“You two get to know each other. I need to write a note explaining what happened.”

“A note?!” the copy asked, scowling. “You think that will be enough?!”

“Relax, Gemini,” Ilham replied. “I need to write up an official report you can give the authorities so both of you can have your identities recognized under the law. You want that, right?”

After a moment, the copy pouted and replied, “I guess.”

Jackson couldn’t speak. Her mouth was dry. It was still sinking in that she was looking at a copy of herself across the table. Her entire body was trembling.

“Well,” Ilham said, “I guess I’m going to leave it to you two to get to know each other.”

She walked a short distance away to a desk that hadn’t been there a moment before, then sat down and started writing. Jackson returned her attention to the copy, who was looking right at her. She gulped and slid down in her seat a little.

“So…” the copy said, “I guess I should ask what I’m supposed to call you?”

“Um…” Jackson’s heart sank. “I really had my heart set on the name Brielle…”

“But we can’t both use it,” the copy said. “So how do we decide?”

“Maybe flip a coin?”

“I don’t—”

Ilham interrupted them. “Check your pocket!”

The copy scowled, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a small gold coin.

“Fucking magic,” she swore. “Alright. I guess… heads, I get the name. Tails, you do.”

“Alright.” Jackson felt queasy. “Do you want to do it?”

The copy nodded and flicked the coin into the air. It landed with a loud clatter on the table and came to a rest halfway between them. They each craned their necks to get a glimpse of it.

“Heads.”

Jackson leaned back in her chair and groaned. She had loved that name so much, and now she didn’t even get to use it.

“So,” Brielle said, “what about you?”

“I guess I’ll use one of the other names I came up with,” Jackson said. “The other one I seriously thought about using was Maya.”

“Alright, Maya. It’s, um… nice to meet you?”

Maya nodded. “You too… Brielle.”

Brielle sighed.

“This is not how I thought my day was going to go,” she said.

“Me neither.”

“I can’t believe I have a sister all of a sudden.”

“We’re never going to be able to explain all this to Mom and Dad,” Maya realized, running her fingers through her puffy curls. “We only have one bedroom. How are we possibly going to manage having two of us in the same household?!”

She was breathing fast. Maya’s vision was swimming. She buried her head in her hands, hoping to stop the way the world was spinning around her. Then she heard a chair move and someone’s footsteps. Maya felt someone place their hands on her shoulders and looked up to see Brielle with her brow furled.

“It’s going to be okay,” she said. “We’ll figure something out. Mom and Dad… they won’t kick us out or anything. I’m sure of that. Everything else we’ll figure out one step at a time, alright?”

Maya sniffed and nodded. “Alright.”

Brielle sat back down. Ilham walked over and placed a rolled-up scroll of paper down on the table in front of her.

“Your parents can take this to the Office of Magical Registration in your state and get your legal identities updated. It might be a little difficult, since there are now two of you and that’s highly unusual. But it’s definitely enough to prove to your parents that you are who you say you are. You should be fine.”

“Hang on,” Brielle said. “You’re coming with us to explain what happened. You can’t just mess up like this and kick us out.”

Maya added, “It would be a lot of help if you could come and explain what happened to our parents.”

But Ilham was shaking her head.

“I’m not leaving my castle. The last thing I need is some panicky parents calling the cops on me. I’m in enough trouble with the magical community as it is for using unregulated magics. I don’t need to step out in the open and let them start tracking me. My signature on that document is the most you’re getting from me.”

“You can’t do this!” Brielle cried, standing up and slamming her hands on the table.

But Ilham just snapped her fingers and melted along with the rest of the world. Maya, who had still been sitting, fell to the ground as colors around them swirled and shifted. When everything came back into focus again, she and Brielle were back in the park.

“That bitch!” Brielle cried, getting the attention of several passersby.

Maya picked herself off of the ground and sat down on the bench.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

Brielle sighed and replied, “I guess we go home.”

Brielle had the car keys in her pocket, so Maya ended up sitting in the passenger seat. She was fidgety, while Brielle muttered obscenities under her breath. It was late in the day, so while they sat in traffic, both kept stealing glances at the other one.

“You’re not… mad at me, right?” Maya asked.

