Cake Day

This is a magical realism story I had to write for English class.

 

Cake. It was what we made every Tuesday...well, except those days where it was too hot to cook or the time after Brayden felt terribly sick or the days we just didn't feel like cooking. I never knew what kind we'd be baking until I got there. But I knew it wouldn't have nuts. Amy's allergic to nuts. And peas. And coconuts.

I had to drive twenty to thirty minutes (because flying got boring sometimes) every Tuesday from Uxbridge, Massachusetts to Manville, Rhode Island. I always thought that was such a funny name for a town. When Amy, Brayden, and Jess first told me what town they lived in so I could find Brayden's house I laughed and said “Are you serious?!” They didn't think it was that funny.

On this particular Tuesday, I arrived to find that Brayden had not yet gotten home from dropping some random kid off at his or her house. Amy and I always joke that he's going out to hook up with whoever it is. And when Brayden isn't home yet, Amy's house is where I go. I went and picked her up, and then I drove back to Brayden's house, expecting him to be there. He wasn't. We decided to sit in my car listening to music and watched the skunks float by Brayden's house as they usually do. I scrunched my nose as the strong odor of skunk permeated the vent system of my car, while Amy and I spoke of our plans to create a book. At that moment, Brayden pulled into the driveway in his big yellow school bus his mother and father had bought him for his sixteenth birthday.

He stepped out of the driver's seat while Jess burned down the door on the passenger's side. But with a simple wave of her hand, the door was restored to its former state. After her simple display of magick, Brayden and Jess motioned for us to follow them inside. Passing through the cloud of skunk smell, we stepped inside the pear-shaped house. Once inside and waved to the piles of cats drifting through the air. The dander from the cats irritated Brayden's sinuses, and he sneezed. When he tilted his head back to sneeze, we knew to duck and hide. We got out of the way just in time too because no sooner had we dove behind the couch, Brayden's skin opened up and water gushed out. This of course angered the pile of cats and dampened their fur so as to not disturb Brayden anymore. Brayden's body acted as sort of a defense mechanism.

After the cats drank the water and hopped into the microwave, we ventured into the kitchen to get out the baking supplies. I discovered that during school, Amy, Jess, and Brayden had decided on baking a vanilla cake today. After laying the ingredients out, we noticed we were lacking four sticks of butter. Brayden was so kind as to volunteer Amy and I to go get some butter at the market. He handed us five dollars, we stepped out onto his crooked porch, Amy took my hand, and we took flight.

People looked up and waved as we passed over the town below. Amy and I waved back with our free hands. After about two minutes of flying, she pointed out Dennis Market below and I lowered our elevation until we touched ground. Although I hadn't recognized the name at first, I quickly recognized the small market from the “Warning” posters spread across the town. This was the general store that belonged to the Malevolent Magician of the Market who refused to let minors shop at her store.

“Amy let's get out of here! We can buy our butter somewhere else. Anywhere but here!” I exclaimed in fear.

“Ray, c'mon. This is the only store that sells butter for twelve miles. She's monopolized the butter market. We have to!” Amy retorted.

And with that Amy barged inside, grabbed a box of Land O'Lakes Butter, went up to the counter, slapped down the five dollar bill, and waited for the Malevolent Magician to ring it up.         At first, she flat out refused to let Amy purchase the butter. But then the Malevolent Magician cast a spell on the price, which raised it to five dollars and ten cents. We didn't have that much money, and Amy was starting to get annoyed.

“You had better lower that price, Triple M. Or else I'll release my fury!” Amy hollered.

“Make my day,” the magician replied.

I thought about calling the police to help us, but then I realized that the police would probably just tell me that Amy could handle things on her own. Then I realized they would have been right.

It was in that moment that Amy's eyes glowed a fierce red, and her hair flowed around her in a flurry of flames. Amy slowly rose two feet from the ground as she put her palms out in front of her. Her palms glowed red and ninja stars shot out in all directions; luckily I was outside watching so I didn't have to worry about getting hit. Plus all the stars flew directly into Triple M. She flew backward and the moment she hit the floor, all her prices dropped to zero. Everyone in Manville rejoiced because of the vanquish of Triple M.

Amy again took my hand and I guided us back to Brayden's house. We proceeded to make the cake. Sort of at least. We mixed the batter and everything, and Jess baked the cake with her fire. While we waited for the cake to cool way down, we watched a movie. We never finished frosting the cake, however, because Brayden had to go to Sergeant C's, the ice cream place he works at. Also Jess, Amy, and I had to do our homework. Jess used her feet as rockets to propel herself home. Brayden pinched his arm and excreted a metallic fluid from his skin, which formed into a shell around him and then used this to roll to his job. Amy and I hopped in my car, and I dropped her off at her house and then drove home to write a story about magical realism for English class.