out to be “Kiss somebody”. I made Rose kiss Alice. Rose made me kiss Leah. Leah made Rose kiss Alice. I made Leah kiss Rose. Rose made me kiss her. It didn’t end until Victoria interrupted us with a loud “Oh for fuck sake!”.

  Which actually pissed off the owner of the tattoo shop and the only thing that saved her from the asshole tax was my expnation it was my gift. “You sure kid?” - “Yeah, she’s looking after us or at least meant to be and if we don’t stay in her good graces there could be trouble getting permission for another day out any time soon” I expined. He trained an angry eyebrow on Victoria. “Please sir, she meant no harm. She’s just from one of those towns where its frowned upon to be gay and this is very new to her” I eborated. He sighed. “That will be 65”.

  I shot Victoria an angry gre. She had the decency to look guilty. She had gotten 3 piercings: Navel, lower lip and upper right ear. She looked annoyingly good. I handed over the money with a sigh. And I was soooooo close to coming in under budget.

  We took another trip to the bathroom so Victoria could drop our stuff home. Thankfully we weren’t accosted by a terf this time. “Why don’t I just teleport everyone home while I’m at it?” she asked. “Can you take the car with you?” I responded. “I… I’ve never moved something that big before” she confessed. “In that case I’ve got to take it home anyway” I said. “Can’t we just leave it and come back another day” she asked. “A bathroom stall won’t stay locked forever. They’ll eventually open it up and there’s no telling if it will be empty when you teleport back in that case. So no, not really” I expined. “You’re all free to go with her but I need to take the car home” I added.

  “I’m game to ride back in the Car” said Alice. “For once I’m with Alice” said Rose. “Same here” said Leah. “You remember the part when she almost killed us going down the mountain?” asked Victoria. “It wasn’t that bad” ughed Leah. Victoria shot me a poisonous scowl. “Did you erase their memories?” she asked accusingly. “I’m sure the trauma did that all on its own” I smiled innocently. Victoria let out a groan. “Do I need to come?” - “Yes. The elders sent you as our escape pn. If the car breaks down or something we’ll need you to get everyone home safe” - “Ugh!”.

  Victoria dropped our things off and then we retrieved the car. “Okay, same arrangement as the way here?” I asked. “Actually… can I ride in the back with Leah and Rose?” pleaded Alice. “Sure. Rose, you want a window seat or the middle” I asked. Rose debated for a moment. “Window” she said with an evil grin. “Wait…” gasped Alice. “Victoria, you okay with shotgun?” I asked. “Please!” she said with an excited smile. “Vanessa HELP!” called Alice as Leah swept her off her feet and plopped her on the centre seat. She’d be fine. God I wish I could be in the back seat with them.

  But Victoria couldn’t drive. I’d have to teach her. Maybe I’d take her down to the DMV another day and get her a fake license. Not today though. Today I just wanted to go home and deal with the torrent of emotions that was slowly bubbling back up. I really should have just locked her jaw up from the start, the dysphoria wave really had been a bad idea in hindsight.