As soon as we arrived home, Aunt Merry and Mom had to head down to the club to start work which left Melody, Carmen, Jess, and I hanging out with Sorcha and Selina. My daughter was keeping the little Selkie occupied by playing with their dolls together while they watched cartoons. She turned toward us as we stepped out of the elevator though and looked worried as we all found places to get comfortable.

“Is… everything okay, Momma?” she asked hesitantly. “Nana Tiffani and Aunt Merry looked upset when Aunt Jess called them, and they left in a hurry.”

“The school’s queen bitch spraypainted a bunch of slurs and other nasty stuff on Crystal’s car,” Melody told her with a grimace. “We can’t prove it was her, of course, because the cameras got mysteriously fried just before it happened.”

“Bits,” Sorcha repeated with that slight four-year-old lisp as she looked up at us in interest. Of course, the one word the precocious little tyke took away from Melody’s venting was the one word that none of us wanted her repeating, especially where her mother might hear. Meanwhile, Selina looked angry, but she knew how much I loved my car and how special it was.

“Don’t worry, Sweetie, my magic teacher managed to remove the paint without doing any damage. The Charger is in the same good condition that it was this morning,” I assured the Astrae before turning to the Selkie. “Sorcha, maybe don’t use that word again. It’s not a very nice word and your mom probably won’t want you to say it. Okay, Squirt?”

“Kay,” the little one agreed cheerfully.

My sister flopped down onto the couch and groaned. “Well, we can’t prove that the bi… very mean girl did anything, but we all know that she was the one behind it. The question is, how are we going to get back at her? We can’t just let her think she’s going to get away with this.”

“An eye for an eye? We could do something to her car?” Carmen suggested. “With all the snow we’ve been getting, there should be plenty of ice for Crystal to work with.”

I shook my head sadly. “There are a whole lot of things I could do to her car with Ice magic; freeze the fuel line, make the suspension brittle, shred her tires, or a number of other nasty little tricks. I don’t want to do any vandalism that could be traced back to me though, especially not anything that could actually damage the car or cause an accident. If we do anything against her, it can’t be anything that can be traced directly back to us or can be dismissed as a prank. We’ll all have to have an alibi, and it can’t be anything criminal because the headmistress will be watching us for retaliation.”

“That’s going to limit us,” Melody pointed out as she flopped down beside Carmen and pulled me into her lap to snuggle. “I thought, you might want to go after her car too, with the whole paying of debts thing.”

“Oh, I do want to go after her car to send her a message. I’m not going to touch it though, at least, not directly,” I said with a satisfied smirk as an idea came to me. I was hoping to pull off an evil, maniacal laugh too, but my chirpy little voice and the giggles that manifested totally killed that idea.

Everyone turned to look at me as I grinned at them and snuggled closer to my girlfriend, who sighed and said, “Uh oh, you’ve got that Fey mischief look in your eyes. What are you going to do, Babe?”

“It’s probably better that none of you know yet, so you can be genuinely surprised,” I replied for everyone’s sake. “I’ll need to know what Delilah’s car looks like though.”

“Already on it,” Jess mumbled as she rapidly texted. “I sent the pics I took of what Delilah did to your car to the girls on the private Discord server we set up yesterday and they’re pissed. Trixie seems to be of the same mind as you regarding a little Fey payback.” My sister handed me her phone to display the chat server I had almost completely forgotten about.

White Rabbit: Delilah, or someone close to her, did this to the Charger. The Divine magic teacher managed to remove the paint without causing any damage, but my sis was pretty upset. Can’t prove it was her either since the cameras ‘mysteriously’ shorted out and won’t be fixed until Monday.

FeyoftheWood: I guess the parking lot isn’t safe for those of us with cars anymore. Who would go after a classic car like that? It would be such a shame if something were to happen to that brand new red Dodge Viper Shelby I’ve seen in the lot too. It’s such a nice car but the owner is probably conceited as all hell with those vanity plates. HOT STUFF? What kind of egomaniac has plates like that?

I had to smile at Trixie’s comment. It told me exactly what I needed to know while not directly saying anything incriminating in case anyone else saw these messages over our shoulders or something. I handed my sister back her phone and then grabbed my own to send a couple of messages of my own.

