Chapter 11: 11

After that they set up a group chat and a regular Zoom meeting, so they could talk superpowers and old times without Astra's powers getting in the way of Tori forming sentences.

"Did you ever track down any of the other girls from the show?" Tori asked, blurry because of her poor connection.

"Pretty much everyone," Maxine said. "Some of the one episode girls and the girls who were only at the rehearsals were hard to trace, mostly because I couldn't remember a lot of their names. And of us main four, obviously I'm in touch with Astra—"

In a square of the screen Astra smirked over her frappucino.

"—And Jill is the CEO of a company in the finance industry and an angel investor, so she doesn't return my phone calls."

"I think she just finds you annoying," Astra said.

"What is she like now?" Tori asked. "I remember her being really strong and fierce and standing up for us when the producers got mean."

"She has a really big fancy apartment," Astra said. "Vogue Living did an article about it a while back."

"Jill wears fancy outfits and says mean things. She's pretty much nothing like she was," Maxine said.

Astra shrugged. "I think she's basically the same."

Tori looked down at her hands, and with a soft little voice, said, "I guess fancy outfits don't make up for a bad personality. It's probably better to be plain but nice."

"You can be nice and fancy. Do you want to go shopping?" Maxine said.

*

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The day was bright, the city crowded, and every time they walked past a window with an outfit in blaring, lurid colours awkwardly hanging on a mannequin, Tori acted embarrassed by how much she liked it. Never more so than at this moment, as she looked at a bright pink and green leopard print coat with stars in her eyes and said, "Oh, it... it's so tacky, it's... definitely terrible."

"If you like it, try it on," Maxine said.

"Oh, I couldn't. I'm sure it's so expensive."

"Whatever, I have money."

Tori scratched at the back of her neck. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to try it on. Wouldn't it be funny? It will look terrible and we'll both laugh."

"Sure."

Of course they didn't laugh once Maxine manoeuvred Tori to one of the mirrors and waited while she tried the coat on. It was a ridiculous, outrageous thing, and Maxine could see Tori falling more and more in love with it as she looked at it in the mirror, hands gently stroking the fluffy collar.

"It's so beautiful," Tori said. "I almost can't bear it."

"Then I'll buy it and you can look at it every day."

There was some tedious back and forth before Maxine finally talked Tori into letting her pay for it, steering her to the nearest checkout counter.

"It's so frivolous. I love it," Tori said.

As Maxine slapped her credit card down on the counter, she thought she saw her boss in the distance in a trench coat and bucket hat, but when she blinked it was a stranger in that outfit. Awkward to be so used to thinking of work that she couldn't escape thinking about it even there. She turned to look at the joy in Tori's eyes instead, and tried to put it out of her mind.

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