Tuesday

Tink carefully thought about what to tell Mrs. Ryan about doing the fashion show. When she'd gone to class on Monday the old woman had told her that they simply didn't have time anymore. But after being refused by Venus Inc., hah, more like Venus Envy, she thought, had decided she was too strange to work with, she had to really do something special to get people interested in her much better fashion club. She'd show them, she'd SHOW THEM ALL!!!!

She rolled up her the poster design for her own fashion club which had come back from the designer, and it looked great. It showed pictures of her and Mouser posing in different costumes, with really cool backgrounds, and her carefully worded pitch done up in really fancy writing. She couldn't wait to post it everywhere, she was already working out the details of having Mouser act as an agent.

Heading downstairs she checked her mailbox and saw that the package she'd been waiting for from Glow Worm was there. Ripping it open, she squealed and hugged her brand new I-phone. Now she could take regular size notes in class with the note taking program.

Best day ever!

Bobbing up and down, she headed off to breakfast.

**

“Ok, iron doesn't work on her. Are we sure she's really a fairy?” Abra asked.

“I'm sure of it, maybe she has some kind of protection,” Clover said.

“Don't worry,” Palantir said, grinning and tapping her fingers together, “I have a cunning plan.”

“Is it a cunning and subtle plan?” Clover asked.

“Yes.”

“Is it as cunning as a cunning fox, who's been appointed by the government to work in the cunning plans department facing other cunning planners in a battle of cunning that will decide the fate of the world?” Abra asked.

The two witches looked worriedly at their friend.

“Well,” Abra said, blushing, “you know that would have to be really, well, um, cunning. Right?”

**

Serena sat down beside Teri in Crystal Hall at suppertime. Strangely rather than being the bubbly source of madness and chatter that she usually was, the fairy girl was hunched down, hidden by her fuzzy blue wings.

“What's wrong?” Serena asked, a little worried since her friend had been so upbeat and cheerful at breakfast.

“Mrs. Ryan didn't listen to me at all” Teri wailed.

“About what?”

“My fashion show for Costume Shop. I had everything planned out, I was well spoken, I showed her some of my pictures and the poster I'd done up and she said no,” she cried.

“It'll be ok. You don't need the class to spread the word about your club, just the posters and word of mouth will be good enough,” Serena said.

“I wanted to show off my clothes all Thursday night, and after it was canceled all weekend, and now I can't.” She covered herself with her wings again.

“Don't worry Teri. It's going to be all right. I'm sure everything will work out.”

The wings opened up a little bit. “You really think so?”

“Definitely.”

Teri jumped on Serena, nuzzling her neck. “Oh thank you for saying that! That makes me feel so much better!”

“Air!” Serena gasped, trying to pry Teri off of her neck. “I can breathe water, but I still need to breathe!”

“Teri, could we have a word with you?” two big GSD kids asked.

Teri jumped off of Serena who gasped for breath, “What's up?”

“Do you have some time, Thuban would like to talk to you?” a kid who looked like Chewbacca's uglier cousin asked.

Smiling the fairy girl asked the most important question of all. “Is he cute?”

“Uh...”

**

Teri looked around the big cave under Twain, at the center of it was a human looking dragon, or maybe a dragon looking human, sitting on a chair made out of coins. He was dressed in a very nice suit, that went well with his gold scales. Shroud stood beside him, she didn't know the girl very well, but she'd seen her and Generator together, apparently they were dead sisters. That sounded really cool to Teri, if Shroud was annoying like some siblings could be, Generator could just not do her thing and get some peace and quiet for a while.

“Hi,” she said.

“Teri, I've heard a lot about you from Generator,” he hissed. “It's too bad you haven't come to any Faction 3 parties, I think you'd fit in well there.”

“Faction 3? Who's Faction 1 and 2?”

“Everyone who doesn't suffer from GSD.”

“Wow, that must make Faction 3 like the smallest group around, since the Lincoln Freedom Squad said there are only a couple thousand mutants in the world, and only a couple of us have GSD.”

Thuban leapt at the opened, “Exactly that's why we have to stick together. And I believe you can be a valuable partner and role model to the students, especially the girls who believe they have to hide themselves and can't compete with the Pretties.”

