One of the new girls falls into step with him. "Hey, why the long face?"

He registers her. Sort of. His Gloom Cloud is obscuring most things. But the chance to rant sounds nice. "Coach benched me," he says sourly. "I should've been been the starter, I'm good enough- uh. Sorry. Do I know you...? Hi, I'm Scott."

"Oh, I'm new, my name's Soph. What is it you play?"

"Football," he says, sounding like it should have been obvious. "I'm the- I should be the quarterback."

"You totally look like a quarterback to me."

"Thanks," he says, smiling at her. At least someone agrees with him. "Ever been to one of our games?"

"I've had things the last couple times and I haven't lived here that long - I could start though."

"Oh man, you gotta come to one! They're so much fun! We always need more fans..."

"Sure, I will! I'm pretty sure they never conflict with softball..."

"I will! Do you spend a ton of time practicing?"

"Oh, yeah. It's very important to stay in shape! We practice every day, and there's this fancy outside trainer Coach brought in to help us with our lifting, and everything. It's great!"

"Ooh, snazzy! I bet you're really strong."

"You know it!" Scott flexes.

Soph giggles. "But like you have some free time, right? After practices?"

"Oh yeah, the team goes to the Bronze with the cheerleaders a lot," Scott says rather obliviously. "The Bronze is the best, isn't it?" He refocuses in time to see the door in front of him. "Anyway, this class is me, see ya!"

The football team and the cheerleaders are hanging out on the edge of the dance floor. Most are holding drinks and chatting, though a few have started to dance. Scott is one of the dancers, wearing his letter jacket and sandwiched between two cheerleaders and looking extremely pleased with himself.

Soph is actually a pretty good dancer. She decides to ignore the cheerleader and just dance. In an extremely friendly-like manner.

"Hi, Alli! This is Scott!"

Soph takes full advantage of the space left by departing cheerleaders.

And then the door to the Bronze opens and in stalks Bella.

"Ohhhh crap I'm in trouble."

Alli is facing entirely the wrong way for this. "Huh?" She cranes her neck around. "Ohhhhhh. ...Luck?"

"Can't hurt. Hey, Scott, gimme a kiss for luck," dares Soph.

Who is Scott to say no to an offer like that? He has no idea what they're talking about, really- and alcohol and dancing aren't exactly improving his mental acuity- but that he gets. Since she asked so nicely, Soph can have a rather enthusiastic kiss for luck!

Yay! On that happy note Soph shuffles sheepishly over to her sister.

Her sister is not amused, but doesn't chew her out in front of the Bronze patrons, because the chewing-out is going to involve phrases like "not until you can set things on fire with your mind".

Alli eyes Soph as she shuffles off. If Soph could do it... She looks up at Scott. "Awww, none for me?"

Scott is extremely pleased with today. And more than happy to help Alli balance the scales. Dancing while making out it is.

The Swans, meanwhile, are leaving.

Okay, this is going to get somebody hurt. Bella gets between them and straightarms them apart from each other, avoiding exacerbating their accumulated bumps and bruises. "What in the hell is going on?" Girls don't usually get into shoving matches. In school hallways.

"Scott? That football player? You're hitting each other over him?"

Let's say I'm curious, for a value of curious that means "grossed out", Bella writes back. But meanwhile, how do I identify a talisman from among objects on his person?

Scott has been enjoying his popularity. He is easy to find; he's on the front steps, leaned against the bannister, chatting up a senior girl. For all that she's two years older, the senior looks minutes away from swooning and Scott just looks some combination of pleased and smug. A senior likes him!

Scott is currently bragging (with liberal exaggeration) about his football prowess. The senior strokes the arm of his letter jacket and coos admiringly.

"Is that jacket new?" Bella wonders loudly.

"But I mean did he just give it to you?"

Scott shrugs. "Yeah, guess so. What do you care?"

"Can I see it for a second?"

Soph turns up. "What?"

"Just a thing. How're you doing, Soph?"

"Fine? What's up? Why do you have his jacket?"

"Hiiii, Scott," adds Soph, when he has possession of the jacket again.

Scott shrugs it back on, gives Bella another weirded-out look, but smiles at Soph. "Heyyyy you," he says.

