When we enter the cabin, I know for sure that our roommate is indeed the Makena from our school. Judging by the look she’s giving me, it seems her friends didn’t completely convince her about me after all. “Hello, Janet.” She looks at me with a look I can't place. “Hello, Jasmine.” The way she put emphasis on my name was creepy. It was overly sweet, and I’m positive she was just putting on airs towards me to sway our cabin leader. When I see Maureen's big grin, I guess it seems to have worked. “Oh, you girls know each other?”

I speak up before Makena has a chance. “We go to school together. We saw her with her friends Mei and Megan when we were checking in.”

Somehow, Maureen becomes even bubblier. “Oh good! I guess we can skip the introductions then”. She giggles and then gives us a big, toothy grin. “I have to go back up to get our other two cabin mates. I’ll let you girls catch up.”

As she closes the door, I’ve never been so happy to have Janet with me, as I feel like a lamb in a lion’s den. As expected, Makena immediately starts in on me. “So, you two are the descendants of Helen Hathorne?” I am surprised. “You know about our family?” Makena gives me a syrupy smile. “Sure, everyone here knows about the famous Hathornes. A family that can trace itself back to the Salem witch trials? In magic communities, that’s a big deal."

Janet lets out a weary sigh. "It's not that big of a deal. There are tons of people who can trace their family line back to the witch trials."

Makena puts a grin on her face that would put the Cheshire cat to shame. "Sure, but your family only has female magic users. That’s rare. Say, I've always been curious. Why don't males from your father's line ever become magic users?"

I jump in before Janet, actually happy about sharing our history, in spite of the coldness I'm feeling from the girl asking the question. "Our mother’s side always remains dominant, which prevents any magic genes from every father's side from being passed down."

Makena haughtily rubs her hand on her chin as if in thought. It was a motion which lets me know that she's not done bothering me. "That’s even more rare. Speaking of which, since you’re here that must mean you can use magic, right Jasmine?”

Ugh, another annoying emphasis on my name. That said, in spite of myself, I become excited at the mention of magic. “Yeah! Janet and I have been training every day since we got our magic on our thirteenth birthday last month.” Janet giggles. “Sure, at least when Jasmine wasn’t watching makeup tutorials online.” I giggle back. “Hey, it’s not just makeup tutorials, I watch tutorials on hair and fashion too!”

Makena doesn't join us in our giggle fest. She simply keeps her creepy smile. “Oh, happy birthday, you two.” She then looks me straight in the eyes, stone-faced. “So then, if you are really a girl as you claim, let's see some magic.”

That takes the wind out of my sails. I’m happy about being here, but not if I have to perform magic just to prove my gender. It’s not worth it. Janet clasps my hand. “Hey, cheer up, we’re here to have fun. Why don’t you show her what we were working on last night?”

I can always count on Janet to cheer me up. I squeeze her hand and then concentrate on the floor in front of me. “Check this out.” I raise my hand slowly, which instantly moves my luggage from the trunk of our car to the floor right in front of me. Janet grins and then does the same, causing her luggage to appear right beside mine. I look over at Makena, who has her mouth open in shock. I simply fill in the silence while keeping a neutral tone. “That's why we didn’t have any luggage when we came in.”

Makena doesn't remain on the subject of luggage, instead responding with a question with an obvious air of confusion. “But how? I know you are... were... Jake… yet you’re a Hathorne.”

I give a simple four word response. “I am a girl.” Janet nodded. “She’s definitely a girl. Just wait until you get to know her. I’ve never seen any girl who is girlier than my sister. After you see her in action, I’m sure you’ll never question her again.”

Makena lowers her shoulders and holds out her hand. Before I saw her hand being offered, I held out my arms. Not knowing what to do about our crossed signals, I keep my arms stretched out awkwardly. Thankfully, she responds as I hoped and comes in for a hug. After we release each other, I smile at her. “Thanks for finally believing me. I’m sure we’ll be good friends by the time we leave camp.”

She looks into my eyes, and for the first time since we got here, gives me a genuine smile. “It’s nice to really meet you Jasmine. I’m so sorry for my behavior earlier. You know, now that I think about it, Megan was right. No offense, but you made a weird boy”. I smile. “No offense taken. I was never a boy anyway.” Makena smiles. “I can see that now. You make a great girl.”

Janet lets out a giggle, one of many that would be heard in our cabin this summer. “Now that we have the obvious out of the way, what kind of magic can you do?” Makena smiles at that, this time bubbly and genuine. “Watch this.” She points her finger at the top bunk on her side of the cabin. Instantly, the area becomes less plain. The wall is now filled with posters of figure skaters, there is a shimmery blue blanket on the bed, and a string of lights goes around the length and width of the railings of her bed.

