Chapter 45: Let's have some headgear fun!

Monday morning Serina had a lot to do. First of all, she checked Mr Smith's car: yes, he had a flat tyre! Next, she needed to do something to slow down the traffic: there was really only one sensible way he would go to his office, and it wouldn't take much to make the traffic worse. An inexperienced driver could easily stall their car and cause a blockage, the effects of which would have a knock-on effect for the next 30 minutes.

"Hey, Serena, take a break will you, the dark magic you're doing is starting to get to you" said her braces.

"Sorry guys, whilst this is simple, the intent really is rather dark - I hate to think about how many people will get wound up because of what I'm doing!". Serina stopped for a few minutes, to let her braces 'catch their breath', then it was on to MM's place.

Yes, it was indeed mayhem at MM's house. Her brother was having problems finding his shoes. She gave MM a couple of annoying interruptions that meant she made a couple of mistakes when doing her makeup. Then she had problems finding the books that had fallen off the desk. Her mum 'accidentally' spilt her coffee over her blouse, meaning she needed to change that. None of the kids bothered to put their dirty plates or dishes into the dishwaher ('it's ok, mum will do it!'). All helped along by a bit of dark magic.

By the time they all got into the car, they were running several minutes late, and MM's mum was NOT happy.

"Your appointment is at 1:30 this afternoon," MM's mum reminded her sternly as they finally got to the school, "so make sure your ready at the school gate by 1:15!". Serena was quite sure, with a bit of help, she would be a few minutes late!

Ok, she could take a bit of a break now, although she wanted to be at the orthodontist's to see how they reacted to a dead UV curing lamp! Sadly, it wasn't until his 10am appointment that he needed to use the lamp, and he discovered that it was only coming on for a couple of seconds at a time. His assistant quickly worked out that there was dirt on the charging contact, so it hadn't been charging properly. And of course, when they went to the cupboard to try and use the backup lamp, that was pretty dead too. As a result, the rest of Mr Smith's' morning appointments were running about 30 minutes late, and Mr Smith was definitely feeling a bit stressed.

Lunchtime came: whilst he should have finished his last morning appointment by about 12:30, it was actually closer to 1:00. Before going to lunch, he went and looked at the PC, to see who was his next appointment - Miss Amanda Miller. As the result of a nicely timely bit of magic, a bit of a chill went through Mr Smith. He had absolutely no doubt that she would have been skipping on her headgear wear - again. Another small spell did it's work, and Mr Smith smiled: maybe he should just wire it in for a few weeks! That might get her wearing it - assuming she wanted to even complete her treatment!

Back at school at lunchtime, MM had got her lunch. As ever, she was chatting to her friends, so it didn't take a lot to make MM ignore the time a bit. Suddenly she realised it was 1:14, and she was due to meet her mum outside in 60 seconds time. What the heck, it didn't REALLY matter if she was a minute or two late. On the way though, with a bit of help, MM's shoe heel finally broke off.

"Aaargh! Bloomin' thing!!" screamed MM. She wasted a couple more minutes trying to put the heel back on, but Serena ensured that her attempts failed. It was almost 1:25 by the time she finally got to the car.

"Where the HELL have you been? I've been here waiting since 10 past!" screamed her mum.

"My bloody heel broke off!" shouted MM back at her.

"Well, you shouldn't have left things till the last moment anyway, now put your belt on!".

Nice, neither MM nor her mum were in a good mood - the plan was actually coming together! It took a little over 10 minutes to get to the Orthodontic Surgery, so they were almost 10 minutes later.

After his late-running morning, Mr Jones HAD hoped that his 1:30 appointment might even be a few minutes early... but of course they weren't.

"I wonder if Miss Miller has been wearing her headgear enough?" thought Serena just loud enough for Mr Smith to also 'hear' it.

