thegingernut

  I was awoken by my phone arm. Thankfully this time Alice knew what it was and didn't freak out. I dragged myself out of bed and got ready to face the day. I didn't bother with makeup or anything fancy like that. The pn was to spend the whole day in a hot car. The effort would be wasted. I washed myself with cold water. If I was lucky this would be the st time.

  I pulled on some roomy tracksuit bottoms. Not fttering, but if you pn on driving for several hours, you dress for comfort. It took a little convincing to make Alice dress down. I promised she'd thank me in a few hours. She remained unconvinced. Outfit twinning though… you can py transbians like fiddles if you spend enough time on tumblr. We approached the car in matching, unfttering fugly grey tracksuits.

  By any metric there was no reason for her to be here. Victoria and elder Nichos were coming so they could learn the teleport beacon point. I was coming because while Victoria's driving was coming along nicely she had no idea how to read a map. Alice was coming because she really liked spending time with me. Her words.

  I climbed in the drivers seat and she took shotgun. I went through my pocket and pulled out one of my Vanessa Cooper licenses and stuck it in the visor pocket, so it would be visible. Then I drove us the short distance to Victoria's house. Victoria and elder Nichos were waiting outside. I killed the engine and got out.

  "You guys ready?" I asked. "Been waiting for you for hours youngster!" ughed elder Nichos. "Okay. I'm going to drive us down the mountain and through the maze because that part is really hard. Afterwards I'm moving to the back seat with Alice and then Victoria is driving for the first few hours while Alice and I go to to snog town. Any compints?" I asked.

  "Sounds good with me youngster. My, I haven't been in a car since 1976!" ughed the elder. "I call shotgun" said Victoria. "Shouldn't elder Nichos get the front seat because its his first time?" I asked. Victoria bit back something probably very mean. "Fine" she grunted. "I don't mind" he chimed in. "No, she's right. Its a better view" said Victoria. We took our seats and took off.

  Elder Nichos seemed to enjoy the way down at first. He whooped with joy like a little boy when I fjorded a river with a speed bump. But once we got to the maze he began getting antsy. "Whoa! Not so fast! You're going to hit the corner! OW! Watch out for the bird! OW! OW! POTHOLE! POTHOLE! POTHOLE! STOOOOOOP! [incoherent screaming]"

  I pulled to a dead stop right outside the maze. I got out and stretched my legs. He climbed out. He didn't vomit. He must be made of stern stuff. "You nearly drove right into the sink hole!" he yelled. "Sink hole?" I asked. "Yeah. The maze is full of traps and you did not take the trap free path!" he excimed. I ughed. "So what you're saying is if I drove through the maze at a safe or sane speed I'd have got caught in a trap of some kind?" I asked.

  He let out a hissing breath. "Could any outsider with a car navigate the maze like that?" he demanded. "Um… no. Only people who drive like my father. And most people who can do that have better pces to be" I stated. He let out a sigh. "So you're an expert with this machine?" he asked. "I'd know more than an average person. Less than a mechanic but enough to change a tyre or know if I'm being taken for a ride by a mechanic" I replied.

  After giving the elder a minute to catch his breath and Victoria a chance to evacuate her stomach, I climbed into the middle back seat next to Alice and Victoria took the driver's seat. With the benefit of hours of practice she started the car and pulled off. I didn't even need to psychically guide her through it. "You forgot to check your mirrors" I reminded her. "There's nobody around!" she grumbled. "Always check anyway" I stated. Then Alice grabbed me by the jaw and turned my head to face her and I lost all awareness of Victoria's driving.

  Cars are not the most comfortable pces to make out, especially while they're in motion. The vibration was also doing nothing good for my bullet injury. But I'll be honest, if I kept a diary, whatever page I was going to write tonight could be carved into stone tablets and used to melt Nazi's faces. I probably drank enough Alice spit to get a contact high had she been inebriated. She reached into a box of strawberries she'd brought from the journey and had me bite into one and chew it up, then stole it out of my mouth with a kiss. She ran her fingers through my hair and pushed my face into her cleavage and sniffed my scalp. I don't mean a little sniff, I mean an audible and obvious whiff.

