Jess rolled over in bed. Groggily opening her eyes, she was greeted by Mr. Perlack’s sleeping form.
         “Aagh!” she screamed, causing Mr. Perlack to jolt awake and fall out of the bed.
         “What! What’s wrong?” he shouted, picking himself off the floor, his body covered in black pajamas.
         “Where am I? Why are you in my bed? What happened last night? Did we…?”
         “What!? No! No, no, no, no. We’re in my apartment above the bar. You’re crashing here while I train you.”
         “Train me for what?”

         “To be a magician! Don’t you remember?”
         Jess stared at Mr. Perlack in disbelief, “What the heck are you talking about?”
         “Oh right, the contract. You said something about this yesterday too…” Mr. Perlack stood in contemplation for a moment, before suddenly becoming chipper, “Okay, get up! I’ll explain this all over breakfast.”


         Jess always considered a cold shower the best remedy to a hangover, even if it was caused by magic. When she had gotten out of bed this morning, everything from last night was a blur. Once actually in the shower, it took all of 5 minutes for Jess to finish cleaning herself off, and an additional 10 to complete her hair and face wash. It was much easier thanks to the additional pair of arms…
         “KAYLA! REILLY!”

         In her bedroom, Kayla was awakening with one of the largest hangovers she had ever experienced. She couldn’t remember exactly what happened the night before, but she felt pretty lightheaded. She did her best to sit up in bed, only for two brown cylinders to roll off her bed and onto the floor. Getting up, she looked down at the objects on the floor, only to realize her predicament…
         “REILLY! JESS!”

         Reilly pulled herself off the couch. It had been an enjoyable night, filled with amazements that had overwhelmed her senses. Or maybe it was just the booze. Either way, she remembered the amazing time she had in her multi-legged form. She grabbed her glasses off the end table. Wait…
         “JESS! KAYLA!”

         What had been a quiet morning exploded into a shouting match of epic proportions.
         “It’s clearly that magician from last night! He’s just trying to force us to come back.” Kayla started.
         “No way! Mr. Perlack is way too cool to play something like this on us.” Reilly retorted.
         “Really? We know nothing about this guy! Do you even know his first name?”
         “Of course I do… I think it started with a J…”
         “See! We know nothing about him! Who’s to say that this guy didn’t drug us or something!”
         “You’re just a Scaredy cat! At least you get to enjoy something different!”
         “By being completely helpless!”
         “Guys! Can you shut up! I’m trying to get Paul on the phone!” Jess shouted at the two, trying to co-ordinate her four arms to use the phone, look at a business card, and make breakfast for her roommates.
         “Who’s Paul!?” The two bickering roommates shouted.
         “Mr. Perlack. His first name is Paul.”
         Reilly and Kayla looked at Jess with befuddlement. “Are you sure? I thought it would be something mystical like Claudius or Merlon.” Reilly commented.
         “It was on the business cards he gave us.” Jess had quickly gotten over the momentary shock of awakening with four arms, and had immediately got to work on trying to find a solution to their current forms.

         “DAMMIT!” the answering machine response of Paul Perlack played for the 20th time that morning. “Listen, Paul. If you get any of these, please contact us right away.” Jess was certain that he would be annoyed about having so many messages on his phone, but this was beginning to grow into the biggest crisis the roommates had ever faced. Kayla and Reilly had been going at it non-stop for hours. Kayla was dead-set that Paul had done this to them and erased all of their memories, while Reilly was focused on protecting the honor of the man they hardly knew. Breakfast had been swallowed (with some assistance in Kayla’s case), and morning routines were done (at least as closely as could be done). It was only Saturday, so Reilly and Jess wouldn’t have to worry about getting out of the city, but they knew that this problem would have to be addressed quickly if they were planning on staying up with the rent.
         Lunchtime was rolling around, and it was then that Kayla came up with a great idea. “If you trust him so much, why don’t you go to him? You’re completely normal, you can just go bug him at the bar.”
         Reilly and Jess agreed that this was a smart plan, so Reilly rushed to the bar. She returned a half hour later with lunch for everyone (Burgers yet again), and told them the bad news, “the bar’s closed until 8, so we’re stuck like this for at least another 7 hours.” The burgers were eaten in much needed silence and then the girls went to their separate rooms.

