Alf's Story

I am a NANOWINNER!!!

2006-11-30T22:10:00.000+11:00

Ah, I love myself. Actually, it all seems rather anti-climactic. I must go and hang out at the forums more, encouraging people who haven't made it yet.

I actually can't believe that trying this for the first time I actually succeeded... despite the fact that I didn't write for about ten days in the middle and then had to write over 7000 words a day to get it all out.

50 000 words. 30 days. 1 me. 1 win. HOORAY!

Filler Bits: Alf learns to swim

2006-11-30T15:18:00.000+11:00

"What do you mean you don't know how to swim?" Rock declared, utterly bemused.

They were discussing possible places to go and things to do over their summer break. As the heat wave continued and only barbeques of the illegal (or magical) kind were possible, there came the natural urge to cool down. And the fastest way to cool down was of course by diving into some water. Since there were no local pools and the Alduses had neglected to add one to their house, the beach was their best option as it took just as long to get to the beach as it did to get to a public swimming pool.

Alf shrugged. "I just don't."

"How can you call yourself and Australian, mate?" Rock stressed. "That's it. I've decided that what we're going to do on our next day off is teach Alf here to swim. Then we can follow through with my beach plan. Objections?" Rock asked sternly, glancing at the other teens just daring them to say that they had a problem with what he was saying. After there were no visible signs of movement from any of the teenagers Rock nodded, satisfied. "Good. When's your next day off work, Sprout?"

"Monday," Alf informed meekly.

"Right," Rock stood and began speaking to them like a general speaking to his troops. "Everyone will meet on the Aldus family back porch at 0900 hours. For the purposes of this trip we will make use of the Aldus family pond. Jessica Aldus, Damien Reid and myself will instruct the subject, Alfonso Struthers, in the arts of doggy paddle, freestyle and backstroke. At 1200 hours we will commune for lunch. Lunch will take the form of a picnic. In exchange for our teaching services the subject, Alfonso Struthers, will provide said midday meal. At 1330 hours we will instruct the subject, Alfonso Struthers, in the arts of breaststroke and butterfly. Am I clear?"

An over-enthusiastic chorus of "Sir, yes sir!" came from Damien, Alf and Jessica followed by a genuinely amused round of giggles.

"ANd guys," Jessica added. "Don't bring your best board shorts. They'll probably end up covered in gunk. If not moss or algae it will be mud."

"Understood," Alf stated, adding a neat salute which had Damien rolling in laughter as Alf looked so serious.

-=-=-=-=-=-That Monday, Alf gathered n old towel, his almost grown out of board shorts that he'd had since he was eleven, a pair of thongs that weer the cheap blue and white rubber kind that you could hardly buy these days and a t-shirt that had seen better days. He had a much neater change of clothes and though it was incredibly hot, bright and sunny, no sunscreen. The magic seemed to take care of sun protection. So, at nine o'clock in the morning he wasn't looking his best. He hadn't even showered though he usually did in the mornings because it would have been useless. And of course when someone is not looking their best, someone's law states that they have to run into whoever the current object of their affections is, or their worst enemy. Since Alf didn't have a worst enemy at the moment, he ran into Alyssa Marx while walking toward the Aldus house.

"Hi Alf," she greeted him with a smile and a wave, while he was doing his best to be unnoticed. He'd spotted her long before she saw him, something everyone who's ever had a crush would know. He was always hyper aware of her presence.

"Er, hi Alyssa," he greeted her looking around nervously and wishing she hadn't seen his bed head the first time they'd seen each other since school let out for the summer.

"Going swimming?" she inquired politely.

"Uh, yeah," Alf nodded, shifting in his slightly too small thongs. "Er, what are you going?" Real smooth, Struthers, Alf reprimanded himself. Make it seem like you're a creepy stalker.

Alyssa didn't seem to think that there was anything odd about the question, though and she answered normally enough. "I'm just going to Deborah's place. Then her brother's going to drive us to the West Hills Shopping Centre."

"Oh, cool," Alf commented dumbly. "we're going swimming at the pond at the Alduses' place."

"Oh," she said and Alf immediately realised what that must have sounded like. I like to jump into dirty ponds for fun because I can't afford to go to a swimming pool. He looked down and noticed that her toenails had been painted a fetching shade of pink.

"I like your toenails," he said, then mentally smacked himself. "Your nail polish," he amended.

"Thanks," she replied, then looked him up and down as though searching for something to compliment him on genuinely. "I like your hair," she said.

"Really?" Alf smiled at her. "Because this is the way it looks when I get up and it would save me so much time in the mornings if I just left it. Not that I'm obsessive about it or anything, it just... it's really difficult to just get it to sit flat. But I bet you never have any problems with that since your hair's always so pretty," he finished lamely, finally realising that he was babbling and rambling on like a demented idiot.

"Thanks," she said again. "But my hairs' not perfect. And your hair really is nice." She then looked at him as though unsure about what to say next. Thinking she wanted to go, but didn't want to say it out of politeness, Alf started to say his goodbye.

"I guess you want to get going now. So I'll be seeing you." He started to walk away without waiting for her goodbye.

"Wait Alf," she said.

He stopped and turned to see what she had to say.

"I'm having a pool party on Saturday. Did you want to come?"

"Uh..." Alf was unsure how to answer. He did want to go, but he was meant to work on Saturday. "I have work on Saturday," he informed her, seeing if she would make his decision for him.

"Come after work, then," she said. "It starts at five and goes until about nine. We're going to eat dinner at my place as well. You can bring you Damien and the rest of your friends too."

"Okay," Alf agreed. "But I finish work at five on Saturday, so I might be a bit late."

"That's fine," she said with a grin, seemingly genuinely pleased that he would be able to come to her party. "I'll ring you with more details later, then."

"Cool," Alf said, nodding at her. "Wait, do you have my number?" he asked, stopping his head.

"It's in the phone book, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yeah," Alf nodded with a smile.

"Oh wait," she said. "Mine isn't." She reached into her pink leather hand bag and pulled out a sparkly purple pen and a bus ticket. She wrote a phone number on the bus ticket then passed it to Alf. "Call me if you have any problems."

"Thanks," Alf said, not knowing what else to say.

"You're welcome," she smiled. "Bye!" she waved before turning her back and walking away.

"Bye!" Alf smiled, already knowing that he was going to be late to his appointment with Rock, Jessica and Damien the swimming instructors.

-=-=-=-=-=-"You'd better have a good excuse for being late," Rock stated with a frown.

Alf shrugged. "I ran into Alyssa on the way here."

"Oh, you sly dog," Rock said, giving Alf a hearty thump on the back.

"Who says that these days?" Jessica asked her cousin with a condescending look on her face.

"Me," Rock retorted.

"What did she say?" Damien asked, moving on to more important things as they began walking down to the pond.

"Not much," Alf said, unwilling to go into the details of his expressions of delight over her toenails and her pretty hair. "She invited us to her pool party on Saturday, though."

Damien stopped in his tracks. "No way!"

Alf frowned at him. "You say that like it's impossible."

"It is," Rock grinned. "You can't swim."

"She doesn't know that," Alf smirked. "And isn't today supposed to be about changing taht?" he asked.

"I like the way you think," Rock said with a smile. "But we were going to teach you have to swim properly."

"Oh really?" Alf asked.

"And that is going to take longer than a day," Jessica interjected.

"So I guess we have to cheat," Rock finished.

"Cheat?" Alf asked. "How do you do that?"

"Don't you know my dear boy?" Rock smiled.

"You've forgotten the one thing that we all have in common now," Jessica stated.

"Magic?" Alf asked.

"Magic," the other three chorused in confirmation.

"Why do I get the feeling you guys have been having conversations without me?" Alf asked.

"Because we have," Damien explained simply.

"Right," Alf said, feeling a bit neglected because he knew that he was the one who'd caused them all to be friends. What if they forgot about him?

They arrived at the pond which was a delightful murky green colour.

"That is attractive," Alf commented.

"Told you so," Jessica smirked.

They stripped down to their swimming costumes and wondered if they actually did want to get in.

"Okay," Rock said. "Sprouts first. In you get." And with that, he picked Alf up and chucked him into the pond more easily than Alf though fair.

Alf came up feeling half drowned and sputtering. He concentrated with his eyes and used a fire spell to singe the bottoms of Rock's feet. His startledness caused him to fall into the water. Rock then proceeded to finish his drowning of Alf by holding him underwater. Damien and Jessica dive bombed into the water after that, allowing Alf to use Rock's temporary distraction to his advantage.

They spent a fair amount of time splashing each other and trying to drown one another like that before they came too close to the deep part of the pond and Alf really did almost drown. He would have if it wasn't for his magic forcing him to the surface of the pond. And forcing the rest of them to remember why they were there in the first place instead of at the beach.

"Cheaters' swimming has two main rules," Rock began explaining. "Use levitation to get yourself moving, and use a little wind spell to breathe."

"A little wind spell, right," Alf said ruefully. He was awful at conjuring those. But as had just been evidenced earlier, Alf's magic would save him if he really did come too close to drowning.

He practiced cheaters' swimming until the others thought it looked like he was actually swimming well enough.

They had cold roast chicken and warm bread rolls for lunch, drinking fizzy drinks until their sugar highs brought them crashing back into the pond. They showered in a communally conjured rain storm (in which the other three insisted that Rock was not pulling his weight in) followed by a warm fire and wind blow dry before changing into their clean clothes. It was days like these that made Alf wonder how he'd ever managed to survive when he was only friends with Damien.

-=-=-=-=-=-Work that Saturday passed easily enough. Alf enjoyed it as always, and it gave Alf the idea to bring a pot of pansies as a present for Alyssa. Flowering ones, of course. Ones that would comfort her and be her friends. He added a few sweet peas in, too because he did love the small flowers. Rock would be picking them all up, stopping at Alf's work last so that they wouldn't be too late to the party. It had taken a lot of convincing before Jessica allowed herself to go with them, but in the end they were all there in the car, ready to party.

Alf would have to change at Alyssa's house, though. She had assured him that it would be okay when she rang during the week to confirm that he and his friends were coming. That phone call had been a little awkward as Alf's father had picked up. He'd teased Alf about the girl the rest of the week.

Two minutes after Rock arrived with the car, they were at Alyssa's house. She greeted them all with smiles, took Alf's present graciously, showed them where the drinks were, were the bathrooms were and where Alf could change, and where the pool was. Over all, she was a lovely host. Because he had the delay of having to change, the others had already managed to assimilate into the party, so Alf was feeling rather out of place and self conscious when he arrived outside with no friends. At that point he wished that he'd allowed his friends to wait for him.

Alf saw Damien with Chris and Mark and was about to walk over when Mark sent a malicious sneer in his direction. For some reason, he and Chris really did not like him. Jessica, in a floral bikini had managed to attract the attention of some of the other boys. Alf was momentarily surprised when he realised that she was showing that much skin. He'd never thought she'd be comfortable with that much skin showing, but apparently she was, though she did seem to be doing her best to minimise the amount of flesh showing. He guessed that if she was going to go to the party, she might as well go all the way.

Rock was harder to spot, and when Alf did spot him, he regretted it immediately. Rock was very comfortably with a girl he didn't recognise. The two of them were curled up together on a pool chair apparently locked at the lips.

Unsure about what to do, Alf decided that the only way to get rid of his apprehension was to dive straight into the pool and join the people rough housing. He didn't know who they were which increased his chances of success with them. Alf went for a run up and crashed into the pool spectacularly, disrupting the people in the pool and splashing the girls who'd been sitting beside the pool obviously trying not to get their bikinis wet.

"Hi!" he yelled over the music.

The kids in the pool smiled at him. The girls giving him second glances. He hadn't realised until just that moment that the fact that he had spent most of his summer doing manual labour had increased his muscleage somewhat. Not that he cared about what those girls thought.

"We were just about to start a game of volleyball," one boy said, spinning a beach ball on a finger tip. "Did you want to play?"

"Sure," Alf said with a grin.

"You can be on my team," one of the girls with dark red hair tied in a ponytail said to him. "We have less people."

Alf nodded and with that they decided on ends of the pool (luckily Alf's team ended up in the shallow half) before they swam and started tossing the ball around. Alf wasn't entirely certain what sort of scoring system was being used. After all, there was no net. And it seemed like whoever got the ball was the one who served it. But when Alyssa called them inside to get food, everyone else seemed in consensus that the other team had won.

As he pulled himself out of the water, his teammates began introducing themselves properly and congratulating him on a job well done. For once Alf felt accepted and he wondered why he'd never learnt to swim before. He was with Paula and Anabelle, cousins of Alyssa's grabbing plates and stacking them high with chicken wings and salad and pasta, when he managed to talk to Alyssa for the first time that night.

"Thanks for inviting me," he said to her. "The party's great."

Alyssa smiled at him in response. "No problem."

And that was about it. Alf knew that she would be too busy to really talk to him. It gave him a warm feeling inside just to know that he was invited. And getting friendly with her cousins seemed to help, even as he dried off and began to feel self conscious of his lack of clothing despite the fact that the girls beside him were wearing about as much as he was and they had more to cover.

As it grew later, it seemed as though the party wasn't going to stop, but eventually Alyssa's parents came home and managed to encourage the twenty-odd teens to leave the house. It was only then that Alf managed to be reunited with his friends at Rock's car.

"How was it?" Alf asked Damien.

"Pretty good," he smiled. "Check it out," he said, showing Alf his forearm. There were at least three different phone numbers scrawled on it in black ballpoint pen.

Alf nodded in response. "How was it, Jessica?"

She just looked at him with a frown. "Not particularly exciting," she said. "Most of the guys were dead boring."

"I got laid," Rock put in.

"Too much information," Alf stated and Jessica shared his sentiment.

"Way to go man," Damien said, slapping Rock on the back.

Then Rock grinned. "I didn't actually."

Alf, Jessica and Damien groaned in response.

"Man, and I was just about looking up to you as an older brother," Damien stated. "That's gone."

Alf laughed.

"What about you, Alf?" Jessica asked. "Did you enjoy yourself?"

"It was all right," he stated. "Alyssa's cousins were nice."

"Are those the chicks you were chatting up all night?" Damien asked.

Alf shot him a look. "I wasn't chatting them up."

"Oh really," Damien raised an eyebrow. "Then did you get their numbers?"

"Yeah," Alf nodded. "But I don't think I'll call them."

"Isn't that a bit rude?" Jessica said. "I mean sure, you don't want to go out with them or give them that impression. But you could at least be friends. I mean, you spent all night talking to each other."

"Well I guess I can call and say hi," he said. "Maybe get MSNs off them. Then they'd be friends."

"Well," Rock said, as he unlocked the car and they all clambered in. "I propose that we also go to the next party we're invited to."

"Here here," Damien said in agreement. Alf only nodded as he quietly nodded off to sleep. Swimming really did take a lot out of you.

Filler Bits: A Magical Christmas

2006-11-30T13:03:00.000+11:00

Traditionally Alf would spend Christmas with his parents. Both his parents were only children whose parents had died, so they were basically all they had left in the world. Sometimes they'd go on a trip somewhere. Alf could distinctly remember a Christmas spent in California where they'd gone theme parking that day. Christmas in California was like Christmas in July in Sydney. Sometimes a friend of his parents would invite them over for lunch or dinner and Mr and Mrs Struthers would always accept since they never had anything better to do. Sometimes it occurred to Alf that it was a bit of a sad life. But they weren't Christians, so what did Christmas really mean? Just another public holiday but this time one where you needed to buy people presents. Family was important. The Struthers family had spent the last two years with Damien's family at their house.

But this year, the Struthers family be attending the extravaganza that would be Christmas celebrations at the Aldus Manor. From what Jessica and Rock had told Alf, it would be like one gigantic party.

Alf would be sleeping over from the night before Christmas Eve where he would watch as people filled the manor. People he'd never met before. People who weren't related to him. Aldus after Aldus would be converging on the Manor ready to get down to business and wanting their room back for that one day of the year. His parents would join them on Christmas day for the opening of presents and the traditional Christmas breakfast, lunch and dinner. Alf would not be going home until about New Years Day. He'd be at the Aldus house for over a week getting settled in. Damien's parents didn't quite approve of this. And since they didn't know about magic, they couldn't attend the celebrations so Alf, Jessica and Rock wouldn't be seeing him until the next day.

Alf arrived at the Aldus house bright and early on the 23rd of December. He carried a single bag. He wandered straight through the front door without bothering to ring. He'd noticed in the past few days as Alduses started to congregate that none of them rang the doorbell or even knocked. They all considered the main house their own, and it definitely was their house. He made his way up to Rock's bedroom where he'd be staying. He found that it had been prepared for his arrival. There was an extra bed beside Rock's and an extra wardrobe that Alf didn't think he needed since he had only brought one bag. Not to mention he basically lived down the street so if he needed anything else he could get it. He didn't get to sleep in his own room because they were going to be strapped for space with all the random Alduses from all over the place.

His parents had been worried about him staying at the Aldus house for so long, but they hadn't said anything. They just told him to call them every day at a specific time and that if he didn't call then they would and if they were at all suspicious then he would be coming home right that very minute.

The room was prepared for Alf's arrival. Rock was not. Alf decided that the best way to wake his friend up would be to jump up and down on his bed. This got Rock out of bed only because the bouncing caused Rock to roll off the side of the bed. Sadly, he was still asleep. Alf quickly suffocated Rock, holding his nose and mouth closed, waiting for him to wake up. For a second Alf thought he might have accidentally killed his friend, but he woke up, and all was bright and happy in the world.

They ate breakfast in the breakfast room where a bunch of foods were laid out on the table and it had turned into a serve yourself buffet. It was like living in a hotel or something where you knew everyone staying there. Well, Alf didn't, but Rock and Jessica managed to politely say good morning to everyone and introduce their friend.

That afternoon, Alf met Rock's brother for the first time. Eric was also a tall young man. A little shorter than Rock, though, and not as muscled, either. He had a light tan and had dyed his hair purple. He was twenty and seemed to adore his younger brother who basically ignored him all the time except when he wanted something. This was new to Alf who'd never imagined Rock as being a spoilt younger sibling. Especially not with the way Aliana treated him. Alf imagined that Dr Aldus might spoil Rock if he'd take the time to spend any time with his father.

It was a happy Alf that fell asleep that night.

-=-=-=-=-=-The next day it was Rock who woke Alf up by jumping on his bed. Apparently he'd decided that waking up extra early just to wake up Alf early was definitely worth it. Alf singed him with a couple of little fireballs and but did not have enough wits about him to counter when Rock shot them back.

Christmas Eve was spent getting to know the various crazy Alduses. They sat around a television and watched Christmas carols by candlelight with various family members.

Christmas Day was fun, but while Alf sat with his parents, for the first time he felt jealous of Rock and Jessica. Because although their immediate families were quite small, they had such large extended families that they would never be lonely unless they wanted to be. Alf wanted that, but knew he couldn't have it. The best he could hope for was to be unofficially adopted into the Aldus family.

Filler Bits: Alyssa Marx

2006-11-30T10:19:00.000+11:00

The four magical teenagers were eating lunch together at school one lunch time when Alyssa Marx and a couple of her friends walked past.

"Hey Alyssa," Damien called out to her. "Hi Deborah, Alexandra," he greeted the two girls with her. Judging they way they were only carrying wallets, with no backpacks, Alf judged that they were headed for the canteen.

"Hi Damien," Alyssa greeted him with a small smile. "Alf," she added, ignoring the two Alduses as she had no connection with them.

"Er, hi," Alf managed to get out. Her curly dark blonde hair was tied into two low pigtails today, curling around her shoulders, contrasting against the blueness of her school shirt.

"You haven't sat with us, lately," Deborah said to Damien, batting her long dark lashes flirtatiously, while curling the end of her long ponytail around her fingers.

Damien smirked. "You haven't come and sat with us, either. I think it's your turn."

"But we don't know those two," the light blonde haired one pouted, rudely pointing at Rock and Jessica.

"Then there's no time like the present for introductions," Damien said with a smile. "That's Rock and Jessica. Alyssa, Deborah and Alexandra." He indicated each person.

"Hi," the three girls chorused.

Jessica eyed them with contempt and Rock looked them over dismissively. Damien frowned at them. He knew that Alf had difficulty getting along with other people, but he didn't think that Rock and Jessica would be the same.

"So, now you know each other," Damien said. "You can come sit with us tomorrow."

"Okay," Deborah nodded eagerly, speaking for all three girls.

"We should go now, though," Alexandra said. "The canteen line's going to be soo long," she complained.

"Yeah," Deborah agreed and began walking off with Alexandra, but not before shooting Damien one last coy smile.

"Bye then Damien, Alf," Alyssa farewelled. "Nice meeting you two," she said to Rock and Jessica with a wave before running after her friends.

"You want us to eat lunch with those girls?" Jessica asked, quirking an eyebrow at Damien.

"Why not?" Damien asked.

"Because they're vapid?" Rock suggested.

"Alyssa's not," Alf interjected.

Damien smirked at him.

"Says you," Jessica retorted, looking at Alf.

"See," Damien grinned. "This is precisely why you have to let them sit with us tomorrow."

"Why?" asked Rock dimly.

"Because our boy Alf has a little crush on Alyssa Marx."

"I do not!" Alf shot back, causing the other three to laugh hilariously.

"So he does," Rock commented.

And realising that any words that next came out of his mouth would damn him further, Alf kept his mouth shut diligently.

"Since when?" Jessica asked him, looking at him curiously.

Damien laughed. "He's liked her since like, year two."

How Alf wished that he had some way to stop them from teasing him. But as far as he knew, Damien, Jessica and Alf did not have any embarrassing crushes. Not that it was embarrassing to have a crush on Alyssa Marx. Half the boys in his year had a crush on her. Probably because she was so cute and pretty and nice to everyone. She knew everyone's name and that made you feel special.

Jessica giggled and Rock laughed openly while Alf tried his very hardest not to blush.

"I guess we could stomach sitting with them for you, Alf," Jessica said, making it sound like she was making a sacrifice bigger than humanly possible.

"They're not that bad, Jessica," Damien protested.

"Only because they were flirting with you," Rock inserted.

"Jealous, much?" Damien asked.

"Oh, you know it," Rock said, sarcasm evident in his tone.

"Don't worry," Damien said. "There's two of them. You can have Alexandra."

"Which one's she?" Rock asked, as though actually interested.

"The one with light blonde hair," Damien said.

"No thanks," Rock said. "I like them older."

"Ugh," Jessica complained. "Can you not talk about girls when I'm around? I'm not interested."

"Really?" Damien asked. "I was so sure you were a lesbian. I was looking forward to seeing some girl on girl action."

Jessica smacked him. "You're so crude."

"Don't I know it," Damien smiled, smacking his lips at her.

Jessica rolled her eyes and staunchly returned to eating her lunch, ignoring anything else Damien and her cousin had to say. Alf decided to follow her example and soon the girls were forgotten in favour of the boys' second greatest desire: food.

-=-=-=-=-=-The next day at lunch, Rock, Alf, Damien and Jessica were joined by Alyssa, Deborah and Alexandra, as well as Damien's friends Chris and Mark. They ignored Alf as they usually did and Damien seemed to enjoy catching up with his friends once again.

Alf on the other hand, was feeling left out. Rock managed to fit in well enough, teasing Damien's friends who he'd bullied at some point. They were extremely surprised to discover that Rock was now friends with Damien. They seemed afraid that all of a sudden he'd turn around and assault them as well as insult them, and that amused Rock greatly. Jessica was paying careful attention, making sure to reign in Rock when he was getting too mean and the other boys were taking him too seriously. Rock would then laugh, causing the other boys to join in nervously as Rock stretched his muscles, pleased that instead of losing his power to intimidate by having friends, it seemed to have increased.

Alf on the other hand, didn't have much to say while Deborah and Alexandra flirted with Damien and the other boys. Alyssa joined in on the conversation sometimes, and at one point she and Jessica were engaged in conversation. Alf sat to the side, beside Jessica and across from Alyssa, occasionally sending admiring glances her way, and eating his sandwich, barely paying attention to what anyone else was doing.

Deciding to help with a little matchmaking, Jessica was determined to work Alf into the conversation somehow, then carefully extricate herself from it.

"So what's your favourite flower?" she asked Alyssa, pretending to ask a random question just because she was running out of good things to say.

"Oh, pansies, I guess," Alyssa said.

"Really?" Jessica queried, without wanting a response. "I like pansies too. But Alf prefers sweet peas, don't you Alf?"

"Huh?" Alf asked, looking up, surprised at being addressed.

"Are sweet peas your favourite flower?" Alyssa asked him. And Jessica decided that that was good a moment as any to stop saying anything.

"Uh, yeah," Alf said.

"Why do you like them?" Alyssa asked.

Think of something not idiotic, think of something not idiotic, Alf chanted to himself. Please don't make a fool of yourself, Alf. "Because they're... friendly."

Alyssa smiled at him charmingly. Apparently that was a good thing for him to say. "That's why I like pansies," she said.

"Did I just hear you correctly, Alyssa Marx?" Chris interrupted. "Did you just say that you like pansies?"

The other boys laughed at that.

"Then you and Struthers would be a good fit," Mark added. "He's the biggest pansy around."

Alf looked away sadly. That's why he hated hanging out with Damien's friends.

"And that's why you and I aren't a good fit, Mark," Alyssa shot back.

"Ooh," the other boys laughed.

"I don't know why I'm friends with them," Alyssa commented to Alf.

And Jessica, noting that Alf wouldn't want to talk anymore agreed, and engaged Alyssa in conversation.

So after that day, it was still just the four of them. Alf a little pleased that he'd managed to have a small conversation with Alyssa Marx, even if it wasn't very much and had been interrupted. It was the most they'd said to each other since primary school.

Filler Bits: Reginald Murami the Magnificent

2006-11-30T09:27:00.000+11:00

One afternoon after school when Alf didn't have a magic lesson with Aliana, but Jessica had to help out at Dr. Aldus' dental surgery, the place where they'd first met, Alf found himself wandering the hallways of the Aldus family house. Despite the fact that he'd been in and out of here ever since he discovered his magic, Alf realised that he hadn't spoken to any of the people who lived here who weren't part of the Aldus family. With a little boredom, Alf intended to do just that today.

He'd managed to forget where any of their rooms were located, so he was wandering aimlessly, admiring the artwork and various family heirlooms that any house that had been handed down through the generations would be bereft without, when he noticed a strange man at the end of the hallway. Racking his memory, Alf tried to put a name to the silhouette, but he had to come to the conclusion that he'd never met the man before.

"Hello," the man said, turning to greet Alf. "Do you live here?" he asked.

"Um, no," Alf responded, wondering why that was the man's first question.

"I didn't think so," he said with a smile, as though very pleased that he was correct in his assumption. "I didn't think I'd met you before. And you don't look like an Aldus."

"Uh, who are you?" Alf asked him curiously. Who was he to know what an Aldus looked like? As far as he could tell they all looked very different.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that question?" he asked with a bit of a malicious look on his face, as though he were a small child about to dob on someone.

Should the man be the one asking the question? Alf didn't know. "Fine," he said. Then stated his name, "Alf Struthers. And you are?"

"Reginald Murami," he said with a grin, taking Alf's hand and shaking it vigorously. His shift in demeanour had Alf slightly confused. He supposed that was the effect Reginald was looking for as he seemed overly pleased with himself. "So what brings you to the house?" he asked Alf.

Alf shrugged, not entirely certain he should trust this strange man even if he did meet him in the Aldus house. "Just bored, I guess."

That seemed to be the wrong answer to a question Alf didn't realise was being scored.

"Bored?" the man asked with a frown. "Why, when I was your age there was no shortage of things I could do to entertain myself. You know, proclaiming yourself bored is no better than saying to the world: I am boring." he reprimanded.

This made Alf properly defensive. He'd just been insulted. "Well I'm not bored now," he informed the man. "Because I decided to come here and have a look around."

"No," the man disagreed with a shake of his head. "You're not bored because I'm here to entertain you."

Alf rolled his eyes internally so that the slightly crazy man wouldn't see.

"Come along," he said, grabbing Alf's wrist and tugging him through the hallways of the manor.

Before Alf could ask "Where are you taking me?", they'd arrived at their destination: a rather unremarkable looking door.

"I know what you're thinking," the man said, causing Alf to wonder if the man really did know what he was thinking and therefore had 'seen' Alf's previous eye rolling. "You're thinking," he continued. "What's so great and interesting about this door? It looks like all the others. How is it supposed to make me less bored with myself?"

That wasn't what Alf was thinking so he gave a relieved nod in response.

"I knew it," the man said cheerily, tapping his nose. "The Nose knows."

Alf's attention was drawn to the man's rather large nose. He hadn't noticed it before, but it was shaped rather like a tap and he wondered vaguely if you could turn it on and off like a tap, too. It wouldn't be a particularly useful talent, though. Very few people in the world would want to see a man's nose gushing snot, but Alf imagined that it might be useful in entertaining small children.

Alf was so preoccupied by his thoughts of noses and mucus that he'd missed Reginald's dramatic opening of the door. The man was looking at him expectantly so he took a peek inside. The room inself was about as unremarkable as its door. It was a bedroom, furnished as though by someone two centuries ago but maybe have only been furnished one century ago, like every other room in the house. It had, perhaps, a few more knick knacks than the other rooms in the house collected on its shelves, but was very similar to Jessica's bedroom, and the spare bedrooms they sometimes sat in to have private conversations. Alf turned to look at the man, disguising his contempt as curiosity on his face.

"I can see you are amazed by all you see before you," he declared, reminding Alf of a poor magician who wouldn't deviate from his act despite a lack of audience attention. "You are wondering: Who does this bedroom belong to? Well, wonder no longer. Feast your eyes on the bedroom of Reginald Murami!" he introduced, gesturing toward the room.

Alf rather expected that announcement to come with a clap of thunder and a cloud of smoke, but no added theatrics accompanied Reginald's own.

"Dare you enter the bedroom of Reginald Murami?" he asked Alf with a glint in his eye.

That glint suddenly worried Alf terribly. He didn't know this strange Reginald Murami. He'd never heard of him until he'd introduced himself. What if he was a sexual predator, a paedophile just waiting to stumble upon teenage boys who were a bit small of their ages?

"Uh, sorry," Alf said, backing away. "I don't think I do dare." And with those words he ran toward where he thought the front door of the house was located, leaving a disappointed Reginald Murami to wonder what he'd said to scare the boy off.

