“Mom?”

 “Yes, dear?”

 “Can plants change their behavior when being examined?”

 She looks up from crouching on the ground, planting roses under her windows. “Hmm, the Hawthorne effect. Why do you need to know that?”

 I tap on my notes with my pen. “This book says something about it but it isn't explained very well and I just find it interesting.”

 “Oh.” She sits down. “Well, it's called the Hawthorne effect. When a subject changes its behavior when it's being observed. It's not really proven, but people say that the Hawthorne effect has been shown in Hawthorns. For me, it makes sense that when plants get better soil than they're used to, more sun and just generally different conditions than normally, they change their behavior.”

 She comes over and takes a look at my notes. “You can do like a fun fact section there. Also let me take a look at it after. I just peeked in and already found countless grammar mistakes.” She points to a place. “There shouldn't be a comma here, but here.”

 I put the notes down and lean my head back, resting it on a tree trunk. “I'm so glad the week's finally over. Eef told me he almost read the book and asked when he could come over. But I have to prepare for the festival.”

 “Hmm, and let me guess. You don't want him to know you have to make money?”

 “He won't see it as just making money. He'll see it as making money by fraud.”

 She laughs. “You're so scared he'll see you as a fraud?”

 Well, you're the only one who knows that I'm a real witch. You're a witch too, and are my mother. Others don't look at it so calmly.

 But instead, I say: “No, I'm scared that everyone will see me as a fraud.”

 Don't they already?

 She raises her hand to caress me, but then remembers she has mud on it. “Sweetie, don't worry. No one's going to recognize you. You can put on something like a mask. And you'll tell Eef that you're busy tomorrow.”

 I sigh. “Yeah…you're right.” I suddenly get a notification on my phone. I look at the screen just to see it's Eef.

 Mom sees it too. She gives me a smile. “So what was that about fraud?”

 The message says: “Do you want to go to the festival tomorrow and try to make some money by lying to people?” 

I look around the place. It's six pm, but the sun is already down and stars can be seen, gazing at people underneath them.

 Eef points to a place. “What about there?”

 There's a perfect spot between all the other tents. It can be seen by everyone while not hiding people wanting to make money too. “Yeah, it's a good place.”

 We go there and Eef starts to build a tent. 

 “I'm going to write us on the board and also map the place we're at,” I say to him.

 “Okay, I'll try to deal with this big bitch.”

 He texted me yesterday, wanting to go to the festival to make some money. He said his friends are all a bunch of lazy bitches (his words, not mine) and asked if I'm in. I replied yes, just because of Mom urging me to go.

 On my way back, I hear loud laughter coming from the tent space. I turn my head to just glance at who it is, and surprisingly, it's Eefs friend group. They're building their own tent and smiling widely while talking.

 I furrow my eyebrows and go to our place. “You won't guess who I just saw.”

 Eef looks up. “Is it the Cat Lady with her cats selling weed? I saw her too. I was tempted to see if she would sell me some, but then I saw Mr Payne talking to her and thought: "She'll sell me more than weed.””

 I wonder whether I should laugh or frown, so I don't do either. “Nope. Your friend group."

 “Ah, my second guess.”

 “You're not surprised?”

 “Not really, they're just assholes, don't know how I even became friends with them. Sometimes my sunshine shines too brightly, I should try to lower it.”

 I walk over and try to help him with the tent. It has a mix of dark blue, dark purple and black on it with white stars drawn all over and a silver moon statue on top.

 “Why are you still with them then?” I ask as I nail a nail to the ground with a heavy hammer.

 “Well, I don't really have anyone to talk to except them, and you know how much I love to talk.”

 I hesitate before replying: “I'm here too.”

 He doesn't say anything, just looks up and smiles. I smile too.

 He straightens up and looks at the tent. “It's not that bad. It actually looks magical.”

 The tent trully stands out from the crowd. “Where did you even get it?” I ask.

 “Dad bought it, for god knows what reason. I think he said something about being into magic when he was younger?”

 I hum and take a look inside. It's big enough to have two people, maybe three if all of them know each other. I place a blanket on the ground and get out. “So. You're going to walk around the festival telling people about us while I'll be here waiting,” I repeat our plan.

 He nods. “Yes. I'll come here every half an hour to see how many people come. If we make a good reputation, we can get a lot more people to come tomorrow.”

 “Will you please hand me the robe?”

 “Of course.” He looks for it in the bag for a few seconds before taking out a long purple robe with colorful geometric shapes on its edges.

