“Are you eating?” Maya’s father asked.

She shook her head and pushed her plate away. Maya and Brielle were sitting around the dining room table eating breakfast. Their mother was already gone for the day, but their father had stopped to eat with them.

“I’m not hungry,” she insisted.

“You should eat something,” Brielle told her from across the table.

“It’s nerves. I’m not hungry.”

After a moment, her father pushed the plate back in front of her.

“Honey, I know that you’re anxious. But you have to take care of your body. Please eat.”

Maya nodded and picked up her fork. Her sister spared a glance at their father, but didn’t say anything. Brielle just quickly finished scarfing down her eggs and left the table.

Traffic was bad, which wasn’t a great omen for the first day of school. Maya would have offered to drive, but while her paperwork had come back from the Office of Magical Registration already, she had yet to get her own driver’s license. Brielle was muttering under her breath by the time they finally found a good parking spot.

Their friends had all agreed to meet outside the library. Maya’s heart was thumping out of her chest. This would be the first time she’d seen any of them in person since the spell. She gripped the folds of her dress tightly as they turned the final corner.

“No way!”

“There’s really two of them!”

“That’s awesome!”

Immediately the two were swarmed by the small group of six who had already made it to the library before them.

“You actually did it,” Eric said, blinking in surprise.

“Okay, hold on,” Amelia said, before pointing at one of them. “…Brielle, right?”

“That’s right. I’m the tall one.”

“And that must make you Maya!”

“Hi, guys,” Maya said, visibly relaxing. She was among friends now. There was no need to be nervous.

“And you’ve done your makeup too,” Amelia cooed. “It looks so good on you.”

“It’s so cool to actually see you in person,” Jason said, patting Maya on the back and making her jump a little.

“So which one’s the good twin and which one’s the evil twin?”

Brielle laughed while Maya giggled.

“I’m definitely the evil twin,” Brielle said, wrapping an arm around Maya’s neck. “Maya couldn’t hurt a fly.”

“I stopped you from swatting one fly, sis. Let it go,” Maya retorted.

“God, they were a handful when there was only one of them!” someone cried. “We’re doomed, you guys.”

The whole group got a good chuckle out of that.

Amelia said, “So now that you’re… girls, plural, you’re finally going to start participating in our girls-only activities, right?”

“I can’t wait!” Maya exclaimed.

Brielle shrugged and replied, “I’ll hang out. I could probably stand to get my hair done, but I don’t think I’m going overboard on the girly shit just yet.”

“Valid,” Eric told her. “Move at your own pace, sis.”

“So you’re not identical after all,” Jason said. “You have entirely different personalities.”

Maya nodded and explained, “Experimental magic. There was no telling exactly what would happen.”

“It would probably be weirder if we were exact duplicates,” Brielle added.

“Hey, some twins are pretty fucking similar,” someone retorted.

“We’re not,” Brielle and Maya answered in unison.

That got a chuckle from the group.

“What were you saying before they got here, Eric?” someone asked.

“They just released a trailer for Eternal Hellfire Three. They’ve added two more playable characters from the last game.”

“Oh, cool!”

Jason turned to Brielle and Maya and asked, “So have you two caught up on Skysails, yet?”

“We finished the second-to-last season a few days ago,” Brielle answered.

Maya nodded, smiling softly. Just like she’d hoped, everything was back to normal. Her transformation hadn’t completely turned everything on its head.

“Oh hey,” someone said, “isn’t that Adeline?”

Maya turned to look where they were pointing. A freckled girl was storming up to the group, scanning everyone there. She came to a stop in front of the group and released a slow, deep breath.

“Which one of you is Brielle?” she demanded.

Brielle pushed Maya slightly behind her and responded, “That would be me. Who are you?”

“What the Hell?!” Adeline cried, throwing her hands up, “How could you be so stupid?!”

“Excuse me?”

“You know what you did!” she snarled.

“And you take issue with that, don’t you?” Brielle asked.

“You’re damn right I do. It was stupid and short-sighted, and you’re going to regret it.” She glanced briefly at Maya, who saw that she had honey-colored eyes. “Both of you.”

Someone placed a hand on Adeline’s shoulder, but she pulled away.

“Adeline, what are you—?”

“Don’t threaten my sister!” Brielle said darkly. “Or you’ll regret it.”

