LUMINA
Brooke E. Bissell
A fantasy story
Contents
Note............................................................................................................................................3
Chapter 1 Amber I Argue with a Holly Bush...................................................................4
Chapter 2 Amber Holly Gives the Enemy Cupcakes, but I Give Them a Bruise...............7
Chapter 3 Charlie A Sadly Short Chapter in Which I Pass Out...................................................9
Chapter 4 Charlie My Brother Turns Into Bob the Tomato.........................................................11
Chapter 5 Amber I Whine, Charlie Sings, and Alex Doesn’t Really Do Anything........... 18
Chapter 6 Amber I Witness a Fight...............................................................................24
Chapter 7 Charlie Astrid and I Stalk People on Face Book......................................................29
Chapter 8 Charlie Astrid, Amber, and I Get an Unexpected Shower.........................................33
Chapter 9 Amber I Discover that Prison Cells Smell Terrible.....................................................39
Chapter 10 Amber ...But Not as Bad as Fried Rats....................................................................41
Chapter 11 Charlie In Which There is a Lot of Glaring (Mainly at Alex)....................................44
Chapter 12 Charlie In Which There is More Glaring (But Mainly at Me)...................................50
Chapter 13 Amber I Do Some Good Thinking While Charlie Sleeps............................................52
Chapter 14 Amber The Elementalist Meeting............................................................................58
Chapter 15 Charlie Yet Another Sadly Short Chapter in Which I Black Out..............................60
Chapter 16 Charlie We are Abducted by Aliens (and Attacked by a Xarolot)..........................62
Chatper 17 Amber I Play Tag with an Evil Ten-Year-Old.........................................................68
Chapter 18 Amber I Visit the Super Duper Scary Dude..............................................................74
Chapter 19Charlie I Get a Visit from Spider Man’s Grandma....................................................77
Chapter 20
1
2
A FEW THINGS
Dedication
To all the awesome people who read my book first...Lydia, Elaine,
Abigail Y, Abigail M, Alyssa H, Alyssa D, Sarah, and Beth, and everyone else...
to all my family, really, and of course, to my LORD and SAVIOR...
NOTE:
Hi! This is Amber, and I just wanted to let you know that whenever you see
(parentheses) the script inside is something that doesn’t exactly pertain to the story.
If someone reading the book over my shoulder *ahem, Charlie* and comments, the
script in parentheses is my response to their comment. I’m sorry if this is terribly
confusing, but if you don’t get it, you’re not very smart. Okay, on with the story.
3
Chapter 1 Amber I Argue with a Holly Bush
Hi! I’m Amber and I’m a fifteen-year-old Sorceress. Nice to meet you! By the
way, the world is about to be overthrown by ogres, Hags, giants, and evil lambs. Stop
laughing, it’s true! Maybe I should start from the beginning... (Yeah, terrible
beginning, I know...)
All the ogres, Hags and giants are mad because mortals have stopped
believing in them. The evil lambs are mad because everyone laughs at them because
everybody thinks lambs are all sweet and stuff (Really, people laugh at them
because you expect lambs to be sweet? I wish I thought of that, Charlie.). So
basically they’ve decided to join together to try to overthrow the world. Fortunately
for the mortals, all the Magicians and Wizards have come together to stop them.
I’m sure you’re wondering who I fight with, since a Sorceress hasn’t been
mentioned. Well, according to tradition, I’m evil, but I’ve never fought. It simply never
interested me. If I had fought with the bad people, I’m sure they would’ve succeeded
in awakening and fighting a long time ago. They always beg me to fight with them
(they do this by mingling their dreams with mine. This is incredibly creepy), but I
never do. The ogres always try to get me to fall in love them (eww), the giants smell
terrible, like burnt frog legs coated in raw meat (well I’m sorry if that’s to disgusting,
but its accurate). Oh, and the Hags, don’t let me get started on those disgusting, evil,
weird, demon grandmother looking things. And I can’t forget the evil lambs. They
look like sweet, kind, well-kept petting zoo animals, but don’t let them fool you. They
will ‘do their businesses (shut up. You would’ve used the same term) wherever it
suits them and the smell almost as bad as the giants. So, when the evil people
succeeded in awakening, I decided not to fight...until September.
I woke up that late September morning to hear my tree-nymph slave Maple
wailing (yes she was a Maple tree nymph. May I go on?). I lived by myself (except for
my slave) in a cave up on Stone Mountain in Atlanta, Georgia. The wailing wasn’t a
new noise. I usually heard it every month or so. I rolled out of my cot and stumbled to
the entrance to my cave. Maple was stumbling all over the place, hugging herself.
Before my eyes, she stiffened; standing straight up, then fell over. I wisp of wind
blew out of her mouth and into the sky. I sighed; her tree had been cut down. Stupid
mortals, they were so obnoxious! I watched as Maple’s body shimmered and
disappeared. Now I would have to go out and search for a new slave. Before I did
this, however, I had to make myself presentable. I went to my mirror and brushed my
thick black hair and put it into two braids, and dressed myself in a pair of jeans and a
sweater. I opened my drawer and surveyed its contents.
4
Its contents were three wands. They were my combat wand, which was long,
thick, and knobby, my formal wand, which was long and slender and my normal
wand, which isn’t even worth describing. I settled for the normal wand, since I
wasn’t expecting anything important to happen. Wow, looking back on it, I was
blissfully ignorant of what was to come. So I grabbed the normal wand (right, I
already said that) and went out to shop for a slave.
All the nymphs knew that I was an evil Sorceress, so naturally they cowered
in their trees when they sense my coming. I wished that my magical aura wasn’t so
strong, so that they wouldn’t sense me coming. Unfortunately there were no stores
featuring signs like ’50% off’ and men in suits with greasy hair saying “We have the
best prices for our valued customer here at Slaves Unlimited” and such, so I had to
trek through the woody area looking for bold nymphs. The only nymph I was for the
first two miles was old, not exactly sane Magnolia. She was sitting under her tree
muttering to herself in what sounded suspiciously like Portuguese. She would’ve
been easy to catch, but personally I prefer sane slaves to insane slaves. I walked on,
slinking through the woods like a panther, which I could’ve been with the right spell.
Finally I saw a nymph. She was either very brave or very stupid, because she was
sitting in the sun, humming a song. She had reddish brown hair, an upturned nose,
and big green eyes. She looked at me and I matched her stare. Finally she asked,
“Hello, I’m Holly. Are you really an evil Sorceress looking for a slave to
kidnap?” I was slightly shocked, which made me respect her. It isn’t easy to shock
me, I’ll tell you. I told her that I was, but she didn’t seem convinced, which I found
strange. How many girls did she meet that claimed to be evil Sorceresses looking for
slaves? She continued. “I don’t believe you. Show me you have a Sorceresses’ Mark.”
I sighed, but complied. Haha! That rhymed, sighed, complied, I’m a poet and I know
it! I walked closer to show her. A Sorceresses’ Mark is generally located on the
Sorceresses’ collar bone. They are all shaped differently, but mine was shaped like a
sun... or possibly a twelve-pointed star. It was shaped something like this
A Sorceresses’ Mark glows and changes colors like a mood ring. At the
moment mine was a greenish color, meaning I was confused. She looked satisfied,
then stated,
“I’ll take the job.” I was totally shocked.
5
“Wait, but I’m evil and stuff, you’re not supposed to want to be my slave! I’m
supposed to like, kidnap you!” I said. “No, I have to chase you and stuff like that, not
just hire you.” She was confused.
“Why? Why can’t I just come on and help you?” Truth be told, I had no clue. I
was stubborn as a mule, which I could’ve been with the right spell. I had finally found
someone who matched my stubbornness. This nymph simply wouldn’t give up. We
argued for some time, and I felt thoroughly stupid – for goodness sake, I was an evil,
powerful Sorceress, standing here arguing with a Holly nymph. And, as a plus, she
was winning the argument.
“But I’ve got a reputation. If I go around hiring slaves, then my reputation will
plummet downward.” I protested, pointing my finger toward the ground, as if it was
my reputation, which would be sad. Holly giggled.
“No, I thought it would plummet upward.” I was exasperated. How could
anyone be this annoying? How was it humanly possible? Or nymphly possible, I guess
you would say. I wanted to just give in and be done with it, but I couldn’t make
myself, if that makes any sense at all (which it probably doesn’t). I was slowly giving
in, which, I repeat, was very sad. I was giving into a bush of Holly. The argument was
going on, and on, and on, and on until finally I gave in.
“Whatever, whatever, whatever, I’ll ‘hire’ you, if you’ll just stop talking to me!”
Holly smiled triumphantly. She of well just kicked me in the chest. I turned and
marched off back to my cave with a happy Holly nymph behind me. By the time we
got back to my cave, a Juniper nymph, a Beach nymph, and Japanese maple nymphs
had heard the story, and were quickly sending it through the forest. I was humiliated
and my reputation had plummeted. And yes, it plummeted downward.
I was walking through the forest with my chin jutted out like it always does
when I’m mad, when suddenly I stopped short. There were two kids, a boy and a girl,
poking around outside my cave.
6
Chapter 2 Amber Holly Gives the Enemy Cupcakes, but I Give Them a Bruise
I stood there, hidden in the shadows studying them. The girl looked fourteen,
like me, and had the craziest hair I’d ever seen (at the time). It was red, but it had
sky blue highlights in it. It was down to her shoulders and curly and had one of those
feathers girls will glue in their hair. The feather thing was yellow, so she looked like
that citrus girl advertisement. After studying her for a few seconds I decided that her
hair wasn’t just crazy, she was crazy. The boy had wind-blown dark brown hair and
was taller than me, which was a great accomplishment, because I was tall for my
age. I was furious at them for being there; like I said – stupid mortals. I was furious,
this was too much, I was humiliated, and then a couple kids start snooping around
my cave. Okay, they weren’t exactly kids. The girl, like I said, was probably fourteen,
but the boy was probably sixteen or seventeen. I turned to Holly, who seemed to be
in a deep conversation with a bunch of pansies. She was saying,
“He really said that? Did he stay for long after everyone else had left? Awww,
Pansy that is sooo cute! Then what happened?” But unfortunately for her, I
interrupted her before she could find out what ‘happened next’.
“Holly, I’m going to teleport you into the cave, and then I want you to stay
there unless I call you. Got it?” She looked mad, and before she would let me
teleport her, she had to carefully uproot the Pansy plant so she could take it inside
with her to finish their conversation about him. Finally I got her transported, though,
which was good, but now for the hard step. I patted my hair, and then decided that
evil Sorceresses shouldn’t wear their hair in braids when trying to scare someone, so
I undid the braids. Finally I decided that I was ready and I stepped out of my hiding
place.
I had planned to walk out slowly, stealthily, and creepily, but unfortunately
when I was walking out I tripped over a rock and fell over. I looked down at my foot
and grimaced. My toes weren’t supposed to be pointing in that directions were they?
The girl turned and, seeing that my foot was wonky, ran toward me, probably to help
me, but I would not have the final insult of having a mortal help me, no matter what. I
thrust my hand out, and an invisible shield smacked into her. She looked so shocked,
that I would’ve laughed, if not for the extreme pain in my foot. I love mortal
ignorance. But then I took a double take – the girl pulled out a stick looking thing,
and the boy followed her example... Then it dawned on me.
Did you ever have one of those moments when you realize something and go
WELL, DUH, at yourself? Even if you deny it, you have. Anyway, I had one of those
7
moments. Those people were Magicians. They were approaching me slowly, studying
me, which made me mad. I scowled at them,
“Stop staring at me.” They were so surprised that they averted their eyes
momentarily. The boy studied me again, and I found myself blushing. I sighed,
“Alright, help me into my cave, and then we can talk.” The girl raised an
eyebrow.
“Why?” I rolled my eyes.
“Because obviously you’re Magicians, and that means that we need to talk,
duh!” The girl’s eyebrow crept up again and she exchanged glances with the boy, as
if they were having a silent conversation. Irritated, I cleared my throat a little too
obviously.
“Excuse me, but there’s a hurt girl over here. What do you think I’m going to
do, vaporize you?” The guy shrugged.
“Maybe,”
“Fair enough,” I said, “it is a possibility. Of course, anything and everything is
a possibility.” The girl’s eyebrow was driving me absolutely crazy, because, yet
again, her eyebrow rose.
“That cannot be good for your face.” I reprimanded her. She looked very angry,
but luckily for her she kept her mouth shut. My ankle throbbed, and I clenched my
teeth. The girl huffed.
“Fine, we’ll take you up on your deal, but try to kill us, and you’re dead. Wait, I
mean,”
“Save it,” I smirked. “Just take me inside. Holly!!!!” I screamed towards the
cave. Holly came skipping out, holding a tray of cupcakes. She gaped at the people
and asked,
“Oh, guests! Do they like cupcakes? Oh, please have a cupcake!” I put my
head in my hands.
“Holly, you are so dead.” I muttered. Holly glanced at me, and said,
“What’d you say?” I opened and closed my mouth, like a fish trying to breath.
I’m sure I looked very smart.
8
“Oh, uh, I said, ‘Holly you should make my bed!” The girl hefted me to one of
my feet and muttered in my ear.
“You are the worst liar ever. You totally said ‘Holly you are so dead’.” I
repeated my fish out of water act. She helped me into the cave while the boy
followed awkwardly behind.
She helped me onto a chair and sat across from me, next to the boy in the two
straight-back chairs facing me.
“First thing’s first. What are your names?” I asked. The boy answered,
“We’re Alex and Charlie Louis.” I’ll admit, I was confused, because Alex and
Charlie could be boy or girl names.
“Okay... which...” the girl saved me.
“I’m Charlie and he’s Alex. Charlie is short for Charlotte, but don’t call me that
unless you would like to be turned into a rabbit then ran stepped on.” She informed
me, raising a combat boot clad foot. Alex approached me.
“I’ve got to set your foot, okay?” I was tense. It hurt like crazy. I’ll admit that I
cried (but only because I lost a bet with Alex). Now let’s move on.
I observed them, the boy with a bruise on his arm where I’d punched him when
he was setting my foot. I didn’t know what they thought of me. Did they think I was a
magician?
“So, what are you even doing here?” I asked. They glanced at each other. Alex
shook his head very slightly, but then Charlie made a face at him, so he backed
away. It was pretty funny, actually. She turned back to me.
“We’re looking for a, uh, um,” Alex glared at her.
“He was your friend.” She blushed but continued,
“Yeah, our friend, we were looking for a guy who was totally my friend. Have
you seen him? He has red hair; he’s about my age his name is Micah...” She trailed
off. I thought about this guy she told me about. Come to think of it, I had seen him. At
the time I had just thought he was a very, very, very lost picnicker or something. I
decided not to tell them this.
“And what was he doing here?”
9
“Well, he was looking for this evil Sorceress everyone has been talking about.
Apparently she’s one of the most powerful people right now and she knows when and
where the bad guys are attacking. That would be useful to know and great to kill. Do
you know where she is?” I almost laughed, that would’ve ruined the whole shebang,
but luckily I managed to keep my mouth closed. Well, I suppose she had told the
truth. I did know when and where they were attacking.
“But who are you, anyway?” This was Alex. I didn’t want to answer, but what
choice did I have? I sat up in my chair and prepared for a fight.
“My name is Amber, and I’m the Sorceress you’re looking for.”
10
Chapter 3 Charlie A Sadly Short Chapter in Which I Black Out
Hi there! This is Charlie, obviously, as the title of this chapter says ‘CHAPTER
3 CHARLIE A SADLY CHAPTER IN WHICH I BLACK OUT’. I love the way Amber writes.
I also love the way she says I look like that Citrus Girl advertisement. I’ll ignore the
crazy comment for now. Okay, anyway.
As soon as I had got the word that Micah hadn’t been heard from in weeks, I
had freaked out. I had always liked him, and he had liked me. So I went to Dr. K and
demanded a quest. It took much arguing, yelling, and crying. Now I’ll continue were
Amber left off.
Alex and I leapt to our feet with our wands at the ready. I glanced at Alex and
we had a telepathic conversation.
ALEX: WHAT DO WE DO NOW?
ME: WE FIGHT.
ALEX: ARE YOU CRAZY? WHAT A SILLY QUESTION. SHE’S A REAL
SORCERESS!
ME: WHY THANK YOU.
ALEX: ON THREE, WE’LL ATTACK. ONE, TWO, THREE
I shot out a blast of cobalt blue magic, and Alex shot out his own red magic.
They twisted together in a forceful attack weapon. Unfortunately, Amber deflected it
easily with her black magic. Our weapon flew to the side and destroyed a fish bowl. I
felt dizzy. It was not as easy as it seemed. Alex was good at doing stuff like that – he
was great at combat, and he was older that I was. I wasn’t good at combat, but at
things like potions, spells, and reading minds (this was quite useful and very fun, but
a bit difficult). I steadied myself on a chair. I noticed that Amber didn’t have a wand.
What was up with that?
“How – how did you do that without a wand,” I asked. She smiled evilly.
“Don’t you know anything? I’m an advanced Sorceress; I don’t need a wand!” I
was feeling dizzier by the second. I had asthma, and I really needed to use my
inhaler, which was in my backpack outside the cave. Long story short, I was getting
a little worried about living. I watched dizzily as the Sorceress approached. I blinked
11
and she seemed to be walking on the ceiling, which seemed a bit strange – until I
realized this was just a trick of my dizziness. I began to choke, and luckily Alex
noticed. Good news and bad news – the good news was that Alex actually did
something; the bad news was that the thing he did was thoroughly stupid and
something I would absolutely never do.
“Wait, stop!” He yelled. “Look, I’ll do whatever you want me to; just let me
save my sister!” I don’t clearly remember what happened next, but I think I fell over
and made a gurgling noise, and then I blacked out.
12
Chapter 4 Charlie My Brother Turns Into Bob the Tomato
Okay, this chapter will hopefully be longer. (And yes, Alex, I do have to
comment about each chapter before I continue with the story.)
