Clover frantically pulls at the collar of the shirt, it fit perfectly to her, magically even. But right now it felt like it was suffocating her.
“I don’t want this!” she says to Ghost, looking down at the glittery outfit.
Ghost looks at her over, “I think you look great.”
Clovers standing in the courtyard right in front of the college. It’s still early and people were definitely still in class. Thankfully the courtyard was mostly empty. A few people notice her after a little bit, they pull out their phones taking snaps for the magical girl standing there. Wondering what’s going on.
Clover hops up and down a few times “why isn’t the flying working?!”
“Probably because you’re a frazzled mess” Ghost points out.
“UGH!” She sprints behind the building to the dumpsters. Thankfully no one's back here to throw out their trash. She grabs the whip off her hip “I don’t want this” she holds it out as if trying to hand it to the ghost.
“You don’t get to choose that” she says back.
“Why the hell not?”
Ghost shrugs “because it’s… its a magical weapon don’t question it”
“I’m gonna question it!” She grips the piece of cord in her hand and stomps over to the dumpster and tosses it in. It lands on a massive raccoon that’s the size of the dumpster, he’s laying on his back eating from a bag of chips, and Clover slams the lid. Suddenly the need to go back and grab it nags at her brain, her fingers practically twitching without it.
“Don’t do that!” Ghost peaks her head into the trash “you’re throwing away a very powerful object” the smell is so bad she can smell it in the afterlife. She pops back out looking at Clover “what is wrong with you?”
Clovers looking down at her outfit, tossing the magical whip into the trash probably wasn’t enough to turn her back, she starts walking away. There’s a flash of light and the whip appears on her hip “DAMN IT!”
“HAH!! See I told you, you can’t throw it away” Ghost crosses her arms looking SOOO smug at Clover.
“You didn’t know that would happen, you have no idea what this thing does, you just came with it!” Clover reminds her.
“Well I know not to throw a powerful magical item in a dumpster” she says.
“UGH!” Clover tries it again, she quickly shoves it in the dumpster and sprints, vaulting over the hedges and brick fence behind her. The plan was to run and get as far away as quickly as possible. But she lands on a child walking by and face plants forward into the pavement.
There’s a flash of light and the whip is back on her hip.
She groans and lifts herself off the pavement. Seeing the toppled over kid. His eyes turn to saucers when he notices her.
“OH MY G-” He breathes in glitter and starts violently coughing.
Clover reaches over and puts a hand on his back, he keeps coughing until his throat is clear.
Clover notices the growing crowd around them. Most with their phones out and looking at her intently “what? No he wasn’t choking.”
The kid looks at a few of the phones giving a thumbs up.
“You were not choking” Clover glared at him.
He smiles at her “Can I get a picture with you?!”
Clover’s about to say no, but Ghost pops up next to her “come on, he’s just a kid. Let everyone believe you saved him, there’s no harm in that.”
Clover wants to argue but she can’t be seen talking to herself infront of all these people.
“Give the kid a picture” Ghost says again.
Clover sighs “okay one picture.”
The kid grabs his cellphone and takes a selfie of the two of them.
“Smile crabby” Ghost reminds her “for the kid?”
For the kid was something that made Clover consider not doing it, but she eyes the crowd around them and she does a big smile for the camera.
“This is so cool!” the kids practically hopped up and down “What’s your name?!”
The crowd hushes practically leaning in to hear.
“Um…” Clover wishes the whole flying thing would work right about now.
“BLUE LIGHTNING!” Ghost shouts.
“Blue Lightning!” Clover repeats, then hears the words and can’t help the glare she shoots Ghost.
Ghost shrugs.
“Blue Lightning?! That's so cool!” the kid says “I’m going to tell everyone!” He's already sent the picture to everyone he knows and is already getting likes on SPRKLapp.
“Dang it” Clover says under her breath.
The crowd starts pushing forward, everyone shouting and asking questions and looking for pictures.
“Now is our chance to put ourselves out there!” Ghost says “answer some of their questions and give out some pictures” Ghost looks back and sees that Clover has bolted through the crowd and is running full speed down the street.
“What are you doing? Stop and take a breather and we can fly out of here” Ghost keeps pace with her.
“If I stop, someone else is going to walk up and ask for my autograph! And then I’ll have to tell them my name is Blue Lightning?!”
Ghost shrugs “It was the first thing that came to mind, you’re blue and you have lightning powers.”
“That’s an awful name!”
“All superheroes have stupid names. You have Ember with her fire powers, and Iris because she’s purple? They’re all straight to the point names, and don’t get me started on Star’s name, she doesn’t have anything to do with stars, and it’s just confusing because the team name is also team star?”
“Okay I get it, superheroes are badly named!”
“And now you’re one of them!” Ghost cheers.
“I don’t want to be!” she yells back at her.
“Why not?!”
