"Chicken wings are not the healthiest option you could have picked but I suppose they'll do," Avery commented as she joined the rest of us in the kitchen. She'd gotten out of her work clothes while she was upstairs, now she was dressed for a lazy night at home in just track pants and an old t-shirt.

I shrugged, "I also got us an order of veggie sticks and dip, so it's not all bad for us."

My sister rolled her eyes, "A dozen carrot and celery sticks and a little tub of ranch dressing doesn't make up for the fact that literally everything else you ordered is deep-fried."

Instead of arguing I just pointed to the two boxes of wings, "Those ones have a spicy chipotle maple sauce, and these ones are apple butter bbq flavour."

"We also got a big box of potato wedges," Tabby added with a grin, "And potatoes are technically vegetables right? So that's two healthy sides to go with the wings."

My sister made a bit of a face, but she held back any other snarky remarks. And it's not like she didn't help herself to a bunch of deep-fried food along with the rest of us. She grabbed a few each of both flavours of wings, plus a half dozen of the wedges.

We all had cans of cola to drink too, so all in all the entire meal was fairly unhealthy. It was tasty though, and after all the stress and stuff I figured we deserved something that was fun and yummy and a little bit bad for us.

Me and Tabby were sitting on one side of the table, with Avery in her usual seat at the end to Tabby's right. Jinx was in my usual spot the other end on my left, so the small half-demon was across from my sister. We even found her some clothes that sort of fit, so she wasn't naked anymore.

Jinx was wearing a pair of leggings that were capris on me but were a bit long on her, one of my small tight colourful t-shirts, and that light purple hoodie that was small and tight on me was a bit loose on her. The only thing we couldn't do for her was shoes, her feet were just too tiny for any of mine.

She was quietly eating one of the apple butter bbq wings, and from the look on her face it was easy to tell she was really enjoying it.

When she was done she sighed, "I honestly don't know how long it's been since I last had food, but holy heck it's nice to eat again! And this stuff is so good! I don't know if it's the best food I've ever had in my life, but it's definitely the best food I can remember having!"

"I'm glad you like it," I grinned. "Wings are one of my favourites too."

Unfortunately her impression of the cola was at the opposite end of the spectrum. She took one gulp then immediately spat it out and whined about it tasting like poison and claimed that the bubbles were burning her tongue. I grabbed some of the napkins and cleaned that up while Tabby got her a glass of water instead.

The little demon also decided the spicy chipotle maple wings were too hot for her, but the apple butter bbq ones were perfect. She liked the wedges too, while me and Avery both made a point of eating the veggie sticks. Although my sister and I both had a few more wedges as well, just to balance things out. Neither of us wanted to be too healthy after all.

"So I hope I'm not going to regret asking this question," Avery said at one point while the four of us were still eating, "But I'm curious about your tail Jinx. It looks kind of pointy at the end, and it seems to have something like a barb on it. Do you use that as a weapon? Is it like a stinger or something? Do you have some kind of venom or poison in there? And if so, what's it do? How lethal is it?"

Jinx's tail was sort of idly swishing around behind her, but since my sister mentioned it the small demon raised her tail up so the tip came over her right shoulder where we could all see it.

Her tail was kind of skinny but long, coated in a fine black fur, and the last centimetre at the very end seemed to taper to a fine point. And about two centimetres back from that pointy tip was a second pointy bit on one side that was backwards-facing, like the barb on a fishhook.

I'd already noticed that earlier, but we all got a better look at it now that she was holding her tail still with the end up so we could all sort of inspect it. It definitely looked like the sort of thing you really didn't want to get too close to, like if you saw that on a snake or some critter in the woods you'd give it a really wide berth and do your best not to annoy it.

All four of us stared at it for a few seconds, including Jinx.

Then she shrugged, "I don't remember exactly what it does, but it's probably for self-defence? Uh, I'm pretty sure the barbed bit is there so if someone grabs my tail or tries to pull on it they'll get jabbed when I yank it free? I'm pretty sure it's not meant to work like a harpoon, I don't think my tail would poke so deep into someone that the barb would make it get stuck."

"That'd be inconvenient anyways," she added with another shrug. "So yeah, it's probably just a stinger? I'm sure I'll figure out what it does sooner or later."

Avery sighed and gave me a look, then told Jinx "Please don't kill anybody ok? If you don't know for a fact that it's safe, don't use it at all."

"I'll try not to," Jinx replied as she let her tail sink back down behind her.

Then my sister turned her attention back on me as she asked, "So I see some of your clothes fit your new friend, have you figured out yet what to do about the other things I mentioned? She's going to need more clothes, shoes, probably a phone or something, which we can't really afford. And what's she going to do during the week when we're all at college?"

I shrugged, "I don't know yet? I thought we could use that curse you used on my clothes, to make a few things smaller so they fit her? Like a pair of shoes, some undies, that sort of thing? Not all my stuff obviously, but a few things. Either that or I could dip into my savings and buy her some things."

"And I thought she could just hang out here at home while we're at school," I added. "We can show her how to use the TV and she'll be fine. She's not like a little kid, she doesn't need adult supervision."

Avery frowned, "I'm not so sure about that. The not needing supervision part, I mean. She's a half-demon who obviously doesn't know much about the modern world, plus she's eager to curse everyone and she knows how to do it. Even if she can't use the curses herself I bet it wouldn't be hard for her to find a willing accomplice if she had all day to herself here."

