Chapter 217: Extras #1 – Generic Winter Holiday

=::= Kaylee's PoV =::=

My girlfriend gave me another worried look and asked, "Are you sure it's going to be ok?"

"Of course!" I replied with a confident smile, while my tails all swished around in excitement. "This was my mom and dad's idea, Cass. They'd be honoured if you were there, and they'd love to have the rest of your family there too."

Instead of setting her mind at ease that just made her grimace. She still felt awkward about the way my parents basically started worshipping her, ever since Cassandra saved their lives.

She sounded uneasy as she asked, "What about the rest of your family? Have your parents mentioned the goddess stuff to them? Or warned them about my family not being human? I hope nobody's going to make a big deal out of anything."

"Cass they haven't even told the extended family about me yet," I replied with a smirk as my tails twitched in anticipation. "I have a feeling everyone's going to be too busy being freaked out about how much I've changed to worry about you and your family."

"Anyways it's time to go!" I added.

She grimaced again, "All right Kaylee."

I pulled her into a hug then stretched up and planted a kiss on her lips before suggesting, "If you get too anxious or shy you can always ask Cassandra to take over. I'm sure it'll be fine though."

Cass kissed me back then nodded, "Ok. I guess we're all ready to go? Do you have everything?"

"All set!" I responded after picking up the bag with all the cards and gifts. Then before she could say anything else I teleported myself from our bedroom directly into the front hall of my parents' house.

It was the twenty-fourth of December, and as expected the place was all done up for the holidays. There were red and green bows here and there, along with artificial holly wreaths and other related knick-knacks. Except after a second or two I started to realize some things were missing.

My parents weren't especially religious, but some of mom's relatives were. So when mom did the winter decorations she usually included some traditional themes along with the Santa stuff. The more I looked though, the more I noticed the lack of both religion and Santa. Instead it looked like mom had leaned hard into a 'generic winter holiday' theme this year. Then I spotted our old artificial tree in its usual spot in the living-room, and my tails started wagging happily as a wide smile appeared on my face.

The tree was decorated with the typical colourful ornaments, but the usual angel at the very top was missing this year. In its place was a large off-centre eight-pointed arrow star that matched my rose gold chaos-star necklace.

I was still grinning as I quickly emptied out the bag I was carrying. The cards were tucked into the plastic foliage of the artificial tree, while the gifts went underneath it. I was just finishing up when my girlfriend finally appeared by my side.

She still looked uneasy, but I was confident the evening would go just fine. Chaotic, but fine. I knew it wasn't going to be a quiet visit, there was bound to be some excitement once the extended family arrived. And to be honest I was actually looking forward to that.

For years I'd had to tiptoe around the religious beliefs of my aunt and grandma while my uncle loudly shared his bigoted opinions. Not anymore though. This year things were going to be a lot more fun.

I slipped an arm around my girlfriend's waist as I led her out of the living-room and back to the front hall. Then I called out, "Mom, dad, we're here!"

Dad emerged from the den while mom came out of the kitchen, and both of them smiled as they greeted Cass and I. They were both dressed up for the occasion, dad was wearing a shirt and tie under his sweater while mom was in one of her nice dresses.

Cass and I were both dressed up too. I was in a cute little black and taupe dress and dark tights, while my girlfriend wore a long black wool skirt and a pretty dark-green sweater. We'd both done our hair and make-up and everything, and Cass spent an hour brushing my tails so they were all extra floofy and perfect.

After all the hugs and greetings and everything I asked mom, "Do you need any help in the kitchen? And do you know when everyone else is expected?"

"I could always use a hand Kaylee," mom replied, "Although things are mostly under control at the moment. I told everyone to be here at five, so we can expect Bea and her family to be here shortly after that. Your uncle Rod's stopping to pick up my parents so they'll likely be a little later."

Mom looked to Cass and asked, "Have you heard from your family, are they on their way over?"

