Welcome to the World Timantha

by PlayerError404

Summary:

Timmy Turner was having a normal day recovering from a wish gone wrong, so instead he decides to try a selfless wish, surely this can't go wrong again? Honestly it's just wishing for Trixie to be happy, what could go wrong?

Wait why is he a girl again? What is he wearing? Why is this making Trixie happy? And does he like this?

A Timantha X Trixie fic because there aren't enough of those on the internet.

Chapter 1

Timmy Turner tried to make good wishes to his Fairy Godparents. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t have the kind of four-dimensional super brain you’d need to see all the potential problems his various wishes could cause.

 

“It’s okay Sport!” Wanda said, the smile on her face not reaching her eyes as they poofed away the remains of what had been a perfectly fine batmobile. “These things… happen.”

 

“Yeah, I know.” Timmy sighed, sitting down on the kerb, frustration emanating from him as he scowled at his hands. “I don’t mean for things to go wrong but...”

 

“Timmy please, you’re not even close to the worst kid we’ve dealt with.” Cosmo said encouragingly as he restored the police cars that had ended up trashed in the chase his ward had just been caught up in. 

 

“Yeah, I mean you haven’t started a world war, so you’re already doing better than some of the kids we’ve been in charge of!” Wanda said, smiling as Timmy nodded. 

 

“Yeah… she was the worst,” Timmy said, a small smile returning to his face before quickly falling again. “I just…”

 

“Timmy, we were assigned to you. Believe me, this doesn’t happen to kids who have it good.” Cosmo said as he finished cleaning up. “It’s okay for you to mess up occasionally. It’s great that you try to do good so often but…”

 

“Maybe vigilantism isn’t the best way for you to do it?” Wanda suggested, weakly.

 

“Yeah, I just thought it would be cool, you know,” Timmy admitted as he got up to walk home. He had to get back so his parents could leave him with Vicky. It wasn’t often you went home to the babysitter to be neglected but hey, it was his life.

 

The walk through Dimsdale was fairly normal, it was just a Saturday afternoon, after all, nothing much was going on. He could even see Veronica and… wait, where was Trixie? She was nearly always with those girls.

 

“I wonder what she’s doing?” Timmie muttered, mostly to himself as he set off again. He had accepted by now that girls very explicitly did not want him around, Trixie and her crew especially. The only way he’d spent any time with them had been because of wishes, like the time he’d been the only person around with Trixie, or when he’d wished himself into a girl…

 

“I know where she is!” Timmy suddenly cried out, blushing as people stared at him before looking down at the pink and green pens in his pockets.

 

“Where who is?” Cosmo asked, his eyes looking up at Timmy who explained.

 

“Trixie, I bet she’s doing a comic run today.” He explained, changing direction to head to the Dimsdale mall. It wasn’t like he was going to get in trouble for being late. Sure Vicky would be angry that she was denied a kid to torment but screw it, Timmy could deal with Vicky.

 

Timmy made a beeline for the mall’s comic store as soon as he reached it, ducking in he looked around and spotted a familiar figure in a purple shirt and a red baseball cap. It struck Timmy as odd that she would dress as a boy for this sort of thing but not remove her eyeshadow. Then again, he hadn’t noticed the first time around so what did that say about him?

 

Shaking his head he prepared to head over before a thought hit him.

 

“She won’t want to be recognised by me.” He muttered, deflating suddenly when he realised this fact, she was trying to be the perfect popular girl. This was a secret to her, something that couldn’t be known to anyone in Trixie’s friend group. She’d kept it hidden from everyone.

 

“Well, she might,” Wanda said, a slightly smug grin on her face.

 

“What do you mean?” Timmy asked. “I go to the same school as her, me knowing will be a huge problem for her. I mean I know I can keep it a secret, but no one else does, especially her!”

 

“Well, maybe you don’t have to meet her as Timmy,” Wanda said again, and suddenly Timmy followed her logic.

 

“Timantha…” He muttered. 

 

“Exactly, if you wish yourself back into her you can meet up, she might be happy to see you again!” Wanda declared.

 

“Or she could be mad I ditched her party,” Timmy muttered, remembering the rumour that Trixie had been seen crying in her bathroom during the party. Maybe it was bold to assume it was because his female alter ego hadn’t shown up. But that thought wouldn’t leave his head.

 

“You’ll never know if you don’t try, sport,” Cosmo pointed out. 

 

“Yeah, but I’d have to wish myself back into a girl, and that’s not happening,” Timmy said, before seeing Wanda’s wand appear next to her. “Wanda, don’t you dare!”

 

“Oh, all right sport,” she sighed, lowering her wand. “I just thought you’d want her to see her friend again.”

 

“I want her to be happy, can I wish for that?” Timmy asked, looking down as they scanned through the tiny floating rule book.

 

“Actually yes, I mean you can’t just wish for her to be happy without messing up the chemicals in her brain, but you can wish for something that’ll make her happy,” Wanda explained, looking up at her godson expectantly.

 

“Okay, I wish for Trixie to get what would make her happiest right now,” Timmy said, expecting to see something appear in front of the girl as she left the store, her bag of purchases tucked safely in the bag she was carrying.

 

And then Timmy was enveloped in a cloud of pink smoke.

 

When it cleared, he was inside the comic store, standing in front of a rack of the latest issues. That however was not what Timmy was focusing on.

 

He was a girl again, Why he didn’t know; that wasn’t what he’d wished for. But that wasn’t the only difference. The last time he’d been wished into a girl he’d just had a pink headband, blouse and skirt to deal with. It was no biggie; they were fairly normal clothes that you might expect a girl to wear.

 

What Timmy was in now could only be considered normal if said girl had been born around two hundred years ago to a wealthy family. Like everything Timmy or Timantha wore, it was pink, with a tight-fitting bodice and pale white opera gloves. What was more noticeable was the simply huge bell skirt he was now wearing. It had many ruffled layers of pink fabric that exploded out to the point where she took up at least a metre squared of space. A quick feel around his head confirmed the headband was back in place, so at least one thing was familiar.

 

“Guys, what happened?” He hissed, looking around only to not get an answer because of the sound of something slamming against the nearby window. 

 

“Timantha!” A familiar voice cried, spinning around (and trying to ignore the fluttering and swishing of his/her new skirt as he/she did so) Timmy saw Trixie, still in her boy get up, but wide eyes with her face slammed into the window of the store. 

 

For a second Timmy thought Trixie was going to leave, to just walk away, but she didn’t. She came sprinting back into the shop, reaching out and gripping Timmy by her shoulders. 

 

“It’s, it’s you. You’re back, I, I haven’t gone insane, have I?” She asked, her lip trembling as her blue eyes looked up at the neo girl. 

 

Timmy nodded, trying to shift his mind to Timantha again. It felt like a switch was flipped, She was now a girl and Timantha… Well no that still sounded bad. But it would have to do, and she could at least think of herself as a girl. Must have something to do with the wish given it had happened last time as well.

 

“Yeah, it’s me.” She said with a small blush as Trixie’s eyes focused intently on her face. 

 

“I, I’ve wanted to see you again ever since we met… and here you are… You’re wearing a ballgown! Oh my god, you don’t care what anyone thinks of you!” Trixie cried, bringing her hands to her mouth as she took in the full details of what Timmy was wearing. “I still have to wear this hat and you just show up dressed like a princess and you don’t even care!”

 

“What can I say, I just… had to wear it today,” Timmy said as she struggled to make eye contact with Trixie.

 

“Wow, I, I could never do that…” Trixie muttered, trailing off as she looked once again at Timmy, and then she started crying. 

 

“Trixie, what's wrong?” Timmy asked, wanting to comfort the girl but unable to bring her hands up and unsure what to do with her arms.

 

“Why didn’t you come? At my party, I waited for hours, where were you?” 

 

Trixie was crying, causing a lot of presumably very expensive makeup to run down her face as she let it out.

 

“I, I’m sorry a family emergency came up and I didn’t have your phone number…” Timmy explained as best she could, still not sure what to do with her hands, lying didn’t feel good but she couldn’t tell her that she’d gone as a boy and been ejected out.

 

“You promise?” She asked, biting her lower lip as she looked up at the ball gown wearing neo girl who nodded.

 

“Promise, if I could have been there, I would have,” Timmy said, finally figuring out what to do with her arms as Trixie hugged her. Timmy had never been hugged by a friend like this. She was sure it was more of a girl thing, and while normally she’d have been ecstatic over the contact with Trixie right now, she just wanted to return it, to make the other girl feel better. 

 

Timmy smiled when she realised how quickly the girly way of thinking had set in.

 

“Hey, is that guy bothering you?” the guy manning the counter called out. Timmy scowled and shot back:

 

“No, mind your own!” She responded before looking at Trixie who was smiling again through her red eyes.

 

“Would you like to read these with me?” She asked, holding up her bag of purchases.

 

“I’d love to!” Timmy cried before something hit her. “Though erm, your makeup’s a little, erm…”

 

“What!” Trixie cried, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a compact, her eyes going wide as she looked at her reflection. Suddenly Timmy’s hand was grabbed by the disguised girl as she sprinted out of the store.

 

“Wait, where are we going!?” Timmy cried as she was pulled through the mall, drawing the eyes of many passers-by as they careened around the mall at top speed, the gown Timmy was now wearing knocking over more people and trash cans than she cared to count due to its bulk.

 

“I need to fix this, but I left all my makeup at home, and I don’t have my purse. Look, long story short, I’ve got to get a new set and fix this mess!” Trixie explained as she dragged the neo girl into a large store her mom frequently visited. 

 

Two things came across Timmy’s mind. One was that girls had better storage capacity in their brains for what 90 billion very similar-looking cosmetic products did. And Two:

 

“Trixie, you still look like a boy.” She pointed out as they finally stopped moving, Trixie reaching out for a selection of various products.

 

“Crap, I forgot about that…” She muttered, the look on her face implying she was suddenly extremely self-conscious. “...I mean, no one knows it’s me, but oh god if attention gets drawn to me… Maybe I could say they were for you?”

 

“Could work,” Timmy said before her brain worked out the problem with that line of thinking. “But the fact I don’t know what like, any of this is; isn’t going to help that lie.”

 

“Wait you don’t? But this is really basic stuff, did no one teach you how to do it?” Trixie asked, her head tilted as Timmy nodded. 

 

“Yeah, just never came up, but like, you don’t want to be recognised right?” Timmy asked, reaching up and fumbling with her ponytail, freeing the hair band and offering it to Trixie. “Well, a change of style might help, like with the boy clothes, ruined makeup and… well, you know.”

 

“You’re amazing, I knew I made the right choice making you my best friend!” Trixie declared, oddly Timmy was sure she heard a cry that sounded suspiciously like Veronica in the distance. The girl then proceeded to tie her hair up. Timmy felt flushed as she saw it. Granted, she wasn’t sure why, then again, she’d never seen Trixie's hair up in a ponytail before. Though her now long hair resting on her shoulders was a very new feeling, she didn’t know how she felt about it. So she supposed that she was wearing her hair in ponytails from now on once this was over.

 

Still looking more like a tomboyish girl and most importantly: Probably not Trixie Tang. The girls moved to the tills, quickly purchased the kit and then bolted to the girls' bathroom so Trixie could fix her face up. 

 

“You know you’re pretty without that stuff on, right?” Timmy pointed out, leaning against the wall and happy the wish made her comfortable in places she normally wouldn’t be. Watching idly as Trixie very carefully reapplied her make-up. 

 

“Oh yeah, I know, but I’m popular, being an eight isn’t good enough. I have to be a ten, and that means careful work every day.” She explained, looking at the result in the mirror before smiling. “And let's be honest, I look good.”

 

“Well yeah,” Timmy admitted with a slight blush. “Just, doesn’t it ever feel like a lot of work?”

 

Trixie didn’t answer because she had grabbed a nearby mop and used it to shift a ceiling tile, dropping a bag connected to a rope down, she opened the woollen sack and removed her usual outfit, ducking into one of the cubicles and quickly changing, remerging with her hair down. The boy's disguise was completely dropped, this was the most popular girl in school back. In some ways, it was nice to see, but on the other hand, it was so odd she’d gone to this level of effort to hide this part of herself. 

 

“It’s all necessary, anyway this way I get to be popular and like boy stuff.” She answered simply, hooking the back with the mop and restoring her hiding spot, leaving Timmy to wonder how she’d even set that up in the first place. 

 

“Still seems like a lot, one of the perks of being unpopular, is no one expects anything.” Timmy admitted, Trixie looked oddly at her, it might have been pity so Timmy hastily added: “Look, it’s fine, I like where I am; like, would a popular girl know you as well as I do?”

 

“No probably not. I don’t even think Veronica wants to know me like this.” She admitted, looking awkwardly before forcing a smile back onto her face. “Anyway let’s not think about this, we’ve still got time before everything closes, want to join me in some shopping?”

 

“Sure, but aren’t you worried about those?” Timmy asked, pointing to the bag of comics lying next to the sink.

 

“Oh I’ll call some people to get it, it’s fine,” Trixie said, tapping away at rapid speed on the screen of her phone before her eyes went wide. “Oh my, your phone!”

 

“What?”

 

“Your phone, give me your phone, I need to give you my number!” Trixie explained, beaming as she beckoned Timmy who shifted awkwardly in her huge skirts. 

 

“Oh, erm. Mines sorta busted?” She explained, electing not to mention why it was broken, mostly because she hadn’t even begun to follow her dad's explanation on what had happened to it, or how exactly it had been Dinklebergs fault. 

 

“Well then come on, let’s fix that!” Trixie declared, once again taking Timmy’s hand and beginning to run before skidding to a stop at the door. “Wait, we erm, better walk.”

 

“What does being popular mean you can’t run?” Timmy asked as they left the bathroom and headed towards an electronics store. 

 

“Well you can, but it has to be a class five or higher event, so boybands touring, or an important TV milestone is fine to run for. But getting a new phone doesn’t warrant it.” Trixie explained as the pair entered the electronics store, Trixie scrutinising the signs on each phone’s display. 

 

“Sounds like a lot to remember,” Timmy commented, trying not to wince as she glanced at the prices on the various phones. She was fairly confident she hadn’t even touched anything worth that much.

 

“It’s not that bad, just means you have to check yourself occasionally, appearance means a lot after all,” Trixie explained, before beckoning a store employee over talking quickly and earning a nod in response. 

 

“Then should you have been holding my hand this entire time?” Timmy asked, holding up her left hand and revealing that Trixie was still holding it. 

 

The Asian girl stared blankly at the interlocked hands, before blinking and quickly pulling free, muttering rapidly under her breath. 

 

“Stupid! Stupid! Get a grip girl, she’s probably not even, crap!” Trixie spluttered. Timmy realising this line of thought was going to go somewhere very bad very quickly hastily cut in. 

 

“Hey, it’s fine, I should have mentioned it earlier, you were just excited right?”

 

“I, yes, that’s it,” Trixie said, her face notably flushed as the employee from earlier returned, offering the girl a white box. “Thank you.” She said, quickly running up to pay for the phone before returning with the box, offering it to Timmy. 

 

“You brought this for me?” She asked while her brain screamed at her that that was obviously what was going to happen and that she had no right being surprised that this had happened.

 

“Hey, what’s the point in being rich if I’m not gonna get my friends gifts?” Trixie asked, a natural smile back on her face as Timmy opened the box, pulling out a pink smartphone. “I guessed with the colour, do you like it?”

 

“It’s great!” Timmy said, making a mental note to wish for a phone case later, she wasn’t turning down something top of the line like this and she wasn’t letting it get broken. “I don’t think I’ve ever held a device this recent.”

 

“Really? Girl, how have you lived!?” Trixie asked, her face slightly aghast as Timmy just shrugged. 

 

“I'll deal with it.” She offered weakly. “Also what sort of plan is this thing on?”

 

“Do not worry about that, trust me we can afford this. Also, my house is full of top-of-the-line gadgets if you’re interested.” Trixie said with a smile, returning Timmy's phone to her. Surprising the neo girl who hadn’t even realised she’d taken it in the first place. Looking at the screen she realised Trixie had been punched into the contacts. “Like, we could have a sleepover or something if you were interested?”

 

“I, yeah sounds fun!” Timmy blurted out, trying to ignore the fact she’d just been asked to stay the night by the most popular girl she knew. She hadn’t even had to breach the subject; it had just come up naturally in the conversation and Trixie had suggested it! 

 

“Great! Just call your parents and make sure it’s okay for you to come.” Trixie said, smile retaining as she looked at Timmy. “I, you are gonna call them, right?” 

 

“Huh, oh yeah… just erm, let me do it over there,” Timmy said hastily, pointing towards one of the mall's pillars before sprinting over and hiding, dialling in the home phone line. While it rang, she hastily asked Cosmo and Wanda:

 

“My voice sounds normal right?”

 

“Pretty close,” Cosmo said.

 

“Just a smidge higher, should be fine over a phone Sport,” Wanda added. Timmy nodded as someone finally picked up.

 

“This better be you, Twerp.” Vicky spat.

 

“Yeah, it’s me,” Timmy responded flatly. “Look, is whatever my parent’s paying you enough to claim I was there the whole time?”

 

“I mean, it’s a decent amount. But without someone to torment, I dunno. I do this job because I like it, you know; the pay’s just a fun extra most of the time.” Vicky said, the sound of her crashing down on the sofa sounding over the phone.

 

“I mean yeah, but you do it every night, right? Like, you could take a day off, you know, recharge, get the old batteries back up?” Timmy offered, really hoping she was going to say yes.

 

“Wow, you must be desperate to stay away tonight,” Vicky commented snidely. “Well, you know what, sure. I need a break; okay I’ll claim you were here. But I’m warning you, if I get a reputation for being negligent, I won't get hired again, and if that happens, you’ll see just how mean I can be!”

 

“Yeah, I’ve met your sister, believe me, I’m fully aware,” Timmy muttered before hanging up. Honestly, Vicky was just the worst, was every parent in Dimsdale as negligent as her parents, or did she just put more effort into acting around other adults? Yeah, probably not.

 

“So, did they say it was okay!?” Trixie asked, her eyes wide as she looked at the returning Neo girl. 

