“Nice to meet you again, Aria.”

  “H… How? What?” On Aria’s face were a boatload of mixed feelings. Surprise, confusion, joy and sadness. She didn’t understand why Evan was here. To Evan, she looked as if she couldn’t even imagine why.

  “I… hope I’m not intruding,” Evan awkwardly shrugged. “But you seem pretty alone, so…” He chuckled, “You are Aria, aren’t you?”

  She pursed her lips, shyly looking away. Evan gazed at her intently, trying to get a read on what she was thinking. To confirm what he felt. Eventually, she let out a question, “How did you know?”

  To which Evan bashfully scratched the back of his head. It was silly, he knew it. But things had clicked into pce yesterday. When he saw that figure about to jump down.

  Those eyes, that gaze. The way they looked at him. It was the same as back then. “You’re the one from the diner, aren’t you?”

  Aria looked directly at him with wide eyes. He didn’t need a verbal answer, he’d hit the mark.

  “I don’t know how any of this actually happened, my friends would probably think I’m crazy for jumping to this. But you didn’t seem the type of person to break in or whatever, I… felt like I had already understood there was some pain going on. Adding in that note you left, plus everything that Tori had been saying…”

  “Tori?” Aria questioned. “What about her? What did she say?”

  He shrugged, “That something happened, and you being in danger. But then we got to your room, and…”

  The girl furrowed her brow. A small smile cracked on my face, as she pouted her face in a way that I immediately recognized as hers. God, it really was her. “So she already knew I’d changed.”

  “I think she knew more than that. Probably why Musker made you roommates in the first pce.”

  “Ms. Musker, too? That’s- Wait, no, that makes sense.”

  “Hm?” Evan looked at her curiously.

  “She… Rosalynn, the witch, had set me up there, after my transformation. She said she’d ‘pull some strings,’ back then. I guess that’s what she meant. She had cws in more people than just me.”

  Evan tried not to look too surprised at hearing her mention a witch. He was having it confirmed with his own eyes and ears that his unfounded suspicion was true, that Aria had changed forms somehow. There had to be some odd expnation for it.

  “I’m guessing…” Evan started, “This isn’t the type of deal where you can hook me up with a simir thing, is it?”

  Aria shook her head, “The spell’s gone. I’m back to this now. Forever, I guess…” Sadness overcame her face. “I’m not gonna be a girl again.”

  “Don’t say that,” Hesitantly, Evan reached his hand out. Her shoulder was bigger, but he felt the tenseness of the scared girl he knew. “You decide who you are, there’s nothing stopping you. If you can convince your parents somehow, or wait until you’re 18, there’s always hormones to fix your body.”

  “It’s more complicated than that,” She buried a part of her face in her knees, “I’m not sure how my parents would feel, back home, if I told them.”

  “You’ve got that right,” Evan sighed, looking up to the air. “Mine still don’t know, but it’s definitely gotta come up on my end. Not like I could secretly grow my hair back before summer break, even if I wanted to.”

  “It’s gotta be ironic for you,” Aria looked up at him, “Seeing me here. I’ve got everything you want, don’t I? I’ve got the body, the voice. Those are all things you’d want, right?”

  Evan met the question with a momentary stare back, in silence. He wasn’t sure how to answer it. Eventually, he shrugged. “Well yeah, but… it’s still your body, right?”

  “You know what I mean,” She shied away again. “It’s a boy’s body. The girl you met, that was how it’s supposed to be. Right now, everything else is worse.”

  The way she was putting herself down, Evan felt his own heart crack at her words. But it wasn’t true. “Well… I think your voice is beautiful.”

  Aria suddenly looked back at him in surprise, “Huh?”

  He must have been red as a tomato right now, admitting this straight to her face. Even so, he mustered the courage to look her right in the eyes. “That’s one thing that I like, getting to actually meet you. Getting to hear you sing.”

  He could swear he saw a tint of red also encroaching on Aria’s cheeks. He continued, “I would never want to have your body, because that’s… you. Something like your voice, the way you sang earlier. The way you carried, presented and used it. I’d never be able to do that.” Evan feigned a half-hearted chuckle to himself. “It’s better off with you, more than anything.”

