Free Magic University Book One: The Siren and the Sword by Cecilia Tan Page B

Square. They emerged on the edge of the MIT campus and then walked several blocks, passing office towers for biotech and research companies until they came to a squat little brick warehouse.
    “The Garment District?” Kyle read off the sign, hand-painted on the brick.
    Alex led Kyle through a narrow door into the store.
    Kyle stopped and took in the view a few steps into the place. The ground floor had a costume shop off to one side, and what looked like the world’s largest laundry pile on the other. Several people, mostly women, were climbing carefully through the pile, examining the clothes one piece at a time.
    Alex shrugged in that direction. “They sell all that stuff by the pound. Dollar-fifty a pound, I think? Upstairs is the biggest secondhand clothing store I’ve ever seen. But this is what we want.” He led Kyle into the costume area. One whole wall section was covered with wigs. Several fancy costumes hung from hangers on pegs: a pirate, a space alien, a Kiss-like rock-and-roll outfit.
    “If you want to match, you could always go as The Joker or something,” Kyle suggested as they began to look through a book of costumes on the counter.
    “Ha, ha, very funny,” Alex said.
    “Is something wrong?” Kyle had never heard Alex quite so moody.
    “Oh just, you know, no one believes I take anything seriously, so, of course, The Joker.” He flipped the pages disinterestedly.
    “That isn’t what I meant at all.” Kyle frowned. “But you
do
give the impression that you don’t take anything seriously, you know.”
    “I know.” Alex fell silent, closing the book and moving to a rack to browse through some outfits.
    Kyle tagged along. He had already gotten his costume—a cheap-ass drugstore model, but it would do. The mask was the important thing, he figured.
    He’d also tried writing a poem for Jess. He imagined they would get hot and thirsty from dancing, and they would take a break, walking away from the noise and energy of the dance floor into somewhere cool and quiet and shadowed, and then he would recite his poem, words that would finally make clear to her how he truly felt. Her dream would come true, and so would his. Happily ever after.
    Except that every poem he’d tried to write this week had been utter drivel.
    Maybe I should just find one of Longfellow’s...?
But reciting the work of another, even a vaunted ancestor, wasn’t the same.
Inspiration will come. It will.
    He tried again with Alex. “There are plenty of other heroes or villains to choose from, you know.”
    “Yeah, I know.”
    “The Riddler? Mr. Freeze? Spiderman?”
    “I don’t want a costume that hides my face and hair.”
    “Okay, Superman? Um, Wonder Woman?”
    Alex let out a laugh. “Cross-dressing is a time-honored tradition for this holiday, after all...and let me tell you, I look great in fishnet stockings.”
    “Ugh, I’m not sure I needed that image in my head.”
    Alex pulled out something on a hanger. “Hmm. Maybe I could pull off a pirate. Not the fancy kind like Captain Morgan or something, but more...yeah. I could put a hoop in my ear and borrow a parrot.” Kyle followed Alex up to the second floor, where Alex proceeded to spend the next hour hunting out the perfect shirt, breeches, headscarf, sash belt, and so on from the racks and rack and racks of clothing on display there. Even better, when he was done, he paid under $20 for his acquisitions. Kyle was amazed.
    “Finding a bargain...finding just about anything, is one of my aptitudes,” Alex explained when they were on their way down the stairs. When they reached the street, Kyle turned to the right back toward the train, but Alex said, “You hungry? My aptitude says there’s something delicious this direction.” He pointed the opposite way.
    “Um, sure.”
    They walked further up the street, where it turned residential, trees lining the curbs in front of wooden houses built in Victorian times.
    “So are you being serious?” Kyle pressed, as