 

“They said it was fine,” Timmy responded, smiling as she gripped the front of her dress. “So… where do you live?” 

 

Technically Timmy didn’t need to ask, she knew full well where Trixie lived, but Timantha didn’t. 

 

“Oh, I’ll call my driver, he can drive us over,” Trixie said, a surprisingly large grin on her face. 

 

“Erm, am I going to fit in with, well, this?” Timmy asked, lifting the edge of her ballgown, bringing up not just the outer layer of the dress, but all the many layers of petticoats and ribs that gave the dress its structure. 

 

“Yeah, my limo’s fairly big, though I admit that’s a very large dress,” Trixie said, smiling as Timmy let her dress fall and followed her as they headed to the mall’s entrance. 

 

“Trixie!” A voice called out; Timmy froze as he recognised Veronica Star's voice. She was not ready for this, time to switch to full Timantha; even thinking of herself as Timmy had the chance of going very wrong. 

 

“Crap!” Trixie hissed before her downcast and panicking face swapped to her usual perfect happy, popular girl. “Veronica, so good to see you!”

 

“I know right, I thought you said you were busy today, it’s so good to see you, who’s… she?” Veronica asked, her smile faltering as she saw the Timantha, her eyes focusing heavily on her ballgown. 

 

“This is Timantha, I’m giving her a lift home; I met her a few months back; she’s only just back in town because of a charity thing she volunteers for, hence the outfit.” Trixie made up quickly, looking over at Timantha who nodded and added.

 

 “Yeah, I needed to draw attention, so… gown.” She explained, feeling incredibly awkward and self-conscious as she was scrutinised.

 

“Well it works, you certainly do stand out, anyway Trixie, I wondered if you-”

 

“Sorry, that’s my car!” Trixie said very loudly, grabbing Timantha by the arm and pulling her towards the white limo. “It was nice seeing you Veronica, talk to you later girlfriend!”

 

“Trixie wait!” Veronica called out, eyes wide as the limo’s door was shut in her face and sped off. 

 

“Urgh, sorry about her Timantha,” Trixie said apologetically. “She’s not the worst friend I’ve had but she’s clingy and I’m not sure she’d like your… youness.” 

 

“She doesn’t secretly like comics or anything I’m guessing?” Timantha asked, knowing the answer.

 

“No, no she doesn’t. I think the only thing she secretly likes is that Turner ki- I mean Timmy.” 

 

That caused Timantha’s eyes to widen. For one thing, Trixie had remembered her name and had corrected herself to use it. But Veronica apparently had a crush on her.

 

“She does? And who’s this Timmy guy?” Timantha asked, hastily bolting on the second question. 

 

“A kid at my school, nice enough guy just… I dunno, nothing special. Honestly, the biggest shock to me is that Veronica has a crush on a boy at all. I’ve seen her room, my security thought I had a stalker when they saw it. I just thought she was crushing on me.” Trixie explained, relaxing and opening the cooler between the seats, offering Timantha a drink which she took happily. 

 

“Really? I mean she clearly liked you.” Timantha said, more to herself than Trixie.

 

“She likes the popular side of me, so like, 90% of me,” Trixie said sadly, before smiling as she reached over and took Timantha’s hand. “Anyway, enough about that, we’re having a sleepover! We don’t need to talk about boring stuff like Veronica, come on, we’re gonna have fun!”

Chapter 2

If you’d told Timantha earlier that day that she’d be attending a private sleepover with Trixie Tang she’d have told you you were insane. On the other hand, if you told her she’d be going by ‘She’ and would have been wished into a girl indirectly, again she’d have said you’d completely lost it.

Still, nothing could change what was actually happening, and right now that was that she was sitting in Trixie’s limo in her stupidly large and puffy ballgown with said girl right next to her and they were having a great time reading the comic open between them.

On most days Timantha would wonder why wearing a gown like this would have made Trixie happy –after all, that was what she’d wished for– but then again it was possibly the girliest thing she could have worn. Maybe that was it. Either way it didn’t matter when they were reading the latest issue of Golden Locks’ solo series, a slightly sad experience due to the fact the comic was, to put it lightly: Not good.

“The heck did they do to her?” Trixie gasped, looking at a particularly awful panel of the books heroine Golden Locks as she exited the ocean in… well, technically the pair supposed it was a bikini, but bikinis tended to cover more skin.

“I have no idea!” Timantha responded, anger on her face as the comic’s heroine changed into her new costume.

On some level Timantha thought she should be proud that the heroine she’d wished into existence was now a canon part of her favourite comic universe… on the other hand this was… bad, so bad.

“The mini skirt and battle corset was little enough, what does she have against clothes?” Trixie asked, aghast as her brain took in the fashion disaster that was the heroine’s new costume.

“I really liked her old look,” Timantha admitted, trying to read the text and block out the horrific costume Golden Locks now sported.

“Yeah I know, I mean I can attest that walking in heels like hers is a nightmare, let alone thinking about what it would be like to try and fight in them! But, like, it looked good and the colour balance was just right, this, urgh.” Trixie groaned, grimacing as she read through the dialogue.

“Call me crazy, but I think we can drop this book from our regular purchases,” Timantha said, a slight smile on her face that was mirrored by Trixie.

“Agreed,” Trixie said, closing the book and throwing it aside in disgust. She relaxed in her chair, smiling happily as she took another gulp from her water bottle. Then she looked at Timantha and something about her smile made the neo girls heart rate speed up. “Thanks for reading with me, it’s nice to actually talk to someone about this stuff. Well, like, IRL, not in the forums and things.”

“It was fun,” Timantha beamed, before looking to the side and adding: “Well, if we pretend that this Golden Locks book doesn’t exist.”

Trixie nodded before she leaned over, her hands raised and hovering in the air. Her eyes were darting back and forth and her breathing was noticeably increasing. “Timantha…”

The Neo girl sat and waited, Giving Tixie time to try and form proper words.

“...I– I’m really glad I found you again,” she finished, somewhat lamely.

“Me too,” Timantha responded, feeling her heart beat faster again as Trixie’s smile returned.

“We’re nearly at my place, I’ll call ahead to make sure you’ve got some sleepwear.” Trixie said, pulling out her phone before looking at Timantha and adding. “You sure you don’t want to get anything from your place? Really, we can make the trip.”

“I’m good; I trust anything you lend me,” Timantha replied. Personally, she was really glad Trixie was so willing to let her borrow some things to wear, because she was not going to be able to go home and retrieve any of her stuff. Even if she could, the act of actually doing so might raise some unfortunate questions like ‘Why do you live at Timmy Turner's house?’ or ‘Why does no one inside recognize you?’ or ‘Why are there no documents or evidence of your existence?’

“As you should,” Trixie said, a confident grin gracing her features. “I am a style queen. I already have so many ideas on what will look good on you.”

“Oh, you think about me often then?” Timantha asked a few seconds before her brain realised what she was saying, causing her to go as red as Trixie had.

“I– what– no… I mean I do it for all my friends. Style is such a rare thing to find these days!” Trixie blurted, her face beet-red as she tried to bring her temperature down. “Anyway, I’m so good I only need seconds. No offence, but the two looks I’ve seen you wearing have been a bit… old fashioned? I mean, you make them work well enough but you can do better and I’m gonna prove it.”

Timantha nodded, not 100% sure how she felt about doing makeovers. Then again, the trip to the salon had been fun last time she’d been a girl, and this time having Trixie do it personally?

“Sounds like a good time,” Timantha said as the limo turned up the drive to Trixie’s mansion. It was never impossible to forget just how rich the Tang Family actually was, but still seeing the huge dark blue structure that was the Tang household's home was still a little intimidating. Just a reminder that she could always do far, far better than you.

This thought however was immediately broken as Trixie took Timantha’s hand and pulled her out of the limo, offering brief thanks to the driver who held the door open for them.

“Come on, I’ve been waiting to show you around for a while now!” Trixie called, leading her into the massive house.

Timantha was more used to massive houses than you’d think. She’d been in or wished them up plenty of times. But they were usually brief stints due to wishes, being invited in was still hugely impressive to the Neo girl.

The inside of said manor was a pleasant mixture of purples, pinks and whites, all mixing for a very pleasant vibe.

“Your family must really like pink,” Timantha remarked, the full effect truly hitting her now she was inside it with only one other person and the walls weren’t covered in party decorations.

“Well, it’s more a ‘me’ thing than anyone else,” Trixie explained as she led Timantha up the grand staircase to the second floor. “My dad’s here so little he insisted I choose the decor.”

“Wait, so you're here alone, like, constantly?” Timantha asked, the alarmed nature being less due to potential child neglect and more because she knew full well what Trixie was like when left alone.

“Eh, not really. There’s a lot of staff present and on the days I can’t see Dad I’ve usually got friends over.” Trixie explained as they walked, Timantha trying her hardest not to let her gown’s skirts knock anything stupidly expensive off it’s plinths. Apparently seeing her friend's distress Trixie added: “Don’t worry, once we’re in my closet I’ll find you something smaller. Though you really do look good in that gown.”

Timantha was sure Trixie’s face had been red as she said that, but she didn’t dwell on that, instead smiling and responding to her first statement.

“Thanks, this was… fun? But I am looking forward to wearing some normal clothes again,” she admitted, swishing a bit in a clear stretch of landing. The way the skirts moved was almost mesmerising.

“No, I get it. You should see some of the dresses I had made while I was in my princess phase.” Trixie said, grinning as she opened the door on her landing and gesturing for Timantha to go into the room.

The Neo girl recognised Trixie’s very pink bedroom; her feet sinking into the extremely plush carpet as she walked around, looking for a place to sit.

“Take the bed.” Trixie said as she followed Timantha in, gesturing vaguely as she walked over to her closet. “It’s a bit cramped in here, so I’ll find you something less extreme that you can wear for now.”

“It’s a closet, how cramped can it be?” Timantha asked.

“Ah, the things one doesn’t know as a non-popular girl.” Trixie mused, shaking her head as she opened the doors to her closet and revealed it was in fact another room, diving far deeper than Timantha ever would have guessed. She could also see it was stuffed full of outfits. All neatly hung and organised, but still stuffed. In her current huge gown she would never be able to fit inside, at least not without toppling several racks of clothing.

While Trixie embarked on her quest to find Timantha something to wear, said Neo girl had a brief conversation with her fairy godparents.

“You guys want to head home? It’s gotta be risky being here,” Timantha asked, looking the pair over.

“If you’re sure you can handle it, sport,” Wanda said, looking up at the neo girl who nodded.

“Okay then champ, good luck with Trixie!” Cosmo added before the pair poofed away. Timantha’s heartbeat pounded as they only just disappeared in time for Trixie to re-enter the room.

“Okay, got something for you. I think you’re gonna look great in them.” Trixie said, holding up a couple of hangers.

Timantha looked the offered garments over. The first article of clothing was something she could never imagine the girl holding it ever wearing. A black T-shirt decorated with Sassy Cat’s face. The other item was a pink tartan skirt. While not exactly what Timantha would have chosen to wear, it was better than the ballgown she was currently in.

“Bathroom’s through that door..” Trixie gestured towards her en suite. “Get changed then meet me out here. We can look for some nightwear for later then we can have some real fun.”

Nodding, Timantha left the room and slipped into the bathroom. While a lifetime fan of pink herself, she did wonder if Trixie’s dad ever got overwhelmed or fed up with the colour. Heck, even her mom must have been fed up with it. Well, assuming her mom was around. Thinking back, Timantha couldn’t remember if she’d ever heard Trixie talk about her mother.

Deciding that it was a sleeping bear she was very definitely not poking, she started the process of trying to get out of the ballgown. It was harder than she’d expected. Then again, she hadn’t even put the rather extravagant garment on the first time: it had been poofed on.

This gave her the feeling of trying to take a car apart without any idea what bits of an engine were which. She was basically forced to guess and hopefully not break it. Why she cared she didn’t know. The logical part of her said it was because Timantha obviously wouldn’t want to damage such a garment. The smaller, much quieter side argued it was a nice dress.

Eventually, she was able to find the hidden zipper and pull it down (a task that took far more effort then she’d have expected) and was able to pull the top layer of the dress off and over her head. Once that was done removing the layers of petticoats was far easier.

She then picked up the clothes Trixie had given her and was about to pull them on before she took a moment to look at herself in the mirror. Given the looming spectre of puberty had yet to reach her, the neo girls body didn’t look any different to when she’d been a boy. Well, except the major difference lower down.

Deciding not to dwell on that, she hastily pulled the skirt up, fastening it properly. She was reasonably confident it was on properly, a quick spin confirmed she hadn’t screwed up. It struck her that wearing a skirt should have felt odder or more jarring both times she’d done it, but to be honest, it really didn’t. It was just a bit of clothing. Sure it was traditionally made for girls, but that didn’t matter. Anyway, it was cute.

As she pulled the shirt over her head she glanced at herself again. Her hair was a mess but she was… cute. Yeah, she was cute. Carefully she walked up to the mirror, looking at herself. She... did she like looking cute? Did she like this skirt she was wearing? Would she like it if she’d still been a boy? She only looked slightly different.

She shook her head. Now was not the time to have an existential crisis; she was cute and had known that girly stuff was fun for a while now. She was at a sleepover now and she was going to enjoy it!

Humming to herself, she bundled up her ballgown and wandered back into Trixie’s room.

“Hey, I’m done.” she said, grinning as she walked back in.

“You look great!” Trixie cried, jumping off her bed and running to her friend, looking her up and down. “I mean, obviously you do. You’re cute and you had my sense of style on your side, how could you not be?” She added a slight blush on her face as she did so.

“Thanks!” Timmatha beamed before she looked at Trixie and asked: “So, what are we doing now?”

“Hmmm…” Trixie rubbed her chin thoughtfully before glancing up at Timantha’s hair. “Well, we could do each others hair if you like. I’m glad you lent me your hair tie at the mall, but your hair now is kind of a mess.”

“Erm, okay.” Timantha said, before admitting. “But, erm, I’m sort of really bad with hair. Ponytails are about as far as I go.”

“Well, I rock a mean ponytail!” Trixie responded, patting the edge of her bed. “Now get here and let me at that mess.”

Timantha nodded and settled down as Trixie began the process of doing her hair, starting by removing the headband and bow she’d forgotten she was even wearing before beginning to brush it.

It was satisfying, feeling the brush go through her hair, even if it did pull or get stuck, the process was still relaxing.

“You’ve really got some nice hair Timantha.” Trixie commented as she set the brush down. “Nice and thick. And the way you’ve cared for your ends, they're perfect! I can’t see a single split end.”

“It’s just freshly cut.” Timantha responded, smiling as Trixie began to split her brown hair into three groups.

“Geez, just take the compliment.” Trixie snapped as she began to looping the splits over each other. “Honestly girl, what happened to you that you can't take a compliment? You are pretty! Deal with it.”

Timantha felt her face heat up as Trixie continued to work on her hair.

“Hmm, yeah I think you pull off a braid nicely.” Trixie said, leaning back and looking at her handiwork. “Just let me add this…” she muttered as she tied a ribbon around the end of the braid. “...And done!”

Timantha looked in the mirror. Trixie had done a very nice job with her hair. She flicked the braid. It was fun, like her ponytail had been. Speaking of which…

Trixie was sitting next to her on the bed, looking at her expectantly. Now it was her turn to do Trixie’s hair.

“Okay, I can do this…” Timantha muttered under her breath. She absolutely did not believe this, but really how hard could it be to pull off a decent ponytail?

 

Very, very hard as it turned out. Timantha had been struggling for about twenty minutes to sort out Trixie’s hair. The silky feeling reminded her just how much the rich girl spent looking after her hair to get such nice results. It was silky-smooth to the touch and while the asian girl had made a big deal about her hair having no split ends, Trixie also didn’t seem to have any.

And Timantha was convinced she was ruining it with every single time she failed to pull it up properly.

“I’m sorry about this.” she apologized, not for the first time, biting her lip with her large front teeth.

“How did you get your hair in such a nice ponytail in the first place?” Trixie asked through a slightly forced smile. Evidently she hadn’t realised how little experience Timantha had doing hair, presumably thinking it was just self depreciation and not an accurate assessment of her skill.

“Patience.” Timantha lied, finally managing to get the hair tie around Trixie’s hair and tying it up without it falling apart. She’d concluded that she couldn’t get it dead centre anyway so she might as well embrace that and go for a side ponytail look. She figured her host could probably fix it if she wasn’t happy with the results. “Anyway, I think that’s as good as I’m going to get you.”

Somewhat nervously Timantha moved back, letting Trixie stand up and examine her hair. Timantha’s heart beat faster as her friend examined her work.

“Took a while, but not bad!” Trixie grinned, slinging an arm around Timantha’s shoulders, pulling her in closer and holding up her phone. “This deserves a selfie!”

Timantha didn’t get a chance to respond before Trixie took the picture. Blinking from the flash, Timantha didn’t see Trixie scroll through the gallery, before showing her the picture.

She looked in amazement. Trixie was happily holding her, pulled in close. Beaming, even, with a relaxed air of happiness shining through. And then there was her, with a cute braid resting over her shoulder in the borrowed clothes. She liked this. She loved this.

“I… can I have a copy?” Timantha asked hesitantly. Trixie nodded eagerly.

“Heck yes you can!”

Timantha’s phone beeped a second later. Looking at her screen she took in the photo on her phone. She smiled and quickly set it as her backdrop, she didn’t want to forget today even if she went back to being a boy.

Wait. If?

“Okay, next I propose we pick a movie and I’ll do your nails while we watch.” Trixie suggested. Timantha nodded. She’d had her nails treated when hanging out with Trixie before and it had been nice to have them as well tamed as they had been.

“Great, then you pick a movie.” Trixie said, pointing to a shelf full of DVDs. “Oh, hang on.”

She then walked over to what looked like a featureless bit of pink wall, before lifting a poster on her wall of some singer Timantha didn’t recognise. Underneath was a control pad. Some of the buttons were obviously for the lights and such, but Trixie rapidly punched in a combination, and then, much to Timantha’s surprise, her bookshelf moved, sliding along.

“You have a secret passageway in your room!?!” Trimmantha gasped, eyes wide with amazement.

