After school, Mickey headed to the tree stump to wait for Athena. She got a lot of flak for being best friends with a Goth, but she'd tell anyone who said it to her face to go fuck themselves.
Today had been rather weird. Mickey couldn't shake the feeling something was off. She wondered where Jon was. The only clue she has was that her kid brother had been replaced by his teacher. But she'd seen no other evidence of anything.
The fourteen year old girl started writing in a notebook. The other thing that had happened today that had totally threw her was being asked out on a date. That had been equally distracting. She saw Athena's black boots approaching. "What took you so long?" She asked, looking up.
"One of the teachers was chewing me out...stupid bitch...Why are you staring at me?"
It was Miss Robertson, but she was laced up tightly in Athena's corset, skirt, and black boots. And she seemed to have a bad attitude. Athena wasn't exactly social, but she wasn't prone to calling people stupid bitches. Mickey knew Goths like that at school, but Athena seemed above that. Of course, Athena's replacement didn't.
"Umm...do you notice anything different about yourself?"
The former teacher considered the question. "No," she said. "Look, I just want to be alone for a while, okay? I came to tell you I'm not going to hang out this afternoon."
"Umm...sure."
"You had some big question for me before school," she said. "About magic."
"Trust me, something is going on."
Miss Robertson...Mickey didn't even know her first name, shrugged. "Probably your mind playing some trick on you. It's never real magic. Fuck...some days I wonder why I believe in it if I never see anything really impressive. You know, like people turning into cats or shit like that."
That certainly wasn't Athena talking. If she didn't fix this quickly, this Athena replacement would change Athena's life. Mickey didn't know what to do. Athena was the only one she knew who did know about this stuff. "You're probably right," she lied. "I'd better get home then."
She headed off. Kelly DeVries looked after her. Mickey used to be cool. Now she was hanging out with those tech kids and acting different. She was starting to prefer Sabrina's company. Maybe she'd just outgrown Mickey.