         It was about 3:30 when sobbing could be heard from Kayla’s room. She had spent the last 2 and a half hours trying her best to use her computer with her toes, but she hadn’t had much progress. She had managed to type up a longwinded email for her boss if she was still stuck like this on Monday, but it was still full of spelling mistakes. She stood up from her chair, and laid down on the bed and, for the third time that afternoon, she attempted to reattach her arms. She lined up the shoulder of an uncontrolled arm to her empty shoulder socket, and tried to apply as much force as she could to get it stick on, but to no avail. The futility of the act had finally caught up to her when she had began crying.
         Reilly and Jess listened outside her door and heard the sound of her squirming on her bed trying to get the arm to stick, and heard her cries of frustration. “Come on!” she wailed, “just stick on!” Not wishing her friend to suffer any longer, the two entered the room to comfort her, sitting on either side of her and holding on to a shoulder. “I just wish they would attach! I’ve tried everything! Glue! Tape! Rubber bands! Nothing works!” she shouted between sobs.
         “It’s okay sweetie. Cry it out.” Reilly whispered.
         “Here, let me try,” Jess said, grasping at straws in trying to cheer her up. She reached down with one of her lower arms, picking up the arm and placing it near her shoulder … where it promptly stuck with a wet pop.
         The other two girls stared in silence at Jess’s accomplishment. Shakily, Kayla reached down, picked up her other arm, and handed it to Jess. Equally shocked by the change in events, she placed the arm back in position, where it similarly stuck with a pop.
         Shocked beyond belief, Reilly began giggling. Soon, all three girls were laughing, as if Kayla’s prior outburst had been a thing of the past.

         Finally, 8:00 PM rolled around and the three made their way to Salamangka’s, Kayla and Reilly went normally while Jess had to hide her extra appendages under a large sweater, which did not get many strange stares as it was already mid-November and cold winds were starting to pass through.
         Reaching the bar, they entered, and were greeted with the site of Paul Perlack in all his glory… if glory were defined as a plain grey t-shirt and jeans. He was seated at the bar, watching a TV screen that was showing that night’s football game, the Inner-city Spikes vs. the Outer-city Titans. Other than him and the bouncer from the night before, the room was completely empty.
         “Hey creep! Where’s the fancy get-up?” Kayla shouted, rushing over and slapping him as he turned to look at the girls. Paul flew off his seat and onto the floor.
         Within moments the bouncer had picked Kayla up by her shirt. As she dangled helplessly, he looked towards his boss picking himself up from the floor and growled, “Want me to take out da trash boss?”
         “There’s no need Rex, put her down. We’re all civilized adults.” Rex looked at his boss incredulously, before roughly dropping Kayla to the floor, giving her a nasty look as he returned to his station near the back of the room. “Now, what can I do for you girls.”
         “You know damn well what you can do for us -“ Kayla’s rant was interrupted from a loud growl by the wall of meat in the back of the room.
         “Mr. Perlack, What Kayla here means is that we all woke up strange this morning and with no knowledge of what happened last night, and we were wondering if you had anything to do with it?” Jess interjected
         “Yah, I did that.” Paul said. Kayla went to try and slap Paul again, but was stopped by Reilly grabbing her arm. Paul continued, “What I mean is that of course you woke up with no memories. It was part of the contract you signed last night.”
         All three roommates shared the same shocked expression, “What contract?”
         “Oh shoot, this happened with the last group of assistants too. Well, it all happened last night…”

         
         It was 10 o’clock at night, and the party in Salamanka’s was just getting good. Nearly everybody in the room had some sort of transformation. On the bar sat several detached heads being given alcohol whenever their bodies remembered to get off the dance floor and give them a sip. One couple who had been sharing a table now sat alone, as they had their bodies merged from the neck down and were sharing a beer through two straws. In one corner sat several classily dressed people transformed into variety of animals playing poker. By the looks of things, the badger had beaten out the other animals by several hands. In another corner, a pink-haired woman was showing off her increased flexibility by climbing through her legs several times over. Several people were getting their meals to go with several orders of potions to enjoy when they get home. Others were getting their altered outfits enchanted by Mr. Perlack on the center stage to appear normal to other so that they wouldn’t have to change when the left the bar. However, back in Mr Perlack's office, the three girls were debating on heading out now that the show was over.

