Announcementcontent warning: transmisic slurI was positive all five of us were watching out for the bck pick-up truck that was following us earlier, and anyone who drove past us on their motorcycle was probably wondering why we were all giving them wary looks.

  Or at least, that's how it went at first. It didn't take long before Amelia forgot all about the potential threat and focused entirely on clothes shopping. And to be fair, I wasn't far behind. I was still prepared to activate my magical-girl transformation if anyone attacked us, but I was more interested in getting some fun new femme clothes than looking at every motorcycle that drove by.

  Unfortunately it was a lot more boring for my friends. Or at least for Ellie, she spent most of the time focused on her phone. It looked like she was either reading or pying games or something. Harper on the other hand actually seemed to be interested in looking at girls clothes with me and Amelia. He even helped me pick out a few things, and gave me advice and feedback when I tried stuff on.

  In all we probably spent about ninety minutes and visited a half dozen little shops and one rger store. I got two more pairs of jeans, a couple pairs of shorts, two skirts, and an assortment of tops and blouses. I also had more underwear and bras, more cute socks and another pair of leggings, plus two pairs of sneakers. Finally mom got me a bck canvas purse, since most of my new clothes didn't have pockets.

  Amelia got new some new stuff as well, but not as much since she already had plenty of clothes that fit. Mainly she got some nice jeans and a couple cute new tops.

  By the time we were done I actually had so many bags I had trouble carrying it all, but Harper came to the rescue and looked after them for me. Then we headed back to the car, where all the new purchases got stuffed into the trunk. At that point it was around half past eleven, and we needed to figure out what we were doing next.

  "We could find somewhere to have lunch here," mom suggested. "Or if it's too early yet, we could go on a bit of a drive? We're right on the shore of Georgian Bay, there'll be lots of scenic pces where we could stop."

  "Or if everyone would prefer to just head straight back home we can do that too," she added.

  I shrugged, "Either way works fine for me."

  Ellie nodded, "Same. I'm not hungry just yet, I had breakfast before Harper picked me up."

  "I could eat," Harper added. "I could also wait, I'm not like starving or anything."

  Finally my sister gave my mom a suspicious look and asked, "Last week you gave me a hard time when I asked if we could go to Markdale to get Chinese food. How come this week there's money for all these new clothes, and you're talking about taking us all out for lunch somepce?"

  Mom sighed, "I have a rainy-day fund for emergencies, Amelia. We can't afford this sort of thing on a regur basis, but Bke needed clothes. And all of you had to miss school because of my sister's carelessness. So consider it a rare treat, ok?"

  "Whatever," she grumbled. "I'm up for lunch somewhere, but I don't have to eat right now. An hour would be good though."

  "So let's go for a little drive then?" I suggested.

  Nobody had a problem with that, and we all climbed back into the car. None of us had any preference on where we went or what we looked at though, so mom took us north along the shoreline. We followed that until the road turned east and took us innd for a while, but we found the water again before too long. We drove through a couple little vilges, and past some fancy holiday retreats and rich peoples' vacation homes.

  In some ways it wasn't that much to look at, the bay was just a wide open expanse of water with some scattered boats here and there. And the nd was either farmnd, woods, or little rural settlements. Basically the same thing we had around home, apart from the ke. On the other hand it was still interesting to see new pces. And I kind of enjoyed looking out over the water, when I could see it.

  Harper seemed to be enjoying the scenery and the views as well. Even mom looked around as she drove, although most of her attention stayed on the road. Neither Amelia or Ellie seemed that interested in the views though, they were both busy looking at their phones instead. My sister was either pying games or texting her friends, while my best friend appeared to be reading again.

  Eventually mom asked who was hungry, and both Amelia and Harper spoke up right away. Ellie and I chimed in too, and the five of us ended up trying to agree on what we all wanted to do for lunch. Mom kept trying to convince us to stop somewhere nice, like one of the fancy little restaurants that catered to rich cottage people or folks on vacation from the city. But the rest of us were more interested in something simple and fun, like fast food burgers.

  That debate sted a full fifteen minutes, until we finally pulled into the Burger Queen parking lot. The pce seemed pretty busy, but we found a spot around back of the building. All their outside tables were full and most of the ones inside were busy too, but we managed to snag a booth. I sat myself down there and waited while the others went and got the food.

  I only had to wait a few minutes though, before they joined me with a couple trays loaded with burgers and fries and drinks. Harper and Ellie sat on either side of me, while mom and Amelia were across from us.

  Mom and Harper and I talked a bit as we all ate, but both Ellie and Amelia still had their phones out. My little sister looked like she was texting her friends again, while my best friend seemed to be engrossed in more reading. I just hoped she wasn't on yet another conspiracy website.

  Eventually I got curious enough to ask. After another bite of my burger I said, "Hey Ellie? You've been on your phone practically the whole time since we got to Owen Sound. What are you reading about that's so interesting?"

  "Sorry," she grimaced as she looked up at me. "I didn't mean to ignore everyone. It's um..."

  Her voice trailed off and her cheeks coloured slightly, then she swiped through a couple browser tabs before holding it out so both me and Harper could see it. "Check it out."

  She was on the Lakehead University website, viewing the profile of one of the professors. The prof's name was Leslie Williams, and her picture looked a whole lot like my mom. Her hair was slightly darker, and she looked a little bit younger, but it was a pretty safe bet that Ellie had found my mystery aunt based on what mom told us earlier.

