Summer and Autumn sat on each of Luna’s shoulders as she scrambled across the crosswalk. Franklin didn’t have a lot of shopping centers, and the one her friends had picked happened to be in the busiest part of town. She was out of breath when she reached the sidewalk on the other side, just in time for the light to turn green.

“Fuck walking everywhere,” Luna muttered. “When I finally get a car, I am never letting that baby go.”

Her friends had gathered outside the salon. Connor had never been there, so it took Luna a little bit to figure out where they were. When she spotted them, Luna waved and rushed over.

“Hey, everyone!” she said, glancing around at the small crowd. Violet, Catalina, Harmony, and--to Luna’s surprise--even Rosalie had come out today. “What are we doing?”

“Hey there, Luna, Summer, Autumn,” Catalina said. “First, we’re going to get our nails done.”

“And then we’re just going to do some shopping,” Harmony added.

“Alright, cool,” Luna said, grinning. She’d never gotten her nails done before. This was probably going to be awkward.

Less than half an hour later, Luna was in a state of absolute bliss. Someone was working on her fingers while Summer and Autumn braided her hair. How had she never done this before? Jeez, girls had all the fun, didn’t they?

“This is nice,” she muttered, letting her eyes droop a little.

From the chair beside her, Violet asked, “Do you not get your nails done, often?”

“I mean, of course I do,” Luna stammered, starting to blush. She was wealthy; Luna had an appearance to maintain. “I just… gave it up for the summer because it was too inconvenient.”

“I don’t think I could ever give this up,” Harmony said, inspecting her bold purple nails on the other side of Luna.

Once their nails were dry, the group headed to the large department store of the shopping center: Maynard’s. It was a clothing and beauty store. Connor had only been in here a few times. The soft lighting and wooden floors threw him off; it wasn’t what he expected from a store like this.

“Okay, how does this look?” Luna asked, stepping out of the dressing room in high-rise jeans and a slim tank top.

Summer, sitting on Catalina’s shoulder, gave her a tiny thumbs up. Autumn shrugged and folded her arms, looking away. Catalina was grinning.

“You really do look good in anything, don’t you, Luna?”

Luna couldn’t help but blush. She was rather fortunate to have the perfect body type, courtesy of magic. It was a lot more appealing than her old body, to be sure. None of this would look even remotely good on Connor.

The others dragged Luna to look at cosmetics. Her head was spinning from the sheer number of options. How did girls keep track of all this?

“You like books, Luna?” Violet asked.

“Yeah, mostly sci-fi,” Luna replied, glad to be distracted from makeup.

Harmony asked, “But you’ve read Moonlight Eclipse, right?”

“That werewolf romance book? No, I haven’t.”

“Oh, you have got to read it,” Catalina said. “I have a signed copy. I’ll let you borrow it.”

“I dunno,” Luna replied, rubbing the back of her neck. “Isn’t it supposed to be, like, kind of dumb?”

“What? No, no.” Violet was shaking her head. “It’s great! Kind of stupid, at places. The centaur subplot makes no sense. But it’s great! I promise!”

“Well, if you’re sure,” Luna replied.

There wasn’t any harm in checking it out, right? It’s not like she’d enjoy it. The book wasn’t even in her typical genre. Luna would read a few chapters and give it back.

Luna didn’t actually end up buying anything at Maynard’s. Afterward, the group migrated to a nearby ice cream shop. Harmony, Violet, and Catalina went to pay while Luna listened to Autumn and Summer argue about what flavor they should get. Rosalie, who hadn’t said much this entire trip, was standing nearby and mindlessly drumming her fingers across the glass.

“Hey,” Luna said, giving Rosalie a soft smile. “How you doing?”

“Fine.”

Rosalie was watching Luna out of the corner of her eye, the rest of her face drawn into a scowl. Luna felt a fire stir within her, but quenched it. Rosalie was probably just mad at her over Eric. She needed to be tactful about this.

“How long have you been studying magic?” Luna asked.

“Where did you say you were from, again?” Rosalie countered.

“Um… Marion,” Luna replied, knitting her brow. “Why?”

“How did you meet these two pixies?”

