Aria knew where the witch had to be waiting. Her grandfather’s old office. The big one, on the highest floor of the school building. She’d gone there plenty of times before.

  She ignored anyone she passed by. Students, teachers. The woman manning the phone line nearby. The moment Aria saw it, she gunned straight for the double door.

  The first thing she saw as she opened them was Rosalynn’s back. Far at the edge of the room, she stood near a window, looking down. Her appearance had changed, her librarian-style chic repced with a dark purple suit. Her short gray cut was groomed, combed unevenly to her left hand side.

  The office itself had undergone some changes, too. The bright lights had been swapped out with more muted ones, various gss vials and spheres decorated random shelves, with colorful lights sparkling in each one. Of course, that crystal ball Aria had remembered was also there, sat squarely in the middle of her new desk.

  The atmosphere was dim. Like there was something dangerous here. It reminded her of when she’d entered her ir, st time.

  It was apparent that this office served a new, simir purpose.

  “So you’ve come.” She suddenly said, unmoving from her position at the window.

  “What have you done?” Aria immediately questioned. She didn’t want to py any games.

  “What haven’t I done?” Rosalynn stretched her hand, wriggling her fingers as green lights flickered in her palm like fireworks. She turned around. “You’re going to need to be a bit more specific, if you have business with me.”

  “E-Everything!” Aria excimed. She took a step forward, pointing accusatorily at her. “You tricked my grandfather! You used those dumb contracts to steal his job and now you’re… You’re messing with the whole school!”

  The new headmaster adjusted her cuffs. “Come now, child, ‘trick’ is a strong word. I’ve already expined to you how I operate. Do you think I tricked you when I granted your own wish?”

  “That’s… That’s different!” She refuted. “Besides, you just screwed me over! I-I turned back into a guy all of a sudden without warning! You lied to me about how the contract worked!”

  “Hm?” Rosalynn perked her eyes at those words. “I didn’t- Oh, but I see. Well, I understand how you see it that way. I thought something like this might happen, so I’m not all that surprised. But in that sense, sure, you could say I lied.”

  “What?” Aria questioned. “What are you talking about?” Then she shook her head, “B-But that doesn’t matter! What did you do to everyone? Flynn, Sully, all the other guys… The entire school feels like it’s…! That it’s been…!”

  Rosalynn took a few steps forward, “Yes, out with it,” She suggested, sitting in her chair. “Tell me, what is it you think I did?”

  Aria thought back. The idea had already popped into her head before, but recalling her interactions that morning, she felt confident. “...You’re taking their desires.”

  “Oh?”

  “Their motivations, their dreams, a-all the selfish ones, too. The part that makes them people! You made them into zombies!”

  Rosalynn clicked her tongue, “Not quite, but close enough to where I’d give you full marks. It’s closer to, say, trimming a hedge than actually taking it all away.” She inspected her nails. They were sharp, in a crimson red color. “I took the excess, such as greed and selfishness. I left behind enough to be a functional member of society, and obviously to survive and such. Can’t have my wards starving themselves, but I doubt gluttony will be an issue while they're here.”

  Aria stepped closer, her mind still churning in confusion. “But… how? You didn’t make a contract with every single one of them, could you? That’s impossible!” She meant that logistically, but also just for the students themselves. She knew Sully at least, who had already told her previously that he was suspicious of things back at the carnival, would be too smart to fall for anything.

  “Like I just said, they’re my wards,” the witch expined with a casual smile. “It is my responsibility as headmaster to hold myself accountable for all students. I must do everything in my power to support their growth and academics. Is that not what I’m doing?”

  “Wh-What?” She questioned again. “What do you mean? How would that work?!”

  “The job contract, sweetheart. The normal one. My role and authority seem pretty clear.”

  “That’s not one of your contracts, though! That’s not magic!”

  But in response, Rosalynn’s just shrugged. “A loophole’s a loophole. The students are legally in the school's care, which I am head administrator of, as all guardians had signed upon your enrollment. As I have expined, my magic is one of contracts and exchange.”

  Aria’s eyes slowly widened. Was she serious? That was it? She cimed to just control everybody just like that? “That’s…! No! How do you not see how messed up this is?!” When she thought about it, the confirmation was even worse. No one had even consented to this the way she and her grandfather had done. She'd gone past the middle-man of actually interacting with those affected.

