Club Luna

"Good morning mom, mum!" I greeted my parents as I skipped into the kitchen. "Where's my little sister hiding?"

My folks exchanged a bit of a look, then mom replied "I think she's in the living room."

"You've really taken to her, haven't you hon? It's nice that you're friends with her, but don't you think referring to her as your sister is a little much?" mom asked. Her voice was low enough that I knew she was being quiet so Nina wouldn't hear us.

I shrugged as I got myself a glass of OJ. Then after a gulp of juice I asked, "Does it bother you that I'm so friendly with her? Or that I sometimes call her my little sis?"

Mum shook her head, "We don't mind that you're friends with her hon, but I'm not sure we're ready to call her family just yet? And your mom and I wanted to be sure you're still ok with her staying here with us."

I was still frowning as I moved to stand next to the table. I had another gulp of juice before asking quietly, "What's all this about? You're not planning on kicking her out are you?"

Both my parents shook their heads, and this time it was mom who responded. "Not at all Cass, the opposite in fact. How would you feel if we offered to let Nina stay with us as long as she liked? Even after we've solved your situation?"

"Really? That'd be great!" I grinned. "But why? I'm not complaining, just curious. Considering she's a demon, and the stuff she did when I was a baby and all that?"

Both of them sighed, they looked sort of sad and uncomfortable. Mum's voice was even quieter as she stated, "This is just between the three of us, ok Cass?"

"Ok," I nodded.

In that same soft voice she explained, "First off, being angels means your mom and I are both very good judges of people. We can tell Nina isn't evil or hateful or cruel, we know she's a good person at heart. Second, the more we've got to know her the more we can tell she's been hurt and taken advantage of in the past, and she's hurting now. She really needs the sort of stability she can get from a proper home."

"And finally," mum added, "We've obviously noticed how well the two of you get along. We had to ask though, to be sure."

Mum cautioned, "Please keep all this to yourself for now, ok hon? We're not quite ready to talk to her yet. This is preliminary, but now that we know you're ok with the idea we'll start moving ahead with it."

I had a big smile on my face again as I responded, "Thanks mum, thanks mom! I'll keep it to myself, but this is great news!"

We all had to drop the subject at that point, as Nina wandered into the kitchen. She had an empty glass with her that she was taking over to the sink.

"Good morning Cass," she greeted me as she moved past.

I grinned as I turned and caught her from behind in a tight hug, "G'morning little sis! Want to come with me and Kaylee today? We're going to meet the gang and hang out for a while. I'll even buy you an ice cream cone!"

She tried to squirm free of my hug, and after a couple seconds I finally let her escape. Then she huffed and straightened out her cute t-shirt before responding, "Are you sure the others won't mind if I'm there?"

"Positive," I stated. "It'll be fine Nina, I promise."

"Ok then," she agreed.

At that point mum commented, "You seem to be in a very good mood this morning Cassandra."

"Yeah," I grinned. "I guess I had some nice dreams last night? Kaylee was in them, and we -"

Mom grimaced as she cut me off, "That's all we need to hear hon. I don't really want any details of what you're dreaming about doing with your girlfriend."

That made me giggle, then the knock at the front door meant there wasn't any more time to talk anyways.

"That's Kaylee," I grinned as I hurried for the door. I called back, "C'mon Nina! See you later mom and mum!"

Mum called after me. "Please be careful Cass. And remember hon, no magic!"

"I know, you don't have to keep reminding me!" I called back as I rolled my eyes. Then I stepped out the door and grinned, "Hi Kaylee!"

As soon as my girlfriend saw my outfit her eyes widened along with her smile. "Wow Cass, you look great!"

"Thanks!" I smiled back.

Since it got way too hot for my big hoodie I'd given up on the whole 'hiding' look and went hard in the opposite direction. Now I was wearing tight jeans and a tight scoop-neck top, along with a fancy frilly bra that actually gave me some cleavage to show off. I'd even started doing my hair and wearing make-up on a regular basis.

It was a big change, but I'd be turning eighteen in less than a month and I figured it was time to start dressing like a young lady instead of a shy kid.

"Hello Kaylee," Nina said quietly as she emerged from the house behind me. She still dressed like I used to, like today she was in dark green leggings and a colourful t-shirt. And she'd hidden her horns with magic, since we were going out in public. They were still there, but most people couldn't see them. Which meant she definitely looked like my little sister.

Actually my girlfriend was dressed similarly too, she wore floral-print leggings and an oversized orange tunic-top. And all three of us were in sneakers.

"Hello Ninaya," Kaylee replied almost as quietly as the small demon. She still acted kind of weird around the demon girl, and it left me thinking my girlfriend was probably prejudiced or something against demons. Which was pretty silly considering she was ok with me and I was basically part-demon myself.

