When the final bell of the day rang, Maya sighed in relief. Today had been the absolute worst. And tomorrow her sister was taking her to see the doctor. Her stomach turned at the thought. She didn’t want there to be anything wrong with her. But there was no avoiding it anymore.

Maya stopped by her locker to grab her things for home. She was still fidgety, after the way Lucas had confronted her. But Maya hadn’t seen him since then. Maybe he’d really been all bluster and didn’t have any way to actually hurt her anymore?

“Too much to ask for?” she muttered.

She began the walk to the parking lot where Brielle would be waiting. People passed by her, either engaged in conversation or just milling about. How many of them were involved in getting her banned from the restroom? She had no idea who among them held the fact that she was trans against her.

When Maya got to the parking lot, her heart sank. Brielle was standing by the car. Next to her was Adeline. They were chatting, smiling even, like nothing was wrong, or like there was no bad blood between them. Maya slowed down and stopped a short ways away.

“We’ll talk later, okay?” Brielle told Adeline.

Adeline nodded and turned briefly to Maya, who winced.

“Goodbye, Maya. I’m sorry for the things I said before,” she said simply, before walking away.

Maya watched her go, and Brielle asked her, “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah… let’s go.”

Maya was quiet while they sat in traffic. Brielle seemed to notice something was wrong, but didn’t comment on it. Eventually, Maya had to say something.

“What was that about?” she asked.

“Oh, we were just talking.”

“The last time we saw her, she was fighting with you about us, wasn’t she?”

“The last time you saw her,” Brielle corrected. “She came to me in gym to apologize for that. She said that she regretted the things she said, now that she realized just how important we were to each other. We kept talking, and it turns out we have a few things in common.”

“I just don’t know how you can talk to her after the things she said to us,” Maya replied.

“She’s not as bad as all that,” Brielle insisted, taking a left turn at the light. “I know she acted like a bitch, but she understands that this was the best possible outcome for us and she’s not going to harp on it anymore. Please try to get to know her.”

Maya grunted.

“I think you and her could be friends.”

“Probably not,” Maya said. “I don’t know if I can forgive her for the things she did. Why are you okay with everything she did?”

“She’s not that bad.”

Maya sighed and replied, “Alright. I don’t know if I can trust her, but I trust you. You believed me when I vouched for Charlie, even if that went badly. I believe that you know what you’re doing.”

Brielle nodded.

“Thank you, Maya. I want to give her a chance.”

They were silent for a while, until Brielle turned the car into their neighborhood. Large houses loomed over them on either side, with neatly groomed lawns and tidy gardens. Maya turned to her sister.

“We’re not as close as we used to be, are we?” she asked.

“Not joined at the hip, you mean?”

“Right.”

“…Yeah, I guess we’re not.”

They shared a sigh.

“Maybe it was inevitable,” Maya said.

“I still kind of miss how things were in the first couple of weeks,” Brielle said. “I felt like I was closer to you than anybody in the entire world. It was such a new experience, like a whole new world had opened up. And I feel like we’ve lost that.”

“Maybe it’s a good thing.”

“What makes you say that?”

Maya sighed and answered, “Remember when I asked you to come to anime club with me? You thought me standing on my own would be good for me? Maybe it is. You’re always going to be my sister, but if we’re not always together, we can grow in whatever direction is right for us.”

They pulled into the driveway and Brielle stopped the car.

“I’m not going to cut you from my life, Maya,” she said.

“And I don’t want you to,” Maya replied.

They shared a brief smile. Maya took Brielle’s hand and gave it a little squeeze. 

When they got inside, Maya turned to head for the stairs. But Brielle grabbed her by the arm and dragged her over to the dining room. She sat Maya down at the table and took her backpack from her.

“Sit here. I’ll get some snacks. But I don’t want you to move from this spot.”

“Brielle, I’m okay right now.”

“These fits keep coming randomly,” Brielle reminded her. “I don’t want you out of my sight right now. Please just… do your homework for now while I… figure out how to handle this.”

Maya groaned. She hadn’t wanted Brielle to worry like this. All her secrecy had been for nothing. And now she was left with the stark, unshakable fact that this… wasn’t going away on its own.

She had to distract herself from that thought. Maya started pulling her homework out of her bag to give herself something to do. Brielle returned with a bowl of chips and a glass of soda.

“Here you go. Just relax, Maya. I promise I’ll take care of you. We’ll figure out what’s going on with you and you’ll be better in no time.”

It sounded like she was trying to convince herself.