"Soph, question. Scott was standing right there the whole time. You didn't notice him until I gave back his jacket. Why?"

"Huh? I noticed him. You're the one who texted me."

"That's not quite the - Scott, how long ago did you get that jacket?"

Scott gives Soph a what is with this girl and her obsession with my jacket face. "It was my Christmas present from my brother, now that he's in college and I made the team. I guess I didn't start wearing it until spring practice started... seriously though, what is your deal? It's a jacket!"

"Did you have a lot of girls hitting on you before you started wearing it?"

"Yeah, of course," Scott says, look at her like this should be extremely obvious. "I'm a quarterback."

"Bella, is something wrong?"

"Let me see the jacket again. Soph - pay attention."

It takes Scott a while, but he decides to hand it to her. Despite the fact that she is super creeping him out.

"Soph?" prompts Bella, once she has the jacket.

"Okay, seriously, are you two wrong in the head? You're being so weird. Give me back my jacket already."

"I'm pretty sure it's the jacket," Soph says. "Being... an evil jacket. Um. Scott. Did you know magic is real and I can prove it and if I do prove it will you let Bella destroy your evil jacket without making a scene?"

"What the hell? Magic. Seriously. What the hell. Man, I would not have kissed you if I knew you were nuts. There is something very wrong with both of you freaks. That is mine, it was a present from my brother! Give it!"

Bella is very good at keep-away.

"Nitidi," says Soph desperately, waving her hand in front of his face.

Scott jerks his head back. "Did you just throw glitter at me?"

"There isn't any glitter on you, it doesn't stay. Look - watch. Nitidi."

"If you're very niiiice to me," Scott says, moving closer. "How nice are you feeling?"

"Welllllll. I suppose that's okay," Scott says, smiling at her worshipfully.

"Great. Thanks. I'll see you around," says Bella, smiling, and then she lights out at high speed towards the nearest unobserved location in which she can easily start a fire.

Soph jogs in the direction of their car.

"See you!" Scott calls after them, smiling rather meltingly. (It is not a good look on him.)

Do you hate travel enough that the Watcher being sent to my location could not be you?

I've always known Watching requires travel and have no objection to it. I require more packing time than most, I suppose, as I would be bringing my son. Fortunately, he hasn't yet begun school, and I'm not bound to wait till end of term.

If you or your son have strenuous objections to SoCal I will be willing to talk to somebody who doesn't and is more like you than like the first guy.

That is adorable. I live in Sunnydale.

Should I drop by or would you rather not have your kid around somebody who routinely stabs things?

You're welcome over at your convenience. I consider you somewhat the supernatural equivalent of a constable; I have no concerns about introducing you to my son.

Tamara appears at the door. She would look much more imposing if she was not covered almost entirely with flour. "I'm terribly sorry for the mess," she apologizes. "I was getting dinner ready and I'm afraid Kevin got into the flour."

"Aw, that's okay. You are not going to give a Powerpoint presentations to a lot of dudes in suits, it's just me. So, hi, I'm the Slayer, my name's Bella, say something that is not grammatically an invitation to model good habits for the little one and I will come hang."

"Hello, Bella. Lovely to meet you in person finally," Tamara says with a smile. "Kitchen's this way." She leaves the door open for Bella and turns towards a door on the side of the room.

Bella steps inside and closes the door behind her. "D'you want help with dinner? I didn't realize I'd be showing up when you were busy. I'd have been here earlier but I had to come on foot, my sister took the car home. She is not so much for the cross-country hikes because she didn't get a bundle of superpowers."

"Hi, Kevin. My name's Bella."

"Not without help, I can't."

"But you can turn invisible?" he asks, immediately perking up.

"It's on the list of things for my witch sister to learn to help me with, but I can't do it yet."

"...she's not an evil witch, right?" Kevin asks dubiously.

"My sister's a very good witch."

"Oooh. Like Glinda," Kevin says sagely.

"With less pink."

"Getting to know you sort of visit. Nothing's popped up that I'm aware of. I wonder if there isn't a better way to keep apprised of what might benefit from my awareness of it, though? Than just waiting for it to come to me? Not that I'd necessarily want to deploy a seeking algorithm on a regular basis until summer break."