As the three of us set out Kaylee looked to me and asked, "So we're really taking a demon to a Club Luna meeting?"

It was the twenty-third of July and the full moon was tonight. And we were on our way to the first club meeting since May Hawthorne tried to disband us at the end of June.

"No, we're taking my almost-sister Nina to a club meeting," I responded. "She'll fit right in with the witches and the werewolf and the whatever I am."

I added, "Anyways it's a whole new club now, right? May's gone, so we don't have to follow her rules anymore. That means Brooke doesn't have to quit, she can keep coming to meetings if she wants. And there's no reason why Nina can't come too."

My girlfriend sighed, "I still can't believe May quit on us like that. I wonder if she's going to stay in town for her sabbatical or if she's going to leave completely."

"No idea," I shrugged. As long as I didn't have to see her at school every other day when we went back in September I didn't really care.

The three of us were quiet for the rest of the walk, which wasn't actually that far. Less than twenty minutes and we reached the ice cream parlour, where we found the others waiting. Brooke and Paige came in the older blonde's car, while Marissa and Melanie walked.

We all exchanged greetings and stuff, and nobody else seemed to mind that I brought Nina. Everyone said hi to her and stuff too, they all treated her like she was already part of the gang. Not that it happened overnight, but over the past month I kept inviting her to hang out with the rest of us, and the rest of the club all got to know her and became sort of friends with her.

As we lined up at the counter to place our orders Paige asked, "Should we all enjoy our ice cream here before we head over to the park? Or do you want to go straight there now?"

"Let's just head over there now," Melanie suggested. "It's like two minutes away, we can find someplace to sit and have our ice cream while we talk."

We all got our cones fairly quick. As usual Brooke paid for hers and Paige, Marissa covered hers and Melanie's, and I paid for Kaylee and Nina as well as my own. Then the two older girls got in Brooke's car for the short drive to the park while the rest of us walked.

"So what'd y'all get?" Marissa asked. "Mine's cherries-n-cream."

"Fudge ripple," Melanie replied.

Kaylee rolled her eyes but answered, "French vanilla."

"I got tiger tail," I stated as I had a big lick of my orange and licorice ice cream.

And Nina grinned at her cone with its scoop of bright pink ice cream full of colourful sprinkles, "Bubblegum confetti."

By the time Marissa's informal survey was complete we were almost at our destination. It was practically around the corner from the ice cream place, no more than a couple hundred meters away. Mill Creek Park was small but there were still lots of people around, enjoying the hot sunny Friday afternoon.

Little kids were having fun in a playground near the parking lot, with their parents standing nearby watching. Bigger kids were running around the wide open grassy lawn. People were walking their dogs on the trail that followed one side of the small creek, or just walking through the park enjoying the day.

We met Brooke and Paige next to their car, then we all started looking for a place to sit. And despite all the people around we were lucky enough to snag a picnic table that was under some shade next to the little creek.

There wasn't enough room for all seven of us to sit, but Nina just sat crosslegged on the grass next to the table so I had a seat on the ground beside her. Kaylee hesitated a half-second then she sat down along side me, which left the table free for everyone else. Brooke and Paige sat together on one side while Marissa and Melanie took the opposite side.

"So," Paige took a deep breath then with an uncertain smile she said, "Welcome back everyone, to the first meeting of the new Club Luna."

We all sort of nodded as we continued enjoying our ice cream, but before our new leader could continue I asked "Shouldn't we do a circle or something first? There's people all over the place."

Paige shook her head, "We'd attract way more attention if we set up a circle of candles. Right now we're just some friends hanging out enjoying our ice cream cones."

"And the only thing for people to stare at is Marissa's over the top outfit," Kaylee added.

The brash young witch grinned, "You're just jealous because you're too shy to stand out."

"At least Cass got over that phase," Marissa added with another smile. "Hit me up when you're ready, I think you'd rock a Hecatia Lapislazuli cosplay."

Everyone but Melanie responded with a blank stare, while the werewolf grimaced. She gave her girlfriend a look and quietly stated, "That's kind of insensitive Marissa."

The young blonde protested, "Nah I think it's a good fit!"

"Who's Hecatia Lapiswhatever? And why's she a good fit?" I asked.

Kaylee rolled her eyes, "Another one of her Touhou characters obviously."

"Hecatia is like the goddess of hell," Marissa explained. "But she has three bodies, so she can exist on Earth, and the Moon aka the heavens, and various Otherworlds including hell. And I figured, because you're like human, demon, and goddess all mashed together that's kind of a cool parallel? Like you represent three different planes or realms right? Also, Hecatia's name is based on Hekate, who was a Greek goddess of magic? Hekate is worshipped by some modern witches nowadays, which fits as well right?"

