"Hey sis, what'cha watching?" I greeted Amelia as I wandered into the living-room with my cereal bowl in hand.

  "Dunno," she shrugged. "Not really paying attention to it."

  She was still in her pyjamas, sprawled on the sofa pying a game on her phone while some show on TV provided background noise. I hadn't dressed yet either, I was just wearing a cute pink nightie mom got for me.

  I sat down in one of the chairs and after munching on a spoonful of my breakfast I asked, "Where's mom? Did she go out?"

  Amelia nodded, "Yeah. She went down to Shelburne to get her hair done, then I think she's going to get groceries and stuff?"

  "Oh," I mumbled around another mouthful of cereal.

  It was after ten o'clock Friday morning, and I'd slept in again. Not that there was anything important for me to do anyways. I hadn't even started looking for work yet, and my friends were both busy so I couldn't spend my time hanging out with them all summer long.

  I hadn't even seen them since we got back home on Tuesday, which felt really weird. We still messaged each other a few times a day and talked at least once every day, but I missed seeing them. And I missed all the hugs and cuddling too.

  Wednesday all three of us were busy with family stuff. Ellie spent most of the day with her dad then all evening with her mom and dad, while Harper was at home with his folks all day long too. And I spent the day hanging out with Amelia and mom.

  The three of us didn't really do anything special, we didn't even talk that much. Mostly it was just about spending time together as a family, like mom made us a fancy breakfast then we all watched TV together and stuff like that.

  Yesterday was pretty quiet too, I mostly just helped out around the house doing chores and stuff. And now it seemed like today was going to be even quieter. I knew both Ellie and Harper were working today, so I had a feeling things would be kind of boring for me. I didn't feel like looking for work though, I'd already decided to leave that for next week.

  "Hey Bke?" Amelia's voice suddenly broke the silence between us.

  I looked over at her and responded, "Yeah?"

  She hesitated, like she wasn't quite sure what she wanted to say. Then with a thoughtful look on her face she asked, "What's it like?"

  I frowned as I shook my head slowly, "What's what like?"

  "Everything?" she said unhelpfully.

  Then she eborated, "Like, everything's different now, right? A few weeks ago you were my weird shy quiet brother. Now you're a girl and you're dating another girl and a boy. Plus you're some kind of superhero now too. You've been to the north pole, you were in a pne crash, you fought monsters, you saved the world. You did all that in just a couple weeks. What was all that really like?"

  I put my empty cereal bowl down on the coffee table then sat back in my chair and sighed, "It was a lot. It was overwhelming. A lot of it was scary and confusing. Some of it was really horrible. And some of it was boring and tedious. I'm gd the bad stuff's over, I'm happy me and my friends are all back home and we're ok and everything. And I'm happy I get to keep being a girl."

  "Why do you want to know about that stuff anyways?" I asked. "I already told you and mom some of it when I got home Tuesday night, right? And we've talked a bit since then."

  Amelia shrugged then frowned, and finally sighed. "Like I said, a lot's happened in the st couple weeks? And I guess I was thinking, you're going to be moving out next month, you're going off to college and everything. I guess I wanted to try and get to know the new you a little better? And I thought maybe it'd help if I knew what sort of stuff you've been doing, what you did and what happened when you were up north."

  "I mean, wasn't any of it fun?" she added. "Like after you saved the world, you got to spend a few days camping up north with your friends, right? That sounds kind of cool."

  "It wasn't," I grimaced as I shook my head. "Maybe if we'd skipped the pne crash and the monsters and stuff? Like if we'd just gone on a camping trip, then yeah. That probably would have been fun, but that's not what happened."

  "So what made it not fun?" she asked, and from her tone I could tell she was genuinely curious. Like she wasn't trying to be a pest, she was trying to understand what we went through up there.

  After another quiet sigh I began to expin, "You already know about my arm being hurt, and Ellie hurt her head, right? And I'm pretty sure I told you the pilot was hurt too? So was the purple magical girl, her leg got hurt way worse than my arm. Chester, the pilot, was hurt the worst. He had a broken arm, broken leg, cracked ribs, cuts to his face, the works..."

  My voice trailed off as I suppressed a little shudder. Then I continued in a soft quiet voice, "We were hundreds of kilometres away from the nearest doctor. We had an old first aid kit from the pne, and Harper had his own first aid kit in his backpack, and that was it. The only thing we had for pain was regur-strength headache pills. Harper had to stitch up Ellie's forehead with a pin old needle and thread from a sewing kit, without any freezing or anaesthetic."

  My sister made a face and almost squirmed in her seat at that mental image, but she didn't speak up so I kept talking.

  "There's no trees up there, so Harper took apart the frame from one of the backpacks to make splints for Chester. At least the poor guy was unconscious when Harper bandaged him up..." I suppressed another shudder there before continuing in the same quiet voice, "It was worse after the poor guy woke up. He was in all kinds of pain, and all we could offer him was a couple over the counter headache pills."

  By that point Amelia's eyes were wide and her face was pale, and I was positive she was thinking about how awful that must have been. She gulped, "I've never had a broken bone, but I know it must be really painful."

  "Yeah," I nodded slowly. "Even though the headache pills didn't do much, we all wanted to save them for Chester. Because we didn't know how long it would take for rescue to arrive, and we only had about a dozen of them to begin with? So me and Ellie and Fiona all refused to take any. I didn't really need them, my arm wasn't that bad. But Ellie and Fiona were a lot worse, and they just put up with the pain for the whole time."

  "Wow," Amelia half-whispered.

  I nodded slowly before moving on to the next part of the story, "Harper and Ivy and Tina all took turns staying with Chester. Like they were there to help if he was thirsty or whatever? It was really rough though, the poor guy was in so much pain and there was only so much they could do for him."

