July, 2019

Jennifer

"Seems like this year's gone crazy fast," Ellie said to me, as headed down the corridor from the Sports Hall at the end of our final Self-Defence class. "Don't you think?"

I thought about this. "Yeah – it has, actually." The beginning of the school year had dragged on forever, but the last few months had whizzed by. "I guess I've been pretty busy."

"Do you still go to your science-y club then?" asked Ellie.

"Chemistry Club, yeah!" I said enthusiastically. "Last one for the year was yesterday though. I'll miss it over the summer."

Ellie cracked up when I said this. "You are such a nerd, Jen," she said between giggles.

"I am not!" I said indignantly. "Chemistry's cool, that's all."

"It's boring," drawled Ellie, as we neared the school gates. "Who cares about...you know...atoms and stuff? You can't even see them!"

"Just 'cause you can't see them doesn't mean they're not interesting," I argued. "And actually chemistry explains so much incredible stuff we just take for granted...like fire! What is fire, Ellie?"

Ellie paused. "Oh, come on, teacher." she said eventually. "School's out. Fire's like – really hot – gas. Are you done?"

"But fire's not a gas," I said. "It's a chemical reaction. A really complicated reaction. Something we would've thought was almost magic years ago."

"Well, I can strike matches without knowing, or caring, that it's not magic," said Ellie, rolling her eyes. "Like I said, you're a nerd. Anyway, see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you," I said, and Ellie flashed me a grin before we headed for our different bus stops. I knew she was only teasing about me being a nerd. We got on really well now, me and Ellie, after two full terms of partnering each other in self defence classes. She was fun and energetic, and I liked her, even if we didn't see eye to eye about everything.

I'd meant what I'd said, and to be honest she was probably right about me being a nerd about it. Chemistry Club was the highlight of my school week. There was something I found incredibly satisfying in discovering more and more about how things really worked, things that would've seemed impossible, or crazy, once. I often wondered whether magic could be explained scientifically, despite McGonagall telling me and Juliet that magic and science had nothing to do with each other.

I shivered with pleasure when I thought about Juliet. Her term was nearly at an end, too, and she was coming home on Friday for the whole summer! Six entire weeks together, and we were going to Corfu with Mum and Dad for two weeks, where there would be warm turquoise sea and pure white beaches. It was going to be amazing.

My phone beeped as I headed home from the bus stop and I checked it quickly. It was a text from Tara.

shindig at lennies fri night. his folks away. wanna come?

My heart quickened when I read this. Tara had never invited me to one of their parties before...but I realised seconds later that I couldn't possibly go, not on Friday.

Really sorry, I replied. Would love to, another time. But my sister is home on Friday. We have family plans that evening.

I hoped very much that Tara wouldn't be offended, but she pinged back an answer immediately.

aww yr twin sis? glad 2 hear that lemme meet her soon yh? no wrries bout the party. c ya 2moz kid x

I smiled, tucking away my phone as I reached my house. The more I got to know Tara the more I liked her. She was such a genuine person, and she had such a big heart despite her tough exterior. I hoped Juliet would like her too, and the others, if she could meet them all this summer.

Mum called out straight away from the kitchen, when she heard me close the front door behind me. "Hi, Jennifer! Good day? Do you still fancy making Juliet's cake with me before dinner?"

"'Course I do," I said, going into the kitchen to find that Mum had already assembled a pile of ingredients on the table and was greasing a cake tin.

"Thanks, darling," said Mum. "Now, I thought perhaps a Victoria Sandwich. That's always nice..."

"Can't we make a chocolate cake?" I said, a little disappointed.

Mum shook her head. "Sorry, love. No cocoa powder."

"Oh. Well, can we fill it with chocolate spread, then? Instead of jam? And put chocolate buttons on top? I can get them after school tomorrow."

"Chocolate spread in a Victoria Sandwich?" said Mum, looking scandalised.

