:=: Rebecca :=:

"Bye mom! See you later!" Becky yelled on her way out the door.

It was the start of September, first day of school, first day of grade twelve. She was looking forward to seeing Cindy and Tanya again. She'd seen them both a few times over the summer of course, but not as much as she'd have liked. They'd all been texting a lot in the past week or two though.

No-one had said anything about walking to school together, so she was surprised to see the two of them standing at the end of the driveway, waiting for her.

Tanya was looking good. She was the tallest of the three of them, and Becky was sure Tanya had grown at least another inch over the summer. She was slim too, but not skinny. She had a great figure, thanks to all the sports she was into. She was wearing jeans, running shoes, and a tight t-shirt that showed off her curves. Her long dark-blonde hair almost reached to her behind now, she was still letting it grow.

Cindy was the shortest of course. She was probably the smallest kid in the whole high-school, which was something she was pretty sensitive about. She was wearing dark leggings and a navy blue long-sleeve knee-length dress, and a pair of sneakers on her feet. She'd gotten her ears pierced over the summer, and had a pair of little gold studs in them now. She'd kept her light blonde hair around the same length, just down to her shoulders, but she was styling it a bit nicer nowadays.

She also had a little bit of make-up on, a touch of lipstick and some eyeshadow, maybe some accents on her cheeks too. Becky decided, it actually helped make the small teen look a little older, despite her diminutive size.

As for Becky, she'd taken Cindy's advice last spring, and had been gradually changing her style over the past few months. She was wearing a knee-length plaid skirt and a white blouse, thigh-high socks, and a pair of mary janes on her feet. Like Cindy, she had some subtle make-up on, and she had some small hoops in her ears. She'd also been letting her strawberry-blonde hair grow out again, it now hung a couple inches past her shoulders.

"Hi!" She smiled, "What are you two doing here?"

Cindy grinned, "Just thought I'd offer you a drive to school." The short blonde gestured to the black compact car parked on the side of the road behind them both.

"No way!" Becky gasped.

Cindy nodded, still smiling. She revealed the key-fob in her hand then clicked it, unlocking the car.

The three of them piled in. Tanya was in the passenger seat and Becky got in behind her, while Cindy slipped into the drivers seat. She had the seat pulled all the way up of course so she could reach the pedals and everything.

It was a very short drive, Becky didn't actually live all that far from the school. But it was cool to be rolling into the parking lot, even if it wasn't really their car. Becky knew it belonged to one of Cindy's friends, but it was great that she got to borrow it.

Tanya and Cindy had most of the same classes as each other again this semester. Becky shared a handful of classes with her two friends, the rest of her classes though she'd be on her own. She was focusing on computer courses and had plans to go into a tech job eventually. They all had home-room together which was nice, and this year the three got lockers next to each other as well.

Becky was smiling happily, and Tanya seemed pretty happy as well. Cindy had been in a good mood at the start, but as they went through their morning classes it seemed like her mood was gradually dropping.

Becky wasn't sure what was wrong though. Nobody was picking on any of the three of them, and their classes had all gone ok so far this morning.

At lunch, the three of them headed to the cafeteria together. They grabbed their usual favourites. Becky had a salad and some juice, Tanya got a burger, fries, and a soda, and Cindy picked up a sandwich and some milk. Then they retreated to their corner of the cafeteria, where the three could sit and talk without being bothered.

As they all started eating, Becky asked "Hey Cindy, you seem a little down. You were really happy this morning, what happened?"

The small blonde had a mouthful of her sandwich, but she sighed a little. After washing it down with some milk, she replied quietly, "It's the first time in almost three months we've seen most of these people, right? Just, walking around the halls and seeing familiar faces, and everyone's a little taller, a little bigger than I remember."

She paused, then added, "Even you two. It's not as noticeable with you cos I've seen you both over the summer. But... We're in grade twelve now, and everyone else is growing and getting more mature and stuff. While I could still pass for a twelve-year-old kid. Next year we'll be in college and it'll be even worse." She was frowning now, looking and sounding a little dejected.

Tanya frowned as well and asked, "Are you sure you're not growing? I mean, you look a little older now..."

