This version has had some long overdue editing. Thanks to Puddin' for the help.

Stu goes too far and pushes Amelia over the edge. The teen train wreck continues and the two of them finally jump the track.

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The Magic of Love
by Terry Volkirch

Part 3

Amelia's work on Teresa had been very good and very thorough. In only a matter of days, the large girl had shed an incredible amount of weight, enough to cause a little concern but not enough to start a panic, especially since she never felt stronger and healthier in her life. She had so much energy that she couldn't wait to drag Amelia and Nancy out for a walk at lunch.

All three girlfriends were quite pleased with the results, and Amelia couldn't wait to focus on her next project. The blonde had noticed Nancy's potential for a makeover long ago, and since she had the power and the inclination to help, she got right to work, starting with her friend's vision.

Nancy had very poor eyesight and had to wear glasses with very thick lenses. The glasses obscured her beautiful eyes, making her look like a hopeless bookworm. Her vision could probably be corrected with laser surgery someday but Amelia refused to wait, not when she could help.

Once again, the girls had lunch and then went out for a walk. They went out rain or shine. Teresa insisted.

"Nancy?" Amelia asked, hanging back with Nancy while their newly energized friend took the lead. "Have you ever tried eye exercises?"

"What do you mean? I've never heard of eye exercises."

"I'll take that as a no." Amelia smiled. She had the perfect plan. She'd use eye exercises to cover for the use of her gift.

After describing some of the exercises she had in mind, the blonde waited for her nearsighted friend to give it some thought.

"That sounds crazy," Nancy decided. "It'll never work."

"How do you know until you try?"

Nancy didn't have an answer. Like so many others who fail because they never try, she couldn't come up with a good reason not to try. She didn't have much hope but after seeing how well Amelia's encouragement helped Teresa, she was willing to be proven wrong.

"Okay," she finally said. "Let's do it."

"That's the spirit," Amelia said with a smug grin, thinking her friend would have 20/20 vision in no time.

Of course Amelia's monitor caught another incident soon after the girl's conversation. The teen used her power to help her second friend. The matter might have been flagged with a warning of greater severity if she had any more friends but the monitor saw a pattern. She had two friends and only showed an inclination to use the Gift sparingly on her friends. There didn't seem to be a pressing need to continue the constant vigilance so the monitor got lazy and reduced her status back to "medium risk".

***

Another week passed and Nancy's vision improved significantly. She'd already changed her prescription eyeglasses three times, causing her parents no end of trouble. The eye doctor visits and glasses didn't come cheap.

No one wanted to believe that eye exercises were responsible but they couldn't argue with results. Nancy did her exercises religiously and squealed with delight with each new pair of glasses. At the rate her vision improved, she'd be free of glasses or at least be able to wear soft contact lenses in another week. She couldn't wait.

In the meantime, Amelia wasn't finished. Though her friend's face would undoubtedly brighten without glasses, Amelia still thought the girl could use more work. The baggy jeans and sweatshirts that Nancy loved to wear couldn't hope to look flattering on anyone but a centerfold model, and the girl wouldn't reach that level of sexiness anytime soon. The slender, brown-haired girl had a cute young face more like the girl next door. She'd break some hearts soon after her makeover was finished, but they'd be the hearts of high school boys, not men.

So when it eventually happened, the trip to the mall surprised Cassandra as much as her daughter. Amelia rarely left the confines of her room after school, but now she realized how shallow her life had become. She needed to explore the world and experience new things, and her friends showed up just in time to give her the motivation to do so.

"Mom?" Amelia called.

"In here, Dear!" Cassandra called from the garage. She'd only just got home from work but her daughter was too anxious to wait another second.

"Can I borrow the car? Please?"

"What?! Whatever for? Are you feeling okay?" The older woman teased.

"Ha ha. I'm fine. I want to go to the mall with Nancy and Teresa. They desperately need some new clothes."

"Really?"

"Well, yeah. I'm helping them spice up their wardrobes."

"No, Dear. I meant I'm surprised you're going out. You never go out. Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Cassandra smiled to show she was teasing again.

"Yes, Mother. But I'm actually a little sorry Bessie is gone."

"I know, Dear. I miss that old car too. She had a certain charm."

Amelia gave her mother a strange look. "I meant I'd miss her for the extra room. It might be a little cramped in the bug with three of us and zillions of bags of clothes."

"Oh. Right. I should've known. Please forgive me." Cassandra's voice dripped with sarcasm and her daughter just rolled her eyes.

"So can I have the keys now?"