“Well I had it added during the redecorating, let's be real for a second: what’s the point of living in a mansion without secret passageways?” Trixie responded with a smile. “Anyway I’ve got some other stuff in here.”

Grinning and excited, Timantha followed Trixie through the open entrance. Stepping into a dark room illuminated by LED lights around the rim of the room. Still the reason for the low lighting was obvious.

A huge TV was set up against the wall with multiple games consoles plugged into the screen and controllers stacked neatly on a rack on the wall. Then there were the dark shelves. Row upon row of video games and movies, none of it fitting Trixie’s popular girl image.

Not that you couldn’t guess it was a girls' space. The sofa and gaming chair were both black with pink heart shaped accents. The headsets perched neatly on the shelf were both pink with cat ears sculpted into the headband.

“You have a secret Boy Stuff Cave?” Timantha asked, mouth wide in amazement as she looked around.

“Yup! Dad’s got something similar, though he never lets me in, claims I’m too young and that he’ll never forgive himself if I ever see him using it.” Trixie said, smiling. “And the good news for him is I don’t want to know. I tried listening in once when he and some woman went in. I heard some whip cracking but that was it. I think I’m happier if I continue to live in ignorance.”

Timantha nodded in agreement.

“Anyway, go find a movie, I’m going to get my nail polish.” Trixie said, gesturing for Timantha to pick something.

While she’d been somewhat interested in some of the girlier movie’s she hadn’t seen before on her regular shelf, Timantha suspected Trixie had really wanted to share this room with someone. She’d been so quick to open it up to her and anyway, there was a lot in here she also hadn’t seen.

Soon she’d place her pick in one of the consoles and the menu had just loaded as Trixie rentered.

“Ah, so you're a Kaiju fan.” Trixie said, looking at the screen, specifically focusing on the giant robot and monster squaring each other down.

“Yeah, you’re okay with this right?” Timantha asked, suddenly nervous.

“I told you to pick something and you did, what the heck am I going to complain about?” Trixie asked, looking at Timantha slightly concerned. “Seriously girl, what have people done to you that you’re this nervous?”

Timantha didn’t answer that. She couldn’t. Being told you’re lame or wrong or have bad taste constantly doesn’t do wonders for your ability to have confidence in yourself. How was she supposed to explain that even her parents weren’t on her side most of the time? Or that they regularly left her alone with the monster that was Vicky? Or how much people like Trixie had contributed to it?

“It’s… you’re popular okay? And popular people make fun of people who are unpopular for the dumb or stupid things they do. And like, it’s not okay but people like me can live with it. I love the things I love; I’m not ashamed or embarrassed to like what I like. But you hear something enough and it kinda sticks with you. And... it’s just hard to trust yourself around the kind of person who makes fun of you, even if you know they like the stuff you do. Even if you know you’re similar, or you know them more than anyone else does you can’t say anything; you know they love what you do and you can’t bring yourself to ruin it, and I–”

Trixie had flung herself at Timantha, wrapping her arms around her; practically crushing her in a bone-breaking hug. The shock of this shattered her train of thought… and let her realise tears were flowing down her face.

“Stop, you don’t have to say anything else.” Trixie cried. Even if she couldn’t see her face Timantha knew the rich girl was crying.

“Listen, it’s fine really; it’s just some days it gets to be too much and–”

“It’s not fine!” Trixie cried, squeezing her tighter. “I hate when people get judged for what they like! I’m only the way I am because I like being popular! You– you don’t care about any of that! You don’t deserve any of that, and if I ever make you feel that way… I…”

“You won't.” Timantha responded, finally returning the asian girl's hug.

“I better not.” Trixie said as the pair finally broke apart. “Anyway, get this movie going while I put the base coat on.” She said, holding up a small glass bottle of clear liquid.

Timantha nodded, quickly picking up the controller and hitting X to start the film, before turning and offering both her hands to Trixie, who slowly began applying the goopy clear liquid to her nails.

Watching the movie was a weird experience, partly spent whooping and cheering as the heroes piloted their robots against the giant monsters (an especially large one coming when the heroes swung an oil tanker around like a baseball bat) while also doing her best to keep her hands rock still as Trixie applied alternating black and pink polish to each nail. Timantha was surprised she had to do two coats.

“Yeah, movies tend to lie a bit to speed things up.” Trixie explained after Timantha raised this point. “But trust me you need two coats if you want it to look good.”

“Well, you’re the expert.” Timantha said with a smile before leaning back to continue watching the film.

They actually paused just before the climax. Trixie had to apply the sparkly top coat she’d picked out and wanted to be able to focus. Timantha watched in amazement as she added the sparkles. These nails didn’t look at all like she was used to, but much like the outfit Trixie had given her, she liked it. It was cute.

As the two girls lent back into the cushy sofa to enjoy the movie's climax Timantha smiled, looking down at her nails; an idle thought crossed her mind.

‘I could get used to this’

Chapter 3

The rest of the night had passed in what Timantha assumed was bliss. Once they were done with the movie Trixie asked if she wanted to do her nails. Based on the earlier experience with doing the Asian girl’s hair Timantha politely refused.

“I, yeah fair enough.” Trixie admitted, idly playing with the off-centre ponytail Timantha had eventually managed to make look good-ish. “Still surprised, did you really never experiment growing up, like on a friend or one of those Girls Worlds head thingies?”

“One: never really had friends who’d want to do that sort of thing, Two: how would a head help me practise doing my nails?” Timantha asked, head tilted slightly.

“Oh, some of them come with a hand you can practise on, my old one might be up in the attic somewhere? Also, I’m guessing most of your friends were boys?” Trixie asked, looking at Timantha who nodded awkwardly.

“If by ‘most of’ you mean ‘all of them’ then yes.” She admitted, shifting around awkwardly as she spoke.

“Wait, am I your first girlfriend?” Trixie asked, eyes wide before she blushed. “I mean like platonically! Not like, I mean if you sw- I mean; Female friend. Am I your first female friend?”

Deciding to spare Trixie any more embarrassment Timantha answered calmly and pretended not to have heard her blushing rambling.

“Yeah, you are. I’ve always wanted to be friends with girls, but they tend to not like me that much.” She explained, deciding not to mention the rich girl she was talking to was one of the main girls who shunned her. It wasn’t like it would help anything or make any sense to her. Still a part of her wish she’d voiced it differently given how Trixies face had fallen after she’d finished speaking.

“I’m so-”

“Don’t. Just don’t Trixie it’s fine.” Timantha said, holding a hand up and smiling at her. “Sure it would have been nice to have a girlfriend before now; but I have you now and you’re great! I had friends before, so what if they were all male? They were still good friends and I’m fine; really.”

Timantha was glad lying wasn’t a reason to lose your fairy godparents. Sure her friends were cool; but she was miserable enough to receive fairies so obviously she wasn’t really fine. But again not something Trixie needed to hear; she still didn’t look fine despite the reassurance.

“I… fine. Anyway!” Trixie eventually said, forcing the words out in a tone that suggested she didn’t want to dwell on anything Timantha had just told her. “Video games, you want to play something?”

“Sure!”

And so an hour or so passed as the two girls played the latest Doomed game; the multiplayer wasn’t stellar but it was still fun enough.

“You know it’s weird to be doing Co-op with this.” Timantha said, holding up the console's controller.

“Do you not have a pink one at home? I kind of assumed it was your favourite colour?” Trixie answered, looking at the pink device in the Neo girl's hand.

“Nah, it’s just odd for both of us to have an official controller.” Timantha explained. Seeing the confused look on Trixies face she slapped herself in the face. “Right, forgot. You're rich and popular. To explain, us ‘non-popular kids’ can’t afford the asking price for official controllers most of the time; so we have to make do with the one the console comes with and third party devices. It’s traditional for someone to get stuck with the worst controller. Usually the host but some people are stubborn and won't give them to you.”

“Oh, I suppose that makes sense?” She offered weekly. “To be honest; I haven’t played with anyone else before.”

“So, I’m your first then?” Timantha asked, an eyebrow raised cockily… Then she realised exactly what she’d done and turned scarlet. Which Trixie thankfully didn’t notice because she was also blushing like crazy and trying to hide it.

“Yeah, I mean I’ve gamed before and I’ve even played multiplayer, but like, it's just me sitting here, and the chat over the headset hasn’t been very fun…” Trixie admitted. Timantha nodded along, she understood perfectly.

“You don’t have to explain it to me, I’ve been there, more listening than actually talking.” She explained, thinking of some of the… ‘Cultured’ language she’d heard various players yelling at each other. “Must be even worse for a girl to join in.”

“Erm, aren’t you a girl?” Trixie asked, head tilted and looking at Timantha who’s brain entered a very state of ‘Oh crap!’ as she scrambled to cover her mistake.

“I mean, my mic’s busted, I haven't talked in a chat for a while, but I hear plenty.” She explained frantically.

“Yeah, that makes sense and I don’t blame you. I’ll sometimes speak but, I guess I’m scared someone will recognize me?” Trixie admitted, looking sheepish. “I know it’s stupid, but I’m not sure my reputation would hold up if they discovered I like this stuff and I don’t want to get labled a fake gamer girl, I don’t want that kind of stress.”

“I can see it.” Timantha nodded, agreeing solemnly. “I haven’t had that thrown at me yet but I have always thought it was stupid. It’s usually only thrown out by true nutters who have every detail memorised, acting like they’re better than you because they know where all the best gear spawns or in forums for things where they remembered what happened line for line in Crimson Chin number 452 page five panel 3 like it actually matters that I got one freaking’ word wrong!”

Trixie looked at the heavily breathing Neo girl, before very slowly saying:

“You’ve… needed to get that off your chest for a long time haven’t you.”

“Comic Forums are a nightmare.” Timantha nodded, noticing how much quieter she was suddenly speaking and how deeply she was breathing, Dash-Bashder-42’s comment really had gotten to her. “Glad I don’t talk in there anymore.”

“Agreed, you’re too good for them.” Trixie said. She then appeared to look at Timantha’s shocked expression and laughed. “Of course you are! Why wouldn’t you! Trust me I’ve been in them as well, you have way more class then most commenters have, and no arguing!” She added, pointing at Timantha dramatically.

“Bu-”

“No, just no. No friend of mine gets to put themselves down when I’m around.” Trixie said firmly, setting her controller down and turning to face Timantha. “Listen to me you beautiful idiot. You are nice, you are funny, you are the only girl I trust with this side of myself. You are also really cute. However, you also put yourself down far, far too often and for such a girly girl you seem to have no experience with being a girl! Seriously outside of the one pampering session I took you on, have you been on any others?”

Timantha’s lack of response or even basic eye contact said enough for Trixie.

“I thought so. Right; I’m busy tomorrow sadly but I’m free the day after that, I am going to take you on a shopping trip, I am going to get you everything you need and then I am going to pamper you, because you deserve it and don’t you dare say otherwise do you understand!?”

Timantha nodded frantically, the last time she’d seen Trixie this set on something it had been getting validation when she and her had been the only two people in existence. She’d forgotten just how intense the rich girl could get. It wasn’t a problem, the fact she cared about what she did was something Timantha had always respected about the girl even if it did get a little… insane sometimes.

“Good.” Trixie said, relaxing as she leaned back. “Anyway, do you want to play more or should we try and sleep?”

“Sleep, I think.” Timantha admitted, a yawn escaping her mouth as soon as she finished talking. “Yeah, definitely sleep.”

“Okay then, let's find some sleep wear!” Trixie declared, grabbing the neo girl by the wrist and dragging her into the closet. It still amazed Timantha just how big a closet could be and how much stuff was jammed into it. Eventually she left wearing a simple pink nightie, a mirror of the lavender garment Trixie was wearing.

It was then as Timantha adjusted to having significantly longer hair hanging over her shoulders that she realised something.

“Trixie, where's the guest bed?”

“I… Forgot about that.” Trixie said, blushing slightly, hiding behind her silky smooth black hair. Idly Timantha noded that this was the first time she’d ever seen the other girl without her headband. As she’d expected the rich girl could pull off basically any look she chose to try. “We’ve probably got a spare bed the staff could bring in here, but they’re probably asleep by now. We either have to go and find a sleeping bag ourselves or you could erm…”

Trixie promptly stopped talking, choosing instead to blush like crazy, Timantha meanwhile was a bit confused.

“What?”

“You could, well we could share my bed? I mean it’s big and we’re both girls.” Trixie squeaked out. Timantha processed this news. Yes technically this was true; but she also knew sharing a bed with a crush (even if it was one-sided and, because of magic, you now shared a gender) wasn’t something you did… even if she was a bit fuzzy on the reasons why. Maybe it was something that made sense when you got older. Either way Timantha shook her head.

“Erm, let’s try and find a sleeping bag.” She said sheepishly. Looking up she saw Trixie looked a bit downcast so she hastily added: “I don’t mind sharing, but I’m a rough sleeper; toss and turn all night long. Trust me you don’t want to share a bed if you want to get a good night's sleep.”

Trixie still looked a little disappointed but she did nod in agreement.

“Yeah, I suppose that’s true.” She said, before her eyes suddenly widened and she smiled. “Course, we can’t turn the light on. Like I said, the onsite staff are asleep. We’re gonna have to use a torch light.”

She then ducked into her boy cave (they’d never closed the door after leaving) and after a minute or so of rummaging returned, a black torch in her hand.

“You only have one?” Timantha asked, as Trixie nodded, still grinning.

“Yes, sorry about that, just take my hand okay?”

Timantha was reasonably sure this wasn’t the only way they could be doing this but she wasn’t turning down a chance to hold Trixie Tang's hand, the amount of fights that had broken out just to ask for the chance… and Trixie had given it!

It was as their fingers interlocked and the pink neo girl was led from the room that something hit Timantha; or maybe ‘Hit’ was the wrong word, it was more like something finally clicked in her head. Everyone fighting over Trixie wasn’t really fighting over her. They were fighting over a version of her they had in their heads. One they could win over or prove themselves to with things like gifts and good looks.

But that was the thing; Trixie had everything she could ever need. She didn’t need gifts or good looks; she had both of those in mass quantities. She needed companionship. The other popular kids must have done well enough; Trixie hadn’t broken down from lack of attention yet afterall. But even then Trixie wasn’t fully honest. Sure, she was mostly happy with conventional popular girl things but she did have differences; the same girl who could spend hours picking out the exact shade of purple eyeshadow from one hundred variants was also the same girl who’d she’d just spent time with in Doomed bisecting demons with a chainsaw with almost psychotic glee! Hell, even Veronica didn’t know about Trixie’s boyish side, and those two were best friends.

Timantha’s head was racing, on the one hand she knew more about Trixie than anyone else currently did, but on the other hand she didn’t have a lot of time with her, she was still missing so much… and even if she asked around she probably would only see the mask she put on.

“Erm, so Trixie…” Timantha began, carefully thinking over what to say; she did want answers to her questions but she also didn’t want to ruin the moment. “What’s it like having other female friends? Like your best friend, what's she like?”

“Besides you? I guess Veronica and I are pretty tight?” She said, stopping and scratching her chin as she looked up at the ceiling, eyes intently staring. “I think she likes me more than I like her personally. I mean there's nothing wrong with her and she can keep up with me on any gossip and she’s a cheerleader. I’ve tried, trust me. It’s not easy. So I guess I respect that; but… I dunno she always feels… uncomfortable being popular, I guess?”

“Uncomfortable?” Timantha asked, looking at the girl who nodded absentmindedly, as if she’d never really thought about Veronica this much before.

“Yeah, I think she wants to be popular too much to take the top of the pile you know? I think she’d be doing better if she, you know… Didn’t try as hard? She has enough aspects to be higher up than she is but she keeps blowing it through stupid mistakes and not having the guts to stand where she did. I mean popularity can’t all be following otherwise what was popular would never change. You’ve got to push the boat out and right now it feels like she’s frantically paddling behind it. Shame, if she had more of a back bone I might-”

Trixie suddenly stopped talking very abruptly, it was hard to tell in the dark but she looked redder than before.

“You might what?” Timantha asked, her head cocked to the side.

“Oh, erm… It’s nothing, I mean she’s not top of my list, though I mean if she offered I wouldn’t say no.” Trixie stammered.

“Offered what?” Timantha asked, a small part of her brain saying she could probably just wish for the information in Trixie’s head later; but it would 100% be better for her to just tell her here and not have the guilt of invading her privacy.

“Err… I, Oh god this is, erm…” Trixie siad, her face definitely red now as they took the first staircase to a lower level, her grip on Timantha’s hand getting a little tighter.

“Is it embarrassing?”

“I… No, to be honest… It’s terrifying.” Tixie said, stopping so suddenly Timantha walked straight into her.

“Gah, sorry.” Timantha said, stepping back and looking up at the other girl. If you’d told her that she’d have gotten to see Trixie in her nightie and that would be the last thing on her mind she’d have laughed in your face. “What do you mean it’s terrifying?”

“I mean I’m scared. If it comes out of the box, I’m finished; it stays out of the box.” Trixie explained, letting go of Timantha’s hands and gripping herself in a tight hug, her long nails digging into her skin. Her eyes were pointed very firmly at the floor and not meeting the neo girls eyes.

“You can tell me.” Timantha said, moving in front of Trixie, looking up at her eyes, they had tears pooling in them.

“I, I want to. I’m trusting you with so much already, but you don’t want to deal with this, someone like me.”

“Trixie, you’re the one saying I don’t get to talk down about myself; well that goes both ways. What the hell about you could I even begin to hate!?” Timantha demanded; staring the rich girl right in the teary eyes. Firmly reaching out and pulling her hands out of her hug and gently taking her hands.

“I… I… You know how as a popular girl it’s expected I date a popular guy at some point?” Trixie said, eventually able to move her head to look Timantha in the eyes. Said girl nodded gently as she rubbed her hands.

“Well, I mean; I don’t hate the idea; boys are, you know… fine? Some are cute but… I… I don’t want to be limited to just that, you know?”

Heart rate increasing Timantha hesitantly asked:

“What, do you want to date an unpopular boy?”

