Jon left school that afternoon and headed out to the corner of the school lot where she was parked to find Lilly sitting in a tree not far from the van. She was a bit surprised by this - as she recalled, it was a ways from Lilly's school to the high school. The little squirrel-girl looked upset about something, too. Hoo boy...she supposed it was silly of her not to have expected Lilly to see her as a general cool-older-kid friend in addition to someone who would teach her (Jon had had a similar relationship with his piano teacher, back when,) and it wasn't like she had any objections to the idea, but...she just didn't know that much about little girls, aside from what she remembered of Karyn at that age. Still...
"Hey, Lilly," she said, trying to seem cheery without too forceful. "How are you doing?"
Lilly bit her lip, her twin tails thrashing as she recalled the events of that morning. "J-Jon," she said, "they were...they were makin' fun of Hannah, an' they were sayin' she used to be a boy an' she wasn't! But they just wanted t' make fun of her 'cause they were jealous she can fly!" She scowled. "An'...an' then they were gonna make fun of Bruce 'cause..." She paused. "...um, 'cause...I told 'em to stop."
The slug-girl blinked. Uh, who were these people, again? "Aw, I'm sorry to hear that," she said. "Did...did it work out okay in the end?"
Lilly shrugged. "Teacher made 'em be quiet and pay attention to class," she said. "But they never said sorry or nothin'." She looked up at Jon pleadingly. "Um," she said, "could...could we do somethin' to 'em? Like, with magic? 'Cause they were bein' mean to Hannah an'...an' stuff..."
If Jon hadn't been fully invested in the conversation before now, this suggestion got her attention. She knew how heated school social politics could be, and combined with the way a younger child's lack of larger perspective makes things seem more important than they are...well, this wasn't exactly surprising, looking at it that way, but it could certainly be trouble if it weren't checked. After all, even Karyn, significantly older and more sensible than this little squirrel-girl, had caused herself trouble with an accidental wish inspired by similarly hot-blooded reactions. And if her jealous reaction had been targeted outwards, at Sarah...
Cripes, she thought, when did I start having to be the responsible adult? I'm not even drinking age yet!
"We can't do stuff like that, Lilly," she said. "It wouldn't be right."
Lilly gazed at her with a mixture of disappointment, protest, and a hint of shame. "B-but...but they were!" she stammered. "An'...I mean, not, like, t' hurt 'em or anythin', jus'..." Her ears drooped. "...jus' ta make 'em sorry for pickin' on us..."
The older girl sighed and picked Lilly up in a hug. "It's frustrating, isn't it?" she said. "But Lilly, let me ask you this. Would it be fair to hit someone who couldn't hit you back?"
The squirrel-girl frowned. "I...guess not," she said quietly.
"Even if you were mad at them?"
"N...no," Lilly sighed. "Not even if I was mad at 'em..."
Jon nodded, her antennae bobbing. "So do you think it would be fair to use magic against someone who couldn't do the same?"
The little girl sighed. "I guess not..." She looked up at Jon. "But...can't we do nothin'?"
Jon shrugged. "I'm not sure," she said. "If it keeps being a problem, you could talk to your teacher about it, and maybe she can make them stop. But..." She sighed. "You can't really make someone be nice to you. Sometimes you can get them to stop bugging you, and sometimes you can make friends with them afterwards, but you really can't force them to like you if they don't want to."
Lilly sighed. "...guess so," she murmured. She looked up at the slug-girl. "I...I didn't want to hurt 'em or do nothin' bad to 'em, really," she said. She hoped Jon didn't think she was...was going to turn into a bully or something, just because she was going to learn magic... "Honest..."
Jon nodded and showed a smile. "I believe you, Lilly," she said. "But you've gotta remember, if we're going to learn how to use magic, we have to be good enough to...to be worthy of it." She felt a bit of a knot in her stomach; it felt almost a little hypocritical to be lecturing the little squirrel-girl on this point when she herself had made such a wildly irresponsible wish...but it was a point that needed to be driven home - and it was a reminder to herself, as well. "We're getting a power that most people don't have or even know about, yet," she said. "That means that we have a duty to use it responsibly."
