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I had never been to a nightclub before and I was nervous, not knowing what to expect. I was going to rely on Tess to dress me for the experience since I didn’t have any outfits that would suit the occasion. I would have to borrow something of Tess’ anyway since I couldn’t go home beforehand. The last thing I wanted was for my mom to tell me I had been out with Tess all day and had to stay in tonight to work on the homework that I had been neglecting.

Tess’ dad answered the door and let me in, and I sprinted up the flight of stairs to the second story and down the long hallway to her bedroom. Her door was closed, and I opened it without knocking, slipping inside excitedly.

“About time!” she exclaimed from the bed, throwing her laptop down and scooting to the edge. “I need you to tell meeverything.”

“I will, but I promised Nik we would meet him in an hour.”

“And Puck?” she asked.

“He will be there,” I assured her. “I have no idea what to wear, I’m going to need your help.”

“My area of expertise.” She smirked, hopping off the bed and moving over to the makeup vanity. “Sit,” she instructed as she started pulling out makeup palettes and placing them on the vanity.

As she did my makeup, I told her all about how I had controlled my magic today and hadn’t felt out of control. I told her about the portal to Istmere, and how the meadow Nik had taken me to acts as a magical tether. When I told her about how Nik and I had almost kissed, she just about fainted.

“I’m sorry girl, I definitely would not have called and interrupted if I had known you two werebusy.” She laughed, applying blush to the high point of my cheekbones. What had that moment been? Had it only been the magic between us, the buzzing residual energy? Had he wanted to kiss me? I couldn’t deny it, I had wanted to kiss him.

“If you don’t stop blushing, I won’t know where to stop with this,” Tess laughed, indicating the pink blush she held in her hands. I sighed and closed my eyes, letting her finish my mini makeover.

Nik had said if we could replicate what I did today with my elemental magic, we could try some storm magic next. Then we could find out if I was truly a Stormshade or not. Storm magic was harder to control according to Nik, and I was nervous to try. Tess finished with a flick of her makeup brush and I turned to the mirror to admire her work.

My auburn ringlets remained loose around my face and cascaded down my back. Tess had applied a purple metallic shadow and black kohl around my eyes with a dramatic black mascara. My cheeks were contoured, and my lips were a neutral shade of mauve.

“You are a magician,” I told her, admiring her work. “You don’t think it’s a little…much?”

“Girl, this is battle of the bands. I promise you, it is not too much,” she said, putting some of the items back into the drawer. Tess was already set to go with a full face of makeup…she was always done up and ready for any occasion. Even if she had no plans and was sitting around the house, that was just Tess.

She moved to her closet and started to rummage through, trying to find the perfect outfits for us. She came back to the bed with an array of jackets, dresses, and tops. “Dress or Jeans?” she asked, turning to me.

“Do you even have to ask?” I replied, “Jeans.”

“Ok, but then you have to wear heels…” she determined, biting her bottom lip and turning back to her closet for shoes.

“Small ones,” I conceded, and although her back was to me, I could feel her roll her eyes. Tess decided on a slinky blue dress and black heels for herself and a pair of dark ripped jeans with a strappy black top for me.

“Uh…won’t we be cold?” I pointed out.

“Good point,” she replied, running back to her closet and pulling out two black leather jackets. She threw them down on the bed along with a pair of black suede wedges for me. They weren’t small, but they were wedges. I could compromise.

We dressed in a hurry, watching the clock and realizing it was almost nine already. My car was still at home since Nik had picked me up, so we had to have Tess’ parents drop us off. Tess insisted they park down the street so nobody would see us getting out of the car. As we started to walk towards the club, I could hear the bumping music blaring in the distance and I focused on not twisting an ankle in Tess’ borrowed wedges. They were definitely taller than I had originally thought, and I felt like a skyscraper just waiting to break an ankle.

I felt a little self-conscious in Tess’ outfit. The jeans were stretchy…so that wasn’t a problem, but the low-cut strappy top was more revealing than I was used to wearing. Not to mention hardly anybody at school had ever seen me with makeup on. Tess had assured me that I looked good, but I still felt somewhat unrecognizable.

We gave the bouncer at the door our IDs and were promptly handed bright wristbands indicating we were under twenty-one years old. We passed through the doors and a wave of alcohol and sweat hit me as I adjusted my eyes to the dim lighting.

The bar was long and ran the length of the back wall of the club. To the left was a stage where one of the bands was setting up their instruments, to the right was a large, packed, dance floor. They were bumping the latest hits while waiting for the bands to start, and people of all ages were grinding together on the dance floor under the green lights.

“Want to get a drink?” Tess asked over the music, scanning the room for the boys. I nodded in response, and we made our way through the crowd of people to the bar.

“Two root beers,” Tess ordered with a wink to the bartender. All that earned her was a roll of his eyes as he turned to grab our drinks. I wouldn’t put it past Tess to try to get us fake IDs, and I was surprised when she hadn’t even brought it up beforehand. I scanned the crowd, but didn’t see Nik or Puck anywhere. It wasn’t long before we were approached by boys from the lacrosse team wanting to flirt with Tess.

“Hey, Diana,” Zach said sidling up next to me at the bar. “You look great tonight.”

I could feel his eyes on me, running from my head all the way down to my toes. Zach was on the swim team and normally flirted with Tess, and acted as if I was her completely invisible sidekick. Was it the outfit that made him want to acknowledge me tonight?

“Hey, Zach.” I nodded, giving him a tight smile. He was cute, with short, cropped hair, and a lean swimmer’s body. Tess shot me a set of wide eyes behind Zach’s back before turning back to the boy she was talking to. Seth, I think his name was.

“It’s too bad you aren’t in any of my classes this semester,” Zach said with a stretch that revealed the thin stretch of skin below his T-shirt. “You must be in all AP classes.”