seven hocus pocus

☆

         "BOO, BITCHES!" Diana exclaimed when she sat down, laughing to herself as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, leaning forward against the lunch table.

"Hey, Diana," Tommy greeted her, a smile present on his own face, everyone else chorusing with a hello to the cheerleader. Evanora looked down at her black painted nails. Colleen called it gothic but Evanora insisted that it was for the witchy aesthetic and, well, since it was Halloween Colleen couldn't call her out for 'attempting to expose the secret of magic to muggles'.

Well, Colleen would never call them muggles. She thought that whole series was full of shit and complete and utter garbage and their language for humans was awful – muggles, really? – but Evanora laughed her off and made more comments using that sort of language just to annoy her like the good person she was.

And, if she said so herself, the black polish looked mighty nice on her nails and she liked it. She might have to keep painting them black because the color was nice and it also annoyed the living shit out of Colleen, which was always a bonus.

"Okay, but I heard that Charlie Johnson is throwing a party night – like full costumes and everything too with alcohol – and we totally have to squad up and go," Diana announced, smiling with pride at them.

Colleen would never let her go. But what Colleen didn't know couldn't hurt her, so she definitely in.

"Um, yes? I have a great witch costume in stock," Evanora agreed. She loved to party, and while she hadn't done it in this Halloweentown at all (mostly because she didn't know where they were), she was so down for it.

The old Evanora – or pre-her mother's death Evanora – went partying every weekend with Jane, that little bitch who hadn't spoken to her once since she moved. And not from lack of effort on Evanora's part. Her and Jane were two pees in a pod and suddenly now that she's gone, it seemed like Jane just didn't care about her anymore. Some kind of friend she was.

But whatever, Evanora didn't need plain old Jane in her old town, she had a new crew who accepted her instantly and never made her feel like an outsider. Tommy was always there to fill her in on things that happened before she got there, or patterns of how things worked, and Diana always tried to get her involved into social events, and Maggie was always there if she needed to talk to anyone. Always the guide for the group.

She never felt like she didn't belong, or that she was a newcomer with them, and now looking back, she realized that she was the one dragging Jane along. Evanora Hathaway was more known around town for her reputation of being a bit of slut than Jane Whitehall – the plain old Jane – until she started being friends with the girl. Then, everyone knew her, and now that Evanora's gone, Jane didn't need her anymore.

Sucks to find out the people you thought were friends were just social climbers, but whatever. She didn't need any dumb fucks like Jane because she had better people now. And she would never give up the chance to hang out with them, especially at a party where they wouldn't leave her behind because of a cute boy like Jane did. Ugh, that bitch. How did she not notice it before?

Okay, so she wasn't almost the brightest, but Jane seemed so sincere and she was a sucker for girls with puppy dog eyes. And yeah, she didn't think of Jane in a sexual sense, but it was still her weakness, and Jane exploited that greatly so she gave everything to the girl. But fuck her, honestly. Evanora knew better now, and she knew that her real friends in this ghoulish town weren't fake bitches like Jane Whitehall but real ones.

"Great," Diana cheered at Evanora's agreement to go to the party, "Tommy? Maggie?"

"Well, I was gonna have a horror movie night with my mom and sister, but I'm sure I can take a raincheck with them," Maggie said slowly, causing Diana to give her a hug when she agreed to come along.

Evanora had to hide her disgusted expression when Maggie mentioned Marisol. It wasn't her fault that her mother was a bitch who was keeping secrets, Evanora knew that, but the mention of one of the Elders always sent her reeling. They were too prideful, Merlin knows that Juliana Hathaway always was, She hated people who had a superiority complex and thought they knew everything, which fit the bill for Marisol perfectly.

But she liked Maggie. She really liked Maggie. Maggie was soft and had a baby pink around her when Evanora pictured the girl. She had those puppy dog eyes and a nice little laugh and, yeah, she knew that falling for one of her new friends who just broke up with her boyfriend and now had a new crush was bad, but she couldn't help it. Maggie was just too precious and she was always weak for cute girls.

"I'm down," Tommy nodded, "I like watching drunk people move."

"You're a creep," Diana told him, though there wasn't any malice, then she joked, "Like a real Peeping Tom when you say that."

Tommy just shrugged and gave his best look of innocence, "What can I say? I like people watching."

"Even in the bathroom? Or the bedroom?" Evanora went along with the teasing. She never felt like she could tease Jane, she was always too insecure to be poked fun of even though Jane did it mercilessly to her, but Tommy just laughed at her.

Yeah, these were much better friends.

"Definitely," Tommy agreed, giggling through it all. The rest of the table followed suit and Evanora felt herself being lifted high, like she was floating. This was a much better feeling than the constant weight Jane pushed onto.

