Magical Children: In Between the Lines

Chapter 1: Gwen's p.o.v.

I open my eyes but want to close them again. There seems to be an unusually large amount of pain and death around me. I look to my right and see a dead man in the street not far from where I lay. How did I know he was dead? Well for one his skull was crushed into tiny pieces. I look around me some more at the people jumping or falling from buildings, the piles of bodies, and the sheer amount of blood. I feel a burning pain in my leg and notice that it is broken beyond recognition. I see a few familiar faces like my cousin Madi who happens to be clutching her arm that is covered in blood. My best male friend Daniel looks dead on the ground and I hope he isn't. My best female friend Nikki is hanging halfway out of a broken window on the seventh floor of some office building. There is another girl sitting near me with her own injuries that she should be worried about but is instead worried about mine. I notice the blood trickling down my face and wipe it away. When I pull my hand back it looks as if I dipped it in red paint. 

Not far from where we lay stands a man in a dark cloak with the most evil of smiles that I have ever seen. He laughs but all I hear is horrible sounds like silver forks on glass plates, fingernails on chalkboards, and the scream of a little girl whose voice is too high for her body. The sounds make me want to murder myself right there but I can't seem to move. The man raises a single hand as if to high five his incoming friend but instead charges an attack. His spell is one that I have never seen before in my life. It seems ancient and secret, one that I will probably never be able to learn or perform. It doesn't take long for him to charge it when he lets it fly in my direction. Just as it hits me I abruptly wake up and find myself in my own bed as if I was thrown from the sky. I lay on my back staring at my ceiling questioning what just happened. I check my leg and head but find no injuries. Must have been a dream. I tell myself. I notice that my bedroom light is on and my dad is awake in the living room. I look at my clock and see that it is 6:30 in the morning. I force myself to get up and get dressed on account of what day it is; my birthday. But not only is it my 13th birthday it is also the first day of school. My birthday just so happens to fall on the same day as the first day of my seventh grade year. Yippee. 

I get ready for school and stand outside on my porch and wait for the stupid bus. Me being a stupid immature teenager I hope that we don't have our normal bus driver who is too strict for my tastes. While waiting with my brother and sister I play with our many cats and their kittens and try my best to keep them off of my bag. Finally the bus arrives twenty minutes late just like last year and the ride to school was the same as it always was with annoying kids that won't shut up. After about forty-five minutes of annoying children we finally arrive at school and I have to remember to get off at a new school. Finally I can get rid of those stupid teachers at T.I.S. No more bullies, on more crying, no more being the person I was. I want this to be different. I want to be different this year. None of these teachers know me so hopefully I can get on their good sides. As soon as I walk into the door I hear a roar of noise and find out that it is the other kids. When I walk into the cafeteria my sister, Julia, walks over to her own friends while I try to find mine. I search the entire room but it still takes me a while to find Daniel. In his plain orange shirt as usual. Sitting near him are a few other kids that I don't know but one that looks familiar; the random girl from my dream. Great, now I can predict the future and stupid junk like that in my dreams. Since when!? I walk over towards their table and sit down beside Daniel. "Where is the Nikki?" I ask. "And hi!" he laughs a bit at my stupidity and looks around. "Well she was getting a breakfast tray but I lost sight of her in the mess." he says. "Gwen!" I hear someone behind me say. I smile wide and turn around to find my best friend walking towards me. "Nikki!" I yell. I look at her and think about how much she has changed since we last saw each other a few years ago.

Her black skinny jeans complement her navy blue tee and converse, while I am wearing hand-me-down pants from my sister that are a size and a half too big, (one of the only pieces of non undergarment clothing that is mine) a Kermit the frog shirt from fifth grade, and new cheap knock-off's of Converse: purple Airwalks. At least Daniel's outfits are still the same with his orange tee and black sweat shorts and sweatpants. Nikki sits down and I reach into my bag for my Poptart and my schedule and slam them both on the table. I open my Poptart and watch as Nikki eats her cake-like eggs with no problems. "Why do they make their eggs like that? I bet I can make better eggs than that and I haven't been making eggs a lot." I boast. No matter how much I think about it I can never think of a good reason to bake your eggs in a cake pan. I swear sometimes this school just doesn't care about our health. "So what classes do you have?" Nikki says ignoring my comment and eating her cake eggs anyway. "Well let me see and I shall tell you." I open the folded piece of paper beside my breakfast and read it. "Oops wrong one." I stuff the random paper back into my bag and pull out the right one and unfold it with one hand. "I have history first hour, math third, and some other stuff in between." Daniel looks over and gives me a look of 'really'. "What else do you have? Maybe we have a few classes with each other." he looks over and tries to read my schedule and I yank it back. "How dare you good sir? This is mine and I shall be the one to read it."