         “C’mon Kayla! For just one song!”
         “No Reilly! I want my arms back!”

         “But Kayla! I didn’t even get to try out this form at all!”
         “It doesn’t matter! I want them back now!”
         Jess on the other hand, was busy exploring her new dryad body. Her skin felt hard, like wood, yet still looked exactly the same. Her pink hair hang loosely and fluttered from the AC like leaves in the wind. She got the feeling that if she really wanted to, she could become a tree for the rest of her life and live happy. Of course, these thoughts were continuously interrupted as the other two continued to bicker.
         “Being armless could have it’s advantages.”
         “How so?”
         “Well, you could get cool robot ones now.”
         “I wouldn’t have to if you just gave me back my pair!”
         “Ladies, ladies. Please. Don’t bicker on my account.” Mr. Perlack announced as he entered his office. “Now, I must thank you for your fantastic performance, especially since this is essentially all of your first experiences with magic.”
         “Thank you Mr. Perlack, I always knew I was a natural at stage performance.” Reilly interjected, swinging her new central joint with bravado.
         “That you are Reilly. But… I have one more request for you girls. A bunch of the patrons have been asking to meet the three lovely, assistants from tonight’s show, and while I understand that some of you may be wishing to be changed back right away, there hasn’t been this much buzz about my show since we’ve opened. So will you please do this one more thing, and you’ll be free to go tonight after midnight.”
         Reilly and Jess looked towards Kayla with puppy-dog eyes. “Well…”
         “Great! Get out there!” Mr. Perlack pushed the three out the backroom door back into the bar.
         
         The room fell silent as the three were pushed back into the bar, and applause sounded throughout the room as the patrons realized who they were. “Well girls, let’s mingle!”  Reilly shouted, jumping headfirst into the throng of people on the dance floor. Kayla and Jess looked at each other, shrugged, and proceeded to enter into the fray.

         Several hours (and several drinks later), and the last customer was leaving the bar. The three girls sat down in one of the many available booths, talking about the great night they had.
         “I’m never putting my armsssh on again!” slurred Kayla, as she leaned onto crouching form of Reilly.
         “I’m with you, sister. I’m never changing back!” Reilly echoed.
         “Well girls, this was a great night!” Mr. Perlack said, appearing before the three, sliding in next to Jess. “So I guess now’s time to discuss compensation.”
         “Wait. You mean we’re getting paid too?” Reilly asked.
         “Of course.”
         “What’ssh the catch?” Kayla asked, still suspicious despite being heavily inebriated.
         “No catch. Rex! Go in the back and get their cut.” Mr. Perlack ordered. Rex headed into the back room. He returned a moment later with a large wad of dollars. “We made 10 thousand tonight … so, 100 for each of you sounds about right,” he said, leafing out the bills to the three inebriated girls.
         “One hundred!” whispered Jess into Reilly’s ear, “That’s like more than we make in a week!”
         “I know, I’d be willing to offer more… but really only professional assistants make more than one hundred per gig.”
         “Well… What if we wanted to become professionals?” Reilly asked.
         “Oh! If you three are interested, I would be the first to offer to train you three… for a fee.”
         “Sssheeeeee. There’sssh alwaysssh a catch! *hiccup*” Shouted Kayla, now leaning against the wall for support.
         “The fee is simply that, while I’m teaching you, you all will work as my new assistants. Of course, I’d be willing to pay the professional fee of five percent per show.”
         “I’m in!” Reilly proclaimed, “When do we start?”
         “Woah! Riley, don’t you think you should ask me and Kayla what we think before agreeing to become criminals?”
         “But Jess! Think of all the stuff we could buy with that kind of paycheck! We could move into that downtown studio apartment we were talking about! Or finally fix that huge dent in your car! Hell, with that money we could just buy three new cars and call it a day!”
         “I’m in!” Kayla said, sitting upright suddenly.
         “Kayla, you are way too drunk to make this decision. And Reilly,” Jess said, suddenly turning into what she felt was the rational one of the group, despite having consumed just as much alcohol as the others, “if we do this, we’ll basically be prisoners, since we won’t be allowed to leave the city.”
         “Oh, don’t mind that inconvenience,” Mr. Perlack said, “we’ve been getting around the government’s mandates for years. I’d make sure you could go anywhere, anytime. And so you won’t worry about any outside sources influencing your decisions.” Mr. Perlack snapped his fingers, and suddenly the three girls were completely normal sitting within the bar, their alcohol levels returning to zero. “So girls. What will it be?” A contract appeared on the table, in front of the three girls on an ancient looking scroll, with three pens waiting patiently right next to it. Three spaces were at the bottom, clearly indicating where they were expected to sign.
         “I’m signing.” Riley said confidently, grabbing the nearest pen and signing her name on the first line.
         “Riley! I-“
         “I’m signing too.” Kayla said quickly, “I might not trust this stuff, but that was one of the best nights I’ve had in ages. Maybe magic’s not so terrible.” Kayla signed her name in the second spot.
         Now the only person left who had not signed the contract,the two girls looked towards Jess, one’s eyes filled with unbridled excitement, the other with nervous expectations. “Fine!” Jess finally said, snatching a pen off the table and signing her name, “But only because I don’t trust you two running around the apartment and hurting each other.”
         