When I woke up, I was lying on a bed with a girl leaning over me dabbing my
head with a wet cloth. She grinned at me revealing perfect white teeth. She giggled
and said,
“Oh, hey, you’re awake! Do you want a cupcake?” I smiled grimly.
“Uh, I’m okay. Who are you, where am I, what am I doing here, and what is
happening to my brother?” She giggled again and said,
“I’m Holly, you are in the same cave you passed out in, you’re here getting
better, and your brother is talking with Amber. Are you sure you don’t want a
cupcake? They’re strawberry with chocolate smiley faces on them.”
“Yeah, maybe I’ll have one later.” I reassured her. “But can I get up?” She
looked at me skeptically.
“I don’t think so. I mean, you just passed out from over magic-use and had a
really bad asthma attack. I think you should lie down for a while longer.” I sat up and
rubbed my head.
“How come I’m perfectly fine?” Holly looked offended.
“What? Can’t you feel the bark tied around your legs? Don’t you taste the
medicine?”
“Well it’s pretty obvious about the bark,” I replied, yanking it off my ankles.
“But all I taste in my mouth is something like Coke.” She nodded.
“Well duh, of course it tastes like Coke! It is Coke! Don’t you know anything
about medicine?”
“Well the first thing that comes to mind when I think about medicine is
Tylenol, not Coke.” She sniffed.
“Well then obviously you know nothing about medicine.” She turned and
marched out of the room, looking seriously offended. I shrugged to myself and got
13
out of the bed. I was still dressed in my normal clothes (thank Goodness) but I was
missing my combat boots. I shot up in the air and began looking all over the room for
them. I finally found them next to the bed. Go figure. I put them on and exited stage
right (whatever, I exited stage left. Will you be quiet?)
When I found Alex and Amber, I found them sitting and talking like old friends.
I stomped in and cleared my throat.
“Excuse me, but I’m the one who almost died! Remember me?” I rapped my
brother on the head. “We really should go now, before the nice evil girl decides to kill
us!” The nice evil girl shook her head, as if I was crazy. Hold on, I am crazy, I forget
sometimes. (SHUT UP, ALEX. THAT REQUIRED NO COMMENT FROM YOU!) Alex
pulled me aside.
“Listen, Charlie. I think we should bring her back with us to the Academy. I
really think that we could turn her into a good, uh, person.” He was blushing like
crazy. (Oh yes you were Alexander Matthew Louis! I was there). I raised an eyebrow.
(In answer to Amber’s comment, I do tend to raise my eyebrow a lot. She’s not the
first to comment).
“You like her, don’t you?”
“I’ve known her for, like, thirty five minutes!”
“I didn’t ask how long you’d known each other!”
“I didn’t ask... We’ll continue this later. The question is, don’t you think we
should take her to the Academy?” I considered this.
“I can just see myself bringing an evil Sorceress into the Academy while
everyone, Patsy, Tabby, Riley, Jackie, John, Dr. K., Sabrina, Micah, Mike, and the
Other Mike, everyone running around screaming while she destroys our home. You’re
insane. How long have you been that way? Have you seen a doctor about it?” He
glared at me then retorted,
“When exactly did you lose your mind?”
“Three months ago. I woke up married to a pineapple. He was an ugly
pineapple, but I loved him.” He looked so confused that I laughed. “That’s from Ice
Age. Don’t ask.” He nodded slowly.
“Okay, not asking. But can you answer the question?”
14
“Frankly, I think you’re stupid. Then again, I’ve always thought that. So, no but
if you like her that much—“
“I don’t like her!”
“—then you can, but don’t blame me if she kills everyone!” He grinned and
turned back to Amber. She was standing in front of the fire, her black hair streaming
around her shoulders, her arms crossed. Her eyes were creepy looking, with the fire
illuminating them. Alex said,
“Okay, we’ve—“
“This was totally not my idea, and I didn’t agree to it!”
“— I’ve got an idea. What if you came to our Magician’s Academy and fought
the war with us!” I glared at him, and she glared at him too. Maybe she was a tenth
sane, if she knew this was a crazy idea. He continued,
“Do you want the world to be enslaved? Don’t you care?” She sighed.
“I really don’t care. If the world isn’t enslaved, then I stay here. If it is, I stay
here. So no, I don’t care.”
“Come on, please! You’ve got to help us! And also, you could make friends.
You can either sit around while the world gets taken over by Hags, giants, ogres, and
evil lambs, or you can get out of this murky cave and help! Which would you rather?”
His speech was so stunning that I was stunned (that was Alex commenting that if it
was stunning then of course I would be stunned...Do shut up, Alex.). Amber even
seemed a little impressed, like she was going to give in.
“Good point...But I’ll stay here in the murky cave.” I could tell Alex was
getting frustrated. I never got why he always got frustrated so easily, I mean, he
grew up with me, didn’t he? (Amber, would you mind finding some Duct Tape and
taping up Alex’s mouth for me? Thank you, dear. All right now that that’s settled...)
“But, but, don’t you want to come with us? You would love Tabitha, and, and,
please!” I think he was a little to dramatic, but I guess he’d made his point clear to
me, at least. I realized how little the odds were of us winning this war. I mean, we
might’ve had a chance if Jenny hadn’t died of Cancer...well, we might have had a
chance.
Jenny was an amazing lady. She was Dr. K’s late wife, and everyone loved
her. When the youngest kids woke up with nightmares at night, she was the one who
ran like crazy up several flights of stairs in her pajamas to make sure they were
15
alright. If someone seriously hated a meal, they could go to Jenny and she’d make
them eggs, or something. We all loved Jenny, but she was diagnosed with Cancer,
fought it for a year, then quietly, in the middle of the night, slipped away and went to
Heaven. We all missed her, especially, of course, Dr. K, her husband. When she died,
crazy Dr. K lost a little of his courage, craziness, and roaring humor, and we had lost
the benefit of Jenny’s incredible magic. Some of the older girls, Sabrina, Lucy, and
Kari, especially had tried to take her place. But they didn’t do as well as Jenny at
waking up in the middle of the night to go tell little kids there were no ghosts in their
closets, or cook eggs in the middle of their meal just as well as Jenny.
So, to emphasize my point, we had no chance without Jenny.
I didn’t know what I was doing, but I just felt an impulse to say it. I stepped
forward and told Amber all about Jenny, how special she was, how much we missed
her, and how much we needed Amber's help. Amber seemed touched, but Alex
looked as if I’d slapped him across the face. He hated thinking about Jenny. Our
parents had dropped us of at the Academy as soon as they got a message about our
Magical abilities. Alex was five and I was four, and Jenny had brought us up. Amber
looked at me strangely.
“Fine, I’ll come, but don’t try to contain me because it won’t work. If this is a
way of capturing me, I swear...”
“Oh, no, it’s not!” Alex reassured her. He gave me the evil eye, like ‘HOW
COME YOU CAN CONVINCE HER AND NOT ME?’ I returned his look with a prim
expression like ‘BECAUSE I’M THE SMART, PRETTY, TALENTED, AND DIPLOMATIC
ONE IN THE FAMILY!’ He glared at me some more, but before he used an actual evil
eye spell on me, Amber broke in again.
“Excuse me, but I’m going to go pack some stuff for my move, and make some
arrangements with Holly. I’ll be right back.” She left the room, and I turned to Alex
with a grin on my face.
“Now, tell me what you like about her.” He’s face was so red, he could’ve been
Bob the Tomato from VeggieTales. (Haha! You can’t say anything because I Duct
Taped your mouth closed.).
“I don’t like her I’ve only known her for like, forty minutes!”
“That wasn’t the question.”
“I don’t care!”
16
“Let’s start with her eyes. They’re a nice gold aren’t they?” His face turned
even redder. (OW! Amber, find something to tie him up with, will you?)
“Her eyes are nice, but that doesn’t mean I like her!”
“Knew it, her hair is gorgeous, so black and thick. With a proper haircut, she
could be even prettier.”
“I don’t like her!” He protested.
“Like who?” Amber asked, standing in the doorway holding a black duffle bag.
I pitied my brother and made up the lame excuse,
“Lucy, he likes Lucy!” He glared at me. Lucy was this really geeky girl at the
Academy who’s about seventeen. But then again, he should’ve thanked me for not
giving him away.
“Are you ready?” Alex asked, still looking like Bob the Tomato. She glared at
him, and, ignoring him, turned to me.
“I’m ready.” (No need to pout, brother dear, I’m sorry I was given all the
amazingness! Oh, be quiet Amber. I know amazingness isn’t a word! Do I need to get
Duct Tape for you, too?)
“Let’s Go, Bob!” I smiled sweetly at him, and he swatted at me, and led the
way out of the cave.
Holly saw us off. She was crying and looked very sad, despite the fact that she
had the cave and her cupcakes all to herself. To try to cheer her up, I pointed this
out to her. But strangely it made her sadder.
“I don’t like cupcakes!” I comforted her by telling her about all the tourists
who climbed the mountain who would surely love cupcakes. She was extremely
excited and went to go bake cupcakes that looked like little pies. So once Holly was
settled, we set off to the Academy.
17
Chapter 5 Amber I Whine, Charlie Sings, and Alex Doesn’t Really Do Anything
Hi there, this is Amber, JSYK.
Charlie and Alex wanted to take the bus, but I knew it would take too long. I
wanted to teleport us, but they didn’t want to do that. Of course, it might’ve helped
my cause not to tell them that the teleportation was extremely painful because it
causes your very essence to turn to mist and travel on the wind to your destination
within seconds. Yeah, maybe that wasn’t the best idea to tell them that.
“Are you kidding me?” Charlie squealed at me. “I do not want my essence to
turn to mist and be blown to the Academy! I can just see the look on every body’s
faces if I came to the academy like that!”
“Yeah, and also, the bus is easier. I don’t want you passing out on us of overmagic exposure. We’re taking the bus.”
“Really, I am not going to pass out over doing three transportation spells!’ I
yelled in disgust. These people knew nothing at all about my kind and it was driving
me crazy. Unfortunately for me, though, Charlie was quite persuasive and I was tired,
so I gave in easily. There’s something about spending your morning arguing with a
Holly bush to make you tired, and I’ve never met anyone as stubborn as Charlie, and
that’s saying a lot, because Holly is extremely stubborn, and I was also extremely
stubborn myself. In short, we took the bus.
“Why do we have to take the bus?” I whined as we climbed aboard with a
bunch of smelly guys. Charlie rolled her eyes.
“I thought we explained this!”
“Well, I do not want to take the bus. I hate the bus!” (I know I sounded like a
five year old, but I hate buses!) Charlie ignored me, which was smart (be quiet
Charlie) because I probably would’ve made the bus explode, and then Alex and
Charlie would probably explode, and then, need I go on?
Now, it takes a really long time to take the bus from Atlanta Georgia to New
York City, where the Academy was, so we were prepared to spend the night on the
bus. Unfortunately for me, though, at around eleven thirty at night, Charlie fell
asleep, and I was left alone with Alex, which was awkward.
Look, I didn’t like him in that way, I promise. He was nice to his sister (that
was Charlie saying ‘most of the time!’), he was brave and he was nice. But I didn’t
like him one bit. Once Charlie fell asleep, I used my wand to conjure up a book. It
18
was incredibly boring, though. It was called ‘Theras and His Town’. It was about a
noble, perfect little boy from Greece who had to go to Sparta, and he kept trying to
get back to Athens, thinking ‘I must get back to dear, dear Athens, so I can help my
mother since my father died fighting...’ and stuff like that. I was glad to put down the
book when Alex said,
“So, uh, have you lived by yourself all your life?” I leaned my head against the
window, watching the city lights zoom past.
“When I was five, my parents died.”
“Oh, that’s so sad.”
“It’s tradition. If a Sorcerer and his wife have a girl for their oldest kid, then
they die the day she turns five.”
“How did you survive alone?”
“The Cursed Child, as they would call me, is born knowing everything up to a
college level. I mean, we don’t know how to walk and talk and stuff, but we know
academic things, if you know what I mean. I don’t like it, I mean, I never learn
anything, and so I get bored.” I could barely see him in the dark, but I think he
nodded his head and ran his hand through his hair.
“Yeah, I can’t see that. I hate school. I don’t understand it, it’s boring, and I
hate my teachers...” I looked back out of the window. I changed the subject.
“What about you? Did you and Charlie live with your parents long?” He sighed,
like this was a story he tried to avoid.
“Well, you see, my mom had me and Charlie, but she didn’t really like us that
much. Our dad, well, he wasn’t the best father. He would yell at me, and beat Charlie.
We were so little, Charlie was three and I was four. Finally, my mom divorced him
and got full custody of us. Still, she tried to ignore us as much as possible. You
know, she stuck us in day care all week long; she would put us to bed really early so
she could get rid of us.
“Finally, a letter came in the mail. It was a week after Charlie turned four. It
told us that we needed to go to the Academy. Mom sent us there. She was relieved
to get us out of her hair. She thought it was just some random public boarding
school, so she sent us off.
19
“When we got there, everyone always pitied us for not having ‘normal’ parents.
But I didn’t want sympathy. I was angry, and that is totally weird for a five year old
kid, but we’re Magicians, you know, we’re different.
“Charlie didn’t go by Charlie then, though. She was Charlotte, the silent scared
little girl. She never really knew what she was so scared of; she just knew something
terrible had happened in her past. So, when she was eleven, I told her everything. It
made her mad, rebellious, and she turned into a totally different person, but you’ll
have to ask her about that.” When he was done, I was silent. Charlie stirred beside
me, and Alex looked away, with a faraway look in his eyes.
“What time is it?” Charlie asked, sitting up. No one answered her though. She
looked back and forth between us and probably realized what we had been talking
about, and seemed to grow angrier.
“Oh, now you probably want my side of it, don’t you?” I noticed that her fists
were balled up; as if she was afraid someone was going to challenge her.
“You don’t have to tell me, Charlie.” I said quietly. Her green eyes seemed to
soften.
“No, it’s okay, I’ll tell you. When I was eleven, Alex told me about our family,
and like he said, I turned into a completely different person. I realized that was why
all my friends treated me like I was made of glass that was because everyone
always tried to be overly nice to me, and it made me very mad. I died my hair with
blue streaks, started going by Charlie, stopped hanging out with my old friends,
became friends with people I probably never would’ve hung out with, and became a
totally different person.”
“But why did you change?” I asked.
“That’s what I’ve always wanted to know.” Alex grumbled. She seemed to
close up, shutting us out of her mind.
“That’s none of your business.” I turned away. It was true. It wasn’t any of my
business, so I let her alone.
I looked out the window again. The world was so huge. I had never been
outside Stone Mountain Park. Well, I had been born somewhere else, but all I could
remember was the cave. I looked back at Charlie and Alex. They both had that
faraway look, as if they were thinking about their past. Suddenly I noticed
something.
20
Sitting across the aisle from us was a creepy old lady wearing a black dress
holding a fluffy white dog looking thing in her lap. The old lady’s eyes were so
sunken, and her hands so teeny... she was a Hag!
“Uhhh, guys?” I asked, poking Charlie. She sat bolt upright.
“Hag,” she announced. She pulled out her wand, but I grabbed her arm just in
time.
“Stop, don’t you know you can’t just charge in and try to kill it. They’re almost
as powerful as me. Maybe she hasn’t noticed us yet.”
“But with the magical essence, you give off it’s like hoping a Beagle won’t
smell a rabbit two feet away. And what’s up with the dog?”
“It’s most likely an evil lamb. Stop laughing Alex!” I slapped him, which was
probably over the top, but I was freaked out. I mean a fifteen year old girl, a fourteen
year old girl and a sixteen year old boy, up against a Hag. Of course, they did have
me, but still, this was a Hag. (That was Charlie saying that we get the point it was a
Hag. Do shut up Charlie.).
The bus stopped and people got off the bus. Lucky people, they had a home
and normal life to go home to, unlike us, who got to fight a Hag. I stared at the Hag.
She had brought out some knitting needles. I realized that we were the only people
who were still on the bus except for the Hag. The driver looked back at us from his
seat up front.
“You kids runnin’ ‘way?”
“No, sir,” said Alex, “we’re just trying to get home to New York.”
“Woo,” the driver said. “Dats a long way for tree kids!” I felt uncomfortable.
“Well, yes sir, but you see, we’re with a, uh, traveling song and dance act, and
our company left us in Atlanta. Our next stop was New York, so we’re trying to meet
them there.” The driver shrugged. He’d probably heard weirder things, being a bus
driver and all. Alex looked at me and whispered,
“Song and dance act?” He looked like he wanted to die. I smiled. The bus
driver grinned, too, though I doubt it was for the same reason.
“Why don’t you kids sing dis ole’ bus driver a song, since he gonna be drivin’
all night?” Alex looked at me like ‘oh please, no’, but Charlie looked eager.
21
“Uh, sure, I guess so.” I said, half-heartedly. “One second.” I turned to my
friends. “So, anybody know a three part harmony song of the top off their heads?”
They looked at me like I was an idiot. Then Charlie said timidly,
“I know what to do. Sir,” She addressed the driver. “Actually my friends are a
little tired, but I’ll sing you something.” He grinned (thank you, Alex, for reminding us
that he had no teeth). Charlie looked up at the ceiling, thinking. I could tell both she
and Alex were still really freaked out about the Hag sitting in the bus with us. Charlie
opened up her mouth and began to sing, and she had the most beautiful voice ever.
She sang the song SOMEONE LIKE YOU by Adele. She let loose her voice, and
even the Hag looked startled at its beautifulness. (Don’t look so smug, Charlie. You
may have a great voice but that doesn’t mean you can look so proud it’s just the fact
that I can’t sing at all. Alex you’re so terrible.). She sounded so much like Adele that
I couldn’t believe it. I know that I grew up in a cave but I still was very connected
with the modern world. I even had an iPod. When the song was over, the silence was
terrible. We came to the bus stop and the driver looked back at the Hag.