  I grabbed her by the wrist and began pnting a line of kisses up her arm. She smelled like my own soap. Well duh I like the smell of my own soap, if I didn't I'd buy a different soap! Something in my brain misfired and I bit down, drawing blood which I took a mouthful of and began swishing about like I was at a pretentious wine tasting event where they use words like "earthy" and "full bodied". She made an ecstatic whimper at that. New kink discovered I guess.

  "Could you two NOT!" grunted Victoria. I swallowed Alice's blood so I could talk. "Nobody's making you watch" I said. "I have ears! Also your powers um…" she trailed off. "Shit, sorry" I said. I reigned in the energy. Then I went back to making out. Alice had just finished licking her own blood off my lips when elder Nichos spoke up. "Been a while since I saw a girl kiss another girl" he stated, almost nostalgically. My powers broke off their leash and the car was instantly filled with an unspoken threat.

  "Whoa kid! I don't mean nothing by it!" he stammered. "You're fine I guess. Straight men getting off to me is a right of passage for lesbians from what I've been told so I guess I can cross that off the bucket list at least" I replied coldly. "Whoa there! Who says I get off to… actually what's a lesbian?" he asked. "Girls who love other girls. Named after an old Greek poet who wrote a poem about seeing a girl across a room and fainting from anxiety" I expined.

  "Is there a male version? An old Greek poet man who saw a dude across the room and fainted?" he asked jovially. "I guess the equivalent would be achillean but… He wasn't a poet so much as a really tough warrior guy more famously known for getting shot in the foot and dying" I stated. "So girls get a poet and boys get a soldier" - "Yes" - "That's not fair. I want the poet" - "Sorry. I don't make the rules".

  "So I'm achillean then" he said. "Yup. You could also just say gay. WAIT YOU'RE ACHILLEAN?" I gasped. "So I am. When I was your age I used to have this massive crush on my teleportation mentor. Actually, I think being jealous of his students getting to spend time with him is what awakened my powers. I was a bit of a te bloomer you see" he rambled. My mind reeled.

  "So wait, you want to date men?" I asked. "I wish I could" he chuckled. "Well why the hell don't you?" I asked. "Huh?" - "Why don't you just go up to a man and ask “Will you go on a date with me?”" - "Oh well, it isn't the done thing" - "Why not?" - "Well because people think its weird" - "So? You're a literal elder! You're one of the most beloved and respected people in town. Surely with a gay elder in py people would come around?" - "Being an elder ain't a privilege young Vanessa. I took on this job for the greater good of my community. And part of the greater good is not doing things that might make folks uncomfortable".

  "Part of being a leader is not letting some people's discomfort ruin other people's ability to live their lives and be themselves. You're not helping me by staying in the closet and I promise you there are other's in town who wish they didn't have to hide" I stated. "Nah. You're applying outsider logic. Things are different among witches" he cimed. "What about “mad” Emily, the woman banished forever from her community for loving another woman" I demanded.

  "That's all she did? That can't be right. That can't be right at all…" he murmured. I sighed. "I won't pretend I know what its like to be an elder. But I do know the council is failing at least some of its people. There's more than a thousand people in town. Statistically that's about a hundred LGBT people. Their absence speaks volumes"

  We drove on in silence for a while. At some point we stopped for lunch and then I took over driving and Victoria and Nichos moved to the back. They also loved avocado toast. "Hey, Nessie?" asked Alice, after we'd been driving a few minutes. "What's up sweetie?" I asked. "You said the other day that if you don't stand up for your friends you're a shitty person, right" she asked. "That I did. Why?" I replied. "Why do you let Rose hang around with you when you know she used to bully me?" she asked.

  The question hit me like a punch to the gut. "Um… well…" I stammered. "You always invite her everywhere. I never get to hang out with you without her" she said quietly. I got the feeling she was holding back tears. I sighed. "Look. Honestly? Because I think she's cute. And I admire her passion. Her ability requires so much concentration and practice to use for non-combat stuff. But she's always trying. Always learning new things. Its kind of beautiful actually" I said wistfully.

