Shannon O'Reilly was bullied and everything his older sister wasn't. When his sister Sarah gives him a chance to change things through a single wish things don't go as planned.     I Wish: Book 4 Chapter 18 Fame By Amethyst

The next week was mostly quiet and almost normal if you didn’t count the daily magick lessons or the fact that I had Faeries living in my house. Despite Sarah and Annie doing occasional patrols for Demon activity, they hadn’t found any and we were beginning to suspect that Khinara was holding back any further Demon forces until she could finish her game with us. It was also possible that she was doing it just to screw with us and keep us off balance.

We just tried to enjoy the break while it lasted, especially since late the next week Sarah and I would be busy shooting more materials for the campaign ads and making public appearances around Toronto. In my free time when we weren’t at school or volleyball practice, doing homework, magick lessons, or our self-defense lessons with Annie, I was able to hang out with my friends and be a normal teenage girl. Jen and I played video games, Beth and I went on a few dates, and Ellie and I spent some quality time together.

Talisha did have to leave town for a few days to finalize the sale on their house in Edmonton and she, Sarah, and Annie were all busy that week with the negotiations and little details involved in buying the house that they had decided on. It was a hectic time for the adults in our house, but that just gave me and Ellie more time to relax. Ellie, Beth, Jen, and I even managed to hang out with Michelle and Lisa a couple of times that week.

Michelle and Lisa were both becoming more comfortable with our group on the pair of shopping excursions we had gone on. They also seemed comfortable with one another and I had to wonder if they were into one another, they certainly had some things in common. When they let their guard down they were both fun to be with and Lisa was fiercely protective of us all, which I had to admit was kind of weird for me given our history.

Another weird thing, they had both been pulled from their old schools by their respective mothers and were starting at St. Catherine’s. Mother Josephine had given them both the lecture on keeping a lid on their orientation at school as much as possible and she had assigned Lisa to shadow Beth for the week while Michelle was to stick with Ellie as they got used to being at a Catholic private school. So the result was that we got to hang out with them at lunch too.

That first day at lunch had been a little tense at first. Despite Lisa’s long blonde hair being cut short and wild and dyed pink the members of our volleyball team recognized her when she sat down beside Michelle. They had known all too well what she had been doing to me and they were understandably a bit hostile and defensive at first. She apologized to all of them for her behavior the day of our first volleyball game of the season and once Beth and I had given them the mundane explanation for Lisa’s turnaround and what had happened since they let the hostility drop and welcomed her to St. Catherine’s. They didn’t really trust her yet, and there were still some hard feelings, but they were willing to give her a chance for the sake of Beth, Ellie, and me.

Lisa had made a bit of a reputation for herself since starting at St. Catherine’s that first day at lunch. While she tried to be polite and friendly for the most part, her short punked out pink hair had made her look like a tough girl and a rebel, and some of those girls that had outed Beth and made school miserable for her last year had tried to bring Lisa into their fold at lunch on her first day. It had been an unmitigated disaster, for them.

After everything that had been happening at her last school and her so-called friends turning on her, Lisa hadn’t been interested in being part of some shallow angsty clique and had told them all exactly where to shove their invitation. That was when she came right to our table to sit down beside Michelle and apologize to the girls from the volleyball team for her previous behavior. I guess that the girls she had refused didn’t like her response because a couple of them tried to jump her after school when she was heading to the bus stop to go pick up her car from the shop.

Lisa was very athletic, the assistant captain of both her basketball and volleyball teams before quitting sports and changing schools. She may not have started the fight but she sure finished it. She took a couple of hits but she also took both girls down, hard. One of them had ended up with a black eye and split lip and the other’s arm would be in a cast for a couple of months. They had all been brought before Mother Josephine for fighting but the two who had jumped her had a history as trouble makers. Since it was Lisa’s first day and the fight had been two on one, Lisa had gotten off with a warning while her attackers were given two weeks suspension and threatened with expulsion if it happened again.

After that, their entire group avoided Lisa as much as possible. Between that and her tendency for being very in-your-face direct when she didn’t like the way someone was being treated, nobody was willing to mess with her or anyone she was close to. It wasn’t that she got rough or rude with people, she was very calm and polite, it was just that she got this intimidating aura about her when she wasn’t happy with someone. She was kind of a badass and was developing a reputation as a defender of the weak.

Lisa had gotten her car back from the shop on Monday evening and had offered to pick up Michelle for school in the mornings and to take her home after school since Michelle was still too young to drive. This again made me wonder if she and Michelle might become more than friends since Michelle’s house was a good twenty to thirty minutes out of Lisa’s way. Still, I was happy that they were getting along so well and that they were meshing so well with me and my other friends. On Tuesday and Thursday, we had all even gone to the mall together after school to hang out before Jen, Beth, Ellie, and I had to head back to my place for our lessons with Annie and Talisha.