“’Scuse me ma’am, but are gettin off de bus tonight?” The hag grinned and
snapped her finger which is the Hags way of casting spells.
Why they have to snap, I have no clue whatsoever.
“You have to pull over and get gas.” The driver blinked and mumbled,
“I tink I needs to get some gas, sorry.” He pulled over, got out of the bus and
started to walk to the gas station down the road. The first thing that popped through
my head was ‘uh oh’, then she stood up.
“Amber, we’ve been looking for you! What a clever way to apprehend these
two for us! Thank you! I’ll take them from here, and you can go to the Academy and
do your work there!” Alex and Charlie looked at me with looks of horror. I can’t blame
them, of course. But the Hag wasn’t exactly lying.
When I had gone to my room to pack the day we left, I had gotten a vision
message from a giant asking me kidnap the two Magicians who were in my cave. I
had agreed to the plan, but now... I couldn’t make myself. I felt so bad for them, and I
actually could see myself being friends with them. I looked at the Hag, her small
eyes glittering with glee, then at Alex and Charlie, their wands at the ready, and I
made my choice.
“No, I won’t. You can just tell your friends to take a walk of a high ski jump.” I
turned to my friends. “Run. Get home, I may not make it, but go.” They turned and
22
began to run. The Hag blasted a magical rope at them, but I shoved my hand forward
and deflected it. She turned and glared.
“You’re a traitor to your kind! You are the daughter of the Great Enchantress,
and look at you, helping Magicians! We will find you, Amber, and you will fight with
us.” She turned into a billow of smoke, but left a final curse on me. Holly’s magic on
my ankle left me, and it throbbed and swelled again. I looked into the dark. The bus
driver was nowhere to be seen, and neither were Alex and Charlie.
“Charlie, Alex?” They were nowhere. Well, I thought, I guess I’m stuck here.
But then I had another WELL DUH moment. Transportation spells. I muttered a spell
on Alex and Charlie, and on myself, and felt the familiar searing pain. I was being
transported safely. I felt the rush of the wind on my face as I zoomed across North
Carolina, then Virginia, and kept on going. I could picture the look on Alex and
Charlie’s faces when all of a sudden they dissolved. Hah! That gave me complete
satisfaction. I looked about me again. I could see the gaudy, bright lights of New
York City. I loved this kind of travel. Travel through over two states in forty-five
seconds! Suddenly, the pain was gone, but then it returned because I landed on
cement. A foot away was a soft patch of grass. Right. That was my kind of luck.
A couple seconds later, Alex and Charlie materialized in mid-air, screaming
(yes you were screaming! Okay, Alex was but Charlie wasn’t. She was green) and
then plopped on the grass. Come on, couldn’t I ever have things the easy way? Then
again, I was a cursed child because of my being my parent’s first kid. Alex stood
unsteadily, but Charlie threw up on the nice grass of the lawn. When she was done, I
helped her to her feet. She brushed herself off and tried to resume her dignity, which
probably wasn’t easy (that was her yelling that it wasn’t hard for her. Yeah, Charlie, I
totally believe you, now be quiet).
“Well,” Alex said, “let’s go see if anyone kills you!”
23
Chapter 6 Amber I Witness a Fight
The Academy was located on top of an old, abandoned hotel. It sounds
impossible, but nothing is impossible when you’re a magician or Sorceress or
whatever, except being normal. They led me through the huge double doors into
what looked like some sort of lobby. The floors were shiny wood, which made me
wonder if the students who broke rules had to wax it for punishment, and I pictured
Charlie waxing the floors. (Well I’m sorry Charlie, but you were just the first person
that came to mind when I thought of a trouble maker. OW! That’s my foot!) Sorry, to
continue the description...There were tall ceiling to floor windows, you see since the
Academy was perched on top of a ten story building, it was rather high up, and so
there was quite a view.
Charlie looked around the deserted lobby.
“Everyone’s probably asleep, unless Tabitha is having one of her wild parties,
which she probably is.” Alex nodded absently and looked around suspiciously.
“I can just see Riley putting some sort of trap somewhere for our ‘WELCOME
HOME’ present.” He said. I didn’t know who Riley was, but I decided he would
probably be nice. All of a sudden, we heard a car pull up and Charlie ran outside to
the balcony and Alex and I joined her.
A white sports car had driven into the driveway. There was a full moon out, so
we could see what was happening. A man got out of the driver’s side and opened the
back door, like a chauffeur. A girl climbed out. I couldn’t see her facial features, but
she had black curly hair that was down to the small of her back. She was about
fourteen, but was wearing stilettos, which I found strange. She was also wearing
skinny jeans and a nice top, like she had just been to a party or something. Charlie’s
face spread into a grin.
“Astrid!” She yelled and dashed toward and down the steps. The girl looked up
at her and ran toward her. I must say, I was impressed that she was running in
stilettos. Charlie gave her a big hug and they began to talk amongst themselves. The
man pulled a suitcase out of the trunk as they started to walk back towards the
steps. Then, the girl turned took the suitcase from the man and said something to
him – hopefully thank you – then they continued towards the building.
“Hey, Alex, get down here and get Astrid’s bag. Hurry up!” Charlie yelled. Alex
rolled his eyes and sauntered down the steps and grabbed her bag for her. As she
came up closer, I could see her face.
24
Her features were slightly Hispanic, but she looked more American than
Hispanic. She had big brown eyes lined with eyeliner (yeah, okay, I get it Charlie) and
was wearing light purple eye shadow, mascara and a light pink lipstick. She was
pretty, but I wasn’t a big fan of her makeup. She smiled at me.
“Hi, I guess you’re Amber. I’m Astrid, nice to meet you.” Charlie smiled too. A
shook the girls hand and tried to make my face remain expressionless. Alex cleared
his throat awkwardly.
“Come on; let’s see if everybody is at Tabitha’s party.”
They led me through various halls and corridors and of course, several flights
of steps. The whole time Astrid laughed and talked with Charlie. The click clack of
her stilettos was incredibly annoying. Eventually she pulled them off and said,
“I absolutely hate wearing these things. Mr. Jackson says that I have to keep
my reputation up there, and, as a Broadway starring actress, they’re the way to go.
Someday--”
“Hold on,” I interrupted, “Broadway as in, like, the theatre here in New York?
You’ve got to be kidding me! Are you serious?”
“Yes,” she said passively, “Someday, I’m going to quit the show business and
go barefoot all day!”
“You always say that.” Alex said skeptically. She cracked a grin and shrugged.
“Maybe, but I can always say that, can’t I? I love life!” She spun around the
hall her eyes closed and arms spread. I was a teensy bit freaked out by this girl. She
treated being on Broadway like it was something anyone could do, and she went
around saying someday she was going to go barefoot all day. I was about to make a
critical remark about her to Alex when he stopped in front of a doorway.
I could hear the music through the walls and I remembered how Charlie had
described Tabitha’s parties as ‘wild’. Oh great, I wasn’t a big fan of wild parties. I
was more of the quiet type who sat in the corner and observed everybody. Of course,
I’d only been to one or two. The teenage Hags love ‘wild’ parties. (And yes, Alex,
there are such a thing as teenage Hags. They are just like regular teenagers...but
creepier. No, they’re not attractive). The song was something by Lady Gaga. I don’t
know which song; I only listen to normal artists. Alex opened the door.
Inside the room were a bunch of teenagers. Some were dancing, some were
standing around talking, and a couple of people were even sprawled on various
25
sofas, asleep. I guess they weren’t night people, but had been dragged to this party
by their friends. Alex stepped inside with a big smile on his face.
“Hey, guess who is back!” Everyone turned toward us. Then a guy in front with
curly dirty blond hair and a British accent broke the silence.
“Alex, Charlie, and a little surprise, too...Astrid, home from the show biz!”
Everyone cheered and welcomed us in. Alex raised his hand,
“Wait, guys, we’ve got a new girl. This is Amber. She’s a Sorceress,” anger
erupted in the room, but Alex just raised his voice and continued, “But she’s good.
She’s going to help us win this war, not fight against us!” Someone from the back, a
guy dressed in black with messy black hair (whatever, Alex, he’s cute. Are you happy
now?) And a permanent smirk said,
“How can we trust her? She could be a spy. You know what happened on the
bus.” Charlie nudged me and whispered,
“That guy is Christopher. He’s only sixteen, but I’m telling you, he’s an
incredible magician. He has dreams, or visions, telling him of important events. He’s
a dangerous guy, don’t be attracted to him...a lot of girls are because he’s pretty
attractive.” Alex was saying,
“—can be trusted! She left the Hag and transported us here, didn’t she?”
Christopher tossed his hair out of his face.
“Yeah, but did she kill the Hag?” Alex’s face darkened. Astrid ran forward and
put her hand on Alex’s arm.
“Stop! He’s bending your mind, trying to turn you against her! Don’t fall for it
Alex, please!” Astrid’s words seemed to have power, as if she was using magic. It
seemed as though she was bending Alex’s mind towards me.
“No!” Christopher countered. “Don’t you feel her bending your mind?” Astrid
exclaimed,
“Christopher, whose side are you on? Do you want the help of a powerful
Sorceress or not?” Christopher stood up from where he had been sitting with his
back against the wall. His wand flew to his hand. Astrid reached for her own wand
and the two Magicians stalked toward each other. Charlie rolled her eyes and
stepped between them.
“Oh come on guys, stop fighting!” I have to admit I was touched that Astrid
was going to fight this super powerful guy on the account of me, someone she’d
26
known for five minutes...especially since I hadn’t been all that nice to her.
Christopher pushed Charlie out of the way and growled,
“This isn’t your fight, so stay out of it.” No one interfered after that. Astrid and
Christopher circled each other and the tension and quiet was unbearable. Suddenly,
Christopher blasted a stream of fire at her. She leapt out of the way with amazing
quickness, but not before the edges of her long hair was singed. She turned at him
with such a wild expression on her face that it scared me.
“What is wrong with you? The director is going to kill me for having my hair
like this!” He smirked.
“Not my problem.” She flew at him so quickly that he didn’t have time to move.
She tackled him and began to chant. His body started to glow, but he was still
fighting her. Before anything drastic happened, he pushed her off and spoke a magic
word and a cut formed on her arm. Her eyes widened in pain, and she fought back
tears. She looked at him with such pain that he stopped chanting.
“I don’t want to fight you, but I can’t let you do this, Christopher. Please, stop!
I don’t want to do this...” Christopher shook off his shock and charged her. When he
was inches away she leapt into the air with such grace that even I gasped.
“How did you do that?” Somebody asked. She shot a glance in the general
direction of the speaker and said,
“I’ve played various roles,” she dodged a stream of smoke, “that have to do
some serious battle choreography.” Suddenly with quickness almost equal to
Astrid’s, Christopher tackled her. He raised his wand, as if to strike, but she said
very, very quietly,
“Please, Christopher, don’t forget...when we were kids...the family,” she
switched to Spanish momentarily, “no te olvides de la familia... Don’t forget.”
Blood was trickling from the corner of her mouth. Christopher stepped away and
stalked out of the room. I rushed forward and helped Astrid off the ground. She wiped
the blood from her mouth. The dirty blond headed guy ran towards the door as if to
follow Christopher, but Alex called him back.
“It’s okay Riley, let him go.” Riley glared at the door for good measure, and
then came back to where Astrid was standing. I looked at her and asked,
“What did you mean when you said ‘remember when we were kids’?” She
winced as Alex ripped of a strip of his shirt and Charlie tied it around Astrid’s arm.
27
“Well,” she said, “I don’t usually like to tell people,” she dropped her voice to
almost a whisper. “Christopher is my cousin.” I gasped. Then a lady in her early
twenties with curly brown hair in a ponytail and feline-ish eyes stepped forward.
“Well, I guess this party is ruined.”
“This is Tabitha.” Alex informed me. Tabitha nodded.
“Spirit of Tabby cats, at your service.” I studied her, trying to see if she
measured up to this. I could see that she would be a cat spirit. Besides her dark hair
and feline eyes, she was long and lithe, and moved like a cat. She smiled and I could
see that her canine teeth were pointed like a cat’s fangs, and behind her, a cat tail
waved back and forth. I admit, that made me wonder where she got her clothes, and
how she sat down... Charlie turned to me.
“You’ll meet Patsy, the spirit of parrots, tomorrow. This obviously is Riley,”
Riley bowed and grinned, revealing a string of braces.
“Hullo!” I couldn’t help smiling, he was so nice. Charlie continued,
“Um, and you’ll also meet every one else tomorrow, because it’s super late
right now....” She turned to Astrid, “You’ll be okay through the night, won’t you?”
Astrid managed a weak smile.
“Yeah.” Charlie nodded, satisfied. Then Riley asked,
“How long are you staying here? I mean, before you have to go back to the
theatre.” Astrid considered this.
“I’ll be staying for a week, I think. They don’t need Dorothy for a while.” She
looked at me. “I’m in the musical The Wizard of Oz, as Dorothy.” I yawned. Alex
poked Charlie.
“She’s tired.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot about you!” How she managed to forget about me as two
Magicians fought about me I’m not sure...Charlie said. “I’ll take you to a room and
you can meet Dr. K tomorrow.” I nodded, and we set out again for my new room.
28
Chapter 7 Charlie Astrid and I Stalk People on Face Book
After I lead Amber to a room, made sure that Astrid was alright, and left Dr. K
a note saying we were back; I went to my room and flopped on my bed. I could hear
Astrid in the room next to mine, singing ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’. Only she was
singing it in harmony, and I honestly don’t think it was meant to be sung like that
without a lot of other people. Later on I heard her tap dancing, too, which made me
wonder why I ever agreed to have my room next to a crazy actress who practiced
her musical numbers at one in the morning. I crammed my earphones into my ears
trying to drown out the tapping with Adele’s music. Unfortunately it didn’t work, so I
went to sleep with tapping in my head. As the result, I had another ‘time travel’
dream.
It was in Alcatraz, back when it was active. In the cell sat a young man,
covered in dirt sitting in the corner of his cell. He was fiddling with a stick. Just a
hint: he was a magician. A guard walked up and shoved a new prisoner in. He fell
onto the hard floor and groaned. When the guard stalked away, the new boy pulled
his ragged cap of his head and his hair appeared to be very, very long. His cell mate
glanced over, and then had a double take.
“Marilyn?” She nodded. She looked half dead, but she was hanging on to a
string of life. She gasped out a final message.
“Please, the Academy needs you to confiscate the iron bars of cell thirteen.”
The boy looked confused. She continued, “They have a magic property that will give
us the final power to save the Mistress and her child.” Then she flopped over, dead.
It made me shudder. Magicians who would give their very lives, going through the
war, just to tell another prisoner something they had to do. It made me think, would I
do that? The boy bent his head in respect for the dead girl then the dream changed.
I was standing in a building; I think it was a church, in a darkish corridor. Two
girls were standing next to each other. One of them was tall, with blondish hair that
was a little past her shoulders. She was maybe fourteen, pretty, with dark eyes and a
pale complexion. She was wearing skinny jeans and a t-shirt that said ‘MY FAIR
LADY, THE BROADWAY MUSICAL’, with a pair of shiny TOMS. The other was pretty
much her opposite. She was thirteen probably, and had reddish brown hair that was
glossy that would’ve just touched her shoulders, but it was in a ponytail. She was
much shorter than the blond, with freckles. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt as
well. The blond said,
“What’s the matter, Lydia?” Lydia, the reddish haired girl said,
29
“Haven’t you heard?” The blond rolled her eyes.
“NO! Know will you just tell me already?” A tear traced Lydia’s pretty face.
“Eden’s missing.” The blond looked like she had been smacked in the face,
then a tear fell.
“You’re kidding. Please say you’re kidding!” Lydia shook her head.
“I’m serious, Elaine. Mrs. Bissell told me. Eden was at Stone Mountain with her
family and went to go to the bathroom, but she never came back. JB went to look for
her, and said she saw her being grabbed by and old lady. They tried to get her back,
but nothing happened. Onlookers didn’t say they saw anyone. But JB knows she saw
it happen.” she finished, and broke into tears. Elaine too began to cry. A man’s voice
called,
“Elaine, Lydia, where are you?” They turned and walked down the corridor.
The guy was twenty-six, probably, with brown hair in a crew cut. He was kind of
short and stocky, but with a kind face. He frowned when he saw their tear streaked
faces.
“What’s the matter?” They explained about the girl again. He too, looked
shocked. Then the dream faded and I woke up. Through the walls I heard ‘The
Wicked Witch is dead’. Okay, Astrid, I’m sure you’ve got your part nailed into your
brain, I’m sure. I looked at the clock. I’d been asleep for two hours. I walked to the
wall and banged on it, trying to get Astrid to be quiet. She stopped for a while, but
then she did more tap dancing. Darn. I opened the door to the hallway and banged on
Astrid’s door. When she opened it, she was wearing sweat pants and a t-shirt (yes,
Amber, she was barefoot) with no makeup.
“Hi!” she said, a little confused looking. “What do you want at three in the
morning?” I explained my dream. Her brow crinkled.
“You do have a Face Book, right?” I shook my head sheepishly. She shook her
head,
“Sad, a girl with so many friends who is fifteen and doesn’t have a Face Book,
wow, that’s all, wow.” She laughed and opened her laptop to Face Book. “Okay, you
said the names Lydia and Lain, right?”
“No, not Lain, Elaine.”
“Oh, okay, which one was older? Oh, right, Elaine. She’s probably more likely
to have a Face Book than the other girl. Let’s see...Elaine...” I looked at her.
30
“Wait; do you know how many Elaines are going to be on there? Billions! This
girl might not even have a Face Book! Why are you even doing this?” Astrid smiled
painfully.