         “Great!” Mr. Perlack said, snapping his fingers and returning the three girls to their transformed, drunk states. This caused Kayla to collapse to the table. “You three are now on your probationary period of being magician’s assistants!”


         "...And that's how you all became my assistants full time." Paul said, flourishing his arms as he finished his story.
         The three girls just stared incredulously at him. "Is this some kind of sick joke?" Kayla asked, "I would ever agree to becoming working for a criminal."
         "But you did, here's the contract to prove it!" Paul said, flourishing the ancient piece of paper from thin air. Kayla snatched the document out of his hands. Examine the bottom of the document closely, the three girls confirmed that there signatures were indeed at the bottom of the page. “And if that’s not enough, I have the good, old-fashioned security footage from last night too.”
         “But what about the amnesia?” Reilly asked.
         “Yah, these contracts are pretty old since they were written before the council was disbanded, so I had completely forgotten, but to protect the secrets of magic there’s a clause which wipes memories of magic when an assistant goes to sleep. Don’t worry, we’ll just void this contract and I quickly write up a new one before you all leave.”
         “Okay, but that doesn’t explain how we all woke up weird this morning. I don’t think those were included in this stupid contract.” Kayla complained.
         “Like I said, I did do these changes, but only because you asked me too…” Paul started once more.


         “Well girls, it’s almost one, and while I’d love to stay up all night training you all, you’re all clearly too drunk to start that now. So, here’s my card,” Mr. Perlack said, passing out a card to each of the three girls, “It has the Bar’s number and my cell number. Don’t worry, only you three will be able to read them. Now, go home and get some rest. We’ll start up with training you three for proper performances on Monday.” He said, turning around and stepping towards his office.
         “Wait!” Jess called, causing Mr. Perlack to turn around, “We can’t go out like this. What if somebody notices?”
         “Silly me!” Mr. Perlack said, “Let’s get to fixing -“
         “NO!” Shouted Reilly and Kayla.
         “I barely even got to explore this form,” Reilly complained, “besides, I can walk home just fine.” She said, rotating her entire body to slide out of the booth and onto the floor, causing her to stand shakily on her eight legs. She attempted to take a step forward, but instead managed to fall face first onto the floor, her eight legs wiggling trying to get her upright once more.
         “Armssh are sshtupid,” Kayla said leaning against the wall for support once more, “and if you try to put my armssh back on, then I’m not going.”
         “*sigh* Girls -“
         “Now Jess, life is made up of compromises.”
         “You can’t possibly mean that you’re going to humor them.” Jess said.
         “Well of course. It’s not everyday that normal people come in to contact with magic. It’s important to enjoy it while it lasts.” Mr. Perlack said, getting up from the table and helping Kayla to her feet. “So why don’t you enjoy the moment?” Mr. Perlack extended his hand to Jess.
         Sighing, Jess grabbed Mr. Perlack’s arm and got out of the booth. “Fine, but only because I don’t want to deal with the temper tantrum these two would throw otherwise.”

