"Again, can't thank you enough for flying all the way out here at such short notice. My baby was just heartbroken, thinking she wasn't going to be able to qualify for nationals this year. You're an absolute lifesaver Alejandra!"

Sylvie's mother was surprisingly quick to get on board with the impersonation plan, and astonishingly good at lying about it. She just told me to leave everything to her and started making calls to just about everyone: the dean of biochem, the medical accommodations office, the school's athletics director, and a half dozen other people I failed to identify from context. She just went on and on as she normally does, telling a story about an unsecured wooden pallet falling off of a truck on the highway, MRI scans, minor hippocampus swelling, retrograde amnesia... By the time she started talking about sending flowers to the nice fireman with the receding hairline, I was even starting to believe it.

That's how I ended up at the rink the very next morning, magically disguised as Sylvie, smiling with my best attempt at Sylvie's implacable confidence for Alejandra while her mom did all the talking.

"Don't worry about a thing. Your daughter is my absolute favourite student. It's no trouble at all." She smiles at me, and I smile back. "She's a bright girl, she'll be right as rain before you know it."

Syl itches at me, prompting me to speak up. Thankfully, I've spent enough time around her family to know exactly how she talks to her mom. "I told you mom, she said I'm going to be fine. It's just a bump on the head." It's a little strange hearing Syl's voice come out of my mouth, but it makes calling her mom feel at least a little less uncomfortable. "I'll be fine. They don't let trucks out onto the rink."

"You're my little girl, I'm always going to worry about you," her mom says, giving me a kiss on the forehead. A very common exchange for me to watch, but being on the receiving end of it just gives me a terrible guilty feeling in the pit of my stomach. I remind myself that she's just playing along, she knows it's me in disguise and I'm not stealing the love Syl deserves. "But alright dear, I get the hint, I'll let you two get to work. Oh, and remember to drink plenty of fluids, just like Dr. Matchuk said."

"I will!" I call back to her as she leaves through the rink doors, turns around and waves one more time through the window, and finally leaves.

"So Alejandra, I-" I turn back to face her, and stop dead in my tracks. Of all the things I expected, having an ominously glowing obsidian broadsword at my throat was not one of them.

If looks could kill, I would be dead on the spot from the skating coach's expression. "You may have deceived her parents, thief, but you do not fool me."

"W-what?" Not my most articulate response, but most of my concentration was focused on watching the obviously magical sword, admiring her muscles and ability to lift the enormous thing, and silently layering dozens of lesser defensive spells over myself. 

"Lies will not help you. I can see your aura, entangled with hers." She tilts the blade slightly, bringing the edge even closer to my carotid. "If you wish for me to spare your miserable existence, you will return her body and return whence you came." 

"But that's what I'm trying to do!" I shout in frustration. "Damn it, Syl, you didn't tell me your coach was some kind of witch-knight!"

Syl itches in protest.

Alejandra raises an eyebrow interrogatively, but the sword stays put.

"Look, I'm not trying to steal her life, I love her! This whole thing was her idea! She didn't want to miss her performance while she grew a new body!" 

"If any of that is true, then why can I sense her spirit within you?"

"Because, uh, well, she is? Right now? She's kind of, uh, hitchhiking."

"You believe this is your body, then?"

"It is my body! Honest! I'm a magical girl, I'm just disguising myself as her, see?" With a thought, I dismiss the disguise, returning to my normal costumed self.

She looks me up and down, taking in the unmistakable frills and sparkles. "I see... and how did this happen?"

"Well uh, she's my partner, and we were out for the night, and one thing led to another and... the government kind of blew her up with a beam cannon?"

Finally, her stern expression breaks into exasperation. "Seriously? Fuck the police."

"Right?!"

She withdraws her sword from my neck - a huge relief, honestly - and folds it between space and out of sight with a flick of her wrist. "You must be Hazel, then."

"I, uh, suppose she's mentioned me?" 

"It's hard to get her to stop." She shakes her head, finally smiling again. Seems I'm finally in the clear. "Do her parents know?"

I nod, still more than a little intimidated. "Yes ma'am. I told them about the whole magical girl thing last night."

"Good. And you're taking good care of Sylvie's spirit until she can be returned to her body?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And you were planning on having me teach you her choreography to perform in the competition in her place?"

"That was Sylvie's plan, yes. Ma'am."

"Alright."

I wait for more for just a second, then double take. "Wait, you mean, you'll help us cheat?"

"Her spirit is in your body, is it not? And you are using magic to help her overcome a temporary disability. There is no explicit rule against prostheses, and as far as I'm concerned, you are currently acting as a full body prosthetic for her."

"Wait, really? They allow this kind of thing?"

"Of course not," she scoffs. "The only reason it has not been banned is because they've never thought about it. And as long as nobody tells them, they never will."

I grin. And on my side, I can feel Sylvie itching smugly. I don't know how an itch can be smug, but I can just see her adorable lopsided smirk in my mind's eye. "Alright, let's do this!" 

"Come on then, onto the ice. And get back into Sylvie's shape, there's no use practising with a different centre of gravity." I haven't even finished taking my first step when she winces. "You have absolutely no idea how to skate."

My ego shrinks at that, and not just from shrinking myself back down to Syl's size. "Umm... no, not really, but I'm working on something with Syl to, uh... borrow some of her muscle memory?"

She massages her temples, exuding a palpable aura of already being so very done with this shit. "If you're serious about taking her place, you'll have that ready for tomorrow morning, understood?"

"Y-yes, ma'am!"