  Rosalynn huffed, “Come now.” She pushed her chair back, standing up. “You think this matters that much? We’re talking about teenagers. Teenage boys, for that matter.” She slowly walked to one of the bookcases, to a shelf with one of the gss sparkling balls. “You’ve seen for yourself how ridiculous they can be.”

  She grabbed the sparkling ball, inspecting it closely. “Of the handful in here, let's see... One wanted to be an action movie star. Another over here wanted to be popur with women. Ah, here’s another football one. Would you even be surprised by how many of them think they have a chance at being the next Tom Brady or Ronaldo?” She scoffed, then frowned. “Oh, this one just wanted to have sex. Really? Nothing better?”

  With a sigh, she put the ball back onto the bookcase. “It’s nonsense. Either unrealistic, or complete bullshit driven by a ck of maturity or experience in the real world. I’m doing their future selves a favor not letting them waste time with these, if anything.”

  Aria half-struggled to follow along with her dispys, processing the idea that she was keeping the desires in there. “B-But that doesn’t mean you can just throw them away! They’re still their dreams!”

  Suddenly Rosalynn stopped at her desk, giving Aria a pointed look. “I thought you already understood the importance of sacrifice.” Her gaze turned wistful. Aria could tell her mind had gone elsewhere, “Not all dreams are equal.”

  “Cut it out!” Aria yelled. “You maniputed me! You only wanted me to sign so you could trick my grandfather!”

  “So you think that lowly of me...”

  “Of course I do! You brainwashed everyone for, what, power?! Money?!”

  She finally sat down, “Well, you are correct. A bit more complicated than that, but you get the gist. The sacrifices I forced on them has given me a wider pool of energy to draw from. So yes, what I gain is power.”

  Aria gripped her fist again. ‘Forced on them,’ and admitting that it was just for power. “You can’t get away with this! People will notice!”

  Rosalynn scoffed, “Nonsense. My reach only extends to the students when under my supervision. They’ll be back to their old selves whenever they go home for the holidays and graduate and can do whatever they want, with a few provisions done to their perceptions to make sure they don’t notice that something had been done to them. But that’s enough for me.”

  “And none of this sounds wrong to you?!” Aria felt herself grow more frustrated with her justifications and expnations, all with that calm confidence. “What makes you think you have the right?!”

  “Enough.” She answered coldly. Then with a sigh, she continued. “Do you actually want something or do you just have endless questions for me?”

  “What do I want? Isn’t that obvious?! I want you to put everything the way it was!”

  Smugly, Rosalynn leaned forward on the table, “Would you say that you’d do,” then, she smirked. “...anything, for that want?”

  A cold shivered across Aria’s spine. That tone, the implications behind it. “Wh… What do you mean?”

  “A simple question.” She sat back up straight, hands gripped together on her desk. “How much would you be willing to give for my co-operation?”

  Aria held the silence for a few more seconds as she registered the question. “You’re… You’re talking about another one of your deals. I’m not falling for something like that again! You’re pnning something!”

  “Oh?” She let out a half ugh. “What would I be pnning? Haven’t I already won?”

  “You wouldn’t be acting so confident if you weren’t pying some game.” Aria confidently refuted. “I know better.”

  Rosalynn clicked her tongue, a smile growing on her face. "You’re a smart girl, you know that?”

  “Stop joking. You know I’m not a woman right now. Because your deal turned me back.”

  “You think I don’t know what being transgender means?”

  Aria flinched. She’d already been trying to ignore it ever since she returned to Hanssen’s, but acknowledging her bodily discomfort had only gotten worse now that she’d gotten a taste of the other side. “Sh-Shut up.” She nervously rubbed one arm. The arm now a part of a body belonging to a teenage boy, as opposed to a girl.

  Rosalynn’s smile fell, her expression more neutral. “I wasn’t lying about your situation being unintended. Sure, I had a feeling it could come to this, in a unique situation such as yours, but a part of me hoped things would go much more smoothly.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “You were right in a sense, my goal was mostly just to get to your grandfather. I needed a way to frighten him, and within your issues, there was an easy solution for it. You’d be out of the way for everything that would unfold, but also safe and sound for as long as possible.”

  Did she mean that she wouldn't have wanted her back? “Wh… Why? Isn’t your job already done?” Was that the reason Aria seemed to be the only student unaffected by her changes? Was she an exception? “Is that why I’m not like the others? You didn’t pn for me being here? But you said the contract and stuff-”

  “Exactly,” Rosalynn interrupted, shooting Aria a straight look. “My authority of supervision is only bound by written legal documentation.”

