The Difference Between Vampires and Witches

Meeting Melani

Picture is Melani

Tabbie's POV:

          It's the last day of summer break and I'm both terrified and excited. I'm starting ninth grade, and my first year at The Academy. I haven't seen any of my witch friends since our 'special' classes last school year. I've been awaiting this day my entire life. 

            You see, until high school, witches don't take all-witch classes. They take 'special' classes in elementary and junior high to learn the basics. Then, in ninth grade, they finally go to The Academy, which is mostly focused on magic, and they take core classes like Math, English, etc. every other day as less important, shorter classes. Gramma told me it's like this so witches aren't complete morons. They apparently changed the age when more and more witches were dying because of miscalculations and misspellings in potion books and such. Also, parents wanted their kids to, if they wanted to, at least have some chance of getting into human college.

            Most witches graduate their Academy and go to a witch college, but I, I don't want that. I want to go to human college because they fascinate me. How can a being look so much like us, and just not have our magic stature? I wonder the same thing about vampires. Like, everyone hates them sooo much, but for what? Ancient feuds that none of them were even born yet to have known of? That's saying something too, because witches and vampires, slowing the aging process at around twenty-thirty years, live very long lives.

          For my last day of freedom, I want to go exploring. So I grab my boots and pack a bag. Hollering down the stairs, "Gram, can I go out today?!" whilst slipping on fresh clothes and my boots. "Sure sweetheart, just make sure you dress warm, it's gonna get chilly later on." "Kay gram, I will."

          Before I climb out the window, I tie a sweatshirt around my waist and grab my bag. The tree outside my window is older than my gram. This used to be her room, she told me when I came to spend the summer. She, like I'm about to do, had climbed down this tree many a time. Although she, unlike me, was most likely sneaking out.

          Slowly but steadily, I climb from my second-story window. Orange and red leaves smack me in the face on my descent, as they have been doing since my first summer here, five years ago. We arrived on June twenty-sixth, my ninth birthday. I exploded with excitement at the news of seeing my grandma after a year, and when we arrived, there she was. Even in old age, her hair hung down over her shoulders gracefully, still a vibrant shade of red.

            The leaves, that have just recently started falling, crunch under my feet as I walk into the woods behind our house. I have always been really good at magic because I'm a red-haired witch. Sadly, people think my talent only comes from my hair. But I've put so much time and effort into getting where I am now. Plus, with my Grammy being the headmistress, I've learned a lot over the summer.

Sigh. 

            A large oak stands in front of me, and so I decide to climb it. My younger sister Jade and I climb trees all the time. She's at summer school, so I'm climbing by myself. Branch by branch I go until I see a clump of branches with.....snores coming from it? What the heck? I reach into my boot for my wand. I started putting it thereafter watching Wizards of Waverly Place. I idolized Alex for a good two years. Now though, definitely not, 'cause that's totally a kids' show.

            Slowly, I tap my wand on the cluster and whisper, "Dispersus." It's a basic dispersing spell. The branches come apart and a girl starts falling. The trees start to reach for her, but I know the branches won't reach her in time. The snores have been replaced with screams. 

           Quickly I scream, my wand pointed at her, "Levis Anim!" A basic spell for levitation of living things. 

           About an inch from the ground, she stops. "What the hell! You could've killed me!" The mysterious girl shouts. She has stark white hair and a scar above her nose. Suddenly, it clicks. White hair, branches. She's part of the nature witch family tree. See there are a bunch of family trees, and each specifies in a different type of magic. For example, nature. A witch will inherit their mother's trait. But in some rare cases, they inherit their grandfather's trait(on the mother's side). Due to Dominant and Recessive genes and whatnot. 

            Witches end up looking mostly like their fathers. Because all the magical traits, aka the important ones, are inherited from your mother, you get most other traits from your dad. Mom says I look exactly like mine, but with long red hair.

            "Ohmygosh! I'm so sorry. I should've realized you were a nature witch and left you alone. The important part, however, is that I didn't kill you." I apologize. She nods, yawning, "Yeah, I guess." She doesn't have a jacket, and she's shivering. I grab my extra jacket from my bag and invite her over for some hot cocoa.

~~~~~~~timeskip~~~~~~

            I found out that she's starting school tomorrow too and that she is, in fact, a nature witch. She has a twin brother, Jax, and they're orphans. They've hopped around foster home to foster home, and don't have one right now. They're actually supposed to be staying with us for the night till school tomorrow because gran is the headmistress and she volunteered. Something about me needing better friends. Rude.

            Her brother, Jax, is downstairs talking Grammy's ear off. I can already tell that he's gonna be a stick-in-the-mud suck-up.

            "So, I know this must get tiring, but what's it like?" Melani asks. 

            Confused, I stutter, "H-huh? What's what like?"

             "Were you zoning out or something? Jeeze, I just had a whole conversation with you about your hair. And how your Grandma's the headmistress of the best Academy out there." She replies, clearly ticked that my mind had been wandering elsewhere as she spoke to me. 

            I quickly apologize, "Sorry, sorry. I spaced out a bit."

           "Whatever," she rolls her eyes and pretends to be still upset," just tell me what it's like." That girl has such a one-track mind, plus she is literally unable to sit still. 

            "Having red hair, other than the enhanced powers, sucks ass. Everyone expects so much, and when they get it, they say that my red hair is the only reason I'm not the worst witch to ever exist. Plus, it gets worse because of the amplified pressure of being the headmistress' granddaughter. It's horrible. Anyway, how's being a nature witch?"

            Her eyes pop out of her head at my spew of words, and she pauses for a second before launching into a fast-paced explanation of basically anything having to do with nature.