“I mean… there's one who… I mean he’s… Honestly, no. It’s not unpopular boys… well it sorta is but, no, I, fuck!” Trixie swore, tears breaking free from her eyes.

“Trixie, it's okay!” Timantha gasped, gripping her hands tighter. “Whatever it is, you can trust me!”

“I… Please don’t tell anyone, I, please this has to stay secret, I haven’t ever, I…” Trixie was steadily getting more upset now, no more gentle tears streaming down her face, just full on ugly crying.

“Trixie, I promise I won't tell anyone.” Timantha gasped, looking at the taller girl, she’d never seen Trixie like this, so… vulnerable.

“I… I like girls… like, like-like.” She whispered, her eyes scrunching up tightly as if bracing for pain or yelling.

“Oh.” The neo girl said stupidly, her brain frozen. On the one hand, she suddenly felt better about not getting anywhere with Trixie before now. On the other hand, she had no idea this was coming… just like her liking boy stuff. She wondered how much Trixie held back so she could stay on top of the social pile.

She then wondered what the hell she was doing standing there like a lemon while Trixie was crying!?

“Oh, okay.” Timantha said, and then promptly kicked herself because seriously that was the best response she could think of!?

“What?” Trixie sniffled, looking up, her eyes red and her face tear stained, a trail of snot hanging out of her nose.

“I mean!” Timantha hastily blurted out, desperate to make less of a hash of everything and explain what she’d ment properly. “Who cares, you can like girls as much as you like! I mean I do.”

Timantha had rather hoped Trixie would stop crying, but she didn’t; instead she flung herself around the smaller pink girl and pulled her into a bone crushing hug as she bawled. They stayed there for quite a while, Trixie crying while Timantha patted her on the back gently.

“You’ve been holding that in for a while haven’t you?” Timantha asked, getting a nod back as Trixie whipped her face with her hand.

“Yeah, for a bit. I do like boys just… not as much. And, you know: it’s cool to have a gay friend and be suportive but being them is… I dunno, I…”

“I’m not going to think less of you for who you like, Trixie.” Timantha said with a reassuring smile and then hoping to move the situation towards something happier: “So, when did you find out?”

“Oh, you know. I was at a sleepover watching ‘High School Theatre Production’ and while everyone was drooling over the boys I was also doing it with the girls.” Trixie explained, reaching down to retrieve the torch she’d dropped in the emotional moment. “Didn’t think much of it at the time; it all became clear one day when I met someone at the mall, then it all… clicked.”

“Was it Veronica?” Timantha asked, the pair were close and they would look cute together.

“Yeah, her.” Trixie muttered, beaming dreamily as she took Timantha’s hand again and led her down the next set of stairs. “Anyway, since that day everything just made sense.”

Timantha nodded and the pair finally found a sleeping bag. Then it was back to Trixies room to sleep. Tradition at Sleepovers dictates that the point you lay in bed and the point when you actually go to sleep is separated by at least three to four hours. But to be honest today had been a lot emotionally for both girls who just passed out as soon as their heads hit the respective pillows.

The next morning came as it always will, and Timantha woke up, looking around; amazed to discover yesterday had been real as she sat up in the pink sleeping bag Trixie had found for her the previous day and saw she was still in Trixie’s room. Someone who notably wasn’t however, was Trixie.

Clambering out of her sleeping bag she looked around the room, her eyes scanning the empty bed with its duvet pulled back. More looking around led her to the desk and the note folded up on it.

She walked across the plush carpet, enjoying the feeling of her feet sinking into the carpet and the airy feel of the nightie. Last night, she’d been too distracted looking at Trixie to really take in the feeling of the one she was wearing, once again she liked it. Maybe she should wish herself into Timantha and sleep in one later, or maybe just wish for a nightie.

Still on the way over to the note, she bashed her foot into a suitcase lying on the ground, causing her to jump back in pain, wincing as she massaged her aching toe. Looking down she saw an expensive looking suitcase lying on the floor that 100% hadn’t been their last night.

Stepping around it the neo girl reached the desk and saw the note had her name written on it in purple glitter pen.

Timantha.

So sorry for leaving while you were asleep, I debated waking you up but you looked so peaceful sleeping, I decided to leave you. Anyway, I had to go meet up with some of my other friends today and I couldn’t stay any later. As a way of saying sorry, please take the suitcase; it’s got some stuff I think would look great on you. I’ve left out some casual clothes for you to change into. When you want to leave just go to the front door, my driver should be back and waiting to take you home.

Once again really sorry to dump you out of nowhere, call me anytime past 10, I really want to talk to you again!

Trixie.

Smiling, Timantha folded the note and looked around, spotting the outfit Trixie had picked out hanging on the door. As per usual it was pink, with a plaid skirt and a cute blouse with delicate lace around the cuffs. Quickly pulling the new clothes on, she took a look at the rest of the suitcases contents. As expected, all of it was girly and most of it (But not all of it) was pink.

Soon, she was saying goodbye to Trixie’s driver and walking to her house, wondering how she was going to get back to her room without being seen. She wasn’t worried about not being in the house overnight, her parents never checked on her when they got back. But they would notice a strange girl dragging a suitcase through the door and up the stairs.

Thankfully a stealthy way in wasn’t needed as she was suddenly enveloped in a familiar poof of magic, appearing in her room, two familiar magical guardians floating in front of her.

“Welcome back, Sport!” Cosmo said, beaming as Timantha set her new suitcase down, smiling at her godfather as her godmother spoke.

“You look like you had a good time with Trixie.” Wanda said, noting the nails and new clothes.

“Yeah, you apparently wished-up some very nice hair.” Timatha said, running her fingers through her long hair.

“Oh, I do my best.” Wanda said with a slight blush. “Still, I imagine you want to get back to normal as soon as possible?”

“Yeah.” Timantha nodded, ignoring the slightly sad feelings this enacted. “Might need to go back later, Trixie wants to talk.”

“Fair enough, right let's do some magic!” Wanda said, and her and Cosmo raised their star shaped wands, holding them up and letting the magic flow through them, enveloping Timantha in a sparkly cloud. Then a loud poof sounded and…

Nothing happened.

Timantha was still a girl.

Chapter 4

Timantha’s heart beat slowed to an agonising crawl. This was wrong, this was so, so wrong. 

 

“Come on guys, quit messin’ around.” The neo girl said, an awkward grin on her face as she stared at her Fairy Godparents who nodded and awkwardly stammered: 

 

“Of course Sport!” Wander said as she raised her wand and tried once again to dispel the wish, once again resulting in nothing but a poof of sparkles and a girl continuing to stand where a boy was supposed to. 

 

“Come on, stupid wand!” Cosmo yelled, furiously waving his wand. Once again the resulting magical poof failed to achieve anything, the only difference being the girl in front of them was continuing to get more and more stressed, her breathing heavy as she struggled to stay calm. 

 

“Why isn’t it working?” Wanda cried, her eyes nervously darting around. 

 

“I don’t know, we’re doing the counter spell right, aren’t we?” Cosmo asked nervously, his eyes meeting his wife’s who nodded firmly. 

 

“For goodness sake we’ve done it before; it can’t be this hard!” Wanda gasped. 

 

“Please guys, you have to do something!” Timantha gasped as she stared at her still female body in the mirror. 

 

“I know Sport, just hang on!” Wanda said frantically. “Okay, what if-”

 

Whatever Wanda was going to suggest was suddenly cut off because something that made the situation infinitely worse suddenly yelled out. 

 

“Tuurrrnnner!” Came the familiar bellow of Jorgen Von Strangle. The trio didn’t get a chance to do anything before the familiar angry red explosion of magic burst out in the middle of the room.

 

Timantha gulped, somehow even more aware of just how muscular and intimidating Jorgen was then normal. She took a few nervous steps backwards as he advanced on her, covering far more distance with his angry stomps than she did with her nervous footsteps.

 

“Care to explain why exactly you are trying to break the Da Rules multiple times in the last few minutes! Wait, when did you start wearing skirts?” Jorgen asked, his anger dropping to become more confused as Timantha went red and slammed her legs together, aware of the pink plaid skirt she was wearing and how much the muscle bound fairy was looking at her in confusion.

 

“Ah, Mr Jorgen sir!” Wanda blurted out, hastily moving between her charge and her boss. She was trying her best to look not guilty which almost worked minus the sweat pooling up on her face. “We weren’t trying to break any rules, we simply wished to return Timmy to his normal body.” 

 

“And why exactly did the punny man wish to be a girl for?” Jorgen asked, head tilted to the side as the neo girl tried to speak, but discovering the words didn’t want to come. 

 

“He didn’t exactly sir.” Wanda said quickly. “He made a perfectly reasonable wish for whatever would make one of his classmates happy, and due to an incident in the past he was returned to being Timantha.”

 

“Wait, what past incident?”

 

What followed was a very brief recap of Timmys previous adventure as Timantha; how it had started as just an attempt to figure out what to get the girl for her birthday but ended up by pure accident discovering her interest in boy things and the resulting friendship. 

 

“And I guess it must have meant a lot to her because suddenly I was Timantha again.” Timantha explained, before the neo girl shifted awkwardly. “Only, this time it’s different, I don’t know what it is but I feel like a girl this time, it’s not a disguise or anything; I keep thinking of myself as a girl and Timantha as my name even though it’s just something I made up on the spot last time. 

 

“I can tell you made it up quickly, it’s a terrible name.” Jorgen chuckled, then stopped as he saw the girl shrink, seeming to curl in on herself as she squeezed herself tightly, her eyes screwed up. “Sorry, sorry, don’t cry. It’s not helpful here and it makes you look like a girl.”

 

“I am a girl!” Timantha yelled, her eyes burning with anger before they widened and she shrank in on herself again. “I mean, I, I don’t understand what’s happening!”

 

“We'll figure it out, Timantha.” Cosmo said kindly, flying down to put a comforting hand on the girl’s shoulder, before scowling up at his boss. Desperately hoping the pure terror running through his system at being actively defiant to his boss wasn’t showing in his face. 

 

“We will sir, won’t we?” Wanda asked, flying down to Timantha’s other shoulder to comfort her before looking up at Jorgen who looked around awkwardly before nodding and saying in an apologetic tone. 

 

“Of course we will, something is up here. Nothing in Da Rules says anything about what you’ve tried to do. We will need to dig deeper. For now…” Jorgen held up his massive staff, the massive star shaped crystal on top glowing brilliantly before a cloud of fairy dust exploded out. 

 

Standing in the room now was Timmy Turner, specifically he was standing about a metre in front of Timatha, who was staring open mouthed at the doppelganger. 

 

“This double will act as a stand in for you while we investigate.” Jorgen stated before he raised his staff again, warping the group away. 

 

---

 

As per usual the ride to Fairy World was instantaneous. Looking around Timantha realised she didn’t recognise where she was exactly, but she could tell it was some kind of legal office, it had the wooden furniture and oppressive atmosphere she often associated with courts. 

 

“Where are we?” She asked Jorgen who was already marching off down the hard green corridor, forcing her to run to keep up with his massive strides. 

 

“Fairy World Legal Offices, their job is to figure out what’s wrong with Wishes and why they violate Da Rules when a case like yours comes around.” Jorgen explained succinctly as the group continued to walk down the halls, passing door after door each sporting signs with various different names written on them. “Well, that’s worrying.”

 

Timantha was going to ask Jorgen what was worrying before she spotted it. They’d stopped outside a door. A very pink door with a plaque mounted below the heart shaped window that had ‘Timantha Turner’ written on it in a very elegant flowing script.

 

“Wow Timmy I’ve been spelling your name wrong for years!” Cosmo said as he read the plaque.

 

“It’s not meant to say that!” Wanda snapped before she looked worried. “It’s not meant to look like this either.”

 

“Sorry, what is this?” Timantha asked, she had a slight idea but she wanted confirmation before she made any  assumptions. 

 

“It’s your legal document room, every child given Fairy Godparents has one.” Jorgen explained, kicking the door open, leaving an oily black boot mark on the door as it slammed open. 

 

“Gah!” Someone in the room cried out, darting behind the filing cabinet in panic, before slowly sticking his head out, letting his pink swoosh of hair become visible as he flew out. “There was no need to kick the door open.”

 

“Handels are inefficient, Cupid.” Jorgen stated flatly, his eyes falling flat as he looked at the fairy of love as he awkwardly flapped his feathered wings. “Why are you here?”

 

“Someone was trying to wish away love.” Cupid said with an angry glare, before he softened up. “When I got here though, I realised something was off, this room is all wrong.”

 

“Was my room not so pink before?” Timantha asked, taking in the full details of her room. She certainly hoped so. Sure, she liked pink, but the deep plush pink carpet, sparkly pink filing cabinet, pink light and the dark pink hearts on light pink wallpaper was to put it lightly: Pushing it.

 

“Oh no honey it was always pink, though it certainly didn’t have this much of a feminine lean… then again neither did you.” Cupid said, fluttering over to the Neo girl and looking her up and down. “Though it did give you some proper fashion sense… unless someone else picked that out for you.”

 

“So what if they did?” Timantha asked defensively, crossing her arms over her new blouse defensively. 

 

“Oh nothing, just that not everything’s changed.” Cupid muttered, running his fingers through his hair. “Still, you should stick to the skirts; they look good on you.” 

 

“I’m not taking fashion advice from someone wearing a diaper.” Timantha muttered quietly, if Cupid did hear he didn’t say anything, electing to start searching around in the drawer Jorgen had just opened. 

 

“So, do you know why we can’t wish Timmy back?” Cosmo asked after a few minutes once the pair had pulled out a file and began looking through it. 

 

“No, nothing yet.” Cupid muttered, scowling at the document like it had done him personal harm. “Nothing in here indicates anything that might be helpful, and it dictates every relationship with a boy you’ve ever had.” 

 

“Oh really?” Timantha said, walking over and looking at the document, it was… disappointing. Mostly because a lot of the page was drench in glittery black ink, the word: ‘Invalidated’ stamped over the pages. 

 

“It would appear you haven’t met many of your friends/enemies like this yet.” Jorgen explained. 

 

“And not one of them has a proper crush on you.” Cupid scowled, rolling his eyes in annoyance. 

 

“Good, I don’t want my friends crushing on me.” Timantha said, slightly affronted, to which cupid rolled his eyes dismissively. 

 

“You clearly don’t respect a good drama, still I suppose we better check the other options.” Cupid said flatly, extracting two more files. One was labelled: ‘Timantha Turner relations: Girls’ The other read: ‘Timantha Turner relations: Other’ He threw the girls folder to Timatha while cracking open the others folder himself. “You have a look through there, I’ll investigate this one. Oh that’s going to be a fun journey for them later on.” 

 

Timantha decided to ignore whatever Cupid had just discovered and opened the folder. Much like the boys it was mostly blacked out but some information was still clearly visible, mostly under ‘First meetings’ 

She ignored the section on her mom, she lived with her and she knew what it was like for her. Instead she moved onto the girls in the ‘Have a crush on god child’ section. She was a little surprised to discover Veronica in that section (though it was also weird that the word ‘HATE!’ was stamped over most of the text over and over again for whatever reason) but mostly it was uninteresting so she turned a page and let out a gasp. 

 

“What did you discover, girlboy!?” Jorgen cried, looking at the open page in Timantha’s hands. 

 

“She, she has a crush on Timantha, she’s why I can’t get back.” Timantha muttered, slack jawed as she held up the page. 

 

It was on paper that looked a lot newer and less yellowed than the other pages in the document, indicating it was a lot newer. It was also labelled differently, every other page had ‘Relationship with Timmy Turner’ printed at the top, but this one actually had ‘Relationship with Timantha Turner.’ 

 

“Let me see!” Cupid cried, flapping over excitedly and taking the document and reading aloud: 

 

“Trixie Tang first met Timantha Turner on her birthday, she was overjoyed to discover a girl who was both unashamedly girly yet also interested in boy stuff. While an immediate connection was formed it was only platonic at this time. Blah, blah, blah. Felt worse upon realising there were other girls like her out there only to never see her again, desperately wanting a reunion. Upon Timmy Turner’s wish, she was reunited with the girl she knew.” 

 

Cupid closed the file and returned it to its glittery drawer. 

 

“So, Trixie likes Timmy as Timantha?” Cosmo asked, getting a nod from Cupid.

 

“Yes, and from what I can tell she’s fallen for her hard… this, is going to cause some problems.” Cupid siged as he fluttered down to the Neo girl. 

 

“So, I can’t go back to being Timmy so long as Trixie has a crush on me?” Timantha asked. Cupid nodded but also added:

 

“Darling it’s not just that. When you wished for her to be happy it brought back the Timantha she thought she knew, but she doesn’t know the full story does she? She doesn’t know you started as a boy, or how girly you actually are, it’s based on what she saw and assumed and that’s what you got wished into. Tell me, do you still think of yourself as a boy?” 

 

“I, no I don’t; it just doesn’t feel right anymore.” Timantha admitted, playing with the edge of her skirt and not meeting the eyes of any of the fairies in the room. 

 

“And would you say you’ve been enjoying girly things you never would have considered before.” Cupid continued, getting a nod out of the Neo girl as she thought about the make overs and various outfits she’d ended up in. She’d worn a princess style ballgown in public without breaking a sweat. It hadn’t even been embarrassing, she’d just enjoyed the ginormous thing. Same for the current ensemble. She’d put the included underwear on without a second thought! Even now, she didn’t think it was weird or odd to be wearing undeniably femine garments. 

 

She was breathing heavily now, her brain scrambling to understand what was happening and everything that was different, it was all blurring together, what was she supposed to do?

 

“Well, what if we made everyone think Timmy was always a girl?” Wanda suggested, only for Cupid to shake his head. 

“Wouldn’t work, Trixie’s relationship with Timantha is based on her being an outsider, she never would have opened up like she did to someone she knows.” The fairy of love explained. 

 

“Also ‘Timantha’ never showed up to Trixie’s birthday, but ‘Timmy’ did. But she told me yesterday that she waited for hours for me to arrive.” Timantha added, looking down at the ground, her mind racing. 

 

“This is not good, for all intents and purposes you just appeared out of nowhere and we can’t easily slip you back into your old life. And given it was an accident and not something intentional we can’t just abandon you to the wild.” Jorgen muttered, rubbing his forehead. 