Michelle had also informed us on one of our outings to the mall that she had gotten a new phone and gave all of us her new number. She had also called Rebecca and they were going to hang out together. It seemed that Rebecca was still trying to warn her away from us, and me particularly, but Michelle was taking my advice and trying to steer their conversations toward things that they had in common and trying to be supportive of Rebecca’s transition.

Beth, Ellie, and I didn’t attend that week’s support meeting, Lisa had already had plans with her mom that Sunday anyway and Michelle’s Mom was going to give her a ride to the meeting and back home. I felt that we would just piss Rebecca off by being there and I wanted to give her and Michelle some space to build a friendship without us getting in the way. If I was there Rebecca would just spend her time glaring at me and I really didn’t feel like being the target of her hostility again.

I woke on Monday, December second after another night of strange dreams involving Faeries, Demons, Celestials, and other strange creatures. I was kind of getting used to that though since I had been having weird dreams like that practically the whole time since I’d been transformed into a girl. Some of them were weird, some frightening, and some peaceful and comforting.

As crazy as my life had become it was actually fairly understandable that I was trying to process it all while I slept, I certainly hadn’t had much time to do it while I was awake. Even though the past week had been peaceful and somewhat slow the dreams had still come, but I figured that it might have been because everything was so quiet and almost normal. I was worried the whole time about just what the hell Khinara was up to now and when she would make her move.

I tried to put those thoughts and dreams out of my mind while I went through my morning routine and prepared for school. By the time I had finished my shower and surrendered the bathroom to Ellie I felt much better. I quickly dressed in my school uniform, grabbed my backpack and gym bag for volleyball, and went down to the kitchen where Annie and Sarah were already eating.

It was only once I was sitting at the table with my yogurt, a bagel smothered in strawberry jam, and a glass of orange juice that I noticed the magazine sitting on the table. It was the December issue of Teen Queen, and there on the cover was a picture of me in my rainbow skirt and white ‘love has no gender’ shirt with one hand on my hip and the other pointing at the camera, looking really cute and sassy. The headline said, Divine Inspiration: Getting to know Shannon O’Reilly.

“Oh Goddess, that came out today? And my name is right there on the cover?!” I muttered tiredly before letting out a long sigh as I thought about how many autographs I was probably going to have to give at school.

“Yesterday actually,” Sarah corrected with a slight smile. “So I would imagine that most of your classmates have seen it by now. Congratulations, Sis, you’re going to be famous, this is huge publicity for you and Divine Cosmetics.”

“But I don’t wanna be famous,” I griped.

“Too late now, Kiddo,” Annie pointed out with a chuckle. “If you didn’t want to be famous you should have stopped before the billboards and magazine ads.”

“But it’s been so good for Sarah’s career, and I do like modeling,” I said with another sigh. “I guess I’m just worried about getting the wrong kind of attention… and the hand cramps I’m gonna have from giving so many autographs at school today.”

“You’ll be fine, Shannon. That article is really well written and pretty flattering of you, Angela really showed the kind of person you are. She gave me a short interview too, asking a bit more about you and our relationship, and the article shows both of us and Divine Cosmetics in a really good light. As for the wrong type of attention, well, that’s why Annie and Beth go everywhere with us.”

I gave in and looked over the article as I ate my breakfast and was almost finished both when Ellie came downstairs freshly showered and in her school uniform. Sarah was right, it was a good article and I had a new respect for Angela Zubreck by the time I had finished reading. It contained the entire interview with me of course, but she had also interviewed Sarah and Jen’s parents. It was mostly about me and my ‘Cinderella story’ but it also went quite a bit into Divine Cosmetics and how the small family company was quickly becoming a major player in the cosmetics industry because of their high-quality products and fair prices and how Sarah and I were the new faces of that company.

School was crazy that day, especially at lunch. I spent almost my entire lunch hour signing copies of Teen Queen for my fellow students. I had optimistically hoped that only girls from the volleyball team, or who occasionally sat for lunch with us would be asking, but I was pretty sure that half the girls in the school had gotten an autograph by the end of lunch, even Jen, Lisa, and Michelle were in on it. At least Beth had made sure they let me finish eating first.

The girls who hadn’t asked for autographs were those that generally gave Beth a wide berth, and me as well by association. Some of them had been pretty hard on her when she had been forced to come out of the closet. Now they didn’t reserve their glares for just Beth, they were glaring at me too. I tried to just smile at them anyway as I wondered if it had been a good idea to brazenly proclaim my sexual orientation on the cover of a major magazine. At least smiling at them made them look away, as did Lisa’s glares.