"I don't know if I can stay here by myself anyways," Jinx added. "Remember how I said I was bound to Cheryl? If she loses me or someone tries to steal me I'll just go back to her? I don't know how far away the two of us can get before that kicks in. So I might end up having to hang around with her regardless."

My sister looked like she was about to facepalm, but settled for another sigh. "That means hanging around the campus while Cheryl's in class, which is probably worse than leaving her here by herself. It means everyone's going to see her, and ask questions. And with the horns and the barbed tail it's going to get very awkward very quickly."

I pointed out, "The horns are really hard to spot. I didn't even notice them until she pointed them out. So all we have to do is figure out how to hide her tail and she'll fit in just fine."

"I don't know about that," Avery responded. "Her height is another thing people are going to notice and question. But I suppose that's not as hard to explain. Like her being short won't freak people out as much as her being obviously part demon."

Tabby sighed, "I still don't know what I'm going to tell people tomorrow. How am I going to explain that I've turned into a catgirl? And how's Cheryl going to explain that she completely transitioned over the weekend?"

"Right," Avery grimaced. "Thanks for reminding me, Jinx is literally the least of our problems."

By that point we'd all had enough to eat, so I got up and started clearing the table. There were a few leftovers so I wrapped them up and put them in the fridge, then the bones and stuff went in the bin and I put all the dirty dishes in the sink before moving back to the table to rejoin the others.

As I sat down again I joked, "Too bad that compliance curse wore off. That was really handy for getting chores and stuff done."

My sister gave me a look as she stated, "Don't tempt me, sis."

I just giggled, while Tabby took it a lot more seriously.

"It was bad enough when it was just me and Avery," she stated. "I hate to think of what might happen if you went to class with that hanging over your head Cheryl. The profs might not take advantage of it, but other students probably would. And if they actually figured out you were doing what they said some of them would definitely mess with you."

"I still don't think it was that bad," I replied with a shrug. "It wouldn't make me do stuff I didn't want to, remember? But I get what you're saying Tabs. I'm just saying, it didn't bother me when it was just you and Avery, because I trust you two. And neither of you tried to make me do anything awful, which proves my point."

Avery just shook her head. Then she looked to my newest friend and asked, "Jinx if you belong to Cheryl then how is it that me and Tabitha and Holly were all able to use you? What's the significance of being her property if others could still use your curses against Cheryl?"

Jinx replied, "Oh that's easy. It's because in each of those cases Cheryl either said it was ok, or her permission was implied because she handed me over to someone else. If I was just tucked away on a shelf or even resting on a table and someone tried to use me without permission then it wouldn't work."

After a second she grimaced and added, "I suppose now that I'm not a book anymore that changes the rules slightly? I'm not sure how it'll work exactly, but I guess if Cheryl orders me not to allow anyone but her to use me then that would do it? Or if she explicitly told me someone had permission or didn't have permission, then that would probably work too."

My sister looked at me and suggested, "Do that right now please Cheryl? Make sure nobody else can use Jinx's curses without your explicit permission."

"Aww!" the small half-demon pouted. "But if nobody can use me to do curses I'll never get truly freed!"

Avery shook her head, "I'm sorry and I don't mean to offend but you're like the magical equivalent of a loaded gun. Worse, because you're actively encouraging people to use you. I'm still not comfortable with the idea of any of us doing curses, but the idea of some complete strangers taking advantage of you like that scares the heck out of me. So we need to make sure you're safe."

"So Cheryl?" she added as she looked at me again. "Please do that right now."

I sighed, "All right sis. Sorry Jinx, but you are not allowed to do curses for anybody other than myself, Tabby, and Avery."

She continued to pout but she didn't bother protesting anymore. She just mumbled, "Fine, as you wish mistress."

That made me feel even worse, especially with her calling me mistress and stuff. I really didn't want to be her owner and I hated to act like she belonged to me. On the other hand I also knew Avery was right, at least in this case.

I still felt guilty though so I added, "I'll make it up to you later Jinx, I promise."

Just like that her mood shifted and she gave me a wide hopeful smile. "You can make it up to me by casting more curses!"

"We'll see," I grimaced, while Avery gave me a look and shook her head.

There didn't seem to be anything else my sister wanted to talk about, so she finally got up and headed for the stairs. As she left she said, "I'm going back up to my room to hit the books again. You three be good. Tabby if you want a lift to college tomorrow be here by eight ok? And Cheryl, since I paid for dinner maybe you can wash the dishes instead of just leaving them in the sink?"

"Thanks Avery," my best friend replied. "I'll be here. Have a good evening."

I grudgingly agreed to do the dishes, and eventually I actually got up and did them too. Then me and Tabby and Jinx went back down to the living-room together. We put on the TV but mostly it was only Jinx who watched it. Tabs and I talked a bit, and we messed around with our phones too.

Like I wasted some time on social media, plus I also updated all my info on there with my new name and stuff. I even posted a couple new selfies, and used one of them as my new profile pic. Not that I had a lot of followers or anything, but my small collection of online friends would find out I'd suddenly become a cute blonde girl named Cheryl.

Eventually Tabby decided to head back home, she still needed to get some homework done before tomorrow morning.

I knew I should probably spend the evening doing something productive like studying, but I figured before I did that I had time to read another chapter of my best friend's story. So while Jinx watched something on TV I settled back with my phone and opened up chapter two of The Captain's Pet.

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