“Alright girls, the final votes are coming in,” Drake said, his two finalists on either side of him. They were still in their costumes from the previous night, and were anxiously watching the video board behind them, which displayed who was in the lead. As soon as they had started showing the live poll results, Jill had jumped dramatically ahead of Saffron, but as the day had gone along, Jill’s momentum had drastically slowed down, and Saffron was slowly gaining ground. “I’m going to have to ask you to turn around, so as to not spoil the surprise.”
    The two girls followed his directions, reluctantly turning around (although Saffron still did her best to try and angle her head so she could still watch the poll results. “Alright, Ladies and Gentlemen, the polls have officially closed, and the last few votes are being tabulated.”
    Several more anxious seconds passed, the screen behind them darkened, and a voice in Drake’s ear told him who the winner was going to be. “Ladies and Gentlemen. It is my pleasure to announce. That the winner. Of the 2019 season of America’s Next Great Assistant is…” Both girls held their breath, shaking their hands nervously as Drake held their hands in his.

    “Jill!” Drake shouted, raising her hand in the air, disbelief on her face as green confetti began raining down over her and the audience. The Video Board behind her showed that she had one the competition by a narrow margin, but had managed to successfully beat out her competition. Victory music began playing, and while Saffron felt like she should be crying on the inside, she couldn’t have been more happy for her friend.
    “Congratulations Jill! From someone who knew next to nothing about magic, to being chosen as the winner of the show, are there any words you want to share with the audience?” Drake shoved a microphone to her face.
    “Um… Yeah! I guess! Wow! I really never thought I could ever win this! Um… So I wanna thank Cammie and Ophelia for helping me out! Really, I think this prize is much theirs as it is mine, since I would have never stood a chance without them! Um… Oh! Shoutout to my girls back home in the Flat Pack! Ha ha! Look! I won! Wow! Um… I-I really don’t know what else to say?” Jill’s emotions were blasting on all cylinders. Tears of joy were already beginning to well up in her eyes, as the crowd cheered her on, the two former contestants being lead backstage, with Saffron being escorted back to her room, while Jill was escorted to David’s office.

~~~
David’s office

    In all her time on the show, Jill had never been in David’s office, and it immediately became clear why when she walked in. The entire place was an absolute mess. Papers covered the desk with seemingly no order. Three file cabinets stood against the back wall, all of their drawers seemingly brimming with files and papers. David was sitting at the desk, working on some paperwork as Jill came in. “Ah! Jill! Congratulations! Please take a seat, we just have to fill out some of this dreaded paperwork, and then we’ll be right as rain.”
    “Alright,” Jill said, eyeing the rather old looking chair before sitting down.
    “Now, I’m assuming that just because you’re going to be my assistant, you’re not going to want to stop your studies?” David asked, looking over the brim of his reading glasses.
    “No Boss- I mean David!” Jill said, biting her tongue.
    “Jill, feel free to call me whatever’s easier for you, although I would hope that we would be on a first name basis since we’ve basically been working together for six weeks by this point.” David grinned at her, before handing her a slip of paper, “Now, you’ll need to send this form to your university. It’s s simply a notice that you will be working full time as a magician’s assistant and requesting the relevant information necessary to allow you to take classes online, or have me act as a teacher to you as part of a relevant magic course, of which I’m certified in almost every one, except for some of the specialty classes such as ‘Magic and Cooking’ in which case I can make sure you have classes with the relevant teachers.”
    “Wait… will I be living with you full-time? Or is this just for when we’re going on tours and stuff?”
    “Oh no Jill. I have an extremely rigorous schedule that will require you to be easily accessible at any time of the day. You don’t have to necessarily live here, although we’ll always have a room open if you ever wish to visit or need a place to stay. However, you will need to move nearby. If you wish, we could get preparations in order for you to be enrolled at a college nearby and live on their campus, or we can go house shopping tomorrow for a place. And obviously, when we go on tours, we’ll be basically living out of my luxury tour bus.”
    “Will I be able to keep in contact with friends?”
    “Well of course dear. What a silly, question. But that does remind me you’ll need to sign these NDA’s. Basically promising that you won’t divulge how any of our tricks are done,” he there more paper in front of her. “And, since you’ve never done magic before, you’ll have to sign these formal recognitions of assistantship, which means that you understand all the roles and duties of a magician’s assistant within the context of our act,” The stack of papers in front of her was slowly growing taller than she was.
    “Um. Should I have a lawyer if I’m going to sign all of this?”
