The lace drapes were gone. The white candles were replaced by scented candles in jars. The bones replaced by multi-sided dice? Everything seemed just a touch lighter. Even the clothes Sarah had deposited on thee bed, she could see some denim among the pile that hadn't been there before. The movies in the DVD cases were now Blade II and This is Spinal Tap.
Sarah could barely contain her glee. She could not wait to see what this new Zoe was like.
Elsewhere, on the next street over, Zoe Gibson was knocking on the front door of the DeVries's house.
"Zoe?" Athena questioned the taller girl as she answered the door. "What are you doing here? And what are you wearing?"
For a moment Zoe was unsure of how to answer either question. She'd just gotten an urge to visit her friend for an hour, and she was wearing the kind of outfit she always wore: a knee-length black dress over a pair of boy's boot cut jeans.
But then the moment passed and Zoe shook her head slightly. "Something magic is happening and I need your help." She pushed her way through the door, seeing no resistance from Athena.
"Something magic? What happened?" Athena followed her friend through the house and towards the back yard, to the shed that her parents let her use for her rituals, she figured.
"I don't know," Zoe opened the sliding glass door to the back yard. "But Sarah McMillan came to visit my brother this afternoon and things have just felt... weird from the moment she walked in the house."
"Are you wearing boy's jeans?"
"Yeah, I've always worn boy's jeans," Zoe gave her friend a puzzled look. "You know my legs are too long for girl's cuts. I always shop for jeans in the boy's section."
That explanation didn't make sense as it first hit Athena's ears, but by the time the signals traveled from her ear to her brain and down to her mouth for a response, her perception shifted so that now her own question was what didn't make sense. "Yeah, no, you're right. I don't know why I didn't remember that."
The fact that the jeans were superfluous under the dress didn't register at all.
"Look, I just need some space to meditate, and I didn't want to risk Sarah interfering." She opened the door to the shed and paused before entering. "Besides two heads are better than one, after all."
Athena shrugged. "You're the magic expert."
Zoe grinned, pulling her friend into the shed behind her. "Damn straight."
Some chalk runes were drawn onto the floor, some incense lit, an old Keltic book that Zoe had found in the occult shop opened to a tabbed page. The two girls sat on the floor cross-legged, the book between them, and closed their eyes.
Zoe began the chant. She always knew which chant to use, even as Athena kept mixing them up. But once Zoe started, it was easy for Athena to follow along.
Eyes closed, neither girl noticed the hem of Zoe's dress creep upwards.
But in their meditation, the two girls did begin to see a vision. It was Zoe's room, but not quite. Minor details were unfamiliar. Zoe didn't have lace drapes, did she? Maybe this was a vision from the future, at a time when she did.
There was a pile of clothes on the floor, and a stack of clothes on the bed. Most of the clothes on the bed seemed familiar, but a few items were just a bit too... well, too girly for her.
There was someone in the room dressed in white, but who neither girl could make out. Was it Zoe? They couldn't tell. But the figure kept picking clothes up from the pile on the floor and placing them in the closet. Maybe it was Zoe's mom, putting things away. Putting things where they belonged.
The black nail polish on Zoe's fingers faded, as did the black dye in her hair.
The two girls kept chanting, but Zoe found it harder to concentrate. Who was this person in her room? She needed to see the face.
"Zoe, stay with me," Athena breathed between chants.
"I need to see the face." Zoe's sandy brown hair shrank into a pixie cut.
"We need to stay in synch or else we'll lose the vision. Let me lead."
Didn't Zoe always lead? But it was getting so hard to keep focus. Purple highlights appeared in Zoe's hair.
"Concentrate on your chanting. Focus on your breathing. Clear your mind."
Zoe did as instructed. She let herself be carried by the vision. She breathed and chanted as the figure in white continued to put clothes away. Off the floor. On a hanger. In the closet.
Off the floor. On a hanger. In the closet.
It was a soothing rhythm. Zoe let herself be lulled by it. Her breathing matched the motions of the figure in white. Her chanting punctuated itself as each step completed.
Off the floor. On a hanger. In the closet.
The only way she could hang on to this vision was to surrender herself to it. And holding on to this vision was important, wasn't it?
That stray thought, that niggle of doubt, was just enough distraction and Zoe accidentally switched to the wrong chant, breaking the trance and breaking the vision.
"Ugh," she grunted, bringing a hand to her forehead. "I'm so sorry, Athena. You know I'm not good at this stuff."
The other girl stood up, then frowned. Did she know that? Wasn't Zoe supposed to be the expert here?
"Just, you've been teaching me," the girl ran her fingers through the purple highlights in her hair, "and I thought I felt something weird at home, and I figured you were the best person to turn to. Maybe I'm just imagining things."
That's right. Zoe was the novice. Athena wasn't the best with magic, but she was still the local expert. Looking down at the empty space between where the two girls had sat, she felt bad that she hadn't been able to help her friend. Maybe if she'd had a focal point, some kind of text or tome with a connection to the natural world. But Athena had never seen anything like that at any shop she'd been in.
"Whatever it was, I'll keep looking into it," Athena said. "But maybe you're right. Maybe it's just your imagination."
"You know what?" The newly-minted non-goth sighed. "This whole magic shlock is giving me a headache. Why don't we just sit outside in the sun for a bit."
It didn't occur to Athena that this was the first time she'd heard Zoe speak so negatively about magic. Nor did it occur to her that it was the first time Zoe had suggested sitting in the sun.
That's just who Zoe was. It's who she'd always been. Athena didn't need to give it another thought.
