"But I look like me," she protested. She didn't want anyone to think that Lester had kidnapped her, of course not. (As if he could if she didn't want to go.) But she couldn't go back inside and continue with the night, to pretend everything was okay. Causing a scene of any kind, whether it was alerting her friends to her return, or Mrs. Sinclair to her absence, Sloane didn't want anyone to be upset or outraged or anything. She just wanted to go home and hug her mother and sleep in her little bed in her little Bartonburg house with Lester just across the yard. Sadie didn't have a mother, but Sloane did, and she couldn't even imagine what her family had been going through in her absence.

Her head was throbbing, but the wheels were turning and she took a reluctant half of a step back from Hatch. Maybe she could pretend to be Sadie for a little while longer. Right? Sloane wiped the tears from her eyes and concentrated. Her ability to change her appearance was down there, somewhere and she thought back to learning how to control it in the first place. First the hair, that was always easiest; shoulder length and a lighter brown than her own natural color. Next the facial features and finally the height. "I'll see if I can get Mrs. Sinclair to let me go home." Sadie suffered from chronic headaches (and Sloane thought this might continue), it was a built in excuse. Hopefully she was too caught up in the evening to protest. "Meet me by the carriages?" Merlin it felt like they were trying to sneak out past curfew or cut class to fool around on the quidditch pitch. They could walk back to Bartonburg if she could convince Mrs. Sinclair to let her go.