Announcementnote: this chapter marks the start of Pink Gold Book Two. It picks up just five days after the end of book one.I was exhausted. And from the expressions on my friends' faces I knew they were too.

  After a full day of dealing with airports and airpnes and security we were all relieved to finally climb into Harper's beat-up old pickup truck. Except when we pulled out of the long term parking we realized we were just in time for afternoon rush hour. Which meant instead of a ninety minute drive home, it took us almost that long just to get away from the city. Then it was another hour on top of that before we finally reached the little vilge we called home.

  We pulled up in front of Ellie's pce first, then all three of us quietly emerged from the car. Harper leaned over the side and grabbed Ellie's backpack out of the truck bed, but before handing it to her we all shared a group hug and some kisses.

  "I'll text or something ter," my girlfriend mumbled. "You two have a good evening. Tell your folks I said hi."

  I replied quietly, "Yeah same."

  Harper added, "I'm sure we're all going to get together again soon enough. But yeah, I'll text and stuff too."

  We finally broke up the hug, then Ellie took her backpack and started heading up the driveway towards the house. She only got about halfway before the front door burst open and her mom came running out, with her dad following a few paces behind.

  Her dad took the backpack then both him and his wife pulled the weary tomboy into another hug. And Mrs. Vandalen made a big fuss about Ellie's broken gsses and the adhesive bandage on her forehead.

  Then after another half minute or so Mr. and Mrs. Vandalen both paused to wave at Harper and I, before all three of them disappeared together into their home.

  The two of us waved back, then we climbed into the pickup truck again. And a minute or so ter we were at my pce, where we went through the motions a second time. Harper pulled my pack out of the back of the truck, the two of us exchanged another long hug and a kiss, before bidding each other a good evening. Then I headed towards my house while he climbed back into his pickup and set off for his farm and his own little reunion.

  Unlike at Ellie's pce, nobody came bursting out of the door to greet me. Then again we'd only been gone eight days. It felt a lot longer though, after everything that happened.

  The whole world-saving monster-fighting grandmother-dying thing was intense, but it turned out to be just a small part of the ordeal. I actually found the pne crash and its aftermath harder to cope with, mostly because of how long we were stranded up there.

  It took two full days before help arrived, in the form of a navy helicopter. There were medics and soldiers and officers, and it took two trips to evacuate all of us from the crash back to their ship that was waiting in Baffin Bay. In the meantime they were taking pictures of the crash and interviewing us while the medics tended to Chester and Fiona and Ellie. Then once everyone was evacuated we had a long boring boat ride to Iqaluit, where we all ended up spending another day in the hospital there. And we had to give our statements all over again to some RCMP officers.

  We were finally allowed to leave this morning, all except Chester. He was going to be stuck in hospital for a few more days before they let him go home.

  The rest of us all got on the same pne from Iqaluit to Ottawa. From there Fiona caught a flight back to Wales while Valerie got on a pne to Germany. Tina and Glen were returning home to Saskatoon, while Anahera and Ivy got tickets to San Francisco. The Māori woman would get another connection from there, and eventually make her way back to New Zeand. And my friends and I caught a short flight back to Toronto, followed by the long drive home.

  "Hi mom, Amelia," I called as I opened the front door. "I'm home!"

  "Bke!" mom excimed as she came running out of the kitchen.

  As soon as she reached me she pulled me into a tight hug and asked, "How are you doing? Are you hungry? Did you eat? I can make you something if you like? How was the trip? And what really happened up there? I know you couldn't tell me everything on the phone yesterday, and they certainly didn't have all the details on the news either."

  "I'm kind of more tired than hungry," I replied as I hugged her back. "And everything else is... a long story."

  Then I spotted Amelia, she'd followed mom out of the kitchen. And when mom finally let go of me my sister surprised me by pulling me into a brief hug as well.

  "Hey sis," she said as she let go. "I'm gd you're ok. What happened to your arm?"

