Chapter 14: The Homecoming Offensive

“Cool,” Elise breathed. “How did she do that?”

“It’s not that cool. The S.P.D. has plenty of teleport spells and devices,” Chloe bragged. “Still, are you sure you should have told her where to find that vault?” She asked Neferu.

“Ahneith trusted her, and that is more than enough for me. Although” they both eyed Elise with suspicion. “As to how that trust was earned remains a question.”

Elise rolled her eyes and grabbed both girls at once, wrapping her arms around their waists. She abruptly kissed Neferu, then Chloe, and smiled at them. “You’re both beautiful. You can be jealous, just be cute about it.” She then slapped their asses to make one final point and walked away. Elise opened the classroom door and noted that it led to the school hallway once again. Chloe and Neferu blushed and followed behind her. They loved it when Elise took charge of their relationship.

They ran into the last person anyone outside of the social hierarchy would want to run into: Sidney Dupont, the queen bee. Her beauty, mature physique, and charisma put her at the top of the pecking order. Unfortunately for those beneath her, she was as mean and vicious as she was attractive.

“Oh my, how nice to see you again, Elle~,” Sidney cooed.

“Hey,...Sid,” Elise tried and failed to sound happy.

“I haven’t seen you around much. I guess juggling and two-timing girls takes up a lot of your time,” she spat. “How’d you do it, anyway? Plenty of lonely losers would pay money to bag one or two girls,” Sidney wondered. “Was it money? Pay them off to hang around you?”

Elise narrowed her eyes. Her former self took over for a moment, causing her left eye to change color. She firmly grabbed Sidney’s wrist and pulled her close, pinning them together with a hand on Sidney’s lower back. “I can show you, if you’d like,” she offered. “Though you may not want to crawl back to that dull-witted barbarian you call a mate. No one satisfied in love could be so vindictive.”

Sidney was stunned in place, and a shade of red overtook her cheeks. Elise smirked and released her back, only to take her hand and spin her around as though they were in a dance. Elise’s original personality returned, prompting her to release Sidney’s admittedly soft hand. “So, I started dating Neferu, got amnesia, then I started dating Chloe, and now my love life is really complicated.” It was the truth, if nothing else. “I’d say I’m caught between a rock and a hard place, but that would be insulting them,” she joked. “Well, we don’t want to be late for the next class. See ya!” She took Neferu’s and Chloe’s hands and walked away with them, leaving a very flustered Sidney in her wake.

Chloe pulled her car keys out of her pocket and flipped them in her hand. “You really want to earn that ladykiller title, don’t you?” she joked.

Elise blushed and tried to defend herself. “It wasn’t my fault! I couldn’t control myself.”

Neferu laughed and sat in the back seat. “Ahneith would always target someone’s weakness whenever they annoyed her or someone she cared for,” she explained. “Though I don’t recall her flirting with someone just to bring them low.”

Chloe received a text as she started the car. “Well, ladies, it looks like we’ll be working over homecoming,” she announced.

Elise sighed in despair. “Why…? I was looking forward to having fun.”

“Homecoming is a gathering of many excited souls. It is Ptahmose’s ideal hunting ground, especially if he wishes to take their life force and overwhelm us with sheer power,” Neferu theorized.

“That’s what we’re thinking. A few of our scanners sense unstable energy in the area, but it’s not enough to disturb a public event like this,” Chloe explained.

Elise sat at attention. “Right. We can’t let him hurt the students, and we sure as heck can’t let him get enough power to hurt Neferu.”

Chloe started the car and pulled out. “The S.P.D. will be on-site to help with the ushabti statues. They’re primarily relying on you two to handle the Ancient Egyptian magic stuff. It’s not a branch of magic we typically deal with.”

“Wait, how are we going to bring our weapons to school? Maybe Neferu and I can pass off our gear as cosplay or something, but….you use more modern weapons,” Elise wondered.

Chloe smirked. “We have a weapons locker at school in an S.P.D.-only area. We’re covered.”

“You may leave this matter to me. I have the means to store and summon objects on command,” Neferu assured them.

Another thought crossed Elise’s mind. “One more question: how do we fight Ptahmose and Setesh in such a public place without the students seeing it? Magic is supposed to be a giant secret, right?”

“Memory spell,” Neferu and Chloe answered in sync. “The students and faculty not working for us will think the dance went off without a hitch. Oh, and we have government-operated programs that search out and erase actual proof of magic from the internet,” Chloe added.

“Huh. That…doesn’t sound great. I mean, the ethics and morality alone of such widespread memory manipulation is just…questionable to say the least,” Elise mused.

“Yeah, I know. The S.P.D. and other agencies have been debating that topic for centuries,” Chloe casually mentioned. “The closest they got was: it’s safer for everyone to maintain the secret of magic.”

“Even though tons of people believe in the supernatural?” Elise was skeptical.

“Belief and knowledge are two different things, hun.”

Elise raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you’re so proud of that one, aren’t you? Well, I both believe and know that I’ll be sleeping alone tonight,” she teased.

“What have I done to deserve such treatment? I agree with you on this matter. Magic is a vital part of humanity.” Neferu demanded.

Chloe grinned and lightly jabbed Elise in the arm. “I really do love this take-charge attitude of yours. A normal human girl topping a trained hunter and a demi-goddess,” she joked. “Next, you’ll make us wear the naked aprons. I’ll have to insist you wear the cheerleader outfit again, though.”