She ended up sitting alone in a boat made for four.
The lake was black. Luna thought she saw something very big just beneath the surface causing the rippling waves that bumped against her boat and made it rock, but she had no one to point it out to.
"It's cold," said a voice in her ear.
Luna turned her head to the right, looking mystified.
A little girl sat adjacent to her. Her strange, multicolored hair rustled like leaves in the wind and her eyes were like two round shining pebbles.
"Hullo Moxie," Luna said happily.
"You left me," the girl rasped. Feathers flittered out of her mouth every time she spoke, spiraling away from her. One settled in Luna's straggly hair.
"I'm sorry," said Luna.
"You left me and everyone else for this dumb school," Moxie hissed. "They won't understand you like we do. They'll hurt you and make you cry like baby." A stream of feathers came pouring out of her purple lips. They blackened and curled in the air. Luna's nose bristled at the smell of acrid smoke, and she covered her mouth with a scarf. She spoke through it, her voice muffled. "I had to. I have to learn magic. Daddy said."
"Daddy said," Moxie mimicked. "You won't believe in me anymore. In us."
"I will!" Luna cried earnestly, ducking a fresh wave of feathers.
But Moxie evaporated into the night air and was gone, leaving burning feathers in her wake.
Ginny nudged her friend. "Leslie, who is that girl talking to?"
Leslie peered over at the funny-dressed, bug-eyed girl. "I don't know. There's nobody there. She's talking to herself. What a loser."