    “Ah yes!” David walked over to a beaten brown leather shoe. He rubbed the sole, which flopped open, a purple mist expelling outwards. Within moments, the purple mist had coalesced into a rather nerdy individual in a gray suit, “Meet Monroe Partridge, my, and now by extension your, personal genie lawyer.”
    “Don’t worry darling,” Monroe said, his voice sounding slightly effeminate, “As a genie, I know every trick in the book when it comes to twisting words for unintended consequences, David and I here have already gone through all the paperwork and made sure that there’s nothing in there that could cause any bodily, mental, or emotional harm to you. As I’m sure you know, David has the terrible habit of treating his assistants better than he treats himself.”
    “Ha ha! It’s true,” David chuckled. “Now, we can handle all the rest of these details over the next few days. It’s getting late now though, and we need to be in the foyer so we can get the big theatrics stuff out of the way for the party.”
    “Wait. What party?” Jill asked, her mind a little overloaded with the information that she had been hit with over the past few hours.

~~~
Foyer

    David and Jill stood next together as the press took their photos a few times. As they finished, David raised his hands signifying the pictures should stop, which they thankfully did. He addressed the small crowd of press people, and the cameras, as he announced, “Ladies and Gentlemen! Jill here has won America’s Next Top Assistant! And as such, it is my pleasure to give her her prize. Firstly, a check of 500,000 dollars, to be as both a prize for winning this competition, and as a signing bonus for becoming my new assistant.” From the side of the small stage, a stagehand gave David a large, green cardboard check listed out to Jill for $500,000 dollars.
    The press took a few pictures, and then David was handed a large scroll. He unrolled it, revealing extremely small text, followed by a large amount of space for Jill to sign. “And now, Jill shall sign the ancient contract, and officially become my assistant!” She handed her a ridiculously large feather with ink on the tip, whispering into her ear, “Don’t worry, this contract’s all for show, the text is just gibberish. It was the production team’s idea for your to sign this live.” David grinned back to the cameras, as Jill signed her name at the very bottom, large so that even the cameras in the back could read it out clearly when David held the contract up for another photo-op.
    David rolled up the scroll, handing it back to the stagehand, before addressing the press again, “And thus! Jill McMillan is now officially my assistant. Our first show will be about a month from now, with an official date and details on how to view it coming up in the following weeks. If you’d like, I will be hosting an afterparty for friends, the crew, production staff, and previous contestants, and I would be honored if you’d come to join in on the festivities!” David lead Jill and the reporters who were interested into the dining room, leaving the crew members to quickly begin dismantling the set.

~~~
After Party

    The after party was ridiculously large, which now explained why the dining room table was so ridiculously long, although the table was rarely being used for eating. Instead, David’s friends were using the table to show off their magical talents, asking for requests from the various audiences and performing it on those who were willing to be their assistants.
    Jill walked through the crowd of drunken and transformed people, trying to find Saffron and coming up short. She spotted Ophelia, who was sitting in a corner with an individual who was wearing black clothes and hiding his face behind some impressively long bangs. “Hey Ophelia, have you seen Saffron anywhere?”
    “Sorry Jill. I can’t say I have,” Ophelia said, before turning back to the boy and continuing her story, “So, if you’re interested in learning the ancient magicks, I have to warn you that you’ll never be able to unlock you truest potential, since you’re a male, but…” Ophelia’s words trailed off as Jill continued looking.
    She spotted Leela and Holli, who had been separated and returned to normal after Saffron’s trick, but found themselves as assistants for a rather tubby-looking, middle-eastern magician. He currently had them arranged in a Queen of Hearts fashion, with their two torsos connected to each other, and she asked, “Hey, have either of you seen Saffron?”
    “Sorry dear, I haven’t seen her since she lost,” Holli said.
    “Same goes for me,”
    “Well. If you see her, tell her I’m looking for her,” Jill said, walking away.
    “Now! Who wants to see me do the same thing, but with their lower halves?” The magician asked, to thunderous cheers.
    The next person Jill spotted was Cammie, who was standing up on the table herself, wearing an outfit that was probably only barely legally distinct from Zatanna’s outfit. She had just shown off what her ‘magic trench coat had done, transforming the brave female production assistant into two half-sized copies of herself. She was clearly pretty inebriated, having devolved into kissing herself in front of the entire audience. “Hey Cammie! Have you seen Saffron?”
    “Sorry Jill! Haven’t seen her all night! If I see her though, I’ll send her your way!” Cammie shouted back, before turning to the transformed production assistant to get her back into the trench coat and back to normal.

