Jess's eyes suddenly strayed to Blair's body. Besides her scarlet mane, what struck Jess about her friend was her galaxy of freckles. Blair's entire pale face (particularly the bridge of her nose) was heavily dusted in cute little brown flecks. She also had a decent dusting on her arms and the backs of her hands, and Jess recalled that the redhead had some VERY freckly shoulders hidden beneath her new mane. Jess's gaze then drifted down to Blair's brown-dotted ass, the burst of splotchy stars continuing down her legs all the way to her cream-colored feet. Jess realized that she wanted such entrancing skin for herself.
Blair met Jess's gaze. "Yo, checkin' out my sick new mane, girl?"
"Not this time, Blair," said Jess. "I was actually looking at your freckles. They're so pretty."
Blair blushed. "Mom hates them. She's always looking for some remedy that'll clear the damn things up."
"Well, fuck HER stupid opinions!" snapped Jess. "She's also the one who hates body hair! Believe me, Blair, you've got the most gorgeous skin I've ever seen on a girl. I am so damn jealous!"
Blair shrugged. "If you say so. They're just freckles."
"Well, I want them almost as much as I want body hair," said Jess. Her eyes glittered with longing.
Lacy's face lit up. "Hey, let's try to find the magic shop! The one where Sierra's friends bought the brush! I bet they've got something that could give you freckles."
"Totally!" Sita nodded.
"Let's go, gals!" agreed Monique.
"Agreed," said Jess. "Let's get dressed and get me some freckles!"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
After an hour of poking around downtown, the cheer squad found the wooden sign that proclaimed "Circe's Magick Shoppe - Chaunge Youre Bodie for ye Better!" in its unmistakable Middle English.
"This looks like the place, girlfriends," said Lacy, drinking in the archaic facade of the storefront. "Sure looks like a place owned by an ancient sorceress."
"Ya got that right," said Mia. "What do they stock, the Sword in the Stone? Magic beans that take you to castles in the sky?"
"They might," said Sita, a look of warring excitement and nervousness on her light brown face.
"Think they're still open?" Blair asked. "It's pretty late."
"The lights are still on inside," Lacy observed. She gave the door a quick test. "It's unlocked."
Jess beamed. "Let's go in!"
The others exchanged a look, nodded, and went through the door in single file.
Once inside, they looked around in wonder at the rows of messy, overstuffed shelves. Unearthly glows emitted from random boxes, and suspicious crackling sounds occasionally broke the silence. In the back, oak doors led off to still more hidden treasures.
Sita stared at the stuffed boar dangling from the ceiling. "This place is freaking creepy."
Monique approached a golden statue of a beautiful naked woman, a blissful expression adorning her metal features. Monique took a look at the tag: "Natalie Evans. Eternal age: 21. Price: $69.99." Monique reread the strange tag and raised an eyebrow. Since when did statues have names? Or ages, for that matter.
"Like what you see?" asked a feminine voice.
Monique's head snapped to the front desk. An ageless-looking woman in purple robes, smiling wryly at the black girl and the statue. Her impossibly deep eyes appeared to be searching Monique for something.
"I..." Mo stammered, "I... was j-just browsin'. I noticed that you named this statue. It's very lifelike."
The enchantress smiled. "That's probably because she IS alive. She was once a flesh-and-blood woman named Natalie whose lifelong dream was to become a statue and sold as an ornament. And I would be careful about calling her an 'it,' if I were you. She can still hear every word you say."
Monique's eyes bugged out. "You tellin' me that this statue used to be... A PERSON?!!"
"Yes," the sorceress said flatly. "You know I can feel her amusement at your shock radiating throughout the room. If you find that embarrassing, you might wish to calm down. You're in a magic shop. The word 'impossible' has no meaning here. I'm Circe, by the way."
Blair's jaw dropped. "Circe?! As in the one from the Odyssey? Sailors to pigs and all that stuff?"
"Indeed," said Circe, her expression questioning Blair's intelligence. "You might recall that my name is printed on the sign outside. You really shouldn't be surprised. Not if you're literate, anyway."
Blair blushed beet red.
Circe studied Blair further. "You possess a very striking mane. Have you been here bef..." Circe trailed off. She peered directly into Blair's eyes, almost seeming to read the redhead's soul. "Ah, I see. You are Blair Belville. You are a cheerleader at Woodrow Wilson High School. You are a lesbian, though only the squad knows. Lately you have come to consider Sita Patel your girlfriend. You are the daughter of cosmetics magnate Donna Belville and the sister of Sierra Belville. Correct so far?"
"Yes," Blair gasped. "How the fuck did you know all that?!"
"It is written in your soul," Circe said coolly. "You gave yourself your mane with the hairbrush my customer Meadow Larkin shared with your sister. You and your squadmates have been playing with the brush tonight, and your friend Jessica desired freckles like yours, and you are here to buy them for her, still correct?"
"Totally," Jess chimed in. "I'm Jessica Brett, but you can call me Jess. So, how do I get freckles? I want a fuck-ton of them everywhere!"
Circe nodded sagely. "Very well. It is destined. Follow me, all of you."
Circe led the cheer squad down an aisle to an assortment of crystalline jars. Each jar was full of a viscous, paint-like liquid. The colors of the liquids ranged from a pale, pearly peach to a deep brown that was almost black. A collection of paintbrushes was displayed beside the strange jars.
Circe gestured at the jars. "Behold!" she intoned ceremoniously. "Melanin Paint! With a jar of these paints and a matching brush, you can permanently change the pigmentation of your skin. With enough time, you could completely change the color of your skin from pale to dark and vice versa. To give yourself freckles, you would just dip the brush in a jar of Melanin Paint colored a few shades darker than your own skin and scatter flecks of paint over your skin. If the results should disappoint, just paint over the changes with a jar of paint the color of your original skin. Sound good?"
Jess grinned. "Sounds great!"
"We'll take the entire set," said Lacy. She looked at the pricetags and added up the costs. "Oh, and we'll take Natalie, too. Never know what kind of fun we could have with a sentient gold statue."
"So be it," Circe intoned mystically as she accepted Lacy's money.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Once the squad got back, they placed Natalie in the corner of Lacy's palatial bedroom and spread the jars out in a row in the center of the room. The cheerleaders sat crosslegged in a circle around their latest magical purchase.
Jess fingered a paintbrush. "So this is it. I'm finally gonna get my freckles."
"Yep," said Blair, running a hand through her mane. "Not sure why you want them, though. They're just splotches of skin pigment where it doesn't belong."
"It's beautiful asymmetry," Jess retorted. "It looks striking on you, and it'll look striking on me."
"Sure will, Jessie-boo," Mia smiled. "And that's just the beginning of the fun! Think of all the fun we could have trying out different skin colors. Wanna see Lacy be Puerto Rican like me? Now you can!"
"And we should probably do something with Natalie," Monique added, motioning to where the golden statue stood, gazing at them with her unchanging expression of orgasmic joy.
"So," Lacy cut in, "no more sitting around on our asses. We've got a full night of hairification and melanin painting ahead of us, and that's not counting whatever the hell we do with out gold friend over there. So, what's first?"