FrigidFey: @everyone thanks, I’m doing better now. I won’t be driving to school for a while though. Have other transportation in mind.

FrigidFey: @FeyoftheWood Yeah, I’ve seen that car, it’s almost as nice as the Charger. Hopefully, nothing happens to it before the security cameras can be fixed.

After that, I felt a lot better as we all hung out with Selina and Sorcha. Lou was off hanging out with some of his friends from the boys’ school, so it was just Carmen, Melody, Jess, Selina, Sorcha, and me until Dr. Diaz and Aislinn joined us just before dinner and ate with us. Well, most of us anyway. Jess, Melody, and I would be going down to the club to eat tonight since my sister and I were now officially eighteen.

Our birthday party wouldn’t be until Sunday, but I still wanted to spend some time with Selina today since, as of today, I was now officially and legally her guardian. It was something that I thought should be recognized, which I did by spending quality time with her by brushing and braiding her hair and just talking about how she was doing with her studies and everyday stuff. Once I was working at the club at night and at school during the day, we wouldn’t have much time for this kind of thing, even if I was only working a couple of hours a night until I graduated.

Once we had changed out of our school uniforms and Sorcha and Selina were finished eating and settling in to watch some more cartoons and play together under Aislinn’s watchful eye, I gave my daughter a quick kiss on the forehead and a hug. “Have fun playing with Sorcha, Sweetie. I’ll be back up around nine to tuck you into bed and say goodnight.”

“Okay, Momma,” she replied as she hugged me back and then she turned her attention back to the four-year-old Selkie girl and the show they were watching as Melody, Jess, and I headed for the elevator to go down to the club.

Being in the club while it was open was a strange experience at first. It was still the same, familiar place that we had gotten used to since arriving, but with the lights low, the neon on, the music playing, and a whole lot of people around that I didn’t recognize, it felt very different too. There was this sudden realization that this place I was becoming so familiar with was also a place of business that I wasn’t all that familiar with.

It wasn’t just all the men (and some women) seated at the bars or in the booths to watch the shows and socialize either. It was seeing Pandora on the main stage in all her succubus glory, dancing to the music and slowly relieving herself of her clothes, which I was so jealous of. It was all those other people that I didn’t know who were doing their jobs.

We had never had a chance to meet many of the part-time employees of the club who didn’t live upstairs before now. I came to the realization that we hadn’t interacted with any of the part-time staff except for Olivia, one of the waitresses who sometimes helped bring our dinners upstairs when the club was open. I didn’t even know her that well, except for her first name and that she was an Air Mage. All the other part-time waitresses and bartenders were strangers though.

I tried to push those thoughts out of my mind as we looked for an empty booth to claim. That only made me more conscious of the eyes following us as we did so. Patrons of the club had been watching us, me and Jess in particular, with great interest since we had stepped out of the elevator near the main stage. It probably didn’t help that Jess had decided that we should do the twin thing and dress identically.

Thankfully it was still somewhat early on a Thursday so the club wasn’t too busy yet, so we could have our pick of tables. Most people who were there were either seated near the main stage to watch Pandora or at the bars to get drinks and watch the dancers on the mini stages to either end of the bar. It looked like Krysti, Nadia, Rhissa, and Nixie were working those small stages at the moment, each of them in various stages of undress that had my brain itching to do the same thing.

Our decision on a table was made when the Dicken sisters called us over to share one of the large booths by the kitchen, where we usually ate our meals when the club was closed. “On your dinner break?” I asked my mentors as we sat down to join them.

“Yeah, it’s not like it’s that busy anyway, and nobody usually wants any of the extra services until later in the evening,” Anita said with a shrug.

Stella turned to grin at me and Jess. “Happy birthday, girls! So, I take it that you’re all down here to get a feel for how things work in the club while you eat?”

“I guess you could say that,” Melody replied as we all slipped into the booth, and she took her place at my right side. “I told Merriwynd that after I eat, I’ll shadow her for a bit while she teaches me how to be a proper bouncer. I guess when we get busy, like on the weekends, we really should have more than one.”

“Mom and Pandora suggested I do the same with one of the bartenders for a while tonight. I won’t be serving any drinks tonight, but they’ll show me where everything is and let me watch while they work,” Jess added.

