=:= Amanda =:=

Once again it was all five of them sitting together for lunch. Sadie and Ashley were sitting together across from Amanda. Jenny and Beth were next to her. They were at the end of a row of tables, sort of in a corner for a bit more privacy.

The mood around the table was a bit mixed. Ashley was still emotional at times, after the shock with her parents on Friday. Sadie was concerned for her girlfriend, but doing her best to help Ashley cope with the situation.

Beth was actually in a good mood. Last night she and Maria had announced that Beth officially changed her name to Bethany rather than Elizabeth. Though they'd all still be calling her Beth most of the time. And even though that was something Beth was obviously happy about, it left Amanda feeling a little off. And she suspected Jenny felt the same.

Amanda was hoping she and Jenny could talk with Maria in private, to find out more about that decision. And maybe discuss how they felt about it.

The five of them were just starting to eat when Ben came striding up to them carrying his tray. Amanda noticed her boyfriend had a bit of a cocky smile on his face and a glint in his eyes. She knew that meant he either had some news he wanted to brag about, or he was up to something.

He set his tray down on the table next to Amanda's, and as he sat down beside her he smiled at everyone and casually said "Hello ladies. How's my favourite coven of witches doing today?"

Amanda felt her face go pale as she glanced around at the others.

Ashley was looking at Ben with a surprised, suspicious look. Jenny was frowning a little, Beth was looking confused. And Sadie was staring right at Amanda, with a frown on her face. Crap. Her twin sister had already figured out she told Ben about the coven.

Amanda tried to play it off as a joke, smiling at her boyfriend "Witches huh? What's that all about?" She hoped he'd clue in and drop the subject.

He was still wearing that cocky smile on his face as he picked up his can of soda. "Come on, Amanda, quit the act. I've been thinking it over again, and I want in. I'm serious. I deserve it!"

Her twin sister's frown deepened, and now she was shaking her head slowly at Amanda. Double crap. Amanda knew she was in trouble. It was bad enough he was doing this infront of Sadie and Ashley, but with Jenny and Beth here, she knew she had to shut him up.

Amanda leaned closer and hissed "Gods damn it Ben shut up! We cannot discuss this stuff in public!"

He seemed determined to be an asshole though, and just shook his head. "No I won't shut up. It's bullshit that Ashley got in and I didn't. And I'm going to keep talking about it until I get in too."

"Amanda?" Jenny asked warily. "What's he talking about?"

Sadie answered first, "We're really not sure Jenny. I think Amanda needs to take Ben somewhere for a private conversation though."

The hint was clear as day, and Amanda knew Sadie was right. She got up and said "Ben, come on."

Her boyfriend tried to protest, "I haven't even touched my burger yet..."

"Come! On!" Amanda stated angrily.

He sighed but got up and followed her out of the cafeteria. Amanda just hoped Sadie could come up with a story or something to clear things up with Jenny and Beth.

There really wasn't anywhere very private to talk in the school, so she settled for quiet instead. They went into the library and sat together in an empty study cubicle.

"For fuck sake Ben!" Amanda whispered angrily. "You promised me! You swore you wouldn't tell a soul! Now Sadie and Ashley know I told you! I'm going to be in so much trouble!"

Ben just shrugged, acting casual and calm. "I don't know why you're getting so worked up, Amanda. I didn't tell anyone who doesn't already know."

"You fucking talked infront of Jenny and Beth!" Amanda fought to keep her voice low. "They don't know!"

She couldn't tell him why it was so important to keep Beth away from magic and witchcraft without spilling more secrets, and now she knew her boyfriend couldn't be trusted. She just hoped he didn't mess things up for their youngest sister. If he did though, Amanda knew it would be her fault and that thought was starting to make her feel nauseous.

Ben just rolled his eyes "You're keeping secrets from your sister and cousin? That's kinda shitty of the rest of you."

"They're too young Ben!" Amanda hissed. "That's all there is to it, when they're older, they'll know."

He shrugged again, "Whatever. I want in Amanda. I got shot for you, I deserve to be in."