  “Huh? What do you-?” Then she stopped. Rosalynn emphasizing that detail, the way her magic was bound by the written word. The realization dawned on her. “You’re the headmaster at St. Hanssen’s, and of its students.”

  “Correct.”

  “But…” She struggled to make sense of it. Was it really that straightforward? “I-I… I’m not technically written down as a student. The name on the documents my parents signed isn’t…”

  Rosalynn grinned. “See? I told you you’re a smart girl.”

  Aria’s eyes widened. “And that’s also why I turned back.” It made too much sense, the timing of it all. “The name I put down when I signed with you was ‘Adam,’ but… I’m not ‘Adam’ anymore.” She’d been sick the entire day before noticing she’d changed, which had all been right after spending an evening with Evan at the carnival. Where at the end of it, at the ferris wheel, her understanding of herself had changed.

  No, even before that morning. The moment they’d left the carnival was when she’d had that brief heart attack. Was that the start of it? Had her body immediately began the process to revert itself all the way back then?

  While she processed all of this, Rosalynn continued. “Again, I wasn’t sure what would happen in your case. But from what I gather, the contract simply broke down, and the energy used for it ‘leaked’ out before returning to where it belonged.”

  Aria held a hand to her throat, “Sully told me I wouldn’t get my voice back even if I returned, but I thought he must’ve just misunderstood something…”

  “No, the entire deal in the first pce was rendered null and void. So your voice returned to you as if nothing had happened.”

  The thought shook her. Sully had been telling the truth, there really was a possibility she’d have lost everything at some point. But… would she? Even with Evan, she was conscious enough of it where she was sure she’d avoid triggering the condition. Even if it hurt her a bit to think about…

  “I was worried about that boy you were talking to for mostly this reason. I'd been hoping that you’d be smart enough to know what a romance would do to you, but an honest conversation with a transgender teenager?” Rosalynn scoffed. “I knew I had to rush things, and would you look at that. Here you are again, exactly as I worried.”

  Still holding a hand over her throat, Aria thought back to Evan. Not just him, but her time at the school too, her friends, the little joys of discovering herself. Thinking back, it really was like someone had granted her everything she wanted. Rosalynn even gave her some money for clothes on her first day, hadn’t she?

  “But… why?” She asked.

  “Hm?”

  “Why go that far?” Aria closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath as she spoke. “I get it, you wanted to get to grandpa. You thought I was an easy ticket to take over a whole school. But you didn’t need to give me so much of what I wanted. Was it really just to have me out of your hair for as long as possible…?”

  Rosalynn held the silence for a few seconds before speaking. “Why wouldn’t I? You told me yourself, it’s your dream. Something you wanted, more than anything.”

  “Don’t lie to me!” Aria stepped to the side, gesturing at the handful of sparkling gss objects she had peeked through before. “You just told me dreams were worthless! You took it away from everyone!”

  “And as I also said,” Rosalynn replied calmly. “Not all dreams are equal.”

  Aria furrowed her brows in confusion, “What?”

  “You’re a smart girl. Brave, too, quite ready to stand up for your friends and cssmates. Have you recognized that about yourself? Has this world made you able to even see your own worth?”

  “Stop pretending to know me.”

  “Oh, but I do. I’ve seen it before, the way the world treats people like us. Possessing the strongest of dreams, but ones the world isn’t ready for.”

  Aria didn’t answer. She didn’t want to hear it, but a part of her resonated with the idea. Rosalynn wasn’t to bme for her own personal suffering, all her gender issues, even the transformation back was only an effect from an accidental loophole. It was just… like the world pying a sick joke on her. After spending years, feeling as if no one could understand.

  Rosalynn stood up and put a hand to her chair, “Let me tell you a story. Of a girl who dreamed. Of many things. To be taken seriously, for one. For others to stop trying to tell her who she is. But more than that, she wanted to reach for the stars. Her home couldn’t understand her, constantly degrading her despite her intelligence.”

  Something about this tickled at the back of Aria’s brain, like she was recalling something…

  “She moved to the city. It was more populous, its people more open to the pursuit of knowledge. She could begin making her dreams a reality. Learn the wonders of the stars, the very universe itself. Her thirst for this knowledge was unquenchable, but a fate encounter would challenge that. A new dream formed, of having someone to share all of this with. She met a woman, whose eyes glistened like-”

  “I’ve heard this one,” Aria interjected, eyes narrowing. Where was it? She’d read it, at the library, she recalled.

