"Principal, you can not let my Dad know about this."

  "This is a serious instance of cyberbullying, Scott, I can't just let this slide!"

  "If my dad finds out I did this, he will kill me. This is about my safety."

  "Scott, your father will hear about this at some point, this is a small town."

  "If he hears about it from like, some parent at his job, then I can just say it's some rumor someone made of or whatever. If you go calling him, he'll know that this thing is real and then I'm dead."

  "Ok, ok, I understand the sensitive nature of your situation. I'll...I'll keep the matter as internal as possible."

  "Thank you, Principal. I know I've screwed up before, and--"

  "Your previous actions don't make you anymore deserving of something like this, Scott. We've had some bad blood between us, but that doesn't mean I won't take this any less seriously than if it happened to someone without your record."

  "...Thank you."

  "Incidentally, I did have a suggestion for you."

  "Sure, go ahead."

  "I'd like for you to start meeting with our guidance counselor on a regur basis. I feel as though there are...underlying issues that this incident has revealed."

  "..."

  "Scott, I am by no means a professional, but I'd like to ask you a question. If you could dress like that all the time, knowing that no one would make fun or treat you any less respectfully, would you want to?"

  Scott thought about it, then whispered his answer.

  "Would you want to use a different name and pronouns?"

  Scott thought about that question a lot longer, and then whispered his answer.

  "Ok, I'll make you an appointment with the counselor. I feel like you'll have a lot to talk about."

  Scott left the principal's office feeling better than when he walked in, and this was probably the first time ever where that was the case. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad. Maybe he could get a lid on this.

  And that's when he saw Matt Stone leaning against the wall outside the office.

  "You got some nerve showing your face around me." Scott said.

  Matt just smiled and walked up to him.

  "Hey, did you hear--"

  Then Matt put his finger to Scott's forehead, and the world went bnk.

  ***

  It had all started this past summer. He and Maria had started dating just before school ended. Their retionship wasn't very physically intimate at this point, but they enjoyed each other's company well enough. The feeling of being kissed by Maria was almost enough to get Scott to ignore the sense of wrongness whenever he thought about his own body. Maria said she liked being with him, and when he asked if she liked him physically she had grinned and assured him that yes, she did, but why? What was so great about guys?

  They kept at it for most of June, and Maria told him how surprised she was that Scott was so sensitive away from school. He said he often felt like he just needed to act like a dumb jock in order to fit in, and Maria had looked at him with such...such pity.

  Then near the end of the month Maria had taken him shopping for clothes, and had felt dejected when he didn't like any of her suggestions for his wardrobe. It was fine, he had said, he didn't really like clothes shopping anyway. She had huffed but she let him walk away from the store with a full wallet. Then he had made the best mistake of his life.

  As they were walking back to her car, Scott happened to spot a blue dress in the window of a shop. He stopped dead in his tracks and took in the sight of it. The wonderful color of it, the way it fred out, the everything about it. And Maria had noticed. She had stood up on her tiptoes and whispered something into his ear.

  "Do you want to wear that?"

  Scott stepped away from Maria, feeling the heat rising in his cheeks, but he couldn't bring himself to say no. Maria grabbed his hand tightly.

  "C'mon." She said. "There's something I wanna try."

  Before Scott could stammer anything out they were driving back to Maria's pce and she was talking about how she suspected something was up, how being around Scott had started to feel less like being around a guy and more like being around, well, someone who wasn't a guy at the very least. Scott could feel himself blushing even more, and god why was he blushing like a schoolgirl, all Maria had suggested was that...

  Maybe...

  Just maybe...

  Maria dragged Scott up to her room and locked the door behind them. She opened her bag of cosmetics and sat Scott down on her bed and told him very firmly to not move until she said so. Scott just nodded, closed his eyes and let her go to work. Scott felt her spread various powders and creams on his face, and then she asked him to open his eyes and to go look in her vanity mirror. Scott got up and walked over. He closed his eyes just before he stepped in front of the mirror. He couldn't do this, what was he thinking, he looks ugly, he'll--

  Maria squeezed his hand tight. He took a shaky breath, opened his eyes, and stepped in front of the mirror.

  He saw a girl looking back.

  Maria asked him if he wanted to use another name.

  The girl formerly known as Scott said yes.

  For the rest of the summer she'd be Scott everywhere else, and when she was with Maria she'd get to use her real name and act normal around her. Maria was very eager to induct her into the ways of girlhood, teaching her all about makeup, fashion, and the basics of self-care that her Dad had failed to educate her on (Maria had just about had a heart attack when she told her that she'd been using bar soap to wash her face for years). But as time went on the pressure of only being able to be herself with one other person began to bear down on her, and it wasn't helped by the fact that with school fast approaching she'd lose the chance for that kind of interaction too.