 “Thanks.” I put it on and button up. “How do I look?”

 Eef laughs. “Like a witch.”

 I rummage through the bag. “Hmm, not good enough. Where's the makeup?”

 He leans down to help me find it. “It should be…right here.”

 He hands me the makeup bag and I take out a mirror. “Could you hold it?”

 While I apply makeup (mostly just dark blue eye pencil under my eyes and making my face look even more pale than it already is), he holds my mirror while looking around.

 “There's the Cat Lady!” he yells out. “And Mr Payne is still with her?”

 I laugh. “I can already see how the whole school makes rumors about them dating.”

 “More like Cat Lady being his drug dealer on speed dial.”

 I tug on my eye. “Don't make me laugh or I won't look like an all-knowing witch but a bad-makeup-artist bitch. Keep the mirror still,” I add when the mirror shakes from his laughter.

 “Sorry,” he says with a smile.

 Then something changes. Even though I'm concentrating on not sticking an eye pencil into my eye, I hear his non-smiling.

 I look away from myself and see he's looking into the distance at something. I move my gaze in that direction too.

 His “friends”.

 I look back at him. He's not frowning or looking sad, but when Everest is not smiling, it counts as crying on the ground for him.

 I return back to my face. I add one more strike and then take the mirror from his hands. While taking it, I rub my finger against his. He turns to me with a bit of surprise in his eyes.

 I put the mirror back in the bag and then spin. “How do I look now?”

 He looks me up and down. “Now you look like an all-knowing witch.”

 I laugh and do another spin. The robe floats around me and I raise my hands, long sleeves smacking Eef in the face.

 He laughs too. “The robe is a bit big, but that makes it look more mysterious.”

 I straighten up and look at my phone. “We still have a few minutes until it officially starts.”

 “I should get dressed too,” says Eef.

 “Okay, you get dressed, I'll prepare for the reading.”

 He scoffs. “As if it really worked.”

 I smile before disappearing in the tent. I sit on the ground and take my tarot cards out of my pocket. “I look stupid,” I whisper under my breath and shuffle my cards, now actually thoroughly.  

 Eef peeks his head in after a while. He has makeup on too, but he did a much better job than I did. “I'm going to have a look around and also buy a map so I don't get lost.”

 “Okay, I'm gonna be here until someone comes.”

 He nods and goes away.

 I put my cards next to me and bring out my phone. I see a text from Father. It's a picture in front of the Eiffel tower at night. Behind him is his whole class, smiling monotonously into the camera.

 Underneath, he texted: “Where are you? Can I call?”

 He wouldn't even ask if he wasn't so worried he would interrupt something important that could ruin his image. 

 “Not really, I'm at the Halloween Festival.”

 But that's not a good enough reason. He facetimes me.

 Shit.

 I can feel the panic inside me building up. If Father sees that I have makeup, he will kill me through camera. 

 But I can't not pick up. I'm dead one way or another. I just have to believe that Fate isn't as cruel as he proved to be.

 I click on the green button and Father's face appears on my screen. I keep the phone close to me and I walk outside so the noise from everywhere gets to him. “Hello, Father.”

 “Lucien, why are you there?”

 “You know, friends.”

 “And what are you wearing? Why is it such a bright purple?”

 “It's just a costume. How is it going in France?”

 “It's fantastic here, my students are very pleased with the trip I came up with. Did you make some money?”

 “I…I'm working on it."

 He nods approvingly. “At least you'll start to appreciate all my hard work. I can't see your face, why do you have your camera so close to your chest?”

 “A lot of people here, the signal, the signal is…not very good…I…bye.”

 I quickly end the call and go back to the tent. I sigh with relief. Fate isn't as cruel as I thought.

 It takes a few more minutes for someone to finally come. It's a small group of friends. They're all pushing each other to go first until a girl comes inside.

 “Sit, my dear,” I say in a dreamy voice.

 She sits down with her legs crossed, her eyes drafting around the tent. “So how does this work?”

 “What do you want to know? You can ask one question for three dollars or have a Past-Present-Future reading for five.”

 “Oh, umm…I would like the one question.”

 I nod. “Okay, dear.” I raise my eyebrows and take out my hand. “Paying is beforehand.”

 “Oh, okay.”

 She searches for money in her tight jeans and fishes out three dollars. 

 I take them, take my cards in hand and close my eyes dramatically while shuffling. “Ask away, dear.”

