Just Some Harmless Magic

By Autumn Took

Chapter One

All right. Who would have ever thought that geeky little Anne Landerville, with her long dark red hair and green eyes hidden by glasses, would ever become a great sorceress, fighting the forces of evil? Well, fortunately someone did, because here I am.

But that's not how it started, no, far from it. It started one day last year, in mid-September, when I was fourteen. Back then, I didn't think life could get any worse. And I guess I was right, for I love my life now, no matter how dangerous it might be.

Okay, I know you're just dying to know what I'm talking about, so here goes.

Those days I was pretty much tormented by everyone, but especially by the most popular girl in school, Lynn Hayes. God, she was so pretty, with her perfect strawberry-blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. She was about 5'7", an inch taller than me, and must have weighed 110 pounds.

She had had it out for me ever since seventh grade, when I had made fun of her braces. Well, she had always made fun of me for my glasses and such, but she really had never done anything to prove her hatred for me. Until that day.

I was sitting there with my only friend, Katie Almond, innocently eating lunch at our normal table in the courtyard at our school. Across from us, Lynn, and her cheerleading squad, were sitting at their regular table, drinking a chocolate malt.

I just knew she was up to something; she kept looking over at Katie and me, and whispering to the entire cheerleading squad, who would lean in closer to hear.

She was sitting next to her boyfriend of two months, David Baldwin. He was the most popular guy in school, and with a very good reason. He was 5'6" also, short but gorgeous. He had, ironically, the same dark red hair as me, though his was short and spiked, and the same startling green eyes.

Anyway, Lynn got up from her table, and came over to ours, surrounded by a couple of her cheerleaders.

"Hello, Anne." She said it with such bitterness that I wanted to cut her tongue off, if there is any logic to that.

I looked up into those blue eyes and replied, with equal bitterness, "Are you talking to me?"

She looked taken aback, but recovered quickly. "Wow, your hair is looking rather stringy today," she said, "The best it's looked in ages."

I started to come up with a come back, but Lynn beat me to it.

"Actually, it would look an awful lot better brown." And with that, she poured the rest of her chocolate malt all over my head.

I was beside myself with sorrow. I couldn't see or hear what was going on. I was faintly aware of Katie, next to me, saying, "Jesus, Lynn, what is your problem?"

After I recovered from the shock, I wiped the chocolate out of my eyes with the napkin in front of me. The cheerleaders were back at their table. I was really surprised when I saw David turn around and look at me, a look of pity on his gorgeous face.

It was all too much to bear. I felt a tear slip out of my eye, and I got up from the table, grabbing my PE clothes, and ran into the thankfully nearby bathroom. Breathing hard, I quickly ran through, with weird looks from the girls in there, and opened the door on the other end of the room that led to the showers. I took an extremely quick shower, got dressed in my PE clothes, and stuck my head under the hand dryer.

After my hair was dry, I cleaned my glasses off in the sink, and put my soiled clothes in the trashcan (I didn't really care about that shirt anyway) and went back out to Katie. I was surprised to see David across the courtyard, sitting with his jock friends instead of Lynn.

As I was heading back to our empty table to pick up my backpack, Katie ran up to me, a look of excitement and triumph on her face. "You should have seen it! David gave Lynn this weird look, and just walked away! Rumor is they're going to break up!"

I smiled slightly. As much as I loved Katie, she was just so weird. She had short brown hair, and dark brown eyes, and loved any gossip she could get her ears in. She was an B student, and a cat lover. She was a couple inches taller than me.

The bell rang. "Let's just go to journalism, OK?" I said in a voice that implied I wanted to die, which of course I did, everyone around us was laughing and pointing at me.

She nodded slightly. "Ok," she said, and we started walking in the general direction of the entrance to the hallway. And that was when it happened.

This really freaky girl, with silver-blonde hair and silver eyes, a little shorter than me, came bounding out of the double doors. She looked our age, maybe a little older, but I had never seen her in any of my classes. She looked like she would belong in Lynn's group, she was so pretty, but I never saw her with them. I saw her every now and then; she would always appear like this. She would run up to me, and whisper some off-hand comment about my appearance, like how much I looked like my mother (Which is weird because as far as I know, my mother died giving birth to me), or sometimes she would say something about David, but never had she said anything like what she said that day.

As she ran up to us, her silver cloak flailing in the wind behind her, she smiled. She stopped right in front of us, making me stop to talk to her. Katie kept walking.

