In the initial draft of Enchanted, Inc., this was the adventure Katie had on a night out with her friends. Katie makes an offhand remark about having to kiss frogs that her friends take literally, and then they go on with their night out. But when my agent read the manuscript, she pointed out the mention about kissing frogs to find a prince (as in this excerpt) and suggested I make it literal. That ended up creating an entirely new twist to the book, as well as some new characters. But this is what was there first...

I very quickly learned that when Ari asks if I’m up for a good time, I should just call it a night unless I am entirely committed to an adventure. Next thing I knew, I found myself in a cab heading toward the Upper East Side. I didn’t even know there was anything cool up there. At least, Gemma and Marcia never scheduled outings above Twenty-Third -- maybe Twenty-Fifth, as long as it was in Chelsea.

But apparently the magical world had an entirely different set of locations, for even Gemma would approve of the club Ari took us to. It seemed to be the major hang-out for magical folk. The place was crawling with elves, fairies and sprites. I even spotted a gnome or two. I assumed that all the human-looking folk were wizards and the like.

Music played at an ear-shattering level, but the place remained cool and comfortable in spite of the throng of sweaty bodies --something I was sure could only be achieved with magic. I doubted the various flashing colored lights were plugged into a wall socket. The whole thing was quite surreal, like something out of a dream. I imagined I’d have a hard time deciding if the whole experience had been real or a dream when I woke up the next morning.

We’d barely made it through the door before a sprite asked me to dance. Well, asked probably wasn’t quite the right word. More like dragged me bodily to the floor without saying anything or giving me much of a choice. I could see from dancing with him what Ari had meant about wanting a sturdier man. I felt like I’d snap him in two if I gave him a good hug.

I escaped as soon as the song ended -- or rather, when that song melted into the next one. Isabel met me at the edge of the dance floor with a drink. I couldn’t tell what it was under the shifting lights, but it was liquid, which was about all that mattered to me at that point. It fizzed a little as it went down my throat, and it tasted like I imagined a rainbow would if a rainbow were something you could taste.

Or maybe all the cosmopolitans and margaritas were catching up with me. I wasn’t much of a drinker, so this counted as a major blow-out for me.

“Having fun?” Isabel shouted at me.

“Yeah. I guess so,” I shouted back.

An elf shimmied his way over to us and held his hand out to me. I shook my head, then glanced toward Isabel, hoping he’d get the hint. He shrugged and held his hand out to her. Her face lit up as she took his hand. He was nearly as tall as she was, but it still would have taken two of him to make one of her. While they danced, I looked around for Ari and Trix, finally finding them up near the rafters in an aerial groove session with a group of sprites. That looked like fun, dancing above the ground like that.

The day -- and maybe the whole week -- suddenly caught up with me, and I leaned against the wall, trying to make myself invisible so no one else would ask me to dance. I felt dizzy and lightheaded, and I just wanted to go home.

Isabel came dancing back to me, her face flushed and happy looking. “Mmm, he was something else,” she said. “I think Trix should be careful about judging all elves by one jerk.”

“Probably so,” I agreed. “Look, I’m fading fast, and I don’t want to slow y’all down. I think I’ll head out now. Thanks so much for inviting me. I had a great time.”

“Can you get home okay from here? I can go with you.”

I shook my head, then quickly regretted it as the motion threw my equilibrium off. “Don’t worry about it. I can get a bus. The M15 goes right by here.”

She gave me a quick hug that nearly choked the breath out of me. “Take care. I’ll see you Monday.”

“Yeah, see you Monday.”

The streets of New York City were quiet in contrast to the din inside the club. My eardrums continued to throb for a few minutes. I was also drunker than I’d realized, truly wobbly. It was a good thing I wasn’t driving because I doubted I could even find a straight line, never mind walking one.

I walked as directly as I could to the nearest corner so I could get my bearings. I was somewhere in the eighties -- I couldn’t focus well enough to be sure -- at First Avenue, and I needed to get to Second Avenue to catch the bus that would get me home. It probably would have been wisest to get a cab, but there wasn’t one in sight and I wasn’t sure I had enough cash on me, not after the meal and drinks. Hoping I was heading in the right direction, I took off toward the next crosstown intersection.

And then I did a double-take. I must have been much drunker than I thought, for there was a gargoyle in a doorman’s uniform standing on the sidewalk in front of a building entrance. I was just trying to decide what part of this was a hallucination when he saw me and said, “Hey, kiddo, what are you doing up in this part of town?”

“Sam? What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I take on the occasional moonlighting job. Keeps me busy, brings in a little extra cash.”

“Do they know you’re a ...?”

“Carved-stone American? Nope. You wouldn’t believe the masking spell I’ve got. They think I’m a big, burly bouncer sort who makes this uniform look macho. Now, what are you doing out alone at this time of night, sweetheart?”

“I went out with some of the girls.”

“Ah, Ari must have dragged you to that joint she likes. Too froo-froo for my taste. And aren’t you a few sheets to the wind?”

“I think maybe a little.”

He frowned at me. “That’s not a wise idea in this city at any time, let alone when there’s some extra nastiness out there.”

“I’m on my way to the bus stop.”

“Nope, I’ll get you a cab.” He blew the little whistle that hung around his neck, and a yellow cab appeared out of nowhere. Sam opened the back door and ushered me in, then leaned through the front window and said something to the driver. The cab leapt forward, and I gave the driver my address, then leaned back in the seat and tried to relax.

That was hard to do when I didn’t know if I could pay for this ride. I’d never really been up in this part of town before, so I had no idea what the fare would be. I dug through my purse to see how much money I had with me. If worse came to worse, I could always borrow something from one of my roommates, but I hated to wake them up.

It seemed like forever before we got to familiar territory and the cab pulled up in front of my building. I leaned forward, waiting for the cabbie to tell me how much it would cost, but he said, “Don’t worry, it’s been taken care of.”

“Oh, well, thanks.”

“Don’t thank me, thank your friend.”

I started to get out of the cab, then paused. “Do you know if the Yankees won tonight?”

“Yeah, and it was the wildest thing, too, the kind of game people’ll be talking about for years. As if there weren’t already enough superstitions in baseball.”

“Oh, thanks. I was just curious.” I got out of the cab and hurried inside, not sure I even wanted to know what had happened and if a certain pair of wizards were what had caused whatever it was. Surely Rod and Owen weren’t the only magical people at a baseball game, and neither of them struck me as the types to do something like that.

A couple of weeks ago, I’d managed to find a seemingly rational non-magical explanation for all the magic I saw every day. Now I was seeing magic everywhere. It was probably nothing.

I tiptoed through the living room where Marcia was asleep on the sofa bed and into the bedroom I shared with Gemma. I hoped they didn’t grill me on what my night had been like, for I had no idea how I’d go about describing it. It was increasingly clear that I was going to have to find a way to juggle the two very different worlds I now inhabited.