Marie had never had anyone over at her house and shuffled self consciously as Maisey stepped into the mansion. Her eyes were wide, appreciative as she took every thing, then honing in on Nice as he pranced toward her, preening for attention.

  “Who is this handsome man?” Maisey asked, reaching down and giving the dog an appreciative scratch on the back. Nice leaned into her touch, rubbing against her legs like a cat. At least he wasn’t jumping on anyone.

  “That’s Nice,” Marie answered. “He’s my dog.”

  “Nice is a very nice boy,” Maisey pitched her voice up as she continued to scratch the dog. “He’s so pretty. So handsome.”

  Maisey finally straightened and Nice trotted off, leading the way upstairs.

  “I guess we should follow him,” Maisey said as the dog stopped and looked at them expectantly.

  “I guess so,” Marie said. She darted after the dog, Maisey not far behind as they climbed up the steps. He led the way to her bedroom, the door open to the pristine space. It was normally tidy but she’d cleaned it again after inviting Maisey over before the festival, and yet still blushed when the girl stepped inside.

  Maisey whistled. “I don’t think my bedroom has ever been this clean. Is that your closet?”

  She pointed at an open door at the back of her room, the light inside illuminating the walk in closet. Marie nodded as she let out a nervous chuckle.

  “Yeah, that’s my closet.”

  “No wonder you wanted me to come over,” Maisey said. “If I had this many choices to choose between every day, I don’t know if I’d ever get dressed.”

  “It is a lot to go through,” Marie agreed. “And I wasn’t sure what I should wear to the harvest festival, and I wanted to look nice.”

  “Well, you always look nice,” Maisey said.

  “Extra nice, then,” Marie said. Maisey swiveled around inside the closet, looking at her with narrowed eyes.

  Marie ducked her head, suddenly regretting inviting the girl over. She was totally overthinking this. She should have just gotten dressed and driven over. Luc was probably there already, waiting for her.

  I hope she’s waiting for me.

  “Why?” Maisey demanded. “What don’t I know?”

  “Because Luc kind of agreed to go with me as my date?”

  Maisey’s mouth dropped open. Marie rubbed at her elbow as sheer disbelief met her, not sure what else to say. Was it really that unbelievable that Luc would go with her?

  Maybe it was. Maybe she wasn’t Luc’s type at all. She didn’t know. She hardly knew the girl, outside of magical girl work. What if they didn’t have anything in common?

  “I can’t believe it,” Maisey muttered. “We could hardly get Luc to be friends with us and here you go, getting her to go on a date with you? Ridiculous.”

  Marie stared at the girl, unsure how to take her words. Maisey was interesting, and generally kind and helpful, and above all eager to be friends, but she still wasn’t sure how she was supposed to respond to everything she said. “Sorry?”

  “Don’t be sorry,” Maisey said. “I just have a hard time believing it. Good for you, though.”

  “Thanks?”

  “I will say, I don’t know that Luc really cares about what you wear. I mean, you were absolutely disgusting yesterday and she couldn’t stop staring at you.”

  “So what I’m hearing is I should cover myself in dirt before meeting her today,” Marie said.

  “Might not be a bad strategy,” Maisey agreed. She pulled out something from the closet, a pair of jeans Marie hadn’t worn in forever and a ruffly top with bell sleeves. “Here, put this on.”

  Marie raised an eyebrow at the pants but chose not to say anything. Accepting the clothes, she kicked Maisey out the closet and pulled the door closed to change.

  “How did you and Tobias get together?” she asked through the closed sliding door.

  Maisey sighed fondly on the other side. “Oh, I saw him freshman year and said “yeah, that one is mine” and we’ve been together ever since.”

  Marie paused with the jeans almost over her hips, struggling to get them the rest of the way up. Damn jeans. “Really?”

  Maisey snorted. “Pretty much, though I’d crushed on him all of middle school. Turns out he’d been doing the same, and the both of us were just too stupid to do anything about it. But once we got together, we just fit, y’know?”

  Marie’s lips parted into a smile, imagining having that some connection with someone. She’d never asked anyone out before Luc, or been asked out herself, but even without an ounce of experience, she could see it.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Thank god Luc agreed to be my rival, Marie thought as she pulled on the shirt Maisey had picked. She didn’t know how her dad had talked Luc into being her rival, but she’d have to thank him again.

  She stepped out of the closet only for Maisey to frown.

  “What?”

  “You look so weird in pants,” Maisey said with a shake of her head. “I was trying to make you look like a farm girl but it just does not work. Let me look again.”

  She ducked back into the closet, leaving Marie standing there awkwardly in her jeans before the girl returned, holding a flouncy black skirt in one hand and a jack’o’lantern orange sweater in the other that she’d worn exactly once.

  “Try this,” Maisey said. “And you have tights, right? I’d probably add a pair underneath the skirt, it’s a bit chilly out today.”

  Marie nodded and obliged by changing into the new outfit. It fit better than the last, taking less effort to get on and feeling much more herself. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually worn a pair of pants.

  She checked herself in the mirror inside the closet before grabbing a pair of chunky heeled boots, carrying them out with her. “These to go with it?” she asked, holding up the shoes before giving a quick spin to let Maisey take in the whole outfit.