When they were done with homework, Brielle insisted that Maya sit down on the couch. Brielle handed over the phone, then ran upstairs to bring the laptop down for her to use. Then she turned the TV on and started streaming Renegade Girl Lucy, one of their favorite animes.

“You don’t need to do all this for me,” Maya insisted, before having another coughing fit.

Brielle didn’t say anything, just wrapped herself around Maya in a hug.

When their mother got home and saw Maya, sitting on the couch under a thick blanket and surrounded by pillows on all sides, eating a bowl of ice cream, she turned to Brielle and asked, “Did you lose a bet to become her slave for a week or something?”

“Maya is sick, Mom,” Brielle replied. “For a while. I caught her coughing up blood at lunch today. I’m taking her to the doctor tomorrow.”

“Jesus! I can take her to the doctor. There’s no need for you to miss school.”

She turned to set her things down, but Brielle grabbed her arm. Their mother gaped at her in surprise.

“Please,” Brielle pleaded, “she’s my sister. I need to take care of her.”

“That’s not your job, honey.”

“I have to do this, Mom.”

Their mother glanced between Brielle and Maya.

“Very well. But I expect you to be in class by lunch time.” Lowering her voice, probably in hopes that Maya wouldn’t hear, she added, “I don’t know why this matters so much to you, but I’ll trust you have a good reason.”

“She’s the most important person in the world to me, Mom,” Brielle replied, equally as quiet. “I have to take care of her.”

“You know,” Maya said from her seat on the couch, “I’m not dying over here. You don’t need to be so serious about this.”

Their mother turned to her and said, “If you’re literally coughing up blood, you’re taking it easy. Don’t move from there. That’s an order.

Brielle went into the kitchen to help her mother get dinner started. When their father returned home, he quickly dropped his work supplies off in his office and returned to the kitchen. Maya heard muttering, and then her father came into the living room and sat down on the couch by Maya.

“You’re sick?” he asked her.

“I am.”

“Are you contagious? Brielle said that there was blood.”

“It was probably just that my throat was so irritated that it started to bleed. Nothing serious.”

“That’s very serious, Maya.”

“I feel fine, Dad. Please give me some space.”

“...Alright. Get some rest. Can you pass me the remote? I want to watch the news.”

Maya handed the remote to him and he changed the channel. After a few moments, their mother returned from the kitchen and sat down on the other couch. Brielle continued to work on dinner in the kitchen.

When Brielle returned from the kitchen, she stood behind the couch and leaned up against it. Maya was the only one not watching the news. She was too occupied talking to her friends  on her phone.

Then she heard Brielle mutter, “Holy shit.”

Maya looked up, and on the news was a middle-aged man with steely eyes and buzzed hair. The graphic under him identified him as “Tyler Washington.” It was a name that tingled at the back of her memory for some reason.

Then it sank in what he was actually saying. 

“—so proud of my son and his fellow students for taking a stand for what’s right. Their actions should serve as an example for all of us to stand up to people who don’t respect the rules of society.”

“That cunt!” Brielle cried.

“Language!” their father exclaimed.

But Brielle was fuming.

“I should have known Lucas was behind this,” she said, and Maya understood. “Washington” was Lucas’s last name as well. His father was the town’s famous anti-magic pastor.

“What is going on?” their mother asked.

Brielle sighed and explained what had happened earlier that day, when she and Maya were brought into the principal’s office. Their father turned the TV down to listen to her. Maya could hear the venom in Brielle’s voice as she told the story. When she was done, Brielle’s face was red with frustration.

“That’s unfortunate,” their father said.

“It’s a shame that you have to go through this,” their mother agreed.

"Isn’t there something you can do?” Maya asked softly.

“I don’t know, honey,” their mother replied. “It sounds like the school board has made their decision.”

Their father nodded, adding, “You didn’t exactly go through official channels to begin with, anyway. You knew there were going to be consequences for your actions.”

Brielle scowled, then turned and stormed back into the kitchen, muttering softly to herself. Maya groaned and sank down in her seat. Their mother seemed to take notice, because she stood up and came to sit down beside Maya.

“Don’t worry, dear,” she said, pulling Maya close. “The doctor will figure out what’s wrong with you.”

Once dinner was ready, Brielle grabbed a plate for Maya and set it down on the table. Maya was able to shake off her lightheadedness enough to get up and walk over to the dining room. Her stomach was growling, but she wasn’t very hungry.

Things were quiet for a while. Dinners always were nowadays. From the way that everyone struggled to look at her, Maya always felt like it was mostly her fault.

“You both got your homework done, right?” their father asked.

“Yes, Dad,” Brielle replied.

