Marlie contemplated her bare face in the mirror. Like most teenagers, she had her share of blemishes and her nose was perhaps a bit sharp, but overall it was not a bad face. Still, she could make her improvements.
There was something satisfying in the art of applying makeup. Not everyone thought so, she knew, but to her it was an art. To make the red spots and imperfections vanish under a thin layer of carefully blended concealer picked to exactly match her skin, to lengthen and darken her lashes to better frame her hazel eyes, to apply just enough color here and there… Marlie didn't particularly enjoy the art classes she had taken over the years, but this was different. This had purpose.
And so, as she always did on special occasions, Marlie had taken her time to shower and moisturize and dry her hair perfectly straight. Now, with almost an hour to spare, she could do her make-up with all the time and precision she desired.
Still, she had done this enough times that it no longer required all of her concentration. She let her mind wander instead. Grace had called last night, full of excitement abut her date. Apparently a guy she worked with had taken her out and it had gone perfectly. Marlie grinned at her reflection. It had been a while since Grace had shown interest in anyone. She couldn't wait to meet this kid.
As for the rest of her friends, she was already working on Cara. Tom's friend Danny had danced with her for most of the Winter Formal and they were talking now. It was hard to find a guy tall enough for a girl who was nearing six feet, but Danny made the cut by at least an inch. Well, Cara never really liked heels anyway.
She didn't both with Isobel anymore. Marlie had tried, before Aaron, to find her someone. But no matter who she came up with, Isobel had an opinion on him and could not be swayed. As far as Marlie was concerned, she was on her own.
Marlie finished her mascara and examined it carefully in the mirror, making sure it was even. Anna was the one who needed a boy now. As Marlie's best friend of over ten years now, she should be the easiest but somehow it didn't work like that. Anna wasn't the type to have half a dozen crushes at a given time. The few that she did have, she was unlikely to actually express her feelings towards. She hadn't mentioned anyone to Marlie since the beginning of the year, so it was obviously time to find her someone.
But it was senior year now and they had pretty much exhausted the possibilities in their own grade. Younger guys were out of the question. Marlie wasn't worried about Anna in the long run. College would be full of guys with much more potential than the ones they had been going to school with forever. For the rest of the year, though—and most importantly, for senior prom—she was going to need someone.
The solution was very simple, when it occurred to her. Anna, like most senior girls, was sick of the guys in their grade. None of them knew a lot of people outside of school. There was, however, someone else—someone in their grade, but new. Someone who hadn't dated several of their acquaintances, who didn't have an established group that he wouldn't branch out from, and who was undeniably attractive.
Marlie finished the make-up on her eyes with a bronze shadow that brought out the dark gold highlights in her brown hair. Anna, she concluded, should date Jonathan.
There were potential holes in this plan, she realized. He was not exactly up on modern society, being a newcomer from some alien planet. And he hadn't expressed any particular interest in Anna. But it wasn't like he could date anyone else. Certainly not anyone outside of their group, who might not understand the whole off world traveler thing. Marlie was the only one with a boyfriend, but Grace and Cara had their prospects. Isobel, supremely stubborn holder of grudges, wasn't going to let the memory wipe incident go any time soon. That left Anna. And they did seem to get along well enough. In addition to being pretty and fun Anna was the calm, easy-going one of the group. In Marlie's eyes, it would be entirely unreasonable for him not to like her.
Satisfied with both her makeup and her plan, Marlie sat back. The fluffy lavender robe was not exactly Christmas Eve Mass attire, but she had time.
"Marlie!" Her mom's voice carried easily up the stairs. "Can you help your sister get dressed?"
With a sigh, she got to her feet and shuffled her way into her sister's room. At eight, it seemed perfectly reasonable for Caroline to dress herself, but apparently no one cared for Marlie's opinion on the matter.
