The Magic at the End of the World (Do You Remember, Book 5)

Prologue

"Now let me get this straight," Kieran Hamilton snapped as he glared at Joanna Norwood. The group was meeting in the library, waiting for the next part of Jed's story. "You're telling me that not only was Jed adopted and Zoey was his sister, but there's some other relatives out there that I don't know existed?"

"And what if there were?" said Joanna. "You don't know your family history as well as you should, Kieran. Which is a crying shame because you could learn so much from Jed's legacy."

"You're speaking as if Jed is dead," said Jenna Holt. Everyone in the library stared at her as she continued, "Is Jed really dead?

"I'm sorry, but who is this Jed that you speak of?" Riley Adams said as he walked into the room. To Joanna, he said, "Orlando is looking for you."

"And Orlando can wait, because I'm in the middle of doing something very important," said Joanna. She eyed the 10-year-old boy as she said, "And where are Antonio and Natasha?"

"Oh, they and the twins are at Charlotte right now, so I decided to come find you," said Riley. To the others, he said, "Hello, I'm Riley. Ten bucks says that none of you are wearing socks."

"Enough of that, Riley," said Joanna as she opened the book and began to read.

Allison stared at Sophia as she said, "If this is what we're getting ourselves into, you can still back out now. You and Matthew don't have magic while Tabby and I do."

"We're not going anywhere," said Matthew in response to the conversation.

"And why not?" said Tabitha. "You and Sophia aren't magic, and to have non-magical people in the magical world is a bad idea."

"Tabitha's right," said Allison. "You all saw what happened when Brandon Blake tried to get involved in a magical conflict not too long ago."

"That was him," said Sophia. "He didn't know what he was doing, which was why he ruined everything for himself and his family. But Matthew and I are stronger than him, and we won't stand by and let you two put yourselves in danger, not when we can help."

"And that's a good thing," said Joanna as she turned to face the main group. "In fact, what you just said is basically what happened back in 2001..."

* * * * *

"Well, that was some party," Jed said while struggling to lift himself off the couch. After the initial celebrations were over, Jed, Claire, Mariah, Mary, Kaprice, Jimmy, Landon, Curtis, Adrian, Dorian, Jacob, Nicholas, and Emilia had decided to camp in Jed's backyard, where they spent most of the night watching scary movies. "Who'd thought that the "Lord of the Rings" could be so terrifying?"

"I read that book two years ago," said Claire. "Of course, David wasn't happy about that, but who cares?"

"At least "Lord of the Rings" is much better than "Harry Potter"," said Dorian.

"How do you know?" said Kaprice.

""Harry Potter" sounds like a load of crap you'd find on your front lawn after someone's dog pooped there and no one cleaned it up while "Lord of the Rings" is made of pure gold," said Adrian. "You'd know that once you read the book."

"Forget the book for a second," said Emilia as she glared at everyone. "Let's talk about the more important things."

"Like what?" said Mariah. "How the role-playing club should proceed now that we've got enough people?"

"That, and what we need to do now," said Jed. "As far as we know, we still have Kelsey Davis to contend with, and her group is stepping up its attacks on the rest of the school. We haven't been back to school yet and already the League of Mean has spray-painted some very derogatory words all over the school lockers."

"League of Mean?" said Kaprice. "You're seriously going with that?"

"Well, until we know for sure who's all in Kelsey's group, that's what we're calling them," said Claire. She stood up and paced the room, saying, "We have to decide now what we're going to do about the problems that we're currently dealing with. First, there's the thing with Jed's family, which Jed, Jimmy, and Mary can deal with. Next, there's the issue with Chesley, which Mariah and I can deal with. There's also the issue with Kelsey Davis, which Kaprice and Emilia plan to deal with..."

"And what are the rest of us?" said Dorian. "Chopped liver?"

"Not even close," said Emilia. "You, Adrian, and I will have to deal with the student council, which I know is really going to be cracking down on us students, as far as school participation is concerned..."

Kaprice frowned as he said, "The student government already knows the names of those who aren't participating in the school's activities, and they sent out a warning to those students that if they don't participate in at least five different school activities that don't have anything to do with education, they won't be allowed to graduate with the rest of their class."

"Which is such a shame because there's over 353 people in the current senior class and over half of them are currently preoccupied with trying to secure a place in college," said Mary.

"Plus, we already know that Jimmy is about to graduate with his class in the next few months," said Jed.

"It's true," said Jimmy. "I'm going to be heading to Pinewood Academy in the fall of this year, and I really need to increase my magical proficiency in order to get in. The headmaster has already made it clear that if I cannot do the spells that a first year can do, I won't be allowed in."

"Well, that's harsh," said Claire.

"Plus, he already knows about my past and the pasts of Mariah, Nicholas, and Jacob, so he's putting some immense pressure on me to do well," said Jimmy. "I'm sure that once he finds out about Hadley, he's going to force me to learn second-tier magic."

"But you don't have to take that from anyone," said Curtis.

"The Headmaster is a gargoyle," said Landon.

"Does it matter?" said Claire. "Jimmy needs to learn how to do magic and we need to step up our magical training. But we can't do that here, not with Jed's family and definitely not with Jem looking over Jed's shoulder."

"Well, there's that abandoned preschool down the lane," said Adrian. "We've been training there for a few months."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" said Kaprice. "That place is abandoned."

"Oh, but it is," said Dorian. "Adrian and I found several secret rooms there while we were on the run. I bet that one of those rooms is big enough for us to train in."

"I hope so," said Jed. "But Joanna will want us to learn some of the magic that the general magical community uses so we can blend in with them."

The others nodded in agreement, not knowing that the year 2001 was going to be filled with many unexpected surprises...