“I don’t know if I want to talk about—”

“Ooh!” Catalina had appeared right behind Luna. “I want to hear the story, too.”

“Yeah, come on and share,” Violet said, licking at her cone of rocky road.

“Hey, she’s not feeling up to it,” Summer said.

“Why not?” Rosalie asked sharply.

“It’s just… My family used to go camping in the woods near Marion, and Summer and Autumn lived there. So that’s where we met. That’s all there is to the story.”

“That’s funny,” Rosalie said mirthlessly. “I think if there were any faery communities around Marion my mentor would have told me.”

Luna gulped.

“How did you really meet them?” Rosalie asked, taking a step closer to Luna.

“Hey, Rose, can you chill out a little?” Harmony asked.

To Luna’s surprise, it was Autumn who floated between her and Rosalie to bark, “Back off and leave them alone!”

“Hey!” The group turned to see the manager of the store glaring at them. “If you’re going to fight, take it outside. I won’t have any of that in here.”

Everyone quickly made their way out of the little shop and onto the sidewalk outside. Summer and Autumn clung to Luna, who made sure to stand as far away from Rosalie as possible. She could still see Rosalie glaring at her from afar, though.

If Luna was an android, then Rosalie had to be a mechanic. She was someone who actually understood how the strange and wondrous technology worked and how to make it work for her. If Luna was being entirely honest with herself, Rosalie was probably a far better partner for Eric than Connor was. Eric did like machines—er, magic—and Rosalie was the only person there who actually knew how any of it worked.

Luna kind of wanted to distance herself from Rosalie. As a mechanic, she could seriously fuck Luna over if she ever discovered Luna was an android. Without exposing her to Eric, even.

“Well, I’m ready for more,” Luna said, glancing around at all the weary expressions that surrounded her.

“I’ve got nowhere to be,” Rosalie replied, folding her arms.

Then Harmony answered, “Actually, I’ve got a date this evening I need to prepare for. I think I’m going to head home.”

Violet nodded, adding, “I’ve got chores to finish before I get yelled at. I’ll see you all soon.”

“Well, I’d like to do this again,” Catalina said. “It was… fun.”

The other three girls departed, leaving Luna and her pixies in Rosalie’s company.

“I’d love to keep talking,” Rosalie said, fixing Luna with a firm stare.

“Actually, I think I’m gonna go,” Luna replied, slowly walking away. “Maybe next time?”

Thankfully, Rosalie didn’t follow her. As she made her way back to the nightmare crosswalk, Luna couldn’t help but feel a little sad. Except for that ending, this day had been pretty fun. She really hadn’t wanted it to end.

Once safely back at home, Connor placed the glamour disk in his desk drawer and picked up the last book he’d been reading. He couldn’t find a comfortable position on the bed, though, and kept fidgeting. By the fourth or fifth time he’d read the same page over again, it sunk in that he wasn’t going to get any reading done.

It was his body. Something was wrong with his body. He wasn’t sure what, though. Connor had never felt this way before finding the glamour disk.

“You’re sure that the disk can’t affect my mind?” he desperately asked again.

Summer and Autumn pulled themselves away from the headphones they were sitting next to. Autumn hit pause on the computer before turning to address Connor.

“There’s no way that could be it,” she said. “Think hard. Is there anything else that’s changed recently?”

“Just the disk and you guys,” Connor replied, pulling at his hair in frustration.

“And the other faery,” Summer added. “But he wouldn’t be able to affect your mind without permission.”

“Maybe just to be safe,” Autumn said, “you should stop using the disk for a while.”

Summer rubbed the back of her neck and mumbled, “I guess I can see the logic in that.”

“No!” Connor cried, standing up. “It’s the only way I can be with Eric!”

He walked over to the desk and pulled the glamour disk out, quickly activating it. Luna pushed the hair out of her eyes and examined the simple dress she was wearing. The bad feeling was gone.

“It’s better when I’m using the disk,” she admitted. “I just prefer to be Luna. I mean, who wouldn’t? She’s a much cooler person than I normally am.” Also an android, she reminded herself. “Unless we know something is wrong, we keep to the plan.”

“Makes sense,” Summer muttered.