Janet and I just stare. After a few seconds, I manage to get a word out. “Woah! You did that just by pointing. How? We’ve only been shown how to do simple light tricks by pointing, everything else we were shown required arm motions. Can you show us how to do that?” She smiles. “Sure! It’s not hard. Check it out. You just think of what you want, feel the center of your core and then release the magic once you start to feel a little bit of heat on your inside.”

By the time Maureen comes back with the last two girls in our cabin, Janet, Makena, and I are pointing at various places in the cabin and turning it into a girly girl’s dream bedroom. Maureen looks at us with a stern look, surprising us all as we couldn’t imagine that the effervescent girl we met earlier could even be capable of making that face. “Well, I see you three have gotten re-acquainted. However, the head counselor doesn’t want us using magic outside of the training areas.” Her face turns back to its usual toothy grin. “I don’t mind too much though.” She points at her own bunk at the bottom of Makena’s, and it instantly turns into a fluffy yellow paradise that leaves us jealous that we didn’t think of that first. She then turns back to us. “Seriously though, she really doesn’t want us using magic in our cabins. Make sure you keep it to just decorations. If she catches you, she lets that slide with just kitchen cleaning duty. You don’t want to see the punishments she gives for anything else.”

We all gulp, and the two newcomers drop their suitcases. They are both blonde girls, with similar looks from their blue eyes to their skirt-covered pale white legs. However, one is slightly taller than the other. They can't keep their eyes off the area around Maureen’s bed. The tallest one speaks first. “That is so pretty.” The smaller one chirps in. “Definitely. How did you do that?”

Maureen smiles in response. “Well it looks like we do have a full girly cabin this year! Meet the rest of your cabin mates. We have two sets of sisters here this year. Girls, meet Topanga”. The taller sister smiles. “Hello.” Maureen points to the smaller of the sisters. “And, Tamara.” The smaller sister merely gives a small wave. Maureen then continues. “Girls, this is Makena. And, the twins are Janet and Jasmine.” I smile at them. “I’m Jasmine, welcome to our cabin. I hope we can all become great friends this summer.” Maureen smiles at me. “Oh, I’m sure we will. How about starting our bonding session by showing our two newest roomies how to decorate. But keep it discrete.” 

We all smile big, with Makena, Janet and I happy to show the newcomers how to spruce up their living areas because we all want to add the fluffy aesthetic of Maureen’s area to our own. By the end, we are left with a pretty, fluffy room. Mine is the top bunk, and is pink, of course. Janet doesn't surprise me when she decorated her bottom bunk with purple fuzz. Makena adds white fluff to her area to make it look like snow to compliment the ice of her blanket and posters. Topanga decorates her bottom bunk in a bright red fuzzy aesthetic, and Tamara makes hers a pastel green.

Maureen then speaks up. “Okay, this is the last magic tonight, alright girls?” We all respond in the affirmative, even Tamera, who has seemed to become a bit less shy after our fun decorating spree. She points at the floor, topping the room off with a fuzzy dark blue rug and a flat throw rug near the door for us to stop and take care of our shoes to keep the dirt and mud out of the cabin. Well, to keep it out as best you can in the middle of the woods.

Maureen smiles. “Alright girls, we’ve got to go down to dinner in an hour. That should leave us all enough to get ready, and maybe get to know each other better before I lead you all down to the dining area.”

I showed Topanga and Tamara how to use their arms to move their clothes from the suitcases to their dressers during our decoration spree, so we were all ready to make ourselves up right away. Since Maureen put a kibash on magic, we all go to the vanities that were kindly put here for each bunk and sit down on the included bench seats to do our makeup the old-fashioned way.

There was only one vanity by our bunk, but it was big enough that, combined with the bench seat, there is enough room for Janet and I to do our makeup at the same time. I figure we have enough time before dinner, so I reach into the drawer that Janet and I filled when we came in to pull out a makeup wipe. I ask Janet if she wants one too, and when she nods, I give her a wipe as well and we get down to removing our makeup from this morning. Janet and I have gotten into the habit of changing our makeup depending on where we are going. Since it was a getting to meet each other kind of dinner, I’m sure we are both in-sync with the desire to have slightly more eye makeup to make a good impression upon our peers. We still keep the rest of the make-up subtle with just a little bit of rouge and a shiny pink lip gloss. We still were only thirteen after all.

Janet, remembering my words from this morning, asks me if I want her to braid my hair. “I want to braid mine too, so we don’t have enough time to do a fancy braid like I did on my birthday, but since we already put on suitable dresses for dinner this morning we have enough time for a simple braid.” I smile huge, and give her a big nod. She asks me to turn towards the bed as she sits down.