 

“But, I can’t stay this way, I’ve got school, friends, a life, I can’t just disappear!” Timantha cried, her eyes starting to water. 

 

“I know, this situation is a mess.” Cupid muttered. “I won’t deny this Tang girl her first major love; even if you weren’t what I would have gone to initially. So, I guess you’re stuck like this!” 

 

“I, I wanted her to be happy but, this wasn’t what I wanted, I, I don’t.” Tears flowed freely down the Neo girl’s face as she spoke, her words changing from coherent English to incoherent sobbing as her legs gave out, causing her to buckle and sink to the floor. 

 

“Tough kid, love is beautiful and I won't get in its way.” Cupid said firmly, flying off without another word. 

 

Timantha sobbed on the floor, her life was over as she knew it; it was all she could do in response. She wasn’t sure how long she was bawling for, just hunched over on the floor. What she did know is that a reassuring hand was placed on her back. Looking up through red tear stained eyes the Neo girl realised it was Jorgen who was reassuring her. 

 

“Listen to me Turner. What you’re going through is not fair and it shouldn’t have happened. But it has and you do have to live with it. But you are not alone, I will have your back and I expect those two will as well.” He looked over at Cosmo and Wanda who both nodded. 

 

“Of course we will!” Wanda declared. 

 

“Yeah, it doesn't matter what you look like, we’re still your god parents, and that means we’ll look after you no matter what!” Cosmo added, pulling the crying girl into a hug, quickly joined by his wife.

 

“Good, because you didn’t have a choice.” Jorgen said flatly, ruining the moment and breaking the hug up as Timatha whipped her red eyes free of tears. “I will go get the legal documentation sorted so you don’t have any problems on that end, I’ll also get you a new house; I believe one was for sale on your street so changes to your life are minimalized.”

 

Timantha nodded, she wasn’t sure what else she could do; and she was grateful for Jorgens help, it was just… a lot. She watched, only half aware; as Jorgen stomped out of the room. Presumably to sort out everything he’d said he would. Leaving the Neo girl alone with her god parents. 

 

“Do you need anything, sport?” Wanda asked nervously. 

 

“I… I could really do with more of that hug.” Timantha admitted, only to feel her guardians’ arms wrap around her as best as they could given the small size. 

 

---

 

It hadn’t taken long to falsify all the necessary documents with Jorgens magic. A god kid couldn’t wish for anything like that but Timantha supposed that rule didn’t apply to the adults. It probably meant she wasn’t actually stuck this way and that Cupid could turn her back if he’d wanted to… he just didn’t.

 

She sighed and flopped over on her new bed. Her new house was fairly similar to her old one, it was just slightly further up the road and on the other side. Its layout was basically identical to her old home because the same people had built it and just reused the design. But despite the similarities, it felt… wrong. 

 

She’d changed once everything had been moved. She was now decked out in an overly large T-shirt and a pair of shorts, her hair hanging loose as she rolled over on her bedsheets.

 

She wanted to cry again. Was Trixie at fault? Very simply, no. No, she wasn’t. She hadn’t intentionally done anything to her. She’d just wanted her friend back and Timantha had given the rich girl the way of getting that. It wasn’t her fault. 

 

She rolled over, her eyes hazy and out of focus as she stared at the blank walls. Wanda had suggested they decorate, but she just hadn’t felt up to it. The only real feature of her room was all the stuff she’d brought from home, all her possessions from her old house had come with her (magically made duplicates in their place for the copy) including her fish bowl and the suitcase of clothes Trixie had given her. 

 

On some level, Timantha knew that if she was going to deal with her current situation she was going to have to make sense of her feelings and work out her issues with Trixie. But, right now she was just too numb to do anything. She hadn’t even decorated her room yet, it was just plane white walls with dull beige carpets. The bed wasn’t even anything special, just  a plane wooden double the house had come with. 

 

A knock sounded suddenly, she muttered for the knocker to come in, staring blankly as Wanda walked in. 

 

Yes, walked. 

 

Wanda was standing on two feet, significantly taller than she normally was. She looked well. Like a human woman. She wasn’t, she was still very much a fairy but she’d magicked herself into a human form to pose as a normal human god mother. The official story they were going with was she was under her and Cosmo acting as her guardians because her birth parents couldn’t look after her. Which to be fair, was true.

 

The suddenly much taller fairy walked across the room and sat down on the bed, comforting the Neo girl with a gentle hand. 

 

“I won’t ask if you’re okay, I know you’re not.” She said, getting a grunt out of Timantha. “It’s okay, you’re right to feel this way. But you’re a strong kid, you’ll manage. If you ever want or need to talk we’ll listen, I promise.”

 

Timantha grunted again. 

 

“I suppose I wanted to apologise.” Wanda admitted, shifting awkwardly on the bed, getting the neo girl to roll over and actually meet her Fairy Godmother’s eyes, even if she didn’t say anything.

 

“For the whole Timantha thing, I. I’m sorry. I’m the one who turned you into a girl in the first place and… this was never my intention but I just… I wanted to say sorry. It’s ultimately my fault this happened and…”

 

“It’s okay.” Timantha said her voice was hoarse, but she was still able to speak. “I know it wasn’t your fault, it’s not anyone's fault; this is all a mess and… I don’t know, I don't know how to feel and I can’t blame anyone so all I’m doing is just… nothing!”

 

She threw her arms in the air before they flopped down as she stared at the ceiling again. 

 

“You need time Timmy, and it’s okay to-”

 

“Timantha, it’s my name now remember, Timmy’s a magic clone walking around in my house remember?” Timantha said flatly as she rolled over so she didn’t need to make eye contact with her godmother. 

 

“Are you sure, Sport? We can still call you Timmy if you want.” Wanda said kindly. 

 

“Might as well get used to it.” The Neo girl said, reaching up and looking at her new slender hands and the pink nail polish still on them. They did look pretty. 

 

“You don’t have to, I’m sure we can do something, if Trixie falls out of love with you I’m sure we could change you back.” Wanda suggested.

 

Timantha thought about it for a second, before she shook her head. 

 

“No, It’s not being a girl that’s bugging me, It’s having my life upended, I, I don’t want to lose the best thing that’s come from all of this you know? I want Trixie to be happy, I did have a crush on her and now I know her better it’s stronger, I just… I wasn’t ready for this.” Timantha admitted, looking over at her Godmother who nodded.

 

“I understand Sport, still talk to us if you need our help, we’re both here for you.” 

 

“I do… Actually, I’d like to make a wish. I’m sick of staring at the blank walls.” Timantha admitted, sitting up and brushing her fringe out of her eyes. 

 

“You want to magic up a proper room?” Wanda asked, her wand materialising in her hand. 

 

“Eyup, I want you to magic up the kind of room Trixie would expect Timantha to have.” The neo girl declared as confidently as she could with her current hoarse voice. 

“Are you sure Timantha? I’m sure we’ll be able to change it later if you want but going with what Trixie wanted has had, well… not ideal effects.” 

 

Timantha nodded confidently. 

 

“Yeah, I’m sure. Let’s see what Trixie dreamed up for me; not sure I’m up to deciding on any decorations right now anyway.”

 

“Well, okay Sport, hold on!” Wanda said, holding her wand up and creating a huge storm of magic sparkles that spread over the room.

 

To no one's surprise, the room was pink. But not as pink as Timantha had expected. Sure, the pale pink Carpet was on brand, but most of the new furniture was white. Said furniture consisted of a vanity, a desk, a bedside cabinet and a wardrobe far bigger than expected but still dwarfed compared to Trixie’s. 

 

The bedding returned to the pink theme, with multiple pillows springing out of the two that had been there. These range from plain white, to more pink, to a couple shaped like hearts. 

 

More devices were appearing now, her desk sporting a decent sized screen as multiple games consoles forming. The exteriors battered and scratched. Timatha took some joy in seeing the mismatched controllers and that each of the official controllers were pink. 

 

She stopped and looked around, everything was, well about what she’d expected. Girly but with obvious boyish traces, like the Crimson Chin alarm clock on her bedside cabinet and the shelf dedicated to video game’s, and the various posters for which the word ‘Eclectic’ seemed like the only accurate descriptor; given they ranged from superheroes to popstars. 

 

Smiling, she looked around, settling down on what was suddenly a much softer mattress. 

 

“I like it.” She said, smiling as she spread out on the bed. 

 

“Okay, it’s late so we’re going to order some take out, I don’t think any of us want to cook tonight.” Wanda said, poofing her wand away before she left the room, stopping at the door to look at the relaxed looking Timantha. She wanted to say more, but she didn’t; she smiled and set off downstairs.

 

Timantha meanwhile was looking at her new alarm clock, realising it was 10:45. 

 

“Wow, it's really late.” She said to herself, before spotting her phone lying on the bedside cabinet. She reached for it and brought up the one contact she actually had. 

 

Did she want to talk to Trixie after today, especially now she understood how she felt? Eventually she settled on yes, Trixie was nice and she had asked her to call if it was possible. So she did, pressing her button down and waiting for Trixie to pick up.

Chapter 5

Timantha didn’t head back to school for a few days, for one thing Cosmo and Wanda had to go through the proper channels to get her enrolled so that was taking some time, for another they were constantly interrupted because they had to keep jumping away to help Timmy. 

 

Yes, as it turned out the double Jorgen had wished up wasn’t a simple puppet, to all intents and purposes it was Timmy Turner, just as real as she was. If Timantha was honest she wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She didn’t hate the double that much, or at least didn’t want to. 

 

It was hard to put into words, to some extent she did resent the clone that had her life and everything she couldn’t have anymore. On the other hand it wasn’t the clone’s fault and she now had a chance with Trixie Tang, and how many people could say that?

 

Thinking of Trixie, Timantha had gone off with her to the Spa for a pampering session, honestly she’d loved it and it was something she’d badly needed after everything even if she hadn’t realised before she’d stepped through the doors that day, It was also apparently the only time Trixie had ever had a water fight in the sauna room once the process had started getting dull to Timantha. She might have felt bad if Trixie hadn’t been grinning as she hastily sorted a deal out to stop them getting booted from the spa. 

 

Still the good times have to end eventually and soon enough she was making her way back to school. She had to stop outside the front of Dimmsdale Elementary and take a deep breath, grounding herself and pretending she didn’t hear people talking about her.

 

There admittedly wasn’t much actually being said. She was the new girl, hardly an earth shattering event worthy of any comment beyond the occasional idle ‘Hey have you seen her before?’ Still, it wasn’t comfortable feeling all those eyes on her as she walked. 

 

It felt so strange to be here as Timantha, a part of her still felt like she needed to bolt and run lest she be recognised but she didn’t. The reason why was just ahead of her. She’d tried to take a route that wouldn’t cause her to crosspaths with her clone  on her way to the Principal's office, but it hadn’t worked and she’d ended up tripping and colliding into her previous body. 

 

“Woaff!” The Timmy clone gasped, before his eyes focused on the Timantha who had grabbed onto his shirt in a desperate bid to not eat floor on her first day. “Hey, are you okay?”

 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Timantha muttered, forcing herself up and dusting herself down. “Just my luck right?” 

 

“Yeah, still are you sure you’re okay?” Timmy asked, looking at the Neo girl who nodded. 

 

“Yeah, look I’ve gotta go.” She said, brushing past him and setting off down the hall, listening intently to the conversation behind her. 

 

“Hey dude, she was cute wasn’t she?” Chester said, the slightly dopey tone in his voice unnerving the Neo girl. 

 

“And she likes comics, I’m sure I’ve seen her around the comic store, heck she was there a few days ago in a ballgown.” 

 

“Yeah right, like that would ever happen.” Timmy said dismissively, the quieting noise of his feet bringing relief to the Neo girl, who was able to walk more confidently after that detail about the clone had been confirmed to her. 

 

That detail being: It wasn’t a 100% exact copy of who she used to be walking around, there was one pretty major difference: It had no recollection of ever becoming Timmantha. This was a decision Cosmo and Wanda had made to keep things smooth and truly make Timantha like a new person without any connections. Also it stopped Timmy from having to keep any more secrets, fairies were a big enough thing to hide, let alone that there was a clone of them walking around.

 

Soon Timantha was outside Principal Waxelplax’s office, taking a deep breath as she walked up to the receptionist.

 

“You the new kid?” She asked boardly, her dark eyes only meeting Timantha’s for a second before they returned to her overly long nails she was mid way through filing. Timantha nodded and the dark skinned receptionist lazily stepped up and pushed the door open. As the Neo girl stepped through the door she was greeted warmly.

 

“Ah, you must be our newest student!” Principal Waxelplax beamed, smiling and inviting Timantha over to sit down in front of her. Timantha took the seat, being careful to smooth out her skirt before she settled down. 

 

The Neo girl had debated wearing pants to school that day, she had plenty (though admittedly a lot of them were styled to be tighter then what she normally picked… and lacked pockets to her annoyance) But ultimately she went for a skirt from the case Trixie had gave her paired with a zip up hoodie, good in case she made a complete mess of her first day and had to hide away forever while also embracing her new somewhat girly dress sense.

 

“Yes, first day here.” Timantha lied to the kindly principle, doing her best to smile despite how nervous she felt, her heart doing its best to burst free from her rib cage. 

 

“It’s okay to be nervous sweetie.” The Principle explained with a smile, reaching for a piece of paper on her desk and offering it to her. “I just wanted to welcome you to our school and give you your timetable, and I believe a guide should be here soon.”

 

The Principles words were followed by a knock at the door, and someone stepping in, someone who made Timantha instantly relax. 

 

“Ah Trixie, good to see you. This is the new student I want you to guide around, she’s new here but she’ll be in your classes. 

 

“Of course Miss Waxelplax, I understand, Welcome -Timantha!” 

 

It was funny, Trixie's expression had shifted the second she’d gotten near enough to see who was waiting in the chair. It had gone from a rejected look of ‘Urgh, Guess I better’ to ‘Holy **** it’s her!’ 

 

“Hi Trixie.” Timantha said, a weak smile forming on her face as she took in the rich girl's features, feeling comforted that the only friendly face she had right now had been the one to guide her. 

 

“Ah, you two know each other already?” Waxelplax said, her smile growing wider as the pair nodded. “Excellent, well in that case Miss Tang I’ll leave you to show your friend around; your teachers have been informed so you won't get in trouble for being late. Her classes don’t start until next week. Timantha is just here to get the lay of the land so to speak.”

 

Trixie nodded, doing her best to keep her face under control as she led Timantha out of the Principles office to the reception, where in the quiet hallways empty of students due to the bell having just gone off let her face split into a huge grin.

 

The last time Timantha had seen Trixie grin that wide they’d been the only two people on Earth, it was amazing how much nicer it was when it came from genuine delight and less from mental instability. Timantha actually felt her heart flutter as the Asian girl beamed at her. 

 

“It’s so good to see you, I thought showing a new girl around was going to be such a drag!” Trixie grinned, pulling the Neo girl into a tight hug, which Timantha found herself returning. It was so strange to feel like this in school, Trixie's reputation would never allow her to do anything like this normally. 

Sadly it seemed Trixie realised this as she broke the hug off awkwardly. 

 

“I forgot where I was, I mean I did want to hug you just… It probably can’t be a regular thing.” Trixie said as shifted from foot to foot, her high heeled boots shifting on the scuffed linoleum floor . “I mean I doubt you’ll end up unpopular but I… I’m sorry, I ju-”

 

“Trixie, it's fine.” Timantha responded flatley. She was lying of course, it did suck that apparently Trixie had already judged her as not being worthy of this kind of attention if anyone could see them. But she did get it. Trixies reputation mattered a lot to her and she wasn’t going to get pissy at the girl who was clearly upset (Also helped that she’d had no problem being touchy feely when they were in more private settings)

 

“I, yeah, I do mean it, you’re too cute to be properly unpopular but I don’t think you’ll make it to where I am, I promise not an insult, I just meant-”

 

“Trixie I know what I am, and I repeat: It’s fine. I get it.” Timantha said, slight annoyance that Trixie wouldn’t just move on, she was presumably aware she was making it worse even if the Neo girl doubted she meant anything by it. 

 

“I, right. Sorry. Anyway, tour, right, let's get on that.” 

 

For the next hour and a half Trixie guided Timantha around the school, a process that turned out to be more helpful then the Neo girl had expected owing to the fact that she was in a different classroom now. Also she learned something interesting about how the rest of the school saw her old teacher. 

 

“And that’s Crocker's classroom. You have no idea how many bullets you dodge getting placed in my class instead of his.” Trixie explained, lowering her voice as they moved past the classroom. “The man is an awful teacher, I’ve heard only one kid ever passes his classes, everyone else gets stuck with an F.” 

 

Timantha nodded; knowing the horrors of Crocker fulwell.

 

“Doesn’t sound like a good time.” Timantha said with a grin, earning a nod from Trixie in return. 

 

“Yeah, trust me you’ll be better off with me in my class.” Trixie nodded, before the bell went off, interrupting their conversation. “And that’ll be recess, I’ve got some friends to meet, see you when you start up classes properly?” 

 

“Sure.” Timantha nodded as Trixie gave a wave before heading off to her friends, allowing Timantha to get swept up in the crowd of students heading outside for break. 

 

On the way Timantha walked past a poster advertising the upcoming prom. It wasn’t for a month, but there was something more to it now she knew the girl she’d wanted to ask out was actually interested in her. For a second she imagined them in dresses, climbing out of a limo and dancing the night away. It was a nice image completely ruined as soon as logic set in. 

 

Trixie wouldn’t agree to go with her, she would probably want to, but she couldn’t be able to for the sake of her social standing in the school. Still, maybe they could go dress shopping together or something?

 

Comforted by this idea she was on her way out to head back home, when she stopped. She wasn’t sure why she’d done it. She’d seen it constantly. She wasn’t popular and Francis picked on the poor (if annoying) girl constantly. So why did she choose this time to change course? To stop looking away and instead walk towards the thug? 

 

She figured out why fairly quickly. Because he was standing there, clearly uncomfortable but still just standing there watching. Timmy Turner was just standing there and for the first time she could see what she’d been like.

