"Oh here he comes," I mumbled to Ellie, as soon as I spotted the tall athletic teen heading towards us through the school hallway.

  Harper was practically your archetypical high-school jock. Tall, strong, confident, outgoing, and handsome. He had short sandy-blonde hair, blue eyes, fair unblemished skin, and a friendly smile. And of course he'd been on just about every sports team the school had. He was even captain of most of them at one point or another. The kind of guy where everyone in school knew his name.

  I was at the opposite end of the spectrum. Quiet, soft-spoken, shy, and occasionally anxious. I sucked at sports and I wasn't very athletic. I was kind of skinny and weak, which combined with being shy and quiet made me a prime target for bullying. On top of all that, I wasn't much to look at either. Messy light brown hair that was always in need of a trim. Boring hazel eyes. Average complexion, probably a little pale from not spending enough time outside in the sun. I mostly kept to myself and faded into the background.

  Then there was Ellie, my best friend since we first met back in grade nine. She was another social outcast like me. Being a tomboy who was interested in computers, auto shop and machine shop wasn't so bad, but she sometimes acted a bit more 'out there'. She wore combat boots and her favourite jacket was a military surplus thing. She even carried an army surplus bag instead of a purse or backpack. She never wore make-up and rarely did anything with her curly bck hair, but despite that I always thought she looked gorgeous. Even her big chunky gsses somehow looked good on her, and they brought out the green of her eyes.

  Not that I'd ever told her that, for one thing I was way too shy and awkward. Plus I didn't want to risk ruining our friendship. Then there were all the rumours that had been going around the school for the st couple years. Folks were convinced she was gay, and Ellie never said a word to deny it.

  Then again as far as I knew she'd never gone out with anyone, guys or girls. And we were close enough, I figured she'd have said something if she ever had a date with someone.

  "Yo Bke, Ellie!"

  Harper's voice snapped me back to the present, and I found myself face to face with the strong handsome jock. At the same time Ellie finally closed her locker and turned around to face him as well.

  "You're both still good for tomorrow night, right?" he asked us.

  That's where the stereotype kind of fell apart. Me and Ellie were the social outcasts, Harper was the most popur guy in the school. Was, as in past tense. His girlfriend dumped him around this time st year, then outed him to the entire school. It turned out that Harper was bi, which most folks around here interpreted as gay.

  Being gay or bi or even trans shouldn't have been a big deal anymore, and if we lived somewhere less backwards then I was positive nobody would have even cared. But out here in the middle of nowhere rural Ontario, a lot of folks still got uptight about it. Luckily the teachers and school staff were mostly ok, and there were policies and stuff to ensure LGBT students weren't discriminated against. But that didn't stop other students from talking, and from shunning folks they decided were weird or different.

  So Harper kept pying sports through our st year of high school, and even though he was really good at it he wasn't captain of any teams this year. And instead of hanging out with the other jocks and popur kids, now he was friends with me and Ellie. And he was a pretty nice guy too, once you got to know him.

  On the other hand hanging out with us meant there were a few new rumours around the school this year. Like some folks said I was gay too, that me and Harper were secretly dating. We weren't, and luckily I didn't care about the rumours any more than Ellie did. There was a new one about her this year too, that she was actually a closeted trans guy and that all three of us were gay for each other.

  I knew for a fact that one was false, Ellie told me she didn't want to be a guy. She was a girl who did her own things her own way. As for the three of us being an item, that was wrong too. Ok Harper was attractive, and strong, and just generally really nice to hang out with, but I wasn't sure if I was actually attracted to him. On the other hand I was definitely attracted to Ellie, even if I kept that to myself.

  Mostly I was just happy to be able to hang out with both of them. So I nodded as the three of us started heading for the exit, "Yeah I'll be there."

  It was Friday afternoon, and we'd all just finished our final exams. There were a few more days of school next week, but today felt like the st real day of high school for all three of us. So we wanted to get together and celebrate, and Harper's folks would be out tomorrow night so we'd have the pce to ourselves.

  "My shift at Crawford's goes until six," I added. "Then I just have to figure out how to get over to your pce from there."