         “Great! I’ve already figured out the perfect plan of getting you all home safely and let you enjoy your transformations,” Mr. Perlack said, waving his red cape and getting up onto the small stage, “First, I’ll need the lovely help of my dryad assistant, Jess!” The empty room filled with the sound of applause as Jess stepped up onto the stage. She did a little curtsy as the fake clapping died down. “Now, *whisper, whisper*” Mr. Perlack whispered into Jess’s ear, giving her specific instructions on what to do, before promptly walking off the stage.
         Jess took the center stage, doing a small belly dance (much to the entertainment of Kayla and Reilly), her body slowly petrifying as she turned into a tree from her feet up. As her body turned to wood, it slowly lost definition as well, turning more and more into an indistinguishable cherry blossom tree. Once she had turned fully into a cherry blossom tree, the tree extended upwards slightly, more branches growing as it grew about half a foot larger. The tree slowly gained definition once more as Jess returned to her human form, however with an unexpected modification. She once again stood human looking on the stage, her hair a cherry blossom pink and wearing the same petal dress, but she now had two sets of arms, one right below the other.
         The fake applause returned as Mr. Perlack stepped back onto the stage. “Yes, isn’t it amazing folks? However, it seems my tree has grown a bit out of proportion for the shape we’re trying to maintain. So…” Mr. Perlack paused, reaching behind his back and below his cape and pulling out a chain saw, “Time for some pruning.” He gave a wicked smile as he pulled the cord of the chain saw, causing it to whir to life. Screams filled the bar as he swung the saw upwards through Jess’s lower left arm, but promptly disappeared as the sound of a chainsaw through wood took over. In less than a minute, Jess stood upon the stage with two arms once again, and two still arms lying on the floor. Jess examined the spots where her arms had previously been, rubbing them once over and feeling a strange, grainy texture. “Oh, one more thing,” Mr. Perlack snapped his fingers, and Jess’s hair changed from bright pink to her normal brown, while her clothes changed from the petal dress to the clothes she came in with. She could still feel the grainy surface of the cut beneath her shirt, and was pretty certain that she was still a dryad.
         Mr. Perlack reached down and plucked the two arms off the ground. “Thank you Jess, now will my next lovely assistant, Kayla please come up onto the stage?” He asked, one of the spotlights above him turning on and pointing to Kayla slumped against the wall with her eyes closed. Kayla jolted awake, awkwardly stepping around Reilly’s crouching form and stepped up onto the stage, standing in a stupor. “Now Kayla, I’m going to reattach these arms to you, but there’s no need to worry, because as soon as you get home, they will fall off your body and you’ll lose all feeling in them and won’t be able to reattach them. Is that okay?”
         “Shhure, but if they schtick tomorrow I’m going to bug you alllll dayyy.” she said, clearly too tired to fight.
         “That’s fine with me.” Lining the shoulders up, Mr. Perlack stuck the arms onto Kayla. Once they were fixed, Kayla’s dark skin tone began to spread downwards from her shoulder tips across Jess’s pale skin until they looked exactly like Kayla’s old pair. Satisfied that her arms were only a temporary addition, Kayla stumbled off the stage, and stood next to Jess off to the side.
         “Great! That’s two of three, now all that’s left is my wildest assistant, Reilly!” Reilly lifted off the ground with his words, hovering towards the stage thanks to some unseen force. When she was placed upon the stage, her knees buckled slightly, but otherwise she held her strange form up. “Now, I could do some complex magic or simply give you some artifact that could turn you to normal, but those are both boring options, and would be pretty boring. So instead…” Mr. Perlack reached behind him once again, pulling out what appeared to be a black morph suit. He then proceeded to pluck a hair from Reilly’s grinning head, eliciting a squeak from her, and placed it into the morph suit. The suit began to morph and shift as its color changed from black to match Reilly’s tan skin tone. Once the morphing had finished, Mr. Perlack was left holding what looked like an exact copy of regular Reilly’s skin, complete with the clothes she came in with.
         “Now Reilly, please step in.” Mr. Perlack laid out the skin zipper-side down and held the gap open wide. Reilly took a step forward, being swallowed whole into the skin suit. Quickly closing the zipper as she fell in, the skin suit began to fill out, until completely normal looking Reilly stood up on the stage. “Reilly, with this suit you’ll be able to turn to normal regardless of what form you’re currently in. Changing back is extremely simple, you just have to pull down on the zipper on the back of your neck.” Her hand immediately went back towards the back of her neck, confirming the appearance of a zipper there.
         “Thanks Mr. Perlack!” Reilly shouted, wrapping her arms around the magician in glee.
         “No problem, see you on Monday girls, I’m going to bed. The door will lock behind you.” with a puff of smoke, the magician disappeared from the stage, leaving the three girls alone in the bar.