  “You have?” Rosalynn turned back to face the girl, a brow raised in interest. “Then go on, finish the story.”

  Aria was unsure, but her vague memories of it were enough she could piece it together. “The woman fell in love, but with another woman. For obvious reasons, she worried the feeling wouldn’t be mutual, so she... pretended to be a man.”

  “The retionship worked out, in that context,” Rosalynn added. “The field she was studying at the time favored men, too. So she kept the lie up for her other pursuit.”

  “But she couldn’t hold it in.” Aria continued. “There was a hole missing, because the woman she loved didn’t know the real her. Falling deeper in love only made it worse.”

  “It could not co-exist with the truth.” The witch commented. "She could never have both."

  “But she gave it a try anyway!” Aria continued, “I-In the story, she finally decided to let it out, told her everything! But then…”

  “But…?”

  “It was like she feared. The woman left her.”

  “Words of the deception even spread,” Rosalynn added. “Only just finding a position at an institution, her respect had vanished. She lost it all.”

  “Then God showed up, and offered her a… choice.” Aria had almost used the word ‘deal,’ but that couldn’t be right. The story would start sounding like…

  “And what choice was that? Go on.”

  “The choice to join Him in heaven. But… that she’d leave everything behind.”

  “But she didn’t care, did she?”

  Aria shook her head, “She accepted it without question. Because… she didn’t think she had anything to lose.”

  “Of course, why would she?”

  “B-But she also wanted companionship, right? The whole reason she went through all that in the first pce! She was giving it up!”

  “Not all dreams are equal,” She repeated. “The woman learned that the hard way. In that sense, it’s a happy ending. She got what she wanted.”

  “But she’s just as alone as when the story started!”

  “Yet she now held the mysteries of the universe at her fingertips, she could reach for the stars.” She turned away, steadily walking back to the window at the edge of the room. “There was nothing to be done. The choice, sacrificing one dream for another, had to be made.”

  “She could always build her life back up, though, right?” Aria questioned, taking a few steps forward. “There are women out there who like other women, plenty of fish in the sea or whatever. One person isn’t the end if it’s just about finding love.”

  “It’s not so simple,” She bluntly uttered back.

  She caught a glimpse of her stern expression. Rosalynn clearly held emotional weight to it, and the way she talked about it…

  “Was… Was that woman you?” Aria questioned.

  Rosalynn didn’t flinch. Aria thought more about her words, both from the story and what the witch had said before that. The emphasis on pretending to be a man.

  “Are you… like me?” She questioned again. “Are you also transgender?” Was that why she empathized with Aria? “You didn’t just pretend to be a man, you hid something that...” She found her hand drifting to her chest. For once, she was empathizing with the witch. "...you felt this hard about."

  Rosalynn’s gaze remained unmoving for a few more seconds. Aria didn’t know what she was thinking, but finally, she spoke, “My old mistress could recognize the potential in me, crying out on that rainy street. She understood, just like how I see it in you, that some of us are more in need than others.”

  “Your… mistress?”

  “The one who recruited me, taught me everything I know.” Rosalynn turned her head again, facing Aria directly. “The reason I became a Luftdatter.”

  Aria furrowed her brows.

  “It’s Danish, if you were wondering. That’s where the cn I'm a part of had its start, so that’s what’s stuck. It means ‘daughter of the air,’ in reference to our kind of witchcraft.”

  “The contracts?” Aria thought out loud.

  “In dreams, and the way to shape the world to it through exchange.” She pulled out her hand, wiggling a few fingers into the air, “To understand the fabric of our reality, feel ourselves become one with the air around us…”

  Steadily, Rosalynn began walking back. Slowly. As she did, she uttered a strange poem to herself. Or more like a kind of chant.

  “O, Daughter of the Air,Unbound to the Earth.Head Chained to the Clouds,Cursed to Dream.”

  “Oh, how cruel it is to dream,” She sighed. “But that’s why we do what we do. We grab hold of them, shape it all as we see fit. Tilt the bance through exchanges. Through contracts with external parties, our range increases.”

  Aria’s earlier anger had all but vanished in favor of her current bewilderment. This conversation was getting to pces she wasn’t expecting. “Wh-Why are you telling me this?!”