Alf was correct in his estimation of the front door of the house as he ran into Jessica coming into the house with Dr Aldus.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" Dr Aldus asked.

"Oh, nowhere," Alf replied. "Just excited to see Jessica."

Dr Aldus smiled at the two of them kindly. "Well, I'll see you when I see you two, then."

"So what's going on?" Jessica asked Alf.

"Do you know who Reginald Murami is?" he asked her.

"Uncle Reginald used to live here," Jessica answered.

"But he's here right now," Alf stated worriedly. He used to live there? Had he died? Was Reginald Murami a ghost? It would explain his rather eccentric behaviour. You couldn't expect ghosts to be right in the head.

"Really?" Jessica queried. "No one was expecting him. Not that I know of, anyway."

"So he's not dead?" Alf asked her.

"No," she shook her head. "There are no such thing as ghosts. Why would you think that?"

"He's a very strange man," Alf stated, hoping Reginald wasn't in earshot.

"He's an Aldus like Rock is," Jessica explained. "We think him not having magic made him a bit, unbalanced, if you know what I'm saying. He pretends he can do magic. Actually he does it for a living. Sometimes I even wonder how he does things."

"Oh." Well, that explained the second rate magic act. "I suppose I'd better apologise for being rude to him, then."

"What did you do?" Jessica asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes at the younger teen.

"I ran away when he invited me into his bedroom."

"Oh," Jessica responded. "You should apologise, then. He's got all sorts of cool stuff in his room. And he's great at telling stories about them. You're never bored with him around," Jessica grinned.

"I guess I'd better do it now, then," Alf said.

"Yup," Jessica agreed. "I'll go with you."

Alf nodded his acquiescence and by default Jessica led him through the corridors of the manor until they reached Reginald Murami's now familiar door. Alf noticed that it hadn't taken nearly as long to get here as it did when he had run down to the front door by himself. Apparently there was a short cut.

"Why isn't his last name Aldus?" Alf asked as the thought struck him suddenly, just before the knocked.

"It is," Jessica stated. "He just uses Reginald Murami the Magnificent as his stage name." She knocked on the door.

Reginald opened it and looked at Jessica happily. "Hello my dear," he greeted her, then noticed Alf beside her. "And you," he acknowledged.

"I came to apologise about earlier," Alf said. "I just noticed the time and realised Jessica would be waiting for me. I'd like to see your bedroom now if you'd let me." Both Alduses looked at him as though they knew he was telling a lie - though in Jessica's case she really did know that it was a lie. They let it slide without verbal acknowledgment and Reginald allowed them entrance to his room.

Jessica asked where he'd been over the past couple of years and Reginald launched into tales about elephants and (Komodo) dragons. He showed them some things he'd picked up: strange baubles and trinkets that looked as though they were made from expensive gemstones and turned out to be made of painted wood; and various carvings and voodoo dolls, a number of things that nons thought were magical but really weren't.

Then he began showing them his magical items that glowed and tinkled with other-worldly power. It was long past dinner when they remembered to eat, and Mr Aldus had already told Alf's parents that he would be sleeping over that night. So Jessica and Alf were easily entertained by Reginald the Magnificent the rest of the evening.

Filler Bits: A Flying Lesson

2006-11-29T22:53:00.000+11:00

When someone thinks of magic, inevitably one of the powers they'd like to have would be the ability to fly. People don't have this naturally, and so are forever looking to the sky, watching the birds soar past, wondering why they weren't meant to be able to do that. The clouds forever float above them, teasingly close at times and nothing like you expect them to be when you reach out a hand and touch them. They're cold and damp and you remember, people aren't meant to fly.

But, as is the nature with all human beings, what they don't have they want. They want it even if they don't know what it is. Even if they know that they shouldn't have it. Magical people are just the same as regular people. They can't fly naturally, but still long to touch the sky. Still long to rise above the trees and look down on the crests of mountains. Still long to feel the breezes in their face, causing their hair to fly out behind them. Still long to know that they are all powerful and everything below them is beneath them.

So magical people devised a way to fly. They could levitate objects, but it was much more difficult to levitate oneself the early magic users (and many small children) found. Mostly, it was because people had such distorted views of themselves that they didn't know where they started or ended. Even small children suffered from this, not understanding the concept of a back, something they couldn't see on themselves most of the time. And the older ones had different senses of self. They thought themselves larger in places, smaller in others. And it all just led to an unsafe flight.

The night before Alf's flying lesson he couldn't sleep. Like a child on Christmas Eve who still believed in Santa Claus, he was having visions of what would happen the next day. It ended with Alf dreaming he was Harry Potter at his first flying lesson, sans broomstick of course, and he'd managed to do it the first time in one go while Ron (Damien) and Hermione (Jessica) looked on in amazement. He then found himself in the air battling Damien and Rock for possession of a golden snitch. Of course he fell, and then he woke up. But nothing he'd dreamed, or thought of before his dream, could compare to real life flying.

Aliana had Damien and Alf standing on the back lawn of the Aldus estate. They were looking at the sky, marveling at the birds and getting mentally prepared to join them for the first time in their lives. Neither of them had so much as been in a plane, helicopter or hot air balloon. The closest they'd been to flying before had been roller coaster rides at Australia's Wonderland before that had closed down. So this would be their first time flying, and both of them expected it to be fantastic.

"To start with," Aliana stated. "We need to cover a little theory."

Alf and Damien gave audible groans and Aliana only laughed at their misery.

"There are two ways of what we'd call flying: levitation and wind riding," she looked at the two boys. "Care to guess what the difference is?"

Damien shrugged, unsure.

Alf hazarded a guess. "Levitation is where you move yourself like a bird. Wind riding is more like gliding? Like the difference between jet propelled planes and gliders?"

"That's right," Aliana smiled.

Alf shot his friend a superior look. Damien just rolled his eyes.

"That's enough of that, boys," Alian reprimanded gently. "Now, we usually prefer levitation as our means of transport since it doesn't involve the use of magic on anything other than yourself. But control of the wind, especially if you're good with controlling the air, is quite simple although messy. Messy in terms of people noticing because the wind around you has to be moved. It's generally faster than levitation, though, as it requires less thinking. But with time, you should be able to levitate almost as fast, with no problems."

Seeing that even that short little speech had bored her pupils, Aliana decided to get them started with the practical part of the lesson. "If we start with wind-riding, first you just want to gather up a bit of the wind. You might have trouble with that, though, Alf. And then get it to push you, and cushion your fall. If you can maintain a hover, you can probably manage to figure out how to position your body and your winds to move in an appropriate manner."

Alf tried and failed to conjure a wind strong enough to support himself. He'd never been able to cook up a wind any bigger than the palm of his hand so that was only to be expected. Damien, on the other hand, had managed a wind and was doing what seemed to be a semi-controlled fall down the hill they'd started at the top of. He landed with an ominous thud.

"Oww," came Damien's pained cry, although it seemed more exaggerated than anything.

Aliana didn't look surprised at all that Damien had failed, though Alf knew that it was unlikely that they'd managed to fly on their first attempt despite what he'd dreamed. As he clambered back up the hill, Aliana explained how they would attempt the levitation. "Levitation of yourself," she began. "Is exactly like levitation of anything else. You imagine where you are, and where you're going, and how you're going to get there, and it should just happen."

Alf attempted this, quickly finding that he was suddenly flying sideways when he'd meant to go forward. His head was closer to the ground than he'd intended it to be and it wasn't long before he crash landed. Apparently he'd managed better than Damien, who was already picking himself off the ground much closer to where he'd begun.

Aliana was having a difficult time restraining her giggles as the two boys came closer to her, silently demanding the information she'd obviously forgotten to tell them. "Levitation," she continued. "Is considered to be the more difficult because it requires that you know where your body is at all times. You have to know exactly how big you are, or you'll fly off course. Wind-riding, on the other hand, means that you can control the wind around you when you're moving. You can change it's shape, but you can't change the shape of your body without some very odd consequences. None of them being particularly smart or comfortable at all."

She then conjured circular mirrors around them. "These mirrors will reflect your proportions exactly. Know yourself physically, and then you should be able to hover out."

It was a disturbing half hour of being in a mirrored box where all you could see was yourself for miles. Looking up was his only relief, and made Alf long to be able to levitate. But to levitate (without crashing into the mirror, which (un)luckily didn't break) required a bit more staring at himself. In that half hour, Alf acknowledged who he was. There was no hiding from yourself in that box. Once he'd gotten over that, levitation was surprisingly simple. He managed to fly straight up. The slight sideways thing took it all out of him, though, and he ended up falling to the ground, at least it was outside his mirrored box.

"Well done, Alf," Aliana congratulated her pupil.

"Thanks," Alf said. "Hear that Damien?" he called. "I'm out!"

Damien swore at him, and soon after Alf saw Damien's head peek out. Followed by naked shoulders. A naked and chest and Alf couldn't stop himself from looking to see if Damien was completely naked.

He was.

"Gross, Damien!" Alf yelled. "Put that away."

Damien shrugged, comfortable in his own skin. "It's easier this way." As though to prove it, he circled Alf and Aliana before landing.

Aliana immediately covered him with a blanket she conjured. "I must say, that was unexpected," she said with a nervous blush. "I think you boys have got the hang of that for now. But I'm expecting you to be able to do that with your clothes on next week, Damien."

"I bet Jessica was watching," Alf said to Damien who immediately turned bright red.

"I hope not."

"You mean you'll strip in front of her aunt but you care if she's watching?" Alf asked, confused.

Damien only turned a brighter red. "Shut up," he said halfheartedly, as though resigned to having Alf tease him.

Alf left him alone and began trying to levitate again.

In the end flying was rather anti-climactic. You'd think you'd get a bigger thrill but it all seemed like science and physics to Alf. And he didn't see any reason why he wouldn't get just as large of a thrill from piloting a hot air balloon. Damien seemed to enjoy it, though. Alf could take it or leave it. He'd only be using it when necessary, not just for fun joyriding.

Filler Bits: Alf gets a job

2006-11-29T22:10:00.000+11:00

[[These aren't going to have continuity notes since I have pretty much no idea where they fall.]]

School had just let out for the summer, so it was almost Christmas. Alf had no idea what he was going to do with his six weeks of summer break. Of course there was Damien and Rock and Jessica to hang out with. And he hadn't had so many friends before. And of course there was magic. Aliana already wanted to start him having training sessions at least twice a week and preferably three times a week instead of his usual once a week lesson. The only reason why she hadn't insisted upon lessons five days a week was because she had other students. Not to mention Damien hated going to the lessons even if he did find them interesting. And now that Alf had a friend there, he didn't want to come when Damien wasn't going to be there.

Rock had also started talking about all the road trips he'd be taking. His older brother Eric had left him the car when he decided to travel the world the magical way - the magical equivalent of a gap year, although he'd been gone for over one but would be back over Christmas. Despite the fact that they weren't Christian, the witches did still celebrate Christmas. They didn't call it something else, but merely celebrated in terms of atheists throughout the world. And not in the commercial sense. They celebrated it as a time for people who loved each other to get together.

But Rock wanted to take the car out for days at a time, and go camping or something. Up in the Blue Mountains, or maybe take trips down to Melbourne or Canberra, or up to Brisbane or Cairns. In his more adventurous moments, he proposed trips to Ayers Rock or Perth. And while the thought of getting carsick for hours at a time didn't appeal to Alf, the thought of spending that much time with his friends away from his parents was. But of course, his parents didn't want him to do. It was dangerous to have a lot of people in a car. To go on a long road trip with a P-plater. A red provisional driver, and one who, they discovered, failed his exam the first time.

Rock insisted that that wasn't his fault. There had been a pedestrian that he thought was about to cross the road so he'd slowed down and caused a bit of a traffic obstruction. Apparently that had been enough to cause him to fail. So really, he hadn't failed for a good reason like speeding or breaking the law. He'd failed because he was being cautious about a pedestrian. That wasn't a problem to him. Alf didn't think it detracted from his driving ability, even if he did cause a bit of a traffic lump. After all, he didn't kill anyone, and he wasn't going to kill anyone. And even if there had been a car accident, they weren't going that fast so everyone would have survived. The pedestrian would probably have died if he'd hit them.

But Alf's parents weren't going to have any of that. Instead they suggested that now that he was fifteen it was a good time to start thinking about getting a job. Helping out with someone was good, and isn't Jessica still working for her uncle? Jessica only helped out Rock's father occasionally when he was experiencing a bit of a backlog, or if his secretary called in sick. There was no backup secretary, so Jessica or Aliana would have to help out. It annoyed Jessica, but because it wasn't an actual job she was free to decline. Of course, since it wasn't an actual job, she actually felt bad on days when she didn't turn up because she knew they'd have difficulty coping.

So it was with a blank resume, and a heavy heart that Alf proceeded to go on a job hunt. The first couple of places he tried: the gelato place and the cafe next door, had both wanted someone a little more experienced. The gelato place said they'd give him a call, though, if they suddenly had an opening. They'd only wanted someone if they could help out, someone who'd need very little training. The cafe was often busy so they'd wanted someone who was experienced with being a waitperson. Alf was neither.

But three was probably Alf's lucky number because after leaving from there he noticed that there was a Help Wanted sign at the local nursery. A year ago, or even a few months ago, Help Wanted at the nursery would have been ignored. After all, Alf knew nothing about plants and he was pretty sure that he'd never need to know anything about plants. But now he looked at it as an opportunity.

He met Owin Ramon there, a man wearing denim overalls and a wide brimmed straw hat who seemed to be a giant to Alf. Rock was big for his age, but this man was huge. He was tall and tanned from working in the sun, muscled from having to lift things and he seemed to look at Alf as though he was the very opposite of everything he was looking for in a nursery worker. But no one that had applied thus far had seemed suitable, so, thinking that perhaps his standards had been too high, Owin granted Alf a trial run. Starting that day. He showed Alf how to run the register and the various different areas of the nursery. He introduced him to the people who usually worked in each section. Alf wouldn't be expected to help people directly the first few days and would merely be helping re-pot in the back sheds, and cart things that had been delivered. He would maybe have a turn at the cash register, and would help customers with large purchases get them into their cars, or alternately, take them away to be stored for delivery the next day or that afternoon.

Alf had managed to blend in quite well there. He made quick friends out of all the staff members, and managed to remember where everything was. He was friendly to the customers, easily directing them to the right sections and salespeople to help them find what they were looking for. And although Alf was a pasty white colour that would make most people cringe and similarly pasty people sympathise, Owin found that the boy seemed like he belonged amongst the various pot plants. So after his one day of training, Alf found himself hired.

Despite his misgivings about finding a job in the first place, Alf found that he liked working at Owin's nursery. The people were friendly and in the moments he had alone with the plants, they always made him feel better. He was quick to learn all the names of the plants in the nursery, as well as make sure they looked their best when he showed them to the customers. Gardening was his thing. He'd known it ever since that day when he and Damien had been growing sprouts. Working was a break from the magical world and his familial life that he hadn't managed to achieve ever before. He was going to miss it when he started at school and wouldn't be able to come in every day anymore.

Story: Ending Part 10

2006-11-29T21:55:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: It's the final countdown!!!]]

A month later, Jessica mentioned that she had news so the four of them gathered at the bottom of the Aldus back yard, at the food of a small grassy hill. They weren't sitting on a rug for once. Damien was resisting the urge to pull up individual blades of grass. Magic lessons, despite not making him want to use magic, had taught him a greater respect for the environment. It didn't stop him from wanting to be destructive, though.

"They're putting your plan into place, Alf," Jessica said as she leaned back on her elbows casually. "Each magic user is allowed to tell one person about magic. But just us in this area. It's sort of a test run for the rest of the planet. Since people here have to know about magic because they might develop magical powers, or already have them and not know what to do with them. Auntie Mary-Ann and Uncle Dex are trying to discover if anyone else has powers, but they're not having much success. But in a few weeks, we might be able to use magic in public around here."

"Does that mean I can tell my parents?" Damien asked excitedly, that thought still playing at the forefront of his mind all the time.

"Well, not technically," Jessica said, and Damien's face fell. "But since they're going to find out anyway, it's not going to matter."

"Okay," Damien says. "I'm going to tell them everything." He stood, ready to take off.

"And if anyone asks," Jessica added. "Pretend that I told them. I don't know of any nons to tell this to anyway."

"Thanks Jess," Damien said, using her nickname for perhaps the first time ever. He hugged her quickly before running off.

"Well I guess that's that, then," Alf said, as they watched the sun set over the forest.

"Yeah," Rock agreed. "That's it."

And instead of feeling bereft like Jessica thought they might, a remarkable feeling of peace descended upon them at that point. It was all going to be all right.

[[THE END!]]

Story: Ending Part 9

2006-11-29T21:20:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Alf, Damien, Rock and Jessica are all back to being friends despite their differences.]]

A couple of weeks passed casually by. Rock, Damien and Alf visited the labs for their magic tests as they tried to determine how much magic they each had left. The Eldred Hillel Institute for the Acquisition of Knowledge of the Magical Field of Study, where Mr Wiley and Ms Aldus worked was more interesting than just the mouthful that was its name. Alf wasn't certain what he'd been expecting when he walked in with Dr Aldus, Damien and Rock. It certainly wasn't something that appeared to be a laboratory out of a university. There were lots of benches and strange machines along the wall. Microscopes and slides were scattered across the benches and there were lots of sinks, too. Alf hadn't thought that the study of magic would be as dirty as the study of biology, but apparently it was. Though the magic was never handled, it was still in their best interests to remain as hygienic as possible.

Mr Wiley had started to insist they call him Dexter, meaning that Alf was suddenly struck by the realisation that he was in Dexter's Lab. Dexter explained the measuring process. They'd have to press a fingertip to a contraption like something diabetics used to test their blood sugar. It would send a magical pulse through their body and some how, by timing how long it took to get through the body it would give a measurement in mus (magical units). A single mu was the measurement of how much magic a simple levitation spell depleted. As levitations weren't elemental, it was deemed an accurate measure of power. After being calculated once, they'd levitate an object then take the test again to determine the rate at which their mus would deplete.

After the three of them were tested, it was unsurprisingly Damien who had the least amount of magic left since he'd been draining it almost non-stop since he found out that it didn't really belong to him. Alf had been conserving his magic and therefore had the most left. Rock had used it at every opportunity he had when he wouldn't be seen by a non. As a result, he didn't have much more than Damien left because the more intricate nature of the magic he wove used up more power. At the rate they were going, Rock and Damien would be done within the month whereas Alf would have an indeterminate amount of time to use his power.

[[End mini-scene.]]

Story: Ending Part 8

2006-11-29T20:16:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Alf, Jessica and Damien have a little confrontation in a stair well.]]

As the three of them left the stair well, Alf noticed Alyssa Marx at the bottom, looking up at them curiously.

"Hey Alyssa," Damien greeted her as they walked past.

"Hey Damien," she said, then looked towards Alf. "Hi Alf," she greeted with a smile.

Although shocked that she'd acknowledged him, Alf managed a small "Hey" as they walked past.

"Real smooth, Struthers," Damien laughed once out of her earshot.

"Shut up, Reid," Alf retorted grimly. He hadn't made a fool of himself. Why did Damien have to tease him?

But thoughts of Alyssa Marx left his mind when he saw Rock at the corner of the school grounds.

"Rock!" he called.

The senior looked at them then looked away. He didn't move from his place, though.

"I don't think he's going to acknowledge us either," Damien stated, raising an eyebrow at Alf.

"Yeah," Alf agreed. "I think I pissed off everyone over the past couple days>"

"You didn't piss me off," Jessica inserted.

Alf rolled his eyes. "But I thought I did. You weren't being very nice to me."

"Sorry," Jessica apologised.

"Don't worry about it," Alf said as they drew closer to Rock. "Just help me out with him."

"Hey Rock!" Damien greeted the older boy cheerfully.

"Hey Reed, Jess," Rock greeted in response, not cheerful at all and purposely leaving Alf off.

"Hi," Jessica returned.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry," Alf apologised.

Rock frowned. "I don't need your pity."

"And that's what I'm apologising for," Alf stated. "I didn't understand. And you're right; I can't understand. I can't understand because I've never been ostracised like that before."

Rock looked as though he wasn't paying attention, but he hadn't walked away so Alf continued even though his audience (besides Damien and Jessica) didn't seem to be listening.

"I still want to be your friend is what I am trying to say," Alf said finally. "Can't you pity me a little and give me that?"

"We're nothing without you," Damien added. Though he'd objected to Alf being friends with Rock at first it was just jealousy. They needed Rock to even out the balance between the reckless and the cautious. In Damien's opinion, they'd never have any fun if it was just him, Alf and Jessica. It was okay when it was him and Alf, that was balanced. But Jessica was too much like Alf and it was difficult to convince two people to step out of their comfort zones without a lot of compromises. Compromises made everything a lot less fun. And if you had too many of them, it was no fun at all.

"You do make it easier to live in that house," Jessica added. She'd always been stifled in there, but with Rock she found an escape from the pressure inside the house. She didn't have to run off like Rock always had before.

"I guess I still want to be friends with you guys, too." Rock smiled and gathered the three of them into a group hug, shocking the rest of the school outside.

In fact, Ms Mathers, the teacher on duty came closer to investigate this strange occurrence. But upon seeing the smiling faces of the other three teenagers, she was forced to accept that Rock wasn't doing anything wrong, despite the suspiciousness of the situation. After all, Rock was known for being a bully. But that Jessica was his cousin, and all three of them had approached him.

And so that was all tasks completed for Alf (bar getting home and he was pretty sure that he'd manage that one okay). All in all, a good day. Alf was sure that he'd never know the bottom of the friendless pit while his three best friends were alive.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Ending Part 7

2006-11-29T13:33:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Damien and Alf are confronting Jessica in a stairwell at their school.]]

Jessica turned slowly, like a small child who'd been caught dipping their finger in the icing of a cake.

"Why aren't you talking to us, Jessica?"

"I can't tell you," she said. "You'll think it's stupid."

Damien looked at her. "Then obviously it must be, so why are you letting it get to you?" he asked.

"I don't know," Jessica shrugged.

"Just tell us what it is," Alf stated. "I want to make up my own mind about whether or not it's stupid. And to do that I need some information."

"Fine," Jessica grudgingly sat down, and they sat in the relative privacy of the stairwell.

The boys had expectant looks on their faces. "You guys are losing your magic. But that's what brought us together in the first place. I'm getting worried it's all going to go back to the way it used to be. I'll be friendless again."

The blunt honesty of her statement really threw Alf. She was feeling exactly what he was feeling.

"Then why push us away?" Damien asked.

"Literally," Alf added, making a show of rubbing the back of his head where he'd landed.

The trio laughed before Jessica answered. "I figured sooner was better than later."

"You've been listening to the council too long, Jessica," Alf stated. "They're dead boring. Do you want to be dead boring too?"

She shook her head. "But I was right, you did think it was stupid."

"You thought it was stupid yourself," Damien reminded her. "How could we not agree with logic like that?"

"No matter what," Alf said. "We're all still going to be friends. Aren't we?" And looking into his friends' eyes, Alf knew that they agreed with him.

"Can we go and eat now?" Damien asked.

Alf laughed and the trio went down to eat their lunch as they usually would, though only half of their lunch break was left.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Ending Part 6

2006-11-29T12:06:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: We now know how Rock, Alf and Damien feel about this whole no more magic situation. Things aren't looking good for Alf.]]

After his disastrous afternoon with Damien, Alf wanted to relax with a friend. Sadly he had no friends that he hadn't managed to insult or offend over the past couple of days so he had to settle for his parents. He ranted to them all night, over dinner as they tried to reassure him that everything would work out in the end. It wasn't the end of the world, they were his friends, they would forgive him. But Alf wasn't sure that they even wanted to be his friends anymore. He'd been down to the bottom of the friendless pit last year and he didn't want a repeat performance.

And suddenly they were rushing him off to bed because school began the next day. Something that Alf had completely forgotten. What was he going to do about school? He had friends, but he wasn't sure if they'd be speaking to him. Alf understood that Damien wanted to use his powers, even if he didn't really agree with that point. Alf understood that Rock was feeling neglected because he had been neglected. But Alf did not understand what was going on with Jessica at all. Her powers weren't about to disappear, so what was the deal with that?

Restlessly, Alf managed to get to sleep late at night.

The next day, Alf decided to pretend was a normal school day. He walked to school. He (hoped) to meet Damien next to the fence. And he'd go to class like normal, and eat lunch with Jessica. He would see Rock randomly and try to start a random conversation. And then he would go home. And it would all be better.

The first part of Alf's plan went over all right. He walked to school. He didn't die on the way there. The second part worked out okay, too. Damien was waiting for him. He acknowledged him even.

"G'day Alf," he greeted. He didn't smile, but that was okay. Alf hadn't apologised yet. Because Damien hadn't done anything wrong, it wasn't his fault that they'd had an argument.

"I'm sorry about yesterday," Alf apologised. "I shouldn't have said anything. You should be able to do what you like with your magic. It is yours for the moment."

Damien smiled. "I'd already forgiven you. It's not your fault you don't understand."

"Thanks," Alf said, and the two of them were back to talking about random things as they always had.

Phase three of the plan: go to class as normal, went well as well. There was the usual first day of school assembly, and arrangement into classes. There was a lot of administration to be undertaken on the first day as always.

The fourth stage of the plan was to eat lunch with Jessica. This proved to be a little harder than Alf had first thought. She wasn't sitting in their usual place by the fence. But he had Damien for back up now. The two of them could find her together.

They found Jessica in the library. She was sitting at one of the tables in a back corner, obviously trying not be seen by anyone. The people she was trying not to be seen by turned out to be Alf and Damien. As soon as she saw them coming she'd packed her bag and started heading around the bookshelves nearby. Damien and Alf split up and attempted to corner her. They didn't manage this until she reached the stairwell outside the library. Alf had already gone down and Damien was following her.

"Why are you running away from us?" Alf asked.

"I wasn't running," Jessica stated, as she attempted to manoeuvre around them. It was going to be difficult if she didn't want to fall and break her neck.

"Maybe you weren't running," Damien said. "But you were definitely trying to avoid us."

"No I wasn't," Jessica stated.

"Okay," Alf stated. "So where are you going then?"

"Bathroom," she stated.

Damien raised an eyebrow. "Then why didn't you use the one upstairs in the library?"

"Because it was taken."

"You didn't even go past it to check."

"It's always taken," Jessica stated. "What is this an interrogation?"

Damien and Alf exchanged a glance. "Yes."

Jessica made a noise of frustration and attempted to push past Alf. Alf went flying and Jessica turned white with fear and guilt.

"I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, before rushing down to help Alf up.

"I'm fine," Alf said, sitting up, rubbing the back of his head. It was strange to suffer an injury and have enough presence of mind to know that it was actually being healed by magic as you sat there.

"Not bad," Damien commented. "9 out of 10."

"Real witty there, Damo," Alf commented in return. "Real witty." He watched as Jessica tried to sneak away. "Stop!"

[[Um, there's a day missing here somewhere. Oops. And I'm going to eat now. Bye.]]

Story: Ending Part 5

2006-11-29T10:37:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Alf has a D&M with himself. Realising that he's a different person.]]

The next day, the day before school started and a Thursday, Alf headed for Damien's house after breakfast. His spontaneous visit was temporarily put on hold when he found no one home. Not sure if he wanted to face Jessica or Rock yet, Alf returned home.

In the afternoon, Alf rang Damien's house this time, not wanting to run into the same problem he had earlier in the morning. Damien picked up and consented to meeting with Alf. They arranged to meet up at the corner where they used to meet before everything started.

When Alf arrived at the corner, Damien wasn't there yet. He sat on his usual step as he waited, wondering when the last time he'd been here was.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Damien voiced over Alf's shoulder, obviously thinking what Alf had been.

"I know what you mean," Alf agreed.

"Hey," Damien greeted him with a smile.

That smile was a relief to Alf. Although he'd suspected that things between him and Damien were okay since he'd agreed to meet with him, he hadn't been certain until he saw Damien then. "Hey," Alf responded.

"What did you want to do?" Damien asked as they began walking. Walking with no destination in mind.

"Let's just walk," Alf said. They used to do that. Usually they'd head over to the park and Damien would try to coax Alf into chucking a footy around. Or they'd attempt to go fishing in the stream. But all they had were lines with fake flies attached, no hooks. So they never caught anything. Often they'd just sit there and talk. They'd talk so much that Damien would feel like they were being too much like girls and so would tackle his friend. But other times, they'd just walk.

Damien nodded in response. "Something normal," he stated.

As they walked, Alf sometimes felt as small spray of water hitting him. Though it cooled him a little under the afternoon heat of an Australian summer sun, he wondered where it was coming from. Eventually he noticed that it seemed to be coming from Damien's fingers.

"Damien," Alf said, stopping his friend from walking any further. "What are you doing?" he asked accusingly.

"What do you mean?" Damien asked, hiding his hands behind his back. But since Alf knew what he was looking for, he could see the cool tell tale spray of liquid spurting from behind Damien's back.

"Are you using your magic in public?" Alf asked sternly.

Damien's expression quickly turned into a scowl. "So what if I am?"

Alf frowned. "What do you mean 'so what if I am'? You don't know who's watching. So stop it."

"No one would notice if you hadn't called attention to it," Damien shot.

"Why are you even doing it?" Alf asked. "It's not that hot."

Damien gave him a look.

"Okay, so maybe it is that hot. But it's bearable. And if you're really that hot we could have hung out at the gelato place instead."

"I'm doing it because I want to use my magic," Damien stated. "It's got nothing to do with the weather."

"You want to use it?" Alf was confused. "What happened to being the guy who would never use his magic ever again?"

"Are you that dense?" Damien asked his friend. "If I use up all the magic then it's gone forever. Then I can go back to being a normal guy again."

"Oh," Alf finally comprehended. He'd known that Damien didn't want to use his magic. But he hadn't realised that that's what he'd do to get rid of it. He hadn't really understood until now. Hadn't really understood how desperately he'd longed to be rid of it. Hadn't understood how differently the two of them thought.

"I don't understand why you're not doing it too," Damien said to his friend. "Don't you want to go back to the way it's always been?"

Alf shrugged. "Not really. I have more friends now."

"I forgot," Damien deadpanned. "You're not the one lying to his parents every time he goes out."

"I'm sorry you can't tell your parents, Damien. But you can't blame that on me. It's not my fault."

"No," Damien agreed. "But you could be a little more understanding."