“I’m not threatening anyone,” Adeline said. “You’re going to realize that you made a big mistake because you didn’t think things through. You just rushed into changing your body with no regard for common sense. And you’ve dragged all your friends into this too, even though they didn’t ask for it.”

“Relax, Adeline,” Amelia said, getting between her and Brielle. “We all knew about this. She just didn’t want to tell anyone else until she was ready.”

“You knew?! And you didn’t try to stop her? You’re all as reckless as she is!”

Maya groaned and buried her face in her hands. It was her first day back in school and someone was already giving her grief. She knew this would happen. There was no way everyone would just be okay with her.

“Listen, I don’t know who you are,” Brielle said, pushing Amelia gently out of the way so she could stand directly in front of Adeline, “but you’re going to leave me and my sister alone. You got that? I’m not putting up with anybody’s bullshit. This is our life and our decision. If you have a problem with that, you can just deal with it on your own time. Now get out!”

When she finished, Brielle was fuming. Adeline wore a dark expression. She glanced briefly at Maya, then their assembled friends.

“If you all want to be a party to this bad idea, fine!” she spat. “But you’re going to realize that I was right. This is all wrong, and you’re going to be sorry.”

She turned and stormed off. Brielle turned to Maya and, seeing that she was breathing heavily, grabbed her in a hug. Maya wrapped her arms around Brielle and let out a brief sob.

“I didn’t think that would hurt as much as it did,” she admitted shakily.

“I know, sis,” Brielle said, “But fuck her. We’re not going to deal with anybody’s transphobic nonsense, you got me? I’m going to protect you.”

Eric said, “Wow, Brielle, I didn’t know you had that in you.”

Brielle and Maya separated, and Brielle gave him a wry grin.

“I’ve never seen you just completely snap like that,” Jason added, “Did the spell give you a spine too?”

Brielle chuckled and shrugged. Amelia placed a warm hand on Maya’s arm, as if to ask if she was alright. Maya sniffled and took Amelia’s hand in her own.

The touching moment was interrupted by the sound of the first bell ringing. There was a collective groan from the group. Amelia let go of Maya and adjusted her own backpack.

“First homeroom of the year,” she muttered. “Come on.”

“Give me a moment, please?” Maya asked, and Amelia nodded.

Maya turned back to Brielle.

“So this is it,” she said.

Brielle nodded.

“What’s this?” Jason asked.

“We haven’t been apart since the spell happened,” Brielle explained, turning a little red. “This is the first time we won’t be within shouting distance of each other.”

“Oh, that’s adorable,” Eric said.

Brielle gave him a brief slap on the shoulder.

“I’ll be fine, Brielle,” Maya said.

“I know you will,” she replied, smiling softly. “I’d still feel better if we were together. It’s just until lunch, though. I’ll see you soon, I promise.”

They shared a brief hug and Maya started walking away with Amelia. She was alone again, and for a minute things actually felt like she thought they would after the spell. She was just another girl going to school.

“I’m nervous,” she admitted to Amelia as they got close to their classroom.

“What about?” Amelia asked. “There’s no reason to be nervous. It’s just another school year.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“I’m kidding. I understand why you’re nervous.”

“I just don’t want everyone to see me as the trans kid, you know?”

Amelia chuckled and replied, “That’s not going to happen.”

“You think so?”

“Everyone’s already been talking about you online, sis,” Amelia reminded her. “Everyone thinks of you as the magical girl.”

“Oh…” Maya whispered. “That’s worse.”

“I’m sorry,” Amelia said, opening the door for Maya. “I promise you they’ll forget in, like, a week.”

“Gosh, I hope so.”

Maya was still kind of fidgety when she sat down in homeroom. It felt like all eyes were on her. When the teacher called her name, her heart skipped a beat and she raised a shaky hand. The teacher marked her down and moved on. Maya released the breath she’d been holding and ran her hands through her hair.

When the bell rang for first period, Maya stood up and flashed Amelia an appreciative smile. They separated in the hall and Maya was truly alone. But she grit her teeth and held her head high. She could do this.

By the time she had sat down in her English class, Maya felt confident she could take on anything.

“Hey,” the girl at the desk beside her said, “I recognize you. Aren’t you the magical girl everyone’s been talking about?”

Maya whined and buried her head in her arms. Her confidence had lasted all of five seconds before someone destroyed it.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the girl said quickly. “That was probably very rude. Of course you wouldn’t want to talk about that. I’m so sorry. My name is Lily, by the way.”