  I had a fresh bandage on my right forearm, over the spot where the Outsider's tentacle touched me. It was still slowly healing, but according to the doctors I'd probably end up with a scar. And now that Amelia pointed it out my mom was looking worried about it too.

  So I told them both, "It's just a little burn. It's healing ok, but I have to keep it clean and change the bandage once a day."

  Mom asked, "What about Ellie and Harper? Are they alright?"

  "They're ok," I replied wearily. "Like I said on the phone, Harper got a few bumps and bruises but that was it. And Ellie got a nasty cut on her forehead, but Harper patched her up."

  Then I admitted, "She's still healing from that, and it sounds like we're both going end up with scars. But other than that all three of us are fine."

  Mom continued to look worried as she asked, "I thought you said the ring healed any injuries? Why won't it heal your arm?"

  I grimaced, "It heals normal injuries. But I didn't hurt my arm in the pne crash. It was um, an Outsider touched me."

  "You mean she did it?" mom gasped. She looked scared as she asked, "My mother opened the rift?"

  I winced, "Yeah, but it was unstable. And um, we managed to close it again."

  Mom nodded slowly, then gestured towards the kitchen. "Why don't the three of us sit down? I'll get you something to eat, then you can tell us all about it."

  I stifled a sigh as I nodded, "Alright. Thanks mom."

  It turned out she and Amelia were eating dinner when I got home. My sister sat back down to finish her meal, but mom stayed on her feet as she went to fix me something as well. I wasn't that hungry though, so I told her a sandwich was fine. She also got me a drink, then when she finally joined us at the table I started with the story.

  Except I didn't go into any of the unpleasant details. I covered the main points, like the pne trip north from Resolute, then how the weather went all crazy which led to the crash. I told them that Judith was dead, killed by one of the Outsiders she summoned, but I didn't tell them how or what it did to her. Likewise I didn't say much about the fight, only that it was scary and both Fiona and I were hurt, but we won and the rift was sealed.

  They'd already heard bits and pieces of the rest of it on the phone yesterday, but I went over that again as well. Like I told them how my boyfriend took charge of the first aid stuff, how he basically saved the pilot's life and he patched up Ellie and everyone else. I also told them how my girlfriend fixed the radio then used it to call for help.

  I glossed over the two days we spent waiting for rescue, and definitely didn't say anything about all the magical girl stuff I learned from talking to Lily and the others. I hadn't even shared that with Ellie and Harper, or not yet at least.

  And finally I told them a bit about the helicopter ride and the navy ship. And how we were all questioned and interviewed a few times, first by military people then the police. Mostly it seemed like they were investigating the pne crash, but it's possible they were also digging into Judith's business as well. None of us mentioned her to the authorities though. We didn't say anything about her expedition, or the rift or the Outsiders.

  "So that's about it," I sighed as I finished my story about the same time as my sandwich. "We had an adventure, and we saved the world. Now we're back home again, and I guess we can all return to our normal lives."

  I could tell both mom and Amelia knew I'd left out big chunks of the story. Like it was pretty obvious I'd skipped over all the details of the Outsiders and the rift. Looking at my sister though, I got the impression she was gd I didn't go into any of the nasty stuff. On the other hand mom looked like she wanted to know more, but she also seemed to realize that Amelia didn't. And she could probably tell I wasn't feeling up for it either.

  So neither of them asked me to continue the story or eborate on any of the stuff I'd skipped. Instead they both gave me another hug, then mom started doing the dishes while I finally got my backpack and headed upstairs. I peeled off my clothes then had a long hot shower, and after that I basically just colpsed into bed.

  Except as much as I'd been looking forward to being able to sleep in my own room in my own bed, I found myself missing Ellie and Harper. The three of us had been pretty much inseparable for the past nine or ten days, like even before our adventure we'd been together almost constantly. So I grabbed my phone and started messaging them.