“Haven’t you heard, Charlie? The girl disappeared at Stone Mountain Park. The
bad dude’s camp is there! She was kidnapped by a Hag, I’m sure!”
“But then how did this person, JB, how did her and the other girl see it?”
Astrid considered this.
“Regular mortals can never see things in our world unless they have the Sight,
or...”
“...or what?” I asked, getting impatient.
“Unless their brains are specially wired...you know, extremely creative. Then
they can actually process the things they see. Regular people can’t take in the
monsters and stuff without being plunged into insanity. Fortunately their brains just
erase them. But super creative people can process things like our world. These two
girls must’ve been super creative.”
“Wow.” I said. Well what do you say to a speech like that? “You mentioned the
Sight, what’s that?”
“Well,” she explained, “it’s a blessing of the magical world. You can get it by
any magician, wizard, or fairy.”
“Cool,” I said, “but can you give it to anybody?”
“You can give sight to one person in your lifetime, so you have to be careful to
whom you give it to. You have to be sure that the mortal can handle the things that
we see, you know?” she yawned. “Now let’s search for these girls.” I looked at her.
“I still don’t see how you expect to find this girl, though.” Astrid smiled
mischievously.
“Broadway may be extremely hard, but when it comes to finding girls, it has
its advantages! You said the girl was wearing a t-shirt that said ‘MY FAIR LADY, THE
BROADWAY MUSICAL’ didn’t you? If she really likes that musical, she may be one of
the musical’s followers on Face Book that could limit the Elaines.” I raised an
eyebrow.
31
“For a girl who’s never been to school you’re pretty smart, Astrid. I have a new
respect for you.” She smiled sweetly and double clicked something on her screen
and turned it towards me.
“Is this her?” The girl on the screen had light brown hair.
“She was blond, Astrid, not a brunette.”
“How about this girl?” It was her. I loved her profile picture. It was her and the
girl, Lydia, and another girl with dark brown hair, side bangs, and blue grey eyes.
They had their arms around each other’s shoulders and were grinning as if they were
having the best time in the world.
“That’s her,” I responded. “Now what, though?”
“We find her and with her help we find her friend. You were shown that dream
for a reason, Charlie.” We spent another hour searching around trying to find out
where she lived. We found the general area of Dekalb County in Atlanta, Georgia.
At four, Astrid looked like she was ready to pass out. I had nearly forgotten
about her fight with Christopher.
“You are going to sleep now.” I told her when we were done. She glared at me,
“I was going to practice Follow the Yellow Brick Road.”
“Oh no you’re not,” I said. “You are going to sleep. Good night.” I walked out of
her room and into my own and fell into a blissful dreamless sleep.
32
Chapter 8 Charlie Astrid, Amber, and I Get an Unexpected Shower
When I woke up, Amber was standing next to me on the left, and Astrid was on
the right. My first thought was ‘BUSTED’. Then, ‘WHY AM I IN TROUBLE?!’ Then
Astrid said,
“It’s one p.m., Charlie. You need to wake up now. Dr. K is not exactly happy.
You totally missed Combat Class, Healing 101, lunch, and you’re missing Magic
Words Class right now. And you missed muffin day.” I jumped out of bed and scoffed,
“Who cares about muffins, anyway?” They looked at me as if I’d gone crazy.
Astrid tossed me a muffin and I squealed and pounced on it.
“Right,” Amber said. “You don’t like muffins.”
“Not at all!” I agreed, gobbling the last crumbs of my blueberry muffin. They
rolled their eyes and pulled me out of bed. I studied them then they broke out
laughing.
“JUST KIDDING, it’s Saturday anyway. It’s about nine-thirty.” Amber laughed. I
needed revenge.
“Okay, but you need a makeover.” She backed away.
“Oh, no. I am not letting you do anything to me. I really don’t trust you.” I
smiled sweetly.
“Don’t worry, Amber. You’ll look so much less nineteen eighties.” She glared at
me.
“Astrid,” I said, “You’ll help, won’t you? I need an expert hair person!” She
backed up.
“Oh, no, I don’t want to torture the poor girl. Besides, she’d probably kill me.
So, no. I’ve got a project to take care of with Riley.” She turned and dashed out the
door. I stretched and got out of bed.
“Let’s get started, m’dear.” Within minutes I had Amber sitting in a chair with
a sheet around her neck.
“First things first,” I said, “let’s cut that hair of yours.” Her eyes widened but
she submitted, luckily. I measured her hair so it traced her jawline, then I snipped.
(Just so you know, Amber is covering her ears right now. OW! Never mind, now she’s
hitting me.) When I was finished, she looked completely different, so I added side
bangs for good measure.
33
“Beautisamous.” I said, making up a new word. “Now, as far as clothes, I’m
sure that my stuff can fit you. Let’s see...” within fifteen minutes, I had her newly
clothed.
“There, now you look like a normal person, and you have me to thank, Amber!”
She looked at herself in the mirror and grimaced.
“I’m deciding that I don’t like normal.”
“Oh, come on, you look awesome!” I protested. She sighed and plopped in a
chair. She looked much less late eighties at least. “I think someone has an eye for
you anyway.” She glared at me some more then said,
“I don’t like Alex, okay? We can be best friends, but I am not dating your
brother, okay?” I was surprised.
“How did you know what I was thinking?” I asked.
“You’re not the only one who can read minds, actually, my dear Charlie. I can
do it more frequently than you anyway.” I shrugged.
“Whatever,” she smiled. I helped her up from the chair. (I know she didn’t need
help, Alex, I was just being nice!) “Let’s go see what project Astrid was talking
about doing with Riley. Considering those two working together...well, it might not
turn out well.” She smiled and we went in search of two wierdos (aka Astrid and
Riley).
When we found them, they were doing rather strange things.
Astrid was wearing a black skirt and blouse, was bare-footed and was dancing
around the Academy’s backyard. Riley, meanwhile, was snapping pictures of her with
his nicest camera. It was pretty strange, not to mention the fact that Astrid was
having spasms of hysteric laughing.
“Uh, hey guys.” Amber said half-heartedly. Riley whirled around a snapped a
picture of us.
“Got you!” He laughed. “Paparazzi time!” with that, he began snapping pictures
of us left and right. We went along with it and tried to duck out of the frame of the
camera and act like movie stars. Of course, Astrid knew what paparazzi was all
about, but she ran around with Amber and me (yes, Alex, I understand that rhymed)
anyway. We were having fun, but then suddenly a couple of younger kids came out of
nowhere battling each other. An older guy was there, too, supervising the fight. One
kid blasted the other with energy, but unfortunately, he had a kind of bad aim, so it
34
hit the ground, and, of course we didn’t notice it when it happened, suddenly the
sprinkler system exploded. Water was everywhere. Of course, Riley, who had still
been snapping pictures, got tons of pictures of it. Then he realized that water was
everywhere so he ran inside to save his precious camera from water exposure.
Amber was screaming in a very un-Sorceress-like way.
“Ahhh!” I laughed and walked over to the guy who had made it explode, who
looked so scared and embarrassed that I felt bad for him. He opened and closed his
mouth several times like a fish trying to breath out of water (or, as Alex is adding,
Amber when she is trying to lie about something).
“I’m so sorry, Charlie, I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean to, I promise! I-” I cut him
off before he could promise me anything again.
“Don’t worry about it, Felix. It was super fun. On the other hand, it’s a different
story if Riley gets his camera messed up, you know?” Felix turned white and his
fighting partner turned red, and then ran into the house, while they’re fighting
chaperone looked pretty embarrassed and began to make up lame excuses.
“You see, there was nothing I could’ve done about it, and, you see, they were,
um, they weren’t listening and,” but my patience had worn thin so I gave him a
playful shove and told him,
“Well save the excuses for Riley. Speaking of Riley...” Riley marched down the
steps. “...I have to go, bye!” and I ran for the front yard with Astrid and Amber.
“What were you thinking?” We heard Riley yell from the back. I turned
reluctantly to my friends and said.
“Poor Felix, I guess we should go save him from an untimely death.” Astrid
sighed,
“I guess so.” Amber sighed as well.
“Let’s go, then, and save a young boy who just gave us a shower and I don’t
know.” I grinned at her. (Platypuses in fun to spell and say and write. I don’t care if
that was random, I wanted to say that!) We made our way to the back again where
Riley was still yelling at little Felix.
“That’s a very expensive camera, you know! Those cameras don’t grow on
trees, now do they? No, they don’t!” Astrid ran towards them.
35
“Riley, give him a break, he didn’t mean to!” Riley started to laugh, and if my
face looked as shocked as Amber’s, well, it was quite embarrassing. Riley fell over
on the wet lawn laughing.
“I totally fooled all of you! My camera’s fine, thanks for asking. Oh my, that
was some joke, a very simple one, but very rewarding as well.” He laughed until
tears ran down his face and everyone else had stopped laughing. In fact, it wasn’t all
that funny, but he laughed for a full minute after everyone else had stopped.
“Uh, Riley, it wasn’t that funny, you know.” Amber commented. Riley whipped
his eyes.
“I thought it was. So, who wants to go raid the kitchen? I’m sure Lucy would
like some ‘help’ with those cookies she’s making.” Amber rolled her eyes. I waved
the others ahead.
“You guys go ahead. I’ve got some research to do on a lead.” Astrid raised her
eyebrows.
“Do you mean about your dream last night?” She asked. I nodded.
“Yeah, I’m going to try to figure out how I can meet them. I hope they take me
seriously.” Astrid nodded understandingly. Amber and Riley, who had been watching
with confused faces, began to ask questions, to be exact, annoying questions that
Astrid and I couldn’t answer. Finally I broke in,
“WE’LL TELL YOU LATER! Now go bug Lucy. Oh, but on your way, Riley, could
you introduce Amber to Dr. K? I’ve been meaning to but...” I trailed off and spread my
hands helplessly. Riley agreed and they went off to bother Lucy. I turned towards the
house and ran all the way to my room. When I got there, however, I couldn’t find a
way to communicate with either of the girls. Feeling very stressed, I texted a good
friend of mine, Molly.
Molly is a regular person with the gift of the Sight. She was an ordinary kind of
person. Not exactly good in school, but not failing or anything. Not especially
talented in anything except for writing, and not gorgeously beautiful, but pretty. Her
parents were ordinary people (an accountant and a stay-at-home mom) and she had
an ordinary brother and an ordinary sister and an old dog that just slept and ate.
Fortunately for her, though, she had an extraordinary friend – me. She had straight
brown hair at medium length, was an average height and had brown eyes. Like I said,
she was pretty ordinary. I texted her situation along with a ‘PLEASE LET ME COME
TO YOUR HOUSE!’ Not to stealthy, but we were good friends. When she confirmed
36
that I could go over there, I did. I grabbed a random bike from the Academy’s ‘bike
shed’ and biked as fast as I could over to her house.
When I got there, here sister opened the door for me and went to continue
looking at ordinary colleges to go to.
“Uh, hi Sara,” I said to her, but she only nodded. I made my way to Molly’s
ordinary bedroom. After re-explaining my predicament, she said,
“Describe the short girl again.”
“She wasn’t short, Molly, she was just shorter than the other one.” She
shrugged and I continued, “Uh, she had reddish hair that was really glossy, freckles,
green eyes and her name was Lydia.” Molly raised her eyebrows.
“Did she remind you of an elf, sort of?”
“An elf?”
“Yeah, you know, kind of mischievous.”
“Uh, no.”
“Oh. You know I think she might have gone to camp with me. Let me see...”
She pulled out her camera and clicked a billion buttons then said,
“Yes, this is the one I know.” She turned it to me and I gasped.
“That’s her, Molly, that’s her!”
“Cool. The one problem is that she lives in Georgia. It would be inconvenient.
Plus, I can’t just say to my mom, ‘hey, I’m going to make a quick trip to Georgia,
okay?’ It just wouldn’t work that way.”
“Couldn’t you just text her or something?” I asked. “Just tell her that you’re
sending someone who can help her find her friend.”
“But she’s going to want to know how I knew.” She countered. I was getting
kind of annoyed.
“Then for goodness’ sake just ask her about her life and stuff like that and
gradually she’ll bring it up!” She sighed.
“I don’t know how I always get pulled into your mystical magical messes. Fine,
I’ll do it, but I don’t know if it’ll work.” She pulled out her phone and sent a text
message.
37
“Done,” she pronounced, “but I can’t promise it’ll work.” I hugged her.
“Thank you so much, Molly!” Just then my own phone rang. (Yes, Amber, I
know my ringtone was ‘ROLLING IN THE DEEP’.)
“Hello,” I said cheerfully, “this is Charlie the Great!”
“CHARLOTTE LEE LOUIS, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? YOU GET YOURSELF
BACK TO THE ACADEMY RIGHT THIS SECOND!” Astrid’s angry voice yelled so loud
that Molly could hear. Surprisingly, though, she just hung up before I could even say
anything.
“Uh, well, that was Astrid and she said,” Molly smiled,
“I heard,” I laughed. “Yeah, well, thanks. Text me when you get a reply from
her.” As I made my way out the door I yelled,
“Bye Sara, Sam, Mr. Max and Mrs. Sally. Thanks for having me for like, less
than five minutes!” I grabbed the bike (oh, Alex just walked in and told me that it was
Felix’s. Thanks for the info, Alex) and biked home in record time. Astrid had really
sounded upset, and she was generally an easygoing person. When I reached the
Academy, I leapt off the bike before it even stopped moving and it crashed into the
wall and I ran into the lobby with its waxed floors. (And no, I don’t wax the floors
when I get in trouble, and stop saying that I get in trouble a lot, Alex, it may be true
but you don’t need to tell everyone.)
I dashed upstairs, or rather up the elevator, to the commons area. Astrid was
sitting there with a smoldering look on her face, with tear streaks on her cheeks.
That seriously scared me. Astrid was a hard-cored New York girl and a Broadway
actress. For a while when she was younger and you asked her how a rehearsal was
she would answer “Good, I learned a couple new cuss words today.” So I wasn’t
expecting her to be crying over anything.
“Astrid, what’s the matter?”
She looked up.
“What’s the matter? The matter is you snuck off to your friend’s house and left
us to deal with the Sorceress who almost killed Dr. K, got herself thrown into the
dungeon and got Riley and I grounded for six months. Nice, Charlie, nice. I can't
believe I fought against Christopher for a girl who is either a liar, or a traitor, or both.
I can't believe you tricked us, Charlie.” All conversation in the room ceased. I don’t
think I had ever been so surprised.
38
“What? Amber nearly killed Dr. K, got herself, what?” Astrid glared at me and
stalked out of the room, pushing past Riley who was entering. He followed her with
his eyes and looked at me.
“I heard her mouthing off to you, Charlie.” I blushed.
“Yeah, what was that about?” He smiled. He reminded me so much of his stepbrother Micah that it made me want to give him a big hug, but that would’ve been
super awkward because I knew that he had a ‘half crush’ on Astrid. He sat on a sofa
in the commons and motioned me to sit next to him.
“You see, Amber and Dr. K started to yell at each other...something about
someone dying and all that rot. Then she blasted him with something suspicious
looking, then he almost died, but Astrid saved him, then he banished her to the
dungeon and got mad at me and Astrid for bringing her. He didn’t believe us when we
told him that you and Alex brought her here. So yeah, we’re on kitchen duty, room
inspection, bathroom cleanup, waxing the floors, cleaning the commons, no lights
past eleven, no parties except on Friday nights, you know, the usual punishments,
for six months. Not fun.” He ticked of the chores on his fingers.
“Oh,” was all I could manage. “I have to go talk to Dr. K.” I said jumping up.
“Whoa, wait a couple moments, Charlie” Riley pulled me back down again.
“He’s in recuperation. He got blasted pretty hard.”
“Fine, but I’ve got to go see Amber then and see what the deal is.” Riley
shrugged,
“Alright, but be careful. And Charlie, I don’t blame you for what happened, and
I don’t think that Astrid really meant what she said.” I half-smiled.
“Thanks, Riley,” and headed down to the dungeons.
39
Chapter 9 Amber I Discover that Prison Cells Smell Terrible...
A cockroach scuttled across my foot. As it did so, I could sense its thoughts
‘Food, family, food, family food, food family ’ and weird stuff like that. Being a
Sorceress, I understand gross and creepy critters like roaches. I heard a clang from
up ahead and someone came walking towards my cell. I tried to resume my dignity.
It was Charlie, thankfully, so maybe she would understand my situation.
“Hey,” she said quietly, “what just happened? I think I’m missing a link
somewhere.” I sighed gloomily. “Alright, out with it.” She said.
“I’m sorry; I know that everyone hates you now.” I said.
“No,” she interrupted, “just my best friend.”
“Great” I said, “that makes me feel much better.” She sat down on the damp
floor outside my cell.
“So what happened?” I came out with the truth.
“Fine,” I said, “You see, Dr. K didn’t trust me, just like everyone else. Then
suddenly he noticed the shape of my Mark, and he realized I was the Great
Enchantress’ daughter and he started to go on about how it was great he was
because he was one of the ones who helped killed her, which by the way is a lie, and
after a while I lost my temper and blasted him and--”
“With what?” She interrupted. “All Riley told me was that it was something
suspicious looking.” I cleared my throat.
“Just something, uh, anyway, it almost killed him, but then he got mad at me,
then well, I was sent down here.” I gestured around the dungeon. She sighed and
banged her head on the wall.
“Come on, Amber, you knew you had to be good!” I felt myself blushing in the
dim light.
“I know I did, but I couldn’t help myself. I’m sorry, Charlie.”
“Yeah, well now I have to go clear your name, fix my friendship with Astrid,
make sure Dr. K doesn’t die...make sure you don’t blow up anything...” She got up to
go. “I have to get to lunch and see if Astrid poisoned my food. Catch you later.” She
left, her footsteps echoing off the cold stone floor of the passageway.