Clover doesn’t realize how long she’s running for, but she never gets tired. She could go for miles, and she finds herself across town far from the school. She dips down a dark space between two buildings, and hides behind a dumpster that smells like chinese food, surely no one will follow her in here “I can’t be a magical girl, that’s the answer.”
Ghost frowns “I just thought it would be everyone's dream to be a superhero?”
“Nope! I do NOT want this.”
Ghost sighs “well… I can’t turn you back.”
“Why not?!”
“Because I don't know how, I don't even know how I did that to you” she motions to her… “I still think your outfit is cute.”
“All this glitter is literally a choking hazard!”
Clover leans back against the wall closing her eyes. She’s not sure how long she stands out there and it starts to get darker, and she’s still there with the bright red hair and glitter clothes and glowing weapon.
“What the hell am I supposed to do?” She groans.
“Be the magical girl the mysterious object wants you to be?”
Clover disregards her “... what are my options here? I could get a disguise, wear it over this.”
“You can’t disguise a disguise!” Ghost yells at her.
“And why can’t I fly?”
“Maybe because all you’re thinking about is running and hiding?! Thinking about flying?!”
Clover glares at her, then closes her eyes “it’s not working.”
“What are you thinking about?”
“How much I hate you.”
Ghost folds her arms, turning away “that sounds like a you problem. I can’t help you.”
“Okay! Sorry!” Clover gives in “I’ll focus” she does her best to drop the thoughts and feelings that are overcoming her.
“Just breathe, all you need to do right now is fly, nothing else but fly” Ghost says in a soft voice.
“All I need to do right now is fly” that’s it.
Clover feels a swish of air and she opens her eyes. She’s far above the city “HOLY SHIT!”
“FLY!” Ghost shouts next to her “Fly…” she instinctively reaches out like she can catch her.
“Flying” Clover repeats, keeping the scary thoughts of falling out of her head.
She dips violently “AH!”
“Fly” Ghost attempts to keep her voice still and relaxed.
“Flying, Floating,” Clover says, trying to take a steady breath “okay.”
“You could have started a little closer to the ground but this is fine” Ghost says.
Clover thinks about being back next to the dumpster “Well-” Suddenly in a gust of air and glitter, she’s back in the alley floating two feet off the ground.
Ghost cheers “Like that!”
“I need to fly home,” Clover says.
“Okay, then do that again” Ghost smirks.
Clover looks up at the night sky, the idea of going back up and being that far off the ground made her heart rate start up, and then her feet plop back on the ground “damn it” Clover mutters.
Ghost floats a hand over Clover's shoulder “You did it once you can do it again, and it’ll be even better.”
Clover takes a few breaths, she can do this, it’s all she has to do if she wants to get home. She closes her eyes and thinks about being up there, then there’s wind.
“Uhhh….. Stop?” Ghost says.
Clover opens her eyes, and she's even higher up. She looks around herself, seeing stars and stray clouds.
“Well… you did it” Ghost looks at her expectantly, waiting to see Clover freak out.
Clover laughs “wow, I’m so high up, I can barely see the city.”
Ghost laughs “you are really high up.”
Clover keeps laughing “this is so freaking cool” she just floats, without a care in the world, nothing could get her up here, high above all the stress, and life of the everyday.
“You have to go home,” Ghost says, seeing the wistful look on Clover's face.
“I thought you wanted me to be a magical girl,” Clover points out.
“You can’t just float here forever” she tells the girl “you have to go back to the dorms.”
“Yup, the dorm” Clover looks around longingly at all she can see, the ocean on one side and mountains on the other. The light of a few nearby towns, and the one below her.
“Because that paper is due by midnight and you still need to write it.”
Clover's whole mind goes crashing back to reality “CRAP! Where’s the school?” she looks down at the blur of a town trying to picture where the school could be. She lowers herself, a bit wobbly, but close enough where she can make out the roads and find her route home.
They get stopped by a loud blaring sound.
Clover looks around “What is that?”
“Security alarm” Ghost looks around “from over there!” she points to their right.
Clover follows the sound, they hover across the street from a bank.
“Somethings going on in there” Ghost points out.
“What?”
“There’s a alarm going off in a bank, what do you think?” Ghost deadpans.
“Okay so someones breaking in”
“And?”
“And what?” Clover asks.
“You’re a magical girl! What are you going to do about it?”
“Uh?” Clover looks at the sleek clean bank, the bright lights contrasting over the dark street.
“Get in there!”
“What?”
“GET IN THERE!” Ghost yells again.
“I can’t-”
“YES, you can! You’re the magical girl, and people in there really need you to do something.”
“What can I do?”
“You can try and help,” she says.
“But-”
“GET IN THE BANK!”
Suddenly she’s flying and crashing through the window.
Clover looks around the room, there’s a group of people huddled in the corner, and three men standing there with guns now facing her.
“...I’m in.”
