"Hey Bke," Ellie greeted me as she came into the store at about five minutes to six. She headed towards the refrigerated dispys along the back wall where all the drinks were kept cold.

  She was wearing her big bck boots again like usual, along with some bck jeans and a bck t-shirt with some illegible metal band logo across the front. She also had her army surplus jacket on, and her surplus purse bag thing slung over her shoulder.

  Harper was right behind her, looking a lot more normal in his faded blue jeans and a simple white t-shirt that showed off his broad muscur chest and strong arms. He made a bee-line for the snacks section where all the chips and stuff were on dispy.

  "Hey dude," he added as he moved past. "Looking good today."

  That made me frown, since I absolutely did not feel like I looked good. I was my normal boring real self, and while I was on the job I didn't even have my hoodie. Instead I had to wear an ugly orange vest with the Crawford's logo, along with my name tag.

  I forced a smile as I replied, "Hi Ellie, Harper. My shift doesn't end for another five minutes, you know?"

  "Yeah we know," my best friend responded from the back. She'd already pulled out a couple two-litre bottles of soda, and it looked like she pnned on grabbing more.

  Harper added, "I figured we'd load up on snacks and stuff now, so we're all ready to roll as soon as you get off."

  A minute or two ter the pair of them dumped a pile of junk food on the counter in front of me. There were four two-litre bottles, two of co one orange soda and one root beer. Harper had four jumbo bags of snacks, plus he'd also grabbed a half dozen packages of beef jerky in assorted fvours.

  I frowned, "You don't think we're going to get through all this tonight, do you? What about some actual food? Or is this supposed to be dinner?"

  "We've got actual food at home," the tall blond jock replied. "My mom got us a dozen big BBQ sausages from the butcher over in Maxwell, and some fresh baked buns."

  He gestured at the pile of junk food as he continued, "All this is because I figured we might want to hang out again tomorrow night too. You two are staying over tonight, right?"

  Ellie nodded, "I've got some extra clothes in my bag, and my toothbrush. I'm good for the weekend."

  "I've got a change of clothes with me," I said as I started ringing everything up, "But I have to work again tomorrow. I'm on from noon to six."

  Harper shrugged, "So I can drive you in here then pick you up again afterwards if you like?"

  "Can you add twenty bucks of gas on there too?" he added. "I'm at pump four."

  I nodded, "Right. I should chip in on all this too, but I can't do it while I'm on duty. I'll give you my share afterwards ok?"

  "No worries dude," he smiled.

  He paid with his bank card, then while I was bagging everything Harper went outside to put the twenty dolrs worth in his gas tank. Ellie gathered up the bags of junk food and followed him out, then put it all in the back of the truck. And a couple minutes ter when Jerry showed up to repce me I took off my orange vest then grabbed my hoodie and backpack from behind the counter.

  It didn't take long to get to Harper's pce, but it was a bumpy dusty ride. Apart from the two main streets none of the local roads were paved, and they tended to be in rough shape because of all the heavy farm vehicles that used them.

  Harper's farm was about a hundred and fifty acres, but it was divided up into a couple rge fields. They mostly raised organic beef, but there were also plenty of free-range chickens and a good-sized vegetable garden. They had a little apple orchard too. From what he'd told us, the beef was their actual income. Everything else was either just for their own use, or stuff they'd sell for a little bonus money here and there.

  The farmhouse wasn't anything special, it was a small two-story pce that had been around a while. They did some work about ten years back to modernize it a bit, so the living-room was like a nice home theatre with a huge TV and stuff. The kitchen was fairly modern too, and opened out onto a patio with a big BBQ. There was just one washroom on the main floor, then upstairs were a couple small bedrooms and a storage room.

  As we pulled up the long dirt driveway Harper grinned, "Sweet. Looks like mom and dad have already left. They probably won't be home till around midnight. They're over at the Miller's pce, partying it up with their farmer friends."

  The driveway just sort of ended where the wn began, there wasn't any pavement or anything. So we parked on the same part of the wn where Harper's folks always left their truck.