"I guess," Alf said. "I don't understand why you don't like magic, even with that taken into account. And what if there does come that time when you want to save someone's life and you can't because you used up all your magic."

Damien frowned. "That won't be my problem. Because I'll know that there wasn't anything I could do to help them anyway."

Alf gaped as Damien stormed off. Why was his entire life falling to pieces around him?

[[End scene.]]

Story: Ending Part 4

2006-11-29T10:07:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: After everything falls apart, Alf has a D&M with Rock.]]

After speaking with Rock, Alf could only go home and deal with what had been dealt him. It was strange, how such a short amount of time having something could suddenly become such a big part of yourself. Having magic had become part of his identity.

Who was Alf Struthers before he'd become a magic user? How could he go back to being that person? And he would have to. The council had ruled that he, Damien and Rock were to be treated as though they were nons, even now while they still had magic. Supposedly it would be better in the long run, for them not to get too used to it. But Alf already had. He'd forgotten who he was.

He hadn't listened to any of his favourite rock groups since he'd found out. The Go-Betweens, The Rolling Stones, The Killers, The Church, INXS, Deep Purple, Queen... He hadn't heard a single word of them since before that fateful day when he'd left Rock stranded in a parking lot. And though it had all worked out, nothing could get him to forgive himself about that. And because of it, he'd always want to be there for Rock. But right now he couldn't. Alf berated himself. How had he managed to screw that up? The old Alf would never have done that, would he? He didn't know.

He hadn't watched a single cricket match or tennis game since he'd found out. The Ashes were on, and Alf hadn't caught a single minute. He wouldn't be able to tell you who had won. The single most important series of test matches in the Australian/English cricket calendar. The one event that you couldn't be caught dead missing if you were a cricket fan, even if you hated the Australian team at the time. The most important matches of the year, and Alf would not be able to tell you whether the convicts or the poms had won. Even if he could tell you everyone who'd ever won in the years before that. Even if he could tell you the final scores, wickets taken and runs scored by each player on both teams from each of the ten Ashes series before that.

He hadn't eaten anything strange like tacos with no filling, or asked to have cheese melted on the top of his pide from the local kebab shop. He'd eaten whatever was on his plate without pouring extra (unneeded) sauce on top of it. He'd never asked for things removed or added to his Big Mac at McDonald's. And no one had commented on it. People liked the new Alf Struthers better.

On the other hand, he could now tell you the botanical and common names of every plant in his family's garden, as well as at school. He hadn't quite gotten around to naming every single one at the Aldus house, though. Simply because they had such a wide variety.

Alf could now list the forty-eight shades of brown from Nick Earls' book since he could now name that many different brown birds.

Alf hadn't realised how different he'd become, how his habits had changed, just because he'd found out that he could use magic. He wasn't as shy as he used to be. He wasn't as keen on following the rules. He had hardly paid attention to his school work in the past few weeks of year nine.

Alf was a different person. And he was pretty sure that he couldn't go back to being the old Alf Struthers even if he tried. And he was pretty sure that he didn't want to go back to being the old Alf Struthers.

[[End 'scene']]

Story: Ending Part 3

2006-11-29T08:28:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: So, we have a council meeting and it finishes.]]

As soon as the meeting was over, Damien left the room as quickly as possible, zooming away on a gust of wind. Alf left slowly, and met Jessica outside who was wondering why Damien had left so quickly. They waited outside the room for Rock who was taking his time, looking utterly depressed. Alf and Jessica each grabbed one of his arms and they headed to the conservatory to have a talk. Jessica hadn't been deemed important enough to attend the meeting so she needed a lot of filling in. Since Rock was in absolutely no mood to talk, it left Alf to explain the entire thing to Jessica.

"Basically," Alf began his summary of events. "The magi-scientists studied our magic and discovered that it was all the same."

"But that's impossible," Jessica breathed, incredulous. "Surely that was a mistake?"

"No," Alf stated. "It's actually because our magic isn't normal. It's a mixture of all the extra magic that's come out of your family since they've been living here. And since it ran out of things to do, it went looking for people to help. People being me, Rock, and Damien. So basically we've only got borrowed magic. It's not going to last forever like yours will. It will eventually run out; even faster if we use it."

"Oh," Jessica frowned. "So the three of you will be back to normal one day?"

"Yes," Alf confirmed. "Back they way we were before this all started. Worse off, I think. Because the magic's been healing us the entire time we've been alive, pretty much."

"Oh," Jessica looked at the ground, trailing her fingers along the stone bench she was sitting on. She then stood, not making eye contact with Alf. "I've got -ah- things to take care of," she said, before running away.

Alf stared after her, wondering what could possibly be so important. He looked at Rock. "So," he said. "What's the matter with you?"

Rock just laughed. It was a mocking, hysterical sort of laugh. The sort of laugh that had that empty ridiculing sound of hyenas, not the cheerfulness of kookaburras. "What do you think?" he finally spat, a look of contempt on his face. Though Alf wasn't entirely certain that it was aimed at him.

Alf looked at him blankly and shrugged.

"Of course," Rock nodded to himself. "You don't think."

And for some reason, that little insult cut Alf deeper than any Rock had ever thrown at him before. Even deeper than any he'd said when they weren't friends. And maybe it was because they were friends now. It's easy to ignore someone who doesn't matter. They can't hurt you if they don't know you. Rock was blocking him out. Jessica too, if he thought about it. Maybe even Damien, with the speed he'd left the ballroom. He didn't want them to shut him out. Weren't they all friends in the end?

"You don't know what it's like," Rock started. "To be an outcast within your own family. And to be worse than an outcast, really. Because everyone looks at you with pity. It might have been better if people had just ignored me. And then I had it. Magic. The one thing that would make me the same as them. And then they call us all in there and tell us that it's going to go away. It's only temporary, borrowed. It sucks, Alf, you know? It sucks big time." He let out a half-hearted chuckle in response, as though not believing his own awful luck. The irony of the situation. The way the fates played with them.

And Alf didn't know what to say in response. How could he reassure Rock that everything would all be okay, that losing your magic wasn't the end of the world? Surely his family loved him. Would continue to love him? But Rock had felt so unloved before, and surely it was the same thing. How could he tell Rock that no magic wasn't the end of the world, when he wasn't sure that even he believed that himself?

But he wouldn't pity him. That was the one thing that Rock hadn't wanted. He wouldn't. So it disturbed Alf when the only thing that could come out of his mouth after that was "I'm sorry."

And the disbelieving look on Rock's face was all it took to shatter Alf completely. Why had it all gone so badly? How had it all gone so badly.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Ending Part 2

2006-11-28T23:43:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: What? The boys' magical powers are going to go away? No way!]]

The brightening of the lights in the room seemed to draw the audience out of their shocked, contemplative, numbed state. They began exchanging looks with each other, and whispering before too long a large number of people had started heated debates with one another. As though removed from the world, a number of people sat there in contemplative silence. The two magi-scientists seemed a little bit shocked at the outbreak their simple scientific findings had produced. They hadn't even gone into half of it. Just the bits that were relevant to this case.

Before pandemonium grew too far out of control, Mr Aldus calmly stood and raised his hands. Instantly the room was quiet, and every face was staring at the patriarch of the family. The man who was directly descended from the first recorded magic user.

"I have a question," he stated grandly, commanding respect that Alf had forgotten people gave to him without question.

"Of course Mr Aldus," Mr Wiley obliged. "What is it?"

"Why has this only happened now?" he asked, then took his seat in expectation of the answer.

"Well, we have a number of different theories about this," Mr Wiley stated.

Mr Aldus' face showed that he had no patience for 'a number of different theories'.

"Our most likely one is that this is how long it's taken for the family to use amass enough magic to exceed your grounds' capacity for taking it. The fact that you take care of the grounds and the people within it means that the magic in the ground cannot do this. As I mentioned, magic is a fickle creature who comes and goes as it pleases meaning that it doesn't want to stay in the ground. It wants to heal. And if it can't heal because you are all doing it for it, it goes to find a different vessel. And of course, it then starts building up within the boys until it's run out of things to heal within them and can then be used like we use magic."

"We did want to ask," Mary-Ann Aldus stated, looking toward Alf's parents. "Was Alf ill at all as a child? Was he sickly as a baby?"

"Actually, yes," Mrs Struthers stated. "He managed to get pneumonia as a baby. The doctors never thought he'd survive. But he did and he's never been sick since."

"Same with Rock," Aliana stated, looking over at her son who was looking rather depressed. "At two he fell off the third storey balcony... not entirely accidentally since we were trying to test if he did have magic even though everyone said he didn't. He broke nearly every bone in his body that day. But nothing since. In fact, he recovered from that far faster than should have even been magically possible, we thought." Alf was reminded of Harry Potter and wondered if J.K. Rowling was in fact magical, or had a magical friend.

"Fascinating," Mr Wiley clasped his hands together in glee, as though all his dreams were coming true at once.

"How long will the magic last?" Rock asked, looking down at his hands as though seeing them for the first time.

"We're not certain about that," Mary-Ann stated. "We suspect about a year or two depending on how often you use it. We'd need to test you more to see how much you'd built up before we could give you a more accurate estimate."

"Is anyone else likely to develop powers like them?" Adelina Granada asked, ever the thinking council leader. Always wondering about the political ramifications of any situation.

"If the Aldus family ceases to release their magic into the ground, it is highly likely that no one else should come into magic. But the magic may already have built up into some people to that point. And we should all take care not to use magic around the nons. Simply because that magic may also be absorbed by them and taken in, causing the phenomenon to take hold."

"Then we'd better make a council decree that the Aldus family is no longer to release their excess magic into the grounds. In fact," Councillor Granada continued. "We're going to need a number of decrees to cover all the families, as well as take note of where magic is released."

And suddenly the scientific talk turned into a council meeting. Naturally Alf was bored out of his mind within seconds. It was as though his brain didn't want to process what he was hearing. He didn't want to lose his magic. In the short time that he'd had it, it had become a part of his identity. But he refused to think about it and instead counted the tiles on the ceiling of the ballroom and wondered why tiles had been placed there in the first place.

[[I guess it's end scene. Next time, we need all the teens' reactions to the news.]]

Story: Ending Part 1

2006-11-28T21:16:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Damien doesn't want to use magic and admits that it's because it means he has to lie to his parents. Alf persuades him to still learn about magic even if he's not going to use it.]]

A few weeks passed without any cause for alarm. The teenagers learnt and studied. They were on summer holidays, now. Rock was (not) looking forward to his final year of high school and the dreaded HSC. Alf and Damien were looking forward to the School Certificate, and Jessica was looking forward to seniordom at East Hills High School.

Jessica received her school certificate results band sixes and As in all of her subjects, the best scores you could achieve almost. Her parents were proud, but not overly happy, since they were all about magic. After all, Jessica only needed to pass, how much time had she spent on her non-magical studies that could have been spent on studies of the magical variety?

But it was January, so the teenagers had no worries, other than how to stave off the boredom. Alf began working part-time at a nursery, nursing his green thumb while covertly ensuring that their plants were always healthy and vibrant. Damien and the others weren't allowed to take on part-time work, so Rock often took them on road trips out to the Blue Mountains or they'd sleepover in the city. The long line of Alduses had managed to amass a large amount of money over the centuries they'd been alive, meaning that money was pretty much no object for the two Aldus teens, who had no qualms about sharing their money with the two younger boys.

So when Mr Wiley and Mary-Ann Aldus called together the entire magical council, the Aldus family, Alf and his parents, and Damien it was a bit difficult to track down a time when they could all meet. As a result they met on Australia Day, a couple of days before school started again for the teens, and a public holiday. They gathered in a room in the Aldus house that seemed to be intended to be some sort of ballroom or something but had been converted to contain a large meeting table surrounded by chairs.

Mr Wiley and Ms Aldus stood on the window side of the room and began the meeting.

"As you all know," Mr Wiley began. "The purpose of this meeting is for us to explain the results of the tests we ran on Rock Aldus, Alfonso Struthers and Damien Reid. I hope you find our presentation informative. If you could please wait to ask questions at the end, there will be time to answer all of them."

Ms Aldus continued. "Our initial information collection involved an interview and magical sample taken from each subject." She waved her hand and an image projected in the middle of the table. Three pictures were shown of the three boys, followed by their magic samples. "Those of you who are familiar with magic samples will notice right away that there is something strange about each boy's sample.

"If we first examine Rock's sample." Rock's sample was highlighted and enlarged. "You'll notice that it's a dreadfully ugly shade of green indicative of someone who has an affinity for the earth element. But earth elemental magic usually takes the form of sand or dirt when released. You can see that Rock's magic more takes on the shape of fire if tipped from the crystal that contains it." The crystal tipped and poured out Rock's magic to indicate this.

The projection then returned to the three boys before Alf's magic sample was highlighted and enlarged in the same way Rock's had been. "As you can see, Alf's magic is the same dreadfully ugly shade of green as Rock's sample. As I said earlier, this means an affinity for earth magic. Alf's magic, instead of pouring like sand instead pours like water. Something one would associate with fire elemental magic." Again the image of the crystal tipped to demonstrate this.

"And finally we have Damien's sample." His sample was selected as the two boys before them. "Once again it's that same dreadfully ugly shade of green I've decided to call 'dreadfully ugly'. So we deduce that Damien is once again earth elemental. You'll notice that it doesn't pour, but instead appears in the crystal, then out of the crystal. This trait is characterised by the time element.

"But what does this all mean? Neither of us were certain, especially when the next facts are brought to light. Alf has an affinity for growing plants, control over the earth element as was predicted. But his magic moved like water, and Alf has not shown a great degree of ability to control this element. However Rock showcases an affinity for the fire element rather than the earth element. He can easily call it forth and command it to do his will. Damien on the other hand is more skilled with his control of air. You'll note that Rock's fire ability is echoed in his magic's physical form. But Damien's does not manifest itself physically in his magic at all.

"But these can be attributed to the immature growth of their magical power. Young witches often have difficulty controlling their spiritual element, so one is often not dominant over the others and if diagnosed too early, the spiritual element is often mistaken. The more pressing matter is that the physical embodiment of their magic is altogether different from that of your average born witch."

Mr Wiley began speaking. "The magic of the average user manifests itself cohesively into its core element, or the spiritual element as we call it. Although there is a degree of control over all elements, a magic user's magic will always manifest itself in this way. Earth magic is green and flows like sand through an hourglass, as Mary-Ann mentioned. Fire magic is red and seems to burn. Water magic is blue in colour and flows rather like water. Air magic is white and blows rather than flows. And time magic is black in colour and seems to teleport itself rather than go from one place to another as previously mentioned.

"But the boys' magic has colour and way of movement incongruous with each other. This intrigued us, but we had no explanations so continued to study the samples as though they were normal samples. We thought perhaps that we were dealing with an evolved form of magic. One where the dominant spiritual element - taken to be the colour - also had a lesser spiritual counterpart - evidenced by the motion - that was also strong in the person. We imagined this to be a breed of more powerful magic users.

"This was especially backed up by the evidence of magical incontinence shown by the boys." Realising that Alf's parents were looking at him a little strangely. "Magic users who are more powerful typically experience magical incontinence, where their magic leaks out of them. This tends to happen with teenagers as they mature through puberty, so does their magic and it often grows at a different rate to their ability to control it.

"These leaks can take the form of subconscious magic use. For example, having something suddenly appear near you that you remember thinking you wanted, or finding yourself some place you were thinking about. Other times the raw magic itself, as you saw earlier, can leak, especially if forced out as occurs in the case of a magical sample being taken. Both Alf and Rock required that temporary binding spells be placed upon their magic to allow it to resettle inside themselves after the sample was taken. Damien's magic only required a quick blocking spell to settle. The non-magical equivalents would be a band-aid for Damien's blocking spell, and something like a full body cast for Rock and Alf."

"We thought of explanations for everything," Mary-Ann continued. "Until we checked the magical signatures of the magic. When we take a magical sample, we usually take it to determine the user's spiritual element, and also to determine their magical signature. The magical signature is like a unique magical thumb print that distinguishes each magic user's magic from the other. It is like magical DNA, determining the strength and type of magic. We keep records of magical DNA to aid in settling disputes between magical parties. I won't get into how that works right now, though.

"So to add to our database, we used our usual means of determining magical signatures when we found something quite strange. The magic from all three of the boys had the exact same magical signature. This is impossible. Even in the cases of identical twins where their genetic information is the same, this has never been the case. We curiously compared the points to the familial signatures of the fifteen known magical families. While magical signatures are unique, they share many points in common with anyone from the same family.

"Obviously we began with the Aldus family, as Rock is a member. All points matched. To verify that this wasn't just an anomaly, we compared it to my own magical signature, and Dexter's as well. It was of course quite different from Dexter's as he is from the Fulke family, but there were points in common with each of the family signatures, while there were no points in common with individual signatures. It seemed as though the magic was a generalisation of magical signatures.

"We began looking for signs of this magical signature throughout the town. Of course we found it where the boys were known to have used magic. It was also especially found throughout the Aldus house. But it the Aldus house and grounds, carried so much of the signature that it would be impossible for the boys to have done it. A time spell also confirmed that much of the magic had been there for a time longer than the boys had been alive.

"We had a theory that the generalised magical signature was formed when magic from several people was mixed together. Our experiments in the laboratory proved successful as we were able to create a similar generalised magical signature from our many volunteers in the laboratory. But where could this magic have come from in the first place?"

"That was the next question we sought to answer," Mr Wiley continued. "This led us to observing the habits of the Aldus family, and we noticed in particular, something when Eric Aldus fell ill. It was a typical magical illness. Stress causing exhaustion causing the need for magic to heal itself causing an excess of magic which was then grounded in the family grounds. Tracing Eric's magical signature, we were able to watch as it joined the rest of the magic in the grounds. Mary-Ann added a little of her own magic to the mix and we noticed that the magic left the grounds, heading towards the nearest non-magical person. An eight-year-old girl.

"It is our belief that the magic over the many years of magical illness have caused magic to morph into a general shape unlike that ever seen. So much magic could not be contained by the grounds, and since the family took such good care of the surroundings, there was not much for it to do. Magic does not like to remain stagnant. Therefore it goes looking for places where it can heal. We believe that since all three boys live close to the Aldus household, the magic took root in them, building up over time to the point where it has filled them so completely that they are now able to use it like normal magical users.

"Because of this, we believe that the magic will dissipate from the boys over time, and through magical usage. We would also like to study the boys a bit more to ensure that our hypothesis is correct."

"Now we have time for questions," Mary-Ann said, as the room brightened. "So does anyone have any questions?"

[[Not quite end scene, but a good place to stop.]]

>>Questions about hybrid, borrowed magic (explanations about the incontinence and the shape of the magic), how long it should last, possible political ramifications, solutions, who will be affected...

Story: Middle Part 40

2006-11-28T16:27:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Alf, Jessica and Rock discuss their Saturday on a balcony before Alf leaves.]]

After lunch, Alf decided to head for Damien's house again to try to talk some sense into his best friend. He knocked on the door, and it was once again answered by Damien's father.

"He's upstairs," Mr Reid said, before walking away from the door, back to whatever he was doing. Alf heard him mutter under his breath about giving Alf a spare key so he wouldn't be interrupted. Mr Reid really was grumpy a lot of the time.

Sneaking upstairs like the last time he confronted Damien about magic, Alf discovered that he had none of the same reservations. He knew that he had to talk to Damien, and this time it would just be like apologising after one of any number of fights they'd had before.

"Damien," Alf calls as he knocks on his friend's door before walking it. Damien's seated at his desk, maths textbook open in front of him, pen in hand. He doesn't acknowledge Alf and Alf is reminded of the day that Rock told them about his magical abilities.

"Go away," Damien said quietly, scrawling something onto his page. It's not a number, and is definitely not the right answer. Alf knows that this means that he's distracted Damien sufficiently so proceeds.

"You know, just because you didn't use magic properly before doesn't mean you will in the future. You're taking lessons. You're going to learn how to use it the same as everyone else."

"But should everyone else be using magic?" Damien interjected.

Alf had definitely not expected that as a response. He hadn't thought about it. Everyone thought that since they were given these extra abilities, that they should use them, that they should use them to help people. But who were they to decide what helping people meant? Who were they decide how to help people, when people didn't know they were being helped, and maybe didn't even want to be helped?

"I don't know," Alf said. "But if it doesn't hurt anyone, then what's the harm? If it's only for our own entertainment who's getting hurt?"

"If it's only for our own entertainment, then why not do something else?"

"I don't know, Damien. But don't you feel complete when you use magic? Doesn't it make you feel better than anything else. And it's not completely awful, right? We've got more friends. Rock isn't such a bastard anymore. Jessica speaks so that other people can understand her."

"But maybe Jessica and Rock wouldn't have been like that if there was no magic in their family."

"And maybe it would have been a lot worse," Alf countered. "You're young. You're not completely thoughtless. Maybe you don't have to use your magic. But shouldn't you at least give yourself the option. I mean, you might save someone's life. You don't want to be faced with someone about to get hit by a car and know that you can do nothing because you're too far away and the car's coming too fast. You don't want to be there the day you don't have magic and think, if only I hadn't given that up."

"You're right," Damien stated. "I won't get my magic bound. But it doesn't mean I'm going to use it, either."

"Well, I'm not saying that you should use it," Alf said. "But I think you should still learn more about it. I mean, how do you know you'll be able to save that person if you don't know how to use your abilities."

"Fine," Damien agreed reluctantly. "I'll learn about magic. But I'm still never going to use it ever again." He paused. "Except in emergencies," he added.

Alf nodded. "Though I don't quite understand why you don't want to use it? Since when do fifteen-year-olds care about the moral consequences of their actions?"

"Since they've been reprimanded severely by the magical council," Damien answers.

Alf gave him a look. That's what Damien said, but he wasn't sure he believed him.

"I hate lying to my parents," Damien said.

Alf looked at his friend incredulously. "Then just tell them."

"I can't tell them," Damien said. "They haven't been cleared by the council. Even though they're thinking about coming out to the world, they still won't let me tell my parents. Until their decree is passed, they're not going to let me tell them... and that's only if it's passed."

"Oh," Alf was sympathetic, though he had no real idea how that would feel. He'd just been able to tell his parents because no one told him not to. "That sucks."

"Yeah," Damien agrees. "And that's why I hate magic."

[[End scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 39

2006-11-28T13:01:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Jessica and Alf have been sent upstairs to talk to Rock who should be awake after sleeping since his interview with the magi-scientists.]]

Jessica walked into her cousin's room first, followed carefully by Alf. This was the first time he'd been in Rock's bedroom. The older teen was lying in his large four-poster bed that seemed to have been placed there centuries ago by a different person. But since the house wasn't that old, it probably hadn't been placed there so long ago. His bedsheets were dark blue and a small beam of sunlight illuminated a strip of the bed.

Coming up beside the bed, Jessica looked at her cousin and observed his breathing. "I know you're awake, Rock," she stated, then shook his shoulder.

He rolled over, but did not otherwise stir.

"Come on," Jessica complained. "We're not bringing you breakfast in bed. And not just because it's actually lunch time."

Rock made a strange indecipherable noise as he buried himself further into his sheets.

Suddenly Alf noticed something that made him giggle. It was a small stuffed rabbit, sitting on a shelf across from Rock's bed. It was obviously well loved and the mere thought of someone so harsh as Rock carrying any variety of stuffed toy with him made him laugh. Before long, despite the fact that Jessica had no idea what he was laughing about, she soon joined it.

All of a sudden, as though not wanting to be left out, Rock sat up in bed with a slight laugh. "What are you laughing about, Sprout?" he asked.

It was difficult for Alf to get his chuckles under control for even the few seconds required to answer that statement, so he merely pointed. Seeing this, Jessica stopped laughing and Rock launched himself at the smaller teen. He was stopped by an invisible barrier that Alf had subconsciously conjured. He was furious, and this was enough to stop Alf's laughter.

"I'm sorry," Alf apologised. "I just found it dreadfully amusing."

That didn't work much in the way of an apology and Rock seemed prepared to launch himself at Harry again but Jessica spoke, "Well, at least that got you up."

And at once Rock forgot that he'd been trying to kill Alf, and that he'd previously been trying to lounge in his bed for the rest of the day.

"And now that you're up, you can tell us all about what happened yesterday."

"Fine," Rock stated, pleased that the attention was now focused on him and not on anyone else. "But let's go somewhere else."

Alf nodded his agreement and Jessica led the way out of Rock's room. They walked down the corridor, then headed back toward the back of the house. The corridor ended in a set of sliding doors that opened out onto a balcony and that's where Jessica led them. They conjured a rug and the three of them sat there, leaning against the railing, watching to see if people were coming towards them.

"So how was the interview?" Jessica asked Rock.

Despite the fact that he enjoyed having the attention on himself, Rock thought it would be better to turn it over to Alf first. "Shouldn't the Sprout go first, since he had his interview first." The way he said it made him sound like he was a little put out that his wasn't the first house visited.

He then sat back and summoned a bag of chocolate from somewhere.

"I see," Alf said. "You just wanted to eat."

Rock grinned, but made no move to contradict the smaller teen.

"Go on then, Alf," Jessica stated. She'd be sitting on the edge of her seat if she had one.

"Basically they came in and started asking me questions. Asking me about how I realised I'd come into my power. What I could do. Then they asked me to demonstrate. Nothing much really, except that when they wanted to take a magic sample I managed to get it out, but then it wouldn't stop. So Mr Wiley put a binding spell on me and I slept until this morning."

"A binding spell?" Jessica was shocked. "Do you know how dangerous those are?"

Alf shrugged. "I didn't know he was doing it until he did it. And the way he said it, it seemed like the only thing that would stop it all from just leaking out."

"He did that to me, too," Rock added.

"That's really odd, you know," Jessica said. "That your magic just came out. That's not normal. When dad did a magic test on mine because we couldn't work out what my element was I could stop it pretty easily."

"Well, you'd had your magic for longer, surely," Alf suggested. "So it would have been easier for you to control it."

"I don't know," Jessica said. "But the binding spell's off, now, right?"

Alf nodded. "Yeah I used some magic this morning when I was chasing Damien."

"You were chasing Reed?" Rock asked.

"Yeah," Alf nodded. "You know how he came back pretty out of it on Friday. Then he left before you guys had even woken up. He says he doesn't want to ever use magic ever again."

"What a loser," Rock commented. "I wouldn't give this up for the world," he said as he made a fist and caused flames to burst out between his knuckles.

"Yeah, we agree with you. Meaning we're going to have to get him to start using it soon," Jessica stated. "Before he goes asking someone to put a permanent binding spell on him."

"He wouldn't," Alf breathed. Somehow, Jessica managed to make a binding spell seem like the scariest thing in the universe.

Jessica shrugged. "He's going to start using magic subconsciously. If he really wants to stop that he's going to want to make someone stop it permanently."

"He can do magic subconsciously?" Rock asked. "But can't only the most powerful witches do that?"

Jessica nodded.

"No way. You cannot be that powerful and want to get rid of it. That's just not allowed," Rock protested.

"He didn't grow up like we did," Jessica stated.

"I didn't either," Alf interjected. And neither Aldus had a response for that. "Anyway," Alf changed the subject. "What was your interview like?" Alf asked Rock.

Rock grinned, and stretched, obviously settling in for a long round of story telling. "Pretty much exactly the same as yours." Alf and Jessica refrained from hitting him upside the head in tandem.

"What colour's your magic?" Jessica asked.

"This gross mucus green," Alf stated with a grimace.

"Hey," Rock frowned. "Mine's that colour too. Like, sort of yellowy green."

"That means your element's earth, both of you," Jessica informed them.

"Then why do I have such an affinity for fire?" Rock asked, illuminating his face with said element.

Jessica shrugged. "Because you're a troublemaker?" she suggested.

"I resent that," Rock stated, flicking a fireball at her.

Jessica doused it before it came anywhere near her and she fixed him with a glare.

"Oh come on," Alf said. "You know it's true, Rock."

He flicked one at Alf, too, who blew it back with a little gust of wind, singeing Rock's hair slightly as he wasn't paying enough attention to stop the attack.

"You're going down, Sprout."

"Yup," Alf agreed. "Nice seeing you Jessica, but it looks like I'm going to have to cut this visit short."

He stepped off the balcony before Rock could get him with anything worse than a little fireball.

[[End scene... finally.]]

Story: Middle Part 38

2006-11-28T08:27:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Jessica and Alf are talking to Mr Aldus about what has been going on with Damien.]]

"A binding spell," Jessica seemed horrified by the mere thought of it. "That's awful."

"It is indeed," Mr Aldus stated.

"I'll bet it was Bela Kun," Jessica stated with undisguised malice. "That pig's always trying to stop people having any fun with magic."

"Now now, Jessica. It's inappropriate to insult a person's character because of their own beliefs," Mr Aldus reprimanded.

"Sorry dad," Jessica apologised, though the other two could both tell that she was not actually sorry and did sincerely believe that Bela Kun was a pig.

"Now," Mr Aldus stated, rubbing his hands together like a man with a plan. "You two run along. We'll be having guests round in a minute. Go play with Rock. He should be awake by now."

"We don't play," Jessica grumbled, as she headed up the stairs, Alf following her. They knew when they'd been dismissed.

"I wonder who the guests are," Alf voiced.

Jessica shrugged. "Probably just some of dad's friends. He never wants me around when they come by."

It seemed a little suspicious to Alf, but since Jessica wasn't worried, he'd be better off thinking about their next task: talking to Rock.

[[End Scene, I guess.]]

Story: Middle Part 37

2006-11-28T08:06:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Alf just asked Damien why he's depressed. Damo doesn't want to tell him.]]

Jessica was waiting for Alf to just inside the door and knew from the look on her face that she knew it hadn't gone well with Damien.

"He says he never wants to use magic again," Alf stated.

"Oh," Jessica frowned. "Then why was he up a tree with a rain cloud overhead?"

Alf shrugged. "I think maybe he didn't realise he was doing it."

"Didn't realise he was doing it?" Jessica repeated.

Alf had to hold himself back from snapping "That's what I just said, isn't it?".

"Then he's more powerful than we thought," Jessica commented. "The more you have, the more likely you are to use it without thinking," she explained.

"Even though even having it is a new thing?" Alf asked.

"Well, we can't be certain, since you three are the only known cases of it, but I guess so. Unless Damien was lying."

"But that wouldn't make sense."

