Shauna thanked Matilda for the hot water bottle and curled around it on Matilda's bed.

Matilda went a closet and pulled out some comforters and pillows and arranged them on the floor. She sat down on them, looking up at Shauna.

"How are you now?"

"Much better. Thank you."

Matilda turned her head and stared at a penny lying on the carpet. She willed it to rise, to prove to herself that her powers had actually manifested, but as before nothing happened.

"What are you doing?" Shauna asked noticing the faces Matilda was making at the floor.

"I'm trying to make the penny rise."

"What? How?"

"With my mind. I used to be able to do it."

"The rumors?"

Matilda nodded, "They're mostly true. I never turned anybody into a newt though."

Shauna didn't say anything.

"Don't know whether to believe me or not, do you? Or, if they are true, you don't know whether you should run away screaming or not."

"That's not true." Shauna said firmly.

"Right."

"Matilda. It's not. Honestly I think your lying or mistaken. Maybe it's a defense for you. Having been called a witch all your life; you pretend that you actually are one. But just because people think you are strange doesn't mean I don't want to be friends with you."

"Thanks. That means a lot to me."

Shauna smiled, and then buried her head into her pillow. "Besides," she said shyly, "There are rumors about me too, you know."

Matilda cocked her head at her. "What rumors?"

Shauna rolled onto stomach and looked down at "I suppose you don't hear them, since you're a college girl already. They started last year in eighth grade when I rejected a couple of guys who wanted to date me."

"A couple?" Matilda looked sideways at Shauna.

"Hey! I've got boobs; of course they want to date me. And I'm considered kind of popular at school you know, simply on account of me being a jock.

"So, what happened when you wouldn't date them?"

"One of them, the immature prick, insinuated that the reason I wouldn't date him was because I was a big old bull dyke."

Matilda looked pointedly at her, "You certainly may be a jock, but you're no bull dyke."

Shauna laughed. "I thought so too. I mean, didn't it reflect badly on him that he had wanted to date a dyke?"

"So, how does your popularity fare now that people think your gay?" Matilda asked. She had a lot of questions more than that, such as was she? But she would skirt around it a bit for a while.

"Not badly actually. You'll notice nobody changes near my locker, but I don't mind that at all. I feel shy enough as it is without all these girls looking at me and judging me, you know?"

"Yeah." Matilda made a face. "I know what you mean. I'm always afraid that people are looking around thinking, she's a B, she's an A, and she's a D, the fatso.

"So...Shauna, are you?"

Matilda was drawing in a notebook, one of many that lay scattered about her room, and sketching Shauna who lay with eyes closed listening to some of Matilda's music on the computer.

"Am I what?" asked the girl asked, opening her eyes and peeking at Matilda. Shauna realized what she was asking before Matilda answered back. "I don't know. I've never," she cleared her

throat, "I've never found out. I won't know for sure until I find someone I like. And then, well, I won't really know for sure until I've kissed someone for the first time."

"So, you've thought about it?"

"Yeah." She stared at Matilda, scared suddenly of what the girl thought of her. "Do you mind?"

Matilda shook her head vehemently. "Of course not!" She looked meaningfully at the blushing girl.

"I would be such a hypocrite if I did."

Shauna looked intently at Matilda. "Do you know for sure?"

"No... I've only thought about it, once or twice. When I wake up from dreams. Do you dream?"

Shauna looked at her strangely for a second then blushed. "Oh, those dreams, you mean. Nah, but I daydream sometimes."

Matilda suddenly let out a surprised laugh. "You know? Its amazing, we've barely known each other as anything past acquaintances for a day, and yet I already feel like I can tell you anything."

Shauna nodded vigorously. "I know what you mean, absolutely. I have friends at school I've known since kindergarten yet they seem like mere acquaintances compared to you."

The two girls smiled at each other.

Matilda put down her notebook and climbed onto the bed beside Shauna. "Shauna." She said seriously.

"Yes, Mattie?"

"When you said you had to be kissed to know for sure, did the person kissing you have to know for sure as well?"

"Mattie?"

Matilda leaned down and pressed her lips against Shauna, who lay on her back beside her.

Shauna pushed herself up and met the kiss. At first neither of them did anything, not particularly knowing what to do. Then Shauna moved her lips against Mattie's and Mattie moved hers as well, both of them growing warm with embarrassment and something else as they kissed. Matilda felt the something filling her up, a pressure that needed release. She pulled away, suddenly having to look at anything but Shauna. Her eyes rested on the bookcase across her room, and something that could only be described as a kind of heat centered behind her eyes. With a groan, the bookcase trembled, the books jumping out of their places and landing on the floor. It finally fell forward and hit the ground with a crash.

"Are you all right?" in an instant, Jenny was at the door, looking at the ashen faces of the two girls who had clung to each other with the crash.

Matilda pulled away from Shauna, a crestfallen look on her face.

"I told you, I'm strange."

"You did that?" Shauna stared at the books that littered the ground, the wooden bookcase that blocked entry to the door. "You did!"

"Matilda, are you alright?" Jenny repeated, stepping gingerly over the fallen bookcase and between the books, coming to pull Matilda, who had broken into tears, into a hug.

"I just couldn't keep it in." Matilda sniffled, burrowing her head into Jenny's shoulder.

"It's alright, we know its not your fault." Jenny rubbed Matilda's back as her tears fell unchecked.

Finally, sniffing, Matilda pulled away from Jenny, conscious that she had left a wet spot on her shirt. Without hope Matilda turned to Shauna to await her reaction, sure it would be harsh.

"See, I'm a witch."

Still reeling, from the kiss and from the destruction afterwards, Shauna only knew that she could not snub Matilda.

"But you're my witch, right?"

Matilda only blinked, still awaiting her disgust.

"Right?"

Amazement dawned on Matilda's face as she rushed to pull the other girl into a tight hug. "You mean it?"

"If you do."

Of course!" Matilda turned hesitantly to face her guardian, Shauna's hand held tightly in hers.

"Jenny, I think she's my girlfriend.