  “I-I… um, thank you.” The girl let out, bashfully looking away. “I guess that’s one way of looking at things…”

  Realizing his own painfully cheesy words, Evan did the same. God, why was this so hard? “I just… I’m gd I get to meet you like this. I know it probably hurts a lot for you. But getting to talk like this, face to face, understanding who you are… Right now, I don’t know if I’d trade that for anything.”

  The silence lingered for a few seconds. Then, slowly, Aria reached her fingers up to her hair, almost habitually about to brush a lock of hair, only to stop because of its short length. “Even though I’m not pretty?”

  “You are pretty.” Evan looked right at her, as she slowly got the courage to meet his eyes again. “Really. I can see it. You still have the same eyes. When I look at you, I still see the girl you got to show everyone.”

  Her pupils dited, but she still couldn’t shake the nervous expression from her face. “Y-You’re just saying things.”

  Evan broke eye contact, trying to muster out an awkward ugh. “I mean, I guess I’d be a hypocrite saying that, knowing how rough my own dysphoria can be. But that’s why we act. Hormone therapy, plus all the social stuff. When I look at you, I don’t see a guy, I see the girl you’re going to turn out to be. Who you really are. I swear.”

  Aria didn’t respond for another short while, holding the silence. But then she answered. “...You’re right.” She started standing up. “I think that’s the conclusion I’ve also been coming to. I… need to actually make a move. Even if it’ll be hard, there’s a part of me that just feels it.” On her two feet, she holds a hand to her heart. “Like… I’ll be okay. That this isn’t forever. That one day, I’ll actually be happy.”

  Evan followed up on his own feet. “I think so, too. It’s something we all gotta learn, take our lives into our own hands.” He thought back to his own journey of discovery, making the choices that led him here. He didn’t regret them, it was obvious.

  “Yeah, I-” Aria was about to add something, but stopped as her eyes nded on Evan again. He cocked a brow. What? Something on his face?

  “We’re…” Aria pointed out, eyes narrowing. “Are we the same height now?”

  Evan blinked. Were they? He hadn’t even thought about it, especially with them sitting a moment earlier. But now that she’d mentioned it… yeah. Obviously, with whatever magic she’d used to turn into a girl, that had adjusted her height so that Evan had been taller. But with both of them in their original bodies, neither of them having had any hormonal intervention, they were…

  “-Pfft!” Suddenly air blew through Aria’s nose. “Pfft-ahahaha!” Then she leaned forward, taking a step back. “Hahahaha!”

  She was barely giving herself a chance to breathe. The confused Evan, concerned expression on his face, could only ask, “Um, are you okay? What’s so funny?”

  “Ahaha! After everything!” She let out a giggle in fervor. God, that smile of hers was radiant, even now. “Everything making me feel bad about my body, just for this!”

  Evan couldn’t help but let a cheeky smile form. “Is it really that funny?” This was some unusual absurdist humor.

  Aria calmed down, rubbing her eyes briefly. “Sorry, it’s just, haha, the irony. That I don’t even feel that bad about my body, around you. You’re right, I’m… not a guy to you.” She smiled at him.

  Relief washed over the boy. Somehow, his words had worked. He felt proud, happy with that. Not just that he’d bonded like that with another trans kid, but because he cared about her. She was going to be alright.

  Then Aria’s expression shifted. “Oh, but um… there’s actually something we gotta take care of, first.”

  Evan’s own expression shifted in response. Confused, he asked, “What do you mean?”

  “So let me get this straight,” Evan began, right after hearing Aria’s entire in-full expnation, as they started walking through the courtyard. “You’re saying a witch turned you into a girl just to trick you and the headmaster into giving her the entire school, which through some legal mumbo jumbo gave her the power to turn everyone into soulless zombies?”

  Concern grew on Aria’s face. “You don’t believe me?”

  “Of course I do!” Evan huffed. “I mean, you wouldn’t lie, I know that much. And there’s gotta be something weird going on if you just changed bodies like that. Also, uhh, I’d been wondering why no one’s been around to stop me from wandering around in here.”