"Exactly," Jessica agreed. She seemed to take a great deal of pleasure in always being at least one step ahead of Alf's thought processes.

They sat down at the bottom of one of the Aldus staircases as they continued to talk.

"We still don't know what happened to make Damien not want to use magic," Alf reminded.

"I guess someone must have said something at the council meeting," Jessica said. "After all, he wasn't depressed when he left for it."

"Exactly right my dear," Mr Aldus stated, coming out from behind a pot plant. The pair on the stairs exchanged a glance, wondering how long he'd been sitting there watching them.

"You weren't eavesdropping on us, were you daddy?" Jessica asked in veiled accusation.

"Of course not sweetie," Mr Aldus replied. Though it would have been unlikely for him to say yes. "You know better than to have private conversations in public thoroughfares anyway."

"It's not exactly a public thoroughfare," Jessica pointed out.

"And it's not exactly a private conversation," Alf added.

"A private conversation," Mr Aldus defined. "Is one that you would not wish to share with anyone who may have an interest. You were having a private conversation."

Alf had nothing to say in response to that and felt properly chastised.

"So what did they say at the meeting?" Jessica asked.

"Certain council members may have implied that Damien was not responsible enough to use magic," Mr Aldus answered, disguising the guild as though actually worried about what his daughter and her friend might do to them. A couple of teenagers against some very powerful members of magical society - powerful in more ways than one. "They might also have suggested a binding spell."

Alf had forgotten that one had been placed upon him the day before. Thankfully, he did recall that he'd used magic earlier, so was not worried that it was still in effect. He also realised that he was no longer dripping pus green magic again thankfully.

[[End stuff written last night in bed.]]

Story: Middle Part 36

2006-11-27T22:46:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Alf just had an interview with some magic people. He's feeling rather tired afterwards.]]

Alf slept the rest of the day, only waking at dinner time because his parents felt that him missing two meals in a row was not a good idea. They put it down to him simply not getting enough sleep the night before, but Alf knew it was because of that magic sample. The idea worried him. He'd never felt anything like it before. He'd never realised that using magic could make you feel tired. He'd have to ask Aliana about that later. He'd have to ask her a lot of things, actually.

When Alf awoke the next morning, he was feeling much better about himself, and life. So much better that he remembered that he didn't have to ask Aliana, and could in fact ask his orb oracle about time magic and the tiredness he'd felt. It told him that tiredness was normal, but with exercise of his magical abilities he should be able to last longer before getting tired. Time magic was something fairly advanced and not taught until later because of the greater number of ethical issues involved with its usage. They had to be absolutely certain that young magic users weren't tempted to use time magic to solve all their problems as too much could severely distort life as they knew it.

Apparently experiments by magi-scientists had shown exactly what happened when objects went through time too many times. They began to mutate as though evolving, even though many of them were inanimate objects. They even discovered that these objects would disappear randomly with no way to track them, only to discover that they'd traveled through time when they discovered records of them appearing in their laboratory.

As Alf ravenously ate his breakfast, he remembered two things from the day before that he'd almost forgotten. The first was that Damien was ridiculously depressed and he had to find out why. The second was that the magi-scientists had also wanted to interview Rock. After Alf was finished with them, Alf's parents had gone in to speak with them as they arranged the room back the way they'd found it. With a short talk, Mr Wiley and Ms Aldus decided that there was no need to interview Mr and Mrs Struthers since they didn't know much about Alf's magical usage at all.

After breakfast, Alf's worried parents allowed their son to visit Damien at his place.

Alf knocked on the door as he'd done many times before. This time Mr Reid answered the door. "Damien's not in at the moment," he said. "He said something about going out. I thought he was with you, but since he's not with you, I don't know where he is." Mr Reid said this all nonchalantly, as though he wasn't afraid for his son's safety at all. He probably wasn't, Alf decided. It was too early to worry about things like where your teenage son went when he didn't tell you. The problem was, Alf thought as he walked away from the Struthers house, he didn't have any idea where Damien was. Stopping at the nearest payphone, he decided to to ring Damien's mobile. He didn't pick up, and Alf didn't bother leaving a message.

With no other clue about where to go, Alf headed toward the Aldus house. Jessica greeted him at the door, calmly inviting him inside.

"Have you seen Damien?" Alf asked her.

She shook her head. "But I think he might be out in the woods."

"What makes you say that?" Alf asked.

"Just look," she said, dragging Alf towards one of the windows at the back of the house. A small dark cloud had collected over a single tree in the middle of the forest.

"Well how do you know that's Damien?" Alf asked.

"Rock's asleep and who else do you know that would be that idiotic?"

"Good point," Alf nodded. "I'm going to go out and talk to him."

"I'll go with you," Jessica volunteered.

Alf stopped her. "I don't think that would be the best idea at the moment."

Jessica frowned, but acknowledged that Alf had been Damien's friend for longer. "Fine. But don't take too long. I'm getting bored. And if I end up eavesdropping on you, that's not my fault."

Alf frowned at her, wondering where the very ethical Jessica had gone. Apparently having people around to entertain her more than ever before had stifled her creative ability to entertain herself.

He left the house soon after leaving his coin with her to ensure that she didn't eavesdrop on them and went towards the tree with the angry cloud hovering above it. He hovered up to the tree before seeing Damien on the highest branch as he'd expected. "Hi," Alf greeted Damien.

Damien looked away from his friend, not wanting Alf to acknowledge his presence.

"Aren't you going to tell me what's wrong?" Alf asked.

Damien gave no response.

"Aren't you at least going to tell me to go away?" Alf tried.

There was no response for a long while before Damien said, "Go away" rather half-heartedly.

"Say it like you mean it, would you?" Alf grinned, stepping onto a slightly lower branch so that they were eye level despite the fact that Damien was sitting. "I know something must have upset you at the council meeting. And I'm not going to go away until I find out what it is."

Damien only turned farther away from his friend, and it started to rain.

"Argh," Alf growled, frustrated. He started a fire to keep himself warm and wished that he had the ability to blow the cloud away, or at least make it stop raining. "Why are you better at that than I am?" he wondered.

Abruptly, as though only just realising what he was doing, Damien stopped the rain and made the cloud evaporate. "I didn't realise that was me."

Alf wondered how he could use such a large amount of magic subconsciously. "We're friends aren't we? And friends communicate, they don't leave each other hanging."

Damien shot Alf a piercing look. "Why?"

"Why what?" Alf asked, confused.

"Why are we friends? Why do you want to be friends with me?"

Alf was still confused and now slightly concerned. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Because I'm a horrible person who pretty much single-handedly ruined the Austrlian economy. Because I do things without thinking of the consequences. Because I don't care."

"What? You're not a horrible person. You can't be expected to know all the consequences of your actions. You're young. You're learning. You're a person and people make mistakes."

"I hate magic. I never want to use it ever again."

Alf looked around them, a little shocked. "Then why are you using it right now?"

Again, as though only suddenly becoming aware of his surroundings Damien let his magic go. It didn't take long before the branch he was sitting on broke without magical reinforcement, and he fell. Frightened beyond belief, it took a while before Alf reacted. Using his levitating ability, he made sure that Damien landed softly on the ground. He followed him, but Damien darted off before he could talk to him. And this time he didn't leave a magical trail for them to follow.

With a heavy heart, Alf headed back to the house to tell of his lack of success.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 35

2006-11-27T21:23:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Two magi-scientists are demanding an interview with Alf.]]

He let the two magi-scientists wait in the newly cleaned living room while he told his parents about the interview. They were understandable concerned when Alf told them about the interview. He didn't sound like he wanted to do it at all, and neither Mr nor Mrs Struthers was convinced that it was a necessary evil.

"Would you like us to sit in on you?" Mrs Struthers asked her son.

"No," Alf shook his head. Who knew what he would have to reveal? He certainly knew there were aspects of his magic use that he wouldn't be comfortable revealing to his parents. "It can't be so bad."

"If you're sure," Mr Struthers conceded, worriedly examining his son's face.

"I'm sure," Alf replied with a firm nod of his head as though convincing himself.

His parents let him go, so Alf joined the two older magic users in the living room. "Sorry that took so long," he apologised as he shut the door. Thank goodness there was a door. When Alf was younger, there hadn't been, but Alf's parents installed several into their open plan house for better insulation. Alf had never quite understood how that worked, but was now no problem as it allowed him and the two magi-scientists more privacy.

And Alf really was sorry when he saw what they had done. The two adults had made themselves comfortable while Alf was gone. Alf was not impressed by their alterations to the room. They'd left the walls, ceiling and floor alone, but pretty much none of the furniture was safe from their magic touch. In place of the couch and single armchair there were now three chairs that would not look out of place in an office. The coffee table had become a rather large desk, with two occupied chairs on one side, and one on the other obviously intended for Alf. On the desk were placed open folders and stationery in front of the two magi-scientists.

The television set had been removed from the room for reasons Alf didn't quite comprehend and nothing had been placed in its place. The bookshelves along the back wall were still intact, though. And the lighting remained the same, though they'd shut the blinds and turned on the lamps.

"Please have a seat," the man invited.

Alf sat nervously, an ominous feeling settling over him as he watched the two adults sit there calmly as though they did this every day. They probably did. They were eyeing him as though he were an experiment. Of course they were, they were scientists, even if they did apparently use magic. Or study magic. "What exactly do you do?" he asked curiously.

The woman seemed a little confused by this question that seemed to come out of nowhere, but she answered it anyway. "We study magic. Its various forms, where it goes. It's remarkably similar to non-magical physics."

"Okay," Alf nodded.

Unwilling to further humour his subject, Mr Wiley got started. "We'll be recording this conversation into this orb," he stated, indicating a sphere similar to Alf's own orb oracle sitting on the desk. It was larger and silver, and had an official looking black logo printed on it. The sort of thing you'd expect government operatives to carry.

Alf nodded his acquiescence, but knew that it probably wasn't even expected.

Mr Wiley began by stating the date and time, and stating that he and Mary-Ann Aldus were the interviewers. He then prompted Alf for his name.

"Alfonso Struthers," he stated, feeling a little bit like a moron, as anyone who is being recorded is wont to feel.

"And your date of birth?" Mr Wiley prompted.

Alf repeated his birthday, then the interview officially began.

"Tell us about how you first came to realise that you could use magic," Mr Wiley began.

It seemed as though he'd told the story a million times over at that point. To the Alduses, to the council, to his parents, and to Damien. Nonetheless, Alf heaved a sigh and retold the story about Rock in the parking lot again.

"So you felt threatened?" the woman asked him.

"Yes," Alf stated. "Though I find it difficult to understand now that Rock and I are friends."

"What exactly can you do with your powers?" Ms Aldus asked.

Alf shrugged. "Exactly what everyone else who uses magic can do, I think. I've been training with Aliana Aldus who's taught a number of magic users before me. She hasn't noticed anything different about the way I'm learning in terms. At least, she hasn't felt the need to share anything with me."

Alf noted that they wrote something down at that point and figured that it was probably Aliana's name. After all, if they were going to do this properly, they'd surely want to interview just about everyone he's come in contact with. He hoped they didn't want to interview his parents, it wouldn't be as though they had anything important to say anyway.

"Would you please describe the exact nature of your magical abilities?"

"Er," Alf stalled. "I can make things levitate, move them around. I'm quite good at getting plants to sprout. I haven't really done anything much else."

"What is your control over the elements like?" Mr Wiley asked.

"Sorry?" Alf was a little confused.

"You mentioned growing plants," Mary-Ann explained. "That would be the earth element. There's also air, water, fire and time."

"Well I'm okay with fire, a little shaky with water and air and haven't really dealt with time." That was a bit of an understatement. Alf had never known that the magically gifted had the ability to play with time. He supposed it wasn't something people did often.

"Could you start a fire right now?"

Alf looked a little worried.

"I assure you," Mr Wiley said. "We are more than capable of dealing with anything should it get out of your control."

Alf nodded, then started a fire within the palm of his hand.

"Can you make it a bit bigger?" the woman asked.

Alf complied.

"And extinguish it?" she asked.

That was easily done, and the pair seemed to make notes.

"Okay. Can you start a little wind in your hand?"

Alf didn't notice anything happening within his hand, but apparently he had a degree of success.

"So you can't make it stronger?" Mr Wiley asked.

Alf shook his head.

"And put it out?"

It was gone almost instantly.

"Now water." First a small pool appeared in Alf's hand, he was unable to produce more, but he did manage to keep in all in one place, then evaporate it off.

They provided Alf with a small amount of soil for him to showcase his plant growth ability which they were suitably impressed by. "Most magical children take years before they have that level of control even over their spiritual element." Seeing Alf's blank look to this comment, Mary-Ann further explained. "A magical person's spiritual element is the one they are naturally most in tune to. In your case it appears to be earth." Alf nodded in understanding.

"And time?" Mr Wiley asked.

Alf shook his head. "I'd have no idea where to begin."

"Okay," he nodded.

"So all that's left is a magic sample," Ms Aldus stated, holding out a crystal for Alf to take. Its two ends were rather pointy and Alf wondered what he was supposed to do with it. "You just concentrate pushing some of yourself into the crystal. The crystal is spelled to store it and we'll be able to analyse it."

Alf wasn't entirely certain what 'pushing some of yourself' meant, but tried it anyway. A greenish liquid seemed to drip from his fingers and into the crystal. He watched fascinated. He didn't think magic's physical form would be so disgusting looking. He began to feel a little light-headed. Apparently secreting pure magic took a lot out of you.

"That's enough," Mary-Ann stated.

But somehow it wouldn't stop coming. Mr Wiley seemed prepared for this, though. He muttered some words under his breath and it stopped. Alf slumped back in his chair, gulping in much needed oxygen. "I've placed a mild temporary binding spell on you," he explained. "You won't be able to do magic for a couple of hours."

Alf nodded in response. "Can I go now?" He wasn't sure why that's how he'd phrased his sentence, since it was his house and really they were the ones who should be leaving, but they responded anyway.

"Yes, we're done. Thanks for your time."

Alf breathed a sigh of relief as he staggered from the room, meeting his parents who were worriedly waiting for him to get out of the room. "Alf?" they asked as he stumbled past them.

"I'm really tired," he muttered, heading for the stairs. "I'm going to go sleep some more." And with that he wandered up the stairs, leaving his parents to deal with the two adult witches.

The interview hadn't gone so badly as he'd thought. But, Alf thought as he collapsed onto his bed. That magic sample was definitely worse than he'd thought.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 34

2006-11-27T13:58:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: After the sleepover Damien leaves, and Alf goes back to sleep.]]

The second time Alf awakes that morning, it's to the smell of bacon wafting through the living room. He finds that Jessica has left her sleeping bag, though she hasn't yet packed it away. Rock is still snoring on the floor, so Alf lets him rest a little more as he sneaks into the kitchen for some breakfast.

Jessica is seated at the table; Mrs Struthers is positioned to begin placing food on the plate in front of the girl.

"Rock's not up yet?" Mrs Struthers asks, as she uses the tongs to place some bacon on Jessica's plate.

"No," Alf replied as he stifled a yawn. "Not yet." He grabs a plate from a cupboard, and places it on the table, before grabbing a couple of glasses for himself, Jessica and his mother then placing them on the table. "Orange juice?" he asks her.

She looked up from her plate, and Alf noticed the bags under her eyes. "Just water, thanks Alf," she stated politely. He poured her a glass of water from the jug in the fridge, poured himself and his mother some juice, and sat down. Just as they were getting settled, Rock came in, abruptly sitting in a chair next to Alf before dramatically leaning on the table as though the trudge to breakfast was only a pause in his sleeping pattern.

Alf poked him. "Did you want to eat something?"

Rock made an unintelligible sound from under his arms.

"I'll take that as a no," Alf decided, then turned back to his breakfast. When he'd finished his first piece of bacon, Rock finally stirred, walking to the kitchen sink and washing his face and hands before turning to ask where the plates were. Mrs Struthers told him to sit down, and she organised his breakfast for him.

The rest of breakfast passed smoothly. Afterwards, the three teens were cleaning up the living room. Jessica and Rock were organising their things, and Alf was sorting out the pizza boxes and popcorn bowls he hadn't gotten around to removing last night. They'd made quite a mess, predictably, and once Jessica was finished with her things, manners dictated that she help Alf clean up. So while she was vacuuming, and Rock attempted to watch TV over the noise, it was difficult for Alf to hear the doorbell.

When he did eventually, there were a couple of disgruntled strangers on his front porch. One was a man with a thick dark brown moustache, the other was a woman with reddish hair that rather reminded Alf of Aliana.

"Alfonso Struthers?" the man asked imperiously.

Alf didn't dare deny it or suggest that he'd rather be referred to as Alf. "Yes?"

"I'm Dexter Wiley, and this is Mary-Ann Aldus. We're magi-scientists employed by the magical council. We've received permission to interview you and take a magic sample so that we may study your sudden magical abilities," the man introduced himself, rather overloading Alf with information.

"I see," Alf said, though he wasn't entirely certain he truly did comprehend.

"Is now a good time to interview you?" the woman asked. "It will only take about an hour."

An hour seemed like a long time to Alf, and Jessica and Rock were still in his house. "I don't know if now's such a good time..." He trailed off as he heard the distinct lack of vacuum cleaner noise in the living room.

"Hey Sprout, we're done!" Rock called from said room.

"Hang on a sec!" Alf called back. "I have friends over at the moment," he said. Then suddenly realised that these two people were awfully suspicious. "Anyway, how do I know if you're who you say you are?"

Mr Wiley and Ms Aldus reached into their jackets and for a moment Alf thought they were going to draw guns and shoot him like in the movies. Or draw wands and curse him, like in a Harry Potter. Instead they drew medallions from their inner pockets. "We're medallion carriers," Mr Wiley explained, as though that meant something to Alf.

"Okay," he drew out the word, wondering how he could stall. He didn't want to give them an interview... or a magic sample, which sounded about as much fun as a blood sample. Alf did not have a good past record with blood samples. The last time he'd had to have one taken, he fainted. Not to mention the way the man said "interview" it sounded more like "interrogation" to Alf. He definitely wasn't prepared to deal with that on five hours of sleep. "I'm kind of tired at the moment so maybe you could-"

Alf was cut off by Jessica. "Auntie Mary? Uncle Dex? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Apparently they want to interview me," Alf stated. At least they were most likely who they said they were if Jessica recognised them.

"Right now?" Jessica asked him.

"It would be preferable," Mr Wiley put in.

"Okay," Jessica nodded. "Rock and I will leave then."

"Thank you," the older Aldus woman thanked them.

"Rock, we're going!" Jessica called.

"What?" he asked, coming into the hallway making it feel especially crowded.

"Auntie Mary and Uncle Dex want to interview Alf so we have to go home," Jessica explained.

"Okay," Rock nodded. "Call us when you're done," he said to Alf. "Then we can hang out."

"If you don't mind," Mr Wiley interrupted. "We'd also like to interview you when we're finished with Alf," he stated.

"Me?" Rock asked, ego boosted. "An interview? Sure. Shall I wait here?"

"That won't be necessary," Mr Wiley stated. "We'll see you at your own home."

"Okay," Rock nodded. "I'll be waiting. Come on Jessica," he added, pulling his cousin into the living room. They left shortly afterwards, and Alf was alone with a couple of strangers that he did not want to be left alone with. Why did no one care if he wanted to do this interview or not?

[[Not quite end scene, but where I'm going to stop for now.]]

Story: Middle Part 33

2006-11-27T13:41:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Damien came back from his meeting with the council a little depressed though he claims he's just tired.]]

The next morning when Alf wakes, Damien has packed away all of his things and is wearing new clothes, seemingly ready to leave the house despite the fact that it's not even nine o'clock in the morning. Alf himself wonders why he's awake while Jessica and Rock are still soundly sleeping beside his empty sleeping bag. Damien looks over from his seat on the couch, noticing Alf watching him.

"My parents are going to pick me up in a minute," he says, not looking at Alf.

Alf stands. "But it's so early..."

"I just, don't feel well," Damien stated, fiddling with the strap on his backpack.

There is a knock on the door and Damien stands, and walks toward it. Mrs Struthers emerges from the kitchen and lets Mrs Reid in before the two mothers look at Damien, concerned.

"You really don't look well," Mrs Reid stated, coming towards her son and feeling his forehead. "Well, I don't think you have a fever."

"I just want to go home," Damien voiced, and began heading towards the door.

"It's probably just lack of sleep," Mrs Struthers noted, though she looked at Alf as though demanding an explanation later.

Alf only shrugged. "Or too much popcorn," he added.

Mrs Reid only smiled. "Well I'd best be getting him home to bed, then," she said. "I'll catch up with you soon Miriam," she said to Alf's mother. "Good to see you again Alf," she added, before ruffling his hair, and taking one of Damien's bag's out to the car.

"Bye Mrs Reid, Damien," Alf farewells before closing the door and facing his upset looking mother.

"What is wrong with him?" she asks her son.

Alf shrugs with a frown. "I don't know. He wouldn't tell us."

Mrs Struthers examined her son, trying to determine whether he was lying or not. Seeing that he wasn't, she gathered him under her arm and led him toward the kitchen. "What do you three want for breakfast?"

"I-" Alf yawned. "Would rather go back to sleep."

"Okay," Mrs Struthers nodded. "You'll probably wake up when breakfast is ready anything. I'm thinking bacon and eggs."

Alf only nodded, and headed back to the room with his friends still in it. Remarkably, neither of them had moved the entire time he was gone. He curled up in his dark blue bag, swiftly heading back to the land of nod.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 32

2006-11-27T12:39:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Rock can do magic, and now everyone's friends. Huzzah!]]

That Friday, Damien and Jessica's parents headed to the magical council meeting for the month. Alf and Jessica were not allowed to go, and Aliana went as Rock's spokesperson about his new magical powers, too. As a result, the three left behind stayed at Alf's house having a sleepover. Since Damien had never told his parents about his magical powers, it was assumed that Damien was also sleeping over at the Struthers house. Though Mr and Mrs Struthers didn't approve of not telling the Reids, they also knew that it wasn't their place to tell anyone what to do. Damien would be perfectly safe with the Alduses, even if they didn't know.

Jessica and Rock had never been to sleepovers before. Unless you could count sleeping in someone else's bedroom because that was the best they could do since they all lived together in the same house. As a result, Alf was determined to show them a good non-magical time, even if this was his first sleepover where Damien wasn't present. The three of them had vowed to stay awake until Damien returned, anyway.

So they did the usual things, ordered pizza for lunch and watched b-grade horror movies that they rented from the local video store in their pyjamas while eating microwave popcorn. They were sprawled in front of the television in the Struthers' living room for the most part, over opened sleeping bags and surrounded by a mountain of pillows. Although the sleepover was supposed to be non-magical, Jessica and Rock had both conjured sleeping bags and pillows to bring with them to the party. They talked generally for hours, with Rock always managing to tease Alf, while Jessica frowned at him. Alf didn't mind, though. There was something so similar and familiar about this teasing that Alf realised that perhaps Rock had liked him all along, and neither of them had realised it.

It was past midnight, and to pass the time they were quizzing each other on magical things when Damien came in. He looked tired and extremely put out.

"What's wrong?" Alf asked his friend.

"Nothing," Damien shook his head. He rolled out his sleeping bag that had been sitting in the corner, didn't bother to do anything besides remove his shoes and slid in. "I'm kind of tired, so I'd appreciate it if you guys left me alone."

The three teens who'd been there all night looked at him worriedly, even Rock. That wasn't how you were supposed to look. Damien looked somewhat like what Alf imagined he'd looked like after he'd been reprimanded for trying to pull down the principal's pants. Jessica shuts off the movie they weren't really paying attention too, then the three of them huddled in the corner on the opposite side of the couch to Damien while Alf related what he thought he saw.

Rock laughed, and managed to turn the conversation away from what was bugging Damien. They went to sleep shortly after that, but it didn't stop any of them from casting worried glances at the boy across the room.

[[End scene... even if it is kind of short.]]

Story: Middle Part 31

2006-11-27T12:00:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Rock can do magic too. How convenient.]]

The four teens and the Aldus patriarch and matriarch gather in their traditional meeting place for important discussions.

Mrs Aldus and her daughter are seated on the love seat to the the left, with the three boys left on the sofa, Alf in the middle. Mr Aldus cuts to the chase immediately as he lounges in his usual chair. "Let me guess. Since Rock's sitting here and it's the first time he's taken part in one of these important little discussions I guess he's the one who's come into his magic next?" he said with a smile.

Jessica and Rock smile and nod in response. The other boys merely acknowledge Mr Aldus' supreme deduction skills with a nod.

Mrs Aldus sits looking a little shocked. "That's wonderful, Rock. Your mother will be so proud of you."

Rock merely beams. With all his dreams coming true at once, you could hardly blame him.

"But I'm guess you kids haven't checked the book yet, have you?" Mrs Aldus added. "Since you didn't when Damien came into his power."

Rock shrugs. "My name's never been in the book. I don't know why it would be in there now. Are your names in the book?" he asked, turning to Alf and Damien.

"No," Alf replied, shaking his head. "It's all a bit strange."

Meanwhile, Mrs Aldus had summoned the book and was flipping through it. She frowned. Not here.

"It doesn't matter anyway," Mr Aldus dismissed. "The boy's an Aldus, I'm sure it's just been latently inside him all this time."

The two female Alduses exchanged a look, though, as the boys ignored what was presented to them. Alf thought there was something to worry about too.

"Anyway, that's all we wanted to tell you Aunt Karen," Rock said, standing and pulling Alf to his feet as well. "We'll be off now."

Rock tugged Alf from the room, and the pair were followed by Jessica and Damien. "Check this out," Rock said, as he twirled a finger and one of the painted portraits toward the ceiling of the room they were in floated down towards them.

"Put it back Rock," Jessica said, sternly, hands on hips and a mother hen. She would be a great Aldus matriarch when it came to be her day.

"Fine, fine," Rock stated, putting it back, but not before sending it zooming around the room. If this was in Harry Potter, Alf thought. The people in the portrait would definitely be complaining of air sickness.

The rest of the afternoon was spent reigning in Rock's inherent need to play with his magic. The fact that he'd been deprived of it for seventeen years of his life meant that he desperately wanted to use up that seventeen years of magic in one afternoon. It didn't take much to goad Damien to going along with it, either, leaving Jessica and Alf to try to curb their enthusiasm. Alf wasn't too much help either, as he found most of their antics hilarious. So Jessica had to play mother hen the rest of the afternoon.

At about six o'clock, Rock and Damien had tired a little, though they were hanging out in conjured cocoon hammocks dangling from the tallest trees at the back of the Aldus estate. It was all Jessica could do to stop them from magically enhancing the trees' heights. That would be easily spotted if they were much higher than the rest of the forest.

Alf and Jessica were sitting together on a branch watching the two as they swung when Alf commented that he was rather hungry. Within a second he knew that he shouldn't have mentioned anything because before he knew it, there was a picnic blanket and an assortment of rich foods laid out in front of him. Damien and Rock were already sitting on it, sampling a variety of the treats. "Oh come on," Damien coaxed, and Alf was already across, sitting on a corner of the floating fabric.

Jessica eyed it all suspiciously, casting an eye over their spread. And spotting the beverages in an ice bucket, she found what she was looking for. "Rock, please don't tell me you were intending to get drunk while levitating ten metres off the ground."

He laughed as the other boys' attention was drawn from their snack to the bottles of champagne in the ice. Jessica's frown deepened in response. "Oh don't scowl like that Jess," he admonished, waving a hand and making the alcohol disappear. "You'll be old and wrinkly before your time."

Carefully, she cast a hand over the enchantments, making sure that if nothing else, the four of them would still be sitting on a blanket alive, before nodding her approval and stepping from her tree branch onto the carpet.

"Finally," Alf grinned. "Live a little would you."

"And die a little sooner?" Jessica asked as she placed a slice of blueberry pie on a plate. "No thank you."

And so the four of them laughed and ate as though they'd been best friends since the dawn of time, unknowingly under the watchful eye of the Aldus parents.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 30

2006-11-27T11:24:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Picking up where we left off... over a week later.]]

Jessica didn't answer the door, but Alf walked in anyway. They'd gotten to that point where they were able to intrude upon each other without feeling guilty although they'd only known each other two months. She was seated at her desk and hadn't even turned around when he entered. He was two steps away from her when she finally acknowledged his presence. He'd thought that she wasn't going to turn and so was ultimately startled when she did look at him.

"Yes?" she quirked an eyebrow at him, looking the picture of someone who did not want to be disturbed.

"I realise you're kind of busy with your homework or whatever it is you're doing," Alf rambled, not quite sure how to explain about Rock to her. "But there's something in the garden I think you'll want to see."

She stood immediately, and Alf wondered what he'd said that made her go along with him so quickly. "What did you do?" she asked.

Oh. Alf realised that she thought he and Damien had done something. "Nothing," he said. And it was the truth, but something about what he said must have made Jessica disbelieve him, because she then stalked out of the room, leaving Alf to follow.

"Did Damien do something, then?" she asks as they head down one of the many staircases in the mansion.

"No," Alf replies honestly again.

Jessica followed Alf downstairs, occasionally shooting Alf worried glances. He didn't appear panicked, or worried in the slightest. And if this was some sort of practical joke then he'd be over-acting. Alf was not good at that. When they got to the garden, nothing was out of place... except for the fact that her cousin seemed to be hugging Damien.

"What's going on?" Jessica asked.

Upon seeing Damien's expression, Alf couldn't help but make it worse. "Have we interrupted something?" he asked.

Finally realising what it might look like, Rock released his grasp on the younger teen. He frowned at Alf, then registered that Jessica was there and smiled. "Good," he said, rubbing his hands together like a man plotting something... or a praying mantis. "You're all here."

"So," Damien frowned at the male Aldus. "What's your big news?"

"Hang on," Jessica held up a hand in the stop motion. "What's going on?"

"Rock has big news and wouldn't spill until all of us were here. So I went to get you," Alf explained.

"That's your big problem?" Jessica looked at him incredulously.

"I never said it was a problem," Alf protested. "I just said you should come downstairs and see for yourself."

If Jessica was the swearing type, that is probably what she would have done at that moment. As she wasn't, she clenched her fists and counted to ten internally. "No," she said finally. "I think I'll just go upstairs." Her cousin was still a lot of a sore point with her. And she didn't appreciate being deceived. She hated that he thought he could just do things and that there were be no consequences. As though he owned people. Sometimes she just hated the sight of him. Jessica could never look at Rock without thinking of what an awful person he'd been.

