“Oh! Did you hear?” Lexi leaned forward, the light from the coffee shop window glinting on her forehead. “Kathy’s pregnant!”

“No way! Kathy from freshman dorm?” I wiped my mouth with a napkin. “I haven’t talked to her in forever.”

“I saw her posting about it, so I reached out. She’s due in February.”

“Well tell her I said mazel tov.”

“Absolutely.” Lexi took the last bite of her sandwich, washing it down with a gulp of iced chai. “God, it’s so weird. Everyone’s growing up.”

“I know, right? Do you still get college dreams? Like, the ‘oh no, it’s the final exam and I didn’t study’ dreams?”

“All the time! It’s been four years since I had to take a test. What the heck?”

I laughed. “I was talking to my mom. She said they never go away.”

“Ah, jeez. You’d think our brain would give us a break eventually. Just to be fair.”

“Like you care about things being fair,” I teased.

Lexi’s watch beeped, and she checked it. “Oh, is that the time? Why is lunch so short? We hardly talked about anything.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “We can meet again next week. Do you need to change for work?”

“I can do it in the bathroom, if you give me a moment.”

“Right-o.”

She grabbed her bag and dashed away, grabbing the key to the coffee shop bathroom from the counter. I slowly finished my coffee and headed out onto the street, checking my reflection in the big glass window, waiting.

Suddenly there was an explosion at the bank across the street. People screamed, fleeing the building, coughing in the smoke. I looked up - and there she was, in her dark green supervillain attire, hovering over the bank via jetpack. Her whole technology shtick was pretty cool, I had to admit, even though my own powers were completely different from hers.

It was time for me to get to work, too. I took my wand out of my pocket and whispered the incantation, triggering my magical-girl transformation. As the sparkles cleared from my vision, I clicked my golden heels and flew up over the bank.

“Not so fast, TechnoGoblin!” I called out to my best friend and rival.

Lexi cackled maniacally. “Princess Starshine! Long time no see, huh?”