"I really don't think we should record this," I mumbled as I stood awkwardly next to the sofa.

  I'd taken off my hoodie again and left it on the cushion where I'd been sitting, and my phone was on the coffee table next to the empty ptes from our dinner. The BBQ sausages were pretty good, even if Harper used them as an excuse to tease both Ellie and me about lewd stuff again.

  I figured if everything I wore was going to vanish when I triggered the ring, then not having my phone and hoodie on me meant they wouldn't disappear with the rest of my clothes. So I could put the hoodie back on if I started feeling too self-conscious about the skimpy pink outfit.

  Both Ellie and Harper had their phones out too, they were holding them up with the cameras pointed my way as they waited impatiently to see some magic.

  "Why not?" my best friend asked with a frown. "This is priceless Bke, proof of magic and magical girls?! How can we not record it?"

  I sighed, "Because it's also proof of who I really am, and connects the real me with the magical girl? Like um, what if you're right about that whole rift thing? If I somehow ended up having to fight monsters, that'd be proof of my secret identity or whatever."

  Not that I really believed any of that was going to happen, but it seemed like a good way to convince her. And it meant I didn't have to admit I was just really uncomfortable seeing my real self if I ever looked at the recordings.

  Harper lowered his phone as he agreed, "That's a good point. We'd be blowing his cover. Or her cover?"

  "Sorry dude," he added with a frown. "I hope this isn't too awkward or weird, but we never did talk about pronouns right? So like, when you're a magical girl should we still be referring to you as a guy, and he-him pronouns?"

  Ellie finally lowered her phone as well. She nodded, "You're right, we can't risk blowing your secret identity. I'd still like to record some of the tests though, after you've changed? And Harper's right about the pronouns. Also, are you comfortable with us still calling you Bke when you're in girl mode? Maybe we should come up with a code-name or something, like a superhero name for your magical girl persona?"

  Once again it felt like my cheeks were on fire. I'd managed to avoid thinking about the name and pronoun stuff, up until the two of them brought it up.

  I gulped then finally shrugged, "Bke works either way, right? It's one of those names that people use for both boys and girls?"

  "True enough," Ellie nodded. Then she smirked at the tall blond jock, "Same with Harper! I've seen that used as a girl's name too."

  He just grinned and shrugged like that sort of thing didn't bother him.

  Meanwhile I continued, "I hadn't really thought about the pronoun stuff? But um, I guess maybe it makes sense to use she/her when I'm transformed? But obviously he/him when I'm back to normal again."

  "Obviously," Ellie stated in a ft deadpan voice. She was staring at me again, and I was sure she was going to start asking difficult questions again about me really being a girl. Fortunately she seemed to let it go. Instead she asked, "So are you going to do the transformation? It's quarter to eight now, if we time it for an hour in magical girl mode that means you should be your normal guy self again before eleven tonight."

  I suppressed a grimace at that thought, then nodded. "Ok, here goes."

  They both kept their phones down so I knew neither was recording me, as I twisted the ring. Like before it started to glow pink while I felt that warm tingly sensation around my little finger. Then I formed a fist and did the sky-punch thing. There was a pink fsh, and suddenly I was short and cute and girly. And possibly smiling like before.

  "That's so cool," Ellie grinned. "I can't believe magic's real and we get to see it happen."

  Harper nodded, "Same!"

  "I've set an arm for one hour," he added as he fiddled with his phone. "So we can keep track of the time and everything."

  "Thanks," I said as I looked down at myself again.

  It was the same outfit as the first two times, with the ankle-boots and the short pleated skirt and the bustier thing. I still felt very exposed, like my arms and shoulders were completely bare, same with my legs from my ankles up to above my knees. And in my real body I'd probably be freaking out about that, but this body was cute enough that it wasn't so bad.

  Then my best friend suggested, "As much as I like standing around staring at a super cute magical girl, we should probably start doing some tests right? We've only got an hour, no point wasting it gawking."

  "We can always gawk at her ter, when she's back in her not-magical girl form," she added a moment ter with a sly smile.

  That got me blushing again, while Harper just grinned. He looked like he was about to say something too, when all three of us were startled by my phone's ring tone.