"Jess wait," Rock implored. His entire demeanour pleading and serious.

And those words made her stop. Because he was family. And didn't family always deserve a second chance? So she turned and faced her cousin with a blank look on her face, keeping her hopeful and curious face to herself.

"Lady and gentlemen," Rock began. "Now that I have your attention, I have an announcement to make."

Three firm glares in his direction made Rock continue one with no further ado. "I'm a freak like you guys!" he exclaimed proudly.

Their reactions were varied. Jessica immediately lost her mask. She leaped forward, throwing her arms around her cousin's neck. She was so happy for him. Rock, for his part, caught her gladly, and hugged her back tightly.

Damien was indifferent. He didn't know Rock very well, and he didn't particularly care for him, even after this revelation. He didn't particularly care for magic either, so he guessed it was a proper fit. There were no feelings of magical brothership in Damien's eyes.

Alf was confused. He was torn between being hopeful that this was what Rock needed to become a decent human being again, but then, this was the third unexplained magical emergence within two months. What did that mean for the magical community? And why did he care? Why did these things concern him now? The only things he could tell you for sure about politics were that John Howard was the Prime Minister of Australia, and that East Hills Primary School had the best election day sausage sizzles in the electorate. The sausages were free, and good quality, too. You could tell they were made from one hundred percent meat.

Rock's enthusiasm was contagious, though, as he swept all three younger teens into a hug and coerced them all into joining him to look for all the adults and tell them the good news.

[[End what I've previously written, and the scene.]]

Alf's Photos

2006-11-24T11:05:00.000+11:00

Alf Struthers

Story: Middle Part 29

2006-11-18T09:28:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Follows Alf confronting Damien.
Finally, almost a week later, I get it together and write something so that I'm not so tremendously behind.]]

Damien returned everything as he told Alf he would, and everything between the now best friends was fine again. Their duo became a trio, though, as they both spent time with Jessica. Damien had joined Alf's magical lessons, despite the fact that Alf was a little ahead. All seemed to be well in Alf's world, but they were about to get a big surprise.

Alf and Damien were practicing growing sprouts in the Alduses' back garden. Jessica hadn't wanted to join them, so was upstairs in her bedroom, supposedly completing an assignment.

Alf stared at the dark soil, knowing that underneath its surface lay a tiny seed, a little pocket full of plant-to-be and the nutrients that it would need to survive. He imagined the little baby plant eating up the nutrients, getting slowly bigger and stronger, reaching for the warmth of the sun. Within seconds, a small sprout had poked its way through the earth as though it was time lapse photography in real life.

"Not bad," Damien remarked, looking over at Alf's accomplishment. "But watch this." The look on the redhead's face was intense as he watched a plant push itself from the land and toward the sun's rays. It quickly matured into a single yellow tulip. "And in summer, too," Damien added.

Alf shrugged. His own sweet peas had now blossomed. He raised a hand toward them and was delighted as one seemed to brush up against him like a dog greeting its master.

Damien smiled. "Okay, so I've been outdone again. But I will get you next time, Sprout."

Alf frowned at the familiar nickname.

Seeing his face, Damien laughed. "Well, it certainly seems to suit you."

With the imagined raise of an eyebrow, Alf's tiny flowers had grown larger, their leaved stems reaching up to tickle Damien under his nose, making him sneeze.

Damien only laughed harder. "You're not doing anything to help with that, Sprout."

Sighing in defeat, Alf allowed the flowers to return to their usual size, petting them. "It was worth a shot," he told them. They seemed to bob slightly as though nodding.

"You know Alf," Damien said, while looking at his friend's flowers. "They're a bit creepy if you ask me."

Alf frowned. "They're cute."

Damien laughed. "What? Are you gay or something?"

Alf wasn't sure how to answer that ridiculous question.

"I wouldn't care if you were, you know," Damien said to him honestly.

Alf shook his head. "I'm not."

"Of course he is," a cheerful voice called from behind them. "Sprout's a right pansy."

"What are you, British?" Damien groused, eyes narrowing.

"Somewhere," Rock agreed, coming towards them, smile not leaving his face. He came between the two boys, throwing an arm around each of them. "I have great news. So why don't you be a good boy Alf, and go get Jessica for me so I can tell you all together."

Meanwhile, both boys had been struggling to get Rock's meaty arms of them so when Alf was released, he fell over on his back, squashing his sweet peas. They seemed to let out a gasp of air, then pushed Alf back on his feet, straightening themselves out. Alf could imagine them as pretty little girls in coloured skirts, accompanied by tiny young men in matching coloured suits brushing of their clothing after he fell on them.

"Right," Alf nodded, and took off toward the house before he even realised what he was doing. As he climbed the stairs to the back door he began wondering why he was doing this without a single protest. He chalked it up to the fact that he wanted to be friends with Rock, the fact that Rock had let go of him... he didn't want to be caught up in that rather unsettling excuse for a hug for much longer, and well, the fact that Rock was scarily happy.

He knocked on Jessica's door.

[[tbc... I need to go...]]

Story: Middle Part ?a

2006-11-13T12:12:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Uh, this goes somewhere...]]

The East Hills High School hierarchy was not the sort that comes out of your average teen fiction novel. It was more along the lines of the sort that people found in your average high school. Of course, there were the groups of students, and well, you could say that some groups were more well liked than others. The hierarchy had basically been settled since the about halfway through year seven. Before that, everyone was too busy trying to find their place in the universe.

But there were the groups, mostly determined by race (no matter how hard anyone tried to say that there was no racism... well there wasn't in a mean way) and to some extent extra-curricular activities. But people from each group participated in whatever they wanted... unless they were in a group characterised by its unwillingness to participate in anything. A lot of groups had formed from things like geographical location (if you spent some time on the same bus it either made you friends or worst enemies) or classes in year seven. But once you were there, you were pretty much there for the rest of your life. Though Alf had heard that once you got to year eleven and twelve stuff like group didn't matter to people as much anymore.

There were about five groups in Alf's year. Some of them had name themselves, but mostly Alf had named them within the confines of his own mind. When referring to a group of people out loud it would always be so-and-so and so-and-so and them. The 'popular' group as Alf thought of them, were a group of mainly very friendly people who were also very active throughout the school and very... white. They had what Alf referred to as a 'token Asian' and a 'token Curry'. It was probably subconscious, but they did, and that Asian and Indian happened to be two of the least Asian and Indian culture-wise in the grade. Alf thought of them as popular as many people liked them. When voting for things, they were automatically the first people you the grade thought of to represent them. Especially since they were nice, and approachable.

Next was the 'cool' group. The cool group were not so much a cool group of people, but a group who thought of themselves as cool. Maybe you might call them something else at a different school. But they were the ones who wagged school, who were known to drink and smoke and party, who were known to be the ones who knew how to get the illicit substances. They were also a largely skip or 'White Australian' group. They were the ones who thought they were the greatest. Who thought they were so smart, and so clever. The ones who rebelled by wearing non-standard pieces of uniform (and were constantly being reprimanded for it). They were the ones who laughed behind their hands whenever anyone else said anything, and who looked at you as though you were so beneath them. They kept to themselves mostly, and Alf always wondered how these people managed to evolve to be so different to everyone else. Amazingly, by some chance, they managed to have a token Asian and Curry, too.

Then there was the 'interesting' group. It was by far the largest group in the grade, encompassing more than twenty people. And because of this, they were known to have a lot of in-fighting and fragmentation. The thing that kept them all together in Alf's mind (because the individual members of the group were bound to imagine different people as part of their group of friends) was the fact that they at some point in time were all together. And the fact that because of the loose ties between them making none of their smaller factions a distinct group they all sat together in the same general area of the quadrangle, on the steps away from the main school building.

There was the 'smart Asian' group. These were the ones perceived to have no life (though sitting next to two of them for most of this year had made Alf realised that this was largely untrue). They were the ones with the immense parental pressure placed upon them. The ones who'd been coached since they were too small to remember. The ones who were determined to succeed, whether for their own benefit, or because it would make their parents feel better.

The 'dumb Asian' group. They weren't so much 'dumb' as more inclined to rebel. A few of them probably thought they were stupid, simply because they weren't living up to their parents' expectations. They were the ones hiding slutty clothing in their wardrobes, and sneaking out of Chinese school on Saturdays. They would also skip school some days, and wear their uniforms a little off kilter, but though they might drink or smoke sometimes, they weren't about to go trying things that were illegal for over-eighteens as well. Alf suspected that some of them were probably a part of some gang or other.

The 'terrorists' were known for being Middle Eastern. A group that had largely ruled the school pre-September 11 was now thrust to the sidelines, marginalised as though the beliefs of other people of their race automatically fell upon them, when they all considered themselves Australian, and nothing else. Alf had named them unkindly, but if one of them did turn out to be a terrorist later on in life, if interviewed, Alf would not be lying if he said that he would have had no idea. Once upon a time, they might have been known as the 'curry' group. A much nicer name that they used themselves.

Then there were the 'wogs'. Those of Mediterranean European descent were known to be good natured people. They were basically normal. Their families had been Australian for so long that no one even remembered why their last name was Russo or Moretti. They were known for having loud voices and big personalities, average marks and average participation.

And then there was Alf and Damien, and the other students who never really sort of seemed to fit anywhere, or wandered around in groups or four or less. Alf had never really fit in. He and Damien had been friends forever. They lived just down the street from each other, the only boys their age on their street. There was Rock, too, but the two year age gap had seemed a huge amount when they were younger. Because of that, it was always the two of them. Even though Damien made other friends, his best friend was Alf. And he knew that Alf wasn't comfortable hanging out with the other boys he made friends with, so he left them as back-up friends, for days when Alf wasn't around.

Alf had never fit in, and now that Damien had left him, it was fairly assured that he never would.

[[End descriptive scene. The last sentence means that it goes some time before Jessica finds Alf, after Damien dumps him.]]

Story: Middle Part 28

2006-11-12T21:45:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Alf's off to go bug Damien about him using magic and all.
It's so hard for me to write these next couple of days, and it's going to be so hard for me to make up... I can't get the word count up because I just want it to be over.]]

Alf knocked on Damien's front door. His mum opened the door and smiled at Alf. Mrs Reid was a tall blonde women with hair that curled in waves to her shoulders. Alf had always thought she looked like a movie star. Even if she was just dressed like she was today in a simple skirt and blouse.

"I was beginning to think you two were never going to make up," she told him.

Alf shrugged. "We haven't really, not yet anyway."

"Oh," she looked a little disappointed. "Well, I'll let you go up anyway. I'll assume you're not her to antagonise him further."

"Of course not," Alf shook his head. "But just so you know: it's not my fault that we're not really friends at this point."

Mrs Reid gave him a sceptical look. "Well you know, there are two sides to every coin. And it takes two to tango."

Alf resisted the urge to give her a scathing glance for her spouting of two cliches in a row.

Seeming to notice, Mrs Reid laughed. "Come in, Alf. Damien's in his room."

Deciding to ignore what she'd said before that last statement, Alf entered, removing his shoes and leaving them by the door. "Thanks," he said to Mrs Reid.

"No problem," she smiled. "Hopefully you'll be able to shed some light on his current awful mood."

Alf only nodded at her grimly. He knew what was up with Damien. Or at least, he was pretty sure he did. He padded up to Damien's room quietly. He needn't have bothered being all sneaky about it, though, since he could hear the music blasting from his ex-best friend's room halfway up the stairs. Reaching the first floor, Alf realised that Damien's door was open.

He wandered in, shutting the door before Damien could tell him to go away.

Damien was lying on his back on his bed, seemingly fast asleep despite the fact that his music was turned up far louder than a set of speakers should even be allowed to go. It was beyond the eardrum bursting stage. Alf turned it off.

Though Damien, stirred, he didn't awake.

Alf hadn't been counting on this. He'd been fully expecting Damien to see him and start arguing with him as soon as he entered the room. But here he was, sleeping. That definitely gave Alf the upper hand. He observed the room quietly first, scoping it out for any possible dangers. He didn't see anything, but he wasn't really sure what he was looking for, anyway.

Sighing, he pulled the doona from the bed, hoping Damien would wake that way. No such luck. Damien had always been a deep sleeper. And now that he was a teenager seemingly on the cusp of a growth spurt, his body really wanted him to sleep.

"Damien!" Alf called.

Still nothing.

Rolling his eyes, Alf grabbed his former friend and shook him soundly. Though his neck rolled to an unfortunate, uncomfortable looking position, Damien didn't wake up.

Alf was growing annoyed. This was not part of the plan. Finally, he smacked his friend across the face, and that woke him up.

Of course, Alf hadn't counted on the magic's natural aversion to things which cause pain to the wielder and was therefore thrown halfway across the room, landing ungracefully on the floor. At least he hadn't been knocked out like Rock.

"Alf?" Damien questioned, wearily rubbing sleep from his eyes.

Alf rolled his own. "Yes you idiot."

"What are you doing here? Aren't we not speaking to each other?"

"It was your idea not to speak to each other," Alf inserted.

"Yeah. So why aren't you respecting my wishes?" Damien grunted.

Was this even worth it? Alf wondered. Of course it was worth it. There were who knows how many people now spending fake money, not knowing that it was, slowly ruining the economy, making the Australian dollar worth even less. Yeah, nice going Damien.

"Because you're misusing your powers."

"What powers?" Damien tried playing dumb. But that didn't work on Alf because 1. Alf knew. 2. Alf knew that Damien knew he knew. and 3. Damien's acting skills really weren't very good when he'd just awoken.

"The magical mystical ones that you only recently developed."

The faux stupid expression on his face didn't go away.

"The same magical mystical powers that I have."

Still blank.

"The magical mystical powers that you thought didn't exist when I told you about them. And the reason why this is the first time we've spoken in weeks."

"Oh," Damien smirked. "Those powers."

This really wasn't working out for Alf. Damien was cool-headed, and Alf was the one who was beginning to want to run screaming from the room at the very least. He really was inclining more toward the blow something up level, though.

"Yes Damien," Alf stated, trying to calm down. "Those powers." It was like trying to speak to a five-year-old child who'd been caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar red-handed.

"What about them?"

"You've seen the movies. Read the comics. Watched the T.V. shows. You know what about them."

"Be a pal and clarify, would ya, Alf?"

Inwardly, Alf counted to ten. "Not everyone has magical powers. And because of this, it's not fair to go around using them to your own advantage. Not to mention everyone knows that there's nothing to be gained from material possessions."

"I wouldn't say that," Damien countered. "It got your attention."

Alf's attempt at a scathing glare was pretty good this time.

"What's the big deal anyway? I know, you know, but they don't know. They're perfectly happy thinking that they got all these extra sales."

"This is why you should've taken Commerce instead of Music. Let me put it in non-economical terms. If a butterfly flaps its wings in China, its said that this can cause a typhoon in the United States. The littlest things can have the biggest consequences. You think you've just given a few people a little extra cash. But what have you really done? You deprived someone of the merchandise that you have that you shouldn't have. You've caused extra, replica money to float through the system meaning that the overall value of the Australian dollar is less. It's been down a little in the past week and I'm definitely blaming you. And to top if off, none of it is benefiting you in any way anyway."

"But why does that matter to me? To us? Why did you come here anyway? To sway me to your good light side? Or because now that we've got a little more in common we could be better friends?"

That was pretty much the last straw for Alf. "I don't want to be your friend Damien. I don't want a friend who doesn't trust me. I don't want a friend who doesn't care. I don't want a friend who doesn't mind setting me aside while he runs of into the sunset with the chick."

Damien looked a little upset and unsure. "Fine. Then we won't be friends. And as someone who is not my friend, I'd like you to leave my house now."

"No," Alf said, simply. "Not until you promise to return everything you ever bought with your counterfeit bills."

"I don't think so," Damien sneered.

Alf felt a force pressing upon him suddenly, as though someone was physically pushing. But he stood firm, and knowing that his physical strength wasn't going to last him very long, began pushing back using his own magical power. "I can't believe you'd actually try to force me to leave your room." Alf frowned at Damien who'd fallen to the floor with the force of Alf's retaliation. Alf walked over and stood over him, making sure that he was holding him in place using his magic.

"I don't want to have to threaten you," Alf said. "But are you going to play nice or not?"

Damien's face held cold fear in it, so Alf let him go even without some other form of agreement. "How the hell did you just do that?" Damien asked.

Alf shrugged. "I know people."

"You know people?"

Alf nodded.

Damien sat on his bed and began picking a the bed sheet. "This stinks, you know."

"You didn't have to go around making such a nuisance of yourself," Alf told him, high on righteous glory.

"Well, you weren't talking to me. And I just found out that you weren't a complete psychopath and you hadn't been lying. I thought it was too late to ask for forgiveness. So I tried to forget."

"It's never too late to apologise," Alf told him honestly.

"Then I'm sorry."

Alf nodded. "Okay."

Damien grabbed his pillow, clutching it to his chest like a safety anchor. "I just want to be normal again. For everything to be normal again."

"Well, I guess I wouldn't mind if we were friends again," Alf told him. "Oh, and after you give everything back. You'll have to meet Jessica's parents."

"Jessica?"

"The girl I've been hanging out with the past few weeks. She's a witch, and her aunt's been training me to use my power better."

"Is that how you just kicked my ass?"

"Yeah," Alf nodded. "She'll probably take you on too. I mean, if you've got it, you might as well use it the right way."

"I guess," Damien nodded, then looked up as a thought hit him. "If we're friends again does that mean I have to be friends with Rock?"

Alf laughed. "Rock and I are far from friends at the moment."

"I've been such an idiot," Damien frowned. "But what do you mean by 'at the moment'?"

"I'm trying to change it."

"What? Why?" Damien asked, incredulously.

"Let's just say I think there's more to Rock than he lets on."

And with that, Alf sat on the bed next to Damien and they spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on each other's lives.

[[End scene. My goodness that was so much easier to write than I thought it was going to be! And I think I've hit my word limit for today, too. So pleased.]]

Story: Middle Part 27

2006-11-11T17:30:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Jessica and Alf told Jessica's parents that Damien has magical powers. I don't want to write the next scene so this is filler interlude... I think I'm running out of plot, anyway. My story's going to finish far short of 50 000 words.]]

On Saturday morning, Alf was sitting at the breakfast table with a bowl of Weet Bix and banana slices when his mother came traipsing in with far too much good cheer for that time of the morning.

"Good morning, Alfie," she greeted him with beaming smile.

"Morning, mum," Alf responded before shoving another spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

She sat at the table beside him. "Is that enough for you?" she asked. "I could make pancakes or something. I'm sure we've got eggs."

Alf shook his head. "I'm fine." He honestly didn't think he'd manage to stomach that much this early in the morning. Not to mention he was looking at the prospect of visiting Damien's house later to tell him the good news. And that was not a happy prospect.

"Are you sure?" his mother asked, outwardly a little put out that there seemed to be nothing she could do to make her son's mood match her own.

"Sorry mum." Alf was apologetic.

"It's not your fault," she sighed, getting up from the table and rummaging in the fridge, presumably to see to her own breakfast.

"I'm sorry I haven't been home as much, recently."

His mother turned to give him a sad smile. "You needn't apologise. You're growing up. That's what teenagers do."

"That doesn't mean I don't feel guilty sometimes."

"Well," his mother suggested. "If you've got time to spare today, you could make it up to us. Your father's home from work for once. We could go on a picnic or something."

It took Alf a moment to wonder if he should get right on the Damien situation or if it could wait a day. Surely it could wait a day. It wasn't every day that his father had the day off. The Alduses would surely understand that. In the moment that Alf took to think this over, Mrs Struthers began to grow worried that her son truly didn't want to spend any time with them.

So she was a little startled when Alf suddenly suggested "Let's go to the beach. It's been warm the past few days."

"Sure," she nodded. "I've just got to get some things together. Did you want to invite Damien?"

Alf winced.

"Still not talking to you?" his mother asked rhetorically. "He'll come around." His mother just reminded him of his duties. Damien would come around, merely because Alf would have to make him. "Did you want to invite Jessica instead, then?"

Alf shook his head. "It'd be nice just us."

His mother smiled. "We'll I'm going to get some food ready. You should pack a bag and tell your dad what we're doing."

"Okay," Alf nodded, then headed upstairs. First he knocked on his parents' door, telling his father that they were going to the beach. He didn't seem too enthusiastic, but Alf thought that had something to do with the fact that he'd been woken from his sleep.

He headed into his room and quickly called Jessica on her coin. She didn't pick up, so he left her a message and hoped that it would be okay.

Alf took it upon himself to pack a backpack for himself. He changed into his board shorts, slipped on some thongs and a shirt then went in search of sunscreen. He threw that and a towel, his magical orb and mp3 player into a backpack. He brought that downstairs and looked observed his parents. His mother had packed a bag full of junk food and water bottles. His father was sitting shirtless at the table, hurriedly eating his breakfast of scramble eggs and English muffins.

"Put a shirt on, dad," Alf complained.

He just grinned at his son. "Sorry son, if your mother couldn't make me, why do you think you'd have better luck?"

Alf raised a metaphorical eyebrow. With all the attempting of that gesture, he was certain that in a few months he'd actually be able to raise his right brow. "Well, maybe the combined power of our disgust would be enough?"

"Oh your mother was far from disgusted," his father smirked.

Alf's eyes widened and he sank into a chair covering his eyes and ears by virtue of the fact that he was graced with unusually large hands and a smallish head. "Not listening, not listening."

Mr Struthers laughed at his son's antics and leaned up to plant a kiss on his wife.

"All right, all right," Mrs Struthers stated, lifting plates from the table and placing them in the sink. "We'll just get changed and be ready to go soon."

Half an hour later, his parents were ready and they loaded themselves into their car, headed for the nearest beach.

When they got there it wasn't too crowded, despite the warmth of the weather recently. They set out their towels and sank the beach umbrella into the ground.

Alf ran off to soak quickly, swimming out as far as he dared, remembering to keep between the flags. He hovered in the shallows until he was tired and consequently ravenous before heading back to the set up that his parents were still occupying.

His mother laughed at him as he collapsed onto his towel, complaining of a deadly empty stomach.

"I thought you wanted to spend some time with us, Alfie," his mother goaded.

Alf instantly felt guilty and turned to face his mother. "You have me for the rest of the afternoon."

"Fish and chips for lunch, then?" Alf's dad asked.

"Of course," Alf nodded. He went off and Alf lazily stretched on his towel.

The Struthers family spent a relaxing afternoon at the beach, lounging on the sand and sharing jokes. It was late before they even thought of going home, so grabbed dinner at a McDonalds before heading home.

Alf would have had a much nicer time of it if he hadn't had his Damien issue hanging over his head. He took a deep breath as he tried to get to sleep, his nervousness keeping him up. He could do it. After all, what's the worst that could happen? Damien could try to keep him out, but he knew pretty well how to get through a door. Damien could hurl insults, but what could he say that would hurt more than what had already occurred? Damien could try to attack him, but with his training, and Damien's lack of training, he should be okay. Even if Damien did have better reflexes. And anyway, the Alduses knew where he was, and they'd be able to come to his rescue quickly enough... not to mention collectively they were sure to be better than Damien. It was going to be okay. He hoped.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 26

2006-11-11T16:03:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Jessica and Alf discovered Damien's secret.]]

It was a great deal easier for Jessica to grab her parents' attention than it was for Alf, so he let her do that while he waited in the sitting room where all their important discussions took place.

"All right," Mr Aldus invited, looking every inch a gentleman of leisure. If it weren't for the cut of his shirt and lack of amber alcohol in a glass he'd look like a man out of the nineteenth century. Though, Alf amended, it wasn't quite a fitting description as most men would. "What is it this time?"

"The excitement never stops," Mrs Aldus remarked as she gracefully took her place, before summoning tea and a tray of cakes.

"It's about Alf's friend Damien," Jessica said. "We think he's like Alf."

"Like Alf?" Mr Aldus' eyes widened. "Then it is true! The non-magical folk are evolving."

Alf winced at the way he termed it. Something about it made him feel very offended.

"So he can use magical powers, too?" Mrs Aldus queried. "And he's definitely not related to a family?"

"Well, we haven't checked the book yet," Jessica admitted. Mrs Aldus had summoned it before Jessica had finished that sentence. "But," Jessica continued. "How likely is it for him to live so close to us without us noticing?"

"And," Alf frowned. "If he's always had it, he would have believed me when I told him that I could do strange things."

The adults shared a look. "He doesn't seem like any magical boy I've ever met," Mr Aldus proclaimed.

Meanwhile Jessica had flipped the book open to the appropriate pages. "Nothing," she stated, satisfied.

"Well," Mr Aldus said. "Since you were his friend, I guess you'd better be the one to convince him to meet with us, Alf."

Alf nodded slowly, knowing that it would fall on him, no matter whether he wanted it to or not. And he didn't want to. Definitely not.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 25

2006-11-11T14:53:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: See note for part 24]]

They still hadn't given up on stalking Damien, even if they had given up on tracking him magically. Despite this, Alf and Jessica felt that they hadn't had any just plain hanging out time in so long that they weren't even stalking Damien when the mystery of his money was revealed to them. They were sitting in the window of their local gelato place, eating out of plastic cups with plastic spoons when Alf noticed Damien walking past.

"Do you think we're ever going to find out what's up with him?" Alf asked Jessica, scraping the last of the dessert from the bottom of his red cup then pushing it aside.

Jessica shrugged. "Does it even matter anymore?" she asked with a frown. She still hadn't finished half of her cold treat.

"Kind of," Alf said. "I mean, it's suspicious. What if what he's doing is illegal?"

"What if it's not?" Jessica countered, leaning forward and raising her spoon to emphasise her point.

Alf shifted uncomfortably. He didn't know why it was suddenly so important to him. If he was just jealous or if it was some sort of magical sixth sense. "What made you go along with this in the first place, again?"

"I had a feeling," Jessica responded, immediately sticking her spoon in her mouth afterward, as though afraid to say anything more.

"Don't you still have this feeling?" Alf asked.

"It's died down a bit."

"Are you sure that's not just because you want it to? Because your rational mind says you shouldn't be listening to feelings?"

Suddenly, the sound of laughter broke into their conversation. Alf and Jessica looked up to see who was laughing. Standing beside their table was Rock.

"Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear," he stated with a malicious smirk.

Jessica frowned. "I never picked you for an eavesdropper," she told him.

Rock smiled. "And I never picked you for an idiot."

"Hey!" Jessica protested, not entirely certain if she was supposed to be offended or not.

"But if you're not going to be polite, then I'm not going to tell you what I know."

"Who says we even want to know what you know?" Alf asked with a frown.

"Because it concerns your little friend and his big secret."

Alf and Jessica shared a look. How had he known that that's what they were talking about? How had he known that that was what he was going to do? And how did he even know what Damien's secret was anyway?

"Why would we believe anything you say?" Alf asked.

A sneer curled Rock's lips. "Well, you see," Rock leaned forward placing his hands on the table, as though sharing some huge secret. "You'll know if I tell you."

Jessica had enough of this and smacked her hands on the table, standing as she did so. "Look, either tell us or don't. There's no reason for you to drag it out."

Rock stood straight, trying to use his height to intimidate her. It didn't help. Jessica still remembered a time when she was taller than her cousin. Seeing that he hadn't worked, he just laughed. "He's a freak like you guys are." And with that comment, he walked away.

Jessica was beyond furious. "Don't you dare call us freaks when you know perfectly well that you're the one who's freakish beyond repair." She chased him out of the gelato place, leaving Alf staring at abandoned plastic cups.

Was it true? And had Rock meant what Alf thought he meant when he used the term 'freak'? Did he really mean that Damien was in fact like Alf? That his best friend had scorned him for something he had himself? Called him a liar when he must know it was true?

Alf stood, following Jessica's path out the door. He found the two cousins on the corner, obviously occupied throwing names at each other. Too occupied to noticed that Damien was coming back around the corner kicking a footy. A football that mysteriously always bounced back to his foot.

Alf walked over to Jessica, not taking his eyes off his ex-best friend. He tapped her on the shoulder and merely indicated with his head when she looked at him furiously.

"Oh," she said calmly.

"Told you so," Rock stated, then walked off.

Alf thought about following him, but that wasn't usually well received so he just stood there next to Jessica. Then Damien made eye contact with him. The look that passed over Damien's face revealed all to Alf. He knew that he knew. Damien let the ball slip away and all but ran from the street.

"I can't believe Rock was right," Jessica muttered.

"I can't believe Rock told us," Alf commented.

They looked at each other, and in silent agreement began walking toward Jessica's house.

[[Random note: back-up friends.]]

Story: Beginning Part 1

2006-11-11T14:30:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Yes, you read that correctly, I'm going to attempt to write the first bit of this story in which I introduce the protagonist and all that.]]

He liked to listen to loud angry rock music on the quietest setting his headphones would allow. He liked watching sports on television, but he hated playing them even if he wasn't truly awful. He liked eating taco shells by themselves.

He was Alfonso Struthers. Better known as Alf. Though, depending on who you were, you might have known him better as Alfalfa, or Sprout. But you would have still known as Alfonso Struthers.

Other things he liked included: his best friend Damien Reid, his parents, Alyssa Marx (though he'd never admit it) and bouncing small rubber balls off his ceiling.

So some of the things he liked were a little strange. Some of the things he liked were pretty normal. Alf always thought of himself as pretty mediocre, pretty average, pretty normal. Nothing about his appearance particularly stood out. He had light brown hair and dark brown eyes. He stood in the middle of the middle row in school pictures.

But Alf liked being ordinary. He didn't want to be particularly acknowledged. It was nice to recognised sometimes. But he didn't want to be known as the smartest kid in school, and he didn't want to be known as the most athletic, or the most musical. He was happy being himself. After all, it meant that he could easily find himself when the school photos came back.

Unfortunately, despite what Alf liked, he was suddenly going to find himself being extraordinary... and acknowledged for his efforts, to boot.

[[Neh, it's not so great, but who really cares? It's words!]]

Story: Middle Part 24

2006-11-11T13:39:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: This follows an interlude in Jessica's bedroom.]]

It was Friday when Alf and Jessica finally caught on to what Damien was up to.

[[Yeah it was only a sentence. Who cares?]]

Story: Middle Part 23

2006-11-10T21:32:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Jessica and Alf just decided to spy on Damien.]]

