Maisey’s words hung in the air for a moment, the tension building like a storm just waiting to break, until Luc snapped around to glare at her. “I’m not fighting her.”

  Though the words were meant to defuse the situation, Marie took them as a challenge, leaning forward over the car door as a slow grin stretched across her face. It was mocking, as though she didn’t believe Luc could do anything against her, and Luc’s heart skipped a beat. “Is that so?”

  Luc crossed her arms over her chest, ignoring the way her heart beat against it in a desperate attempt to escape, and the heat spreading up the sides of her face. Marie could challenge her all she wanted, that’s not what rivalries entailed. At least, not most of the time. Luc had no desire to go tearing around the school yard or the town, fighting each other and causing an endless amount of property damage. Maybe Marie could afford that, with her brand new car and daddy’s money, but Luc certainly couldn’t.

  “It wouldn’t be fair,” Luc said, meeting Marie’s eyes. They were dark, brown in the same way honey was, light reflecting off of them and turning them golden. She’d never seen Marie before yesterday but knew in an instant that she would have recognized her, in uniform or out. She was stunning, as though someone had painted her and she’d stepped out into the world without flaws.

  Except for her attitude, that was.

  “Care to put it to the test?” Marie asked. “I’m not afraid, if you aren’t.”

  It was a challenge, plain and simple. She didn’t think Luc was worth her snuff as a magical girl. Why had she picked Gadget as her rival? Was it just to try and humiliate her? Marie was new, and Gadget was easy pickings?

  She’ll have another thing coming, Luc thought, before stopping herself. No matter the challenge, she couldn’t fight Marie here. It would probably get her expelled from school, and ruin her chances at going to college and escaping this hell.

  “I would, but I have to take her to the commission,” Luc said, thumbing a finger at Maisey.

  Maisey opened her mouth as though to protest before Luc shot her a look, hoping she’d catch her meaning, or at least be quiet.

  Sure enough, she shut her mouth.

  “Oh, well I can come with you,” Marie said, apparently not one to be deterred. “We can pick up a job, and you can show me how it’s done. How about that?”

  Luc stared at her for a moment, unable to tear her gaze away from Marie’s golden eyes, and nodded. “Fine.”

  She tore herself away before either of them could say anything else, refusing to look back even once she’d climbed inside the car. Her fingers gripped the steering wheel like a lifeline as she breathed, trying to get herself to calm down.

  Marie wasn’t even using magic. How could she be so… enticing?

  The passenger side door swung open and Maisey stepped in, pausing to make herself a seat amid the piles of trash. “You okay?” she asked finally.

  Luc let out a long breath. “Yeah.”

  “Good, because that was weird.” Maisey twisted around in her seat, staring out the back window, just barely visible around all the stuff Luc had packed back there. “She’s waiting for us.”

  Luc groaned. Couldn’t Marie just go on ahead and wait for them at the commission? She didn’t want the girl seeing her transform just to use the magic to make the car usable. It was embarrassing. But Marie wasn’t giving her a choice.

  Closing her eyes for a moment, Luc transformed. In the confined interior of the car, it didn’t do much. There was no rising off the ground, and minimal glowing. Her outfit transformed into her newly patched magical girl uniform, almost all the stains gone. Her hair did itself up into matching twin buns, pinning it all back and out of her face, and her utility belt manifested around her waist.

  Maisey let out a low whistle. “That’s hot.”

  Luc narrowed her eyes as she shot a glance at her. “I don’t think you should be saying that when you have a boyfriend.”

  She laughed. “Tobias was right. You really are weird.”

  “Thanks.” Pushing her magic into the car, she felt everything align and mend itself back together temporarily as she pulled out of the parking spot, rattling quietly. Out of the numerous ways magic could manifest, Luc was grateful hers had manifested this way. The ability to fix and build things just fit, worked for her instinctively, because that’s what she’d always been doing. Her magic was a natural extension of who she was as a person.

  What is Marie’s ability? Luc wondered, thinking back to her first interaction with the new magical girl. She didn’t know her official name, or what her power was. All Marie had used were tools, from her wings to her wand. Powered by magic, yes, but not her innate magic. Luc could tell the difference just by watching.

  Someone out there, someone with a power not unlike Luc’s own, had built her tools. The commissioner had probably paid for them just like he was paying Luc to be his daughter’s rival. She had to have magic to use them, but neither of them indicated what her innate ability was.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  I’ll probably find out soon.

  “You know.” Maisey shifted uncomfortably in the passenger seat as they hit the road, only a car’s length between them and Marie’s car that could no doubt easily go ten times faster than it was. “When you said your car was dirty, this wasn’t what I imagined.”

  “I warned you.”

  “I feel like I should be concerned.”

  “It’s all useful,” Luc said, casting a quick glance around the car. That might not be strictly true, considering the number of empty aluminum cans she had littered through her car, but it was true enough. “My power is crafting things, after all.”

  “Oh, true.” Maisey thought about it for a moment. “Is that why you go by Gadget? Or did the commission give you that name?”

  “I picked it myself,” Luc said. “Though, I was fourteen and not the most creative.”

  “It suits you,” Maisey said. “I’ve been trying to think of something for mine, and can’t come up with anything.”

