"Hello Mr. Crawford," I greeted my possibly-former boss as Ellie and I entered the pce.

  It was Monday afternoon, a full week had passed since the st time I'd been in there, and the guy hadn't called or messaged me once in all that time. I wasn't there to work today either, my boyfriend and girlfriend and I were just stopping in to get gas and snacks on the way over to Harper's pce.

  I headed up to the counter while Ellie went straight for the snack dispys to start loading up on junk food. And Harper was outside at the pump. He'd already pre-paid with his bank card, incase things went poorly in here with my boss.

  "Hello young dy, what can I do for you?" Crawford asked with a friendly smile. It was obvious he had no idea who I was, although that wasn't surprising considering he'd never met the new me before. He definitely didn't know I was trans, but he was about to find out.

  I pulled my ugly orange vest out of my purse as I replied, "It's me, Bke Palmer. I figured since you haven't contacted me about any shifts or anything I'm probably fired? So I wanted to return the vest."

  My boss's eyebrows shot up as his eyes widened, and his mouth opened and closed a couple times as he stared at me. He finally gave his head a little shake and said, "That's not possible. Bke's a boy."

  "Not really," I shook my head. I did my best to keep the anxiety out of my voice but my cheeks were probably turning a little pink as I expined, "I'm trans. I'm actually a girl, and my pronouns are she and her."

  "Anyways I wanted to return the vest since I figured I'm probably fired or something," I added as I put the folded up orange garment on the counter.

  Crawford was still staring at me like his brain was rebooting, he didn't even pick up the vest from the counter. A moment ter Ellie was there standing next me, and she dumped a few bags of chips and a couple big bottles of soda next to the register.

  "How's it going Bke?" she asked in an overly-cheery tone. Then she leaned in and pnted a kiss on my cheek and added, "Did you find out yet if you're still employed or not?"

  I wasn't expecting her to do any of that, and it got my cheeks burning bright red even though it sent some happy butterflies dancing around my tummy. Meanwhile it was like Crawford was so aghast at having two gay girls kiss in front of him that his eyes were about to bulge right out of their sockets. Which was probably Ellie's intention, considering my boss wasn't shy when it came to his opinions on 'the gays'.

  The guy didn't say a word, but he did finally pick up my vest and stuffed it under the counter. He silently rang up all the junk food then put it in bags while my girlfriend paid with her bank card.

  "Bye Mr. Crawford," I said as the two of us headed for the door.

  Ellie added with a grin, "Happy Canada Day!"

  Harper was finished getting gas, so we all climbed into the cab together. Then as he started the engine he asked, "So how'd it go?"

  "Ok I guess?" I shrugged. "I'm officially unemployed now, but I figured that'd happen."

  Ellie added with a smirk, "The guy was so stunned he could barely even talk. He just stood there with his eyes bugging out as he got all hot under the colr about Bke being trans."

  "I don't think it helped any when you kissed me in front of him," I mumbled while my cheeks stayed pink.

  "Ha!" Harper ughed. "I should have gone in with you two, maybe we could have got the old jerk to pop a blood vessel if he realized all three of us were an item together."

  Ellie made a snrk sound while just smiled quietly.

  Then the handsome jock changed the subject, "So are you two ready for tonight? I already stocked up on fireworks, and we've got some homestyle burgers and fresh buns waiting for us."

  "Sounds great," the cute tomboy responded, while I just nodded happily.

  Today was the first of July, and the three of us would be spending another night at Harper's pce. His folks were out partying it up with some of their farmer friends again, and this time they were pnning to spend the night elsewhere. So we'd have the pce to ourselves all night long, which all three of us were looking forward to.

  Our very first date was only a few days ago, and it went really well. Although to be fair we didn't actually do anything we hadn't already done a dozen times before. But it was our first time doing those things on an official date, and that made it all so much better.

