The fact that he'd failed the professor with his magical shortcomings continued to haunt Victor, reflecting heavily in his dreams. He grew tired and irritable, so a worried Lovedae increased his sessions with Dr. Mason. She also suggested he pay more attention to the world he lived in.

"I wished you'd back off magic. It's no good for you," she'd said as he ate dinner, baked beans over toast. "Your job and grades are much more important."

Dr. Mason endorsed the sentiment during one of their talks. "Spend more time on topics of interest instead of magic," advised Dr. Mason as they walked, bundled in coats and hats, toward the clearing. "Give your humanity first dibs." As usual, the doctor stopped before entering the clearing. "Let's turn back, dear boy."

As they turned, Victor asked, "Still not ready to see Papa's tribute, sir?"

A look of profound sadness crossed the learned man's face. "No."

Reading the professor's journals became a ritual. Victor wasn't ready to divulge any findings or his failures to the doctor or Lovedae, but there were two he needed to bring into the loop on a different topic. Keeping their kinship from the Duo seemed quite unfair.

Dr. Mason volunteered to take Lovedae shopping for Thanksgiving dinner the next day. Victor thought it a perfect time to speak to his siblings. He found Rosetta and Jason sitting on the stairs, arguing.

"We need to talk," he said, settling himself on the floor.

They turned to him, Jason making himself comfortable against the post, but Rosetta got up and dropped herself onto Victor's lap. The simple gesture warmed his heart.

Victor snuggled the little girl. "I need to tell you something important about me... and Papa."

"About you being Daddy's bio son?" asked Rosetta. She shrugged when Victor gaped at her. "We snuck back upstairs when you and mom talked."

Victor wanted to reprimand the Duo for eavesdropping but held his tongue.

Jason nodded. "We're happy about it, honest."

"You didn't tell me? I've been feeling guilty for nothing," Victor scolded.

Jason shrugged. "You and Mom keep the juicy from us all the time."

"Yeah, like that DNA stuff you and Kristy talked about," added Rosetta. "That was wild!"

Victor's eyes widened. "You eavesdropped again?" The Duo had the grace to look sheepish, but he only snickered. "Tell you what—we're supposed to pack up books in Papa's study, but instead, you can help me search for information. Papa knew something weird was happening, but we need facts to support it."

Rosetta hopped up. "You can trust us to help!"

The Grant children worked in the study and pretended to catalog and box up the professor's books. Instead, they poured over the journal collection and the professor's papers. Victor prayed the Duo were as meticulous as he was but gave up hope when he caught the two playing a rousing game of dots and boxes on the back of a report.

Jason gave his brother an awkward grin when Victor snatched the paper away. "Just taking a break."

Rosetta scowled. "Just when I was winning."

"It's okay." Victor sighed. "Bedtime. School tomorrow." When the two had gone, he read deep into the night, anxious to avoid the dreams that loomed in the background. Picking up an old brown journal, Victor began to read—and struck pay dirt. Now wide awake, he reread the contents, secured paper and pencil as he jotted down notes.

Yawning, he sank back into the chair. His head drooped, his chin resting on his chest. He plunged straight into a nightmare where the saintly professor was again responsible for his demise. Victor woke, stifling a scream as sweat drenched his brow. He caught sight of the family portrait on the professor's desk. Everyone smiled in the photo, a memory from happier times.

"I'm... so... sorry I failed you, Papa," he whispered—then burst into tears.

"Excuse me, gentlemen."

Victor stood at Nick's locker long before the bell started the school day. Both turned to see the new principal, Mr. Odmus, standing behind them. The snowy-haired chap seemed so unassuming, so meek, but the student body discovered early on that he was insufferable.

No one liked him, not even the staff.

"I believe students are not allowed in the building before seven?"

"I had band practice," lied Nick, a beaming smile on his face. "And my buddy drove me so I wouldn't be late."

Victor had come early to meet Gabby, who volunteered to tutor him for the upcoming chemistry test. He'd arrived with books and notes in hand, only to receive a text from the influencer stating she hadn't gotten up yet. The exhausted teen had shuffled through the halls, trying to stay alert, when he ran across Nick.

Mr. Odmus shook his head. "Nice try, but the band didn't meet this morning. I'll let you off with a warning, but you—" He pointed at Victor. "Detention."

Wide-eyed, Victor gaped at the principal. "What? Why?"

"I don't like troublemakers, Victor." Mr. Odmus raised an eyebrow. "You have no reason to be here wandering around unsupervised except to cause some kind of mischief. Two-thirty in the study hall."

"I came early to study for a test, sir. You're singling me out when there are gaggles of girls wandering around the school gossiping?"