"Yeah...Juliet'll love it! And it's her welcome-back cake!"

Mum sighed. "You two are proper chocoholics, you know. Well, all right then. Just this once..."

An hour later two fluffy golden sponge halves sat cooling on the table and the kitchen smelt deliciously of warm, sweet vanilla.

"Even better when they're stuck together with loads of chocolate spread," I said, teasingly.

"Oh, you," said Mum, swatting me. "What a way to ruin a sponge. Right, what time is it?"

"Time to cook dinner!" squeaked a familiar little voice, making us both jump. Dad had just entered the room, looking far too pleased, as he always did when he used his magical pocket watch (which was often). Mum and I exchanged amused glances. I didn't think the novelty would ever wear off.

"Well, I've been given my instructions!" said Dad cheerfully, tucking the pocket watch away. "My turn to make dinner. Everyone okay with beans on toast, I assume."

"Ha, ha..." I answered, rolling my eyes. This was Dad's standard joke whenever he cooked.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you just want beans?"

"Very funny," said Mum. "Some pasta would be lovely, dear."

An hour later I sat back in my chair, full of chicken and spinach pasta, almost relaxed, but then I felt it. That edginess I'd been getting lately, often after eating. I knew exactly what it was and frowned, trying to think about other things.

"Are you all right, darling? You look worried."

I hadn't realised it was showing and quickly relaxed my expression. "I'm fine," I said quickly. "Really fine. Looking forward to Juliet coming back! I'm going to write to her tonight."

I escaped up to my bedroom shortly after and threw myself onto my bed, fidgeting and trying to ignore the feeling I'd been fighting – the itching, all-consuming urge for a cigarette. Recently I'd got so used to sharing a smoke with Tara and the others, I hadn't noticed the shift from hating the smell and taste of cigarettes, to not minding them, then actually quite enjoying them. When I realised, I was quite horrified. But often now I got random urges, not all the time, but usually after eating or when I was worrying about something.

I hadn't confessed to Juliet that I'd let myself get slightly addicted. She'd asked me about the smoking a few times, clearly not liking the idea at all. I'd always reassured her it was just a tiny bit, the tiniest, eensiest bit, that it wasn't a big deal. She'd hate it if she knew. I hated it too. I'd looked up exactly what cigarettes were made of and the thought of all those chemicals pouring into my lungs made me feel ill, even at the same time as craving a smoke. I didn't like that my brain didn't seem so in control about it anymore.

I sighed and eventually made myself get up, knowing I had to distract myself. Apollo was watching me quietly from half-closed eyes. He was always sleepier during the day in the summer. I stroked the soft fluffy feathers on his chest, then rubbed my finger against his cheek until he hooted with pleasure and nibbled my fingertip.

"Well, I won't smoke in the summer holidays," I said to him. "So they'll probably wear off by next term. Want to take a letter to Juliet?"

The letter I wrote was very cheerful, as Juliet's had been too for the past week. The end of term was so close, plus it was our birthday soon: we were turning twelve! And we had the whole glorious summer stretching ahead of us...I couldn't wait.

August 2019

Juliet

It was one of those lazy summer days with no breeze and Jennifer and I were hanging out in the garden, sprawled on the lawn, reading together. After our birthday, we'd spent two amazing weeks on holiday in Corfu, followed by another chilled out week at home, and were both very tanned and relaxed. This summer seemed so long after the short snatches of holiday we'd had together since I went to Hogwarts, and the remaining three weeks stretched out invitingly in front of us. Every now and then I stopped reading just to look at my sister, who was deep in her book. I was so happy to be back together, even though it was weird going so long without using magic. We weren't allowed to use magic in the holidays, so I had lots of essays to write, but my wand was collecting dust under my bed.

"How's your science book?" I asked, after a while. Jennifer was reading a book her Chemistry teacher had given her at the end of the year called Elemental: Our Chemical World. It looked awful to me, but she was so engrossed she didn't even notice when a fly landed on her cheek.