  With another sigh I added, "None of us got much sleep. For one thing the sun never sets up there, so it's like always daylight out? But even when we tried, there were noises and stuff. Like I'd roll over and bump my arm and the pain would wake me up. The same with Ellie and Fiona, and it happened to Chester all the time. And whenever it did, whoever was hurting would make a noise and everyone else got woken up too."

  Amelia looked even more upset, so I decided to take a little break. I took my cereal bowl into the kitchen, then came back out with a couple cans of soda. I handed her one, then as I sat back down I offered "I can stop if you've heard enough? I know it's not a fun story."

  She shook her head, "I'm ok. I want to hear more, I want to know what it was like for you up there."

  "Ok," I nodded. Then after a sip of my drink I continued, "Ellie and Anahera and I took turns staying by the radio, so we could get updates on the rescue and stuff? Except the batteries only sted about a day. After that it's like we were completely cut off and isoted. Having that outside person to talk to really helped, but I can't really describe it? And even though we knew help was coming, without hearing that guy's voice every now and then it really felt like we were on our own."

  "I think part of it was not having anything to do?" I frowned. "Even if sitting by the radio wasn't exactly a tough job, it was still a job. So not having that contact, and not having the job to focus on, it just made things feel even worse. And with the sun never setting it felt like time just stopped, like we were going to be stuck up there forever."

  My sister gave me a sad worried look, "That sounds awful Bke. I'm so sorry."

  "Thanks sis," I gave her a weak smile. Then after a gulp of my drink I said, "We tried to find other things to keep us busy? Me and Ellie scrounged around what was left of Judith's camp, to see if there were any batteries or a sor panel or something? We figured she had to have that sort of thing, and Ellie cimed she'd be able to make it work if we found something. It was all trashed though, from the monsters. Like that whole camp in worse shape than the pne crash."

  Then I shrugged, "Anyways it was pretty grim for a while, but then we all heard the sound of a helicopter in the distance. So we waved and stuff, they nded a few dozen meters away from the crash site and our tents and everything, and a bunch of military guys came out. There were a couple medics with them, and Harper practically dragged them right to Chester's side. They gave him some real painkillers then put him on a stretcher and got him in the helicopter."

  "The medics looked at Fiona's leg and Ellie's forehead too, before putting them both on the helicopter," I expined. "And Tina and Glen went too. A couple of the military guys stayed with the rest of us, and the helicopter took off and left. Then while we waited for the helicopter to come back me and Harper packed up all our gear and stuff, like sleeping bags and tent and clothes and things? Since we didn't want to just leave it all behind. It was a few hours, but eventually the rest of us all got rescued. They took us to a Canadian navy ship, the HMCS Charlottetown."

  I couldn't help smiling a little at that part, "The helicopter ride was loud and a little scary, nding on the ship was even more scary, but it was also kind of cool? We all ended up in the infirmary, where the medics and the ship's doctor checked us out one at a time."

  "After that it got boring," I added as my smile faded. "We were more or less stuck in a room for most of the voyage, we weren't allowed to just wander around or hang out on deck or anything. But at least we were safe. Chester finally got real medical help, same with Ellie. Although by that point her forehead was already starting to heal, thanks to Harper. And both Fiona and I had our injuries looked at too."

  Amelia gnced at my scar and asked, "What really happened to your arm? You said it was burned and a monster did it, but like, how did a monster burn you?"

  I hesitated, then had another sip of my co while I thought about what to tell her. I didn't want to just brush her off or say not to worry about it, but I also didn't want to scare her with too many details. And I definitely didn't want to think about what happened to our grandmother, much less talk about that sort of thing.

  After a couple seconds I finally sighed, "I don't like to think about the monsters or the fighting. It was pretty awful and very scary. But since you asked, I'll tell you what happened to my arm."

  "So the monster that did it was like mutant octopus thing?" I expined quietly. "Its tentacles were two or three meters long, and it could move them really fast. I jabbed it with the long pointy bit at the end of my halberd, and its tentacles started filing around at me. One of them touched my arm there, it was just a gentle tap? Like being bapped with a pool noodle or something, it should have been nothing."

  I shook my head and sighed, "That's all it took though. That one little tap was like pressing my arm against a red hot iron. It burned and blistered almost instantly? And that's when I was in my magical girl form, when I had magical protection. If it touched a normal person... I think they'd probably just die."

  By the time I was done Amelia's eyes were wide and her face was pale. She shuddered, "Holy cow Bke! I'm sorry, that sounds terrifying and awful."

  "It was," I nodded slowly. "And I got lucky."

  My sister grimaced, then got up off the sofa. She moved over to where I was sitting and leaned down as she wrapped her arms around me. As she hugged me she said, "Bke I'm sorry you went through all that stuff. Thank you for telling me though? I mean that, I'm gd you didn't just tell me it was secret or not to worry about it or whatever. It really bugs me when mom does that."

  "You're welcome sis," I mumbled as I hugged her back. "And yeah, it bugs me too when mom keeps stuff from us. I guess it made sense when we were little, but after everything that's happened tely it seems kind of silly."

  "Yeah," she nodded. Then she finally let go and moved back to the sofa. She sat back down then picked up her soda before looking to me again. Then she said, "If there's anything I can do to help, just ask ok? I don't mean like, magical stuff or monster stuff, but like, normal stuff?"

  "Or girl stuff," she added with a little smirk. "After all you're still pretty new to that."

  That made me blush, but I couldn't help smiling a little too. "Thanks Amelia. I'll keep that in mind."

  PurpleCatGirl