  "Oh no," I grimaced as I picked it up. "Crap it's my mom! I can't answer it like this!"

  Ellie shrugged, "Let it go to voicemail? Call her back ter, or text her or something and tell her you missed it while we were all outside at the BBQ."

  "I hate the thought of lying to my mom," I sighed. "And I don't want her to think I'm avoiding her either? I was in bed before she got home st night, and I had to go to work before she was up this morning."

  "So she probably just wants to say hi and see how you're doing?" my best friend suggested.

  I nodded slowly, "Yeah. I guess you're right."

  There really wasn't any other choice, so I put my phone back down on the coffee table while the three of us headed outside. That way we could take advantage of all the open space and not worry about damaging anything in the house when we did the magical girl tests.

  We had a quick conversation about what sorts of things we could try, then agreed to start with strength stuff since it was fairly easy to test and I'd already done a bit of that the night before.

  Both Ellie and Harper had their phones recording me as I moved up to the handsome blond's pick-up truck. I had my doubts but the two of them insisted I give it a try, so I crouched down next to the passenger side and reached under until I got hold of a solid part of the frame.

  "Holy cow," Harper mumbled as the passenger side of his truck came up off the ground.

  I only held it for a second or two before quickly lowering it back down again. Then I frowned at the grime on my hands, and tried to brush it off. Normally I'd have just wiped them on my pants without a second thought, but for some reason I hated the thought of getting dirt on my pretty pink skirt.

  "What's wrong?" Ellie asked. "Too heavy?"

  Harper added in a worried tone, "You didn't hurt yourself did you? Pull a muscle or something?"

  "It's not that," I grimaced as I gestured towards my feet. "I was sinking into the ground."

  All that weight didn't affect me in the slightest, but I now looked about fifteen centimetres shorter due to how deep my boots were buried in the dirt. I didn't have any trouble pulling my feet out, but it looked really weird seeing those two perfect ankle-boot-shaped holes in the ground.

  "That's a relief," the tall jock responded. Then his eyes widened and he ughed, "That's wild!"

  Meanwhile the ravenette tomboy grinned, "Ok so no more lifting heavy objects while standing on soft ground. What do you want to test next, cutie? How about speed?"

  My cheeks were instantly on fire as I sputtered, "Don't call me that!"

  "Why not?" she teased. "I'm not lying."

  Harper agreed, "She's got a point. You're definitely a cutie."

  It took me another couple seconds to recover after all that. My cheeks were still burning but I tried to ignore the blushing as well as my friends' teasing, and instead I focused on the stuff we were supposed to be testing. "I guess I can try to run? I'm worried I'll just make a fool of myself. I'm still not used to the heels on these boots, you know?"

  "I don't know about that," Ellie responded. "Sure you stumbled once yesterday, but you've been handling them just fine today. But anyways yeah, go for it!"

  I looked around then gestured towards a fence a short distance past the outbuildings, "I'll try and run to that gate and back."

  Harper nodded, "Sounds good. That's about a hundred meters, so there and back's two hundred. Ellie how about you record her while I use my phone's stopwatch to time her run?"

  Hearing him casually refer to me as 'her' suddenly got all those butterflies fluttering around happily in my stomach again. And judging by the way my best friend was looking at me, I knew another wide smile had settled on my face.

  "Ok I'm ready," I stated as I forced myself to ignore all that stuff yet again.

  "On three then," the jock stated. "I'm counting you down. Three, two, one, go!"

  I had the muscles in my legs sort of tensed and ready, so the moment he said go I set off. I didn't feel particurly fast, and to be honest I was focused more on not making a fool of myself. Like I didn't want to trip and end up in a heap on the ground. At the same time I was also extremely aware of how my short skirt kind of fpped and fluttered in the wind as I raced to the gate. Not to mention the way my chest was bouncing, even within the tight confines of my bustier.

  As I approached the gate I dug my feet in and brought myself to a stop, then turned around and started the dash back towards my friends. I dug in once again to stop myself once I was next to them, then reached up and straightened out my long wavy pink hair.

  "So how'd I do?" I asked. "Was that any good?"

