You Can Do Magic

“You're the one that can put out the fire, you know darn well when you cast your spell you will get your way-”

“PanDan, if you don't get your lollygagging tookus down here this instant and help us out, you'll get nothing for Samhain! And stop singing, you know how it might affect things!”

“Oops! Sorry!” Dan ran down the stairs so fast they almost tripped on the fan cord. It was unusually hot this time of year, and this very old house never had air conditioning installed. There were a few window units, sure, but the electrical wiring was very old as well, so the negotiations as to what units were used, and when, and for how long, were the stuff of legend. Dan, as a college student studying to be a paralegal, had seen some tricky cases, but nothing to match the complexity of three other super-smart nerds studying collegial esoterica by day, and the rules weenie-ing of D&D by night. And air conditioning rights.

Dan thought their coven would fit right in with their roommates, but somehow, this much estrogen and estrogen-adjacent spellcasting was just too much for the boys Dan roomed with. D&D night always rapidly moved to another dorm basement by the time the third pair of - er, ponytails - crossed the threshold.

They entered the kitchen. All good spells started there.

Marcy was scribing the final pieces of tonight's spell on the parchment. “PanDan, how are you presenting tonight? Just need to be more precise for this particular attempt.”

“Enby, tonight. Just can't find it in me to tap into my inner female, it doesn't feel right.”

“So?” She jabbed a paint brush dripping with chocolate, but was extremely careful to not spill any drops. “I think I accounted for Trey and Pat's shifting hormones as well. Both have upped their T and E dosages respectively. You know it doesn't make a whitsun of difference to us, a coven's a coven, through thick and thin. Just need to know so's I don't mess this up.” Marcy tapped the parchment, smiled in a particularly satisfied way, and slid the parchment paper under the springform cake pan sitting in the center of the table.

The rest nodded approvingly. Pat, fiddling with a large lazy susan painted with a precise pentacle, asked what they all wanted to know: “So, what magic are we cooking up tonight?”

“Cheesecake! With a harvest spell, hopefully with a twist on grades, and studying, and getting good jobs. Fruits of our labor and all that.”

“I'll drink to that!” Seven goblets and glasses were raised in the air, of a good Merlot, and they toasted their hopeful success.

Dan smiled. Seven wasn't as auspicious as thirteen, but it didn't matter with awesome friends like these. They had each other's backs, after being thrown together as the newbie pledges at the college's sorority back in their green froshie days. How they had morphed from sisters to a coven was through many shed tears and deep discussions through the night. They'd kept the other sisters from knowing Pat's secret, since she passed as female from the very beginning. Early concealment spells? Quite likely. Trey realized he wanted to transition by junior year, and they fought to keep him in. By the time Dan was realizing they were enby and pan, the whole group found various off-campus housing and thumbed their noses at the close-minded sorority house. The fact that it burned down afterward had nothing to do with them, right?

Dan wondered if playing It's Raining Men and Disco Inferno and Fire on repeat had anything to do with it. Well, they meant no harm. Dan sublimated their raw emotions by playing emotion-laden songs on loop to feel better. And they switched to eighties hits, just in case there was a correlation.

The others busied themselves at the various cooking tasks, and whispers of the chants being said over each part of the process blended in nice harmony. Tracy was stirring a thickening pot of blueberry conserves, cooing to it like it was a fluffy pet. Roseann was making the crust, and Rochelle was mixing the rest of the ingredients, and just waiting for Dan to give her the cream cheese.

Dan picked up the stoneware bowl with the cream cheese already softened inside it, and grabbed the silver fork. They knew what to do. Mash mash clockwise Lac matrum, mash mash widdershins nos nutriat, mash mash eastwards nos ditare, mash mash westwards nos uniat, mash mash-

CRASH!

Screams, gasps. Everyone came running to check on Dan, standing stock-still in the middle of a disaster zone. The bowl was shattered, and globs of runny cream cheese were spattered in all directions. They gave no resistance as the others checked them for cuts and bruises.

Marcy shook her head as she wiped down Dan's cheek, but giggled when she looked at Dan's face. “PanDan, are you sure you want to keep that name? You honestly look like a reverse panda right now.” Sure enough, two splots of cream cheese ringed their eyes, making them look very much like an inverse-color panda. Even their hair was mussed in such a way to give a suggestion of ears.

Dan didn't even register the comment. “What happened?” they whispered.

Trey whistled while cleaning up shattered remains at their feet. “Look at this!”

Most of the damage was clear – bowl flinders, blotches of cream cheese. More molten than it should have been, but still identifiable. But part of the bowl, which had formerly been white glaze with black speckles, was now brown, and formed into a perfect Valentine-shaped heart.

“Gaia bless, PanDan, what were you thinking about?”

“Just the spell, like you wrote out!” Dan's finger pointed to the recipe, with Marcy's careful handwriting on the right side showing who should say which phrases over what part of the cooking process.