 

So she continued her strides towards Tootie and the boy standing over her, gripping her by the shirt and yelling at her, spit covering the glasses wearing girls face in slobber as he growled at her. 

 

Looking around showed what had happened, he’d barreled into her and the milk she’d been drinking had gotten all over his shirt, and apparently that was somehow Tooties fault. Growling Timantha stooped down to retrieve the milk carton. 

 

On some level her brain was screaming at her to stop, Francis wasn’t targeting her in this state, she had no reason to start anything now. She could lay low, not be a target. Except her laying low was standing several metres away and it made her sick to her stomach, so she unhooked her backpack, holding it in one hand by the straps she stepped close, causing a gasp from the watching crowd. She then tapped Fracis on the shoulder. 

 

“What do you want!?” He snapped, turning around to face the offensively pink Neo girl, shoving Tootie to the ground, the girl scrambled out of reach, breathing heavily as she looked at Timantha in awe.

 

“You dropped something.” She responded dully, before driving the milk carton into his guts with as much force as she could muster. 

 

The crowd cried out in awe as the cartoon exploded, drenching the bully who was frozen, probably not able to process someone interrupting him. While she was stunned Timantha swung the bag in her hands. Hard. 

 

It actually forced Francis back, stumbling. Before he was able to recover and grab the Neo girl by her hoodie, raising her into the air and screaming at her. 

“The hell do you think you are girly!?” He demanded, looking over at his newest victim, who just scowled back, completely unimpressed and desperately hoping she was doing a good job of hiding just how scared she was.

 

“Timantha Cosma.” She spat back. 

 

“Ha, you don’t even-”

 

“Are you going to make a joke about how dumb my name is?” Timantha shot back, interrupting his gloating. “Because trust me, I’ve heard them all before and I just don’t care.”

 

“Oh yeah? Well you will when-”

 

“You beat me up?” She asked, scowling at the bully. “Because believe me I-”

 

WHAM!

 

Her retort was suddenly cut off as Francis punched her straight in the mouth. She gasped as she fell to the ground, coughing and spluttering. 

 

“Think some prissy girl can talk back to me, do you?” Francis grinned, much happier with the situation now he had someone on the floor, probably about to start crying. 

 

Timantha didn’t cry though, she looked over and saw Timmy, still standing there. Still being useless. She knew on some level he couldn’t help, and honestly didn’t blame him for not wanting to get beaten up by a thug for the sake of someone he didn’t even know. But she didn’t care. It was ridiculous that Francis got away with this. She was a new person and she was going to be damned if she didn’t get back up. 

 

So she did, she got knocked back down again, and again, and again, and again. But she didn’t care. She was going to get back up again, maybe he’d get bored. 

 

As it turned out he didn’t, maybe he was too stupid to have such a concept, but that didn’t matter, the bell was ringing and he finally left her alone to stomp back inside. Looking at the dissipating crowd she spotted her male self, he seemed to want to say something but was dragged off by his friends. Probably to make sure he wasn’t late. She sighed, she’d expected this, but still, that break had been hellish. She groaned as she struggled to her feet. 

 

“Do you want a hand?” 

 

Timantha looked up and saw Tootie standing over her, offering a hand which the Neo girl took.

 

“Yeah, sorry you had to deal with that guy.” She muttered as Tootie looked at her, the glasses she wore making the girl look even more shocked than normal. 

 

“Are you crazy, he just spent twenty minutes beating you up and you’re saying sorry to me!?” Tootie asked aghast. 

 

“I got the feeling today wasn’t a one off. Also I feel he probably would have done the same to you if I hadn’t stepped in.” She explained, wincing as she tried to straighten up.

 

“You’re not wrong, still he was just awful to you, you really need to see the nurse.” Tootie said, wincing as she took in the various foot prints covering the Neo girls pink hoodie. Given how frequent they were, Timantha realised her gut was going to be a mess of bruises. 

 

“You’re not wrong.” Timantha muttered as she straightened up, wobbling a bit as she regained her footing. Lifting her hoodie to check the damage to her toso, it wasn’t pretty but it could have been a lot worse; at the very least it didn’t appear that Francis had managed to draw any blood. 

 

“You really need to go to the nurse, do you know where they are?” Tootie asked, Timantha nodded on auto pilot before seeing the slightly perplexed look on Tooties face she hastily explained: 

“His office was pointed out to me on the tour by Trixie.” 

 

“Ah, you had Tang showing you around.” Tootie asked, her face suddenly looking down. “You have my sympathy.” 

 

“Sympathy?” Timantha asked as she set off towards the Nurses office, Tootie nodding solemnly as they walked. 

 

“Yeah, normally she’s not so nice to the less popular girls like me; maybe you meet her standards.” Tootie muttered, looking Timantha up and down, her eyes lingering on the designer skirt she was sporting. 

 

“Trust me I don’t.” Timantha said with a forced grin, she knew that even if Trixie did like her she was never going to reach the popular status needed to hang out with her in a school setting, partly because of things like: “I get a feeling if I’d mentioned I read comics to her group they’d have exploded.”

 

Timantha often found lies were easier to swallow if there was at least some element of truth to them. Tootie seemed to believe it anyway. 

 

“Oh yeah, not sure Tang could take that, I mean I don’t get comics either but I ain't gonna judge the girl who saved me from Francis, you could say you kicked puppies and I’d… no I don’t think I could forgive you for that.” Tootie admitted with a slight grin. 

 

It was weird for Timantha, Tootie wasn’t being annoying, or stalkerish, she was just… a person. Maybe this was normal for her when she wasn’t dealing with her crushes; it’s not like she’d ever know. It wasn’t like she’d gone out of her way to talk to Tootie, in fact she normally went very far to make sure the opposite happened. Maybe she’d been making a mistake all this time?

 

Timantha decided as they walked to the nurses office that the theme of her life was ‘more going on below the surface’ There was more to her then most people could ever know, there was tons more to Trixie than most people would ever see, and Tootie was tolerable when she wasn’t crushing on you. It felt like her whole world was being turned on its head. Didn’t mean it was  a bad thing but it was a lot to deal with. 

 

“Okay, he’s in there.” Tootie said, pointing over her shoulder towards the nurses office, before pushing the door open and greeting the nurse. 

 

While they were going over Tootie her phone went off. Thankfully this was a school nurse and not an actual hospital she checked her messages. 

 

There were three, one from Wanda, one from Cosmo and one from Trxie. As much as she wanted to check Trixie’s message she realised she should probably check her guardians messages first.

 

Wanda: Timantha, Timmy says you got beat up, are you okay?m do you need magical aid? 

 

Cosmo: Timantha do I need the saw?

 

Wanda: She doesn't need the saw!

 

Cosmo: How do you know that!?

 

Timantha smirked and sent a quick response. 

 

Timantha: Just some bruises I’m fine; seeing the nurse right now. 

 

Cosmo: I’ll bring the car over, and the saw, just in case. 

 

Wanda: Cosmo don’t you dare!

 

Timantha laughed and was about to check Trixies message when the nurse called her over. As a general rule of thumb medical personnel gasping when they saw your injury never inspired much confidence. 

 

“Francis’s work I take it.” He muttered, looking over the bruises, earning a nod from Timantha. 

 

“Yeah, she got him off me.” Tootie explained sadly. 

 

The nurse sighed and went about adding Ice to reduce the swelling. Tootie had to get to class so she said her goodbyes and left, while Timantha let the cold substance do its work, reaching for her phone to finally respond to Trixie. 

 

Trixie: Timantha are you okay!? 

 

Trixie: please tell me people are joking and you didn’t fight francis!?

 

Trixie: Timantha please!

 

Trixie: Please respond!

 

Trixie: Are you okay!?

 

Trixie: do I need to make francis disappear?

 

Trixie: please message me!

 

Timantha’s fingers flew to the touch screen, she really should have checked these messages first. 

 

Timantha: It’s okay; I’m fine; just some bruises. 

 

Trixie: So I do need to make him disappear. 

 

Timantha: No you don’t.

 

Trixie: It’s gonna happen, you’re not stopping me. 

 

Timantha: Eh, you know what fair enough go for it. 

 

Trixie: He will regret hurting my best friend. 

 

Once again Timantha was sure she heard Veronica cry out in the distance. 

 

Timantha: Is that girl okay?

 

Trixie: Just Veronica, not sure what’s setting her off but I’m sure it’s fine. 

 

Timantha wasn’t so sure on that, and she was doubly sure when Veronica showed up in the nurse's office a minute later, clutching her stomach and appearing to be in immense pain. 

 

“Chest pains again?” The Nurse asked, concern on his face as the blonde girl nodded. 

 

“I don’t know what causes it, it’s like something fundamental has been torn  away from me.” 

 

“Miss Star you badly need to see a proper doctor about this, chest pains are never a good thing.” The Nurse said firmly, Timantha watched as Veronica refused to make eye contact and muttered that she was fine. The Nurse couldn’t have looked less believing if he tried. Still he sighed and pointed her towards the seats where Timantha was sitting, the ice still on her bruises.

 

Veronica took the hint and moved over to one of the seats next to Timantha, her eyes looking the Neo girl up and down, before a look of comprehension finally crossed her features. Angrily she approached Timantha. 

 

“I know you; you’re that ballgown girl who Trixie generously gave a lift home to.” Veronica hissed as she advanced on Timantha. 

 

“I, yeah so what if I am?” Timantha asked nervously. 

 

“I see. It all makes sense now.” Veronica muttered, her hand gripping her chest before she fixed Timantha with a glare.

 

“Erm, what makes sense?” Timantha asked nervously, wondering if she could leave before the Nurse had finished treating her injuries. 

 

“You did something to her.” Veronica growled at Timantha. 

 

“Erm, to wh-”

 

“To my Trixie, that's who!” Veronica spat, glaring at the Neo girl in front of her. “She used to be my best friend, but now she keeps going off to do other things, and they're with you aren’t they!? You did something to her and now she doesn’t care about her best friend.

 

“I, listen Veronica Trixie and I-”

 

“I don’t care what you’ve tricked her into, she is mine. I’m the one who loves her and I won't let someone like you take advantage of her! I bet you’re lying to her, that skirt, you tricked her into getting it for you didn’t you, don’t lie I know you did.” 

Timantha was really wishing it was possible for her to back away, the blonde girl was really worrying her now. She’d seen that sort of manic expression on Trixies face back when she was on the verge of going off the deep end, it scared her to her core. 

 

“So listen to me ‘Timantha’ I am going to make sure you don’t harm my Trixie. I’m going to make sure she remembers who her real friend is. She is going to be mine, I won't let someone like you take her from me!”

 

On that dramatic note Veronica stood up and dramatically stalked out of the room. In her head Timantha did a quick rundown of everything that had happened today:

 

1. She’d gotten beat up. 
2. Discovered Tootie was tolerable provided she wasn’t crushing on you. 
3. Made Trixie begin a vengeance quest against Francis. 
4. Made an arch enemy out of Veronica. 

 

“Well… farts.”

Chapter 6

Timmantha’s first day of school wasn’t something she was looking forward to. It seemed that for every plus point she was about to get she was stuck with more drawbacks. She was in class with Trixie Tang: Trixie couldn’t/wouldn’t act like herself fully around her popular friends. She no longer had Crocker teaching her: Veronica was now out for blood apparently. 

 

With those lovely thoughts she set off for school, lunch made by Wanda in her backpack she boarded the bus and sat down. Taking it as her first win that she wasn’t a target anymore. Actually she heard a few hushed whispers going on around her. 

 

“Isn’t that the girl Francis beat up?”

 

“I heard she stepped in to defend that Tootie girl!”

 

“Didn’t she get her ass handed to her?”

 

“She’s sorta cute?”

 

“Would you date someone who hangs out with that freak?”

 

Timantha idly noted that if this was how she’d been talking around girls, it wasn’t any kind of mystery that she’d failed to get a date with any of them. She shifted awkwardly in her seat. She didn’t regret intercepting when she had on Tooties behalf, but she did wish everyone would stop talking about it.

 

“Hey, anyone sitting here?” 

 

The new voice actually aimed at her instead of talking about her was enough to snap Timantha out of her thoughts. Looking up she saw Tootie shifting around awkwardly, a half smile on her face as she gestured towards the seat next to her. 

 

“Yeah, sure, take it.” Timantha said, shuffling over to make room for the dark haired girl as she sat down.

 

“Thanks.” Tootie said, smiling as she settled into the seat, her grin faltering when a screwed up ball of paper hit her in the head. Timantha winced, the antics in the bus never hurt per say, but it didn’t do wonders for your self- esteem, especially if it was frequent. Still outside of occasionally yelling ‘Duck!’ There really wasn’t much she could do other than be sympathetic. 

 

“They’re morons aren’t they?” Timantha said as more paper hit Tooties face. The dark haired girl nodded, weekly grinning as she moved the paper to a small pile building up between the two girls.

 

“It could be worse, this is nothing compared to what my sister does, plus when I do see something coming it’s a great chance to practise.” 

 

Timantha was about to ask what she meant when Tootie’s hands shot up, catching the latest bit of paper before it hit her. 

 

“Basketball, I’m not great at sports but I’m getting better.” Tootie explained, grinning widely to show off her braces. “Might need to get contacts but, you know. I want to try and do something other than be the school's female punching bag.”

 

“Specifically female?” Timantha asked, tilting her head in confusion. 

 

“You’ll see, he gets on here.” Tootie said, gesturing towards the open door. Timantha’s heart stopped when she recognised where she currently was. In the hopes of avoiding awkward small talk at the bus stop, Timantha had elected to walk a bit to get to an earlier stop on the bus’s route instead of getting on at her usual spot. The reason why was just stepping on board. 

 

“Timmy Turner.” Tootie helpfully explained, gesturing towards the boy in pink as he stepped on board and moved to an empty seat. Not even able to walk down the bus before someone hit him with a dodgeball. Timantha winced, she could swear she’d felt that hit from where she was sitting. 

 

“I hate the way they treat him, but at the very least I can get a break. Ah, he’s so cute…” Tootie muttered sadly, her eyes now locked on the baseball cap wearing boy, seemingly lost in a dreamy state. 

 

Timantha sighed, this was the point when Tootie became hard to deal with. Her crush on her male side was… too much. It wasn’t that Tootie wasn’t as good looking as Trixie was (although as shallow as it made her, that was a part of it) it was more the fact she didn’t seem to have an off switch. Or when it was eventually found it was because she was angry and thus wasn’t thinking straight. 

 

Now had she in any way shape or form helped when it came to calming Tootie down? No, more often than not in the past she’d actively made it worse but it wasn’t like she owed her anything. Sure being stuck with Vicky at home probably made her miserable, but it couldn’t have been that bad otherwise she’d have fairy godparents by now. 

 

The long point Timantha was eventually getting to was Tootie’s crush could be annoying, and she was suddenly concerned she might have imprinted on Tootie after stepping in to protect her. Was this the end of the world right now? No. Was it going to be if she didn’t do something? Yes. 

So she spoke. 

 

“Tootie I can tell you like this guy, but it feels like it’s maybe just a little too over the top.” Timantha said, snapping the dark haired girl out of her revelatory monologue. 

 

“And his… Huh, what did you say?”

 

“I said this feels like this crush might be a bit too much.” Timantha explained flatly. 

 

“Huh, no it’s not, he-”

 

“Would probably be weirded out knowing you just spent the last five minutes rambling about every aspect of him you find cute.” Timantha stated, watching as Tooties face stared blankly back at her. 

 

“What, I didn’t spend-”

 

“You're right you didn’t.” Timanatha said calmly, watching the relife wash over Tooties face before she said: “You spent the last seven minutes rambling about how cute you think he is.”

 

“I… well what do you know about it!” Tootie began before Timantha shot her a look. 

 

“I know what it’s like to deal with an obsessive crush. Please listen to me when I say it’s not fun.” 

 

“Oh… I see.” She said dejectedly, a tear forming at her eye as she got to stand up. Only to be halted when Timantha grabbed her wrist. 

 

“Where are you going?” 

 

“I, you wanted me to go away.” Tootie mumbled, trying to pull her wrist free. “I, you’ve made your thoughts on me fairly clear by now and-”

 

“I clearly haven’t.” Timantha cut in firmly. “Because you seem to be under the impression I don’t like you. Tootie I’ve barely had time to get to know you. I was just saying you might have better luck with your crush if you tone it down a little bit.” 

 

“I… you don’t hate me?” She asked, her lip’s trembling. 

 

“No, I don’t think so yet.” Timantha said with a grin. “I just think you have a crush you might want to tone down a bit.” 

 

“But, how can I, he’s, he’s amazing.” Tootie said, her eyes wide as she smiled dreamily at Timmy, who was currently massaging a bruise caused by a thrown baseball. Timantha winced; she felt that from over here. 

 

“Each to their own I guess.” Timantha said with a shrug, before hesitantly asking: “So… erm, do you watch ‘The Kissy Kissy Goo Goo Romance Hour?’”

 

And for the first time in her life Timantha got a chance to talk about one of her favourite programs. It was a nice feeling that carried her off the bus and into school and into the new classroom… whereupon she hit a snag. It was only about half full, and she had no idea who sat where.

 

Now the obvious answer was to ask Trixie, she was there in the ideal spot half way up the room (or as it’s sometimes known: a relative blind spot for most teachers) and was chatting to Tad and Chad. 

 

This presented a problem, she was looking to not make an ass of herself in this new situation. Awkwardly butting in could be bad, but it could also be worse to hover awkwardly. 

 

“Hey do you need something?”

 

Timantha swore internally, she’d apparently decided to be decisive and approach the trio, doing her best to ignore the stares from Tad and Chad (Who she desperately hoped were looking at her disdainfully because if they were checking her out she wasn’t sure how she’d cope) Still not saying anything really wasn’t going to help. 

 

“Sorry, I just need to know where the free seats are in here, I’m sort of new and I really don’t want to sit down in someone else’s spot or anything like that.” 

 

Overall Timantha was quite proud of that response, it had been concise and she hadn’t tripped over her words. 

 

“And what makes you think you can just talk to Trixie Tang like that?”

