“Come on, Stella! Quick! Quick!”

“Where are we going?”

“Quick! I said quick! Get your clothes on. You can eat when we get there.”

“Where?”

“Good gods, girl, I thought you were psychic. If you want to know so bad then use your damn powers, but do it while you are getting ready. Hurry up!”

“Yes, mum.”

Stella did not like to be rushed. Visions were difficult to focus on when everything around her was moving so fast. Where and when got mixed up so easily. She tried to steal a moment but her heartbeat drowned out her thoughts and cut her off from her own mind. Where? When? Why?

Stella didn’t get a chance to look ahead properly until she was seated in the car. And then she knew. Lots of food. People dressed in black. A casket? No. Wait. That wasn’t right. When was that? She tried again. She used her deeper mind, just in case her mum was listening in. With her shallow mind she looked out the window and counted cows.

Black. White. Ms Rivera was in black. The others were in white, like little swans. Except Greta, who was wearing blue.

“Mum, was I supposed to bring my leotard?”

“Don’t be silly, girl. The audition’s not until tomorrow.”

Stella glanced into the backseat. The apple pie was there. Recently grabbed from the freezer and microwaved on the way out the door this morning.

She waited as her mum pulled up at the local grocery store, ran inside, and came back out a few minutes later with another apple pie, two packs of brownies, a bag of freshly baked cookies, and some lamingtons. Her mum carefully tucked the receipt inside her handbag.

Oh! The Bake sale! That’s what it was for. That’s where they were going. The bake sale to raise money for the show. Except, that didn’t make sense either.

“Mum? I thought we weren’t doing the bake sale?”

“That was when it was on next weekend. Molly phoned last Sunday and said it had been brought forward a week.”

That didn’t make sense to Stella either but she didn’t argue.

As they drove across the little country bridge on their way into town, Stella watched with confusion as her mum stopped the car, got out, and threw the newly bought apple pie, without its packaging, right off the bridge and into the river below.

The bake sale was being held in the auditorium next to the theatre and just downstairs from the ballet studio. After her mum exchanged pleasantries with some of the other parents, they were shown to their table. In the car her mum had removed the baked goods from their packaging and neatly arranged them on plates. Now, they looked home baked, but only the apple pie actually was, and a week old at that.

Stella wasn’t sure what was happening. Her mum had been in an extra good mood all week while her dad had hardly been home, although the latter wasn’t unusual. Her dad was rarely home. They were still living at grandma’s but every night her dad would promise, “It won’t be long now,” which was always followed by a loud sigh from grandma and a roll of the eyes from mum. But Stella knew he was right. She could see herself back in her own bed with the big white teddy bear that sat in the corner and which she wasn’t allowed to touch least she got its fur all dirty. She couldn’t quite pinpoint when, which meant it probably depended on something she couldn’t see or something she was yet to do or not do, but she knew it was coming. Something would take them home.

She watched as her mum put on fake smiles and talked about everything and nothing with all the people who came to their stall, but for some reason none of them wanted to buy a slice of the apple pie. At least not until, Stella’s classmate, Brittany Stevens walked by with her mum. Brittany S, as the teacher called her, was everyone’s darling, with red hair, green eyes, the perfect smattering of freckles, and the power to talk to animals. Her power was so well controlled that last year in her audition she’d had her mum release two blue birds which she’d trained to fly in sync around her as she danced. Stella was deeply jealous of her. To make it even worse, both Brittany and her mum were the nicest people you ever met.

“Ooooh! Look!” Brittany cried and tugged at her mum’s sleeve. “Can I please get some apple pie?”

The apple pie turned out to be surprisingly popular with the girls in Stella’s class, almost as if some small goblin had slipped in through their window the night before and whispered in their ears as they slept. Or perhaps it hadn’t been while they had slept at all.

After a little while, Stella started to get an inkling as to what her mum was doing, but she had no way to be sure. And grandma had always said it wasn’t nice to assume bad things about people unless you were certain. And it seemed that while many of her classmates went for the apple pie, they also all bought marshmallow cookies from the next stall over.

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Something in Stella’s stomach didn’t sit right, but it could just have been that she hadn’t had breakfast yet. She longed to take something from the table. The apple pie looked so nice but she dare not ask her mum for fear she might ruin her good mood. She could hear the words already.

“Not for you, Stella.”

Eventually she could bear it no longer. She went for a walk. Away from her mum, she didn’t have to worry so much about what she thought. She could let both her minds wander as she pleased. She walked, and as she walked her mind fanned out, it split in two. Each version of Stella stepped down a different path.

One version took the spiral staircase into the back of the theatre. From up above she looked down past the many rows of red velvet chairs toward the stage. The stage was not as bare as she had expected, but was covered in cobwebs, and a low obscuring mist. In the middle of the stage sat a dark shiny casket.

“Arghhhh.” Someone leaped down past her, a dark cape fluttering out behind.