Caroline had the typical pink princess-y bedroom of a little girl, her bed piled high with pillows and draped under a filmy canopy. This was why it was initially difficult for her to find the girl. But there she was, her head a dark spot against a backdrop of rose and cream.
The girl, in a pink robe that only helped her to further disappear into her bed, was sitting cross-legged, facing her headboard and chattering animatedly into thin air.
"This is my room," she was saying. "Do you like it? It's my favorite color. And Mommy let me get a canopy like a princess. Do you like princesses?"
Who was she talking to? There was no one there, unless she had stolen one of their phones again to talk to her friends.
It was as Marlie moved closer that she realized this was not the case. The object she was facing was not a phone, but a toy. A doll, it looked like, from some sort of fantasy collection, with long lavender hair and sparkly butterfly wings.
Marlie rolled her eyes. "Caroline, you can play later. We need to go to church."
Caroline turned over her shoulder, pleading with wide dark eyes. "But we can't just leave her here!"
And odd, prickling feeling was climbing up her spine, but Marlie ignored it. "Car, do you really need to bring your doll to church? You're old enough to leave her home now." Marlie was sometimes a little jealous that the little kids got to bring entertainment but admitting that would not exactly help motivate her sister.
Caroline shook her head hard, sending her dark hair flying. At least that was reasonably styled. Getting a dress on her was much easier than trying to do her hair. "She's not a doll," the girl said hotly. "She's my friend."
"Right. Well your friend can't come to church, okay? Now get up and put your dress on." The dress in question was hanging on the door of the closet, red and poofy skirted. What else did little girls wear on Christmas? Marlie grabbed it and advanced on her sister, throwing aside the layers of pink tulle. As she leaned forward, she got a closer look at the doll.
It was moving. "Car," she said slowly, keeping her eye on it. "Where did you get that?"
The little figure sitting on one of her sister's pillows was clearly not a doll. The tiny pointed face that had been tilted up at Caroline was facing her now, staring at her with unblinking purple eyes. The thing shifted, released a shower of glitter from its wings.
Her sister shrugged. "She was in the backyard. I haven't been able to get her to talk yet, but I know she will." The little girl smiled widely. "We're going to be best friends!"
"Listen to me, Car. That's not a toy and not something you can be friends with." Her sister's face fell. The creature showed no change in expression, but cocked her head just slightly as if she, too, was listening.
Marlie ignored the wrench in her gut. She couldn't leave the thing here with her sister. What if it was dangerous? And even if it wasn't, she knew one thing for certain. That did not belong on Earth.
"She's lost," Marlie said gently. "She needs to go home now, so she can see her family."
Those dark eyes started to fill with tears, but Caroline nodded. She turned and buried her face in her pillows as Marlie carefully scooped up the creature.
The thing sat quietly in her hands as she made her way downstairs. Well, it didn't seem to be dangerous. That didn't change the fact that it was not supposed to be here. She could remember what the voice had said, that day when they received their powers. And more clearly, she could remember the image of the other planets speeding towards Earth, ready to destroy the world.
The problem was, where was she supposed to put it? Marlie slipped out the back door, glad that everyone was still getting ready. Once there, though, she had no idea where to start.
It must have come through somewhere. Maybe it left a hole where it moved between worlds. All she had to do was find it and then she could send it back to its own world.
She moved around the edges of the yard, dodging any large snowbanks. The slippers she had chosen certainly completed an outfit consisting of a robe and sweatpants, but they didn't do much to protect her feet from snow. As she moved to the very back corner, behind the old swing set, Marlie began to hear a low hum.
After her next step, Marlie knew she was in the right place. She could see it, a jagged gash in thin air, as if torn into the canvas of the world. Light poured through it, bright in the dusky early evening. The feeling hit her almost as soon as she saw it. Marlie doubled over, nausea threatening to empty the contents of her stomach. She couldn't quite explain it, but the gash was wrong. Still, she struggled to stand up straight. This was it, she knew. The creature had to go through.