Cindy shook her head. "Nikki taught me some tricks with make-up and stuff, and Sam helped me find some clothes that look more 'adult' on me. But I had a check-up last week... Still exactly five feet tall, still eighty-nine pounds." She then added a little quieter, "And still no development anywhere else." She glanced down towards her chest. "The doctor's actually worried, she wants to get me tested for some kinda genetic disorder or something."

Becky frowned, "I'm sure there's something the doctor can do. I mean, if it turns out there's something wrong, there's probably like some drugs or something they can give you, right?"

Cindy sighed and shook her head again. "It's been ten months since I got cursed. I'm stuck this way forever. I wouldn't be surprised if She eventually resets all my ID or whatever, back to sixteen again. Cos in a couple years there's no way anyone will believe I'm nineteen or twenty, still looking like this."

Tanya sighed, "I'm sorry, Cindy... I hope things get better for you though. She can't keep you like that forever."

Becky was frowning now, and asked, "Wait, how did you get cursed? Who cursed you?"

The small blonde sighed again, "It's a long story, Becky. I don't wanna talk about it here though."

She nodded slowly, "Ok Cindy. I hope things get better too." She then changed the subject, asking "Do you know yet when you're moving?"

Cindy finished her sandwich, then nodded, "The new place is supposed to be finished at the end of this month. We're gonna be moving on October eighth." She then added, "I'll still be coming here though, I wouldn't agree to move if it meant I couldn't keep seeing you two."

"That's pretty exciting." Becky smiled. "It'll be harder to come and visit you though. I guess there's no busses out that way."

Tanya asked, "How are you going to get to school? Keep borrowing Nikki's Rio?"

Cindy grinned widely, "It's my Rio now! Nikki gave it to me!"

Becky gasped, "What? No way!"

Tanya was grinning too, "Sweet!"

"Yeah!" Cindy smiled. "They got a big SUV in the spring, and after we've moved they're gonna get another SUV for Jess and Kara." She then added quietly, "I dunno if I'll always drive though. It's fun right now, but in the winter it'll probably suck."

Becky frowned, "What will you do in the winter that sucks less than driving? Stay home?"

Cindy grinned and whispered, "Teleport? That's what Jess and Kara have been doing, to get to University."

Becky rolled her eyes, "Yeah, right." Then she frowned, "Wait, for real?"

Tanya and Cindy both just giggled a little.

"Don't suppose I could get in on this witchcraft stuff someday, could I?" Becky asked.

Cindy shrugged, "I'll hafta ask, so no promises. But you already know about it, so maybe."

They'd all finished their lunch by now, and were starting to think about their afternoon classes.

As they started to get up from their seats, Tanya then reminded them, "You're both coming over to my place this Saturday right? Pizza, cola, horror movies, fun?"

"For sure, Tanya." Becky replied. Saturday was her friend's seventeenth birthday, and the three had been planning the celebration for a week or two. "I'm looking forward to it!"

Cindy smiled, "Me too! I can't wait."

:=: Samantha :=:

Sam picked up her mug and had another sip of coffee, as her eyes moved over the screen. She typed out some comments, then saved it and moved on to the next one.

She was sitting at the dining table with her laptop, reviewing her students' most recent work. Some of them were doing well, a few were struggling. Most were in the middle.

She glanced over to her left. Nikki was in the kitchen already, it looked like she was getting a head start on whatever she had planned for dinner.

Sam sat back a little in her chair and smiled.

Today was the first Friday of November. They'd been in their new home four weeks now, and it was wonderful.

The front half of the main floor was a large open-concept design. At one end was a spacious kitchen, set up with professional equipment. There was a large gas range, two ovens, a big dishwasher, a large fridge, a separate freezer, and of course a separate wine fridge. Plus various small appliances, like the microwave, coffee maker, and so on.

An island-counter separated the kitchen area from the dining space, where Sam was sitting. Their new dining table was big enough to seat eight comfortably, or ten if they sat close. It expanded though and could fit a dozen people quite nicely. They had eight chairs placed around it, and some more chairs against the wall on either side of the matching hutch.

Beyond that was a comfortable sitting area with their large leather sectional, along with two leather easy-chairs. All were facing a big fireplace.

And finally at the far end there was a large-screen TV on the wall, and another sofa and some chairs.