  It turned out they both felt the same. As happy as they were to be home and to see their parents again and everything, they both missed me and each other just as much. So after only about ten minutes of texting, we all ended up in a voice chat together.

  "My mom and sister were both super happy to see me," I quietly told the others. "And of course mom wanted to know everything. Amelia wasn't so eager to hear the gory details though. So I told them the basics, but I'm sure mom is going to have a private talk with me at some point. She'll want to know exactly what happened with Judith and the rift and everything else."

  Harper replied, "Yeah I bet. I'm sure your aunt will want to know all about it as well. Even if they didn't like your grandmother that much, they do have a right to know what happened to her."

  That made me grimace. I really didn't want to think about it, and I was even less happy about the thought of describing that stuff to both mom and Aunt Leslie. My boyfriend was right though, they'd want to know about their mother. They'd probably want to know about the rift and the Outsiders too.

  "So how'd it go with your folks Harper?" Ellie asked a moment ter.

  I could picture my boyfriend's expression and even how he probably shrugged as he responded, "About the same I guess? They were really happy to see me, dad said he was proud of me for looking after everyone and patching up all the injuries and stuff."

  "I haven't looked yet," he continued, "But apparently the news pyed you and me up as heroes? Like they made a big deal over the fact that you fixed the radio and called the mayday. And they did the same about me, for doing all the first aid stuff. Like so amazing, a couple high school kids saved the day, wow."

  Harper sounded a bit sarcastic at that st part. Then his tone got a little darker as he added, "On the other hand dad started talking about suing Chester. The news have already decided the crash was his fault."

  "Yeah," Ellie sighed. I could practically hear the way she was frowning as she said, "I hate to say it but that's probably what the official report is going to come up with as well. Pilot error, he misjudged the weather or something."

  I frowned, "That's so unfair! As far as I'm concerned he's as much a hero as you two. Like I know we can't tell anyone about that stuff, but if Chester hadn't flown us up there then we wouldn't have been able to stop the ritual and close the rift."

  "I feel really bad for the guy," I added with a sigh. "He lost his pne, he got the worst injuries, and now he's going to take the bme for the whole thing."

  My girlfriend replied, "I know Bke. But you heard what Anahera said? Chester will be taken care of. Either her or Cel will look after him. He's going to be rewarded, even if nobody knows what really happened or how he helped save the world. Including him."

  "Speaking of Cel, have you heard anything else from them?" Harper asked me.

  I shook my head, "Nope. I don't know if they actually came to Iqaluit yesterday or if they communicated some other way, I just know what Lily told the rest of us."

  "According to Violet it's pretty rare for them to show up in person though," I added. I'd switched to using code-names since this was more like official magical girl stuff. "Anyways I guess we'll hear from them again when or if they need us? Until then everything's back to normal."

  My boyfriend sounded like he was nodding as he replied, "I guess it makes sense. And speaking of normal, I have to call the hardware store tomorrow to let them know I'm back. Assuming I'm not fired or anything, maybe I'll get some shifts soon. And just like that it'll be back to work, back to our regur normal lives."

  "Same," Ellie agreed. "I'll call the body shop and see how it goes. I also have to go down to Shelburne tomorrow, my dad's taking me to get a new pair of gsses. It'll be nice being able to see clearly with both eyes again."

  "I could drive you if you like?" Harper offered.

  I added, "Yeah, I could come too if you want the company?"

  My girlfriend seemed to think it over before responding, "As much as I appreciate the offer, I think I'm actually ok going with my dad? After the week we've had, it's kind of nice to spend some time with my folks again."

  "Maybe the three of us can get together afterwards though?" she added. "I'll text you both as soon as I'm avaible."

  "Sounds good," I smiled.

  Harper agreed, "Same. I love you two, but you're right Ellie. It's good to be home again."

  "Yeah," I nodded. "Maybe I'll spend some time with mom and Amelia tomorrow."

  PurpleCatGirl