Morana

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All too sudden the spinning stopped. I lost my balance and was about to fall. But before I could, two arms wrapped around me, steadied me, and pulled me to Alejo's chest.

"You alright?" he asked and I could hear the worry.

I closed my eyes and nodded. Held onto him. The truth was that I wasn't alright. I felt like if I opened my mouth, I would throw up.

"I puked the first time," Alejo said, as if he had read my mind. "Most do, so it's nothing embarrassing if you need to."

I shook my head and leaned it against his shoulder. The last thing I wanted was to puke. Not because it would be embarrassing in itself, but because it would be embarrassing to do it in front of Alejo. I didn't want him to see me do something that disgusting.

He held me steady for a few minutes. Until I felt that everything had stopped spinning and then some more because it was just comfortable being held by him. His shoulders really were in a perfect height for me to lean on, and his arms felt strong and protective around me. When had someone ever protected me?

When I felt I couldn't stay like that any longer, I pulled away. He placed a hand on my cheek and looked over my face, seemingly searching for something.

"Feeling better?" he asked and stroked under my eye with his thumb.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Good." He gave me a weak smile and then moved so he stood beside me. He stretched out his arm in a sweeping motion. "Then welcome to the east coast witches' bank."

I looked at the house in front of me and my jaw dropped. I had spent some of the previous evening imagining what it would look like, and Harry Potter and Gringotts had been my inspiration. Well, it was safe to say that it looked nothing like Gringotts.

Apart from the fact that it stood in the middle of nowhere, it looked like any office building. A gray five-story tall building with large windows. There was nothing unusual about it at all.

"Not what you expected?" Alejo smirked at me.

"It's... ordinary," I said.

He laughed and took my hand. "Did you expect a medieval castle or something?" he asked as he pulled me towards the entrance.

I just shot him an annoyed look as an answer, which made him laugh a bit more.

As we walked in, I saw that the inside looked as ordinary as the outside. It could have been any bank. Even the people in there looked normal. That maybe wasn't that weird and something I should have expected. Alejo didn't exactly dress in robes or wore a witch's hat, but I had anyway expected something else than the office clothes everyone working there wore.

There were nine people in total in there, apart from me and Alejo. Three women stood behind counters. It was only possible to see their upper bodies, but they all had black suit jackets over white blouses. The six customers all wore normal, everyday clothes. Nothing which would make them stand out if they walked down the street.

Alejo took a queue number, just like you would in a normal bank, and we sat down to wait. One of the people being served finished and two young women walked up next.

"We're here to open up an account for Melissa here. She's finally old enough for her own account," one of the two gushed and looked at the other with pride.

"Stop it, Mom. You're embarrassing me," the other said and my jaw fell again.

At my side, Alejo sniggered.

After having thought about it for a moment, I realized it made sense. Yes, the two women looked to be the same age and far from a mother and daughter pair. But I looked to be in my early twenties but was far from it, same with Alejo. So for all I knew, the mother was maybe a hundred years old.

We waited for around half an hour until finally it was our turn. The woman behind the counter we went to looked prideful in a way which reminded me of high school cheerleaders. She looked straight at me as we approached.

"What can I help you with today?" she asked me in a voice so sweet not even bees would touch it.

I instinctively turned to Alejo.

"She needs help with all procedures related to living among humans," he answered her.

The woman gave Alejo a quick glance, and it almost looked as if she'd smelled something nasty during that short moment. But when she turned back to me, she looked as fake polite as before.

"So ID that changes years and makes everyone close to it believe that age?" she asked.

"Ehm, I guess," I answered and threw a quick glance at Alejo, who nodded.

"And would you like to open up a bank account with us as well?" she continued, and I turned to Alejo again.

"That's just as well," he told me.

"Oh, okay, alright," I nodded to the woman.

"Do you need any education or job experience included?" the woman asked next, and I felt more and more confused by each question. Once again, I turned to Alejo, but this time I saw the woman frown deeply in the corner of my eye.

"They can make it so that college degrees and such are transferred to new degrees so you can use them when applying for jobs and similar," he explained.

"Oh, well, I do have one. But it's not like I have any use for it right now."

"Then you might as well wait with that. We can always come back again if you would change your mind," he smiled at me and I nodded.

I turned back to the woman, and she now looked at me with narrowed eyes and seemed to be... judging me almost.

"No need for that," I answered the question she had posed and tried to not care about the attitude, but it made me uncomfortable. Mainly because I had a guess about why it was there based on what Alejo had told me the day before and it was ridiculous.

Of course I would rely on Alejo in this. He knew so much more than me and had experience with it. But by the woman's reactions, she disagreed. The fact that Alejo was male alone seemed to be enough to disqualify him from giving advice and, in turn, she seemed to think me stupid for listening to him.

It made me uncomfortable, but more than that, it made me angry the more I thought about it. It was utterly ridiculous.

"What age and such do you want put on it?" she asked next and took out some forms.

"It's honestly better if you just address Alejo here directly," I raised my chin and said. "He knows these types of things so much better than me. Just easier instead of the weird three-way conversation."

She froze and wrinkled her nose before slowly turning her head to Alejo. It almost looked like something pushed against her head, considering how slowly it went.

"Let's go with twenty-five," he said to her and then turned to me. "Then you're the same age as me."

He winked, and I smiled back.

They exchanged a few more questions about details, I only needed to talk to give address and name and such. Then the woman piled the forms all together and looked it over before turning to me.

"It'll take us about a week. The spells will then be able to last for about fifty to a hundred years, depending on usage. The cost will be around ten. You have to pay half now and the other half you pay when you collect."

"Ten? Ten what?" I asked and looked between them.

"Ten thousand," she clarified and my jaw dropped.

"Dollars!?" I exclaimed loudly enough for everyone around to turn and look at me.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Is there a problem?"

Is there not? I wanted to say, but I held back. Who in their right mind actually had ten thousand dollars to use just like that? I had imagined it would cost quite some, but not that much quite some. To be able to buy new fake IDs when I moved city, I had some savings. But it wasn't close to that.

"Ehm, I just didn't realize it would cost quite so much," I admitted and tried to give her an apologetic smile. "Can you keep the papers of what we filled out, but wait with actually processing it? So I can come back later with the money."

She rolled her eyes. Seemed like I had made her list of top stupid customers. I could easily imagine how she would complain about me to her colleagues during the lunch break.