"Good afternoon Mrs Miller. Amanda, please come and sit in the treatment chair.". Mr Smith was doing his utmost to not get annoyed. Amanda sat in the chair, just like she had done several times before. A quick dark spell made Amanda a little worried: would he notice that she'd not been wearing her headgear enough? ('Heck, why shouldn't she be worried about it too' Serena had thought!).

Mr Jones fitted the lip-spreader, then tilted the chair back and adjusted the light, all letting him see the progress that Amanda's teeth had made. Or should we say 'the LACK of progress'? He removed the lip spreader, so he could talk to her.

"Miss Miller," he said very formally, "It's very clear to me that you haven't been wearing your headgear as prescribed..."

"I've tried..... but... well... it hurts so much.... and it's so annoying..." said Amanda.

"I've made it VERY clear to you several times now that wearing your headgear as prescribed is essential to your treatment. If you're not going to comply, then I might as well just stop your treatment today!" said Mr Jones.

'The car.... what about the car...' whispered a strangely magical voice inside Amanda's head. About two seconds later the reality hit her: no treatment = no car!!!

'Remind her about the car' whispered a very similar voice in her mum's head.

"Well, it sounds like we won't be needing to buy you that 'special thing' then," said her mum, clearly a bit annoyed.

"No, mum, no...... you can't do that! I'll do anything!..."

"Anything?" asked her mum. She turned to Mr Smith: "I'm really at my wit's end... beside she's 18 now, so I can't force her. I don't suppose you have any suggestions do you?".

"Well, there IS one possibility. It's not something I have ever done before, but...." began Mr Smith

"Please... please, I'll do ANYTHING!" pleaded Amanda.

"You really mean anything?"

"Yes, anything, as long as I can complete my treatment, and get my..... 'special thing'....". Clearly Amanda found it very awkward to actually say that if she didn't finish her treatment, then she wouldn't get the car that she had been promised.

"Well, a few years ago, my colleague - now retired - was involved in a research project, where they wired in the patient's headgear for a few weeks, meaning that the patients could NOT remove their facebows, it was fitted to their braces 24/7. The final conclusion was that the main problem was the initial fear for the patients of having to actually wear their headgear, and after 2 to 3 weeks, they had got used to wearing their headgear: after that, all the patients had no problems wearing their headgear as requested." He paused for a few seconds to let what he had just told Amanda sink in.

"So I'd have to wear it ALL the time.... like to school.... and when out with my friends?" said Amanda. The colour had completely drained from her face.

"Yes, ALL the time!"

Amanda sat there thinking for a few more seconds. Serena helped her thoughts along. The idea of having to wear headgear to school... well, it was abhorrent! And when out with her friends too? Noooo!!!! They would mock her! But the car... she SOOOOO wanted that car! She would do anything for that car! She finally realised that she'd actually brought this on herself, that no-one else was to blame. Her ortho had told her several times. Her mum nagged her incessantly. Even her dad had mentioned it a few times.

No, there was now only one thing she could do.

"Yes, ok, I'll do it!" said Amanda dejectedly, starting to feel really bad about her whole life.

"You are absolute sure about this? This really IS your last chance! We can make an appointment for 3 weeks time, and then review your progress." said Mr Smith.

The contents of Amanda's guts felt like they wanted to leave her body. Her social life was about to come to a complete stop. A minimum of 3 weeks of wearing headgear 24/7 - the idea scared her witless. But she so wanted that car....

"Yes, I'll do what you tell me..." said Amanda rather meekly.

Serena watched as Mr Jones 'wired in' Amanda's headgear. What he actually did was to fit the facebow, and then crimp a couple of tiny tubes on to the back of the headgear prongs, holding them in place. It was close to impossible for a patient to remove the tiny tubes, but an ortho with the right tools would have no issues.

MM and her mum were completely silent as they drove home, and once home, MM went and hid in her bedroom.


Part one of 'The Mission' was accomplished!


A little later that evening there was a knock at Serena's front door. "It for you, Serena!" called her mum. Lucifer was there.

