"...well, now you've explained about ten percent of what I want to know about the process."

"Broadly, I will observe your endocrine and nervous systems for abnormalities. It's not comprehensive, I have to check specific traits one at a time, but each is quick. If I discover anything of note, I will share my findings and explain what changes I might make and what I expect their effects to be, but this first step is diagnostic only." 

"Okay." She holds out her hand.

Aloise lightly touches the back of Isabella's hand and closes her eyes. A few minutes pass.

She withdraws her hand, frowning. "Your neurology is slightly unusual, but not in a way that matches the profile of any disease or disorder with which I am familiar. I cannot rule out that it is treatable, but I would not attempt any changes without extensive study. You seem otherwise healthy, at least in the areas I checked."

"Matches my understanding."

"I am sorry I could not be of more help to you," Aloise adds as they return to the others. "That is all we had scheduled for today, I believe?"

"I think so...Oh, we should check whether Isabella can stop cars!" Clara remarks. "...You don't need to be here for that. The lab should have your prioritized request list ready now, if you want to help while you wait for pickup."

"Thank you, I shall." 

"Where's a car for me?"

"Oh, we can use mine." True to her word, after everyone's said their goodbyes, Clara leads Isabella to a green SUV in the parking lot, starts it, and proceeds to back out veeeeery slowly.

"That might be too big for me, I haven't been to a pro stylist or anything, my brother does my consulting..." Sure enough she cannot halt an SUV. "I might be able to do a smaller car. Or that one if I were a bit upgraded."

"Oh, well. At any rate, thank you for your visit and your interest in research! You're very easy to work with."

"Thanks!"

When she next checks her email, there's an invitation to schedule a follow-up call with a Pax Corps recruiter. 

Sure thing. Weekend again?

Yep, that works. And on the scheduled day, she'll get a call from Roshaun to discuss internship options!

"Are these compatible with a normal high school schedule?"

"They can be! Summer programs are popular with students your age. We can also help with homeschooling arrangements for those who prefer a different schedule."

"I've considered bidding for a switch to homeschooling before but have generally come down against. Summer's good."

"First, some background. Our primary goal with this program is to find out where magical girls can do the most good and then help them get there. We want to set you up to do valuable, fulfilling work at a pace that's sustainable for you. The first step is one of discovery, of trying things to see what fits, in some ways like finding the right outfit for your magic. So don't be afraid to ask questions or speak up if something doesn't seem right to you — the odds are good that the first thing we try out won't be the best thing.

"On that note, there are a few different knobs we can tweak to tailor this program to your abilities and interests. The first relates to how much travel you want to sign up for. On the low end of this scale, you could go for a stint at a dedicated research lab like the one you visited for testing. Or you could opt for a rotation among two or more labs, working for a few weeks at a time on one-off projects that take advantage of specific magic, facilities, and combinations thereof. On the extreme end of this spectrum is the option to leave most of the planning and logistics to Pax Corps and just go wherever your talents are in highest demand a particular day or week, with us working around any preferences or constraints you may have, within reason.

"The lower-travel options tend to be more chill, with more opportunities to make friends and pick up relevant skills, but also pay less and usually involve work with a partner group, with Pax Corps itself as an intermediary. We don't tend to recommend the 'go wherever' schedule to interns unless they're very travel-happy, but it's a common arrangement with our senior staff like Aloise and the pay's fantastic. Most folks opt for something in the middle.

"Also relevant is whether you want to stick with medicine, explore engineering or disaster response, or find some other mix of breadth and depth. I have more details, but I'll first pause in case you have any questions so far?"

"I don't mind some traveling around but I might change my mind if I were on a plane twice a week for a month. ...my twin brother is gesturing at me to make sure I mention that he wants to be a stylist and thinks I should ask if that's something you guys can help him out with."

"I can't promise anything much that front, I'm afraid, not knowing him well. He's welcome to submit an application for our style track, but as you've probably noticed from our website, the odds of getting in aren't high. I can send you both some recommendations for good schools and programs to get things started. We try to keep an eye on which programs can prepare someone to be a great stylist with the right mix of talent and dedication — or make a decent stylist with a substantially more forgiving mix, an underrated public service in my opinion."

"He's my twin, so he's my age and has to finish high school before he can enroll in FIT, alas."

"There are summer programs and such, they're just mostly not ours. It comes up often enough that I think we have a shortlist somewhere with price-quality-accessibility tradeoffs." 

"Sure, send me that and I'll bounce it to him?"

"Of course. Any other questions so far?"

"How much money are we talking about for a summer?"