Chapter 1

 

 

     I've never truly believed in magic.  I mean, yes, I've seen dozens of magicians do tricks and I've watched all the Harry Potter movies, but those were all fake.  Unreal.  There's no such thing.  At least, that was what I thought until my fifteenth birthday came along and my life was changed forever as a secret was revealed.

 

     For the first couple minutes, my morning was normal.  My radio clock buzzed at 6:15 and at that same moment, my older brother was banging on my door telling me to wake up.  I shut off my alarm and flicked on my lamp.  Light illuminated the room immediately and I flinched as my pupils adjusted to the sudden light.  I sat up in my bed, throwing off the covers and stretched my arms over my head.  As I did, there was pain on the left side of my neck.  I ignored it for the time being, assuming it was merely stiff.

 

     I stared at my reflection in the large mirror that hung on my light blue wall.  My golden hair was askew and my eyes were full of sand and I whiped them away.  I slipped out of my sliky pink nightgown and put of a black bra and underwear.  I ran a brush through my hair when I noticed a bruise on my collarbone near the back of my neck.  It appeared to be three comma-like diagrams alined in a circle.  As I stared at it, the mark turned the color of fire - red and orange coupled with a little bit of yellow - and suddenly I felt an immense amount of pain.

 

    Since it was so sudden, it caught me off guard and I yelped.  I quickly covered my mouth, swallowing up my cry of pain, and sank to my knees, whimpering.  The bruise returned to its ebony color and the pain slowly faded away.  I waited a moment, then got to my feet and stared at the bruise.  I poked it and it throbbed.  Scowling, I finished brushing my hair and made sure it covered the bruise before I continued getting dressed.  I wore a lavendar shirt with black pants, but the shirt was a little low so I wore a black tank top underneath.  Once I was finished, my mom announced that breakfast was ready.

 

     Walking down slowly the maroon-carpeted stairs, I met my mother in our kitchen.  She wore a dark purple attire with a yellow apron over it.  My mother and I are a lot alike, physically and personality wise.  She has blonde hair but hers ends at her neck while mine ends at the middle of my back.  Also she has pretty blue eyes while mine are a chocolate brown.  I remember her telling me once they were the eyes that belonged to my father.

 

     My father.

 

     First off, I've never met him.  He left while my mom was pregnant with me.  I remember once when I was around five or six, my school was holding a Father-Daughter race in order to raise money for the school.  I vividly recall my friends laughing giddily, sitting upon their father's shoulders.  I also remember how much pain I experienced.

 

     "You don't have a dad?  That can't be right.  Everybody has to have a dad,"

 

     Those words nearly caused me to throw up.  My brother Tyler noticed my debilitation and interrogated me.  I explained what was going on and he discerned this and promised he would tell me everything he could about my father.  And ever since, every year on my birthday, Tyler told me one thing about him. 

 

     Unfortunately, sometimes it wasn't enough.

 

     "I hope your in the mood for pancakes, birthday girl!" my mother spoke happily, placing the china on the wooden table in front of me. 

 

     She planted a kiss on my forehead, then sauntered gracefully out of the room.  Moments later, light, soft sounds hitting against a blunt object indicated that she was in the shower.  I had only taken a few bites out of the fluffy brown circle when an arm wrapped around my neck, in an attempt to choke me.  I gagged and my hands flew to the arm, struggling to move the arm.  When that failed, I threw my elbow back and felt it hit something hard, but soft at the same time.

 

     There was a chuckle and the arm dissapeared from my neck.  I took in a few steady breaths and glared at the goofy grin that was plastered on my twenty-seven year old brother's face.  His messy brown hair framed his face, but hid his blue eyes.  He was dressed in a black jacket with a red undershirt and black pants.  Being an older sibling, you would think that he would spend his life defending his younger sister whenever she is either bullied or picked on.  That's the exact opposite of Tyler.  Instead, he just watches and only intervenes if it is about to get into a fist fight.

 

     "Not bad," he commented. "But remember, you need to keep your chin down.  If you don't your as good as dead."

 

     I rolled my eyes and continued eating.  Using both his hands, he brushed back the hair that lay on my shoulders.  I flinched, knowing that he would see the strange bruise and question me about it.  While I struggled to think of a plan, he removed his hands and dugged them into his pocket.  He smoothly clipped a necklace around my pale neck and I stared at it shocked.  Dialla  was written in cursive, sterling silver with a sapphire gem in the shape of a heart underneath.  I gasped in awe.

     "Happy birthday, Dialla," he whispered, smiling.

     "Oh my... Tyler it's beautiful!" I breathed.

     "I though you'd like it.  You're a sucker for jewlery," he knew me too well.

 

     A second later, his cell phone started to ring.  He checked the called ID and didn't even say hello when he answered.  When he finally spoke, all he said was "Yes, it's appeared".  I wasn't sure what he meant, but I didn't have time to worry about it.  I caught sight of the clock and the bus would be coming in ten minutes.  I didn't even finish my pancake and I rushed up the stair and fortunately my mom was out of the shower so I could brush my teeth.  Then, after making a few adjustments to my hair, I rushed out the door.

 

     I reached my bus stop located at the top of my street seconds before it showed up.  My friends Megan and Sarah both made a card for me and they were incredible nonetheless.  Sparkles, glitter, hearts, anything you can possible think of was on the card.  They said that's what they do when they are bored.  I thanked them both and hugged them.  As the bus took its usual route to school, the two twins rambled on and on about the latest gossip.  I wasn't paticularly interested in gossip, so I didn't really pay attention.  For the most part, I was busy pondering about what Tyler mumbled early and that strange bruise.

 

     He's keeping something from me I just know it.  I flinched as the bruise throbbed.  It was hurting more and more frequently now.  I prayed that nobody would notice.  Finally, the yellow vehicle pulled into my middle school parking lot.  Megan and Sarah climbed off the bus before me and shrieked.  Unsure of why they were shrieking, I quickly rushed off the bus and appeared by their side in an instant.

 

     "What's wrong?" I questioned.

     They smiled broadly. "Look who it is!"

 

     I followed their gaze and my ivory face became tinted with pink.  Black hair framed his tan face and brown eyes.  He wore a black T-shirt and a red jacket with blue jeans.  He was in a group with his guy friends, talking and laughing.  He turned in my direction abruptly and our eyes locked.  He smiled and waved at me.  I stood frozen,  but managed to wave back at my crush, Mike Solomon.

 

     "Go say hi to him," I heard Megan whisper.

     "Yeah, go on," added Sarah.

     "No way," I denied. "All his friends are with him."

     "Well, then we will too, right Sarah?"

     "Right Meg.  Come on!"

 

     They each grabbed a hand and began to drag me towards the group of boys despite my refusals.  They shoved there way through the crowd and we finally reached Mike, I nearly gasped in shock.  A brunette was latched onto his arm like a leech, giggling happily.  The girl faced me and I recognixed her as Cara Robinson.

 

     "Oh, Mike.  You're so funny!" She sneered at me. "Come on, let's go somewhere with a nicer view."

I knew she directed that insult towards me and glowered. "Yeah, didn't you read the sign?  No dogs at school."

 

     Cara's cheek's flushed pink with anger as people around us laughed.  She trudged forward, glaring, and I could tell she was thinking of my immolation until Mark held her back.  I smirked and the bell rang for homeroom.  For once, I was excited for homeroom.  Forty-five minutes alone with Mark and no Cara to ruin it.  I turned on my heel and strode towards homeroom.

 

Author's Note

okay, I'm a new writer here and honestly, a bit of an amateur. This idea has been in my head for a while, so I decided to give it a shot. Please let me know how it is!