Lilly nodded. "Like...like helpin' people with it?" Like Jenny did...like she was trying to do...
Jon smiled. "Exactly."
Lilly beamed. It was comforting to know that she'd been trying to do what her teacher expected her to do even before she'd met her. Then she frowned. "But..." she murmured, "what if...um, if we hadda help somebody...by usin' it 'gainst somebody else?"
Jon thought for a moment, then shrugged. "That's a tough call," she said. "Probably depends on how serious the situation is. But...if it really is the best way to resolve it, it'd be okay. It's just something we don't want to do unless we have to, is all."
The squirrel-girl nodded thoughtfully. "'Kay," she said. "I'll try an' 'member."
Jon nodded and ruffled her hair. "Good girl."
Jon took the time out after school to drive Lilly home - partly because she seemed a little tired, but also because there was something she'd been meaning to do. Brittany had suggested it, but Jon had already been figuring that it was probably something she ought to do.
She parked in front of a nice two-story house that Lilly said was hers. Like most of the houses in the suburbs, it looked to have been built from an existing plan, but mercifully predated the spread of cheapo-opulent "McMansion" developments like some of the neighborhoods down in the Cities were infested with. It was generally well-kept, but the lawn was a bit overgrown - probably they didn't want to be out too late mowing it, on account of the Sun.
She sighed; so many reminders of how upside-down she'd managed to turn everything...but she would set it right, as soon as she could. For now...was she really ready for this? To go in and introduce herself as...as a sorceress? (Er, sorcerer? Oh, whatever.) But...it didn't seem like it'd be appropriate to go teaching Lilly something as potentially life-altering as real magic without her parents' okay...
She stood - or sat, or whatever - on the porch, Lilly by her side, took a deep breath, and knocked. The door opened to reveal a human woman. The sun was setting behind the house, so she was safely out of the light, something Jon was sure she must be aware of. Jon looked her over; she was older than she'd expected the mother of a little girl like Lilly to be, but she didn't feel old - and anyway, she was more struck by the fact that she was clearly pregnant.
The woman smiled. "Welcome home, Lilly. Who's this?"
Jon put on her best smile. "Jon Madison, ma'am. I met Lilly the other day, and I wanted to talk to you about...about teaching her."
The woman looked a little surprised, but offered a hand. "Abby Gordon. Won't you come in?"
Jon made to follow her inside, then stopped, cringing slightly. "I, um...I don't want to...track...on your carpet..." she said, turning rather red as she motioned to her foot. She'd gotten to a point where she didn't think about the trail of mucous she left behind her that much, but if she was trying to make a good impression on these people...
Abby laughed. "That's nothing. I've been trying to get my son to remember to take his prey in through the basement entrance ever since he changed. I'll worry about my carpets once he's safely in that habit, and not before. Come on in."
Jon smiled in spite of her embarassment. Lilly grinned. "C'mon!" she said. Jon followed the mother and daughter inside.
The inside of the house was as bright and cheery as it was probably possible to be while still sealed against direct sunlight. It seemed to Jon to fit Lilly's mom, somehow. Something about the atmosphere of the house, the youthful, energetic feel of the older woman, and her pregnancy all combined gave Jon the bizarre impression that she was in the presence of magic older and more primal than anything Brittany knew...but when she looked again, Mrs. Gordon seemed like the most straightforwardly normal - wholesome - person in the world. She shook her head and followed her into the kitchen.
Lilly's father was there, evidently having an early "breakfast." Jon was used to seeing her own parents operating on a night schedule by this point, but it still seemed strange to see other people living life 180 degrees out-of-phase. He glanced up at them and nodded acknowledgement to the slug-girl, waiting until he'd finished his mouthful of French toast to say hello.
"This is Jon, honey," Abby said. "She's a friend of Lilly's, and she wanted to talk to us about teaching her-" She paused, and turned to Jon. "I'm sorry," she said, "I don't think I caught what it was you wanted to teach her..."
"I didn't say," Jon said. Another deep breath... "I...I want to teach her..." She hesitated, and the next word came out half-muttered. "...magic."