So what if this was a Halloweentown, that didn't mean her friends had to be ghouls or ghosts. They were human, with the greatest parts of human nature – and even though she didn't live in a Halloweentown before this, Jane was definitely a ghoul.

"Awesome! Okay, so Evanora, you said you're gonna be a witch? Great! I'm thinking of being a vampire," Diana said, inciting groans from both Tommy and Maggie.

Evanora frowned before Maggie complained, "You're always a vampire."

"And I always get laid on Halloween. Obviously, the costume works the way I want it to and, you know what they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it," Diana shrugged off the complaints. Evanora aspired to have her confidence and level of not giving a single fuck. It was truly remarkable.

"Yeah, but don't you wanna be something new?" Tommy asked her.

Diana shook her head. "Nope, I just wanna get laid," she declared, "Oh, don't look at me like that. If I wanna have sex, I can and everyone else can fuck off."

"We don't care if you have sex, but you're always a vampire. You should try something new – like be Cleopatra or something," Maggie suggested.

"Hmm, no," Diana looked unconvinced, "I like dressing up as a sexy vampire and having an excuse to suck and bite on a girls neck during foreplay."

Everyone else recoiled back in disgust. "Ew, we really don't need to know your kinks," Evanora shook her head. She didn't want to know any of theirs unless it was Maggie and they were having sex. But no, she couldn't think about that because Maggie was her friend and also straight and getting over a breakup while also dealing with a newfound crush.

Evanora really did not need to think about them sleeping together. It was so not the time for that.

Diana shrugged, "Grow up, it's just foreplay, at least I'm not divulging details."

Tommy groaned, "I don't even wanna imagine that. That's something you can keep for yourself."

"Or something I can tell all of you so that you won't bitch about me wearing the same costume every year," Diana countered, "I like it and it's not changing, so get over it, bitches."

"Fine, you're gonna be a vampire again, alright," Maggie conceded, not wanting to go through another round of finding out what her best friend's kinks were. She snuck a look over to Evanora and pointed her finger to her mouth and made a little gagging motion, causing the other girl to laugh.

Evanora tried not to read too much into it, but she was a teenage girl with a crush on someone who was just super cute and she couldn't help but think about how Maggie only sent her this look and not Tommy and that definitely had to mean something...didn't it? Okay, she was going a little mad and this tiny crush was getting out of hand, but it was nothing she couldn't handle.

This was fine.

☆

THIS WAS NOT FINE. Okay, she was sorely mistaken because, of course, Maggie showed up to her house to pick her up and she gets into the car, holding her pointed witch hat to make sure it didn't fly away or get knocked off when she got into the car, and there she caught a glimpse of Maggie's outfit.

She couldn't get the full look because they were both sitting, but Maggie said that she was dressed up as Persephone and it looked super hot on her. The whole Greek goddess aesthetic was a good look on her and maybe she was having a tiny gay panic, but that was fine. She was just a sucker for cute girls and when cute girls glammed up to look hot and that was definitely Maggie right now. But that's fine, she's fine, except it's not because she wants to kiss Maggie but also run away and that's very conflicting.

And when they stepped out of the car, getting to Charlie Johnson's house, and Evanora got to see the full outfit not hidden by the seat belt and her sitting down, Evanora almost tripped because she was distracted by how the dress looked on Maggie. She truly did look like a Greek goddess – like she could be Persephone herself – and Evanora was gone for it.

Fuck.

This was not fine at all.

Because she was panicking and didn't know what to do and she could barely form words when Maggie talked to her but it was alright because immediately when they walked inside the house, Maggie was whisked away by someone else. And then, sitting on one of the couches in the living room, she found Tommy and immediately sat down beside him with wide eyes.

"I'm fucked," she breathed out, not looking at him but he still knew that she was talking to him.

She barely caught a glance at his outfit, but it still looked completely nerdy like his normal aesthetic and he was probably like a scientist or something but she didn't have enough brain capacity left to ask him since she was too busy thinking about how ethereal Maggie looked.

"What happened?" he asked her, sipping at whatever was in his red solo cup. She had to guess it was beer, but again, she didn't ask.

"Maggie happened," she hissed, finally turning to him, "She's so fucking hot now and I can't handle it! Like she looks so fucking nice and my mouth went so dry and I couldn't talk!"

Tommy laughed at her and she hit him lightly, feeling her face heat up in embarrassment. "Oh, come on, you can't hit me, it's funny."

"No, it's not; it's embarrassing," Evanora corrected him, looking away, seeing Brian go up to Maggie and she deflated again.

He seemed to see what she was looking at him and placed a hand on her shoulder to grab her attention. "They're not getting back together, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Evanora sighed, "But, like, it fucking sucks, you know? I've had crushes on straight girls before, but I've never been friends with them. It's so much worse like this."