“Really?” Teri asked, sitting cross legged in the air.

“I understand you want to start a fashion club for GSD students -”

“How did you know that?! I only wrote down a poster for that and kept it in my room! Do you have cameras in the rooms of all the cute girls?” She covered her chest and glared at the dragon. “If I find my image on the internet without my permission I know who to sue! I have lawyers! A lawyer! Ok, an agent, but I'll use her!”

Shroud floated over. “Teri, calm down. No one recorded you. You told Generator, half the freshmen at Whitman, and a couple of the sophomores, and your entire costume shop class today heard about it when you begged Mrs. Ryan to let you do a fashon show.”

“Oh right. Sorry, I forgot. Please continue,” she said, straightening her clothes and hair again.

“Well, where was I,” Thuban said to himself. “I like your idea of a fashion club for GSD students. I've looked some of your work, and I think it's a new market that will help raise the confidence of girls who can't fit into the pretty crowd. If you will work with me, I'll see about getting you access to camera's, editors, photographers, some volunteer models, and if things go well school support. Are you interested?”

“What do you get out of it?” Teri asked.

“I get to see my fellow students blossom, seeing themselves as worthwhile people. It let the baseline world see that we're not freaks and monsters, and opens up a new career path for mutants in entertainment that isn't the porn industry.”

“You won't want a cut of the profits, or want to take over, or anything like that?”

“I don't need the money, if I loan you money for printing, clothes or equipment, I expect to be paid back, but we'll sign a contract each time and it will only be for the exact amount loaned, not a penny more. And as long as you do as good a job for the girls and boys who will be joining as you've done for yourself I won't interfere or withdraw my support. If when you leave Whateley, you plan on making it into an actual modeling agency, I would like to be one of the first backers you consider, but it's not a requirement,” he said, casting a glance at Shroud.

“Let me think about it, and I'll let you know by the end of the week,” she said.

“Certainly. You can come to our Friday night bash, and see what Faction 3 is like, our doors are always open for people like you.”

“Ok, it's a date!” Teri said. “Gotta go, I need to get to detention. Bye bye Shroud, tell Generator I'll be talking to Mobius tomorrow about the pouches please.” And with that she was off.

**

“Is she always like that?” Thuban asked.

“Yes,” Shroud said. “She's smart, but crazy and she has the attention span of a stunned gerbil unless it really amuses her.”

He shook his head. “You really think she can handle a modeling club?”

“I have no idea. But we think she'll be able to get it started, and after that we can help keep her focused, or gently move her off to the side if necessary.”

Thuban pulled her onto his lap. “You really just want to be a model, that's why you're making me put up with the crazy girl, isn't it?”

“Maybe,” she said, scratching under his chin.

“Excuse me, Mr. Thuban,” Teri said from the back of the chair.

“Gah!” he cried, almost throwing Shroud to the ground.

“I got a little lost. How do I get out of here?” Teri asked.

**

“She's with Thuban,” Clover said. “Who's Thuban?”

Being in Whitman, Abra was able to fill in the details thanks to listening to her cottage mates. “He's some bigshot, like Ayla, who wants to get all the GSD kids together. Teri will probably go to Hawthorne through the tunnels, if we hurry we can get everything set up.”

“I don't like the tunnels, they're scary,” Clover said, hugging Buttons.

“They're not bad, and they're great in winter. It's the best part about being in Whitman.”

Palantir grabbed Clovers' hand. “If we want to get our plan ready tonight, we have to get going now. Abra, lead the way!”

**

Teri was almost at Hawthorne when a very strange sight stopped her. A large tar black doll stood in the tunnel. She stopped and flew down to get a closer look.

“Ok, I know this is the part where I'm suppose to say 'Hi, how are you doing?' Then you don't answer me, and I get upset and pick a fight with you, only to get all tangled up in tar so a fox and bear can come along and eat me. I saw the Disney cartoon,” she said, disgusted at such an easy trick. “It's not happening.”

As she flew up and over the tar baby, something that felt a lot like a dogs nose, hit her back and shoved her head first into the sticky mess.

Struggling to get her face clear of the tar, Teri heard chanting, and felt something that wasn't physical grabbing her. For a day that had started off so well, it had really gone downhill.

