Magical Diary fanfic contest entry
Well, I thought I'd try my hand at this. For convenience's sake, I'm using my demo character's name. I'm too lazy to make up names. Ordinary everyday names are surprisingly hard to make. I don't think wild seed kids would have weird names. Heck, the person with the weirdest name in Magical Diary is Grabiner and that's probably because he's from a noble wizard family. Nobles like to have pompous names. ================================================================================
I woke up on the day of my thirteenth birthday feeling completely ordinary.
I didn't have this sudden urge to beg my mom to buy me make up or dress in “sexy” revealing clothes or look up fashion magazines to see what the latest trends are.
Huh.
After seeing many books and movies and comics portraying teens, even as young as thirteen and fourteen, looking and acting suddenly so mature (well, as mature as a teen could), I sort of came to think that something will magically change inside of me once I hit thirteen. Apparently not.
As I walked to the bathroom to freshen up, I idly wondered if my parents would let my get colour highlights for my hair. I played with a few strands of my hair, tracing the sections I would want to be highlighted. Mom was always saying that I have to wait until I'm older. Maybe I can claim that I'm old enough now.
The bathroom had a huge mirror that covered half of one wall, and the moment I stepped inside, I saw something in my reflection that shocked me. My dark brown hair was streaked with bright yellow-green, the colour I had wanted to highlight my hair with, in the very places I had wanted them to be. I rushed closer to the mirror and pulled one of the green strands in front of my eyes.
Yep, they weregreen.
How on earth did this happen? I knew the streaks weren't there last night. Did I somehow do this to myself in my sleep? But I didn't even own hair dye! Is it paint? I touched the green hair again. It wasn't clumped or matted, so it definitely wasn't paint.
Whatever it was, hopefully it isn't permanent. It looked cool and all, but my parents wouldn't like it one bit. I washed my hair twice, scrubbing my hair as hard as I could (and took a shower while I'm at it). I anxiously dashed back to the mirror, ignoring the fact that I was dripping all over the floor. I can clean up later.
The green streaks had dissappeared. I sighed in relief. I didn't have to make up excuses to my parents. Still, I can't stop thinking about how those green streaks appeared in the first place. Maybe it's one of those spray-on hair dyes I saw in the party store the other day.
Yeah, that had to be it, I thought to myself. The label did say it could be rinsed out easily. Maybe my sister did it to prank me. I'll ask her later.
I dried myself, cleaned up the bathroom, then walked out to the dining room for breakfast.
Mom and Dad were already there. “Happy Birthday!” they both said cheerfully.
Dad gave me a bear hug and kissed my cheek.
I smiled weakly. “Thanks, Dad. Let go of me, please.”
Dad ruffled my hair and let me take a seat on the breakfast table. Mom gave me a hug and a kiss too, athen set my breakfast in front of me. Chocolate milk and waffles with chocolate syrup, yum! Plus the usual little bowl of fruits. Normally I'd have plain white milk and some toast or cereal because Mom always insisted that I have a healthy breakfast on school days. Chocolate milk and waffles (or crepe or pancakes) were usually reserved for Sundays and birthdays. The bowl of fruits would always be there no matter what, though.
A few moments later my sister wandered in. She mumbled “Happy Birthday” sleepily to me and absently drank her milk. Yeah, it's just a normal birthday.
Mom then brought out a huge bag and gave it to me. She had insisted that I at least give out snacks to my classmates because I didn't want to have a party. Mom and Dad had made little parcels of cookies and mini-cupcakes from Dad's bakery. The cakes were simply wrapped in small clear bags, tied with colourful ribbons with a card saying “Jazz's 13th Birthday” attached. Small and simple, but cute. I hugged my parents and thanked them for their thoughtfulness.
Aunt Lisa called just before me and my sister had to leave for school, wishing me a happy birthday and promising to deliver my gift later in the afternoon. I told her she didn't have to hurry, but thanked her anyway. My best friends Felicia and Yoyo were the first ones to wish me Happy Birthday in school. They gave me a sketch book and coloured pencils and jokingly demand that I draw pretty pictures of them as “thank you”. I told them I wouldn't be reponsible if my questionable art skills disappoint them.
