=::= Jenna's PoV =::=

  When the morning csses were finished most of the other students headed towards the front of the building, where the lunch room was located. A few made their way towards the nearest exits though, so they could get a more interesting meal at one of the fast-food restaurants at the nearby mall.

  I quietly walked through the halls in the opposite direction, until I reached the upstairs girls' washroom near the back of the building. It was furthest from the lunch room, and that made it the best pce to hide during the mid-day break.

  Today was Friday, it was the end of my second week attending college, and unfortunately I was still avoiding all the other students. Despite what the Petunia card said I couldn't shake my fear of the demonic goddess girl. And she seemed to be friends with half the other supernaturals in the school, which meant I was doing my best to avoid all of them.

  I was still avoiding the humans too, out of fear of accidentally exposing myself to them. Even though I'd kept my word so far, I hadn't used magic even once yet anywhere on the campus.

  Most of all though, I was scared of disappointing my girlfriend. Which is why I hadn't told her that I was still spending my lunch hours hiding in washrooms rather than trying to meet people and make friends.

  Unfortunately the washroom wasn't as empty as I'd hoped, as soon as I pushed open the door I heard voices inside. It would have looked weird if I'd turned and fled though, so I did my best to act normal while I continued on into the restroom. I made my way around the corner from the doorway then moved past the three young women who were standing by the counter.

  I was dismayed to realize one of the three was a supernatural, but at least she wasn't part of the demonic goddess's circle of friends. It was the tall blonde athletic human witch, with her two completely mundane human friends. And happily, none of them paid any attention to me when I stopped at the far end of the counter and made a show of checking my hair. Which was something I'd seen other students do.

  They were the only other people in the washroom, and less than a minute after I arrived the three of them headed out. I overheard the blonde witch, whom one of the other girls addressed as Brooke, offer to drive the other two somewhere off campus to get lunch.

  With the three of them gone I was able to rex. I used some paper towels to clean one end of the counter, then hopped up and sat myself down there so I could rest my back against the mirror while I reviewed some of my notes from the morning's csses. In a way it all seemed so boring and silly, but once again I was determined to have a proper normal mundane college experience. And that meant paying attention and studying and doing my best to learn. Not just flicking my wrist and poofing up some art.

  Or some artists.

  I'd already been sorely tempted at least a few times, especially in my art history css. Dadaism sounded kind of fun, but I wasn't sure I believed the teacher or the textbooks when they expined what the real point of the movement was supposed to be. I would have loved to poof up one of the old artists right there in css, so he could give us a lecture on what that stuff was really all about.

  It also would have been neat to be able to see some of the old cssics in person. Like instead of having to discuss some dusty old painting based on a picture and some words in a book, I could just borrow the original for a while. I was positive the teacher would be grateful for the opportunity to spend an hour with the real Mona Lisa. We could even bring in the guy who painted her for an interview or something.

  Those thoughts were suddenly interrupted when I heard the washroom door swing open, and I barely had time to hop off the counter and dash into the open stall across from me. I pushed the door closed and turned the little lock just as two pairs of footsteps rounded the corner.

  I hugged my backpack to my chest as I waited quietly, but neither of the new arrivals went into the other stalls. They didn't seem to be standing at the counter either. And they weren't talking, which was another oddity. In my experience when girls used the washroom in groups they were almost always talking with each other.

  After a half dozen seconds of awkward silence the two pairs of feet came closer, then stopped just outside my stall. I was about to tell them it was occupied, when one of them suddenly spoke up. She had a confident self-assured voice, but she seemed to be making an effort to sound more gentle and compassionate as she addressed me.

  "So you don't have to answer if you don't want to," she began, "And if we're wrong about this then just ignore us. Or say the word and we'll leave you alone?"

  After a brief pause she continued, "You seem kind of shy and nervous to us, and maybe you feel like you don't quite fit in here? Maybe you feel like you don't belong? We get that. Believe me, we can rete. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you wanted someone to talk to then we're here."