“YOU'LL NEVER GET MY LUCKY CHARMS!” she shouted, flying as fast and as hard as she could.

**

The three little witches watched the tar baby take to the air, their spell only half done. “Get her!” Palantir shouted.

The escaping, cursing, fairy powered tar baby, wasn't going as fast as usual, so they could at least keep up to her. Clover put Buttons down and waited a second for her familiar to become big enough to ride, while Palantir summoned one of her balls, and they quickly caught up to the Teri.

“HOLD STILL!” Clover shouted, jumping off of Buttons and tackling the sticky mass.

They went down in a heap, the tar covering Clover and effectively gluing them to the floor. Palantir came up and tried to help Clover out, only to be pulled into the mess. Abra who had been struggling to keep up, grabbed an ankle and tried to pull whoever it was out.

Reaching in for a better hold, Abra felt a tiny hand grab her shirt sleeve, and pull herself out.

“Hi,” Abra said nervously, remembering how strong and violent Teri could be from martial arts.

The dirty, sticky fairy smiled and kissed her cheek. “Hi, thanks for helping me. You'd better keep those two in there, they're crazy. Come on we can get to Hawthorne and call security.”

“Uh, you go on ahead, I'll make sure these two vicious students don't escape.”

“Oh you're so brave,” Teri said, giving her another kiss. “Never fear, I won't be long.”

“Please hurry!” Abra said, watching the prey fly away. “Hurry up guys! Security is coming!” she hissed at her friends as soon as Teri was out of sight.

**

“Mrs. Cantrell, I know I'm late, I know I'm filthy, but you would not believe the week I've been having,” Teri said. “And you really need to call security, because there are two vicious students covered in tar in the tunnels.”

**

“Come on, come on, come on!” Abra said, spraying a foam onto her friends and the floor that was guaranteed by the gadgeteer she'd borrowed it from, to clean up anything and be perfectly safe for people.

“You let her get away!” scolded Palantir getting to her feet.

“I didn't want to be hanging from a light by my underwear, thank you very much!” Abra said. “Now let's go, security will be here any second.”

“But we almost had her,” Clover whined.

“Security! Coming! Now! Run away! Run away!” Putting words into action, she hot footed it back to Whitman.

**

Officer Daniels and Green came to the spot where a student had supposedly left two attackers covered in tar watched over by a helpful bystander. But the only thing they found was a clean floor. Sighing at the waste of time, he got on the radio.

“Daniels here, tell Mrs. Cantrell, we didn't find anything. We'll go to Hawthorne to make sure, but I'd say the student had an accident and isn't willing to admit it.”

“Copy that. I'll pass on the word. And it looks like someone is going to be cleaning Fubar's tank tonight.”

**

In the safety of Clover's dorm, after spending an hour cleaning the tar off of themselves, the three little witches went over their battle plan. At least they tried to.

Abra had her arms crossed and had her chin thrust out to show she really meant what she was saying. “Uh uh, I'm not going to try anything against Tink anymore, she's too strong and too smart.”

“But that's exactly why we need to get her essence,” Palantir said. “She's so tough she has to be loaded with it.”

“And after all the work we've done we have to get something out of it.”Clover said.

“Fine, one last time, but this is the very, very, very last try. If it doesn't work we go onto someone else,” Abra stated.

“Deal,” the two girls said.

“Now let us plan for tomorrow night,” Clover said ominously.

**

Serena looked up from her homework when Teri got back. “What happened to you?” she asked the tar covered, soaking wet girl.

“I'm having the strangest week, and I got to clean Fubars tank again. I'm going to go wash myself in bleach,” Teri said numbly. “If you hear sobbing, don't worry it's just me.”

**

Wednesday

Sixth period, Flying Class

“Ok, Mitchell,” Teri said to the jet propelled member of her flying team, “here's the plan. I want you to do one second bursts of your powers every five seconds seconds. That should give you the lift and speed you need to stay in the air without breaking the sound barrier or going into orbit. Can you do that?”

“How will I know when to do a burst?” Mitchell asked nervously as the other students went through their exercises which for some was simply trying to get into the air. The instructor, Mrs. Cavallo was on the other side of the field teaching some of the winged students how to do barrel rolls, while Angel was teaching diving.