"Except demons don't come from hell. We're from Earth, just like humans," Nina mumbled, but she was so quiet nobody else heard her.

Meanwhile the enthusiastic witch continued, "Plus, Hecatia is shown as being caring and compassionate, sort of like you? And she supports personal freedom and hates authoritarians, which I think is another good fit for you. Like you totally put Miss Hawthorne in her place talking about those enchanted plushies and how they were helping trans people be their true selves."

By the time she was finished her enthusiastic info-dump everyone else was cringing slightly. Except me.

"Sounds kind of cool," I shrugged. "I'm not sure I want to try cosplaying anyone, but I'm going to look up this Hecatia and see what she's like."

Marissa grinned widely while Melanie gave me a funny look. Then the wolfgirl said, "Easiest Hecatia cosplay is just get a black t-shirt that has 'Welcome to Hell' written on the front in white letters."

That made me smile too, "I might actually do that."

"It's actually 'Welcome' then a heart shape then 'Hell'," Marissa corrected her girlfriend. "Anyways Cass, I'll text you some links if you're interested."

I nodded, "Thanks!"

Then Paige cleared her throat, "Yes, thank you Marissa for sharing your special interest with us yet again, but I think we should actually get on with the meeting? You can gush about all your Touhou stuff afterwards."

"Seconded," Kaylee stated.

"So what's going on?" Melanie asked. "Any new club business?"

Our new leader sighed, "I guess the first thing is an update on our former sponsor. Brooke?"

The tall blonde took a deep breath then announced, "Miss Hawthorne followed through with what she said at the last meeting. She's packed up and vanished. Her phone's been deactivated, emails get bounced back, and there's a for sale sign in front of her house, which is already empty. I don't think she even left a forwarding address. She's really gone."

Brooke Paige and Kaylee all looked sad and maybe a bit worried that May really did leave. Marissa looked unhappy but more in a disappointed way. Nina was mostly focused on eating her ice cream while she watched kids play on the swings, but she never knew May anyways so it didn't really affect her. And Melanie's expression reflected how I felt, which was more or less neutral.

There was a second or two of quiet which Marissa broke as she asked, "So we all know May's really a goddess right? Like based on what Melanie said about her scent, and Cass's scent, and what we know about Cass?"

Brooke looked uncertain while Paige and Kaylee both nodded slowly.

"What I want to know is why a goddess was teaching high-school English," Melanie commented.

After another lick of my ice cream I shrugged, "I might have an answer to that."

The others all looked at me, but I didn't cringe or anything. It didn't really bother me anymore in fact.

"Ok?" Paige finally asked. "What's the answer?"

"May told my parents and me the truth back when I was in hospital," I explained. "She asked us to keep it secret but we never promised or anything. I didn't tell anyone at the time because I was worried what she might do, like I didn't want any of you getting hurt if she lost her cool or something."

I paused for another lick of my cone, then told them what May said that day. I told them how she was a goddess of magic and witchcraft, and that she was Socha's mom. I also told them about the places May said used to worship her, and finally I told them what my folks figured out, how May was using Club Luna.

"That's probably why she became a teacher? Easy access to teenage girls," I shrugged. "Every time we use the magic she taught us, it's like performing a rite in her honour according to my mom. She made us her worshipers or followers or something, without telling us who she was or what she was getting from us."

When I was done there was another uncomfortable silence around the group, as they all took a few moments to process that news.

After a half minute Kaylee commented, "That gives us an idea how long she's been around anyways. Wessex was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in south-east England. I think it dated from the early dark ages up till the Norman conquest? So around five hundred to ten-sixty-six CE, if I remember right."

Then Paige sighed, "I honestly don't know what to think about any of that."

"Well I'm gonna keep using the magic," Marissa stated. "Whether it helps May or not, it's still magic. I can toss fireballs and sleep spells, I can work with ghosts and spirits, and use magic sight. And that's too cool to give up."

A moment later she gave me a worried look, "Uh, sorry Cass. I didn't mean to..."

"It's fine," I shrugged again. "I'm not sure I'd want to keep using May's magic even if I could."

The brash young blonde still looked apologetic, like she was definitely all about the magic and she probably worried about making me feel bad that I couldn't use it anymore. Kaylee was still upset about that too, and from the looks on their faces I could tell Brooke and Paige worried about me as well.

It really didn't bother me though. I'd learned a fair bit of demonic magic over the past month and a half, which was completely safe for me to use. I kept that to myself though since I knew the others would probably freak out if they found out about it. Plus they'd probably give Nina a hard time, which was totally unfair since I wasn't even learning it from her.

That was the other reason I wanted to keep quiet about it. I couldn't actually tell them who was teaching it to me, since I didn't know the answer myself.

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