Chapter Text
It wasn't long before I was back in cat form and the two of us were climbing into the shotgun seat of Hannah's car, which was a real clunker of a Ford. It was so old that it had manual windows and a built-in cassette tape player—although I had to give her credit for keeping it clean, because in spite of its age, it looked and smelled pristine. She must have been washing the windows and vacuuming the upholstery on, like, a daily basis.
Wait, no, she was a wizard. Of course it was clean. She had Prestidigitation. It probably took her six seconds to clean the whole vehicle with a wave of her hand. How is that spell only a cantrip? It's totally overpowered.
The two of them cheerfully exchanged small talk until the crunch of a gravel driveway signaled our arrival back home. As the engine quieted, my ears perked up at the sound of a new voice inside the house. Right! Thomas mentioned that Mal's mom was coming home from her business trip today.
I nudged Mal. "Sounds like your mom's home."
"Ooh! She'll be dying to meet you! Let's say hi to my mom!" She scooped me up onto her shoulder, picked up her backpack, and slid out the passenger side. Then she skipped up the front steps to ring the doorbell, with Hannah following at her heels.
A middle-aged woman in a professional-looking grey suit answered. She was about Mal's height, with short, blonde hair, and there was an obvious family resemblance between the two of them. When she saw us, she lit up with delight. "Mal! Oh, it's great to see you!"
"Mom!" Mal was equally delighted, and pulled her mom into a hug. "I missed you! Did you have a good trip?"
"I'm just going to squeeze past you and use your bathroom real quick," said Hannah, tactfully slipping through the doorway past the mother-daughter embrace.
"Hello, Hannah! Yes, I had a productive trip. The folks at the Texas HQ responded very positively to my presentation." Her voice carried an English accent, but with traces of American around the edges, as if her native accent had decayed after spending too much time in the States. (That was my read of it, at least. I am admittedly not an expert on accents.)
She pulled back from the hug to look me in the eyes. "And you must be Katelyn!"
I nodded respectfully. "Meow!" I said.
"Mom, this is Katelyn Winters, my new familiar. Kate, this is my mother, Thistle Avalon!"
Thistle smiled. "It's wonderful to meet you, Katelyn. I heard about the mix-up, and I must say I'm very grateful to you for not pursuing legal action against us."
"Nice to meet you too! I'm always happy to settle out of court. Saves on legal fees." I assumed she was joking, since I had to imagine any lawsuit would be immediately dismissed by the judge on the grounds of magic isn't real and you're all insane.
"She says it's nice to meet you too, and she's always happy to settle out of court to save on legal fees," Mal translated.
Thistle chuckled and stepped back to let us inside. "I'm sure my husband already said so, but I hope you know that as long as you're with us, Katelyn, you're family. Whatever accommodations you need, just let us know."
I nodded.
"Can I get whatever accommodations I need?" Mal chimed in. "Because I could really use more gel pens for scribing spells."
"That's…not really what I meant," said Thistle. "Didn't you just get a new set last week?"
"Yes, but you know how fast I go through them! I'm already almost out of purple."
"Actually, now that you mention it, I could use a set of gel pens too. The nice brand," I added.
Mal gestured toward me. "See, Kate says she needs new gel pens too! That's an accommodation!"
Thistle raised an eyebrow. "Is that actually what she said?"
"She also said to get the nice brand," Mal said. I nodded.
"Less than five minutes of parenting two kids at once and they're already teaming up on me! Very well, if you're united on this issue, then you may order another set."
Mal and I shared a fist bump.