"Blah-de-blah, blah, blah, yada-yada wheeeeee!"

Marshana looked at me like my head was turning into a rabbit, but I was too caught up in the spell to care. I lifted my arms, pinwheeled them wildly, and then pretended I was conducting an orchestra.

Out of thin air, the knitting began to form. There were no needles or spools, the yarn just unraveled from another dimension and twisted itself into a scarf. It came out rainbow-colored.

When it was done, it flumped limply onto the table. I dragged it around my neck and showed it off to Marshana.

"Ta-da!"

She still looked like I'd eaten her cat. I offered her the scarf, but she wouldn't touch it. She backed away from it, shaking her head.

"You— you're— you're insane!"

Now I knew I was in for it. I sat back down with my scarf and leaned into it for comfort as Marshana launched right in.

"What the hell kind of incantation was that?? What happened to the hand movements, the body positioning, the wand... Seriously, 'blah blah blah'?! How can you even— How did it even work?? You literally didn't do anything! You can't possibly— That's not a spell!"

I sank deeper into my scarf and squeezed my eyes shut. I should've known that Miss By-the-Books wouldn't approve. I was just so excited to show her the spell that I didn't think. A year ago I'd followed all her lectures about hand positions and enunciation, and the best I could manage was a lumpy foot of yarn that unraveled instantly. Now I'd just made an entire scarf, and she still couldn't be happy for me.

"Are you even listening to me??"

Do I ever?

"What did you say??"

"Oops, did I say that out loud? Here look at this." I started another spell just to distract her. "Awoooo, awooooooooooo, cockadoodleDOO!"

I did a princess wave with both hands, then flung them into a gymnastics victory pose. Instantly a living bonsai sprang up from the wood of the table.

Marshana looked like she was going to faint. She stared first at the tree, then at me. Finally she whispered, "I can't even do that."

"Want me to show you? You just—"

"No! Nononononono! This isn't magic, this is— it's insanity!"

"Yes it is! I mean, no, it's not!"

"Elenus eturi pluria!

The tree burst into bright green flames that consumed it without touching the table. I made a noise as it died.

"That is magic! Not this— this 'hocus pocus' shit—"

"I didn't even say 'hocus pocus'! I just go with what feels right—"

"There are no feelings in magic! It's about technique!"

"Oh your 'techniques' never work anyway!"

"They work for me!"

"Yeah, for you!"

"And every other witch in the history of the universe!"

"Except me! Argle blargle fnargle!"

"What—"

I made aggressive jazz hands and Marshana's mouth snapped shut. She clawed at her face, screeching through her closed lips.

"Mm mm mm!"

"No! I won't let you go until you apologize!"

"Mmmmm!"

I crossed my arms and stared her down. She swore at me, then scolded me, then tried to cast some spells, then went back to swearing. Some of it was hard to make out, but I got the idea.

She still refused to apologize, so I started humming along to her swearing. When she mm-ed high, I went low. When she m-m-m-ed fast, I held my note.

I could tell when she felt the spell take hold. Her mms got high-pitched and frantic, which made the spell go even faster. It burst out of her at the same time that I released her lips.

"TICK TOCK FLIP FLOP!"

Marshana clamped her hands over her mouth, looking like she'd just stepped on an elephant's turd. The motion completed the spell, and her skirt started twirling on its own. It spun faster and higher as she tried in vain to hold it down, until it was spinning upside-down and covering her face. Then it abruptly stopped and flopped back into place, now dyed a violent shade of pink.

I waited for the yelling to start, but it never did. Marshana just stared at her pink skirt like it had turned into a duck and started quacking. I distinctly saw her mouth the words "tick tock flip flop."

Finally, she straightened up and declared, "Tiriana ilia eribus." Her skirt reverted to a dull crimson without so much as a flourish. Smoothing it out matter-of-factly, she spun on her heels and marched out the door.

As the last flash of crimson disappeared around the corner, I muttered some swear words and snapped my fingers in a Z formation. Somewhere down the hall, Marshana squawked.