Acing It: A Savvy Fanfiction

Chapter 1

 When my brother Alex turned thirteen, he had to be careful whenever he walked out the door of our house. Approximately one in four people in America spoke another language. So often enough, poor Alex would come home speaking Spanish, or German, or even Chinese. It wore away after a while, but he grew extremely frustrated with this new ‘talent’ after a while.

Of course, my brother wasn’t always like this. It was only minutes after he blew out those thirteen dripping candles on his lopsided, partially burnt chocolate cake. (Courtesy of Dad). But no one minded the uneven frosting or how Alex’s candles burned so long that the orange wax had melted down onto the swirly, golden, buttercream frosting. (Courtesy of me, Acelynn.)

On his birthday, Alex had woken up excited, yet nervous. Of course, the celebration was small; just him and Dad and me. The weather was gorgeous and sunny, without a smudge of white to taint the beautiful pastel blue sky. But don’t let this fool you; with no clouds for cover, the air was crisp and cold and windy, as if to rip the balloons and streamers out of the trees and picnic tables in our backyard. But only a few managed to sail into the air, and we watched until those vibrant sacks of helium were no more than tiny pinpricks of color, blurring off in the distance.

It was late afternoon, after presents were opened and dinner was eaten, when the cake was served. It happened only minutes after Dad and I sang a loud and off tune “Happy Birthday,” when Alex blushed and grinned; although I could tell he was scared. His smile was strained, and I could tell from the way his knees shook underneath the table that he was in no way unafraid. Who would be, anyway?

Alex had taken a glace around at us. Dad had a fake smile plastered to his face. He might have even been more scared than Alex was. I gave him a thumbs-up.

And after that, he had taken a weary breath, and quickly blew out those thirteen remaining candles.

 I could tell we were all holding our breath. A dead silence hung in the air. The trees had stopped rustling. The birds had stopped chirping. It was as if the whole world was waiting to see if anything exploded, or imploded, or fell apart or caught fire. But nothing happened. We all sighed after what seemed like hours of standing out in the cold, forgetting that the temperature was dropping a degree a second. Even Alex looked relieved.

“Perhaps it’ll come later tonight, son.” Dad replied, letting out a breath. Alex began to nod, but fell slightly, leaning against the table for support.

“Alex?” I asked, suddenly scared. I ran towards my brother. “Are you okay?” His eyes were squeezed shut, a shaky hand raking through his hair. I began to reach for him, but he stood once more.z

“Wo…Wo juede wo hai hao.” He said, gasping in a breath. I screeched, surprised. I turned towards Dad, who seemed awestruck. Alex looked up wearily.

“Shenme? Shenme shi cuo de?” I looked back at Dad, who’s face had turned a bright shade of red.

“…Dad?”

All of a sudden, he burst into laughter.

“My son can speak Chinese!” My dad cried, throwing his arms up into the air. “And to think he would never learn!" (My brother had been taking Mandarin at school for three years, and he still managed to fail every assignment given to him. :) 

“Shenme?!” He gasped, slapping a hand over his mouth. He shook his head as if he were shaking away water after a day at the beach.

“...Is it gone now?”

After that, we all laughed. Together. 

But Alex’s savvy didn’t only work with Chinese; but with any other language as well. Whenever my brother touched or accidentally bumped into anyone who could speak a language besides English, he’d suddenly be able to speak that way as well. The time it took to wear off would vary; from only a few minutes to whole hours at a time.