"The Watchers aren't really any more systematic about it than that, sadly," Tamara says with a sigh. "There's something of a network, of course; I'd hear from other Watchers if something was happening in another city. But mostly, the trouble will just come to you. You do live on a Hellmouth, after all."

"...did you not know? There's a Hellmouth in Sunnydale. A portal to a demon dimension. A closed one, thankfully. They're known to attract all sorts of supernatural elements, good and bad. You being one of the former sort, I suspect."

"Why would I know that?"

"You knew about the Watcher's Council unaided, you have a witch for a sister? I was just giving you credit for discovering things, I suppose. I'm sorry to spring it on you, in any case."

"The library's full of books. I've found some things, but they probably don't have a lot of correlation with whatever you'd put on an introductory curriculum. You should swing by the school sometime and see what you recommend I put first. I think Soph has a process that works for her in the magic department, but I don't know when I look at a book if it contains demons I will need to know how to slay next week or obscure ones who only materialize in Antarctica until I've spent a while looking through it."

"I am certainly qualified as a book sorter," Tamara agrees, amused. "I'll put together a list for you to start with. Did you want help with combat training as well?"

"In theory yes, in practice how would you go about it? I'd sign up for martial arts if I thought it was necessarily safe for me to come to blows with an unenhanced human; am I wrong?"

"Just walking into a martial arts class unannounced? Probably dangerous. But carefully, with planning and an informed instructor, invaluable. Vampires are not the world's only dangers, merely its most numerous. Witches, or humans who are for whatever reason doing the bidding of various evils- there are many situations where you might need to know how to take down someone non-lethally. And you are, at present ill-equipped to do so safely. The Council has some exercises it suggests, or there's a local trainer I might suggest you ask."

"Yeah, Soph's list of things to find has 'enchant darts so they make people fall asleep' as a nonlethal option but she hasn't done it yet and aikido or whatever would be good too, sign me up."

"And the fewer objects you have to carry with you constantly, the better," Tamara observes. "Was that a literal, here is my schedule arrange a class please request, or a rather more metaphorical one?"

"I have a magic seashell knife, so I don't have to smuggle my crossbow into school every day, I definitely hear the 'objects' thing." She taps her magic seashell knife. "But my schedule's pretty straightforward. Visits to the morgue in the early mornings, school till three, my sister and I split a car but she's pretty flexible and I can get around by jogging pretty easily. I'd want to know when you were signing me up for exactly what, but I would like to move towards signing-up-type behaviors."

"Magic seashell knife...? Well, if it works for you. Let's say- I'll aim for twice a week martial arts lessons, subdue not attack, and twice a week general fitness training? Is that too large of a time commitment?"

"It looks ornamental, and I and only I can turn it into a knife at will, and supposedly it'll cut through anything, although I have no steel girders that I would like to slice into small pieces. Unpack 'general fitness training'?"

"I am not actually a trainer, but I can guess. Cardio and endurance? Building up staking muscles? Super powers or no, you can always be better."

"Sure, but one increases those things by working at the limits of one's abilities and I think lifting cars would probably be bad for the cars and running long enough to wind me would take all day long, so I'm not sure how it would be arranged."

Tamara laughs. "I don't think the problem will be quite as bad as all that. You could always lift things in a scrap yard, for instance. We'll talk to your trainer and see what they think."

"Sure."

"Good, I'll take care of it." Tamara digs up a rag, dampens it and starts attacking the nearest en-floured surface. "Anything else on your mind? Anything I can tell you about me?"

"Do you know any obvious ways to improve significantly on learning magic out of random library books, for Soph or our potion specialist friend? Soph seems to be picking things up very fast, especially considering that unlike me she doesn't find it that interesting in its own right and is only doing it because I can't - but I don't know what ordinary progress is like."

"I can add a second list, once I see what the library has on hand. Unless it's pressing, that is. Do you encounter many situations that require magical aid?"

