Sparkly

Rely

"You're so silly! You really thought I ate people!" Amethyst cackled, slapping her thigh in hilarity.

"I was just making sure." the passerby said, his cheeks reddening behind the phone he held up.

Amethyst knew she could rely on the humans to accept her statement that it was a joke. They were very happy to assume she was human, after all.

"You're so cute." she added, out of breath from laughing.

"Thanks." he said uncomfortably. "Do you have any statements to make about your identity?"

Amethyst stared at the camera for a moment, thinking about her answer.

"Actually..." she said slowly, "I'm ready to tell you all about the daily life of a superhero, and some dark secrets I've been hiding."

She put on a shy air and looked away from the camera, scrunching up her face like she was going to cry.

"Actually..." she started again, and stared seriously at the camera.

"Yeah?" the guy said, leaning forward perhaps despite his better judgement.

Amethyst held her serious expression for another moment, then took a deep dramatic breath.

"Just kidding!" she said, drinking in the guy's disappointment and cackling.

___

The power of Quartz couldn't do much with the constant voice in her head commanding her not to harm anyone. It was annoying, so annoying.

Especially since Matilda's granddaughter Euphemia kept telling her she should be in a nursing home.

She couldn't even poison Euphemia's tea. She'd tried, but something had prevented her hand from moving the powder into the cup.

The only other way Matilda could see to escape from her granddaughter's constant nagging about nursing homes and caretakers was to transform into Quartz.

In the young and healthy body of the magical girl, nobody could tell her she belonged in a nursing home.

Dread filled Euphemia's face as Matilda turned into Quartz, the perfectly groomed magical girl sipping tea on the couch in front of her.

"You should respect your elders, little girl. If I say I don't need to go to a nursing home, you and your thirty years of genius should sit down and stop talking back." Quartz said.

"...Of course." Euphemia said after a moment. "Well, tea has been great, grandma. I have to be going now."

Quartz just watched her go, smiling at the girl's fear.

Euphemia didn't know about the command for Quartz not to harm anybody.

___

"I just love keeping my skin sparkly fresh. And that's why I use FreshSmooth Eucalyptus shampoo!" Quartz smiled perfectly.

Jade shook her head. Quartz was taking sponsorships now?

"Actually, that's a good idea. I should do that." she said, wheels in her head starting to turn.

Prina looked at her curiously.

"If I earn enough money I can buy us a house and hire security as well. It's not out of the possibility with our fame." Jade said, clicking through her emails.

___

Leilah and her classmates were clumped around Jaziah's phone, staring at a video.

"I literally could not care less." Jade said in response to the interview question, her annoyance suggesting that she thought the question was for her specifically.

Surprisingly, the question of how they felt about their alternate form was directed at all of the three Gem girls the interviewer had gotten their hands on.

"Oh it's wonderful. I feel so young!" Quartz said, tittering.

"It's very pretty. If I wanted to seduce someone it'd be a breeze." Amethyst said.

"Yuck." Leilah said, then covered her mouth.

"No, yeah." Derek said. "She's probably some really old guy in real life."

"And like, shouldn't they be addressing the controversies or at least doing more superheroing?" Milana said.

"Right?" Derek said.

Leilah felt a twinge of guilt- she hadn't done anything superheroish at all recently despite using her form to visit the moon twice.

She might have even taken this interview for the experience if she hadn't been afraid it was a trap.

"Crystal's the only one who's still really a superhero. She hasn't been doing all these stupid interviews, she hasn't dissappeared off the face of the earth, and we still occasionally see her doing something heroic. Did you see that video where she cleaned up a trashy neighborhood?" Milana asked.

"Yeah, that was really cool." Jaziah said.

Maybe Leilah should do stuff like that. If she wasn't in any one place for long it should be safe even if people were filming her.

___

"It feels like someone is trying to talk to me, but I'm not sure from where." Caroline said, putting a hand to her crystal.

She looked distracted.

"Do you need me to make dinner?" Darius asked.

"No, but thanks for offering." Caroline said, handing him more vegetables to chop. "Maybe I'll ask you in the future."

"I'm not very confident in my cooking skills actually." Darius said.

"That's fine, it's not that hard." Caroline said with an encouraging smile.