    Jill was getting very annoyed now. She sought out David, finding him with relative ease, since he was the person with the most people surrounding him at the party. He wasn’t performing, simply sitting down with his wife and catching up with friends. “David. Have you seen Saffron.”
     “No, have you? I need to find her quickly so we can finish preparations for her goodbye ceremony.”
    “Oh my God! I completely forgot about that! We didn’t do one for her!” Jill’s eye grew wide at her revelation.
    “Yes. Do you have any clue where she might be? She’s obviously still in the house, but I’ve already checked by her room. Do you know of anyplace else where she might have gone?’
    Jill thought for a moment, before realizing she knew exactly where Saffron must be. “David! Listen. I know where she is, get everyone to the auditorium,” and she whispered the rest of her plan to David. He gave her a thumbs up, before standing on his chair and striking his glass with a fork, as Jill went to complete her part of the plan.

~~~
Jill & Saffron

    Just as she suspected she would, Jill found Saffron up on the roof, sitting along the edge and wistfully looking up at the starry sky. “Hey,” she said, sitting down next to her, looking up at the sky instead of at her, “How are you holding up?”
    “Oh, you know. The usual. My life is over. I’m going to have to go back to a shitty job that I never really liked. I managed to prove that my family was completely right about me. And will probably be forever known as that girl who was so close to her dreams and managed to fail spectacularly in front of the entire nation. Which is all really par for the course.”
    “Well, I’d have to disagree with you there, but if you wanted to listen to my opinion, you wouldn’t be up here avoiding everyone and would be down at the party instead. You know everyone’s looking for you.” Jill said.
    “*psh* Please. They don’t care. I mean. If they did, David would have done a proper goodbye ceremony for me to have one last hurrah. But no. Instead I’m up here feeling like a piece of s**t.”
    “Well. I can’t do much about the other stuff, besides saying that you’re obviously not, and that anyone would be lucky to have you as their assistant… but I can definitely do something about David not doing a goodbye ceremony for you.”
    “Really?”
    “Sure. Here’s what we’ll do. You head to the auditorium, and I’ll get David to rush over. I’ll tell him your in some sort of emergency or something,” Jill said, “It may be only you two, but at least that will give you some closure, so that when you’re really ready to move on, you’ll have already made the first step, emotionally speaking.”
    “Yeah. That sounds like a good plan,” Saffron said, standing up, “just make sure he gets there quickly, I don’t want to be waiting long.”

~~~
Goodbye Ceremony

    The auditorium was dark, save for the lights that illuminated the stage, where Saffron was waiting expectantly. David was sort of in shock as he approached the stage, a little confused, “Jill told me you wanted to see me? What’s the matter my dear?”
    “The problem is, all the other girls got a cool goodbye ceremony except for me!” Saffron said, her voice sounding slightly malicious, but not too much so that she would start laughing at how ridiculous she sounded.
    “Oh! Is that all? Well, we can certainly do a goodbye ceremony for you,” David grinned, walking up on stage, “In fact…” David clapped his hands, the lights of the auditorium flipping on, revealing that everyone from the after party were now sitting in the seats, filling out the entirety of the bottom floor. “Why do you think Jill went to find you?”
    “Wha?” Saffron asked, her plan being completely reversed on her.
    “Saffron, I knew I was going to have to give you the best goodbye ceremony of everyone else, but I felt it was a little bit in poor taste to do so right after you lost live on National TV. I was always going to give you one,” David said, his voice filled with sympathy, “after all that we’ve been through. I needed to make sure that your sendoff was as special as your time on the show.”
    Saffron stared at him for a moment, before running over, nearly tackling him to the ground as she began openly weeping, happy that she had not been actually been forgotten.
    “Now then,” David said, when she had composed herself slightly, “There were very few things I could think about giving you, but in the end, I managed to narrow it down to the two that I thought you might find the most important for you. Firstly, is this,” David said, producing a small gray flip phone, which he handed to Saffron. “This cellphone used to be mine, but I’ve had to change numbers based on the amount of calls I’ve been getting from other magicians absolutely begging for me to share their number with you. So, I thought to knock out two birds with one stone. This cellphone has the contacts of nearly every famous magician in the business who is currently looking for a new assistant like yourself, in addition to the number of my personal lawyer so that you can make sure you’re not getting ripped off, and my own personal number so you can call if you’re ever feeling lonely.”
    “Which leads me on to present number two. As much as I’ve come to love him… I’m afraid I simply don’t have any room in my massive castle, nor the manpower to take care of this  fluffy lad,” David grinned, as the lovable pink bear, Fernando, ran out from behind the curtain, tackling Saffron and brining her to the ground in a massive bear hug. “So, Fernando will be riding home with you. I’ve already arranged everything with the airline that will be taking you home.”