The front door was near the sitting area, a meter or two away from the fireplace. A side-door from the kitchen opened onto a patio, where next summer they'd be enjoying barbecue meals and sitting around a large picnic table, or the fire-pit.

There were several large bay windows along the front wall, which filled the space with light and gave them a gorgeous view out over their land.

Opposite the front door was a wide staircase that led up to the second floor. The front of the house had a high, vaulted ceiling, and the second floor only took up the back half of the house. The bedroom doors all opened onto a gallery-style hallway, overlooking the living space.

There were four nearly-identical bedroom suites upstairs. They were all large, and each was equipped with an ensuite bathroom and walk-in closet. All had windows facing back into their forested backyard, and all had doors that opened onto the large shared balcony that wrapped around the back and one side of the house.

Sam and Nikki's room was the largest. It was at the corner, same side of the house as the kitchen. With windows on two walls, it gave the couple a lovely view of both the woods and the vineyard.

The other three bedrooms were all roughly the same size. Jessica and Kara's room was the other corner suite, at the opposite end of the house. They had a view of the backyard forest, and when the winery and spiritual retreat were finished, they'd be able to see them both as well.

Cindy's room was next to that, and the room between Cindy and the master was empty for now. A spare room where guests could stay.

The back wall beneath the upper level gallery was all exposed stones and bricks, meant to look like the building was a converted barn or something. It was stylish, and separated the front living space from the back where things were a bit more functional.

A couple doorways in the stone wall led to a hallway, and off of that they had a ground floor washroom, a large closet / storage room, a laundry room with a back door out to the woods, an office, and a staircase down to the basement. Down there they had a small home gym, another washroom, a storage area, the furnace and other utilities, and of course, a wine-cellar.

Sam had another sip of her coffee as she reflected over the past few months. She'd graduated in June, a few weeks after her and Nikki's wedding. Jessica and Kara had completed their first year, and Cindy finished grade eleven. The five had spent most of the summer enjoying their vacation, while work on their new home was progressing rapidly.

Of course they continued their work for the Goddess, and continued to oversee the work of the support group they'd founded. Sam and Nikki had been more hands-off with that though. They had other people who took care of most of the day to day stuff. They were only involved when there were difficult cases, situations that required magical help.

In September, Jess and Kara had started their second year at Brock, both were still working towards their BA in Visual Arts. Cindy had gone back to high-school and started grade twelve with her friends. And Sam had begun teaching a history class, to first year students at university.

After they'd moved, Jess had been faced with the prospect of several long weekends spent hunched over, drawing protective runes in their new home. There were so many doors and windows, it looked like an overwhelming project. Then Cindy had surprised them all yet again, telling them all she'd taught herself to write the runes over the summer. The small teen then joined Jessica in her work, and it had taken the two of them only three weekends to get the new house fully warded.

Nikki meanwhile had been playing house-wife pretty much all year. The only exception was when she needed to make decisions or give guidance on the construction of their winery. Work on that had begun a few months ago, though it wouldn't be completed till next summer. The spiritual retreat / wellness centre was also under construction now, and expected to be finished by spring.

Sam and Nikki had both been involved in some of the business aspects of things. A few corporations were set up, one for the winery, one for the retreat, and a holding company owned them both. Sam and Nikki were the joint shareholders of that. They had an accountant who looked after all the messy details though, so they didn't need to get bogged down with that side of things.

Next spring, Nikki would start interviewing and hiring people to work at the winery, and Sam would be doing the same for the retreat. She already had several ideas, and had spoken to a few people who were excited about the opportunity.

Finally, Samantha snapped out of her reverie. She discovered the last of her coffee had gone cold, so she set it aside and focused again on her laptop, reviewing the last of her students' papers.

• • • • •

It was getting dark early again, typical for November. Jess and Kara had just returned home from university. They seldom drove any more. Instead, the two would teleport from their bedroom directly to an empty room on campus. Then after classes they'd find an empty washroom or somewhere quiet, and teleport back home again.

Nikki had dinner well underway, and Sam had finished grading and put her laptop away for now. She was relaxing in the sitting area. They had a small fire burning, and Mo was curled up on her lap.

