Chapter 27 Birthday #2
Jolie exhaled, arranging one of her braids around her face. “You know she’s had a tough year. Miranda. You know that, right? I know she doesn’t talk about it much. Well, not at all, really, but it’s been really hard on her.”
I bit my lip. Had I known that? I tensed as I looked at Jolie, realizing I had no idea what she meant. Had I really been so wrapped up in my own world, I’d missed something major going on with one of my best friends?
Now that I thought about it, though, I had noticed things.
People had been strange to her this year, compared to last year.
Witches who’d been friendly to Miranda last year now gave her the cold shoulder.
The difference struck me as even more dramatic with mages.
A lot of the same blokes who’d followed her around the previous year, asked her out, and admired her openly, now glared and went out of their way to avoid her.
Not Luc, of course, who I was pretty sure was still in love with her, but others in our year, for sure.
She’d been asked out constantly in first year. This year, I hadn’t seen it happen once. She was treated as nearly as much of a pariah as me.
What had changed?
“Why has she had a bad year, Jolie?” I asked.
The tall witch blinked at me. “You’re not serious,” she said, disbelieving.
“Leda, it’s been all over school. It started with that bloody Marcus Ribaldi, after that horrible double date the two of you went on last year.
He asked her to spend Beltaine with him after.
Maybe he meant it as a peace offering, I don’t know…
but when she refused, he kind of lost it. ”
“Marcus?” I paled. “Did he do something to her?”
Jolie continued to stare, like she couldn’t believe me. “Eye of Horus, you really don’t know.” Shaking her head, she stared out my bedroom window. “I knew you were pretty wrapped up in school, but I didn’t think it was possible to be this oblivious to gossip.”
I felt my face warm, but only waited as she fingered another braid out of her face.
“Leda.” She met my gaze. “Marcus told everyone that Mir was born a mage. Male, I mean. A wizard. He told everyone, and I mean everyone, about how she’d changed her sex, magically, sometime in middle school, and has been a witch ever since.”
I blinked at her. “Why in the gods would he say that?”
Jolie grunted. “Because it’s true?” she said.
“Because he’s a petty little tosser who couldn’t handle being rejected?
” Exhaling, she shook her head. “I didn’t know until early this year, but that’s why Mir went to boarding school in Switzerland.
Her parents didn’t want her to have to deal with people treating her differently because of it. ”
I blinked at Jolie in shock. Whatever I’d expected her to say about Miranda having a difficult year, it wasn’t that. Mostly, though, I was bewildered.
“People actually care about that? Here? In Magique?” Frowning, I fought to make sense of it. “Why?” I asked. “One would think, with magic––”
“That people wouldn’t be such bloody hypocrites?
” Jolie scoffed. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you?
Half the witches and mages in school change their appearance every other week.
Not to mention every Magical of means in the rest of the world, most of whom have monthly appointments to alter their appearance, both in legal and illegal ways. ”
Her voice grew increasingly angry.
“…But just because Marcus-bloody-Ribaldi didn’t get his dick sucked when he wanted it, he felt the need to spread her private life all over school.
He’s still telling anyone who’ll listen how she’s not a witch at all, how all her sexual ‘parts’ are magical, so not actually ‘real,’ and on and on.
The whole thing is just so unbelievably stupid.
It’s like we’re all back in kindergarten, only it’s going to actually hurt her, most likely, with jobs and whatever else. ”
“How did he even find out?” I asked. “Marcus? Mir didn’t tell him?”
“No.” Jolie shook her head. “He’s a bloody royal, of course, and was complaining about her at one of his royalist gatherings over the summer when someone from the America set told him how Monique Rook’s kid used to be male.
Marcus has been holding court over all the other pricks spreading this shite ever since.
It’s all wrapped up in their disgusting Dark Cathedral ideology, which again, is ridiculous, since Mir’s as female as you and me now. ”
My jaw hardened more.
I’d felt horrible before. Now I felt like a monster.
“Gods, Jolie.” I combed a hand through my hair. “I really, really didn’t know.”
When I looked over at my roommate next, her eyes had softened.
“I can see that,” she said apologetically. “I’m sorry for assuming you did.”