As I am sitting down, I hear a shuffling sound, so I turn my head to look at the girls at the other vanities in the room. I find the source of the sound as I see Makena searching for something in a pink carryall. Knowing how girly all of the girls in our cabin are, I wouldn't be surprised if she is looking for a brush or hair accessories. That immediately makes me think that it would be cute to have my little cherry blossom clips in my braids. I ask Janet if she can do that for me, and she simply nods in response.

I sit down and feel Janet begin to braid my hair. I can't help it, as time went by I just kept growing more and more excited. After all, I couldn't get too girly of a hairstyle while I had to wear my Jake costume for half the day. I already had long hair, way past my shoulders, even before my birthday. However, I had to keep it tied in a very low ponytail and tucked into the back of my shirt. I couldn't even use a scrunchie, as I had to use a rubber band. A rubber band! That was so hard on my hair, but I didn't have a a choice. One week before camp, when I was able to be myself twenty-four hours a day, I switched to scrunchies. I bought a bunch of them in a variety of colors to match all of my outfits. Now that I'm actually at camp, I can finally let my inner girly girl completely free.

I turn my head to see if I could somehow see a glimpse of the braid in my hair. However, the only thing I could see in the mirror was my sister's face with her eyebrows dropped and a frown on her face. I raised my eyebrows as if to say "I'm sorry", and sat up straight with my hands in my lap.

Janet simply nods her approval after she moves her head to the right so I can see it peek out in the mirror from behind my head. “See if you can feel how I’m doing your hair. It will make it a whole lot quicker in the future if we can both do each other’s hair.”

We both jumped in surprise when Makena started talking to us. “Jasmine, I can help you do so much more than simply feel her braiding your hair.” I turn towards her, making my sister move forward a bit so as not to have to restart the braid. I notice that she is pointing her phone at me, and she smiles. “You two are so cute, communicating with each other without having to talk. I wish I had a twin, it must be so nice.” I smile, and I’m sure Janet is doing so as well, then we answer in unison “It sure is!” All three of us giggle, causing a giggle fest around the cabin as all the other girls join in. Once the giggles tone down, I turn toward the bed again as Janet continues to braid my hair. Makena was still holding her phone. "I’m making a video of this so that you can study it for next time, Jasmine."

She then lowers her head, and a few drops of tears even drip from her eyes. "I am so sorry for how I treated you earlier. I'll be happy to braid your sister's hair after she finishes yours. I had dinner appropriate hair and makeup when I came in." She then gently uses a napkin to dab at the tears on her face and a meek little smile appears on her face. "Though I might need a little touch-up on my mascara." We both giggle at that.

I look at her in the mirror. "Really, don't worry about it. I'm really excited to become friends with you and all the girls at camp this summer. Three months living with other girls! You have no idea how much I've been waiting for this." Janet moves a bit, and Makena takes the hint and holds my hair so the braids won't fall out. My twin clasps her hand on top of mine. "We really don't."

All of the girls start looking towards us then. It occurs to me that I'll have to talk about my past with them, maybe after dinner. My sister isn't deterred by the sudden appearance of various eyes looking upon us. "But, I can see how happy you are now compared to how you were before. I promise I'll do everything I can to make this the best summer of your life." Both Janet and I jump a little when every other girl in the cabin responds as one. "Us too!"

Of course, that just leads to a chorus of giggles throughout the room. As I settle down from my laughing fit, I see Makena handing hair braiding duties back to Janet. As Janet grabs my hair, I can see a bit of it in the mirror and realize that Makena was putting the Sakura blossom clips in my hair as Janet and I were having a heart-to-heart.

Makena unfolds a camping chair from her luggage bag and pulls it up behind Janet. "I'm pretty sure I've got enough footage for Jasmine to learn from. I'll start braiding your hair, Janet, so you two aren't late for dinner."

She makes good time on Janet's hair, as she's almost half done when Janet finishes up mine. As I stand up and come behind my twin to see her hair, I'm completely amazed. "Wow, Makena! You're fast at this." She looks over at me with a smile. "Thanks. I've been practicing on my little sister for years now. I'm sure you two will be just as fast as I am once you get some practicing on each other's hair."

After she says this, I have an idea. "Ooh, Janet. I have some purple jacaranda blossom clips that will match your outfit so that you'll match with me!" I head over to my bag as I'm saying this, and pull them out, thankfully seeing my sister smiling at me. I start putting on the clips just as Makena finishes braiding Janet's hair.

As I'm finishing up putting the last clip in, it would seem we finished just in time as Maureen begins to address all of the girls. "Nice. It seems you girls have all finished getting ready just in time. If you'd just follow me, I'll take you all to the dining hall." I grin at Janet, and she grins back at me. I haven't been this excited in my entire life. I can't wait to meet the other girls.