         “…And then I have no clue what happened when you left, but my guess is you all went to bed, and promptly lost most of your memories from last night.” Mr. Perlack said, concluding his story of last night’s transformations.
         “Wait, you mean…” Reilly reached up to the back of her neck, feeling a strange nub that was not there previously. Pulling down on it, Reilly’s form crumpled to the ground, leaving her standing in her eight legged form from the previous night. “*Squueee!!!*” she squeaked as she hopped in the air, elated to return to her strange form. She began dancing around the room, sometimes running and other times skipping, but otherwise moving her legs with an amazing amount of dexterity.
         “I think that confirms my story,” Paul said, “although I’m not exactly sure how you got Kayla’s arms back on. I’m pretty certain I put a spell to make sure you couldn’t reattach them.”
         “Well, they weren’t reattaching, even when I was using glue and stuff” Kayla explained, “but then Jess got them to stick somehow.”
         “Really…” Paul said, a look of amusement on his face, “well then, I think a reward’s in order for Jess’s actions.” Reaching into his pocket, Paul pulled out what appeared to be a regular butter knife. “This here is an enchanted knife. It’ll basically do the same thing that I did to Kayla’s arms last night. Why not give it a try?” Paul passed the knife to Jess, watching her expectantly.
         “Um… Sure?” Jess said, taking hold of the knife. Remembering that morning, and the lifelessness of the removed arms, Jess decided to start small, lining up the knife with the first knuckle of her right hand before cutting through the joint. As the knife passed through her body, Jess began to lose feeling in the finger, and eventually the inert digit was laying on the table next to the knife. “Yah. It works fine.” Jess said, looking up at Paul.
         Paul sat there with his mouth agape. “What?” Jess asked.
         “That knife,” Paul began after managing to compose himself a little, “was completely normal.”
         Reilly stopped running around the the room, joining the other two girls to stare at Paul with shock on their faces.

         Eventually, Kayla managed to break the silence, “Ha ha. Very funny,” she picked up the knife, “I bet it’s just an enchanted knife.” Copying Jess actions, Kayla placed the knife against her finger. However, no matter how hard she pushed down, the knife refused to make anyway headway through her skin.
         Mr. Perlack still seemed to be at a loss for words, but while Kayla was desperately trying to imitate Jess’s magic trick he finally found them. “Well girls. It’s a good thing we’re going to be voiding this old assistant contract, because it seems that Jess here is actually gifted.”
         Kayla stopped trying to slice herself, and the three girls looked at him in shock before simultaneously asking, “What?”
         “Well, based upon what I’ve seen, it looks like Jess has magic powers, so it wouldn’t exactly be fair to train her as an assistant when her talents would be much better suited to be a magician.”
         “WHAT!?” The girls shouted again; Kayla in horror, Jess in surprise, and Reilly in glee.
         “Of course, only if Jess wants to, that is. If she’d rather be my assistant I would be glad to have her.” Paul said, materializing a shredder from his cape for the old contract scroll as Rex walked out from his office with a pile of papers.
         