"Worry more about yourself, Victor. Two-thirty, study hall." The principal walked away before he could protest further.

"Bloody hell!" Victor threw his backpack down and dropped to the floor. "I didn't do anything!"

Nick closed his locker and sat next to his brooding friend. "Sorry, English. Didn't mean to get you in trouble."

"You didn't do anything," he replied, yawning. Victor pulled his knees up, using them to support his aching head. "The bloke looked at me like I was bloody scum."

"Got an idea. Can you use your woo-woo to give the old dude a passion to learn, uh, break dancing?" Nick tossed back his dreads as he grinned. "Bet after he tries a drop, he'll forget you. Heck, he'll forget everything except 911!"

"If someone has no talent in something, giving them the means of doing it won't make them a pro." Victor grinned back. "What are you about? You've gone all nutter on me, mate."

Nick gave him a questioning look. "English, don't know why you'd have a rep, but it's kinda strange that Odmus knew your name."

Victor and Kristy found time to talk during their shared lunch hour. The two walked to the cafeteria as he relayed what he'd discovered in the professor's journal. "I hit pay dirt. The journal was written when Papa was around ten or eleven—before his mum migrated to the States and remarried. He'd gotten very sick, and after he recovered, Papa wasn't the playful little jokester he'd been before. He'd changed so much that most of his mates wanted nothing to do with him."

Kristy frowned. "Where was his father?"

"David Grant died in a car accident, and it's like instantaneously Papa sickened. I remember him telling me he was deathly ill, but his great-grandmother, Birgit, healed him. But get this—" Victor opened one side of the double doors for the girl before continuing. "The tone of the writing after his sickness is different, the sentence structure, even the handwriting! He wrote about feeling displaced. It fits with what you nicked from Gentrak."

The cafeteria was a plethora of activities with its various lunch lines serving desserts along with hot and cold foods. The circular tables throughout the middle area were packed with students eating and socializing. Victor waved to Nick and Misty, who sat at a table near the large windows that made up the wall, as he and Kristy joined the queue of students securing food and drink.

Victor paused, thinking how adorable the genie looked in sweatpants and his Superman t-shirt.

Kristy nibbled a fingernail. "Why'd his schoolmates stop hanging with him again?"

He yanked his mind back to the conversation. "Apparently, the change spooked them. The neighborhood busybody, Mrs. Rys, discouraged kids from playing with Papa. He wrote that she called him cursed."

"Sometimes, a busybody can be a wise woman."

Victor's eyes widened. "You mean magic?" According to Arabella, humans couldn't wield power, leaving him thinking he and his father's great granny as freaks of magic.

"Not true magic, but a few humans have straddled the threshold between humanity and magic. They can't use the forces but are attuned to them. What about the professor's siblings or mother? Any alive that we can talk to?"

Victor grabbed two trays. "His mum is in a nursing home in England. There's a younger brother and sister, we see them several times a year, but they were born in the States after she remarried."

"Everything we've discovered has that mysterious Sherlock Holmes vibe." The genie's eyes lit up as she placed two fruit cups on her tray. "For Halloween, I should've dressed up as the famous detective who lived on Drury Lane."

"Uh, Kristy, the Muffin Man lives on Drury Lane. Sherlock Holmes lived on Baker Street."

"The muffin man? Never heard of him." She frowned. "Anyway, give me all—"

"Kristy, I got us tickets to the winter dance." Maddox King popped out of nowhere, startling both teens. "Figured we'll let bygones be bygones."

She narrowed her eyes at the big blond. "Then 'we'll' see you there. I'm going with Vic."

Maddox glared at the genie with such outrage that Victor placed a protective hand on her arm. Instinctively his aura sought to soothe the situation.

But Maddox was not in a soothing mood. "I didn't pay fifty bucks for nothing!"

"Take Maryann Harper." Kristy turned her back on him.

Victor watched as Maddox composed himself, then stared straight at him. "Remember what I said about the heat, little ballerina." He gave a sarcastic salute before sauntering out of the cafeteria.

Shrugging, they headed for the lunch table.

Victor placed the trays on the plastic tabletop, his with a salad, Kristy's with chocolate milk, and two containers of fruit cocktail. The genie ate too much of the ghastly mixture, in his opinion. Tón hopped into a seat and started eating as Tammy made her way to the table. Victor waited until both girls sat before seating himself.

Tammy pointed at him. "Still got them old school manners, waiting until a lady sits. That's how an alpha rolls." She glanced at Nick and Tón, who hadn't budged as they stuffed their mouths with the cafeteria's mystery meat. "You betas need to step up."

Nick glanced up as he took a swig of soda, a look of innocence on his face. "I didn't see a lady."

