ONWARD IMAGINES

Cupcakes | Ian Lightfoot

THIS IS SPOILER FREE! YOU DO NOT NEED TO HAVE SEEN ONWARD TO READ THIS!

requested by my good friend jarvisdropmyneedle07

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"And then I kinda just went --- whoosh!" He grabbed the staff tight in his hands and threw his body backwards dramatically. "Yeah. Like that, basically."

You laughed from where you sat in the grass. It was a sunny spring afternoon, and you were hanging out with your best friend, Ian.

He was ecstatic as he told you the entire story of his latest adventures. "Oh! And look at this spell. I can basically lift anything up in the air. Okay, not basically. I can lift anything up. Are you ready?"

"Sure," you said. You were just as eager to see what he could do as he was to show you what he could do. "Go ahead and show me."

"Okay. Get ready!" he said. He turned towards his mother's large flowerpot that sat in the backyard. He aimed the large wizard staff at it and shouted, "Aloft Elevar!"

The flower pot began to glow; glittering and blue. It shook slightly as it began to lift off of the grass and into the air. Ian struggled to keep it up for more than three seconds, and when he dropped it, he flower pot cracked in half.

He winced. "Oops."

Nonetheless, you clapped proudly. "Wow, I cannot believe I went on vacation for two weeks and came back to my best friend being a wizard."

"Yeah, pretty crazy," he agreed, nodding. "It sucks you weren't here to see it."

"I know," you said, frowning. "I'm sorry I missed your birthday, too."

"Aw, that's okay," he said. He sat down next to you in the grass. "We can celebrate it now. That's all that matters."

"Yeah," you said. You leaned your head on his shoulder.

He turned his head slightly, looking down at you. His lips twitched upward into a smile and he leaned his cheek against the top of your head.

Somewhere in the kitchen, a timer went off. You jumped and looked back at the open backdoor. Ian got up. "The cupcakes are done," he said.

"Oh yay! I can get 'em," you said.

"No, no, I'll get them," he told you. "You gotta ice them and everything on your own anyway."

"But they're your birthday cupcakes, silly!" you laughed.

He didn't listen. "I'll be right back!" He half jogged, half skipped up to the back door.

You laughed and shook your head at him. Sighing, you laid back down in the soft grass. The sky was bright blue. There wasn't a single cloud visible. It was so beautiful, and the sweet smell of warm vanilla cupcakes flooded outside from the kitchen...

You smiled in content and stretched out your limbs, feeling a wave of sleepiness fall over you. When you stretched your arms, your right hand bumped the wizard staff that Ian had left on the grass. You sat up and looked at the object, then glanced at the backdoor.

"Hey, the cupcakes gotta go in for a few more minutes!" Ian shouted. "They aren't cooked in the middle!"

"Okay!" you called back. "Just try another ten minutes."

"Okay!"

You bit your lip as you looked at the wizard staff.

There was nothing wrong with just holding it for a minute, right?

No, there was nothing wrong with that, you decided. It wasn't like Ian would get mad about it, anyway.

You got up on your feet and gently lifted the wizard staff. It was heavy in your hands. You shifted it, letting most of the weight rest on your dominant hand. You smiled.

Mocking Ian's movements from when he was showing off earlier, you said, "Aloft Elevar!"

Blue seemed to shoot out of the wizard staff. Everything around you started to shake as if you were in the middle of an earthquake. What was in front of you, a giant tree, began to pull out of the ground. You gasped and began to panic.

"No, no, no, no, no!" you cried.

Ian ran out of the house and into the kitchen. "What are you doing!?"

"I-I don't know!" you cried. The ground cracked around the tree. "I-I didn't mean to!"

"Whoa!"

"What do I do?!"

"Well, I---" He ran forward and put his hands on the staff. At once, the tree fell back and settled into the cracked ground.

Everything stopped moving.

You let out a sigh of relief. "I broke your yard. I am so sorry."

"It's okay," he said, shaking his head. He looked at you. "I-I can't believe you have it. You can control magic."

"Yeah, I can't believe it either," you admitted. You gasped and jerked your hand away from the staff. "Ouch!"

"What?" Ian asked, panicked. "Oh jeez. What is it!?"

You held up your hand. "Splinter."

He sighed in relief and dropped his face into his hands. You burst into laughter, feeling nervous and awkward and relieved all at the same time. Ian looked at you and shook his head.

"Is your mom going to kill me?" you asked.

"No, I don't think so," he said. He turned around. The levitation spell had yanked the roots out of the ground slightly, and now the tree was tilted a little to the left. The grass was pulled out and the dirt was cracked open. "It doesn't... it doesn't look so bad."

"It looks kind of bad."

Ian shrugged. "Well, hey. I broke her flower pot, so..."

"So we're both in trouble," you said.

You and Ian broke into laughter. The timer went off again and Ian shrugged. "Well, hey, at least we made cupcakes."

"At least there's that," you said. You and your best friend turned towards the back door and walked to the kitchen together, where the smell of vanilla cake filled your senses. "Maybe she'll go easy on us then."

"Maybe," he agreed.

"Oh, and keep that thing away from me," you said.

He looked at it. "Well, it won't do anything unless you say the name of a spell."

"No, it's not that," you said. You put his hand in front of his face. "Look at this splinter. It's horrible."

He shook his head at you and snorted. Gently, he took your hand. "Okay, okay. I'll go get the tweezers."