Outside, she spotted headlights coming up the road. In the last of the fading daylight, she could make out the small black car as it turned onto their gravel drive. That would be Cindy, returning from school.

A few minutes later the small teen came in, carrying her backpack over one shoulder. Half an hour after that, the five of them were sitting together at the dining table, enjoying the roast Nikki had prepared.

"The numbers from the harvest this year were above average, according to everyone I spoke with." Nicole was grinning. "So while it's not as fun or exciting as it'll be when we're making our own wine, it was still a pretty good profit just selling the lot on. Next spring we'll be able to enjoy some wine that came from our own land, even if we didn't make it ourselves."

They'd sold this year's harvest to the winery where Nikki used to work. Despite being fired from the hospitality side of the business, she still had good connections and contact with friends she'd made on the production side. Sam suspected Nikki might even be planning on hiring one or two of them away, to come and work here instead.

When her wife had finished enthusing about wine, her sister and Kara talked a bit about class and what they've been up to.

Towards the end of the meal, Jess asked Cindy if she'd started thinking about next year yet, what she wanted to do after high-school.

"I'm sort of torn." Cindy shrugged. "I'm really enjoying history, and it might be fun to dig more into that. I could apply to Brock, maybe even get into one of Sam's classes." the girl smiled. Then she shrugged, "It's also been kinda neat listening to Nikki talk about grapes and stuff. I know there's some courses on viniculture and that might be fun too."

Nikki asked, "What about baking? You're really good at that, and you really seem to enjoy it."

"Nah." the girl shook her head. "It's a fun hobby and stuff, but I don't wanna do that as a job or career or whatever. It's fun making sweets and stuff at home for just us though."

In a way, Samantha was a little surprised the small teen's interests seemed divided between what were essentially her own speciality and Nicole's passion. Although she knew Cindy already took after them both in other ways. She tended to dress like Samantha at times, and Sam suspected the girl's love of baking had been inspired by Nikki's love of cooking.

After thinking it over for a few minutes, Sam suggested, "If you like, I can spend a bit of time with you talking about history, to see if you want to pursue that. And I'm sure Nikki would love to talk wine with you, so you could get a better idea about that as well."

The small blonde nodded, "Thanks Sam. That'd be nice."

When they finished dinner, the five of them helped clean up, then they settled down together for a relaxing evening between the fire and the tv.

:=: Jessica :=:

"When we volunteered to do this, I never actually thought it would be so fun." Jess grinned.

Kara chuckled a little, "Yeah, it's turned out a lot better than I thought too."

It was the twelfth of November, and they'd both taken the day off from university. They were sitting at the large dining table, with sketch pads and pencils. A half dozen drawings were already scattered across the table.

The two were trying to come up with some designs for the winery and spiritual retreat. Logos and motifs and that sort of thing. Part of the problem was there was still some uncertainty about what the place would be called.

Jess had wanted to stick with something like her Witches of Welland idea. She'd suggested Wines of Welland, or Witchy Wines.

Nikki had rejected them though. She felt the first one was too generic, and the second would be hard to sell to the masses, even if it might be popular among some niche customers.

Sam felt that they should honour the Goddess, either in the name of the place, or the artwork, or in some way.

And Cindy had kept out of the whole discussion, the small teen had been rather moody this past week.

Jess suspected it was because they'd just passed the one-year anniversary of the girl being cursed. A year ago she was alone, homeless, and struggling to adapt to a very unfamiliar new body. She never talked about her experiences during that week alone on the streets, but Jess had a good idea of what the girl would have gone through. She knew the kid would probably rather forget all about that time, and that anniversary.

"What do you think of this, for just a general design?" Kara asked, holding out their sketchpad.

Jess smiled, "Oh! This is nice."

Kara's latest idea depicted a labrys rising up from a small pentacle. There was a bunch of grapes to the left of the labrys, and a wine-glass on the right. These were all surrounded by a wreath of grape vines, and with a ring of 'decorative' runes around that. There was a space at the top where the winery name would fit, once Nikki had decided what it was.

After staring for a minute or two, Jess nodded again. "As far as I'm concerned, we're done. You've nailed it, Kara."

Kara smiled a little, "Well, we'll have to wait and see what Nikki thinks. But thanks, Jess."

