Naughty Magic - Chapter 22 - Classes Continue

Olivia

Class ended uneventfully. I’d love to say that the trend continued through my school days, but I didn’t even make it to my next class before trouble found me. Or more like I saw trouble coming a mile away, and froze like a deer in headlights.

There were magical girls in the middle of the quad. I couldn’t actually see them - not through the crowd of students swarming them - but I could clearly hear White Heart’s demands that they step back and conduct themselves in an orderly fashion so that she could scan them for any signs of… trouble.

The vagueness of her words only seemed to frighten the other students, turning the thicket of people into a chaotic mess of a crowd. I took advantage of that to skadaddle - or at least I tried to, but when I spun around and started sprinting in the opposite direction I pretty much immediately slammed into another girl.

“Woah!” the girl - whose chest I’d just ran face first into - caught me by the arm before I could bounce backwards, keeping me upright - if only barely. “You alright there?”

“Uh-huh,” I replied, blinking up at her. She was… tall. Like, really tall. Six foot something tall. Looked toned, too - like she did weights, or sports, or something else suitably athletic. I wasn’t actually sure which one of those would get you a body like hers, but if you told me she could bench press a few hundred pounds I’d probably believe you.

“You okay there?” the girl asked, tilting her head to the side. “Didn’t bang your head too hard against my tits or anything, did you?”

“N-no,” I said, managing to force my eyes off of the muscles and up towards her green eyes. “I mean, uh. No. I’m fine. I’m just… uh…”

“Uh-huh…” the girl said, looking me over. “Alright. Well.. I’m gonna go now, but did you like… want my number?”

“Your number?” I asked, dumbly.

“For your phone. Considering how you kept staring at my muscles and all.”

“That’s… I uh… I mean…”

“Uh-huh. Well, can’t say I’m not flattered that I got your attention over the literal heroes, so, like… Here.” With a practiced motion, she slung her backpack over her shoulder, pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote her number down.

I took it, dumbly staring at her.

“Well… see ya!” She said, giving me a wave as she walked by.

“Is this… what being hot’s like?” I muttered, to myself, before realizing something. “Hey, wait, I never got your name!”

The girl stumbled a bit, and for a moment I actually thought she was going to take a trip face first into the grass. Thankfully, with a bit of wheeling her hands about, she managed to keep herself up and shot me a sheepish grin. “Right. Uh… call me Tiffany, alright?” 

“Tiffany,” I repeated, smiling to myself.

If being a hot girl got me the number of girls like hers… I mean, it wasn’t like I’d been thinking of it as a bad thing, previously, but now I had to admit that being hot definitely had its advantages.

“Also, I think the magical girls are maybe looking for you? One of them is staring your way.”

“R-right…” I muttered. “I uh… Gotta go!” 

“Hey!” came a voice from behind me. “Hey wait!”

Needless to say, I didn’t listen. I hightailed it out of there with the sort of speed I’d normally reserve for getting to a magical girl autograph signing, or some such. Which was sort of ironic considering who I was running away from, but… hero worship later. Survival now.

“Come back here!”

Unfortunately, as fast as I could run, White Heart could fly. Her heartpad had her up in the air and chasing after me in moments, a fierce look in her eyes. Before long she’d shot past me, and was landing in front of me.

So, of course, I spun around and ran the other way - only to once again slam right into the toned body of my new friend.

“Uh… Tiffany?”

“Jodie, actually,” she replied. For some reason, her voice sounded just a touch different than it had before - perhaps it wasn’t really the same person? A twin? But… they were wearing the same clothes.

“I don’t care who you are,” White Heart said, landing behind me. “What I care about is the suspect in front of you.”

“You mean my client?” Tiffany - or Jodie? - asked.

“Your client?” White Heart asked, incredulously. “Aren’t you a student here?”

“Yeah, a law student. And I’m here to remind you that my client has rights. Like the right to go from one class to another without getting messed with by a so-called hero.”

“Excuse me?” White Heart snarled. “I am-”

“Illegally trespassing on school property and harassing students?” Jodie demanded. “Did you get permission from the school for this?”

“Well, no, but-”

“Then I think it’s about time you left, don’t you think?” She put her hands on her hips as she spoke, narrowing her eyes at White Heart. Surprisingly, the hero actually took a step or two back, before stiffening her spine and trying to stand up for herself.

“I’m allowed to-”

“You’re allowed to leave us the fuck alone. You’re a magical girl, not a cop. You don’t get to question random students for no damn reason. Unless you wanna tell me that she’s got something to do with oozes?”

“She… she might…” White Heart said. “She ran, when she saw us. My spell detected it.”

“She ran because she’s late to her fucking class. As am I, actually! So maybe you can get out of our way and let us?”

White Heart opened her mouth, then closed it. She glared at me, then got back on her pad, and flew up into the air.

“Th-thanks,” I said. “Jodie.”

The redhead stared at me, for a moment, her eyes hard. Then, suddenly, they softened, her posture relaxing as she gave me an easy grin. “Hey, no worries. But uh… it’s Tiffany, remember? I just used a different name ‘cause I didn’t want her to know who I was.”

“O-oh,” I murmured. “That’s… alright. Well, uh. Thank you, Tiffany.”

“No problem!” she said, grinning. “If you really wanna thank me though, you could always treat me to dinner. Maybe tell me the history between you and those magical girls?”

“That’s… a long story,” I admitted, not quite able to meet her eyes.

She shrugged. “Tell me over dinner, then. This Friday. If you’re up for it?”

“That’s… uh… maybe,” I muttered, glancing at the phone I was still holding. The one with her number in it. “I’ll call you?”

