This time Margaret is excited enough to be the first one there. Did everybody bring a nerf to a fun-fight?

Everyone did, even Hattie and Larissa, who seem to be letting things go back to normal at this point.

Things going back to normal is good. Margaret suggests a free-for-all among the fliers and one among the non-fliers, and then after a bit they can all land and split up into teams.

This suggestion is accepted. Many darts are shot. Sumiko is the best of the fliers and Larissa's best on the ground.

Margaret still isn't great but she's better than she used to be, and her predictive sense even lets her hit Sumiko once or twice before the other girl learns to just out-turning-radius her instead of feinting.

Eventually everyone is tired and giggly. Aaliyah flops onto her back and fires a dart in the air and it lands on her face.

Margaret laughs. "And Aaliyah scores a solid hit on Aaliyah, bringing the score to Lots vs Also Lots!" she proclaims in a sports-announcer voice.

This gets a laugh, especially from Aaliyah.

"So, unrelatedly, my birthday's a week from tomorrow, and I was thinking of throwing a party. So if anyone wants ludicrous amounts of pizza and cake, stop by my house next Saturday around six." And she adds her address.

"Are you inviting any normies?" asks Hattie.

"Well, there're a couple of cool normies in robotics club, but on the other hand it might be rude to invite them and then spend the whole time talking about magical girl stuff."

"We can ever talk about other things, you just only meet us in this club," says Mariposa.

"Hah, true. And you'll like Tim and Julio, they're fun."

"I know Julio," Mariposa says. "He is my brother's friend."

"Hey, small world. Or at least, small town. Feel free to bring your brother if he wants to come."

"I don't think he'll want to," says Mariposa, "but thank you."

"Fair enough. I'm feeling a bit less wiped out now; I'm going to head home."

"Bye!" says Sumiko.

Margaret's weekend goes without incident, except that it includes even more flying and target practice than usual. On Monday Tim and Julio both assert their lack of schedule conflicts and their interest in pizza and cake. 

With her sixteenth coming up, Margaret is almost old enough to ride along with the neighborhood's emergency response squad. It's time to fill out that form she got from Bess last month.

When the form is turned in she receives a phone call about it! She can pick any shift but since she's in school probably wants afternoon. She doesn't have to show up every day. They're location sharing the afternoon squad truck's location on Google Maps.

She does want afternoons, and she will show up on Thursday if they don't mind that her birthday is on Saturday. If they do mind she can go out with Larissa and/or Aaliyah as usual.

She can come early if her parents okay it, otherwise the age sixteen cutoff is strict.

Her parents think if she's going to do it at all it doesn't make any difference whether she does it this week or next, and after she promises to be careful they'll sign a note to that effect.

Then she can come Thursday!