"I have a little something for you outside, come and take a look....". Serena followed Lucifer outside: she was expecting that he would be lending her some sort of 'standard' sports car, like a Porsche, but no, this was no simple sports car, this car would be better described as a 'super car': it was a brand new, sparkling, electric green, Lamborghini Huracan Technica.

"Try not to break the 30 mph speed limit!" said a smiling Lucifer, giving her the keys.

Nice try but this is just a dream.. for sure

Oh, alright, you worked it out!!!! Chapters 46 and 47 were a last minute "hey I have a crazy idea" thing I got this morning! But it was still fun!

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Chapter 47: Dad?...


"Serena!" said that same voice again. Serena opened her eyes, ready to face whatever consequences there would be for what she had just done. Her heart was beating hard and fast, and she still felt very angry.

But she wasn't at school. She was in her bedroom.

"You alright there Serena?" asked her dad. "You were shouting out loud...."

"I just had one hell of a nasty dream" said Serena... "Give me a moment will you?". She took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. "Hey braces, can you help me?".

"Well, you've not ACTUALLY done any magic, dark or light, so no. We think you need to quickly find that small box that Lucifer told you about, and put your anger back into it..."

"Yes, of course....". Serena imagined that small box again, and started to put her anger back inside. As she did so, she started to feel a better. As she continued putting her anger into the box, she calmed down. Finally, she closed the lid, and opened her eyes again.

"I think I'm ok now....."

"So what was the dream about then?" asked her dad.

"Well, you know I'm going to be 'sorting out' that bully girl at school?" Her dad nodded. "Well, I was basically beating the sh*t out of her. I mean, I knew I didn't like her, but I never realised I hated her THAT much!".

Her dad put his arms around her. "Better to work it out in a dream than for real. Your mum and I do worry about you, you know, the effect this darker magic you are having to learn about is having on you. Are you sure you can cope ok? It's a LOT for an 18 year old girl to have to deal with. Look, you know mum and I are here for you, whatever happens...".

"Thanks dad! I'll be ok... and I'm rather hoping I'm at least 19 before I need to fight the 'dark evil'!!"

"Ok, let's get back to sleep again, it's the middle of the night!" said her dad. Serena looked at her clock: yes, it was nearly 4am. "Hey, would you like me to do a 'go to sleep' spell on you, like I used to sometimes do?" he added.

Chapter 49 - Serena needs Samantha's help


That evening, back at home, Serena was still feeing rather bad about what she'd actually done that day, so called Samantha on WhatsApp video.

"You sound to me to be a bit down" said Samantha, "so why don't you come over?"

"Ok, hey you're lying on your bed too..... ok, leave me some space next to you....."

Serena asked Wanda for a little help. "Did you already probe where you're going?" asked Wanda

"Erm, not exactly....". She concentrated, and could feel Samantha's bed, and Samanth on the bed. "Ok, I'm ready". She concentrated on the teleporting spell, and with a bit of a turbo-boost from Wanda, landed nicely on the bed next to Samantha. Needless to say she was a little exhausted from the teleport.

"Come here..." said Samantha, pulling Serena close, and putting her arm around her. Serena could feel something. Not a spell, but a really nice feeling flowing through her. It relaxed her.

She smiled at Samantha. "Thanks...." and she put her arm around her too, and they just lay there together for a while, then Serena explained the details of what she'd done earlier in the day and showed her the video she had recorded.

"I'm not surprised you're feeling a bit bad. Would you let me do a 'recouperation' spell on you? Actually, let me use my wand too, might make it work better...".

"Yeah, go on...."

Samantha picked up her ornate wand with the jewels in it: as she picked it up, the jewels started to shine. Holding Serena with one hand, she waved her wand over her with the other. "Does that help?" she asked

"Yes, it does, thank you!"

