Carry On

“Good. Go home and study.”

“I’m on break.”

“Go home and figure out how to take down the Mage.”

“I told you. I’m going dancing.”

I look at his suit again and his shiny black shoes. “Basil. Have you met a bloke?”

He smiles, and he’s made of trouble. We should have dropped him in the Thames in a bag of stones. We should have left him out for the fairies.

“Something like that.”

57

AGATHA

I’m sitting at Penelope’s counter, spreading pink icing on another gingerbread lady.

“Why do the gingerbread girls have to wear pink?” Pe

“Why should the gingerbread girls feel like they shouldn’t wear pink?” I say. “I like pink.”

“Only because you’ve been conditioned to like it by Barbies and gendered Lego.”

“Lay off, Pe

Hanging out with Pe

“Hey,” she said, “I heard that Simon isn’t coming over for Christmas.”

“Because we’re not dating anymore, Penelope. Happy?”

“Generally,” she said, “but not because you broke up.”

It’s impossible to end a conversation with Pe

“Agatha,” she said, “do you honestly think I want to be with Simon?”

I think Pe

“Because you both seemed miserable!”

“That wasn’t any of your business!”

“Of course it was!” she said. “You’re my friends.”

I rolled my eyes at her, very obviously, but she kept going.

“This isn’t what I wanted to talk to you about,” she said briskly. “I heard Simon isn’t coming to your house for Christmas. And he can’t come to my house because my mum’s pissed off at the Mage, but I thought maybe you and I could still get together and make biscuits and exchange gifts.”

We always do this, every year, the three of us. “Without Simon?”

“Right, like I said, my mum’s got a bee in her bo

“But we never hang out without Simon,” I said.

“Only because he’s always around,” Pe

“We’re friends?”

“Nicks and Slick, I hope so,” Pe

*   *   *

“What’re you girls doing?” Pe

Professor Bunce teaches History of the Middle Ages at a Normal university, and she’s a magickal historian. She’s published a whole shelf full of mage books, but she doesn’t make any money doing it. There aren’t enough magicians to support magickal arts and sciences as careers. My father does well as a magickal physician because he’s one of a few with the right training, and everyone needs a doctor. Pe

“He only comes out for tea and sandwiches,” Pe

“We’re making gingerbread,” Pe

“Let it rest, Penelope,” her mum says, setting her laptop on the island and checking out our biscuits. “You’ll see Simon in a week or two—I’m sure he’ll still recognize you. Oh, Agatha, honestly, do the gingerbread girls have to be wearing pink?”

“I like pink,” I say.

“It’s good to see you girls spending time together,” she says. “It’s good to have a life that passes the Bechdel test.”

“Because our house is just teeming with your women friends,” Pe

“I don’t have friends,” her mum says. “I have colleagues. And children.” She picks up one of my pink gingerbread girls and takes a bite.

“Well, I’m not avoiding other girls,” Pe

“And I have plenty of girlfriends,” I say. “I wish I could go to school with them.” Not for the first time today, I think that I’m wasting a day with my real friends, my Normal friends, just to make nice with Penelope.

“Well, you’ll get to be with them next year, at uni,” her mum says to me. “What are you going to study, Agatha?”

I shrug. I don’t know yet. I shouldn’t have to know—I’m only 18. I’m not destined for anything. And my parents don’t treat me like I have to rise to greatness. If Pe

Professor Bunce frowns. “Hmm. I’m sure you’ll sort it out.” The kettle clicks, and she pours her tea. “You girls want a fresh cup?” Pe

“Are you still friends?” I ask.

She sets our mugs down and looks up at me, like she’s only been half paying attention to our conversation until now. “I would be,” she said, “if she turned up. She left for America a few years after school. We didn’t really see each other after Watford, anyway.”

“Why not?” Pe

“I didn’t like her boyfriend,” her mum says.

“Why?” Pe

“I thought he was too controlling.”

“Is that why she left for America?”

“I think she left when they broke up.” Professor Bunce looks like she’s deciding what to say next. “Actually … Lucy was dating the Mage.”

“The Mage had a girlfriend?” Pe

“Well, we didn’t call him the Mage then,” her mum says. “We called him Davy.”

“The Mage had a girlfriend,” Pe

Professor Bunce takes a gulp of tea and shrugs.

“What was he like?” Pe

“The same as he is now,” her mum says. “But younger.”

“Was he handsome?” I ask.

She makes a face. “I don’t know—do you think he’s handsome now?”

“Ugh, no,” Pe

“He was handsome,” Professor Bunce admits, “and charismatic in his way. He had Lucy wrapped around his little finger. She thought he was a visionary.”

“Mum, you have to admit,” Pe

Professor Bunce makes a face again. “He always had to have everything his way, even back then. Everything was black-and-white with Davy, always. And if Lucy didn’t agree—well, Lucy always agreed. She lost herself in him.”

“Davy,” Penelope says. “So weird.”

“What was Lucy like?” I ask.

Pe