“I think this is a good time to seriously reconsider what we’re doing,” Autumn told Luna. “Let’s put the disk away, explain to everyone what’s been going on, and then move forward.”

“But I’ll lose Eric…” Luna muttered.

Autumn nodded, replying, “I’m sorry. But you were always going to lose him, and you knew that going in. We have to face facts: something isn’t working and we don’t know what. Your safety is important, and if we can’t guarantee that then we have to abort.”

Luna nodded slowly.

“That makes sense,” she said, before addressing Summer. “Do you agree?”

Summer stared off into distant space for a moment, then shook her head.

“No. No, not at all.” She jumped off the desk and floated closer to Luna. “We’re smart. We’ll be able to tell if things are about to get out of hand. You might still be able to be Luna after this, as long as nobody freaks out. But, like you said, this is your only chance to date the boy you like. He’s not going to want to date you once he knows who you are.”

“What the fuck, Summer?!” Autumn cried, floating up and shoving her sister. “Why are you always undermining me?! I’m trying to keep him safe!”

“He’s fine!” Summer retorted. “The fact that you’re too scared to ever try anything new doesn’t have to be his problem too!”

There was a sharp knock on the door and everyone froze.

“Connor?” came the voice of Luna’s mother. “What’s going on in there?”

The doorknob started to jiggle. Summer grabbed Autumn and dragged her underneath the bed to hide. Luna quickly removed the glamour disk and shoved it into the desk drawer. Then Connor walked over to unlock the door and open it.

“Yes?” he asked his mother.

“What was causing all that noise?” she asked.

“Just a video I was watching,” he replied. “Sorry, I’ll keep it down.”

He closed the door and the pixies emerged from under the bed. Connor got down on his knees and clasped his hands together.

“Please, I’m begging you,” he said, “be more quiet than that. I don’t know how my parents will react if they find out I’ve been harboring you.”

The two nodded silently.

Connor put the glamour disk back on and continued reading while Summer and Autumn watched more Evangelion on the computer. Reading was a lot easier for Luna with the disk on. The disk really was able to suspend whatever was wrong with him, somehow.

When she finally heard her father knock at the door to tell her that dinner was ready, Luna took the glamour disk back off and put it away. Connor emerged from his room and took a seat at the dinner table. His dad entered with a plate for each of them.

“Is Mom not eating?” he asked.

“She’ll eat later,” his father replied. “She’s been on the phone all day, trying to salvage something from the exhibition.”

Connor nodded and began eating quietly. This was a disaster. His family life was completely falling apart. And if that weren’t bad enough, the bad feeling had returned now that he wasn’t using the glamour disk again. Why did Connor suddenly hate his body?

What he wouldn’t give to be able to step into Luna’s life and take over from there. Either one: the sci-fi fantasy he’d come up with or the rich girl from Marion facade. Just… anything that would allow him to escape the world he was living in right now.

“I was hanging out with some friends today,” Connor told his father. “It was mostly girls in the group. And I couldn’t help feeling, like, my life would be so much different if I were born a girl.” His father didn’t respond. “I dunno, I just thought… never mind, I guess.”

“Connor, you need to accept the life that you already have,” his father said, not looking up from his plate. “It’s about time that you actually tried to live your life instead of retreating into fantasy all the time. That’s not a healthy way to engage with the world. Your life isn’t going to change dramatically overnight.”

Connor nodded slowly. That’s all it was, a fantasy. He already knew that. There was no way for Connor to actually become Luna. Maybe if he’d been born transgender or was genderfluid like his uncle had been things would be different. But he was stuck with the life he had.

After dinner, Connor returned to his room. He didn’t pick the book back up. Instead, he collapsed into bed and buried his face in his pillow. Connor was utterly crestfallen that his father had shot him down so easily like that.

But he wasn’t sure why he felt that way. It’s not like being Luna all the time would fix all the problems in his life. Well, he probably wouldn’t hate his body anymore, but that was about it. Everything else would still be the same. Probably worse; didn’t it cost more to be a girl than a boy? Maybe not with the glamour disk, but he couldn’t use that all the time anyway.

Connor just wasn’t sure what he even wanted.