  The girl hummed and nodded. “Yes, I think that’s perfect. Are you ready to head out now?”

  Marie hesitated before nodding. There wasn’t anything else she could think to do to get ready for this date, so she couldn’t keep putting it off. She was already later than she’d wanted to be, though she hadn’t heard anything from Luc. Hopefully that was a good sign.

  “Awesome, let’s go,” Maisey said. She led the way out of the bedroom and down the flight of stairs to the main floor, giving the dog one last scratch goodbye before reaching the door. On the front steps, she turned to Marie. “Are you going to help me put together my magical girl uniform?”

  “Of course I am,” Marie agreed. “We can even go over tomorrow if you want, so you can start taking jobs.”

  A grin stretched across Maisey’s face. “That sounds great. I really want to be able to do a few jobs with you two before you inevitably abandon me to do bigger and better things.”

  Marie rolled her eyes at the forlorn tone laced heavily into the girl’s voice. “Just because we might take bigger jobs doesn’t mean we won’t still be around.”

  “I guess so,” Maisey said. “But I swear, magical girls always leave town when they get big.”

  “Probably to make room for the newer ones, and to move on to bigger threats,” Marie said. “Or to become proper mages.”

  “I don’t even understand what the difference is,” Maisey admitted as they climbed into her car, leaving Marie’s own at the house. “Aren’t they just different names for the same thing?”

  “Sort of,” Marie said. They pulled onto the road, setting off toward the farm. “Magical girl isn’t an official title, it’s just a common way to refer to untrained or self trained mages. Officially, everyone with magic is a mage, but the only people we generally refer to as mages are people who have graduated from the Mage Academy. That’s what I want to do, actually.”

  “Really? Why?”

  “Mages have proper training on spells and magic theory, and they generally have actual contracts with the Mage Commission or the government, rather than just being gig workers.”

  “They’re also more famous.”

  “That too,” Marie agreed. “But that’s not why I want to do it.”

  Fame, of course, was a part of being a mage, the same way it was a part of being a magical girl. You simply made more money, for yourself and the commission, if you were famous. But the truth was, Marie’s power as it stood, was limited. She was better than human. Stronger, faster, tougher. But that was it.

  Without the tools she had now, such as her wings and the wand replacement her father had already ordered for her, she wouldn’t be nearly so useful. There were only so many problems that could be solved by punching and kicking things.

  If she could learn magic theory, however, and craft her own spells for her magic, she could so so much more. There were mages who’d been practically useless before the academy who’d graduated and turned into superstars, saving whole cities from monsters or even human threats. As a true and proper mage, she’d be able to change lives, and live up to everything her father had done for her to get her to this point.

  They pulled onto the dirt road that led to the Barnes’ farm and almost immediately had to pull off the road to find a parking spot, the fields on either side packed with cars. Despite living in this town most of her life, she’d had no idea this event was so huge. And it would go on for the better part of two weeks, open all day on weekends and after school hours during the week.

  Maisey pulled into a parking spot and together they walked the rest of the way toward the farm. Mama Barnes, because that’s what everyone called her, sold hot drinks and baked goods from the front porch, along with other things like jellies and cookie mixes.

  Papa Barnes, on the other hand, ran a small booth near the entrance to the farm, selling pumpkins, bushels of apples, and tickets for entry. He waved the pair of them right through with a fond smile, and Maisey waved back.

  Marie had stuck around for a good while the night before, helping them finish setting up after the spider attack. Now,t here wasn’t a sign anything had happened, and the only magic was a faint tingle from the shield Luc had constructed.

  Where was Luc?

  Marie scanned for Luc, searching through the crowd for the girl who was probably sulking somewhere. As she did, Maisey spotted Tobias and took off toward him. Not finding Luc, Marie followed.

  She stood back as Tobias kissed Maisey, waiting until they were done to talk. “Where’s Luc?”

  Tobias blinked, casting a quick glance around. “She hasn’t shown up yet. At least, I haven’t seen her.”

  Marie frowned. Luc had said she’d be here. Promised really. She’d even gotten off work for it.

  I didn’t scare her off, did I?

  The thought pricked at her as she pulled out her phone, giving Luc a call. The longer the phone rang, the further her stomach sank, until it buried itself in the ground as the call went over to voicemail.

  “She’s not answering,” Marie said hollowly, pulling her phone back from her ear.

  “Let me try,” Tobias said.

  Marie waited, unable to breathe as Tobias held the phone to his ear, then finally shook his head. “Nothing from me either. Maybe she’s doing a job.”

  “Maybe… But she said she’d be here.” Marie bit her lip, then made a decision. “I’ll go check on her.”

  “Maybe you should go check on her,” Maisey said to Tobias before Marie could transform. He opened his mouth to protest when Maisey tipped up on her toes, whispering into his ear.

  From a few feet away, Maisey caught the words stood up and her heart dropped to her feet and shattered.

  I’m an idiot.

  “Uh, yeah, I’ll go,” Tobias said, and shot Marie an apologetic look. “I’m sure she just got busy with something and lost track of time.”

  “I hope so,” Marie agreed as Tobias took off to go check in on her rival and supposed-to-be date.