  “You were right, earlier.” Rosalynn sat back down in her seat. “I can make do with the current situation, but it’s still a hassle to keep it all going in the long term. Stresses the mind to manage, especially knowing the types of groups on the lookout for my kind.”

  “My future pns for it are still a bit unclear,” She sighed. “I leave once I’ve had my fill, or use the inevitable spike in reputation to get myself further in society. See what happens when a woman of my talents enters business, or politics. But even then, I find that risky. Either way, I know I'm only biding my time.”

  As she talked, Aria sat down on the seat on front of her desk. “Then why bother? If you don't care, you could just let everyone go.”

  “In truth, I’ve had a long life. So even if I’ve just completed a pn I’ve worked tirelessly for, there may be other things I’d take priority on…”

  Rosalynn looked at Aria directly, their eyes meeting.

  “Y-You don’t mean…”

  “Power is one thing, I’ve sought after it for ages. But do you know what a real prize is? An understudy of my own.”

  The continued eye contact said it all.

  Aria stood up in a haste, “I’m done here. Th-This is-! I can’t believe you expect me to go along with an idea like that! I’m-!”

  But as she started walking, Rosalynn interrupted. “So when you said you wanted me to return everything to the way it was, you didn’t mean you’d do anything for it?”

  Aria stopped. She faced Rosalynn again in confusion.

  “I meant what I said,” She continued. “I’m willing to trade.”

  “You… give up on your entire pn… if I become your apprentice?”

  “Like I said, I’m just biding my time. Whatever power I gain, I know it wouldn’t compare to having a legacy to continue. A recruit to the coven.”

  “You mean that I’d become another witch like you?” Aria spat out, “Why would I want to lie and trick people the way you’ve been doing?!”

  “That’s just a specialty of mine, you don’t have to follow through with exchanging other people’s dreams.” She responded, leaning onto the desk. “It’s about the power, the ability to decide and change things about yourself.”

  Aria met the suggestion with silence.

  “You feel betrayed that you couldn’t keep your body, don’t you? You don’t have to go through me again if you want it back. Once your training’s complete, you’d have your own mastery of the air. You decide for yourself what to sacrifice, how to achieve your goal.”

  “What’s the catch?” Aria immediately asked. She clutched her heart, it sounded too good to be true. She didn’t want to believe it could be that easy.

  “Catch? There is none.” Rosalynn bluntly answered. “The offer itself is my reward to you.”

  Aria didn’t respond back. She made it sound like she’d have everything at her fingertips. Even if it was just to get that body back, the one she felt a growing painful longing for… And she wouldn’t have to give up her voice this time.

  “A part of me truly hoped it wouldn’t come to this.” Rosalynn stood up from her desk, “That somehow, what I already gave you might have been enough, if you sacrificed something important enough. But of course it wasn’t. The world is simply too unfair to you, to dreamers like us.”

  Aria’s uncertainty grew. Rosalynn really thought of her that way, huh? This… didn’t sound like a total lie like the st time.

  The witch’s grip on her chair tightened. “This isn’t me trying to trick you into giving me what I want. This is about allowing you what you want, what you need.”

  A piece of paper flew by from one of the shelves, sprawling itself on a desk where a pen flew to its side. Words had been written on the paper. It was another contract.

  Steadily, Rosalynn walked around the desk. “I hear you. I see your suffering. I know it. This was the answer to my prayers, when I was in your position.”

  Aria took a step back, still unsure, but eyeing the contract. “Wh… What happens if I sign?”

  “It’s a term of confidentiality, and official decration of intent to study under me so that you may eventually join the coven of the Luftdatters. I will then honor my end of returning the school to status quo, void any pre-existing contracts here, and we’ll be off to Aarhus.”

  “Aarhus?”

  “Where the temple is located, or headquarters, I should say. You need training to wield the power you wish, which will take some time. You'll likely be an adult by the time you're ready. But once that’s over, I’ll be out of your hair. You can do whatever you want, after that. I don't care if you continue scorning me, I'll still be happy with my end.”

  Training. Leaving to… Denmark, to become a witch. A witch with the powers to do almost anything.

  Rosalynn reached the front of the desk, leaning backwards onto it with her arms. “You have my deepest apologies for lying and maniputing you until now, but the time has come.” She reached her arm out, her brows furrowing in an expression of remorse, emotion slipping into her words. “Your road until now has been hard, but you don’t have to suffer anymore. This is the end of your long and painful journey.”