Jess nodded, and called upstairs, "Nikki? You busy? Kara's got a masterpiece to show you!"

A few minutes later Sam and Nikki joined them at the table, and the two of them were looking at Kara's idea.

"Yeah. I like this. I could see this on a bottle of wine. And over the front doors of the winery." Nikki was grinning widely as she held the sketchpad.

Sam nodded, then said, "All that's left now is the name, love."

Nicole set the pad down and said, "I had an idea. It's short and maybe a bit cheesy, but I like it."

The goth took a breath, then announced, "Divine Wines."

The other three sat in silence for a few moments. Jessica was saying it over and over in her head, trying to get a feel for it.

As the silence continued, Nikki frowned. "No good? You don't like it?"

Sam answered first. "Actually I can see it. You're right, it's short and maybe a bit silly at first, but it honours the Goddess. Most people will just think it's a fun name, but anyone in the know, will understand what it really means."

Kara nodded as well, "Yeah. I like it, Nicole. I think it'll work."

Jess then giggled, "And now I know what I'm gonna call the winery."

Sam frowned a little, and asked cautiously, "Divine Wines winery?"

Jess shook her head and grinned, "It's the Divinery!" She couldn't help herself, giggling more as all three pairs of eyes rolled in response.

Nikki wisely chose to ignore Jess's idea, and focused on Kara. "Can you turn this into some finished artwork? I don't know yet what colours we're going to go with, but I assume if you do this digitally we can play with the colours easily later on?"

"Ok Nikki." Kara nodded. "Yeah it's no problem, I'll lay it out so we can recolour and mess with it all you want."

Sam then sighed, "I still have a lot of thought to put into the retreat... It still needs a name and everything as well. And it'll need a logo and all that stuff too..."

Jess nodded, "We're happy to help sis, but you have to give us some guidance first. Like, give us an idea of what it is, what it'll do, that sort of thing."

Sam nodded, and tried to explain.

There would be meditation facilities, a massage room, sauna, a small salon type area where they could offer makeovers. There'd be a friendly welcoming living-room area with a fireplace. There would also be a slightly more formal 'meeting room' where they could offer classes and that sort of thing. The second level would have a handful of suites where guests would stay.

Sam had already talked to a few people who were interested in joining when it was ready to open next year. They'd also be offering afternoon or weekend events, like self-help getaways, self-improvement seminars, and of course spiritual- and nature-based experiences.

And beyond all of that, the whole thing would also allow them to provide a short-term place for people to stay, while they were receiving some more 'transformative' options the retreat could offer. Those wouldn't exactly be advertised to the public, but would be available to those in need.

After listening to her sister's explanation, Jess thought for a bit.

She then suggested, "I think we should keep some of the same elements from Kara's winery logo, but switch it up a bit. Change it around a little, but keep it close so it's obvious the two are tied, related. Focus on the spiritual and less on the wine. Maybe replace the grape vine wreath with another plant. Like holly? And keep the labrys and pentacle, but make them a bit smaller, and add something else... Maybe a tree. Tree of life sort of thing."

As she was talking, she could see Sam's lips starting to curl into a smile. "Jess that sounds really good. If you and Kara could come up with a few designs based on those ideas, that would be brilliant!"

"No problem sis." Jess smiled back, then she and Kara got back to work again.

Nikki and Sam got up and as they were heading away, Kara mentioned, "Nicole, I had an idea. Maybe I stole this from somewhere... But for the wine labels? Jess and I could do custom artwork. So each kind of wine would have an unique label design. Maybe even change it every year, like every vintage, every kind, would be unique. It might make it fun, encourage people to try and collect them or something?"

By the smile on Nikki's face, Jess knew the idea was already a hit. "That's perfect Kara! I love it!"

Jess was already sketching out a new logo, then another inspiration hit her. "Sis!" She called. "Got a name for you!"

Sam hesitated, then asked "Ok, what is it?"

"The Divinery, Wellness Spa and Spiritual Retreat!" Jess grinned.

Samantha rolled her eyes and shook her head. Then she frowned, and looked thoughtful. "You know what, sis? I like it."

Jess looked at her, "Wait, seriously?"