“I have that all figured out,” Teri assured him, pulling out something that looked like a metal watch. “I had my friend, Generator make this timer, it gives you a small shock when you have to do it. Just put this on and when you're read to go press the red button on the side.”

Very nervously, he put the watch on and assumed the position that made it look like he was going to the bathroom. She gave him an encouraging smile while standing well back, “You can do it. I believe in you!”

Mitchell activated the watch, and a gout of flame erupted from his pants. He soared into the air, not quite out of control, and not reaching super sonic speeds this time. At five seconds he was just starting to descend when his entire body spasmed. With a scream his rocket powers kicked in and he was heading towards Boston.

Teri watched the boy become a tiny speck and then vanish within seconds, while the teacher got on the phone calling for help. Her group landed beside her, Cleo breathed a big sigh of relief and kissed the ground when she landed, while Sue stayed five feet above the ground flapping her arms like they were wings. Mr. Awesome tried to do a somersault as he landed and ended up flat on his back for his trouble.

“Wow!” Sue said. “When do you think he'll come down?”

“I think he'll be in Boston in about 10 minutes. If they call ahead maybe they can get a really big net or something,” Tink said.

“If he dies, do we lose marks?” Mr. Awesome asked.

“That's not nice!” Cleo said, still hugging the ground.

“Well it's not our fault if he can't control his powers. We're going to fail if he's on our group.”

“He's a nice guy,” Cleo insisted. “He just needs to learn to control his powers better.”

Sue finally managed to get her flying working properly and was sitting cross legged in the air, “Well group leader, what are we going to do about Mitchell?”

Teri sat down on Sue's head to think, stroking her wings. “He needs... he needs... he needs wings!”

**

The tunnels near the workshop were bustling with gadgeteers, devisors, students who liked mechanics, and potential customers. Now that the freshmen had had a chance to get organized and learn the basics, they were arguing and bargaining with each other for what free space was available beyond their assigned work table, and trying to get a bit of extra equipment from the older students. Teri flew above it all, not really interested in it all since she'd been able to get her business done with Mobius fairly quickly.

She stopped in midair when she saw Ayla strolling along like she owned the place. Ayla was the TA of the business accounting class, and while not someone she was looking for, she decided to make the most of the opportunity. “Hi Ayla, can I talk with you for a moment?”

There was a slight pause as the girl looked up, “Yes Teri, how can I help you?”

“In the business accounting class yesterday, I'm having a bit of trouble with the math. Can I come in a bit early on Friday and go over it with you?” she asked.

“Certainly, come fifteen minutes early, if it's a minor problem that should be enough time,” Ayla said. “If that's everything, I need to speak to some people.”

“Yep, that's it. Thank you!”

Having a bit of free time before her detention, she flew around the tunnels, watching the hustle and bustle with interest. She saw a group of girls who looked just like drow, with elfen ears and ink black skin. The girl in the lead looked angry and was ranting about something that didn't make any sense to Teri, something about clones, spontaneous combustion and several things that sounded very unpleasant. She'd have to find them later when they weren't so busy or angry to see if they wanted to join her club, there were at least five websites that would like their pictures.

A pretty Native girl in a leather dress was looking over a car, discussing modifications with another very pretty girl, for some reason quite a few people around the shop were eyeing them, and there were a few quiet snickers. Teri considered going over and asking the girl where she got the dress, because it looked a lot nicer than her mouse skin dresses, but they looked pretty busy, so she kept going.

Still wandering, Teri quickly passed by a black kid with dreadlocks and the worst possible combination of clothes imaginable, that made her eyes water and her stomach churn just looking at the combination of fluorescent pink plaid, with psychedelic zebra stripes, and rainbow coloured glasses that twisted and turned as she looked at them.

And then she smelled something interesting. Alcohol.

She'd had a beer once at a friends party, and her parents drank sometimes, but this stuff smelled better. Following her nose, she saw a boy who was well tanned, an old buttoned up farm shirt, patched jeans, and battered shoes, chewing on a piece of grass, smelling like he'd fallen into a vat of booze, come out of a room with a door more like a bank vault.