  They were both ying in Maria's bed and scrolling on their phones, trying to ignore the fact that school was gonna start again in about a week. That's when Maria had a suggestion.

  "Hey, can I take some pictures of you?"

  "Maria, I don't want-"

  "Please. I...I want to remember this. I'll delete them ter, but can't I just take some pictures of my girlfriend?"

  The girl's breath hitched. They'd never really cleared up their retionship status after the mall thing, but hearing Maria call her that was better than she could've imagined. She nodded.

  The photoshoot was so fun, so carefree. For a moment the whole outside world seemed to fall away and there was just...joy.

  They stared at the pictures for a long time.

  "Send them to me." The girl said. Maria looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

  "I...I'd appreciate it if you sent them to me before you delete them." The girl said. "We won't be able to do this much anymore, and I just...want some kind of reminder that I can...be this."

  Suddenly the girl found herself being hugged tightly by Maria.

  "Of course." Maria whispered.

  ***

  Scott suddenly found himself on the bench outside of the principal's office. He had a pounding headache. What was he doing again? He'd gone inside and talked to the principal, he remembered that, but after that...

  He must've just gotten lightheaded or something. He'd been through a lot today.

  He took a deep breath and then stood up slowly. His headache was clearing up. Better just try to get through the rest of the day.

  ***

  I walked out of the school feeling a lot of complex emotions. I had just broken up with my best friend, stood up for Scott Winter, and now I had to worry if this was all part of some plot by Matt. Was this simple revenge,or was there something more magical involved?

  I tried to find them as we all left the school, but I couldn't spot them in the crowd at all. I sighed and decided to just head home.

  When I walked through the front door my dad was nowhere to be found, and to be honest I was somewhat grateful. I didn't want to have to dump everything on Dad before I even had time to process it. I decided I needed to do something to get my mind off of things.

  Besides, I had another friend to help anyway.

  I walked into my room to find Messa watching yet more anime. She turned to look at me.

  "Alex!" She said. "How was school?"

  "Godawful."

  "Oh, I'm...sorry to hear that."

  "It's ok Messa. I'll tell you about it ter. Right now we got some detective work to do."

  Messa tilted her head.

  "What's a detective?"

  ***

  "Are you sure this is necessary?" Messa said from inside my backpack.

  "Unless you want someone to steal you or try to send you off to some b then yeah." I said. "You just need to be quiet a little longer, we're almost there."

  I walked up the granite steps to the open doors of the Bckbriar County Public Library. The library was a massive colonial style building, all red brick and shuttered windows. Inside there was one central aisle with an information desk in the middle, with tall bookshelves on either side. At the end of the aisle was a more open space with tables where people were reading or studying.

  I approached the information desk, where an old woman with a nametag that said "Mrs.Wren" was reading a book called Sense and Sensibility.

  "Excuse me." I said. Mrs. Wren looked up from her book and adjusted her gsses.

  "Yes, how can I help you?" she asked.

  "I'm looking for stuff from like, early in Bckbriar's history." I said. "The older the better."

  "Well, documents like the town charter and such are kept in the archives at City Hall." Mrs. Wren expined. "However, we have recreations of some documents over in a room at the back of the library."

  "No, I don't want stuff like that." I said. "I was wondering if you had anything reted to say, witches?"

  Mrs. Wren raised an eyebrow. "Does this have to do with that Brightmoon girl?"

  "No, no," I said quickly, "It's just that, uh, I learned recently that some of my ancestors might've been accused of being witches and I wanted to learn more, I guess."

  Mrs. Wren seemed to think for a moment.

  'Well, I suppose we might have something in the stacks." She said. Sshe got up from her seat and dusted off her chair. "Follow me, please."

  I followed Mrs. Wren to a door in the back wall of the library. She pulled out a key and unlocked it, the bolt turning with a heavy clunk. The door opened to a staircase leading down into a room lit with dim orange lighting. Rows of shelves filled the room, and the smell of musty paper was thick and heavy.

  Mrs.Wren went to a nearby cabinet and pulled open a drawer. She pulled out a pair of white silk gloves and held them out to me.

  "Wear these whenever you're down here." she expined. "I'll have to supervise you while you are down here. Nothing in this room can leave it, understand?"

  I nodded and took the gloves. I slipped them on and began to prowl the shelves, looking for anything that stood out.

  "What are we looking for, exactly?" Messa whispered from inside my backpack.

  "Well, we know that your memory is from a long time ago since you don't seem to recognize technology," I said, "but you knew what Manhattan was. So, that kind of gives us a range to work with."