She sighed, slumping a bit. She thought it through, then finally shook her head.

"No. I'm sorry Ben. I actually talked with Maria and asked, and she was going to look into it. But after this stunt, forget it. You just proved you can't be trusted."

Ben frowned "What? No fucking way Amanda. I deserve to be in!"

Amanda sighed again "I'm sorry but no. There's already going to be trouble from this. I'm going to be in trouble as it is, and I have no idea what's going to happen when I tell them you know, and that you blabbed it infront of Jenny and Beth."

"So don't fucking tell them, Amanda." Ben stated. "What they don't know won't hurt them."

"Sadie and Ashley already know you know! If I don't tell the coven, they will!" Amanda was getting angrier at his casual attitude and how entitled he was acting about all this.

He shrugged, "You think they'll narc on you? Then fuck them too."

"Fuck, Ben!" Amanda cursed, a little louder than she intended. She lowered her voice then hissed "This isn't a game! There's life and death shit going on, and you don't know what the fuck you're doing or saying. I'm asking you to drop it, forget it, and keep your damn word!"

"No." He replied calmly. "Let me in, or I'll keep talking."

Amanda shook her head, then sighed. "Fine. We're done. Good bye, Ben." She got up and started to walk away.

Ben stood as well, and growled "Amanda!"

She paused and looked back at him, "What?"

"If you dump me, I'm going to tell everyone. I'll post it online. Everyone's going to know you and your family are witches."

Amanda hesitated, then just sighed. "Please don't do that, Ben. I'm asking you to reconsider, and remember you swore to keep it a secret." Then she turned and walked away.

Instead of returning to the cafeteria, she went into the nearest washroom. After making sure the stalls were empty she got out her phone and called Maria.

The conversation was short and painful, but she quickly told her aunt the situation. She confessed that she told Ben about being a witch and joining the coven. Then she explained he wanted to join and that he talked about it infront of Jenny and Beth, and then threatened to post stuff online if he didn't get his way.

Maria had been silent while Amanda was talking, and then for a minute or so afterwards. It was that kind of scary quiet that meant she was actually really angry but keeping it to herself.

Finally she said, in a voice that had that dangerous calm, "I understand. Thank you for telling me, Amanda. I will have to explain all of this to Samantha and Nicole. There may be some consequences for Ben...and perhaps for yourself as well."

"I know." Amanda sighed. "I messed up. I'm sorry."

After that, Amanda returned to the cafeteria and rejoined the others for what remained of their lunch period.

=:= Maria =:=

Dinner would be ready in thirty or forty minutes, whenever the pizzas arrived. Jenny and Beth were in the family room watching TV at the moment. Maria was in the living-room, sitting in one of the wing-back chairs, looking at the three older teens. Amanda, Sadie, and Ashley were all sitting across from her on the sofa.

"I know it was wrong, I know I shouldn't have said anything." Amanda sighed. "It was over a week ago, before we even knew the threat was real..."

"That's no excuse, Amanda." Maria stated. "Threat or not, the most important thing we all agreed to when we join is to keep the secrets."

The blonde teen sighed again. "I know Maria. He was pressuring me... He thought I was avoiding him? Because instead of hanging out after school I've been coming straight home, for the magic lessons and stuff? And... He reminded me how he got shot for me, and almost died. He said he deserved the truth, and I didn't want to lie to him."

Maria shook her head, keeping her expression firm. She knew Amanda was a good kid and she could well imagine how the girl had been manipulated or pressured into thinking it would be ok to tell her boyfriend about the coven. Unfortunately it was the worst possible time for this sort of problem to crop up.

Sadie and Ashley were keeping quiet and looking serious, and Amanda looked both sorry and nervous.

"Sadie, how did you handle things with Beth and Jenny, after Ben talked infront of them?" Maria asked.

The brunette twin replied, "I said he was asking about moving in with us... That he thought it was more like a frat house or something here, since Ashley was staying here now too. That he thought we were having parties all the time and stuff, and that's why he wanted to move in."