 

Apparently Tad didn’t agree with her, thankfully:

 

“She just asked a reasonable question Tad.” Trixie cut in curtly, smiling at Timantha as she pointed at the seat on her right. “And to answer your question, that seat is the only free one.”

 

“But Trixie, that’s a prime seat next to you, you can’t just give it to some random-” Chad spoke before Trixie cut him off. 

 

“She is the ideal candidate to fill that spot. She’s attractive and well-dressed, meaning she won't bring me down by association…” Trixie’s ramble at this point brought a frown out of Timantha. “...But she’s also not popular, meaning she probably isn’t a spy or actively going to ruin me.” 

 

Timantha took the end of Trixie’s speech as the time to sit down in the seat, until the class started she leant back in her chair, idly looking around and flashing a smile at Tootie as she took her seat. After that she looked back at Trixie. Apparently Tad and Chad had seen her smile at Tootie and were having a heated argument with Trixie.

Timantha was slightly offended given she was less than a metre from them while they tried to argue she should move. To some slight relief Trixie seemed to have prepared for this. 

 

“Boys I know you both want to sit near me, but this level of desperation is really uncool. Actually I’m going to have to ask you to please leave. If you get me something very nice I Might let you sit at my table at lunch.”

 

That hint had the two boys scattering. Making Timantha seriously question this whole popularity system before her phone vibrated. 

 

Trixie: Really sorry about those two, they’re kind of cute but… Not Boyfriend material.

 

As soon as her eyes finished reading that text she was sure she heard some gasps of pain from two familiar voices.

 

Timantha: I get it, Your words seem to cause physical pain BTW

 

Trixie: What, no they don’t.

 

Timantha: Say I’m your best friend then.

 

Trixie: You’re my best friend.

 

“Gargh!”

 

Heads whirled around to see Veronica fall to the ground, hand clenched over her heart.

 

Trixie: …Okay while I wont accept that as fact just yet I’m going to give it a bit before I try that again, I really don’t need to give her a heart attack. 

 

Timantha then got to sit back and watch as Trixie put her phone away and sat down talking with Veronica, smiling and gossiping easily and casually like she hadn’t just caused the girl significant physical pain.

 

Honestly it was a fascinating process to watch, and only slightly spoiled when Veronica realised she was sitting there. It was amazing, her face fell, before scrunching up and getting angry before instantly swapping back to cheerful and nattering to Trixie. 

 

---

 

If you ignored the constant dread from the death-glare Veronica sent her way when no one else was looking, her first day in the new class went well. The teacher not having it out for her and responding to wrong answers via gentle correcting and not an immediate F was… a huge relief to put it simply. 

 

It could have been better, they had to work in pairs to make a history powerpoint and she ended up working with Tootie because Veronica had grabbed Trixie instantly. Still, while it would have been nice to work with her best friend, Tootie wasn’t a bad history partner. Granted ‘Sewage Systems through the ages’ weren’t the most interesting thing for anyone to write about, but Tootie at least seemed to have the basics down and didn’t slack off. As such when they set off to lunch it was with the knowledge that for once: A group project had been done by everyone not just her and might actually be halfway decent. 

 

At lunch with no better option Timantha sat at the same table with Tootie, which just so happened to be located behind the popular kids table, allowing her to listen in on the conversation. Granted, the main thing it did for her was confirm that the actual conversations popular people had were just as incomprehensible as they’d always seemed… at least until her name came up.

 

It had all started when Tad and Chad arrived, large gift boxes in tow. Timatha couldn’t see what exactly they’d gotten her but she did know it was enough to allow the two boys to sit down with her.

 

Then they’d started talking. 

 

“I seriously can’t believe you let that new girl sit next to you Trixie.” Tad said as he began eating the substantially better food the popular kids got offered. 

 

“Yeah, like she went to work with Tootie, willingly.” 

 

Timantha winced and looked over at Tootie, who was suddenly looking a lot worse than she had been a few minutes ago. She reached under the table and squeezed her hand. Tootsie's eyes widened suddenly, her head rotating to look at Timantha who smiled gently. Which brought more tears to Tooties face. 

 

“That was admittedly a mistake.” Trixie said, which caused Tootie to shift from sad to angry. Thinking fast Timantha shoved her hand forward, muffling Tooties yell, she shook her head quickly, before gesturing her head towards the popular table. Tootie seemed to get that she wanted to hear this conversation and nodded. 

 

As she was doing this her phone went off, looking down she saw a message from Trixie. 

 

Trixie: I am so sorry about them! Really I didn’t realise this was gonna happen!

 

Trixie: I’m sorry!

 

“I don’t believe that.” Tootie muttered, leaning over to check her phone. 

 

“Still, there is literally nowhere else for her to go.” Trixie continued. “And anyway, I have a feeling she doesn’t want to be mega popular.”

 

Trixie: Say the word and it happens though, seriously I can make it happen. 

 

Timantha: I’m good.

 

“But Trixie! Someone more worthy could sit next to you!” Chad argued. 

 

Trixie: No they couldn’t.

 

The speed at which Trixie could type on her phone was very impressive. 

 

“What did I say about desperation?” Trixie said, a slightly malicious smirk on her face as she casually drank her drink. 

 

“Yeah, but-”

 

“Hey everyone!” Trixie said with a friendly smile that 100% didn’t reach her eyes. “Are these two actually living up to the popular kid standards?”

 

“No way…” Tootie muttered. Timantha nodded before realising the girl with braces wasn’t listening to the group, she was looking at her phone. 

 

Trixie: Say the word and I can have these two booted, it’s your choice. 

 

Timantha took longer than she would admit before she sent a response. 

 

Timantha: Not yet.

 

Trixie: You sure?

 

Timantha: Yes.

 

The rest of lunch business seemed to return to normal at the popular kids table. At the less popular kids table Tootie and Timantha were having an argument. 

 

“I still don’t believe Trixie is that good of a person.” Tootie said flatly. 

 

“I swear she is.” Timantha responded sincerely. “She focuses a lot on being popular and keeping up her image. She doesn’t even admit to liking half the stuff she does.”

 

“I don’t buy it.” Tootie said flatly. 

 

“I swear it’s true.” Timantha insisted, getting a flat stare from Tootie.

 

“Can you prove it?”

 

“I… Maybe, hang on.” Timantha muttered, pulling out her phone and starting to message again. 

 

Timantha: Trixie, Tootie saw my phone while we were texting. 

 

Trixie: FUCK!

 

Timantha: and is still here. 

 

Trixie: ^

 

“You’re not doing a good job of convincing me for the record.” Tootie said flatly, causing Timantha to grimace. 

 

“Give me a second.” Timantha shot back. 

 

Timantha: Look it’s not a big deal. 

 

Trixie: What if she talks?

 

Timantha: She won't. 

 

“I might, it would be nice to get her off her throne for once.” Tootie said idly. 

 

“Please don’t.” Timantha said, a slight air of desperation sneaking into her voice as she tapped her phone furiously. 

 

Timantha: Look, she needs to see the other side of you to believe it. 

 

Trixie: What are you suggesting?

 

Timantha: We go to the mall, you in boy mode and you know, we let her see… well you. 

 

Trixie: Might work, I assume the plan is to bribe her. 

 

Timantha: That wasn’t what I had in mind.

 

“I’m okay with a bribe.” Tootie said happily. “Though stopping Vicky from wrecking anything good… might not be worth it.” 

 

Timantha: We’ll figure out the details later but Tootie say’s a bribe is okay. 

 

Trixie: Good, bribes I can work with. Also just to be sure you haven’t seen Francis today right?

 

Timantha: No, why?

 

Trixie: Nothing, guess Frank did what I asked. 

 

Timantha: Wait, your driver Frank?

 

Trixie: Yeah, who else?

 

Timantha: Trixie what did you do?

 

Timantha: Trixie?

 

Trixie: He deserved everything he gets. 

 

Timantha: TRIXIE!

 

Trixie: He’ll be fine… Frank only managed to get his toes. 

 

“Okay that’s a point in her favour.” Tootie said with an idle smile. As wrong as she knew it was to think, privately: Timantha agreed. 

 

“Gah!” 

 

Timantha was suddenly drawn out of her phone by something wet and slimy hitting her back. She turned around and looked at a smirking Veronica, crashed out on the floor, a lunch tray nearby. The contents of said tray having just Timantha in the back. 

 

The smirk on Veronica’s face only lasted a split second before she was on her feet apologising. 

 

“Oh god I’m so sorry, I just slipped and lost my grip.”

 

Timantha didn’t believe that for a second. 

 

---

 

That wasn’t the last thing Veronica tried that day; though the lunch incident was by far and away the worst. Mostly it was small things: Gum on her seat, hiding her bag so she couldn’t find it. All little pain in the butt things that didn’t change the fact she had to wish for her hoodie to be sent home and go to class without the comfort of an excessively baggy torso garment. 

 

It wasn’t that the shirt she had on underneath was bad or didn’t fit with her pink motif. It was just… she felt more exposed then she liked. Before now she’d been able to hide in or under her hood when she needed to, now she was just walking around in a Black shirt with the Golden locks logo on the chest. It wasn’t a bad shirt, actually she thought it was cool. The Golden GL sporting cracks burning with glowing energy and bolts of lightning. It just marked her a Nerd in the middle of the popular kids class. 

 

Veronica was practically bent over in silent laughter, beating her hand into the desk while they waited for Trixie to take her seat. Timantha wasn’t worried, she knew Trixie wouldn’t care that she was wearing a comic shirt in public (actually she might appreciate it given she wouldn’t do it herself) But what she would say to keep face? That was another story entirely. 

 

Soon Trixie entered the classroom, pocketing her cell phone and smiling as she took her seat. She looked at her Neo girl neighbour, and said very simply: 

“Oh hey, you don’t have your hoodie on anymore; I wont say don’t wear it but you look good without it.” 

 

Timantha beamed, and it got bigger when Veronica blurted out.

 

“But don’t you think it’s lame that she’s wearing a comic shirt, I mean what kind of girl does that!” 

 

Trixie tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. 

 

“Is it? I didn’t know that. Why do you read comics, Veronica?” 

 

The look of shock and stammering that came out of the blonde’s mouth was hilarious and kept Timantha in high spirits until the bell rang and the class was finally set free. 

 

Trixie: I need to run home and change, I’ll meet you outside of Burning Interest.

 

Timantha nodded, the goth store was always fairly easy to find. 

 

“So what, she’s a Goth as well as a popular kid?” Tootie asked, looking at the stop as they stood in the mall, avoiding the throngs of shoppers by flattening themselves against the wall. 

 

“No, I’m saving my Goth phase for high school.” Trixie said, Timantha just smiled as she looked at her. Tootie’s jaw dropped. 

 

When you thought of Trixie tang, you pictured her wearing designer everything, sporting clothes that looked so new and clean that you couldn’t tell if she’d worn them before or not. Sharp and up to date styles. 

 

You did not picture a rather battered purple letterman jacket with frayed rims and a denim skirt. Her hair normally contained by her headband and falling perfectly straight without a single hair out of place was now a messy ponytail tied up with a bow. 

Then there was her face, it was lacking its usual floorless makeup and confident expression replaced with a plane, slightly uneasy grin. 

 

“Hey girls, sorry I made you wait while I changed.” Trixie said hastily, shuffling about, looking over at Timantha who beamed. 

 

“Ah it’s no trouble, we weren’t waiting that long, and you look great! More like a girl than I expected.” Timantha said, smiling as she took Trixies hand and said: “So, where do you want to talk?” 

 

The answer to that question ended up being at a desert place across from Burning Interest. They’d explained everything while they waited for their food to arrive, their explanation finishing just as their food arrived. 

 

Tootie took a few spoonfuls of her sunday before she finally looked up, her attention on Trixie. 

 

“So, you’re secretly a nerd who hides her interest in masculin things because it will destroy your popular girl image?” 

 

“I, erm, yes.” Trixie admitted, shrinking into her seat a bit, stabbing at her pancakes and scooping a mouthful of syrupy goodness into her mouth. 

 

“And you’re now her best friend-”

 

“GARGH!” Came Veronica’s cry, looking around Timantha spotted the blonde falling down one of the far away escalators. One of the up escalators to be precise. 

 

“What was-” Tootie began to say before Trixie said:

 

“We don’t know why that happens either, anyway what were you saying?” 

 

“Er, right. So Timantha, you’re… Closer than normal to Trixie because you love nerd stuff and are unabashedly girly and she finds that appealing?” Tootie finished, letting Timantha finish her slice of strawberry cake before she responded. 

 

  “Yeah, basically.”  Timantha said with an awkward smile. Watching the bespectacled girl as she thought, taking another bite of her sunday. Before she looked at Trixie and said: 

 

“Get me some stuff in Burning Interest and I won't tell anyone.” 

 

“Deal!” Trixie said eagerly. So once they were done eating the group headed into the store, while Tootie seriously picked out a dress and a make up kit (Trixie helped her pick a decent brand their, she’d asked Timantha for a second opinion who openly admitted to not knowing anything about makeup unless it was her nails) 

 

Still, while Tootie shopped properly Timantha and Trixie had fun browsing and posing in front of the mirror with various black apparel. 

 

“Hey, erm, Timantha.” Trixie said as she put away a black version of Timantha’s hairband, the rich girl shifting from foot to foot. “I, I’m not angry or anything, but erm, could you change the name in your contacts, I mean, this is fine I reckon we can trust Tootie it’s just, I don’t know how that would go if anyone else saw your phone and…”

 

“I’ll change it.” Timantha said, pulling out her phone and wondering how much her pinkness stood out in a sea of black and skulls as she changed a name and turned it to face Trixie. “Think this name is okay?” 

 

Trixie hugged her, pulling in tight and smiling as she read ‘Best Nerd Friend Forever’ Breaking up abruptly as Tootie came out. 

 

“Okay, I want these.” She said, handing a blushing Trixie the clothes she wanted and the make up kit (she was really looking forward to trying her own stuff out when she got home) Trixie nodded and went off to pay while Tootie looked intently at Timantha, who just smiled back. 

 

The Trio split up a few hours later once stores started closing and browsing stopped being something they could do. For Timantha this ment walking up to Wanda who waved from a car the Neo girl was sure she hadn’t had before. 

 

“You had a good day, Sport?” She asked as she pulled away, getting a nod from her god daughter. 

 

“Yeah, one thing though: I wish everything Trixie brought for Tootie today is safe from Vicky’s attempts to ruin it.” 

 

A poof of magic later and Timantha relaxed. Dealing with Vicky as a babysitter was bad enough, living with her… it hurt to think about. The point was she deserved at least one break. 

 

Meanwhile back at the mall the remaining pair of girls were having a moment. 

 

An awkward moment, but still, a moment. 

 

“So… You wo-” Trixie began before an exasperated Tootie rolled her eyes and cut her off.

 

“I won't tell Tang, honestly why would I tell? Do I seem like that kind of girl to you?”

 

“You… no. I don’t know with you, something feels off I guess, were you always like this?” Trixie asked, looking at the girl wearing glasses who smiled, exposing the familiar braces. 

 

“You wouldn’t know, I mean no one would. I made my first proper friend today.” She said, gesturing towards where Timantha had been. “It’s just, home is miserable. My sister is the worst and just… Urgh. I dunno. I try to be upbeat but sometimes…” 

 

“I, fair enough. See you at school Tootie.” Trixie said with a small nod, which Tootie returned. 

 

“Sure Tang… Oh, one more thing.” Tootie said, stopping mid step and turning to look at Trixie again. 

 

“Yeah?” 

 

“You’re really not subtle. I’m not into girls so you don’t have to worry about me. But Timantha’s a great girl.” 

 

“What's your point?” Trixie asked, a slight edge of growling slipping into her voice as she spoke. 

 

“I’m saying, ask her out and maybe be quick about it.” Tootie said, flashing a grin as she walked away. “You never know when someone might try and steal her from you!”

 

Chapter 7

The rest of the school week was much better than the first day for Timantha. For one thing, having Tootie as someone to talk to made her days so much more bearable. Also she was helpful in more than just history class; with Tootie’s help her grades had gone from ‘barely tolerable’ to ‘actually okay.’ 

 

Though to the surprise of the Neo girl it seemed that it wasn’t just being friends with a smart person doing that. Her teachers were… fair. Sure she wasn’t a top student but her performance was improving by leaps and bounds compared to where she had been. 

 

Still for as nice as it was having Tootie as a friend it wasn’t the same as when Trixie sent her messages between classes, or at lunch while keeping up conversation with all the popular kids at the same time. Honestly the amount of things the rich girl could keep track of at once was impressive.

 

That being said, school is still school and as everybody knows: School sucks. So it was a relief on Friday to sit down on the battered school bus, knowing that her skirt clad butt wouldn’t have to touch the fraying seats again or have to listen to the rambling or screaming of the packed bus for another two days.

 

“The weekend cannot come fast enough.” Timantha muttered as a wad of paper meant for Tootie sailed over said girl’s head and hit hers instead. She brushed it off the seat with a scowl into the pile building at the girls' feet. 

 

“Says you, I’ve got to deal with my Sister.” Tootie muttered, snatching another ball of paper out of the air and throwing it back at the kid who’d thrown it. Timantha noted that maybe she did have a future in basketball, that throw was near perfect. 

 

“Right, I forgot about her.” Timantha said sympathetically, wondering just how cosmically lucky she had to be to have avoided the demon babysitter for so long. 

 

“It’s not your fault she’s so awful; actually something funny happened the other day.” Tootie said as they stopped at the Turner stop. Timantha realising how funny Tootie thought this was because she didn’t even glance over at Timmy as he walked past and sat down behind them (this had happened before on wednesday, Tootie had been distracted till well into their first class) 

 

“Yeah, what?” Timantha asked politely as she ducked to avoid a spitball someone had shot off. 

 

“So Vicky finally found the stuff Tr- Your nerdy friend got me.” Tootie corrected quickly. “And she was waiting with it all when I got home, she was planning to ruin it with a mix of paint and glue… actually knowing her that was probably only the first thing she wanted to do to it, not the point. Anyway she was about to start, and like: I’m on the verge of tears as she tore the glue from its packaging, she was about to empty it all over the zip but, it didn’t come out. I just thought the glue was dried up, but as soon as Vicky took it away it came loose and got all over her hands.”