  "You don't have to tell us anything you don't want to," she added. "We know all about keeping secrets. But uh, yeah. We're here. We know what it's like to be different. And maybe we can help you out."

  Then the other girl spoke up, and while she also had a confident voice she sounded a little more pyful than the first one. She offered, "If you don't want to be friends, then at least let us show you some better pces to hide. The toilet isn't exactly a fun spot to spend your lunchtime."

  By that point my heart was racing. They were close enough to the door that I could see their feet, and that was enough to know who and what they were. The first voice belonged to a werewolf, and the second was fae. And they obviously knew I wasn't human. I wasn't sure if they'd know my true nature, but the werewolf would definitely have sniffed out the fact that I was supernatural.

  After a few more seconds I gulped, "What if I'm not hiding? What if I just have a really sensitive stomach? Maybe I'm in here all the time for um, normal human bathroom reasons?"

  The fae actually ughed, "If that were true then I'd have had to drag Ember in here kicking and screaming. Let's just say, she's got some serious sensory issues when it comes to bad smells."

  I was quiet for another few seconds, as her words sank in. My eyes slowly widened, and I finally gasped in response "Your name's Ember? That's such a cool name!"

  "My name's Ashley," the fae responded. "My friend's name is Ember."

  Then the werewolf girl, Ember, asked "How about you? What's your name?"

  I barely heard what she said though, I was still caught up on the fae girl's revetion. I unlocked the door and swung it open, then gave them both a huge smile as I stared wide-eyed at the two of them.

  "So you two are Ashley and Ember?" I asked. "Like ashes and embers? That's the coolest! Did you pn that out or something? Did you pick those names on purpose?"

  "Holy shit I never noticed that about our names," the werewolf responded as she looked to her friend in surprise.

  The fae seemed just as shocked while she grimaced, "Me neither. That's um, wow."

  Ashley the fae girl was on the left, and Ember the werewolf was on the right. They both looked about the same age as me, but I knew that appearances were usually meaningless when it came to supernaturals. Ashley could have been decades or centuries older, and Ember was probably at least a half dozen years older than she looked.

  Still, they were both attractive young women. Nowhere near as pretty as Vikki, of course.

  The fae had shoulder-length curly auburn hair and fair skin with some freckles on her cheeks. She had a pretty smile and perfect gleaming white teeth. The only visual oddity about her was her eyes were different colours. They were both blue-green, but the right one was more green while the left was more blue. She was dressed in dark leggings and a purple short-sleeve tea-dress, with shiny bck mary-janes on her feet.

  Meanwhile the werewolf had long curly jet-bck hair, dark eyes, and dark skin. She was dressed in a pair of well-worn bck jeans, a tight dark-grey t-shirt with some sort of logo across the chest, and a pair of comfortable-looking sneakers on her feet.

  They were both looking me over as well by that point, and my appearance was sort of in between the two of them. I was in leggings and a rge loose t-shirt, with some comfy sneakers on my feet. And while they were checking me out I finally responded to their earlier question.

  "My name's not as cool as either of yours," I admitted. My shoulders slumped as I sighed, "It's just Jenna. So I'm probably not cool enough to be your friend."

  Then my mood picked up as I smiled, "Oh! But I could always change it, right? Maybe something smoke-based? Or something to do with fire, or fmes?"

  "Except my girlfriend might not be happy about that," I frowned as my shoulders slumped again. "She's pretty cool and I'm sure she'd respect it if I changed it, but she'd probably ask a lot of difficult questions along the way. And I have a feeling she wouldn't really understand that I had to do it so I could be friends with the cool girls at school."

  Ashley giggled, "You do not have to change your name to be friends with us, silly!"

  Ember added, "Friends or not, do you really want to spend the rest of your lunch in the can? Or would you like to come with us? If you really want to avoid the lunch room we could always go grab a bite to eat at one of the fast food pces over at the mall. Or if you're not hungry we can just go chill in a little nearby park?"

  "That's where Ember and I like to spend our lunch breaks sometimes," Ashley added. "It's not exactly wild nature, but it's much better than asphalt and concrete."