"Magic's more my style than violence," Bella says, "is the thing. In roughly the same way shooting at stuff is more my style than getting in close and punching it, but by an even wider margin. I like my superpowers, I will absolutely take them over not having them, I am even glad to take them over some other, randomly chosen girl who wanted to be an accountant when she grew up getting them. But I'd have rather gotten witchy blessings. I can't - I can't make any of it work, and it drives me nuts, but Soph can make me magic stuff to use, and Alli shares doses of potions, and it makes me more flexible, less one-note. Means a little less psychological maintenance if I am not just Hitting Things, Occasionally Tactics, style of superhero."

Tamara looks like she can't decide if she approves of this approach or not. "Well. Why don't we at least consider alternatives, the next time you're inclined towards magic? I'll be the first to admit it's useful, but it's best to be cautious with magic. For your sister's sake, if nothing else."

"Yeah, she's rationing her practice since she heard it could be addictive. No danger signs yet that we've picked up on, she can go a week and change casting nothing and be totally indifferent and only hasn't done longer because there keep being useful things to magic at. Things like my shell knife are one-time castings for something I can keep indefinitely, though."

"Sensible of you. And good for the other witch, for warning her."

"From what I know of you, I'm inclined to agree. Was there anything else? Would you like to stay for supper?"

"If you have enough to go around, sure, why not. I'll have to call home though."

"Ice skating counts. Crossing neighborhoods doesn't really seem bonding-like to me. ...I've been systematically decorating the entire town with unobtrusive painted and scratched crosses to make it unpleasant vampire habitat, on top of visiting the morgue and putting little splinters of wood in the corpses' hearts now and then."

Tamara laughs. "I stand by my assessment of your sense," she says approvingly. "Would my presence be helpful at all?"

"You could help us get it done faster, it's not really Slayer-specialized labor."

"I don't see why not. A little bit of time for an improved vampire detection system. Everyone wins. I'll let you know my schedule once it's settled at work?"

"Sure thing."

"That does rather look compellingly likely to be 'our brand of weird'. How much do you know about the prom?"

"Not a thing. I've never been in town this time of year before. I was thinking I'd track down the person who wrote the flyer, but I'd give decent odds that they don't know either and just have a feeling, not sure what the next investigative avenue is after that. Look at old newspaper articles, maybe? But that seems like less of a one-person job."

"Reading through boring newspaper articles is precisely why people like me exist. I'll look into it. Unless you pressingly desire to help me search, I suppose, but I imagine your patrols are more productive."

The accidents do, I hope, look like something I can maybe Slay my way out of, rather than sudden mysterious heart attacks or whatever?

All the articles I've found specify either strangulation or drowning. The presence of a physical attacker is, if not guaranteed, at least heavily suggested. And attackers can be fended off. You have your first fighting class this weekend, don't you?

Yeah. So I suppose I'll see if I can start on dealing with strangulation-type attacks - drowning seems more general. Drowned where, in a sink or something?

Good guess. All the attacks were in the loo. Those that mention it said it was the men's one, if it helps.

What fun. Any idea how the whatever gets them there? Especially if it's drowned girls too, who wouldn't have walked there under their own power.

There was no mention of marks other than those caused by the strangulation. Unfortunately, your guess is as good as mine until I find more articles.

Has it drowned girls?

Yes. Not as many, but that may be coincidence.

Okay, so I don't have to dress in drag to bait it, that's something.

Amusing as the thought may be, it might still be worth considering. I have never heard that American prom outfits are optimal combat attire.

If I'm sneaking in I suppose I don't have to look that plausibly prommy. Are British prom outfits bedecked with armor and useful pockets?

Proms are not a British custom; I certainly never attended one. I suppose it's becoming a bit more common nowadays, but entirely as an American cultural import.

Anyway, keep me posted on what you think it might be, especially if there's witchy prep I should be going in with for it.

I expect to have a full report in a couple of days. Why don't I just meet you at class on Saturday? I'll bring copies of the articles I've found, in case you want to look at them.

"Can't scare me," says Bella. "I'm supposed to ask you to concentrate on what I do if something tries to strangle me, did Tamara tell you?"

"Believe me, I have a whole freakin' laundry list of instructions, from both Tamara here," he grins crookedly at her, "and my wife. But as it happens, strangulation did not come up. Having trouble with that, are we?"

"Not yet, but it is expected to come up. Should I know who your wife is?"

