Lacy stepped aside and allowed Rosemary to enter the room. Upon entering, Rosemary noticed that unlike her own room that had four of everything, one for her and one for each of her roommates, this room only had two of everything. This included two beds. Amy was seated at one of them, which Rosemary concluded was Amy’s bed. The other bed, which Rosemary concluded had to be Lacy’s, was covered with uniforms and other clothes, all folded neatly, and a moderately sized cardboard box. Rosemary had no idea what the box might contain.

  “Have a seat,” said Lacy, pointing to the chair near the desk that was closer to Amy’s bed. Sheepishly, Rosemary sat down.

  “So,” asked Amy, “did you have a chance to do the transformation?”

  “Yes,” Rosemary smiled at her. She didn’t mention that it had been close to two months ago that she had cast the transformation spell and that she had been casting renewals ever since to maintain the transformation.

  “I see you didn’t bring your satchel,” Amy observed.

  “Should I have?” asked Rosemary.

  “Well, it would sure make it easier to carry some of the stuff back with you,” said Amy, “but we’ll figure something out. First, let’s take care of your hair.”

  Amy went to her desk and picked up a pink two-inch-tall dropper bottle that Rosemary had seen before. It was a liquid hairdressing spell to give her a girl’s haircut. Amy dripped one drop on top of Rosemary’s head, and Rosemary could feel her hair grow out.

  “Okay now,” said Lacy, as soon as Rosemary’s hair was at full length. “Let’s start with what you can wear today. How about a nice, casual look for Saturday?” She went to her bed, picked up a pink tracksuit, and handed it to Rosemary. “And to wear underneath it,” she continued, “how about this rainbow shirt?” She handed Rosemary a light blue T-shirt with a large, sparkly rainbow printed on it. “Go try it on.”

  “You mean — change — right here?” asked Rosemary.

  “Well, you’ve done the transformation, haven’t you?” said Amy.

  “Yes, I have,” affirmed Rosemary.

  “So I don’t see why not,” said Amy.

  Before removing the clothes she had come in, Rosemary removed her shoes and socks. “Oh I totally forgot!” said Lacy, looking at the shoes. “A few more things you’ll need.”

  Lacy went to her closet and got a pair of pink-and-white sneakers that seemed too small for her to wear, and placed them on the floor by Rosemary. “No point getting you all these girly clothes to have you wear boy’s shoes,” she explained. She then opened the cardboard box and got out the socks and everything else Rosemary needed to complete her outfit. “You’ll also want these,” she said to Rosemary, as she placed them on Amy’s desk.

  A few minutes later, Rosemary was in her new outfit. Amy was tying Rosemary’s hair back as the three of them looked into a mirror. “Don’t you look cute?” said Amy.

  “Yes,” said Rosemary, slightly embarrassed, but at the same time, thrilled.

  Over the next twenty minutes, Lacy and Amy began explaining to Rosemary how to put on the various clothes that they were providing her to wear over the next six days.

  “There’s lots more to explain,” said Lacy, when it was just about time to head out for breakfast, “but we can talk about it after breakfast. You anyway got to bring something to take all this stuff to your room.”

  “We’ll even show you how to take care of your hair,” added Amy, “but you might want to go back to boy’s hair at night — unless you’re ready to tell your roommates about the change you’re thinking of making.”

  “But they’ll still see me with girl’s hair during the day,” protested Rosemary.

  “They will,” agreed Amy, “but you probably don’t want them to start suspecting that it’s more than just a Halloween costume, do you?”

  “I guess not,” Rosemary conceded. “Where am I gonna put it once it’s in my room?” she asked.

  “Good question,” said Amy, thoughtfully.

  “I have an idea,” said Lacy.

  “What?” asked Amy.

  Lacy turned to Rosemary. “How ’bout instead of coming back here after breakfast,” she asked, “you come here after lunch?”

  “Okay,” said Rosemary.

  * * *

  Rosemary caught up with Lilith, Samantha, and Mika on the way to the Great Hall for breakfast.