"Hm?" she said, looking up with a start, suddenly realising that I'd spoken. "Oh...yeah, it's brilliant! I've just been reading about fertiliser..."

I laughed. "How on earth is fertiliser brilliant?"

"Well, before there was fertiliser, stuff didn't grow half so well," Jennifer explained earnestly. "Then they worked out a way to turn nitrogen and hydrogen into ammonia fertiliser and then, boom! There was loads more food, and the world's population exploded. That's literally one of the biggest reasons for over-population, and that's a huge problem now...and the last chapter was about polymers and plastics. You know, everyone thought plastic was amazing for years, it was one of the best things people ever invented, and now the oceans are full of it and it's killing the fish...so it's just really interesting, how chemistry has been responsible for the human race advancing so much, but also a lot of seriously bad stuff that wasn't expected at the time."

I'd been struggling to follow half of what my sister had just said. "Wow," I said eventually. "You really are keen on science, aren't you?"

I'd known that she liked it, but I hadn't realised till now quite how much. It was kind of weird to see how into it she was. Sure, I was learning things that Jennifer wasn't, but only because she wasn't allowed to go to Hogwarts. Somehow I hadn't expected her to develop a massive interest in such a very non-magic subject. It unsettled me a bit.

"I wonder if scientists are going to work out a way to get rid of the plastic in the oceans and save the sea-life," said Jennifer, thoughtfully. "Or if witches and wizards could, even! Do you reckon it's possible for them to make all the ocean plastic disappear by magic, Juliet?"

"Oh, um..." I said, taken back. I imagined rows of Hogwarts teachers waving their wands at the waves, trying to Vanish it all. "I doubt it. You'd need, like...millions of us. Let's talk about something else. I've been researching Djinn, you know."

A little furrow appeared in Jennifer's forehead. "Yeah, I figured," she said shortly.

"Don't be like that," I said, hurt. "Hear me out, yeah?"

She didn't say anything, so I pressed on. "I found loads of stuff once I knew what I was looking for. So apparently, there are loads of them in this Great Salt Desert, the same one as in the fairy-tale. Wizards have sealed large areas of it off from Muggles, made big parts of it Unplottable so Muggles can't wander across them."

"Because they're dangerous."

"Because they're obviously magic," I countered. "Wizards conceal all magical beings from Muggles as best they can. But they shouldn't be hard to find."

"For you," Jennifer said. "I assume I'd only get so far, as I'm a Muggle."

"Yes," I replied, levelly. "For us to speak to a Djinn together I'd have to go ahead alone and ask it to come and meet you."

"Right. Sounds sensible." The sarcasm was barely concealed, and I suppressed a twinge of irritation with difficulty.

"There are quite a few mentions of encounters with Djinn that I've found. We wouldn't be the first to seek wishes...it's obviously quite tempting. It sounds as though lots of people have done it, over the years."

Jennifer did look mildly surprised to hear this. "Okay," she said cautiously. "And how did that turn out for them?"

"Well. It depended how they went about it. But generally," I stressed, "things went wrong when people went back on their deals. The deals are magically binding, you see."

"So why did people go back on them, if they wanted their wish so badly?"

"I don't know why!" I said, frustrated. "Because they didn't want it enough, maybe! The deals are probably pretty tough, because the Djinn are hard traders, but as long you complete your side of the contract you get your wish, they have to grant it in exchange. Like I said, it's binding. So, look, as long as we do whatever they ask, they have to give you magic. They have to! If other people were too chicken to complete their side of the deal it's nothing to do with us."

"Yes," said Jennifer, calmly. "But what was their side of the deal?"

"I don't know exactly," I admitted. "Basically it sounds like they're not interested in money or anything valuable. If they want to exchange anything it'll be a service...doing something for them that they want."

"Like what? Marrying them, like that poor Prince?"

I was silent for a few minutes.