Mrs. Jules, my homeroom teacher, had me stand up in front of the class and have the rest of the students sing Happy Birthday to me. I was expecting that, since she does that to every single student who had a birthday, but it's still embarrassing.
Nothing weird happened for the rest of the day and I soon forgot all about the green hair incident. That is, until later that night.
I had my birthday dinner with Mom, Dad, and my sister in Dad's bakery-cafe. After the meal, Dad had some staff bring out the small birthday cake he had prepared so we could take birthday pictures of me.
It was a simple round cake covered in white icing, with thirteen chocolate roses on the border and a thin slab of chocolate with “Happy Birthday” piped on it. I loved the cake. It was very nice, but I wished the icing had been chocolate instead of vanilla because it's too sugary for me. Then again, I suppose if the icing had been chocolate the roses wouldn't show up too well in the pictures.
After we're done with the “traditional stuff” (the staff and my family singing “Happy Birthday”, me blowing out candles, cutting cake, etc etc) and taking pictures, I served myself a slice of cake and took a bite.
The icing tasted like chocolate.
My eyes widened. I looked at my cake slice and saw that the icing was not the white icing I saw earlier. It was brown. Chocolate. I turned to the other slices of cake. They were all still white.
“Cool magic trick,” my sister commented.
The staff nodded and laughed awkwardly, then excused themselves. Dad didn't seem like he believed the exaplanation, but said nothing. We finished eating the cake awkwardly and went back home in silence.
I went to bed feeling uneasy. Hopefully everything would solve itself by tomorrow.
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The next day, a young man in a business suit came to visit our house. He introduced himself as an Agent for some kind of organization that I have never heard of. He said something about me having magic and magic schools and a Choice I would have to make.
My parents started arguing with the man. They said he was talking nonsense, that he's insane, there's no way they're going to send me to a questionable school.
The man calmly took out some papers from his suitcase and gave it to my parents to read. “You should find your questions answered in this document.”
As they read the document, the man turned to me.
“Young lady, what do you think about this?” he asked.
I fiddled with my fingers. “I don't know.”
He loked incredulous, and I just shrugged. What was he expecting, really? Did he think I would squeal and be all excited about it?
Magic. I never really thought much about it beyond “it's that cool sparkly stuff they do in movies and games and books”. I mean, they're cool and all, but I never particularly cared. I never had the reason to. Plus, there's a whole lot of other stuff to worry about, like school and friends.
And now here I am being told that I have magic. By some weird guy of a questionable organization. Isn't this totally something straight out of Harry Potter? I didn't even like the Harry Potter series.
But then I suddenly remembered the weird incidents yesterday. The green hair streaks, the cake icing suddenly turning into chocolate... Is that magic? Did I really have magic? But weren't my parents not magical? How did I have magic, then? And why did it only came out now? Was I jinxed, because my birthday is on the 13th of the month? Maybe the double-thirteen combo really caused some weird stuff to happen?
And even if I do have magic, I don't want to just be shipped off to some “magic school”. What about my parents? The rest of my family? My friends? I mean, Harry Potter had a miserable life with his non-magic relatives and was totally way happier in the magic school. I didn't! I don't want to leave my friends and family just because weird stuff happened to me!
The Agent looked at his watch and stood up suddenly. “I'm afraid I have to leave now. I have other matters to attend to. I will leave the documents with you. Let me remind you that magic can be dangerous if the user is not trained properly. Do think things through and choose wisely. Details on the schools are enclosed in the documents. Feel free to contact them if you have any questions.”
Once the Agent has left, I asked, “Well, now what?”
Nobody said a word. Both Mom and Dad were still holding the documents; Mom looked worried and Dad looked upset. My sister had a funny expression on her face, and I couldn't tell what she was thinking.
I looked down. Looks like there was magic about being thirteen after all. Real magic in my case. It's surely not what I expected, and I'm not sure if I should be upset or glad about it. All I know was that it brought on an entirely new problem that not even my parents would know how to solve.
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A/N:I hope this is as un-Mary Sue as it could get. Just because my character's default name is Mary Sue doesn't mean that she is one or she has to be one.