"Yes, Dear. Have fun ... and Amelia?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"Love you too, Mom."

The blonde practically ran out to the garage, yanked open the garage door and slipped into the late model Volkswagen Beetle. She loved the perky little car and felt no shame driving it as she zipped over to pick up her friends.

"Cute car!" Nancy gushed. "I love the color too. Blue's my favorite color."

"It's my mother's favorite color too. I prefer green but she's the one with the money."

"Why don't you get a job?"

"Uh ... because I don't have to. Duh." Amelia tried to make it sound like she was teasing but she was only half joking. She really had no desire to work yet. She'd put it off as long as she possibly could. Menial jobs seemed so tedious and boring for someone like her, someone with the Gift. In the meantime, she had her mother to buy her everything she needed, including a college education. The gifted girl planned on settling for nothing less than working as a lab assistant for her first job. She insisted on immersing herself in science and continue working towards her dream of a greatly extended life span.

The two girls arrived at Teresa's house and soon the three of them headed to the mall to begin several hours of power shopping. It was the start of a new life, for all of them, thanks to Amelia's gift.

"Yeah! Let's shop," Teresa said as soon as they were parked. She had a good sense of fashion, but she needed lots of new clothes to fit her slenderized body. That made sense to Nancy but the fairly shy girl still resisted her own makeover.

"Okay," Amelia matched Teresa's enthusiasm. "We'll start over in lingerie. We need to build a foundation and work our way out."

Teresa agreed but Nancy looked stricken. "Do I have to?" she squeaked.

"Do you have to what?" The blonde was confused. She couldn't believe her friend wouldn't want to shop so it had to be something else.

"Do I have to shop for new clothes?"

The question struck Amelia speechless, and strangely enough, Teresa came to her rescue. The somewhat large girl wasn't exactly shy but she rarely said much with her mouth always full of food. She preferred eating to everything else. After she started exercising and losing weight, she ate less and found her voice. She blossomed and couldn't wait to take advantage of it.

"Nancy, what's wrong? Don't you want to look nice?"

"I don't know. I'm a little scared."

"Of what? A little attention is nice, especially from boys."

"I guess," the shy girl said without conviction.

By then, Amelia found her voice and joined in.

"Nancy, looking good means feeling good. Please. Trust us. We'll get you looking good and the whole world will love you."

"If you say so," Nancy said, still not convinced.

"Are you happy in your little shell?" Amelia turned serious. "Do you like being afraid of everything?"

"No."

"Then let's do something about it. Okay?"

The shy brunette finally gave a little smile. "Okay."

With Nancy on board, no store was safe. The three girls picked their way through every clothes rack and every bargain bin until their arms couldn't carry any more. Even then, they made room for a few accessories and some essential makeup. It was a good day to shop.

When they'd finally finished, Amelia drove back to Teresa's and they had a little fashion show. Nancy got some much needed practice with makeup and Teresa showed off her large chest to its best advantage. The boys at school wouldn't know what hit them.

Amelia bought a few things but she didn't really join in the fun other than to help her two friends. She didn't really need any new clothes or makeup anyway. Her closet and vanity were already full of the latest fashions and beauty products, and she always had her gift to fall back on. She simply contented herself with being truly social for the first time in her life.

She only regretted one thing. She still wished she had a boyfriend, but as the blonde spent more and more time with her girlfriends, Stu occupied less and less of her thoughts.

***

Amelia's two projects had progressed at a fantastic rate over the past month. Teresa had dropped six dress sizes and Nancy no longer needed glasses. The parents of both changed girls couldn't be happier. Amelia couldn't be happier, and Stu had been all but forgotten.

"Hey Gordo," Stu called out to his friend as he sat down for lunch.

"Hey Stu. Whatever happened to that hot blonde chick?"

"I think she finally took the hint. She hasn't bothered me for over a week."

"I still can't believe you passed her up." Gordo slowly shook his head. "So sad."

"Yeah. Whatever. Say, where's Fred?"

"I don't know. I thought he'd be over bugging the cheerleaders but they should've thrown him back by now."

"Hey, wait a second," Stu looked over in the direction of Amelia and her two friends and pointed. "Isn't that him, sitting over there?"

"Holy shit! Yeah! It is."

"Traitor." Stu looked away in disgust.

Fred sat across from Nancy and after some strange looks and awkward moments, he did the unthinkable. He started talking to her. He knew her from one of his classes and never felt intimidated by her, not like the cheerleaders intimidated him. So when he noticed her improved appearance, he couldn't help himself. His feet moved him in her direction and brought him to her table.

