Tales of a Magician, The Inquiry

Chapter 1

Montgomery Winstead was a high school honors student. He was named the valedictorian, was graduating with all honors, and was voted best smile by his classmates. He was very popular among the students in his school and his own family and friends, of course, as they adored his wit and charm. Surely, he was a model student and human being, for everyone thought the highest of him. And why was he not given an award for his showmanship of human decency, his classical good looks, and his appallingly good teeth? It only goes to show that a being such as Montgomery truly should be honored in every possible way.

Well, every bit of that was a lie. Montgomery Winstead was a teenager who was about to graduate from high school. No, he was not graduating with any honors, no, he was not named valedictorian, and no, he was not voted best smile. That award went to Eddie Grimshaw. He was not popular, in fact, he was quite the opposite and the student body just sort of ignored him. He didn't stand out. In fact he enjoyed the quiet, drama-free lifestyle of a wallflower. When it came to social events, crowds, and especially the popular kids, he thought 'nah, the fewer the better'. And his teeth were just average.

Montgomery Winstead , or Monty for short, had but one close friend, one he could rely on for anything. The brighter, more outgoing wallflower of the Monty friend club, Reagan Obaje, was reckless teenager with bright brown eyes and a bright smile. His father was from Nigeria, but his accent was almost non-existent since he only moved to the States when he was three months old. He and Montgomery were like polar opposites. If you made them stand in front of each other and you put a magnet in between them, it would start spinning. Somehow, in one way or another, their friendship had made it past the second grade and has been going strong ever since.

Monty and Reagan stood outside the front doors of "Whiskey Cat". A small bar that was a bit dark, a bit dank, but it was the only place where the bartender would actually sell them anything.

"That kid from anatomy with the outer tooth was being weird yesterday." Reagan said as he puffed his cigarette. Monty never liked smoking.

"No, not outer tooth kid." Monty said with fake horror.

"I'm just sitting there listening to Dr. White's lecture, and we're about 20 minutes into it, when he reaches around my chair and flicks my ear." Reagan demonstrated it to Monty. "So I'm just sort of like, 'okay, what the hell' but then I'm like 'don't react, maybe he'll go away' right?"

"Right."

"Well after about ten seconds I feel him do it again."

Monty chuckled.

"So I sit there for a few more seconds and he decides that since I haven't reacted to the first two,I must not have noticed. The most logical thing that comes into his brain to is to flick me again, but this time so hard that it literally made me choke on my gum."

"Literally." Monty interrupted.

"Yes, literally. I turn around and he sort of leans in and whispers 'look at Dr. White's collar.' So, you know, I look at White's collar and I see this little green thing on it, and he just goes 'That's lettuce. Do you think she had a salad?' and I just sat there a minute, because who says that? Like what logical person thinks of that? Are you really-"

"Get to the point." Monty waved his hand in the air.

"Hey, you let me finish on my own time." Reagan took a long puff of his cigarette. "So I said '...maybe.' and I shit you not he replied 'What if she put it there to make us all think she was eating healthy."

Monty laughed. "What the hell?"

Reagan threw his hands up. "That's what I was thinking!"

"There's no way, man. That's such bullshit."