40
“I promise not to blow anything up!” I yelled after her, as if that would make
things better (which of course it didn’t). I looked at the rat who was sitting on his
hind legs in the corner of my cell.
“What are you looking at?” I asked it grouchily. It scurried over to me and
nuzzled my hand with its head.
‘Food, need food! Help me oh mighty Sorceress, mother to rats!’ I pulled away.
“Eww, I am most definitely not your mother. I’m sorry, but I don’t have any
food.” It cocked its head sideways and touched me with its nose.
But you are the mighty Sorceress, the last to your kind! Need food! I have
twenty-one children at home who need food! Help me, kind one! He was so pitiful I
felt bad. I waved my hand reluctantly and a hunk of bread and a slab of cheese
appeared.
“Bring your children here to eat.” I told it. It did something that may have been
a bow and dashed off. Soon it came back with a procession of little rats and another
big rat at the end. One by one, the little rats came by, bowed or curtsied, then ran
over to the food. The first rat came by last.
Thank you, great and wondrous Sorceress, then ran to join his family.
“Bye,” I whispered faintly, then turned over and fell asleep to the gentle lull of
rats singing.
41
Chapter 10 ...But Not as Terrible as Fried Rats
When I woke up, the rat family was gone, and so was the food I had
summoned. I looked around me and saw I was being watched by the kid who fought
with Astrid the other day, Christopher. He glared at me and I glared back. We had a
fifteen minute long glaring contest before a rat scurried past. Maybe it was my friend
from the night before, but I didn’t know. Christopher started at the sight and nearly
fell off the stool he was sitting on. Finally I asked,
“What are you doing here? Haven’t you caused enough havoc?” He smirked.
“Haven’t you caused enough havoc? Dr. K isn’t doing well and we have a war
to fight, you know. Why did you have to be so stupid? Why didn’t you just act like a
real Sorceress? Everyone knows Sorceresses don’t lose their tempers so easily like
that.” I turned away.
“Go away.”
“I can't. I’m on ‘guard the stupid traitor Sorceress’ duty, its part of my
punishment.” He said.
“What did you do?” I asked, smirking. He scoffed.
“Nothing as bad as nearly killing our leader and the only adult over twentyeight, I can tell you that. All I did was almost kill an eight year old on accident.”
“Oh, great, that’s so much better!” I said sarcastically. “But seriously, go
away.” He smiled coldly.
“But I’m afraid I can't do that. And don’t try any magic.” He said as I raised my
hand to cast a spell. “We’ve injected you with something to keep your Mark from
working correctly, so if you do magic, it’ll backfire.” I stumbled backward. All my life,
I had had magic to protect me, making myself fearless. But here, in the face of a
powerful Magician, I had no magic whatsoever, I felt exposed, vulnerable, and I felt
something that, at the time, I didn’t recognize – fear. He smiled eerily again and
picked up his wand. I’ll admit it, I cringed. This gave him great satisfaction. He
twirled it between his fingers.
“So,” he said, “making friends with the rats?” He was taunting me, but I made
it backfire. A slight plan began to form in the back of my mind.
“Yes, actually.” I sent a mental message to my little rat friends. Suddenly
there was a lot of squeaking noises. Christopher stood up suddenly alert.
42
“What’s that noise?” He asked. It was my turn to smile eerily.
“Christopher, meet my friends, the rats!” Sure, it would’ve sounded a lot more
impressive if I wasn’t sitting there, filthy and not powerful, but it was all I could do.
Just then, twenty-three rats streamed from the walls of my cell. I was hoping that
that would scare Christopher away, but I had forgotten his wand. He held it up and
with a sizzle, twenty-one of the rats lay dead. The other two made frightened
squeaking noises and ran up my legs and into my hair. I patted them and a tear fell
from my eye and picked up the poor dead rats that had once been my friends.
“You idiot, what have you done!?” I screamed. The two rats nuzzled deeper
into my hair. I sensed their thoughts.
We are Bob and Bobalina. Help us poor unfortunate orphans! I patted them
again and turned toward Christopher. Maybe if I used reverse psychology I could at
least turn him blue or something. Unfortunately Christopher could read minds.
“Reverse psychology won’t work either. If I were you I wouldn’t resist.
Chances are we won’t kill you, if you don’t resist, we’ll probably just remove your
Mark or something like that.”
“Remove my...you can't do that!” I screamed as my hand flew to my neck. He
sighed.
“There’s nothing you can do about it because the chemical we injected you
with doesn’t wear off, and you can't do anything to stop us until it’s removed, and
only we can do that.” I’ll admit it (as soon as Alex leaves the room. Is he gone?
Okay,) I was scared.
“So you’re just going to leave me in the dungeon for forever? That seems kind
of strange, if you ask me.” He zapped a roach that was scurrying past and
responded,
“But I’m not asking you, so you can just shut up.” He sighed and shifted
himself on his stool. I stomped around my cell angrily, like a lioness in a zoo cage.
(Good point, Alex. I haven’t ever been to a zoo...). Bob and Bobalina stirred in my
hair.
Feed us! One begged. We are hungry! I sighed, close to tears, and sat in the
corner of the cell and explained through connections,
I can’t feed you. They’ve taken my magic. They are evil Magicians. Why are
your names Bob and Bobalina?
43
We do not know, but we are rats. Can we eat the evil Magicians? A different
voice asked in my head.
I am Bobalina. Bob, you are a clown. Of course we cannot eat them! They just
killed Tia, Tom, Molly, Moe, Joey, Joe, Mom, Dad, and, well, you know, the rest. I
patted them again. Christopher and I had another glaring contest.
Finally, after a while, a different magician came to take over the ‘guard the
stupid traitor Sorceress’ duty. Finally, I drifted back to sleep.
44
Chapter 11 Charlie In Which There is a Lot of Glaring (Mainly at Alex)
Hi! This is Charlie the Great! I do love Bob and Bobalina, Amber’s little rat
friends, don’t you? Yeah, well, anyway, on with the story, as Alex is telling me while
poking me.
I fidgeted on my chair as I waited to be allowed into the infirmary to see Dr. K.
As I waited, I flipped through a magazine. It featured a whole three pages to
Broadway and Astrid made seven appearances per page. It showed her in costume,
in casual clothes, in fancy clothes, with other dudes and by herself. Every picture
reminded me of how she was furious with me. Again I felt like slapping myself in the
face for being so stupid. Finally Lucy came out and said,
“Okay, we’re finished with the needles so you won’t faint now. Come on in, but
don’t make him upset, okay?” I agreed to her terms and went inside.
The infirmary is pure white. White walls, white furniture, white floor, white
sheets, white candles that smelled like vanilla, I hope you get the point by now. I
made my way to the only occupied bed at the far end of the room. Dr. K lay there,
covered be the white sheets grumbling at the girls who were fussing over him. He
wasn’t quite his jovial self, but he was still a pretty good sport.
“No, you don’t use that spell for my condition and you know it! No, Lindy, I
won’t have myself treated by my own students without telling them what to do. Wait,
is that Charlie?” An uneasy grin spread across my face.
“Hey, Dr. K. How are you doing?”
“Just fine, but no one seems to believe me.” He said looking pointedly in Lindy
and Lucy’s direction. They giggled and blushed and whispered to each other. My grin
became more natural. Dr. K turned back to me.
“Now don’t you be upset about that Sorceress. Did you know Astrid and Riley
had the nerve to blame her on you and Alex? Well I know it wasn’t your fault kiddo.
So you don’t need to worry.” I looked down at my sparkly Converse and made my
confession.
“The thing is, sir, is that it was me and Alex who brought her here.” The buzz
of the girls stopped. Even the sound in the room sounded white, if that makes any
sense at all which it doesn’t. Dr. K’s face turned from red, to green, to purple, to
white.
45
“What is this folly?” He yelled. He had a strange habit of speaking in a strange
way when upset. Lindy began fanning herself with her hands saying.
“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” over and over again. I felt like crying.
“Dr. K, she said she was going to help us, I’m sorry, she really said so.” He
closed his eyes and rubbed them with his big hands.
“I know honey, but I can't believe you brought a Sorceress here. I thought
you’d know better. Sorceresses are famous for their trickery, didn’t you know that?” I
blushed because I hadn’t known that – until now.
“Listen, Dr. K, I didn’t expect this. I just lost my best friend and was betrayed
by a girl I thought I’d be good friends with, so please don’t make me feel worse. Just
transfer Riley and Astrid’s punishment over to me and Alex and be done with the
whole thing.” Dr. K studied me with eyes that could see through walls. (No, not
literally, Alex, how could you really think that?)
“Alright,” he said, “go find Astrid and Riley.” I nodded as tears of painful
embarrassment stung my eyes. I blundered out of the infirmary and down the hallway
back to the commons. Riley was there flirting with some new girl. She was giggling
and blushing so her face was bright red.
“Riley,” I snapped. “Get over here. Dr. K wants to talk to you.” He smiled all
sweet and sugary at the girl and headed towards me.
“What’s up?” I glared at him. When I get upset I get mad.
“Dr. K wants to talk to me and you and Astrid and Alex. Come on and help me
find everybody else. You go find Alex and I’ll – you know what, you get Astrid, I’ll get
Alex. I’ve no desire to die today.” He shrugged.
“It’s up to you. If you want I’ll get Astrid.” With that, we parted ways and I
marched angrily down the hallway.
I found my brother playing ‘Call of Duty’ with a bunch of other weird guys in
the ‘Study Room’. Nobody actually studied there. No one even tried to study there;
they just went straight to the library. I went to the mini refrigerator and grabbed a
Coke because I needed caffeine. After taking a couple of sips I yelled at my brother,
“Alex, Dr. K wants to see us about her. So hurry up and say goodbye to
your little friends.” The other guys all laughed and elbowed each other until someone
elbowed Alex. That’s the way guys are, I suppose, but they sure were weird, and
disturbing, and....anyway. He pulled on his shoes (why do guys always take of their
46
shoes to play video games? (No, Alex, that was not an invitation to stick your feet in
my face. And honestly, I really don’t care why, I was just saying it. Now be quiet.)
And walked over to me from his mob of friends.
“What’s up?” He asked. Why do guys always say that?
“We’re grounded,” I explained concisely.
“Why?” He asked.
“Because of your stupid crush on the stupid Sorceress, I told you it wouldn’t
end well!” He sighed.
“I don’t like her Charlie; I thought I made that quite clear.” I smirked.
“Oh sure, I totally believe you. Now come one, or we’ll be even more
grounded.” We left the boys yelling at a TV and went back to the infirmary. Astrid and
Riley were sitting in the waiting room. They were laughing at pictures of Astrid on
Broadway. That hurt me a little because that was what Astrid and I did at
sleepovers, and now she was ditching me for a boy. Astrid didn’t even like boys. Only
Riley acknowledged us.
“Hullo,” Only Alex acknowledged them.
“Hi!” Riley poked Astrid.
“Say hullo to your best friend. Come on, say it.” She glared at me and said to
Alex,
“Tell your sister to go away.” Poor Alex was confused.
“Um, why?” But with a single glance from Astrid he turned to me and said,
“Uh, Astrid wants you to go away.” I glared at him, poor guy, getting glared at by
everybody. Lindy came out again.
“Okay guys, he’s ready to see you.” She led the way to his bedside and
carefully removed a needle from his arm. Because I was very sensitive to needles I
promptly fell backwards from wooziness into Astrid’s arms. She dumped me on the
floor giving me a nice sized bump on my head. Alex picked me up and led me to the
chair at Dr. K’s bedside. He examined us.
“Hi kids,” We all mumbled some sort of greeting half-heartedly. He continued,
“So I don’t like to punish you, but two of you have violated code twenty-one and put
all of us in serious danger. Now the punishment will be reduced to three months if
someone will confess.” Alex and I spoke at the same exact millisecond,
47
“We did, Sir, but we’re sorry.” He smiled half-heartedly.
“Thank you guys. Riley and Astrid,” he addressed them, “You’re punishment
has been removed and transferred to Alex and Charlie.” Astrid looked happier until
he continued,
“But it will be reduced to three months. Now, I’m kind of tired, so you guys can
go. Lindy, could I have some water?” Lindy grabbed a glass and said,
“Of course, Mr. Kevin. Bye, guys!” In a little too pointed way. So we turned
away and left the room. Astrid, who was still ignoring me even though she wasn’t
punished anymore, asked Riley,
“Do you want to finish our project?” Riley grinned.
“Of course, now this time I want you to wear your longest fancy black dress
and your red Converse high-tops.” She shrugged.
“Whatever you say,” and left. Riley turned to me.
“I’m sorry she’s giving you the cold shoulder. I’m sure she’ll buck up later on,
just give her some time to cool down. You can’t get to the good cookie when it’s hot,
now can you?” I was confused, so I just nodded, smiled, and said,
“Oh yes, I totally understand what you’re saying.” He went off in the direction
of the backyard. I looked at Alex.
“I hope that she doesn’t shun me forever. She was going to let me come to her
premier of The Wizard of Oz.” He frowned at me.
“You want to be friends with her just for that?”
“No, no, not at all!” I squealed. “I want to be friends because she’s an
awesome person, not just for the premier.” He sighed.
“Okay, now I’ve got to get back to my Call of Duty party. See you round, sis.”
He left me standing there outside the infirmary.
48
Chapter 12 Charlie in Which There is More Glaring (But Mainly at Me)
I wondered aimlessly through the hallways with my iPod plugged in waiting for
something interesting to happen. Also, I was trying to devise a plan for freeing
Amber from jail. Unlike everyone else, I knew how little a chance we had to win the
upcoming battle. Some of the younger Magicians didn’t even know that there was
going to be a battle. They just continued their lives of learning how to turn their
friends into mice and stuff. As I walked, I accidently rammed into Patsy in the
hallway, making her drop a bunch of books she was carrying on the floor.
But before I continue, you’ll have to know Patsy. Being the Spirit of Parrots,
she had red hair, but not orange-red, but red like a tomato-red. It was as straight as a
board and reached her mid-back. She had big, black eyes like a bird’s and was fairly
short and super skinny. She dressed in bright colors and ninety-nine point nine
percent of her shirts would say ‘SAVE THE ENDANGERED TOUCANS’ or something to
that effect because her favorite cousin was the toucan spirit. Other than these
details she looked like a normal teenager of about sixteen or seventeen. She is to me
like the older sister I never had. She was pretty cool.
“Rah!” She squawked. “Charlie, what are you doing?” I bent to scoop up her
books for her.
“Patsy, oh my goodness, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t paying attention. Here, let me
carry your books for you.”
“Thanks, I was just on my way to teach a voice lesson and then go and study
my Biology.”
“Okay, I’ll come with you, it’s not like I have anything better to do.”
“Cool,” she responded, “that’ll be fun.” I carried her books for her and she
chose songs on my iPod for us to listen to and we laughed about boys and Astrid’s
newest designer dress by some famous French lady with a long, hard to pronounce
name.
“And then,” she said, telling me about the dress that Astrid had just gotten,
“she put it on and walked out,” she paused to laugh some more, “and then she fell
over and the sleeve fell of and then the torso fell half the way off.” I laughed.
“Astrid should be a comedian. Wait, she didn’t plan that, I don’t think. I wish I
could see the dress.”
49
“Yeah, its really pretty...with a few adjustments. Wait, why can't you see it?
You’re the ‘OFFICIAL BEST FRIEND OF ASTRID’.” I shifted Patsy’s voice books to my
other arm.
“Well she’s kind of mad at me at the moment.” We walked in silence for a
while. Then Patsy asked,
“Why is she mad at you?”
“Well, you see, um,” she morphed into parrot form. That was her way of
making it easier for people to tell secrets. I mean, it’s like talking to a parrot...well
technically it is talking to parrot. Anyway.
“Well, I brought – well Alex brought, this Sorceress here – to the academy, oh
gosh, do I have to explain?” Patsy the Parrot alighted on my shoulder. It’s strange
having your seventeen year old friend who was like your sister sitting on your
shoulder.
“Rah!” her Parrot voice was a lot raspier than her human voice. “No, but I
might help. Rah, I might help!” I smiled and wished I had a cracker – Patsy loved
those when she was in bird form.
“Well, the Sorceress, who had seemed completely loyal and honest and well,
nice! But then, she almost killed Dr. K and the Sorceress is in the jail but Astrid and
Riley got blamed because I asked them to introduce her to Dr. K and so they thought
that they brought her and they got punished.” I stopped for air. “But now the
punishment got transferred to Alex and me but Astrid is still mad at me.” Patsy flew
of my shoulder and morphed back into human form.
“Well,” she said, selecting a song on my iPod, “just give her time.” I grumbled,
“Yeah, I heard that. You can't get to the good cookie while it’s hot.” Patsy
looked at me strangely.
“So...you’re calling Astrid a cookie?” I shoved her to the side and changed the
song on the iPod.
“Whatever,” we entered the Music Room. Since it was Saturday, hardly anyone
was in there except for three hard core musicians who were known in the academy
as ‘the treble C strings’. Their names were Calvin, Cal, and Chris (not the same as
Christopher). They were a string quartet with a cello, violin and guitar and they were
absolutely amazing and practiced every day, literally.
50
Patsy led the way to a private piano studio where she taught her students.
Maria was waiting there for her lesson. I returned Patsy’s book to her and waved
goodbye as I wandered the room listening to the Treble C Strings. Calvin caught
sight of me.
“Hey Charlie, could you play the piano in this one piece for us?” Since my
name started with a C and I played the piano I qualified to play the accompaniment
for them from time to time.
“Um, I’ll think about it, but I’m not sure.” I answered. They nodded and
continued their playing. I sat at a piano and plucked out few notes but couldn’t make
myself actually practice. In the background I heard Maria singing soprano so high it
could break glass. I heard her stop and Patsy squawked in agony of the highness of
Maria’s voice. I laughed. It felt good to laugh since I had been under so much stress
with the whole stupid traitor Sorceress ordeal.
