Chapter 42: 34. Permanent Magic

"Hey you two!" Paige caught up with us just outside Mr. Guthrie's classroom. She grinned and asked, "So how was the big date on Friday?"

I couldn't help blushing, but I was smiling too. It was Monday morning and I was still a bit giddy about it. I was positive my girlfriend was too. We'd been holding hands all morning, since we met up on our usual walk to school.

Kaylee's cheeks were pink too and her smile was just as wide as my own as she replied, "It was absolutely perfect and that's all I'm going to say about it Paige."

The tall brunette giggled, "The blushes and grins tell me plenty as it is. Will you at least tell me where you went, or what you did?"

"Cass took me to a nice restaurant on First Street," my girlfriend replied happily. "It was a little bit fancy and a little bit romantic. After that was ~ None of your business!"

Kaylee giggled and Paige smirked and it all sounded way more naughty and risqué than it really was. In truth we had a nice dinner then just went back to my house. The special part was my parents were out all evening so me and my girlfriend had three or four hours alone together.

Paige gave both me and Kaylee a knowing smile, "Well whatever may or may not have happened, I'm glad you two had a good time. And it's good to see you both smiling."

"Thanks," I mumbled. I was happy though, and we definitely had a very good time.

Unfortunately it was time to enter the den of our resident math ogre, and my grin faltered then faded entirely. Me and Kaylee finally let go of each other's hand too, when she and Paige took their seats up at the front and I continued on to my seat in the back corner.

After the bell sounded Mr. Guthrie told us what section of the textbook we'd be reviewing today. Then he'd pick a student at random and have them try and answer a question in the book, followed by a few minutes of our math ogre telling everyone what the student got wrong and what the correct solution was.

We were only about fifteen minutes into that when there was a knock at the door, then a little kid in a big hoodie came into the class. I was pretty sure she was a girl, but she had her hood up hiding her face which made it hard to be positive. She had a typical backpack over one shoulder and was carrying a sheet of paper in her hand.

"Yes? Who are you, why are you interrupting my class?" Mr. Ogre asked as he looked at the kid.

She replied but her voice was too quiet and mumbly for me to hear what she said. At the same time she held out that piece of paper she was carrying, so he could read it.

Mr. Guthrie took it and frowned as he read it. He sort of did a double-take at the girl, then after a few seconds handed the paper back and stated "Take your seat. Hood down Miss Winters, and remove those silly ears. You should know that sort of thing isn't allowed in class."

The girl mumbled something else then hurried to the back desk in the far corner. She was so short that her feet didn't quite reach the floor when she sat in the chair, and she had to keep pulling up the sleeves of her hoodie otherwise her hands would get lost inside.

Pretty much everyone else had already stopped looking at her, they were focused on the ogre again as he got back to the lesson. I kept watching the new girl though, as a few very surprising thoughts crossed my mind.

The first thing was I hadn't noticed that desk was empty when the lesson started. The second thing was I was positive there'd been a guy sitting there since the school year started. I didn't really know him, but I got the impression he was kind of quiet and shy like me. And most surprising of all, I was almost positive that the tiny girl sitting there now used to be that guy who'd been sitting there last week.

As I watched, her hood slipped down and my eyebrows shot up as the most surprising thing of all was suddenly something else.

The tiny cute girl sitting at the other back corner desk had bunny ears sticking up on top of her head.

I barely heard a word the math ogre said for the rest of the class. I spent almost the entire time stealing glances at the small bunnygirl. I knew Mr. Guthrie thought the ears were fake, he told her to remove them. But she never did, and the more I watched the more certain I was that they were real.

For one thing I was positive I saw them twitch and move on their own. For another thing no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't see any human ears on the sides of her head where they should have been.

Another thing I noticed was the girl was really fidgety. She couldn't sit still for more than a few minutes at a time it seemed. Her feet were always bouncing against her chair legs, or she was shifting and adjusting her position on the chair. She'd sit crosslegged on it, or kneel, or sit sideways, or with one leg under her while the other hung off the side. And her fingers were always moving, twiddling her pencil or playing with an eraser or something.

One thing I made a point of was looking for any traces of magic on her. Like I thought maybe if the ears were from a spell or something, I ought to be able to see the purple glow of magic on them or around her. There was no trace of it though, which made me think something else was going on.

I wasn't sure if were-bunnies were a thing, but that was the next idea I came up with. Like Melanie could be a girl, or a wolf, or a wolfgirl, so maybe this girl could be a bun or a girl or a bunnygirl. I couldn't help wondering if she had a bunny tail too, but her hoodie was so big there was zero chance of finding out.

My last idea was maybe she was a shapeshifter. I didn't actually know anything about shapeshifters, since I only just found out they existed at the club meeting last week. But now that I knew they were a thing, maybe that explained how this girl had bunny ears.

I'd already made my mind up I was going to try and talk to her after class, so when the bell finally rang I quickly stuffed my books into my backpack and got to my feet. Then I turned and looked, but the bunnygirl was already gone.

Turning again I just caught a glimpse of her as she ducked out the door into the hall, and I was left realizing that she wasn't just small like a bun, she was fast like a bun too.

By the time I got to the door the hall was full of other students and there was no chance of even seeing the small girl, let alone catching up to her to talk.

"What's wrong Cass?" Kaylee asked as she and Paige joined me.

"Nothing's wrong," I shook my head. "Did you see that little bunnygirl?"

My girlfriend grinned and teased, "Why? Don't tell me you want to find out where she got the fake bunny ears from?"

"I don't think they were fake Kaylee," I said as I shook my head again. "I'm positive they're real."

She laughed, "There's no such thing as bunnygirls Cass."