It was more difficult than you might think, spying on someone who used to be your best friend. After all, it was completely suspicious if, after a few weeks of not talking to each other, you suddenly start appearing everywhere your friend was. Alf knew that if Damien was anything like he was, he would be hyper aware of where Alf was at any time. After all, Damien probably thought he had more to be upset about than Alf did.

The next day, the inquisitive duo otherwise known as Alf and Jessica had followed Damien to the local shopping centre where they saw him go into the electronics stores. He bought a couple of games for his Xbox 360, which had both Jessica and Alf raising an eyebrow. A metaphorical eyebrow in Alf's case.

More than once while traipsing around the shopping centre Alf had nearly tripped when Damien stopped unexpectedly, and had Jessica complaining that he should just leave it all to her. At least she had practice at it.

It was three days of walking around the shopping centre before either of them even thought of using magic to track him. Alf because he didn't know how, and Jessica because she knew that they shouldn't. It came about that they were sitting in Jessica's room pondering a small silver coin. It was an enchanted five cent piece. Aliana had helped them, although they'd lied and said they'd wanted to keep track of each other. It was the first time Alf had lied to one of the Alduses, and it did not leave him with a good feeling. It was as though he was betraying his trust, even if Jessica did protest that she was pretty sure Aliana had known they were lying but thought whatever it was they were doing was harmless.

"I still don't know, Jessica," Alf frowned. "I mean, stalking him is one thing, but a tracking device?"

"We don't have to do it, you know," Jessica said. "I never said anything about doing it."

"It's just that it would make it a lot easier on us, since we wouldn't have to follow him everywhere."

"That doesn't mean it's ethical."

"But we've already been following him around. That's clearly unethical."

Jessica squirmed. "Would you make up your mind already? We either do or we don't. He's your friend."

Alf frowned. "He's not my friend anymore." And just saying it made him feel like a petulant child, six years old and determined that no he would not put up with whoever not sharing any longer. Alf flopped back on the bed, throwing his arms up in apparent exasperation. "Stuff this." He flicked the coin into the air and attached it to the ceiling.

Jessica gave him a look and pulled it down, grabbing it with her hand. "What do you reckon we should do with it?" She lifted it up, as though reading its surface would tell her what to do with it.

"Maybe we should do what we said we'd do," Alf stated. "Use them to keep tabs on each other."

Jessica smiled. "In that case I have heaps of ideas about what we can do with them. It can be like a project. We can use them as like walkie talkies and have conversations."

Alf matched her grin. "That's a neat idea."

"And I was thinking we could pierce holes through the centres and wear them on chains."

"Cool," Alf agreed, mainly because Jessica seemed so enthused. He was still of the opinion that a five cent piece on a chain seemed rather girly. It could at least have been a full dollar or two.

Jessica then ran off, presumably to find supplies leaving Alf alone, sprawled on her bed. Right now seemed like a pretty good time to have a nap.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 22

2006-11-10T19:26:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Alf just finished talking to Rock.]]

The next day at school, Alf found it hard to ignore when Damien, who was in his science class, when he began bragging about the brand new game he had for the Nintendo DS that Alf was pretty sure he hadn't had yesterday. He listened intently as one of the other boys asked where he'd gotten the money from.

"The PSP was a present," Damien explained. "I bought the DS with my allowance."

"You must have been saving for that for ages," someone commented.

Damien had been, Alf knew. But he also knew that with his currently weekly allowance of six dollars, he wasn't going to have enough to by the DS for another few months, even with the odd jobs that he did sometimes. Especially since Damien was a vicious spendthrift and had trouble saving two dollars a week.

"Yeah," Damien responded. Then added, seemingly for Alf's benefit, "It's helped that my parents upped my allowance."

"Is it wrong to be so suspicious of him?" Alf asked Jessica when they met up for lunch. "I mean, I know he wouldn't have had enough with six dollars a week, and he said that his parents had raised it. But he's been bugging them about it for ages and they've always thought that six dollars was reasonable. Even if he bartered them up to ten it would still have taken up until Christmas, at least."

Jessica was silent.

"I guess I'm just jealous. I mean, he dumps me as his best friend, then he goes and gets a bigger allowance and cooler things."

"You know," Jessica began in quite a serious voice. "Even if the PSP was a present, and he saved up enough money for a DS. It still doesn't explain his watch."

"And his birthday isn't until May. Not to mention why would anyone give you a present so close to Christmas time... unless of course, it was a Christmas present. But then wouldn't he have said that?" Alf was too preoccupied by this new information to notice that Jessica had spoken to him straight. "Is it stalkery for me to have noticed all of this about him?"

"I've noticed it too," Jessica added. "Something doesn't seem quite right."

"But you're influenced by hanging out with me too much."

"That doesn't mean I don't come to my own conclusions about things, Alf."

"Well, if that's not stalkery. Do you think it would be if we-?" here Alf paused, as though afraid of expressing this idea. "If we spied on him?"

Jessica looked at Alf seriously. "I was just thinking the same thing."

"Hey wait a second," Alf looked at Jessica. "Aren't you supposed to find a moral fault with my actions?"

"You forget, Alf," Jessica stated. "I spied on you before I approached you."

Alf shut up immediately, suddenly worried about what she'd seen and what she'd noticed in a way he hadn't before.

Jessica rolled her eyes. "I didn't see anything you have to be worried about."

Story: Middle Part 21

2006-11-10T18:29:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Alf just encountered Rock who was attempting to leave the school.]]

"Rock!" Alf called again, just as he caught up to the larger teen.

"I am not speaking to you, Sprout," Rock stated, adding the nickname in reluctantly as though he was worried that it sounded more affectionate than it really should have.

"Oh come on," Alf pleaded. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"We haven't got anything to talk about," Rock protested, waving his hands a little more violently than was necessary.

Alf shrugged. He was getting used to Rock. "That doesn't mean we couldn't still find something to talk about."

Rock looked at Alf, finally stopping in his travels (not that he had a destination in mind anyway) as though daring him to find something that they had in common.

"Uh, did you watch the Bears game on Saturday?" Alf asked, figuring that Rock, as a guy would find something in common with him through sports.

Rock just looked at him as though he was an idiot. Apparently the question didn't even deserve a reply, as Rock walked off again. This time, Alf didn't bother to chase after him.

Maybe Rock was right. If he didn't feel sorry for him, and more than a little intrigued, Alf would never bother to even try to befriend Rock. He himself would have thought that they didn't have anything in common. So why was he trying? Maybe he really had gone so far as to adopt Jessica's, and consequently Rock's, family. Alf made a mental note to get to know his family better instead.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 20

2006-11-10T18:08:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Alf just proposed his plan to the Alduses. They liked it.
I wrote this in bed last night before I fell asleep.]]

On Monday, Jessica and Alf were sitting in their usual spot, eating lunch. As usual, Alf's eyes were drawn toward the corner of the quadrangle where Damien was sitting his his new friends. Although, strictly speaking, they weren't new friends. Damien had always been friends with them, but it was always just him and Alf when it mattered.

On this occasion, Damien was proudly brandishing a new digital watch which displayed the time in three different cities, could go underwater twenty thousand leagues, and beeped the time in Morse code if you pressed a button. All entirely useless functions if you were Damien. He never traveled to different time zones, let along three separate cities. Damien could swim no better than the average Australian boy, and would never go twenty thousand leagues deep even in a submarine as he was afraid of sharks beyond reasonable measures. Not to mention the obvious reference to Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, would probably have been lost on Damien. And the extent of Damien's knowledge of Morse code was that three short, two long, then another three short meant SMS. In an unforgivingly jealous moment, Alf noted that Damien probably couldn't split the series of dots and dashes into its corresponding letters.

This Alf related to Jessica. In her usual roundabout way, Jessica mentioned that he had a new PSP, too. A white one. If you want to know what that sounds like coming from Jessica, it's along the lines of: the bower bird has added a new colour to its bower. It was like code in itself.

One of Alf's thoughts only to be thought within the confines of his wardrobe was that Jessica did speak in code. Perhaps she was cursed that way. Or perhaps she was simply so worrried about people knowing what she thought that she scrambled them before they came out. Another wardrobe thought was how she managed to pass her classes. Obviously she would be okay in English, as all she'd write would be one gigantic metaphor or allegory, but he wondered how she did so well in her other subjects. Surely you needed practice at using the English language.

And Jessica did do well. She was known for winning the Principal's prize for dux of the year every year since she started at East Hills, unlike mediocre Alf. The following wardrobe thought was that she used magic. Or her parents did. He didn't think Jessica was capable of such unethical behaviour (unless she was hiding her true evilness behind bower bird code), but it was a completely different matter when applied to her parents. In fact, Alf wasn't certain if their ready acceptance of proposing his plan to the council was to pretend they'd thought of it themselves for greater glory, as much as they liked to pretend that their family wasn't really all that special.

None of these thoughts changed the fact that Alf was jealous of Damien. All the more when he noticed Alyssa Marx was part of Damien's little group, and sitting right next to him, listening intently to every word he said about his new game.

But with a turn of the head, Alf left his jealousy behind when he noticed Rock trying to sneak around the corner of one of the school buildings. He said a hasty farewell to Jessica who merely checked her own watch before she began drawing in a notebook.

"Rock!" he called as he ran, calling attention from half of the playground. If he'd taken a second to look, he would have noticed that Damien was wearing a look of jealousy similar to the one that Alf had been sporting earlier regarding the watch and the PSP.

Rock, in his usual fashion, pretended not to hear Alf and went about his business. In fact, since he'd been trying to sneak off school grounds at that moment, he adjusted his path to make it look as though he was headed toward a bathroom.

This wasn't the first time that Alf had tried to approach Rock since he'd proposed the truce to him. In fact, he'd been so disheartened that he'd ranted to Jessica. In fact, that was as close to a true argument with Jessica he'd had. She had told him, straight for once, that no matter what she'd tried, Rock still thought she was an idiot, so eventually she'd stopped trying and that he should too, because Rock was never going to learn that not everyone was out to get him. It seemed that nothing but Rock could cause otherwise happy Alduses to have complete personality rotations. And despite what Jessica thought, Alf was still determined to find out why.

[[And then I fell asleep.]]

Story: Middle Part 19

2006-11-10T18:02:00.001+11:00

[[Continuity Note: We find Alf and Jessica walking home, for Alf to tell the Alduses his great news.]]

Jessica and her parents, and Alf himself sat in the sitting room where they'd had their original meeting, in a set-up akin to that life-changing moment. The monumentality of the current situation wasn't lost on Alf.

"So what is it you wanted to speak to us about, Alf?" Mrs Aldus asked.

Alf looked at her. Had she really agreed to a meeting when she didn't know what he was going to be talking about? Had she really forgotten since this morning? Admittedly it was quite early in the morning, but she had been awake when he'd arrived, barefoot in his pyjamas.

"I have a possible solution to the council's problem," Alf said.

The adults looked a little sceptical, but seemed to think that since they'd allowed this meeting in the first place, they had better go through with listening to what Alf had to say.

"Okay," Mr Aldus stated. "What is it then, Alf?"

"Well, Aliana's made me listen to the past few council meetings over the past few days. And it occured to me that they way they've proposed to integrate into the non-magical world is wrong."

The three Alduses looked quite offended at that statement, and Alf worried that they wouldn't pay further attention, so amended his comment. "Well not wrong per se. It's just not the most inconspicuous way to go about it."

"But it's a monumental occasion," Mr Aldus protested. "Of course it shouldn't be inconspicuous. It should be very conspicuous since there are hundreds of magical people suddenly declaring themselves different. We shouldn't be hiding, we should be proclaiming."

Well, if Alf had wanted the answer to the question about which side of the debate Mr Aldus was on it became quite clear that moment. He hadn't expected the mere voicing of his idea to be so difficult. He had expected the difficulties later, when they'd actually heard what he had to say. Perhaps he just should have said it.

"Of course," Alf agreed verbally. "But the main problem with that idea is that we have no idea how well everyone is going to be received throughout the world, especially since people are known to be jealous and intolerant of what they don't understand."

"Right," Mrs Aldus agreed.

Meanwhile, Jessica was catching on to what Alf was saying, but didn't want to ruin his thunder.

"Basically, we should be prototyping and testing people's reactions to magical society."

"And how do you propose we do that?" Mr Aldus asked, with a note of scepticism still present in his voice.

"Well, who are the people most likely to accept the fact that there are magical people in the world?" Jessica was about to answer, but Alf noticed, and continued regardless. It was a rhetorical question. "Their friends, people who know them well, of course. I think that each person should tell their best friend or whoever close to them, and, judge by their reactions how well they'd be received in that community. Once they're okay, everyone can tell someone else, and eventually, the whole world will know."

The elder Alduses sat in stunned silence. Jessica sat as though pleased that she'd been able to discover the one who would solve their problem.

"My dear boy," Mr Aldus proclaimed. "That is sheer genius."

"And so simple," Mrs Aldus remarked. "It's a wonder no one in the council had thought of it earlier."

Alf thought it dreadfully obvious why no one magical had thought of it. They'd never heard of the term 'prototyping' before. The other, real, reason was evidenced in Mr Aldus' reaction. They'd never thought about it before because they wanted to do it in a large scale way. Mr Aldus wanted parades and fanfare. The council members wanted political assistance. Alf just thought about the problem.

"I think Alf should propose his idea at the next council meeting," Jessica voiced.

Alf immediately went pale. He'd had enough of council meetings. They were dreadfully boring and seemed to do basically nothing. "I don't think that's such a good idea. I was thinking either you, Mr Aldus, or Mrs Aldus could do it," he sad, looking toward the adults.

"You're right, Alf," Mr Aldus agreed. "They wouldn't go for a plan if you were the one that pitched it to them. One of us will have to pretend that we came up with it, unfortunately. It would be nice if they would go for it if you proposed it."

"But they wouldn't," Alf agreed, merely glad that there was an actual reason for him not going besides the fact that he was scared of being bored to death. Council politics just didn't interest him the way it should have. On the other hand, he was also a little offended that the council wouldn't believe anything he said. But he had gotten the impression at the meeting he attended that they thought of him as a mere oddity, and largely an outsider as he'd been raised without any knowledge of the way real magic worked. They wouldn't put any stock in what he thought. It had been difficult enough for the Alduses to grasp it, despite their knowledge of his character.

"I think, Karen," Mr Aldus said, turning toward his wife. "You should be the one to propose it. Bela Kun has not thought much of my opinion since I commented on the size of his nose, and I fear his will be the deciding vote."

"All right," Mrs Aldus nodded. "Is that all right with you, Alf?"

"Sure," Alf nodded in return.

"We'll work on the proposal together," Mr Aldus said to his wife. "Then run it by you when it's finished, Alf."

"What about me?" Jessica asked. The acceptance of Alf into the family as one of their own had diminished some of the spotlight on Jessica, the picture of an only child.

Mr Aldus looked at his daughter as though he'd forgotten her presence. "Of course you can look at it then, too, Jessica," he mollified her.

The rest of the evening was spent discussing the plan in more detail so that Mr and Mrs Aldus could put it together in speech format without Alf's help. The winds of change were blowing, but Alf wasn't going to stick around to see which way the wind would blow next.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 17 and 18

2006-11-10T18:01:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Alf's in bed with his magical mystical oracle orb.]]

He soon fell asleep listening to the droning voice of Bela Kun. He was against the apparent magical assimilation and his main arguments were that they'd had all this opportunity before, and why hadn't they done so? Because people were in general unaccomodating. This was the third meeting, the fourth if you counted the one that Alf had been physically present at, that Alf had listened to, and it seemed as though they only rehashed the same arguments. The current council spokesperson, Ewa Markiewicz was for the transition, and her main argument was that all people, including them, should be allowed to fully express themselves. For a spokesperson, her voice really wasn't very nice to listen to, Alf had noted that attribute some time into the first hour of council meetings.

Alf awoke to a startling realisation. And no, it wasn't that he'd forgotten to write his essay... that startling realisation came later... in third period. Alf's startling realisation was that he knew how to resolve the crisis. What crisis? The council's crisis. He was so excited that he ran to Jessica's house before school to speak to Mr Aldus. Unfortunately for Alf, Mr Aldus wasn't in, so he'd have to wait until after school to speak with him.

In Alf's third period history class, as previously mentioned, Alf's history teacher mentioned an essay which he then finally remembered. Of course, it was too late now, but it became clear to Alfie that this was probably a problem he was going to have for the rest of his life: the problem of juggling magical things with normal, non things.

After school, he walked home with Jessica. He'd refused to tell her his idea since he wasn't sure if it was completely stupid, or just a little bit stupid, and he didn't want to have to say it more than once. Instead, he wanted her to wait until they got home.

[[I think my crappiness about the whole thing was reflected in my writing. But at least it's up now, right?]]

An actual author's note

2006-11-10T17:55:00.000+11:00

That's when you know things have been truly hellish, when you feel the need to blog your lack of written material. Whoever thought a poor internet connection could wreak such havoc on one's writing? I certainly didn't and it's enough to chuck me way back to the not on time stretch... I think. It all depends on how it goes for the rest of today, I suppose. I'm losing steam which is never a good thing.

If you're wondering where parts 17 and 18 are (provided part 19 goes up... see, this is why I numbered them), I'll probably chuck the ... hundred or so words that comprise it into one blog when I can be certain that it's actually going to be posted.

My lack of internet connection also means that my word count is now horribly wrong and I'm really going to have to fix it. And that is my frustration for the day. Vented, now I shall move on.

Story: Middle Part 16

2006-11-08T16:32:00.001+11:00

[[Continuity Node: Alf just found out that Rock can't do magic.
I am writing on a bus.]]

Alf lay on his bed, holding his orb oracle ten centimetres above his face using magic. Despite the fact that Aliana wanted nothing to do wiht magical politics, she thought it would benefic Alf, especially since he had just turned himself into a political controversy. Following their vein of thought, she had assigned the last three council meetings as listening material before their next theoretical class.

Alf had class every week, and they alternated between theory and practical each week. Much like with his school work, Alf found himself procrastinating this less interesting work so found that he now had three hours of council meeting to listen to from the one two months ago that had been held in Majorca, Spain. As well as that, he had a history essay to write on the Stolen Generation. And the orb knew pretty much nothing about that, except to say that Evangeline Aldus worked to reunite children with their families. Since she did this by tracing their genes using a complicated spell, Alf didn't think this was worth mentioning in his essay.

[[That's where I gave up on the bus. Was feeling queasy.]]

Story: Middle Part 15

2006-11-07T17:22:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Alf is having a lesson when Rock wanders in, apparently looking for his mother, Aliana... I forgot to mention somewhere, but she's not actually 29 but older, she just looks 29. Anyway, Alf is confused and determined to make amends with the boy.]]

All the way home, and all through the next day, Alf thought about what he had seen. Aliana never mentioned anything about her personal life, and it was strange to see a woman usually so happy and full of life so cold toward her own son. While Alf wanted to believe that it was completely Rock's fault and that whatever he'd done must have been awful, something told him that Rock wasn't that awful, and that what happened probably wasn't even his fault.

So when Alf saw Rock the next day after school, he stopped him.

"Wait, Rock," he called.

Rock continued walking, knowing exactly who it was.

Alf ran to catch up to him.

"If this is about yesterday," Rock spat, not making eye contact with the smaller teen. "It's none of your business."

"I wasn't going to say anything," Alf replied, surprising Rock.

"Then what do you want?"

"I sort of," Alf nervously shifted his backpack from one shoulder to the other.

Rock continued walking with no patience.

"I thought we could call a truce," Alf voiced.

Rock looked at him, then laughed in his face. "A truce? What makes you think I'd agree to something like that? I'm the one who started this, remember?"

Alf shrugged, though the effect was lost as he struggled to keep up with Rock's larger strides. "So what? Does that mean we can't finish it?"

Rock looked at Alf with malice in his eyes. "That's exactly what it means."

Alf stopped following, confused. What had he ever done that so irritated Rock? "What did I do?" he called after the older boy's retreating back.

"What did you do?" Rock repeated, turning around and coming back to stand right in front of Alf, invading his personal space and intimidating him with physical distance, or rather, the lack of. "You did everything I couldn't. Can do everything I can't."

Alf looked at him, confused.

Rock rolled his eyes and spelt it out for Alf. "I can't do magic," he whispered.

Alf's eyes widened in shock as he processed this, but Rock had walked off by that point. He'd heard about people in the magical families who weren't able to do magic. Jessica had mentioned that they were generally treated as though they were magical, even if they weren't. She'd never mentioned that there were any in her own family. She'd never mentioned that Rock was her cousin, even. Admittedly, Alf had never mentioned Rock to her either. He had been a bit of a sore point since the way he learned of his magic came up, and the way that Damien had blamed Rock for their friendship's demise.

Alf was suddenly even more determined to get down to the bottom of Rock, and he wasn't even going to let Rock stop him.

[[End Scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 14

2006-11-07T16:36:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: We had a 'touching' moment with Alf and Jessica, and now it's back to the story.]]

Alf was practicing controlling his ability to make objects levitate with a rather large block of metal that Aliana would gradually make bigger or smaller. Alf's task was to maintain it at the same height, preferably with his eyes closed. It was taking a great deal of concentration, and, seemingly confused about what to do, his body appeared to be sweating instead of some sort of magical perspiration.

"Aliana," Alf asked cautiously. She was known to increase the size of the object while he was occupied asking a question. "What's the equi-" he paused in his speech to compensate for the twenty kilos the thing had just gained "the equivalent of-" suddenly the thing shrank and he had to concentrate on keeping it from shooting to the ceiling... or worse. "of magical perspiration?"

He wasn't looking at her, so he didn't see her curious expression. "Sweat," she responded, then flicked a finger to make the object slightly larger. Alf dealt with it quite well. "Magic keeps to itself quite well. It doesn't exude out to balance you out. It just is. The body feels like it has to do something-" here she shrank the object again. "So it sweats."

She was trying to explain to Alf, much like Yoda and Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back (Alf's inner geek analogised), that the size of the object doesn't matter when applying magic to it. It's not about how big it is, it just matters that it is. So far, Alf hadn't quite been able to grasp that, causing him to spend too much of his brain and magical power focusing on the size and physical weight of it.

"Mum!" a voice called, breaking Alf's concentration and causing him to lose control of the object, as Aliana increased its size. It hurtled toward him strangely, and Alf did not duck in time. But instead of visibly scarring him for life, it simply bounced off him as though it weighed nothing. Alf looked at it, confused.

"Rock, I've told you not to interrupt me while I'm with a student," Aliana reprimanded.

Rock? Alf looked toward the door where his high school nemesis was looking at him with a similar expression.

"I didn't know. I didn't realise you were tutoring Sprout," Rock said, letting the distaste slip through his words.

Aliana gave her son a stern glare, reminding Alf that he would not like to have that woman as his mother. "If you'd come home for dinner more often you would know."

"Can I talk to you?" Rock asked, the most polite Alf had ever seen him.

"I'm busy at the moment," Aliana huffed. "You can't make demands upon people's time when you don't give them anything in return."

Alf had the uncomfortable feeling that he'd walked into something quite huge, and it definitely wasn't somewhere he wanted to be.

"It's important," Rock stated, looking at Alf as though wishing he would go away. Alf was wishing he could go away. The only thing keeping him there was Aliana's death glare that promised fates worse than death were he to leave.

"And so is Alf's training."

Rock looked upon Alf with the worst look Alf had ever seen on his face. One of total heartbroken despair. And Alf wondered what it was that had led the family members to that point. He turned on his heel immediately, and quickly strode away.

"Now where were we?" Aliana asked, though she wasn't expecting a reply. Someone may even have called it a rhetorical question.

Alf's mind was no longer on it. Dimly remembering that he was meant to be lifting the object, he hoisted it up, remembering that it was actually lighter than a feather.

Aliana looked at Alf's face. "I think that's enough of that." She then pulled a bowling ball from somewhere, she picked it up, then threw it at Alf. "Catch."

Automatically, Alf felt his hands lift, but they were restrained by some unseen force. He didn't have time to ponder that, though because there was a bowling ball headed for his face.

And then there wasn't a bowling ball headed for his face. He had managed to stop it in mid flight, despite its velocity and apparent mass.

"Lesson learned," Aliana smiled triumphantly, and let go of Alf's wrists. "You can go for today."

Alf only nodded gladly and walked off.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 13

2006-11-07T16:26:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: What follows is filler, to show what happens after Alf has his first magical lesson, and to document the deepening of his relationship with Jessica, and to further highlight the separation between Alf and Damien.]]

After that first lesson, Alf found using his magical orb (which he'd secretly nicknamed Fla... Alf backwards) a great help. It told him that the information that it carried had been derived from the Aldus family library, and that it magically updated when someone added a book, or note to the library. When Alf had asked about the different voices it carried, it stated that the voice was portrayed by the author of whoever had written the text. Of course Alf then went on to ask about whose voice it carried otherwise, and it was Aliana's, though Alf had already guessed that.

He was so absorbed in what it told him that he found himself staying up long past his bedtime just listening to it, and asking it questions. It was through experimentation that he discovered that it could also record anything he said, though he had to be careful with that function as he discovered no way to delete what he'd recorded, so if anyone asked it what Alf had said that time it would be sure to repeat it in Alf's tone of voice. He discovered that not everything it said was in fact fact, as some of the tomes in the Aldus family library were magical novels, written by a devoted legion of authors throughout the ages.

He discovered that it also kept note of the last questions that it was asked, and also that he had no idea how to delete that, either. He didn't particularly want some sensitive questions like "Is anyone reading my mind right now?" to be discoverable by anyone who happened upon the orb. It was times like these that he wished the orb came with instructions. Finally he had the thought to ask the orb about deleting things... and it gladly told him how. It would be a long time before Alf stopped inwardly kicking himself for not asking it what to do in the first place.

The orb was his new best friend. He liked it even better than Google. He was sure to not actually say this out loud as he didn't want his computer, or Google itself to hear him say it. He was certain that there were a multitude of technical things that the orb did not know that Google would... he was certain because he'd tried asking it about processor speeds and the answer was only a "Would you like to insert a new article on 'processor speeds'?" where 'processor speeds' had been played back to him in the voice he'd asked the question in.

Speaking of new best friends, Alf and Jessica were on much better terms these days. He'd grown to tolerate her useless off topic natterings, and she'd grown to well, acknowledge that he existed. Their relationship was rather strange, they would sit together at lunch times, then Alf would begin a conversation. By the time Jessica got her opening to speak, she'd begin talking about something only related to what Alf stated in the mysterious workings of her mind. Alf wondered if it was because she was so unused to having normal conversations with people her age. Even her multitude of cousins didn't seem to be able to understand what went on in her mind.

The curiousness of their conversation really increased when Alf took his turn. He'd continue on the first topic, almost as though Jessica had not spoken, but seemed to be taking into account the various things she'd said that weren't related. In that, the two of them were a perfect match. They seemed to understand each other, despite whatever words they were actually saying.

"Do you think the Nintendo Wii is really going to be better than the PlayStation 3?" Alf asked Jessica.

She looked back at him a moment. "Well, the last time my cousin Gabriela went apple picking with her mother, the grower let her take home some apple seeds. Of course she planted them in our backyard and the trees are still growing. So we don't know if they're red apples or green apples."

"Yeah, I see what you're saying. I guess we aren't going to know until next year when the PS3 comes out. Until them I'm still going to get the best use out of my PS2."

"Yeah," Jessica agreed. "I like using Granny Smiths when I make apple pies, but some people like using red ones better, even though they're kind of sweet. They like that you can just eat the red ones as well, so it's not as specialised. But I really like eating Granny Smiths raw anyway, even if they are kind of sour. Don't you reckon they taste just as good?"

But before Alf could continue expounding upon the benefits of purchasing new PS2 games when PS3 versions would be coming out soon, he noticed Damien seemingly coming towards them. His dialogue died upon his lips as he wondered if his ex-best friend was finally going to apologise to him.

Jessica, decided not to intrude upon his moment, idly opening a notebook and beginning to scratch idly in the corner.

Alf looked at him with a small amount of regret. As much as he wanted his best friend back, it probably wasn't right of him to have one who didn't know anything about magic at all, now. And he had Jessica, even if she was a rather spacey girl. At least she was intelligent, and funny even though most of the time she didn't know that she was being funny. Not to mention Damien had been truly evil to him, calling him a liar, and then telling the entire school that he was one. It wasn't something Alf could forgive at the moment, even if the rumours had died down and all they really gossiped about was whether Hannah Frost had lost her virginity like she had claimed in the girls' bathroom one morning.

Damien looked up and saw him looking at him. He seemed to stop himself from taking a step further, then walked away.

Alf looked down in regret. Maybe his ex-best friend hadn't wanted to apologise after all. He put the headphones of his mp3 player on, then drowned himself in the haunted tones of Evanescence.

Jessica sat beside him, wishing there was some way to make it better.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 12

2006-11-07T15:43:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Alf is about to start magic training and is introducing us to his teacher.]]

and that therefore, she was younger than him. Despite what Mr Aldus had intended, it merely had them speculating about his own age. Them being the wider magical community within Sydney that mostly consisted of the Aldus family, with only a few more beyond that.

"Now," Aliana began on their first lesson. "I suppose you think these are going to be terribly boring lessons about magical history and all that stuff that isn't fun about when not to use your powers, and how not to use your powers."

Alf had one of those feelings as though the other person was reading his mind. He had almost resolved to wearing a foil hat like Foaly in the Artemis Fowl books. But he supposed that as well as making him look stupid, it would also not work and perhaps he'd be guarding against nothing. He really wished people would stop trying to read his mind. It's not as though anything particularly interesting went on in it.

As though sensing that her pupil was gone for the time being, Aliana sat patiently for a minute before clicking, causing a gigantic thunderclap to sound in the room. It shook Alf from his thoughts for the time being. "Sorry," he apologised.

"Now, Alf, paying attention is a very important skill to have, especially when you've completed your training and want to join the rest of magical society."

"What exactly do magical people do?"

"Oh, general overseeing of the populus. These days they mostly look after themselves, besides you know, global warming and global warring. You'll have the adults like me who teach people. Take my husband, he's basically given up magic and just become a dentist. Then there's my brother who basically watches Antarctica. I don't suppose it sounds very fascinating to you, either, which is why I always had the suspicion that he does something else with his time. Karen and her sisters are kind of nursemaids. Karen's official, non-magical occupation is as a midwife and she's proud to say that no baby has ever died on her watch. So really, there's a number of different things you could do."

Alf nodded, hoping that he'd end up being the sort of magic user of leisure that Dr Aldus was.