Samantha put her wand down, and held Serena again. "I've been thinking about the relationship we're supposed to have: I'm wondering if this is what you need me for, for when you are suffering from using the dark magic, or just a bit stressed out. Look, if you ever need my abilities, you only have to let me know..."

"Thanks...". They lay on the bed together, facing each other, and chatted for a bit.

"Hey, I don't remember seeing that nose ring before" said Serena. "It looks good on you though"

"Yeah, got it at the weekend. I was feeling a bit jealous of your braces and your bits of jewellery." (Maybe I need to add that, so far, neither Samantha nor Sarah knew anything about her dark jewellery. And, whilst 'working' on MM at school, she had left all 4 dark rings on her finger)

"Jealous of my braces?"

"It's odd, I had braces when I was about 12, hated them. But yours, they are kinda sexy. Extreme, but sexy..."

"Want a proper look?" asked Serena. Samantha nodded, so she opened her mouth, letting Samantha see the front of her mouth: her front metal bands and her lip bumpers. Samantha ran a finger over her lip bumpers, then back along the brackets on her bands, although that was hard, as the lip-bumper got in the way a bit. Then she opened her mouth, and tilted her head back, letting Samantha see her upper expander and the tongue rake. Samantha put a finger inside her mouth, and felt the rake - to her it felt stiff, and rather sharp.

"Is that some sort of plate up there, under that sharp bit?" asked Samantha

"Yes, it's a fairly thick metal plate, that goes from the back of my teeth, and almost up to my expander. Then in the bottom, I have another expander...." said Serena, dropping her head, and opening her mouth so Samantha could see.

"Wow, and is that a Herbst I can almost see there?"

"Yes, it is" said Serena, closing her mouth, and making a wide smile, letting Samantha see and touch her Herbst.

"Yeah, definitely too much metal for one person. I mean, when I had braces, all I had was tiny upper and lower brackets on my teeth. I can barely see any of your actual teeth!" Samantha put her lips to Serena's, and kissed her gently on the lips, and Serena kissed her gently back again. Samantha opened her mouth, pushing her tongue out, and ran it over Serena's lips, then between her lips. Serena opened her lips, and let her slip her tongue in: she ran it over her metal brackets at the front, then over the front of her lip bumpers. Serena opened her mouth a little, and Samantha's tongue went between her teeth, and up, and touched the smooth metal plate on the roof of Serena's mouth"

"Hello, you mutht be Thamantha...."

Shocked, Samantha pulled back from Serena. "What was THAT?"

"I'm guessing you just heard a voice in your head saying 'Hello, you must be Samantha', but with a heavy lisp... that was my braces, just saying hello to you!"

"Your BRACES?"

"Yeah, we talk sometimes. Don't worry, they won't hurt you, they are actually rather nice. Go on, kiss me again, and talk to them...."

Samantha started to kiss Serena again, putting her tongue inside her mouth, this time touching the tongue rake very gently. To her tongue, the rake felt very soft, not hurting at all. She also ran her tongue over the metal plate again.

"Thorry, Thamantha, we didn't mean to thurprithe you. Hi!" said the voice inside Samantha's (and Serena's) head

"Erm... hello there... erm... Serena's braces. OMG, this is weird!" thought Samantha

"Thank you for helping Therina jutht then, it helped her a lot more than I think you apprethiate"

"That's ok. Hey, how come you have such a lisp?"

"If you had as much metal in your mouth, I think you'd have quite a lithp too!"

"Fair enough. But hang on, Serena has you in her mouth, but she doesn't have a lisp"

"Yeth, we felt it was rather unfair that she had to thuffer with a lithp, thimply becauthe we were in her mouth. Mind you, we do let her lithp a bit when she'th at thchool, it would theme strange if she didn't, don't you think?"

"That sounds very nice of you, and yes, I understand about school.... so why DOES Serena even need braces... erm, you?"