 She takes a deep breath. Huh, she actually believes me?

 “Does…does he like me?”

 I'm not even startled by this question. I was expecting something like this. “Think of his face. Think of his name. Think of his entity. What is the first word that steps into your mind when you hear his name?”

 “Sexy,” she whispers. 

 I do everything in my power not to scoff. “Tarot cards, does this person like this person?”

 She doesn't really have to think of him, the question was enough for Fate to know who she means. Fate knew what she was going to ask. Fate knows how it's going to end.

 My fingers float above the deck before choosing the top card and turning it around. Devil.

 “What…what does that mean?”

 “Hmm…the Devil card is associated with negativity and warning. The answer to your question is influenced by negative factors and you need to be cautious about the choices you make. Long story short…I would be careful with that man, dear. He might…do something you won't like.”

 She furrows her eyebrows. “But…but he's so pretty.”

 “He may be pretty, dear, but he may not be as kind as you thought.”

 She looks down on her hands. “Oh…Can I get another one?”

 “You can come again tomorrow.”

 “Oh…okay. Thank you.”

 She stands up and gets out of the tent. I can hear her say: “Nope. Some sort of devil or something.” 

 Eef comes back with a satisfied smile on his lips. “I think I did a pretty good job.”

 I brush my hand through my hair. “You did a hell of a good job. I think we're going to get even more people tomorrow.”

 “How much money did we make?”

 “Eighty five dollars exactly.” 

 He sits next to me on the blanket, the space so small our knees touching. “Forty two for me. Forty two for you. Plus some cents.”

 He leans on his arms and tilts his head back, a small smile dancing on his lips. “A very good earning. Did you get some tea?”

 “Not really, but some girl's crush might be a rapist.”

 “Wait, really?”

 “Yeah, but I warned her.”

 “Heh, as if he really was.”

 I hum and exhale. It was exhausting today, but at least I got some lunch money for Monday and maybe Tuesday. 

 I close my eyes and let them rest. I feel Eef looking at me, but I don't open them.

 “Makeup really suits you,” he says all of a sudden.

 I smile. “So it does you.”

 We sit there for a moment before packing up the tent and walking to town. “Dad called me,” I say while waiting for my train with Eef.

 Why did I say that.

 “Oh, really? What did he want?”

  “Just to see how I'm doing. I thought I was dead. If he saw I'm wearing makeup, he'd kill me. Even through the phone.”

 “Oh no, not the conservative father.”

 “Mhm, the classic.”

 The train comes, but it takes some time for it to go away, so I stand still. “It was fun today. Tomorrow it starts at nine am, so it would be better to come sooner and take our place.”

 “Okay, we'll meet here at eight?”

 I smile. “Here at eight.”

 He groans. “I hate waking up early on weekends, but for some money…I guess it's worth it.”

 I get on the train and wave at him through the window. He waves back with a smile, his face then disappearing behind the darkness of the night.

 When I come back home, it's almost two in the morning. “How was it sweetie?”

 “It was good. We made eighty five dollars and split it.”

 I sit next to her at the table, putting down my bag. 

 “Oh, not bad. So you have some money for lunch?”

 “Yeah, we got a lot of people and tomorrow the festival’s going to be longer. We could make over three or four hundred.”

 She nods. “That's good.”

 “Yeah, but I'm going to sleep now, we're meeting at eight.”

 “Okay, sweetie, good night.”

 I stand up and head to my room. “Good night, Mom.”

 “Oh, by the way, the eye pencil really suits you.”

 I pause and smile sotfly. “Thanks,” I whisper and close the door.

Eef and I are sitting on the couch at my house, counting all the money. “I got four hundred and fifty eight.”

 “Same! Now divided by two.”

 “Two hundred and twenty nine?”

 "Don't ask me, I suck at math.” He sighs satisfiedly and leans back. We left sooner, because we wanted to also do the project, but it's still a really good earning.

 “And with adding yesterday's money, we have earned a total of two hundred and seventy one dollars.”

 Eef does a little happy dance while sitting. “I'm gonna buy myself some new canvas and paintings,” he sings.

 “Oh, you paint?”

 “Well I certainly try to.”

 “Good, you're going to draw a chicory for the project. I was planning to take one from our garden and tape it there but this seems like a better option.”

 Eef laughs. “Definitely a better option. But we can bring some to school to like, show off.”

 “Yeah, we can. Now, show me what you got in your notes. I was thinking we could also do a fun fact section there too.”