She added, "As for him calling us witches, I tried to play that off as a joke. You should probably talk with Jenny because I think she suspects. She knows you're a witch, she knows about magic. It's not a big leap to assume Amanda and I are learning it too."

Sadie took a deep breath, then said "I have no idea what Beth thinks or suspects. You know she's always quiet... That means she's watching and listening. And thinking. She's a smart girl. She probably knows a lot more than she lets on." She finally sighed, "Beth's going to figure it out sooner or later. Or something else is going to happen and we won't be able to hide it any more."

"What will happen if Beth finds out?" Amanda asked, sounding nervous. "I know she doesn't remember, and you said we all have to keep it secret from her but... When she finds out, is that going to do something? Hurt her or something?"

Maria shook her head. "I don't know Amanda. The Goddess was vague when She told me, and with everything else that's happened since then, I haven't had the opportunity to ask for more information. My concern though, is that this sort of thing might start bringing her old memories back too soon."

Amanda and Sadie both sighed a little hearing that. Both looked worried, and Amanda also looked guilty.

As uncomfortable as Maria was with how the Goddess had chosen to deal with Liz, or Beth now, she had a feeling things would be even worse for the girl if the old memories started coming back before she'd had time to make enough new, positive memories for herself.

"What about Ben?" Ashley asked. "Is the coven going to do anything to him, to keep him from talking?"

Maria nodded, "That's already been taken care of." She saw the look of concern on Amanda's face. Even after all this, she was still worried about him.

In a soft, nervous voice, Amanda asked "What did they do to him?"

"The Goddess has placed a curse on him," Maria replied. "Nothing will happen as long as he keeps his word to you, Amanda. But if he tries to tell anyone, or say anything online, that will trigger it. Every time he tries to expose us, he will be further affected."

Amanda sighed, "I hope he keeps his word."

"So do I Amanda, for your sake." Maria said, shaking her head. "It hasn't been decided yet, but there may still be some consequences for you too. I hope not. But after the attempt on Nikki's life, and what they've been doing to people's families... You know what they did to Ashley's parents. It's also happened to Tanya, Becky, and Brandi's families in the past two days."

Maria stated in a harder tone, "Normally we could laugh it off if someone publicly accused us of witchcraft, but right now that kind of thing could get one of us killed."

Sadie was looking worried now, and put an arm around Amanda's shoulders, giving her twin a comforting squeeze. "Whatever happens sis, I've got your back. I know you didn't mean to put anyone in danger."

Amanda just nodded and sighed, "I'm sorry..."

=:= Benjamin =:=

Ben sprawled across his bed, still scowling. He'd been angry all through his afternoon classes, and of course Amanda and the others avoided him after school.

He couldn't believe she dumped him! After everything he went through because of her. He almost died because of her, and this was how she rewarded him? It was bullshit.

Fine, he thought to himself. Fuck her, fuck her stupid family, fuck her stupid coven. He said he'd tell the world about them, that's exactly what he was going to do.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he opened up the social media app and started tapping out the post. Telling everyone Amanda's a witch, Sadie's a witch, their whole crazy family are a bunch of fucking witches. Same with Ashley. He wrote out how Amanda admitted it, even showed him a little magic to prove it.

When he was done he tapped the Submit button, still scowling at the screen.

A moment later, instead of seeing his message go live the phone popped up an error. Post failed.

"Fuck," he sighed.

He opened up the new post tab again and started over, writing the whole thing out a second time. This time before hitting the Submit button he selected all the text and copied it to the clipboard, just in case.

Sure enough, the app threw up the error again instead of posting.

This time he just pasted the text and hit submit. Third time in a row it failed.

"Fuck this." Ben grumbled. His phone was probably acting up again, he was overdue for an upgrade.

Leaving his phone on the bed, he got up and moved to his desk, waking up his little pink laptop as he slumped into his chair.

Once it was awake, he opened up the social media site and started typing out the post yet again. As he typed, he idly noted a few small chips in his nail polish. He probably needed to redo his nails soon. For now he was focused on telling the world about Amanda and the other witches.