"We are like you, we are here to help Therena with her many thtruggleth. For exthample, we helped her contain her darkneth today - itth not eathy for thomeone who has chothen to follow the path of the not-quite-tho-light to manage their darkneth, and that ith one of the many things we will do to help her fulfil what she must, according to the prophethieth"

"But why so much braces?"

"We believe itth thomethiong to do with phythicth... you need a thertain math of thtuff to have enough effect - kinda like the critical math needed to make an atomic bomb exthplode. Therina's wand was very helpful in working out exthactly how much math of brathes and thtuff she really needed. Tho yeth, we are thadly a lot of brathes in her mouth... Anyway, we will thay goodbye for the moment, and let you conthentrate on Therena, I'm sure we'll talk again, and you know where to find uth!"

"Thanks for looking after Serena...." thought Samantha. "How weird, I've just been talking to your braces." said Samantha out loud.

"I found it a bit odd at the start too, but I'm pretty used to them now. They do seem to be trying to help me, and they're so polite too!" said Serena.

They kissed again. "Hey, why don't you take out my lip-bumpers, it will make it easier to kiss" suggested Serina. Samatha put her finger and thumb onto the top lip-bumper, and tried to pull it out.

"It seems to be stuck!"

"Ah, half a moment.... guys, can you let her take them out for a while, we're safe here, so it's ok"

"No problemth" said a voice inside Serena's head

"They are a bit over-protective, but with good reason. Try now....". Samantha was able to now easily remove both lip-bumpers, which she put carefully on the bedside table. Their lips touched again, and Samantha was able to enjoy the sensation of her tongue running over the complete surface of Serena's teeth - or should I say metal bands (as her teeth are hardly visible), and then around to feel the front part of Serena's Herbsts. Then back inside her mouth, where her tongue could feel the smoothness of the metal bands that covered the insides of her teeth, then up to touch Serena's metal plate, which reminded her of the hawley retainer she had to wear after getting her braces off. Then her tongue reached the strangely smooth and soft ends of the sharp spikey tongue rake. The expander was too far back for her tongue to explore.

Next her tongue went to Serena's lower teeth, where the braces and bands, like her teeth, were smaller. Inside and just below her lower front teeth Samantha's tongue found her lower expander. Then, moving her tongue out and to the side, she explored the front lower mounting point for Serena's Herbst, then the front part of the actual Herbst.

"Serena, you have my greatest respect: that is one hell of a lot of metal you have in your mouth, and you're gonna have to wear it all... well, I guess for the rest of your life"

"I'm told it will probably get better with time: the metal will be absorbed into my teeth and gums, so I'll actually have metal teeth rather than metal braces"

"Oooh, I'm not sure which sounds worse, metal braces or a true metal mouth...."

Chapter 50 - Serena in headgear


Serena woke a lot more refreshed the following morning - spending the evening with Samantha had been so good. Not only could she help her just by touching her, but her simple spells had removed all her tiredness from the teleport, as well as all the stress from the day. She was starting to understand why Samantha was so important to her.

She went and had her breakfast, then went back upstairs and had her shower. While she showered, she used the 'clean my braces' spell to get rid of all the little bits of food from her braces, her expanders, and everywhere else the food got to. She still needed to actually brush her teeth, to remove the slight plaque build-up, but that was easier now than it used to be with her older braces, as her braces helped to pull the brush bristles into all those awkward-to-get-to places.

She was getting dressed (similar to yesterday, but not QUITE as smart) when she remembered the plastic zip-lock bag in the drawer of her bedside unit. She thought for a few seconds, then took it from the drawer, and put it into her shoulder bag.

"'Bye mum, dad, see you tonight" said Serena. Outside she got into the lovely electric green Lamborghini sports car which she still had, putting her bag on the passenger seat, then drove to school. Strangely, driving the fancy sports car didn't feel quite so much fun today. She arrived at school, and parked the car. She picked up her bag, and opened it, removing the plastic zip bag, which she opened and removed the contents.

