Maya folded her arms and leaned up against the car. She was shaking. Brielle and her were waiting in a crowded parking lot outside of a large white building with high stained-glass windows. It was blocking the sun, so Maya was standing in the shadow of the building. A chill ran through Maya.

“Where is she?” Brielle muttered. “We don’t have a lot of time.”

“What if she doesn’t show?”

“She will. She wants the attention.”

A car pulled up to the curb and the passenger door opened. A girl with curly brown hair got out and closed the door, waving to the person in the driver seat as they drove away. Charlie scanned the parking lot for a bit, then spotted the sisters. She jogged up to them, fishing her phone out of a large purse.

“Alright, I’m here,” she said. Turning to Maya, she added, “Nice to see you again, cute stuff.”

Maya snorted and looked away.

“Maya,” Charlie said, “I’m sorry that things aren’t great between us. But I want to be friends. Can’t we put the past away and get along?”

Maya flared her nostrils, but didn’t respond.

“I’ll win you over yet,” Charlie insisted.

Brielle cleared her throat and reminded them, “We have a mission, Charlie.”

She turned to face the church, where people had started milling out. The service was over. Brielle took Maya by the hand and started leading her toward the building.

It was hard to get through the crowd of people, but the group made it inside and eventually found their way to the sanctuary where the main service was held. It was mostly empty, but they could see their prey standing by the pulpit: Pastor Tyler and his son Lucas.

“You know what to do,” Brielle told Charlie, who gave her a mock salute and split off from them.

Maya and Brielle approached the two. Lucas saw them first and his face went pale. His father was looking through papers he was holding, and seemed not to notice anything amiss until Brielle cleared her throat.

“Mr. Washington,” she said, “can we speak to you?”

“I’m sorry, miss. I have open office hours Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for parishioners to—”

“My name is Brielle Patterson,” Brielle interrupted him. “This is my sister, Maya. We go to school with your son. You’ve been—” She cleared her throat again. “—Lucas has been giving us trouble at school.”

It took a moment for recognition to flicker on the pastor’s face, then his expression darkened.

“Oh, it’s you,” he said. “How dare you come into my church, young man? You’re disrespecting a house of God. It was bad enough that you tainted your body with magic. Don’t rub it in these good people’s faces. Get out and don’t come back.”

Maya groaned, and Brielle took her hand.

She continued, “Mr. Washington, your son has been harassing us. We’ve never done anything to harm him or anyone else. Please tell him to leave us alone and let us enjoy our lives like everyone else.”

The pastor scoffed and folded his arms, replying, “You’ve got some nerve, acting all innocent. You dragged all of us into your little transvestite fantasy and insist that us normal folk have to cater to you. But using magic isn’t going to make you a girl, even if it did make you this… two-bodied freak of nature.”

Maya was looking down at the ground, but she could feel the tension in Brielle’s hand. She was trying not to snap. Briefly, Maya glanced up at Lucas. He looked incredibly uncomfortable with what was going on, like he was as paralyzed as Maya was.

When he saw that Maya was looking at him, though, his expression hardened and he added, “You asked for this, Jackson! You knew that using magic was wrong and you still indulged in sin. You deserve what you’ve got coming to you!”

“Mr. Washington,” Maya said quietly, “we just wanted to be able to live our lives as we truly were. And even if we didn’t know that there’d be two of us, it’s truly been a blessing to—”

“Do not pretend like any of this is in God’s plan,” Pastor Tyler sneered. “You turned away from God when you allowed the Devil’s magic into your life. And deep down, you know that you’re going to burn in Hell for all eternity for what you’ve done. I hope you’re happy with it. Now leave before I call the police.”

Brielle turned sharply, nearly yanking Maya’s arm out of her socket. They left the building quickly and made it back to the car. The two waited, Brielle tapping her foot while Maya fiddled with her hands.

“What if he calls the police?” she asked.

“Don’t worry. Here she is.”

Charlie was practically sashaying up to them with a shit-eating grin on her face, her phone in her hand.

“Take a look,” she said, handing it to Maya.

She played the video. Her stomach churned as she watched the events play out yet again. The pastor was loud enough that Maya could easily make out what he was saying, even if it was hard to hear herself.