Phil snorts. "Sorry, my bad. I'm married to Emma. You know- little, short hair, sews people up for a living?"

"Ah yes. Nifty. What else is on your list?"

"I would probably not have summarized my suggestions as blah blah fighting stuff," Tamara says dryly, "but otherwise that seems accurate. "Ultimately I'd like Bella to come out of this with a better idea of what, exactly, her instincts are prompting to her to do, and why."

"I have every confidence that it can be made fun. Also, um." Bella digs around in her bag. "There is this thing I do where I am very interested in what goes on in my head? My combat instinct package did not get into my head in a conventional way but it's there now and I've been looking at it. I might be able to sort of change it directly if I knew what I wanted to change it to." She pulls out a notebook. "This is all in note to self format, though, complete with made up words."

Phil looks at it suspiciously. "Just for you, right? If you start asking me to write things down for you, man are you ever not going to be able to read them. If you want to take your own notes though, knock yourself out."

"I will be happy to use my own handwriting to commit to paper anything you tell me to do. But I'm wondering if it's worth the time to tell you what the instincts are telling me to do instead of having me show you the long way around."

"What, so you can explain your fighting instincts without actually fighting me? Sign me right up, that sounds great. Don't think I won't test them out the first few times, though."

Bella annotates, humming to herself.

Eventually Phil nudges Bella. "Okay, enough pen time for now. Something something strangulation, right? Come on, up up up, time to actually break a sweat."

Bella's not particularly winded. They do after all keep pausing to tweak her form and allow verbal remarks, and she's not trying to move too fast for him to see. This was educational, not tiring. She makes notes about things gone over in the lesson and peers at them before she heads home.

Tamara did not feel compelled to stick around once the lesson got into full swing, but the pile of photocopied articles was left waiting for Bella next to her notebooks.

Bella collects those too, and goes on her way.

There's a note stuck to the top of the pile. The articles are in chronological order. The earliest relevant article I found is dated 1923. A girl named Minnie Huff was strangled and drowned by her boyfriend in the bathroom during prom. Students attending prom without dates have been dying of strangulation or drowning in the same bathroom ever since. There are a few possible causes- vengeance demons, some supernatural echoes, those sorts of things- but by far the most likely is a reasonably corporeal ghost. How are your witches on their ghost lore?

"Yo, what's up?"

"Prom ghost - probably - is up. What do you know about ghosts?"

"Only a little. I can hunt for books. Prom ghost, really? 'Friendly says boo' ghost? 'Avoid prom at all costs' ghost?"

"Going to prom seems to be safe if you have a date and don't break up with them during the dance. If I have anything to say about it, after this year it will also be safe under other conditions. It's likely to be somewhat corporeal, enough that it can drown people in sinks, but if there's something I can do besides have a wrestling match with it I'd like to know. Soph's looking too."

"Well, if it can drown people it can probably drink potions? I'll take a look."

"If I'm going to forcefeed it a potion I will still have to win a wrestling contest. Grenade- or spray-style options that won't hurt me are to be preferred."

"I'm going to choose this moment to remind you that evil witches were expressly listed in my job description."

"Yeah, yeah, you know me. I would turn football players' hair pink, or something. Shit, I'd do it with non-magical hair dye if I thought I could find something pink enough."

"I consider it outside my purview - at least my job-descriptiony purview - if you prank people with box hair dye. If you start throwing potions around you're doing unethical testing of volatile substances. I'm not policing your sense of humor, here, just - watch yourself."

"Yes, Mom," Alli laughs. "I'll be good and eat my vegetables. I'll get you a ghost report tomorrow, k?"

"Thanks. And no hiding your asparagus in your napkin, young lady."

"But Moooooooooom!"

"No buts. And make your bed."

Soph texts her a bit later, wanting to make sure they're looking at different books and not duplicating research.

its late, im not going out. just reading my stuff @ home. u?

also reading. compendum of thepartially susbtansial. are we duplicatng work?

no dont have that one. dont have ghost stuff really just basic stuff. reading intro to witchery 2 now, finished 1.

ok good leme kno if u find anything :)

salt is somthing! ill tell bella 4 u.

thnx! bed now tho, c u tmrw.

nite!