“No. You didn’t do anything wrong. Stupid witch screwed up the spell.”

“…But if she hadn’t, you wouldn’t be here,” Maya reminded her.

Brielle gave Maya a long glance, like she was trying to figure something out. Maya fell silent and stared out the window.

“Mom and Dad are probably going to kill us,” she muttered. “At least one of us.”

Brielle snickered, but then frowned and started drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. When they finally pulled into the driveway, both Brielle and Maya sighed deeply. Neither made a move to get out of the car.

“I guess we’d better get this over with.”

"I’m nervous.”

“So am I.”

“We did not think this through.”

“No, we did not.”

Maya grinned a little bit, and when she glanced over Brielle was struggling not to.

They had a key, but knocked on the door anyway. It would be a bad idea to just barge in, given their situation. Brielle held the tightly-bound scroll in one hand. After about a minute, their father opened the door.

“Can I help you ladies?” he asked.

Maya took a deep breath and whined.

Brielle raised a hand and said, “Hi, Dad.”

“Young lady, I don’t know who you are, but I don’t even have…”

He trailed off, then furled his brow in confusion.

“Who are you two?” he demanded quietly.

“Who’s at the door, Matias?” their mother asked, walking up behind him.

“Hi, Mom,” Brielle said, grabbing Maya’s hand. “It’s me… Jackson.”

Their mom’s eyes went wide. Maya turned her head to look at the ground.

“No.”

“Who are you?” their father demanded again.

“I’m… we’re Jackson,” Brielle insisted. “I didn’t go to Eric’s house. I… we found a witch who was willing to transform me into a girl. something went wrong and now there’s two of us. Here!”

She shoved the scroll into her father’s hands. He glared at the two of them, but opened the scroll to read it anyway. Their mother peered over his shoulder. As they read, their expressions fell.

“This… can’t be happening,” their father said, leaning against the door frame for support.

“My baby…” their mother said softly.

Brielle started tapping her foot.

“Can we come in?” she finally asked.

Everyone sat down around the dining room table, the girls on one side and the parents on the other. For a few minutes, they just stared at each other. Their father held on tightly to the scroll. Their mother wouldn’t stop glancing between the two of them.

“So you’re… both Jackson?” she asked.

“That’s right,” Maya said softly, clutching Brielle’s hand beneath the table. “Somehow the magic split me in two.”

“We didn’t ask for that part,” Brielle clarified. “It wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Well, what did you expect?!” Matias cried, dropping the scroll onto the table. “You went behind our backs and used magic to change your body. I can’t believe this. What were you thinking?!”

Maya sank down in her chair, but Brielle stood up, letting go of Maya’s hand, and replied, “Yes! I went behind your back! Because you wouldn’t talk to me about this to my face! I wanted to talk about transitioning, but you ignored me. You thought that if you could avoid it for long enough, it would go away. I had no choice but to escalate the situation!”

Their dad reeled back. Their mother winced. Maya sank further down in her seat. After a few moments, Brielle sat back down and let go of a deep breath.

“I’ve been wanting to say that for a while,” she admitted.

“She’s right,” Maya added quietly. “I felt like if I waited for you to get on board, I was never going to be able to transition. And I didn’t want to look back on my life and regret not transitioning sooner.”

“But honey,” their mom said, “we could have talked about this.”

“At least if you’d gone through official channels this splitting thing wouldn’t have happened,” their father added.

Brielle and Maya exchanged a glance.

Maya reminded him, “We would have needed your support to go through official channels.”

Brielle added, “Which you definitely weren’t going to give us.”

“I’m worried about what people will say,” their mother admitted. “We’ve got people in this town like that Pastor Tyler guy. You know how vocal he is about magic. If people find out that our family has anything to do with unregulated magic…”

Their father nodded along. The table fell silent. Maya shifted uncomfortably. Everyone jumped when the timer on the stove went off.

“I guess it’s time for dinner,” their mom said, standing up. “Everybody get a plate.”

Everyone ate quietly. There were a lot of stares exchanged. Maya had anticipated that things would be awkward when she returned that evening, but this was nothing like she’d imagined.

“So…” their mother began, “where are you two going to sleep?”

