"Alice," she repeats. "Funny. Well, if you can't find a partner once class starts, make pitiful faces at me and I'll get you straightened out."

"Will do," Bella agrees. She experimentally swings her racket a few times. She spends a pentagon on general athleticism so she won't be terribly exhausted by suddenly adding cardio to her day, and one on skill at racket-based sports in general after discovering that "all sports" is too general. She gets a birdie from the pile and starts tapping it up into the air, over and over. "Hee."

Well, some people are naturally talented. Ms. Finch doesn't find Bella too suspicious, and she is shortly distracted by the arrival of the rest of the class, anyway.

It's always nice to see the kiddies having fun.

After class, Bella has no reason to stick around; she puts her equipment away and runs off to call her dad to come get her. (Her car should be fixed soon. If only she'd thought to magic it fixed when it first broke - sure, magic was scarcer then, but it might have taken only a square -)

[Yeah, Charlie just left,] Bella says. [What are you up to?]

[Lots. Finch didn't even seem suspicious. You recovering okay? Mike was pretty awful to you at lunch.]

[I'll be fine,] he says, tucking his hands behind his head and gazing up at the ceiling. [Still kinda feel like shit, but whatever. You wanna hang out?]

[Sure. Be over in a few.] Bella walks out, and once she's deep in the woods turns invisible and takes flight. [If Mike sits at my table again I'm just going to get up and leave, I'm done with him.]

[Good plan,] says Alice.

[Maybe social consequences will have an effect where arguing for human decency didn't. Also it's less work. I think I've settled on soccer,] Bella continues. [The school has a team, the women's teams aren't as generally denigrated as, like, baseball ones, and we're doing it in like a week so I can "learn" it then.] She flies through the rock and down the spiral staircase. "Halloooo!"

"Hi!" he calls from his position on the floor of the sewing room. Then he gets up, walks through the broad arch to meet her at the bottom of the stairs, and hugs her.

Bella hugs him back and pets his hair. "So have you put your sewing room to any use yet?" she asks.

"Not yet," he says. "Haven't figured out if I want to use a pentagon or not."

"I'd say not," Bella says. "If you care about the process, why wouldn't you learn it the usual way? And if you care about the results, actually sewing is redundant - you can just wish clothes into existence." She gestures at her wish-jeans. She's worn no non-wish jeans since she learned she could do that.

"I love you," says Alice. "You make so much more sense than me."

"Yes, yes I do," says Bella merrily, drifting over to the chair in the corner and plopping into it. "It's good that you know that."

Bella pets him some more. "I mentioned to Finch that you asked me to call you Alice, by the way."

"Dunno. I guess she'll surprise us. I downloaded some college applications today," she remarks.

"Cool. Which ones?"