As Stella looked around the room, she realised that the theatre was not empty. Each seat was filled with a different person. Further down the aisle, the boy who had flown past in the cape, now took a seat next to his family, ready to watch the show.

From nearby, one woman murmured to another, “It’s a little insensitive them doing this show don’t you think? I’d have given it a pass but I haven’t missed one in over ten years. Well, I suppose the witches do what they want.”

Stella caught a glimpse of the woman’s violet eyes; a colour that indicated she was a vampire.

A boy stepped out onto centre stage, as the lights dimmed, and announced that the show was about to start.

Stella left the theatre. A poster on the wall outside displayed a chalk-faced man with fangs. No violet eyes though. This was a story stolen from human history not long after the world had been split. Below the picture of the man, the poster announced,

‘Dracula. Five nights! This week only! Tickets limited!”

Stella’s other mind found a different staircase, the one that led to the ballet studio. She took a step inside and found herself surrounded by green goblins. Upon closer inspection however, she saw that their ears were a normal length and their faces were all the same. In fact, it was her own face that stared back at her from every mirror that hung on the wall. She tilted her chin, up, down, left, right. The green monsters in the mirror did the same. She touched her hair, no longer blonde, but a dark black, striking as night. It came away in her hands. Dark threads hung from her fingertips.

She dropped the wig onto the floor and approached the nearest mirror. She studied her face. It was paint, dark green paint, or makeup? She looked down at her hands and found that they too were green. She tried to scratch it off, but it had stained her skin.

“Stella!”

She whirled to find her mum standing there in the doorway, hands on her hips, eyes flashing angrily.

“Come on!”

Stella turned back once more to her reflection but the paint was gone, only the goblin remained.

“Stella!”

“Yes, mum.” Stella trotted after her.

The next morning was much the same, a rush to get ready, although not quite so much as the day before. It was the day of the audition. Stella stood nervously by the door while here mum tried to find her red shoes.

Grandma ruffled Stella’s hair gently. “Good luck with your audition, my dear. I’m sure you’ll do just fine.”

Stella tried to duck down, out of reach, worried grandma was going to mess up her hair.

“What are you looking for?” Grandma asked Mum.

“Her red character shoes.”

“Oh, I put them in the cupboard.”

Before they hopped into the car, Stella’s mum fixed her daughter’s hair for the thousandth time that morning.

“That old witch is always getting in the way.”

The studio was not as packed with people as Stella would have expected. As she took her place in line just behind Greta and Brittany V, she whispered to them, “Where is everybody?”

Greta, who loved to gossip, widened her eyes and leaned in conspiratorially. Today her eyes were a light shade of blue. On other days they were green or brown or even a vibrant pink, depending on what colour best matched her outfit.

“I heard mamma talking on the phone and saying they all got sick after the bake sale yesterday. One girl even ended up in hospital.”

“Are they all right?” Stella asked.

Greta shrugged. “I dunno.” She smiled. “But it means less competition for us today.” She turned back to face the dance floor and squared her shoulders waiting for her turn.

Stella danced as best she could. The footsteps were all correct, perfect, not a single one out of place, but her heart wasn’t really in it, and she doubted she had danced as Ms. Rivera had really wanted her to. Her mum seemed satisfied with her performance at least as she said nothing when Stella returned to her seat. She simply watched the rest of the dances with a careful eye. Finally the judges gathered together to deliberate.

“Well, I think that went alright,” her mum told her. “They’re sure to pick you for Glinda now.”

But Stella wasn’t so sure, and she watched with baited breath as across the room, Greta spun, magically lengthening her blue dress as she did so, and playfully showing off her brand newly shifted blonde curls to a friend.

The judges returned. Ms. Rivera listened to them, nodded a little and then took the floor. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, that was some lovely dancing—”

Beside her, Stella heard her mum quietly scoff.

"—But of course, there are only so many main parts. My heart goes out to those who could not be here today due to unfortunate illness, but rules are rules and with the time frames for the show we must make our selection today. Those who are away may still audition for the smaller and understudy roles later in the week, but for our main characters training begins tomorrow. So without further ado I would like to announce our two leads. The role of Elephaba Thropp goes to Stella Wolfe and the role of Glinda Upland goes to Greta Thorngood.”

Stella looked up in surprise. She stopped listening as Ms. Rivera called out assignments for other key parts. That had been her name they had called. She was one of the leads! She glanced at her mum but instead of a smile the woman wore a frown.

“Hurumph!” Her mum snorted as she dragged Stella roughly toward the car after the audition was all over. “They just gave her that part because of the fancy dress up and her shoddy shapeshifting.” She stopped as they reached the car. “Still, I suppose Elephaba’s not bad. At least it’s a main part, even if the skin colour is unflattering.” She stopped and looked Stella up and down. “Maybe we can make it work. You’re going to be the best darn Elephaba, even if I have to kill for it.”