According to Axel, Madeleine was in one of the changing rooms. “Are we supposed to go in there?”

“Madeleine said it was a private room, so it’s fine,” Axel said.

“Still. If anyone saw us, they’d think the wrong thing.”

“We just won’t get anyone to see us,” he replied. “Can’t you hide us?”

“Look, I’m an expert at studying the concept of invisibility, but the only thing I’ve ever been able to make go invisible is Roach.”

“Roach?” Axel looked worried.

“Aria’s cat. She has three of them at her house.”

“You’ve been to Aria’s estate?” 

“What? That wasn’t the point,” I stuttered, and Axel grinned. After regaining my temporarily-lost composure, I continued, “Okay, but seriously, I can’t hide us. What do we do?”

“Madeleine’s just telling us to go.”

“Fine,” I grumbled.

Luckily, we were coming to the changing rooms from behind, so we could hide behind them if anyone saw us. Before Axel went to the front and inside Madeleine’s changing room, he emvoed her one more time. 

“Okay, we can come in,” he said, then he knocked on the door that I assumed was Madeleine’s before going inside.

Madeleine looked fine—which was the most concerning thing. 

“I get why you called us, but what do you want us to do?” I asked.

“Just… pretend you healed me.”

“The both of us?” Axel asked. 

“Yeah. Your powers are so bad that people will believe it took the power of two.”

She was right, so I couldn’t argue.

“Some people don’t know who we are,” Axel pointed out.

“They’ll know once people tell them.”

“So do I pretend to look sweaty or tired?” I wondered. “Or should I act all cool, like, ‘oh, it was nothing’?”

“Option A makes it look like you’re exaggerating. No one will believe you if you do Option B.”

“They can only believe me if I do either option,” I retorted as Axel made a bright orb of light that was probably going to leak out of the changing room doors. “You’ve never been able to use magic ever. They won’t think you’re suddenly able to do it now.”

“I guess,” Madeleine said. “Axel, what are you doing?”

“I have to make it look like we’re doing something,” he explained. “Vin, can you make a fake smaller bruise?”

“I can, but Maddie, didn’t you say that Coach Meridith is good at spotting magic?”

“We can play it off as magical leftovers from whatever you did to heal the wound.”

“Okay.” I secretly prayed that I wouldn’t accidentally create a real bruise. Thankfully, the universe heard me.

When I finished creating the fake bruise, we left the changing room. Coach Meridith was apparently walking over to the changing rooms, and when she saw us, she immediately ran over. To Madeleine’s delight, Meridith didn’t assume that any magical nor divine abilities had manifested within her.

When Coach Meridith thanked us, I felt like there was something in her eyes saying, so they aren’t useless after all, which was slightly amusing considering that we were very useless in reality.