  Ellie and I carried all the junk food along with our packs, while our friend opened the door. A couple minutes ter we all had gsses of soda, there were two big bowls of chips on the table, and Harper was messing with the TV and satellite remote to find us something to watch. He was in his dad's big leather recliner, while Ellie and I were sitting on the rge sofa.

  "Forget about the TV," Ellie said after a big gulp of her drink. She had a wide grin on her face as she stated, "I've got some wild stuff I gotta tell you two about. And I'm sure we're both curious to hear how things went st night for you, Bke."

  Harper grinned, "Heck yeah! So what happened dude? Did you do any experimenting with that magic ring of yours?"

  My cheeks were instantly bright red, and between that and the look on my face I knew I was busted before I even had a chance to deny it.

  "You totally did!" he ughed. "So what happened, how'd it go? What did you do?"

  I grimaced as I looked down at my drink and mumbled, "I didn't do anything. I mean, I just did the transformation thing, then timed it I guess? To see how long it would take to wear off again afterwards."

  "And?" Ellie asked. "What did you find out?"

  I sighed, "Fifteen minutes in the magical girl form led to thirty minutes in the not-magical girl form."

  My friends exchanged a look, and they were both frowning. The attractive tomboy commented, "Two to one huh? That doesn't seem right to me. I'd have sworn it was more like one to one yesterday afternoon."

  "Yeah same," Harper agreed. Then he shrugged, "Oh well. So Bke, you were a girl for forty-five minutes st night huh? What did you do to keep yourself busy all that time?"

  There was a smile on his face and a suggestive tone in his voice that left my cheeks threatening to burst into fmes again.

  I tried to force myself to be calm and cool, but it didn't really work.

  "N-nothing!" I insisted. "I mean, I tried to test a few magical things? But the only thing I figured out was in the pink girly form I'm super strong. I couldn't test anything else though, like speed or whatever?"

  I continued after a gulp of my soda, "I don't know about magic, or spells or anything like that either. So I didn't know how to test for that sort of thing. The transformation didn't give me any special knowledge or skills, not that I could figure out anyways."

  Ellie was smiling too as she asked, "So ok that's the first fifteen minutes. What did you do with your thirty minutes as a non-magical girl? Was there any other experimenting we'd be interested in hearing about?"

  I shook my head and tried again to sound cool and calm, "Nope, nothing interesting. I just took some selfies then went to bed and waited it out."

  "Ooh!" her eyebrows went up. "Can we see the selfies?"

  "No," I stated, before taking another gulp of my drink. "Anyways you said you had stuff you wanted to tell me and Harper, right? It sounded like you were excited about that, so let's hear it?"

  That actually worked, my best friend got another wide smile on her face along with that intense conspiracy info-dump look in her eyes.

  "Right!" she nodded as she pulled out her phone and started messing with it. "So check this out! I found that website again where they blew the lid off that cover-up? And they had a bunch of decssified secret photos on there, so I was going through them all when I found this!"

  Ellie held her phone out for me, and I found myself looking at a faded blurry zoomed-in crop that seemed to reveal a young pink-haired woman dressed in a pink bustier, pink pleated skirt, and pink ankle-boots. Basically she appeared to have the same magical girl outfit as me, and her hair was simir too.

  Her face looked different, she was clearly a different person. That probably would have freaked me out too much if my friend found pictures of someone that looked just like me. Even just the outfit being simir was already kind of freaky.

  The picture wasn't clear enough to say for sure if she had that pink gold ring on her finger, but it did reveal another very obvious difference. This other pink-haired girl was armed.

  She held some kind of long pole-arm in both hands. The handle bit looked as long as she was tall, and while it was obviously wood it had a pink hue to it. Instead of a metal point or end it had what appeared to be a complicated bde made of pink-coloured crystal. It was like a combination axe on one side, spike on the other side, and spear at the tip.