Brielle shrugged and Maya replied, “I guess I can sleep on the couch for now?”

“The bed is big enough for two,” Brielle replied. “We could easily share it.”

“Are you just going to take all the same classes at school?” their father asked. “How is that going to work?”

“I don’t know,” Maya admitted. “But we’ll figure it out. There’s still two weeks before school starts.”

“That’s not enough time,” their mother replied. “And we have to wait until we can get all the legal documents taken care of. That could take several weeks.”

“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this…” Maya said, letting her gaze fall.

“I just wish you’d put more thought into—”

“Leave her alone, Mom!” Brielle cried.

“Don’t speak to your mother like that!”

Brielle pointed a finger at her father, her face twisted in rage. Maya knew what was about to happen and grabbed her tightly by the arm before she could open her mouth. Brielle blinked in surprise and looked at Maya.

“Please don’t get in trouble for me,” she said.

After a moment, Brielle answered softly, “Alright.”

Their parents shared a confused glance. Normally, Jackson would have just stifled his anger. What had gotten into Brielle?

Everyone returned to eating quietly. Brielle was done first, and left the table without asking. They heard her drop her plate into the sink and bound up the stairs. Maya was left alone with her parents.

“It’s very good food,” she offered. “Thanks, Mom.”

Her mother nodded in reply.

When Maya finished eating, she asked, “May I be excused?”

“Of course,” her mother replied.

Maya rinsed off her plate in the sink. After a moment, she also rinsed off Brielle’s. She went upstairs, but hesitated outside the door to her room. Taking a deep breath, Maya knocked and opened the door.

Brielle was lying on the bed, staring at her phone. Their phone. When Maya came in, she glanced over and grunted. Maya sat down in the desk chair and opened up the computer. Brielle sat up.

“Hey!” she cried, before remembering. “Oh, right. It’s yours too. Sorry about that. I guess I have to get used to sharing.”

“I’m sure Mom and Dad will get a second one so we each have our own,” Maya said.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Brielle agreed before falling back down and returning to her phone.

“How are we supposed to tell our friends what happened?” Maya asked.

Brielle shrugged and replied, “I don’t know yet. I’ll figure something out.”

They were quiet for a bit. Maya checked Discord to catch up on what her friends were up to. Brielle had already left a few comments there.

“Who’s going to get all our accounts?” she asked.

“Does it matter? We’ll need to change all the names anyway.”

“I guess so.”

When Maya turned around, Brielle was staring right at her. Then she crawled off the bed and stood up, keeping her gaze locked on Maya. Maya squirmed uncomfortably.

“What is it?”

“Stand up.”

Maya did as she was told.

“Stand up straight,” Brielle clarified.

Maya stretched herself as tall as she could go.

“Ah,” she realized. “You’re taller than me.”

“By like three inches,” Brielle said. “I’m not as thin as you are, either. I’ve still got that chubby extra weight I had before the spell. And my voice isn’t that much higher than it used to be, like yours is.”

“Why is that, do you think?” Maya asked, sitting back down.

“I don’t know,” Brielle admitted, curling up on the bed. “I don’t think I mind it, though. All I really wanted was to be a girl. The little details aren’t that important.”

“But I don’t look exactly like I did before the spell,” Maya said. “And… neither of us really act the way we used to.”

“That’s true.” Brielle fell back and lay sprawled out on the bed. “I nearly lost my temper with Mom and Dad back there. I wonder if the spell changed me, or if… maybe now that I have the body I wanted, I’m more confident.”

“Where does that leave me?” Maya asked.

“…I don’t know. I don’t know how any of this works.”

The conversation seemed to be over. Maya booted up a game to keep her occupied for a while. Sometimes she could hear Brielle moving around on the bed behind her. At one point she said something about going downstairs to get a snack, and when she returned, she handed Maya a bowl of chips.

“It’s getting late,” Brielle eventually said. “Are you tired?”

“After today, yes,” Maya said, finally pausing her game. “How is this bed situation going to work out?”

“I’ll sleep on the left side. You sleep on the right.”

“What if I want to sleep on the left?” Maya asked, pretending to pout.

“You can fight me for it.”

Maya couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. After a moment, Brielle grinned and followed suit.