How To Become A Magician 101

chapter 4

"Carmel! Carmel! Carmel!" A loud voice echoes in my ear.

"What? What? WHAT!?" I question back.

"I need the syrup!" The voice says.

I groan and without opening my eyes, reply "April wheeler, you have a addiction!"

" Please!!? I loooove you!" She says in her most cutesie voice. I mutter something akin to 'I love you like I love stepping on legos' and pull the comforter over my head.

"We have waffles!" She sings in my ear.

I slowly edge the blanket down and pop one eye open.

"Waffles?" I inquire.

"With extra squares!" She says

Sold. I jump out of bed and run down the stairs. I take a big whiff as I enter the kitchen but am disappointed when all I smell is cinnamon oatmeal.

I turn around and glare at April who is holding her hands behind her back and smiling at me innocently.

I grumble as I trudge up the stairs. Oh well. Mind as well get ready for the day.

I rummage through my closet and pull out a pair of black ripped leggings and a long red tank top. I dress then tie a yellow plaid shirt around my waist and pull on a pair of yellow boots. I then attempt to pull a brush through my knotted hair. I pull my perfectly straight hair into a half ponytail. Then swipe on some mascara and lip gloss and I'm ready to walk out the door. Unlike most days I feel put together, organized.

Said no one ever.

Its the weekend and I begin to plan my day when a dreaded thought comes to mind. Its almost the last day of school. Nevertheless I have math homework. I hate math. In fact, me and Nicole have decided what math really is:

Mental
Abuse
To
Humans

The first letters on each word spells math. And that's exactly what it is. Mental abuse to humans. Accepting that I have no choice but to get it done, I grudgingly plop down in my desk and pull out the big ol' math book. After a hour of math I decide that its probably not physically or mentally safe to do any more homework. I leave it all in my room as I thump down the stairs.

I hear my brother and another voice that sounds strangely familiar talking in Zeke's room.

I tap into my fabulous eavesdropping skills and tiptoe to the door. I lean in and try to catch the conversation.

"What!? Your crazy. This is not real." My brothers voice comes out, tinged with anger.

"Believe me. Its real." The familiar voice says.

"I'm not doing this! You can't expect me to believe that" I hear my brothers angry footsteps come closer to the door and I scramble to the next room to ovoid being caught.

I hear him slam his door. I wonder what has him so ticked. When I think he's gone I walk back to the room and see Kingston standing in the middle of the room with his back to me and his arms out to either side of him. At first I wonder if he's praying but I hear him chanting in some kind of language and I decide its definitely not prayer.

I walk up and tap his shoulder. "Kingston?"

Surprisingly he doesn't jump but turns around. He stares at me with blank eyes and his arms drop to his side. He shakes his head and the blank stare disappears from his features. He stumbles into me and I have to hold him upright.

"A-are you okay?" I ask, worried.

He shakes his head. "I-i just need to get home."

"What was that all about?" I know he's sick and all but I'm just too curious.

He ignores my question and I walk him to his house. While we walk there is no conversation and I get weird chills all over my body. When we arrive at his house I decide to ask him again. "What happened?"

He stares at me intently, his green eyes look like emeralds as he searches me, as if I know something.

"You will know soon." He says and then, maybe I imagined it, but he's gone. I don't remember him walking up the porch steps or opening the door. He was just...gone.

I walk back to the house, in deep thought. I'm not exactly sure why, but I feel like crying. Something inside me stirred. Like i was supposed to be something else, like I didn't know something I should. For the first time in my life, I felt out of place.

And I didn't like it.

***

"Zeke! Open the door!" I pound on his door but no answer.

"If the reason you can't open the door is because a serial killer is holding you hostage with a gun up to you head, cough once!"

I hear him mutter something and hear the lock click. He slowly opens the door with a weird look on his face that I can't place.

"What." He says. I barge into the room without being asked and shut the door. I plop down on the bed and look him dead in the eye.

"I want to know what happened between you and Kingston."

"Wait. You know Kingston?" He asks

I point a accusing finger at his chest. "Stop changing the subject! Tell me what happened."

"Nothing."

Well that's bull. I grab his shoulders and make him look at me.

"Zeke. Tell me right now. I'm not kidding." I use my best mom voice that I had perfected over the years.

"Now much did you hear?"

I decide to let him think I know it all. Maybe he'll tell me more. "Everything"

He walks over and opens the door, gesturing for me to leave. "Well, if you know everything you don't need me to tell you then do you?"

"Zeke. I'm more serious then I could ever be right now. Tell. Me. What. Happened."

He looked at me with tears on his eyes and I was taken back. My brother never cried. Not even when I shaved half of his hair when we were 7. Or even when I accidentally let his goldfish slip down the garbage disposal. He never cried, and honestly it scared me. It made it feel like this situation was much more than I thought it was.

I reached over and hugged him and he hugged me back. I couldn't make him tell me when it hurt him so bad.

Later that night I slipped into bed, so worn out from all this crap. I was about to slip into deep sleep when I noticed a pair of big red eyes, lurking in the corner of the room. I was too petrified to even scream so they stayed there, all night.

Watching me.