by Kayla Bashe
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(1/3) What's going on?
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(2/3) What's happening?
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(3/3) Why are you out of bed?
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Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
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“I am dressing for the party after the party,” Magda says cheekily. “How do I look, though? Exceptional or…splendid?”
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(1/1) Of course, you tell her that she looks lovely. Happy people always do.
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Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
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“Interesting question, Lucy Angel. Are you asking us why people get out of bed in general, or why we, at this very moment, simply happen to be awake?” asks Magda, insouciant and clever as always.
“That second one’s simple,” says Abby. “People get out of bed to eat breakfast. Or…at least I do. Unless there’s a violin concert. Or it’s raining. In which case I get out of bed to listen to the violins or help deer find shelter, and then I eat breakfast.”
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(1/1) "Okay, okay, pretty funny. I meant why are all of you up?"
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Please turn back a page
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Please turn forward a page
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Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
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“I am dressing for the party after the party,” Magda says cheekily. “How do I look, though? Exceptional or…splendid?”
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(1/1) Of course, you tell her that she looks lovely. Happy people always do.
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Please turn back a page
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Please turn forward a page
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Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
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“Interesting question, Lucy Angel. Are you asking us why people get out of bed in general, or why we, at this very moment, simply happen to be awake?” asks Magda, insouciant and clever as always.
“That second one’s simple,” says Abby. “People get out of bed to eat breakfast. Or…at least I do. Unless there’s a violin concert. Or it’s raining. In which case I get out of bed to listen to the violins or help deer find shelter, and then I eat breakfast.”
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(1/1) "Okay, okay, pretty funny. I meant why are all of you up?"
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Please turn back a page
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Please turn forward a page
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Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
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“There’s going to be a breakfast at the Academe Magia. Small and informal and not everyone’s going to be invited—it’s just for people that the Magia kids are especially friends with,” explains Chant.
“I know the cook there. He’s truly gifted,” Abby says, finger-combing her hair and searching the trunk under her bed for a certain sweater.
“And there’s a boy who promised to lend me a book,” Magda says, smiling. “A really good book. Fictional exploration of the Dionysian-Apollonian contrast, rich people being well-educated and clever and scandalous, college students invoking ancient deities and being posessed by them—I can’t think of anything that would be even slightly more splendid.”
“So it’s settled, then,” you say, donning a signiature accessory. “Okay, gang—let’s go.”
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(1/1) You head to the Academe for an afterparty breakfast.
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Please turn back a page
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Please turn forward a page
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Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
“There’s going to be a breakfast at the Academe Magia. Small and informal and not everyone’s going to be invited—it’s just for people that the Magia kids are especially friends with,” explains Chant.
“I know the cook there. He’s truly gifted,” Abby says, finger-combing her hair and searching the trunk under her bed for a certain sweater.
“And there’s a boy who promised to lend me a book,” Magda says, smiling. “A really good book. Fictional exploration of the Dionysian-Apollonian contrast, rich people being well-educated and clever and scandalous, college students invoking ancient deities and being posessed by them—I can’t think of anything that would be even slightly more splendid.”
“So it’s settled, then,” you say, donning a signiature accessory. “Okay, gang—let’s go.”
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(1/1) You head to the Academe for an afterparty breakfast.
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Please turn back a page
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Please turn forward a page
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Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
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It’s a typical chill morning-after-the-party atmosphere. Students hang around in shorts and T-shirts or comfy sundresses—one girl hasn’t even changed out of her flannel PJs. The heat of the night before has broken. It’s cold enough to wear a sweater, and a thin mist hangs on the ground.
And fog swirls through the trees, lurking…
“Lucy-Lucy! Glad you could make it!” Jez, with their pink hair and bright blue waterproof jacket, gives you a high-five.
Isra, dressed in a pretty gown of draped pastel fabric that flows to her ankles, catches your arm. “Oh, Luchia, I am never seeing you up this early. You are Luchia, are not you? No, I’m just doing a kidding. I am very glad that you could arrive here.” She smiles at you, and her lipgloss glitters.
Caderyn, hugging his sketchpad, practically runs over to you. “Lucy-lou! Did you watch that new holo-film yet? The one with the talking animals at the boarding school? It’s just so apt and relevant! I’m in love! I’ve been drawing so much fanart lately—remind me to show you.”
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(1/3) Hang out with Isra
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(2/3) Hang out with Jez
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(3/3) Hang out with Caderyn
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Please turn back a page
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Please turn forward a page
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Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
It’s a typical chill morning-after-the-party atmosphere. Students hang around in shorts and T-shirts or comfy sundresses—one girl hasn’t even changed out of her flannel PJs. The heat of the night before has broken. It’s cold enough to wear a sweater, and a thin mist hangs on the ground.
