Special

Perry sighed longingly. She wanted nothing more than to be special. To be respected, admired, honored, remembered...loved. Those were the young woman's deepest desires! Now, Perry had no shortage of love in her life, but she couldn't help but feel small and unimportant when she was with the people she considered friends. Her parents were business owners, half of her peers were leaders in some type of extracurricular, and her friends and other relatives were also all well-known for something.

Whether they were inventors or creators or designers and whether they excelled in math, science, literature, language or the arts was irrelevant. It felt like everyone Perry knew was good at something. But what about her? What was her specialty? Well, as far as she knew, nothing. Nothing. She was Perry. Just Perry. Why, she was so boring that even at her own Bat Mitzvah, the rabbi could think of nothing to extol about her other than her humility and predictability. Ouch.

Then along came Silas U. By luck and research, Perry found out about the mysterious, and allegedly magic, school and she signed up instantly. She had taken to the Wiccan religion over the past few years and this school looked perfect for her! Maybe she would learn magic at Silas! Maybe she could be the first witch of the family! Then everybody would have to love and remember her! It would be her moment of being special! After all, being a witch was no small feat and it was about as far away from mundane as one could get! It was the perfect plan!

But of course, that was easier said than done. Although Silas was nice, Perry was still a bit of a loser at heart and she, ultimately, still didn't learn any magic at all. Not really, anyway. She learned about magic, but she never actually learned any magic itself. She did manage to delude herself into thinking that she could cast spells, but it really wasn't the truth. This actually wound up driving her further away from her peers because while she was convinced that magic was real and that she could be a witch, all they ever saw was a sweet, but slightly unhinged, weirdo. In fact, some of them even called her "Scary Perry" behind her back because of how fanatical she could become at times.

But then at last, Perry did get her wish. She ended up accidently summoning a fairy queen! How was that for special and magical? Clearly, some of Silas' classes had paid off! But unfortunately, the fairy queen was nothing like what Perry had read about as a child. This one was quite evil and cruel. Suffice to say, she was sent back from whence she had come at once. That was how quickly and humiliatingly Perry's one shining moment of power had ended. But by then, even she wanted to forget that any of it had ever happened. After all, the reputation of being "That weird and spastic chick who summoned an evil fairy that tried to conquer the world and managed to stop all the female students' periods while turning all the male students into donkeys" was hardly a flattering thought. Yes, Perry wanted to be special, but not like that.

But try as she did to forget, one particular conversation with the fairy queen remained burned into her brain, a constant and nagging reminder of what she almost had, and what she willingly gave up.

"All the wonder in the universe will be yours!" the fairy queen had promised. "My extraordinary girl!"

"Really? You don't think I'm just kind of... average?!" Perry had hardly been able to believe it, voice trailing off in a squeak of excitement and hope. No one had ever called her extraordinary before! And what a wonderful feeling it was! Finally, finally, finally, after so very long in the shadows, somebody had seen her for who she truly was and loved her all the more for it!

"We'll sweep away everyone who ever made you feel small!" the queen affirmed. Oh, this promise had sounded so wonderful and divine! Even still today, Perry could feel that old sense of excitement and warmth as the queen promised her the world! But then the memory turned sour. She remembered what came next. She remembered what the fairy queen had demanded in return for this wonderful power. And it was a price Perry had not been willing to pay. And what was this price? Her best friend, Susan Lafontaine...