When Patsy was done, we walked to the library so Patsy could study her
Biology. Of course, I didn’t study anything. I never studied anything when I didn’t
have to...unlike Patsy. In short, I spent more time wandering around, picking up
random books and reading random parts. I’m a random person, okay? Then Astrid
entered the library with Riley, laughing and looking at pictures on Riley’s camera.
“Oh, I like that one!” Riley said, choking on his laughter. Astrid made a face,
laughed and pushed away the camera.
“Ugh, not that one, I look like some sort of clown!”
“No, no, that one’s great! Your expression is priceless!” She laughed.
“No, I refuse to have that one publicly posted. Next picture, hurry up!” He
laughed. He caught sight of me.
“Let’s go this way.” He suggested, taking Astrid’s arm and steering her
towards me. She took his arm and steered him in the opposite direction.
“Let’s not,” they went back and forth a few times, walking in a zigzag line.
Finally, Riley lost his patience and tugged her over to me.
“Now talk,” he ordered us. Astrid sighed and looked at him like, ‘how could
you?’ and looked at me like ‘I hate you’. “Talk,” Riley ordered again. Astrid folded her
arms and glared at me.
“I don’t want to talk to her!” He sighed.
51
“Come on, Astrid, she’s the best friend you’ve ever had! I may be cooler, but
she’s, like, your best friend ever!” She glared at me some more. Finally I broke the
silence – but only to get away from Astrid’s frigid stares.
“Look Astrid, I don’t get why you’re so mad at me since I cleared up the whole
thing and I’m now the one punished. I don’t like it when you’re mad at me, so...” I
didn’t know what else to say so I left it at that. She smirked, looking for a second
like her cousin Christopher.
“Well,” she said, “maybe this will clear things up. YOU BROUGHT THE
SORCERESS HERE! I HAD TO USE MY MOST POWERFUL SPELL A HEALER CAN
POSSESS BECAUSE SHE ALMOST KILLED DR. K! DOES THAT CLEAR THINGS UP?” I
was pretty stunned. Riley was just as stunned as I, if not more.
“Whoa, whoa, guys, Astrid, there’s no reason to yell, Charlie, you shouldn’t
have done that. Now that’s all cleared up, you guys give each other a big hug and
you’ll be best friends again.” But Astrid was not about to ‘give me a big hug and
become my best friend’ again anytime soon. Riley could feel the tension, I’m sure. He
stepped between us.
“Alright,” he said his voice calmer than usual. “I’m sure, Astrid, that you’re
quite angry at Charlie because she got us in trouble. But you’ve got to understand
that she’s sorry and that she’s now punished instead of us so it’s fine now. You’ve
got to accept the apology and move on!” His voice rose slightly and he sounded more
heated, like he was getting frustrated. “Now just stop being so stupid and make up
with her!” It was Astrid’s turn to be shocked. She turned at him.
“Did you seriously just call me stupid?” He blushed.
“I didn’t mean you were stupid, I just meant,” She pushed past him for the
second time that day.
“I know what you mean. I thought you were my friend, Riley. Now I see that
you’re on her side. Fine, you go and have fun.” He rubbed his face and ran his hand
through his hair.
“Astrid, that’s not what I meant, I was just trying to help.” But she ran out of
the library without a single word to him or me.
I stomped out, leaving by the opposite door and completely forgetting Patsy. I
stomped all the way to the infirmary. I needed to get Amber out of the prisons so that
I could actually say I accomplished something that day.
52
This page isn’t cooperating. Sorry.
53
Chapter 13 Amber I Do Some Good Thinking While Charlie Sleeps
I sat there with nothing to do waiting for something interesting to do. Not that
there’s anything particularly interesting about being in prison except when
Christopher had to watch me because then I could yell at him and that was better
than doing nothing. My new guard was as petrified of me as Christopher was not
petrified of me. She was also scared of Bob and Bobalina who had taken refuge in my
hair. My hair was a rat’s nest...literally. (Alex didn’t get that joke. You see, Alex,
people make jokes about their messy hair being ‘rat’s nests’, but Bob and Bobalina
were actually...oh, well, he just left shaking his head. Poor Alex).
So my guard, whose name was Sally, sat as far away as possible whimpering
and pointing her wand at me, trying to look threatening and failing miserably. Then I
heard the huge metal door at the end of the corridor opening with creaking that
made my ears want to explode. Charlie marched up and pushed Sally out of the way
and grabbed the keys. Sally made no move to resist. She just sat there and
whimpered.
“Dr. K has decided to let you go.” I was elated. She continued, “But on one
condition. You have to sign a peace treaty kind of thing.” She presented me with a
fairly large sheet of paper and a pen. “Now sign it,” she commanded. I read it
carefully. It commanded me to never fight against someone in the Academy and a
bunch of other stupid rules. I signed it with a shaky hand. Charlie gave me a big hug.
“Don’t ever do that again. I’m totally friendless right now. Well, not literally,
but you get the point. Let’s go. The second-in-command has ordered some extra
history class and – whoa! There are rats in your hair.” I stomped on my own foot.
“Yeah, they’re a couple of orphans I picked up.” I grabbed them out and put
them down.
“Bye guys, I’ll see you later!” Their whiskery, furry chins quivered. Who knew
that rats cried? I turned and walked brusquely away towards the elevator that led
from underground to the main floor, also known as the Commons. Once we got there,
Charlie turned around and marched to my room.
“You cannot wear that to class.” She pronounced, looking at my dusty and
wrinkly clothes. She grabbed some jeans, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt out of the closet
and made me put them on.
“Basically,” she explained while leading me to one of the many classrooms in
the Academy, “the second in command after Dr. K, his name is Mr. Steve, and is a
history maniac and whenever he gets to be in charge he orders extra history classes.
54
So that is why we have to go to the stupid class on a Saturday.” She seemed pretty
mad. I didn’t mind classes since I didn’t know much about Magicians; I figured it
would be a pretty fun thing to do.
There were fifteen kids in our class because Mr. Steve loved to teach so he
split up the Academy of tons of kids into tons of different classes so he could teach a
lot.
Mr. Steve was a short little man with big glasses and big teeth to match. He
was wearing a dark green and light green striped polo like Steve from Blue’s Clues,
that little kids’ show. He seemed very spastic and excited about Magician History
Class in the same way us teenagers get excited about our favorite artists’ concerts.
When we were all seated, he turned towards us with a big grin on his face.
“Hey guys! We’re going to have the greatest time ever! Now everyone, let’s
talk about war history. Everybody loves war history. Okay, who’s ready?” No one
answered. He began rambling about the greatest Magician heroes, like Carinthia, or
Loren, or Bobbi.
“Carinthia was the greatest Magician hero of all time! Aided by the clearsighted mortal, Eve, she defeated one of the strongest giants ever known to us.” I
looked over at Charlie. She was asleep with her red and blue hair covering her face.
Mr. Steve continued rambling, “And them, of course, there was the mighty Loren, the
slayer of the magnificent Teragain, the hugest ogre that ever plagued the hills of
Arkansas! Of course, he was guided through Arkansas by a native, Cindy, who was a
mortal, and ended up marrying her! Then Bobbi who was a great Magician spy and
his mortal girlfriend Sarah found the Hags that have multiplied and whose offspring
still roam America today! Fascinating, isn’t it? Oh and how could I forget Carly?” I
was about to fall asleep too when something in my mind clicked. Something that
would help us win the war. I sat bolt upright and raised my hand.
“Mr. Steve, did every great hero have a mortal accomplice?” Mr. Steve rubbed
the goatee that he thought he had but didn’t.
“Well, come to think of it, they all did. Good thinking, Amber! Now, moving
on...” But I wasn’t listening; I was planning how to put my plan into action.
The minute Mr. Steve let us out of class I grabbed Charlie by the curls and
pulled her into the Commons.
55
“I’ve got an idea! Look, Mr. Steve’s lecture said that every great Magician hero
had a mortal accomplice! What we need in this war isn’t necessarily a Sorceress, it’s
a mortal!” I grabbed a sheet of paper that was lying on a coffee table and a pencil
that was stowed in my hair and drew something like this.
Carinthia
- Eve -
Bobbi Sarah
Loren Cindy
“So basically,” I explained, pointing to my colorful diagram, “the three
greatest heroes all had female mortals to help them complete their missions. There’s
some sort of link. I’m not sure what, but we need a mortal, and preferably a female
mortal, to help us. What trustworthy mortals do you know?” Charlie snapped her
fingers.
“I need to find Astrid right now! We’ve got to find her right now!” I looked at
her.
“Why?” She sighed.
“I forgot that you didn’t know my dream.” She explained to me about her
dream and about Lydia, Elaine, the clear-sighted JB and Eden. Who knew what that
was about, but for sure, they had something to do with us or else Charlie wouldn’t
have had that dream.
“So are you saying,” I asked her, “that we are supposed to help these mortals
and in turn they’ll help us?” Charlie lay back on the couch and looked thoughtful. She
looked thoughtful for so long that finally I realized she had fallen back asleep. I
poked her and she jumped up in the air yelling,
56
“I’m awake, I’m awake! Um, mortals, dream, oh yeah! Yes, I do think that that
is what we should do and now we need to find some more information about these
guys so we can find them. But first, I have to sleep just a little more...” and she
dozed off before I could even poke her. But fortunately I could poke her whenever I
wanted to. So I did. She sighed and sat up.
“Okay, okay, I’ll wake up. What we need to do is call an Elementalist Meeting.
That’s when the main Elementalist people get together and have a meeting, in case
you didn’t know what that is. I’m an Elementalist in Fire. I’m pretty cool.” She twirled
her wand around her fingers and made her way towards the booth with a
loudspeaker and yelled,
“HEY, ELEMENTALIST MEETING EVERYBODY MEETS IN THE INFIRMARY SO
WE CAN TALK WITH DR. K! SEE YOU!” Several people started heading in that
direction.
“What exactly is an Elementalist, exactly?” I asked. Charlie twirled her wand
into her hair.
“Well, they are the masters of the Elements. The Elements are Fire, Water,
Wind, Earth, uh, let’s see, Snow, and something else that I can't remember. I’m a
master of Fire, Astrid is of Water, Riley is, well I think he’s Fire, like me, but I could
be wrong, oh, wait, no, he’s wind, and Alex is Earth, Lucy is Snow, Christopher is
Master of two elements, Fire and Snow, and I don’t remember anybody else’s.” With
that, we started for the Infirmary to have the Elementalist Meeting.
57
Chapter 14 Amber the Elementalist Meeting
About ten people were sitting around Dr. K’s Infirmary bed, murmuring ‘why
are we here? Can we leave? I’m going to blow you up if you don’t stop poking me!’
Finally Dr. K called order. Lindy handed him a clipboard and he began calling role.
“Astrid Pérez, Water, Riley Thomas, Wind, Alex Louis, Earth, Charlie Louis,
Fire, Lucy Parrish, Snow, Carson Johnson, Snow, Christopher Pérez, Fire and Snow,
Terry Severs, Earth, Steven Johnson, Water. And of course we have our guest and
ally, Amber, Sorceress.” He said the last part reluctantly, as if there was still one
little part in his mind that didn’t trust me. “Alright,” he continued, “we’re all here.
What was the purpose of the meeting?” Charlie poked me and said,
“Amber has made a very useful observation. Every great hero in Magician’s
history has had a mortal accomplice.” She poked me again for no reason. “Show
them the chart,” she commanded me. I laid my ratty piece of paper on Dr. K’s side
table.
“See, in every great history event, the hero, or heroine, has had a female
human to help them. I’m still not sure, but it looks like you guys don’t necessarily
need me to win this war, but you do need some mortals. I’m not sure if they have to
be girls, but we need mortals.” Dr. K raised his eyebrows.
“Well,” he said, “I can see where you’re going with this, but who are you
suggesting we team up with?” I shrugged, but Astrid and Charlie looked at each
other and Astrid said,
“I know exactly who we need. Look Dr. K, the other night, the night Alex,
Charlie, Amber and I got here, Charlie had this dream. It was these two girls, talking
about one of their friends who had been kidnapped by an ‘old lady’ who we’re
guessing was a Hag. We were led to believe that the girl who was kidnapped had the
sight and knew something that would be dangerous to the other side if we knew it.”
Riley leaned forward and said,
“So, you’re saying that you think the kidnapped girl, let’s call her Jane Doe,
had some information that we could use?” Carson, who was a spastic ten year old,
jumped up and down and said,
“Ooh, ooh! I know, she knew, somehow, in the very back of her brain, that
there are Magicians and stuff, and-” but Alex cut him off in his excitement,
“-and was trying to figure out what was going on, she was trying to help us! Oh
my gosh, we’ve got to figure out what’s going on!” Dr. K held up his big hands.
58
“Hold it, no one has ever known, how could it be possible?” Everyone began
talking at once, yelling, arguing, trying to figure out what was going on, etc. Then
Christopher for the first time spoke.
“Guys,” he said, and everyone was silent and looked at him. “Have you ever
thought that maybe this girl was different? I think she knew.” Astrid scoffed.
“Why would you think that?” She asked. Christopher rolled his eyes and
muttered something under his breath, then said,
“Well, I knew this girl. I was in at this fine arts conference last spring and we
got to know each other. She was definitely different, and I think she even suspected
I was a Magician, and believe me, I practiced no magic there. She even dropped
hints that she suspected.” Dr. K looked shocked, then amended,
“Well, I suppose you kiddos must be right. We’ve got to find her and her
friends. I want four of you to go, um, how about Christopher, Charlie, Astrid and
Alex?” Groans erupted from everybody except for the ones chosen. Even I was
disappointed. Lindy, the Academy nurse, shooed us all out so Dr. K could rest. I had a
tingling feeling all over. An adventure was coming.
59
Chapter 15 Charlie Yet Another Sadly Short Chapter in Which I Black Out
As soon as I got out of the Elementalist Meeting, I headed straight for Astrid.
If we were the two girls going we couldn’t be mad at each other.
“Astrid,” I said, coming up beside her. “We need to talk.” She kept walking
brusquely ahead. I grabbed her arm and spun her around to face me. She glared and
said,
“Look Charlie, I thought I made my point very clear. I’m mad at you.” I rolled
my eyes.
“Well DUH YOU’RE MAD AT ME!” I yelled, “Look, you can't stay mad at me
forever! You’re out of the punishment; I’m punished now, so why are you still mad at
me?” She sighed and sat down on the floor.
“I’m mad at you because I’m all out of Magic until Dr. K is completely healed.”
I looked at her sharply.
“What?” She combed her fingers through her thick hair and explained,
“The spell I used is continually keeping Dr. K from dying. In a way, I’m still
casting a spell. Basically, until the spell is done I can't do any magic at all. Do you
get it now?” The fact is I did get it.
“Yeah,” I said quietly. “But honestly, it wasn’t my idea or choice to bring
Amber here. And I know she’s sorry that she blasted Dr. K like that. She signed a
peace treaty thingy and everything. She’s on our side! Come on, Astrid, stop being
mad at me.” She sighed and looked up at me.
“Oh whatever, you’re impossible to ignore anyway.”
“Good,” I said, giving her a hug, “now you’ve got to make up with Riley.” She
sighed.
“I’ve done that too.” I smiled.
“Of course, you’d make up with him, first. Good, now let’s go make a game
plan to find those people. Somehow, we’ve got to get to Atlanta Georgia in DeKalb
County in less than a day.” Astrid grinned a mischievous grin.
“If I know anything about anything,” she said, “then I can get Maggie to let us
use her portal!” I followed her towards the elevator.
“But what if you don’t know anything about anything?” She sighed,
60
“Then we’ll take the bus...but I do know anything about anything!” She led the
way to Maggie, the maniac inventor obsessive portal old lady’s workshop. Astrid
knocked and yelled into the door,
“Miss Maggie, are home? We’ve got to talk to you about important business,
Dr. K’s orders!” The eccentric old lady opened the door, her greyish white hair
sticking out all over her head.
“What do you want, honey?” She asked grouchily, “I was cleaning my portal.”
Astrid walked inside.
“You’re always cleaning your portal. Can you send us,” she gestured to me and
her, “and Christopher and Alex to a certain church in DeKalb County, Atlanta
Georgia? It’s for a quest.” Maggie squinted.
“No,” she said and tried to push us out the door.
“Whoa, come on, we can't just take the bus all the way to Georgia!” Astrid
whined.
“Believe her,” I muttered, thinking of my earlier experience. Maggie scratched
her head thoughtfully then said,
“No, you can't use my beautiful portal, the prize of my inventions the—” But
Astrid cut her off before she could recite all fifteen titles she had made up for her
portal. I sighed in frustration. Taking the bus from New York City to Atlanta Georgia
was not an experience that I recommended.
“Look, Miss Maggie. We’ve found out how we can probably win this war, but
we need to use the portal.” Maggie looked thoughtful again.
“Well, I guess you can use it...is anyone else coming with you?”
“Just Alex and Christopher.” I said. Maggie scratched her head and said,
“That’s four charges, though! I don’t like this idea.” Astrid sighed and said in
an exasperated tone,
“We HAVE to, okay? Sorry, didn’t mean to be disrespectful there, um,” she
turned to me. “Convince her while I go get the boys, ‘kay? See you,” as you can see,
she didn’t wait for an answer, but just left me there to try to explain our situation to
the old lady.
61
“Um, you see we uh, need to use it, uh, because, uh, oh, just let us use it,
please?” Then Astrid dashed in with Alex and Christopher. Maggie laughed and
rubbed her greasy old hands together.
“Well now, I guess I’ve decided. However you’ll be asleep the whole time!
Who’s ready?” Honestly, I don’t think any of us were. She shoved us all into the
center of her little (okay, big) portal. She flipped a switch and something happened,
and then I was asleep.
62
Chapter 16 Charlie We are Abducted by Aliens (and Attacked by a Xarolot)
When I woke up, I was standing in the same corridor that I had dreamt about.