  Aria let out a sigh of relief as they continued. The fact that Evan hadn’t just come right as she needed him most, but was ready to listen and help the moment she asked, made her happy. He was as reliable a friend as ever.

  She could tell his stride had gotten heavier. He didn’t let it hear from his tone, but he was angry. She understood why. It was clear he cared about her. Maybe even… as more than a friend. But those thoughts had to wait, as curious as she was about all of that. If it meant having someone like him by her side, she’d take it. She couldn’t ask for a better man.

  “But what do we even do?” Evan questioned. “I mean, you just said she’s got magic and stuff. What are two kids gonna get done?”

  “No, there’s rules.” She answered. She remembered it clearly, both back then and just earlier. Rosalynn talked about it like a resource, like it all depended on the manipution, but also reliance, on the rules that had been set. “When she changed me, there was a condition that would have sent me back to living as a boy at any point. She said it was needed to make it stronger, more resilient or something.”

  The two stopped as they entered one of St. Hanssen’s hallways. “What kind of condition?” He asked.

  The question made Aria pause. Evan was clearly asking from innocent curiosity. Because of course, it was very much needed to know for the sake of reference. But Aria couldn’t muster out the answer, as her face only flushed at the intrusive thought of kissing the boy in front of her. Of what if she’d done so at the ferris wheel, or… well, what it’d be like to do that right now.

  “I-It doesn’t matter!” She excused. “It’s definitely not that!” Of course, it didn’t need to be relevant. Rosalynn wouldn’t make her condition something silly like that. No, besides, she didn’t even…

  But the thought dawned on the girl. “Something important.” She said, “Whatever she grants, what is given up needs to be somewhere as important.” That’s right, the whole idea back then was that Aria cared enough about her voice to give it up, and she valued her chastity enough to be too bothered to even think about kissing a stranger. But how would that work for Rosalynn? Her being a headmaster was different from Aria being a girl, one was a physical transformation to keep up and the other was a job position. Would it be magically reversible in the same way?

  “What… is it?” She questioned. Knowing how her magic worked, there was probably a weakness somewhere, but where?

  Suddenly, Evan’s eyes perked. “Um, hey, are those two looking at us?”

  Aria turned behind her in time to just barely see exactly that. Two heads from the corner looking at them. Then they scurried away as quick as she’d noticed them.

  “Hey, what are-?!” But before she could finish calling out, Evan ran ahead.

  “Hey, you! Stop!” He called.

  Aria sighed as she decided to go and follow Evan. He’d ran after them so quickly.

  By the time she turned the corner, she saw that the boy had already pinned one of them to the ground, the other standing next to them with a fearful expression.

  “L-Let go!”

  “Who are you?! Why were you spying on us?!”

  “H-Hey just calm down! Go easy!”

  Aria recognized the two boys immediately of course. They were students at Hanssen’s she’d known for years, after all. It was Jett and Floyd.

  As she watched them argue, Floyd starting to try and pull Evan off his brother, Aria let her voice be heard. “Stop!”

  All the boys froze. The three of them looked at her with wide, guilty expressions.

  “A-Adam?”

  It looked as if it took Evan an extra second to process who that name was referring to, but drawing the dots, he weakly pushed at Jett.

  “Hey!”

  “Don’t call her that.”

  “Her?” Floyd questioned.

  “Evan, stop.” Aria calmly ordered again. “They wouldn’t know, don’t bother.”

  He seemed unhappy with the comment, grumbling something to himself. But the details of her identity could wait.

  Having commanded their attention, Aria was ready to ask why they were spying on them. But as she took another second to process it, she realized there was a more pointed question.

  “Why aren’t you two like everybody else?” She asked. “You’re… normal.” Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen them at the cafeteria earlier this morning either.

  As Evan let Jett back up, the twins held guilty expressions on their faces.

  “...Does this have something to do with you working for Rosalynn?” She asked. “Is she making you do more of her dirty work?”

  Evan stepped back to Aria’s side, eyeing them suspiciously. “They’re what? Oh, that’s messed up.”

  “If she wants to spy on us so bad, then tell her-!”