Tón snorted with laughter at Tammy's mocking growl.

"I still say it's sexist for you to do that, Vic." Misty sipped her iced tea. "You wouldn't wait for Nick or Tón to sit."

"Misty, I didn't—"

Tón leaned toward him. "Zip it, Vic. Arguing with her ain't worth it."

Victor sighed, then perched his throbbing head against his hand.

Kristy scooped up a bit of fruit cocktail and chewed, a curious look on her face. "What did Vic do?"

"Misty thinks he's acting condescendingly. Like if a guy holds the door open for you, she says it's a patronizing show of male dominance and strength." Tammy rolled her eyes.

"It implies that a woman is incapable of doing things for herself." Misty picked up a french fry, waving it like a conductor. "Like we're toddlers who need a man to fasten our seatbelts or tie our shoes. It's wrong."

Kristy glanced at Victor, who poked at his lifeless salad. The lettuce seemed to wilt as soon he removed the wrapper. "But he was being nice."

"It's letting society behaviors do the labeling," said Misty. "Take my cousin Regan for instance. Regan is nonbinary and doesn't stand for people labeling them with certain gender-specific actions, like Vic waiting for only the women to sit."

"Here we go," muttered Tammy.

"Nonbinary? Labeling? What?"

"Seriously, Kris? Nonbinary is nothing new." Misty's eyes widened. "It refers to someone who doesn't identify as a man or woman. They might identify as both, in between the two genders, or not part of any gender category at all."

"Huh?" Kristy's brow wrinkled in confusion. "Isn't gender male or female? You're assigned it at birth based on your genitals and chromosomes."

"Gender as in social or cultural, not biology," explained Misty. "Instead of being about body parts, it's more about how you're expected to act because of your sex."

"It's official." Tammy rolled her eyes again as she sipped her milk. "The vajayjays and schlongs don't count."

Victor made a gagging noise, turning red as the cherry tomato on his salad.

The genie gave his leg a comforting pat. "Tammy, I take it you aren't nonbinary."

"Nope. I identify as a one hundred percent desirable woman, baby girl." Tammy ran her hands down the sides of her body. "I want a man to admire me, pay for my dinner, open doors, and shower me with attention. I am a queen and expect all to pay homage to my femininity."

"Tammy, what state is known for its potatoes?" interrupted Nick.

"Idaho."

Nick frowned. "What'd you say?"

"I said, I-DA-HO."

"You shouldn't think of yourself that way, boo." He grinned as Tón burst into laughter.

Tammy flipped him off and then turned back to the conversation.

"So childish!" Misty pursed her lips. "Anyway, Regan doesn't believe people shouldn't be forced to observe the social norms of one or the other and uses 'they and them' for their pronouns."

"You can change pronouns too?"

"As Vic says, 'it boggles my mind!'" Tammy munched on a cookie.

"You're my oldest friend, Tams, since we were babies." Misty frowned. "I'd hoped by now you would stop—"

Victor perked up and hopped into the conversation. "You've been mates since your pram days?"

Misty looked at him, confused. "What's a pram?"

"Ah, never mind."

"A stroller," supplied Nick, poised to say more, but Misty silenced him with a look.

"Tams, stop being so closed-minded about everything. The world is changing while you're static and suffering from internalized misogyny," said Misty. "Have some self-love."

"You think I internally hate women and myself because I don't agree with what you're saying?" Tammy slammed her milk carton on the table. "Girl, I'm the president of my own self-love club. All of that gender stuff confuses me. I don't believe in it, but at least I don't go hating on other folks because they do. You preach constantly but get pissed when people don't go along with everything you say. So why don't you stop labeling me?"

"How dare you!" said Misty.

"You guys are lucky you get choices. You can express yourselves however you want, even if you argue." Kristy sighed and then started on the second fruit cocktail. "This world is so fascinating."

Victor nudged the genie with his foot, his eyes meeting Nick's. If she started talking of worlds and such, people might think her batty. She took the hint, but Tammy pounced on her statement.

"This world? Kris, you say the weirdest stuff sometimes. I know you aren't from around here, but dang, girlfriend, we aren't that different. So, what's your 'world' like?" Tammy's tone was laced with humor.

"It's one where you weren't allowed to pick your pronouns, or date, or even eat what you want." The genie's expression sobered. "There, you don't pick anything. It's assigned." She placed the fruit cup on the table. "You're told what you are, who you are, and who you'll be with because choice doesn't exist. Love is irrelevant because it doesn't exist there and never will."

The sapphire eyes raked over each of her friends and their shocked expressions at her jumbled speech. Kristy stood up and left the lunchroom.

Victor forgot about his own problems as the look in her eyes haunted him for the rest of the day.

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