Taking a quick look inside before the door closed, she saw a lot of metal tubes, vats, containers and what looked like glass bottles of water.

She'd watched enough tv to have a good idea what the boy was making in there. Still unnoticed she smiled, rubbing her hands together. This could be fun. Quietly she left to continue her exploration.

**

For a change nothing got in her way as she went to detention. It might have helped that she flew out of the tunnel at a random doorway and flew as high as she reasonably could so that nothing ground bound could stop her.

She helped Em with her English, the spider girl was distracted for some reason, but she was catching on. Teri had her do a short essay on 'High School Musical', and it was pretty good, she was at least getting the structure down.

“Hey Em, what's up?” Teri asked when her student looked at the door for the tenth time.

“A friend of mine is doing detention here, and I'm worried about her,” Emilia said, brushing the long bangs out of her eyes.

“Aw, don't worry, detention is easy. If I can do it, anyone can. Now pay attention,” she said, pointing at the paper, “you need to actually name the actors in the show, don't expect us to know who they are.

**

After dealing with some more chores, which wasn't nearly as much fun as getting to act all intelligent with essays and things, Teri got a bit of a break and flew to India's room. The big, seven year old sasquatch squealed with joy when Teri came in.

“Butterfly!” India shouted, reaching for her with a hand big enough to palm and crush a basketball.

“Whoa!” Teri shouted, flying up to the ceiling, which really didn't do that much since the girls head brushed the overhead light. “Where's your real butterfly?” Desperately hoping the extra strong plush butterfly would keep India happy.

The big little girl plopped down on her specially made bed, the very picture of misery. Tears as large as Teri's head appeared at the corner of her eyes. “I was outside with Slab and Mr. Fubar, and talked to a psy-chi-tris, Ms. Markham. Since I was being really good, they said I could have lunch in Crystal Hall and sit beside the fountain. Butterfly was right beside me, and I know I didn't move her, but when we were all done, But- But- Butterfly was gone.”

The tears started flowing, and India threw herself face down on the bed crying loud enough to shake the window. Teri flew down landing on her ear so she could stroke her hair. “Oh, that's terrible. I'll tell you what, I'll look for her, and if I can't find her, I'll ask Ms. Cantrell for permission to take you shopping, and we'll go get you a new one from the store. How does that sound?”

Sniff, “Really?”

“Yeah. And if anyone tries to steal it again, I'll go and beat them up for you. Now can you stop crying, so we can paint some pictures?”

India sat up so quickly, Teri had to grab onto her hair to keep from flying off. “Thank you, Butterfly!”

“Hey, remember I'm not a butterfly!” Teri said.

“Oh my sweet little butterfly is so nice to me! I just want to hug you!” India reached out for Teri, who began flitting around the room to avoid the enormous giant.

“India, no!” Teri shouted, lifting her legs just in time to avoid being grabbed. “We talked about this!”

“Pretty,” the seven year old said, completely focused on the nice fairy in front of her.

“Screw it! Run AWAY!” Teri shouted, circling around the big hairy head and fleeing for the open door. She took a few turns to gain some distance as India tried to follow her, both of them sent Hawthorne residents flying, and she just knew, she was going to get blamed for this. It was how her week had been going so far.

Looking behind her she saw much to her relief that India wasn't following her, although her footsteps could be heard close by. Turning again to look where she was going, all she saw was a girl bending backwards to avoid her.

“Sorry,” she said, stopping for a moment. Teri noticed the girl was bent at the knee's almost at 90 degrees, that and the short black hair. “Oh, bullet time! Nice!” Before she could anything else, the stomping feet of India came up behind her, followed by a squeak of joy. “I'd get out of the way, Trinity!” she shouted, hoping the girl wouldn't be crushed to death.

Flying for all she was worth, she went through an open window in the common room and headed for the roof of the cottage. With the way India could run and jump there was no way she wanted to try to outrun the girl. From the safety of the roof, she watched India run around in circles looking for her, Slab and a few other Hawthorne residents came out trying to herd the girl back into the cottage.

With sasquatch girl distracted, Teri flew down and went to the kitchen window which was out of sight of India. Ms. Cantrell was in there, preparing a meal. Knocking on the window, Teri tried to look innocent.