  Crawford's was an indie gas station and convenience store at the east end of the vilge. It was only about a fifteen minute walk from my pce, but Harper lived with his folks on their farm about seven kilometres south-east of that.

  The tall blond grinned, "Hey no sweat! I'm at the hardware store till five-thirty, I can stop in and pick you up on my way home."

  Harper was the only one of us with a car. Or a truck, it was a beat-up old red pick-up that used to belong to his dad.

  Then he looked to Ellie and asked, "How about I pick you up as well? Will you be at home, or have they got you working tomorrow too?"

  "I'll be at home by then," she replied as she adjusted her gsses. "My shift ends at five, so I'll have time to head home and get changed out of that stupid uniform."

  She worked at a body shop at the north end of the vilge, but she didn't particurly like it. Unfortunately there weren't many options, considering we lived in a tiny vilge of about five hundred people.

  "Sweet," Harper grinned. "So when I get off work I'll swing by your pce first, then we'll head over to Crawford's and pick up Bke."

  Ellie nodded, "Sounds like a pn."

  "What about tonight?" she added as the three of us stopped just outside the school doors.

  Harper's pick-up was in the lot just south of the school, but both Ellie and I lived close enough to walk. And if we were walking, we'd be cutting through the cemetery on the north side like usual.

  "I'm up for whatever?" Harper shrugged.

  Ellie grumbled, "I'd invite you two to my pce, but you know my dad's always around."

  Her dad made a pile of money off some tech business before she was born, and basically retired by the time he was thirty. They moved out here a few years back, and her dad did the house-husband thing while her mom opened an art gallery right in the middle of the vilge.

  "I guess we can hang out at my pce if you like?" I offered. "My mom's probably going to be at work until ten-thirty or eleven. That just leaves my sister, but she probably won't bother us."

  Amelia was two years younger than me, and she got all the good looks and social grace and confidence and stuff that I missed out on. And mom worked evenings at a restaurant, and spent her days doing a remote learning thing to try and get a college diploma. Then maybe she'd be able to get a better job somewhere else.

  "Sweet," Harper grinned. "C'mon, I'll drive."

  Ellie and I followed him into the parking lot, then the three of us climbed into the cab of his pick-up. Somehow I always ended up squeezed in between them whenever that happened, but I didn't mind so much. It meant I got to be close to both my friends. The drive was short, and Harper had some tunes pying on the radio so we didn't really talk on the way over. Then when we got to my pce I unlocked the front door and let the two of them in.

  "You've got mail," Ellie commented as she gestured to the mailbox I'd walked right past.

  I grimaced as I opened the lid and pulled out the contents. There were a couple bills for mom and some junk mail, and also a small pin white padded mailer envelope. There was no name on it, but I figured it was one of those free sample things. I left the bills and junk mail on the hall table but took the mystery envelope with me as we went through to the kitchen to grab some drinks.

  Harper grinned, "Ooh what's that?"

  "No idea," I shook my head. "We'll find out in a minute though."

  After we all had some cans of soda the three of us ended up on the sofa in the living-room, with me in the middle again like usual. Ellie found the remote for the TV and started looking for something to watch while I opened up the envelope.

  It was one of those psticized padded mailers with bubble-wrap built right in. There weren't any coupons inside, no flyer, not even a business card. In fact it seemed almost empty, except for something at the bottom. So I tipped it out into my other hand.

  "That's weird," I frowned.

  Resting on the palm of my hand was some sort of shiny pink metal ring. It felt cool and metallic, and it definitely shone like polished metal, but it was very pink. Not like rose-gold pink, but like bubblegum pink. It was heavy too, despite the small size. It was only big enough to maybe fit my little finger. I knew aluminum could be anodized to different colours, but the ring seemed way too heavy for that. It was more like steel, or...

  Then a funny thought crossed my mind and I asked, "Is pink gold a real thing? Because that's what this feels like."

  "Huh," Ellie looked thoughtful. "I saw a video on MyToob st month where a guy made purple gold. He -"

  Harper interrupted with a groan, "Please tell me this isn't another one of your conspiracy theories?"