Alex, Christopher and Astrid all looked at me.
“Why are you looking at me?” I asked, very confused. Christopher pulled out
his iPod and slumped against the wall.
“This was your idea and your plan so yeah.” Astrid slipped her arm through
mine.
“I hear voices up ahead. Let’s go see what’s in there. It must be the people
that we’re looking for.” So we went.
When I entered the room, I saw chaos.
Several kids were yelling at each other while slamming foosball people
around. A few teenage girls were talking quietly on the other side of the room with a
couple of younger women (about twenty-five or so). In the center of the room three
guys were playing pool, and standing at a Ping-Pong table were three people.
Two of them were the two girls I dreamed about, Lydia and Lane. Also, there
was the twenty-six year old guy. Was his name Mickey? We walked in just in time to
see Lydia ‘accidently’ slam a Ping-Pong ball into Mickey’s head. Elaine laughed and
several of the people playing foosball complained because the ball had gotten mixed
up in their game.
The second thing I noticed was Lydia’s lime green jacket. The third was that
everybody had stopped what they were doing a started starring at us.
“Hey guys!” said Mickey, being nice and friendly to us. “Welcome to the youth
group!” We didn’t say anything and the silence got kind of awkward. “Um, what are
your names?” He asked, prompting us to be all nice and friendly and stuff.
“Um, I’m Charlie, and this is my brother Alex and my best friend Astrid and her
cousin Christopher. We’re from--” I was going to continue, but Alex interrupted me
and stepped on my toe.
“Around here. We’re Molly Johnson’s friends.” Lydia raised her eyebrows.
“So you’re Molly’s friends that are supposed to help us with our, um, problem?”
We nodded, except for Christopher because he was listening to his iPod and probably
completely oblivious to our situation. Astrid pulled his iPod away.
63
“Christopher, stop! We’re trying to actually help, you know.” He mumbled
something under his breath and slumped against the wall. Lydia nodded slowly. She
was wearing black skinny jeans, a hot pink shirt that said ‘OH YES I DID’ and lime
green TOMS that matched her lime green Columbia fleece jacket.
“So, how are you supposed to help?” I shifted my weight from one foot to the
other.
“Well, I think we need to talk later, maybe after the youth group is over. Is that
okay?” She nodded.
“’Kay ‘kay!” Elaine stepped in-between us.
“Hold on, Eden is my friend too you know!”
“Well technically we’re all her friends,” said another girl with long dark hair
and brown eyes. Elaine sighed.
“Whatever, but how come you guys don’t talk to me?” Christopher
pickpocketed Astrid and got his iPod back and remarked,
“Because the other one is the elf and elves are cool.” Lydia look disgusted.
“An elf? Really?” Astrid laughed. The tension was a little lighter, but it was
kind of strange. Four teenagers walk in and claim to want to help someone they
didn’t now.
“That was so not me, it was Molly!” I yelled in my defense. Lydia looked very
confused.
“What wasn’t you again? And why is he calling me an elf?” I blushed.
“Long story,” I said. A lady who was a young adult, as Amber puts it, said,
“Okay, well let’s split up and we can talk about this later. Girls let’s go into the
other room!” So obviously, only Astrid and I went. As we got situated in another room
down the hall, Astrid whispered to me,
“First step, separate us, second step, brainwash us, third step, eat the
brainwashed us!”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. Astrid raised her eyebrows and looked
about mysteriously.
64
“I’m talking about our alien abduction, of course! We have been abducted by
the evil earthlings, people!” I laughed and we all settled down.
The lesson was pretty long, (okay, it wasn’t that long), but when it was over
and most people left, Astrid, Alex, Christopher, Lydia, Elaine, and I were left alone on
the church playground. Christopher was supposed to be being helpful, but he wasn’t.
He just sat there listening to the Civil Wars on his iPod. Boys...
We were gathered around on the church playground. Elaine was sitting on a
bench, Lydia was sitting nearby on a rocking horse thing that people have on
playgrounds, while Christopher was sitting on top of the big trashcan (SUPER WEIRD,
PEOPLE) while Alex leaned up against a tree. I was hanging upside down a few feet
away hanging from a jungle gym, while Astrid sat at the top of the slide.
“Okay,” said Lydia, being all efficient and not going for small talk. “So what’s
going on? Could someone explain what’s going on? The other day, or yesterday, I
guess, I got a text message from Molly that said,” she pulled out a cell phone and
read, “‘Hi there did anyone you know disappear?’ So...” I silently promised myself
that as soon as we were back, I would go and rant at Molly. Poor girl, she had no
idea what was coming for her.
“Well,” I said, “first of all, can you see this?” I pulled my wand out of my boot
and set the tip with magical fire. Well, the fire was blue, so I guess you would call it
magical, wouldn’t you? Lydia gasped and said immediately,
“It’s a wand with blue fire on the tip, what’s going on?” Elaine squinted at it.
“UM,” she said, “honestly I don’t see anything so, that is not blue fire Lydia.
Are you feeling okay?” I exchanged glances with everybody (except Christopher, of
course, but that’s obvious since he was a very disengaged person, right Amber?).
“So Elaine, you don’t see anything at all in my hand?” Elaine looked at me like
‘who is this weirdo?’
“No, I see nothing in your hand, sorry.”
“Okay, you don’t have the sight, okay. So tell us about your friend, let’s see,
um Evelyn, Edith, no, Eden! That’s right. Sorry, I have problems remembering
peoples’ names. So...”
“Well, first of all she was crazy,” said Lydia, “but she was nice. I think that she
would...” then a howl ripped through the night.
65
“Oh great,” said Christopher pulling out his ear buds. “It’s a Xarolot. Can
anyone see it?” Alright, I know everyone reading this is going ‘a Xarolot?’ Well, Lydia
said the same thing.
“A Xarolot? What’s that?”
“Well,” Astrid said hurriedly as we looked around for the Xarolot. “It’s a
‘creature of the night’. It howls like a wolf, runs like a panther and blends into the
shadows like, well, I’m not sure what, but it blends into the shadows.” Alex nodded
in agreement and said,
“Not something you want attacking you at night.”
“And it is attacking at night.” I put in. Elaine looked doubting and said
sarcastically,
“Oh yeah and there’s an ogre in my neighborhood! Do you really expect me to
believe that?” Astrid looked fascinated and said in awe,
“Where do you live?” Elaine got super frustrated and jumped off the bench she
was sitting on.
“I was being sarcastic! Seriously guys,” but then it howled again. I swung
right-side up and jumped of the jungle gym and Astrid slid down the slide and twirled
her wand expertly. The rest of the sitting Magicians all jumped up as well. Elaine just
rolled her eyes and leaned back on the bench, but Lydia was as alert as the rest of
us. Then her eyes widened.
“I just saw something! It was really creepy! It was like, like, ughhh!” She
shivered of disgust and fear.
“Protect the elf!” Christopher ordered. Lydia glared at him.
“Stop calling me that!” Then, it pounced.
It pounced on Lydia first. A Xarolot can sense the weak one in the pack. Not
that Lydia was weak, but she wasn’t a magician, and she wasn’t even familiar with a
Xarolot. It shoved Lydia to the ground and rolled. Lydia was screaming, and
screaming loudly, too. I’m not sure if Elaine simply couldn’t see anything, or if she
just saw something else, but I’m pretty sure she either thought Lydia was rolling
around in the dirt and wood chips screaming, or possibly that she was being
attacked by a crazy gymnast, because she didn’t do anything but pick up her phone
and start texting. Anyway, back to Lydia being attacked by the Xarolot.
66
Lydia was impressive when it came to kicking and punching. For a while I just
watched her because I kind of cool to watch her kicking the thing around. Of course
I’m writing all this and not even telling you what a Xarolot is. Well, you know Gollum
from Lord of the Rings? Well, its body was shaped like his, but it was black, pure
black, with glowing purple eyes and gold fangs. They are downright CREEPY, too.
So Lydia was rolling around fighting the thing with her fists and legs. Alex and
Astrid were the first to wake from their trance, and they flew at the creature (and no,
I’m not referring to Lydia as the creature, because if I was, I’d be dead) and tried to
get at it so they could put a spell on it.
“Guys,” Christopher said, “minor problem. You can't do that while she’s rolling,
because you could easily cast the spell on Elf Girl and not the Xarolot. And if she
stops rolling, she will most likely die.”
“HEY GUYS,” Lydia screamed, “HELP ME YOU WEIRDOS!” Christopher moved
as quickly as he had in the fight with Astrid a few days ago and pounced on top of
both of them. He smacked the Xarolot across the face, knocking out a gold fang. It
howled almost as loudly as Lydia. Christopher somehow managed to work his way
between Lydia and the Xarolot and pushed them apart. Lydia fell backwards into
Astrid’s arms, helpless.
Astrid looked heartbroken that she had no way to help the poor mortal, and I
felt even worse because it was my fault that she couldn’t help. Astrid pulled Lydia
into a huge near-by cement pipe to get her out of the way. Then the Xarolot
disappeared. Christopher stood and wiped sweat and his hair out of his face.
“Where’d it go?” he asked. We all looked around, but we couldn’t see it. Lydia
was whiter than anything I’d ever seen, and Elaine was looking around as if we were
idiots (don’t say it, Alex). Christopher ran over to Lydia who was still inside the huge
pipe, and looked her over.
“Are you okay?” he asked. She managed to roll her eyes.
“Do I look okay?” Then the Xarolot pounced again with a loud howl. This time
and leapt on Christopher. He punched it with such force it landed on its slimy back in
the sand. Christopher pointed his wand at it and it was blasted with a red stream of
magic. It howled, stumbled away, and got rammed into a giant plastic frog. Alex flew
at it next. He had strangely silent through the conversation, keeping quiet and
fiddling with his wand, but then he attacked with such wild force, it was pretty
weird. Then again, he’s Alex, so that gives him an excuse.
67
The Xarolot had not experienced pain until he was slammed into by a sixteen
year old boy running in full force. It howled again. Alex spoke a spell to make his
wand extremely (as I’m writing this the first thing I thought of when I wrote
‘extremely’ was the Spanish word ‘extremadamente’ Astrid’s Spanish lessons are
paying off!) sharp. He stabbed it into the creature’s back. It howled louder than Lydia
had, then melted into shadow. Silence.
Alex got up shakily and helped Lydia out of the cement pipe with Astrid’s help.
She wobbled forward uncertainly and picked up the dead Xarolot’s tooth that
Christopher had knocked out.
“Can – can I keep this?” she asked in a shaky voice. We all nodded. She put it
in her pocket and leaned on Astrid’s shoulder a little more. Then a green car drove
up. Elaine stood, looked at us, muttered ‘morons’ under her breath and said,
“Look, guys, I don’t know what is going on, but I’m leaving. See you tomorrow,
Lydia.” With that, she hopped in the van and it drove off. Lydia sighed.
“I guess you guys need to finish explaining some stuff, but not now. I don’t
think I could take it.” Astrid said,
“That’s great that you can realize that. We’ll have to talk tomorrow. Do you
know anywhere we could stay the night?” Lydia yawned and stretched.
“My brother should be here any minute. He can take Astrid and Charlie home
with me.” Alex and Christopher looked at each other.
“What about us?” Alex protested. Lydia rolled her eyes and looked a little bit
better.
“Go sleep in a Dumpster or something.”
68
Chapter 17 Amber I Play Tag with an Evil Ten-Year-Old
Hey guys, feels good to be writing again...I’m not sure why I feel that way or
why I said it but hey, who really cares, right? (Oh, well apparently Alex cares. He’s
mad he doesn’t get a chapter. Poor Alex...)
So anyway while Charlie and the others were traveling on a great adventure to
save the world, I was stuck at the academy trying to rebuild my reputation.
I sat awkwardly in the Commons reading a book when Riley and some other
girl came in together laughing and looking at pictures on Riley’s camera. Deja veux,
right? Only obviously the girl wasn’t Astrid.
I hadn’t seen her yet, but she was pretty cool. She had dark brown hair with
rainbow highlights at random throughout her colorful head. She had long eyelashes
that complimented her beautiful dark purple eyes. She was wearing a shortish jean
skirt and a blousy white top with brown TOMS Botas. Her colorful hair was down
with a small braid going down one side of her face.
I sat back against the couch and tried to look inconspicuous...which isn’t easy
when you’re a powerful Sorceress who almost destroyed the Academy.
“Well, Mel,” Riley was saying. I chocked. Mel, haha, well Mel, it rhymed, and I
thought that was funny, okay, anyway.
“Well, Mel, I got Tabitha to let me take these interesting shots by promising to
let her hold a kitten in one, here it is, by the way. I was inspired to do the lighting
and clothes in these by a box in my room. Don’t ask,” Mel laughed and flopped down
onto a nearby couch.
“I’m so glad that I got back from visiting my grandparents a day early. It was
nice going back to Nashville for a while, but I’m also glad to be back at the Academy,
its nice to see everybody again.” Riley sat down next to her.
“Yup, oh look, its Amber!” I winced. Of course he had to call me out. There’s
Riley for you.
“Mel, this is Amber, the Sorceress,”
“Ahem, good Sorceress,” I corrected him.
“Ah yes, the GOOD Sorceress!” By the way, I love British accents, and his was
totally awesome!!! Anyway, to keep going, he said, “She had a few disputes at
first...but now she’s like, AWESOME! So yeah, Amber, this is Mel.” Mel smiled.
69
“I’m Mel!” She said, to state the obvious. (Astrid says I have negativity
problems...what is she, a hippy? OW!!! Okay, hippies don’t believe in violence, right?
Well then she is definitely not a hippy!)
“Nice to meet you, Mel,” I said. Just then we heard screams. A bunch of kids
ran through the commons and out the door and down the hall. They were being
chased by...something. Riley hopped up and Mel pulled a wand out of her shoe. Riley
was very confused, as he said,
“Um, how did you fit that in your shoe?” when all of a sudden a girl with a longish, straight, black bob cut rushed in, wand in hand. She was wearing black skinny
jeans and a purple t-shirt. She had green eyes and was fourteen, or maybe almost
fourteen.
“Goodnight,” gasped Mel, “It’s Nyte!” The girl spun her wand around her
fingers and stuffed it down her boot. What’s up with Magicians putting wands in their
boots?
“What’s up?” She asked cheerfully. Riley sighed and flopped down on the
couch again and said.
“Hullo, Nyte. What were you doing? You just cleared the Commons in ten
seconds flat!”
“Not the whole commons,” Mel pointed out. “She didn’t clear us three out.”
Nyte smiled and leaned against a wall.
“Just antagonizing people. Yep, it’s a record...for slowness. I usually clear it in
eight seconds. So, who’s this?” She asked, gesturing towards me.
“I’m Amber, the GOOD Sorceress.” She nodded slowly and raised her hands
upward. With that, she flew up in the air and laid there, as if she was lying in a bed,
but on the air. She saw my amazed expression.
“I’m surprised, Amber,” she said, “that you’re surprised. Aren’t you super
powerful? I’m an Elementalist of Wind.”
“I’m not,” I said, “just surprised that a Magician can do that!”
“Touché,” she responded, grinning. She flicked her wrist and landed back on
the ground on her feet.
“So,” she grinned, “Where’s Zoë?” Okay, another name I didn’t know. She
continued, “Have you guys seen her?” Riley shrugged.
70
“I’ve seen Zack, but no sign of Zoë. She’s probably playing soccer somewhere.
Why?” Nyte rolled her eyes pushed him away – using wind so she wasn’t touching
him – and said,
“Because she’s my best friend, duh!” Riley rubbed his arm where he had
landed on the slightly hard floor.
“Ow,” he muttered grumpily. The double doors that everyone had stampeded
out of opened again and everyone stampeded in again, with several glares in Nyte’s
direction. Nyte didn’t seem to notice, she was picking dirt out from under her
fingernails with her wand. Then a bunch of sweaty kids in soccer stuff clattered in.
“Zoë!” Nyte yelled. She dashed over and gave a hug to a dirty blond haired girl
about Nyte’s age who was covered in mud and had a bounty of grass sticking out of
her head. They stopped hugging a poked each other in the arm, yelling, “POKE!” A
guy who looked very similar to Zoë yelled a little too loudly,
“Riley! Guess what prank I invented!” Zoë rolled her eyes.
“Let’s hope it was better than the fish cake ‘cause that wasn’t even funny,
Zack.”
“Yeah it was, I laughed a ton.”
“Well of course you did! You weren’t eating fish cake!”
“Whatever,” He turned to me. “Like some gum?” But Zoë jumped between us
and pushed him over.
“It’s electrical, don’t take it!” I was confused. She smiled. “Let me introduce
myself! I’m Zoë! That,” she said, pointing to the guy on the ground , “unfortunately is
my annoying twin, Zack.” He hopped up. I swear, he must’ve had ten cups of coffee
or something because even Charlie wasn’t that spastic.
“I’M ZACK!” he yelled.
“That’s nice,” I said, “but why yell?”
“BECAUSE YELLING MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER!” Nyte creeped up behind
him then yelled in his ear,
“YEAH! I KNOW RIGHT?! YELLING IS AWESOME!” He yelped and jumped away.
Nyte smiled triumphantly and stretched.
“I’m tired; I’m gonna go take a nap or something.” Zoë shrugged.
71
“Okay, but I thought basketball started today.” She said. “Do you want me to
tell coach that you’re gonna miss?” Nyte huffed.
“I forgot. I’m coming. See you guys!” She said. With that she and Zoë left. I
guess the conversation was pretty much over because Riley and Zack left together,
talking about pranks and stuff. Eventually Mel drifted off with a few other girls,
leaving me on my own.
I wandered around the hallway looking for a library. There had to be a library
SOMEWHERE in this huge place. Unfortunately I ended up at the bathrooms. Not
exactly what I was looking for...
