“Who is that girl?”

“She seems familiar.”

“Did we get a new student?”

“Why is she around Aiko?”

“Didn’t Skylar sit next to him in his last class?”

“Why are such cute girls suddenly interested in that guy?”

“Didn’t you hear about this morning?”

“What?”

“He beat up two students, and then came to school with drugs.”

“That can’t be true… he’d be expelled.”

As I listened to the muttering of students around me, I could only put my hand on my forehead and rub my temples. My plan to avoid attention my first week was failing miserably. Maybe, another person would bask in the attention, but I considered any attention bad attention. What could I say? I had far too many cases where a mob of angry people hunted me down. The first step to being publicly disdained was being publicly known.

In this case, the problem wasn’t Skylar. She wasn’t in this class. I couldn’t even put the aim on Ivy, who despite sitting next to me, had done her best to be a wallflower. She only addressed me when I spoke to her, and she answered questions shortly and to the point. If it had just been her, the fact that she chose to sit next to me would have gone unnoticed. Unfortunately, Lana had returned to school and had taken the other seat.

Lana had become extremely daring in her dress after losing weight. It hadn’t even been a full week yet, and she was already wearing something that exposed her midriff. It was a black blouse and a red-plaid skirt. She also had a belly button piercing. It was all very flashy and caught the eyes of just about everyone in the class. I had hoped this would violate some school dress code, but since she had already made it through over half the day, it was probably too much to ask.

Lana wasn’t making things any easier. She kept wanting to speak to me. When it was related to magic, I would answer her questions politely, but some of the stuff she wanted to talk about seemed a bit frivolous. The only thing that was more irritating than that is that she kept shooting challenging looks at Ivy. This made Ivy uncomfortable, and only served to gain us all more attention.

I was rather happy when the class finally ended. As I tried to pack up, a group of three guys crowded around Lana’s desk. They did so in a way that specifically put them between me and her. She tried to look my way, but I pretended not to notice and she was quickly forced to address the boys.

“Hey, how are you doing? Are you new here?” One of the guys asked.

“No, I’m not new… I’ve been hearing all along.” She responded when she realized she had no other choice.

“Huh? I’m sure I would have noticed a girl as beautiful as you. What’s your name?”

“I’m… um… Lana…”

While Lana had dressed provocatively, it was clear by her body language that she wasn’t mentally there yet. The sudden attention of those three boys was more than she was used to. She was socially awkward and uncomfortable under their gazes, which were a bit predatory. This was a lesson every beautiful woman would have to learn eventually. Young boys were pigs. I should know, I was once one. If you chose to dress in such a manner, you were inviting the looks and attention from those who you potentially don’t want.

Hopefully, Lana would learn from this incident and become warier of such a thing in the future. What? I should feel guilty that I helped her lose the weight? She was the one who ultimately chose to show off that body. Ivy wasn’t wearing nearly as provocative of clothing and she wasn’t being bothered. How could I survive if I had to take personal responsibility for every person after I help them? It was a ridiculous expectation.

“Lana? Wasn’t she that fat chick?”

“No way! How did I not notice you lost all that weight?”

“It… happened rather recently…” Lana responded weakly, looking down at her desk in discomfort.

“Well, now you’re really cute. You want to go out?”

“Dude! You can’t just ask her like that.” The second hit the first on the shoulder.

“Why not?” He looked over with a confused expression on his face.

“I-I don’t…” She started.

“At the least, you have to come to my party tonight.”

“P-party?” Lana looked up startled.

“What party? Oh!” His friend spoke up, but then he elbowed him hard.

“Oh, yeah. We’re having a party. It’ll be a small one, but you should come.” He grinned.

Guys never really changed. I suspected that this party was just going to be her and the three of them. Furthermore, they’d try to get her drunk and pressure her into some rather uncomfortable things. I guess it was all part of growing up. What? I understood this world had some progressive views on the wrongness of such things, but I grew up in a world of magic and heroes.

I lived in classical patriarchy. Women stayed at home and got pregnant and men worked and risked their lives doing manual labor. Women here wanted to act like men, but the second you add the danger of real monsters to the world and most of those feminists were happy being housewives. In my world, there was no police force, and city guards were corrupt. A city guard might be just as likely to help the attacker as he would the woman. It was every person for themselves. That’s the world I grew up in. Since Lana was a protégé of mine, I couldn’t take this kind of life lesson from her. Hopefully, she’d know better and wouldn’t fall for it.

“I-I gue-”

“She can’t. We’re having a sleepover.”

“Huh?” The men all turned to see Ivy standing there.

“Wha-?” Lana blinked.

Ivy pushed through the men, putting herself right next to Lana. She put her hands on her hips and glared at the men challengingly. None of the three could match her look, turning their heads away and laughing awkwardly.

“I-I didn’t know you were friends.” One of the guys attempted to carry on the conversation like it was nothing.

“Of course, we’re friends.” She declared. “And we’re going to hang out, and it’s a girl’s night, so no guys allowed. Got it?”

