The ball spun on the tip of Marie’s perfectly manicured, french tipped nails, a momentary twirl of magic surrounding it as a faint sparkle in the air before she let it fly. Nice, a solid black poodle with hair perfectly trimmed and styled, darted off after it, scrambling on the hard wood flooring outside her bedroom.

  As he chased down the ball, Marie clicked back into the video she’d been watching. While she would have preferred watching something like the latest episode of her favorite medical drama, she needed to go through all of the footage of herself from today.

  She bit down on her lip as the drone footage began to play, catching an aerial shot of some of her first moments as a magical girl.

  Maybe Father was right, she thought, wincing as she made a mistake with her new magical wand. If she’d taken a little bit longer to practice, to perfect her act, then she wouldn’t be making little mistakes like this. He’d warned her of as much. It was common for new magical girls and others under the commission to make mistakes, especially during their first year as they learned how to do the job, but Marie wasn’t supposed to be like the rest. She already had the best gear, the most advanced tools. She’d been training under tutors since her mage potential first developed at twelve. At only a few months shy of eighteen, that was years longer than most spent training their ability before going to the commission.

  She probably would have listened to her father and waited until she was eighteen to debut, but if she wanted to go to Mage Academy for college, she needed a proven history as a magical girl. So, here she was, wincing at every mistake she spotted with only a few hours of clarity.

  Nice ran back into the room, panting. She paused the video, smiling as the poodle waited to drop the ball into her hand. Slobber covered her fingers, the ball absolutely soaked.

  “Good boy,” she cooed, using her free hand to ruffle the poodle’s huge top knot. Every so often, she was tempted to style his hair to match hers, but then he’d probably get all grumpy and pouty and ignore her. The house was empty enough without turning her dog against her. “Go long, Nice.”

  The dog responded to her command with absolute obedience, taking off out of her bedroom and into the hallway outside. She tossed the ball again, careful to avoid letting it go over the balcony onto the stairs. Every time Nice went scrambling down them after the ball, she couldn’t help but worry about him slipping and breaking something.

  Wiping the slobber off onto a towel, Marie started the video again. Before she’d made her way to the farm, she’d spent some time downtown, dealing with a small-time crook who’d tried to rob the local gas station. It had taken relatively little to stop him and tie him up for the cops. If she’d stopped there, she would have had a great first day. But instead, she’d answered a second call, taking off to a farm on the outskirts of town, where another magical girl had apparently already responded.

  She watched on video as she hesitated, flying over the property on her fabricated swan’s wings. The beast they were fighting was huge, absolutely massive. If she’d been braver, like Magical Girl Gadget, she’d have jumped right into the fight and helped out. Instead, she hung there, frozen with fear as she watched the beast tear through the property, with that boy firing gunshots at it like bullets could do anything against a magical beast, and Gadget built a trap.

  Once Gadget had the creature trapped, she’d finally broken out of her stupor and jumped in, incinerating the beast after seeing that Gadget had nothing to do it with. Gadget, who was such an incredible magical girl, never hesitating, always ready for every situation thrown at her. That was the sort of magical girl Marie wanted to be.

  She just needed to convince Gadget of that, so she could begin to learn from her.

  It would help if she could remember what she actually said to Gadget, but between the adrenaline rush and her own fear, her mind was blank.

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  That was another mistake.

  Nice trotted back into the room, waiting to drop the ball until Marie was ready.

  “Why don’t we go outside now,” she suggested. Nice’s tail began wagging the moment she said the word and he took off out the door, racing down the stairs at a breakneck pace.

  Shaking her head at him, she grabbed her tablet and followed him down the stairs. Her footsteps, quiet as they were, echoed through the empty house.

  She did her best to ignore it as she always did and opened up the front door. Nice ran out into the yard, making it a few paces before stopping and spinning around, waiting for her to throw the ball.

  A grin stretched across her face. Acres of land stretched out in all directions around the mansion, aside from the winding paved driveway leading up from the main road out of sight. Marie summoned her magic as she wound back with the ball, choosing a direction and launching the ball as far as it would go. Nice took off after the ball as it disappeared out of sight.

  She watched Nice run for a moment before taking a seat in one of the rocking chairs out front, getting back onto the tablet. Instead of continuing to nitpick her own footage, she searched for anything on Magical Girl Gadget.

  There wasn’t much. Gadget was apparently elusive, or just didn’t have much media presence. There was an article in the paper about the newest local magical girl, and a few clips of her out there, but she didn’t have much of a presence online. Didn’t even have an account to market herself, which Marie found odd. Hers was set up the moment she decided she was going to debut.

  She’d be posting her first set of clips tonight, as soon as her father came home to approve them.

  Marie sat on the front porch as the sun went down, waiting for the familiar headlights on her father’s car. When the sun disappeared behind the horizon and the sky went fully dark, without any sign of him, she sighed and called Nice back inside to keep waiting.

  It must be a busy day at work.

  As a mage commissioner, he had a lot of work to do, running not only the local commission but all the ones in the region. He told her he’d be staying local today, since she was making her debut, but he couldn’t always control where he had to go for work. Maybe something had come up out of state?

  She did her homework. Nice settled down, no longer interested in her company, sitting on the couch as though he owned it. The chef brought in dinner, and then took away her empty plate, leaving a small snack platter behind. She picked at it as she curated and edited a series of clips to post, and when she couldn’t nitpick them any further, found a book to read.

  Father didn’t get home until almost midnight.

  Nice heard the car before she saw the headlights, gleaming through the windows of the sitting room. She found a bookmark as he trotted over to the door, then joined him, ordering him into a fancy sit as they waited.

  Her father opened the door and paused, clearly surprised to see her still up.

  “It’s late,” he said, stepping through and shutting the door behind him. His usually pristine suit was creased from long hours of work. “Don’t you have school tomorrow?”

  “I do, but you said you’d go through my debut footage when you got home…” She trailed off, twining her fingers together as she stared down at them.

  “Oh.” He winced. “I’m sorry, Marie, that completely slipped my mind. Let’s go look at it now.”

  He took her offered tablet and they made their way to the dining table. As he looked over the clips, she went to the kitchen and made him a cup of tea. Maybe he’d actually be able to get a decent amount of sleep tonight with a bit of chamomile.

  “Here,” she said, sliding over the warm mug. “What do you think?”

  “They’re good,” he said, giving her a nod. “Definitely postable. Though I think we should invest in a more stable drone for you, and maybe some sort of point of view camera. What do you think?”

  “Once I get more confident, I think that’s a good idea,” Marie said, sitting down beside him.

  “I have something to help with that,” he said, beaming at her. “I got you the rival you wanted.”

  “Wait, really?” She grabbed onto his arm as though he might disappear, holding him in place. “Are you serious?”

  “Miss Gadget has agreed to be your rival,” he said. “You’re welcome.”

  She launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around him in an enthusiastic hug. “Oh, thank you, Dad!”

  Marie jumped up from her seat, and Nice sprung up with her, startled. “I have to meet her! Tomorrow after school, I’m going to go meet her. What should I wear? It has to be perfect.”

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