  "Do you not think I'm beautiful?" asked Alice. I burst out ughing. "That's a stupid question. You can look like anyone you want, judging you on your beauty is a moot point! No, the only decent metric is your personality and your personality is inspiring! You were told every day you were alive that you had to be a boy and you took all of that pressure and all of that crap and you told them to shove it and you lived as yourself anyway. No matter who told you you were deviant, or wrong"

  "That pressure BROKE ME sweetie. Two years of being called a boy name and I threw myself in a river with the intention of never waking up! And look at you! Fifteen years of what broke me in two and still fighting. No friends. No allies. Just one beautiful little girl who would spit in gods eye if the sun wouldn't shine. The most beautiful girl in all the mountains" I rambled.

  Alice was quiet for a few moments. "But if I'm the most beautiful… Why do you need Rose?" she asked. I hesitated. "I don't want to have to limit myself to only one friend" I said. "Bullshit! She's more than a friend to you. I see the way you look at her while you're showing us cartoons!" yelled Alice. "I look at all of you that way. You're all beautiful, I can't help having eyes" I said. "Yeah but… It hurts when you look at her like that. I always feel she's going to seduce you away from me and then I'll be left with nobody…". Alice began to cry.

  "You'll always be my favourite. Does this government ID say Vanessa Bck?" I asked, handing her my driver's license. "No…" she sniffed. "If the town won't accept us getting married one day, I'll leave it forever and take you with me. And fuck what Rose or Leah or the elders think" I promised. She looked me dead in the eye. "Does that mean you'll stop talking to Rose?" she asked. I flinched. Which was impressive because as I might have mentioned my father beat that habit out of me years ago.

  "Nessie!" Alice pleaded. "I don't want to abandon her okay! There's something about her. I'm not sure what. But she's so emotionally votile. She's always so angry. When we watch cartoons, she calms down for a while. I want to see her get better. Please don't make me cut her out, there's little enough in her life that brings her true joy as is" I expressed. "While you're trying to help her be better she's giving me all these looks and whispering these awful things when she thinks you can't hear" said Alice.

  "I wasn't aware of that. Okay, here's what I'm going to do. One, tell me any time she makes you upset and I'll tell her off for it and if that only makes her more aggressive I'll go temporary no contact with her. Secondly, we'll have more one and one date nights. At least one a week. No Rose or Leah" I suggested.

  "I don't mind Leah. She's nice actually. A little intense maybe but… I like her. She's actually really kind. She compliments my clothes and actually respects all the work I put into learning advance shapeshifting" said Alice. "They're a package deal unfortunately. If I tell Rose not to come Leah will probably choose to hang out with her out of solidarity" I noted. "She'd pick you over Rose" said Alice. "No she wouldn't. They've been friends forever, she's not picking me over Rose" I ughed.

  Alice gave me a cheeky smile. "She likes how straightforward you are. When you're mad you usually tell her what she actually did to make you mad instead of refusing to talk to her for three days and then yelling at you for not being a mind reader" she said. I might have blushed.

  "Okay. I'm not telling her to stop being friends with Rose though. That would be too cruel. But I guess there's no harm in asking her to help present a united front against Rose when she's being a butt" I mused.

  "Okay. If you promise to hang out with me without Rose and Leah at least once a week and make Rose be nicer to me, I guess that's enough" sighed Alice. "I… I know you can't make someone change who doesn't want to. If she won't put in an effort to be better I will stop talking to her altogether. But please, give me a chance to help her get better. It… would hurt to have to give up on a friend" I pleaded. "Fine, but if you leave me for that bitch I'm gonna gut you" she said with a piratical smile. I ughed. "What?" she asked. "Alice, if you had the heart to gut someone you'd have gutted Rose years ago" I chuckled. She gave me a pouty face.

  "Um… can we rewind to the part where your Dad took you out to the mountains to try and force you to be a boy?" asked Elder Nichos. "Uh, no actually. In fact I'm gonna have to ask you rex so I can erase your memories without hurting you because that conversation was HELLA private…"

  thegingernut