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!
posted by Cedric @ 10:10 pm
"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.
posted by Cedric @ 3:18 pm
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.
posted by Cedric @ 1:03 pm
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.
posted by Cedric @ 10:19 am
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.
posted by Cedric @ 9:27 am
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.
posted by Cedric @ 10:53 pm
[[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.
posted by Cedric @ 10:10 pm
[[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!]]
posted by Cedric @ 9:55 pm
[[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.]]
posted by Cedric @ 9:20 pm
[[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.]]
posted by Cedric @ 8:16 pm
[[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.]]
posted by Cedric @ 1:33 pm
[[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.]]
posted by Cedric @ 12:06 pm
[[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.]]
posted by Cedric @ 10:37 am
[[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']]
posted by Cedric @ 10:07 am
[[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.]]
posted by Cedric @ 8:28 am
My NaNoWriMo story for 2006. Hopefully to be completed.