"You have to go home," she said to the thing, which was staring at her again. Did it feel the wrongness too, or did it not care? "Please, go through that!"
For a minute it just sat there. Marlie began to debate whether or not it would be a good idea to throw it through, when it suddenly took off. It gave a musical whistle before disappearing through the crack.
The crack flared brighter, sending another wave of nausea through her. Marlie fell to her knees, eyes on the tiny shoots just barely emerging from the dirt. They would become the weeds that her mother spent long afternoons cutting away from the trees. Now, though, they were exactly what she needed.
Marlie placed her palms flat on the dirt, just above the shoots. "Seal it." The magic warmed her—not quite the fire that it was when she transformed, but a steady flow of heat through her veins. It pushed back the nausea slightly and she doubled her efforts. Green sparks began to dance around her hands and she sat back to watch her work.
The thin vines erupted from the soil, reaching toward the jagged tear. They darted across the empty space like a needle and thread across a ripped seam. With every tug the tear shrunk and dulled until finally it disappeared completely.
The sickness faded immediately. Marlie stood, brushing dirt off her hands. "Thank you," she whispered to the waving vines. They shrunk back into the soil as she turned back towards the house.
More than ever, she couldn't just hope that video had been an odd dream. Their mission was frighteningly, impossibly real.
"Marlie, honey, can you check on the kids?"
Marlie, who was nursing the typical post-holiday-meal food coma, sighed and pushed her chair away from the table. She was starting to see why kids were the ones who had the most fun on Christmas. Of course she still loved it, but her enthusiasm had been greatly dampened by getting dragged out of bed at sunrise by Caroline, wrapping last-minute presents, cooking (and cleaning in between each stage of preparation), and now being the lucky oldest cousin in charge of making sure the little ones didn't destroy her grandparents' house. Technically, she wasn't the oldest. But apparently having graduated college officially moved a person up to adult status, leaving the oldest of the "kids" to do the babysitting.
Still, she couldn't entirely shake the comfortable warmth of food and family, and it was with a not entirely uncharitable feeling towards the little lunatics that she followed the shouts down to the basement.
It was chaos, of course. The girls were running in circles, disrupting the intense video game war going on in front of the TV. Before Fred and Gerard had a chance to turn on their sisters, Marlie gathered them up and moved to the lighter part of the basement, near the stairs.
"Let's do something without running, okay?"
Caroline sat cross-legged against the wall. "I want to tell them about my friend from yesterday," she announced.
Marlie's eyes widened and she shook her head, but it was too late. The other girls nodded eagerly and Caroline started to share.
"She was a fairy," Caroline said solemnly. "With wings and everything. I found her in the backyard and brought her to my room. But Marlie made me give her away."
Four pairs of accusing eyes turned on her. She sighed. Great. "It wasn't a real fairy," she said with false levity. Caroline opened her mouth to protest but was silenced by her older sister's intent look. "It was part of a story, right Caroline?"
Luckily, her sister decided to go along with this. She had no idea how she managed that but she owed her sister a cookie or something.
Sarah, the youngest of the girls, crept up against Marlie's side. "Can you tell us the story?" she asked.
Of course, Marlie didn't have a story. But those giant blue eyes looking up at her were pretty much impossible to refuse. "Of course," she said. "Just sit down."
The girls obliged, forming a neat little circle. Marlie blinked at them, wondering what on earth she could say.
"Once upon a time," she started, "there were five girls with magical powers…"
It turned out that her life story (as of the past week) made an excellent fairy tale, if she swapped out the vacuum for an evil queen and her boyfriend for a prince. When she finished, the girls were wide-eyed with awe.
"I wish I could be like them," Sarah said wistfully.
Marlie couldn't help but grin. "Well," she conceded. "Their outfits are pretty cool."
Well the characters have been getting some alone time, but next chapter the girls are all back together! As always, thank you so much for reading.