Awakened Magic

Chapter One

Melissa Wilford

Two months ago, if you had told me that I was a witch and that I would single-handedly destroy the world as I know it, I would have bonked you on the head, kicked you out of my house and deemed you a lunatic.

But now, I weep for my pathetic old life where the most excitement I had was getting Mr Matthews' homework done on time.

You are probably very lost right now. So, let me take you back to the day my life took a turn for the worse...

*

The morning of my sixteenth birthday, I woke feeling more alive than I have ever felt before. It was probably the mixture of the anticipation that my sweet sixteen was finally here and the huge relief that this was the last week before the Easter Holidays. Either way, I awoke with a grin minutes before my six o' clock alarm and rushed into the bathroom to get dressed.

An hour later, I was at my best: my hair pulled back in a high ponytail, my uniform pristine and my make up perfect. I bounded down the stairs and my mom yelled 'Happy Birthday' just as I entered the kitchen. She gave me a quick peck on the cheek as I swiped an apple from the counter. She shooed me into the dining room where Jake was seated and (as usual) was on his phone.

"Happy Birthday, sis," he muttered without even breaking eye contact from the love of his life.

"Jeez, you're not even gonna look at me when you say that? My big brother everybody!" I said mockingly as I sat opposite him.

"Ha ha," he mumbled, eyes still glued to the screen of his iPhone, "it's nice that you're so chipper two weeks before your final exams start."

You would think he would let me be happy on my birthday but no! Let's all make Mel miserable on the day she has been looking forward to since forever. I stuck my tongue out at him and took a bite out of my apple. He didn't even twitch. I sighed and grabbed the newspaper, muttering "Hopeless" under my breath.

Fifteen minutes and a birthday hug from Mom and Dad later, I was running up the stairs of the bus. I saw Em at the back, waving at me while simultaneously jumping up and down as the bus pulled away from its stop.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Mels!" she squealed as I took the seat next to her. She pulled me into a gigantic bear hug, crushing my bones and cutting off my air supply.

"Thanks, Em," I laughed. She has always been way more excited than anyone else on my birthday. It started in primary school-I was a new girl, who coincidentally changed schools on a birthday. I was miserable but the second she heard my parents wishing me happy birthday, she dragged me to the teacher as soon as possible and made everyone sing to me. I had never been so embarrassed. At break, she gently opened the clasp of her charm bracelet and handed it to me saying, "This can be your birthday present from me. From now, we will be best friends". And from then on, we were best friends. We'd been inseparable since then and no one knew me better.

"Here, babe." she muttered as she clasped another charm on my overflowing bracelet. For every single birthday since she gave me the bracelet, one of her presents were always a charm to add on to it. This year's one looked archaic-it was bronze coloured and it was the symbol of a pentagram with a thin circle around it. 

"Thanks, Em. It's beautiful! Where did you find it?"

"That's for me to know and for you to never find out", said Em, ginning mischievously.

And for the second time that day, I stuck my tongue out.

After registration, Em and I started for our first lesson-English. We went to our usual seats at the back and were just discussing my birthday plans when I heard the bickering in the front of the class. Anne-she is the typical mean, popular girl-was harassing the new girl. As soon as she made her comment, everyone started laughing. But the poor girl blushed scarlet and bent her head down. Then, I don't know what came over me! Suddenly, I got angry. Really Angry! I felt a pressure at the core of my abdomen and it built up and the pressure split out of me and headed straight for Anne. The impact bucked my body and my chair rammed into the wall behind me. Mercifully, everyone was so noted on the commotion at the front of the class room, they were oblivious to what had just happened.

But when I, once again, focused on Anne, I realised why everyone was staring with their mouths gaped open. It was Anne-she had gone ballistic! She was dancing around like a chicken, throwing papers everywhere and Brian (her boyfriend) picked her up, threw her over his shoulder and stormed out of the room.

Even though logically it could not have been my fault, I could not shake off the feeling that it was. 

The rest of the day went past like a blur. I barely said goodbye to Em as I dashed out of the bus and sprinted to my house. My hands trembled around my keys while I was trying to open the front door. But Mom, probably having heard the sound I was making, opened the door.

Heaving a huge sigh of relief, I bounded into her arms and she quickly put her arms around me to steady me.

"What's wrong, pumpkin?" she muttered as she stroked my hair.

Then and there, I wanted to tell her everything. But I couldn't stop the visual image of my parents looking at me like I was a freak and sending me off to a mental asylum. So, I kept quiet, shrugged and went upstairs to my room, where I mechanically changed into my favourite pyjamas and flopped onto my bed.

An hour or two later, I could hear excited chatter outside of my little haven. Even though all I wanted was to sulk in my bed, curiosity got the better of me and I opened my bedroom door and went downstairs.

As I tiptoed down the staircase, I could see a bunch of people in the living room, with party hats, no less. I did not want to go in there wearing my hello kitty pyjamas. I did not think I could live that embarrassment down. So, I went back up to my room and changed into a white halter neck top and my black skinny jeans. After fixing my pony tail and my make-up, I sat down in front of my computer, pretending to be revising.

About ten minutes later, my mom peeked into my room with a huge grin splitting her face. To be honest, I was a little bit frightened.

"Mel, sweet heart, come on down. We've got a surprise for you."

"Umm, okay.", I muttered as I followed her downstairs and pretended that I didn't know what they were up to.

But it turned out that I really didn't have a clue on what they were up to. What I found, when I entered the living room, was an empty room. By empty, I mean that there was no one there. It looked as ordinary as it did this morning. For a second, I wondered if I had imagined the crowd of people in party hats from before.

Mom was still grinning and restless. Weird, I had never seen her like that before.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Ready for what, mom?" I was just confused.

"For this," she whispered mysteriously and whistled.

I gaped at her as the room changed into a party venue right in front of my eyes. Decorations hugged the walls, a table of appetizers appeared at the back of the room, all of our furniture disappeared and the living room became a party room with a round table in the middle, which held a huge cake that said, "FINALLY, YOU'RE 16!".

But the most unbelievable thing was, all of the people I saw before appeared out of thin air and suddenly I was surrounded by people I had never seen before, screaming, "Surprise!"

With my jaw on the floor, I turned to look at my mom.

"What in the God's name just happened?" I croaked.

"Mel, you had better be sitting down for this. Your life will never be the same again." said Jake, coming up behind me.

Without a word of protest, I dropped onto the chair that had appeared behind me.

My family looked at each other and Jake said, "Okay, don't freak out. This is a big deal! Your life will never be the same again and it might be confusing and all but-"

"Jake!" Mum interrupted his nervous rambling.

"Right. Sorry. Mel, here it goes. You're a witch."