Synopsis: Allyssa is the target of a test between friends while something sinister runs afoot.

 

Accidental Magic

By
Allystra Krane
 
edited by Sephrena Miller
 
Chapter Eleven
Friends

 

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The sun was beginning to set as Cindy pulled out of Terri's driveway, having let Lexi and Terri off. Terri had outwardly mused that Allyssa had simply teleported away after storming off and she wouldn't likely need a ride.

As the two approached the front door, Allyssa came around the corner of the house where she had been lying in wait, hidden from view.

"What did she say?" Allyssa asked. "You know, after I left."

"Little I didn't already know." Terri replied, a thoughtful look on her face. "Both of you seemed to forget that I was there in the same grade as you both since the start of middle school."

"Oh, yeah."

"Excuse me," interrupted Lexi, "but I'm going to go inside. I want to speak to your mother."

As Terri held the door open for Lexi, then closed it so the two of them could have a little more privacy.

"Yeah, she mentioned how you two were like homies way back. Yous two was all tight, Gee." Terri rattled out with a bad accent and her fingers posed in a rather strange imitation of a gang sign.

"Okay, it's bad enough when grown white Men do impersonation of black men from the ghetto. But you simply can't do that now. It's just silly when you're sporting 'Sweater puppies' like those."

"S'ight Girlfriend. We's be in muh crib, Bi'otch."

"Stop it. Please... I am begging as hard as I can without showing emotion."

"Hey, was just trying to get you to smile," commented Terri. "I wouldn't worry about what she said because I knew most of it already."

"If you know so much..." Allyssa said with a sneer.

"When you changed out of your Goth attire the other night, I actually recognized you." Terri interrupted.

"You actually watched me?"

"I watched anyone that might start hitting me. You hung out with Cindy back then remember. You may not have been there molding your boot-print into my stomach, but I considered you just as much of a threat then as I did her."

"But, last Monday. You didn't?"

"Didn't what? Act irritated and show contempt for you just sitting down at my table? I didn't have any idea who you were at that moment."

"Yeah, I guess so. But on the bleachers, you..."

"I yelled at you, I bit your head off, but you hugged me, and I think my hormones were so off at that point, it broke through my shaky, fragile and crumbling wall."

Allyssa walked over, stepped in between Terri's arms and wrapped her own around Terri's waist. Terri, in turn, returned the gesture, closing her eyes.

"I can't say anything anymore," said Allyssa. "Nothing I can say at this point could make our relationship any better. All of a sudden, I want to be your friend, when I used to ignore you. I can't begin to imagine how hard it is to just tolerate me lately."

Terri said nothing, her eyes remained closed. Her face was unreadable in regard to her thoughts.

Allyssa's eyes were now filling with tears. "I know this is coming a bit late, but I want to make it up to you. I don't know how, but I'll find a way."

"Will you and Cindy bury the hatchet?"

"Cindy's already been trying to make up for the way she treated you. I know what I said today, but I was wrong. She's been taking the safe path, while I've been pushing your buttons here and there. I really had no idea what you thought of me."

"So you're jealous that Cindy and I are getting along so well?"

"Maybe a little."

"You want to go out and buy matching charm bracelets or something so we can call ourselves Best friends forever?" Terri said with a smirk, causing Allyssa to pull away long enough to get a good look at her face."

"What's up with you now?"

"Isn't it obvious, I'm a deviant little bitch." Terri replied with a grin befitting the Cheshire cat as Cindy faded in from invisibility, sitting on the porch swing next to them.

Cindy stood up and put her arms around Allyssa. No one spoke for many seconds as Allyssa realized that she had been set up, then a greater realization that Terri was trying to get their old friendship rekindled and she might have incorrectly read Terri's emotional state.

"Cindy?" Allyssa asked. "It's been a long time and both of us have said a few things that I'm sure we regret."

"But that's all in the past." Cindy replied. "We can't move forward if we are stuck in the past. We were friends once and we can be again."

"Now we can all go and get manicures and our hair teased, right?"

Both Cindy and Allyssa looked at Terri, who was leaning against the side of the house, still smiling.

"At least tell me if you two are going to start making out, cause I would totally need a chair, some lotion, and probably my penis."

"Or you could skip that last step and the two of us could watch you touch yourself." Allyssa commented. "Have you been practicing your instrument like a good girl?"

"Oh, I get it. Terri is practicing with her new Organ. That was the worst pun Ally." Cindy said, while scrunching up her nose.

"You said it, not me."

"I have NOT been practicing. It's a bit hard with a bunch of people in the house, who were all friends with my grandmother, I might remind you."

"Worried you'll be a screamer?" Cindy asked.

"Maybe." Terri admitted. "That or just enough noise to make it completely obvious what I'm up to."

"I can relate." Allyssa nodded. "I think I'd be embarrassed if I heard you screaming out in ecstasy too."

"No fair. How come when you rib me it's alright, but when I manage to find an opening, I get an ear-beating for it?"