Kara and Nikki were staring at Sam as well now, as the brunette nodded, "Yeah. It's a dumb name for the winery, but I like it for the retreat. The Divinery." She smiled as she turned and walked away, an arm around her wife.

Jess giggled a little, "Cool!"

:=: Cindy :=:

Cindy drifted awake, and frowned. She really didn't want to get up today. It was Monday, but that wasn't the problem. Today was November fifteenth. Her birthday.

She was dreading it. Her housemates would all be saying happy birthday, then at school her friends would be saying it. Then tonight the gang would want to do a special dinner or something.

She sighed. There was no way to get out of it. She whispered "Sorry Mo." as she started to get up. The large black cat grumbled a bit at the foot of her bed.

Cindy padded quietly into her bathroom. After she used the toilet, she washed her hands then just stared at herself in the mirror. She looked the same as always. Short, skinny, tiny. She was used to it, it was her. The thing was, she was exactly the same every day. She didn't grow. At all.

Her body was weird. The doctor hadn't said it but she could tell Dr. Stevens was thinking it, every time she saw Cindy. She was small enough to pass for a twelve-year-old, but tended to look more like she was around fourteen or fifteen.

A year ago today, she'd begged Sam and Jess and the others for sanctuary, and their Goddess had granted it. She'd been given a full name and some ID, and they'd let her join the gang. But apart from all that, she was still cursed.

Cindy went back out to her bedroom. The small backpack she used as a purse was on the floor by the bed. She picked it up and dug through it then found her ID. She half expected to see the dates had been changed. She often had a hard time getting people to believe she was sixteen, and as of today, it would be even harder to convince folks she was seventeen.

She stared at her ID for a few seconds. The year of birth hadn't changed. So she was officially seventeen. Even though she knew she'd really be twenty-three by now. She'd been twenty-two when the Goddess had cursed her last November, so she'd have turned twenty-three back on...

Cindy frowned. She couldn't remember when his birthday was.

She hadn't been him for just over a year now. That anniversary was last week, and thankfully nobody had mentioned it. She hadn't forgotten that she used to be him, and she still remembered some stuff from his life, but a lot of it had faded away over the past year.

Nobody outside of her fellow witches had any idea she was once a college student named Scott Matheson. Or was it Mathew? Math-something? Cindy frowned again.

She realized his last name had faded, along with his birthday. She'd already forgotten what he was studying. She knew he was into sports and was probably an athlete or something. And she was pretty sure he didn't have her learning disability, with numbers and stuff.

There were some things she could remember clearly though. Like all the times he'd teased Jess and Kara and their other friends, or talked trash about them. And the night he'd assaulted Jess was burned into her memory in perfect clarity. Those memories still haunted her, and left her feeling nauseous whenever they surfaced. Jessica was her friend, her sister. It killed her a little inside, every time she remembered what he'd done to Jess.

She continued to think about the past a while longer. She couldn't remember the names and faces of his friends any more. She knew Tanya had once been one of those friends, but the rest of the details had faded. And she knew Tanya didn't like to think about that stuff anyways, so it had been ages since Cindy last talked about it with her.

There were a couple other guys who'd been part of their group. Cindy had no idea what their names were, or what they looked like. She assumed they'd have graduated by now and moved on, so she wasn't likely to run into them anyways.

In a way it was like her past was disappearing behind her.

She wondered if one day she'd forget about him completely. The thought didn't bother her, though she knew it would make things weirder. As it was she had no parents, no childhood, no background. She sprang into existence just over a year ago, and if she didn't remember who she'd been before that, she'd have no history at all.

Finally she sighed and started getting dressed. Her big walk-in closet was half empty. There were some colourful kids-style clothes at one end, and some darker more mature clothes at the other. It had taken her a while, but she'd eventually figured out that the only 'look' that ensured she wouldn't be mistaken for a kid was 'serious slightly dark moody teen'.

If she grinned, or giggled, or pouted, or stuck out her tongue, then people would see a kid. Safe expressions were neutral, frowning, or looking bored. Basically anything that conveyed minimal emotion was safe. Showing too much of any emotion would get her clocked as a kid.

She picked out some dark leggings and a long-sleeve knee-length dress, then got out one of her little bras and a pair of panties. She'd do her makeup and fix her hair after breakfast.

