Spell Check
Alexandra closed the door behind her and emptied the shopping bag onto her desk. She was excited to start reading one of her recent purchases in the comfort of her dorm room right away. But which one should she tackle first?
She frowned when she saw a book that she didn’t recognize.
“Spellcasting for Dummies?” she read aloud.
What nonsense! Maybe it had gotten mixed in with her books by mistake? She checked her receipt and saw that she hadn’t been charged for it. That was good at least. Still, she would have to return it next time she went to the bookstore. Paying it no more mind, she picked up the history book that had caught her eye. She opened the book and relaxed back into her bed.
This was perfect. Her roommate, Molly, wouldn’t be back for a few hours, so she was alone to just enjoy her book for a bit before she had to study. If she was really lucky, Molly would just go straight to whatever party she was going to tonight, and then just crash at one of her friends places. Then Alexandra would have a nice, uninterrupted Friday night in. A girl could dream...
She was about 20 pages into her book when she heard a thump near her desk. She looked over and saw that half of her new books had fallen onto the floor. Well, that would teach her not to put things away before starting to read. She carefully placed her bookmark between the pages of her book, and walked over to the desk.
One of the books had fallen open, and Alexandra saw the page heading. ‘Spell to Increase Intelligence.’
Hm... Alexandra already considered herself an intellectual titan, but the thought crossed her mind that her roommate Molly might be easier to live with if she were Alexandra’s equal in that regard. It was too bad magic wasn’t real—the idea of Molly as a serious student instead of a total party girl was so alluring. She saw at the top of the page that it listed the expected time of the ritual as 5 minutes.
Alexandra looked around. Magic obviously wasn’t real... but wouldn’t it be fun to imagine a better roommate for five minutes? She started to skim (she didn’t want to take more time than necessary, after all.) There was a two paragraph intro that she skipped, to get to the good part. “Ingredients.” Alright, she needed an object to serve as the focus, something that the target would wear to keep the spell active.
She looked over to Molly’s side of the room. Molly’s necklace was Alexandra’s first thought, but Molly was almost certainly wearing it at this very moment. Maybe her glasses? Molly’s eyesight only needed a slight correction, so she tended to leave her glasses by her bed. Alexandra walked over and picked them up. Alright, Molly’s glasses would probably do fine.
Alexandra read the spell formula and did as it said, carefully tracing a sigil from the book onto some blank paper and placing Molly’s glasses in the center. Then she read aloud the boxed text.
“Goddesses of Earth, Fire, Water and Air. Thy humble servant calls upon thee! Transfer your blessings. Let the gift of intelligence flow into this totem, so that whosoever wears it will taste of that sweet fruit of knowledge. With each touch let your blessings flow!”
She read the next bit of text in her head: ‘Touch the totem, and imagine pink energy flowing from the top of your head down through your fingers and into the object. Repeat this as many times as desired—each repetition increases the potency of the effect.’ Well, she wanted her roommate to be decently smart, so two or three touches ought to do the trick.
Alexandra did as directed, and when her hand made contact she could swear she felt a spark of static electricity. The image she conjured in her mind was actually pretty relaxing, just a waterfall of pink leaving her head, flowing down her arm and into the glasses.
“With each touch let your blessings flow!”
She touched the glasses again, and felt the pink as a pleasant warmth starting to spread throughout her body. She had only been drunk once or twice before, but that was the closest analogy she could find describe it. Her head was feeling a little fuzzy, and her mood was starting to improve. She smiled.
“With each touch let your blessings flow!”
Again, the pink energy bubbled out of Alexandra and she couldn’t help but giggle. She felt like a weight had been lifted—and she was suddenly very full of energy. Why was she so happy all of a sudden?
“With each touch let your blessings flow!”
Alexandra giggled again. And again. And again. The pink energy had tickled this time. Or maybe it wasn’t the pink energy? She was just in such a good mood. She couldn’t quite remember what she was doing. She felt like her thoughts were coming through molasses, but that didn’t really concern her. She was having such a good time doing... whatever she was doing. What was she doing...?
Oh, yeah! She was casting a spell to make Molly smart! How many times had she planned to repeat this part?
A few more couldn’t hurt!
“With each touch let your blessings flow!”
“With each touch let your blessings flow!”
“With each, like, umm...”
She put her finger to her mouth and tried to concentrate. What were the words again? She looked at the page in front of her and found herself sounding out the words at the top.
“Su-Spel to in-cre-as-eh i-int-ell—?” she gave up halfway through. She knew she loved to read, but this book had really hard words and she felt like she needed go to out and do something!
Al- ale—... Even her name was too hard! She needed something shorter. Like, uh... Lexie! Lexie pulled out her phone, and with some difficulty navigated to her contacts. She typed “M” and was relieved to see M-o-l-l-y was the only entry. That was probably Molly! She called her.
“Hey, Molly!” Lexie said. “Can I come, like, party with you!?”
Molly sounded surprised. “Alexandra? Are, are you drunk or something?”
“No! I just got, like, tired of reading. I want to party! Also, my name is Lexie now. Alex—, uh, that other name is too long!”
Molly had invited Alexandra (Lexie?) many times before, and had long given up hope of convincing her to join her. What had brought this change about? No matter, she wasn’t going to complain if her roommate was becoming less of a stick in the mud. It wasn’t long before Molly was back at the dorm and after a quick change into something a little sluttier the two were off to a frat party Molly had been invited to.
Molly was the last to leave, and she noticed a book open on Lexie’s desk, as well as... her glasses? She walked over and read the first sentence after the heading: ‘Warning: Like in all magic, balance must be maintained. All energy has to come from somewhere. Be careful to—” Molly rolled her eyes. What nonsense was Lexie reading now? She closed the book, and moved her glasses back to her bedside. She didn’t really care that Lexie had messed with her glasses—she was never going to wear them anyways.
Molly turned off the light and locked the door behind her. Tonight she was going to show Lexie how to really party!