    “David! Help!” Saffron begged, she attempted to escape out of the large bear’s tight grip. Of course, rather than helping, David just laughed Saffron eventually stopping struggling and returning the love to her furry companion that she had spent so long with.
   
    “Well Saffron,” David said to her, the commotion of his gift giving having finally died down, as Saffron stood in her standard assistant’s uniform, waiting to reveal what she had planned as her final farewell. “I will say, your’s was clearly the biggest out of all of the potential goodbye ceremony’s so I’m extremely glad we got to do it last and end it with a bang,” David winked as he wished away a white cloth that had been sitting on the floor, revealing a standing metal rocket. Along the side of it, painted on were the words ‘The Starchaser’.
    As he helped Saffron into the cockpit, he asked, “Well Saffron, before you go, are there any final words you’d like to say before your inaugural launch?”
    “Yeah. Dad, Scarlett, Sapphire, Everyone else back home. I may not have become the big winner, but just wait, because I’m still going to be a star,” Saffron grinned, as David closed the door of the rocket on her.
    David stepped back, as the rocket quite literally blasted through the roof of the building, revealing the starry sky above. As the rocket flew upwards, it suddenly exploded outwards, the various debris lighting up bright yellow as they fizzled into nothing, similarly to a firework. However, right in the center of the explosion remained a consistent yellow light, which hung there brightly in the sky all night, illuminating the world with its beauty.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& Question Corner &
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    To Saffron: “Well done on pulling off such a convincing act, with one of the classic fantastical settings for magic. I'm sure your smorgasbord of ideas would have worked well here, though I'm sure Holli and Leela- sorry, I mean Ferny and Andoline -can agree that what you ended up going with was a delightful mix of spectacular and sadistic.” -FlexibleAnatomy

    Thank you so much for the kind words! I really wanted to push my limits and just kind of show off all I can do! It’s a shame it didn’t work out well, but I had a great time!

    To Jill: “Please tell me you didn't base an entire trick off a pun? But anyway, your products are really quite tempting. Biker chick, two-sided rag with quite a mix of personalities. And... is that thing about lifeless parts true? It may just be the way I was taught to do it, or that I've never actually had lifeless body parts for long enough, but I've never experienced my discarded pieces withering away.” -FlexibleAnatomy

    Okay, I won’t tell you it was based on a pun… even though it was.
    Sadly, the products I described were just ones I came up with in my imagination. I came up with that little additional bit about the parts withering away, because I was trying to make the product seem like it’s a solution for a problem nobody has. Although I don’t really know if it never happens. I’ve heard rumors of people leaving parts lifeless for so long that when they went to try and put it back on, it was difficult to get it up and working again. I think the rule of thumb is that you’re supposed to reattach the limb at least once a month so as not to experience any negative side effects, but again, I would probably contact your magic physician or someone with more knowledge on magic than me if you’re planning on disconnecting something for an extended period of time.

    To Saffron: “Where did you get the idea of the circus concept? And never thought that you can act cruel.” -quad2

    Oh! My Dad once took us to a circus when i was really little and there were only a few of me and my sisters. Since that day, I’ve always been in love with the circus! All the flashy colors and the overall goal of trying to entertain people was so exciting!
    Also, I swear I’m not normally cruel. Well, obviously you’d know this since you’ve been around since day one, but whatever. It’s just I’ve always heard stories of evil ringmasters and stuff, so I felt like it would be more in character to act that way. Holli and Leela were totally cool with it, and even gave me tips on how I could make the character more sinister.

    To Jill: “You know, you could make a business off of doing what you just did in real life. Just saying as it seems interesting.” -quad2

    Well. I’ll keep that in mind if David ever retires.

    To David and Amanda: “You're never too old for cute things, especially when you're female. The first time Isabella thinks she's outgrown penguins (when she thinks she's not a kid anymore), tell her about how they're one of the most badass predators in one of the most inhospitable places in the world. The second time she thinks that (when she's a teenager and therefore arguably right about not being a kid anymore), tell her about their tendencies toward sexual deviancy, because I swear that's a real thing.” -HeraldOfOpera

    David: …Well, you’ve just put the uncomfortable image of talking to my daughter about the sexual deviancy of penguins. Thanks for that.
    Amanda: Yes, I think it would be much easier to just get her a penguin stuffed animal.
    David: Alright. But if that talk ever arises, you’re going to be the one to explain everything to her.
    Amanda: Yes dear.