  After the entire conversation, Aria was left shaken. Suddenly, she… wasn’t as sure of herself as when she’d entered the office. But at the same time, if anything she felt the draw to accept.

  “All your life you’ve been cursed to dream! Your very being made light of by all around you!” Rosalynn’s voice cried out. “It’s time to stop listening to them, and cim what you want! You are the one to decide your path! Not the world!”

  It was an offer she literally couldn’t refuse. It was… everything she could have ever wanted, in that moment.

  “It’s time to let yourself be happy, Aria!”

  Slowly, Aria lifted her hand, reaching it out to Rosalynn’s.

  “Join me, and you can take back control of the existence that wishes to trample on you!”

  For girlhood, to save her friends, to pay back everyone who’s helped her by helping them in turn, to gain power that would mean she’d no longer have to be scared. It’d be… everything she ever wanted.

  As their hands were about to shake, Rosalynn continued. “O, Daughter of the Air, Head Chained to the Clouds…”

  …Wouldn’t it?

  Aria’s hand stopped. "There's... one thing, actually."

  The witch's face paused, furrowing her brows.

  “I… I want to sing.” The girl muttered out.

  Rosalynn’s face morphed to surprise. “Well, yes. You won’t have to give up your voice this time, like I said. You have personal control over what to sacrifice.”

  “I mean, it’s just… That’s what my mind kept thinking back to, when I was at Marie’s.” Aria let out. “How nice it’d be, if I could sing to let out my emotions. How giving it up meant I couldn’t express myself that way anymore.”

  “How does this matter?”

  “I don’t even just mean casually. A part of me… had always wondered what it’d be like to use it to become an artist. I was scared of the idea when thinking of myself as a boy, but… it sounds more interesting now with being a girl in mind, so now I kinda want to try that part out.”

  “You will have the opportunity to do that all the same. Nothing stops you from pursuing that once your training’s complete.”

  “I-I know, but it just made me think… There’s more things I want than just being a girl.”

  “But it is your strongest want.”

  “But that doesn’t change the fact I also want those other things!”

  Rosalynn finally put her hand down, “Where are you going with this?”

  Aria sighed. “It’s not even just singing. I want… to have friends.”

  The witch stayed silent.

  “And I want my friends to know I appreciate them, to be there for them like they’ve been for me!”

  Rosalynn furrowed her brows, “You-”

  “Not just any friends! My friends! I want to hang out with Flynn, study with Sully, bond over things with Tori, and… Evan…! God!” She paused.

  The woman looked as if she wanted to get another word in, but Aria continued.

  “Yeah! I want to try seeing what it’s like to date someone! Have a high school boyfriend to experiment with, and see what happens as we grow up!”

  The witch held a grimace, and had given up on getting a word in.

  “And depending on how that goes, I might even want to kiss him! And I want to be able to have that feeling without worrying about my body being torn apart!"

  Aria paused, clutching her heart for a second, feelings its heart rate, tears beginning to flow. Still, she continued. “I want to keep going to school as a girl, without hiding who I am! I want to make my family proud of me despite all the ways I’m different! I want to get better at school, so I can go to a university I want! And once I have all of those things, I want to keep finding more dreams! Money! Good food! To have more things to want, so that I can keep feeling happy and comfortable with the life I’m living!” She cried out. “It’s not just about being a part of the world girls live in! But the world I want to make for myself! I WANT TO BE A PART OF MY WORLD!!!”

  In response to all of that, Rosalynn clicked her tongue, “Quite a long list.”

  Aria wiped the tears from her eyes, calming herself down after the outburst. “You’re right. I want to be a girl, more than anything. But there’s so much more that I also want…! That I don’t want to give up! I… I can’t get some of those things if I leave here. If I abandon my life to become one of you. I’ll have to refuse.”

  “So you’ll let your friends continue as I left them? Give up on that part of the deal?”

  “No, because I want that too!” Aria hit back, “I want my friends, everyone at school, to have the same opportunity to live out their wants!”

  “But as I’ve made clear, I’ll only do so for you if you-”

  “I DON’T CARE!” She shouted. “I’m tired of being told I have to give up something so I can get what I want! By everyone! You’re just as bad as the world you keep compining about!”

  Rosalynn grit her teeth, “Stop acting like a brat!”

  “I’m not a brat! I’m human!” Aria called out. “You’re the one who told me I should stop listening to the world and cim what I want! Well, I’m doing it! And I don’t need your god d-damn permission!”