  “Shh!” But then Floyd ran up to cover Aria’s mouth. “Keep your fucking voice down, dude! You want her to hear?!”

  She immediately pushed him away from her, “What are you talking about?”

  “You think we wanted this?!” Jett asked with a hushed, but exasperated tone. “She just likes having us around! If we did anything we’d be as screwed as anybody else!”

  “Huh?” Evan let out his own question, confused. “But you’re working for her, right?”

  Floyd nervously shrugged, “I-I mean, yeah! We just thought it was fun, you know? An actual witch? That shit’s awesome. It’s like having a cool aunt. Figured it’s funny to do the whole creepy henchmen thing, too.”

  “Do you know the types of things she did to people?” Aria asked. She didn’t have the details, but she had enough to know that her and her grandfather weren’t the only dealmakers around. “How could you go along with that and justify it?”

  “Well, we did, but…” Floyd looked at his brother nervously, who looked at him back. They were both expecting the other to come up with the excuse, it seemed.

  Jett sighed, “Okay, so maybe that’s on us a bit. But like… she always said it was what people wanted, right?” He rubbed his arm nervously. “And if they messed up, that they just deserved it.”

  “Ah, don’t even give them that.” Floyd added. “It’s not like we’ve had many friends ourselves. We didn’t care about any of these posers….”

  “B-But still!” Jett interrupted. “We’ve messed up, okay?! We can admit that now! We don’t wanna be in a school where everyone’s stuck acting like some robot or whatever!”

  “Y-Yeah! What he said!”

  Aria sighed. The twins were barely in sync anymore. This wasn’t some edgy joke they were pulling, they sounded actually panicked.

  “But like, you’re also normal, right Adam?” Floyd asked, looking between her and Evan. “And you too! I-I dunno what’s been going on with you after your whole deal, but that’s gotta be something, right? You got a way to save everyone?”

  “I… I don’t.” Aria answered. “I’m just a loophole. It’s a long story, but I don’t think it’s something that could work to free anybody else.”

  “I’m not even from this school,” Evan then added. “Even if I were, from what Aria’s said, it sounds like I’d be safe for the same reason, right?”

  “Huh?” The twins looked at each other in confusion. “Aria?” “I don’t get it.”

  It didn’t look like they’d be able to connect the dots on their own, even with the information they had, but crifying all of that was beside the point.

  “Don’t you have anything, though?” Aria asked. “I mean, you’re the ones who’ve been working with her. Isn’t there any way to nullify a deal or get around it?”

  The expressions on their faces told Aria everything, they were unsure. Then Floyd answered. “I-I don’t think so, gotta depend on the contract, right?”

  There wasn’t a way around that. From what Aria’s grandfather had described, the witch had already fulfilled her end to completion. And Aria wouldn’t be able to loophole him out of it the same way she’d got pulled out of her own deal.

  “Yeah,” Jett responded. “Once she’s cimed something, she can basically do whatever she wants, too…”

  “Is there any way to just physically take it back?” Evan suggested. “Like, punch her real hard or something? Does she drop mana like in a video game?”

  Aria shook her head. “No, it’s not like that. She described it to me like it’s being converted into energy, that could be used for any number of magic. You can’t just ‘take’ that, I don’t think.”

  “Um, right but,” Evan thought to himself. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned about physics in css, it’s that it’s gotta come from and go somewhere. You can’t just keep around a bunch of energy, you need to actually use it. Or, like, make a battery or something.”

  “What’s this nerd talking about?” Floyd asked. “Come to think of it, who even are you, anyway?”

  “Evan, I don’t know if magic would-” Then a memory pyed back in her mind. When Rosalynn had stepped from her desk to look at the students’ dreams. Then again, when she panicked after Aria had almost made something fall.

  The sparkles of light inside them. It made too much sense.

  “Evan, you’re a genius!” She immediately put her hands on his shoulder, pulling him into a hug.

  “H-H-H-Hey, I-!” The boy was left to stammer out some form of answer. “I-It’s nothing. I mean, what?”

  Letting go of him, she addressed the other two boys, “I think I know a way we can free everyone. But we’ll need to work together.