  I idly picked a book off the shelf and began to flip through it. It seemed to be an old Bible. "I'm also looking for anything witch reted since I'm sure if people knew about the wand back then they would have--"

  "Wait." Messa hissed. "I...I sense something. It's like something pulling at my brain...move forward."

  "I put the Bible back and started walking deep into the stacks.

  "Left." Messa said. I quickly made the turn.

  "Right." I followed her directions again.

  "Stop here." She said. I stopped in the middle of two bookshelves.

  "Let me out for a second." Messa said. "I need to see something."

  I double checked to make sure Mrs. Wren couldn't see us, and then I pulled back the zipper slightly so that Messa could peek her head out. She looked around for a bit, and then pointed to a small red book tucked between two big w code books.

  "That one." She said. "It's...calling to me."

  I grabbed the book and flipped it open to the first page.

  "It says it's the diary of Peggy Whitmore." I said.

  "Peggy..."Messa whispered, but she didn't say anything else. I flipped to the next page.

  "August 19th, 1792." I read. "We have just arrived in the valley where Bckbriar has set up a small mining operation. Father will begin supervising the workers in a fortnight's time. Mother is apprehensive about our leaving Manhattan--"

  "She said that she'd miss the ocean." Messa said.

  "Wait, Messa," I said, "you don't think--"

  "Ugh!"

  "What was that?" Mrs. Wren said.

  "Just stubbed my toe, is all!" I said. "I'll be fine!"

  I put the diary back on the shelf and opened my bag more. Messa was clutching her head and was in a fetal position on the bottom of my backpack.

  "You good?" I whispered.

  "I...I'm sorry Alex, something just came over me. I...let's leave for now. We can come back for that diary."

  "Yeah, yeah, ok. At least we got a lead on your memories, right?"

  Messa gave a weak smile. "Right, right. Thank you, Alex."

  "Don't mention it." I said. I zipped the backpack back up and headed back towards the entrance.

  "Find what you were looking for?" Mrs. Wren asked.

  "No, and all I got for my trouble was a stubbed toe." I said.

  Mrs. Wren chuckled. "That's how it just goes sometimes with research. Sorry, kiddo."

  I took off my gloves and Mrs.Wren put them back in their cubby, and then we ascended up the stairs and back into the library proper.

  "Let me know if you need anything else." Mrs. Wren said. Then she walked back off to her desk, leaving me standing alone in the library. I figured it'd be best to just go home and let Messa rest up, but that's when I noticed someone from school.

  Maria was sitting by herself reading a book who's cover I couldn't see. She looked sad, her eyes seeming to gaze through the book an at something else. I remembered how she had darted out of css after the photos of Scott had been posted.

  It's probably none of my business, but...would Brightmoon just leave it alone?

  I slowly walked over to Maria, thinking about how I should approach this. I decided to keep things simple.

  "You good?" I asked.

  Maria jumped in her seat and then turned to face me.

  "I, I'm sorry." I said. "I'm, uh, I'm Alex, we have a css together, and I noticed you looked kind of out of it, so I decided to just, uh, see how you were doing, I guess."

  Good job on the being nice thing, Alex, A+.

  "Oh, uh, thanks." Maria said. "It's, uh, it's nothing, really, just school stuff."

  "Does it, um...does it have something to do with those pictures going around?"

  Maria stiffened up.

  "You don't have to talk about it," I said, "it's just, I noticed how you reacted, and I just kind of connected the dots."

  Maria turned back around. "Yeah, it's about the pictures."

  I decided to take the seat next to her.

  "Do you want to talk about it?"

  "No." Maria said. "It's not for me to expin."

  "Ok, uh, fair."

  "But I am worried." Maria said. "I...I care about Scott. A lot. I know he acts a fool but he's a good person, I promise."

  "Wish I could say the same thing about my friend." I said. "I thought that he was just a sarcastic guy but now it turns out he's a lot worse than I thought."

  "Sorry to hear that." Maria said. She looked down at her table. "I just...I don't know what to do here."

  I thought about it for a second. I had to do my best here.

  "Well, look, I cut off my friend because it turned out he was like, way worse than everyone thought." I said. "When someone is insisting on pulling themselves down and they don't listen to you, there's only so much that you can do. But when someone who wants to be good is being dragged down, you gotta reach out a hand to help."

  Maria looked at me, squinted her eyes, and then nodded.

  "Yeah...yeah, you're right." Maria said. She stood up and tucked her book under her arm. "Thanks Alex."

  Maria took off for the front door as I sat there at the table. It felt good to encourage someone like that. Maybe I didn't have to wave a wand around to make things better.

  I liked that idea.