Prologue

College is done, and with said end came the obligation to finally completely become an adult and move on with your life. What they don't tell you, however, is that it's never that simple. Just because college ended, doesn't mean you're ready, like being done with school to go into college didn't mean you really knew what you wanted.

The big secret of life is that we're all winging it and the only real objective here and now, is to make choices on how to start on the path to really be a grown up. Eventually. When you're thirty or something.

On this path of life you figure out what that means by yourself, but presenting examples of what it means for other people can always help.

For some it was looking for a job in their field; For others, it was getting any job they could to get their footing and get money to build something later; For yet another group, that may or may not have intersected with the previous ones, but it was also going back into the fold and having to live with their parents for sometime.

Of course, here we are talking about girls with magical powers, and sometimes, for them, and by them I mean Geraldine Fern, it meant getting help offered by their old headmistress to deal with a trauma of possession she was trying in vain to ignore for a few years now.

For Mildred and Ethel, it was moving cities and abandoning the apartment they shared for most of their college life to get a new one in London again, one belonging to the Hallows, which caused Mildred to ask a few questions about exactly how much property that family owned. (Ethel laughed, but didn't respond.)

The middle Hallow had outstanding marks in college and got job offerings from pretty much the very moment a diploma touched her hand. Due, in part, to her making the right connections with the right teachers, her name and the fact that her paternal aunt, Callisto Bluebell, was a famous and respected lawyer also helped, as a result many job offerings came her way and while none of those enticed her as much as the idea to work directly for the Council, for now, working for "Spellbinder & Spellbinder" would have to do.

Meanwhile, Mildred had gotten a job while still at college; in the "Mim Museum of Magical Arts & Music" where she worked as an intern for her last two years in college and in the year after it, but recently had set her mind on getting another job, one far more significant for her, in a more familiar place.

Not much else changed; Ursula Hallow still seemed to have it in for Mildred, quite obviously waiting with bated breath for the moment when Ethel would share the news they had broken up something that, despite the Hallow Matriarch's hopes, probably wouldn't happen so soon.

Fortunately, Esme and Sybil seemed to be very happy to have Mildred as an unofficial part of their family. After all, Sybil had always counted on Millie and now Esme found herself knowing what the Hubble magic felt like, since the incident with the Cackle's Founding Stone, since it was the powers of the twelve sacrificed Hubble generations and their founder that ran through her veins, which lead her to feel a somewhat deeper connection to her unofficial little sister.

Ulisses Hallow was rather uncommitted despite his general instinct to stand by his wife's desires and demands. He didn't want to admit, but a part of him wanted to like Mildred, he just knew he couldn't show or say it while Ursula refused to see the girl's qualities for herself. So he took a step back and mostly let his protective father tendencies speak for themselves, without showing like or dislike for the one who was, believe or not, the head of the Hubble clan.

That title was something that Mildred couldn't believe belonged to her, but it was the Code after all, she was the eldest magical member of her family, which put her in a position of power in the eyes of the Council… And no one else's. In fact, it resulted in some relentless teasing from her aunt Mo, mother and grandma, all of who received the knowledge of their family's witchy past with ambivalence and amusement.

Hattie and Mildred however, found themselves caring a lot more, the younger girl spending at least part of her previous summer helping her oldest cousin in her search for their family legacy and after tracking and after searching around in vain for years, jumping from clue to clue, Mildred had, with some help from friends, recently gotten a possible location for the Hubble grimoire. A road trip was coming soon…

For Maud and Enid it meant goodbye… Well not forever, they were still friends and college had certainly gotten them closer than they've ever been, but their paths seemed to diverge with Maud seeking a job that would make her degree in Spell Science worth her time and with Enid seeking, well, according to her, 'herself', which she then explained as:

"I have no idea, but I'll wing it and I'll be fine." She then gave a thumbs up and Maud rolled her eyes and moved back with her parents right after.

Actually, there was a hug in between those two things, but yeah, she moved back with her parents.

Then, two months later she was living with Enid again, because while Gordon and Maeve were loving and sweet, great parents really, going from having your independence and losing it is always hard.

For Mona Hallow and Henrietta Hubble, it meant having to start worrying about college actually. Their last year at Cackles was about to start in a couple of months or so and the two friends found themselves wanting different things… Very different things, and separation, at the end that school year, seemed painfully inevitable.

For Ada Cackle it meant getting a very interesting resume from a very interesting candidate for the position of art teacher. One whose name bought a smile to her lips and made her almost want to call Hecate in that very moment to talk to her about it, just to see her face.

For Esmeralda Hallow, who was at this point already well into the road of establishing herself in her field, regardless of her name, it was a bit more of a complex matter. She was already on the next step - marriage; the union between two people who loved and looked after each other. Or so it was for her, since she was lucky; many Hallows before her had to make their choice based on politics and amalgamation of power and fortunes, a destiny that so far two, and now hopefully with Esme, three, consecutive generations would avoid.

She and Erik had discussed the matter a few times, and then proposed mutually. The fact they both decided to bring the rings and say the same words in the same place working as another sign that they were meant to be.

It also came the time to organize the ceremony, a duty usually divided between the two women closest to the bride; The Witch of Honor and the Mother which, in this case, meant that Esmeralda had realized she would have Ethel and her mother in charge of making her wedding ceremony and party work.

This could end badly. Over the years, Ethel and Ursula's relationship, after a promising possibility of being amended, only seemed to fray more and more and having them together didn't always go well. Forcing them to work together couldn't possibly be good and since Ursula would never stop being her mother, she didn't have much of a choice aside from choosing another Witch of Honor, but… Esme wanted Ethel, she wanted her sister to be by her side that moment, it felt right, it was how it was supposed to be.

That's how it should be.

Plus, it's not like Erik and her couldn't elope.

Seriously though, how bad could it be?

(tbc)