Paige was smiling too as she said, "See you two at lunch."

Kaylee and I nodded and continued on to Miss Hawthorne's class while Paige headed in the opposite direction.

"Wolfgirls are real," I whispered to my girlfriend as we walked down the hall. "Ghosts are real, witches are real, zombies are real. Why can't bunnygirls be real?"

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She gave me a look and whispered back, "Not now Cass. People could hear."

I nodded, then we stepped into our creative writing class and I stopped in my tracks. The tiny cute bunnygirl was sitting at the back corner desk opposite my regular spot, and I realized that same guy used to sit there too. The new girl was sort of huddled in her hoodie like she was trying to hide, but she had the hood down which meant those tall beige bunny ears were fully visible.

After a second or two staring at her I looked to our teacher, and found her looking stressed and worried as she stared at an empty spot on the opposite wall.

I was positive she knew the bunnygirl was real and she was maybe a little freaked out about what to do about it. Not to mention if the bun was the person I thought she was, she basically had the same sort of thing happen as me. Except I didn't get the bun bits.

"Take your seat Cassandra," May stated quietly when she realized I was standing there staring.

"Oh sorry," I blushed as I hurried to my usual spot at the back corner nearest the door. Kaylee was already in her seat, and most of the other students were too.

Compared to the ogre's den Miss Hawthorne's creative writing class was a breeze. We had a half hour to read, then a half hour to work on our own writing projects, and I was able to focus more on the class and less on that tiny girl in the far corner.

Eventually the bell rang, and just like before the bunnygirl was out of her chair and out of the room like a shot. Even though her desk was literally the furthest seat from the door she was quick enough and small enough to duck and dodge around the other students, that she could be out of the classroom before half the students were even on their feet.

"Kaylee, Cassandra, I'd like a word with you both please," Miss Hawthorne stated. She was doing her teacher thing, and a few of the other students grinned or smirked like they thought we were in trouble.

My girlfriend and I both nodded and took our time putting our books and stuff away, and when the last of the other students had left Miss Hawthorne closed her classroom door.

Once the three of us were alone May looked at me and asked, "Cass I know you were staring at that girl in the corner. Did you happen to notice any sign or trace of magic on her?"

"No ma'am," I shook my head. "I was specifically looking too."

Kaylee asked, "Why? You don't really think she's a bunnygirl do you? Who even is she? She looks way too small to be a high school student."

I stated, "She's trans, I'm sure of it. I'm positive she was a guy last week, and she got some kind of magical transition over the weekend. It's almost the same thing that happened to me, except somehow she turned into a bunnygirl."

My girlfriend looked at me in surprise, then our teacher confirmed it.

Miss Hawthorne stated quietly, "Kenzie Winters is seventeen years old, she's been in my English classes for the past three years and my Creative Writing classes for the last two. And when she attended my English class on Friday she was still presenting masc. She was also at least thirty centimetres taller and had at least another twenty kilos of mass. And she most definitely did not have rabbit ears last week."

"So what happened?" Kaylee asked. "Is it some kind of spell? Or curse?"

May sighed as she sat back down behind her desk, "Whatever did this, it's permanent magic. That's extremely serious."

"How do you know it's permanent magic?" I asked.

"You didn't see any magic on her," our teacher explained. "A temporary spell would have to remain active to hold her in that shape. You'd see the magic, and presumably if you touched her you'd dispell it and she'd return to her normal form. No magic on her means whatever did this, it doesn't need to stay active to keep her that way. That means permanent magic."

She sighed again and shook her head, "Someone or something has permanently transformed one of my students into a demi-human."

I frowned, "She didn't seem unhappy about it though? She looked a bit nervous and fidgety, but so was I my first day back after what happened to me. Maybe she wanted this? Like I said, I'm sure she's trans."

"I'm quite certain you're right Cassandra," May replied. "Before class she showed me a note from the office. Kenzie and her mother officially notified the school this morning of her new name and gender marker, and her new pronouns. Nonetheless, this is a serious problem. Someone has used permanent transformative magic on a mundane human, and they've done so in a way that cannot be explained or ignored."

My frown got deeper as I asked, "Why's that a problem though? If someone helped her transition that's a good thing, isn't it?"

A moment later I got a bad thought and asked, "You're not going to change her back are you?"

"No Cassandra," May shook her head. "We won't take this away from her, but we absolutely need to find out who's responsible. Whoever it is should know better. A magical transition is just barely permissible, but the animal attributes will cause trouble. For everyone involved."

Kaylee asked, "What do you mean by permissible? Who gives permission? Or who decides what's allowed and what isn't?"

"In this case the council makes those decisions Kaylee," Miss Hawthorne stated with another sigh.

My girlfriend frowned, "So what should we do?"

Our teacher thought it over for a few moments, then looked at me and asked "Cassandra I'd like you to try and talk to Kenzie. Make friends with her if you can, and see if you can find out what happened."

"You and she have a few things in common," she added. "You could talk to her about your own sudden transition last autumn, provided you don't mention Club Luna or witchcraft. That might help you gain her trust."

I wasn't sure I liked the idea of making friends with the girl just to get information out of her, and if someone was helping trans people with magic I wasn't sure I wanted to be part of the team that was maybe trying to stop them.

On the other hand I didn't want to get in trouble or get kicked out of the club, and I didn't want to disappoint my girlfriend or upset my favourite teacher. So I nodded, "Ok Miss Hawthorne. I'll try and talk to her, and see what I can find out."

Whether or not I shared whatever I learned with May and the rest of Club Luna would depend on what it was, and how likely I thought our teacher was to turn that person in. For now I was on team Kenzie, and team whoever gave Kenzie her magic transition.