"Peeeeeeerveeeeeeerts," Alli drawls as she waltzes past them, middle finger still waving at them.

"Doooouchebags," growls Soph, following Alli.

"If I figure out potion grenades, I am testing them on those two and risking whatever hell Mom Bella throws," Alli grumbles.

"Mom Bella? Did she mom you?"

"She did! We were talking about potion grenades and spray bottles and that kind of shit. And I said I'd totally spraypotion people at school for the hell of it, and she said," Alli adopts a very prim tone, "I Am Obliged to Remind You Evil Witches Are Part Of My Job Description", and she returns to normal. "I said I just meant things like pink hair dye potions, but apparently that is only okay if I do it with actual hair dye and not potions. Because that makes sense."

"Oh, I think I got the other half of that lecture, something something allergies something The Masquerade something unintended side effects the FDA something."

"Oh, she ranted at you too? Sorry. It wasn't even your idea!"

"No, this was a while ago, I made a dumb joke about putting herbs in bake sale brownies."

"Hah. It's California, bet you the brownies here have seen way worse."

"That was the joke. But, lecture."

"Is she always like that or is Mom Mode a Slayer side effect? Those who protect the world must be anal about it?"

"It comes and goes? She got worse with the Slaying though. I think she's worried about me getting eaten by something."

"You're a witch, your sister is the Slayer and your dad is a cop. Plus, you're a reasonable human being. You are way less likely to be eaten then your average teenage bimbo."

"Yeah. I mean, she's also worried that something will go wrong with my shiny magic powers. Hence the allergies blah blah lecture."

"Yeah, but see, allergies? That's just paranoid. Potion ingredients are obscure as shit. The whole 'bring cookies for the class on your birthday' thing is way more dangerous than potions. This kid in second grade had to go to the hospital cause someone's mom forgot her birthday cookies had nuts in them."

"To be fair I might be remembering the lecture wrong."

"Meh. I'm not going to fight her about it, I'm just whining. Matches the eyeliner."

Soph giggles.

"Okay, so how are we doing this?" Alli inquires. "Oh, I almost forgot." She checks around them quickly for people looking at them- not unreasonably for so early in the night, the room contains very few people- then shrugs and reaches down the front of her dress to extract a small collection of plastic bags from her cleavage. "Good, the salt made it."

"We go to the room where the ghost usually does her thing, and you hold the salt and watch my back and I guess make sure nobody comes in and sees me doing witchcraft on the floor of a boys' bathroom, and I do the ritual. It'll take a while. If the ghost tries to drag anybody there to kill them Bella will try to distract her."

Alli shakes her bags of salt at Soph mock-threateningly. "I think I can manage that. Wooooooooo!"

"Woo! And then if there's time left over maybe we get to dance, I like dancing." She heads for the door to the hallway that leads to the correct bathroom. Bella is loitering there.

"Dancing sounds good! More so now that nothing can fall out the front of my dress. Can you imagine that conversation? No, Principal, I wasn't trying to sneak drugs into prom. Yes, Principal, it's just salt. Yes, really, salt."

Alli's eyes light up. "Mooooooom?" she wheedles. "If there's extra, caaaaan I? Pretty please?"