Soph is hiding Compendium of the Partially Substantial inside her algebra book. When she spots Alli, she shows her a page titled Binding a Ghostly Spirit to a Talisman to Connect & Entwine their Fates be it Destruction or Removal. "Found something," she says. "I can't get into prom, though, I'm a sophomore, can you do it?"

Alli looks over the spell. "I'm not great at crystal spells," she says doubtfully. "That's your thing."

"Well, it doesn't have to be a crystal per se, I was thinking I'd use a rhinestone that came off a bracelet I have. Easy to smash when it's time to kill the ghost. You could put it in - something else."

"I guess not. I'm still kind of shit at the whole 'chanting circle full of herbs' crap, though. Ugh. Can I just stick you in my pocket and have you do it?"

"I'm not gonna fit in your pocket. I guess I could try to sneak in with Bella, but if someone catches her, she's a junior with a ticket. I can't buy a ticket and if Bella gives me one they'll want to know who my upperclassman date is."

"...I am an upperclassman. And even with a ticket I hadn't actually bothered to find a date yet. So! Want a date?" She pauses. "Witch-date. Actual-dates are for boys, sorry."

"Ha! Sure, why not. Witch-date. I go in with you and I rhinestone the ghost while you and Bella try to keep it from strangling anybody in the meantime."

"Witch-date it is!" She grins. "As long as I don't have to wear a suit. Not my style."

"I don't care. Do you want to even bother coordinating or should I just turn up in something prom-y? Bella's thinking slacks and a blouse so she can move around to fight the ghost if she winds up having to but I can chant in a frilly dress."

"Meh. If you tell me what color you're wearing I might magic up flowers? Other than that, knock yourself out." She looks down at her outfit speakingly. She's in her normal attire: black, black, and more black, complete with eyeliner and combat boots. "D'you care what I'm in? I mean, I'll probably dress up pretty just for the hell of it, but besides that. Gotta say, though. Frills are all yours."

"I'm thinking - red and blue? It'll depend on what I find in the store though. You can wear whatever you want as long as it doesn't get us turned away at the door, not like it's a proper date or anything."

"People will still see us," Alli points out. "We go to school with them, we're telling them we're dates. I don't actually give two shits what they think, but I am me and you are you."

"Yeah, but like - if it were a real date I'd want it to be a whole experience? Complete with attention to outfits. It's not, so I don't care. If people get on my case about what my prom date was wearing I'll just, I dunno, say I wanted to go and you were an upperclassman and that was all. I mean that's even true, just leaves out the part with the ghost."

"Not giving a shit it is, then! Best way."

Soph laughs.

It's about a week before prom when Bella phones Emma.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Emma, it's Bella. No emergency, just a question. Is this a good time?"

"No, I can talk, what's up?"

"I am planning to get into a fight with the Phantom of the Promenade a week from Saturday. There is a plan, but if the plan does not go perfectly, someone may find themselves strangled and/or drowned, and I don't know if prom chaperones are required to know CPR. Any chance you could sort of loiter nearby in case?"

Emma takes a second to process this, then asks, "...Phantom of the Promenade? I suppose I don't see why not, as long as it's not on a work night."

"Week from Saturday," repeats Bella. "It's almost certainly a ghost, which haunts prom."

"Of course there is. Silly me. Week from Saturday, sure, that's fine."

"Cool. Prom starts at eight, I may try to sneak in before then but am pretty unlikely to get strangled or drowned before prom actually starts. Witches will appear on time."

"These witches are the ones I've met? You haven't started a collection since I've seen you?"

"Same one. Why, is the Magic Box having a sale?"

"Buy two, get the broomstick free."

"Bargain. But anyway, yeah, still Soph and Alli in the witch department. Thanks for agreeing to stand by, let's hope you're totally unnecessary."

"Don't we all. I'll see you then. Anything else?"

"To what extent are you a secret from my Watcher? Like, did she hire your husband to teach me to hit things by sheer coincidence...?"

"I have not admitted to knowing about you before the Council did; nothing else is particularly secret. I think we're in some sort of 'non Watchers in the know' list in a vault somewhere? Certainly Tamara consulted someone for the name of a trainer reasonably in the know, she did not draw Phil's name from a hat."