"Now, the history of magic is not all that important except as a learning tool so that we know what not to do. But today, I'm going to start you learning about magic. What is magic? What's it made of? They're probably questions you've thought, especially since you seem like the sort of kid that spends a lot of time looking through a microscope."

Alf was indignant. "I'm not that sort of kid. I like a good game of footy as much as the next bloke."

"Sure, sure. I was just saying. You have thought about that, haven't you?"

"Well, yes. But that's just because I'm an incredibly curious person."

"Of course," Aliana nodded. "Right." Using a finger, she beckoned to an unseen object, which landed in her hands moments later. "This is your teaching orb," she said, holding it up. It was a small blue sphere, about the size of a golf ball. "Catch," she said, throwing it at him.

And though Alf was eager to prove that he was as athletic as the non-geeky boy, he missed. Luckily it bounced harmlessly on the ground, despite the fact that it seemed like the sort of thing that would break.

"Be careful with that," Aliana commanded with a stern look on her face. Behind her oversized glasses, Alf felt that she was actually laughing at him.

"So what does it do?" Alf asked, rotating the globe slowly between his fingers, peering at it as though a specimen under a microscope that he claimed to have never used before.

"Well, it has two main functionalities. You can either ask it a question, like 'What's the date of the next full moon?'." She looked at Alf, as though encouraging him to try it out.

"When's the next full moon?" Alf paraphrased. It didn't glow briefly, but then an eerie voice spoke,

"The fifth day of the month of December." Alf looked at it wonderingly.

"Or you can ask it to go into encyclopaedia mode, and then it will just tell you things. For example, ask it to tell you about the witches' hand in World War II."

"Tell me what witches had to do with World War II," Alf paraphrased.

The orb began to speak in a slightly less robotic voice. The voice this time came out more full of character, and sounded quite a bit more female than male like the previous voice. "The role of female magic users, or more colloquially, witches in the second world war as defined by the non-magic users is one that is quite varied and complex. While no female magic user, or indeed, a single male magic user, participated in the active warfare as had been dictated by the current magical council, female magic users did play a large role. Haephesta Sigbjörnsson, the magical council spokesperson was the first to notice that the centre of the conflict arose from the suspicious intent of the German leader Adolf Hitler-"

"Pause," Aliana commanded after taking the ball from Alf.

"It's like Wikipedia for magical people," Alf commented.

Not quite sure what Wikipedia was, Aliana chose to ignore that comment. "So you see, Alf, you can pause it like so. Repeat." And the globe began again

"Haephesta Sigbjörnsson, the magical council spokesperson..."

"If you want it to go back farther than a sentence, you'll have to say Rewind, and Stop when you hear it come to the appropriate place. It's very much like a tape recorder."

"You can use all the same terms you'd use for one as well. Fast forward, louder, softer, slow down. I based the design on a CD player and some nons' learning tapes."

"Where does the information come from?" Alf asked.

"Why don't you ask it?" Aliana suggested, offering the ball back to Alf. "So that will be your homework for the week. Familiarise yourself with the globe, and specifically ask it about magic. I'm expecting you to be able to tell me what magic is, what it's made of, and what its primary purpose is by this time next Tuesday. And make sure that you don't let anyone else get a hold of it. No nons, anyway. I guess your parents are all right, but no one else. I haven't yet managed to work out how to key it to a specific magical person, or even magic itself so it will play for anyone. And we don't want nons finding out about us just yet. Not until at least the next council meeting, anyway."

"Do you really think they're going to vote for assimilation?" Alf asked.

Aliana shrugged. "It makes no difference to me. I don't remember the last time I spoke to a non."

"They might turn up at the house, though. It will be fairly obvious that this is the magical epicentre of this part of Sydney."

"Well, that's a question of what's to come in the future," Aliana stated. "And I don't like to delve too far into that." She winced slightly, as though having experienced the cons of seeing too far into the future.

"Thanks Aliana," Alf said as he left to find Jessica before he went home.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 11

2006-11-06T23:08:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: I decided that descriptions would probably be more useful than anything else.
Alf just went to a council meeting then decided to go to sleep. Meanwhile the parents discuss his future. We pick up the next morning.]]

The next day Alf discovered that he was going to be starting training sessions with one of the Aldus family members. As head of the family, Mr Aldus was too busy tending to things. When Alf asked what sort of things, Mr Aldus had said: Family things. Alf had put "What does Mr Aldus actually do?" amongst the other thoughts to be thought later.

It turned out that Jessica's aunt who lived in the house was actually the one who usually taught kids about their magical powers. They thought it would be a bit mean to put him in with another pair of nieces who were currently having lessons (Jessica had graduated from her lessons about a year earlier), so Alf would be having private lessons from Aliana (who he conceded to not calling Mrs Aldus because it would confuse him with Karen who was in his mind the Mrs Aldus, and because at twenty-nine, she wasn't really that old yet).

He met Aliana the next Tuesday, when Alf would be regularly having lessons from now on. She was, well, Alf would describe her as a gypsy, but as she was not known to roam at all beyond the boundaries of the Aldus land. It was something of a legend, how long she'd lived in the house, though Mr Aldus would state that she was his baby sister.

[[I so wanted to do more tonight... ugh. This has taken first priority over studying, that is so wrong... Now I remember why I wrote barely anything the first two days, I was still in study mode... and now I'm not. Now I just want them over.]]

Story: Middle Part 10

2006-11-06T19:43:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Whatever do you reckon?]]

Mrs Aldus popped out at that moment, greeting the three waiting for her. Apparently they were in the penthouse suite of one of the biggest hotels in Zurich.

The meeting was being held around a gigantic table in the middle of the next room. Alf was introduced to council member after council member, promptly forgetting each's name to make room for the next one. The council leader appeared to be a woman named Adelina Granada. She was from Nicaragua, a country Alf was pretty sure he'd never heard of before. In fact, most of them were, and he wondered why the magical community had decided to live in such strange countries.

After a brief overview of Alf's heritage, and the telling summoning of the book, the council began to debate the important matter of possible methods for assimilation and whether or not their integration was even necessary. Alf began to get bored, though to tell the truth, he had begun to get bored throughout the entire proceedings. The council, in the way that officials often do, had the ability to make any subject boring. Surely the fact that you exist throwing the country into political turmoil would entertain you? Alf just struggled to stay awake when he would normally be tucked into bed. He wondered why he hadn't thought about that when they left at nine o'clock at night. Perhaps he'd thought that he wouldn't be tired, or jetlagged or completely thrown off. It seemed that all the usual symptoms of long distance travel were there, despite the lack of twenty-hour long plane journey.

Saying a fond farewell (and secretly hoping never to see them again), Alf and the Alduses headed for Sydney. They quickly bundled him into their car, keenly aware of their young friend's fatigue, and dropped him off. Alf left the adults to their talk, heading straight to bed without a thought.

[[End scene.]]

Official Character List

2006-11-06T17:40:00.000+11:00

[[I realised that I keep forgetting their names, so here they are. I guess I'll update this post and flag it at the side for easy access.]]

Major Characters
Alfonso Struthers - (14) The Main Character. Bites his nails a lot as a nervous habit. Is in year nine at East Hills High School.
Damien Reid - (14) His ex-best friend, has red hair
Jessica Aldus - (15) a girl whose family has a history of witchcraft in it
Rock Aldus - (16) Jessica's cousin and a boy who's never been able to use magic before. Enjoys bullying Alf. Has a brother.

Kent Struthers - Alf's father.
Miriam Struthers - Alf's mother.

Frederick Aldus - Jessica's father
Karen Aldus - Jessica's mother

Aliana Aldus - the dentist's wife and Alfonso's magical tutor, Rock and his brother's mother.

Dexter Wiley - magi-wizard who studies Alf and co.
Mary-Ann Aldus - magi-wizard who studies Alf and co. Frederick and Aliana's cousin.

Marie Clavel - Belgian council member
Camila Vasconcelos - Peruvian council member
Jose Plata - Uruguayan council member
Derek Aldus - Australian council member (Kent's cousin)
Ewa Markiewicz - Polish council member (Council spokesperson)
Lucie Beauchamp - Mayotte council member
Hafiz Muscat - Omanian council member
Kisora Shiwalik - Bhutanian council member
Bela Kun - Hungarian council member (male)
Pierre Fulke - Martinique council member
Adelina Granada - Nicaraguan council member (council leader)
Runólfur Sigbjörnsson - Icelandic council member
[[Something tells me that people usually pay more attention to choosing names and that of people from different nationalities.
And of course there are more members, but I'm going to go watch Bert's Family Feud, lol.]]

Alyssa Marx - a girl in Alf and Damien's year. Possible love interest, but not in this book... it would look out of place.

Owin Ramon - Alf's supervisor at the nursery. The NaNoWriMo anagrammed character.

Eric Aldus - Rock's older brother.

Minor Characters
Mr and Mrs Reid - Damien's parents
Chris and Mark - guys in Alf's year. Part of the bunch Damien hangs out with when Alf's not there.
Principal Porter - Principal at East Hills High School
Ms Welch - Year nine's year teacher (year advisor). Go to person for the grade.
Mrs Thiess - The Deputy principal
Ms Mathers - an English teacher
Gabriela - one of Jessica's cousins
Dr Aldus - the dentist, Aliana's husband and Rock's dad
Deborah and Alexandra - Alyssa's friends.

Characters who live in the Aldus house temporarily:
Markus - Canadian who likes ice fishing
Alison - Hippie who takes fashion advice from a mouse
Mr and Mrs Magalot - fat parents
Bella and Sebastian Magalot - fat children of the fat parents

[[If you're wondering what the difference between major and minor characters is, it's a last name... or a first name as the case may be.]]

Story: Middle Part 9

2006-11-06T14:40:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: How many different ways are there to write the same
thing?
By the way, I'm writing on the bus because a story's not my story if
it wasn't penned (or penciled in this case) on the bus]]

"I'll go in first then, shall I?" Mr Aldus volunteered, seeing Alf's
hesitation. He stepped up to the mirror then said "Council Meeting".
The glass shimmered slightly, then Mr Aldus stepped through,
disappearing from view.

"You'll want to wait for the shimmer to stop before you step through,"
Mrs Aldus advised. "I'll follow to make sure you get there."

"Okay," Alf nodded. He turned to the mirror. "Council meeting," he
said, somewhat hesitantly. The glass surface shimmered brighter before
settling to show exactly what it had shown before. Blink once, Alf
realised, and you could easily miss it. Alf then wondered, briefly, why
the mirror wouldn't show you the room you were stepping into, but didn't
ask his question as Mrs Aldus was gesturing for him to go.

He lifeted a foot and stepped through hesitantly, and immediately felt
like an idiot as Mr Aldus stood in a lavish hotel room, looking at him
expectantly. Alf quickly finished his journey, slightly alarmed by how
easily he'd managed to travel almost halfway across the world.

Mr Aldus took his arm and let him away from the mirror slightly. "Come
on. The mirror won't let anyone through if someone's in it, but it
doesn't mind once you're completely through."

Two seconds later, a woman stepped out of the mirror. It wasn't Mrs Aldus.

"Oh hello Frederick," she greeted Mr Aldus, kissing his cheek in the
continental way. Her accent sounded French to Alf, but he could easily
be mistaken. "Is this the boy, then?"

"Yes, this is Alfonso," Mr Aldus introduced.

"But please call me Alf."

"I'm Marie Clavel," she introduced herself, kissing him on the cheek as
she did Mr Aldus. "Is Karen coming?" she asked, rolling the r.

"Yes, she'll just be a second," Mr Aldus responded. "She was to follow
Alf."

[[And that's where I got off the bus.]]

Story: Middle Part 8

2006-11-05T21:40:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Why, I do believe I cut out in the middle of a scene
last time. Guess where I'm picking up?]]

Jessica wouldn't be accompanying them as under eighteens were generally
not allowed to council meetings, even in the viewing gallery which was
soundproofed. That is, when there was a viewing gallery. The council
meeting changed location every time to liven it up, but mostly to avoid
calling attention to themselves in the nons world. The change in
location was always conveyed via a magical noticeboard each family had.
If they didn't have a charmed noticeboard, it was a diary or simply a
piece of paper fridge magnetted to the refrigerator as people do. But
regardless of whether you knew where you were, you could always get to
the meeting via the magic mirror.

Alf had been introduced to the magic mirror or 'mirror portal' by
Jessica on Tuesday and he was very interested in how it worked. It
looked like your average full length mirror, there were no elaborate
swirly designs and when he asked if the frame was made from the wood of
a magical tree Jessica had merely stated that there was no such thing as
a magical tree, and then gone on to define how all trees could perhaps
be thought of as 'magical'. The frame was ordinary, the glass was shiny
and it reflected what was currently in the room. If playing "which of
these things is not like the others" and choosing between the mirror, a
magic wand and a top hat he would pick the mirror as the non-magical
item. It turned out that the magic portals were a relatively new
invention of the magical folks'. Prior to its invention, the equivalent
means of transport was stepping into a pool of water. It caused people
to become very disoriented as they would step into a puddle and end up
falling feet first out of it as though they'd travelled through the
centre of the Earth (quite hilarious to watch actually when the going
and coming puddles were right next to each other). It was also
difficult to transport and it took a long time to cast the spell over it
that would allow it to transport correctly.

"So how does this thing work again?" Alf asked Mrs Aldus.

"You just say where you want to go - in our case, 'council meeting' -
and step straight through."

"And it doesn't know where I want to go automatically?" Alf asked.

Mrs Aldus smiled. "Well, it should, but sometimes what you're thinking
of isn't actually where you want to go. The mirror portals are a little
funny. They're only supposed to take you between the sixteen mirrors,
but if its not sure where you want to go, it sometimes creates a mirror
for you. Which is a bit of a nightmare because that mirror doesn't stay
long enough for you to go back."

Alf gulped. So perhaps magical travel wasn't as safe as he'd first thought.

[[And I promised that I'd go to bed now so I'm gone... despite the fact
that I'm still in the middle of a scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 7 - racking up the numbers... but not the words.

2006-11-05T19:42:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Figure it out, moron!]]

On Friday afternoon, Alf walked home with Jessica. He and she had
become somewhat friendly in the past week. It turned out that Jessica
didn't have many friends because she couldn't share her secret with
anyone and it was quite a large one. Alf of course, had no friends
besides the best-left-forgotten Damien. As a result of their budding
friendship, Alf spent most of his afternoons with Jessica, but this
afternoon was special since that night he would be heading to
Switzerland via portal mirror.

It had only taken a few minutes for Jessica's parents to convince Alf's
that it would be perfectly safe to take Alf with them to the council
meeting. Alf suspected magical intervention of some variety, they were
usually quite overprotective of their only son. It actually took a lot
of convincing that he was okay when he walked home from school. Since
his magical revelation, he'd experienced the most freedom he'd had in
his entire life. Alf wasn't certain if his parents thought he was safer
now that he had magical powers, if they were just intimidated by
Jessica's parents (who certainly seemed to radiate a strange sort of
otherworldliness, despite their protestations that they were completely
human), or if Jessica's parents were acting unethically.

In fact, that brought up a number of thoughts. Alf had asked Jessica
one day if there was some scientific difference between people with and
without magic. Jessica stated that there wasn't, though using magic you
could discern a number of differences. She then proceeded to go into
them, but Alf ignored her, seeing with his ears shut. And the niggling
thought that maybe Jessica's parents thought they were above other
people. It seemed as though all they wanted to do was control how other
people behaved. Alf didn't express these thoughts to anyone, though.
And dimly he wondered if people had the ability to read people's minds,
and he tried not to think of these things while in Jessica's house. He
figured that that power must be nullified by distance so only thought
these things from the privacy of his wardrobe.

[[Idol, dinner sleep... man, I wanted to write more tonight... but I
have to sleep otherwise I'll never wake up tomorrow and I have an exam.]]

Story: Middle Part 6

2006-11-05T19:15:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: I think we shall erase the last paragraph or so...
just pretend they don't exist and go from ... actually I'll leave it,
it's crap, but I can't do any better at the moment]]

"Yeah, um," Alf looked at the girl.

"Jessica," she provided.

"Yeah, Jessica said something about my family."

"Yes," Mr Aldus responded. "There are fifteen magical families in the
world. Each family is quite large and has a number of streams, so by
family I don't mean immediate family, I mean family trees, although we
are all related and in turn all of us descend from Cornucopia the
First. The fact of the matter is, no matter how we trace it, you don't
descend from any of these fifteen families, in even the most unmagical
of ways."

"Oh," Alf frowned.

"Show him the book," Mrs Aldus commanded.

"Yes dear," Mr Aldus responded, lifting a finger and beckoning an unseen
object. A large heavy, leather bound book that you'd expect a magical
family to own came flying in. It settled onto the coffee table and
opened to a specific page. "This," Mr Aldus began, indicating for Alf
to come closer and look at it. Alf did so, kneeling before the
parchment pages. "This is the magically updating record of every single
magic user in the world. Or at least, it's supposed to be. You'll find
that your name is missing."

Alf leant forward, fingers daring to touch the fine papers of the tome.
The names were conveniently listed in alphabetical order by birth year.
Alf easily flipped to the year he wanted (he had a suspicion the book
knew and was just humouring him by letting him turn the pages) and drew
a finger down the list. "Not here."

"And if you check this year," Jessica paused as the pages flipped to the
appropriate one near the end of the book. "You'll see that you're not
listed there either."

"How odd," Alf commented, idly wondering why he was such a freak. He
couldn't even be normal in a freakish way. Or should that have been
freakish in a normal way... probably the latter.

"It just so happens that the very fact that you've come into your powers
at this time is actually going to throw a huge spanner into the works of
a recent political movement."

"Oh," Alf commented this time idly wondering why he had to be such a
freak that he screwed up an entire political system. "Hang on, there's
magical politics?"

"Of course. Every society needs a ruling body to stop us from drowning
in anarchy. Except in the case of communism, which we found didn't
quite work a number of times. You'll note which years these are because
they're the ones that caused major worldwide chaos. Oops."

"What my husband is trying to say," Mrs Aldus interjected. "Is that our
society is governed by the magical council. It's an elected council of
course, with a single member representing each family, with each family
nominating their representative. We don't let them get away with
everything, but they do decide what it is that we actually vote upon so
that we can move forward, united. And it very often comes to pass that
the movements put forward by the council are passed by the general
population."

"And the political movement that I've thrown the big spanner into the
works of is?" Alf queried.

"The magical council has long been considering the, assimilation, I
guess you could call it, of the magical community with the community at
large."

"But aren't you already part of the community at large?"

"More like having our magical abilities come out to the community at
large," Mr Aldus rephrased.

"So where do I come in?"

"The reason why this movement has come about in recent years is because
of the shrinking magical population in relation to the global population
of all people. We're losing the extent of control we have over what
happens. Magical people are supposed to guide regular people to lead
prosperous lives."

"Don't people do that anyway?" Alf interjected.

"Well yes, but with our help. You wouldn't know about that." Mr Aldus
sat back in his armchair.

"And of course, they need our help less these days, now that science and
technology are evolving so that we no longer need to do what we
traditionally did," Mrs Aldus added.

"The point is that you, being a magic user from a non family, well, it
seems to signify that magic is evolving and manifesting itself so that
we won't need to become more vocal about who we are and what people
should do. And when we go to the council meeting next Friday you'll be
able to fully understand the situation."

"Uh, council meeting?"

"Dear," Mrs Aldus looked at her husband. "It is customary to ask
someone before determining where they'll be going."

"Sorry darling," Mr Aldus returned. There was something strange about
the way they spoke to each other. From any other couple, it would have
been condescension, but between the Alduses, it seemed as though it was
truly love. "Alf, would you like to accompany us to a council meeting
next Friday."

The greater portion of Alf's brain was screaming 'NOOO!!!' at the top of
its lungs. Sadly, the smaller part of Alf's brain was much stronger and
wrestled the larger part quiet. "That would be Friday after school,
correct?"

"Of course," Mrs Aldus smiled. "It's actually close to midnight on
Friday, and we'll be going to Switzerland so it will actually be Friday
morning when we get there."

Now that was going to be confusing. "I'll just have to ask my parents,
and they'll probably want to talk to you about it before they let me go."

"Not a problem," Mr Aldus said with a smile behind his bushy moustache.

Meeting members of a council would definitely be the most daunting thing
Alf did in the next week.

[[End scene.]]

Story: Middle Part 5

2006-11-04T23:48:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: What do you reckon?]]

Alf rang home from the school's phone booth after the bell rang, explaining to his mother about what the girl had told him.

"The girl from the dentist's office? Jessica? I know her parents. I must say it's quite shocking, but I suppose there's no harm in you going. They seem a decent sort."

And with permission, Alf set off toward the girl's house. Thankfully, the walk to the girl's house (he wasn't going to call her Jessica until he was absolutely certain that that was her name) was no longer than his usual walk home. In fact, it was a little shorter as it turned out hat the girl lived in the rather large house around the corner from his own. As he stared at it during his approach, he thought it seemed typical. In fact, if he'd thought about it, their house was probably the one in town that you would pick to be haunted, or inhabited by witches. Probably only because it was old and made of brick, probably from the Victorian Era if his mother's favourite paintings were anything to go by. It had a dark roof and shutters as well as a wrought iron fence and stone path leading from the street to the doorstep and veranda. Otherwise, it was extremely well kept and had the look of many people living there, if the music coming from one of the upper rooms was any indication.

The gate did not squeak as Alf opened it, and there were no black cats lounging on the veranda. The doorbell sound was a perfectly cheery and normal "ding dong". Not a grotesque "di-i-ing do-o-o-ong" as he was expecting. Or something worse like the bell pull for Lurch in the Addams Family. He heard no screeching noises and Alf wondered where he'd managed to get all these preconceptions from. They were obviously unfounded.

The door was opened by a middle aged woman with dark red hair knotted into a bun close to her neck. She was wearing a simple blue and white cotton dress, and was barefoot. There was no make-up on her face, save the redness of her lips which was surely not natural. His imagination running away with him, Alf wondered if it was supernatural.

Those red lips curled into a smile. "You must be Alfonso." And suddenly, Alf felt right at home, as though this was where he was always meant to be.

"Yes ma'am," he replied. "Though I would prefer if it you'd call me Alf."

"Of course, my dear," she replied, graciously. "But only if you'll call me Karen."

That went against what Alf had been taught and he said so.

'Karen' smiled elegantly. "Okay. I shall call you Alf if you call me Mrs Aldus. Though I dare say there are a lot of us and you might get a little confused." She invited him in after that, and began showing him around the house, introducing him to the various occupants as they came upon them.

"Our family has lived here for so long, and our house is so large that it's sort of a hub for magical people passing through. Of course the other families have their own houses, but there are only four of us in Sydney. Comparatively speaking, that's quite a few, as there are only fifteen branches of the magical family tree."

The history lesson was fascinating, and so were the people in the house. Those who lived in the house permanently were Mrs Aldus, her husband and her daughter. Then there was her husband's sister, his wife, and their two sons. Her husband's aunt lived with them, though they rarely ventured out, and her two daughters and their families. The reason why Mrs Aldus said that it would be quite confusing to call her Mrs Aldus soon became apparent. Aldus was the family name, and a powerful one at that. Anyone who married into the family took the name Aldus whether they were female or male.

And then there were the temporary boarders. For some reason, each one of them seemed to have a pet, despite the fact that no one living there permanently did. There was Markus and his pet iguana. They were from Canada. Markus had spent a great deal of his time ice fishing and was now travelling fishing in less frigid temperatures.

Alison was a woman who looked like she would have been right in place in the seventies with her flowing strawberry blonde hair and long skirts. She had a pet mouse, strangely enough. A small white one that she looked to for fashion tips, apparently. With a wiffle of its nose, it could tell her whether anything was a fashion do or don't. Apparently Jakob the mouse had liked Alf's outfit, to which he wasn't sure whether to be complimented or not, until he realised that it was his school uniform and the opinion had nothing to do with him.

And lastly there was the Magalot family. Mr and Mrs Magalot were taking their twins Bella and Sebastian on a trip around the world as part of their education. Mostly it seemed that they liked visiting whichever food production plants would let them have free samples. To say that the parents and children were rotund was putting it nicely. And any room all four of them were in suddenly seemed to suffocate Alf as though the walls were closing in on him. Not that they weren't perfectly charming people. They'd brought a menagerie with them, too. Bella and Sebastian each had a cat, and their parents carried goldfish... probably with a spell that wouldn't have the water completely spilling out of the bowls as they travelled. Besides the cats, Bella had a small budgerigar that they'd only just picked up, and Sebastian had a bald eagle. Something Alf debated the legality of.

But Alf didn't actually have the chance to meet most of the permanent dwellers in the Aldus house. Mrs Aldus swept him into a sitting room onto a soft lounge with a pile of biscuits and a cup of tea before him before sweeping her husband and daughter into the room in a similar fashion.

"I guess a little history would not be amiss at this moment," Mr Aldus began. "Though I haven't managed to tell it without sounding like a terrible braggart."

"I'll tell it," his daughter (who was almost certainly named Jessica) stated. "Since people have been known to exist, which is about fifty thousand years, the sort of people that we are, magic users, have also always existed. The first known account of a magic user was Cornucopia of Alderfield. She is also our first known ancestor. The Aldus family has been her direct line since then.

"This has led to people esteeming our family far more than they perhaps should. In fact, the family is something akin to royalty of the magical variety, though we deny that we are at all special."

Mr Aldus was right, the girl did sound like a braggart, telling it. As though everything she said to attempt to dispute that was merely said to give the impression of not being one and therefore increasing the boastful nature of the entire monologue. And because of his father's introduction, Alf didn't fault her for it.

"So," the girl continued. "The point of this brief family history is to illustrate that our family is special in the magical world, though it is for no real reason."

"And the point of telling you that," Mr Aldus interrupted. "Was to explain that our family is special, but that you are special in a very different way."

[[and I'm going to stop there to go to bed.]]

Story: Middle Part 4

2006-11-04T22:49:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: I don't know why I bother with these when I'm still writing in chronological order...]]

For Alf had never found it difficult to make friends, whereas Damien had always had other friends. Alf had, secretly, prided himself on being able to lay claim to being Damien's best friend, when everyone else were merely his friends. But now, he had nothing and no one. It was times like this that led Alf to think about how they'd become friends. And he realised that he didn't remember. He and Damien had just always been friends. It was probably because they'd lived across the street from each other forever. There was also Rock, but two years could make a lot of difference when you're young. And Rock had always been a bully.

And it was this pain that he was feeling, that his best friend had called him a liar, and belittled their friendship like that, this pain that made him do something he would regret in the lonely portions of the evening, when he was tired and not thinking so clearly. It was also this something that would made him smile on warm nights when he was surrounded by friends, thinking that if he hadn't been so terribly immature then he would certainly not be where he was, so happily.

And what was this something? Revenge.

While he'd heard that revenge was a dish best served cold, he hadn't heard anything about it being better when people knew it was you. Alf was certain that he'd have a certain quiet satisfaction in exacting his revenge. He didn't have the heart to start with Damien, though, so instead, he started the vengeance game with the first boy who'd asked him to pull a rabbit out of his hat.

Unaccustomed to the regular prank playing, as Alf had never had these sorts of feelings before, Alf was uncertain how far to take something, before it would be too much. After all, it was just a little teasing. He just needed something to occupy his lonely times now that they were more frequent than they had ever been before.

While watching said boy (Alf didn't even know what his name was) retrieve a can of soft drink from the vending machine, Alf had a great idea, though he was uncertain if he could pull it off. He distracted the boy by having his cap fly off a distance. That was the easy part done. Now, Alf had to shake the can without anyone else noticing. To achieve this, he shook it so fast that he hoped no one would notice, and that the boy wouldn't feel anything, as he was still holding onto it. He went a little too far, though, and the boy dropped the can. He didn't worry, though, and the boy just took it back to his place at the lunch table.

Alf watched with a barely concealed smirk as the boy (almost in slow motion - that's how eager Alf was) pulled up the tab and pierced the can. Immediately, the liquid erupted and covered the boy in a fine lava of soft drink. Alf wanted to pat himself on the back for a job well done as the rest of the gang laughed at their woeful companion. In fact, Alf thought that the best part would be that no one bar him would know that he had anything to do with it. Such power would certainly brought out the crazy prankster side in anyone. At least, that's how Alf dealt with it. He supposed that there were probably people who were more moral than him who still wouldn't dare. But they just didn't know the fun.

Over the next few days, Alf practiced harmless pranks on portions of the student body. A favourite hat found itself on a school roof, and when returned to its owner, was covered in fresh birds droppings. Alf had had to work pretty hard on that one, he had to get the food there so that the birds were there, and make sure that the school's handyman wasn't going to get up there before it had been nicely shat over.

Another time, two girls' hair ties mysteriously continued to fall out, leaving their long locks lasciviously laying about their shoulders. Yeah, that was funnier if you were there.

It was while Alf was following a boy, carefully unzipping his bag since he had one of those convertible bags that, if unzipped would definitely empty all his belongings onto the ground. He was so concentrated on this that he was very surprised when he suddenly fell to the ground as though his feet were stuck together, and he watched as the bag magically zipped itself up, with not help from himself. He tried to stand, and, when he looked at his feet, realised that somehow his shoelaces had been tied together.

"What?" he muttered to himself, then saw the girl from the dentist's office standing in front of him. This was not good.

"Hello," she said, calmly, smiling the evil smile of someone unaware that they were being evil.

Alf casually rotated so that he was was sitting up, shoes still knotted together. He rose carefully (and inwardly congratulated himself for not falling down). "Er, hi," he greeted, looked shamefacedly at his feet... then looking away because that was far too much shame.

"Alfonso Struthers, you've been a very naughty boy," the girl reprimanded. Alf's ears reddened as he discerned a somewhat sexual meaning that the girl had clearly not intended.

"Sorry. Just blowing off a little steam."

"I understand," she nodded. "But that's just one of those impulses that you're just going to have to control."

"I'll have to control it?" Alf queried.

"Of course. You do want to be a functioning member of magical society, do you not?"

Alf gaped somewhat like a fish, but more like one of those cartoons with the wide eyes and the jaw touching the ground. The idea that there could be anyone else with powers like him had never crossed his mind. After all, if there were, then why had he never heard about them? "Are you a functioning member of magical society, then?"

"Not at the moment, no," the girl responded. "But I will be once I'm eighteen. My parents won't trust me until then." She looked at him as though to say 'Parents, who needs them?'

