Experimental Magic ✔

Phone Call

"Ow," Millie said as she jumped back from the stove. 

She decided to try something different and fry herself an egg. She wasn't normally a cook but it was finals weeks and she had heard that eating an egg before a test helped improve brain power. She had no idea whether it was true or not, but she needed all the help she could get.

Millie's performance in school was only slightly above average. She excelled in Potion making and History of Witchcraft, but struggled in Configuration. Now matter how hard she tried, she could never quite master the inflection in her voice that was needed to get the spell right. The thing about traditional magic was it was extremely measured and precise. Every word had to be clearly dictated with just the right rhythm, volume and sharpness. Say the configuration too softly and you end up with a cat head and human body. Say it too loudly and you end up with a cat body but a human head. It could be exhausted at times, but Millie enjoyed the challenge.

"I swear, I don't know how mortals do this," she said to herself.

She grabbed the pan and tossed the egg in the garbage before taking the easy way out and conjuring up an egg. A perfectly cooked sunny-side up appeared instantly, complete with a side of toast and hash browns.

"There," Millie said, satisfied with her work.

She sat happily down at the table and began munching down on her breakfast. Her peaceful moment of happiness was quickly interrupted by her sister screaming for Meadow. Millie groaned, but shook her head and did her best to ignore it. This happened just about every morning. She was less annoyed by the shouting and more by the fact that Meadow couldn't seem to get her act together for more than two days.

"Meadow!" Misty shouted.

"I'm coming!" Meadow screamed back.

Her voice was muffled by her closed door, but she was going to keep it closed until she was good and ready. She didn't know why Misty was freaking out so much. They still had twenty minutes before the first bell. It took them 2, 3 minutes tops to get to school. Plus, she as 99% ready. She had her uniform on, her book bag packed, her hair pulled into a messy bun. All that was left was for her to put on her socks and shoes.

"Hurry up! We're going to be late! Again." Misty said.

Meadow rolled her eyes as she reached for her shoes. Just as she did, the old rotary phone on her night stand began to ring. She stared at it in confusion. She had dug that old phone out the attic years ago. She loved the vintage flair it gave her room. But it served no purpose other than aesthetics. It was rusty and battered and didn't even have a cord attached to it. How could someone be possibly calling it. 

"Hello?" she answered with skepticism.

"Is that anyway to greet your only brother?"

"Markos!" she said excitedly.

She should've guessed it was him. Simply calling her cell phone would never do for Markos. That had no whimsy, no element of surprise. He just had to make everything a little extra special. But then again, Markos hardly ever called. Especially not when school was in session. The possibility of him calling during the semester, or even outside of it, was so close to zero so it really only seemed obvious after the fact. Before their little trick on Misty and Millie, she hadn't seen or talked to him in months. She couldn't believe how lucky she was to be able to talk to him twice in one week.

"Hey little sis," he said. She could just hear the smile in his voice. It was so nice to have someone talk to her with any other tone besides disdain and scorn. "How have things been? I didn't make things worse for you did I?"

"No no," she said. "Millie yelled at me a little for using magic on them because it's against the rules or whatever, but other than that they haven't said anything."

"Yeah well," Markos said. "I'm sure they're planning something."

"What are they gonna do?" she said. "They can't use magic on me."

"Maybe not directly," Markos said. "there's nothing stopping them from using magic on something else to get their revenge. Don't you remember when Hector Pipe accidentally let Miss Gervalli's cat out of the house, so she enchanted a tree to fall on him when he was walking out to get the mail? I mean how is that any different than if she had used magic to give him a heart attack? All because she technically used magic on the tree and not him.  The result was still the same and she used magic to get there so what difference does it make? The whole thing is stupid. I mean The Assembly uses magic on other witches all the time to assert their power. They can do it but we can't? Bunch of hypocrites. All of them."

"Okay Markos," Meadow teased. "It's not even 9:00 and you're all ready ranting about The Assembly."

"Sorry," he said. "This call really was supposed to be about you. So you're doing okay? Everything's good?"

Meadow was just about to answer when there was a heavy pounding on her door.

"Meadow!" Misty yelled as she banged on the door. "I'm serious. You need to get out here. Now."

Misty's patience had grown thin. She wasn't going to sit around and wait for Meadow all day. They needed to leave. She reached for the door knob, but the door wouldn't budge. What the  - Misty thought in confusion. Their house was practically a hundred years old. All the locks on the doors had broken years ago. She shook the door knob aggressively in frustration and slammed all her weight into the door, but she still didn't get anywhere.

"Ugh!" she groaned and stamped her foot. "Did you put a lock spell on this door?"

On the other side of the door Meadow just giggled.

"I've told you a million times not to do that," Misty said.

Undoing the spell was simple, but Misty saw it as an utter waste of her time. She had better things to do than sit around unlocking doors all day. Misty huffed as she spread her fingers out over the door knob. A quick little one syllable spell and it was done. But as soon as Misty reached for the door knob, Meadow locked it again. Misty snarled. This is exactly what she didn't have time for.

"Seriously Meadow," she said. "Knock it off or I'll rip this whole door down."

"Hey," Markos said through the phone. "Play nice for bit all right? You'll make it worse."

"Okay," she said.

"Thank you," Markos said. "Be smart, okay?"

"I will," She said. "I promise."

"Good," Markos. "Talk to you later."

Meadow said good bye to her brother and then hung-up with a heavy heart. She threw on her shoes and headed for the door. Misty was waiting impatiently right outside with her arms crossed tapping her foot.

"Are we ready?" She snipped.

"Yes," Meadow said with annoyed sigh. "Let's go."