  “So, you’re now telling folks?” asked Samantha.

  “No,” said Rosemary, “but today’s the first day we’re allowed to wear Halloween costumes, so I’m trying it out.”

  “Technically true,” said Lilith, “but I hear most people don’t wear their costumes until Halloween itself, which isn’t till Thursday. And hardly anyone will till Tuesday.”

  “True,” said Rosemary, “but I’ve still got — plausible deniability.”

  At lunch, the girls made a point of sitting near Rosemary’s roommates.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “That you, Simon?” Ricky asked Rosemary.

  Rosemary nodded with a smile — wondering if Ricky’s quick recognition might have had anything to do with the fact that last time she had spoken to him she had told him that she was going out to get her costume.

  “No way,” said Tom. “You look hot!”

  Jesse, on the other hand, shrugged.

  * * *

  After lunch, Rosemary went to her dorm room to fetch her satchel, and from there went to Amy and Lacy’s room. They finished instructing her on how to put on all the clothes they had gotten for her and even how to take care of her hair. Finally, when they were done, Lacy went to her dresser and got out what looked like a regular flannel tote.

  “Amy and I put a space augmentation charm on it this morning,” she said, and then proceeded to put each and every one of the outfits that Rosemary wasn’t wearing into the bag. She even put each pair of shoes in a small plastic bag, and put those in the tote as well — and there was still plenty of room to spare. The only clothes Rosemary had to put in her satchel, in the end, were the clothes she had been wearing at the time that she came to Amy and Lacy’s room that morning before breakfast.

  That evening, before going to bed, Rosemary dripped on her head one drop of the boy’s liquid hairdressing spell. She had to do this to avoid suspicion from her roommates, but she felt miserable while doing so. After having gone openly with girl’s hair for the day, even with the plausible deniability of it being a Halloween costume, having to revert to a boy’s hairdo was depressing.

  The next evening, unwilling to revert again to a boy’s hairdo, she made up an excuse that it was too much of a hassle to do that in the evening just to go back to a girl’s hairdo the next morning. She tried to convince herself that this excuse was more persuasive than it actually was. She even persisted in doing so when Ricky challenged her on this.

  “How much of a hassle is it to just drip one drop of a liquid spell on your head?” he asked.

  “More of a hassle than it’s worth,” she answered him.

  However, worse than the reckless way in which Rosemary pushed the limits of her plausible deniability was the way in which Melissa got under her skin. All weekend, Rosemary seethed as she heard Melissa make disparaging remarks to her friends about her new presentation.

  “That sprouter was already pathetic as a guy,” Rosemary heard her tell one of them while walking past her table at dinner, “but now dressed as a girl, he takes pathetic to a whole new level.”

  Rosemary tried to just let it go — but the taunts continued, and they were increasingly well aimed. It all came to a head Monday after potions class. It was that day that Professor Pendleton taught the class how to brew a rapid plant growth potion.

  “The utility of this potion is actually quite limited,” he said. “With it, you can get a fully-grown plant from a seedling real quick — but the problem is, those plants don’t last very long. However, while it is not practical for actual utility, learning how to make this potion can be very helpful in developing your skill in the art of potion-making itself.”

  As Professor Pendleton explained the procedure, Mr. Prichard handed out instruction sheets. “After you finish your potion,” explained the Professor, “I will check you off as you feed one drop of it to a potted seed that I will provide for you. If you did it right, your plant should quickly grow to be anywhere from one foot to a foot and a half in height. Any questions?”

  When nobody raised their hands, he gave the go-ahead to begin.

  All was going pretty well for Rosemary, until at one point, she couldn’t remember whether or not she had yet added crushed rose hips to her cauldron.

  “Samantha,” she asked. “Did I add rose hips to mine?”

  “How would I know?” replied Samantha. “I’m kinda focused on mine. Sorry.”

  “Not your fault,” said Rosemary. “My memory’s just cranky.”