And fog swirls through the trees, lurking…
“Lucy-Lucy! Glad you could make it!” Jez, with their pink hair and bright blue waterproof jacket, gives you a high-five.
Isra, dressed in a pretty gown of draped pastel fabric that flows to her ankles, catches your arm. “Oh, Luchia, I am never seeing you up this early. You are Luchia, are not you? No, I’m just doing a kidding. I am very glad that you could arrive here.” She smiles at you, and her lipgloss glitters.
Caderyn, hugging his sketchpad, practically runs over to you. “Lucy-lou! Di
d you watch that new holo-film yet? The one with the talking animals at the boarding school? It’s just so apt and relevant! I’m in love! I’ve been drawing so much fanart lately—remind me to show you.”
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(1/3) Hang out with Isra
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(2/3) Hang out with Jez
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(3/3) Hang out with Caderyn
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Please turn back a page
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Please turn forward a page
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Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
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The daughter of a diplomat, moon-pale Isra learned the five languages of her planet before remembering, almost as an afterthought, that it would probably be a good idea to pick up Central.
]You trade travel stories, pour over a fashion magazine, and laugh about terrible image editing on the covers of romance novels. Being friends with Isra makes you feel just as sophisticated and cosmopolitan as she is.
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(1/1) >>
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Please turn back a page
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Please turn forward a page
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Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
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Jez is a force of nature—a small, neon force of nature with spiky pink hair. They spend a lot of time in the Academe’s soundproof practice shed, and they know a lot about urban legends. They’re loud and spunky and always in motion, and you friend-love them to pieces.
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(1/1) >>
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Please turn back a page
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Please turn forward a page
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Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
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“Hey, Lucy, what if I drew you?” You make silly faces, and he speed-sketches each expression. He talks excitedly about his new favorite movie, about a pretty dress in the window of a local vintage shop, about ice cream. Spending time with Caderyn always makes you smile, and he captures your laughter on his sketch pad.
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(1/1) >>
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Please turn back a page
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Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
The daughter of a diplomat, moon-pale Isra learned the five languages of her planet before remembering, almost as an afterthought, that it would probably be a good idea to pick up Central.
]You trade travel stories, pour over a fashion magazine, and laugh about terrible image editing on the covers of romance novels. Being friends with Isra makes you feel just as sophisticated and cosmopolitan as she is.
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(1/1) >>
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Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
* * *
Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
Jez is a force of nature—a small, neon force of nature with spiky pink hair. They spend a lot of time in the Academe’s soundproof practice shed, and they know a lot about urban legends. They’re loud and spunky and always in motion, and you friend-love them to pieces.
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(1/1) >>
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Please turn back a page
* * *
* * *
Please turn forward a page
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Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
* * *
“Hey, Lucy, what if I drew you?” You make silly faces, and he speed-sketches each expression. He talks excitedly about his new favorite movie, about a pretty dress in the window of a local vintage shop, about ice cream. Spending time with Caderyn always makes you smile, and he captures your laughter on his sketch pad.
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(1/1) >>
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Please turn back a page
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Please turn forward a page
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Magical Girl Academy: Awakening Magic, by Kayla Bashe
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You turn around when the screaming and yelling starts.
A portal’s opened in the sky, right where the wards begin. Monsters swarm from the portal, looking eldritch and creepy and wrong in all the worst ways.
Ordinary kids would freak, scream and run and drop their disposable forks and scatter leaving biodegradable paper plates in their wake, trampled into the ground and dirty.
But you’re no ordinary kids. You’re magical.
All around you, students unsheath swords or put arrows to bowstrings. One girl clicks her fingers, and fire springs to life in her palm; another closes her eyes, and vines sprout up from the ground to answer her call. Cybernetic armor unfolds to cover tanned arms.
And then you get a good look at your enemies.
Humanoid monsters with too-large smiles and too-many teeth. A creature that looks like an enormous red centipede, crawling along the ground and clicking its fangs and eyeing you suspiciously. A gorilla with extra legs all up its back—it doesn’t walk, it bounces. A giant three-headed pillbug that somehow curls up and rolls towards you.
“I rename myself! Love Angel Transformation!”
Your skirt puffs up, wings unfold from your back, and your school-issue pendant is replaced by a ribbon choker with a pretty crystal, the perfect thing to hold onto and take comfort from. Something—moving so fast that you can barely make out any of its features, except for a pair of thin bug-wings the color and texture of an old man’s hands—zooms in to bite a chunk out of your upper arm, but you swat it away.
In an instant, acting purely on reflex, you’re glowing with a sunlit aura; when the creature darts in for another nip, it sizzles away to ashes within an instant.
Smiling clay masks with shadow-bodies, knee-high and running at a startlingly fast gallop. A giant inchworm-thing made out of what looks like intestines—it has a mouth, and that mouth is drooling. No way are you going to let these uglies pick on your friends.