Les stared at her. "I beg your pardon?" he said incredulously. "Magic?"
Jon nodded. "I...I'm...kind of the de facto leader of...of a group...studying magic," she said. "My advisor...knows something about the subject, and she's of the opinion that we should start looking for younger members. I met Lilly, and she was interested..."
Les blinked. "I'm sorry for saying this, but is this a joke?" He had been increasingly getting the impression that the Sun had somehow activated hitherto-unknown and apparently paranormal forces in the world, but to have someone just show up out of the blue and claim to be a magician...
Jon shook her head. "No joke, sir." She looked around the kitchen. "You, um...you wouldn't happen to have a match I could use?" she asked.
Les shrugged and fished around in his pocket. He'd cut back on pipe-smoking to the occasional get-together with some of his friends, but he always carried a book of matches with him by force of habit. He tore one of the little paper matches off and offered it to Jon.
She didn't take it. Instead, she tried to focus, tried to reach out to it...and brightened when it suddenly caught fire right in his fingers, without her ever having touched it. He was visibly startled, and quickly shook it out, then sat still for a moment, looking a bit confused. Abby seemed a bit startled as well, while Lilly was open-mouthed with a gleam in her eyes. "Okay," he said at last, "how'd you do that?"
"It was pretty simple, really," Jon said. "It's a match. It wants to catch fire. All I had to do was convince it to do it on its own, without waiting for friction." She smiled sheepishly. "It's not much, really," she said. "But I'm still just starting to learn. I only just got the hang of communion with things at all...I've got a ways to go before I can do more impressive stuff."
Les thought for a moment. "Well, even that's not a bad trick," he said. "If you'd touched it, I could assume that you'd applied a catalyst of some kind..." He shook his head slowly. "Not a bad trick at all," he said. "And you're claiming you did it by...communing with the match?"
Jon nodded. "It's how our approach works," she said. "I've gathered that there are...other ways, but basically it's like trying to talk things into doing what you want. Making a match light is easy, because that's what they're designed to do anyway. It would be harder if I tried to make it behave in some way that doesn't come as naturally to it. Like, tried to make it glow purple, or hum, or something..."
"Hmm. And if I tried to do it?"
Jon shrugged. "As far as I know there's no reason you couldn't do the same," she said. "But it took me weeks of trying to start getting the hang of making these connections, and you'd probably find it easier if you approached from a less skeptical standpoint."
Les frowned. "Forgive me for saying, but I've heard 'it only works if you believe in it' from a lot of people about a lot of things before..."
She sighed and nodded. "I know," she said. "But it makes sense if you think about it - it's hard to sell someone on something if you don't on some level believe what you're saying, and that's basically what this comes down to."
He shrugged. "Well, that's a better explanation than most of them give," he said. "For the sake of argument, let's say that this is all real. I know this is something Lilly has an interest in, and I have my reasons for at least approaching with an open mind. But I want to know - this is on the level, right? No...dark stuff?"
Jon shook her head emphatically. "Nosir. I wouldn't be looking to involve anybody else if it were...definitely not a little kid."
"Good," he said. "But why are you looking to involve Lilly, anyway? You said it was your advisor's idea...?"
Jon nodded. "Basically, it's because magic is something that is in the world now," she said. "Which means that eventually people are going to start discovering it. We thought it would be best to do what we can to teach some people about it without their having to stumble onto it themselves, so they can learn how to use it properly, and with kids, it also gives us a chance to teach them how to use it responsibly."
Les's interest was visibly piqued. "Are you saying that it's possible to discover this magic of yours independently?" he asked.
Jon nodded. "Theoretically, anyway. It's a natural force in the world, so maybe someone could work it out on their own; we'd just rather have some people that know what they're doing, so that we don't have so many people stumbling onto it themselves and doing haphazard experiments..."
"I see," he said. He looked the slug-girl over, trying to size her up; then he looked to his wife, who looked just slightly exasperated with his grilling their guest; then at his daughter, who was exploiting her big brown eyes to the fullest extent with her pleading gaze. He sighed. "Let me think about it for a bit..."