"Hi Nancy. Remember me? I'm in your creative writing class."

"Uh ... yeah. Hello, Fred."

"You look really nice today," the shy boy said, surprising himself as much as anyone else. He tired of sitting on the sidelines and watching everyone else have fun but never imagined himself getting involved, until he saw Nancy. Her sweet, shy nature matched his own, and with her new look, she attracted him like a moth to a flame.

"Thanks," she said, still not quite sure how to handle a compliment.

Amelia nudged her friend and gave a sideways glance to the exit, hinting that it might be nice to take Fred outside for a little stroll. Nancy understood but shook her head no, earning a frown and another stronger nudge. When that didn't work, Amelia went to plan B.

"Come on, Teresa. Let's go for a walk. See ya later, Nancy!"

Teresa caught on fast and followed her friend's lead. "Yeah. See ya!"

At first, Nancy felt a little like a fish out of water, but as Fred kept talking, she started warming up to him. They talked about creative writing along with several other subjects and found they had a lot in common. It looked like love was in the air.

Meanwhile, when Teresa got up to leave, she slowly leaned forward, giving Gordo a peek at some cleavage, the boy's only weakness. He'd been keeping on eye on the table since Stu continued to quietly sulk and couldn't miss the flash of skin.

"Look at the rack on her," Gordo said to no one in particular, though his sulking friend couldn't help but hear him.

Stu looked up and followed his friend's eyes, but he caught sight of Amelia. She looked back and they briefly glared at each other until she stuck out her tongue and broke the spell.

Stu turned away again but Gordo was hooked, just as Fred was. No matter how hard the large boy tried, he couldn't get the image of Teresa's breasts out of his head.

Love and lust turned the tide for two of the three boys. The score was 2 to 1 against Stu and he silently fumed about it, getting more determined than ever to avoid Amelia. He chanted over and over to himself that she was high maintenance until he got the nerve to head over to his next class, one he shared with her.

He arrived several minutes early but sat down anyway. The solitude gave him a chance to think more clearly.

The lonely boy hated to admit it but he missed trading insults with Amelia. He never had so much attention from a female other than his mother, and she didn't count. All she did was embarrass him with praise for helping her take care of the household and looking after his younger brother. He'd much rather have a girlfriend, or even friends that were girls. Any females close to his own age would be a nice change from his male friends.

In spite of spending so much time helping his family, he still had plenty of time to date. So why didn't he? Until that day, he sometimes tried blaming his friends for keeping the girls away. He couldn't do that any longer. Fred's path to a relationship had already begun and Gordo followed close behind. When he really thought about it, and added everything up, he realized he could only blame himself for his failures, and it stung.

The worst part was when he thought about all the time he spent fighting with Amelia. She'd really seemed interested in him not so long ago and yet he refused to consider dating her. He kept a civil tongue but continued fending her off, and still she persisted. What was that about?

The poor boy punished himself right up until several students filtered in. Class would begin soon, and he'd see Amelia, one column over and two rows in front of him. She'd ignore him like she had for the past week or so and he'd continue his pathetic, lonely existence, unless he changed.

Change never came easy to Stu. It took a crazy experiment with Amelia just to get him to stop staring at her. She made a good point and he backed down. It made for quite an impressive stunt, and the memory of it suddenly inspired him to try to make peace with her, once and for all.

When Amelia entered the classroom, she ignored every attempt Stu made to catch her eye, but he wouldn't give up so easily. He had a few minutes before class started and he'd use every one of them if he had to.

"Amelia, please," he tried, without getting a response.

"Hey. I'm sorry for the way I've treated you. I'm sorry for everything. Okay? Please forgive me." There was still no response.

"What did I do to deserve the silent treatment?" He started getting defensive, which was always a bad sign. "Shit! I just want to be friends."

"You sure have a funny way of showing it." The blonde finally spoke up, though she kept her eyes on the front of the class, well away from Stu's sad face. "Just leave me alone. I never want to speak to you again." After all the fighting between them, she'd finally given up. She'd been deeply hurt when she realized he'd given her no hope.

"So that's it? My apology means nothing? You gave as good as you got if I remember right." Frustration turned to anger as it often happens. Stu forgot that he wanted to have Amelia as a friend and reverted to his old ways.

"What part of 'leave me alone' don't you understand?!" Amelia growled.

"Hey! Ever been accused of being high maintenance?"

"What?!"

"Consider yourself accused," he said with a smug grin.