As she got dressed she was a little annoyed to find her clothes had shrunk a bit. She knew she'd probably screwed up doing her laundry again. Picked the wrong setting or the wrong time on the machine yet again.

The doctors called it dyscalculia, but basically she just sucked with numbers, and really sucked with math.

Numbers all looked the same to her, decimals wandered around, and big numbers with lots of digits confused her. She struggled to judge sizes, or guess how many or how much of something was infront of her. It wouldn't be the first time she'd used too much or too little detergent, or picked the wrong settings on the washer or the dryer.

She was used to it, and she was usually very careful, but sometimes she got distracted or forgot.

She finally pulled on a pair of dark socks, then her favourite sneakers, and with another sigh, she emerged from her bedroom.

Usually nobody bothered with fancy breakfast on weekdays, but this morning Nikki was making french toast, and had just started cooking some bacon. Sure enough, all four of them were there, smiling at her.

Jessica gave her a hug, "Happy Birthday Cindy!"

Then Sam hugged her next. Thankfully Kara just gave her a smile. The tall enby wasn't big on the hugs and usually didn't get excited about stuff like this.

Cindy put on a happy face and thanked them all, then got herself some apple juice before she sat at the table.

When breakfast was ready, Nikki and Sam brought the food over and they all ate. Cindy could never eat very much, but it was tasty and helped improve her mood a little.

Afterwards she helped the others tidy up. Then Jess and Kara teleported to the university. Normally Cindy would take her little Rio to school, but after the fancy breakfast there wasn't enough time this morning.

She went up to her bedroom and brushed her teeth then did her make-up and hair, and finally grabbed her backpack. She made sure she had the books and things she'd need, then she closed her eyes and focused.

Off the back hallway on the ground floor at her high-school, there was a seldom-used maintenance room. Sean had shown her and Becky how to get in there last spring. In September, Cindy had snuck in and put an enchantment on an electrical panel on the wall in there. The enchantment didn't do anything, but it acted as a sort of marker, or a homing beacon. Something she could locate with magic.

First she used the clairvoyance spell and made sure there was nobody in the room, then she worked the teleport spell.

That was an interesting spell, with so much potential. Complicated to learn, but not that difficult to cast. It was power-hungry though. She'd worked out that the power requirements were based on how much stuff you wanted to move, but distance was irrelevant. Last month she'd done some experimenting, that the others didn't yet know about.

She'd cast her homing-beacon enchantment on a piece of paper, then folded it up and mailed it to an address she'd found online, for the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Every night she tracked the letter with the clairvoyance spell, and just under two weeks later it was in a wastebasket at an information kiosk near the Tower.

That night when everything was closed and quiet, she teleported herself to France.

She found a public washroom and left a homing-beacon enchantment in there, so she could come back whenever she wanted. Then she went to visit the tower itself.

From the base she could see the top of the tower, which meant she could teleport up there. She'd taken some pictures with her phone. It wasn't much of a view at that time of night, but she took a selfie as she stood infront of the distinctive ironwork in her pink nightie. In all she spent about an hour in Paris, then she'd returned home.

Someday she'd tell the others about her research, she wasn't quite ready yet. There was an enchanted letter on its way to a tourism office in Melbourne, and another making its way to Tokyo. She had some further research she wanted to do.

The coast was clear outside the maintenance room, and Cindy made her way to her locker. She met Tanya and Becky there, and they both grinned and wished her happy birthday. They had both had birthday cards for her.

Cindy smiled and thanked them, then tucked the cards into her backpack for now.

Tanya then gestured down at Cindy's bare ankles, "Middle of November is a little cold out for capris, Cindy."

"Ugh." She rolled her eyes and frowned. "I screwed up the laundry again and shrank everything. Even my stupid bra's tighter, and I didn't even know you could shrink those." She sighed. "I liked this outfit too."

Becky asked, "Is it true you're not doing anything for your birthday? I was thinking we could at least go see a movie together or something, some little celebration?"

Cindy made a bit of a face and sighed. "I don't really feel like celebrating, sorry Becky." She then added, "If you and Tanya wanna come over on Friday night though, that'd work? I'll bring the car and drive you both after school. It'll be an overnight thing though, so let your folks know. I'll drive you home again on Saturday."

