A dark red Ford Mustang pulled into the driveway. The engine turned off and out of the car emerged Kat's boyfriend, Nate. Nate and Kat had been dating for two solid years. Kat truely loved him and he felt the same way.
Nate was not what one consider to be traditionally gorgeous, but had a cute, boy next door sensability that Kat found quite endearing. He was wearing black slacks and a white button down shirt with a nice pair of dress shoes. He also wore wire rim glasses. He had tried to use contacts, but his eye reflexes would snap his eyelids shut whenever his finger got even close to his eye, making it damn near impossible.
Nate worked at the local comic book shop and had since he was in high school. He graduated with Kat the previous spring and was now going to school at the local college as well, working on his generals, trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. His escape from this was the comics. Nate liked to imagine himself as a comic book superhero, fighting crime with awesome superpowers. In fact, just about any sort of transformation excited him.
Nate knocked on the front door a couple of times as he walked into the house.
"Hello? Anyone home?" he asked, announcing himself. He found Kat, along with a big, hairy sheepdog that used to be her brother in the living room.
"Hey honey, happy birthday!" he said, walking over to her. In his hand was a small, wrapped birthday present.
"Oh thank you!" replied Kat. Dan started to growl at Nate. Dan had always hated Nate, mainly because Kat constantly compared Dan to him, usually in a negative sense. Nate usually tried to stay out of it, but even he had to comment on Dan's selfishness at times.
Nate looked down at the Sheepdog standing next to Kat. "Hey! When did you get a dog?"
"Just recently, actually," replied Kat.
"What's his name?"
"Dan," she replied.
"Like your brother. Isn't that going to be confusing?" asked Nate.
"Not really, no," she replied.
"Well, he doesn't seem to like me very much," said Nate. "Oh, hey, here's your present."
Nate handed her the package. Kat tore it open to reveal a small jewelry box. She opened it to reveal a pewter pentacle.
Kat looked to Nate and smiled. "Oh thank you. I'm not sure how you knew, but thank you!"
"I ran into your mom at the store and she helped me pick it out. Not that I'm incapable of picking out a present on my own, but you know..." replied Nate.
"Actually, I got something for you too. It's in my room," said Kat.
"You didn't have to get me anything...really. It's your birthday," said Nate.
"Yeah, but I wanted to, you know to say thank you for the last two years. You've been the best boyfriend I could want," Kat followed Nate to her bedroom, giving her wand a quick flick to conjure up part of his present, which should be materializing under her bed.
Kat closed her bedroom door after her and walked over to her bed. She leaned down and pulled out a large blue box, wrapped with a bright red ribbon out and laid it on the bed.
"Before you open this, I need to tell you something. It's sort of a test, I'll just admit that now. I'm a witch."
"Yeah, I know," replied Nate.
"You do?"
"I did buy you the pentacle. Don't worry, I would never judge. I've read up on the stuff and Wicca seems pretty cool, and in a lot of ways makes a lot of sense," said Nate, reassuringly.
"No, I mean I am a real spell casting, potion making witch!" replied Kat, a little exasperated.
It took a moment for this to sink in for Nate. "That would mean the dog in the living room...is really your brother Dan?"
Kat nodded, "Now you got it."
"Well, I'll admit the twat did kinda deserve it. How long are you going to make him be a dog?" replied Nate.
"Oh, it should wear off in a couple hours, but don't worry about that, I have something way more special for you," said Kat, gesturing to the box.
Nate walked over to the box and pulled off the ribbon and pulled off the top of the box. Inside was...