"Ha ha," she said, turning around to face the boy. "Such sharp wit might sever something precious if you're not careful."

"Yeah? Well your IQ drops every time you dye your hair."

"Ha! Nice try but I don't dye my hair."

"Prove it!" he smirked.

"Asshole!"

"Bitch," he said in a quiet, even tone. Then he went one step too far. He summoned up all of his remaining creativity in one final shot that would soon prove to be his undoing. He slightly changed the lyrics to Willy Nelson's song, On the Road Again, and sang.

On the rag again
Just can't wait to get on the rag again
The life I love is screamin' bullshit at my friends
And I can't wait to get on the rag again

Of course by that time, everyone was listening, and several boys in class howled with laughter, while the girls stared daggers at them. Gender relations would remain frosty in that class for a long, long time.

Mr. Stevens had suffered long enough. He loved art but he didn't get paid enough to listen to bickering teens. Up to that point, he'd hung back, thinking that class would start soon and his students would settle down and start drawing, but after Stu sang a warped version of one of the his favorite songs, he hefted himself up out of his comfortable chair. The bell rang to start class and his first action was to pay a visit to both Amelia and Stu.

"Come with me, please," he said, gesturing to both of them.

The old teacher led them out in the hall and quietly shut the door behind the three of them.

"You two have been quiet for the past week," he said. "What happened?"

They both started talking at the same time and the old man held his hand up to stop them.

"Never mind," he said. "It was more a rhetorical question anyway."

He tried giving them a stern look to induce some shame but they were both lost in their own private worlds of anger so he changed his strategy.

"Just stay out here in the hall and see if you can resolve your differences. I don't want to see you back in class until you do. Is that clear?"

When he got no response, he tried again with more force. "I said, 'Is that clear?'"

"Yes," the two teens replied.

Mr. Stevens disappeared back into his classroom, leaving the two angry students to fume. He didn't expect them to kiss and make up but at least they wouldn't disrupt his class.

Amelia spent the time productively. She felt she'd been more than patient with the boy and decided it was time to end her problem once and for all. As usual, she never went anywhere without her small purse, inside of which was a small bottle of pink nail polish. She spent the next five minutes painting nail polish on the palm of her hand. She painted a circle connected to a plus sign to make the symbol for woman, and she added a little something to it to give it a special ability.

Stu leaned back against the wall and, as the adrenaline from his verbal sparring match wore off, silently punished himself. His behavior was inexcusable, and he could think of no way to make amends. No amount of words could dig himself out of the hole he put himself in. He just wanted the earth to open up and swallow him. He was so absorbed by his guilt, he didn't notice when Amelia had finished her little task and edged closer to him until she spoke.

"Hand, please," she demanded.

"Excuse me?"

"Give me your hand."

"Which one?"

"Any!" She didn't wait though. She grabbed his left hand and pressed her painted palm into his palm. With a bright flash of light, the symbol instantly transferred from her palm to his, and the task was done.

"Ow!" he yelped, and he yelped a second time when he checked out the palm of his hand. "What the hell did you do?!"

"Something I should've done a long time ago."

Then she eyed him with a feral grin that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "You said you wanted to be on the rag," she said. "Well I just granted your wish. Consider it a gift."

The two of them stood out in the hall for the duration of the class. No matter how much Stu pleaded or demanded, Amelia wouldn't tell him what she'd done, other than the obvious physical change. He now had a pink tattoo on the palm of his left hand that he couldn't remove no matter how much he scratched at it. He'd also soon find out that no amount of soap and water or industrial strength cleaner would affect it. He was stuck with it.

Amelia felt a warm satisfaction at what she did to Stu. There had been no lightning bolt, and no loss of limb. She hadn't suffered any punishment after magically branding the boy, so she took that to mean she hadn't done anything wrong. To the contrary, she strongly believed that she had righted a wrong. He deserved what he got for what he did.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, she was wrong. She'd blatantly violated the third rule of the Gift, but since the person who monitored her had downgraded her level of risk, she was no longer under constant surveillance.

The monitor completely missed her abuse of power and wasn't likely to catch it for a long time. His power didn't include rewinding time to check for strange occurrences. He'd have to keep watching until he could catch some clues about what had happened and slowly piece the clues together. It might take a week or two, or he might never find out. Only time would tell.

*** to be continued ***

 © 2008 by Terry Volkirch. This work may not be replicated in whole or in part by any means electronic or otherwise without the express consent of the Author (copyright holder). All Rights Reserved. This is a work of Fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional and any resemblance to real people or incidents past, present or future is purely coincidental.