“If you want,” she said, that same easy smile still on her lips. “Or don’t. No skin off my nose, but like… you are pretty cute, y’know?”

“Thanks…?” I murmured, blushing a little. “Are you, uh… really a law student?”

“Maybe?” she said, shrugging. “I haven’t really decided what I am yet. I mean, most days it’s hard enough to know who I am, let alone what I wanna do…”

“Yeah… I can sorta get that,” I muttered, thinking back to my own issues with picking a major.

“Doubt it,” Tiffany replied.

“Huh?”

“Don’t worry about it!” She gave me another grin. “I’m off to class now, but like… text us if you need anything? Even if it’s just to get another magical girl off your back.”

“S-sure,” I said. I was… confused, to be honest. Grateful, but confused. “I’ll uh… see you around?”

“Sure!”

And just like that, she was gone. I went to my next class, psych 101, listened to the teacher speak, and tried to imagine what life would be if I became a psychologist. Would I enjoy it? Analyzing other people for a living? Probably not. I mean, I could barely understand myself…

Besides, it was sort of a struggle to focus on what the teacher was saying. My mind kept drifting back to Tiffany. She’d acted weird, but she’d helped me. And invited me on a date.

“Maybe I could text her?” I muttered to myself.

“Text who?” Clarissa asked, plopping down in the seat next to mine. “Rachel? Because she has been waiting.”

“No, uh… a new girl. Named Tiffany.”

Clarissa let out a low whistle. “Damn, look at you Becoming a player on me! Who’d have thought the egg had it in her?”

“Do you have to call me that?” I grumbled, glancing at the teacher. They didn’t seem to notice - or care - about Clarissa’s late arrival, but if she didn’t lower her voice soon that was probably going to change.

“You don’t even know what it means,” Clarissa pointed out. “Unless you finally got over your fear and looked it up?”

“Not… exactly,” I admitted. Something told me I wasn’t going to like the answer. “But could you quiet down? The teacher’s totally going to kick us out of class at this rate.”

“Like Professor Drowsy ever stops listening to his own droning voice long enough to actually see what’s going on in class,” Clarissa countered. She did say it just a bit quieter, though, which was sort of a win? Maybe? “But also, seriously, if you’re not into Rachel, then maybe have a word with her? Before she gets hurt.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, frowning. “Is this about me not texting her? Because you know how busy I’ve been lately…”

“You seriously haven’t clocked it?” Clarissa asked. “The girl totally thinks you’re hot! No way she isn’t waiting for you to text her and set up a date.”

“Rachel?” I asked, shaking my head. “No way, she’s out of my league.”

“Rachel is?” Clarissa asked, frowning. “Dude. Have you seen yourself lately? There’s nobody out of your league, if you don’t want them to be.”

“But she’s… you know…” I lowered my voice to a whisper. “A former magical girl? A hero?”

“More like a misused and abused girl who got her brain fucked with by a semi-sentient crystals. The same one currently in your head, by the way.”

I’m actually sentient now, though! Chrys pointed out.

“Can we just… focus on classes and talk about this later?” I pleaded. “I’m having a hard enough time wrapping my head around the fact that magical girls might not be… perfect… if I add romance into the mix, too, my head is going to explode.”

“Fine,” Clarissa said, rolling her eyes. “We can talk about it after school. But you’re not getting out of this! I wanna know who you are and aren’t interested in so that I know who I’ve got a shot with.”

“Of course you do,” I muttered, cradling my head in my hands. “Why the hell did I think, even for a minute, that you just wanted to help me?”

“I can want two things!” she protested. “Helping you is totally a priority. But so is getting myself a girlfriend, y’know? Because the sooner I get laid, the sooner I stop having intrusive thoughts about how hot some of your forms looked.”

“...Great. I hate it,” I muttered, my cheeks flushing. “You’re really confusing, you know that? One sec you view me as a sister, the next you’re… you know… talking like that.”

“Well, excuse me for not having my shit put together any better than you do, dude,” Clarissa replied, rolling her eyes. “I mean, I’ve known you were a girl, for, like… forever. But I never thought you’d be hot enough to make me actually consider you…”

“Gee, thanks,” I grumbled. 

“I mean, I always thought we’d just be… like. Family, or some shit,” she continued. “Something permanent. Not… Something breakable, like girlfriends.”

“That’s…” I hesitated. “I mean, you know you’re always going to be important to me, right? No matter what happens?”

“Well, yeah, but…” She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just weird to think about you like I do all those girls I usually flirt with. You’re different, you know?”

“Different doesn’t mean… Wait, why are we even having this conversation? Does either of us even want to date the other?”

“Maybe?” Clarissa frowned. “Or not. I don’t know. It’s confusing. I’ll get back to you.”

“Well, you do that. I’m going to focus on class.”

Or we could think about your next appearance as the Violet Queen, Chrys suggested. You’re gonna have to make one soon, if you want the Magic Hearts to stop snooping around your school.

My only response was to lower my head to the desk and groan.

~~~

Author's Notes

I'm gonna be honest - I have no idea where I'm going with this story right now. It was meant to be a turn-your-brain off type story, initially, and while it's maybe grown a bit past that... well, I still don't really have any concrete plans for it. Which is leading to me having a serious case of writer's block...

None of this is to say that I've given up on the story. I know a lot of you enjoy it, and I'm kinda fond of it myself... Just... be warned that the story hasn't exactly crystalized in my head as of yet, so even I'm not entirely sure what comes next... (I wouldn't worry too much, though. Demon Queened was originally in the same boat, with only some vague plans for the future. Plans it didn't even follow...)