As I was signing yet more magazine copies Michelle also cast a dirty look in the direction of the haters and muttered under her breath, “Those fuckers remind me of Ginny and the assholes she hangs around with. They really don’t like Beth and Shannon.”

“They’re just jealous. Been there, done that,” Lisa said, shooting them another glare and making them look anywhere else but at our table. “They won’t mess with Shannon and Beth, not if they know what’s good for them.”

“Lisa, you do realize that you’re absolutely terrifying at times, right?” Lily commented, giving the tall pink-haired girl a cautious look.

Lisa laughed and grinned at her, replying, “It’s all part of my charm.”

“At least she’s on our side now,” Kelly pointed out with a laugh, “though I’m still a little weirded out by that.”

“Shannon is a good person, and she cares about everyone. She gave me a chance when I really didn’t deserve it and now all of you are doing the same. I’ve done some shitty things and I have a lot to do to make up for them but now that I have real friends, who care for me for who I am and not what I can do for them, I’m not going to let anyone screw with them.” The look of intense determination that was on her face had all of the girls at the table smiling and nodding in agreement.

Halfway through the final period, all students were called to the gymnasium for an assembly where Mother Josephine cautioned us all that there were photographers and possibly members of the media waiting outside the main gate and the parking lot access gate. Apparently, while they weren’t allowed on the school grounds because it was private property, that didn’t stop them from waiting around outside school grounds. We were all told to be on our best behavior and not to answer any questions or do anything that could hurt the school’s reputation. She never said why they were hanging around but it didn’t take a genius to connect the dots with all the magazines I had signed at lunch.

With all of the attention that I was getting, I glad when the final bell rang and it was time for volleyball practice. It was a welcome chance to blow off some steam. It was over far too quickly though and soon we had all hit the showers. I stayed under the stream of hot water for a little longer than usual, just letting it wash the stress of the day away and when I was done the only people still around were Beth and Ellie.

We gathered our things from our lockers and were heading toward the parking lot when we saw the crowd outside the parking lot entrance. It wasn’t a huge amount of people, just over a dozen or so, but most of them had cameras. “Reporters,” I said with a sigh,” I knew that interview was a bad idea.”

“I don’t think that they’re all reporters, at least not the reputable kind,” Ellie put in with a scowl.

“Yeah, Annie says there are some at your house too,” Beth muttered as she glared at her phone. “She’s pissed and getting the police involved. They already got photos of Sarah opening the curtains and if you look, some of those guys are using telephoto lenses and probably have pictures of us leaving the school. You’re a minor and they don’t have consent to use your image or Sarah’s. This is harassment, stalking, and invasion of privacy. Jen’s parents are going to release a statement asking the media to leave you and Sarah alone and that if they want interviews to approach the company, not you.”

“Well, this sucks,” I grumbled as we got into my car for the drive home. Beth let me and Ellie sit in the car while it warmed up and she cleared snow off the windows, her face mostly covered with her scarf since it was both cold out and she didn’t want her picture taken. It didn’t take her long and soon we were on our way.

I tried to ignore the cameras all around the car as we left the school parking lot. I figured that not all of them were even photographers, some were probably just pervs since not all of the cameras were close to professional quality. I welcomed the distraction as my phone rang. I was almost afraid to answer until I realized that it was Michelle’s ring tone. “Hey, Michelle.”

“Shannon! Thank God you answered! I don’t know what to do!” Michelle’s voice burst out in panic.

“Whoa, calm down and tell me what’s wrong, Michelle,” I replied as calmly as I could manage.

“It’s Lisa, we were hanging out at her place. Her Mom is at work and we were… getting to know one another a bit better when she suddenly started screaming in pain and holding her head. She started yelling things like, ‘who the fuck are you?!’ and ‘get out of my head!’ and then she passed out.

“Shit!” I mentally cursed, “I have stalkers with cameras and Khinara chooses now to contact Lisa.” I did not doubt that that was what had happened and that we needed to deal with this quickly.

“What’s wrong?” Beth asked in a hushed tone as she managed to ease the car through the jerks with the cameras and onto the street.

“We’ll be there as soon as we can, Michelle. Stay calm, try to keep her comfortable, and don’t talk to anyone else until we get there,” I told Michelle before hanging up and turning toward my girlfriend in the driver’s seat. “We need to get to Lisa’s place, fast.”

Beth nodded grimly but let out a sigh as she looked in the rearview mirror. “We’re being followed,” she stated with a frown.