Of course we forgot a few minor details though.“Candace, how are we going to do the food? Do you have any secret stashes in here?” Nat asked me, as she picked up her soccer ball sized pile of clothes.
“Nope, no stashes for me, how about you? As soon as Mom and Dad are asleep we can go to the pantry and grab granola bars, mini bags of chips, travel sized raison boxes, and peanut bags and that kind of thing. A box of crackers, and so on. We’ll just shrink it so that we don’t have to be weighed down anymore.”
“Nope I don’t have any secret food stashes either!” Nat picked up her purse and threw it in her backpack. We locked our safes and made sure everything was in order.
“Are you all packed?” I asked.
“Yep, I’m ready to go. Don’t forget your wand Candace.” Nat smiled.
“Yeah how could I forget if I’m going to teleport to Brent’s room?” I asked.
“It’s called a joke.”
“Well, whatever Nat!”
“Ianuae Magicae.” Teleport, I heard Nat say and I did the same thing. We were in Brent’s room again.
“WHOA!” Brent yelled again. “You guys have got to stop doing that!” This time he didn’t sound angry that we were in his room. This time he wasn’t trying to tell Mom and Dad that we had entered his room without permission, and that was really nice. It was kind of nice not yelling at each other all the time and getting along. We hadn’t said anything, but just the fact that I was in Brent’s room and he wasn’t yelling for Mom and Dad was enough said.
“You need to stop yelling.”
“Well, I get scared easily.” Brent said defensively.
“Sorry, but we’re ready to go.” Nat said. She was way better at dealing with Brent then I was. I just got mad at him and wanted to punch him, but Nat could actually be nice to him.
“How did you guys not pack anything? You’re girls! Girls always pack so much!”
“Yeah, well we probably packed more. We have our secrets though!” I said secretively, even though Brent would eventually figure it out. “Nat, you know what we should do? We should create clones! Then Mom and Dad won’t even know we’re gone and we won’t get in trouble!” I was very thrilled with my new idea.
“That’s a really good idea! Steve and Emma won’t even realize we left!” Nat said happily. “We won’t even get in trouble!”
“I hope not Nat.” I said, but I wasn’t sure I believed it. To get out of all this would be too good, too perfect. “Are you guys ready to go?” I asked.
“Yeah I’m all packed, but I don’t have any food.” Brent said.
“We don’t either so we’re just going to raid the pantry before we go.”
“But I don’t have many clothes, and I definitely don’t have any clothes for winter weather.” Brent protested.
“We’ll buy you clothes if you really need them. You can buy them anywhere.” I said.
“Okay sounds good.” Brent seemed content with the fact that Nat and I would use our money to buy him clothes, but a happy Brent meant a happy life.
“Let’s go now. Who knows when Mom and Dad are going to come up again.”
“Okay, let’s go.” Nat said. We ran downstairs and I saw my parents sitting at the kitchen table, with very serious facial expressions, and they were probably deciding what to do with Nat and I. Unfortunately, Brent banged into the wall and Mom and Dad looked up. We had been spotted, and they did not look happy. My parents didn’t seem to believe the fact that I had just disobeyed a rule of theirs. I had never gone against their punishments, because I was taught if I respected them and their rules, they would respect mine. Not that I had many rules, just the fact that they couldn’t go into my room without permission. This time I had to go against my parent’s though, I was not going to accept the fact that magic, which was now part of my life and had been hidden from me and Nat, was now forbidden. What Dad said was ridiculous, no magic allowed. I wouldn’t let them get away with any more ridiculous rules. I was done hiding and being scared of my parents and what they could do.
“Disputatio.” Talk, Nat said, and she snapped me out of my trance. “Emma, what is our mission?”
“A mission is when you go and do something important for the benefit of the magical world. The voice has come to talk to us about your mission. Magic came, which means your mission is very important. You must know that on a mission, you cannot teleport and have to travel the human way. One more thing you must know, being assigned a mission is a great honor and many magicians do not get the honor of it so you must not brag, and you must not act like it’s no big deal that you got this mission, especially at such a young age.”
“Okay, but what are going to do on our mission?” I asked impatiently.
“Your mission is to kill or at least delay the sorcerers and figure out how to stop their ancient magic. That is all we know, but your mission will go far beyond that and you will do great things.”
“Okay.” My parents were definitely very dramatic under the talking spell! “Where do we have to go then?” I asked.
“To begin your mission, you must go to an area that was in the most recent Olympics in Canada. From there I do not know where you must go, but the voice will meet you there. You have the honor of meeting magic.”
“Why the Olympics?” Brent asked. Of course he was concerned about why; he always liked to know why.
“Because magicians built the Olympic stadiums and the Olympics was a magical place. It was a proud time to be a magician, for the world to see our creations.” Brent nodded.
“Anything else we should know?” I asked.
“Spells are in Latin, and Latin comes easily to you. You know the spells off the top of your head and do not have to think. Every mission has a theme to it and your mission has been given an unlucky theme. The theme is ‘Improvisus,” meaning unforeseen. No one knows what to expect for your mission, only that one of the four will return home and the other’s will be gone.”
I sighed. Of course we would get the luck of having an unlucky mission and only one of us returning home. I really tried not to think about only the one of us returning home. “Well thanks for the help, we should be going now.” I turned to Nat. “Are you ready, Nat?”