“You think this will work?” Brielle asked Charlie..

“I certainly hope so!” she replied, positively giddy. “This feels like real investigative reporting. I’m so excited!”

“Great. You know what to do. See you tomorrow.”

“Wait,” Charlie said. “I told my mom I’d be hanging out with friends. Can you drop me off at someone’s house? I don’t have a car yet.”

Brielle sighed and exchanged a glance with Maya.

“I guess we should,” Maya mumbled. “Just to make sure she’s safe.”

The next day, Maya and Brielle met Charlie for lunch, and found a private table with Lily, Eric, Jason, and Amelia. Word had gotten around, and now everyone was waiting eagerly for Brielle and Maya to say their piece. Nobody was eating, and the table was quiet. Charlie was still smiling broadly, clearly proud of herself.

“Well?” Jason asked.

“Well, it was on the morning news,” Brielle said, grinning.

“Hell yeah it was!” Charlie cried, practically jumping from her seat and getting attention from the rest of her lunchroom.

“Relax,” Brielle said. “They didn’t even use your name.”

“But the video online has gotten a bunch of attention, and that has my name on it.”

“The news said that the pastor was avoiding talking to the press,” Eric added. “And Lucas has been suspended for being on that video too. We won’t have to deal with him for a while.”

Charlie was searching through her phone, and added, “This is great. People are tearing him apart online. And it’s because of me. I got to take down a real asshole! I’m going to make a great journalist.”

“So…” Jason began, “Since Lucas is suspended and he was the one behind that petition, does that mean you two get to use the regular restrooms again?”

Maya shook her head sadly, and Brielle clarified, “I went to the office to plead our case, but they’re standing their ground and insisting that too many people agreed with him to just completely forget about it.”

“It sucks,” Maya said, “having to use the staff restroom all the time.”

Brielle scoffed, “I don’t even bother. I just use the regular restroom. Nobody cares. The worst I ever got was a mean look.”

“Aren’t you afraid of getting in trouble?” Amelia asked.

Brielle shrugged, then turned to Charlie.

“That just leaves the question of what to do with you?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Charlie asked, finally tearing her attention away from her phone.

“We had an agreement,” Maya said. “If we did this for you, you’d leave us alone. For good.”

“Oh, cute stuff, you didn’t mean that.”

Brielle snorted and replied, “Yes, we did. From now on, you leave me and my sister alone. No more bothering her in class, no more pestering us for information, and no more goddamn articles about the two of us. Do you understand?”

Charlie looked between Brielle and Maya, who were both looking as stern as they could. Then she closed her eyes and sighed.

“Fine,” she said. “If that’s how you want it, Maya. Don’t be afraid to change your mind, though. You know where I have English.” Standing up, she concluded, “It was a pleasure working with you two.”

She picked up her backpack and walked off, headed toward another table in the lunch room.

“She doesn’t even care,” Maya muttered, tearing up. “She hurt us so much and she doesn’t care at all.”

“Some people are like that, Maya,” Brielle replied, squeezing her hand gently. “It makes me so mad. I’m sorry that you have to put up with her.”

The rest of the day passed slowly, but Maya didn’t even mind. She felt so much better than she had been. It was good just to get through one full day of school without having one flare-up.

At the end of the day, Maya returned to her locker and started pulling out the book she’d need for her homework. Now that Lucas was gone, she didn’t have to worry about him suddenly appearing to harass her. But someone else was looking for her.

“Hey, Maya,” Lily said, getting her attention.

“Hi, Lily,” Maya replied, her stomach fluttering.

“You still feel good?”

“I feel great. It’s gonna be a few weeks before I start getting any more symptoms.”

“I’m glad. So…” Lily looked nervous. “Now that you’re better, do you maybe want to hang out one weekend? We could go to my house, or I could come to your house, or…”

Maya smiled sadly.

“Can we sit down?” she asked.

“Oh? Okay?”

Lily and Maya sat down and leaned back against the lockers.

“I don’t have a lot of time,” Maya admitted. “I wish I could sit here with you all day. But I really have to go.” She took a deep breath. “I like you, Lily, a lot.”

Lily bit her lip and turned a deep scarlet.

