Not as good.

"Signet rings aren't as good as the flat ones." she reports, and changes them to match the index-finger ones to get a baseline. "Maybe I could do the kind that wrap around the whole finger in a really loose structure?"

"You could, or also consider handflowers for times you don't need manual dexterity," he says, pulling up a reference that calls them "slave bracelets" instead.

"Something to think about, but I want to see if I can avoid having to make that tradeoff." She'll try the full-finger rings first: pieces of silver filigree with little opals in the centers, one on each of the two biggest finger-segments, connected by tiny silver chains.

Yes, the magic likes that.

"Well, these are at least good if not the best possible. Any last suggestions or have we run out of time?"

"We're technically out of time but my four o'clock's not here yet - you might want to consider reshaping your head a little, you look slightly unbalanced even with the horns since you don't have any hair."

"I have no objections to reshaping my head in theory, but which direction?"

"Something more dolichocephalic, maybe - ah, there she is - thank you for coming, Margaret - come in, Juniper -"

And that's her cue to clear out. "Bye Nelson! Thanks for all the help!" She grabs her decidedly unfabulous backpack and takes off for home.

When she gets there she looks up some pictures of dolichocephalic heads, decides she tentatively  approves, and takes a bunch of pictures of her head to make sure she can back up easily. Then she thins and lengthens her skull a bit, staying within the outer edge of the human range and paying attention to not messing up her teeth.

The magic likes that a little. She's picked most of the low-hanging fruit and the differences are getting hard to distinguish.

And there are other important things to do, too, like homework and flying and target practice.

Next school lunch Larissa doesn't sit with her. Sumiko looks conflicted but sits with Larissa.

Margaret fiddles with her new rings for most of the much period, looking over at the other girls every few minutes. Toward the end of lunch she screws up her courage and walks toward them.

Larissa has a textbook out to flip through before Margaret arrives. Sumiko says, "Hi."

"Hi Sumiko. . . . Hi Larissa. I just wanted to apologize again for Friday, I didn't realize my spell could invade people's privacy like that. I've been working on my costume a lot to try to make it friendlier, and also I was wondering, um, can I still patrol with you and Aaliyah after school tomorrow?" The last part especially comes out in a rush.

Larissa glances up. "I'll talk to Aaliyah about it."

That's better than she was afraid of. "Okay. Thanks. See you around." And she nods to Sumiko and gets out of there.

That evening she shoots the living daylights out of every tree in the yard, flies around until she's about ready to fall out of the sky, finishes her schoolwork, and manages to fall asleep through sheer physical exhaustion.

The next day starts with a piece of good news in the form of biology class having a lab session. They're doing gel electrophoresis!

Her lab partner was absent when they discussed this last class and he's pretty lost.

Margaret was not absent, and can give a quick explanation while taking the lead on getting the apparatus set up.

"See, we're going to break the DNA into fragments, and the size of the fragments depends on the exact sequence. Then we shove all the fragments through the gel with an electric charge, and the smaller fragments move faster so they spread out and you can see all the sizes. Then we'll compare the pattern of fragment sizes to see how similar the samples are!"

"...okay," he says. "Do you even have DNA?"

"Yeah, I do! Not in my scales because those are metal, and probably not in my wings or horns either I don't think, but all my organs and stuff are still about the same."

"Weird."

"It is a bit! At least I can still have kids if I ever want them."