Why Should I Be a Magical Girl? I'm Overworked As It Is! — Chapter 7: Lucky Day

Carmen sat on a bench in the nearby park, close to her work. She had her boba tea in hand, and was watching a flock of pigeons scatter in the sky, admiring the clouds.

She slurped, getting a lychee-filled boba ball and popped it with her teeth. There was an explosion of deliciousness that was pure bliss. She tried to fish for another ball, slurping even louder. Her straw squeaked as she lifted and plunged it.

Around her, people were screaming. Actual, full-lunged, running-in-circles screaming. Shoes slapped the pavement, several people tripped, their shopping bags flying in the air. Car alarms shrieked in an overlapping chorus like dominoes.

None of it registered as Carmen’s problem.

She was on her thirty-minute break. Her sacred half. She’d earned this boba tea with her own money, and she intended to finish it. On her lap was an open container of bacon cheddar cheese potato wedges and a half-eaten burger.

Today was her lucky day. The perfect combo, really. The stars finally aligned in her favor.

Her team lead was notoriously lax and there was an order mix-up right before her break, which meant free food. Even better, she’d been sent out right before Marvin, her manager, was scheduled to come in, so he didn’t see.

Marvin always threatened that there were cameras, and there were. But please, as if he’d watch hours and hours of footage trying to catch minute details of people slacking off or doing things they aren’t supposed to.

Carmen called bullshit. No one loved their job that much.

When she walked out on her half, Carmen had decided to top off her lucky streak with a special drink.

So here she was, at peace because the universe decided to be nice. Nothing was going to ruin this.

The thing responsible for all the screaming reared up behind the water fountain. It was a large lumbering mass of stem and root, jagged yellow petals the size of fancy oblong dinner plates, roaring with a sound like a woodchopper eating a lawnmower.

It looked like an overgrown demonic dandelion.

The monster’s root-limb sliced the fountain’s statue in half, the top falling backwards. Some anonymous, wildly wealthy donor had commissioned it years ago as a “tribute to a beloved fictional icon,” and donated it to the city. The council, unfamiliar with the source material, had approved it without asking questions.

After they realized, it was already bolted to the concrete, permits filed, ribbon cut, with a huge social media presence. There had been a three-week war in the local paper about whether it counted as art or copyright infringement, with young people protesting its removal.

Its fate was ironic.

Carmen slurped her drink, frowning at the loss. She just knew people were going to lose their shit over that. 

She shrugged and sighed, because what can you do?

The bench rattled with the trembling earth. Carmen picked up a potato wedge, moaning when she put it in her mouth because there was extra bacon.

“Come to mama.”

She ate another. She licked her fingers when the cheese dripped, then sipped her drink to wash down the wedges.

“Carmen. Carmen, we need to save them!” Shuli was pawing at Carmen’s black pants, trying to get her attention.

“Look at all these people,” Carmen said, gesturing vaguely at the fleeing crowd with her cup. “Pick literally any of them. You have so many options in front of you. What about that guy? He’s brave.”

Carmen and Shuli watched as a fit, attractive man took a trashcan lid as a shield and ran towards the monster. He moved fluidly, like he was on a mission. When he got close, he bellowed, “Foooor the statueeee!”

He was side-swept by a leaf-arm and flung into an overflowing commercial garbage bin.

“Welp, all the more reason. If he can’t, I definitely can’t. Man, my feet are killing me from standing all day. Don’t give me that look. I told you, I’m in pain. And on my break.”

Shuli stared at Carmen with judgment. Carmen was undisturbed.

The monster roared, closer this time, and backhanded a parked sedan into a store front. It landed on its roof with a crunch.

“Wow, so that’s what you mean by magical disturbances. I thought all those videos I kept seeing were AI fakes.”

“CARMEN! PLEASE!”

A hot dog cart went next; it was sent spinning. Its colorful umbrella cartwheeled off while a dozen hot dogs rained down.

“You need to learn how to relax, Shuli. Let gooooo. It’s a nice day. Sometimes things just happen. It’s called nature.”

Carmen finished her wedges, then devoured the rest of her burger. Cheeks puffed as she chewed and admired the sky again.

“That cloud looks like a bunny.”

Shuli’s eyes went wide. “But—Carmen, it’s going to destroy your workplace!”

Carmen lazily glanced at Max’s Burgers where the drive-thru line had not moved. A man leaned out of his window, craning his neck at the chaos, and hollered something, blasting his horn repeatedly. The others in the line did the same, refusing to flee until they got their food.

“Good riddance,” Carmen muttered, finishing the last bite and licking her fingers again before picking up her drink.

“Isn’t your friend Maya working there right now?!”

Carmen spat out her boba tea.

She stared at the restaurant. At the monster. At the restaurant. Then she removed the container lid, tilted the cup into her mouth, used the straw to scoop the rest of the balls into her mouth, and gathered her trash.

“Fine,” Carmen said, standing fast. She tossed everything into the recycle bin. “Give me that pink atrocity you call a wand.”

Shuli’s ears flattened. Sheepishness crept over her face, followed by embarrassment.

Carmen did not like where this was going.

“Uh. Funny story.” Shuli cleared her throat, fidgeting. “I didn't think this would happen so soon. I left it at your apartment.”

******

In the middle of Carmen’s kitchen counter, right above the junk mail, the wand sat. It flickered weakly, glowing a faint, sulking pink as it released what looked like glitter tears.

The wail of sirens blasted over the ancient refrigerator’s sputtering hum.

It couldn’t float without Shuli’s help and knew it had been forgotten and that somewhere, Carmen was insulting it.