Deja Vu [DRAFT ONE: UPDATED DRAFT ABOVE]

12: Will

Megan stands in the corner at the Naval Brigade holiday party with a red plastic cup, turning it so the light glances off the surface. She looks up, hopeful eyes framed by her wide glasses, and then looks back down again. She's smiling, but her body language tells a different story. She's resigned and holds herself tight against the wall.

Amanda, on the other hand, is next to me with one hand on my shoulder and the other on an empty mug that once held eggnog. "She's acting really weird."

"My brother's been acting super weird, too. Ten bucks says they made out." I suggest, off-hand.

"Ugh! Gross!" Amanda slams her mug against the table.

"You made out with her when you were dating." I retaliate. "Didn't you?"

"Yes, but it was tactful and your brother is kind of a sleazeball! Not in the creepy way, but... don't you get the impression from him he's condescending to you? Always?"

"Yes." My face blushes a violent shade of red.

Fervently, Amanda whispers, "You could deck him. You're a superhero now."

I'd have to be something more than superhuman to deck my brother, but I don't confide this in her. Instead, I go to the refreshments table and pour myself more eggnog, topping it off with peppermint ice cream. I take a long swig of it, while Amanda continues to eye Megan, and say, "Look. We can't let ourselves get caught up in this."

Amanda slams a hand on my shoulder with such force that I almost fall out of my chair. "Will," she says below her breath, "You have gravely underestimated how petty I am."

"Hey! My internet friend runs some forums, she thinks she's found your webcomic!" Rya yells, rushing over to the two of us with her phone out. "Amanda, is this it?"

I look at a crudely drawn black-and-white comic, just over seven hundred pages, and 'the lizard guy' stares out at me from the phone.

"There's a lot of differences, though. Couldn't even find those two characters you were dressed up as..." Rya continues.

"She couldn't have," Amanda says. "Because we're making that webcomic. It's ours. Our webcomic." She now has me around the shoulder, locked in an inescapable death grip, and I try not to look bewildered as several of the other girls gather around.
"You're doing magical girls and lab rats in one story." Rya says, putting her phone down to give us a round of applause. "I'm impressed."

"You two are making a webcomic?" Megan asks, moving out from the corner. "You didn't tell me! Can I put in a cameo?"

"Can the lizard guy and the bird kid date?" asks Sally.

Amanda continues, "Hell yes they can. Everything's canon. In fact, why stop at one love interest? Someone get another character in there. Leader of the magical girls, lizard guy, bird kid. Boom. Love triangle."

Megan blushes. "Wow. That's- that's..."

"Genius? I know." Amanda winks to me, and I flash her a smile.

"An artist at work," I say to the assembled girls. "You can't interrupt genius."

We spend the rest of the night shouting out ideas, and the entire group gets far too into this ridiculous joke idea. I sketch down characters, take notes, and down half a gallon of eggnog. Fortunately, it also no longer resembles our adventures or the original pitch, and we're working on a comprehensive system of magic as it ties into the mutations of some of our mains when my mom's car shows up, fifteen minutes early and about ten minutes over my never-enforced 'curfew'. I get up, hug Amanda, and say to the girls, "We've got to set up a chat to work on this."