“Sorry?” I looked at her incredulously. “Why in the gods are you sorry? I feel like the worst friend imaginable. I had no idea she’d been going through this.
I’d noticed some of the mages and witches were different to her this year, but I honestly thought it was pettiness and jealousy, and maybe even association with me. ”
I saw the last of the tension leave Jolie’s expression.
“Draken and I really thought you did know,” she admitted.
“We thought maybe you were being hyper-considerate by not mentioning it, since Mir never really came out and told any of us. Draken’s known for ages, of course.
They’ve been mates since before she made the change, which is one reason she’s so fiercely loyal to him.
She’d kill anyone who hurt Draken, and I’m pretty sure I mean that literally.
” She continued to look sheepish. “We didn’t realize none of this had gotten back to you, Leda, or we would’ve talked to you about it. ”
“You shouldn’t have had to,” I muttered.
“Nonsense,” Jolie said, a touch more vehemently.
When I looked over, she smiled at me, her eyes bright. She nudged my shoulder when I remained silent, taking my cold hand in both of her warm ones.
“Why would you have known?” she asked, gripping my fingers tightly.
“Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I realize how dumb we were to assume it. After everything you’ve had to deal with around Strangemore and his expulsion, of course you’d avoid gossip, not to mention the wankers spreading it.
Because of that indescribable knob, you’ve not gone to even one Skyhunt match, have you?
You’ve skipped most of our pub crawls, and even the Magical Village Display in Bonescastle a few weeks ago.
You’re always either in the library or Frumpy’s, revising, or lately, locked in one of your sadomasochism sessions with Bones. ”
I didn’t say anything as I turned over her words.
Honestly, I had no idea what to say.
She wasn’t wrong, but it didn’t make me feel any better.
Anyway, it didn’t matter who or what was to blame, did it?
I hadn’t been there for Mir. I even turned over the idea of canceling with Bones.
I could wait for another broadcast, ask him to summarize this one for me tomorrow.
Was I really going to learn anything so world-shattering by being there for that one missive?
In the end, though, I abandoned the thought.
How could I even explain my sudden change of heart to Mir, after telling her I absolutely couldn’t change the plans I’d insisted to her that I had?
Of course, that wasn’t my only reason.
Things felt fragile with Bones, too. Somehow, after what happened between us earlier in the week, I didn’t think he’d react well to a last-minute cancelation, either.
He hadn’t said anything in the time since, not even during our fight training, but I strongly suspected I was right about that.
I also couldn’t pretend that it didn’t matter to me, not anymore.
I could lie to myself about a lot, apparently, but not about that.
I descended the last steps of the central staircase of Malcroix Mansion, and entered the main lobby. I passed the darkened coffee kiosk and the bookstore, and entered the corridor leading north past a number of classrooms, teacher’s offices, supply closets, and meeting rooms.
I hung a left when I reached the outer wall of the mansion, and the doors out to the northern balconies, which stretched across most of the main structure.
I headed for the far western wing.
I forced myself to walk slower than I normally would, my head held high, partly because of the heels.
They clicked noisily on the polished stone as I walked, something I hadn’t considered while I’d been changing upstairs.
During the day, I’d scouted out and found a mostly unused toilet in a small, dark hallway where I’d be unlikely to run into other students.
I figured I should dress the part.
If I was supposed to be one of Bones’s witches, I couldn’t go over there in joggers and an oversized jumper, like I was going to Frumpy’s to revise while I overdosed on tea and biscuits. I had to at least make a little bit of an effort.
That’s what I told myself, anyway.
I’d spent a fair bit of time experimenting with different spells to alter my appearance.
I knew changing myself as much as I had was probably overkill.
Bones kept saying I didn’t need to do much, but then he’d also mentioned the need for me to come in disguise at least three times, and also reminded me to wear my mother’s pendant.
Given that, I guessed he felt a little paranoid, too.
Rather than risk it, I changed more than my hair, which I turned dark red.
I made my eyes brown after experimenting with a few other colors, and gave myself a longer neck, and smaller breasts.
I tweaked my nose, mouth, cheekbones, and forehead until I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror.
I thought, if nothing else, I’d have Bones grade my transmorph skills, something he’d mentioned more than once in relation to defensive magic.
I also fastened the chain of my mother’s crystal around my neck.