The strange girl smiled at me again, and said in a serene voice, "The locket I know you have holds many secrets, but no one knows them. Only you may unlock it, and learn the ways of these secrets. You may do this soon, but most likely later. Soon, however, you will know the truth. Be prepared to see more like me." She indicated her cloak, then disappeared.

I gaped at the spot where she had been. "Wait…" I said slowly. "Come back."

Katie looked back at me, finally realizing I had stopped. "Anne, I think you've been in the sun too long, your brain is getting a tan…" she said, eyeing me strangely.

I shook the weird feeling I was getting off. It didn't matter. Katie was right; I had been imagining the girl. But something tugged at me.

I dug around inside my PE shirt, and pulled put my beautiful locket I had received who knows when. It was a gorgeous little thing, but no one knew about it. It was shaped like a heart, with rubies set into it on a dark silver metal. When you looked at it, you couldn't help but think of love. I was never sure where I had gotten it. It simply was mine. I had never been able to open it before, and that's what got me. The mysterious girl that I had no doubt imagined must have just been my subconscious mind trying to make up some reason for my fight with the locket.

We reached the double doors, and went straight in to our journalism class, which was right across from the entrance. I went and sat down at my normal seat in the front row, with Katie on my right.

Journalism was easily my favorite class. I got A's in all my classes, but journalism was my best. You see, David took journalism too, but he only took it because he wanted to get into yearbook the next year; he was an excellent photographer.

Normally, David would sit in the back of the class with Lynn, who was only there because he was, but that miraculous day he sat next to me. I couldn't believe my eyes. How in God's name could anyone be so gorgeous? He smiled at me as he took the seat on my left.

I looked at Katie next to me, who looked back. Both of our jaws were dropped, and both of us had the same expression of shock.

Trying to recover from shock for a second time that day, I looked up to Mr. Miller's desk to see if he was there yet, and instead I saw her again. And I couldn't believe what she was doing. She was sitting at Mr. Miller's desk, with the apple Katie had left on his desk in her mouth!

"Katie! Katie!" I exclaimed. "There's that girl! The one I told you about! She's sitting at Mr. Miller's desk! She's, she's eating your apple!"

David looked, too, and I realized how stupid it sounded. I really was insane. Katie couldn't see her. I was imagining her.

But instead of turning back to me to give me a weird look, David's jaw dropped. "Oh my god, it's Bree!" he whispered. And then he waved!

I wasn't crazy! David could see her, too! Bree waved, and disappeared, dropping the apple.

I turned toward David, and nearly screamed, "You know her?! How?! Who is she?! What's going on?!"

Then I heard a harsh voice from the front of the room. "All right, all right, everyone shut up! Who took a bite of my apple?!"

Everyone shut up right quick, not answering back. I poked David in the side, making him look at me. "Who is she?" I whispered, but he didn't get a chance to answer. Mr. Miller intervened.

Nearly an hour later, after a grueling lesson about how to write a letter, we were working on the assignment he had given us: Write a letter. And I thought journalism was my favorite class. I was writing my letter to Mr. Miller, who was currently in the teacher's lounge, asking him why he was making us write a letter. Katie was writing to me.

But most of my time was spent eyeing David. God, he was just so gorgeous! I had been trying to read his letter, but he kept it well hidden. The only part I saw was that it was to Lynn. Of course, who else?

When he was done, he actually passed the letter to Lynn, who had come to sit at his left side. She read it with a twinkle in her eye. Finally, she said, "David, nice work. If this were a real break up letter, I would be crushed."

I gasped. Oh my God, he was breaking up with her, she was just to stupid to understand!

"Lynn, you are so blonde! It is a real break up letter!" And this came from David!

Lynn looked ready to die. "No, you cant! Just because I accidentally dump my malt on top of some ugly little nerdy red-headed nobody, you go all ghetto on me and just dump me?"

David smiled faintly. "That's right. You've been insulting her for the past three years, and I am tired of it. I shouldn't have said yes when you asked me out in the first place. I can't believe anyone could be such a jerk!"

I couldn't believe what he was saying. He was standing up for me! I was the reason they were breaking up! Whew hoo!

"Why are you protecting this stupid bimbo, David? You know what, fine! Go ahead, break up with me! You know you'll just come crawling back!"

"No I most certainly will not!" David exclaimed. "Not after all the crap you've done to my sister!"

My jaw dropped. So did Lynn's. Silence echoed throughout the room. David didn't realize his mistake before it was too late.

"Whoops…" he said slowly, looking down at the ground. "I shouldn't have said that…"

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