Maya raised her head to get a look at this girl. She was Japanese with a heart-shaped face. Lily was smiling softly at her, but her brow was furled in concern.

“It’s okay,” Maya lied, turning away. “I’d better get used to it.”

“I’m sorry. I just wanted to say something because… I saw the pin you have on your backpack.”

“What?”

“The Renegade Girl Lucy pin,” Lily said, pointing, “It’s one of my favorite animes. I’m guessing you liked it?”

“Yeah, it’s one of my favorites too,” Maya answered quietly. “It’s a shame they never released the movie outside of Japan.”

“Tell me about it. I’ve been trying to get a bootleg for at least a year.”

Maya chuckled, then sat up a bit straighter. This girl wasn’t so bad after all. Lily flashed her a brief smile, showing off the gap in her teeth, before the bell rang and the teacher got up from his desk.

Maya’s first few classes weren’t anything special. When the bell finally rang for lunch, she grabbed her backpack and headed toward the cafeteria. Brielle was waiting for her by the entrance.

“There you are,” Brielle said. “I’m glad to see you’re doing alright.”

“Did you expect me to be a puddle of tears?” Maya asked, smirking.

“I’m just glad to see you smiling,” Brielle told her, grabbing Maya in a gentle hug.

“Let’s get a seat before they’re all taken.”

Their friends had secured their group a table. Maya plopped down next to Brielle and pulled her lunch out of her bag. The table quickly erupted into conversation. It wasn’t the same exact group from the end of last semester, but it was close enough to be familiar. But Maya couldn’t imagine being there without her new sister.

“Excuse me?” a new voice asked. “Can I sit down here?”

The newcomer was a slim boy with a square jaw. Maya didn’t recognize him, but apparently Amelia did, because she bit her lip. The rest of the table exchanged a few glances before making some room for the boy. He sat down right across from Maya.

“I’m Lucas,” he said.

“Pastor Tyler’s son,” Eric said.

Amelia groaned, and Maya remembered: this boy apparently had a crush on her. And now he was trying to insert himself into their lunch group. Maya had to suppress a scowl.

“Did you forget your lunch, Lucas?” Jason asked.

“Actually, I was hoping to talk,” he said, “about you two.”

He gestured to Maya and Brielle.

“Look, man,” Eric said, “they’ve got enough going on without you getting up in their business.”

“No, no,” Lucas replied, waving his hands. “I figure they’re going through a lot with the curse. I just wanted to—”

“Curse?” Brielle interrupted, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” he said. “The magic that separated you into two people. You’ve got to figure out a way to reverse the effects—”

“Hold up!” Brielle cried, planting her hands on the table and standing up. “There is no curse. And there’s no undoing what happened to us.”

“Yeah, man, they asked for this.”

Maya nodded along.

Lucas looked befuddled.

“Hold on,” he said, holding his hands palm out. “You wanted to be cursed?”

“It’s not a curse,” Brielle said, sitting back down and rolling her eyes. “Not all magic is a curse.”

“But why would anybody want to be magically altered?” he demanded, banging a hand on the table. “You’re not even a guy anymore.”

Brielle sighed and buried her head in her hands.

“Did you want that part, too?”

“Yes!” Brielle cried, and Maya nodded.

He glanced between the two of them, looking utterly dumbfounded.

“You should go, dude,” Jason said.

Maya added forcefully, “Please.”

Lucas glanced around the table and, finding no allies, nodded. He stood up and walked away, and Maya’s friends moved to fill in the empty spot. Brielle sighed. Maya placed a hand on her arm and squeezed.

“It’s alright,” she whispered. “He’s gone. You got rid of him.”

Brielle chuckled.

“I guess I expected this kind of reaction,” she admitted.

“So did I,” Maya told her. “We’ll get through it together.”

Beside her, Maya heard Amelia go “aww” before clearing her throat and adding, “Maybe he’ll leave us all alone after that.”

“Is he still bothering you?” Eric asked.

“I wouldn’t even call it bothering me,” Amelia admitted. “I’m just not sure how I feel about him. And I told him as much.” She shrugged. “Or at least I wasn’t sure. But that was crossing a line.”

“Maybe he’ll get the hint?” Brielle suggested.

“Relax, guys,” Maya said. “If anybody wants to mess with us, we’ll just keep each other safe.”

There were a few chuckles and smiles from around the table.

“You’re such a sap, Maya,” Brielle said, giving her a playful shove, but she was grinning too.