The whole next day at school, Genesis felt her nerves amounting. She had not forgotten her agreement to meet up with Megan after school, and the 3:00 bell could not come quickly enough. She wanted more than anything to undo her mistakes in order to get her boyfriend back and prevent her sister from getting cancer.

When her last class ended, Genesis met up with Charlotte, who'd agreed to give her a ride to Megan's house. "So you're actually gonna do it," Charlotte said as Genesis got in her car. "You're actually gonna break into the Council Of Witches' headquarters."

"I know," said Genesis. Already, she could feel her nerves amounting. "It's gonna be risky, but it's worth it."

"I gotta tell you, I don't think this is a good idea," said Charlotte. "What if the witches catch you? Imagine how they'll punish you for trying to steal their time-travel device."

"Megan thinks it'll be okay," said Genesis. Though truthfully, she wasn't entirely sure herself.

Charlotte sighed. "Well, how'd you like to stop by the hospital on the way?" she asked. "Maybe say hi to Ramona and tell her you're about to fix her cancer problem?"

"I can't," said Genesis. "Megan wanted me at her house as soon as possible."

"Alright," said Charlotte. "But I'll go after I drop you off. I'll tell Ramona."

***

Charlotte kept her word. After she'd dropped Genesis off at Megan's house, she drove down to the hospital where Ramona was being treated. When she arrived, she had to go to the hospital's front desk to be approved as a visitor. Once they let her in, Charlotte went down to Ramona's bedroom.

There, she saw Ramona lying in the hospital bed, covered in sheets and with an IV in her arm. As a result of her chemotherapy, her skin was already drying out. "Hey," said Charlotte.

Ramona weakly opened her eyes and saw Charlotte. "Who, what...Charlotte?"

"Hi Ramona," said Charlotte. "How are you feeling?"

"Not great," Ramona admitted. "Chemotherapy really sucks."

"I know," said Charlotte.

"The doctors think I'll be able to recover from my lung cancer," said Ramona. "But it'll be a while before it happens."

"Well, I don't think you'll have to wait for much longer," said Charlotte. "Because Genesis is gonna try to go back in time to prevent you from trying smoking in the first place."

"She what?"

"Genesis told Megan about how you'd gotten lung cancer, and Tina Peters tricked Jesse into cheating on her so Genesis would turn Jesse into a girl, and Jessie would dump her. So now Megan's taking Genesis to the witches' headquarters to steal a time travel device."

As Charlotte expected, Ramona did not look happy to hear this news. "Oh, Genesis," said Ramona.

"Yes, I know," said Charlotte. "I told her it was a bad idea, but she was really desperate."

"On the other hand, if she does go back in time and fix things, it'll be a lot easier than chemotherapy."

"True," said Charlotte.

Ramona sighed-which, given how much pain she was in, wasn't easy. "I just don't get it," she said. "I only smoked for a few weeks before I got lung cancer, and I didn't even smoke that much. I only had, like, one cigarette every day or two."

"Really?" Charlotte asked.

"Really."

"Just out of curiosity, where'd you get the cigarettes?"

Ramona hesitated. "Well...this is gonna be a surprise, but...I got both of my packs from Megan."

"What?"

"Yeah. One day when I took Genesis for her training session, I got to talk to Megan for a minute, and she gave me a pack of cigarettes. Apparently her mom smokes, and Megan nabbed a pack of cigarettes so she could try it."

"Megan gave you cigarettes?" Charlotte asked.

"Yeah."

Charlotte just stood there, speechless. Something did not seem right here. Ramona getting lung cancer from smoking cigarettes way too early, and her cigarettes were from a known witch...that couldn't be a coincidence. Could it?

***

Later that evening, Charlotte had to go to work again. And, just her luck, Tina Peters was working the same shift. Ever since Charlotte had heard about the incident between Genesis, Jesse, and Tina, she'd been really suspicious of Tina. Not that Tina appeared to have any beef with Charlotte, but she still felt like she had to be careful around her.