  We didn't even do anything really fancy or special. After dinner we hung out and talked about stuff like high school and college. Like how gd we were that the former was over, and how excited or anxious we were about the tter starting in only two months.

  Ellie and I were sad that Harper wouldn't be attending the same campus as us, but happy that the two of us would still be together. And we talked about arranging things so that she and I could share a room when we got into residence.

  Harper was happy for both Ellie and I, but like us he was sad we weren't going to be able to hang out together as easily, and that he wouldn't be able to see us as much while he was at another campus. We all promised to keep in touch though, and we'd still try and get together whenever we could. Like on weekends or at least on long weekends. And we'd get together on holidays for sure.

  We didn't talk so much about the magical girls and the end of the world stuff, there really wasn't anything else to say about that and it was kind of depressing anyways. We all just hoped that Fiona and the others would be able to find my grandmother and stop her before she did anything terrible.

  And on that topic I did receive a few texts from Fiona on Saturday, saying that she and the other magical girls were in the airport in Iqaluit waiting for their next flight. She didn't have any news to report regarding my grandmother, but she did apologize again for the way the others acted when they showed up at my house Friday evening.

  The purple magical girl said she wasn't excusing their behaviour, but she did want to expin it. Anahera Valerie and Ivy were all basically ordered to drop everything and travel to Canada immediately. And all three of them had lives, they weren't just sitting around waiting for magical girl business to pop up.

  Fiona's texts went into more detail about them too. Like she said Anahera was self-employed and had to walk away from her business without warning then spent almost twenty-four hours on pnes and in airports and everything. That's why she was so curt and grumpy and stuff. Same with Val, she had to leave a decent job and head to the airport in Munich. And Ivy was on her way to see her family for the first time in months, she was supposed to join them on vacation. Instead she had to call them and cancel at the st minute.

  Finally the purple magical girl expined that the reason they came to see me instead of going straight to Saskatoon or Iqaluit was they were ordered to come and get me. The other three came up with the interview and vote idea after they all met up at the airport in Toronto.

  So she apologized again for wasting my time, and said she hoped I had a fun date with Ellie and Harper. And I texted her back, to thank her for the details and stuff. I also told her that the three of us had a nice time, and wished her and the other magical girls good luck and all that stuff.

  That was the st of the texts, but I knew Fiona and the others were busy travelling again. And once they got far enough north there wouldn't be any phone service anyways.

  I pushed all that out of my mind as we reached Harper's pce. His dad's pick-up was gone so we knew his folks had already left, which meant we could start our little Canada Day party immediately.

  Less than five minutes ter all three of us were cuddling together on the sofa in the living-room. We had something pying on the big home entertainment system, and gsses of soda on the coffee table along with a big bowl of pretzels.

  "This is nice," Harper said as he cuddled up a little closer against my left side.

  Ellie leaned a little closer against my right side and agreed, "Yep."

  I smiled, "No compints here either."

  "Although I have a question," I added a few seconds ter. "I'm not sure if I should ask it though?"

  "Why not?" Ellie asked.

  Harper added, "What's the question?"

  After a deep breath I asked, "So I guess I was wondering, did you two only want to start dating me after I turned into a girl?"

  The tall handsome jock responded immediately, "Nope. I've been into you for about six months now Bke. Back during the winter holidays, I was really tempted to ask you out for new years? The only reason I never did was I didn't think you were into guys."

  "To be honest I kind of thought you might be ace or something?" he added after a slight hesitation. "Although in retrospect I get that you were probably dealing with dysphoria and stuff? Anyways my point is I've been into you for a while, because I like who you are as a person. The only difference between then and now isn't that you're a girl, it's that you're more comfortable with yourself. Well, that and I found out you were into me after all."

  All that left me with some confusing emotions, but most of them were positive. I blushed but smiled, "Thanks Harper. I really appreciate that. And uh, I'm sorry it took me so long to let you know I was interested?"