  "I'm pretty sure that's a halberd," Ellie said as she pointed to the weapon. "I found some simir-looking ones by searching up medieval weapons? Obviously they're normally metal not pink crystal, so we can assume that one is magical in some way."

  By that point Harper had moved closer so he could see the picture as well. He grinned, "That's so cool! And she totally looks like you Bke! I mean, she looks like you when you're a magical girl."

  Ellie was still smiling as she continued, "So this picture was taken in nineteen fifty-eight, somewhere in the Marshall Isnds? That was part of what the Americans called their Pacific Proving Ground where they did the 'nuclear testing'. Except like I said yesterday that was all just a huge cover-up. Fifty-eight was the st year they 'tested' at that location, because that's when the magical girls finally beat the monsters once and for all, and sealed the rift!"

  "And after that they weren't needed anymore," she stated. "So they probably went back to their old lives, or went into hiding maybe? Whatever, the government kept the whole thing under wraps, but enough bits and pieces slipped out that you got the whole Magical Girls genre from it."

  Then she looked at me with another wide grin, "And now it seems for whatever reason, that pink magical girl from the fifties has passed on her ring to you Bke. Like you've been chosen to take up the mantle. Maybe the rift's re-opened? Or maybe it's going to return, and the world needs a new generation of magical girls!"

  I shook my head and sighed, "I don't know Ellie. It still seems pretty far-fetched to me. I mean, why me? I'm not a girl. And ignoring that, I don't know anything about fighting. I definitely didn't get that magical spear-axe thingy. And even if I did, I don't know anything about how to use something like that."

  Harper moved back to his seat again but he was staring at me with a thoughtful smile. "Maybe you just need to experiment more? You already figured out the super strength thing right? But you said you couldn't test anything else, since you were stuck in your bedroom? Well we've got a hundred and fifty acres here my friend, and my parents won't be back for another five or six hours."

  I'd been equal parts scared and hopeful that someone would suggest that. All day at work I had a hard time not thinking about that ring, or being transformed into a girl. Knowing all it took was one little twist of the ring and a simple gesture made it so tempting. And with no parents or siblings around, plus loads of space outside, there really wasn't any reason not to try it out.

  Except part of me was still reluctant. I worried that it was addictive or something, because of how it made me feel. And how bad I felt when I changed back.

  "I don't know," I finally sighed. "If we do that, we have to be really careful to watch the time I guess? So I'd be fully back to normal before your folks got home tonight, I mean."

  Ellie adjusted her gsses as she pointed out, "Two to one isn't that bad. An hour as a magical girl would only mean two hours as a normal girl. It's only half past six Bke, if we start now you'd be back to normal again by half past nine. That's loads of time before Harper's folks are due back."

  I hesitated, "What about dinner? We were going to have BBQ right? Maybe we should wait until after that?"

  "What, girls can't eat sausages?" Harper asked with a smirk. He went on to tease, "Or is that too lewd for you? Are magical girls too pure and chaste to put their lips around a big hot meaty -"

  At that point he ducked as Ellie threw a cushion his way.

  "Don't be gross Harper," she stated. Except a moment ter she added a tease of her own, "Just because you're ok eating that kind of sausage doesn't mean the rest of us are."

  He ughed, "Aw cheap shot! But fair."

  "Anyways Bke," he added as he got serious again, "If you want to do dinner first that's cool. I can get the BBQ heating up right now if you like? We just have to watch the time like miss prude there said. But if we're talking an hour of magical girl testing, then we should probably start by eight? Then you'll be normal by eleven, plenty of time before my folks get back."

  My eyes drifted down to that ring on my left pinkie finger, and I felt another flutter of butterflies in my tummy. As much as it worried me, as much as I hated to admit it, I really did want to try it again. And even though the magical girl part was kind of cool, I found myself looking forward to the not-magical girl-me part even more.

  I forced myself not to sound too excited or enthusiastic as I finally nodded, "Ok, you've convinced me. But um, let's do dinner first? Then we can do the testing and stuff afterwards."

  That put wide smiles on both my friends' faces.

  PurpleCatGirl