  “What’s your ability?” Luc asked, trying to keep her mind off of her impending showdown against Marie.

  “It’s a little silly,” Maisey admitted. “I can sort of magically control and fold paper? Like, hold on.”

  She dug down into her book bag as they drove, coming out with a small, perfectly cut square of paper. Placing it on top of a book, she began to fold, tiny, precise movements gradually transforming it into a swan.

  Before Luc had a chance to question it, she touched the completed swan with the tip of her finger, and it came to life. Magic hummed around it as it hovered into the air, wings flapping of its own accord, moving in little circles around Maisey’s open palm before settling into it as though exhausted.

  “That’s neat,” Luc said. “Why not just go with something like Magical Girl Origami?”

  She sighed and slumped back against her seat. “I could, it just… doesn’t feel like me. I’m going to have to keep thinking about it.”

  Luc let her fall into silence as they neared the commission, deliberately pulling into a parking spot several spots away from Marie’s car.

  “What about Bookworm?” she blurted out as Maisey reached for the door handle.

  Maisey paused. “Bookworm. That could be good. I’ll think about it.”

  They climbed out of the car to find Marie already waiting for them on the sidewalk, tapping her foot impatiently against the sidewalk.

  “You need a new car,” Marie said, wrinkling her nose at Luc’s dilapidated car.

  Luc’s jaw went tight as she responded. The car might have been a piece of shit, but she'd saved every spare dollar and worked endlessly over the summer just to afford it. This was her baby. She didn't want anyone talking badly about it. “I’ll take that into consideration.”

  Hands wrapped tightly around her forearm and she took a step toward the huge, glass and brick building that was the commission's local headquarters. A huge logo of a stylized M and C hung over a pair of double doors, marking it as the mage commission.

  Maisey leaned in close, refusing to let Luc move. “It is weird that I'm nervous.”

  “No.” Luc wrenched her arm away. “You can wait in the car.”

  “No, no, it's okay,” Maisey said. “I'll come inside.”

  She took a deep breath, smoothed out the front of her dress, and took her first step toward the doors. Luc looked on with an odd mix of amusement and nostalgia for her first time at the mage commission, unable to get truly lost in her memories before realizing Marie was watching.

  Luc quickly schooled her expression into something neutral and followed behind her new friend.

  Friend. It was a little bit odd to think about it. She hadn't really had friends since her mother started making her work practically every spare moment at the diner.

  She also wasn't entirely sold on Maisey or Tobias yet, though Mason seemed cool enough, but it didn’t look like she'd be able to get rid of them anytime soon. Anyone who would climb through a window to check on you was going to be hard to get rid of, unless she wanted to get a restraining order. And as of now, she didn't.

  Marie stood at the front desk, awkwardly silent as Mrs. Oscar awaited her inquiry, as Luc walked inside.

  Did Marie want Luc to talk first? If so, she wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

  Luc leaned against the counter the way she always did, drawing a faint frown from the woman. She forced her own face into a wide, placating smile, the expression so foreign the muscles in her face twitched uncomfortably.

  “My friend here just recently became a mage,” Luc said, grabbing Maisey’s elbow and pulled her close. “She'd like to register with the Mage Commission.”

  “Oh.” Maisey let out a little squeak like a mouse. “Actually, I was just kind of curious about the process. Not actually ready to register…”

  “You're aware it's illegal to use magic without being registered?” Mrs. Oscar asked.

  “Yes, ma'am,” Maisey said as a faint speckling of pink spread across her cheeks. “I…”

  “Here.” Mrs. Oscar reached into a drawer without looking, pulling out a stapled stack of papers. “Just because you register doesn't mean you have to act as a mage.”

  Maisey stared at the papers like they might bite before reaching for them. “I guess I'll take the paperwork. Do I have to fill it out now? I was going to go film them fighting.”

  That caught Mrs. Oscar’s attention and she swiveled her chair to stare at Luc and Marie.

  Luc jumped in before the woman could say anything. “There's not going to be any fighting. It's just a good, old fashioned rivalry.”

  “Ah, I do believe I saw something like that added to my notes,” Mrs. Oscar said. She tapped rapidly against her keyboard before nodding. “Yeah, here it is. I guess you'll be wanting a job, then.”

  Before either could say anything, she was already printing the detail sheet. “It's a relocation job,” she said. “And don't forget your monitor.”

  Luc snatched the small box from her hand, popping the lid open and securing the device to her naked wrist as Marie took the single sheet of paper.

  “This only says the location and the relocation objective,” she said, lips tightening as her eyes settled back onto the page. “Are you sure you don't have more information?”

  “That's what I have,” Mrs. Oscar said. “Do with it what you will.”

  Luc took a quick glance at the location, a local park where elementary age kids had their soccer games, and jerked her head toward Maisey. “Let's go.”

  It wasn't likely she could get a head start, but she could damn well try.

  A short drive later, in which Marie easily out paced them in her fancy, fully operational car, they pulled up to the soccer field.

  The moment Luc turned off the car, their relocation target was obvious. The noise was all around them, an endless, deafening buzz.

  She still stepped out of her car to confirm, catching her first sight of the huge, bumbling bugs. “Really? Bees? Why does it have to be bees?”