  That was another reason Ellie was a bit of an outcast. She was normally really smart and she knew a lot of interesting and obscure facts, but every now and then she'd get sucked into these crazy conspiracies. Then she'd go off about them for a week or two before she either came to her senses or got bored with it.

  The tomboy gred, "First off just because something hasn't been proven or disproven doesn't make it a conspiracy! And second off, no it wasn't. It was some guy doing amateur chemistry and metallurgy. He made an alloy out of gold and some other metal, that came out purple. And it looked a lot like Bke's ring, except the MyToob guy made purple gold instead of pink gold."

  "I don't know if pink gold is a thing," she added as she looked to me. "But if they can make white gold and purple gold and rose gold then I don't see why they can't make pink gold too."

  "So what are you going to do with it?" Harper asked. "Why not try it on?"

  I frowned, "Pink isn't exactly my colour. And I don't really wear jewelry."

  My entire wardrobe was basically shades of bck and grey. From my pants to my hoodie to my t-shirts. I felt like it helped me hide, or fade into the background. Even if I knew that was kind of silly, especially on a bright sunny day like it was today.

  "Well don't look at me," Ellie ughed. "You wouldn't catch me dead in pink anything."

  She had a point there. All her army surplus stuff was mute drab colours, and she also wore lots of bck like me. She never wore dresses, or anything remotely girly.

  "I don't even know if it'll fit me," I commented as I looked back down at the ring in my hand. "It's pretty small. I guess I'll give it a try though."

  I moved it over my left pinkie finger, and to my surprise it slipped right on without any trouble. The metal felt cool and heavy around my finger, like there was no way to ignore it was there. Then for some reason I gave it just a little twist. It was almost like an unconscious action or something, but the moment I did that the ring seemed to light up.

  "Woah!" I gasped. "It's glowing!"

  "Dude that's so cool!" Harper excimed.

  Instead of a shiny pink gold ring I now had what appeared to be a small circle of pure pink light wrapped around my little finger. It didn't even feel like metal anymore, that cold heavy feeling was gone. Instead it felt warm, maybe even a little tingly.

  I was probably frowning again as I stared at it, and I flexed the fingers of my left hand. Then I made a fist. That's when something seemed to come over me. I thrust my left hand up as if I was punching the sky, and the moment I did there was a brilliant fsh of pink light from the ring.

  That pink glow swept out from the ring and engulfed my entire body, and for just a second I couldn't see anything but pink. Then it was gone and I was sitting there blinking in shock as I tried to understand what just happened.

  At the same time I started to realize several things felt weird and different. Like my legs felt strangely exposed, as if my pants were missing. Same with my arms and shoulders, it felt like my hoodie was missing. And there were other, even weirder sensations I didn't know how to process. Meanwhile both Harper and Ellie were staring at me, with wide eyes and sck jaws.

  After a half second my best friend asked nervously, "Bke? Is that you?"

  "Of course it's - What's wrong with my voice?" I squeaked in an unfamiliar high-pitched tone.

  I went to touch my throat but my hand froze partway up as soon as I noticed the pink nail polish. On the delicate feminine fingers. That were attached to the small hand, on the narrow wrist, at the end of a smooth skinny girly arm.

  "Aaaaa!" I let out a little scream as I jumped to my feet.

  I managed to get two steps away from the sofa before I nearly fell on my ass. I definitely wasn't used to the high heels on the small pink ankle-boots. That were at the ends of my bare but shapely feminine legs. That emerged from below my short pleated pink skirt. That matched the tight pink corset which showed off all the curves of my rounded hips, narrow waist, and small but extremely feminine boobs.

  "What the hell?!" I yelped as I stared down at myself. My heart was racing and I was probably hyperventiting as I gasped, "I turned into a girl?!"

  Ellie nodded slowly as she continued staring at me, "You turned into the girliest girl I've ever seen."

  "Dude you didn't just turn into a girl," Harper added quietly. He was still staring too, but in addition to the shock he had a little thoughtful frown going on. "I think you turned into a Magical Girl."

  PurpleCatGirl