However, something very strange happened a couple hours into Charlotte's shift. Charlotte was getting some cups out of the back while Tina was on her break. When Tina's break ended, she got up to get back to work, but she mistakenly left her phone on the table. At first, Charlotte didn't pay it much attention. However, when she was walking by the table, her eyes fell on Tina's phone's screen. It showed a stream of text messages with someone named Megan.

Troubled, Charlotte looked a little closer at the text stream. When she read it, her eyes went wide. But before she could react, Tina came rushing back into the break room to grab her phone. "Sorry," said Tina. "I left my phone behind on accident."

"That's okay," said Charlotte. But what she'd read...she was gonna have to confront Tina about it.

She got her chance later on that evening. At around 9:30, business was slowing down, and it was just Charlotte and Tina standing around by the cash registers waiting for any customers to potentially show up. Since the manager was off in the office doing manager stuff, Charlotte decided to make her move. "Hey Tina," she said. "What do you know about Megan Hawthorne?"

Tina jumped. "What?"

"Megan Hawthorne. Do you know her?"

Tina hesitated. "No," she answered.

"Don't lie to me," said Charlotte. "Remember when you left your phone behind earlier? I saw your texts with her."

"You read my texts?" Tina glared at Charlotte.

"I didn't mean to. You just left your phone on the table, and I happened to notice that you were texting someone named Megan Hawthorne. About my friend Genesis." Charlotte looked Tina square in the eye and said "You know Megan, don't you?"

"Yeah. She and I go to the same school. So what?"

"So, you're gonna tell me everything you know," said Charlotte. "Or else I'm gonna show this to the manager." She pulled out her phone and opened up a picture she'd taken the other night. It was of Tina vaping from an elfbar in the employee break room. Charlotte had taken that picture in the hope she could use it to blackmail Tina for something-and now was her chance.

Tina gasped. "When did you-"

"Tell me now," said Charlotte. "Or else I'm gonna show this to the manager, and you'll get fired."

Well, that was all it took to break Tina down. "Me and Megan have been working together to sabotage Genesis," she said. "When Megan was assigned to be her trainer, she knew it was her opportunity. She still remembers Genesis as Gene. And that he tried to rape her."

"So Genesis was right," said Charlotte. "Megan really does remember!"

Tina nodded. "She didn't just want revenge on Gene. I wanted revenge on Ramona. I was the most popular girl at school-I was on top of the world-but Ramona took it away from me. I was so humiliated, I had to move to another school-one where I was even more of an outcast. But at least that was where I met Megan. And when Megan became Genesis' trainer, we knew it was our chance. So Megan gave Ramona enchanted cigarettes to give her cancer, and I drugged Jesse so he'd 'cheat on me.' That way, Genesis would lose her boyfriend."

It was all Charlotte could do not to strangle Tina on the spot. "You little bitch," she said. "You wanted to trick Genesis into turning Jesse into a girl so he'd dump her!"

"It was an agreement with Megan!" Tina defended. "And it's not even the end of it, either!"

"You're damn right," said Charlotte. "I read those texts. About their heist tonight."

"You mean at the witches' headquarters?" Tina asked.

"Yes," said Charlotte. "Where they're gonna steal the time travel device."

"Megan's not really gonna help Genesis fix her mistakes," said Tina. "She's gonna-"

"I know," said Charlotte.

Right then, the manager came out to the retail area. "Is everyone okay over here?" he asked.

"I, uh...I'm not feeling very good," Charlotte blurted out. "I think I'd better go home early."

"Really?"

Charlotte clutched her stomach like she was feeling nauseous. "Yeah," she said. "I feel like I'm about to throw up."

Tina opened her mouth to protest, but then she remembered Charlotte still had the dirt on her.

"Fine," said the manager. "You can clock out."

Charlotte clocked out, then ran out to her car. She knew it was probably already too late, but she didn't care. Because if what Tina had said was true, then Genesis was in serious danger.

To be continued...