"Look," I said eventually. "I just don't see why you're so dead against it. As long as we're careful and don't enter into a contract that is too dangerous, we can politely refuse and walk away before we get into anything. What do we lose by trying?"

"Juliet, I don't think –"

Jennifer's phone suddenly pinged loudly, and she sat up immediately, fumbling to pull it out of her tight jeans pocket, clearly glad of the interruption. She stopped talking abruptly, and I realised the conversation was over for now. I was frustrated it hadn't gone anywhere near as well as I'd hoped, but I swallowed my annoyance for now.

"Who's texting you?" I asked eventually.

"It's Tara," Jennifer replied, opening the message. "Oh. Cool! You want to meet her?"

She showed me the message on the screen.

wen we meetin ur sis yh? picnic on the beach 2day u shd come x

"That sounds fun!" Jennifer said. "Let's ask if we can go, yeah?"

In my view, it'd probably be more fun for her than for me. The idea of spending the day with a whole bunch of older kids I'd never met before immediately made me nervous. But I definitely wanted to meet them, wanted to put faces to the names in Jennifer's letters.

"Yeah, all right. Sounds good," I said, trying to sound more eager than I felt, as Jennifer was clearly glad to have been asked.

My sister stood up, brushing bits of dead grass off her jeans. She looked thoughtful. "Trouble is," she said, "I've never told Mum and Dad about Tara, or the others. I kind of thought they'd not, you know. Approve..."

At this moment, Mum came out to the garden and saved Jennifer the trouble of going inside.

"Are you girls all right out here?" said Mum. "I was just thinking, while Dad's at work maybe we three could go for a nice walk, as it's such a lovely day?"

"Er," said Jennifer awkwardly. "Actually, I was just coming to ask you, Mum. Some people from school are meeting for a picnic today, on the beach. I was wondering if we could go?"

"What people from school, darling? That Ellie from your defence class?"

"No, some others," said Jennifer vaguely. "I hang out with them sometimes at lunch."

"Oh!" said Mum. "I thought you hadn't made many friends, Jen. Are they in your class?"

Jennifer hesitated, then evidently decided she didn't want to flat-out lie. "No," she said cautiously. "They aren't. They're in Year Ten. They noticed I was by myself at lunch, you know, so they asked me if I wanted to hang out with them. They're all really nice."

"Oh, how lovely of them," said Mum. "Well, yes, they must be good kids to do that. I'm so glad. Of course you can go...just be back before tea, of course."

I could sense Jennifer's relief. She texted Tara back and we looked up bus times. Twenty minutes later we were on our way.

"Mum took that well," said Jennifer. "I'm glad she didn't ask too many questions. They are really nice, but, you know...they all grew up in Hitchwell, and you know what that's like."

Hitchwell was a biggish town about ten miles inland and it had a pretty bad reputation, really high crime levels. If there was a nasty story on the local news, you could almost guarantee it had happened there. We lived in what was generally a posh part of Devon, in a very safe, friendly village. I knew this was kind of snobby, but I couldn't help feeling nervous when I heard this.

"I'm pretty sure you never mentioned that," I said, trying not to sound too accusing.

"Well, why does it matter?" said Jennifer, shrugging. "Yeah, they've not had it easy like us. They're a bit – you know – well, rough round the edges. But that's all. And they're my friends."

I didn't miss the defensive note which had crept into Jen's voice, and I said quickly, "I know that. They sound cool. Really."

When we got to the beach it was full of holidaymakers, but Jennifer immediately spotted the group she was looking for amongst the sea of windbreaks and people on colourful towels. They were huddled by the rocks at the far side of the beach, on a couple of blankets. A couple of them waved as we approached and one girl stood up. Spiky black hair, thick eyeliner, wearing black leggings and a black leather jacket despite the blazing sun. This had to be Tara. She was smiling broadly.

"Jen-girl!" she said when we reached them. "Blimey, you weren't kidding. Identical, not half! So you're Juliet. Nice one. I'm Tara."

