Do you Believe in Magic?

[Mystic Mina]

Outside the tennis court, a small group of students stopped playing their matches and gathered to watch what seemed to be an utterly one-sided game between Esper and Mandy. One of the students was Christine, who was shouting words of encouragement to her best friend at every opportunity she got.

"See? No matter how hard you try, I will win! It's inevitable! Just accept that fact and quit now, before you waste even more of my time!" Esper screamed in rage, her face gradually becoming uglier and uglier as she allowed more of her anger to swell.

[Victorious]

"Well..it's not...all that hidden, is it?"

The girl gives a shrug, though she reddens slightly at boy's question. Not because of the tone--he actually seemed kind of nice, despite his looks...but the concept of being judged lesser by a guy this young chafed on her nonetheless.

"And, well yes, if it matters, I just started today.."

Trailing off, she hands the case over.

"And...I will leave that mystery to you."

Hoping that that sounded more imposing then it did, she looks back to the closed door, and then shrugs.

"...For $9.99."

[Harri-chan]

Mandy let out a sigh as she saw where her ball landed, but even through the despair, Christine's encouragement brought a smile back to her face. She gave the red-head a thumbs up before turning back to Esper, noticing how angry she was getting. "There's still plenty of time yet, and acing is your strength... just wait until it's my turn to serve...", she said, and then cringed at her own unfortunate choice of words, as she could indeed be serving.... serving Esper all year long.

[Stray-chan]

The young man's face goes very quickly through several complicated expressions when Paulette mentions she's brand new, than several more when she names the price. "I see. I, ah, take it neither you nor your instructor knows the properties of this item, then? You must know that parting with a true talisman for so little is only done when one has failed to ascertain it's true nature." He looks at the case warily, but then opens it up to examine it further. "Do you have any guesses at all as to it's purpose or power?"

[Evra]

Rein eventually makes her way home thinking as the voice speaks again "well yeah i guess that does make me feel better if i do change back" she says walking into her home and sitting on the couch

[Ookalf]

Whatever was going on back there...Julius actually seemed to have been doing a pretty good job, at least if the influx of customers was anything to go by. She was regretting telling him what she had though--this was awkward enough without the yelling from the backroom. But that's life.
Giving a little cough, Paulette pushes the door as shut as it will go, in hopes to further muffle the sound before responding to Richard.

"Ah--everything is fine, Julius is just...a little...busy right now..."

Trailing off, she shakes her head, trying to steel herself slightly.

"Er--well. What are you looking for...sir? There's a lot of stuff."

Motioning to the chaos that was the store, she gives a helpless shrug. Something told her that she wouldn't be so lucky as to just find price tags on most of this stuff...but there was so much of it, she could probably just guess at a price for whatever he found and call it good. Samuel...well, Mr. Winters, probably wouldn't mind too much.

Right?

Oh, nothing in particular... Like I said, I was just sort of curoius about what this place is about.

[Marky]

Stephanie beams a little bit as she stares at the giant flat-screen TV, and all of the gaming systems, especially. "This is...amazing...just amazing." Taking a look at the anime DVDs, Stephanie pauses for a moment, just glancing through them a little, before heading into the kitchen. Checking both the refrigerator and the pantry, Stephanie beams. "Man...I don't think I'm gonna have to go grocery shopping for a while." Moving on, she checks all of the pots and pans, before finally leaving the living room and kitchen, before moving on to the rest of the downstairs area, and, wait...isn't there an upstairs to examine, too? ((Or is the OOC's memory failing. XD))

[Mystic Mina]

"TRYING SERVING THIS THEN!"

With one might swing of her racket, Esper launched yet another serve at Mandy with all the energy she could muster. She didn't even care about landing the ball in the court with her shot; she just wanted to smash that stupid little smile off the insolent girl's face.

---

"Rein, you're back! I was so worried! You said you were only going for a little walk!"

Down from the second floor came Rein's mother, an older woman in her fifties who, despite her age, was still quite attractive. Her shoulder-length chestnut colored hair bounced up and down as she descended the staircase to greet her son.

"Now, you need to tell me where you've been all... This..." Her emerald eyes looked over the unfamiliar girl lying on her couch. "You're not my son! How did you get in my house!?"

---

There was! Up on the second floor, Stephanie found an office room, outfitted with the typical office equipment, a bathroom, which she was surprised to find was painted a bright hot pink for some unknown reason, and a bedroom, in which sat a queen-sized bed and yet another wall-mounted television. The bed was decorated in a rather cutesy fashion, which stuffed animals of all shapes and sizes piled among white and sky blue striped sheets.