"At least you're not fantasizing about a girl with a boyfriend?" Tommy offered, trying to make her feel better. But it didn't, because Maggie was still straight and still had a crush on someone else that Evanora didn't know and she felt so jealous, then sad, and then guilty for feeling these things.

Maggie wasn't hers and she shouldn't feel jealous because someone else had the wonderful chance of dating her. And then she shouldn't feel sad that she doesn't have a chance because Maggie's love life doesn't concern her, which led to her feeling guilty for ever thinking these things and having her heart feel this way. She couldn't control it, but it still made her feel like shit that she was feeling like this.

"You wanna know something?" Evanora leaned close to Tommy, "I fucking hated Brian when he was dating Maggie. Like, he was nice to me, I guess, but I didn't like him because she's cute and nice and I'm pathetic and weak."

She took his cup and downed a large gulp, not caring that she made a disgusted face afterwards because no matter how many times she drank beer, it never tasted better.

"You're not pathetic and weak for having a crush," Tommy disagreed, shaking her head as he took back his drink from her.

"But I'm pathetic because I didn't like someone just because they're dating someone I want to," Evanora concluded, slumping down even more. She looked back to where Maggie and Brian were previously standing but saw that Brian was standing with some other football players, but Maggie was gone.

"I didn't say that," Tommy countered, "I mean, to me, you're pretty great if you can still be friends with someone you have a crush on and not expect anything more. Wish I could've done that."

"Oh?" Evanora turned to him, interested because that sounded like he had a story to tell.

Tommy laughed and shook his head. "It's a super long story and it features an embarrassing freshman me."

"Oh, come on, tell me?" Evanora pouted, leaning against him and forcing her face near his as she batted her eyelashes and jutted out her lip.

"No!" Tommy laughed, pushing her away lightly, "Don't look at me like that, Nora, it's embarrassing! I'll tell you later when we're away from people."

Evanora stared him down for a second before sighing and accepting defeat. "Fine, but you will tell me this story, Thomas Daniels."

"Not the full name!" Tommy protested, though he was still smiling and looked lighthearted, "You sound like my name when you use my full name."

She shrugged, "Whatever, Thomas, you still have to tell me."

"I already said I would," Tommy agreed.

"Now that that's settled," Evanora cleared her throat, standing up and looking down at the still-sitting Tommy, "I need a drink, come with me?"

☆

AS SHE STEPPED OUTSIDE, SEEING THE POOL SHIMMER IN THE MOONLIGHT, EVANORA LET OUT A SIGH, GLAD TO BE AWAY FROM THE LOUD NOISE. It was fine at first, like it always was, but then it became too much and she couldn't bear it anymore. When that happened, she always needed to take a break and maybe use her magic to calm her.

For a water bender, she didn't think of herself a calm person. She was more fiery, always burning and fighting back, not the mediator of any situation. But maybe that was why whatever above gave her the gift of water manipulation and not something else; she needed a way to calm herself when the fire was burning too much inside her.

She sat down near the pool, taking off her shoes to dip her feet into it. She knew that it was October and much too cold, but the presence and her connection to it was so nice and it allowed her shoulders to droop, feeling content and one with the water underneath her feet.

"Hey," she looked up and saw Diana decked out in her full sexy vampire costume.

"Hey," Evanora smiled back at the girl, watching as Diana took a seat next to her, "Surprised you haven't gotten with someone yet."

Diana shrugged, "I've fucked every fuckable girl here, so there's nothing for me. But, you know, I'm surprised that you and Tommy haven't hooked up yet."

Evanora's eyebrows furrowed and she sat up straighter, looking at the girl in disbelief. "I'm sorry, what?"

"You and Tommy. I mean, I saw you two earlier, it was super cute. Maggie and I have been counting down the days until you finally get together," Diana smiled casually.

She couldn't help but laugh because the idea of her with a guy – especially Tommy – was so fucking funny that she couldn't keep it together. "You think that Tommy and I are gonna get together? That's...that's a good one."

Diana scoffed, "Don't play dumb with me, you know you like him."

"As a friend, yeah," Evanora agreed to that assumption, "But nothing else. I mean, I'm really fucking gay so I don't think that Tommy and I are getting together anytime soon."

"You are?" Diana asked in surprise and Evanora nodded, smiling and giggling slightly at her. God, her and Tommy...that was a really good one. "I didn't know that."

Evanora shrugged, "Hasn't really come up until now, I guess. I mean, Tommy knows, so he's not into me or anything, and I'm certainly not into him."

Diana looked at her for a second before nodding, accepting that, and then she just took off her own shoes and dipped them into the pool with her. They didn't say anything else, but that was fine, enough had already been said.