“What are you doing?” A voice asked from behind me. I turned around – fast. It
was Tabitha, the cat spirit. Cats (especially black ones) liked me, so why did I have
to worry about a cat spirit?
“Oh, hi Tabitha! I was looking for the library.” Tabitha’s tail twirled around her
arm. She dug her fingernail – like claws into the wall creating scratch marks.
“Uh-huh, this is DEFINITELY the library. Wait – aren’t you that Sorceress? The,
what they call, ‘good’ Sorceress?” I sighed. Why did this subject always have to
come up?
“Er, yes, I am a helping Sorceress,” I said, trying to see if helpful worked any
better than good. Unfortunately, it sounded like I was on some kids’ fairy tale
cartoon.
Amber the Helping Sorceress!
Oh yes, I could totally see it. Tabitha raised her eyebrows, yawned very loudly,
stretched, and said,
“The library is right this way.” She led me through a few corridors turned left
here, turned right there, you know...Finally we ended up at the library which had, like
pretty much every other doorway here had, double doors. On them were printed
LIBRARY – WELCOME SCROLLISTS. By the way, Scrollists are a kind of Magician who
specializes on scrolls, writing spells and that kind of stuff. Those made me wonder if
non-Scrollists weren’t allowed in.
They were. I went into the library and was totally happy. I loved books. And,
well, it’s hard to get access to them when you live in a cave...I was a sheltered child.
I was very happy there, reading the books, until I felt myself being poked.
72
It was Carson, the spastic ten year old. He grinned a little creepily and poked
me.
“Uh, hi Carson, what are you doing?” he poked me again, his creepy smile
unwavering. Suddenly, I got a creepy feeling all over me. I looked down on my arm.
Where he had poked me, my skin was starting to turn green. Then I realized that his
fingers were unnaturally sharp. I jumped away from him and stared into his eyes.
That was when I realized something was totally wrong. His eyes were pure green.
I jumped away and smacked the thing in the face. Then a terrible thought
went through my head. My Magic...it would backfire. I was completely defenseless. I
didn’t want to run, that was for cowards...I ran.
Well what else was I supposed to do? I was being chased by some creepy
thing that was ten years old and I didn’t have any Magic! I was running, when
SMACK! I ran into Mel. She was carrying a guitar, and when I ran into her it made a
noise like ‘BRONGE!” She looked a little irritated and said grumpily,
“Watch where you’re going! This is my guitar!” Mel had an annoying habit of
stating the obvious. I mean, duh it’s her guitar! I looked urgently behind myself in
search of Carson...or whatever Carson actually was. She followed my gaze, looking
over my shoulder. “What’s going on?” she asked. “What are you running from? I
mean, aren’t you super powerful or something?” I pulled her into a crevice in the
wall, making sure that no one else was in the hall to get destroyed by a crazy ten
year old kid.
“Listen Mel, there happens to be this ten year old creature that either looks
like Carson, or is Carson. SO yeah,” Mel shrugged.
“So why hasn’t it been killed yet if you are as powerful as your Magical aura
lets on?” I sighed, wishing that I didn’t have to bring this part up.
“Well, I kind of let my temper get the best of me when I first got here, and I got
into some big trouble sort of, and so, well, they injected me with something that
made me not able to do magic without it back firing, its kind of a long story, so do
you think that possibly you could help?” Mel stowed her guitar carefully in the nook
and we snuck out, looking out for the Thing. We snuck along the hallway. It was
pretty deserted, since no one did much on Saturdays except hang around the
Commons or run around playing sports and stuff outside. Most kids went home and
visited family I guess and others were currently in History class.
“Are you sure that you saw this thing?” Mel asked after a seven point eight
minute search. I scratched my head and asked myself the same question.
73
“I mean, I thought I did,” I said, skeptical of myself, “I mean,” I looked down at
my arms, then yelled triumphantly, “It did happen! See, that’s where the thing poked
me!” I proudly showed her my disgustingly green splotched arm. She winced and
gently pushed aside my arm, saying,
“Yeah, that’s real nice, but I really don’t need to see it anymore, thanks. So do
you think it went back to the library?” We wandered back to library and peeked
cautiously inside. No one was in sight, so we snuck in, looking around for the
suspicious looking Carson (as Alex is telling me now, Carson is usually suspicious.
Oh well Alex, now be quiet. It isn’t my fault you don’t get a chapter!)
Mel sighed and sat down on one of the sofas, tired of creeping around a library
for a ten year old weirdo. Suddenly we saw him, among some books, smiling eerily.
Mel pulled her wand out of her shoe and snuck slowly down the aisle next to him,
keeping out of his line of sight, when she screamed and blasted him with Wind, (that
is apparently, her Element). It fell backwards into a big shelf of books. When the
books and the creature collided, there was a giant hisssssssssss, and a giant book
fell, knocking the thing on the head. It’s strange green eyes rolled back into it’s
head, and it was unconscious. If weird dangerous creatures can become
unconscious. Mel raised her hand to kill it, which, as a Sorceress (a NOT helping
one), I wasn’t supposed to care if he died or not, but I did.
“He could possibly have been under a spell or something. Could we please just
take him to Dr. K?” Mel shrugged.
“You can, but I have to go do something. See you round,” She said, and left.
So, I lifted the unconscious possibly Carson and carried/dragged him to the infirmary.
74
CHAPTER 18 Amber I Visit the Super Duper Scary Dude
I nervously swung my legs back and forth on the chair, waiting to talk to Dr. K
about Carson’s strange state. After almost killing him, we hadn’t exactly started of
on the right foot...or ended on the right...Okay, you know what? I’m going to stop
talking about that.
Anyway, I was sitting there, thinking about Carson and how he looked at me
sooo creepily. A strong cool wind blew in from an open window in the infirmary. I
shivered and rubbed my arms, or started to rub my arms, but I winced and looked
down at my left arm. The one that was splotched green and cracked, like broken
pottery. Can you guess which one that was? (No, Alex, I assure you the rats were
very clean. They did not make my arm like that! Alex is such a negative person
towards rats.) Obviously it was from when Carson poked me. After I dropped him off
in Lindy’s care, I went to visit Dr. K, who was recuperating in his office. I wondered if
that meant Astrid had her magic left, because I really did feel sorry for what I had
done.
The door to his office swung open and a sullen looking boy stalked out,
leaving the door wide open. Dr. K’s deep voice echoed from inside.
“Come in,” I shuffled a little and pretended that I couldn’t walk faster than a
crawl, (which was totally a lie) but eventually, I was standing in front of the imposing
man’s desk, where he sat glaring at me with admirable distain.
“What do you need?” He asked. I decided right then and there that I could
match his disdain. He gestured for me to sit in a chair on the opposite side of the
desk, but I remained standing.
“We have to talk about two things,” I said, stating my case without wasting
words on him. “One – Something has breached your ‘boundaries’ in this place. So you
know Carson, the, uh, spastic, ten year old? Well something is totally wrong with
him. I was in the library when he was just there, poking me. Wherever he poked me,
this happened.” I showed him my arm (yes, Charlie, the ‘green’ one.’) He stroked his
beard (he actually had one, unlike Mr. Steve).
“Well,” he said, “Can you give me more info about this?” I sighed and leaned
against the wall. There’s something about getting out of prison and then having to go
to a history class, meeting, and then playing tag with a creepy kid that really takes it
out of you...
“Well,” I said, “its/his eyes were pure green, you know, no pupils or anything,
which happens to be totally creepy” I added the creepy part because I didn’t feel like
75
I was getting enough sympathy. I continued – “Then he started chasing me, and I
couldn’t use any magic because of a certain stuff that was injected into me by a
certain someone! So I ran and found Mel, well I actually ran into her, but that’s not
important, and she helped me knock him unconscious.” I took a deep breath, being
tired after my monologue. Dr. K put his feet up on his desk and looked out the open
window. I huffed. Had I said all that for nothing? I mean, I had used up a LOT of
breath and a LOT (sixty-six to be exact) of words on that speech, and I was
expecting to get something out of it.
“Excuse me,” I said disrespectfully, “but were you even listening to me?”
There, I wasted another nine words on him. Do you know how many nines fit into
sixty-six? SEVEN WITH A REMAINDER OF THREE! That means that in total I used
seventy-five words!!! Sorry...ADD math moment there...He sighed.
“You remind me of my wife when I first met her.” He said reminiscently.
Wonderful, I was like his wife. Just what I always wanted. I yawned. Dr. K scratched
his nose. I fly buzzed in the room. I could hear kids yelling outside. I shifted my
weight from one foot to another. Silence. I waited. Then I turned around and started
to leave, when,
“Stop.” I turned around. Dr. K got up slowly and un-surely. “Let me see your
arm.” I held it out towards him. He sighed and sat down again.
“Listen, go to the infirmary, get it treated, then leave me alone. I’ve got a lot
on my mind, thanks to you.” He showed me to the door (I knew perfectly well where
it was) and closed it firmly behind me.
Standing outside his office, I decided that there had been something strange
about the way he was acting. I found my way to the Infirmary and found the nurse
person, um, was her name Lindy? Yeah, that’s it. I showed her my ‘arm problem’. She
looked at it grimly, went into a closet and came back armed with bandages, a cast,
and several jars of something smelly. That was really not a good day.
Several layers of ointment, spells, bandages and a cast later, I was sitting in
my room, grieving over my arm that was about twice its normal size.
Suddenly there was a tapping at my door. There stood Tabitha (she had
plaster under her fingernails from digging the scratches in the walls) holding a box. I
opened the door a little wider and said,
“Hey,” She pushed past me and plunked the box on my bed and faced me with
a serious expression.
76
“This,” she said pointing towards the box, “is something I think you should
have. Don’t ask me where or how I got it. Don’t tell anyone that I gave it to you.” With
that strange speech, she turned a walked out of my room, leaving me alone with the
mysterious box.
77
Chapter 19 Charlie I Get a Visit from Spider Man’s Grandma
Hi there. My name is Charlie Lee Louis. How do you do? Okay I am very
strange right now and I am also very mad. Yay! Okay...
So back to me being stuck on the playground with my brother, my friend, and
some mortals (oh yeah, and Christopher). So we were sitting there on the playground
and Lydia’s weird brother picked us up, we went to her house AND okay. This is
where I’m going to start, when Astrid and I started walking down the steps to their
basement when we ran into one of her brothers. Literally.
“OW!” I yelped as I was pushed into a wall by Astrid, who was the one who
actually smashed into the brother. He stared at us strangely, then asked,
“Who are you?” Very polite, wasn’t he?
“I,” I said proudly, “am Charlie Lee Louis the awesome and crazy and of course
I also have countless great qualities as well and--”
“She’s Charlie,” Astrid cut me off. “I’m Astrid. We’re Lydia’s friends.”
“Whatever.” He said and went upstairs. Astrid raised her eyebrows.
“That was slightly strange.”
“Well, if you had let me finish my title it would’ve been better.” I said,
“The title you were making up as you went along?” asked Astrid, “Yeah, but
let’s go down to the guest bedroom and wait for Lydia.” So we did.
As we waited for her we surveyed the room, argued about whether or not
candles could float, tap danced strangely, talked about our childhood stuffed
animals, and debated whether or not tap shoes were more comfortable than jazz
shoes. JSYK, I had never worn tap or jazz shoes, but I do like debating. Finally we
gave up arguing.
“Sooo,” said Astrid lazily from where she was laying on the bed. I shrugged
and flopped down next to her.
“Uh, I guess we could argue about something else now. How about -” but then
Lydia walked in.
“Um, so my parents have to think about it, but you guys can stay the night.”
Astrid snorted and said,
78
“Haha, Nyte is so weird.” I pushed her.
“Off topic!”
“What’s so weird about night?” Asked Lydia, not getting that Nyte was a girl
and not the time.
“Not night, Nyte,” explained Astrid, “there’s a difference between Nyte and
night.”
“Nyte,” I said, breaking in between the confusing argument, “spelled capital N
Y T E is a girl, whereas night is the time. Nyte the Girl is our friend. She’s pretty
cool.”
“Oooh!” said Lydia, seeing the light (which is apparently funny to Alex...Oh,
well he says it’s funny because they were talking about Nyte/night...okay...), “I get it
now!” Astrid giggled crazily,
“Teehee, yeah. Nyte, night, funny right? Whoa that rhymed! Haha!!!” So then
Lydia and Astrid started cracking up. I mean, I didn’t think it was that funny. I was
usually the more hyper person in the room, but for some reason I wasn’t feeling like
myself.
“Hey guys, I’m feeling really tired, I think I’m going to go to bed, okay?” Astrid
snapped out of her craziness (Lydia didn’t).
“Why? It’s only like, eight fifteen!” I shrugged.
“I’m just super tired. Sooo, goodnight, I guess.” They shrugged and continued
laughing hysterically. So I took off my combat boots and my socks (my sock on the
right foot said Sunday, and the left one said Friday...it was Wednesday, BTW...) and
climbed into the guest bed. Astrid and Charlie considerably turned out all the lights
except one lamp, and moved out into the main basement area. And then, I dreamed a
dream...(Alex, you need to study history. That came from Martin Luther King’s
speech. Now go study.)
I dreamt I was back at Stone Mountain, standing by Amber’s cave. Holly was
nowhere to be seen. It looked deserted. But then I saw a strange creature. It was
small, maybe two feet tall, with legs kind of like a spiders’, but with the body and
head of an old woman. I had never seen anything like it before, and, well, it was
disturbing to see a spider crossed with an old grandma. It looked at me and said in a
high, cracked, old voice,
“You shouldn’t have come.” I was confused.
79
“I didn’t choose to. Um, ma’am?” I wasn’t sure to call it, or her, I assumed it
was a female creature.
“You shouldn’t dig into her past.” She rebuked.
“Whose?” I asked.
“Amber’s,” She responded.
“I’m not exactly asking to, my dream just kind of, well, took me here.”
“It isn’t safe. It will do you nothing but harm.” She warned me. “But you must.
Even now she struggles with something that you must identify.”
“But why?” I asked. “What’s the point? What’s her problem? And why me?” She
looked me straight in the eye.
“Her problem I cannot name. You will discover it. And why you...because you,
my dear, along with all your friends, need each other, and the others have their own
difficult tasks and this is your task and yours alone. True, you need to help each
other, but everyone has a talent, a struggle, and a need. Now, you must use your
talent to help Amber with her struggle and her need. It will be difficult, but friendship
can pull through. Do you believe this?”
“I-I don’t know. I’m not sure that I’m following you, to be honest.” She smiled.
“Don’t worry, you will. Now, go inside, find what you need. Good luck. You
have one hour before you will wake up. Hurry.” The she vanished.
I didn’t even know what I was looking for. I confronted the cave. It didn’t look
as intimidating as it had when Alex and I had finally reached it, sweaty and gross,
yelling at each other. Then it had looked big and gaping, like scary things must be
lurking in it of course, a scary thing had been lurking there. At least, then Amber had
seemed creepy, and now, SpiderGrandma was telling me that I had to help her (as in
Amber, not SpiderGrandma) with some mysterious problem. I sighed. What was I
supposed to look for? Old diaries, grocery lists, and closets, like Nancy Drew?
Banging on walls to see if they revealed secret closets with wads of stolen cash
inside? Two problems with that – one, cave walls could not reveal hidden closets,
and two – Amber was not a bank thief (Amber chuckling mysteriously and rubbing her
hands together. That’s not good is it?) So I went inside.
The whole place was newly decorated in potted plants, cupcake books, and
holly bushes. I looked around awkwardly. Then I had a strange thought. Was I real, or
was I just a dream self? I seemed to have control of my thoughts and movements
80
and words, but could I drink stuff? (Sorry about that. I am ADHD after all...) so I
ventured to the kitchen to see if Holly kept any Coke around. You know, as a
‘medicine’. So I went to try out my hypothesis (Astrid taught me that word. It’s a
fancy name for guess).
Fortunately for me, there were several cokes in the kitchen. That made me
happy, especially after I drank two, and was all hyper on caffeine.
“OKAY I GUESS I NEED TO LOOK FOR STUFF!” I yelled for no good reason (of
course I was super duper hyper.). So I explored the kitchen. Other than the bottles of
Coke, there were lots of tubs of icing and cupcake mixes, and different decorating
candies. I guess nymphs don’t really need food. But there was nothing really
interesting in the kitchen (except for the Coke bottles). So I ventured to the dining
room.
There wasn’t really a dining room. I guess what you would call the dining room
was more of a sitting room and dining room combined. It was actually the room
where we had talked to Amber the first time. There was no more fire in the fireplace,
and it was dim and dank. I wondered how long Holly had been out giving Stone
Mountain Hikers cupcakes. I looked around. The same four chairs were there, the
same coffee table, the same everything. Even the books on the bookshelf seemed to
be untouched. I liked to read sometimes, and I thought of Nancy Drew again, so I
went to search the bookshelf.
The titles weren’t exactly what I had been expecting. They weren’t pleasure
books, or even school books or stuff like that. They had titles like, Nymphs, and How
to Control Them, or Spells for the Beginner or Reading Minds, Reading Spells, and
How to Read and stuff like that. I briefly scanned some more titles, but could find
nothing and was boring myself to death. Then I found a life saver. There was a list of
all titles on the bookshelf, and where they were. It was crinkled a yellowed and was
stuffed between two books. One title on the list was interesting – the Sorceress’
Secrets. So I decided to check it out. But when I found the space it was supposed to
be, it wasn’t there. There was a gaping hole which told me the book was very, very
large.
So I decided that wasn’t important and moved on. I found Amber’s old
bedroom, (it was cluttered and messy. Amber isn’t here right now so I can say this
safely) and decided to look through it. I found a little booklet on Sorceresses, so I
picked that up. But then I felt a tugging feeling. I was waking up. I looked
desperately around, looking for any last minute things I might need. But it was too
late.
81
Suddenly, I woke up to a loud crash.
82