  "So what do you say, Just Jenna?" the werewolf asked. "Wanna come hang out with us?"

  I looked back and forth between them then smiled, "Yes please. I think I'd like that."

  "Excellent!" the fae excimed, "Then let's go!"

  She reached out and grabbed my hand, then started pulling me along with them as all three of us started for the exit. "We've already wasted enough time in the loo, I can't wait to get outside and get some retively fresh air."

  It was only about a five minute walk from the campus, but rather than an actual park the pce we ended up was more like a chunk of undeveloped nd that had been ignored long enough to grow over with trees and weeds and things. Which was actually a lot more natural than a manicured and maintained park would have been.

  My new friends led me along a wide grassy trail that had a slight left-hand bend to it, until we were far enough into the trees to be out of sight from the road and all the other man-made stuff. Apparently this was our destination, since there were a couple fallen logs that they used for seating. The two of them sat together on one log so I took the one across from them.

  "So Just Jenna," Ember began, "No pressure but I'm curious if you want to tell us about yourself?"

  She added a moment ter, "I uh, can tell you're not a normal human. But like I said, no pressure. You don't have to say anything if you don't want."

  "Secrecy is always a big deal for folks like us," Ashley added. "Having said that, I don't mind going first. I'm half fae. My mom's human, but dad wasn't."

  Ember smiled as she confessed, "I'm a werewolf, same as both my parents. And I know they'd shit themselves if they caught me sharing that info with anyone. So would our pack leader, she'd pitch a fit and probably give me a huge lecture or something. But whatever, I think us supernaturals all gotta stick together. We're better off being friends and looking after each other. It's the humans we need to worry about."

  I hesitated as I thought about the Petunia card once again, along with everything Vikki and I talked about that evening. Especially the idea that maybe other supernaturals didn't count as 'public', so maybe it was ok if revealed myself to them. On the other hand maybe it wasn't, and I didn't want to find out what happened to the two other genies who'd been free only to get themselves all wrathed up.

  So in the end I decided to split the difference, "Thank you both for trusting me. I'm not ready to say exactly what I am yet, but I can say I've been around a long time. And I have magic."

  "Except I promised not to use my magic at college," I added quickly. "I've been trying to blend in and act like a normal human and everything."

  Ashley pointed out, "We're not at college anymore."

  "I don't know who owns this nd," she added. Then she gestured at the grassy path and continued, "But this right here used to be train tracks, before they pulled them up."

  "There's still tracks on the other side of the road," Ember added as she gestured back the way we came. "They're part of a bunch of little spur lines that used to serve factories and stuff around here."

  My eyes widened as I smiled, "Really?! I wonder if that's part of the same tracks that run past my house? Oh gosh if it is the same line I could take the train to school!"

  "Sorry Just Jenna," Ember said with a chuckle, "I don't think any of those lines are active anymore. And even when they were, it was probably all just freight."

  "Yeah I know," I pouted. "Maybe someday I'll learn how trains work, then I could just get my own and drive myself to css."

  A moment ter I added, "Also my name isn't Just Jenna, it's just Jenna."

  "Yeah that's what I've been saying," the werewolf replied. "Just Jenna."

  "No it's just Jenna only without the just," I tried to expin. "Just one word, Jenna."

  Ember tilted her head to one side as she looked at me in confusion, "So wait, is Jenna your st name then? And One-Word's a middle name, even though it's two words? So you're Just One-Word Jenna."

  "I thought you said your name wasn't cool enough to be friends with us?" she added with a grin.

  I shook my head, "No you're misunderstanding. It's -"

  At that point both Ember and Ashley burst into giggles, as the werewolf apologized. "Sorry Jenna, I know. I was just having a little fun."

  "She was doing a bit," Ashley added.

  I looked back and forth between them as it finally dawned on me, then I felt my cheeks warming up. I couldn't help smiling though, "Ooooh. And I fell right into it. Nice."

  PurpleCatGirl