“What the blazes are you doing out there?” the housemother asked letting her in.

Just as Teri was about to explain, Em ran in. “Mrs. Cantrell, India was chasing Teri again and- oh. Good you got away.”

Mrs. Cantrell rubbed her temples. “Can you go one day without causing a ruckus child?”

“I don't try to cause trouble,” Teri said, sitting on the edge of the sink. “But things keep happening around me. I think I might be a reality warper permanently set on weird.”

Mrs. Cantrell looked at the clock. With some relief she said, “Looks like you're done for the day. Try to keep from blowing up the school or something like that.”

Waving goodbye to Em, Teri flew out the window and once more went as high as she could to avoid trouble.

**

“Her detention will be done in fifteen minutes,” Clover said. “Abra your on.”

Leaving her dorm room, Abra tried to look confident, it wasn't easy but if it worked it would all be worth it. Knocking on Teri and Serena's door, she held the note they'd forged tightly.

“Oh hi, Abracadabra,” Serena said. “What's up?”

She held out the note and fixed her glasses. “Mrs. Savage asked me to give this to you. She said it was important.”

“Thanks,” Serena said, taking the note. A frown appeared. “Why does Carson want to see me? And at this hour?”

“I don't know, I'm just the delivery girl. But you should get over there quick, they don't like waiting.”

With a roll of her eyes, Serena thanked her and headed out, conveniently forgetting to lock the door. As soon as Serena was gone and the coast was clear, Abra ran back to her room, and the three little witches each carrying a big bag ran into the empty room. They had a lot to do and not much time.

**

Reaching Whitman, Teri smiled, nothing weird had happened, and except for having to run away from India, the day had been sane. She was coming to appreciate the sane days more and more, since she'd had so few of them over the last few months.

Opening her little door, she expected to see Serena busy with homework, since this was her designated homework time, but instead of seeing her roommate diligently working, she saw what looked like a dismantled machine strewn around the room. There was a small sign face down in the very center of the mess. For a moment she was tempted to go call Mrs. Savage, but her curiosity got the better of her, and she flew down to the sign.

'This is a trap' it read, and beneath it was a blue print which apparently went with the machine.

Teri scratched her head and sat down trying to figure out what the hell was going on. She was wearing shorts, and as she sat, something stuck to her skin. Looking down, her teeth clenched with barely contained rage, she saw that she was sitting on flypaper. Trying to fly revealed that it was extra strong fly paper, and that her wings were stuck to it as well.

“Someone is going die,” she said.

There was a small 'eep!' from the closet, and three girls wearing masks stepped out, they seemed to be casting a spell. A little dog followed them, it was a wearing a mask as well.

Glaring at the three girls, she undid some buttons, saying, “Yep, slow painful death coming this way,” as she shimmied out of her shoes and shorts, painfully pulling her skin off the flypaper at the same time.

There was a loud tearing sound as she stood up and in only a t-shirt and panties walked across the fly paper. The three girls faltered with their spell and backed away from her. She picked up the small dresser in one hand, and put herself between the door and the girls. “Ok, I'm guessing you're the ones who have made me late for detention twice, cost me one set of clothes, drugged me, and have made my life very interesting. If you want to leave here with all your teeth intact, you will explain what the hell you want!”

“We're sorry! Please don't hit us!” one of the girls said.

“Hey! You're Abra, you live across the hall. And you helped me out yesterday.” Teri thought for a moment. “Oh! Now I get it, you weren't helping me you were trying to capture me, and you're the reason security thinks I'm crazy.” The dresser swung very close to Abra's nose.

“We only wanted to get a bit of essence, so we could spark our own essence and finally get to do some cool spells and stuff. We didn't mean for anything bad to happen. We're REALLY, REALLY sorry, but you must have so much essence, it's not fair. Everyone else can do really neat things, and we've been trying for over a year now and can't do nothing,” Abra gushed, barely pausing for air or punctuation.

“Huh?”

“We just want a bit of essence, not very much at all,” one of Abra's compatriots said.

“Ok, you can have some.”

The three girls looked like they couldn't believe their ears. “Really?”