“Yes I am. Oblitus.” Forget, Nat quickly said and I dropped the talking spell.
“Somnus.” Sleep, I said and my parents fell fast asleep.
Nat started to run to the pantry, “Clones, Nat, clones!”
“Right! Duplicare.” Duplicate, Nat said.
“Duplicare.” Duplicate, I said after Nat and pointed my wand at Brent and then me. I felt something pulling at me and then suddenly I was starting at me, but it was my clone me. “Hello,” I wanted to see if it could talk.
“Hi.” The clone me responded and luckily it sounded just like me.
“Go to your rooms now.” I said, and the clones ran upstairs. They were fast learners. Then we ran over to the pantry and threw random food that was in bags in our backpacks and some crackers. Nat and I didn’t bother shrinking them because we could fit all the food in our bags with no problem.
Then we ran outside and I remembered one of the small details I overlooked. “Guys, we have a problem. We don’t have a car!” Nat groaned and gave me the look. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t see you guys trying to help out with the plan.” See, the problem wasn’t the fact that we couldn’t drive, because we all had our G license and were able to drive no problem. The problem was that Mom and Dad were too cheap to buy a car for any of us. Not even one car for us to share, and we couldn’t take one of Mom and Dad’s cars, because then the police would get involved and they would probably figure out we took it.
“Do you guys have any friends that would lend you a car for a bit?” Brent asked.
“No I don’t think so.” See I didn’t have many friends. I was best friends with Nat and I had a few other friends here and there, but most of the time it was just me and Nat. “Jordon and Janessa don’t have any.” Jordon and Janessa were the other part of Nat and my group, and were pretty much my only other friends. “Do you?” I asked Brent.
“Um, I have someone who was on the football team. He might lend it to me, but I haven’t talked to him for a long time, and I know he’s going to have a price.
“Well how much?” I asked. The good thing was I wasn’t a Dutch person who was very cheap. I would pay the price for things I needed, but I never went overboard with buying things.
“About a thousand.” Brent said.
“Well that’s not too bad! We could do that, couldn’t we?” Nat asked.
“You didn’t let me finish. He normally charges that per day, and any damage you pay for and any gas, you pay for. I heard his price went up though.”
“That’s not right! You can’t ask that! That’s stealing money right there! Who in their right mind would borrow his car?” I asked. Then I paused and thought of a new idea. “You don’t think we could use magic on him, do you?” Nat and Brent both looked at me like I was crazy.
“Candace, are you mad? We can’t use magic on regular people unless we absolutely have to! Like life or death situation. It’s probably against magical laws if there are any!” Nat said angrily.
“Since when did you care about the law?” I shot back and Nat didn’t say anything. “Besides we really do need a car! If Mom or Dad finds us it really will be a life or death situation!” I wasn’t ready to lose the fight this time, even though it was a two to one fight. “If you two won’t help me then I will get myself a car!” Brent grabbed my arm just as I started to walk away. I had no idea where I would go, but I would find a way.
“No! You are not going to do something dumb that sends the police after us! I’m not going to let you use magic on some innocent person!”
“I appreciate your concern, but I didn’t ask for your permission! I can do what I want, when I want to do it. Now get your hands off of me!” I said angrily. So much for getting along, I knew it was too good to be true.
“Candace, as much as I hate to say it, Brent’s right.” Nat said quietly. “You can’t make people give you cars, just because you want to and can! Magic is supposed to be used for good right? Not stealing people. Steve and Emma said that our mission was to make the magical world better, and stealing a car will make the human world worse! Do we want to do that?” Nat had a point, but we still needed a car and I didn’t want to admit that they were right.
“Guys, I don’t want to steal a car! We need a car to do good. We need a car to make the magical world, the world we belong in, better! One car will be a small price for the big picture.” I was starting to sound like a criminal and it scared me, but I knew I was right
“You know what? If you’re that set on stealing a car go ahead! Get arrested, for all I care!” Brent snapped. I had pushed him too far and now he was mad.
“Fine, you win, but just for this time! At least call him if you have his number, and see if he’s willing to lower the price!” Brent had a look of victory on his face and I just glared at him.
“I didn’t bring my cellphone, but there’s a payphone by all the mailboxes about a block away, so I’ll go see what I can do.” We lived in a subdivision, and normally I hated it, but at times when you couldn’t go back into your house, it was really nice to have payphones everywhere.
“Brent, before you do, can Candace and I know your football friend’s name?” Nat asked which was definitely a good idea. Some guys on the football team were messed up and into drugs, and I didn’t want to have anything to do with them, especially if this guy used to be on the football team. TO me it sounded like he had been kicked off.
“Um, his name is Doug.” Brent said and he blushed.
“Doug Stone?” I asked angrily.
“Yeah.” I wanted to punch Brent right then and there for even thinking of that-that thing!
“Brent you’re friends with him?” I asked angrily. “We are definitely not going to call him! I will have nothing to do with him!” Doug Stone no longer went to our school. He had been expelled for a serious crime and had served time in juvenile detention, but he should’ve served more.
“Candace, he’s my friend! He’s changed!” Brent protested.
“Have you lost your mind?” Nat asked.
“No!”
“Brent he did it! Why?” I felt a stab of pain in my chest as I remembered the accident that Doug Stone had caused. The day that I had lost my brother, my brother who was never spoken of around my house. The brother that had been murdered.