Chapter 16: 16. Crashed

After that revelation, Kelly didn't want to talk about her family any further. The rest of the pizza wound up in the fridge and the two of us just sat cuddling together on the sofa watching tv.

Before we got comfortable, she texted her mom to let her know we'd agreed to move in together, and her mom texted back that she'd have something for us in a day or two.

We opened the last two hard lemonades, and made some plans for tomorrow.

We'd head over closer to the college and I'd open a new bank account there. Kelly instructed me to use her address rather than mine, so there'd be nothing to connect the new account to the old me. We'd have to change the address once we knew where we'd be moving to, but she said it was important that there was no paper trail or anything. Then we'd go and buy me a new phone on a pay-as-you-go plan.

It didn't take long to make the plans, and we wound up just sitting quietly sipping our drinks. There wasn't anything that captivating on TV though, and eventually we just went to bed.

I don't think either of us slept well, but I still woke up around seven. It's like my body hadn't got the message yet that I wasn't going back to work.

So I followed my usual routine. Shower, clothes, coffee. Kelly joined me for coffee around eight, then she had a shower and by nine she was dressed too. We had cold pizza for breakfast, and after another coffee we finally set out to the bank.

We dropped my old clothes off at the Goodwill on our way, then hit a bank machine and I drained the last of my old account. It wasn't much, I had just over three hundred dollars to open the new account with.

It'd been a while since I had to open a new account with a new bank, and I'd forgotten how boring and time consuming the process was. Kelly was there with me though and it helped having her along for moral support.

At one point I saw a flash in her eyes. I didn't know what she'd done, but the bank employee who was working with us obviously didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

It was kind of weird to realize that. He was an ordinary human, we were... Something else. And she could just use magic, do stuff like that, and him and all the other humans had no idea. It also meant they had no defence, either. I sort of felt bad for him. I guess I still thought of myself as human, I still related more to the helpless human banker than my part-fae girlfriend.

Eventually the ordeal was over. I had a small stack of paperwork stuffed into my purse and a new bank card.

After we were both in the car I asked, "What did you do? In the bank, you used magic."

"Yeah," she sighed. "Mom left your old address on the drivers license, and if he'd seen it he'd have added that to your account info. I made sure he didn't see it."

"How?" I asked, frowning.

"It's basically called a glamour," she explained. "It's a little cantrip that you can use to disguise or hide something? I just sort of obscured the address so he didn't notice it. It doesn't do anything harmful, and glamours don't last very long. I didn't enspell him or anything."

I nodded slowly, then asked "Do you do that sort of thing a lot? Just use magic whenever?"

"No Tegan," she shook her head. "We're not supposed to use magic at all. Only for safety or self defence, and that was a safety issue."

I still wasn't entirely comfortable with it, but I understood. Finally I started the car and we drove over to the electronics superstore.

I was going to just pick up a cheap bargain phone but Kelly wouldn't let me. She got me the latest top of the line model of the same brand I've been using for the past two years. She actually paid cash for it too, over a thousand dollars. The clerk threw in a pay-as-you-go SIM card and gave us a coupon for a hundred dollars airtime credit.

I was blown away once again, but grateful. "Holy crap, Kelly! Thanks!"

She smiled, "You deserve it."

That was the last of our plans for the day, and it was barely half past eleven. On the way back to my place we picked up another case of hard lemonade, then stuffed the bottles in the fridge when we got home. There were still a half dozen beers in there, but I realized I wasn't going to drink them so I just dumped them in the box with the empties, to free up space in the fridge.

Kelly texted my new bank info to her mother, then we just wound up sitting on the sofa again while I set up my new phone.

My thoughts kept drifting back to my folks and wondering what to do about them. And of course I hadn't forgotten what Kelly told me last night about her dad. She hadn't gone into any more details about that. I had so many questions but I could tell it hurt her to talk about him.

That's when I decided, whatever happened I wouldn't just disappear. I wasn't comfortable using magic on my parents, but I wouldn't just walk away. I knew it would be tough but I was starting to think maybe we could try and talk with them, without magic. Just hit them with the truth, and see where it went.

There was always the chance they'd freak out, or get 'belligerent' like Ms. Connolly said, but I couldn't bring myself to just vanish without a trace, and I was positive I wouldn't be able to live with myself if we manipulated them with magic.

"Hey Tegan," Kelly asked softly, "What'cha thinking about? You look pretty serious."

I sighed, "My folks. I want to tell them the truth. I don't want to use magic. If they freak out, they freak out. But I can't just vanish on them. And I can't... I just can't imagine manipulating them, messing with their heads."

She nodded slowly as she took that in. Finally she said, "I understand. I know what my mom will say. Don't talk to them till you've moved, and don't tell them where you're living. That way if they do freak out, at least they won't be able to find you."

"Crap," I frowned. "I have to keep my address secret from my own parents?"