Maya could feel her own face burning as she continued, “I want to hang out. I want to spend as much time with you as possible, Lily. I’d love it if we could get something to eat and get to know each other as much as possible. I love how you don’t care that I’m trans, or that I’m made of magic. And you’re so pretty, funny, caring…”

“Thank you,” Lily replied quietly. “That’s so sweet. I want to go out with you too. So what’s wrong?”

Maya took a deep, shaky breath and nodded.

“We can’t,” she said. “We can’t date each other, Lily.”

“Why not?!”

Maya wiped a few tears out of her eyes and sniffled.

“I’m still sick,” she replied softly. “It’s going to come back. I can feel it. It wouldn’t be fair to you to pretend like everything’s normal when I’m just going to get worse again.”

“Maya, I don’t care.” Lily got on her knees and took Maya’s hands in her own. “I know that things aren’t easy for you right now. But I want to be there for you, I promise. We can make this work. I’m willing to be as patient as I need to be to be with you.”

“That’s not fair.” Maya shook her head. “I can’t ask that of you.”

“But—”

“Please, don’t,” Maya begged, closing her eyes. “Don’t convince me otherwise. I know you’d be able to do it and I just… I can’t.”

Lily was silent for a moment, then replied softly, “Okay. If that’s what you want.”

When Maya opened her eyes, Lily was crying.

“Goodbye, Lily,” Maya said.

“Goodbye, Maya.”

When Maya found Brielle, her head was down and her shoulders were slumped. Brielle asked what was wrong, but Maya didn’t answer. She just led the way to their car.

At home, Maya sequestered herself in her room and started working on her homework. Brielle came up to silently give her a bowl of chips, but otherwise left her alone. When she was done, Maya turned on her new computer and started downloading a game.

Brielle returned to the room and asked, “How do you feel, Maya? You’re not feeling sick yet, are you?”

Maya grunted in reply, then started looking through the games she’d already finished downloading over the weekend. Just something to keep her mind off of what had happened today. She’d even read a book, if she had to.

She opened up a game. But after about ten minutes Maya realized she wasn’t paying attention. She switched to another, but she couldn’t focus. Maya was barely in the next game before she exited. This wasn’t helping.

So she picked up her phone and started messaging her friends. They answered, but answered too slow. Maya was still stuck in her head, replaying the events over and over again. This was pointless. What was she doing? Nothing helped!

“I’m going to go start dinner,” she told Brielle, standing up from her desk.

“Do you want help?”

Maya paused at the door and thought about it.

“Sure,” she said quietly.

Dinner was loud. Now that Maya wasn’t dying, at least not as quickly, her parents had started to act like everything was right in the world. And Brielle was being all chummy with them too.

“Are you alright, sweetie?” Maya’s father asked, reaching over and placing a hand on her forehead, “You feel okay, don’t you?”

“I feel fine,” Maya mumbled. “Just a bad day at school.”

“Well, if you feel sick…”

Maya tuned him out. She wasn’t terribly interested in what they had to say to her. They’d never apologized for the things they said and the way they acted when she and Brielle first came home. Instead, they acted like they’d been on board since day one and expected Maya to just go with it!

She left her plate where it was and walked away without asking to be excused. Maya returned to her room and buried herself in her bedsheets. After a few minutes, there was a knock on the door and Brielle entered

“You’re not alright,” she said. “And once again, you’re not telling me what’s wrong, Maya.”

“I don’t want to think about it.”

After a moment, Brielle sighed and said, “Alright. You don’t have to.”

She sat down on the bed next to Maya and started rubbing her back.

“You want to get ice cream tomorrow, after school?”

Maya nodded into her pillow. After a few moments, she took a deep breath and sighed. Then she sat up and hugged the pillow to her chest.

“I just… I want to live a normal life, Brielle,” she said.

“And you can,” Brielle told her.

“No, I can’t. I’m still sick. It’s not going to go away on its own, and it’s always going to ruin everything! I just want it to go away!”

The dam broke and she started sobbing. Maya threw herself into Brielle’s arms. Brielle gave her sister a tight hug, rocking her gently. Through her sobs, Maya could tell that Brielle was crying, too.