  "For what it's worth I always thought you were handsome and attractive and stuff," I added as my cheeks heated up a little more, "But I really didn't have the confidence or whatever to actually come out and say it. And I figured nobody would be interested in me anyways? It was probably the dysphoria, but I couldn't imagine anyone being attracted to my original body."

  He gave me a sad smile as he nodded, "Yeah, that was definitely the dysphoria talking. But don't sweat it, ok? Waiting a few extra months was totally worth it, because now I get to see you be happy and confident and comfortable."

  "Aww," I smiled, "Thank you."

  Ellie had been quiet through all that, but she finally spoke up with her answer.

  "You've been my best friend ever since my I moved here with my parents," she began. Her voice was soft and she was looking down at her gss of soda rather than at me, like she was sad or embarrassed or something. "I admit it crossed my mind more than once that if you were a girl I'd totally want to date you. I don't know if that makes me shallow or something, that I couldn't see past the surface and realize that you were really a girl all along?"

  After a sigh she added, "I'm sorry I never said anything though? Maybe you'd have hatched sooner if I did? I guess I was afraid to mention it, incase it upset you or got you angry with me. Like some guys would probably be offended or angry about being 'friend-zoned', or at being told they'd have better luck as a girl or something? Maybe I'd have said something if you asked, but I didn't want to bring it up myself. I didn't want to risk messing up our friendship."

  She shrugged, "Anyways I guess what I'm trying to say is, no I wasn't into you like that when I thought you were a guy? But if I'd known you were a girl then I think things might have been different."

  All three of us were quiet for the next few seconds after Ellie finished. I needed the time to process all that and figure out how I felt about it, while she seemed to be embarrassed or maybe afraid of how I'd react. And Harper was keeping out of it since this was really just about my best friend and I.

  "Thanks Ellie," I finally replied. "It's kind of ironic, because I was crushing on you for a long time. Only I never mentioned it for the same reason as you, I didn't want to risk ruining our friendship. And since I still thought I was a guy, I figured there was no point anyways. I knew you weren't into me because that's what I thought I was."

  She nodded slowly, then turned and leaned in. She gave me a kiss then smiled, "So we were both wrong about a bunch of stuff, and we both kept quiet because we valued our friendship too much to risk it."

  "Yeah," I grimaced slightly. Then I kissed her back, before turning and kissing Harper too. "Thank you both for telling me that stuff. And now that I know all that, I just realized it doesn't really matter anyways? Like what's important is that we're here with each other now."

  Harper agreed, "Well put. As long as we're all here and we're happy, with ourselves and each other, that's the main thing."

  "Yep," Ellie nodded.

  Then my tall handsome boyfriend asked, "So who's up for some BBQ burgs?"

  "I am," both me and my girlfriend responded at the same time.

  Then the two of us giggled, while Harper smiled and got to his feet. He headed for the door as he said, "In that case I'll go get the BBQ started."

  "Why don't we go and keep him company?" I suggested.

  Ellie agreed, so the three of us went out onto the patio together. And that kind of set the tone for the rest of the afternoon and evening. All three of us made dinner together, tidied up together, then hung out listening to tunes as we cuddled on the sofa together. And when it finally got dark out we set off a bunch of fireworks and celebrated the holiday together.

  Eventually we decided it was time to go to bed, and the three of us did that together too. Instead of me on the sofa and Ellie on the big recliner, Harper invited the two of us to join him upstairs in his bedroom.

  That gave me some serious butterflies and I was sure Ellie felt them too. For that matter Harper seemed just as nervous and excited. But we all agreed, and soon enough I found myself in my boyfriend's bed with him cuddling against one side of me and my girlfriend pressed close against the other side.

  Harper and I exchanged some kisses, along with some tentative touching. Then I turned and did the same with Ellie. And even though none of us went all the way, it still felt like we had way better fireworks there than anything I'd seen in the sky earlier.

  PurpleCatGirl