Magick

Chapter 1

“… If you don’t lube it up good enough, the wood could splinter and hit you in the eye.”

I gave him a confused look. That was the problem with my friend Dean. If you stop listening to him for one second, nothing else he says will make a shred of sense.

“I’m sorry. What?”

He rolled his eyes at me and leaned back against the lockers. “Never mind.”

I decided to change the topic. “We going to Eddie’s house after school?”

“Yeah.”

“Where is he anyway?”

“He skipped school to try out some new spell he read about.”

“Does his mother know?”

“That he’s skipping school or that he practices magic?”

“Both.”

“Of course not.”

The bell rang and we went our separate ways to our respective classes. I had PE, luckily my last class of the day, but that didn’t make me feel any better about it. The only comforting thought that came to mind before I ventured into the locker room, was that my best friend Maya was waiting for me inside. As soon as she saw me, she threw my gym shorts and my ugly, yellow t-shirt at me. I should have never given her the combination to my gym locker.

“Come on.” she said. “Get dressed. I’m not going out there alone.”

“Yes, Major Pain.” I saluted her and she smacked me with a towel.

When we finally made it into the gym, we immediately sat down on the bleachers. Neither of us were even remotely active, so we tried to make ourselves scarce before the coach could give us something to do that would make us sweat like pigs or eject our lungs onto the nice, clean floor. The coach was an extremely tall and extremely athletic man, with the voice of a howler monkey. He also had this weird desire to wear the shortest shorts he could find whenever he appeared in public. It didn’t leave much to the imagination. Maybe it would’ve been acceptable if he wasn’t, like, fifty-years-old.    

“All right, men!” he shouted, the sound booming in the big room. “Divide yourself into teams! We’re gonna shoot some hoops.” Then he turned to everyone on the bleachers. “The ladies will sit this one out today.”

Maya and I made the obligatory ‘Yay’ noises and settled into our seats. We watched the guys play for a while. Well, Maya did. I didn’t even have to look at her to know who she was watching. She had a thing for one of the douchey jocks. A guy named Aaron. Other than his looks, I don’t know what she saw in him. As the guys ran back and forth across the court in front of us, an idea slipped into my head and I giggled inwardly. Maya gave me a curious look, but didn’t say anything, then I subtly waved my hand and muttered the words ‘convertimini periculosus’. The floor became as slippery as ice and everyone fell where they set their next step. I couldn’t contain my laughter. It bubbled over and made me sound like a crazy person, but most of the other girls joined in soon enough. Maya looked at me with big, angry blue eyes, while every guy on the court tripped over himself trying to get up. No one else knew what happened.

“What the hell are you doing?!” she whisper yelled at me. “You can’t do that at school!”

I shrugged her off. “Oh calm down. I was just having some fun.”

I waved my hand again, said ‘exsero’ and the floor was back to normal. It took the guys a few seconds to realize it.

“Get up, you idiots!” Coach yelled at them. “Keep playing!”