It had started as a damned joke.

Even in her previous incarnation- before she'd become a "witch"- she'd spent time focusing herself in nature. It helped with her anxiety. So on the second day at Scripps College, she'd started her morning meditating in a grove of pine trees. When a busybody asked what she was doing, she rolled her eyes and said "communing with the trees."

Girls had come from all around the country to go to Scripps. A bunch of eighteen year olds meeting each other for the first time was stressful, trying to find new friends, trying to find who to avoid. They had pounced on the opportunity to make someone else the center of attention, and the girl who had become Viridia had suffered for it.

By lunch, word was that she'd been "communing with the spirits of the trees."

By dinner, she'd been "doing some sort of pagan ritual."

And she'd been a witch ever since. 

The girl who had become Viridia had tried to deny it, of course. But have you ever tried denying that you're a weirdo? It almost always results in you looking more like a weirdo. 

Her first year had been so lonely that the girl who had become Viridia cried when her parents dropped her off for the spring semester. They'd believed her when she said it was because she'd miss them.

Every day she crept around silently, learning how to be invisible: how to move silently, how to manipulate others' line of sight, and how to hide. 

They finally broke her during the spring equinox. So many questions about what ritual she'd do, who she'd curse. The girl who would become Viridia just ignored them like she always did. She was just trying to fucking sleep. 

Some people break and everyone within a mile hears their screams. The girl who would become Viridia broke in silence, staring up at the ceiling in her dorm room and trying to ignore the laughter outside her window.

They wanted a witch- and they got one.

Viridia rose from her bed and walked outside, pointing at the three girls who'd called for her, laughed at her, mocked her. Then she turned around and walked away, leaving her confused tormentors behind her.

Within the next week, the three of them broke out in terrible rashes. When their hair started falling out, all three dropped out.

The whispers about Viridia continued, but the laughter stopped.

Witchcraft, they said. And Viridia, who'd snuck into their dorms and poisoned their shampoos and soaps, didn't bother to correct them.

Soon, they started to seek her out.

Viridia, help me pass my chemistry test.

A ritual- a summoning. (An easily picked lock on a teacher's desk.)

Viridia, how can I help this man fall in love with me?

A love potion. (Strawberry and pineapple juice, combined with advice to put your hands between his legs.)

Viridia, can you get in touch with my dead grandmother? 

A seance. (A book on cold reading, combined with lots of warm fuzzy feelings to help a young woman feel loved.)

Soon, she'd embraced the green dress and the witch's hat. The professors thought she was having a laugh, but the students knew better. 

During her second year, she'd gotten a black cat and started growing her own herbs. Her new dorm was near the edge of the campus, exactly where she wanted it. And after a couple days, her assigned roommate had practically fled for her life.

Everything was going perfectly- until she got involved with the damned mafia.