“And I figured that I might as well watch a few shows and get a feel for what it’ll be like when I’m the one on stage,” I agreed. “I’ve been learning a lot from the three of you, but this place is really different when there are customers and stuff.”

“That’s true,” Adora agreed. “On Sunday, before the party, we’ll need to let you get more practice in. Maybe after the party too. We should probably start going over the rules of the club with you, and the list of extra services and the rates for them as well. If you’re really good, those rates are just guidelines though. Some of our wealthier clients can be pretty generous with their tips on top of paying for our services.”

We had a nice dinner with the sisters, but despite Jess and me being of legal drinking age now, neither of us had anything harder than regular fruit juice. The Succubus triplets told us that none of the dancers or other employees drank, at least not on nights we were working. If any patrons offered to buy us entertainers a drink, we would accept but order a Savannah Sunset.

That was a code for the bartenders to mix a fruity, yet non-alcoholic, drink that looked like something you would get at a tropical resort. Then they would rub a little vodka along the outer rim of the glass to make it smell alcoholic to those with sensitive noses. I tried one while we ate. It had a sweet and fruity taste and came with a little umbrella, a slice of lime, and a straw. I was told that it was important to drink from the straw to avoid the vodka on the rim.

Once we were done eating, we got to our respective tasks. I watched the various dancers on the main stage and the mini stages for almost two hours to try to get a feel for the practicalities of being an adult entertainer at a club like this. I tried to mostly stay out of the way, but a few guys took interest in me, and I had to tell them, “Sorry, I’m not working tonight.”

I wasn’t sure how much I was learning, but I definitely came away with a desperate need to get out of my clothes and to get properly fucked by the time Melody and Jess came to get me so we could head upstairs. At least I managed to not show my frustration too much as I put Selina to bed for the night. When that was done though, I half dragged Melody off to my room to satisfy both of those needs until we both passed out.

Friday morning, we had Melody teleport Carmen, Jess, and me to school by way of the Infernal Plane, one by one. Each time she stopped in the Infernal Plane for a moment to catch her breath, and to ensure that our school uniforms, and everything else with us, picked up the distinct scent of smoke and sulfur. I did not like the Infernal Plane, it was quite literally Hell, and I liked smelling of the place even less, but I needed to show the headmistress that when I said I would do something, I was going to stick with it.

Still, the smell had me wrinkling my nose and fighting the constant need to get out of my clothes. Wearing clothes was bad enough, but wearing stinky clothes was as irritating to my Nymph sense of vanity as it was to my aversion to clothes in general. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

My first class of the day was Home Economics with my sister, but as we were on our way there, the PA system came on and the headmistress’s secretary announced, “Attention all students. There will be an assembly in the auditorium before classes begin. Please make your way to the auditorium.”

Ten minutes later, the entire student body was gathered in the auditorium, with Headmistress Collins standing on the stage with a microphone in hand. It was a little crowded, but the smell of hellfire convinced our fellow students to give our little group of four plenty of space. Once the general din of noise lessened, the headmistress said, “Good morning, students.”

“Good morning, Headmistress,” came the discordant reply of the student body.

“Yesterday afternoon, a student’s car was vandalized in the parking lot after school. Hateful slurs were painted over it, and the parking lot security cameras were damaged to prevent us from identifying whoever committed this crime. If anyone has any knowledge, or evidence, of who did this, please come forward. Not only will vandalism of other students’ property and destruction of school property not be tolerated, but the hate speech used goes against the values of coexistence and acceptance that St. Michelle’s prides itself on from our students,” the headmistress announced.

If she was waiting for one of Delilah’s minions to come forward here, then I had the feeling this would be a very long assembly. I guess that she realized that as well since, after a lengthy silence, she sighed into the microphone and said, “That will be all. If anyone wishes to come forward regarding the vandalism, you can come to my office any time.”

With that, we were ushered out of the auditorium and sent to our regular classes. Delilah looked so damn smug when we got to Home Ec. The only thing that little announcement had succeeded in doing was in letting that bitch know that she had gotten away with what she did to my car.