"Ah," Alf nodded. And continued nodding.

"Look I know you can do magic. I had a bit of a suspicion that day you came in to see my uncle, but now I know. And my family's very interested in meeting you."

"In meeting me?" Alf's brow furrowed in confusion.

"Well it'll be difficult to explain in the two seconds we have before the bell rings but I guess I'll have to try. Magic's always run in families, which is why no one besides us knows about the existence of magic."

Alf's eyes widened. "Does that mean my parents-?"

"No," she interrupted. "And that's why my parents are interested in meeting you. We looked for any trace of any ancestor you might have had who once had magic and forsook it. But there wasn't anything."

"Oh."

"I'd like it if you came over after school," she handed him a small slip of pink paper. It had an address and a phone number written on it. "We'll be expecting you, so ring if you aren't coming."

And with that, she turned and walked away. As Alf took a step, he realised that she hadn't given him her name. The second thing he realised was that he should have untied his shoelaces before taking a step. The third thing he realised was that he wasn't falling over and that the girl must have untied them for him. Well. That was awfully generous of her.

[[end scene]]

Story: Middle Part 3

2006-11-04T16:42:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: The next day at school]]

Alf went to school the next day feeling much better about himself. He was
sharing his secret with someone, a gigantic load off his back. But for some
reason, as soon as he stepped into the school, whispers began to follow him.

Alf sat friendless and confused for most of the day, until lunch, when he
was approached by a group of teens, Damien hovering at the back of the
group.

"So, we hear you think you're some kind of magician," one of the boys spoke
before lifting his cap from his head and presenting it to Alf, upturned.
"Why don't you prove it and pull a rabbit from my hat?" The group laughed.
Alf was unmoved, and only looked past them toward Damien.

"I never said I was some sort of magician," Alf frowned.

"That's not what our mate Damo says," one of the other boys smirked.

"Then maybe you shouldn't listen to everything 'your mate Damo' tells you,"
Alf stated, standing and walking away.

And that wasn't the last of it. There were kids calling him Harry Potter,
and kids asking him to turn handkerchiefs into bouquets. And then there
were the kids who would drop their pants then blame it on him.

Alf told his parents about it, but they were only pleased that he hadn't
resorted to using his powers in any of the ways he'd previously used them
(not that the knew about him pulling down Rock's pants).

But by the end of the week, Alf was at the end of his rope. He wanted them
to have some sort of retribution. He didn't want to be teased all the time.
It was bad enough that he had no friends.

[[And I'm tired so I'll leave it there]]

Story: Middle Part 2

2006-11-04T15:57:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Picking up where we left off again... ish]]

Over the next week, Damien refused to speak to Alf, despite any attempts Alf
made to apologise and pretend that he had been lying.

One day, while moping around in his bedroom, his parents cornered him.

"Okay, Alf," his mother began, seating herself on the bed beside her son.
"What's up?"

"We know it can't just have been missing that football game that's gotten
you so down," his father added.

Alf looked up at his parents. "I'm not sure if I should tell you. I told
Damien and he thought I was lying."

The adults exchanged a glance.

"I'm sure that anything that's gotten you this upset can't possibly be a
lie," his father reassured him, finally.

Alf drew his knees up and leant his chin on them, still uncertain.

"What's the worst that could happen? Even if we don't believe you?" his
mother asked.

Slowly, Alf nodded his head, then turned it away. He didn't want to face
them when he told his story. They were going to be so ashamed.

"What if I told you that I had magic powers?"

His parents looked at him curiously. "Like, what sort of magic powers?" his
mum asked.

"Mostly, just moving things. But you remember a week ago, when you were
late picking me up to take me to the dentist?" His mother nodded in
response. "I did something pretty awful."

His parents looked at him. Wondering what their son could have done that he
thought was so awful.

"Rock was teasing me. And I don't know what I said, but the next thing I
knew he was on me. Like, hands around my neck, choking me." His parents
looked at him, shocked.

"But we never saw anything..." his mother trailed off.

"That's because of what happened next. I don't know how it happened, but
the next thing I knew, Rock was on the ground, and my neck was perfectly
fine. Then mum pulled up, and I just... left him there."

"Oh," his mother said, covering her mouth with a hand. They could see that
Alf had beaten himself up about it enough, so chose to say nothing.

"He was okay the next day, but I was feeling really guilty. So I told him
I'd do him a favour. HIs favour was having me pull down the principal's
pants."

"So that's why you did that," his mother whispered in sudden comprehension.

Alf nodded.

"And you told us it was nothing," Mr Struthers reprimanded. "Why didn't you
tell us before?"

"Because it was so weird," Alf said. "I wasn't sure if you'd believe me.
And then I told Damien and he thought I was lying just because I didn't want
to go see that footy game."

"If you ask me, that seems mighty unreasonable of him," Alf's father stated.

And the way he said it made Alf laugh for the first time in a week.

"Good to see you're feeling better," his mother smiled.

"So," his dad began. "How about a demo of these powers?"

"A demo?"

"I just want to see what you can do."

Alf looked at his parents warily. "When I tried to show Damien it didn't
work. I don't really know how to control it."

His dad looked a little disappointed.

"I guess it can't hurt to try."

Alf concentrated on a nearby lamp, deciding to not attempt to do something
destructive for once. He reached out the invisible fingers in his mind and
switched it off. Then he managed to lift it up.

His parents looked astounded. "I didn't quite expect it to be like that,"
Mr Struthers said.

"Not that we thought you were lying," his mother said, in the tone of voice
that made you disbelieve what she was saying.

"Just, as a precaution," Alf's dad added. "I think it would probably be
best if you didn't use that power. I know there are probably a lot of good
things you could do with it, but you don't know how to use it, and I don't
want you getting into trouble of any kind."

"Promise us you won't use them, Alfie," his mother implored.

Alf nodded. "I promise."

[[End scene, so I figured I'd post it.]]

Story: Middle Part 1

2006-11-04T14:14:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Despite the fact that this is the beginning of the
middle, we still pick up exactly where we left off. Hooray for us.]]

"I'm sorry to have to do this to you," Mr Struthers said. "But I can't let
you go to that football game with Damien anymore."

"But dad!" Alf quickly turned to look at his father. "What? But I didn't
even get the chance to do it!"

"Well this will teach you to think twice before doing something so stupid."

Alf decided that it was probably best not to tell his parents that he spent
a very long time deciding to do it.

-=-=-=-=-=-

It was not a happy Alf that met up with Damien the next day.

Damien wanted to know all about what had happened after he'd been caught.

"I'm not allowed to go to the footy anymore," Alf told his friend solemnly.

"What? But you didn't even do anything."

"I know," Alf said. "But apparently the fact that I was going to was good
enough."

"That really sucks, man," Damien frowned. "Now who am I going to get to go
with me? Now you owe me one."

"You wanna know something really strange?" Alf asked his friend.

"What?"

"Did you hear about Rock's pants falling down yesterday?"

"Yeah. But how did you?"

"I was going to the principal's office when it happened. The thing is,
though, Damien. I was the one who did it?"

"You?" Damien looked at his friend sceptically. "But everyone said it just
happened."

"It's, really odd," Alf said, looking at his friend. He was surprised to
see that Damien was looking at him with malice. "What?"

"If you didn't want to go to the game you could have just told me. You
didn't have to pretend that you wanted to go, then get grounded."

"What?" Alf was incredulous. "I do want to go to the game."

"Then why are you making this crap up? So Rock's pants fell down. Why are
you saying that you did it?"

"Because I did!" Alf yelled, calling attention to him from all over the
playground. "I have these magical powers. I'll prove it to you."

Alf stared at Damien, willing his pants to fall, too. But nothing happened.

"Yeah, right," Damien frowned. "See you around, loser," he called, before
walking away. "Have fun with your new best friend Rock."

[[mmm... lunch time.]]

Story: Beginning Part 6

2006-11-03T21:14:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: Unnecessary.]]

She then headed down the aisle, presumably to stare some different students into submission. Alf stood discreetly, pretending that he didn't hear the remaining students' whispered remarks as he passed by them on his way to the 'bathroom'. He headed to the bathroom, despite the fact that it was not generally accepted practice for any student to leave the hall while someone was speaking. After all, assemblies were only a half hour long.

Alf strode down the corridor as though he wasn't a man on a mission to use the nearest toilet. And he wasn't, so he wasn't unjustified in his approach, though his acting skills did leave something to be desired. It seemed that every student in that room knew where he was headed. Stepping past the door to the nearest male bathroom, Alf turned left, past the female door and to one marked "Do Not Enter". Although he'd never been through it before, Alf, and everyone else at school, knew that it was the entrance to the school hall's stage.

He reached for the knob and turned it, looking left, then right to make sure that he hadn't been spotted. Alf quickly darted into the room. He was spotted immediately. As soon as the door had opened, a beam of light crossed the face of one of the teachers, and a hand was suddenly upon his shoulder. Alf wasn't quite certain how he managed to stifle the scream, but when he turned he was greeted by the stern face of Ms Welch, the most formidable teacher in East Hills High School. Or at least, the most formidable at the moment. Anyone with any less dignity than Alfonso Struthers would already have soiled their underwear, and would likely have soiled more than just their socks by the time she was through with them.

"Alfonso," she pronounced, lips pursing. "Exactly what do you think you are doing here?" One of her eyebrows lifted in question, though the tone of her voice made it seem to Alf as though she already knew the answer to that question. She gently steered him away from the "Do Not Enter" door, and shut it behind him. "I hope you weren't planning to do something," here she paused, as though searching for a word like 'stupid' that was much more refined. "Out of character for you."

"Of course not, Ms Welch," Alf replied, then wondered why he had. That was obviously not the right answer to that question. Though, since Alf was about to do what he was about to do, surely that meant it was in character for him to do whatever he did.

As though reading his mind, or at least coming to the same conclusion herself, Ms Welch retracted her previous statement. "Or perhaps I misjudged your character, Alfonso."

And here Alf swallowed, feeling more ashamed than he had in all his contemplation of the act. It almost looked like she was disappointed with him. Anger, he could take. Disgust, condescension. Alf was okay with those. But disappointment was a hard one to deal with. Disappointment meant that the person had expectations of you, that they thought you were better than that. Disappointment meant that they cared. And when someone cared, well, how could anyone think of disappointing them? It made him want to cry. And he couldn't possibly do that.

"I heard a rumour, Alfonso. A rumour that I'm sure you're aware of."

Alfonso gave no indication that he was aware, neither did he give one to the contrary.

"I heard that you were going to disrupt this assembly almost the worst possible way. I heard that you were going to disrespect a man to whom you owe a debt. A man who looks out for you, who takes care of you. But do you know what, Alfonso?"

Alf didn't. But he didn't say so, either. In fact, at this moment, all he knew was that no one had ever said his first name so many times in the span of five minutes before. And he didn't like it.

"I didn't think anything of that rumour. Because I thought you were an estimable young man. So tell me, Alfonso. What has been happening? What made you even try to do this?" Her eyes were upon him now, expectant.

Alf had never been red with shame until this moment. He was so ashamed that he couldn't even consider adopting his nail-biting nervous habit. He wasn't sure how to answer, either. He didn't really think 'I decided to leave Rock overnight in a carpark, so out of guilt I decided to a favour for him that really turned out to be kind of mean' was going to cut it with Ms Welch.

Instead, he shrugged. "It was a dare," Alf stated.

"Oh?" An eyebrow raise.

"I was dared to pull Principal Porter's pants down in assembly today," Alf confessed to the floor, then met the gaze of his teacher. "And I was going to do it, too."

Ms Welch took that as a challenge. "Right, you're going to the principal's office. And you are going to wait there until assembly is finished. And then we are all going to have a talk about this, and by we, I do mean your parents, too, Alfonso."

Alf cringed internally, but followed Ms Welch. He knew that it would be more than suicide to disobey her now. At the same time as he was being led across the school toward the principal's office, the assembly began to let out. He guessed Principal Porter's talk was a short one this time. He didn't often have things to say besides: wear your uniform, it reflects better on the school. As he followed Ms Welch, a single student caught his eye. Rock, of course, the puppeteer behind this fiasco.

Rock smirked at Alf. And suddenly, Alf was filled with a blinding rage. Rock was the cause of this. In that moment, Alf realised that this was what Rock had wanted all along. He wanted to see Alf humiliated and disgraced. He wanted to see him suffering. And Alf was angry at himself for not realising it sooner. All he could think of was some other way to get his revenge. Revenge that preferably involved the removal of his pants and the exposure of underpants to the world.

And then Alf saw them. Dark green and black striped boxers. He was seeing Rock's underwear, not quite believing. Rock's pants were around his ankles and Alf knew, somehow knew that he was the one who had put them there. And by the glare he was throwing his way, Rock knew too.

"Alfonso!" Ms Welch called.

And obediently, he followed.

-=-=-=-=-=-

That after school impromptu punishment session really wasn't so bad. Alf was sentenced to an hour of after school detention, and that was all. He felt that he'd been saved by the fact that he had been caught by Ms Welch before he had carried out his crime. He knew better than to pretend that he hadn't been planning on doing what he almost did.

The problem wasn't the talking to, or the punishment. The problem was that the adults were certain that something was wrong with him. That Alf was acting so out of character. It made Alf want to scream and shout 'Maybe you don't know me as well as you thought you did'.

After all, he'd spoken to the principal maybe twice. Once he'd been called down to see him because they were accusing him of doing something unseemly on public transport. To which he'd remarked that he walked home every day. The only other time in his recollection was when the principal had organised getting to know you luncheons with a small group of students and himself.

Ms Welch knew him because she'd been their year teacher since year seven, but they were only in year nine, and Alf didn't like to attract attention to himself. Not all troublemakers were attention seekers.

His parents should have known him, but they were parents, of course he didn't tell them everything. And he was fourteen now. A teenager. And he'd heard all sorts of stories about how teenagers grow apart from their parents.

Their concern was touching. And it made Alf hate himself, and in turn them for making him hate himself. And that was a never ending cycle because then he'd hate himself for making them make him hate himself.

"I wish you'd just tell us, Alfonso," his mother implored as they left the room. "What could possibly make us think the less of you?"

He didn't quite know himself, but he was certain that his parents weren't going to react positively to the news that he'd succeeded in pulling down a boy's pants from across a playground. They would certainly not be thrilled.

[[And so ends the beginning. YES!]]

Story: Beginning Part 5

2006-11-03T16:47:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: This begins the afternoon of where we left off.]]

Alf was seated with the rest of his class in their school hall, surrounded by a crowd of noisy teenagers waiting for the assembly to start, wishing that it was easier to sneak away. Weekly assembly at [insert forgotten high school's name here] was traditionally held on a Tuesday afternoon for reasons that no student had ever figured out. It meant that they had one less period on Tuesdays, but it also meant that the students had to sit and wait for an hour before they could leave. Of course this meant that most of the school had, at one time or another, concocted an excuse to miss it in true truant-like fashion. Alf was not one of those students.

He nervously chose a seat at the end of a row, a seat that usually would have been fought over as the prime position for being first to exit the hall. But it seemed that everyone had heard what he was supposed to do, and had left it empty for him. With some foreboding, Alf sat under the watchful eye of his year teacher.

Rock, probably merely to intimidate the smaller boy, persuaded the girl sitting behind Alf to move, and sat behind him.

"Ready, Sprout?" he asked.

Alf shivered before he realised it, and transferred a second fingernail to his mouth. He nodded, and he could feel Rock smiling behind him in response. He surveyed possible routes for escape. Damien was seated beside him. Now, if only Ms Welch would leave.

After the introduction and opening announcements by the school captain, the deputy principal, Mrs Thiess stood to give her address. If Alf wanted to do this, he had to leave now, because the principal was sure to speak after his deputy. Ms Welch moved, suddenly, looking at his face as though to remember who was sitting there.

[[hmm... I'm erring on the lazy size of 1667 words.]]

Story: Beginning Part 4

2006-11-03T12:26:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: I bet you can guess this picks up right where we left off]]

Alf was too preoccupied with this new worry to notice the evil smirk of a man about to get his revenge on Rock's face.

He could do this, Alf thought. Sure he'd be bound to get into trouble afterwards, but that would just be another part of his punishment. And maybe he could do it without anyone noticing. How he'd manage that, he wasn't certain. After all, the only way he could think of was to loosen the principal's belt and if he got caught doing that it would not be pleasant. His face heated up at the thought of getting caught loosening the principal's belt. That would be beyond a nightmare.

And then Alf pondered the ethics of the situation. After all, Principal Porter had never done anything so awful. He was just a man who did his job. Rock probably had some sort of personal vendetta against him, since he was known as a 'bad boy' and was therefore the first suspect in any campus crime. Well, that sorted out why Rock would do it, but why should Alf?

Then again, surely the exposure of what would probably be a decent pair of underwear (and Alf shut his eyes mentally praying that he wouldn't begin to imagine the variety of underwear one's headmaster would be wearing. That was definitely not part of the plan) would be harmless? Harmless to the principal himself, potentially psychologically scarring for the rest of the school. But the effects could be farther reaching than even Alf anticipated. And he didn't want to get caught up in a bigger mess. Rock probably didn't even expect him to do it.

Despite the fact that Alf was 98% sure that he wasn't even going to attempt to pull down the Principal's pants in assembly that day, there was that part of him that niggled, he'd basically promised Rock. And what would Rock do if he didn't do it? Whatever that was, it couldn't be any worse than accomplishing the task, could it?

"Hey Alf," Damien greeted his friend just as they met for lunch. "What's this I hear about you pulling down Principal P's pants this arvo?"

Alf looked at his friend, wondering how he knew. "Who'd you hear that from?"

"Chris and Mark and them. A whole bunch of them thought it was really funny. No one thinks you'll do it, though."

Alf found a fingernail between his teeth before he even realised he'd moved his hand. "No way."

"Where'd this rumour start, anyway?"

"Rock kind of, dared me to do it," Alf admitted.

Immediately, Damien had his danger face on. "Rock? Well then you have to do it. He must've told everyone. It'll be social suicide if you don't. I mean, I heard Alyssa Marx saying that she'd kiss you if you did it. That's how much everyone reckons you won't."

Alf sank to the ground, leaning against his backpack half-heartedly. Damien squatted beside him.

"You are going to do it, right?"

"Right," Alf muttered weakly, with a defeated nod of the head. "I'm going to get into so much trouble for this."

"It's a matter of life or death," Damien stated. "You have no choice."

[[And so ends that scene. My word count is pitifully low. I really need to work on that.]]

Story: Beginning Part 3

2006-11-02T17:46:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: This immediately follows the previous post.]]

"Where's your mummy?" Rock asked. "Has she forgotten her little rascal?"

Ignoring Rock didn't tend to work on most occasions, but Alf tried valiantly anyway.

"Well, Sprout?"

"I don't know where my mother is, but I'm certain she'll be turning up shortly."

"Why can't you walk home? Is ickle Alfie afraid?"

Sometimes, his insults were so poor that it wasn't even worth it.

"Does he need to hold mummy's hand when he's crossing the road?"

And sometimes, retorting was a much better option. "At least I have a mother," Alf shot. And to Alf, this was a perfectly harmless, as well as perfectly awful response. After all, he, and Rock, knew that he had a mother. Rock's mother was not dead or otherwise incapacitated, she hadn't run off with another man or anything. She lived at home with Rock's father, pretty much doting upon Rock and his brother.

So he was entirely unprepared when Rock launched himself at him. Needless to say, their body structures were quite similar to what they were called. 'Alfalfa Sprout' was kind of, weedy, and Rock was built like a mountain or at least a large cliff face. Rock only needed a single hand to choke the smaller teen, but he was using two for good measure. It was unbearably uncomfortable and all Alf could do was wish him off.

Then all of a sudden, he was.

Alf was standing in the same position he was in early. He touched a hand to his neck to feel how raw it was and surprisingly it was as though Rock had never touched him. Alarmed, Alf looked to see where Rock had gone. He was lying behind a garbage bin at a corner of the carpark, a long way from where he was when Alf saw him.

Suddenly a horn honked behind him. It was his mother in their shiny silver car, hair glinting in the sun and large sunglasses covering most of her face. He'd never been more relieved to see his mother before in his life. Shutting his eyes and shaking his head, he picked his schoolbag and got into the car with his mother.

"Sorry I'm late, Alfie," he winced as she used the nickname Rock had just used on him. "My boss just wouldn't stop yakking." She pulled out of the carpark continuing her story, not noticing her son's pale face and dead stare out the window.

Mrs Struthers dropped Alf at the front of the dentist's office while she parked the car as they were already late for the appointment.

The girl at the front desk looked up as he entered. "Alfonso Struthers," she said, looking at him with a knowing look in her eyes.

Somehow, despite the fact that she could have been making an educated guess, Alf thought she knew his name from somewhere other than having read it off the appointments page.

She seemed to be looking at him expectantly.

"My mum's just, parking the car," he stated, sort of stupidly. "Do you go to East Hills?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "Anyway, you'd better go in, my uncle's waiting."

"Your uncle?"

"Dr Aldus," she stated like he should have known.

Maybe he should have. There was something about her that just made him feel supremely unintelligent.

-=-=-=-=-=-

After his dental appointment (the girl had been gone when he'd come out, strangely), there was nothing left to distract Alf from what he'd done. Why hadn't he told his mother that Rock was just lying there? Why had he just hopped in the car as though there wasn't a teenage boy probably dying of some unknown disease?

Alf sat by at his desk, too worried to even think about finishing his essay. He'd begun biting his nails. He hadn't done that in years. Not since his parents had made him wear nail polish on them to stop him from chewing them. He'd been teased mercilessly before it had all chipped off. His mother hadn't owned another colour besides a vivacious pink, a remnant of her younger days.

As a distraction, Alf decided to call Damien. As soon as his friend picked up the phone, it was all Alf could do to not start crying out of fear. He retold what had happened in the parking lot, but Damien didn't seem to understand his distress.

"So what?" he'd said. "It's not like he was ever particularly nice to you." And as though that was the last word on the subject, he began excitedly talking about the Bears' chances of winning on Saturday.

Alf didn't have any patience for that after that and hung up shortly. Unwilling to face the world, he changed into his pyjamas, climbed into bed and wished that tomorrow would never come.

Maybe Damien was right, maybe Rock did deserve it, after all, he hadn't been civil to Alf since they were seven. And even then 'civil' just meant that he hadn't pushed Alf's head in the sand after finishing with the rest of the class. Mostly because he was too tired to bother.

But no matter how awful someone was to you, that didn't give you the right to leave them half dead on the ground in the school parking lot.

But, he reasoned, there were still plenty of cars there, one of the teachers or the other staff would have been bound to find him. This thought let him get his only ten minutes of sleep that night.

A nightmare later, and Alf was wondering again. What if Rock told them who did it? He could be suspended, or expelled or worse. What if he pressed charges? He could go to jail. He was still under eighteen, so he couldn't go to an adult prison, but surely a juvenile centre would be just as bad.

And what if Rock died. Then maybe he would be tried as an adult and sent to prison. He'd get a life sentence.

Alf dressed for school early that morning, he couldn't stomach breakfast, and he'd missed dinner the night before so he wasn't really on top of his game. He walked to school as quickly as he could manage before his parents were even awake and, as though horror-bound to do it, he walked into the back of the school's parking lot.

With a small amount of relief, Alf noticed that Rock was not lying where he left him. But the relief faded when he realised the Rock's car was still parked in the same space it was the day before.

"Morning, Sprout," the words are heard dangerously close to Alf's ear. He spins around and backs away from Rock slowly. "They say a murderer always returns to the scene of the crime."

"But you're not dead," Alf stuttered out. Rock was a nightmare come to life. He was dressed in the same clothes he was wearing yesterday, a not-quite-right glint in his eyes, teeth bared.

"Or am I?" Rock widened his eyes and raised his hands, taking a step forward. "Boo!"

Alf almost wet his pants as Rock laughed the desperate laugh of a maniac then began walking away.

"Wait, Rock!" Alf called after him.

Rock just looked at him as though he was a worm. "Chill, I ain't gonna tell on you." He continued on his way.

Alf gulped he hadn't even thought of that. "Hang on! Let me make it up to you."

A perplexed expression crosses his face.

"Because of what I did. It wasn't right."

"Stuff it," Rock brushes him aside, and defeated, clinging to his guilt, Alf walks off.

As though hit by inspiration for the first time in his life, Rock turns abruptly. "I got it," he says seriously.

Alf waits for his favour, wondering if it's something he could even possibly hope to achieve.

"Make Principal Porter's pants fall down in assembly today."

It was an odd request, one that Alf was likely to get into a lot of trouble over. He could see why Rock had picked it. "Okay," he said quietly, wondering if he'd just exchanged one guilt for another.

[[Alright, dinner time... now if only I could remember what I wanted to make a note of...]]

Story: Beginning Part 2

2006-11-02T12:20:00.000+11:00

[[Continuity Note: This takes place after some sort of more coherent beginning that I will think about later]]

"Damien!" Alf called to his best friend as soon as he stepped through the front gates.

The red-haired teen was waiting for him by their usual tree. "Good weekend?" he asked.

"Great," Alf replied, though he'd done nothing all weekend save work on an English essay.

"Are you still on for the footy this weekend?"

Alf grinned. "Definitely. Lions vs. the Bears... grudge match of the century."

"I hope you realise I got us tickets on the Bears' side."

Alf rolled his eyes. "You always do. I've gotten used to the debris."

"You could actually try going for the right team for once," Damien nodded. "I have to pretend I don't know you, and still get hit sometimes."

Alf laughed. "That's because Bears fans have poor aim."

Damien punched his friend half-heartedly, and they went into class together.

"Remind me my mum's picking me up this arvo. I've gotta go to the dentist," Alf made a face.

"Okay."

-=-=-=-=-=-

After school, Alf waited for his mother in the school's parking lot. All of the older students had already taken their cars, and there were only a few belonging to dedicated teachers left by that point, and some of the administration staff. His mother should have been there by now. It was times like these when Alf really wished he had a mobile phone. But school policy said they weren't to have them, and his parents always followed school policy.

"G'day Alfalfa," a voice greeted him

Or maybe not all of the seniors had left yet.

"Rock," Alf nodded in greeting, trying not to show his exasperation. Rock was a bully, through and through. He'd always picked on Alf. 'Alfalfa' and 'Sprout' were his favourite nicknames for Alf.

[[And I think this isn't going well, because I'm so lazy that that's where I'm going to stop.]]

Initial Overview Plot Summary

2006-11-01T23:05:00.000+11:00

Our hero leads a fairly normal life. Then he discovers that he has
magic powers. He shows them off to his best friend, but his friend
thinks it's all an elaborate joke, so exacts his revenge.

Worried, Alf tells his parents who don't believe him, but then he
demonstrates. They're scared so advise him not to use his power. But
this is about the point where Alf really, really wants to because his
ex-best friend has gone around telling everyone that he's a psycho freak.

So Alf bides his time, then realises he can exact some revenge himself
discreetly. But he gets caught by the girl who lives across the street,
Jessica. A girl who says that he is a warlock and she should know since
she's a witch, and basically everyone in her family is. Her family is
very interested in meeting him since they'd always thought magic was
hereditary and couldn't discover a trace of it in his family tree.

So it appears as though he's a new breed of warlock. Magic in people
has been dying out in comparison to the whole boom in the world's
population in recent years. Witches and warlocks have always been
needed to maintain some sort of balance in nature and people. They
ferry souls from this life to the next, and ensure things like babies
being born healthily and that weather is right for plants to grow.
Science has advanced so that people don't need witches and warlocks as
much. In fact, nons (i.e. non-magical people) are becoming a force to
be reckoned with as they become more able to do what the non-nons have
always done.

The magical council is trying to think up ways for the non-nons to come
out to the nons, without any harmful sideaffects (i.e. witch burnings
and general prejudice) to show them that they're ruining the world. The
nons have grown so powerful that the witches and warlocks feel taht they
need to stop doing what they're doing in secret.

But this is where Alf comes in. he's developed magical powers despite
the fact that it's not in his genes. So the council, super-conservative
as they are, are thinking that maybe they don't have to come out because
their magical numbers are going to grow anyway. But now the the idea
has been planted, witches and warlocks of the less conservative variety
are tired of living a lie, and all want to come out. But that's
dangerous because you never know how people are going to react.

Alf comes up with the idea that instead of a massive coming out that
involved the high council and the leaders of the world's most populous
nations - who could put a political spin on their coming out and
completely ruin it - each person could come out to someone they trust.
Then once they got used to the idea, they could tell a few more people...

The obvious con to this idea is that it didn't work out for Alf and
Damien (the best friend). Damien who has meanwhile developed magical
powers of his own. And he wants nothing to do with the traditional
magic wielders. Instead he uses it to create money and do things for
his own gain.

So of course, there's a best friends cum rivals scene. The hero wins,
of course. Because that's what heroes do. There's an anti-climactic
battle, and they're back to being friends... though Damien wishes he
could just be normal again.

Rock, Jessica's cousin the bully, rushes up to the family declaring that
he's finally come into his magical inheritance. The family is pleased,
but don't see this as too strange because the magic is in his blood.
It's not unheard of for it to be a bit latent.

Meanwhile, the council people have seen what happens when someone not
raised as a magic person comes into their power - they can start using
it for less worldly purposes. This means that if this continues, they
might have a crisis even if they don't followe the political route.

Two magi-scientists turn up, wanting to examine Alf, and to a lesser
extent, Damien. It turns out that they're not as magical as they thought.

Over the years that Jessica's family has been living there, they've
always siphoned off any excess magic from illnesses into the land,
believing that it would just be absorbed and put to good use. Since
all three boys live nearby, over the years their bodies have been
lapping up the magic. it's unlikely to happen anywhere else in the
world since magic folk haven't lived anywehre else long enough and no
other family is likely to have that concentration of magic required...
at least, not for a few hundred years, and by then it's likely to be
everyone.

So the boys have to come to terms with the fact that they will
eventually lose their power - because it's just going to get used and
not replenished. But everyone nearby has to be warned. So their town
is the pilot for the rest of the world, it all goes okay and they live
happily ever after. The end.

Introduction

2006-11-01T19:17:00.000+11:00

I've decided to join NaNoWriMo this year and this is my blog. I've decided to mix story and blog so it'll probably be a bit of a mess. Hopefully at the end of it I'll manage to make some semblance of order out of it.