         The other two girls turned to look at Jess. “Jess!” Reilly said, “This is amazing! You have to become a magician!”
         “No! Jess think about this!” Kayla said, grabbing onto her arm, “We can back out of the assistant contract now! We’ll be able to get back to our lives and forget this all happened.”
         “Are you kidding me? We had this whole adventure to get back to weird and you already want to give up?”
         “Why are you so obsessed with all this stuff Reilly? Do you want to go to jail for life?”
         “At least I would have gotten to something interesting with my life Kayla!”
         “Yeah, well -“
         “That’s enough!” Jess shouted, silencing her roommates. Turning to Paul she said, “How long would it take you to train me?”
         “Well, depending on how quickly you’re willing to work at it, we could probably be done in a week.”
         “And I’d be able to do all the stuff you do?” She asked with a nervous look.
         “Jess, with magic you can do practically anything.” He said with a reassuring smile.
         Looking down for a moment of contemplation, Jess finally looked up and said, “Okay, I want to become a magician.”

         “Great!” Mr. Perlack said, pulling out another ancient looking scroll, “You just need to sign this contract and I can start training you as your mentor. And as for you two,” he said, angling himself towards the other two woman, “I understand if you’d want to change your mind, but my offer still stands to train you two as assistants.” Paul slid the newer looking documents to them, two dotted line open for names to sign with the third having a large X scratched through it.
         “Of course I’m going to sign!” Reilly said, reaching up to try and grip the pen with some of her toes, but having it drop to the floor instead.
         “Oops. Let me just change you b-“
         “No!” Reilly interrupted, “I’ve got this.” Reilly managed to get a better grip on the pencil, while Paul placed the contract on the floor for Reilly to sign.
         Finally, the girls were in familiar situation for the first time since they had encountered the bar. Staring at Kayla, her roommates were shocked when she finally sighed and said, “Well, I guess I’m going to have to sign too.”
         “Kayla,” Jess said in a reassuring tone, “nobody’s forcing you to sign. If you really don’t want to become an assistant, we’ll be fine with it and try not to get in the way of you living a normal life.”
         “Oh no,” Kayla said, “you may say that now, but the way I see it, with you having near infinite power and Reilly having that weird suit thing I’m going to be outnumbered by the magic users in the apartment, and I will not give you all the satisfaction of having that power over me,” Kayla argued, grabbing the pen. While she signed, she also muttered under her breath, “Besides, maybe I’ll start to enjoy it.”

         “Fantastic! And with that I’m going to have to ask you two to leave.” Paul said, standing up suddenly.
         “Wait. Why?” Jess asked.
         “Because we need to start training. Right now,” Paul said, grabbing her hand. “We’re heading to my apartment above the bar. You’ll stay with me, and don’t worry I’ll keep you well fed. Rex! The bar’s going to be closed for the rest of the week, so enjoy the break! Girls, if you need anything you have my number!” Paul dragged Jess behind the counter of the bar and pulled on a shelf, causing the entire wall to shift and reveal a staircase leading upwards. “Good night you three! The door’ll lock on your way out!” And with that Paul dragged Jess up the staircase as the wall closed behind them.


         “…And that basically catches you up on what’s happened the past couple days.” Paul said, finishing the last couple bites of his omelette. “Also, I’m so sorry about the contract thing again. Those blasted contracts were written before the council was disbanded and it was safe to practice magic, so I had completely forgotten about the amnesia clause.”
         “I guess that’s fine,” Jess said, taking another spoonful of oatmeal, “but you better write up a new contract then before we get back on to any serious training.”
         “Yeah, we didn’t get far yesterday anyway, so we can just start over from the very beginning.” Paul said, conjuring a tiny CRT monitor to appear onto the table with a puff of smoke where his dirty dishes previously were. Built into the bottom of the monitor was a VCR. “Here, watch this while I go write up that new contract so we can get on to the real training,” he said, pulling out a purple colored VHS tape.

The tape was pushed into the VCR, and the CRT TV sprung to life.