As Adam and Tabitha got off the school bus, Adam looked at Tabby doubtfully. "Do you really think Aurora will adjust here, Tabby? I didn't even know she'd ever done school."
Tabitha looked at her brother. "I don't think so. I am not sure why she'd want to go to school with mortals anyway. I wonder where she is." Tabby liked her cousin Aurora, but Auri had never really learned how to hold the brakes on her powers. Tabby and Adam had come on the early bus, as Adam was doing choir practice this morning.
"Hey, Tabby!" Tabitha looked over at Betsy and Denise. Denise was in a thrift shop phase and had found a denim jacket with more holes in it than Swiss cheese.
"Are you guys here for choir, too?" Tabitha smiled at her friends, and trailed a hesitant finger on Denise's withered jean coat. "How much was this, Den, eighty cents?"
"Dude, I got it for two-fifty, and I think it's smashing!" Denise giggled. Betsy rolled her eyes. Betsy's mom ordered most of her stuff from Paris.
"Well, Denise, it's um, very retro, I guess." Tabitha tried to be kind. "You look um, like you're protesting something."
"She looks like something locked out of a Grateful Dead show" said a voice just behind Tabby's ear, and sure enough, Aurora had appeared, an inch tall, and was leaning a dainty hand on Tabby's neck, standing there like a tiny, manicured flea.
Annoyed, Tabitha tried to blow out of the side of her mouth to knock Aurora over, but to no avail.
"So my Grandma says that I look like Audrey Hepburn—and maybe I really should run for Homecoming Queen, what do you guys think?" Betsy grinned. "I think it might be fun, but I don't want to be too um, self centered."
Tabby winked at Denise, who rolled her eyes. Betsy was a great bud, but she was a little full of herself.
"I might get my hair like, redone and have head-shots done, for the running."
Suddenly a big, white pimple appeared on Betsy's nose, right on the tip, Pinnochio style.
"The photographer said he'd give me a great rate if he could keep my pics for the portfolio, you know?"
Another zit appeared on Betsy's chin.
Denise looked at Betsy curiously. "Are you…breaking out?"
Betsy giggled. "No, of course not. I have really good skin. Though I wish I had your freckles." This was a generous aside to Denise, who perhaps had too many of them.
Suddenly Betsy had many freckles, and as her mouth opened, it seemed to Tabby that she also had buck teeth!
"Can't wait to see how the head shots go" said a tiny voice in Tabitha's ear.