“Yeah, okay.” He held up his hands and then tried to glance over at Lana, who still had her head down. “Maybe next time?”

“We’ll see about that,” Ivy responded icily.

Although Ivy was a pretty girl, she was able to put on a far more aloof expression that was able to overwhelm the confidence of the three boys. They finally retreated, giving the two girls some room.

“Th-thanks… you… you helped me.” Lana’s voice came from behind.

Ivy turned around, and her stern expression dropped. “It’s just, I’ve been in a similar situation.”

“R-really?” Lana’s looked Ivy up and down and then winced. “Except, you’ve probably always been skinny and beautiful, right?”

Ivy bit her lip and then shook her head. “Believe it or not, when I was younger, boys saw me as a tomboy. It wasn’t until I started growing boobs that they started showing me interest. I… got the wrong kind of interest, and mistakes were made.”

“Mistakes?”

Ivy glanced at me, and then back at her. I didn’t know why I was a part of this conversation. The only reason I was still sitting there was that my next class was lunch, and I didn’t want to fight the crowds in the hallway when it didn’t matter what time I got there.

“I… got pregnant. I have a daughter.”

Lana’s eyes popped open and she nearly jumped out of her seat. I was a bit surprised too. Wasn’t she trying to keep that a secret? How was it a secret if she was going to tell everyone she talked to? Well, it wasn’t my problem. I didn’t tell Lana. Wait, did she tell Lana so it’d be easier on me? That couldn’t be the reason.

“R-really? That…”

“No one knows about it,” Ivy responded, but then she glanced my way. “Well, mostly no one.”

“Then why are you telling me?” Lana asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t have any friends, and I noticed that you don’t hang out with a lot of people besides Aiko in school.”

“You’ve been noticing?” Lana looked alarmed.

“I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I made. No, that’s not it.” She frowned as if she was unsure what she wanted to say. “I just wanted to see if you wanted to be friends.”

“Friends…” Lana said the word almost like it was something she wasn’t used to, and then she smiled brightly.

In the past, her smiles looked a little forced because of her pudgy cheeks, but now that she had, lost the weight, her smiles were extremely dazzling. She put out a hand, and after a second, Ivy reached out and took it. The two girls shook hands. I did not care about any of this. I rolled my eyes as I was forced to watch this scene.

“Oh. Are those stretch marks?” Ivy asked.

Lana let out a cry, trying to pull her sleeveless blouse to cover her arms. On the underside of her arms were clear markings. After a moment of failing to cover it, she gave up, a blush of embarrassment on her cheeks.

“I hate them,” Lana spoke quietly. “I just got too big too fast and they formed in a couple of areas. They look worse now that I lost weight.”

“It’s not a big deal. I have them too.” Ivy declared, lifting her shirt and showing her abdomen. “Oh! I know, we can treat them and get rid of them.”

Lana made a face. “Don’t you think I’ve tried? I’ve tried every potion in the spellbook. I’ve burned my skin and dried it out. Nothing gets rid of it.”

“R-really?” Ivy blinked, lifting the potion I had given her last class period from her pocket. “But Aiko gave me this…”

“Aiko made it?” Her eyes looked at me, but I distinctly separated myself from their conversation, and so she turned to the potion and eyed it expectantly. “It’ll work then!”

“Y-you sure?” It seemed like Ivy was the less convinced.

Lana nodded excitedly. “If it’s Aiko, then it will work.”

She blushed again, realizing that she said that at such a close distance from me. Whatever. The potion would work on anyone’s stretchmarks. Had I known Lana was having a problem, I probably would have also made her a batch. Either way, what Ivy had should be enough for both of them, so they could just share it. It was more convenient for me.

“It still might take some time to work. “Ivy spoke thoughtfully. “In the meantime, we can pick out some outfits that look good but won’t get you harassed by the boys so easily.”

“R-really? You’d do that for me?”

“Of course, I’m good at that!” Ivy laughed confidently. “I may be a mom now, but I still have a good sense of style.”

The two girls smiled at each other, and then Lana bit her lip. “Do you want to come over tonight? I know you were making up the sleepover to get rid of those boys, but my parents wouldn’t mind if I had a real one.”

“You want me to come over?” Ivy’s eyes widened. “Even though I have a kid?”

“Why does that matter?” Lana asked.

“Your parents won’t mind?” Ivy asked nervously.

Lana laughed. “My parents are so scared I’ll be some lone Wiccan, I think they’d be excited if I bring anyone relatively normal home at this point. Ah! I mean, it’s fine.”

“O-okay… I… ah… but Maya. It’s my daughter. I don’t have anyone who can watch her.” A disappointed look crossed Ivy’s face.

Lana also looked downcast for a second, but then a mischievous grin formed on her lips. “I know someone who can watch her.”

“Huh? Who?” Ivy asked.

Lana’s head turned. A moment later, Ivy turned her head too. Wait, why were they both looking at me?