"Guys, I need to remove my top lip-bumper for a while..." she thought to herself, then gently removed it, replacing it with the facebow she'd taken out of the plastic bag (and putting her lip-bumper into that same bag). Finally, she put the neck-strap around her neck, connecting it to the facebow.

With the un-needed headgear in place, she got out of the car. As expected, many pairs of eyes saw her, but Serena didn't mind: with so much metal already in her mouth, a facebow hardly made much difference. She walked over to the entrance, where she found Mandy Miller sitting alone on the wall. She didn't actually recognise her at first, because today Mandy looked very different: no fancy jewellery, almost no makeup, and much more 'normal' clothes

Serena sat down next to her. "You look a bit different today. How you doing?" she asked.

"I'm actually feeling pretty good."

"How'th the headgear?"

"Actually, now that I'm wearing it as I should, the pain I was getting isn't anything like as bad as it was to start with. I can hardly feel anything right now."

"Oh, good, it'th alwayth when you inithially put it in that it's worthe. You're thounding a lot more relaxthed than you normally theem to be"

"Yeah, I had a really long and nice talk with my mum last night, something we've never really done before. It cleared the air between us, and I think we both have a lot more respect for each other. I think I have a lot more respect for myself too. It's probably going to take a while longer before everything sinks in, but I have to say I couldn't be doing this if it wasn't for what you made me realise yesterday" said Mandy. "Hey, what's with your headgear, you had it wired in too?"

"No", said Serena, putting her hand on Mandy's, "I don't actually need it any more, it'th jutht that I thought you might apprethiate a bit of moral thupport - I thuthpect you're gonna get a lot of sh*t in there today. Come on, let'th go in together."

Chapter 52 - Read some more books...


Serena decided to take the rest of the week off from training with Lucifer: her first 'project' had been quite stressful, so she decided to do some other bits. For example, it had been a while since she had been to see Mrs Johnson. She had finished reading some of the books she had borrowed, so wanted to return them, and borrow some others: now that she was starting to use some real dark magic, she had a much better idea what she wanted to learn about.

"Come on in, Serena, you know you're always very welcome - besides, it's also nice to have some company. Cup of tea?"

"Oh, yes, that would be lovely!" She followed Mrs Johnson into the kitchen.

"So, I know you're back at school again, how's it going?"

"Not so bad, starting working on my A-levels, although I'm not really sure how much help they will be whilst I'm fighting the 'dark evil forces' or whatever it will be."

"Yes, I can see that, although WHAT you're learning at school is probably less important that the skills of understanding and learning that you're developing. For example, those books you've brought back... they are less meaningful if you don't actually understand what they are saying. And thinking of which, were they of use?"

"Actually yes. Not so much the detail, but the descriptions and explanations helped explain a few things I wasn't sure about."

"So, are you looking for anything specific today?"

"Yes, I've been given the task of 'stealing something dangerous' as my next training task."

"I guess the stealing isn't the problem, it's going to be using magic to hide the fact that it was you?"

"And hiding what I steal too. I'm not really sure what to do, so I'm not going to think too much about it, but I was hoping that some of the books might inspire me."

The kettle boiled, and the tea was left to brew for a few minutes before Mrs Johnsone poured out two good-sized mugs of tea. She was a lovely lady, and if she wanted, she could be very genteel, and use her fancy cups and saucers. Today she was being not as genteel, but more pragmatic, thus the mugs. And some biscuits to go with the tea, of course!

"Come on, let's go through to the library." Once there, Mrs Johnson took the books from Serena, and replaced them 'correctly' on the shelves.

"How on earth do you remember where they go?" asked Serena.

"Well, the first hint is the gaps of course, but over the years I've looked at these shelves so many times, I think I can pretty much remember where everything goes. Although, I'm not QUITE sure what reasoning behind the order is: my late husband collected all of these books, many were from his father, and HIS father before that."

"Ah, ok, explains the very old books you have here. Wanda, you there?"