  My eyes widened as I quickly scanned the little bio on my aunt's page. It had a few bullet points, like it said she was born in the USA but grew up in Alberta, and she attended U of T where she got her degree. Then it went on to list a few recent papers she'd published, before focusing on the stuff she taught at Lakehead.

  Harper frowned slightly as he took it all in, then gave Ellie a questioning look.

  The cute tomboy nodded slowly and said, "From there I did more digging, and eventually found this."

  She swiped to another tab then held her phone out again, and my eyebrows crept up even higher.

  I was looking at another faculty profile page from a different university. This time it was in Saskatoon, and the profile was for a Dr. Judith Williams. Her picture looked like an older grumpier version of my mom, like how she might appear in her sixties. Her hair had more grey in it, and there were wrinkles on her face, but her eyes were sharp.

  Odds were this was my grandmother, and I quickly read what her profile page had to say. Sure enough she taught high-energy physics, just like mom said. Apparently she was born in the States as well, and got her doctorate at MIT. The most interesting thing on her page though was about a big research project she was doing this summer.

  It said she and a colleague and a couple grad students were going on a six week expedition to the far north, so they could study how the sor winds interacted with the Earth's atmosphere near the magnetic north pole. They'd be staying at the north end of Ellesmere Isnd, at some remote outpost called Camp Hazen.

  "All right, what is it?" my mom finally asked. "What are you three looking at? Should I be worried?"

  I gnced at my best friend then looked back at mom again and stated, "We're looking at the University of Saskatchewan faculty page for Dr. Judith Williams."

  Mom's expression bounced through a few emotions, from surprise to maybe anger to resignation. Then she gave Ellie a look, "You doxxed my mother?"

  "Sorry," my best friend cringed. "You gave us enough information in the car earlier that I was able to find your sister pretty easily. And from there it wasn't that hard to locate your mother."

  Then she added, "It's not like Leslie was trying to hide the connection. She even posted a link to your mother's profile on her social media feed a few months ago."

  Mom took a deep breath then sighed, "Just please promise me you won't try and contact her, ok? I mean all of you. The situation is already votile, we really don't want to make things any worse than they already are."

  "Yes ma'am," Harper responded. Then he added, "From the look of it the danger might be over in a few days anyways? If we can get through the end of the week without any more trouble we should be all right."

  That put another frown on my mom's face as she asked, "Why? What's that supposed to mean?"

  I replied, "According to your mother's profile page she's going up north for six weeks? It says she'll be camped out at the north end of Ellesmere Isnd, studying the sor winds."

  "She won't have reliable access to email or phones while she's gone," Ellie added.

  By that point my mom's eyes were wide and the colour had drained from her face. She looked almost scared, but rather than say anything she reached out and grabbed Ellie's phone then turned it around so she could read about the expedition for herself.

  "What's wrong Mrs. Palmer?" my best friend asked. "Do you know about this research project? I'm guessing it's not about studying the sor winds after all?"

  Mom didn't answer right away, she just slowly shook her head as she read through the page. Then she looked almost numb as she handed the phone back to Ellie. From her reaction it seemed clear that my grandmother's 'high energy research' stuff was just a cover, and whatever she was really up to had to be something awful.

  "Mom?" I asked nervously. "Are you ok?"

  She shook her head again then sighed, "I... We need to get home."

  "We'll talk in the car Bke," she added softly. "We've already said much too much out in public."

  Me and Ellie and Harper all gnced around. The restaurant was still busy, but nobody was paying any attention to us. Everyone was just focused on their food or their own friends and conversation.

  "Come on," my mom said as she stood up. "We need to go now."

  Amelia had been completely silent the whole time, just quietly munching on her burger and fries with one hand while she held her phone and texted her friends with the other. She finally looked up and protested, "Mom I'm not done eating yet. What's the rush?"

  "We'll talk in the car Amelia," mom stated impatiently. "Please hon, let's just go ok?"

  My sister sighed loudly then stuffed a few more fries in her mouth before replying, "Fine! But I'm bringing my drink with me."

  We dumped all our trash on the way to the door, although me and Ellie ended up bringing our drinks with us too. Then the five of us headed around back to the car. Except as soon as we rounded the corner my gut lurched when I saw what was waiting for us. We all came to a sudden halt at the sight of the big bck pick-up truck parked behind mom's car, blocking it in. And standing next to the truck were two tall strong tough-looking men.

  The guy on the left appeared to be in his te twenties. He had short brown hair and a moustache, and was dressed in blue jeans, a loose t-shirt, and work boots. The one on the right looked older, like early forties. His hair was lighter and he was clean-shaved. He was dressed in dark scks and a short-sleeve button-down shirt.

  Both men looked all five of us over, then the younger one spoke up. "All right, which one of you little freaks is the tranny with the -"

  He was abruptly cut off as the older guy reached up and gave him a smack across the back of his head. Then the younger guy gred at his partner and demanded, "What the hell was that for?!"

  "Language, dipshit!" the older guy asked. "Don't you remember your sensitivity training? No misgendering, no deadnaming, and no slurs!"

  Then he addressed the rest of us, "Sorry about that folks. Anyways we just want the ring. Hand it over and we can avoid any senseless violence here."

  Mom took a step forward, putting herself between the rest of us and the two tough guys. She was about to say something, but before she could get a word out we all heard the low rumble of a motorcycle pulling up behind us.

  Just like that we were trapped, with the pick-up guys in front of us and a biker behind us.

  PurpleCatGirl