W.I.S.E

Prologue

Two teenage girls sat in a room with light purple walls. The girl with honey blonde hair sat with her legs crisscross on the desk chair. The blonde pulled on the strings of her white hoodie with her left hand and spun her blue pen in her other. Her emerald eyes reflected the bright light of her laptop screen as she typed quickly looking for synonyms for the word 'terrible'. The other girl sat on the white sheeted bed, still in school uniform, cuddling a round sheep stuffed animal.

"Ugh, I can't do this!" She threw her pen in the air and let it fall onto the off-white carpeted floor..

"Come on Peyton, you just have to write a lil' summary." Her soft pink curls bounced as she slid off the bed to look over her friend's shoulder.

"That's easy for you to say. You could just talk about your siblings."

"Ah- that's fair..." She giggled and grabbed the paper.

"Hey, Millie! I'm not finished yet!" Peyton reached for the paper pushing the casters on top of the pen and throwing off her balance.

The chair tipped over and hit the nightstand, causing both Peyton and her lamp to fall to the ground.

"Pfft, I'm Peyton Santina, a sixteen year old-" Millie mocked, making her voice slightly deeper to match the blonde.

"It sounds worse when you read it out loud." She jumped off the ground and brushed the dust off her grey sweatpants.

Peyton bent down to pick up the lamp and straightened it as she put it back on the table.

"Aww, don't worry. I've already come up with the perfect starter."

"Don't say it-"

"Talk about how you never learned magic." She cut Peyton off and shrugged.

"I told you not to say it!" She fell back onto the bed with her arms out.

Millie laughed and sat at the corner of the mattress.

"Although, I suppose that would be a lot easier than what I'm trying to do." Peyton shot up and pulled the chair upright before hopping back on and scribbling.

Her handwriting was slanted and sloppy but she felt that it got the job done. Having been homeschooled for pretty much her entire life, penmanship never seemed like it was of any importance. Yet, she'd be lying if she said she wasn't jealous of Millie's looping and luxurious letters.

Imagine being the only person who can't make water appear in their cup by simply looking at it, pull a remote toward you with mere thoughts, or cook a fish with your hand. Well, as someone who has no magical ability in the slightest, let me be the first to tell you, it isn't as bad as they say it is. It's worse. It's so much worse.

Millie laughed as she read it.

"It's not that bad! I didn't learn until a few years ago, I know what it's like." She shook her head causing her curls to fly through the air.

"So says the girl who ran to my house squealing when you were able to create metal straws from your hand. Metal straws Millie is telling me that I am overreacting about my inability to use magic."

"Hey! I forgot my straw that day..." Millie looked down and blushed.

Everybody treats you like you're some weird mutation, when I'm pretty sure they're the weird ones. Shouldn't being normal be considered normal?

"Maybe going a little too deep there, don't you think?" Millie commented as Peyton finished the sentence.

"Maybe I don't care." Peyton responded sarcastically.

Whatever normal is now, I'm not that. I'm the weird kid who can't do anything. Some people are a little less capable in the magic department, but they can at the very least have some manipulation abilities. I can manipulate fire using a stove, but that doesn't make me anything special. I can create water from thin air using a sink, but that doesn't make me unique. I can start and electric current by plugging my phone into an outlet, but that doesn't make me different. I'm that boring.

"Okay... maybe you were right about it being too deep..." Peyton looked over her writing again.

"Told you!" Millie's voice rose in pitch as she sung a tease.

Peyton groaned and slammed her head into the desk, immediately regretting that decision. She put her hand up to her red forehead and winced.

"Well, don't go doing that!" Millie raced up to her.

"Ugh. Yeah, that was not a good idea."

They laughed until Peyton was hit with a sudden realization.

"This is going to bruise, isn't it?" When Millie nodded in response she moved to slam her head into the desk again but was stopped by Millie's hand.

"What did I just say?!"

"Right, right, no slamming heads into tables." She grumbled as if it was a punishment and moved to the bed to avoid any temptation.

"I still can't believe your mom is letting you leave the house and go to school!" Millie's mint eyes sparkled with excitement.

"She betrayed me." Peyton faked seriousness but smiled when Millie rolled her eyes.

"You're kidding me, right?"

She stayed quiet.

"What?! If you go to an actual school they'll teach you to do this!" Millie's pale skin turned grey and shiny.

Peyton knocked on her friend's metallic arm and glared at her when it made a pulsing sound of metal being hit. Not to mention her knuckles hurt like hell afterwards, but she opted for acting like nothing was wrong as she crossed her arms and rubbed her knuckle against the back of her left elbow.

"Show-off." She sighed and rested her head back on the headboard.

Millie frowned slightly and returned to normal.

"You'll never learn if you refuse to try."

"Yeah, but at least I'm not some weird robot."

"I'm not a robot!" She dissolved into laughter and rolled onto the bed.

"It's not that funny." Peyton replied in a monotone, sounding much more like the robot out of the duo.

"I find it hilarious to see you pretend you didn't wish you were a robot."

No matter how much Peyton refused to admit it, she really was ecstatic that she may be able to learn how to do something like that. In fact, that night she barely slept as she imagined herself doing anything extraordinary. From freezing water midair to merely moving a pencil with her mind, she wished for any of it.