Tracy hadn't said anything yet, but she was the coven's deep thinker. She dumped her double handful of shattered crockery in the trash, washed her hands, then strolled over, wiping her hands slowly. “PanDan, luv, I think it's time we admit what we all suspect: when you rock out to songs, spells go awry. Or perfectly. Or amazingly super-perfect. Merci, I think you've been trying to mitigate their influence subconsciously with crafting the spells, and I think we may have been going about this all wrong. Ro-ann, can you hand me my tablet please- ah, thanks.” A few moments of tapping brought up a spreadsheet. They all crowded in. “Yeah, so maybe I've been keeping tabs on the.. erm...”

“Spectacular effects?” That was Rochelle, grinning.

“Indeed, Ray. That's one way to put it.” Tap tap, tap tap. “And I believe I heard the dulcet tones of America wafting down your stairs?”

Tracy always talked like that. PanDan wished they could be that effortless with words. Like writing songs, but without music. “Um, yeah...”

More tapping. “And the lyrics also say something about a heart of stone can turn to clay?”

Trey wordlessly handed Dan the brown heart, which he'd helpfully wiped clean.

“Um?” Yeah, Dan, real eloquent....

“Are you in love? Looking to influence your love chart?”

“No! I just-” Roseann slid the kitchen stool behind them just as Dan thumped down. She could anticipate needs like that. Their worries spilled out. “I don't feel like I've been pulling my weight properly in the coven. I mean, you've all specialized in some sort of specialty, and I don't have one, and I can't think of one! And you're all so talented, and here I am, screwing up again, and I just want things to go right for once-”

Ten arms reached out from all directions to wrap them in a warm group hug. The last pair, Roseann's again, held out Dan's goblet with more Merlot.

Dan wasn't a big one for crying, but a few large tears did roll down their cheeks. Marcy, of all people, was the one telling them sharply, “We'll have none of that in our coven! Don't you get it, you've always been the heart of this group! You're the one who brought us all together, and kept us going!”

“Hunh?” Yeah, real eloquent...

The coven replied, in six-part descant harmony:

“I recall someone reaming the chapter president a new one after I was outed by that homophobic professor, then you went and got the professor canned!”

“I remember someone hiding me in their room, feeding me double fudge chocolate ice cream, when my heart was broken yet again by a stupid boy.”

“I know someone that went to my classes, and recorded the lectures, when I had the flu and was in danger of bouncing out if I didn't pass that semester. And you still had to make up your own studies that week.”

“I happen to recall many late night talks about masculinity, and femininity, and making sure I got accurate information so I could make a good choice. And not once did you flinch about me becoming male, and in fact offered to switch roommates so I had a protected space to transition.”

“I remember someone who went to breakfasts with my boyfriend, and all you did was talk me up, when he wasn't sure if he wanted to keep dating me. And, oh yeah, keeping that ugly harpy away from him so she couldn't get her hooks into him at a vulnerable time in our relationship.”

“And I know someone went to Student Services when I broke my leg, and quoted chapter and verse on ADA regs, till they got off their butts and ferried me around in one of their golf carts till I was out of rehab.”

Tracy smiled and shook her head, which was right up against Dan's. “Luv, if you haven't seen that you're the fierce heart of this multi-pronged friendship, you haven't been looking. Don't let your insecurities blind you to your own very real, very raw, power. That's quite a talent you've been harboring, channeling your magic through song lyrics.”

Dan immediately flashed to the house burning down, standing there, smelling the smoke, wondering, afraid. “Did I really burn down our sorority house?”

“Not according to Merci, and she checked. But you probably made it more likely to happen, like laying a bunch of newspaper and gasoline near a bonfire. But you didn't light the match.”

Marcy nodded from the tangle of arms still holding Dan. “I checked many times. Many different ways. You're not responsible.”

“Whew.” At least that worry could be laid to rest.

Trey's muffled voice came from underneath somewhere. Was he kneeling? “And that kinda proves what we're saying, doesn't it? We just told you how powerful you are, and you immediately worried you used it inappropriately to become a closet arsonist?”

Muted giggles, a convoluted reverse Maypole as arms decorated with silver bracelets un-wove itself from around them. More Merlot, and Tracy armed herself with her tablet again. “Right. Merci, pull out the backup ricotta that you insisted we needed for just such an emergency. Someone else will have to take PanDan's part of the spell, because theirs has to be...” Tracy smiled, and handed the tablet to them. It was open to Tracy's music list. “Pick us a good one, luv, to hit this spell out of the park!”

Dan grinned, and scrolled quickly. They knew the perfect song to get results!

Everyone sang along while the baking magic happened:

“Every little thing she does is magic, everything she do just turns me on, even though my life before was tragic, now I know my love for her goes on....”

The cheesecake was amazing in the moonlight. With the best coven in the world.