Yet again the post failed, but it was an account error this time. He got a log-on prompt, asking him to verify his password. Ben grumbled in frustration as he typed out his password.

Just as he hit enter, he realized the account name that the site had prompted wasn't his. He wondered for a moment if someone had been messing with his computer, as he waited for the log-on to fail and the prompt to return.

To his surprise the social media site refreshed, showing him as logged in. Except this wasn't his account. Either the site was having some serious problems today, or some random person had the exact same password as him.

Ben frowned as he looked at the stranger's feed. The account belonged to some girl named Brittany. Looking at her selfies, he decided she was pretty cute. Her reddish-blonde hair hung down past her shoulders, she had some faint freckles on her fair skin. Her eyes were bright blue, she had pouty red lips, and a small nose. Her face was rounded, and she had a nice smile.

He wondered where she was from, how her account info wound up on his laptop, and how they had the same exact password.

Still snooping around the stranger's account, he took a look at her friends list. He was shocked to realize this Brittany chick knew a lot of the same people he did. Amanda, Ashley, Kevin, Lucy, Pete, Sadie, Sarah, Zach... This girl had to go to the same school as him, probably even in the same grade. How come he'd never seen her before? Never even heard of her?

He frowned at the screen in confusion, and idly brushed a few strands of long reddish-blonde hair behind his ear.

"Dinner time!" His mother's call from downstairs interrupted his thoughts. He was pretty hungry since he'd wound up missing lunch because of Amanda and her bullshit.

The mystery girl would have to wait till after he'd eaten. Ben got up from his desk and emerged from his room. He had to make a quick stop in the washroom though, before he went downstairs for dinner.

He flipped on the light and closed the door, then took one step towards the toilet when something out of the corner of his eye made him stop. He turned, staring at the mirror over the sink. His eyes slowly widened as his mouth went dry and he started to feel nauseous.

Staring back at him was that Brittany girl. The only thing he recognized in the mirror was his favourite t-shirt that he'd put on this morning.

The girl in the mirror was wearing his t-shirt, but it was stretched across her chest, revealing the outline of a pair of boobs that looked slightly larger than Amanda's. The shirt was too wide across the shoulders, and too long and loose around her waist. Ben's eyes drifted down. He didn't recognize the skinny-jeans, or the wide hips, ample butt, and shapely legs that the jeans showed off.

He gulped and whispered "Oh no..."

Ben prayed this was just some kind of illusion or hallucination. Maybe the mirror was cursed, not him? He braced himself then looked down.

Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck!

It wasn't the mirror! Somehow his whole body had been changed and he hadn't even noticed it!

Except now that he had noticed, he suddenly became aware of other things too. He was shorter, at least four or five inches shorter. And he could feel how the tight jeans hugged his curves, and the way whatever he had on underneath them pressed against his...

He gulped again, shaking his head as he whispered "Please no..."

His hands shook as he fumbled to undo the jeans. He had to wriggle his hips a bit to get his pants down. Underneath was a pair of plain black panties. He bit his lip and closed his eyes as he hooked his fingers under the band then pulled them down too. He finally opened his eyes, and looked.

The first thing that registered was his legs were pretty hot. Slender, but shapely. He forced himself to look at the important spot. His worst fear was realized. It was gone! Fuck!

Ben whimpered, shaking his head.

He just stood there for another minute or two, staring down at himself. He still had to pee but he hadn't taken another step towards the toilet. He was in shock, he couldn't process what had happened or what to do next.

He was jolted out of it by a sudden sharp knock at the door, and his mother's voice stating "Brittany! Dinner's on the table, let's go!"

"Sorry mom, I'll be right there!" he replied.

He gasped and clamped a hand over his mouth. Shit, that wasn't his voice! He cringed, waiting for his mom to freak out.

"Well hurry it up in there, we're starting without you." His mom stated, then he heard her footsteps heading back downstairs.

What the... He frowned. Then it hit him. She'd called him Brittany! His stomach twisted. Did his parents even remember him as Ben? Did anyone?