"Okay, good to know. See you Saturday."

"See you then." Emma hangs up and goes off to find herself some books. It appears she'll be having some downtime to read shortly.

The day of the prom Alli shows up at the door to the gym on time, looking surprisingly put together in a slinky black dress and carrying a bouquet of blue irises. No promises will be made as to their non-magical origins.

"Nice dress!" says Soph, early, having arrived with Bella (Bella's sneaking-in method was to drop her sister off and then claim to need the bathroom and not emerge). Soph's dress is blue but includes no red; it's got one sleeve and a light filmy overskirt and a wide sash she's hidden witching supplies in.

"You too," Alli says with a smile, offering the flowers. "As promised."

"Thanks!" Soph takes them and tucks them into a part of her sash that is not occupied by witching stuff. "Hey," she says to the doorperson. "Can we go in yet?"

"She's my date. She gave me flowers, look."

"She's your-" the second boy elbows him and raises an eyebrow. They snicker. "Prove it!" the second boy demands.

"How about, you're assholes, she's my date, let us in?" Alli suggests.

"We're protecting people from themselves," the first boy says, somewhat pompously. "Only people with dates allowed. And I'm not buyin' it."

"She got me flowers, what do you think she is, a flowers-o-gram?"

"You could be pretending to be dates to sneak in!" one points out. (In his defense, not inaccurately.) "And the flowers're to... to... make it look better."

Alli rolls her eyes. "Okay, asshole. Fine. I'll bite. How do I convince you she's actually my date?"

They exchange looks again, looking smug. "Kiss her," the second one says promptly. "That'll do it."

Alli shrugs. "Easy enough." And she pulls Soph in for a kiss. Her other hand is occupied flipping off the jocks at the door.

Soph cooperates with reasonable grace under the circumstances. Mwah.

The boys burst into laughter. "Man, I can't believe you guys actually did it!" one gloats. "Yeah, yeah, you can go in now."

"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?"

"If you put salt in the punch, I will not stake you, but I will tell a chaperone who did it."

"Spoilsport," Alli says, not looking terribly crushed. "All you, date lady. Let me know if you need help with anything."

Alli dumps her punch into the sink, dries out the cup and pours the salt out from her collection of baggies into the cup. This will be, in her opinion, at least slightly easier to get at for emergency throwing-at-ghost reasons.

"Okay, seriously. When did this school get so damn homophobic?" Alli asks her, huffing. Focus on me, please. "Why can I not bring a girl as a date?! I like my date! She's a great date! I got her flowers that matched her dress and everything!"

"John Cleese? John Legend? John Mayer, curses be upon his name?" Alli suggests helpfully.

"Man, if you have a lie detector, can I borrow it?" Alli asks innocently. "My sister is being a shit about the holidays again, I want to call her out on it."

"You could tell us about your day instead," Alli offers.

Soph chants faster.

"That last one was serious, too," Alli grumbles, but she shuts up as requested.

"- finite," whispers Soph.

"You go, Soph!" Alli cheers. Quietly.

"Congrats!" Alli says with a smile. It's sort of vaguely directed at both Soph and Minnie. "So... hi? I'm Alli."

"And I'm Soph and that's Bella."

"Somebody might think your rhinestone is pretty and carry you off," Bella points out. "I think for the time being I'm just going to keep you on the back porch, but we can figure out something to keep you entertained. Soph, Alli, you good to clean up here and go have fun dancing while I carry Minnie away?"

"Yeah. Wow, what time is it, it's got to be at least nine by now." Soph starts collecting her materials.

Alli trots over and gives her a hand with cleanup. "Nine fifteen," she reports, "but we've still got a couple of hours to dance." She looks at her cup wryly. "Probably need a new glass of punch, though." She looks at Bella and Minnie. "You guys gonna come dance...?"

"Awwww, okay. Time to go cute boy hunting, Soph?" Alli suggests with a grin.

"Man, the cute boys are all going to think we're gay, aren't they." Soph tucks her magic stuff into her sash.

"Meh, whatever. Doubt that would stop them. Remember the goons at the door? But. Everyone here is also here with a date. It's a challenge!"

"Maybe their dates will share. Or other people faked to get in."

And lo: prom.