  After thinking for a few moments, Rosemary concluded that it was safer to assume that she hadn’t added the rose hips — so she took another spoonful of them and tossed it in.

  Ten minutes before class ended, Professor Pendleton spoke. “Once I’ve checked you off,” he said, “you can head off. Mr. Prichard and I will take care of properly disposing of your potions.”

  One by one, Mr. Prichard would bring a pot full of soil with a tiny seed on top of it to a student. That student would add a drop of their potion to it with a medicine dropper in front of Professor Pendleton, who would mark the student off. Most of the students did leave, but Lilith and Mika waited at the door so that Rosemary and Samantha could join them.

  Finally, it was Rosemary’s turn. She added a drop of her potion to the pot — and sure enough, the plant began to grow. Only when it reached the maximum height of a foot and a half, it didn’t stop. Instead, it continued to grow, and grow, and grow even faster. Before long, the pot itself broke. The roots of the plant spread out and completely covered the desk. Professor Pendleton quickly grabbed the cauldron to prevent it from being knocked over by the roots.

  Finally, the plant stopped growing — but by now it was much larger than a foot and a half. As a matter of fact, including the roots, it was more like six feet tall — four not counting the roots.

  “Any idea what went wrong?” asked Professor Pendleton.

  “Well, I’m not sure,” said Rosemary. “I got distracted at some point and forgot whether I had put rose hips in. I assumed I hadn’t. I guess I had.”

  “And what have we learned from that?” he asked.

  “Pay better attention?” asked Rosemary.

  “Well, of course you try to do that,” he affirmed. “But what do we do in case that fails?”

  “We mark down what we put in?” asked Rosemary, meekly.

  “Or?” he continued.

  “We measure everything before we begin?” she cowered.

  “Yes, indeed!” said Professor Pendleton.

  “I’m sorry for not doing that,” apologized Rosemary.

  “Nothing to apologize for,” insisted Professor Pendleton. “We’re over a month and a half into classes and this is the first I’ve seen anything but perfection in your potions. I’d say you’re doing pretty well.”

  “But can’t really bad things happen if we make such mistakes in real life even once?” asked Rosemary.

  “They can,” affirmed Professor Pendleton. “That’s why we’re having y’all make these mistakes with low-risk potions. So by the time you’re ready to start making the dangerous stuff, you’ll know how to avoid them. What matters now is that you turn this mistake into a learning experience.”

  He moved on to Samantha’s inspection. She, unlike Rosemary, got her plant to grow just over one foot and then stop. Rosemary was glad to see her friend succeed — but in seeing it, she felt even worse about the fact that she herself hadn’t.

  After all four of them were clear to leave, the girls walked toward Hemlock Tower. They moved slowly, as they were consoling Rosemary, who despite Professor Pendleton’s reassurances was distraught over her failure to brew the rapid plant growth potion correctly. The last thing they needed was another run-in with Melissa. But sure enough, shortly before they got to Hemlock Tower, they saw her in the hallway with a guy from Birch Tower named Marcus.

  “Oh, here’s one tip for your costume, Simon,” she said, looking up and down the girl’s uniform Rosemary was wearing. “Real women can brew potions without messing them up.”

  “Leave me alone!” snapped Rosemary, her right hand twitching in distress.

  “Why?” asked Melissa. “Can’t handle the fact that you’re even more pathetic dressed as a girl than you already were?”

  “What’s your problem with me?” demanded Rosemary, her hands and forearms flapping with rage, her entire body quaking. “What did I ever do to —?”

  But before Rosemary could get out the word “you”, Melissa pointed her wand at Rosemary’s feet and said, “Slide et lapsus.” As she said it, Rosemary’s feet slid out from under her, as though she were standing on ice. She heard a crunching sound as she landed on the floor. She lay there in pain. She tried to get up, but every time she tried to move her arms or her right leg, the pain got even worse and shot through her entire body.

  “Go get help!” she heard Lilith shout before she passed out.