“Yeah. For one hundred dollars. Each.”

“That's highway robbery!” they cried.

“You have to replace some of my clothes. Essence is apparently very valuable, and after all the crap you've put me through you're getting a bargain. You can give me the money and get the essence, or I'm going to security right now,” Teri threatened.

“That's blackmail!”

“I prefer to call it capitalism. So which is it?” Teri asked.

The three girls huddled together, Teri heard them whining about losing all their birthday and babysitting money, and other things, but they really didn't have much choice. After two minutes, they agreed to pay her.

“Be back here in thirty minutes with the cash, I'm keeping all this stuff in the room in case you try to back out,” Teri told them.

As the girls ran to get the money, Teri turned on her laptop and started doing some homework.

“What happened here?” Serena exclaimed when she came in five minutes later.

“Hi Serena, I figured out why I was having such a weird week,” Teri said. “Don't worry it'll be all picked up soon. Where were you?”

“I was told that I had to see Headmistress Carson, right away. But when I got there, everything was locked up. After wandering around a bit I came back. Figured it wasn't important and I could do it tomorrow.”

Teri got a BIG grin.

“Um Teri,” Serena said, “smiles shouldn't be that big, it's really creepy.”

She ignored her roommate. “Oh this is going to be good.”

**

When the three little witches finally came back, with the money, they found Teri and Serena waiting for them, both were smiling like Cheshire cats.

“We have the money,” Abra said.

“Good,” Teri dragged out the words as if she was savouring the flavour. “But we have a problem.”

“Problem?” Palantir asked, dry washing her hands.

“We now have a note from the headmistress, which wasn't written by her. That's forgery, and that's very bad. Isn't it Serena?”

Serena nodded. “Very bad indeed. Why it's only proper that we hand it over to security and explain who gave it to me.”

“We don't have anymore money. This is all our birthday and babysitting money from the summer,” Clover said.

“Well I guess we could forget about it if we got some services out of it, couldn't we Teri?”

“Oh yes,” the fairy agreed. “I'm thinking washing our clothes, making our beds, tidying this place up. Odd jobs for the rest of the month. That sounds fair, doesn't it?”

“Definitely fair. Much easier than whatever detention Headmistress Carson will give them. Didn't you have to clean Fubars pool twice, the second time because of them.”

“Yeah. Maybe we should tell Headmistress Carson in the morning. Everyone should have to clean Fubar's pool at least once in their life.”

Clover fell to her knees. “We'll clean your room for the rest of the month. Please don't tell Headmistress Carson.”

“Ok. Just remember we want it done well. And some of my clothes need to be hand washed,” Teri told them. “Now, hand over the money and we can do the essence exchange.”

The three little witches surrounded Teri and began chanting. They really concentrated, wanting to pull as much essence as safely possible to make up for all the stuff they had had to put up with. It was going to just be worth it to finally spark their essence.

They felt the essence slowly moving from the fairy into Palantir's ball, and then it shut off.

“What?!” Clover cried. “Where's all the essence?”

“I get this much essence in a day!” Abra cried.

“A hundred bucks for this!” Palantir cried.

Teri watched them argue over the tiny little marble. “Seems like a lot to me.”

“You stopped the spell somehow!” Palantir said. “You cheated us.”

“I did not. I don't even know what essence is.”

“Aren't you a magical fairy like the elves on campus?” Clover asked.

“Nope. Just a beautiful girl who looks like a fairy. Does that matter?” Teri asked.

“Abra, didn't you look at her essence before telling us about her?”

“Well, no,” Abra said, suddenly finding her shoes really interesting. “I just thought that she would have lots of it.”

Serena still smiling leaned back on her bed. “A deals, a deal, girls. Teri did her part, so if you can pick up all of your things, sweep the floor, and get the basket of clothes over there, you have a bit of work to do.”

Teri began counting her money as the three little witches got to work. They'd made the deal they'd stick to it.

As they trooped down to the laundry room, they passed by a girl with paper white skin and what looked like shifting inky black tattoos.

“She's a wizard,” Clover said. “She has to have some essence.”

As they sorted the clothes, they began talking about how they could get some essence from someone who wasn't quite so dangerous.