Girls & Gods [On Hold]

Chapter 1

"Why me?" I asked myself, collapsing onto my bed.  I was too tired to finish my homework, though I knew I'd regret it when my uptight, overachieving roommate rode my back later. 

“How are you going to get your grades up? What are you going to do when you fail school and some reporter walks up to you and asks, 'Laura Pendragon, how does it feel to be the only member of your family to let the legacy down? How does it feel to be the only failure in a family of magical greatness?'” she'd yell.  And then I'd tell her to mind her own business, that I'd figure it out somehow, like I always did, and that if any reporter had the nerve to ask me things like that, I would tell him or her to get the hell out of my face.  Then my roommate would shut up and go study at her desk in a huff for the rest of the night, ignoring every apology I tried to give her.  Eventually, I'd give up and go to sleep, only to realize the next morning that I hadn't done any of my schoolwork.  It was becoming routine really (I knew her speeches by heart at this point), as was my brooding and ranting about how it wasn't fair that I had no talent for magic and that I would be a disgrace to my family if I didn't do well in my studies. 

“Why did I have to be born into the greatest wizard family of all time? Why on earth did it have to be me, of all the people it could've been? Why in the gods' names did I get stuck in this position? Just why?”

I sound pathetic, right?  I know.  It’s really pretty sad.  Looking back, I realize I was a melodramatic whiner. 

But it really was annoying that I couldn't do any complex magic right.  All my other relatives could (when they were still living), so why couldn't I?  Something was just unfair about my skills or lack thereof, so I was determined to prove it wrong.  Being clumsy wouldn't stop me from anything.

Heh.  Wow.  That was a stupid lie.  But I wanted to believe it, so I did.  Truth was great like that.

Eventually, I fell asleep.  My roommate, Lavelle, did come back later, but I ignored her nagging and lectures easily.  How else was I supposed to practice snubbing my teachers?  I'm not naturally that great at tuning people out.  It takes lots of dedicated training to ignore things as well as I can.

Sleep washed over me once again, and I returned to my recurring dream of Charms class.  There was a test in the dream, and the questions seemed to be written in a different language, so I couldn't understand it.  It was my equivalent of the good old going-to-school-in-nothing-but-underwear dream that kids my age got.  Nothing out of the ordinary.

Little did I know, the next morning something would happen in Charms.  But it would be something much worse than failing a foreign test.  Something that would change my fate, and maybe even put myself (and others) in danger…

…

The next morning, I was woken by a very obnoxious, “Did you do your homework last night?”  I rolled over to face Lavelle, my pretty-but-severe-looking roommate.  Sometimes she gave me looks that reminded me of our teachers.  This was one of those times.  “Well? Did you or didn't you? Be honest.”

“I did,” I lied, and got out of bed to start gathering my things.  Lavelle eyed me incredulously and I put on my best innocent look.  “Honestly, I did.”  Over the years, I'd grown accustomed to lying.  Not just to her, but to everyone, even teachers when it was needed.  I'd gotten so good at it, I could convince myself that an obvious lie was a commonly known fact.  It was kinda scary, actually.

“So I'll see you at breakfast then?” she asked.  Damn.  So close to freedom, and she had to go and ruin it.  Oh well.  I wasn't out of the game yet.  I still had a few aces hidden up my sleeve.

“I'm not that hungry,” I lied smoothly, begging my stomach not to growl and rat me out like it had so many times before.  “I think I'll just have a cereal bar and study in the library.”