With another wave of nausea he wondered what else had changed, what else hadn't he noticed yet...

Finally, still feeling dazed and nauseous, he shuffled over to the toilet and nervously sat down. In a way it wasn't that different. Just relax his bladder and nature took care of the rest. At the same time it felt completely alien and wrong.

When he was done, he closed his eyes as he bent down to pull up his pants. He had to wriggle his hips some more to get the tight jeans all the way up. As he washed his hands, he finally noticed that his fingernails were all long and shaped, with red polish on them.

From downstairs his mom shouted "Britt! Dinner! Now!"

Ben gulped and emerged from the bathroom, hurrying downstairs. His boobs bounced around uncomfortably as he rushed down the stairs, forcing him to slow down. Fuck that felt so wrong!

He was feeling numb and confused as he slipped into his chair at the kitchen table. He was still half-expecting his parents to freak out.

His mom just frowned at him, "Young lady when I say dinner's ready, I mean it's ready now. Not in ten or fifteen minutes."

Ben felt another little wave of nausea hearing her say that. Young lady... His mom was acting like this was normal. And his dad hadn't said anything at all. Both of them thought he was a girl. Both of them thought he was Brittany...

His mom had made two different kinds of lasagna for dinner. The serving infront of Ben looked different, full of eggplant or something. The food his parents were eating looked normal.

Ben didn't ask why, he was too dazed to care right now. His appetite was long gone anyways, but he forced himself to eat a couple small bites.

After a minute or two of quiet, mom spoke up again. "Brittany why aren't you wearing a bra? And where did you get that shirt? It's not very flattering, dear."

Ben gulped. It was one of his favourite shirts. Dark green, with the names of Moscow subway stations printed in grey at random angles all over. He knew his mom had seen it before, he'd worn it like a dozen times since he got it two months ago. He just stared down at his food, taking another small bite.

After a pause, mom asked "Britt? Is everything ok honey?"

Dad added, "You're looking a little pale, sweetheart. What's the matter?"

"I...I'm not feeling good..." Ben said quietly.

Mom sighed, "Oh honey, I'm sorry. You should have said something."

"Eat what you can, sweetie. And drink some water," dad said.

Both his parents sounded worried now, anger and impatience replaced with care and concern.

He just nodded, and ate a few more bites of lasagna. He drained his glass of water, then mumbled "May I be excused? I...need to lie down..."

"Of course, dear." mom said. "You call if you need anything."

Ben nodded, "Thanks... Thanks for dinner."

He got up and walked slowly out of the kitchen, up the stairs, and into his room. He closed the door behind him, then just looked around. Now all the differences stood out. He could see what was wrong, what had changed.

The laptop he'd been using earlier wasn't even his. It sat on his desk where his high-end gaming pc used to be. His phone apparently got that upgrade after he'd given up on it. Instead of the older grey model he was using earlier, there was now a new phone in a pink case on the bed.

The sheets on the bed were purple, not the black and white he had before. The shelf where all his video games used to be was now full of stuffed animals. And the shelf that should have been full of books on engineering and electronics was now full of 'young adult' fantasy novels.

Even the walls had been changed. The various blueprints and technical drawings he'd had framed and hung on the wall like posters were gone. Instead there was artwork. Drawings, paintings, pastels. It all looked like original art, and probably all by the same artist. Maybe someone Brittany knew from school.

Ben opened his closet and saw the collection of skirts, dresses, and blouses. The top of his dresser had an assortment of make-up and jewelry, in place of the collection of military aircraft models he'd painstakingly assembled.

His underwear drawer was full of panties and a few thongs, his t-shirt drawer half full of bras and half full of tight girly shirts. His sock drawer still had socks, but also leggings and tights.

The only thing he had left now from his own life was the t-shirt he was wearing.

Finally Ben slumped onto his bed and hugged his pillow. It was all too much. He felt the tears coming, and didn't bother fighting it. He just pressed his face into the pillow and started sobbing quietly.