"Hey," I replied shyly. Everyone else was looking curiously at me. There was a small, serious-looking girl with short brown hair, a tall, broad kid with dreadlocks, a stylish-looking black guy taking a swig of beer, and a girl with white-blonde hair wearing a lot of make-up and a very short skirt.

"Hey guys," said Jennifer, smiling at everyone. "Juliet, this is Lennie, Zac, Jasmin, and Ben."

"Nice to meet you," I said awkwardly.

They made room for us on the blanket and Tara offered us both a beer. They seemed to have a whole cool-box full of beer bottles, and not much food apart from crisps. The word 'picnic' had a very different connotation to me, and Jennifer too. Mum had loaded us up with fruit, bottles of juice, and chicken sandwiches to share, which she'd made quickly before we left. I could see Jennifer biting her lower lip. Would they laugh?

"Oh...um...no thanks, I don't really like beer," she said, and Tara shrugged and tossed the bottle aside. "It's okay, we brought stuff to drink. And, er - some food...sorry, it's nothing amazing...Mum likes healthy stuff..."

"Sandwiches!" said the boy called Lennie, reaching out. "Hey, why not. I'll have a sandwich. Cheers."

"Chicken...nice," said Ben. "Thanks, Jennifer."

They all tucked in appreciatively, and I relaxed a bit. They did seem all right, actually. Maybe the afternoon wouldn't be so bad after all. But I hated the cloud of cigarette smoke that hung around them all the time. Every one of them was smoking.

"I've been seeing a guy recently," said Tara. "He works in Tesco in town, no problem gettin' fags now! Here, have one –"

And she offered us the packet. I shook my head, glancing at Jennifer. She took one but I could tell she was unhappy about something. It was so weird seeing her put the cigarette in her mouth. My sister. We'd always been – well – good girls. I'd found it really hard to picture her smoking with these guys, and here she was...but...wait a moment. I glanced at her a few times over the next ten minutes, and she definitely wasn't actually smoking the thing, just pretending to. She was talking, and laughing, and waving it around so that the ashy tip kept falling off, and if she ever touched her mouth to it she didn't breathe in, I could tell. None of the others had noticed at all, but she saw me looking at her and gave me a quick, pleading look – she didn't want me to give her away. I stopped staring, quickly.

It was quite a good afternoon, in the end, although the empty bottles of beer stacked up pretty quickly and after a couple of hours I could tell they were all pretty drunk. But after a while Tara yelled, "Paddling time!" and dragged us all into the shallows where we all whooped and jumped the little waves and got soaking wet pretty fast...Lennie, waving his arms enthusiastically as he jumped, caught Ben in the chest and sent her flying into the water. Poor little Ben came up dripping and gasping, and Tara, Jasmin and Zac immediately leapt on Lennie and gave him a ducking. He came up with a wet gurgle, yelling "Ow! I didn't mean to! It was an accident!" Jennifer and I couldn't stop laughing, and I realised I liked her friends a lot.

She would be okay at Greenhill without me, at least for the next year, while these guys were around. I didn't have to worry. But at the same time – was this selfish of me? I somehow didn't want her to get too settled. When I'd worked out a plan, I wanted Jennifer to come with me to find the Djinn. If I found a way, and it might be possible, she'd want to give it a go, surely?

"Jen," I said, as we sat, damp and sandy, on the bus back home. "You do still want to become magic, don't you?"

She looked at me in surprise. "Of course I do," she said. "It's only been a year. I'd catch up. I just – I just think there might be another way, you know. A less dangerous one."

"It won't be dangerous, I promise. I'll find a way to make it safe."

Jennifer shook her head. "You can't promise that, Juliet."

But I'd been mulling over the whole idea all day, really, after this morning's conversation, and I'd decided I wasn't going to let Jen brush it under the carpet just like that. She'd come round, I was sure of it.

"It'll be okay," I told her. "You'll see."