Maya closed her eyes and pushed the food around her plate with a fork. She tried to imagine another dinner, where her parents weren’t afraid to look at her and everyone could talk comfortably. Maya pined for a life where she and Brielle had just been born twin girls and there was no need for a magical transition. Why hadn’t she been born into that timeline?

Everyone at the table jumped when there came a hammering on the front door. The noise didn’t stop, and their father scowled as he stood up. Worst possible scenarios started playing in Maya’s head. Had one of the neighbors seen the news and wanted to give the “magical girls” a piece of his mind.

When the door opened, though, Maya heard a somewhat familiar voice go, “About time!” before they burst into the house.

“That can’t be,” Maya muttered standing up and walking toward the front room.

“I don’t know who you are,” their father said, “but you’re not welcome in my home.”

Maya turned a corner and saw her father standing over a young Arab woman who seemed completely disinterested in him. When Ilham saw Maya, a pained look crossed her face. She walked up and grabbed Maya in a hug.

“My dear Gemini, I’m so sorry,” she said, “I should have come earlier. But I…”

Brielle burst into the room, followed closely by their mother.

“You!” Brielle cried, pointing a finger at Ilham.

“You know this woman?” their father asked.

“This is the witch that we went to,” Brielle said.

“What?!” their parents cried together.

Ilham tried to explain, “You’re daughter came to me seeking help—”

“How dare you come into my house?!” their father bellowed.

“You’re most certainly not welcome here!” their mother added. “How could you be so irresponsible? Using magic on a minor like you did!”

“Mom, we asked her for help,” Maya reminded her.

Brielle retorted, “And she abandoned us, Maya. Why is she here?”

“Silence!” Ilham cried, and a hush descended over the room. “I need to sit down.”

They brought Ilham to the living room and let her sit on a couch. Ilham sat down and mulled over her thoughts while the family surrounded her. Their mother had her hands on her hips, their father had his arms folded, and Brielle was muttering obscenities under her breath.

“I have bad news,” Ilham said, and Maya’s heart sank.

She retreated to the other couch and sat down, shaking. Ilham was watching her. The rest of the family turned their attention to Maya.

She explained, “I went to Ilham when I realized how sick I was. I wanted to know if it had anything to do with the spell, like Adeline warned us about.”

“Maya,” Brielle said, “why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“I didn’t want you to worry,” Maya admitted.

Their father added, “If you were sick, you should have told us. We would have taken you to the doctor.”

“I hoped it wouldn’t be that serious,” she replied, trying to make herself as small as possible.

“You said you had bad news?” their mother asked Ilham.

Ilham pursed her lips and nodded, then sighed.

“There was a complication with the spell.”

“No shit,” Brielle muttered, before her father shushed her.

“When you two separated,” Ilham continued, not looking at either of the girls, “it was a clean split down the middle. The magic ended up building two bodies instead of just one, and separated your mind in two in order to occupy them. That part is fine. A mind isn’t a material substance, so it can be divided an infinite number of times and not lose anything.”

“That’s… good,” their mother said.

“Very good. Otherwise they’d each have half the memories they do. The problem is that the spell wasn’t intended to create two bodies. It didn’t have the… energy for it.” She rubbed her eyes. Maya couldn’t see if she was wiping away tears. “So… the spell did what it could, but more of the magic went into constructing one body over the other. It’s like… when one twin steals all the nutrients in the womb.”

Maya whined, pulling her knees up and hugging them to her chest.

Their father asked, “What does that mean for Maya?”

Ilham took a deep breath and replied, “Her body wasn’t built to sustain itself. It’s, very slowly, starting to degenerate. In a few more weeks, she probably won’t be able to get out of bed. And then…” Ilham blinked and tears ran down her face. “…her body will shut down and she’ll die.”

Everyone fell silent. Brielle stepped back and sat down on the glass coffee table. Their mother covered her mouth with her hands. Their father took a deep breath and bowed his head, closing his eyes so he wouldn’t cry.

Maya felt like she’d been hit by a truck.

“How do we stop it?” their father demanded.

Ilham shook her head.

“I… don’t know,” she admitted, “I was looking. I’ve spent days looking for something, anything. But there’s no precedent for this. I… have no idea how to fix this.”

She stood up and bowed her head.

“I’m sorry.”

“Be sorry on your own time,” their father said. “This is your fault, and you are going to find a way to—”

But Ilham snapped and was gone in a burst of color. It took everyone a moment to comprehend what happened. Then their father swore and their mother fell to the couch and covered her eyes. She started sobbing softly. Brielle sat down next to Maya and placed a hand on her arm.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly.

Maya shook her head.