  Ellie and Harper were both staring wide-eyed at me. Then my best friend ughed, "Holy heck she isn't even winded! Not even breathing hard after that!"

  Hearing her call me 'she' sent another wave of happiness through me, but fortunately Harper spoke up before I could get too caught up in those feelings.

  "Bke that was nineteen seconds!" he stated quietly. "Including the time it took you to stop and turn around!"

  I grimaced, "So? Is that fast?"

  "Is it fast, she said!" Ellie excimed with a ugh. "Girl you moved like pink lightning!"

  Meanwhile Harper was looking something up on his phone. Then with wide eyes he turned it around so I could see the screen. "Nineteen seconds is like, world-record fast for a two hundred meter dash. And that's straight-line, not a hundred meters, stop and turn around, then a hundred meters back."

  "Oh," I mumbled as my eyes widened.

  That revetion left the three of us quiet for the next couple seconds, until Ellie finally spoke up again.

  "So what's next?" she asked. "How about we combine speed and strength? See if you can jump over obstacles?"

  Harper was worried about me potentially hurting myself, especially considering how fast I could run. After a bit of discussion though we all agreed that I should give it a try. Harper's first-aid kit was in his truck as usual, and he was ready to help if something went wrong. Meanwhile Ellie was convinced I'd ace it.

  I'd be running to that same gate as before, only this time I'd try and jump over it rather than stop short. It came up to about chest-height on my magical girl body, and according to Harper the top of the gate was about a meter off the ground. In my real body I'd have been really awkward just trying to climb over it, while I knew both my friends could cmber over it easily enough.

  With Ellie recording on her phone again I set off on another hundred meter dash, and when I was within a couple meters of the gate I put all my effort into leaping over it rather than digging in and stopping. And to my surprise I easily unched myself into the air and sailed clean past it. I even managed to nd on my feet instead of a big heap of arms and legs on the ground. Then I continued my dash down as far as the next gate, before I finally turned around and ran all the way back again.

  I easily sailed over the gate a second time, then hit the ground running. I finally stopped when I reached Harper's truck, where him and Ellie were waiting.

  "That was beautiful," Ellie stated. "Girl you are amazing."

  Harper agreed, "You went over that thing like a world-css hurdler. I can't believe you're that fast in heels! Imagine if you were in actual running shoes?"

  That made me grimace, "I think the heels are part of the uniform? I mean, it's the whole magical girl package right?"

  "Good point," Ellie replied. "It's still amazing though."

  "Yeah," I found myself nodding in agreement.

  Although I was reluctant to admit it, I was actually enjoying myself. Being able to run and jump and just generally be athletic without feeling out of shape or falling on my ass was kind of nice. And being called cute or a girl or hearing my friends use she/her pronouns for me... That was really nice too. Not that I'd admit it.

  So we tried other things. Harper sort of ran me through some more track and field type things, like running long-jumps and standing long-jumps. And Ellie had me test how high up I could jump from a standing start. That was freaky too, I was able to get halfway up the big tree in the front yard. Just as freaky was jumping back down from there, nding on my feet and not getting hurt.

  It almost gave Harper a heart attack though, he was sure both my ankles would be sprained, if not broken. So we didn't actually do too much of that, since it was kind of scary after all. None of us wanted me to get hurt, so we decided not to risk it again. Although I had to admit, it was pretty wild being able to literally jump from ground level into the second-floor of the barn. And being able to just step back out from that level and nd on my feet without a second thought.

  When the countdown-timer on Harper's phone finally dinged I was almost disappointed about having to stop the testing. And I could tell both my friends felt the same way. Still, it wasn't all bad. Giving up the pink magical girl form meant I got to switch to the non-magical girl-me form instead, and I was definitely looking forward to that. Not that I'd ever admit it.

  So I wasn't too upset as I took hold of the ring and told them, "Here goes."

  There was another fsh of pink when I gave it a twist, and just like that my normal oversized clothes were back. The long pink hair was gone, but I was still a girl.

  "She's smiling again," Harper commented with a little grin of his own.

  Ellie nodded, "Yep. Cute."

  PurpleCatGirl