My girlfriend replied, "Mom and mum are usually pretty punctual, so if you told them five they'll probably be here in the next few minutes."

Then dad suggested, "Why don't you girls head into the den and make yourselves comfortable while I get you something to drink?"

The den was full of extra chairs, in anticipation of the large family gathering. All the dining room chairs had been moved in there, along with some folding chairs my parents usually kept down in the basement. Cass and I sat together on the sofa, and for once I resisted the urge to perch myself on my girlfriend's lap. Although I figured I might do that later, if seating became an issue after everyone arrived.

A minute or two later I had a glass of orange soda while Cass had water. Mom had a glass of wine and dad had beer. My dad was in his usual leather recliner and mom took the chair next to him. And we'd only just got comfortable when there was a knock at the front door.

"I'll get it," dad said as he got back up and hurried to answer it.

A half minute later we heard him greeting Tanya and Julie, and Nina too. Dad hung up their coats and got their drinks while the three of them joined the rest of us in the den. There was another round of greetings, then Julie and Tanya sat next to each other on a couple folding chairs while Nina joined Cass and I on the sofa.

Then dad returned with glasses of wine for the two angels, and a glass of water for my girlfriend's sister. At that point mom excused herself to get some of the snacks she'd prepared. First was a tray of assorted veggie sticks and a bowl of dip, which was followed by a tray of cheeses and a basket of fancy crackers.

I knew from experience there'd be more, she probably had a tray of little finger sandwiches in the fridge, and there'd be a few different kinds of appetizers in the oven. All that stuff would come out a little later though, after everyone was here.

Once mom took her seat again there was some of the usual smalltalk, like about the weather and the holidays and stuff like that. The two fallen angels seemed pretty relaxed and calm as they talked with my parents, while Nina and Cass were both on edge. It's like all three of us were counting down until my relatives arrived, but where I was getting more and more excited my girlfriend and her sister were growing more uptight.

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Sure enough it was only a couple more minutes before the next group arrived at our door. This time mom got up to answer it, since it was either going to be her sister's family, or her brother and parents. Meanwhile both Cass and Nina got a little more anxious, while I had a hard time keeping my tails from wagging.

Then my tall fuzzy ears twitched as I heard mom say, "Hello Bea, Jeff, come on in!"

"Nancy, Ned, it's great to see you too!" mom added a moment later.

Dad finally got up again so he could go greet the in-laws and get them drinks and everything. Meanwhile from the sound of it there was already a conversation starting up out in the hall.

"Beatrice is my mom's older sister," I quietly told my girlfriend and her family. "It'll probably be another ten or fifteen minutes before the last group gets here. That'll be my uncle Rod, he's mom's and Bea's brother, and he'll have my grandparents with him."

Julie asked just as softly, "Are none of your father's family going to be here?"

"No," I shook my head. "Dad's originally from Saskatoon, everyone on his side of the family still lives out there so we don't see them very often."

At that point my ears twitched again as I heard everyone out in the hall finally start heading our way. Mom was saying, "We have a few new faces here with us this evening. Kaylee's finally found someone special, so Raymond and I invited their family to celebrate the holidays with us."

Both Cass and Nina were practically holding their breath while Julie and Tanya just waited calmly. I had a wide smile on my face and my tails were twitching in anticipation, as mom finally led the others into the den.

And I'd swear you could hear all four of their brains record-scratch as their eyes swept the room then froze the moment they spotted me.

"Hi aunt Bea!" I exclaimed as I jumped to my feet so my tails could swish back and forth unobstructed. And so they could all get a good look at the new me. "And hello uncle Jeff! Hi Nancy, hi Ned, it's great to see you all again!"

Needless to say I was by far the smallest person in the room, and I could almost hear my cousins' thoughts as they tried to process what they were seeing. Same with Bea and Jeff, they were all staring down at me with wide eyes and slack jaws.