  “You don’t understand the world you live in.” Rosalynn stood back up straight, taking a step forward to tower over the girl. “Greedy girls don’t get happy endings.”

  “And who decides that?!” Aria cried out. “YOU?! ADULTS?! GOD?! Wh-Whoever they are, if they get in my way, I’ll-! I-I’ll hit ‘em in the gut!”

  Aria shoved Rosalynn back, who stumbled back onto the desk. The hit caused a rumble, the crystal ball on top rolling off its pce.

  “No! My-!” The witch ran to catch it before it could fall to the ground. Now position below Aria, Rosalynn gred at her. “You...! You’re but a child! You have no idea about how the world works! Getting everything you want is impossible! Our way is the only one that can save girls like you!”

  “I don’t care!” Aria shouted again. “That doesn’t mean you give it all up! I don’t want to be the type of person who has to put down one thing for another, I’ve had enough living like that! I want to actually fight for it!”

  Steadily, Rosalynn stood up, clutching her crystal ball. “And what happens when you inevitably fail? Just wallow in your misery? I won’t be here to accept you when you change your mind!”

  “I’ll keep going! It’s better to fight than not fight at all!”

  She put the crystal ball back on her desk. Her frown had grown deeper, “This conversation is ridiculous. It’s clear to me that you don’t see sense. Now I’ll have no choice but to recourse.”

  Aria furrowed her brows, “What do you-?”

  “Adam Andersen is hereby expelled.” Rosalynn uttered, “Not that she even bears the name anymore, but it doesn't matter. Because a phone number will be called tonight.”

  “What?! You can’t do that! My parents will-!”

  “GoodBYE!” With the wave of her arm, a heavy wind blew through the room.

  Aria felt her body getting pushed. It was strong, unreasonably so. Was this what Rosalynn talked about with the power she had now?! With nothing to hold onto, the girl was left helpless to get pushed directly out of the office in a matter of seconds. At which point the doors immediately shut.

  “What? No! No!!!” Aria stood back up, trying to open and bang on the door, but it was locked. Damn it! She’d pushed her out!

  That was that. She’d rejected Rosalynn’s offer, so she had no interest in cooperating. In some way it made no sense to reject it back there, but still… Aria couldn’t bring herself to regret it.

  She’d just have to fight. Find another way to save everyone.

  Right now, in this second, that was what she wanted most.

  The door might be shut, but there was another idea that came straight to Aria’s mind once she was pushed out of the Headmaster’s office. The window in the back.

  The arrived to the courtyard. She knew the window would be high up, up on the top floor, but the distance only felt greater from the perspective of the grassy field down below.

  Maybe she could climb, but… No, it wasn’t like she could do the same thing as when she escaped from her dorm room. That only worked on your way down. There had to be something else.

  Exhausted, Aria sat down. She wrapped her arms around her legs. So much had happened in such a short span of time, she couldn’t help but be tired. A little rest wouldn’t be too bad, reserve energy, collect her thoughts.

  But it was only a matter of time. If Rosalynn was really expelling her and calling her parents, it would only be a day or so until they arrived. At that point, she’d be forced to return home. Never mind needing to come up with an excuse to her parents for what happened, she’d be unable to save everyone, when she was the only one right now who could.

  It was ironic. Here she was, back again, sitting in the courtyard. As lonely as she was back then, when she felt like she needed the help the most.

  What was a girl like her to do at a time like this?

  Well, there was one thing she still hadn’t done, in the time since she turned back.

  She sang.

  Aria quietly sang one of the songs she knew. One she learned at choir.

  Thinking back, she also sang this one back then. At that diner.

  She let the melodies overtake her. Both calming and strengthening her emotions. Where before her loneliness marked depression, now it felt like resolve. Because even if she was alone, she knew that in her heart-

  Aria heard grass rustling. Someone else was entering the courtyard. Odd, considering the current priorities for her schoolmates. Her singing stopped. She figured none of them would be trying to hang out here. But someone was indeed here, and they were drawing closer-

  A familiar face walked up over the corner. His eyes immediately met hers. Before Aria could even question what he was doing here, how he had found her, he had started running up.

  “E… Evan?” She spoke up. But how?! Why?! H-He shouldn't even be able to recognize her!

  “There you are!” He said, crouching down with his usual smile, then sitting down beside her. "Nice to meet you again, Aria."