"Your exalted overlord, and infallible leader! Mistress of the universe, supreme god of all she surveys,  Serena! May your reign be eternal! Yes, I'm here!" said Wanda in greeting.

"What ARE you on about?" asked Serena

"Sorry, I've been getting a bit bored, so I've been working on alternatives to 'Your Majesty'"

"Don't go there....."

"Anyway, how can I help? Oh, please pass my greetings on to the lovely Mrs Johnson!"

"Wanda, you've definitely got too much spare time! Mrs Johnson, Wanda sends her greetings! So, Wanda, do you remember the books I looked at last time, but put back on the shelves?"

"I do, you looking for anything specifically?"

"Yes, there was one that had something about 'magic of deception'...."

"Ah, yes..... let me think.... try the top shelf, about 10 or 12 inches in from the right... If you are doing some background reading for you next 'project', may I suggest that you might want to do a search for  'mind control', it might be helpful, extend what you said you were doing with Lucifer the other day."

"Ok, makes sense I guess."

Serena climbed up the small set of steps, and took a look: Wanda was of course right, it was just where she said. She took the book down, and then sat down with Mrs Johnson. Neither of them was in a rush, so Serena had decided that she would be polite, and chat with Mrs Johnson for a while. Widowed she may be, but she was far from being stupid: in her time it seems that she had actively practiced magic - light magic of course - so Serena was very interested in trying to learn from her experience.

"Look, I have a couple of things I need to do," said Mrs Johnson some time later, "so why don't you look for what you need, and I'll come back when I'm done."

Serena ran three magic searches, one for 'theft' (and things related), another for 'improving effectiveness of dark magic', and one for 'mind control', as suggested by Wanda. She was successful on all counts. The most interesting was a small book that contained a report into research of 'the use of drugs with magic': it seemed that there were a couple of drugs that, when used carefully, could massively boost the effectiveness of many dark and light spells. Whilst Serena generally did not condone the use of 'recreation substances', discovering 'magic enhancing drugs' could be very useful for her future needs. As they say, 'it's better to have and not need, than to need and not have': whatever this evil was that Serena would have to fight, she wanted to make sure she had the upper hand, however that was achieved - legal or otherwise!

Chapter 54 - Certain 'substances'


Serena found Trixie standing alone by her locker. Trixie was in Serena's year, and had a certain 'reputation'. Oh, I should add, Trixie is not a witch, and knows nothing about witches either.

"Hi Trixie, I hear you might be able to help me...." said Serena, a bit nervously. Trixie knew who Serena was - heck, since her 'takedown' of MM, EVERYONE in the school know who Serena was, but the two of them had never directly interacted before.

"Oh yeah?"

"I hear you might be able to supply.... erm... some small round coloured things..." said Serena quietly.

"Maybe.... although I never took you for the sort that wanted to 'dabble'".

"Yeah, looks can be deceiving sometimes, can't they?" replied Serena, smiling. "So can you help me?"

"Possibly, depends what you'd like". Serena pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. She had no real idea about drugs, but had found some references in one of the books she had borrowed, and the internet had helped her find the current chemical names, plus some street names.

"Don't suppose you have any of these, do you?" she asked, carefully showing her the piece of paper, which listed 2 possibilities.

"I'll be outside the shops at about 4 o'clock. You've never done this before, have you?.... I'll do you a couple this first time, I don't want you to hurt yourself" said Trixie, and gave her a price. "Cash!"

"Thanks, see you later...."

Serena got to the shops just after 4: never having bought such things before, she was a bit nervous. Trixie was there, waiting for her. Serena discretely passed Trixie a couple of banknotes, Trixie passed a small plastic bag that had 2 blue tablets in it, which Serena put into that small pocket in her jeans.

"Just do one at a time: this lot are good, and pretty clean too, so shouldn't do you much harm. Have fun!"

"Thanks, Trixie" said Serena, as she turned to leave.