Nikki reaches her hand over and yanks the paper from my hand and starts reading it aloud. "History first hour, P.E. second hour, math third hour." I try to reach around her to grab it back but have short arms. "Nooooo! It is mine!" I say. "S.S.R. fourth hour, language arts fifth, science sixth, band seventh, and art eight." she giggles, handing me back the paper and I hastily take it from her. "Yes. Those are my classes." I can't help but laugh a bit and Daniel brings out his own schedule. After a few moments of looking it over he seems happy and pulls the paper near mine. "Hey we have science together! Same teacher too." I take a closer look at the teacher's name and realize that it is my first grade teacher Mrs. Maxwell. "Wait, she is our science teacher?" I ask. Nikki and Daniel nod as if I didn't read the paper right. "I wonder if she still has my toys she stole from me back in elementary. I want those back." A man walks into the room and I guess him to be a teacher and hope that he isn't one of mine. "Everyone listen up," he shouts over the kids, "I want the eighth graders to go to their S.S.R class now and I want the seventh graders to sit in the bleachers." Everyone stands and goes to their respective places and Nikki, Daniel and I stand and wait for the other people to pass before we find a seat in the bleachers. "Oh yeah I forgot to introduce you to Haley and Claira." Nikki gestures to the two girls standing on her left and I notice that the girl from my dream is one of them. 

"Hi." they both say. "Hi." I say back. Who is this girl? And why was she in my dream? I want to ask her but I'm not supposed to tell people about magic. So many life problems. I feel a small vibration on my wrist and notice that my watch is going off. I quickly turn it off and try to read what it said but don't want anyone to question me staring at my watch for an extended amount of time. I decide to figure it out later and even if it is important I am not going to take care of it. I have finally been reunited with my two best friends after years of not being able to even know if they were alive let alone see each other and I am not about to let that go and do some stupid mission that I don't even need to take care of. I just hope Madi doesn't decide to take care of it by herself. Sometimes I don't want her to go on missions by herself because she is still kind of young. Being two years younger than me has its ups and downs but I just don't like the thought of her not being able to use a part of her magic and possibly getting killed. Damnit now I want to go just in case she does. I hope to god she doesn't. I walk with Nikki and Daniel to find a spot to sit after the final eighth graders leave the gym and we find a nice spot with enough room for the five of us with a few other people from the table as well. When I sit down I end up sitting between Nikki and Daniel with the two new girls on Daniel's other side.

Nikki taps my shoulder and I turn to her. "Look at that guy, he's tall." she says pointing to the guy on her right. I look around her and see that she is right, this kid is tall. He must have heard us and turns his head to look at us. "Hello." he says cheerfully as if he just heard a good joke and is trying not to laugh again. "Hi." Nikki and I say back. "I'm Seth." he says putting out a hand. "I'm Nikki." Nikki says shaking his hand. "No she's not. I'm Gwen." I say shaking his hand. "Yes I am. Shut up." we laugh a bit and I am almost tempted to say Nikki's real name but am interrupted by the man from before. "Okay everyone listen up." The principal walks in and stands in the middle of the room for everyone to hear him. "Welcome to J.E.M.S students. I want to make sure that you guys feel at home here but just like your home, I'm sure, there are rules." Most of the kids grunt and moan while the rest stay quiet like my friends and I. "I know, I know you don't want rules. But we will go over the rules in your S.S.R classes so at this time I want you to listen and look at your schedule and when I call out your teacher's name I want you to follow them to their classroom. There you will go over the student handbook and talk about lunch and yada yada. So without further ado, I will call out the names now. Mrs. Peacock," a dozen or so kids walk away with a woman who looks of the older type and the man continues to call off names while kids respectively walk away with their teachers. "So I hope we have the same S.S.R class." Nikki says. "Me..." I am cut off by the principal calling another name and Nikki has to get up and walk away while I stay seated. "No." we whisper to each other as she walks away. Finally when there are only a few dozen kids left and three teachers they call my teacher. "Mrs. Yates." I stand along with the girl with long hair and we walk with a few other girls into the hallway through the right side doors instead of the left like the other classes. We don't walk far but in the direction of the office and nurse's office. We pass the office and turn to the right and right as I am about to ask where we are going I notice the door in the dark corner.