We were baking chocolate chip cookies today in class and, while Jess and I had fun with that, Delilah and her partner, Mallory, did not. It seemed like they were having a hard time dividing their dough into proper cookie portions, almost as if it were frozen solid. Yeah, it was a little petty of me, but it was just a taste of what was still to come for her. As for me and my sister, we got the taste of a very small victory and cookies.

We had P.E. next, but thankfully, we had plenty of backup there, so Delilah wasn’t brave enough to try anything, even when we were on opposite teams for volleyball. Unfortunately, enough students were changing with us that I wasn’t willing to do anything obvious either, though I was sorely tempted to try. The thought of freezing her underwear, while she was wearing it, made me smile, but I didn’t act on it.

Magic class with Carmen and Ms. Norstrom was next for me, while Melody was off to learn more about the joys of Death magic, and my sister and her girlfriend headed to shapeshifting class. Ms. Norstrom was teaching Carmen and me how to stay focused on our goal and picturing the results that we wanted in our minds. We had to be the Light within ourselves, picture the results as we directed that magic, and have the focus and determination to stay on task until it was done.

It was a lot like want my mom had started teaching me with Divine magic, but I found that it worked well for my Ice magic as well. I had a lot of power, Ms. Norstrom said that I was probably the strongest magic user of any type attending the school thanks to being a Muse, but she was trying to teach me the focus and control that I sorely lacked. This was only our second class with her doing actual magic practice, but I felt like I was making progress with both of my elements. When I had better control, she would start teaching me specific ‘spells’ and how to use my magic more creatively.

During lunch, Jess and I shared our cookies from Home Ec. with our friends while Delilah glared daggers at our table. The other girls from Auto Shop were glaring right back at her and they all wanted to make her pay for what she did to my car. I quietly told them that I had it handled though since I didn’t want them getting in trouble for me.

In Art class, I started noticing a pattern when the teacher had me sit on the opposite side of the classroom of Delilah and her two closest stooges. The teachers had been told about our ‘rivalry’ and were trying to keep us apart. That was probably why Jess and I were placed at the workstation in the back corner of the room while Delilah and her partner were placed by the door in Home Economics, and why Delilah and I were the two captains choosing teams for volleyball in gym class. I wasn’t going to complain about it if it kept her out of my hair in classes since it wasn’t like I asked her to try and make my school life miserable.

Another thing I noticed was that none of the teachers were too happy about me and those close to me smelling like hellfire. It came up in every class. Each time though, I innocently told them that we had to get Melody to bring us to school through the Infernal Plane since I couldn’t count on my car being safe at school.

I actually got to enjoy Art class for once, but I was happy when it ended and I could go to the library for Study Hall, my last class of the day. Jess and I mostly talked quietly and worked on our homework for the weekend until about halfway through class when I excused myself to go to the bathroom. Once I was in a stall with no cameras to watch my every move, I got to work.

First, I went to Sal’s little corner of the Fire Plane, but I didn’t stop to socialize before teleporting again, this time close to the school parking lot. Because I was paranoid, I checked for any other means of surveillance and froze over the lenses of the supposedly defunct cameras, just in case they really were working still, and then I made my way to the red Viper that stood out like a sore thumb in the parking lot. As I walked, I focused every bit of mental fortitude I possessed on the ice and snow in and around the parking lot.

I didn’t have much time if I wanted to make a bathroom break believable, so I kept my mental imagery as simple as possible as I worked my magic with all the power I could muster while trying to keep it subtle enough that nobody in the school would sense what I was doing. The parking lot was far enough away from the school that I thought only Ms. Norstrom might be able to sense my magic, but she was teaching me, and she was a fricking Divine elemental and probably even more powerful than me and my mom.

I pictured four walls, each eight inches thick of solid ice. Each would be eight feet high, none of them physically touching the Viper, but a handspan away from the front, back, and sides of the vehicle. Keeping it simple helped to keep it quick, so five minutes later Delilah’s vehicle was completely boxed in, and I was making my way through the Fire Plane and back to the bathroom stall.

I made sure to flush, even though I was the only occupant, and as I was washing my hands another girl came in to use the facilities. I tried not to smile as my alibi was established and I left the bathroom to return to the library, Jess, and my homework. Jess arched an eyebrow and obviously knew I had been up to something other than taking a leak but kept quiet for now since we weren’t the only students here and Delilah probably had ears everywhere.