Tanya was frowning, as Becky asked, "What's the occasion then? If not your birthday?"

"Friday's the full moon." Tanya said, looking at Cindy. "Are you sure...?"

Cindy nodded. "Sam said it was ok." She then leaned in closer to Becky and whispered, "If you're still interested, Friday night you can come over and join us. Be initiated into the coven."

Her friend's eyes widened and she grinned. "Yes! That'd be so cool! I'll be there for sure, thanks Cindy!"

Tanya grinned, "That's great! It'll be cool, all three of us doing magic together. I've been kind of sad Becky's been left out so long."

Cindy nodded, "Yeah, sorry. Stuff's been super busy lately, with the move and getting settled in and everything."

The three continued chatting as they made their way to class, getting to their seats just as the bell rang.

The rest of the day went by pretty much normally. Cindy was able to forget about the whole birthday thing for a while, and just deal with her classes. At lunch the conversation was mostly about what to expect at the sabbat on Friday.

When classes were finally out at the end of the day, she said bye to her friends then went into one of the washrooms. She made sure nobody else was around, then worked the teleport spell and returned home to her bedroom.

She sat on her bed and pulled off her sneakers. For some reason her feet were aching today, and she didn't even do that much walking. Her clothes were uncomfortable too, so she ended up getting undressed and just pulling on a nightie, even though it was only four in the afternoon.

She slumped on her bed and started trying to deal with math homework, which always took forever. She hated it. It was the class that took most of her time, caused her the most stress, and she never got grades better than mid fifties. Just barely enough to pass, so she'd be able to graduate this year.

A little under two hours later, she was nearly finished the assignments when she heard Sam calling her to come for dinner.

Cindy emerged from her room and quietly went down the stairs. Everyone else was at the table, waiting for her. She mumbled, "Sorry I'm late."

As she slipped into her seat, Jessica asked, "Everything ok Cindy? You don't seem very happy about your birthday. And you're not usually ready for bed this early."

She shrugged a little. "I screwed up my laundry again and shrunk everything. It was kinda uncomfortable so I just got undressed."

As she started to eat, she noticed the others were sort of staring at her. Jess and Nikki were smiling slightly, Kara had an eyebrow raised, and Sam was looking a little concerned.

"What's wrong?" She asked. "Do I have something on my face?"

Jessica replied, "Cindy, I don't think your clothes have shrunk. You look like you've grown a bit."

Cindy rolled her eyes, "Not funny, Jess."

"Cindy, she's not teasing." Samantha said. "You look a little taller."

Cindy looked at Sam, then at the others around the table. Her eyes widened, and she said "Excuse me!" as she dashed back upstairs.

There was a scale under the sink in her bathroom, and a tape-measure in the drawer. She hadn't used either in months, since she knew her body never changed.

She grabbed a pencil and stood in the doorframe and made a mark, then pulled out the tape measure and checked it. She couldn't believe her eyes. She got the scale out next and stood on it.

Her heart was pounding. She was five feet, two inches tall, and ninety-eight pounds! Still small for her age, but she'd grown!

As she made her way back down to the dinner table, she had a big smile on her face.

"You guys are right! I grew a bit!" She sat back down, still wearing a huge grin.

Jess then said, "Something's changed there too." She was pointing at Cindy's wrist.

Cindy looked down and saw her initiation tattoo had changed. Instead of the small solitary glyph she'd worn for the past year, there was now a larger, more complicated set of runes. It was similar to the ones the others had. The first word symbolized the Goddess, and the second word was unique to her.

Nicole was the Embodied, Samantha the Priestess. Jessica was the Scribe, and Kara was the Champion.

Cindy's word had a few potential translations. Weaver of Magic was one way to put it, but a more concise translation would be Sorceress.

Nikki smiled, "It's been one year, one week, and one day, Cindy. I think She's granted you a bit of a reprieve." After a pause, she nodded towards the new tattoo and added, "And She says, you've earned that title. Happy birthday."

The others nodded in agreement, "Happy birthday!"

Cindy was still grinning widely, as she could feel some tears pooling in her eyes.

She wiped her eyes as she smiled, "Thank you!"

 

End