"Terri. It's not that we were admonishing you for your sexist, chauvinist comments,” Cindy replied, in a very sterile and scientific way. "We were actually impressed by the fact that you have gained enough confidence to be able to say things like that. You asserting your manliness here and now is proof that you are comfortable enough with us you can talk smack."

"Also..." she added, "it means that you're still fighting with yourself for your identity. There will likely always be a part of your inner self that fights against how you look or how you may choose to look in the future."

"Very impressive, Nurse Freud," commented Allyssa. "Now should she expect trains going into tunnels in her future?"

"Terri is testing the water with people she feels comfortable with. We are her sounding board and the people she feels most likely to treat her jesting in the manner that it was intended. Ironically we, who weren't exactly on good terms before, are the ones she trusts enough open up to." Cindy replied.

"Geez Cindy. I can't really tell which version of you is worse, the idiot, or the therapist-in-training." Allyssa commented.

"Not to change the subject, do you know if Lexi can read lips?" Cindy commented.

"I wouldn't put it past her." replied Terri.

"Well, then should we be worried that she has been watching us from the window over there?" Cindy asked as she pointed to the corner, where the drapes were pulled back slightly and then suddenly fell back into place.

"I'm sure it was to see if her plan worked." Terri replied. "She suggested I copy the invisibility spell on Cindy and have her sneak around to the other side of the house. I felt you pass over those alert wards I had put up, so I knew you were here."

"I thought you weren't going to learn any spells that you could use if..."

"Yeah, well I found a way around that. Seems Cindy here was able to recite the spell you cast on her earlier. All she needed was mana and I am already proficient in that."

Allyssa looked at Cindy. "So, which lips did she use?" she asked, as She now sported her own evil grin.

"Told yah she'd bring that up." Terri interrupted.

"Damn, you ARE a sneaky little bitch." Allyssa said. "I'm impressed. So you gave Cindy a little mana..."

"I said Deviant little bitch. If you're going to quote me, please get it right."

"But you gave her a little mana, so She could cast it herself."

"It was Lexi's idea." Cindy defended. "Terri really got a little embarrassed as she brought our lips together. It was sweet watching her blush."

Allyssa nodded. "Maybe later I can show you another way to transfer mana between persons."

"I don't think either of us is ready for that!" Terri exclaimed, as another blush crept across her face.

"I wasn't talking about kissing her vulva," Allyssa snapped back. "That was a joke."
 
 

~*~
 
 
Meanwhile, Lexi had stepped into the kitchen, where Terri's mother was washing glassware from the evening's meal.

"So Lexi, did you two have a grand day out?" Terri's mother asked, hearing the familiar footfalls across the linoleum.

"We... we had a wonderful time." Lexi replied, a tear in her eye.

Terri's mother noticed the faltering in Lexi's voice, turned and swept up the little girl into her arms.

Lexi began to cry into the larger woman's shirt as they embraced.

It took several moments before Lexi calmed down enough to talk.

"Grandma, I wish she hadn't changed. She's so different. She smiles and laughs and we... we just."

"I know dear. I know."

Terri's mother rocked the sniffling child in her embrace for a few moments until Terri came in with Allyssa and Cindy in tow.

"What's going on mom?" Terri asked.

"Lexi is upset is all," Teri's mother replied.

"It's your mom again, isn't it?" Terri growled, not really asking the question, but making a rhetorical comment.

At that moment Allyssa swore she felt something in the house. A reaction to something, that barely registered on the edge of her consciousness.

Terri picked Lexi up, clutching the girl against her chest. This only caused Lexi to start silently crying again.

Terri turned toward her friends. "I'm sorry, but she's had a long day. I'm taking her to bed, since her mother obviously left her here for the night again."

"You think you can make it up the stairs with her?" Terri's mother asked.

"I'll be fine mom," answered Terri as she attacked the stairs two at a time, quickly making progress much like a mountain climber.

"Here, let me show you both out," Terri's mother said as she watched Terri disappear onto the second floor landing.
 
 

~*~
 
 
Terri carried Lexi through the door into her room and laid her on the bed. Lexi had quickly gotten tired and was falling asleep.

Terri picked up the small bag from the foot of the bed and looked inside. She waved her finger around inside and Lexi's clothes faded from her and were replaced by a set of footie pajamas.

Terri then zipped up the bag and dropped it back at the foot of the bed.

She stood for a moment, contemplating thought, when her suit simply began changing into a short-legged, short sleeved, gray cotton unitard on it's own.

"I can't think of any way that could Possibly be useful," she thought to herself. "But I guess Allyssa wasn't lying when she said you could transfer mana using Those lips."

Terri heard a small groan and turned her attention to Lexi on the bed. She picked the girl up again, pulled back the covers and laid the small girl down, resting her head on a pillow.

Terri then curled up behind her, and they were both asleep in moments.

Two sets of closed eyes failed to notice a shimmer of light from a shoebox in Terri's closet. But moments later Terri's hand brushed a smooth stone on a chain, now hanging about her neck and under the suit, where one hadn't been before.
 
 

~*~
 
 
End of Chapter Eleven