In the corner of her bedroom sat a vanity closet, complete with a counter covered with fine jewelery and a mirror that showed Stephanie her astonishingly good looks.

[Harri-chan]

This time, Mandy didn't even get a swing in. The ball didn't bounce, but flew straight into her face. There a crack as it hit her across the nose, shattering both lenses in her glasses, leaving the whole world a blur, and the teenager utterly helpless as blood spurted from her nose, down onto the white tennis dress. She staggered around blind, and then crashed to her knees and clutched her face. Despite knowing she was really in her mid-twenties, Mandy felt the urge to cry rushing up inside her. Not being able to see was scary, and she pulled the broken glasses off with one hand, her other trying to stop the bleeding... when it all got too much, and she began to cry infront of everyone...

[Evra]

Rein freezes as she hears her mom "oh god" she thinks to herself keeping her eyes closed as she turns around looking at her mom "errr ... mom it's a really wierd story so you might want to sit down"

[Mystic Mina]

"That's right! Go ahead and cry! Show the entire school how weak and pathetic you really are!" Esper screamed at Mandy, her brown eyes crazed with uncontrolled fury. Her raven hair flailed about wildly as she began to advance on the wounded girl on the other side of the net. "Do you know your place now, you filthy little wor-"

"That's it, I've heard enough out of you." In stepped Couch Mouden, her tanned, brawny arms crossed over her chest. She positioned herself in front of Mandy, standing strong against Esper's furious wrath.

"The administration told me to put up with your bullying, but I'm not going to stand aside and watch a student be beaten to a pulp... You're off the team, Gomez. Get out of this court, and don't you ever come back, you hear me?"

"But I... You can't be serious! I'm the best player you have! Your ragtag little team would be NOWHERE without me!" In a berserk rage, she slammed her racket down on the ground, shattering the frame into pieces, before she stomped out of the court and out of sight.

"The school's going to hear about this, you steroid-pumped *****! You're going to lose your job, and I'll be back on the team before you even know it!"

---

"Wait... Did you just call me your mother? That's impossible! I only have a son, and you're definitely not him!" Rein's mom dashed towards the nearest phone she could reach and started to dial 911. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't call the authorities here right now and have you arrested for breaking into our house!"

[Harri-chan]

Mandy could only make out Esper as a blur of white cotton and tanned skin, but she didn't need to be able to see clearly to know how angry the older teenager was. Infact, she was pretty suprised by just how much Esper's temper had got the better of her, as she sounded entirely out of control. She started to crawl backwards on her knees as the Tennis champion started to come towards her, while other recognisable shape stepped between them. It was obviously coach Mouden, and Mandy couldn't ever remember being so glad to see her. She remained there on her knees, cowering as the teen and the teacher argued, before Esper turned her threats on the coach and stormed off. "I'm s-sorry, Coach... ", said the still crying Mandy.

[Marky]

After visiting the office room for just a moment, not really finding anything interesting about it, Stephanie moves on in exploring before pausing at the bathroom. Cringing a little at the bright, hot pink color, Stephanie shakes her head a little. "...definitely need a different color of paint in here..." Moving on, as she spots the wall-mounted television, Stephanie smiles once again, before going over to the queen size bed. "Kinda cute..." Picking up one of the stuffed animals, Stephanie just shakes her head, before moving over to the vanity closet, examining the fine jewelery. "Wow...this is just...man...I'd never be able to afford stuff like this." She says, before going and laying down on her bed, sighing a little. "If only it all didn't come with me being...female..."

[Evra]

"wait mom it's me" she says in a panic jumping up " it's me i promise i can prove it ask me anything " she says getting nervous

[Mystic Mina]

"You have nothing to be sorry about, Amanda. Come on, let's get that nose of yours cleaned up." The couch hauled Mandy up to her feet and carried her out of the court, where Christine and a bunch of other students were waiting.

"Mandy, are you alright? I can't believe she smacked you in the face like that!" The red-haired girl ran up to her friend and touched her broken nose. "We need to take you to the nurse! She can stop the bleeding!"

---

Stephanie lied there for a minute or two, absorbing all the changes that happened in her life. Then the phone began to ring. It jingled once, twice, three times before it switched over to the answering machine and a man's voice started to speak.

"Hey, Steph. This is Drew. You remember that dinner date we have tonight, right? I'm going to be over in half an hour. Could you be ready by then? Love ya', babe!"

---

Rein's mom stood still, unsure of whether she should trust the girl or not. After a few moments of silence, she decided to put the phone down.

"Alright, if you're really my son, which I doubt you are, tell me this. When your father passed away, what did he leave you in his will?"