 

Timantha smiled, her wish had worked, but apparently Tootie wasn’t finished because she continued: 

 

“But while this was going on she stuck it down on the paint lid, and it ripped off. I think she was going to use the paint on my dress cause well, I was laughing at her because it was funny right? But again the paint just wouldn’t come out, so she held it up to look at it and it came off drenching all over her face!”

 

Timantha was giggling now as Tootie continued to explain, and, based on the grin on her face, Tootie was trying to hold it in so she could keep explaining. 

 

“But that’s not the best thing!” Tootie explained, grinning ear to ear. “Turns out the brand of paint Vicky was planning to use contained a chemical she’s allergic to; she ended up in the hospital and because of the glue keeping it on her she’s received  a really bad exposure, she’s gonna be in the hospital for ages!”

 

Timantha noted as she and Tootie burst out in victorious laughter that in most other circumstances would be worrying. As howling in delight at the news that your friend’s sister was stuck in the hospital with a serious allergic reaction would normally be considered sick, but given how it was Vicky…

 

“Wait, so Vicky can’t babysit for a while?” A voice suddenly asked from behind. Turning around Timantha saw Timmy leaning on the back of her seat, leaning over to look at Tootie. 

 

“Yeah, isn’t it great… Timmy…” Tootie gasped, her eyes defocusing as she stared at her crush. Timantha groaned. 

 

“And we’ve lost her for the next twenty minutes.” She muttered, looking up at her male clone who laughed awkwardly. 

 

“Sorry, I just had to make sure; Vicky has a weakness! Do you have any idea how big of a deal this is!?” Timmy asked, looking down at Timantha, who was very glad that she had a reason to be grinning because otherwise she’d have given herself away. 

 

“Yeah, got a few ideas; I’m guessing you need to know what kind of paint she’s weak to?” Timantha asked with a smirk, getting a nod from Timmy. “Sure; I’ll get it out of her.” 

 

As Timantha began the process of shaking Tootie so she’d answer she failed to notice the boy behind her looking at Timantha intently. To the Neo girl’s credit she never would have thought about it, after all no one ever realised her wish based antics had been magical in nature so why would the boy behind her? 

 

It was then that Timantha made a mistake and forgot a very important detail, she had formerly been Timmy Turner and the person behind her was a magic clone with specific memories removed. And she was right to think that, it was technically true. But she’d forgotten the important detail that the clone was Timmy Turner; it was every single thing that mattered aside from the original. And Timmy Turner could recognize wish based antics any day of the week.

 

Thankfully their arrival at the school would drive any of these thoughts from his mind, at least briefly, because as they stepped off the yellow bus they saw a crowd forming in the courtyard. Most of the students (and a lot of the staff) were jammed in, creating a circle with a very angry Francis in the middle. 

 

Timantha moved slowly, slipping towards the front of the crowd to see what was going on, and her heart stopped. Francis had Trixie in a headlock. 

 

“I know it was your driver!” Francis yelled in Trixies face, spit flying off and splattering the rich girl’s face. “You get off that fancy limo every day!” 

 

“Let go of me!” She yelled, struggling in his grip and flailing like a mess, punching and kicking. Sadly, the brick of a bully took every hit without a flinch. 

 

“Oh no, a weak girl kick, I’m so afraid!” Francis cried, his voice dripping with sarcasm, before he threw her to the ground and stomped on her. Timantha’s eyes were wide as she scanned the crowd, the fucking bodyguard was right there! What!? This grown adult could push nerds away from the popular kids table but defending a girl from a thug was beyond him!? 

 

And those freakin’ popular kids, they weren’t doing anything to help, just standing there like an idiot, Tad and Chad who constantly boasted about doing anything for her weren’t doing anything. 

 

Neither was she; she looked over at Trixie who was crying now as Francis kicked her again. 

 

Timantha still had a few bruises from the last time Francis had fought her and she’d ached for days. But she would be damned if she was willing to go that far for a girl she hadn’t particularly liked at the time compared to a girl she was actively crushing on. 

 

“Hey Francis!” She yelled, forcing her way into the circle and standing in what she hoped was a defiant pose. “Remember me!” 

 

Francis stopped, Timantha’s distraction stopping him from bringing his foot down on Trixie again, instead it hit the ground with an echoing thud. The sound reverberated in the near empty courtyard. 

 

She scowled as the crowd started muttering, acting like she was the crazy one for trying to stop Trixie from getting attacked. The fact she had sent her driver to hit him with his car wasn’t lost on her, she just… didn’t care; in fact no one did. Francis was the worst and yet even with a cast on his foot everyone was still cowering. 

Well, she wasn’t going to let it happen, she’d seen Iron Knight 2 ‘You make a god bleed and everyone knows he sucks’ or something like that. It didn’t matter, she was going to try and hurt him regardless. 

 

Or at least, that was the plan. As Francis ran at her and Trixie staggered to safety, Timantha remembered the last time she’d been his victim. The pain flashed and suddenly she realised she really didn’t want to do this… so she ran. She ran as fast as she could. Now given Francis had most of his toes broken out-speeding him wasn’t actually that hard. Still she couldn’t get out, the crowd always got closer together when she got nearer, forcing her to change direction.

 

And then it happened, Francis tripped. He tripped, failed to correct his balance, and fell . And as such he hit the ground hard, and his elbow bled. 

 

The crowd gasped as they realised the injury. Sure it meant nothing to the thug who was still chasing after Timantha with fury in his heart. But to the onlookers it was a sign. A sign that he was weakened, that he could be hurt. That he wasn’t invincible and so finally someone acted. 

 

Timantha didn’t cheer as the popular kids’ bodyguard leapt forward and forced Francis to the ground. He should have done his job way earlier, before Trixie got hurt. As everyone else cheered she walked over to her friend, couching down. 

 

Trixie had shuffled as far away as she could while getting her breath back and was looking worriedly at Timantha as she walked over. 

 

“You okay?” The Neo girl asked, crouching down and smiling as she looked at Trixie who nodded. 

 

“I, I think so; man he hits like a truck.” Trixie muttered, rubbing her stomach before leaning to the left and scowling. “As soon as I stop hurting I’m giving Tad a piece of my mind.”

 

“Why?” Timantha asked, her head tilting to the side as Trixie’s scowl got worse. 

 

“He let slip that I ordered Frank to run him down, I claimed watching him pick on the less popular kids had finally gotten lame.” Trixie explained, scowling across the courtyard at the blond boy, who had the good sense to cower under her glare. 

 

“Wait, so… you got hurt, because of him?” Timantha asked, rounding on the boy. 

 

“Yes, He is officially no longer popular as soon as this day is ov-” Trixie began, shocked when Timantha stepped up and stalked towards the popular kid without saying a word. 

 

He turned and saw the livid girl, he put on what he thought was a charming smile and was about to say something before Timantha punched him in the jaw. 

 

---

 

The aura surrounding Timantha for the rest of the day was incredible. Firstly she’d willingly gotten into a second fight with Francis (Somehow her legging it around had been mistaken for a clever tactical ploy to wear him down before going for the kill), protected the most popular kid in school, and socked a boy in the face. The air of going against the grain followed her, and she was to some extent enjoying the way people didn’t bad-talk her to her face anymore. But the ultimate highlight was the way Trixie glowed when she got back from the principal’s office, beaming as she sent Timantha a text which simply read:

 

Best Nerd Friend Forever: He’s expelled, and the bodyguard put him in hospital.

 

Timantha beamed and you could feel the euphoria from everyone in the school that day, Crocker had even given Timmy and E in his class for the first time ever. The bully had been a menace to everyone, even adults, and it was great to finally be rid of him.

Still the highlight of her day came  at lunch, when she was offered by Chad a chance to sit at the popular kids table. But not for what you might think. See upon being offered this chance she responded succinctly:

 

“No thanks, I’d rather talk with people who aren’t incredibly stupid and give away stuff that should obviously be a secret.”

 

Telling the popular kids to stuff it just wasn’t something you did at Dimmsdale Elementary and the buzz it caused around the school brought the dumbest smile to Timantha’s face, once she’d sent some messages to Trixie:

 

Timantha: Note : What I said about popular kids doesn’t apply to you.

 

Timantha: I feel that’s obvious but I needed to be sure you knew.

 

Best Nerd Friend Forever: It’s cool I believe you.

 

Best Nerd Friend Forever: Actually wanted to ask if you wanted to sleep over at my place again?

 

Timantha: Yes… though would you like to come to mine?

 

Timantha: Like if my folks are okay with it?

Timantha: And you obviously.

 

Best Nerd Friend Forever: Yes! I’d love to see your house if your parents are fine with it. Been to everyone here’s house before… so it’ll be nice to see a friend’s house for once.

 

“Gah!” Veronica cried, collapsing off her seat and twitching.

 

Timantha: You really need to be careful what you text. 

 

Best Nerd Friend Forever: I’m not letting her… condition? Stop me from referring to my bestie as my bestie.

 

“GARGGHH!” Veronica cried again, drawing some concerned eyes. 

 

Timantha: Trixie as your bestie please stop before this kills her.

 

Best Nerd Friend Forever: Fine.

 

Smiling Timantha tapped out a message to Cosmo and Wanda who both agreed, but warned both her:

 

Wanda: Of course you can bring her over sport, just be warned we’re going to be with Timmy tonight so you two are on your own, and we won’t wish away any damage you cause.

 

Grinning, Timantha sent Trixie the news, who beamed at her table while someone pulled Veronica up and dragged her to the nurse. Timantha didn’t see the death glare she shot her.

 

---

 

Everyone knows that the mess in one’s bedroom is always a perfectly acceptable amount and always manageable… until someone is visiting. Then everyone realises it’s completely unacceptable and makes at least a token effort to clear up.

 

Timantha was currently experiencing this as she ran around trying to put her stuff back in roughly the right place. Too clean and she’d come across as sterile, too messy and she’d come across as a slob, neither of which was acceptable.

 

Still by the time her doorbell went off her room had been made tollerable and she was able to run downstairs and open the door with a grin. 

 

“You found me then?” Timantha asked with a grin as Trixie beamed. 

 

“Course I did, I wasn’t missing tonight for anything!” Trixie grinned, stepping over the threshold and beaming as she looked around Timantha’s house. 

 

It was fairly standard for a house, but it also proved that its residents were still very new to it. As in, while everything was unpacked and there was stuff around it had no real personal touches and very little natural clutter that people naturally acquire. Or to sum it up simply: it felt unlived in. Mostly because it basically was.

 

“Come on, let’s head up to my room, you can dump your stuff then we can figure out what we’re doing.” Timantha suggested, grinning and gesturing for the girl to follow. 

 

Trixie nodded and followed, her eyes scanning around the house as she walked. 

 

“I’ll never get over how small houses like yours are.” Trixie muttered as she entered Timantha’s bedroom. “I’m not judging, I get it… it’s just…”

 

“Different?” Timantha suggested.

 

Trixie nodded as Timantha opened her door, welcoming her into her room. It was both nothing and oddly nerve racking to do so. Maybe it was because the room had some spark now.

 

Trixie looked around as her foot stepped into the slightly faded pink carpet, the soft fur curling up around her trendy flats. She looked over, the white furniture was battered but still charming in its way despite its rather simple nature and chipped paint. 

 

Aside from that was the posters on the wall, Crimson Chin and Golden Locks being the biggest with some smaller less known heroines covering some more space, along with a poster for ‘The Kissy Kissy Goo Goo Romance Hour’, which seemed slightly out of place for most of the room but did fit the girl perfectly. 

 

“I like it.” Trixie said with a grin as she drank it all in, setting her bag down on Timantha’s bed. It was so expensive and high class compared to the department store duvet that it hurt with how badly it clashed. Still Timantha was happy to see it in the room, even if her plans involved moving. 

 

“Glad to hear it, good news is we have the house to ourselves tonight, I suggest we grab a console and head downstairs for some gaming fun.” Timantha explained, pointing to her consoles. 

 

“Sounds like a plan, erm… can we do this together?” Trixie asked, holding up the third ‘Reward of Valour’ game. Timantha grinned. 

 

---

 

“HAHAHAHA!” Trixie cried, a maniacal grin on her face as she let loose with her machine gun, the polygonal Nazis crumpling to the ground as she let loose with the weapon. Timantha would judge… but she was doing the same thing on the other screen. 

 

“Have you played this before?” Timantha asked as Trixie ran past she was opening, her soldier turning around to look in the room she’d just opened. 

 

“Not really, I’m more fond of my current system, this one’s a little outdated compared to what I’m used to.” Trixie explained in a more tactful way than just saying: ‘Your console’s old and really behind the times.’ 

 

“Can’t afford a more recent system.” Timantha explained. “And just being able to count the polygons isn’t an issue for me.”

 

“It’s not an issue for me, I’m having a blast with this, and are there hidden rooms like this all over this game?” Trixie asked as she entered the secret room, restocking on ammo and picking up an SMG. 

 

“Yeah, I’ve only got some of them committed to memory, like this thing here.” Timantha explained as her soldier picked up the rocket launcher the devs had sneakily hidden between some long pipes. 

 

“Are we going to need that soon?” Trixie asked, guessing the answer as Timantha directed her character out of the room and pointed it at a specific patch of wall. 

 

“Yeah, once we reach a certain po- That happens.” Timantha said, cutting herself off as she fired the rocket launcher at the Porsche Tiger that had rammed its way through the wall, shooting the rocket at the tracks, blowing the links to pieces. “We need to run by the way, I’ve just stopped it moving, it can still-”

 

Once again the pink wearing Neo girl was cut off as the tank’s turret rotated and blasted her character to bits. 

 

“-Do that.” She finished lamely as Trixie ran, her eyes sliding down to the bottom screen to watch as Trixie charged through the level, pulling off a lot of feats she would normally assume were impossible. 

 

“How did you pull that off?” Timantha asked as she respawned at the checkpoint. 

 

“Honestly I have no idea.” Trixie admitted sheepishly. “Maybe I just wanted to impress you and that gave me skills I didn’t know I had.” 

 

“Why did you want to impress me, Miss Tang?” Timantha asked, eyebrow raised as she smirked and said a sentence she hadn’t fully thought through. “You must really like me!”

 

Trixie and Timantha both froze, hearts stopped as it fully hit them what she’d said. Timantha’s mind was racing, so was Trixies. It was up in the air who’d answer first, but one eventually did:

 

“I, yeah I do.” Trixie admitted, her face bright red as she spoke. 

 

“Like, as a friend?” Timantha asked. It might seem dumb to ask given how she knew that wasn’t the case, but if the popular girl wasn’t ready and needed an out she was going to give it to her. 

 

“Erm, I mean yes but, I… oh god. I like you, like, as more than a friend.” Trixie admitted, her face scarlet as she closed in on herself. “I understand if you don’t feel the same, or if you’re disgusted or-”

 

“Or you could let me answer before assuming the worst?” Timantha said gently, reaching forward and taking Trixie’s hands, bringing them up and closer to her. 

 

“Yu, yeah, I guess I could.” Trixie admitted, looking up at Timantha’s face, eye’s sparkling as she looked at the pink girl. 

 

“Why do you like me?” Timantha asked, once again knowing the answer but wanting her to answer herself. 

 

“I, you don’t care what anyone thinks. You tell the popular kids to stuff themselves, you step in to defend people who need it, you’re adorable, you like what you like with no shame. Not like me, I, I wish I was more like you. You were fun to be around; you don’t like me for what I can get you… You’re nothing like what I’d have expected from a girlfriend… you didn’t reject me and I… I’ve had a crush on you since I met you.” Trixie finally finished, eyes looking straight into Timantha’s, who with a confidence she never thought she’d have responded very simply: 

 

“Yeah, feeling’s mutual.” Timantha said with a smile, gently squeezing her hand. “Well, okay, the first time I saw you I thought you were a boy so, you know; but I loved how despite being scared you still did what you wanted. Sure you hid it and were clever about it. But, that didn’t stop you. You navigate the minefield of being popular with more grace than a ballerina. You’re also really pretty, but that’s less important than the rest.”

 

“Of course, that goes to you too, Timantha.” Trixie said, her confidence returning slightly as she looked the Neo girl up and down. “I, wait, if it’s mutual… like, will you be my, my, my girlfriend? Will you go out with me?”

 

“Of course I will!” Timantha nodded and beamed at the way Trixie’s eyes lit up, the warmth and happiness in her smile seaming to fill the entire room. 

 

“I, yes! Whoo! Whoo! I have a girlfriend! I’m dating Timantha -Shut up Veronica! ” Trixie screamed, punching the air and yelling at her former bestie as her scream rang out (from where neither were sure, it sounded like it was a fair distance away but still if they could hear it how far could she really be?

 

“I’m dating Trixie Tang.” Timantha beamed, before it set in, she was dating Trixie Tang. the girl she’d had a crush on for years, a girl many would go to every length to date… was hers. Not through riches or fame. Through being herself, she was what Trixie had wanted! She was the girl for Trixie! She joined Trixie in the euphoric crying and celebrating. Fist pumping before Trixie threw her arms around the Neo girl, grinning as she pulled her in tight.

 

“I get to hug my girlfriend!” Trixie cried. “I have a girlfriend to hug! I, this is amazing, this is incredible, this- I can’t tell anyone… If I come out to the popular kids I’ll lose my station, I’ll, I’ll-”

 

“Hey, none of that!” Timantha cried, taking her hand and squeezing gently. “If my girlfriend wants it to be a secret then I won’t tell anyone, don’t want to start off my time as her girlfriend on a sour note right?” 

 

The warmth Trixie resonated filled Timantha as they sat down on the sofa, smiling as they sat together. That night was the start of something for the pair, sure there were issues to get over, but tonight they were together and they were together, and for now that was enough.

Notes:

Sorry this took so long, the chapter was mostly done over a month ago, I meant to go back to it a few days later to see it with fresh eyes and catch more of the spelling and gramma mistakes (I know I didn't get them all but I swear I'm trying) Unfortunatley December happened and I tried again and failed to remember this and long story short: Sorry this took so long and I hope it was worth the wait.