"Only till you know it's safe. If they don't freak out, if they accept things, then sure, tell them. But till then, till you know it's safe, yeah. You'll want to keep it secret."

She sighed and added, "Secrecy is like, a huge part of what I'll be schooling you on. Like, I know mom changed the info on your health card but you may as well just shred that. You can't go to a human doctor, you definitely can't go to a hospital."

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"Why not?" I asked. Of course I already knew why not, but I guess I needed to hear it.

She just looked at me, then replied gently "Because you're not human, Tegan. You only look human on the outside. While you were magically disguised as a human that's how doctors saw you, but now your cover is blown. You're fae, your body is different. I'm studying psychology not biology so I don't know all the specific details, but I know your physiology is different."

I sighed again as I started to feel overwhelmed for the hundredth time in the past few days.

Kelly slipped an arm around me and pulled me close against her. "It's ok Tegan. I know it's a lot, but it will get better. I promise, it's going to get better."

Before I had a chance to respond to that, there was a knock at my apartment door followed immediately by the sound of a key in the lock. Then the door swung open and my mom walked in.

"Sorry for dropping in unannounced! I was in the neighbourhood and saw your car so..." Her voice trailed off as she finally registered that neither of the two young women sitting on the sofa were the son she was looking for.

I was almost frozen in fear and probably pale as a sheet. My mom didn't even look at me, she obviously didn't recognize me. Instead her eyes were on Kelly.

It took her a second to find her voice, then mom addressed my girlfriend. "Hello Kelly, I wasn't expecting to see you here. Is -"

"No," Kelly stated, interrupting before mom could say my old name. "He's not here right now, Mrs. Vale."

My heart was pounding as I just sat there frozen, staring at my mom.

She in turn was staring at Kelly, and I'm sure she was very curious to know why her son's girlfriend was cuddled up with another girl on her son's sofa, in her son's apartment.

Mom stared at Kelly for another few seconds, then finally looked at me. "And who might you be?"

I gulped and I could feel Kelly tensing slightly.

My mouth was dry, and I think my voice wavered as I replied "Hi m... Hello ma'am. I'm... My name is Tegan. Tegan Vale."

Mom frowned, staring at me.

I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I picked up my purse and fished out my drivers license. I reached out and handed it to my mom.

She frowned as she stared at it. "This is my son's address. And you have the same birthday."

Kelly was looking at me with eyes wide, shaking her head slightly. I ignored her and nodded to my mom, "Yes ma'am. I'm... I'm him. I used to be him. Up till Friday. It's a long story."

Mom handed the card back and stated "Bullshit." Her voice was cold and she sounded impatient as she said "That's a forgery or something. Is this some kind of joke, or prank or something?"

I took the card back and gulped again. Then I just started talking, and it all came out in a flood.

"It's true mom. Turns out my biological parents were mythical magical beings from Ireland called fae. They used magic to disguise me as a human child, a boy, and abandoned me here. I grew up thinking I was a guy, till something happened Friday night that broke the spell and I turned back into a girl. Since then I've been figuring out how to adapt and learning about my true nature and all that stuff. And I've been agonizing about how to tell you and dad. I was planning on talking to you both later in the week."

As I was talking, I could see out of the corner of my eye Kelly had grabbed her phone and sent a couple texts. I knew she'd texted her mother, and I wondered how quickly Ms. Connolly would arrive.

Mom just frowned at me, "That's nonsense and you know it." She fixed her gaze back on my girlfriend and said "I know you're a responsible young woman, Kelly. Will you tell me what's going on? Where's my son, is he behind this?"

Kelly sighed, "Tegan's telling the truth, Mrs. Vale. She used to be your son, now she's your daughter. I've been staying with her since then, trying to help her adjust."

Mom glared at Kelly, then stated "I think you two should leave. This is my son's apartment, and I'm going to wait here for him until he gets home."

I knew the next step would be mom trying to call me. I hadn't got rid of the old phone yet, it was still in my purse and she'd hear it buzzing when she tried it. At that point she'd probably call the police.

My mind was racing and I felt desperate. That's when I suddenly remembered something that I hoped would convince her.

"Mom," I said, watching her closely. "Remember when I was twelve, and you and dad rushed me to the hospital? We all thought I had appendicitis and they were going to take my appendix out? But it turned out to be food poisoning and I was fine the next morning? Before they figured it out, they gave me something for the pain and it made me kind of loopy. And I told you, I said I wished while they were working on my appendix, they would also make me a girl at the same time. Do you remember that? Nobody else knew that. Not even dad."

She stared at me while I talked, and her expression shifted from angry to uncertain, and then in the end, shock.

"Oh my god," she whispered. "When the drugs wore off you were so embarrassed you begged me not to tell your father..." She gasped and added, "You even told me you wanted to change your name to Tegan!"

"Yeah," I blushed. "It took another decade, but I finally got that wish."

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