Rather than wait for their brains to reboot I just went ahead and started the introductions, "Bea and Jeff, Ned and Nancy, this is my girlfriend Cass. That's short for Cassandra by the way. And this is Cass's sister Nina. And their moms, Tanya and Julie."

Then I addressed Cass and her family as I continued, "This is my aunt Beatrice, her husband Jeff, and my cousins Ned and Nancy."

Bea was like a slightly older version of my mom, while Jeff was a tall slim man in his early fifties. Ned was a younger version of Jeff, he was around twenty-five and easily stood six-feet tall. Nancy was only two years older than me, and was about the same height I used to be pre-demonification. And like the rest of us, all four of them had dressed up nice for the occasion.

Julie and Tanya politely greeted the new arrivals, while my dad returned with everyone's drinks. He had beer for Jeff, wine for Ned and Bea, and a glass of cola for Nancy. Except they were all still sort of staring at me in stunned silence for another few seconds. Finally they mumbled some greetings to the Underwoods after accepting their drinks, then the four of them sat down together on the dining room chairs.

Nancy was the first one to recover from their collective shock, after another half minute or so. She was still staring at me as she blurted out, "Kaylee what in the world happened to you?! How are you so small? This is... It's impossible! People don't just shrink like that! And what's with the ears, and the tails?!"

"And since when do you have a girlfriend?" Ned demanded a moment later. "You're not gay are you?"

I had a wide happy grin on my face as I cuddled right up against Cass's side as I replied, "Yes Ned, I'm gay! I finally came out of the closet last spring, but me and Cass first got together two years ago. We've been serious for the past year, and we moved in together almost six months ago!"

Then I looked to my other cousin and continued, "As for how this happened Nancy, the simple answer is magic. I became a witch back in grade nine, but this amazing new body was a gift from my girlfriend. I asked Cassandra to make me more than human, so she did!"

Cass cringed slightly but kept quiet, while the others continued staring at us. In fact all the Underwoods seemed a little uneasy at that point, like Julie and Tanya obviously figured out that my parents hadn't warned any of the in-laws about the supernatural stuff.

Uncle Jeff was the next one to find his voice, "But... That's impossible. There's no such thing as magic!"

"Actually Jeff there is," my dad responded. He continued in a quiet but serious voice, "You heard about our car accident back in October, right? That wasn't a survivable collision, all three of us should have been killed. Yet Kaylee escaped without even a scratch, because she's not human anymore. Meanwhile my wife and I were both fatally injured. We would have died right there on the scene, if not for Cassandra's magic."

My tails were twitching with excitement as I told them all, "You can see videos online of Cassandra saving mom and dad with her magic, if you know where to look! I can send you some links if you want to see for yourself?"

Aunt Bea gulped as she stared at me, freaking out a bit about something my dad just said. She asked warily, "If you're not human anymore, then what are you?"

"I'm a three-tailed fox demon!" I replied with a wide grin. "I'm a magical supernatural being!"

I knew telling my religious aunt that I'd become a demon was probably asking for trouble, but I couldn't help it. And I kind of wanted to see her reaction.

Sure enough Beatrice's eyes widened as her face paled. So did her husband's, while my cousins both looked shocked again too. But before any of them could start freaking out my mom spoke up. She didn't try and defuse the situation though, instead she sort of picked up where dad left off.

In a solemn voice mom told Bea and her family, "My daughter's girlfriend is a real living Goddess, and both Raymond and I owe Cassandra our lives. The only reason we're here today is thanks to her grace and her magic. If not for her, we'd have died when that truck hit our car two months ago."

By that point my girlfriend and her whole family were looking awkward. Meanwhile it seemed like my aunt and uncle and cousins were almost overwhelmed by everything they'd just heard. They were staring wide-eyed and slack-jawed again, at both Cass and I.

That uneasy silence lasted for another minute or so, until it was finally broken by another knock at the front door. Which meant that my bigoted uncle and religious grandparents had just arrived to join the fun.